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Poha

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Poha (Flattened rice) is a very easily digestible, carbohydrate-rich food used extensively in India. It has references even in Mahabharata where Lord Krishna liked it very much when offered by his childhood best friend Sudama.The recipe given here is a popular breakfast in many parts of India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Nutritional profile

Contrary to the popular image of potatoes as a comfort food they are actually a good source of vitamin B6, vitamin C, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber. Peanuts are rich in vitamin E, niacin, folate, protein and manganese. In addition, peanuts provide resveratrol, the phenolic antioxidant also found in red grapes and red wine which lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. Peas contain many health-protective phytonutrients which provide us with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits, and lower the risk of stomach cancer. Tomatoes are a good source of dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Thiamin, Niacin, Calcium, Magnesium and Manganese, and a very good source of Vitamin C, Iron, Potassium and Copper. When added to poha, these vegetables not only enhance the nutritional value considerably, but also add a rich taste to the whole dish.

In the context of taste, ayurveda recommends including all the six tastes in every meal – salty, sweet, sour, bitter, pungent and astringent. Each taste feeds our mind, body, senses, and spirit in its own unique way. By incorporating all six tastes into each meal, we ensure that not only the body, but also the mind and senses get satisfied,thus preventing food cravings and over-consumption of certain foods. All the various condiments added to this recipe like lemon juice, curry leaves, coriander leaves, mustard seeds, chillies etc. do just this.

Thus, with its balanced nutritional profile of vitamins, minerals phytonutrients, protein and carbohydrates, poha is a power-packed delicious sattvic food to jump start your day!

Basic Ingredients:

2 cups Poha (Beaten Rice)
1 Boiled Potato
1/2 cup green peas, boiled
1 Tomato
2 Red Chillies
1 tsp Urad dal
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 sprig Curry leaves
2 tsp Peanuts
4 tblsp Oil
1 pinch Turmeric powder
1 Lemon
Few Coriander leaves
Salt to taste

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Procedure:

Soak the poha in water. Wash and drain all the water.
Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes, chop the tomato, chillies, and coriander leaves.
Heat oil and put mustard seeds. When they start sputtering, add chana dal, urad dal and peanuts. When the colour of urad dal changes, add the curry leaves and fry until they crackle.
Now add potato cubes and peas, sauté for few minutes, then add chopped tomato, chillies.
Cook till they are done. Now add the poha, salt and turmeric. Sprinkle some water on the poha to make sure it doesn’t become too dry or stick to the utensil.
Keep it on slow flame for 5- 7 minutes, then turn off the heat and leave it covered for 2 minutes.
Add chopped coriander leaves and stir.
Let it cool for some time and then add lemon juice.
Poha is ready to serve!

Interesting Variations:

Nuts and raisins can be added for a richer taste.
You can add a little jaggery for a sweeter, more mild taste.

I Am

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Human beings define their existence by the things they do, the things they say, the thoughts they have etc. But none of these can in truth define a person, the being. None of these is the true reality of one’s being. The being is something which is beyond the outward manifestations of actions and words. Thoughts are created when someone is not in touch with the true being, which is buried under the thick layers of ‘conditioning’. Conditioning is the base material out of which thoughts are created in the mind.

This conditioning can exist in five forms :

Conditioning of the physical self and attributes – that we are male/ female, tall/ short, thin/ fat
Conditioning by desires – the desires we have
Conditioning of the mental layer – that we belong to a particular nation, religion, culture etc.
Conditioning by language – the language we speak
Conditioning by family – the family we are born in, its traditions, disciplines etc.

These layers of conditioning obscure the truth of the self from people, creating confusions, suffering and negative ideas and mental patterns about life in them.

Self remembrance is a technique which can raise anyone’s frequency of consciousness every day, without doing anything. It does not have any prerequisites, no prior practice of meditation is required. Whenever you are doing something, remember “I am”. When you are driving, remember “I am driving”. When you are eating, remember “I am eating”. Whatever you do the whole day, simply remember that you are doing it. Self remembrance is not thinking. You don’t need to verbalise or think about yourself. When you are thinking, you are not in self remembrance. When you are in self remembrance, you cannot have thoughts.

You don’t have to repeat the words “ I am”. You simply have to be aware, of yourself. Do whatever you are doing with the awareness, that you are doing it. Just try to remember you are without your mental picture or imagination about you. When you are walking, stop for a moment and be aware that you are. Carry this awareness. Be aware that you are experiencing the sun on your face, the wind in your hair. Be aware of the one who is experiencing. Just feel, I am. For a moment, you will be thrown back into yourself ! You catch a glimpse of deep silence, of reality.

All the entertainment in the modern day living is simply to make people forget themselves. The conditioning which takes over people’s lives constantly suffocates them. Hence, they resort to entertainment which is an attempt to forget themselves. But forgetting can never liberate anyone of suffering. Only when you remember yourself without the conditioning, can you be liberated of the suffering. With self remembrance, you get in touch with the eternal presence.

When you are in self remembrance, whatever is not good in your life, will drop you; be it relationships, business decisions, addictions, lifestyle, or anything else. Your self is the master of your life, remembering yourself, the master key of your life. Remembering any God is not required, if you just remember yourself, that is enough, because you are God !

Why So Confused?

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Confusion, dilemma and turmoil are the oldest problems known to mankind. The most powerful solution is that of common sense. By looking at the problem with simple awareness, there will be no stress laid on the inner space.

A story that helps grasp this idea better: There was once a student who wanted to major in Logical Studies. He approached a scholar of logic and asked him to be his guide. The scholar was apprehensive, but agreed to guide the student if he could pass the test. The student obliged, and the scholar put forth a situation. He said, “Two men came down a chimney. One man’s face was dirty, the other’s was clean. Which man washed his face and which one didn’t?” The student pauses and says, “The one with the dirty face, naturally”. The scholar shook his head. He said, “The man with the dirty face looked at the man with the clean face and thought his face was clean. So the man with the clean face washed his face, and the man with the dirty face didn’t wash his face.” The student was in awe and said he never looked at it that way. He asked the scholar for another chance to prove himself.

