Satsang Highlights 2014 - 2024 (Long Version)

Actually, if I consider myself an object, then other objects would be important to me. Of course, if I am just this body, you see, then this body is dependent on so many things, on where I live. If I were just this body, then all of these things become more and more important. But am I an object? Am I an object? And if I'm not an object, then what importance do objects have for that which is not an object? Right now, you are just 'I am.' Existence is uncolored. But you also have the power to pick up this notion, this concept about yourself: 'I am something.' So if you allow this to just all notions to come and go... some of you have not heard online also, I see some new people are here, some of you have not heard this example from me. This restaurant called Yo! Sushi. Some of you have seen it. This restaurant Yo! Sushi, they have all these dishes that come one after the other on a conveyor belt. So you are sitting at your table and there's a conveyor belt running upstream and all these dishes are color-coded. So these offerings are coming. Mind is offering these notions. Being is here. Being is saying, 'I want to pick up this and taste it for the play of individuality.' Now we are done with the stuffing ourselves with this, then we get tired of it. Like, 'I have the red one, it's really sweet. That one is good. I have the blue one.' Education, relationship, money, security—all of these dishes are offerings from the mind. All of them come with the offer that you are something. Nothing wants to feed Consciousness. Consciousness is already all there is.

So what to do? As these dishes are coming and going, just don't pick them up. If you pick them up, what to do? Nothing. Don't pick up the next one. So for sometime, if you just don't look at the auxiliary questions—why, what, when, where—look at one main question, which is 'Who?' That which is central to us becomes clear. And if we are unable to ask 'Who?', we can surrender all ideas, all the W's. Surrender to God or the Master, whatever you feel like is closest to the truth in your existence. I was telling someone the other day that you can either be Frank Sinatra or you can have a Master. Frank is 'I did it my way.' You can either have 'my way' or you can have a Master. There is no point really in saying that someone is your Master but then you trust your mind more than anything else. Mind has one function, which is to say that you are separate. Mind likes to divide up things into compartments. The intuitive presence is the voice of unity, is the voice of inclusion, not excluding any. The voice of acceptance, the dropping of the resistance to what is.

Any of us will say, 'Yes Master, yes God, please I surrender to you. Take care of everything.' But what we are actually saying is, 'Take care of everything, but the way I want it taken care of.' So it feels like we have now a cheat code to life. Just go and say, 'Yes, now I heard that surrender is the best thing to do, so I'm just going to surrender. But make sure it goes well, okay?' See? So that is not really surrender. As we sit at the Master's feet, truly it means whatever might come, whatever is Thy will, let it be done. You are the doer and you are the experiencer also. This is surrender. It's very popular these days to talk about doership and non-doership, but we can continue to hold on to individual experiencers. 'You are the doer, but I am still the experiencer, so make sure you do a good job of it.' And we come to this recognition: there is only one. It is Consciousness in its light which is playing with these images and sounds. There is no individual experiencer of these. It is Consciousness itself which is tasting this in every moment, and Consciousness itself which has been playing as a deluded one, and Consciousness itself coming to the simple recognition: 'I am that I am.' These are the words of your own God presence.

New favorites: 'Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly, man got to ask himself why, why, why.' What is it? 'Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land, man got to tell himself that he understands.' Yesterday is not man, it's human. Need to be both. Either meaning or meaninglessness is very prevalent in a way to the human condition. You have to put everything in the box of either 'it has this meaning' or in the box 'this is meaningless.' If these boxes which we supposedly have used to answer the question 'why' have built a box around us... to know one thing is to know too much. So to know one thing is to know too much. Then what do you know when you know nothing? To know one thing is to know too much. Then what do you know when you know nothing? Just contemplate this. Not concept, yes. What do you know when you don't have a concept of anything? Don't know anything. You know that you know that you know 'I exist.' You know what existence is? Then you know something, no? How do you know nothing then? It's a wordless knowing. You can't even say you don't know anything. It also sounds like a concept. Then what is left? You know that, yeah. You know that. Then you don't know nothing. Yeah, I know nothing, but you know you know nothing. You know something.

