BOOKS BY ANANTA Welcome to Satsang with Ananta

[1.14] Ashtavakra said, “You have long been bound thinking: ‘I am a person’. Let the knowledge: ‘I am Awareness alone’ be the sword that frees you.”

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“You have long been bound thinking: ‘I am a person’.”

Notice the sage doesn’t say ‘You have long been bound as a person’. He says, “You have long been bound thinking ‘I am a person’.

“Let the knowledge: ‘I am Awareness alone’ be the sword that frees you.”

Now, this is a bit subtle, although it might seem straight-forward. It’s a bit subtle. The first part is that we have only been thinking ‘I am a person’. No person ever actually existed. No person ever even appeared. Unlike this body, unlike this energy construct of mind, that which is the claimant of this body/mind is not even an entity which appeared in a phenomenal way. At best, there is the physical appearance, energetic appearance, of this body and the energetic appearance of this mind; and at best (although best not to dwell on that) is there is an energetic sense of some separation, some individuality. (I don’t talk about that aspect because the more you speak about that, the more it seems to amplify. So, forget about it.)

There is the appearance of the body, the appearance of the mind. We have been thinking that because there is the appearance of this body/mind, there is actually a person. There never has been. If you feel this (you don’t have to feel this, but if you feel this) if you feel that the world is an illusion…, the ‘person’ is a second level illusion. Not even in this world will you find it.

The body is unconcerned with money in the bank. The body is even unconcerned with enlightenment. And what will enlightenment bring to a thought? Nothing. A thought is just [snaps fingers] momentary, coming and going. What can we give to a thought? Nothing. So, that which wants is not this body, neither the mind. It just doesn’t exist. It’s just a belief system that we have picked up about ourself.

So, ‘you have been bound…’ (and this bondage you understand now is a pretense; and the voice of the pretense is) “You have [long] been bound thinking ‘I am a person’. Let the knowledge ‘I am Awareness alone’ be the sword that frees you.”

Knowledge is not the concept. Knowledge is not the concept ‘I am Awareness alone’. If you chant ‘I am Awareness alone, I am Awareness alone’ and no insight or checking is happening then maybe it will have some energetic benefit. Okay, I’m not denying it. But it is not the knowledge which the sage is talking about. Knowledge is this, which means the direct recognition of the Self; Knowledge with a capital ‘K’ …, which we spoke of on the first day, which is beyond perceptual, conceptual and emotional knowledge; beyond any concept.

Are you aware now?

Do you need a thought to see that you are aware?
Do you need a perception to see that you are aware?

You need neither. This is the only one that you can answer like this. It’s that simple. That’s why I keep doing this. Some of you might think I’m obsessed with some of these examples, but I like them because they are so simple. If I say to you ‘Is there a small green bowl in my hand?’ [Holding up a small green bowl] You refer to the perceptual knowledge of seeing this small green bowl and you say ‘Yes’. If I say to you ‘Is the world round?’ then you refer to a conceptual knowledge. Right now, your experience is not that it is round. You refer to a conceptual knowledge that the world is round, and you answer from there: ‘Yes’. But if I ask you ‘Are you aware now?’ do you do either of these? Sometimes we might be referring to the concept of Awareness and saying ‘Of course, yes’. But that’s why I say ‘Don’t answer from the mind’. Look, then answer. Check. When you check, what do you find? Do you find the appearance of something called Awareness, like this green bowl? Yet, we answer ‘Yes’.

Sooner or later, the beauty or the simplicity of this will reveal itself to you. Not Self-recognition that needs millions of years of sadhana supposedly [Chuckles] … can it be that just openly asking myself this question ‘Am I aware now?’ can bring this insight of what I truly Am? So, maybe the point of all that sadhana was just to bring us to this simple openness of even asking ourselves this question.

[Silence]

Over the years, I’ve seen many, many tricks of the mind. Some wonder can come; because over the years, so many times for a few years now I’ve asked this question ‘Are you aware now?’ It becomes a pattern: ‘Yes, I am aware. Awareness is here’. All these reports. Then, next day, Beings come to satsang and say ‘Father, I’m having this trouble in my relationship, I’m having this trouble with my body, I’m having this trouble with my money’. But just yesterday, we found this Awareness. ‘Yes, yes, I knew you’d say that! I don’t want to talk about Awareness today. I want to talk about me’. You see? This is the ultimate resistance. I don’t want to talk about Awareness today. I want to talk about me. That means that even in the insight of this Self, mind has been able to come in and say ‘That is Awareness, but it has nothing to do with you, really. Maybe you come from That, but you are this’.

When we get caught up in this kind of thing, I’ve offered you another question, which is:

Who is aware of even this awareness?

This question will hit home for those who are having this insight deep inside about the Truth of who they Are.

So, what the mind has been able to do in some way is to still create a separate ‘I’ which is separate from this Awareness.

If you ask yourself now ‘Who is aware even of this awareness?’ …, you will say ‘Only I’.

Then we will say ‘Is this I in any way separate from awareness?’ You say ‘No. It is I’.

All things appear within It, like the sage said; the universe is an appearance within It. I is this Awareness. As we stay with this question ‘Who is aware of awareness?’ you will see that this possibility of making a distinction between I and Awareness becomes lesser and lesser, so that ‘It is I’.

Then you’re not able to say so easily ‘Father, no, no, I don’t want to talk about Awareness today, please, let’s talk about me’.

You Are That. It is You.

[1.13] Ashtavakra said, “Meditate on this: ‘I am Awareness alone, Unity itself.’ Give up the idea that you are separate, a person, that there is within and without.”

~ ~ ~

“Meditate on this: ‘I am Awareness alone, Unity itself.’ Give up the idea that you are separate, a person, that there is within and without.”

“Meditate on this.” So, I would say, inquire into this. Contemplate this. I Am That. You Are That. Tat Twam Asi. You are That.

Meditate on this, inquire into this, contemplate this. And you will find the unity of this, the Oneness. That is Advaita after all. A-dvaita. Not two.

So, use these words and in your inner contemplations, find out the nature of the Self.

“Give up the idea that you are separate, a person, that there is within and without.”

And we have just discussed this. How to give up this idea? It’s already given up right now. It’s given up. How to give it up? When the offer comes…, then just let the offer come and go. The conveyor belt of the mind that I talked about earlier? It will just keep coming. Various dishes, various shapes and sizes; let them come and let them go.

One time, we were in Delhi…, (most of you know my stories. I’m sorry, my stories are getting old, as I am getting old) [Chuckles] …, one time we were with Guruji [Mooji] in Delhi and we were shopping on some street, and it was the first of April. Then on the street, we saw a (100, 50, 10; can’t remember) rupee note. Then one of us (I don’t know, maybe Ramdas or somebody from the Delhi sangha) they bent down to pick up the note and the note had a string tied to it. So, as he went down, the one sitting by the wall on the side would just jerk the string. So, like that. The joke was that it was April Fool’s Day.

The mind comes with these offerings; this is what I mean. You know that you have been fooled. You know that you have been playing as if you are an individual for so long by buying these concepts about yourself, and yet, the next well-dressed note …, (this time not rupees, but maybe silver coins; next time gold, sterling). So, various ways, various forms of this offer that comes from the mind. And like the poor one who keeps bending down to pick it up, they keep playing this game, expecting that ‘This time, I will really get it in that way; I will get something meaningful’.

[Silence]

“Give up the idea that you are separate, a person; that there is within and without.”

Most of our thoughts are like this. I’ve looked at this very closely over the last few weeks and we’ve spoken about it. When someone comes to me these days and says ‘But this has happened to me every time. Does it have to be every thought?’ I know that there is a desire to say ‘Okay, some thoughts are okay, but please can I not pick them up?’ So, for them I say (although it’s completely meaningless but just to give some reassurance) I say ‘Okay, if the thought is just trying to replicate the phenomenal appearance very accurately, without any sense of personal identity…, so if the thought, for example, is ‘Ah! That’s a green apple’ …, not that ‘I want a green apple’ or ‘I like green apples’ or ‘I don’t like green apples’ [Chuckles] …, without this I-identity, if there is a thought which is saying ‘That is a green apple’ you will find that it is meaningless because the experience of it being whatever it is already is apparent; but if you want to pick up those thoughts for some time, okay, good. I make this concession for you. But it must report something which is a phenomenal appearance as accurately as possible, and must be empty of any self-definition because in this so-called self-definition is actually an egoic definition and that is the door to suffering.

[1.12] Ashtavakra said, “You are Self ~the Solitary Witness. You are perfect, all-pervading, One. You are free, desireless, forever still. The universe is but a seeming in You.”

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“You are Self ~ the Solitary Witness. You are perfect, all-pervading, One. You are free, desireless, forever still. The universe is but a seeming in You.”

So, the sage has said many beautiful things. How to use these beautiful things that the sage is pointing to? Not by looking for these particular attributes in themselves, but to come to the recognition about YourSelf. What is it that I am?

Then the mind will come and say…, it will create the need for some approval, some confirmation, and say ‘Is it really it? Have I really got it? Or am I just faking?’ You see? Like that.

So, then when these kinds of doubts come, then we use these pointers to check: What is the sage talking about? He’s talking about the One that is the Solitary Witness, that is perfect…, which means that the idea of imperfection does not apply to it. That which is all-pervading…, can you find somewhere where you are not? Do you find something which is your absence? Or do you find everything which is just your Presence.

And he says ‘One’ (with a capital ‘O’) …, so do you find any separation in your discovery about YourSelf?

“You are free, desireless, forever still.”  So, all of this. When you use these from Your place of Self-recognition, you can say: Yes, this is exactly what the sage is saying. I have no desire. I am full; actually, beyond the concept of full. Lack cannot happen to Me here.

So, all of these attributes, if you start looking for them as they are, then it can seem a bit confusing. ‘How do I find this One that is One? How do I find this One that is desireless?’ No. You find the witness of all things…, and then See who That is. Is that You? Or no? And this You that is the witness of all things, then You check against all these attributes:

The solitary witness.

The one that has no imperfections.

That is free, desireless, forever still.

From that place of checking from YourSelf ,that will be very clear. But if you start chasing the attributes from themselves, then it can seem like another merry-go-round to get into.

[1.11] Ashtavakra said, “It is true what they say: ‘You are what you think’. If you think you are bound, you are bound. If you think you are free, you are free.”

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“It is true what they say: ‘You are what you think’. If you think you are bound, you are bound. If you think you are free, you are free.”

What does this mean? What happens when we think? What does thinking mean? It means that there must be this appearance of this voice, which is the mind’s voice, which we can call the voice in our heads. This is the appearance of this energy construct called thought. But what do we mean when we say ‘thinking’? When we say ‘thinking’ we’re not just talking about the appearance of this energy construct called thought, we’re also talking about the belief in this construct, the identification with this construct.

Now, do it experientially. See: If you don’t attach a thought to your Being, you just Are.

There’s a nice exercise for all of you.

To exist, Right Now, do you need thought?

Do you need a thought to exist?

So, existence is here effortlessly. I Am.

Now, for any other identity, I am…, 42 years old. Now this 42 years old is an identity. If there was no thought, if there was no identification with the concept, would be able to attach this ’42 years old’ to ‘I Am’?

So, that which is effortless Existence, then to identify with conditions, needs these thoughts; not just the appearance of thoughts, but the belief in these thoughts.

As we remain in our openness, as we allow all this thought-activity to come and go, what do you find yourself to be? Just Existent. Just I Am. And that which is even prior to this, that which is aware of this. You are aware of your Presence. This is the value of openness. That’s why they said ‘Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea’. One of the most simple, straight-forward instructions. All surrender, all openness is contained in that. Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi said ‘If you still feel like you have a choice, make the choice to not go along with what your thoughts are saying’. And once day, then you will see soon, that even this was not a choice; even this was a functioning of Grace. He said, very clearly, as long as you feel there is a choice about anything at all, then you make this choice of not going along with the thought; don’t identify, don’t believe, don’t give it meaning or relevance.

