Ayurveda Initiative For Global Health

*Chapter 10 - Shiva, The Fourth State Of Consciousness* *Day 52* The 18th chapters of Srimad Bhagavatam has thousands of verses, and there is not one mention of Radha. Radha is just Krishna's power, the longing. Krishna is the fullness, so Radha is longing for the fullness.  Radha was there to indicate that the devotee and the Lord both enjoy equal status. "Dhara" means flowing outward. "Radha" means the stream which is going back to the source - the mind that is moving outside is diving back to the source.  Radha met Krishna, that is the self, the soul, the spirit, is what "Radha Kalyanam" is. Today what you see in many temples is an entirely distorted concept. But children enjoy because they get all different types of sweets in the celebration.  People mainly get ready and go to eat. They think Radha and Krishna are getting married, so they make lots of stuff and eat. But there is no spiritual significance in it. You are wedded to the inf...

*Chapter 10 - Shiva, The Fourth State Of Consciousness* *Day 51* Studying all this and doing all this, you get established. And what is your only desire? To be in heaven, to be in the state of joy and happiness. That happiness is guaranteed to you.  Anything you do, you do it with only one motivation, that is happiness. You are gaining knowledge to gain happiness. Entertainment, comfort, wealth, sports are all for happiness.  Health, why you want health?  You want to be happy. If I am sick, I am not happy. You look at anything, your relationships, prayer, progeny, home, everything is for happiness. Why do you want to pray?  For happiness. So, everything is geared to be happy. And the teacher says that the happiness is guaranteed to you. This is Upanishad. That is why you come, sit and go inward.  Upanishad doesn't say "this" (is it). If someone is doing upasana, saying this (is it), that is not Upanisad. Then why we keep so many idols and pictures in...

*Chapter 10 - Shiva, The Fourth State Of Consciousness* *Day 50* It means the light is shining for you. You don't have to do anything. The Rishi says - this to the one who has tapas, little bit of forbearance, a say over senses and who is engaged in some good action in the world, not to the lazy one. You can realise you are not doing anything when you are doing something. Someone who doesn't do anything cannot say that everything is happening, but if you are doing then you know, "No, its not because I did something that it happened. Things are happening anyway." Vedah sarvangini, all the Vedas, the knowledge is the body, is the limbs. What you speak become knowledge. You don't understand too many scriptures. I haven't studied much at all.  This is the first time I am taking this Upanishad, and I have never studied this Upanishad before. I hear one or two shlokas and I go into meditation. So I'm not a good reader. I don't read books. If I do...

*Chapter 10 - Shiva, The Fourth State Of Consciousness* *Day 49* Now that you have heard the Upanishad, you have to dwell on it, 'manana' and make it your own. This is the home of Truth and you will realize that you are living in it. You need to lead your life with this awareness.  Tapas, forbearance, Dama, your ability to withdraw from senses and go inward. You are not carried away by the senses, but you are behind senses, you have your mastery over them, or it's virtues, it's glory.  This happens naturally, a glimpse of the infinity gives you enormous inner strength and a say over your senses. You dont say, "Oh, I am helpless," and go into a sort of helpless mood.  You wake up and see, "Oh ,this is the abode of truth." A glimpse of Brahman makes you a beautiful human being. It doesn't make you cunning, narrow minded, calculating person, but one who is confident.  Someone is cunning because they are not aware of their power. When the...

*Chapter 10 - Shiva, The Fourth State Of Consciousness* *Day 48* "Like air is present in the space, all beings and all elements are present in me." Here "me" doesn't mean the Krishna who was standing with a flute. He is talking about his true nature that is Brahman.  Unfortunately, people limit Krishna as a personality. There is no difference between Krishna and Shiva. Shiva is Krishna without body. Krishna is Shiva embodied in a body. That's all.  There was nobody like Shiva with jata. It is just symbolic. Shiva is the fourth state of consciousness. When Krishna was asked by Arjuna to repeat the Gita, Krishna says, "no, I cant tell you now."  After the war is over, Arjuna asks, “At the time of war, you gave me all the knowledge, when there was so much chaos and I was not in a good mood or state of consciousness. I kept questioning you all the time and didn't believe you”. “I was such a fool, but now we are free and relaxed. Why don't you t...