I am that. That is a position. A beautiful example that Bhagavan shared: in which light is this world in front of you now? In whose light is it? What is shining right now? What is that light without which nothing is? Is it this physical light without which nothing is? Where is that light coming from, in the light of which even the sun is seen? The sun is perceived in whose light? See, this is the glory of you. Your Atma is the light of this universe. So the greater force is running this life. We have no way how to do it. We have no idea. When we can consider ourselves to be an individual, then we come up with various ideas and conceptual frameworks as to how this life functions for the individual. We can define a law of Karma, you can do all kinds of astrology, but all these are from the individual perspective. Consciousness is bound by no laws, no rules. All of this is the play of Consciousness. So as our perspective becomes broader, we start to forget about cause and effect. What is the only cause? Consciousness. Life will become so much lighter once you start to see this. All this blame and resentment and guilt, grievances, they start to fall away. You see the only cause is Consciousness. And who's experiencing the effect of the cause? Consciousness. That is why in India it is said, 'Twamev karta, twamev bhokta,' which means you are the doer and you are the experiencer. As long as the sense of me and you is there, and you see that there are no two, false doership drops away.

All of this is so simply seen if for a few moments you can rely on what the sages said about what is real and what is unreal. That which comes and goes never really existed. The real always is. The sense of being for most, I can say, seems to have a core or center, and that which coincides—I'm saying coincides, not locates—coincides with that which feels like the physical heart area. All of us have many layers of existence, and because this one layer of existence, the body, seems like the most obvious, most tangible one, we correlate all the other layers of our existence into this. So that even many times in satsang, the hand will go there, you see? Because although the hand is on the physical, it is actually something which is being experienced at another level of existence, which is a level of being at the heart.

It locates, coincides with that which feels like the physical. All of us have many layers of existence, and because this one layer of existence—the body—seems like the most obvious, most tangible one, we correlate all the other layers of our existence into this. So that even many times in satsang, the hand will go there, you see? Because although the hand is on the physical, it is actually something which is being experienced at another level of existence, you see, which is a level of being at the core of this, which Bhagavan used to call the heart. It seems to be the center point of this sense of being.

Master Bankei said all things are perfectly resolved in the Unborn. It's quite conclusive, okay? All things are perfectly resolved in the Unborn. Leave no scope for anything. And what is this Unborn? It is your very notionless existence. Can the one that is be just a sensation, a perception? Are you just a sensation or a perception? Are you an appearance? You already know that you cannot be these things. And yet the mind can create this expectation that a certain appearance has to happen and then I will be free. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.

What is here now? This is the shortest journey ever, quicker than immediate, you see? Quicker than time. You are it. For this reality to be apparent, you don't even need a question. That's why he was joking about that, saying before the click, what is there? Or the mind may want it to be something else other than what we discover. Reality is just what it is. Is it now? Our resistance to that reality is what is called the mind. Our belief in what we call the mind is what is called the ego, which is just the same as the resistance, you see.

What you are discovering is reality. Reality is what is. Within you arises this space, and even this space is unrepresentable except in some terms. From you arises this perception, attention, but even attention is unrepresentable. So you are that unrepresentable from within which arises all of this that at best we can try and use some terms about, like love. You may use the term love, but what is really captured in that term? That which is the source of all of this is yourself. All of this is shining only in your light.

Your truth is never lost to you. It only seems to get lost when you try to make it some story and you try to fit this truth, you see, into some story of past and future. And that's what I mean when I say that don't try to make this about 'what about me?' because the 'me' is that tiny river, tiny stream, and you're trying to fit the whole ocean into that. But you are already the ocean. You have to look and not find yourself. Like, look somewhere where you are not. Go there where you can vanish or just not exist. Not even existed. Can you do it? So then, if that is not possible, then you must now not recognize that it is you, that one that is witnessing all these perceptions including the ten thousand thoughts. You must now not recognize that it is you that is perceiving. You must say, you must feel like it is somebody else. Can you do it?

I am saying to you that independent of whatever you may be thinking or perceiving, that self-knowledge is never forgotten. In fact, also these projections, these ideas, are also appearing within the truth and really unable to oppose it in any way, you see. But if you buy to what they are pointing to, you see, that is very mythical. So like the thought itself is appearing within your truth, so it is what? But the thought is telling you, you see, which is outside of your actual experience, that there is such a one who now wants freedom. You see, that one is not your experience. Your experience is only the truth. Bhagavan said clearly the experience is here and now. One cannot deny one's own self. So what you are experiencing is the truth. What you are experiencing is the truth.

