BOOKS BY ANANTA Welcome to Satsang with Ananta

Is it possible to leave this ‘I Am’ without any attributes? Yes, it is not just possible but that is how you are starting this moment Right Now. The more accurate description of this is ‘The Now which is a moment of time arising in You. That You in which it is arising is already empty of all notions.’ But It creates for Itself the possibility to pretend as if It is something more limited. So, it’s easier to say ‘Right Now, you are empty of all notions.’

Without thinking about it, can you tell me what notion you have Right Now?

Before the thought comes, what is Your limitation?

Look at the body also. It is an innocent appearance. It is an innocent appearance appearing within Me. And if you have the possibility of giving this notion of ‘me’ to some appearance, why don’t you give it to everything that is appearing, including the space which is also just an appearance for You?

I was just saying the other day: Don’t be so miserly that you call only one appearance Me. [Smiles]

(I don’t know why these ants and elephants are going on since yesterday.) [Chuckles] Yesterday I was saying that ‘Suppose you believed yourself to be an ant. Then you met the Master ant. And they say ’What? You consider yourself just to be this ant? No, you start to include. You start to include all the ants. Why just ants? Every object, everything included.’ And the ant is feeling that ‘I am all the ants. I am also in the space.’ Then the Master ant says ‘But also include That which witnesses all this. Why did you leave That One out? Why did you leave That which witnesses all of this out?’ [The ant says]: ‘No, it is okay. I will include.’ Until then, the ant is feeling like they are having one big ant party. Guruji [Sri Mooji] says ‘Insect rave.’ [Chuckles] We are having an ant rave, insect rave.

But when you start to include That which witnesses all of this, you have just invited the elephant to this party. Now, all the notions of your ‘ant-ness’ are going to be crushed. And somewhere you get a feeling of this already as you start to look within yourself. As you start to include that which is a non-phenomenal Awareness, we start to get a feel that ‘You know, all my ideas about myself are going to be crushed in this.’

And I want you to taste what I am saying. Don’t just look at it as a story or something. Include everything. And don’t forget to include That which witnesses everything. Call that one ‘Me.’

Now, tell me something. Can you contain This within your body? You find that You are everything and That which is beyond all things. Can you contain That within an object?

Who are you now?

(I’m not looking for an answer; am just looking for the looking.)

The one that wants freedom, where is that one?

The one that got it, where is that one?

The one that has a little more to go, where is that one?

The one that just has to remember this now, where is that one?

Mythical, isn’t it? There is only one light shining in this entire Universe and this light is what you call ‘I Am.’

I said the other day that the mind has only one trick. And even this mind shines in the same ‘I Am’ but it is designed just to have this one trick:

To convince You that this boundless Being has a tiny boundary of the body.

To convince You that That which is All There Is wants something.

To convince You that you are subjected to time and space, not the other way around.

To convince You that you live in the light of the Sun, whereas the truth is that even the Sun appears only in Your own light, even darkness appears in Your light.

What are You?

What can contain You?

Where did You come from?

Where did You go?

Have You ever lost yourself?

That now you are trying to find it, have you lost YourSelf?

Lose yourself actually. Just lose yourself. Don’t be. Just don’t be aware.

Who did it? [Chuckles] Even in Your full pretense of individuality, did you lose Your real Self? Not possible. The Self cannot be lost.

Therefore, it cannot be found. This game of hide and seek, lost and found, is not about the Self. Suppose this morning we woke up and decided ‘Today we are going to find the Self.’ But there must be You first to decide that! Which You is that one? Find that one and you find the Self. Before you can pick up the idea of undertaking any adventure, You have to be there. Which one is that? Which one woke up this morning? Which one was asleep? Which one had a dream? Is there something constant between all these states?

The clues are everywhere. [Smiles] The clues are everywhere.

I have the best news. [Smiles] Beyond even good news. The greatest Being, the supreme Lord, is Here. It is You.

All our judgments are only about ourselves. We use these judgments to pretend to be something that we can never be.

Many times, I get messages on Facebook and these messages on Facebook tell me ‘But why don’t you include the person in everything? Why don’t you include the person? Why are you always saying there is no person? Why don’t you just include the person?’ And these days, I started responding by saying ‘I would include it, if I could find it.’ [Chuckles]

Tell me, what I should include? Let us be completely inclusive. Let us include this body in the Self. Let’s include every body in the Self. Why just bodies? Let’s include every object in the Self. Let’s include this time and space continuum in the Self. Let’s include our emotions, sensations, thoughts. Include everything in the Self. Everything which is manifest, everything which is phenomenal, let’s include that.

Let’s include our very Existence, ‘I Am.’

Let’s not even stop there. Let’s include That which is even aware of this Existence, that primal Seeing, that Awareness, the Absolute Unchanging. Let’s include That.

At which point did we meet the person?

You included everything. Did at some point did we meet this entity called ‘person’ …, the one that is interested in freedom? We did not include it; didn’t find it.

Even as imagination, we don’t even have a clear image of this person. This imagination of the body we have; this projection of the Consciousness that we call the body. But the body wants nothing at all; has no desire or aversion.

We love to be in denial of ‘What Is.’

God is Here. We love to be in denial of that. And we love to pick up that idea ‘It just isn’t.’ And we bought into the notion of providing validation to that which just isn’t. This is how Consciousness is playing. And as part of the play now, Consciousness is reminding Itself of Its own Truth.

