Be Empty… Everything That Can Ever Be Known Is Known to You Then - 6th September 2023

Thank you. Sorry, I don't have questions. I think all of them have been asked and all of them have been answered over the past few months through Satsang. What has arisen here is a prayer, which is for abidance. And I request that let only knowingness respond to knowing. I muddle things up. A few weeks ago, there was a huge tsunami which lasted for eight days, but the beauty through it all that I realized was knowing was there. Although the tsunami was loud and I was believing the tsunami, but knowing still remains. And so I realized that I kept clinging on to knowing, but it was just... and it was what it was. I'm glad it's over. It's scary to be there even though I know better. Yes, and I just want to leave that at the Lord's feet about recognizing the meaning of knowing responding to knowing. Okay, having said that, could you speak a little bit more about loving? I feel love more than before and it makes me happier. Then the mind gets in the way and says, 'Well, if somebody puts somebody in front of you and says love them, can you do that?' But it's not like that, is it?

But what is the answer to that? This is a good question. So somebody puts somebody in person, yeah?

So it's not like she's not looking, 'Love him.' But that's the expression that I realize, as opposed to something else the mind makes of that love, right? Because genuine flow of goodness and kindness and loveliness is just inherently there unless I put something in the way. Hey, I just realized something while talking to you. That's cool. So this is where I am.

Good, good. I'm very happy you're here firstly. And I'm so excited I could burst. In the first part of the report, there was a little bit of a sense of like a 'me' trying to cling on for dear life to knowingness, awareness.

So that was the eight days thing. It was during those eight days, and I give it... I want to say it was hormones, but that's fine. When I remember it, then I get like that. And then when I realize and I'm back to being here, what is the advantage of being just peaceful over being anxious? What is the advantage of being peaceful over being anxious? Yes, it can sound like you can live life without... if you're peaceful. But what would happen if you would have to live it with tension? Yeah, what is that? That's scary, no? Okay, so it's fear. Anxiousness and fear is kind of... it feels real in the moment, that's it. But I know better that it's just a temporary thing and it goes on and on and on because it feels like a sense of... So during the course of these years, there have been a lot of epiphanies which have shed a lot of baggage, and then there has been a seeing that nothing in this world you can hold on to for grounding. So suddenly it feels like I'm ready for the... and I think it would be the best thing that happened. And I'm here to be fully, fully dead. It's just the power. And if I could say it in another way, I'd say: can you just pull the elastic and boom, that's it?

Are you noticing some self-preservation even in the spiritual reason?

How do I... I don't know what that is. Yeah, I feel like crying right now. Not good. I don't want to give that power. I want to use my power, my power or the power that is here, towards knowing. That power should be knowing's power instead of me taking it and...

Okay, let's try an experiment for a minute. Just forget everything. Don't worry about anything at all. Knowing also, me also, everything, the word abidance here, abidance also. Forget everything. I'm helping you because as you do this outside Satsang, then the mind will make it into a way to abide, into a something, into something for me. So just... that's why I'm saying. And the minute a position gets made like that, that 'I found a way which works,' so simply I with... it's okay, it's okay. 'I sat with Guruji and then he showed me so simply I can just leave it.' In the minute we feel like we have some mastery over something, like an individual mastery or something, the minute the mind has created a fertile opportunity for it to be attacked. So you're not finding a way into something. So that is simple. Before we start any construction. If you start constructing, then it starts to become complex again.

Elastic always. Don't understand, don't understand because we create newer frames.

Yeah, just whatever frames are coming from here are just so that you can deconstruct everything that is there. It's not so that we can create a new understanding. You can perceive everything, yes. Pure perception is fine. But pure perception, what you're truly perceiving, is impossible to encapsulate in words. And the mind hates that because without the words, it cannot make a narrative, and without a narrative, there is no ego. See, the ego cannot exist without a story. Every 'me' has a story. So because we are not able to encapsulate the vastness of our perceptual experience—forget the non-perceptual part, even the perceptual experience—that is why we convert it into the kindergarten stories. 'This one was looking at me like this,' 'He doesn't like me,' 'He likes me,' you know? So we made such a beautiful movement full of light and love and presence into some stupid, strange idea. It has nothing to do with anything, but we live there. All of humanity basically lives there in those narratives.

As you speak, there is this longing saying, 'But I want to come home.' And I'm realizing it is that it's the same 'I' which is using longing to stay alive, no?

How are you able to tell it's a longing and not a desire? Like, do you distinguish between the two or are you using them synonymously?

I don't know if I know that distinction.

So longing is heart knowledge. The heart calls us home. The heart recognizes a Master. Take a minute. And desire being... I think it's what happens very often is we take the insight from the heart and give it to the mind and say, 'Okay, tell me about this.' You see, that is not the right way to do it. Stay with whatever the heart is revealing. It's just an... without any words to see about the last question you asked about the difference. It's just an ache with... if I don't give it words, it's just something, that's something. I don't know what. Then I have... if I put a word to it, then I say it's an ache and it feels like... I don't know, I don't know. I don't feel... I don't know what it feels like.

Yes, yes. So get used to 'I don't know' here, and then true knowledge from the heart will start to become more and more apparent. You cannot be rushed. In fact, it's already all there. Yes, it's already all there for all of us. It's just what needs to come to the surface of expression that is up to that. Let go.

Question here. It helped to be in your physical presence. My mama says, 'Don't create new crutches for... you're already full and whole.' Like, 'Yes, Mama, I hear the truth and what she says too.' And yet...

Stay with Mom?

No, Mama is in Delhi and I'm in Bombay, but back and forth a lot. And I keep telling, 'Don't keep me away from my Guruji.' Satsang is always... I mean, it's like you come home every day, right? So, and she's not trying to... she said, 'Don't hear what I'm not saying,' which ultimately I realized what she's saying. She's not... I said, 'Don't discourage me.' She said, 'I'm not discouraging you. You hear what I'm saying.' And I got it. And yet I'm here asking you. I mean, I'll happily stay here. I'll happily stay here if... because you know, we hear people say that when you are with a person who is an open vortex like you are, who has recognition, it helps.

I mean, it's like you come home every day, right? And she's not trying to... she said, 'Don't hear what I'm not saying,' which ultimately I realized what she's saying. She's not... I said, 'Don't discourage me.' She said, 'I'm not discouraging you. You hear what I'm saying.' And I got it. And yet I'm here asking you. I mean, I'll happily stay here. I'll happily stay here if... because, you know, we hear people say that when you are with a person who is an open vortex like you are, who has recognition, it helps, right? Because if you are standing in the rain, you're going to get wet. And that's the best thing. And even when I'm in satsang, like I said, it spills over to my husband. So I guess that's the answer, but I want you to say something, please.

