“Taittiriya upanishad very beautifully says, there’s a very big…”

Taittiriya upanishad very beautifully says, there’s a very big Upanishad which deals on this “I” subject. It says, ordinary person never uses his ‘I’ totally. Enlightened persons uses His ‘I’ totally. There is no difference between you and the enlightened; there is a only one difference. If you know the methods and techniques to use your ‘I’ totally, it expands. If you don’t know, to use your system, methods, your ‘I’ totally, then you are in trouble. Whenever you don’t use your being totally, don’t think not only it’s not used. The one more big trouble is there; when it is not used, it becomes cancer, in your being. Anything which is not used, which is not helping your system, which is not becoming your being, that will become a cancerous growth. Am I right? Anything which does not allow your body function, any new object, any new thing, which has entered in your body but which is not becoming your body, which is not becoming your being, which is not absorbed in your system, if it stands alone, if it stands separately, not only it is not useful, it will become cancer. It will become a seed for any cancerous growth.

The same way, if you don’t use your ‘I’ totally, it is not only that you are not using it, that will become a cancer in your being. We all carry the cancer which is called ‘I’, the unused ‘I’, which we name it, which we can name it as a ‘ego’. What is the difference between your ‘I’ and their ‘I’? When you don’t use your ‘I’ totally, it becomes cancerous. The river, if it continuously flows, river also will be pure, whomsoever comes near the river, they will also be purified. If it does not flow, if it becomes a small pool, what happens? It gets dirty, it gets contaminated. First, it becomes dirty, whomsoever comes near, they also become dirty. The sameway, your being, when you use your being totally, when it expands, when it becomes total, it will be joyful, blissful, it will be in eternal bliss, nithya ananda. And it will make everybody joyful, everybody blissful, everybody beautiful.

When you are flowing, expanding, you will be in eternal bliss, and you will make whomsoever comes around you, you will put them also in the eternal bliss, nithya ananda. But when you become a pool, you will also be in a very low mood, depressed, always dull, dead. If you are a river, you make yourself joyful, and others also. If you become a pool, not only you stink, you create smell, you disturb others also. Whomsoever comes around you, you put them also into the same smell, you create disturbance for them also.

What is the way to be a river? What is the way to expand? What is the way to be total? What is the way to be a big ‘I’? I always say, the difference between your ‘I’ and their ‘I’ is small ‘i’ and the capital ‘I’. For you it’s a small ‘i’, for them it’s a big ‘I’. What’s the difference between your ‘I’ and their ‘I’? It’s nothing but small ‘i’ and the capital ‘I’. Once you understand you are a total, once you start using your total… it’s actually using, nothing else, you have tremendous potentiality in your system. If you just know how to use, how to expand, that’s enough, you will see you reach the big “I” state.

There are five techniques, or understandings, given to us, to use ourself totally, to use ourself to the maximum, by Taittiriya upanishad, a great Upanishad. Upanishads are nothing but the research reports of the great Enlightened Masters. It’s the research report of inner scientists. You have two kinds of scientist, one is outer scientist, whom you know, all these scientist - scientist who has created this mic, scientist who has created this video camera, scientist who has created this light, all these people are scientists of the outer world. There are scientists who work on the inner world. They are only called as Rishis, Enlightened Masters. When inner world scientists, when they become enlightened, they publish their research report, how they walk, what all the difficulties they faced, what all the ways they lived, what are the ways they overcome the difficulties, and how they reached the ultimate state. Their reports are only called as Upanishads.

The Buddha’s report to the world is what is Dhammapada. Shankara’s report to the world is only all his Bhasyas, all his commentaries. When Masters publish their report, give their report to the world, is called Upanishads. Here is a beautiful Upanishad, Taittiriya Upanishad, gives five level, five techniques, five understandings, to live your life to its maximum, to its optimum. I’ll just make a small diagram, to show the five level of your ‘I’, of your ‘I’. How your small ‘i’ can become bigger ‘I’. Let Me explain. First layer your ‘I’ is called annamaya, second layer is called pranamaya, third is called manomaya, fourth is called vijnanamaya, fifth is called anandamaya.

You can’t and you.. there is no need to remember the sanskrit names, just if you understand, that’s enough. Annamaya means, the body which you use now, this body, this is the first layer. Pranamaya means the second layer, the air circulation which is happening in your system, is second layer. Manomaya, the inner chattering which is continuously going in your system, is called third layer. The sleeping hours is called fourth layer, your energy or the your ananda, your excitement, your happiness, your bliss, is called fifth layer. Then when you cross the fifth layer, you become the big ‘I’ than the small ‘i’. Here, you are buddhu (Swamiji gesturing to centre of diagram drawn on the board), here you are Buddha (Swamiji gestures to periphery of diagram).