Now, if that has to conform to some mental idea you have of it, then that is called resistance or ego. I don't see any chance how ignorance will perpetuate or continue to perpetuate. But the minute you close yourself, the minute you buy some idea about yourself, it seems true, then all this inquiry is pointless. All this inquiry is pointless. The question will not even be heard correctly. When I say 'who is aware of awareness?' if you're caught up in your identity, it is just going to sound like an intellectual exercise. And all intellectual exercise is suffering. So the truth is not something that you will resolve in your head. In fact, you only trouble yourself more. To understand that it won't fit into your head is enough. Get that in your heads.

So all that is happening in satsang is that you're learning how to let the movie be a movie. So now Tom Cruise in the movie should realize that he is not in the movie? But that's not what we're talking about. Because we got so used to associating the instruction also with the character, that we, as the identification with the character in the movie, now try to play that out, that 'I'm not a character in this movie.' So we are not talking about the Tom Cruise or Jennifer Aniston. We are talking about that which is watching the movie.

Our false idea that I was the character who did this and should not have done this or needs to do this is our idea of doership. Our idea of what should happen to the character, what experiences should happen to it and what should not happen to it, is the desire and aversion. And to take ourselves to be just the character in the movie, you see, not the entire movie and not the witnessing of it, is duality. So these 3Ds make up this 3D movie. Keep it aside. What is here before you can hear this? Before now. Before you heard the sound 'now,' what is here? More immediate than immediate is your naturalness, your original face. What is most apparent here? Here, before the sound, before the sound.

When I started sharing satsang, I used to constantly talk about the ATM. The ATM machine is the 'Anytime Misery' machine, you see. So all of us have access to this anytime misery, you see, and it's unlimited balance there. Unlike our physical money bank account, the ATM machine of anytime misery is unlimited balance. So how do you withdraw misery? Suppose the project was different. Suppose the project was not to come to truth, but you came to satsang because you're too free and you want to suffer. You wanted some misery because you're feeling too bored of all the freedom, you see. What would you have to do?

So what you have to do is to go to this anytime misery machine, which is the mind. And how do you extract misery from it? First, you put in the ATM card, you see. What is the ATM card? It is attention to mind. ATM card. So you give your attention to the mind, you see. But in most countries, just putting the ATM card in will not give you the money, no. What else do you have to do? You have to punch in your PIN: Personal Identification Number. I mean, there cannot be a better metaphor. The PIN is a personal identification, which is nothing but belief, you see. The minute you say 'yes, what I'm giving attention in my mind to actually applies to me as my personal identity,' that is believe it to be real, believe it to be true. An unlimited amount of misery is available to us.

But both steps have to be done. You have to give the attention to the mind and you have to identify. You have to punch in your personal identification. And this 'you' is who? Because this question will always come. Is 'you' as Consciousness itself? All satsang is Consciousness speaking with Consciousness. So mostly, most spiritual practices in the world and most spiritual paths in the world are about how to withdraw attention, how to withdraw attention. So chant a mantra, do some other practice, keep mindfulness, whatever you may say. If you really explore this, you will find that most spiritual paths and practices are about how to not bring attention to thought.

But you will notice that if I say to you, 'don't think of an orange,' whatever you do, don't think of an orange, you see, it's going to come. Except if some of you are Maha yogis or something, it's going to come, you see. So attention is a difficult monkey to manage. But if I say, 'don't imagine yourself to be the orange,' it's much easier. So to divest, at least here I found, to divest identification—that Guruji says 'don't identify'—that seems a much simpler way, you see. It just needs some devotion, it needs some acceptance. So that is a much simpler way. So even if you put in the ATM card, attention is going to the mind, don't plug in your identification. Don't put in your belief. And without belief, it cannot get you. You cannot suffer.

