
#   Title

# Aatma Sutra

...UNVEILING YOUR SOUL!

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**Aatma Sutra**  
by Hingori

COPYRIGHT © Hingori 2017

All rights reserved. The copyrights of this book are owned by the person(s) mentioned in the above notice. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright holder(s). e-Shabda can identify and legally challenge any such infringement viz. illegal distribution / copies / usage of this restricted material.

Second Edition 2017  
This Epub Edition 2018

ISBN: 978-93-5254-349-6

eBook by

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 ****

## A Spiritual Icon

** **

**GURUDEV**

"Gurudev made mountains out of mountains, who thought themselves to be molehills."

Born as Rajinder Chanan in Hariana, a village 17 km from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, Gurudev had a regular childhood. One of six children, his father was a trader and his mother, a homemaker. Brought up in a humble home, Gurudev completed his education at DAV School. Notorious as a young boy, he would stealthily pluck carrots and radishes with his friends from neighbouring fields and would be chased away by angry farmers. However, a unique thing about him was that since childhood he lit an earthen oil lamp every Thursday at the village _dargah_ and spent hours at a temple near his house. In his early years, he would often leave home to spend time with holy men much older than him. In the course of time, he attained many _siddhis_ thereby acquiring spiritual energy.

After graduating from high school (given his reputation, it was a surprise and shock to all), he came to Delhi and sold pens and sweets in buses for a living. It was during this period that his father went through a financial crisis and lost a lot of money in business. This put him in a financially tight spot with minimal help and support.

To complete his higher education, Gurudev moved to Delhi and lived with his paternal aunt. In order to compensate his stay with his relatives, he would help in the physical chores of the house. He would sometimes carry 20 kg of wheat on his back to the grinding mill. As luck would have it, he got admission in an overseer's course at the PUSA Agricultural University in Delhi. After graduating, he joined the agriculture ministry as a soil surveyor.

Until this point, Gurudev's life followed a normal course. However, at the age of 35, there was a sudden spiritual awakening in him. An inner voice asked him to go to Har ki Pauri in Haridwar and relinquish all his _siddhis_ in the Ganges, which he did. Gurudev knew this was the beginning of his spiritual journey, but he did not know the way forward. His inner voice also told him that a symbol of 'OM' had formed on his right palm. As time passed, various other symbols including the _trishul, shivling_ and _gileri_ , Ganapati, and Nandi, started forming on his palms. The inner voice asked him to heal people, which he duly followed. Starting with a handful, there came a time when there were 35,000–40,000 people waiting to meet him. Over a period of time, Gurudev established _sthans_ (home temples) all across the country and abroad.

Gurudev passed on the power of healing to over a hundred of his disciples who opened _sthans_ in their homes and further spread their wings by training others. This one-man tree soon became an orchard. In 20 years, his spiritual family and he served millions of people (he cured my rheumatoid arthritis of over 10 years in less than a minute). I was lucky to be one of the chosen few who he trained and help evolve. Without him, my life would not have been worth living.

Ordinary people with little knowledge of spiritualism became giants under his tutelage. They saw themselves as molehills but he saw them as mountains in the making. They judged themselves in the present; Gurudev evaluated them on their past, present and future. They saw themselves as ordinary people, but in his vision, they were extraordinary beings–a part of the whole, and a part of him.

## Author's Appeal

I feel I have been blessed with spiritual luck beyond expectation; maybe beyond justification and certainly beyond my aspirations.

One of the consequences of extreme wealth is the desire to share. I would feel wealthier if you would accept some of these realisations and benefit from their practice.

You would be adding to my bliss and I to yours.

Let us create this moment of oneness.

Yes, let us!

## Introduction

** **

**SELF-SCULPTING - Redefining your persona, attitudes, habits.**

Through this book, it is my endeavour to present some relevant spiritual concepts interspersed with incidents experienced by several of my spiritual friends and me. The purpose is to make you fall in love with yourself. Of course, it would be too colloquial to say– learn to accept, respect and revere yourself, but this is no mean task.

Here, I will be briefly talking about the various stages of my spiritual journey.

The story of my self-evaluation has been one of a jigsaw puzzle of likes, dislikes, acceptance, non-acceptance, and the rise and fall of self-worth. Being an adopted child, who was acquired with great difficulty from within the family, I was handled with kid gloves. The first half of my school life was spent being mollycoddled. The second half was spent in a boarding school. Since I joined midway, I was a misfit in class, average at a few subjects at best, but bad at most. Naturally, I saw myself as a loser with nothing to be proud of.

College presented an opportunity to show off and get attention. I dressed up in a way that attracted attention. In fact, I often went overboard and made a spectacle of myself and got away with it. I also won college elections; after all, who would not vote for a jester! And a jester I was! "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit," as Shakespeare rightly said. I honed my debating and acting skills that won me many trophies. Fortunately, I was not too unpopular with the girls either. Maybe, I was better than I thought! Self-evaluation was very confusing, but what was I evaluating myself on? Social success?

It was during my early college days that I got an attack of rheumatoid arthritis. For years, I had to undergo acupuncture daily. And then, I met Gurudev who cured me in a minute. Eventually, he accepted me as a disciple.

It was time to learn. Actually, to unlearn!

I thought to 'discover yourself' meant understanding yourself psychoanalytically. Actually, it meant a lot more. It has been a spiritual journey of 35 years of not disliking myself, and learning to love myself instead, and more.

Join me in this endeavour of understanding self-worth and true nature while shedding all limitations.

### Tat Twam Asi-That You Are

This book deconstructs the phrase in an informal manner. 'That' stands for the Consciousness Supreme, which all human beings are a part of. 'You' stands for the body, the spirit, and the _jivaatma_ or individual soul. 'Are' means you are a part of the Consciousness Supreme even if you do not know it, even if you do not feel it, even if you do not want to believe it.

It is intriguing but impressive! The idea is to understand and take it up as a practice. Highlight the concepts that interest you. After doing a couple of readings, re-read the highlighted texts and see if they work for you.

My spiritual associate Rajeev, after reading the book, asked me a question I least expected, "Why should I love myself?" On reading this text I hope most of you will know, if you do not already that 'yourself' is a component of many entities and 'you' reading this book is just one of them, mainly the physical incarnation. But 'myself' does not stop there. It includes all the components that go along with your individual self and ends in 'you', the physical body at the outermost level. Rajeev should learn to love the Consciousness Supreme, which at the subtlest level is only a few steps away from his outer self.

Unfortunately, putting theory into writing will not fill many pages. I could redesign the philosophy of the world in 30 odd pages, but what good would that do?

My humble request is to move together through the pages of the book (and its illustrations) and reach some life-changing conclusions. Firstly, we are not who we think we are and secondly, we must look at some introspective mirrors that show us reflections beyond our outer selves.

This book is a deconstruction of the concept _Tat Twam Asi_. We need to examine why most of us find it difficult to believe this phrase. Even if we do, why do we think ourselves incapable of living it?

This book starts with understanding patterns of disbelief and breaking them down step by step. Through examples and anecdotes it takes you to a stage where you question your disbelief.

To quote Albert Einstein, "A human being is part of the whole, called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and our feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive."

######

It is only when one learns to look at divinity in everything can one lose the arrogance and ego. When we start looking at things this way, we are already divine.

So is divinity necessarily attainable only through prayer, meditation and practices or is it available even with the change in attitude of the mind? This is the question one need to answer to the self; this is a question one can debate about.

My vote is for the mind, my vote is for the attitude, and my vote is for you to see divinity in everything. This may seem as an accomplishment that is almost impossible to achieve, but if we do achieve even a part of it, we are divine; if not fully then partially. It does not cost much to get there.

Do start the journey...

Hingori

## **Chapter I  
** Learn to Accept Yourself

** **

**More often that not, the reflection is lesser than the self.**

## **Obstacles to Accepting Yourself**

Whether it is age or a set of circumstances, we often feel discontented with the image of ourselves. We think of ourselves to be falling short of the desired outcome. This does not necessarily apply to all, but to 90–95 per cent of commoners like me. The problem is that we have to deal not only with our own evaluation, but also correlate it with that of the society we live in. And that surely creates a potpourri of self-images!

### **Societal Norms of Evaluation**

### Age

At several crossroads you have to decide whether to invest in your faith, or take the easy way out and bury your head, like an ostrich, beneath the sands of illusion.

At 20, you may not be mature enough. Until 30–35, you lack experience and still have a lot to learn. Between 35–45, you are in your prime. However, your ambitions keep you preoccupied and you have a long way to go before you can understand these concepts. In the mid-50s you may have all the experience, but may lack the extensive new-age knowledge and technology. Therefore, you never feel confident of having a fair balance of maturity, experience and dynamism.

### Profession

It is estimated that only 1 per cent of people get to reach the top at their workplace. The rest feel second best. Reporting to great leaders is a wonderful experience but few make great leaders themselves. If you are satisfied with your job then you are lucky, but most aspire to climb the ladder. The reasons can be many, but dissatisfaction with the job is a common factor.

We usually get a lot of negative feedback at our workplace. Either the seniors are unhappy with our performance or we are forced to do what they want. When we become seniors, we do not get the desired productivity from our juniors, for people are either not committed enough or we are not satisfied with our operations. One in a few is lucky to have a sense of balance and self-acceptance at the workplace.

### Physical Appearance

On an average, one out of 10 people is good looking (not a statistical research though). Some are fairly good and some are mediocre. But more than half the world is not satisfied with their appearance. The other half would like to look better. Being second best is still a step down. Physical appearances can hurt self-opinion. Over the years, as looks fade, opinions wane. This reminds me of what my grandfather always said, "Seerat ko dekho, surat ko nahi _"_ (look at the inner and not the outer beauty of a person).

### Social Background

In India, there is a huge disparity between people of different social backgrounds, castes, communities religions, etc. If you are not from the upper caste, you are not treated properly. If you belong to a humble background you are made to feel alienated. If you have a suburban accent, it becomes a cause for embarrassment. If you are from a minority community, you are not accepted either. If you are not highly educated, then you are in the bottom of the 'Snakes and Ladders' game of self-evaluation. In short, your social background can be an obstacle to having a balanced opinion of yourself.

Just to know where we are going, I want to explore various reasons why most of us find it difficult to accept ourselves as people who 'fit the bill'. This is mainly connected to our physical existence alone, so far.

### Negative Feedback

From childhood until we get old, we receive and give negative feedback about ourselves. Our parents are mostly experimenting with parenthood. In trying to do their job perfectly they often reprimand their kids instead of counseling them. When kids suffer from insecurities, parents have no clue how to deal with the problem. Scolding or reprimanding the child, threatening them with consequences, does not do much good for the child's self-esteem. It is the same with most teachers. As children suffer from lack of knowledge, confidence is not an easy achievement. Parents need to provide them assurance, which unfortunately they do not!

Even friends are keen to give us negative feedback. They do not realise that "A rose for the living is better than a wreath for the dead". In short, as we grow older, we have had more than our share of negative feedback, which keeps psyching us into disbelieving in ourselves. It is important to realise this process, and learn to downplay or even discount it. We are hypnotised into believing we are of no good at all. Before we look at all these obstacles and how to overcome them, we need to examine a few more issues that are beyond the realm of our physical bodies.

### Things Beyond Our Reach

### Frustrations and Fate

Fate does not always allow our hopes and aspirations to be fulfilled in the manner we want. We get frustrated with the outcome of our efforts. This often leads to a sense of failure. Successful people aspire to have continued success, and when this does not happen, they feel a sense of falling short. Self-worth always takes a hit. Guru Nanak's famous quote "Nanak dukhiya sab sansaar" (The world is always in a state of unhappiness) holds true even today.

On the other hand, when the tides of time change, lack of self-confidence turns into pride. Success changes remorse into self-confidence. 'The Midas Touch' can make a person feel self-assured and important. Unfortunately, tides are never constant, nor is confidence. And it is not because we usually equate it with only one aspect of success.

### Our Thoughts, an Impediment

Understanding our thoughts is the first step towards understanding our feelings. Most of our karmas or deeds are influenced by our feelings, which, in turn, are a by-product of our thoughts. ( _Vitarkas_ and _Vicharas_ , explained later.)

I once had a discussion with Gurudev about the problems I faced while dealing with my thoughts. The kind of abilities he had honed in his disciples of serving, healing and guiding people, were undermined by the fact that the disciples were susceptible to negative thoughts. It was appalling, especially while dealing with the opposite gender. We did not want negative thoughts to act as an obstacle in our interaction. His thoughts were easy to listen, but difficult to understand.

According to Gurudev, our thoughts are not our own as they come from external sources. So one should not acknowledge and feel guilty about them. We should watch them pass just as a traffic constable watches cars go by.

Intellectually, I understood his philosophy, but there were quite a few issues when I tried to put them to practice. For instance if one gets sensuous thoughts about the opposite sex, then how can that be an external one? If both shared the same thoughts then was it not unjustified to think that some external source was giving the two illegitimate thoughts about each other, and at the same time?

For years I tried to solve this, but failed.

I would continually struggle with my thoughts – sometimes in agreement and other times in disagreement. Some thoughts took me on a wild-goose chase and some creative ones captivated me for hours. At times, certain thoughts were inspiring and made me ponder for longer periods. Unfortunately, I even enjoyed the negative and exhilarating ones. But more than half were related to my fears and other negative emotions, which unnerved me. Both the pleasant and the unpleasant ones kept recapitulating in my mind keeping me occupied. They generated conflicting emotions and I suffered both (I realised even positive thoughts could bring out emotions that became a burden for the mind).

**WATCHING THOUGHTS GO BY Like a traffic cop not allowing a traffic jam.**

Despite his good advice, I did not know how to deal with the thoughts. I decided to accept my fate and succumb to thousands of thoughts a day. Was there anything else one could do?

I did not think so, until I actually SAW a thought. This is not a misprint. I actually did. Back in the days I used to meditate for hours during bedtime. During one such meditation, on opening my eyes, I saw a ray coming from one end of the room and hitting a point a few inches above the centre of my forehead. It soon dispersed into my head and the thought was crystal clear. There was no ambiguity as I now understood what Gurudev said. It was time to re-study the subject.

If the repertoire of thoughts was external and merely received by the mind, then how was I responsible for them? A radio that has the capacity to receive several external signals is not responsible for the type of signals it receives. It has no reason to feel proud or embarrassed about the content of its signals. For me, this has been one of the greatest pearls of wisdom.

### Guilt

Another reason we find it difficult to accept ourselves is guilt. It is important to discuss guilt as it is a significant impediment in our journey toward higher self-esteem.

We take ownership of thoughts and if the thoughts are unpleasant or degenerative, then we judge ourselves accordingly: 'How could I think like that' has been a common expression in my life. After marriage if I thought of other women, I felt I was being unfaithful to my wife. If I found my wife looking at other men, I would think the same of her.

**Reviewing thoughts through the bioscope of the common mind.**

Out of an average of 30,000 thoughts a day, about 20–60 percent are unworthy (depending on the _guna_ mix), but does that make me unworthy? For most of my life, I believed in the affirmative! Today it is a big 'No'.

Today, I believe myself to be only an observer who watches his thoughts go by. Every car that crosses the traffic constable is not gleaming new. Some are old, some damaged and some ugly. Why should the constable feel awkward about the passing cars?

Most of the time we brew our thoughts and keep churning them in our heads creating a loop. They either inspire an action or we simply allow them to occupy our minds. According to Indian scriptures, what we do in our thoughts is also a deed or karma. (This is based on the concept of _samskars_ , which get stored in our consciousness). Thus our thoughts fructify into actions.

### Samskars

When fructified actions are seen with emotions, they are stored as _samskars_ and get due for re-fructification at some point in the future. This mainly happens because when we attach emotions to our actions, we gain a sense of ownership. And because we take ownership, we need to erase this impression of ownership at some point in the future. When our destiny is paired with the data stored in our ethereal hard disk, all those _samskars_ matching the trend that we are going through, fructify under the auspices of the planets. So, if at a particular time our destiny is meant to provide us with wealth, good looks, luxury, etc., the stored _samskars_ that match our destiny will fructify. On the other hand, if physical pain, loss in business, etc., is in our destiny then the karmas matching this negative period will come to fore (just like in a game of cards where you can only use the cards you have been dealt).

This pattern goes on and on. When emotion is added to the mixture and we take ownership of this fructified karma, the circle is complete. A thought that was not ours to own, but only to receive and let go, becomes part of our karma. It becomes part of the profit and loss of our lives–to be enjoyed and spent or suffered and erased in the latter part of the present life or future lives.

However, the opposite is also true. If it is not guilt, then it is pride of ownership. If our thoughts, which are not our own lead to deeds we perceive worthy, we become proud of ourselves. Examples of worthy deeds include helping someone in need, philanthropy or any other karma, which is perceived as good karma.

And so oscillates the pendulum–good, bad, right and wrong. One moment we like ourselves, the other we do not. Duality has its day. Delusion rules!

Also, even if the original thought is external, if we do not let it pass then it connects to the coded messages and experiences held in our _karmashaya_ (like an external hard disk attached to the spirit body that creates our destiny. It holds the _samskars_ that need to fructify into karmas) and a chain of thoughts emerge. One connects to another and before you get to know, you are the producer of a short film.

### Thoughts from the Karmashaya

We must take into consideration the emergence of thoughts into our conscious awareness from the _karmashaya_.

Temptation always branches out into pleasurable thoughts–some acceptable, some not so acceptable. The critical point is that we are not responsible for our thoughts. But if we allow ourselves to dwell on them then we will certainly find them turning into feelings or virtual deeds that get stored in our _kaarna sharir_ (causal body) or _karmashaya_ (the third body).

Once again there is the risk of such feelings becoming self-esteem downers. Though intellectually we know how to discriminate, in our minds we are married to the senses. Our sense of taste, smell, touch, sound and sight, brings us down to lower levels of consciousness. The mind misguides us with temptation and attachment.

It is the nature of our mind to lead us to value enjoyment. But, mind you, enjoyment is an expenditure of time and not an investment. 'We spent a lovely evening today', usually means we spent our time pleasurably but not productively.

The word 'spent' is self-explanatory.

Talking about unacceptable thoughts or dreams, here is an interesting story. Giri, a devout Gurudev follower met him and us in Gurgaon in 1982, where he spent a lot of time. One day he drove Gurudev to the farm in Gurgaon and fell asleep soon after. He got a sensual dream, which turned out to be a wet one. Embarrassed, he went to Gurudev and complained about it. Gurudev was empathetic and asked Giri to not feel guilty. He said, after some time these things would stop occurring. By doing so, he averted Giri's embarrassment from converting into a _samskar_.

Another follower complained of having wet dreams about his own mother. He was emotionally traumatised by this licentious experience. Gurudev told him not to think of it anymore, and it would never happen again. It probably did not. Such examples show that in both the cases, they felt guilty and had a low opinion of themselves. Gurudev did not allow this to happen.

**The ups and downs of our self-assesment: a never-ending game!**

The key here is to realise that such embarrassing and self-defeating thoughts should not be allowed to become snakes in the 'Snakes and Ladders' game of life. Acceptance of such negative thoughts without harbouring guilt is the way forward. Very often, we do not know how to deal with our thoughts, and try to dissipate it with intoxicants or music. We rather subdue our mind than face the issues. It is not easy to deal with thousands of unnerving thoughts as it takes us to a level of judging ourselves poorly and keeps us in a state of degradation. We cannot accept ourselves as part of the Consciousness Supreme. Our limitations are self-created and do not allow us the luxury of self-worship. It is easy to worship water in the ocean, but not in a glass of fresh lime soda– the core of both remaining the same; the lime and fizz are only adulterations and limitations. We need to accept ourselves on 'as is where is' basis.

YES WE DO!

Besides the nature of thoughts, there are reflections and reactions in our _citta_ (the subconscious mind and more) to external stimuli. It is like someone tossing an object at you makes you duck, thinking you might get hit. Somebody explaining a concept and you pondering over it can be dubbed as a reflective thought. Reading a magazine or a book or watching a movie also leads to reflective or reactive thoughts which become a part of the _citta_ as a nature of comprehension.

The focus of the above statements is on significant thinking, which leads to guilt, pride, inspiration and other such emotions.

## Aham Brahmasmi: Expanding Our Egos

Each of us is a God, the Consciousness Supreme, the 'Father who Art in Heaven'. We all have in us the same divine energy that Krishna or Jesus did.

Unfortunately, we have something more! We have our ego consciousness, adulterations of who we are, individuality, limitations, and self-impressions. Being Hingori comes with its own baggage–she is my wife, this is my house, my son, my car, my place of work, my religion and also my body (actually bodies).

### It is a case where being 'more' makes us less.

The question is, how do we shed this 'more'? Don't you wish there was a spiritual laundry where we could cleanse the extra baggage and get ourselves rid of it? Wish it were simple! The tragedy is that our extra baggage includes things we cannot comprehend, like our _samskars_ and our desire to live in the present life and beyond (the Sanskrit name for this force or will to live is _asisa_ ) _._

The will to exist in human or astral form keeps us bound and entangled with our _samskars_. These _samskars_ are stored data (in coded form) of the impressions of numerous lives. These can be called the 'memory' of our existence.

Even while intellectually understanding this concept, the process of getting rid of the 'more' involves elimination of the _samskars_ and our will to exist eternally.

We need to cleanse our adulterations and false perceptions bit-by-bit. It was only when Jesus realised his identity of being a carpenter's son was a delusion could he think of himself as the 'Son of God'. When he shed the 'more', he became a part of divinity in self-reflection. It was the same with Gurudev, Buddha and any other saint in history. Their path of divinity started only when they shed the perception of their physical and social reality.

One of the obstacles of shedding the perceptions we hold of ourselves is our lack of knowledge about destiny. Until we understand this concept better, we will continue to blame ourselves for all our actions and often even our thoughts.

## **Chapter II  
** Knowledge is Power

** **

**A mahurat is the birth of a moment at a cross-section of time and space with its own future trends. Our lives are influenced by this.**

## **Destiny**

### Astrology

Many people do not believe in planetary movements and their effect on us. The subject of astrology, which attempts to map this, is often scoffed at. Though, there is no denying that a lot of amateurs study the basics of the subject and become quasi astrologers to earn a quick buck. And there are some who scare gullible people into performing expensive pujas. And there are others who are plain lazy, and do not want to go deep into the subject to predict a detailed analysis. Their impatience misses out on some important combinations that would otherwise help them analyse the chart accurately. However, a bad doctor does not the science of medicine unmake.

People do not value this science because of its presentation in magazines and dailies in a casual way to show general trends. The 12 zodiac signs apply to one-twelfth of the human beings alive and therefore is not person-specific as Vedic Astrology. A detailed analysis of astrology will help one understand the subject better as it is the most scientific explanation of destiny.

The birth of a person is considered to be a _mahurat_. It is a moment of time co-related with the longitude of the specific place of birth. At the _mahurat_ of birth, the planets are juxtaposed in a particular configuration, both vis-à-vis the place and time of birth as well as with reference to each other.

A chart is prepared of this frozen moment of time showing the position of the planets in the zodiac at that particular place and time, and then divided into 12 signs, like Sagittarius, Libra, Scorpio, etc.

The position of each planet in different zodiac signs and their interaction with other planets, both in the frozen birth chart and their movement thereafter, indicates the trends of a person's future. The prediction is that of the mahurat or the particular moment, and works congruently with the future of the person, animal, plant or anything taking birth at that mahurat in the physical plane. It could be the inauguration of a shop or the launch of an enterprise or anything else.

The frozen chart at the time of _mahurat_ is called the 'birth chart' or _kundali_ , and the movement of the planets (as time goes by) is called their 'transit'. After the chart is frozen at the time of birth, the planets continue to move at their own pace, shifting their location relative to their birth configuration. Just like the sun shifts to a different sign each month, so do the planets, though at a different pace; Jupiter in 12 years and Saturn in several more, staying in each sign for 2.5–3 years.

Since the planets move at different paces, their chemistry does not remain the same as it was at the _mahurat_ of birth. In fact, this chemistry is dynamic and displays a number of configurations leading to innumerable differing results. And it is this that makes the subject so difficult to interpret. Consequently, it also gives variety and unpredictability to life. This method is called the _Vimshotri_ technique, has a system of ' _dasas_ ' or period of time ruled by the planets. Whichever sign is rising in the northeast (at the time of your birth) is called the 'ascendant'. Astrologers have also devised a system of configuring the number of years belonging to each planet where the planet is considered the ruler of a _dasa_. For example if an individual's life is divided into 120 years, the nine planets have a share in all those years. Some have less and some more.

Thus the _dasa_ of Jupiter (where it is the major influencing planet in a person's destiny) lasts for 16 years, Sun for 7, Moon- 9, Venus- 20, Rahu – 18, and so on. Each _dasa_ unfolds a broad destiny of its own. This depends on where the planet is placed in your birth chart and the celestial bodies influencing it. The influences could be affected by other planets occupying a position near it in the same sign, or from an opposite or diagonally opposite sign. To further complicate matters, the planet can be in a house or sign that is friendly or unfriendly. Each _dasa_ is divided into sub-periods and inter-periods, which are periods within periods, just like smaller gear wheels, which regulate the larger ones. The trend of this period varies based on these and many other factors.

The above explanations are certainly not to make you astrologers, but an effort to explain that the subject is intricate and vast. The discipline of analysing astrological trends was founded by the ancient _rishis_ (sages), who intuitively understood the science and left behind an enduring legacy for posterity. The science of astrology, tarot reading and palmistry, despite many shortcomings, still continue to amaze people.

**The lines on the palms are indicative of the future trends of our lives.**

### Real-life stories

My wife's classmate Maggie filed for nominations in the State elections. He was a second-generation politician, after his father, who was an honest man- a rare lotus in an otherwise murky pond! Maggie had worked hard for over 10 years in his constituency. All his friends, associates and people in general loved him. He attended all functions including marriage and death ceremonies of the villagers in his constituency and helped them financially out of his personal earnings. He was sure to win.

In the meantime, I connected him with an astrologer friend in the US. Seeing Maggie's date of birth, place and time, he calculated the position of the planets on his software and concluded that he did not stand a chance of winning the election. However, he put a condition saying Maggie could only win if all other candidates died.

Maggie was heartbroken!

The astrologer friend called again to inform that his luck would however change after four years and he would easily win the next election. Predictably, Maggie lost the upcoming election! Four years later, he was appointed the State Secretary of his party and subsequently a year later, he won despite heavy odds.

Personally, I have had the opportunity of witnessing many predictions coming true. A friend was getting married to a member of our club. They had been dating for four years. The astrologer friend was also a member of the club. After reading the girl's palm, he advised her not to marry her fiancé as the marriage would not last. We all laughed at the prediction. Eventually, the couple tied the knot, had a couple of kids, but separated after a few years.

Uncanny!

My brother-in-law was a senior executive in one of India's largest multinationals. He was popular and liked by all his seniors. When my sister showed his horoscope to the astrologer friend, he did not see a good future in her husband's birth chart. He predicted that my sister would be the bread earner of the family. Unfortunately, she is. My brother-in-law died in an air crash 20 years ago.

A senior executive in my company was disturbed for many months. I wondered what his problem was. I called up my astrologer friend and gave him his birth details. I could hardly believe what he said. He said, the cause of the senior executive's problem was his extramarital affair, which may have gone sour. On asking him about it, he blatantly denied. I thought the astrologer friend had erred for sure. However, six months later, the senior executive himself confessed about the affair and wanted advice on what to do about it.

### Tarot Reading

Tarot reading is a lot more mystifying than astrology and palmistry.

My daughter was fed up working with a real estate company and wanted to resign. She asked her aunt Bindu (a brilliant tarot reader) for a reading. Bindu advised her to resign. She told her not to worry, as she may get another job the same day. I was highly irritated with the odd-sized cards to say the least.

It so happened that my daughter handed over her resignation to the MD of the company who accepted it but immediately offered her another job in the same company with a completely different profile. Maybe those tarot cards were not so weird, after all!

