March 15 2005

Title

From Sub Consciousness to Super Consciousness

Transcript

I welcome you all with My love and respects. A wonderful subject – from Sub consciousness to Super Consciousness. This is actually the subject that all the mystics, all the Masters, all the saints, all the sages who walked on this planet earth spoke about. Whatever they spoke, it was only about this one, single subject. Whatever may be words they might have used, whatever be the names that might have been given; you may call it as the ‘Sermon on the Mount’, or you may call it as ‘The Bhagavat Gita’ or you may call it as the Koran, or as the ‘Zend Avesta’, or the ‘Guru Granth Sahib’, whatever be the name, all the words from all the Masters spoke only on this one subject: from sub consciousness to super consciousness.

Any person who shared his wisdom, any person who is intelligent, anybody who speaks a few true words about spirituality, anybody who gives some intelligence, speaks only about this one subject, that is, the way to take one from sub consciousness to super consciousness. Life solutions, that is, solutions to the problems that we are facing in life, or anything related to intelligence, is directly connected to this topic: from sub consciousness to super consciousness. Whenever your thoughts, your activities or your mental setup, are in a subconscious state, you directly go towards suffering, you travel towards mithya, means something that is ephemeral. The moment your words or your deeds are with consciousness, you travel towards super consciousness, nithya, or the eternal. All our growth (if at all you consider that somebody is growing) can only be in this direction: from sub consciousness to super consciousness. If you are moving in this direction, only then are you growing, otherwise you are merely getting aged, getting old.

Getting old is not growing. Anubhava is not anubhuti. In Sanskrit we have two words – Anubhava and anubhuti. Anubhava means just getting old, having experiences. Anubhuti means learning from those experiences. I shall illustrate this point by taking a simple example: Some people first touch the fire of a cigarette and realize – Oh! The cigarette fire burns! Then they touch the fire of a match and realize, Oh! The match fire burns! Then they touch the fire of the stove, and say – Oh! This fire burns too!

One by one they touch the various fires. By the time they come to the conclusion that all fires burn, they would be so old that their own bodies would be ready for burning at the pyre!

This is Anubhava – you no doubt learn from experiences. But nowadays, taking a more practical approach, you don’t have enough time to learn from experiences. We do not have enough time to commit all the mistakes and learn. The saying ‘learn from your mistakes’ is obsolete. I say, ‘learn from others mistakes’! You don’t have time to do all the mistakes and then learn. Anubhava is the path of the Sub consciousness.

The next is a beautiful word, Anubhuti. This means learning straightaway from one mistake. It means understanding that if you touch one fire, immediately realizing that all fires burn, coming to a clear conclusion and understanding that all fires burn. Anubhuti is what I call super consciousness state, a pure consciousness. Almost all the religions, all the rituals, all the techniques, all meditations, are created only to drive man from sub consciousness to super consciousness. Whatever you do, whether it is praying in the church, or offering poojas in the temple, or doing namaz in the mosque, or any other ritual, any other religious ritual, was originally designed to drive man from sub consciousness to super consciousness. But the problem starts when you don’t know the science. When you do only the act, when you act without knowing the science, you convert it into a ritual. The process is made subconscious. Anything done with the knowledge, with the wisdom, with the awareness of the science of the whole action, becomes meditation. When the science is lost and only the activity remains it becomes nothing but a ritual. When the juice of wisdom is not there in the activity, it is just a ritual. Thereby are the beautiful phrases ‘religious nuts’ and ‘spiritual truths’ coined! If the juice of spiritual wisdom is not there, then you become just a religious nut. When the juice of spiritual wisdom is added, the religious nut becomes a spiritual truth. So any ritual, any technique starts only as a technique to transform you from sub consciousness to super consciousness.

But when we don’t know the science behind the technique, we would question, how does it happen? Why should it help me? In what way it is going to add more energy, more clarity to my life? Or add more intelligence to my life? When we don’t know that, naturally again we reduce the whole thing into a sub conscious process.

If you know, even just sitting can become a super conscious technique. Just sitting, or simply inhaling and exhaling are more than enough to reach you to the super conscious state. With the intelligence and the right understanding, even a simple thing like inhaling and exhaling, can put you into the super conscious state. This is what Vipaasana is all about. Vipaasana is one of the wonderful meditation techniques. I think the greatest gift given to the planet earth by the East is this Vipaasana technique. Vipaasana is the greatest gift given to the Planet Earth by Buddha. According to me, thousands and thousands of people have become enlightened, just because of this one single technique. This technique is all about inhaling and exhaling consciously, that’s all! If you know the science, if you are conscious, even simple inhaling and exhaling can lead you to super consciousness. When you are not aware, when you don’t know the science, even the great and elaborate rituals can lead you only to sub consciousness.

Now, I’ll try to explain the Science behind the technique: what is sub consciousness and what is super consciousness, how we receive the information from the world, and how the process of cognition happens in our system. How it becomes sub conscious, and how it can be transformed into super consciousness. I’ll explain based on Patanjali, a great Master who lived in ancient India. Based on his teachings, I shall explain, after which we shall analyze that theory with questions and answers. The system of question and answers helps one to internalize. Actually, a simple theory will not help much. When you analyze it with questions and answers, with discussion, then it can be internalized into our systems. So I shall now propose the simple theory:

(Swamiji draws a picture on the drawing board, bearing the words chakshu, manas, chitta, buddhi, and ahamkara and comments: “People are not ready to see ready made cut outs. So I always prefer to write and show!!”)