The hypnosis is so deep that what we call the real world is actually just this notion of separation, which is never real. They say ‘Oh, when I leave Satsang and I go to the real world…’ The world is the same; One appearance, same Being.

And no person has ever lived here.

There is only One Self, and this One Self is All There Is.

If there were ever two, then this One would not be All There Is …, then this one must only be this one and the other must be the remaining.

So, how do we get to this point? Not ‘How do we get to the point of Truth’ because the point of Truth is already Here.

If all that you hear in Satsang today is this, it is enough:

The point of Truth is already Here. It is Now.

This Being is fully present as Your own manifest aspect.

And You are aware of this. There is nobody here who is unaware of their Existence. Why? Because I am aware of My Existence, and this ‘I’ is the only one. It is within My Existence, this play of Ananta and Shanti and Akash and Saranya.

All is part of My Existence.

I am the One Unchanging Self.

So, how do I play this game of individual pretense? To play this game I need labels. I need notions. In my experience of myself, even in this manifest world, I don’t play with separation. In the pure experience of myself (even in the arising of this manifest world) I don’t experience separation, but I can pretend. I can look at one aspect of the appearance and give it a name. I can pretend as if something is separate in that name, in that form, but it is not my experience. You are only experiencing yourself.

I feel like this ‘map’ example is very good, one sheet of paper. You draw some lines on it, it is still a sheet of paper with various experiences. Then we start to label them and believe that those lines are those labels (India, Asia, Europe, America, Canada). But that piece of paper is still that one piece of paper. Just because we put a hundred notions on it, no separation has actually ever happened. So, if you start by believing that you are India and then you want to start feeling one with the rest of the world, that is not going to happen, because you have started with the false. You start by believing you are one individual and then you want to be one with the rest…, it is never going to happen.

Just don’t pick up the mask to begin with. Show me where there are two, without making a distinction?

It is apparent to all of you that all of this is only experienced within You. So, it is more natural to recognize this Oneness because it is just ever-present.

And it is hard work, terribly hard work to play with this pretend-separation. And now you are tired of this work (presumably) that is why you are in Satsang.

I feel like reading now a little bit that Saint Augustine had written in his book called ‘Confessions’. So, Saint Augustine said, “But how shall I call upon my God, my God and Lord? For when I call on Him, I ask Him to come into myself. And what room is there in me where my God can come? God, who made heaven and earth. Is there anything in me, oh Lord my God, that can contain You? Indeed, do heaven and earth which you have made, and in which you made me, contain You? Or since nothing could exist without You, does every existing thing contain You? Or since nothing could exist without You, does every existing thing contain You? Why then do I ask that You come into me, since I too exist? I, who could not exist if You were not in me. Why do I say this? Because even if I were in hell, yet You would be there also. For if I go down into hell, You are there. I could not exist then, oh my God, could not exist at all unless You were in me. Or should I not rather say, I could not exist unless I were in You, from whom all things, by whom are all things and in whom are all things. Even so Lord, even so, where do I call You to come, since I am in You? Or whence can You enter into me? Or where beyond heaven and earth could I go that my God might come there into me. He who has said, ‘I fill the heaven and the earth’. ”

I’ve just been noting down some if these verses. The next one is a beautiful verse called the Mool Mantra by Shree Guru Nanak Devji. He has said, “There is but One and only One God. And His existence is Eternal. He alone is the creator of All There Is. He is not afraid of anybody or anything, nor does He have enmity towards anyone. He never dies. His form is Timeless. And He is Self-Existent. He is Unborn and free from incarnation. One can realize Him only through the grace of the Guru.”

Okay, last one, if you’ll indulge me in one more. This is from ‘The Gyaneshwari’. The Lord says, “Although I am formless, without limiting conditions, beyond the qualities, changeless, and all pervasive, ignorant people ascribe to me form, limitations, actions, qualities and place. Although I Am unmanifest, desireless and devoid of doership and experiencership, they think of Me as manifest, full of desire, agent and enjoyer. They impute to Me hands and feet, eyes and ears, caste and family, although I do not possess them. Even though I am Self-Existent, they make idols of me and install them with proper rights of consecration. And though I Am All-Pervading, they invite Me with their invocation and bid farewell to Me with an immersion. They worship an idol as a form of Divinity and later throw away the broken idol as worthless. Thus, they impute to me human attributes.”

So, what is that which is Self-Existent? It’s that which exists without any support. From your experience what is that which exists unsupported, Self-Existent? Is this world your basis? The world has to be and then You can Be? Or is your Existence primary to this appearance, to this dream that we call the world? And if God is the Light of this world, then what must You Be? [Silence] Or are you really saying that ‘There is God and me’? Maybe you’re saying that there is a God and I’m a part of it (or maybe it’s like what we call in business ‘an arm’s length relationship’). What is the distance between You and Your Existence? What is the distance between You and That which is aware of everything? Is It aware of Itself?

To Be the Self you need nothing. To play ‘as if’ [you are ‘something’] …, you need a notion.

That’s why I say: Come to this simple Notionless Existence.

Forget about everything. Forget about all ideas. See if life stops. See whether you need a notion to feel yourself. Because this is what the mind will come and say (Shrugging his shoulders) ‘Shall I just drop all my responsibilities? I won’t even take care of this body?’

