““Guilt, the sure killer of intelligence!””

“Guilt, the sure killer of intelligence!”

Let me start with a small story. A great rishi (sage) was doing penance in a deep forest. Suddenly one night, he had an unexpected guest. One guy came and knocked at his door. He requested the rishi, “Can I stay here tonight? Tomorrow morning I will leave you. I will leave from this place.” Rishi said, “You are welcome. Please come and stay.” Next day morning , rishi casually inquired, “Who are you? Where are you from?” The guy said, “Please don’t be frightened. I am a thief. Last night, I robbed the palace and escaped. I came to your hut straight away. I am really very happy that you took care of me by giving food and shelter. I am leaving. Please bless me.” He left.

Rishi felt very disturbed, “What a big sin I have committed by giving shelter and food to a thief.” He started weeping and wanted to do prayachitta(expiate). He wanted to wash away his sin. He started praying. “Oh god, please forgive me. I don’t know what I should do to remove the sin. I gave shelter and food to a thief for one full night. Please forgive me.” He was weeping and wailing. Suddenly he heard a voice from heaven. The voice was also weeping. He was surprised. He asked “Who is weeping?”. From above he heard the voice, “I am god. I am weeping.” Rishi asked, “Why are you weeping?” God replied, “You have given him shelter to the thief for one day. You think that is a big sin. I am giving food and shelter for him everyday. Where will I go and wash my sin? That is why I am weeping.” You need to understand there is a beautiful thing to be understood from the story. The rishi had a concept that he is holier than the thief. He had more ego than the real feeling of compassion. His ego was only corrected by God’s message. All our guilt, all our rules, all our morality, all our idea of right and wrong is created by only this type of rishis. Not all rishis, but this type of people who think they are holier than others, they are purer than others or they are greater than others. They created the rules which created the guilt in you.

According to me, guilt is the greatest sin. At least other sins will punish you after your death. Guilt will punish you when you are alive. With other sins, you will have punishment only when you are dead. Of course, I am not sure. They say. But guilt will kill you when you are alive. Look little deep. What is the root cause of guilt? It is our idea about right and wrong. Our understanding about what is right and wrong. Only from that, the guilt starts. What is right? What is wrong? Let us start analyzing. After all, what is the scale to measure right or wrong? In Hinduism, vegetarianism is right; and in Christianity non-vegetarianism is right. In Hinduism you can marry only once; in Islam you can marry four times. In Hinduism, you can’t drink alcohol and liquor; but in Christianity, Jesus himself consumed liquor. There are so many rules, so many regulations in different places, different situations, different societies. In South Bharat, fish is considered as non-vegetarian food. In Bengal, they call it Gangaphal (fruit from the Ganga). Bengali brahmins (priestly class) eat fish. There is no Bengali house which doesn’t have a small pond infront of their house. They grow fish. They eat fresh fish. Ramakrishna used to eat fish. Bengali brahmins take fish and fish is considered as vegetarian food. For Bengalis, fish, sweet, and tobacco are the basic things. Ramkrishna used to smoke. Vivekananda used to smoke. So, where is so called morality? It is just local customs! In course of time, they become morality. If you see the ancient scriptures, epics of Bharat, Mahabharata, Draupadi was married to five men! So many different kind of life systems, so many different kind of customs. Kunti was married to five men! Kunti had five sons from five different men! Draupadi lived with five men! There are so many different kinds of morality. So many different kinds of life structure. So may different kinds of thinking systems. Different times, different rules were formed by different leaders. In some society, some thing is morality. In some other society, same thing is immorality. In some society, some thing is right and in some other society, the same thing is wrong. Here, in the US, I saw something that is big fun. In one state, casinos are allowed. In the neighbouring state casions are illegal. A river separates the two states and the border line between the two states passes through the river. So, inside the river itself, there is a big casino! On one side it is legal, and on the other side it is illegal! Something is law in some place and the same thing is illegal in some other place. So, where is the scale of right or wrong? For somebody a particular food is amruta (nectar), for some other person the same thing is poison!