This is small diagram that I shall explain. This is how the mind works, how we receive the information from the outer world, how the process goes on in our being. I have used Sanskrit words and shall try to give you the explanation.

For example, you are seeing something through your eye. Let us take the example of, say, you seeing me. The moment you see me, there is an energy called Chakshu, which converts the information. This is a process of conversion of the information into something that can be recognized. If you want to process any information in the computer, you will have to digitalize it, is it not? Similarly the energy called chakshu (Chakshu in Sanskrit means, the energy that sees) converts this information and takes it to manas. The moment the visual information is received, chakshu encodes it in the form of a file, and takes it to manas. Manas, we can say, is the first step of our being. Manas analyses this information completely and starts classifying. A broad outline is given: “This is a man” or, “this is an object of so and so height, sitting in such and such posture” or, “this is a human being”, in other words, a broad outline is given. This file, with the additional information next goes to chitta (memory bank). Chitta immediately starts to work “Have I seen this before? Do I know this person from somewhere?” It tries to connect whatever you have experienced, either my colour or my figure, or some other swami like me, with its memory bank. You try to connect the available information, try to link up the present information with all the similar information already stored in your memory.

Till the time the information is with manas, it will be analyzed only in a general way. The moment it comes to chitta, it gets a flavour. It gets fixed relative to something already present in the memory. In this case, the information is put up and sized in relation to all the swamis you may have met or seen or heard in the past, and thus stored in your memory. If you have had a pleasant experience in the past, you immediately associate me too with the good experiences. Contrarily, if you have had bad experiences, you will immediately associate me too as a person with whom you may have a bad experience. Whatever you know, with that you connect. The file, with the additional inputs from the manas and chitta, then moves to buddhi. Now, the buddhi will decide whether you should continue sitting, or leave the hall. If the process moves like this, logically, you are safe. But it does not always go like this, logically. Even though the buddhi decides, it does not have the authority to give the commands. It decides, but the file moves to Ego. We now enter the mysterious zone, the zone where even now the medical field is unable to penetrate. This zone is even today in the hands of meditation and the Masters, in the hands of the mystics and the spiritual Masters.

The buddhi sends the file to the Ego, and Ego finally decides. This decision again comes back, through the same route: buddhi, Chitta, manas and the body starts working out the decision. You get the decision from Ego, which says, “All right, let me sit and listen” Then you sit and watch. If the Ego says, “No, no, let me better leave”, you will simply walk. This is the way the information goes inside and elicits the response. First: what ever you see (or hear, smell etc), is converted into a file with the help of chakshu. Next, it goes to manas. The manas gives a view, or an overall idea of the whole information, then the file moves on to chitta, where it is compared with the memories that you have collected, that are yours. See, in manas, YOU are nowhere associated. But in chitta, YOUR memories are associated. Manas never says “this is right” or “this is wrong”. It just gives an overall view, “here is a human being with orange clothes, with a turban” just an overall view. It is the chitta that starts the analysis, “Oh! He is a Swami! I have seen so many Swamis. Such and such are my experiences…” This file then goes to buddhi. Buddhi decides what is to be done. But the problem is that the buddhi does not have the authority to give the commands. The command can be given only by Ego. From the Ego, the command comes, and your body executes that command. If the whole thing happens logically, there is no problem. Let us continue in the same example of seeing me. Seeing me, the information is digitized, it is brought to manas. Manas gives a broad view like, “ he is human being, standing here…” all these ideas are given. Then it is brought to chitta. Chitta says, “Oh! I have seen so many swamis. I did not have so many good experiences with the previous swamis…” and sends the file to buddhi. Immediately buddhi decides, “Let us go and do our work..let us not remain here”. Then you decide to go. You leave.

If this process happens logically like this, there is no problem. Things go safe and smooth. But sometimes, till here (points to the diagram) one type of logic works. For example, smoking. From the level of eyes you receive the information through the chakshu, it comes to manas, it comes to chitta, it comes to buddhi. Whole file, when it is processed, your buddhi says, “No! Smoking is not good for health. I don’t want to smoke. Already I have bad experiences while smoking. I know it is injurious to health..” this is the end conclusion of Buddhi. But suddenly something happens. See, the file moves like this (demonstrates) and it takes a quantum leap, and suddenly something happens and you decide to smoke.

Please understand, if things go logically, if buddhi’s decisions are executed immediately, as it is, you are not in any difficulty. Things are beautiful. You are safe. But many times, your buddhi’s decisions are overruled, not executed. Your buddhi decides, “No, no. I will not smoke, I should not smoke” Suddenly, you have the urge, and you start smoking. When the file goes to Ego and comes back, the decision is changed. You send the file to the top authority, with recommendations, with proper notes, but the decision is reversed. This processing area, this (points to the diagram) whole thing, I call as Tp, or the time taken for processing, for the file to come up to buddhi. This (again points) time is Tq, or the ‘quantum leap time’. This is the time when the whole file takes a quantum leap. It is in this time that all your decisions are changing, without your knowledge, without your control. Till this (points) moment, the file goes logically. You analyze very clearly. First you see me, then it is digitalized, it is then taken to manas.

