I’m not saying that you always appear dull and weak. That too is self-deception. You don’t need to be so fussy. Some people constantly repeat, “Everything is beautiful, so beautiful.” They say everything is perfect. They smile on the outside, but inside, they are boiling. You shouldn’t be like that.
This is where manomaya tapas comes in – tapas of the mind. “Manah-prasādah-saumyatvam” – here, four things are mentioned: Pleasantness of the mind, manah-prasādah – maintain it. To have a pleasant, joyful mind – this is a great tapas. You may feel joyful, and the next moment suddenly lose it. Maintain it – manah-prasādah. Satisfaction of the mind. Saumyatvam – what does saumya mean? Calm and composed, serene. You may feel light, yet excited. You may feel cheerful, but not calm. Cheerfulness can make you excited, but not as peaceful and composed as saumya.
People who are happy can sometimes become a problem for others – because they are not aware of what they are saying or how it affects others. But a calm and composed person is more aware. Awareness comes with composure. You become sensitive to the feelings of others, to the surrounding environment, and how it affects people’s minds. That’s a composed and pleasant mind.
Manah-prasādah. Saumyatvam. Maunam. A silent mind, a mind that doesn’t chatter. Silence is tapas of the mind. If your mind is distracted, gather it together, tie all the loose ends and bring them back to the Self. Atma-vinigraha – bringing the mind back again and again to the Self, effortlessly, with ease, and seeing that everyone is also my own Self.
Usually, we think the mind is inside the body – but that’s not the case. The body is in the mind. Have we discussed this before? Your pranic or energy body is ten times bigger than your physical body.
Your mental body is ten times bigger than the energy body. Ten times bigger than that is your intuitive body. Ten times bigger still is your bliss body. Ten times bigger means infinitely greater – our bliss body is boundless. Our bliss is limitless.
The bliss body.
That’s why, when you are in bliss, you don’t feel any boundaries – you don’t feel your body. You feel expanded. When you are sad or unhappy, you feel compressed – because your prana has shrunk below the size of your physical body. That is the mechanism of unhappiness. It’s like trying to squeeze your body through a fan – it simply won’t fit. You feel suffocated. That’s why you feel miserable.
When your prana is so vast, and you try to push it through a small opening… When you enter through a door, your body can pass through. But when you are unhappy in life, know that you have placed your love inside a small room. Your love is so vast, enormous. It needs a royal gate to pass through. But we have locked our large elephant-sized love body inside a small fan, a tiny chimney. It can neither go in nor come out. That’s entanglement, confusion. That’s why it seems like love is causing you problems. We don’t understand its greatness. This is tapas – mano tapas. Atma-vinigraha is to return back to the Self. To catch hold of your center and stay rooted in it.
That’s enough for today.