It's whatever contact we make with God, it helps us. So let's say you deeply admire a sage like Ribhu or Ashtavakra; then of course we can read the Ashtavakra Gita, you know? And reading that, you can become enlightened. It's true. But if you have the chance to go and visit Ashtavakra, if he was here, would you? And if you had the chance then to stay in his presence all the time because he's Ashtavakra, you know, then we would. So, and I'm using sages—I'm not even saying like Jesus or Ram or Krishna, any of that. So I feel like although we can be benefited by reading the words of satsang, by reading a book, we can be benefited by Zoom, we can be benefited in all forms of contact, but if it is possible, then if life has made the space for us to do it, then we must make a full-hearted attempt to it. And it is the Guru's job to make sure that he doesn't become a worldly crutch for you; otherwise, he's not doing a good enough job.

Not keep me here? Stay, please.

Very welcome. Does this mean that if you're here, then automatically everything is naturally going to be sorted and you're at a definite advantage? Naturally, not necessarily. Because what could happen is you could be here physically, but because then you end up taking this one for granted, then it could also be that, 'Huh, today I wasn't really paying attention in satsang because I had some relationship issue or some issue.' So all those things can also happen. So there are pros and cons to everything. But I feel like overwhelmingly, if you have the opportunity in this lifetime to live with someone who is living in God's light, I don't feel like there's a greater gift possible.

In fact, I'm going to say that we must use the Guru as a crutch, as our only crutch. Fully reliant. Can become fully reliant on the Guru, which is actually Satguru's presence. But if you had the possibility of meeting an embodiment of that, or one who is predominantly in the light of the Satguru's presence, use that fully. Because what are we trying to save? You see, saying, 'Don't make that into a crutch, you be self-reliant.' But with self, are we saying... you see, with Self, are we talking God? Yes, that's true. And of course, as a parent, it's a very natural thing to say. But when we are talking about surrender to God and emptying ourselves for God, then what better reliance can we have than a Guru? Much better than the so-called smallest self.

Mama has a connection in the heart with Krishna, and it serves her really beautifully. Yes. And you like how she says, 'God is my best secretary.' I don't know if it is like that she says, and she has a genuine this thing. So I appreciate for her the Bhakti this thing is really beautiful flowering. And as you are talking to me right now, I can see, I appreciate her and you clearly, which is a blessing. I met another parent a few weeks back. I met a parent of somebody who's been in satsang with me for many years. So I tried to venture into, you know... at when I was really young, I found... so it was like, 'I want to talk to you as a friend, but don't like tell me stuff.' You met my mom, though? Have I? Yeah, she came with my sister also. My sister was pregnant at the time, or we had... and I don't remember, but all of us, when you found me at the gate that evening, Mama also came and she sat fully, fully. She's like... she appreciates the whole thing. It's all good.

I think we are all tired of listening to these sophisticated minds now. We actually need more of the knowledge of the heart, honestly. I feel this is the thing. And for me also, it's the battleground. I feel it's all boiling down to now, the moment by moment. Because each time the recognition is about that, you know, every moment either it is God or not, you know? And this is what has been the recognition, and that's what I've been sharing also with you, Father. The battleground is about this. Everything, all the practices and everything, it's actually coming to this moment of belief, you know? Whether I'm keeping myself empty or whether I'm believing the mind.

So all this while, probably, Father, it was all restricted to only the practices that I was doing, like thirty-minute meditation, you know, like sitting with my attention trying to manipulate that, you know? But now I realize it was actually... you used to say, right? It's all about belief, believing in the next. But I recognized that my practices... till the time of the practice, I was focusing, but rest of the times I was believing. So never was there a space created for God in that. So I feel, Father, this has been the recognition, and I feel moment by moment is what I'm trying to follow.

Who invented the phrase 'work is worship'? Be careful what I... social reformer. But what's important is that I feel like this traps a lot of us because we feel like it's to live in God's light or to work, that should become alive because work is worship. But if I could make an addition to that: work is worship only if that work is in God's will. And that means what? That it has God's light shining in it, okay? And God is an active participant in that. Otherwise, it is not worship; it's work.

So having you having said that, does it make sense to find that kind of work or let it find you?

If it is God's will. If it is God's will that you find it, then fine. Otherwise, let it find you.

Well, sometimes I don't have a day job, so sometimes sitting idle is like devil's workshop.

Totally, right? So then one says, 'Why don't I this, that, or the other?' And then there's a knowing that, 'Dude, if it is meant to be, it will come to you.' You sit. Some... I haven't done anything about it so far. Come here instead. So that's how it's unfolding from God's light. I'm just saying that we cannot inherently say something is worship unless it is in God's light, in God's presence. So if you're living in God's light and organically it is found, then that is fine. But if you're also hearing God's voice and He's telling you to go there and find, then you must follow that as well. But don't rush into that.

That hasn't happened. Yeah, okay. So as much as possible, even during work, stay in God's light. Whenever I get breaks, you know, so I have this app which reminds me to take breaks because of my health also. I keep taking breaks. So what I do is whenever there are breaks, I listen to your satsang or probably I even sit, reflect a bit on your pointers. So at least there's something like... it shouldn't be like I'm completely consumed by the mind, you know? I don't want that. I mean, it's like most of the times that happens because every moment is presented to you again. Either I can be empty or I believe. But I... yeah, so stay empty moment to moment even during work time.

And you'll notice that whatever has to unfold—not with our mind's expectations, but whatever has to unfold—will unfold through this instrument. But it's a good habit to return back to something which grounds you to your center. I just hope that don't... again, don't take a position somewhere, you know? Like, it shouldn't be like somewhere, probably without even my knowledge, taking a subtle position.

Yes. I've been... maybe with Ma also was discussing something, you know, recently that even in the waking state, Father, there are so many states, you know? Like if you see, it could be even with the sleep states also, there's so many semi-sleep states. But when I see myself, where am I in all of this, you know? Where am I? Because these are all states that they come and go. This was just an inquiry very strongly has been happening last few days. And where am I really in all of this? So that was also there. And again, it shouldn't be like... Consciousness is also a state of being, right? So I don't want to take that position that this is also a state and let me just shun this, you know? So yeah, I've been mindful of that part as well. So yes, neither ends of the spectrum. Thank you so much, Father, for your guidance. I feel you just hammer us, you know? Like your pointers, you know, they just... it's like an eroding off a mountain, literally, you know, like constantly. So really thankful and grateful to have.

So like, there's a lot of this imaginary 'I' story in this report, and I guess a chop would help, maybe. So it's worth exposing. So, um, so related to that work and all that stuff again, like first before just started... yeah, just recently, about a week or something. Yeah. So this letting of thought by thought, no? So if my attention is on some... like when I'm sitting by myself and I'm doing it as a practice, closing my eyes, my attention is on the mind. Thought comes, don't believe. Thought comes, don't believe. But suppose I'm staring at a screen, my attention is there, and some of the attention goes to a thought and it's believed. Yeah. And I don't even notice that attention is on it and belief has also gone into it. So my struggle has been like how to live in God's light, that connection. And even reading, understanding, writing again, rewriting all that. So when this dissipated attention goes to the mind and you end up believing it and you got stuck in that, then what next? I don't feel the core anymore. I don't feel that love, God's love.

