Ashtavakra Gita Ch. 18, Vs. 46-50 Commentary and Contemplation - 7th September 2017

The entire journey, or seeming journey, of satsang is captured in this one line: A man with no doubts who knows only self has no need of practice or liberation. What does this mean? That there is nothing to do to get there. I've been saying, don't take a step. What are you before you take the step towards your perception, towards the relationships, towards anything that is happening? What are you already? No practice is needed for liberation because what you find is that there is nothing that can truly be bound. All your doubts are about this bondage. All your conditions are about this bondage. But it is even more ludicrous to say that you can be bound than someone coming and telling you that 'I have bottled up all the space in this room and I want to sell it to you for ten dollars.' If you buy this deal, what you recognize about yourself cannot be bound, isn't it? Hope you're recognizing now about yourself, it's forever unbound.

Then whose problem, like I was saying the other day, whose problem are you trying to solve? Something that you don't recognize about yourself, about one mythical entity. We're trying to give freedom to the Loch Ness Monster. At least whatever this 'you,' if you remain with the recognition of yourself, not believing that which is false, then show me how you can pose as someone who is bound, looking for freedom, you see? But the point of this pointing is to bring you to neutrality, to emptiness. It is not to get you the idea that 'I am free.' The idea 'I am free' is not so important. It is here now that we are on Chapter 18, Verse 47. Because why? Because this 'I,' which means the proclamation of freedom, is itself a limited one. Neither bound nor free. If you are forever unbound, can you be free? There is no bondage; it is not applied to you. The quantity of freedom is like if I ask you, what color are the diamonds on your crown? For example, what is the color of the diamonds on your crown? Or are they real or artificial? And if you are convinced that they are fake and you want to get real ones, then you'll spend your entire life in misery because there is no such thing.

That's why you see it said: A man with no doubts, he knows only self, has no need of practice or liberation. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, he lives as he is, happily. Why is he... why did he put the last line in? Because most often what we hear in satsang, and even the other day someone who came to satsang and he said, 'I am willing to talk this, but the fear comes. How will I rule my life? Or is it going to be integrated into bits?' That's why we see it said: Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, he lives as he is, happily. The outward expression can continue to move. All the rules that seemed to be required can continue to be clear that it is designed. This entire play, complete the rule of partner, of parent, any situation is all via the design of consciousness anyway. Life needs no support from that which does not exist. Life itself is the play of that.

He is one whose mind is emptied by the mere hearing of truths, sees nothing to do, nothing to avoid, nothing to want, his indifference. One whose mind is emptied and uncontracted by the mere hearing of truths, he sees nothing to do, nothing to avoid, nothing to want, his indifference. So it's so beautiful that you are attracted to this pointing to the truth. We find that by the mere hearing of it, the recognition of the self emerges. You don't have to do any spiritual heavy lifting. Just by the mere hearing of this, we recognize what you are. We are blessed in that. One whose mind is emptied and uncontracted by the mere hearing of truth sees nothing to do, nothing to avoid, nothing to want, his indifference. So neither desire nor aversion. We've looked at this many times.

This sage does whatever appears to be done without thinking of good or bad. His actions are those of a child. The classic sage just does whatever appears to be done. Actually, for all of us, this is just a movement within consciousness. All this seeming doing, when it says 'sage does,' means that consciousness itself is doing all of this. Although outwardly it might appear that the sage is saying this, the sage is doing this, all of this is just moving. He does what appears to be done without thinking of good or bad. His actions are those of a child. A child leads a very natural life. All that is needed for the child's life is taken care of. He's not strategizing the five-year plan: 'I am one and a half years old now; by the time I'm six and a half, I want to achieve these goals.' And these two actions... child's separate identity is not yet fully developed. The sense of false egoic control over life is not yet developed. His actions are those of a child.

Depending on nothing, one finds happiness. Depending on nothing, one attains the supreme. Depending on nothing, one passes through tranquility to oneself. Depending on nothing, one finds happiness. Depending on nothing, one attains the supreme. Depending on nothing, one passes through tranquility to oneself. This is clear to us that as we empty any dependencies, as our mind is uncontracted, as he says that we're not using the crutches of any appearance, you find that there is so much space to come to the simple recognition of who you are. You find that naturally happiness is present. But what is usually found is that very few, upon hearing this 'depend on nothing,' are able to just depend on nothing. You see, it's not that simple. When you taste it, you want to go down to the streets and tell everyone, 'Just be happy, just depend on nothing.' But they are not able to relate to this homelessness because we're so used to depending on something. We've always felt that our happiness will come in some form, through some form.

That's why the master is a great gift. So the master is a great gift because we are not usually ready to depend on nothing. Then we get, if you are blessed, we get the company of one who is actually depending on nothing. And for a while it can seem like that is something to follow for a while, we can see, right? So the master is something which himself or herself depends on nothing for nothing. So this is the great lifeboat because we are not yet ready to depend on nothing. But the longing is for the truth. Then in the form itself, something arises which we call the master, who is pointing you to your homelessness. Now, the master is the one you are using for first aid. All the other thorns are embedded, all the conditions are embedded. This is the thorn that you are using for first aid to remove these thorns, including forms. So that is why this one is thrown away at the end. It is not thrown away like the rest. As the rest are discarded, great happiness. The discarding... once the master is discarded by merging with the master, merge into that nothing itself, as I prefer to say, that nothing itself.