### Psychic Predictions - A personal experience

I liked a girl in college, but it just was not working out. I used every trick in the book, but to no avail. I was depressed. It was then that I visited a lady called 'Mataji' in Dadar, Mumbai. She was known for her psychic abilities. My friend Gopal drove me there. She was an unimpressive lady seated on the floor. Before we could say anything, she warned Gopal that he would have to spend 15 days in bed if he did not change his high-heeled boots. She also prophesied of him having an affair with a married Muslim lady living a few houses away from his. When he protested, she disclosed her name to be Rehana or Rukshana with a round face. Gopal left in a hurry! He tripped, got a nasty sprain and was in bed for two weeks. I got nervous and speechless. She asked me for the girl's photograph. It was a group photograph and there were other girls in it, but she pointed out the one I was involved with. Looking at the photograph, she said there was no future in the relationship, and that her mother had asthma and ulcers. The next day, when I met the girl and asked her about her mother's ailments, she was surprised how I knew. And, yes, the relationship ended between us. Thank my stars, as I finally married a far nicer person (a little aggressive in old age, but nicer all the same).

### Sabina's Tryst with a Psychic

A well-known restaurateur was to launch a high profile restaurant in Mumbai. The restaurateur's girlfriend, Sabina, went to see Ann Walker, a psychic in London to discuss the fate of the new venture. The psychic said it would do well as she saw a small pond with fish in it. Sabina disagreed since there was no fish tank in the restaurant at all. But the psychic was however certain of her prediction. When Sabina returned to Mumbai and visited the restaurant, she was surprised to see the fish tank. While she was away in London; her boyfriend had got it installed on the advice of their Vaastu consultant. Her boyfriend (who is now her husband) is one of India's best-known restaurateurs. His name is AD Singh.

### Personal Experiences with Gurudev

The most unique predictions I have experienced were with Gurudev. Around 30 years ago he predicted that Mumbai would be flooded with water levels rising alarmingly high resulting in many deaths. We all know about the Mumbai floods in 2005, around two decades after he passed on.

My father and I were driving to Gurgaon from Chandigarh. We had a long argument between Ambala and Karnal. I insisted on meeting Gurudev on our way back which my father grudgingly accepted. He remained seated in the car while I walked into Gurudev's house to take his blessings. He looked at my disillusioned face and asked whether I had an argument with my father. I mumbled and said nothing. What he did next was shocking! He repeated both of our conversations verbatim.He then advised me to apologise to my father, which I did.

One of my college friends and I regularly met Gurudev together. He was a chartered accountant with a small practice, but with a magnanimous heart. Gurudev would often tell him, "I will make you a world famous leader and one of India's best politicians." We would be thrilled to hear this, but there was nothing to suggest that this might come true. He was not even a member of any political party. Years passed and he rose to become the chairman of a public limited company. Three months before the parliamentary elections, he was offered a seat by a political party. He went on to be appointed a minister for several years, holding many important portfolios. He is now invited internationally to speak on various platforms and is admired for his humility and honesty. He acknowledges Gurudev's grace, lives a simple life and never takes advantage of his high position. Surprisingly, both his wife and son are also humble and never show off. He knows that what he is today was exactly what was meant to be, hence the humility. He does his utmost to fulfill his duty and goes out of his way to be nice to his junior workers. He considers his job an opportunity to serve people. That is his _purusharth_ (self-effort).

There are many such stories, where predictions about the future have been accurate.

So, can we now safely say that it is possible to know of the future?

The answer is a big Yes!

So, and it is a big so, if the trends of our life are predetermined and the future has already happened in a cross section of time and space that lies ahead, how do we examine the concept of guilt?

Nostradamus had predicted the life of Hitler 400 years before he was born. So, did the little man have a choice of not being the architect of the Second World War? Could he have altered the chain of events that he was responsible for? Could Alexander the Great have become a trumpeter instead, or Jesus a star carpenter, or Buddha a benevolent king?

Life does not follow a logical path. Events in life cannot be predicted through logic. We are destined to mess up, say stupid things, be selfish, be indifferent or insensitive or on the other hand, become sacrificing in nature and turn into Gandhis (not the political family) or Martin Luther Kings or Guru Gobind Singhs.

The man who went to study law in England never planned to walk around in khadi and win a bloodless war of independence for India. He never planned to fast in protest. Destiny preordained him to become a Mahatma.

There are many billionaires. How many turn to become philanthropists? Why a Bill Gates? Why an Azim Premji? Why a Warren Buffet?

### Destiny: A Fructification

Destiny is the result of karmas waiting to fructify. They do so only in alignment with the planetary movements. When the movement of planets is adverse, the negative karmas get fructified. And conversely, when there is a positive star movement, the desires are fulfilled. Even the dreams during positive planetary movements can be good with spiritual visions and happy experiences. These karmas are fruits of the stored _samskars_ in the long-term memory of our inner consciousness. For those who do not know the meaning of _samskar_ and do not understand the play of karma, should read a book _Karma Sutra–Cracking the Karmic Code_. Understanding the subject of karma will help understand destiny better.

At the moment, it is important to accept that everything happens according to destiny. Most people disagree saying, 'Life is what you make of it'. People have to take several births to complete the circles they draw themselves. In order to free themselves from the cycle of birth and death, they will have to surrender their intellect to realisation and wisdom 'If you sit at home and do nothing, will things happen for you?' 'It is the effort that gives results.' These are statements I hear often.

Naturally, the common man defies belief in fate. It has taken more than three decades and thousands of experiences for me to believe in destiny. Here are some interesting experiences that might influence your belief.

### Bhrigu's Prophecy

Dr Chandra, my father's close friend was a wonderful human being. He had three children. He once visited Bhrigu Nadi at Hoshiarpur, Punjab, to know the future of his family. His son was then a student at the film institute in Pune and both his daughters were lovely girls. The Bhrigu Nadi predicted that his son's career would be a failure with no material future at all. When his son graduated from the film institute, he was one of the luckiest ones from his batch who bagged a lead role in a film. The film was produced by a well known producer who in the last few years had several successful films to his credit. Dharmendra (a famous leading Bollywood star at the time) also had a prominent role in the film. Despite high expectations, the film bombed at the box office! The young man was far more handsome than most actors of his time, but he was not destined to be a star. Thereafter, all he got were a few roles in small plays. Currently, he teaches song and drama in a school in south India. A star was not made and Bhrigu knew it thousands of years ago.

Dr Chandra's elder daughter was unbelievably shy of men and refused to meet potential suitors. Disheartened by her shy attitude, her parents unsuccessfully tried to introduce her to several prospective suitors. I tried to hitch her with an acquaintance from Abu Dhabi, but like always, she refused, after reluctantly meeting the handsome guy. Bhrigu had however predicted that she will have two children. Eventually, she married at the age of 39 to a man who already had a son from his first wife. She had a child of her own, and Bhrigu was right again.

Dr Chandra once called my mother and told her he was going to die in August of a particular year. Since he was physically fit and suffered from no major ailment, my mother refused to believe him. But Bhrigu was right again; he died a natural death in August the same year.

**Statutory Warning:** The predictions cited here are the ones which have been spot on; however, predictions have also gone wrong by the same astrologers. Though the science is accurate, the practitioners are prone to making errors.

### **Acceptance of Destiny**

The belief in destiny provides the necessary shift from expecting to accepting. Most people believe they can make things happen, and when their expectations fail, they blame themselves for not trying too hard.

Failure of expectations leads to disappointments. We "should have", "could have" and "would have", are three common quick-fire excuses. There is a 360-degree viewpoint for you to look down upon yourself. Therefore, an inferiority complex bug is easy to catch. We even pay to make an idiot of ourselves! Hard to believe, is it not? These are some handicaps in our journey toward self-acceptance and self-love.

I was going through a video clip of a brilliant speaker who drew thousands of people to his lectures on life sciences by giving brilliant examples. At the end of the lecture he would ask, "How many of you agree that the greatest obstacle in your life is you?"Around 5,000 people raised their hands. Religious teachers convince us we are bad. We agree. Management speakers show us how shallow we are. We agree. My belief is, if this is what I am, then this is what I am! I may not be the cool dude, the prettiest girl in town, the richest, the most intellectual, the smartest, and so many other things, but this is what I was meant to be and this is what I am. This is me – the created, the intended, and the destined. The result of the karmic me. But not the guilty me!

### Surmounting Guilt

About three decades back, I was sitting in a locked room with a meat chopper in my left hand planning to chop off the right one. I had slapped a domestic worker for being rude and insulting. Having chosen the spiritual path, I felt guilty. I was sitting with the chopper to penalise myself; thinking it was only fair and well deserved. I was in a dazed, emotional state, thinking of the possible outcome, when all of a sudden, I heard a silent voice in my ear. It was a soundless voice, but clear and audible. The voice said, "Who are you to blame me? You are my painting. I am the artist. By blaming yourself, you are blaming me." I was shocked. Felt guilty about being guilty. I am what I am because this is what I was meant to be. If I am guilty then my destiny is guilty. Does that mean this book is an advocacy to do whatever you like and blame it on the Consciousness Supreme? It would seem so to people who want convenience not to those who think acceptance. The advocacy here is acceptance. I accept that in a fit of rage I slapped Khemchand, the domestic worker. I hope and pray that such an act is not a part of my future karma. I would apologise and try to compensate him. I'll ensure that my mind finds other ways to react to such situations! The result would be to see how my future destiny manifests itself in the present. To see myself a changed man in the future, I will have to make the effort in the present. If the future is supposedly not to be as it is destined, then I would have been inspired to think differently in the present. Simply put, the present lead to effects in the future. What you sow today fructifies tomorrow. And that is what you reap.

If we look in reverse, what fructifies today is a result of what was sown in the past. The future inspires thoughts in its past. To get into spirituality, I had to contract arthritis due to which I met Gurudev. The seed for my spiritual fruit was arthritis.

Here is another line of thinking. If my business fails in the future, I might be forced to strategise wrongly in the present. If destiny is a movie already made, then is it not wiser to be a witness? A viewer? The fact that Bhrigu, Mataji and Gurudev were able to predict the future means the future has already happened, but we have not reached there yet. So, if you have reached the interval of the movie, you know for sure that after the popcorn you are going to watch the second half. You can accept the second half as it comes even though you have not seen the end. You are also aware that the movie in each show has the same end. You are not aspiring or fighting to change the end or the story as it is. But in a cricket match, you do not know which way the match will go. Therefore, you are cheering and hoping your team wins. The results produce emotions either way. Will this happen if you are watching the replay? No! You know the outcome of the match. So there is acceptance. The problem is ignorance _avidya_ If we were seers, we would know the future. Then we would accept and not expect.

The words of Albert Einstein add another dimension to the entire concept."I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of that pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clock-maker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?" __

### Self-Blame

Girls who remain unmarried till a late age, for whatever reason, get depressed. "There is something wrong with me", is the standard line of thought that results in loss of self-esteem. When relationships and marriages do not work and lead to break-ups, we find fault with our partners.

When a couple cannot conceive and the doctors do not find a reason, it leads to depression. "What have we done wrong?" "Why can we not have kids?"

This is a matter of destiny, people!

Self-blame is a futile exercise. Your karmas are already lined up to fructify, so you have no choice but to accept them. If you fight a battle to make them happen your way, it will be a losing one!

Rabia of Basra, one of the early Sufi saints, was sold as a slave when she was young. When a famine hit Basra, her master forced her into prostitution. She however had great love for the divine and prayed to god a lot.

One day Rabia's master saw her with a suspended lantern above her head spreading light. He was in awe of the young girl and freed her. Rabia went on to become a great Sufi saint. Could she have reached such a level with the guilt of being a slave and a prostitute? I doubt! Despite the odds, she had confidence in herself and faith in the power she worshipped. Can we not emulate her or even better it?

To conclude, one needs to emphasise that guilt is a corrective tool for social governance. If people start feeling that there is no harm in lying, exploiting others, and so forth, then there would be no need for laws dealing with penal or corrective action.

It is a double-edged sword. We teach our children to feel guilty, as it is important for them to know the consequences of lying, stealing, and other such bad behaviour. The kids are taught two sides of a coin since birth. You must give your children good _samskars_.

We even give relevant samskars to our pets, like not to mess up the house, not to jump on guests, etc. We call this training the pet. In short, for civilisation to exist, we certainly need to define the rights and the wrongs. But for people who want to go beyond the norm, the rules – self-rules, not society rules have to be different.

For people who do not want to be governed by the laws of karma, and want to walk the path of identifying themselves, not merely as social individuals, who want to realise within themselves more than just their physical and social identities, the rules they follow in self-perception have to be different.

### Ram: Beyond Guilt

The story of Lord Ram is an example of his vastly different perception. He rose far above guilt, and the duality of good and evil, right and wrong, black and white, god and devil, and heaven and hell.

Several of his actions would not be judged by ordinary mortals as 'acceptable'. One of the controversial stories in the _Ramayan_ is the fight between Lord Ram and Bali (the brother of Sughreev). Bali had a boon of seizing half the power of those who fought him head-on. So, Lord Ram hid behind a tree and shot an arrow into Bali's back, thereby defeating him and ending his reign.

Readers of the _Ramayan_ have criticised Lord Ram for attacking Bali from behind; not an act of valour in any society and defying all norms of warfare. In fact, it was considered an act of cowardice. But Lord Ram was a student of Guru Vashisht, who had taught him that this world was maya, a delusion of the mind. Nothing was real. Everything is a figment of imagination, thus making duality unworthy of merit. Lord Ram was beyond guilt, and therefore, did not feel guilty of his actions.

It is only when you reach a particular level in your evolution can you think of such a philosophy. If Ram had not thought the way he did, would he not be susceptible to loss of self-esteem?

Another popular story in the _Ramayan_ is one where a washerman of Ayodhya challenges the chastity of Sita, the divine wife of Ram. The washerman told Ram that since Sita remained in the captivity of Ravan, King of Lanka, taking her back would be accepting a tainted woman. Taking the washer man's word, a pregnant Sita was asked to leave the kingdom by Lord Ram. She lived in a forest with sage Valmiki while her husband stayed indifferent. It does not make Lord Ram look either wise or intelligent, does it?

For the hero of the _Ramayan_ , there was nothing right or wrong; he did whatever he thought was required. Lord Ram realised that if he did not act as a champion of moral values, then people in his kingdom would resort to immorality. He punished Ravan for abducting his wife but had no malice towards him as he knew the chain of events was nothing more than maya (delusion of the mind).

Everybody is entitled to have their own take on this subject but personally, I always looked upon Lord Ram without much respect. I found him unworthy of worship. But when I read the teachings he had undergone as a student of Guru Vashisht, I understood and learned to respect him. (I have not forgotten that the divine spark in Lord Ram is no different from you or me; the only difference being the stages of refinement, timing, level and destiny.)

### Then Guru Vashisht asked Lord Ram: ****

"O Ram, what else do you want to hear from me? How do you perceive the world appearance now? What is your inner experience?" __

### Lord Ram replied:

"By your grace I have attained supreme purity, as all the impurities have cleared away. All my misunderstandings and delusions have been dispelled. My bondage has been severed. My intellect is as pure as a crystal. My mind does not crave for more instructions, I have nothing to do with anything – neither instructions nor any objects, neither relatives nor scriptures, nor even renunciation. I behold the world as pure, infinite and indivisible consciousness. The world is otherwise a void, which disappears the moment illusion vanishes. I shall do whatever you wish I should do, and I shall live doing whatever I have to do or wish to do, without exultation or depression, for my delusion has been dispelled. Whether this creation becomes something else, whether the winds of cosmic dissolution blows or whether this country be prosperous, I am established in self-knowledge. I am at peace. My vision is clear. It is difficult for my real state to be seen and understood. I am free from hopes and desires. I shall live and rule like other kings; whether they are enlightened or ignorant, but without mental agitation and endowed with equal vision. As long as this body lasts, I shall rule this kingdom, endowed with a pure vision and freed from all doubts concerning the nature of this _samsar_ , just as a child engages itself in play." (From _Supreme Yoga_ by Venkateshananda)

The spiritual path has to be different. If not, how will there be a difference in your destination?

You do not need to wear a placard of 'misfit'. You have to be a different fit. Climbing Mt Everest is not a walk in the park!

Guilt brings you down to 'non-acceptance' of self. It binds you to the reality of 'who and what' each human being is capable of. You have to follow the norms when you live in society. You have to pay the fine for flouting traffic rules but you cannot burden yourself with that guilt. It will not only end up becoming a _samskar_ but will also preclude you from realising your self- worth.

We have to live our lives at multiple levels, even if some of those levels contradict each other. While at work, we get paid for our productivity. We may have to punish or reprimand our subordinates. This may not suit our spiritual nature, but it is just a role-play. There are many such examples where on the one hand you would like to help people but on the other, you may have to cut their perks or salaries to make the organisation profitable. I have tenants who are not willing to vacate my house. They demand unrealistic amounts as compensation. Filing a court case against them for the sake of justice will not hurt me spiritually.

We have to do what we have to.

However, our approach towards life has to be fair and practical. If we act like teddy bears, we will be treated accordingly. 'A snake needs to show its fangs to keep others in fear otherwise people might just trample it' (an old Indian saying). We must have double standards for self-evaluation.

Many readers may disagree. Accepted!

Do not forget, climbing a mountain involves not a straight path but several twists and turns. The choice is yours.

### Two Guilts Become None

Neena, a distant cousin was married to my wife's cousin. The marriage did not work and she asked me to help her end the relationship. Expectedly, the situation was awkward for me. Moreover, I knew, she had not played fair in the relationship. I had no moral right to ask my wife's cousin to grant her a divorce. Being a shrewd woman, Neena tried to influence me by talking to one of my spiritual associates. When even this did not work, she went to Gurudev and begged him to influence me.

Amidst all these happenings, I met Neena in Gurgaon. But before meeting her, I met Gurudev to pay my respects. He however did not tell me about Neena approaching him for help. A few days later, she visited me at the sthan in Mumbai. I told her an unqualified lie that Gurudev had spoken to me about the subject and I would do the needful. She said, "Yes, I know. He told me, he had a conversation with you in Gurgaon that day, and you agreed to help me."

I shot in the dark but it turned out to be true. That very moment, the guilt of lying vanished. I remember Gurudev once telling me that we have to go beyond lies and truth, but I never understood its meaning. As long as we speak from our inner consciousness, what emerges is beyond the perceived truth. I now realise that truth can neither be limited to the five senses nor how it is interpreted. Being pronounced guilty by reference only to the senses lacks perfection. The point is, guilt makes us feel inferior and wrong. At a subconscious level, the emotion of correcting the wrong arises. Inadvertently, if you programme a punishment in your _samskars_ then you have to suffer it later. Guilt at a conscious level makes you dislike yourself and is an insurmountable obstacle to self-love.

You need to learn to love yourself despite the guilt. Pure water is the main ingredient of a cup of coffee. However, it may feel guilty of losing its purity since it is adulterated by coffee, milk and sugar. But it needs to love itself as pure water and accept the fact that coffee, milk and sugar are mere adulterations that can be removed by a process of cleansing or _shuddhi_. Once removed, the purity can be restored.

## **Purusharth**

What is _purusharth_?

Guru Vashisht, in his discourse with Lord Ram, talks about _purusharth_. It means self-effort, freezing on intent and chasing the mind to work towards it. In simpler words, if we desire to attain something and continue to sustain that desire on a long-term basis, it qualifies as intent. In the words of Don Juan (a Yaqui Native Mexican sorcerer), "The best way to do something is by not doing it".

Sustaining desire without making a physical effort to achieving it, and making it an ambition of the citta and not of the mind alone, ensures the use of more power for its attainment. This method is far more effective than the normal effort made actively by the body, and inspired by the motivation of the mind.

Efforts of the past fructify in the present and is called fate. Even in the past, our lives have been influenced by acts of destiny. In our past lives, we have used our minds, and formulated a certain intent towards our self-evolution. This intent has sustained through prayers, penance and the constant sustenance of our will power. Most of the fructifications of the efforts that never happened in previous life remain an intent. It is desire backed by emotion, so it becomes a _samskar_ , which gets stored in our long-term memory, or has fructified, as a karma in this life or will fructify in the future. A sequence of these fructifications, follow the tendencies that arise within us and lead to actions, called karma.

If you take ownership of this act, it is like taking the seeds out of the fruit and replanting them. They will again wait to fructify into actions or karma. In the future life, you will call it destiny. A good astrologer will be able to predict the trend of your life because it is programmed with the planetary movements. It is also correlated with the destiny of others. Synchronisation is hard to gauge but can be experienced.

The _samskars_ stored in your hard disk number in millions. It will fructify depending on your destiny. For example, if you are destined to suffer physically, then negative _samskars_ will fructify to give you ill health. If Venus is prominent in your horoscope, you may experience love, luxury, and comfort, and correspondingly, thousands of positive _samskars_ will fructify to match this trend. A kind of ethereal mathematics!

The movie of our present life is already made. Thanks to _purusharth_ , the sequel can be more interesting. In this movie, some scenes can be reshot. Some scenes can get exhausted in a dream-state and therefore never manifest in the physical state (the grace of a guru can help in the manipulation). Guru Vashisht's explanation, and my understanding and experience is that he who makes the effort of intent today, shall enjoy the fruit another day.

It is not imperative that _purusharth_ will fructify only in another life, it could happen in the present one as well. Often the grace of a guru, or a boon by another power, can cause fructification in this life. _Tapasya_ (self-discipline and effort to achieve self-realisation), intense meditation, _tantric kriyas_ , _seva_ and _mantra vidya_ , are some of the exceptions to the rule.

A _siddh guru_ can, in extreme cases, help provide the benefits of the next life partially, in the current one. I have seen Gurudev doing it in many cases. He said, by making people wait in queues for hours, he acknowledged their _tapasya_ and rewarded them for that. In some rare cases, he would grant an extension of life by a couple of years (or five at the most). This was often based on a person's need to live either for seva or for some other extreme necessity.

### Life Extended but Lost

During my initial days at the sthan in the early 80s, I spent a lot of time with Veerji (Mr Kulbir Sethi, a senior disciple of Gurudev). One day, while on my way home with Veerji, I requested him to come and see Mr Chaudhary, my father's friend, who was hospitalised and supposed to be discharged the next day. He agreed. The doctors had declared him fit. When I returned, Veerji said in a serious tone, "Mr Chaudhary's time is up". Despite being discharged from the hospital and remaining fine for three to four days, he was back to the hospital in a critical condition. His daughter begged Veerji to help him recover. Veerji blessed her on behalf of Gurudev and said her father's life may be extended but he would have to visit the _sthan_ at Gurgaon every Guru Purnima. Mr Chaudhary came the first year but not the second. He died that year after Guru Purnima.

A _siddh guru_ can sometimes initiate karma even in your dream state. It will qualify as extinguishment of karma and you will escape it in your physical existence. Sometimes this can happen even without a guru. People see someone close die in their dreams and the person lives on. Not everyone can benefit from the manipulation of deeds without the grace of a guru or the power of intent.

_Purusharth_ of the past becomes a part of destiny as well. When better times await, a person starts thinking of personal growth, of life after death, of spiritual accomplishments, etc. One of my school friends is a devotee of _Shakti_. He is the police commissioner of a large city. He did a lot of service by helping raise funds for cancer patients in police families. We were having lunch with a few of our batch mates one day when he said that all he wanted in life was to find a _siddh guru_. He said, "Once I do that, my guru will take care of the rest. He will ensure my spiritual evolution and grant me salvation." For him this was _purusharth_. He had faith that the power of the guru would ensure salvation for him. He felt this would be an outcome of _purusharth_.

When you have certain planets placed in beneficial positions, _purusharth_ happens by default. With a favourable placement of the planets which creates the tendencies of good deeds and evolved thoughts, a person is led by that destiny to desire and play the role of a benevolent, generous and spiritually inclined person.

### After Death Purusharth

In the interim between births, the spirits go through a phase of reflection and desired correction of their negative qualities. I assume, this is the story of at least some spirits on their way to evolution, if not all. They need to reverse the pitfalls that brought them down in their last life as corrective measures in the next one. Gurudev had a favourite phrase "Tapo raj, rajo narak", which means _tapasya_ (penance) in one life leads to another life of good luck, this includes wealth of all kinds. However, misuse of that good luck leads to a future life of correction and suffering.

An excellent example is the story of a dear friend. He had a reading done by one of the famous Nadi Shastra readers of south India. There are over 26 Nadi Shastras in India. Each one is a prediction on leaves made by sages thousands of years back. These predictions are about people living today and earlier. If a _nadi_ reading matches your horoscope, it will tell you a lot about your past, present and future events.

The reading said that he was a greedy man in his last life who acquired a lot of property by unfair means. In this life, he does not own any property and lives in a house provided by the government. He is a senior government official. His life's mission is to work honestly and sincerely, and do as much good as possible for the public. I have no way of authenticating this besides the fact that I know him well and the reading seems to be quite accurate. It is therefore deductive logic that those who live with good luck should ensure they do a lot of good deeds in this life to sustain that luck over future lifetimes.

Before being cured by Gurudev, I used to take homeopathic therapy from a healer called Mr Marshal, a retired railway officer from Mumbai. He had a planchette with a pendulum that guided him on the medication for the patient. He later disclosed that his late guru had guided him and asked him not to charge money from patients. For both Mr Marshal and his guru, this was _purusharth_ ; for the guru it was after-death _purusharth_.

### A Hypothetical Purusharth Study

To understand the subject better, let us assume you are travelling from Mumbai to Delhi by train. The train departs and arrives at a designated time. It has a predetermined route. Your co-passengers are defined. Passenger 1 gets into the train, changes his clothes, enjoys the view, plays cards with his co-passenger, has lunch, chats with his wife, is busy on Facebook, spreads his bedding at night and goes to sleep. In the morning, he reaches Delhi. His destiny was to travel to Delhi and have a relaxed, pleasurable and luxurious journey.

Passenger 4, who is sitting on the top berth, goes through exactly the same motions, but he also spends 3 hours in meditation. For another couple of hours, he chants mantras. When the train stops at a railway station, he gets out and distributes biscuits to beggars on the platform. He helps to make the bed for passenger No. 3, an old lady. He has a box of Indian sweets that he shares with all the passengers. Some accept, some do not. He offers some to the ticket collector, who is amused and embarrassed, but accepts. There is a slight argument between passengers 2 and 1. He helps to resolve the issue. This man has practiced _purusharth_.

Controlling the cravings of the mind by curbing the senses is _purusharth_. If you are rich and have the money to buy expensive things and spend lavishly, you may be playing by the senses. You might consider buying the best cars, expensive art and vintage wines, but internal wisdom may think otherwise. But if your destiny wants to make you rich, then controlling the cravings and practicing frugality may be against the prevailing trend of your mind. At such times, it is _purusharth_ that helps you to emerge victorious.

There are myriad situations in your day-to-day existence, where you need _purusharth_ to deflect the trends of destiny.

In a nutshell, there are three sources of negative thoughts. One, it arises from an outside source, second, it is a reaction of our mind, and third, it flows from our long-term memory. These negative thoughts later get churned in our mind to become feelings. These feelings, if continuously sustained, develop into intent. This intent encourages action. And this is what I mean by 'trends of destiny'. It takes an intense effort from within to deflect these trends of destiny. The reason why a forceful intent has miraculous results is because thoughts are pure energy; sustained thoughts amalgamate energy based on the reserves of a person. Therefore _purusharth_ is backed by energy being continuously allocated to a particular desire or intent as long as the intent is worthy. But if one is pandering to whims and fancies, then it is not _purusharth_.

So either by luck, proper guidance, or pure intent, work towards _purusharth_ and reap its fruit in the distant future. Or just watch future unfold in the present and be an observer, and do not practice purusharth. If you can do this in a fully detached manner even that will suffice. It is tough, but it is also a path to exhausting your _samskars_.

A poem came to Gita Bajaj, a cousin, almost intuitively in the form of messages. Being a journalist in the US, she was very fond of writing on spiritual matters. Some of the writings were not her own but she had heard them in her mind. Her poem called ' _The Stranger Who Knocked On My Door_ ' is a conversation between the future and the present.

