Answers to Questions about Atmagnan, Self-knowledge and Self-realization by direct path of Akram Vignan of Dadashri

The answers are spontaneous and from the perspective of the experiential understanding of Akram Vignan.

The exact answers are beyond words. This will be understood once a seeker arrives and proceeds further in the scientific spirituality of Akram Vignan.

I need to go beyond words, thoughts and practices now....I long for the direct experience of the Self. Can you lead me to that?

My life has been full of irrational fear and depression. In deep meditation I have experienced the Bliss and peace of the Self but only rarely.

There must be a radical and massive change within and all of these years of searching, reading and meditating have still not led to THAT.

You have to deal with what is in front of you… through the medium of your thoughts, speech and acts.

Please address the issues of depression through professional channels first. That which the body and the mind require must not be denied. If there are issues of untreated prolonged depression and anxiety due to neurotransmitter deficiencies these are easily corrected by a frank discussion with your doctor, just as you would if you had high blood pressure effects or effects of diabetes.

Bliss, permanent bliss is attained after Self-realization. This does not mean that the worldly problems cease. The way you react to them changes.

In May this year, Dr. Niruben is coming to the UK and if you let us know more about your whereabouts and more about yourself, we will arrange for you to meet her personally.

I am seriously seeking and cannot be satisfied with anything less than a complete and radical change.

Please forgive me, I am making no pretense of knowing anything about the Self, Pure Consciousness or the nature

My particular problems if you may call them that are merely symptoms of my separation from the wholeness of life. In quiet moments amongst nature I realise this. They are Nothing and of no value unless they can help me to have some very special understanding of who I am. And they are leading me to that.

There may not be a clear path to realisation. Surely Pure Consciousness is there somewhere behind the noise of thought?

John

You may call me shuddha. This is my web name because I have no desire to be known or recognized. My goal is to understand and experience that which is beyond the day-to-day life events, The Self. I have found this in the words of Dadashri and having acquired the Gnan as he has given, I continue to marvel at the great depths of freedom from which all bliss stems. In conveying this to those who seek, I feel graced and blessed.

That was not my intent. The words came as a result of my physician background in response to terms like irrational fear and depression.

In deep meditation I have experienced the Bliss and peace of the Self but only rarely.

Meditation is natural for the one who is Self realized. There is no more “doing” meditation. When you say you experience peace of the Self, then please investigate as to who is feeling the peace. If the answer is John then it is still through the medium of the body and mind. The Self simply becomes aware of the peace or the uproar that John is experiencing and these are changing states, quite different from the eternal bliss, which is beyond happiness or unhappiness.

Most traditional meditation is simply the feeling of rest the mind feels when it is being helped by lack of distraction. The weekend football watcher feels it as much as the man who has gone fishing or the woman who is knitting and eating chocolates. These help as long as the process is going on, and it leaves the moment one is involved in a task that calls for doing something.

The golden key is to be able to meditate without doing anything. This only happens to the one who is no longer identified with…I am John.

Please be prepared to shatter all your preconceived ideas about the Self. The Self is beyond all adjectives. To know and Be the Self means to step away permanently from all joys and sorrow that Johnwill feel after Self Realization (In Akram Vignan) has been attained. Moments of pleasure and pain will come over John like the clouds that cast shadows but you will be the Sun eternally above all such clouds.

By all means, the traditional methods that you have adopted to meditate are useful, and will be complimentary for you. The difference after Gnan will be that your meditation will be continuous, whether you are at a tube station, or in a bus or walking around amidst huge crowds.

I am seriously seeking and cannot be satisfied with anything less than a complete and radical change.

Your earnestness is noted. The Self has been your constant companion all your life and you have not been awakened to this dearest of all friends, He is within you, knowing you more than you can ever know him. His love for you is unconditional and non judgmental. When you stop all external seeking, He will arise within you as the real You. As long as you are seeking radical changes, He will elude you. Yet if this search is spiritual in nature it will lead you to one who will free you. This One is that which lights this inner lamp within you.

Also, to say that it is going to take time to have an insight or to awaken seems to be the lazy mans excuse for remaining asleep!

Quite true. There is no more time left for the one who is yearning to awaken. Those who say the above do not know about enlightenment. Thinking is not needed for realization. It simply happens. Those who think a lot fall on their own feet and run into major hurdles in spiritual science.

