This Is the Way of the Heart - 23rd November 2022

So this switch over from head to heart—the way of the head to the way of the heart—has two elements which are, like to use Bhagwan's metaphor, they are the two wings of the bird. The two elements are: one, the way of intuitive insight, and two, the way of faith. You see? And note that I'm making a distinction between belief and faith, and we'll get to what that distinction is. So the first element, of course, is to make the discovery apparent to you, make who you are apparent to you. Because everybody, especially in India, believes that this world is Maya and God is actually within us. There's no problem in the belief, but beliefs by their very nature are flimsy, and that is why suffering still continues to perpetuate and we don't live in the reality of what we are. We live in the make-believe mental world, the narrative of the world of narratives.

So how do we move from that into the stronger foundation of reality, whether we call it God or we call it Brahman? How do we come to the discovery of that? First, it's important to consider how it is not going to happen, because it is the 'how not to do it' which most spiritual seekers don't get. So most spiritual seekers are in a trap of trying to achieve the results which are not possible with the tools that they are using. So, how not to do this discovery? First is that you will not find God or truth or Self in an objective way. No matter how hard you try, the Self will never be an object of discovery. It will never be an experience of perception. If it was objective, then it would be special and it would be in time. If it is an object to be discovered, then somebody would have figured out where it is. We would map the latitude and longitude of it and say, 'Here is where the Self is.' But through the world of perception, through our senses—whether we look on the ceiling outside or we look on the scene inside—you cannot find the Self. Cannot find the Self.

At best, the perceptual byproducts of our spiritual experiences are what I like to call the Prasad along the journey—the offerings that you get when you visit a temple. So that is as much as we can value those. So we cannot do this as an objective search. You cannot proceed through our senses—through sight, through taste, touch, smell, hearing—none of these methods will bring us the truth. It's very, very important because most spiritual seekers are still waiting for the experience of the Self. Not going to happen. The Self is not objectifiable. It can never become an object in this realm because then all that we are seeking for from it would have to first be discarded. We are seeking all there is, the all-pervasive, the all-knowing. It is not possible if it was just an object. So it would not be a fair exchange if He said, 'Give up on all your best aspects and show me You as an object.' It's not a worthwhile trade-off.

The second way not to do it is to come up with concepts, come up with ideas about God. They do serve some purpose in the negation. At best, you can negate your ideas about God, like the method of Neti-Neti in Vedanta is very helpful there, where anything that you can think or conceptualize about God, it's not that, it's not this, not that. So one of the most beautiful lines I've ever read in my life is about Guru Nanak Ji saying that we may think and think and think a hundred thousand times, but God will never be a product of our thinking. It's not conceptualizable at all. So if I have met you here, which is that I told you and you met me here—that you cannot perceive God and you cannot conceptualize God—I mean you can, but it will never be reality.

In both of these methods, they may give you some fake evidence and that may perpetuate the Maya, the Lila of all of this reality. If you can truly meet me here, then the insight part of the struggle is mostly done, because it is the 'what not to do' that seems more difficult along the journey. Usually, some helplessness is normal on hearing this because we feel like perception and the ability to conceptualize are the only tools we have. 'What else do we have to do that? But now I'm all lost, it's all randomized, I don't know whether it can happen.' And you're right that these are the tools of effort that you have. The effort that you have has been discarded now. You can try to find by looking around through sight, through hearing—you can try to find through effort—and you can try to think, 'Now a square plus b square equals...' It's just not possible.

So now you've come to a helpless openness, if you really heard me. And if it's not helpless, it's a nice effortlessness, but helplessness is all right as well. It's all right. But at least the wrong tools you're not trying to use. So you're already out of the Arjuna conundrum where you're still anchoring for or getting feverish about a perceptual experience of God. Already we are beyond those games. Now this is the starting point of the introduction to your intuitive insight, or your Satguru presence, or your heart, or the divinity within.