When you don’t use your being totally, you are simply buddhu. When you use all your five system, all your five layers totally, you are a Buddha. It is not that somebody can use and somebody can’t use, everybody can use. It is available for everybody, only it is up to you whether to use it or not, whether to have it or not. It is your individual decision. Here, I am going to just give you few small explanation on the understanding about these five layers. Then you can decide whether to use your systems and become joyful, whether to flow like a river or to be like a pool, small pond. But be very sure, whenever even one layer which is not used, not only you don’t use 20% of your being, that 20% becomes cancer, it becomes a cancerous growth. Not only it’s a less, it is something worse. Simply if it is only less, nothing much is lost, after all little bit. But it is not only less, it becomes worst; something cancerous in your system.

First, annamaya kosha, the first layer. The Upanishad says beautifully, ‘annam brahmeti vyajanat’ The food is God, “anna” means the food, food is God, don’t waste it. The original meaning is simply understood opposite way. People think ‘don’t waste it’ means, “Oh, Upanishads says, eat it away everything.” Whenever I go to the devotees house, it is a prestige for them to feed Me. For Me it’s a life and death question. For them it’s only prestige, so what they do? They fill the whole table, not only the leaf, the whole table with all types of food. And then they put everything in..into My plate, leaf, then they tell Me, “No, no, no, Swamiji, You should not waste the food. Please eat it away.” They try to guide Me, “No, no, no, You should not waste the food, please eat it, Swamiji.”

See, if you waste the food outside, only the food will be wasted. If you waste the food inside, the system also will be wasted. Just because it will be wasted, if you put the food inside, what will happen? The system also will be wasted. There are few guidelines about your food to expand this…this body, to use this body at its maximum, at its maximum. If you follow these guide… few basic guidelines on the food, you will see your body is alive, active, throughout the day - from the moment you get up from your bed, to the moment you go to bed. You know only one thing in your life, the no disease-ness, never the health. We forgot the very concept of health. There’s a beautiful verse which says about health, quotation it says about health. What is health means, it is from tantra: when you get up from your bed, when you get up from the bed what will be your first activity? Going to the bathroom. Your steps from bed to the bathroom should never be a steps, it should be more like a dance, it should never be like a steps, it should be more like a dance. Then you can say you are healthy.

The first activity, as soon as you wake up, your mood and your body language, if it is just bubbling, overflowing, joyful, ecstatic, alive, then you can say you are healthy. Otherwise be very clear, you are clinically alright, that’s all. You have no disease, but you cannot say you are healthy. You can never say you are healthy. The disease is yet to be discovered, that’s all; yet to be discovered, yet to be diagnosed. It is there, it’s not yet known. Only when you are in that well being, as soon as, as soon as you come out of the unconsciousness, in the early morning, as soon as you wake up from your bed, you come out of unconsciousness. At that moment, if you radiate life, joy, ecstasy, you can be sure you are healthy. Otherwise, you are yet to be diagnosed, that’s all. That is only title, not that you are healthy, be very clear.

Have you seen the nature, you can see early morning, a bird, as soon as its, it comes out of the sleep, it’ll just chirp and make sound. Cat, it’ll just stretch the whole body. Dog, it will just go and verify its boundaries, whether things are going well, whether everything is perfect. Calf, it’ll just, like a, at least round the mother, or the small stump in which he’s tied. All the animals, you can see, early morning they will be alive, fresh, responding to the nature. Human being is the only animal, as soon as he gets up, just turns and pulls the bedsheet up, goes back to sleep. As soon as you get up, what you do? Over turn, pull the bedsheet and go to sleep. Human being is the only animal who is not fresh after his sleep and after his food, who is not fresh after his food. We are the only animals who are, who have disconnected themself from the nature. We are the only being who have disconnected ourself from the nature. No other animal has missed the nature.

Small story: Once a man who is 40 years, he somehow want to get rid of his wife, and the wife’s cat; 40 to 50 only that new knowledge descends on you. He somehow wants to get rid of his wife and the wife’s cat. Anyway, he couldn’t, he could do nothing about the wife. At least the wife’s cat, he wants to drive the cat. He took the cat in his car and some ten miles away he left the cat and came back to the house. As soon as he came to the house, he entered the house, he saw the cat is standing. Cat’s can catch the way by smell. Next day, he picked up the cat, went to some twenty miles, left the cat, came back to the house. Next day he saw, as soon as he came to the house, within ten minutes, he heard the sound, he turned and saw, the cat is standing. That day he was terribly upset. He took the cat, put it in a gunny bag, packed it, took the, he took some unknown streets, unknown roads, right, left, this way, that way. He reached some ranch, some forest, then he felt, “Yes, this is surely new place, even for me. I’ve never come here. Even for me it is a new place, surely this cat, cat cannot find way. Let me leave this cat now, here.” He left the cat, and he’s driving back to the home, suddenly in between he had the doubt, serious doubt. He rang up to the house, “Dear, the cat has come?” he is asking his wife. She said, “Oh, it is here. It’s already here, what are you talking?” The next question he asked, “Please find out the way from the cat, I’ve missed my way, I lost my way.” Human being is the only animal who lost his touch with the nature. Who lost his way. All the other animals know their way, only human beings is the animal who lost his way.