Listening

According to Paramahamsa Nithyananda, the definition of right listening is allowing the words to enter in your inner space automatically, cognizing them without you constantly interfering with your incompletions.

Etymology

Some of the great definitions in Vedic tradition are just examples; no separate definition is given. Just meditating on these examples allows us to experience them.

For example, Dhyana means tailaadhara patra. It means, when the oil flowing from one vessel to another vessel is poured.

Similarly, when Ganga river moves from one ghat to another ghat, when it moves from one place to another, it is called ‘Shravana’. When Ganga moves from Rishikesh to Haridwar, she is not leaving Rishikesh, she enriches Rishikesh also and moves to Haridwar. That is Shravana.

In Listening you are expected to be just like that. It means you should be a empty space for the sound to travel through you. The words move that move through you - When you listen, it enriches you, and goes on enriching everything around you.

Shravana, listening, is one of the most powerful process to achieve Completion. You can develop a best friend for yourself through the habit of Listening. Your habit of Listening can be an amazing friend for you in all your difficult times.

Introduction

Listening is like eternal romance, where you are not tired of getting involved with the life. Understand, this involvement with life, participating with life, participation with the life starts with listening. Nothing in the life can be achieved unless you participate. Listening is a amazing way to participate in the life.

Source of everything - good or bad, life or death, richness or poverty, joy or suffering, pain or bliss, disease or health, source of everything, chaos or confusion, everything, is the word you utter inside. The source of the word you utter inside is the words you listen. I wanted to correct - not the words you hear, but the words you listen.

The modern day psychologists, researchers in the field of mind and psychology, they are saying you observe, internalise only 2% of what is happening around you. If there are 100 information’s - means visual, sound, if the 100 information’s are happening around you, you internalise only two. So please listen, the source of you is not what you hear but what you listen.

Understand, the word is not just the word; it can create intense awakening in you. It is the power which can change your reality. And when you listen, can become the source material of your reality. The words you listen becomes the source of the words you utter towards you and others. And, especially the words you listen from the source of the source becomes the source of the words you utter towards you and others.

The words you utter inside you about you should be best. And when you listen to the Master’s words, you will collect those best words. In the life you can get stones and diamonds. Use the stones to build your house, but wear only diamonds. You get words from your teacher, from your parents, from your family, from your boss; all that is a stone. Use it for those comforts and luxuries.

The words you get from your boss - use it to make money. The words you get from your MBA teacher - use it to learn how to manage. The words you get from your employee, employer - use that for your business. But the words you get from your Master - use it to identify you, use them to realize you. So, please understand, the words you receive from the Master, use them to discover you. As I said, stones, I am not saying throw away the stones. Use them to build your house. Diamonds, wear them on you. The words you receive from the Master are diamonds; take it and wear them beautifully on you. Use the words you listen from the Master to identify you, to discover you, to realize you.

Listening has become a lost art. Research suggests that people accurately comprehend and recall approximately 50% of what they hear. Within the next forty eight hours, most forget half of the retained information, hence remembering only 25% of what was initially heard.

Why is listening so hard? Most of the time, we are busy formulating our own opinion and thinking about what we are going to say. This prevents us from actually listening to what is being said. In addition, words unconsciously trigger emotional reactions and we end up suffering. Emotions such as anger and certain words may trigger thought patterns that can cause our mind to be distracted and wander.

As a consequence, we hear what we want to hear and don't hear what we don't want to hear. Only when we are externally silent and have quietened our inner chatter can true listening happen. This creates the space for a deep understanding of what the other person really wants to communicate. The inability to set aside the urge to voice our emotions and opinions and listen without judgment is a major cause for misunderstandings and disagreements.

Authentic Listening happens when your internalizing process functions without the interference of incompletions. Incompletion is the hangover and residue of the past memory, incidents, situations, past thoughts, past emotions which are residing in you and continuously disturbing your present moment, restricting your present moment and limiting your cognition in the present moment.

The spiritual practice of listening consciously will allow you to identify any incompletions you have. And that the more incompletions you can complete with, the more intense your listening will become. It is a cycle that will ensure that you are both cleansed of all incompletions and will experience the zone of listening intensely.

