Commentary on Paramahansa Nityananda's Chidakasha Gita–Number 20
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri

Chidakasha Gita:
Verses 93-108

93. As the child is growing month by month, it gets knowledge of various things. Earlier knowledge is of no use. When a man is in the knowledge of all, he must be like a child. A true jnani is just like a child of six months. Such a child is not conscious of its own calls of nature. It does not distinguish between the two calls of nature. Jnanis are similar. They do not like one thing and dislike the other. They have no idea of poison. The administrator of poison should think about it. The eater (jnani) never cares for it. Likewise, a jnani does not say, “I want dinner,” “I want that.” They are always well established in the internal atman.

The subject of the jnani is being continued, and Nityananda is going to give us some insights that are completely unique to him–as is true in many parts of the Chidakasha Gita.

• As the child is growing month by month, it gets knowledge of various things. Earlier knowledge is of no use.

Stagnation is a virtue in all religions. Once you have learned the “one and only truth” then you are to be “stable,” “settled,” “established,” and “mature” enough to never look around at any alternative ideas, but be “loyal” to the “truth” that their insistence implies is fragile and liable to disintegration at the presence of unauthorized thought. This also implies that the minds of their “faithful” are fragile and liable to disintegration, as well. Apparently it can be perilous to be among the “saved.” After all, what defense is there against a peeved God–or guru–whose mandates and wisdom are being questioned, ignored, or rejected? In India the guru is rated above God, for throughout the subcontinent people are assured that if God is angry and the guru is pleased, then the disciple is safe; but if the guru is displeased or angry then even God cannot save you. Of course the same people will just as easily assure you that God cares nothing for the sin or virtue of human beings and that gurus are established in a consciousness of Unity and Bliss that renders them incapable of being upset at any unpleasantness. Often the publicity for these gurus speak of “unconditional love” and “love beyond description.” What has gone wrong? All institutions hate independent and creative thinking–most hate any kind of thinking at all. Do not be mistaken: the East is just as lockstep ignorant as anywhere else–it is just that the principles recited robotically are wiser than the stupid stuff that flows out of the mouths of Western religionists.

Nityananda was no standard item, and did not fear or hesitate to speak out the truth as he saw it. For example, someone once told him: “In the Gita Krishna says…,” and he interrupted to say: “In the Gita Vyasa says Krishna said.” Not the expected response. And he is doing the same here, cracking open the stone egg of assured ignorance that thinks if its words are wise then it must possess wisdom.

Nityananda is saying to us that a jnani continually advances in jnana. Just as a child grows continually, outgrowing his prior conditions physically and mentally, so does the jnani. People like to tell a child: “My, how you’ve grown and changed! I hardly knew you.” But do you ever hear that said to a teacher or guru? Of course not. “Sri Guru” and “Acharya” are embalmed in the Vedic truth. Change would be a betrayal of unreliability, of unsureness on their part. Nityananda tells us that things are otherwise for a jnani, that he will continually expand and deepen his understanding, progressing beyond his prior views, sometimes by seeing them more clearly or more fully, and sometimes by seeing that he was mistaken, that the truth is more, less, or completely different from his earlier opinion. Let me give an example. Many teachers think of karma as a kind of cosmic force that operates upon all, that human beings are helplessly subject to karmic retribution/reaction. Karma is often a bugaboo they use to frighten their childish hearers. But if the seeds of jnana are operative in them they will come to realize that karma is completely within the mind of each one of us–that karma is the mind in operation, and that we are moment by moment creating our inner and outer environment.

Great yogis have done the same, refining the practices they teach and explaining them more fully. Here are two examples from Paramhansa Yogananda. In the beginning he taught that a single kriya breath produced the equivalent of one month’s evolution; later he taught that a single breath equalled one year’s evolution. Quite a change in understanding. His great disciple, Sister Durga, told me that only a short time before leaving this world he discovered a better way to do the kriya breath and taught it at his last initiation ceremony. So he did not hesitate to teach differently from his guru and those that had come before. He was free and no slave. What he knew, he knew he knew.

