MOTHER was trying on her new fur coat. It was very expensive. Her young daughter watched her curiously and remarked: imagine how much suffering the poor animal would have had to undergo for you to have this fur coat! Mother turned to her daughter angrily: how dare you speak about your poor father like this. These days you young people have no respect for elders!
Our mind leads us its own way, sometimes strange ways, in the way it thinks and responds. Thoughts rise and fall chaotically within our mind; nothing is logical; they rise, live and fall. It is not thinking; it is just association. Association causes dilemmas. Fathers turn into poor animals.
When we bring your thinking process into consciousness our desires too become conscious. As of now they are mostly unconscious. You realise only after a while that whatever led into a problem is just association, not your desires.
We try to suppress desires or fulfil them. Suppression does not work. Fulfilment does not remove desires, it creates more desires. Bring your desires to consciousness from unconsciousness. If the desire is really worth fulfilling, the desire itself will have its energy for fulfilment. If not it will disappear. Either way you are in relaxation.
Energy is the source of desire. The same energy that converts food into muscles, circulates blood, moves your body. Between body and energy desires happen; they are closer to energy than body; they are more powerful than body. If you change your desires your whole body can change. Writing is the best way to raise desires to awareness.
Once a week give an appointment to yourself for 30 minutes and ask your Being what it wants. Just listen to your mind and note down. Whatever is necessary will stand, whatever is not will disappear. Many of our desires are not our own deep desires. We have life and energy to live only our own desires.
To mind your mind we need contemplation, concentration and meditation. Guiding our mind is contemplation; centring on one subject is concentration; when mind disappears into that subject and no mind remains it is meditation. When you become aware of this table it is contemplation; when you centre yourself on the wood it is concentration; when your mind become the wood it is meditation.
Meditation makes you aware of the reality. It liberates you.

– Paramahamsa Nithyananda

One man was telling me, “Swamiji, I am allright as long as I am outside my house. The moment I enter my house, I start feeling Stressed ,”

Not just this one man; many people tell me the same thing. They say they are alright till the moment they enter their house.

You see, the space inside our house is filled with ether, which is a subtle form of the Existential Energy. Ether is one of the five elements that are earth, water, fire, air and ether. These five elements are all forms of the Existential Energy.

The space inside your body is called chittakasha, the space in which you are living is called katakasha and the space of the Universe is called mahakasha, The third that is mahakasha always remains pure. The other two get impure by our thoughts.

So understand,The space in which you are living is not just matter, it is Energy and it becomes impure by your thoughts. Every single thought of ours settles down in the energy level of your house like a cobweb. Once the energy is contaminated with these thoughts, the energy that is in the house relays these thoughts back on us. Because of this, we feel stressed the moment we enter our house,

If you analyse our thought patterns, you will observe that the same set or the same pattern of thoughts keep getting repeated in our mind. These thoughts are our mental make-up.

They are what you call our worries. They are nothing but collective negativity that we keep repeating to ourselves. But this negativity settles in the space of our house; that is the thing. We are totally unaware that this happening.

Our irritation when we enter our house is nothing but our own thoughts being reflected on us. Instead of understanding the root cause of an unhealthy atmosphere in the house, we call experts in Vaastu Shastra or read books in Feng Shui and try to restructure our house, or we perform fire riftals to cleanse our homes. All that is airight, but the fundamental science behind the space in our homes has to be understood, We work so hard in maintaining our homes in a neat and clean fashion. We scrub the floors and walls and keep the best of furniture in our house and what not, We keep the ‘place’ clean, but what about the ‘space’?

The space has to be kept cleansed. By doing regular meditation in our house, we can cleanse the energy that is circulating in it. The energy created during meditation will cleanse the space. Second, we should imbibe a clear and positive mental setup and stop airing repeated negative thought patterns in our house.

An interesting point I want to bring in here: The space in your house is like a small pond of murky water The water in this pond can be washed away and pure water refilled, when an Enlightened Master steps foot in your house! Just by the presence of the Master the ether is cleansed and pure ether fills the space in your house. Then, it is up to you to keep it clean by doing regular meditation and not radiating negative thoughts.

So understand the significance of a positive mental setup and keep the space in your house cleansed and energised. Be Blissful!

Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Nine out of ten people, if asked where their mind is, will point to their head, where we think our brains are!

Brains are not where our minds are. Mind is all over our body; within each cell, within the cell structure, embedded in the intelligence of the DNA and other building blocks of the mind body system that we are. There is as much mind in our little finger as there is in our head or our heart.

Mind is not fixed and permanent; not our cells as well. Cells die and are recreated every second. Our entire mind body system undergoes renewal every so often. What we are now is not what we were a year ago, not what we will be a year from now. Our mind body hardware is constantly renewed.