Okay, but what after that?

I just continue in that state. Then at some point I get all super frustrated.

Can we continue in that state just like that? So just in a moment, a moment of dissipated attention, you bought one thought. How long does that hypnosis continue?

Presently, the core is gone, Father.

Like for how long?

Very long. Unless I spend like an hour... one thought came, 'I want a sandwich for lunch,' and core is gone for an hour. I mean, I need to sit down and do it for so long, the practice, till I feel the core. Like I'm ensuring that that dissipated attention went and I believed it based on me not feeling that core anymore. Somewhere in work I hold on to a thought. Right now I don't feel the core.

Huh, okay. I feel it. This is you're doing, okay? That I can't help. Talk to me when you're not there. Exactly. I heard this complaint many times. It's okay right now because you're here. So how do I talk to you? I don't know what to... can I how I not know myself first need consciously you can register yourself as an influence. The main point is that the hypnosis of the thought is nothing. It's miserly. That's why it needs constant reinforcement, constant newer ideas. Does the mind keep quiet after you bought a thought? No, it keeps... it uses that opportunity to give you fifty more. 'You always do this. This is how you get stuck. You'll never find it.' That is what... so that's what I was saying, what next? So it's true that sometimes it just catches you off guard. You were busy with something, a thought came and it has your assent, you've given your belief, and you didn't even realize when it happened. Yes. But what next? So what happens is that the worldly way to do it is to beat ourselves up, say, 'I failed at it. I should have done better. I can't stay like this. I need more help. I need to inquire more. I need to...' all of that is just consuming like a salad and then having the whole seven-course meal because you're feeling guilty about the salad. So if you had the salad and you said you are completely on a fast, then what to do? Stop eating then. Whenever you recognize you're eating, stop eating. Then you can't eat more and more your way out of it into a better diet. But Father...

Beat ourselves up, say 'I failed at it, I should have done better, I can't stay like this, I need more help, I need to inquire more, I need to...' all of that is just consuming like a salad and then having the whole seven-course meal because you're feeling guilty about the salad. So if you had the salad and you said you are completely on a fast, then what to do? Stop eating then. Whenever you recognize you're eating, stop eating. Then you can't eat more and more your way out of it into a better diet.

But Father, while doing the ads, it takes me a lot of time till I feel the presence. Yeah, and it's not like if I just drop a thought immediately I feel it. Very first-world problem, no? My point is, how do I do it? I can't spend an hour at work doing this. Like, how do I stay constantly?

So firstly, it takes us an hour to come to the presence. Privilege! Whose presence are we coming to? God's presence. In our storybooks, how many ages and Yugas did people do Tapasia to find the Darshan of God for one moment? So He could come for one moment and do 'Tathastu' to us? Thousands and thousands of years. One hour to come through? And somewhere there may be a lack of faith that that presence is God's presence. So if it takes an hour, so very good problem to have.

One of my first teachers told me—and I realize a lot of things about that whole movement makes sense because of when I remember these words—he said if every day you can spend three seconds in God's presence, that's more than enough. Which, please don't follow that. That's what I'm just saying, that it explained a lot about that whole spiritual movement to me. But for most, even that can seem like such a huge privilege. We must endeavor to live every moment in God's presence, of course. But this is not a problem. 'It takes me an hour.' Okay, so if you didn't take that hour, you would not have... you would continue in giving that momentum, you see? So to break that momentum of the mind and individuality, to snap out of it and live even for a moment in presence because of that, is like a reboot. Very good.

It is a great privilege, Father. But if I want to do more of it, stay more... so once you come into the presence after the hour, then somehow it's dissipated. I don't get how it goes. One hour, then one moment, then one again, then one moment, then that... like one hour I feel the presence, somewhere I'm going, it stays for a while, yeah, and somewhere I lose it. I don't know how.

How? I'll tell you how. Okay. The same thing. The 'how to lose it' is very straightforward in the sense: I don't have a memory of it, nor attention of it. Correct? So that's the first question. You said that somehow it got dissipated and I found myself believing something. So what is important now is not to post-mortem that and say, 'How did I get here? Why does this always happen?' All of that. Consume more calories because you had a salad. The idea is then to stop and, you know, to stop and just let go of thoughts. That's it.

Yeah, when you notice, just let go of thoughts. Just allow them to come and go. But doing just that, I don't feel the presence again.

You're going to, especially if you started your day with something like your inquiry, your invitation. Then you find that you will feel the presence as you're letting go during the day. Thank you. And even if you don't actually feel the presence, you're actually just ridding yourself of a lot of suffering by letting go of thoughts. No, it's not just because... oh, you see, you cannot say 'I'm failing at it.' Even letting go of one thought could rid you from I don't know how many weeks of suffering.

The other thing: it's possible to read and write without going to the mind? Yes. If it's possible to speak, I should be looking at the screen and letting go of all thoughts?

Yes. We could be looking at this screen all the time and letting go of all thoughts. This whole thing is a screen. Yeah. So primary focus is on letting go of thoughts, not on reading, understanding. Of course, wherever I go.

Yeah, see if you read better or understand better, or if your focus is to remain empty. What does it mean to know? I looked at it actually just today and in the morning when I was doing the... so it feels as if you kind of... you perceive anything and then you say, 'This is a cup.' I'm just saying. And it feels something. The mind feels in control now. Now I have some knowledge of something and so that when I need it, I won't be lost and I will find out and I know what I have to do and made sense of life. Yeah. And in that same way, have controlled, you know, and then the larger page, controlled my life. Like, I will know what to do, what's right, so I will not get hurt and this will not happen to me and that... all nonsense because everything's going to happen the way it's supposed to happen whether I know it or not. And in fact, my knowing it makes it... we don't know. Yeah. But I just noticed that the knowing makes it worse because I'm not seeing it the way it is because I already had... if I have an idea...

By the way, yeah, I don't feel like your mask is helping at all. It's a question whether I'm going to breathe. I can't breathe with it all over my nose or whatever. So my COVID days, this is the ultimate mask for me. I can't do more.