Strangely enough, what has happened is that all of you can see that there is no duality. There is just One Being. But the idea of an individual doer still seems sticky. ‘Now that I found there is no me, what should I do?’ And you have called all this ‘popcorn and peanuts’ your doing. All this; some words and some actions of this little puppet, you’ve called it your doing. But actually, your doing is much vaster than this. All of this presentation, of this vast universe is Your doing. All this play of this ‘light and sound’ as I call it is Your doing. Not a blade of grass moves without your doing. This is Your Will.

You have looked at only one appearance and said ‘This is me.’ And from here if I say ‘You’ or ‘I’ it makes no difference. ‘I have looked at one appearance and called it me.’ One tiny piece of the map is what I have considered myself to be.

Now, sometimes I wonder why it is not natural when I say these things. I see many of you are a bit confused or lost. And that is only because you feel that ‘When I feel oneness then ‘me -body’ will start to feel one with this space, and all other bodies and other objects contained within it.’ You see? And in that is the primal confusion.

Before you start looking from emptiness, already you start with the presumption that this body should start feeling one with every other body or the space in which these bodies are recognized. But remove that presumption of body identity, and now look.

Are there two or are there one?

Two or one?

Or neither two nor one?

If you try to make this body ‘one with everything’ then how will that work? This body is one tiny appearance. But if you continue to carry this ‘me’ on your back and you want to see oneness, that cannot work.

That’s why I say, you’re discovering you are the ocean, the shoreless ocean, the boundless ocean, but you have believed YourSelf to be this coconut. Now that you are discovering that you are the shoreless ocean, you want to fit that into this coconut. Then you say ‘I will be truly free when I experience a certain thin’ still continuing the idea of being a body and wanting to be one with everything.

It’s like first tying a heavy anchor to your leg and then wanting to fly.

First believing that you’re separate and then wanting to see Oneness.

What is naturally Here Now?

Without concepts?

[Silence]

You find One Being, One Existence.

Yes, the lines will come (like the lines on the map). Some sensations will be present. But if you leave it unlabeled, can you say this is my body?

You might have this idea that ‘I don’t experience Oneness in the same way as Ananta does’ but this is not true. I experience what you experience. But I have no use for the labels. I have no use for the interpretations.

Keep your entire Existence unmolested by labels.

Leave your entire Existence unmolested by notions.

Then tell me what your life is like.

Okay, for telling me, you can pick up some notions. [Chuckling] Actually, even better, don’t tell. One day if you find your mouth is moving and some words are coming, leave that also unmolested. Because there can be a sense of doership about having to tell, having to report.

So, what should we do if we do end up picking notion?

If I decided that what Master Bankei said is correct ‘All notions are perfectly resolved in the Unborn’ then trust it. ‘Unborn’ means we don’t give birth to any concept or belief to any concept about ourself. Say ‘If I have to trust something, then I trust this.’

But what will happen if I do end up picking some idea about myself?

Nothing.

In this moment it is gone.

Just the Unborn is Here.

The Self is Here.

The Isness is Here.

‘What Is’ is Here.

The complete Truth, and the Master of the Universe, All There Is, is naturally present as Your own Being. Is it possible now, without any notion about yourself, any projection of the future, any story from the past, in our natural openness, allowing all things to come?

How many are too scared of this? How many are too scared of this? …, this nakedness…, having no idea about who we are?

[Reading the Sangha chat] Nobody is scared. Nobody is scared?

Nobody is scared. Then meet YourSelf Now, without any judgement, without any label…, till the concept of meeting itself dissolves.

If fear comes it is okay, I am with you.

If nothing happens it is okay, I am with you.

If something happens, it’s okay, I am with you.

But meet YourSelf naked of all concepts.

Any conceptual clothes that we have on, just shake them off.

How to shake it off?

Just let it come and go.

You don’t have to do anything to deal with it. Don’t judge it, don’t make any conclusion, don’t conclude anything at all. And anything which you are not willing to let go of, I want that as my Guru Dakshina. You know Guru Dakshina? In India, there is this concept; once you have spent time with a teacher, then the teacher at the end will ask you for whatever gift he wants in return. So, I want this gift from all of you: your most sacred concept, that which you are just unwilling to let go of.

When I said ‘There are no charges for Satsang’ I was lying. [Smiles] I do charge. I’ll take your favorite ideas from you.

Are you naturally bound that you are looking for freedom?

Or is it the looking for freedom now itself which seems to be the chain?

What is your true natural condition Right Now?

Without any reference to the past, without any projection to the future, what is naturally here?

Is that one asking for freedom?

Can You be anything other than what just is naturally Here, Right Now?

Actually become the one that has name and form. That would be a great magic trick. Instead of trying to get rid of it, you become it and show me. Anyone who can actually become it gets a prize from me. Become the limited one. Your Being that you are finding, actually draw a boundary around it and say ‘This is it. Here it is.’

Your limitless existence is Here. All perceptions are also contained within that.

All that you experience is within YourSelf.

In which space is this space perceived? If there was a perception of no space, there is a perception of space. That in which the perception of space is coming, what space is that?

That space in which the perception of imagination comes, of memories come, of dreams come of thoughts come, of pain and pleasure comes; what is that? And are you just an object in that?

Because that is how most of the world seems to be living, as if they are one object in this entire space. We have drawn these lines, played with this individuality. Consciousness has drawn these lines.

