Patanjali in his Yoga sutras has laid out eight fold path for enlightenment. The first step is Yama: loosely translated as discipline. This means tuning yourself to the ultimate; it is not a set of dos and don’ts. It is a set of instructions to tune yourself to your Self. Within this Yama the first step is Ahimsa.

Ahimsa means non violence with understanding; Ahimsa is not a moral condition but a technique.

If you are established in non violence, even wild animals, when they face you, will turn peaceful. You will radiate love and compassion. Patanjali says: If a man is established in non violence, in his presence, enemies and animals will drop their animosity and radiate love.

Sankara, the great enlightened master,  walked all over India on foot, village to village, begged door to door for food, and lived with the common man, to update himself with what was happening around him. This was required of him as a teacher, as a master. As he went he learnt from various masters, universities, and temples which are spiritual universities. He wanted to create his own University to spread his message of advaita (non-dualism), where the energy of love will speak.  In a forest on a full moon night as it drizzled he saw a frog about to hatch its baby and a cobra spreading its hood to protect the frog from the rain; frogs and cobras are born as natural enemies; when Sankara saw this he decided here’s where I should have my University where animals lose their enmity, and pure oneness and love starts happening. Once you experience this love you will never be violent; non violence, ahimsa, will happen to you.

When we are established in love nothing touches us. We do not need to defend ourselves against anything. Defending is what creates the thought of offending. All countries say that they have armies only to defend themselves. Who then is offending?  The more you try to defend you enter into offense. Violence starts. Violence starts with defense. This is what Jesus meant when he said to turn the other cheek when someone slaps you. What he said is not impractical. This can be practiced. What have we achieved by protecting ourselves, except suffering? On the other hand, if you radiate love, you will be a God on planet Earth.  Can you defend yourself against death? By defending yourself you may add some years to your life; by trusting, by loving you will add life to your years.  What would you like to do, add years to your life or add life to your years?

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.

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.

We can’t speak about silence. The moment we speak we disturb the silence.

Let me try and explain how to create that silence in us.

When I use the word silence I don’t mean soundlessness. Soundlessness is negative silence. When I use the word silence, I mean a living, vibrant silence.

It is not the silence of a graveyard. It is the silence of an enlightened Master. The silence of a graveyard is totally different from silence of an enlightened Master. An enlightened person’s silence is vibrant and alive.

When Jesus says ‘Be still and know that I am truth’, he means this silence, the silence of enlightenment.

To enter into that you need to go beyond words. Words and silence, you should cross both these to realize that silence of an enlightened Master.

When we enter into that silence, our whole being radiates, we start singing. When I say we start singing, not only through our mouth, our whole being starts singing. Our very movements will be graceful. Our very presence on the planet earth will be a blessing. Our air, our space will heal. That itself will radiate so much energy, so much life, and so much light. We can touch and feel God in the presence of that person who has experienced God.

What is keeping us from experiencing this silence?

The first thing we don’t have the trust that we can also experience that silence. We always think this is not for us. It is the property of the whole universe. It is our birthright. Being alive is the only qualification to experience this silence and be enlightened.

One more obstacle is that we always have guilt about ourselves. We don’t respect ourselves. We always measure ourselves only based on our failures. We don’t even remember the good things we have done or the right decisions we made. The strength of our being should be measured only on the positive decisions we make, not on the negative decisions we made.

Also we have to drop the wrong ideas about enlightenment. Enlightenment is very simply going beyond desires; it’s going beyond thoughts and words.

The moment we drop the wrong ideas about ourselves, the wrong ideas about enlightenment, we start experiencing enlightenment. We are in that silence. The silence of enlightenment is a living, vibrant silence, a living, vibrant energy. It is the heartbeat of existence. Meditation is the doorway to this silence!!

KARMA is the collection of unfulfilled experiences that stay in us and constantly pull us to fulfill them.

~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda – from his Best Selling Book: Living Enlightenment

Pure action with no end objective is KARMA

~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda – from his Best Selling Book: Living Enlightenment

KARMA is not a law of reward and punishment. It is a reflection of your mental state.

~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda – from his Best Selling Book: Living Enlightenment

You create your own KARMA. Karma does not create you. You are not a by-product of your actions. You are far bigger than your actions.

~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda – from his Best Selling Book: Living Enlightenment

Intention is the baggage, the karma, not the action. If action creates intention, it becomes the baggage. Pure action with no end objective is karma.

~ Paramahamsa Nithyananda – from his Best Selling Book: Living Enlightenment

To preview the book please use the following link

http://living-enlightenment.com/living_enlightenment/index.html