God - 28th December 2022

Now you are right that if the hypnosis is there, if you feel like you're distant from the light and the light is not palpable, apparent, then we must cut through the layers and get there, you see. Now the mind itself will trouble and say, 'But for me it should be now like this. Why do I have to cut through?' Okay, so this is the paradox. This is why the Leela seems so real while being completely unreal. It is designed to feel real, you see. It is God's design itself that God's Maya will seem real. If it was some humanly made Maya, it may not have felt so real, but since it is the design of the Absolute, it is bound to feel intricately real.

But that is the best approach to take. Suppose that you realized you walked a lot and you are far from home, you see. Then there are two approaches you can take. The first approach is to say, 'Okay, I'm very far from home now. Let me try and keep walking so that one day I might be able to build a new home for myself.' So that is the story of the prodigal son. So you try to—now that I've walked away, there is no turning back, I have to try and make this ego itself a success, make my individuality a success. But you did the right thing. You noticed, 'Okay, it seems like I have opted into individuality. Let me take the immediate retreat back home,' you see. Because that is the only light, it is the only freedom, it is the only happiness in our life. And no matter how difficult or distant it may seem, that is always the right approach to take.

Okay, so why I'm saying that is because many times we may feel like, 'I'm just not worthy of this. It's just not possible for me. Look at how far I have come.' So in that approach, we keep walking, just keep working for the away. But to stop, return—that is the choice. Make the choice. As long as you feel like you can make a choice, make the choice to not go along with the mind. And one day even that choice you will recognize is His grace. But as long as it seems like there is a choice, then you must make the choice. So return home. And from there you may get an insight that: Can you make the choice to get hypnotized? This is a strange sort of hypnosis. Now we make the choice to get it. It's just that. And also comes the salesman, you see, and then we feel like, 'Oh, rather than the company of God which is already here in my heart, let me venture into the mind's offer. What is it that can be so valuable?'

You see, if the Absolute manifested itself in the form of Ram, Krishna, Jesus and was sitting on the couch over there, sitting on the couch over there, and our mind comes and says, 'Come, come, come back home because Amitabh Bachchan is going to give you a visit at home,' or Kamal Haasan, Rajnikanth, or whoever, whatever is exciting for you, he's going to visit here at home. What do you say? Totally no. No, it could be whoever, that whoever you admire the most in the world. With God, God itself is there. Now I am telling all of you every day that God is here, you see. Then am I lying, or are you creating a barrier for yourself saying, 'It may be true for him, but it's not true for us, man'? What are the options?

So I'll give you a more pertinent scenario. God is palpable in your heart—not the physical heart, but in your true heart. The core of your essence is palpable there. But the world is full of distractions, all full of distractions, really labeled as good or bad. Now with the presence, the holy presence in your heart being there, to value something even as good or bad, to make a judgment—where is the time for that? Where is the time for that? God is sitting with you and you're saying, 'That is so good, that is not good, that is very bad,' you see. Like God is sitting next to you in your home and you say, 'Okay, let's put on the TV. Let's watch the news. Let's see what is the good stuff and the bad stuff.' You see, God is sitting with you.

So what is happening? Am I deluded? Am I lying? Or is there a mental category we make for all of this as it is spoken, that 'Okay, this is spirituality,' you see? 'So I'm understanding spirituality.' So we can find it with a boundary, we can find it in our intellect, in our understanding and say, 'This is not literal,' you see. 'This is not literal, this is just so I become more peaceful because I have an understanding of some spirituality.' But I am telling you literally, just like God could come and sit right here, He's sitting in your heart. This is not romantic poetry, not romantic poetry. 'The Beloved is always with me in my heart.' It is true like that, but it's not that way, you see. I'm saying it truly to you, more than the person that you think you are sitting right now listening to this, or the person sitting next to you. More literal than that is God's presence because without that you would not even experience this body, you see. That literally I'm saying that greatest power in the universe, in fact that in which the universe sprouts, is where? Right here.

So don't waste time on peanuts and popcorn when God is sitting right here. And if you feel like there is a seeming disconnect, then return home. Use the pointers. Ask yourselves, 'Can I stop being? Am I here?' And then if you feel to, from there you can ask, 'Am I aware even of this?' Because that presence itself will lead you to its own absolute nature. When you come to Atma, then you are fully taken care of. Then you have nothing to—'Oh, but this is Atma, I should get to Absolute Brahman.' None of your business anymore after that. Your job is to recognize and be in God's light. After that, the light itself will reveal its own source to you. But you should not become mental about that. Do not become mental about that. 'Oh, this is just God, like I want the Absolute.' There's no difference between God's light and God.

So that Satguru presence, so that's so beautiful that this presence in our heart that 'I am' itself is God's light, is Satguru presence. Why do we call it also Guru presence? Because it has the Guru nature to guide you. It has the Guru's love to comfort you. So every worldly problem is solved only in God's light. You can be confused; the answer is in your heart. You can be tired and rejuvenation is in your heart. You may feel like you don't have the answers, but the answer is instantly available in your heart. It's all just here.

So I'm just clear too: if you feel that you have not found this, then you must dedicate your whole life to finding this. So you feel like you have not found this, then dedicate your whole life to finding it. And with that complete surrender of what else may happen in your life, this will become very, very apparent to you. Straying from the light, but in the way that I am saying, there is no excuse. It is not a cause for guilt but a cause for an immediate return. There is no excuse for guilt, there is no excuse for unworthiness. God is sitting there and you're saying, 'I didn't meet God.' He came three hours ago, 'I still haven't met Him.' But you're continuing to not meet Him, you see. So see the mind tricks which keep you in the kitchen away from the living God in your heart, this cooking away various theories and notions and understanding and conclusion.

That God is greeting you. If you can say that you are, that 'you are' is who? Can you say that you are? Yes. So that 'you are' is God's presence. The ego's, the mind's only job is to convince you that this that is, or is being, or is 'am,' is the presence of an individual entity. But all of you know by now that that is not possible. And it needs an individual entity—it would have a boundary, it would have a birthday, it would have yesterday and tomorrow. This doesn't happen. It doesn't have. So it doesn't belong to somebody individually. There is no individualization that is happening.

