How To Be Free From Maya and Come to God’s Presence - 13th December 2024

So, if I were to tell you that if you follow that voice, that calling—it may be wordless—then you will find that holy place within yourself where God lives. That is your heart temple. And if you don't spend your life living there, then I may be wrong, but in my view, that would be a waste of this life. Some of you come large distances regularly to be in satsang here so that you can make that journey from head to heart. That is why you come, independent of what the reason you think you may have to come; that is the real reason. Some of you have taken houses close to satsang so you don't have to commute. You come in the physical movement in that way so that you can really make this internal movement, because you're finding that where you live currently, that is in your head, things are very probably full of suffering. It is a roller coaster ride. The ups and downs of life make us giddy. So, there's a different calling which you are following now, which is calling you from a deeper place. In that heart altar, you will meet God's presence, and the more you want to remain there, the deeper you go spiritually. The more you keep thinking about "me, me, me," you're stuck in Maya. As Ananta said, Maya is "me-ya," the "me" has come.

So, what are the tools? What is the guidance that you have in your life which allows you to remain in this holy inner space independent of outer activity which may happen, may continue to happen? Do you feel like you have the tools? The tools have been provided to you. Okay, see, now the tools have been given to you, but Maya will interfere in every step of the way. Every time you want to pick up your prayer, you want to pick up your inquiry, it will say, "But let's do something else first," or "Let's do it this other way." This something is it. So, remember this beautiful thing: a tree is known by its fruits. So, if the fruit of your sadhana does not lead to the virtues of humility, faith, patience, courage, gratefulness, kindness, compassion, love for your brother, and most importantly, does not lead to the sense of coming into the light of the presence within, into the love of the presence within, then leave that aside. Find that which brings you face to face with your Atma within.

So, what are the tools that all of you are using, especially the new ones that I haven't met? You'd like to share something? Because rather than just being a discourse, if I can help in any small way, I'm happy to help. Are we... firstly, we have to see whether we are in this project together. In project together means, is our life truly for God? And if God still, in spite of my two years of ranting about it, is still like a troublesome word, then is my life for the Truth, capital T? And if our life is for the Truth, then what are the tools that we are using and how is that working out? How is that helping?

I know I'll have to prompt. Is the project God/Truth for everyone? At least that intention is important to start with. Because if you say, for example, that, "No, not really, I have a pie chart." Many of us want to do that. There's my physical life, there's my mental life, there's my emotional life, there's my whatever other lives, and then as a part of that pie chart, there's my spiritual life. And we can't really say that my spiritual life is priority number one. Then maybe we have to wait for some time before that slice of the pie chart becomes a bit bigger and, at least if not the only priority, then it becomes priority number one. But most of you that come here, it is at least priority number one.

It is the only priority. An only priority.

Very good, very good, very good. So, this priority then, why? Okay, why is it just like... is it right? Because this is our path, we must, this is the only priority. Is it a question of pride? No, it's not a question of pride. It's like a student in India if he wants to get into IIT, for example, and the student says, "Oh, but I want to do this also, and I want to do this also, and I want to do this also, and I have these other five, six priorities," then most people will tell him that, "Forget it, it's not going to happen because it's a very difficult project. You have to fully immerse yourselves." And in many cases, that kind of emotion is much more acceptable to us in our lives for our families and friends than emotion which is a spiritual emotion in this way. So, we're willing to say, "We'll spend the next four, five years only focused on preparing for engineering entrance" or something like that. If you say, "Focus the next four, five years just on finding God and being with Him, or finding the truth about who you are and being with that," that seems too strange or absurd. But given that you are here in this strange, absurd satsang, I have a sense that most of you must be having this as your number one priority at least.

So, going in this journey from a love for the 'me' to a love for God is a difficult project in a world where most of spirituality also has become about the 'me' and not really about God anymore. Because in this world today, we need quick gratification, quick outcomes; not self-sacrificing, but self-serving. That is the nature of the world today. But spirituality is the most difficult project because to squeeze the last thread of the 'me' out of ourselves, the last strand of pride out of ourselves, will seem like our life is getting squeezed out of us many times. So, if you've embarked on this difficult project, it is important to have the right set of tools. So, what are the tools that we are using? I asked last time also. Inquiry? How many are using the inquiry? Prayer? Both is also okay. Prayer? Nothing? 'Nothing' is where we are trying to get to, the 'no thing'. But some tools we all need, unless our lives are so full of grace—sometimes just pure grace can do it for us, but that is very rare. So, we must have a tool which helps us navigate through the cobwebs of our inner chambers and brings us to the holy space where His light is apparent to us.

