“# Gratitude is Prayer”

# Gratitude is Prayer

I welcome you all with my love and respects. Today’s subject is Gratitude is Prayer. In general, our religious life starts with prayer, and ends in gratitude. Prayer has got different dimensions. It matures as you mature. Prayer is the bridge to divinity. Prayer is the bridge to your higher consciousness. Prayer is the bridge to take you beyond the sufferings of the planet earth. Prayer is the technique, is the method to lead you to the super consciousness state. One thing, prayer has got different forms. Nothing is higher nothing is lower. Whichever way you want to start, you can start. You will naturally be growing towards the higher level of consciousness. Let us understand the various dimensions of prayer step by step. First thing, prayer starts in the physical level. Going to the temple, praying to God, praying to the murthi’s (idols) of Gods and Goddesses and doing some pooja (worship), doing some havan (rituals). Prayer should be started in a physical way. Many people come and ask me, ‘Swamiji why do we have idol worship in Hinduism?’ I always tell them ‘No, we don’t have idol worship. We worship through the idol, not the idol itself.’ There’s a big difference. What we do is worship through the idol, not idol worship. When we stand in front of the idol, do we pray ‘oh stone, give me boon or oh copper, please give me boon. No! You say ‘Oh Shiva please give me boon, oh Rama please give me boon., oh Vishnu, please bless me.’ You relate to the divine through idols. Idols are bridges to take you beyond the forms. There’s a beautiful incident in Vivekananda’s life. Vivekananda was wandering all over Bharat. He went to a king’s palace. The king is an intellectual guy. The king was educated in the western system of thoughts. He started questioning Vivekananda ‘why should idols be worshipped? Why should idols be respected?’ Vivekananda said ‘Just give me a few minutes. I will explain to you’ and he changed the conversation to another topic. Suddenly Vivekananda called one of the ministers of the king and said, ‘Can you get the photograph of your king which is hanging on the wall?’ Minister said ‘why not’. He just brought the photograph and gave it to Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda said ‘Can you spit on it?’ The minister was shocked. Minister said ‘what are you saying? It is the photograph of our king. How can you say I should spit on it?’ Vivekananda said ‘What is this? It’s just a paper and canvas cloth. It is just paper and canvas cloth. Why are you taking things so seriously? Just now your king said why should idols be respected? Why should idols be worshipped? It is just paper, canvas cloth and paint.’ Minister said ‘No! It is not simple canvas cloth and paint. As long as the paint and canvas cloth was separate, it was cloth and paint. The moment it started representing our Kings form, it’s a picture of our king, portrait of our king. I can’t spit on it. It represents our king. I can’t spit on it.’ Vivekananda turned to the king and said ‘Understand, even when your photo can receive so much of respect, why not God’s photo? Why not Gods idol? Why not Gods murthy? Ramanamaharshi says beautifully: As long as you feel you have a body, as long as you feel you are a body, it is good to start with idol worship, it is good to start with vigraha pooja. The problem is, the moment you read one or two books; you start thinking you know all the philosophy. You start thinking you have become God. The moment you start thinking you have become God you start Vigraha pooja. There are a few people who always think they are flying. But they don’t even move. Some people who have read some books think they have achieved everything, just by reading a few books. Ramanamaharshi says beautifully As long as you feel you have a body, as long as you eat, you take bath, as long as you think you have to maintain your body, its good to do the vigraha pooja. He say’s in a humorous way The sandal which is applied on your body, starts smelling within an hour, but when you apply it to God’s idol, it never gets any bad smell. The food, which you eat, in 3 hours, how and what it transforms into, you know. But never the food offered to God’s idol. So, as long as you have the idea that you are having a body, it is good to start doing idol worship. There’s nothing wrong in that. It’s actually a technique, to go beyond the form. As long as you have body consciousness, meditate on some prayer. This is the physical level of prayer, the first level. There is one more scientific research, which I wanted to mention here. A great scientist went and stayed in the Amazon forest with a small group of tribal villagers. The tribal group is famous for one thing. They have a belief that, by making the idol of a certain person, they can either heal him or kill him. They don’t do anything. They just make an idol of the person who they want to heal or kill and if that person needs healing for hands, they put medicine on the idols hands and the person gets cured. If they want to kill that person they just break the hands of the idol and the person dies. Of course, when you hear it, it sounds like a story. But this scientist wanted to know the truth. So he went with his 3 assistants. Stayed with the tribals for 10 years. Understand, not for one or two days, 10 full years he stayed with them. He learnt their language. Learnt their way of living. Ate their type of food. Lived in their houses. Related and, mingled with them. He almost lost his identity and became a tribal himself. He video recorded and observed atleast a hundred incidences. He says, I recorded atleast hundred incidences either by video graphing or audio recording or observing the experiences of the tribals. After doing research over the hundred incidences, he says more than 96 of these recorded incidences proved to be 100% effective. The other 4 created effect, but not 100%. 