The scholar repeated his question. The student then said, “We just established that the man with the clean face washed his face, and the man with the dirty face didn’t wash his face.” Again, the scholar shook his head. He said, “The man with the clean face looked at the man with the dirty face and thought his face was also dirty, so he washed his face. The man with the dirty face saw him wash his face and so he washed his face too.” The student was taken aback. He pleaded for another chance.

The scholar obliged and repeated the question. This time, the student said confidently, “Each man washed his face “. Once again, the scholar shook his head and said, “The man with the dirty face looked at the man with the clean face and thought his face was clean, so he didn’t wash his face. The man with the clean face decided he wouldn’t wash his face either, assuming it was clean”. The student was now desperate. He pleaded for a last chance.

At this, the scholar put forth the same question. This was too much for the student, who said, “Why don’t you move on to another question?” The scholar then said, “All your knowledge of programming is clearly insufficient. Stop and ask yourself if it is even possible for two men to descend from the same chimney, one the a dirty face and another with a clean face”.

Confusion makes it harder to be productive. It causes endless mulling over and mulling over adds fuel to confusion, creating a vicious circle. Looking at the problem with nothing but simple awareness is enough to realize that the problem is hypothetical and any solution derived, no matter how “clever”, will be hypothetical too.

Keeping the Inner Space engaged in nonexistent problems and adding convoluted logical patterns is what can be called “Maya”. Finding solutions to these hypothetical problems and thinking of it as a worthy achievement is what can be termed as ego and BREAKING this pattern is INTUITION.

All it takes is a simple bend in logic for it to become a mess that reaches new levels of perversion. With just a little awareness, the line of thinking can remain straight and unnecessary patterns of confusion and dilemma can be prevented.

Tulsi, the Holy Herb

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Ocimum sanctum (holy basil) popularly called tulsi in India, is ubiquitous in vedic tradition. Perhaps its role as a healing herb was instrumental in its “sacred” implication. Tulsi is the most common and revered of all household plants in India. Lord Krishna says, “I give Myself to a devotee who offers me merely a tulsi leaf and a palmful of water”.

Tulsi (holy basil) has delicate purple and green leaves, flower tassels like miniature temple spires and an arresting sweet fragrance famous for attracting the minds of devotees. The whole plant and all its parts are useful. It is really simple to grow tulsi in pots. It grows only through seed propagation and requires a good amount of sunlight and water daily. The leaves are to be collected from the plant tips so as to allow it to grow into a thick lovely bush.

This plant has a long list of medicinal implications. To list a few, the essential oil in tulsi has antimicrobial effects, specifically antiviral effects. Various formulations of tulsi significantly shorten the course of illness in patients of viral Hepatitis. Its extracts have marked mosquito repellent activity. Hence, it is believed that growing a tulsi plant in front of our homes, for the above said two reasons, markedly purifies the air, making it free from air-borne microbes and checks the entry of mosquitoes too.

The most common implication of this holy basil is in combating respiratory disorders and sore throat. As a home remedy, some tulsi leaves along with a few pieces of ginger and pepper and a little jaggery can be boiled together in water and filtered to get an extract. This is consumed while hot in intermittent sips. Or an easier way is to collect a few fresh leaves of holy basil, crush them gently to squeeze out its juice. A few drops of this juice relieve one from running nose, sore throat, fever and cough. Recent research has shown that tulsi powder taken over a period of two weeks reduces the fasting blood sugar by around 17%.

Tulsi has a positive effect over blood pressure and also acts as an effective detoxicant. A tonic may be prepared by mixing 1/4 tsp of dry tulsi leaves with a spoonful of butter and little honey, taken twice a day, first thing in the morning and before going to bed at night. One of the major constituents of the leaves, ursolic acid has been reported to possess antifertility activity attributed to its anti-estrogenic effect responsible for arrest of spermatogenesis in males and inhibitory effect on implantation of ovum in females. This may prove to be a promising antifertility agent devoid of side effects. Some other uses of it include as a mouthwash for relieving toothache and the whole plant’s decoction for relieving headache.

Nirbhaya Dhyana – Death Meditation

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Taken from the Akashic Readings on Death by Kaalabhairava through Nithyananda on 29th September, 2012

Every fear you accumulate, every fear makes you feel agitated, every fear which you do not want to think, remember, go through, go into all those fears consciously, neither deciding to save yourself from that fear nor having greed to achieve what you are afraid of. So without having the greed or fear, enter into the fear. Naturally the fear will lose its quality of fear when you do not carry fear or greed for the fear. Greed has its quality of greed because of your greed for greed and fear about the greed. Same way the fear has the quality of fear because of your fear for the fear and indirect greed towards the fear.

So when your fears are approached with fearlessness and greed-lessness, the straightening out of your consciousness everyday happens. The change of consciousness from jagrat to swapna, swapna to sushupti, the waking state to dream state and dream state to the deep sleep state, happens because your awareness is not straightened out.

Either the bumps of the fear or bumps of the greed are responsible for your consciousness jumping from waking state to dream state or dream state to deep sleep state. If you remove all the bumps of the fear before falling asleep you will not fall asleep, you will fall into something called restful awareness which is recorded by the word turiya by the earlier mantra drashtas (Evolved ones who perceive the mantras through visualization). So the word “turiya” denotes the state of falling into the restful awareness without the bumps of fear or greed. Every night remove all the bumps you created during your daytime through fear or greed. Continuous practice of removing all the bumps of fear and greed by facing them will help you to fall into the state of turiya. This is what Mahadeva calls as death process – nirbhaya dhyana.