Now, if I propose to you that anything of value in your true reality is only known beyond these two mechanisms of perception and concept, mind and senses, what would you say? I'm proposing that that which is valuable is only known in this way. Suppose you say that, 'I am not very spiritual, but I know I love my partner, I love my children, I love my parents,' any of those. Now, that love you know independent of the feeling which may be there in the moment. And as parents, even as children, most of us know that many times the feeling is of frustration or anger or something else; it's not always love. And yet you are the parent of the child. Do you love the other? You say yes, independent of what emotion there may be. There is a knowledge about this.

Some of you say, 'I don't know why I started coming to satsang, and even after coming I wasn't understanding anything you were saying.' I wasn't understanding anything you were saying—it was too difficult or abstract, or maybe you're not being nice and not saying nonsensical—but I knew I had to come. I knew I had to come. Many have reported this about particular days: 'Yeah, today I just didn't want to come. I had too much work, I had too much resistance to coming, I didn't want to hear you at all, but my bike drove me to your building,' which is another way of saying that somewhere else I knew I had to come.

So we talked about love, we talked about love for the Master in some way, but also getting drawn to satsang even though it may not be giving us anything apparently. So these are just two examples which come close to our operation in the world. Many of us will also admit that when we look back at the past, we will see for the most important things that just happened to be at the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time, but mostly in hindsight we are able to say something just happened, it turned out like that. So there is something beyond perception and mind. There is a knowledge beyond perception and mind which, even in your most tantrummy, resistive state, also gets you to satsang. You see? 'I just knew I had to come when I had to come.' What knowledge is that? What knowledge is love?

Many people who never come to satsang—relatives and friends—I get them to the satsang site and many times you see, like 70-80% of the time, they say, 'I feel something here. I feel something when I enter this satsang site.' It's not a feeling, it's like a calling from the heart. When I saw Guruji for the first time, I knew in my heart that I could surrender fully. He hadn't spoken to me; he was just coming down the stairs. But I already knew that this struggle, this problem of finding God, is his problem now. I knew this, but it was not a thought, and he was not sending some perceivable rays. So intuitively, all that is of value is already known to us. Now let's see if the truth that we are seeking is also known intuitively. And I ask you: Can you stop being you?

From the heart, when I saw Guruji for the first time, I knew in my heart that I could surrender fully. He hadn't spoken to me; he was just coming down the stairs, but I already knew that this struggle, this problem of finding God, is his problem now. I knew this, but it was not a thought, and he was not sending some perceivable rays. So, intuitively, all that value is already known to us. Now let's see if the truth that we are seeking is also known intuitively. And I ask you: Can you stop being? You know that you cannot. You know that you cannot. Now you may say, 'But I notice it. I notice that there is a presence here.' So is that not perceptual? That's a fair question you may ask. Actually, it isn't, but let's explore.

You may notice the byproduct of this being, which may be localized in your heart, your head, around your body, in the room—whatever your experience may be. But that is the byproduct of your being, because when I ask you the question, 'Does this being have a boundary?' you will inevitably say no. You will inevitably say no. That tells me already that intuitively you can see, you can know the boundless being, although you may be also experiencing a perceptual byproduct of this being. Because that which is boundless you can never perceive; you can only perceive that with boundaries or localized objects.

So then, can this die? Was this born? All of these questions you answer inevitably in the negative, although you cannot derive this knowledge from the perception that you are having at this moment. So what knowledge are you relying on? It's not conceptual. It's not because you were told that the being has no boundary; it's because you know it. But it's a different type of knowing. But it is of the same variety that I knew that I had to come to satsang, the same variety that I know I love my kids, family. The same variety. Very good.

So if we can meet over here, we've already crossed over to the pristine discovery of the Atma itself. You're realizing that you cannot do it through empirical means. You're realizing that it is completely, effortlessly possible intuitively. It is independent of any time or location; all those things do not matter. So what's happening in the objective universe does not matter as far as the discovery of your beingness or Consciousness is concerned. This is the simplicity of the heart, the simplicity of intuitive insight. Effortless. If you're taking an effort, you're going in the wrong direction. You don't have to do anything at all. My words are pointing you very gently to it, and with as much innocence as you can muster, just follow along. There's nothing that you have to do.

