Everyone has a Temple in their Heart - 13th October 2025

Anybody else? Love God more and more and let's go.

Yes. I wrote to meet my Father truly and live with Him eternally. With my Father truly and live with Him eternally and not away from Him for a second, and also to serve Him eternally.

Right. I said that initially when I came, I really wanted to know the truth of who I am. Then I wanted to know the truth of who I am. And then now I'm just seeing in a way that this is much more than that. I don't even really know where to begin because I see that it deepens and it's quite that I really don't know—that I don't know what to even want in a way that if I... like when I'm in your presence, everything becomes... I mean all my concepts fly away and then I can't say what I want. I mean I experience a holiness but I don't know how this, what it is. Oh, I just...

So your question was why are we in satsang? To serve the truth, to negate the false, to be aware of the littleness, the nothingness of this ego self, to realize that I am nothing. I am entitled to nothing. I'm here for one thing only, which is to serve at the feet of the Holy Spirit. I come to satsang because you as my Guru, my teacher, will carry this unworthy being to light, love, through your mercy and compassion. I've come here to fall at your feet so I can be forgiven. So in your compassion I can be redeemed, salvaged, shown mercy to, and raised by your love to the higher light. Yeah. For that, more answer: be in the company of light and to stay there. To be more connected to spirit than the mind, to be what God intended to be more connected to.

So you got the common threads: to be with God, to love God more, to follow the will of God, to be in God's will, to meet His holy light. These were the common threads. And some of you made references to the teacher, and the teacher is only relevant because in a way our satsang life replicates our true life as disciples of God when we learn to follow His will, and we'll talk more about that. That's at the same... one of the brothers said, 'I'm just following God's will. I don't want anything for myself.' That's fine.

So what is the way in which we can be with God? In what way? So God in the highest is completely out of bounds, ungraspable, Nirguna, no attribute; can't hold Him, can't catch Him in any way. But He's provided us a way for even this recognition to happen, because if such a way was not there, then how would I even say this with authority? If He is completely out of grasp, then how have I grasped this fact? So, have we known this fact through just scriptures, through what the sages have told us, and now we have some conceptual knowledge about it? Or do we know this fact in a more direct way which is not dependent on mechanics of thought, mechanics of action, any human movement that is independent recognition, which is independent of that?

So for God to be found in this way, we first realize that He has a Saguna aspect to Himself which is born from the Nirguna itself. So from the attributeless is born that consciousness which is all attributes, every quality—time, space, electricity, light, magnetism, sound—everything is God alone as being, as consciousness, boundless, beyond boundaries. And even this boundless consciousness, Saguna Brahman, we don't have the faculties to be able to directly meet. We can store in our head a lot of concepts, you see, but know that knowing the concept of God, or all the concepts that we think can be known about God—to know the concept is not to know God.

And that is a usual misunderstanding, especially on what is called the Gyan path, which is the biggest misunderstanding in the world because the Gyan that has been talked about, the knowledge that is being talked about, is not this knowledge. It is not mental knowledge. It is knowledge from a deeper place; it is Atma. So what is this? So even in the Saguna aspect in its entirety, we cannot fathom Him through our usual faculties of thinking, imagination, memory, understanding. So in His mercy, in His love, He has given us His expression in the most beautiful way in His aspect called the Atma itself.

So this Atma or Holy Spirit is the way in which we can meet God. To be with God is to meet the Atma, and in the light of the Atma, Atma itself and its nature is revealed, and the attributeful and attributeless reality of God is recognized, is shown to us through a new set of eyes, through heart eyes, through heart communication, heart communion. And we meet something which is not a thing in reality. We meet that which is out of the universe. Because everything is in the universe. God, which is the light of all things, is beyond time and space, is beyond the universe itself.

So Atma—to come to the revelation, to the recognition of the Atma within. The Atma is spirit, and we are in spirituality. So we cannot bypass or escape spirit in spirituality because without Atma's discipleship, we will have a head stuffed with concepts about God, but we will not have the true eating of God, the true tasting of God will not happen. I hope this part is clear to everyone. The pathway to God in the testimonies of all religions, all cultures, all sages is this. So spirituality is to come into the following discipleship of the Atma itself.

How many concepts do all of us know about God? Hundreds, maybe thousands. So many concepts. And what is our living taste presently about God? So one may have a million concepts about God but may not have a single moment right now of tasting God's presence, of coming to the Atma within. Or one may have this direct insight intuitively but may have just ten or twenty concepts about God, but all of them potent because they point them to the direct experience. Which one is more spiritual? The second one, because unfortunately most of our brothers and sisters, even in spirituality, will not get the essence, or their mind has convinced them that the attempt to the realization of Atma is too far-fetched. It belongs only to some very special one, but it is not for us.

So the mind will say—so what I'm saying is that the mind will come in its skeptical voice and say, 'It's not for you. You heard of the great sages. Are you saying that you will find the presence of the Holy Spirit within yourself? You will have a Darshan of that? You will have true knowledge of that? Who are you to? How proud of you!' So the voice of pride itself keeps us away from innocence by proposing all these obstacles which actually don't have any weight. They don't have any standing because our lives are designed to live in God, to be with God. Our very design is that everyone has a temple in their heart.

Everyone has—even one who was like I used to be, a full atheist, an active atheist in the sense of putting down people who believed in God, who had faith in God. So I was an active atheist, not just a quiet atheist just saying, 'Oh, let them have their understanding, let them have theirs.' No, I had to make it a point to point out to people that it is foolish to have faith in God. So even in the hearts of an active atheist, there is the heart. Yeah, that's so cool. That's great grace. Great grace that nobody has been kept away from this gift. It is our very design. If they are alive, if we are alive, inside us is a heart temple.

So everybody has the presence of the Atma within, not in the physical heart but in their core, in the very essence of their existence itself, in the very center of their being, in the core of their being is a temple to God where God Himself is in the form of the Atma. So Atma is where—sorry if I'm being too school-teacherish today, but right within us in the heart temple. I'm being a bit like this today because I feel like the mind is a great trickster, and many times after many satsangs also we may miss out on the very fundamental of what is being spoken, and that is why I want to make sure that I'm being a bit obsessive in this way, that all of you are getting the essence of what I'm speaking, you see. And then of course if you don't like what I'm speaking, nobody is forced to be here, but at least let's get a sense of what is being shared.