It should be the same with us. We must be ever open to better understanding and realize that today’s understanding may be tomorrow’s misunderstanding. Vivekananda once asked a very beloved disciple: “If you find a guru who can show you the way to God better than I, will you leave me and follow him?” Without hesitation the disciple said: “Yes.” Vivekananda embraced him and said: “Now I KNOW you are my disciple!” The amazing yogi, Sri Yogeshwar Brahmachari, told me that he had been initiated by twenty-two gurus, and had spent a great deal of time with others. It had certainly worked for him. Those who do not keep moving on, stagnate. It is true there are shallow and fickle people that flit from teaching to teaching and from teacher to teacher, never really learning or practicing anything to any degree, but they are fools, not jnanis.

The sum and substance is this: a true jnani is always ready to move forward, and that requires leaving things behind and knowing they should be left behind.

• When a man is in the knowledge of all, he must be like a child.

He means that when the jnani does finally come to the end of discovery it will not change him, but he will remain as open and as fluid as a child, ever in wonder at Reality and capable of change even if he no longer needs it. A jnani never becomes a mummy.

Also, a jnani will be guileless and open to others. If someone contradicts him and says something different from his understanding, he will be humble and quiet, not entering into argumentation. (I saw this more than once during my time with saints in India.) A friend of mine who had been processed by one of America’s yoga cults once played for me some tapes she had made during her first trip to India. She had been fortunate in being taken to meet a saint that lived in a temple and was known to only a few. She taped her conversation with him. At one point he made a statement about the present evolutionary situation and she said: “No, we aren’t in that phase.” “We aren’t?” he gently asked. “No,” she said. And he remained quiet. By the time she played the tape for me she had learned that he was right and the cult was wrong, and she laughed at her silly ignorance and arrogance, and we both marveled at his kindness and humility.

• A true jnani is just like a child of six months. Such a child is not conscious of its own calls of nature. It does not distinguish between the two calls of nature.

The idea here is that a jnani cares nothing about being sophisticated and worldly-wise, aware that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God” (I Corinthians 3:19). In The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the motion picture, when he is told by a snitty little bureaucrat that he has a very poor grasp on reality, he replies: “As for what you call reality, I am glad to say I have no grasp of it at all.”

In her poem, The Preacher, Emily Dickinson had this to say about a “liberal divine” of her day:

He preached upon “Breadth” till it argued him narrow–
The Broad are too broad to define.
And of “Truth” until it proclaimed him a Liar–
The Truth never flaunted a Sign–

Simplicity fled from his counterfeit presence
As Gold the Pyrites would shun–
What confusion would cover the innocent Jesus
To meet so enabled a Man!

Dwelling in Unity, the jnani knows that duality is only a dream, and he lives accordingly, ignoring differences and often doing impossible things because he does not know they cannot be done. For example, Nityananda used to tie a string from one side of a room to the other, then climb up on it and sleep there as though it were a bed. He used to stand on the top of trees without them even bending under his weight. And he went from one place to another in a flash, disappearing and appearing many miles away.

• Jnanis are similar. They do not like one thing and dislike the other.

This is self-explanatory.

• They have no idea of poison. The administrator of poison should think about it. The eater (jnani) never cares for it.

There are many instances of saints being given poison and it would not hurt them at all. But the karmic consequences for the poisoner could be dire. A man who gave Nityananda poison died in agony as though he had swallowed it himself. That is why Nityananda says a would-be poisoner “should think about it.”

• Likewise, a jnani does not say, “I want dinner,” “I want that.”

A jnani is free of desire and therefore free of the “gimmes.” Those who try to tempt or win over a jnani with promises or gifts find themselves very disappointed.

• They are always well established in the internal atman.

This of course is what jnana really is: Self-realization: liberation here and now.

94. Our head is like a coconut fruit. In the coconut there is water and kernel. Likewise, there is water and kernel in our head. In the head is chidakasha. It is the well of hridayakasha. We should draw water from this well and drink it. It is no use digging a well in the earth and drinking water from it.

• Our head is like a coconut fruit. In the coconut there is water and kernel. Likewise, there is water and kernel in our head.

Nityananda was insistent that the totality of our manifested being was rooted in the head, in the sahasrara chakra, that all the chakras were in the head, the ones in the spine just being subsidiary reflections. Just as the essence of the coconut palm is at the very top of the tree in the fruit, so our essential being is to be found in the sahasrara. The “water” is the life essence and the “kernel” is the form nourished by that essence. The idea is that we are complete in the highest level of our being.

• In the head is chidakasha.

The Ether of Consciousness is really Spirit in extension, and in its pure, unconditioned form is to be found in the sahasrara, the thousand-petalled lotus. The Atma-Self is enthroned in the sahasrara. In meditation we must enter the Chidakasha, therefore during meditation our awareness should be centered in the head.