Yes. Without such a One, it is not possible. There are such masters, who liberate you from your own bondage. Liberation is very easy. Meeting such a One is very rare.

The Pure Consciousness, The Self, is aware of all thoughts, feelings and noise…eternally unperturbed and free. To Be That is your birthright.

I felt a connection with what you wrote...almost like I knew what you stated...then why did I e-mail you to begin with?!!

"O.K. give up your search"....How can we give up something that is so deeply ingrained in us ...like believing that Truth is like knowledge and has to come as a result of work or at the end of a search?

Evolution and thousands of years of conditioning have led us to believe in rituals, "doing" meditation so as to spiritualise ourselves and so much more rubbish. You come along and say "stop" and what am I to do?

Please tell me where the Dr. will be in London on the dates you mentioned and hopefully give me a Telephone no. to arrange a contact.

Of what use is meditation when there is always this effort to realise during the practice? What am I to do? I cannot help wanting to break through...this searching does not lead to peace or love.

"O.K. give up your search"....How can we give up something that is so deeply ingrained in us

All human beings are in fact seeking. Most do not know it. They are all seeking for that kind of joy and happiness, which never leaves. To this end they go after that which they think will never leave. But it does. Nothing in this relative worldly life is permanent. One knows it and yet one has no choice except to pursue it. Only after finding, and being established in the Bliss of The Self, all running away from pain and all running towards pleasure stops.

You are quite right. This search is deeply ingrained in all human beings. The ones who finally arrive at the understanding that what one is seeking is not out there then one has arrived at the door of The Self.

…like believing that Truth is like knowledge and has to come as a result of work or at the end of a search?

Truth is beyond knowledge. It is the experience. It cannot be put into words. It resides in the heart of the awakened and the enlightened. It loses its sacredness in all attempts to express it. It is not acquired by effort or work or inquiry or penance or renunciation or any attempts at doing something spiritual. It simply happens for the one who is searching and yearning to see and experience that which demands nothing out of you. The Lord within.

You are indeed very near to this. You have done all that need be done to arrive at the gate to your Own Kingdom. The door will be opened if you are receptive and ready when the moment arrives.

Investigate whether there is any difference in the result of your meditation with someone who tends to a rose plant on a bright sunny morning with love and tenderness. Both result in a sense of peace and satisfaction. There is no distraction, no selfish motive, no doing. It is simply happening. The real you become aware of the peace that John has experienced just as the knower within the person who is caring for the rose plant experiences. Self realization simply is the awakening of the one who knows the difference. Such a One knows that peace exists in that where the ego ceases. I am John is the ego. I am pure Self is the absence of ego.

Perhaps I do not need the Dr. as you seem to be able to help me to come to an understanding?

I am just leading you to the gate to your Self. The one who gives you the Gnan will open the gate. This Gnan and its nature is well explained by Dadashri in his cardinal book Who Am I on the web. I am sure you have read it. I remain as one of the many mahatmas of Dadashri who facilitate the arrival at the gate. Dr. Niruben is opening this gate for thousands in India and the few fortunate ones who meet her abroad. This science is not for everyone. It is for those who have sought and sought and are at the end of their journey of seeking, openly admitting that they have not found it. It eludes the ones who think that they know, and what they are doing, following, practicing in spiritual matters is correct.

Of what use is meditation when there is always this effort to realise during the practice? What am I to do? I cannot help wanting to break through...this searching does not lead to peace or love.

Indeed. Any spiritual master or teacher who tells you to do something is not there yet. Find the one who offers you your own Self. Find such a One who does not demand anything out of you. There you will experience love and bliss. Then your work is done. Dadashri represents this love and bliss. Niruben insists, and I know this as a fact, that she is simply a medium through which Dadashri is passing on this love and bliss. This Gnan is of The Akram Vignani. Please be aware of this momentous truth when you receive it. Try and spend as much time with her as possible while she is in London. Many of her followers in the UK will be most happy to help you in this regard.

Can you realise the tremendous impact this realisation via the Dr. would or could have on my life?

So we search for happiness everywhere, only to find that Bliss and insight come uninvited....and that they are really there all of the time. We take up practices, forsake desires, often through some sense of spiritual superiority or guilt, and we keep on believing

that our limited 'I' is there helping us to awakening when perhaps it is only the Grace of the realised teacher that can set us free.