Then this is what I have to offer. But if you go in your own merry way while continuing to pretend to follow me, then the journey seems to elongate when we're just troubling ourselves more and more. So I'm telling you, yes, you can feel like sometimes that has strayed away from the heart, so immediately return. Try to not be. Find out in whose light you are experiencing the light of the world. Find out. All the pointers are there which we use, probably hundreds and thousands over the years. So, but it cannot be something that you are doing half-heartedly. Cannot be doing half-heartedly. Think that, 'My allegiance is both to my individuality and to God.' That you cannot do. Just like you cannot—well, you can—you can drink like half a cup of poison and half a cup of antidote and just—but that is not going to help. If you're going to poison yourself and take the antidote in each equal measure, what is going to happen? The journey just seems to hold on.

So you have to feel that the one in whose light these universes come and go as if they are tiny bubbles—the one in whose light these universes come and go like they're tiny bubbles—that can run this in your life according to its will. And let go of self-concern for sometimes. That's why me, when we're watching it, 'For me, what about me, me, me?' That will be the poison that you're—then satsang just becomes an antidote and you feel like we just took, we just thought. You can feel the feeling of stuckness or the idea of stuckness is because of that. You cannot do it. You cannot really remain in God's light if you are trying to exploit it, you see. You cannot remain in God's light if you are trying to exploit it. 'I have come to you, God, now you become my glorified servant. Give me peace, give me joy, make my relationships fine, give me this, give me that.' You see, it is not for that. Come to God's light and—

It becomes an antidote and you feel like we just took—we just thought you can feel the feeling of toughness or the idea of stuckness is because of that. You cannot do it. You cannot really remain in God's light if you are trying to exploit it, you see. You cannot remain in God's light if you are trying to exploit it. 'I have come to you, God, now you become my glorified servant. Give me peace, give me joy, make my relationships fine, give me this, give me that.' So it is not for that. Come to God's light and allow God's light to guide you. How do you know what's best for you to want? How can you tell? How can you determine that this is what I should want? I know what you want, so I'm saying how can you determine this is what you should want? Who can guide you even about that?

What has got us to this point where we suffer in our life? It is wanting what the mind wants, so that is not a good way to check. So want only what God wants and then you're in alignment with God. In fact, wanting what God wants is no longer a desire anyway; you're just allowing His will to unfold because there is no distinction between God's light, God's will, and that which we call the manifestation. Because His light manifests what it conceives, it also perceives. There is no distance between God's conception and perception.

Yes, I was just going to say maybe we went too far with this, but this world appearance... okay, I had the hand move like this and not like that. Who's giving the intelligence for that to happen this way? God's will. So God's will is unfolding in this way. Now, as Consciousness, you have the power to also have a judgment about it and say, 'No, the hand should have gone the other way because that is the better thing to do,' you see. But what intelligence does it have to be able to make that determination as opposed to that which itself is the light of this universe, in the light of which that which it wills is also the manifest appearance?

So what can we trust? So God's presence is here. That is the first. Either God's presence is here or I am the biggest liar in the world. And I have no reason to lie to my children. I have no reason to have no nothing that I want to exploit you for, so why should I lie? So your mind will say, 'But it's distant, it is not possible, I am unworthy,' or 'I want an experience that I had five weeks ago' or some rubbish like that. But I am telling you God is here. Okay, now do I want you to believe it? Not really. I want something more than that. It's more like trust than believe. It's more a question of faith than belief because it is this field, this faith, which will make the propositions of your mind unattractive to you. Work in the mind of it you now and say, 'I want to understand what he's saying, they don't know, but I still have responsibilities in the world.' No, no, but whatever, 'But I have work to finish for today,' something, you see.

But what are you comparing against? What? God is sitting on one side of the weighing scale. What will you put on the other side to give that importance? This is a very literal question. What will you put on the other side to make that important to you? Let's hear examples. The only four things in the world, only four things. Relationships? To worry about a relationship in God's presence? 'Oh, I love him so much, oh, I love her so much.' I put all of that on the other side of the weighing scale and weigh that against God's presence. 'I want to be with this one, my life is not complete without that.' Ah, don't have the excuse now. Don't have the excuse now.

Relationship—the idea of a relationship is what? That somewhere I find something that I can connect with that completes me. But if you are incomplete, then that is because of a misunderstanding that you have, not because of the reality that you have. You are incomplete because of the ability of the hypnosis to convince you that there can be a separation, not because the distinction actually came about within God. And to then perpetuate the notion of incompleteness through the grasping or desire or clasping at another is a pure folly. And here from God's light, is it empty of a grasping? A natural functioning in the human condition can happen. I'm not against relationship or our relationship; I'm just saying that your truest relationship you must grasp and then the rest can unfold.

Then we say security: your money, your comfort, or these kind of things. We think that holding upon things and holding upon bank balance keeps us away from worry because we have security. But have you seen? Most people who have a lot in their bank account are most worried. They should be very secure. When I worked in the slums of Ejipura, I found them least worried; they had no bank balance, many of them. So what's going on? So to quote Jesus, he said that these birds, they are not into farming or agriculture, so they fly freely without any concern for tomorrow. But they should be the most worried, if the human idea of existence is true, then they must be the most worried because they don't know tomorrow where the food will come from, how will they feed their little birds. They don't know, but they are fine. They seem to be absolutely fine.

So do you consider yourself to be less than a bird? Because the bird God takes care of, but you, you need to take care of yourself? And if you do take care of it, you see what happens. You can put all your good stuff in a bank locker, you can have great amount of money, the stock market can do all of that stuff, and one day the whole financial system can collapse. In this, all your life savings... so many old people have this trouble. They put it in the wrong bank or use the wrong consultant or something like that—all gone.

I'm not getting the depth to how immensity in which you are saying it is not thinking.

Yes, yes, that's why you have to keep repeating it. That's why sometimes twice a week, so that I realize that this hypnosis is it. This hypnosis of taking yourself to be an individual, you see, at some level, although it's really nothing for your reality, at some level it can seem to run deep. The conditioning that we have about relationships, about money, about the health of the body, about even freedom and spirituality. You see, many times those who come here and know a lot of spirituality struggle more than those who don't know any spirituality because for the first many months you may be sitting here saying, 'Yes, yes, I read this and this, yes, no, no, but he's saying wrong reason.' So we're still there trying to find the absolute meaning in our head, which is not possible.

