The Choice Is: Mental Oppression or God - 3rd November 2023

So remain empty of 'me'. Let go of yourself. Get over yourself. Make everything about God. Make everything about the truths. Make everything about the Self, the true Self. So the other day I was asking, and this has been a theme for a few days really, the question is: who is in our temple? Who is in your temple? Who runs your life? Who is your life about? So can you tell me?

Mostly it has been about the 'me', or it has... there's an idea of this 'me' that wants life to be for it.

Yes, yes. And have you had enough of that idea now or no?

I think so. I hope so. I don't know.

Yes, yes, that is good enough for now. So to hope so, to pray for it to be so, itself is a good enough thing, you see? Because we must be somewhere tired of this now. Somewhere we must be tired of this now. We've tried this long enough, most of us. We've tried this long enough to keep 'me' in the center and then try to run this life from that locus of centrality, being an ego which we can't even find, you see. So we've tried doing it through keeping the non-existent ego at the center of it. Now let's try that empty of that, because empty of that is when you create space for God to run your life.

Now, why don't we do that? If it was that simple, everybody would let go. If it was that simple, everyone would let go and we would have the best driver in the universe driving our life. We don't want to do that because we want to control the outcomes. If you hand over the car to God, you don't know where He's driving. So to be empty of 'me' is to be empty of attachment to outcomes as well. Would you mind where God took your life, whatever that might be?

There is still something that doesn't trust handing life completely over to God, even though it's already completely over to God. But there is this worry, this fear that there will be unpleasant experiences and feelings, which there already are.

Yes, exactly. So that which we're trying to avoid is perpetrated by the avoidance of it. That which you're trying to avoid... you're trying to live a life where you don't have to face suffering, but suffering is only perpetrated by this avoidance or trying to control that which is way beyond any control. And really the question is: how is that working out for us? Our attempt to control or attempt to drive this life, how is that working out for us? I can pretty much guarantee that anyone who is living in that way without even realizing that there are only two possible drivers: one is the mind and other is God. So either it is going to be a God-driven life, a God-surrendered life, or a mind-oppressed and a slavish life to the mental oppression from the egoic mind. Those are the only two alternatives. There is not a third one, you see, which the mind pretends to be, which you can say, 'Oh, I'm trying to balance out a bit of my own terms, you see, my mind's ideas and a bit of surrender to God. I'm trying to do a nice combination so that I can drive this car in the perfect direction.' It's just not possible.

So the choice is mental oppression or God. Is that choice clear to us? Because that's very important for us to understand, because we feel like there's a third option. There's a third option which there isn't. Either our life is going to be mind-dictated or God-dictated. So how do we then determine what is good for us? How do we make sure that life is going the right way? The only way to determine that is: where is it being driven from? So if it is being led by God, if God is nudging and moving this life, then that is good. That is the only good.

How to know? How to know which is which?

Yes, how to know whether it is God or me, is that the question?

Yeah.

Yes, yes, we'll just come to that. So firstly understand that there is no other judgment we can make about good or bad or right or wrong in our life except whether it is coming from God or from the identity. So if you really accept that idea today and surrender to God's presence and His light, when we realize that anything that I may think about how this life should function really is trying to live on my own terms and live separately from God's will, and the only way to lead a true life is to be in service to God's will. If you accept that about our life, then what you ask is exactly correct. You say, 'Okay, I want to live a life which is only following God's will. How do I do that? How do I do that?'

So how to do that is in two steps. The first step is to remain open and empty in the head. Head empty. And as your head is empty, then naturally your heart becomes full. Your heart becomes full of love and intelligence and all the beauty that life has to offer, and from there God can move your life. Allow yourself to be moved by God instead of deciding with your mind moment to moment. There will be fears. Your fear will tell you, 'But what if I become vegetative? What if I let go of all my responsibilities?' You see, that's why I first told you that the only way to determine what is good or what is the right thing to do in our life is whether it is coming from God or whether it is coming from identity.

So open and empty, allowing all these thoughts to come and go but not identifying with them, not serving them. Then allow His presence to move you. And what you may find is that as you get used to living like that, then His presence will also guide you. Instruction may come for you to follow from the heart. And how to know that it is coming from the heart? If it is accompanied by unconditional love, if it is accompanied by insight into the presence of God, and most importantly, if the reality of who you are is apparent to you while this guidance is coming to you, then you can trust that it is coming from God. So is it possible for us to live like this? Does it sound too difficult? What am I asking you to do? Can you recap for us?