Could it be true ,perhaps, that Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Shankara, Patanjali and all of the other great ones were simply givers of Grace and that their recorded teachings are/were only for those who, for some reason, could not receive this awakening and knowledge of the Self directly from the teacher?

How does the Dr. give understanding? Is there some kind of diksha or repeated mantra?

There is all of this stuff on Kundalini, Vipassana, Zen etc. and you come along and say 'no' to all of that!

Is there a week of programs to take place in London? Please, I am still thinking in terms of practices and systems!

There are no preparations. And that is the beauty of it. All the preparations have already occurred within you. Your longing, yearning to come home to the bliss of your real Self is the preparation. The Gnani awaits you. When you meet with Niruma, look upon her as someone who will grace and grant you with the presence and knowledge of The Gnani Purush. Feel free with her. Do not be restrained in any way. Ask all the questions and my sister and others will make you feel at home. Come as you are. Come because you want to rise above all worldly issues towards the ultimate darshan.

All who have been liberated have felt these feelings towards those who facilitate the process. I pass them onto Dadashri, with you by my side.

So we search for happiness everywhere, only to find that Bliss and insight come uninvited....and that they are really there all of the time.

The Self is the Ocean of Bliss. In it all rivers pour…rivers that have taken all sorts of paths. Most remain unaware even after reaching the ocean, like the fish, which thirsts for water. Out and away from the water, the fish struggle and gasp, back in it they go about without a care in the world. To know and experience that in the presence of whom, the world cares for John and that in the absence of whom, the world will rush to bury or cremate John, is freedom forever.

We take up practices, forsake desires, often through some sense of spiritual superiority or guilt, and we keep on believing

The so called holy folks, the pious and the sanctimonious, keep burdening us with what is right and what is wrong behavior and action in this complex world. The society and the friends around us cement upon us that by which we are judged. You will finally arrive at the place where there is no guilt, sorrow, pleasure or pain, no distinctions and no expectations. You will disembark from the race course of life and all its panting and struggles for superiority and adjustments in the eyes of the world. To be that is bliss. You will be beyond all beliefs.

…that our limited 'I' is there helping us to awakening when perhaps it is only the Grace of the realised teacher that can set us free

Yes. The limited small I is John. The eternal unlimited I will arise and awaken within you, who has known all there is to know, and continually knows, John. This is where the realized master comes in. Afterwards, he lets the awakened master within , the sadguru, take over. For this awakening is permanent, life after life until final liberation.

Could it be true ,perhaps,that Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Shankara, Patanjali and all of the other great ones were simply givers of Grace and that their recorded teachings are/were only for those who, for some reason, could not receive this awakening and knowledge of the Self directly from the teacher?

Yes. And Krishna and Mahavir… their words became scriptures. They describe the candle and a million of these descriptions will not light the candle. The live candle exists with the Self realized teacher, and the direct interaction/communication.touch/grace… of the teacher and disciple lights the lamp within the latter. The scriptures reside in the intellect and the lamp of awakening resides within the heart of the giver and the receiver. It is very precious and pure. It lets you experience the heart of the Lords whom you have mentioned.

How does the Dr. give understanding? Is there some kind of diksha or repeated mantra?

It is the continuation of the original experiment of separation of Dadashri, The Original Scientist. She continues what she promised him. In this process you will be asked to repeat the words that Dadashri used to say aloud and now she does the same. These are sentences, which are precisely designed to establish you in your real state and separate you from the world of John …internally. The world will not notice a change. John’s daily life will be the same. You the real and eternal Self within John will be free. In the state of ignorance, I am John, is the truth. In the awakened state, I am pure Self is the truth.

Yes, to come home is the final definition of diksha. Not to change externally or to renounce the world. The final renunciation is the awakening as to who you are.

There are no mantras given in the process. The mantras are for the mind. You will be transcending all states of the mind.

There is all of this stuff on Kundalini, Vipassana, Zen etc. and you come along and say 'no' to all of that!

All rivers…leading to the ocean. You will be taking a direct dip in the ocean. The One who is drawing you to him, has arisen after a million years. Even amongst the spiritual experts in India, innumerable folks are unaware of the phenomenal direct Akram approach to the Self. Through Niruma who is on TV in Western India daily, many are coming to learn about Dadashri.