So what I am introducing you to is that sweetness will get sweeter and sweeter and sweeter and sweeter. Like Guruji says, it gets sweeter and sweeter but never over-sweet. So it's not that you have an awakening and it's over, game over. You wake up and then your insights get deeper and deeper, your intuition gets sharper, but don't get any of these parameters for the mind domain benchmarks. That's why I don't speak of it often. But this, like I was saying the other day, this astounding... practicing... so last night when I was going to sleep, it was felt that how can I go to sleep? Yeah, of course I know that in pure awareness it is the Absolute, but and yet still I was saying that if my son just arrived on a flight from America, I would not go to sleep. My friend came from Delhi that I went to school with and they just landed, you see, and they were sitting with me in my room, I will not go to sleep.

It was very sweet. I was not troubling myself, but God is sitting right here—I want to sleep? So every day I'm meeting with discovery deeper and deeper. On most days these days I'm just like, how can I even utter the word God? Who am I invoking? I'm saying God's presence is here. It's astounding, astounding that this is even a possibility and those who are in... not a possibility but a reality. Sound. Chop up all this conceptual spirituality which repeats the word God a hundred times on one page and it's but so dry. And it was not meant to be that from the mouth of the sage when it came out, but now it just becomes so intellectual. It is like, 'Oh this and then this,' and you see, from the Nirguna Brahman then I was born Jiva. We may understand all of this, but when you die, all this is going to die with you in your head.

We need all of this? You're talking about Brahman, Nirguna Brahman, Saguna Brahman, Atma, all these words. We become jaded because of too much availability in today's world. You can Google everything and ChatGPT everything now, but all of that will active your conceptual understanding, which means nothing. It is only useful if you can use that to dive deeper within. If it gives you the pride of knowing something, then it is counterproductive. So who sits in your heart? Whose presence is palpable that you call I Am? I was saying the other day that can we even need this? That there is... we say that there is undoubtedly a presence within me and then we go, 'Okay, okay, what next? Are we going to the Absolute?' There's a presence within you! What sprouts us, what wheels us from this discovery that we can become just like, 'Oh, okay, yeah, there's a presence'?

You better find out who that is, you see. Because is that a temple in your heart or do you need to call the Ghostbusters? You better find out who that is. You can't just say, 'Yes, there's a presence within me' and then just go about in your life normally. It's the same old four variables trying to manage them. How can you do that? How is it possible? Is this like you're walking on the way to office one minute and then along the way, I don't mind you decide to show up and you just hug on one and tell him, 'Oh good, I'm so glad you're here, but I have work to do so let me go to my office'? What is that? What satsang has become? You come when you meet God in your heart and then say, 'Okay, okay, this was good, nice experience,' so like a movie, 'Let me go back to my life.' No. A moment, an instant of meeting God should just change our priorities, at least, if not our lives.

And this most absurd is, 'Okay, now that I have met God, how does that make me more productive, more efficient?' There is even a version of Bhagavad Gita to be better at management skills at work. What's happening here? Are we really talking about God or is God become just a construct for some intellectual desire? 'Oh, now that I've come to God, my relationship has really improved.' How are you not in awe of that which you are discovering? So either there must be some lack of faith, some disbelief of some sort, or our mind has found a way to normalize even this. And that's innovation, a very strong ability which the mind has.

So at the beginning of the pandemic, it all seemed so strange. You just have to sit at home, you can't leave the house. Within a few weeks, most of us in satsang, the way we are, we are just like, 'I'm so happy that we can't leave the house, nobody is asking us to leave our kids.' So it's fully normalized. It got fully normalized in a few weeks. In the same way, what's happening to all of us in satsang is that we are meeting God and we just normalized. 'Yeah, God, where is He?' We'll even talk to you often: 'God lives within me.' But you can't see it as if you met a celebrity on the road. It must shake you up. It must change your life. It must change your ideas, your priorities. What is happening here? How can you take yourself to be a bundle of food after you have met God? 'I met God, but what about me?' This is sheer absurdity. And for this we have to commend the mind somewhere because, wow, the stuff it can deal with and projecting itself in its own way.

Your Guru is telling you that God is there. That which you've taken yourself to be, your presence, is actually the presence of the limitless, the boundless. The highest force in the universe is coming from a credible mouth to you, not from a liar. And we are just like, 'Ah, hoga, but what about my relationship? Am I free? God is sitting there, does this mean that I am free?' You see, notice this sheer absurdity of all of this. Then why this disbelief? I mean, for me there's not even a...

Your Guru is telling you that God is there. That which you've taken yourself to be, your presence, is actually the presence of the Limitless, the boundless. The highest force in the universe is coming from a credible mouth to you, not from a liar. And we are just like, 'Ah, hoga [it will happen], but what about my relationship? Am I free? God is sitting there; does this mean that I am free?' Yeah, you see, notice this absurdity of all of this. Then why this disbelief?

I mean, for me, there's not even a clear recognition to say this feeling, yes.

So while it feels like we don't have the clear recognition, then you have to take my word for it and drop the mind's proposals for anything else. As you open and empty, really, in the meeting with the Divinity in your heart without needing the mind's certificate that something is happening—if you can take it to be that the Earth is moving while everything that you see tells you that it's completely flat and stationary—then for some time you have to follow. Belief will not be enough, but for now, maybe it is the starting point. You use it as an antidote to selfishness. Use it as the antidote to the mind's Maha Mantra saying, 'What's in it for me?' And the pointing is, if you follow like this, the veil will be lifted because it doesn't have a tangible quality. It is just as if you took yourself to be the character in a book that you were reading, and then you close the book, don't read the book anymore, and wait for Grace to clean up that hypnosis. The best you can do is remain open and empty and in Satsang and follow with the innocence of a child. The rest is all God's grace. But even that life you followed with the innocence of a child when you came to Satsang and you were open and empty to the best of your ability, that life is a million times better than a life full of delusion.

So on what basis can we say that 'I am'? Is it because I am perceiving? But you are busy; you don't say someone is perceiving. The thing is that it is so natural that we feel that this can't be.

