“Let me give an introduction to this book called Shiva Sutras in a few…”

Let me give an introduction to this book called Shiva Sutras in a few words and then we will enter into the sutras in the book. We will enter into the Shiva Sutras. Shiva Sutras is a five thousand year old book. It is the essence of inner science technology, the essence of the science of enlightenment. Sutra means aphorisms and Shiva Sutra is the book which contains the 112 aphorisms and meditation techniques for enlightenment given by Shiva to his consort Devi.

This is the essence of five thousand years of research and development by more than one million inner scientists and more than one million inner science laboratories. In Bharat we have more than one million inner science laboratories which means, the temples and ashrams which are alive and which are maintained. There are more than one million temples which receive everyday worship. Please understand, I’m not talking about the temples that are in the dilapidated condition. I’m talking about the temples that receive everyday worship. These are the temples that are used by people everyday.

There are more than one million inner science laboratories and more than one million full-time dedicated inner scientists. Bharat has got at least one million swamis who are dedicating their whole life to the research and development of the inner science. I’m not talking about the swamis who are living in the streets and who are not living in monasteries. In that way the numbers amount to about one crore or ten million. I am talking about the people who are staying in one place and dedicating their lives for R & D of this inner science. That alone is one million. And one billion people following this technology. This is the strength of this great inner science. This book is the essence of this inner science. Inner science developed for five thousand years by one million inner scientists in one million inner science laboratories and practiced by one billion people.

Ageless truths, ageless wisdom, that’s what we call sanatana dharma – the ageless truths. This book is the essence of that wisdom, the essence of that technology. This book gives 112 meditation techniques to experience the bliss, to experience the peace and joy which is eternal in every one of us. This book gives the ultimate techniques to experience the ultimate bliss which is inside our being, which is in our inner space. This book gives so many beautiful meditation techniques. Today we will see one sutra. Not only will we see it but we will experience that one sutra, Shiva’s beautiful technique. Let us enter into the sutra and then we will see the meaning.

In a moving vehicle by rhythmically swaying, experience, or in a still vehicle by letting ourselves swing in slow invisible circles, let us experience the consciousness beyond the body.

This is the sutra and the English translation of sutra.

Before entering into the sutra, we will see a few things. We are not just our body as we always think or as we always believe. We are something much more than our body. Somehow because we identify ourselves or we start believing that we identified ourselves with the matter, means just the dead matter which we call as our body, we start thinking we are body. We start thinking we are just this body of flesh and bones.

We are not just the body. The stuff which is inside the body, not even flesh or bones. When I say stuff I don’t mean the flesh or bones. I mean the being which is living inside the body. We are something more than what we think.

Here Shiva gives us the technique to disengage from the ‘I’.

All our problems, all our difficulties, all our depression, all our pains, all our sufferings are just because of only one thing, that is the ‘I’. The ‘I’, which we think as a solid thing is not solid. All our suffering, all our pain, all our depression is from that single root what we think as ‘I’. All our ideas about pleasure, everything, is just from that single root which we think as ‘I’. Here Shiva teaches us how to disengage from the ‘I’. One big problem is that, when we understand that our ‘I’ is the problem, then we try to antagonize with it. I have seen people fighting with the ‘I’, but by fighting with ‘I’ we are not going to get rid of it. By fighting with ‘I’ we are not going to escape from it, we are going to be continuously fighting with it.

When we start seriously fighting with our ‘I’, we create one more powerful ‘I’. To fight with that ‘I’ we need to enter some part to fight with that ‘I’. By and by the part with which we enter will become one more bigger ‘I’ to create lot more problems for us.

People who started fighting with ‘I’ could not achieve anything. They can never achieve anything, because the more they start fighting with the ‘I’, the more they will be creating one more new ‘I’. Whether we suppress or fight with the existing ‘I’, we cannot experience the peace. We cannot experience the truth. All we need to do really is disengage from the ‘I’, disengage ourselves. Disconnect ourselves.

Shiva is teaching us not to suppress or to fight. He is asking us to disengage ourselves from the ‘I’. This amazing technique is a very simple, but powerful technique. Shiva is so particular that sometimes I am shocked as to how this book could be written five thousand years ago. We have a solid record of this book existing for at least last five thousand years. Of course we don’t know the age of this book, but it is at least five thousand years old, that is all we know.

A story of how this book was discovered. One great devotee of Shiva had the darshan or vision of Shiva, and Shiva guided that devotee to go to a cave in a hill and open that cave. Shiva tells him that in the cave the whole sutras are written on the stone and that he has to just copy it and bring it and give it to the whole world. He goes and opens the cave. Even to this day the cave is still there and the sutras are still there on the rock, on the stone. He brings the sutras and gives it to the world.

This story happened at least five thousand years ago. We have solid proof that the book existed at least five thousand years ago. I was shocked as to how five thousand years ago somebody could think so practically and so clearly about all the modern day man’s problems. Because all our problems, fantasies, phobias, fears, depression, etc., are all answered in this book.

For each step Shiva gives a solution. That is why I say that this book is not just a book, but it is the essence of five thousand years of research and development. The Bharatn Vedic system is at least ten thousand years old. I can’t say ten thousand years old, we have solid record to prove that it is at least ten thousand years old.

This book was discovered at least five thousand years. So it is at least five thousand years of R & D in the inner world. This research and development has expressed itself in the form of this book. Otherwise it is impossible to give so many practical techniques. It is very easy to give philosophy. It is very easy to give teachings. Very easy to say what to do, what should be done and what should not be done. That is not a big thing. It is very easy to tell people, ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’. It is very easy to create a philosophy. To create a philosophy we do not need anything.

There are simple three things that I can suggest for us to become philosophers from tomorrow. All we need to do is to criticize anything and everything. Whatever we see in front of our eyes, just start criticizing without bothering about what we are criticizing. And second thing, never create a system which people can understand. Third thing is to complicate things as much as possible. That’s all. Nothing else is necessary. We don’t have to do anything more, to become a philosopher is very easy. And fourth footnote, never give any solution.