### The Stranger Who Knocked On My Door

I am the hopes of your mother and the dreams of your father.

I am the wishes of your brother and the concern of your sister.

I am yesterday's secrets and today's aspirations.

I am the nightmares that have vanished and the dreams that are no more.

I am the souls you will revere and the hearts you will transform.

I am the people you will serve and the loved ones with whom you will be reunited.

I am the laughter that will refill the sadness.

I am the frustration of encountering feeble minds and petty temperaments.

I am the outrage that responds to injustice.

I am the forgiveness that melts away the anger.

I am the healing of the wounded.

I am the redemption that meets repentance.

I am also the price you pay for your follies.

I am the lessons you have learned.

I am the recognition of your worth.

I am the reward for your tireless striving.

I am what duty caused you to sacrifice.

I am what diligence helped you achieve.

I am the purpose of what you do.

I am the reason you do not.

I am the fulfilment of desires.

I am also what was never meant to be.

I am despair and disappointment.

I am life, I am its end.

I am also its renewal.

I am knowledge.

I am realization.

I am the Future.

She then received a reply from the present...

"All my life, it is I who have looked up to you. All my life, it is I who have looked ahead at you. All my life, I have believed that it is you who holds the rewards for humanity's tireless striving, that it is you who holds the promise of a better world.

All my life, I have believed that what is conceived in me, will be born in you, what I give birth, will grow in you, what dies in me, will be renewed in you. All my life, I have believed, you are the father of all my children.

It is you who have the infinite possibilities. It is you who unravels the mysteries. It is you who holds the answers to humanity's endless questions. It is about you that prayers are made. It is about you that men and women have dreams. It is in you that goals are set.

I am what is. You are what can be. I am limited by reality. You are limitless by possibilities."

### Reverse Purusharth

Reverse _purusharth_ or 'negative intent' is the intent to do adverse things like taking revenge against someone or having control over others. These too become _samskars_ and fructify into karma, which is a result of our intense unfulfilled desires but in negative areas. These become the _samskars_ that form the base of negative personalities. A weak and docile person, if troubled and bullied, begins to nurture an aggressive nature to defeat others in a physical contest.

Such an intent is classified as negative _purusharth_ (or reverse _purusharth_ ). His/her intent to be vengeful, to pray for punishing those who trouble him or whom he/she hates, become negative _samskars_ that manifest in the future. A victim of today can become an oppressor of tomorrow.

I know of a young man, a charmer, who is almost instantly successful in every relationship which however ends unhappily. In one of his _nadi_ readings, it says that in his past life he had emotionally hurt a widow who had fallen for his charm. Being rejected the widow had cursed him. He is bearing the brunt of that curse in this life. I have seen him suffer a lot due to his romantic escapades.

To deal with reverse _purusharth_ , turn a page out of Maharishi Patanjali's (father of modern yoga and the author of _Yoga Sutras_ ) verse, where he talks about _pratipakshabhavana_ or reversal of intent. If your thinking is negative, then you either need to think of the opposite intent or simply visualise the positive out of the negative feelings. It is like two minuses making a plus. If you are getting vengeful thoughts against a person X, then you need to allow your intellect to use its discretion to show you reasons why taking revenge is not a good idea. Perhaps circumstances led to the actions against X. Perhaps, it is in your interest to forgive and overcome the anger against X. Perhaps, time may rectify the damage and balance things. Perhaps, it was your destiny and X was the instrument. Perhaps, X will pay for his negative deeds through his karma. (In other words, X has already punished himself in the future by recording the _samskar_ in his _karmashaya_ , and will suffer in the future- near or distant, in this life or the next. The judge within has already pronounced the sentence!)

Acceptance is the path to evolution. Such positives will make your intent negative, positive or neutral. It will if nothing else take away the emotion from your reaction. (The judge within you will also pronounce the sentence. The sentence will be a positive one- that you have the evolved status to forgive; that you have reached a higher level of consciousness; and that your _gunas_ have now achieved a higher status of _sattvic_ qualities.) It may not always work, but a 60 per cent result in the positive direction is fair. Over time, this kind of intellectual discretion will become a habit. You will find it easier to deal with your negative thoughts. Generating positive thoughts and intent is a known yogic technique. Almost all know it. But only some use it. Why not try?

## **Shraaps and Vardaans**

It is important to understand that both blessings and curses carry with it the energy of the giver. Indian epics are full of stories of curses and blessings, that have made significant differences. A curse ( _shraap_ ) can be effective only as far as the power that propels it. This further depends on the power of the person giving it and the seriousness of intent. There are mantras to solidify a curse and make it irrevocable.

It is important to know that curses are a double-edged sword. The energy that accompanies it hurts the recipient and also subtracts from the transmitter. It is imperative that you will lose energy or a part of your aura every time you curse someone. If it is successful, depending on your strength and intent, and also on the other person's power to dilute its effect through their own aura and other means, you pay for its success by weakening your strength and losing the relevant energy from your aura.

The effect is a double whammy because you also pile up negative _samskars_ that will fructify into negative karmas at some point in the future. It is the same with blessings and boons. Unfortunately, or fortunately, neither of these work effectively in this day and age because most people do not have the power to intensify their effect. Often, we curse our friends and family. But do they work? A bit. It again depends on the strength of the person delivering that curse. Naturally, the same applies to blessings. It is therefore dangerous to be cursed by powerful people and beneficial to be blessed by them.

### **Use of Power**

Once Gurudev invited me to his camp where I spent a few blissful days. At the camp, I had given some money to his cook (a government employee), without the knowledge that he was in the habit of borrowing money from all of Gurudev's disciples. Many days later, Gurudev asked me whether I had given money to the cook. Normally, I would have told him the truth and the exact amount given, but my _gurubhai_ Mohna, requested me to not to divulge this, as the cook would lose his job. So, in order to save the cook, I lied to Gurudev. He gave me a stern look and told me to be honest and said one should not lie to their guru. I still did not budge (having studied in a boarding school I had learned not to sneak). Gurudev sniggered. The next morning, I went for a jog. I had barely crossed a hundred yards, when my foot sank into a ditch and it got badly sprained. The pain was unbearable, and yet when I saw Gurudev, I stood still and pretended as if nothing had happened. The agony continued for three days, as the pain persisted. On the fourth day, Gurudev laughed at me and told me to get into his car. He dropped me on his way to office and I waited for him at his government allotted house in Delhi, where he normally rested for a few hours. He then admonished me saying, "You should never be deceptive with your guru. It is considered guru awhelna or disregard for your guru and unfortunately it calls for punishment." I realised my suffering was connected to my lying and then told him the entire story. He laughed again and within minutes, he got one of his disciples, Mr F C Sharma (probably his humblest) to heal me. He then warned me for the last time, "Never ever lie to your guru". A classic example of a curse having worked!

**Blessings when genuine, carry with them a charge of electro-magnetic force or** shakti **.**

### **The Sharp Edge of Power**

I remember once when I had given a catering contract to a hotel owner in Dehradun, who also catered to a charitable institute. He had behaved badly and slapped a security guard of that institute. People warned me against him and said I should not have given him the contract. When he came to square off the bill, I recounted the incident and warned him, "I will have to punish you. When I visit Dehradun next, you will break your leg and come to see me on crutches, and that is the punishment for your bad behaviour." He laughed and gave a few fake explanations for his act. Six months later, when I visited Dehradun, he had actually fractured his leg. He begged for forgiveness. He promised not to bully anyone in the future. It was one of the few instances where I had used a curse to punish someone.

Another humorous incident was of punishment meted out to a friend Udhav Kirtikar in Mumbai. He was a spiritual darling and a brat, all at once. Udhav had acquired considerable power and practiced healing with great enthusiasm. Unfortunately, he was too impatient to understand the mysteries of the universe and was hungry for _gyan_. He kept arguing to attract Gurudev's attention and special guidance. He once challenged Gurudev to wake him up during his sleep and give him a demonstration of his power. A few nights later, Udhav's brother (who looked very similar to him) had gone to sleep on the bed but had woke up on the floor. The bed was standing against the wall. Gurudev had taken up young Udhav's challenge with a single flaw. The wrong bed had been lifted as the two brothers looked similar. The prankster had a prank played on him. The poor brother could never figure out what happened to him that night, and I am sure Udhav must have kept his mouth shut about the whole episode.

### **Punishing Indiscreet Cameras**

Gurudev was very particular about a rule, nobody could take his photograph without his permission. I was one of those whose camera just did not work when I tried to click his picture without his permission. My friends from Mumbai, Nitin Gadekar and Shri Krishna Deolekar, had the same shocking experience, though at different times, without having concurred with each other. This was a very common tale that did the rounds those days. If a photograph was taken without permission, either the film-roll would go blank or the camera stopped working. These are instances where power is used in small measure to punish, correct or regulate people. These punishments were meted out purely out of will power and not by resorting to black magic or _tantric kriyas_.

Blessings were Gurudev's main strength. Many of his blessings fructified in a short time or even overnight. Some were cured of diseases, some who received unlimited boons and protection from threats (physical and non-physical) and some whose wishes were fulfilled. He had committed a film award to Mithun Chakraborty (an erstwhile Bollywood star) for his film _Mrigaya_ , even before the award ceremony. I believe Mithun still wears the copper _kada_. Gurudev had promised my friend that he would make him a famous speaker and a successful politician. He lived up to his promise! Gurudev used to call him Mahaprabhu.

## **Aura**

An Indo-Soviet experiment was conducted in the early 1980s at Rishikesh, where 60,000 people were photographed through Kirilian photography. (Semyon Kirilian was a Soviet scientist who had discovered how to photograph the aura (bio-electromagnetic energy field) of an individual and examine their depth and colours. (You can read more about this in _Supernature_ by Lyall Watson.)

A broad analysis showed that a human aura could vary from a thickness of half an inch to twelve inches. Corporate executives and businessmen had the least depth. Farmers and gardeners fared better. Yogis and philanthropists had greater depth. Saints and spiritual practitioners had the deepest auras.

This is the reason why people feel lucky in receiving the blessings of a saint; it is an enriching experience. The practice of touching the feet of saints is not a social practice, it involves the transfer of energies.

## **Citta Vrittis**

The word _citta_ means to incite or make aware. The citta is not just the mind that perceives through the senses, it is also the intellect that discriminates. It includes the mind of the ethereal/spirit body. It also includes the intuitive faculty, the iCloud that is available to the _jivaatma_ or our innermost level of consciousness. At different levels of existence, it is the _citta_ that provides awareness to the different bodies within us.

The _citta_ in each of us is dynamic. It is ideally meant to be still and placid, but in reality it is not. Ripples that activate or modify its equanimity and stillness keep disturbing it continuously. These ripples are called _vrittis_ and are accepted and known by spiritually advanced individuals. Reducing _vrittis_ in the _citta_ is the task of such individuals. Unfortunately, most people have never heard of these concepts. However, _vrittis_ are perceptive, delusionary, and accepted knowledge. Try to focus on these _vrittis_ and see if awareness can help in controlling or at least reducing them. These _vrittis_ are not different states of mind, but merely alterations in the functions of the mind. They are temporary and sometimes come in flashes, and at other times last longer. A memory, is a flash or a spark in the _citta_. And like a memory, the imagination can be a series of spark connects.

Maharishi Patanjali documented the concept of _Citta Vritti Nirodha_ i.e., subjugation of the modifications of the mind, or alterations in the functional state of the mind, or activity of the mind state. Sometimes more than one _vritti_ can be functional at any particular time. At other times there can be one _vritti_ that may absorb and obsess the mind. In the later stages of evolution, you might be interested in focusing on only one thought process that would enhance your effort and the result. This is referred to as _ekagrata_ or single-mindedness in Indian scriptures. The reason for discussing _vritti_ is that during the process of accepting and loving ourselves, we are also preparing to be the divinity in our lives. And to do that, we need to focus our attention, and therefore, _ekagrata_ helps.

### **Divinity Is Not Easy Business**

Once you start seeing a spark of divinity within, you have to find reasons to sustain it and help it grow. If someone insults you, see divinity in not responding in a negative manner. And if you do, make sure that it is a milder response, and you empathise with that person. Practice the divine art of forgiveness. Positives as well as negatives need to be linked to divinity. In short, you have to psyche yourself to do this!

When I do something positive, it is divine. When I do something negative, that is divine too. I may not understand the justification of divinity, but my lack of understanding does not discredit divinity.

The reason for discussing _vritti_ is that one should not be disenchanted by the mental activities. If you go to a beach, there will be dust and sand in the air. Similarly, where the _citta_ is an instrument of awareness and consciousness, it has to receive and analyse signals, despite the fact that these modifications of the state of mind are not ideally desirable, but exist by default.

Patanjali is concise when he says, "The real self, the _aatman_ , forever remains outside the power of thought-waves. It is eternally pure, enlightened and free – the only true, unchanging happiness. It follows, therefore, that man can never know his real 'self' as long as the thought-waves and the ego are being identified. In order to become enlightened, we must bring the thought-waves under control, so that this false identification may cease."

The five _vrittis_ commonly classified are:

**1. Right Knowledge:** This is data or information as perceived by the five senses. "Seeing is believing", "I heard it quite clearly", "The scent was distinct", "I felt it with my own hands", "I know the taste very well", are reactions to the first _vritti_.

Perception, analysis and involvement of the _citta_ in any kind of mental activity is one of the waves or ripples that positively modifies the _citta_. Both positive and negative actions in thought are _vrittis_.

The other ways of attaining right knowledge are:

Deductive Logic

When we benchmark something done in the past, or the background knowledge that already exists in our past experience, then we can compare the results. This is common in mathematics, scientific theories, day-to-day inferences, astrological analysis, astronomical movements, weather predictions, and so forth.

Testimonials

Another way to decipher knowledge is through testimonials; learning things that have been established as correct information. Almost all studies of various subjects in school or college can fit into this category.

I believe the book contains the right knowledge, as it is based on the guidance of my guru, my own perceptions and study of the subject. If you believe these words it will be a testimonial for you. You can even quote Hingori, the author of this book. This would be a _vritti_ of right knowledge for you. To understand this concept, the task of processing the information has to be carried out. The processing needs energy, just like your mobile phone uses energy from its battery. This creates a ripple that affects the equanimity of the _citta_. When I remember something for the second or third time, the _vritti_ occurs again. I need to use the mechanism of mental activity to recollect and to re-paste. The additional process of recollection also disturbs the _citta_.

**2. Wrong Knowledge:** One of the extreme examples of faulty perception is a mirage. It looks like water on the ground until you reach it and find an illusion instead. But perceiving things incorrectly through the senses is also a _vritti_. Incorrect information of any kind, like entering wrong codes, errors in data processing and improper guidance, are reasons for _citta's_ suffering from not having equanimity.

Our mistakes or misconceptions act as disturbances. For example, we might have a dream that is misleading and incorrect, which we wrongly interpret. Take yoga or any other form of exercise for instance. Doing these exercises incorrectly and later finding out that it is affecting us negatively, leads to a mental disturbance of wrong knowledge or misconception.

All my life I have been a prominent member of the misconception club. If there was any chance of getting it wrong, I did it. It took me a long time to learn how to ride a bicycle. Learning languages and sciences gave my c _itta_ plenty of _traas_ or stress. Being a businessman has made this _vritti_ a common denominator in my life. My younger son suffers from dyscalculia and dyslexia; so for him the energy generated in figuring out that his thought process is not accurate and to be aware of the fact that he is misconceiving things is _vritti_. The process of analysing is an act of the mind that uses energy. The use of energy creates a _vritti_.

**3. Imaginary Perception:** The fact that we perceive reality in an imaginary state is another modification of _citta_. Most of us live in an imaginary world. When we are angry with someone, we slap, hit or even shoot that person in our state of imagination. If young people are attracted to someone, even if nothing happens in reality, a lot happens in the world of imagination. These stages of imaginary existence are ripples in the still water of _citta_. The _vritti_ of imagination also covers the sleeping state, not including the deep sleep state. For example, the dream state or the state in the process of meditation till you have not reached the state of _dhyaan_ or one-pointedness.

Imagination or creative visualisation also needs use of energy by the _citta_ that becomes a _vritti_ as it creates a ripple effect.

**4. Sleep State:** In the sleep or dream-state, the _citta_ is again involved in mental activity. Visions, nightmares, and disturbed sleep are all movements in the stillness of _citta_. The attention of the _citta_ withdraws from our body and senses, and shifts to the inner bodies, including the _karmashaya_ , and we start living in a separate reality of our dream state. The physical senses are non-functional at such a time. _Vritti_ includes the various phases of the sleep state but not the deep sleep state.

**5. Memory:** Trying to recall, flashbacks or data coming into the _citta_ , voluntarily or involuntarily, lapses in remembering things, or involuntarily remembering things that you would rather forget, are all mental activities in the _citta_.

It is a part of the _citta's_ operating manual to move inward by remaining focused and achieving higher levels of consciousness. The practitioners of meditation understand the process of _dharna_ , _dhyaan_ and _samadhi_ , the last three major phases of the eight-fold path of yoga.

What we are trying to understand here is another concept. How do we get the _citta_ to pass through four different levels of mental activity to get to its highest point? _Vrittis_ do not allow an average mind to attain quietude. When we talk of seeing divinity within us, we might assume stillness of the mind is a necessity. The point to understand here is that _vrittis_ are natural phenomena, and by accepting them, we continue our climb up the ladder of realising self-worth and practicing self-worship.

The four levels that the _citta_ has to cross are _vitarkas_ , _vicharas_ (explained below), _ananda_ (equanimity of the mind) and _asmita_ (the identified self). Crossing the hemisphere of the first two Vs can take us to the base camp.

### Vitarkas and Vicharas

While in the process of learning to love ourselves, we are often interrupted by all sorts of disturbing thoughts, sometimes regular and sometimes pleasing. Such thoughts that keep popping up into our _citta_ are called _vitarkas_ and _vicharas_. The question which arises here is-where do these _vitarkas_ and _vicharas_ come from? These are stored impressions in our _karmashaya_ that have existed ever since we were created as individual beings, and generated by us by adding emotions to our reactions to external thoughts. These get stored into our _karmashaya_ as impressions or even _samskars_. Too many sensual thoughts or too much anger as a constant emotion or reaction can get stored into the _karmashaya_ and keep popping out all through our lives until, over a period of time, the stored _samskars_ decrease. The _vitarkas_ are a slightly more negative version of the _vicharas_ , though in reality both are almost the same.

Naturally, the _vitarkas_ , with negative notions, mental chatter and reverse inclinations to our positive intent, act like a counterbalance to our attempts to evolve. They act as an impediment for people who want to meditate or have a calming state of mind. This can be disturbing for someone who is new to meditation.

New seekers are hopeful of sitting in a cross-legged position and focusing on a spiritual symbol or a human icon and getting into a state of meditation as they imagine it. Unfortunately, these _vitarkas_ are a constant hindrance, which do not allow the mind to either focus or defocus in an attempt to attain a meditative state.

A marginally pleasurable form of disturbance is _vicharas_. These are rational thoughts and reactions. Because they are subtle, we are slightly less disturbed and find them easier to deal with. The way forward for a person who wants to meditate or calm his/her mind is to accept the _vicharas_ and let them pass. They are stored and need to be exhausted just as a pressure cooker releases steam as part of a natural process. And by steadily phasing them out they are extinguished. A positive effect of acceptance is the reduction of the load of the _samskars_ and cleansing of the _citta_. People often form a negative image of themselves since they feel that their attempts at meditation is a failure. It is frustrating and often de-motivating for people who practice meditation. But this is not true..Therefore, it is better to observe patience and let these _vicharas_ and _vitarkas_ die a natural death.

However, you must be careful not to accumulate your frustration by adding emotions and feelings, thereby storing them a second time into the _karmashaya_.

The two points to take away from this are:

1) Acceptance is the long-term solution.

2) Understanding this concept will help you be patient and let go.

When both the _vitarkas_ and _vicharas_ are fairly exhausted, we can look forward to a quieter mind, a stiller _citta_ and a more effective meditative experience.

### My Experience with Vitarkas

I was travelling with Gurudev to one of his official camps in Madhya Pradesh. It was a long journey. On the way, I confided that I suffered from a lot of negative thoughts and asked for his help. On hearing it he had a wicked smile on his face. We got into the jeep and what a bumpy ride it was. I started having strange thoughts of Gurudev urinating, and I behaving badly with him. I got thoughts of profanity and even worse, and their speed was phenomenal...one after the other, one worse than the other. It felt like a thousand years had passed by the time we reached our destination.

I felt awkward in Gurudev's presence, so I sought his permission to go to bed straightaway. The next morning I woke up early, and I felt I could hardly think! My mind was quiet. I could even feel the crispness of the air, smell of the leaves and the soil. It was abnormal...too good to be true. Was this peace of mind? It had to be. There were fewer thoughts and more observations...a complete opposite from last evening's jeep ride.

The _vitarkas_ had faded in the morning, providing some relief, probably because of the over-exhaustion the evening before.

Maharishi Patanjali had mastered the knowledge on thought waves. According to him there are five kinds of thought waves-some painful, others not A 'painful' wave, according to Patanjali is not necessarily painful when it first arises in the mind; it is a wave which brings with it an increased degree of ignorance, addiction and bondage. Similarly, a wave which seems painful at first may actually 'not be painful', provided it impels the mind towards greater freedom and knowledge.

For example, Patanjali describes a lustful thought wave as 'painful', because lust, even when pleasantly satisfied, causes addiction, jealousy and bondage to the person desired. A wave of empathy, on the other hand, is described as 'not painful', because it is an unselfish emotion, which loosens the bonds of our ego. We may suffer deeply when we see others suffering, but empathy teaches us understanding and hence freedom.

The distinction between the two kinds of thought waves is very important when we come to the actual practice of yogic discipline. Thought waves cannot be controlled all at once. First, we have to overcome the 'painful' thought waves. Our thoughts of anger, desire and delusion must be opposed by thoughts of love, generosity and truth. Only much later, when the 'painful' thought waves have been completely calmed, can we proceed to the second stage of discipline – the quietening of the 'not painful' waves, which we have deliberately created.

## **Gunas of Spiritual Practice**

Gunas are the qualities of matter, mind, body and astral body. They are of three types:

1. Tamas

2. Rajas

3. Sattva

**Tamas** can be described as inaction, procrastination and confusion.

**Rajas** can be called action, movement, dynamism, attachments and desire.

**Sattva** is contentment, equanimity, duty, dispassion and detachment. ****

The kind of spiritual practice a person indulges in also depends on his/her guna mix.

People who have more of the _tamasic_ qualities will probably be attracted to lower levels of spiritual practices like black magic, tantric practices and voodoo.They use mantras that are meant to get quick attainments and selfish results.

People with _rajasic_ qualities add dynamism and adornment even to their spiritual practice. They believe in religious events, impressive-looking temples and musical incantations. There is a lot of ritualism and religiousness in their practice.

People who are _sattvic_ in nature, know for a fact that sense pleasures, which include sensuality, are certainly not beneficial to their process of evolution. Their prayers are soft and are recited within the mind and do not consist of holy songs with music. They do not adorn their place of worship with pomp and show. Self-evolution, self-analysis, self-cleansing and tapasya are some common _sattvic_ practices.

### Guna Analysis

Attribute Sattvic (score: 1) Rajasic (score: 2) Tamasic (score: 3)

**** | **Score** | **1** | **2** | **3**

---|---|---|---|---

1 | **Diet** | **Natural & vegetarian** | **Processed foods and meat in moderation** | **High intake of meat and processed foods**

2 | Intoxicants | Never | Sometimes | Regularly

3 | Sleep | Little | Moderate | Lots

4 | Sensory pleasures | Little | Moderate | Lots

5 | Speech | Calm | Forceful | Agitated or dull

6 | Cleanliness | High | Moderate | Low

7 | Work ethic | Selfless | Driven | Lazy

8 | Anger | Rare | Sometimes | Frequently

9 | Depressed | Never | Sometimes | Frequently

10 | Violence | Never | Sometimes | Frequently

11 | Attachment to money | Low | Somewhat | A lot

12 | Willpower | Strong | Variable | Weak

13 | Practice of giving | Frequent | Sometimes | Rarely

14 | Spiritual study | Regular | Sometimes | Rarely

15 | Meditation | Regular | Occasional | Rarely

16 | Contentment | High | Sometimes | Rarely

17 | Forgiveness | Mostly | Sometimes | Rarely

18 | Honesty | Always | Mostly | Rarely

Note the score under each _guna_ personality:

Score of 18-27= Sattvic

Score of 28-36= Rajasic

Score of 37 and above= Tamasic

Gurudev used every trick in the book to help us change our _guna_ mix, though he may not have used the term. He would say, "Apni niyat ko saaf rakho" (keep your intentions pure).

Self-improvement or appreciation is an obsession one must acquire naturally. It is not a matter of 'read and play'. Work on your _gunas_ like you would on the profitability of a business, for it is business–the business of life!

## **Chapter III  
** Falling in Love with Yourself

## Why We Should Love Ourselves

Many women believe the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Similarly, the way to the Consciousness Supreme begins with one's physical incarnation. You need to love yourself at a physical, spiritual and mental level, before reaching a point of loving your individual soul or _jivaatma_. Let us start at the very beginning.

**StatutoryWarning:** The inroad to this journey might be through the physical incarnation, but let's not become a part of the Carly Simon song, _You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you_.

Let us not misinterpret even for a moment that 'falling in love with oneself' is a case of vanity or self-admiration. It is neither a case of how impressed you are with your ability to dazzle people nor is it a study of how popular you are. All these factors should not be the reason for you to fall in love with yourself. No!

This is a study of how you can fall in love with all your 'selves', which includes the body, the _citta_ and the spirit within. We need to accept ourselves on 'as is where is' basis with all our flaws and faults, and our thoughts, good and bad. We also need to accept our destiny.

We have the following three bodies:

  * • The physical body, which consists of our physical self, mind and intellect.
  * • The spirit within or the _sukshma sharir_ (the body that exists before, during and after our birth in this life).
  * • The causal body or the _kaarna sharir_ , which is always attached to the spirit and contains the hard disk of our _samskars_.

Spirit bodies that live in higher dimensions for extended periods of time are the lucky ones. Many a time, the unlucky ones are stuck in our realm, as they do not have the capacity or the karma to take themselves to different or higher dimensions. They get stuck in their homes or on a neighbouring tree or even at the place of their death. These are colloquially referred to as haunting spirits or _bhoots_ in Hindi. Some of these spirits do haunt and trouble others, while others help people. Some just exist in limbo, waiting for a suitable time to be reborn or for their descendants to do good deeds in their name, so that they can earn some karma points and move on. Some just exist in a parallel life. Science has confirmed the existence of these spirits and recorded their presence as well.

The more unfortunate ones can get captured by those who practice black magic. Some could even get captured by more powerful spirits, called _jinn_. These _jinns_ are like dons who control several spirits to serve them.

Besides our physical bodies, we need to fall in love with our spirit bodies as well. We need to think, not only about our physical body's future, which is limited to a maximum of 80–100 years, but also about the future of our spirit bodies, whose future can last for several hundred years at a time.

Very often, between one physical incarnation to the other, there could be a waiting period of 100 years or more, depending on your spiritual status and the place of pre-birth existence. To get rebirth that provides a destiny matching the fructification of your _samskars_ or at least a large part of it is by no means an easy task. That is why sometimes a rebirth is deferred till a matching _mahurat_ is found. Sometimes, the spirit is born in its own _kul_ or family, but for that to happen, it has to wait for the right time and opportunity. A child's birth has to be scheduled to match the spirit's timing for taking birth in that family. The rebirth of the Buddhist lamas(teachers of _dharma_ in Tibetan Buddhism), who are in the cycle of being reborn to evolve further is however unique. Many of them are born outside their families, since their family members are celibate. They are found through certain indications by the senior lamas. They are brought into the fold to be reared again, to continue from where they left in their previous lives.

The public ceremony to formally acknowledge the 5-year old Thuksey Rinpoche in Ladakh, as a reincarnation of his past life as lama Thuksey Rinpoche, was akin to a king's coronation with all its grandeur and protocol. This is unbelievable, but at the age of 33, Thuksey Rinpoche, managed to get back the property that belonged to him in his previous life. He got it transferred to him through a legal process.

