Return to This Innocence - 14th July 2023
Saar (Essence)
Ananta describes God as the sweetest, most loving reality that is already present within us. He guides seekers to drop all mental constructs and personal notions to recognize this ever-present divine light.
God is the most loving, most intelligent, most caring being that all of us will ever meet.
The only way you will create obstacles in your own path is to get the ‘me’ involved.
Don’t try to make the life of the individual entity better; just leave it.
intimate
Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.
We are in a small tribe in the desert, no? And one of us has found a source of water which is the sweetest water that this thirsty tribe can imagine. But what is happening is that the tribe believes that the desert and the absence of water is reality. So how does this one who has come to this source of abundant, everlasting, unlimited water—how does this one bring everyone to this reality? So till we drop our notions of what is here—and the most difficult part of that seems to be to drop our notions of our own self—till we get over our notions about ourselves, the reality of this Water of Life will seem to be at best conceptual. So I can whisper it saying, 'God is here.' 'I'm lost, what about my stuff?' 'More will come.' 'But I have things to do, responsibilities.' 'He'll take care of everything, you come.' Or I can shout and say, 'Come fast! God is real! Come!' You see? But till we don't let go of that which we are holding, it will seem impossible.
So that's why along this path, if you can meet someone that we can trust, and even beyond trust we can be devoted to them, then that is greatly helpful because for such a one you will be willing to let go. Blink, let go. So this is what satsang is about. And I realize that every satsang I tell you something else that this is what satsang is about, but really this metaphor rings quite true at the moment. The other thing which is more and more staggering to me as I am sharing satsang more and more with all of you is that as we are letting go of the personal, okay, as we're letting go of the personal, then we are also treating God as if God is like a cloud or a rock or some inanimate kind of thing. But that's just not true. God is the most loving, the most intelligent, the most caring being that all of us will ever meet, and all the love and all the good things that are exhibited through our life and through the lives of others are just a gift from that one anyway.
So don't quickly go through that in the essays: 'Presence is here, but then, yes, but I am aware even of that presence, so the I becomes eminent again.' Yes, it's true that you are aware even of this presence, but take a moment and ask yourself: Who is present? Whose presence is this? There is a presence within you which most of you now cannot doubt, but is it just like a sensation? 'Oh, there's some anger within me. Oh, there's some hunger within me. There's some joy within me.' Is it just like that? When we say there's a presence within, I feel like sometimes we've just made like an emotion out of it. So this is an actual presence within you. Whose presence is that? Who is living there? And who is that 'you' within which even presence can come? Whose light is it? In the light of whom does the sun shine? Words are so inadequate for me to try and explain how more and more I am awestruck and love-struck by God's presence that is here for all of us.
How to even speak about it? How to even guide you to it? How to teach you to love it, to be devoted to it? You only have to find the smell, you know? You have to smell it in the Master. You need to catch that scent because if you just go with the words, it is only going to become conceptual. It is only going to become an understanding. Catch the fragrance of it and follow it deep within your heart. And as you follow it deep within your heart, know that your mind will try to make a very noisy room out of it. Your mind will try to make you special. The mind will try to make you scared. The mind will try to make it all about the non-existent you. It will play all of those tricks. But you have to remain dogged in your pursuit of that smell, no matter what distraction comes. Aren't we astounded by the fact that there is a presence within ourselves? God.
Actually, what happened before satsang today? They made this beautiful mint lemon drink and I was just doing this and I said, 'This is so stunning, it's so beautiful, it's so beautiful.' And then everybody was just like looking at me as if I'm a little strange. And I was really wondering whether do I really live in a different world? And there's no way whether I can confirm this, but even the slightest thing looks so beautiful and stunning. And I was just saying that, you know, the best things that are available to us are just free. I know it's a cliché, but also if you just look at here, you see, everyone can look at the same sky, okay? And the sky is beautiful at night, anytime we look up. It's astounding. What is this? What even is this? Then you look at a single plant, a single flower. It doesn't even have to be nature; it can just be a building and you can look at it and say, 'Wow, wow, what is this?'
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But what is happening is that most of us are missing this beauty of our life, and every life is surrounded by beauty, because we are spending all our time in our heads, okay? And then I was sharing that actually the ones who are meeting the world fully are not struggling to leave the world behind and look at reality. The ones who are not even meeting the world fully are the ones who are struggling. Isn't that absurd? If you've completely in pure perception of the world and I say, 'Okay, what is beyond perception?' those who are in pure perception can easily spot that 'I am aware beyond this perception. It is apparent to me that I am aware,' you see? But those who are not even meeting perception are finding it difficult to leave perception behind. That's a great absurd dichotomy of some sense. So those who are stuck in their mind are actually living a life of deep oppression, you see? The life of deep oppression. And they're neither enjoying the world and neither enjoying God.
That is why it is very important to snap out of it. Snap out of here. You'll be missing these moments, these moments. Every moment is bringing so much beauty to us. Are we living like that? Only we need special vacations and times out of where we allow ourselves to experience the beauty that is surrounding us. Now, what's even more astounding than all of this? That there is a presence that is here. And I'm speaking completely literally. Don't make a poetic, metaphorical future. 'I haven't got it yet.' None of that. No. You exist right now. Who exists? Who is that? The only presence is God's presence. There's only one being.
