Words Of The Master

7 The Master's Words... "Discover that you are bliss! We are by nature blissful Beings! Our thoughts are mere bubbles that rise and fall at random without a linear relation between them. But we continuously link our thoughts to form a shaft of pain or pleasure. This process is the root cause for all our suffering. If we can un-clutch ourselves from forming this shaft and allow the bubbles of thoughts to naturally rise and fall, we will discover that our suffering is purely our own making, and our true nature is pure bliss!" Be un-clutched, be blissful! Your entire belief in rationality and logic is based on the premise that your thinking is sequential and it follows a pattern. This is a lie. Buddhists say mind is a monkey. That's very true. Your thoughts are not sequential. Your thoughts are independent of each other. They are not connected. They are illogical and irrational. They are like the bubbles in a fish tank which appear connected; but there is no connection between one bubble and another. They are all independent. Just try this. For a few minutes, truthfully, write down all your thoughts as they occur to you. When you read what you have written again, it will appear to you that what you have written is a madman's diary. Nothing will be connected, nothing will seem logical. You would have jumped from past to present, from future to past, all with no logical connection whatsoever. It is only when you link thoughts to one another, when you try and provide a logical and rational sequence to thoughts with the help of your mind, you invite suffering. The pleasurable experiences or painful experiences that you have 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 2 years ago and yesterday and today are all independent of each other. They are unconnected. Yet you try and fit them in a pattern and then expect that pattern to repeat. This expectation leads to disappointment and all suffering. Each thought that you have comes after another only when you have renounced the first one. Unless you renounce the thought of sitting, you cannot stand up. Unless you renounce the thought of standing, you cannot walk. This tendency to link thoughts and form a pattern is what creates your value systems and beliefs, your samskaras, the root cause of all your problems. It is this pattern woven by the mind and not the ground reality that you experience, which drives your life. Connected thoughts are the foundation of all illusions and suffering. Once you drop the connection between thoughts, you can go to the source of thoughts, the truth of who you are, where you come from. When you drop the connection between thoughts, you will then realize the futility of that connection except in causing you suffering. When you realize that thoughts arise in you at random and not in any sequence and are always unconnected, you then drop into the present. You become unclutched, you become free. You then regain your Self.

8 Bliss attracts Fortune! The very title, Bliss attracts Fortune is so beautiful. You may wonder: ‘Fortune can bring us bliss; how can bliss bring us fortune?!’ In India, when any new thing is started, be it a business or a construction or something to do with education, the first thing that we do is, sit down for a few moments, close our eyes and be in a meditative mood; we try to bring about some kind of an Energy play or transformation inside us. Of course, over the years, this has become a prayer and a ritual; that is a different issue. But the first thing that we try to do is, sit down and try to kindle the Energy flow in us. When the Energy flow in us becomes fulfilling, it has the property of influencing the outer world incidents. Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, like it or not, want it or not, you are deeply connected to Existence; you are an integral part of Existence, not an independent island as you think. Every subtle movement or subtle thought in one part of the Universe causes a counter-effect at that same moment else where in the Universe. Our thoughts and Energy flow have the capacity to create and attract incidents and people of the same nature. It has been proven by a scientist in Japan that our thoughts can affect the chemical structure of a mere glass of water. Then just imagine, how much our thoughts can affect our body and mind, which is made up of blood? Our thoughts have the capacity to affect the seas. Be very clear: All the so-called natural calamities are nothing but the effects of global negative thoughts. From young, we have been trained in ‘Mathematics logic’, never in ‘Existential logic’. Mathematics logic is very straightforward and should be applied only to things where it is appropriate. In matters concerning life and relationships, mathematics logic will cause only chaos. With it, we will always look to conclude with a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ judgment. There is something beyond and more deep than this and that is Existential logic. This comes with a deep understanding and flowering from within. Your thoughts and Energy directly affect your body, your cell structure, your decisions, your capacity to fulfill your decisions, the outer world incidents, even accidents. Currently, you are always centered in either greed or fear. Every action that you do is out of either desire or fear. It becomes very easy for others to exploit you because of this; you become very vulnerable. You create a mental setup that creates and attracts similar incidents to you. You also corrupt your Energy flow with this. If you can change your mental setup from this type, to one of Bliss, or Ananda, then your Energy flow will start brimming and your thoughts will be much clearer and more in the present. When you do this, you have every power to control the outer world incidents because you and Existence have a very deep connection at the Energy level. This is the thread that you need to catch in order to understand that Bliss attracts fortune. When you are blissful, when your mental setup is not one of worry, fear and greed but one that is in the present, always joyful, you will automatically attract all good things to yourself.