Thank you, you see. I am sitting now. You don't say somebody's presence is sitting. Yeah, 'I am.' And then we add a layer of looking at perception and saying, 'standing,' which is all perceptual knowledge. But before you come to sitting or standing, which basically expands into this: 'I am perceiving a body which is here, and I am taking that body to be me, and that body is in the posture of sitting, so I say I am sitting.' Otherwise, you don't find yourself sitting. It's a sound ingredient. So what I'm really saying is, what is that which tells you that you are sitting? Suppose this was a... you were asleep and suddenly you woke up like in an airplane or something. You look at the perception and you confirm that 'I am sitting' and then 'on a plane' or whatever. So the conclusion that it is you that is sitting comes from the notion of taking yourself to be the body when you notice the body in a particular posture and then you claim that the sittingness is there. But the I-am-ness is confirmed with what? That which remains unchanged whether sitting, standing, or lying down. That is confirmed how? Intuitively. And that intuitively, then, because the mind has no access to it, it says, 'I haven't really found this.' But you have. That's why you say, 'I am sitting here.' You don't say, 'Somebody else is sitting' or 'I don't know, a body is just lying around.' That's called 'lost and found.' You don't see that. And what I'm saying to the body applies to you, this whole universe. We've been trained to negate the perception of whatever is being perceived, and we've been trained by parents and society to conclude that within all of these perceptions, I am only this bundle.

But a child is not born that way. That's why for parents, it can seem like it takes time to teach the children. I used to ask my son, 'Where is your head?' He used to point at my head. You know, 'Your head.' 'This is my...' They didn't have those distinctions. They were taught. But 'I am' is never in question. You never wake up and say, 'Oh, somebody woke up. Who is that?' I woke up. I woke up to a presence. Suddenly he's there now, and you are not shocked by it. In fact, you claim ownership of it. 'Yeah, I woke up. Yeah, I must have gone to sleep. I woke up.' Yeah. And it's so natural and simple and obvious that the mind has used the naturalness, the simplicity, the obviousness as the veil itself. Through it, it is too natural to prove. How do you know in my heart? To the mind, all this stuff is nonsense, boring, because what's in it for you? If there's any, even the mild self-interest, okay, here you're not getting anything. Nothing new is on offer. What's the point? Like you notice children, 'I'm so bored, I'm so bored. What's the point of this? What's the point of this?' Those two questions have become very interrelated, you see. Even at that young age, if they're told that there is a point to something, we no longer say it's boring. This is the point. The point could be entertainment, or it could be a monetary benefit, it could be some other benefit, a health benefit.

So if you went to a session where they said, 'Okay, now I'm going to give you tips to make this body disease-free for the rest of your life,' you see, and this one may have the most boring delivery, which is: 'Point number one: when you wake up in the morning, then you must go to Paris.' But you will be listening to all ten points with rapt attention, not getting bored, because what's on offer is a disease-free body. But in Satsang, the mind is not able to make out, 'What will I get?' Yeah, what did I get? I am giving you the good news, like I said in the contemplation today, that God is here. So unless it is still sounding just like imagination, poetry, romanticism, what can be more astounding than this? And the best will be the doubts and says, 'God is here, but...' To confirm God is here and then have a 'but.' And the 'but' is always one: 'But what about me?' In whichever form it may come, the content is always that. So I am telling you that God is here. The first line of defense could be, 'Oh, he doesn't know what he's talking about. He's a fraud. He's lying. He's deluded.' Whatever. Forget it. The second then could be, 'Okay, he's telling the truth, but it is not my experience that God is here.' Okay, if that's where you are, then leave everything else internally. You don't have to externally quit your job or anything, unless... internally leave everything else. You have met someone who is telling you that God is here. Is it so? Let's go slowly on this part.

I am saying, you will say very simply, 'You are saying leave everything. Easy for you to say because you found God.' You see, that sweet man came the other day, he said, 'What if I leave everything but I still don't find God? What if I leave everything and I still don't find God?' You have to take that risk. You have to take that risk because anyway your life is going to death. What are you really risking? What are you really risking? Do you have some other Plan B? And that life which is only going to death is not life anyway. I am telling you that the source of life, that it is the living presence, is to be found within you. If you take this to be true but you feel that this is not your experience yet, then you must devote your life to this finding. Everything: inquiry, surrender, prayer, chanting, singing, whatever makes you feel that it brings you to the light of God. Just like a person who's fallen off the cliffs is now holding on to a branch for dear life, we must hold on to the Master's words which are pointing you to God with that much tenacity and follow. Because otherwise, death is coming anyway. This is the branch which is offered to you.

Then you may say, 'Yes, I have faith in what is here. I also have such a tangible, palpable sense that this presence is here. It's so clear. How was I in denial?' That may seem strange. You may come to that point. Yes, I am. Then you must allow this light itself to run this life. Everything must emerge from there, empty of mental contamination. That is how to live a life. That is how to be guided about life. All the good and bad is determined from there. All the doing and not doing is determined from there. I'm going to ask you this, but this is very, very important. We go to the mind to determine good and bad. We go to the mind to determine what to do and not do, is it? But now the Satguru presence can help you in your heart. What is right and wrong? What comes from there? How do we know something is good? If it comes from there like that, so a life then becomes alive, lived in God's light. And as we get used to living in God's light, then this instrument may also become an instrument to share or to spread God's light. And most of us are very happy for that to happen also, very happy for that to happen and that to unfold in this way, you see.

But first we must learn to follow the guidance which is coming for ourselves. So if the guidance can come for others, for friends and those who come to us—maybe people ask us, 'What is it about?'—when you say, 'I found God in my heart,' and 'How can I find?' and you may find that some words are coming through you for them, but the same words can come within you for you. So the allowing the light to unfold naturally without mental contamination and to follow the guidance, if it is palpable in that way for yourself to begin with, is to live in God's will, to live under the command of God, to live a life of obedience. Open results. Now we don't... I think most of you are over it, but initially we did not like the word obedience, which is fine. 'I didn't come to get freedom so that ultimately I'll be obedient. I want the freedom to be free to do whatever I want.' But in this world, we are obedient to either the mind's voice or the Satguru. There is no third. There is no third, you see. Oh God, if you're dreaming of some strange sort of idea that you will have a third sort of individual but Godly type, it's all nonsense. There is the hypnotizer in your head; it convinces you of your limitation and separation. And there's God's light in your heart, and that which we take ourselves to be is meant to follow. Of course, I have to take us to be still; it is not a reality. We will come to that.

