“The supreme bliss that pulsates in the wake of meditation is your pure essence.”

“You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf.”

“Love is our only reason for living and the only purpose of life. We live for the sake of love, and we live seeking love… it is not surprising that we keep looking for love. All of us are nothing but vibrations of love. We are sustained by love, and in the end we merge back into love. Love turns man into an ocean of happiness, an image of peace, a temple of wisdom. Love is every man’s very Self, his true beauty, and the glory of his human existence.

The world is nothing but a school of love. Our relationships with our husband or wife, with our children and parents, with our friends and relatives are the university in which we are meant to learn what love and devotion truly are. It is man’s foremost duty to awaken the understanding of the inner self and to know his own real inner greatness. Once he knows his true worth, he can know the worth of others.

To experience love, we must go inside. When you experience real love you get into a state which is beyond words. You are filled with a joy that goes beyond all emotions. True love is the love of the inner Self. Yet the love we experience through other people is just a shadow of the love of the inner self. There is a sublime place inside us where love dwells. The love that pulses in the cave of the heart does not depend on anything outside. It does not expect anything. It is completely independent.

Your mind makes you dance like a monkey all the time… Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind. A wise man frees his mind from thoughts through meditation and becomes completely quiet. Meditation stills the wandering mind and establishes us forever in a state of peace. Meditation should become a daily action, as essential as sleep. It is a thousand times more necessary than sleep. Meditate on your heart. Understand neither is God different from you nor are you separate from God. There is an inner state which no pain reaches, no desire and no enemy reaches. It is of the form of Bliss. Meditate on that.

Through intense deep meditation you reach a state that is beyond thought, beyond change, beyond imagination, beyond differences and duality. Once you can stay in that state for a while and come out of it without losing any of it, then the inner divine love will begin to pour through you. You will not see people as different, separate individuals. You will see your own Self in everyone around you. Then the flow of love from within you will be constant and unbroken.

Chanting is a significant and mysterious practice. It is the highest nectar, a tonic that fully nourishes our inner being. Chanting opens the heart and makes love flow within us. It releases such intoxicating inner bliss and enthusiastic splendor, that simply through the nectar it generates, we can enter the abode of the Self.

My dearest ones! Do not give up your worldly life, your near and dear ones. Do not waste yourselves away, rushing around in search of God in the four directions, nor lose your own souls while seeking inner peace and comfort. Live in your own homes with your spouses and children, making full use of your artistic talents, or running your businesses or factories. In whatever position your destiny has placed you, whether you are millionaires or laborers, kings or beggars, God belongs to you all. If you call Him with love, thinking about Him with devotion, He will reveal Himself to you. He will grant a vision of the divine light of His love. Then you will know that you are an embodiment of bliss. You will realize, I am Shiva! Yes, I am! Yes, I am!“

“Honor your self. Worship your self. Meditate on your self. God dwells within you as you.”

“You are purer than the pure. Never manifold, you are individual Consciousness. Unborn, unchanging, all-pervasive You are a mountain of joy.”

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~Muktananda, born Krishna Rai, was the founder of Siddha Yoga. He was a disciple and the successor of Bhagavan Nityananda. He wrote a number of books on the subjects of Kundalini Shakti, Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism, including a spiritual autobiography entitled The Play of Consciousness.

Excerpts from The Play of Consciousness.

Excellence Reporter 2020