Actually, if the chakshu is not there, you will not even see me. Many times you may have observed, you will be sitting and listening to music, deeply engrossed in it. If somebody walks in front of you, you will not even know. Or you may be watching a movie, if somebody calls out to you, you will not even hear it. What does this mean? It means that the chakshu, or the energy behind the sense is not associated with that sense. Only with the chakshu, the information is taken in; the whole file is digitalized. When the file is digitalized, it goes to manas. The manas gives an overall view. In fact the only work of manas is to arrive at this overall view by the process of exclusion and elimination. For example, manas will say, “he is not an animal, he is not a plant,…” whatever is not, is eliminated. This file is then brought to chitta. Chitta then starts analyzing, “Oh! He is a Swami, I have seen so many swamis. I have seen him earlier in Los Angeles. What is my experience with him? It is good. OK.” Then the idea ‘OK it is good, I had a wonderful experience with him’ that file will go to buddhi. The buddhi will decide, “Oh! I had a wonderful experience with him last time. Naturally I will have a wonderful experience with him this time also” This file is now sent to Ego. But Ego only can decide, “All right! Sit and listen”, or “Get out and go!” That decision will be taken only by Ego.

The thing is, if the ego decides according to the recommendation of the buddhi, you are a Buddha. If Ego decides against the buddhi, you are a Buddhu (fool). That’s all!

When the quantum leap process takes place, the whole decision changes. How does it change? Why does it change? Let us see. For the information to come to the sense, and to reach the buddhi, it happens step by step. It takes its own regular time. So you have enough of awareness, and naturally the process goes step by step. But this quantum leap happens in no moment. Literally no time is taken for the quantum leap. Since there is no involvement of time, the awareness is less. Any decision taken with less awareness always leads to confusion. Here the quantum leap happens with lot less awareness. If Tq is time taken for the quantum leap and Tp is the processing time up to the file reaching buddhi, and Tq time is more than the Tp time, then you are a Buddha. You will take decision with awareness. All your words, all your mental thinking, all your actions will be super conscious. If the Tq time is less than Tp time, then you are working from Sub consciousness. Your decisions are not logical. Your decisions are not clear. You are not attuned, you are not integrated with your buddhi. If you are integrated with your buddhi, you are called Buddha, ‘The Awakened One’

All we need to do is increase the Tq time, that is all. Now I shall give you a small equation (writes): If Tq is less and Tp is more, you are in sub consciousness. If Tq is equal to Tp, you are in consciousness. If Tq is more and Tp is less, you are in Super consciousness.

Actually, if the Tq is less, it gives you a sort of thrill and ‘kick’. You quickly decide. You tend to decide very quickly. And you feel you are very courageous.

A small story: One Dheerananda, a very courageous guy and his friends all decided to go for a bull-fight. Before going, they all went to a liquor shop and started drinking. One friend told Dheerananda, “Why don’t you also drink? It will give you lot of courage. Go ahead and drink!” Dheerananda replied, “That is what I am afraid of! That is why I shall not drink. If I drink, I may get the courage!”

Actually, when your Tq is less, you feel you are courageous. If you continuously decide without having the awareness, or without taking time, you claim yourself as a bold person. You think yourself as a great person. But the satisfaction of having the feeling of ‘I have lived’ can come only with thinking, taking the decisions with awareness and consciousness, having more Tq. As long as the Tp time is more than the Tq time, you are continuously in sub consciousness. Because, the buddhi gives one decision, and Ego gives a different command. A tug of war goes on inside your being. Continuously, the tug of war goes on. Guilt, fighting with yourself, everything happens in this (points) spot only. Buddhi gives one decision, buddhi writes something in the file, and Ego gives different command.

If you understand this one thing deeply, your whole life can be transformed. Because this is the basic key with which we receive the information, process it and give the decision. If we can understand this one thing, it is more than enough to transform your whole life. All we need to do is to increase the Tq time. The time taken for the file, when it goes to Ego and process is done, and the command is in turn given to the buddhi, this time, if you can increase, if you can infuse spirit, and awareness into this area, this Tq area, your whole life will be transformed. You can never take any wrong decisions. Not only will you not make wrong decisions, you will know the consequences of any decision that you may take.

We destroy our senses, we overdo things, we exploit our body, we abuse our system when the Tq is less than Tp. You can see in your life, till late night or early morning, you will stay awake and watch a football match. Your eyes will be begging, “Please give me little sleep”. The moment an advertisement comes, your eyes will close by themselves. But you don’t heed your body. You just force. Again and again, you abuse your body, because we do not have enough of Tq. We do not have enough of awareness in the decision-making system. If at any point in time you feel, “I am able to understand things intellectually, but I’m not able to practice” the problem is of less Tq. Intellectual understanding means that till buddhi, things are OK, but instances like, ‘emotionally I’m not able to experience, or in reality I’m not able to practice’ indicates that the Tq is not sufficient. Almost all our problems are only this: sub consciousness. When the Tp is more than the Tq, you are working sub consciously. Even if your inhaling and exhaling is subconscious, you are not completely doing it. Please be aware, if you are not aware of your inhaling and exhaling, your lungs are not getting completely filled. You can experience it this very moment. Just become aware of your inhaling and exhaling, you will start breathing very deeply. You will feel your whole lungs. Do it this moment. Just become aware of your inhaling and exhaling. Your breathing becomes at least one and a half times more. The moment you infuse awareness, even your inhaling and exhaling, the quality of your inhaling and exhaling transforms. The moment you bring awareness, your thinking system is under your control!