 

Life After Death

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Death is a mystery, but more importantly, it is a man’s greatest fear. In some Catholic nunneries, the nuns lie down in open coffins every morning and meditate that they are dead. In Vedanta this is one of the most used techniques for enlightenment. In Buddhism, anyone initiated into sanyas has to spend three months in the cremation grounds and continuously observe bodies being burnt while visualizing himself being burnt. Almost all mystical traditions on the planet use this technique to achieve the highest possibility. Logical mind finds it difficult to understand how one simple experience can give such courage.

Nithyananda himself had this particular experience in Varanasi. When he went to Varanasi, he saw that per day three hundred dead bodies were being cremated in a place called Manikarnika Ghat.

Traditionally, it is believed that if somebody leaves the body in that area, or if their body is burnt in that area, they will be liberated. Ramakrishna confirms this and says that he saw Mahadeva himself going to every pyre and unclutching every soul from its body and liberating them. The men working there would carry the bodies to the Ganga river, reaching there by evening. As they walk, they keep chanting ‘Ram Naam Satya Hai’, which means that Lord Rama’s name is the ultimate truth. There is no special ritual involved. Three times the bodies are dipped into the Ganga as they say ‘Raam Naam Satya Hai’.

Nithyananda sat there to watch what was going on, and an hour later, death was no more a strange incident that happens once in a blue moon to a distant relative. Bodies of all size, gender, age, colour, community and religion were burnt in that hour. When one sees so many bodies, it feels like there is nothing to it. Everyone has to leave their body some day and they will have company as well! The breath that goes into them does not come out, that is all.

Knowing that death is inevitable will bring down the respect that one has for the ego. Whatever that one thinks should not leave them is their ego. When one knows for sure that everything is going to leave them, the respect for the ego goes down immensely. Being a very straightforward person, Nithyananda immediately dropped his ego and decided that if he’s going to die after all, he should have a death experience now itself and live without the fear or die and see for himself. He sat down in a small Shiva temple nearby and started watching the dead bodies being burnt. The big ‘click’ that he remembers even to this day happened when an old lady’s body was being burnt and he could see the fat from her stomach melting. This fat made the fire burn brighter and this made him think that the very same thing is going to happen to him. This opened up a deep, terrible fear of death in him and he faced it consciously.

The fear was spreading all over his body and when it met his awareness, it became a death experience. He saw clearly that his body was dead. For two and a half days, he did not sleep, eat, drink or think. Suddenly the ‘click’ happened that his body is dead but he still exists. This was such an intense ecstasy that the fear of death just left. Slowly he opened his eyes, and the first thing he felt was a deep gratitude. He performed a small pooja for Vishwanatha and he could see clearly that Vishwanatha was alive. When he died, Vishwanatha became alive to him. Till the previous day, because he was alive, Vishwanatha was a dead stone.

When a fear is suppressed, it stays inside the person. When one does not consciously face the fear, it shakes his whole nervous system. However, when it is faced consciously, it becomes a death experience. As Mahadeva says in the Shiva Sutras, “Visualize the fire rising out of your body slowly, let your form be burnt, let your body turn to ashes, but not you”.

Kashi, the City of Moksha

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Varanasi, a city situated on the western banks of the Ganges River in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, is a cultural and spiritual hub for all of India. Kashi, as it is also known, is said to have been residence to Shiva (The Hindu God of Rejuvenation) and his consort, Devi Parvati, where they lived and offered blessings and boons to devotees. It is no surprise then, that located within this vibrant city are numerous temples and holy sites dedicated to the Hindu Gods and Goddess.

Situated on such a site, one of the most famous temples in all of the Hindu religion, is the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. Resting near the banks of the mighty Ganges, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple has a rich cultural and spiritual heritage that has inspired, motivated, and offered solace to visitors from every walk of life.

Believed to have been built in 490 AD, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple was destroyed during numerous invasions of India and in 1776 it was rebuilt in its present state by the Maharani Ahilya Bai of Indore. The Sanskrit words ‘Kashi’ mean “shining” in English and ‘Vishwanath’ translates to “Lord of the Universe,” denoting Shiva. The significance of this holy edifice cannot be understated, from its placement amidst the Ganges to its location in sacred Varanasi. The Kashi Vishwanath Temple is a living embodiment of the timeless cultural and spiritual tradition of India.

One of the most famous aspects of this extraordinary monument is the fact that the temple itself is home to one of the twelve ‘Jyotirlinga’ shrines of India. In Hindu belief, the Jyotirlingas are located at places where Shiva Himself appeared and gave blessings to his devotees, symbolised by naturally formed Shiva lingas at these temples called jyotirlingas. Situated throughout India, these shrines are some of the most sacred sites in all the land. The holy shiva linga of Viswanatha Temple is placed on a silver altar in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. However, history deems that fearing destruction from invaders, the original Vishwanath Jyotirlinga was hidden at the bottom of a well. Known as Jnana Vapi, or ‘wisdom well’, it is located within the temple walls and still believed to contain the original Jyotirlinga to this day.

Less than half a mile away from the temple structure lies another famous Hindu location, the Manikarnika Ghat. A “ghat” is literally a flight of steps that descends down to a body of water. One of many ghats in the city, the Manikarnika Ghat, located along the Ganges river, is known for being a site of cremation. It is believed that Vishnu, the Hindu god of preservation, was the builder of this particular ghat.

The name Manikarnika literally means “ear jewel”. Tradition states that after Sati, the incarnation of Aadishakti preceding Parvati, sacrificed herself for the honor of her consort, Lord Shiva and her body was cut up into many different pieces by the sudarshana chakra, disc-like super weapon, of Lord Vishnu. The places where her body parts fell are regarded as sacred places of worship and are known today as Shakti Peethas (energy seats). In all there are 52 Shakti Peethas all over India, and Manikarnika Ghat is one of them, as Sati’s earrings fell at this spot. Moreover, each of the peethas are guarded over by a Bhairava, a fierce manifestation of Lord Shiva. In Varanasi, Kaala Bhairava, the Lord of Time, is the custodian. Hindu belief holds that to die in Varanasi and get cremated at Manikarnika Ghat assures one of moksha, or liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The fire in the pyres of the Manikarnika Ghat have been continuously burning for centuries.