96% is not a small number. 100 incidences, 96 proved effective. He says they use a sort of vibration, a mantra. First they make an idol and they use the vibration or mantras to invoke that person into that idol. Then they treat the idol or kill him. If he’s a criminal they kill that idol, or if he has to be helped, they treat the idol and heal him. You will be surprised to hear one more thing, they say they are even able to relate to a person who’s dead already. Even with a person who’s already dead they are able to relate through the idols. He has proved it. He has clearly observed and recorded how they are doing it. When I read the research report, I realized that if you can relate with an ordinary man, an ordinary mortal through an idol, can’t you relate with existence, with parashakti in the brahmanda, the immortal divine through an idol? You can! The spiritual people, the great mystics, who dived deep into their inner consciousness, who achieved something in a spiritual level, they created wonderful techniques for others also to reach the same level. Idol worship or the vigraha pooja is one of the techniques created by those great mystics. There are 2 kinds of religion. One is just a social religion, how many times you can eat, how many hours you can sleep, how many women you can marry, how many kids you can have; A religion that states just the social laws or social rules. There is another kind of religion, which is a spiritual religion, to show you the true nature of your being, to help you reach the ultimate consciousness, to help you taste the ultimate bliss; The spiritual bliss. The second kind of religion worked in the inner world, in the mystery of mysteries, in a deeper conscious level. The masters of this second kind of religion created the techniques and gave it to us in the form of idols. Goddess Kali is the philosophical representation of spiritual wisdom. She says that when you cut your ego with the Jnana kadga (the sword of knowledge) you will be protected and taken care of. When you cut your ego with the sword of knowledge, divine existence will protect you and existence will take care of you. So every form of God is representation of some or the other great spiritual wisdom. First, prayer starts in the level of physical worship, then next it goes to the level of verbal worship. Next you go to a higher level. You chant the stotras, you chant the mantras, you do the nama japa (chanting the name of God) and you worship the divine, you pray. Stotra or repetition of Gods mantra is verbal prayer. Verbal prayer plays a major role in keeping the mind in a higher level. Remembrance of some sacred syllable and continuous repetition with awareness is very important. Without awareness, it becomes an unconscious habit. Please don’t do that. There are many people, who repeat “Rama Rama Rama…Krishna Krishna…hey did you switch off the oven…what’s for lunch today?” then again “Rama Rama Krishna Krishna…” No! Chanting should not be done unconsciously, but with conscious awareness. Again and again consciously repeating the lord’s name can lead you to the higher consciousness. The more your mind is filled with some sacred syllable, sacred words, the more your inner chattering will be cleansed. Your inner chattering has so much garbage in it. So much of unnecessary things you throw into your inner chattering. There is so much of repression and suppression. So much of anger and violence you suppress inside your being, where do you think it will all go? It will go and disturb your inner chattering. You inner chattering is made out of the stuff, which you suppress inside. If you suppress too much of violence, too much of sex, or too much of anger, those things only will come out in your inner chattering unconsciously. All your inner chattering is made up of the same stuff, which you put inside. What you put inside, that only will naturally come out. If you put mantra’s inside, the sacred syllables inside, the divine inside, the stotra’s inside, good words inside, you will see you are radiating the same beautiful words, same beautiful feeling, same beautiful bliss. The more you chant the right words; less you will be chanting the wrong words. People ask me, why should we chant Gods name swamiji. I tell them, ‘If you don’t chant God’s name you will be chanting your wife’s name.’ That is what we will be doing in your life. If you don’t chant Gods name, you will be chanting somebody else’s name in your mind. You mind cannot remain unoccupied; your mind cannot be empty. If you chant the lord’s name, you will be occupied in a positive way, you will reach the higher consciousness. Otherwise you will be chanting your boss’s name or your wife’s name, or your friend’s name. It’s a cleansing process. Your inner chattering will have a new experience; your being will have a new space. It will experience a new consciousness, when you use the technique of verbal prayer, using some divine name or divine prayer. If you don’t like any divine name, you can use words like ‘Om Shanti’, or just ‘Om’. Even these words will help you tremendously. Even those words can create a beautiful vibration in you. Just the other day one boy was asking ‘Swamiji what is the meaning of the word Om’. Om is the sound from which the whole world was created. Today modern day, physics scientists are agreeing with this concept, that from sound came light, from light came the whole universe. So the whole thing goes back to sound. And you will be surprised to hear this, in a place called uttara meru in TamilNadu; they were doing maha mrutunjeya homa (fire ritual for Lord Shiva), with the mantra of Shiva. The homa was going on continuously for 3 days. A group of westerners who had come there as tourists, were curious to know what was going on. They wanted to know what was going on, why are you throwing such good varieties of food to the fire, why are you putting all the valuable cloths into the fire, why are you burning it away? Why are you destroying all these things? It seems the priest said ‘No! We are not throwing it or destroying it. We are offering it to God’. The tourists laughed and said ‘what are you talking? How will it reach God if you put it in the fire?’ The Priest said ‘We invoke God into the fire using mantras, before we make the offerings it to him’. The curious scientists photographed the whole process using Kirlian photography. Kirlian photography is a scientifically developed diagnostic system accepted as one of the important diagnostic systems in Russia. Through Kirlian photography, you can diagnose any disease before its onset. In x-ray, we can diagnose only after it happens. It’s almost like an x-ray, which photographs you aura body. Every thing in the planet earth emits a particular light. Not only living things, even the dead things, emit a particular color ray of light. Using Kirlian photography we can actually photograph that light, the aura body. So the tourists took a few Kirlian photographs. You will be surprised to hear the results. In all the photographs one could see the dancing form of Shiva. In all the photographs, the dancing form of Shiva appeared in the same way. Mantras are not as simple as you think. When you do it with devotion and consciousness, they create their own effect, their own energy. This is the second level; verbal prayer. The third level is important. Mental prayer. When prayer reaches the third dimension it becomes mental. First it is physical, second verbal and third mental. In the mental level it is called meditation. In the physical level it is called worship or pooja. In the verbal level it is called japa. In the mental level it is called Dhyana or meditation. When you reach this level neither your body needs to be involved nor your inner chattering needs to be involved. Just your being will be relating. In Japa, it’s a communication; in Dhyana it’s a communion. In prayer, it is a communication between you and God. In meditation it is a communion between you and God. You start experiencing the taste of divine. You start experiencing the glimpse of divine. You start experiencing the glimpse of bliss. One important thing, as long as you pray or chant, you and God are different. The moment you enter into meditation, you start realizing Godliness in you. You start experiencing the divine in you. You start getting the glimpse of what you worshiped all these years. A unique communion starts between you and you. Its not even between you and God, because God has become a part of your being, and you have become a part of God. Drop merges into the ocean; ocean merges into the drop. You start experiencing the glimpse, you start feeling you are the part of the whole. The advaithic (non-dualistic) experience, or a feeling of oneness starts happening inside your being. It’s a different kind of experience. As long as you do the chanting, you are worshipping. The moment you enter into meditation, you merge with the object you worship, with that you become one. You start experiencing the consciousness. The fourth and final level is where neither you nor God exists. Both disappear into one experience. That is what I call Gratitude. In the beginning, in the physical level you worship, in the verbal level you chant where you repeat the lord’s name. In the mental level you meditate, you experience the divine in you. That is what I call meditation. And in the fourth level, the spiritual level, not only do you experience the oneness; the idea of oneness also disappears. Only one thing remains, Gratitude. Towards whom? Towards nobody. Just gratitude, not directed towards anybody. As long as the gratitude is directed to somebody there are 2 persons, the person who gives and the person who receives. But at the ultimate level, its not even directed to anybody. It just overflows. Energy expresses itself in the form of gratitude. Energy expresses itself in the form of bliss. A deep feeling of fulfillment happens to you. That is what we called Samadhi. Samadhi is a state where the being after getting totally fulfilled expresses itself in the form of energy where there is nobody who expresses; and there is nobody who receives. Just the experience remains. The experiencer and the experienced merges into the experience. In that moment only one thing exists; simply the experience. Neither experiencer nor the experienced exists. Both of them merge into one being. That is what we call experience. You feel that life is showering so much on you. You feel it is too much. You fell like you can’t tolerate anymore. Its so much of joy, so much of ecstasy, you start losing your identity, you start losing your boundary. You can have an identity as long as you have a trace of suffering. The moment suffering disappears you lose your boundary. An important thing you need to understand, you can have ego only if you are suffering. Your ego cannot exist without your suffering. Suffering is the root for your ego. It’s an important thing you need to understand. We always think that the ego is disturbed by suffering. No! Ego is enriched by suffering. One more important thing, if your suffering is less, your ego is less. You feel you are too small, so you increase your suffering. So that you can feel you are somebody. Ask anybody how is his or her life. They will tell ‘Swamiji, nobody should suffer like me. I am the person who has suffered the most on this planet earth. Even my enemy should not get this much of suffering.’ They know, how to write their biography. Ask anybody to write their biography; this will be their first sentence, to introduce themselves. Less the suffering, your ego is less. More the suffering, your ego becomes more strong. So you always exaggerate your suffering. The problem is after sometime you forget you exaggerated, and you are also caught in the same net. It is you, who create a bigger net for you and exaggerate. You might disagree and say ‘No no, you don’t know my life; you don’t know my suffering, how much I have struggled and all those things’. After some time you are caught in the same net. You are caught in the same net, which you created. A small story: One tabloid journalist died and went to hell. But somehow he managed to beg God ‘please let me enjoy heaven for one day. I am going to be in hell eternally anyway. Can’t you be a little compassionate towards me, and give me only 24 hours in heaven?’ God said ‘you are a dangerous guy, you can’t be allowed in heaven. You may write something about me! You are a difficult guy. You can’t be let in’. You can believe lawyers, but not tabloid journalists. It is difficult. But somehow he convinced God saying ‘no, no in 24 hours what can I publish? Moreover, your guys are the editors, I can’t write anything without their knowledge. Please let me in. Only for 24 hours’. God said ‘alright, come in’. The moment he jumped in, he started making demands by saying ‘If I can convince atleast one of your journalist to go to the hell will you give me a job here?’ God thinks to himself ‘my people would never get convinced to go to hell’. So then he agrees and tells the journalist ‘ok, if you can convince atleast one of my journalists to go to Hell, yes then you can stay’. Now this guy started spreading wild rumors. You know how these guys are capable of spreading rumors. He started spreading rumors that a new Satan, a new devil has taken over hell, that now hell has become totally high tech and that they have centralized air-conditioning, and that all the eternal hell and eternal fire concept is all wrong. Hell has been completely updated. Anybody who wants to go there can do so and live luxuriously. And the other major news is that they want to start a new newspaper in Hell. If you are experienced here in heaven, there is every chance you can become editor there in Hell. He started spreading rumors. If you want to spread any news, all you have to do is tell the news to somebody and ask him or her to promise to not tell others. Just ask them to promise to not tell anyone; it’s a secret. You can be sure that person will tell his or her friend and say – don’t tell others it’s a secret. 10 minutes later even the neighbor’s dog will be barking that news. Anyhow, the news had now spread all over heaven. After 24 hours the journalist is about to exit the gates of heaven. When he reached the gate God stops him and says ‘no, no, no you cannot go away from heaven. You have to stay here’. The journalist asks ‘why?’ God says ‘you do not know we had 10 editors, all the 10 ran away. They are now in hell. We don’t have any journalist. We don’t have anybody to do our job. You have to be here’. By now, after talking same thing again and again and again, this guy himself is slowly convinced, that in hell everything is updated and he’s going to find himself a good job. He says ‘no, no I also want to go to hell. I want to become an editor’. God said ‘fool you are the guy who started this rumor. Why have you started believing your own stories? You are the one who created the rumor. Journalist says ‘No, no, I may have started the rumor, but when 10 people believe it, there must be some truth in it. When so many people believe it, it cannot be a lie. There must be some truth in it. Let me go there and check’. When you repeat the same lie again and again you start believing it to be the truth, you also start falling in the same net. You also start believing. One religious preacher I know in Bharat. He’s a very aggressive preacher. He came to me for healing. He told me, he’s got some personal problem and he wants healing. After healing I was speaking to him. I asked him ‘Why are you preaching so aggressively? Condemning all other religions. Your religion is great, no doubt, but why should you condemn others?’ He says ‘Swamiji if I am not doing what I am doing, I feel insecure. When I see 10,000 people believe what I am saying and are following my ideas, I feel safe. I am convinced that what I am preaching must be the truth. I feel 10,000 people cannot be fools. I may be telling wrong things, but when so many people believe, there must be some truth in it. So when 10,000 people are converted I feel a little stronger in my faith. So when many people believe what you say, you fall into the same net that you created. That’s what we all do in our lives. We create an idea that our life is full of suffering and misery. By and by you start believing it. If you analyze yourself, very will see very clearly that there are thousands of miseries just created by your own mind, your own words. It is simply your own creation. But you forget that you are the one who created it. When ego disappears, you will be merged inside bliss. When you are merged in bliss ego disappears. When you go really deep into your being; when you become one with the existence; when you experience; only then gratitude flows. A pure grateful feeling overflows from your being. Its just gratitude. There’s a beautiful meditation in Sufism. They say the only way to relate with God is gratitude, because with gratitude you start experiencing him. With prayer, you only relate with him. However