Yet, we behave the same way as we did a year ago or ten years ago, by and large. We are just as greedy, just as angry, just as depressed as we were a year or many years ago unless we have taken dramatic measures to change. We seem programmed in our behavior pattern.

We are programmed. We are programmed in our belief systems and attitudes based on our past experiences and memories of these experiences. It is these memories that drive us in all our actions. Unfortunately, all these memories lie in our unconscious mind.

We are driven by our unconscious, not by our rational mind as we wish to imagine.

We call this software of emotion filled memories that lie buried deep in our unconscious, samskara. Samskara are the embedded memories of our past, sometimes of previous lives, that drive us into action in the future (Karma). Since samskara are from the unconscious, we are unable to do anything to stop them, to control them or modify them. Unless, a big unless, we learn to penetrate the unconscious.

We can indeed penetrate the unconscious and dissolve our samskara, so meticulously built by our mind since childhood.

All we need to do is to bring ourselves into the present moment. In the present moment, no samskara exist, as these are products of our past. In the present moment, we have neither regrets nor anticipation. We just are.

Meditation leads us into the present moment. Meditation leads us into awareness of our samskara and from there into their dissolution. Meditation gives us control over our life, taking it away from the embedded software of our mind.

Nithyananda

www.nithyananda.org

Nirvana means extinction, extinction of vasanas and karmas. Only when vasanas and karmas die will you start living. As long as they are alive in you they live through you, and never let you enjoy life.

Vasana is the hangover of desires or desires not fully lived; samskaras are desires that are lived but those which leave a thread for continued enjoyment of those desires. Karma is fulfillment. Nirvana also means moksha, liberation. When all vasanas, samskaras and karmas are finished you reach liberation through their extinction. You see a new kind of space in you, new kind of understanding in you, new kind of living in you.

When you drink or smoke once in a while you enjoy them. As long as you have the freedom to drop them you enjoy them. When you get addicted to them they enjoy you. Addiction is when you do not enjoy the habit but can not do without it. You can get addicted to food, TV, newspaper, gossiping. When you are addicted, food eats you, cigarettes smoke you, and liquor drinks you. When you do not have the freedom you are used.

You are in a mall and see a shoe. The thought, the vasana takes hold of you to acquire it. You move on. After a week or later you see the shoe again. This time the feeling is stronger. Samskara has logic. It tells you that if you get the shoe you can jog and you will be healthy and so on. Vasana is any seed that falls on ground. Samskara connects the vasana to you with logic and makes it grow. If you are spiritually inclined the samskara will tell you that with healthy jogging you can meditate better. Vasana is blown through samskara into an imprint. Then you buy the shoe. This is karma, the full blown tree that arises from the seed of vasana. After two weeks the shoe is stored in the cupboard never to be used again. The cycle then repeats.

In the outside world what you thought you would achieve you do not achieve; you do not enjoy. In the inner world you create room for more vasanas, samskaras and karmas. You have created the habit. While losing the capacity to enjoy you have created the habit to desire more. More you have less your sensitivity to enjoy. When you have too many things you can not enjoy these acquisitions. One who has ten clocks will never keep time. Your energies are spent in vasanas, samskaras, and karmas instead of in enjoyment. You have no energy left to enjoy. You take things for granted. You lose the sensitivity to enjoy.

Paramahamsa Sri Nithyananda

Our mind is a minefield; it is a madhouse; it is a monkey.

The only thing certain about our mind is its absolute uncertainty. The only thing factual about our mind is that it is totally and absolutely illogical, irrational, random and unconnected.

If we were to sit down and pen our thoughts over even five minutes with no editing, we would think that these belong to a madman. There would be no logical sequence, as one would assume in our mind’s working.

Thoughts flit through our mind, past to future, future to past, back and forth. At one level, it is thoughts, ideas, and concepts. At another level it is memories of past experiences leading to anticipation of future possibilities. Then there are dialogues and rehearsals about how we could have done things better and how we should do things better. Imaginations, fantasies, and dreams follow. Then follow a spate of emotions from lust, greed and anger through fears and jealousy to discontent.

There is always in the background a constant chattering noise of worries.

We have no control over any of these activities of our mind. The more we try and control the more vigorously the thoughts that we try to control break out.

Just imagine a situation if someone tells you not to think of a monkey. The only certainty then would be that you would think of nothing but monkeys!

Suppression of thoughts is impossible. It only ensures creation of more such thoughts. That is why people trying to follow the path of renunciation and celibacy as monks and priests erupt into behavior patterns that they so desperately try to suppress.

All that you can do to stop your mind is to refuse to get involved in its shenanigans. Watch your thoughts as if you are an observer, without getting involved, without being an actor in the drama. Watch your thoughts as you would watch clouds in the sky with no involvement. Your mind loses interest, your thoughts will slow down and you will move towards a no mind zone. You need to say, stop; I want to get off.

