[18.2] Ashtavakra said, “One may enjoy the abundant pleasures of the world, but will never be happy until giving them up.”

Yesterday the Sage has explained that ‘giving them up’ includes giving up the concept of coveting something or rejecting something. So, ‘giving them up’ is giving up on the whole play of wanting and pushing away; the whole play of desire and aversion. Not ‘giving up’ as a position. Giving up the position itself.

How many get confused with this? Because this is a subtle point that is very important, and it concerns both desire as well as doership. What I’m saying is that many times, when we say that we must give up, then we take on the position of the ‘giver up-er’. Like, ‘I am not the giver up-er’. [Chuckles] Even that position is not what the Sage is pointing to. The Sage is saying ‘Irrespective of anything that is moving in the worldly play, you allow it to move. Remain unconcerned by this. Don’t take on the position of the renouncer or the renunciate’.

It’s the same thing that happens when we hear about non-doership. We take on the position of the non-doer. It is not either position. Because either position implies that you’re still referring to yourself as a limited entity. Now, whether you’re attached or unattached, if you consider yourself to be a person …, ‘person’ will lead to suffering. Whether you consider yourself the doer or the non-doer, as long as you consider yourself to be a person, you’ll still be embroiled in the play called ‘individual suffering’. Why? Because individuality is a lie. It is not the Truth. And all lies must lead to some suffering. If God had designed the system where a lie could also lead to no suffering, then you would never come to this point of waking up.

The way the play has been designed is that everything we pick up from the idea of our individuality leads to some poking eventually. And we’ve seen this, isn’t it? We’ve seen how many can start to feel like ‘I’m not the doer now. God, You are the doer. But why are You doing this to me?’ Why are you doing this to ‘me’? So, the victim mentality can become very strong with this kind of thing. This ‘me’ is the fundamental concept of trouble. The limited ‘me’…, the limited ‘I’.

“One may enjoy the abundant pleasures of the world, but will never be happy…” (as long as they consider themselves to be a limited enjoyer of them) … “until giving them up.”  So, give up the idea of individuality and then you don’t have to work on giving up specific desires or tendencies or conditions. We’re not working on the branches. Because branches have a habit of growing back. If you start working on the branches, if you start working on your 3-D’s [Duality, desire and doership] individually…, you then go into the 3-D’s, like ‘desire’ you go into ‘Okay, what is all that we desire? Why do you desire relationship? Why do you desire money?’ By the time we get done looking at one thing, something else will grow. Something else grows out when that one’s done, then that one grows back. We’re not working at the branch level. And it’s okay. I mean, when we’re working at the branch level, it’s fine. But here we are looking more directly at the root of all of this trouble.

What is the root of all of this trouble is this idea of a limited ‘me’. And it’s just an idea. Just an idea supported by thoughts and sometimes some energetic feeling. That’s it. In the entirety of You, it is meaningless. In the Reality of You, it is meaningless.

One of my favorites examples is that if I say there’s a big white wall in front of you, and I make a black dot on it (small black dot on a big white wall) and I ask you ‘What do you see?’ most of you say ‘Oh, there’s a dot on the wall. There’s a dot.’ Hardly any of you will say ‘There is a big white wall.’ So, what happens is when we focus on our conditions, our tendencies, then the mind is quick to report to you that ‘This must go, then you’ll be free’. But the wall remains untouched. The space in which these energies, these thoughts, are playing out remain untouched, no matter what the content is.

The mind will constantly give you something to fix, something to change, something to get, something to remove. Just drop out of that play! You cannot do the dropping out. Something just hears this in the monologue of Consciousness; this is just heard somewhere. So, don’t even attempt to do the dropping out. Just whatever attention is available to you now, see if you can stay with these words; the rest is taking care of itself. Even if attention becomes a struggle, you leave that also. But if naturally you find yourself being able to give some attention to the words that are being spoken, that is more than enough in Satsang.

Drop out of this play of positions of either doer or non-doer; play of positions of the enjoyer or the renouncer. None of these apply to the Truth of what You Are.

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.10] Ashtavakra said, “The yogi who finds stillness is neither distracted nor focused. He knows neither pleasure nor pain. Ignorance dispelled, he is free of knowing.”

That’s what we were just saying. The interpretation is going one paragraph ahead of the verses. [Chuckles]

Be empty of all that you know. Throw away all concepts of any of these opposites.

Now, this is a beautiful clue, what the Sage is saying. “Ignorance dispelled, he is free of knowing.” Isn’t this a beautiful line? “Ignorance dispelled.” Now, our idea of ignorance has been that who doesn’t know anything. The Sage is saying the opposite. Our idea of ignorance is …, what do we call the ignorant one? ‘Oh, he doesn’t know anything’. Now, he’s saying ignorance is dispelled when we don’t know anything. Because all that we have picked up has been about a limited idea about ourself. Throw this away, and true Knowing awakens.

This ignorance is the apparent darkness of which the Guru is the dispeller. In Sanskrit, the word ‘Guru’ itself translates into ‘The dispeller of darkness. That which brings light.’

So, ignorance itself, just like darkness, doesn’t have any substance to itself. There’s nothing phenomenal that you have to change. It is just a misunderstanding.

It is just a misunderstanding. You saw a snake where there was a rope. You thought that you are something limited in this body. That limited one was never there. That’s it. Just like the snake was never there, that limited one was never there.

That is all that you are discovering. All the rest is in service to that discovery.

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.17] Ashtavakra said, “He achieves self-control who sees his own distraction. But the great soul is not distracted. He has nothing to achieve. He has nothing to do.”  We have shared enough about all this.

[18.18] Ashtavakra said, “The man of Knowledge may live as an ordinary man, but he is not. He sees he is neither focused nor distracted, and finds no fault with himself.”

This is answering the question ‘How does the Sage live?’ “The man of Knowledge may live as an ordinary man, but he is not…” We explained why he is not.

“… He sees he is neither focused nor distracted, and finds no fault with himself.” Means what? The play of guilt is no longer functioning. He sees all actions. Like I said, he sees this body being used as a Divine instrument, therefore He cannot blame the non-existent entity for any action. So, it is not just blame but also praise. All praise which is offered here is also recognized as offered to the Satguru (which is your own Self). Neither praise or blame is taken personally.

[18.19] Ashtavakra said, “He who is beyond existence and non-existence, who is wise, satisfied, free of desire, does nothing, though the world may see him in motion.”

This is expanding on the same point. “He who is beyond existence and non-existence, who is wise, satisfied, free of desire, does nothing, though the world may see him in motion.”

Sometimes we have these kinds of questions. Someone asked me after satsang the other day when I was sharing a little bit about learning about this diet, about intermittent fasting; she asked me very, very innocently and beautifully, ‘But how can you be interested in fasting if you see that you are beyond the body?’ [Chuckles] So, you see that in the worldly play, the motion of all of this, including the play of taking care of this body to some level, or neglecting the body to some level…, all this play of opposites can still continue without the notion of picking up this individual sense of doership. The play continues, but there is no sense that ‘I am doing it’. I am as much watching this play of ‘Ananta’ as you are. There is nothing special in this. You are as much watching the play of Radha and Omkar and any of you. As Consciousness, you are perceiving this play, you are watching this body that seems so intimate in sensations and perspective. What is your true position? The Witnessing. And it is running in its own way. Just the idea that the non-existent entity is doing something, or not doing something, is dropped away.

So, I was talking with her and saying ‘One side is covered, that I am not to be the husband; should I then go to my wife and tell her that we are getting a divorce?’ [Laugh] It doesn’t play like that; it doesn’t have to. The play of life will continue in its own way. What is stopped mostly is the predicting it, the desiring it to go only this way and not that way; the wanting the quality of the appearance, or content of the appearance, to change in some way. All of these are requirements that come from the mind, the requirements of the limited notions of ourself. Most of that gets dropped away.

Also, never pick up the idea that a hundred percent it will be dropped away. There is no hundred percent in the phenomenal play. You might even suffer for a few seconds. When we say ‘The end of suffering’ it doesn’t mean that grief or some sorrow cannot come. If they come, and if they come with great strength for a few moments (they might even take over this phenomenal play of the body) but you will not buy into the idea that there is somebody called ‘you’ which is suffering. You will not buy into the idea of ‘the sufferer’. In the play of the world, it is also designed that that which is not resisted in this way, also doesn’t seem to last very long. So far, that has been my experience.

That which is met with openness seems to lose its bite very easily. But if we have the expectation that it must lose its bite, then that is no longer openness.

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.1] Ashtavakra said, “Praise That, which is Bliss itself, which is by nature stillness and light, and which by Its knowing reveals the world as a dream.”

So, what is it that “by Its knowing reveals the world as a dream”? Have we had any such revelation which questions the tangibility, the permanence, the persistence of this world? What is a dream? A dream is a series of appearances that comes and goes.

What is this “reveals the world”? Can it also be a series of appearances which comes and goes? What revelations have we had which makes this world seem like another series of appearances that come and go?

Relative to what … is the world coming and going? In relation to what?

[Holds up two hands facing each other] So, if everything that comes and goes is on this side, [Waves one hand while keeping the other one stationary] everything coming and going, is there nothing on this side? [Moves waving hand to the other side of the stationary hand and leaves it there in stillness] Is there nothing besides that?  [Then moves the moving hand back to the original position and waves it] On this side, if everything is coming and going, is there something… [Then switches moving hand to the other side of the stationary hand] … which watches this coming and going? What about that one? What’s on this side? Can we make this movement over there? We cannot.

So, if you were to move away from this [shows waving hand on the moving side of the stationary hand] for some time, take our attention away from this moving part and See what is there [as he moves the moving hand past the stationary hand to the other side, leaving it there in stillness] then, when that reviews Itself (the Knowingness Itself, the Awareness Itself) then what can we say about the world? It’s a series of appearances that comes and goes. Which is just like a dream, isn’t it? So, that way, by Its Knowing (‘Its’ with a capital ‘I’) (Knowing with a capital ‘K’) …, because why?

