Watch the Gap between Two Breaths

Satsang in Dubai  on 15th July 2015, part I

Q: How to love yourself?
A:Love is a by-product. Love happens when all the clutter is removed. Love is spontaneous. If you look back into your life all these years, love has been happening by itself. You don’t have to create love. It’s like oxygen- you may not recognise it, but it is there.
So, how do you love yourself?

Acceptance

Number one is acceptance. Never compare. There is nobody else like you in this world. All are unique creations, absolutely unique and absolutely relevant. All people put together become the collective consciousness. Every ingredient has a particular reason and purpose. Can we say that any part of our body is useless? If you start accepting yourself, you start being spiritual. Most of us cannot accept ourselves- that is exactly why there is a conflict. We are trying to pretend through our life. The more you pretend through your life, the more you alienate from your originality, your nature. You are a particular creation, a creation for purpose, because you created this life.
From your first heartbeat till your last, everything is laid out properly. It means that what you experience at the age of twenty, you have to experience at the age of twenty. It cannot be postponed or preponed. Each point in time there is a setup experience. There is awareness connected to it. And each point in time, the time dimension is opening up. One way or the other, something is happening inside. But how will you know it? Only when you start feeling. If you look at life as an outside thing, you will never feel it. The moment you start feeling life, every moment there is something going on, something is opening up. Every incident, location, person in our life has a value. It is so beautiful when you look at the whole tapestry. Some people come to give us troubles (laughter) but we learn something or evolve into a different dimension from it. Likewise, there are a lot of paths, masters, rituals, practices; everything is valuable to somebody but not to everybody. All types and sizes of dress can’t suit everybody. So accepting yourself is fundamental.
There begins the journey. The more we accept ourselves, the more we accept other people, the better we are in the world. It all starts from ourselves and spreads into the world. You will sail through happiness and sorrows. No matter what others say about us, they have an opinion just like we do. Through all the positive and negative you say, ’’I’m fine. I feel fine in my skin.“ Otherwise we are in conflict all the time, ’’Oh, this is not right, that is not right…“ If there is no darkness, how can you know light? If there was light all the time, you would get used to it. But if there is darkness, you realise that light means a lot.

Be Here, Now

I always tell people, ’’Be what you are. Here at this time and at this location.“ If you are these three, you are fine. We are supposed to be here today and we will and we must. Don’t think this is an accident. There is a time-space junction. Sri Ramanaji had a simple theory: “A thing can happen only at a particular time and place, it cannot preponed or postponed. He told Professor Hardy, ’’I have life only up to thirty. After thirty I will die.’’ I suppose the professor said, ‘Don’t tell me this nonsense’. Ramana said, ’’I’ll prove it to you.“ He lied down on the railway line where a train was supposed to cross. The professor asked one man,’’ This fellow was supposed to lie down here, where is he now?’’ They went and realised that Ramana was still lying down, and the train, usually on time, was delayed. The professor asked, “What foolishness are you doing?““I wanted to prove that I will not die here,“ came the reply.
This is practicality, not spirituality and far more important. You don’t have to be spiritual because you are spiritual by nature. You don’t have to breathe consciously, you will breathe anyway. But if your mind is not in the present- you are absent-minded, in an unconscious existence, alienated from truth and not practical. Absent-mindedness is not practicality. That is unconscious existence. The more we exist unconsciously, the more we alienate from truth. The gap between the truth and imagination. You need to introspect to accept and know yourself. Ask yourself in the mirror, “What is this person all about? Is this who I assume to be? Is this who other people see? Do I compromise or am I real? Am I pretending in this world?”You could be pretending just to maintain a status quo or an image.
Many people aren’t original or real. All life they have pain and they can’t meditate or evolve. If you do not stop pretending you cannot evolve spiritually. Spirituality is being spontaneous, like your heartbeat. It’s in you. Enlightenment is already in you. All you are removing is the lid of the mind. Then you realise the self. There is no need for guru or master to guide you in that mode because you already know it.
The mind is the blocking factor between you and the self. How do you remove the mind? Accept yourself, Empty all the concepts and say, “Let me be me. Let me be unlimited potential which is me.“ Then life will manifest and we will actually start living, not existing in an illusion. Otherwise we feel that we do so many things. Some people feel they are moving the world – terrible illusion! Ha, ha.

