What is Reality? Q& A Session On Patanjali Yoga Sutras

Try to respond to many of your questions. There is a question from Vengala Hiranmayi “If fear and joy are the illusions and delusions we have about life, are not real, then what is reality Swamiji?

HDH: Understand when you understand the fear and joy, pain and pleasure are illusion and delusion, that very understanding will make a huge change in you. You will feel like the earth on which you are standing is removed. Almost everything will collapse, allow that collapsing, allow that understanding to happen. See that the whole thing tumbles down. Whatever you build as your identity, suddenly will change. All your strategy planning for your future will suddenly change. All the logic with which you build your life will completely be shaken. Allow that. Do not have the fear ‘then what is reality?’ Allow this tumbling to happen, allow this shaking to happen by understanding that our courage, our fear, our greed, our pains, our pains and our pleasure are all illusion and delusion.

Yesterday I was giving you a beautiful example. Many time, life actually tests you. Life actually wants to test your stability, your understanding, your strength, but in a very foolish way you respond and react and create whole thing as a mess. Please understand, many time life really tests you. Do you stand this fear, which is delusion? Do you stand this greed, which is illusion? Or are you going to react in a foolish way and create bigger problems, bigger mess?

Whenever fears take over you or greed takes over you, when courage takes over you, when the pain takes over you, look into it, what is the percentage of it is real and what is the percentage of it is illusory or delusory. As I told you yesterday I am coining a new word delusory. It may or may not be in Oxford dictionary, let’s add in our dictionary. See what is the percentage of it, is contributed by the illusions and delusions and what is the percentage can be attributed to the real incident, may, may not happen in your life.

Let me give you a story. I have a story for you. The FBI had an opening for an assassin, so they started interviewing people. After all the background checks, interviews and testing’s were done, there were three finalists; two men and a woman. For the final test the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun. We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair, kill her. The man said you cannot be serious, I can’t shoot my wife. The agent said then you are not right man for the job, take your wife and go home. He was sent. The second man was given the same job. He went inside and all was quiet for five minutes. The man came out with tears and to the agent he said I cannot, I cannot kill. Then agent said you are not the right man. Take your wife and go back home. Finally it was the women’s turn, she was given the same instruction to kill her husband, she took the gun went into the room, shots were heard and one after another, they heard screaming, crashing, banging on walls. Then all was quiet. The door opened slowly. There stood the women, wiping the sweat from her brow. Agent asked what happened. She said this gun is loaded with blanks, so I had to beat him to death with the chair.

Many times life gives you the gun with blanks to test. But unfortunately you make mess. Stand and see when the wave of fear takes over you, when the wave of greed takes over you, when the wave of courage takes over you, when the wave of pain takes over you. Wait…. Look…see. What is the percentage, the possibility of delusion and illusion? What is the possibility of the real incidence which may, may not happen and how this fear is going to impact your ability to handle the real incident if it happens.

The ability to face, the ability to look, the ability to see; please understand, ability to look without being bothered what is reality. Please understand the moment you have the fear, the questioner, the fear which this questioner is having. What is reality Swamiji? Means you don’t want to let go this delusions and illusions. Don’t bother, let go, let go. What is reality will flower in you. Allow that flowering. Now don’t bother, now don’t worry too much about it. Allow the delusions and illusions to be removed from your inner space. You will see the real incidence, which is reality, will never hurt you.

I tell you, I really wanted all of you to know, anything happens is addition and auspiciousness. I tell you even if you think this is the worst dream happening in your life… I tell you, even the worst dream wakes you up. In the dream even if the tiger is chasing you or elephant is chasing you, or snake is chasing you or your spouse is talking to you, you wake up. So, anything happens is auspicious. It may look very impractical, very frightening .Understand you can’t be…..anybody who is watching this satsang around the world at this moment, can’t be in a worst danger, risky, insecure position than me. The accusations, abusal, harassment and religious persecution I am facing… can say one of the worst religious persecution in the modern days, in the modern history

Whatever happens can only be adding to your life, means all happenings are auspiciousness. Just stop your interpretation. Not only that when you stop the interpretation, the energy which you waste in fighting with illusions and delusions can be used to handle the exact happening; the incident. In my life I have seen the extremes and I can see how the courage given by the extreme fame is illusion, same way the fear created by the extreme defamation is delusion. Neither the courage given by millions of people following you and praising you is reality nor the fear they try to create by the intense defamation, is reality. Both are illusion and delusion.