So the universality in all those who consider themselves living, the universality of the heart temple where the recognition or the meeting with the spirit, with the Atma, is possible for us is undoubtable. The universality of it is undoubted. Know that it is in the light of the Atma itself the truths, the recognition of God's presence, all beauty, all virtue, all guidance, all comfort, all rest, all comes in the light of the Atma itself. It is our one refuge. It is our one refuge.

So the universality in all those who consider themselves living, the universality of the heart temple where the recognition or the meeting with the spirit, with the Atma, is possible for us is undoubtable. The universality of it is undoubted. Know that it is in the light of the Atma itself the truths, the recognition of God's presence, all beauty, all virtue, all guidance, all comfort, all rest, all comes in the light of the Atma itself. It is our one refuge. It is our one refuge. So any of you who wrote that "I want the truth" versus any of you that said "I want God," please don't confuse it to be two different things. Please know that the path of Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga both come to the same place. So the revelation of the highest comes from the Atma within and God's love, devotion to God, also comes from the Atma within. You see? So although it may seem like the journey is different, it actually goes down the same road.

So don't get into the stupidity which is most commonly found in non-duality where we make ourselves very dual. Isn't it ironical that it is mostly those on the path of non-duality who find themselves stuck in the most duality? "No, my path is different. My path is better. My way or the highway." So we need to broaden our perspectives, see what is really going on. So now you have been told by this foolish man that all of you have a heart temple in which the presence of God, the Atma itself, delights to reside. "Delights to reside"—I love that term from St. Teresa because she said "delights." I mean, it's not that he's now stuck. No, God, poor thing, he designed all this, now he's stuck in his own design so he's forced to be there. There is no power that can make God stuck. So in all of us, even if we are atheist, even if we are completely away from spirituality and mayawi in our attachment to Maya, in our conditioning, he delights to reside within our Self (capital S Self) in our temple, which is a beautiful analogy to his holy place, to the holiest place within ourselves. You see? So take God's presence to be literal and the temple part to be analogy or metaphor. Don't reverse it. Okay.

So now that we have this information—right now it's information and hopefully it'll become knowledge as we progress—so now that we have this information, how do we come to the Atma? A good head, isn't it? Whatever term we may use. So now what to do with this information? It is not just to be left as information, which most people will do. "God is here. God is with us. Everything is God." You see, just conceptually. So that is like saying that, yes, yes, yes, I have lunch at home, I have lunch at home. But just knowing I have lunch at home doesn't solve a hunger. You see, just knowing the fact that God lives within us doesn't solve our yearning for a deeper, higher life, for a greater mission, for a deeper love which is possible to get only from there. So just knowing about water will not quench your thirst. Just knowing that God is there will not quench your thirst.

In fact, what it should do is it should increase our yearning even more. Like what happened to me? I remembered water. I felt like I wanted to drink. So when you are reminded that it is a literal truth, a literal truth that God lives within yourself, then really it should encourage us, it should enthuse us to live in his life, to live in his presence. So it is not that those—you remember the one who had a million concepts about God? So they could be completely pointless, but they could also be pointers. So that is the right use of spiritual concepts: that they should be pointers that point us in the right direction, but the pointer should not be mistaken for the destination. How many of our friends are doing that? Many, many are doing that where we mistake the idea of something to be the something in itself, but that doesn't work. You have an idea of pizza, it doesn't make you taste the pizza or quench your hunger at least.

So remember that the spiritual concepts have one function, which is to bring you to the spirit, and it is spirit which teaches us true spirituality. So in the contemplations we've been doing, in the prayers we've been doing, in the inquiry that we've been doing, they are designed because the sages who had direct insight, intuitive insight, offered these to us as gifts in every part of the world, in every religion. They provided a pathway for us to come to God's presence in our hearts, and that is the point of spiritual concepts. Another unfortunate fact is that most of our brothers and sisters in the world—we look at every religion—will have two aspects. One is the spiritual truths which are being provided, and the second is the ethical constructs which are applicable for that particular period of time. Now what happens is that because the ethical constructs are easily graspable, most of our brothers and sisters will latch on to those and think that they are very religious because of that. Some may even call themselves spiritual because of that. You see, but spiritual truths are not subject to time. Ethical constructs are. You see, we have made the spiritual truths forgotten mostly and the ethical constructs timeless. Unfortunately, that's the struggle in most spiritual or religious debates, isn't it? Exactly.

Dogmatic approach of following that which was time-bound as if it was timeless and not worrying about that which is pointed to in all religions as the timeless. That part is mostly forgotten. "That is only for a special category of people. It is not for us." That is the usual mindset. So at best the ethical constructs help to build the fertile ground in us. Truthfulness, for example, humility, for example, are helpful to build the fertile ground of coming to the heart temple and coming to the recognition of the Atma within. So what must we do to come to Atma Darshan, to come to the recognition of the presence of the spirit? That must be the key question. You see, if you just left it at that, at what we've discussed so far with no tool, no devices to actually come to this, then that would be very unsatisfactory, almost unfair. Yeah. Yeah. I've been told that there's a lot of ice cream somewhere, but you're not telling me how to get at it. Unfair.

So that is why every tradition, every sage has provided a pathway to come to God. And in that way there are thousands of pathways to God. But all of them lead to his presence in the heart, you see, or lead to or lead through, whichever way you want to look at it. So what I mean is they lead to this and then it's up to the Atma, which is fine, or they go even further from their own experience, but all led through this presence itself. That is why we were sharing in Satsang that you have to be very wary of fooling yourself. Don't worry about others, but fooling yourself in terms of recognizing the true nature of awareness, yourself as awareness itself, as the Self (capital S), Nirvana, unless it is done in the light of the Atma. And most likely what is happening in that case is that you're imagining some dark empty space which seems to fit all the attributes. Can it be touched? Can it be burnt? Can it be hurt? Was it born? Is it going to die? You can keep looking back at a dark empty place and saying no. This fits you.