Meditation leads you into the awareness to stay uninvolved with your thought process. It helps you stay in the present moment, without being tossed to and fro into the past and future. Meditation alone can still your mind.

Nithyananda has revealed a  unique  meditation technique called Nithya Dhyan that one can explore!!

http://www.lifeblissmeditation.org/intro.htm

Twisting body into pretzel-like poses is simply that. It is not yoga.

People often think that yoga is all about physical exercise and breath control. They can be concluding this from the poses that a Yogi, practitioner of Yoga, maintains. The expertise with which a yogi performs and maintains the positions appears to them as yet another kind of kind of physical activity.

But this is the last thing Yoga was meant to be! It is a far cry from what yoga is all about. Yoga has many deeper levels. At every level, a marvelous and almost miraculous blending of the mind and the body takes place.

Let us watch our mind at work. It does not move in a linear progression. The thoughts are not connected to each other logically or sequentially. Thoughts jump from one idea to the next. One thought keeps us in the present, while the successive thought can be in future.

In an advanced yoga practitioner, the mind and the body are in balance and harmony. The regular practice of yoga leads us from the body into our mind. Intense practice of yoga leads us beyond the mind. It will lead us beyond the body and mind into a sate of our spirit where we become aware of the truth of our Existence.

Yoga, a Sanskrit word, is understood to mean Union. This union refers to the melting of human self with the divine or the Cosmic Power.

Truly speaking, Yoga does not mean Union, it means Uniting. Yoga is the process of Uniting, not the end result of Union.

The process of Uniting helps transcend one’s identification with the mind body system. A Yogi transcends the body and mind identification through a process of meditation, into a true awareness of his spiritual identity. His mind and body are perfectly in-tune with the vibrations and energies of the cosmos.

This awareness brings another welcome side effect—bliss! We now walk the path of bliss or Ananda while doing our Yoga. The ever blissful union of the cosmic energy with a human mind is Ananda Yoga.

The bliss that results from practice of Yoga is not a goal or end result that is aimed at. It is an experience of just walking the path of Yoga. When the path is right, the Yogi says, the destination you reach is always right, it is always blissful.

This is what we teach in our Nithya Yoga programs.

Nithyananda

Life Bliss Meditation

With meditation, you can live your life in a much better way with greater clarity and greater intensity. You will be more aware, more creative. Yet internally, you will experience a deep and undisturbed silence.

You will no longer be doing, you will only be watching the doer. This is the whole secret of meditation - to become the watcher, to become the witness of your own actions and emotions.

Once you become aware that the real you is not the one who acts, that the real you is not the one who feels angry or hurt or depressed, then you experience in a tremendous sense of freedom. This will happen through meditation. And this is real freedom.

All our life we are searching for freedom. Whether we realize it or not, every single one of us is searching for freedom. We think our freedom is dependent on others. Now you know that the other person is in no way connected to your freedom.

MEDITATION MAKES YOU FEEL LOVE AND JOY FOR NO REASON

With meditation, for the first time, you will understand what it means to love for no reason. For the first time you will not be giving something in order to receive. You will give love simply because you have so much to give! You will shower love upon the world in the same way that a rain cloud showers upon the earth or a flower spontaneously spreads its fragrance all around. You will love because you are so full and overflowing!

WHEN YOU MEDITATE YOUR DAY TO DAY WORK CAN FEEL LIKE PLAY

Most of us feel that life today has become so competitive and stressful that we have no time to do anything that we want to do. Actually if you see the truth of the situation, it is not a question of less time or more work. It is you attitude about these things that makes the difference.

Just try this: whatever you do, act with awareness. If you are eating, eat with awareness. No extra time is needed to do this. In fact, it will take less time to eat because when you eat with awareness, you will eat just the amount your body needs rather than stuffing food down your throat thoughtlessly.

Awareness has tremendous knowledge. Awareness can do better miracles than all your planning. Awareness doesn’t contradict, it complements the plans. It will add to the potentiality.

When you are aware, you are absent. When awareness is present, your ego can’t exist. When your ego exists, awareness can’t be present. ‘Your absence’ will make you live enlightenment.

When you are aware, you will work optimally and use your energy efficiently. So at the end of the day you are just as fresh as in the morning. You see, it is not the work that exhausts you; it is your mind, your attitude. The whole game of meditation is to get out of the work-oriented mind and look at every moment of life as a beautiful Divine play.

Meditation results in holistic health. It gives good health on the physical, mental and emotional levels. Specific health benefits reported by some who meditate are:

1. The stabilization of high and low blood pressure, blood sugar, body heat and heartbeat.

2. The balancing of mind/body rhythms.

3. Reduction of muscle tension, stronger bones, immunity from disease.

4. Cleansing – quicker elimination of toxins and body water.

5. Overcoming insomnia and improved quality of sleep.

6. Enhanced energy, increases work capacity

7. Longer life span – improved body metabolism and body cells with a longer life span.

8. Secretion of healthy body chemicals – increased secretion of natural anti-depressants, enhanced secretion of endorphins, the body’s ‘happy chemicals’

9. Relationships – Meditation inherently puts you in tune with yourself and others. The direct result of this is deeper, more meaningful interpersonal relationships with family, friends and with everyone you encounter in your daily life.