Where is the scale to measure what is right and what is wrong? There is no scale. That is why in Santana Dharma (eternal religion), we have two scriptures. Sanatana Dharma is the only courageous dharma(religion), to have two kinds of scriptures. In all other religions on the planet earth, they have only one scripture, one book, ultimate! That is all. There are many religions, which say their holy book can’t be updated. Even software can be updated! If the book can’t be updated, I don’t know what to say. There are many religions that say their book can never be updated. But Santana Dharma is the only courageous religion, which says their book can be updated. They divided into two portions; sruti (veda) and smriti (sacred traditional books). Smriti means the ultimate laws about enlightenment; atman, the concept or realization, about the universe; Smriti means the social laws, day-to-day rules and regulations. We are the first courageous people who declared smriti can be changed. Time to time enlightened masters can create new smriti, because we know that no morality can be morality forever. No law can be law forever. Because, morality and law are based on the situation! If the deer population becomes too much, you are allowed to hunt. Same way, once upon a time in Bharat, cows population was too much. That is why they started giving cows in the sacrifices. Once the cow population became too low, they started to worship the cows.

The rules are created to maintain equilibrium in the society; to maintain harmony in the society. When we all live together, we need a few basic understandings to live happily. For e.g. You will not try to kill me so that I will not kill you. That is all. You will not try to kill me so that I will not try to kill you. We both can live happily without fear. Like this, a few basic understandings are assumed or come into being. Slowly, by and by, they become rules. They become morality. The problem is, as long as you understand the root of morality, you neither behave immorally nor you get disturbed by this morality. Once you don’t understand the rule, once it becomes just a spoon feeding, a sort of forced rule, then not only you try to escape from that rule, but also you create a deep guilt in you. When it is a forced rule, you always try to go beyond it; e.g. you always over speed when you don’t see the cop! Actually, there is some taste in doing what you are not supposed to do. One guy, he became addicted to smoking. He came to me. He came to me asking for help, “Swamiji, please help me to quit smoking. I don’t know how I became addicted. Please help me.” I asked him, “How did you start?” He replied, “No Swamiji, I never wanted to smoke. In fact, I hated the smell! One day my friend and I were talking in a street corner. My friend was smoking. My father saw from a distance and thought I that I was also smoking. When I went home he started firing me. He started shouting at me. I tried my best to explain him that I was not smoking. But he was not ready to listen to me. Then I thought, anyhow, he already shouted and is not willing to believe me, why not smoke? I had punishment. That is why I started smoking.”

Most of the time you have a taste if you are asked not to do something, and you do it. You feel sort of a joy, satisfaction by doing it. That is the basic tendency in every human being. When you say no to your parents, you prove you are a man. As long as you say yes, you are only a child. You feel you are not mature. When you say no, you think you became mature! It is a basic tendency. You can see in teenagers, especially in this country. The moment they say no, they think they are grown up and mature. You feel you become mature and you become man or woman by saying no to your parents. That is why so many rebellious groups; so many gangs. Because, there is a deep taste in saying no! Saying no is almost like addiction. When you say no, you try to prove you are somebody special; you are somebody different. As long as morality is given to you like a spoon-feeding, not with an understanding, you create two things; 1) you try your best to escape from it. 2) You create a deep guilt inside your being. A small story, about how things became superstition or moral setup. There was an ashram in Bharat, where everyday guru(master) used to do regular worship, morning puja(worship). He had a pet cat. The cat used to jump and play around on him when he does the puja. He felt the cat is a big disturbance. So, before starting the puja, he called one of his disciples and told him to cover the cat by a basket. They covered it. He did the puja peacefully. Next day also he told the disciple to cover the cat. Everyday it became a routine to cover a cat before the puja. Suddenly one day the guru died and the cat also died. Disciples were wondering how to get a cat to cover before the puja. They started searching for a cat. Somehow they could manage to get one cat; and before the puja, the cat was kept in the same place and covered with basket. Puja started. By and by, after some time it has become very difficult to get a cat. They were not able to get a cat to cover, before the puja starts. Slowly, they started thinking, without a cat, you can’t do the puja. It is sacrilegious! Slowly, they stopped doing the puja because there is no cat! This is what happens if things become superstition.