Silence inside, a gateway to heaven

Q: What is meditation?
A:  Meditation is a state when you are centering in yourself, bringing yourself to yourself. There are hundreds of techniques for meditation, use any. How do you center yourself? There are numerous objects all around. Everything is beautiful. Senses, especially eyes, naturally go to them. If mind is not with the senses, if mind is not with your eyes, you will never see. You will look, but you will never see. The difference is when the mind is with the eyes, that makes you see. When mind is with the tongue, you enjoy the taste. When mind is with the ears, you hear the sound. So in meditation, you withdraw the mind from the senses, and mind comes inside. Then, withdraw consciousness from the mind. It’s not easy and will take time, but there are stages and a path to it. Once you remove the consciousness from the mind, mind has no role any more. And that consciousness automatically, spontaneously merges with the brightness of the soul. This is the actual meditation. It means you are completely occupied within yourself and you are not compelled to go out.
Otherwise, we think all the time there is something going on: I’m hungry, there’s something cooking in the kitchen, or a nice smell is coming from another house… All these things are going on in the brain while we are sitting quietly. That is not meditation or even awareness. You are in urge to get out of here and go elsewhere. So first, introspect, contemplate. What is contemplation? Analysis. Ask yourself, ’’What am I? Am I this anger, fear, insecurity? Do I become happy at some place? When I have somebody with me am I happy, when I am with somebody else, I am sad. Why are there these differences? Why isn’t there uniformity?“ This should be for introspection. This means you are trying to understand yourself through your character, likes and dislikes. You are shaking hands with yourself. Then you realise ok, that is approximately me, but this is not complete me. What happens to me when I am in deep sleep? I am perfectly still. Am I changing? Is there something going on? Exploration of consciousness is working deeper and deeper. That needs contemplation.
Then you shift to meditation. Spontaneously. You are centered because you are actually occupied with yourself. You are refusing all the stimuli from around you. Otherwise it’s the pull of senses tug your mind and it wants to go out.
This talk about our basic constitution may sound very simple, but nobody knows it. It needs silence. In simple terms, silence is a gateway to heaven.
One disciple asked his guru, “Everybody talks about this gateway to heaven. Where is it?“ ’’Oh, it’s very simple. The gap between two breaths is a gateway to heaven.“ There is a tiny drop of silence between inhalation and exhalation, exhalation and inhalation. If you concentrate on it, you will stop breathing. That is not good; it’s artificial. You should breathe normally and feel the small drop of gap between inhalation and exhalation. So that the gap starts increasing without your knowledge. Then you see peace happens, settles down, settles down, settles down.
And also silence triggers drama, because all the hidden desires, feelings, anger start coming out. Why do people become sicker at night? In the morning you are busy so you do not remember, but at night, when you are horizontal and reasonably quiet, everything comes out. Similarly, the more silence you are trying to gain, everything comes out. This needs real, real courage. All the fears have to go through your mind. Where else could they go? At that time, just allow it to happen, “Ok, these are fears, no problem, they’re going…“ Feel it and allow it to go and then it settles down finally. It is a lot of data, it needs a lot of time.
We have collected a lot of data in this life, but that’s only a part of it. There are numerous impressions from numerous lives. Imagine you have taken let’s say thousand lives (as humans animals etc.) for this. How are you going to shed them? Through silence. And silence is not ’not speaking’. Silence is silence inside. How do you know that you are silent inside? You will not be pushed into thinking, you will not be compelled to talk, or to action. Everything will flow through you. What you have to do, you will do spontaneously, not because you are forced by the mind to do it– “I must do it, I must watch this programme, this film is very important for me…“But whether you go to see the film, or not, you are peaceful – that stillness of mind brings out real consciousness which is you. That is the truth but we wear a mask so we do not understand, but when it comes out, then it’s beautiful. Then you really start living. Every moment is full of life because you have no agenda. There is no tiredness. Agenda pulls you down.

