Shiv Ratri:
Go Towards the Subtlest Reality

On each of your faces, I am seeing the third eye. [Laughter] As we are born with two eyes and have not been satisfied with their work, we began to hanker to attain the knowledge which a person having a third eye possesses. That is why Shiv [Bliss, Self] is above all. Divine beings have been represented by artists who have given two eyes to all of them, but Shiv is illustrated with a third eye. Since we have not seen any person on earth having a third eye, it is our conclusion that the third eye cannot be that of a human being. We should reach at a place where one can talk about the third eye, which means about Highest Awareness. Two eyes will only have the awareness of a human being, and the eyes of a human being only see that which is born or things which appear, such as the seasons, sun and moon. Two eyes will only see the world as not having a third eye. Therefore, the third eye has nothing to do with the knowledge of a two-eyed man. It is not the awareness of a human being. A human being has the darshan (vision) or scenes seen by the two human eyes. These two eyes will only talk about the appearance of a child and the disappearance of an old or sick person. So humanity as a whole will always be talking about the darshan, vision or forms of the world of his own, based on the vision of two eyes. …

How to eliminate the sense of the world, the sense of birth, the sense of things, forms and elements that appear? A person with two eyes cannot eliminate it. It is his tradition. It is his condition—unless his third eye is opened. This is not possible on his head, back or chin. It is in his attention. People want to know how to eliminate death, which everybody feels is there yet nobody can eliminate. A person who has a third eye sees that the world and human beings exist because of the knowledge of the third eye, and this third-eye knowledge exists before a human being is born and before the world appears. It is called Absolute Bliss Vision, the third eye, which cannot be the description made on the basis of two eyes.

All of you have used meditation with these two eyes, but there is no description of the two eyes found in a man who is in meditation. Who is that who knows, but not at the time when meditation is going on, that you still exist in meditation? At the time when meditation is going on, who is that who is seeing that which the two eyes do not see? That is the third eye. The third eye is prior to the birth of a human being, and these two eyes, with which a man is made, cannot have the power to see it. The third eye is Space. It is Vision, not eyesight. In meditation, it is that Vision which is seeing, which is watching, which is knowing. That is why that Vision has sat, or existence, and chit, or consciousness, in it, yet it is beyond existence and consciousness. It is called Shiv Vision, Anand (Bliss) Vision, Param (Beyond) Vision, or Atma (Self) Drishti (Vision).

These two eyes are human drishti, and we need to remove their birth and death idea. These are ideas—that you are born, so you are not the third eye. Your idea is that you are a human being. Human ideas, made with these two eyes, are made by the wolf-boy [a human boy raised and trained by a wolf mother], who is not a human being. A human being has been found to be better than animals—because animals cannot become human beings, but human beings have become animals, or can become people with the characteristics of animals. If this is so, then human beings are supposed to make efforts to not become animals and to not remain human beings. They are supposed to make efforts to become divine.

This is the celebration of Shiv Ratri (Night). We are using words which we use daily. But there are special moments in the middle of the day and night where neither day nor night exists. In between two, Shiv is there—where birth and death do not exist. Shiv is in the space on which both day and night, birth and death, and life exist as a kind of form-painting on a canvas. That canvas is your third eye. Space is the third eye. Vision is the third eye. The Shiv mirror has nothing to do with the eyes, form or reflection.

Those people who are only open with two eyes, which know things and forms, are not part of this audience. Either you are special, or you are out of them. You are listening to me that you have a third eye, yet if you have no information about it, it cannot be opened; it cannot even be grasped that you have a third eye. So I call it the power to know. The power to know means you have the power to have the eye to see your own Being, who has nothing to do with two, with name and form. It is nameless and formless. It is indescribable. It is eternal. It is indestructible. It is only the Space, which now, with closed eyes, you are watching.