Uncanny, but true!

Judging from the clothes of my son's spirit body that I encountered a few months before my wife got pregnant, I was of the opinion that he belonged to the 19th century. Abhay Taneja, the yogi of yore, of whose birth negotiations I was a witness, waited a hundred years in Bathri (near Dalhousie) for Gurudev to come along and grant him rebirth. The fact that thousands of years ago, Rishi Bhrigu wrote the future of the lives of people living today is proof enough that those people existed in some human form at the time.

In a vision state, I saw myself in existence several thousand years ago, dressed in the _Mahabharat_ era clothes, in a battle scene, chanting mantras for moving chariots 20–30 feet high in the air. I was first given the mantra in my dream state and then shown the scene of my past life using it in the battle scene. I assume it was a mantra from my past, retaught now. This indicates to me the long journey my spirit has had during its process of evolution. I am uncertain of how many incarnations have taken place in these several thousand years. But, what it proves is the continuity of the spirit body over multiple life times interspersed with existence in other dimensions and if unfortunate, then in this one.

There are accounts of several great saints who left their human form along with their bodies ( _seh sharir)_. Better known among such saints were Guru Nanak, Guru Gorakhnath, Sant Kabir and Jesus.

According to Ramesh Chand Malhotra, one of the senior-most disciples in Gurgaon mentioned that Sitaramji, one of Gurudev's ancestors died in the 19th century and passed on _seh sharir_.

My close association with spirituality for several years now, has made me come to the conclusion that spirits can exist for several thousand years. So, in order to avoid 'waiting', 'drifting and 'hanging-out' indefinitely, we should begin work on a long-term plan for our 'inner' selves.

### Understanding the Goal of Each Body

It may be the goal of the physical body to work towards economic, social and intellectual accomplishment, however, one of its more important aims is to shed its adulterations and indulge in self-purification. Somebody once asked a carpenter, "How do you make an elephant from a block of wood?" To which he said, "You just chip away all that does not look like an elephant." In order to achieve that, one of the aims of the physical body should be to change its _guna_ mix to _sattvic_ , reducing the other two _gunas_ substantially. For the physical body to be purified, it needs to surmount attachments, fears, passions, likes and dislikes. It needs to work towards contentment and bliss, which is very different from the regular perception of happiness. Usually, happiness is considered synonymous with joy. Unfortunately, it is a state of emotion that is always accompanied by sorrow. It is like sitting on a seesaw with joy on one side, that sometimes goes up and sometimes down. Bliss on the other hand, is the spot at the centre of the seesaw where emotion is almost non-existent. This to me is happiness. Actually we should call it 'happylessness'. Maybe in 2070, the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries would describe it as a word that means bliss, which is neither joy nor sorrow. Therefore, I infer, mankind's pursuit of happiness would have been far more rewarding with a spelling change.

**To make an elephant from a block of wood, chip away all that doesn't look like an elephant!**

The goal of the spirit body or _sukshma sharir_ is the attainment of wealth that can be used when it exists purely in its non-physical incarnation. This energy is called _shakti_ , and is commonly known as 'aura'. Because the spirit bodies are made of ethereal material, the vibration of that body is far more subtle than the physical or material one. The physical and material body can magnetise subtly vibrating products, including energy more effectively.

Through its existence as a spirit body, an entity requires that energy for movement and sustenance. Therefore, it is the goal of the spirit body to use its physical counterpart to work towards the accumulation of more energy.

The third body is the causal body or the _kaarna sharir_. It includes a hard disk called _karmashaya_ , which is attached to the spirit body. It is the aim of this body to reduce the baggage of its data, which consists of _samskars_ (also understood as long-term and short-term memory). It is only when this hard disk has managed to delete or cleanse its stored data can a person get freedom from life and death, and attain _mukti_.

The aim of the _jivaatma_ is to be unburdened by the delusion of all the bodies that surround it. The _jivaatma_ must learn to disbelieve in the existence of reality that it is forced to see under the influence of _maya_. When the _jivaatma_ becomes disillusioned and comes to terms with reality of not being an independent entity, but a part of the Consciousness Supreme, only then can it attain _moksha_.

Since _moksha_ is a higher level of attainment, let us look at the lower levels. When the _karmashaya_ has a reduced baggage and data, there are fewer _vitkaras_ or negative thoughts that would come to the fore on a regular basis. There would be less lives to lead, and longer intervals where the spirit body could live in greater dimensions than the earth.

Earth is a dimension of matter at a particular gross level. There are other dimensions that exist at different vibrations of energy where the mind is not troubled and are therefore easier to live in. There are innumerable such dimensions or _lokas_ where spirits dwell. Many are far more blissful than earth, whilst many others are more distressing. The dimension a particular entity dwells in depends on a person's attainments and spiritual levels in their physical avatar. Many spirits get stuck in this earthly dimension and either help or haunt humans.

## **Aura**

Aura is the electromagnetic field that encompasses all life forms. The thicker the aura, the more spiritually powerful the person. Most viral diseases that we contract first infect the aura and then the body. The aura acts like a protective layer for the body. It also protects from attacks by negative spirits who cannot usually penetrate the aura of a powerful person.

On one of my 'out-of-the-body' journeys, I saw my wife sleeping on the floor. It was around 4 am. My wacky sense of humour compelled me to pull her leg. I thought of bouncing on my wife and scaring her. What happened next was a great lesson. Every time I tried to jump on her, I would bounce back. I was unable to touch her, as she seemed to be enveloped by a blue conical light. It extended to at least a foot off her body. She did not move an inch, despite my best efforts to wake her. I then realised that human aura is a powerful protective shield.

It is unfortunate that out of the 7.5 billion people alive on this planet, not even 10 per cent know anything about the aura. And only 1 per cent out of that 10 know enough. The rest are only familiar with the word. It is important to know how to protect and expand one's aura.

There are three kinds of wealth people can attain:

Physical and material wealth

Mental evolution and emotional strength

Spiritual evolution and attainments

The last includes depth of aura, positive karmic balance yet to fructify, special attainments, and s _iddhis_ that the spirit might have achieved during its various incarnations, etc.

Most saints and deities are depicted with halos around their heads to signify their powerful auras.

Let us examine the factors that lead to enhancement of the aura. Also, let us work towards attaining greater spiritual wealth that will last thousands of years, as against material wealth that becomes inconsequential after our death.

The spirit body can acquire _gati_ or speed for its movement. For bodies travelling in astral space, speed is an important aspect. Spirits require _gati_ to cross certain barriers and travel to other dimensions. For attaining this speed, energy of the aura is required.

### **Energy Ball**

The basic ingredient of aura is _shakti_ or energy. I have actually seen _shakti_ in the form of a ball of energy and I am happy to share the experience with you.

**Energy imploding in a dynamic way - If it is absorbed into a person, it adds to his AURA.**

Nandlal, a regular visitor at the _sthan_ for several years, and someone who dida lot of _seva_ , was finding it difficult to rent out his shops. Something would invariably go wrong before an agreement was finalised. He wanted our help as he felt the problem was more spiritual in nature. I was new to spiritualhealing, so I sat in meditation and asked Gurudev to give Nandlal the power to solve his problem.

While meditating, I saw Nandlal, Gurudev and myself. Gurudev threw a ball of energy at me. It was dynamic, translucent white, about a foot in diameter and felt almost alive. It kept expanding and contracting like a small cloud that moves inwards. I threw the ball at Nandlal which subsequently got absorbed within him. The power helped him clear his shop of the negative energies that were stopping its progress. A few days later, Nandlal met someone on a train who was in pain. He touched him and the pain vanished. Nandlal had become a healer. He treated many patients in the years to come. He became fairly spiritually powerful. He died a few years ago.

An interesting incident in Nandlal's spiritual journey was when he egoistically splashed energised water into a patient's eyes to heal her (one of the processes taught by Gurudev). It was a mistake he paid for heavily. The lady was spiritually advanced herself, with years of practicing mighty mantras. Because of his ego, and not doing this on behalf of the power of the _sthan_ , Nandlal's hand got drained of energy. The eyes act like magnets that can receive and give energy. The energy hence got enhanced, as the receiver of the energy was more powerful than the transmitter. Nandlal accepted his mistake. For six months his right hand was weaker, suffering from an imbalance of aura. It was a learning for us all.

### Why People Have Poor Auras

Let us examine why a lot of materially rich and clever people do not have thick auras. Listed below are some of the ways in which auras get depleted.

1. Very often there is loss of aura while doing forward or backward bending exercises and weight training..

2. Massages lead to loss of energy especially when the fingers are pulled outward in a jerky movement.

3. Attraction towards the opposite sex involves transfer of energy. That is why women in India did _shringar_ (adornment) in the past to attract energy from the opposite gender.

4. Sexual interaction involves exchange of energy wherein one partner gets more than the other.

5. Shaking hands with more powerful people leads to a loss of energy. Doing Namaste is a better insurance.

6. Blessings given by the right hand on the head of the receiver can lead to transfer of energy, if it is heartfelt.

7. Curses drain out a lot of energy, if they manifest.

8. Desires and emotional attachments are transfer of energy from one to the other. The bonding ( _moh_ ) between a mother and her child is an energy booster for the child.

9. Anger leads to loss of aura as it consumes more energy. Hatred is even worse as it is a continuous loss for a longer period of time.

10. Sustenance of life is both an investment and a gain of energy and therefore the ebb and flow of energy has to be positive.

11. Too much talking is a waste of energy, so why not save. Remember the old Shakespearean phrase, 'Brevity is the soul of wit'.

### How to Protect and Enhance the Aura

**1. Mantra vidya:** Chanting silently in a meditative pose helps increase the aura. It helps if you cross your hands and legs so that the vibration remains within. Many sadhus keep their _malas_ or rosaries for counting in a cloth bag. The purpose is to keep their rosaries hidden and save the leakage of energy or vibration. A glass of water placed in front while chanting mantras in a cross-legged pose helps capturing energy in the water as well.

**2. Purification of the mind:** A change of the _guna_ mix indirectly increases the capacity of a person to hold more aura. People with a _sattvic_ nature have the potential for a larger aura.

**3. Seva:** Serving people, animals and other life forms help enhance the aura.

**4. Spiritual healing:** Magnetising away the pain from a patient helps add to the aura, which can be negative to the healer. The patient can be healed by taking away some of the negative energy from his/her aura and laundering it into positive energy. The healer might absorb some of the negative energy while healing. Sometimes, the healer has to bear the negative energy in small measure before it gets converted to positive. A patient in Mumbai had blisters in his mouth and throat. I was influenced by his family to help him for quick relief. My son got blisters in his mouth as a result, as did I, which lasted a few days. The lesson I learnt was an important one. I realised the value of surrender to a higher power (here, surrendering the patient's pain to the higher power of the _sthan_ ). We call it _arpan_.

**5. Greening places:** Watering plants and greening places helps add to the aura balance. Gardeners are usually richer in aura than their employers.

**6. Accidental aura attainment:** Very often, even though we are not in a position to understand the magnetic level of a particular location, we must understand that every location has its own magnetic energy value. Religious places, cowsheds, crossings, caves, etc., have higher magnetic energies. Homes where people worship and pray become magnetically more powerful than homes in which people do not.

While meditating in a certain place, people get to interact with a higher level of spiritual energy. If the energy is more magnetic and powerful, they will absorb some of it as part of the interaction. This however, should not be practiced commonly, unless the practitioner knows what he/she is doing. If one were to magnetise energy from a place of worship, it may not be taken kindly by the priest of that institution or by the energy itself.

I remember a couple of incidents where I tried taking power from a particular location. It was at a private temple of one of Gurudev's disciples in Renuka. While praying at the altar I tried getting some energy unethically, when suddenly, I felt a power attack me. I felt uneasy and was unable to get rid of it. Later, while sitting in the car, I felt something destabilising my mind and body. I felt a heaviness around my head and I knew from past experiences that I was under attack by some force, and unfortunately, it certainly was not a mild one.

Unable to sit in the car any longer, I got out and walked towards the Renuka Lake. The uneasiness persisted, though it was slightly lesser, since my feet were on the ground. Quite possibly, the negative energy attacking me may have been partially transmitted to the ground. Not being able to think of an alternative, I prayed to Devi Renuka (the mother of Sage Parshuram), and asked her to protect me from the attack What happened next was unbelievable. It was like watching a television screen on my forehead. I saw a beautiful woman, dressed in white, adorned with ornaments with a crown on her head. She looked glorious; I assumed she was Devi Renuka.

She touched my head and within a moment the heaviness disappeared The attack was averted. I felt normal again. I have preserved the holy water of Renuka Lake in my place of worship as a connection with the charming, wonderful Devi. I earned that energy was better earned than stolen.

Some places where the magnetic values are relatively higher than other places:

1. Busy gymnasiums and yoga studios

2. Frequently used crossings

3. Pyramids

4. Forests

**The strength and width of the aura determines the power of a human being.**

### Contamination of the Aura

Often, the exchange of aura can lead to contamination. While swimming in a pool used by people with different types of auras, we might acquire some of the qualities of the auras and magnetise them. Unfortunately, many may be _tamasic_ or _rajasic_ in nature. Wearing people's clothes (especially if recently worn), sitting on seats in a bus or taxi where people with a lower quality _guna_ mix have recently sat, sleeping on hotel beds that have been used by people not of your _guna_ type, are some of the ways in which your aura can be polluted.

I am a fairly good swimmer but for years I have avoided getting into a pool. I am not saying that you follow these suggestions strictly. My sole purpose is to merely emphasise the point for your better understanding.

Over the years I have also realised that drinking water or any liquid from someone's glass ( _jhootha_ ) or eating from someone's plate (where there is a chance of someone else's saliva getting mixed with yours) is dangerous business in aura exchange. This includes kissing as well. Other person's saliva brings with it their qualities, whether good or bad, in a direct manner. The next time, before kissing someone, try to gauge their qualities and then take a call!

On the other hand, people want to drink water or any liquid sipped by a saintly person in order to acquire some of his/her qualities.

Interestingly, the aura transmitted through the eyes of an individual can affect the food he/she is cooking or even looking at. If their aura is negative at that moment, it would infect the food and adversely affect the person eating it. That is why _prasad_ offered in temples and other places of worship, has to be cooked by evolved people with higher level of thinking and qualities. What one thinks of while cooking also matters, because food can capture the energy generated in the mind of the cook.

Different materials react differently to the human aura or energy. Good conductors of electricity attract (but also discharge) aura much quicker than bad conductors. Look at some of the religions, especially Sikhism, where Sikhs wear a _kada_ or steel bangle on their hand. Gurudev made people wear copper _kadas_ with silver joints. These _kadas_ , if blessed by someone with a powerful aura, manage to retain the energy, which then revolves around the bangle in a dynamic way. I have heard accounts of hundreds of people who claim wearing the _kada_ protected them, as it established some kind of a connection with a much greater energy. One such person is me.

I am embarrassed to share how my _kada_ helped me during a visit to Nairobi over 30 years ago. For 20 days I tried to do something against my conscience. But every time, something would go wrong. I failed constantly and consistently. Logically, it is not possible to fail so many times. I knew there was something that was forcing me to follow the right path. The _kada_ I wore was given by Gurudev, and every time I failed, the _kada_ kept flashing in my mind. By the end of the month-long trip, I knew for sure that the _kada_ had something to do with my failed attempts. It actually manipulated my mind!

### Significance of the Aura

The _Ramayan_ talks significantly of the Lakshman Rekha, a line drawn by Lakshman around Sita's hut in the forest during Lord Ram's exile. Lakshman was leaving Sita behind to look for his brother, who had gone to chase a golden deer that had captured Sita's fancy. To protect Sita, Lakshman drew a _rekha_ (line) around the hut and energised it with the power of mantras, thereby creating an impenetrable energy field.

It is possible for someone with a strong aura and spiritual energy to create such a circle of power. Those who create this circle should be spiritually powerful to sustain that energy with their own. It lasts as long as they will it to. Spirits in a house or in a room can be captured with this energy circle. Once trapped, the spirit will be unable to escape, until allowed to or until the energy circle dissipates. This process is called _keelna_ in Hindi.

### Black Magic on Aura

The strength and width of the aura determines the power of a human being.

You needs to be aware, that people who practice the negative use of energy can take any of your belongings, with traces of your aura (like nails, hair, clothes, shoes etc) and perform black magic on you. I remember a young child on whom black magic was performed by someone who stole his swimming trunks from CCI, a club in Mumbai. The child lost all energy from waist downward. It was a case of _tantric_ energy used negatively.

I was a victim of black magic too while in Gurgaon. I left my worn shirt behind by mistake and my watchman, who was usually nice, urgently wanted me to return and help him with a small loan. He got one of his villagers to perform black magic on my shirt. The beauty of this story is that when I reached Gurgaon, he confessed about his trickery. The fact that he divulged, made me feel like less of a victim and more of a learner.

I became a victim of black magic yet again and the medium this time around was a _peda_ (an Indian sweetmeat). This led me to suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis for several years, which was eventually cured by Gurudev. One of Gurudev's disciples saw the culprit in a vision state, and how he actually performed black magic on me.

Thanks to Gurudev and the powers he has bestowed on his disciples, thousands of people across the world have benefitted. I personally witnessed a patient, Kamlesh, who stayed at the _sthan_ for several months and benefitted. She would get excruciating pain in her stomach and wriggle on the floor like a fish out of water, until she would faint. I saw her vomit broken pieces of glass bangles tied to black thread on several occasions. The disciple treating her (Mohna) would wash the glass pieces and stick them on a piece of paper, forming a complete bangle. I was told that a black magic practitioner had given her a _taveez_ (locket) by concealing it in a glass of rose milk. Gurudev said she would be completely cured once she vomited the _ta_ v _eez_. I was around when she complained of choking to Gurudev. He hit on her back a couple of times and the _taveez_ popped out from her mouth. Kamlesh was finally cured. She now lives a normal life with her husband and children. An attempt to kill her was foiled.

The moral of the story is that anyone's aura can be hurt and manipulated by practitioners of black magic, voodoo, negative _tantric vidya_ and the like.

### Seva and Aura

The disciples of Gurudev with the power of healing, literally feel the vibration of negative energy while healing through their aura.

When a spiritual healer uses his/her power to eliminate negative energy from the aura, it gets magnetised into their hand. They can get rid of it by either washing it off or by absorbing it. They can even offer negative energy to the _sthan_ or temple that is their source of power, which absorbs all kinds of negative energies and amalgamates it within itself.

Sometimes, spiritual healers suffer from negative energies they absorb, until they manage to launder it. Spiritual practices and reciting _mantras_ provides relief in such cases.

An interesting case was of my mother's friend. She kept complaining of someone having performed black magic on her family, as they felt uncomfortable in their home. After hearing her request for help, I decided to take a couple of my spiritual associates to sort out the issue. While two of us stood at the gate to block the escape of negative energy, I asked my friend Giri to sprinkle magnetised water in the house, and to assess if there was any place that made his head heavy. He was getting a heavy, negative feeling in a part of one bedroom.

We used certain _mantras_ to magnetise some more water and asked him to splash it in that specific area. He had to do that a couple of times as the negative energy was difficult to get rid of.

What happened next was shocking! A huge blister, around one-and-a-half inches in size appeared on Giri's hand just below his thumb. It had the shape of a face, like that outlined by a child, and was around one millimeter thick. As we stood there watching in shock, the blister slowly started getting absorbed into his hand and eventually disappeared. This took about 5 minutes. The negative energy got magnetised into his hand and was cleared from the lady's house.

### Gurudev's Thursday Aura Restrictions

On Thursdays, Gurudev's followers are asked to observe a few restrictions like to not shampoo their hair, wash their clothes, cut their nails and hair, not to consume non-vegetarian food and alcohol, and so forth.

The purpose of these restrictions is to not disturb the aura on a day when Jupiter's rays are most powerful. That is why it is called _Guruvar_ in Hindi or attack by the rays of the planet Guru or Jupiter. By applying shampoo and massaging the scalp, it actually disturbs the aura of the head and has not much to do with the shampoo itself.

By eating non-vegetarian food, one consumes the aura of the animal eaten, which is of a lower variety. The animal aura gets mingled with the person eating it, which is influenced by the rays of Jupiter on that day. The aura that remains in a person's clothes would also be disturbed if the clothes were washed, because the aura has a particular electromagnetic character that the cloth absorbs. The worn clothes contain the aura for some time until washed.

### Transmission of Aura

There is some science in old grandma's tales. In India a new mother is told not to feed white milk to the newborn, as there are chances of it getting infected by sight or _nazar_ like we call it in Hindi. What does this really mean? It means that our eyes are two-way transmitters of energy. The energy that comes out of the eyes can be positive or negative. White being a colour that is most susceptible to absorbing energy can readily capture negative energy and affect a person internally. It is because of this, grandmas believed one should not consume anything pure white and surely not something that could be seen by another person or even a spirit (Gurudev often asked us to mix coloured food with rice, curd or milk, and not consume foods in pure white form).

The outward transmission of aura also happens in cases like telepathy/desires towards external objects, intense affection or attraction towards a person etc. Creating an energy field outside a house or another object also falls in the outward transmission category. Naturally, the outward transmission of aura depletes our balance and that is why most saints in the past would 'internalise rather that externalise their thoughts and feelings'. Many spiritual teachers realise that sharing of wisdom results in a transfer of aura outwards, and hence are hesitant to transfer their realisations. Those evolved, realise it is a loss worth making and is in the nature of sacrifice. Over time, with the evolution of a person, this loss turns into a profit as people are greatly benefitted by this knowledge and are grateful for their learning. The last few lines consist of a few hundred words only, but are secrets worth millions in cosmic currency. So, do not forget them.

### Use of Animal Aura

What is not known to many is that even the aura of animals can be used to benefit people. When my son was born with weak legs, Gurudev asked me to bathe him beneath a bear in a way that the water first falls on the bear and then over my son's legs. I could not manage to do it, but now as I understand the subject, I know it would have worked wonders for my son.

When I was a couple of years old, my mother felt I could not speak like other children my age. I was a late starter. A village woman advised her to make me eat curd that was first eaten by a crow. She did it. It worked. Though today, I would have preferred to be more silent, but the crow had its victory, and my wife had to suffer!

Gurudev used to say that a black dog absorbs a lot of the negative energies in a house. I recommended this to several people and most of them have had positive experiences.

I do not believe much research has been done in this field, therefore; there is not much data on the subject of how to use an animal's aura for the benefit of human beings. However, many believe that people often acquire the qualities of animals they live with.

Looking a little into the plant kingdom, let us see how different images on the outside are connected to images on the inside. For example, why are walnuts good for the brain? Why are papayas good for the stomach? Why are almonds good for the eyes? The aura of plants or animals, and even their visual forms show the connectivity between all life forms.

As you evolve, the centre of gravity within you also rises to higher levels of consciousness. Hindu scriptures often refer to this as the rising of the _kundalini_. This enables you to hold more energy, and therefore become potentially wealthier than what you were.

### An Aura Secret (Don't tell anyone!!)

When you think of someone or something, a remote Bluetooth sort of connection is established. The subject I want to discuss here is criticism or praise. When you criticise someone and their qualities, even unwittingly, you magnetise a fraction of the person's qualities. Therefore, criticising someone regularly will at some point instill within you the very qualities that you criticised.

The same rule applies if you praise or admire someone. According to yogic teachings, if you want to acquire speed, meditate upon a horse. Similarly, meditate on the strength of the elephant, the courage of the lion, the patience of the spider, and so forth.

The moral of the story is: what you meditate upon, that you become.

### Aura: A Cosmic Currency

Your aura is your cosmic currency and you need a lot of it in order to be rich. It is the only asset that you can carry forward to your future incarnations. It is also the armour that protects you from invasion by other energies, including illness and spiritual attacks. Work hard towards earning as much of it as you can; it is your final status, one of the measurements of your wealth and the stock-in-trade of your final balance sheet. The other indicators of cosmic currency include your s _amskars_ , _seva_ (both qualitative and quantitative), realisation _gyan_ and _bhakti_ (the ability to connect to your inner self and through it to the cosmic consciousness).

In case you have questions on the subject, you can write to hingori@hingorisutras.com

We can work together to answer common questions and do more research on this subject. Fortunately, spiritual healing deals a lot with the aura and therefore I might be able to provide leads.

## **Significance of Our Spirit Bodies**

In the process of loving yourself, your spirit body plays a significant factor. It is therefore important to get acquainted with it and understand some of its facets.

It is imperative to understand the infrastructure of our spirit bodies. As we dwell in terms of numbers of years in the spirit body, much longer than in our physical bodies, it is necessary to pay attention to what I call a 'long-term asset'. So, if an average life is about 80 years in the physical form, the existence in the spirit body in the interim period between physical births can be much longer. Sometimes, spirits wait for hundreds of years to be born in a physical form. Of course, the physical body also contains the spirit body. Thus the spirit body continues to exist even after a person is born. It is a conjecture, but my estimate is that people exist in spirit bodies for thousands of years.

The _Bhrigu Samhita_ (a set of leaves predicting the future of people alive today) was written several thousand years ago. Spirit bodies have existed even longer. Some of my dream sequences reflected my own existence from several thousand years ago, judging from the attire, type of weaponry and the use of vibrations to fire arrows. ****

Though not an authority on the subject, I have had several escapades, out-of-the-body which includes encounters with other spirits, which I will narrate here.

The spirit body is made of ether, and is almost like a smoke body, (one-tenth as dense as smoke) slightly lit from within. Because of its light weight and subtle vibration, it does not need to move slowly like its physical counterpart. It can fly on will. The body hardly receives any thoughts and its thinking is substituted by observation. It has a mind that is different from a human's, because it does not receive and churn thoughts and attain the same level of feelings like the physical body. The spirit body observes mainly dispassionately subject to its evolved _citta_.

The body requires cosmic currency or simply _shakti_ for its survival and well-being. To travel to different dimensions the body needs to attain a speed for which it requires a lot of energy. The energy accumulated by the body also helps to protect itself from being bullied or captured by other spirit bodies. The level of energy is its measure of strength.

Even while alive there are opportunities for our spirit bodies to do things independent of its physical bodies. There are _yogis_ who can create additional spirit bodies out of their own energies (called _nirman kaya_ ). They use these bodies for the fructification of the stored karmas in the _karmashaya_ , in order to exhaust their karmas quickly (this is possible only by advanced spiritualists).

This sounds like a sci-fi movie, maybe the yogic version of _Matrix Reloaded_ , but I have experienced similar things in my life and therefore convinced that this can be true.

**An artist's impressions of the spirit body departing at death when the kundalini rises to the sahasra or back of the head.**

### **Astral Travel**

Regarding out-of-body experiences I have not only had several personal ones, but have also been the understudy of a man who travelled astrally, at least thrice a week, and for several hours at a stretch. ****

My astral travel started when Gurudev told me about it very casually. He said, he would take me for a long out-of-body tour. Gurudev asked me to sleep while he lay down doing _paath_ (that was when he was going to travel astrally). While asleep, I saw his emissary (one of his disciples, Puranji) appear and say, 'Gurudev is calling you'. Being physically oriented, I never realised that I should take the help of the emissary, walk out of the body and follow him. Instead, I forced myself to physically wake up and go to his room. There I found Puranji massaging Gurudev's feet whilst he had left his body.

However, all was not lost. Gurudev would make me sleep in the _sthan_ room and teach me some advanced mantras. On one such night, I felt I was awake from within but physically asleep. I used to float about 3-4 inches above the bed, but was restrained to the sphere of my body. In other words, I was restricted to my body's boundary. I discovered then that the 'floating me' was awake whilst the 'physical me' was fast asleep. This happened a few times. The plumbing within me was being forced to have a cleaner and unobstructed path. Thereafter, I would see Gurudev in my dream state very often. This was a preparation for my spirit body to exit my physical one in time to come.