with gratitude you start experiencing him. With gratitude, the deeper level of your being, your spiritual layer starts experiencing. Understand few things; appreciate the things you have been showered with in your life. Feel gratitude for all that God has showered on you. But we never look at the things, which has been showered on us. We always think – what next, what next and what next. I never forget to tell this small and very nice story. One guy was praying to God in the temple ‘O God please just give me 100 dollars to take care of me for one week. Within a week I will get a new job. Soon after I start working I will start donating money to you. Just for one week give me 100 dollars to take care of myself’. A priest who overheard his prayer felt very compassionate, and thought I should help this guy. However not being rich himself, put a 50 dollar bill in a cover and went to the boy and handed it over to him saying ‘you see God told me to give you this envelope. Please have it’. The guy ran to his house, opened the envelope, saw the 50 dollars and started praying again ‘Oh God next time when you send money, please send it to me directly, not through this priest. He’s taken half of it as commission’. You do not know how the mind behaves. The guy did not bother about the 50 dollars, which he received. He’s bothered about the 50 dollars, which he did not receive. Our mind also works in the same way. You bother about the things that have not happened to you. But you never bother about the things that have happened to you. If you are asked to write the things, which God has not given you, will that list ever end? It will start with limousine, and it will go on longer than a limousine. And if you sincerely start writing the things that God has given you, again that list will never end. Because every inhaling and exhaling breath is given to you by divine. Can you say you earned it? No! The divine gives every inch and every moment of life to you. Can you say you made it? Can you say you created it? No! Your very life, your existence, is given to you by the divine. If you honestly make a list of all the things, which were given to you by God, again it will never end. So many things, so much has been showered on you. Can you say you created your life? Can you say you created your one single inhaling or exhaling breath? No! A small story: A big scientist conference took place where the entire scientist community came to the conclusion that, now we can do anything that God can do. Now we can do anything that God can do. Why should there be God at all? We can do everything ourselves. What do you say? God creates man? We can also clone. What do you say? Whatever God can do, we can also do. They decided that they have become so advanced that, now they can tell God to go and take rest. We don’t need him anymore. We are doing everything ourselves. Let him retire. God said alright let us have a small competition. First, He created something to fly, immediately scientists also created the airplane. Then He created fire, scientists also created something to destroy the fire. Competition went on, went on. Finally God just took some dust and created a human being. Scientist also took some dust and created a human being – by cloning. God said – no, no, no stop! Bring your own dust and do it. Not from my dust. Do you understand? You can’t create anything that’s not already been created by God. Everything is given to you by the divine. But when we take our life for granted, we live in deep misery. Two lists of things are there in front of you. One is the list of things, which are given to you, which is showered on you. The other one is list of things, which you don’t have. Now its upto you to look at things which you don’t have, and continuously suffer. Suffer and make your life miserable or look at the things, which you have and continuously feel joy, ecstasy and enjoy it. Whether you want to look at this side, or the other side, is your choice. Bliss is your choice; gratitude is simply your choice. Its you who are supposed to decide, what your life is supposed to be. Whether it should be hell or it should be heaven. Its simply your choice. When you look at the things which is showered on you, which is given to you, then you will understand how much existence protects you. Divine takes care of you, God showers on you. One guy went to a real estate agent and wanted to sell his house. After a week, he ran to the agent and said ‘I don’t want to sell my house. Please withdraw the advertisement’. The agent was surprised. He asked ‘Why? Why you don’t want to sell’. The guy said ‘only after seeing your advertisement in the paper, I realized my house is the dream house that I have always wanted. My house is, exactly what I wanted it to be. It’s really exactly what I always wanted it to be. Only then I realized how beautiful my house is’. You take things for granted. You take people for granted. You take life for granted. Ultimately when you take life for granted, you feel bored. When you do things unconsciously, you start feeling bored. There was a great saint who lived in Maharashtra. During the last 10 years of his life he was asked to eat the same type of food. He was asked to eat a little rice and greens everyday, because his stomach has become sensitive. Every day he would eat the same food. The devotee, who cooked for him, got tired of cooking the same food. Every day the same food! She went to the master and asked – ‘master are you not bored eating the same food? I am bored of cooking the same food. Are you not bored eating the same food?’ Master says beautifully – ‘I am not eating the same food. How can I eat the same food? Everyday it’s different. Everyday it’s new. Every day it’s totally different. How can I eat the same food the next day? No!’ When you generalize, you feel bored. When you understand, when you live moment to moment everything looks fresh. When you live moment to moment things really look fresh, and you live and you feel grateful to the existence. When you take things for granted, you feel bored, dull, tired and depressed. The biggest problem I see, atleast in this country, is taking things for granted. That is why even though there are so many possibilities for entertainment; you still feel so much of boredom. Depression has become a big disease. Obesity is nothing but taking your food for granted. When you take food for granted, you try so many other new techniques. Again you feel unfulfilled. Again you try some more techniques. Continuously you take things for granted and try new things. The more you try the more you get bored. More depressed. When you really live with a deep sensitivity, with understanding, without taking things for granted, you experience a new space in your being; you experience a new joy in your being. Then you experience gratitude towards the whole life, towards life, towards people, towards situations, ultimately towards the whole existence. Gratitude is the ultimate prayer. Gratitude is the greatest attitude. Gratitude is the greatest attitude, which you can have towards human beings, towards life, towards situations. So gratitude is the greatest attitude towards God. Gratitude is the ultimate prayer. Let you experience the gratitude and through the gratitude, the eternal bliss, Nithyananda. As of now you experience the whole world just as matter, only as matter! However after Einstein not only the mystics, but also the physicist’s have very clearly declared that there is no such thing as matter in the universe. Everything is energy. The first batch of scientists declared, that in atom there is one particle, which is matter and another one, which is energy. After the next batch they declared – no, no, no, the same particle is matter at one particular time, and energy at another time. However now, in quantum physics they say it is matter and energy at the same time. There is not even time space gap. It is simply energy. Understand, the idea of matter enters into you, as long as you think you are matter. As long as you identify yourself with the body, you think existence also is matter. Once you experience the glimpse of energy in you, you will understand that the whole thing is energy. For example, when you look at a rose early in the morning, the moment you look at the rose, immediately the word rose rises in your mind, next you will maybe start thinking of all the roses you have given to somebody, presented to somebody or all the roses presented to you. That memory comes up. Third, how you behaved or how she behaved when the roses were given comes to your mind. Then thoughts of whether you have love or hatred towards that incident rises in your mind. In this way the thinking will go on. You will forget the rose, which is here. That is what happens usually in our mind. The moment you start verbalizing you miss reality. Your mind goes somewhere. You are somewhere else. Try this simple experiment. Sit with some tree or with some plant or with some thing. Don’t use the name. If it’s a rose plant, don’t use the word rose bush. It is beautiful. Don’t use all those words. Drop all those words like it’s very nice, it’s very colorful. Don’t use all those words. Drop all the words. Just look at it the same way as a child would look at it. Verbalization starts only after when a child is over 3 years old. Below 3, you don’t have verbalization. When a child looks at a rose he looks using his whole being. That is why their eyes are so bubbling, so alive. There are no words inside. Now for us, half of our mind is creating words. In Patanjali, there is a beautiful word called ‘Ojus’ which means – you need to understand. Many people ask me – ‘Swamiji how is that when we listen to your discourse we forget the time? How does it happen? We are sitting for so long. How is it that our mind is so concentrated? One important thing you should understand, when I speak if I have the inner chattering, you will also have the inner chattering. When I speak, if I don’t have two minds, if I am total, you will also have to listen totally. Automatically your mind will become one. If I am double or if I have two minds, you will also have two minds. If I am single, naturally you will also become single. When you are single, without having two processes going on at the same time, seeing and verbalizing, you will see the rose differently. Now because you are double, one is seeing, another one is verbalizing. With kid’s two things never happens. They don’t verbalize. They just see. Just like a child, look freshly, directly, without words. Don’t start verbalizing all the knowledge you have about a rose bush. Don’t start analyzing the rose. Don’t verbalize. Just look directly, simply. Without knowing the words about the brand, about the color or the type. All those things are just foolishness. Just yesterday, we had been to zoo to see all those animals. Some of the devotees, who were with me, were continuously analyzing the brochure, what is the name of the animal, from which country they come from and all those things. I never felt like asking what is their name, from which country they come from, all those details. When you intensely feel, that itself is more than enough. When they tell the name, ok. Even knowing the name what am I going to do. Nothing. If you enjoy the scene, that is enough. Over. It’s for the people who do the research, for them to know the name, age, from which country, this that all those details. For us, just being there and enjoying the