Varanasi is regarded as one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, and the oldest in India. The Kashi Vishwanath Temple and Manikarnika Ghat, although significant Hindu sites both steeped in the culture and tradition of the land, are only two of the myriad Hindu relics and religious places the city has to offer. A place of fine arts, culture, and spirituality, Varanasi stands as a testament to the living tradition of the Hindu religion and lifestyle.

What is Enlightenment?

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Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s first spiritual experience can be aptly expressed by a beautiful verse from the Shiva Sutras – “Feeling the cosmos as a translucent, ever-living presence”. It was only after his first enlightenment experience that he felt something very different in him which he had never felt before. When his first experience happened, Nithyananda was only about twelve years old – a child. One day, he was sitting on The Coral Rock at the foothills of Arunachala and playfully trying a simple meditation technique given to him by an enlightened master, Annamalai Swamigal. He was intensely observing and intensely present in the moment. Generally, for any spiritual experience to happen, two things are required. One is to be completely open and available to the surroundings and second is the presence of an intense spiritual energy field. Sometimes even if a person is open, they may not be in the energy field and so, the first cracking of the coconut may not happen, since this is a most difficult job. Fortunately Nithyananda had the energy field of the spiritual incubator Arunachala, and was attracted to the beauty of that hill. Normally, when people see a hill or a river or an ocean everyday, they take it for granted, but that did not happen with him. He was continuously open and available, in the sense that every single glance of the hill was seen with fresh eyes and an open mind.

During the Poornima (full moon day), Nithyananda was sitting on the coral rock. It was after sunset and before the raising of the moon. There was an intense and vivid silence around him. Nithyananda was playfully experimenting with the simple technique of trying to find the source of his thoughts. As he was doing this, first the understanding happened to him that he is not solid as he always thought. The body and mind are not solid. They are just liquid, porous, and empty. One can go in and come out. One can get out or get in. Anything can be done. The first truth he experienced was that he is an empty, porous being.

Secondly, he slowly observed that his eyes have closed because of the deep silence. Next, he noticed that something opened up inside him which is beyond his two eyes. The moment that happened, he was not only able to see what was in front of him, but also all around him in a three-sixty degree vision! It was not just seeing, he also felt that everything was a part of him. With closed eyes one can see only their inner space, they can feel it. But Nithyananda felt that the idea of a boundary or a border was completely broken down and he could see everything around him, including all the eight directions, above and below. As alive as one can feel inside their body, that same life, that same presence he experienced with everything around him. He intensely felt that he was present in everything. For a few hours, he did not even remember his body.

Slowly and vaguely, he started remembering his body in the same way as one would remember their body in a dream. Nithyananda managed to come down from the rock and talked to Mataji Kuppammal (Vibhudhaananda Mataji), who was one of his first inspirations, and told her what had happened. She felt his hands and saw the energy there. She laughed and said that he was not possessed by a ghost, he was possessed by God! She encouraged and took care of him. However, even after two days, the experience or ability to see all three sixty degrees was very strong in him and did not go away.

One who can feel the cosmos as a translucent, ever-living presence will have tremendous intelligence and will know exactly how to connect. Living in the present moment passionately, intensely and with a feeling that it is their last moment is what can help one achieve this experience.

Taken from Nithyananda’s Shiva Sutra Discourse series in Montclair, California, USA in 2007

Omkara: The First, Last and Ultimate Sound!

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Omkara is the primal sound. It is the first, last and ultimate sound. When centered on the core of the sound, it can lead you to the space beyond mind.

It is very important to be centered on the mantra. Do not question, think or talk. Let the whole body and mind fill inside the OM mantra until it is lost completely inside the mantra. Only focus on the OM vibration inside the core and be centered on it.
It is recommended to practice this meditation continuously for ten days in order to be able to sit without thoughts. The mind will be filled by the sound, vibration that is created and will not be moving outside the vibration. It is advised to experiment with this technique in order to see the power of it.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Close your eyes and sit in a relaxed way. Concentrate on the navel center, Manipuraka Chakra.
  2. Take a few breaths to concentrate your awareness on your navel chakra.
  3. Forget all parts of your body, only remember the navel chakra.
  4. Start the Omkara (OM) vibration from your navel center as deeply as possible. As you create the omkara sound simultaneously be centered on the sound. Do not allow the mind to go anywhere else as it is very common for the mind to wander around when mantras are chanted.
  5. Do the Omkara sound for ten minutes focusing on the vibration that it creates in your navel center.
  6. Stop. Sit for a few minutes in silence. Try to listen to the sound without creating any sound. Be filled by the sound.
  7. Relax and open your eyes.

Authenticity is Strength & Freedom!

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Honesty is not Authenticity!

Honesty is only one ingredient for authenticity. It is not authenticity by itself. Honesty is only the first step, initial step. Honesty is a socially good quality. Authenticity is a spiritual quality. It is not a socially good quality. Authenticity means – living the spiritual truths authentically. I will give you the difference between honesty and authenticity. For example, If you are angry with somebody, you will express directly to that person, “I am angry with you.” It is honesty. But that is not authenticity. Authenticity means, really two beings understand each other, where even the anger will not happen.

See, in a husband lying to his wife, neither there is honesty nor authenticity. Husband telling the truth to his wife that he is a womanizer is honesty, but not authenticity. Husband living just as husband is authenticity. So each person’s role, if he or she is completely living, it is authentic. When he is failing and revealing the failure to the other person it is honesty. Revealing the failure is not living successfully, understand. It is honest, no doubt, but not authentic.