• It is the well of hridayakasha.

The Chidakasha is also the Ether of the Heart–the true, spiritual heart is also located in the head, not in the chest. This is important to know, since various upanishadic texts speak of the Self being within the heart, and as a consequence there are those who meditate on the center of the chest–or that general area–which is a mistake.

• We should draw water from this well and drink it.

Life is to be drawn from/in the sahasrara, and from there alone, otherwise it is not the pure Water of Life we are drawing on, but a conditioned energy which may be necessary for physical function, but not for Self-realization. We should start out with what we plan to end up with.

• It is no use digging a well in the earth and drinking water from it.

This is the conclusion of the matter, and relates to the chakras located beneath the head (brain). It is useless and even hindering to our progress if by concentrating on any chakra but the sahasrara we “dig a well in the earth” of the body that is beneath the head, for that will only confine our awareness and keep it tied to exterior life. If we “drink” the “water” of such a well we will be tying ourselves to the relative condition which such a center serves, and at death will go to the world(s) to which that chakra correspond. Only those departing from the sahasrara will go to the Absolute.

95. You have a certain thing in your hand; if you look for it somewhere else, you will not find it. If you sit in an upper-story, light a lamp there, and close the doors, those who are below cannot see the light. See the bioscope! see the drama!–all these are seen in the head. Everything should be seen from the same place; you need not go to several places to see several things. The city of Madras can be seen from there as well as from here. It is better to see it from one place. We must “idealize” it in our brain.

What we call the heart is not below; it is above (the neck). When we are cooking, the flames go upwards; so is the heart upwards. There is light in the heart; there is no darkness in it. If a man’s head be struck off, we cannot say who the man is by simply looking at his trunk. It is the heart which sees through the eye. A man must have the internal eye. What is called the heart-space is the face which is triangular. We can know a certain man by looking at his face. A man must know his own secret. A man must know himself.

• You have a certain thing in your hand; if you look for it somewhere else, you will not find it.

The subject of head-awareness (which should be maintained both in and out of meditation) is being continued. The “hand” in which spiritual consciousness is held is the sahasrara, the physical/astra/causal brain. If we look for it somewhere else we will not find it. This is an immensely valuable fact, and one that can make the difference between success and failure in our sadhana.

• If you sit in an upper-story, light a lamp there, and close the doors, those who are below cannot see the light.

Now Nityananda describes meditation. We fix our awareness in the upper story of the brain (sahasrara), close the doors of the sense through interiorization of the mind, and behold the Light that the lesser chakras cannot touch, nor be seen by the minds of those who are centered in them. This is the difference between living in the transcendental Absolute and immersion in the relative world of samsara–even if we are meditating.

• See the bioscope! see the drama!–all these are seen in the head.

Potential omniscience is in the sahasrara awaiting development through tapasya. There are many other seeds there, as well, including omnipresence and omnipotence, which can be germinated and brought to fruition by the sadhaka who knows the way.

• Everything should be seen from the same place; you need not go to several places to see several things. The city of Madras can be seen from there as well as from here. It is better to see it from one place. We must “idealize” it in our brain.

We can both see and “be” anywhere in the cosmos through the cosmic faculties embedded in the sahasrara. The “one place” from which it is better to see all things is the awakened sahasrara.

• What we call the heart is not below; it is above.

This has already been discussed: the true, spiritual heart is not in the trunk of the body, but is the Chidakasha, the Hridayakasha, in the head.

• When we are cooking, the flames go upwards; so is the heart upwards.

That is, the subtle spiritual faculties, the “flames,” rise upward into the sahasrara-heart.

• There is light in the heart; there is no darkness in it. If a man’s head be struck off, we cannot say who the man is by simply looking at his trunk. It is the heart which sees through the eye. A man must have the internal eye. What is called the heart-space is the face which is triangular. We can know a certain man by looking at his face.

The principle here is simple: Pure Consciousness is seated in the sahasrara, which is the real heart. The Eye of Spirit is the Chidakasha itself.

• A man must know his own secret. A man must know himself.

That is what Yoga is all about.

96. Mukti is according to the nature of our bhakti. If you try hard, you get a good salary. If you try little, you get a small salary.