Yeah. Um, empty my head of thoughts, become aware of the presence of God, and if moved to do something from that space, then trust that it is God's will.

Yes, see? And many small tips I've given all of you. When you start your day, don't get out of your bed unless you first find the presence of God. Don't be rushed by the mind to start replying to your messages, start solving your things in life. Don't jump out of bed without meeting God first. Have you all been following that? Yes? How many? Let's see hands. I'm in class teacher mode. So that's a very simple way to start. When you start, just stay with the presence of God. Not able to hear me so well? Okay, the mic is on full, I'll try to speak up a bit. Um, then what happens if you start your day with the presence of God? If you do the Atma Sadhana, then that should really help us to meet this presence. But even otherwise, for most of you who've been in satsang for a while, it should be fairly natural now, fairly organic to invoke this holy presence of the Atma within and then allow that to move your life in the way that it wants. Possible? Too far-fetched?

What is the Atma Samar... or what did you say?

Yeah, maybe you missed that. So one of us can send you a link, we can post it on the chat as well. Is God a reality for us? Is it just fanciful to say that His presence is within ourselves? Is this just a nice feel-good notion or is this a reality? This is very important because unless we accept the reality of God, we will not stop being oriented to serving the 'me'. Last week I was saying that a bird will not give up on its nest unless it finds a better nest. So we may try and try and try, but unless we recognize God's reality, to give up on the false one will seem too difficult a project.

How real is He? More real than your hand? What's more real, your hand or God? I could have said your nose, but you would have said God because you can't really see your nose. What about your hand? Now in Vedanta, right in the beginning they tell you that if you perceive it, it is not real. If you can perceive it, it is not real. But who really has given up on perception unless they have discovered God? So it's almost a Zen-type problem: give up on perception, give up on perception. We give up on perception in the words within perception itself or in conceptual knowledge in our mind itself. But it is important to recognize that the presence that we say is 'I am' is actually 'He is'. That the Atma within us is Him. It is His light, His presence. Now you may say, 'But I haven't found this Atma, how do I do that?' How do you do that is to make yourself empty of the false one. Really empty yourself of 'me' with integrity, when you can say this: that there is nothing which is mine and all that there is is Yours.

The words within perception itself or in conceptual knowledge in our mind itself—but it is important to recognize that the presence that we say is 'I am' is actually 'He is.' That the Atma within us is Him. It is His light, His presence. Now you may say, 'But I haven't found this Atma. How do I do that?' How you do that is to make yourself empty of the false one. Really empty yourself of 'me' with integrity. When you can say this—that there is nothing which is mine and all that there is is Yours—with full heart you can surrender everything to Him. Then I feel that by His grace, His presence will be found for you.

But if you want Him so that you can use Him, so that He can help you in your plans, then that is the reverse servitude. Which way is the flow of servitude? We must be in servitude to Him. But what is the relationship that most of humanity is trying to create with God? 'Please help me do this, God. Father, bless me so that this happens for me.' So we determine the outcomes, we determine what is right for us, we determine everything, and then God should come and help us. Is it not possible to live the other way around, where you ask yourself, 'How am I serving God now?' instead of 'How am I serving the ego now?'

But to live like that needs a lot of faith. Our faith so far has been limited by the belief system that we carry. It has to change into living with the insight of the holy presence that is here. To take that insight to be reality more than your body or the world is the starting point of faith. Otherwise, we continue to live, but we don't really live. We go from death to death to death. Even between birth and death, it is just death. I'm trying to be stern so that we can shake out of this state—the state of the 'me, me, me.' What's in it for me? The Mahamantra of the mind: 'What's in it for me?' We even hear satsang this way. 'What am I getting?' which I learned that I have to ask 'Who am I?' so that I can find the Self. You live like that. So it's all convoluted at the moment, and that is the human conditioning. Even spirituality has been made upside down.

So what should you do with your life? Remain empty of the false one as much as possible. Let go of selfishness. Let go of this 'me.' Don't waste another day serving 'me.' Waste a minute or two here and there, then you'll be prompted from within. Let it go. Be empty. Is it a deal? You won't waste another day serving the 'me.' Momentary identification will come because the power of Maya is so strong, but carry this intention to remain just in the will of God and not waste your life serving the non-existent ego.

