Shiva is the embodiment of getting rid of the old and the possibility of the new – the power of rejuvenation. He can get rid of anything in you – karmas, negative patterns, body, mind, disease. Getting rid of the old, re-inventing yourself as new. Trishul (trident) is the symbol of getting rid of all impossibilities. Damaru (drum) is the symbol of remembering and reinforcing all the possibilities. Damaru is the sound and symbol of creation. Trishul is the weapon of rejuvenation. That’s why the damaru and trishul are always worshipped together. Through the trishul, He removes all the old impossibilities. Through the damaru, He creates all the possibilities for you in your life!
You can never worship Mahadeva – you can only join His team and celebrate His existence. First of all if you can’t grasp Mahadeva, then how will you worship Him? You can only celebrate His presence, that He has happened in your life and He has graciously introduced His existence to you.
The Vedic Tradition starts with giving the right context of you to you. For instance, in the Shaiva Tradition, you are introduced to yourself as Mahadeva – Shiva. You are not introduced to yourself as a sinner, a slave or a follower. Human beings are endowed with the energy to make what they want in their life as reality. Human-beings are not sent as beggars to Planet Earth. God is not a sadist sending you with empty hands. He is neither a sadist nor a miserly father. He is a beautiful causer, amazing cosmic causeless auspicious energy – Satchitananda – Shiva!
In the Shaiva Tradition, your initiation starts with the great truth of Shivoham. Only Mahadeva celebrates by making more and more Mahadevas! Only a devotee of Mahadeva can declare, “Shivoham” – “I am Shiva!”
Please understand, only the Vedic Tradition has the courage to declare that the concept of God is a stepping-stone for enlightenment! The concept of Shiva is just to experience oneness – the non-dualistic state. Shiva is also a stepping-stone for Shivoham. And he is happy about it, understand! The approach you need to have with Mahadeva is to celebrate his existence and His presence – join His team!
Human beings have the power to experience the non-dual space of Advaitha with everyone. But the ideas of impossibility always stop it from happening. This idea of impossibility creates self-doubt, self-hatred and self-denial in a person. It is a common belief that creating whatever we want as our reality cannot happen due to our past failures. This hangover that is carried around, from past incidents, is what is known as an ‘incompletion’. Incompletions act as a wall towards the individual who is trying to realise the state of Advaitha. We can overcome these by completing with them and manifesting what we want as our reality.
What is Completion?
Completion is a space or a state of being where no negative events, emotions, thought patterns or behaviours from the past can have a hold over us in the present or future. For example, people who have a deep self-sympathy, victim mentality, will always suffer from pain in the back of the head. Their incompletions will manifest as an illness or a disease in their physical body. This can only be resolved by completing with it.
“Reliving your past, with a new understanding, deciding not to repeat past mistakes, incompletions and patterns again in future is completion.” – Paramahamsa Nithyananda
How Can Completion be Achieved?
Once an incompletion is discovered, it can be completed. The very declaration that it will no longer be a part of the cognition can complete that incompletion for us! That is all! There are some patterns which cannot be completed, because the logical source of it cannot be found. Only the patterns that have their source in this birth can be completed by reliving. There are some patterns that are brought from the past births.
The patterns for which the source is not known cannot be completed by reliving and relieving, they can only be discarded. Discarding is the power of powers. Discarding is the essence of the completion process. When the incompletion can be discarded, it is complete. When it can be discarded, the completion process is no longer required for that thought pattern.
Decide to Be Complete!
Completion is not a separate action; it is a simple decision. Constantly try to be in the space of completion for the whole day even while reading, writing, working, talking, planning or anything else we may be doing. Once you pick it up, the way you use it, the way you walk and talk will be different. Whenever agitation or an incompletion happens, take a few minutes to go into the bathroom, lock yourself there, do the completion and then come out. This is a simple decision that no one can question.
Once you get a little comfortable with the space of completion, burning all incompletions, especially the ones from the past births, is an easy job for the Master. He can then permanently establish you in the space of completion. In the Inner Awakening program, he bolts this space of completion into the bio-memory of all the participants. As of now, because people are so comfortable with incompletion and impossibilities, he is not able to move them out of it because they don’t even know why they should be moved out of it. But when you go to the Inner Awakening program with the clarity that you want to transform and want to make positive changes in your life, the Master can simply replace your dysfunctioning inner space with a new inner space of completion.
Completion is a direct technique leading to the space of Advaitha. With the right understanding and the sincere practice of completion, Advaitha can be easily experienced.
During the celebration of ‘Colors of Life’ festival or Holi, people throw colored powder on the River Ganges. When people throw the colored powder on the Ganges, the colored powder floats on the surface of the Ganges and then in a few minutes it disappears into the Ganges. Here, the colored powder floating on the Ganges can be called the ‘thought trend’ and the flow of the Ganges is the ‘thought current’.
Thought Trend or Thought Current?