Therefore, in every inquiry, the question should be asked: is it dark or light? Both of them are attributes. So please discard that awareness is neither dark empty space nor brightful light. Only in the light, which is again unperceivable light of the Atma itself, where you will find that which is not objective in any way—shapeless, timeless, spaceless. So I feel concerned that thousands and thousands of my brothers and sisters are fooling themselves, or the mind is fooling them with this simple visualization which is leaving an illusion of self-realization, of the recognition of the truths. Oh, so many of us.

Okay. So with that warning kept aside, how do we come to the recognition of God's presence? How do we come to Atma Darshan? What is required? Many of you said it also. We'll come to the requirement for a master in a moment. We just shared on the contemplation group also: turn towards this. Very good. Okay. What else? They give me all the tools. But fundamentally I would say, if I was to say one thing—there are a few things we can say—but if I was to say only one thing, it is: empty of me. We cannot go "me" into spirit of God, to put it in a colloquial way. We keep saying "me, me, me," that is the way to create seeming distance, not to come closer. So we have to be very careful about the spiritual "me," which is the spiritual ego, where in the guise of spirituality... you see, because you could be just talking about God but emphasis on "me." You know, "I did seven hours of prayer yesterday. I feel God has to come to me." The "I" is now entitled. Yeah.

So when the emphasis—when you notice, it's very difficult to notice. Pride is the most difficult thing to notice. That is why in all religions the biggest antagonist is pride. So what is prayer? "I, me, I... I had an experience where I was non-existent. You know what happened with me 10 years ago? There was no me." You see, but there is now. It may have not been there for a moment. So this is very sticky, very... that's why we should one day maybe put the translation of Dohas on Maya. What is Maya? Maya, Anima told us, Maya is "me" is Maya. Wherever the "me" comes, we are in Maya. If the "me" has come, the narrative of the "me" has come, we are caught in Maya. There is no escaping that.

So when he said about Maya being the greatest con artist, Maya Mahatmi, he said that Maya hides everywhere, even in the devotion of the devotee. So quickly we become proud and we don't notice. Anyway, the quick tip to notice—we found the other day some great orthodox sage posted this video which is, I feel, a very important key. He said pride we cannot find in ourselves, it's very difficult. In my case, whatever pride I find is mostly really revealed to me during my prayer. That's why prayer is very important besides everything else. It reveals our pockets of light, our big boulders of pride. But this orthodox sage said, "You want to know whether you're proud or not? Did you get irritated in the last few days?" Paraphrasing. Did you get irritated? Did you get angry? That means that we have pride. Did I get irritated last month? Of course I did. That means I have pride.

So the most dangerous thing... now Ram Ji also said this in some, either in the Manas or in some Chaupai I saw, where he said we can either have pride of knowledge or knowledge of pride, you see. And I feel like this irritation point is such a key because why do we get irritated? "I know better." Not just in spirituality, like whatever, "I know better. Why can't this one just get the fact that I know better?" At least in that particular instance, you see. In fact, if the whole world could just accept that I know better, everyone would be better off. That is what our pride tries to tell us because not enough there. The family starts to accept, children... let's get the headache off. We say okay, you know that there's not enough. What happened to those people? Everybody, their friends also, they have to... everybody then in the world, it's not enough. It keeps growing. That's why the prideful ones want to ultimately take up God's place. They want to rule the world. You take Ravana, you take Hiranyakashipu, you take any of the villains in spirituality, they're not happy with just a few. Once they get a few, they want that to grow, grow, because the stomach of this beast is never full.

Now, what is the most dangerous form of pride that I have come across? Spiritual pride. Many people who have come to Satsang in the last 13, 14 years, and maybe those who had some worldly pride, I may not have had some big impact. Yeah. Maybe in some cases I would have, but those with spiritual pride, it's the most difficult to get through anything to them. Most difficult. Why? Because the old Zen saying: the cup is already full. The cup is already full.

The stomach of this beast is never full. Now, what is the most dangerous form of pride that I have come across? Spiritual pride. Many people who have come to satsang in the last thirteen, fourteen years, and maybe those who had some worldly pride, I may not have had some big impact. Yeah, maybe in some cases I would have, but those with spiritual pride, it's the most difficult to get through anything to them. Most difficult. Why? Because the old Zen saying: the cup is already full. The cup is already full.

Now, and I hope all of you will become teachers of God one day. The dharma of the teacher is what? The teacher cannot—exactly—the teacher cannot be saying you must be empty for God and themselves be full of themselves while especially while sharing satsang. So the constant effort and the constant work, lifelong vigilance, lifelong work for all of us is to smell for our own pride, to remain empty, especially when sharing satsang, to be as transparent an instrument of Atma as possible. And it is a very, very difficult project because one of the forms of the ego wanting to rule the world—how does it know it's ruling the world? If it is being revered, if it is being worshipped.

So as a teacher of God, when the reverence, when the worship, when the devotion is directed in our direction, if it finds a stop over there, it is the most dangerous. It must be like a good priest in the temple; it must be offered to the Lord as soon as possible because if it stops over there, even for a short time, it can corrode our own growth, our own spirituality. So if to illustrate, some of you said, "Father," in your objective, and that is beautiful, that is your dharma. But if this foolish boy was to ever feel like, yes, he has something to offer to all of you, to any of you, then this foolish boy is in the biggest trouble of his life without realizing it. Because what is not important is the audience of many. Even if the whole world becomes your follower, what is most important is the audience of one who is sitting where? Inside us, right there. You see, but in our pride, we don't listen to its voice.

All of these things I'm sharing from experience, and I experience this every day. It's not even past experience. I can notice in my prayer that so many times, even in the sharing of satsang, I allowed Ananta to take the seat instead of being an instrument of God. And I'm happy to confess that to all of you because if I was not able to confess that to all of you, that would mean that I'm stuck in some pride about that—the pride of being perfect or some stupid idea like that. I'm far from perfect. Very fine, very, very fine. So this stops us from being empty for God. And this pride is always on the prowl, even if you had an insight into the highest. So don't get into this fallacy that there will be one moment of self-realization and that's it, now you can just claim your sagehood for eternity. Papaji, now he alluded to this when he said, "Vigilance till my dying breaths." All of us need to constantly be smelling our own breaths in this way.

