Baba Shivarudra Balayogi   is presently on the way to Adivarapupetta to celebrate Shivaratri and pay respects  to His Guru, Shri Shivabalayogi Maharaj, who was born there and also left the body behind there in 1994. After returning to Dehradun, Baba begins preparation for the 2008 World Tour. If you have not done so and would like to contribute to the cost of transportation, please consider this now. You may find the contact person for your area here:

http://www.shivarudrabalayogi.com/contact.html

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London 30th June 2007 Questions and Answers

Question: I was doing meditation, focusing on incoming and outgoing breathing. Should I continue with that practice or focus on the mid point between the eye brows?

Babaji: It is better to eventually focus between the eyebrows because the mind shall lose the help of the anchor. When the mind becomes gradually withdrawn and concentrated, the breath also gets in its own rhythm, slowly and peacefully. That is how you can progress into the meditation in a much better way.

Question: I found my thoughts seemed to come in a wave.

Babaji: Yes, thoughts do come because when you close the eyes, meditation is a purification process. The mind, called ˜the consciousness”, will have absorbed imprints since time immemorial. They are all known as the acquired habits of the mind. Also we call it samskaram. So when you sit and close the eyes a purification process starts. The mind gets attracted to the brain. The brain acts like a tape recorder and the mind is like the tape which has recorded every habit since time immemorial. So whenever you make a judgment and recognise an existence your mind, unknown to you, absorbs the imprints also. It sits in the subconscious state but gets evaporated during meditation. That is when all the thought processes and visualisations might start appearing to you, all you have to do is just have patience and allow it to happen, without trying to think what it is. There is a very silky thread of difference when the thought appears and the mind thinks what it is. The mind cannot keep quiet. It thinks,˜This is good, this is bad, why is this not happening?” So, if you can apply just a little bit of will power, just watch them then these imprints get purified and evaporated. Then the mind gets more and more concentrated. Your meditation will be more effective as it progresses.

Question: Should I be aware of noises in the room, or is the goal to become unaware?

Babaji: I do understand. It would be better if you could choose a peaceful location. There were several noises there. If it is one type of noise then you can concentrate on that noise. Even if due to circumstances, there are some noises try to concentrate in between eyebrows and try to visualise that the sound is coming from within only. Then your mind gradually ignores the outside as it progresses in concentration. Like you have observed, when you mind has been conscious of one thing it hasn't been able to be conscious of another as the concentration progresses.

Question: This was my first experience of trying to meditate. What I found was for most of the time I couldn't hear any noise, nothing. My mind was empty. At a certain point I started to listen to a noise nearby and I couldn't anymore concentrate outside of this noise. Does this mean I lost my concentration?

Babaji: When your attention goes somewhere, then you are losing the concentration. So a little bit of your own effort is required. So you bring it back and try to ignore any such thoughts, anything that is happening, and try to concentrate. Emptying the mind means, the mind is not lost. The mind is a consciousness that will still be there. You are simply emptying all the thought processes and visual effects that it has absorbed. So then the mind becomes more and more peaceful as it becomes concentrated. Your efforts should be on concentrating on one point.

Question: When we are meditating on our own, when we finish the meditation should we say the sloka silently or put it on, or just come out of it?

Babaji: You can recite some sloka. It is a normal practice but slowly come out. Because when you are totally silent in meditation, if it is a very good quality meditation, for some time you may not feel like talking, you might to be silent. If you like to be silent for some time, slowly come out, so all organs start functioning. Either sip some water or recite some sloka, it is your choice. Everything is OK.

Question: When I stop meditating I notice there is a tendency to feel the mind during the course of the day. Is that OK or should one not bother to feel that?

Babaji: To feel the mind?

Question: For example to have the concentration there during the day. If one feels that, should one continue or avoid it?

Babaji: Yes, you can continue, if you have some time. You can take out any convenient time, if you feel that pull and you feel that inspiration. If you feel like doing, then you can immediately sit and try to do it.

Question: The energy feels concentrated there all the time, even if the eyes are open and I am doing activity. It is OK?

Babaji: It is OK.

Question: Should one do the practice in the morning and at night, before going to sleep?

Babaji: Yes, as much as possible. The more you practice, the more it will develop.