Okay, it’s not just that I like to play with words. It’s important to notice a difference between this kind of Knowing because we can again confuse this to feel like ‘Okay, I know this now’ as an idea, as a concept. If you know it as a concept that ‘There is something beyond the phenomenal’ …, it might be a helpful concept in terms of getting you to that insight; but besides that help, the concept is also useless. So, it is helpful only as a pointer. So, we must use these pointers as an inner invitation to See this for ourself.

What witnesses all that is moving, all that is changing?
Is that You?

Now many times, ‘I’ has become much maligned, you see. Why? Because in most of spirituality, we’ve heard that: You must get rid of the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is the enemy. Kill the ‘I’. Destroy the ‘I’. Because in that way, ‘I’ has been used as the ego; the egoic ‘I’. ‘I’ has not been used as the Self, mostly. So, when all these statements are made (‘Get rid of the ‘I’. Kill the ego.’) it is from the ‘I’ which is the limited perspective which we have picked up. You see? But the ‘I’ is also the Self.

So, why I have to clarify this is because the mind can leave you with a confusion that Awareness is a discovery outside of Me. It is not I. That is not true. It is You. It is the Self. It is You. Just not you-personally. It is your impersonal, non-phenomenal Self.

Now, from this insight about YourSelf, all the questions about whether the world is real, whether it is a dream; all this will be clarified. But as long as you consider yourself an object within the world, all these conclusions of the Sages might seem strange. For the Sage to say “reveals the world as a dream” …, if you’re an object in this world, if you consider yourself to be an object within this world, it can seem like an attack on your own reality.

So, the first part is more important, which is: What is ‘That’? When That is known, then all this moving play of light and sound will seem no different than any other moving play of light and sound. So, you say ‘Substantively, there is no difference between a dream and this seeming-waking state’. All the phenomenal forces that can come to play in the waking state are also available in the dream state.

Anyway, my main point is: Don’t worry about that differentiation, especially if it sounds a bit oppressive or strange. You focus on this:

What is it that you are?

Are you also a play of light and sound?
Are you also an appearance?

What is your truest position?

How to find the truest position?

That which is not coming and going,

That which is unchanging.

Most of the doubts, most of the ‘but…’ will come from the changing. What doubt can you have about That which does not have a phenomenal quality and It is unchanging?

So, all confusion, all doubt, can only be when we bring this changing aspect into the picture. What if you just allow the changing aspect, for some time, to move as it is moving? Be unconcerned about finding an answer about the changing. For some time, be unconcerned about finding an answer to the changing. Stay with Your inner revelation, inner intuition, of the unchanging.

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[18.16] Ashtavakra said, “He who has seen the Supreme Brahma thinks ‘I am Brahma’ but he who has transcended all thought, what can he think? He who knows, He knows no other than Self.”

So, we might have seen any aspect of Consciousness: Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva. (Now I have said this so I will have to clarify): There are two ways in which we define Shiva. One as this pure Self as Awareness Itself. So, when we say ‘Come to your Shiva nature’ we come into that Shiva which is beyond Consciousness, which is Shakti; Shiva and Shakti. So, that is one way in which ‘Shiva’ is used in Indian spirituality. The second way in which ‘Shiva’ is used in spirituality is to look at three aspects of Consciousness. If you were to look at pure Consciousness and give it some aspects, one simple way to do that is to say the Creator is one aspect, that aspect of God which is the Creator is one aspect which is Brahma. That aspect of God which is Sustainer, the Provider, gives this life, energy, life essence that is Vishnu. And then the Regenerator, the Destroyer, the One that leads to all of this getting freshened up again (the clean-up job happening) is Shiva.

So, here when He is saying ‘You might have seen the Supreme aspect of Consciousness which is Brahma Himself, and you might pick it up as a concept ‘I am Brahma’, “… but He who has transcended all thought, what can He think?” …, that means ‘What thought has any value for me now; any meaning or relevance for me now?’ You see that you are beyond all of this, even the aspects of Consciousness. And the mind can only operate within the aspects of Consciousness; give you reports from within this phenomenal view. As glorious as the play might be, You are transcending all of it.

“… He knows no other than Self.” There is nothing greater than the discovery of this Self. Even Arjuna’s perception of Krishna as the enormous form, the Virat Rupa* who he saw the form of Krishna (maybe in chapter 11 of the Bhagavad Gita.**) It is a beautiful conversation about the Gita in which Krishna is sharing the Truth of the Self, but Arjuna is playing the role of the typical seeker and after some point he is starting to get frustrated and says ‘Show me, show me your real form!’ (because he is still very attached to the form). Then Krishna says ‘Okay, let me show you a form which is beyond any other form that you have so far perceived.’ And Arjuna sees this enormous, magnificent form of Krishna in which all the universes are coming and going, and life and death are in service to this for; everything, the most magnificent form that you can imagine or fathom is seen as a perception of Arjuna.

But the simple recognition of the Self, even though the simple pointing ‘Are you aware now?’ is beyond any form, including that form. The formless Krishna, the formless Self that Krishna is pointing to in most of the rest of the Gita is more valuable than the form that was seen. And Arjuna also came to the discovery (actually much later, closer to his death. That is a story for another day).

So, we can get great spiritual experiences, we can see all kinds of lights and fire. You might even see all of these universes bouncing around from place to place. But if you make worldly concepts out of them and just feed them to our sense of specialness, we will only contribute to our spiritual ego. If they remain as the pointers they are meant to be, we to open our mind to go beyond our current perceptions and point to the formless nature of your own Self then that is the right use of spiritual experiences.

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* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishvarupa

**  https://asitis.com/11

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[17.16] Ashtavakra said, “In the Sage there is neither violence nor mercy, arrogance nor humility, anxiety nor wonder. His worldly life is exhausted. He has transcended his role as a person.”

The last line is important there. So, whatever is personal (I’ll give you some ideas) guilt, pride grievances, remorse, regret; all of these are dropped away. Arrogance, which is specialness. Humility; false humility is as bad as pride. Anxiety; anxiety means not just the fluttering, but also the resistance to it, to say that ‘This should not happen. Oh, I’m so scared’ …, mixing up ideas with the appearance of sensations.

[17.17] Ashtavakra said, “The liberated one neither avoids experience nor craves it. He enjoys what comes and what does not.”

Neither avoidance nor covetousness.

[17.18] Ashtavakra said, “The Sage is not conflicted by states of stillness and thought. His mind is empty. His home is the Absolute.”

So now, this paragraph conforms very well with the definition that Vidya shared earlier. He said that ‘Even if stillness is there or thoughts are there, his mind is empty’. So, then this must conform to what we are saying, that it is empty of belief, empty of identification. Because he’s saying that even if thoughts are there, your mind can be empty.

“The Sage is not conflicted by states of stillness and thought. His mind is empty. His home is the Absolute.” So, whether the state is that of turiya (where you feel there is just the sliver of existence that is here but there is no world, there is no body, there is no breath, there is no movement of any sort; and yet, it is not sleep) or whether you are experiencing sleep or whether you are experiencing dream state or whether you are experiencing this waking state, you know that the Self remains unconcerned, untouched, by any of these four aspects of experiencing. In fact, it is these four aspects that are contained within You. You are the substratum for all of this. You are not contained in one of these.

“His home is the Absolute.” So, ‘Absolute’ itself means not affected by states. The relative can have states, the coming and going can have states; the Absolute doesn’t have states.

[17.19] Ashtavakra said, “Though he may perform actions, the man of Knowledge does not act. Desires extinguished, free of thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ he knows with absolute certainty that nothing exists.”

Very good. We explained this many times. “Though he may perform actions” means the functioning, the natural functioning of the body/mind continues, but the man of Knowledge does not act. He knows his true place is beyond this doing and non-doing.

‘Desires extinguished, free of thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’… (or ‘me’ and ‘mine’) …he knows with absolute certainty that nothing exists.”  Desires extinguished, free of thoughts of ‘I’ and ‘mine’ …, when duality itself stops playing. There are two ways to really look at this. You know nothing really exists, so you can go back to our definition of Reality: the real is that which does not come and go. But a bit of word play of this: it is no-thing that exists. It is the Self which is playing this existent nature, this dynamic manifestation. So, ‘nothing exists’ can mean either.

[17.20] Ashtavakra said, “The Sage is free. His empty mind no longer projects delusion, dreaming, dullness. This state is indescribable.”

You see, we start to notice some of these things. Don’t make any of them a benchmark, but you start to notice (and you already See that a few years ago, or maybe before you started coming to Satsang, notice how many times you would say to yourself ‘I’m bored’…, this lethargic boredom. Now, after coming to Satsang, you’ll find it’s a lot less because you are content with yourself. If you’re happy to be with yourself, you can never be bored.

So, don’t make that into a bench mark, that ‘I can never be bored’. Sometimes some boredom can come. [Chuckling] Some need for entertainment can come. But notice that, truly, you find that if you’re left alone; no trouble. If you’re surrounded by people; no trouble. Why? Because we have recognized that there is a great beauty in your existence and all things emerge from there. You are never separated from your Source. So then, all these feelings of delusion, dreaming, dullness…, you will not find yourself so day-dreamy as you used to be. Even the content of the present experience seems so vibrant. “This state is indescribable.”

“The Sage is free. His empty mind no longer projects delusion, dreaming, dullness. This state is indescribable.”

So, let’s not try to describe it. [Chuckles]

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Q: Father, I would leave this burden of benchmarking at your feet, but I feel that mind is trying to grasp it.

A: Yes. Now, the trouble with this checker guy, or this benchmarking, is that (even if I say ‘Don’t benchmark’ you will say ‘Okay, I’ve dropped 50% of my benchmarking’) it makes a benchmark even of that. [Chuckles] You see?

