“I’ll repeat the sutra and start expressing and explaining again.”

I’ll repeat the sutra and start expressing and explaining again.

Anithya, Asuchi, Dukkha, Anaatmasu, Nithya, Suchi, Dukkha...Sukha, Sukha, Atma khyadihi avidya…. Anithya, Asuchi, Dukkha, Anaatmasu, Nithya, Suchi, Sukha, Atma Khyadihi Avidya.

It is a very beautiful sutra. Very powerful sutra. Mhh.. Such an apt sutra.…. How the human beings suffer... with ignorance. Such a powerful description. I can say, the comprehensive idea conveyed through this sutra is: Non-eternal impure pain and non-self is taken as eternal, pure, happiness and self. Non-eternal is taken as eternal. Impure is taken as pure. Dukkha is taken as sukha, means the suffering is taken as joy. Non-self is taken as self.

Yesterday we understood the anithya and nithya, means non-eternal being taken as eternal. Impure being taken as pure. Today we will try to understand how dukkha is taken as sukha, by ignorance.

Let me define Sukha. Sukha is an experience which leads you to the deeper and deeper and deeper realities. Means the higher and higher and higher possibility of existence. Understand, sukha is an experience which leads you to the deeper and deeper existence, higher and higher possibility of reality.

As a side effect of it, whole body feeling sweet, whole mind feeling joyful or boundaryless. All this happens as a side effect of it. Face beaming, you shining, these are all side effect. Do not hold side effect. Please understand, the moment you hold the side effect and try to repeat, reproduce the side effect, through some act, you are caught in dukkha. You are caught in suffering.

For example, when you have a sweet, something happens to your tongue. Something happens in your throat.. For that moment, your mind get back, gets back to your system, your being, which was craving for sweet. You see, craving for sweet is like a thought. Mind is running. The moment you put that in your mouth, that running thought gets back to its source, comes back to its source. Gets centred back, integrated back.

The joy you experience is because of that getting back to the source, not the object coming in contact with the sense. But unfortunately, our unaware mind, mind possessed by avidya, ignorance, thinks the sense object coming in contact with the sense is responsible for the joy. So it tries to repeat the same act, to create the same experience. By the time you put the 5th sweet, the feeling of happiness is not there. By the time it is 7th sweet, body starts resisting. 9th sweet, body vomits, says: “enough, no, I’m done. I cannot”.

Ignorance which makes you think the act is responsible for experience is cause for sukha, the joy not happening again and pain being mistaken for joy... Ignorance is not always bliss! Understand, ignorance is not always bliss. Ignorance about the basic existence, your basic reality is too costly. Sometime after wasting your whole life, you realize... that whole life is spent in a very ignorant way.

Really, really I’m telling you. All over the world, one of the biggest suffering this modern day society is facing is depression in old age. Depression in old age. The other day I was seeing, the new largest growing segment in social media is the female after the age of 56. Because, they do not know what to do. In countries like New Zealand, to reduce the old age suicide, not only they give you money to manage yourself, they give you money if you want to have a partner. “Paid partners” they call it. You can pay, that person will take care of you, money is given even for your paid partner. And the government goes on begging every old age person: “please don’t commit suicide, please don’t commit suicide.”

Because suddenly your inner consciousness tells you, you lived the whole life with ignorance. Too costly. Ignorance which is really, really, really costly… Many time, ignorance can be too costly. I have a story for you.

The young over-enthusiastic executive was about to leave the office when he saw the CEO of the company standing in front of the paper shredder, with a piece of paper in hand. The CEO asked him: “This is a very important document, my secretary has gone, can you make this machine work? Can you make this thing work?”. The over-enthusiastic executive wanted to show off and said: “sure sir,”. He inserted the paper, pressed the start button. “Excellent!” said the CEO, as the paper went in, “I just need one copy.”

Sometime you take paper shredder as a Xerox machine. Ignorance is not always bliss. With paper shredder and Xerox machine, it is okay, only a document. Paper is wasted. But, sometime you insert the life and put the start button, then ask: “is it a paper shredder or Xerox machine?”

Understand, if you are young and fortunate enough to come in contact with this great wisdom to exist, science to exist, way of existing, feel blessed you found out it is a paper shredder before the paper is being inserted. And this “paper” is too costly because you have only one.