So the human ability to push this elephant into a tiny corner of the room and pretend that that one doesn't exist and go on leading our lives, you see, as if this one is not here, it's called Maya, you see? This is Maya. This is the Leela. He's just like, 'Let's deny the most obvious fact and try to make facts out of everything else which is going to die.' Yeah, this is the human condition. And this is what satsang is an antidote for. Most of us have been in spirituality a long time, but most of us still don't live as if God is reality, okay? We live as if 'me' is a reality and God is secondary, as long as God is helping me. So we've tried to believe this fact that God is here. Belief obviously doesn't help, especially when it's really important to hold on to that belief; it flies out the window, you see? When suffering comes, 'I believe' and God flies out the window.
So we have to meet this reality of God in a deeper way, which is more obvious than the seeming fact that I am sitting on a couch. How do we make this reality so apparent to us that it doesn't remain a question of forgetting, just dependent on our belief system? Because that is what God has been relegated to: a belief system. You talk to most of our brothers and sisters in the world, they will tell you—some will tell you, 'I do believe,' and some will tell you, 'I don't believe.' Look at what God has been relegated to in this world, you see? In that light in which the world shines, in the world that light has just become a belief system. And I rarely meet one even in the Sangha who lives as if God is real. Most of us still live as if 'me' is real and then that 'me' has some moments of relief when they come to peace in the presence. So the presence becomes a tool for the 'me' to use instead of the glaring reality that it is. This is Maya.
So till we don't break out of this cycle of avidya, which means to basically have the wrong beliefs—ignorance is nothing but having the wrong set of beliefs—it's because those wrong beliefs, they get in the way. They hypnotize us. They get in the way of recognition, realization, insight into the holy presence which is within all of us. When we come to the presence, who is primary and who is secondary? Is there a 'me' who is becoming special now because they are coming to the presence? Is such a 'me' even present in the presence? So Maya is upside-down world. In Maya, everything is upside down. What is real is taken to be unreal. What is unreal is taken to be here. What is valuable is taken to be valueless, and that which doesn't even exist is taken to be the most valuable. So all of us are in upside-down world and we must first accept that fact, that this is something, upside-down world. So this to accept first, so that we don't try to squeeze God into our existing constructs of right and wrong and true and false. We must be willing to let go of the whole mental construct of everything. Everything has to go.
Everyone's together in this now. So whatever I said, I've just said basically that God is real. We are in denial of that fact. That denial is only possible because we have mental constructs which seem to block us from the true meeting with God. That's fundamentally everything that I've said. So to be empty of these mental constructs is what is needed to meet the reality of life, reality of God's light. How many of us are still trying to squeeze God into our ideas or get God to conform to our ideas? 'How can God be like this? I can't believe in a God who's like this,' you see? So we made ourselves God and then we are asking God to be a certain way so that then God is worthy of our beliefs. So let go of all of these belief systems. Let go of even the idea that God's job is to help you. Know first that you don't know anything at all. You don't know anything at all. In this, at this point, your mind will resist with all its might because it's invested all this time and effort in making you somebody, something special, telling you that you know a lot, you deserve some things, you're entitled to things. All of that has to go to come through this recognition of God's presence, to come to Atma darshan. All this has to go.
And quite literally, please take this fully literally: you cannot know anything. Stand them over and do everything that you think you know. Tell me something true. Tell me something true. You don't know a single thing. Not even that you don't know a single thing. And if the mind is troubling you saying, 'But this is foolish, I can't be so foolish, I must know at least something,' then I'll give you a better word which you have to forget soon after I give it to you. This is not foolishness; this is innocence. So return to this innocence. Empty of knowing. Let's put our hands up. Empty of knowing. Some are saying, 'I don't know whether I'm empty of knowing.' So don't even know that I don't know. Don't know anything. Even that you don't know. Just empty. Who's scared of letting something go? Kind of just let it go. It's this what we're holding onto is like the seventh son of the seventh wife of one who never got married. It's as important as that one. Just let it go. That is not true. It is not meaningful. It is not relevant. Anything that gets in the way of your discovery of what is real is avidya, is untruth, is ignorance. Just let it go. All your ideas about how life should be, could have been, will be, or would be—they have to all go. Remain fully empty. Empty of everything. To be empty like this, that is our only chance. That is our only chance. This is how you clear the lane for God to become apparent.
Just let it go. That is not true. It is not meaningful. It is not relevant. Anything that gets in the way of your discovery of what is real, his avidya is untruth, his ignorance. Just let it go. All your ideas about how life should be, could have been, will be, or would be—they have to all go. Remain fully empty, in empty of everything. Empty like this, that is our only chance. That is our only chance. This is how you clear the lane for God to become apparent.
The mind will conclude one out of two things. It could conclude, if the conclusion already is that I am empty, it could conclude that I am empty but I don't find God. That can be the first conclusion. And the second could be that I am empty and here it is, the presence is right here. Remain empty of either of these positions because either way, all that you can do now is to continue to remain empty.
Living a true life, living in the way of the heart, because as you make this space for God, you will find that life is being run from your heart, not from your head. This is to live in God's will. As we continue to remain empty and let the presence guide everything in the world, including the movements of this body, there may come a point that the heart starts speaking through your mouth all for you. And even when it is speaking through your mouth, it is also for you.