And if you find yourself caught up in some identity, don't beat yourself up about it. Don't say, 'Oh, I made a deal with Ananta that I will not waste another day on me, and see, I'm doing that.' The idea is not to become guilty. The idea is to stop. Stop. Return to your heart. Return to His presence and allow your life to unfold from there. Again, your mind will tell you that that is robotic. It's just not true. You're never more full of life than when you live like this. You know how we are living? Like zombies, you see, because we don't even perceive what's in front of us clearly. We don't even meet those who are in front of us fully. We don't eat what God has given us fully because our attention is divided between our mind and pure perception. So everything seems a bit diffused, and then we have to take holidays and go and see some oceans and mountains to bring our attention fully back into something for a moment or two, you see.

So when I'm talking about life being a zombie life, I'm saying it quite literally. When we hear something, we don't hear fully because we're trying to say, 'Okay, how does this apply to me? This doesn't really work; this works.' We're sitting with the judge in our head. The intellect is too strong. So we are missing the beauty of this movie, every frame of which has been directed by the greatest director ever. This moment will never repeat itself in the content of it ever again. We miss all of it because we are living a life of mental oppression. And more importantly than all of this is that you're missing God in life. It is His life, and we are missing Him. That is the power of Maya.

Lights on from the phones. I've joined with my phone hotspot; let's see how that works out. This itself is a good example. This itself is a good example. Sometimes things around us start to shake in our life. Do we quickly rush to the mind? 'What should we do? What will happen?' No. See in your heart. Stay with the Satguru presence within. Don't get shaken by external perception. Nothing here can actually touch your reality. Don't give into the mind. Trust that God can take care of things much better than your mind ever could.

There will be many situations in your life where the mind will threaten you and say, 'But now I have to rush. You can't just sit around waiting for God.' Or another subtle trick is, 'This is too small; this you can do by yourself.' Don't fall for these tricks. Allow your life to be moved by the presence of the Atma within. That is to follow the will of God. And don't worry about the outcome because you have no—your intellect does not have the capacity to understand God's plan. Can we really look at something and say, 'This turned out well' or 'This turned out badly'? You don't have that capacity. All of that is just the human pride.

Plants don't do that. I took this example last time, that with many plants, their leaves just follow the sun just naturally. How does that happen? What intelligence makes that function? It is also an intelligence that you can sense the heat or the light of the sun and you can turn towards that. But no plant is sitting and thinking and saying, 'No, no, let me do half like that. If I do fully like that, then I may get too burnt or my leaves will change color' or something like that. It is not for the plant to question. And if a plant started coming to you and complaining and saying, 'I don't want to live a life like this, a God-dictated, a sun-dictated life,' you would say, 'Who are you? You're just a plant. Shut up!'

But who are we? Who are we? This bucket of mud, bucket of food, skin, and flesh. We give this body so much importance, more than God. So can our life become like that, that we are just lived from our heart? We naturally follow it without evaluating because our capacity to evaluate is too small. So don't die without ever living. Don't die without meeting true life, eternal life. Don't be half-hearted with God. Don't try to juggle God, balance God. Let Him do the juggling. That's why in India, maybe, we show Him with so many hands. Who is the better juggler? Let Him do the juggling of your life.

Don't search for things to love outside. Love God first unconditionally, without even the expectation of being loved in return. Although in reality, our capacity to love God also just comes from God Himself. You can drown in this love for Him because He is that. Truly He is that, and that is not definable, but somewhere in your heart you know what that is. Don't search for love outside. This world is just like a dream. It is going to be over very soon. If you just get attached to things here, it is only going to lead to more suffering. Love Him with all your heart even when you don't know how, especially if you don't know how.

So most important, if you feel that you haven't met Him yet, is to meet Him. And if you feel that you haven't met Him yet, then you have to work on your pride. Become more humble. Empty yourself of 'me.' Know that you're not that important. The 'me,' the false 'me,' is taking too much space within you. You are too full of yourself, the false self. Make room for Him and have faith. Set the table for Him to come every moment. And it is my feeling and it is my blessing that if you truly let go of yourself, He will become apparent. His presence will become clear.