What are these inner rooms we have? Bodily room, pain and pleasure. First, we have this outer room, seeming outer room. It is not really outside, but it seems that way. The seeming outer room is there. Then this body room is there with pain and pleasure, and most of our brothers and sisters are stuck in pleasure-seeking and running away from pain, is it? Then the room of thought is there: "Something, something, me, me, better, better, get, get, get, get, run, run, run, do, do, do, don't do, do, do, sit, sit, sit, be happy, happy, do this, entertain yourself." You know, all this room with all these noises there, isn't it? Not ever fulfilled; momentary pleasure because of some desire getting fulfilled. You open a door, so for a moment it may feel like you get some pleasure over there, but actually it's constantly oppressing you. Then there's a room of emotions where there is all the anger, joy, pain, lust, greed, all of the frustration, everything that we experience.

Do, do, do, don't do, do, do, sit, sit, sit, be happy, happy, do this, entertain yourself. You know, all this room with all these noises, there isn't it? Not ever fulfilled, momentary pleasure because of some desire getting fulfilled. You open a nut, so for a moment it may feel like you get some pleasure over there, but actually it's constantly oppressing you. Then there's a room of emotions where there is all the anger, joy, pain, lust, greed, all of the frustration, everything that we experience. And these words don't come close to describing emotions because emotions are quite unique every moment, but just for language we have to use some words. So you have that room also. Then if you want to, some Indian yogis will categorize the space for breath, the space for Prana Shakti, life force; all of those are separate rooms.

But beyond all of these rooms, there is a holy place where the true Satguru, which is the Atma itself, Spirit itself, lives. Maybe I should explain this 'lives' part. So, where is the sun's light in the sky? It is everywhere. Everything is animated; all light is animated from that. But when we look towards the sun, that's when we say that we are encountering the sun. So, it is—I'm not saying that Atma lives only there or God's presence lives only there. I'm saying that the way to meet it is there. It is itself the animating force of this entire play. Maya also is a result of Atma itself. God itself is the creator of Maya as well. So, but if you were to encounter this holy highest of highest, the King of the universe, where can we do it? In that holy place which is beyond all the layers of our existence that we describe.

So I can only invite you, I can only provoke you; I cannot convince you about the existence of this place. It's not really a place. I cannot convince you because there is no phenomenal evidence which I can produce and say, 'See here, this is what it is.' I can't give you an X-ray report. We can't do a laparoscopy or something and go into the physical heart and find it. All that is not possible. That is why spirituality is all about faith. And faith is not a blind belief. Faith is to remember that voice I was telling you about which is calling you within, which brings you to Satsang. Faith is to trust that voice more than what your mind is telling you, what Maya is telling you.

So what are the methods with which we wade through the darkness into the light? They are various. Every path of spirituality offers their own method, and all spirituality is for this. Some will say let go of all the false chambers and focus on the true chamber. Some will say fill up the false with the truth, with the remembrance of the truth. All these various... some will say breathe in this particular way, some will say move your body in this particular way, some will say read this particular set of things, some will say remind yourself constantly of God's name, some will say ask yourself the question 'Who am I?', some will say hand over your life to the Holy One, surrender yourself. All these are valid paths to come to that true insight. Isn't that good? It's good, it's good because all of our temperaments are different, all of us our conditions are different, and if it was just one path, that would not appeal to all of us. In actuality, as many of us are there, each of us will follow an individualized curriculum to come to God.

Yes, applause is... no, I'm joking. So for each of us, there is an individualized pathway to God. That is actually good news, although I know it was about mosquitoes. But so that Supreme Intelligence which we call God has determined our pathway to Him as well. And that Satguru which lives there is guiding your life in one way or the other, whether we recognize that or not. But in the play, in the Leela, although everything is God's will, the play of our cooperation, the play of our collaboration is very important. That is why this path is one of full effort and full grace. So sages will give us strange answers like this: everything will be done by your effort, like you start even yoga; without self-effort nothing will happen, yoga. And after that, you are not the doer, you don't exist there, nothing you can do.

