“Let us first understand the words curative and preventive.”

Let us first understand the words curative and preventive. We all put so much emphasis and effort, we give so much importance, spend so much money and energy to cure diseases. However, we do not spend even one percent of our effort to prevent diseases.

This is not only as an individual, but as groups, as society or as a country; all the governments of the world build so many hospitals, spending so much time, effort and money in curing diseases. We do not do anything to prevent diseases because for what ever reason we do not believe that they can be prevented. Medical people – scientists or doctors- either in psychology or physiology, are constantly working only with patients. They finally have come to the conclusion that man, as such, is illness. There is a poignant letter written by Sigmund Freud considered by many as the father of Psychology, after 30 years of research, that in his experience, man as such is sickness and cannot live happily. Of course, the specimens on whom he did his research were all sick people, his patients. He did not have an opportunity to interact with a Buddha – a person who has achieved spiritual bliss in himself. Because he did not have this opportunity he came to the conclusion that life is misery; and the human being cannot be healed and is nothing but a bundle of suffering. He concluded that humans cannot be healed as such.

Eastern mystics, the Rishis, however declared that “ Amruthasya Putraha “ – human beings are the embodiment of immortality by nature, and the embodiment of energy and bliss. After so much of research psychology has concluded that the nature of human beings is sickness, but the rishis have declared the opposite; that the nature of human beings is bliss. Depending on which point of view you take your whole life will be changed.

The rishis speak of potentiality; Sigmund Freud speaks of the reality in which we are living. And the reality is sickness, be it physical or mental. Even though we may have sickness, life itself is not suffering; just because you see a cloud, you cannot say that the sky is nothing but clouds. There is some space beyond the clouds which we call ‘pure sky’. This is the space in which the sun shines, and where the silence, beauty and bliss of space prevail. The rishis declare that any disease is nothing but a cloud in your mind and body. Just like the clouds, these too will pass; they will move on. We work intensely on cure once we fall sick but somehow we do not try to turn it into prevention, because when we are healthy we take our health, our body for granted. We do not even remember our body when we are healthy. The definition of health is that if we are able to tolerate our boundary, to tolerate our body, we are healthy. There is a beautiful saying in Taoism: when the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten; when the belt fits the belly is forgotten; when the chain fits, the neck is forgotten! When we are healthy, we forget our body and boundary and do not think that we need to maintain the body. One more thing- you always think of health as no-diseaseness, the absence of disease. If you are not going to any hospital, if you are not taking any medicine, if you are able to manage your day to day routine, you think you are healthy. But according to me the definition for health is positive; it is “well – being-ness “. It is not merely no- diseaseness. No diseaseness is only part of health; there is something more than no-diseaseness; a positive well-being, more than no– diseaseness is what I call health. If you look at life from the point of view of the ancient masters , the rishis, they say it is just to be lived in a blissful way .They say “ Anandam Paramaha Nabhyajaanaath “; in Sanskrit it means existence is bliss, do not waste it by missing it. The very existence, the very life and breath is bliss. They say that the body is filled with nectar and life is bliss – please do not waste it by not enjoying it; by not experiencing it. If you are experiencing life as misery, as a totality of clouds, you are missing life somewhere seriously. You are sick somewhere. Only when you feel that life is a great blessing, you feel that it is an overflow of energy, only then you are living it. Existence is bliss. You cannot exist without bliss - because anything in the world can exist only in the hope of achieving bliss. Bliss is the one and only inspiration; joy is the one and only hope with which human beings are still alive on the planet Earth. Only when you understand that life as such is bliss will you be able to move ahead in your journey of preventing diseases. As long as you believe that life is misery, whatever you do will be against life; you will be going against the current to escape from the misery that you perceive. However, if you perceive it as bliss you will try more and more to relax. Only two options: you think of life as misery and you try to escape from it; or, you think of life as joy, you try more and more to relax and enjoy.

Meditation; when I use this word, I mean putting your mind totally at ease with your body and your consciousness . Now, your body and mind are not at ease with each other. Let me give you a scale of what is ease of mind and body with each other; if you are living comfortably within the boundary of your body, your mind is comfortable with your body. How does the mind live with your body now? When you are in your house, you are thinking of your office. When you are in the office, you are thinking of, say a beach. If you are in the house, you can be sure your mind is not in the house. If you are here, you can be sure your mind is not here. Wherever your body is, you are not. You are not happy with the present moment. Your mind is not comfortable with your body which is why it keeps moving here and there. This is why you are either in the past or in the future. The pull towards the future or being caught up in the past happens because you are not happy with the present. If you are happy with the present moment, you will see that your mind is naturally at ease with your body, without any botheration of the future or the past.

