My version is that we are all born with consciousness. But awareness was not there. Only God and Guru can impart and instil awareness in you. Only then, you will have the awareness about the aathman in you. Therefore, consciousness is a permanent entity. Awareness is the capacity to sense the consciousness.

The great saint Aganda Paripoorana Sachidhananda Swamigal says:

ஒன்றே கடவுள்

உணர்வே பிரம்மம்

அறிவே சத்குரு

சத்குருவே கடவுள் .

The ‘unarvu’ here refers to the consciousness and ‘arivu’ refers to the awareness.

To quote another example, in the story of Adam and Eve, they both were living happily. But only after they ate the apple given by Satan, they sensed that they were not wearing any clothes and became aware of their state. The initial state they were living in was pure consciousness. But the moment they sensed their state, it was awareness.

One more thing is that Jesus always says ‘If you have the eyes, you can see’. This is not the physical eyes he was talking about. It means the capacity to see things as they are. This capacity is the awareness.

Knowing comes from within. It can never go wrong. Knowing never comes from experience. It comes directly from the being. If I love someone, their being will know that irrespective of me telling them by words. Similarly if I hate somebody, their being will know that I hate them. This is ‘Knowing’. Knowing is not judgemental. Knowing is always superior compared to insight.

Insight comes from our experience and insight can go wrong anytime. Insight is one’s own conjunction. Insight comes from mind, but it is not superficial. It is from the deeper mind.

Heart is always the true leader. Even though it does not exert itself forcefully, it always works very softly. It always gives suggestions in a gentle manner.

Yogic path is always superior because it is the path taken with awareness. So, you will be able to help other seekers in the path.

Whereas nobody can teach you in the path of bakthi. The bakthi path varies from person to person. It is a voyage with closed eyes. Those who travel in the path of bakthi, they never care about enlightenment, self-realization or moksha. Their only goal is to get merged with God. Bhakti path is a love affair between the self and God whereas yogic path is a warrior path. In yogic path, the seeker will have total control over the proceedings on his journey. In the yogic path, the yogi is never afraid of anything. Sometimes the real yogi is even ready to cross swords with God at certain times. God can never say no to a yogi.

I want all my shishyas to follow yogic path. Once in a while, they can deviate towards bhakti path like me.

For me there are two types of madness. One is physical and one is spiritual. For a normally mad person, he will be lost in the jungle of thoughts. No sense of self-consciousness will be present in them. For a spiritually mad person, their mind will be lost in the no mind state. Again, there is no self-consciousness and there will be no ‘I’ ness. If there is no mind, there will be no reasoning, and they live in a different state of existence. This madness is a positive one. This type of people, they live in all kinds of lifestyle. They sleep in the gutters, they never take bath, their dresses will be rags and they will be in real madness. But it is not the deterioration of mind. In India, they are respected as saints, fakirs and sadhus. People always gather around them to get their blessings. But in my opinion, they are not saints, and also they are not self-realized.

⁠A silent mind state will be encountered by all meditators during their sadhana. It is a temporary state, and it can become active any moment. But regular sadhana will always keep the mind in the silent mode. A silent mind will have trickle of thoughts now and then.

⁠Now coming to the No-Mind state, it is the complete stoppage of thoughts, and hence, mind will be felt as a container only. It will only be in the seed form without any vriddhi. Not all the meditators achieve this state. This state is also temporary only. Only intense tapas will lead to no mind state. Again, I will not consider these people as saints. They are seekers on the path.

⁠Some saints, they completely annihilate their mind. This is the superior state. This is called Kevala Nirvikalpa samadhi. Only few saints had achieved this state.

Many saints keep their mind healthy and intact so as to help the fellow and future seekers in the path. I belong to this category. But I have gone through all seasons of the mind and it is my discretion and free will to keep my mind alive.

My version is that Guru bhakti is always greater compared to bhakti towards God. Guru is in human form and is always approachable. You can communicate your feelings to him. Whereas the so called God is very far away from us. He is impersonal and never responds to our feelings. Bhakti towards God is always a one-way communication. So, my verdict is that Guru bhakti is always greater.

But for me, I had no real Guru in my life. I was and am still led by God and God only. My so called sadhana can never match up to the rewards bestowed on me by Gods. So personally for me, Bakthi towards God is always very much beneficial and productive. I don’t believe in so called bhakti practiced by many people in the world. There is a saying in tamil, ‘avan arulale avan thaal thozhuthu’ which means – ‘even to pray at the feet of god, we need his (god’s) blessings’.

But for my shishyas, I am there. For you Guru bakthi is more important.

For me, bakthi towards God is more important. Even now when I visit temples, when I stand in front of the god, I feel like a small kid praying for his blessings. This is my success story. When everyone visit temples, they go as somebody whereas I go there as a nobody.

Mind getting hurt is mainly due to our ego getting hurt. Whereas getting hurt in the heart is our inner child getting hurt. Our inner child is always innocent, pure and divine. Our inner child always speaks truth only. Getting hurt in the heart due to love failure and break ups is not the correct answer. Our inner child needs no one. It always gives love and it never expects love. Only a spiritually evolved person will know that he is already a complete person. He doesn’t need another person or their love. He always likes to give and never expects anything in return. Nobody except my close shishyas know about getting hurt in the heart. When I  express my full anger on them, my arrows will go straight in to their heart. It remains for a long time. Only a person who knows the heart inside out can make others feel the hurt in their heart. Also, in extremely sorrowful situations our heart will function.

Getting hurt in the mind does not bring any effect on to us whereas getting hurt in the heart evolves us into a more mature person. So, my advice is all of you must try to function maximum from your heart.

Regarding the koan, my version is that you are not needed to do anything, you simply create the situation and wait for things to happen on its own, if you try to do something it won’t work out.