One more small story. One great pundit(learned man), he wants to take bath in the Ganga. He had kamandalu(water jar) with him. He has to keep it in a safe place. He searched here and there. There was nobody trustworthy to whom he can entrust the kamandalu and go for GangaSnanam(bath in river Ganga). Because there was nobody, he made a small pit in the Ganga sand, put kamandalu , covered the pit, and just to remember where he kept kamandalu, he made a heap. He went to take bath. There was some farmer who was watching the pundit from distance. He thought, “Oh! before taking bath in Ganga, I should make a small heap!”. He made a heap before he went for bath. The third guy came. He thought, “Oh! it is tradition to make a heap before taking bath in Ganga.” He made a small heap and went to have bath. By and by, all people started making heaps before taking bath in Ganga. When the pundit came out, he saw hundreds of heaps all over Ganga bed! He had a problem now. Where is his kamandalu? It is under which heap? He started searching. He started to destroy the heaps. Suddenly the farmer came and shouted, “Why are you destroying our Sivalingas (Symbol of God Siva)? Why are you destroying our heaps? You are a pundit. You should have sense! Don’t you know that you are supposed to make Sivalinga before bath? And you are disturbing our Sivalingas. Don’t you have sense?” Heap naturally looks like a Sivalinga. The pundit thought, “When did this ritual start? It is me who started the ritual. It is for sake of my kamandalu, I started.” Finally, it became a big trouble for himself. Anyhow, he was not allowed to destroy the heaps. He had to move without his kamandalu.

If you look into your life, there are so many heaps that entered the same way. There are so many speed breakers; there are so many obstacles that entered your life, without any understanding. In course of time, many regulations which had meaning, become rules now, without even having any meaning now! In Bharat, in the olden days they will not stitch the clothes after the sunset, because the stitching was done with a needle. Naturally, in the nighttime, in the dim light of candle or hurricane lamp, or other small lamps, you will not be able to stitch. Even now, in Bharat you can see after sunset they won’t stitch! Not even in the tailor shops! There are so many tailor shops where the lights are available. They won’t to stitch with hand after sunset. They may do it by machine. When you don’t have understanding, things become dead rules. When you have understanding, any rule can become a technique to live life happily. When you have understanding, you will understand that all rules are created just to have happy and blissful life for yourself and other people around you. Today these very rules create hell for yourself and others. I have seen a few people. Before starting their meditation they create so much of noise in the house before the meditation; “Keep quiet, don’t shout, switch off the calling bell, do this, do that,” they will practically turn the whole house just for the sake of ten minutes meditation. Do you think that they will do ten minutes meditation also? The moment they start, they will start dozing; after two to three minutes, they will start squatting the mosquito; after two minutes start scratching. Then, they will think, “ I think I can do tomorrow. It is enough for today.” For this drama, they will make such a big drama that they will practically turn then whole house without understanding that the very meditation itself is done for the sake of peace and silence. Some people, when they try to silence others, they themselves create so much of noise. Their sound will be much worse than others. Their words, “Hush, keep quiet” will be louder than the people who are talking. In schools you can see the sound of kids will be less than teachers.

Most of the times when you don’t understand the root of morality, you start living in a dull and dead way. According to me, any rule, if it is internalized, will create guilt in you. Understand! Any rule! When I say any, I say ANY. Any rule if it is internalized, it will create a deep guilt in you; because, by your nature, you are the person who aspires for freedom. Svabhava swatantraka(Free by nature). Means your nature itself is freedom. You are a nitya mukta(eternally free). You are eternally free. You never wanted to be caged! You never wanted to be slave of any rule! You can see all the society is struggling, working only towards freedom. Your entire struggle is nothing but struggle for freedom. Even your search for money, is the search for freedom. If you have more money, you have bigger choices; bigger house, bigger car, more comforts. You have more choice; you have more freedom. Your choice or freedom is the real search. Your search for money is nothing but search for freedom. So by very nature you are searching for freedom. You never wanted to be encaged by any rules or any morality. When some morality is given to you as a rule, either you try to go beyond it or if you can’t, you take revenge on the people who imposed the rule on you. You always take revenge. May be, you wait for a right time. You wait for a right time; you take revenge on them. People again and again come and tell me, “Swamiji, my son is not taking care of me.” Be very clear, your son may be the first enemy for you, you may be the first enemy for him; because you have given him so many rules, so many regulations. You had given him so many laws, so almost you were master for him when he was young. Naturally, one part of his mind he will have respect; the other part will always feel against you. The other part will be just waiting to take revenge on you. Because you gave him rules and regulations, it is a basic rule; naturally he will be against you because you gave him rules and regulations.

There are few people who try to give you the rules in a very subtle way or in a very cunning way. They exploit your fear and greed by showing the hell and the heaven; desire for heaven and fear of hell. There create so many concepts of hell and heaven in you. They say, “If you practice these type of things you will be rewarded with heaven; if you practice these type of things you will be rewarded with hell.” This concept of heaven and hell is a subtle way of exploiting your being. When you are given some rules based on the greed and fear, you start creating a deep guilt in you.