So what are they saying? That this path will only happen if you put in your 100% and Grace is 100% with you. So it's full effort and full grace. Only can be done by Grace, only can be done by your effort. It doesn't make sense, but it's not going to, because the sensible part is here. We're moving to the part which is beyond linearity, beyond straight-line rationality. That is why, difficult as it may seem, we must do our sadhana. We must do our... we must apply the tools that have been given to us. Come about me, if prayer is your path, then pray, pray, pray, just pray. And to be simple about it, what is prayer? It is to remember God. If the focus is on God and not on me, then you are praying. The method is secondary, even the outcome is secondary. Can you give this moment fully to God? It can seem like a big sacrifice. Do you belong to God right now? Who is your heart for? Your every breath, your every heartbeat, can it belong to Him or Her, whichever way you want to relate to God? The Divine Mother, or the beloved husband, the great Father, or the little child, the Bal Gopala or the infant Jesus. How we relate to Him is not that important because He knows that our thinking is very limited.

Find a way to relate to Him which allows you to surrender yourself and offer up all your love to Him. If it is Nirguna, then it is Nirguna. If it is Saguna, it is Saguna. In my case, I can only report that my truest love is that ineffable, unperceivable God, but I truly love His aspects in so many different forms, and neither is higher or lower. It is our offering, our love which is important. Offering ourselves up which is important. So this love, this saying that 'I am yours, Father, I'm yours, oh Beloved, I'm yours, oh Mother, I'm yours,' allows us to shine a light which goes deep into our hearts into aspects of our existence that we never realized exist. And we come to Atma Gyan. And in the light of this Atma Gyan, we can come to the highest, the Brahma Gyan.

And of course, in language it makes it sound cruel; it's not as cut and dry as that. Like if somebody was to say, 'Explain to me the difference between Atma Gyan and Brahma Gyan,' I could attempt it, but it'll be very crude and silly. But true fulfillment comes after you come to the Atma within, through the presence of the Holy Spirit within. From there you can recognize your Nirguna reality, the attributeless reality of who you are, you see? But it doesn't mean that your Atma is some halfway step or some halfway measure; it is more than enough. But in its grace, it will show you the highest.

So what are some cheat codes in this game? Those are helpful because we are such... it is said that the era that we live in is very difficult to get into true Bhakti or true Gyan. So God in His kindness said, 'Okay, here are some cheat codes for you to use.' You know what cheat codes are in this game? There are the computer games and then people will put some cheat codes in them so you can enter into 'god mode,' that you are invincible in that game. So because Maya is so strong, then God in His love for us has said, 'Okay, here are some cheat codes you can use.' One cheat code is the name of God. Whichever name of God appeals to you in your heart, just to remember that is a very, very potent way to counteract the effects of Maya.

The other cheat code is a simple question: 'Who am I?' Sincerely asked, it can cut through the ghosts. The other cheat code is just to offer yourself to God. Say, 'I'm yours, I belong to you.' Even if it doesn't feel like you fully mean it, start. Then you start to mean it more and more. Just simple mantra: 'I'm yours, God, I'm yours, I'm yours, Allah, I'm yours, Jesus, I belong to you.' The methods are many; it is the application which is important. And the application is a question of time. This battle is played in the realm of time. Maya will say, 'Tomorrow, tomorrow.' That's why Kabir Ji said, 'If you're going to do it tomorrow, then do it today. If you're going to do it today, do it now.' The end is coming, then when will you do it? What is the 'it'? Not what the world thinks it is. The 'it' is this project.

Maya has one job, and it's doing it really well. It's very clear about what it's doing. It wants to take this moment away from God and to make it about the false. This moment. It's only playing for the moment. Maya knows the power of now. We are learning it. But if you can turn this now into this now for God, over and over, punah punah, polishing, then we live a godly life. We lead a true life. So till your Atma starts guiding you on a moment-to-moment basis, till then hear the words of your teacher, whoever your teacher may be, to follow their pathway. Every teacher of God is providing a pathway to God, or a few pathways to God. Follow the pathway that resonates the most with you in your heart. And knowing most of you for some time now, I have a sense of what pathway resonates for each of you.

