“Master is a person who removes the ultimate cancerous tumor that…”

Master is a person who removes the ultimate cancerous tumor that happens to our being, which I call Ego. He does surgery on that tumor. He never allows you to be stuck or comfortable with anything less than enlightened state. Even when we start progressing spiritually, we get stuck in some layer, we won't even know we are stuck and not progressing. In all these situations, master will push us again and again to move forward. He transforms our whole life.

Whenever a surgeon comes with a knife, we think he is going to hurt us, but the knife of a surgeon is not for killing it is for healing. In Bharat, gods have swords and many other weapons. These are symbolic and metaphysically represent that they are surgeons who will remove your ego. Goddess Kali has a big knife in one hand and severed head in other hand. The severed head represent ego, and sword represents knowledge or wisdom.

Let me narrate an incident that explains how the master takes care of the disciple and never lets them to be stuck in some level. Even when the disciples feel cozy and secure, the master shakes them up and makes them aware that what they think of as security is actually getting stuck, and they should move forward. This is an incident from Sri Ramakrishna's life, a geat spiritual master from last century. He had a master called Thothapuri. Ramakrishna used to meditate on a particular form of goddess Kali. He was living his life happily with that form. Suddenly one day, an old monk Thothapuri appeared and asked him to go beyond the form, not meditate on it. Ramakrishna was surprised. He said the form is so beautiful, I feel totally connected to it, why should I not meditate on it? Thothapuri says forms are always ephemeral, only if you go beyond it you will experience the eternal bliss of the eternal consciousness. When you meditate on a form you feel comfortable, you can project all your ego on that form and feel satisfied. If you wanted a caring and loving mother, or if you are missing a caring, loving father, you can always project that onto your god and think of your god as a caring, loving father/mother. The more strongly you visualize, the more the visualization will come to reality. Ramakrishna felt what he was strongly visualizing was the reality. He was happy, but it wasn't the ultimate truth. So Thothapuri doesn't allow him to stay there but inspires him to go beyond the form. He advises him to visualize destroying the form to have the formless experience. Ramakrishna does that and reaches the eternal bliss.

Master sees that you are not stuck anywhere and you reach the ultimate. That's why in the East so much importance is given to the master. The West only knows teachers, the idea of master doesn't exist. In the East, in gurukulams, even the regular education was received only from masters, not from teachers. Difference between a master and a teacher is: teacher is a person who knows intellectually, master is a person who knows experientially, who has experienced what he is speaking, the truth. Bharatn kings, if they wanted to learn archery they had to go to a master. What do enlightened persons know about agriculture, archery or business? Everything has a sutra, aphorism. At the age of 7, a person will be initiated into meditation, which they practice till 14. If they have their first spiritual experience by then, they will study Brahmasutras, and take up sanyas; else they will study life, learn the kamasutras and take up a married life. Everyone was happy because they were properly guided by enlightened masters to live a life that was most suited for them. A teacher teaches through verbal language, while a master teaches through the body language. It is known now that 90% of the communication happens through body language. The direct touch and presence of a master can transform and awaken a person by creating such a space.

Let me narrate a beautiful story from Vivekananda, an enlightened master, to explain you this idea. There was a lioness in a forest, about to give birth. One day she was searching for food, looking for some animal in the forest. She saw a herd of goats and jumped. When attacking, she gave birth to a lion cub and died. The cub was left orphaned, nobody was there to attend. The goats took the cub in and raised it. The cub started living like a goat, drinking goat's milk, eating grass. Based on how we're brought up, we have an idea about ourselves. So the cub believed it was also a goat. After a few years, a lion attacked the goats. When he saw the cub, he picked the cub and took it away from the goats. The cub pleaded the lion not to kill him. The lion tried its best to convince the cub that it was not a goat, but was a lion. Although the cub refused to believe that at first, he slowly started wondering about it, and contemplating on the lion unconsciously. Over time, when the lion did not attack and kill the cub, the cub started trusting the lion and started getting attached to it. One day the Lion took the cub to a nearby river and showed him his reflection to prove that they look similar. The lion then forced him to eat a piece of meat, which the cub liked, and although initially frightened eventually the cub realized that he was also a lion and started living like a lion.