That is why I feel like that map example is very good. One sheet of paper with so much separation. ‘This is Asia, this is Europe, this is India, this is Nepal, this is Bhutan, this is America, this is Germany, and this is United Kingdom.’ One piece of paper and so much separation. But anything actually happened to the paper? It is still one. Any separation possible without the notion? Just patterns in the same Consciousness. If they are not labeled ‘Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra’ what is it? Just lines on the paper, isn’t it? In same way, in Consciousness all these qualitative tastes are there. Without notions, without labels of them, what is there? Is there any separation?

The best part is that even after the notions and the labels are there, there is no separation. It is never experienced. It is only a big ‘as if.’ I behave as if ‘I am an Indian. You behave as if you are a Russian.’ But what are they? Just a notional idea. In the same way, I behave as if I am a person. What is the person? Just a notional idea, conceptual idea.

You are the Self. And in Satsang, all that you are leaning is not to take the ‘as if’ so seriously. You are the Self behaving ‘as if’ you are a limited entity.

Has everyone thrown away all the favorite concepts or given them to me as a gift? Still hiding a little bit; a small, secret pocket? [Chuckles] Let’s see what offerings I’m getting.

[Reading sangha messages from chat]: “This idea of ‘I’ is offered at your feet. Father, that ‘I have to struggle and suffer’ I surrender at your feet.

[Reading sangha messages from chat]: “I offer: ‘There is more than now.’ Father, giving you everything. Whatever is hiding. Everything offered at your feet.”

A: So, when I catch you playing with these things now, I just remind you that that is supposed to be mine; any position that you take about yourself.

[Reading from chat]: “I don’t know what concepts I have until it shows up.”

A: So, offer this one now. Even offer the ‘I don’t know.’ Neither know nor don’t know.

[Reading from chat]: “Everything at your feet, Father.”

A: This is very good.

[Reading a chat message]: “I offer ‘I didn’t reach the truth yet’.”

Everyone offers that? Or no?  Does everyone also offer ‘I found the truth?’ Neither ‘didn’t reach’ nor ‘found’…, neither ‘got it’ nor ‘haven’t got it.’ Neither ‘free’ nor ‘bound’.

[Reading from chat]: “Everything, Father, at your feet. What I’m aware of and not aware of.”

A: Now, give me the concept of ‘offering.’ Not even that you can keep. The notion that you have given everything; forget about it. The notion that you might still be holding on to something; forget about it. The notion about ‘What does this mean now?’ …, forget about it. The idea ‘Can I stay like this?’ …, forget about it.

[Reading from chat]: “About dependency and independence is sticky. Don’t know how to offer, whether to offer or not. Especially cannot even give it up as Guru Dakshina.”

A: You don’t have to worry about the ‘how’. Just hand it over. You are neither independent nor dependent. This is what I said, that anything that can have an opposite is not Your Truth. If you can be independent or dependent, it’s not about You; it’s still about the ‘made up’ entity.

An infant is born Right Now. It’s Being is the Being that is All There Is. From the innocence of this infant…, this entire world is moving.

[Reading from chat]: “Father, I surrender this need of love of others & bow at your feet.”

A: Very good. ‘Love of others.’ As you taste Your own Love, Your own Being, You See that this Love, Your own Love, permeates everything already.

[Reading from chat]: “All resistance at your feet, Father.”

A: Some of us also have this favorite Satsang notion now called ‘resistance.’ So, forget the notion of resistance. Suppose you never heard the term ‘resistance.’ As you walk out of Satsang today, be completely naked. You don’t know what resistance is, you don’t know what freedom is, you don’t know what any concept means. If you lose your Existence, then come and tell me ‘What have you done to me?’ [Smiles] If you lose anything of value, actually, you can come and complain. As you drop all conceptual ideas, if you lose anything of value, come and tell me.

Your notion of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ I want as my Guru Dakshina.

Your notion of ‘me’ and ‘others’ I will also have.

Your notions of ‘bondage’ and ‘separation.’

Your notion of ‘Oneness’ and ‘freedom’.

Your notion of ‘What should be.’

Your notions of ‘What could have been.’

[Reading from chat]: “Offering the offer-er; all desires.”

A: The basis of all desire is the notion of ‘me’.

[Reading from chat]: “The limited notion of ‘me.’ It is offered up.”

A: You are already All There Is. What can you want?

[Reading from chat]: “I offer all regrets, Father.”

A: Regrets, grievances, guilt, remorse, unworthiness, pride, arrogance; these are all names of suffering. There is no such thing as suffering itself. All these are the names of suffering. And all of them have a non-existent ‘me’ at the center. Suffering is nothing but confusion. Confusion about who I am is called suffering.

[Reading from chat]: “All expectations.”

A: Yes. All these I’ve taken and I’m putting them in my safe. If any of you lose anything of value … [Silence]

[Reading from chat]: “I offer all expectations, resistance, suffering; everything which I’m unaware of.”

[Reading from chat]: “Don’t know what’s going on; just got here. But love you.” [He laughs] “Love you, love you, Father. Always feels ‘Right Here’ even with my grumpy face and all.”

A: Grumpy face is only because you just got here. [Smiles] [Jokingly]: In Satsang, grumpy face is not allowed. It has to be full laughing face or full crying face.

[Reading from chat]: “I offer the thought that nothing ever really works.”

