Living Tension-free

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[Smt. Padmaram asked:- I am constantly under the grip of very serious tension due to certain serious problems. How to get rid of this tension?]

Swāmi replied:- Whenever you are entangled in such serious worldly problems and turmoiled with climax tension, you shall follow simply the philosophy of Śaṇkara and feel that you are God (Tat Tvam Asi). You must constantly think that you are God (Ahaṃ Brahmā'smi). Now, you are the creator of this world and you are the controller as well as the destroyer of this world. You must think that you are the absolute reality and this world is relative reality, which has no self-existence. Relative realty means that the reality of this world has borrowed your absolute reality and is appearing as real to give your real entertainment. By this, you will gain infinite confidence and the tension will disappear immediately.

As the creator of this world, you are totally detached from this world because, you are just a spectator (Sākṣī) seeing this world–cinema just for entertainment. Of course, there are certain weak-minded people, who get attached to this scenes of cinema also and carry on the feelings with tension even after returning from the cinema hall. But, you are the absolute God and not such a weak minded soul. You are the God, who is a wise spectator seeing the cinema just for entertainment and hence, you neither get tension during seeing the cinema nor carry on the tension of cinema after returning from the cinema. Such wise spectators also exist in the souls. As creator of all the souls, you are stronger than even such wise souls. Hence, you are completely detached from this world-cinema. Detachment from everything other than you can’t create even a trace of tension in you. Even such tensions only entertain you.

Your tension will not solve the worldly problems and hence, there is no use of tension. Apart from this lack of profit, there is a terrible loss due to tension. Due to tensions, your mind and intelligence become weak and are unable to think the solution of the problem. In this way, not only there is benefit, but also there is terrible loss due to tension. Under the guidance of intelligence, the mind carries on the process of thinking to solve a problem. When both mind and intelligence become weak, due to tension, neither the intelligence is capable of giving correct guidance nor the mind is capable of doing the correct thinking. When Rāma was weeping for Sītā in the forest, Lakṣmaṇa advised Rāma to stop the weeping first. Lakṣmaṇa told that by weeping Sītā can’t found out. Lakṣmaṇa told further that there is no use or benefit of weeping because Sītā can’t be found out by weeping. He told that apart from this lack of use, there is terrible loss also, which is that the weeping reduces the energy by which the search for Sītā can’t be also done. Lakṣmaṇa is the incarnation of Ādiśeṣa. Another incarnation of Ādiśeṣa is Patañjali, who is the author of Yogasūtram. He told that the psychological balance can be obtained by controlling certain psychological processes only (Yogaḥ cittavṛtti nirodhaḥ).

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