And one thing! This is one of the ultimate laws, which is very difficult to understand but one of the ultimate laws. Nobody can live their life based on any law. When I say nobody, I mean NOBODY. When I say any law, I mean ANY LAW. Because the life is something that is far more superior than the laws. All the laws, rules, regulations are based on some understanding of life. But life is beyond all our understanding and beyond our logic. People ask me, “Why this life is created at all?” I tell them, this WHY can never be answered. Because this WHY is based on your logic. But life is based on God’s logic. Your logic and God’s logic can never meet with each other. His logic is so big, so vast, and, so infinite. You can never meet his logic. Life is created by him. Rules are created by you. Life is created by him. Laws are created by you. Naturally, your laws can never match or fit with God’s logic or God created life. Life is natural. Laws are societal. Life is physical. Laws are mental. So, all your ideas, all your dos and don’ts, all your morality, all your right or wrong is given to you by society. You are called as a saint or as a sinner, only by the society. As long as the society titles you as a saint, you are a saint. The moment the society titles you as a sinner, you are a sinner. If you kill someone in the society, you will be called murderer. You will be punished. If you kill someone in war front, you will be called a hero. You will be rewarded with a big award! So, the social structure is societal. When you start internalizing the laws of society inside your mind, you create a deep wound in your being. You destroy your intelligence. According to me, rules and regulations are only superficial. All your morality; look a little deep! It is only skin deep. It is just skin deep!

Your nature is always struggling to express to go beyond all rules, all regulations, and all morality. Your consciousness is always trying to break through your conscience. Your consciousness continuously fights with conscience. Conscience is societal. Consciousness is natural. Conscience is a pure substitute for consciousness. People ask me, “What is this Swamiji? You are breaking the basic laws. You are pulling the whole social structure. You are pulling the whole rules and regulations. Then, how can we all live morally? How will people live with morality? What are you doing?” I tell them, be very clear! Only for kids, you need forced morality. For them you need to say, “Keep quiet, I will give you candy.” Of course, nowadays kids say, “I am happy, I don’t need your candy. I am happy by jumping around. Who cares for your candy?” For a kid you can say I will give candy or I will beat you. For kids you can impose morality based on fear or greed. Now, It is time! You are not kids anymore! It is time to stand up and be moral based on understanding, and not based on fear and greed. As long as your morality is based on fear and greed, be very sure that it is just skin deep. It is just skin deep! You can never be moral based on fear and greed. If fear and greed is base for morality, you will try all possible ways to escape from it; e.g. just go ten miles over the speed limit; you think, “Even if I see the cop, I can press the break.” As long as your morality is based on fear and greed, be sure you are a child. You are not mature. If you are really grown up, your morality should be based on understanding. Not based on fear and greed. According to me, mature person means, the person who lives happy, blissful, quiet life without fear and greed. When you drop your fear and greed, a new kind of morality arises in your being; the morality which is not social morality; the morality which is not just skin deep. It arises out of your whole being. Your whole being experiences a different kind of well being.