Many a times, even without our knowledge, we bring many negative words and thoughts inside our system. You can see in your lives, if you analyze, if you can just sit for 20 minutes and write down whatever comes in your mind; of course you can’t write at all, because the speed of thought is too much. On the other hand, you can do a simple experiment: sit in front of a tape-recorder, speak out whatever comes in your mind, without editing. Let it be recorded for just 21 minutes. Afterwards, listen to what you have recorded. Then you will understand what is going on inside. Without even your awareness, without even your knowledge, continuously you are using a lot of negative terms, negative words, leading to the abuse of your own self, your own being. Your logic continuously attacks you. Actually it is as though you have a sword and you are continuously torturing yourself with that sword.

In the same way, with your continuous inner chattering, you continuously torture yourself without even you being aware of it; all this because the Tq is less than the Tp. That is, the time taken for the processing becomes more the time taken for the decision-making. Decision making happens in this area (points out the area between buddhi –ego- buddhi), while processing happens in that area (points to the area of chakshu – manas – buddhi).

To give an analogy, it is as if the boss who is supposed to decide, never comes to the factory! He sits somewhere, sees the file, and never even bothers about the file; just out of his ego he says, “Do this”. (points) Here is the worker, supervisor, manager, general manager, CEO, all these guys, they arrive at a decision, and finally it goes to the Boss. But the Boss, ignoring all the recommendations, just writes something else and sends the file back. You can’t do anything, except execute what the Boss says.

This is the same process happening inside our system. When the decision making is not done with awareness, you torture yourself terribly. The words that you use to yourself, the words that you use with others, the mental setup with which you work, and the activities and actions that you do, everything is straightaway connected to the Tq. Because this is the zone where decisions are made. This is the zone where you create an image about yourself, about the world, about the society, you create an idea about persons, everything is done here in the Tq zone. Infusing spirit into this Tq zone is what we call spirituality. Infusing consciousness in this zone makes you super consciousness. Take the simple case of inhaling and exhaling. The moment you infuse awareness, you will start doing the same thing deeply. And infusing awareness into your simple being can transform your being. In the same way, you can infuse awareness into your thinking, and it can totally transform your thinking.

If you can infuse awareness into your activities and actions, you are just transformed and transported from sub consciousness to super consciousness. A small example: one person came to me and asked me, “Swamiji, I have the habit of smoking. I am not able to drop it. Can you please help me?” I replied, “Please start smoking consciously. That’s all” I did not ask him to drop the habit, just asked him to smoke with consciousness and awareness. “Feel the cigarette, feel the touch, feel every puff, feel the smoke inside, feel what is happening inside your system. Experience it. How does your mind react? What do you feel? Be aware, be conscious of the whole thing.” I do not know how you will believe this, but the person came back on the fourth day and said, “Swamiji, I’m not able to smoke at all! What have you done to me?” I said, “ I have not done anything to you, it is not my presence that has changed you. It is your presence that has changed you!” For your transformation, my presence is not necessary, your presence is enough!

Your presence is more than enough for your transformation, my presence is not necessary. If you understand this one statement, you will be liberated from Gurus! That is the ultimate liberation. I tell you, liberation from Gurus is the ultimate liberation! If you are able to understand this one technique: For transformation, my presence is not necessary, your presence is enough. Just infuse consciousness in the Tq. Infuse consciousness in every action, in every moment, and you will see that your entire life is transformed.

Actually smoking is nothing but trying to escape from some thoughts! So indeed are all your addictions! Analyze. Analyze all your addictions. Coffee, tea, smoking, drinking, whatever it may be. At a particular time, you come upon a particular mental setup – it may be depression, or a low mood, some mental setup that you are not interested in facing. Either you feel that you don not have enough energy to face it, or you just don’t want to face it. Immediately you drink something and escape from that mood! You just want to escape from that mood. Immediately you turn to some escape and turn to tea, or coffee, or alcohol, smoking, eating, etc. Any addiction is nothing but trying to escape from that mental setup, for the time being, for those few moments. When you can’t escape consciously, you choose unconscious methods, unconscious techniques.

A small analogy: A pig felt the stink from a drainage to be too much. In some parts of India we still have an open drainage system. The pig could not bear the stink. It put its nose into the filth! In the same way, if we want to escape from suffering, we just make ourselves unconscious, and we think, we have escaped!