beauty is enough. Over. When you look at the rose plant, instead of bringing the words about the plant to your mind, just look at it like a child would, look. Don’t allow any thoughts to come to your mind. Look deeply. You will see, that the rose is a living energy, just like you. You will feel the same energy, which you feel inside you, also in the rose. If you master this technique atleast once, if you relate with any thing and feel it is energy and not matter, then you can relate even with a stone. You can relate with a tree. You can relate with the moon. You can relate with the sun, you can relate with the idols and feel that they are Gods. Their energy is not matter. So even once if you were successful in relating with existence without words, you will dissolve matter into energy. You will experience matter in the form of energy. You will start feeling it’s a living being. Ramakrishna says ‘When I do the Kali pooja, sometimes when I get a doubt whether it’s a vigraha, just an idol or if its really Devi standing there, I take a thread and hold it near her nose to see whether she breathing or not. The thread used to move always, because of her inhaling and exhaling’ He says because of her inhaling and exhaling thread used to move. When you know the simple technique of having a glimpse, a glimpse of relating with the divine without words, then you will know how to dissolve the matter into energy. Then your whole life, is just energy. There is nothing called matter on planet earth or in the universe, because the universe is energy. Existence is energy. That’s what we say in the Upanishads, Pragnyanam Bramha. Intelligence is existence. The whole existence is intelligence. It’s not a dead matter. It’s a living existence. When you realize that the whole universe is energy, you will understand it’s a living existence. An important theory they are coming up with in the physics field. If an atom is moving here, in some other part of the world, the same atom is happening in a different way. If, here its moving from east to west here. There it’s moving from west to east. No movement is just a silent independent movement on the planet earth. They are coming up with a new theory in physics. No movement, no effect is without cause or no cause goes without effect. If you look little deeply, not only the physical diseases, even the accidents, we invite. The problem is, it’s so unconscious; the mental thinking; 90% of our thinking happens so unconsciously; we are not able to connect the cause and the effect. Just understand one thing, you are here now because of all your past decisions. You decided pay attention and hear about me coming here for this discourse. Then you decided to get more information. Then you decided to take your car and drive. Then you decided to stop your car here. Then you decided to come in and sit. Then you decided to continue to sit. The totality of all these decisions is only making you to sit here. Totality of all these past decisions is your present moment. That’s your present moment. The present. The totality of your present will be your future. That is the whole Karma theory. Totality of all your past is present. Totality of your present will be your future. The problem is, most of the decisions we make unconsciously. We take thousands of decisions unconsciously. That is the reason you are not able to connect the cause and the effect. Flood more awareness, more intelligence into your thinking system. Flood more awareness, more consciousness into your decision-making system. People ask me ‘Swamiji, how do we take birth? Who decides about our life?’ I tell you, its you who decide even about your life. It is you who decide even your body. You may think what are you talking swamiji. Whether you believe it or not, whether you accept or not, whether you understand or not. There are a few truths. They are truths. They may not have become facts by scientific research. But they are truths. Even before Newton discovered gravitation theory, gravity existed. Am I right? Before Newton also apples were falling down. Do you think before Newton apples were going up? No! Before Newton also apples were falling down. Before Newton gravitation was a truth, after Newton it has become a fact. He gave scientific evidence. Same way there are a few truths; they have not yet become facts. They are truths, but they are yet to become facts. In the same way these are the few things; they are truths yet to become facts. Important thing, including your body you create with your mind, with your ego, with your structure. Krishna says whatever is your last thought at the last moment of your demise, that is only going to decide what is your next birth. It’s a very important thing to understand. Whatever you think during your last moments is what is going to decide what is your next birth. Actually, when you die, when you leave the body, your whole life will come to in fast forward form, in a condensed form. In a few minutes your whole life will be replayed. During that time all your peak experiences will come up. All your peak experiences in the life will pop up. If you have lived all your life just by eating. Naturally what will you think? Anyhow even if I take one more body, I am going to eat. Let us take a body, which is very comfortable for eating. Which is the best body for eating? Pig body. Naturally, a pig body! It’s no joke. This is the way you decide. This is the logic you use when you decide. You see the totality of all your experiences, based on which you decide your own body. If you spent all your life just eating, you decide to take a new birth as a pig. If you have spent all your life just by sleeping, in a lethargic way, then you take a buffalo body. That is the best way to be