You cannot say this is not a colour, because the Knower has this colour. That is why Ram, Shiv, Shyam and Krishna have been given as names for this colour. As human beings only ask, “Tell me about some form,” they have been depicted as forms of statues, calendars and pictures. But a picture has nothing to do with the form on the picture. Every day one of you sends me a letter on a card where a picture is, yet it is the same card—which has nothing to do with the picture. Who knows the picture? The third eye. These two eyes see form. But the third eye knows, “No, no. This form on the card is being carried by the one who is the Source—not only of the card, picture or colours, but of the world and man.” That is your Shiv. You are That. If you do not succeed in knowing it, you will always remain the victim of these two eyes and call yourself a name and form. Thus, the world will remain. Who is that eye and vision that can transcend the so called stationary names and forms in the world and of the world? Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. That is Shiv. … [Meditation]

Take your own time. You have had darshan (vision) with your third eye, which cannot be equated with the darshan seen by these two eyes. Any darshan of things and forms and this world seen by these two eyes will remain for some time and then will die. But any darshan of the Space known, realized and seen by the third eye will never change and will never die. That has been Amaram. That has been Madhuram.
That has been Bliss. That has been indivisible. That has been indescribable, nameless and formless. Each apparent form of a child, animal or tree is permeated by that. That which permeates makes sprouts, leaves, flowers, fruit, branches and the tree. That which appears will always disappear. That which stands always makes something appear, some space appear—but that imagination will never stay, because it is never the first one. And all human beings are imaginative.

Before imagination made the human being, there was no human being, nor was there any imagination which could make him. Before that is Shiv, which is not Ratri. You are with closed eyes and are seeing Ratri—as if it is night, because there is no sunlight over there. But it is not night. It is the original Shiv Space, Pure Awareness. Now it depends on you, as a human being. You can choose to be this: changing this. You can also choose this: and this will be your Unchanging. There are various names for it—knowledge, love, wisdom, original Self. Today, we are celebrating a festival day, and on a festival day, what do we do? We have talked enough. We sing. [Songs are sung, and during one Swamiji plays a drum of his own making]

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How did bondage come into existence? A child is born with senses. How are the senses fixed in your head, and by seeing again and again, those senses are tying a person with vision. But where? In the mind. Vision is tying the mind. Hearing is tying the mind. Smelling is tying the mind. Laughing and weeping are tying the mind. Speaking is tying the mind. Thinking is tying the mind. Running and doing any action is tying the mind. Who is tied? Not the Space. The mind, when it was not there, was Space—maybe a Space wave. The moment Space began to get tied, it became a kind of tied ball, rope or pillar. This became bondage.

In this song it is written, Shiva Shiva Bol. Bol means “Speak.” Suppose to the eyes I say, Shiva Shiva Bol: that means for the eyes to pay attention on Shiv. Where is Shiv? Not in the hands, nails or hair. Shiv is there where your heart pulsates, where the breath stops and comes, stops and comes. There is a technique that can be used for a human being who is tied to birth and death: birth and then death, then birth and death, then millions of births and deaths. It is only a human being who wants to be free. To him it is said, “Pay attention on that which burns the fire and burns all the bondage.” What is that? That is the technique when you close the eyes. …

The main technique is you have to burn the seed—which has the whole tree in it, and which spreads that tree if it is not burned. If you sow the seed, it will bring it forth. So the mind is a seed that brings the world. It is the mind that creates the world, you can watch. … Who created this world in one person? How to remove this world is to use the same senses that have bound you and are binding you. If they continue working to bind you, they will take you towards the death side. A human being who all the time thinks about things and forms and the joys and experiences of the senses is going to that side. He has the binding that made him thick. Now you have to do the same, but opposite to it. Opposite is to go towards the higher side. Earth is the lower side. Water is a little less solid. Fire is less solid. Air is less solid. Sky is less solid. What is that which is most superfine? It is your Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, nameless and formless.

A human being only sees the world of forms and names. Therefore, he is being given to understand, “For God’s sake, if you have to remain thick all the time and being thick you die, yet your inner Being says, ‘I do not want to die,’ then listen to the inner voice. Feed that, rather than feed this. This side goes down, and then you are gone. That side goes up, and you are immortal and blissful.” That is the meaning of Shiva Shiva Bol. It is being said to all the senses, “Be quiet for some time. Do not remain active and binding the soul within, the Self within, who is wanting to be free.” The Self has committed only one mistake. He made the whole world just for you to become a human being. He himself was very happy when he made a human being, a manikin. But then he sat in it. [Laughter] To that Being it is being said, “Now Shiva Shiva Bol. Go up, go up, go up, go up. Be free. Be free.” So all the dross is burned, and you are flying high. Thank you very much. [Applause]

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It is Shiv Ratri, and Shiv means Bliss. Bliss means free. Bliss means Pure. Bliss means beyond time. Bliss means beyond space. But how can a human being ever think beyond the senses? Therefore, the technique, which we have succeeded in practising and getting the result of, is “Go towards the subtlest reality.” The whole body is heavier. Even water is heavy. We use these examples so that you should not become the frozen mind. We know frozen means frozen ice, or an iceberg, and using this analogy we say, “Get melted.” Such a big iceberg, and people have match boxes in their hands. It will not work.

