Three levels of spiritual practices

There are three levels of spiritual practices.
This is something I have not spoken about before.

The first one is called Anva Upaya. The second is Shakta Upaya, . and the third one is Shambava Upaya. .
Shiva, Shakti and Anva. All practices in the world can be categorized into these three categories. So, Anva is the lowest; means the very beginning. All the japa, mantras, poojas, yogasanas, breath control, everything comes under Anva Upaya. They are called Upayas, which means remedies.
Above this is Shakta. Shakta is only mental, i.e., inside. There is no outer thing, no mantras in it. It is the effect of the meditative state, that is Shakta Upaya.
When you do singing, meditation, pranayam and Sudarshan Kriya (Kriya begins with Anva Upaya but then), it leads to Shakta Upaya, when you are just energy. Here there is no effort, there is no doing. Just a little bit effortless effort is there.
Then the Shambava or Shiv Upaya is just pure awareness. Just a state of awareness.
Shambava Upaya means that there is no means (way) to do it, it is just a happening, it will just happen. Even then it is still called an Upaya.
So the purpose of Anva and Shakta Upaya is to go to Shambava Upaya wherein you become one with Shiva (the fourth state of consciousness). There is no two, there is no doer, you are Shiva, and that is Shambava Upaya.

Usually people like Jiddu Krishnamurti and others who have experienced some degree of Shambava Upaya, they simply discard the other levels. If you read, some people have said that there is no point in doing pranayama, or, there is no point in chanting mantras, or there is no point in doing Pooja. They are all talking from the level of Shambava Upaya, but all these practices have their own place too.
See, for example, if you go to the Prime Minister of Canada, the Mayor of St Mathieu's doesn’t matter much. But suppose the Mayor of St Matheius has a say as well, then even if you go to the Prime Minister the mayor of this town can put some hurdles, isn't it? The beaurocrats can put some hurdles.
So the ancient system is attending to everybody and giving everyone their rightful place. And that is how all this, Anva Upaya, Shakta Upaya, everything is maintained because they have some purpose.
This is deep knowledge.

Saving the mind

There are four kinds of attitude that are good to have in life:
1) Friendliness: Be friendly with people who are happy. If you are not friendly with happy people, you will be jealous. This is because you think that your enemy is happy, and you cannot tolerate your enemy being happy. So, shake hands with happy people. Such an attitude does a lot of good to your mind.

2) Compassion: Do not be friendly with people who are miserable, instead, have compassion for them. If you are friendly with unhappy people you will become unhappy. And if you become unhappy, you can never help them to come out of their misery. So, there is a different flavour of your relation with them.
Many people have gotten into trouble by being friendly with unhappy people; both become miserable. It is like a doctor going to a patient who is sick, and the doctor also becomes sick.
If the doctor also thinks, ‘How can I alone be healthy? Let me also share the patient’s misery’, then who will help the patient then?
So, what should be the attitude with people who are miserable? Compassion, not pity.

3) Happiness: For people who are doing good work or who are successful in the world, you should feel happy as though you are doing it.
For example, someone is a good singer, singing and bringing joy to everybody, seeing him you should think, ‘I feel so happy that this person is singing so well, and making everyone happy.’
If someone is a good entertainer and he entertains everybody you should feel happy about it. If someone is a great architect and builds beautiful buildings you should feel happy about it. Whenever someone does a good job, share that happiness with them; we need to have this attitude.

4) Indifference: For people who are doing horrible things in the society, destroying themselves, we usually get angry at them. When you are angry, your mind suffers a huge loss. You lose so much energy, you lose your mood, and your enthusiasm. When energy and enthusiasm goes away from you, you become angry and are no better than the other person. You do not know what you are doing. So, what should you do in such a situation? Have a sort of indifference in your mind.
For example, there are thieves in the world, they are there, what can you do about them? First accept, be indifferent. However, this does not mean you do not take any action. Your mind is indifferent (unaffected), but you act on it.

These are the four attitudes that will help us to save our mind. This is what we need to do, save our mind at all costs

Essence of Guru poornima

“Among the 12-13 full moons in a year the Vaishakha Full Moon is dedicated to Buddha (his birth and enlightenment), Jyeshtha Full Moon to mother earth and the Aashadha Full Moon is dedicated to the memory of masters. This is Guru-Purnima.

It is the day when the disciple wakes up in his fullness and in the wakefulness he can’t be but grateful. This gratitude is not of dwaita (you and me), but of advaita. It is not a river moving from somewhere to somewhere, but is the ocean moving within itself. So, gratefulness on Guru-Purnima symbolizes that fullness.

The purpose of the Guru Purnima celebration is to turn back and review and see in this last one year how much one has progressed in life. For a seeker, Guru Purnima is a day of significance, is a day of New Year. It is the day to review one’s progress on the spiritual path and renew one’s determination and focus on the goal, and to resolve what one wants to do in the coming year. As the full moon rises and sets, tears of gratitude arise and repose into the vastness of one’s own self.”