Those who live like this, we call them free. Those whose heart is speaking in this way through their mouth, we call them a sage or a guru or a mystic. It is a sheer absence of the limited selves. So now the mind is tempting some of you with thoughts of self-concern: 'What's happening to me? Am I getting this? Can I live like this? Is it working for me? What is this energy that is coming to me?' Leave all of that behind. Nothing else is meaningful, relevant, important.
Because the slightest speck of egotism here will block, will seem to block everything. Don't get involved in any story. Don't know what anything means. Remain empty no matter what the temptation is. This is your ticket out of life which is hell. So we have to stop now trying to beautify hell and get out of there. Don't try to make the life of the individual non-existent entity better and better. Just leave it.
Hell is nothing but the idea of separation. Once you get used to the taste of living in God's light and you notice that a moment of egotism will taste like such a disconnection that you realize why I'm using the word hell for it. You've been trying to give God a room in your house, but now you have to hand over everything. And God wants the whole universe. You thought God was a support mechanism for when you're in trouble; you missed the fact that God is the only living reality.
And remember that you will let it go only midway. You will let it go only midway. The mind will tell you, 'No, no, just a little bit more and we'll complete this project, then we go to God together, we'll go.' Its promises of all that tomorrow is never coming. Matter is urgent and important. There is no time to waste. Whatever the temptation may be, get over yourselves and let it go. This voice is only calling you home from within. Don't let a single notion of 'me' anywhere close to your house now. Let the house only be for God.
It's not a state that you're going into. This is the most natural way of life. This is to live in the darshan of the Atma within. Let's see. So like this, our life becomes fragrant with God's light. And as your life becomes fragrant with God's light alone, then your life also becomes a temple for others to come and find that region. We want to all help our brothers and sisters in this apparent world. The manifest cannot help unless we are empty, unless we are living in God's light. And as you live in God's light, you will receive guidance on how to help.
Only those who follow God's will can be the true teachers of God. Only those who can seem to do it for the love of God, for God himself, not for any selfishness, can truly bring the brothers and sisters to God. It's the most organic, most natural way to live. Carry a big sword for doubt. Any notion that now starts with 'but,' just chop it away. They spend enough time. Everything has been explained. Now is the time for letting go with all your might. Escape this cave of darkness, live in God's light.
Remember, you don't have to finish any story. Nothing has to wait for resolution, no justice or anything like that. Just drop it all. Hand it over to God. If you have an iota of faith in your master, you will do this with all your might, everything at your disposal, or you will make it apparent that your allegiance lies with the non-existent. Meaning, now is the time.
May this group that is listening to satsang today, may Grace bless them the highest blessing. When temptation comes, may it hold no power. And even if we are swayed by it, may it be only for a moment. May we never have to let go of God for any proposal from the mind. May all of us, in fact all that come into our presence, be filled with this love and light. May our lives only be for God alone.
Thank you. There is something. There is a lot of pride coming concerning sexuality and my relationships to men. And I feel that I'm constantly overlooking something, that I always need help from outside, that I'm not able to let go. Yeah.
So is the question, 'How do I become free from this pride?'
I'm still identified with this situation. It's like I can't observe.
Okay, let's see now. Let's do a practical examination of this, not a theoretical one. So just open your eyes and look at me now. Your job is simple. When I count to three, at that moment of three, you have to be identified. Okay? One, two, three. Are you identified?
No.
In this moment, if you're not identified, did we do any magic? Did we do any tricks? No. You're naturally not identified, but your mind is reporting that you are. Is it so? Who should we trust?
There is the feeling of fear. After this, there is emptiness and then fear comes.
Yes, but when we said don't know anything, don't know the label for what comes also. Without the label 'fear,' what is it?
A feeling.
Without the label 'feeling,' what is it then?
Sensation.
Sensation is also a label. And without the label, who is getting affected by this?
No one.
You see? So our conceptual knowledge is basically pride. Because what does one need to know when God is truly present, you see? So pride means the denial of God in a supremacy of the limited one. But it's a premise. See, we give supremacy to the 'me' rather than to God. And in that supremacy being given to 'me,' then this 'me' has to know things. And to know things, we need labels, you see. Empty of this kind of conceptual knowing, tell me what is the trouble?
But fundamentally, what we have to throw out today is the self-concern. Self-concern means: 'Is God here or no? Is God here?' And if God is here, then what else is important? You see? So this is what I mean by saying that—and I'm not saying this is a job, I'm just saying this as a way to look—but this is what I mean when I say that our self-concern becomes the way in which we get into a denial of God's reality. Now we are reporting that God is here. And if God is here, what do we have to fix or understand or know?
So we still categorize it. Although we may keep saying God is real, God is here, we still find a way to put that in the background and the 'me' comes in the foreground saying, 'Yes, yes, God is here, but you know, what about me?' Okay? So I'm just pointing you to the temptation from the mind to still fix it for 'me.' Whereas you have come, you are coming to the greatest discovery possible in the human condition. Because it is easier to discover the most ancient treasures of the world; you may make the most difficult scientific discoveries, but to come to a true darshan of God and to come to an opportunity to live in God is very rare.
And the only way now that you will create obstacles in your own path is to get the 'me' involved. So let anything happen to 'me,' you stay with God. If one kilogram of fear is coming, let a million kilograms of fear come. You don't have to fix, you don't have to solve. You have only one job, which is to be empty of yourselves and full of God together.