But pride, just like we can't smell our own breath, pride doesn't allow us to know. That is why I'm closing this point now, which is that that key is very helpful. Did you get irritated last week, last month, last year? Did you get angry? Irritation can only happen when I think I know better. "I am something special" is "I know better." And you know the most compelling voice: "Yes, but in this case..." I don't know, you know how to escape that? How many times have I had conversations with both of you and I've said, "But that's just your mind," and you've said, "But in this case it is true." No, how many times it's happened with most of you? You see, where I say, "But that's just your mind," when you say, "But come on, in this case isn't it so obviously true?"

Tell me what is obviously true. Tell me one thing right now in this moment which is obviously true. Is light light? What are you hearing in your ears? Are you sure this mouth is speaking it? What is keeping these cells together of the body? Is it—what is this place? Is it dream or reality? Yeah. So let's forget about the notion of "this is obviously true" and then being very spiritual and saying, "But all of it is Maya." Exactly. So then, and Shankaracharya has confused us much more. He said Maya is what? Both true and untrue. Now deal with that as you will. That's his version of the fifth. Anyway, we'll get into the fifth later.

But so let's not get into this trap of "but this, what I'm thinking, is obviously true." Truth is a very big word. To say "I know this" is a huge statement. That we know, and especially when we find an opportunity to have grievances, to have resentment, know that it is our pride. It is not something that we know to be true. Do we really know what caused that one to behave that way? Do we really know what it was for? Do we really know whether it was needed at that time or not? Do we really know? But we find these ways to prop ourselves up. Father Richard Rohr said something: what is the quickest way to feel good about yourselves? Yeah, find something to blame in another. You don't have to do anything good, just make another worse; you are automatically feeling better. So don't fall into these traps.

There's a very nice phrase in A Course in Miracles there: "Love holds no grievances." Oh, so beautiful. Hold no grievances because, why? Because we don't know, firstly, and secondly, we have to leave justice to God alone. That we have to do justice in this world, nobody has told us. We have to try and be just in our action, that we may have been told, but it is not our job to hold resentment, grievances because that is the justice that another brother or sister deserves. That is not in our scope at all. Why am I ranting about all of this? Because with these things we may feel like we have progressed, we are doing the inquiry very well or prayer very well, but we will not be empty for God, even though we may be fooling ourselves in the quality of our sadhana. In fact, the quality of our sadhana will not be deep if we fill ourselves with so much garbage.

If you do not bathe for a week, then you put the fanciest perfume, it's not going to help for long. I've tried, of course, in the heat of Delhi. No, don't worry, not in the recent—growing up stupidity. Yeah, I'm sure. Can all of you stop pretending? And one quick way to feel good about yourself... let your mom come, let me talk to you. Anyway, that is not the main point. So the point is what? That we are carrying all this garbage inside of us to just say, "Oh, I've prayed four hours." It helps. We must pray, you see, but we must not think that we have done some great thing. It is because we need more also. So empty ourselves. We leave everything to God. Our job we don't leave to Him; His job we leave to Him. Yeah. So usually we do the reverse, especially once we have some Advaita concepts: "When He makes me pray, I'll pray. When He calls me to satsang, I'll come." But everything else, you also we wait for that calling, yeah? So let's not find convenient Advaita to—why? Because for our own health, our own spiritual health.

So we must carry the highest intention for ourselves and leave everything else, even if it seems to affect us, to God's justice. Nothing happens to you without His permission. And your allowing Him to take you over is only by your consent. Isn't that beautiful? Nothing from outside happens to us without our permission, without God's permission. But He does not take over our heart without our consent. So beautiful. And don't ask me how it works because our mind doesn't have the variables to calculate this, how it would work. You see, because the mind can say, "But see, that one didn't turn toward God and that's why they did this to me. Isn't that there for me?" No. Everything that happened to anyone happens only with God's permission. And that's so difficult to reconcile. Our brain, our mind is too tiny to reconcile. Are you saying that all suffering happens through little children, innocent children, with God's permission? You can't reconcile it. In my head, it's too small. Tell me what it is for. I can't tell you. I'm sorry. I don't know. Why?

So this is Hebrews 12:6 in that it says that the Lord disciplines the ones He loves and He chastises every son whom He receives. So this is...

That's one way to look at it. One way to look at it. We also glorify as children. So it's good to remember these things because they give us reassurance along the path. But can we really know God's intention?

Really need this. It's not like you can understand it, but to really meet it, it's like meeting you and you chastising me to teach me something and it's not as easy, you know, to make something like this. So I wanted to ask you that you would do like harsh things to discipline me. This is difficult to reconcile somewhere practically.

Difficult, very, very difficult. Very impossible in the sense that what did Raja Harishchandra do to deserve all that disciplining? What did Job do? So his friends, one of the friends who was trying to be helpful said, "But you must have done something." And Job, poor Job kept saying, "No, but I've tried to lead a very exemplary life and to heart." He said, "I really try to lead a very exemplary life." So somewhere we must come to the acceptance that just like we are not expecting that a plant will understand why things happen, just like we don't expect our pets to understand why things happen. We took him to the vet the other day and got him an injection because it was needed. Now will he ever understand it was something he ate which is wrong and therefore he needed that thing? No. But in human pride, we think that we have the capacity to really understand things which are about God, but we cannot.

So what is faith then? Is it andhvishwas? Blind belief is faith, right? But of what? In the sense that we don't know what God's intention is. We can get some nudges, we can get some clues, and all we can do is just follow our heart for the next step. But if we go to God and say, "Why are you doing this?" because His thing may be something a billion years later that we will just play a small part in it now. Who can tell? Anyway, have we gone too far out?

So faith is what? Huh? In a way, in a way, yes, it sort of inspires us to do that because it is Atma Gyan in the sense of reliance on God's knowledge of Himself versus our knowledge of Him. Let's take some time over this. Okay. Now we have a knowledge of things which is in the mind, which is in perceptual knowledge, sensory knowledge, conceptual knowledge, all of these. Now faith doesn't rely on any of this, and most in the world believe it does, like a very strong conviction is faith according to them. In my experience, faith is a completely different texture all by itself.

