When God Started a Game

When God Started a Game

God who is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss one day felt bored and started playing a game. He started using his inherent energy and created the universe around. Since he was absolute existence the appearing universe was just his appearance/projection. Now the he started the game by creating beings that are perfect with perfect control over the mind and firm knowledge of the self. These beings immediately understood the nature of the true Self and went into Samadhi and got liberated. So God decided that that creating perfect beings was not entertaining enough as the beings realized that they are the same God as the apparent world was just a projection/appearance of the Self within.

Now to makes things little interesting God created a world with ignorance induced in the minds of the beings, this ignorance led to the false Identification by the beings (who are nothing but God as the existence of God is absolute and there is nothing other than God) that they are different from God. It is funny to see that God got so much engrossed in the game that he forgot he is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

It is here that the drama of Samsara started where he placed himself as many and interacted with each other. To make it manageable he set rules on himself by the way of Karma. So he decided the actions that he performs and he decided what would be outcome based on his own law. This was so perfect that he got stuck into this whirlpool of samsara (births and deaths) by his own laws by forgetting who he is in true sense which is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

The he decided that he is tired of the troubles of this illusionary appearance (which is now real for him as he has forgotten his true nature) due to the rules which are self-created and self-imposed on oneself. He struggled and then started the process of understand what is everything and more importantly who he is in reality. This lead to the understanding that he is not the mind and body, understood its limitations and when he looked to his inner most core he realized that he is absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

The game he created for fun with ignorance induced in the mind and rules of engagement within the projected world led the God to identify himself with his projection rather than his absolute nature. By this was he God stuck in samsara and when he was fed up he got out by realizing his true nature.

Hence this way we can say that the apparent world which we live in is nothing but his play, he is inducer of thoughts and actions and he is the judge who awards effects for these thoughts and actions. As he is the absolute existence this apparent world is none other than himself and all actions and effects are his play. Only when we realize this we realize our true nature which is the nature of the true self and ignore (not be bothered by the happenings) the world as now we know we are the absolute existence, absolute consciousness and absolute bliss.

What to expect in Mantra Sadhana

What to expect in Mantra Sadhana

Many people chant various mantras with the intention of mantra siddhi and acquiring supernatural power. We should remember that mantra siddhi or the powers mentioned in scriptures are very difficult to achieve and there is no guarantee that it would happen. To make it more clear Mantra siddhi/powers are very rare events that can happen.

We see people chanting 10 lakhs, 20 lakhs count of the mantra and still there is no marked change in them. The repetition in these cases are usually mechanical and without any concentration on the mantra. The point is not the count of mantra but the quality of it. We can see people who have recited Shodashi mantra for few thousand times the mantra has gone Ajapa for them (Ajapaa is the state where the mantra is absorbed into your manas chakra and chanting becomes continuous throughout life). Here for these people the intensity of the practice for these few thousand times was far superior than people who have completed lakhs are chants.

Then what is use of mantra chanting is the question. Mantra happens to provide two major benefits for a person who chants it correctly. Firstly if one chants mantra correctly all his focus would be on the mantra and other thoughts vanishes, by this way a person becomes thought free, because of this the mind is purified and only in the purified mind the realization of the greatest truth happens (realization of the Self), second benefit of chanting a mantra is more for material life where it acts as a powerful affirmation making suitable modifications in the mind to get the desired results.

So how does the mantra work, each and every letters in mantras activates or creates vibrations at certain energy points and parts of the body. So when a Guru (Self realized person) gives a mantra to a person he would give that in such a way that the mantra is conducive for that person. Now when one chants the mantra the various parts of the body gets vibrated and energized giving rise to psychophysical changes. This starts getting absorbed within the body over a period of time and brings about changes in the mind. The mind gets purified in this way and makes it thought free. It is at this time the intuitive ability of person shines, meaning when the mind is purified the intellect shines in the light of the Self and it is at this time that some get some clairvoyant abilities (sort of siddhis). At this time it is very important that these gifts are shunned away as this will become an impediment for the ultimate goal. People who get absorbed into such abilities lose their purity of mind and again fall back into life problems. Purity of the mind is not the ultimate as it a state which helps us to find the ultimate truth. So this state is ever oscillating and not permanent. Only when the person realizes the truth he is firmly fixed in it and does not fall down, up to that stage is always a struggle.

Now how does one know that the mantra is working for him or not would be the question? This simple to answer because when a person chants a particular mantra usually he experiences happiness, the happiness that is being referred here is more to do with internal happiness that one experiences when or after he chants it. Otherwise he can experience small changes around him which is either good or bad. If the effects are bad then there is a need to change the mantra, if he feels unhappy/uneasy etc then it needs to be stopped. Usually when a person completes around 10,000 chants he starts experiencing the effect of the mantra and these changes are more subtle in nature which usually brings about a shift in the mindset.     

To continue further it becomes important that how one should chant the mantra, how many times does one should chant and how to make the chanting process more effective. So it is always preferable that the chanting should be done loudly for few days after initiation to become familiar with the mantra and its pronunciation. Once he/she is comfortable with the mantra he should proceed with mental chanting. Mental chanting is the best way to chant the mantra and benefit of this method is that one can chant it anytime and anywhere without any restrictions. The count for mantra japa is not important but quality of chant is more important even if a person chants 30 times in 20 minutes the focus on those 30 times should be absolute (as much possible). It is usually preferred that a person chants for minimum 20 mins a day to make it more effective. Fixing a schedule is very useful as chanting in same time everyday adjusts the body and mind to respond to the chanting better and changes can be seen much faster. Also aligning the breath with mantra is an advantage as this brings about better absorption of the mantra into the mind.

