Moment to Moment, Notice That Life Is Complete - 21st August 2023

I have no first-hand experience. Okay, so no, just to close this, the closest I can come to is the sleep state. In the sense that if you're in deep sleep, usually in deep sleep it's not a time-lapse experience. I've heard that when people lose consciousness or anesthesia, it's a full like time-lapse kind of experience as well. But that's really not something that I'm able to speak to. I have to experience it, and maybe I will in this lifetime sometime. But in sleep state at least, we get to know that, you know, if I was asleep and then we woke up, we may not realize how much time has passed, or it may seem like a lot less or a lot more time has passed because time, that's a very strange business anyway.

But our sleep is not like a time-lapse. Otherwise, what would happen is that around 10:00 PM everything will vanish and suddenly it's 6:00 AM. 'Yeah, what's happening here?' But that's not our experience. It's not that suddenly there was a time-lapse. We feel, most of us feel like we spent a lot of time in just block empty space. But that is also not true because the memory, the mind tries to make continuity from memory. So the last instant maybe before going to sleep was all dark, and when waking up is all dark, so the mind concludes that it must have been dark throughout. But it's not like that. Okay, if you really try to look back, you have no sense of imagery of what was there, but you can conclude that everything went away. Everything. So even the darkness went away. So that sheer absence of light or dark, of being or not being, all of that we have a non-perceptual experience of that every night when we go to sleep. And to recognize that same one that is present independent of perception, independent of all perceptual experience, that is the Absolute Self.

Father, I wanted to share this. So yesterday I just slept in the afternoon for an hour or so and I woke up. I woke up feeling very, you know, kind of dazed out. I felt that, I mean as soon as we wake up, that's how we feel, right? Like everything is a dream and you know, I'm not able to... I slept reading yoga, you know, I just had too much food and I slept. So that's another way to do it. And then like money is talking to me, but I'm just feeling that everything is like just a dream. There's nothing, you know, it's not true. And this state went on for quite some time and I felt whatever you're saying, Father, that you know, it's more of an intuition. It's not something which is accessible by my mind. It has nothing to do with my mind. Oh, I'm going dead.

But then Father, what happened after that? I kind of, kind of, kind of singing from a long time and as soon as that happened, my mind wanted to play also. Yeah, huh? And then I didn't know how to... then you feel sorry for it saying, 'Can't let him out, you know, let him also come and please, I'll also help you in this conversation, you know, it's like this, it's like that.' No, then I start speculating and then before we know it, we've lost her in YouTube. Yes, drifting and we've gone back to the mind.

Yes, so the point is to be careful of that thing. Although it may come like a friend, it may come very humbly, remain with your heart. Live in the way of the heart. Come at me despite it, though. Like we were saying the other day, the mind will also come with conclusions and say, 'Isn't it all just like a dream?' You see? But a dream in this is same. So it tries to conclude and tries to make some... in your heart you know that this cannot really be determined in any conceptual version. We cannot make like a statement about what this is like. So if you say this is like a dream, then you say, 'Okay, then what is the dream like?' Maybe the dream is just like this. There is perception, there's a body, usually where I'm taking myself to be that body. It seems, you see? But it's just like this. Okay, if mind cannot go there for sure, and how do we get there, Father? How do we get there?

Yes, letting go of the... letting go of the mind, Father. Like mind strongly wants to get there. How can we get out of that craving of the mind? What are the tools it has?

Stopping of the cessation of mental conceptualization and things like that, that's the number one principle. It's the same thing. So how do we not... like what are the tools that the mind has? What is the mind? Let's start recently. What is the mind? A bundle of thoughts. So thought comes. A thought is basically what? Just language, a message, yeah, some notion it is conveying. And that notion is about the nature of something. The nature of reality it is claiming. It is the notion about something. It is making a conclusion about something, no? So it's just some language, some words trying to capture what is into language. Now what can it do to get you trapped, to get you hooked?

I fall for it. Yes, but like what are the tools that it has?

So it can only propose words, no? It may be very pristinely crafted words. They may seem very tempting. Okay, the nature of the Absolute reality, like that, you know, it may tempt you if you're spiritual, you see? Or if you can do something else, it'll tempt you with those emotions, you see? So it is a pristine crafting of trying to represent reality into some words, you see? Now how do you engage with these words? At what point would we say that we have latched on or logged in, as Guruji would say? What are the tools with which we can engage with these words?

Believing them. But before belief, you need to do something.

Paying attention. Yes, exactly. So attention and belief. Besides this, anything?

Father, but I don't know when I believe them, Father. I get...

Okay, try to do that. 'Don't know when you do it'—that also the mind is convincing. It came very convincingly with the notion because it hates the definition of the restructuring, the deconstruction of this game. So it wants to keep it like, you know, 'It just happens automatically, I can't help it,' you see? So therefore there is no way out. There is a way out. And the way out can be found right now. Whatever the thought may be, inherently it cannot grab you. It cannot grab your attention or belief. Now belief is very difficult, you see? In the sense that we may feel like it's very easy, but actually very difficult. Some words are coming; to believe them is very tough. But if you exercise that power so much that it seems to have become natural... you see, you heard my conveyor belt example? If you've lived like a porter all your life picking up bags from the conveyor belt, then if you say, 'No, no, you've been fired,' you still continue picking them because that's been your habit for whatever number of years or lifetimes, you see? So we keep picking up this with our belief although we don't need to. Like you said, I'll paraphrase what you said: anything that is truly valuable and worth knowing is known only intuitively.

Father, I did this exercise, Father, like really try to observe where is it that the beliefs happens. How do I slow down like you say, and how do I really see?