Drinking alcohol or any other addiction process is the same thing. When you are not able to escape consciously from a particular mental setup, you take the help of some things from outside your system to make you unconscious; alcohol, smoking, drugs etc. Anything that makes you unconscious is dangerous for the Tq. You will not be able to make the right decisions. Anything that makes you unconscious will naturally lead you to dullness. You will be abusing your body, your mind and your whole system. When you continuously use methods and techniques to reduce the Tq, it means putting yourself into unconsciousness. Naturally, you are traveling towards the path of suicide, slow suicide.

A small story in this connection: Once a missionary was seen in a Bar, going from one table to the other, talking to people, trying to convince them to give up drinking, telling them how bad drinking was. One young person, who was trying his best to avoid eye contact with the missionary, wanted to escape. To his horror, just then the missionary came and sat at his table in front of him, and started advising him, “Don’t you feel what you are drinking is a slow poison?” The youngster immediately replied, “Yes I know. However since I am not in a hurry, I am taking this!!”. Yes, as the joke goes, you can drink, if you are not in a hurry to die. It is just a slow suicide process. It will make you dull and the awareness intensity will be brought down; you will be traveling towards sub consciousness. Not just the drinking habit, please understand, there are so many things that make you unconscious, that take you to sub consciousness. If you do something that you don’t want, something that you don’t want to do from your heart, but out of desire or impulse, or a compulsion you do it, again you are creating sub consciousness. You once again help increase the depth of your sub consciousness. You are getting caught. You are creating a mental setup that is going to give you more and more trouble.

Your whole life structure needs to be flooded with this single idea, with this single understanding. Once you do it, your life will be simply transformed. If you are able to understand this one key sutra (aphorism), one mantra: infusing awareness into your Tq zone, infusing awareness into the area where you are making the decisions; if you can infuse awareness into the Tq zone, your whole life will be transformed from this moment. Transformation does not mean years, months, not even weeks. It is just a conscious choice, a simple decision: from today, I decide to transform my life. If you are in sub conscious level, the moment you choose, you will move to a conscious level. If you are in conscious level, the moment you choose, you will move to super conscious level.

This is the ultimate technique, not only for spiritual progress, even to live life happily, this is the master key. Anybody, not only spiritual Masters, anybody who happened on this planet earth, any intelligent man, any person with wisdom who happened on this planet earth, if you see his teachings, if you read his words either directly or indirectly he will be saying the same things: infuse consciousness into your decision-making zone. Infusing awareness into the Tq zone is the ultimate teaching. Neither can anything more be said, nor anything removed from this teaching. All meditation, all spirituality, all techniques are nothing but this one sentence: infusing awareness into your Tq zone. That is the mysterious zone in which your decisions are made. If you can infuse little bit of awareness, that is enough, you are already spiritual. You are becoming Buddha. Now, what is the way? We all know that infusing awareness into our Tq zones is necessary. How to do it? Understand these three simple things: Whatever way your body moves, try to be inside your boundary. Wherever you are sitting or standing, try to be inside your boundary. Just be inside your boundary. Let us look at your life. If you are in your house, early in the morning, you will be worrying about your office. If you are sitting in the office, you will be bothering about the evening to be spent at the beach. If you are sitting in the beach, again when would you be back at the house! Only one thing is sure – if you are here, you are not here! That has become a mental setup. So understand this first key, just be where you are. If you are here, please be here! That is the first key. Next thing, infuse awareness into your inhaling and exhaling as much as possible. Whenever you are sitting, relaxing, watching TV, playing, reading the paper, or driving, whatever you may be doing – any case one thing is sure, you are certainly breathing – why don’t you introduce some awareness into your breathing? Whenever you remember, try to infuse some awareness into your inhaling and exhaling. This is the second key.

Third thing: bring awareness into the words that you use with yourself. Continuously you are using words towards yourself, what I call as monologue. Try to bring little bit of awareness into your monologue.

So, live inside your boundary, bring awareness into your breathing, bring awareness into your monologue. Here (pointing to the edge of the body) ends your body, and here (pointing to the air next to the body) the universe starts. Please live inside your boundary. If you can live inside your boundary, you will be liberated.

Please understand, life is a paradox. If you live inside your boundary, you will be liberated from the boundary consciousness! The moment you stat living inside your boundary, you are jeevan muktha. Jeevan muktha in Sanskrit means a person who is liberated while still alive. A person who has achieved spiritual freedom while still living in the body, is called jeevan muktha in Sanskrit. Liberation does not mean achieving any special powers. Of course, you will have them once liberated. A liberated person is one who lives inside his boundary. If you live inside your boundary and start infusing little bit of awareness into your inhaling and exhaling, and whenever you remember, bring awareness into your monologue, your inner chattering. Be careful not to create guilt. If you forget for a few moments, do not bother. If you create guilt, again you will be creating conflict between buddhi and ego. Don’t create conflict between Tp and Tq. Don’t create guilt. Whenever you remember, just infuse awareness to your inner chattering, to your inhaling and exhaling and to our body language. Just be aware, be conscious of your body language, how you are holding your self, how your body is moving, how you are living inside your being and just be inside your boundary.

So these three simple keys can completely liberate you from sub consciousness. It can completely transform you from sub consciousness to super consciousness.