Hearing fills you with sound and creates chaos inside you as an emotional response. Listening leads you from sound to silence, real listening absorbs sounds and results in silence, in real understanding.

Authentic Listening

Sounds/Words > Triggered Incompletions > Cognizing > Hearing > Listening > State of Clarity

Unfortunately, even the people you stay with for twenty-four hours a day, you are not part of their life, and they are not part of your life. For example, if you look in, you most likely don’t know the exact problem of your car driver in his life. You don’t know the real problem of your maid I her life. You may not know the reality he or she want to cause in their life. 90% of you will not know.

People who are living with you, you never provide authentic listening to them. When you do not provide authentic listening to them, you have a very minimal interaction with life. Whenever you have a complete interaction with life, just listening puts you in such Completion you do not expect some other pleasures as the fruit of life.

Listening is a Survival Need

The inability to handle the reality is suffering. The moment you have the ability to handle reality, it is no more suffering. Listening plays a very major role in that. When you don’t have listening, you always come to the conclusion before the information is cognized in you.

The moment you start talking to somebody, when you don’t have listening, you start coming to your own conclusions either by rejecting that person or taking that person as a big threat. Both will lead you to suffering. If you take a joker as a villain, you will be suffering unnecessarily. If you take the villain as a joker, you are neglecting the problems and sufferings that are going to come. To gauge a villain as a villain, a comedian as a comedian, you need listening.

It is listening which is important to see the guy who is in front of your life. Listening is survival need. If you just have listening towards your mind it cannot cause any more suffering to you.

Techniques for Listening

1. Listen to your heart whenever you have a suffering thought, panic attack. Whenever you are confronting something, listen to your heart, listen to your blood flow, listen to your liver, it will really help you. You will learn listening.

2. Once in awhile, sit with a tree, sit with a river, sit with a water-body. Water-body means hundred times more quantity water than your blood level. It can be anything; it can be a tank, pond or river. Your body carries almost five to seven litres of blood based on your size. Around seven hundred litre water can be considered as a water-body. If you sit with a water body, it’ll develop listening!

Listening - The Solution to Suffering!

Listen when you are feeling confronted. Listen when you are feeling conflict. Listen when you are sick and tired. Listen when you feel why life is like this. Listen whenever you have a resistance towards something.

Your inability to listen will make anything in the life as suffering. Even milk will become poison. Your ability to listen will make even poison into nectar. If you have the listening, when the idea starts in your throat. Please understand, listening in the source where the ideas are happening is Unclutching. If you just sit with you and listen you talking to you. Listening out to your mind is Unclutching. Every day, listening out to your mind before going to sleep is Completion. Completion is nothing but listening. Listen to every conflict, every contradiction, every confrontation you face in the life. When you are in the space of Completion, you will be naturally listening without any struggle or effort.

Bring listening to your thinking. Bring listening to your words. Bring listening to others’ words. Bring listening to the conflicts you are going through.

When you don’t listen, your mind will behave with you like a politician. When you listen, your mind will behave with you like an enlightened being. Your mind will be Guru for you. It will take you away from all sufferings. It will melt down all worries, all sufferings, all conflicts.

Listening whole day, Completion whole night, is the life of a Yogi. Listening is Dhyana, Completion is Samadhi. When you listen in the source of the words and thoughts, which is the neck, which is the throat, you will be in the space of Unclutching, even poison will not cross this and grow and disturb your body. That is what is the meaning of “Neelakanta”; because Mahadeva is established in the pure space of listening, even poison cannot cross his listening, and affect his body.

Listening is the first step in life. With listening, life starts, when you stop listening, life ends.

Benefits

Listening develops so many beautiful qualities in you. It awakens many abilities in you. Listening alone is enough for you to achieve Brahmacharya and Sannyasa! You do not need any other technique, any other Yoga, Kriya, Joojoo, Voodoo, jaadhu; you do not need anything else! .. Just listening can make you a great Sadhu! Because, listening develops the ability of listening inside also! You will develop the ability of listening to you. Whether it is in your school, or college, or university, or you are watching a movie, or fighting with your spouse, lying to your boss, or listening to all the lies of your servant or subordinates, be always in the space of listening to outer and inner, what is happening outside and inside; you will never have suffering in your life!

