Shiva Says:

Shiva says, “The fourth is what you truly are. You aren’t awake, you aren’t dreamy, you aren’t deep sleeping... in all the three there is a fourth and that’s what you are!”

If you keep remembering this fact in all your states, gradually the fourth will resurrect and you will be out of suffering. Suffering cannot touch the fourth state. It can occur at the level of your body, mind or intellect only. The fourth cannot be subject to suffering for the simple fact that it is different from all of these. It’s the centre of your being and once you are able to establish it as different from the periphery the magic is done.

Right now the centre of your being and periphery of your existence are intermingled. You are almost 100% at your periphery and are totally oblivious of the center. For example, when you perform your day’s work you think you are performing them whereas it’s only your body-mind organism, not you. So also, when you are dreaming while in sleep, your body and conscious mind are at rest and subconscious is at work. This is also not you. 

Your subconscious, a storehouse of memories, experiences and unfulfilled desires, has the unique ability of creating dreams. And in a dream, everything is so real that you intensely get identified with it. It’s only after awakening that you realize it was a dream. But, the core of your being still remains untouched. Shiva says you can remember the fourth in dream state also. By just remembering, the dream breaks instantly and there is a tangential growth in awareness. Then this breaking up of dreams midway becomes a dear habit as it leaves one deeply rested.

Finally, when the subconscious is at rest too and you have a very deep rested sleep, still, there is a light.... a luminous but cool flame that is alive constantly. That’s what the core is. And Shiva says even when your body, mind, intellect, memories etc all the layers are at complete rest, you can remember this core which is a rock like real bliss and rest personified. A reality that is free of time and suffering, a joyful state.

There is no way you can define the fourth state fully. For understanding sake, you can give it a representative term. Mahavir has called it ‘Kaivalya’ whereas Krishna calls it as being ‘Atmavant’. Lau-tsu calls it ‘Tao’ and Kabir says it is ‘Surati’.  Shri Nanak Dev ji calls it as ‘Akaal Purakh’. Whatever way you describe it the essence is difficult to fathom as our world, unfortunately, is a world of definitions. In order to understand a word we need even more words. Hence Shiva has given a unique term – ‘Turiya’, i.e.  “the Fourth”. He indicates a “state” and not a word. This is the beauty of Shiva.

Turiya is our true state of being and we will do well by remembering it constantly.

J Krishnamurthy - Freedom from the known.

J Krishnamurthy came in my spiritual life at a later stage. Contemporary of OSHO, JK was equally enlightened (Equally enlightened ! what a joke ) , but as was said he was an Arhat instead of a Bodhisatwa.. Arhat, the one who knows better but not advised to propound because he doesn’t have that facility of communication called ease. Bodhisatwa, on the other hand, can make people understand the message in their own language. It is said Osho was a Bodhisatwa whereas J Krishnamurthy was an Arhat.

Twice or thrice earlier I came across JK’s writings but they were dry & far flung. Osho was much easier & engaging. These two cotemporaries --- enlightened without doubt --- never saw each other face to face.

Anyway, recently I happened to read “Freedom from the known” by J Krishnamurthy.  A concise, pithy & stinging 130 pager can shake you inside out. Provided you read it twice or thrice. JK’s writing has to be gone through twice at least by any sincere seeker to get the real crux.  That’s what I feel .

The three most important messages given by J Krishnamurthy in this volume are :

1.       There is nothing to seek :

The whole stress, tension, confusion & lack of peace is movement from what “is”. Once you are able to see that there exists nothing, absolutely nothing, than what “is”, the turbulence ceases.  When we seek, it simply means we want to become something different than what or how we are. And invariably it is gong to be in future, not now. This non acceptance sort is what creates movement of mind & world.

If we stop seeking, we come home.

2.       There is nothing to fear :

JK opines that Fear has its origin in the memories created by a bad past or it is due to a probable future. Both are non existent at the moment. Hence, Right now there is hardly anything to fear. 