There are two kinds of thinking: planning and worrying. Planning happens based on your body. Chronological planning, what you are to do today, tomorrow and so forth is perfectly alright. This happens keeping your body as the centre. Your consciousness stays inside the body and it works. Planning never drains your energy; it does not tire you or depress you; you do not feel bored or disturbed about life. It continuously gives you energy. People who are in the field of construction or engineering feel a deep satisfaction of creating because part of planning is creativity. Understand, only God can create; so whenever you plan and create you are experiencing a moment of Godliness. That is why the great poets, dancers, musicians have such a deep satisfaction within their being, a deep fulfillment; the joy of creating. Even in the field of art, so many thousands travel; not all of them get paid; many of them do it as a hobby. They do it as a hobby because it gives them fulfillment. Fulfillment can come only when you experience the Godliness that is inside you. Only those people who experience Godliness can create. When a woman becomes a mother she feels totally satisfied- she reaches her fulfillment, because she has created, she has realized here potentiality. When a seed becomes a tree, it gets a deep satisfaction because it has realized its potentiality. So when you create, you realize the God within you. Creativity makes you realize your potential energy and rejuvenates you constantly.

There is a second type of thinking, which is worrying. You will not be the centre of your mind while worrying. Your mind will be centered elsewhere thinking and brooding over the future. Your imagination is based on greed or fears, and phobias based on fear. When you travel in these two zones, greed and fear, the rishis have described the travel through greed, fear, anger, and jealousy as your journey through hell. You must understand that hell is psychological, not geographical. It is the state in which your mind stays, the space with which your mind is staying. When you are filled with greed and fear you are worrying; you are in the space of hell; you are not comfortable with your self, your body. You naturally feel a deep discontentment. You create more trouble for your body and mind.

When I say the word meditation, I mean your mind living totally at ease with your body – you living at ease with your body, you living inside your boundary comfortably. There are thousands of meditation techniques to reach that state of ease.

Let me explain how meditation can cure you and how it can prevent you from contracting sicknesses. Physically there are thousands of researches which have proved that meditation cures ailments. I have seen this not only in my own body but in others too – how meditation effects miraculous cures. Just a month before I left for this trip, a lady came to meet me who was suffering from psoriasis for the past 20 years. She had tried every possible medication but now wanted my help. As I sat talking to her, I realized that she had a sense of deep self contempt, low self esteem. I suggested that she should stand in front of a mirror and scream at herself for 15 minutes every day, to bring out the anger and self condemnation she had for herself. She resisted saying this was impractical.

I again asked her to try it just for 21 days. It has been medically recorded that after 15 days she has been totally healed! The technique which I gave her is from Sufism.

We have similar testimonials attesting to the power of meditation to cure many other sicknesses.

Mentally there is no need for a testimonial: to know an apple is tasty, you only need to take a bite. Likewise you only have to meditate to know what miracles it creates . Almost all our psychological disorders are based on greed and fear. Excess of greed and expectation always leads to hopelessness. Any hope leads to hopelessness; hope is the path and hopelessness is the goal. If you hope to have some money, you have been saved if you have not achieved it! Achieving money only leads to depression of success. You never achieve the joy that you had hoped to achieve on achievement of money.

You do not work solely for money; you think you will have something through the money. Only when you have achieved that status you sought through money, only then do you feel that you are a fool, that you have gained nothing. Only when you achieve your hope you understand that it has ended in hopelessness. Till you achieve your hope, at least you have a hope.

Once you have achieved what you hoped for, you realize the hopelessness of it. This is why people who have enough of the outer world of material and money, turn to the inner world, because fulfillment of hope only leads to hopelessness.

Only meditation takes you beyond fear and greed, it gives you a deep sense of fulfillment and well being; it shows that life itself is ecstasy and life is too short to be spent in worrying, that the present moment is too valuable to be spent chasing the past or the future. Meditation makes you realize the value of the present moment. It makes you feel and experience the ecstasy of the present moment. However, we rarely experience the present moment, what Buddha calls “Thathaatha”, which means ‘suchness’. We are nothing but a link between the past and the future. We are never an entity, an individual in the present moment and therefore never experience the suchness. Only when you experience the suchness will you understand the beauty and grandeur of it. Only then you understand my statement that life is bliss, it is joy, it is ecstasy. The rishis have declared just this.

When you experience the bliss of the present moment you feel such a deep contentment, such a deep fulfillment, such a deep satisfaction, that not only do you prevent diseases from happening but also the basic disease of the feeling that you are the Body is cured. There are two kinds of diseases in us: one is sickness related to the body and the other is the sickness related to the idea, I am the Body. Sickness relating to the body can be cured and prevented by meditation. Dr. Muralikrishna from Oklahoma, who I know personally and who has done research on mind has in his report called ‘mind-matter’ given many scientific proofs as to how wrong thinking and wrong mental set up can disturb your health. In moments of anger, violence , vengeance you have a 220% greater chance of a heart attack !

The mind has so much power over the body. If you look deeply there are no two separate entities called mind and body. There is only one entity called mindbody. One end of your being is mind and the other is body. What you experience is the mind, what you express is the body. Expression of the mind is body and experience of the body is mind. It is the same thing; outer end is body, inner end is mind; they are not two separate identities.

When you understand how to handle your mind, it does miracles on your body and your health; to cure and prevent diseases, including the ultimate disease, the idea that I am the Body.