Bring this one quality of listening, that’s all. You will see so much, so much good things in your life! Whether it is office or anywhere, wherever, wherever you are, listening, listening, listening! It is listening which develops many of the subtle pleasure grooves in your system. Always being in the space of listening is Kalpataru. - Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Life starts only with Listening

With listening begins life. When you start the cognition process internally without incompletions, life starts in you. Only then relationships starts in you. Only then living starts in you. Only then anything good will start happening in you. Please listen, if you start cognizing without incompletions even your health will become better because the agitation caused by the incompletions during listening leads to blood-pressure, diabetes and all other degradation of the body which is the root cause of all the diseases and disorders. Stress is nothing but incompletions, the interference of the incompletions during your listening. If you bring listening, even your boss cannot agitate you, even your spouse cannot agitate you. I know people can believe boss cannot agitate you but people can’t believe spouse can’t agitate you. It is said that husband is head of the family but remember the wife is neck of the family. The neck can turn the head exactly the way she wants.

Life starts with listening, happens with listening, continues to exist with listening, ends when listening stops. Mahadeva is continuously teaching the meaning of the Vedas but only who listens, listens. He started, I think when the Universe started and he is continuing still now. Who listens, listens. Please listen, when the incompletions in you is not allowed to interfere with your cognition listening happens. Listening, listening, listening. With listening starts life. Understand this one truth, listening, your program starts the moment you start listening.Your program does not start the moment I start speaking your program starts the moment you start listening.

Listening Increases the Excitement in your Life

Listening is the first, most powerful step to increase your participation with life. When your participation with life increases, many of the pleasures which makes you powerless when you run behind it, or after you get it, will start losing it’s power over you.

Many pleasures, when you start running towards it, it keeps you powerless. After you get it, you are kept powerless. Those kind of pleasures will lose power over you when your participation with the life increases. When your participation with life increases, you start having so many fulfilments and it leads you to so many layers of Completion. Any pleasure in your life which makes you powerless when you run behind it and keeps you powerless after you achieve it will constantly lead you to more and more incompletion, lead you to more and more disintegration.

Just if you start practicing listening in your life, even when your boss is firing you which you don’t want to listen, or your spouse is shouting at you completely illogical which you don’t want to listen, or your employees just, your subordinate, your assistant, your servant is just lying through the teeth which you don’t want to listen, even in those moments, keeping your incompletions aside, listen; because, that will increase your participation with reality. Participation with reality is always excitement which makes you powerful! Which does not make you powerless. Listening brings so much of excitement. It is a very powerful intoxicant, does not disturb your health.

Listening solves any problem

Many times, people come and tell Paramahamsa Nithyananda, ‘Swamiji, I feel you are exactly talking to me!’

Paramahamsa Nithyananda says, “Listening teaches you to speak into the listening of the listener. Just authentic listening will solve any problem. When you start solving by listening to others’ problems, you will start doing the same even listening to your own problems. When you start listening, first thing that will happen, you will start participating in life. Second, when you have so much of participation, you will start seeing the solutions. Third, when you start listening so much from others, you will start developing the patience even to listen to you, your heart’s cries. When you start listening to others and to yourself, you just know what should be spoken to whom. Your words can either make you or break you. What should be spoken to whom.” - Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Swamiji explains that “You are the word you create inside you about you, about world, about everything”. Your experience of YOU and your experience of the WORLD is equivalent to the words that you choose.

With Listening, your senses become sharp

If somehow the listening starts in you, every sense, every sense will become so alive, awakened! I tell you, once the listening starts, your eyes will become sharp! Learn listening; you will not need spectacles! I am talking to you with the responsibility I am talking in a national television! I am not promising any false miracle cures! Try, you will see! You will see! Try, you will see! Try! Inside you, listen even during the gaps, listen to the absence! When there are words, listen to the presence of the sound! When there are no words, listen to the absence of the sound! When you listen, when you listen, your smell, smelling capability will become sharp! Your listening will become sharp! Your seeing will become sharp! Your ability to receive the touch will become sharp!

Listen, when you can see sharply, when you can smell sharply, when you can feel the touch sharply, you will be so alive, so alive, you will be healthy, beyond diseaselessness! Not just “aarogya”, I am coining a new word, ‘nirogya”! Niroga! You know “roga” and “arogya”; you do not know “nirogya”! “Nirogya” is “wellness beyond health”! Understand, “wellness beyond health”! Listening can do so much!