Now if I ask you whether you are aware now, you know immediately without any mechanics or effort. And that which does not need mechanics or effort is known intuitively or Aparoksha. So this—not only that there is awareness, but also that I am aware—is apparent to you only effortlessly. This 'I' which you cannot locate in time and space, and yet intuitively you're very comfortable in calling it 'I.' I am aware, which is not distinct from I am awareness itself. It's just I am speaking the words of your heart. No effort again is needed for this discovery.

So this Nirguna Brahman, your absolute reality without attributes, is also recognized effortlessly, intuitively from your heart. Of course, some of your minds must be complaining, 'But can I stay like this?' All that you can keep aside for now. Don't worry. Some of your minds will also complain and say, 'But you're not really getting it. You're faking it. You're not really coming to the discovery of awareness.' Usually speaking, it is not for you; you are not worthy; you're not even paying attention. All these doubts can come, but really it is impossible to do this wrong. You may try hard to do it wrong, but you still can't do it wrong. To notice that you are the witnessing principle which is aware of all these perceptions—you can try, but you can't do it wrong. It's impossible because in the intuition there is no right way or wrong way. The only wrong is if you're trying to use your mind or your senses. If you're not using those, then you can't do it wrong. There is no possibility of wrong intuition.

So to recognize that I am awareness, that I am empty of attributes, I am changeless, I am the pure witnessing, I do not have a start or an end, nothing in the world can really touch me in my reality—nothing can burn me, scratch me, or dent me in any way—it's just effortless intuitive insight. It is universally available for those who are willing to step away from their heads and their perceptions for a moment. That's all it takes. So this is Atma Gyan, self-recognition, whatever you want to call it. This is the knowledge of Brahman itself.

Why do I need faith? Because it is insight. And you're right that on most spiritual paths, it is the way of faith which comes before the way of insight. In the way that it is shared here, what I found is that God is playing it differently. Insight is quite natural and available for most of the Sangha. But seriously, even after the insight being apparent, the questions about what I'm meant to do, how should I run my life—all the questions which are related to the conditioning of the non-existent one, a non-existent 'me' in our very own discovery—still seem to hold some potency on us, power over us.

So all the conditions are not yet dissolved. To dissolve them, we can continue to remain in the inquiry, in the Darshan of the Self, but I have another tool for you. And what I found is that one of the most important ways to dissolve these conditions or blow them up is to surrender deeply and completely to God's will. So this is what I call the way of heart. Okay? So to surrender deeply and, in fact, completely to God's will is to follow the will of your heart, to follow your intuitive insight.

Now you already have an advantage here because in most places you may complain, 'How do I know what is the will of my heart? What is my intuitive desire? What is God's will?' Here you cannot be confused or lost there because you are only being intuitive. Because as long as the Self is apparent to you, it can only be apparent through your intuitive insight. The Self can only be apparent to you through your intuitive insight. So if you are living in what I'm calling God's light, living in this Guru presence—because the Self is apparent only through the Satguru presence in the light of this intuitive insight—then it's very straightforward.

Because if your being is apparent to you, if your Self is apparent to you, you're being intuitive. And in the light of that, how your life naturally unfolds, of course, is unfolding only in God's will. But not just that; if there is guidance or something has to be revealed to you, even those words can get revealed to you in your heart, just like the words of satsang get revealed in the Master's heart and then they are shared in the heart-to-mouth process with no mind involved. The same Satguru presence is your very heart. And in self-knowledge, all knowledge is contained anyway. The only thing is that it will not dance to your individual desires, egoic needs. So you cannot use it in that way. In fact, I would never wish it to be used in that way because then the spiritual ego would be fully magnified and very difficult to chop down. So it's a very good gift that you cannot use it in that way. At least some, of course, get the blessings of some siddhis and things like that, but that's okay; that's another conversation.