3.       Die to the past totally :

This is really a tough demand. Past exists nowhere except in our mind and in our memories. But, Can we get over the memory? Can we psychologically die to everything that is past now? This is really tough. But JK says, it is only a question of seeing & enhanced awareness. You can be free of your past once you are able to see that it doesn’t exist now. It’s gone in the nothingness. This is so simple that we miss it completely. It’s gone forever.  So why worry or try to relive it?

All that we know cannot conjure up the truth. The truth, says JK, is beyond what we know.  Do you see this?   

Whatever we have known & experienced is but past. The truth is ever new.  The now.  Do you see this? The truth is tremendous amount of awareness & one’s availability to the present. To what “is”!  

Deh-Buddhi

The deep settled notion of we being a body-mind organism is the root cause of many evils. Our self-image which we call as "I" needs an identification & what could be nearer than our own body-mind? We take it to be ourselves & live the whole life keeping this body-mind at the centre.Our world evolves surrounding this body-mind. Our thoughts originate from this fundamental premise that we are what we think -- A body governed by a mind! If someone suggests that the body-mind is within you & not the vice-versa , we find it difficult to fathom. Saints, however do not identify themselves with their body or mind. They operate from a different centre altogether. Their consciousness is expansive & wide. A true saint will have such a wide consciousness that it will encompass the whole world within it. The saint not only sees his own body-mind but all the other body-minds within his consciousness. It is said, that, your Guru knows more about you than yourselves. It's true because the Guru or the Saint identifies with you only & not himself. For a true saint, there is nothing left as "himself".

When we are free of our body-mind or so called 'ego' , two fundamental things happen. One, we are free of any guilt whatsoever. Because, There is left no one to be feeling guilty. The second, we experience true love. Because, everyone & everything else is so fundamentally 'us' that there are no boundaries left, whatsoever. we feel so much oneness in the existence, that, there is no "other". The hell is gone, only bliss is left.

How can we be free from the vagaries of our own body & mind? By growing in awareness! By expanding in consciousness! All spiritual & yogic practices lead to this basic goal only. The more we grow in awareness, the freeer we become of our body & mind. Ultimate awareness or what we call as "awakened state" is the end of body-consciousness or Deh-Buddhi. That is our Home.

Our purpose here is to attain this widened & expanded consciousness. We must find the whole world within us. That's the ultimate possibility of a human being. And it is achievable. All that one needs to do is to see the truth of it & pursue it sincerely. That's enough.

Right now, when I am writing these words, I can have two positions. One, I am a philosopher & wish to express my feelings, that is why I am writing. Second, there is a philosopher who wishes to give expression to his feelings, that is why he is writing. In the first case, the success of my pursuit is very important to me. However, in the second case, the whole question of success or failure becomes irrelevent because it isn't me. It's only a part of me. Hence, in order to keep my part happy, meaningful & fulfilled, all that I need to do is to give it a contentment of full effort & action. Do you see the Truth?

Thus, finding our true centre by freeing ourselves of our body-mind or deh-buddhi is the ultimate aim & conclusively ends all our sufferings. The true centre is nowhere , therefore, it is everywhere!

All the time one needs to keep this reality in mind. you will need to keep reminding yourselves that the so called "you" is only a part of yourself. A mighty larger reality exists & its the expanded form of your own tiny consciousness.

When we expand in consciousness, miracles happen. We find ourselves mingled in the existence and find oneness with every atom. We see light everywhere. We are blissful! We are home!

The Truth of Suffering

One is truly unfortunate if one has not had any suffering or misery in one’s life. It is only in the state of discord & confusion that you ever become interested in the subject of truth. Buddha said, “If there were no confusions, then there wouldn't be any enlightenment either.”