There is still pride coming.
Just because something comes doesn't make it yours. You see the simple thing? Just because something presents itself doesn't make it yours. To make it yours, you have to claim it. You have to believe it. If you just spot that single trick—have you done the other day?—just one single trick like that. Otherwise, we will just continue to be sightseers, just looking at what is coming, and then by virtue of its coming, we make a claim that it is mine. But it is not yours if you allow it to come and go. Is every bag on the airport conveyor belt yours?
Sometimes it seems like this, that I'm always in this.
How do you make it yours? How do you make the bag yours, the one that you think is yours? How do you make it yours? No, in the airport, how do you make it yours?
I have to take it.
You label it. You say it is mine. You have your name somewhere. You have your things in it, you see. So that literally is baggage. Let go of all your baggage. Nothing is yours. Everything will appear, present itself, but because it presents itself, you still have the ability to not make it yours. You see? The airline attendant may come and say, 'Madam, this is yours because it has your name on it.' You can still say, 'No, that must be another person. I don't know.' Nothing can force you to make something that you don't want yours. Is it?
Yeah. Thank you. Very good.
I think okay, thank you. Because this is the key, you see. Otherwise, the mind will always represent these things. The mind is always full of pride and self-concern and nonsense like that, you see. So if by its presentation we are stuck, then there's no way out of this. But you're not stuck, you see. Just stand with your hands folded, let everything come and go. That's it. If by mistake you pick up something, don't think more about why you picked it up, 'I should not have picked it up.' Don't become proud about picking up stuff. Just throw it. Thank you. In God's light, all this will come very easy. Make it about God. Okay, let's go to Zen Peter.
Hello Father, can you hear me? I just want to say what you said before and your words, it's so obvious that there's not the slightest doubt and there's not even a proposal from the mind coming. And still, what resonated very much—it was in last Wednesday satsang when you talked with the Atma—was the thing about the battleground, and then that there's only one battleground and this battleground is about believing the next thought. And this resonated very much because this battleground is always here somehow. At the moment, it's like I'm often lying awake at night and this is also there, there is always the opportunity for the mind to try to come up with all kinds of proposals.
But what has changed is that this battleground is somehow welcomed because the borderline between the temptation of the mind and the heart is seen so much more clear. And it's also so clear that nothing can force the heart to go through those temptations. And so this is somehow strange because mind is coming, but when it's coming, it's sometimes even welcomed. There's no fear anymore that this is overwhelming also. This has a little bit changed and this is beautiful.
Yes, so this is the key. That there is only one way to be in denial of the reality of God and to live as if God's presence is not apparent to us, and that way is to be under the hypnosis of belief in a thought, you see. The hypnosis of belief.
It is coming, but when it's coming, it's sometimes even welcomed. There's no fear anymore. This is overwhelming also; this has a little bit changed and this is beautiful.
Yes, yes. So this is the key: that there is only one way to be in denial of the reality of God and to live as if God's presence is not apparent to us, and that way is to be under the hypnosis of belief in a thought, you see. The hypnosis of belief, not the hypnosis of just attention. So that doesn't hypnotize us. When we buy into the notion, then we live as if 'me' is real and God is not. So that is the molecular level at which the battle is happening, okay? Because we can all say that my life is for God now, I surrender to the Master fully—all of these things we can say. But if we don't win that molecular battle, you see, then the infection of the false is still spreading, you see. So the disinfection happens at that level where thought presents itself and you let it go. It's as simple as that, you see. That is the antibiotics: just let it go. Yeah, you see? Because unless we are doing that, everything else that we are claiming is all rubbish. Other claims about our life being for God, all of that is rubbish because in moment to moment we are denying God through falling for the hypnosis of a thought. Yes, you see? So it's very important for all of us in spirituality to recognize the true battleground where this battle is being fought. So this is very, very good. I'm very happy to hear this.
Yes. I cannot say that there is no hypnosis, but the hypnosis—it's like it's seen that an involvement is happening or the hypnosis is somehow grabbing, but it's somehow more seen. And yes, in the battle, this borderline and the battleground, it's seen more clearly and therefore it's easier to just step back into the heart and into the emptiness. And sometimes the Jesus prayer helps, and sometimes it's just—it's always something different. It's not always, but it's often something different that's helpful. Sometimes it's just the breath, sometimes it's Ram Ram, and sometimes it's the prayer, but it comes very naturally, what is helpful, the tool.
Yeah, this is very nice. So if you were to extend the metaphor a little bit—and remember that it's just a metaphor—but to be rid of the enemy in the battleground is to remain empty. You remain empty now. All the tools that you need for battle are now with you. You see, we've co-opted everything that could be in service to God now without condition. Samadhi. So you use the breath, you use your prayer, you use unconditional love, you use presence; everything is now available to you to let go of the temptation which the thought is offering you. And you can seek refuge in any of these. Any of these are good enough to seek refuge in to remain open and empty truly, and not allow the mind to convince you of your limitation, of your separation. So this is very good.
The second point I wanted to say is here, sometimes when sleep does not come at night, then except that the body is a bit tired, I actually enjoy those times a lot because it's win-win. In deep sleep, I'm very intimately with unperceivable God, and in waking state, I'm very intermittently in communion with the presence of God. So whether sleep comes or not, it's all right.
