Stillness

Degrees of Consciousness

There is water in the air, but you cannot drink water from air, like you drink from a water bottle. Similarly, there is a difference between an ordinary person and an Avatar or a Holy Master. Consciousness is in everyone, but how much is it; to what degree? Qualitatively, consciousness is in everything, but, quantitatively how much?

In different kingdoms of nature, there are different levels of consciousness. The highest level of consciousness is found in the human kingdom. Those who are spiritually progressing are trying to increase this consciousness of the Divine within themselves.

But, how do you experience it? Be still and know that you are God! It is in stillness that you experience your true nature, the soul nature; and further the Paramatma nature and finally the Parabrahman Nature.

Practices that Steer Closer to Stillness

Many people complain that when they try to meditate, there are so many thoughts, mixed emotions and many distractions and disturbances. They are not able to sit still. This is natural, as your aura is clouded with many thoughts and feelings. It is just that you are not aware of it at other times. But, when you try to sit in quietude for meditation, you realise that there are so many things inside you. At least now, it has come upon you. You can now work on ridding yourself of them. In other words, you must clean your aura.

How can you clean your aura? It may take a long time by going into seclusion and working on it. For a faster approach, some people chant mantras. That is good, but they must be used to a limited extent; that is, in moderation. Excessive usage of mantras is not safe. The vibration of mantra raises the consciousness of your physical, emotional and mental bodies and hence, all that is grosser, unwholesome, disagreeable and unsympathetic gets dropped.

The fastest method of purifying your aura is to become a channel of the Divine. When you become a channel of the Divine, energy flows through you. Thus, it cleanses you. You may channel the blessings to all kingdoms of nature and entire Earth using the prayer of Great Invocation or practice the Planetary Peace Meditation to bless the Mother Earth or heal someone to help in restoring his health. You can bring a change by aligning with the plan of the Divine and becoming a conduit to bring peace on Earth. When you become a channel of peace, the peace will fill and flow through you. You will become a reservoir of peace with higher degree of peace inside you. You may internalise peace, love and forgiveness in this manner by becoming a medium bursting with and emanating peace, love and forgiveness.

You are not giving out your energy, you are an instrument in channelling energy. You may say that energy is permeating everywhere, so why should we channel it? Imagine you are blowing a balloon. Air is there around, but the balloon is not inflated on its own. You have to put pressure and blow the air into the balloon. The air is not from you. You draw it from the surroundings. In the same manner, the healer is a channel for the Divine. When you do a prayer asking for well-being for everyone, you are an avenue for the Divine. Ask and you shall receive it. You have to believe it, and have entitlement to receive. You can improve your entitlement by giving. In this process, your aura gets purified as the divine energies flow through you. By regularly channelling, your aura gets purified of most of the unnecessary emotions and thoughts.

Before this your physical body and energy body must be strong. For which physical exercises and breathing exercises are very important. Breathing exercises strengthen the aura.

In order to be physically fit, right and proper diet is also imperative. Right diet helps with subtler aura. Fruit diet, the natural diet made available by God, which is pre-cooked and/ or pre-digested mostly, must be part of your main diet or one meal of the day. You must maintain your body.

For attaining stillness, the first requirement is that your aura and emotional condition must become calmer. Let us take an analogy of muddy water in a pond. The mud has to settle down, for the water to become clear. Now, you can see what is inside at the bottom of the pond and also the reflection of things above, provided the water is also still. Likewise, even if water is still, but if its dirty, you cannot see through it or make out any reflection in it. Hence, water must first become clean. That is calmness! Only after calmness is achieved, there is significance or relevance of stillness. When you are calm and still, you can reflect your true nature, which is otherwise not visible, by manifesting it in your lower bodies as a reflection of your higher true nature. When disturbed, your aura is like muddy, dirty water and also not still.

All great people, religions, scriptures advice to practice stillness. But then, how can you be still when you are shaking with emotions, your breathing is erratic and your system is pulsating. Breathing is the key. If your breathing is erratic, it means you are not in calmness. The diaphragm might be vibrating. The energy centre near the diaphragm is called Solar Plexus, which is a seat for both positive and negative lower emotions. That is, it is connected with lower emotions, like, anger, irritability, frustration, sadness, etc. And also, with positive traits of courage, emotional commitment and persistence. This centre must be regulated with breathing exercises in order to calm yourself of any unpleasant feelings.

How to obtain more calmness? Try out forgiveness sadhana. If you are not able to forgive, you get stuck with the same old patterns of thinking, re-experiencing the same distasteful emotions. With all these going on within, how can you get hold of calmness? Learn to forgive yourself, others and ask for forgiveness from others, all in the mind. Practice sincere forgiveness, learn the lessons from these situations and move forward. In every case, forgive internally and take right corrective external action only if need be. That is deeper level of Ahimsa! Inaction is injury. However, right kind of force, right amount of force, at right time must be exercised. The intention for taking the action must be clear. It is to mobilise someone or to stop any injury; the intention is not to take revenge or to cause injury!

To be able to experience this all-pervasive or pure energy with intelligence or consciousness of the Divine, which is always present in and around you, you must be emotionally calm. Subsequently, when stillness ensues, your true nature above is reflected unerringly below. Hence, the people who are in stillness are embodying the aspect of the Divine, they are being an instrument for the Teacher. They are an outpost of the Divine by expressing the Divine through their entire being. There are degrees of calmness and different levels of stillness.