During the dream and vision states, I found myself travelling with Gurudev to different locations and everything seemed so real that I could feel the breeze and even touch things. Sometimes, the travels included visiting well-known temples I had never been to before. He took me to a temple in Lonavala, which was built by one of his young disciples. I saw the temple structure and the idols in colours of grey and black, not very common in this part of the country. I had no idea about the temple but the experience lasted for only a couple of minutes.

A few days later, I came across Gurudev's disciple who had built the temple in Lonavala. He requested me to come and see the temple. When we reached, I was shocked to see the same temple that Gurudev had taken me to a few months back, and it was exactly the way I had seen it!

### More Alive Than Dead

Many saints including Gurudev appear in spirit form to help and guide others. For instance, I was shocked to hear my boarding schoolmate's experience at the _sthan_ in Gurgaon. He was an international businessman, who had become an alcoholic but fortunately given up alcohol after a few years. On inquiring, he narrated his story to me.

He lived in DLF, Gurgaon under a lot of stress, both financially and emotionally. This was in 2010, approximately 20 years after Gurudev had expired. In the early hours of the morning, he got a vision with his eyes open, but it felt like a dream. He saw a man standing in front of him and saying, "Don't worry I will solve your problems." In the background he heard, "Come to Guruji of Gurgaon in Sector 7". He had never heard of any such place or person, so he Googled it. He was amazed that the man he saw in his vision state was the same man on the website of Guruji of Gurgaon. On reaching the _sthan_ in Sector 7, he saw photographs of Gurudev hanging on the wall in the prayer room. The disciples there told him about Gurudev.

He was astounded!

### Matter with a Different Vibration

What was really puzzling in these out-of-body experiences was that everything 'solid' in the physical world was 'subtle' in form, as well as the matter in the spirit world. I found myself going through walls and ceilings without any resistance, almost as if they were made of the thinnest paper. Another unique characteristic of out-of-body travel was that even in the middle of the night, it was not pitch dark. The light outside was like it is 20 minutes after sunset, and the light inside was a few shades darker.

### Flying Through the Fan

During one of these experiments, I was amused to see myself fly through the fan travelling to the floor above. When I saw people sleeping there, I decided to return through the same route I had gone. However, this time I was hanging halfway between the rooms with my ankles at the level of the fan blades.

As I remained suspended there for a few seconds, I heard a distinct cracking sound and felt pain in my ankles. On awaking the next morning, I realised that my ankles pained in the same spot and consequently, I had a limp for around 15 days.

### Witness to a Duplicate Body

Ashish, a young spiritualist was having lunch with his cousin on a Thursday afternoon at the Lemon Tree Resort in Goa. He had asked for the menu and was about to order prawns, while his cousin had gone to the restroom. Suddenly, he heard a voice from across the table. He saw his spiritual guru sitting across, telling him not to eat non-vegetarian food on a Thursday. The guru then disappeared and Ashish chose to eat a vegetarian meal. He will never forget this experience till his dying day. It was a case of _nirman kaya_ or duplicate body. Physically, the guru was present in another city and was not even aware of the incident. His second body seemed to have a will of its own.

### Uninvited Guests

Virenderji, a respected judge in Haryana, was a devotee of Gurudev. Once, he had unexpected guests at home for breakfast. He had overslept and missed going to the park for his morning walk. Three of his friends came to his house at 8:30 am on the invitation he had extended that morning at 6:30am. Since the judge had just woken up, he definitely could not have spoken to or met anyone at 6:30 am. He did not know what to make of this incident. Here was a clear example of how another version of you can exist whilst on a path of self-evolution.

A similar example is the resurrection of Jesus, who appeared in his physical body after his crucifixion.

### Gati - The speed of the spirit body

In order to travel faster, the spirit body requires extra spiritual energy. This energy gives the power of motion to the spirit body, which means it can use that energy to travel exceptionally faster than their normal speed (if they do not have _gati_ ). This extra energy also enables the spirit body to pass through barriers and reach other dimensions, perceivably a long distance away.

To attain this energy, you have to follow the same practices that increase the depth of your aura. About 25 years ago, in a vision state, I was being taught the science of the speed of travel by one of Gurudev's disciples. He had been asked to help me learn the technique of superfast travel. I woke up having attained or rather been made to attain _gati_. There is an old adage in Hindi, _Guru bin gati kahan_ (It is not easy to acquire superfast travelling speed without the grace of the guru).

After attaining _gati_ , I experienced a few travels where my spirit body moved like a rocket accompanied by a buzzing sound. I was travelling so incredibly fast that I was unable to focus on anything, and the only sensation was movement.

This was an out-of-body state and not a dream state.

### **Karmashaya and Kaarna Sharir**

(Component of the Spirit Body)

The inner body of the spirit body or s _ukshma sharir_ is called the causal body or _kaarna sharir_ and that is exactly what the word _kaarna_ means, the reason for existence. This is the third body connected to our _jivaatma_ , and is separate from our physical and astral bodies. The _karmashaya_ is the pot that contains the long-term and short-term memories, the _samskars_ , and in several places referred to as the 'hard disk', from where our _samskars_ surface to become karmas. The _karmashaya_ is attached to the _kaarna sharir_ (many believe it is a part of the _sukshma sharir_ ) but since the controversy does not affect us, let us not go down that road.

The _samskars_ can be divided into three _gunas_ , which create matching trends of thought and resultant deeds or karmas. _Vasna_ is an energy that stores information and brings it out of the database at relevant times and places. This is like electrical energy that is used by a laptop or a computer to bring out the database to the screen on receiving a command. However, this command is more like an auto-search option because the database is vast and illimitable.

Aatma + Ego = Jivaatma

Jivaatma + Kaarna Sharir + Sukshma Sharir (including Karmashaya) + Physical Body = Us.

(A common connect for _jivaatma_ and _kaarna sharir_ and _sukshma sharir_ and physical _sharir_ is the _citta_.)

Our thoughts and feelings including aversions, passions, inspirations, reactions and several such sentiments flow from the _karmashaya_ to our physical minds.

Cleansing of this _karmashaya_ and reducing the data on it is one of the critical missions of our lives.

On the other hand, we need to feed some data into this _karmashaya_ to change our attitudes and reactions.

Let us look at a few examples:

If a lot of our _tamasic samskars_ come to fore, we can focus on building _sattvic_ _samskars_ in order to ensure that our future karmas are in the s _attvic_ direction. Spiritualism leads in that direction and so does philosophy, philanthropy, and so forth.

_Sattvic samskars_ lead to _sattvic_ feelings, which in turn lead to _sattvic_ karmas. We need to build on _sattva_ in greater proportion than _tamas_ and _rajas_. We need a major change in our attitude. A famous management quote hold true, "It is by a person's attitude that you can judge their altitude."

Every spiritual discipline teaches us to improve our character. Indian philosophy, especially yoga, talks about the eight-fold path of evolution. So does Buddhism. All these strategies for evolution are meant to achieve similar results – a change in our _guna_ mix.

## **Five Magic Attitudes for Evolution**

### **1. Empathy**

The word 'empathy' is a common word, often used in many of our conversations. However, empathising with others in our day-to-day life is no easy task.

Despite being seriously into spiritualism, I still find faults with people I meet. I find shortcomings even in my spiritual batch mates and associates. It is the way I look at things. I almost instinctively assess the rights and wrongs.

Saturn, astrologically the most feared planet, decided to teach me a lesson in understanding the value of empathy. Being bedridden for over two months gave me time to contemplate many of my personal philosophies. I was experiencing a brief period of negative effects of the movement of Saturn in my horoscope.

A thought came to me that I reflect (in reverse) the 'inside-outside' and the 'outside-inside'. To explain this simply, I realised that I should forgive others if I wanted to forgive myself. Always looking at others' shortcomings, I constantly saw my own and hence was unable to see the light within. How can you see divinity within if you see yourself with so many flaws all the time? I found it necessary to alter a quotation from the Bible. I realised "I need to do unto others as I would do unto myself."

When you care for others, it comes naturally to you to care for yourself. A person who is in the habit of admiring others, should not miss out on admiring himself/herself. This is what I meant by saying reflecting the 'inside-outside' and vice versa.

Knowing that people need to play out their karma and live their pre-programmed destinies, and that people are what they are programmed to be, and consequently reflect the attributes of their _gunas_ , it is technically difficult to blame them for what they do and how they think. Jesus put it better when he said, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

I started looking at people with a different perspective. If sometimes, they behaved in a certain way to attract attention, instead of seeing this as a fault, I started seeing this as a part of their nature, which I had to accept.

When my son behaved the way he did, being pleasure-driven, burning the candle at both ends, I realised it was his age. This was the period of his destiny that he had to live out. The planetary effects did not allow hard work, commitment, seriousness or sincerity. On the contrary, they encouraged callousness, casualness, and the constant desire for fun and merry making. I had a choice- I could hate his errant behavior and hold it against him, or I could empathise with him and accept him to change later.

I had to be patient. My relationship with him changed. He tries as much as he can, but not as much as I would like him to. I empathise with his state of being, and I empathise with myself, because I cannot make him do things the way I would like him to. I am not surprised anymore when I look at people who do not behave the way they should. Earlier, I would think they do not have a balanced mind, or are reactive and immature. That made me look down at most people as lesser mortals. With my new-found empathy, I realised that the world is what it is for me, and the world is what it is for them. I should not try to impose my personal attitudes upon others.

Earlier, every time I went to a social gathering, it was a kind of mental torture for me, because people around would try to sound so profound about trivial things. They discussed things that meant nothing to me, and neither to them. An entire evening would be wasted with meaningless conversations that left me frustrated. Today, I realise it was not the fault of the people I socialised with, it was my fault for not being empathetic enough to realise that my journey was different from theirs, and no one can say which is the right one.

So, now I can attend a social gathering and talk Greek in good English!

Many years ago, I chanced upon an old newspaper with a photograph of Mr JRD Tata. I had high respect for him, as he was a kind-hearted Indian industrialist. He was generous, charitable and non-egoistic, unlike so many others. The newspaper carried his interview. It quoted him saying, "Many times we are disappointed with people who work for us because we expect them to think and behave the way we want them to." He also learnt to lower his expectations from the people who worked with him. He found it easier to deal with them when he adopted that attitude. He is regarded almost universally, as one of the most successful people in India. I remembered that quote, but it took me some time to be able to put it into practice. If you reflect upon what we have discussed so far, you will accept the fact that empathy is an important ingredient in dealing with ourselves.

### a. Arrogance in Humility

We should not forget that being empathetic does not necessarily mean being uncritical of our shortcomings and self-analysis. Empathy should not cloud our self-observation. We need to be aware what is not correct in our nature to bring about change.

Here is a strange incident to understand the point.

While having lunch with a childhood friend at a restaurant, I said something to another guest. The guest wanted to know if I was the owner of the restaurant, and though I was, I politely said, "No, I assist the manager here."

As I continued with my lunch, my friend smiled at me and said I was rather arrogant. She said, "You do not care what people think of you and so you can talk about yourself as a nobody. It is like you are standing right up there, looking down on everybody here." Later, when I went home and reflected on her statement, I realised there was some truth in her observation.

I discussed my horoscope with an astrologer friend and asked him to see whether arrogance existed in my horoscope. On analysis, he found truth in the statement, and gave planetary justifications for it. It was not a savoury analysis, but I could not think of myself being arrogant. However, it made me conscious of my arrogance. Now, I often check if I am sounding or behaving in an arrogant manner. Though this does not end the arrogance, which is in my nature, but it certainly makes me conscious and aware of it. In fact, often in the middle of a conversation, I say, "Excuse me, am I sounding arrogant?" Of course everybody says no!

It adds a little amusement to the discussion and people find me humble in my arrogance.

### b. Sneh and Stage Fright

Sneh, who assisted me with this book, suffers from stage fright. She gets nervous talking to people professionally or on stage. Having worked in this area a lot, I asked her one magic question, "Are you afraid of making a fool of yourself?"

Bingo! That was it.

The diagnosis was correct. She discovered the reason for her shortcoming and became determined from then onwards to not care about what people thought. This is going to make a change in Sneh's life. She will say whatever she has to, but more confidently. Ironically, Sneh is a beautiful woman with an impressive personality. What Sneh needs to learn is to empathise with herself.

Decades ago, I used to be a professional speaker at many events and also conducted courses on public speaking at a well-known academy. Many senior Rotarians about to become district governors consulted me for their speeches. Businessmen and professionals did too. This was the LCM (lowest common multiple) of their problems. They all cared more about being impressive than expressive. I would make them stand on a table and do cabaret or some such nonsense, sometimes in groups just so they could make a fool of themselves. Those who followed my diktat got away with their stage fright after a couple of sessions.

### a. Envy or be Envied

Veena, an associate, shared her shortcoming of feeling envious of not being able to have a baby. She felt bad about her inability to conceive and it made her look down upon herself. I realised her predicament and spoke to her about destiny and thoughts. It was an hour-long discussion, but it had lifelong results. Veena was convinced she had to change her way of thinking. She realised she had a lot that others did not have, so why can others not have what she does not? She was laughing when she said, "I have such a lovely husband, and surely many women cannot be sure of that." Her in-laws were supportive and helpful in every manner. She felt not many women were lucky enough. Veena enjoyed her job, and realised that everything was in her favour except for one. At the end of the conversation, Veena came to believe that she should be envied, rather than being the envier.

### Learning to Empathise

Sneh admits while tending to sick people earlier, she secretly felt that they fussed a lot. But when she herself was bedridden for days with a back problem, she understood the value of empathy. Now, when she comes across someone who is unwell, it is easy for her to empathise and take proper care of them. A great learning at the age of 26.

Trust me when I say, "Play the empathy card and win the game of cards".

I once attended a four-day seminar of Professor George Hadden from the USA. It was a life-changing seminar. One of the exercises he made us practice often was to sit at a round table of eight. One person would stand and the other seven had to pay him/her compliments for a minute each. Was that difficult! Initially, we could only see the attributes of the person that were skin deep– clothes, body, jewellery, smile, etc. But as these sessions progressed and the groups changed, we looked at subtler qualities of that person and the compliments were more genuine. By the end of the fourth day we could feel the vibrations of that person and sense their qualities rather than only see their physical presence. A kind of a 'sixth sense' experience.

It seriously changed my life!

I suddenly started believing in people's positivity and likeable attributes as a sort of investment. I ignored their negative vibrations as an expenditure. Sometimes, I can look at a person or even their photograph and sense their quality mix, which helps me in my business of life.

Gurudev was a king of empathy. The fact that he accepted and converted a bunch of carefree people like us into spiritualists took some doing! There were times, during the learning process, when I had selfish, silly and amateurish thoughts. I now recollect, how he tolerated and motivated us, despite our failings. He would say, we human beings make hundreds of mistakes a day, but learn to forget and move on. He would say, "Malik tera bhala kare" (may the Consciousness Supreme do you good).

His empathy helped in my reconstruction. After meeting and spending time with him, I unwittingly started comparing myself with him. Naturally I was the loser. The 'cool dude' in me saw myself as raw, selfish, complex and unenviable. I lost confidence, and saw myself as a fool...a well-manicured fool (thank god for small mercies!). He, on the other hand always said, "I know what you are and so will you. You have _gyan_ and you will share it. You will write a book on it." I knew nothing. How could I even think of such a venture? These were just kind words, I thought.

He did not give up. "A horse gives birth to a horse," he would say. "A son (disciple) of a guru will be a guru." That made sense, but when? His empathy and confidence in us eventually turned us around. By following his path we realised our self-worth. I wrote a book. In fact, more than one. Sharing what I have learned with others has become a mission. But I can never forget his encouragement. His empathy!

### 2. Acceptance

In a life full of endless desires, unfinished goals, regular frustrations, and failed attempts, misery becomes a by-product. I have never been able to find a greater secret than acceptance to attain mental equilibrium. The need for acceptance arises in various aspects of life. Financial crisis and business losses are hard to accept and a cause for stress. One must use different strategies for its reduction, correction and finding alternatives. However, when all is said and done, there are only two options- acceptance or dejection.

  * • When people behave or react in a manner unacceptable to you, there are two options–reaction or acceptance.
  * • When you do your best in a particular job and get no appreciation, you have two options–rejection or acceptance.
  * • When anything nice happens and you attain something in the material, intellectual or spiritual world there are two options–excitement or acceptance.
  * • When you go out for a meal and it turns out to be unsavoury, you have two options–disappointment or acceptance.
  * • When a near one gets very sick or dies you have two options–lamentation or acceptance.
  * • If your spouse abandons, cheats or leaves you, you have two options–rejection or acceptance.

A continuation of such options would lead to writing another book.

To summarise, acceptance does not mean non-action or making no effort towards correction and change. But, if you notice carefully, it is the only option lacking emotion. Every other option prompts the brain and disturbs the mind. For thousands of years, the spiritual gurus have spoken about 'contentment', the root of which lies in 'acceptance'.

Rabia was a well-known Sufi mystic. Her approach to spiritual life won respect from many contemporaries. When people asked her, "When are servants of god content?" She replied, "They are content when they are as grateful for pain as they are for pleasure."

### 3. Vairagya or Detachment

Let us examine what attachment does for us.

Firstly, it puts us in the loop of pleasure and pain.

Secondly, we get connected to people and things and consequently their destinies which are not connected to us, and that starts affecting us. We therefore buy into the equity of the pleasure and pain of others, and of course, the latter being more widespread; we become susceptible to a lot of additional pain.

Attachment also leads to outward attention as we keep thinking about people or products we are attached to. This can lead to the outward transmission of aura and diverts our attention from ourselves and instead focuses on external objects.

Detachment leads to the balancing of emotions and is critical for the reduction of duality. As a step towards higher levels of consciousness, we need to detach not only from family, friends and the material objects we love, but also from our own physical bodies, which are impermanent in nature.

Strangely, each of Gurudev's followers felt closest to him, as did I. Over a hundred of us felt, we were one of his eleven chosen disciples. We felt he loved us far more than our parents as he was always thinking about our well-being and progress. He spent more time with us than he did with his children. It was only later as I got to know him closely that I realised he belonged to everyone and yet no one. He was ready to relieve your pain, but not feel it.

### 4. Role Play

There are two sides to role play. We can either play the role that people want us to, or we can become the characters that are needed at the time. Those who have seen the movie _Godfather_ might know that Marlon Brando, the lead actor, got so absorbed in the character that he needed six months of psychiatric help to normalise. Rod Steiger played the role of Napoleon in an epic saga called _Waterloo_. He allowed the role to get so deep under his skin that he too needed psychiatric care to get out of it. Many actors get so absorbed in the roles they play that they actually become the characters they portray, and lose their real selves for the period.

What if you can reverse that. Wow!! Think about it. If you could play the role of the husband that your wife wants you to, the role of the father/mother your children want you to, and you could do this as part of play-acting (but good acting, mind you). Just think of the change in relationships! You would not want to believe in the role that you were playing. You would do it merely as an act. There would be no emotions attached, and no ego bashing. So why not act genuine instead of being genuine and not carry the baggage of emotions.

Gurudev played almost every character in the book. He once told me that his relationship with me (and with others) was multifaceted. He said he was my guru, father, mother, friend, brother, all in one, but at different times. I noticed on many occasions he responded to the role you assigned to him. If you treated him like a guru, he behaved with you like a teacher. If you gave him the role of the mother, he would indulge you. If you treated him like a friend, he would crack jokes and pull your leg.

### 5. Pratipakshbhavana

One of the yogic disciplines is the art of creating an opposite attitude to something you do not like. In simple words, it is looking at the opposite viewpoint. When your mind gives you thoughts about something, which your intellect does not accept, you need to select an opposite thought to superimpose on the original one that you did not like. For example, if someone is rude to you, you naturally develop animosity towards that person. This yogic discipline tells you to look at it in an opposite manner. You can tell yourself that maybe the person who was rude to you was going through a period of stress and did not realise how he/she was speaking. You can tell yourself that maybe it was your destiny to face a test of your reaction. You can ask yourself if you said something that initiated this reaction. There are many such opposite feelings that you can create to stop the other person from hurting you.

Maharishi Patanjali said, "Let us not forget, however, that just as a sandbank may shift and change its shape if the tide or the current changes, so also the _samskars_ may be modified by the introduction of other kinds of thought-waves into the mind".

This book does not offer promises, but recommends consistent effort. I would like you to think about the art of learning to play cricket. Technically, it is almost impossible to see a ball at 100 miles an hour and then decide how to play it. No batsman can do that. So, how do they learn to play a ball that moves faster than one can think?

It is called practice!

Maharishi Patanjali remarked, "Expose the mind to constant thoughts of anger and resentment, and you will find these anger-waves build up anger- _samskars_ , which will predispose you to find occasions for anger throughout your daily life. A man with well-developed anger- _samskars_ is said to have a bad temper".

You have to go to the nets and keep practicing till you know what to do. You need to understand that you will improve, but only a bit at a time, and not through any magic potion. And so it is with spiritual practices.

Instead of looking at the rate of success, look at the rate of decreasing failure.

Even on the subject of loving oneself, one can look at the flip side by just saying, 'these days I dislike myself less' and then say 'I hardly dislike myself', which will soon lead to a feeling wherein you will not dislike yourself at all. From here on you can start feeling how much you like yourself, and after sometime, how much you love yourself and thereafter, you start loving yourself completely.

It is about eradication a bit at a time. It is not about getting a distinction in your first attempt; it is about improving your score gradually but consistently.

I once went to Gurudev and said, "What should I do if I get sensual thoughts while treating women?" He smiled as if he had been asked that question a hundred times before. He said, "While treating women, first give them the form of a child and then an old woman. Visualise the person at the age of 4-5 and then at 75-80 years." This was a unique example of _pratipakshbhavana_ , where you superimpose not an opposite emotion but a variation of visualisations to a negative one.

## Watch Yourself Do Good

(To Be Read Repeatedly)

The process of loving yourself cannot be restricted to the conscious mind, but should include the unconscious mind as well. The easiest way to do that is to watch yourself do things you find admirable, which you will then justify in your mind as deeds of accomplishment.

When you see yourself doing things that you find likable or lovable, your self-worth goes up.

Conversely, when you see yourself doing things which you do not respect or find unacceptable, you lose respect for yourself. The problem most of us face is that our mind gets conditioned from childhood and the habits we develop include the way we react to stimuli. This generally includes the way we analyse things. We can call this habitual thinking, and changing this requires consistent effort.

The solution lies in constantly working on it. We need to superimpose multiple layers of impressions in order to erode the existing ones. It is far more difficult than learning the tables in arithmetic. And that is why you must carefully observe yourself doing likable actions repeatedly. It is just like practicing cricket at the nets. It is only through repeated actions we are convinced that:

  * • Our deeds are worthy
  * • Our actions are likable
  * • Our attitude is lovable

When you distance yourself from a deed by not accepting ownership thereof, you automatically become free of the negative or positive emotion. This again needs multiple efforts and continuous reminding in a self-hypnotic manner.

Negating a deed, which is unpalatable as an observer, requires great effort and continuous self-counseling.

So, if you do a good deed or a not-so-good one, and do not negate it, it gets stored as a _samskar_ , which requires positive fructification.

## Seva: A Quick Fire Solution

_Seva_ works in many ways. As we have seen before, it is definitely a precursor to self-esteem. Besides, it is also a demonstration to the inner bodies of the efforts made by the physical one to evolve itself. The status of _karmashaya_ also changes towards positive. Further, it elevates you in terms of your _guna_ mix. Your _sattva guna_ increases in proportion to your two lower _gunas_. It works almost like a collaboration between the various bodies and levels of consciousness of a person. There are different levels of doing _seva_. Helping people with material necessities like food, shelter and clothing is very beneficial. Those in need will certainly feel obliged and grateful. Whether they show gratitude or not at the physical level does not matter. The gratitude will definitely be reflected at an unconscious level and the emotion attached will lead to transference of energy (in the form of blessings) thereby making you aura rich.

### Several Options for Seva

Another great service is education. Over a hundred years ago, someone helped educate my grandfather. This in turn led to the education and improved lifestyle of several families. My father has sponsored the education of several children. I continue to do the same. By the time I close the chapter on life, the education of my grandfather would have led to the education of over a thousand children. A pretty good equation, don't you think? Imagine, how a single family has shown gratitude. Add to it the gratitude felt by most of the members of the family for that one benefactor. The benefactor would not have even realised his spiritual earnings from the service. But the cosmic consciousness would have known it. His unconscious mind and the hard disk namely the _karmashaya_ would certainly be updated with this deed.

As you have understood by now, seva works as a multilevel marketing concept. There are benefits for those who do the seva directly and for those that are indirect facilitators for the same.

Healing people, animals and birds is enriching. Helping alleviate someone from physical suffering results in a huge reward in terms of gratitude. The blessing that one can get by helping free someone of the disease that is making their body and mind miserable is beyond measure (however it is important to note that you should not accept the reward or gratification for any service performed if you want to retain its value).

In ancient India, people did not eat anything (especially grain or salt), nor drink a glass of water in their daughter's matrimonial home. The reason was very simple. Giving a daughter's hand in marriage to a family is called _kanyadaan_ , which is considered to be a great debt undertaken by the groom in favour of his in-laws who have raised his partner and invested in her upbringing emotionally and physically. So why dilute or negate that debt?

Gurudev instructed us never to eat or take obligations from anyone we have offered a service or charity to. His mantra was to do service but never accept anything in return. He also insisted that we should not take personal favours from people. In fact, as we evolved under his guidance, his instructions changed to not eating anyone's food besides our own, and not accepting obligations and favours whenever possible.

There are two lessons to be learnt here: never to accept a return for your service, nor should the service you do be paid for, otherwise the accrual of the service gets diluted (I know this is not going to appeal to many readers who think that selling a product at a subsidised rate is a great service to the buyer. We will continue to have different opinions on this subject and that is justified).

At a more evolved level of consciousness, you may want to discard the idea of having done good deeds, or any deeds for that matter, and accept those as a part of your destiny and that of the recipient's. This kicks in at the stage of 'non-doership'.

There are many other kinds of service performed by various charitable and non-profit organisations. These include micro-finance, cooperatives for income generation, institutions for differently abled, helping communities learn self-reliance by training them in various skills and crafts, facilitating in getting employment–the list is never ending. When people jointly contribute to this cause, the benefits are collectively distributed. At an unconscious level, we are all connected and so the recording of these deeds and the accrual of the benefits is not much of a problem.

## Spiritual Blessings

Spiritual healing and helping people is considered the highest form of _seva_ performed by saints. I have seen Gurudev do this kind of service for several decades, and for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of people. He also empowered over a hundred people to do the same in different locations in India as well as abroad. This kind of service gets you the highest effort-to-reward ratio that you can calculate. Even if one of his disciples provide relief to several hundred people in just one day, imagine what a hundred can do!

There is an interesting quote from the teachings of Guru Vashisht to his disciple Ram.

"Austerity or penance is self-inflicted pain. Of what value is charity performed with wealth earned by deceiving others? Only they derive the fruits of such charity! Religious observances add to one's vanity."

Guru Vashisht believed that service to others and realisation of the eternal truth are the only purposes of spiritual life and everything else is insignificant. Though I agree with him wholeheartedly, I would rather be empathetic and accept that people are at different stages of climbing the ladder.

Like formal education, there are different stages of spiritual education. Lucky are those who reach stage one and then decide to move on to the next. But one thing is certain: service to other life forms is service to the Consciousness Supreme and service to the self. So, stop reading and thinking, stop analysing and evaluating, put this book down, do a good deed or plan one on paper and make a commitment. After a spiritual break, pick it up again, because there is more to come.

Until now, we have tried to understand the possibility of spiritual growth while living in the _grihast ashram_ (living like a common householder does), the type of achievements possible, not only by me, but also by several of Gurudev's disciples.

The icing on the cake was Gurudev's life itself. He had left home soon after marriage to pursue spiritual attainment. He was in the final stages of meditation at Santokh Sar Lake in Amritsar when he heard an _akashwani_ (a voice from the sky or from an external source). The voice asked him to go back and live a family life as that is where his final attainments would take place. He simply followed what was said.