Whether it is a sweet or a music or a seeing or a smell or touch – if you just look into the science of sukha, science of happiness, anything which leads to deeper and deeper reality, stronger and stronger reality is happiness.

Just yesterday, one of my Swami was telling me that one devotee told him, the person who is doing LE process: “I’m feeling so ecstatic, so blissful, this levitation experience is so intense, so joyful. I’m only having one thought, I’m afraid it should not go away.”

Don’t worry, you are not levitating because of your will. It is impossible, especially in padmasana, locking the hand in samana mudra, just try to move. Try to move without initiation or without the process. Nothing. You can’t move your butt. It cannot move but for initiation. It won’t move... Impossible. And you’ll break your back.

It is there, the process which makes you levitate. He is leading you to the deeper and deeper reality. So understand, it won’t leave you. Anything which leads you to the deeper and deeper reality will not leave you. Because by nature, you are travelling towards the deepest reality of your existence. You are travelling towards the deepest reality of your existence. If you mistake the source of happiness and the outer world happening as connected, then there is a possibility of pain being mistaken as pleasure. But if you catch the root of happiness, which is the higher possibility of existence, higher form of reality, it will never leave you. It will never leave you.

See, I am not even bothered about the levitation. No. It is a by-product. Again and again I’m telling you, it is a by-product. We are working towards raising your consciousness. Sometime your mind and body also gets raised. That’s all. As a by-product.

The next process is going to be floating on the water. The moment we start working on prana, we are going to do. That will be very solid because in air if you can be 20 second, on water you can be easily 60 second. So without creating a ripple, you are expected to be stable, on water. See, in air, you can, you can get confused. “Did I create a ripple in the air or not?” See, how many second you don’t create ripple in the air, that many second you levitated. The ripple should be upward, then you are levitating. It should not be side or lower. So in the a… in water again, there should be no ripple. Then we know your sama… it’s actually in the water the prana also has to be balanced. The prana will be balanced now.

Today morning I saw at least 50 people. Of course, now you will see at least 100 people, because the morning preparation of samana, 108 surya namaskar, now the biomemory knows: “Either levitate or do surya namaskar… Either imbibe this process and balance your samana or do surya namaskar”.

Without creating the ripple, you will be stable on water if your prana and samaana both are controlled. And I tell you, when the samana is balanced..., I could see even the people who are levitating, so much joy. Joy being just pumped into the body! The ecstacy being penetrating. The nervous system… especially people who are sitting in padmasana and samana mudra, just there is no effect at all, effort at all from their side, I could see. See with the effort when you try to jump it is totally different. I could see very clearly there is no effort. Just the body is being pushed up.

I am seeing they have only fear of landing. They're trying to land as quickly as possible. Don’t try. Don’t be afraid. You’ll not break your back. Don’t try to land in a hurried way – that is what is the insecurity. See, if you have the thought: “maybe this bliss will go away.” You will have the insecurity and try to land as early as possible.

Raghupati Yogi, Yogi Yogananda Puri, who… my Master, who taught me levitation, who trained me in this process, he will do it in a very beautiful way. He will put 10 beds, make me sit on that and he will ask me to inhale and hold. The “kumbhaka”, it is called, holding. He will make me hold the air so strongly, kumbhaka, then he will remove the beds. So I have to remain in that space, at least for 60 seconds. And, the floor will be granite floor. The temple floor, the stone slab floor. Naturally biomemory has to have the intelligence of landing very smoothly. It can’t afford to land fast because you will break the ban...back. You’ll break the backbone. So you guys also should slowly reduce this bedding. Then biomemory will automatically make itself intelligence… intelligent and that landing will not be fast. It will be very slow.

See, when it is a slow landing only then your samana is completely under your control, under your balance. It should not be just a quick landing... But it took 6 years for him to make me levitate.... He is such a joyful person. Still, still he’s just ecstasy for me. The moment I remember. He is such a joy, such an ecstacy.

Everyday morning he will come and hold my finger and make me walk to the temple. Then he will bring all, whatever… whatever I needed, whether it is a...that village flattened rice, it’s all… these are the things popular snacks in villages. And these groundnut balls, coconut balls. These are the village candy. You see in those days, the candy is not that popular. These are the village candies are the popular thing… and coffee. Coffees are a big thing in those days in the villages. And he will bring all that, and he will keep that like a museum. And I have to climb up and down all the pillars, then he will release one-by-one.