Shiva is not creating philosophy. To create a philosophy is easy. He is not giving a philosophy. He is giving us the techniques or the technology and the ‘how to’. He is not saying what to do and what not to do. He is saying how to do. Straightaway he is giving us the technology to experience the inner consciousness or to experience the ultimate consciousness or to experience the ‘Shaivatwah’ meaning the consciousness of Shiva or the experience of Shiva. He is straightaway teaching us, the techniques, not just words.

That is why I say this is one of the ultimate books and the most amazing book, which gives straight teachings and techniques to experience the ultimate consciousness.

Beautiful sutra – he says in a moving vehicle by recollecting swaying, experience it, or in a still vehicle by letting yourself swing in slowing invisible circles let you experience the consciousness beyond body mind. I think this technique would have been created when bullock cart was invented.

Shiva is using all roads to enter into consciousness. He has given us all possible methods to give us the experience of the Ultimate. Five thousand years ago we can’t expect any other vehicle, only bullock carts would have existed. He is giving us the technique to enter into meditation even while using the time in which we are traveling. He knows after five thousand years people will come and ask “Swamiji, no time to meditate, we are too busy with our routine. We have too much of work. We have to do so many things. There is no time to meditate.”

He knows and that is why he gives a very clear solution even for the future generations. We don’t have to spend separate time. At least one hour we spend driving every day, at least one hour. In this country I could say it is at least three or four hours. I can say minimum one hour we spend during the time we are sitting in a moving vehicle, sitting in a car. Either we drive or we sit while someone else drives. Mostly we drive in this country.

Each day, at least one hour we spend sitting in a moving vehicle. Shiva gives us the technique to convert that one hour into meditation. We don’t need to spend separate time. He is giving us the technique to make money and meditate. We can just drive and get enlightened. I can say this is a technique for driving into enlightenment. Drive towards enlightenment.

He gives us such a wonderful technique to use the time in which we are driving. Actually he gives us techniques to work on everything. Tomorrow’s technique is how to use our pain towards enlightenment. If any of you have arthritis and are cursing the disease or suffering with the disease then you can come tomorrow. That is the technique for us to use the same pain and enter into enlightenment. Not only the technique heals the pain, it leads us to the next level of consciousness or the higher level of consciousness.

Now Shiva is giving us the technique to use during the time in which we are traveling in any vehicle, whether car or bus or flight. Whenever our body is being carried, whenever our body is moving in some vehicle, we can use this technique. We can use that travel time for meditation to enter into higher consciousness.

Shiva has used all possible methods. In these 112 sutras he practically covers all possible situations which can happen in a human being’s lives. He has used all situations to enter into the experience of enlightenment. He gives us the technique or knack of how to use the time or how to use that moment to take a quantum jump into the consciousness. Now he is teaching us how to meditate in a moving vehicle.

This sutra gives us an understanding of how we are in a moving vehicle and how our body is, how our consciousness is, how we can use the time to disengage from ourselves or to disengage from the ‘I’ or the ego, and to move to the next level. I can say this is a technique to drive us into enlightenment. When we are driving, we can drive into enlightenment.

He says in a moving vehicle by recollecting swaying experience one can experience the consciousness. First thing we should understand how we constantly resist all the movements of the body. We can see in our life, whether we are in a car or train or flight, constantly we resist the natural movement. Why do we think we become tired by traveling in trains? Even though we are not doing anything in the train, if we travel for ten hours, we are tired. The reason is we are constantly resisting the flow, we are not allowing our body to move and we are not relaxing, instead we are constantly holding on.

We can see in our life, even when we are driving, when the road curves and the vehicle turns and sways to one side, we sway to the opposite direction. We are always moving the body in opposite directions to balance and to balance so that we don’t fall. We balance, but we don’t understand one important thing. There is no need to hold our body for twenty four hours. Whenever we are driving or even when we are sitting in the vehicle, car or train, constantly we are holding the body. Our body is never relaxed. We don’t let go. We are holding on to our body. We can feel the tightness near the ‘mooladhara chakra’ or the root energy center that is situated near the root of the spinal cord.

We are trying to posses our body at this point from where we balance our body or try to balance our body. We will be just holding our body tightly and constantly we will be just catching our body and possessing our body. He says just let go and relax. Whenever we are sitting in a vehicle while traveling or flying just relax. Whenever our body is being moved just relax. Surely by relaxing we won’t fall, especially in the modern day, seats are so comfortable we won’t fall. But by our very nature we resist all the movements. We can see how kids whirl. They always cooperate with all movements of the body. We can see them whirling, spinning around and just jumping around. Not only in one culture but around the world in all cultures, kids whirl and jump. That is because the movement exists in every one of us.

In each one of us as a natural thing, movements of our bodies exist. Our bodies are constantly moving. There is a swaying movement in all of us. Constantly kids know that movement and entertain it or encourage it. They just allow the body to move. They are very happy with it. But we never allow the kids to move the body. Somehow we feel uncomfortable when we see kids moving, when they are jumping around. We feel they will hurt themselves. We don’t understand an important secret, when kids fall they don’t hurt themselves. Only when we fall we hurt ourselves. Please understand we fracture our bones not because of our weight but because of resistance.

There are thousands of researches done. If the kids fall from the same distance, they don’t hurt themselves. If we fall we break our bones. We may say we are heavy Swamiji. No! Researchers have even calculated. If for our weight we fall from ten feet whatever impact is created on our body, for the same impact to be created in the kids body, they may have to fall a few feet more. Even if they fall from that height, the injury is only ten percent. So many researches have been done by doctors. Moreover when we drop babies in water they automatically start swimming. Only after growing we make them forget that they know swimming. When body movements are arrested by our so called training, they forget they know swimming by their very own nature.