## Life Scorecard

The objective of this book is not to denigrate the quest of a normal householder's materialistic and intellectual pursuits. The life scorecard given below gives a balance to the average householder's lifestyle, giving equal weightage to the three main parameters of his/her life i.e. –physical, intellectual and spiritual. These represent the circle of life to a large extent.

A total of 100 marks have been allotted for each parameter with the total score of 300. While filling in the scorecard please use your judgment in assigning a score for yourself, except where the scorecard guides you in doing so.

Before starting, let us go through two examples of householders and see how they score in this exercise.

1. Mr Iyengar is a DGM (Finance) at a successful public limited company, earning a good monthly salary. He is 55 years old, has his own house and has recently helped his son make the down payment for his house. His daughter is married to a software engineer in the USA and is expecting his first grandchild. He is well versed in Hindu scriptures, prays and makes offerings at the local temple daily. Mr Iyengar chants mantras for a couple of hours everyday. He is a guiding force in his community and his neighbours often reach out to him for help. Mr Iyenger would score very well on the material front and not bad on the intellectual one. However, he will be marked average on the spiritual front.

2. Mr Kapur is an extremely successful businessman, running several successful businesses and earning like there is no tomorrow! He owns a plush apartment in a ritzy part of town and has just bought the adjacent flat for his son. His daughter is studying liberal arts abroad. However, he has just found out that she is in a relationship with a boy from another community and wants her to return home to get married to a boy of his choice. He has already started seeking a suitable alliance for her in the business community. He works 12-14 hours everyday, after which, he settles down at his club with a few friends for his dose of single malt. Reaching home just in time for dinner, he has little time for his wife and children as he is engaged in international business phone calls. He used to read fictional novels in his youth but now the TV has taken over. He has very little knowledge of philosophy and thinks it is meant for nerds. He would score high on the material and financial front of the 'physical' part of the life scorecard, but would probably score very low on the rest.

Why don't you try to fill out the scorecard and see where you stand? If at the end of the exercise you are satisfied with your score, hats off to you! I will make a humble request that you pass on this book to someone who you feel needs it. However, if you are not satisfied with your score, particularly on the intellectual and spiritual front, why don't you try putting some of the thoughts into practice I have tried to convey through this book. You might be pleasantly surprised!

NB:

1. Although we have assigned equal weightage to each of the essential attributes (physical, intellectual and spiritual), it is worth noting that a person scoring high on the spiritual front would not value his score in the other two attributes simply because he would have learned that his life is not limited to the 70 odd years he has to spend in this body. His thought process would be that his future has been taken care of (and rightly so).

2. Under the spiritual accomplishments heading, we have tried to create a benchmark in a way that an individual can assess his accomplishments. Although spiritualism is not a numbers' game, we have tried to create such a system for non-spiritual individuals.

3. Under our benchmarking system, a person like Gurudev would have easily got a perfect score. If you even score 50, you have done well for yourself and can look to improve in the coming years.

**Life Scorecard**

---

**PHYSICAL**

**Sr no** | **Attributes** | **Marks** | **Your Score**

**1.** | **Material** | |

a | Success at work place | 10

|

b | Good home | 5

|

c | Good car | 3

|

d | Well-travelled | 4

|

e | Well-dressed | 3

|

|

**TOTAL** | **25**

|

|  | |

**2.** | **Financial** | |

a | Good bank balance | 5

|

b | Good investment | 5

|

c | Regular earning capacity | 5

|

d | Multi properties/business | 10

|

|

**TOTAL** | **25**

|

|  | |

**3.** | **Educational** | |

a | Well-travelled | 5

|

b | Children well-educated | 5

|

c | Professional recognition | 10

|

|

**TOTAL** | **20**

|

|  | |

**4.** | **Social Achievements** | |

a | Successful family relationships | 10

|

b | Group of close friends | 5

|

c | Interest in extra-curricular activities | 5

|

d | Social organisations to which you belong | 5

|

e | Wide social recognition | 5

|

|

**TOTAL** | **30**

|

|

**GRAND TOTAL** | **100**

|

__

**Life Scorecard** ****

---

**INTELLECTUAL** ****

**Sr no** | **Attributes** | **Marks** | **Your Score**

**1.** | **Philosophy** | |

a | Well-read | 2

|

b | High comprehension level | 3

|

c | Time spent on study of philosophy | 3

|

d | Ability to discuss philosophical concepts | 7

|

e | Deep understanding of philosophy | 10

|

|

**TOTAL** | **25**

|

|  | |

**2.** | **Intuitiveness** | |

a | Ability to anticipate events | 5

|

b | Psychic abilities | 5

|

c | Knowledge of subjects like astrology, vaastu, fengshui, reiki etc. | 5

|

|

**TOTAL** | **15**

|

|  | |

**3.** | **Wisdom** | |

a | Knowledge of human nature | 5

|

b | Knowledge of life sciences (yoga etc) | 5

|

c | Knowledge of scriptures | 5

|

d | Ability to amalgamate all in guiding people | 5

|

e | Ability to engage persons from all backgrounds and ages | 5

|

f | Ability to control sense cravings | 15

|

g | Ability to empathise with others | 10

|

h | Ability to control emotions | 10

|

|

TOTAL | 60

|

|

**GRAND TOTAL** | **100**

|

__

**Life Scorecard**

---

**SPIRITUAL**

**Sr no** | **Attributes** | **Marks** | **Your Score**

**1**. | **Philanthropy** | |

a | Regularity of practice | 5

|

b | Percentage of saving devoted to philantropy | 5

|

c | Number of charities supported | 5

|

|

**TOTAL** | **15**

|

|  | |

**2.** | **Service** | |

a | Percentage of time spent on serving others | 5

|

b | Number of persons served in your lifetime | 10

|

c | Number of organisations where you volunteer your time | 5

|

|

**TOTAL** | **20**

|

|  | |

**3.** | **Mantra Vidya** | |

a | Number of mantras chanted | 3

|

b | Number of siddh mantras known | 5

|

c | Number of mantra siddhis attained | 12

|

|

**TOTAL** | **20**

|

|  | |

**4** | **Spiritual Accomplishments** | |

a | Knowledge of inner self | 3

|

b | Power to heal | 5

|

c | Out-of-body experience | 10

|

d | Attainment of gati | 7

|

e | Attainment of mukti | 5

|

f | Opening of third eye | 10

|

|

**TOTAL** | **45**

|

|

**GRAND TOTAL** | **100**

|

__

The above scorecards will make you aware of the potentialities human beings are supposed to have. Gurudev and many of his disciples have these potentialities, especially in the spiritual segment.

For most people, scoring a 100, though not impossible, is extremely difficult.

The fact that somebody else might have these abilities that you may not even aspire to achieve, should raise a red flag in your mind's eye.

These scorecards might motivate you to realise that though you may score good on the physical front, you may not have heightened your awareness on the intellectual side. And if you have not even taken the spiritual scorecard into account, then at best you will get average marks in the exam of life.

It is our endeavour to make you conscious of these facts.

Here is hoping you aim for a much higher score!

## Chapter IV  
On examining self-worship

Despite the hesitations, agreements or disagreements in the first three chapters, there is logic behind loving yourself for who you are, irrespective of circumstances, destiny, conditioning, negative thoughts and beliefs or lack of self-worth.

However, when it comes to worshipping yourself, it may seem like an impossible task.

It does not matter what you, your family and friends, or the world in general, thinks of you. You need to learn to accept yourself with all the good and bad qualities.

The day you joined first grade in school you were already a high school graduate in the future. You knew you would clear high school. That is because everybody else did and you could see that. It was common knowledge.

Worshipping yourself? That is not common knowledge. People would think you need to get your head examined. Who do you think you are? A self-acclaimed demigod?! There would be similar such reactions from people.

So, here is something you need to infer. The _jivaatma_ is a part of the _parmaatma_ or the Supreme, much like a glass of water is a smaller version of the ocean. We have heard this all our lives. The Gita, the Bible, and every person preaching spiritualism have said it in one way or the other. 'In his image he made man' is the common strain of thought.

Why don't you learn to play spiritual golf? You become perfect with practice. It will take time but you will get there. The biggest challenge is you are trying to perceive a reality that goes beyond the mind and intellect. Unfortunately, the mind and intellect are the only tools of perception available to you. It is not a subject for the five senses to perceive but all that the mind is capable of. The intellect will try to understand what lies beyond the five senses, but still does not have the power to gauge a reality that is beyond it.

In the words of Adi Shankaracharya, one of the greatest Indian saints, "I am not the mind, nor intellect, nor ego, nor the reflections of inner self ( _citta_ ). I am not the five senses. I am beyond that".

It is important to watch yourself do things you respect. The observer in you has to be impressed by what you observe. When you do what you perceive as good, you will see yourself as a much greater mortal. (The observer here is your entire being–body, spirit, _kaarnasharir_ and _jivaatma_.)

You will make many mistakes on your path which will shake your belief, but learn how to forgive, empathise, and accept yourself on 'as is where is' basis. This philosophy will help you press the delete button on any negative feelings that you might have about yourself.

## Multiple Levels of Mental Existence

I would like to share an amazing secret with you that has worked for me.

I realised I could not hold a certain level of introspective thinking or remain in a particular class of self-judgement all the time. Often, due to circumstances, I dwelled in the seventh grade of philosophical existence. At certain times, I behaved like a high school graduate and other times I reacted like a fifth grade student. I seldom found my reactions mature enough. Yet there were times I was talking, thinking and behaving like a postgraduate, who had completed his education and was learning to practice it. But it was always living at different mental levels and at different times. In short, my maturity and evolution were fractured and I could enjoy it only part-time.

Does that sound bizarre? No, it does not. Think about it!

It is amazing if you can accept yourself to play different roles at different levels of the mind, intellect and awareness. The element of divinity within you need not be worshipped 24/7. You need to be able to oscillate to that level when you want to. Knowing that your so-called normal life is one of _maya_ (delusion) is a great realisation. Living a life of _maya_ with this realisation keeps you flexible enough to oscillate in and out of its circle.

Besides, living life as if you are studying in different classes lets you examine yourself at different phases of life.

### Judge Yourself from Phase A to Z

Rajeev's world of wealth, luxury and style came to a tragic end due to bad luck that struck his family. His world had turned turtle and so had most of his father's legacy. He started working but mostly lived off the dividend that his mother's shares earned. So what did Rajeev do? He became an alcoholic and a drug addict. Fortunately, he is married to a nice woman. He stayed intoxicated for years–his escape route from the harshness of life. His wife joined in. The sizzling couple became a sozzled duo!

There was pathos!

Rajeev was then introduced to the _sthan_ and was motivated to quit his intoxications. Meanwhile, his father-in-law came to meet me to know if we could do anything to help his unfortunate son-in-law.

I did my own googly bowling. What I said to him was enough to ruin his efforts of wanting to see me (thank god he did not claim the taxi fare!). "Your son-in-law is a saint," I said, "trust me you will be proud of him and he will do a lot of good in this world. Your son-in-law will one day be respected and worshipped by hundreds and thousands of people." His facial expressions were priceless!

The poor father-in-law! If only he could go back a few hours in time, he would not be subjected to such incomprehensible words. His expression was one of disbelief, like when you think someone is talking through their hat! Our meeting ended shortly, but not without a snide remark from me. "You may laugh today Paliji," I said, "but he who laughs last, laughs the wisest."

Years later Paliji came to see me again. This time without the same disenchanted expression. He wanted to thank me as his son-in-law had done a complete turnaround, given up alcohol, acquired a sense of maturity, and was involved in a lot of social work and spiritual healing (by the time, he may have healed several hundred). My words were ringing in his ears.

Paliji was amused and said, "You were so right but at that time how could I believe it? Thank you so much for initiating so many changes in Rajeev." The funny part of the story is that Rajeev had always been a saint with a few years of absenteeism when he was under the influence of intoxicants. I had done nothing to bring about the metamorphosis; it was his destiny and I became the trigger. Now let us examine which one is Rajeev?

The child that wet his bed, the naughty kid in school (he studied in Doon School no less), the adventurer in college, the ambitious youth doing his MBA in the USA, the drunk one at his desk in office, the quick learning disciple at the _sthan_ , a well-respected and revered spiritual healer?

Which one is Rajeev? Which one are you?

The great sage Valmiki, who wrote the Indian epic _Ramayan_ , was a murderer at one stage of his life. And yet he is referred to as a _maharishi_. The scholar Vishvamitra, once an arrogant king, felt slighted by Guru Vashisht. In order to seek revenge, he did penance to achieve the same attainments held by Guru Vashisht. He failed several times but finally made it to the title of _brahmarishi_ (the most advanced in spiritual practices). So which one was he–the arrogant king or the accomplished guru?

Why judge yourself at the cross-section today? If you have embarked on the voyage of self-discovery, then give yourself a fair chance. You can accept yourself. You can love yourself. In time, you can worship yourself too.

The seed is sowed in the soil that has sprouted. Help it grow and there will be flowers in spring. Accept your potential strengths. To make it easier, let us examine a few case studies of extraordinary feats by animals whose level of consciousness were temporarily raised. If animals can do what features ahead, examine your potential. Be ready for a few surprises!

## Miracles by Animals

**Example 1.** When my son was born premature, he had to be kept in an incubator for several days. My wife stayed in the hospital to breastfeed him every morning at 6:15. She often got late, and the nurses felt it was not good for the baby. Then, out of providence came a strange morning alarm. An ordinary crow would arrive at 5:45 every morning and knock with its beak on the windowpane. It would keep knocking until my wife awoke. My late mother-in-law, a light sleeper, accompanied her in the room so that waking up was easier. Once the ladies had woken up, the crow would stop knocking and fly away. But it never missed a single day of being the morning alarm. How does one explain that? How does a crow know when it is time to knock? And that too at 5:45 a.m? Or even know to knock? As it was a miraculous birth, where nurses and doctors did not have much hope, I realised there were a few spiritual forces at play. The crow was probably one of them. It was more than just a crow. It was possibly a spiritual energy that had been allotted to help the child succeed to live. Some power could have heightened the level of consciousness of the crow.

**Example 2.** We had gone for a family trip to Himachal Pradesh with my brothers-in-law and their kids. We stayed at a unique hotel in a hamlet called Ghosheini, 2 hours away from Kullu Manali. We had to raft across the river in an apple cart to get to the hotel. It was an amazing place, and a wonderful holiday. But, on the third or fourth day of our stay there I felt heaviness around my head, as if there was some external energy present in my hotel room. I could not figure out what was happening. I suspected some energy hovering around me. It made me uncomfortable.

In the vicinity, there was a dog that lazed all day and night except when it was hungry. It was like a stuffed toy that moved only sometimes. One evening when everyone went for a jeep ride, I decided to stay back and investigate the reason behind the heaviness. I was standing in the garden, when the dog suddenly burst into life; like a hyper energy had possessed him. The dog came and stood in front of me as if asking to follow him. I wondered if my mind was playing games or was I actually communicating with the animal. There was only one way to find out and so I followed the dog.

He led me up to the walking path we took every evening. We reached a fork in the road where the left path went around the hill, and the other, towards a village. I wanted to take the left path, but the dog would not follow. He waited by the other path and stared at me. So I gave up and followed him. When we reached near the top, from where the village was visible, the dog jumped and disappeared in no time. I spotted a couple of village girls and asked them if there was a temple nearby. They guided me to take about 20 steps to the left for the village temple. I followed their directions and reached a place where there was a huge tree with a temple built around it and surprisingly, the dog was sitting there waiting for me. On spotting the dog, it disappeared again leaving me alone in the temple.

I sensed the temple was trying to communicate with me, so I tried listening with my mind. It asked if I would collaborate with it and serve people in the neighbourhood, and in return it would help as well. I readily agreed provided the temple would make it happen for me. A few minutes later I left. The dog was waiting down the road to escort me back, minus the hyper energy. The heaviness around my head had vanished too.

We were checking out of the hotel the next day and the owner refused to accept the bill. After a lot of coercing, he accepted only half the amount. No explanations why. Perhaps he liked our faces?

We went back to our homes and forgot about the incident, but the tree did not forget us. Two years later, while in office, my partner randomly asked me, "Would you like to buy land in Ghosheini?" What was that about I wondered. He further explained that an army colonel wanted to sell his land in the quaint town. The tree certainly knew how to reach me!

So, the question here is can a lazy dog suddenly become a messenger between one spiritual energy and another? It must have had to reach a certain level of consciousness, far beyond the level of a regular lazy dog's. If so, is there anything to stop us?

Can a crow learn to wake up a lady to feed her baby? The level of consciousness of that crow was probably beyond what we see in most crows. If a crow can do that, so can we. What I mean to say is even you can worship yourself provided you see yourself not as an identity with a label, a name, a designation, a domicile, a family, a religion, but as someone who is ready to eliminate the conditioning, the _samskars_ , the attachments, and the delusion of this world.

Metamorphosis... yours!

Watch yourself change from X to X-plus. As you put the strategies of the first three chapters into motion, you will notice changes in your attitude and your behaviour. But you have to put the strategies of the first three chapters into play. You have to!

  * • You will be able to empathise with people and with yourself.
  * • Attachments will wane, detachment will follow.
  * • A role-playing actor would emerge from within.
  * • You will learn to play your roles rather than get emotionally trapped by them.
  * • You will continue to receive negative thoughts, but because of your ability to accept things as they are, you will not indulge in self-blame and self-degradation.

Imagine making a mistake and not feeling bad about it, but instead feeling elevated. It happened! So what? Empathising with the fact that you had to go through this experience in order to learn to create intent, to avoid it in the future is a victory. True love for anyone, including yourself is not about expectations, but about acceptance. Self-acceptance has already kicked into play.

Enjoy it!

'Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the nicest of them all?' Answer it!

You have understood the secret that you cannot always be at a particular level of consciousness or understanding. You are now willing to accept yourself studying in different classes at the same time. You started your day in the fifth grade, continued till college, and ended working on your PhD.

Are you not something else? Look at the change within you! It is called metamorphosis. And it did not even take much. Only _purusharth_.

A word of advice–remember, however badly you fare in the tests, you cannot get a zero. So you cannot get hundred either. You have to learn to accept varying percentages in different subjects. There are too many tests going on at the same time. So be happy about doing well in some and not so well in others.

Empathy toward self, detachment, acceptance, role-play and self-counseling will all work towards your share beating the index. A blue chip you will be. So invest and watch your share in colour green constantly. Do not wait for all the processes to be evolved one at a time. Once you have enrolled in college, you have already graduated in the future. It is a matter of time.

## Dreams, Visions and Spiritual Experiences

Spiritual experiences help fortify your belief in the subject. Are these necessary? Not at all. But the human mind that is in a constant state of delusion, needs more measurable misconceptions to have faith. Miracles, visions of saints, gods and goddesses, premonitions, spiritual healing, sighting of ghosts or spiritual beings and psychic predictions, help create faith and psychological acceptance.

Dreams can be of many types and the reasons for having them can be numerous, just like the _vitarkas_ and stored _samskars_ in our hard disk could get fructified, continuously thinking on a subject, suffering from indigestion, or not urinating before going to bed. They can be bizarre and make no sense or logic. Dreams that happen in half-awake, half-asleep state can be meaningful and act as learning experiences. Many premonitory dreams, guidance by spiritual teachers or ancestors, interaction with spiritual energies and out-of-body experiences lead a person to having faith in both, the subject and themselves.

### Udhav's Geometric Vision (Jain Sahib's too)

My friend Udhav Kirtikar from New Zealand was involved in spiritual seva when he lived in India. Udhav often troubled Gurudev asking him to grant him spiritual experiences. One night at about 4 a.m. while he lay in bed half-awake, half-asleep, he saw a couple of blackish triangles enter his window and stop in front of him. This woke him up totally. He was perplexed and did not know what to do. Being an expert in martial arts, he had a nunchaku hanging on the wall behind his bed. He tried to rush towards it but could not, as he was in shock. The triangles were witness to his immaturity and his martial arts practice was of no help!

He watched the triangles enter his home temple and return to a spot opposite him. A few minutes later they left through the window. I could have categorised this as a hallucination but I did not. One of Gurudev's oldest disciples, Bade Jain Sahib had also seen a couple of similar triangles enter his house, and I knew that the gentlemen had not concurred their experiences with each other. Surely, the two gentlemen must have felt wealthier in terms of spiritual visions. These experiences were stranger than fiction and hence felt the need to share.

### Shiv Darshan

Rajiv Sharma (name changed), one of Gurudev's older disciples had an intriguing experience worth envying. In his dream, Gurudev took him out of his body to a cave somewhere in the mountains, but not on Earth. On entering the cave, he saw three enormous 'statues' in deep meditation. He instinctively knew these as the meditating forms of Shiv, Vishnu, and Brahma. Shiv came to consciousness. Staring at him with a deadpan expression, and in a deep resonating voice, Shiv asked him what he desired. "Nothing your Lord," said Rajiv, "I need your grace."

Shiv materialised holy water with a milky texture, and poured it into Rajiv's hands thrice, saying _mrityu, mrityu, mrityu_ each time (death, death, death which meant the end of existence).

Rajiv left the cave and returned to his body. Fascinating right? People will call this a delusion of the mind, or wishful thinking or creative visualisation ( _buddhibrahm_ ).

Sure, I agree!

We live in a world of _maya_ and everything around us is delusion. The senses are the creators of delusion and we are susceptible to imagining a world of reality that is nothing more than an appearance. This is _maya_. Delusion within delusion is as true or as reflective as your perceived reality. The dream state is another state of reality within the circle of _maya_. Some of it is as real as life itself, except that like physical life, it does not have continuity. It is a book of short stories.

### An Experience at Badrinath: Hello Brother!

Thank god, Gurudev was not a cricketer and especially not a bowler. Otherwise, he would never have bowled a straight ball, but only googlies! He asked me to spend a few days with him at his camp in Srinagar, Uttarakhand. There were other disciples in the camp and he decided to take us to the famous Badrinath Temple.

On reaching the temple Gurudev stood outside and asked me to go inside and hug the deity and say, "My dear elder brother, I want to give you a hug." I went inside not knowing whom to hug, but was certain he did not want me to hug the temple deity. I chanced upon a statue of Adi Shankaracharya, the man who founded the temple. I found him easy to hug. He was tangible, measurable and huggable! I quite enjoyed hugging his marble statue.

When I came out and gave Gurudev an account of what I had done, he sent me right back, and asked me to mentally hug Lord Badrinath. Whew! What was that? Was I to go and hug the deity of one of the most powerful temples in the country? It did not sound like a joke. Neither did it make sense. It took me years to figure it out. It was one of the reasons that could have led to this book.

What Gurudev told me without putting into words was that I should consider myself a younger brother to that very powerful force. He expected me to believe in the equality of one _aatma_ with another. He knew this was going to be a huge concept for me to fathom, and yet he wanted me to do so.

So, I did exactly what he had asked me to, and tried my best to follow it, which I did.

### A Vision of Ram

A few years later, I got a vision in the early hours of the morning. I was at a gathering where people were waiting to pay their respects to Lord Ram, Sita, and Lakshman. There were about hundred people waiting to meet them. When it was finally my turn to meet them, Lord Ram asked me what I desired. I surprised myself by saying I wanted nothing and had come to offer them my good wishes. Sita thanked me with a broad smile. Lord Ram and Lakshman acknowledged me too, but with wry grins.

I woke up shocked. What was I, 'Mr Ordinary' doing offering good wishes to someone who is considered god by millions? How could this be true? Whether it was true or not, I started looking at myself as part of the divine that was within me. I started identifying more with that part of me, than where I made an idiot of myself (quite an idiot actually). I also wondered whether I had a better sense of humour than Lord Ram (hope he does not have an arrow in his bow right now!).

It all depends on which part you are willing to connect and identify yourself with. You have a choice to identify with the divinity in you, so why identify with the hopeless character you have to deal with anyway?

Think. Think again, and act on it!

### Dreams: A Group Discussion

At a group discussion on dreams and visions with my spiritual colleagues, there were a few points we all found interesting.

1. Dreams are not necessarily happenings or events, but often perception of the mind. For example, if I were to dream about a saint blessing or interacting with me, I would believe it. That I was competent and qualified to be in the company of saints who were my equal, or, at least, I was in the process of thinking they were. On the other hand, if my dream of Lord Ram was a figment of my imagination, then the fact that it was so vivid and real, lasted for so long that I could literally feel everything and react to its movements meant that I considered myself qualified enough for having met this great soul.

2. The fact that I got many insignificant and unrelated dreams meant I was letting out stored thoughts and engrams in the dream space. It was not meant to have any meaning; it was purely meant to let out steam. The steam being the stored impressions and engrams or _samskars_.

3. Out-of-body experiences cannot be compared to the above categories, as in this state, my spirit body came out of my physical one and my consciousness moved from the physical to the spirit body. My physical body lay there in cold storage, kept alive by a part of the energy at the cortex of the head where the _shivling_ of the human being is situated. If you shave a coconut at a point where it has the indents, you will find a clove like structure inside, which resembles its counterpart in the human brain. (This portion is called _sahasra_ and is the point where great saints aspire to exit at the time of death.) If you press your head at the back, you will find similar impressions as in the coconut. Thus, in Hindu philosophy, a coconut represents the human head and is offered as a sacrifice to a greater power.

4. Another category of dreams I have experienced is one in which certain powers or energies give you important information that could be of use in the future. When one of my children was about to be born, I got a message in my dream that I must leave town for a few days for the delivery to happen smoothly. I decided not to make much of it, as it was more of an arbitrary dream. However, on the subsequent night, one of Gurudev's disciples appeared in my dream and asked me to go outstation. Though the dreams did not make sense to me, I was certain my wife would think these were the worst dreams I ever had. Yet, as a matter of faith, I obeyed.

My son was to be born premature through a Caesarean delivery on New Year's Eve. At around 11 p.m., the doctor and his wife, both commercially inclined gynecologists went up to their apartment in the same building to celebrate with their friends. At 11.35 p.m. my wife had a natural delivery and was saved the pain and agony of a surgery. It was however a commercial loss to the hospital and delivery centre.

Several years earlier, I dreamt of men with green masks stabbing my wife lying on a bed. It looked like my wife was going to die. Gurudev appeared in that dream as well and asked me my wish. I left the decision to him. The dots seemed to connect. What was to be a negative operation in terms of luck turned out to be a natural delivery quite by accident and spiritual conspiracy! My presence might have been an impediment.

5. The dream state can sometimes be used for attainment of spiritual benefits. I have even received _mantras_ in my dream state. The deity that gave me a _mantra_ showed me its utilisation, almost providing a 3D operational manual for it. I have never heard of this _mantra_ or seen it in any book. The words are uncommon and did not sound like I have heard the words relating to the subject.

As I mentioned earlier, the technique of _gati_ to travel astrally was taught to me in a dream state.

Many people have seen me appear in their dreams and I have given them _mantras_ they did not know. Some of the smart ones even forgot them. Many of my spiritual associates have had similar experiences of either receiving _mantras_ or giving _mantras_ to their disciples in turn.

Shri Santlalji, another disciple of Gurudev, attained _gurucharan_ (synthesis with the power of guru, which is a connection that takes place in the forehead of the disciple) in my dream. He and I were waiting to receive this great attainment in my dream state, and we were both lucky enough to receive it. It was my dream state so I was aware of it, but I did not share this with anyone. One day, when we were sitting alone in a room, I told Santlalji about his great attainment. He was shocked and wanted to know how I knew about it since he had not shared it with anybody either.

Haha! I love secrets.

### Materialising the Missing Locket

A few years before the above incident, Bittuji's wife Kalpana was worried about her husband's security as they were facing some personal issues. In 1991, three days after Gurudev's demise, Kalpana had a vision in which Gurudev gave her a locket that was to be tied around her husband's neck by Mataji, Gurudev's wife. He asked her to hold the locket tightly in her hand, and then disappeared. On waking up the next morning she found a locket clasped in her palm. What was given to her in her dream state had materialised in her physical state. Mataji made Bittuji wear the locket very ceremoniously at the _sthan_. Obviously, it was no ordinary locket!

Bittuji would pay his respects to the locket every morning and night before going to bed. About four years later, on waking up one morning, the locket was gone. Despite looking for it everywhere, the locket was not to be found. However, the security risk he was facing had been resolved by then.