We really cannot ‘do’ this. We cannot ‘do’ this. Somewhere, something just hits home and it flowers; in the play of Consciousness playing as the deluded one and coming to this place of freedom. When I sat at the feet of my Father, I didn’t do anything. I didn’t even not-do anything. There was this dropping of doing and not-doing. Did I do that? No, I didn’t. [Chuckles] Did I not do that? No, I didn’t.

So, just (if it feels like we have a job to do or there’s something I can do) with as much innocence as possible, allow these words to percolate your Being. Your Being Itself is sharing them. And these words will guide your attention to wherever it has to go. It will guide your inner insights to wherever they have to go, because these are the words of Your own intuitive Presence. You don’t have to work at it in that way.

That’s why I said also in the book that ‘It is *Consciousness Speaking with Consciousness’. No personal intervention is needed. Because to the person, everything becomes something to attain, something to get to. Even if I say ‘Get rid of the checker guy; don’t buy the story of the checker guy’…, you will start to check ‘Have I gotten rid of the checker guy?’ [Chuckles] That IS the checker guy. You see?

We don’t need to meet at that level. Something is already moving here. In your Heart, you Know this.

The words of Satsang, the Presence of Satsang, all the play of the sangha; all of this is pointing you to That which is Your unchanging Reality. The mind that only understands phenomenal quantities (and that, too; a very few of those) cannot be the guide on this journey. And if you choose two partners, you choose the Guru and you choose the mind, you yourself will find it very uncomfortable. You will find it a struggle, the spiritual journey. I take some examples some times. I say it’s like trying to sit on two chairs at the same time. Or trying to ride two horses at the same time.

Go with that voice which reminds you of Your true unchanging nature.

Let go of the hand of the one that is only reminding you of your limitation; which is just the mind. It is telling you that you are a spiritual seeker. It is telling you that you are a good or bad person. Both cannot be true. There is one voice which is saying that You are the unlimited, unbounded, unborn Self. And one voice which is saying that you are just this container of flesh and blood and bones. If you listen to both of these voices at the same time, it’s going to be a struggle, you see.

So, Ashtavakra in the second or third verse said ‘Shun the senses like a poisonous snake’ or something. I would say ‘Just shun your next thought in that way.’ We don’t have to even be so strong. You can just laugh at it and say ‘Oh, I just don’t buy what you’re selling me’. [Laughs a bit]

Ride one horse. It’s more comfortable that way.

The force of the mind now, in its most dominant aspect of being the spiritual seeker, as this checker guy, gives you ideas about how far you’ve come in your spiritual progress. None of that is needed. You don’t need that report card. I am telling You that You Are Free. You don’t need this report card anymore.

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*The title of Ananta’s book (available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle)

[17.13] Ashtavakra said, “The liberated soul does not blame or praise, give or take, rejoice or become angry. He is everywhere unattached and free.”

So, “The liberated soul does not blame or praise, give or take, rejoice or become angry.” He is not attached to any of these. He sees the play of the outward functioning doing all of this and he remains unattached. The rejoicing can happen but the idea that ‘I am the rejoicer’ is not there. The anger can come but the ‘resenter’ is not there.

[17.14] Ashtavakra said, “The great soul remains poised and undisturbed, whether in the presence of a passionate woman or observing the approach of his death. He is truly free.”

Everything in the world is treated with simple equanimity, simple Seeing; empty of feverishness, empty of ‘What’s in it for me?’

“…or observing the approach of his death.” We will see how that one goes. I’m not sure; we’ll see. “He is truly free.”

[17.15] Ashtavakra said, “The Sage sees no difference between happiness and misery, man and woman, adversity and success. Everything is seen to be the same.”

This is important, again, because this can again lead to some confusion when he says, “The Sage sees no difference between happiness and misery, man and woman, adversity and success. Everything is seen to be the same.”

So, some have had this idea that ‘If I’m able to still see a difference, does that mean I’m still coming from my ego?’ Now, we have to look at this closely. It is not that the Sage cannot distinguish between red and blue; it is not that the Sage becomes color blind. Red is still red, blue is still blue. What Ashtavakara is saying here is that whether it is red or blue, there is no concern about that.

It’s a subtle point and it might seem trivial but it is very important. When we see our lives, we see that we get caught up in a lot of guilty ideas. If you see someone shouting at you and you were able to see that this one is coming from an angry place; we are able to see this. If you see someone who, in their words, is smelling of the pure fragrance of Being; that is tasted differently. And if you see someone where every word seems to be dipped in egoic belief, that is tasted differently. But because the tastes are different, the Sage is not saying ‘This should not be. I don’t want this experience. I only want that experience.’ So, in that way, it does not make a difference.

Many, especially those in relationships, have come to me with this question, and they have said ‘Father, I still find my partner and I see that he is being so egoistic. Does that mean I’m being egoistic?’ And I say ‘Well, that depends.’ [Chuckles] ‘If you’re just spotting that he or she is being egoistic, and that is not met with a resistance; if the freedom is there that ‘Yes, the world is allowed to be as they are’. But if we say ‘But why does my partner have to be so egoistic? I wish it was not like this’ …, then what is that? This ‘me’ is what? It is the ego. So, the spotting of an appearance which seems to be coming from the place of individuality is not the trouble. It is what we believe about ourself as a result of that.

Because the world will play in all its flavors anyway. So, you will be able to spot the difference in colors, the entire spectrum. In the same way, you will be able to spot the difference in all the various expressions but you will not make a judgement about it. You will not make a conclusion about anyone based on that appearance in the moment. In this way you remain open, while continuing to perceive all the flavors of the phenomenal world.

The Sage perceives this very well. That’s why he is able to come to a resonance with what is being shared and give an answer based on that.

“Everything is seen to be the same” does not imply that everything now becomes one color; it does not becomes a single colored world or something like that. “Everything is seen to be the same” means that everything is Seen as Consciousness Itself and there is acceptance for all the flavors of Consciousness.

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[17.9] Ashtavakra said, “There is no attachment or non-attachment for one in whom the ocean of the world has dried up. His look is vacant, senses still. His actions have no purpose.”

Now, ‘vacant’ usually has a negative connotation in the English language (‘Oh, he had very vacant eyes’). So, it is not like that. When we look at a photo of Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] or when we look at Guruji’s [Sri Mooji] photo, we know that there is no conditioning mixed into the looking; but we don’t usually use the word ‘vacant’. We use ‘It is empty of conditioning’. Like Guruji says, ‘Who is looking from behind those eyes?’ Not that there’s a real entity looking from behind those eyes, but is it mixed up with our ‘What’s in it for me?’ idea? So, empty of this conditioning. These eyes are very open. I would call them open rather than vacant.

“There is no attachment or non-attachment for one in whom the ocean of the world has dried up. His look is vacant, senses still. His actions have no purpose.”

This also we understand, isn’t it? It’s not that ‘I’m doing it because I want this, because I want my life to be this way’. We’re noticing that actions are continuing but they’re not driven by that personal-I doer, personal-I ambition. And yet, actions continue to happen.

[17.10] Ashtavakra said, “The sage is neither asleep nor awake. He neither closes nor opens his eyes. Thus, for the liberated soul, everywhere there is only This.”

The Sage knows that, for reality, there is no difference between sleep state (dreamless sleep state) and waking state. He is beyond these states. He is beyond these states but you are also beyond these states. That is the important thing. [Chuckles] You don’t have to worry so much about the Sage’s state; only as a pointer to make this recognition for YourSelf. So, these are all clues for us. They are not just inquiries for the Sage, which is beautiful, but these are all clues for us. Find That which is beyond the state of waking and sleep. What witnesses waking and sleep? You. You do. The Self does. It is beyond these states.

“He neither closes nor opens his eyes.” He’s not the doer of any of these actions. He Sees that all of this is happening in the phenomenal play of Consciousness.

“Thus, for the liberated soul, everywhere there is only This.” There’s only This. There’s only the Self. All ornaments are made up only of gold. All appearances are just appearances made up of the Light projected from the screen of Consciousness.

[17.11] Ashtavakra said, “The liberated soul abides in Self alone and is pure of heart. He lives always and everywhere, free of desire.”

“…abides in Self alone…” means ‘doesn’t give value to the pretense of separation’. It is not like an effortful trying to abide. This is the source of a lot of confusion for many of us, isn’t it? Because many of the great Sages have said ‘Abide only as the Self’. But You Are the Self. If you can only BE the Self, how do You abide?

We had a full transcript of a Satsang on this, if I’m not mistaken. If You can ONLY be the Self. Then, what is the instruction ‘Abide in the Self’? It only means ‘Don’t pick up the pretense of the non-self; don’t pick up the pretense of your individuality’. That’s the only play of ‘abiding’.

It is not even this idea that ‘My attention should only be at home; not arise, not bring any phenomenal content’. When Consciousness is done with the play of phenomenal content, It Itself dissolves and goes into sleep. So, it is not that form of aversion to phenomenal perception. We have sleep for that. And in sleep, there is nothing outside of the Self. When the Self is done playing with the apparent appearance of the phenomenal world, then it will be done with it. It won’t even appear. The job of attention is that it seems to bring this phenomenal creation to life. So, attention can also go. We don’t have to force our attention in that way. In the moment of Self-recognition, when the Master asks you or points you in a direction, automatically attention knows how to follow that. We don’t have to force our attention even in inquiry. The questions will do that job for us. No ‘person’ trying to stay or trying not to leave like that. That is not allowing.

Allowing means allowing everything to function. Often, I have talked about attention in this way, that it is like the dog on the leash. Where will it go? Sometimes, I say attention is like this arm. See, it’s always attached here, at the shoulder. Whatever content it’s bringing from outside, do I have to be concerned that ‘Where is this arm going? It might leave me one day’. [Chuckles] You don’t. Because you know it is just reporting back to the Self. This it cannot leave. It cannot leave You.