Let me see. So don't have to necessarily force sleep to come, because when we force sleep to come, then more it runs away from us. Just say, 'Okay, Mr. Mind, go on with your business. I am happy to be in God's presence.' He's in a corner before, right? It's okay, it's okay.
Yeah, it's a bit—I'm not awake at night, it's a bit like, okay, battlegrounds.
Yes, yes. Very good, very good. All my love, all my blessings.
Thank you so much, Father. Love you so much.
Okay, let's go to Arum.
Namaste, Father. Well, I hear you. You said today that there's nothing to know, and I know, but still somehow some confusion is here. I want to clear it because last Friday I couldn't attend this satsang, but I listened and released on it on YouTube. And I can follow you, I think I feel I can follow you, but sometimes when I try to understand, and the last confusion which came up—I don't know what is being and what is presence. I see, I see. It's like maybe I just—mind kicks in and I'm—I just don't know.
It's good. This is a good one. Do I have to know? Let's see, let's see what happens. Let me try to shed some light on it and then let's see, because this is not one of those confusions where it is like a battle of concepts. And sometimes, you see, firstly I'll say that if it was about something that is said in satsang, then I would say that even if I was to listen to my own satsang, I am sure I would end up very confused. This is so because every concept is used; sometimes opposites are used. Sometimes you have to steer this way, sometimes you have to steer that way. So you know that it is not possible to create a coherent, linear, logical framework for what is being said in satsang, and it is more important to grab the fragrance which the Master carries and try to meet that freedom through the words that are being spoken. So that is firstly. But this confusion, I feel like, is very, very good because it is an invitation to shed light on something which is only possible to meet intuitively. And I'm always up for these invitations to try and guide you to that insight which you can have intuitively. So let's start. Do you notice the presence of God or your presence in this moment?
Yes, yes, yes. I am present.
Very good. So this noticing, can you shed some light on it? What are you noticing? What is being noticed?
It's like a pulsation.
Perfect. So I like to use the term—and it's very popular in Indian spirituality—to call this the primordial vibration. This primordial vibration is what you are noticing now. Can a vibration be noticed everywhere?
I'm not sure.
Not sure. Very good. So what will happen is that although this—so this is where we might only intuitively—although this primordial being is everywhere, its presence is experienced like the hand of God or the tip of the iceberg, as I've been calling it, so that we have a chance, being attached to name and form, to still be able to come to God. So this presence, the primordial vibration that is arising out of your presence—and if I was to ask you intuitively, can you tell me whether this presence has a boundary or this being has a boundary?
No.
So that answer came instantly because you know in your heart that it doesn't have a boundary. And yet the meeting of the vibration, you see, is a meeting which you may say its core is in my heart, or I just feel it somewhere in my head or in my forehead or something like that. You may say like that. This, although it is not in the body, we are able to localize the core of the primordial vibration. We call this the presence. This is the presence of being, you see. Now the being itself is recognized as being unlimited. Now that which is unlimited we can never grab with our attention, you see, because our attention itself is limited. Everyone's able to follow? This is very subtle and I'm happy to repeat it a few times if it is needed. So all of us are noticing the Atma. You may say, 'Ah, it's here, you know, it's here. Oh, this presence is here.' And if I say, 'What is the boundary of this being?' you say there is no boundary. In fact, to put it in space would be silly; it is beyond space. But this you can never get in a worldly way. You can never get it through your attention, through perceptions, through imagination. You cannot meet it, but instantly, intuitively, you have this insight that it is boundless, okay? So although God's presence is met through God's vibration, the primordial I-am-ness, the Atma itself, but the Paramatma, the greater reality of God where Atma arises from, that is known purely intuitively in the light of this presence. Because otherwise you would just be speculating that this being is unlimited, because we have no tool. With attention, we can never meet something that is unlimited. So this is the beauty of this presence: that it is at the cusp of the subtlest perception and being unperceivable, you see. It is the immaculate conception in a way, that it itself does not have any manifest origin. It is both manifest and unmanifest, and we can meet the subtlest manifest aspect of it as the holy presence within ourselves. But in the light of this presence, we recognize that where this presence originates from is unlimited in nature. And that is the intuitive realization which a saint thousands of years back has—the same realization as you are having in this moment. So it's very, very subtle realms of spirituality, and as we are blessed by being empty of the mind, we can even meet and have these conversations. What's your sense now? You got a taste of it?
Yes, yes. Now, and like I have got the taste of it earlier, but so this is presence what I'm tasting now.
What you're tasting now. And the being whose presence this is, is that limited or unlimited?
No, it's not limited.
Not limited. Where do you know that? Have you—are you perceiving that? Are you happy? No, this is unlimited, isn't it? You cannot perceive that which is unlimited, and neither can we think about it. Our mind does not have the capacity to contemplate the unlimited. So that is the presence itself. There's a Guru presence. That is why it is called the Satguru presence. When you come to your presence, you recognize the unfathomable nature of God which is beyond perception. That is why it is the same one is also called Holy Spirit. So all have recognized throughout the ages that in the light of this presence can the truth of God be recognized. Arum, your eyes are telling me that you're not speculating; you're truly meeting this. This is very good. Okay, let's go to Sharath.
Thank you, thank you, Master.
Yeah, you're welcome.