9 Let you understand this and be one, in, with and radiate Nithyananda, Eternal Bliss. Drop the goal, enjoy the path! Guru Poornima is the day when we offer our gratitude to all the Enlightened Masters who have lived on Planet Earth. Guru is one who dispels the darkness that is your ego and brings in light. Gu is darkness and ru means dispeller. What is ego? According to the Upanishads, as long as you work with ego, you will think that life has got a purpose and run behind the purpose. When you realize the beauty of the purposelessness of life, you have dropped your ego. Guru is the one who makes you understand the purposelessness of life. Whatever you think as worthy now, are not the real worthy things. A man with ego searches with purposes and misses reality. He misses the beauty of Brahman or Existence. Death clearly shows that whatever mind you lived with has no real existence. When you realize the purposelessness of life, a new Consciousness will start blossoming in you. The moment you experience that there is nothing to be achieved and that the diamonds you are protecting are not diamonds but mere stones, and that all your great things in life are mere toys, you will understand the purposelessness of life. You should understand that money is not the bliss represented by the thousand-petalled lotus. The real purpose of life cannot be understood by ego. When the ego is dropped, you will understand the Divine purpose of life, the Leelas or the Divine play. You will then enjoy the whole drama! If you keep thinking that life has a purpose and wait to achieve something, you will miss life itself. Life itself is the path, not the goal. When you have a goal, you will run and when you run, your feet will not touch the ground and you will miss the beauty of Existence or nature. When you drop the goal, the emphasis will be on the path. When you understand the purposelessness of life, you understand the meaning of living. Until then, you are just living dead. A person in coma lies in the hospital bed. A person who walks on the road is also in coma but walking, that’s all. Both of them live without the proper Consciousness. Guru is the one who makes you realize this Truth or state of yours. The meaning of 'living' is the meaning of life or Existence. A scientist is a man who creates a formula to reproduce something that he has discovered in the outer world for others also to experience. A Master is a man who creates a formula to reproduce something that He experienced in the inner world for others to experience inside them. He creates a formula for others to experience the Bliss or the Eternal Truth that He experienced in His own Consciousness. Sacrificing one’s life for the sake of the goal is not the way to live. If you live this way, only the payday will be sweet. Life has to be lived with satisfaction every moment. Else every time you achieve any goal, you will only repent that you have wasted life on something insignificant. Drop the goal and enjoy life. Also, add the flavour of meditation and service to your life. Meditate on this teaching again and again. The Truth will dawn on you and the

10 Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss) state will flower in you - the state which is the very meaning of life. My love and blessings to you to reach the state of Nithyananda or Eternal Bliss!

