Taken from Online Satsang March 19, 2020
I welcome all of you with love, from my heart. I really love all of you. Love is the only thing that is here right now, for all of us, that’s how it is, times are like this. However, we must not forget jnana, because love must have the support of wisdom, jnana, otherwise it becomes blind. Jnana means wisdom, wisdom means the eyes, the eyes should always be there, so that we can know what true love is, otherwise it becomes attachment.
So, let’s start this Satsang by paying homage to the guru. Who’s the guru? The inner light, guru means the dispeller of darkness, the one who dispels darkness. What a time! We need that so much, isn’t it? So, let’s bring the prayer from our heart and let’s start with the hymn to the guru:
Om Akhanda Manadalakaram Vyaptam yena Charaacharam
Tadpadam Darshitam yena.
Tasmai Sri Guruve Namaha 3x
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
“The Lord is the one whose form is the whole, which is indivisible, present everywhere and which permeates both the living and the immovable (or inert) manifestation.
The Guru is the one who has been at the Lord’s feet, and who has experienced “Oneness” with the eternal, greetings, or blessed. Peace, peace, peace.”
Let’s just sit for two minutes, recognizing the inner light that we all are blessed with, the light that seems to flicker at this moment, but it is always there. The light of the inner guru let’s recognize it within us. (Meditative pause). Slowly, open your eyes.
If you really must appreciate a guru, really, then we must appreciate his teachings. Isn’t it?
What is he teaching? The teachings are the guru himself. My own Guru, Sri Sri Dubeyji, used to say that the guru is nothing other than sadhana. Sadhana means practice, that is the real guru. The form is not the real guru. The formless essence of the guru is the sadhana, is the practice.
And what is the teaching? What is sadhana? Sadhana is to abide in Truth. That is sadhana. Simple! Let us, not make it very complicated; it’s a very simple thing. What is sadhana? If I am abiding in Truth, if I am established in Truth, I’m in Sadhana.
So, what is Truth? The next question. In Vivekachudamani (a treatise in the tradition of advaita philosophy of Hinduism, traditionally attributed to Adi Shankara, 8th century AD) Adi Shankara says:
Brahma Satyam, Jagat Mithya
It means, Brahman is the only thing that is real, the Truth is Brahman. Jagat means the world is illusion, unreal. That is the Truth. One sentence, he says about Truth is this, Brahman is the Truth and Jagat is unreal.
We understand Jagat, but the next question is: what is Brahman? What is Brahman? Adi Shankara, answers “Aham Brahmasmi” I am Brahman, the SELF is Brahman.
So, the next question is, what is SELF?
I am SELF, you are SELF, what we have within and outside of us is SELF. So, you say I know myself, but what is yourself? What do you know about yourself? ‘Well I am this so and so person, I am married, I have so many children, I do this and this work, this is self’.
Vedanta says: no, no, no, no, that is not the SELF. That is what you imagine yourself to be, that is what you have wrongly identified yourself to be. The SELF that Vedanta talks about or the Shastras talk about is the one that is indestructible, imperishable, immutable, changeless state of peace and timeless. Whereas all that you have described about yourself which is form and name, I am so and so, that identity, is all perishable, ever changing in time and space, is it not so?
Look at yourself, I mean, look at anybody, our identity, whatever we identity with, in this form and this name is it not always changing? The relationships aren’t they not changing all the time? Is our form not changing?
So how is SELF unchanging, how is it imperishable, when I see myself, everything decaying day by day? I don’t know what Vedanta is talking about. What is it? The one that I know, the one that I’ve been told that I am who I am, is this form and name this is how I operate in this the world. This is how I function.
Vedanta says, no, that’s not who you are. You are the one who is changeless, immutable, imperishable and timeless. You don’t appear, you seem to appear in space and time, but you are not that.
Whatever appears in time and space is what you have imagined yourself to be, but it is not who you are.
So, one argument could be, how do I know that then, how do you say I am that Vedanta, c’mon how can you say I am that the one that you say? That is not my experience.
Vedanta says, well look deeper, can you not the witness the form? Can you not witness time? Can you not witness space? The one that you are is not the one in time and space, not the one who is perishable, not the one who changes, but the one that stands behind, the one that is witnessing everything that is changing, everything that is moving, but you are immovable. You are the witnesser and you can obviously verify that in your life, isn’t it? Simply, you can see how what you feel remains the same about yourself, right, that when you witness with total awareness, then that background awareness of feeling remains always the same. While everything around it, in the foreground as I say, in the foreground, ahead of it, is changing, is moving, is perishing.