Recent researches show that when babies are put in water immediately after birth, they start swimming. By our very nature, our body is liquid. It flows and it moves but by and by we teach the kids not to use their body too much, not to whirl, not to move, not to be active, because we feel uncomfortable. To tell you honestly it is subtle jealousy. When somebody is happy we cannot tolerate it. When somebody is jumping too much we cannot tolerate. Only when they also become dull like us we feel comfortable. Now we feel yes, now we have reproduced ourselves. When the kids are encouraging their body movements, they will be so alive, so active, bubbling, overflowing. We can see one more thing after the travel we adults will always be tired but kids will never be tired.

I have seen that if some people come to see me, in Bharat they travel miles, hours, and especially Bharatn roads my God. These Bharatn roads are straight way to hell. Bharatn roads are such beautiful roads, actually I can say Bharatn roads are created to create more and more bhakti or devotion in the people’s hearts. Unless we have faith on God we cannot travel on those roads. They are specially designed for that. Bharat is such a spiritual country, we design everything for spirituality. We design everything only for spiritual purpose. We cannot travel on those roads unless we have surrendered ourselves to God. Unless we have tremendous faith or devotion to God, simply we cannot travel on those roads. I have seen people come to see me after ten hours of travel or twelve hours of travel and sometimes one day. The moment they come inside the elders ask for room to go and rest. They only come out the next day to see me. But the kids drop everything and jump and come to the meditation hall as the first thing. They never seem to be tired.

I have always seen that kids are so alive. They never get tired by traveling, because they never resist or possess the body. They never resist constantly the subtle movements of the body. The subtle movements which are happening are the natural movements which are happening in us and kids do not resist those movements. They do not possess the body. When we start training them to possess the body, by and by they forget to flow with the energy. By and by they forget to flow with the movements of their body. They start creating their bodies as solid rock. They start becoming like a stone. They start becoming dull, frozen or dead. The more we become frozen, the more we are dead. If we are completely frozen we are ready to be burnt. The more we are frozen the more we are dead.

On the other hand we can see the kids are so alive. Even when they laugh their whole body laughs. It is not only that the mouth or face laughs. The whole body laughs. They do not calculate and move the body. We start moving our body only after a big calculation. Because we start believing if we work too much we become tired. Hard work myth which is taught to us is also an important reason for our body becoming like a stone. One of the important things I always tell people is that hard work is a pure myth. The idea of hard work is a pure myth. We are taught to sell our self, especially in these so called developed countries we have to constantly sell ourselves. We have to frighten our boss that the work which we are doing is too big and very hard work which cannot be done by anybody else. First thing, we need to convince him that it cannot be done so forget about it. Next thing, only we can do. Third thing we also can do it only if we spend our whole life and energy into it.

Only if the boss is convinced for these three things, we can shave his head. That is the reason we are constantly trained to sell ourselves. One more thing, in the beginning just to sell ourselves, we create the idea of hard work. By and by we start believing that we are really working hard. And this idea gets into our body and we do not move our body for anything else except when we get some solid results. One more important thing is that by and by for every movement we start calculating what we will get for this movement. What will we get for this movement? Before every movement logically we start calculating. Why do we think that people never come out and do some voluntary service. It is because they start thinking that instead of moving their body for this half hour if they did it for some other reason they would earn some money.

Why do you think voluntary service has become such a rare thing. People have started calculating. In Bharat I can tell you honestly, the country may be poor, but I can say millions of people are spending their time in social service projects, or just going to temples. Every temple is visited by millions of people and you will be shocked to learn about the amazing time which they spend in the spiritual tourism. This is because they don’t have the idea of hard work. They don’t even work, that is different. But the idea of hard work does not exist in their minds. They don’t have to sell themselves. Naturally when we don’t have to sell ourselves, we don’t have to calculate too much about our body movements. Calculating too much about our body movements and analyzing about our body movements too much logically, makes us completely dead. We are frozen.

It is interesting to learn how these things are so subtle, but important things which make us dull and dead. Each one of these things contributes to making our bodies dull and making ourselves dead. Here Shiva is touching one by one. He says we should allow our body to move rhythmically. Before entering into this technique we should understand why we are not allowing our body to move, only then we will be able to allow the movement. First thing to understand is why we are not allowing the movement. There is a constant insecure feeling in us and we are constantly trying to possess our bodies, and we try to balance it. Next thing somehow we do not feel comfortable when our body moves for no reason. If it moves to get money, we don’t have any problem. If it moves to get status we don’t have any problem. If it moves to get name and fame we don’t have any problem.

I always tell people that before entering into this type of meditations, we need to prepare ourselves, just by doing some work which will not bring us name or fame for twenty minutes to half an hour per day. Just twenty minutes to half an hour per day do something which will not bring us money or name and fame. Go to some temple, and wipe and clean and don’t expect to be a leader of volunteers. Work without the expectation that our name should be inscribed somewhere. Don’t try to become an administrator. I am not asking that we should do that. Instead I am saying that we should just do some cleaning or helping for no reason. Help the person who cleans, help the priest, just do something that does not bring any name or fame. We will understand how to move our body for no reason.

As of now, we do not know how to move our body for no reason. Constantly we calculate for any move. All our moves are calculated, judged, clear and definite and that is why we are so frozen. We are so dull and dead. At least for half an hour do something which will not bring money or name and fame for us. Again if it brings name and fame again we are caught in the same rut. We are in the same calculation. If we can do that in the initial level we will think ‘Ah, why to waste half an hour’. Half an hour is too much. Especially in this country, half an hour is too much. We may start thinking why we should do something for half an hour. I tell you in the beginning that half hour may seem like a waste of time. But after sometime we will understand, that it is the only half hour in which we are alive. At all other times we are driven by fear and greed. Twenty three and half hours we are driven by fear and greed. Fear and greed is the fuel for our engine.

If fear and greed is fuel for our engine we will constantly carry irritation and depression in us. If we have the fuel we will be in the irritative mood. If we don’t have fuel we will be in a depressed mood that is all. The nature of fear and greed causes irritation in us and if we are driven only by fear and greed as the fuel to our engine then we will carry a constant irritation. The moment we get up in the morning we can see. In our lives, early morning when we get up from bed, the moment we remember we have to go to work or office and the moment we remember we have to do something, that moment the fear and greed comes up. First thing we see is irritation between the Anahata or the heart energy center and Manipuraka the navel chakra or energy center. First thing we will realize is irritation. Or a sense of heaviness saying -‘Oh God, one more day, I have to come out of my bed, I have to get out of this room’.