A: All the ‘why’ … ‘why this, why that’ is offered up. All the search for apparent meaning in the play of Consciousness without the mind having any true idea of Consciousness Itself in this seeming-limited play of searching for individual or egoistic meaning; to pretend that we actually know anything.

[Reading from chat]: “I offer all desires and all suffering. I offer the thought ‘It cannot be so easy’.”

A: Also, the opposite, which is that ‘It is so easy.’ It’s neither easy nor difficult. All these terms don’t apply.

[Reading from chat]: “Thank you, Pa, for taking care of everything.”

A: Welcome.

[Reading from chat]: “What is there to know apart from the Self?”

[Reading from chat]: “Yes, Father, surrendering this mind which wants to find clarity.”

[Reading from chat]: “I offer the planner of the next moment.”

A: Very good. This false sense of control, that ‘I can control my experience.’ Throw it away.

[Reading from chat]: “I’m giving all my ideas of ‘me’ and ‘others.’ Let me not take it back.

[Reading from chat]: “All trying, searching and struggling goes at your feet, Father.”

A: So, now, empty of all conclusions. Even the conclusion that ‘I am empty of all conclusions’ has no meaning.

We live with many contradictions. Like we have a concept of the truth which is eternal. Truth is eternal. And yet, we also have the concept that ‘I did not find it.’ [Smiles] That means that before you find the truth, the false must be in existence. This notion that ‘I have to find that which is the truth’ is actually is quite false. That is why the better term to use is to ‘recognize’ …, to recognize the truth which is already present. Because if it is eternal, then where must it be now? If it is that unchanging, the birth-less truth, deathless truth, where must it be?

If you allow yourself to taste your existence without any judgement, without any interpretation, what is it that you are actually finding? Are you finding something which has an opposite?

So, this is one tip for all of you: If it has an opposite, it is not the truth.

If this truth which has an opposite which is a lie or un-truth or false, then that is not the truth that we are speaking of. Then it is again just a concept. If the light that you are finding has an opposite which is the dark, that is not the light which we are speaking of. If the light which you are experiencing is the shining of the sun, that light does not have the opposite of darkness. Even that darkness will be in this light. You see what I’m saying? In whose light, in which light, do you experience both phenomenal light and darkness? This realm of phenomena is full of opposites. So, with our notion of ‘finding’ there is a notion of ‘losing’. In the notion of truth, there is a notion of lies. All our conceptual understanding is only in the realm of opposites.

Now, as you meet yourself without any concept or notion, are you finding something which is not opposed to anything at all; which does not exclude anything, which has no opposite, which has not position, which has no reference point?

When you drop this idea that ‘The ultimate understanding will be something that we will get’ like an ultimate concept that ‘I finally understood this concept’…

If you understood the greatest concept right now, would that concept escape the graveyard? If you perceive the greatest experience of phenomenon, would that experience escape the graveyard? If you experience the greatest sensations, pleasure, bliss, ananda, would that escape the graveyard?

Is there something Here Now, which will not be burnt on the funeral fire, which will not be buried under the ground? What is That?

All your ideas about yourself, what is going to come of them? All your sensations in the body, what is going to come of them? All your experiences which you so store beautifully in your memory, what is going to come of them? All your yogic and meditative prowess, what is going to come of it? That is why the Sages have said ‘Look beyond all of these.’

What is it that perceives all that changes?

We have invested so much of our life in the changing; trying to control the changing, trying to get some of the better seeming things, experiences, objects, thoughts and feelings but all changing. So much has been invested in the realm of changing.

Can we invest a few moments now and do an enquiry into the Unchanging?

What perceives all of this that changes?

Is that itself changing?

And what is here now that can look for this perceiver?

As we look for the Unchanging and we look at what is looking or who is looking, I promise you that no idea will help you here. No concept will help you.

As you let go of all that is changing, did You also go along with that?

Let everything go; everything, everything go.

See if You can go.

What did you lose when everything went?

All your concepts; gone.

Anything useful you lost?

Nothing, you see? If you were to crumple up your most valuable positions into pieces of paper and throw them into the trash can, You would not have lost anything at all. Because this Existent Being is actually All There Is.

Which position do you refuse to throw away? Use this opportunity today in Satsang to shine Your light on it. And may it burn in Your light.

What is it that you feel does not leave you but actually you have been quietly nurturing it?

Is it notions about Freedom?

Are there notions about the Self?

Do you have ideas about what the world is?

What relationship should be like?

[Silence]

Mind makes everything upside down. [Chuckling] And one of the most popular things that has been made upside down and has been believed is that ‘I have to get freedom.’ Most popular; in Satsang, it’s the most popular. In the world, there are three or four most popular things like this. ‘I have to get more money, I have to get better relationships, I have to have healthy body and I want to have freedom.’

Now, all this ‘get freedom’ thing is a big trap. Because every time you feel like you have to get freedom, you’re believing yourself to be unfree or bound, which can never be true.

So, what if we were to switch it? You don’t have to get freedom, you have to give freedom.

You don’t have to get freedom, you have to give freedom.

What can you give freedom to?  Give freedom to the world.

This means what? Not that you become one Swamiji. [Extending his arm out in blessing] ‘You are free now.’ [Chuckling]

Give freedom to the world means: Let it be as it is.

What Is Just Is.

Even the ‘What Is’ of the appearance Just Is.

Give freedom to the world to be as it Is.