Question: Why is it important to focus right in between the brows?

Babaji: This is one of the ancient methods practiced. My Guru obtained it from the Divine
manifestation and He gave it to us. That is why we try to teach this method. However, I will try to give you a few other points based on my experiences. This place [the point between the eye brows] is known as the ˜commanding circle”, or ˜agna chakra”. In the ancient scriptures they have tried to explain different chakras. Body consciousness is also there along with the mind. One portion of the soul's consciousness that has gone into the world, you call it “mind”. Another portion has gone into the body, which has given you your own physical body's consciousness as yourself. You will always be thinking, “I am this.” When you practice meditation between the eyebrows, when your mind can come back here 100%, then you can be the commander of your mind, because mind is your conscious energy. Until then your mind will be making you to dance to its tunes as it runs in this world. Whatever happiness or unhappiness there is, you will be experiencing as if it is happening. So this is one of the highest, most recommended places to focus the mind. If you can bring the mind there with some effort, then amazing things will happen. That mind becomes totally concentrated. Probably in ancient times, why they called it the commanding circle is that when mind comes totally here, then it totally lifts the body consciousness, called kundalini, and they both become one consciousness. They get de-linked from the brain's clutches of reflections, then it starts going towards Samadhi. This was my experience. These are several reasons why it is recommended as one of the highest methods of meditation.

Question: I became conscious of all the sounds around me, as well. I also watched my thoughts just passing by and I didn't associate with them. I just became conscious to it, and I could feel that energy there as well. Then I did feel going deeper and deeper into myself and then, actually, I don't know where I went. Then when I heard you talking I came out of this really deep, deep state and I came up again and it felt like this amazing peacefulness.

Babaji: That's very good because peace is the best symptom of effective meditation. When the mind becomes quiet, you have the peace, meaning you have that peace when the mind is unconscious of this world. Normally you would have noticed that in a sound sleep you gain the best happiness for you because the mind is unconscious of this world. The time of eight hours of sleep can pass by like two minutes or seconds. If you don't get sleep, if your mind is bothering about this world, the eight hours might pass by like eighty ages. You will be always watching the clock. That is why in meditation if the mind is in better concentration then forty five minutes or one hour can pass by like this and you will experience enormous peace. So you practice that concentration. That is important.

Question: So if I just allow the thoughts and the sounds then they disappear?

Babaji: Yes, if your concentration is here, then they will disappear. Sometimes they will try to disturb. In the epic of Mahabharata teachers taught concentration for every work in this world. The archery teacher when he taught the archery, he set the target and asked every student to look into it. A parrot sat on the tree top and he said, “You have to chop off its throatâ€?. He asks each student what do they see. The first student says, “A beautiful sky and a tree and a parrot.” He says, “Your concentration is not good.” So then he asks another student who says, ˜I can see the tree and the parrot only.” He tells the student, ˜You are not yet complete.” The next one says, ˜I can see the parrot.” Finally Arjuna comes and aims at the target and says, ˜I can only see the throat of the parrot.” So he tells him, ˜Shoot the arrow. Your concentration is perfect.” That is how you practice the concentration in meditation. Then all such sounds automatically vanish.

Question: I have no idea if I am thinking or if thoughts are flowing by. When I close my eyes I find it gets very uncomfortable, it starts burning.

Babaji: When you are closing the eyes? One thing that is important, when you first start, thoughts are coming and it is very difficult. Thoughts are coming and it is an infinite process. A thought appears and you start thinking. It is habitual for the mind. You need to try and exercise a little bit of will power. If you see something, if some object is placed before you try not to think what it is. Just watch it. In the same way when you try to close the eyes, you must try and you can do it one day. The second thing is you should not try to force it upon yourself. Skilfully you have to withdraw the mind. His means when you close the eyes, let it be politely closing and just keep watching the front portion. In the initiation we tell you to keep concentrating between the eye brows. That may be difficult initially. It may not be easy because the eyeballs move parallelly. They may not come into one point easily. Then you would be trying and it would be slipping out. What you have to do is to not worry if it's not coming. Just see the front portion whether the darkness is there, thoughts are there, anything is there. Just politely see, or even if needed try to see a little bit lower. Looking a little bit lower with the eyeballs should be slightly easier than lifting it upwards in the beginning for many people. If you try to do this, in due course of time, if you do regularly, every day, maybe in six months automatically your eyeballs will get lifted and peacefully you will be able to watch it. Try not to force. It should be a peaceful, skilful practice.