The very simple thing, that Vedanta first understands about Truth is that one must get to know the background SELF, get to know yourself as that witnesser, as the one that is changeless, and then you will be able to understand a deeper dimension of your own self. There will be a good, an understanding of yourself which will not be restricted or confined to the self-imposed limitations, which is based only on your body, form and name. By being this witnesser, you get a deeper glimpse of what Vedanta talks about, as the real SELF, so that is the first thing.
Witnessing your thoughts, witnesser as witnessing the body, witnessing your sensations, witnessing your fears, witnessing your emotions. All of that, that is sadhana, that is Truth. But that is the first part.
The second part is sinking into that state of witnesser. Can you not simply relax? Even as I speak now, can you not really verify that? Can you not feel what I am saying? You all have it. It is not that one will have more than the other, one will be more advanced than the other, no, in this moment, everyone can recognise the simple fact, that you are the witnesser, and that, that witnesser can be felt as a feeling of a background state of peace.
When that peace becomes deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper you begin to enjoy Ananda, Ananda of your SELF, who you really, really are, called as Sat-Chit-Ananda. Sat means Truth, and what was Truth? That I am this background witnesser. This is the Sadhana.
Chit means what? As long as I am aware of this background awareness, that awareness becomes expansive, freeing, unrestricted, immutable, changeless. That is called as consciousness. Ever expansive state of consciousness is Chitta and Ananda. Then the peace, becomes deeper, not just stillness, we all experience stillness, and in that stillness as that stillness goes deeper and deeper, we experience Ananda. Joy. That joy, which is unconditioned, not that I get an object I become conditioned to it, ah, no unconditioned. Unconditioned by the presence or absence of any object. That is Sat-Chit-Ananda.
And that is Truth and that is Guru.
So, if you understand this, that being in this background state of Ananda, Sat-Chit-Ananda; of course, as you progress, you realise that even the body is Ananda, the foreground also is Ananda this I spoke about in the last Satsang. Your understanding matures from beyond witnessing, beyond witnesser, and everything becomes Ananda, everything becomes joy. Right, so this is Truth.
How beautiful it would be if things could be like this, isn’t it? But does it become like that? All of you experience what you are feeling, but then I know after 1 hour post satsang someone will send a message of corona or say something unpleasant and you will begin to self-contract…go into fear or anger…
You have that unshakable state of Ananda, the SELF that is unmoved and unchangeable that begins to shake, tremble. Isn’t it? It’s a common experience.
What we did now, when we are abiding in Truth, we are in a state of self-assurance, we are in a state of self-expansion. But the moment this fear comes, something, we go into a state of self-contraction. Suddenly expansion becomes contraction.
I am a teacher of the timeless, a worshipper of timeless, as I have written and as I talk about Advaita Vedanta. Non-dual. We are this timeless state of Sat-Chit-Ananda, let that never, ever, leave your consciousness. No matter what you feel! No matter what this body goes through at this moment, whatever thoughts are getting into your mind, whatever sensations you are going through, please hold on this Truth.
This timeless state, this is the message number one. Let’s not immediately, by a little incident or something, forsake this Truth and go into something that’s unreal. That seems to exist, but it’s unreal, according to Vedanta. Which you will verify yourself, which you must verify in your own inner sadhana.
Now, even though, as I said, that I am a worshipper of timeless, there are times where I understand the significance of Kaal. Kaal means time. There is an aspect of timeless, from the timeless, there is an aspect called as Kaal. Kaal can have an influence or impact (positive or negative) even though we are this timeless state of existence. It is like, the timeless state is like Shiva, but the shadow of Shiva is Shakti. So, the timeless state, the Shakti of the timeless state is Durga-Kali.
When too much adharma takes place, when we get too much self-obsessed with our own needs and narcissism, self-obsessed, then the timeless Shiva releases its Shakti into the world in the form of Kali and Durga. That is what I was going to talk about today, isn’t it?
This Durga and Kali, they appear to be very ferocious, they appear to be very threatening to our existence. But they are actually there to purify us, burn the unwanted dross from our mind.
You see, if you really understand Her doing, then you will really begin to appreciate what She is here for. That’s why I say, as I wrote yesterday, ‘don’t just say corona, corona, say Karo Maa, Karo Maa’, which means, ‘mother do, do, do Maa, do Maa, whatever You’re doing is fine’. Allow Her to do what she is doing; you cannot fight it anyways. You cannot. See, no narcissism, no amount of narcissism, self-obsession nor self-protection has been able to do anything so far, isn’t this so? At least it appears like this. It may come with time when we learn our lessons. It is important for us to learn the lesson of why She is here. Is She here to harm to us? It appears like She is here to harm us, but this is not the truth.
