The real essence of god is Sat (Truth), Chetan (Consciousness), Ananda (Eternal Bliss) and Vyapak (Omnipresent). God is not an idea but existence. God is not a theory but reality. God is not matter of belief or non belief. It is there. God is not man or woman. Although most of the people relate with god as they would do to their parents. All your life you have been praying to god, “You are my father and my mother.” And if this ‘I’ is the child of god and god is Satchitananda, then how can his child be anything but Satchitananda? You are truth, you are pure consciousness, you are the ever blissful one. You are omniscient. But the day this false ‘I’ dies, a new ‘I’ is found which is ever glowing.
Biologically, a man’s offspring will be a man, an animal’s offspring an animal, a bird’s offspring a bird. What else? Have you ever heard of a cow giving birth to a bird? No! A sparrow will give birth to only a sparrow; a parrot to a parrot; a man to a man; a monkey to a monkey. As the parents, so the offspring. If we say that Paramatama is our parent – our mother as well as our father – and your parent is Satchitananda – Blissful truth, then how can you be any different? How can you be jara (non-sentient), asat (untrue), dukharupa (form of sorrow)? You are Satchitananda – Eternal bliss and truth.

But somehow man has forgotten all about his own reality. Because of ignorance he has begun to believe that he is no more than a mere body. Therefore, whosoever talks in this vein – ‘I’ am a woman; ‘I’ am a man; ‘I’ am old; ‘I’ am unwell; ‘I’ am healthy; ‘I’ am strong; ‘I’ am weak – is talking of the body alone. Always remember that such a person can never know happiness in life, as the body is changeable, and sickness, old age and death will occur. Nothing can stop this from happening. We can ensure good health with the right diet and exercise, but can we ensure that this will prevent death? You may acquire a multitude of possessions, but if you do not have this knowledge, if
you do not have the knowledge of who you really are, your chitta shall never be free of dukha and klesha – sorrows and sufferings. And you will constantly be racked with conflict and pain.

You must reflect on this question – ‘Who am ‘I’?’ From the time of its conception to its present age, the body is in a constant flux. As the changes are gradual and subtle, you are absolutely unaware of them. The body grows through various stages but something within remains unchanged. Who or what is that?

>> Why do we have desires?

The ordinary man who floats on the ebb and flow of desires is always on a ride. Desires rise and fall in the mind, as a result of which sometimes he is happy and sometimes sad. If things are favorable, his mind rejoices. If things are unfavourable, his mind slides into depression. Sometimes we start applying these whimsical ideas of the mind to our spiritual pursuits as well. When you bring this same habit to the matters of spirituality, you will experience the same rise and fall; the same principle of the fulfillment of a desire will make you happy and unfulfilled goals will bring pain.

As a result of these tidal waves of desires constantly splashing around in the mind, man remains perpetually oppressed. There is no end to the turmoil in the mind. Sometimes when such individuals come to the guru, they seek the fulfillment of their desires. If the guru fulfills these desires then he is great, a know-all and capable of miracles! And if he does not? Then is he a guru? What does he know? In a way, we drag gurus and even god into the web of our desires. When you are not able to fulfill your wishes on your own, you want to use a miracle-maker – a guru – one on whose shoulders you can complete your journey. But whether this can really be done is a matter of reflection.

First you should try to understand this, whatever be the nature of the desire, it will bring unhappiness. A desire is a desire, whether it is of this world or of the spiritual world. It is not that worldly desires alone cause misery. The desire to achieve nirvana, the desire for samadhi too brings restlessness. You think that only the worldly desires should be given up and not the spiritual desires. Well, the question arises: Why do you want something? Desire brings anxiety and anxiety invites a whole lot of tension and frustration.

If a desire, whether small or big, is not fulfilled, it will cause misery. A small desire will bring less grief and a bigger desire will cause greater pain. If a desire is fulfilled, it gives rise to another desire and so on and so forth. The cycle goes on and on. That is why a fakir once said, “O Khuda! Do not ever fulfill anyone’s desires in this world.” Every desire fulfilled will provoke man to greater desires. Now, someone might feel that this fakir is a real sadist. Why does he want everyone to remain buried beneath a huge burden of wants? But he is actually voicing a profound truth. The fulfillment of every desire awakens a hundred new ones. Desires blinds you. When the tidal wave of desires
surfaces in your mind, you simply flow along with it. You are unable to separate yourself from this flood of emotions. For instance, you buy a beautiful watch; the watch is very impressive, looks extremely good and you admire it dearly. There is no harm in admiring something that looks good. But to make a habit of looking at it at all times, talking about it, showing it to people, is an attachment that is called raga. If you lose it or misplace it, you will be seething with anger and everyone around you will have to bear the brunt of your anger.