The creation is truly wonderful in the sense that every iota of it is in itself a creator. Every one of us has a world of himself/herself. Therefore, ours is a case of world within the world. Under the circumstances my truth may not be yours as long as your world & mine do not coincide. That is what the problem of religion is. All religions point towards the same light, yet lead to strife every passing day. A religion can never bring enlightenment to anyone. The first possibility of enlightenment arises only if there is any crucial confusion in your world. That’s where the importance of suffering lies. If you are happy & comfortable in your world, hardly anything more is required. In that case what you probably wish is the continuation of the status-quo. Your beliefs & overall perspective is so well crystalised that you may not like to consider anything contrary. It is said that happy & comfortable people hardly need any God. They may believe into one but do not have that 'crying urge' to know him. It is the miserable who truly needs god or an answer to his questions. It is in the state of suffering that you first think if there are any higher truths? This is where your true journey begins, the journey backwards. This seeking, this urgency can only lead to the truth that is independent of yours or mine or other infinite no of worlds. Or you can say it is the Truth that is true in the true sense of the word

The Secret of the Secret

The secret of the secret is your sub-conscious mind i.e the part of mind that is not known to you. The very word “sub” means – below. The sub-conscious mind, therefore, means the one that is ‘below’ your conscious mind. This ‘below-portion’ is quite big & very powerful. Powerful beyond your imagination.

The mind that we know, i. e., the conscious mind is only 10% or even less of the whole thing. Our mind is just like an iceberg. Only the 1/10 part is conspicuous to us & we mistakenly believe it to be the whole. The balance 90% or 9/10 part which is below the surface is neither known nor heeded by us. It is here that the catch lies.

Our behaviour in life is governed by ‘what lies below’. The successful people are blissfully unaware that they are successful only for one reason- ‘Their conscious mind is working in alignment with their sub-conscious mind. By the same logic the unsuccessful are unsuccessful purely for one reason that their subconscious wishes something else than what they think they want ‘consciously’.

How do we lose contact with our ‘roots’? And more important, how can we re-establish the contact with this little genie, our truest friend, so that we can be truly happy & put all our endeavours to achieve exactly what we have come here for? This is what we will discuss in this post.

A newly born baby has everything subconscious. That is, his conscious mind is just like a clean slate upon which nothing is written. The experiences that he has in this life are the first words of his script. It is said that upto first eight months the child is still in the process of “getting to know”. Thereafter he starts taking impressions. From this point he begins developing what we call ‘Personality’ (From Greek word “persona’’ which means ‘a mask’).

The child has already brought something from the previous life. These impressions & memories are accumulated in the “Mind-below’ already. For the first eight months this subconscious portion is quite active. However when new impressions occure, by & by this portion moves further below & new impressions accumulate over it. Thus, at any point of time a human mind is a sum total of these three parts. The first one the very upper part which feels, thinks & makes us act. The middle part which consisits of the impressions taken from this life & the bottom most part in which are the impressions from our past lives. Just like a pyramid, the tip is very sharp & seems very important to us yet the Bottom part is ‘The Base’ having all the answers of our life’s questions. And the middle part is the “Link” beteween the two. If the experiences in this life are sweet & cohesive then the middle part is transparent. In that case you know as well as believe in whatever you do. However, if the experiences in this life are bitter or confusing or threatening then your middle part i.e the link between your original being & this life is severed. Then you are truly cornered. You don’t really know your true wishes. You kind of lose your ‘grounding’. Consciously you may decide to do something but in actuality you may do something else. You simply don’t know what you want to do with your life! You simply carry a ‘Grudge’ either against this world or against yourself.

In order to re-establish the contact with your base what you need is to settle with the middle part. This is what is achieved through ‘Yoga’ or ‘Spirituality’. This is what is achieved through ‘Meditation’. During meditation you relax the tip of the pyramid i.e. the conscious mind of yours. Yet, you remain aware & you do not sleep. This allows the memories & bitterness or whatever accumulated in the middle part to ease out & the link with your original being is established. This happens very gradually, hence the long & sustained practices in yoga.