There is a beautiful story. There was a Zen master . For some reason, king declared, next day morning, he should be killed. It was informed to him. But the king said, till tomorrow morning he can do whatever he wants. He can live as he likes. He is given full freedom. But the master is seen following the same routine. He is doing same gardening, fetching water from well, doing same cooking, serving the disciples. Living the same way. Doing same routine. Some disciples asked the master, “Tomorrow morning you are going to die. Don’t you want to do something else?” Master says, “My life is from my understanding. This is the best way I can live. I am totally fulfilled. I have nothing else to do weather I am going to live for 24 hours or 2 hours. This is what I want to do. I have nothing else as enjoyment.” If somebody gives us this deadline, “You will be alive till tomorrow morning; you can do whatever you want,” just look inside your mind; what all you will do. If you will do anything other than your daily routine, be very clear that your morality is just skin deep. Your morality is just skin deep. It means what? You are controlling yourself for some reason. You are not living your whole life for some reason. As long as you don’t live your whole life, you will always feel that you are missing something. The feeling that you are missing something is the root cause for fear of death. Mostly, we are not even afraid of death. We are afraid that we have not lived our life. Actually, it is not fear of death. It is the fear that I have not lived my life. Guilt is the root of fear of death. One deep thing you should understand! Guilt is the root for greed! As long as you have guilt, you can never enjoy anything. One of our devotee, she came to me and told me, “Swamiji, the moment I see ice-cream, I start having cold. I don’t even have to eat it. If I see the ice-cream, I catch cold.” Now, it is a very serious thing. For last twelve years she has been suffering. I started talking to her, to trace the root of the problem; almost like psychoanalysis, but in a little deeper way. Slowly I traced. Her mother created a deep guilt in her when she was a child about the ice-cream. The mother doesn’t want the kid to have more ice-cream, so she created a deep guilt; a deep negative attitude towards ice-cream. The negative attitude creates allergic reaction just by seeing the ice-cream. When I was talking to her, she said, “Sometimes when I see the ice-cream, I hear my mother’s voice saying, Don’t Eat!” She says, “Even now I am hearing the voice.” You don’t know how many times you are hearing voices. We are not so sensitive. That is why we don’t hear. Our being is also a crowd of voices. Understand. Your being is not only your being. You are a totality of a crowd of voices. All the voices are there; your mother’s voice, father’s voice, teachers, voice, neighbor’s voice, professor’s voice, your hero’s voice, etc. All these voices are there. You are a totality of crowd of voices. That is why you feel so much of noise inside. If there is only one voice, you will never have any problem. Your mind will move like a river. This is a beautiful example you should understand. Your mind is almost like a river. Like a stream! Guilt is like a rock. It blocks the flow; creates a whirlpool. Creates energy block. Any guilt you carry in your being is a blockage of energy. Just like a blood clot, it is an energy clot. All the voices, which are inside your mind, are the root for guilt. Any guilt will kill your intelligence. As along as you flow like a river, like a stream, you will be expressing extraordinary intelligence in your life. You will express a different kind of intelligence; a different kind of energy; a different kind of bliss. The moment you start creating guilt in you, the moment you are stopped in your free flow, you create energy clot inside your being; you create energy clot inside your mind. Especially, the older your culture, more is the guilt. We always think if our culture is old, we are something great. But if you look a little deep, if your culture is old, you start following dead books. The older the roots, the more they are dead. If you don’t remove dead bodies from your house, not only they will be occupying the space, they will start smelling; it is a very dangerous thing. For e.g., if you use last year’s train timetable for this year, where will you end up? You will end up only on the platform. Never, in the train! If you start using the old timetables, of course, in Bharat, if you use new timetable also, you may end up on the platform, that is different. The older the timetable, less is the benefit. If you live based on the past rules, without having the understanding why the rules were created, you will create a deep wound inside your being. you will create a deep wound inside your mind. After talking to her, then finally, I analyzed; finally I came to the conclusion, it is her mother’s voice which is creating the disturbance. I gave her a simple technique, just get 5 ice-creams; don‘t bother about your mother. If you listen to your mother’s voice, just be angry on her and eat the ice-cream.

Anger is the beautiful way to release your guilt. The moment you express your anger, your guilt also will be released. Actually, anger and guilt are two sides of the same coin. They are two different kinds of the same coin. Anger is the wonderful way to release guilt. The moment you become angry with the person who created guilt in you, you will come out of guilt. I tell many times. If you create guilt based on somebody’s opinion, how do you create guilt? Because, you have respect for that person. The moment you become angry naturally the respect is lost. You understand you have been exploited and disturbed. One more thing, even that person will not know he is exploiting you. One more incident; One American boy was brought to me with a complaint. Mother said, “Swamiji, he is not obeying my words. Please advise him.” I felt a little awkward. I never obeyed my mother. How can I advise him to obey? That guy looked very intelligent. Somehow, the mother was pestering me. I have no other way. So, I started talking to him; “Why don’t you obey your mom? She even made me obey her. Why don’t you obey her?” Suddenly he asked, “Swamiji, she herself is not happy. If I follow her words, where will I end up? I will also end up in the same way. Why are you asking me to obey her? Why are you asking me to listen to her?” I was shocked. Somehow, I managed to convince him, but I am not convinced. I think next generation kids are going to sue mother or father if they fall into depression. It is going to happen. Anything is possible in this country, I don’t know. Kids are going to sue the parents. They will say, “These guys didn’t give me correct mental setup. That is why now I am very depressed.” Be very careful. We have to find out some method by which we will not create guilt in the kids mind; by which we will create only more intelligence, more understanding, and more bliss in their life. According to me, experience is more solid than morality. Consciousness is more solid than conscience. Of course, you need little patience to create consciousness. You need to work on them; you need to explain every step to them; you can’t just give teaspoons. You can’t give consciousness in teaspoons. You can give conscience in teaspoons; just dos and don’ts, you can give in teaspoons. But consciousness, you can’t give in teaspoons. You need to work with them. Unless you have so much of patience, you have no right to bring one more life to planet earth. People come and ask me, “Swamiji, it is very difficult. You don’t know. If you have one kid you will understand. You speak all these things. It is very difficult to manage them, very difficult to give intelligence. Naturally we have to create guilt and give them rules.” If you can’t take the responsibility, think twice before you give birth to a kid. Understand! Have you solved your life’s problems? Did you find solutions to all your life’s problems? Then go ahead; bring next generation to planet earth. Otherwise, wait! There is every chance next generation will catch your neck and say, “What are you doing? Why did you bring me?” Already kids have come to the level of asking, “She herself is not happy. Why should I follow her?” There is every chance tomorrow kids are not going to listen to our morality.