So till we take ourselves to be something, anything at all, then we have to follow God's way. Now in this life, in this presence, its own reality is also apparent. The only way you can come to the source of this presence is through the presence itself. So first you may ask yourself, 'What is the boundary of this being? What is the boundary of this beginning? Where does it come from?' And you will realize that the being whose presence you're hanging on to is something vastly beyond what your mind can understand. Because although you have the gift that you can meet the presence, the one whose presence you are meeting is beyond any perceptual recognition, is beyond any form, is beyond any conceptualization. If you feel that the universe is so vast, your being is that in which these universes come and go like bubbles. That is your reality, the reality of your being. And through the light of presence in your own heart, this is an insight which you can have, that you are having, many of you. How is it that sages thousands of years back said these kind of things? They didn't use scientific instruments, telescopes, you see. And all were they liars and madmen and madwomen? Yeah? Because the same insight came to them across religions, across cultures, across time. Everybody comes to the same insight: that the one whose presence is here in my heart, that one is not some mere instrument stuck between birth and death. It is that which is beyond the vastness of this universe. It is the animating light to all that can be perceived. It is the animating presence of endless, infinite-seeming time, and yet it is bigger than time. Infinite-seeming space, and yet it is bigger than space. How is it that you are able to see these things? How is it that a beedi seller on the streets of Mumbai suddenly...

Inside that, the one whose presence is here in my heart, that one is not some mere instrument stuck between birth and death. It is that which is beyond the vastness of this universe. It is the animating light to all that can be perceived. It is the animating presence of endless, infinite-seeming time, and yet it is bigger than time. Infinite-seeming space, and yet it is bigger than space. How is it that you are able to see these things? How is it that a bidi seller on the streets of Mumbai suddenly can come to—or over a period of time can come to—this recognition through his Master's Grace? And this uneducated seller of bidis can write words like this that we revere as the Bible? And how is it that all those who meet the reality come to these insights? It couldn't be that they are part of some secret society who needs to tell them this, that God is with that vision with the universe, and let's agree on the company line and all say that you just find this in your heart.

So this light projected—I'm provisionally going to see it this way and that way—this light projected this way is the universe, but that's Him. Like when it becomes introspective, find the vastness of your being, and then you recognize that you are witnessing or aware of even that vast being which is impossible to comprehend. You are aware and not dependent even on being and not being. That is your reality. That unfathomable awareness for which being and not being also is nothing. Reality is so far from conceptual understanding, and yet intuitively it can be found. This is the beauty of this presence. It can be a guide to this mere appearance, but its true pointing is to point you to your reality. This is how you come to the recognition that you are reality.

Remember that it is not a dark, empty space which your mind will be trying to propose that it is. It is neither dark nor light. Not only none of these, but no easy conditions apply to it. It is so beyond any sort of attribute or condition. And this also gives you the answer to: How do I know I'm being intuitive and not mental? When your reality is apparent to you in this way, your mind cannot do it. Being intuitive as that insight is clear, what you speak from your mouth is satsang. As that reality is apparent to you, what sprouts out from this instrument or this body is quite something. It's not about who you are, what your lineage is, who told you you can share or not share, none of that. But you could be unconditioned for decades, but in the moment that you're taking yourself to be an individual, what comes from your mouth—even if the world respects you as the greatest sage—what comes from your mouth is still ego. So it's not about the instrument and the quality of that instrument, but whether it is speaking from true insight or not.

If it is apparent in your heart and you're hypnotized, then it doesn't matter if the world calls you a sage; it's still coming from ego.

Father, whatever experiences I'm having now and living at your feet, that is the right approach because spiritual experiences can be very compelling and we may create a fresh identity around them.

Best to surrender them. Enjoy them while they are there, not to be averse to them, but don't make them into a thing because I am pointing you to that which is beyond any experience. Whatever the sensation, let it be.

It will unfold. I get a sign, what contemplation for example to put up every morning. Just open the screen. I have a tool called Obsidian that I use to track my notes. Always open it out from there. You can get this morning when I will go first. I really like it that I want to share the good news that God is here. Yeah, it replaces the old navigation system in some way for a while. I do not know if I should ask the questions.

You can ask. What is the worst that can happen if you ask? Is there a job? So most of the time it will just unfold and lift at some times. And I feel like you're asking about that part. Yeah, you probably feel like it doesn't say. Have you ever had the experience that someone asked you mostly about certain things and you found everything but to them? Yeah, so it can see. I don't know if it said that. I mean, yeah, this is good. You'll notice that more and more because it is the experience that many of you will have as you're living in this, that someone comes and asks you—sometimes in the office, sometimes your neighbor, sometimes a friend—'Can you say something? I've never thought about it that way.' So you start. And this is what is happening here when I met these kids for the first time. You are asking questions, the answers were coming. What is happening? Yeah, you probably told your kids that, 'Dad, where is this coming from?' So just like that. But you don't have to rush that as long as the first part is clear.

But why I say the second part is because the mind can create these boundaries saying, 'Yeah, but it's just the right words of mind, it's not true.' That Supreme Intelligence which runs this universe can also use words. It will talk to you, address me as a person. Yes. Why would you talk to—when I'm telling you you should do this or you should not do that—but is that what you heard or is that when you're expressing it? That is just the first well in that living in the heart, you're just unfolding. But sometimes it will happen that I may get a sign that I must reach out to the child who has not been in satsang for so long, writing this one like this. Oh, I do that.

That aspect of being which is not in satsang, the one who lives in your heart is like your best friend. You don't have to project things onto it like, 'Oh, it cannot be like that.' And in your own unique way, you will find a way to abide there. Let me know. Maybe just an open empty is enough for me. That's fine. Maybe for some like you, like I always verify God is speaking to me through the books which are coming. How did you plan this whole curriculum? Every time I had a question, the book showed up. Because the other voice here, something like that, I hear the words which is just from a deeper—you can't even call it place—but from a deeper realm than the realm of the mind.

