“Meditation is the greatest art or science to make your Being beautiful…”

## Dukkaharana - English

Meditation is the greatest art or science to make your Being beautiful and blissful. It is not a faith system or a religious belief. It is something that can directly touch your life and transform your Being. It is ‘practical spiritual life’ that’s all. In fact, I would even say that it is anti-belief. It will wipe out all your personal beliefs. You will become an individual, completely independent. Meditation is a science to transform your life.

When we ask - ‘what is meditation?’ all of us immediately imagine an old man with a long beard on the banks of a river, sitting cross-legged with eyes closed and moving his lips in recitation of mantras. Today, if I tell you to sit in silence and control you’re mind, if I tell you to calm down your mind and remain blissful, what will happen? People tell me, “Swamiji, when we sit for meditation, so many thoughts gush out. We don’t know their source and don’t know how to control them. We feel we are mad.”

A small story: Once a man wanted to meditate and asked his Guru “Give me a mantra to meditate with”. The Guru gave him a mantra and told him “You will achieve your desires when you meditate with this but on one condition; you should not think of a monkey when you meditate. If you happen to think of a monkey, have a bath and sit down again for meditation.” The man was amused at this condition and wondered why he would ever think of a monkey while meditating. However he agreed and went back home. He sat for meditation. The first thing that came to his mind was the monkey. He promptly got up, had a bath and sat down again for meditation. No sooner did he close his eyes than the monkey came back to him. He got up, had a bath and sat down yet again for meditation. Every time he sat down for meditation, the monkey surfaced in his mind. The 10th time, the monkey came to him while he was in his bath itself. He became obsessed with the monkey. He fled to his Guru and begged him to take back the mantra and the monkey! This is most likely the condition of a man who tries to calm his mind by mantras today. During the age of Pathanjali, man was able to calm his mind by meditating with mantras. At that time, Man was simple with no complex cerebral layers, hence these techniques worked. Today, methods adopting silence will not help. Man has become neurotic and complicated. Neurosis has become the normal state of man. With the growth of Science and Consumerism, all of us have become neurotic. Like how the bullock cart is outdated, so also are the bullock cart techniques. With those techniques, you will be able to travel at the speed of a bullock cart. This is the jet age. You should be able to travel at jet speed in your inner space with techniques designed by Modern day Masters and Mystics. This technique Dukkaharana makes Bliss flower in you by throwing out these cerebral layers. What exactly are these cerebral layers? They are the complications in the mind created by media that include the television, the radio, the newspapers and the billboards. Consumerist ideas are continuously being injected into your Being. You are hypnotized and mesmerized. You read and see the same things everywhere you go. In a half-dazed condition, you go to the shop and ask for the same thing as well. You need to unload these suppressions and desires in order to be able to sit calmly. Be very clear that I am trying to force out the insanity in you and not trying to force in sanity in you. You are already Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss). That is your natural state. I just need to cut the layer of Dukkha (sorrow) that’s all.

This meditation technique is called Dukkhaharana. It will bring out all the suppressed emotions in you. Many Masters have employed this technique before. It takes totally 30 minutes.

Breathing is the bridge to the Universe. It is the system with which you are living your mind. If your thinking is calm, your breath will be relaxed. If your thinking is aggressive, your breathing will also be aggressive. You first need to control your breathing in order to control your mind

Presently, in our repressed state, most of us are half-alive and half-dead. In the first part of this meditation, chaotic breathing is carried out in order to create chaos in your repressed system. Your mental system is made fully alive by the increased intake of oxygen; it becomes more vital. Your cells will get more energy and will create more bioelectricity or bio-energy. This energy will melt all the repressed emotions like melting ice.

The next part is catharsis; expelling all the poison in you. For 10 minutes, you may scream, dance, sing, laugh, cry, and talk in the language that you don’t know. While doing this, all the emotional hangovers will disappear. In your office, your boss may scold you but you will not be able to scold him back. Your mind and body will be angry and aggressive and this causes your body to release an acid. When you are unable to react to this acid, it gets suppressed in your body. Imagine, when you are on a 2-wheeler at the traffic signal on the road, a car pulls up next to you. You feel a sudden desire to possess it. This desire gets suppressed due to non-fulfillment. So many such desires and emotions are suppressed in you. How then can you enjoy bliss?

At the end of these 10 minutes, you will become vacant inside and become cool, calm and composed. When you hear me saying ‘Stop’, just stop as you are. For a moment, you will experience the state of ‘No Mind’.

For the next 10 minutes, sit or lie down in silence. Simply witness whatever happens inside or outside your Being. The first two parts of this technique are actually a preparation for this third part that is meditation. You will see that the mind becomes silent effortlessly by itself. Silence cannot be forced upon, it can only happen. Remain in this relaxed state with a smiling face and blissful mood. During this time, there may be many experiences, just watch them as you would watch the television. Watch your mind thought by thought.

You may practice this technique on an empty stomach preferably in the morning. Wear loose fitting white clothing and keep to the music in the audiocassette. 21 days of Dukkhaharana will transform your Being. This is like taking a psychological bath. You will be able to experience the Silence in you. When you kill dukkha (sorrow), Ananda (Bliss) flowers and sends forth a beautiful perfume from you.