Now, as stated earlier, I shall spend some time with your questions. Any question or discussion are welcome. Any comment. If you are not able to accept any of what I have said, you are welcome to open the subject, because whatever I said will only be in the mind level. Unless you analyze with doubts and questions and answers, it cannot be internalized.

Q: Is there a way to recognize a person who is super conscious?

S: A person who is super conscious will be serenely blissful. One more thing, the question itself will disappear. I tell you, if you go and sit in front of a person who is super conscious, the question itself will disappear. Try your best to doubt him, but the root of the doubt will be totally shaken. The root of doubt is logic. That will slowly start slipping. Without you being even aware, the pillars that hold your logic will slowly fall. People ask me, “Swamiji, should I accept you as a Guru?” I tell them, “Never do that mistake”. You can’t forget me. You will not be able to forget me. If I am in your thoughts, in your dreams, in your sleep, then I am your Guru. If that has not happened, just forget me and carry on with your life. Then there is something wrong with me, not with you! So if you are sitting in the presence of a super conscious being, if you see if somebody is super conscious, this question itself will slowly start melting. Try your best to doubt, “I don’t think he is super conscious. Let us see”. Try your best to create more and more doubts. The doubts will just wither away. The doubts will not stand. That is the only technique, nothing else can be done. Where your mind loses control over its decisions, you will be just beyond your mind, beyond your logic, beyond your doubt. The conclusion will happen inside your system. Then you can decide that the person is super conscious. There is no other technique, no other scale, no other invented machineries to find out if a person is super conscious.

Q. Swamiji, what about pain? Is it a mental problem? Can it be healed?

S: It is nothing but too much of Tp and no Tp. I shall give you a simple technique which I have spoken about in my discourse titled ‘pain to bliss’. The technique is about how to infuse awareness into the places where you have pain, physical or emotional. Both can be healed when you infuse awareness. For example, let us say you have knee pain. Just relax and start searching in the zone where you have pain. Naturally, around the knee area you will feel having the pain. Now, drop the word ‘pain’. If you see your inner chattering, you will continuously be repeating the word ‘pain’ several times over, incessantly, without your awareness. Be little aware and drop that word. See what is happening in that area. Like a small child, if the kid sees something new, how would it look at it? With all curiosity, with all excitement, is it not? In the same way, look at the area where you have the pain, with all curiosity, without labeling it as ‘pain’. First thing, drop the word ‘pain’. Do not use it. Secondly, just see what is happening there. You will see that some new feeling is there. What is that new feeling? Just see. And slowly you will see that the area in which you felt the pain, instead of the whole knee, the area of pain has slowly started shrinking. And instead of one small patch, it has reduced to one point. Suddenly you see that the whole pain disappears! Understand, I am not proposing a theory. I have worked with at least 10000 people with this technique. It works. I have worked with cancer patients, I have worked with acute arthritis, spondylites, people who have got pain all over the body. Even with such patients, I worked with this technique. It works miracles. And apart from I working, many of our disciple doctors, they too have worked with this technique and they vouch for this technique. They have given testimonials for this technique, a simple technique wherein you infuse awareness in your boundary and inner chattering. When you infuse awareness in your inner chattering, the word pain can be dropped. You will not be repeating it sub consciously, intensely and continuously. You will first drop the word pain. Next thing: infuse awareness to your boundary, live inside your boundary. Infuse awareness to the area where you have pain. And the third thing, you can do this also, infusing your awareness to your inhaling and exhaling, at the time of meditation. If you can do these three things, miracles can happen. People come out of the physical pain and the sufferings.

Now I shall give you small tips about the emotional pain. Again, infuse awareness to your inhaling and exhaling. All emotional pain is nothing but your inner chattering, without awareness. Your monologue without awareness in the thing that leads to all emotional pain. If you can infuse some awareness and constantly edit your inner chattering, censor your inner chattering, you will just release the whole thing. For example, if an entire movie is released as it is from the studios, without editing, will anybody see it? After the shooting, if the entire thing is just released without editing, what would happen? We are doing the very same thing in our lives. Whatever happens, we don’t put enough time, awareness, consciousness, energy, to do the editing process. That is why our life is a mess just as a movie that has been released without editing too would be a mess. If you start living without editing your inner chattering, you will make a mess of your whole life. So just infuse little awareness, whenever you are in emotional pain, psychological pain. Sit with yourself and start seeing your inner chattering. You will see that the simple awareness itself is cure and heal. A small story, in fact it is a great incident. Once a great king went to Buddha and sat in front of him. The king was constantly shaking his legs, unconsciously. Buddha suddenly started staring at the king’s legs. The moment Buddha’s gaze fell on the legs, the king immediately stopped the shaking. Automatically the king stopped the shaking. The king asked, “Oh Buddha, how can I stop my mind?”. Buddha replied, “The same technique!”

The moment you become aware, you stop. The shaking of the legs stopped the moment you become aware. In the same way, the moment you become aware of your mind, it stops! The moment you become aware of your emotional pain, your psychological suffering, you get released. All you need is to infuse awareness. As long as you are unaware, you are in sub conscious level, and you will have physical and psychological pains. The moment you infuse awareness, both physical and psychological pains just disappear, dissolve. You are not even solving, you are just dissolving the pains.