So this is very good. Question vanished. We don't know what to ask. In the absence of the question, in the absence of the intellect, what remains? How silent silence is this, Master? And who is perceiving the silence? I don't know if there is not—not nothing, something is not there. Even I cannot say it's nothing. Something, yes, yes, beingness. Beingness or core of myself, something which is not beyond the words.
Very good, very good. Now, it is not possible—if you were in the hypnosis of the question, it is not possible to have the insight that you're having now. You can try it. Try to get involved with some thoughts on the mind, some judgment from the intellect, some invitation from the intellect to try and understand something. But in any of those, the insight into the beingness which is perceiving the silent intellect, or that it is aware even of being—this insight would not be possible. So it is more important to remain in this insight even if the intellect feels like it is confused, not making progress, getting stuck—all of these things. Just let them go. Don't worry about any of that. And you remain empty like this. In this emptiness, all that has to flower is going to naturally flower. But if you don't keep the field empty, then the flowering cannot happen, right? Thank you, thank you. Very welcome always. Let's go to Sriram.
Hello, hello. I'm just failed to come up. Didn't come up for a long time.
Yes, yeah, good, good. You're here. Very welcome. What is your sense of what has been shared so far in satsang today? Were you able to join earlier or you just joined?
Yeah, I joined, I joined. I joined Wednesday as well and Peter was talking about that battleground. Somehow it was here, here as you said about your son and then he never says no, he says tomorrow. Yeah, something good.
Yes. So if we postpone letting go of the mind, we postpone the living in God's light, and under the mind's hypnosis we...
You're here, very welcome. What is your sense of what has been shared so far in satsang today? Were you able to join earlier or you just joined?
Yeah, I joined. I joined Wednesday as well. And Peter was talking about that battleground. Somehow it was here, as you said about your son and then he never says no, he says tomorrow. Something like this. Yes.
So if we postpone, let him go off to my end. We postpone the living in God's light, and under the mind's hypnosis, we don't realize that there is nothing more important than that. Nothing is worth exchanging living in God's holy presence with some idea about what I have to do and what I like and what I don't like. Mostly we don't even remember after a few minutes what we got involved with. It's all gone. My guruji says, no? What is your problem three problems ago? You don't know. So it's just mind's postponing tactics. So I'm not sure if I have some question or something. Sorry, I wanted to say. So just intuitively in your heart, do you have a sense that you are spending your life mostly empty and in God's light, or is the mind really playing havoc?
I feel that this is the most important and kind of a lot of what's happening, small habits reappeared and something like this, like that, but become the goal. And this somehow, their weights or something like this just shows itself.
Yes, yes. So this is beautiful because this is as far as any instruction, any pointing can take us. As we remain empty, then this grace works upon us. Our life in God's life is very good.
Because it happened, what we kind of, John was suffering a lot and we found some teacher in UK and we went to visit him and we just sit with him and meditate like that. His main way was, he's like very old now, like 86 or something, but his way is Jesus prayer, the main thing. And then he suggested me, I kind of rejected that because I didn't... and when you came up with that, he's getting you from all sides.
Yeah, yes. It is very, very important. Very important because I never used mantra or breath or anything, just guidance and you know, things. Yes, that's why I've been saying that actually to remain open and empty is the easiest. That is the easiest and the simplest. But because it is so difficult, I had to give the Atma darshan samadhi as well. Because I tried, I said that I don't know somehow, so that's in our partner, I guess. Yes, yes, that can push the button. Hopefully you are expecting that now, what that is. And with the way I have made the construct, or I have explained the construct of sin, I feel like all of us will admit that we have sinned in that way at least. When we pick our own mental understanding over God's guidance, when we want to do things our own way over waiting for the presence to move this life, when we decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong without God's light making it a parliament, then that is the error which for a long time in so many traditions is referred to as sin. So I feel very, very comfortable that even now there are moments where I want to do things on my own terms rather than following God's will. So I'm not comfortable with that; I'm comfortable with acknowledging that fact that that is true and it continues to happen here. So in that way, definitely I am a sinner. And also noticed that because it is pushing this button, okay, because it is pushing this button where apparently all of us are so open and empty, but this mere word can just trigger so much. So that is my second feeling, to leave it there so that we never get into any pride, you see? So it's a beautiful invitation to humility. And yes, I am spotting pride here as I noticed. As I get deeper in God's light, I notice the areas where I may still get stuck in some pride about something. So yes, I am a sinner. Is it?
Yes, but I can understand. Like in all the prayers we had at home and things like that, there was one word which I hated. I said in Hindi, and Papi is not the Italian puppy, okay? This is in... and I always hated that word. I'm not a Papi, I'm not a sinner. But now that it's been made apparent to me what this error is, what this sin is, I have to admit that it's here.
It's very good. That which pushes the buttons is usually very helpful to us anyway.
It's interesting how it seems nothing is almost affecting and touching and like that, and then you ask, so let's like expose like or something what it is, show me, and then shows. No, no, no, no, same. Just a three-letter word is made of dance so many of us.
So this is what I mean, that we can keep spotting our pride as we keep looking openly that we still know things. You still know things in spite of God's presence. So we could keep going like this. It's very good. Thank you for this episode of water. Come on. This is what the thing was saying about the giant. The giant has all this log of who has joining together. There must be a setting. We'll look at that. Let's go to Liam.