[Silence]

So, the sage says, “It is true what they say: ‘You are what you think’.” What does he mean? The pretense of ‘you’ …, if you say ‘I am very honest, I am not a liar’ then you are obviously not talking about your unlimited Being; you are talking about a limited entity which you’re proclaiming yourself to be. So, when other teachers say ‘Just be, remain as I Am’ it means just this. Remain I Am, unattached.

Someone might come and say ‘I can’t do that; remain unattached’. Even that; don’t be attached to that. Just let that come and go. This is Consciousness reminding Consciousness of Its own design, of Its own power to believe itself to be something limited.

And just to deviate a little bit from what Ashtavakra is saying…, he’s saying that ‘if you think you are bound’ …, what does that make you? It makes a seeker out of you. He says, “If you think you are bound, you are bound.” If you are in satsang and you think you are bound, then what are you? You’re posing as if you are a seeker. Isn’t it?

Then he said, “If you think you are free, you are free.” So, I want to say something different from him. (Very rarely I’ll say something different from him.) I’m saying: Even this thought ‘I am free’ is not needed. You are naturally free. Because even with this thought ‘I am free’ there is this possibility that you will pick up a presumption of an ‘I’ which is a limited entity.

So, drop this idea that ‘I am bound’ and see if you can also drop this idea that ‘I am free’. This neutrality is what Guruji [Mooji] speaks about.

It is only alien to the mind. For the mind, the door is either open or it’s closed. We say ‘There is a door which is neither open nor is closed’ so it tries to make a visual of a half open or something; but it doesn’t succeed. Neutrality means being empty of the concept of anything; empty of the concept of bondage …, and without the concept of bondage, is there a concept of freedom? No. There is only the opposite of bondage. Without the concept of desire, is there a concept of aversion?

The mind operates in opposites. And as you step back from this play of opposites, then you will find this natural neutrality. This is a very, very, very important point …, because many times (in satsang especially) it can happen that this resistance comes, then we take the opposite position of that: open. So, even our openness becomes a position which tries to counter-act [puts two fists together with knuckles touching] this position; which is resistance. So, ‘What are you doing now?’ … ‘I’m being open’. ‘What are you doing?’ … ‘I’m resisting and I don’t want to resist, so I’m being open’. You see? But both of them are in the play of duality.

What is it that you Are that witnesses this play of duality? Is it resisting, or open? It is neither. It doesn’t apply.

So, although ‘open’ is very important because it’s probably the most clear way to point to what is being pointed at, even the term ‘open’ can be misunderstood. It is more about staying with the discovery of what You Are, in this neutral place …, which is unconcerned, unbound, by this play of opposites.

What happens many times also is that in satsang one day you will feel like a great insight happened, and very quickly the proclamation can come: I’m free! I got it! And then [Chuckles] (we’ll change the story a little bit) you go on the road and you say ‘I want to go to Banashankari. I want to go to this place called Banashankari.’ and the auto-guy says ‘Banashankari? That will be 200 rupees extra’. [Chuckles] In that one moment, your freedom can go …, the so-called proclaimed freedom. ‘What? You’re a cheat’ and separation and all that will come; the oneness dissolves and everything can seem to vanish in that one moment. So, it is not about this proclamation, this play of opposites; resisting and allowing. Not in that way.

Find this within you that is not involved in this play of opposites. It is not a position that you are taking on. It is not a new position of Consciousness: ‘I am now spiritual’ or ‘I am now at Ananta satsang’ or ‘… Guruji’s [Mooji’s] satsang’. It is being empty of all positions.

The mind will come as a used-car salesman and say ‘This one! Best deal! I know, I know, sir/madam that for the last ten million years, I’ve been lying to you…, Sir/madam, I know, 10 million years I’ve been lying to you but THIS TIME, I have learned, I have changed, I have reformed. I am not going to sell you your individuality. I will point you to your truth. Come.’ Just like that, we keep buying this ticket to this merry-go-round.

And then someone says ‘But you are not that which you are believing about yourself’. [And you say] ‘Not that! I’m never going to buy from that salesman again!’ Then again, ‘Yes, yes. That salesman, that salesman, we’ll be careful of him’. What is that? That is also an offering from the same salesman. ‘This mind! I have to get rid of the mind! I have to be rid of it! This mind has got me in all this mess! I’ve decided that I am going to be open and I’m going to be rid of the mind.’ This one…, this one is the trickster. Same guy. Guruji [Mooji] says ‘Same guy’.

So, what is the solution? It is simple. Just let it come and let it go. If you picked it up, it’s okay. Now you let it come and you let it go. If you picked it up again, it’s okay. Don’t believe guilt about yourself, don’t believe unworthiness. You picked it up? Fine. Gone. It is the one that is working hard to retain individuality. It needs to keep offering you these ideas of your limitations. You become naturally empty of it every moment.

Do you guys really See this, what I’m saying? All your struggle in spirituality would drop away if you just See this, what I’m saying. Every moment, naturally, It Is Done.

It is the mind which needs to take this extra effort every moment to convince you: ‘Again, he’s empty of concept about himself. Let me come with the next offering, otherwise … he’s gone’. So, the effort is in maintaining or in trying to create this sense of individuality.

Effortlessly, you are just Being. This is the meaning of letting go. Letting go doesn’t mean really that there’s something to let go OF. It only means, when this offer comes …, ‘I’m going to sell you the most important ticket of your life! You will become the best, the most spiritual, the most enlightened person in the world!’ …, when this offer comes from the mind, just let it come and go. If you pick it up, what to do? Nothing. The next offer comes, you let that one come and go. That’s it.

Many of you know about this story from me, which is that many, many years ago, before I met Guruji [Mooji] (probably 11, 12 years ago) I was reading Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] and I was very frustrated at being a seeker. So, one day I said ‘TODAY, today, I will not leave the Self-inquiry until I find MySelf. So, I sat down (and I say it like this; I don’t know if it actually happened like this but this is the way I like to remember it at least, which is to say…) and the inquiry happened ‘textbook’. Textbook! Thoughts were coming…, ‘Who is the witness of these thoughts?’ Sensations…, ‘Who perceives these sensations?’ …, staying with that.

Everything became quiet. For a long time, everything became still. Nothing. Maybe 45 minutes or an hour passed. Mind came and said ‘Stop this right now! I’ll give you a good life’. ‘Stop this right now! I’ll give you a good life’. And mind itself came, and said ‘Deal.’ … Mind came: ‘Stop this right now! I’ll give you a good life’ … The mind itself came, and said ‘Deal’. Then what happened? So, much guilt. ‘You were finding it! And you made a deal with this mind, this ego, this devil; you sold your soul to the devil’. All this nonsense got believed.

This is the way the mind can play. That’s why…, what to do…, when something gets picked up? Nothing. Don’t worry about it. Forget it. It’s gone.

What is that Papaji [Poonja ji] quote somebody posted? ‘The past is a corpse. It’s finished.’ That which comes and goes (this mind) that is the one that has to make the effort to convince God, convince the unlimited, that It is something which is small, limited, constricted; that has conditions about Itself. And this one will not stop making the effort. Don’t expect it to stop. Let it come and let it go.

[Silence]

Does this have anything to do with what Ashtavakra is saying? [Chuckles] let’s see. [Picks up book and puts on glasses]

Yeah. He said, “It is true what they say: ‘You are what you think’.”

So, you understood this? Not that you actually are [what you think] …, but you can pick up the pretense of whatever thoughts that you are believing.

“If you think you are bound …”  That’s why I said if you think you are bound, then what is the role you are playing? You’re playing the role of the spiritual seeker. If you think actually that you are free, what is the role that you are playing? You’re playing the role of the spiritual ego…, if it is just a thought; if it is not your realization, if it is not your recognition, if it is just a concept.

So, neither concept. I feel Ashtavakra will be okay with my little divergence from what he was saying.

You do not need the concept ‘I am free’. Just as you do not need the concept ‘I am bound’.

[1.10] Ashtavakra said, “You are unbounded Awareness ~ Bliss, Supreme Bliss ~ in which the universe appears like the mirage of a snake in a rope. Be happy.”

~ ~ ~

“You are unbounded Awareness ~ Bliss, Supreme Bliss ~ in which the universe appears like the mirage of a snake in a rope. Be happy.”

Now, many times, it can happen that when we hear about bliss it can feel like ‘When there’s bliss, then I am Awareness’. So, how it written, actually, and how it is meant to be is that the bliss is a by-product of Awareness. Awareness is independent of even bliss.

Many of you have heard of Sat-Chit-Ananda: (Sat) Truth, (Chit) Being, (Ananda) Joy or Bliss. So, what I like to say is that if you leave it as just Sat, what is the Truth that you’re finding through the words of the sage, Ashtavakra? Truth, Sat. Sat-sang, the company of the Truth. So, we come into this satsang to be in the company of the Truth, to be in the recognition of the Truth. So, this Truth …, what is it that we find? The Truth that I Am the Self, this Awareness.

Then Chit, Being. I am aware of my existence. Existence is here. And as Being remains as Being, I Am remains unassociated (as my Master [Mooji] would say) then Ananda is a perfume of that. Your unadulterated Presence. Unadulterated by what? By personal conditioning. Then love, joy, peace, bliss …, all of these are the fragrance of that.

Now, what can happen is that the conditioning itself can be of that ‘I want Ananda, I want bliss’. Or it can become like a benchmark: ‘Till I have bliss then I cannot be Sat and Chit’. So, that itself seems to become like a condition. Empty of conditions, you will be unconcerned even with the presence or absence of bliss. And as you are unconcerned with the presence or absence of bliss, you will find that it is here in service to You. Love, peace and joy are the fragrances of unassociated Presence; fragrances of God …, to serve God as the ‘taste’ of this beautiful, manifest world.

So, our job is not to chase Ananda. Our job (if there is a job) is to find the Truth, the Sat. Bliss can come, bliss can go. There will be so much bliss that you will not know what to do with it. There will be so much love that you will feel like distributing it to everyone. But that is an auxiliary, a by-product, of what we are speaking of.

What is the Truth? What is the definition of the Truth? (Open your notebooks.)

What is the Truth?

[Silence]

How is Truth to be found?

What are the attributes of that which is true?

That which is our direct insight, our direct discovery; and that which remains unchanging.

You see, both aspects are important. Why the first aspect is important is that is it not enough to just mentally know that I am Awareness. Being comes to the recognition of this Truth. That is what Satsang is for. This Self. What can we say about it? That It just IS…, unchanging…, beyond the play of waking states, beyond the play of sleep, dream, turiya. That which is the witness of all of these is YourSelf.

And what is your most intimate finding? Once you See that You are this Self, You are Awareness, the most intimate finding is that I exist, I Am.

[Silence]

You Are. But you are not ‘some-thing’. Everything after ‘I Am’ is not the Truth, is not the Sat. All limitations, all attributes, are nothing but appearances within You. But they do not define You. ‘I am a man’ is not the truth of what I am. It is an aspect of my expression. The same is true for all identity. ‘I am a husband, I am a father, I have work, I have relationships’. All of these are attributes of the appearance of this body/mind. But they do not come close to defining Me, because I Am the un-define-able, the un-label-able. This I, You Are.

[Silence]

Remain unconcerned with finding bliss.

Bliss is concerned with finding You, with serving You.

Remain as I Am …, without the illusion of person (as the sage said).

And this is not a plan. This is talking about Now.

Just Now: What is it that You Are?

And if you feel that you are something phenomenal, find out who witnesses this phenomenon? And what is more intimate? What is the Truth; the most pristine insight which remains unchanging?