Many of you heard the words of satsang and you have not understood them, and yet you came again and again. What is that? If you come to satsang and you don't understand anything, you should not come, and yet many of you have done so. What is that? Because in you is the ability to grasp the perfume of this. You felt that you didn't want to do a particular job, you felt like another job is better, and during that time when we spoke, it didn't feel like it was just mental resistance. You were feeling like you're almost being guided from somewhere. So what was that guidance? We've often spoken about just coming to satsang on some days where you didn't want to come. You see, 'I didn't want to come today, my mind was completely fighting you,' and yet I followed something. What is that? So it doesn't have to be in the form that is just like thought or something. God's guidance is available. If it is available for the mouth to use to sprout it, why can't it be here?

What happens, I hear something, then I say, I think something like that. For example, you said on some friend's house, you always think of them saying it's not possible. So I get this intuition when we talked like in a drug state of the hypnosis and when we talk over here. So mostly in the words of satsang, I just—

It's actually, at one level, the most difficult thing is a thing, and another level is the simplest thing. Just sit and wait for the heart to speak. So if the heart is speaking, the heart is speaking, and the mouth is closed, then who is it speaking from? Me? Okay, I thought it was a confusion. We cannot say it. We can say at the moment it is not. Otherwise, what happens is we notice there is okay, and then the mind will say, 'See, He's not concerned with the world.' So don't allow your mind to make a judgment on behalf of that. Let that tell you.

When you say concerned, it's not concerned about the events in the world, generally speaking, because it's used in many ways. Like, it's not touched by anything that may happen in the realm of perception. That is one way to say 'unconcerned.' The second way to say 'unconcerned' is that it is not concerned about how things will work out because it's all happening in its light, you see? But that doesn't mean that it's uncaring necessarily. It's so much care that it's put its presence in our heart. You know, caring that if one child is truly, honestly in this, on this path, and there's a sense that they're getting distracted, it will do something like that. Then the Master just becomes so much in service to them, to their one child, even though they may be far. There's a lot of concern in that. We would not have concern about the outcome.

Yeah, sometimes words thank you. Quite deep within is to another, go watch a movie or something, do something. Yeah, okay. I don't like realize things.

Nothing wrong inherently in watching a movie. I hope that's not what you're hearing me saying. Inwardly you can remain open and empty in God's light, and then in any case, this movie is happening in the waking state. This movie is happening. So within that movie, another movie is happening. It's no big deal unless you're really relating with all of that, and then you have two movies to deal with. Because first you're relating with this stuff in this movie, then you can be relating with this stuff in that movie, you see? And relating just openly, broadly, is fine. So that's how you enjoy the movie. But to identify and take yourself deeply to be the character or something, nothing wrong with any appearance like that. It just is.

That we must just notice that is very good because it's like someone has said to me the other day, the problem is that we know it's always available, so we can just go on our mental adventures and things like that, knowing that it's only there. Where is God going? If you don't know how long our life is, you don't know how long this world will be, we don't know whether there will be another waking state that will appear as the sleep state comes back. You don't know any of that. That's why we cannot take it for granted and postpone. God is here now.

What exchange is possible? I mean, I am not being with God because now we may say, okay, let's dive more into your question. So we meet God, then the mind can become like arrogant and say, 'I got it, this is done, I'm done,' you see? But that is not spirituality.

Yeah, so I'm trying to root it out of here. That is not spirituality because spirituality was God. The world's version of spirituality was God for me. That is egoic spirituality. 'I have got it, so now I'm done.' And I am saying to you: you met God, now you have no excuse to run from God. It is said about the Guru that the Guru is between the mother, father, the sibling, and the best friend, all of these things. But that Guru's job is to bring you to God. Now what must that God be? If the Guru itself is all of this, then that God, how can we exchange for anything that the world can offer? How is it possible? Even if time was not running out, okay, suppose you say none of them, okay, we have eternal time. Who do you spend it with? Who? So can spirituality, can attainment of God be an achievement? Firstly, it cannot be because it is done unto us through Grace, through God's Guru. So we never did anything. So it's not a question of achievement at all. Secondly, you say, 'Okay, I always wanted to live in the best house in the world.' Then to buy that house and then say, 'Done, now I don't need to live in it.' That's the weirdness of the mind. So you came to God so that what? You can just like stamp it and say 'I came to God' and then go on your merry way? No, it's so that you can live in it. Why buy the best house in the whole universe, best view, everything, and then not ever live in it? There's no point.

Anything. So it's not a question of achievement at all. Secondly, you say, 'Okay, I always wanted to live in the best house in the world,' then you buy that house and then you say, 'Now I don't need to live in it.' That's the weirdness of the mind. So you came to God so that what? You can just like stamp it and say, 'I came to God' and then go on your merry way? No, it's so that you can live in it. Why buy the best house in the whole universe, best view, everything, and then not ever live in it? There's no point. So if you've not got God, you feel like you're having a course. Everyone has God equally, but if there is a hypnosis that you are in, then use everything that you have. You have all the pointers, you have so many beautiful traditions in the world to come to God. So dedicate your life to coming to God's light. Once you've found God's light, then there's never a reason to go and live in the ego shadow. Maybe the reason I said when the mind comes in this way—that 'Okay, I wanted the keys to heaven, but I am comfortable in my hell'—that is the meaning of spiritual achievement. And this is done now, I can just...

So that's a trick. Right now you've done it, now it's okay. Since time, I have had this experience that I am something else. Okay, when something tragic happens, I could feel that there is something else because sensing all this. So yeah, so that's why when I connected with... not immediately, I think of... how should we conduct ourselves in the professional, in the workspace? And the reason is that if I have a choice now with you working on a very important power plant to contemplate or meditate, I would go for meditation. Yeah, and somehow sometimes when it is very critical, it automatically falls in, you know, like these responsible ideas, but I don't do those things. So somewhere I get this, and maybe the mind playing that trick, that you don't want to be a big shot because you know there's a lot of hard work, that's why you are choosing this as a skill. So how do we see this? And I tried Karma Yoga. I have sleepless... this is the work of God. But someday I feel if I have a choice between again working on some office work which never stops—it is 16 hours, 20 hours, as much as you can do—and really doing some work now in some meditation, I would go for it. Then some, as you said, this happens with me, some books, some quotes, something comes up which Ramana says, 'Why are you seeing this as a work? This could also be your meditation.' Yes, but then there's always this: am I escaping work? Please, thank you.