Honesty will always be demanding; I am honest, you be honest. Authenticity will be always flowing. I am flowing, I don’t bother about you. Authenticity fills you and others. Honesty burns others and you. Many times honesty is a poor substitute for authenticity and the very idea of honesty is built on your ego. But authenticity is built on the cosmic understanding. Authenticity is, living the truths from yourself. Honesty is, living the versions of the truths given to you by society. What do most of the honest people say? Whatever society taught you as a truth you try to live that. It is just based on the facts and the figures, which is not the truth of the life!

Cosmic Account Balance

Are you paying back to the Universe? Are you keeping the balance sheet with the universe proper? You may be keeping your balance sheet proper with the country, nation, are you keeping your balance sheet proper with the cosmos, with the universe? What is the meaning of the word: keeping the balance sheet in tune with the cosmos? Means: just remembering continuously you are not qualified for anything: everything is showered on you is what I mean with keeping your balance sheet straight with the cosmos. You don’t need to pay anything back; cosmos does not ask you anything back. Only thing: the attitude everything is a gift to you is keeping the balance sheet authentic with the cosmos. You do not know; gratitude is such a powerful ingredient. The moment you add that, honesty become authenticity.

Move from Honesty to Authenticity!

Whether it is in the individual’s life or the countries’ history or the whole cosmos: honesty is not authenticity. I always tell people: if you are honest you will have your feet at my place, you will have a place at my feet. But when you are authentic you will have a place in my heart, your heart will have place in me. Understand; there is a big difference between honesty and authenticity. The very foundation on which you built your honesty, the very foundation in which I am living is totally different. Please understand: you need to move from honesty to authenticity. But the problem is these so called honest fellows will be so arrogant! They will think that is the ultimate. It is very rare that people evolve from honesty to authenticity. Blessed are those who evolve from honesty to authenticity. Authenticity means: living it – living the truth. Non-compromising, non-suffering, and non-bending. Courage. And non-violent.

Authenticity IS Listening

When you don’t listen there is no verbal communication possible, there is no authenticity; there is no mystical communion possible. When there is no listening, communication is not possible, when there is no authenticity, communion is not possible. All initiations are communion between my inner space and your inner space. When communion happens I also feel fulfilled. When your kundalini is awakened, I am fulfilled because in cosmic space all initiations work on you only when there is authenticity. People ask me why sometimes some healing by you works miracles, some healing doesn’t become miracles.

The whole thing boils down to authenticity. Understand, I pronounce these words with Mahaakaala’s authenticity, the heart I carry, the will which makes decisions in me, and the energy, power, Shakti, which is functioning in me cannot escape from authenticity. When it sees authenticity, it cannot say no. When I see authenticity, I cannot say no to what you are asking, whatever you ask. The best way to overpower me is authenticity.

The Right Way to Unclutch

Do an acid wash of all your actions with authenticity. Wash your whole life with the acid of authenticity. I tell u, it will not even be acid, it will be sandalwood paste. I wanted all the decision makers in our sangha also to wash the whole organization with this authenticity. Let everything be practiced, preached, enforced, interested with authenticity. I tell you, with authenticity when you stretch the body in the morning, your whole body will become a yogic body. When you sit for the guru pooja with authenticity, your whole being will melt down. When you sit with integrity and authenticity only then unclutching is possible. Otherwise, you will be misusing the unclutching in wrong places. To hide yourself in your own inauthenticity, you will be using unclutching.

Three Levels of Integration

One of the important suffering human beings have in their life is the problem of not having integrity. I’ll explain the integrity in different levels to you. First is the intellect – the logic, analyzing. Second is emotion, a feeling of connection, the juicy part of your life. The third is the being, your very idea about you, which is constant, which runs like a thread during your waking, dream and deep sleep state. During all these three states, it runs like a common thread. That is why when you get back to waking state you are remembering the same personality. You remember about yourself as the same continuity. This is what I call the “being”. Understand, in all these three there is a lot of disturbance. You will understand the intellectual disturbance. The moment you start planning for one thing, within a few seconds some other plan will be going on in the other part of the brain. That is why I always tell people, it is a disintegrated brain. Right brain and left brain. Nothing is right in the left, nothing is left in the right. Dis-integrated brain. It goes on and on and on in different directions.

Integrity – Path to Your Life’s Purpose

When you bring integrity into your thinking all these patterns get destroyed just by the existence of integrity. Because every time you think, every statement you complete, you will see if it is in alignment with your existence, your life’s purpose. When the integrity in the words starts, you will create workability in the outer world. When the integrity in your thinking starts, you will create creativity itself in the inner world. When you are aligning your every thought with the purpose of your existence, integrating your every thought with the purpose of your existence, you are creating, it is creativity. Creativity is not just painting something or sculpting something or designing something; creativity means creating life as you want. When you align your thoughts, just visualize and see if you are applying integrity.

Integrity and Authenticity = Living Enlightenment

When you integrate your intellect it becomes knowledge. It leads you to life solutions, you will understand about the cosmos. When you integrate your emotions, it leads to devotion; you will feel connected to the cosmos. When you integrate your being it leads to Dhyana (meditation) – you will realize the cosmos. Understanding, emotional feeling connection, realization. All these three happen just by integration. Integrity is the ultimate yoga. It solves all the problems of life. I can say, it dissolves all the problems of life. So have integrity and achieve enlightenment.

Possibility, not Past

Every thought, every idea you consciously acknowledge is a promise given to you by you, so you have to fulfill it. So you will be aware before giving any promise to yourself. You will see, it is a commitment; will I be able to fulfill it or not? Am I going to believe only my past records or am I going to believe my possibility? My past records make me feel I am a failure. The fight between past records and possibility is the fight between creativity and laziness. One fortunate thing is that I don’t look at the past records. Do not believe in past records. Believe only in possibility.