So now it's merely a question, moment to moment, surrendering yourself, doing the difficult work of letting go of selfishness, of pride, of ego, of wanting to be right, and offering yourself wholeheartedly to God. Truth, love, life. That's all we can do moment to moment. 'I'm yours, God, I'm yours right now. Use me.' Like the biggest danger in my life is that if the sharing of Satsang becomes about Ananta and not God. So I have to be vigilant about that and make sure that this sharing of Satsang is coming from a place... it is only in service to God. So my prayer now is: may I be forgotten and may only He be remembered. And it's inspired from this beautiful quote from a Christian father. He said—what did he say?—'Wake up, share the gospel, be forgotten, and die.' Something like that. Very simple words but very powerful. Are you all willing to be forgotten? Because it's not just about Satsang, it's about everything. So to give glory to God, to be in remembrance of God, is to make sure that whatever impact your life is having, all glory is given to God. All credit is given where it is due, because all good things that come are because of His grace.

One other tip I have for you is that devotional music is very helpful along the way. At least in my case, it's really helpful. Bhajan, hymn, whatever, whichever format has a divine ability to pull you back into the heart. So use that also. That's another cheat code. I'm sharing all the tips because I know the path is difficult.

Explanation of the... some of those used years ago, very still sometimes, but there's also a movement. Um, what you just mentioned got completely clear of... thank you. Sometimes open, absolutely.

So, I've been using this metaphor of cooking your food and eating it. Using this metaphor of cooking the food and then eating it, both aspects are important. So suppose that our pathway is inquiry or our pathway is prayer, then many times what some of us end up doing is that we feel that, 'Oh, just to say Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?' You then finish saying that and then prayer is over or inquiry is over. And some of us feel that just by taking the name of God, 'Ram, Ram, Ram,' it's very beautiful, but we feel like that end of that is the end of the process. But we forget about what you said, which is the 'keep quiet' part. That is the eating the food.

Have you seen what happens to you after a few minutes of inquiry or after one mala of prayer? We are able to keep quiet, able to keep quiet. And in that quiet, we come to that prayer of quiet, which is the open and empty. When we come to His presence, we will not be talking. We will not be talking. It'll be such an awesome, or it is such an awesome experience, or beyond experience, that we are awestruck and we're not able to speak. So whichever way you look at it. And last time I was talking about this, initially it may feel like I'm cooking for most of the time, 95% of the time, and I'm getting to eat only 5% of the time. It's like an Indian meal; we spend a lot of time cooking, but the eating is very fast. But you have to make that a European meal where...

Talking, we will not be talking. It'll be such an awesome—or it is such an awesome experience, or beyond experience, that we are all struck and we're not able to speak. So whichever way you look at it. And last time I was talking about this: initially it may feel like I'm cooking for most of the time, 95% of the time, and I'm getting to eat only 5% of the time. It's like an Indian meal; we spend a lot of time cooking but the eating is very fast. But you have to make that a European meal where not so much time is spent on cooking, but then you eat at leisure, you talk to family, you do all of that during eating time. So in the same way, we have to—our Grace brings us to that, you see. Otherwise what happens initially, when we're not used to it, we are not able to sit quiet for more than a few seconds. Then as we grow in that, that few seconds becomes a few minutes, then that few minutes becomes an hour, maybe more than an hour, you see. Just sheer silence. And that silence is not a silence of absence; it is a silence of presence. If you are truly eating God, truly eating God's presence, we are truly tasting God. And because in that communion words are not needed, it's an exchange, a pure exchange of love, till there is no exchanger and exchanged left. It is a sheer unitive recognition. So more and more our prayer becomes just that: keeping quiet, just that open and empty.

Now the thing is that because these teachings are very accessible in today's world, and the nature of the mind is to want to jump to the highest really fast, so everyone then starts to feel like, 'Let me only do this.' But then we have to be true to ourselves because we are only helping or hurting ourselves in the process. What happens when I try to just be empty by myself without the aid of other spiritual tools? So I found in my children that there was a lot of talk happening of open and empty, but there was not so much actually being open and empty. And that led to this grace of the prayer coming; that led to the grace of talking about the pathway much more than was my initial inclination. But if you feel that you can just close your eyes, or even with eyes open, just be empty, conceptually empty, then that is very beautiful, very beautiful. And in that remaining empty, you may continue to be active in the world or it may lead to everything withdrawing in that way. That is a movement only of Grace.