Now, if you tell me that ‘I came to satsang and had the most blissful experience. I had the experience where all my chakras were vibrating. I had an experience where I could travel to any part of this universe. I could go back and forward in time’ …, if you tell me all of this, I might be nice and say ‘Very good’ or something like that. But actually, I know that even this is not important relative to what I am speaking of. In the realm of appearance, the most pristine appearances can come. But that which is an appearance, always comes and goes.

[Silence]

So, the imploration or the invitation to stay with the Truth is basically a request: Don’t give so much value to these appearances (at least for a while). Find out: What is here that is beyond this?

How to find out? Can’t find out with your mind. You cannot see it phenomenally as an object. You cannot deduce this. It’s not like ‘2 + 2 = 4’ where you’re given an equation and you calculate it and you come to Awareness. You cannot do it through reasoning. So, it’s not intellect, it’s not reasoning, it’s not phenomenal, it’s not sensational, it’s not emotional, it’s not experiential in that way like the phenomenal ‘taste’ of an experience. It is simpler than that. And the mind will say it is more difficult than that. [Chuckles] It is actually simpler than that:

What witnesses this?

What witnesses all of this?

Does That have a shape or size?

Is That dependent on bliss or joy or peace?

Or is it bliss and joy and peace which are dependent on That?

Must You Be…, before you can experience anything?

What is this ‘You’?

[Silence]

So, the sage says, “You are unbounded Awareness ~ Bliss, Supreme Bliss ~ in which the universe appears like the mirage of a snake in a rope. Be happy.”

What does this mean…, “like the mirage of a snake in a rope”? A most popular metaphor in Vedanta, isn’t it? When there is not enough light, it can feel like in the shadow, it’s a rope, an appearance of a rope. In the absence of sufficient light, it can seem like this is a snake. It’s the same: in the light of Your Existence, in the light of Your Being, it can seem like there is a world which is separate, outside of me. Just like a dream can seem separate.

Don’t chase even this insight. Don’t be in a rush to find out that everything is You. Just find out what You Are. It is enough.

Dig this well: Who am I? It is enough. As we dig this well and come to the water, the recognition of the Self, then all of this other insight (the snake and the rope, the gold in the bangles, all these) will become so plainly obvious.

[1.7] Ashtavakra said, “You are the Solitary Witness of All That Is, forever free. Your only bondage is not seeing This.”

~ ~ ~

This is the verse that everybody remembers from my last few times of sharing Ashtavakra, and it is one of my favorites also. “You are the Solitary Witness of All That Is, forever free. Your only bondage is not seeing This.”

Again, who? It’s talking about You… are the Solitary Witness of All That Is, forever free. Your only bondage is not seeing This. There is one witness for this entire play. There is only one Awareness. And yet, in the Being that emerges out of this Self, in the play Consciousness that emerges out of this Self, it can seem as if it plays as if there are multitudes. All are aspects of Consciousness. All different flavors are available here; the entire spectrum. If there is a sage, there is also an axe murderer, if there is sublime joy, there can be horrendous fear; all appearing within one Consciousness. If there is one mind which has certain ways of operation, there are all sorts of different minds also that appear. All different qualities of thought, all different appearances of action. What witnesses all of this? The sage says, “YOU … are the are the Solitary Witness of All That Is, forever free. Your only bondage is not seeing This.”

So, what does it mean ‘your only bondage is not seeing this’? If I am the solitary witness, then how can I be bound? If I have no form, if I have no shape and size, how can I have bondage?

Can we take this one down [into our notebooks] as a question to ask? The sage said so many beautiful things about us: “You are the one solitary witness of all that is. You have no shape, no size, you are unattached, formless. You should just be happy. You are free.” So, how come he says the only bondage is not seeing this? How can I miss this? [Silence] What happened?

[Chuckles] Okay, if I speak more, then the answers are coming. Would you like to share?

What is bondage?

Who does it apply to?

Can we take a few moments and contemplate this; maybe a couple of minutes? Then if there are some answers, I’m happy to hear. I’m going to be collecting all your notebooks; you know that. [Chuckles] So, what is bondage? And who does it apply to? [Silence]

Can we take a few moments and contemplate this; maybe a couple of minutes? Then if there are some answers, I’m happy to hear. I’m going to be collecting all your notebooks; you know that. [Chuckles] So, what is bondage? And who does it apply to? [Silence]

Q: [Inaudible]

A: So, it is witnessed; there is a witness. And we saw there is a phenomenal movement. Now what does this identify?

Q: Imagining that it’s happening to me, like, you as an entity, a limited form, mind; same. [Then inaudible]

A: But the witness is just witnessing, so how does it witness this ‘I want’ or ‘I don’t want’.

Q: [Inaudible] … then it feels like it’s a limited entity in this body; the body/mind stuff.

A: So, come closer so we can hear. Let’s go really slowly so everyone understands what we are saying.

There is a witness. Is there a time where this is only this witness; there is no appearance? We have an experience of that?

Q: So, when you say witness…

A: Like, awareness, where…, let’s say the deep sleep state, where there is no phenomena. The phenomenal Being, the phenomenal Presence at the root of all phenomena, which is Consciousness…, who is not present, only the witness. Now, when only the Witness is there, then any sort of trouble, anything you can say about bondage or freedom, then first what has to happen?

Q: It’s like something arises out of there…, um, which we call the Presence of the Being. And it feels here like it creates this entire phenomenal existence. And it’s All There Is; it is only It. Then when it feels like the only way it could do it is to buy into a thought, identify with the mind…

A: Okay, this part slower. You say the emergence of this dynamic aspect which we call Consciousness then comes as waking state or dream state; a state where there is phenomenal movement. Now, all kinds of phenomena are there.  Then, what else is there? The phenomenal appearances are there. One of the phenomenal appearances is thought. Then, what engages with that thought? In what way does Consciousness play as if it is engaged with this thought?

Q: It believes this thought. Thought could just pass like any other …

A: Now, what is this belief?

Q: It imagines itself to be…, I feel like belief is like …, say I believe a thought. Then I’m imagining myself to be something that I’m not. I’m already Me-as-Presence, and then I imagine myself to be in this body as a separate somebody …, which is not really true because everything is only Me. And then I feel like everything else is an object if I identify with the mind; like, this is a pillow, this is the body; and then I start playing as a separate entity.

A: So, does belief only engage with thought?

Q: Yeah.

A: So, if there is an object [Holds up his reading glasses] there is an interpretation which comes from that which we call the mind, there’s no concept of belief or not. There’s only the play of attention. Attention on an object can happen. And attention actually, inherently by itself, leads to no trouble. Therefore, we don’t even need to forcefully control our attention in some way. See, attention can also be let free.

So, now, what did we see? There is just this witness, which is Awareness, within which comes this Being or Consciousness, I Am. And as long as this I Am is just I Am, no trouble. So as long as You are just this I Am, then no seeming trouble seems to come.

Then she says that the phenomenal play starts, with so many different objects. Now, attention can go to all of these objects. One of these objects is called thoughts. Thought is what? It’s like this inner, mental voice …, whose only job seems to be to convince this I Am That I Am that it is  ‘I am something’. You see? Not this unlimited Being, but that ‘I am something’. So, in that way, this Atma believes it is a jiva; ‘I am something’.  See, the minute it picks up the idea ‘I am something’ it is posing as if it is a limited entity.

So, in this way; we’ve seen the Consciousness to play the game in this way has also given Itself the power…, not just of attention with which all of this is tasted, all this phenomenal realm is tasted…, but has also given Itself the power to believe what Its own creation, this mind, is saying. And it is saying that ‘You are something limited’. So, the play of mind into this limited idea of ourself then is this bondage.

So, “Your only bondage is not seeing This.” So, let’s look at this. What are we doing in satsang? The play of satsang is like this; we come in believing that ‘I am something’. What does the Master point you to? He says: ‘Can you stop being?’ No. You’re just here. Now, what trouble does this Being have? What are the boundaries of this Being? It is unlimited. Does this Being have a relationship? Does this Being have a job? You say ‘It doesn’t have’. And all this trouble that belonged to the identity ‘I am something’ seems to fall away.

What is That which is aware even of your own Being? What is aware even of your own Being?
You say ‘I am’. (If you don’t think about it too much, then naturally you say ‘I am’. If you start thinking about it, it can seem confusing.) So, naturally you say ‘It is I that experiences, that is aware of my own Presence, my own Being, in the light of which all this phenomenal play seems to happen’. That’s why to come to satsang, to self-inquiry, is the Seeing of this. Consciousness playing as if it is ‘I am something’ then Consciousness itself coming to the recognition of what it really is.

It’s the Seeing of this. So, that’s why the sage said, “You are the solitary witness of all that is, forever free. Your only bondage is not seeing This.”

Why? Because it is Seen that until you come to this recognition, you play as if you are something. ‘Something’ could be any of the attributes that you’ve given to yourself (‘I am a man, I am a woman, I am a husband, I am a wife’). All of these attributes make a limitation where actually none exists.

And we have clues to this everywhere; when we watch a movie, when we read a book. If you cannot identify with any of the characters, you’ll find it a very boring movie; not engaging. Somebody will say or ask ‘Did you enjoy the movie or a book?’ [And you say] ‘You know, not really’. Why? None of the characters were relate-able. What does it mean to relate? Couldn’t identify with them. So, what does that mean? ‘I couldn’t believe that I could be in that situation’. This ability, to take a part of the appearance and say ‘This is me’. This is the power of identifying, the power of identification; Consciousness giving Itself to ability to play as if it is the ego, as if it is a separate entity to the rest of the appearance.

So, that’s why all of satsang, or most of satsang is about this: The recognition of what You really Are…, because your only bondage is not Seeing this.

[Silence]

I like to speak of another aspect of bondage, because I like to feel that most of you who have been in satsang have Seen this. I keep prodding with inquiry, with serious questions every day, so you have Seen this. You are aware. You are aware. What is the form of this Awareness? It is formless. What is the distance between you and this Awareness? There is none. Is there somewhere you are but Awareness is not? No.

So, you are having these recognitions for yourself. So, you See this. Very quickly, what can happen is that because our habit has been to identify with that limited entity, then even with this Seeing…, to say I-which-is-something…, ‘I, Ananta, had the experience of myself as awareness’…, this is not true. It is Consciousness which came to the recognition of Its own Source. Awareness always knows that It is aware anyway.  There is no ‘Ananta’ which came to the recognition.

The minute we start to claim it personally…, that’s usually why when somebody has a strong experience in satsang, I don’t give it too much importance; especially when it sounds like it is being claimed…, personally. [Chuckles] This proclaiming, this individual proclaiming that ‘I have Seen it!’ can become the condition for the spiritual ego, arrogance. It’s not you-personally. That one still was never born. That comes with the recognition. You see? It’s only this game of Consciousness deluding Itself and coming out of this delusion. So, as you See this, that this discovery is not personal, it is not an individual entity that is recognizing this Awareness, then there is no ground for any sort of spiritual ego.

Guruji [Mooji] always says it best: ‘If you feel that you haven’t got it, come to satsang. If you feel you got it, come to satsang’. You see, either way, come to satsang, because satsang shows what the tricks of the ego might be.

Q: Does conceptual understanding ever translate into insight?

A: So, let’s look at this, this is a very good question. You say ‘Does conceptual understanding ever translate into insight?’ So, can you take me through an example of a conceptual understanding that you have which you don’t feel is an insight yet?

Q: Well, I have been following this for a number of years now. Everything seems so clear when I listen to it or read Nisargadatta Maharaja or listen to Mooji or listen to you; there is no doubt, there is no space but it doesn’t really translate into real knowing. There is not a felt knowing. So, it feels like it is always going to be like that, there is always going to be that distance between actual knowing and mind here.

A: Very good, So, take an example of something which is very clear of what you hear in satsang, and when you hear it, it is very clear intellectually but you feel it is not your direct insight yet. So, can you take one example? Is it an example like ‘I am Awareness’? Or what is it that it seems very clear when you hear it but still you don’t feel is your insight?