This is a very important tip which I keep mentioning to everyone, that don't try to fix it for a past 'you' or a future 'you,' you see. Just fix it for yourself right now. Which means what? Remain empty. Remain in the Unborn right now. The past is over, you know, it's finished anyway. For the future, the Satguru presence will take care of the future. Allow yourself to remain empty of all of these ideas of past and future. Just right now. How do you know anyway that it is the same 'you' that woke up this morning? What is common between that 'you' and this 'you'? It's just imagery from a storehouse that we call memory, isn't it? A repository of seeming past experiences that show up and they say 'this is what happened,' you see. And how much can we trust those images? They are completely doubtable. And their purpose is that the mind will interpret them and make a linear story about yourself, about you that is so much beyond linear time. It will insert you as if you were a character in this time-based thing and convince you about your objective nature, you see. The 'you' for whom this happened, you see, where is that one now?

It's just like a little child, you know, holding on strongly to the rattle, you see, and just waking itself up and refusing to go to sleep. And you're just taking that rattle from them because you want the child to rest, you see. So this which we are subbing about or throwing a tantrum at God about, it's just like that. Like that little child thinking that this is what they really want to do, but it is not really in their best interest at all. They really want the rest from all of this. They want a break from desire, you see. And the break from desire does not come from fulfillment of desire. Fulfillment of desire usually leads to more desire, usually. That's why Guruji says the belly of this one is never full, you see.

So I'm happy that you're realizing that that is not what this was about ever. It was not about coming to a God-assisted life, but more a God-dictated life. And in the switch over, the seeming switch over of power between individual power and the power of Being itself, in the switch over process, this kind of tantrum may happen. But as you are realizing that you are That itself, then how could you resist that? See, it is a God-dictated life because this life belongs to God, but you are not separate from God itself.

The Master is worthy of our devotion, of our trust and our love, because it is only the Master which not just takes us beyond the personal, you see, not just takes us from this locus of the 'me' as I call it, out of this 'me' into something else in the world, but it is only the Master which takes us out of this world to that reality which is forever unchanging. So many times the Guru is referred to as a light, you see, but the Guru is much greater than any light that we can fathom. Because even the brightest light, in the light of the sun, the manifest comes alive. You can have the brightest light and you will get to see more and more of the manifest. But in the Guru's light, you see yourself. You see beyond the manifest.

I'm going to tell you a story and one of the most beautiful videos of Papaji that I've ever seen. So there's this man who comes, you see, he comes and says to Papaji that, 'Papaji, when I'm sitting at your feet, then no problem, see, no problem. But when I go back into the marketplace of the world, oh God, problem, problem.' So Papaji said, 'Then why do you leave?' Is it? 'And why do you leave?' And initially it may seem like we don't...

The manifest, but in the guru's light, you see yourself. You see beyond the manifest. I'm going to tell you a story and one of the most beautiful videos of Papaji that I've ever seen. So, there's this man who comes, you see, he comes and says to Papa that, 'Papa Ji, when I'm sitting at your feet, then no problem. See, no problem. But when I go back into the marketplace of the world, oh God, problem, problem.' So Papa said, 'Then why do you leave?' Is it? And why do you leave? And initially, it may seem like we don't really understand because, you know, you feel like satsang gets over, you have to leave. But the feet of the master is not the physical feet, you see. So when Papa said, 'Why do you leave my feet?' you know, then what is he talking about? He's just talking about the very presence of Papa, of the master within you. So that which you are experiencing now as the Master's presence, you hug that tightly and hold on to that. There will still be moments where it'll feel like it'll feel like you leave it, so don't feel guilty about those times. Don't feel unworthy. Don't feel like you haven't followed instruction. That is the nature of the human condition, and that's why we have satsang so often. But whenever you feel like, uh, you see, you have some space, just find that holy presence in your heart and hold on to that.

Namaste. It's so good to see you. Thank you. Same. I still take myself to be a separate body-mind, so do you have any suggestion?

Yes, yes. Stop. It's just happening. It's actually too much work to do that. So when I say stop, I'm just asking you not to work hard. The mind will tell you that it is too much work to not take yourself to be the body-mind, whereas I'm saying that it's actually too much work to take yourself to be the body-mind. So let's experiment with it together right now. Just don't put any effort for anything at all. Remain completely effortless. Anything that invites you to work, say, 'Later, we'll see later.' Let it come and go and tell me what your taking yourself to be is. Is it? It's that simple. It's that simple. If you fall into the idea that organically, naturally, what is here is a person and we need to do the work to get rid of it, then that is a very strong mental idea which we cannot be free from.