You see, when the world tries to tell me that we must fight brother and brother and brother and sister, then something deeper tells me that we are one. In this country today where brother and sister are fighting for the smallest, within families, within communities, within religions, within and out of religion, we find the quickest excuse to make an enemy out of a brotherhood where the world of Maya tells us we must hate each other. There's a different type of knowledge. It is not because I read a lot of Gandhi when I was growing up or something like that. It is the deeper knowledge which tells me, "No, we are one." What is that knowledge? Where does it come from? That is from the Atma itself. So that knowledge is God's knowledge about Himself and the nature of things that He has made, and we can only access His knowledge by going where? To the heart temple. Sorry, I'm being too squeaky. By going to the heart temple.

There's a different type of knowledge. It is not because I read a lot of Gandhi when I was growing up or something like that. It is the deeper knowledge which tells me, 'No, we are one.' What is that knowledge? Where does it come from? That is from the Atma itself. So that knowledge is God's knowledge about Himself and the nature of things that He has made, and we can only access His knowledge by going where? To the heart temple. Sorry, I'm being too squeaky—by going to the heart temple. So remember that the Gyana is not just 'I am the Self, I am pure awareness itself,' which you receive only there. It is true, it is the highest, but it is also about everything. There's a different stream of knowledge which is God's knowledge which is available to us, and relying on that is called faith. This is not blind belief in some concept in the head. Nobody could be able to do that. Is it? Yeah.

From there. Yes. To live there and to live from there.

Yes. Because we may feel like there is a spirituality and then there's the rest of life. Yeah. But there isn't. We may say—that's why I keep making fun of most of our families saying, 'Balance, balance it out. Go for satsang once a month, focus on your work and family responsibilities, you're too young,' you see. And by the time you're old, can you sit in prayer for one hour if you've not done it before? Very tough. Some, of course, are able to because they fall in love with something, with God in some way, but otherwise it's very... so may it be like this: when you're young, don't do it; when you're old, you can't do it anyway. So game over. Next lifetime. When you're young, you can't, you have responsibilities, don't do it. And when you're old, then your mind is too active anyway by then, too deeply conditioned in this belief system. Let it be.

So when will we come to God? When will we come to Atma? When will it come to Atma? Except the spiritual superstars, saints, in the regular human life, I feel it takes a good 20, 30 years till we come to Atma again. Sorry if it is too scary. In fact, Thomas Keating said 40 years. He was 90, of course, so he was able to say 90, and he said... but I feel it's very true. So we are just in this instant age, instant enlightenment. It is true in the moment but not true in our lives. Okay, I'm still ranting.

So we have to become empty of the 'me,' and all of these things get in the way of being empty. To live in faith also is to... for somebody to be able to live in faith needs a lot of spiritual depth and maturity because most of our brothers and sisters, they can't even tell us what their heart is telling them. They feel the heart is some emotional center. They go with their emotions. They say, 'I'm all heart.' And so they don't mean 'I'm all God.' They mean 'I'm all up to my emotions.' So that is why this project is for those who are able to commit their lives to it. It's not too late. But tomorrow will be too late. No matter what age you are today, it is said Shabri waited 60 years. That story is not just about Ram Ji coming physically. It is about the life of a spiritual seeker. Every day we have to set the table for God. We have to pick the food for God. We have to be fertile to receive Him every day. And we have to be patient like her.

If somebody went to Ma Shabri and said 'balance,' if someone went to Hanuman Ji while he was waiting for Ram Ji to come and said, 'Get a hold of yourselves, be realistic,' it's a big risk. Why do they tell us? Because they care about us. Yeah. Even with my mom, we constantly have this thing. So she said, 'Oh, you started satsang again?' I said, 'Started?' She said, 'Don't do for more than one hour.' And not like all of you, you were saying for my health, but she's saying still like, 'Balance.' I'm very familiar with this at the age of... once we see that, whose world is this? Whose Maya is this? Is it that Maya is some force which is independent? No, Maya is also fully operating in God's life. But in His design, it is designed this way. Can we understand it? Of course not.

So if everything is God, if everything belongs to Vasudev, then if our eyes are set on Him, what do we have to worry about from the world? If the farmer is best friends with the king, what does he have to worry about in the kingdom? Exactly. So make your friendship with God, make your relationship with God. Then you don't have to worry about anything in the world. The best things come. How did you children come into my life? I didn't advertise. I didn't call you. But you were sent. The best things in life, God just sends us.

What you said about faith, Father, I'm wondering that I have to keep consenting for the faith to keep growing because it seems that I don't...

Faith leads to us consenting. Faith leads to more patience. It's... all are interlinked in some way, but consent is very important.

I feel like over the years there are several points that you have to push through sometimes and I have to absolutely just give you some ideas and keep giving, and then I've also seen that the faith has grown. It's not... you can start it.

Thank you. All the virtues grow. Everything deepens because our love deepens. And maybe the source of all virtue is love. In true love, we can't be proud. Will you be humble? So unconditional love is a gift of the Atma itself.

Father, can I ask something? Okay. So quickly to try and deepen some more into this. So suppose that we are empty of the 'me' for the moment. We just open and we are empty. Where our intention before we met this emptiness was to deepen in the light of God, in the love of God, in the recognition of the truth, whichever way we want to call it. Then what happens?

Something extraordinary happens which is that which may not be extraordinary at all to the mind, and I'll share a bit more of that. See, Dionysius had a term for this. He called it the 'dazzling darkness.' The dazzling darkness is what we come to. How can we be dazzled by darkness? Not in the usual way of thinking. We can be dazzled by light. Like bedazzled is to be struck by some light. So, but—and maybe I'm co-opting the word—he probably meant to apply it to the pure awareness itself which is the sheer emptiness beyond light and dark. But let me co-opt it for the silent transmission of beauty, truth, light, and love that fills into our inner space from the Atma itself.

So when I'm empty of the 'me,' it is an invitation to—if not automatic but at least an invitation to—the silent transmission from the Atma to my insides, Antahkarana, soul, whatever you want to call it. So from the Atma to my soul, the silent transmission of love, truth, beauty, and light. The other day we called it the photo booth of the Atma. We enter the photo booth of the Atma and we receive truth, love, beauty, light. And have you seen how all traditions have this? It is said in India, 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram.' What are they talking about, you see? Satyam is truth, Shivam is God's love, God's Darshan, and Sundaram is beauty. None of these are human in their quality. They're all superhuman, supernatural, beyond natural phenomena.