It’s a warning, a warning for all of us to stop being self-obsessed about our needs, to stop being self-victimizing all the time, and to devote ourselves to be accountable for our actions, be accountable to ourselves and to the society and to people. That is what it is, drop this, me, me, me, ego all the time and include others in whatever, little way that you could, because if we could do this, in our lives, then even these things like the corona virus won’t happen. But time and time again we have seen that it happens and no politician no matter powerful he is, can do anything about it, can he? No! Because you cannot fight Durga-Kali in Her form. She is here to purify, She is here to cleanse, and She will do the job ‘til we realise this.
First, we need to understand that there could be a hidden blessing in this. And look at what, how Durga-Kali is indicating this, look at the message that She is giving to the world. What are the authorities telling you, first thing: wash your hands, isn’t it? Regularly, wash your hands. Clean them! What are hands? Hands are symbolic they are karmendriyas. They are the hands through which we work, so it means that you have to clean your work, clean it. Whatever we are doing, just do not only work for ourselves, do it for others. Be authentic in your living. That’s what it means, not just physical cleaning your hands, which is understanding from a lower point of intellect, from a medical point of view. But the deeper message that Maa is giving you for cleaning your hands is that you are to cleanse your karmendriyas, and therefore work for the betterment of people. That’s the first thing.
Second, instructions that we have been given by the authorities, is that we are not to touch our face, we are not to touch our eyes. What does face symbolise? Face is your identity, isn’t it? We recognise each other, we recognise ourselves how? I am this person, I’m looking good today, I like it. I’m not looking good today, I don’t like it, isn’t it? We recognise each other also in this way, he is so beautiful, she is not that beautiful. See, these divisions that we have created. Our identity with our look, even this, Durga-Kali is taking away. She is taking away our comfort from us, taking it away. Now, if you understand it to be only about, not touching our face, you have understood it only partially, this is partial knowledge. What is She trying to say? Get into the deeper understanding by connecting with the Divine Mother, in that way which I’m trying to bring to you all, you will really understand what She is trying to do. What message she is trying to give. Don’t be identified with your face, don’t be identified with your look, don’t try to have a relationship based on looks, on how others are or how they behave. Identify with your consciousness, that is what She is trying to say. That’s the second message.
Third message what is she saying? Social distancing. What does that mean, social distancing? Ok I must now distance myself from other people that I like and love or whatever, no more being in crowds, no more going to offices, no more doing, is that what it is? The deeper significance of this is detachment. I must learn to detach myself from the situation, from the people, not get too attached, practice a sense, state of detachment, equanimity with everything. If I get something fine if I don’t get something fine. Now look at it, what’s happening with people, people are buying stuff more than what they need, and others who are unable to go to stores are not able to get essential things. See, see what they are doing is opposite of what they should be doing. Again, its human nature. But what Mother is doing is forcing detachment on people. With time to come, if we do not learn this lesson, it is going to get worse. I’m not trying to scare, no we will try and find a remedy, but to know a remedy we must know what Durga-Kali is trying to say first, right? We must first know a symptom before we cure something, we must know what causes it, so let us remove the cause first and then maybe we do not have to deal with the symptoms. Third thing is this, social distancing.
And the fourth thing is self-isolation. Now, we are required to remain in a room for 14 or 21 days. 14 days used to be the sadhana also for many people, do you know? People, in the olden times, people used to say, go for 14 days and sit in the room, and do your Sadhana. We can bring about meaningful changes in our lives and habitual patterns if we adopt a new habit for 14 or 21 days. That is what it means, sitting in self-isolation. It does not mean sitting in self-isolation feeling pity for yourself, feeling like a victim. No. Rejoice! You have been given the opportunity to do Sadhana. You have an opportunity to do this great work and develop the habit of sitting alone in meditation.
So, if you remember these four points that are there, you will understand the deeper significance of Durga-Kali’s message. This is the primary, the most spiritual aspect, before I give you a mantra, because a mantra has no meaning, if you don’t change yourself, your attitude, your behaviors, those patterns that you are living with. You are still self-obsessed, still the narcissist. It’s not going to help; no amount of mantra will help with this unless you develop the deeper understanding of the mantra. And when I tell you the mantra also, you will know the significance of what the mantra is, understand the meaning of the mantra. Then when you do, the mantra, you will begin to appreciate what Durga-Kali is saying. Ok I will give the meaning of the mantra.