This is exactly what happens between you and the master. When you see the master, and he says you are not as you think, you are not a human being with spiritual experience, but a spiritual being having a human experience; not only are you not ready to believe, but you are uncomfortable. You feel he is preaching his ideas, trying to convert you, you get frightened and run away. You want to be happy with your goats and be stuck with your regular life. After sometime, when the master catches you and gives you the same idea, you stop resisting, but you are not yet convinced. After sometime, the energy of the master attracts you and you start remembering him, and he becomes a part of your being. Still you are not ready to accept what he says, you play a game of hide and seek. At some point when you trust him, he shows you that you are same as him. Again you get frightened and act like a goat. Then master also acts like a goat to make you comfortable, and feel that he is one among you. Once you relate with him and start trusting him, he forces you to experience that you are lion, that's what I call initiation, or the first experience. He forces you to experience that you are lion, but even after that experience people deny it. After a long time, the master makes you experience your true nature and give you the ultimate freedom. Then you realize that you always were a lion.

You don't have to become something new, you just need to wake up and realize your true nature. Master never allows you to stop at any step. Again and again he inspires and takes you to higher level conscious experiences, till you realize you are that, till you realize your true potentiality, the ultimate truth. A Zen story: a disciple grew up with the master from young age. He used to imitate the master. The master while speaking always did a certain action with his hand by making a fist with thumb pointing up. The disciple would do the same too when the master would give discourses. One day the master took a sword and cut his hand off! The disciple had so much trust in the master that without a doubt, he felt whatever the master did must be good for him. That very trust transported him to higher level consciousness, and he suddenly experienced enlightenment. The other disciples, who did first aid and took care of him, asked the master why he had to lose a few fingers to get enlightened. Master said, people lose many lives to get enlightened, so losing a few fingers to become enlightened is not too bad!

Another Zen story: one person went to a master asking for enlightenment. The master was walking on the 3rd floor of a building, with the disciple walking behind him, asking for guidance to become enlightened. Suddenly the master turned and pushed him off the floor. Again the disciple was so deeply connected to the master that he felt there must be something good when the master does it. He felt like he was floating. The story says that when he touched the ground he touched heaven, he became enlightened!

Master never allows anyone to get stuck with ordinary experiences. Even though you call it a spiritual experience, only when you stop experiencing anything, you enter into a real spiritual experience, because in such an experience the experiencer, the experienced and the experience, all three disappears. Only you remain, even the word \`you' can't be used since there is no other, all boundaries are lost! Unless that experience of tatvamasi, \`that are thou' happens, master never rests. Master is the ultimate master surgeon to remove the ego in all levels – ordinary or spiritual world. People have spiritual ego when they have \`holier than thou' attitude. Master will never allow you to be stuck even in that area, he will push you forward till you experience the ultimate. The more you allow his surgery the more you realize the truth. Few people run away from the operating table during surgery, that's dangerous. Before surrendering do all the checking, verifying, window shopping, and once you surrender allow him to work on you.

Let us pray to the ultimate master, the divine existence, the cosmic energy to do the master surgery on us to give the eternal bliss, nithyananda.

Q\&A:

Q; How does an enlightened person react to the physical environment?

A: In the same way as an ordinary person. There is a beautiful statement: before enlightenment, a mountain is a mountain, a tree is a tree, a river is a river; while seeking, a mountain is not a mountain, a tree is not a tree, a river is not a river, he is confused about it; after enlightenment, again a mountain is a mountain, a tree is a tree, a river is a river! Although he reacts the same way, after enlightenment he sees it all from a different plane. A normal person always sees in a distorted way, as he wants. A story: a villager went to nearby village for a job. When he was returning, from a distance he thought his house was on fire. He started weeping and crying for help. His son ran to him and told him they sold the house the previous day. On hearing this, the man stopped weeping, he was happy. Then another son came and told him even though they sold it they don't have the money yet. Again he started weeping. Then the wife came and said they got the money that morning, then again he stopped weeping about the house being on fire. Same situation, same person, but the reactions are different when he thinks its his house and when he thinks it someone else's. We see according to our perception, but an enlightened person sees as it is, with neither hatred nor attachment.

Q: How do we distinguish between letting life flow and laziness? A: In laziness you will always be tired. The more you rest, the more you will be tired; you will be tired of taking rest. Letting go and allowing life to flow, you will be bubbling, alive, fresh and radiating energy. If you are confused, you are in laziness. The moment you surrender you will have no confusion, you will only be in ecstasy.