Not only for kids sake, look into your life. Vivekananda says beautifully. According to me, he is the most courageous master who happened on planet earth. Who has nothing to do with so-called social setup; who broke everything. Who gave new light to whole humanity. According to me, He is the Manu(The sage who coded a book on social laws) of modern day. He is the smriti kara (creator of social laws) of modern day. He says in one of his discourses, “Reason and Religion.” Let the logic be flooded on the religion. Let your religion be flooded by reason and logic. Whatever can be washed away by reasoning, let it be washed away. The earlier they are washed away, the better it is for humanity. He says, flood the religion by reasoning. Allow the reasoning to be the main thing. Let your consciousness be the torch. Flood it. The earlier the superstitions are washed away, better it is for humanity. If they can’t stand the flood of reasoning or logic, let them be washed away. It is better for humanity.

There is a small story. There is a scientist (Galilio) who discovered that earth is not flat. It is a globe. He wrote in his book, after the research, that planet earth is round; it is a globe; it is not flat. But, in the Bible it is said that earth is flat. One more thing, Bible says sun goes around planet earth, not the planet earth around sun! See, Bible is not wrong. At that time, that was the information available. So, Bible recorded it. And one more thing; when you experience enlightenment, you will experience that the whole existence is moving around you. When Jesus said that the whole existence is moving around him, he became a center. When you become enlightened, you become the center; you feel, you experience that the whole universe is moving based on you! When Jesus became enlightened, he declared his experience through these statements. That is the reason he declared that sun is going around planet earth. It is a metaphysical statement. But the disciples later recorded it as a physical statement. What Jesus declared is the truth. Disciples took it as a fact. So Christian court summoned the scientist. They called him and said, “No. You can’t say planet earth is going around the sun. Bible says sun is only going around planet earth. You have to change your statement. Otherwise you will be killed!” The guy said, “Alright, I will change my statement.” He changed his statement, “No, my statement is wrong. Sun is only going around earth.” He made a small footnote in his book; “See, because I am Christian, I changed my statement. But the sun and planet earth are not Christians. So they go around only as they go around. They are not going to change the direction based on my statements.” When someone shows you the moon by pointing with their hand, if you catch the hands, naturally you don’t look towards the moon, you change the direction of the hand. Next generation looks somewhere else. Not only you miss the moon, you take care that the next generation also misses the moon. Making metaphysical into physical is what I say is creating morality out of understanding. As long as they are understandings, they are nectar for your life. They create a tremendous intelligence in your life. The moment they are reduced to a superstitious belief, the moment they are reduced as a morality, they create deep guilt in you. And guilt is the sure killer of intelligence. According to me, guilt is the worst killer of intelligence.