Taken from the collected talks of Nithyananda on the subject of “Authenticity”

The Science of Effortless Memory

By Nithyananda Times -
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One of the most sophisticated systems in human body is the brain, and even more sophisticated is the way in which it stores and retrieves information. Every moment, the brain receives a number of internal and external inputs in the form of signals, and it stores them in a particular pattern. How one interprets and assimilates this information becomes a key factor in deciding the quality of one’s life. By changing the quality of one’s memory one can change the very quality of their life.

One of the leading scientists of the inner world, sage Patanjali, beautifully says, “Anabhuta vishaya asaam pramosha smruthi”. It means, “The recall of the mental impressions of past events from the subconscious mind is memory.” Sometimes people remember that which is not required; sometimes they don’t remember that which is required. Memory is responsible for all the joys one experiences in the outer world. Not using memory is responsible for many of the sufferings one goes through in the outer world. Memory is also responsible for all the inner disturbances. It becomes important to see the paradox here: in the outer world using memory brings comforts, luxury and needed things, but not using memory brings suffering, absent-mindedness and disturbance. In the inner world , using memory brings all kinds of psychological problems, while relaxing from memory brings tremendous joy and peace.

Whenever a thought arises, without supporting that thought, without rejecting that thought, without acting in favor or against that thought, simply relaxing from a thought is called ‘unclutching’. Unclutching from memory in the inner world brings tremendous bliss.

For convenience, memory can be broadly classified into three different types. The first kind of memory is “Table Memory”. It is called “Table Memory” because it is similar to everyday items which we keep on our desk. This kind of memory involves casual tasks like recognizing one’s relatives and friends, recognizing the place where they live etc. These files are directly connected to the day-to-day activities and can be recalled without any effort. The second kind of memory is the “Cupboard Memory”. They are like the objects kept in the cupboard. One can retrieve them as per their requirements. For example, the information regarding an old vacation, an old journey, the name of an old friend are stored as cupboard memories. The third kind of memory is “Archived Memory”. One needs to have a special key to access these memories. For example, past birth memories can be remembered by working with special meditation techniques. If the table is too overloaded with memories there is an automatic mechanism which moves the files from the table to the cupboard or the archives.

When the above concept is applied effectively, it can liberate people from their psychological problems. Psychological problems are actually a luxury. One needs to constantly brood over them to have psychiatric troubles. Patanjali, an enlightened master who is the author of the Yoga Sutras, says, the recall of mental impressions of the past events from the subconscious mind is memory.

So how can memory be used effectively without creating any congestion of thoughts or other psychological troubles? The best way to use memory is to use it more and more when it comes to the outer world. Unclutch from it more and more, when it comes to the inner world. This is the sutra, this is the thumb rule. When one unclutches from the memories, relaxes from them in the inner world, tremendous spontaneity and ability to remain in the present moment will happen. The more it is used in the outer world to store and retrieve information, more and more leadership will happen in a person. Leader is a person who can handle large amounts of memory with very sharp quality of presence. When one unclutches from the memory in the inner world, tremendous feeling of security starts happening in them. Only a person who can unclutch from his memory, can feel completely secure.

When one learns the technique of unclutching, the quantity of memory available and the quality of retrieval both increase exponentially. For example, the information which is in many high resolution images can be saved in a single word document, the size of which is lesser than the size of a single image. Similarly if one can store memory files without emotional attachment, the ability to store and the ability to retrieve both are tremendously increased. By constantly unclutching from memories, everything is converted into a Word document. By constantly remembering the past mistakes guilt is created. But by unclutching from the past memories, one can assimilate the essence and experience of the mistakes.

Learning from the past experiences means assimilating. Experience does not mean the number of incidents one goes through in life; it simply means the number of lessons learned from those incidents. There is no need to remember past incidents, we just need to update and upgrade ourselves from the past lessons. One can catch this truth by simply unclutching from memories for about ten days.

Memory when it is used in the outer world can bring more and more joys and comforts. If one can unclutch from the memory in the inner world, it can bring more and more peace and bliss. By learning to unclutch one can have, what Buddha calls, “Right Remembrance.” Having the right remembrance is Jeevan Mukti – Living Enlightenment.

The Science of Pranayama

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pranayama
pranayama

The word ‘prana’ has a deeper meaning in Sanskrit; it means the source of life, the life force or the energy which is the basis for existence. It does not simply mean air. ‘Prana’ is a kind of vibration which goes inside along with the breath. This vibration stays inside and continues to add more vibrations or frequency to the life energy. Even when one feels that the breathing has almost stopped during deep meditation, prana continues to go in and come out. Prana, the life force is independent of breathing. During meditation, air going in and coming out may reduce but the prana going in and settling increases and this is the main reason why meditation rejuvenates a person.

The practice of breathing without thoughts being awakened is called the science of pranayama. Now one can understand why the definition of pranayama as control of breathing might be a misnomer here, because prana and breathing are not equivalent words. The sacred scripture Patanjali Yoga Sutras clearly gives the definition of pranayama as cessation of breathing, where cessation means stopping the very act of breathing which one experiences every day, every moment, which awakens thoughts along with the air movement.

“Tasmin sati shvasa prashvsayoh gati vichchhedah pranayama”

The science of absorbing the prana or life energy directly without any unnecessary load on one’s system, and in the highest frequency without awakening any thoughts, is what Patanjali calls as ‘Pranayama’.