Responsibility - the way to expand! When you live with the attitude that you are responsible for everything, your whole life will change. When you take up responsiblity for everything that happens around you, you will start expanding. Expansion is the only growth; contraction is death. The more responsibility you take up, the more you will expand and grow. You will become a leader. Most of us wait for the status to come and then take up the responsibility. Be very clear - Only if we take up the responsibility, the status will come! People who wait for the status will not take up responsibility even after they get it. They will simply find another reason or excuse, that's all. An ordinary sweeper in an organization who takes up responsibility and performs his tasks can inspire an entire organization into becoming more responsible. The person who passes the buck and relaxes will never progress significantly in life. Responsibility is a Consciousness. The moment you feel responsible for what is happening around you, that moment the Divine Energy will rush into you! These are all basic secrets of Life that I am giving you. As long as you are self-centered, you will be nothing more than a blocked bamboo stick that serves only to carry the corpse. When you shed your ego and stand up with responsibility, you will become the hollow bamboo that serves as a flute! Like how the air that enters the flute leaves it as music, the air that enters you will flow as Energy! A cognitive shift will happen in you. Your mental setup will change. When you work with no feelings of responsibility, you will work and feel like a slave. When you work with responsibility, your capacity will expand and you will flower and radiate Energy. Your worries and sorrows will dissolve and all unfinished work will get finished. Umpteen excuses can be given for dodging responsibility, but they will remain poor excuses. With responsibility, a new kind of joy will engulf you. You will become a natural leader and life will become a celebration! There is a beautiful story on Buddha: It is said that when Buddha goes to beg, he would appear as a King and the kings who gave him alms would appear as beggars! Seeming like a beggar or a king is not in the property that you hold but in the state that is within you. When you take up responsibility for the entire Cosmos, you will expand and look like a leader! Feeling that you are responsible is the greatest quality you can possess. When you stand up with a sense of responsibility, a new intelligence will awaken in you! My love and blessings to you to reach the state of Nithyananda or Eternal Bliss!

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Surrender - The ultimate technique There was once a bank manager who used to take all the cash to his home everyday and bring it back with him the next day morning. He did this for a month and could not do it any more. He found himself trembling all the way while driving back home and was not able to sleep at home with all the money in his custody. He finally wrote a letter to the higher authorities asking to be relieved of the job, citing the reasons for the same. The authorities wrote back saying that even if the money was lost, he would not be blamed and that he could continue with his job. The manager slept peacefully from that day onwards. What is the difference in him now? He is doing the same job, but why is the fear and the sorrow not there any more? It is because responsibility has shifted to the higher authorities, that’s all. This is what is Surrender. Do your duty, leaving the responsibility to Existence. You need not surrender to God or to any Guru. There is a Life Force conducting this world. It is this Life Force that is causing the breath that goes into you to come out and the food that you eat to digest in your system. Simply surrender to this Life Force. The work that you do in your lifetime for your survival is lesser than the work required to convert a handful of food into blood inside your body. A research was once conducted to simulate the conversion of ‘one piece of bread into blood’. They found that the machinery required for it led the industry to extend to 3 kilometers! Now do you understand the kind of mechanism inside you? Do you think that the Life Force that sustains this mechanism cannot sustain your life? It very well can. Only we don’t have faith. A seed has to surrender to the soil to blossom as a tree. It has to have faith in the soil and allow itself to die or to rupture in order to blossom as a tree. In the same way, we have to place our faith in Existence and surrender ourselves so that a new life, a life of Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss) with good health can blossom. How do we do it? Should we spend long hours at the temple? No. Every time you feel heavy in the heart or mind, just tell yourself that the Life Force that runs the world will take care of you also and move on, that’s enough. You will see that all your depression and worries disappear and creativity blossoms in you. Surrender is your shortcut to God! It is the ultimate technique to merge with Existence. My love and blessings to you to reach the state of Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss)!

Feel Gratitude and only that. Man is born out of Divine Energy. Man is made up of 5 major elements, namely Earth (Prithvi), Water (Jala), Fire (Agni), Air (Vayu) and Ether (Akasha). Man emerges from these 5 elements, lives in these elements and goes back to them – the original source. Cosmos or Existence or Prapanja is made up of these 5 elements. All the 5 elements are different forms

12 of the same Energy called God or Self or Atman. Muslims call it Allah, Hindus call it Brahman, Christians call it God and so on. If we consciously feel a sense of continued gratitude towards this Cosmic Energy, we will be able to feel ourselves being taken care of in its very lap. We will feel ourselves being cradled by this Energy, like a child is by the Mother. Our prayer should be one of heart-felt gratitude and nothing else. Life itself is a gift to us from God. Did we work for God day and night and earn this Life? No! We tell God that we want a diamond ring, but don’t thank him for giving us a finger to wear it. While asking, we ask in a very detailed fashion, but while thanking, we thank very superfluously. We always feel that something that we don’t have is as big as a mountain without which we cannot survive, but when we actually get it, somehow it becomes too small a thing to thank God for. We simply take it for granted. After every gift that we receive, the mind says ‘What next?’ We have no faith in or gratitude towards the Cosmic Energy that is actually taking care of us every minute. We need to adopt a life of nothing but gratitude. Thanking God does not mean visualizing empty space and thanking it in a jiffy! You need to start from thanking the people who built the hospital in which you were delivered from your mother’s womb! People, plants and animals are all a part of God or Cosmos. If you feel only gratitude, there will be only happiness in your life. When there is true happiness in your life, good fortune will prevail. True Happiness or Ananda has the property of attracting good fortune. My love and blessings to you to reach the state of Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss)!