Every day, how you perceive yourself, how you consciously choose to align a few thoughts as a part of yourself (your conscious thinking) is your ‘thought trend’. Your whole life’s thinking flow, what you perceive as ‘you’ in your dreams, in your deep sleep, the default thinking style of your being, your inner space (your unconscious flow) is your ‘thought current’. Thought trend is the thinking trend, based on which you make your day-to-day decisions like, “Should I drive my car and go to office, or should I go by bus?” You make every day decisions naturally based on thought trend, not by thought current. You make bigger decisions in your life such as marriage, career, etc. based on your whole thought current. But the good news is when you coordinate your thought trend there is no need to worry about your thought current.
Advaitha Begins with a Decision
Just decide you will align your thought trend. Most people carry a wrong cognition that only if you transform your thought current you can be complete. From morning till night every day, align your thought trend to Advaitha. In the morning when you wake up, if you feel bored or tired, just tell yourself, “I am the eternal space, Nithyananda, I cannot be tired or bored.” When one part of you continues to tell you “No, I am tired! I am bored!” Don’t worry about it. Don’t give up, saying, “Oh, God! Unless I transform the whole thought current, I cannot be in the space of Advaitha.” Start with the thought trend in every action and then smaller actions.
Align Your Thought Trend
You do not need to worry about your whole thought current. The thought trend being aligned towards the Advaitha is enough, because you are experiencing only thought trend as life! Actually, when you start aligning your thought trend, the thought current also becomes nondualistic. Start tuning your thought trend to nondualistic. Handle and align your simple actions like what kind of food you eat, how many hours you sleep, what is your simple perception about your neighbors, boss or spouse, and your everyday actions, to Advaitha. Your boss is nothing but one part of you which always wants to rule without explaining. Again, your spouse is also one part of you who goes on explaining which you don’t want to listen. Whether you realize it or not, everyone who is a part of your life is you. In the Inner Awakening program, you get all type of spiritual experiences – Kundalini awakening, Energy Darshan, Puja, Homa, Yoga, Pranayama and Kriya – all of which align your thought trend to the nondualistic truth – Advaitha. In twenty one days, when your thought trend is repeatedly aligned to the truth of Advaitha, your thought current also aligns to the truth of Advaitha.
‘Success’ is a powerful word because it creates so many different emotions in you. Good or bad, it stimulates all your thought patterns. All successes are achieved because of Advaitha. All failures happen when you fight with Advaitha because you perceive it as incomprehensible, impractical and impossible. Advaitha is the only practical strategy required to steer through life with ease.
Advaitha brings the ultimate success when it is understood from the right context – why do you want success? Success is making what you want, from the context you want, as a reality. For example, if you want money for entertainment, you should also have the health to enjoy it. That is the correct context. If you burn yourself out acquiring the money, you have only sold your health! This is the wrong context. Aligning what you want with the correct context of what you want makes you a successful person.
Measure Your Success
You can consider yourself a success the moment you cause the reality you want using the context you want. When you don’t have any powerlessness about your future and you are very clear about what you want, how you are going to cause it and can follow the side-effects and the after-effects, then you have fulfilment even before being successful.
Once you begin to see the success happen, then you have the knowledge of the science and the ability to reproduce success. Making what you want happen again and again in your life from the context of how you want it, makes you ‘successful’. All the ‘blind spots’ are sorted out and you can move with the clarity of your life’s purpose.
The people that you keep around you contribute to your success. The state of mind held by the people you associate with shape or reflect your own state of mind because you are a part of everyone around you. It does not matter if you are a housewife or a CEO, you are answerable for your success or the lack of it.
Continuously remember to be in the space of Advaitha with everyone you know. Be in tune with them and understand how they reflect your inner space. For example, have you ever noticed why if you are in a low mood, everyone around you treats you with a little impatience or unfriendliness? And on the contrary, when you move about the world with a smile and laughter in your heart, everyone you see can’t help but smile back at you. Now understand how everyone is an extension of you!
Whenever a truth is revealed, there are some people who perceive it as the truth until it is proven as false. There are some other people who take it as false until it is proven true. I am not saying that the first category is right and the second category is wrong. All I am saying is, the first category gets to enjoy the living presence of an incarnation and his leelas, the divine play. The second category has to live with the deities, statues and only pictures of the Master.
Krishna says beautifully in the Bhagavad Gita, “Whoever knows the context of my actions understands my inner space!” If you try to find the reasons for my actions, you will only get into inability. Inability always makes you powerless. If anything makes you powerless, you nurture anger towards it. Try to get the context of my actions, not the reasons. My context is always from the space of Advaitha. When you have patience to get the context of my actions, you will not only rise in love with me, you become me!
Understand the Context of Advaitha
If you look at all my actions from the context of Advaitha, you will experience and become absorbed into that tremendous love, experiencing the space of ‘Nithyanandoham’- ‘I am eternal bliss!’ The moment you know the context from which I am operating, it becomes yours. Understand, the space of Advaitha which I am carrying is an inexhaustible wealth, secretly kept in my heart.