Destiny, free will and visualisation

Q: Could you tell us something about destiny? How can free will change our destiny?
A: Not only an incarnation – every country and every matter too has a destiny. Whether it is a stone or a person or any level of operation, everything has a duration and that duration is called destiny. Imagine it’s a person’s time, the soul is leaving the body. Upon death, what does the soul carry with it? Character, constitution and pending desires – these are three bottles which are carried. When the soul ascends beyond the body, analysis and reflection happens. People with near-death-experiences, have come back and said, “We had a rewind of all that happened in this life.“ There’s a struggle when the soul leaves the body, but at the same time there is also a recollection. Then all the decisions are made, “Ok, I had these desires, I promised this person that I will be born as his child“ or “I wanted to be in the family“… Various combinations are discussed (internally analysed) and then it’s laid over time. “This much time I need to exhaust all these desires.“ E.g. one particular person wants to experience how it is to be a grandmother. So you need a duration of life. Also the souls who will assist you to become a grandmother have agreed in the larger platform and they all come together. We call them soul mates: a sea of unified or associated souls coming together to experience earth simultaneously. They are unified souls or they are associated; even your worst enemy is your soul mate because that experience also was promised. Remember: everything is experience. From the soul’s perspective, everything is experience. You cannot say this is good, this is bad as long as it flows as experience.
So this is chosen and durations fixed, then it’s a question, “Where will I incarnate so that I experience this? Then you decide it has to be Dubai. So the birth happens in a particular family, within this agreement of souls, and they come forth with a particular body. Some people are born in another location but they marry to another location. This is also a part of the show. Then it’s decided from the first heartbeat till the last heartbeat, “These are the things to be achieved.“ Once it is decided and stamped, there is no free will, only destiny.
Karma has multiple strings.
First, you have a desire pattern from your first heartbeat till your last.
Second, you are born in a particular family so there is a lineage karma. Your ancestors have all experienced earth on various levels. Some of them died, some stayed on, some were good, some not so good. So an element of this comes and joins the string when you took the birth. This is not only chosen but it is acquired.
Third is what you collect from the Earth. For example further desires, modifications of desires.
Fourth is the society.
So what you came for, what you inherited, what is collected and what is available in the society. E.g. if it is hot, everybody will feel heat. Nobody can say, “I don’t feel heat“ unless they are diseased. So this is the way destiny is created. This is unchangeable. That is exactly the point Sri Ramana was telling about. Once the destiny is stamped and approved, then it goes on. That is the duration of existence, too. But understand that this is for our time. This time- when an average lifespan is hundred years, but some of us have experienced eras where life span was longer, when you could take birth and die at will. Even some of the masters still experience it because they are operating from that time –when you choose and eject the body at will. If you want to continue, you can keep the body for a long time. These are all the states.
Free will is only associated with this point in time. Soul is like petrol of the car. Petrol is not interested in your destination but it helps your journey. Minus petrol you cannot drive. Imagine soul is exactly like that. Soul helps your journey but is not interested in your gratifications, your experiences. Because we keep it here, soul continues. But soul has a free will at all times because it is not bound by karma. Constitution is bound by karma. And constitution is incomplete minus the soul which means you, as incarnation, are bound by karma and you have the soul which helps your journey.

Kriya

Q: Could you tell us about Consciousness Kriya?
A: Kriya is a technique, partial visualisation, partial breath. Breathing is the only thing you can regulate in your system. You cannot regulate the heartbeat digestion etc. Once this is combined together, it becomes like a knife– a powerful tool which can cut across karma and take you to the liberation. So the whole idea about Consciousness Kriya is liberation- from your bindings of life such as the place, the people, situations, to liberation while still in the body. It means you are changing your whole atom. This is the idea. Let me tell you a story. (Also in the blog Removing Concepts)