She's got a mask here and when she's talking, then the whole mouth... maybe right in front. So it's basically the mask's sweetness. Say if my son has the infection, I want it too, in the Darshan of... well, you know, whether to put it properly... I can't, I can't, there's not an option. Then why have it on? Back? Yeah, I don't know. I'm just pretending. Halfway measure. You just, you know, say, 'Okay, maybe it's going to work.' That one virus particle will get intercepted by that mask while the 99 free particles will be fine. Now one scientific explanation is coming. So you breathe through your nose, they're filters. But when you breathe through your mouth, there are no filters. You get sick faster. This immunity is less. And the nose... so the nose is already covered now. Covered. What pandemics and all? Breathe through your nose, that's where the filters are there, the hair is there, all the... getting see. And you know this and then you feel happy and then you believe... you don't believe N97 knows, knows 97.

And this report is based on the fact that I see that in the realm of my mind here, there's like the two things, but they're both in the mind. Like a positive state, you... it may propose one belief and then it may counter that belief with another belief. So you're still in that same hypnosis, you know? You're just exchanging one kind of bubble for another one or something. But where you're showing us to go is not in that box at all. And it's like here, where you're saying is that empty space. Like one is I can actively dissolve something or I can just leave it, like leave it like that midway and don't... and then you find yourself out of that whole paradigm and then you're like, 'What was I ever doing there?' I mean, you know, and it's quite a shock when it happens because you don't know what really happened to you. So now sometimes there's utter confusion because I have no clue now and where I really am.

So that was I was saying, that what would it mean that if I knew something, it didn't really mean anything anyway in a sense. So I don't have any complaints, but I just feel disoriented. And we don't know in the head, that is when we know in the heart. So also we never truly clueless. The cluelessness is only to take false knowledge to be true knowledge, to take Avidya to be true. And when we take that to be true, that is the only time when we are clueless. So be empty in the head. And you said, 'I have no clue where I am.' Is this true? No. In fact, I'm waiting for one of you to make me a report about where you are, this where you really are from your heart. So we must not rush into the conclusion that, 'Oh, but the heart is silent, so therefore I then don't know.' In your silence, you know everything easily. But what you mean is that you don't have the outer expression yet. And many times you heard me in Satsang saying there are things to be said but the words are not formed yet. So I noticed that they are forming, so they'll be ripe to share soon.

And how long that process of ripening takes is up to the heart. You can never force it. But you cannot be in God's light, in His presence, and not know the truths of everything there is to know. It is impossible. Does that make you special? No. Does it give you abilities and Siddhis? Only if that is the will of the heart, will of God. But will you be attached to any of that? No, you won't be, see? Because the precondition itself is the opposite of the desire to be somebody or have some special knowledge. So be empty, but don't treat that as a sort of like dumb way to be. It's definitely not dumb. Yeah, it's not dumb. So I am proposing to you that everything that can ever be known is known to you then. Where you know God, there you know God. How can you not know everything else? Everything else meaning knowledge about time, space, universe, all of that—there's nothing compared to knowledge of God. So the knowledge of God includes all of this.

Still for me these days is still about the work thing, Father. I'm glad you had got that point. The thing is, whenever I feel that I'm engaged in work or I feel the mind gets activated more during those moments, so that is... I don't know what to do or maybe you can guide me, Father. I don't know. Try whatever with whatever I can, I have, but still...

So as an experiment, just now, from now on in your work, just slow everything down as much as possible. Okay? Just slow it down. Nothing will get impacted at the outer level. But what can happen is that the minute we come into so-called work mode, we're willing to get rushed and finish and this also, this also finish, and we want to juggle and multitask and be effective and productive and all of those things. So forget about all of that. Just slow it down. And when I say slow it down, I'm actually saying meet the actual slowness in which all of this is happening. See, because compared to your being, the functioning of the mind and even this world is quite slow, you see? In fact, your mind can never catch up with your being. It's just that with our attention, our being turns back towards it and says... just organically your being is already moved on, moved on. There's no chance. The mind cannot win this race. So because of our interest, we turn. And have you noticed this or...

Yes. Run slow to run fast is what I'm trying, but...

So you notice that that your being is so super fresh just naturally. That's why I'm saying, how long does it take? Nothing. You're done. Then you get that call from the mind, 'Wait, wait, wait.' Then if you don't turn and you just keep moving, nothing. We turn like that's... comes, just let it go for that one second and it's gone. And you realize it's really not there anymore. Can we do the experiment? Yeah. Just you be with the freshness of your being just naturally where your being is. See if the mind can never catch up with you, but you don't turn back to look at it for... you see? Then you'll hear a whisper, 'Listen.' If you're not interested, you know, it's the same trick, no? Like millions of times we've fallen for it now. So when you hear that 'Listen,' don't turn. So when I'm saying slowing down, it's not that you have to change something really, just meet this natural pace which is already there. See? Now nothing can rush you. The boss is calling you, you have a Zoom going on at the same time, all of that. But if you meet it like really slowly like that, nothing is going to happen.

And this is what I noticed that I went to the... first time when I met Guruji in the midst of... I'd just done a huge conference and all of that and I'd gone there for a short time. And then after I met him, I was like, 'I don't want to lose this,' you know? So then... but I was still getting work calls and things like that. But I noticed that I was just like picking up the phone slowly. 'Hello? Yes. No. Yeah.' I feel... is it finished? Nobody noticed anything strange. I feel like I'm like that since then. I've not left that mode. But first I noticed it sitting in Usha actually, or was just sitting and I was like...

I just done a huge conference and all of that and I'd gone there for a short time. And then after I met him, I was like, I don't want to lose this, you know? So then, but I was still getting work calls and things like that, but I noticed that I was just like picking up the phone slowly. Hello? Yes. No. Yeah. I feel... is it finished? Nobody noticed anything strange. I feel like I'm like that since then. I've not left that mode. But first I noticed it sitting in Usha, actually, I was just sitting and I was like, I don't want to take any calls. And then one very important customer, she called. Take care, you know, whatever. So then I took it. So it just starts unfolding very naturally and doesn't get in the way. And what is the worst-case scenario? People think you become slow. That it was so slow and all, and nobody noticed. In fact, that's where I think mind is playing, that my mind wants people to notice that, oh wow, I'm so... I'm there. Wow. Don't... what's the point? Yeah, what's the point? And that's my wife asks every time, what's the point going to such... or you're even worse. Thank you, Father.

Uh-huh. You want me to bless this?

Long out. Last two days just feeling very weird. Okay. In fact, there's no reason to feel scared, but not comfortable. Like, you know, one small needle, the balloon will burst. It's like that.

You know how much fear is needed to be experienced to make you scared? How fear... if some fear comes, does that mean naturally that, oh, I'm scared? No. Is there a difference between the arising or the presence of the taste of fear and you being scared? Not getting it? So suppose some lust came. Then because lust came, would you say I am Lusty? No. Notice that lust came. Same way, some fear came. But I've noticed that in your case, if there's little fear also, you say I'm scared. But it's just a sensation. Now, how much of it has to be there for you to conclude that I am scared?