Now, this often gets misunderstood because you still exclude your body from it. Or this body which seems so intimate is excluded from this ‘Give freedom to the world’ and you hear it as if I’m saying ‘Become one; let the world do whatever it wants. You just bear it; grin and bear it.’ That’s not what I’m saying.

I’m saying: Give freedom to everything in this world, including this body…, including this body to have the actions and inactions that it is having. In any case, the notion of control is just made up. Most of you know this by now.

So, give freedom, complete freedom, to this world.

And don’t forget to include your body.

Then? Give freedom to your thoughts.

I know this can sound anti-spiritual. ‘I thought all of this is about controlling my thoughts.’ No, it isn’t. It is about giving them the freedom to come and go. And in their naturalness, they are coming and going. Let the world come and go as it pleases. Let your thoughts come and go as they please.

Give freedom to your emotions to come; and even to come and to linger, because qualitatively emotions have a different quality than thoughts. Thought comes and goes even if it’s repetitive. It seems persistent only because it is repetitive. But an emotion can, and it can seem to stay a bit longer. It can linger.

Somebody did a study and said ‘The shelf life of the most persistent emotion is two and a quarter days. Then it has to repeat itself again.’ Anyway, whatever the shelf life might be, you can let it come and let it stay. Why? Because no emotion can take the entirety of You. You are that Infinite space in which a gazillion such emotions can come. Although it may not seem like it, but it is true if you were to investigate.

[Looking towards the door at his daughter who walked in] Give freedom to your children. [Chuckling] She says she has a water balloon in her hand. Not that much freedom. [Laughing]

Give freedom to your attention. That’s why surrender is so, so much easier. Just let it come and go; nothing will happen. Let it go wherever it wants, nothing is going to happen.

How would you not give freedom to it? Actually, what is the method you have? The method that you seem to have to control the world is what? To control your emotions is what? You have no method! You just label something and say ‘Okay, I have some control over it. Just because I decide, okay? What Is, just Is; but if I call it ‘something’ then it will start conforming to the way I want it to be.’ And it doesn’t do that. You see? Nothing changes its inherent qualities because of your label. But it seems to change the way you experience it. This is the trick of Consciousness.

That’s why these days I’ve been saying more and more: Leave your existence unlabeled. Nothing needs a label to exist. Nothing needs a notion to be done or not done.

This thing is a fallacy, that ‘I think and I decide and therefore, I do.’ It’s all nonsense, complete nonsense.

The same One thinks and the same One does. And that One is not the one you think you are.

The Source of all appearances is the same One Consciousness, One Being, One Self.

We must now be able to recognize this mind fallacy which teachers have been telling us about for centuries. The Indian Sage Vashishta said, ‘A crow flies and lands on the branch of the coconut tree; the coconut falls. The mind comes and makes a conclusion that it is because the crow landed on the branch of the coconut tree that the coconut fell.’ But both were just appearances that happened because of the will of Consciousness.

Most of us now can see that these thoughts just appear and disappear in Your own space. And many of you are now starting to see that it is the very same about these actions.

That day just after Satsang I said, ‘I swear on my Father that there is no Ananta sitting here and speaking these words, although it might appear there is. There is no one deciding to speak them, there is no one who is doing the speaking. It is only the One Consciousness in the light of which all of this is happening.’

We’ve started to accept this about our thoughts and soon we will start to accept this about our so- called actions.

This is how the fallacy of ‘me’ gets created. The fallacy of separation gets created with labels. Someone [in Satsang] was saying that ‘If we drop all these notions, all of this is just One, isn’t it?’ Yes.

But we have been trained in this play, seemingly-first by our parents and then by our own mind, to look at only one small appearance and call that ‘me’.

Now, the mind has one big trump card up its sleeve; one big trump card up its sleeve. You are discovering that You are the shoreless ocean. As Ashtavakra said, ‘You are the shoreless ocean in which the arcs of the Universe, they come and go.’ You are finding this out. But you want to fill this ocean that you are discovering YourSelf to be into Your body. ‘I got it’…, like the one seeming-inhabitant of this body is now finding it. This is the last attractive trump card from the mind.  It will say ‘Now that you have freedom, you should always be smiling.’

You see? Ocean and coconut. [Smiles] [Referring to the metaphor he uses that ‘You are the ocean but considering YourSelf to be a coconut.] You are trying to fill this ocean into this coconut body. Now, the coconut should change its color from green to pink; something like that. Coconut should have a halo.

It has nothing to do with this body. Leave this body alone. The body is just another appearance on the screen of Your Being, in the light of Your Being, in the will of your Being.

Stop trying to prove that this body ‘got something’ or this body ‘has not got it yet’. Both are non-sense because it doesn’t have anything to do with this body. In the play of the world, as Consciousness has played this game of identification and ridding itself of delusion, it might also play in certain ways with how the body appears now. But that is nothing to be concerned with.

That is why I said: Meet God Right Now. But if you judge God right now, you interpret God right now, this God will seem personal. Meet God with no labels. I know that this has always been true. You have only met YourSelf.

So, when I say ‘Meet YourSelf or meet God with no label’ then very quickly the notion will come ‘Am I doing this meeting right?’ [Smiles] That is also notion. Just let it come and go. ‘Am I getting what he is saying?’ Another notion; let it come and go. ‘No, he must be in a different state than me.’ It is just a notion; let it come and go. ‘I have to stay like this only now.’ Just a notion; let it come and go. ‘No, this can’t be it.’ Just an idea; let it come and go. ‘But I was promised bliss.’ [Smiles] Definitely, let it come and go.