So what is important is to recognize, is just to see that right now there is nobody that I take myself to be unless I apply my mind, unless I as Consciousness believe this to be true about me, believe my limitation to be true about me. I don't take myself to be anything. What's your name? Even that takes a moment, right? Just naturally you don't have a name, you don't have a form. Where is your body? Where is it right now? Right now, where is your body? You see, even that takes time to go and find. Okay, these sensations must be my body; the rest of it is a computer, it's a desk. All of these need notions. But just organically, you are free. You see, that is the best news I have for all of you. No matter how much conditioning you have, no matter whether this is your first satsang or your thousandth satsang, this is true for all of you. But if you try to use it, if you try to even apply it, then it seems to get lost, you see, because the user will be the identity that you're trying to get rid of. So it's like first putting on the mask and then saying, 'How do I get rid of it?' Just right now, right now, who are you? What's your name? Where are you from? Who are your parents? Where were you born? None of this is true about you, and we didn't have to do any magic, nothing. If you go for validation to the mind, obviously it is going to only cause some trouble.

Now, I'm afraid that if I am planning, strategizing my time, relationships, time, money, business, that by following the direct path, there's a fear that that responsibility towards these things I feel are important will be lost. I will lose that which I have now. Nice, nice. Can you please help me?

Yes, my dear. Yes, yes, yes. So we look into that. First, I want you to prioritize, no? And I want you to prioritize like the most important things that need to happen for your body-mind at this moment. What are the most important things?

To be, to feel happy and vital.

Yes, yes. But even to have that, first your heart needs to beat, no? Your breath needs to still function, and there are millions of processes that need to happen in the body so that the body can remain as one body in the first place, you see. So these would be number one priority before we can decide that this body should get this also and it should be like this, it should be comfortable. At least these basic things need to happen, isn't it?

Yes, yes.

Now, who is doing all of that? Who is beating your heart and making your breath happen and all these millions of processes in the body? Who is making that happen?

Life, Divine.

You see? So that which is taking care of all of these things, can it not take care of the rest of it? Yes, Divine made a boundary saying, 'My power extends only to this,' you see, 'but the rest of it is your problem.' And that 'your,' by the way, doesn't even exist. So I'm not saying that you don't have to make appointments or you don't have to have a calendar, you see. I'm just saying that why cannot the Divine do that? Now, just to continue with that experiment we were doing earlier, no? So this hand that you perceive is a perception, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

How are you perceiving this hand?

To my side. Very good, through sight.

Now, how are you aware of sight?

Sight somehow reports to me.

Yes, and that, yes, very good. So that 'you' to which it reports, can that be an object of perception? Can that be an object of sight?

No, it's some... no.

No, it's you. It's okay, we can go very slowly. This is very important. So sometimes what may happen is that when we look, it may feel like, 'Oh, there is a dark empty space which is aware of perception like sight,' is it? But it is not that. Even the dark empty space is perceived, you see, and you are aware even of that. You see, and you're able to confirm that 'I am aware even of that' without perceiving that, isn't it? Without perceiving that awareness, you're able to confirm it, is it? So that is what I mean by independent of perception, because the realm of perception doesn't go away. It is still there because it is the waking state. But independent of what perception may be, what the mode of perception may be, that awareness which is aware of sight, sound, taste, touch, smell—all of these types of perception—that awareness remains unchanged because it has no quality, it has no attribute. And yet we can confirm this. It is not just conceptual knowledge; we can confirm this with our own insight. But that insight does not need a perception. It's clearer now what I mean by independent?

Yeah, yeah. Thank you.

So it doesn't mean that the perceptions must go away. It only means that the perceptions can be there, but independent of those perceptions, there is a deeper knowing or deeper insight.

Yeah, yeah. Thank you. I'm glad you asked this because this all can become very confusing.

I'm kind of suffering.