So ideally a person should sit erect, perform pranayama (nadi shodana) for 10 mins and chant the mantra by focusing on the Ajna chakra (third eye chakra) for 20 - 30 mins. When this done correctly the mind becomes still without thoughts and getting into Turya state becomes easier.

Usually the mantra of Ista devata/ Kula devata is conducive of a person; if the person is genuinely attracted to a particular deity or mantra that mantra will usually be beneficial for him/her. It is always better to search for a Guru and get initiated into a mantra than chanting by ourselves, as pronunciation and intricacies of the mantra can be explained by the Guru proper to reap benefit. The reason why Guru is important is that wrong initiation, chanting bija mantras incorrectly or chanting incompatible mantras will affect the person adversely.

If you do not find any Guru at all you can Self initiate which should be last resort.

To explain in nut shell, Mantra siddhi is very difficult to achieve, mantra is meant to protect and purify the mind which forms the basis for realization.

  

How do we know the self within is in the form of Bliss?

How do we know the self within is in the form of Bliss?

To answer this question let us understand, what we do when we are happy? Suppose take an example that I’m talking with my friend and he is being very cordial and helpful, at this stage we feel happy that we have a friend and so how do we react to this now? We try to hold on to this person as he is source of our happiness and if the other person is unpleasant then we discard relationship with that person as he is not the source of happiness (this is dualistic way of analysis for now to make us understand what we do when we are happy).

Here it is very evident that by nature we love objects that bring us happiness and discard which does not. It is very important to understand this point that we love objects that bring us happiness. This statement gives us the clue as to why the Self within is in the form of Bliss. So let us understand from the perspective of the object of happiness with regards to soul within the body. Mind always desires for living for thousands of years and says I may never die, we know that the soul is the cause of the mind and when it says that I may never die, it means that it experiences happiness from the Soul and that’s why it wants it to be permanent. Meaning the soul is the object of happiness for the mind and that is the reason it tries to hold on to it as is its natural tendency.

In this way we can clearly understand that the Self/soul within is in the form of Bliss as if it was not in the form of Bliss the mind shun the soul leading to disintegration of itself (mind)

Why is the Bliss of the Self the highest form of happiness?

This is because when a person feels happy the mind turns inwards to the soul, we know that Soul is in the form of Bliss from our earlier point and hence when the mind experiences the happiness its thought process reduces and experiences the bliss within for a moment. Hence it is clear that the happiness experienced by the mind is from within and not from the outside world. Hence the bliss of the Self is the highest form of happiness as we experience only the bliss of the Self within when we feel happy in this material world, other way of looking at this is that happiness obtained from objects are always impermanent as it will always (objects are not permanent) go away and the bliss of Self is ever existent so it would make the most superior form of happiness.

Nature of pure consciousness

When we start analyzing what is consciousness? We can go with a simple analogy. When we are awake I‘m aware of this laptop, the keyboard that being typed on, the mental modifications that is happening in the mind, physical actions and reactions that is being experienced by the body and the mind, but there is consciousness which is aware of these events.

Meaning, there is a body and which experiences physical comforts or discomforts and a mind which experiences happiness and otherwise. Both of these are the object of experience and these are being experienced by the awareness, this pure awareness is call consciousness.

In the above example our awareness is scattered to various objects around us and due to this the mind identifies itself with the body/mind as the awareness. But when we observe this further through proper discernment, we can effectively reject this and say that these experiences experienced by the mind and body are being witnessed by the consciousness. How do we prove this lets take the example of the deep sleep state where the person during deep sleep is not aware of the body nor the mind exists at that time. But how do we know that we were in deep sleep after waking up? Where there was no mind and body, but yet something existed. This something is nothing but the pure consciousness which is ever present with or without body/mind/object.

Now when we start dropping body and mind notion and see what exists is the purest consciousness. Let us take a practical example now, close your eyes and start taking away you awareness from the body by fixing your concentrating on a particular point within the body. Now slowly detach with thoughts from the mind by increasing your concentration on the point. What happens now is your thoughts will become zero due to the focus on a particular point and body at that time is nonexistent for you. Slowly when mind and body is dropped from our awareness what stays back is pure awareness without modifications of the mind. Now in this state though there is awareness (individual self exists) there is lack of it as well (in further stage). Meaning once there is no mind and body (nonexistence of external world as well as the sense organs are withdrawn at this stage). We experience a void and the conscious mind without thought will become unconscious at some point and there is no one to experience (individual self is absent) and nothing to experience (Object of experience). This is state of consciousness where the Object of the awareness, the object and process of awareness has become one i.e. no awareness (void etc). This is called pure consciousness.

Spiritual Story - Seven Steps in Self Realization

The below is the example of a famous story where 10 people cross the river and after crossing the river they take a count to see if all have crossed the river safely, but when each of them count they miss themselves in the count and finally land with 9 people, with this ignorance they suffer. Finally a person comes by and convinces the people that all are well and removes their ignorence by advicing them to count the tenth 10 person as themselves. This way they are get back the 10th person, whom they thought was missing. This story is put in context to spiritual paralance and how we have forgotten our true self in Seven stages. Below is the brief points on these stages.

Click to enlarge the below photo