Live your life in your heart, in God's light, and allow it to unfold organically from there. When life seems to force you to make a decision—'Should I travel there? Should I get into this relationship? Should I take this job?'—some of these can seem like they are important decisions for us to make. And my advice, guidance, and pleading with all of you is that unless it is clear in your heart, don't move. Don't move. Especially when the mind is saying, 'You don't have time for that,' especially when the mind is saying, 'Rush, rush,' don't move. Because it will become clear in your heart.

So in all cultures, all traditions, you will find that this aspect of following God's will, this devotion, this obedience, is very, very important. Very, very important. We have very beautiful examples like Hanuman, of course, possibly the prime example of it in our tradition and culture. In Islam, to be a Muslim means that you follow God's will; that is the literal meaning of Islam. In Christianity, the only sin really is to follow individual desire and not follow God's will. You can see, because when we just said that the prime guidance which all the Sikhs come to chant every morning tells you how to be free, how to come to the truth, there is only one way, which is to follow nothing but God's will, God's commandment.

So this is the fiery surrender. It is not the usual lukewarm surrender that we find in spiritual movements where we get emotional—'I'm absolutely surrendered to you'—and then within ten minutes that can change and we will go back to just following our individual desires and our individual will. So how do you know that you're following God's will, especially in the times of confusion? Right now you may be clear. First ask yourselves: 'What do I want? What do I want?' With all the pointers at your disposal, with all your spiritual muscles that you have now, let go of that. If you can't let go of that, inquire into it, pray into it, surrender in whatever way. It's very important to let go of what you want.

It's also important not to jump to the opposite of what you think you want. Say, 'Oh, now I wanted this.' Like many times in such a mission, I was resisting coming up, so I decided I must come up. It sounds all right; that's okay. Provisionally it's okay that we think we outsmarted the mind by doing the opposite of what it wanted, but the mind is also quick to then play along. It's still got you dancing to its tunes; it just has to say the opposite. So don't jump to the conclusion that 'I must do the opposite of what I want and that will be God's will.' It is not that simplistic. You must let go of your hankering, of your feverishness to what you think you want, and return to your heart, return to God's light.

And that is why one of my favorite questions to ask you these days is: Are you living in God's light? Are you living in God's light? So return to God's light, even if it feels invisible at the moment. Especially if it feels invisible, then you must be completely honest. Don't move. Because the moment of patience and waiting for God is worth many lifetimes of rushed activity. So don't move. In the light of your presence, unimpeded by your hankerings, actions may naturally start to unfold in a way, and you can trust those actions. If there's still a pressure for a decision, a call that you have to take, then wait to be guided from the heart. Even if you spend your whole lifetime waiting, it's still worth it. That much trust you need to have; that much risk you need to take.

When you are guided in this way, you have to trust this guidance unwaveringly. Then you cannot put it into any sort of benchmarks and say, 'Hey, no, no, not this, not that.' Whatever, you have to follow it unwaveringly. But when you do waiver—and you will—don't beat yourself up with guilt. Beat a hasty retreat back to your heart. Return to God's light. Let go of your individuality, as right or as solid or as true as that individual will may seem. In fact, you will be confronted by all your knowledge and all your righteousness almost immediately as you embark on this way of faith. To follow God's will, to be obedient to God's will, is to return to the innocence of a child. This is true freedom, although it may seem like you have gone from freedom into a God-dictated life. You have only gone from a mental slavery to following the true light of this universe, the intelligence.

As solid or as true as that individual will may seem, in fact, you will be confronted by all your knowledge and all your righteousness almost immediately as you embark on this view of faith. To follow God's will, to be obedient to God's will, is to return to the innocence of a child. This is true freedom. Although it may seem like you have gone from freedom into a God-dictated life, you have only gone from a mental slavery to following the true light of this universe. The intelligence which is running this universe is a much better guide to our lives than our limited, selfish mind. If you find yourself faltering, return to your intuitive insight; it will never leave you. That becomes your anchor in this new life.