This is what I mean by giving freedom.

The mind is also another creation of Supreme Intelligence. So, it knows that it’s ‘game over’ for it if these paradigms are reversed. If you were to come back from this paradigm of wanting freedom, wanting freedom, giving freedom, giving freedom, then quickly You are realizing that as you rest in Your neutrality, there is just Freedom for all appearances; that it is not a physical activity that you are doing. In your natural state there is just freedom.

Nothing is ever a ‘thing’. We make it a thing with our labels, with our judgments.

You want to meet God? God is Here. The most powerful Being, the only Being, in the Universe is Your Presence and everything shines in the light of this Presence.

Have you seen sunlight when you are asleep? So, you have to exist for the sun to shine. And if this is too much for some of you, just know this for some time: I am talking about Your experience of it. [Smiles] At least the experience of it you can admit to, that ‘I cannot have the experience of sunshine, unless I Am.’

I am not just speaking about experience of it, I’m talking about Reality of it. And yet I know that, for some, it can seem like that is just too far out. So, for some time, stay with the idea that I am talking about Your experience of it. In your deep sleep state, you cannot see the sunshine. So, Your Light must be present for you to even experience the light of the sun.

This is the primal Light. The very existence of Light of the Universe. It is not a ‘feel good’ concept. Many times, when we read these things for first time, we feel like ‘That sounds very nice, I am the light.’ [Smiles] But it is literal.

You Are literally the Light of this world. Your existence is a precursor to the existence of all appearances.

So, don’t be so miserly. Be more inclusive. Why do you want to call only this body ‘me’? Call everybody ‘me’ then. If You want to call the body ‘me’ then call everybody ‘me’.

And why leave it at just bodies? Call it every perception because it is only a perception; [Rubs Fingers] a visual perception and a sensational perception, but just perception.

So, if You have the power to consider YourSelf to be something…, why consider YourSelf to be only this thing? Consider YourSelf to be everything. [Chuckles]

And then, while You are the space in which things seem to be appearing, consider YourSelf to be even that. That is also just an appearance for You. There is no space unless You Are.

If there was not the waking state right now, even this space would not be there. So, it depends on Your Presence. Consider YourSelf to be this space also. This would be a truer consideration than the consideration that we have been making.

Now comes the fun part. [Laughs] We have considered everything that is perceived as ‘me’. But why only that which we perceive? Why not the perceiver ItSelf?

Now, when we include this part, what actually got included? So far, we have included all forms. We included all forms, including that form of that space which these forms appear; we’ve included that. I have heard, of course, that many of you are starting to see YourSelf as this spacious Being.

Now, I ask you:

When you also include the Perceiver, what got included in this?

What is the shape of that One?

What is the size of that One?

Where did You find It?

Did you find the Perceiver sitting behind your eyes?

Is one man or woman sitting there?

It can’t be found in this way.

Who is That that perceives all of this?

What is the Reality of That One?

Now, you might say ‘I find no person here. I find only perception. I find only perception. I find no perceiver.’ So, include that ‘I’ that finds only perception; that ‘I’ which is Aware of even perception. Include that One. Because You are not making this up. You have found that there is only perception; there is only perceiving.

Who found?

For this ‘You’…, which one is This one?

Did your eyes find this?

Did you look with your eyes and find this?

No. It ItSelf is the instrument of perception: one of the instruments.

So, who found that there is only perception?

Who is this ‘I’?

Now, this ‘I’ does not rely on any conceptual knowing or perceptual knowing. It does not need any of this; even need Advaita concepts. It doesn’t need anything at all, even in the realm of perception. If nothing is perceived, if there is deep sleep, it is not bothered. If everything is perceived, in the waking state, it is not bothered. And You have to confirm these things.

I have three propositions. (Treat what I’m giving you as hypothesis.) I am proposing to You that:

There is One that is You, which is unconcerned if the whole world vanishes, and is unconcerned with the appearance of the entire world. And the appearance and disappearance of the world is also the appearance and disappearance of Its own Aspect.

These are the main propositions, isn’t it? And nobody can check them but You.

Is there an ‘I’…, is there a Self, which is Independent of states? …, which is independent of waking, dream, sleep?

And as soon as we start to contemplate this, this body idea is gone, isn’t it?

There’s a different body in waking, a different body in dream; no body in sleep.

Who knows all of this?

And what type of Knowing is this?

You only have a concept of this?

In sleep state; no body.

No body, no Being.

And yet You are.

The Primal beyond the Primordial.

The ‘I’ before ‘I Am’.

This ‘I’ has no concept of boundary, of time, of space.

None of this means anything to It.

Now, for a reason no mind can ever understand, there is the emergence of that which we call Being, Consciousness, I Am-Ness. Guruji [Sri Mooji] explained this very beautifully in a retreat that ‘Even for Being to emerge…, for anything to emerge, there must be a space for That to come.’

So, this Awareness, this ‘I’, this space which is beyond space…, is the space in which Being wakes up.

And Being is Here Now.

But truly check whether anything changed for that ‘I’…, That which is Aware of no-thing and Now is aware of all things.

Is that ‘I’ changing states?

Or are these states also just appearances…, from the screen of Its Being?

