The Secret of Enlightenment

Satsang in Novi Sad, Serbia, part 3

23rd February, 2017

Q: Can every spiritual man get enlightened in this life?

A: My theory is that we are all enlightened by birth. Some people don’t know this because of the overwhelming mind. Enlightenment is like graduation, you are reaching a pedestal, you are becoming stabilized at one point and that stability we carry with us all the time. The answer to your question is yes, it is definitely possible, provided that you can stay away from your mind, look at your mind with your mind.

Do you know what happens when you keep looking your mind with your mind? You’re just sitting and looking at your mind, not doing anything. The mind will tell you, “Hey, look at here, check Facebook, Whatsapp, there are so many messages!” The mind will say all these things, but you are not doing anything, just sitting, looking. Then the mind will take the next step, “Hey, if you are sitting like this, your wife will beat you,” or, “Better cook your food before your wife comes.”

The mind will say everything to create fear. Still, you are sitting, looking at the mind, not doing anything. Day and night you are sitting and looking at your mind. It will bring everything from the depths of your storage box. It will bring all the memories you have stored – fear, anger, hatred, frustrations and all anxieties for the future.

Everything will come out through the mind. You are just sitting and watching, not doing anything. After some time they slow down. They slow down, slow down, slow down… and the mind becomes still. There is nothing in your box. Everything is finished. Until then you are looking at your mind through your mind. Then there will be no mind to look at because the mind is dependent on the materials which have been stored, either internal or external. If you are not interested in external materials and as internal ones are finished, then mind itself gets finished. When there is no picture to show, the screen is black. Mind vanishes. Then what will you look the mind with? Nothing. There is nothing called the mind. You realize that the mind is an illusion maintained by material or memory. When the material or memory dies, mind dies. Then you are enlightened. This is the secret of enlightenment. If any of you have understood this from the bottom of your heart, I guarantee you, you have the potential for enlightenment.

I’m not into kindergarten philosophy. I give hardcore stuff. This is the truth.

Audience: (laughter)

Q: When I meditate, I start to control my breathing, I stop breathing and feel as if I am forcing it. Why does it happen?

A: That is very simple. Your mind is getting involved and mind is trying to influence the process. What you need to do it allow the mind to get involved and don’t try to control anything. Just stay natural. For example, your body has synchronicity. There is a pattern with which the body operates. If you observe closely the nostrils, only one nostril is active every sixty minutes. Then it is the other one. When you look at the heart beat, the heart takes rest, then beats, takes rest, then beats. If you observe the kidneys, one kidney functions at one time. Like that, our body has a perfect system where one organ sleeps or takes rest while another one is active. Like that, if you keep observing this functionality of breath where one nostril is active while the other one is inactive, just observe it without getting your mind involved, just watching, not interfering, what happens? You will come to the mind or you will overcome the mind. The moment you overcome the mind, it’s peace. The mind will definitely get involved as it wants to stay alive. It will keep influencing your thought process, your activity, and even the result. So mind’s job is to get involved. Allow it, but don’t pay any attention.

Q: I am in a conflict between a desire to move to a quiet place on Fruska Gora and do my spiritual practice, deepen my connection with myself and raise my awareness, and a desire to fulfill the family commitments at home, responsibility to my husband and children.

A: We have a beautiful mountain range called the Himalayas in India. So many people go there and so many people come back from there. The point is in our life we are experiencing life through time. Time has given us relationships, experiences, various factors which we are enjoying, like our husband, children, house, time, place. While all these things were happening, what was always with you? Who was your companion? Your soul. Soul has always been there. You have always been spiritual. It is not another location, person or time. It doesn’t work that way. You have to be spiritual while you are with your children, husband, while you are doing your job, when you are farming, eating food…  Every moment the spine of life is spirituality. For this, feel life, don’t do life. Feel food, feel love, feel emotions, feel anger, feel hatred, feel everything. Everything is felt and it’s over. It’s done. When you feel and feel and feel life, you become complete. Do you know where Fruska Gora is? Inside you. Do you know where the Himalayas are? Inside you. Even if you go to the Himalayas or Fruska Gora, maybe mosquitoes will bite you and you will get bored with it. There is no guaranteed happiness in life. Bring Fruska Gora inside. All the things outside are just suggestions. What you take inside becomes your reality. Take Fruska Gora inside. Otherwise, if we avoid life, it is all escapism. You cannot avoid life. You cannot avoid anything. Any relationship, any encounter. People can criticize you and say,“He is not good. He is not up to the mark.“ They do not understand. You can’t avoid anything in life. Whatever has to happen will happen at the right time at the right capacity, in the right amount.

So, be happy right now. Be grateful you have your family, you have your nagging people around you 🙂 They push you to become spiritual. Be happy. If mosquitoes do not bite, you do not think about God.

Q: Can you tell us something about Ishta Devatas and connection with Ishta Devata?

A: Beautiful question. Where is this question coming from?

The favourite deity is something which is connected to what you are. We have all certain orientation. There are various gunas in people – sattva, rajas, tamas – which build our constitution. Based on our constitution we get connected to certain deities, certain people. This is because an ingredient for that particular energy is inside us. So your Ishta Devata i.e. your favourite deity is your own expression or what you are. You are seeing a form of a deity. It’s your own expression. In that matter, all the people coming to you in life are part of you because the kind of people who are coming to you, meeting you, interacting with you, sharing experiences with you, giving you experience irrespective of whether it’s pleasure or pain, are your own projections. The ingredient of them sits inside you.

Q: How much does food influence meditation and everything else? Yesterday I came back from India where I experimented a lot with my body, mind, soul, etc. I have an impression that when I am not full, when my stomach is empty as I didn’t eat or drink anything, then I receive energy much more easily during the meditation than when I meditate with a full stomach. It is easier when I am hungry or half-hungry, more energy flows through my body.

A: It has quite a lot of influence. We do not usually eat as per requirement of our body. We consume based on the clock or our emotion. That is not helping the system. The system is getting turbulent because of our consumption. The body doesn’t need all this food and the body has its way of replenishing itself. Let me give you one example, consumption of salt. As soon as we consume salt through food or otherwise, the body starts thinking how to throw it away now? All the fluids which come out of our body are salty. Body throws the salt out through sweat, tears… Body rejects salt through every level. Because if you consume salt, it prevents digestion to a certain point. Eating is our habit. One of our compelling habits is food. That influences our daily life. We say it’s time I must have this food, we are conditioned to think like this. We can very well reduce the quantity intake, however, especially if you are active, you must have certain replenishment, nevertheless, not as the quantity which we consume normally.

Furthermore, there is a lot of difference between raw food, cooked food, animal products.  each gives different effect to our life. The more raw the food or food which has seen the sun, and has grown without fertilizers or chemicals, the cleaner your system will be. Food has a big influence. When you eat less, you can meditate better, concentration becomes better, distractions become less.

Transcribed by Biljana Vozarevic