If I were Bittuji, I would have hired Sherlock Holmes to solve the case of 'The missing locket'. But Bittuji accepted his fate. And he probably did not have Sherlock's number!

This story makes me wonder if Gurudev is in the locket lending business!

Gurudev has pulled my leg several times, so here is an opportunity I will not miss.

6. Sometimes spiritual entities can be a saving grace for human beings but I am sure most people have not experienced anything like this.

My friend Pappu Sharma lives in Jwalaji, Himachal Pradesh, and is a disciple of Gurudev. Like his father Shambhuji, he is very spiritually evolved. Shambhuji, who died about 25 years ago, was a respected man in his hamlet and had been given spiritual powers by Gurudev. One day while resting in his house, Pappu saw balls of fire coming down from the ceiling and getting extinguished before hitting his bed. He was shocked beyond belief. Amidst the horrifying chaos, he saw his late father standing in the room protecting him from the flames. In 15–20 seconds the flames disappeared and so did his father. What was the significance of this?

In certain villages of India, the practice of black magic is prevalent and is understood to be the left hand work of _tantric vidya_. A dangerous trick in black magic is to send flames through an aerial route to someone's home to burn it. In the local language they call it _mutth chalana_. It was a learning experience for my friend who had never witnessed black magic before, but became a victim nevertheless.

Spirits are often used to hurt others or create problems in other's homes. Though this is not a part of the subject of dreams, it is connected. So I thought you might be interested.

There are various categories of dreams and visions and there is no one particular way of understanding them. These are just a few examples that might help you categorise some of your own dreams and visions.

And let me not forget to mention that dreams about snakes are usually not bad. They often signify _shakti_ interacting with you in your dream state.

A dream about somebody's death is more often than not a good dream. It signifies the end of risk to that person.

A lady once appeared in my dream state and clasped my hands. I could feel power being stolen from me. Not exactly a pleasant dream, but a realistic one anyway.

At different stages of self-evolution, your dreams will fortify the fact that you have achieved some spiritual prominence. This will help you recognise and accept in your subconscious state, the eternal truth of who you are and what you have become.

## A Misunderstanding of Self-Love

In my enthusiasm, I hope I have not, by any chance, given you the notion of self-love being a case of giving yourself importance in a worldly way. Materialistic products and social graces definitely make people look at us in awe, respect and envy. They shower us with praises and make us feel important. And let us be honest, most people enjoy that. "But when I tell him he hates flatterers, he says he does, being then most flattered", is a famous line from _Julius Caesar_ by William Shakespeare, which is in sync with what I am saying.

I have noticed famous people becoming victims of various kinds of attention. And if the attention wanes for some reason, they get into depression. They get used to living in flattery and recognition. I read this in college 'film stars spend half their lives trying to get into the public eye, and the other half wearing dark glasses to hide from it'. Glorification of the self is quite different from that of the physical or social being.

I spent a lot of time with a lady psychologist trying to understand the way a woman thinks. She educated me about things I would have never guessed. She said I must give positive attention to my wife because if I don't, she would rather have negative attention than none at all. Oh my god! Is this true?

You must ask this question to yourself and see how this affects you. If you are a wife, do you crave for your husband's attention? I asked my female architect once whether she did. She said, "Yes and if he does not compliment me on my clothes, I get very angry with him".

So my question is, can you do without this attention considering it is not even genuine most times? Does this not happen out of insecurity? Not being sure how much you should respect and love yourself? Ladies should know that they are the form of _shakti_ , and a part of _prakriti_ and without them the world is incomplete.

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa would have been my friend but unfortunately he died before I was born. He treated all femininity in the form of mother.

Absolutely. If you were to meet him across time and space, he would give you the form of mother. So, why do you need attention from a poor husband who probably needs much more of it himself?

Self-love has to go beyond attention seeking. If you look around, your dog is asking for it, your kids are asking for it, and many of your friends are asking for it as well. So do not join the attention-seeking club. Once you see the spark of divinity within you, you will not want attention from anyone else. You will look for _vairagya_ and that solitude will give you a high.

## **Chapter V  
** Self-Worship - The Way Forward

So how do we do this? How do we actually pray to ourselves? You can do this and yet not feel awkward about it. You have hopefully seen the merit of this line of thinking by now, so why not give it a shot? At best, it will make you divine!

## Exercises for Self-Worship

Let us start with a basic physical exercise, which is symbolic and easy for the mind to accept.

1. Take a photograph of yourself and put it up somewhere in your room or in your cupboard.

Treat this photograph like that of any saint or god that you worship. Remember, this is not your photograph. This is the photograph that represents the _aatma_ , which is a part of the Consciousness Supreme, but covered by a set of bodies–the outer one being your physical part. It is not about worshipping the physical body in the photograph. It is about worshipping the spirit body within, the _kaarna sharir_ , the _jivaatma_ or the divine spark at the core of your existence.

Going beyond, it is about worshipping that Consciousness Supreme, which takes you deeper from _jivaatma_ to pure _aatma_.

In short, it is you minus the various bodies and the individual ego.

Your physical self is the doorway that leads to the 'you' that can be worshipped. So why not use this doorway instead of some other? There is no vanity involved, so do not fear it. There are nine billion doorways to the Supreme (the number of people alive), yours is one of them. And this doorway is one of them. So use it!

Sant Tukaram puts it beautifully:

"I made an earthen image of Shiva, but the earth is not Shiva;

My worship reaches Shiva, the earth remains the earth it was.

I made a stone image of Vishnu, but the stone is not Vishnu;

My worship reaches Vishnu, the stone remains what the stone was.

I made a pewter image of Amba, but the pewter is not Amba, Amba receives my worship,

Though a pewter that pewter remains.

Even so are saints worshipped, the worship reaches the Lord, the saint is but His servant, an instrument, a conduit pipe".

Dr Shankar Narayan, one of Gurudev's older disciples, shared this poem with me.

My personal experience with Gurudev, during the last days of his life, was uncanny. I had a strange dream, where I was talking to myself. My voice said to me, "Are you willing to accept him as whatever he may be, even if he is not the great saint you think he is, even if he does not have all the power you seem to believe he does? Are you willing to accept him unconditionally?"

I had to debate within. There was a play of doubts and counter-doubts. Eventually, it was a confirmed 'yes'. At this stage the conversation ended, but when I woke up the next morning, my relationship with Gurudev had changed.

I realised my guru was not a 5 feet 8-inch man who spoke well, lived brilliantly and set fantastic examples to follow. I realised he was more than human, a ball of energy. I realised his physical form was like a bioscope for me to see his true self. I knew I should not worship the man; I should worship the being.

My constant desire to meet him in person waned. I used to go to Gurgaon, pay my respects to the _sthan_ and not try to get an audience with him as I usually did. Wasn't I lucky that my relationship had changed from physical to meta-physical?

It surpassed 'me' and 'him' and reached a point of 'us'. To break this profound philosophy, he called and admonished me with the choicest Punjabi abuses, "You come all the way from Bombay to meet me and don't even come to see me for a few minutes?" And yet, there was a chuckle of approval in his voice.

I had learned to see him beyond his physical self and so must you.

Through this photograph (of yourself) you have done what software engineers do. You have created a path between the physical appearance in your photograph and the Consciousness Supreme at the other end. You must bow your head every day to this photograph and all that it represents. If possible, offer a few nice flowers, light a candle or an incense stick in honour of the characters in the photograph. If you can take this a little further, sit in front of the photograph and meditate. Tell the character in the photograph, you know that it is a godly character and that you love it very much, you know that the identities in the photograph will love you truly, not necessarily emotionally, and always wish for your good. You will communicate to the photograph that your love for it is unconditional and not dependent on the waxing and waning of the fortunes of the physical body in the photograph. Tell that person you love him/her, on 'as is where is' basis.

Do this and you will slowly start believing in the relationship.

Sometimes, in your imagination or during meditation, you may get a negative vibe from the character in the photograph. The character might show negative feelings in one way or the other. You will learn to accept that and wait for the phase to pass. You know that in the time to come, the love between you the worshipper, and you being worshipped, can only be pure and flawless.

Sometimes you may see certain expressions in the photograph and wonder if it is your imagination, and that the photograph is actually trying to communicate through its expressions. You may not find this easy to believe, but do not deny it merely because logic does not allow it. You need to do this regularly or, if I may use a word that I do not usually enjoy using, religiously! Do not stop. You are connecting to not only the physical part of you in the photograph, but also to the spiritual body that was, is and will be you. You are even connecting to the third body, the _kaarna sharir_ or causal body. This will create a bonding between the three bodies, and it will be observed by the _jivaatma_ or the witness within you.

This is a powerful personal strategy for spiritual growth. Do not be dissuaded by thoughts or reactions or opinion of others. Let it take weeks or months or years but success lies at the end of the tunnel, because you have already entered the tunnel and there is only one place to reach if you do not turn back. So, do not turn back. Make it to the end. Even if it takes more than a lifetime. Remember those magic words in Sanskrit: Tat Twam Asi (That You Are).

I have actually taken the essence of those magical words and deconstructed it for your reading pleasure and easy practice.You owe me the success.

Pay your dues.

### Self-Healing By an Atheist

My sister's friend in New York had an African-American boyfriend whose business was to arrange boxing matches. She frantically called me one day asking help for her boyfriend. He had been diagnosed with blood cancer and doctors had given him barely three to six months to live. She also said that he did not believe in religion and probably would not share my faith. I asked her to make him call me anyway for only then could I help. One day he did and said, "Hey, I'm John."

He said he had been asked to call me, and told me that he did not believe in god and he was not willing to go to any church or temple to pray. That was a tough one. I was not sure whether I should feel insulted or empathise with the man and try to help him.

**Stare and visualise this figure or graphic on your forehead. It helps clear the plumbing for the spirit.**

After hearing his straight talk, I put forward my terms and conditions if he wanted help at all. He would have to light a candle twice a day and pray to himself for not less than 5minutes at a time- sitting, standing, lying down or whichever way he felt comfortable. If he was not ready to do that, then it was time to say goodbye. The rudeness worked. He said, "Sir, I can do that!" I believe he did. And sincerely. I remember his girlfriend telling me two years later that he was much better, alive and kicking. The last I heard about John was he was still around in New York, 20 years after our conversation. I am not sure how he managed to overcome the deadly disease. He must have benefitted from certain therapies, but I am also convinced that despite any medical treatment he may have had, he was greatly benefitted by self-healing and self-worship. I do not know his current status but he certainly did beat the medical predictions. It is a case of an atheist worshipping himself and benefitting from his own divinity. John did it, you can do it too.

2. Sit cross-legged in front of a mirror, and stare at your forehead. You will see (if not initially but eventually) an imaginary straight line, extending from above your nose towards the centre of your forehead (at the level of your hair). Further, you will see the formation of a half-moon shape, above your eyebrows going toward your hairline. Keep looking at it for the first few weeks and months. Later, when this half-moon appears distinctly, keep staring at it for several minutes everyday, and do this for years. Please do not ask me to explain further, but trust me it works.

3. Sit cross-legged in a meditative pose like the graphic of Gurudev in the initial pages of the book. Recite a _mantra_ (if you have one) or simply chant _Om_ or Allah or Hail Mary, and so forth. Imagine yourself sitting within you, staring outward, as you are in this pose. The 'you' that you see within, should be sitting somewhere between your heart and forehead _chakra_. Look at yourself in your present form and then slowly look back at you in youth days and then you in your childhood. Keep going back until one day you see yourself as a child sitting in the same pose within you as before. This could take weeks or months, but do it. Initially you may not be able to visualise yourself, so, keep trying and keep failing, until you fail at failing.

**Visualise yourself within and rewind the image of your current age slowly but steadily, till you reach the baby you.**

## Love

The subject of love has been misinterpreted for centuries. European poets talked about love in the romantic sense between a man and woman. Even in India the general interpretation of love has always been romantic. The love of Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz Mahal culminated in the construction of the Taj Mahal at Agra.

Another classical interpretation of love was for one's parents or children. And then came the saints who spoke about love for all living beings, elements...the love of abundance.

I believe love is devoid of emotion, and cannot be a positive feeling. I remember a poem I read in school. It was Shakespeare's _Sonnet No. 116_ -

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove....

Love is not a quid pro quo or return present. Love is not something you direct towards a specific person or a set of people. It is an attitude you can direct to one, and as many people you come into contact with. It has to be an underlying theme, where you need to love all forms of the Consciousness Supreme outside of you, so that you can love the same spark within you.

Love needs to be a reflection from the inside to the outside. Your love for yourself can never be true, unless it is available to share with the outside world too.

The water in the coffee should have the ability to love the water of other cups of coffee, even though the cups may be of different shapes, sizes, and colours. It will come naturally, but the challenge is that the water in the cup of coffee should be able to love the liquid in a glass of mango juice, in a cup of tea, and in all other forms of liquid as well.

The lowest common multiple (LCM) of all liquids is water. So why should water only know how to love itself in its purest form. The ability to feel oneness with itself in a cup of coffee or a bottle of tomato ketchup shows the ability to love.

We get bound by concentric circles...we are proud to be Indians, we are proud to be Punjabis, we are proud to be Khannas, we are proud to be from the same village and the same caste, and even better, the same family. To top it all, we are also proud to be practicing the same religion, and for the microscopically advanced, we are happy to be from the same sub-sect. And we love people from our own fraternity within all these circles.

This love emerges from acceptable norms or homogeneity. This is not love without an agenda or for the sake of love itself, but the love of a cult. The very phrase 'your loved ones' has within its brackets an element of selfish love. Love for family or extended family is still love with an emotional tint.

The lesson I learned from Gurudev and put into practice, gave me a completely different definition of love. He wanted us to do away with attachments and so I practiced not being attached to anyone and it worked for me. I wondered whether at the end of this I had become a careless father, a loveless husband, an indifferent son, and a non-indulgent brother! The emotion had gone out of most of these relationships. But the sense of duty had not, and besides, there was a superimposition of role-play. I knew the 17 things required to do to qualify as a good brother, the 14 ingredients for playing the role of a responsible son etc. A good father and a great husband are two relationships that have still eluded me.

Hopefully, my newly adopted Sindhi philosophy will help me get there (Sindhis are a community that are probably among the best in the world in the art of diplomacy and negotiation). My children could sense the change of attitude and wondered whether my propensity into spiritualism had made me distant. And, of course, whose wife does not think her husband is not caring enough? However, something new has happened. I have suddenly started looking at other people's children much closer than I would earlier. I found an underlying connectivity to most human beings known or unknown, Indian or foreign, rich or poor, good and even bad. The kind of love I entertained earlier, had an emotional connect, which was replaced by indifferent caring for a much larger audience.

Let me bring Patanjali into the fray once again. I feel it is easier to believe someone in history than in geography, "Human love is the highest emotion most of us know. It frees us to some extent from our egotism in our relation to one or more individuals. But human love is still possessive and exclusive. Love for the _aatman_ is neither. What people 'really are' is the _aatman_ , nothing less. To love the _aatman_ in ourselves is to love it everywhere. And to love the _aatman_ everywhere is to go beyond any manifestation of nature to the reality within nature. Such a love is too vast to be understood by ordinary minds, and yet it is simply an infinite deepening and expansion of the little limited love we all experience".

I can feel what it is like to be in someone else's shoes. Though this might be a cliché, it has become an important aspect of my life. I realise I will never be a popular friend or family man, nor will I be a social success, but I am happy to have seen this emotional love, which is charged with agenda, replaced by a not-so-warm, but intense connectivity to others.

Many of my wife's family members have appreciated my letters, sharing not my sorrow, but my satisfaction as their elders died as destined. I wished their spirits to do well in the after-life. I find a cold, dispassionate feeling of wanting others lives to improve, a much more productive form of love than I have known for the first 50 years of my life. I know when I am dead and gone my family members will give examples to others of my love of balance and reliability.

An excerpt from Adi Shankaracharya's sayings will add _tadka_ (spice) to the above lines, "I have no separation from my true self, no doubt about my existence, nor have I discrimination on the basis of birth. I have no father or mother, nor did I have a birth. I am not the relative, nor the friend, nor the guru, nor the disciple, I am indeed, that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva, love and pure consciousness".

Once you put these strategies into action, you will reach a similar position on the dartboard. A recipe if made exactly as in the book, tastes almost the same every time. Learn to love yourself without emotion. Or, to say it with jest, do love yourself mathematically!

## Karmamukt (Non-Doer-ship)

The word _mukt_ means 'freedom'. Freedom from karma and its obligations is what you achieve if you become _karmamukt_ or free from bearing the fruits of karma. As we have seen earlier, karma is the fructification of stored _samskars_ in our hard disk brought into our _citta_ by an energy called _vasna_. They become trends that lead us to action or karma. They are like seeds that sprout at a time relevant to them, neither earlier nor later. Their relevance is to the period of destiny running concurrently. Good karmas will fructify during a good planetary period and vice-versa.

So far so good, but the problem is that we take responsibility of this karma. This is because not only are we unaware of the above knowledge, but also believe we are the doers of everything that happens through us. If we realised that these actions were predetermined, because they were fructifications of the past stored engrams or _samskars_ , and had we been able to view these actions not as doers but as observers, then there would not be any emotion or doer-ship attached. These actions would have then passed on and not been restored in our hard disks or _karmashayas_ as new _samskars_.

And therefore, we will not be responsible for this action a second time, and the cycle will not go on. This will lighten the burden of our _karmashaya_ and we would require fewer births to exhaust our _samskars_.

Thinking and believing this can make one _karmamukt_ , free from the fruit of future karma. However, this belief has to be as deep as the conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels of the mind.

I found this concept easy to understand but very difficult to practice. The 'I' was a habitual part of me. It was not as bad as "Who do you think you are talking to?", but we are so used to relating all our actions to ourselves that it is difficult to suddenly distance ourselves and not take ownership of the actions.

I found a short cut, as I normally do, to most complicated problems. I decided if I could practice not being a doer, for a particular time period, and believed it sincerely, I could connect the next time I felt the same sentiment, by saying "From the last time to this time and from this time to the next time, I have not been a doer of any actions nor take any responsibility for any of my thoughts.

I saw logic in this. I had nullified my misunderstandings of the past and predicted my mix-ups of the future. In order to feel deeply sincere, I used the concept of _arpan_ or surrender at the _sthan_ (I am not trying to compete with Lord Ganapati, but I do not believe he has the monopoly for outwitting situations. I am referring to the competition with Lord Kartikeya, his elder brother for going round the universe. While Lord Kartikeya actually went round the universe, Lord Ganapati circled his parents in a few seconds and said it was equal to going around the universe. So, if Lord Shiva could accept the logic of his son, why would he not accept ours?).

Watch yourself do this at your place of worship and you will find it sink deeper and quicker.

The fact that you learn to love and worship yourself means you definitely do not wish to live endlessly, life after life and death after death. To achieve this is no cakewalk and in fact, in weaker moments you may lose conviction and become unsteady in your belief. Therefore, the resolve, "I am not the doer" has to be repeated several thousand times in a hypnotic way to have faith in it.

(Sometimes you may feel this is a mere theoretical exercise and therefore nice to read and bury in a bookshelf, but please remember hundreds of us have tested these theories and lived to tell the tale.)

Spend 5 minutes a day saying this to yourself when you are free from stress. Make it a prayer to yourself. It will surely work. The complication here is we find it easy to not take debit for our actions, but credit we do. We acknowledge the fact that we have been charitable, supported people and done a host of other positive deeds. The Jews call them 'Mitsvah', Indians – 'Punya', Sikhs – 'Karseva' and so forth.

In the initial stages of wanting to serve others, these feelings will arise, which is very fair. These feelings are highly motivating and push you forward. At a much later stage of spiritual evolution, this mindset should be replaced by the realisation that all your actions are pre-programmed and we need to avoid taking credit or discredit from these thoughts and deeds.

Adi Shankaracharya in his poem _Atma Shatakam_ says: "I have neither virtue ( _punyam_ ), nor vice ( _papam_ ). I do not commit sins or good deeds, nor have happiness or sorrow, pain or pleasure, I do not need mantras, holy places, scriptures ( _Vedas_ ), rituals or sacrifices ( _yagnas_ ). I am none of the triad of the observer or one who experiences the process of observing or experiencing, or any object being observed or experienced. I am indeed, that eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva, love and pure consciousness".

## Attitudes to Emulate

In the last several thousand years that the cycle of life has been in existence, there must have been thousands of people whose lives and attitudes were exemplary, and so were the results.

Since I have been a disciple of Gurudev and observed him closely for several years, and have also read Guru Vashisht's teachings, I can say with certainty that I find a lot of similarity in their teachings. It was almost like a man telling us how life should be led 12,000 years ago, and another living it 12,000 years later!

I have been an agnostic all my life and my father never taught me the concept of god. However, he took great pains in teaching me how to win people over, especially if you wanted some work done. Bribery in a mild form was a part of the curriculum.

Coming into contact with Gurudev and being introduced to spiritualism was more than just a cultural shock for me. What was surprising was that in spite of having photographs of various Indian deities in his prayer room (which we all called the _sthan_ ), Gurudev never went there to pray. I used to spend a lot of time with him after dinner, right up to the early hours of the morning at times, but I never saw him pray, in the 10 years I spent with him.

I realised much later that he had put up the photographs for the students of spiritualism at the level of high school and college.

Sometimes, when he went on a complicated spiritual healing mission, he would carry a photograph of himself in his shirt pocket. This practice did not make sense to me at the time and it only did 20 years later, when he explained, "I am carrying this photograph so that I can take myself along for this important mission. I want myself to come and help me complete it." He was probably not talking about himself, the householder or the physical body, but the spark of the divine. He needed to align all the different components of his being to work together in consonance on that particular case.

The following lines are a big lesson whatsoever:

_We hardly ever communicate with all that is us! We find it easier to pray to a perceived god._

Gods and angels live within the circle of _maya_.

I have seen how _bhajans_ and hymns of different faiths are easier means of worship rather than self-reverence.

Hinduism (in the words of Guru Vashisht), as I understand it, at some point, believes only in the Consciousness Supreme and credits everything else we worship within the circle of _maya_. At that level of consciousness, one is an agnostic, i.e. someone who does not believe in god, in the normal sense of the term, but in the Consciousness Supreme that is all pervading. The Consciousness Supreme also encompasses the world of _maya_ , wherein the concept of god is a reality, and it surely works.

By no means I believe that places of worship are devoid of power and capability. Certainly not! We are just looking at the curriculum of different levels of learning. The concept of _maya_ is a post-graduate subject and therefore needs mentioning.

We will examine it later.

Gurudev took us to a few temples but never entered one. He would always stand far away and ask us to go in and pay our respects. This was similar to the teachings of Guru Vashisht to his disciple Lord Ram to whom he said, "There is no god, and this world's appearance is generated by the collective mind and not the creation of the creator.'' Guru Vashisht explains that everything is the Consciousness Supreme and therefore what is already in existence, cannot be created by itself, to be itself.

Heavy stuff, I know, but at the end of the teachings, Lord Ram summarises it as per his understanding.

In the words of Lord Ram, 'The self or the infinite consciousness alone is the reality of all this –the earth, the mountains, etc. And the self is like space– formless and without support. All these have not been created at all. The notion that arises in consciousness is known as the mind, and it is in the mind alone that it all exists. Time and the rest are the appearance of the consciousness. Even the mountains are nothing but consciousness. And the elements too! It is consciousness alone that is the essence of the characteristic of the elements –like solidity of the Earth, fluidity of water, etc. In fact, the Earth and other elements do not exist: the infinite consciousness alone exists. It is because of the liquidity of water that the ocean is able to give rise to waves and currents; it is because of the infinite potentiality of consciousness that it is similarly able to appear to be diverse. When the notion of solidity and harshness arises, it becomes a mountain, as it does with all other objects. Consciousness itself does not undergo any changes. The notions of 'I', 'you', etc. arise without any reason or cause, and they are all non-different from consciousness. The mind, the ego, the elements, and the world's appearance exists in the infinite consciousness non-different from it. Nothing has been created, nothing is lost.' (an extract from _Supreme Yoga_ by Venkateshananda)

Reading this paragraph a few times will not hurt.

### From Tree to Orchard

Gurudev lived in perfect balance within the circle of _maya_ , and beyond it.

Every morning he reported to his job in the agricultural ministry. His seniors felt he did his job conscientiously, and he was regarded as one of the most dedicated soil surveyors in the department. Gurudev had five children and he tried his best to spend time with them. They have all grown up to be mature and caring human beings. He spent a lot of time at the farm, working with his hands. Very often he drove the tractor to plough the field. A unique sight was to see him milking the cows. If there were a calf nearby, he would milk the udder and spout the milk into its mouth. When the vegetables were fully grown, one could see him plucking and putting them into a basket. Neither milk nor any vegetable or cereal grown in his fields was sold. It was all used for feeding people at the _sthan_. As if this was not an entire day, he would spend a lot of time talking to his disciples, sometimes lovingly pulling their leg.

Gurudev would see at least 50-100 people daily who waited outside his house to meet him, to discuss their problems, their ailments and other woes.

And then there were us, who lived in his home. We would all try to manipulate our way into his room after dinner and seek an audience with him whenever we could. After that, he would lie down on what he called _paath_ or a kind of _samadhi_. Here he would venture out of his body and work on the patients visiting his hundred odd _sthans_ all over the world.

During his life he must have dealt with over three to four million people directly, and another two to three million people indirectly.

I got the greatest lesson of my life from Guru Vashisht's teachings. He refused to take _moksh_ even though he was more than qualified; so that he could help other people climb the same path.

Gurudev had over hundred disciples whom he trained in the art of spiritual healing, handheld them for a part of the journey, and then encouraged them to carry out his mission of service in their own homes. These homes then became _sthans_ , where once a week, and in some cases, once a month(on Thursdays), people came to avail the service. This is how he grew from a tree to an orchard and accomplished his mission of self-replacement. He gave them the power to heal others and to walk in his shoes. Most of them are still alive today and practice _seva_ in big cities and hamlets across the country as well as abroad.

When Gurudev passed away we all felt homeless. We were nervous as we had no backup support, but we have all grown and created lines of our own. We are now the third generation using his power that still prevails.

We work under the auspices of Himgiri Charitable Trust based in Gurgaon, and in Najafgarh, an outskirt of Delhi. There are two active websites that give details of our functioning:

_www.gurujiofgurgaon.com_ __

_www.gurujiofgurgaon–neelkanth.com_

Help is available on both the websites where the names of disciples along with their addresses, email ids, and phone numbers are given. If you have any questions or suggestions relating to this book, or subjects herein, you can write to: hingori@hingorisutras.com. You can follow some of the exercises given in the book, and send the results to us. We would be more than happy to give you our feedback, suggestions, and try to help you along your path. In the process of worshipping yourself, there may be a few thoughts you would like to exchange and we would be happy to oblige.

## Cosmic Currency

You have spent an entire life earning the currency of your choice. How about spending a little time on the currency of my choice– cosmic currency, which will allow you to have a better after-life?

It is not about physical or mental effort; it is about intent.

Cosmic currency is basically earning energy that will be added to your own. It can be used for astral travel and to attain _gati_ in the after-life. The spirit body needs this energy to exist, travel, and protect itself. It can also attain this energy through deeds done in its name, either by itself or by others. This is also why we do charity in the name of our ancestors. A careful examination of this book will show you several paths of energy assimilation, and collection of aura, thereby enriching yourself and your ancestors with cosmic currency.

## This Book is a Guide

This book is more of a guide. And if you think by reading this book, you will become the deity of your own life overnight, then it will be an over ambitious thought. You have to commit yourself to thinking about these concepts and ways to implement them.

And it is doable. Look what lies beyond the rainbow –After Death Currency!

Reading this book once will help you, but going through it multiple times will infuse the knowledge into your bloodstream. Try and convert these words into 3D by putting them into practice. And for initiating it, you need to think about it repeatedly, even when not reading the book.