Q: For example, it is very clear I am not the body/mind. If I think about it, I cannot be the body/mind. But day to day experiences is that I am very much confined to the body/mind.

A: Now, what if I were to tell you that actually this is not your experience at all? That it is only an inference from the mind; that your experience is not that you are the body/mind? You are experiencing this body as a set of sensations and some visuals and you are interpreting it as you. And all the other sensations which you are experiencing, you are interpreting that as ‘not me’.

Your experience is exactly the same as the experience of a child. A child does not have this idea of separation. So, our experiences always remains the same. It is only this voice of conditioning (which could have come from our parents, it could have come from this mind) which says ‘Yes, this sensation is me, but the sound of the traffic on the road is not me’. What tells us that? Is it the experience which is telling us that?

Q: No, it is the voice in the head, I guess…

A: Yes. So, you see, the experience is always this. We are always experiencing the Truth, but we are interpreting it as if it is personal. I know that this can seem like a bit of a leap because we have always believed that ‘My experience will change when I am free’. But it is not that the experience will change, it is only that we are not buying the mind’s stories about what the experience is or what the experience means.

Right Now, there is an experience of some sensations and if you don’t label them ‘my body’ but just notice that there are some sensations in the same way that there is the sound of this voice, which is another set of sensations. What is it that makes that more ‘me’ and this ‘less me’?

Q: Mmmm …

A: … from your experience, from your insight. It is the same. It is just a different quality of sensations that you are experiencing. It is only the interpretive mind which comes and says ‘This me; not somebody else, not outside.’ Without that, it is one appearance with no separation. This is your experience right now.

Q: Then how does the habit break? What makes this habit break?

A: Yes, yes. There are two aspects to this.

The first aspect is what we do in satsang every day, which is to come to the recognition ‘What is it that I truly am? Who is the one that is aware? Who witnesses even my existence?’

So, in this, we come to this recognition about the greater aspect of MySelf. We see that this dynamic aspect is a part of Me which just comes and goes. So, then what happens is as you ‘taste’ yourself more and more in this way, when the mind comes with its stories about your limitation and why you are still stuck, and you are not getting it; then you start to look at it and say ‘Which one is this mind talking about?’

So, it is easier to drop the belief in this one, as more and more you are recognizing what you Are. And what happens also is that as you are dropping belief in this one, the recognition seems to become more and more effortless. So, in that way it becomes a virtuous cycle.

So, in satsang what is happening is both sides. There is inquiry where we are dropping; where we are recognizing what we Are. And there are interactions where we are dropping that which we believe ourselves to be falsely. Both of them become this virtuous cycle.

So, as more and more you recognize what you Are, you find it easier to drop that which is false about yourself, and the more you drop that which is false about yourself, the easier it seems to recognize it. This is how this habit is broken.

That is why Guruji says that ‘Satsang is like a rehab’. [Chuckles] It is a rehab that God has created for God Itself, because God was posing as if It is a limited entity and then God comes in the form of a teacher and says ‘But you are not that’. This habit is broken like this.

Everything in satsang is in service to the recognition of what you Are and to your dropping the false conditions about who you Are. This way, very soon you actually you start to see that those which were very strong thoughts …, especially these seeker variety thoughts; those can be very limiting in some of the ideas: ‘I just don’t get it, I have been at this for many years and others seem to get it easily’ …, these kind of thought patterns. If you just look and say ‘Who is this talking about? Who is here that is getting it or not getting it?’ then you start to see, more and more, that there is no such individual entity here. There is just this boundless Being, this Existence, I Am; and awareness even of this, before I Am.

So, then you will find that we find it more and more difficult to attach attributes to I Am. We find it more and more difficult to say ‘I am this, I am that’ because we find that anything that we attach to this ‘I Am’ actually becomes a statement for some sort of limitation. But what you find more and more about YourSelf, through your insight, is that you don’t have that [belief anymore].

So, it is like growing out of this identity of personhood, just like you grow out of …, when we were children we would have had an attraction to some doll house or some other forms of play, but we grew out of it because we recognize ‘I am not that little child anymore, my interests have changed, I would rather read some literature than play with my dolls’ …, or something like that. That transformation happened because we recognized ourself to be something else. In the same way now, this radical transformation is happening, where You are recognizing that You are beyond all limitations, You are beyond time and space.

You will find that the mind is not designed to just keep quiet as this recognition is happening. It will also come with its battle and say ‘No, no, but you are this. See, you got angry the other day, that means that you are still not free’. It will come with all these reports about yourself. But as you stay in satsang, as you stay with your inquiry, as you stay with the recognition of what you Are, you will find that more and more these thoughts become laughable.

So, the only difference between you and a Sage right now is that the Sage is laughing at most of his or her thoughts, whereas you seem to be taking them a little more seriously. That is all. In the experiencing, there is no difference.

[1.6] Ashtavakra said, “Right and wrong, pleasure and pain, exist in mind only. They are not your concern. You neither do nor enjoy. You are free.”

~ ~ ~

“Right and wrong, pleasure and pain, exist in mind only. They are not your concern. You neither do nor enjoy. You are free.”

So, in the appearance of this world, based on our conditioning, based on our ideas that we have about ourself, some appearances are interpreted as right, some appearances are interpreted as wrong. And that is okay as far as the phenomenal world is concerned. But it does not apply to You. This duality does not apply to You. Pleasure and pain also is taken individually. And we’ll expound on this a little more as we go along.

So, right and wrong, pleasure and pain comes from the mind …, this means that it is taken individually. It’s judged or interpreted to be happening to an entity called ‘me’. But there is no such entity called ‘me’. It’s just an interpretation of the mind. It is a concept of the mind.

As Awareness, You are the witness of all things. You are not the doer in that way. Okay, let’s explain this a little more, because there is some potential to get confused with this.
What are the options for who could be the doer or experiencer? So, let’s take the example of right now. Who is doing the hearing? Is Manju or Achala or Paul or Clare…? Is there an entity sitting here who is doing the hearing?

Now, the mental interpretation of what we are, the identity…, that doesn’t know how to do these things. It doesn’t know how to move things or take actions. This non-existent entity, which presumes to have so much control over life and this body, doesn’t know how to fire a neuron. Because it doesn’t exist, you see? And soon this statement will start sounding so silly and ludicrous as me saying …[Silence] … (I’m coming up with a funny example …, the most popular one, of course, is the cat one). If I say to you: Imagine that you are a cat (and give this cat some story about where it was born and where it is going) and then I say to you: This cat asked to get you a glass of water. Or ask this cat to hear this satsang and pay attention to what I’m saying. So, this idea of the individual entity is very much like this. It has no tangible reality. It is just an idea being reinforced with all our belief.

So, the non-existent one definitely is not the doer; nor is it the experiencer. Instead of “You neither do nor enjoy” …, I would change that word a little bit from ‘enjoy’ to ‘experience’ because the ‘enjoy’ part can bring another idea to us.

And this is a very important point about surrender. Most Beings that I meet that say ‘We are surrendered to the Lord’ or ‘We’re surrendered to the Master’ have only surrendered their doer-ship (to some extent) but they have not surrendered their experiencer-ship. That is why there is so much beauty in this simple statement which I have repeated so often in satsang over the years: True surrender is to say ‘twam karta, twam bhogta’ which means ‘Lord or Guru, You are the doer and You are the experiencer’. It is the same holy Presence, it is the same Consciousness which is the light of this movement of Consciousness and also the One that ‘tastes’ this moment, ‘tastes’ the phenomenal appearance.

So, you-personally don’t even exist, therefore you-personally cannot be the doer nor the experiencer. That which appears in this dynamic aspect is Being, is Consciousness, which is the One doer and the One experiencer.

It’s not that any experience can harm it or hurt it; this Consciousness remains untouched. In fact, it is the light, the screen, the director, the producer, the actors; everything that is playing here. But it is saying something even deeper than that. It is saying that You witness even this play of God, of Consciousness. You Are That which is so beyond this phenomenal realm, in which an aspect of You is dancing this dance, playing this play. And yet You remain untouched.

“You neither do nor enjoy.”

Who is this One? That which witnesses everything.

Who witnesses everything? You do.

“You neither do nor enjoy. You are free.”

In fact, so much beyond even any concept of freedom, You are.

So, we are contemplating the Ashtavakra Gita and yesterday we covered the first four verses of the first chapter. The chapter is called: Instruction on Self-Realization.

It starts with Janaka, who is the seeker, who is asking and saying, “Master, how is Knowledge to be achieved, detachment acquired, liberation attained?” [1.1]

Ashtavakra said, “To be free, shun the experiences of the senses like poison. Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity, truth.”  [1.2]

And we discussed this verse in detail yesterday. If somebody is confused or doesn’t understand what the sage is saying in this one, we can just refer to the recording or the transcript from yesterday.

Ashtavakra says, “You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space. Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone, the Witness of these.” [1.3]

This is one of those verses in which just this verse is enough. “You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space. Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone, the Witness of these.”

Ashtavakra says, “Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.” [1.4]

So, this is where we go to yesterday. Then the sage says:

[1.5] “You have no caste or duties. You are invisible, unattached, formless. You are the Witness of all things. Be happy.”

He says, “You are invisible, unattached and formless.” Now, in this line itself, it becomes clear that the mind cannot fathom this. If I say to you: Can you think about nothing? Just think nothing. Or have a visual of nothing; not even space. Think of something which has no form; not even black space, or white light, or white space. No form whatsoever. No attribute. Nothing that you can truly say about it. And for This one, the sage says it is You. It is You.

So, if you don’t have a size, shape, color; birth, death, then you have no caste or duties. What does this mean, ‘caste or duties’? Because caste, when the scripture was written, it was a very important part of the identity. Caste. And it was very aligned with the duties. So, if you were a Kshatriya, then you must fight. If you were a Brahmin, then you must do the rituals. So, identity was such back then. And the sage is saying that ‘You have no form, you have no shape, you have no size, you are unattached, you are invisible’.

What does invisible mean? Invisible means not visible through sight …, and not even conceptualized in our imagination. Invisible both in this outer perceptual way as well as the inner perception. This is also a very important clue. Because many times, when it is said that ‘You are not phenomenal’ the mind will offer something phenomenal. The most normal thing is for mind to paint a picture of something like dark, empty space. That’s why in the first verse, the sage quickly said, “Nor are you empty space.”

So, “You have no caste or duties. You are invisible, unattached, formless. You are the Witness of all things. Be happy.”  And every verse is a pointing for our self-inquiry. Every verse is a pointing for our self-inquiry. Because if we were just to describe it in these ways, and not say ‘You are the witness of all things’ then it might seem like ‘How do I find This that is formless? I have no clue. I have no direction’. The direction is here.

What witnesses all things?

What witnesses sight?

What is sight? It is perception.

What is the witness of sight?

What is the witness of sound, taste, touch, memory imagination, emotion?

All of these (if we call them ‘appearances’ because they come and go):

Are you also an appearance?

In the Vedantic tradition, all that is changing is called an appearance. So, every time we identify with something that is changing as ourself, then we are identifying with a limited notion of ourself. But what witnesses this limitation?

So, if Consciousness is in that place where it enjoys the play of the limited identity, then it continues to play as if it is limited. And as Consciousness is getting out of this play of limitation it is coming to this recognition of the unlimited Self: That which is not perceivable in this way, That which is not attached, has no form.

And every verse is about You. All of this (as Guruji [Mooji] says) is about You. Just not ‘you-personally’.

[1.8] Ashtavakra says, “The thought: “I am the doer” is the bite of a poisonous snake. To know I do nothing is the wisdom of faith. Be happy.”