*Chapter 10 - Shiva, The Fourth State Of Consciousness* *Day 47* Upasana is a beautiful word. 'Upa' means near and 'asana' means coming close, sitting. Upasana is worship, to worship that as 'vana' as a forest , as abundance or as the store house of all gifts.  It can give you many things, everything. One who knows it like this, every creature and everything will love him. So, the Rishi is also giving a little encouragement. What is the effect of it? So what?  What will happen? Okay, I understand everything. So what? what do I get? It says you get something. What? Everybody will fall in love with you, every creature will love you. Bhuta is not just a creature. It is also the element. Every element and the entire universe will fall in love with you. Ancient people begun every ritual with the sowing of seeds of many types of grains.  Suppose a celebration is about to happen in a hall, you put decorations, you put buntings or streamers or whatever. The ancient peop...

*Chapter 9 - Living In Truth*  *Day 46* That is the forest. That is the gift. There are two meanings. One of them is a gift. The forest is a real gift. It is supposed to have everything.  Of every single creature, from a zebra to a giraffe, to a bird to an amphibian, to a snake, to a frog, tell me, what does the forest not accommodate? Consciousness is a forest of many dimensions. Although it is one, one Brahman, one consciousness, but that one is like a forest. It has many dimensions, one inside the other. So many doctors worked for centuries of research, then they compiled materia Indica. In the same way so many thousands of Rishis compiled this agama, nigama, the vedas the upanisads and the science of consciousness, without any prejudice.  They never said that you should believe because I am saying it is so. Even Lord Krishna after saying all 700 shlokas tells Arjuna, “Look now you think about it, and if you feel it is acceptable, then you accept”.  If it comes un...

*Chapter 9 - Living In Truth*  *Day 45* It is like in the forest where everything has a place. The deer has a place, the lion, the tiger, the mongoose has a place, and so also the snake. The forest does not exclude or reject anything.  It provides for every single creature and yet it maintains itself clean. The forest never gets dirty. For ages it has not, unless man walks into it with cans, potato chips, cokes, cakes, mangoes and litters the forest.  The forest maintains itself and provides for everybody. The Brahman is a forest. Consciousness is a forest, which has space for so many levels of existence. Also in Gita, Lord Krishna compares it to a tree which is upside down.  The knowledge is like a tree which is upside down, which has roots above and branches below. It is a very different simile from any other. Your roots are high up somewhere.  Whatever you are doing here is only thought branches. Your spirit is rooted in the other world. Life here is just a p...

*Chapter 9 - Living In Truth* *Day 44* When the Devi appeared to Indra, the Lord of the mind, he asked,"who is this Yaksha"? I was telling you about Yaksha, how Yaksha can give you many miracles and do many things. There are plenty of them.  Mother divine energy is a symbol of compassion, of submission, of sensitivity and of beauty. So when the Lord of the mind appreciated the mother divine, she told him that it is Brahman.  The victory of Brahman is the victory of everything. So, when you are open to the unlimited, Brahman, the infinity through the finite, and do not think this finite has an existence separate from the infinity, that is when Upanishad has happened.  With the help of the mother divine, all the devas could understand that this is Brahman and that this is my own nature. But it just came as a flash.  This experience of the devas, comes to you only as a flash. Sometimes in one moment it just comes to you as a flash and disappears. That's why this is call...

