Right and Wrong, Pleasure and Pain (Ashtavakra Gita 1.6) - 7th October 2016

Verse number six. Ashtavakra says: 'Right and wrong, pleasure and pain exist in mind only. They are not your concern. You neither do nor enjoy. You are free.' So this is... maybe your question? 'You neither do nor enjoy.' What is this 'one' referring to? The non-existent one? 'Not your concern' implies that the same thing... you don't even exist. How could any of this be your concern? Because you neither do nor enjoy. Same thing what we said: 'Tum karta, tum bhogta.' You are the doer and you are the enjoyer. And you're here... whether it means to experience right and wrong, of course, which are just interpretations. Pleasure and pain... sometimes also in satsang we bundle up not only the energy constructs of thoughts but also similar energy constructs like emotions, like the sensations. Pleasure and pain, we bundle all of that up sometimes and we say all of that is the mind, referring to that definition of the mind.

So without right and wrong, all our stories lose their power, isn't it? All our judgments, all our difficulties. And many of us have explored this need to be right. It seems to be a very, very primal need of this mythical separate identity. Need to be right. Why? Because its only job has been to prove its what? Existence. When it actually doesn't exist, it needs to be proven right. 'I do exist. I am a person. What do you mean?' So it's used to this, the need to be right. Often it is said: 'Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?' And very often in this worldly play, they are on opposing sides. And many times we choose this false sense of self-righteousness over very natural happiness.

So all this bundle of concepts that we collected about ourselves, then we want to protect them through our need to be right. Our refusal to throw them out is our hanging on to the idea that they must be right. 'I have collected them for a reason.' It's just like saying that suppose you were building a house brick by brick. Over fifty years you built this house brick by brick. Then someone comes and says that, you know, there's going to be a road coming over this house, so you just have to give it up. Even if you can afford it, because so much investment has gone into the building of this one, you want to give it some hope, you see? Because so much investment has gone into the 'cat' identity, we want to at least give it a decent burial. So, 'At least give me something. Give me a halo. Give me some bliss. At least something. May I be considered an enlightened person?'

There is no such thing as an enlightened person. You want to... if you want to be an enlightened cat, then lifetime after lifetime you will have the same conversation in different halls, in different assumptions, in different physical forms. It will not make it. You play this role over and over again because nobody can make an enlightened person out of you. Freedom is from the person. And as God, actually, we are entitled to this play. Sign the million lifetimes. It is nothing for the infinite. For the eternal, what is a million lifetimes? The blink of an eyelid.