~ ~ ~

“The thought: “I am the doer” is the bite of a poisonous snake. To know I do nothing is the wisdom of faith. Be happy.” Now, we talked about this; the three levels [ Inaudible moment] Personally: ‘I am doing and I am suffering’. That is completely made up; belongs to the identity which actually doesn’t exist. Again, taking a set of sensations and saying that these are individual; These are ‘me’. That’s why, when we look (when it comes, the suffering) when we look and say ‘Who is the suffer-er?’ we don’t find a suffer-er. Right now, if you move your hand, you’ll find that there is no individual entity which is moving. It is just moving with the light of Consciousness, with the power of Consciousness. So, this idea ‘I am the doer’ is one of the strongest legs of the ego.

I’ve spoken about this before, where I said ‘This ego is a 3-D ego’. 3-D. 3-D ego means what? First ‘D’ is doership.

Okay, let’s start in order, then, to be clear. First ‘D’ is duality; there is a ‘me’ and there is ‘other’…, there’s the rest of the world. This duality is the source of separation. Now, because our Consciousness believes itself to be something separate, that duality is real, that it happened, then it can say ‘Ah! This, I desire’. The second ‘D’ is desire. Because, I’m just ‘this’…, whatever that conception might be (the most popular being this body/mind organism, ‘I am this body/mind organism’). Therefore, ‘This is not ‘me’ but I want it, I desire it’. You see? Without separation, can there be desire? Already, everything is You. What could you desire? Only a concept would desire.

Like I was sharing the other day, Paramahansa Yogananda said, ‘Wherever I go, I feel like everything belongs to Me’. So, it can sound like a strange statement, but to look at it really, it is saying that actually it is just One. It is one appearance. So, this desire doesn’t exist in that way.

Then, if I desire a coconut, then what should I do? ‘Do’…, the third ‘D’…, doership. I should climb up a coconut tree and get it. [Laughs] Then, because of this duality, desire, doership, then this becomes the 3-D’s of the ego. I’ve taken a simple example, but because it’s about ‘doer-ship’ we see that all of our grievances are because of doership.

See, many times we have this Advaita or satsang syndrome where we feel like ‘Oh, we are no longer the doer. But this other one doesn’t come to satsang. He’s still the doer or she’s still the doer’. [Chuckles] Very convenient Advaita, where we absolve ourself of all responsibility, but those around us are still individual doers. We have these strange ideas. So, if the concept of doership is dropped, then not just guilt, pride and these things but also grievances. Who is doing what to whom? What injustice has been done upon me by another if there is no ‘other’ and no ‘me’.

So, when Ashtavakra said forgiveness, kindness…, automatically as you are seeing yourself to be what you are, then all this dropping of grievances and it will remove ideas of doership.

[Silence]

More and more, as we are coming to the recognition of what we Are, then these 3-D’s of desire, doership, duality will start to dissolve.

~ ~ ~

[1.9] Ashtavakra says, “A single understanding: ‘I am the One Awareness’ consumes all suffering in the fire of an instant. Be happy.”

~ ~ ~

“A single understanding: ‘I am the One Awareness’ consumes all suffering in the fire of an instant. Be happy.” Let’s close with this one for today. And this one is very, very important.

“A single understanding: ‘I am the One Awareness’ consumes all suffering in the fire of an instant.” Right Now, in this moment, everything from the past is gone. And you are aware of your existence. And unless you pick up an idea, you will not find suffering.

[Video cut out a few moments]

It is a good example, because now, what we are talking about is still the same. In THIS moment, you are aware; you exist.

Now, unless you believe a thought about yourself, unless you give assent to your limitation, can you show me suffering? Can you show me any doership? Does That which exists, That which is aware of existence…, does That have a desire? Is It lacking in something? Unless you buy an interpretation from the mind, it simply only means that you are always That.

Do you see now that the effort (if there is effort) is in the pretense of bondage?

How many see? After all the recognition of today, how many see that if there is effort, it is effort not to find freedom. Because we just checked: This instant, I am free.

The other day we did this with Manju also, and she Saw; in that moment, she Saw: I am the Self. I am unlimited.

So, if in this instant, effortlessly you start off as free, or if you start off with just the Self and no idea ‘I am something’ then what must effort be? The effort must be to pose as if you are something limited; the pretense of ego.  And it is this mind itself that has convinced you that you must walk these 500 steps to come to the freedom, because that is the play of individuality alone.

If you are free now, in this moment, then where do you have to go?

So, what is effortless? That’s why I say (because even this can be mis-used) …, that’s why I say that even if it does feel like effort, to find your effortlessness. So, this might seem like effort to you right now; to just check what is in this moment. Somebody can say ‘But I’m making this effort’. This [effort] can be made…, to come to the discovery of your effortlessness. If it feels like a little bit of effort is needed…, otherwise, you might say ‘Oh, I’m always free, I don’t need to come to satsang because freedom should be effortless and coming to satsang is effort’. [Chuckle] I’ve heard these things. ‘I don’t want to do the inquiry because inquiry is effort.’ What is inquiry? Just the checking of ‘What Is’. Just the recognition of ‘What Is’. But the mind can make that seem like effort and be deluded; as if you are a person, as if you are the ego can seem to be effortless…, because of habit.

But actually, what are you finding? You’re finding that: ‘In this instant, I’m completely untouched by this phenomenal play. Unless I pick up a concept, I pick up a judgment or an inference, nothing happens to me’.

Even if there is pain in the body, the pain is ‘tasted’ but you find no individual suffer-er of the pain. Even to say that there is an individual entity in pain is a concept. Consciousness, You, Your Being, is full of space. (Okay, don’t get confused with that statement.) It is SO spacious that everything is allowed within It…, and It will never run out of the space of experiencing. It is only when You define yourself…, Consciousness defines Itself…, to be something small that it can claim that It is overwhelmed by something.

How can EVERYTHING get overwhelmed by something? Can the ocean get overwhelmed by a wave? No matter how big the tidal wave is, can the ocean be overwhelmed?

So, in this moment, it’s just so natural and obvious that You are existing. Are you existing effortlessly, or with effort? To exist, what is the effort you are making?

Are there any other answers that any of you wrote that you want to report to me about any of the questions that I asked? You can type it out or you can speak it out. Oh, Paul is coming up.

Q: Hi, Ananta. Can you hear me?

A: Hello, Paul. Yes, my dear.

Q: I wrote ‘The direct, non-conceptual recognition of that which the concept Awareness points to’.

A: Very good! Say that again?

Q:  The direct, non-conceptual recognition of that which the concept Awareness points to.

A: Yes, yes. Very good, very good. I enjoyed this answer very much.

Then Shanti says, “Openness, beyond definition of open and closed.” Yes. “This is All There Is. All One. All Open. Open perception. Already too many words to describe this.”

Beautiful words. I’m so happy. I feel very nice, in my play as Ananta, to share and then get feedback and get answers like this from all of you. It makes it seem very beautiful, this whole process.

Clare says, “My best description of the Self is a sublime normal-ness.” Yes, sublime normal-ness. “Natural-ness. I-less I.”

I-less I. Yes. ‘I-less I’ is another nice way of saying what Bhagavan [Ramana Maharshi] used to say, “I removes the I and yet remains I.” So, that I which can be removed is obviously not the unchanging truth that we spoke about. There must be THIS-I, which is empty of this-I, and yet remains the I.

Very good. Very good.  [Silence]

Sending you all my blessings and love. [Silence]

Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Satguru Moojiji ki Jai !

Sangha: Anantaji ki Jai !

[1.4] Ashtavakra says, “Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.”

~ ~ ~

The sage says, “Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person. You will be instantly free and at peace.”

“Abide in Awareness with no illusion of person.” See, it’s so beautiful that the ‘how to’ …, because when the pointing is heard ‘Abide in Awareness’ the question can immediately come ‘But how do I abide in Awareness?’ He says, “…with no illusion of person.”

In just one statement, he has given us a very important pointer. It is only the false that must not be picked up, to abide in the Truth. It is not that you have to go towards the Truth and stay there. You are the Truth. You are always there. To ‘Abide’ only means that the false identity, the illusion of person, is not picked up.

Right Now, you are Awareness and abiding in it. But you have, in your dynamic play as Consciousness, the power to pick up the illusion that you are the person, to pick up the illusion, the pretense, that you are something limited.

“…with no illusion of person, you will be instantly free and at peace.” He is talking about You.

One of my favorite things to do, when somebody is confused about abiding in Awareness, one of my favorite things to do is to ask you to leave it. That will make it very clear what the Sage is trying to say.

Just leave Awareness. I will count for three seconds, for these three seconds, don’t be Aware.

One, two, three. Did it? Became unaware for an instant?

Even to say ‘I was unaware’ would mean that there is Awareness of a particular state which you might be calling unawareness.

It is impossible for you not to be the Self.

You are always the Awareness alone; always the Self.

That is why the Sage says “Abide in Awareness” …, which only means don’t pick up the false identity, the illusion, the delusion of personhood, the delusion of limitation …, which is false knowledge, which is not the Truth about your Self, which is the source of all attachments…. this idea of ‘me’.

You see how he is answering the question that is asked?

“How is true knowledge to be attained and detachment to be found?”

By seeing that you are This that witnesses this entire phenomenal play. And to see that you are this Awareness, and there is no individual ‘me’. This illusion of me gets picked up (and all of you by now know how this illusion gets picked up).

Consciousness poses as if it is limited, as if it is individualized, using the powers of attention and giving assent to…, giving belief to…, this mind whose job is to convince you that you are a limited entity. That is also by design of Consciousness. So, now it has played the game of individuality. And now the exit from the game also; it wants to extract the juice from this play of exiting this. That is why it creates this play for itself, this play of satsang, which is nothing but Consciousness speaking with Consciousness.

So, the exercise is to try NOT to abide in Awareness. Then you will see that to abide in Awareness truly implies just not to pose as if I am limited. Even if there, we are actually abiding in Awareness…, but you pick up this same illusion of suffering, of individuality, of separation, of duality, of desire, or doer-ship…, all these things.

Okay? Good enough for the reading for today?

[1.3] Ashtavakra says, “You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space. Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone, the Witness of these.”

~ ~ ~

He goes straight to the root of it in the next verse. He says clearly, “You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space.”

This is very important. In India, they are referred to as the five elements. So, “You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space.” So, as we looked at the content which was brought to us through our senses, we find that everything that is perceived is made up of these elements. And when we hear ‘we are not this’ then we feel like we are some kind of space. And we use the word ‘space’ also in satsang. That’s why I keep saying ‘But it’s not a spacious space’. You see, it is not space in the terms of length, breadth and height. That’s why afterwards the sage is saying, after saying “You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space.”

So, the mind’s trick of presenting this, which is this black, blank space ‘I am this, this is the Self’…, who witnesses even that? That is the question, you see. Does that have a length? Does it have a size? Can it be perceived as big or small? As having a shape?

So, Ashtavakra says, “You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space.” So, my question to you is: If you are not earth, water, fire or air and you’re not even space, then what must you be? What is it that you are, that is beyond these?

And you are to speak from your direct insight. And before I close today, I’ll come and ask you for your answers.
What is it that you are, that is none of these elements? …, not even the space in which these seeming elements are playing (which is the fifth element).

[Silence]

“Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone, the Witness of these.”

So, I was saying that Ashtavakra doesn’t beat around the bush, does he? One preparatory verse. Many, many scriptures spend many chapters on describing the qualities and how to be a good seeker; all of these things. For Ashtavakra, one verse is enough. He said all that he had to about the preparatory phase; whatever the qualities are. Then straight he goes to this. You’re none of this perceptual world, you are not even the space in which they seem to appear. You are the Awareness alone…, which is the witness of these. He’s given the answer and also the clue to find the answer. Because otherwise the words ‘You are Awareness alone’ can seem like they’re just words.

So, now, for two minutes, check on THAT which witnesses every phenomenon.

Is there something like this witness?

[Silence]

Don’t resist any phenomena if it is coming up. Use all phenomena to check:

What witnesses this?

Is that also phenomenal?

Is that also changing?

Is that made up of 5 elements?