Question: Can you tell us something about the heart energy?

Babaji: Spiritually the heart is mentioned for the emotional feelings of the mind. That is why when
some teachers try to explain the spiritual heart is on the right side, it is only a symbolic
explanation. Heart energy means the emotional feelings of the mind. In ancient times the sages have
told that the mind can normally take into six shapes. Kama means extreme greediness, krodha
means extreme anger, lobha means extreme stinginess, moha is extreme attachment to materialistic
things, madha is attachment to false pride and matsarya is jealousy. These are the six enemies
of the human mind. Adi Shankara said, "Whoever has this in their minds is the first casualty."

Apart from these there is another energy, love. You are able to love, so that is why it is taught
that you love God. God is the worthiest substance of existence who you can love. It is the permanent entity. It can protect you. You can become one with God. So by loving God you should be able to tap all your emotional energy into a single-pointedness. That is how the energies flow. In meditation you are trying to transcend all types of feelings once and for all, you overcome everything and try and become one with that God without trying to imagine anything. So these are some of the points
about heart and energy which you can channel. If you feel the emotions you can love, so having
reverence to the Guru and having reverence to God is all recommended in the path of Bhakti, the path of devotion, so your mind can be single pointed and eventually it will be helpful for meditation, reverence meaning respect at its highest pitch. Suppose you develop a respect for me naturally in your heart then seriously you will try to do meditation even when I physically go away from here you would not give up. Otherwise one is likely to become casual and lazy and postpone things, "Today I cannot do it, tomorrow let me do it." Like that one year might simply pass and you won't have practiced anything. So if you are seriously having some respect that is important, that is taught. Then you will seriously do everything, every day without failing.

Question: Can you explain about yoga nidra?

Babaji: What we have learnt from our Guru is that during the practice of meditation when you go into an advanced state deeply, sometimes the mind can drift back into a sleepy state, that is called yoga nidra. What happens is you will be stuck there. The mind does not progress. It does not get totally cleansed. So yoga nidra needs to be avoided. In meditation you have to always be aware of your self. You will not vanish and disappear and become totally unconscious. In meditation the mind gradually becomes unconscious of the surroundings: this body, the world and all its thought processes. As it happens it starts regaining the consciousness of the Self's existence. Mind has no third way. Either it has to be into this world of imaginations or when it loses imaginations it starts going towards the Self. There is no other third path for the mind. One has to be very careful as you progress in meditation. I remember the great sage Ramana Maharshi having told a small story: there was a sage who, before going into Samadhi, asked his student to get a glass of water. So that remains in his mind and he goes into a type of yoga nidra for nearly a thousand years. This is mentioned in one of the scriptures. Suddenly one day, after a thousand years he comes out of Samadhi and he still remembers the glass of water that he had sent his student to get. There are only some skeletons remaining around him so he doesn’t know how much time has passed by. So he was not totally Self Realised. So that is how things can happen, that is what is described as yoga nidra. One must be careful not to slip and if needed one must take the guidance of the Master. This would be better progress for the meditator.

Question: Baba, sometimes it happens with me, also. I am sitting in meditation. There are thoughts, but I am not aware of the thoughts and my mind is not able to take all those thoughts as a reflection. There is just a peaceful semi-sleepy state, but I don't have that awareness feeling. My attention is not there but it is just a feeling of something settled, peacefully, semi-sleepy. Is that yoga nidra?

Babaji: It is likely to lead into a full yoga nidra. It is like a semi-yoga nidra that happens sometimes in the advanced meditation stages. But you need to be aware. Then only the thought processes get cleansed, evaporated. There is a technology: all of the things the mind has acquired, it has to get cleansed. But without the help of the brain it cannot get cleansed. That is why, when death happens to the brain, if there are still thought processes in the mind, based on the intensity of the thought processes only, it will watch its next birth. Normally we say, in this world human life is the rarest of rare gems that you have achieved. Such a beautiful developed brain which has this capacity to do cleansing work, but because of the nature of the brain, it cannot help. It shows every thought and decodifies and shows every visual effect. Watching that, the mind again catches it and tries to make a judgment. Your ability not to make a judgment can save you from getting further involved in this world. So during this process the mind might slip into this yoga nidra, as you have said, but then the cleansing process stops. If it goes into a sleepy state, the brain also stops functioning for a while or it goes into a sleepy state. That is how a yoga nidra happens.