And for those of us who can say that 'I have met Him, He is here,' you really have no excuses now to continue to be selfish. After meeting the holiness of your presence, it is extreme ignorance. Extreme ignorance. It's like a peacock is doing a beautiful dance in front of you, but you're busy looking at a mosquito. And God is in your heart. How can we focus on the one that we can't even find? Where is this 'me' that we are so concerned about?

So what is needed is a radical change in our life. It is a complete rewriting of the operating system. Not just a spirituality for peace and fulfillment and joy, but the spirituality about Spirit itself. One child said to me long back, 'Father, please help because the inquiry has stopped working for me. The inquiry has stopped working for me.' I said, 'What do you mean? How can it not work? It has to work.' So she said that when she started inquiring, she would just ask 'Who am I?' and then so simply she would be in so much peace and happiness. 'Now I ask myself Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? No peace, no joy, no happiness. So it stopped working for me.'

But is that what the inquiry is meant to work? Is it spiritual experience gathering? No. It is to recognize true insight. Who are you really? So I asked her, 'So what is the answer? Who are you?' And there was no answer because the intent of the inquiry itself had been subverted by the mind. Just like the intent of meditation in today's world has been subverted into a peace-giving, a peace-experiencing mechanism, which is all right. As a byproduct, you may experience a lot of peace, joy, bliss, or not. These are just the Prasad. You don't go to the Mandir just for Prasad. You don't say, 'I won't bow down to God in His temple today because there is no Prasad available.' Maybe some of us may say that, but this is what we are doing in our life, in our spiritual life.

See, who are you? Whose presence lights up your life? Bhagavan asked, 'In whose light is the light of the sun being experienced?' You have to wake up for the world to wake up. Who is that 'you'?

So this is the insight aspect. So we've looked at the insight aspect, the love aspect, and the servitude aspect of your spiritual life. Insight comes to us from God. We can just make ourselves available for it, empty for it. Empty the cup, as they would say in Zen. If your cup is empty, then insight can come. Love is a two-way relationship as long as there are two, the seeming two. It's a two-way relationship. And servitude is meant to go from us to God. But we live in the opposite way. We are trying to give God advice. We are telling God what to do. So we are providing insight to God usually. 'Why are you doing this to my life? Why are you doing this in the world? Why is there so much suffering?'

So we are giving Gyan to God instead of waiting for Gyan to come. So we are the source of His Gyan Yoga. We are providing Him information and insight, and then we are saying, 'Now it's your job to do something about it.' Actually, it is God who should ask us that. 'I gave you such a beautiful Earth to inhabit. What are you doing with it? Why is there suffering in the world?' He should ask us. 'Is it possible to lead your life empty of suffering, just in My presence, in God's presence? Why are you creating suffering in the world?' He should ask us. But we ask Him, 'Why are you doing this? If there is a God, how can there be suffering?' Because of you. Because of us. Have we lived the life empty of strife? Especially now that you know how to, you don't have an excuse. We can say the world is ignorant because they haven't met His life, His presence, His grace. Okay, but what about you?

So we've got most things upside down, if not everything. Insight is something that comes to us by His grace. Like those sages thousands of years ago had beautiful insight and they were able to write such beautiful scriptures, and they said that it was Shruti—they heard it. How did they hear it? From the heart. The same heart which is with you, the same presence which is with you, the same one who inspired the sages to write the Vedas lives in yourselves. But we have cluttered ourselves with conceptual, learned knowledge from our head and in our head.

It is something that comes to us by His grace. Like those sages thousands of years ago, beautiful inside, and they were able to write such beautiful scriptures. And they said that it was Shruti; they heard it. How did they hear it? From the heart. The same heart which is with you, the same presence which is with you, the same one who inspired the sages to write the Vedas lives in yourselves. But we have cluttered ourselves with conceptual, learned knowledge from our head and in our head, so we are not empty to receive. We made ourselves too right in our heads to receive His light, His insight. Anyway, so allow Him to guide you. Allow Him to tell you how to move your next step. Allow Him to move you without interfering, without judgment. And instead of expecting Him to be in service to you, happily accept becoming His servant. Whether that leads your life into the life of a beggar or into the life of King Janaka, then you'll truly meet both ends of spirituality. Because just one end is not enough.