So this holy light, which is like a dazzling darkness, then works on our insides. That was the therapy that is happening within us. This is the most important therapy. So when we come face to face to Atma, facing each other instead of being lost in Maya constantly, and we are like this, then this meeting is the holiest of the holy. Here is where everything happens. So if you don't leave the 'me,' forget about this. But at least, good second, for some moments if we leave the 'me,' we give ourselves the opportunity to be transfused. It's like the IV from God. Like you may have had a drip yesterday. So this is the drip from the Atma to us. But give yourselves a chance to have this transition, to have this God's light therapy, because this will transform you from the inside. The seed of mysticism, the seed of saintliness—you will flower into the most beautiful flower if you keep this process of photosynthesis alive. This photosynthesis of the light from within is very important for our transformation.

So the point of coming to satsang, the point of spirituality, is this. Here is where truth reveals itself. True beauty is met. True love is found. Self-realization, God-realization, all are an effect of being here. Whether you get here through asking 'Who am I?' and emptying yourself of the falsehood, or you get here through a deep loving fervor for God. The method now is unimportant. The point is to be here empty for all.

Now this dazzling darkness—to be in this dazzling darkness is very difficult because it needs a lot of faith. Because during this process, what is your mind saying? 'You are just wasting time. You're wasting your life.' You know, the mind will say that this is the sheer utter waste. Nothing is happening. Why does it say nothing is happening? Because it is beyond it. What is happening? That is why it's a dazzling darkness where it is imperceptible. What is happening to us from the inside by God's grace cannot be understood by the mind. So it takes a lot of faith to be there because in the mind's construct, in the narrative, you have taken a pause. The mind doesn't like a pause in the narrative. It would prefer any good, bad, anything to fill up. But if you just say, 'I'm just open and empty,' the mind says, 'What a waste of time.' So, can we have the faith? Will you take this man's word for it to give this process a chance? Not clamor for experiences, not clamor for things which you can write in your autobiography. Not clamor for any even spiritual taste. Just be like the patient of the Atma. Allow it to do the work. It is the ultimate impatience. I would not argue with that.

Father, can I ask something?

That we people on the outside feel like these stupid spiritual people, they do no work. They just waste time. This is the most difficult work. Like this has to be left. Now God also is not unmerciful. So He gives us a lot of consolation, reassurance, good feeling, you see. But the key is to keep at it even when those are apparently missing, because He wants to keep us humble. Don't get tempted by anything in the world. Stay prostrate in the heart temple. You want to know who you are. That's why you'll find out. Not in your imagination, not in your visualization, not in your reading the highest books. All of that will lead to this place. It is a placeless place within yourself.

Okay. So then the last part is: what is the value of having the outer teacher? The only value really—I mean there is some value. So some is in terms of even conceptual understanding, getting some pointers so that you can apply them yourself. But really, if satsang is really satsang, then that dazzling darkness which you find in your heart temple, a tiny glimpse of that must be available to you in satsang as well. So then you start to recognize its taste, its fragrance. It like gets heated in you. So then you are able to follow it because even the journey inward, you will have lots of distraction. The experiences will come, some offers of getting siddhis will come, some superpowers will come, you know, nothing special, but you'll just have some sort of, you know, visualizations of things which are going to happen or some pointless things like that which have no value. Who wants spoilers in a movie, you know? So, so all of these things will come and they will try to make us think that 'I'm something special, you know, something is happening to me, you know, I should do this more.' When our eyes are taken off God and being empty for God, we now become a spiritual success, a spiritual achiever. So all these things will come to distract you. Just throw them away. Trust me and throw them away. You can tell the future of the world? I don't want to know, you see, I'm enjoying the movie. Please leave me alone. I don't want to know. You can move metallic objects? You can move things around? I'll go get them myself.

You know something is happening to me. You know, I should do this more. When our eyes are taken off God and being empty for God, we now become a spiritual success, a spiritual achiever. So all these things will come to distract you. Just throw them away. Trust me and throw them away. You can tell the future of the world? I don't want to know. You see, I'm enjoying the movie. Please leave me alone. I don't want to know. You can move metallic objects? You can move things around? I'll go get them myself. I don't need any of this stuff. Just you tell me if you're falling in love with God. That I want to know. Deepening in your love and your patience and your faith in God. I want to know. Whole day I can hear you. You want to praise God, you have an audience with me constantly. But if you're getting distracted by all of this and you're starting to get relayed on the path, then no teacher wants to know about that. So crazily God-obsessed, God-loving hearts is what is needed.

Okay. So no, no, no, please, this is the construct, this is the texture of the spiritual path. This is what we are talking about. This is what we are here for. Once you're in that transmission, then you come to safety from Maya. No, it's not a one-time thing, you see. At least during the time you were in the transmission, you are safe from Maya. Now as you deepen in, that which is unperceivable, you will start to perceive, but not with the old eyes. You'll be given a new set of eyes, or those set of eyes in your heart which were closed are now starting to open. And then you see that the holiness, the light, the love all can be met in a different realm altogether, which is your true home, which is our true home. So the experiences that happen to us in satsang, the transmission that we may find in satsang, all of that is just a trailer, just a glimpse to make you taste this blood. Once you've tasted blood, then you can really go deep within yourself.

Now, what can be? We posted something on the contemplation group that day where a great Sufi master, probably Rabi, said there are three things which get us off the path. What are the three things? You can read it out to me. I don't seem to remember that. As the usual, the usual human template is that we need a Guru to come to this. The usual, except some great sages like Dattatreya where he said that all of nature is my Guru. So it is possible.

They couldn't hear, Father. Couldn't hear the question, the answer, the reading. Uh, the reading is not... somebody found the barriers to transmission like that. Barriers to transmission. Al-Ghazali also listed... Al-Ghazali also listed the major obstacles: mana, u-z-u-b, I think ujb, spiritual pride which reflects rather than absorbs. Shak.