So, this is the complete change of the operating system. We have gone from limited, wrongly identified, flimsy, changeful existence to our life with the solid foundation of God itself, both in terms of insight and in terms of how to live what should happen. But remember that these two ways, if you can call it that, are not compatible. You cannot do a bit of this and then a bit of that. When you get in trouble with your head, you see, and then your desires start to well, you say, 'No, no, I'll go back to my head just for a bit and then come back.' And this is what I've been saying: that you have to decide for God. Decide for God is to say, 'Come what may, I will live in the way of the heart.' Of course, you will scream and say, 'But I am not the decision you make. I am not that. Who's there to decide?' You decide resistance.

So, before we get to questions, this is the layout, the lay of the land basically. This is the metaphor of the two birds. Two wings of the bird is here. This is the new lines driven in the heart, from the heart, then from the head. And there is no middle road. You do not live in the way of the neck. Half your heart there is...

So, when I say true spirituality is not about you, it is about God, this is the fruit of that. If you put God in the center, then this is the way of the heart. If it is still about me—God for me and not God for God's sake—it's still the way of the head. Okay.

God is... yeah, thank you. You need two masters. He's still on that because it's okay. And I don't know if he placed me in a place, but anyway, yeah, like there is a strong guilt field exactly because I don't know, invite people...

This is exactly the point I wanted to move, which is that in the guilt fields, follow God's will. It sounds so simple and beautiful conceptually, but you'll find a lot of burning will happen. And I don't want to reassure that burning too much because that burning is very auspicious; it's very important. The only reassurance I give is that remember what can burn. Remember what can burn. You may actually believe that this is the most difficult thing that can happen. Such a difficult thing I have to pick, which is my real master. But you realize one day that all this is popcorn and candy. If it is burning, then what can burn? What can burn? Only that which is not.

Seems like when you do that, it's coming even stronger because you can't do it with... when I opened...

If you surrender, then how do you know it's stronger? None of your business anymore. You cannot surrender and continue to have it as your business. You surrendered me. It's my problem, you see? Or in this case, both our problem, whatever the case. So then why are you getting involved? Hold the fear because they do something that you want freedom. The wanting itself is the absence of freedom. Even the wanting of freedom. Let go of what you want.

What if I go to the beach tomorrow and get married with some Filipino guys?

That's the risk you have to take if that's God's will. What is the price that you are unwilling to pay to follow God's will? And remember I said I have to let go of what I want. It doesn't mean to do the opposite of what the mind is saying. To be empty. To be empty. Make yourself empty for God to enter. If you are full of yourselves, where's the space for God? In the world, I said so often, the lane is too narrow. Do not have a 'me' and God. And what is the 'me' made up of? It is made up of your will, your individual will, your individual desire, your individual righteousness, your individual judgment, your intellectual emotions, your conceptual emotions about your life, your narratives. You want to keep them and get God?

Become empty. Invisible to yourselves. So invisible that you have to strain hard: 'What do I want?' Not because I'm confused because I have too many wants—'I want this and I want that, so I'm confused'—not that. Just that you can't find anything. You just... if a genie came, you see, and said, 'Okay, what do you want?' You said, 'I can't find it.' Because who is there? To become empty, that is to trust. That is to have faith. It is completely unreasonable, irrational. You cannot do it in half measures. You cannot have a safety net.

For most of you, the insight is apparent, but the attraction from the mind's proposals of your individual want, your individual will, still seems to have a lot of magnetism. So, to surrender to God's will is the antidote to that. And that's why my feeling is so strongly about this, that I don't want to be called a teacher, Master, Guru, any of that. I just want to be a servant to God. The servant of God. If this life can be spent in service to God's will, I cannot give myself a higher gift than that.