The human body is equated with the brahmand (the universe, the macrocosm). Pind (the body, the microcosm) is brahmand—the same is individual, the same is universal. About the universal, they say it is God. But about the individual, they say he is not God. He is reduced from the thickness of the universe to here, to a kind of point of a needle. So a man thinks, “I am so small. I am so mean. I am so deen (deficient). I am so heen (destitute).” I say, “No. Use the same method, deen, heen everything, but you should become leen—absorbed.” [Laughter]

We have to know one thing. All human beings die one day—even the biggest one. Look how much wealth he collects, yet he does not take a single penny with him. Even to his own child, whom he himself produced, he will not give. So thick a human being is! Then there is no alternative, no sword and no fire to make him subtle. There is only Shiv. Shiv, Shiv, Shiv, Shiv [He keeps repeating Shiv, subtler and subtler, leading into silence] … Catch hold of the thread and keep going. Keep going as far as your awareness is there. You will reach the third eye, the eye of the Space, which is bigger than hundreds of suns and their spaces. You reach there. From there, when you become so big, so big, then this world is a kind of little dot.

This is the technique. For that it is being said, Shiva Shiva Bol. Those who can use it are just like all of you. You do it. Do it means, “Make efforts. Never become negligent.” Negligent means you take a task, but you neglect it and do not do it, so the relative field says, “Make efforts.” Make efforts means, “Use your actions.” This is also action, but it is fine action. It is not driving a car, truck or plane. It is the subtlest action, which has nothing to do with the senses. As long as you are using your senses to know your peace or bliss, it will never come—because it is not there. It is in that Space which is always with you but is superfine, subtler than any atom or quark. That is why I say, “Please never compare that Immortal Being with the mortal existence of the world.” … Here all of you are gathered on the day of the festival of Shiv Space, where people otherwise play all kinds of drums and music. But here you are the real practitioners of the Space of Shiv [Shiv is most often represented in meditation]. I will be quiet. [Meditation] …

Take your own time. Let me appreciate the Space that has guided you to come on earth and which became part of you. You have the eternal gift of being born a human being, but you became a tiny little person and forgot Shiv Space, Bliss Space—which is Pure Free Forever, where time does not reach and the end of time does not reach. Here you are time-bound, because of the beginning of the day of your birth. Even if you live for a hundred years in time and space, for millions of years everybody has witnessed the end of that time.

Now, in this time, in this life, you have gathered over here to listen to the truth of your true Being, which is not found in the vessels of the blood, the existence of the bones, or in your senses. It is in that voice coming from the Space of Shiv. By that voice, immediately you not only get affected in the body, you become That. That is your unity—which not only you, as an individual, but the whole humanity is talking about, for they see and know there are all scattered, individual spaces. But that is only as long as you are your individual human form and do not have the sense of your infinite Space, which is Shiv, which is nameless and formless. All of you have done this. I appreciate that you have succeeded in dissolving the individual ego entity into your own infinite Space. That is where you have imbibed the spirit of satsang, you sang songs, imbibed their meaning, and came to know the real meaning of humanity in terms of unity.

Unity is the message of Lord Shiv. Swamiji speaks about it. He says if you become an individual united with the universe, and all are united with the universe, it will benefit society of all kinds, in all countries. The technique is that you should burn the seed of ego, make it egoless and be the Space. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. Thank you very much everyone. God bless you. [Applause] Bolo Shankar Bhagwan Kee Jai (Speak the Glory of the Space of Shiv)! Bolo Shankar Bhagwan Kee Jai! Bolo Shankar Bhagwan Kee Jai! [The audience responds: Bolo Swami Shyam Maharaj Kee Jai! He hands out prasad.]