Okay, slowly. So good. I don't know how I'm pronouncing correctly. Let's say then, which is spiritual pride. We've spoken a lot about that today. I feel it is the destructive, but the sage has said it reflects rather than absorbs. So we want to become vessels. We want to become absorbing sponges for that transmission. But when we are proud, we just think our posture is different. No, we're not absorbing anymore. We're like, 'Look at me, listen to me.' You see? And this pride can be to such an extent that even if God were to come in some aspect in front of us, we will say, 'Hear me, let me tell you something about you.' So that is the tendency: to not receive but to give. So then automatically you find that even in satsang, you find that nothing has actually been assimilated. Like one usual symptom of this is that we are just listening to our mind wanting to tell us something or wanting to ask a very smart question so everybody feels like how smart we are, you know, these kind of things, rather than just being here and observing. Just absorb. So that is the danger of spiritual pride.

I saw my spiritual pride in a dream many, many years back and I used to share this often in satsang. So I just started sharing satsang and if I'm foolish now, I was really stupid then. So then I had this dream one day where this young child came to satsang, a young girl. She came to satsang with her mother and I used to have satsang at the dining table on that side of the house in those days. So this is probably ten years ago. So I was sitting over there. The young child is sitting in front of me. She sat like that. I was looking at her. It naturally happened, like I don't do anything in the process. The neck just turns in that way and something just starts happening. You see, just looking at her and she's looking right back at me, fully calm and open. And my pride is just like, 'Oh, this child is so young and yet so open. Let me see how much she can take' is the mental narrative which is happening. And I'm trying to just like... in the dream, hopefully in this dream world I've not been that stupid, but in the dream I'm just like, 'So let me see how much this little child can take. It's so rare for a young child to be that open' is my mental narrative going on.

And then what I noticed is that the transmission actually changed direction and it came so strongly at me that it just... I can't put in words, but just exploded inside, you know? And then in that dream I had the feeling that Anami Ma came and gave me darshan to heal me of my spiritual pride that I am the transmitter, some stupidity like that. So it is just God's way how He decides to move through which instrument. It's all in His grace that these things happen in satsang. There is nobody here to take credit for it. There is nobody to blame if it doesn't happen. It is all part of His holy plan that only He can orchestrate.

So, teachers, again, teachers as future teachers, I have to warn you about if these things start happening with you as an instrument in satsang, please don't become proud about it. You have nothing. You can't move a finger. All right? We don't know how to fire one neuron to move a finger. So please don't think that 'I am doing some transmission type stuff.' It is God's gift, God's grace. The seeming giver receives, the seeming taker receives, all in God's grace. So as these beautiful things start happening in satsang, we have to all remember to give all credit, all praise to God constantly. So that is the first part, which is spiritual pride. What is the second barrier?

Um, shak. Doubt about the master or the process causing turbulence in the subtle field.

In the subtle field. So the second, shak. We are familiar with the term. We use it in India very commonly. It's a word from Urdu which we use commonly, which is doubt. So we doubt the teacher, we doubt what our heart is telling us. And doubt is a very corrosive thing and it can affect. So there could be someone who came to satsang and had, through the grace of God, had an experience which is beyond this world. They may recognize that they are not truly in this world and they may see that whatever. So even in those who have had these experiences, the mind can play, try and clear up doubt where they found something which they cannot find in any shop in the world. We find experiences like that, but the mind tries to play on them as much, if not more than the ones who have not had these experiences also. So this doubt, it can doubt the teacher, the teaching, the whole... it can doubt God Himself.

And many times when we are placing the doubt on ourselves, many times it's an indirect way of placing doubt on the teaching, on God, and on the teacher himself or herself. It's very, and it's very, very difficult in today's world. It's very, very difficult in today's world where most, I'm sorry to say this, but most teachers of God are not interested in God, or they are interested in what teaching God can do for their lives—not in a good way, in terms of what it can do for their careers, let's put it. So then it's very difficult to say this. So I feel like a safe way to say this is to say: do a lot of due diligence initially. Do a lot of checking initially. Check what kind of... is there any kind of exploitation? Monetary, physical, emotional? What kind of exploitation can you find? And have a very strong nose for that, you see. Keep looking for that, looking for that, keep looking for that. And then once you settle, then settle, you see. Take six months for that if you want, you see, but then settle for at least a few years. Just settle, because the doubt will just mess everything up, will mix everything up. It will be very difficult.

But even this, I don't know if I can really say, you see, because it is possible for the teacher to fall into pride, you know, and that may happen after your months of due diligence. It's very, very tough to fully trust. Yes. So we may say just be very heartfelt. Notice, maybe one way to look at this is: am I following out of love or am I following out of fear? Am I following because my love is deepening every day? Or is it because I've been promised a carrot now and that carrot may be taken away, and that carrot is enlightenment or that carrot is freedom? Is that it? And I don't feel love. I don't feel like I'm cared for. I don't feel like I'm respected, valued. It's a... maybe it's a full satsang one day to talk about this aspect because it's a very tricky terrain. I've been through a lot of ups and downs on the spiritual path.

So if somebody had come and told that boy who was following a particular teacher at one point of time and said, 'But the sages have told us don't doubt,' then I would have got into a very deep conflict within myself. It's a very tricky topic, very tricky topic. I was with only one teacher at that time and then I came to know things. We spoke about it last time. And then somebody could have easily said, 'But you're never supposed to doubt your Guru.' So it's very tricky because you have to be very heartfelt, very, very heartfelt about it. But a sangha must be loving. It must be full of love in its character. It must not become like a fearful place. It must not become oppressive in any way. But it's very tricky to see these things because sometimes our mind will feel oppressed. So it's a... I'm not going to simplify, I'm not able to simplify this. It is tricky. So we must constantly keep looking from our heart, constantly just keep our heart's eyes open. And I've said to all of you in this satsang that if you find that something is... some exploitation is happening, you must bring it out. Bring it out. Okay, so that was the second barrier.