One tip I have for you is that don't try to solve it in the past or in the future. Okay? The battleground is the next thought. That is the Mahabharata. That is the only real Mahabharata. It is the next thought, that's all. So let the thought come. Tell me if it just automatically gets your belief, you see? If the thought itself had that power, then that thought would work for everyone. Inherently it had that power, it would just be given to everyone and everyone... I see most of our thoughts we are also not believing.

I'm sorry, Father, but I'm not able to... together we are looking. We have not been able to get that, that where I'm believing. Where is it?

Wait right now. Right now. Right now. So yeah, yeah. Fresh. Yes. No. Yeah. And the thought comes. Expose it.

Thought is: where am I stuck?

Okay, so let it go. It went. No, you didn't have to do anything.

No, I held on to it somewhere. You feel it's your reality. You are stuck.

Yeah, yeah. I felt. Yeah. So start. And because your identity is spirituality based, then the spiritual thoughts will get more. If you were an Olympian or something, then it would be about 'Where am I stuck in my progress in sport?' If it was something else, it would be that, you see? So if you find some repetitive thoughts which you seem to just end up believing over and over again, then inquire into them and say, 'Who is stuck there?' Who is stuck? Who? Tell me now. Who has a practice we do together?

I understand what you're saying, Father. It's because who is stuck? The mind itself is stuck. 'Where am I stuck' was the determination that would seem true. In that statement, who is the 'I' who is stuck?

The false 'I'. Okay, suppose that is about the false 'I'. Who is witnessing this?

The real me.

Which one is that? Who's witnessing whatever was that?

That's me. Yeah.

So what does it look like? Tell me one quality about it.

It's kind of untouched. It's just, just watching. Means it's not judging, it's not...

Where is it?

In the background. Just close to nothing.

In the body?

No. Okay, it's just there.

Where are you? It's an important question. Like we want to spend the whole life and die, we didn't even know where we are.

Seeing the background here it is, yeah.

In the body or outside?

It has no... it doesn't... it has none of those.

No. Then how is it in the background? Meaning it is like you leaving that. Okay, okay. But itself it has no location, no? Now can this one then, if it has no location, it has no quality like that, then how can it be stuck? To get stuck you need at least one quality, some shape.

I did that. Yeah, that's not stuck, Father. The false 'I' is.

So are we going to fix the false one?

No. Okay, but somewhere I believe that, Father, and I get... I fall for that.

Yes. Who is this 'I' that says 'I believe that'? So now this one is which one? The true one or the false one? Or the poor one who's trying to navigate between the two? There's a third one. There's the true one, the false one, and the middle one which is mediating between the two. Yeah, I know. The one that is trying to fix it or keeps getting stuck.

I did that, yeah. That's not stuck, Father. The false eyes—so are we going to fix the false one? No. Okay, but somewhere I believe that, Father, and I fall for that. Yes. Who is this motorcycle? I believe that. So now this one is which one? The true one, or the false one, or the poor one who's trying to navigate between the two? There's a third one. There's the true one, the false one, and the middle one which is mediating between the two. Yeah, I know. The one that is trying to fix it or keeps getting stuck ends up believing it is the true one, not the false one, Father. Now it's like there's a magnifying glass and I'm seeing everything just how you're seeing it. But when are you referring to yourself again?

Okay, so what happens is that it can seem like we are trying to help the false one, you see, by bringing it to the true one. But that is not the case. Let go of the false one, you see. Here, sometimes if attachment comes, no, like her mind, something comes, so I notice it and say, 'Father, this is the one. This is the one that I want to help with.' So you notice that one, and the prayer can come from your heart saying that. But if you indulge like that and say, 'This is what happened to me,' and then 'I get stuck,' then that is the way the whole mind tries to make a spiritual seeker out of you. And then that seeking goes on forever and ever. Throw it all out. Throw it all out, including the thrower. That is to be empty.

So this is how we open and empty, okay? When we open and empty in this way, then there is a chance of discovering God's presence. Involved in the mind, taking ourselves to be the false one, we may get stuck in some emotion or some ideas of God. But truly, God-realization or God-recognition is not possible unless we are empty. No words, Father? Okay. And also, do not buy into the notion that all words are from the mind, because your heart can also speak. It is very natural for there to be some period of time where it will seem like there are no words as the handover of power is happening from head to heart, as the switchover of the monarch of our life is happening from head to heart. For some period of time, it may seem like, 'I don't know what's happening.'

Father, you know, if I recall now, there are many moments in my life where I was really happy. Um, you know, no mind at all, just being. Was that also being with the Self, being with the presence, Father?

It's the same, but you don't have to post-mortem the past, okay? Only now. Now, be careful of any story that it is slowly making. Although it is true that all of us have experienced moments of emptiness where naturally our presence is very apparent—in fact, most people take holidays and things like that to experience that. Whether it happens or not, we don't know, but the intention is to just be rid of ourselves for some time. So either the memory of that also will not help, Father, only in the sense of if it is a reminder and a pointer, then it may serve as a helpful pointer. But if it is like, 'Oh, I had it then, five years ago, then this happened,' and then we get stuck in that too much, then it becomes not helpful.

Somewhere that sweetness of that just reminds me and wants me to taste that again. That's why I asked, Father.

Yes, be careful of sweetness. If you get attached to the byproducts, then the mind will use that, you see. Then you'll just get into experience-chasing and bliss-chasing and this kind of stuff. If you found God and there was no bliss in it, would you still want God? If it was just neutral but unquestionably it is the truth, would you still want it? If there was no sweetness, no honey, suppose? I'm not saying there won't be, but be careful of the mind's attraction to perceptual things. It will get attached to the byproducts. Then you may have an experience where you taste so much sweetness, and at other times it will just seem very sober and neutral, like, 'Nah, is it like this? God is not good enough.' That one. But fresh God is always best. Fresh God is here, freshly here.

Then you don't have to worry about, 'Oh, two years ago I did kriya, and then in kriya I had this experience, and then that was it.' It's nice and sweet as a reminder, but if you get stuck in that thing, then fresh God is waiting and saying, 'I have to wait for her to finish her fantasizations and then she can meet me.' Remember this: that no matter how great the experience may have been in the past, and no matter how fancy our projections about the future may be, the God that is here, here and now, freshly here, is the one that we need to meet. Like this, just living half the time in the past and the other half in projections and future fantasy—although calling ourselves spiritual, we are really missing God moment to moment by living in the past and the future if God is here now.

So yeah, this is our being, Consciousness. God is our living reality. Don't exchange that for any conceptual idea. That's when we will go from like a conceptual spirituality to a true spirituality. This is the purpose of all spiritual practices also, spiritual pointers: to introduce us to that which is living, the living being right here, right now. And that's why I've been emphasizing this point so much, because many times, especially in conversations like we just had, we can just become very like Christopher Columbus about it and say, 'Ah, this is Europe, this is India,' although it is America. But you know, so he's just like, 'This is Consciousness, this is Awareness,' but we are creeping over. If you actually found—if instead of that you said, 'This is Ram,' then you won't quickly go and say, 'Oh, this is Krishna, this is Allah.' Like you're meeting Ram. Hello! This is why meeting Consciousness, God, is the only thing that's a living presence.

So the idea is not to become very right, intellectual, and scientific about it. That makes it very dry. And then have you seen the people who claim to have met Consciousness and Awareness? 'I'm living in Consciousness, but I want to go to Awareness,' you see, as if it's like a different—'I'm living in Thailand, but I want to move to Indonesia.' It's like that. But people who say that they found God in their heart, it's so different. So although it is a very, very direct and beautiful system, we can learn from the bhaktas as well. Both are important. Because if you just—many times you can get into some over-imagination and fantasy. That's what happened with Papaji when he went to Bhagwan. Many days he didn't come to satsang because he felt like he's playing with Krishna. And then Bhagwan sort of chopped him, no? He said, 'So where is Krishna now?' 'Right now he's not here.' Bhagwan told him, 'What comes and goes is not real.' That's why both are important.

In one of the earlier contemplations, you mentioned that, 'May I be the beggar on the street,' or 'My children spit on me.' So what I see is there are situations where the physical surroundings make your ego stronger or smaller. For example, surroundings by themselves—no mind, is that what you're proposing? No, they're facilitating the mind. You can see it's more conducive to... yeah, if I'm in a work environment or something, or if I'm driving a car which is normal, or if I'm driving my expensive car, I feel the difference already. Yeah. So does that mean... is this what the saints and sages mean when they say that you renounce things so that it is easier for you to be with God? And if that is helping, should we do that?

He has so many questions, so we'll go really slowly with the answers. Thank you. So the first point I want to make is that everything is possible in Consciousness, but it is highly unlikely that we will be, or you will be, the first one who will get rid of the ego hundred percent, full hundred percent. There has not been a sage that I know of, not been anybody, that gets rid of the ego hundred percent in this human condition, in this play of Maya. So that is why I'm saying that that point zero zero zero zero one percent or whatever of me that still remains, you see, that one is very dangerous. Because if that becomes—if that one starts treating itself as a spiritual ego or as a spiritual attainer or somebody who's found God, then that point zero zero zero will become back to a hundred and much more as we go along.

And we've seen many, many examples in our history, and this country has seen many of these stories where things start off very genuinely, very beautifully at times, but then that what remains in that, you see, then expands and becomes into, 'Oh, me something great, me God himself.' Me, you see, the Ravana spirituality, as I call it. So because I am not presuming that any of us, including this boy—this man now—will not lose their ego hundred percent, what is then the position for that remaining whatever is the meaning of 'me'? The best position for that one to take is a beggar serving. So if this one is driving a fancy car, it has to presume that it's on loan or something, no? It's a driver, or it's just temporary, which it is. In this country, we don't know whether we'll have it tomorrow or not. So that is the whole idea behind this. That's why I've been saying that both are true: 'I am that in which Consciousness itself takes birth, therefore I am the highest. I am that, the highest.' That is true. But it is also true that I am not even worthy of being a speck of dust at God's feet. And if you were to ask me to pick and say you could take only one for the rest of your life, I may say actually the second, although very tough to do.

The answer... there were some more parts. Well, yeah, it's more or less this. The extension to that is, in one of the conversations with you, I get that, 'Do whatever it takes for being in, being with God.' And so does that mean going in a less expensive car should be chosen, or no need to do that?

I'll give you a simple tip, and then as we progress, then it can be a little more difficult: to be unattached to anything to the extent that if it was not there, it would not make you suffer. A good starting point. Thank you. That's what I mean by the inner renunciation. We cannot be an inner grasper and then be free at the same time. Automatically, we have seen that there have been kings who are free, like Janaka, and therefore like his Guru, Vashistha. Incidentally, today was the first time that I really found the joy in that prayer, the beggar serving, that how pride is like a burden, too much of... there's a great joy in something like that.

Actually, when the prayer first came out, a lot of the Sangha, especially those who haven't been coming to satsang and they have not met how this expression has also changed over the last couple of years and especially in the last year or so, I got a lot of messages saying, 'Are you all right? Is everything okay? You seem a bit troubled, and why are you saying we read you that prayer?' And I said, 'No, but I'm so full of joy. My heart is full of joy and with so much love.' So it didn't seem at all like that. But I'm very happy that the prayer came because it just came, you know, and like five minutes, I just typed it or wrote it. And I've noticed here what happens is that something comes and then, like now, I can be a bit articulate about it after some time saying, 'This is how it is, nothing to be the bad thing.' But at that time, I just said, 'I don't know, just like this.' I should resist her so much in the contemplations. You can just remove this inner part. He's not gonna—he's not listening to satsang recently, probably.

The desperation of a spiritual seeker makes a lot of things, a lot of things acceptable. And the fact is that if, when I was really thirsting for God, if I felt like there's one who is only asking for BMWs, you know, but he is the only door to God, I would have gone to him also. So there are many in the world who feel like those are the only options they have.

The desperation of a spiritual seeker makes a lot of things acceptable. And the fact is that when I was really thirsting for God, if I felt like there's one who is only asking for BMWs, you know, but he is the only door to God, I would have gone to him also. So there are many in the world who feel like those are the only options they have. And there are, of course—so the longing is so much that they end up going to teachers like that. But as long as their intention is truly for God, I feel like God takes care of them in some ways.

In a situation like that, I have been—not just tell him, I've done it. I mean, I've been like really rude. There was pride in that as well because when I was, you know, negating whoever this pompous one was, and there were plenty, but I knew I was very wealthy. I mean, there was a sense of wealth behind, and that came with its own bag of pride. And like I'm saying, the mind can make us proud about anything. It can make us proud about wealth; it can make us proud about poverty. It's like, 'All these people chasing wealth, I'm just a humble beggar.' So the danger with the humble servant-beggar thing is that that can become a new position that we become proud about.

Also, when I saw Guruji and he's doing all the work and stuff, that's really when you realize what is true humility. Because in India mostly, you just see these videos that are just so over the top and a hundred people running around them, and then they can't even lift their own chair. And I'm sure that they don't mind lifting it, but that's not how it's projected. But you really realize the true humility in a way, you know, you don't feel more or bigger than the other one, and you don't make anybody else feel small. Even when you correct, it's not to make them feel small, even though they even might be involved, but it's really truly to help them go past that. And that's really quite a learning, actually, to see and then learn, not just some concept of how things have to be.

For those who have come to an authentic recognition of God's life, it is very difficult to be proud because God is so awe-inspiring that we are nothing. This bundle of flesh and blood is completely nothing. Yes, so decision-making is the way in which the mind gets a lot of attention and importance from us. Now, what if there was an alternative mode of decision-making, an alternative way in which we could make choices? Is there such a thing? And that is what you feel besides the mind. What else do we have?

Now, what we have to be careful of is that what most people call the heart is like an emotional center. So when people say, 'I am all heart, I'm no mind, you know, I'm already living a spiritual life because I am all heart,' and then you talk to them and basically they're just being ruled by their emotions. So they feel like this, then they do this; if they feel like that, then they do that. And they feel like that is living a spontaneous life or something like this. But the heart that we speak of in satsang is not the emotional heart, you see. It is the intuitive; it's the spiritual heart. That's the spiritual core. So do you have a sense of being able to rely on that?

I feel if I did prioritize movement and some kind of expression, I hope it would lead me back to a place of spaciousness and heart, and my mind wouldn't be so loud trying to make this decision.

So let's try together another way. You can see it doesn't have to work. If it works, it's good; if it doesn't, it's fine, because you have your yoga and dance and things like that you can do as well. So how about, suppose that life put us in a position where there's no space for any of that movement to happen, any of these things, and all we were left with is just what we have? We're sitting here and now, you see. Now we just have to find a way to be with the heart with no other ability.

So what if I told you that, to borrow from the Zen masters, if I said to you that keep your front door and back door open, treat your thoughts as visitors, don't serve them tea? So just let them come and go. Don't grasp. You want to try that for a minute? Let's see what happens.

And one of the thoughts that came up about the decision came in like this frantic man. Yes, I was saying, 'Hurry, hurry, you have to, you have to listen to me.' It's so anxiety-inducing.

Exactly. So it is not a wide representation of the mind, actually. 'We don't have time, this I decided.' Actually, our life seems so difficult and complicated, but all of our lives basically are centered around four variables. They're just four things. Relationship—that is usually a very popular thing for the mind to use. Second is security, therefore being money and planning what are we going to do, where are we going to stay. So, security. Third is the health of the body and how we will keep it safe, healthy, all of these things. And fourth is the search for meaning or spirituality, enlightenment, something, whatever our value systems are, the highest accomplishment of that self-actualization in somebody.

I can pretty much guarantee that the decision that you have to make is in one of these four, isn't it? Because that's what all of our lives are centered around. All human things that our lives are so complicated, but our life is simple variables. Thinking about that, but in that, our true relationship with our own selves gets neglected. And we have an idea that somebody else comes and completes us, and we feel that we are incomplete without them and all of these kind of ideas. But it's just not true. No set of perceptions, as well as they may seem to dance in front of our eyes, can never complete that which we are.

So in our discovery of who we are, in the fulfillment of true yoga, is the discovery of our reality. We realize that our life is not what we think it is. We will not get completion from the outside, be it through money—we talked about money earlier as well. You can collect the best cars and the best houses and the best things, but what can we really do with these things? The philosopher Montaigne said that we could have the biggest throne in the universe, but we still have to sit on our backside and change that. Yeah, it seemed like a very simple thing, but actually, it's like people who are very rich—can they sleep on three beds at the same time? Buy the best mattress, but is that a guarantee, you see, if you're worried about losing money and losing things?

So the life actually is much simpler. You can't wear more than one set of clothes at a time. You can't sleep on more than one bed. You can't sit on more than one chair. This is for relationships—they cannot complete us. Money doesn't really bring much to us. Body is a beautiful instrument; we can treat it like a gift and take care of it. It is fine, but we take care of it as an instrument that we have, not as me, you see. If you start to take it to be me, then when that is, big trouble.

And as far as the search for meaning goes, the search for truth goes, most of humanity is doing it wrong because we're using the wrong instrument. We're using the instrument of intellect and mind. And if it could be solved with those instruments, it would have been solved by now. So many have tried to publish their versions of the meaning of life—Viktor Frankl or Friedrich Nietzsche—each philosopher tries to publish their version of what is the true meaning of life, but nothing really takes on. Everybody wants to discover it for themselves: 'What is the meaning of my life?' But the mind is too small an instrument to conclude on something as great as life, as beautiful. For that, we need what we call the Satguru presence within, the intuitive light within, God's presence within us.

So this is the vein of the human condition. But although we fill our head with these four variables, the head itself is not capable of resolving them. And freedom comes from letting go of the way of the head. And even in the way of the heart, maybe a tip I have for you is that when the mind rushes you, you don't rush. That is the starting point. Because the mind will come like a bullying time, 'No, no, we have to decide, this is all I have to take,' you see. And usually, in that kind of rush state, we always mess it up. We mess up because we don't breathe, we don't pray, we don't live in the true life.

So this may seem like a very simple tip, but it will take care of 90% of the trouble. When the mind pushes you, it rushes you, you don't serve it tea. It'll come frantically, 'You can't live like this,' you see. We can define, 'Thank you.' Yeah. Does the decision impact how you would be sitting here right now? Yes. And what will change your posture? This will be sitting on the ground naturally. Moment to moment, notice that life is full and complete every moment. Don't get into anything rushing, yeah, stressful decision-making. Your breathing is in, the heart is beating, your body is fine. It's momentum. There's never really a rush in life. And if there is a rush in life, God provides the energy also.

Like if there is a medical emergency or something, you know, you have to take your kids to the hospital, something happened. I remember one day I worked out at the strength training late at night—weird things—but late at night, went to sleep very tired. The body was feeling as heavy as a rock. And one of the kids who was younger, they got dehydration and we had to take them to the hospital, they were vomiting. And suddenly from being in that sort of dead, heavy body energy, just like, 'Come, come, we'll go.' So whenever there's something to be rushed like that, then God provides the energy also to move the body. But usually, the mind stresses us out with a mental rushing. 'What's going to happen really?' This fear-mongering with all of this trouble. Just breathe.

In the last satsang, I mentioned that things had felt like so easy and so effortless, and then coming back to India and meditating in Ramana ashram, it felt like the mind got activated again and there was a sense of there being a struggle. I feel like I had a bit of a breakthrough with that. I noticed that on some level there was some subtle idea or belief that the mind should not be activated and that the presence of thought indicated that I was somehow like failing again. And just the presence of that created some sort of like resistance which seemed to actually invigorate the thoughts again.

And then there was some realization like yesterday in contemplation that it is literally as simple as you just said to Isabella, like letting the thoughts come and go—front door, back door open. All you have to do is not serve them tea. And so then that removes from the equation any sense of like, 'This thought should not be there,' or there's like guilt about the fact that the mind is so busy and there's lots of guests coming again. 'They shouldn't be here, why are they still coming?' It just kind of neutralizes all of that. And yeah, that was like some relief and freedom in that recognition. Otherwise, 'Oh, there's so many thoughts before coming; it was before going to ashram fewer thoughts, this is not right.' And it's undetected that that's still a thought, yeah, because it feels somehow quite justified and it has evidence.

Slow it down. The good part is the mind can never give us two thoughts at a time. It has to be one thought. It's actually a very slow, primitive mechanism. This is the mind. If you really notice it, it's a very primitive, slow thing compared to perception, which is like full-on. The mind is, 'Oh, this is what it is. It's like that. What will you do?'

It goes undetected that that's still a thought, yeah, because it feels somehow quite justified and it has evidence. Yeah, so I just wanted to share that because, um, slow it down. The good part is the mind can never give us two thoughts at a time; it has to be one thought. It's actually a very slow, primitive mechanism, this mind. If you really notice it, it's a very primitive, slow thing compared to perception, which is like full-on. The mind is, 'Oh, this is what it is, it's like that, what will you do?' It's very primitive right here. So, um, so you really just slow it down. Just a question of one thought and what you do with them now—what you do not do with that, or don't do it, mostly. Yeah, so it felt quite empowering to see that and also felt like relief.

Exactly.

And I also see the importance of like not creating any stories around like what has happened, that the perception has shifted and it feels like a new life. Even though that might feel true on some level, like, then that can just become more like mind stuff. It's like also not engaging or attributing belief value to any of that either. Um, and as Greg is always saying, like, the one who finds it is the one who can lose it.

I want to report something. So, um, there was... I had gone to Shirdi, Father, and then I came back home and then I thought that, you know, it's too much bliss, there's too much of the subject, you know, all this. Enough of that. I want to take a break, like that, you know? I want to just let loose, I want to just relax, do nothing, just watch Netflix, you know, just chill out, get back to this moment. Okay, enough of that, enough. And that's what happened. And I just started watching Netflix and then Korean drama—I was watching some Korean drama.

Listen, yeah, yeah, something.

So I was watching, Father, and then what happened? And then it's like completely after that I lost it. It becomes... it goes so out of control that I have no idea how to get it back. And it took me so much of really, you know, coming back, praying and, you know, I don't really want to go back. I really want to, you know, be just one. That one thought that, 'Okay, I want to take a break,' it just caused so much of havoc.

Yeah, yeah, it's good to notice this because there's one thing comes very humbly, you know, something it proposes and you could be out of it. Like, the good thing is never feel guilty or unworthy, but just did you notice you're back? That's good. If when you're back in your heart, that's good enough. These things will happen. I remember this time Mira used to be there and she at first come and satsang would get over, so 'I want a break from all of this stuff.' So you light a cigarette and, you know, start smoking, get a break from all of that and just normalize. You just feel like there's too much, there's too much God, there's too much love, or even maybe there's too much contemplation and then too much talk or awareness and 'What is consciousness?' and 'God is here.' There's too much, like, 'Just be normal.' We know, okay.

There's never too much God. It's always too much God; there's never too much God. God is not one of those things where you can say 'too much of a good thing.' In fact, I must be so grateful for those moments because they never know what the next child of Maya, what is the next move from Maya, we don't know. So if in this moment there's so much God, so much love, so much grace, so much, stay this day. Because that we have this time together, these moments to spend together meeting God in our heart, this itself is such a gift. You don't know, something happened tomorrow, everything could change. Can we see? Wow. Fully, fully immersing ourselves, drowning ourselves in God's light. And the mind judges everything: 'Too much bliss,' and 'There's no bliss, what is the point? It's too dry, there's no bliss.'

Just remember that every frame of this movie has been made by the most brilliant director ever. You never have to judge or determine how it should be. Just stay in your true place. And every moment, like this moment, we'll never have this moment ever again. How many of us can truly meet? At least most of our time and I had only thinking, thinking, thinking, missing all this beauty. Um, let's go, let's go. So below perception is a little way to live.

Uh, yes. You have asked hundreds of times, 'Do you think God is real? Is God real?' Yeah. But yesterday when Jyotima was summarizing your previous day and she said that God is more real than the palm of your hand—you might have told, but let's skip—when she said it, it struck like anything. And so, and that's a very important pointer because all of us can have the badge of spirituality, but do we consider God more real than the palm of our hand? And that can seem like a very strange-seeming pointer, but it's what they put in. It's so high for the last few days. I mean, if I can live with my palm as a reality, then I should be living with God as a reality more than that. It's really helpful. So anything, anytime, Canada. Thank you for Sangha and thank you.

Actually, it came for a cousin who's not so much in satsang. So I met her when I went to Pune for my father-in-law's situation. So, um, I was trying to explain to her that all of us... she's in a like a spiritual mission and all of that. So I was trying to tell a little bit: we talk about God so much, but do we give God reality as much as even the palm of our hand? And if you can make God as real as you consider the palm of your hand, then you could be free. But most, even in spirituality, you live in a way like a conceptual idea of God as a strange sort of notion who's there somewhere. Yeah, it is. Isn't God real for us right now? Isn't He here as a living being? Not like gravity or electricity or like a force of nature or something or like an element, but as a living being.

The greatest treasure, the greatest gift, is to meet this living presence whose name is God. The best chance you have to make it, to meet Him and to live in Him, is to get over the false selves, to get over yourself. I remember many years ago when this had not deepened so much, I would just... but now everything starting to get caught up in something, I would just say, 'God,' just like checking, you know, if You're still here. This, and I can just live in that presence. From that presence is what makes our life holy. There's nothing in this, there's nothing in this world, there's nothing in this life. All that is beautiful, holy, valuable, worth loving is only because it is touched by the light of God. There's nothing else alive. The part which is alive is God. And to remain empty for God, there's only true spirituality. If all other things in spirituality is to make us and care of ourselves, who has to die to ourselves so that God's life can be back and lived in?

And whatever your spiritual undertaking may be, if that is the intention behind it, the feeling behind it is that this is for God. So whether you're doing the Jesus prayer, you're using the inquiry, the invitation, any spiritual practice, whatever you may be doing, but it is activated by your love for God, that becomes supercharged. But if it is selfish and 'I just want to be like this, I want to be peaceful, I want to be something,' then it is insipid, it is not, it is separate, it is not full of fire. And be careful because this... let's take a break a little bit, normalize. Yeah, distractions can come, other things can come, and it doesn't matter what's playing in front of you as long as you're living in, from God's life, in God's life, it's fine.

The part which tempts you to live like a normal person... we're like a normal person. Like this child once told me, after a few months in satsang, 'But Father, at the end of the day, you're all just human.' So I said, 'No, okay, it's not what it is.' These notions are so strong. I've been telling you that in your reality there is no person, and human is just another glorifying for a person, basically saying that we are a bundle of flesh and blood at the end of the day. So don't allow the mind to trick you, great con artist. And if you found a way to free yourself from its chains, then don't willingly put them back in any conditioning. It cannot force them on you real-time to you. We change the equation; we make good into bad and bad into good to normalize mental slavery, normalized mental operation. It will normalize, you know, all bad habits in the name of, 'Okay, okay, this normal can be distracted by this thing.'

I live... if you've got the chance, you change the melting. The mind's oppression is feeling foreign. 'Come on, I'm not so bad, you can still play together a little bit. God, you're good, you're good.' You'll try this thing, that you have to be unwavering in God's light. And if you do stumble, if you do get tricked, then don't fall into guilt, don't fall into this kind of thing, and just remain in your heart. Come with me. Maybe at this point we don't realize how blessed we are with the chains of our ego or at least being recognized, at least you can spot them. The world is living as a slavery to the mind is normal. Mental operation is the way to be. But we are blessed that we can even speak of living in God's light.

Our problems are very first-world in terms of... should we say, 'I meet... I can meet God when I turn to God. Is it? I can meet God when I turn to God, but I'm not always living in God's light.' But how many... like the people who, you know, we used to have these comic books as children and people would have the vision of God like once in their life and we will consider them to be the greatest sages. And look at our first-world problems. See the blessing in even the one moment of being in this holy presence of God's light. It is no longer a fiction for you, it is no longer just a concept for you, you no longer an unattainable lofty goal of many, many lifetimes for you. All it needs is humility, compassion, absence of selfishness. It's not at all the price to pay; it's nothing at all because of the magnificence of this gift.

So don't get confused. It is the same God that yogis have done Tapas for thousands of years sitting in caves. They've not been praying to some other God or asking the Darshan of some other God. There is only one God. The expression and the flavor that we may meet is different, of course, but we are finding this God by Master's grace, by God's grace, with such simplicity. With such simplicity. So don't undervalue it because it is simple and here as well. So don't undervalue it because it is simpler. Realize the gift that you have received is the highest that any human has ever received. The discovery of God is the highest gift that has ever been given to the greatest kings or the most accomplished yogis. And in the compassion and God's grace and mercy, He has made Himself available to us. So don't undervalue that.

He is the same one that Buddha almost died in his penance. He did such a drastic penance that his body almost fell, and then in God's light, a miraculous recovery. There are thousands and thousands who have died searching for God. It remains over the centuries. So don't let the mind tempt you with its tricks and say, 'You take a break from God.' It is not at all... I'm just putting it into perspective because what are we really saying? So don't give the mind a chance. You know the another story? It is when Narada went to get a glass of water for Krishna and his whole life turned around because he got caught up in one thought: 'Wouldn't my life be great if I could spend it with this woman?' And then that one thought, he forgot his companionship with Krishna, he forgot that he's on a mission from Krishna, he forgot Krishna is waiting for water from him. It's a beautiful story. It is the same God who is working with Narada in that story who you are finding in your heart. You see, I know that in your minds there may be some like a veil of disbelief. 'Is it the God?' It's the same one. It's the same one.

In one thought, wouldn't my life be great if I could spend it with this woman? And then, in that one thought, he forgot his companionship with Krishna. He forgot that he's on a mission from Krishna. Krishna is waiting for water from him. It's a beautiful story. It is the same God who is working with Narada in that story who you are finding in your heart, you see. I know that in your minds there may be some like a veil of disbelief. Is it the God? It's the same one. It's the same one that all the sages—Meera, many of them—have given their life for this God. Don't discount that blessing in your mind. How big can our debt be for the grace that we have been blessed with?

You're blessed because we were given a longing in itself, which is there. And among those who are given the longing, how many are able to confirm that they found God's life, God's presence? Most reported that it's very difficult; it happened to the rarest of the rare. And yet, through some grace, you have no doubt that this is unfolding for all of you. So this is the delicate time in this holy pregnancy. This is the delicate time in this holy pregnancy. Guard your light with all your might because the Maya, because the mind, will try every trick up its sleeves to distract you, to push you away from this. Can you imagine that there are about forty-something on Zoom and maybe thirty-something in this room? Can you imagine that there are seventy or eighty of us who could spend our life living in God's light? To spend our whole life living in God's light—there is no other heaven than that, but it is unheard of.

And I'm not appealing to any pride, just appealing to our ability to have faith in our insight and live in that insight. A friend was talking about it yesterday, and one of the most beautiful things about the Ashtavakra Gita is that only the first chapter is instruction. After that, it's a conversation between two sages. One started off as a disciple, Janaka, and the other was the master, Ashtavakra. They had a conversation between master and disciple for one chapter, and the rest of the Gita has a conversation between both of them as sages. Beautiful. Everything—I don't know if there's another book like that. Can this Sangha become like that? It's not a question of capability or skill; it's only a question of faith and humility.

So while the mind continues to doubt, we must make a deal. While your mind continues to doubt, you will live as if God is real and God is here, because I have told you that this is true. And when you forget, when you become proud, when you become selfish, when you're becoming narcissistic—when this comes into your notice, you just drop it and return to God's light. Even if it seems like God's light is not practical, you live as if God is here and God is real because I have told you. Is it a deal? If we follow this deal, then it is not far that this doesn't remain a Sangha of disciples, but a Sangha of sages. All that is needed is faith in what I'm saying and faith in your own insight about what I'm saying. Utter humility.

So don't ever let this talk of sages and all that get into your mind. This is just to provoke you and to invite you. But if you can start leading your life with utmost faith and sheer humility, this blessing I have in my heart, I know that God will reveal himself to you, that you will live in his light. God comes to you, and it's true. Why should God come to us? That gives us more opportunity to be grateful as we are. God chose to reveal himself to us, or herself to us. At least for this life, I can completely confirm this: that nothing's over here to find God. It's a pure grace and mercy that he reveals himself. So when the mind uses this as a doubt, you can say, 'Yes, I am unworthy, but God is great and gracious.'

Trust that the presence in your heart is God. There is no other presence but God. The mind will trick you in every way to convince you that it is personal, it is biological, it is chemical, it is someone. It is God. Nothing can ever be present but God. Trust that one. All of life can be lived in that light. Nothing remains complex and needing calculations, and all the machinations of the mind are not needed in God's life. That doesn't mean that it'll always be easy. The world hates those who live in God. It hates it because it wants to preserve its notion, and because the popular notion is to live in the way of the mind. Anyone who tries to live in the way of the heart, the world will use every technique, everything. Most in the past have been put to death who tried to swing to a different beat, the way of God.

So we can also be grateful that as oppressive as the world may be today, in this moment, at this moment, it is not jumping to kill us. It may happen tomorrow, we don't know, but don't expect it to be easy. Expect opposition from the world because that is the way of the world, because that is the mindset in which we believe. When the one who has escaped from Plato's Cave saw the light of the sun and he went back to tell his brothers and sisters that he had seen a greater reality, he did not get a great reception. I'm sure they wanted to kill him because he attacked all their deeply held notions of what is here. What we are saying is very absurd to the world: that God lives clearly within our heart and we have found him. The world will not find that easy to accept.

Even spiritual-seeming people and spiritual-seeming teachers will say, 'No, no, you must be deluded,' because that is too difficult a goal to attain in one lifetime. Most will laugh at us. They will say, 'It's not possible. You're well-intentioned, but you have a long way to go. Can you repeat the scriptures? How much of the Gita do you know, that you're claiming all this talk about God?' We face a lot of skepticism, so don't expect life to be a bed of roses. At least on the outside, people will say, 'Be normal.' We heard some reports from them: 'Just be normal, balance.' But it is not possible to live halfway in one. You cannot say, 'I will hold on to the ego also and believe in God once in a while.' That is just imagination.

Until we surrender our heads to God's feet fully, God will not be difficult to us. Things as far as the world is concerned may not always seem easy. Expect resistance, expect opposition. Don't expect that people will recognize the light that you are seeing in your heart. Most people will become skeptical. It doesn't happen like this. Some of you have already heard, 'It can't just happen like that.' But it is undeniable that we are coming to it. If you stay steadfast on this path and don't allow our mind to distract us, I can guarantee you about one thing: that without God there is no life. It's sheer misery. The mind that I've described will try and make a comfortable hell for us. It can still make this work; we can make separation work, you see. You don't have to go to God, you don't have to surrender, you can still win.

And its idea of winning is living under its oppression while trying to make it seem palatable. Is it by timing, by the wrangling of bells and whistles? Some shiny things cannot make this separation palatable because our heart is yearning for unity with God or merging into God. Trust that calling, trust that longing. It will bring you to the right guidance, that will bring you to the right light. But don't put it off for tomorrow because tomorrow we are dead. It's funny that Kabir Ji said—and I just heard in the Guru Granth Sahib also the other day—that the opportunity won't come again and again. Why would Kabir Ji say that? Why is it captured in the Guru Granth Sahib? Are they just saying it to trouble us, to pressurize us? 'Oh, the opportunity won't come again and again.' It's like a sales pitch that they have, the sages: 'Take your chance.' Is it like that? Could they be lying? They must be telling the truth.

So if the sages have told us that the opportunity will not come again and again, and this right now is our time, we must take it literally. Don't miss this chance to meet God because, like I said, after many, many, many, many, many, many lifetimes do we get a chance again. So all the stories are there. The Krishna and Narada story is there, the Lakshman and Vashistha stories are there. All the sages are portrayed in very simple ways, but we must follow in a very literal way. So when the sage tells us you must dedicate your life to God no matter what the perceived cost from the Maya, you must follow. You cannot hedge it and say, 'Okay, I'll listen to the sage half and listen to the mind half and try to get the best of both worlds.' It doesn't happen.

Lakshman didn't get off his high horse for how many lifetimes? Thousands. And the same event kept repeating like Groundhog Day. We must read these stories literally. Who is that story about? When will we let go of our pride? When will we stop thinking that I can figure this out for myself? This is how we hedge our bets, because faith seemed like a risk. If you were to risk your life on your insight that God is real and God is present, and you don't have to worry, you don't have to live under mental oppression and slavery—for some time it will seem like it is difficult, sometimes the mind's ideas of balancing it come. So either the mind's idea of balance is true, or Rahim Ji and Kabir Ji are telling us that the lane is too narrow.

So who can we believe? To save your mind, you have to follow inwardly, live in God's light. All the outer will take care of itself. Trust in God's light. Whatever remnants of the ego remain, let them be in servitude. We have the daily prayer. If you want a better metaphor, consider that what remains of the ego is a priest for the light of God in your heart, in the temple, the heart altar. So let what remains of the ego be in service to God in the heart altar. Maybe that is a bit more palatable to our minds than being the servant. The point is to dedicate our life to God's light and not become—especially not take ourselves, the ego, to be special in the process. This is the delicate part of this delivery.

And you give birth to God's presence by not making Ravana out of you. Once you are in Ravana mode, you won't listen to music, you think you know everything you can know, you're right. So can we do an authentic delivery of God's presence in your lives without letting your spiritual ego get amplified and get magnified? Because that is the trump card that the mind holds onto: the trump card of specialness, the trump card of pride. And I would not wish that life on my enemies, forget about my children—to live a life where you have to act enlightened, you have to act free. The greatest acting burden that anyone can take on. May Father's grace bless all of you the same now, see that he has treated this unworthy son by revealing himself in each of your hearts' presence. May you not be tempted by the mind's distractions and the play of pride and false humility. May you remain untouched by that. May you forever live in God's light. May you be blessed by his love and intelligence. Bless you guys.