There was a popular song a while ago that went Don t worry be happy It became an instant hit and no wonder We all have a laundry list of worries all the time It is very difficult for us to predict when we are likely to be joyful but very easy to say when we shall be worried which is almost all the time We worry when we have no money we also worry when we have money We worry if we have no children we also worry when we have children as our children quite often are the

• Don’t worry, be happy

There was a popular song a while ago that went: Don’t worry, be happy. It became an instant hit, and no wonder. We all have a laundry list of worries all the time. It is very difficult for us to predict when we are likely to be joyful, but very easy to say when we shall be worried, which is almost all the time. We worry when we have no money; we also worry when we have money. We worry if we have no children; we also worry when we have children, as our children quite often are the cause of problems, especially when they emulate us. Worry follows desires just as night follows day. Just as desires have no end, worries too are endless. John went to a restaurant and ordered one of each item on the menu. With great enjoyment he ate all that was brought to him. After he finished with his dessert and coffee, he got up to leave. The waiter stopped him with a bill. Said John in exasperation: I never ordered this bill. Why have you brought it to me? Most of us live our life like John. We have no recollection of asking for the bill as we go on desring about acquisitions and expectations of acquisitions. When the bill does finally arrive we are startled, and depressed as this is not part of our expectation. Desires are not harmful by themselves. Desires are energy, as long as the desires are your true deep desires. Problem is that most of our desires are borrowed. They arise out of jealousy and greed and nothing to do with what we need. Ramana Maharishi said about this beautifully: The Universe can cater to the needs of every single inhabitant. However, it can not fulfill the wants of even one single person. In your own life, just think of all the things you wish for right now. Make a list. Now make a list of the things that you already have. Which list makes you happy, and which list makes you uneasy? The answer is obvious. Why don’t we focus on what we have, offer gratitude to the Universe for providing all that we have instead of worrying about what we don’t have? Whether we want to keep begging for more or be thankful for what we have is a choice that we make. It is a choice between happiness and sorrow. PARAMAHAMSA  NITHYANANDA

Its weird and yet it has become normal Whatever moves faster is better Communication is at the speed of light The world is a global village Electronic mails have to be responded to within the hour We all are always in a tearing hurry Doing what We are all driven by greed and fear greed tells us that there is no time to lose Fear tells us that we are going to lose So we hurry not knowing what we are going to lose not knowing what its value is We run because we are afraid to stop afraid to

• Inner restlessness -The expressway to suffering

Its weird and yet it has become normal. Whatever moves faster is better. Communication is at the speed of light. The world is a global village. Electronic mails have to be responded to within the hour. We all are always in a tearing hurry. Doing what? We are all driven by greed and fear. Greed tells us that there is no time to lose. Fear tells us that we are going to lose. So we hurry not knowing what we are going to lose, not knowing what its value is. We run because we are afraid to stop; afraid to stop and reflect on what we are doing and why. We are afraid to be with ourselves. To be silent can be terrifying as it makes one vulnerable to oneself. A young man came to see me. He said: Swamiji, I have everything sorted out. I am building a house with a 25-year loan. By that time my daughter (a two-year-old holding his hand) will be ready for marriage. My son (an infant that his wife is carrying) will be in a good job. The house would be very valuable and we can get a lot of money by selling it. We will invest most of it and settle down with you at the Ashram. He had finished off 25 years of his life in just ten minutes. He still feels that his calling is spiritual. Is mortgaging the present for the future spiritual? This constant running is a reflection of our inner restlessness. We certainly feel we have missed out on life. Has the running been worth it? This is the fastest route to suffering, the expressway. There is good reason to plan for tomorrow, it’s important. However, let’s not forget to live today! We take ourselves too seriously. What we do in our lifetime hardly matters in the bigger picture. It is lost in the vast expanse of the universe. Things go on silently in the universe; so peacefully without any contradictions; millions of solar systems function with such beauty! Things happen in nature in spite of us not because of us. When we realize this we relax into ourselves. We feel centered in our being. There is a deep sense of trust and peace that envelops our being. When this happens, we will not find the need to hurry through our lives. Meditation helps to experience this space of relaxation and live enlightenment. • PARAMAHAMSA  NITHYANANDA