I wanted to give a small, can say that subtle difference between this illusion and delusion. Illusion is the false happening outside your system. Delusion is the impact of that false happening inside your system. Delusion is reflection of illusion in your system. Illusion is the source of delusion outside your system. Whether it is illusion or delusion created by….. whether the society or ignorance of you or collective delusion, there is something called collective delusion. There are thousands of problems created by collective delusions. People have their own ideas, their own imaginations, their own thinking.

Human mind when it is caught in collective delusion can be exploited and manipulated to any level, to any extreme, to any extent. So do not bother to drop this fear and greed created by illusion and delusions. When you drop, you will settle down in a space which I don’t want to describe. Because, the moment I describe about that space, you already start imagining about the space and you have created one more illusion about that space. If I use one word “restful awareness” then you catch hold of that word ‘restful awareness, restful awareness, restful awareness’. Arey, you don’t understand that restful awareness which I am talking happens in you when you give up this illusion and delusion. But you are not interested in giving up this illusion and delusion; you are interested in some shortcut for ‘restful awareness, restful awareness, restful awareness’.

It’s like, I tell you go to that sabha ,it is filled with dirt and junk, clean it and make it beautiful, if I look from here it should look very pretty. You ask how it should look. What do you mean by word pretty and clean? I say, it should look like shining, clean, neat. Then immediately you create that kind of painting and make a big flex and keep it in front of the sabha. You don’t get into the sabha and clean that junk, clean that dirt, so that when I come there it really looks clean. No. You find a shortcut. Come on let us make a big painting how the cleanliness and being beautiful is portrayed, how Swamiji described, come on let’s make a big flex and keep in front of the sabha and hide the sabha. So from here when I look, oh! Things are clean and you come here from my seat, you look, ah! Things are clean. If Swamiji looks through this window it will all be clean.

That is what you are trying to do when you ask the question ‘what is reality?’ So I don’t want to answer, when you ask, ‘what is cleanliness? How it should look Swamiji?’ No. Go and first remove that junk and the garbage. Do only the instruction. Then how it look clean, it will look by itself. Do not try to create theology before practicing. I tell you a small missings and misunderstandings happens when you create a theology before experiencing or before even trying to experience; can create too much nuisance on the planet earth.

That is the reason I always tell our teachers, our Acharyas, ‘Let you digest the whole truth. Just digesting, not talking to others will make you dumb idiot and not digesting just talking to others will make you a cunning criminal theologian. I don’t want my Acharyas to be a dumb idiot or cunning criminal theologians. So in LA the Acharya training is happening. The teacher’s training is happening. All the teachers who are getting trained, please understand, this is my instruction to you. Understand and digest the truth and share this with the world with intense aggressiveness. Understand aggressively and share aggressively. Neither lack in understanding nor lack in sharing.

So don’t bother about what is reality. I don’t want to give you any painting. There is one more question. “What about real painful incidents like accidents, getting caught in fire etc? These are also illusory pains?”

Vengala Hiranmaya, understand, first come out of the illusory delusory pains. Then you will have a clear answer for this question. If I say now that is also illusory and delusory, you will feel. No. I am talking too much and you will not even try to do the first step. Do the first step; you will understand answer for this question by yourself. I am not interested in intellectually satisfying you. I am interested in experientially satisfying you. So I wanted you to have manual workbook; not theological, philosophical volumes and volumes on which you can put your head and sleep.

This encyclopedia Britannica’s are used only as a pillow at least in theology and philosophy field. I am not interested in creating encyclopedia Britannica’s or philosophical volumes to fill the useless parts of your brain. No. I am interested in creating workbook. Practical, manual, owners guide.

There is one clarification about the eN-kriya. Anand Sarvottaman is asking, “In the main en-kriya part, the 4th step, should we stop the breathing after exhaling or after inhaling?”

Neither wait for exhaling nor wait for inhaling. The moment you put your hands on the sambhavi mudra stop, freeze as it is. Don’t prepare yourself for that freezing. It should be like a sudden attack by you on you.