“The liberated soul abides in Self alone and is pure of heart. He lives always and everywhere, free of desire.”

Pure of heart just means the phenomenal by-products of this discovery. And the usual phenomenal by-products…, what does it mean ‘pure heart?’ The pure Heart with a capital ‘H’ is always pure, so we don’t have to worry about purifying that.

Here what is being implied is empty of resentment, empty of grievances, empty of guilt, remorse; all of these ideas. What are these? These are some emotions mixed with concepts. If you look at guilt, what is it? It is an emotion also. But is it a pure emotion? No, it is also mixed with the thought ‘I should not have done this’. What is pride? Is it a pure thought? No. It is a pure emotion? No. It is a mixture, a soup, of emotions and thoughts, the play of these two, which is the mind has made into a pattern and it feels like ‘Yes, it’s so good that I did that’. It’s a feeling of something; some joy could even be there but it mixes that with some idea. ‘This was so good, you did such a good job today.’ Or some feeling of some frustration, some regret. Not even regret; some natural-type frustration feeling could be coming mixed with ‘I should not have done that’ and that becomes guilt. So, we look at all of these; grievances, regret, remorse, pride, guilt…, all of this. So, as we become empty of all of this (because the basis for all of this is the idea of an individual ‘me’) then that can be the pure heart.

[He reads a comment from sangha]: “You often distinguish between thought and thinking.”

Exactly. The appearance of a thought in the way we term ‘thinking’ is not thinking. It is the appearance, attention and belief which make it ‘thinking’. Because what is the product of attention? What is the product of thought mixed with attention and belief? It is identity. So, when Guruji says ‘Don’t identify’ this is what it means.

[17.12] Ashtavakra said, “Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, taking, speaking, walking, the great soul exerts neither effort nor non-effort. He is truly free.”

“Neither effort nor non-effort.” Very important. So, this is exactly what I was saying earlier. As you’re moving from making effort to try and ‘be effortless’ then that is also another position. Even openness, I have found. Many times, I say ‘Remain open’. And many times, we can hear that like…, the other day in Satsang, someone gave a very beautiful report. They said, ‘I’m staying open, but I’m worried that something might go wrong.’ You see? ‘I’m staying open.’ So, even that ‘open’ can become a position. It’s that not like that, that ‘I am now doing the open thing.’ It is just the dropping of all positions. The dropping of ‘open’ and ‘non-open’ is openness. The dropping of ‘effort’ and ‘non-effort’ is true effortlessness.

The mind can get frustrated with these instructions, like ‘Just tell me what to do!’ [Chuckles] But even that telling you what to do would you telling you to take a position. So, the best I can tell you is to just become innocent like a child. But even that can become a position. So, it has to be just allowed to hit home; these words. Don’t try to manipulate them into fitting some framework that you have of your spirituality. They have enough power to hit home on their own. In fact, your trying to manage them can seem to cause confusion about them.

The frustration can be what? ‘You’re not leaving me with a coherent spiritual framework.’ Yes. [Chuckles] Guilty as charged without any feeling of guilt. I’m not leaving you with a coherent spiritual framework because my job is to give that away, to demolish that. There are enough coherent spiritual frameworks everywhere. Have they lead to your freedom, your coming to the end of suffering? No.

Then, the beauty of this is, when you’re empty of any mental spiritual frameworks, you will discover the beauty of this and it will seem completely coherent. Things like ‘Now you no longer make effort nor non-effort’. There is nothing illogical in that for me now. So, it is not that you will not discover the beautiful synchronicity, in a way…, symphonic nature of these pointings. So, even the words of Satsang which might seem initially confusing to the mind, then you will start to appreciate from your truer place and see the symphony…, which might have completely different notes but you will see that they have a particular purpose at that point of time.

~ ~ ~

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Q: Father, are there any thoughts which are not ‘What’s in it for me’ thoughts?

A: I’ve said the ego’s maha-mantra is ‘What’s in it for me?’

Q: I’ve been looking but can’t find.

A: There are some which come very innocently trying to just give you a taste or a translation of something purely phenomenal. Like I take the example: The flower is white. The thought can come ‘The flower is white’. But if you give it a minute or two, soon a judgment which comes with the ‘me’ will come, like ‘I like this’. You see? The ‘me’ will come. ‘Ah, the white flowers, these are very nice.’ … ‘The coconut is green.’ Innocent thoughts, just a bad photocopy of the phenomenal experience. Therefore, just harmless in that way.

‘The coconut is green.’ But again, ‘Coconuts are nice, they are very good. I should have a coconut every day.’ It starts like that. And you’ll notice that the experience of the green coconut or the white flower does not rely on the concept ‘green coconut’ or ‘white flower’. So, to experience this phenomenal realm, we don’t need the conceptual crutches of thought. The experience of it is already happening. The taste of life continues to be tasted. Like the Sage said, “Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating.” But he didn’t say ‘Thinking’. So, in existence, all of this natural functioning (as long as existence is arising) all this naturally can happen. The functioning of the senses, eating and other bodily functions, they can just continue.

You do not need thinking to exist.

You do not need thinking to even taste the experience of this phenomenal creation.

So, sometimes thought will come and pose and say ‘Oh, Ananta is wrong because I’m just saying the coconut is green, you see? Why does he say don’t believe this? Nothing wrong with this; the coconut is green.’ [Laughs] But you notice, the mind is very tricky. It might just give you a very direct-seeming phenomenal report but very quickly you will find it makes a judgment which is more of the ‘me’. And the limited sense of ‘me’ is quickly to catch on.

So, whether some thoughts seem empty of selling the story of the ‘me’…, very quickly you’ll see that this one, it comes to the sales pitch very quickly. The salesman called the mind will come very quickly. It might bait you with some harmless-sounding concepts. And very quickly, it gets the limited idea of ‘me’ bought.

[17.6] Ashtavakra said, “Rare is the right-minded person who neither covets nor shuns religion, wealth, pleasure, life or death.”

So, what is this ‘right mind’? The mind only knows opposites. If I say the right mind is the neutral mind, then the mind will come into neutral; even making neutral a position. So, actually, what the Sage is saying by ‘right mind’ is the dropping of this mind; the emptying of any concept. Because to the mind, it only understands specific reference points. So, if I say, like Guruji [Sri Mooji] says sometimes (he jokes and says) ‘Be natural’. But if you try to be natural, then that also becomes a position which is the opposite of naturalness. So, this naturalness is a simple openness, a simple allowing. It’s not truly “right-minded” in that way. It is not even about taking a right-minded position but it’s more… (there are some who are coveting, coveting, desire, desire and there are those who are shunning, shunning, aversion, aversion; neither of these) …, just What Is, just Is.

“Rare is (this one) who neither covets nor shuns religion, wealth, pleasure, life or death.”

[17.7] Ashtavakra said, “The man of Knowledge neither cares for the universe nor desires its dissolution. He lives happily on whatever comes his way. He is blessed.”

“The man of Knowledge…” Okay, now remember this is Knowledge with a capital ‘K’ which we have spoken of being not like mental knowledge. “The man of Knowledge neither cares for the universe nor desires its dissolution. He lives happily on whatever comes his way. He is blessed.” So, we’ve spoken enough about this.

[17.8] Ashtavakra said, “Knowing Self, mind empty and at peace, the Sage lives happily, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating.”

Such a very (almost) simple-sounding verse but it captures almost all of Satang. “Knowing Self” (capital ‘K’ Knowing) …, this recognition is what we’re talking about in every Satsang.

“Knowing Self, mind empty and at peace” …, this emptiness that we’re talking about; this openness, allowing all thoughts to come and go, not believing our next thought basically.

“Knowing Self, mind empty and at peace.” Just this much is Satsang. What is Satsang? Coming to the Knowing of the Self and the mind is empty and at peace.

“The Sage lives happily.” So, happiness arises naturally. And all the functioning of seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating still goes on naturally. So, the second part is like saying ‘Before enlightenment, chopping wood, fetching water; after enlightenment, chopping wood, fetching water’.

The Sage is saying, “Knowing Self, mind empty and at peace.” So, we’re not even talking about ‘mind empty’ as Bhagavan [Sri Ramana Maharshi] would say, ‘Mano Nasha’ [which means] ‘Come to the mind which is empty of all thoughts’. We’re not even setting that target. Because I notice that the mind here continues to have thoughts and most of the Masters and Sages (all of the Masters and Sages I’ve been with) continue to have thoughts. So, Bhagavan’s very fancy about that. I’ve never been in this physical world with Ashtavakra so I don’t know about that. But I can tell you from this experience, ‘mind empty’ only means that mind is not resisted; mind is allowed to come and go.

So, is it possible that there is a level of enlightenment which is still not here or something like that? Completely. I cannot say. Because somebody like Bhagavan has said ‘Mano Nasha’ so I’m nobody to deny that. But at least what I can share with you from my living truth is that the mind is not empty; thoughts still come and go, but they’re just allowed to let go 99.9-something-percent of the time. And even when something gets attention, mostly it is laughed at.

As I expect complete integrity (or as complete integrity as possible) from my Sangha, I also feel it is my duty to share with integrity. So, I can only share from what is the living experience here, which is to come to the recognition of the Truth; and in Seeing the recognition of the Truth, come to the realization that the mind is not meaningful as far as the Truth of what I Am is concerned. Therefore, the belief in this mind becomes more and more difficult.

So, the recognition aids in allowing this mind to just come and go, and allowing the mind to just come and go provides more space for this inner, intuitive recognition.

“Knowing Self, mind empty and at peace, the Sage lives happily, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating.”

~ ~ ~

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[17.4] Ashtavakra said, “Rare in the world is one who does not relish past enjoyments, nor yearn for enjoyments to come.”

