Satsang  –   Volume 14, Number 03: March 3, 2011
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Shiv Raatri: It’s All The Bliss Being

Today is the festival of Shiv Raatri. Lord Shiv is the symbol of the Bliss Being. Nobody knows how a Blissful Being will have a form. And we, as human beings who know forms, objects and persons, can never imagine that Blissful Being who is not a man. Therefore, they call Lord Shiv as Divine Being, or the one who is subtler than the subtlest reality. Since manifestation is found to be blissful—as you have seen, all children who are born are not un-blissful; rather, they create bliss, they are blissful—that means the whole world is a symbol of blissful existence. Flowers, small leaves, birdies, animals, whatever sentient beings and insentient things are there, if they are in a subtlest form of manifestation, they are all blissful.

Thus, Lord Shiv is at the basis, at the source, of blissful existence. Since to know how to meditate on That, how to worship That, how to join with That is not possible for a human being, therefore, it has been represented through art, which shows nature as blissful and its symbols as sentient beings. You have seen Lord Shiv’s army and himself as a human form—with the Ganges on top of his hair-lot, with snakes and all and the bull down below, which together represent nature—and Parvati sitting beside him. This image shows him as the manifestation of the totality as a whole.

Now, how will a human being ever conceive of the totality? Because he is developed as an individual human being, so individuality is his sense. This sense of being an individual, of seeing individuals in manifestation and multiplicity in individuality, all taken together, people say is the whole. But their vision is only individual. How would this individual vision be capable of worshipping the Whole? It is not possible.

Therefore, as human beings advanced, they came with artistic tendencies. When hearing of the blissful entity as Shiv, they could think of things and forms, so they made forms, or art. But the progress did not stop there. It continued. The consciousness kept advancing. It advanced and reached at this time, in this age, and here we are in 2011, fully equipped with intelligence. Thus, we are able to examine and question what is that which should be Bliss. If you see any form of a human being who is considered to be more advanced, everything about him is not blissful: hair can be cut, eyes can be blind, ears can be deaf, a nose can not smell very well, a tongue can not eat properly and can have no sense of taste, arms and feet can be cut, and all that. This shows that this body existence is not blissful. Blissful must be that which is the Whole.

That which is never born, never increasing, never decreasing, which never gets cut or perishes is Bliss. That means Bliss is that which is formless, nameless, ageless. Anything which is in time and space is changeable. But that which is formless, where time cannot reach, there no form can be made, no sound can be given, no name can be given. That formless Being is Lord Shiv. So we worship Lord Shiv, having now known, with our intelligence, that “If Lord Shiv is the Whole, then he cannot be separate from me. If he is not separate from me, then he is not an individual form of a human being—which is not blissful, which changes, which takes birth and dies.” How can that be blissful for a human being?

Therefore, human beings like all of you, fully equipped with that greatest intelligence, are seeing that which is the Bliss Being. There must be someone who knows what is that Bliss Being. That is not born, that is not changing and that is not dying. Human beings have used their senses, and whatever they used their senses for, it was only for objects, forms and names. Thus, we drop the functioning of the senses and make them still for some time. Then, whatever remains there, in the form of Pure Consciousness, is the Bliss Being. Consciousness of things and forms depends on the mind and the mind depends on the senses. The senses and mind combined together have the ability only to see forms, which are changing and dying. Therefore, it is not the blissful field—although every human being wants to have the experience of Bliss. But in this field, it is not.

Therefore, what do we have to do on Shiv Raatri day, or Lord Shiv’s day? We have to transcend the forms and names in existence as the world. So we close our eyes. And worship begins. Here, there is no ambiguity, no doubt, no confusion, no question of “What is Lord Shiv and how should I worship?” For there is no trio involved in it: nobody is a worshipper, nothing is to be worshipped and there is no sense of worshipping. That is Bliss. That is the sense of Oneness. That is the Bliss Being, Paramaanand. That is anaadi, without beginning, so it is anant [endless] … It is that anant which has never been the beginning, that is why it is anant. That never begins, that never ends. That is the blissful state of Existence, which is called Pure Consciousness.

Any person who has reached the height of knowledge as Bliss Consciousness, Pure Consciousness, he realizes That. He worships the Bliss Being, who is always within, always without, always in between. There is no way to begin with it, no way to end it and no way to see its beginning or its end. This is the day and time and moment when all of you are observing that Blissful Being, who is formless and nameless—as well as with forms and names. Forms and names can be annihilated. So Lord Shiv has this nature also: he has the nature of making the Viraat Swaroop [cosmic form], Brahma [the creator] and Vishnu [the maintainer]. And he himself is capable of bringing this manifestation back to himself. He himself is the reality and the source, Bliss. And he himself is the mover and extender or manifestor of the sense of consciousness, or the powers of the three gunas and prakriti, which keeps playing, which keeps experiencing all kinds of things.