Question: I am not sleeping. There is some internally peaceful feeling but my attention is not
there. I am not aware of the Self. I do not get the awareness.

Babaji: Yes, that is yoga nidra. You must be aware of the Self, otherwise how can you become realised? The mind can go into samadhi only when that awareness is maintained.

Question: To maintain that awareness should you keep watching here [between the eyebrows]?

Babaji: Yes, keep watching, watching. It is such a tricky situation. The mind has to watch itself,
without thinking. If it thinks, it jumps into its own imaginations and gets caught in the whirlpool
of its own imaginations. So maintain the awareness.

Question: If you start to feel sleepy?

Babaji: You should not fall asleep, you should try to maintain. If needed you can get up, wash your face and then sit again. That is why, normally we advise, when you sit for meditation, you should have taken sufficient rest and feel refreshed. The brain's health is also very important.

Question: I notice when I meditate my legs kind of jump, a sort of inner energy shock. Can you tell me what that is?

Babaji: Do you feel any pain, any cramp? What type of thing?

Question: There is no pain; it's just like an inner energy shock, a jump.

Babaji: Sometimes what can happen, the mind is coming back when there is some peace and excitement. Actually it would be like a small glimpse of bliss. So as the mind tries to come back it is always trying to lift the body consciousness upwards also. At such times some such experiences can happen. It gets excited and a jump can happen. You shall try to maintain, not to allow the body to go into
such a jerk. Composed it should be sitting, quiet. Otherwise it can give a jerk to the mind to go
back to this world.

Question: Sometimes when I'm focussing here (between the eyebrows), there is this feeling of
expansion. Is that just an illusion and you ignore it?

Babaji: If it is totally peaceful and quiet, then that is good. That is how the consciousness
expands and realises one day that it is all pervading, not simply hidden into one single body. That is how the expansion happens. If you are feeling peaceful and as quiet as possible, then continue with it.

Question: Sometimes I start thinking, what is this? Or what is happening?

Babaji: No need to worry, because if you try to think, then mind will get into imagination and that comes back again. Just watch it, peacefully.

Question; If your mind is completely involved in one feeling, one emotion during the meditation,
this feeling is coming out. Is it better to resist this or leave it flying?

Babaji: You can leave it but if you practice meditation, if it gets into one feeling, if you try to
avoid analysing what it is, then it will flow and evaporate on its own. Always mind gets involved by analysing into further thoughts and further thoughts and thousands of thoughts occur. It does not stop into one feeling. It is a very difficult situation. Even if it can stop in one feeling, that would be beneficial for the mind. That is how the path of devotion is taught. Because of imagination only, the mind has gone out of control. Using the same imagination, of God, you try to bring it into one-pointedness. If it can stop into one type of feeling at all times, then when you practice meditation it will flow away.

Question: I did not try to control or think about it, I just felt completely involved in these good
feelings.

Babaji: Normally it does not happen that it is just one feeling. Just watch it, along with the
thousands of others that follow. That can make you confused eventually. If it can happen into one type of feeling that will be beneficial, your concentration power will be increasing. Then when you sit in meditation you will be able to meditate very easily.

Question; When I am meditating and the thought processes start settling down and there is silence around me, then suddenly, if there is some outer sound, even a little bit of sound appears very big. There is a kind of jolt in the brain, in the mind, as well as sometimes in the body. How should we react to a sudden noise that appears many times louder than it is normally?

Babaji: Try to have a positive thought and reassure yourself that everything is all right, nothing is happening, that it is maybe just mind's imagination because the mind has such a technique. When it gets concentrated it can magnify everything and multiply it into tens and billions fold higher than what it actually is. Think of Guru or think of God and reassure yourself so the mind does not become panicked and lose its grip of concentration.