One request: before trying these techniques, please don’t decide it will not work! That is my simple request. You see, when you come here, I don’t demand faith. I don’t ask you to believe in me. I don’t ask faith as a pre-requisite. Similarly, do not have negative faith either. Neither have faith nor doubt. Just have simple curiosity, to try, like a scientist. The real spirit of Science is trying to analyze, trying to work, trying to explore. If any hypothesis is proposed, they will try to explore. The curiosity, or the capacity, or the energy, to explore is what I need when you work with these techniques. Spirituality also needs the same spirit. A real scientist will always be curious, enthusiastic, to explore. Please have that much of energy for the techniques too. Have the courage to explore. Then you will see that miracles will be happening in your life. You will simply transform. When you listen to the techniques, they appear so simple. You may tend to think, “No! This is too simple to work! All this will not work.” Or, if you feel it is too complicated, then naturally you will think, “Oh! It is too complicated. It will not work!” In both instances, you arrive at a conclusion, before you practice even once. Please don’t do this.

Q. Swami, I am doing some mantra from (so and so master). Lot of thoughts are coming...

S: (interrupts) Sorry ma! Any technique that you have taken from some master, you should ask the advice or suggestions also from the same master, because he or she wants you to grow in a particular way. So that is why she has given you some particular technique. If I now give some suggestion, there is a possibility of your getting disturbed. So I say, I should not give some suggestion. Suggestions or advice should be given only by that person. Because only she knows, how much you have grown. I can give you some suggestion. But naturally, I will not know how much it will help you. See it is like this: only Ford company can release spare parts for Ford cars! Only the person who launched the product can give the spare parts also. Only he will know the repairs and maintenance methods! Same way, she has given you the technique. Now only she can give the solution. And one more thing, you must follow only her solution. I request, don’t follow my solution, because my solutions are given to the persons who are practicing my techniques.

Q. During the discourse you used two words relating to Tq zone: Consciousness and Spirit. What is the difference and how does one know which is which?

S: When you are working it is called consciousness and when you have achieved, it is called Spirit. That’s all. When you are working, that is when you are trying to infuse consciousness, along with your consciousness naturally few thoughts will be there. The time when you work is called consciousness. When you have achieved, it is called spirit. Let me give you this small example: consciousness is like 18 carat gold, while spirit is like 24 carat gold. And if you don’t have any doubt, you can be sure you have achieved the Spirit. The work is over. If you having doubts and still you are working, it is consciousness. Consciousness is the path and Spirit is the realization. In a way you can say that the super conscious is Spirit. Consciousness is your moving on the path.

Q. Swamiji, when I start doing vipaasana, I tend to fall into a depression or some other emotions become strong. What is the reason? How can I overcome this?

S: This is a nice question. Actually if you do vipaasana when you are in a state where you have suppressed your emotions, you will have this feeling. Your suppression, depression, everything will come up. The best way is, before doing the technique, start doing some catharsis. Do some loud glasilolia, which we call ‘manipuraka meditation’. Glasilolia means, shouting in the language that you don’t know. For five minutes, just start screaming. You may feel funny, odd. But when you do it you will understand, all your suppressed emotions will be cleansed. I always have this technique in my meditation camp. This catharsis-type meditation is a must in our meditation camps. Throw away whatever you have. See, once all the garbage is taken out, meditation just happens to you!

I shall not force sanity upon you, once the insanity is pulled out, sanity happens to you. Sanity just blossoms in you. So before doing the vipaasana technique, for about five or ten minutes, you can just blabber, or scream, or just make loud noise. Do something like this, nonsensical. You will see that your mind and body easily settles into the meditative mood, without falling into depression, you will vomit everything out.

Q. Swamiji, the first time when I heard your discourse, I felt shy to ask questions…..

S: (interrupts) Actually, I always tell people, never feel shy to ask questions. The problem is that if you ask, you think you will look like a fool, as everyone will be looking at you. If you ask, no doubt you may look like a fool, but if you don’t, you will be a fool!! (loud laughter from the audience) Whether it is better to look like a fool, or be a fool is our decision!!

Q. (Continues): this time, so many things you have explained I have never heard before…

S: (interrupts again) Actually this is the Science of the whole thing. This is the Science based on which meditation techniques themselves are created. This is the master key for all the meditation techniques. Meditation techniques themselves are master-keys. This is the master key of the master keys!

Q. (Continues): I did notice a difference in me as compared to last time, my actions have changed, I am more aware. Earlier I was hyper. Now I think I am in the medium level. Maybe I will be much better by the time you come here next time. Maybe I’ll be a different human being.