So be careful when the mind comes and tells you that 'I have now... I have gone beyond the master.' See that 'I can' is usually very smelly. We'll be in a rush for that. This discarding is the most beautiful merging. It's the most beautiful oneness. To see that what I'm saying, as long as that is not clear, then grace also sends the form of the master, which might seem like it is something, but is only pointing you to your nothing. So depend on that. If depending on nothing is not apparent, not clear yet, this lifeboat is sent to us in our lives and it is completely dependable. Then we will find that the master is my own holy presence, my own divine presence, your own. And what is this presence representing? What is it the presence of? It is the presence of the self itself. This self is nothing. So if the self is nothing and the master's pointing has got you to the recognition that you are the self, therefore you are nothing, then what things can you depend on now? If you yourself are nothing, if nothing really touches you, if nothing actually can cling to you, nor can you...

If we find that the Masters, my own holy presence, my own divine presence, your own—and what is this presence representing? What is it the presence of? It is the presence of the Self itself. This Self is no-thing. So if the Self is no-thing, and the Master’s pointing has got you to the recognition that you are the Self, therefore you are no-thing, then what things can you depend on now? If you yourself are no-thing, if nothing really touches you, if nothing actually can cling to you, nor can anything hurt you or affect you, what thing can you depend on now? If you have gone beyond all things, if you have gone beyond time and space in the recognition of what you always were, what thing can you desire or run away from?

In India, in the small villages and towns, there's usually this... what do we have? We have this stall. They have no certificate of any sort, okay? They just have this one stall. Some of you have been here, you've seen them. And they will have these small bottles, put some pills or some liquid syrup or something. And you go to them and you say, 'I have a headache.' They will say, 'Take this bottle, ten rupees.' You see? 'I have a stomachache.' 'Take this same bottle, ten rupees.' 'I have cardiac malfunction.' 'This bottle, ten rupees.' How quaint! You take this bottle, ten rupees. Everything is like so.

The same way, we have one bottle which is: find out who you are, recognize who you are. All your ills, all your conditions, all that you believe about yourselves gets resolved in this discovery. And so I said earlier: don't work on becoming desireless, don't work on depending on nothing. See that you are no-thing. So this is the same working here, but we have it in multi-colors. Between colors, are you aware now? Who are you? Can you stop being? Because if you get bored, I just came here every day and said, 'Are you aware now? Who is aware of this awareness?' then I'm done with this Satsang. Who's next? It is to keep you entertained as we come to the same recognition. How do you come to this depending on nothing? See what you are. Does that which you are representing, does that matter? Does that have a limit? Does that have reality?

Why do I prefer to use the word 'no-thing'? I was seeing on Facebook the other day—and I don't know if it's true, many things on Facebook are fake news, so I don't know if it's true—but I heard that there have been instances of some of the recent Advaita teachers committing suicide. I don't know if any of you saw this on Facebook. Maybe my Facebook is more costly than yours. I saw this because somebody reported that they got into some sort of a nihilism. You know this term, nihilism? Which is, 'Oh, what's the point of it all? It's all nothing anyway.'

So the discovery that you are making about yourself, although it is empty of qualities and attributes, is not nothing. It is no-thing. This is a very important distinction. Sometimes you come to the discovery of yourself and you see, 'Oh, this is the same as an empty coconut.' That would mean that there is nothing. This coconut is empty. The discovery of the Self is not that. You come to this discovery of the Self which is so pristine, beyond limits, beyond time and space, beyond attributes and qualities, and yet it is prior to being. This is you. So please don't rush to picking up ideas of nothingness. Come to the recognition of this no-thingness, then all these terms of emptiness. Otherwise, sometimes when you hear the term 'empty,' it can seem like scary things to you. It's not the loneliness of emptiness, not that kind of empty. It is the source of all things, present prior to presence, aware before your being.

So this pristine holiness, in which all things seem to appear and disappear—all presence, all love, peace, joy, and opposites are a part of its play. The Self, all intelligence... it is not an inert object. All intelligence emerges from this. All of this beautiful, wonderful play of consciousness emerges from the source, the Absolute Truth, which is what you are: the Self. If you hold on to your personal identity and you more and more objectively look at the functioning of this world, then it can lead to a depressing meaninglessness. One seeker told me at that point, which is that if you look at yourself as a person and more and more you're realizing and recognizing the meaninglessness from a personal standpoint of this world, then it can seem like a depressive meaninglessness.

Once you see that you are the source and you are the light and you are the screen, then it is a joyful meaninglessness, a beautiful meaninglessness. You're not trying to look for meanings in events because you completely find yourself to be meaningful. You need no other meaning to define you. What are we looking for? We are looking for self-definition. What is it people are searching for? Who they are. 'What is my purpose in life?' And then you might come to see that these questions have been looked at for thousands of years, but nobody has come to a conclusive meaning except to say something which sounds good and takes the question away. But as you discover yourself to be this consciousness and the source of even this consciousness, then the meaning is found in yourself automatically. There is no further need for self-definition.