You get used to your body and you love it. Hence, while meditating, if you experience being in a formless state, out of the body, you get scared. The word is Veda and equated to God by the name Vedonarayan. The Vedas are forms of the mind. Some utter the name of a Goddess, without knowing where She is.
The sudden appearance of the astral body is responsible for your sense of being. That body is hidden in the physical body. Its quality is the memory ‘you are’. Slowly, five types of knowledge appear from it. Just as a child grows, the consciousness develops and grows up to the level of an incarnation. If the flow from it is good, it will go in the right direction.
In order to attain our original worthiness, the right background and attitude is needed. That is the purpose of all spiritual practices, which are recommended. By doing your mantra chanting, you reach up to the astral body. The space contains everything and outside is the pure unstained Self. Your birth is merely the appearance of ‘I am’. The property of the astral body juices is pure consciousness or our own true being. It should be observed and remembered accordingly. You did not notice the space prior to your birth. The space appears from the astral body itself and all other scenes follow thereafter.
The religious services are to clear the unwanted things and to propitiate the pure Self. One must worship and take care to maintain its progress. Thereby, you lose your body-identity, which means meeting Ishwara. That is to act as if there is no body. Just as sugar is sweet and the ocean salty, there is love in the body. There is memory because of the astral body. It is full of various scenes.
The disciple who considers God as greater than the Guru, cannot progress. Visiting a Sage is far better than going to a temple. Do you consider yourself to be a Sadhu any time? One who is immersed in devotion and goes to sleep, full of love for Self, is a Sadhu. One who leaves the state of an individual soul and merges into the original soul is a Mahatma, which means ‘a great soul’. The word is our main instrument. When you utter the name of God, that word becomes God. When you mention the name of a holy place, that word becomes holy. By repeating the mantra, it manifests through your speech. In due course, your word will be God’s word. The Guru’s word doesn’t change and there is no further appeal on it. You must be sure about the truth of the Guru’s words and remember them constantly. When your behaviour is as per your words, they gather more importance. Thereafter, the word becomes Vedonarayana. Never utter any word which will hurt anyone. The words of the ignorant have sharpness, which can hurt, but Sadguru’s words have the sharpness of Self-knowledge. If you understand the Sadguru properly, your words will have great importance. But your body-identity and certainty about death come in your way. When your words become pure, true knowledge will manifest through them. The thoughts and words that come in the mind are as per your worthiness. Due to constant remembrance of mantra, you will see visions as desired. It is the function of prana, which manifests in those forms. Just as the river Ganges purifies those who bathe in her waters, your words will have the power of clearing listeners’ troubles.
To turn dust into gold means to tell a mortal individual soul that it is immortal. This is the main purpose of the various religious services. One has to be very careful to live as per the spiritual advice. Do your activities in such a way that bad habits are minimized. Never imagine a body for the inner Atman, but remember It as body-less and surrender everything to It. When God consumes food, He leaves the leftovers for you; with this attitude you should take your food. This remembrance will make you holy. It means one doesn’t eat without first offering it to God. Without food there is no prana, and without prana there is no mind, intellect and individual soul. We are alive and active only because of the food juices. Without prana, how can there be Atman? The prana and Atman always co-exist in a body and when prana departs Atman is aware of it. One who remains as per the Guru’s advice has no death. The worshippers become one with Atman. Others have to face the illusion of death.
Prana comes and goes, but not the Atman. Atman is prior to space, which It contains and knows. This is known to only the rare one. Some people call prana as consciousness-God. When you accept someone as your Guru, you must follow Him fully. But how many really follow?
Atman has become everything on Its own. Then how can you desire fruit for any action? Even the worship is done by Hari himself, of Himself. The words acquire a sharp edge of their own. Hence, when your word becomes pure, do not use words which can harm others. Here, I am talking about the utterances of one who chants mantra round the clock. Don’t do anything forcefully, desiring anything. Be energetic in chanting the mantra, without any desires. The purpose of chanting should be to forget yourself and not to achieve anything. Then you will know that all happening is spontaneous. The creation of body, its education and training, all happen spontaneously. There is no reason to be proud of anything that is spontaneous.
Self-Love, The Original Dream: Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj’s Direct Pointers To Reality