When ever we are fueled by the fear and greed we carry irritation in us and the second thing is when we don’t have fuel knowingly or unknowingly, fortunately or unfortunately, we might not have the fear or greed to move. Then we will be in depression. We have nothing to do. We feel lonely and we feel depressed. Nothing to do so, what to do? Nothing else is there to be done. We feel depressed. When we feel depressed or lonely we cannot afford that, so we catch some fear or greed. We start having. First thing we need to do is to understand how to move our body without fear and greed. Social service organizations and spiritual organizations are created to teach people how to move our body without fear and greed. Take at least half an hour per day. Do not say in one week I will do three and half hours at once. No, that will not work. Spread it. Take half hour every day. Go to some temple some public place and clean it without giving our name in the front.

If we bring our name in front again we started the drama of fear and greed. Then again we are frozen. Our body will move only doing some calculations. We will start calculating. With less time how to have a better name or how to have a better post and higher influence. We start thinking that more people should know about us. We will start calculating continuously. No! In South Bharat there are beautiful stories about sixty three Shaiva saints and twelve Vaishnava saints. If we read the stories you might be shocked. Actually I was shocked when I read the stories. They have not done any big or ultimate practices, spiritual practices and meditations. They did simple things like plucking flowers and making garlands, cleaning the temple, sweeping the temple or washing vessels for pooja or prayer services. I have not seen a single guy who built the temple becoming enlightened. Never, not even a single king who built the temple became enlightened. No, all these sixty Shaiva saints and twelve Vaishnavas were simple people. They did not do any big thing, neither did they build the temple, nor helped in constructing the temple.

All they did was plucking flowers, cleaning the temple, making garlands and other simple things. But the beauty is they learnt the knack or art of how to move the body without fear or greed. They learnt the knack or art of how to move the body and how the body can be kept alive without the fuel of fear and greed. As of now, we are kept alive just by fear or greed. It is either by fear or by greed. That is why our body is completely frozen. We do not feel life flowing in us. We are living either by bhaya or kama. Bhaya is the fear and kama is the greed. Only these two things are driving us. We are not living by prana. The prana means life force in Sanskrit. Please understand, prana does not mean just the breath.

Prana means the life force. The air which we are inhaling or exhaling is not prana. In Sanskrit prana means life force. As of now our body is not driven by life force. It is driven by kama or bhaya. Our body is driven by desire or fear or in other words greed or fear. Only these two drive our bodies. That is why our movements are measured and we are frozen. We are constantly possessing and our movements are measured. Actually the other day I was taken to an industry by one of our devotees. He showed me how they fix one of their components. He showed me those movements. Each person is taught how they should fix the component by the same way of movements. They are trying to increase the productivity by reducing the hand and body movement. I was shocked. I said he was working in the wrong line.

Actually the truth is the more we are free to move the body, the more creative and productive we will be. Fussy logic is logic for production. When we are organized and have a clear diagram and move our hand for example, only three times and move the hand that many inches right, that many inches left we may be having an industry but we will not be having living people.

See, with a robot or with machines we can design all the movements and we can even reduce the movements so that the wear and tear will be less. When movement is less naturally the wear and tear will be less. The logic to work with machineries is totally different from the logic to work with the human body. Human body is such that the more we put it to use the more it will start expanding the energy. Be very clear the more we start believing that if we use the body more, the more tired we will become, then we start expressing the same tiredness. But the truth is not such. The truth is the more we use our body, the more we handle our body the more it starts expressing the energy. I have seen in Bharatn villages, people living hundred years easily. They live very casually. They don’t wear spectacles or spare teeth or they don’t have a tooth set. There are so many things they don’t have.

In the so called developed countries everything is a spare part. In the night we remove and put it on the table, and in the morning again we wear it. Everything is a spare part. It is hanging on the wall. I have seen in Bharatn villages how people live with minimum things for years. They casually live. I have seen in Tibetan villages people living for almost one hundred and forty years to one hundred and fifty years easily. This is because they know the truth that the more they use the body properly, the more it expresses the energy. The more we use the body, the more it expresses the energy. But unfortunately in the so-called developed countries, man is put along with the machineries. We are just a utility for people. So we are just replaced. Even the general idea is that man is called one more machine. If they employ one man how many machines can they reduce. If they put one machine how many men can they remove from the job. That is the way we are calculated. That is the place given to us.

So all our body movements etc, are taught to us. We are made to believe we are also like a machine. If we use the body too much we will also have wear and tear. We will also have the same problems. By and by we start believing this and we start behaving just like the machineries. We forget we have life. We forget that there is a different source of energy for us. But as long as we are driven just by fear and greed we will behave like the machines only believing that the more we use the more wear and tear we may have. If we can touch the source of prana and if we can touch the third source of energy, which is not fear or greed, then we will understand that the more we use our body the more we will become alive. But for that we will have to understand how to move our body, without fear or greed.

As of now our body moves only with fear or only with greed. We should try to do something in our life just for the next one month. Take half an hour each day. Even if we don’t want to do something for others we could paint a small picture for example. Don’t start thinking where to have an art gallery. Don’t start planning how to sell all those paintings. No. Just do something for the sake of doing, so that we will catch the source of our energy. We will understand the knack or art of how to move our body without fear or greed or bhaya and kama. Then we will understand this technique. Then we will understand what Shiva means by the words ‘let our body sway rhythmically’. Let it swing rhythmically. He says in a moving vehicle by rhythmically moving we can experience the inner peace.

It is an amazing thing and very difficult to believe but he says that just by that movement we can experience the inner peace. We need to understand deeply and realize that Shiva is not selling fantasies. God save at least in his time spirituality was not buyers market. So he doesn’t have to sell. He does not have a need to promote anything. It was sellers market and moreover it was not easily available. Gurus were not available easily. In those days it was not buyers market, it was sellers market.