Or space?

[Silence]

If your mind is coming with a report, check on who witnesses that?

What is the witness made up of?

[Silence]

“You are not earth, water, fire or air. Nor are you empty space. Liberation is to know yourself as Awareness alone, the Witness of these.”

[1.2] Ashtavakra said, “To be free, shun the experiences of the senses like poison. Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity, truth.”

Then the Sage speaks: Ashtavakra said, “To be free, shun the experiences of the senses like poison.” They were a bit strong in those days. Now, “To be free, shun the experiences of the senses like poison.” …, we don’t have to go that far if we don’t want to. At least what we saw already is that there is something beyond our sensory experience. So, if for some time, at least during the time which we are in satsang, we are in the reading of this scripture, we keep these experiences on one side and see what else is there (besides our sensory perception) to remain with our inner recognition which is beyond sensory experience.

Then he says, “Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity and truth.” And, you know, the first time (I remember) when we did the commentary on the Ashtavakra Gita, I just ignored this paragraph. [Chuckle] I just said ‘Let’s move to the real stuff. It’s just a waste of your time’. So, not so much that came up to say on these things. But, I feel today that it is a very beautiful paragraph because in each of these statements, in each of these pointings, it creates space for the recognition of the Self.

Let us explore for a little bit how that could happen: He says, “Turn your attention to forgiveness.” What is the meaning of forgiveness? What is the opposite of forgiveness? It is to hold a grievance. Holding a grievance; what is the idea that is perpetuated? The idea is that there is a ‘me’ …, again. There is ‘another’. And therefore ‘I am right in holding a grievance against this one’.

So, it is a virtuous circle where the recognition of the Self brings us to the dropping of grievances. And it is the dropping of grievances that creates more space for the recognition of the Self. It operates like this.

So, satsang is like coming into this recognition. And you will find that many times you come into satsang with a lot of …, you might have just had a fight with someone, or an argument with somebody on the phone, something like this; and it might seem like such an important thing. And by the time you come to the end of satsang you might feel ‘It is not such a big thing. It’s okay, maybe he was having a bad day, she was having a bad day’. Something automatically changes so that grievance got dropped away. Because you came into the presence of satsang, you came into the presence of your own recognition of the Self, so the grievance was dropped.

It says “Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity …” Sincerity means not to be in a false denial, not to be in this lack of integrity. When you are false in any way, or in denial about something or the other…

That is why Maharaj [Nisargadatta] used to keep stressing on this point. He kept saying ‘If you have integrity, everything will work out; if you have integrity’.  And this I could never really understand when he used to say this, when I used to read ‘I Am That’. Now it becomes more and more clear that it is all about this:

Are we reporting from direct insight?

Or are we reporting from something which is just conceptual, just interpretative, just an inference?

So, if you can look a sincerity as integrity, not denying…, then when a question is asked to you: ‘What is it that you find when you look within?’ …, you are not reporting from an inference of what you have found. Your words are as aligned to the experience as possible.

And we are not getting to any sort of Advaita denial. There are many who come into a form of Advaita denial where they have heard the term that ‘You are the Self or you are Awareness’ and then, actually, they are still believing a lot about themselves, a lot of suffering is being experienced. And yet, when a conversation happens when this is brought up [they say] ‘There is nobody here to suffer. I am this Awareness, I am the Self’. But it’s just the words of it, not the smell of it. So, many times we come into these kinds of just intellectual or Advaita sort of ego defense. So many times, the words of Advaita, the words of this direct path in itself become very beautiful ways to defend the ego because we refuse to go beyond the words of it. It can feel like in the words, the insight is available. No, the words at best are pointers to the insights. Use the words as tools Let them lead you to your discovery of the Self.

No words are true. Maharaj Sri Nisargadatta used to say that ‘The only truth I speak is that I am …, and ultimately even that is not true’.

“Forgiveness, sincerity, kindness…” Kindness. Often, I have said that when true spirituality meets the world, one of the byproducts is kindness. Kindness doesn’t mean that we’re just using kind words or just being very nice in the form of your speech; it is not like that. Many of the Sages were very strong in their words, but in their heart, it was compassion, in their heart, it was what is best for who they are engaging with. So, true kindness is in that.

A true Master is always a servant to your longing for the Truth. So, whether the words are seemingly kind or strong, the only kindness in his heart (the Heart) is to lead you to this same discovery that they have had. So, “Kindness.”

“Simplicity.” Guruji [Mooji] often says the truth is simple but the mind is very complex. The complexity comes when we are empty of experience and we are full of concepts. Many times it can become very complex. So, as we stay more and more with our direct insight, with what we are discovering for ourselves, we find that it is so simple: I know that I exist.

What is this knowing?

How do I know that I exist?

It is very straight forward and simple, isn’t it?

Who doesn’t know of their existence?

You might not have the concept of it; it is not required. You might not have the best words to articulate. But everyone is always the Self.

This Self knows ‘I Am’.

And even these words, if you give them to the mind, what happens? It makes complex spiritual ideas out of them. So, more and more we want words. “Simplicity.”

Then at the end is says: “Truth”. “Turn your attention to forgiveness, sincerity, kindness, simplicity and truth.”

So, truth is this truth: The Truth which is seen, which is experienced, which is witnessed; and the Truth which is without change. The definition of an appearance is that it is changing.

So, how is it that we can come to this Truth? It is through the aid of these scriptures and through our self-inquiry and being in satsang.

So, Ashtavakra in this paragraph has given some very practical advice on how to create more space for this recognition. And because Ashtavakra is a very, very direct teacher, he doesn’t spend too much time on this. [Smiles] He goes straight to the root of it.

Chapter 1. Chapter 1 is entitled: Instruction on Self-Realization.

Janaka said, “Master, how is Knowledge to be achieved, detachment acquired, liberation attained?”

And this questioner [Janaka] is a king. He obviously knows a lot. He knows a lot and yet, why does he ask this question ‘How is knowledge to be achieved?’. I’m sure every scripture, everything that is meant to be known in the worldly way is already known to him. And the translator here has also done a service to us and capitalized this ‘K’. He’s capitalized this ‘K’. He says ‘How is Knowledge…’ (with a capital ‘K’) … ‘to be achieved?’ So, it is obviously implying a form a true Knowledge, a form of Knowledge that is unlike the usual knowledge that we are used to.

But before we can look at ‘what is this true Knowledge?’ let’s explore for a few minutes, what are our sources of knowledge? What is it that we know? And where does that knowing come from? Because presumably all of us are also looking for this true Knowledge. So, what is it that makes this Knowledge true vs. that which we have known so far in our day-to-day life? How do we know things?

So, my first question to you is that the first obvious way that we seem to know things. This is perceptual, through our perceptions. And how to we get our perceptions? Seemingly through our senses, isn’t it? So, take a minute and write down:

What it is that you know through your eyes?  [Silence]

What it is that you know through your ears?  [Silence]

All the senses, one by one; eyes, ears, nose, touch, taste. [Silence]

Perceptual knowledge;

that which we seem to gain through our senses, or that which we perceive.

[Silence]

Now, when we look at this perceptual knowledge, it can seem like it is very straight-forward and obvious. And yet, even this perceptual knowledge fails at times. How many of us are perceiving that this world, this Earth, that presumably we are sitting on right now, is moving at a rapid rate? It’s moving at a rapid rate around the sun and around its own axis; revolving and rotating both. But is this our perception? Are we seeing this through our eyes or hearing this through our ears? Is there any perception of this? And yet, we know this.

So, there’s another type of knowledge that’s beyond perceptual knowledge. What type of knowledge is this? It is conceptual. So, we have a concept called ‘What is happening’ without it necessarily being our direct experience through our perceptions.

So, what other type of concept do we know that we don’t have a direct experience of? We can contemplate a little bit and write down a couple of them; where it’s just conceptual. You got the knowledge because you heard it from a credible source, or heard it repeated over and over.

[Silence]

Then even beyond perceptual (which is using the senses, outer perception) and conceptual there’s also perception which is seemingly-inward. Inner perception. Imagination, memory, emotion; other sensations, pain and pleasure. There is a knowing of these. But it doesn’t use these outer senses and doesn’t rely on concepts or on their appearance for its appearance.

[Silence]

So, we looked at perceptual knowledge, conceptual knowledge, we looked at sensation, inner perceptual knowledge. And this is available to everyone. Janaka said, “How is Knowledge to be achieved?” which means there must be a Knowledge which is beyond all these; which is prior to all of these.

So, what are the parameters of this kind of Knowledge? The parameter is that it must be direct experience, direct insight…, but also it must be unchanging. The truth is unchanging. True Knowledge is unchanging.

If every day I’m changing the curtains in my house and somebody asks me outside ‘So, what color are those curtains?’ and you say ‘Yellow’ is that the truth? No, it was; or it could have been at some point in time. It’s always changing. So, we cannot authoritatively say something is true. All we can say it that ‘I had the direct experience of it but since it’s in the realm of change, I cannot authoritatively say that this is true right now, and it’s always true’.

So, when we’re looking at true Knowledge, it must pass the parameters of both our direct insight as well as being unchanging.

So, what is it that you Know…, that is both your direct insight and is unchanging?

[Silence]

All of us, as Janaka, are seeking this. He said, “How is Knowledge to be achieved?”

So, contemplate for just a minute on whether you have any Knowledge like this: that which doesn’t change, and that which is not just conceptual but is your direct insight.

[Silence]

If you see something like this, then make note of it, and I’ll come back to you with this question and ask you what (if anything) you did write.

So, in the first sentence of the scripture itself is a very deep contemplation. It sounds like a very straight-forward question: How is Knowledge to be achieved?

And also, it says “…Knowledge to be achieved? Detachment acquired? …” Detachment means to not be attached to anything in this realm of appearances. So, to understand detachment, you must first understand what attachment is. So, what is attachment?

When we first moved into this house a few years ago, for the first time in my life there was a garden. There was a small terrace garden in this house. The first time I was renting a place which had a small garden, but really it felt like I had a garden for the first time. So, what I did was, in my initial enthusiasm, I planted some seeds. There were already some plants and some grass and things, but I planted some seeds to watch this process. I planted these seeds. Then what happened is that every day I would wake up and the rest of the garden for some reason would be invisible to me; I went first to these seeds to see what is happening with them. What would come out of those seeds would also be plants, would also be nature. And yet, there was something that was attached to the outcome of these that I had planted.

What is it that made one set of appearances mine, and another set of appearances not-mine, or not as much mine? So, when this play of ‘me’ is there, then one of the strongest legs of this ‘me’…, one of the strongest support systems of this ‘me’ is the idea of ‘mine’. Now, this idea of ‘mine’ is very trouble-some. Because what did we just discover about this world of appearances? It’s constantly changing. So, if it’s constantly changing and we’re holding onto something as ‘mine’ then what’s going to happen to it? There’s going to be suffering because it’s going to change.

So, this is in this way; when we already see to have something and we call that ‘mine’…, and that becomes an attachment ‘This should not be taken away from me’. And also, it comes in the opposite way, which is to look at something and say ‘This is not mine; I want that’. You see? ‘This is not mine; I want that’ can also cause suffering. So, attachment to an idea can also mean something; also perpetuates this sense of individuality this sense of ‘me’.

[Silence]

So, we looked at desire. But the opposite of this desire, which is aversion, is also a form of attachment, in which we say ‘I don’t want this to be mine…, come what may!’ It could be pain, it could be relationship, it could be anything.

So, what is it that we attach our identity to…, we attach ourself to…, in a specific way?

[Silence]

Notice that as this realm is a changeful realm (because everything here is constantly changing) notice how the idea that something is mine has the potential to cause so much suffering…, and has its basis in an individual entity called ‘me’…, [Silence] …, how identity relies on all of these conditions.

Then King Janaka said, “…detachment acquired, liberation attained?”