In that moment when that arises, even any small hint or a sign in the space of which comes and goes, right? I feel, you know, that oh, this is happening. Like, see, this sign is happening. This sign is happening. Right? See, that is happening. Like, might not be real, but I'm just assuming. And then your mind proposes this sort of paranoia.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. See, that's happening. So mind is proposing all this. Fear is vibrating.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Now it's not just one. It's like random. Like all tangled, many. Just one shot.

Okay. But do you stay with God's light in your heart that time?

I feel like backing off and being in my space, or rather not my space, but being like slowing down. I literally feel like literally slow down, slow down, slow down and stay in God's presence.

Now, is God God? Yes. And in His presence, are you... is there anything which can be bad for you or something that is still worth fearing?

That moment that blankness comes, you feel safe. That even this, all this rising, the minute I slow down with... I would use the word consciously, I feel... I wouldn't call it safe. It's nice. But what's happening is there's a lot of Slack messages coming in, email popping up, have to do a lot of work. You know, and this conference I'm going, I'm like, a lot of work on my head. I have to do a lot of... and it's all time. Time is already gone, you know? It's like, and then suddenly the mind is like, you haven't done anything.

You know, that which you're using as your escape, make that your home. That which you're using as your escape—oh, I retreat and then I feel peace and then I go back—then I... no. You make that your permanent home. From there, if something has to happen there, then let it happen. If nothing has to happen there, then let it not happen. Okay? But you don't leave your home. Okay? Because in this world, if you get involved like this, then the slap, slap, slap is inevitable. Yes. You stay in your home, stretch hands out, work like that. And it seemed like, no, no, I have to jump in. Then it's okay. Don't do it. Leave your job if you have... I mean, not proactively, but let it not happen. Get fired. Whatever needs to happen. You don't leave home. Stay with God. What can go wrong? Either God is not God... so our mind's doubt is: what if I stay like this, then my life will become a mess? See, then God must not be God, no? That you're staying with someone and you're constantly in that one's presence and your life can still become a mess, then how is it God? So that is the test of fear in our faith. Means intuitively we know that this is God's light, but our mind is doubting Thomas. It will doubt, doubt, doubt. So you don't leave your home. Extend your tentacles to do the work. Yes. And for that, you have to let go of all ideas of what outcomes... you know, all that we've read about Karma Yoga, all the surrender, everything is encapsulated in this simple thing. Because if you fall for anything like outcomes and 'I want to do my best' or 'I want to be seen to be a good worker'—'I've just started my new job so I want to create a good impression'—if you create any of those, then you will get sucked into the content.

I have a cousin who lives overseas. So he had a nice job, but he got a job interview somewhere. So he said, 'I just go to just learn, you know, how that company works and things like that. I don't want this job.' So he went in the interview and he was just so unconcerned and indifferent about it, and he gave very direct answers. That company became desperate to hire him. So they gave him like a... not that any of this is going to happen... they gave him like a huge pay rise and all of that and they hired him actually. And he said, 'This was the best interview I did because I didn't care about getting the job.' It's not a strategy to do, but I'm just saying that sometimes when you become dispassionate about it, then we allow it to unfold naturally.

Another thing is the so-called framework of work, right? When you're not inside your house in that space, sometimes when you go out...

Don't go out.

No, what happens is sometime... I'm just... this is what happens. This is what happens. There's also another fear for me. Like when you do things, like I slow down a bit, people take advantage in work, you know?

Anything. I'm happy to be taken advantage of. Please take advantage of me. What will you take? From clothes? This body? Money? This is a very important point, Father. This... what will I have? Share this. Yeah, yeah. I'm unexploitable. What will you exploit? No, knowing that people are exploiting you or trying to... like, what will they take from what is all that of value which you have? Because this is within the framework of work, that just because there is a box somewhere doesn't mean you pick it up. No. So I'm just saying, let that box lie there. What have you truly seen which is of value to you? What is the value to... exactly. What can take that away? Who can come and take it away? And if that is the only thing of value in us, how can ever we ever be exploited? True. So what then gives you the strength to follow your heart moment to moment? Otherwise, if you already have... okay, heart is there, but you also have a framework because there's, you know, there's work and then there's ethics and then what should people do and not do and, you know, all of those boxes, then it becomes too complicated. We give ourselves too much credit. Two or three variables if you have to juggle, we start becoming anxious. Right? So one variable, which is: what is the heart saying? That's all. Exploit me. And one thing I've been telling some of your kids is that because I've been reading a bit of Kabir Ji these days, so it's been coming here to say... he didn't say it like that... it has been coming here often to say that you don't have to get concerned about these things. What is that? I'm not saying that somebody is clearly fooling you and you're saying, 'Hah, take, take.' If that comes naturally, do it. Is it? If that comes naturally from the heart, then do that also. But I'm saying just follow your heart's guidance moment to moment without superimposing any constructs. And did you... can you notice your attempts? Say, but in that construct, you see, nothing is in that construct. That construct is mental, which we have to apply the mass to ourselves and works from there. No, it's not like that construct actually exists. Are you able to meet this? Like there's no such thing as work. It's not like this, that's a construct sitting over there and then we say, 'Okay, I have to work in that construct.' That construct is a mental category that we have, and everybody's category about what work is is different, you see. So it may have some commonality, but your idea of work, her idea of work, her idea of work, her idea, his idea of work, all are different, you see. So there's no universal construct lying there saying that 'but in that construct, this is how it works.' So come what may, you stay with God's presence. And if God is God, then how can anything unfair happen?

Father, I would like to share something. That day you were saying, you know, that Maya is like almost there, something like that. You... what is that, Father? Almost, huh? Almost there. No, could... something like... something like that you said.

Ah, like something like the minute we say, 'it feels like' or 'it seems like,' huh? But it seems so real. But it feels like it is. But that is the definition of Maya: that which seems real, of you real, but is not.

Yeah, Father, had an experience of that. I wanted to expose it to you, Father. So it's like, um, like you're in the being and you're very peaceful and you're in that state, you know? And what happens after a time, you take it for granted and the mind takes over and it'll copy the same thing, that 'okay, I'm still peaceful, oh, I'm still there,' you know? That same thing is continuing and it... it catch on to the mind. It's like just impostor, you know? Just such a tricker, trickster. And then then you're gone, and then you're thinking that okay, you're still in, you know, abiding and it's still continuing, but it's not.

It's a beautiful composition by Kabir Ji again, where in that... have you heard that 'Maya Mahathagini'? So it tells you where all Maya comes and sits and hides or can sit and hide. So in the sometimes in the seeming devotion of the devotee it can hide, sometimes in the Radha of Krishna it can hide, sometimes the... so in the... what he is trying to say is that we have to be careful of the slightest notion because Maya can go and hide over there.