Desire brings anxiety and anxiety invites a whole lot of tension and frustration.

>> What can we do to control our mind or at least restrain our mind?

If you think that you can control your mind then you are waging a lost war. No one can control mind, word control is very degressive. We can understand our mind and use it as per our need and that is possible only then when we know what mind is and how it functions. Have you ever befriended your mind, seen it from close quarters. Been with your mind, witnessed it? Even when you relax your so called control over the mind, its real face begins to show up. You will find all kinds of vague, useless, idle thoughts appearing in your mind – thoughts that make absolutely no sense and have no correlation whatsoever with your circumstance. You wonder about yesterday’s unfinished work and work still to be done tomorrow; who was to come yesterday and who will come tomorrow; whether I was to go to his house or he had to come to mine; what she said to me and what I will say to her; how she harmed me and how I will harm her; how she benefited me and how I will benefit her!

Such vague thoughts often float in our mind unnoticed. The moment you relax your conscious mind, you will find that scores of thoughts begin to surface. No wonder then, it seems to people that if they meditate they are troubled a great deal by the mind. If you think that  your mind is silent you are mistaken. Just relax your mind and witness the thoughts. There will be a flood of thoughts. Have you ever been to a place where water freezes? In Kashmir the Dal Lake freezes in winter. Though it might be frozen on the surface, water continues to flow underneath. In the North Pole, the Atlantic Ocean freezes to a depth of fifteen to twenty feet and yet the water below flows  smoothly.

The animals and the vegetation that survive underneath continue to live and breathe. In exactly the same manner, beneath the calm  surface of your mind, a raging storm of thoughts is always waiting to break forth. Often sadhaks come with the query that whenever they sit down to meditate, many thoughts besiege their mind. The truth of the matter is that it is not the process of meditation that triggers off your thoughts – rather, it is only when you are calm that you see the tumult of thoughts raging deep inside. It is like looking at an area or a spot and finding it spotlessly clean, but the moment you run a broom through it, you discover a thick layer of dust – on an apparently  clean surface! Where did this dust come from? It was there right from the beginning, but it was not visible to the naked eye. The broom  only unsettled the layer of dust. In the same way, the flow of thoughts and desires inside your mind continues unabated. They flow so effortlessly that you rarely ever come to know of their movement. You will wonder how this is possible. How come we are unable to see the thoughts raging inside our mind? But really, we are never quite able to see them.

We have get used to the idea of living with a conflict- ridden mind. The conflict rages in our mind and it continues unabated. Furious  storms of desires keep brewing inside. And we remain completely oblivious, completely unaware of this perpetual conflict of ragadvesha in our mind. We do not even realize how many waves of anger, greed and attachment arise in our mind. We never try to probe our mind on our own; never try to find out whether or not these things arise in our mind too.

Let me ask you a question. Have you ever tried to search for your mind? Have you tried to look at your mind? Do you ever look at it? Are you ever able to anticipate a wave of anger arising within? The wave comes, you are swept away and end up abusing or cursing someone.  Thoughts come and go. How can these thoughts harm anybody?” Of course you do not harm another, but you do end up harming yourself  – not just a little, but a great deal. You do not ruin just one life, but several lives!

Dhyana is not the name of a process or a ritual, it means ‘complete awareness’

>> What are the techniques which we can use to meditate?

Once someone asked Rinzhai, a Zen monk, “When do you meditate?” He said, “I do not ever meditate.” The person who had asked the question was puzzled and said, “What kind of a reply is this? You are a famous monk and yet you say you never meditate? I do not understand. There is a whole tradition of meditation named after you. Your presence and your words have transformed millions of lives. And you say you do not meditate?”

Rinzhai said, “I said that I do not meditate – it happens and I merely witness it. I do each task with complete wakefulness and this  awareness is dhyana – meditation. If this wakefulness is missing, how can you meditate? The word dhyana means ‘complete awareness’. If you are not aware, but sit with your eyes shut, it is not dhyana. Dhyana is not the name of a process or a ritual, it means ‘complete awareness’. To be in dhyana, you cannot really meditate, the only thing that you can do is to simply ‘be aware’. Meditation is not slave of techniques it is inner flowering, what comes with effort will be taken away the moment the efforts are relaxed, mediation is not effort but it should be effortless. We can’t do anything to bring dhyana but we just need to unclutter our mind the wholesome peace is right within  this very mind.

From the time of conception to present age, the body is in a constant flux. As the changes are gradual and subtle, you are absolutely unaware of them. The body grows through various stages but something within remains unchanged. WHO OR WHAT IS THAT?