*Chapter 9 - Living In Truth*  *Day 43* The most gross is the material world. The subtlest world we saw is the divine world, the world of the devas and devis. I want to show you a phenomenon that happened on, was it the 15 th January?  This sort of phenomenon keeps happening but this one was taken in a photograph. A Cobra climbed a particular tree, the Bilva tree and plucked a Bilva leaf. Then it went into the temple and offered it on top of the Shiva Linga.  You can see this thing happening in the photo. And it did it four or five times. The people were amazed because they have only heard in the scriptures that an elephant offered flowers to a Shiva Linga or a serpent offered from a Bilva tree.  But a Cobra, nobody can train a Cobra, it is impossible. They don't even have ears to listen to your commands. But the Cobra climbed the particular tree and then it goes into the temple with the leaf in its mouth and scares everybody away. Do you see that? How it...

*Chapter 9 - Living In Truth* *Day 42* We saw how there are many layers in the subtle world as well. Just as this material existence is diverse in nature, so is the subtle world of consciousness also.  How, after we die they become the ancestors, the pitrs, then ghandarvas, kinnaras, yakshas, devas, and then siddhas. Like the material medica of the world, the book in which it is all prescribed which medicine is for what.  For example - Iodine for thyroid, milk thistle for liver, basil for your respiratory system. The entire medical science rests on the laws of materia medica, that a particular substance connects to a particular part of the body.  Otherwise medical science will fail. Every substance has got a definite effect on a definite part of the body. A lot of research in this direction on the levels of consciousness has also been done. A particular animal brings down a particular cosmic ethereal vibration on the planet. If one particular animal becomes extinct from t...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles*  *Day 41* Question - If the infinite self wants to see itself in its true nature without form, what's the purpose of attaching itself to this body and all forms that we sense? Why not remain at all times without attachment? Also if the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into? Gurudev - Do you know what pulsation means? It is what the heart beat is. It expands and contracts and only then it pulsates. Life is pulsation. It's an expansion, contraction, expansion and the universe is pulsating like this.  So when it is going like this you feel it is expanding, but you don't see it coming down like this. There is a pulsation because the universe is alive and anything that is alive has pulsation and pulse. Nadi means the pulse and pulse is the dual action, the manifest to the unmanifest and unmanifest to the manifest, the form to formless and formless to form. This swing that's what the universe is. -  Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Sha...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 40* Question - Gurudev, can you say something about the people in the picture of the Holy tradition and their connection to you and the experience of enlightenment? Gurudev - This is an artists depiction of millennia of great masters, and from ages, they've selected just a few of them who came from time to time and portrayed them in the picture.  Not everybody is there from the millennia. The few of the Rishis who are depicted in that are Narayana, Padmabhava, Vasishtha, Shakti, Parashara, then Vyasa. That side of the stream has a little gap between them.Vyasa, Shuka, they're all different.  They are great Rishis of the holy tradition. Some other time we will describe all the different works they have done. Parashara is an exponent of astronomy and astrology, the movement of planets.  7000 years ago, it was written how many moons are there for Saturn, how far away they are and precisely when exactly they are going to transit ...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 39* Question - Gurudev, how is it possible to give 100% and yet, some how keep the attention connected inwards on the seer? When I give my 100% doing the task my attention is powered on the task and at this point the seer is lost in the scenery. Gurudev - Do them at different times. Don't try to do it simultaneously. Do them at different times and when you are proficient in both, you will find the border simply diminishes.  It fades away spontaneously and naturally. For now don't try to make a mood that you are working on being a witness - “I am getting lost in the job, no, I want to be a witness”. Don't make such mood just be 100% in whatever you are doing and before doing the work and after finishing the work for a few minutes, shift to the seer from the scenery.  Don't leave this and don't leave that, grow simultaneously in both of them. The Ishavasya Upanisad says, "One who goes in this alone will go in to a da...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 38* Question - Gurudev, please talk about the connection between experiencing unconditional love for others and understanding the unknown, understanding the Brahman, experiencing the Brahman. Gurudev - Love is not just an emotion. It is what you are. Sometimes you feel love. That is a blessing given to you. Even when you don't feel it is there. It is there because you are made up of it.  There is wind here, but when you stand close to your fan then you feel it blowing on you. It's fan that makes you feel the wind. In the same way sometimes you feel love.  That means just remember you have come close to that fan which blows air and you are feeling it, but even otherwise there is air everywhere. Question - What is your view about recent scandals of sexual misconduct even with so called enlightened people? Is such a thing possible? Gurudev - Yes especially in India, there are half a dozen Swamis scandals on the television everyday. I...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 37* So many miracles happen. There are so many, plenty of them we can do but we don't get trapped or entangled in it. If it happens it happens naturally.  If someone says I am bringing out a ring or this jewellery, don't get charmed by those things. No. So many Yakshas are ready to come and do the miracles.  A siddha, a sadguru will not utilize all those things. You hear so many of the miracles that Jesus did. They are all done by Yakshas. One loaf of bread fed to so many people, and these things happen.  It happens all the time with us. There are people bringing food for four people and forty or fifty people eat that. There is plenty of food available. Things happen in a inexplicable manner.  There is no logic or reasoning for it. Especially in Russia - stanislav who is here will tell you many miracle stories from Russia. I don't go there so much but people have experiences all the time.  There are people who are d...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 36* May everybody be happy. You all bring peace to everybody. I want nothing. What do I want? But you give everybody everything. The power of blessings works.  One would think the collective consciousness of New York must be so stressed but it is not. It was a presence with very sweet nice energy. Many psychics have a little access here and there. Psychics predict things for you. There are lower level of spirits as well. The devil which speaks to you in your ears. When someone comes, the devil will say that this person is coming here for this desire and so this man can write down that you came for this problem or this desire.  There are people who can read the past very well but they cannot say anything about the future. Have you come accross any such people? Nadis and psychics are supported by the spirits, which give them a little more vision into the future or past. So the Yakshas are much lower than the devas. It got into their...

