We live most of our life through three states of Consciousness: waking, dreaming and sleeping.

In the waking state of Consciousness, you experience the World through the five senses.

You seek elevation and joy from these senses.

If any one of the senses is missing, the entire dimension of that sense is lost.

One who can not hear is deprived of the whole arena of sound.

One who can not see is deprived of all the beautiful sights and colors.

So, the sense is more important and much bigger than the object of the sense.

The mind is higher than the senses.

The mind is infinite and its desires are many, whereas the capacity of the senses to enjoy is limited.

Greed is wanting more and more of sensory objects. Even though one can only enjoy a limited amount during a lifetime, one wants all the wealth in the World.

Giving too much importance to sensory objects leads to greed; giving too much importance to the senses leads to lust.

Giving too much importance to the mind and its desires leads to delusion.

You hold on to the concepts of the mind and want things to happen in a certain way.

Thus, the concepts in your mind impede you from perceiving the infinite Consciousness that is a part of you.

This is not to say that the senses or the mind are bad.

But you must learn to discriminate between things and be aware of what is happening at all times; that is when clarity dawns on you.

This is the first step towards higher state of Consciousness.

One extreme is the waking state, you are constantly engaged in looking, eating, working, etc.

The other extreme is the sleeping state where you are completely cut off and dull.

The more you sleep, the duller you feel since a lot of energy is expended in sleep. Then there is the dreaming state where you are neither asleep nor awake.

You neither feel at rest nor are you aware of your surroundings.

The higher state of Consciousness is somewhere in between the waking, sleeping and dreaming states. Here, you know you are but you do not know where you are.

This knowledge that I am but I do not know where I am or what I am, is called Shiva.

This state gives the deepest possible rest that you can experience. And you can achieve this though meditation.

Meditation prevents stress from entering the system and simultaneously releases accumulated stress.

With the assimilation of meditation into daily life, a higher state of Consciousness called Cosmic Consciousness dawns within you.

Cosmic Consciousness perceives the whole universe as part of oneself. When you perceive the World as a part of you, Love flows strongly between the World and you.

This Love empowers you to overcome the opposing forces and the disturbances in life.

Anger and disappointments become fleeting emotions that occur momentarily and then vanish.

Attaining higher states of Consciousness does not require a complicated strategy; you just need to learn the art of letting go.

The confluence of knowledge, understanding and practice makes life complete.

When you grow into higher states of Consciousness, you find that you are no longer thrown off-balance by different situations and disturbances. You become strong yet soft.

As your Consciousness opens and the whole system gets physically, mentally and spiritually elevated, your life truly becomes worth living.