So beautifully, so beautifully. Still when I remember him… See, he made me go through the whole process so lovingly. I feel I am not honouring him by not showing the some love to my disciples. I demand from you guys, I tell you guys uh: “Do it!” or “Do this 108 surya namaskar” but one unfortunate thing is that I was able to spend 6 years with him. Not 6 years, more than 12 years, till he is leaving the body, I had the fortune of being with him.

Next year we are celebrating his 150th birthday. We are planning in a big way. Based on the date we know, based on the date we know from his family… 150th birthday we are celebrating. We do not know much details about his past. Whatever little we could collect, we tried to collect… Because no time, I have to make you guys go through very strongly, like as I said the Patanjali’s process: “Quick, quick, quick, let’s go to next, next, next.” But he made me go through like a zen. So much of joy of being around him and… and after all that, uh, climbing up and down, that pillars and posts and everything still I can climb trees. I tell you, I can climb any tree without any risk. Just like that. Because he has prepared the body so much, climbing tree or hill. I never thought it is a science… I just...I just know, I’m a man I can...here is a tree, just climb, that’s all. He made the whole thing so simple.

So beautiful. Then he will take me to the temple tank. I am after all a small boy, so except one cloth in the hip, he will remove everything and put the ash. And so many people will be taking bath in the temple tank. Usually, it’s always the villagers and visitors who come for the temple, they’ll be taking bath. And they’ll think, the grandfather is take... making the grandson to take bath. Then he will make me take bath. Make me do the pranayam, there itself. The amount of joy he added, took care of my whole practise time as a joyful process. Never had a suffering. Sometimes I will start resisting. “No, no, no, you are making me too much.” Sometime he’ll do like a surya namaskar, sun salutation. I’m supposed to do from sunrise to sunset. He will put a stick on a stone, that stick will show the sun's movement through the shadow. And facing that shadow I’m supposed to continuously change the direction and do the surya namaskar. The moment the shadow starts appearing, the sunrise has happened, I have to start. Till the shadow disappears, I have to do.

But he will have also his coffee, candy, everything ready. In between, between the shadow comes here: “All right now you have your candy.” Shadow comes here: “Alright, now you have your coffee.”... Such a joy.

I sometime really feel I am not honouring his tradition... The amount of love and care he radiated. Especially, when you go through physical process, you need a lot of love and care, because a physical pain. See, like how I said 108 surya namaskar, it’s a physical pain. So you need lot of love and care. Somebody with whom you really feel he is trustworthy. He has a deep sympathy for me, he is not sadist, he’s not torturing me. You need that kind of a connection, only then you will have the courage to go into that again and again and again.

But fortunately I had lot of time with him. For him to show that he cares me and for me to feel he is not a sadist, he is trustworthy. But in the modern day, neither that much time is possible as… as a lifestyle, neither the physical nearness is possible. Of course physical nearness is not required to show the people that the concern and love we have, but maybe little time is required.

I had so much, so much trust on him. Once he really made a cobra bite me. He caught a cobra and made me bit.. made the cobra bite me. Just to prove the....science of removing poison from the body. Then he had a kind of a herb, which he put at that spot and sucked that… poison and he was showing me the peak of consciousness and peak of unconsciousness. How to fall into the consciousness when the… even poison spreads in your system.

Please understand, even for a second I did not have a doubt or fear that something wrong can happen. See, he’s having a cobra in his hand and stretching my hand and making it bite. I think not in hand, I do not… I’m not remembering exactly which spot. He made the cobra bite and I am slowly falling into the unconsciousness and he is just only this [gestures to a finger]… this point he held and he’s just twisting that point. Twisting that point and telling me: “Eh, balance your samana, balance your samana.” He’s giving instruction and I was trying, then he kept that herb near that bite and he’s taking that snake when I am out. And I could see very clearly, from the top of the head, sahasrara to the vishuddhi, like a hole. Something happened in me, intense sweet nectar flew, started flowing from this spot [sahasrara] to that spot [visuddhi]. And still that nectar is flowing and the joy is there.

Maybe that is what that...that these doctors who did research on my brain, they are saying that pleasure chemicals are intensely flowing in the brain. And, such a strong trust he was able to invoke in me because of the love and care he showed.