Getting the context is very easy. Before you think of starting a debate on it, approach the truth with the clarity that it is true. For example, when you approach this statement, “The Sun rises in the East”, don’t ask for reasons. Instead, try to look into the context. The person who tries to get the context of my actions is a devotee. The one who grasps the context of my actions is Me!
Make Advaitha your Life Strategy
Advaitha is the sathya, truth, based on which you should start planning and strategizing ynour life. It is not something to be experienced when you are old and retired. It is so unfortunate, people always say, ‘When I am old, all my responsibilities are over and I’m retired, I will attend meditation programs. I will go to Rishikesh and Haridwar, sit in a calm place and chant “Rama Rama Rama”’.
Strategize Your Life with Advaitha
Understand, Advaitha is not retirement plan – it is life strategy plan. It is your “career dating” plan. Before you start your career or planning for dating, get the context of Advaitha, because you need Advaitha before you even start your career and dating! Advaitha is not a retirement plan but the alphabet you need to learn in your life.
The Inner Awakening program makes it easy for you to imbibe the truth of Advaitha. The program prepares you to face life and celebrate it from the context of Advaitha. The highest intelligence in you is activated and Advaitha is programmed into your very thinking – not just as a philosophy, but the very context from which you cognize the happenings in your life.
Advaitha is ultimate truth and the purpose of all life. The word ‘Advaitha’ translates to ‘nonduality’. Advaitha is neither difficult nor easy, you just have to live it. Advaitha is the most sure thing on the planet Earth. Sooner or later, either in this janma (lifetime) or in the next janma, you have to achieve the space of Advaitha.
Advaitha is a Practical Science
Advaitha in practice is the science of making what you want as reality. Advaitha, in thinking, is clarity. If you have an Advaithic approach towards yourself, that will make you more and more sure about yourself. Being sure about what you want will remove all powerlessness from your life. It will make you so powerful and bring you so much success that not only everything you touch, but everything people touch in your name will also become successful. Taking your name, anything people touch will become successful. That is the power of the space of Advaitha.
Knowing that whatever you do should be from the space of Advaitha is Dharma (righteousness). Knowing that whatever you want to acquire is already a part of your inner space is the science of Artha (economics). Knowing that every person you want to have in your life is already a part of you is the science of Kama (desires). And knowing that everything is you is the science of Moksha (liberation).
Everything is Part of You
Whether you see everything as a joyful addition to you or as a problem added to you, the space of Advaitha is cognizing everything in your life based on the truth that everything is you. Whether you feel that life is a lead or a load, Advaitha is a fact! If you understand everything is you, you will start thinking, “Then I am responsible. How can I make everything around me as a lead instead of a load?”
When you know that everything around you is you, you will have tremendous compassion and sympathy and you will not give up on people. You will not even have the arrogance to give up on people. Whether you realize it or not, everyone who is part of your life is YOU! If you carry the clarity that the other person is an extension of you, even if he tries to attack you, his whole being will not support him in his attack on you. He will be so foolish that he will collapse and you will not be attacked.
All spiritual experiences, whether it is Kundalini awakening or Energy Darshan, Shakthipat, Puja, Homa, Yoga, Pranayama or Kriya, everything is useful as long as it aligns you with the nondualistic truth.
Manage Your Life with Advaitha
It is very unfortunate that because Advaitha is an amazing intellectual philosophy, even the intellectual understanding solves many problems and people stop with that. Just because Yoga cures your stomach pain doesn’t mean you should stop with that. Yoga cures your headache; but you should not stop with that. Up to the time you have a head, you need to do Yoga! Yoga is not just for removing the headache; it is for removing the disease of having a body. In the same way, Advaitha is not just for having an intellectual clarity about how to run your life.
Living Advaitha is the real life insurance; everything else is death insurance. When you make Advaitha into your own experience, it becomes the greatest Insurance for all crisis management. Otherwise, your instability becomes a horror even for yourself. Advaitha is the only space where you will find rest, where you will find success, where you will find completion and where you will find fulfilment.
Advaitha is one of the ultimate truths of life. The word ‘Advaitha’ means nonduality. It does not mean oneness or that everyone is the same. It means that everyone is unique. Why not ‘oneness’? The moment you say, “one”, there is “two”. When you internalize and understand everything in life from the truth that everyone is an extension of you, you are experiencing the true space of Advaitha. Living in this space, internal energy, of Advaitha opens you up to your true nature – you are introduced to YOU.
The Gift of Advaitha
Advaitha Sathya, the highest truth, was the precious gift given to the world directly from the inner space of Mahadeva. The research and development of these great truths – the way they are lived, transmitted, contemplated and listened to – is the perfection that happened in the great, loving space of Mahadeva.
In the modern world, the great enlightenment science of Advaitha has been branded as a very powerful theology and philosophy. Originally, however, Advaitha evolved as a sweet, personal instruction between the disciple and the Master when Mahadeva shared it with his consort, the Goddess Parvathi.