You know, our body has millions of cells, and each cell has its own life. Many cells are being born every day and many are dying. So, you are a moving town. So many cities are on the planet Earth and planet Earth is revolving and moving around the Sun. Same way, there are so many cells and so many living beings inside you and you are moving around. You are a moving township. Like in a beehive, there are so many bees which come and sit, but there is one queen bee. If the queen bee goes away, every other bee goes away. In the same way, there is an atom in our body, the queen bee. If that is not there, everything else goes away. Locate in that, in that tiniest of the tiny atom, the atma (soul) or the self. It is everywhere yet nowhere. That is the queen bee and that is what you are. That is what the Divine is, and that is the Guru principle. Like there is fatherhood, motherhood, there is Guruhood also. You all have to play Guruhood at least to somebody. You do play, you keep giving advices and guiding people consciously or unconsciously, and give them love and care. But do it with 100 percent without expecting anything in return. That is living the Guruhood, living the self. There is no difference between the Divine, you and the Guru Principle. It is all coming to one thing, the queen bee.

Meditation is relaxing and reposing in that atom. So, think of all the things that you could be grateful for, and ask what you want. And bless everybody. We receive, but not just receiving is enough, we should give and bless those who are in need.

How to get rid of bad dreams?

Q: Guruji, I get bad dreams at night, and this happens very frequently. I am afraid. Please help.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: There is no need to fear. Just chant Om Namah Shivaya before sleeping at night, or Jai Gurudev, or you can say both and then sleep.
See in our country, and in other countries around the world, before sleeping, children were made to say prayers, is it not? Does anyone follow this now-a-days? How many of you here do it? (A few people raise their hands) See, very few sitting here follow this. Before sleeping all of you should pray and make the children pray too. Chant one shloka (prayer verse), or take the name of some deity you revere, or just offer thanks to God for the day given to you.
There is no need to pray in Sanskrit only. Even saying a prayer in Hindi will do. God does not only know Sanskrit. He understands your regional languages as well. So just pray. What is important is the feeling. So before you sleep join your hands and pray, ‘Thank you God for the gift of today. Bless me that I may sleep well tonight and may my day tomorrow be good’.

So you may recite a few lines like this. Or you may just remember God, and chant any name of the Lord that you know. You can chant the name of your deity or your Guru, or any saint. Pray and surrender everything to them and go to sleep. In the ancient days, children would pray to their mother and father and then go to sleep. But nowadays children don’t have such devotion towards their parents. If parents keep fighting with each other the whole day then how will the children feel like praying to them? They think, ‘The parents keep fighting with each other, how we can treat them as God?’
If you do not believe in God, or any other deity, then also it is fine. There is no compulsion to believe in God. In that case sit silently with yourself for a few moments and just quiet the mind. Simply remind yourself, ‘My soul is eternal and I am pure’. In the Ashtavakra Gita, it is said, ‘Aho Aham Namo Mahiyam’, this means, ‘I bow down to myself’. We can say this (bowing down to oneself) only when there is no sense of guilt within us. Thinking this way, just relax within yourself. You should do this much at least. So meditate for some time and then sleep. Then you will not have bad dreams and you will have good quality sleep.

Moving Ahead

On one side is an ignorant person who does not think about himself at all. And on the other side is a person who only thinks about himself. Both are not good. On one side you have a person who is not ripe; too raw, and on the other side is a person whose mind has rotted by only thinking about himself. Both are not good.

You should adopt the middle path. Analyse yourself a little, reflect on it and then leave it and move ahead. Do not get stuck. So that you can move ahead, I am telling you that whatever has happened, just drop it and move ahead. Do not sit and regret about what has happened – neither about what you have done, nor about what others did. If you keep thinking about what you did, then you feel regret, and if you think about what others did wrong, then you get angry and worried.

Anyways you have no control over anyone. Nobody has ever had control over anyone else in this world. If you think you are controlling someone or are under the control or influence of someone, then that is a very wrong thought. Everything in this world operates as per certain laws of Nature. So whatever has happened in the past, just shrug it off and move ahead. When you dust away all the dirt (of the past) that has accumulated inside you, then you will simply start shining. You become much stronger, your consciousness blossoms, and happiness starts to flow. Then you can say that you are alive. This is what life really is.

Now you might ask, ‘Can I remain happy the entire 24 hours of the day?’ If not for 24 hours, at least you can be happy for one or two hours! You may not be able to be a fish always floating in water (happiness), but at least you can take a shower for a little while. This is the very purpose of knowledge.

Eight Type of Purifications

First, anna shuddhi, purification of grains. Good food, nutritious food, and the right amount of food is important.

Second, everyday a little bit of proper exercise is important. Even though you may have a car or a motor bike, sometime during the day, you should walk as well. Every day, at least for 20 minutes start walking, or doing some physical exercise.

Third, vaakya shuddhi, purification of speech. This is very important.
All of you must see that the words that you use do not hurt other people. If you have said something that hurts somebody, and if they are crying, then it is going to affect you somewhere.

Fourth, karma shuddhi. We must do seva. With service, our actions are purified.

Fifth, dhan shuddhi, i.e., purification of wealth. We should keep aside at least three per cent of whatever we earn, and use it for the society. Then the money that we earn will become purified. If we use whatever we earn for our self only, then that is not the best utilization of money. So, we must use a little portion of our earnings for the society.

Sixth, shareer shuddhi, i.e., purification of the body. Once in a week or a fortnight, take some Triphala, or some ayurvedic products to cleanse your body.

Seventh, bhaava shudhhi, i.e., purification of feelings. Do some satsang for some time; it is necessary as it purifies the feelings.

Eighth, buddhi shuddhi is purification of the intellect. With knowledge the intellect is purified. A pure intellect comes when you look at life from a broader perspective. Who am I? What is this universe? Where am I going?