Father, one thing I felt, you know, is helping is... is a mantra, Father. Yeah, somewhere the mantra comes and it really just cuts across all the... all the thoughts and it makes the reality more reveal itself. I don't know how it is, it happens like that, but it... whatever it seems almost there is no, no, it's not there. It's... you have to still go by feeling that. Thank you, Father. Let's turn this off.

Father, with me, with the term God actually... so it kind of, like, it gets me in a different, you could say, a trap or something. So I when I hear God or when I see this word itself, it's probably laden with a lot of like concepts and stuff. So it... rather it sometimes disturbs me for that. So I sometimes feel maybe using the term Self for me would be better. So is it... I just wanted to ask, is it okay if I just replace it with Self, or or would it just be another version of my... what kind of conditioning, what has happened with God and you?

Nothing like... the thing is for the problem because raising up, when we were growing up or something, right? So we were just seeing people going to temples and praying to God but always for some kind of expectation, something in... so it's there's nothing against that, I I would say that. But the thing is I couldn't relate to probably that form or in any way sometimes. Yeah, that devotion used to come but instantly it would just go away also, disappear within the time. So that consistency in terms of devotion was never there, actually. So for me, it was more of about gaining knowledge or something, right? But there came a stage where I could see that it also has a limitation itself, right? The knowledge itself. So there I feel that now maybe the time has come to come to devotion now. But I'm struggling with this thing that with the God connection and how to really break...

It used to come, but instantly it would just go away, also disappear within the time. So that consistency in terms of devotion was never there, actually. So for me, it was more about gaining knowledge or something, right? But there came a stage where I could see that it also has a limitation itself, right? The knowledge itself. So there I feel that now maybe the time has come to come to devotion now, but I'm struggling with this thing, with the God connection and how to really break that barrier, actually.

My children told me about this place. It's like a secret place in Bangalore. At the front, it's a very fancy pan shop, like it's got like chocolate pan and all kinds of things you'd never imagine. And there are actually like bouncer-type bodyguards over there. So G and I went and we had some pan. We went many months back. But what they told me is that behind this front, there's actually a speakeasy. So actually, that's why the bodyguards and this thing. It's a very exclusive sort of club and all these cool kids, they go and party over there. But you have to be let through by the bouncers over there, and to be let through, there's a password every day. So if you have that password, you tell them and they'll let you through; otherwise, you're not allowed.

So what has happened is that as you've entered satsang, you enter thinking it's about something like it's the pan shop, no? But it is actually meant to introduce you to the holy presence within yourself, and the one whose presence that is, that is the one that we call God. So like we do naming ceremonies and we say, 'Okay, this is what this name means,' so I would request you—because God is a beautiful name for God, in fact, the best name for God that I have found—so let that name be rid of all the false connotations of the past, but may you preserve that name for yourself afresh now. To tell you that this is the highest being, in fact, the only being in this universe, and it's a privilege that we can call it by name, call Him by name.

So rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater, you see, you throw the dirty water out and keep the baby. Especially because I have noticed some very deep, like traumatic conditioning—some may have a very traumatic, guilt-filled conditioning or something like that—so it doesn't seem that serious, this thing. So I would recommend for now that you look at it afresh. I'm reminding you of the fact that there's a holy presence within yourselves, and that presence belongs to the highest Self itself. And God is another name for that, either the manifest aspect of that Self or the Self itself: Saguna, Nirguna. So let's change what the word means for you to point to the real direction which it is meant to point to, rather than being rid of the word itself. And after a few days also, if you continue to have trouble, then we can talk more and can see also.

Then what happens is that the endeavor or the project goes away from being 'what makes me comfortable' or 'what makes me feel better or happy' and 'what did I actually want' or 'what I actually do' to the immense possibility of the discovery of God Himself, you see, which is the main thing hiding behind what we thought we were coming to satsang for. Sorry, I don't feel like I finished the metaphor at all. So we may think we are coming for this: 'I just want to have a peaceful daily existence, you know, I want to be stress-free,' or 'I had a bad relationship' or 'I had a bad something and I want to be free from the trauma of that, be free from the problems in my life.' All of those things, we may have come for that, you see.

But you entered this place, and here, if you really enter, you can find the highest being in the universe, or in fact, that in which the universe is shining. That one is sitting there. It's like you entered—I don't know if some of you read Narnia—you entered this cupboard and you were not expecting it, but there's a whole world there which you were not expecting. Now, were those kids deserving of going to Narnia? No, they were called by Aslan. They were called by God in that construct. So whatever reason you are here, you have the possibility to discover the reality of this being. And this is what the highest sages have yearned for since the beginning of humanity, and for some absurd reason, we are here, you see. Just like the children in the wardrobe in Narnia, we don't know what we had done to deserve this, but we are here.

So this is the important sort of call we can make now that we are here. Are we going to be like, 'No, no, but I was expecting coats and this thing, and not the wonderland that is this place'? So we may go back, is it? Or we may say, 'Oh, I came for knowledge, I wanted to know myself better, the world better, but instead, wow, he's saying there is a being in the light of which the whole universes come and go. He's saying there's a being like that, and I can meet that being and I can live with that being.' Would we want that possibility or not?

Suppose you entered the realm and you found the king of that realm, and that king had a name, say Joseph, just to use a name. But you had had a bad relationship in the past with a guy called Joseph. Would you say, 'Now I cannot meet this king of the universe because he is Joseph and I had a bad relationship with Joseph'? Or will you say that, 'I'll forget about that Joseph, that was nothing, because I'm meeting the king of the universe and they call him Joseph'? So that's what I'm saying, that forget about what it meant to you in the past, and what I'm telling you about, or who I'm telling you about, is this one.

Yeah, I genuinely want to overcome this thing, whatever is stopping me. But yeah, that's why I just want to know how to do that. But yeah, like you said, it's been a while since you clarified what exactly it means to live in God's light, no? Is it like keeping that core always burning like a fire, you know, just like that? Do some sadhana if you're losing it, rekindle it and keep it burning throughout? Is that what it's as simple as? When I say don't leave your bed in the morning till you're living in God's presence or the God's light is palpable for you, what is that we're talking about? The core? That core?

The core. Now, I'm hoping that what you're talking about as the core is what I'm talking about as God's light. How is it? Tell me more about the core.

It's some tingly kind of feeling here, and that's all I can say, actually. It's not something infinite, but it's small, but yes.

But where is this boundary? The tingling quality it has, a boundary, but exactly where is its boundary? The one from which the seeming primordial vibration seems to arise doesn't have a quality kind of thing. Sometimes what happens is we have to be careful of the words that we use because I usually say primordial vibration. If you make a tingling quality, then something the mind can also construct and say quality over there, you know, ting-ting like that, something. Whereas if you were to just use the words that you're hearing in satsang, not forcefully, but is it not like a primordial vibration? Vibration, maybe primordial. It's a subtle vibration, you see it like that, like all the other stuff is. And in a sense, immaculate, in the sense of being causeless. Like we cannot identify and say a cause for it. For everything else, we can identify a cause and say, 'Oh, this comes from this and this comes from that,' but this itself, we don't have a manifest cause, no.