Advaitha is Available for Everyone
Today, in the living presence of enlightened Master, Paramahamsa Nithyananda, the great truth of Advaitha is perfected and made user-friendly for modern times. In order to fully absorb the great spiritual truths into your system, it is recommended that you spend time around the Master to allow these truths to be transmitted to you. In the loving energy field of the Master, these teachings become a part of your very bio-energy. This phenomenon happens during the Inner Awakening program, where the vast inner space of the Master becomes available to you, allowing you to experientially understand the higher truth of Advaitha.
The love of the Master is from the space of his bio-energy – the pure, unpolluted Kundalini Shakthi. Your own dormant potential energy, Kundalini Shakthi, can be awakened just by the Master’s presence, allowing your core being to open up. Unfortunately, if you are afraid of the unknown components of you, your core being, then you will have fear of the pure, compassionate love which comes from the core being of the Master. Understand that the Master’s love will never make you lose yourself – the Master’s love will always make you find yourself, uncovering the great possibility that you are.
The more time you spend with the Master, the more transformation happens within your inner space. During the 21 days you spend with the Master, in the Inner Awakening Program, the transformation becomes permanent in your inner space. The Master takes time to teach you and he gives you the direct experience of living the great science of Advaitha. The program opens up an unlimited number of opportunities and paths for higher transformation, in every plane of existence, for you and the world around you.
Tulsi or the Holy Basil is thought to be one of the most sacred wood in India and a traditional Indian household is considered incomplete without a Tulsi plant in the courtyard. An aromatic plant, there are 3 varieties of Tulsi: Ram Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum), Krishna Tulsi (Ocimum sanctum) and Vana Tulsi (Ocimum gratissiumum).
It is believed that the Divine can be propitiated by offering a single Tulsi leaf, which is available even to the poorest among the poor. There is a well-known story of how Lord Krishna was placed on a weighing scale and the entire wealth of his consort Satyabhama could not outweigh him but a single leaf of Tulsi proved to be heavier than Krishna Himself! The Tulsi plant is believed to be the incarnation of the Divine itself. Apart from its religious significance it is of great medicinal significance. It is used extensively in Ayurvedic treatment. It is said to balance the kapha and the vata dosha (bodily humours representing the water and air elements, as per Ayurveda)
The Tulsi Maala, also called prayer beads or power beads, is made of the wood or the seeds of Tulsi and is used for chanting and worship. It is used to develop spiritual growth and helps attain a clear and balanced mind. The Tulsi Maala has purification qualities that keep an individual focused and increases awareness during meditation.
The Tulsi Maala is also used to worship Lord Ram and Krishna, different incarnations of Lord Vishnu, who is one of the gods in the Hindu trinity and the beloved of the Tulsi. Depending on the type of the Tulsi plant, the Tulsi Maala is available in various colors like black, brown or sandalwood color. The Tulsi Maala can be worn on the neck or tied around the wrist.
The benefits of the leaves of Tulsi is well proven, and owing to its spiritual and physical healing powers, the touch of the Tulsi wood acts as a rejuvenator for the stressed mind and brings the spiritual self of a person closer to God. Wearing the Tulsi Maala is believed to bring good luck and fortune to the devoted wearer. The continuous use and wearing of the maala helps in strengthening the aura, healing and maintaining positive energy. The mantra vibrations are absorbed in the maala and when continuously used the maala will start pulsating itself.
Rangoli, the art of decorating floors and walls by hand with powdered grain or sand, is one of India’s most ancient design forms. Some kind of Rangoli is found in every region of the subcontinent, called by different names. The term ‘Rangoli’, which embraces all regional forms, is derived from two Sanskrit words: ‘rang’ meaning ‘color’ and ‘holi’ meaning ‘happiness’ or ‘celebration’.
Even though steeped in tradition, Rangoli designs are highly practical for modern use by artists, graphic designers and art therapists. The motifs are contained within a prescribed area like a stamp or medallion, making them attractive for graphics such as logos, letterheads and company symbols.
Rangolis are often symmetrical, which makes them valuable for therapy. The intent of every occupation in the Vedic tradition is to enhance outward and inward balance. Designing, applying and viewing rangoli creates a balancing effect on the central nervous system. As explained by Dr. Judith Sjorring, the brain has two hemispheres, right and left, connected by a bridge of tissue. The left brain governs logic and reason; the right brain processes emotional response and intuition. When the two sides work together, without excess domination of one side, learning and creative abilities are strongly enhanced, motor skills are maximized, emotions flow evenly and one experiences general well-being.
In addition, rhythmic repetition of lines and curves has been shown at the Stanford University Medical Center to calm nervous disorders and can help with the release of toxic emotions. Some Rangolis can be used for dance therapy as well; a Rangoli can be drawn on the floor and the participants sway along its outline.
