Hello Self!

By Vijaya

Does God walk into one’s life and make His presence known? Would He start revealing in the most subtle way possible that even one single thought is actually too loud? Does he show that he’s so intertwined with the entire being that He is in fact not separate from one?

Does it happen?
Yogis have said it does, hence “Yoga” — A state of being at one with the Higher Self.” What then is the “Self”?

Last year, I had the privilege of covering the Isvara Pranidhana (surrender to God) topic with the Malaysian Yoga Society’s National Yoga Camp 2016 students. As we went deeper into the subject, it naturally got side-tracked into the topic of ghosts. “Teacher, if God exists, then surely ghosts do too,” said one teenager.

My predicament was to explain non-duality and delusion to him. When a ghost is sighted, it is real, but only to the person who’s seeing it. It’s not necessarily true to others. He who doesn’t believe in ghosts will not experience it in his entire lifetime, for sure.

There was a heated debate among the participants. Some students swore on the existence of ghosts while others dismissed it completely. In the end, one smart boy summed it up by giving a detailed account of how the mind creates ghosts — with appropriate references and examples. Not all agreed with him, but it didn’t matter. It was a strong conclusion to our ghost venture.

Remember the days when ghosts used to haunt our school toilets, especially the ones right at the end? Usually, we deny the existence of ghosts because we don’t want to face them. I did too, but the idea was already deep-rooted within. There came a time when I had to face them. The Kriya Yoga practices enhanced them to a point where they could not be denied anymore.

My contact with ghosts became very real, like every other person’s ever is. I saw them, heard them and experienced them first hand. For a few months after starting on the Kriya practices, the ghosts went wild, creating havoc in my life.

I was very afraid to go to sleep because every time I did, it felt like someone was there, touching me. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, completely shaken. Sometimes I saw images, and I always heard the dragging sounds of feet outside the house.

I’m naturally a very strong person, so my reactions didn’t go out of bounds; they were always controlled; but nonetheless, my world of peace turned upside down. Then, one day, I confronted Master Manisekaran about this, and his simple, unassuming statement was: “Cleansing is happening”.

Sometime later, one beautiful day, it all dawned on me: the entire experience of how the mind freezes into reality whatever it believes in. It never was an external experience. It was and always is an experience from within, which is merely projected outside… into what we call life/reality. And I don’t just mean ghosts, but everything. Period. The within is projected out to the space without and we practically face our very own Self out there.

There’s no ghost, and if you understand what I mean, there’s nothing outside there but what the mind projects. And the consciousness experiences it as reality.

Everything there is, is a reflection by the Self, but it’s not the Self.

The next question is then: what is the Self? That is something for every person to ask and discover… within. That is the reason why there’s life, birth and death, etc… to allow a person to discover his true Self.

The entire process of discovery starts with understanding and complete absorption of the Yama (Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya , Aparigraha) and Niyama (Saucha, Santosha, Tapas, Swadyaya, Isvara Pranidhana) values in one’s life. From there, the journey begins naturally.

About 2 years ago, Master asked me if the world is ready for this knowledge. I said, “No, sir”. But now, I feel things are changing. People from different parts of the world… everywhere… are slowly getting ready for this knowledge. What knowledge? The knowledge of “the supreme state of the Self”. They understand to a certain degree and express it in many ways.

It’s an awakening to the true nature of the Self. There’s a connection between all those who are a part of this awakening. We are part of the same process of enhancement in consciousness. “Once you have an insight into it, instead of running away to the jungle or some remote ashram run by some guru,” said Master, “live here amongst the people of the world, meet the challenges, give yourself the opportunity to grow to the highest possibility there is — moksha, or liberation” — and beyond.

This journey is not easy, but this is where we learn everything about ourselves and meet face to face with the truth of who we really are within. There’s the lure of delusion everywhere, especially if the people around us are living in the midst of it. They are super deluded and their “super mind” makes everything on earth possible — whether right or wrong. So, as genuine practitioners, what do we do?

There’s a way to approach this situation and that was our previous lesson with Master. He said: “Be neutral, steady, centered, strong and unaffected… so that you can help.”

I have been learning Kriya Yoga with Master Manisekaran for many years now. With every class I’ve watched myself transform. Everything about my life has changed and I can see how fast I’m growing within and without. I noticed this in the other students as well. Life has become crystal clear due to the many lessons, queries, answers and clarifications we always get from Master.