Gurus decided and chose the disciples not that the disciples chose the Gurus. All calamities on planet earth happen when disciples start choosing the Gurus. If we are already in the darkness and in need of a Guru, how can we choose the right Guru? We cannot, so naturally to choose a person, he will choose something that attracts our ideas. A bigger organization will attract more people. In Sanatana Dharma in Hinduism, we don’t have any organization.

All Hindu temples are worship altars, they are not organizations. Please understand all Hindu temples in Bharat are only worship altars. Anybody can come, worship and go. In North Bharat we can straightaway touch the deities. Anybody can come, worship and go. If we have been to Bharat we can understand. We go and pour the milk, water, flower and worship and we go that is all. They are only worship altars. They are not organizations. There is also another important thing and that is Hinduism does not believe in conversion. They did not believe in preaching. During Shiva’s times it was sellers market, not buyers market. All these truths are so pure because they did not have to convince anybody. It was written out of the consciousness which is not caught in fear or greed. It was aroused out of consciousness that was free from fear or greed.

That is why through out Hinduism we will not find a single line or teaching which accepts conversion or holy war. I can say the one and only truth which they express is ‘go beyond the fear and greed’. That is why even indirectly they do not accept the concept of holy war. Even indirectly they do not have the concept of conversion. Even until now Hinduism does not have rituals to perform conversions. Many of my western disciples come and ask me – “Swamiji, should I convert?” I say no we don’t believe in conversion. We don’t believe in conversion. What is the need for conversion? This is just inner science. For example, just because we start working in some scientific field, does it mean we need to convert our religion, no! In the same way, it does not mean we have to convert our religion if we start following the inner science of these Eastern scientists. It is inner science, it’s a technology. If you feel like working with this technology, work with it. There is no need for conversion because we don’t believe in political numbers. We don’t believe in political numbers so, we don’t believe in conversion. It is pure inner science. Whoever wants to work with it can work with it. That is all. We don’t even have a ritual to convert. Even if we want to convert we don’t have a ritual. There is no standard ritual to convert somebody. We don’t have baptism. Thorough out Hinduism we don’t have baptism. Even for kids we only give them a mantra or a aphorism and they are not given any beliefs. Officially the mantra which is given is called Gayatri mantra. The mantra means, let me meditate on the energy which guides me towards the intelligence to experience the truth. Let that energy help me to meditate on it. That is all. No belief is taught. No tea- spoon feeding of any belief. Simply we have to search and only a torch is given. With the torch we have to start searching.

These techniques are given by the Swamijis who do not have to sell themselves or their techniques. That is why they are so pure, so beautiful and straightaway effective. He does not have to convince anybody. He shares it only with the people who are in tune with him. He says beautifully, in a moving vehicle by rhythmically swaying experience it. This means we have to come to that sensitive level. We have to become that sensitive. We need to allow our body and understand the movements of our body how it swings or sways. Next time when we sit in the vehicle see how we resist the vehicle’s movements. If the vehicle is going forward we always push our body back. If it is stopping we always try to balance our body. Not only when the vehicle is moving. Even when it is swaying steadily or moving steadily we are always holding on to our body so that at any moment we can take care of it.

We concentrate on protection due to too much of insecure feeling. We are constantly holding on to our body. We are not relaxed. Whenever we are driving, we are not relaxed. We are constantly holding our body. We are just waiting to protect ourselves. An important thing that we should understand is that our holding on to our body will not do anything. Even if there is an accident, by trying to balance can we do anything? Nothing! And especially for this speed in this type of vehicle nothing can be done. In a bullock cart if we are holding and balancing, then by holding we might be able to escape. Instead of falling we might be able to hold and balance. For bullock cart speed holding our body tight may be useful because in that speed, in that place we can save ourselves because the speed is not going to be much. That may be helpful.

But inside the car or inside the flight holding ourselves is not going to help. If there is an accident, whether we hold tightly or loosely, holding is useless. When there is an accident whether we hold tightly or loosely, we are not going to be saved. For the modern day vehicles holding ourselves tight is not going to help. Maybe in bullock carts, holding ourselves tight may help. Same way in the train, we can see when the trains sways to one side, we always hold our body and try to move the opposite side, trying to balance it. All our phobias, inside the flights, or inside the closed area is nothing but our resistance to that space. Nothing else! When I heard about various phobias for the first time, I was shocked. I heard about these phobias only in these Western countries. I have never heard about any phobias in the primitive villages.

Primitive villages don’t have any phobias. I was shocked to hear about these weird phobias which I came to know first only when I started traveling in these developed countries. I have never heard about phobias. What is there? Phobia means nothing but holding on to our body tightly because we do not want our body to move into a space which we have not already experienced. We want everything to be clear. We want definite project plans as to where we are going, what will be happening next, what will be the third step, what will be the fourth step, etc. What is the next and what will be the end? If some place, even if one puzzle does not fit or feel good or if the puzzle is not clear then we don’t feel comfortable in that space. We want everything to be clear before entering. We are not ready to allow God’s hand in our lives. We want everything to be clear according to our intellect.

I always tell people do not plan completely. Give little of space for God. Let him also plan a little bit for us. if we plan everything perfectly according to our intellect, we may not commit mistakes but instead we may commit blunders. The whole intelligence of the cosmos is surely little more intelligent than our intelligence. So once in a while not planning completely logically is good. Once in a while we should allow ourselves to be a little liquid. Or entering into a space where there is a little risk and being spontaneous is good. It keeps us alive. It keeps the space and the energy in us active. If we are living with a clear planned system, be very clear, we are already dead, because we have no opportunity to do anything new.