This is the time when timelessness penetrates time This is the moment when space descends into the place zone brahmanda descends into pindanda macrocosm descends into microcosm defines Paramahamsa Nithyananda on Shivaratri He says this is the time when the whole cosmos creates a possibility for us to experience the Ultimate consciousness A deep click happened in me when I heard these words from the master on Shivaratri night Let me pen down by thoughts Time and again enlightened masters have said You are enlightened But we hold on to time and place as being permanent We want to hold

• Time to Timelessness, Place to Space

"This is the time when timelessness penetrates time. This is the moment when space descends into the place zone; brahmanda descends into pindanda; macrocosm descends into microcosm", defines Paramahamsa Nithyananda, on Shivaratri. He says this is the time when the whole cosmos creates a possibility for us to experience the Ultimate consciousness. A deep click happened in me when I heard these words from the master on Shivaratri night.

Let me pen down by thoughts.

Time and again, enlightened masters have said, "You are enlightened". But we hold on to time and place as being permanent. We want to hold on to time and place. We always are either in past or future. There is a reason for it. Because present is the always changing, always impermanent, our ego knows that it can't hold the present. That is precisely why we are never in the present moment, we are scared of staying in the present moment.


Similarly holding on to place, the world outside that we perceive as solid reality, deludes us from the space that we are actually a part of. We are part of the whole cosmic space. The whole cosmic space is within us. But we are busy grabbing places for us; putting our nameplates on as many places as we can.


Holding on to these two is pulling us, already spiritual beings, into humanly emotions like greed and fear. Being entangled in these emotions arising from our clutching on to place and time, we miss the vast, ever pervading timelessness and space that we are actually made up of, from which we originally came.


The all-pervading timelessness and space are constantly inviting us to connect back to them. They even come down to planet earth and take birth as human beings so that we can relate to them easily. These human beings (a.k.a enlightened masters or avatar) constantly remind us of the that timelessness and space. They are here only to pull us out of the clutches of time and place.


The only thing that we have to do is: be open and allow them.

April - is a long weekend here in Singapore because of Good Friday and we generally don't spare such precious long weekends in Singapore People are busy packing their bags to go to nearby Malaysia or Thailand for a trek in the jungles So a friend of mine was saying 'Dude I won't be here for the long weekend I am gone for a long drive with a group of friends to West Malaysia 'I asked him if there were any particular places that they were going He replied 'Nope This time its more of no-planning trip Just go wherever

• The Road Trip of Life

April 10-12 is a long weekend here in Singapore because of Good Friday and we generally don't spare such precious long weekends in Singapore :) People are busy packing their bags to go to nearby Malaysia or Thailand for a trek in the jungles. So a friend of mine was saying, 'Dude, I won't be here for the long weekend. I am gone for a long drive with a group of friends to West Malaysia.'

I asked him if there were any particular places that they were going. He replied, 'Nope! This time its more of no-planning trip. Just go wherever, eat wherever and stay wherever types!!' ... He paused and then said, 'it sounds fun to me...'

It surely is fun. I agree with him totally. No planning as to where to pit-stop, where to eat etc. Just go, enjoy the traveling part and take the trip as it comes.

I was wondering, if a two-day trip can be so fun, by offloading the baggage of planning, just imagine how much more enjoyable our 60-70 years of life can be if we just flow with life?

Why can't we have the same attitude towards life? Instead, we plan and plan and plan... continuously, we keep planning not just about our life but about one generation behind us and one generation ahead us.

The answer is simple! We are scared about the insecurities of life. We do not enjoy our life simply because of our fear and greed: fearing the insecurities and greedy about our own expectations from life. We do not enjoy the path - the process of life. We think we will enjoy the goal, when it is reached but before it is reached we have already exhausted all the energy to enjoy it by constantly psychologically worrying about our fears and expectations about the goal that we have set. And after that goal is reached, there is another goal that awaits us.