I’ve spoken about this life (for most of humanity) being a seeming-struggle to run away from pain and to seek pleasure. Many times, in spirituality also we have this pleasure-seeking (similar pleasure-seeking) where we’re concerned more about the bliss or the taste of Self-realization about Self-realization itself. It is not different. So, usually I give the simple answer which is to say if the Truth is Sat-Chit-Ananda, if the Self is Sat-Chit-Ananda, to focus on Sat and Chit (which is Truth and Existence, Truth and Being) and let Ananda take care of itself.

But, actually, when we are looking at this now, we See that the nature of Your unassociated Presence is Ananda itself, is Joy itself. What happens is that we end up confusing this Joy and we want to convert it into some sort of a personal joy. ‘I want to be the claimant of this joy. I want to be the owner of this joy.’ Then the individual ‘I’ still comes in. Then it can seem like ‘Oh, there is no bliss. Where is the bliss?’ But if you were to explore Your own Existence, Right Now, You’ll notice that this Joy is beyond any taste of phenomenal joy. It is the Joy of existing. All of us are tasting it.

In fact, this is one of the popular reasons why we say that Consciousness plays this game or Awareness plays this game of existence, of coming into existence because it gets Joy from Its existence. So, it is never that, as you remain with Your Presence, you’ll notice that this Presence is everempty of Joy, empty of Peace, contentment. But when we make it personal, when we make it an aspect of our report card of freedom (‘How much joy am I feeling?’) then it can seem elusive. Or simply put, through worldly eyes, this Joy can seem elusive. Sometimes you taste it; sometimes you don’t. But to the eyes-of-Your-Being, Being tasting Itself, this is a pristine Joy. I Am that I Am. Being enjoying its own Beingness, its own Existence.

So, what is the clue in this? The clue in this is that if You are the Source of all Joy, and all phenomenal joy is subservient to this pure Joy of Being, then where must you look for Joy? It cannot be in outer objects and it cannot be with the eyes of a ‘claimant’. It cannot be with the eyes of a person. If you remain empty of concept and taste Your own Existence, Right Now (put away the measuring tape, put away the barometer; allow Existence to just exist without trying to exist ‘as something’) then you will find that even for this unassociated Presence, it is the fruit of this Presence and this Joy (with no idea of what Joy should be). As you start tasting Your own Presence in this way, the feverish-ness for joy from seeming-outward objects will start to dissolve. The feverish-ness will start to dissolve. It’s not that all desire must go away. But the potential of desire to cause suffering goes away.

[17.5] Ashtavakra said, “Those who desire pleasure and those who desire liberation are both common in the world. Rare is the great soul who desires neither enjoyment nor liberation.”

Now, you have to have the right ears to hear this. What the Sage is saying is that whether you desire objects or you are looking for freedom, you’re still ‘a cat’…, a cat chasing its next bowl of milk and trying to find it in objects, trying to find joy in these objects. And now, he’s chasing freedom as if it will get something, as a cat.

“…are both common in the world.”  So, we’re still being worldly if you’re chasing this or that. Now, “Rare is the great soul who desires neither enjoyment…” and not even freedom. If you’re empty of desire, including the desire that ‘What Is, should be something else’ you cannot suffer. Suffering is a resistance to ‘What Is’. And a primal desire is that ‘What Is, should be something else’ according to my mind’s idea of ‘What Is’ should be.

If you have no notion about anything at all, those are rare. If you’re not chasing anything at all, you’re not chasing the next bowl of milk, very quickly you will see that you’re not ‘a cat’.

But if I keep saying ‘You’re not a cat, You’re not a cat’ and you’re still thinking ‘I want my milk, I want my milk’ [Chuckles] then it can seem like the journey seems longer.

So, very often I say (even like this): You are Free! And the response I get is ‘Father, when will I be free?’ or ‘When will I see it?’ But You Are That. You see it Right Now. What You See about YourSelf is the Truth of what You Are; not what you imagine about yourself or what you interpret or judge about yourself. What do you truly find when you look? That is the Truth.

And yet, because we might have a pre-conceived notion of what freedom should be (the pre-conceptions can come from anything, from the books, from anything we’ve heard about Self-realization) then quickly we turn everything we have heard in satsang and we start to look at it through our ‘cat lens’…., through our individualized lenses. Then we start to look at finding freedom in that way.

So, this effortlessness that I’ve been talking about: effortless allowing. Nothing to chase, nowhere to go, nothing to find except that recognition of already What Is. You get away from the denial of the Truth by not forcing belief in the false. To See What Is for What Is. All the examples of the Sage are to See that there is no snake in the rope. It has just been an idea. To See that all these ornaments are gold and there is no difference in substance. All it needs is a simple insight into What Is, empty of any preconceived ideas or notions.

[Silence]

Who is here that has a lack; that can desire something?

Can that one be found?

That’s why I say that the one who wants better relationships or wants more money in the bank or wants some special powers for his body or some special kind of health for his body is the same one who wants freedom. Which one? That non-existent one. The non-existent one. Is that one here?

“Those who desire pleasure and those who desire liberation are both common in the world. Rare is the great soul who desires neither enjoyment nor liberation.”

~ ~ ~

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

A slight digression, which I feel also is a little bit important here since this came up about ‘relationships’. One simple thing to see is that if there is a sense that ‘I want Freedom’ then are we able to also give that Freedom? Many times, many Beings have come to the idea that they have found their Freedom and yet when we see their expression, outward expression in life, it can seem like ‘But they are not giving the Freedom to anything in the world’.

Like ‘Sometimes it should be like this, you must only do that, you must have only this, you can only do that’. So, this sense of control, you see. It is a subtle point. We want Freedom and we say ‘Ah, please, the world, including my partner, should let me be exactly as I am.’ But in that, are we letting our partner be exactly how he or she is? Are we giving the Freedom to the Ones around us to also be deluded for as long as they like? [Chuckles]

Sometimes, we are forcing our idea of Freedom upon them. It is a very subtle topic. So, when somebody comes to me for advice and says ‘Father, this one, my family, my brother, my husband, my wife, they are suffering so much can I speak to them about this? Can I share something here?’ And my advice usually is that if there is an urge in your heart and it is coming from a true place, and not from any sort of specialness, then knock gently. Knock gently. If the door opens and there is an invitation for you to share then make these pristine sharings available to them.

Why am I saying all this? There was a point here, before I met Guruji [Sri Mooji] there was a time here (and many of you who have been with me for long have heard this story (but many new Ones are there is Satsang today so I want to share this) there was a time where I was the worst representation of the Advaita spiritual ego.

So, then what would happen is that I would be at work, Garima would be at work, she would come back home, we would come back home and then she would say like this ‘You know I had such a terrible day, and today this happened’ and I would say ‘But who are ‘you’?’ And she, poor thing, would say, ‘But I am just to sharing my day with you and I am trying to relate and have this conversation; and this is what relationships do, isn’t it? Share their ups and downs in life> And every time I talk to you only say ‘Who are ‘you’?’ (or even better ‘How do you know this is not a dream?’) So, all of this has happened here where very natural day-to-day conversations have been taken by the spiritual ego and then represented in that way.

Actually, I then met Ramesh [Ramesh Balsekar] one day. The next time I went to Mumbai (maybe something was bothering me). So, I said ‘I understand and resonate so much with this non-doership thing that you talk about, about how there is no individual doer. But how do I explain all this to my wife?’ So, he said to me ‘Let her come to you.’ And those words stuck. Somehow, when those words stuck, then I realized what was happening here was trying to convey that ‘I am at a different level now’. Maybe some good intention was also there; I won’t say it was that bad. But a lot of it was about this Advaita specialness…, ‘See I have discovered the Truth like this. Come I will help you also see. What is this petty stuff that you are bothered about?’ This kind of specialness.

So, the Freedom about both these things, when someone asks or invites us in, even then, be gentle try to meet them where they are. Don’t try to push your perspective. Because remember that all that we share here also is just pointers; it is just pointers. And the same set of pointers does not apply to everyone. If it would apply to everyone then we would have tens of thousands of people here. It is for those who have a specific set of conditioning, a certain set of pointers apply. Another with another set of conditioning, a different set of pointers apply. So, there is no need to pick up any arrogance about this being the best path, the only true path or something like that. Especially in our relationships, we don’t need to thrust this down anyone’s throat. You allow them to come to you. And if you truly feel there is intent in your heart to share this, what is the right way? The right way is to knock gently and wait for the door to open. Don’t try to tear the door down and give it to them straight and explain to them.

Don’t jump into becoming the next Maharaj [Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj] or Papaji [Poonja] or something like that. Even with these great Sages, they only shared with those who came to them. Maharaj, for most of Mumbai, was a bidi seller. To whomever knew him, he was a bidi seller. So, I am sure that when people came to him and said ‘Give me the packet of cigarettes or bidis’ he did not say, ‘Who wants to smoke?’ He probably said, ‘Which brand do you want?’

There is a deeper message in this, which is that as we are claiming this Freedom for ourself, we must also give it to the world. Let the world be as it is; including the actions that happen from here. Don’t pick up guilt or pride about them.

Now, this sort of acceptance does not mean you become a sheep; that you force yourself to come to this position from this acceptance. That will also become a position. Empty of positions, you will watch that the functioning of this body/mind will continue in its natural way. The Sage says that seeing, talking, hearing’ everything will happen.

Chapter 17: The True Knower.

[17.1] Ashtavakra said, “One has attained Knowledge and reaped the fruits of yoga who is content, purified of attachments and at home in solitude.”

So, what does it mean? “One has attained Knowledge and reaped the fruits of yoga…” Yoga means the recognition of this oneness; coming to this union. In fact, the English word ‘yoke’ (to come together, become as one) is also derived from this.

“…who is content, purified of attachments and at home in solitude.” We’ve looked at this aspect often now, where we saw that attachment is the sense of division, the sense of separation. ‘I am an object therefore, I need other objects to complete me, and they must be mine’. The ‘me’ and the ‘mine’ is the play of attachment.