I have seen people who live in forests, hills or in natural places. The life and energy which radiates around them is amazing and sometimes shocking. For nine years I have lived by wandering all over Bharat. People ask me – ‘Oh Swamiji, it is such a difficult life how did you manage such a difficult life’. They think it was a great achievement. But I tell them that it was a great joy. It was not achievement it was joy. Only when we live that life we will understand the freedom and energy of that life. They come and stand in front of me thinking that I have done a great thing or achievement with great difficulty. They say ‘how did you live Swamiji, it is such a difficult life to be constantly traveling and walking from village to village. It must have been difficult’. What great thing? I tell them according to me they are great persons. Because for them they can’t imagine, living like me traveling from village to village, begging in the houses, sleeping under the trees and living. I tell them just as they can’t imagine my life I can’t imagine their life, living in the same house, going to the same office using the same car.

I can’t even think of getting up early morning and seeing the same people and same faces, it is unimaginable for me. Just like how my life is unimaginable for them, their life is unimaginable for me. It is not a big tapas and not a big suffering with which I was living. There was this amazing freedom and amazing energy. One more thing is the tremendous risk involved with it. Constantly we have to be alive. Understand surviving is totally different from being alive. Now people are living a very secure life. They may be surviving but it is nothing more than a graveyard with a key. That is all. See if we are surviving, we are living in a graveyard with a key. That means we are surviving. Just because we have key don’t think our houses are not graveyards. Our houses have only one benefit a graveyard with a key that’s all. Only when we live an intense life we are alive in a way where we can be constantly expressing all our energies.

I always tell people only when we are cornered, we express ourselves completely. We completely express the energy which we have in our life and which we have in our being. Only then we start expressing the next level energy that is called prana. In Sanskrit we call that prana which means life force. We do not touch the life force at all. We just live with our mooladhara chakra and swadishtana chakra. Mooladhara chakra or the root energy center is related to greed, desire and sex. Swadhistana chakra or the next energy center is related to fear. That is all. We live only in these two layers of fear or greed. We never come up to third level. Manipuraka chakra is the energy center of the prana or life force. Navel is the center with which we are connected to the cosmos. Navel is the center with which we are connected to our mother. We, our body and our mother’s body are connected only through our navel. That is the chakra through which we receive energy, we receive prana.

We receive prana from our mother only through our navel chakra. It is only before birth that we use our navel chakra, after that we have never touched it. That is the source of our prana, but we never touch it. We use only the chakra which is lower than the prana. Only the chakras related to fear and greed are used. Prana itself is never used because if we look deeply we live as if there is no need for us to be alive and if we just survive that is enough. We just inhale and exhale till doctors declare that we are medically fit. Practically nothing more needs to be done. That is why I tell people that luxury and comfort kills our life. It takes away our life from us. Everyday we get up from the bed, we walk slowly four or five steps and in this country we also have bathrooms attached to the bedrooms. We can straightaway enter, take bath and everything is neatly arranged, we come out wear the dress then get in the car and drive to the work or office.

Everything is so clear and systematic or mechanical that we don’t need to be alive. We don’t need to be alive at all. Sometimes we can look into our life and see that we don’t even have to remember that we got up from the bed. We can do the whole thing just mechanically and come back and fall in the same bed. We don’t even have to remember how we got up from the bed a few hours ago. We can do the whole thing in a mechanical way. We can also see in our life, we don’t even use the whole house. We just get up from the bed walk in the same way to the bathroom each time and come out in the same way. In this country we are also trained for using left side or right side also. For everything we have to take a particular side of the way and our body also starts getting trained to working only in the same way. If at all we could tell our feet and allow it to walk in the house, we will see that we will walk only in one track. We will discover we are walking only on the one track.

Our whole carpet will never become stained or dirty because we will walk only in the one track. We have become so frozen, we have become so dead, we will see in our lives that unconsciously we will sit only in one sofa. We will usually go and sit only on that one sofa and straightway we go to the kitchen and handle only those few dishes and we will handle only those few cabinets. We will handle only our bed and come out and once in a week maybe we feel compelled to go and clean the other things. We do not live. We will park the car in the same way within the same distance every day. If we go and measure and calculate everything, even the distance between our garage and our car will be the same everyday because we live with the same routine. It is as if there is no need for us to be alive. We just live with our memory. That is why even if we live for years, we do not feel fulfilled.

The other day one journalist asked me ‘Swamiji, how does it feel to be the youngest Swami of Bharat’. I am the youngest Swami or a spiritual leader who leads a movement in Bharat. There are many follower Swamis who are followers or disciples of somebody. But as a leader who leads a movement, I am the youngest Swami in Bharat at least as far as we know. She asked me ‘how do feel to be the youngest to lead such spiritual movement’. I said ‘Youngest? the very idea of youngest is lost in me because my life is packed with so many incidents and so much of life with so many things’. I lost the idea that I am young. I already feel fulfilled. I lived much more than what I can. I feel like I am here for too long time. That’s the truth. I feel so much of fulfillment. I feel I am here too long on the planet earth. If we are alive, we feel so fulfilled that we feel we are here for too much time.

If we are feeling we have not achieved, or if we are feeling the un-fulfillment or if we are feeling life is not enough then be very clear we are living just with memories. We are not alive. We are not alive, that is why we feel or don’t feel we are living. We don’t feel the fulfillment. I always tell people not to add years to their life, but to bring life to their years. Not years to their life. If our body is running, based on fuel of fear and greed, we will be running with the past memories or the recorded system. Naturally we will not tend to move our body more. One more thing, whenever we move our body with fear and greed, we feel so much irritated, the movement means we start feeling irritation.

We have started unconsciously associating all movements with irritation. One of our devotees, he used to travel in the hills. Whenever I see him I feel so much of love, respect for him. Even without enlightenment he radiates so much of energy and life. He is just amazing even though he is not an enlightened person. But the energy which he radiates is amazing because he continuously lives with so much of risk. He has to be alive to survive. Just surviving is not enough. He has not lived with a routine. I always tell people once in a while try to be alive. We should do something which does not give us money, name and fame or any fear. Do anything which has neither fear nor greed. Then we will catch the knack of how to move the body and how to flow with the body through prana.