This is a difficult topic to talk about. You have this huge ability to deny. I've seen in some places, some sanghas, where we just don't realize that actually it is about... like when I was with that particular teacher, what was stopping me from leaving after I heard everything also is that I just feel like I couldn't have been that stupid, I couldn't have been that wrong. I'm supposed to be spiritually evolved, really. And then I would couch it in all kind of narratives which then make it seem like it's love. So you have to be very, very in the heart, truly meeting that. Very, very tricky. I'm not going to say it's simple, especially in today's world where in the name of God, in this country which is supposed to be the spiritual capital of the world, what kind of things are happening are just unfathomable, unfathomable. So let's pray for all those who are seeking God. May they come to safe spaces for themselves. May they find this holy transmission, this holy grace of God's love flowing. God's grace keep us, keep us safe as He has done for the last so many years. May He always keep us in His arms, in His safety.

Oh, great point. Let's go.

The third point is distraction, worldly preoccupations that cloud receptivity.

This is the commonest one. It may not seem as diabolic, you see. It may not seem that dangerous. But what happens when you try to pray? 'Oh, what happened to my work?' Yeah.

May they find this holy transmission, this holy grace of God's love flowing. God's grace keep us, keep us safe as he has done for the last so many years. May he always keep us in his arms, in his safety. Oh, great point. Let's go.

The third point is distraction, worldly preoccupations that cloud receptivity.

This is the commonest one. It may not seem as diabolic. You see, it may not seem that dangerous. But what happens when you try to pray? Oh, what happened to my work? Yeah. What is happening in the cricket? What is happening all this? Let me just finish this off then I... and then we were talking about yesterday's and today all this happened. Let's start properly tomorrow. Let's start properly tomorrow. When will that tomorrow come? It's always tomorrow. So even if you have a minute free, start. Two minutes free, start. For a few seconds, please start just now and start wherever, start going to that holy place. Use the tools that you've been provided. There is no tool which says, or hardly any tool which says, you must have hours free before you can apply. Is it? Say the name of God once. Is there ever a shortage of time for that? So we just beat the mind at its game. Beat Maya at its game by claiming our time back for God. Yes. Otherwise, we'll be stuck in the... we actually stuck in that. I was, when I started saying it, I was making fun. But then I realized that this is what we are trapped in. We feel like it's all right, I can start tomorrow. One day it won't make so much difference.

Father, what sorry? Go ahead. Go ahead. I'm... what I find myself getting distracted by, and I don't know if it's distraction, I'd like to clarify it with you, is when I'm sitting in prayer then something comes up about how somebody needs something which I haven't done.

Exactly.

Um, I don't know whether I should continue my prayer or actually do what I'm meant to do for somebody who requires that particular help.

So what does your experience tell you when you came out of it because you followed it? Were they like, 'Thank you so much, I really needed this second'? How many times did that happen?

Very rarely.

It hardly happened. Our experience itself tells us that it tricks us away. It tricks us away. We feel that everybody needs us except God. Everybody's waiting for us. God can wait.

So we can also put a little scribble pad there. Yeah, like a to-do list. Just do it and then once you are over with your prayer, then you can do that to-do list and of good deed.

Yeah, absolutely.

But this good deed thing is still very confusing.

Yeah, it's very tricky. It's very tricky. Good deed thing and also like there are many things which the mind wants us to do in the guise of spirituality which take us away from spirit. So if what is it about? Is it about what I said, to be in the holy transmission of the spirit? Then it is spirituality. So if you're reading spiritual reading, then are we finding pointers, contemplative pointers that bring us to the light of spirit? Yes. Then it is spirituality. If it is just reading, reading, reading and there's no real going to the heart happening, then it is not spiritual. So anything like if you're doing trying to help, we're doing all of that but our love is not coming from the heart towards them. See, we're not really meeting ourselves inwardly, then it is not spirituality.

But say somebody's lost somebody or somebody's ill. I'm not saying they require you immediately, but they do require someone to say, 'But how you feeling? I'm so sorry you've lost so and so' or 'I'm praying for the father because he has cancer.'

And because we don't know what anyone requires, the best way to deal with that situation is to be with God as we make ourselves available to another. You see, so then we just become an instrument of God and then God uses this mouth. God uses this body to share whatever it has to share, whatever he has to share. You see, because it's also prideful—I'm not saying, but it's also prideful for us to presume we know what another needs. Is it? Somebody may be in a situation where they're like, 'Why can't everyone just shut up instead of calling me?' Do we really know? We can't know. So, it's better for us to continue to be empty of ourselves and allow God to speak through us. Allow God to move through us. So we must be careful of the mind's attempts to bring the 'me' back into the center, that 'I have to do this good thing.' We can't do any good thing. The only good we can do is to be empty of ourselves. God is the only good that can flow through us.

Would you call it a sattvic ego?

Spiritual ego. Spiritual ego means that our mind, in our mind we understand spirituality, both aspects—spiritual truth as well as the ethical construct—and we are following that. So these are just disguises of, like, distractions disguised as spirituality on most occasions. I didn't know how to say but I'm going to read you. It said if your eyes are set on him, what do we have to worry about the world?

Because this is like a, you know, in a way where the mind makes so many excuses and all and it's like, okay, doesn't matter. I mean, this is it.

Exactly. And then make your relationship with God and forget about... I didn't know how to say, just put in these two sentences. You chopped everything off.

But it's important. The second one is not that you say, 'I don't care about you anymore because I'm only God.' That's not the idea. It is to allow like everything to arise from him, like a worldly relationship to play out from our relationship with God.

So make a worldly relationship... something beautiful said, you know, one time he said that it is not love if it is not about God. You see, that doesn't mean that necessarily the content of what we are speaking has to be, 'Oh, are you praying? Are you turning to God?' You see, but is it coming from God? That could be another way through to love. It's not love unless it is God. Then my whole life becomes satsang. You see, or at least it may not look like satsang because many times the world is trying to get the teacher out of sharing God. The world is constantly, the Maya is constantly trying to kill all soldiers for God in the sense that if you go to work they will say, 'No, no'—they will not say, but the mind will say—'But now is the time to focus on work, you're wasting time and you know you should do this ten years later.' So basically, if Maya's design—and it is God's design of Maya—is to eradicate all soldiers for God, the one who is propagating God, propagating God's love, Maya is not going to just wait around and say... he'll create all kinds of challenges. No wonder I was getting those looks. You're not confirming that that is being what up 8:00 like it'll be seven. Where is... perhaps didn't come with this clock today?