Once you start feeling I am the Body, you start feeling the boundary. Feeling the boundary is nothing but sickness. When you forget the boundary, you are in health. When you are in total health, you feel like flying. In Zen Buddhism, they say when somebody walks he cannot be Buddha; Buddha floats. It is not physical flying; it is the being which floats. When you are really healthy, in bliss and in ecstasy, you do not walk, you float because your being is so light, like a flower.

Normally all the communities, societies and governments work to cure the people but do not work to prevent the diseases. But meditation will prevent and will destroy the very root of the disease. People want sick people so that they can serve. I used to ask the voluntary organizations why they could not invest in preventing diseases to which they replied they would have no more business if they did! They wanted people to fall sick so that they could serve and cure.

Meditation is a wonderful technique to prevent illnesses because it never allows suppression or repression in your system. Meditation continuously rejuvenates you and it cleanses your whole being. Do take up a little bit of meditation, some technique as a part of your life, not only to cure but to prevent the illnesses and reach the bliss – Nithyananda.

Q & A

Q: What do you mean by bliss? A: Bliss! I can describe in two ways; one is, not feeling caged or bound, ‘Swatantra’; this means freedom. Second, feeling blessed to have this body. You have a deep feeling that the Divine has blessed you, that the existence has blessed you; that your very life is a blessing, is bliss.

A small story; a young man, poor and unemployed, went to church and prayed to God,” O God! Please have mercy on me ; help me , somehow give me 100 Dollars, I will be able to manage for a week. I shall then get a job and repay you “. The Priest, who passed by, heard this prayer and felt sympathy for the boy. He put 50 Dollars in an envelope and gave it to the boy, saying that this was a gift sent by God to be given to him. The boy rushed home, opened the cover and saw the money. He then prayed to God, “O God! Next time you send me money, please send it directly; the priest has taken half of what you sent as his commission! “.

You see, the boy is looking at what is missing, not what is given! He feels life is a suffering even when he gains. He is not able to enjoy life even when he gets something. When this attitude is set mentally within you, whatever you gain, makes you feel the same way as the boy.

A person came to me and said, “Swamiji , you say life is bliss but I have lost my diamond ring! What do you have to say to my suffering?” I replied, “Fool, feel happy that you have not lost your finger! Enjoy, feel the joy the bliss of being alive. Can you earn your life, even a single breath?“ Life is a pure gift from existence. You must feel blessed for having this body and life. First thing, not feeling bound or caged; feeling a tremendous freedom, inner freedom. Next, feeling blessed for having this life itself.

These two put together and something more, is what I call bliss. In Sanskrit there is a word called “Ananda”. I broke it and gave you the meaning. “Aa” means a feeling of blessedness, “Ashirvada” and “Nanda” means a feeling of freedom, unboundedness. By your very nature, you are in bliss. That is why you work for it. If you get a headache, you try your best to come out of it, why? Because you know that is not your nature. Your nature is headacheless-ness. If your very nature were to be with headache, would you try to get rid of it? You would not even be aware of a headacheless state. You would simply be in it. You now work intensely to come out of the headache by taking medicines, by resting; because that is not your nature and you want to go back to your true state. In the same way you know for sure in your heart of hearts that bliss is your nature. You work for it, strive for it. Whether you search for it through the outer world of money and material benefits or through meditation, it is still the search for bliss. Search for money is also nothing but search for bliss. You want to expand your boundary because you have more choice. That is the reason why you want more money, because you have more freedom to choose as your boundary is big; money as well as meditation – both are nothing but paths to bliss. If you strive for money you work through the outer world, and when you work through meditation, you strive through the inner world. Both are techniques to achieve bliss. But the trouble with money is that you get a choice of sufferings instead of the bliss you seek! But meditation puts you in choicelessness, which is the ultimate bliss.

Q: Can you explain the difference between pleasure and bliss?

A: Pleasure is that which rests between two pains. Bliss, when it is marked and limited between two pains is pleasure. The gap between two wars can never be called peace; it is merely a preparation for other wars. In the same manner the gap between two pains can not be bliss, it is merely pleasure.

To put it more clearly, bliss is eternal, but a small portion of it is pleasure. Bliss experienced for a very short time is pleasure. When you try to hold bliss, it slips away from you; this is pleasure. Anything which is experienced for a short time is pleasure; a part time bliss is pleasure; full time pleasure is bliss, that is all.

Q: Is this why we greet people as “It is a pleasure to meet you“!

A: (Swami Laughs) ..See, bliss itself is choicelessness. People around me are greedy of the state I am in! It is not that they do not know of my problems. I have enough of them. Just yesterday somebody asked me after seeing the way we work, “Are you a spiritual master or CEO?” How do still live in such a continuously joyous state? “

I answer “It happens because I do not have a choice. Choicelessness is bliss”. But when people choose bliss they suffer. When you choose choicelessness, you are trapped. Drop the idea to choose the idea of choicelessness. Drop even the choice towards choicelessness. You will then see bliss happening to you. Bliss is like a breeze; you cannot make it happen; you can only open the door to let it in; you can only make space for it. So open the door and let the breeze in. Drop the choice between choice and choicelessness; then you will see the bliss happening to you.