*Chapter 8 - Beyond Miracles* *Day 35* So the first chapter says, the Brahman won for the devas. All the devas formed their glory from the victory of the Brahman. They started thinking, "This glory is ours".  Any talent you have, you think it is yours? No. It is a gift. If you have money and if you think you have made a lot if money, no it's a gift. You think you have a great voice and you made an effort to earn that great voice? No it's a blessing.  What is there, your progeny is a blessing or a curse, your money is a blessing or a curse. If you have money, you have comfort. But you have money you can have problems too.  You don't even have a friend, you can't know who is your friend. If you don't have money at least you know who your friend is. If you have money you don't know whether they are friendly with you because of you or for your money. Money is a blessing.  Your voice is a blessing. Progeny is a blessing. Everything is a blessing...

*Chapter 7 - The Universe Unveiled* *Day 34* When the creator has created such diverse fauna and flora, you think he would like to express himself in a single uniform? The spirit which loves diversity expresses itself in diverse forms.  These diverse forms of that One Spirit are Devas. Similarly, when one white light breaks up through a prism, seven major colours emit, but then so many shades and mixtures of those seven colours gives you a multitude of colours.  In the same way, one step higher from the yakshas are devas and devtas or devis. There are so many different types of devi devtas or types of spirits.  You can call them angels, all only benevolent. Deva has several meanings : deva means benevolent, divine qualities, very playful, mischievous, effulgent, divine.  The word Divine comes from the original Sanskrit root called deva. Deva has become divinity or divine in English. There led various qualities in us which are expressed. They are all a par...

*Chapter 7 - The Universe Unveiled* *Day 33* In the Chinese culture they have ancestral worship. Also in Brazil, Argentina and in other Latin American countries they do ancestral worship. I think in the Christian tradition there is 'All souls day" where you respect the souls and ask for their blessings. That is one of the reasons that bodies are buried behind the church - to make that place more powerful. So ancestors have got one step more power. In sanskrit, they are called pitru.  There is one spirit which is one grade higher than the pitrs. They are kinnars. Kinnars are those souls who are behind big social work or political set ups etc. Then comes the Ghandarva spirits, who are behind every successful artist.  A great musician is not an individual person who is singing. Through him there is a spirit called as ghandarva, and ghandarva bring you great fame. Although they bring joy and happiness to the population, they make the person very miserable.  See, M...