The second thing, before I give you the mantra, we are going through an astrological and numerological period of Rahu. Rahu is number 4. When we entered 2020, it became number 4. That means astrologically Rahu will have the greatest influence, now, in our life, and that’s what has happened, even though in Wuhan the corona virus started in December 2019, it only became known in January, February, March, the beginning of 2020. This year will be critical, 2020 and more so April because that is also number 4. January, February, March, April. Again, I’m not trying to scare you I’m just trying to tell you to prepare.
If we are prepared, we can deal with it and the beauty about spirituality, what the Shastras tells us, is that within us resides the Brahman. The entire Brahman is within us. Everything that you see outside is within us. So, if we make these changes, that the Divine Mother is imploring us to make, little bit, even slightly, we will begin to see changes in the Brahman around us. Try it, see it and feel it and then you will know what I’m saying. We don’t have to get scared, thinking that when April comes it is going to get worse, no. However, if we continue to behave, how we are currently behaving it will get worse.
And that’s why I am bringing this message today, make small changes in your life, follow the four points that I said earlier, do your sadhana, don’t be self-obsessed, drop your identity with yourself as the body-mind, try to feel yourself as pure consciousness. Yeah! Clean your act! Clean your act through your karmendriyas, through your hands and then you will see changes. 100% you will be able to see it and perceive the changes within you, you will start to feel the joy, peace, and you will see how things are also changing outside. Because that is science. Whole Brahman is within me, if I clean up, everything will begin to clean. Everything around also, will begin to reflect it. Within me is Brahman, I am Brahman, it is going to happen.
So, who presides over Rahu? Maa Durga. She is the presiding deity of Rahu and Rahu is known to be a deceiver. Rahu is known to deal with illnesses that cannot be detected, the cure cannot be detected, that’s the whole thing about Rahu and such illnesses originate from a foreign land and affect all of us. These are the characteristics of Rahu. And the preceding deity of Rahu, the one that controls Rahu, the malefic influence of Rahu is Maa Durga.
So, now I will tell you the mantra which you all should do daily if possible, in the morning and at night, twice, 21 times. The mantra is very simple, and I will request that someone send an email to all of you so that you get the right pronunciation also. But I will tell you the mantra, its:
AUM AIM RHIM KLIM CHAMUNDAYE VICCHE
This mantra you are to do 21 times, at least once if not twice in a day, morning and evening before you sleep. This is for Mother. Before you do this mantra, I must tell you please pay homage to Her Son who is Lord Ganesha. And so please do the mantra:
OM GAN, GANAPATAYE NAMAHA
Do this 21 times followed by Aum Aim, Rhim, Klim, Chamundaye Vicche 21 times and then 21 times:
OM NAMAH SHIVAAY
Shiva is the Lord of Mother. Here the entire family is brought together. See you have brought Ganesha who is Lord of wisdom, you have brought Shiva, who is Her husband, with you and you are paying love and homage to the Mother. When all three gods are together no harm can come; it is not possible. Do these three mantras during this time. I’m praying, with all of you of course, I’m doing the same thing and I will be doing the same thing until we get through this period. With pure, pure heart, She will bestow you the courage, and Ganesha will bless you with the wisdom about how to handle, because Ganesha is the Lord of wisdom. And Shiva you know, Shiva is the absolute state and right now he’s gone very silent. He’s allowing the feminine part, Shakti to do whatever She wants, and you know when Shakti wants to do Shiva can’t do anything. You know in your households, when the wife wants to do something, the husband can do nothing. Right now, the wife is in full power. Total dominance. So, we must do this puja, I’m saying on a lighter side, but you can verify this.
But also understand that it is not just about chanting the mantra it’s necessary to understand the deeper significance of this, as explained before, with full humility and surrender.
And the deeper significance of Aum Aim, Rhim, Klim Chamundaye Vicche is this, that we are asking the three goddesses, Aum is the world, the modern world, that is, the waking state, the deep sleep state and the dream state, and beyond the dream state, all the three states, ‘Oh Mother Saraswati, Mother Lakshmi and Mother Kali, Aum, Aim, Rhim, Klim, these three goddesses, please help me, please grant me the boon so that I can go beyond attachment and anger’. See this is the meaning of the mantra. Aum, Aim, Rhim, Klim, Chamundaye Vicche. Chand and Munda were two demons that Mother had killed during the wars. What does Chand and Mund mean? Together their meaning is, one is attachment and one is anger and wherever attachment is there is anger, they are always together. That’s why wherever you see attachment anger comes along with it. Otherwise you will be peaceful, when you are not attached to something you are very objective about it. Have you noticed? But the moment you are attached to something, you get angry; if your expectations are not met and your attachment to something is there, anger will come, naturally. That is why they are together, Chamunda, they are not separate, they are one. So, you are praying to Mother, not to save yourself from the Corona virus, not to save you from Rahu, which are the result of wrongful actions and habits; you are praying to Mother so you can get rid of anger and attachment. Even if they can’t be totally eliminated (as we are humans) at least we should know how to manage them. So, by praying to Mother Durga we are pleading to Her to give us the strength and wisdom to go past anger and attachment.