For Lord Shiv, there is no birth, no death. Yet we, as human beings, want to have the explanation of how the world begins and how the world ends. The answer to this is that it never begins and never ends. Therefore, in between is that flow of Awareness which is Pure Consciousness alone, the name of which is Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. That is the Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Shiv, that is Amaram Hum Shiv Madhuram Hum Shiv, Amaram Hum Shiv Madhuram Hum Shiv, Amaram Hum Bliss Madhuram Hum Bliss. It’s all the Bliss Being.

We are experiencing, analyzing—but not on the level of the mind; nor are we intellectualizing on the level of intellect; nor are we possessing or owning anything that “I create” or “I do” on the level of the ego. This is beyond the ego-intellect-mind being. This Beyond cannot be compared with when we see with our eyes and use our senses to record forms and phenomena. So this is worship. We’ll sing songs later on. Now, we take a dive and a dip in Pure Consciousness, which is our true nature. All our names belong to this Space, and this Space is capable of bringing about all the sounds, names and forms. It is realized here at this time, now. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.

Those people who are here and everywhere are the Blissful Being. But who says this? The one who knows Bliss, who realizes Bliss, he says it is Bliss alone, Aanand, Paramaanand, Supreme Being, Paramaatma, Aatma, Brahm alone. The one who realizes this, he says this. To whom? To the one who expects to get this realization. Since human beings are children, some are grownup and some are more grownup, but they have never received this information. Therefore, we use this Shiv Raatri day, or Lord Shiv’s day, making any kind of pretext for being the recipient of the knowledge of Bliss. The knowledge of Bliss is called Pure Awareness, which is our subject for the last forty years. Now all of you have become the recipient of it and are capable enough to be in it, having realized that it’s all one field of existence, Pure Consciousness, Pure Existence, Pure Bliss, Sat Chit Aanand, the very Blissful Being. … [Meditation and the Seven Gita Verses]

In this last verse, Avyakto ayam achintyo ayam…, every word describes the Formless. When it is achintyo ayam, how can you ever think, or have chinta or chintan, of knowing that Blissful Being, unless you get to experience and know that the very Experience is to be worshipped as the Blissful Being. Experience, which we call Anubhav, is ever-present. But the difficulty of the mind of a human being is that he is part and parcel of this objective reality, or nature, and nature has not been given the power to have the knowledge of Experience. That’s why what Experience is, is to be practised, and again and again you find out that the result of the mind’s thinking and the knowledge of the senses does not lead you towards That. Then, you never try to use them to know your true nature, which is the Blissful Being. … [Songs]

Today is Shiv Raatri, Lord Shiv’s day. There is no such thing that we should be rhythmic, that we should be profound, that we should be clothed or naked; it all makes no sense today. Because if you see his army, it’s the army of disharmony. Too much chaos is going on in the world, but here we are totally in disharmony yet in harmony. Our senses are disharmonious: our eyes do not match our ears, our ears do not match our nose, our tongue does not match our hands and feet. Everything, the whole body, is in disharmony. But it is only one Being, who is called the Blissful Being, who is controlling all the senses, all the chaos, and bringing about that which creates a sense of love, joy and happiness.

I’m very appreciative of all the musicians, and Mary especially, who has brought in the highest mantra [in the song performed]. When you have nothing to say about anything, which happens sometimes, even at the time of death when you don’t have any words—at least “Guruji, Guruji” is there. With that, the whole ocean of maayaa is crossed. This is the mantra’s power. Wherever all the dayvtas are there, if you add Guruji, then you are successful. This mantra is sung in a way that we don’t have to worry about who is Guru and who is not Guru. Guruji is himself Guruji, that’s all. Guru means that Infinite Being, Lord Shiv, the Blissful Being. …

We close our eyes and treat ourselves to be the ones who are thankful for the gift from God, this body, which is very, very beautiful and which emanates all kinds of tastes, joys and experiences, being tuned in to the forms of joy and experience. Since our existence is Pure Consciousness or Pure Bliss, so too is its result, for the seed of the tree is nothing but Blissful Existence. This body can only survive when we are tuned in with the power of that food which has been created by the same Being for himself, before he came on earth and became a human being. If you analyze, in the long run you will find that there is nothing but the emanation of Sat Chit Aanand, Pure Existence, Pure Consciousness, Pure Bliss. Therefore, there is no division. That indivisibility is called Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, where you cannot discern who is the eater, what is eaten, what is the way of eating, where you are eating, what is the result of eating and what happens after eating—or all that sense of fulfillment and satisfaction after meditating on the very original Being, your own Self, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. The one who thanks, he thanks himself. The one who gets the words of thanks gets them from himself. There is no other person than You. This has been the day of the observation of Lord Shiv, who has been permeating the whole universe and who knows that it is all one Being, the Blissful Self. …

We experienced the real grace of God. We began, and it was not raining. Now we ended, and it is raining. So the Lord is very pleased with us. Thank you very much everyone, those who have shared and participated with us in the satsang of the Blissful Being. Bolo Shankar Bhagwaan Key Jai!






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