Dont Worry, be happy! What is worry? Either of the 2 things happens all the time in us – Speaking outside as in a conversation or speaking inside us that is thoughts. Some of these thoughts irritate or disease us. This is what is called worry. If the cause for the worry lies outside, there should be at least one man free from worry? No! Worry seems to be a universal quality in man. One man says “I am worried because I am not blessed with a child” while another man says “I am worried because of my child!" A survey was conducted on the internet to determine the most commonly found disease of this century. The results showed that the disease was not cancer or aids but was depression or worry. Anything from outside can be said as the quantity of your life while anything from inside is the quality of your life. The chatter that goes on inside you sometimes disturbs you and this is worry. The ‘uneasiness’ due to some of these words inside you becomes a ‘disease’ in you. You are able to control the words that you speak outside is it not? If you don’t control your words, society will control them! Why then are we not able to control the words spoken inside us? When words that have volume can be controlled why cant words without volume be controlled? If you tell yourself that nothing can be done about the worries in you, it is again another set of words spoken inside you which becomes a worry.

13 Words are very powerful. When I utter the word ‘cow’, immediately, a figure with 4 legs, 2 horns and one tail appears in your mind. A simple 3-letter word can bring a whole image to your mind. Words are that powerful. When we don’t respect words and use them wrongly inside us, the inner chatter starts and worry takes root. How to change worries is the question now. Follow this technique: Watch the words that you speak inside yourself (in other words, watch the inner chatter). Whenever the same words don’t seem appropriate enough to be spoken outside, simply break them and throw them apart. Every time you remember this technique, start practicing it that very moment! Your worries will slowly disappear. My love and blessings to you to reach the state of Nithyananda (Eternal Bliss)!

Dance your way to God!

Enlightenment is nothing but breaking all our conditionings and getting in touch with the innocence that we have lost in the process of growing up. The path to Enlightenment or to the Divine is not difficult like how it is made out to be. First of all, the Divine is not a goal as is understood by most of us. If we look at it as a goal, we are in effect robbing it of its joy. The path itself is Divine! There are several meditation techniques to fall in tune with the Divine. One such technique is Dance, in the literal sense of the word and even otherwise! Quantum physics has proven that the atom is made up of elements that are static and moving at the same time. A picture taken of this phenomenon reveals the resemblance it bears to the dancing deity - Nataraja. The whole of Cosmos is actually dancing with joy! Enjoying and celebrating every moment! Only man is still holding on to his prestige and ego, which are nothing but the labels stuck on him by society. Dance is the ultimate technique to break free of the ego, to break free from the identity that man holds close to his heart. Dance is the outward expression of the inner joy when you fall into the joyous path. Just like when you clap your hands and the birds fly off from the trees, so also, when you sing and dance in the name of the Divine, your karmas (past unfulfilled actions) fly away from you; you are liberated from them. Children need not be taught to dance, they already are that way! Their inner intelligence knows how to balance their Energy on the centre of their Being and that is why they are so joyful all the time. But we are unable to handle them in that state and so we suppress them and make them dull. Society tries you to put you either on the path of fear or on the path of greed. When in fear, you walk your way to God; when in greed, you drive or run your way to God; when in joy or bliss, you dance your way to God! The path becomes ecstatic. Every moment and every breath becomes a joyful meditation. Don't forego the path for the goal! Music and dance are the simplest meditation techniques that take you to the state of Nithyananda - Eternal Bliss. My love and blessings to you to reach the state of Nithyananda or Eternal Bliss