Yeah, my stepfather. Yeah, thank you so much. Um, yeah, just some kind of impulse to come up came. It's not really clear what I want to ring or share. Just like this last satsang, like your pointings and your guidance, but feels like really a clear... there's a very clear recognition of this presence. And somehow a maybe like a very beginner's question come up, but I just want to put it here. Like it's a test. What remains to do? Like if anything like that remains, like something like to be free? Well, something like that, you know, like let's see.
Okay, so you're saying, correct me if I'm not understood properly, so you're saying are there any blind spots that I feel you may have because the presence is apparent to you? So what is left for you to transcend or overcome or find? Is that the question?
Yes. And somehow like when I speak, I don't want to put it like something like me and presence, because that isn't really like the sense. But it would be like just to keep with it, to stay with it, or just like, yeah, what would be like the instruction? Instruction in a way, like yes, right here.
So yeah, that's a good question. So yes, to just stay with it. And I can tell you that I don't say this trivially, that every day when I wake up in the morning, I just feel so awestruck that God's presence is apparent. And I just feel like I'm such a child, a novice, a beginner on this path, and yet grace has blessed me so beautifully that God is met here, is felt here. So I don't feel like any of us can ever, or at least I cannot ever say that I have come to the end of this. Like guruji says, it just gets sweeter and sweeter. Yes, just stay with this. Don't get into any sort of pride that I know this, I've done this, then that will become just dust in your eyes. So just with as much humility, as much head bowed down and gratitude to God for making this possible.
You've been saying like this is moment to moment, no? And I feel that resonates very much. Like honoring this moment to moment and that this battle we were speaking about is like a moment to moment, no? It comes also like at the first part of the satsang when you were guiding us and like pulling us inside. Presence feels so beautiful and powerful. Then maybe like with questions and speaking, like here attention goes a bit outwards and there is maybe the notion like when you guide us inwards, it feels like the most beautiful thing, you know? And there's the notion like there's nothing in the world that can bring you know that story. But maybe there's the notion like, I don't know if I can live like that, you know, in the world so to speak. Yes, like but I don't know.
Yes, I hear you. I hear the question. So that is why moment to moment comes in helpful. So we don't know whether we can live like this forever. Nobody knows. But what do we have? We have this moment now. This moment, would I rather live it in the mind's darkness and separation and limitation, or would I rather live it in God's light, in God's life? Now, at this moment, how would I rather live it? So that's what moment to moment, thought by thought, is what I'm trying to convey. So we don't have to worry about the permanency or whether we can really live like that always. Don't have to worry about that. But just now, this is where the battle is. God is here, but the mind is offering us something for me. I have the power to let it go. I can realize at what point we got disconnected, but I would be saying that this is the point of value. This is the only moment that matters, okay, which is right now. God's presence is alive. By guruji's grace, it is apparent. And the mind can come with its offers, temptation to make a better me, something special in the me. But all of us have the power to let it come and let it go and to remain in God. So we don't know what it will be like tomorrow. I don't know what it'll be like here tomorrow. I just know that in this moment, it seems like the most obvious choice to let go of this limiting voice, to let go of this whisperer of darkness. Sorry if it's something too dramatic, but it just seems like that is like that. And just to remain in the ease, the holiness of God's presence doesn't seem like at all a difficult choice. So this is the prayer, this is the feeling, that may God always keep us in his presence, in his light, because we can't really predict. None of us can. Very good. Always welcome. Thank you. Very good. Right, okay. Let's go to Kamu. Kamu's phone. Namaste, Father.
Namaste.
Father, I just want to ask, even when my attention goes to the sound of the birds when I'm walking, then the attention goes on the thoughts, then the thoughts also go, then I am blank for certain time, then again the thoughts come. So is this living with the presence or am I living in the mind? I cannot understand.
Yes, if you're only using attention, you see. So attention goes on the sound of the bird, attention goes on the mind, attention goes on some visual perception, all the senses. Then you are not living in the mind, you are living still in the presence because this is what I call pure perception. Pure perception means uncontaminated by belief in the mind. So just by mere attention, okay, there is no trouble. Everything can come and everything can go. Like the Zen master said, no? They said, now open your front door and back door, thoughts are like visitors, let them come and go, but don't serve them tea. You see? Now with your attention, you notice they're coming and going, isn't it? But to serve them, we do give them belief to identify. So as long as you're not doing that, you're fine, completely fine.
Sometimes it does happen, okay, I go in the mind, then again the awareness is there.
Yes, if it happens, this will happen and it happens for everyone, that some belief is given sometimes to the mind. But you'll notice that that becomes just momentary and that reduces more and more. You're living in the heart so much, you're living in God's light so much that you're not giving so much importance, value, meaning to the thought anymore. But momentarily, even for sages it has happened and they have reported that, you see? So don't aim for a hundred percent. Just have to worry about this moment, this moment, this moment.
Father, one more question. Actually, I hear all sounds now, then those songs go on repeating in my mind and I'm hearing that. I can witness that this is all going on and going on. Sometimes they go off, but sometimes they trouble me also. I don't understand.
Songs are you hearing? Yeah, they go on repeating in mind like bhajans, any song, old songs, anything. So what happens is that like the kids say these days, they keep playing on loop inwardly also. And your question is whether they're a problem. No, not really. Sometimes they...
