Habits and Finding SIVA

Habits and Finding SIVA

By Kashi Stone
Bhagavad Gita Demystified by Paramahamsa Nithyananda
May 2017

One of the greatest challenges for a human is the struggle to overcome degrading habits.

In the Bhagavad Gita Demystified, H.H. Paramahamsa Nithyananda expounds on how emotions are the root of our defeating, habitual behavior.

Referring to a statement that Krishnamurti, an enlightened guru from India, spoke in a lecture concerning emotions: “if you can, try to remain centered without moving your body when a particular emotion rises in you, without-cooperating with it. Within eleven times, or I can say within eleven emotional upsets, if you have managed to be this way, you will be liberated from that emotion.”


For instance, if desire for eating another cookie rises inside of you, stop yourself and don’t move, don’t act on that thought. After you have stopped yourself eleven different times, no longer will you crave that cookie.

However, Avatar Nithyananda takes it one step further. He suggests that if we allow the process to be simple, effective, true and correct, we can complete this process in only three or four times. He suggests that we not give energy to things like this so that something continues to grow. We must cut it off immediately and stop it through our own willpower.

In this same passage, He points out the importance of mindfulness in food preparation. The sensitivity of who is preparing the food and the thoughts that they entertain impact the diner, significantly. This is something that westerners are so desperately out of touch with: the quality of food that we take into our body on an etheric level. Most of the time, people are looking at food, remembering tastes and mentally choosing the cheapest, fastest, trendiest and most convenient – not the most intelligent foods. It is quite strange, really.

In the Incarnation of Hindu teachings, we are encouraged to eat our food as if we are in an act of worship. He suggests that we never watch television while we eat nor should we read the newspaper while eating. When we get into the habit of eating while watching TV or reading, we induce and encourage ‘lazy’ energy, he informs us.

Swamiji instructs cooks to be mindful of their thoughts while preparing food. Especially, he cautions, do not complain while preparing and serving food, like many get into the habit of doing. When these thoughts of complaining, unhappiness and disappointment brew in the mind, while preparing and serving, they enter directly into the food to be consumed. He points out that there are cells that catch these thought forms and emotions and begin reproducing them. Each time a cell reproduces, it replicates into three or four more at a time. Each time the emotion rises inside, all the new cells catch the emotion and begin to expand and reproduce, as well. By the time the third emotional incident has happened, the cells begin to store the emotion as a permanent fixture in the design of the being.

It is pointed out that these energies, which create the habits that defeat our ability to thrive, come out of the lower chakras where we work with lower emotions such as greed, fear, anger, hate and lust. As the Avatar states, we have enough energy to maintain our being without having to resort to greed or fear. When we are caught in these types of emotions, it is all that we can see. We do not see things for how they truly are.

In the teachings of Vedanta, understanding that the Divine has sent us here with everything we need, is called prarabdha karma. This is the ability to meet all our needs on the physical plane, a divine right as a human. In this passage, Swamiji suggests that through the act of a simple decision, decide that you will only work for bliss. When we make this commitment, holding on for a minimum of ten days, it transforms our life. We may feel a little strange, we may feel like something is missing or an emptiness inside. He instructs us not to worry, to let it go and allow a new system to enter and take over the body. When we let go, empty and open to higher forces, we enter, “Sunya” what is also known as Nirvana.

He also shares, “you will not lose your wealth by practicing this for ten days. If you think that you will lose your wealth by practicing this for ten days then that wealth is not worth having….Just remove the tremendous stress and load from your inner space. Decide, ‘For ten days, I will do all my action out of deep bliss, out of a settled mood.’

What a glorious state of being, to only move in accordance to bliss. The only thing that is going to ruin the ride are the emotions. Emotions destroy our chance at bliss. It’s important that we learn how to manage them so they don’t manage us and destroy our chance for a good opportunity when it comes our way.

Swamiji likens this place of new enthusiasm, of ‘causeless auspicious energy’, as he beautifully defines it, as the place of SIVA. In this place as SIVA, we understand and realize that we trust our own power and we know how to put our power into use. When we express our pure energy in accordance to our true nature, we achieve divine consciousness. This is accomplished through doing the things we love, responding to the forces that bring us opportunities by being ready, prepared and grateful.

This is why sciences such as astrology are so important. Through character defining tools, we learn who we are, we understand our talents and we can clearly move forward with confidence in the direction that supports us, or offset the distractions that take us further from bliss. Having clear understanding of why things have happened helps to bring a level of completion through loving understanding. Through the recognition and understanding of who one is, one can sink deeper into the present moment, realizing that enlightened, self-control is our true nature. This is where grace resides, in the being who is not swayed by the currents of the raging emotions.

In the ancient Veda teachings, often, we see the image of Krishna driving Arjuna’s chariot through an intense battle. In this account, the story beautifully portrays the horses that are raging with the chariot to represent the senses held in control by a divine charioteer. Krishna drives the chariot towards the finish line and achieves self-realization. This is the path of the human condition, to wage the battle against the senses and achieve enlightened, self-control, naturally, and remain without stress or strain.

At this stage of humanity, we have reached a level of intelligence that can take control of the emotional reactions and untie the grip on the way we behave, just as Krishna potrays. And when we control how we respond to life in a relaxed manner that understands the beauty of healthy boundaries, we become a channel for divine energies.

We are encouraged to use meditation as a tool to bring awareness into our experience of life. It is through observation of our actions and watching them that distance and detachment from desire is created. Through becoming the witness, one is cool, relaxed and non-reactive, emotionally.

As it is pointed out in this passage, we live in the past or the future, most of the time. But when we understand that the present is all that we have, we burst through the bubble of illusion that keeps us trapped in an emotional reaction caused by our ego’s desires.

This shows us that we are more than the senses and when we see that, bliss ignites.