I was explaining about how he will teach the landing. He will remove all the bed and.. kind of a village thorn bed is there, where the sadhus sit and meditate. He will keep that below. Now you can’t fall. If you fall, the thorn will poke. Then only when he removes that, he will tell: “Come on now, land”. And slowly, you have to land. Means, when you exhale that landing will happen. See, all you need is just give up the insecurity that this joy or experience will go away. Trust the master who is doing this process. The landing will become very slow. The landing is directly connected to that insecurity of losing the bliss. If you lose the insecurity of losing the bliss, the landing will not be so hurried. That’s the reason I was talking about this, my trust on him. Develop that trust and feeling connection with the master and the power of the process he is doing, you will not land so fast. You will land in a very beautiful way. You will land in a very beautiful way. You will not have the suffering.

When the insecurity is removed you will realize... the sukha which leads to deeper and deeper reality becomes... the experience of your being. Experience of your being... I tell you... dukkha is an experience which leads you more and more to the superficial realities… sukha is the experience which leads you to deeper and deeper, solid, solid, stronger and stronger, higher and higher reality.

Do not mistake the dukkha as sukha. Just be honest and strong to look in and see, catch.. the sukha as sukha, means happiness as happiness and suffering as suffering. Just if you catch suffering as suffering, happiness as happiness, that is enough you are intelligent enough, you are programmed to go beyond happiness. Understand, you don’t need to do much to become enlightened. Just have the clarity, sukha as sukha and dukkha as dukkha. Happiness is happiness ignore… suffering is suffering. That’s all. Nothing else is required. Because you are inbuilt to go after happiness, you are inbuilt to go after joy.

Your system is such, you will not waste your life paying for suffering. I have a story for you: A little boy asked his father: “Daddy, how does it cost to get married?” Father replied: “I don’t know my son, I am still paying for it.” …

Sometime... see you pay for it as long as you do not know it is suffering. I really tell you, when you do not know it is a suffering, you pay for it. The moment you know it is a suffering, you are intelligent enough to break free from it. And you are intelligent enough to break free from it. Anything… I’m not saying about marriage. I am saying about anything which is suffering. When you know, you will break free from it. You will go beyond it. You will get into the deeper and deeper possibility of existence, reality of existence.

Like how, see when the sweet is put in the mouth and joy is experienced, use that moment to find out from where the joy is coming and get established in the source of the joy. Because the same joy is not going to be coming from the fourth or fifth time from the same act or after a few years, your tongue may lose the sensitivity to experience the same joy from the same object. It will become insensitive. What are you going to do? So find out the source. Same way, with any experience, you become insensitive to music if you are constantly entertaining yourself in the music. Especially this modern-day loud music. God…

People become insensitive. Still, I am not able to understand ten thousand Buddha’s sitting and Buddha’s speaking without microphone, all ten thousand heard. But here, even 300 people, the last row says: “No…” And my voice, even this… because the ears have lost its sensitivity. Same way with anything, with anything… whether it is a touch or smell or hearing or tasting, anything… Assuming suffering as joy is the basic ignorance...The whole life will have a big shift when you understand the joy and suffering.

Next word – Anatmasu atma – taking the non-self as self. As I said yesterday – which has conflict cannot have life, which has life cannot have conflict. Don’t give life to conflict, don’t... feel life as conflict. Don’t give life to conflict, don’t bring conflict to life.

How we give the credibility of the atman, self to the anatman, non-self, so many thousands of ways, we go on mistaking non-self as self. Non-existent as existent. How in the fear, in the darkness you assume rope as a snake. In Vedanta tradition – rajju sarpa nyaya, it’s one of the very powerful nyaya. Snake be… rope being mistaken as a snake. Rope being felt as a snake – there is no snake – neither before your perception, during the perception, after the perception. But because of your fear, for a moment you project snake into rope and suffer as per the perception, shiver, sweat maybe one-two, whatever. Then suddenly, the fear brings a certain intensity into your body, that intensity makes you look deeply into it and just because of the deep looking, the rope again becomes rope. But that intensity, if it leads to more ignorance, means moving away from the rope, then forever you will be thinking it is a snake.

Rajju sarpam nyaya, rope being mistaken for a snake. Past, present and future, all three times rope is a rope is a rope. But by your projection of the fear, for few moments it becomes snake and gets into the experience space of snake – which is a lower reality, gets you into the experience of snake, which is a lower reality. Then how you respond to that reality, either with awareness of looking through it or escaping from it. If you have the awareness of looking through it, then you are liberated from that perception of snake and free from it.