S: The conscious decision that, “I’ll be a different person by the time I meet you next time” is more than enough for the shift, for the transformation to happen. We don’t respect the power of our conscious decision. Actually, I don’t think we respect ourselves at all in the first place! Then where is the question of respecting the conscious decision? We don’t respect ourselves as an entity, which is why others also don’t think of as an entity. This is the basic trouble. If you think your conscious decision is powerful, people will just follow you. People come and ask me, “Swamiji, how to impress others? How to influence people?” I tell them, “First influence yourself! Integrate yourself. Believe that you can influence yourself and others.” The moment you influence yourself, you integrate yourself, you become such a power, such an energy. People can’t resist, they will just follow you. Anybody whose consciousness has become ‘a leader’ will just start leading. Whatever profession you may be in, wherever you are, whether you are in a business, or a job, or a doctor, or a lawyer or whatever, if your consciousness is to lead, you will lead irrespective of anything. If your consciousness is ‘to follow’, even if you are in the CEO chair, you will be following somebody, imitating somebody. ‘Leader’ or ‘Follower’ is based on consciousness. It is based on the state of your mind, not the status of your chair. ‘Leader’ is a state, not a status. Please be very clear, people who have achieved the status without achieving the state can never stay in the status. Even if you are in the status without being in the state, you will not be able to enjoy it. If you are in the state, the status will just follow you. Even if you don’t have the status, you will be enjoying your life. So it is necessary to achieve the state than the status. Status will just follow you, if you are in the state.

Q: You mentioned about Patanjali. According to Patanjali, there are eight sutras for enlightenment, starting with yama, niyama,(observance of moral and social codes) etc. One among the eight is meditation. Before reaching samadhi (realization), you advocate meditation. That is right. However can we directly enter into the zone of dhyana (meditation) without following the initial yama, niyama and other steps?

S: This is a wonderful question. Please forgive me for making this statement, there is no other way: If you try to follow yama, niyama, and then try to enter into dhyana, you may enter into maha-samadhi (great enlightenment, here referring to death), not samadhi! Your whole life will be ended. But you will not be making any progress. You see, this system was created for human beings who lived on this earth 2000 years ago. For them yama, niyama, etc was natural. The depth of fantasy was very less. So brahmacarya (observance of reality) was possible. The need to tell lie is not there, so satya (truth) was possible. Since enough of protection was available, ahimsa was naturally possible. For the society of those days, all those things were possible. Even now it is possible, I don’t deny it, but after having the experience of meditation. If you start working, without having the experience of meditation, just in the way of yama and niyama, you will only be creating conflicts within yourself. You will only be creating guilt within yourself. Just try the yama and niyama, I don’t have to say. And what is your experience? I have always seen people coming and saying, “Yes, swamiji, we have little problem” they come and stand before me and scratch their heads. Why? See even to practice yama and niyama, you need certain amount of integrity and energy, certain Tq, which is not there in the modern men today. In the modern men, even that much of Tq is not there. Even to follow what your buddhi says, you need a Tq. In this modern day society, man has become scizophrenic.

There is no person who can be termed as a ‘normal’ man. The normal level itself has become abnormal. Or rather, the abnormal level has become normal! This is what is termed as the ‘border-line’ cases in medical terminology. People will look almost normal. They will walk, talk, etc almost normally. But once you go close, …… you’re gone!! That is why they say, before getting married, better to live with that person at least 6 months! You will come to know whether he is a border line case, or he’s OK!!

The abnormal level has become the normal level. So immediately we need to do some meditation, infusing awareness. So that you can become ‘man’ again. Then you can start practicing the yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. The seven steps. The eighth is not a step, it is an achievement. The steps are seven. But first you have to become ‘man’. For that itself you need to increase your Tq.

Q: Swamiji, under your guidance I have come from pre-school level to middle school level. Now I want to go to High School level with your techniques……

S: Again the only technique, increase the Tq. That’s all! Actually, when you increase the Tq, that is the real nidhi (wealth). ‘Lakshmi’ means increasing the Tq. The very word ‘Lakshmi’ in Sanskrit means increasing the Tq. When you increase the Tq, with this same house you will feel more comfortable. With the same furniture, you feel more luxurious. With the same people, you feel blissful. With the same situations, you feel joyful. Actually Lakshmi is added when you increase the Tq. Of course, because of your right decision making, wealth will also be added. The moment your Tq becomes big, your car becomes big, your bungalow becomes big, your life becomes big, everything becomes big - because of your decision making power, because of your clarity, that’s true. Apart from that, your being, your ‘Lakshimtva’ (the quality of being Lakshmi), the capacity to enjoy, the energy of the wealth consciousness, will just increase. Increasing the Tq is what I call ‘creating affluence’.

Q: Swami, we have been always taught that Ego is something bad, that we should try to get rid of the ego, but the way you explained, if there is sufficient Tq, the ego will let us take good decisions… S: If there is sufficient Tq, ego disappears into atman. Do you see this diagram? Under the Ego, I have written Atman. When the Tq is less, you are egoistic. When the Tq is more, there is no Ego. The ego just disappears. Only the atman shines. So it is all about Tq.

I think it is time, I shall end the session.

I pray to the Ultimate Divine Energy, the Consciousness, the Eternal Bliss which is in all your hearts, let you all understand these great truths and let you practice and experience the Eternal Bliss, Nithyananda. Thank you.

Photos

Below are some pictures taken on 15th March 2005. Swamiji started the day spending time with devotees, visiting the Vivekananda House and the Universal Studios in Los Angeles. In the evening Swamiji delivered a discourse on 'Sub-Consciousness to Super Consciousness' in the CHEC building, San Gabriel in Los Angeles. Later he met gave blessing/healing to each and every person who attended the program.

LA Tour

Discourse at San Gabriel LA