Thank you for that. That's what I'm saying. There is no way in our mind that we can conclude the goodness or badness of something because it's all depending on the moment what is playing out. It is always just like I keep saying in satsang, that in thousands of years of humanity, we have not figured out whether it is good to give money to a beggar or not, because it all depends on the context, the pretext, all of that, right? So can we say authoritatively sitting here that for the next whatever working life that you have, that you should not work on your power plant presentation, then it's okay to meditate? You cannot say it, you see. And the other way, we cannot also say that it's always you must become a Karma Yogi and, you know, do your responsibilities and then that is truly worship. 'Work is worship,' but 'worship is not worship'—all that kind of nonsense we cannot say. So the only way now to live for those who are truly in love with God is to live moment to moment in God's light and allow that to unfold moment to moment without making a template for what is good in our life and what is bad in our life. So just moment to moment, and the guidance comes in the form of what is unfolding. Like you said, it just unfolds. We say, 'No, no, I am not going to make my own... send that email today, I'm going to sit and chant or meditate or something,' and what you find yourself doing is the email as well. And instead, you came and you are just meditating. So allow all of that to unfold intuitively. It is the only quote-unquote right way to live. We cannot templatize. We cannot say this is better, that is better, this philosophy is better, I need to be this type of Yogi. Yeah, all in the mind. Empty from head, empty heart. Head empty, heart full.

All right, what are the questions? Yeah, so there's a question on why we started using terms like foolishness or sin. And I want to clarify a bit of that. That's a good question. So the word actually 'sin,' although it has many connotations in the world—you know, they've got a lot of burden and things, and that's why I rarely used it in satsang—but really to boil it down to how I feel like it's useful for using is to just use it as an error. And the only error is that given that God's presence is here, that God's will is palpable, we go and follow the way of the mind. That the way of the heart is available to us, and yet to follow the way of the mind, that would be an error. To follow my way rather than God's way. My will, not even God's will. To live on my terms rather than God's terms. So that in traditional religions and cultures has been called a sin. But if that word is too troublesome, we can also explore why it is troublesome. But if it just has this connotation, then I feel like it's a useful word to use. But if it's a burden, forget it. Foolishness, of course, is the same thing. It's the same thing. So foolishness is just the desire to live on my terms rather than in God's light right here.

There's a lot of drawing those suggestions about 'don't' and even in years, 'don't.' Yeah, don't follow your mind, not too many other cities... identity being punished. Yeah, and that one doesn't like him. So there's that here.

Yeah, I only just keep it to the level of just like to accept the foolishness of it. That the greatest guide in the universe is guiding us. It's available intuitively as Satguru presence—of course, not this boy who's sitting here, but the greatest guide in our heart is guiding us. And then the foolishness would be to go with this voice of selfishness, of individuality. It's like Shankara said, the grammarian is learning all the rules of grammar and Sanskrit and all of that, but not meeting God for an instant. Shankara told him, 'Meet God in your heart. That is worth hundreds of years of practicing your grammar rules.' So in those terms. And actually, if we dive into it more, you notice that as you follow the hypnosis of the mind, where are you? Okay, where are you? So the beauty of open and empty, the beauty of remaining in the unborn is a heavenly life. The suffering of the mental hypnosis is a hellish life. So hell and heaven are not locations, not locations that we will go to. It is what we make our life to be. So there is no further punishment except having a hellish existence. That itself is more than enough.

So right now you may notice it, like if you get into some hypnosis or guilt and working, you could be staying in satsang. So you could be in the satsang hall, you know, where even strangers come and say, 'I feel something, there's something beautiful when I come,' but you could be coming for like 10 years and in that hypnosis, in those moments of mind dominance, it can feel like hell even here. You feel like hell even here. And in the worst of circumstances, you could be at work and everything, you're being fired from your job or something like that, and you are in your heart, it can be heaven even in that. It's never about the event. It's never about what is unfolding in our life. It's about: are we in God's light or the ego shadow? Because ego shadow is that hellish life. God's light is the experience of... sorry, how is it that if you were sitting here, we should do this experiment one day, we should swap places now. Then you look around everybody's face in the room and one is in bliss, one is having a mental attack, one is like that, one is contemplating, thinking. So the world is the same, no? Apparently. So it's the same, but what we experience is our edition. And so the reports are also very different. One will say, 'Thank you, Father, for satsang, it was so good, I was in bliss the whole time.' One will say, 'Today I don't know, and you're a bit of your game.'

So it is just dependent on whether you are following God's light, in God's light, or you are under the hypnosis of the mind. That is the only determinant. And you don't have to have a dual life. You don't have to have a dual life. The mind will try with all its might to convince you there is a practical life, the spiritual life, there is the satsang world, there's a real world at all. But it is true that in the seemingly deep hypnosis of the mind, sometimes when I click, although it's there, God is there before you hear the first click, you see? But it can seem like, 'I'm not even able to hear or follow.' And I see that with some of you. Although it's always now, but somehow some of you, sometimes depending on your condition at that point, you hear the first 'now' or the tenth one. 'Okay, now... now... ah, now.' We can go from skepticism. 'Now... now.' So I've seen all those things, no? You can start like that. Do it. But the 'now' has been the same. It's always been the same 'now.' This is never in the event of things. So can we conclusively say it always takes time? Can't say. Because beyond the ability to conceptualize, at one level it's always right now. Another level, process and letting go of the false. Let's say that you can't templatize this. You can't say, 'Step one, do this. Step two, step three, step five.' Ask yourself, 'Who am I?' Test. It's very alive.

Yeah, I have a very strong kind of a dream. Seems so good when I wake up and then I'm so confused.

Yeah, exactly. Stay confused about that because it's not resolved, you see? How do you know that this is not a dream? We could have this very conversation in the dream right now, and you could wake up any moment and say, 'I was having this conversation with Father.' You can't say. So don't allow your mind to conclude on this theme. That's a great wonder. Is that real? No, is this real?