So, as we go through the first two parts of this question, which is True Knowledge of the Self, That which is unchanging, and the dropping of these conditions of attachments, then the end of seeming-separation, the end of duality is an obvious by-product.

When we recognize who we Are, then we don’t apply false conditions onto our Self. So, this itself is a beautiful description of freedom, a beautiful description of liberation itself.

[Namaste] Namaste, everyone. Very warm welcome to satsang today. Satguru Moojiji ki Jai !

I’m feeling very happy actually to re-start our exploration of the Ashtavakra Gita. I mentioned to Guruji [Mooji] also the other day and just now I got a message some time ago saying that he’s also very happy that we are doing the Ashtavakra Gita like this and he felt like one day he also would like to do something like this.

So, twice now we’ve looked at Ashtavakra Gita before, from the beginning. So, this time I wanted to do something a little different to make it more of an experiential workshop rather than just me in a monologue [Chuckles] commenting about Ashtavakra Gita. And many of you, I don’t know how much (depending on the attention span) you’ll be able to listen to. So, this time I felt like I wanted…, really, I feel like it is meant to be truly a self-exploration and like an experiential workshop rather than just a one-way discourse (which is also very beautiful, of course; we had a beautiful time the last few times).

What happens here is that every time I hear the words of the sage, especially a sage like Ashtavakra, then every sentence is used as a contemplation, every sentence is used as this inner looking, this inner checking, this inner insight. And I hope to do it like this this time, that as we go through these sentences, I can prod you, I can provoke you into also going through some of this checking.

Many times, the words of the sage can seem very simple and plain and it can feel like ‘Okay, what’s there to explore in this?’ But as we go through together, you might realize that new facets are revealing itself, new ways to inquire into true Self are revealing themselves. Hence, it’s a very unique scripture, of course, Ashtavakra Gita; it’s unique in the sense that it’s just the first chapter. [Chuckles] The questioner has questions in the first chapter. And by the end of the first chapter, the rest of it is a conversation between two sages; so quickly Janaka comes to the recognition of his true Self.

Then you can also see this great Master, Ashtavakra, also doing what Master’s do, what a great Master does, which is to question, which is to not buy into the proclamation so easily; to keep inquiring to make sure that all these conditions or all the ideas that we have about ourself…, are they truly dropped? …, are we truly empty of them? It’s a beautiful, beautiful exploration.

So, what I suggest is that we can take a couple of minutes for those of you at home [watching online] (those in Bangalore [there with him in satsang] I already told them to do this, which is) to get a small notebook and something to write with. And those of you sitting at home can also quickly go and get your notebooks. I will be happy if you participate this way. Even if your mind is resisting saying ‘What is this? I don’t want to. I’m too old for homework’ …, if you can, get it.

The translation that we are using is a beautiful translation by Bart Marshall. I read a little bit and I saw that it resonates very much with the expression of Guruji [Mooji] and the expression that is shared in satsang here, so I like this translation very much; Bart Marshall. And it’s available for free online (@ http://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/Ashtavakra-Gita-ebook.pdf ) I hope it’s available online for free in an authorized way; maybe we should check on that. But it seemed like it was authorized by the author to be put up over there.

Okay. So, as we jump in, let’s invoke the presence of the Master. [Hand on heart] May his presence guide us into the true essence behind these words.

Father, bless me that this body can be a useful instrument as we explore this beautiful scripture. As always, may your words be spoken through this mouth.

May all those who attend these sessions come to their fullest understanding of what is being conveyed in this beautiful book, in these beautiful words.

A: Before we go today, I want to ask you: What is that knowledge that you wrote or you felt you have which is beyond the knowledge of the senses and beyond the knowledge of concepts and even beyond the knowledge of perception, inner perception (like imagination and memory and emotion and sensation)? Who would like to offer an answer?

Q: I wrote ‘I am the knowing of that. I am the knowing’.

A: … And you know this?

Q: [Nodding]

A: Yes, very good. How is it known?

Q: I don’t know, I don’t know. It is just known. I don’t even know if that makes sense.

A: It makes complete sense to me. So, this is exactly what we have been telling for so long, when we use the question ‘Are you aware now?’ and you say ‘Yes’ …, how is this known? You are not seeing a perception of Awareness, you are not seeing the size, shape, color. You are not even experiencing it with some duration of time. You cannot even truly say that (unlike its dynamic aspect, which is Presence…, which is Awareness itself; but we will get to that in a minute if we have to) but at least for Being, for Consciousness, you can say that ‘Yes, I experience the presence of Being. I Am’. But even this ‘I Am’ play, there is a subject which witnesses even this; this ‘I’ which is now Am: I Am. This ‘I’ we don’t ‘taste’ as a perception. You see, we don’t see it with sight, we don’t hear it with ears, we don’t ‘taste’ it, we don’t smell it, we don’t touch it. It is not a memory, it is not imagination; none of these. And yet it is I.

Many times, when it becomes very intellectual, many come into this sort of a denial of even the Self. And sometimes (because these explorations have happened for thousands of years) the terminology can become a bit confusing and confuse some of us.

So, the Self that we speak about is not the self, for example, that is spoken about in Buddhism which is another world for like ‘a personal self’. So, the Self that we speak about is the no-self, or the non-self in Buddhism. (Anyway, let us not digress in those directions.)

This that witnesses everything (including that you exist) it is undeniably I. It is the most intimate. It is beyond intimate because it is You. That is why this question ‘Are you aware now?’ can seem like a very innocent pointing, but the basis of your ‘Yes’ is very important. It is unlike any other ‘Yes’.

I ask you [Father picks up a coconut] ‘Is there a coconut in my hand?’ You say ‘Yes’. Why? Because you have the perceptual knowing that there is something; and then a conceptual knowing that it is called ‘coconut’. So, this perceptual knowing and conceptual knowing makes you say ‘Yes, I perceive a coconut and therefore I can say yes’. If I say ‘Is there a coconut in my hand?’ [Holds up an empty hand] you say ‘No. I don’t see it, therefore, no’. But I ask you ‘Are you aware now?’ You don’t perceive it through your senses. You might not even have a concept of it (although some of you might because of satsang) and yet you say ‘Yes’. Why?

Then you might say ‘Okay, maybe you are imagining a coconut’. But I ask you ‘Are you imagining this?’ You say ‘No’. [I ask] ‘Is it coming from some memory of coconut?’ [You say] ‘No’.  It is coming from Your insight right now. That You are aware now needs no history, needs no other perception. It is Your most direct recognition of the Self. Whose? Consciousness; which is the dynamic aspect, the dynamic play of the Self itself, of Awareness itself…, who for a while poses as if it is a limited entity pointing seemingly outwards; now coming to the recognition of its own source.

So, as Consciousness you come to the recognition I Am That I Am…, therefore, the recognition ‘I am God, or I am Consciousness’. And then the recognition (it doesn’t have to be in this order, but usually in this order) that ‘I Am That, which is even before I Am.

And how is this recognition to be found? By just, with your pure insight, looking at this question: ‘Am I aware now?’

Can it be any simpler? This is the simplicity that Ashtavakra was speaking of.

And then, he also gave the answer to the next question, which usually is ‘Okay, yes, I see it but how do I abide in it?’ Isn’t that what we usually say? In fact, the other day in satsang I did a poll, and so many of you said ‘I see it, from time to time, I recognize myself…’ (and thankfully most of you said when you are in satsang and you check for yourself, you find this recognition) …’but it seems difficult to abide in this’. Because we have made abidance also another ‘doing’…, something for us personally to do. That is why I have been trying to say: Abiding is nothing. It is happening naturally. But you can just pose as if you are not abiding and it is just this posing which seems to fall away more and more and more; this posing of individuality.

So, this is the meaning of true Knowledge with a capital ‘K’…, That which is beyond perception; That which is beyond conception; That which is beyond emotions, sensation; That which is beyond even Consciousness, beyond I Am.

This Awareness, this witness to all that is phenomenal, is your undeniable experience.

That’s why the ‘golden rule’ I’ve been sharing with all those who are coming here is to speak from your insight and not from your inference. What that means is: Don’t judge the experiences that you are having, don’t label them. Just allow your words to be as aligned as possible to what you are experiencing, directly. And with this integrity, the sincerity which has been shared by the great Sage Ashtavakra will be very apparent.

Q: Father, I am this constant stillness in the background of perception.

A: Very beautifully put. Very beautiful.

I said we would come to that part later where I explain how to the mind it can seem confusing sometimes when I say that ‘You are even beyond Consciousness, you are that Awareness in which Consciousness is born and dissolves back into’…, it can seem like we are speaking of some sort of duality. But actually, we are speaking about One. We are speaking about one hand [Holds up his hand] but qualitatively it seems like there are five fingers. You see what I’m saying? That there is one ‘I’ …, but qualitatively it seems like there appears within It something called a ‘finger’ which doesn’t make it two hands, it’s still One. It is ‘I’ and ‘I Am’.

So, this Am plays (waking state happens; dream state happens, identification, all of this drama, it happens) and then when Am-ness is done with playing the drama, it goes back to sleep in its Father’s lap, which is Awareness Itself.

So, there is only this Awareness…, because even this finger is made up of what? Of the hand alone. Consciousness is made up of what? Of the same Self alone, of Awareness alone. And yet, the qualitative appearance of Consciousness is undeniable.

So, it is not the same as when we say that ‘the person is just not there’. (Ultimately, it is true that Consciousness also is just not there and everything is just Awareness, but) that this Beingness is ‘tasted’ is undeniable. The person, on the other hand, is just like if you carried a belief about yourself that actually you are just a visitor here from Mars. Suppose you carried this belief about yourself. Would there be an actual Martian here? Would there be a qualitative ‘taste’ of this Martian? No. It would only be the ‘taste’ of this sense of separation, the sense of identity; but never really the separate entity. So, the person is like that.

The Being is actually ‘tasted’. In fact, the play of this creation is the ‘tasting’ of my Being, is to ‘taste’ this existent aspect of my Self.

We can explore that in more detail later.

Q: I can’t clearly differentiate between ‘mind’ and ‘the false I’. Could you speak about that?

A: Yes. Usually in satang here we keep it very simple, where we refer to Bhagavan’s [Sri Ramana Maharshi] definition of the mind which is that the mind is a bundle of thoughts. And just to add a little bit onto that, I usually include thoughts and similar energies like memories, imagination; these kind of projections also we include in ‘the mind’.

I know that there are other definitions of the mind. There’s a definition of the mind where the Big Mind is Consciousness Itself. It goes to that extent. But here, to keep it very simple and very clear, we refer to mind as just the functioning of these energies called thoughts and the similar energies. So, just simple in that way. So, when there is a thought to which attention is going, then that is the mind. Then there is a space between thoughts…, that is the ‘no-mind’. It’s like this.

In fact, it’s a beautiful contemplation just to see: What remains in the space between thoughts? Does the witness or the perceiver to the thought still remain? And what can we say about this perceiver? Who is this perceiver which is independent of thoughts?

Is it a bit clearer now? So, this is the mind.

The false-I is the identity that gets picked up by Consciousness; the identity of limitation, the identity of separation, the identity of name and form which gets picked up by Consciousness Itself and Consciousness Itself starts to pose as if it’s a limited existence, as if it has a boundary of the body and it is referred to by a particular name. So, name and form. This is the false-I.

Now, what is the correlation between the mind and the false-I? The correlation is that the mind’s job (in Consciousness’ own design, the mind’s job) is to convince Consciousness Itself that It is the false-I, that it is the limited-I.

So, belief in the mind…, how does the job become successful? It is by the creation of this identity, this false identity. So, when Guruji [Sri Mooji] says ‘Don’t identify’ what does it mean? It means that there is attention that goes to the thought, and also this belief which is giving assent to the thought, giving it a truth value and a meaning to the thought…, which makes Consciousness Itself pose as if It is a limited entity, you see, which is the process of identification.