Q: Can we the untouchables ever find enlightenment? A: As long as you have an idea that you are untouchable, you can't find enlightenment, the moment you drop that idea, you can find enlightenment. Nobody is untouchable, the very idea is wrong, and may be due to some inferiority complex. If somebody claims \`I am holier than you', you can't touch him, only he is untouchable. Except him everyone else can become enlightened.

Q: Comment on the state of the world, environment destroyed, over population, wars, should we do something about it? A: A social answer would be: you must work for global peace, work for revolution, and on and on. My honest answer is: transform yourself, you can't do much else. If you can do anything else you would have done it by now. Let's be honest that we are not able to do anything socially. There is a lot more attached to this question. We always feel the world is totally spoiled now, but in ancient times the world was beautiful. From the Harappa-Mohenjodaro culture which is thousands of years old, they found writings that state there is so much war, society is deteriorating, but in olden times society was much better. There was no such time when only good prevailed! The idea of a golden past is used only to postpone accepting reality. Maybe the news did not reach others so people did not know about it. But good and bad existed in the past and will always exist. If you awaken yourself, you can go beyond it. If you become enlightened, you can take yourself out of the collective negative consciousness, thereby reducing it. Everybody wants to spread peace according to their perception, not according to others. I was in a inter-religion conference, one guy was preaching: all of you accept and convert to my religion so that we won't fight. We all take the sword to spread the peace, but no revolution will help, it will only make matters worse. Only individual evolution will help.

Q: How did you know you became enlightened? A: The moment you become enlightened, the very doubt itself disappears. Just as you have no doubt that you are seeing me, it's a clear experience and the question disappears. As long as the question is there, you are not enlightened.

Q: A: Consciousness is a guru, conscience is not. Do's and don'ts will be given by conscience, you will always be fighting it. The more conscience you have, the more you will be dead, the more you will be schizophrenic (split personality). With consciousness you will never have a doubt, you will just do what has to be done.

Q: How can we become enlightened? A: It is as simple as 1, 2, 3. 1. Start meditating 2. Continue meditating 3. Continue meditating. Meditation is the only key to experience that you are enlightened. Start with some meditation technique, surely you will see the ultimate truth; even though you don't believe you are a lion, you are a lion.

Q: Do we need to follow some specific steps, like yama, niyama? A: With yama, niyama, even after death you won't be convinced you did it perfectly. They are nice techniques to escape for you and master. If you ask why am I not yet enlightened, you can be told that you did not practice yama and niyama properly, and you can convince yourself of the same. Yama and niyama are nice methods to postpone. According to my experience, yama and niyama happen after you become enlightened, not before. Tell me, can you be completely, honestly, truthful? First rule is ahimsa (non-violence), astheya, sathya (truth), aparigraha (living with minimal things), brahmacharya (celibacy). Ive seen thousands of yogis, but I have not met a single yogi who accomplished all this and then went to meditation. Patanjali says ashtanga yoga – meaning 8 parts of yoga, not 8 steps. So all 8 parts should be practiced at a time, not one after the other. That's possible and happens automatically if you are enlightened.

Q: How do you release doubt, even doubts about self? A: Surrender to the divine saying: you are the one who gave me belief and doubt, you keep both and let me be free. A part of you believes in you, a part of you has doubts about you. Surrender the doubt and faith to the divine. You want to keep only belief, but leave the doubt, that's where the trouble begins. Surrender both, then you will go beyond both.

Q: You said we don't need conscience, a serial killer has no conscience, how do you dintinguish that? A: A man who has real consciousness, can't hurt others or kill others, because he feels others as extension of himself. A person with conscience may not kill with knife, but he will kill with words because his being will be violent. With conscience, you will be socially non-violent, but with consciousness, your being will be non- violent. According to me, morality should be based on consciousness, not on conscience. Conscience is a poor substitute for consciousness. In the meditation program called NSP, I help people to experience at least one glimpse of consciousness, so they can start living with consciousness instead of conscience. Anything based on conscience is skin deep, it's not eternal, but anything based on consciousness is eternal. We should work for conscious experience. Just because we don't have conscious experience, we should not compromise with conscience. Our morality, understanding, lifestyle everything should be based on consciousness. When it's based on conscience, it's based on fear and greed. If the idea that you should not speed is based on fear, when you don't see a cop's car you will speed up. It becomes tasty to break laws, and you feel courageous. Whenever anything is followed because of fear and greed, you will be waiting for the chance to break the rule. Kids saying no to parents has a similar basis, and it makes them feel they've proved themselves. If morality is based on conscience, you will always do something to violate it, directly or indirectly.