If William Wordsworth were to voice my opinion, then he would quote the famous lines from his poem _I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud_

"For oft, when on my couch I lie  
In vacant or in pensive mood,  
They flash upon that inward eye  
Which is the bliss of solitude".

One of the greatest gifts you can give yourself is recommending spiritualism to others, even if they are not close to you. Helping transform even one human being can have a cascading effect. For a restaurant to succeed there is no better way than word of mouth! It works for spiritualism as well. Once you have the ability to worship yourself, you might be able to create that metamorphosis in so many others. That is love. That is caring. And that is leveraging self-growth!

## You May Not Be You

You will be surprised to know that your attitude towards people and things may vary greatly from the attitude of your spirit body.

The segment of the _citta_ (the amalgamated mind of our physical and spirit bodies) that you use through your mind, is probably different from that used by your spirit body. Let us take up a few case studies before we discuss the topic.

### Case 1

My father and I had different opinions on running the business, so we separated our commercial lives. We hardly spoke to each other even though we lived in adjacent rooms. I thought he hated me for my beliefs.

What shocked me were a couple of dreams, where he appeared and congratulated me on my spiritual pursuits. My father encouraged me even though he opposed me in his physical form. And appallingly, Gurudev once casually mentioned, "Your father does not have anything against you". What bewildered me was how a man could have two different personalities in two different states of existence, the physical and the spirit.

### Case 2

In several dreams, both mine as well as others, spiritualists have shared messages and _mantras_ and yet remained ignorant about it in their physical forms. Many people come to the _sthan_ and cite instances of me having appeared in their dream state. Strangely, Anjali thanked me for taking her on an astral tour of Uttarkashi. The funny part was that I had to look for Uttarkashi on the map because I had never been there physically. Similarly, Gurudev had taken me to France (a country he visited much later). He made me stand on an old bridge over River Seine and explained its story to me. I have given _mantras_ in the dream state that I have never heard of in the physical state.

### Case 3

Rishabh, who is in his thirties, had a dream in which he looked like a calm and poised 45-year-old man, dressed from another era. We were having a conversation when I told him it was time to leave. Understanding the gravity of the sentence, the reactions of the two Rishabhs were paradoxical. The middle-aged man was emotionless and had a blank look on his face. He listened to follow instructions. However, the younger Rishabh, who was dreaming, was perplexed and disheartened and wanted to react. He woke up troubled, wondering why his older version did not react the same way.

### Case 4

Nitin Gadekar and I visited a strange mountain, which in the vision state appeared to be _Mangal_ (Mars). We received boons in the form of red and yellow-coloured objects; some sort of a _vardaan_. Since we were in the vision state we understood it very clearly and it was not surprising. I did not tell Nitin about this for 20 years. Hah! I love secrets! And when I told him, he did not know that he had two definite boons straight from Mars, which he could use whenever he liked. Now he knows, and can surely use.

### Case 5

Bindu Maira, a classy, successful lady and a close friend, worked at a multilevel marketing firm with ambitions of furthering her career. One evening, I saw her spiritual entity as a powerful lady in _shakti_ form, with her head tied up in a cloth and a _trishul_ in hand. Surprisingly, the following day, my sister Gita told me she had seen Bindu in exactly the same form and in the same place.

Co-incidence or fact?

Bindu has changed careers and is now an accomplished tarot reader with great intuitive abilities. It was a matter of time and space. This is very much a part of nature, because every seed already contains the plant that will grow out of it in the future. Therefore, when you look into your mirror, look beneath the skin. You are often not what you perceive yourself to be.

The late Gita Bajaj was the chairperson of _Eye on Asia_ , a TV show in New Jersey, and a journalist who claimed to have received the following words intuitively

### I Am

I am the stillness of the virgin mind before the conception of a thought.

I am the silence of a fertile brain before the germination of an idea.

I am the calm that engulfs the spirit and the quiet that occupies the emotions.

I am suspension of the intellect before the exercise of faculty.

I am sublimation of the senses before the thrill of anticipation.

I am the void that is filled with nothingness.

I am the void that is filled with spirit consciousness.

I sometimes precede prayer and often follow it.

I sometimes precede meditation and often follow it.

I sometimes precede longing and often follow it.

I am the absence of curiosity before the formation of a question.

I am the blankness of attention before the sparking of interest.

I am the deep sleep of awareness before the awakening of wonder.

I am the vacancy of perception before the lodging of an opinion.

I am the plateau of disposition before the mounting of inspiration.

I am the stillness of the virgin mind and the silence of the fertile brain.

I am where nothing is. I exist where nothing does.

I exist at all times. I am everywhere.

I am.

None of Gurudev's family or friends could have imagined that a simple person like him was such an advanced spiritual being.

The funny side of it is that neither did he! Otherwise, he would not have applied to the Film Institute in Pune (on behalf of millions of his followers, I thank the institute for rejecting his application).

The young Bill Gates probably did not know that within him lies a philanthropist of immeasurable generosity.

## **Aatmic Equality**

I hope by now you would have overcome any kind of identity crisis that may have plagued you. By identity crisis, I mean, people identify themselves with whatever gives them some kind of significance. Army, Air Force and Navy officers add their ranks on the visiting cards. They even attach medals of honour if any. Nobody finds this unusual or unacceptable.

It was a real journey for Group Capt. Dheer to become Dheer Sahib. He is one of the few people who realised that his identity of 'self' far outweighed that of his Air Force rank. He does not attach his Air Force citations to his name anymore. He is now a _jivaatma_ , who lives a simple retired life in an Air Force colony and tries to be good to people.

What labels can you give yourself beyond that of a human being?

You have to realise that there is nobody greater than you except those whom you feel smaller to. You must recognise your _aatmic_ reality, and understand there is nobody greater or lesser than you. Your favourite movie star, the greatest or richest person in your country, the gods you worship, the goddesses whose photographs you have on your wall, are all your partners in _aatmic equality_.

If you are a film star, a rich person, a powerful politician or a businessman, do not let your power blind you from the fact that as a human being, you are much greater than any label or wealth you may have amassed. On the other hand, do not forget that the people who look up to you or hero-worship you, may not be lesser than you except in destiny, timing and karma.

Adi Shankaracharya states, "I am all pervasive. I am without any attributes, and without any form. I have neither attachment to the world, nor to liberation ( _mukti_ ). I have no wishes for anything because I am everything, everywhere, every time, always in equilibrium".

I am quite convinced that the mountain in you will not see a midget of itself in the mirror. Not anymore!

But we need to work towards this homecoming. Many of you will see this fructify in days, months, or years to come. You may have interesting experiences, change of heart for the way you see things, a development of intuition and many such evolutionary signs. I do not guarantee, but I expect them to happen for you.

**You can write your queries, comments and viewpoints to hingori@hingorisutras.com.**

I would love to hear your experiences – past, present and future. Please do not be lackadaisical in your efforts. Time is relative, manipulate it.

Regards,  
Hingori

## On Second Thoughts- Maya

**Maya is the delusion of what seems to be because it seems so real.**

No book on spiritualism would be complete without a discussion on _maya_. It has been described by most spiritualists as a delusion of the mind. Guru Vashisht has given fascinating interpretations of _maya_ in his teachings to Lord Ram in _Yog Vasishta, the Supreme Yoga_ by Swami Venkateshananda.

### Quote 1

"Whatever is seen, either in a dream or in the waking state, has space alone as support. It is born of space and it is of the nature of space (void). This space is none other than the supreme, infinite consciousness. Nothing, not even this body, has ever been created; hence nothing exists. The infinite consciousness experiences the existence as if in a dream. The diversity that arises in consciousness, on account of the limitlessness of its potentiality, appears to give rise to diversity of creatures."

In case this quote encourages you to take a sabbatical, please do not do so. We will soon get to the bottom of it.

### Quote 2

"All things in this world are forever unreal, but they are also real because of the consciousness that is the sole reality and their content. Whatever the consciousness decides 'This is such and such' that it becomes, whether it is real or unreal. Such is the nature of consciousness.

This consciousness conceived of a body, becomes aware of the body. It is self-awareness that becomes aware of the body, not the other way round. At the beginning of creation there was nothing else and only consciousness was: and therefore the world-appearance arose in that consciousness like a dream. In whatever manner consciousness conceived the world to be, that alone it became. What else is this world? Since the world is nothing other than consciousness or Brahman, it is declared to be so by the scriptures.

Yet, like a frog in the blind well, foolish and ignorant people base their understanding on the experience of the moment and, on account of their perverse understanding, they are deluded into thinking that the body alone is the source of experience or awareness. But we have nothing to do with them. However intelligent a person may be, if he is unable to dispel one's doubts, such a person is ignorant. If self-awareness is one of the characteristics of the physical body, then why does a corpse not experience anything?

The truth is the other way round. It is the consciousness of Brahman, the infinite consciousness that appears as this universe–just as the dream objects appear in your consciousness. Brahman, is the infinite consciousness; it conceives of this dream-city, which is the _virat_ or the cosmic person. This cosmic person is the creator Brahma and is also of pure consciousness, although it is known as this universe.

Whatever was conceived in the dream creation of Brahma the creator, alone, is experienced here in the same manner. Thus the body has two states–the living and the dead. Even so this creation appears and disappears. It has no cause other than Brahman, hence it is none other than Brahman. Whether the body exists or not, this consciousness experiences what it is aware of anywhere, at any time, before and after 'death'! It is consciousness alone, which conceives of 'the other world' and experiences it as such. Such deluded experience does not cease until one resort to the right means of liberation when the mental conditioning ceases and the consciousness becomes unconditioned."

If you are still awake, maybe it is time for a coffee break!

The Indian scriptures have spoken about _maya_ being a world of perception and duality. All that we know about our world and in fact the cosmos is defined by the scriptures as a projection of the mind.

Though it is hard to believe, the sages of yore learned these truths in deep states of meditation. If Lord Ram was real (as real as us) and if Guru Vashisht was his teacher, then what he taught was knowledge beyond the realm of perception.

## The Supreme Thought

It is sometimes difficult to understand people like Gurudev or Guru Vashisht or the exponents of the Upanishads, since they speak with their level of understanding and knowledge. So, in order to help you understand what these people mean when they say that the world is nothing more than a thought and the creation of the cosmic mind, I have worked it out in simpler words.

All of us think and sometimes our minds visualise creatively, not necessarily events, but anything we feel like. For example, if I were to ask you to visualise a goat-man, I am sure you would go through a round of imagination, creating the image of a man who has some similarities with a goat. Artists do this all the time. They visualise and paint what they imagine and that is not real. You have read earlier that any mental activity consumes energy. Telepathy or visualisation is the same thing. What I am trying to explain here is that you have the ability to create anything hypothetical in your vision, which consumes a couple of minutes' energy.

When it comes to healing remotely, there are many who can cure through visualisation from across the world. It is a case of visualisation at a higher level. As we discussed earlier, yogis can create _nirman kayas_ or duplicate bodies with a consciousness of their own. Powerful _aghoris_ have been known to materialise objects.

So let us apply this concept at the level of the Consciousness Supreme. The visualisation by the Consciousness Supreme uses a zillion times more energy than humans. Being the supreme form of existence, the thought forms manifest as planets, beings, and other life forms.

Guru Vashisht has therefore always said that the world is not real, and it is made of only creative visualisation of the creator. Understanding this can help you comprehend _maya_ and delusion but not necessarily help you exist in that realisation unless you invest a lot of your time in transcending sensory perception. You can still worship yourself having accepted someone else's testimony rather than spending half your life trying to reinvent the wheel.

To examine this subject at a much lower level of understanding, we need to accept the fact that our senses have a limited range of perception. For example, a brick wall acts as a solid, impenetrable obstacle for the physical body but is paper thin and easily penetrable, 'non-obstacle' for a spirit body. Vijay Mehra, a senior corporate executive in the USA, explains through empirical evidence, how little our senses really perceive. He then turns you turtle by speaking of scientific postulations about the 'observed' universe being but a function of the observer. This is pretty much how our sages defined _maya_.

Is science finally catching up? It will not be long before science proves that the observer, the observed and the observation are all a part of the same consciousness.

The day it happens, this book will have to be shifted from 'Philosophy' to 'Science' section of a bookshop.

## Limitations of Perception

Dear reader: Have you ever wondered, what is reality? Have you ever experienced yourself saying, "If I see it I will believe it?"

Just consider this: Scientists have proved that what you see with your naked eye is less than 0.00000000005 per cent of the entire electromagnetic spectrum (see figure below please):

It means, when we say, "I need to see it to believe it", we essentially imply that unless 'the seen by us' falls within the 0.00000000005 per cent of the band of 'what is', we will claim "Because we cannot see it, we don't believe it". Pretty narrow-minded, would you not agree?

Here are a few more facts, hard scientific facts mind you, that will help you see how limited our sense of perception is for realising what it really is. Consider this:

Since our sight is limited to only about 0.00000000005 per cent of the electromagnetic spectrum, can you guess how much of the acoustic spectrum we can hear as human beings? It is less than 1 per cent of all the sounds that are prevalent on this planet alone.

As you read this book you might think you are 'sitting or lying still' and reading, but that is not the case. You are travelling at 220 kms/second across the Milky Way. Can you even figure, how fast you are travelling right now? Are your 'senses' picking that up at all?

What you think of as 'your body' and seems 'very solid' is mostly empty space. The atoms in your body are mostly 99.9999999999999999 per cent empty space.

When you 'see a rainbow', the colours are not in the sky, they are in your eyes and assimilated by your brain. The conical photoreceptor cells of the human eye create the signals that the human brain interprets as the 'colours of the rainbow'. For animals without conical photoreceptor cells in their eyes, the same rainbow appears in shades of grey.

Also, consider what science told us several thousands years back that the Earth was flat and if we go beyond the horizon we might 'fall off' the edge.

And also that the Earth was still and the sun revolved around it. We now know the reality to be very different.

Today, we know that the fundamental principles of the universe, as stated by Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, no longer holds true in the field of quantum physics. This has been empirically proven by the scientific community. Specifically, scientists have now found that the 'observed universe' is a function of the 'observer', and that the notion of a 'universe out there' independent of an 'observer' is essentially an illusion, is not true. The famous 'double-slit' experiment done in a laboratory proved this beyond doubt.

Quantum physics also proves that two or more particles can communicate faster than the speed of light at the far end of the universe. This punctures Einstein's theory of speed of light being the fastest in the universe, and it opens up the possibility of explaining the concept of 'telepathy' scientifically.

So, if any of it has piqued your interest to better understand 'what is' and your true nature, please read on. The point is not to make any 'wild connections' without empirical evidence but to open your mind's eye to the fact that perhaps there is 'more out there' than what you are directly perceiving with your senses. This acknowledgement or opening up of your mind is the first step towards unlearning what is blocking you from knowing your true self. The journey of knowing your true self will change your life, and of those around you. That is a guarantee.

The more you get into understanding your true nature, the more you will be able to understand the nature of 'what is' and 'who you really are.'

## Glossary

**Aakashwani:** Celestial announcement/a voice from the sky/heaven. ****

**Aashirwad:** Blessing.

**Aatman:** The essence of an individual that is eternal, unchanging, and indistinguishable from that of the universe.

**Aghori:** The non-dual part of _Shiv_ that functions both as the _Shiv_ and _Shakti_ aspects. Followers of this form resort to abnormal practices and feats.

**Ananda:** Bliss or contentment. It is achieved when a person's consciousness evolves to the level of the _anandmaya kosha_ or the sheath of bliss.

**Arpan:** The act of surrendering to a higher force or offering power/energy to a higher source of power.

**Asana:** A yogic posture practiced to stabilise the body and mind.

**Asisa:** The will of the individual to exist eternally. It is a kind of force that impacts a _jivaatma_ to exist in continuity.

**Asmita:** The identification of ourselves with our ego.

**Avidya:** A sense of ignorance and false belief. Being a victim of _maya_ and believing the perceived reality to be the eternal truth.

**Awhelna:** To go against the wish of a spiritual teacher, and make them feel let down and disrespected.

**Bhajans:** Religious hymns.

**Bhakti:** The recognition of the divine spark within and the act of worshipping it by the outer selves.

**Bhoot:** A spirit that has not attained _gati_ and passed the barriers, and who hangs around its family members sometimes haunting them.

**Buddhi:** Intellect and higher intelligence; a part of _citta_.

**Citta:** The subconscious mind which includes the intellect and the spirit mind.

**Citta Vritti Nirodha:** The cessation of mental activity or disturbance to the mind.

**Dasa:** A period where a particular planet is dominant in the birth chart, and is a ruler of that period.

**Devi:** Goddess.

**Dharna:** Complete concentration.

**Dhyaan:** A state of going into deeper form of meditation. ****

**Dwesha:** An aversion towards things that produce unpleasant experiences.

**Ekagratta:** Single-minded or of single-purpose.

**Gati:** The speed the spirit attains to enable it to travel astrally.

**Grihasth Ashram:** The second phase of an individual's four stage-based stages of the Hindu Ashram System. It embodies a married life, with the duties of maintaining a home, raising a family, educating one's children, and leading a family-centred and a dharmic social life.

**Gurubhai:** A spiritual batchmate.

**Guru Charan:** The third eye, the spirit version of the pineal gland in the forehead.

**Guru Purnima:** A day on which disciples come and offer their obeisance to their guru. ****

**Guru Vashisht:** Probably one of the greatest spiritualists who ever existed. He had spiritual powers and _aatmic_ knowledge beyond comprehension. He was the tutor of Lord Ram who taught him the philosophy of life after life and delusion. He was probably the greatest amongst the gurus that ever lived.

**Gunas:** The subtle energies through which our mind and deeper consciousness functions. ****

**Gyan:** Internal knowledge attained through meditative thinking or intuitions.

**Jal:** Magnetised or blessed water.

**Jhootha:** Something that has already been sipped or eaten by someone.

**Jinn:** A supervisor or head of a set of poltergeists; a spirit chieftain.

**Jivaatma** : The individual soul regarded as a manifestation of _aatman_ plus the individual ego.

**Kada:** An energised bangle that becomes a link between the guru and the disciple.

**Kanyadaan:** It is performed when the parents of the bride gift their daughter to the groom and his family. Spiritually, it is also considered to be the highest form of charity. ****

**Kaarna Sharir:** The causal body to which the _karmashaya_ is attached. This is just below the astral body **.**

**Karma: C** onnotes action that leads to the entire cycle of cause and effect ( _samsara_ ). It applies to all action including thought, word, feeling and deed.

**Karmamukt:** A stage at which you stop expecting the fruit of your karma or a person who has reached the stage of detachment from everything.

**Karmashaya:** The hard disk or storage space where all our short-term and long-term memories ( _samskars_ ) are stored until they fructify.

**Keelna:** To cast a ring of spiritual energy around an object.

**Klesha:** A stress of the mind. ****

**Kul:** The lineage of birth in the same family through the male born, generation-to-generation

**Kundali:** The birth chart of an individual.

**Kundalini:** The serpent-shaped energy force that raises the centre of gravity of consciousness between the _chakras_. ****

**Lokas:** Different dimensions where spirit bodies exist. There are assumed to be 14 _lokas_.

**Mahurat:** An auspicious moment according to the placement of the planets.

**Malas:** Prayer beads.

**Mantra Vidya:** The science of practicing _mantras_ and the ability to attain their power.

**Moh:** Love and attachment to worldly things and relations.

**Moksh:** Disintegration of the self into the whole.

**Mukti:** Freedom from the cycle of life and death.

**Mutth Chalana:** To use tantric energy as a carrier of destructive fire to fly across a large distance and burn the chosen victim.

**Nazar:** The rays emitted by the eyes that can be both beneficial and harmful.

**Nirmaan Kaya:** A duplicate body created by scholarly yogis to live out their _samskars_. It can be an energy body or a physical-looking body which is not as complex as a human one.

**Niyams:** Recommended disciplines and habits for healthy living and spiritual enlightenment.

**Paath:** To practice _mantras_ mentally and silently. ****

**Peda:** A type of Indian sweet.

**Prasad:** An offering made to god, which typically consists of food that is later shared among devotees.

**Pratyahara:** Removal of attention from sensory objects.

**Puja:** Prayer.

**Purusharth:** An effort to try and intensify one's intent.

**Sadhna:** Discipline undertaken in the pursuit of a goal.

**Sahasra** : The crown of the head which contains the thousand-petal lotus or the last _chakra_.

**Samadhi:** A state of semi-consciousness wherein it is removed from the senses.

**Samskara:** The impressions/engrams left on the subconscious mind by experience from the current and previous lifetimes.

**Seh Sharir:** Along with the body. Many saints have been known to leave this world with their bodies disappearing and travelling to the 'life after death'.

**Shakti:** Energy or electromagnetic force. ****

**Shivling and Gileri:** A combination of male and female energies representing the static and dynamic energies of duality.

**Shraap:** A curse which can be strengthened with the use of power/energy.

**Shringar:** To adorn.

**Shuddhi:** Cleansing of the body and mind with the help of _mantras_ and spiritual practices.

**Siddh guru:** An accomplished guru capable of using spiritual power to help people.

**Siddhi:** The attainment of a specific power or spiritual capability based on completion of a _mantra_ or use of _tantric_ feat.

**Sukshma Sharir:** The subtle body.

**Sthan:** A temple in the homes of disciples(unique to Gurudev).

**Tadka:** A process of tempering used to enhance flavours of food.

**Tantric kriya:** A feat of _tantra_ performed in a negative manner to harm people by the use of energy, or positively to help them; rituals of worship.

**Tapasya:** Penance undertaken for spiritual realisation.

**Taveez:** An amulet which contains a hand-written mantra to generate energy. ****

**Traas:** Stress, irritation and tension.

**Trishul:** A weapon (trident) signifying the holy trinity with multiple meanings. ****

**Vardaan:** A blessing to attain something.

**Vasna:** Sensual pleasure.

**Vichara:** Positive thoughts from the _karmashaya_.

**Vitarka:** A negative version of _vicharas_.

**Vritti:** A mental activity or the state of existence of the mind. The five different states or _vrittis_ of the mind are perception, delusion, sleep, imagination and dream.

## **HINGORI SUTRAS**

The Hingori Sutras are a series of easy to read books that collectively distil the spiritual wisdom of the ancient Indian masters.

Acclaimed as the land of spiritual masters, India is an incubator for enlightened minds. While the sacred scriptures and the writings of the realised sages have been translated, they are either filled with jargon and heavy material or are too gimmicky to appear authentic.

There is a need felt by the contemporary man to understand his spiritual roots, his true nature and the knowledge that creates spiritual mastery.

So there is a clearly identified void that needs to be filled.

The books in the Hingori Sutras fill this void and hopefully help bridge the divide between awareness and realisation.

**BOOKS PUBLISHED UNDER THE HINGORI SUTRAS**

Karma Sutra | Aatma Sutra | Dream Sutra

**COMING SOON**

Guru Sutra

**KARMA SUTRA  
\- CRACKING THE KARMIC CODE**

www.hingorisutras.com

IN THE TOP 10 E-BOOK CHARTS UNDER SPIRITUALITY ON BARNES & NOBLE & ITUNES

"This book does a great job at illustrating to the reader India's wealth of knowledge in philosophy and spirituality as no other book has in the past.

"I am glad that I came across this book in this phase of my life. I realized that I have to enjoy both my losses and profits and stay happy.

"This is a clear, refreshing and in fact surprising look at what karma actually is. This book cleared all the confusion.

The greatest asset of India is neither the Taj Mahal nor the buzzing Metropolis of Mumbai. It's greatest asset for tens of thousands of years has been it's philosophy and spirituality. People who visit this country or people who live here, hardly take advantage of this wealth and benefit from it.

Karma Sutra is such an asset based on the Indian doctrine of karma. It explains the causes and effects of karmic destiny and the karmic laws that govern us. It defines the profit & loss angle of our karmic assets and liabilities. It shows the readers how to build greater karmic wealth for themselves, for their ancestors and for their future generations.

In the final analysis, Karma Sutra is a tool to use to carve a better future. It teaches you how to will your wealth to your next life and how to ensure a better life after death by earning A.D.D.'s (After Death Dollars).

This book is an asset that is a must for you to have.

**DREAM SUTRA -  
PERCEIVING HIDDEN REALMS**

www.hingorisutras.com

"I've read a lot of books on the analysis of dreams but this one stands out. So much so that I have even started maintaining a dream journal to make sense of my own dreams.

"Not only is Dream Sutra a breezy read, it is also very informative. The dreamscape is a mysterious realm to explore and this book is nothing short of fascinating. __

The mind of your spirit will always be beyond your grasp until you learn to identify with the 'dreamer' within yourself. The Dream Sutra chronicles the experiences of many people who were helped and healed, guided and communicated with, by the dreamer within themselves – their spirit or astral body.

The unifying thread between these many people was that they had a common Guru – someone who could travel out-of-body at will, heal people and even provide insights into their future. The greatest tribute to this Guru is that he moulded his disciples also into Gurus, thereby attaining a universal status of a Mahaguru, i.e. a teacher of Gurus.

The fact that even 25 years after his death, this Mahaguru can still communicate and guide his devotees and disciples via their dreams, lends itself to deepening our exploration of the spiritual realms as well as after-death existence.

The anecdotal content dotting this book's landscape leads you into discovering the power of the dream language and with that, the metaphorical becomes the metaphysical.

If you have found this book enriching, do share it with others. And in that lies good karma
  1.  Title
  2. A Spiritual Icon
  3. Author's Appeal
  4. Introduction
  5. Chapter ILearn to Accept Yourself
    1. Obstacles to Accepting Yourself
      1. Societal Norms of Evaluation
      2. Things Beyond Our Reach
    2. Aham Brahmasmi: Expanding Our Egos
  6. Chapter IIKnowledge is Power
    1. Destiny
      1. Astrology
      2. Tarot Reading
      3. Psychic Predictions - A personal experience
      4. Destiny: A Fructification
      5. Acceptance of Destiny
    2. Purusharth
      1. Life Extended but Lost
      2. After Death Purusharth
      3. A Hypothetical Purusharth Study
      4. Reverse Purusharth
    3. Shraaps and Vardaans
      1. Use of Power
      2. The Sharp Edge of Power
      3. Punishing Indiscreet Cameras
    4. Aura
    5. Citta Vrittis
      1. Divinity Is Not Easy Business
      2. Vitarkas and Vicharas
      3. My Experience with Vitarkas
    6. Gunas of Spiritual Practice
      1. Guna Analysis
  7. Chapter IIIFalling in Love with Yourself
    1. Why We Should Love Ourselves
      1. Understanding the Goal of Each Body
    2. Aura
      1. Energy Ball
      2. Why People Have Poor Auras
      3. How to Protect and Enhance the Aura
      4. Contamination of the Aura
      5. Significance of the Aura
      6. Black Magic on Aura
      7. Seva and Aura
      8. Gurudev's Thursday Aura Restrictions
      9. Transmission of Aura
      10. Use of Animal Aura
      11. An Aura Secret (Don't tell anyone!!)
      12. Aura: A Cosmic Currency
    3. Significance of Our Spirit Bodies
      1. Astral Travel
      2. Karmashaya and Kaarna Sharir
    4. Five Magic Attitudes for Evolution
      1. 1. Empathy
      2. 2. Acceptance
      3. 3. Vairagya or Detachment
      4. 4. Role Play
      5. 5. Pratipakshbhavana
    5. Watch Yourself Do Good
    6. Seva: A Quick Fire Solution
    7. Spiritual Blessings
    8. Life Scorecard
  8. Chapter IVOn examinig self-worship
    1. Multiple Levels of Mental Existence
    2. Miracles by Animals
    3. Dreams, Visions and Spiritual Experiences
    4. A Misunderstanding of Self-Love
  9. Chapter VSelf-Worship - The Way Forward
    1. Exercises for Self-Worship
    2. Love
    3. Karmamukt (Non-Doer-ship)
    4. Attitudes to Emulate
    5. Cosmic Currency
  10. This Book is a Guide
  11. You May Not Be You
  12. Aatmic Equality
  13. On Second Thoughts- Maya
    1. The Supreme Thought
    2. Limitations of Perception
  14. Glossary
  15. HINGORI SUTRAS