Listening develops Grace

And, one more thing, if you start authentically listening, your whole body develops certain grace. I have seen many graceful people...not beautiful! In the social scale, you cannot call them beautiful, but such graceful people! Raghupathi Yogi, Ramsurat Kumar, Vibhootananda Devi, all of them, in society’s frame, you cannot call them beautiful; but they will carry such grace! And same way, I have seen so many beautiful people who are not graceful....ugghh...! The moment you see, you will feel like vomiting! As per the society’s norms, they will be beautiful, but they will not carry that grace. I tell you, if you listen to whatever is happening around you, you will carry a certain grace, you will develop grace, because you will start listening to you. The spiritual revolution starts in you with listening, with “Shravana”, listening to others and yourself.

Listening brings Health

Listening heals you. Listening brings health to you. It brings health to you because you will start listening to your body. Before even you develop any disease or complication, by listening to it you will complete it. By listening to it you will complete it! Your body is like a child. Sometimes I have seen, these kids will complain – the grown-up kids also; I have both: kids and grown-up kids – ‘I don’t want to do this!’ I will say, ‘Okay!’ Then, after two-three minutes they will say, ‘No, no, no, no, no...I just told like that! I am going to do! I just wanted to show that I can say no to you, that’s all!’ That is a kind of silly pleasure! After a few minutes, they understand, ‘No, no, no, no, no...This is not right....’ Just by providing listening, I awaken to their intelligence: ‘You can do it!’

=With Listening you become a real Sadhu!

Please listen, the definition of “Shravana” is: “Listening to others and yourself”. Listening to what is happening outside and inside, is Shravana. The spiritual re-birthing, spiritual revolution, conscious awakening, inner awakening starts with listening, because listening makes you enjoy subtle pleasures, you do not need crude pleasures which make you powerless. The crude pleasures take away your grace. When you develop these subtle pleasures, you are a Sannyasi! I have seen thousands of my disciples and sannyasis, just my one word, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ Not even, ‘I am with you! My blessings! I will always be with you!’ not even those words like ‘Be blissful’; I don’t even need to go to that second, third statement. The first statement, ‘How are you?’ that is enough! They will say, ‘Now I am okay, Swamiji!’ Understand, listening raises you to that space and increases your ability to enjoy the subtlest pleasures. With listening you become a real Sadhu! With listening...!

I know there are many people, the only excitement in their life is morning satsangh! They wait for that moment! But that one morning satsangh fills them so much! I have seen so many people writing to me, ‘This morning satsangh makes me feel my whole life is worthy of living, Swamiji! Whatever I go through is worthy just for this morning satsangh!’

Listening is Kalpataru

One of the basic truths is, whether your creativity or your living or your stupidity, human-beings are not intelligent to be different.  If you know one person’s stupidity you will know everyone’s stupidity.  If you know how one person lives, you will know everyone how they live!  If you know one person’s creativity, you will know everyone’s creativity!  When I listen to few people and start responding to them, it is equivalent to listening to thousands of people and responding. When you don’t listen, even if ten-thousand people are around you, you will be away from them.  I have seen some of the School Principals, University Vice-Chancellors, they are living in the same campus where twenty-thousand people are living, ten thousand people are living.  They are responsible for that twenty-thousand, ten-thousand people.  But they will not be listening to even five people in their life every day!   

When you don’t listen, participation with life becomes very minimal. Listening is one pleasure, one excitement which never makes you powerless, never makes your health weak, never makes you any way go wrong! It only makes you more and more powerful; more and more participation with the life happens. When there is this kind of excitements, listen, when you are authentically listening, not only the listening is excitement, after that whatever went inside, the intranalyzing, internalizing process is also excitement. When these two excitements fill your life, you do not need any pleasure which makes you powerless.