Is there a week of programmes to take place in London? Please, I am still thinking in terms of practices and systems!

Yes. There will be programs when Pujya Niruben comes to London. Many relate to residual questions after the Gnan Vidhi. Many others relate to interacting with new folks. The rest deals with being in her company and simply enjoying her company and observing her. Language may become a factor but not for you I believe, because you will absorb even if you do not understand.

I have done everything and still there is no profound insight or true understanding of my true nature, or even of love or the peace that lies beyond the understanding of our ever-chaotic human mind

There MUST be a radical and profound transformation in my life and state of consciousness...this seems to be my Dharma and the reason for my ever changing moods which have pushed me beyond the normal and everyday individuals

There has been a yearning to help and heal others for a long time, also. Without going into things or experiences too deeply I can honestly say that I feel I may have a gift here...

And yet, besides all of these yearnings I still have all of the normal human desires that any man has....I have never been able to reconcile these desires with my understanding of the sacred or my knowledge of Truth.

At a later time I will respond to your letter at length. In the meantime would it be possible for you to narrate the paths and methods you have taken, worldly teachers whom you have met so far and their effects and results upon you and your search?

I have been searching for as long as I can remember. I suppose it began with going to church when I was nine or ten.

The earliest system I learnt was T.M. and I followed this for about two years. Here was my introduction to Bliss, Silence and Awareness and their relationship with each other. I stopped practising T.M. because I found that I could not help using effort as a means of achieving what really should be an effortless state of meditation. In other words, frustration set in with trying not to try! Also, I got tired of only having this sense of a connection to everything around me during meditation. Using effort or concentration still does not feel right, and the use of mantra as an effortless method is nevertheless a method....I feel strongly that methods are not for me and not the way.

Influences have been J.Krishnamurti, Ramana Maharshi, and much on Zen by Japanese masters. I have always had an interest in those teachers pointing to what lies beyond thought and the limited self.

After that I learnt a system called Samyama and have been involved with this until recently. I am certain that it has been this which has given me an intense yearning for Truth and occasional deep insights into Life and Being.

There have been clairvoyant experiences and lucid dreams all throughout this path but these things do not matter except that they sometimes provide guidance or can be useful when an important decision needs to be made.

And as I have stated before, I feel there may be some kind of healing gift within but all these things take second place compared to my quest for understanding.

There has always been a deep dissatisfaction with life. I have always strongly felt that there may be a completely different possibility....a perception that acts from a still, deep centre. The trouble begins when we try to find it!

Some time last year I met Bernie Prior. This guy claims to have realised Truth. I spent a day with him in England and what he said felt so right. He asked me how long I had been searching and I told him "about twenty years"!

I felt vibrations within in his presence and this has been happening at night quite often since then.

Dear shuddha, I hope I have adequately answered your questions. To repeat, I cannot go on practising methods or reading books. The Truth must take root within me and become a real, living presence, the awareness of which is there constantly. I have done everything...meditation, asking in prayer, reading and though I may be nearer to it now I still need a realised teacher to show it to me.

No. It is the very same vidhi of Dadashri. It is coming to the receiver through the voice of Niruben. The container has changed. The content is the same.

The intellect plays tricks with us when we doubt the authenticity and therefore the effect of this Gnan Vidhi. Niruben has always maintained, just like Dadashri used to, that your experience of the process is the testimonial. Nothing else. All worries leave, along with all inner links to falsehood, greed, the need to be validated and recognized, false pride, anger, expectations of praise, and continued links of suffering because of deluded world view.

This is what I have been waiting for. This is my liberation. All other methods have not helped. I am the seeker and the receiver. I surrender all that I have learnt at the feet of the Gnani and let Him fill my cup. I want That with which I will be deluded no more.

You will stop searching. John might search, out of old habits. There finally will come a point where even John will come back to You, the awakened one.

Alas… the Self eludes those who try to do something. The mind always wants to do something. Only the Gnani has the method by which you can be freed from the eternal shackles of the mind. The nature of the mind is to take you away with it in contradictions and chaos. The final solution to a mind that makes you suffer in pain and pleasure…is to be able to understand it as it is and to know that it is simply unfolding in front of you. To be able to see it as it is, requires for You to arise and behold it and its film…cinema…drama…in front of you. Then you are free.