lethargic, no responsibility. Have you seen a single buffalo going for a regular job? They don’t have to pay bills, they don’t have to bring their kids up, and they don’t have to bother about anything else. They also don’t have the depression problem; they don’t have to go to psychiatrist. Have you seen a single buffalo going to psychiatrist? No! Nothing is necessary. There is no responsibility. When you don’t have any responsibility, you can be totally lethargic. So when you don’t take any responsibility, if you don’t create, if you have spent your whole life just in a lethargic way. If your father is a wealthy guy, if he hands over all his wealth to you, there is every chance for you to take the next life as a buffalo. Because when your father creates and leaves it to you, you do not know the value. You do not know the value! I always tell people, never give any property to your son. If you hate him then give property. If you want him to be destroyed, then you give property. Otherwise, give your children courage, a sense of responsibility, and intelligence to help him to stand on his own feet. Only then he will know the value. He will know the value. Even if you are going to give the property, don’t give it to them as long as you are alive. Never give. Because you see, when you are alive, even if he does something wrong, you will be there to protect him. So let him learn how to stand up, how to stand on his own feet. Let him understand, let him become responsible when you are alive. If you give, naturally he will never learn the intricacies. You see Lakshmi will stay only when you create it, never if it simply comes. There are thousands of survey reports and research reports, which say nobody maintains the money, which they get through lottery. There are survey reports, which says very clearly that more than 90% of the people, who win a lottery, lose the money within a year. Within a year they lose the money because maintaining Lakshmi is not a joke. You need tremendous intelligence to maintain Lakshmi. So its intelligence based on which you decide your body. If you live just for eating, then know what is going to be your next janma. If you have spent most of your life sleeping, know what is going to be your next janma. It is your setup; it’s your mental decision, which decides even your body. According to me, your disease is also your own investment. Please forgive me, if I hurt you. But sometimes truth hurts. Truth hurts. Every disease, you have some investment. Go deep, into the mental setup and analyze. You see, even the attention need, makes you fall sick. Especially in this country nobody gives attention to others. Everybody is busy. Everybody is busy in his or her routine. So if you want attention, what do kids do? They hide under the blanket and say ‘mom I am not feeling well’. Immediately they are attended. Immediately somebody attends to you. That is why you create your own disease, for so many other reasons. Even the attention need creates the diseases. And there is a new thing coming up. Monday blues. Have you heard of that? Monday morning blues. People get heart attacks on Monday mornings. Anyhow, so all these things, you can directly relate them to your mind, your mental setup. And 90% of the psychosomatic diseases are from your mental setup. So if you look a little deep, you invite a guest. Not only do you invite, you also give a phone call, you leave voice message, then you send a mail, you send a fax, and then finally you send the flight ticket to get him. The moment he gets in, you say ‘Oh I asked for somebody else why have you come?’ Only the moment he enters the house you realize it’s the wrong person, you did not call the right person. You say ‘oh! I have not called you!’ Same way, all your diseases are your guests. You invite it, you do everything to get it, but finally you say ‘Oh! I have not done anything. I did not call. Swamiji what is this? You say I have called my disease. How will I call?’ Small Story. A guy entered into McDonalds, ate like a pig, ordered all possible things. My God, I was shocked to see such Big Coco Cola bottles. In Bharat even cows wont drink so much water. I am surprised! Such big coco cola bottles! And the coffee cups especially, and burgers they build like houses. Anyhow, after eating everything on his plate, this guy received a bill. He says I have not ordered for it. You see you don’t order for bill, but it always comes to you. It is the effect of the cause, which you created. So can you say, no I have not ordered for the bill. It has come. No! You may not order for the disease, but you have created all the causes. So naturally the effect will follow. If you look a little deep and analyze you will realize that every disease, every physical pain, even emotional pain is related to some part of your mental setup. Every emotion is related to some Chakra. For e.g.: stomach is related to the navel Chakra and is related to worry and depression. You can always see when you hear any news, which you cant bear or digest; the first blow will be to your stomach. You will have stomach upset or diarrhea. Am I right? How many of you have experienced it? You see, anything, which gives you shock the first blow will be on your stomach, because navel Chakra is related to worrying and depression. Every Chakra is related to some emotion. This is what we are going to deal with in the Ananda Spurana Program; it’s a 2-day meditation workshop. The emotion related to each Chakra will be analyzed and you will be doing a particular meditation to cleanse and energize that Chakra. You will be learning seven different meditations techniques to cleanse all the charkas. It’s a 36 hours program. Experience the bliss. Eternal Bliss. Nithyananda. Thank you!