PART-1
Today let us contemplate on Nidhidhyasa.
The Vedantic process involves Shravana, Manana, and Nidhidhyasa. Shravana means listening; Manana means understanding; Nidhidhyasa is not exactly meditation, it means contemplating the Truth, internalizing the Truth, and living in the Truth. ‘Nidhi’ means wealth, and ‘Dhyasa’ means ‘awareness of the wealth’. You have to be aware of the wealth in you, which you have understood through Shravana and Manana. That is Nidhidhyasa. Don’t be under the impression that Nidhidhyasa means only closing your eyes and sitting. That is also required. Nidhidhyasa means you have to live the Truth. In waking state, dreaming state, deep sleep state, or when you went to Samadhi, the Truth has to be lived. It is not that you will get the Truth. It is not attaining the Truth. It is becoming aware of the Truth.
PART-2
For anything in life, you have to get something. The Truth is not something to get, Truth is something you have to be aware of. That is why it is called Nidhidhyasa – ‘Nidhi’ means wealth; when somebody has a lot of money in his house, he will always be aware of his money. Thieves can come and steal it at any point in time. So, when he goes to the office also, he thinks of the money. He is aware of the money all the time. Like that, you should be aware of the Truth all the time, and that is called Nidhidhyasa.
PART-3
Let us see the practice you have to do, in your waking hours, for Nidhidhyasa. You have to go to work, you have to go to the office, and you have to make your living. The Truth or Brahman is Sat. Sat means existence. That existence is Reality. Existence is the sole Reality. In the manifested world, the existence gets covered by Maya, and it appears as multiple entities. Existence is Akhanda – it means there are no parts in that. Existence is Nirakara – there are no forms in that. Existence is Nirvikalpa – there are no thoughts in that. But, it appears to be having many parts, many objects, with name and form. It appears to be non-conscious because the world is non-conscious. Existence is Consciousness.
All this is happening, because of the mind. The mind is superimposing, the concepts and ideas, continuously on Existence. Continuously mind is creating images on the Existence. It is getting covered. Existence is like a cinema screen. On that continuous images are getting projected. So, you cannot see the screen. When in a waking state, how do you become aware of the Existence? The mind is not giving a gap, even for a moment. The movie doesn’t stop even for a moment. This Existence is wealth. Sat is wealth. Sat or the Truth is the wealth you have to be aware of. How do you become aware of this wealth, when drama or mind is going on as a movie, continuously?
PART-4
People think that you have to run away from the drama, run away from this movie. People run away from this movie, and go to the forest, the Himalayas to find solace. But, still, the movie goes on, because the mind is continuously projecting.
Adi Guru Shiva says, ‘You don’t have to run away from anywhere. What you have to learn is the art of being here and now. If you are here and now, you will be in Truth.’ Whatever you do, if you are here and now, you will be in truth. What does it mean? Let us understand now.
There is a past, present and there is a future. The mind is nothing but a bundle of thoughts, continuously projecting thoughts from past or future, ever missing the present, always missing the present, totally. The present moment is the Reality. The past and future are not Reality. So, ‘You have to live in Reality,’ means, you have to live in the present moment.
PART-5
If you are living in the present moment, then the mind doesn’t interfere and cover the present moment. That is how you can be one with the Truth, in the waking condition. The mind comes into the picture when you lose awareness of the present moment. So, Nidhidhyasa in the waking state means, being in the present moment.
How do you do that? When you are working, may be an ordinary mundane work, like washing dishes, can you do it in total awareness? Become aware of the sensations while washing. Become aware of the sound when you are washing. That means any work you do, you become a hundred percent involved in that work. The mind doesn’t come into the picture. This becomes Karma Yoga. Otherwise, the mind will constantly run away from work. It will think, ‘Oh! What will I get if I complete this work?’ It thinks of the fruits of the work. Do the work with a hundred percent attention. Then, you are one with the truth, Sat.
PART-6
Anything you do, do it a hundred percent, otherwise, the mind will keep on projecting. This is Nidhidhyasa in waking condition. Whichever activity you are doing, do it fully. Or engage in an activity, which absorbs your mind fully, so there is no past and future coming. That is why, when Shravana, Manana you do, listen to the Spiritual Master, then the mind will neither go the past nor go to the future because the Spiritual Master is speaking about the Truth. So, the mind stays in the Truth. Shravana, Manana when you do, that is also Nidhidhyasa, because the mind doesn’t go anywhere, it stays in the Truth. You are in the Truth.