To want to change life is not Self -realization. This inner insistence must go. The life is unfolding as it is in front of you, and will continue to do so whether you are or not realized. The freedom comes from the awakening within and the knowledge that becomes your living experience…that you are not the one who is going through the mood swings but the one who is dying…from the day he was born….changing under the constant force of that which is happening all around.

To revert to your true nature is dharma. This is the first sentence of the Gnani Purush in his first Aptavani of which there are now 13 volumes.

Please do not expect any change in your state of consciousness. This is a common expected projected belief. The awakening is much more subtle within. It cannot be stated. It can only be experienced. Self-realization is not an altered state of consciousness. It is beyond all states of consciousness.

There has been a yearning to help and heal others for a long time, also. Without going into things or experiences too deeply I can honestly say that I feel I may have a gift here...these things have come back to me.

In a world rampant with strife, suffering and misery, only those who know become truly helpful. Others merely assert their egos in the name of their god of their understanding. The inner force of healing is the hand of The Lord within. One such hand heals hundreds of thousands in ways, which are beyond human comprehension.

Life after life we all are coming closer to our true nature…The Blessed Self within.

For centuries traditional religion has created this dilemma in the mind of man. What is right and what is wrong? This is the worldly view of religion. This is not real religion. Religion can only arise within the one who is awakened. The rest is the religion of the one who is told what is right and what is wrong. Such a religion imposes boundaries in the mind of man. These boundaries initiate guilt and fear. They create further questions about the validity of such religious doctrines. Many a religious person and head walks around bound with the limitations of the teachings of his own scriptures, deathly afraid of admitting his desires and punishing his body by fasting etc for negative thoughts. Man was not meant for…”Thou shalt not…” Human birth is meant to come to know the true nature of things and The Self.

Then comes Dadashri who in one phenomenal and momentous statement comes with this thunderbolt: Desire is an effect. The deep inner intent (bhaav) is the real culprit, the cause of this desire. Find the cause and then the result will come forth naturally.

To desire is not sin. To hurt the other through thoughts, speech or acts is sin. To take advantage of the other through falsehood is sin. And if this happens, as it will after Akram Self Realization, Dadashri has shown the method to undo it.

Anyway, I think your sister may secretly have plans for me to act as agent/contact for the propogation of this Truth in the U.K.....Please understand that if this whole thing changes my life completely then I would be only too happy to oblige.

This Gnan of Dadashri is so amazing and beautiful that many who have received it, start flying high in the state of liberation and elation. Then after a variable time the reality sets in as one becomes progressively established in the State of The Self. Again please note that life will not change, the way you react to it will.

Yes, as part of the world wide family of The Gnani Purush we all gratefully welcome your unfolding life… in furthering his Vignan.

There is such a direct wisdom regarding your answers that I gather a great deal of peace from.

You say that after Gnan there is no higher state of consciousness and that the state is beyond that.

Every religion and system of meditation I have ever heard of advocates that through a particular practice or code of morality one ascends to higher consciousness. These beliefs are probably embedded in the very psyche of man stretching right back to the beginning of time itself....so forgive me if I am still entangled in this mindset!

After Gnan can any effort by ourselves deepen the process insight or unfoldment or am I still thinking in terms of a deluded world view? Surely this Self arising during the real state of unforced meditation after Gnan has nowhere to go but deeper into itself?

If this is so then there are parallels here with the Buddhist view of no self (can you explain this concept?) and of returning to the void , ultimately.

Thank you for sharing with me the history of your spiritual quest. The following is only a partial response to your letter.

On the issues of Samyama and Kriya Yoga I came across the following words on the web under google search for these two disciplines and thought it might help us both to apply our experience and hence enhance our satsang.

If you use God as the object of concentration and contemplation, you will absorb so much of his Divine energy, his Divine Bliss, Love and Holy Spirit - that finally you may enter Samadhi or even Nirbikalpa (Nirvikalpa) Samadhi, a condition of complete Oneness with God while still having a physical body.