At one end, you recognize that you are That in the light of which innumerable universes have been born and dissolve. Ashtavakra said you are that boundless ocean in which the arcs of the universes come and go. You are That. But the one who wants to be That, instead of just recognizing that it is That, must become the servant of God. The one that says, 'But that should be enough. To be one with Him should be enough. Why do I need to love Him and serve Him and praise Him and to remember Him and to chant His name?'—that one, if it is still around, and to some extent it will always be around, that one must be kept in servitude to God. Only then is our spiritual life truly spiritual.

Change the focus away from him; stay with His presence. If you were just perceiving an image of Him, if you found Him in the form of Ram, Krishna, or Jesus sitting in front of you, that would be less intimate than how He is with you now, beyond the world and beyond perception. The Leela gives us the capacity to forget about That. We forget about that one presence which gives life to our life and make it about the content of this dream. How long is this dream going to last? How long has it lasted so far? How long has it lasted? Do you really know? You don't know even that.

When a dream starts, a dream starts, and suppose you're walking on a road in the dream. Somebody comes and asks you, 'Where are you coming from?' You don't say, 'No, no, I don't know, my dream just started.' No, you say, 'I'm coming from my house. I've been walking for the last 15 minutes.' And then they ask you the whole story of your life and you tell them, but the dream just started. So can any of us say how long this dream has gone on? You can't really say. How long will it last? You can't really say. But now, in this moment, you have the opportunity to meet That which is beyond time, beyond the dream state, waking state, sleep state, Turiya state—beyond all these categories of states.

One friend came last weekend. Last weekend, when? I don't know. So she came; I had not met her for many years, maybe 10, 15 years. So she was talking with Gima, and then I do the customary tour of the satsang side of the house, so I'm called when it's time for that. So I presented her my book and I said, 'If you feel guided to, please read this.' She said, 'Will you write something on this?' So I found myself writing that: 'Remember the matter is both urgent and important. Remember that the matter is both urgent and important. You must find God's presence now.' And the sages have warned us, said the opportunity does not come again and again. And he's also told us that we must not waste our life in 'me,' which means in the 'me,' in the 'me.' We must not waste our life doing 'me, me, me.' So in this dream, you have the opportunity to meet the one that is beyond the dream. Don't waste that opportunity because you don't know when the next dream like this may come.

Are these pressure tactics? No, it's just to set our priorities right. We've been prioritizing the finite; it's time to prioritize the Eternal. I'm sure sages like Kabir had no interest in scaring us, but the absurdity of our life becomes apparent to them and they tried to find ways to shake us out of this stupor. This strange world where we made God also about the ego. 'God is good because God is good to me. God exists because He answers me.' What a tantrum we are in. 'I waited for Him, I prayed to Him, He doesn't give me an answer.' Almost in a 'how dare He?' Are we entitled to anything? He gives us every breath, every heartbeat. Without His presence, there is no life. After that, how can we be entitled? Are we grateful for this breath that we have? Are we entitled to answers from Him?

The human condition has just become about this pride and self-realization where a lump of food has started to take itself to be something very special, to the extent that God should serve us, He should answer us, He should explain why has He made the world like this. It's time to stop all this rubbish. Sheikh Farid said, 'If my head is not bowed down to Him, then may it be used as firewood instead.' If every breath of ours is not a prayer to Him, then why are we breathing? How beautiful. I sacrifice the 'me' in every breath, and every breath is a prayer to Him.

And if you start to live like this inside, it is very simple. You don't have to struggle with 'Who am I?' because your mind is not cluttered. If you ask, 'Who is aware of the perception of this hand? Who is aware of the perception of this hand?' to the uncluttered mind, it is apparent to you that it is you as awareness—not as somebody, not as something that can be perceived. It is very natural. And if you start with the inside end of things, then to live a prayerful life, to live a faithful life is very easy because you recognize the one that we have been catering to doesn't exist, was never born. So whichever side you start with leads to God becoming central in our life.

So that's a good test. So if in your spirituality God is not becoming central in your life and it continues to be about the 'me,' when something is going wrong somewhere, the mind is contaminated, your spirituality is contaminated. And we see signs of this contamination everywhere in the world. So can we change the mahamantra of the mind or move away from the mahamantra of the mind? What's the mahamantra of the mind? 'What's in it for me?' Constantly asking, 'What's in it for me?'

A friend of mine, many years back, we were working together. So he says, 'You know what? I judge every transaction, every interaction by the return on investment. What did I get in return for spending that five minutes with this one?' And it seems like, to the mind, it seemed like a beautiful way to live. 'What's in it for me? What am I getting?' So what do we change it to? 'Okay, how am I serving God now?' But not just service or armchair spirituality. How to know how to serve Him? How to serve Him? Listening to Him, following Him. How to listen to Him? To be with Him, to be there, to be empty of the 'me,' to allow Him to move you, to allow Him to guide you. Then your whole life becomes a satsang. Then your life becomes a temple to Him.

And the entirety of humanity grapples with this question of 'What is the purpose of my life?' And actually, I can say that the words cannot define it, but if any words come close to being able to tell you the purpose of your life, it is to be a temple to Him. Your life must become a holy temple to God's life. And in the last satsang, we talked about all the building blocks of the temple. Your mind will want to put a photo of yourself in the center of this temple. That's the mantra: 'What's in it for me?' You have to keep it sacred for God. Is it cold? You want to turn it off for a bit? Cold?

So this is the spiritual project, if there is one. Does it seem daunting? It's all right if it does. But really, you'll notice that to live in mental oppression, to live in the fear of suffering, to live with guilt, pride, remorse—all this kind of mental self-suffering, fear, anxiety, regret—is much more difficult than the path that I'm offering you. Yeah, it's much more difficult. Just because the world has normalized it doesn't mean that it is normal. A life full of hate and guilt and pride is not an organic way to live; it is not a natural way to live. A life full of grievances and malice is not a natural way to live. And then we look for band-aid type solutions where we don't have to give up on our pride and we don't have to deepen our faith. That's why it doesn't work.

So what I'm offering is actually a much more at-ease way of life. The way of the heart is to live in ease. But to switch over may seem difficult and daunting. To move from mental slavery to living in God's life may seem very difficult because really everything is upside down at the moment. But you must not shy away from this, and there is no time to waste. Okay, some hands are up. Okay, let's go to Radheshyam Ji. Ram, Ram. See, very good. Okay, let's go to Sonali. Are you able to unmute? Oh, I'm still on the hotspot. Okay, I don't see her anymore. Let's go to Clarissa.

Hello, Ananta. Can you hear me? Yes, thank you. Thank you for picking me up. Sometimes you are very far from me, and sometimes I can feel you in my heart. And sometimes there is so much coming up, and I feel that I'm still fighting with this. It's very difficult for me to observe it, not to go into it. And how...

Okay, so if you change the question to 'How are you in service to God now?' instead of 'What is happening to me?' or 'How am I feeling?' If you were to ask, 'How am I in service to God now?'

It's just when I feel this fighting going on that I'm not in service to God.

So what has to appear in perception that takes you away from serving Him? What can force you away from serving Him? So let me help you a bit. So when we are involved in self-concern, when we are caught up in self-concern, then you're right that it seems like I'm not serving Him. But how to be caught up in self-concern? The mind has to offer us some ideas. But the mind's ideas cannot force you to believe them. The power of identification belongs with you.

There seems something which always identifies, and sometimes it's not so strong and then it comes again. And it's this idea...

If it... I didn't understand you. Is this another thought?

This is another thought, but it's a belief in it.

Yes, so who has to stop believing in it? A thought will come; it makes a claim to represent reality, isn't it? It makes a claim to represent reality. And when we take it to be a valid claim of reality, then we say we believe that thought. Isn't that the process of belief? So now, use as many thoughts as you want and represent this moment accurately. What is this? Capture the content of this moment, just one moment, accurately with a thought. Can you do it?

You cannot do it. Because even if you say, 'This is satsang with Ananta and there are so many of us sitting on Zoom and listening to him, and there are people sitting in the room,' if you were to just provide these concepts to a friend who was not here, would he really meet a single moment of what is here in satsang? No. And yet we allow these concepts to define our life. One moment these concepts cannot define, cannot really be captured, but we use these broad strokes which make these very primitive sort of paintings about our life, empty of any light and beauty and joy. And unfortunately, we believe that that is the story of our life instead of meeting life moment to moment.

This is what belief does to us, identity does to us. And no thought is strong enough to force our belief. We may say it's strong enough to force our attention. Sometimes the more you try to keep your attention away from something, the more it seems to get drawn towards that. But the thought cannot compel us to believe it, you see. So we get into self-concern when we buy into the notions that the mind is offering. And you're right that when we get into that mode, then we are not really...