The Vedic masters, called rishis, understood the connection between physical balance and mental/emotional wellbeing. Nithyananda has explained that everything in the Vedic tradition had a dual function. Work tools and decorations alike were engineered with the objective of improving neural function and opening higher states of consciousness. According to the Chitralakshana, the earliest known treatise on Indian painting, the first Rangoli was made at the instruction of Sri Brahma, the Lord of Creation, as a means to revive a dead child. Thus Rangolis are simultaneously associated with religious devotion, wish fulfillment, and with keeping the family together.
Rangolis are usually drawn before the door or gate of the home by the women of the family. In the form traditional to Tamil Nadu, called Kolam, the artist must draw in an unbroken line without removing the hand before finishing. According to Nithyananda, this smooth forward, backward and circular motion of the hand equalizes the right and left brain in a wonderful blend of science and aesthetics. The color and harmony are believed to attract good fortune, repel bad influences and stabilize the family. Themes can be related to a certain season, festival or deity. Some families have their own hereditary designs.
The concept of beauty and creativity as therapy has been attracting attention in medical circles during the past thirty to forty years. The Vedic rishis had gone even further. The science of Rangoli not only heals disorders, but it expands neurological development as well. Daily application supports the evolution of humanity to the next level of consciousness.
Light has been a mystical phenomenon ever since man has started perceiving his life. Light is intricately woven into spirituality. Many meditators have reported seeing a bright light when they reach a state of deep restful awareness. Since ages light has been used in all Vedic celebrations. In Vedic tradition, one of the major festivals, Diwali, is also known as the festival of lights. In almost all Vedic rituals, the divine is invoked in the presence of a lit lamp. So the question is whether light is just a symbolism used to attain wisdom or is there something more to it.
Researchers have recently proven that light has direct implications on human physiology and psychology. “Light is critical for our health and wellbeing. Ensuring that we receive adequate light levels at the appropriate time of the day benefits our alertness, mood, productivity, sleep patterns and many aspects of our physiology,” says Dr Victoria Revell, a chronobiologist at the University of Surrey1.
An article published in the ‘Scientific American’ in 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed the profound changes that light deprivation causes in the brain. Neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania kept rats in darkness for six weeks. The animals not only exhibited depressive behavior but also suffered damage in the brain regions known to be underactive in humans during depression. The researchers observed that neurons that produce norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin—common neurotransmitters involved in emotion, pleasure and cognition—were dying in these rats 2. Also in countries where the winters are relatively darker than summers, the residents have reported frequent mood swings3, known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Vedic rishis knew the science of creating the right ambience for the best possible mental state. When a lamp is lit, it fills the whole place with a different kind of energy. In the presence of such an energized space, the mind becomes calm and the perception is sharper. That is why lighting a lamp during worship is a part of the Vedic tradition. Many people experience a deep silence simply by sitting near a lighted lamp. This is also the reason why stories told around campfire are so impactful. Perception goes to a different level altogether around a campfire.
It is clear that there is a deep connection between light and the human psyche. Meditating on light can awaken the inner light of consciousness. In the Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 6 (Sankhya Yoga), Lord Krishna compares the mind of a meditator with the light of a lamp in a windless space:
“When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering, like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.”
An oil lamp can be used as an aid during meditation and worship. It has its own field of energy. One may use sesame oil, castor oil or ghee (clarified butter) to light the lamp, as these exude more positivity.
Life begins with listening. When listening stops, any conversation is a lost battle. What really makes a conversation successful is not how well you can talk, but rather, how well you can listen. When you are able to perceive things internally without incompletions (hangovers from the past), life starts in you, relationships are built around you. When you listen without incompletions, the other person will not be able to agitate you. In any argument, in any conversation, this is the master key for success. In the modern-day, the ability to hold a conversation decides your success in your career and relationships. In any conversation, the person who gets agitated first loses the game.
A small joke: In the first year of marriage, the man speaks and the woman listens. In the second year, the woman speaks and the man listens. In the third year, they both speak and the neighbors listen!
When both speak and the neighbors listen, the relationship actually ends.
Listening is such a powerful and beautiful spiritual practice which can do so much to your being effortlessly. Right listening is nothing but allowing words to enter you as a natural flow without your attention being diverted towards your incompletions. Incompletions such as a fight which you had with somebody, depressing thoughts, feeling tired, bored or restless will disturb your cognition process and will not allow listening to happen. Just like how you switch off your cell-phone when you do not need it, while you are listening, you can tell your inner space that you will attend to all its questions, worries and thinking later on. By doing this you allow your being to internalize naturally.
Listening leads to more completion, and completion leads to more listening. They are two sides of the same coin. Same way, incompletion leads to poor listening, and vice-versa. For example, when you are angry, you think that by not listening to the person you can show your disrespect for them or take revenge on them. The unfortunate truth is that by not listening, you are actually abusing your own self.