PART-7
Another thing you have to be aware of is that nature is duality – light, darkness; there is good, bad, in nature. In nature for everything, there is a complimentary. There is thought, and thoughtlessness, sound, and silence, action, and inaction. So, become aware of silence between sounds. Become aware of inaction in action. Become aware of formless and form. For example, there is a cup here, or you can imagine any flower or anything. This is a form. So, when you become aware of the form, become aware of the space around – form and formless. Then, you are actually going beyond the duality. If you are focusing on the form only, the mind will start thinking about that. Become aware of the form and formless, then you will fall back into the Witness, Sakshi, which is you.
PART-8
When you do something, let us say when you observe, observe with the awareness, without judgment. Become aware, without judgment. This is called Roopanusandhana. Notice, become aware. Shabdanusandhana is becoming aware, without judgment, when you are listening. Become aware of the sound and silence. Become aware of the gap between two thoughts. Become aware of Sparsha – feeling of touch and no sensation – Sparshanusandhana. Gandhanusandhana, is become aware of the smell and no smell. What I mean is, become sharply aware of sense objects, but not only objects. The objects have complimentary – sound has a complimentary of silence, a form has a complimentary of formless, and action has a compliment of inaction. When you become aware of both, the canvas is complete, the picture is complete. Otherwise, your mind tends to take a one-sided view of things. When the mind takes the complete picture of the duality, then we are actually transcending duality. We become Sakshi.
There is Rama and Ravana, good and evil. Become aware of both, without judgment. Then, you go beyond both.
PART-9
So, stay in the present moment. Develop non-judgmental awareness. This will help you to prevent the mind from interfering and super-imposing something on the Reality. It is only prevention. It is not a solution. There is no solution because the mind is nothing but a product of ignorance. The mind is nothing but Consciousness only, it appears to be separate from Consciousness. Because of that, it splits the world into duality. Become aware of the mind and its functioning.
Through Shravana and Manana, listening to the Truth and understanding the Truth about your own nature, remove the ignorance in the mind. The mind is not separate from Consciousness. The ego is not separate from Consciousness. Ego is a wave in Consciousness; the mind is also a wave in Consciousness. When I say wave, it is an appearance. So develop this attitude that your body and mind is nothing but a wave in Infinite Consciousness, whenever you do something. So then what will happen is gradually, you will start feeling oneness.
PART-10
There is ignorance in the mind, ‘I am the body, I am the mind, I am the intellect’. The ignorance has to be removed through knowledge – ‘You are not the body, mind, intellect, and everything in the world is temporary. With this understanding, ignorance has to be removed. The ignorance is called Avidya, and knowledge is called Vidya. The Ignorance is cancelled with knowledge – Avidyavritti is cancelled with Vidyavritti. Then, what remains and shines is your awareness, Pure Awareness. Otherwise, that ignorance was covering that awareness, super-imposing on the awareness. So, Shravana, Manana, contemplation, is important as a part of Nidhidhyasa in the waking state. That will remove ignorance.
PART-11
More and more, you start living in Sat, or the present moment. Otherwise, you are half in the past or future. The past is dead, and the future is imaginary. So, the present only is life. Live totally in the present, in your action, in your awareness. That is called Nidhidhyasa because you are protecting the wealth. Wealth is the Truth. Truth is Sat, existence. Everything else is a myth, Mithya. The word ‘myth’ in English, has come from Sanskrit word Mithya. The past is not there, the past is dead. The future is not there. The present is alive. So, live in that. That is actually Nidhidhyasa in the waking state. Don’t give a chance to the mind, to come and super-impose something. You will fall back into your ideas, about yourself, about the world, judgments, concepts, continuously come. But, the mind is not the solution. The solution is – you have to remove the ignorance of the mind, for which Shravana, Manana is important. Nidhidhyasa is also important. It is also part of Nidhidhyasa. Nidhidhyasa, as a meditation process, I will tell you in the next talk.
For example, the mind superimposes the negative feelings on the present moment. Then, chant God’s name, purify that mind, try to live in the present moment, or be in the present moment. That is Nidhidhyasa – protecting the wealth of Spiritual Teaching.
Pranams.