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The Five elements - an Understanding Existence or Cosmos is made up of the five elements that are – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether. All these elements are different forms of the same Existential Energy which we call God or Jesus Christ or Krishna or Allah and so on. The basic thirst of man is to find a connection with this Existential Energy. All religions have been born with the idea of finding a connection with Existence through the five elements. Let me explain how this is achieved: Take the first element – the Earth element. Idol worship is nothing but trying to find a connection with the Existential Energy through the Earth element. Idols are made up of earth or clay. Through worshipping idols, we are actually trying to find a connection through the Earth element. Here, one point has to be clearly understood: We are not worshipping the idols; we are worshipping through the idols. If this point is understood, there will not be so much of fight and fanaticism over forms and idols. The Energy that everyone is worshipping is one and the same. This has to be very clearly understood. Next, we come to the water element. It is a spiritual practice to take bath in sacred rivers. This is actually a technique to try to realize the Existential Energy through the water element. Next, we perform so many fire rituals at our homes and temples. This practice is to realize the Existential Energy through the fire element. The next element is the air element. Chanting mantras is nothing but trying to connect to the Cosmic Energy through the air element. When we chant, we are playing with our breath, which is nothing but the air element. Finally, we come to the element which is the subtlest form of the Existential Energy – the Ether element. Meditation is nothing but trying to connect to Existence through the ether element. The earth element is the first plane of tuning ourselves to the Energy and ether is the final plane of tuning. We can start with the earth element – idol worship, but we tend to get stuck there and there starts the problem. You can start education by going to kindergarten school, but you cannot stay in kindergarten, is it not?! In the same way, you can start with idol worship so that you have something tangible when you try to connect to the Cosmic Energy, but you have to ultimately graduate from it and start meditating to fine tune yourself with Existence. Once you start doing this and experiencing the joys of meditation, you will find yourself expanding and exploding in 360 degrees. Ritualistic worship always draws tight boundaries around you. It keeps you in a closed circle. But once you have had a taste of meditation, you

15 will start becoming an expanse. Then, when you go back to rituals, you will look at them from a different dimension and enjoy them even more! When this happens, growth has happened in you. If you understand the underlying concept of the five elements, you will be able to enjoy Existence continuously instead of getting stuck in different forms of worship. So, just try to understand this and start resonating with Existence! Be Blissful!

Words-Paramahamsa Nithyananda Imagine for a moment that the first half of this column is empty. Imagine that the tape you are listening to is silent and has no content for just two minutes. What happens? Your mind races. Thoughts flood you. What has happened, you wonder, what has gone wrong? Why are there no words? Nothing has gone wrong, nothing at all. Your mind cannot tolerate silence; that is all. Thoughts and words are a call of your Consciousness telling you that your center is unfilled. There are two kinds of people. One kind is the people who follow words and seek meaning behind the words. Another kind is those people who ignore the meaning and seek the source of thoughts. The first kind is the Commissar and the second kind is the Yogi. Seeking words and thoughts cannot fulfill you. When you seek words you move into the outer world. You move into the space of sense objects, which results in pain or pleasure. However many times you may experience the physical or sensual pleasure led by your thoughts, you still keep seeking the same pleasure. What one calls karma, is really the effect of these unfulfilled desires. The meaning of thoughts and words is not to provoke movement towards these external experiences that can never be fulfilled but to move towards the center, the core of your being. Only there you will find the comfort in silence. Words soothe your superficial mind the same way as scratching an itch seems to provide some comfort. In actual fact it makes the problem worse. It is the same with words. More words you use more confused you are. Be careful of all these scholars and philosophers who use highly complex language and words to propound their theories. They themselves do not understand what they are saying, so they are forced to confuse others by using complexity as a tool. Whenever you ask questions, more questions arise. This is seen as the measure of intelligence in our system of education. When one really understands, one realizes two things. Firstly, one realizes that questions and answers do no lead to any understanding at all. Secondly, one realizes that understanding happens when thoughts cease.

16 This stillness, this silence leads to fulfillment. Truth resides in silence. Truth resides in contemplation. As you move inwards towards the source of words and thoughts, mind become still in simplicity.