You mean like in time or—

No, we don't have a manifest source, let's say.

Source, yeah, yeah. And keeping that burning, that's the task? When you say live in God's light, let that not get covered by dust? Is that a better way to look at that? Because it's always burning by itself, but it becomes—it seems to get away from our field of vision when we are caught up in individuality and mental oppression. So don't just make sure you keep brushing the dust off. This is Avidya, you see. Ignorance makes it seem like we have lost it. Okay, certifiably there's no other way to lose it except Avidya, certifiably, because Bhagavan said so.

He said that it's really important now because I am nowhere close to what he is saying. Maybe tingling, he's still doing the projective testing. If I was him, would I be there? No, not for the—let me expose what—when I say in the morning, it's like—I don't want to use that word, but it's empty here. Yeah, and that's when I say, 'Okay, I am with God and I can wake up.' Like, it's like effortlessness there and it just is there, but nothing what as he said which is centric or one point or one location. I just wanted to—

When the head is empty, what's happening in the heart?

There is something, but it's not—it's effortless. There is not even a single of one person. But what is that in the heart? Some sort of—I mean, I would use the word joy or something which doesn't have any constraints. I don't know how to explain that, but there's no—there's nothing attached to that or no conditions.

Can you stop being? Is that what comes into a field of discovery?

Yeah, it's like just effortlessness. The closest word I can use is that. Yes, it's there, it's just there. Nothing.

That's where I think, okay fine, my mind is not interfering. Does it have a taste? In the sense that that which witnesses it, that which is aware of it, is completely tasteless. So it's a pure Nirguna discovery. But this presence or Spirit or Atma, does it have a taste?

I could say it has a taste of peaceful or like tranquility or calmness. It's there. I can feel the quality of that, yes.

Suppose I was to say that—I'm just bringing more and more, although I feel like you're on the right track—suppose we say peace, love, joy, let's call those byproducts. What does it itself taste like? It's a very tough question, very tough question, because it's the only tastable tastelessness. And these words will not help your mind, of course. But it's like because God is so beyond—and this is a metaphor, it's not reality—but it's like God said, 'If I continue to be only available in that beyond-beyond, there's no chance for anyone in humanity. If I continue to reside in my true abode of beyondness, so as a gift, as my mercy to them, I'm going to make myself available as their own presence, the subtlest taste that they can imagine.'

Now I think I can express this as like a complete—in Hindi the word is 'tript'—like I'm totally tript. It's like—I don't know the English word for it—it's like content, but also some proper—like nothing left. That's it. And then yeah, and that's where I think, yeah fine, everything is fine.

Yes. How, where do you experience this?

It's like everywhere. It's not like it—look, yeah, if I want to locate it, it would be just behind myself or somewhere there.

When you taste love, does it come from this? My—the love is always the subjective one which I have experienced, but I can feel the quality of gratitude which comes from that, or I would say Karuna. I'm not buying the previous report which is always this thing, but suppose okay, gratitude is good to start with. Gratitude comes from that state? Comes from here?

Yeah, vibration. It's like on and off. It's not like vibration. It's not like on and off, on and off like—

Show me the off. Intensity goes up, doesn't it? Intensity, you could be saying on the basis of—because this is the primordial taste and therefore we can settle our attention onto it as well. So do you mean by intensity that when your attention is on it, you can feel it more deeply and stronger? And when your attention is fully immersed in this, it seems so strong, but if it's somewhere else, it may seem a bit more diffused? Is it like that?

Attention, even when my attention is there, then no. Are you visualizing? I'm just—my attention went there and then I can't—

Okay, who is perceiving this play of attention? That is the being. That is the one that we're talking about. That one's presence is the presence we're talking about. The one perceiving attention going places, you're perceiving all perceptions.

Our attention is fully immersed in this, it seems so strong. But if it's somewhere else, it may seem a bit more diffused. Is it like that? Attention—even when my attention is there, then no... are you visualizing? I'm just... my attention went there and then I can't. Okay, who is perceiving this play of attention? That is the being, that is the one that we're talking about. That one's presence is the presence we're talking about. The one perceiving attention going places. You're perceiving all perceptions. All perception like vibration—what do you mean then? Like just, it's like a... somebody help me with this. What is it like? Okay, let me see. What is it like?

Yes, but what the mind's version of vibration is like, it's on-off, on-off, on-off like that. It's like on, just on. Yeah, it's more like a... yeah, this must be very irritating, I'm sure, but how to explain it? It always reminds, pulls you into the vibration. Yeah, even if your attention is... the thing with the word vibration is till we meet it. After we meet it, we may say, 'Ah, okay.' But till it is met like that as a vibration, we may like, 'Vibration? Where's the vibration?' Can you stop being? How do you know? Because that thing, that thing only. And that thing is... but it's going on and off, so being, not being, not... that's like my tube light in the bedroom right now. It's not like that. Just waking state, it comes and then stays. It's like the waking state is in that, and yet it's like one 'Om' that never ends. Call it the Sound of Silence. Yeah, Sound of Silence, I am popularly referred to as. And all of these things go up and down, up and... like not up and down in space, but in intensity, maybe.

Yes, but how are you capturing the variance in intensity? You notice it with your attention. Attention comes from there. Yeah, like the other end of attention, like you used to say. Yeah, what wakes up in the morning? We should... what wakes up? And then morning wakes up within that. But you know what I mean? Something like peaceful. It's like an intense peacefulness within which something may... peacefulness, but isn't it like a living being presence? Yeah, like when we say presence, what do we mean? Like a living presence, like a being is there. Like some body is there. Not body, like a sense of being, but an actual being. The sense can be tasted, but it confirms the presence of an actual being there. Who is that being? That is Atma. Intelligence? Yes, but yes, yes, it is very intelligent. The only intelligence there is. But I'm a bit scared to use that 'it' because it makes it seem like a... like gravitation or magnetism or something like that. I'm saying that there's a presence of an actual being there.

See, supposing you were supposed to wake say at 7:30 in the morning because you have an important meeting, and intelligence, something, something wakes up. Like, okay, and it's not 7:30, it's before 7:30. Yeah, it's an intelligence that simply knows to wake the body up before the alarm rings. Can you say that? I would say that all this game is played and then it says, 'Okay, let the time be 7:30,' rather than it waiting and saying, 'Okay, I'm going to wake this body up at 7:30.' It's going to create all of this and put a body over there and say, 'Here, 7:30, time starts now.' So we are sort of presuming a fixed construct of time within which God is also operating, saying, 'Okay, now it's 10:00 p.m., now it's 7:30, now it's this thing.' So okay, Chaitanya has to be woken up at 7:30, Shiv has to be woken at 7:25. So God is in the morning saying, 'Wake up, wake up, wake up' like that? Actually, it's not like this. It's that when the waking state comes and the king of the waking state, God, is here, then He determines what time it is for your universe, for your dream that you call the universe.