Moment to moment, this is what belief does to us, identity does to us. And no thought is strong enough to force our belief. We may say it's strong enough to force our attention. Sometimes the more you try to keep your attention away from something, the more it seems to get drawn towards that, but the thought cannot compel us to believe it, you see. So we get into self-concern when we buy into the notions that the mind is offering. And you're right that when we get into that mode, then we're not really following God's will; we are following the will of the mind, you see. And the mind is constantly offering you a diagnosis about your state: 'Oh, when I hear this, then resistance comes. When this happens, then this happens to me.' You see, it's always telling you things about yourself which—and this yourself, the self in that—doesn't really exist, you see. So who is affected by the resistance? It is not the space of being. It is not Consciousness that is affected by resistance. The resistance itself is the dance of the non-existent one.

Sometimes it's difficult for me to follow you there. It is like I can't...

Let's make it simpler. Who is this 'me' for whom it is difficult sometimes?

The person.

Where is this person? Is there such a person somewhere now?

It's not here. It's not here.

So right now, who is perceiving these words? As the person is not here, the perception has not gone away, isn't it? So who is perceiving these words?

No space.

Who is aware of this perception? Can that be perceived?

It cannot be perceived.

Is it you that is aware?

Yes. Yes.

So you are confirming that you are the unperceivable one, because you cannot deny that it is you that is aware. It is you that is aware of the perception, and you are also confirming that the one that is aware cannot be perceived. So are you saying that you are the unperceivable one?

Yes.

And how do we recognize this 'I' which is unperceivable? How is that Self recognized? Through which instrument?

It's a knowing.

Yes, but is it a conceptual knowing? You're saying it is 'I' because you heard it somewhere or you read it somewhere? Is it learned knowledge?

It's not conceptual knowledge.

And it's also not perceptual knowledge because you are not perceiving such an 'I'. You're not perceiving this awareness which is you, isn't it? No, you're not perceiving it. So that which is beyond concept and beyond perception, that is intuitive insight. That is the insight aspect of spirituality which we spoke about. This is very useful because if you remain in this intuitive insight, it provides all the guidance and all the knowledge that is needed without ever having to go to the mind. It is the Satguru presence, it is the Holy Spirit, it is the Atma within; it's all the same. Now rely only on what this intuitive insight is telling you and don't go to any mind diagnosis about what is happening to you. Remain there and answer the question: Who are you? Who am I? And if no answer comes, then don't move. Just stay there. Trust the silence of the heart much more than the highest conclusions of the mind. That is to remain empty. Is there anything simpler than this? It is said that Brahman is the most difficult, you see. It is the most difficult because it is too simple for the mind. All I asked is who is aware of the perception of this hand? Who can deny that it is you? Everybody has to admit it is you. Then who can say that it is perceivable? Nobody. You say it is unperceivable. So you are saying that I am unperceivable. Only the sages talk like that, but isn't it the most natural? If you don't involve your mind now and say, 'But this is arrogance, am I really seeing this?'—get into some sort of mental construct—without that, it's very simple. So you are that which is unperceivable and yet witnessing all of this. Clear? Where you recognize this, build your home over there. So with insight like this, with deep love for God in our heart and the willingness to surrender our life to Him, that is the only way to build a stable foundation for your life. But if you go to the mind and you start involving the ego and 'what is happening to me' and all of those kind of just speculative things, then our life seems very lost with no stability.

And if there is still an unheaviness that I'm feeling, doesn't matter if I...

Yes, but is the 'I' affected by any heaviness or anything? No. You, the one that is aware and is unperceivable, you say that that is 'I'. Is there another 'I' which is affected by worldly things, by phenomenal things? Whatever is left of you now should only be interested in serving God. That's all. The rest of you inside is blown away, has cleaned up. If you involve that which remains in self-concern—'what is happening to me, what is happening in my perception, how am I feeling'—then you're not truly in servitude of God. Let everything come; you will remain untouched by it if you live in the way of the heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, I'm going to close today because I'm feeling that this body is still confused about the time zone it's in. We meet soon, Monday. Thank you all so much for being in Satsang today. Satguru Sri Mooji Baba Ki Jai. Gurudeva.