The second sentence shows that the bhakti Nityananda is speaking of is devotion to the ideal of liberation, not what is commonly known as bhakti yoga. If we are very dedicated and do our utmost, then we shall progress far on the path to liberation. On the other hand, if we only make a little effort then we shall only move a very little bit forward toward the Goal and will have wasted a great opportunity. Two things are essential: persistence and intensity of aspiration and effort. Then the Goal is certainly within our reach.

97. When we are little children, we do not know who is our father and who is our mother. When we grow up, we come to know our parentage. When a chicken eats, it scratches everything towards it with its feet. Similarly, when a man’s intellect is developed, he becomes selfish. Every day men die; every day men are born; but rarely do they burn their selfishness. Selfishness completely disappears when the divisible becomes one with the indivisible. From rice various kinds of eatables such as ambada and halva are prepared. These preparations are not called rice.

• When we are little children, we do not know who is our father and who is our mother. When we grow up, we come to know our parentage.

In the same way, only the spiritually mature truly grasp that God is their origin, indeed that God is all. As the Gita says: “Through many a long life his discrimination ripens: he makes me his refuge, knows that Brahman is all. How rare are such great ones!” (Bhagavad Gita 7:19). For once it is understood that they come from Brahman, then the desire to return to Brahman arises and they begin the return through yoga sadhana.

• When a chicken eats, it scratches everything towards it with its feet. Similarly, when a man’s intellect is developed, he becomes selfish. Every day men die; every day men are born; but rarely do they burn their selfishness.

We all know this is true and is going to remain so for the majority of people.

• Selfishness completely disappears when the divisible becomes one with the indivisible.

When the finite jiva unites with the infinite Paramatman, the ego dissolves. In the consciousness of the One, selfishness is totally impossible.

• From rice various kinds of eatables such as ambada and halva are prepared. These preparations are not called rice.

Numberless are the manifestations of Brahman, even though they are called by many names. But just as all the various preparations of rice remain rice, so in all manifestations only Brahman truly exists.

98. A vessel without water is of no use. Bhakti is water; intelligence (buddhi) is the vessel. He who has no subtle bhakti is no man. It is not the work of shakti when a man dances an oracular dance; this dance is a trick. Trickery’s course is downwards. Shakti follows a middle course. Trickery belongs to the body; shakti is atmic; trickery is powerless before the fire of shakti.

• A vessel without water is of no use. Bhakti is water; intelligence (buddhi) is the vessel. He who has no subtle bhakti is no man.

Again, bhakti here means dedication to spiritual life, to sadhana, to pursuit of Brahmajnana. Intelligence is purposeless without the orientation Godward, without the determination to realize God in this very life. Nor can this dedication be some kind of external show–it must be internalized and subtle, not like the raucous and absurdly theatrical bhakti constantly seen in India, usually involving crowds, noise, and even frenzy. True bhakti is always centered in intelligence, in the buddhi.

• It is not the work of shakti when a man dances an oracular dance; this dance is a trick.

I have no idea what Malayalam words Nityananda used that is here translated “oracular dance,” but what he means are the jumpings, fallings, and contortions that especially characterize the effusions of sectarian Vaishnavism, particularly in Bengal. He also has in mind the kind of trance-frenzy seen in south India in which the dancers are pierced with many thin wooden skewers but feel no pain. Both of these are intensely self-delusional and damage body and mind. They are usually the expressions of intense hypocrisy and utter ballyhoo. I have seen both kinds myself, and it all springs from their defiled minds and the intention to make a name for themselves. When Nityananda says “trickery” he means self-serving hypocrisy.

• Trickery’s course is downwards. Shakti follows a middle course.

This is certainly true. I have never seen this kind of display that did not have sexuality at its core–the participants were often notoriously immoral men. All forms of hysterical, false bhakti lead downward on all levels. Here is what Swami Vivekananda wrote in Raja Yoga:

“All over the world there have been dancing and jumping and howling sects, who spread like infection when they begin to sing and dance and preach; they also are a sort of hypnotists. They exercise a singular control for the time being over sensitive persons, alas! often, in the long run, to degenerate whole races. Ay, it is healthier for the individual or the race to remain wicked than be made apparently good by such morbid extraneous control. One’s heart sinks to think of the amount of injury done to humanity by such irresponsible yet well-meaning religious fanatics. They little know that the minds which attain to sudden spiritual upheaval under their suggestions, with music and prayers, are simply making themselves passive, morbid, and powerless, and opening themselves to any other suggestion, be it ever so evil. Little do these ignorant, deluded persons dream that whilst they are congratulating themselves upon their miraculous power to transform human hearts, which power they think was poured upon them by some Being above the clouds, they are sowing the seeds of future decay, of crime, of lunacy, and of death. Therefore, beware of everything that takes away your freedom. Know that it is dangerous, and avoid it by all the means in your power.”