There are different levels for which we can operate the body. One level for fear, one level for greed and the next level for prana means life force. We should try to operate our body from life force. If we let the cognitive shift happen in us only then this technique will help us. In this technique Shiva is asking us to have the cognitive shift to move the source of our energy from fear and greed to prana. That shift has to happen in us. It is only then that we will have the sensitivity to flow with the body. Then we will understand that moving our body is a pleasure. It is not pain. When we understand that moving our body is a pleasure we start working more and more. We become really productive. Not only productive for society but we will also start feeling the fulfillment. We will start realizing that we are living our life intensely.

In Bharat I have seen especially in villages, elders living with pride. They do not feel they are unwanted. Still I have seen elders who are eighty to ninety years and not feeling that they are unwanted. The other day one of our devotees in America was telling me ‘Swamiji, we have to compete with youngsters in jobs and other fields’. She is an elderly lady who said that they have to compete with youngsters. We have to prove ourselves upto their level. In Bharat I have seen that these elderly people don’t feel they are unwanted. They feel they are respected. Not only that they feel tremendous pride and grace because they live their life intensely. Whoever has not lived their life intensely will naturally feel unfulfilled or discontented. They go on cursing their sons, grandkids, mother-in-laws, daughter-in-laws, etc constantly. They curse everybody. They say this fellow has not taken care of me. That fellow has not taken care of me. He ran away to this country, he ran away to that country. He is not around me.

We curse others only when we have not lived our life completely. If we live and if we are alive, we do not have to bother about others and we do not curse others. Years have passed but we have never had intense experiences in our lives. We just lived a mediocre life. What have we achieved in our life? Acquired a car and a house and paid mortgage to that car and house. By then thirty years will be over. Nothing else! Our whole life can be written in three or four lines. People come and ask me, ‘Swamiji why is it that in all graveyards the date of birth and date of demise is written’. On tombstones it is only these two dates, of birth and death that are written. I tell them it is because nothing much has happened between these two dates. In many lives only these two things have happened. Nothing much has happened between that two. There is nothing much to mention and that is why we speak about birth and death.

If our life is driven only by fear and greed, fear means death, greed means birth. We will end up only from birth to death. Never will the life happen to us between these two. If we move and start moving our body for no reason without the root of fear and greed, it is only then that we will experience life or the prana itself. Unless we experience prana, this meditation is not going to work for us. if we are interested in doing something and if we are a painter, dancer, or an artist then this meditation is for us. if we do some voluntary service then this meditation is for us. Shiva gives so many different techniques for so many different kinds of people. We can use these techniques in so many different situations in life. This is the technique for people who move their body for no reason.

If we are walking and if our hands are moving for no reason, when we are sitting and when our hands are flowing for no reason then this meditation is for us. When we are working and if our body is moving for no reason or when we are laughing and if our whole body is laughing, then this meditation is for us. This is for us. If that is not happening in us then we should try to come up to that level first by doing some social service. Some service which does not give us money, name and fame or some social status. Even if it brings us name and fame we start calculating. We will start thinking, how we could get that name without going there today or how we could do that thing without going there today. We will start becoming intelligent. We will start becoming calculative. No, that is not going to work!

We should be where we can experience the space beyond, name fame or money at least for half an hour. Then we will understand how to move the body without fear or greed. Here Shiva gives us a beautiful technique. Let us see the technique itself. He says ‘in a moving vehicle, rhythmically swaying’. Next time we are traveling in a car maybe from here to our house, sit in a relaxed way. It would be better not to do this if we are the ones driving. When we master the technique then we can do it even while we are driving. Once we master the knack for three or four days then we can do it. It is not that it cannot be done while driving. In the beginning we may not be able to do it while driving. Then the cop may catch us thinking that we are drunk. And especially if we are swaying in the car, we should be very careful not to try that, especially in this country. In Bharat, usually all vehicles go in that way only, so no problem. They won’t catch us if we were to try that in Bharat. On the other hand if we go in a straight way, they may catch us wondering what’s happening with us.

Anyhow, if we are not driving, first thing is to feel relaxed. First, is to try to feel how our whole body is positioned inside the vehicle. Second, do not think we are only filled inside our skin. We should just jump out of our skin. We should feel the whole car is us. We should feel that we are connected to the whole car. The moment we feel connected to the whole car we will start relaxing. Please understand as of now we are always against everything. Whatever is around us, we are against it and we resist it. We have to just take a few minutes and feel we are filled in the whole car or the whole car is filled by us. The moment we start visualizing that the whole car is filled by us, we will stop resisting the movement of the car’s movement and our body movement. We will not resist the movement of the car.

Third thing is to feel just like the car as if we are also flowing in the same speed. We are flowing because we are the car itself. We are no longer this body. Just jump out of the skin. Do not think we are enclosed only in the skin. Just think we are the whole car. Naturally we will feel the whole speed in which the car is going. Just relax in that speed. If something has to happen, it will happen. And just by our holding tight inside the car we are not protecting ourselves much. Of course, maximum protection is seat belt, that’s all. By holding tight to our body can we do anything? No we cannot do anything. By holding ourselves tightly it is not going to help us at all. It is not going to help. Of course we should not try this meditation while we are driving. First is to try when we are not driving, when we are relaxed and when we are sitting. Later on when we have mastered the technique and once this does not disturb our driving then we can try it even while driving.

First thing is to not resist. Next we should relax with the movement of the car. If the car is swaying in one way let our bodies move or sway in that same way. We should be like a flower. We should not try to balance it consciously. Third is to feel as if our car is filled by us. Fourth, naturally we will feel we are flowing in that same speed as the car. Next step when we feel we are flowing with the whole car in that speed, we should just be. That’s all. Let us not be just the body. Let us be the vehicle in which we are flowing.

People ask me ‘Swamiji, how is it going to help me if I feel I am the car and not just the body?’ That’s an important question. Please understand, if we were to employ whatever ways to feel that we are something more than the body, then suddenly we will catch the glimpse of the truth that we are not the body. All we need to understand is that we are something more than the body. There are three spaces. One is Mahakasha which means the whole cosmos. Next Katakasha which means the space covered in the building you are sitting in. The third is the Chittakasha meaning the space covered inside our body. Chittakasha, Katackasha and Mahakasha.