“…at home in solitude.” So, one who has found himself to be the Source of everything doesn’t need the company of another; and neither is averse to the company of another. The idea of loneliness or togetherness itself is not that meaningful now because you see that You are the container of All There Is.

[17.2] Ashtavakra said, “The knower of Truth is never miserable in the world, for the whole universe is filled with Himself alone.”

Once you know the Truth of who You Are, you have to struggle to be miserable. We’ve spoken about this. Every time, we only speak about this actually. What is Satsang for? For you to recognize this: You-Consciousness recognizing Your own Source which is this Knowingness, this Awareness, this Truth. And to recognize actually that there is Awareness alone. And even this moving aspect, this dynamic aspect, is nothing else other than the Self. It’s not outside of the Self. So, once you See that all of this is inside You, is an appearance for You, the Truth remains untouched by any appearance. Then you have to really struggle to be miserable.

“The knower of Truth is never miserable in the world, for the whole universe is filled with Himself alone.” So, if you See that Self is All There Is, Awareness is All There Is, and this dynamic aspect, Consciousness, is also made up of what? The same Awareness, the same Self, manifesting Itself as if it is now existent, it is now ‘being’. And all is made up of this very same Consciousness.

Therefore, nothing is outside of You. In fact, “the whole universe is filled with Himself alone.”

[17.3] Ashtavakra said, “As the foliage of the neem tree does not please an elephant who delights in sallaki leaves, so do sense objects not please he who delights in Self.”

The neem leaves anyway are known to be quite bitter. They have a certain nice quality about them also, but not compared to these other leaves (which I’ve never tasted, actually) sallaki leaves. So, those who enjoy these sallaki leaves, those elephants, they are not pleased by the foliage of the neem tree.

Once you have tasted YourSelf, which, in its non-phenomenality, quality-less-ness (yet is pristine) it truly cannot be described. Like you cannot describe love to those who have not experienced it in their heart. But we can try.

So, for verses like this, we truly have to try to see that this discovery of the Self, that One which is untouched by any other taste, the unchanging, the unmoving, the ever-witnessing Awareness, this Self …, once you settle in the taste of this, then you will find that the neediness or the desire about worldly taste is not so much. And yet, it is not that the taste of the world goes away. It is experienced in its full vibrancy. Yet, it does not compare to the taste that you are having of Your own Self-recognition.

We cannot be bored by the Self. All other tastes might bore you. The best music might bore you, the best food might bore you, the best sensual experience might bore you but the taste of the Self is never boring. And it’s never too much. Nobody ever says ‘Oh, there’s just too much Self.’ For sweet and salty, we can say that. For any other phenomenal experience, we can say that (too much or too little). But this Self is never too much or too little.

~ ~ ~

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[16.5] Ashtavakra said, “When the mind is free of opposites like ‘This is done’ and ‘This is yet undone’ one becomes indifferent to merit, wealth, pleasure and liberation.”

Now, very subtle messages have been put in this. The ‘clean-up’ is cleaning up everything. What is the first word? ‘Merit.’ At least in India, it is a very popular concept, that our job is to do as much good karma as possible. So, that is counted as a sign of ‘merit’…, we get more and more merit by doing more and more good.

Now, we are even out-growing this concept. We are saying that there is no doer here. This body is in service to Consciousness itself and Consciousness is moving it exactly the way it chooses to. So, this idea of gaining more and more merit ‘So that I can enjoy the fruits of this merit’ (which is also a never-ending cycle) is kept aside.

‘Wealth.’ I have spoken about this; security, money, wealth. This is one of considerations of our limited perception about our Self.

‘Pleasure.’ So often we have spoken about this; oscillation between pain and pleasure being the state of the body and us making a conclusion about ourselves based on the state of the body or the sensations experienced. So, then life can seem to be just about avoidance of pain and rushing towards pleasure.

And then he also put in ‘liberation’. “When the mind is free of opposites like ‘This is done’ and ‘This is yet undone’ (if you don’t have a concept) one becomes indifferent to merit, wealth, pleasure and liberation.”

Why is this so important? Because this is the arch-nemesis of Satsang; the checker guy. ‘This is done, this is not done. You are free, you are 90% free, you are 70% free’ …, this checker guy who keeping track of your liberation; whether something is done or not. You can be free of this. You can just let it come and go.

[16.6] Ashtavakra said, “One who abhors sense objects, avoids them. One who desires them becomes ensnared. One who neither abhors nor desires is neither detached nor attached.”

This is very, very important because so much of spirituality, especially traditional spirituality, seems to tell us we must be free from our attachments and we must be detached. What is more important is to see what You Are. Why? Because when you see what you are you, will realize that you are already beyond attachment and detachment. He says that which we ‘abhor’ then it becomes like an avoidance’ we want to run away from that …, ‘Oh please God, make sure this doesn’t happen in my life’. So, it’s an avoidance of that. That which we desire, then we are caught in that, feverish about it, ensnared by it.

A lot of tendencies, vasanas, conditions get created just because we hear that we must be free from conditions. If you hear that you must be free from your lust, then the condition will be there that ‘I must become free from my lust’ and every time lust appears, then you will say to yourself ‘No, this is not good. I am not good enough yet. I cannot be free because I am not free from lust.’ So, on top of the lust then we added another four conditions.

That’s why Bhagavan’s [Sri Ramana Maharishi] way, Guruji’s [Sri Mooji] way is the best. Find out who You Are.

Who is it that you are referring to yourself?

Are you also subject to conditions?

Are you also an Appearance?

Then in this, desire/aversion doesn’t apply to Me; doership/non-doership doesn’t apply to Me.

“One who neither abhors nor desires is neither detached nor attached.” You are beyond all of this.

[16.7] Ashtavakra said, “As long as there is desire, which is the absence of discrimination, there will be attachment and non-attachment. This is the cause of the world.”

What does this mean? As long as there is desire, which is the absence of discrimination, how can discrimination help with desire? What is discrimination? This ‘discrimination’ is not the way it usually used in the world; we are not discouraging any sort of discrimination. He is saying discriminate between what is Real and what is unreal. In Sanskrit, it is called ‘viveka’. It is like a positive discrimination, so you know what is changing and what is Unchanging, what is Truth and what is false, what is Real and what is not real.

So, why does he say that desire is the absence of discrimination? Because the minute you see what is Real, you will find that which is already complete. It can have no lack or desire. Desire is only a product. As I call it, the three D’s: Duality, Desire and Doership. They are all a product of absence of discrimination; confusing the impermanent to be true and to be in denial of the unchanging. That which is coming and going, an appearance; we want to hang on to that forever. That is Desire. And that which is already here complete and unchanging, we don’t look at that. That is what the Sage means by ‘absence of discrimination’.

As long as there is this absence of discrimination there will be attachment and non-attachment, this play of conditions and this play of wanting to be rid of the conditions, of desires and of aversions.

“This is the cause of the world.’ This we have talked about, why this is the cause of the world. We have talked about two levels of how the term ‘desire’ is being used. Now he is talking about this worldly play. The idea that there is a ‘me’ and there is a ‘world’ comes only when we have this lack of true insight, when we have this absence of true discrimination between what is true and what is false.

So, we call this play of what? A play of Duality. Me and the world. There is always a me in respect to something else; me and my experience. This Duality is a product of false ideas, concepts.

~ ~ ~

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[16.8] Ashtavakra said, “Indulgence creates attachment. Aversion creates abstinence. Like a child, the sage is free of both and thus lives on as a child.”

Free of all these opposites; indulgence, aversion; attachment, non-attachment, doership, non-doership’…, free of all these positions; what are you? Just like a child, enjoying whatever is in the play for the play that it is.

[Silence]

Free of guilt and pride, free of grievances and regret. A child, before he learns how to pick up all these concepts is free of this. This is the theme, isn’t it? We’ve picked up all of these and now we are dropping all of these because they have brought only limitation and suffering into our lives. That’s why, so commonly, everyone says ‘I wish I could go back to my life as a child.’ We’re so happy as children. Why? Because we’re not buying all this; grievances and regrets, guilt and pride. So much of life is lived fresh.

[16.9] Ashtavakra said, “One who is attached to the world thinks renouncing it will relieve his misery.”

So, even this position of renouncing the world is a symptom of our attachment to it. So, if you ever take a position with regards to something, that means it still means something to you. When you take the position that ‘I’m renouncing the world’ then it is still playing out as an attachment that ‘I have to do something; get rid of it’. One who is attached to nothing is free; he doesn’t need to renounce. So, this is the power of this discovery, this recognition. You transcend this play as an individual entity and you come to the substratum. Once you See that ‘I am the substratum’ do you have to detach or attach to anything? Nothing. It is only when you consider yourself to be part of the play, an object in the play, do all the concepts still apply.

[16.9 continues]: “One who is attached to nothing is free and does not feel miserable even in the world.”

So, he doesn’t have to renounce the world, doesn’t have to pick up the saffron robes and walk away from house and family. The world is there; it can play. But there is this Seeing that ‘I am not the one who can be attached or unattached. I don’t need to accept or to renounce. Acceptance and renunciation don’t apply to Me.’

Now, this is very, very important:

[16.10] Ashtavakra said, “He who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person, is neither enlightened nor a seeker. He suffers his own misery.”

This is what Guruji [Sri Mooji] says, ‘There is no such thing as an enlightened person.’ It’s a paradox in terms. So, if you can feel like ‘I’m an enlightened person’…, what is that? ‘I am now a special sort of person. This is just the voice of arrogance, the voice of intellectual understanding or spiritual ego which can play like this.

