Svayambhu is such a beautiful word. Syvam bhuvati iti svyambhu (That which exists by itself is Svayamabhu). God is called Svayambhu. The Supreme Truth is also called Svyambhu. Because, the Truth exists by itself, which means that it does not depend on others for its existence. Here is a flower, it does not exist by itself. If this flower were to exist, the nature must also be present. If there was no earth, if there was no sun, if there was no water, the flower would not have appeared. It would not have come into existence. Therefore, its existence is called dependent-existence and not Svayambhu. Take any object in this world and it is not Svyambhu because every object depends upon every other object for its existence. If I must exist, you must be there; if you are to exist, the world needs to be there; and if the world is to be there, something else also needs to be there. All these things are dependent existences. These things are not self-existent, and they are all dependent on others.

Nothing that is present in this whole world is Svyambhu. You may be rich or highly intelligent, but your very richness or intelligence depend on so many other things. Firstly, if there was no world, you cannot live; secondly if the nature itself were to be poor, you can never be rich. This shows that our richness, beauty and intelligence are all dependent on something else or we could also say that they are all dependent on nature.

These are the two kinds of existences:

1) Dependent Existence

2) Independent Existence (or self-existence)

In this world there is no one who is self-dependent. We can’t live without others or other things. Many times, we say that we are never dependent upon anybody; but this is totally false. Do you really not depend upon anything? You may be very strong, or you may have billions of dollars with you, but you are never independent. If there were to be no air, where will you be? If the sun does not come out in the morning, where will we be? If there is no water at all, where will we go? Every living being depends upon so many things in this world and therefore, you must be very grateful to the nature and that is religion! If our happiness is dependent on this flower, we should be grateful to it. If we need food, we must be grateful to the plant kingdom. This means that no one is independent in any way.

We may use the word independence, but the fact is that there is no independence in this world. Even the mighty sun cannot exist all by himself; if he must exist, there must be space. There are millions of galaxies which contain billions of stars in them; despite of which, they are not independent. Their existence is a dependent-existence. There is only one thing in this world which is self-existence and that is God. God means the Truth and truth means that which exists by itself and that is called Svayambhu. We give so many names to this Svyambhu but the real nature of this eternal and supreme Truth is Svyambhu! It is word that is very deep and meaningful.

Where is this Svayambhu? Wherever there is world, there is Svayambhu behind it. Take the example of the waves whether they are small or big, they all rise and fall in the same ocean that they are present. They are not independent i.e. they do not have any independent existence. If the waves must be there, there must be the ocean. If there were no ocean in the first place, how can you expect the waves to be there? It is simply impossible. But for the existence of the ocean or the water, the waves are not needed. There may or may not be waves but the ocean is always there. Relatively speaking, the existence of ocean is Svayam and the waves that rise in it are dependent upon the ocean, but the ocean itself is independently existent. In other words, ocean lives by itself, but the waves must depend upon the ocean for their existence.

Now, coming to our body; how will our body exist if there were to be no food, water or air to breathe? How can we exist? We may exist without money; we may exist without houses; is it not? But can we exist without food and water? Whether you are a saint or a sinner, nobody can exist without. You may be a great erudite scholar or a simple person, but still you must depend upon food and water.

. This means our existence depends upon on food, water, air and earth. Therefore, we must be very grateful to all these things that are needed for our existence. Being grateful to these things itself is religion! This is the way in which we must live in this world and every moment of our lives, we must express our gratefulness. If not by words, we must express our gratitude at least in our hearts. We must be grateful to everything to the whole universe because if it were not there, we would not have been there. If we were to live for a hundred years, we must be grateful to all these things.

There is something that lies behind this nature. Something, whose existence does not depend upon anything else. Let us take the help of mathematics to illustrate this something. In mathematics, take any number and it has to depend upon 1. For example, take 9; if there is no 1, there is no 9; 9 times 1 is 9; is it not? Similarly, there are 100, 1000 and 1,000,000; but if all these were to exist there must be 1 and if 1 itself must be there, there has to be the ‘0’. This 0 does not depend upon any number or anything. 0 exists by itself and all the finite numbers depend upon 1 and 0. 1 itself comes out of 0 and all the other numbers are products of 1. Similarly, like the Shoonya (Zero), there is Svayambhu in the beginning. From this zero or Svyambhu comes out this whole world of ours. This world depends upon the existence of that Shoonya just like how the finite numbers depend upon 1 and 0.

This is the nature of the world and therefore if have to be religious, we must be grateful to whatever that exists in this world. In the end we must be in fact be grateful to that, which is not even visible, but in the absence of which we cannot imagine the existence of this very world. THAT is Syayamabhu. Call it by whatever you want to, but it has no name of its own. It is ‘Svyam bhavati’ – it exists there! This itself is called Brahma; this is itself called Parabrahma. Brahma means infinite and Parabrahma means there is nothing else like it. Therefore, we should never hate or neglect whatever that is present in this world, and instead we must be grateful to it!

A piece of bread may be very small in size, but our life depends upon it. Therefore, Sarvagna says, these are Gods; these are the forms of Gods; these are the divine expressions. Look, how beautiful was the manner with which Sarvagna looked at this world! This is the way in which we must also look at this world. But how is this Svayambhu? Has anyone seen it? The world that is outside, we can see; but what about this Svayambhu?

Many saints and seers have given many examples to describe it; Allamaprabhu for example says this “Nelada Mareya (Madhuradante) Nidhaana”. Here are these flowers and they come out of this earth. The flowers contain fragrance in them and if the flower comes out of the earth, then shouldn’t the fragrance also come out of the same earth? Since there is fragrance in the earth, there is fragrance in the flower also, which goes to show that whatever is present in that flower must also be present in the earth; but it is not visible! We can’t see it, but if there were to be no earth, the flower or the fragrance would not exist. The fragrance, the beauty and everything is in the earth.

Hence there is Svayambhu everywhere, but we can’t see it. We can only see when it comes out of the earth; out of that Svayambhu. Therefore, Allama says you may not see it, but it is there in the earth. “Shilada shileya mareya jyothi” – shila means stone and the fire is hidden in it; but we don’t see it. Then, he gives this very beautiful imagery, “Shabdadolagana nishabdadante” – there is sound everywhere, but behind that sound, there is silence. From that nishabda (silence), the shabda (sound) comes out. This is how Allamaprabhu described the nature of Svayambhu. These are all sounds, but the sounds are not permanent.

Just a few minutes ago, you were all singing such beautiful songs, but now there is no sound or songs; but only silence. Before you came here there was silence and while you were singing also there was silence. Now that when you are not singing, there is still the same silence. Silence is everywhere but sounds and words are very limited. Silence is not created, but the sounds are; they are produced. When the sounds subside, the silence is experienced or felt. But silence is there everywhere in this whole world. Silence is eternal and not limited by time or space. It was there in the past and it will be there in the future. It was not created; therefore, it is always there.

There is silence behind every word that we utter and behind every sound that we produce, and that very silence is Svayambhu. Sounds appear and disappear; they may be pleasant or unpleasant; we may like them or dislike them, but the silence is there. It is neither pleasant nor unpleasant; silence is silence! This is how Allamaprabhu describes the nature of God i.e. Guheshwara. God is Nishabdam Brahma i.e. completely silent.

Where is this Nishabda Brahma though? Silence has no boundaries whereas sounds have limitations. We enjoy the sounds, but if we learn to enjoy the silence, we can always be joyful. Do you remember what you are asked to do before you are to sit for meditation? They ask you to ‘Sit silently!’.

Don’t make any noise; not just the vocal noise but don’t make the mental noise too. Patanjala says mind should not vibrate. If you need to go into a deep meditative state, what is to be done? The mind should not vibrate. Make the mind fully silent and if there is sound, that means there is vibration. But what are these mental sounds? Thoughts are the mental sounds, feelings are the mental sounds, all kinds of memories are mental sounds and in fact anything that rises in the mind is a mental sound. Entering this deep meditative state means to remove all sounds from the mind; it means to make the mind, calm & quiet; it means to make no mental movements at all. When the mind enters this kind of state, we can experience Svayambhu i.e. silence. We must be fully silent and experience the silence.

Why does this kind of mediation exist? It exists in order to experience silence! When you are experiencing silence, there are no feelings there, because the mind is silent and free from all these things. Here, there are neither good nor bad feelings; neither pleasant nor unpleasant feelings; there is simply the silence! There are no thoughts; no I; no you; no world; there is simply nothing. That is silence. Therefore, great saints and seers of the world have said, in the beginning there was silence; in the end, there is silence; and in the middle, there is sound; but behind that sound itself there is silence.

Now the life is vibrating; the heart is pulsating, the body, mind and intelligence are working, and we think our success is dependent upon these working limbs and organs. But in the reality, the actual joy comes from that mind which is perfectly silent. That is meditation! In meditation, there is no action. So many times, we say we are trying to meditate. But if you are trying to mediate you won’t get into a meditative state.

If you try to meditate, your mind begins to work. Hence there should be no trying, no effort; just sit, close your eyes, your ears and your mind and in that movement, we experience the silence. That is called Svayambu Anubhava (experience of Svayambhu). This is a very wonderful experience. There exists no names or forms in that state, there is no you or I, and there is no world. There is nothing there. When you enter zero, there is nothing and that is eternal. Eternal does not mean it lives for millions of years; eternal means there is no time. Time also has stopped there. The space has come to an end there. There in no matter, in fact, there is nothing there. That nothing itself is Svayambhu.

This is what the great saints, mystics and philosophers of the world have always said. We give it several names and then end up dividing the reality. You don’t like the name that I give to it and hence you give it some other name. Therefore, we are never united. This silence is in you and this silence is in me. It has no name, form or vibrations. You cannot think it; you cannot even feel it because the very functions of feeling and thinking have come to and end. That is such a wonderful state to be in

“Tada drushtu swaroope avasthanam” – There remains no seer here. If there is no world, there is no seer. If there is no mind, there is no seer. Everything comes to an end and that itself is the experience of the great Svayambhu. In that state there is nothing; just like the shoonya. This is the discovery of the great thinkers of the world. Even Einstein said, “What was there? What was there? We do not know. There was nothing. Let us call it illimitable reality”. He suggested these two words; it is real; it is illimitable; and hence it is illimitable reality. You can’t put it into words, measure it or put limits to it. That is the reality and that principle is what we call Svayambhu.

Allama has asked us to forget everything and just experience Svayambhu. No dreams, no thoughts, no feelings of any kind and only then you can feel the presence of silence. That is the aim of meditation. That is Yoga! Yoga does not mean mixing or combining or uniting. Yoga simply means being nothing; simply experiencing nothing i.e. experiencing Svayambhu. Isn’t this such a beautiful

concept? Whenever you do meditation, see that there is no vibration in the mind. Don’t think about anything or don’t remember anything. Don’t say you are doing this Yoga or that Yoga; there are no different Yogas. There is only one Yoga and that is the Yoga of silence; Nishabda Yoga. Why should we practice it? Why should we do it? Because, it is present; it is always there. Silence is everywhere and we must experience it. Then, even if we are hear any sounds, at every such moments, we begin to feel only the silence. Therefore, the sounds will no longer disturb us much. That is the purpose of doing meditation.

This is the meditation of silence. This meditation is very beautiful, wonderful, effective and it is real! Although we invent different methods of meditation, the silence is not created by anybody. It is always there, and it is to be discovered. That must be experienced when you wake up and sit on your bed. Just wake up and think of nothing, feel nothing, don’t recall anything and just sit in silence. That is the greatest or the loftiest way to do meditation.

With this, I close today’s session. I am very grateful to you for coming here every Sunday. You are silent now and I shall also become silent. Love the silence, live in silence and be the silence itself! Namaskaars.