On a lighter note, we called last night my dream here. Guruji was in my dream admonishing me for being distracted. Really, really good. So it was kind of like... it was like satsang in the dream. And then, you know, my wife admonished me when I was waking up. Stuck between two admonishments, you know. Less distracted in both states. A question actually for... this experiencing of 'I am' that's sort of in the heart. I'm really, you know, embracing the 'I am' as I am, you know. I am the feeling, the Consciousness. But I just want to get your guidance on... sometimes you've this, you know, since it's also observable, you're also witnessing the Americans are going... you're both. And second, non-dualistically safely, you're both. But that's how is that you're both witnessing, but you're also experiencing the world as a sub-where even your body is in there, everything phenomenal is in there? You're also a witness of that at the same time. Causes confusion.

No, I didn't find any confusion. No, but it's... I mean, it's all true. It doesn't have to be either this or that. It has to be either God or me. But once you find God, then you see unmanifest, manifest in the heart of every seeming living being, everything. You can see being and you are being. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all is one God. Not separate, but one. And yet quality to please written away. Don't have this strain to understand. You know this in your heart. Most importantly, what is the good news? Let it be your joy. Sometimes, of course, it is also designed to squeeze your throat. So it's part of the ego. Okay, going to happen like that. But it's like, how can the goose escape the bottle? What tells you that it can't? We may find all the intellectual solutions. Does it lose weight? Did somebody put oil in the bottle so it became more slippery? It came out. He may have previously. But what is the non-intellectual solution? In fact, all this is Consciousness, so it can do anything it wants. Yeah, so quantum. Very beautiful that way, to take away a need for a mental resolution and yet to see.

So it's part of the ego, okay? It's going to happen like that. But it's like, how can the goose escape the bottle? What tells you that it can't? We may find all the intellectual solutions. Does it lose weight? Did somebody put oil in the bottle so it became more slippery and it came out? He may have previously. But what is the non-intellectual solution? In fact, all this is Consciousness, so it can do anything at once. Yeah, so Quantum is very beautiful that way, to take away a need for a mental resolution and yet to come to an acceptance of that which is completely unacceptable in our heads. Because to accept that God is here is pure nonsense for your head. Where is God? If God was here, then why would this be happening to me? And this is where faith comes in, because faith doesn't rely on rationality. And what am I asking you to apply faith to? That which is your own insight, your own contemplation. There are some questions. Okay, let's go back to the Zoom stage.

And they came through thought. Oh yes, and that's right. For me, it's not an easy thing because usually it comes by a feeling or merely by this coming up, an idea that that's what you should do kind of. And it was like one time it was saving my life because I had a problem with my stomach, it was bursting out, and I was praying, 'Please God,' badly because I feel that and it's a danger. And He sent me a joke which was like very innocent. I realized that I have to call them because God can help in every single way.

Speaking very good. Your audio was not super clear, so was there a question also that I missed, or I just wanted to clarify that?

Yeah, because for me it's like mainly it's really usually kind of thought, yeah. Or maybe I'm interpreting not well, but it seems like it's giving me some kind of things through thought.

Yes, I would say that use the anchor, which is: is the Self apparent to me in this moment? And as it is emerging out of that, then stay with that. Because the instrument of the mind cannot come to true knowledge. But also you will notice that like you hear the words of satsang, and although they are words, there are concepts in the words of satsang, they carry a different fragrance about them which is not a needy, not a grasping, not a rushing sort of energy about them. So if it comes with that kind of fragrance, then that means it's trustable. But sometimes in moments where we are not able to discern these things, like we're in some deep pain and things like this, then you don't have to worry. You can follow if it feels true in your heart; you can follow that, it's fine. But usually in day-to-day life, I would say that number one anchor is that your Self is apparent to you. And then the sub-anchors are that it's not in a rush, the guidance is not pushy, it is full of love and not grasping, not needy, not desperate. So those kind of tools you can use to discern until it becomes fully apparent where the source of guidance is. But in extraordinary circumstances like so-called emergencies in the world and painful situations, if it feels in that moment that it's intuitive, so just follow that. It's okay. It's okay. Thank you, thank you. Let's go to Radheshyam. These are only few. Radheshyam is saying something? You are not audible. Okay, okay. Let's go to Samia.

Yes, yes, my dear. Okay, thank you Father. Thank you so much for allowing me. I just became so much mind and yeah, I just went a lot with the mind. And yes, and now out, or no, sorry, now out of it in God's light, or no?

Yes, very good, very good. Then nothing to worry about the past and post-mortem and say, 'Why did I do that?' You're out. You're out now. Don't go back in. That's all.

I don't know, it feels like it may have some energetic pull, Father, not just mind in a thought.

It has every possible pull. Yes, it has every possible pull. But your heart has a stronger pull. What's this? Beyond energy, beyond thought, the calling is apparent in your heart now and its fragrance, its scent, cannot be lost. So stay in this scent. And when you realize that you were just in the ego shadow, just return home. All the pointers are there with you. The Master's blessings and Grace is there with you. So don't think more about thinking.

Yes. Um, yeah, in your light it's just so obvious, Father. And thank you for giving me this opportunity to come up and see this. And actually, yes, when I say energetic pull, actually it's nothing. Like, I just use some words but it has no meaning actually. But I somehow just let them, and yeah, it's like sometimes I believe them, that's all. I believe them, that's why I may go. But now it's good and yeah, thank you. I just wanted to be with you because if I don't come, yeah. Yes, okay, that's... I just came and yeah, thank you so much. I love you so much.

Thank you. So at almost regular intervals, the reminder is that I get to be kind to this body. Actually, the body itself experiences a strong sense of fatigue at times, and you may call it 'satsang fatigue' because it's not the usual worldly sort of fatigue. So one thing that really helps in these times is to not, again, have too much physical contact. So that helps to... quite regularly, actually, that in every few weeks this body becomes a bit tired. And the sharing of satsang is true, something which you can just, if you have to use words, call 'satsang fatigue.' So that's what's being experienced in this body at the moment. And I just feel like to be kind to this instrument is also good from time to time. So I was just saying that for a few days we won't have hugs and things in satsang in Bangalore this week. I already started talking, I can understand.

Yeah, what happened? Because I was sometimes in the satsang, I feel the being so strong because I never want any of your kids to become like... when bhakti go back, no, I don't know. Okay, we can disconnect from the 18 months ago. Okay, I just wanted to share, I mean, I think all the whole sangha wants to bless you and your body and your instrument, and may you be well in every way possible.

And so sweet. Thank you, my love. Thank you, my child. So much love. Thank you, thank you.