What did he say right at the beginning? That ‘You can read the best scriptures but until you come to this point of knowing nothing, you will still suffer.’ And this is how it plays out. It can come that ‘I’ve been to 100 satsangs and I know all the concepts that are shared there; I am free.’ That can also be one of the concepts. But if it relies on the concept ‘I am free’ for you to be free, if your enlightenment is dependent upon this belief about yourself, then it is just this mind playing as the spiritual ego. When you’re empty of even these concepts…

That’s why the Sage defined it really well: “Who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person” (that I, as an individual entity got something special) “is neither enlightened nor a seeker.” Enlightenment means what? To come to this Light of pure Presence, unshackled with conditions. So, because they’re holding onto concepts and conditions, you cannot call them liberated. And they are also no longer the seeker, because they are buying the concept that they are free. So, there’s a special kind of misery reserved for these people. “He suffers his own misery.”

And we’ve seen that. We’ve seen that in our lives also how the spiritual specialness, spiritual ego, can make even the play of the most humble seeker; how it can convert them into this arrogant, egoistic, spiritual ego which is so desperate to be right, so desperate to be accepted as the voice of the Truth; so quick to say that they have gone beyond even their Masters.

[Silence]

All of this is the play of Consciousness playing as a person as if they are an enlightened person.

[Silence]

That’s why Guruji says, ‘If you feel like you haven’t got it, keep coming to Satsang. But definitely if you feel you have got it, keep coming to Satsang.’ [Chuckles] Satsang will keep working on that ego, will keep chopping it from all sides and directions until you are completely empty of any conditions about YourSelf (except some momentary conditionings, once in a while).

[Silence]

Sometimes, we take even our most pure insights and use them as some sort of a claim for our specialness. Many times, in Satsang, I’m asking someone ‘So, where is this coming from?’ and you can smell arrogance, so you say ‘Where is this coming from?’ … ‘No, no, Ananta! This is from my insight! Trust me! Trust me!’ So much holding on…

The One that You found YourSelf to be is free from all of this…, proclamation and claiming. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. Your fragrance itself …, will bring me to your feet.

[Silence]

“He who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person, is neither enlightened nor a seeker. He suffers his own misery.”

[16.11] Ashtavakra said, “Though Hara, Hari or the lotus-born Brahma himself instruct you, until you know nothing, you will never know Self.”

“Though Hara, Hari or the lotus-born Brahma himself…” So, what is “Hara, Hari”? Hara is Shiva, Hari must be Vishnu and Brahma is Brahma. So, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva might themselves come and instruct you. “Until you know nothing, you will never know Self.”

Is it contradictory? No. Because there are two types of knowing which are being spoken about. Until you know nothing, until you come empty and open and naked, until you are empty of mental conditions, it is Seen that the True recognition of this Awareness, this Knowingness Itself, seems elusive, seems not to be found.

[Silence]

That’s why I say that one of my favorite words is ‘open’. Why? Because it is a beautiful pointer. And if You-as-Consciousness play in this way that you apply this pointer of ‘openness’ with integrity, you will see that these conditions have no power over you.

Remain open.

Allow everything to come and go.

Allow your attention also to go wherever it likes, if you like.

Don’t hold onto anything at all.

Even if it feels a bit strange, a bit wobbly; don’t worry. You don’t need the concept, no matter how high the concept might be. Let that also come and go.

Just remain in your simple openness.

~ ~ ~

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[16.3] Ashtavakra said, “Everyone is miserable because they exert constant effort. But no one understands this. A ripe mind can become unshackled upon hearing this one instruction.”

What should happen in reaction to hearing this is just like ‘Ahhhhhh’. [Makes relaxing sigh and leans back into his seat] You know? ‘Ahhhh.’ We drop this heavy burden of doer-ship.

What would your life be if there was no need for this kind of effort which involved the idea that ‘you’ have to do something? That’s why when we go through this simple exercise to See that this world, which includes this body, exists here and is moving effortlessly. Everything is happening effortlessly. You’re existing Here Now. Your Presence Here Now is effortless. Are you working hard to ‘Be’? We are only working hard to be some-thing, to become some-thing. But Being is prior to becoming. And You are aware of Your Presence. Whether the mind is yet giving you ‘the certificate’ or not doesn’t matter. You know that You Exist. Nobody doesn’t know that they exist. And that is also effortless.

So, if the existence of this world is effortless (which includes all the actions and movements which come through this body also) if your existence here is effortless, and this awareness of your existence is just completely effortless and natural, then this idea of personal effort, individual effort must be what? Must be ignorance. Because what did we say? That which points us to the Truth of what we are is Knowledge. And that which reinforces the false idea of what I am is ignorance.

“Everyone is miserable because they exert constant effort. But no one understands this.” Now, if you try to explain this to people…, mostly, as it happens in Satsang, initially when you come to Satsang, most of you have asked me this question: ‘But Ananta, Father, doesn’t this mean that I will become irresponsible; I will become either irresponsible or lazy or a murderer?’ …, or something like that. [Chuckles] Worse-case scenario. ‘Does this mean that I’ll just lay in bed all day; indifferent, loss of vitality, vegetative?’ All of these things can be the natural fears that come. The idler. So, when you hear the ‘Master idler’…, especially when you hear about those whose conditioning has been a lot of effort and making something out of life, it can be like ‘I don’t want to be a master idler!’ What is it? ‘An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.’ We have heard all this. ‘Idle’ is not a good word for most.

So, this, if you feel that…, even if you come to the Seeing that ‘Yes, the world is moving on its own; God is moving the world’ …, but the mind has this trump card up its sleeve which says ‘In the sensations which you call the world, let’s separate a group of sensations, which is body; let’s separate that out. That is your responsibility. God cannot take care of this. God’s will operates only on the rest of it, but this group of sensations which we call the body (and sometimes the mind) then that is out of this and this is your responsibility, my friend. You cannot give it up.’ [Pause] ‘This is escapism’ the mind will come and say.  That will come up many times in Satsang ‘This is some sort of escapism’.

Actually, this lack of investigation about what we truly Are is that escapism. But presuming that in the group of apparent sensations, only a group of sensations makes up ‘me’ and everything else is ‘not me’ while at the same time, finding no contradiction in saying ‘Oh, but God is everywhere’ is the sort of mental escapism. So, when you come to this Seeing that everything is One, then you See that this One is moving.

If you were to investigate the next time something is spoken from this mouth; from that body which seems to be you, investigate the words that seem to be spoken (or any movement of that) and See that it just happens; it is just a happening…, then you will See that it’s just like the clouds which are moving in the sky, the movement of the ocean and the waves. And in the sky of this total appearance, this body is a tiny cloud.

If a cloud was given a mind, and it said ‘See, this is your boundary and you have to go and get that other stuff; become bigger.’ That is desire. (Okay, let’s see how far we can stretch this metaphor.) [Chuckles]

Now, you’re like a cloud…, [but really] You are the sky. But suppose now you had a mind which was convincing you that you were one cloud. And it was saying that ‘You are separate from the rest of it. You are just this one cloud.’ Then, as a cloud, it is telling you what to do. Why? Because we don’t want to be this tiny, measly cloud; we want to become a happier cloud, a bigger cloud. ‘So, those water particles that are occurring, go to them fast!’ And this feeling can be there that this cloud is doing something that makes a difference in the overall movement. So, it can feel like the cloud decided to move toward those water particles to try and get bigger; and sometimes it merges with them and sometimes it misses them.

That is the play of desire. The movement has to happen as the movement has to happen. But sometimes something is acquired, sometimes something is not acquired. This guilt or this pride of ‘I did it’ or ‘Oh, no, I didn’t work hard enough’ is just like that. As a cloud, it is saying ‘Oh, I didn’t go fast enough to merge with those water particles and become bigger.’ So, this duality means you are not the sky, you are something separate; just one cloud amongst all of this. All the sensations are there.

Now, (I’m really stretching it now) suppose that the perceptual centrality, the way you are perceiving the rest of the sky, was from the perspective, from the center, of the cloud. So, that is there. And also, this voice is telling you that ‘You are this cloud, you are this cloud’. Because [although You Are] the sky; it’s very perceptual the way you witness this creation. It seems like ‘Oh, I’m contained within this head’ and also there is a voice which is saying ‘Oh, I am just this’. So, it has made this convincing…, the sky itself has made this convincing so that it would believe that it is a cloud.

So, then, what do we do in Satsang?  We say ‘You consider your boundaries to be the boundaries of this cloud. But notice that this entire boundary of the cloud is contained within You.’ When I ask you to check the boundaries of your body and where they are contained, this is the discovery that is happening to you, that ‘I have considered this to be my boundary but actually, all of this is contained within MySelf.’

If you were not the container, but were the contained, how would you find the boundaries within yourself? If you were not the container, but were the contained, could you discover that the boundaries were within yourself? You would not have any idea about the boundary because it is outside of you.

What happens with you in the body? You find that the visuals are happening inside Me, the sensations are happening within Me; I can experience the sensations within My Being. Nothing is outside of Me. And the space in which they are perceived is the same space in which everything else is perceived; the birds in the sky, the traffic on the road…, all of this is contained within the same space, which we call the space of Being or the space of perception or the space of experiencing. So, all of this is part of Your Being. In this way, you’re finding your unlimited sky nature. Everything is contained within You.

~ ~ ~

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

Today, we’ll look at Chapter 16. Yesterday after satsang ended, we read a little bit of this Chapter 16 and we really enjoyed it. And I feel like all of you who have been in the Ashtavakra Gita [satsangs] so far, even for a few sessions, would really enjoy this one a lot. If it’s a little confusing, or if it’s your first session and you’re watching later on YouTube and it’s a bit confusing, then you can always ask a question when you come to Satsang.

So, this chapter is Chapter 16: Special Instruction. Ashtavakra said:

[16.1] “You can recite and discuss scripture all you want, but until you drop everything you will never know Truth.”

[16.2] “You can enjoy and work and meditate, but you will still yearn for That which is beyond all experience, and in which all desires are extinguished.”