I've shown you how. I told you how. Why have you been so flimsy about it? This is what I mean by weak foundation. God is your foundation now. I've shown you how. Now, it's only our idea that, 'Oh, that God cannot do that. God cannot decide for this. I have to do it by myself.' And life will keep throwing situations at you. Yeah, you feel that you have to decide. What is God's will? It's pretty clear. What is your will? In the center, you want freedom, wherever, whichever shop you can get it best. What does God want? Those are bonuses. That is God's mercy on us. In spite of our delusions, there's so much love and peace for everything, blessings in this way. But we are not entitled. You cannot say, 'Why can I not get that gift?' Our cleverest thoughts do not help us. Our cleverest thoughts will not help us.

We have the Japji Sahib. My mind is... the cleverest thoughts cannot help. It's too hyperactive. You know, all like knowledge you tell me, I go home, I try to implement it, whatever you say. And sometimes I have beautiful experiences, everything I am, I really experience whatever you say. And what happens? One second I come out of it, the mind is... it takes one step further and it says, 'Oh no, you have to come back. Oh, you know, you have to...' It gets so hyperactive.

So, use my method. So, what do you want? The mind cannot wobble you unless you want something, right?

I want to go deeper.

Forget about it. Well, you want to go deeper? Let God decide. Just live in the foundation of God. I'm not saying do the opposite; that's a very important point. I am saying 'go deeper'—so I should not go anywhere? No, I'm saying forget about it means don't have a notion of it and allow God. God may say go deeper, but have you checked? Important to check. And when the guidance does not come, live in God's light. So everything that unfolds happens in the auspicious light of God itself, in God's presence. It's actually very simple, and that's the problem. You really need no room for the ego.

Maybe it is like a side thing to keep the mind occupied. We can make like a 12-step program for the mind to be busy with that. But really all this is happening so every day do this, do that, do this, do that, so the whole day is busy, it doesn't get in your way. But the hyperactivity of the mind in itself is not trouble to you. In itself, it did not trouble. Like I shared this example: if you do not have to cross Airport Road, why count the cars on Airport Road? It's only because you think you have to do something with it or something has to change about it.

I believe it's true.

Because maybe you want a quiet mind. I didn't say anything about the mind becoming quiet. Only want what God wants. Only want what God wants. And if God wants, then God will clear the way as well. The simplest way to live this moment is the best thing that we do. Not even there, not even what does God say. Don't rush to any conclusion, even the most spiritual-sounding, most humble. None of them. Empty. That's open and empty. As you open and empty, intuitive insight is apparent to us. I Am, God's presence, is palpable.

So Guru Nanak Ji said: By thinking, He cannot be reduced to thought, even by thinking hundreds of thousands of times. By remaining silent, inner silence is not obtained, even by remaining lovingly absorbed deep within. The hunger of the hungry is not appeased, even by piling up loads of worldly goods. One may possess hundreds of thousands of clever tricks, but not even one of them will go along with you in the end. This is the clever tactics of the mind, the matrix of the mind. Then he asks: How can you become truthful and how can the veil of illusion be torn away? To obey the command of God and walk in the way of His will. It's very straightforward. Very straightforward. All the tricks are listed down, all the tactics which are not going to work are listed down, and what to do is spelled out very clearly. There's nothing to hide. This is still you: empty, empty, empty.

I was reading somewhere yesterday exactly the words that have been coming up from here, which is that those of you now who know intuitively, you have insight, you have guidance, it's more difficult for you in the sense that you have no excuses left. There's no excuses left. At least for those seekers who are still trying to find God objectively, we were told that we are supposed to look for God, we are looking. But after being told you will not find objectively, you still keep looking that way, then that is the folly, that is a mistake. If by telling you over and over that you cannot do it through your mental tactics, you still keep doing it, you have no excuse.

The war zone and all the weapons on either side, everything is now made clear to you. Now you have no excuses. And every excuse looks like only one thing: I have to do. Every excuse is 'me plus God,' 'me plus God,' whatever it may be. Although all the this and that and all the terms and all the things all have the same message: I want me and God. