Learn To Live in That Atmosphere of the Heart. And Don’t Worry About the ‘Me’ - 21st November 2025

Yes. But they can't hear the mic in the—I think you can speak up a bit. Yeah, you know the answer then it is. Yeah. And now it took time to learn.

Yeah. Yeah. The key is to not forget when we are there. That's the thing. It is hard. It is hard for anyone. Yeah. Well, you're going because you have to. And there will be many things in life that you have to. Life doesn't create the space for us to just devote ourselves externally to God. And you are internally trying to offer yourself to God while externally a lot of things may be happening. So, and you know, in the last week or so, my life has also been like that and a lot of work has been happening for the last two weeks or so. So, but the intent is to take out whatever time possible to be with God. That's fine. Just decide one thing, which is that how many days are you going to come back in and write that down somewhere, because once you go, then it seems very different. So if it is two weeks, then just two weeks, 10 days. So 10 days, that is how Maya—but it is all of us, not just you. It's very difficult when you're traveling, when you're somewhere else, when you're not in Satsang, to stay in the prayer life, to stay in the sadhana, right? Knowing that God knows that it is difficult, and yet if you make the attempt, one attempt in 100 distractions may be worth a little more than one attempt in no distraction. No, it's for everyone. It's for everyone. Yeah, for everyone. That's why we are having Satsang twice a week now. And Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

Yeah, starting because Monday to Friday I've seen that it's a lot, lot of—I can make an excuse and say it's a lot of work for me to bring us back to Monday. You want to make it shorter.

So, when has that not been the intent? The intention has always been there. So what is the key? The key is—and this is in response to a few questions—the key is the process of receiving the light from within. And the prerequisite to receiving that light from within is to be as empty as possible of the 'me'. And to be empty of the 'me', we have to be empty of grasping at thoughts. So what I'm calling focus prayers, as long as that is happening, then it is focus prayer. But if you're not allowing, giving the time for the light to penetrate our soul, to engulf us, to embrace our insights, our soul, then it is not moving more deeply into what the project is. Yeah. And the project is to learn to live constantly in God's presence. Stop talking about the heat in Maya. Is it a bit warm in this room?

First you said light of Atma is—receive the light of Atma to be open and empty itself feels peaceful, being empty itself. So you're saying after being empty just wait for something to happen or you said be present.

Yeah. So after you're empty, it has to be an empty in faith because after you are empty, you're empty. It is to the mind you're empty. It has no—it's like you've gone into the sanctum sanctorum but the mind is like your slipper is not allowed inside. Get in. So you've gone to the innermost chamber of your being but your mind is not allowed there. Now what will your mind report be? Nothing happened, because it wasn't party to what happened. You see, then the question has to be: how do you know that something happened? You see, but in that question is the implication that your mind is the only way of knowing. So faith is not blind belief, but faith is to know what your heart is telling you to be true. Who can live like this? That is a sadhu who lives like that. A true lover of God has to live like that in faith. If he constantly needs the candy, the cookies, then it's not a true devotee. When we are truly in that mode: 'Do with me as You like. I am Yours. My heart belongs to You, Lord.' Then we can't say, 'Okay, now I did that, what happened?' He said, 'No, do with me as You like.' He didn't say, 'Do with me as You like and keep reporting back to me what is happening.' You see, so the checker guy, the seeker identity, wants us to constantly be able to conclude whether we are making progress or not. And therefore, because we can't conclude anything about these hours that we spend in our heart, it seems like a waste of time. But if you were to listen to your heart, it'll tell you that it is the most transforming, the most rejuvenating. It is a flowering that happens there. You see, and to tell you this secret is the main reason why you get a teacher in your life: that God's reality, God's presence is a reality in your heart. And if you live there, your life will be transformed. There's something happening that all the alarms are—the alarm that Satsang would have started, join the Zoom and said. So I hope all of you are getting this point that we can't get what we are getting in prayer, in inquiry prayer, whatever we call it. It'll make your spiritual life a lot simpler. Otherwise, you're constantly oppressed by the mind saying, 'Show me what happened. Give me your progress report.'

Yeah, understand that I'm left out until that time. Maybe it can't even understand that. Maybe it can't even understand that I'm left out. Maybe it just feels like nothing happened. Two different things.

How are they two different things? I thought that what I do, no, to live to receive the Atma, our culture has to be like that—not outwardly, inwardly. That is what I'm calling open, right? So be open, yes, in the sense that it is the child's job to do this. It is the Mother's job to pick up. So it is not a guarantee that you're open and then God will go in that way. When the light is received, it is only up to grace, only up to Him. You see, so let's just put it this way. There are two different things. One is for Him to do, one is for you to do. What is for you to do? To have the food ready for God to eat. To come and eat is up to Him. Then to come and eat is the receiving the light part. That's why the Shabri story is the entirety of our spirituality put in a very simple thing. So it's the Shabri story where she patiently does her dharma of waiting for God to come, keeping everything pristine for Him to come, collecting the berries every day, tasting them and making sure that they are the sweet ones. So keeping our heart soaked in love, ready for Him to come every day, you see, and then to recognize this coming only after 60 years of doing this—or else if we're not able to report any progress for a week, we get disheartened. So that story is very important. Do we feel that every time Shabri was calling Ram Ji, He did not come to her internally? Of course. But remember that it's up to Him when that revelation happened. So our job is to be empty, heartful, patient, just not concerned about what is happening to me in this process. Can you really sit empty if you're constantly obsessed with self-concern? You close your eyes. You make yourself available to God. You set the plate full of love for Him to come and eat. And then every minute you say, 'Am I doing this right? Is He coming? Is something happening? Am I misunderstanding the instruction? You see, I'm sure I'm doing this wrong. Something is not working.' You see, so all of this is what? What is this concern? But remember that you said, 'I offer myself completely to You. Do with me what You please.' What happened to that in five minutes? God. So tactics don't work, that I will just say I'm fully Yours, I don't care about what happens to me, I fully belong to You. But if it's just lip service, it'll be tested. Yeah. For the room. Maybe it helps. This surrender, this love, this offering ourselves, all of this happens when we learn to sit over there. So your job is: learn to sit over there. You see, if you don't sit over there, none of these virtues will grow. The more time we spend, naturally these things will grow within us. The spirit of surrender will come. But we can't, you see, we can't do it by ourselves. Can't do it by ourselves. That realization itself is the surrender, isn't it? To recognize that I can't do this is surrendering our strength. To realize that is surrender. That's why we surrender. If we could do it, only then we would. Not one speck of Atma Darshan or Atma Gyan can be produced by ourselves. This is very important for us to understand, that we must do our part but the real work is done by Him. What is our part? That is all the instructions about how to inquire and how to pray. How to receive the light of God? What is the currency of this open and empty? Let me do a test today. Very good. Time is very important. Time is very important. What is the difference between lip service and a true spirituality? Are you getting the sense of the distinction between conceptually knowing He's sitting with you and actually living in the experience of that?

Yes. Yes. But experientially is to stay, stay and taste. Stay and taste. Stay and taste.

Or even if the taste is not available, stay to taste. Yeah. So he's staying with mouth open for the Mother to feed us. That is prayer, isn't it? And the more we have faith that the morsel is coming, you see, then the deeper our faith is. Yes. Because if we were waiting, then it's not a state. It's not the empty state that we are talking about. Empty has to be empty of time. Empty of the notion of time. It is not an excuse to not give it time. All sorts of things go that if you change the terminology to 'go', then it'll be less oppressive. When you say there are all sorts of things which we have been holding, they go. Yeah. Of course. Because then when they go, they cross through our knowledge systems—or let's say false knowledge systems, memories, images, thoughts, all kind of things, all our resentments, all these things, they start appearing to us. So we just allow them to go. Because the minute you say they come, then you're getting the direction wrong and then that is bound to lead to more self-concern. If you look at them as just going, let's go. The Atma is the Guru. The Atma is the Guru. He is the one that we are in the discipleship of. The outer Guru is just an instrument, just a tiny fraction of that, just to give you a taste. You see, the outer Guru is just to give you a taste of the higher possibility of what your life could be. So what you taste in coming to the physical arena of Satsang is the appetizer. A lot of these food metaphors are coming these days. Good. It is His light which He bestows on us by His grace. But He doesn't force it upon us.

The Atma is the Guru. He is the one that we are in the discipleship of. The outer Guru is just an instrument, just a tiny fraction of that, just to give you a taste. You see, the outer Guru is just to give you a taste of the higher possibility of what your life could be. So what you taste in coming to the physical arena of Satsang is the appetizer. A lot of these food metaphors are coming these days. Good. It is His light which He bestows on us by His grace, but He doesn't force it upon us. How would it be if you were just like, 'Relationship, relationship, relationship, relationship,' and God is giving us Atma and you see, if you don't learn to value the highest, then it is not received. Our whole life is money, money, money, money, money, but God is still revealing the highest truth to us in our heart? It doesn't happen like that.

There's a great Sufi saying over this which I can't fully remember. He said—I forget who—but he said, 'Do you ask the wages from the one whose house you didn't sweep for the whole month?' Do you ask for wages from the one whose house you didn't sweep for the month? You can only ask to receive from that which we are in service to. You cannot serve the minor and expect to receive the major. So then, because there's a worldly life, especially for householders like us, what to do? Focus on prayer at least one or two hours, at least two to four hours. Okay, one or two hours, but as much as possible, take out time during the day to be with God, to take God's name, to be in His presence.

So this is the path to humility because the outcome is not guaranteed. All our ideas of spiritual pride have no value in the heart temple. 'Oh, I have done inquiry for fifty years. Oh, I have served society for fifty years.' But if it's full of ego, it has no value. So just learn to live in that atmosphere of the heart and don't worry about the 'me.' What is that? Whatever gets you to remember, especially gratitude. Very good question. Who is that? Who is it? You can come here.

Thank you, Ananta Ji. I just—I know this is really silly. My intention, I think my intention is never to be with God. No, no, no. And the last weeks, my mind also used this so much and keeps telling me that I don't really know, I don't even know God, and how can I love? I know conceptually, but I will never know what you mean when you say God and how it's so important to love God and give the time to God. So long you are speaking about God now, and I don't feel that. I feel for the first step, I would know who to give the love to, who to love. But when there is love, there is no God there. I mean, nobody is—excuse me, sorry Ananta.

No God when there is love?

I mean, I don't know, Ananta. I don't know what you mean when you say God.

Okay, let's try one experiment. This one that has all of this information, just leave it aside and tell me if there's any other source of knowledge. So this you have to do for sixty years. Before that, no judgment.

I don't understand.

Because that understanding mechanism will never understand. The highest understanding is that I cannot understand. After that, it's not important.

And my intention to be with God or just to love God—is it important, my intention, or no?

What else do we have? Now, what is the human condition? The human condition is that there is one diamond and there is one garbage can. But we have started to believe that the garbage can is the diamond and the diamond is the garbage can. What is the garbage can?

The mind.

So let's leave that. Then the diamond will start to shine. The mind, the garbage can, says, 'When will it shine?' You have to leave that.

It is true that I really don't have to understand anything. Even your words, even when you say something, I don't have to understand it with my mind at all.

With your mind at all? Yes. Not even God.

I mean, it's not possible to. And when you say love God, this is the most important, to love God and give your time to God. I don't need to know. I just—yes.

What is the other one saying? Thank you so much. You're welcome. And you can come in close. Not able to unmute? It should be—is it? Can you hear me now?

Yes. Thank you that I can come. I just wanted to lay the whole situation now with my father and at home with my mother. He is still here with us. My father is in the hospital and he only gets morphine and they stopped everything else. So I lay everything at your feet and I surrender the whole situation to you.

Bless you. Bless you. All my love, all my blessings.

Thank you very much. And we are going to the hospital now. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Yes, you can come back. I don't know what to say. Just now, or when you raised your hand also?

Yeah, when I raised my hand. That sounds familiar. Sorry. Sounds familiar with you. Similar happened to me. This thing that, um, I'm not doing enough sadhana. This thing that I'm not even looking for a job.

Then what are you doing?

I don't know. Somehow I do some yoga. These days I am reading some spiritual books for some time. Most of the time I try, I fight with my mind, or I try to remember that this is also another thought and then try to let go of my thoughts. This concern of how life has ever—this is something which is just strongly there.

You said that you do yoga, which is good. You read your spiritual books, which is good. Now you said that you spend a lot of time fighting with your mind. Now you just have to make sure that you're using the right tools for this fight. You can't try to be very original in this fight. It's always better to follow what the sages have told us, as much as the mind hates hearing that. If just being empty, we don't become empty, but our pride tells us that I should be able to become empty just by feeling I have to be empty. You see, you have to be honest with yourself and then you have to use the inquiry as Bhagavan has taught us, or you have to use the prayer as all the sages have taught us.

So use one of the methods which is shared by a sage and follow that, so that then you're making sure that your fight with your mind is not just the mind on both sides. You see, many times our fights with the mind are just the mind fighting both ends, making us believe that it is the Atma versus Maya. It is just Maya having a hold of us by pretending that the fight is between God and the play, the delusion. So why not the inquiry or the Atma Darshan, Samadhi, or any sort of sadhana?

At the time, I don't see this space where I could—sometimes I do repeat that I am not this body or I am not even this mind, but most of the time, why is it not silent? Or I must open and empty all this.

If you have the space to fight with your mind, then you have the space to ask yourself, 'Who am I?'

What do you mean by space? I mean, it happens like there are like the mind shows like two sides, you know? Like one side is like mind, other side is like a present me who is trying to keep the mind calm. In that, I don't see like that this is happening both. My mind is doing, you know, taking both the roles sometime into that. Somehow this comes, that this is all two-sided thought, and then I try to repeat like 'Arunachala' or some other thing for some time and again it's—

Yeah, then what happens when you remember? Then what happens?

Sometime the mind gets subsided and then again everything starts happening.

So when Bhagavan said that, 'Oh Arunachala, You are the one who removes the root of the ego for those who meditate on You in their heart,' what is that? It seems to me, it sounds to me, whatever little I've understood, is that a lot of cooking is happening but very little eating is happening. So you have a lot of spiritual knowledge, you're doing yoga, you're reading spiritual knowledge, but you're not really applying it proactively is what it seems like. So why don't you start with a simple thing, which is that you don't leave your bed in the morning till you come to God's presence? Can we start like that?

Yeah. What would be the best way to do it?

Instead of waiting for your mind to fight and you notice that the fight is happening, proactively, first thing in the morning, you go to God. What is your preference? You like to stay with the sense 'I Am,' or you like to do the inquiry, or you like to do the prayer, or you like to do the invitation? What is the method which seems to resonate with you the most?

The sense 'I Am' is—

You can do that, extended as I believe, until you feel content in your heart. You feel blessed from within first thing in the morning.

What about this concern with my job? I'm not doing anything for that.

Yeah, you're not doing anything for that. So then don't use that time for that. When you take out time first thing in the morning, just stay with that for whatever time it takes. Then this is what is the most important job in the human condition: to be free. To be free only happens in the light of the absolute truths, or another way of looking at that is the absolute love. There is no freedom independent of truth and love. You see, it can't be, 'I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this,' like a godless spirituality which I'm talking about, and then I'll be free. You see, why do you want to stay with the sense 'I Am'? So that you can be free.

Yeah. I mean, my mind anyways, it's not true. So I can choose to be being here and now instead of living in some illusion of mine.

So if the intention is to find the truth, then isn't that the higher job you can do? In any case, if you were not to do that, what would you do? What do you do first thing in the morning? Look for jobs?

No, I'm not even looking for a job. That's what is my concern.

Then if you sit and just be concerned about not looking for a job, it's better first you pray in the morning, then look for a job, then spend the time on concern. And the look for job and not look for job is not that important. But rather than worry about it, you can pray about it or you can actually go look for a job. One of the most worthless uses of time is concern. You can leave that time. Instead of worrying, 'I'm not looking for a job, what is going to happen?' if you're sitting and worrying, you can go to God and say, 'Lord Shiva, help me, guide me as to whether I should look for a job or what I should do.' Whatever the content of your worry is, you can make it the content of your prayer without worrying about it.

You see, but do you feel like, 'I must only pray for the highest but sit and spend a lot of time worrying about the lower things'? That's a good way to keep us away from God. 'I can't pray for a job.' You see, and the mind also says, 'Money, money, money, money, money, money, money,' you are chasing all that. But very important: if you're going to sit and worry about it, then it's better that you pray about it. Or if prayer seems very alien to you, say, 'Who is the one who is concerned about the job?' But somewhere there's a 'me' who is trying to use the inquiry or spiritual practice or spiritual whatever to try and find comfort or just some sort of like a conceptual idea of freedom instead of fully committing to offer yourself to the project. Okay.

Money, money, money, money, money, money—you are chasing it all. But it is very important: if you're going to sit and worry about it, then it's better that you pray about it. Or, if prayer seems very alien to you, say, 'Who is the one who is concerned about this?' But somewhere there's a 'me' who is trying to use the inquiry or spiritual practice or spiritual whatever to try and find comfort or just some sort of conceptual idea of freedom instead of fully committing to offer yourself to the project. Okay? But let me keep it simpler for you. One hour of inquiry or staying with the sense 'I am' or prayer—at least one hour of it every day. Out of sixteen hours of waking state, one hour you can easily take up. Then the rest will take care of itself.

I will keep this in mind.

Don't just take it under advisement.

Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Adrien can come.

Namaste. Father, can you hear me well? Sometimes I have the tendency to speak loud because I think you cannot hear me. But when I listen to myself on YouTube, I see, oh, that was—I spoke too loud.

No, I love this. It helps me hear better. Be as loud as you like.

Okay. So, I wanted to share with you that one formal prayer that I use is what the Christian Orthodox in Romania, in my country, use: the Jesus prayer. Like, 'Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' In Romanian it sounds like [Romanian phrase] and I repeat that many times and it helps me to be in my heart. And I wanted to share this with you because I don't really use the ads—the full ads—so much. I use this Jesus prayer much more. Yeah. So I hope you're not upset about this.

You can't act so well. Remember that the ads is deeply inspired by the Jesus prayer. It's deeply inspired. So please, if you love the Jesus prayer, please do it. There is no—I could never complain against that. Okay.

And I also wanted to ask you, when it's focused prayer or time spent with God, does it have to be like intense? You know, sometimes I do that like in an intense prayer, like intense letting go of my ego, intense letting go of my thoughts, and it has its beauty. But sometimes I feel like just laying down with my eyes closed and just being in my heart, marinating in my heart and being with God's presence. Can it be also like that?

Yes, that is why I'm a bit milder than most of the Orthodox teachers, because they are very intense for me also. So I'm very, very impressed by their commitment and their depth, but I don't find that level of intensity either. So I feel like, in my way—and their way is very beautiful—but in my path, I find that just that gentle, loving, patient, humble staying with God's light takes care of it. For my temperament at least, this seems to suit better. So you have to see for your temperament what you enjoy. And it can be something sometime like that and sometime like this. Whenever you feel, as long as the intention is God, the rest of it is taken care of.

Yes. Yes.

I have experimented with this path deeply. There was a beautiful book—was it 'The Art of Prayer'? 'The Art of Prayer,' maybe, which is the Orthodox manual on prayer, and they have this very strong way of praying, you know, which is to just go to the heart forcefully and, yeah, with compunction and very deep repentance. It's a very—I love some of it, but when I just look at how it flows more naturally here, I just find that the gentle, loving movement seems to be more to my temperament, at least for the moment, because all these things keep changing also.

Yes. Because, you know, when for example I do that in the morning, you know, when I wake up, I stay with my heart for quite a long time, I guess. So it really is very helpful like that to start the day like that. And also before sleeping in the evening, I stay like that. And sometimes the voice says that maybe I'm being lazy, that I'm doing this laying down, you know. But in my heart, I don't feel that I'm avoiding something or that I'm being lazy. I don't know. It's just like maybe my temperament sometimes to be like that.

As long as it's only when you're lying down, then it sounds all right to me. Like if it's lying down first thing in the morning, you remember God and be in His presence—perfectly fine. Then during the day also you take out some time and be with God and pray and remember His name. Do the Jesus prayer as you're doing; then that's fine. And then when it's almost time to sleep, you want to lie down and pray—that's completely fine too.

Yeah. It depends on the day because sometimes I do the sadhana like more intense, more focused, more like with my eyes closed and all my body like in that committed—I mean like intense, you know, like I let go of my thoughts. I let go of my—and I keep surrendering to God. Like whatever thoughts come, whatever desires come, whatever attachments, I keep surrendering and it can be intense sometimes and it's okay for sometimes to be like that.

So at least one hour of focused prayer during the day when you're not sleepy or lying down. Right. Okay. Not that you're being lazy when you're doing it; it is very good. Whatever your—they say in India, whatever your avastha is, if you take Ram's name, the avastha is not so important. So whatever your situation is of your body, if you take Ram's name, then it is completely fine. And whether you remember Him as Ram or Jesus, it doesn't matter. So these things are good, to lie down and pray is also, but also give Him some of your prime time.

Yes. Yes. And also I wanted to ask you something. You know, sometimes you said that the 'why' question is not so good to use. But is it good to use the 'why' question in, for example, asking myself why when attachments come? To ask myself, 'Why am I so attached to this?' and just looking, or 'Why do I have this strong desire?'

So, thank you for that reminder. I used to say very often that ask the 'who' question and not the 'why' question. Why did I say that? It is because I found that usually the 'who' question puts an end to our thinking and the 'why' question makes us continue with, 'Oh, because like this and then like that.' And so if you find that the 'why' question brings you to the true place where the answer is available, then please go ahead and do that. If the 'why' question keeps you in the head and keeps you thinking more and more fruitlessly, then you can change the question.

Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Father. Thank you.

Hello. You made it right in time. I had to leave a bit early today. So, Jyotima was getting stressed. That's it. She is very good. So we'll have satsang on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or let's see. But the gap between Monday and Friday I feel is too much. Were you going to or coming from?

I'm coming back.

And going where?

I had some work in Bangladesh. Only today. I actually had to come tomorrow but I called Jyotima and asked her; she said today. My love, my head is at her feet. She's well.

Yeah, it's good. In between she had some viral but now she's—she's been traveling quite a bit.

Yeah. Now last four months she hasn't traveled, but you are aware. Yeah.

I make...