A STORY ABOUT KRIYA

A King and liberation

There was a great king with a wish to liberate himself. Some great masters came to him; he gave them food, made them happy, and asked, “What is karma?“ The moment he asked this question, they disappeared. He was disappointed that they didn’t answer. Later,, another group of saints came. He asked, “If I ask you a question, will you run away?“ They said, “No.“ He asked, “What is karma?“ Then they said, “Now we understand why the previous saints ran away! If we use this life and a few more lives we will still not be able to explain karma. It is such a complex and deep subject. Instead, we will teach you Kriya which will cut across karma and take you to liberation. Then they gave him the Kriya. The aim of Consciousness Kriya is liberation and liberation should happen now, not after death. How do you know you are liberated? You are not bound by a place, a situation, a time, an event. Nothing binds you. You are fine in every situation. You are flowing and flowing… That’s beautiful. So Kriya takes you through the stages of evolution to the highest of awareness. Awareness is the best investment anyone can make in one lifetime.
What is awareness? Imagine you are standing on the first floor of your building. You have certain visibility and you slowly climb up to the twentieth or thirtieth floor, what will happen? You can see much more. The more you see, the more you become aware of the existence itself. This is awareness. Through this awareness, we sometimes realise that whatever we were feeling or perceiving earlier has no value, it was a waste of time. But as we become more and more aware, we start seeing through things. Such that you even see the future. Everything becomes so clear and spontaneous. So eventually you become extremely powerful.
How do you know that you are powerful? You are not compelled by anything around you. You are peaceful by nature. There is no doingness through you, things are happening through you, and you are very peaceful about it. How do you know you are spiritually grounded? When you are not affected by any storm of life. It is happening, you are going through it; once it’s over, you’re done with it. Whether there is a storm in life or not, you are the same – you are flowing and flowing… So that you live as wealth to the Earth.
Most of us are only taking from the Earth. Every moment we will be contributing something to the Earth. So you’ll become wealth and that means immense inner richness. Every moment, every breath will make you richer inside and nothing can take it away from you. Inner richness is the only richness which stays and grows beyond. Outer richness transfers from hand to hand. There is no way you can hold on to anything outside of you including relationships, places, people. We become very sad, when things change. But remember everything has to change. There is no other way. Then once we accept it and as we are moving forward, then we are fine. These are the tools to liberate oneself.
Q: How is Consciousness Kriya done?
A: There is a process… but we initiate. Unless there is commitment and conviction there is no point in doing it. No spiritual activity is worth it, if it is done mechanically. It should be felt. Then a lot of changes happen. Otherwise we are tasting many things. Remember, on, any path, the first stage is the stage of experience. When you do pranayama or a Kriya, you’ll feel something because an activity gives you experience. After that there is the stage of stagnation. The same activity is not giving you any experience. Then doubts occur in the mind. “Did I make a mistake, this is not giving me any experience like before?“ This is a very critical stage, when most people leave the activity for another activity. So people go in circles this way with experience- stagnation-new activity-experience-stagnation.
When you manage to cross over stagnation, there is vacuum space before the silence settles in. You are neither here nor there. That is even more hard-hitting. You think it was a big mistake to go to this guru, to do this Kriya, nothing is happening, life is wasted! If you still continue, then the bliss state occurs. Very few people reach the bliss state. A lot of people try various practices and have some experiences and stop there. Some of them cross over the stagnation, some of them cross over the vacuum, and few of them reach the bliss. You can take this as a benchmark. Whatever you practise, you will go through these stages.

Q: While we were breathing up and down, I felt spinning. Why is that?
A: First point is it’s individualistic. Second point is look at the creation, the Milky Way, energy movement. They are in spirals. You see the whole tapestry, most things are in spirals. When you go deeper and deeper, you are becoming subtler and subtler, you see energy flow is also in spirals. You experienced it, which means you have touched a level of subtlety. As I said it’s individualistic, everybody may not have that pattern, some people may feel the straight movement up and down. Some people may not feel anything. But it is important to know that there is a spiral movement happening all over, everywhere. Even people say that the life is in spirals. Like a few years later, a day comes and repeats itself. So there is spiral movement in the whole consciousness.

Transcribed by Biljana Vozarevic
Edited by Aviral Srivastava