Guilt will never let you move in your life. One small incident; one of our devotee, she had a tumor at the end of her spinal cord; near the root chakra. For twenty years she suffered. She came to me complaining, “ Swamiji, please help me, heal me. I am suffering with this tumor for so many years.” And she says, even after surgery, it comes back. She even underwent surgery. It came back. I started talking to her slowly to trace the origin of the problem. Finally, she opened up and started weeping. I asked her, “Do you have any guilt related to your sex energy?” She slowly opened up and started weeping. She said she was abused when she was very young. When she was a kid, she was sexually abused. One of her close relatives abused her for so many years! And that guilt stayed with her and she said, “I started hating that part of my body. I started feeling that part of body should not exist in my body. I felt that part to be not part of my body. That is not my being. My hatred towards that person turned towards my own body.” When you start hating some action, you start hating that part of the body also. Her hatred became so deep. I was speaking to her. Slowly, slowly she opened to me. When she brought the guilt out, I started talking to her. She came out of the guilt. She was psychologically healed. I explained to her how this is a usual thing, which is happening. Now, they say one in four are getting sexually abused, especially in America. I read a report just the other day; one in four! Of course, kids don’t open up. Kids don’t tell you. Anyhow, when she was psychologically healed, when I explained the nature of all these things; you will be surprised! What I am telling you is the truth! In just 10 days, simply tumor disappeared! I gave her a small meditation technique, to meditate on that area. I told her, “Express your anger towards him. Weep, shout, cry, hit. Close the doors, take a pillow, imagine that it is him, and weep, cry, shout and hit. After that sit silently, feel that part of your body is also your body. Stop hating that part of the body.” You will be surprised; in just 10 days the tumor disappeared. It never came back. Difficult to understand; but truth! Same thing happens in our life psychologically. It is not that you always get physical ill health. Psychologically you get disturbed. Most of the time, your energy gets blocked based on your guilt. You have psychological illness because of your guilt. If you look deep, wherever you have fear, wherever you are not able to move, wherever you are not able to take decision, there will be some guilt. Three kinds of guilt; 1) guilt created by immediate family 2) guilt created by social laws 3) guilt created by yourself. These are the three major kinds of guilt, which kill your intelligence. The guilt about the sex will be created by immediate family. That is the first guilt. The guilt based on greed will be by immediate family. Guilt based on fear is created by social law. Third guilt is the worst, which you create for yourself. When you internalize the greed and fear guilt, you create new types of guilt for yourself. If you analyze whenever you are stuck or wherever you are stuck, these three kinds of guilt will be there.

May you break free from the past. The past is dead. Not only it is dead; it is a dead weight on your being. As long as you have guilt, you can never proceed; you can never have deep blissful life. Be very clear, you can never be moral based on guilt. If you are based on guilt, all your morality is skin deep. It is time to be mature. You are not going to be immoral if you understand that rules are created for our won sake. For e.g. You come to know that there is no punishment in this country for murders; do you think you will kill the next person? If you are going to do, then be very clear that you are immature. You are not grown up. Then your life is not worth living. You are much worse than dead people. At least dead people don’t disturb others. But livingdead people always disturb others. You are livingdead. You are not even dead. Through out my life, I stayed in grave yards. Nine years, I walked length and breadth of Bharat; from Tapovan to Kanyakumari; Ahemadnad to Gangasagar. Length and breadth of Bharat I walked. I always stayed in graveyards. Because, I don’t have to make reservations! People always ask me, “Swamiji, were you not afraid? Have you been disturbed by ghosts?” I tell them, dead people don’t disturb others. Only living people disturb others. If your morality is based on greed and fear, be very clear that your life is not worth living. Your are much worse than a dead person. Let your morality be based on your understanding; on consciousness, not on conscience. As long as you are based on dos and don’ts you are just a child. These dos and don’ts are buffer between you and enlightenment. As long as these buffers are there you can never reach enlightenment. A total freedom; a total bliss; a total ecstasy; the moment the buffers are removed, naturally enlightenment will reach you. You don’t have to reach enlightenment. Simply, enlightenment will reach you. Understand that guilt is the sure killer of intelligence. May you kill the guilt and experience the ultimate intelligence. Our Upanishads(scriptural texts revealed) call prajnanam brahma (Intelligence is existence). May you reach that existence and experience the eternal bliss; Nityanada. Thank you.

We will have a few minutes for your questions. I will to try answer your questions or question your answers.

Swamiji: Yes.

Questioner: You explained that it is not necessary for someone to do extensive periods of tapas(penance) and search to reach enlightenment. How is it possible for a practical man?

Swamiji:

What I spoke itself is for practical man. See, Understand! When I say you should do tapasya(penance), you say it is impractical. When I say there is no need to do tapsaya, you say please explain it in a very practical manner. Understand! The very understanding can lead you to express to enlightenment. A right listening and understanding can lead you to express your innate nature. According to me, enlightenment means, being in eternal bliss. Your bliss can never be disturbed by anything that is happening in the outer world. Your outer world will never enter your inner world. That is what I call enlightenment. Simply understand that your outer world is your outer world. Your inner world is inner world. Whatever you may do in the outer world, it is just housekeeping in the dreams. All your housekeeping in dream, what will happen to it when you wake up? It will simply disappear.