The base part of your mind is all powerful because it has got no direct linkage with your impressionable conscious part but infact it is connected with the universal mind.. The God. The God is nothing but a Universal Mind but without any duality whatever. Hence any message or any wish that is put in our basic mind has got to be fullfilled as it’s only a question of creation. And “To create” is the very nature of God The universal mind.

When we consciously feel grateful for whatever happens or is happening in our life we are infact removing the blockages of negativity between our conscious mind & the all powerful base mind. It is then that we begin getting the answers. Various traditions have given various names to this all powerful Base Mind. Some call it “The Guargian Angel”, some other call it Jeevatma. I for one would call it “The Little Genie My Greatest Friend”.

Curiously, now I can give you a great analogy. Almost every one of us has heard the sufi story “Alladin Ka Chirag”. In this story a boy finds a big rock placed on the mouth of a cave. The boy, Alladin, being of adventurous nature, strives & removes this rock & enters the cave. Inside he finds a ‘lamp’. As soon as the boy rubs the lamp a Great Genie comes to his survillence & asks ,” Tell me what to do my Lord” or ‘ Jo Hukm .. mere akah’.
It is exactly same with the cave of your mind. All you need to do is to be a little adventurous & remove the rock. Then you will find 'the lamp' containing a great genie who will always be there to your side. Then & only then will you be able to recover your lost moorings as this great friend of yours can do anything & everything for you. Amen.

Misery & Gratitude

Wallace wattles (1860 - 1911) was probably the first philosopher who brought due importance to the concept of 'gratitude'. Afterwards, scores of writers, motivators & new age gurus used it as well as emphasised its importance in order to bring one's life in universal alignment. In his classic book "The Science of Getting Rich", Wallace Wattles has devoted one full chapter, to the subject of gratitude.
One more philosopher, who lucidly explained & emphasised the import of 'Gratitude' in bringing your life from a negative perspective to a positive one, was Robert Collier (1885 - 1950).

Both these men, though initially had their share of live's problems, died quite a happy & prosperous persons. This could become possible solely due to their crystal clear understanding of certain laws of mind & universe & practical applications thereof.

Everyone who has ever faced any misery (Who has not?) in his life must go through at least these two books.

1. The Science of Getting Rich ---by Wallace Wattles (Published around 1910) &

2.The Secret of the Ages -- by Robert Collier (Published arround 1930).

Wallace Wattles failed serially in his early life. He constantly lived under poverty & worse still, the fear of poverty. This finally led him to devote his whole life to explore the subject of failure & success. Misery & Abundance. His lifelong pursuit of this subject brought out the classic book 'The Science of Getting Rich'. Thereafter, he made a lot of money, achieved whatever he desired in life & lived a true life of power till the end.

Robert Collier, on the other hand, had a desease which was undiagnosable & hence incurable. This brought him to the study & practice of christian science. To his pleasant surprise, the practices not only cured him completely, but left him much happier a person, ready to live the life to its fullest. Robert then became highly interested in getting to know the functioning of the human mind & more so the application of its power to cure the miseries of human life. Robert had a panache for putting 'Force of conviction' into his words. He was a prolific & gifted writer. His book(s), therefore, became a runaway success.

Both these men had a first hand experience of putting to practical application, whatever they later taught in their books. It is for this reason, that, there always was an impeccable force of truth in their words.

We will, in this post, discuss this golden concept of gratitude.

The worst effect of any adversity or any untoward situation in our life is, we kind of, totally break-away from the universal mind. We become obsessed with our misery, our problem, our situation. This changes the frequency we send into the universe & automatically things that may contribute further to our plight are attracted in our life. We are truly cornered & at a loss to know as to how to change this gear. It is at this point that we need something miraculous sort that can permanently convert our negativity into positivity.
That miraculous key is the key of Gratitude. Under any circumstance, it cannot be that we do not have a thing or two to feel positive about. The key of gratitude begins with the sorting out the positive things in our life. Even if it is just 'being alive' or as miniscule a thing as 'having a cool breez', we start giving thanks to the Universe for the same. Whatever little precious positive we come across, we truly & sincerely express our gratitude to this universe for the same. You will be surprised to see the miraculous effect of this practice. The number of things that you thought were positive in your life earlier, will simply multiply now. Whereas initially you were at a loss to find one single thing that you could term as positive, now with every passing day you will have them abundantly. The more you are thankful, the more you have to be thankful about.You have got to see it to believe it.
Those who have lived a life of discontent & complaint so far must try it for once. Just be thankful to this universe for whatever has happened in your life & see how the same scars turn into stars. Same adversities turning into blessings. It's practical magic I say.