Enlightenment is nothing but feeling ourselves as the mahakasha. It means that we feel that we are the cosmic space instead of the chittakasha the individual space. Straightaway we will not be able to take a jump from individual space to cosmic space. So we can use this katakasha as a step towards that if we feel that we are the space in the building, room or vehicle that we are sitting in, instead of feeling we are just a body. If we feel we are the vehicle in which we are sitting, we are taking one big jump. This makes it easier for us to take the ultimate jump. It is a beautiful step by step technique towards the ultimate spiritual enlightenment or towards the Atma gnana or self realization.

The word Vishnu means who is all pervasive, the whole universe. Vishnu means who is all pervasive. Vyapakatva, means who completely fills everything. He is Vishnu. To experience Vishnu we cannot straightaway take the jump into that cosmic energy. First we can jump into the katakasha then we can take a jump into the mahakasha. We can move from chitakasha the individual space into the katakasha the space in which we are staying and then the mahakasha the space which is cosmic energy. So it is one of the beautiful techniques to jump out of our skin. Jumping out of our skin always has a wrong connotation but here Shiva is giving us a beautiful technique to jump out of our skin to experience the katakasha and to take the ultimate jump into mahakasha itself. Chittakasha needs to expand into the katakasha so that it can expand and explode into the mahakasha.

First thing, let me repeat the instructions so that it is easy for us to practice. When we sit in the vehicle relax. Do not hold the body. Let the body swing or sway along with movements of the vehicle. Be like a flower, a flower that is dropped in a vehicle. It will never resist. Be like a child. A child will never resist unless we train them. Pets which are in the vehicle will never resist, unless we train them.

In the modern day societies we have spoilt even pets. I have never seen pets falling sick in Bharat. In our Ashram we have so many cats, dogs, cheetah and snakes. I never thought they could fall sick. Here every house I go to, they ask me, ‘Swamiji, please heal my pet, he is not feeling well’. The pets are sick because we do so many things that are not natural. What to do, that is why they fall sick. I heard they even put many clothes on the pets. God! Anyhow, lets not talk any more about that. God! Now I have to tell Him to develop His system. He does not know that our pets will have winter, but we know? He created and he does not know, but we know? I am surprised. Anyway just be like a flower. Do not resist. Third is to feel that we have filled the car. Fourth, is to feel the speed of the car as if our whole body is moving. There are no two entities, our body and car. There is only one, the vehicle the car that is all. Fifth thing is to just be with that flow that’s all.

Now naturally there will be one more question and that is how to practice this technique when we are not in the car. Shiva gives one more beautiful technique which is an alternative technique for that situation also. Just as how in a still vehicle by letting our self swing in slowing invisible circles we can experience the consciousness beyond the body, similarly he says here that we can experience the same when we are sitting in still vehicles which means houses. Our homes are still vehicles. Even sitting here, by allowing the body to move, or swing within its own way in invisible circles we can feel the slight movement always happening in our body.

If we sit in a relaxed way and feel the body we can feel there will be a slight trembling, slight movement, very slight invisible movements constantly happening in us. The more we try to possess the body, the more we will stop that flow. If we do not possess the body then that flow will be there. Kids feel that flow that is why they start whirling. They feel comfortable with that flow. They get the kick out of that flow because they have not yet learnt to possess their bodies. They have not created ego. They have not become dull. They have not started calculating. They do not ask ‘Why should I whirl?’ or ‘why should I move?’ or ‘How many dollars will I make by whirling ten minutes?’ They have not started calculating. They would not ask ‘Why should I jump around, why should I laugh?’ or ‘will I get the candy if I laugh?’ They have not started calculating. If they start calculating and start laughing their smile becomes ugly like us.

I would say that the calculated smile is the ugliest smile. When we look at the next person before smiling for recognition, it is ugly. We can see in our lives even before smiling we just look at the next person. We ask his approval means even for that we don’t have the spontaneity. We just want to go with the society and think if everybody is smiling we should smile and then we smile. If nobody is smiling we think lets keep quiet, why to do unnecessary things. Or why to do something which others are not doing. We are so calculative. For every step we have some logical analysis. Before doing everything we calculate and we analyze. We measure.

While doing this technique do not analyze, do not measure and do not calculate. The movements which are happening in us, let us allow it to happen, let it happen. If we see inside we can see that there are slight movements always happening in us and these are the invisible circles. Just be with that movement and allow that movement to happen. Whenever we allow that movement to happen and meditate on that movement, we will see suddenly and we will realize we are not a solid body. We are a flowing energy. Experiencing ourselves as a flowing energy is what I call Enlightenment or the Shiva consciousness or the Ultimate experience. Suddenly we will realize we are not just the body. We are just in the body, but we are not the body

Meditation: I would suggest doing this meditation for at least eleven days so that we can start seeing that we are experiencing a different consciousness.

This meditation will help us move ourselves with the prana, life force or subtle energy that is moving inside our body. We have become so frozen that in the initial level it will be difficult to experience the energy because we have frozen our body completely.

In the initial level we should try to help our body and cooperate with our body by creating small invisible circles and small movements.

Sit straight and close your eyes. Inhale and exhale as slowly as possible and as deeply as possible.

Just move the body with very slow and small circles. Even if we visualize that is enough. Suddenly we will see that our body is slowly moving and we are feeling really comfortable. And then be in that same state and allow the movement to happen. Concentrate near the manipuraka or navel centre which is the source of prana. We will see that our whole body is moving in small invisible circles and we are centered on the navel.

Whenever we are in a moving vehicle, flight or in a car and when we are not driving we can try this technique and try to enter into the same shape of the vehicle. Suddenly we will see we are disengaged from the ‘I’ and we are beyond the body.

May Shiva’s technique liberate us all! Let us move in, become one with and radiate Eternal Bliss. Nithyananda! Thank You.