“Shakti follows a middle course” means that real atmic shakti moves upward in the sushumna and manifests as awaked consciousness, not emotion and display.

• Trickery belongs to the body; shakti is atmic.

As I just said.

• Trickery is powerless before the fire of shakti.

That is, such insanity has no effect on those with authentic spiritual empowerment. They see it as a cruel joke perpetuated mostly on those doing it. I remember walking down a street in Brindaban one evening with an authentic Vaishnava devotee. Suddenly around the corner there careered what appeared like a bunch of drunks expelled from a bar, but they carried banners and holy imagery. Their singing underscored the impression of drunkenness as they straggled along. But then their leader caught sight of me. Westerners mean money to such people–maybe even sponsoring of a world tour. So the leader called them to a halt, and as they started running into one another, he began shouting: “Sing louder! Sing louder! Dance! Dance!” There is no way I can describe the chaos that followed, but my friend was delighted and began laughing so hard he doubled over. When the leader saw that, he began shouting again for louder singing and faster dancing. Apparently he thought it was working. Anyhow, Sharmaji said: “Swamiji, let’s get out of here before I fall down and they claim to convert me!” So we sped away with them watching us, wondering what had gone wrong. Another time two American Vaishnava friends of mine were walking around Venice, California. A Hari Krishna man, all togged up (or down) with his hand stuck in a japa bag slung around his neck, started across the street When he saw my friends watching him he began to dance around like a drunk monkey, yelling: “Hari bol” and watching to see if he was making an impression. He was. They fled the other way, laughing merrily.

99. Almost all fruits have their seed inside, but the cashew apple has its seed outside. Our mind, like the seed of the cashew apple, must be outside samsara. One must not reserve sugar for himself and distribute sand to others. One following the royal road should not lead others to the path covered with forests. It is one’s bounden duty to lead others by the royal road. We must do this at once. We are not sure about the future.

• Almost all fruits have their seed inside, but the cashew apple has its seed outside. Our mind, like the seed of the cashew apple, must be outside samsara.

We should not judge situations or actions according to the standards of samsara. We must look at all things with the transcendental eye of spirit-wisdom. This is impossible without meditation and japa.

• One must not reserve sugar for himself and distribute sand to others. One following the royal road should not lead others to the path covered with forests.

It is not unknown for those that set themselves up as spiritual teachers to teach what they think will sell, and keep the worthwhile knowledge to themselves. This is often the case with meditation teachers. One world-renowned meditation teacher claimed the practice he peddled was the highest and best, having been given to him by his guru, a great master. But to me he admitted that he had invented the method and the way he initiated people into it. I know of at least two other teachers with followings around the world who just looked through some books and then made up what they hawked as ancient tradition. The practices of all three of these charlatans actually harmed many, but it was the money that counted. They led others into the jungle of harm, themselves being the beasts of prey that lived off of them.

• It is one’s bounden duty to lead others by the royal road.

A worthy teacher first of all knows the royal road himself and never holds any knowledge from his students. Those who do less must be prepared for the karmic consequences.

• We must do this at once. We are not sure about the future.

Nityananda is thinking of those teachers that dribble out their teaching, especially those that have a series of “initiations” to impart an ascending series of techniques. Since nothing they teach really works, they keep their students in anticipation of the next “higher” technique that surely will begin doing what they promised at the beginning. This is sheer trickery, but what else can they do, since they know nothing, really?

But those who do know something worthwhile should share it freely, openly, and completely right now, for the future certainly is unsure, but karma is not.

100. When a train leaves a station, the next station is alerted that a train is approaching by the sound of bells ringing. What is called “bindu-nada” is the bell. Just as we hear a sound when we throw a stone into a well, we hear bindu-nada inside the head.

Please note that Nityananda does not just say “nada” but bindu-nada. That is because he is speaking about the subtle sound which is heard during the japa and meditation of Om that is represented by the bindu in the symbolic form of Om that is commonly used. This is above the sign for nada, indicating that it is the source of the ordinary sound of Om. See Om Yoga for more regarding this.