The agitation caused by incompletions leads to blood-pressure, diabetes and degradation of the body which is the root cause of all the diseases and disorders. When you start cognizing without incompletions, your health improves. Your so called ‘stress’ is nothing but the interference of your incompletions during your listening. Life starts with listening, happens with listening, continues to exist with listening, and ends when listening stops.
The past forms an area of people’s lives which is the most thought about, yet the most ignored. Often people feel helpless to let go of their past and move on, and keep carrying it like baggage. Many personality traits and ideas about oneself and others, especially the disempowering ones, can be traced back to incidents in the past. When an incident from the past leaves its mark on us and begins to limit our thinking, it is called a pattern. Whether it is low self-esteem, self-doubt, fear, anger, ego or powerlessness, all are patterns.
When you recall an incident from your life, and are able to feel the same emotions you felt when it was happening, it means you are holding on to your past. People are not able to let go of past hurts because, even though they may have ‘moved on’, they seldom heal the wounds that were caused during the event. The process of healing the wounds of the past is known as completion. It is only when completion with past incidents happens that you can be free from feelings of powerlessness. Completing or reliving the past incidents does not mean feeling like a victim or blaming yourself for past events. Rather, completion frees you from the influence of your past, so you have the inner strength to face anything in life.
To be free of the patterns that leave you powerless, Lord Shiva has given the solution very clearly in the 22nd verse of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra of the Shiva Sutras. Lord Shiva says:
“Look at your past, disidentified; let attention be at a place where you are seeing some past happening; and even your form, having lost its present characteristics, is transformed.”
This technique helps you clear all the patterns of powerlessness that you might be carrying within that continue to cause you deep suffering.
Step 1
Sit in front of a mirror and create a strong intention to be complete with your past patterns of powerlessness.
Step 2
Look into the mirror; the form that reflects back at you and represents your incomplete part.
Step 3
Start reliving the incident, and let your whole attention be on the incompletion being relived inside the mirror, with a clear understanding of being disidentified from it.
Step 4
Whenever you begin to think, why did this happen to me and why did I react in this manner, tell yourself – “This happened because it happened! I reacted in this manner because I reacted in this manner!” Do not try to find a reason for what happened, and don’t let the past be a reason to hold on to the current patterns.
Step 5
With this clarity, keep reliving the incomplete childhood incidents in the mirror. You will see that the childhood form you recall having at the time when the incident happened, will melt down and will lose its power over you.
In the Inner Awakening program, Paramahamsa Nithyananda leads the participants into discovering and completing with their root thought patterns to make a quantum shift in their lives in just 21 days.
A kindergarten teacher was observing the children, while they drew their art. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s work. As she got to where one little girl was working diligently, the teacher asked what she was drawing.
The girl replied, ‘I’m drawing God!’
The teacher paused and said, ‘But honey, no one knows what God looks like.’
Without missing a beat or looking up from her drawing, the little girl replied, ‘They will know in a minute!’
How many of us can say we have such self-confidence? Most of us suffer from the pattern of self-doubt, which makes us second-guess every decision, question our own abilities, and go into deep suffering whenever something does not happen the way we planned it. It is that constant nagging inner voice which does not let us be at peace with ourselves – “I can’t do anything well”, “I am a loser”, “It is all my fault”, “I am just average” and on and on it goes.
The Disconnect Between Inner and Outer Image
The moment you create an idea about yourself based on past incidents when you felt powerless, you create what is called as an “inner image” for yourself – what you really feel about yourself. At the same time, you also project something else to others as “you” because you feel uncomfortable showing your low self image to others – this is your “outer image”. Whenever you create an outer image out of conflict and powerlessness, it is not aligned with your inner image. When you have a disempowering inner image and you project a very powerful outer image, you will automatically have self-doubt. Self-doubt will become a part of your very being. Doubting others, and life in general is also because of self-doubt. Because of your poor inner image, you do not trust that others will treat you nicely; you expect only negativity from others and from life. Feeling that something or someone is “too good to be true” is nothing but self-doubt.
When you fail at something, if you fall into low confidence, guilt and self-bashing it is like taking revenge on you. Self-doubt (atma sandeha) leads to self-revenge (atma droha), and self-revenge leads to self-destruction (atma hatya)! When you have self-doubt, no one from outside is needed to put you into misery. You will constantly be creating enough suffering for yourself!
The Goat Which Killed a Forest
Self-doubt destroys every possibility in you. Self-doubt removes all the higher visualizations which can help you. All possible higher visualizations get corrupted by self-doubt. They are nipped in the level of bud itself by the pattern of constantly doubting yourself. Self-doubt is like a goat which destroys the forest! You may think, “How can goats destroy forests?”. It is because they go and swallow all the trees when they are sprouting, when they are just starting! So, forests can never happen where goats are. Goats and forests can’t live together. In the same way, self-doubt and creation can’t live together.
Photo (c) Mutiara Karina
Self-Doubt Versus Genuine Doubt
A person who does not doubt himself, will doubt the right things which need to be doubted, not the wrong things. A person who carries a deep self-doubt will doubt all the wrong things; but he will miss all the things which he should doubt.