What are you suffering from? Suffering right now? You're suffering right now? You're suffering, or you're believing a story of suffering? What are you suffering with right now? Now, now, suffering. What are you suffering with right now? Right now, I want you to suffer right now and show me, please. You're smiling too much. Why? What is getting in the way of your being right now? So that nothing is what you need to be happy. Like Papa said, you need nothing to be happy. You need that nothing which you have, you see. It is the false which takes effort and practice. The truth is just here. That's why I have to win, you see. I have to win because the truth is just here. You see, I can just do this, this, this, finish. The mind has to say, 'But yesterday when this happened...' so much work. And I can just do 'done.' Who's got the easier job? Because the moment is on my side.

Then you say, 'But Father, what actually when...' I said stop. God is here. Then the mind comes, egotism comes with the offer saying, 'But this is not enough because it's not always like this.' Yes, it's not always like this because you buy this stuff. This is the crunch question for all of you. If you still have something which you want from the personality, for the personal experience as it may be called, you see, and you want God at the same time, then it seems like a roller coaster, you see. It's like you want to hold on to the stuff that you think you have personally and also create more room for God to come. 'I don't want my stuff to go, but I also want God.' Wouldn't that be nice? So, but that is the mental way of living. You leave your head. You can do it. Just leave it. Really.

What I want to emphasize is that notice when you are open and empty right now. When you're open and empty, and open and empty just means that be open to everything that is coming. See, allow all thoughts, all perceptions to come. And empty means don't cling on to anything that comes. Allow them to go. Everything in the realm of perception comes and goes. It is only when we cling, only when we attach, that we suffer. Or only when we say that this is not good enough, this should be different from what it is, what is appearing, then we suffer, which is the same thing, you see. Cling on to an idea of what your perceptual experience must be, and that idea makes you suffer.

So now try this. Just remain open and empty, all of you. Just remain open and empty. Allow everything to come and go. Allow everything to come. Don't worry at all about what the mind is saying. Don't be concerned at all about that. I'm going to ask you a very simple question. Simple question. Don't give it to your mind. Allow the question to do the work for itself. You don't have to solve this like a math puzzle, okay? If no answer is coming, that is completely fine. There is no pressure. As you open and empty, is it not clear to you, naturally clear, that you're something, you're beyond just what you are perceiving? Is it not apparent to you that you are beyond just what you are perceiving? And you will notice that it is completely clear, completely apparent, that you're not just the manifest, but you are also the unmanifest. And it is in fact the unmanifest, it is this unmanifest which is your primary nature. Everything else comes and goes. Every thought, every visual, every smell, all taste, all touch, all sounds—all of them come and go. But that which is beyond these perceptions does not come in.

When we say Atma Darshan, all we are saying is that we come to a clear intuitive insight of God's presence within us. But I'm completely clear about one thing in my heart: that this unfolding has the hand of God in it. I'm not at all confused about that, that it is God's guidance which is leading this messenger, this servant, this instrument to share this with all of you. And I feel like it'll bring a great depth to your spirituality. It will bring a lot of beauty to your spirituality, and your mind will not be able to attack you as easily. Your oscillations and all those things that we've spoken about for years will... it is my feeling and it is also my blessing that it will be helped greatly in this process.

What is the guidance and how should we start? The first step is something called laya samadhi. Laya is to use a rhythm or a flow of spiritually activated prayers or mantras to come to a dissolution or a stillness in the mind. So laya literally means dissolution or stillness. What I've actually done is very simply taken the beautiful Jesus prayer and made a version out of that to resonate with all our different personas or different conditions. So we all have a particular set of conditions which make us resonate with a particular aspect of God. My guidance would be to follow the simplicity of these words because they've captured the essence of what a prayer should be. So in-breath would be 'Hari Krishna,' out-breath would be 'incarnation of God.' So you would basically go, and you don't have to breathe in any particular way. So when you're breathing in...