101. When a boy has passed the first standard and he goes to the second standard, books of the first standard are no longer required by him. When a man is in sound sleep, he sees neither the stars nor the sun nor the moon. He is aware of nothing. Then the mind is nil. Sleep is a subtle condition; it is not gross. In sound sleep we are not conscious of the body. Then we are conscious of atma alone. We will have sleep when prana is in a fixed plane in the body. When the ego is completely destroyed, everything seems to be like a reflection. The mind’s delusion is not permanent. It is not Shiva.

• When a boy has passed the first standard and he goes to the second standard, books of the first standard are no longer required by him.

Here again we have the idea that a jnani keeps moving forward in his understanding, leaving behind his former limited insight. This process continues throughout his life and beyond, for Infinity is no quick attainment.

• When a man is in sound sleep, he sees neither the stars nor the sun nor the moon. He is aware of nothing. Then the mind is nil. Sleep is a subtle condition; it is not gross. In sound sleep we are not conscious of the body. Then we are conscious of atma alone.

Here Nityananda is speaking of sushupti, the state of dreamless sleep in which only the Self is awake and aware.

• We will have sleep when prana is in a fixed plane in the body.

Whether Nityananda is speaking of sleep that simply results from calming of the life-force and breath, or rather of the state of “conscious sleep” which occurs during meditation when the life-force is in perfect balance and harmony, is impossible to tell here, but the second one is likely.

• When the ego is completely destroyed, everything seems to be like a reflection.

When the Self looks out from our eyes without the filter of ego, it perceives that all things exist within God like the reflection in a mirror–that God is the reality and all else His reflection.

• The mind’s delusion is not permanent. It is not Shiva.

Only God abides forever, therefore we can be assured that our delusions and illusions will one day fade away, and the Truth of Divine Life be revealed in us.

102. When a man has become a graduate in law, he receives a university gown. This gown covers the body from head to foot. It has four hands (two hands and two legs). When Sat and Chit become united, we have Ananda, Brahmananda, Paramananda, Sri Satchidananda, Sri Yogananda. When we discard worldly pleasures, we enjoy divine pleasures, when we realize the truth about the jiva, we enjoy ananda.

• When a man has become a graduate in law, he receives a university gown. This gown covers the body from head to foot. It has four hands (two hands and two legs).

This cannot be an accurate transcription about the “four hands.” I can only speculate that Nityananda is saying that Self-realization “covers” the entire person, that every part of our being partakes of it.

• When Sat and Chit become united, we have Ananda, Brahmananda, Paramananda, Sri Satchidananda, Sri Yogananda.

The pinnacle of yoga is when our consciousness (Chit) unites permanently with the Supreme Consciousness (Sat). When that occurs, the result is Bliss (Ananda)–the bliss of Brahman (Brahmananda), the supreme bliss (Paramananda) or bliss of the Supreme, the bliss of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss (Satchidananda), the bliss of Yoga or Divine Union (Yogananda).

• When we discard worldly pleasures, we enjoy divine pleasures, when we realize the truth about the jiva, we enjoy ananda.

This is perfectly clear and needs no addition from me. But it certainly should be taken to heart as a rule of life.

103. Those who have no guru, have not realized the truth. In this world there is no effect without cause. When the darkness in this world has appeared as light, that is called jnana. Darkness is ignorance. Light is knowledge. Do not be a hypocrite and earn fame.

• Those who have no guru, have not realized the truth.

Since Nityananda did not approve of human gurus, he perhaps means qualified teachers (acharyas) or spiritual intuition guidings. Certainly the evolving soul benefits from both and in most cases they are necessary.

• In this world there is no effect without cause.

I suspect he means that enlightenment does not strike like lightning, and especially does not occur without a cause, and producing the cause depends on us. Basically, he is saying that spiritual development comes about through our own effort, that although we can certainly be encourages and inspired and instructed along the way, it still is our effort alone that produces the spiritual result.

• When the darkness in this world has appeared as light, that is called jnana. Darkness is ignorance. Light is knowledge.

When the darkness of ignorance has been transformed into the light of knowledge, then we are jnanis. It is liking extracting gold from ore. Until then it is just rock, but when it has been smelted, the shining metal appears. In the same way, tapasya in the form of meditation extracts the wisdom of the Self from the unrefined ore of our former ignorance.