Such a... extraordinary understanding… One day this Raghupathi yogi was explaining, this rajju sarpa nyaya to me, means how the rope appears as snake. And he wanted to get a rope and show me as an example. He looked here and there and searched, there was no rope. Then the funny thing, he just made some sound, one snake came, with the snake explained. With that snake he explained the… how it looks like rope and snake. He is such a master of sounds, he will create just some sound with the tongue, all the dogs in the area will start barking left and right and run near him.

And sometime he’ll create a sound, kind of a vibration, all the snakes in the area will start moving towards him in romance mode. Because he can create that vibration a snake sending signal to other snake. See, when a snake sends signal to another snake, they don’t travel as usual they travel, they start rolling and travelling. Like they start twisting and spinning and dragging their body. If you have seen two snakes spinning, they are in the physical relationship, how they move, they will be spinning and spinning and they’ll move. They’ll try to move… the same way these snakes will come near him. The master of sabda tattva, vaak tatva.

I have seen with my own eyes. He will make a, made, take a copper lump... metal lump, copper metal lump and he’ll just create some sound only [puffing/blowing noises]. Four five sounds, kind of vibration, that whole copper will become like a heated, boiling… red, red hot... He can either create the heat or cold just by sound. And he just explained with that rope, with that snake. Hey this is the way the rope will look and that snake is politely lying down. That guy is happily lying down, he is saying: “Eh this is the way the rope will be there, when you have the fear, you will see snake.” The extraordinary ways I learnt this Vedanta, usually on rope you will project snake and try to understand. That I have to learn in an extraordinary way, on snake how to project a rope and understand.

But he will never hurt animals or anybody. He will never hurt, he is such a compassion. He’ll never hurt. That is a greatness. And that’s why the animals are also so happy and loving around him. Some of these people, how much they added to me. He never made me feel I’m indebted to him. But I feel, even now when I remember his name, I am indebted to him. He never made any organization. If I don’t tell his name, nobody will know. And he is not, he is not well known. But I go on remembering him.

The other day one devotee was telling me that he cannot touch his shoulder. He’s physically… he cannot do it, he’s unable to. Even I’ve had that kind of experience sometimes because of intense yoga. If I am not able to move certain postures, not able to do certain postures, he will just give a small slap on that space, on that area, and immediately body will do as he says... If I ask him: “No, I just awakened the biomemory. You are having it. I’m just awakening it.” He knew the science of awakening your innate biomemory.

Anatmasu atma. How the non-self is taken as self. In so many ways... the mind plays the game and projects the self as non-self and non-self as self. I can give you hundreds of examples. There is a very beautiful verse in a great spiritual work called ‘Thirumandiram’, means sacred mantras by an enlightened masted ‘Thirumoolar’ he’s the greatest siddha. He has lived for 3000 years in the physical body and wrote one verse each year. One on one process, he will work and from the beginning to end he will go through the process, the essence of the whole process he will express as one sutra. Like this… like that he has developed and expressed 300… 3000 sutras. Sorry, 3000 sutras. It’s in Tamil. Very beautifully expresses how the anatma is taken as atma. I will give you the understanding and the process.

(Swamiji speaks in Tamil 52:07)

It’s a sutra actually. It’s a sutra, I’ll give you the translation. I have expressed eight line now. I will you line by line. If there’s a elephant carved in wood, if you see it as a wood, you will not see as elephant. If you see as elephant, you will not see it as wood. Same way, if you see this as world, you will not see it as God. You see it as God, you will not see it as world.

(Swamiji speaks in Tamil 53:12)

Means, the pancha bhutas - the earth, water, fire, air and ether- if you see these five, you will not see the cosmos, means the consciousness. If you see the consciousness, you will not see the cosmos. Sorry, you will not see this five elements. Either five elements or cosmos. Either cosmos or five elements. The second four lines, if you see as a jewel, you will not see as gold. You see as gold, you will not see as jewel. If you see through your senses, you will not see the self. If you see the self, you will not see the sense.

(Swamiji speaks in Tamil 54:16)

Your senses covers yourself. If you awaken yourself, your senses disappear into yourself... Anaatmasu atma – how the atma is mistaken as anatma and anatma is mistaken as atma.

End