So the main point I'm making is that if it feels like in your heart that you're not being satisfied by the meal that you're cooking, then the eating—then give that effort, spend that time in cooking a little more. But if you feel like—and this could vary day by day—sometimes you are just sitting and you are just there. And on other days it could be that you are sitting and so then you return to prayer, you return to inquiry, and then you struggle back and forth, then you find that. And many days along this path there will be days where you feel like, 'I'm only cooking, I'm not eating. I'm only knocking at the door, I'm not getting entrance.' It's okay, we have to go through that. We are not entitled; it's only His mercy. We are not entitled. So knocking on the door is important, but don't just knock and when the door is opening you go away. That is not right. Cooking is important, but don't just cook and then not eat. Of course, it's not as, again, not as cut and dry and straight line as I convey, but you get a sense of what I'm saying.

Sometimes one minute's prayer is enough and you're sitting quiet for half an hour. Sometimes you have to really work at it; you have to get out your Mala and really use that. So we have to see our own temperature internally and decide. But we are not to give up on those days where it seems difficult. When relationships—the days where relationships are difficult—those are the days where we must put in the additional work. Our relationship with God is the most important. He's making us humble sometimes by making it difficult. If it was always that we close our eyes and we go into samadhi—not Maha samadhi, but samadhi—then you just close our eyes and we go into nirvikalpa, just the whole universe vanishes, then next week we'll start thinking we are a saint or something, some great sage. We start thinking that we are the next incarnation itself; we start getting into pride. So many days He just gives us no actual eating, maybe just morsels, you see. But we have to accept that as beggars at His door. And as long as this thing may still poke us somewhere, that we are just beggars at His door, then that is—we still have some pride. We are not even a beggar, nothing, not even a grain of sand at His door. So that kind of inner attitude gives us the patience, the courage, the humility to dive deeper and deeper into the unity, the recognition of Oneness or the sense of merging as one with God.

And always be thankful. The worst mistake you can do is to say, 'Oh, I did my sadhana really well today. I did my practice really well today.' Because what is it that we can do? We can say His name, we can ask the question 'Who am I?', we can offer ourselves up in surrender, but any outcome of that is all up to His grace. I've been trying to make this point for the past few weeks. I hope I'm getting through, because many of us start feeling that it is in my asking 'Who am I?' that my insight is coming. We can keep asking 'Who am I? Who am I?'; we don't know the mechanism of revelation. We cannot unlock the mechanism of revelation through any mechanical effort. In the same way, we can pray and pray and pray, but whether we get to Atma Darshan, nothing makes us entitled to that. That is why His kripa is always—His mercy is always important. And that is very crushing to our ego, our pride, especially our spiritual pride that needs to be crushed.

Look at—I'm making it very simplistic—but Ram Ji doesn't want Ravana in heaven with Him or Vaikuntha with Him. What does that mean? He doesn't want us to carry our pride there. This project is to free ourselves from our pride so that we can be good neighbors. Ego, pride, resistance—all same-same. And never get into this trap of saying, 'My path is better, my path is higher. You all don't know what you're doing.' That brother, that sister may be spending, sacrificing more of themselves to God even if the path is not so looked on so highly. And the values of that time being sacrificed, that life being sacrificed to God's love. So these are all just tips to keep your temple clean, your inner temple clean and well-ventilated, so that you can truly come to Atma Gyan, self-knowledge. Cooking and we are eating, in a way it's a cheat code for you in a way, and for me. And for me because what I taste of God's presence in satsang is not my usual experience. It is in the process of serving you all, I'm being blessed as well.

Pranam, Father. So when you were talking about the cheat codes, you talked about the essence of prayer and there was a little bit which really struck, where you said the essence of it is just to remember God and how you do it is not so important.