The problem is the need to focus and concentrate on that which is unknown. How can one enter that which he has never known or experienced? Those who talk about such lofty things as Nirvikalp Samadhi in this manner are delusional. The mind with its incessant vibrations simply cannot be stilled. Those who have tried it know better than to say so. Temporary abeyance of mind activity is not true samadhi. Samadhi means to be unaffected internally from all that the mind is going through, pain or pleasure, peace or chaos.

Love of such a Divine nature and purity only comes from God and can only be experienced when finally returned to God. He is our origin and our destination. But he wants us to return on our own. Because we are of Divine nature and origin, we are free souls. Free to do whatever pleases us. All we need to learn, is to do what pleases all others as well, so we are never causing any Karma that may temporarily prevent us from going home immediately by the end of this incarnation.

Half truth above. Whether we do bad or good we are continuously causing karma. Until one realizes and experiences The Self, there is no liberation.

Deep within every human being vibrates the very Divine light of God that we are made of. We are made to his image. Out of him, out of his holy spirit. Nothing on earth or anywhere else can be made of anything else than of this Divine vibration.

Half truth above, again. The Divine Light within simply is. The visible image is our worldly self, made of karmic particles, which cease to exist at death and carry forward into another body in next life as a causal body. The Holy Spirit is simply the Self that is realized. The term Holy is still given in relative context.

God gave us the freedom to be his children made to his image, including all his Divine power. We are here on earth to learn make proper, loving and wise use of this Divine power. We all are here to learn to become true and awakened - grown up - children of God and to stay with God forever if we want so and have learned to do so.

This is the point of view of relative religion, which places God above us and let Him guide us. It is fine as long as one adheres to this exactly in life. This is OK for those who do not seek to know and experience God and are content to meet him on a Sunday morning appointment.

The same as above applies to all other "things" he created for whatever reason and purpose. All is made out of his holy spirit, out of him. And all will one day return to him. All is made of his Divine holy spirit !!! Strive to understand this. Pray to God to help you to clearly understand it and he certainly will do so.

A million such prayers will not result in the establishment of the Holy Spirit within. Yes, a single such prayer will show him the path of goodness and worldly peace.

The reason I first began to study Eastern teachings was because I found them not so limiting on an intellect that really wanted to go deeply into the whole question of Truth.

Holy Spirit, God etc. are less preferable words than Pure Consciousness, Brahman, Jhana, Dhyana, etc. now, and I find that often a common ground can be established between some of the more profound teachings of both Vedanta and Buddhism by resorting to these words.

Of course, I have seen that the intellect does not have any use now, or at least I am in between a world of endless doubts and questions on one hand, and the need for the direct experience that may well shatter all of my illusions

Patanjali's stages, beginning at first with correct moral attitude and ending with the lofty achievement of Samadhi

knowing the Self. I have seen that Patanjali was not advocating a progressive, time-governed path to realisation,

yet this is how he is often being interpreted.....we have both known of cases where Self-Realisation have occurred without following any of Patanjali's precepts!

Other gurus state that the awakening of the Third Eye brings one into contact with both the inner and outer Guru...surely this means the same as the state of separation that occurrs after the Gnan?

Dear shuddha, my questions to you are endless but I guess you cannot dislike answering them too much because you would have told me where to get off by now!

Greetings. Your questions help me as much as they may help you. This is because we both are talking about our real Self, the unending Ocean of Bliss. Every moment in that State reaps great benefits and raises the level of that energy which does not need anything worldly for its support or function.

You say that after Gnan there is no higher state of consciousness and that the state is beyond that.

Gnan is awakening to that which is non-self (worldly awareness) and that which is the Self. The awakened one is deluded no more. This awakening sees the clear distinction between that which is constantly changing and the Self, the eternal Observer of all that is in front. The entire film of John is being watched by You. This film is very interesting to watch, because it has both external worldly interaction components and the internal ones that deal with issues of the residual ego, intellect of John, citta of John, and the mind of John. The awakened One is now the awakened observer of even the subtlest vibrations of passion, anger, deceit and false pride. An interesting new role starts for the One who is liberated, for this One becomes the sadguru and the only friend of John. Other Gnanis have called this the fourth state…Turiya. The others are worldly sleep, worldly alertness, dream states etc. Environs and food, e.g. medicines and alcohol effects, affect these latter three.

The Gnani Purush bestows this State and exact understanding of His instructions and satsang makes further progression to higher and higher levels an automatic internal scientific process.