There is a story:
Children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The nun had posted a note on the apple tray: “Take only one, God is watching!”
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table, was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies. One child had written a note near this table: “Take all you want, because God is watching the apples!”
Carrying a pattern of self-doubt, you will doubt whatever should not be doubted, and you will not doubt what should be doubted. Doubt can really help you, if it comes out of the completion with self-doubt. If you don’t have self-doubt, even your doubt can create inventions! If you are filled with self-doubt, your doubts will only result in destruction, never creation.
Self-Doubt is a Cancer
Just like cancer is a deadly disease of the body, in which the body attacks itself, self-doubt is a deadly disease of the consciousness. It does not let you feel complete no matter how much completion you do (completion process is a powerful technique to come out of self doubt and other patterns). If you have thoughts like ‘If I complete is it going to help me?” and “When I sit in front of the mirror and start completing, I don’t think I feel complete”. This is the pattern which makes you question the very utility of the spiritual techniques which can help you get out of it. Self-doubting is a crime, because it is equivalent to atma hatya or suicide. Self-doubting makes you doubt everything. Actually self-doubting is the root cause of atheism; when self-doubting extends to the whole of existence, it becomes atheism.
Self-Doubt is Your Weak Spot
Self-doubt also makes you vulnerable to be exploited by others. Atheism is nothing but the collective expression of self-doubt. On the other hand, temples are the collective expression of confidence on the power of the consciousness! Atheist literature exploits your self-doubting pattern, your conscious weakness. Atheists often claim that religious leaders are exploiting the emotional weakness of people – actually it is atheist ideas which exploit your weakness and make you doubt the existence of God and the power of consciousness. Atheism makes you doubt the one who can help you come out of the pattern of self-doubt, viz. the Guru.
The Split Personality
The pattern of self-doubt destroys your ability to take any major decision in your life, whether it is about career, about your education, about the choice of life partner, or about gaining spiritual knowledge. It affects every aspect of your life. Self-doubt literally cuts you into pieces and destroys you. It is like there are two people living inside you. One is the doubter, the other is the doubted – and they keep fighting with each other constantly. They even change their roles! “See, today you doubt me, I‘ll be the doubted. Tomorrow I‘ll doubt you, you’ll be the doubted one.”
Whenever high emotions, excitement and feelings of power happen in you, you are taking a jump towards the space of God! At those times you are closest towards your highest existence! But many times you face a dilemma because of self-doubt, and are unable to make any decision. It can be any decision – the decision to marry the person you are in love with, the decision to leave your job and pursue your passion, the decision to take up sannyas and live a life of enriching others, at such crucial moments you find that you are unable to trust your emotions. “Will this feeling last? Will I be able to retain this same space? Will I regret this later?”. And you are back to the same old conflicted self, the split personality.
To Follow Your Heart…or Not!
If you distrust your emotions and don’t take any decision, it often leads to your whole life becoming empty and meaningless. However, if a decision is taken during those high emotions, it may also lead to failure. The solution is to build the intelligence to support your decisions during such high emotions by doing completion. You need to upgrade your intelligence to be able to meet any situation in life as it arises. When you make the decision after completion with all the self-doubts, that high emotion becomes eternal, e-Motion, Enlightening Motion!
Complete With Self-Doubt
Until you complete with your self-doubt, stability can never be brought in your life. Whether it is a kid, a college student, an employee, a householder, a sannyasi, a devotee, everyone must do completion with their self-doubt. Sit with all these self-doubting patterns. Pen them down. Relive and relieve them. Complete with them. You also need to look in and find out the first time you started having self-doubt. You need to remember, recollect the earliest memory of self-doubt, the first time you did not trust the words you uttered to yourself. Complete with the incident using the instructions for the *svapoornatva technique. Don’t doubt whether you have completed with your self-doubts; that will be one more doubt, at least complete with that! If you have self-doubt, complete with it. If you have one more doubt whether you have completed with your self-doubt or not, complete with that also. Go on completing with every self-doubting thought.
Feeling tired, low in energy and not getting much done? When we feel like this, we tend to grab comfort food such as sweets, energy drinks, energy bars, coffee or tea. This gives a temporary solution – but after some time the energy comes crashing down, leaving us ready to just doze off! This is because boosting and maintaining our high energy can only happen by restoring balance to the body and mind.
“A person having equilibrium of doshas (three bodily humours), agnis (digestive fire), dhatus (tissue), mala (wastes) and kriyas (a spiritual yogic practice), and a person who is possessed by spiritual, sensual and mental happiness is called a healthy person.” (Sushruta, founding father of surgery, 2BCE-1CE)
According to Ayurveda the entire cosmos is an interplay of the energies of the five elements: air, fire, water, earth and space. The combination and reformation of these five elements that manifest as patterns present in all creation are: vata, pitta and kapha.
In our physical body, vata is the subtle energy of movement, pitta the energy of digestion and metabolism, and kapha is the energy that forms the body’s structure.