The essential nature of this universe is "growth'' & ''abundance''. If that is what is missing from our life than definitely we have somehow lost our alignment with the universe. In order to bring it back the starting point is the feeling of gratitude. It is when we have gratitude that we have faith. It is when we have faith, that, we generate belief & positivity in our own being. This sets the right frequency to bring abundance in our life.

The Ultimate Medicine

We are all searching for an ultimate medicine. A unified theory which can apply to this world as a whole, Our life situations & the questions that we want an answer for. The whole of west is working on that. Once in a while a book like "The Atman Project" or "History of everything" comes & generates a bit of excitement & then the world returns to its normalcy(?).
In his vibrant fiction "The Devil & Miss Prym", Paulo Cuelho has raised a very valid question: Whether the human beings are essentially good or essentially evil? Though Paulo always gives his stories an astonishingly beautiful treatment & "The Devil ...." is no exception, yet, the question remains unanswred. Paulo himself has opined that this question is unanswerable.
However this question is quite answerable in my view. It only needs to be viewed from a different angle. Hence following three issues are being discussed in this post:
1. Whether there is any law governing everything in this world?
2. Whether humans are essentially good or evil?
3. What is the ultimate medicine, if any ?

The World: Before taking the world on its face value, there is a need to examine the reality of this phenomenon that we call world! Infact it is here that the catch lies. Our major premise is that there is a world. And for the enlightened ones this belief of ours amuses like anything. Where is the world except in your Mind? Please consider the possibility that before the world we are .... then happened the Mind & then happenend the world! It is for this reason that the Real "you" or real "me" will arise only when the Mind is over. Whatever we know today as "me" or "you" or ''they" or ten thosand things is but a creation of Mind.
The moment our Mind happenend, our "Sleep" begane. This is what is meant by the great parable from Genesis mentioning the fall of Adam from the garden of Eden. We must consider a possibility that we are sound asleep & dreaming. Everyones dream is different. It is for this reason that my explanation of the world doesn't apply to your situation or your understanding. Your dream is different & mine is different. Since eons philosophers are struggling with the question of this world & trying to understand why it is as it is. Yet nothing of promise has come up. How can you explain a dream ? A dream just 'is'.
That you also dream a building at a place 'x' that I do is simply because in my dream you exist & in yours I do along with all the other commonalities.

Humans: Humans are events. Humans are not individual beings or separate beings. They are only events rising & dessolving. Essentially, humans are neither good nor bad. No event in itself is either good or bad. It only has shades & colours.

The Ultimate Medicine: Beware! just saying or believing that the world is or is not doesn't settle anything. No truth can be ours unless we have realised it ourselves! However, we can always be more 'Aware' considering the possibility. India has paid a very heavy price by just believing & not doing anything about it. This defeated the very purpose of the message of the Buddhas. Instead of growing lifeward & exploring more, we have grown passive & life-negative. The ultimate medicine is to be into it with full 'Awareness' ; full 'Watching'. The dream can be broken only when you know that you are dreaming. All we have is this very world & this very life! one can begin only where one is & not where one should be.
Being into life with 100% involvement but 100% watchfulness too; is the way. Going into Nature & being "with it" is the way. Remember Ralph Waldo Emerson ? "If you go into Nature, all your problems will be solved."
Going within & being with that spark of 'pure awareness' is the way! More the awareness, less the questions !
Happy Exploring!