Now you will have a few more questions. How to lead practical life Swamiji?

When I say housekeeping in the dreams, I don’t say don’t do housekeeping. Do it. But understand, so that you will not be perturbed by the housekeeping; a simple understanding that your whole life is nothing but housekeeping in dreams! Continue to do the same housekeeping with this clear understanding. It is more than enough to express enlightenment. You don’t need to work to suppress your greed, or to suppress your fear or to suppress anything. You need to work only in this one line or idea. Let this idea totally sink inside you. Your whole life is just housekeeping in dreams! Feel, “I am doing my housekeeping because I am enjoying it.” Over. You played with toys. When you became 10 you threw away all the toys. Just because you threw away toys, are you not giving toys to kids now? Do you tell them, “No, I always played and threw them away. Don’t play.” No, You don’t say that. You say, let him play as long as he wants till he matures. The moment you accept, and understand, “Let me play the housekeeping in the dreams till I understand.”, the very acceptance will lead you to enlightenment. If you are not able to accept, accepting that I am not able to accept is enough to get you out of the rut of past and future. You are pulled towards the past or future because you don’t understand what IS! Just the other day, one of my close inner circle devotee, he was asking, “Swamiji how is it possible? You are so casual; so innocent; so much playful. But any word, which you utter, simply becomes true. How so much of intelligence and intuition can happen continuously?” He is my inner circle devotee. Before coming to the class I was playing chess with the host’s daughter. I have not finished. I told her I would come back and play. “How you can be so playful, so joyful? Your words are so clearly coming to reality!”, he asks. One thing you should understand; you are not able to experience that intuition because you are not able to fall into the present moment. You are always pulled by past or future. Either you work and worry about the past or you work and worry about the future. Something or the other is continuously going on. Time is like a shaft. Visualize this one thing and understand. Time is like a shaft! You are either pulled to this side of shaft or that side of shaft. Eternity penetrates time only in the present moment. You never feel relaxed; a deep craving exists all the time, either to achieve something in the outer world or inner world. The craving to achieve something in the inner world is also craving for future. Your craving for enlightenment is also worry about future. You never fall into the present moment. The eternity penetrates only the present moment. First thing! Accept the whole thing of the outer world; accept the whole thing of the inner world. Whatever problems you have in the outer world and whatever problems you have in the inner world; accept the whole thing. As long as you don’t’ accept, it is a problem. The moment you accept, just try this small experiment. Just try it.

Totally relax just for 3 days; not more than that; just for 3 days. Inside your inner world, or outer world, 3 days if you live a satisfied life, will you lose all your wealth in just three days? Surely not! In three days you are not going to lose anything. Why don’t you give a small try out? Just 3 days, sincerely, utterly, 100%, drop, accept. If you are not able to accept 100%, accept that I am not able to accept 100%. Even the acceptance that I am not able to accept myself in the inner world and outer world will make you drop from the rut of being pulled between past and future. The moment you understand, “I am not able to accept my reality. What can be done?” ; even the very push and pull will become your reality. Anything, if you accept, then you will simply fall into the present moment. The moment you fall into present moment, the time shaft will become simply a servant for you. As long as you are below the time shaft, it will rule you. You will be pulled or pushed by the time shaft. The moment your consciousness is raised to the present moment, you will see that you are penetrating the time shaft. When you penetrate the time shaft, the future is also clearly known to you. The past is also clearly known to you. Tremendous realization comes to you that the time shaft is only your projection! Just for 3 days try it as experiment; if you can fall into present moment, relaxing the headaches related outer world and inner world, in three days you will have a glimpse. What is life? What it means to live in the present moment? such ecstasy; such different space; such different life. Three days! Don’t try to alter anybody in the outer world. You lived based on your philosophy for the last 30 years. Give me just three days for a trial. You will see when you experiment with these great techniques how they work miracles in your being, how they start working alchemy in your being. A sincere three days trial; If you are not able to be sincere, accept that you are not able to be sincere. Even that sincerity is enough. You will start seeing a different space in you. That different space is what I call Nithya(Eternity).

May you experience that Nithya(eternity); Nithyananda(Eternal Bliss).