When looking at ways to boost our energy, Ayurveda offers a holistic view that includes lifestyle, yoga, meditation, pranayama and nutrition to restore the balance of vata, pitta and kapha for vigor, vitality, strength and youthfulness. Here are three quick and delicious recipes to get energized, the Ayurvedic way!
Jal-Jeera Kick
4 cups water
1/4 tsp. whole Cumin (Jeera)
1/3 tsp. whole Fennel (Saunf)
2 pinches of Licorice (Mulaithi)
1 pinch of Ashwagandha (optional)
First boil the water. Pour the hot water into a thermos flask and add the spices. Sip this water throughout the day to improve digestion and increase your energy. If you are a pitta constitutional type, you may let the water cool to room temperature before drinking.
Pick-Me-Up Shake
1 cup peeled almonds
½ cup Pistachios
½ cup Cashews
3-5 Dates
1 tbsp Raisins
1 tsp Rose water
a pinch of Cardamom (Elaichi) seeds
a pinch of Saffron or ground Fennel seeds (Saunf)
2 cups of water (used to soak the nuts and dried fruits) or milk
Soak the nuts and dried fruits for at least 2 hours (preferably overnight). Blend with milk or the water used to soak the nuts till you get a thick shake. Add Rosewater, Cardamom powder and saffron or ground Fennel seeds. Dates add sweetness to it but jaggery can be added to sweeten it further. You can enjoy this drink anytime. It is rejuvenating, toning, strengthening and balances the doshas.
Energy Balls
½ cup Tahini
½ cup desiccated Coconut
1 cup of Dates/ Raisins/ Figs
½ cup of nuts or seeds (peeled Almonds, Cashews, Sunflower seeds, etc.)
To coat: Coconut/Sesame seeds/ground Almonds/raw Cacao powder
Bring all the ingredients together in a blender and mix on maximum speed until they are of a firm, semi-solid consistency. Roll the mixture into bite sized balls, then roll in shredded coconut, ground almond or sesame seeds. Chill before serving. These balls can also be made with ingredients like goji berries, raw cacao nibs, ashwagandha, ginseng, ground flax seed, etc. You may soak the fruit for easier digestion – if so keep them refrigerated, otherwise they can be left outside.
When I applied to study in USA, I was full of answers. I knew, or thought I knew the exact reason for leaving my sheltered life in India and setting up a new life in a strange land.
Two weeks into living here, I realized I was in emotional turmoil. I was confronted with everything I had suppressed about myself and I would wake up almost every morning shaking or crying from strange dreams. All I wanted to do was make my life as hectic as possible so that I didn’t have to think about all this. However, as my classes hadn’t started yet, I knew I had to use this time to understand what was happening to me. I realized all this boiled down to just one question – “WHY am I here?”
Had I decided to put this question aside and carry on with my life, I would have been hit by it many years later, and fallen into depression. I decided to dedicate all my time to answering this question. Swamiji’s teachings have always found me at the right time. I happened to receive what Swamiji has said about this topic through His morning satsang.
There are three states of mind associated with this question – the great WHY of life. One is panic, when there are too many answers to the question. Another is boredom, when the answer is too hard to find, and the third is laziness when a person doesn’t even want to know the answer.
No one else can answer this question except the person who is in enquiry. The answer comes only when the person is spiritually mature enough to receive it. It is very similar to a three year old asking his mother where he came from. At three, the only answer his mother can give him is “The stork brought you home”. It is only when he reaches physical maturity that he can receive the actual answer.
Another answer to another “Why?” of my life kept coming to my mind. Whenever I’m faced with the question of WHY I am still a devotee of Swamiji despite what the media says about him, I have my answer. It was one that I received when I was fourteen. During my NSP (a four day meditation program by Swamiji) darshan, I realized that I was in the presence of the purest form of love around Swamiji and nothing anybody said could take away that space. I know that I was mature enough to receive this answer and that it would keep me as a devotee for the rest of my life.
This gave me a space of absolute freedom with my spiritual growth. I have never felt like I was “forced” to stay away from non-vegetarian food or alcohol. I have always had a number of choices available and was given the clear message from my peers that I will be “healthier” and “happier” if I eat meat. But I knew that the lightness I feel has everything to do with my vegetarian diet. I was clear that I wanted to continue feeling this way; hence my choice of vegetarianism. It was the same for my life decisions. I know that at any point in time, I alone am responsible for my choices, and I never feel like I’m tied down to anyone or anything.
After I decided that Swamiji is my Guru, even sufferings have been nothing but a message from him telling me to look at my life. I know that the answer to why I am here is not going to be the answer I gave myself a few months ago, and it will be one which I will keep rediscovering again and again. I know I have reached a level of maturity which prevents me from running away from my upset state of mind. I haven’t found my answer yet, but I am willing to be in this state of enquiry and contemplation so that whenever the answer does arise, I will be mature enough to receive it.