Along with the air movement if thoughts are also awakened, a person is not inhaling pure prana, the life energy. When there are more thoughts, the breath will carry lesser life energy inside, and vice-versa. But unfortunately most of the time one takes in too much of air without any prana flow inside, instead of the ideal situation of taking in only life energy and no air. Hence there is a need to learn the science of breathing without giving rise to thoughts. If one’s mind is interfering with their breathing, it will always be unfulfilled. If one feels that they have everything in the outer world but still there is no fulfillment, it simply means their breathing is not fulfilled. The first thing such a person needs to fulfill in their life is breathing. When one is able to fulfill their breathing, everything will be fulfilled for them in spite of complexities in the outer world. When this is not the case, only deep emptiness prevails. Human body is like a desert filled with sand. Any air movement which happens in the body is similar to the air movement in the desert, where the dust is lifted and the whole air becomes dusty, full of sand. Ordinary body is filled with so much bio-memory that breathing by its very nature awakens too many thoughts and makes a person restless. Hence if one wants to achieve breathing without any thoughts, they should take up the sadhana (intense commitment to practice) of integrating themselves and unclutching. The complete balancing of prana can happen in a person while unclutching.

Breath is the bridge which connects a person with the cosmos. It goes through Shiva consciousness every moment. Every single breath goes in and touches the inner consciousness. Just before it turns to come out, there is always a gap where one does not breathe, where breath is not happening. If one can relax in this gap and be aware of that space, a sudden explosion of consciousness can happen in the person. If a person is comfortable in this neutral zone, they will rejuvenate again and again and will be flooded with energy. To be comfortable in this space, all one needs to do is overcome the fear of losing one’s identity, which does not exist in this neutral zone. Incoming breath is life and outgoing breath is death. On every inhale the person will be filled with energy and on every exhale with intelligence, leading to a continuous cosmic game of Shiva and Shakti dancing in one’s inner space. One becomes active and alive by the energy and intelligence, which will become the source for their life. Such a state is what is called God-consciousness.

When constantly thinking with integrity, all the air taken inside will be converted as energy or prana. All the air which goes inside, if it becomes energy by the bio-memory and the muscle memory, then no other source of energy from outside will be required. Breathing will be very deep and the person will have a strong experience of fulfillment.

Adapted from Nithyananda’s collected Discourse on the subject of “Pranayama”

How I Became a Yogi!

By Nithyananda Times -
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— By Sumithra Swaminathan

This is a journey of an ordinary housewife to a Yogi – a Nirahari (One who does not intake solid food).

I always thought a yogi is someone who, after renouncing everything, goes to the Himalayas; someone who does tapas (penance), standing on one leg and achieving great powers like living without food, materializing objects, developing the power to take prana (life energy) from the air. Someone who exhibits extraordinary powers which a normal householder cannot even imagine. Little did I know that there is a hidden yogi in each and every one of us. These powers, which are hidden in our bio-memory, can be brought back to life with the help of an incarnation without doing any tapas from our side. When I became a Nirahari, it was a shock for me to find out that I can actually live without food.

If you are wondering if it can happen to you, the answer is: yes! All you require is just 21 days of your time and 21 initiations from the master to find out that your body does not need food to survive any more.

When I went for ‘The Samyama’ (Nirahara Samyama program – beyond fasting and feasting), I thought that I would be living without solid food, just on juices and buttermilk for 21 days; that I would have increased awareness on how I eat, that my eating pattern will change (maybe I will eat less) once I get back to my home. Now I know that I will follow all this as a lifestyle.

Living without food didn’t just give me good health, but also courage and clarity towards life. All our actions are based on what society has taught us. When you know through direct experience that you don’t need food to survive, you feel a total freedom. You have your whole life in front of you which you can enjoy as you wish. You can go after your dream instead of money (which we earn for food), not out of fear or greed but out of simple choice – the choice made out of freedom.

What happened to me in the 21 days other than my whole life changing?

My physical body changes were as follows. First my excess fat got reduced. I lost 10 kg in the first few days into the Samyama (spiritual process) and stopped reducing after that. My face looked younger (anti- aging started happening) and a new sense of respect towards my body started to happen. The feeling of how blessed I am to have a body like this and the desire of wanting to live for more years happened in me. I felt good about myself and started to accept myself, which in itself is a tremendous healing for both body and mind. When you break big patterns like food, a tremendous confidence and courage arises to stand for what you believe in.

Just a few days before the Samyama ended I was still not feeling that I could live without food. I shared my concern with Swamiji. I said: “Swamiji, I feel, with your initiations and the group energy and seeing hundreds of people living without food I am able to do it now. But once I go home I have a fear that I will not be able to continue this as my lifestyle.”

Swamiji answered: “The initiation is so strong you will be able to do it, literally I will be “bolting” this experience in you all. I have awakened the bio-memory to absorb prana directly from ether and your body does not need food. However, all the mental craving you have when you see food, you have to take responsibility for that.” There that was a click for me. Without me taking the responsibility to be a yogi, a Nirahari, nothing will happen.

I understood then that without taking responsibility, not only in the outer world but also in the inner world we cannot achieve anything. Be it a CEO of a big company or a person doing tapas in the Himalayas; without the attitude of responsibility nothing can be achieved. “Surrendering with responsibility is enlightenment”. This was a huge click in me.

In the past, I have tried to convince many people living around me about the path I am traveling, but I was never able to inspire or convince them. What I was not able to achieve being a normal housewife following a spiritual path, I was able to achieve by being a Nirahari. Instead of me talking about the great truths to everyone, when I start living them I can inspire more people to walk on this path. I know now for sure: action is always stronger than words. Such a strong courage has happened in me – the courage not to fight with others but the courage to face my very own mind – and I know I am winning.

When I decided I will continue to be a Nirahari, I wondered about myself, the new me and said: “Loving others is easy. Loving oneself is more difficult.” And yes, I have fallen in love with myself, which is the ultimate gift.

If someone can make an ordinary housewife into a yogi in just 21 days, we can only address and revere that person in one word: INCARNATION.