Nithyananda says, 'When we live in utter insecurities of life, we are a seeker. That is why my parivrajaka, wandering days were one of the best parts of my life.'

When we live in utter insecurities of life, we just flow with life. We plan but chronologically only. We will not have an opportunity to psychologically worry about it because we are too busy enjoying and celebrating the path; then the path itself becomes the goal. Our fears and expectations keep our joy away from us.

The main difference between the road trip of my friend and our life is that my friend is already prepared to take on whatever comes his way as auspicious (mangalatva); either a tent in a jungle or a posh luxury suite; either food or no food. And hence he is saying the trip is going to be fun. There are no expectations or fears whatsoever. If there is any trace of either of them, one would certainly back off.

When it comes to one's own life, it is too far fetched to accept that insecurity for 70-80 years. Actually, even for one or two days it becomes difficult to accept because we are conditioned about our lives. We are conditioned by society, parents, friends etc. as to how one should live.

The irony is, all those from whom we learn to live are themselves most of the time living a life of total internal chaos.

When we surrender to the Existence, the Existence takes care of us... and this the truth. There are enough number of testimonials from people who believe in this to testify this, myself being one.

And you know what! When we surrender, the Existence always gives a lot more, many a times what we wouldn't even have dreamt of, both in our outer world and our inner world. And It also gives us the intelligence to be completely unperturbed whether that outer world is there or not there ...



Thank you Swamiji for giving us this shakti (energy), buddhi (intelligence), yukti (understanding), bhakti (devotion) and mukti ... liberation

Yesterday during a conversation the word instrumental was casually used Suddenly a click happened to me and I thought instrumental is such a beautiful word If we really contemplate on it it has the whole essence of Karma Yoga in it - doing all the work we need to do in life but with no ego of 'doership' when this happens we just become an instrument in the hands of the divine The divine energy flows through us guiding us at every step There is no I did this I did that simply because we are just a dummy instrument

• An Instrument in the hands of the divine!

Yesterday, during a conversation, the word "instrumental" was casually used. Suddenly, a click happened to me and I thought "instrumental" is such a beautiful word. If we really contemplate on it, it has the whole essence of Karma Yoga in it - doing all the work we need to do in life, but with no ego of 'doership'; when this happens, we just become an instrument in the hands of the divine. The divine energy flows through us, guiding us at every step. There is no "I did this", "I did that.." simply because we are just a dummy instrument that He uses.

I remembered Swamiji's discourse on Bhagavad Gita Chapter 3. Swamiji beautifully shared "Solid bamboo is used for carrying the dead... but if the bamboo is hollow, then it can even be used as a flute in the hands of Krishna! Our whole life then becomes a divine song that Krishna plays using the flute" How beautiful I thought. If only we allow Krishna to pick us up in His hands! If we constantly remind ourselves that we are hollow, we are pure emptiness, we are nobody, then indeed we allow that emptiness to happen inside us.

This is easier said than done because the notion that we are running our life has become too deep in us. As Swamiji says, although we think that things happen because of us, it is never the case. Because the truth is that things happen inspite of us! The reason why many of us suffer from shoulder pain after a day's work at office is simply this - we have taken the whole load of our life on us. It has become a strong conditioning that it is our hard work in life that is making us survive. (Enjoy a video below where Swamiji talks about the myth of hardwork!)

Many times, this is the case even when it comes to volunteering for the mission. In my own experience, I can see so much of that "burden" dropping from me as I become aware of who is bearing the weight. Swamiji always says the mission can mould us and that is really so true. He says if you all can put aside half an hour a day, not more, to just do any work without expecting ANY form of return, then we are indeed working towards our inner growth. We are indeed becoming instruments in the hands of the divine for that half an hour. Normally, there is a constant subtle current of "who will notice my work?" or "what will I get out of this?". For that half an hour, let us consciously park that thought aside and involve our whole being in doing something without any expectation.

If we slowly expand that half an hour into our whole day, then we stop being driven by fear or greed. We start to express a new dimension within us which we are never used to. It's a space where there is only fullfillment and hence no expectations. Our whole day then just becomes a beautiful expression of fulfillment.