So, the mind’s purpose is to keep selling…, to keep coming up with these stories (as Guruji [Sri Mooji] says) ‘auditioning for our attention’…, actually auditioning for our attention and belief and saying that ‘Yes, you are like this, you should be like this, you haven’t got it yet’ or ‘you are getting it’…, you know, any interpretation which, at the core of it, is the sense of a limited-I, is the sense of a limited self.

So, the messaging from the mind is like this. Once Consciousness gives identity, belief to this messaging from the mind, It operates as if It is this limited-I or the false-I.

I hope that makes it a bit clearer.

Before the video came on, I was just asking everyone ‘What do we do here?’ [Chuckles] Actually, it’s a good question. You see, at some level, what is unfolding is unfolding on its own. It just feels like there is a simple voice which can try to come as an interruption in the unfolding.

So, it can feel like we need to hear a truer voice. It seems to be an aid of the unfolding. It seems to counter-balance, at least, the voice of the mind, the voice of our individuality. But since you’re here, it means already that something must be attracted to this unfolding. And you’re unfolding to your true nature, your true Self. So, what is getting folded back is only the layers of the play, the layers of the pretend-identity.

So, if this is happening already, is there a job for you to do? Maybe the best job is to get out of the way [Smiles] or stay out of the way. You see, one way of saying it is that ‘The Master is doing it’. But it is the nature of the personal mind to put up these road-blocks, because that has been how we have created this play of individuality, by creating resistance to ‘What Is’. So, if ‘What Is’ (or Consciousness or the Satguru; whatever term you want to use) is pointing now to your divine unfolding (by Its own design because this is the realm of duality, after all) …, another voice will also try to keep that unfolding from folding.

For many years, without ever seeing this conveyor belt, I’ve been sharing this example of this conveyor belt where all these various types of food will come. And for the first time now, actually (in Dubai) I saw it; this place called ‘Yo! Sushi’ where all these various types of sushi will come (some of it was vegetarian, thankfully). So, we saw what it’s actually like.

So, it is just like this, this openness which I speak of. It’s just like this. Allow the conveyor belt to roll. It will come with various options; one at a time. Same way. Some of it coming back; repetitive cycle. So, this mind will come with its own ideas, repeating themselves, convincing you that you are an individual entity.

But without that, Right Now, what is it that you are? Effortlessly. Don’t even work hard or sweat for this question. What is it that you are?

So, let the conveyor belt go around and around. One of the ‘dishes’ on the ‘conveyor belt’ will say ‘When will this stop?’ But that’s also a ‘dish’ on the ‘conveyor belt’. [The thoughts might say]: ‘It means something if it was to stop. Something needs to happen for me to become free.’

The unfolding only means that our belief in these false pretenses, our belief in the idea we have about ourselves, falls away.

What is on this conveyor belt of the mind? Inferences, judgments, projections. What is the basis for belief in them? The basis must be that ‘I am a limited, individual entity’. Without that, none of it makes sense. Look at the thoughts you believe about yourself. And if you were an unlimited Being, would any of them make sense? At least not the thoughts that give you any trouble.

Name a thought that gave you trouble last; any of you. [Someone says, “No troubles.”] They have no troubles. [They say, “Enjoying.”]

Name a thought that gave you trouble last? Nobody has any? [Silence] I want to believe you. [Chuckles] But when I start getting the reports…

Ah, see! [Reading from chat] Amaya said ‘I don’t like seeing myself on video’… was the last thought. Good. So, just like this, the thought can come. And then, imagine this thought is speaking to something which is unlimited (which has no defined shape, boundary, characteristic, form) and you see that this thought becomes completely light and meaningless actually.

So, when a thought comes like this, it latches onto an idea about ourself which is limited in some way; in shape and size, name and form. And if … you don’t have the courage to expose like this openly, look within and see: the last idea which gave you any suffering or trouble. It could be whenever it happened. You’ll find that the idea that was being referred to over there (what you were referring to yourself as or believing about yourself over there) was a limited entity; limited by body, limited by the mind, limited by our conditions.

So, what can I do to help you in not picking up identity from this conveyor belt?  You tell me. [Silence]

Yes, [Reading from chat] Shanti says something also which is not so uncommon. She says ‘The belief I have is: ‘I’ll never get it…’ Never get it …, get it together or…? Is it ‘get it together’? You mean ‘Pull it together in life, and make a good go of life’? Or you mean ‘Never get it’ …, like what we are talking about? [Shanti types answer into chat box which Ananta sees] Oh, she’s talking about life in general; trying to get it together and make it function smoothly.

Another example; again, even in this: the ‘I’ …, which one is this one?

So, it’s not ‘God will never get it together’. So, clearly there must be a limited ‘I’ which can just not get it. And then, see, the mind will try to pull in even all the spiritual ideas. ‘You know the truth, and still you can’t get your life together. There must be something wrong with you’ …, you know, these kinds of things. ‘You know what the truth is, you know you are pure Awareness, the Self which is untouched, and yet when it comes to life, you just can’t get it together!’ …, these kinds of things. So, this ‘you’ quickly comes in as a limited identity, even under the shadow of the greatest insights. It sneaks in.

[Silence]

So, I want to propose that all spiritual practices, all pointings, everything …, the basic intent behind them has been to get you to this point of openness, courageous openness …, that you’re not so compelled, you don’t feel so compelled to pick up conditioning.

[ … ]

That’s a nice one that Shanti had. But another one, which is even more popular is a belief that ‘I’ll never get it’. When Maria heard that, she said that ‘For me’ she is believing that ‘I’ll never get it’. And the simple Advaita answer (of course all of you know) is that ‘You Are It. There is nothing to get’. And yet, there is something that is not so straight-forward.  Because there is this moment of insight which is available Right Now; just to See What You Are. And it can feel like, in life, most of humanity seems to be just distracted with the images and inferences and projections of the mind so much that even this ever-available insight about What I Am, this ever-available recognition about What I Am seems to be elusive.

So, although it is completely true that there is nothing to ‘get’, nothing to be done about it…, but not in the sense that: If you were to look Right Now, you could have a fresh insight about What You Are, which is beyond any phenomenal experience. All the examples in satsang are for that.

If you came with a strong belief that you are a drop of water, and you have this belief that this drop of water is so unworthy that it will never get it (suppose) then as a drop, can you get it? No. So, from that perspective, it is true that the drop can never get it. But the drop can be ‘dropped’.

So, the ocean itself that You Are comes to this recognition that ultimately the belief in the identity of this drop must be dropped.

How does this happen? When does it happen? Nobody can truly say. Some can say ‘It’s the grace of the Master’. Some can say ‘It is Consciousness tired of playing as individual entity that is unfolding to Its true nature now’.
So, the words in satsang therefore are just encouragement and a reminder to that aspect of Consciousness that is playing in a way that It is done with Its egoic existence.

So, even behind the idea ‘I’ll never get it’ …, which is the ‘I’ which is hiding?

That insight is important.

We’re on a very important point, so let’s come back to this. You say, “I am holding onto this false-I so tightly that I can’t drop it. I just can’t.”

So, suppose I say that you don’t have to. I did it for you. It is dropped. But the mind will still come with ideas about how it is not dropped. This is what I mean by ‘the conveyor belt of the mind’. It’s coming with an offering. It’s telling you something about your limitations. But I have told you that though it is coming, you are free from it.

Q: The mind doesn’t drop it. The mind still clings on to it.

A: The mind doesn’t have to. The job of the mind is only one; it is to convince you of your limitation, it is to convince you that you are the ego. So, don’t expect that the mind will change its job. Let the mind do its job; you let it just come and go.

Now, in this moment, are you limited?

Q: No.

A: Where is the false-I?

Q: Nowhere.

A: Nowhere.

Q: For a fraction of a second, it becomes like that, then it comes back.

A: Yes, it comes back. Does the false-I also come back?

Q: No, the mind comes back.

A: Yes. ‘The mind comes back’…, the mind itself is saying ‘The mind comes back’. The mind itself is saying ‘The mind comes back’. And that means that you seem to become limited again. [Inaudible couple of sentences, about story mind tells.]

Okay, let’s start again. This moment, Right Now, do you have a boundary?

[ She asks him to repeat due to sound problem]
So, I was saying: This moment, if you don’t go to any inference, if you don’t go to any judgment, if you don’t make the limitation about anything using a thought, is there something which is limited about you … [Silence] … in this very moment?

Q: No.

A: Did we do anything special in this moment? Did I do some magic on you?

Q: No.

A: You just checked.

Q: Yeah.

A: I can tell you that every moment is the same. You are clearly unlimited. But the mind will come with its story full of limitation.

How do you engage with this mind? Suppose the mind came with this thought ‘Yes, someone says you’re getting it, but you’re still not there’. This is a popular comment it makes. Suppose it comes and says that ‘You’re still not there actually’. How do you engage with this thought? By placing your attention on it, isn’t it? There must be attention on it for you to report ‘That thought came’. There was attention on it. And next, isn’t there the process of agreement, the process of belief in this thought?

Q: Uh huh.

A: Suppose you were to just let these thoughts come and go … [silence] … without trying to fix it or do anything about it? … [Silence] … Then actually, are you limited? Or unlimited?

Q: Not limited. Unlimited.

A: Is it possible to pose as if you are limited, to pretend as if you are limited, unless you rely on some thought?

Q: No.

A: And the good news is that you don’t even have to drop it in that way. You don’t have to push the mind away. You just have to remain open to it. Just let it come and go.

My favorite saying is from a Zen master, who said ‘Let all thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea’. … [Silence] … And what would be the tea that we would serve to them? The tea would be to come to them with the power of our belief in them. Consciousness has given to Itself the power of believing that it is completely limited, that it is something separate. And it uses this power to engage with the mind, with these thoughts.

So, don’t try to change the content of the mind. The mind has only one job which is to convince you of your limitation, to convince you of your separate identity. Let that mind [inaudible, essentially saying ‘…do what it does anyway’.] You remain open; don’t serve it tea.

Q: Okay.

A: I want to hear from you as we go along. I want to hear from you how it is going, what is getting in the way; that kind of thing.

Q: Sure, sure.

A: Very good.

[Silence]

Some of you are new today in satsang, but most of you have been with me for a long time. And I want to say to you that all that is happening in this game of individuality is that Consciousness is picking and choosing a set of sensations in Its entirety of experience and saying that ‘This is me…, and ‘the other’ is another set of sensations which is outside of me’.

Now, this is just not true. All of this is one happening, one experience; a set of light and sound, a set of phenomena within one space of Being, one space of Existence, one Consciousness.

The job of the mind is to label certain aspects of this experience as ‘me’…, and other aspects as ‘outside me’ or ‘not me’. But this is not Your experience. This is just an inference from the mind. All of this is You. And it’s not even the entirety of You. It is just an aspect of You.

All of the worldy appearance and phenomena exist because You exist. I Am. And I have never experienced any phenomena unless I Am. ‘I Am’ is the basis for all experience.

So, when Guruji [Sri Mooji] says ‘True universality, true inclusiveness’ it is not a forced universality, it is not a forced inclusiveness. It is a natural inclusiveness of Seeing that everything is Me, everything is within Me.

So, the ‘Me’ has been used in a limited way, the ‘I’ has been used in a limited way. And now this I is finding Its universal nature.

[Silence]

If you don’t rely on any inference Right Now, and you rely only on your direct insight, what do you find about yourself?

[Silence]

Some subtle inferences might be happening for you. Or you might be feeling that the sensations of the body seem to define some sort of a boundary of ‘you’. But see if you can look beyond this and See that it is the sensations which are happening within You…, within Your Being, which is unlimited. These sensations don’t limit anything. They are just designed to feel intimate; and in their intimate design, they allow this easier belief in the idea that ‘I am limited by these’. But You are not.

You are unlimited Consciousness, un-definable Being.