• Do not be a hypocrite and earn fame.

A lot of people start out quite well, but after attracting the attention and admiration of the spiritual window-shoppers, they turn their endeavors into ego boosting. Losing their way, they harm themselves and others. If scandals result, then the very people that seduced them away from their ideals will despise and rail at them.

Nityananda is telling us to hold on to our ideals and pursue them without caring what others think of us when we are “selfish” and “anti-social” by refusing to waste our time with their idle-minded “seeking” that by its nature can lead nowhere. Jesus said: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (Matthew 7:6). This is the plain truth, and following Jesus’ counsel will save us from very real harm.

104. Say what you do and do what you say.

Absolutely!

105. Before you die, leave the forest path and follow the royal road. When you are on your death-bed, you may suffer the agonies of hell, your prana being obstructed by the three humors (vatha, pitha, and kapha).

• Before you die, leave the forest path and follow the royal road.

The life of samsara is often likened to being lost in a dense forest: we wander around and around and find no way out, being in danger every moment from the wild animals that live there. Before we die spiritually, we must leave this path of samsara and follow the royal road of yoga. Then we will find out what living really is.

• When you are on your death-bed, you may suffer the agonies of hell, your prana being obstructed by the three humors [vatha, pitha, and kapha].

As a child and young adult I heard a lot of stories at church about people who when dying claimed to be feeling the fires of hell and died in great agony (“went screaming into a devil’s hell” was the favorite punch line). Here Nityananda explains this phenomenon. At the time of death the vital forces (pranas) begin to withdraw into the chakra from which the subtle bodies will exit the material body. Those whose pranas are obstructed or out of phase will experience intense burning sensations in the body as they are being pulled “against the grain” so to say. This can be very terrible and frightening to the person. In my teens I heard of a woman who had considered herself “saved” all her life, but when this happened to her as she was dying, she assumed she was going to hell and told a minister I knew that he should preach a sermon on hypocrites at her funeral and tell everyone she was damned. (I wonder how many times in church she had sung about “The Old-Time Religion,” singing: “It will do when I am dying.”)

Anyhow, this is the truth of the matter.

106. There are many people in this world to take care of those who have passed the I.C.S. [Indian Civil Service examination], but there is none to inquire about the path to divinity. No one can describe what the bliss of mukti means and what it is. That religion which was taught by Shiva from the beginning of creation is one and one only.

• There are many people in this world to take care of those who have passed the I.C.S. [Indian Civil Service examination], but there is none to inquire about the path to divinity. No one can describe what the bliss of mukti means and what it is.

The world and worldly society are set up to perpetuate themselves, and there is no place in them for those who seek God, none who can expound to us the glory of liberation (moksha) and how to attain it.

• That religion which was taught by Shiva from the beginning of creation is one and one only.

Shiva is the supreme yogi, the great renunciate, whose chief characteristic is indifference to this world and its blandishments. His dharma is based on that, and centers on the practice of yoga to attain liberation. This is the only true religion there is: the path of return to God. Everything else is a myth. It does not matter what formal religion a person professes, if he is not a yogi then he has no religion at all. He is a stranger to dharma.

107. Adversity given by Shiva is no adversity. Sorrow given by Shiva is no sorrow. It is your mental delusion. At the time of our birth on this earth, there is some difficulty. So also at the end. When men come out of their mother’s womb, tears trickle down their eyes.

• Adversity given by Shiva is no adversity. Sorrow given by Shiva is no sorrow. It is your mental delusion.

If medicine tastes bad, we may think it is poison, but it is the cure for our illness without which we might die. In the same way, those who have set their feet on the path to liberation must realize that any obstacles or troubles they might encounter are really aids to their success in spiritual life. If they carefully ponder them they will see the lessons to be learned and the way to pass through them and be benefitted by them. It is delusion that makes us afraid of them and feel helpless before them. If we face them in the context of dharma and yoga will will see them very differently and respond to them courageously and effectively.

• At the time of our birth on this earth, there is some difficulty. So also at the end. When men come out of their mother’s womb, tears trickle down their eyes.

All true.

108. All is Shiva. Justice and its opposite both are Shiva. O mind! Leave off injustice and be one with justice.

Nityananda is continuing the subject of how to view the world and life within the world realistically–yogically. If we leave off personal wrongdoing and follow the right way, then the whole world will be transformed into God for us.