Paths to Enlightenment.
When your mind and heart are truly open abundance will flow to you effortlessly and easily.
Question:
Dear Deepak sir, I have a question which is kind of very urgent and important for me . I have been meditating for last 8 years I meditate at least for one hour everyday. In last 8 years , i have rarely missed my daily meditation and I know from first hand experience how to transmute shadow energy through meditation and contemplation . For years i have stabilized/internalized all the wisdom from your book through meditation (for example ; the clarity about depression and anxiety from 'super brain '). For a few months now , I have also been reading the teachings of Nisargadatta and Ramana maharishi. Ramana maharishi says that vasanas/shadow energy can be transmuted only through silence – i.e. meditation. He also says that it is not possible to get self-realized/enlightened without meditation – meditation is the only way (breathing meditation etc. are easier for beginners and later one has to meditate on 'I am" – one's formless presence/beingness. That is the only way to enlightenment.) However, your book 'book of secret' says that there are four paths to unity – bhakti yoga (path of selfless love and devotion) and karma yoga (path of selfless service/action) would also lead to unity-consciousness/self realization. Also , I have read cases of people who got freedom from thoughts kind of as an accident (even in your book 'how to know god' , there is this anecdote about a man who got injury while playing soccer and even as his ankle was swelling , he started experiencing bliss from within – something like enlightenment happened to him as an accident , without having to do any meditation. may be those people with cases of accident did not get self-enlightened but only got further ripened in a remarkable quantum shift – after all enlightenment is more than stopping of thought and explosion of bliss and impersonal love within ; it also is accompanied by infinite increase in intuition and may be much more. But I fail to understand how is this sudden increase in bliss and inner silence is possible to someone without their having transmuted shadow energy/vasnas through meditation for quite some time first ? So, if enlightenment can not be attained without meditation , then how do we explain these two cases – 1)enlightenment through bhakti yoga or karma yoga and 2) those cases of getting enlightenment through accident. Thank you very much sir. Regards It is important for me to know the answer to this question because I teach maths , physics , chemistry to students for IIT-JEE and i teach them meditation early in life (from ages of 9-13) and i need to know answers to questions like these. (and i want the answer for myself also, of course).
Response:
The four paths of, bhakti yoga, karma yoga, gyana yoga and raja yoga, all incorporate meditation. The variation in paths is largely based on external activities one engages in to stabilize the experiences from meditation. The temperament of the karma yogi will gravitate toward service to others, the bhakti’s attention is pulled toward expressions of love and devotion. The intellectual is more comfortable in the gyana path that cultivates the power of spiritual discernment. Those who exercise power and hold great responsibilities are more suited to raja yoga. The human spirit is configured in such a way that anyone can attain the pure silence of self-realization through any of these paths.
If someone attains enlightenment without years of meditation, then it is because their spiritual work was done in the distant past, and now they can simply step into freedom now based on that previous practice. Enlightenment is awakening to the full knowledge of the Self. There is no way to look at someone and determine from their behavior or appearance how close or far they are from awakening, but if they do become enlightened with little or no history of spiritual practice in this life, then you can be sure they did so in the past.
Love,
Deepak
hello sir, i have a question. Till now i understood what is this self-realization and empty mind meditation. But i felt enlightenment when i questioned my-self as who am i! and for what! In my childhood many times i felt as i am not part of this earth or just confused why i taken birth like this. I always felt alone to my-self. I undergone by some health problems and got diagnosed by hormone changes and realized by self with dyslexia too. But this was not my problem. I understood what Buddha realized as "thoughts become things". Some movies given me enlightenment about perception and consciousness too. Now i do daily or alternative meditation. I still not understood and confused by some other information like souls or star-seeds etc. I always saw everybody as equal and have power of self-realization for peace and harmony. Is it possible that as i never did any communication with any being but (may be) my curiosity about my worlds and different out-world lives and natural civilization really made me to get inspire and to help our humanity by inspiration & realize them-selves. I am drawn to help many. I know no one can get perfection in wisdom but is it how humans become like that giants??? By positive attitude, courage & form-less realization can too lead us to real enlightenment? or my mind?!! Do you really believe in these type of stories or facts?? After 2012 i became more healthy, actually i can heal my-self now and anybody. By visualization and right mind i can stop quarrel between two people or animals by emotion mind. Sometimes weather changes if i want(not always). I control my emotion too, as i understood that if i believe or become empathy of other person who is in fear, just after 5 minuted either climate changes or somewhere else a person start quarreling. So i became open mind and believed only the right side minded. I felt nothing weird but very natural. All this happened at instant or my belief made me like that??? I can see colors of any thing or human if i concentrate for 3 minutes just like that. In my family no-body knew that cause they may scared of so i kept to my-self. I want your suggestions on this if it is good or should i really do meditation for further clarity. I am still studying. I am in preparation for my career, but always distracted to other world researches and an intention to raise others too. I want your opinion, i love to know much more from people like you as spiritual and enlightened teacher. By the way I apologize for repeated and long conversation. But is it good to believe other worlds and helping us naturally? or my own open-mind consciousness?? Your reply will be helpful & Thank-you for this blog with regards.
Namasathe Deepakji, The line "Those who exercise power and hold great responsibilities are more suited to raja yoga" in your reply - the word Power include alignment of Energies aka Kundalini etc. If not where does such efforts role under? (i.e. Bhakti/Karma/Knowledge)
be still and know i am god. years and years books and books mean nothing and will not make you silent.. or calm. a book is really just one persons opinion. about a thing. may work for him. wont for you. in silence god comes. god can not tell you its truth till you stop telling god what and who he she is spirit light no not at all for god has no shape or form we could understand. god spirit life is all around you its like do you seek air to breath no because like god air is always namaste ok