Unrevealed Mysteries of the Mystics

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Beings who reveal the unrevealed mysteries to the world are called incarnations. With tremendous compassion and love, so that the human consciousness can experience the unrevealed super consciousness, incarnations reveal these mysteries. I will give a glimpse of the science behind miracles using an example. The human body, which represents the individual self, is like a mirror that reflects the rays of the sun, where the sun represents the super consciousness. These rays fall on the mirror creating a reflection which represents the world.

Suffering is created when the mirror accepts some parts of the reflection and rejects some other parts, instead of looking up towards its source. When this happens for a while, the mirror slowly misses its purpose of existence and loses itself into experiencing fear, rejection, pain, sorrow and horror because of liking and disliking something instead of looking back towards the source. Furthermore, since the human body is a reflection of the super-consciousness, it changes its form based on its likes and dislikes. That is why when an individual fantasizes about food, music, sex or anything else the very quality of the body changes based on the fantasy. Thus the very quality of the body is changed based on its likes and dislikes. When the mirror starts looking back towards its source instead of being caught up in liking or disliking some parts of the reflection, it is called sadhana or period of intense spiritual practice..

Siddhars (beings who have attained the flawless identity with Reality or God) have revealed that every human body has 72000 minor nadis (according to traditional Indian spiritual science the nadis are the channels through which the wind or air is said to flow), 24 major nadis and one central nadi. So based on each attraction and fantasy of the individual, one of the nadis will be engaged. For eg, if an individual has a craving for a particular food, then one nadi will retain the memory about that food craving and the satisfaction that is enjoyed by that individual when he or she is eating that particular food. Similarly nadis store memories about people or objects that cause fear, tension, worry, attachment and other emotions. If the individual uses too many nadis then he or she is caught up in pravritti (worldly life). If the individual is flowing towards the source from which it reflects, then he or she is living nivritti (an enlightened life).

Many people are caught up with too many choices in the world without possessing choice-less awareness. Too many nadis are engaged in these choices and that is responsible for drugs, teenage suicide and the deep depression that modern day youth is facing. Living with too many choices without possessing the choice-less awareness is like having hundreds of varieties of food in front of a person whose tongue is cut off. It is a dangerous idea.

If all the 72000 nadis are spent on what is seen without looking back at the source, then that person is in depression. Out of the 72000 nadis, if at least 10,000 are focused towards the source then that individual is living a balanced life. This can be done by spending an hour or two centered on higher ideals, centered on the super consciousness. If 50% of the nadis are diverted towards the source, then that person is living a jeevan mukta (enlightened) life. That individual does not need to bother about the focus of the remaining 50% of the nadis.

If the focusing of the nadis towards the source is established, then the individual will start expressing miracles. More than 10,000 nadis of an individual can be centered towards super consciousness when his/her kundalini energy (the dormant potential force that lies at the base of the spine of a human being) is awakened. According to the siddha tradition, when the kundalini is awakened in a person, if he/she can lift something equivalent to their own body weight it is called “bal”. If a person has one “bal”, either the left or the right nadi will be perfect. Similarly if the person can lift twice his/her weight, he/she is said to possess two “bals” and in that person both the nadis will be active and alive. If the person possesses three “bals”, then all three nadis are active and at least 10,000 nadis out of the 72000 are centered towards super consciousness.

When I awakened the kundalini of my ashramites (a person committed to practice the sanyas lifestyle in an ashram) they were able to lift 2-3 times of their own body weight without any effort. I can demonstrate the same even with the participants however I strongly caution that it should be done in controlled conditions and only under the direct guidance of an enlightened master. I can do all these miracles and create time out of consciousness because all my 72000 nadis are centered on the source and I am completely free from my reflection.

Taken from Nithyananda’s Daily Discourse delivered on 4th December, 2010 in Bidadi Ashram, Bangalore, India

Relive to Relieve!

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A beautiful verse in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, ‘Samskara sakshat karanaat purvajati jnanam’ states that by doing samyama (an intense spiritual process) on the previous thought waves, one obtains knowledge of their past lives. Swami Vivekananda translates this as ‘through the perceiving of impressions comes the knowledge of past life.’ This is a very powerful technique. Once, a claustrophobic person re-lived a past life wherein he was buried alive in an earthquake. It became evident that once the trauma was released he was able to overcome the fear, exhibiting strong healing evidence of reliving the past.

‘Sanshaya’, or doubt, is a demon that makes life uncomfortable for you everywhere. The extraordinary tamas (lethargy) creates an intense doubt about everything in life. There are different levels of doubt – doubting persons, doubting relationships etc. The extreme is doubting the very space you are living in. Claustrophobia is nothing but an extraordinary doubt; doubting even the very space one lives in. If a person is claustrophobic, they can meditate on that samskara (engraved memory from the past) questioning themselves why they feel the way they feel. This will open the first and second layer of past. In the same way, if a person has the fear of projecting their past trauma or doubt, or have a distrusting relationship with someone, they have to dig into it. This way, one will be able to rewind their first layer and second layer past, not just from this birth but from earlier lives too. It is a very powerful process for past life regression.

Every moment, the samskaras and experiences added, and the strategies and decisions made are responsible for the future. So, analyzing the past and healing the past is the right way to create the right strategy for the future.

Healing the past means nothing but learning the lessons from past life incidents which were supposed to be learned when they happened. When any incident which happens in life is dealt with awareness, all the lessons needed to be learned will become energy and all the unnecessary things will just leave the mind. It’s just like a digestion process. But when a person does not have enough awareness and patience, they dump that incident inside them as an engram (engraved memory) and decide to take care of it later on. These stored engrams which have not become intelligence in a person are the past wounds. Now re-living them with intelligence will digest them naturally, letting the energy and the wisdom stay while the unnecessary part will just automatically disappear from the system. This is called healing the past. Whatever is right becomes part of life and whatever is not needed leaves the system, hence healing the past.

Adapted from Nithyananda’s Discourse on the Nithyananda Sutras on 10th November, 2010 delivered in Bidadi Ashram, Bangalore, India

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