So, this is the message I’m trying to, convey, that we do these 3 mantras with the significance of the Chamunda mantra. First you start with the Ganesha: Om Gan Ganapataye Namaha. Second, Aum Aim Rhim Klim Chamundaye Vicche, 21 times, 21 times and Om Namaha Shivaay 21 times. This will protect you, and of course, we will pray, and we will pray to the Lord, to the Guru.
This is the time of Kaal you can say, this is the time of Mother, and we must go to Her and surrender ourselves at Her Feet.
So, on that note, we will do a little chanting now, just to get a feel of how to do it. We will do it 11 times each, only 11 times, the rest 21 times you please do when you go back home or anytime that you feel you are able to do it.
So, let’s start with first the Ganesha mantra: Om Gan, Ganyapate Namaha x 11. Wait for 30 seconds, meditate on Him, you can meditate on the form or you can meditate on the formless, Ganesha, the essence of Ganesha, in the formless. Feel His protection, feel His love. You can meditate on His lotus Feet.
Now we will meditate on the Mother Divine Durga. Aum Aim Rhim Klim Chamundaye Vicche x 11. For 30 seconds meditate on the meaning of this mantra while surrendering to the Divine Mother. You are surrendering your anger; you are surrendering your attachment to Her and at Her Feet. That Shakti, you are offering everything, that you thought your identity was, you are giving it back to Her. You are willingly cooperating, you are willingly supporting what She wants to do, what transformation She wants to bring by offering your anger and attachment at Her Lotus Feet.
We will now do the last, Lord Shiva, mantra for Shiva Om Namah Shivaay x 11. Meditate on Shiva. What is the best meditation for Shiva? Simple: I am nothing, I am nobody. I am you; I am me, I am Shiva. Lord Shiva, I am nothing, I am nobody, and when I am nothing and I am nobody I become Shiva. So, remember this, this is the best way to worship Shiva. The mantra is Om Namah Shivaay, but the feeling is of being nobody and nothing. I am nobody, I am nothing, I am Shiva.
Ego always wants to be somebody, something, but the moment you say I am nobody, I am nothing, the ego cannot arise and when the ego cannot arise there is only Shiva. From that state of nothingness, I realise myself as Shiva itself.
Combine your sadhana with these 3 powerful, powerful mantras and the essence of the mantras. Again, I am saying not just the mantras, but connect with the meaning, the deeper meaning as much as you can.
It’s not that if say I am nothing, I am going to become nothing the next day or the moment, just because I have said it. But even if I can feel some Truth in that, I will feel Shiva, I have succeeded. I will feel joy, I will feel peace and fear cannot come. Because fear cannot touch nothing, no? Fear can only touch that, when you are something when you have something, there fear comes. But when you are nothing, yourself, nothing can stick to you, then what is the fear for? It is the inner feeling of being nothing and nobody in front of that, no fear can come at all.
So, practice this, not just the mantra in these difficult times, but understand the significance of it, that’s why I have given 30 seconds. This entire sadhana of 21, 21, 21 and in between 30 seconds to 1 minute, and you might even want to go to 2 minutes, sometimes you may want to go to 5 minutes and 10 minutes, take it, whatever you can, that depends on you. 30 seconds does not mean that 30 seconds he said so I should do only 30 seconds. Wherever you feel in between, as your feeling increases and intensifies, and as you deepen in it. You can do it. But overall, this whole sadhana will not take more than 20 minutes maximum, 17 -20 minutes, maybe, and maximum I’m saying 20 minutes is the maximum sadhana.
Do it once, at least, in a day, and you will see the changes, not just in you, for you or for your loved ones, but also around you. That is the biggest Seva that means Mother is working through you, not against you. You are making Mother work through you. That message should go to Her, and when that happens along with the entire family, Ganesha and Shiva and Mother, Hare! Such will be the joy, unparalleled in your life.
So, on that note it is not a corona message it is a Karo Maa message, Karo Maa, do it through me, that is the message. Mother cleanse through me, clean me first, clean me first, cleanse me first, purify me first and then allow me to be an instrument through your sadhana.
~Rajiv Kapur