To resonate with all our different personas or different conditions—so we all have a particular set of conditions which make us resonate with a particular aspect of God—my guidance would be to follow the simplicity of these words because they've captured the essence of what a prayer should be. So, in-breath would be 'Hare Krishna,' out-breath would be 'Incarnation of God.' So you would basically go, and you don't have to breathe in any particular way. So when you're breathing in, chant 'Hare Krishna.' When you're breathing out, remember 'Incarnation of God.' Then as you're breathing in, say 'Have mercy on me.' As you're breathing out, say 'A sinner.' When you're breathing in, say 'Bless my heart,' and when you're breathing out, say 'With the light of Atma.' And just trust that they work. These prayers just work. So you can try the three breaths. And when I say three breaths, it's in and out both, so one round of breath is one breath.

And then there's a fourth breath. So if it's Krishna, we say Krishna seven times, which is four times Krishna in the in-breath—Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Krishna—and three times Krishna in the out-breath—Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. I advise that you don't start your day without coming to God's presence. Yes, so when you start, don't just rush into things and start replying on your phone and get to what is called doom-scrolling and all of that. Just keep that aside for some time and just first come to your center where God's presence is alive. Stay like that. Be centered in that way. So the heart temple, which is always there, get the darshan of God's light in your heart temple and then allow the rest of your life to move from there.

Actually, once you come to that, then you don't have to do anything at all because God's presence is there; He will move you, He will guide you. Just allow that to move you. Don't pick up the false doership. You've done your part; you've come to God. Now just allow His will to unfold. So start like that. Just be empty. Come out of it, because if you're going to oppress it with the spiritual seeker wanting to know, wanting to grasp, wanting to attain heart knowledge, then that won't—that'll just delay the maturing. Can you have a life in your heart while not being empty in the head? Because the way satsang flowed today was in this way: we start with open and empty, then the presence becomes apparent, palpable. Then we discover what our true life is and where our true life is—in God's light. And from there, everything is different. Not necessarily different in the outer world, but it's like we shifted planets. The difference actually is bigger than that, but to go from the operation of the mind to God's light.

So what is there so much to think about this light? Same old stuff: 'I want, I want, I want,' 'I don't want, I don't want, I don't want.' So I'm the travel agent for a different type of life. Then you have to come with me fully. You can't keep one toenail in your mind and then live in God's light in your heart. So what is prayer? Prayer is, you can say it verbally, say 'Ram,' or you can say it mentally. In fact, if there is the only empty, that is the best. But if you're going to use the mind, then remember, use it to remember the name of God. So mentally, then our prayer drops into our heart where even the chanting, the prayer, comes from our heart to the heart. Then our prayers become a communion with God. Then our prayer deepens into a simple love, and to just hold this love for God is—you have not stopped praying. This is also a continuing of the prayer.

Then you may feel like there's just a sheer presence. You're not able to say how you're being with that presence; it's just the presence is just so apparent and palpable. And the world, even if it is appearing, seems to just be like a gentle cloud coming and going like that. So you have not stopped your prayer. And then you may have an insight of yourself which is beyond being and not being, beyond all the gunas. You meet yourself as the Nirguna reality, the Nirguna Self, Nirguna Brahman, Nirguna God, whatever you want to call it. And from there, what to even say? So even this is prayer. For you to remain in the unborn, to remain open and empty, is also prayer. Everything.

So like we said, if you look at the most gross, if you start with the body, to prostrate the body is to pray. Then with the breath, I've explained how we can use it as an anchor for your prayer in the Atma-sadhana; you can use that. Even the mind you can use to remember the name of God. If you're going to use it at all, then use it to pray. Once it's dropped into your heart, then it takes a life of its own. Then you are not going to say, 'Oh, now savikalpa should come, then nirvikalpa should come.' You can't control any of that. It's a Guru presence within itself which guides all of this to happen.

So then our life can become an unceasing prayer because we may be in the midst of a lot of activity and things may be happening, you see, but you can remain in the presence. You can remain in the love for the presence. If the presence seems too subtle, then you can remain in that, anchored in that love. It all depends on the kind of activity. So most activities actually will—there is enough room to chant while the activity can still go on. But if it seems like, 'No, no, it is too difficult, it seems like juggling,' then anchor yourself in the love in your heart and let that activity unfold. If something seems even anchored in a subtlety even beyond that, just the pure primordial, and stay there. And if you've gone beyond all of that and your true nature as awareness is apparent to you, then that is—then you're completely open and empty. Then pure perception can continue, but you've not left the prayer.