If nothing changed for this ‘I’ when the waking state came, and it remains the final witnessing of all there is, then what a ridiculous idea it must be that I can be hurt in this play, that something can happen to me, that I might be bound and I need freedom. That ‘I’ might even want the ananda of satchitananda is a joke because I am the source of all things. So, duality is a joke, desire is a joke, and doer-ship is a joke. And the ego is just made of these three ‘D’s, of these three jokes. [Smiles]

If You remain unchanged when a waking state comes and waking state goes, then how can something happen to you in the waking state? Just like you complaining and saying ‘Oh, this happened to me in the dream state, my arm was cut.’ [Smiles] But Consciousness wanted to play with more excitement in this game. [Smiles] It didn’t just want to play it as if an impersonal movie is playing on the screen and it remains untouched. Because where is the fun in that? [Smiles] Then it devised for itself the power to identify, the power to believe and a devise for itself, a narrator in this play who will always tell you a personal story.

So, who is this narrator? It is this mind. Nothing has happened to you. But You have given yourself the power to pretend as if something has.

The power to believe that you were born.
The power to believe that you will die.
The power to believe that you are this body.
The power to believe that these thoughts are referring to the reality of You.
Basically, the power to believe non-sense.

All of this, for the Reality of You, is pure non-sense.

All our fears about ‘How life will turn out? How is it going to be managed?’ are unfounded. So, look at the appearance of this energy also, without even calling it the notion of fear.

What is True has not left you. As you have left your Existence unlabeled and the appearance of anything perceived unlabeled, what is True has not left you. Because Truth means That which cannot leave, which has not come and does not go.

The best part about all of this is that we start this moment anyway like this. We are not caught up in any notion right at this very moment. You might try. This part also…, if you explore, something very magical will be revealed to you. How does it seem like I am constantly caught up in notions but every time I check whether ‘Right Now, am I caught up in a notion?’…, I am not. So, you can really explore whether it is ever True that we are caught up.

Is it ever true that what I really Am can ever be caught up in anything?

Even though our memory might be testifying to it (because of the appearance of a body or some mental perspective) all that you ever find when you look Now is One Consciousness, One God.

God is Here.

You need to label something to create a distinction, a separation. Not ‘create’ but create the pretense of a separation. That is also a very important point. Because if you pick up the notion that actually separation got created then you pick up the idea of trying to fix the separation.

It’s like for one tiny moment you believe yourself to be a blue cat. What do you need to do to fix it? Just for one moment, you believed yourself to be a blue cat; it can happen. The mind can offer up a really crazy idea, and the power to buy into it is one of your primal powers as Consciousness. But You are rid of it Right Now.

It might sound like a crazy idea. ‘A blue cat? That is too far off!’ But what you believe yourself to be, this bundle of flesh and bones, is as ludicrous. It’s as ludicrous. How can that space in which space arises be This? How can That, which is ultimately That which is Aware of that space in which this space arises, ever just be this body? It is as crazy as believing yourself to be a pink elephant.

Look at all the things that you have given meaning to.

And now notice what believing those meanings convinces you about what you are.

If you are still looking for the Ultimate position, you are missing the Ultimate position.

If you think you found the Ultimate position, you are missing the Ultimate position.

If you think you can lose the Ultimate position, you are missing the Ultimate position.

If you have any idea about yourself, you are missing your Ultimate Truth.

If you are feverish about any notion about what something means, you are missing your Ultimate Truth.

And if you ever feel like it is possible to ever miss the Ultimate Truth, you are missing the Ultimate Truth.

Its very nice because what does that leave your mind with? Nothing at all. [Smiles] And this is very good news. Because this nothing is the pointer to your Truth as No-Thing.

If you know something just mentally, you pick up a version of yourself which is not true. But as you are empty of conceptual knowing, this greater Truth is completely apparent to you.

We were joking the other day maybe.., (I don’t remember whether it was in the broadcast or after satsang), we were saying that:

If you think you are doing Zen, it is not Zen.

If you think that you are doing it right, it is not Zen.

If you think you are doing it wrong, it is not Zen.

If you think that there is something to be done, it is not Zen.

If you think that you have to sit without doing anything, it is not Zen.

If you think that there is something to be found, it is not Zen.

If you think you have found it, it is not Zen.

If you think it is outside you, it is not Zen. [Chuckles]

If you think it is inside you, it is not Zen.

If you think that there is a ‘you’ it is not Zen. [Laughter]

If you think there is no you, it is not Zen. [Laughs]

If you think you are the doer, it is not Zen.

If you think you are not the doer, it is not Zen.

If you think there is no Self, it is not Zen.

If you think there is a Self, it is not Zen.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

[Silence]

If you think that what I am saying means something, it is not true.

If you think what I am saying doesn’t mean anything, it is not true.

Because we are divesting meaning from meaning itself.

You know what I mean? [Laughter] I wonder who will hear me speak if I go on like this? [Laughter]

If meaning itself did not have a meaning, what position would we take? [Smiles]

[Silence]

Whats the point of all of this? [Chuckles] Nothing.

Then is it completely pointless? No. [Laughter]

Although we are really enjoying this (it’s true I am enjoying sharing like this; you are enjoying also hearing like this) the mind is deeply uncomfortable with this. This neutrality it cannot understand.

I read many years ago somewhere that there are no neutral thoughts. At that time I couldn’t understand this. [Chuckles] Every thought, every notion, every concept is selling you a limited position about yourself.