Yeah, just confirming that. That is why throughout the world we've had people like Janabai, we had people like what we call mystic sages who have just not had any education, not had any proper spiritual training, went to no gurukul, learned no shastra, learned no scriptures, and yet in their simple love for God they exceeded the great scriptural ones by miles. Look at Maharaj, an uneducated man. He was only told, 'Stay with the sense I am. Just stay.' What does that mean? So his Guru told him, 'Stay in the sense I am.' Just that presence 'I am' is God's presence. If it was just some human, then nothing would happen. So because there was godliness about it, spirituality about it, that is why just remaining in the innocence, in the patience, in the love for following his Guru's direction, this man spent three years continuously just staying in the presence of 'I am'. Three years. And he says it so humbly: 'All I had to do is I just followed my Master's words. In three years, just three years, I found it,' you see. All of us get frustrated in thirty minutes, maybe three sometimes, maybe. So he must have had all those challenges, all the Maya tricks, but three years he just, no questions asked, stayed in God's presence. Uneducated man, bidi seller, not even cigarettes, bidi seller on the streets of Mumbai. And then what he started to share from his inside is one of the highest books on spirituality we can ever read. That is the power of devotion, surrender, patience, courage, faith. Imagine the faith. It sounds very simple in retrospect, but three years in full faith he followed the Master's direction: 'Stay with the sense I am.' Simple street vendor in Mumbai, and now people call him Maharaj, emperor of spirituality.

So this path is universal, does not discriminate. God is available to everyone. And then he did something funny. So what happened is that after his book became famous, a lot of Westerners started coming to him from Puna and other places. So then some were asking, 'But I heard there's another session that happens in the morning. What is that session and why are we not invited to that?' So that was the bhajan session. The devotional aspect would happen, would be sung. So he would say, 'No, no, that's not for you. You won't understand.' I'm sure some Indians also would come in the morning and say, 'Why have we not been invited to those?' And I'm not generalizing in terms of Western or Indian, but he just realized who's coming after reading the book and who's coming just from his lineage of Guru Parampara and the devotional path as well. So then he would have two separate sessions for the Jnana and for the bhaktas. Maybe we should do that sometime. Very—what the point I'm making is that through such a simple pointer, to exert yourself, surrender yourself fully for three full years, then you become a great sage who can share Jnana, you can share Bhakti, you can lead the disciples in the way they need to be led. Such a beautiful, beautiful story.

So prayer without remembering God is not prayer. Without remembering God, we can't really call it prayer. This can happen to all of us. We may come into satsang and we say, 'Okay, now tick in the box, we have to do the Aarti first.' And we do the Aarti, but in the Aarti the point is not the pronunciation of the word so much; it is more: are we remembering God and are we really invoking His presence? Like those ones who went to Lord Vishnu and said, 'Please help us because we are suffering because of this situation.' That is why we started with this prayer so that we all remember to ask for His help as satsang starts. But the problem is that if it becomes purely ritualistic—purely ritualistic like this—rituals are beautiful if they are done in remembrance and love of God. But if it becomes purely ritualistic, then of course still there is benefit of taking God's name, but why not fully offer ourselves at that time? Even at the end, even when you're chanting the Ramacharitmanas or the Hanuman Chalisa, at the end use those opportunities. I'll count all that against your quota of two to four hours a day. Getting a sense of the project, what we are talking about? Are you all seeing that all these tools that have been given to us by the sages, they are all leading to that same quiet, the same place of empty? It is empty of persona, empty of ego, but full of God, full of light, full of love.

One day we should—sorry—one day we should go through all the pathways of the ones we put up on the wall. Each of them have given us unique pathways to God and we have put their pictures up because we love them so much for helping us in this way. So we can one day just go through and see that: what did they offer to the world? What did they bring in terms of the unique Lila into this spiritual project?

It's more of an observation. So right now I was watching season four of The Chosen. So in that, all the great followers of Jesus have left their family life and everything. So those aspects are also shown, and also the aspects of small things like, 'Where I will be, on the left or right?' or 'Am I to be the rock of your church? Am I to be the rock bed of your future Kingdom?' And those aspects...

And see that, what did they offer to the world? What did they bring in terms of the unique Lila into this spiritual project? It's more of an observation. So right now, I was watching season four of The Chosen. In that, all the great followers of Jesus have left their family life and everything, so those aspects are also shown. And also the aspects of small things, like where I will be on the left or right, or am I to be the rock of your church, am I to be the rock bed of your future Kingdom? And those aspects are also there; it has been shown that they are still struggling with the small. In one of those scenes, Jesus is talking to Mother Mary saying that, 'My people are destitute, they are very poor, they don't know what—they're not listening to what I'm saying.' And Father, I can feel so many times you are also insisting on the same word again and again, and I'm sure you are feeling the same for us at many aspects. Are you listening? Are you listening? God's presence—I don't know even if it is registering in my mind or registering in my heart. Thank you for your patience, and I would be really happy if you can tell me on my face that you are real destitute or poor in life and please, please, please focus on it. So thank you. At the same time, the surrender of those twelve, and now they are known as St. Peter, St. Andrew, and I'm nowhere there. I'm nowhere there. And still, even they, in Jesus's eyes, are nothing like—they're saying, 'Why are you not listening?'