I hear all sounds now, then those songs go on repeating in my mind and I'm hearing that. I can witness that this is all going on and going on. Sometimes they go off, but sometimes they trouble me also. I don't understand. Songs are you hearing? Yeah, they go on repeating in the mind like bhajans, any song, old songs, anything.
So what happens is that, like the kids say these days, they keep playing on loop inwardly also. And your question is whether they're a problem?
No, not really. Sometimes they are a problem because I want to get rid of them, but when I just leave them, then they go off. Yes, but this is happening very often with me.
Yes. As long as you're just hearing it, just in your attention mildly, and you're not getting into any story of yourself saying, 'Oh, when this song came out, then I was in college and I used to love it so much,' and you're not building the persona using this, then there's no trouble. You don't have to worry.
No, nothing like that. Very good. Only hearing. Thank you, Father. Thank you.
Okay, last one is Beatrice.
Namaste. I had no idea to go to him, to know him, and I was going to massage. The last two weeks I was with them, I see, let's see. And he told me that if I want to be like his student, I have to leave you and Mooji also. But I don't want to leave you and I don't want to leave. What do you think? So I tell him that I'm not going to follow him or something. He gives me, he gives me many things. He offered me many things.
After you said that you don't want to leave satsang with Guruji, then what? What did you say after that?
He gives me many things and his Sangha also asked him, very careful of her, taking care of me very much. And I am so happy to be with you, but he gives me also doubts now.
This is that old example. What is that example? So I'm going to give you something, you don't take it. Can I give it to you without you taking it? Take this phone. I'm giving it to you; you don't take it. Can anyone give you? So nobody can give you doubts; you have to take them.
I'm since I've been there, I'm like trying to see clearly.
I'll tell you how to doubt. Okay, let's change this around. Okay, so suppose I was going to a master, a new master, no? And because there is so much trouble in the world where there's so much exploitation and all these things, then we have to be careful when we have to go to a master. So we must doubt fully. We must doubtfully find out if he is exploiting us in any way. If he is exploiting monetarily, physically, mentally, find out everything whether there is any of that happening. But once you've done that, and do that for weeks, one month, two months, do full due diligence—I don't know if there's a Spanish word for due diligence—but full exploration and find out really what you feel, what you find, everything. But after that you've done that, then you have to let go. Then you surrender. Okay? Because if you keep that seed of doubt alive, then it will keep popping up just when the master says, 'Let go of yourself,' you see? 'Let go of yourselves.' 'Am I really devoted to him?' You see, all the doubt will come. Okay? So first, if you want, start fresh. Start with full doubt for the next two months. You doubt everything. What does he want? Ask students who've come here for twelve years, you see? What does he want? Is he fooling us? Has he taken something from us?
This has been doing these two weeks that I was with him. I was pulling scene, you know, because for me it was so strange that he asked me to do this, that yeah, I just...
That is very natural. In most masters you go to, they will tell you that if you want to follow them, you must leave everyone else. It is not uncommon. Even in India, most masters will say that you cannot follow two masters at the same time. And I understand that also because what is being asked of the disciple is that they let go of their ego completely. And that letting go of the ego completely requires a lot of devotion to the master. And if you're confused about, 'Oh, who's my master?' then that seems quite difficult to do. So I understand where it is coming from. But for all of you, I have told you that you can feel free. Go wherever you want as long as when you meet the master, you truly come to your heart, you truly come to God's presence. Okay? Then it is fine to go to that master, to be open and empty. It's completely fine. That is true satsang: to come to God's presence within you. And all external masters are just servants or instruments of that presence of God. So, and I maybe I treat you all much more like grown-ups, so I tell you that it's okay. Go. Go find out what your heart feels about. Yeah, no, I'm not sending you. I'm just saying that I am saying that you can go and try out. You can go and experiment and see where you meet God's presence the most. And if you go there and you feel like, 'Yes, it is here that I feel God's presence the most,' and you're not visualizing, you're not imagining, you're not falling for any sort of perceptual tricks, and your heart truly—you can smell and you can confirm that yes, this is where God's light is most apparent—then that, and if that master says you must leave all other masters and stay with me, then you have my blessing for that. For any of you, you have my blessing for that. Because there's nothing so great about Ananta. He's just one of the—it's called in India like a small minor, you see? I don't have any delusion of grandeur that I am some great master or teacher or something like that.
So if you follow, I've been with this master two weeks and I really see that you and Guruji, you show me that I am not the person and you have shown me God truly. It's not fantasy or something. I don't have to live my doubt and go to live with anyone or anything.
If this is clear to you, then what is the trouble?
Because he made me choose. And now that I tell him that I'm not going to go to him, he is telling me that I'm like I'm not going to wake up, you know?
And this you cannot wake up better? Yeah, God is never that ordinary, limited himself in that way. He has kept only one instrument for us to wake up?
Yes, I see this is not a fantasy. I truly live in the mind, living, don't stand in the right. And even when I was there, so many, many attacks from the mind was coming and you helped me so much and also Guruji to stay in the heart. So physically notable, I needed to tell you.
Okay, very good. I'm glad you told me that. Yeah, thank you. I'll see you next week. Okay. Okay, good morning. Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Thank you. What I was saying the other day, that this can go on forever because I can't not wave back. If any of you waves, I have to wave back. Then because I wave, then you wave back. This could go on for a few weeks actually. Something, oh yeah.