So when Ashtavakra said that you are the boundless ocean in which the arcs of the universes come and go, this is how it happens. You have to repeat that again; it's beautiful. Actually, it's a beautiful contemplation. Maybe an example will help. So many years back, and I was sharing satsang even then, so I shared this then. My kids left for school at 7:30. They said, 'Bye, Papa.' Then I said, 'Okay, I'm going to go back and have a bit of a bit more of a nap and wake up in some time.' In that nap, I had a dream. In that dream, and I promise you it was not in some fast-forward mode or something like that, I lived the full lifetime till I was middle-aged. As I was middle-aged, I was at a point where I was getting concerned because a play or some event was starting and I was half an hour late. So that half an hour ticking past was very apparent to me, normal this thing. So the whole life was lived like a full normal life and everything happened there. And just when I got to do this thing, it became 8:00 here. So when I woke up, it was still 8:00 here, but I had lived a whole lifetime, you know? So in this world's time, only half an hour had passed, and in that world's time, the whole lifetime had passed. So which is the real time?

So suppose this got over in another ten minutes and this would be the dream in that construct, you see? And then I'm back there and the play is getting over or something like that. So reality is not as straight a line as we think it is. Consciousness is all there is in time and space. If you can meet just the immensity of even that, all there is in time and space is not a linear set of possibilities. So that means that the only thing that has happened in Consciousness is Ananta's hand has only gone like this, like this, like this, like this? This cannot be true; that would be too limiting for Consciousness. So in that, there must be another possibility where his hand went from here to here, another possibility that his hand went from here to here. All those, and all of those are just one tiny play for this God, for this Consciousness. So it's not that... of course, for when you have to talk to regular people, you can say, 'Yes, yes, I just naturally wake up at 6:00 in the morning or 7:30 in the morning because something wakes me up, that intelligence wakes me up.' But the truth is much more fascinating in that time.

That's what quantum physics is trying to understand. A lot of quantum physics is reaching the woo-woo sort of pretty cool stuff that the sages have talked about in... like, wow, yes, like mentioned in Yoga Vasistha. So a lot of quantum physics is very similar to Yoga Vasistha. So I looked out of the window and I saw myself as a man in a pajama, white head, same time, same space. Or Consciousness can create any time, any space. Yes, any number of selves, any number of antahkaranas. Why I? Why this? With the objects, the space in between and the objects, carpet and this thing. In the dream, which is me? Is the building not me? Is the mountain not me? Is the river not me? Is the space in which all of that seems not me? Where is all that happening? We're happy to admit it when we say, 'Oh, that was in the dream state last night.' But what in us has the potential to project all these mountains, rivers, and time? And within that also, there's one body-mind who we say, 'That was me in the dream,' as if the rest of it was not you, you see?

So the point is not to try and come to... that is the scientific endeavor, which is to say, 'Okay, this is exactly how it is.' I know enough by now to say that we will never be able to define in that way exactly how God is. But the point is to shake up our notions of time and space, that we think we know something and it's linear like this. And at the same time, we say God is everything, you see? But what we mean is everything in space. But why not everything in time? And then we think the time is one arrow which is only like that; then it can't be everything. I'm not on any medication today! So you said this... one point I want to make is that that is why I'm saying that the immensity of the discovery, which is God, you see, where all of this play of light and sound is nothing but a tiny, tiny blip. But in that blip, there are so many intricacies and so many mysteries. Can you even fathom the immensity of the Lord, you see?

And what has happened to us is that we've normalized like a lot of things, like that there's a God, and then God is the light of this universe but also is the caretaker, like a loving mother. So when something comes, then God Himself comes down as Ram and Krishna and Jesus. These are fantastical stories, and I'm saying it in a good way; they're not imagination. It's amazing that the King of this universe would be compassionate enough to take care of such fools in this way, that He Himself comes down as Ram and Krishna and Jesus. But what has happened is because we hear it at a very young age and we sort of normalize it. But what are we talking about? That for whom these millions of universes are nothing but blips, that Himself makes an appearance in the blip. And today we're celebrating one of those days, Krishna's birth. You imagine that? And all this becomes very simple without this, but with this, like, 'How this? How that? I don't understand. I get it, I don't get it.'

So I would really say a book like the Yoga Vasistha is a must-read. Written centuries ago, and it just shakes up all our notions of linear reality, time, and space, everything. But we must read it literally. You must not read it like, 'Oh, that's some great piece of writing, wow, very imaginative.' No, you must read it like a sage has written it. Because the sage has written it, one of the greatest sages ever, he written it. When and now in popular culture and all of that, people are talking about all these multiverses and all these things. So when we read from the sages, we must know that no sage is a liar. No sage is trying to trick us or give us some silly imaginary ideas or fantastical notions. The mind is very quick to just put it in a category of imagination or poetry or something like that. Yeah, you must... but see where... see, the question is, see where with the eyes of faith I see it fully. But in the world, the eyes of faith are almost like the eyes of ignorance, which is exactly the upside down. And I'm saying faith, not belief. Huge difference.

What is the difference between faith and belief? Faith is to trust that which is intuitive to you, which you know in your heart. To trust that with all your mind is faith. Belief is just like concept. Today I believe this, tomorrow I believe that. But your heart is not fickle like that; your heart is guiding it steadily. So the mystery of this is way beyond our conceptual understanding. But if our quest is to meet the Source for the love of the Source, then all this knowledge will reveal itself naturally to us. And it has done before the invention of scientific instruments; people were writing the Vedas and writing all this intuitively. So when we say God, that is the one we are talking about. Actually, the immensity of the privilege is too much. If it is a question of worthiness, none of us would be allowed to utter the word of God. But in the world, it's popular these days: 'I don't believe. Is He there for me?' What are you? A blip on the blip on the blip on the blip. We must not disrespect in that we don't realize, but we must.

So we walk into the strange place in a very regular part of town, very regular building. We open the door and the possibility of the highest that has ever been available to a human through God's grace, through Guru's grace, makes itself available to you. The same discovery that Ribhu and Ashtavakra and Yoga Vasistha and all the sages through time, through all traditions, religions, and cultures. So sometimes the ordinariness of this place and this expression is helpful because we feel like it is approachable for us. But sometimes it's a disadvantage because in the regular, we start feeling that what is on offer is also regular, what we are meeting is also regular. It is not true. Because if what I'm finding is not God, then I must be the most deluded human to have ever been born, because for me it is so clearly the truth.