Well, thank you. Thank you. All of us are just in that same boat of trying to follow His light, God's light. And of course, I want to many times provoke all of you, invite all of you, shake all of you up and say, 'Are you listening?' You know, like that inclination comes. But I'm really nobody to make a judgment about how far we are progressing or not. Don't feel like so lost most of the time. How is it possible to make a judgment about any of you? And those beautiful ones, they're innocents. They're just like so innocent. And like Jesus also picked those ones who were just humble fishermen, except Matthew was probably the only educated one in the law—I could be wrong about this—but the rest of them are very simple. So we're talking about Nisargadatta Maharaj, very similar to that in some sense.

And so what happened with them in a way is like what happened with Arjuna also, that the Lord was there as Arjuna's best friend. What greater privilege can we have in life? Or the Lord was there as the teacher. But like it is said about the apostles, that they did not get to this till the day of the Pentecost where the Holy Spirit really revealed itself to them. And in Arjuna's case, it was much later. What was—what happened? When did he get enlightenment? Yes, exactly. So in this Multiverse thing that Krishna plays, Arjuna had to come back in one life as a Gopi of Lord Krishna, and then Arjuna got enlightened. Not in the greatest upadesha which was probably ever given, not in the greatest satsang that was ever had on the battlefield, but later, because he just couldn't fathom what was happening.

So we just have to keep offering ourselves, offering our pride up, and see that it was so difficult for such beautiful followers of God. So we must not start becoming proud of any spiritual accomplishments too fast. And even the gift of the spirit was a gift; it always is. But in this case, it was not like—it was just that Jesus said that, 'I will ask my Father to send the teacher after me to you, and he will give you comfort, he will give you rest, he will give you guidance.' Some drawing is happening on the Zoom. So it is about the same Atma everywhere, whichever word we may use. Till we come to Atma Gyan, our spiritual project has not really begun, because He is the teacher. So we are in the kindergarten of spirituality. Once the true teacher reveals himself to all of you, then you're in the actual school.

It's time for Shabri. One last tip before we start reading with Ramacharitmanas is that if we come to satsang just to get confirmation about our existing spiritual beliefs, then most of the times that will lead to greater spiritual pride. So we must welcome every time we come to satsang where something in us gets poked, gets a bit sensitive, or maybe even seems full-out attacked. Those are also good satsang. Every satsang doesn't have to be blissful, full of joy. We must welcome satsang also where it really forces us to re-examine our belief systems, our spiritual ideas as well.

Just to illustrate: suppose that you had the best theology, you have the best spiritual ideas, but you are becoming proud about them. And although your ideas are the best, like they are unquestionable, there are no such ideas, but suppose then it is the teacher's job to speak things which are contradictory, to poke that pride. So don't get attached to any framework, any theology. Get attached to that holy teacher in your heart who's the true Satguru present. He will show you a spirituality which is beyond straight lines, beyond mental conclusions. Otherwise, we get stuck in our heads and then we can never truly love. Because how will you define love? You can't do it. In comparison to the reality of Atma, in comparison to the reality of Brahman, in comparison to the reality of God, every word that I've ever spoken is rubbish, is sheer nonsense. We must not be afraid to look at ourselves in that way.

Humility is not like putting on a farce of being humble. Humility is to actually be able to see the truth about ourselves and accept it. You see what I mean? Like we are talking about Ram Ji, the one who has made this universe and zillions of universes. Our ego wants to get in competition with that one. It wants to understand that one. It claims to get it. See? Can you see the absurdity of that? So the claims and the claimant, let's push them out. Then what remains is Him. I love that line: He had no assistance or anybody else helping Him, He just made this universe like that. Not even a click. That's the power of His will. He just willed it into existence. So why will we not want our seeming will to be merged into His? If His will is like that, and we can't actually will anything into our existence if we wanted to—we are so powerless, thankfully, otherwise we'd be so proud. So that is why it is the highest gift to sacrifice our will to His will. So many of these things which seem like sacrifices are actually the highest gift.