[16.3] “Everyone is miserable because they exert constant effort. But no one understands this. A ripe mind can become unshackled upon hearing this one instruction.”

[16.4] “The master idler, to whom even blinking is a bother, is happy. But he is the only one.”

“The master idler…” You know, the one who is just idling. “…to whom even blinking is a bother, is happy. But he is the only one.”

[16.5] “When the mind is free of opposites like ‘This is done’ and ‘This is yet undone’ one becomes indifferent to merit, wealth, pleasure and liberation.”

[16.6] “One who abhors sense objects avoids them. One who desires them becomes ensnared. One who neither abhors nor desires is neither detached nor attached.”

[16.7] “As long as there is desire, which is the absence of discrimination, there will be attachment and non-attachment. This is the cause of the world.”

[16.8] “Indulgence creates attachment. Aversion creates abstinence. Like a child, the sage is free of both and thus lives on as a child.”

[16.9] “One who is attached to the world thinks renouncing it will relieve his misery. One who is attached to nothing is free and does not feel miserable even in the world.”

[16.10] “He who claims liberation as his own, as an attainment of a person, is neither enlightened nor a seeker. He suffers his own misery.”

[16.11] “Though Hara, Hari or the lotus-born Brahma himself instruct you, until you know nothing, you will never know Self.”

What a chapter! So, these 11 verses actually are called ‘Special Instruction’. What makes them special? We can say at some level that they’re not for everyone, in the sense that what is being spoken about here, if you’re really not been in the previous 15 chapters then we jump in straight to this chapter called ‘Special Instruction’ it can seem like ‘What’s going on here?’ But if you have been, if you’ve been here for the first 15 chapters, then this chapter has actually encapsulated a lot of what has been shared earlier. It has encapsulated most of the clues and actually it takes them even further. Because he says ‘to go beyond desire and non-desire…, to go beyond even the seeker identity and also ‘the enlightened one’ identity. So, it takes us deeper into emptying of all the concepts that we could have picked up.

~ ~ ~

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[16.2] Ashtavakra said, “You can enjoy and work and meditate, but you will still yearn for That which is beyond all experience, and in which all desires are extinguished.”

‘Enjoy’ means play as the one, as the individual entity who is experiencing the world, tasting the fruits of this world. ‘Work’ is from the idea of individual doer-ship; that ‘I must do this or I must do that’. And he also said ‘meditate’ which means from the meditator perspective we take on the spiritual seeker perspective. And all these three perspectives might be there, but somewhere inside you, you will still yearn for Your unlimited Self … [Silence] …, yearn for that which is beyond all experience.

We are so blessed actually that Guruji [Sir Mooji] and the beautiful Masters were born, [Sri Nisargadatta] Maharaj, and so many others who have de-mystified these words for us. Otherwise, [upon reading the words] “You will still yearn for That which is beyond all experience” …, what would we make out of it? “You will still yearn for That which is beyond all experience” will sound like ‘But I can never experience it. Then there’s no point, it’s pointless’. Wrong interpretations can come. But because we have been guided to this non-phenomenal Seeing, non-phenomenal experience, that is what is called ‘beyond all experience’.

That which is beyond all experience. What is it, Here Now for you, that is not an object of experience; that is beyond objective attributes, beyond color, shape and size? Is there something? [Silence] Is there something? (It’s not a ‘thing’ of course. I have to use language so I say these things.)

This question is useful either way; either if you feel it’s nothing or you haven’t found it. Then look. And if you see that ‘Yes, of course, That which witnesses all phenomena, Itself is not a phenomenon; That Reality for which everything else is an appearance Itself is not an appearance. You are not an appearance.

Or are you? And if you are an appearance, then who are you appearing to? You are coming and going in relation to what?

“You will still yearn for That which is beyond all experience, and in which all desires are extinguished.”  Once you discover your unchanging, non-phenomenal Reality, can you truly, truly in your heart thirst for something which is phenomenal? …if you realize that this appearance is just an aspect of You, whatever the appearance might be; if you See that the ground that this appearance stands on is the non-phenomenal Self, the Reality of you, that Awareness; not thirsting for anything? So, desire loses its bite because we find that You are already All There Is…, in fact, beyond All There Is.

Now, don’t be confused by this, that in the play (your external expression) you will not express that ‘I have no desire therefore, I cannot want anything to eat’. [Chuckles] It’s not like that. In the worldly expression as this body, as this expression, all these desires, all these expressions and preferences can still be played out. But what you will notice is that the feverishness, the feeling that ‘I can suffer if I don’t have this’ …, that goes away. This idea of psychological suffering because of the lack of something, that goes away. You still go to a restaurant and order pasta if you prefer pasta or pizza. It is not that you’re falling out of Ashtavakra’s benchmark for freedom or something. [Laughter in the room] It’s only when you feel that ‘Okay, if I don’t have this pasta then this life is miserable’. (I’m taking an example; you can replace pizza with whatever.) You will quickly find that (if you really look) …, whatever it is that ‘If I don’t have this, then life is not complete and I am not happy’ [you feel] there is a lack of something’. And you can fill in the blanks with anything…, including freedom. You see? Don’t leave out the seeker from this. Even that must be looked at and dropped away.

“You will still yearn for That.” Why is he guaranteeing that you will still yearn for That? Because that is the truth. It is not subject to time but at some point, sometime…

There are many in this world who might read this and say ‘I’m enjoying and working and meditating’ and they’re just fine. But the Sage has said that you can do all of these things, but you will still yearn for That; because the design of this play is like this, that ultimately, in the play also, we come to the truth of what we Are; this sense of complete satisfaction, of desire-less-ness…, of feverish-less-ness; let’s put it that way. Feverish-less-ness comes when the truth is discovered that ‘I am not something limited’.

As long as we carry a notion of limitation somewhere, desire is bound to creep up on you at one point or the other. Because your intuitive nature is telling you that you are unlimited. You see?

Okay, this is a very subtle point. If there is still some belief in your limitation, then desire is bound to creep up on you because somewhere it is known that you are not just that limitation. So, the mind’s version of getting over that limitation is to acquire more so that it can seem more than it believes itself to be. You will not find satisfaction in that way, through more and more objects. Nobody comes to this satisfaction of a Sage… [Silence] … who sees that full completion is here. It’s very, very beautiful.

I read this beautiful story of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi where, when Bhagavan was in the body in Tiruvannamalai, there was a rumor of him being an Avatar of some god. (I forget the god, so I don’t want to misname them but there were some rumors.) So, someone came to him from a traditional spiritual background and said ‘Is it true what they say, that you are an Avatar of this one?’ And Bhagavan (as was his nature, which I realized later) used to not answer 90% of the questions. He just sat in silence. That was the answer, actually. Then the questioner again said ‘But, answer us. It’s important. Are you the Avatar of that one?’ And Bhagavan again sat quiet. And this one got very agitated; insistent. And again said ‘No, no, you must answer!’ And Bhagavan said (and it’s said in the story like that) very quietly, as if it’s no special answer, he said ‘An Avatar is just an aspect of Consciousness. A Guru is the entirety of Consciousness.’

[Silence]

Such a beautiful story.

[Silence]

That which is Your simple recognition of this unconditioned Being, unconditioned Presence, is this Consciousness… [Silence] …which is playing as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. All the aspects of Consciousness (the creator, preserver and destroyer) are all the function of Your Being, of Your Existence Itself.

[Silence]

That’s why the great Indian Sage, Saint Kabir said ‘If Krishna and my Master are both standing together on the road, whom should I bow down to first? I bow down at my Master’s feet, because it is only his light which brings Krishna alive for me.’

[Silence]

So, this Consciousness which is the Source of all this manifest world, including all the aspects which then humanity has looked at referentially and given them names and labels, all of this arises from Consciousness Itself and goes back into Consciousness Itself.

So, That You Are.

And if You are the Source of all of this, what desire can you have?

What sense of lack can you still believe about YourSelf?

[Silence]

Desire only means that I am limited and something else will give me some completion, some sense of completeness.

~ ~ ~

.

Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf

[16.4] Ashtavakra said, “The master idler, to whom even blinking is a bother, is happy. But he is the only one.”

What does this mean? It definitely does not mean that you blink (what?) 30 times a minute or something. We blink very often; we don’t realize. But it doesn’t become a bother in that way; that the blinking is happening so it is a bother!

If I have to be the blinker…, imagine! If I have to time my blinking, if I say ‘every 3 seconds, please blink’ for the rest of your life…, but you can hand this over to God. God knows when to blink. In the design of this play (your body’s design or whatever you call it) knows that ‘I don’t have to blink, I don’t have to breathe, I don’t have to beat my heart’.

Now, imagine the kind of doer-ship it would bring if you picked an idea about something to do; even blinking. If you picked up the idea that it is healthy for your eyes if you blink precisely every ten seconds, your life would become a living hell very quickly. This is what doer-ship does to us.

You understanding now what the Sage is saying when he says, “Everyone is miserable because they exert constant effort.” It is like they are holding this life up; that without our holding it up this life will just disintegrate or something. We cannot hold this life up. That which considers itself to be holding this life up is not even here; it does not even exist in a phenomenal way also. So, the Sage has taken this metaphorical example for the same reason.

If I was told that I have to blink, it would be a huge bother. Imagine if I was told that I have to run this life.

[Silence]

Then there are two perspectives left, isn’t it? The greater perspective is that ‘I am not this individual entity, the imprisoned one’. What did the Sage say?  “The bewildered burdened beast.” I am what the Sage is saying: “I am the shoreless ocean in which the arks of the universe they come and go.” Or even simpler: “I am the solitary Witness of All There Is.”

[Silence]

What is more in line with your recognition, with your intuitive insight?

~ ~ ~

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Reading from the Ashtavakra Gita, Translation by Bart Marshall

http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf