HOW TO GET RID OF INHIBITIONS?

 

Inhibitions are generally caused by one’s method of thinking, one’s schooling, one’s childhood environment, in many cases, perhaps churches, and if you do believe in things, it could even go further into past lives. Inhibitions are patternings of the mind, and the human mind is forever patterned in one form or the other. You could have very positive patternings, and you could have negative patternings, and yet both remain within the realms of inhibitions.

A few of the things that are closely allied to inhibitions are the sense of guilt and fear. These very fears and guilts cause those inhibitions, which become a stumbling block or an obstacle to your creativity. To get rid of inhibitions, you have to go through some processes. Be very careful in listening to this; one of the processes is a mental process, but not by dwelling upon inhibitions. There is the difference – not to dwell upon the inhibitions or that which becomes an obstacle to you – but to analyse the inhibition. In that analysis, you ask yourself, “Why do you feel inhibited?”

YOU ARE THE SUM TOTALITY OF ALL YOUR IMPRESSIONS

I have had many cases where people come to me with all inhibitions. A young man comes to me and tells me, “I love my girl very, very much, but when I am with her, I fail to make love to her,” and analysing his problem, we found that he had this fear in him that would not make him be able to make love to the woman he loved so much. That was a kind of inhibition. Inhibition is also associated with repression; they are blood brothers. You often go through a particular experience, and then instead of analysing the experience or shedding off that experience with analysis, you press it deeper and deeper and deeper within yourself. So, these inhibitions and repressions cause impressions. Those impressions are first on the conscious level of the mind. Still, as you dwell more upon it, they go deeper and deeper into your subconscious mind, which is nothing else but a whole extensive collection of all the impressions you had from millions of ages, from the time when you were the first sub, sub-atomic being, until you reach the stage of the amoeba and then through the laws of evolution, you progress through the various layers that evolution takes you through until you have become a human being.

You are the sum totality of all those impressions you have gained; in Sanskrit, they call it Samskaras. The Samskaric mind, or the subconscious mind, to use the psychological terminology for it, is continually impressing itself or flowing through your conscious level of the mind, and that governs your actions. You are all grown-up people, so that I can speak very frankly; this young man that came to see me before he met his girlfriend had met some other girl, and this girl teased him in a manner telling him, “Oh, you are so small”, and this created a blockage in his mind, so when he met the girl he loved, he could not make love to her.

THROUGH SPIRITUAL PRACTICES, YOU WILL OVERCOME INHIBITING THOUGHTS

The mind is a very, very susceptible mind. A child’s mind is susceptible but innocent, while a grown-up’s mind is equally susceptible but not innocent. When some experience is gained, or something happens, immediately, the conscious mind sends an express telegram or a hotline to the subconscious mind. In the subconscious mind, the experience you are having now is being compared. Then in all the cubby holes of the subconscious mind, you draw out the file, and by drawing out that file, you are strengthening the negativity or inhibition of the present experience.

In psychoanalysis, psychologists try to dig deep within your mind to find out the reason for that inhibition, and they dig and dig and dig until, through a psychoanalytical process, they try to find the cause of things. Then they try to eradicate the cause by explanations, making you see things from a different perspective. This has some value, but it is not a cure. As I have said many times before, it is a shifting of energies from one area of the brain to another area of the brain, and those very energies might erupt differently altogether. You are clearing yourself of one kind of inhibition, and then that energy shifted will create another type of inhibition.

People suffer primarily because of a sense of guilt and fear which, as I said a moment ago, causes these inhibitions and repressions. Let us tell you went to apply for a job, went to 4 or 5 places, and was refused a job. Now you go to the sixth place, and with this fear in your mind, you say, “Five interviews I have had, and they refused me, so the sixth interview, I will also be rejected.” You go with that attitude. Naturally, you are emanating an opposing force from yourself by having that attitude. Everything emanates something. Everything is forever emanating; a flower stems fragrance, and fire emanates heat. Likewise, a human derives a specific energy from within himself, and if that energy is coupled with a thought that he will not get this job, he will not get it. So, the secret here would lie with meditation and spiritual practices where you neutralise your mind. By neutralising your mind through straightforward spiritual practices, you bring in the positive thought, and then that positive thought takes heed. When you go for that interview with this in your mind and heart, you feel that “I am going to get this job.” You look straight into the employer’s eyes and say, “I am getting this job; you are going to give me this job.” You do not tell him that aloud; he might kick you out, but you think it and feel that you will give me this bloody job. You can be sure that you will get the job if your attitude is right. So you have now overcome that inhibiting or repressing thought; you have overcome it through Spiritual Practices. As the saying goes, “Every man is a Master of his destiny.”

OUR THINKING HAS TO BECOME RIGHT

According to certain Theology, it takes 84,000 births to gain this human birth. I do not know where they get these figures from; the figures might be right or wrong, no one knows, but human life is valuable, and what is the difference between animals and us? We are the same; we are the substance of the same atomic and molecular structures; the only difference between an animal and me is that we can think. Because of these past impressions, our thinking has become perverted or negative; anything, any adjective you can add to that, and I could find you a million adjectives. Our thinking has to become correct, and you cannot force yourself to think properly. If you keep saying, “I am not going to be inhibited, I am not going to be inhibited,” and the thoughts of inhibition are in your mind all the time, then you become more inhibited.

Norman Vincent Peel, very popular in America, says if you have a negative thought, and inhibition is a negative thought, try to think of something positive – which is impossible. You just cannot turn your mind around like your car. No, you cannot; even if you want to turn your car around, you would first brake and slow it down and then make a U-Turn unless you are a racing driver. With spiritual practices, we go to further layers of the mind, so when a negative thought comes up, then quieten the mind with any of the practices I have given you and think of something opposite to the negative inhibiting thought. You will find you will feel lighter, your brain will feel lighter, your mind will feel more joyous, and then you will be the master of yourself; gradually, of course, we do not wave magic wands.

If I could wave a magic wand, this world would be different in five minutes. Great men like Buddha, Christ and Krishna tried, but the world is still the same as it was 2000 years ago. There are a lot of people who, by regular practice, would gain and improve themselves, and their quality of life would improve. The secret is so simple that if you take, say, your mantra, for example, you think it in the mind first, and as you think of your mantra, you will find that mantra going to deeper and deeper levels of yourself – you will find your metabolic rate dropping, you will find yourself more relaxed, you will be shedding off a lot of stress and tension which is another excellent disease in the world today: strain and tension. So, as your metabolic rate drops, your breathing slows down, your body becomes quieter and quieter, and the mind becomes more peaceful when the body becomes quieter.

Then that mantra you have taken or started with goes right through the mind’s subconscious layers that are filled with impressions. That mantra is like a bulldozer and goes through the various layers of the subconscious mind and reaches the level of the Superconscious Mind, which is universal. From that universal storehouse, we could call it the Kingdom of Heaven within, and every religion says that in different ways and in other words, you draw that energy from there.

My favourite analogy is this, if you spend half an hour in a perfume factory, you must come out smelling like perfume. You draw this energy from the deeper level of yourself, infusing the conscious mind with that energy, and your inhibitions disappear. So, you need outside help to make your inhibitions and repressions disappear, and that outside help is not external; that outside help means the higher mind is within yourself. Every man is able, and every woman can capture that Divinity because you are living Gods. You are Divine.

That is why we use the Namaste greeting: “in thought, word and deed, I salute the Divinity within you.”

The trouble is that we have created so many veils that we fail to see our Divine Selves.

Inhibition is created, as I said, primarily by fear. This young man married his girlfriend, and he could not make love because every time he was together, the thought of the failure of the first time came to mind, and he could do nothing. If this thought had been discarded, his non-performing would not have been there. But because he was dwelling on this thought all the time, then nothing happened. They go to bed, get married, and think, “oh, will something happen or not?” The best way to discard this inhibition is by meditation and spiritual practices to reach that higher power within ourselves, “The Kingdom of Heaven within”, and draw from it that vast energy and you would be surprised how your mind can be transformed, how your inhibitions and repressions can be discarded, forever. And when you throw off these things that make you miserable, joy and happiness come in their place.

This young man and this married woman want to make love naturally. It is a natural function; there is nothing wrong with it. I am not like those teachers who tell you to become celibate. No, if God has given you organs, use them for a purpose. So I took this young man through various practices, and he is normal, and they have two lovely children, and they are very, very happy.

You see how thought rules our lives. It has been proven by science, especially medical science. People that suffer from inhibitions and repressions require inner healing. That is the secret. Inhibitions always have their basis in fragmentation, which means one thought is pulling this way, and another is pulling that way, and both thoughts are contradictory. They are so contradictory that the conflict is raised, and where there is conflict, there is no peace. Because with this man and woman that I was speaking about, when you make love with your wife, your husband, you do not have all these thoughts in your mind; you just flow and let things happen; you allow let go of your thoughts, you let go of your mind.

YOU CAN NOT DESTROY INHIBITIONS, BUT YOU CAN DISCARD THEM

So, if you have any negative thoughts or inhibitions, you can never destroy them because nothing is destructible. Still, you can discard them from your system, and they will go to those in a similar position. Therefore, remember one essential thing: if you think of evil or negative thoughts, you will attract more of those thoughts. If you believe in a good thought, a Godly thought, you will also attract those thoughts towards you to strengthen your thoughts at that time because thoughts can never be destroyed. Thoughts are things; they are solid, and thoughts are made of matter, but the matter is so fine that the naked eye cannot see it. Like atoms, there are billions and billions of atoms around here, you cannot see them with the naked eye, but with a microscope, you can see. Perhaps one day, thought could also be put under a microscope because technology is progressing so fast. Let us hope that day will come.

But then, there are always two sides to a story. Technology can bring many benefits to the world and can also be an instrument of destruction. For example, America has invented a kind of satellite that could be 230 miles up in the sky and yet through its beam; it could pinpoint a car parked in a parking lot. Look at the advance of technology; it is advancing all the time and could be very destructive. We know the history of Atlantis; how come the entire continent blew because of man’s greed and the greed for power?

LOVE AND PEACE ARE NECESSARY

Technology will advance, but what is so necessary is my message to the world wherever I go, and I have repeated it a million times, which is love and peace. Inhibitions and all that will just disappear if you have peace within yourself, and you can love when there is peace within yourself. And when you can love in totality, away from fragmentation to integration, where mind, body and Spirit function in unity, then you can love. And when you can genuinely love, then know you have met God; because God is love, and love is God. People love; they say they love. No, they do not. A lot of infatuation or motivation to the love. That is not love – they are doing business. You love me, and I will love you. That is bargaining.

Love is to give and to give and to give. If “Love is God” and you take one step in love, then ten steps come towards you. Because you are Divine, that happens. The only problem is the veils of nescience or ignorance that blocks the path. We need spiritual unfoldment; I never say spiritual development because it is already there. Every cell of your body is permeated by Divinity and not permeated only by Divinity, but every cell in your body is Divine. If we regard Divinity as omnipresent, everywhere, then your every cell, billions of them in your system, is Divine.

WHEN WE KNOW LOVE, THEN WE CAN EXPRESS LOVE

Essentially what we need is integration; by being integrated, we will know love, and when we know love, we can express that love. Inhibitions are one of the things that prevent one from expressing true love because if you do not even love yourself, how can you love others? By becoming integrated, you start loving yourself and recognising the Divinity within you. When you realise the Divinity within you, you begin spontaneously recognising the Divinity amongst others. You regard that “I am Thee and Thou art I,” and if we are all one, who is there to hate? From whom or for what reason should I have any inhibitions or repressions when the Universe and I are one? That comes with understanding.

ONE HAS TO BE HONEST WITH ONESELF

I always encourage my meditators to listen to as many of my tapes as possible. By that, you gain a different perspective of life and a new understanding coupled with the spiritual practices given to you; Life could become very, very meaningful and beautiful.

It is not only the words but the spiritual force that exudes through me. I always liken myself to a piece of wood, a flute, and He blows so the world can enjoy beautiful melodies. One has to be sincere in these things. One has to be honest with oneself because the greatest lack in people is that they cannot face themselves squarely in the mirror. You know, this one lady went to an Art Gallery and was fond of art, and when she was halfway through the gallery, she saw one picture which she found very ugly. So, she called one of the attendants. She asked this attendant, “What is that?” He said, “Madam, that is a mirror.” Life is fun; Life is joy. We have our motto, “Life, Love and Laughter.” Learn to laugh at yourself. Learn to love yourself; then, you will know how to live with yourself.

All these analyses we go through have only a minimal value, and as I have said many times, if the room is dark, why analyse the darkness and grope around, switch on the light, and the darkness disappears?

Say my brother is very ill in hospital; it could be a terminal case or whatever. If I sit here worrying about it, it will not help my brother. My worry for my brother is not because of my brother but because of myself and my attachment to my brother. It is my duty to help my brother as much as possible, but if there is nothing that can be done because death cannot be controlled, it is not in our hands. There are one or two people in the world that can control death. I should have been dead when I was 15, but I am still kicking it strong. An open-heart operation, severe sugar diabetes, got to take an injection daily, and cancer the lot. I still have a lot of work to do. I will leave this body at will when my mission is completed; otherwise, I will not. So now my brother is ill in a hospital somewhere, and the thoughts I must think is to picture him in my mind as if he is well, so I am sending healthy thought forces to him and not thinking of his illness and sending thoughts of illness to him – but sending healthy thought forces to him. This might perhaps not save his life, but if it is very severe, at least it will make his passing over easier. This attachment, too, comes from inhibitions. It comes from an attachment. I do not own my brother; I do not even own myself. He owns everything because He is everything.

WE HAVE TO DEVELOP THE QUALITY CALLED ACCEPTANCE

Therefore, many times in my consulting rooms, people come, bereavement and things like that, and I go deep into the subject and explain to them that what has to happen must happen. But that does not mean you will put your life in misery, and it will not help the brother either because you are going to think of illness all the time. Think that he is peaceful, picture him, visualise him and think he is peaceful – come what may, it is His will. Thy will be done. We are practising Christians, yet we do not consider that it is very accurate, “Thy Will be done.”

Only when I have become one with God can I say, “Your Will and my Will are together. We will be done. I am Him, and He is me.” “I am Brahman.” That is something scarce, scarce. But

In the present state of human evolution, we must develop that quality we call acceptance. Accept the situation. Accept your thoughts. A person can have many weaknesses, but he has to accept the weaknesses and look squarely into the mirror to improve upon his weaknesses. Because if you do not admit weaknesses, how can you improve upon them? Admit first to yourself, permit it to a very close friend and from there, your progress will begin.

… Gururaj Ananda Yogi: Satsang IRL 1984 – 01