To be yourself!
When prana level is low - you feel upset, angry, dejected and not so good. When prana level is even lower - you feel life is not worth living. When prana level is normal - you feel yourself, like a normal human being. When prana is a little higher than normal - you feel more creative, enthusiastic, and joyful. And if it is even higher, you realize something much deeper.
Sadhana is meant to increase this prana level in you. If your prana level is constantly high - then you don’t need to do sadhana - that is what is enlightenment; your optimum prana.
I remember an elderly gentleman, some 40 years back, asked me, "Are you tired? You must be tired!"
There was an 86 years old gentleman with me, he pounced on the person, suddenly saying, "Come on! A yogi will not get tired!" That is true! Tiredness is when our senses go outward; the moment the senses start turning inward, we are tapping into the eternal source of energy.
Forget about surrender! Just know that there is one power which is in control of everything. Seasons are not in your control; the earth moving around the sun and all the planets moving in their orbits are not in your control. Every element on this planet has its own laws within which it functions, all of which are not in your control.
There is a natural law, a power that is in total control of everything, which gives you some control to do certain things. It is like the pilot of the plane is controlling the plane, but inside the plane you can get up, use the washroom, sit or stand. There is little freedom for you too. Similarly, we have our responsibilities; we perform them to our optimum. We take responsibilities; do what we need to do knowing well that the plane is being steered by a good pilot.
Surrender is not an act. Actually the word surrender has lost all its meaning. Just be aware that there is a bigger mind, a bigger self, a bigger intelligence which is at work.
Only one who has created maya can take you out of it!
From time to time, observe three things within:
1. Desires. Desires come one after another; one gets fulfilled and another comes. Some desires don’t get fulfilled yet more desires come. Let them come, don’t fight with them; just observe that the desires are coming.
2. Intellect. Likes, dislikes and judgements arise from your intellect, just recognize them.
3. Ego - I am happy, I am unhappy, I am miserable, I am too good, I am not so good. All that 'me', to which you attach many other adjectives, that 'me' is the ego.
Sometimes you should say, "For some time, let me freeze all three things". When you do this, then something happens. That magical moment when something happens, you say, "Wow, this is the deep rest that I have always desired. I did all that I could do, all my life, for this joy that is deep inside me!"
This awareness dawns from within you. So from time to time you have to sit freeze your desires, intellect and ego. Just freeze it for a few minutes, and then the depth of silence, the vastness of peace suddenly becomes yours.
Well, you can keep wondering about it. Trouble comes when you act, and if you don’t act also, it comes, a little later. Why do you have to look at others, what they are doing and feeling?
When you have gone through all that polishing, become hollow and empty, you will see that you come out of the cocoon like a butterfly! This is what knowledge does, it cleanses our mind from all this; cravings, aversions, sorrows and regrets are taken away and you feel alive and fresh again.
We have been on this planet so many times, did so many things, have had so many such lives, so many successes and so many failures. From all that, we have moved forward and we are going forward - unblemished, untouched, untarnished, stronger and stronger! Just know this -- there is no regression, only progress.