10. Intelligence – To work efficiently, one needs intelligence. Meditation ignites your innate intelligence making you more aware and sharp. The natural result of this is improved, efficient and effortless performance in whatever you do.

11. Creativity – Each of us holds within us an undiscovered treasure of talent and potential. Meditation reveals and helps you realize your inner talents and latent creativity.

12. Authenticity – Meditation allows you to touch base with the real you, and makes you realize your uniqueness. Self-confident then becomes a natural by-product.

13. Balance – Most of us live life as a roller-coaster ride, held in the sway of emotions like: worry, jealousy, discontentment, fear, anger, guilt etc. over which we have no control. Meditation enables you to be centered in yourself, have a solid inner balance and thus, be the master of your own self.

14. Relaxation, peace, bliss – A natural by-product of meditation is something we spend almost a lifetime trying to attain; inner relaxation and peace. With meditation, you automatically drop out of the vicious cycle of fear, greed and stress and enter the virtuous cycle of bliss.

15. Holistic spiritual growth- To measure intellect, we have IQ or Intelligence Quotient, which is measured by many standardized tests. Of late, another measure is gaining importance, especially in the corporate world, namely EQ or Emotional Quotient. However, the most important factor of our lives – inner satisfaction and fulfillment – is what matters at the end of the day. Meditation enhances this very important factor of life, SQ or Spiritual Quotient, besides also increasing IQ and EQ.

16. Life – As of now, our mental setup is rigid and reflects our personality Because of this self-image we carry in our minds, we face a lot of troubles in life and are not able to enjoy life completely Meditation simply reprograms the software of the mind so that we can live life completely.

17. Ultimate potential – You are like an airplane with the potential to fly, but you think you are an ox-cart because you have not actualized your potential. Meditation simply makes you realize and experience who you really are and the enormous capabilities you have been born with.

Meditation is just being blissful in the moment

Meditation is just being blissful in the moment. When you are at complete peace in the present moment, you are already in a state of meditation.

Recall any moment in your life when you have experienced extreme beauty: the sun rising suddenly from behind a mountain, or the first time you heard a lovely piece of music. Suddenly you became totally still, wordless. In the presence of the beauty you became spellbound, you couldn’t think any more. You were just silent, relaxed, in thoughtless awareness. You were completely dissolved in that beauty. That moment was meditation!

After a few moments your inner chatter started again. Your mind said, “What a beautiful sunrise!” The moment the words appeared, you were out of meditation! You can either think or meditate you can never do both.

Meditation is just being. It is experiencing the present moment without resistance.

The possibility to become a different conscious being is present only in human beings. Animals don’t have the potential to become enlightened, to become different conscious beings.

Another thing about meditation is, being playful meditation is a big adventure. To become serious about meditation is to miss the whole point. Celebrate meditation. Simply enjoy it.

Another aspect to meditation is to have patience. Don’t start worrying about the results the moment you start meditating.

If you are greedy for instant results, you actually prevent the process from settling down in your system, you yourself block the whole process.

Enjoy solitude. Give yourself a chance to experience your inner environment. When meditation becomes a part of you, bliss will flower naturally.

Any technique, any method which raises your consciousness is meditation.

Meditation can even be a simple breathing technique. It can be a simple repetition of a word or simply sitting. In the Zen tradition, just sitting is meditation. Your may think this is the easiest thing to do but in fact, just sitting is the most difficult meditation. Anything can become meditation if it raises your consciousness.

What is the Right Way to Approach Meditation?

The first thing is, be sincere. Keep an open mind. Have the openness to experiment. Be enthusiastic.

There is a beautiful term in the Zen tradition to describe the attitude – the beginner’s mind. It means looking at every single thing in life as new, so everything in life is excites you.

The second thing is, be optimistic. Bliss is a perfectly realizable goal for you, even if you are completely unfamiliar with meditation.

Once a man approached the great enlightened master Ramana Maharishi and asked him. ‘Bhagavan, am I qualified for spiritual life?’

Ramana answered him with a question ‘Are you alive?’

The man was startled. He said, ‘Yes of course!’

Ramana replied, ‘That is enough. You already have the necessary qualifications  for spirituality!’

The very aim of human life is enlightenment. The possibility of becoming lies in the Kundalini shakti, an extraordinary potential energy which is hidden inside every human body. If it can be awakened, it will take you to a different plane of consciousness a different plane of Existence.