Many of us here have the mind-blowing experience of hitting unbelievable heights in our lives – personally, professionally and spiritually. We have literally discovered wonders within ourselves which might not have been possible without the constant guidance from our Guru. Now, the inadequacies of earlier years are changing to efficient works, we are finding our voices and we feel very strong, brave and in total control of ourselves and our lives.

Kriya Yoga gives the awareness and super clarity to walk on a path that is laden with inexhaustible possibilities and opportunities. This is due to the contact with the creative energy within. What people may deem as supernatural or extraordinary has become a part of natural living and experience. We are growing, blooming and blossoming while experiencing tremendous transformations every step of the way — whether in waking or sleeping hours.

Kriya Yoga deepens the perception and leads one deeper within to touch base with one’s essential nature. The intuition is so strong that one can practically tell what is right, what is wrong, what is going to happen and what is not. What one calls future can be sensed, felt and known. Things can be changed for the better, conditions can be broken and situations can be reversed. The outcome of an action can be managed. All these, concerning one’s own self/life, that is.

Every single person on earth is born to discover himself. Hence, the journey of Kriya Yoga is a journey of Self-Realisation.

Once, long ago, I was sitting in front of Master. There were tears flowing from my eyes as I was looking deep into his own ocean-like eyes… asking for truth. But, his answer was unassumingly simple: “Surrender, Vijaya”.

The process is long (not in terms of time, but it terms of inner growth) before it reaches here, but only because of Isvara Pranidhana. Not unless and not until.

How is one ever going to realise the Self unless the search is turned inwards? How can it be possible if the senses are always engaged on all the things on the outside? This will only further delude people into not realising what is truth and what is not, and what is right knowledge and what is false.

All information in the media and social networks like Whatsapp and Facebook and the search engines like Google, etc – the entire influx of it all – is not going to give it – the realisation of the Self, I mean. Not in this lifetime, not in any lifetime. Perhaps it’s wiser to turn off the flood of daily messages/ information/ inspirations/ motivations, etc. and start the search where it should — within!

The only time it happens from outside to inside is when it’s coming from an enlightened being, a Self-Realised person, I mean. Only a spark can ignite a fire and Guru is the spark. And yes, even via all these mediums, but it has to come from the Guru. For those who are serious about Self-Realisation and the essence of the Supreme Self, for what it really is, here’s your answer: the 8 limbs of Yoga as propagated by sage Patanjali — Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

Swadyaya (self-study) is of utmost importance.The shortest way to it is through Kriya Yoga, with the blessings of the Guru… for those on this path, I mean.

There are other paths like Bakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, etc., but one thing is for sure… none of these paths are going to lead to Self-discovery if the heart and mind are kept centred on the many lures of the outside world.

In the world of duality, perhaps delusion is the other side of knowledge. Even as one knows — more and more — one is deluded further into the most extreme form of delusion. What one needs is awareness.

I mean, how can people watch priests doing ‘pooja’ (prayers) on TV and feel that they are in fact, praying? How can they watch the highly-dramatised Mahabharata on the screen and think that they’re being blessed with the very “truth” Sri Krishna (the Supreme Self) was bestowing on Arjuna (the personification of Jiwa, or Self)? (It can happen, of course, if life itself is the Guru and there is a trigger to connect with that which is within.)

There are people who seriously believe themselves to be cartoon characters like Frozen or the human Ken Doll, and they spend millions of dollars doing multiple plastic surgeries in order to look like one. But for how long? Is that the Self? Now, we choose — whether to be a part of delusion, or be a part of truth. Everyone has a right to his/ her life and how he/ she lives it.

Self-Realisation is a journey within the journey of life. This is where we explore the deepest truth that resides within. Minus the sense impressions (all forms of knowledge), images, thoughts, conversations, colours, plans, modifications, fancies, imaginations, dreams, memories, words …. whatever the mind entertains in every waking or sleeping hours… minus feelings and tendency to think of the self as the self; minus all these… when there is complete withdrawal of the self into itself, what does one experience?

That’s Kriya number 18: Svaroopa Dharsan (Vision of the Self). It’s a real, tangible experience one has here in the Kriya Yoga classes conducted by Master Manisekaran. Thank you Master… Ji.