Just by listening I entertain all of you much more than anybody entertaining you in their lives including your most beloveds and lovers!  Listen, even if others entertain you in their hearts, it will only be 10% or a few percent, few minutes, with THEIR context!  In my case, I entertain you in my heart from YOUR context!  That is why I am telling you, getting entertained in the Master’s inner presence is one of the greatest protection you can have in your life!  Because, he goes on thinks for you, he goes on plans for you, he goes on makes your reality into reality, he goes on causing your reality!  That is why, just even in one Kalpataru Darshan coming and telling what you want into the listening of the Master does so much!  Understand, all I do is only this one: I provide my listening.  Like a lotus opens its petals and allows people to come in and put what they want, I provide my listening; then I just close myself and put the whole thing into my powerful inner-space and grind everywhere; and whatever you offered into my listening starts getting into reality!  And, I tell you, YOU can do the same when you provide authentic listening and then offer whatever you listened in your inner-space, without becoming incomplete or powerless, without becoming incomplete or powerless, understand, you can give Kalpataru Darshan!  You just need to have that level of Completion, that’s all.    

Understand, when you utter something into the listening of the Master, he entertains you from YOUR context, and naturally that fulfils you! Sometimes people come back and tell me, ‘What I asked did not happen, Swamiji. But now I know I did not want that to happen. I’m thanking you for not making it happen what I wanted!’

They get that intelligence!

Signs of Authentic Listening

Listening will always make you feel more and more powerful; you will not feel powerless. If you are feeling bored or tired by listening, or you externally say, ‘Yes, yes, yes...’ (Acting as if you are intently listening), but the channel is off, internally thinking, ‘I don’t know when this fool will stop! Who wants to listen to him? I have to do this, this, this, all that work. I have to get up and go...I don’t know.’, or already planning for something else! Etc, you are not having authentic listening. I have always seen, the disciples who are fortunately authentic somehow catch this one principle of listening, without any other spiritual process, continue to maintain and develop more and more the space of Completion. Without any other spiritual practice, they are able to maintain the space of Completion. They are able to develop themselves more and more into the space of Completion just by providing listening, because when you provide listening to others, you start developing this unique intelligence of providing listening to yourself.

Akashic Records on Listening

Q. Dear Mahadeva, Dakshinamurthy, can you please enlighten us on what is “Listening” from the Cosmic perspective? Mahadeva: “Listening” is listening to the experience the other person is trying to impart into you without even using the ears just using your natural ability to listen to the other person. By your innate natural ability, you can listen, see, receive information just using your Third Eye and the organ related to your Third Eye – brain – without the use of any other organs. When you are listening, trying to listen put your whole effort on listening through your Third Eye. Q. Dear Mahadeva, Kalabhairava, Dakshinamurthy, can you please enlighten us on how we can authentically listen to ourselves and to others every moment of life? Mahadeva: When you learn authentic listening to others, you will learn authentic listening to yourself. Listening is interrupted usually by inauthenticity, inauthenticity’s of various levels, vested interests, fears, favours, greed and inadequate cognitions. When you are listening to others, put all of that out and only listen. By listening to others, you will learn authentic listening. That way, you will be able to listen even to you authentically. But first, listening authentically should start from listening to others; then you will learn listening to yourself. Q. Dear Mahadeva, Dakshinamurthy, can you please enlighten us on how we can complete with physical disease, especially if there is physical pain? Mahadeva: Listen to that part of your body which is not flowing blissfully, which is not flowing with health. Listen to that part. Ask exactly what that part wants. Just by listening to the different parts of your body you can align all of that to health. Q. Dear Mahadeva, Dakshinamurthy, can you please enlighten us on how we can become more aware and complete with incompletions from our past lives and their grip and hold on our present life? Mahadeva: How as only one complete answer. That is: “Guru’s Grace.”

References

http://www.nithyananda.org/video/technique-zero-suffering#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyananda.org/video/life-begins-listening#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyananda.org/video/akashic-readings-listening#gsc.tab=0 http://www.nithyananda.org/article/art-listening-0?page=1#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyananda.org/video/listening-survival-need#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyanandatimes.org/the-secret-of-successful-conversations/ http://nithyananda.org/video/hardwar-million-year-old-university#gsc.tab=0 http://www.nithyananda.org/node?page=108#gsc.tab=0 http://www.nithyananda.org/video/qalistening-best-marketing-tool#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyananda.org/video/learn-right-teacher#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyananda.org/article/be-total-0?page=2?#gsc.tab=0 http://nithyananda.org/video/listening-eternal-romance-life#gsc.tab=0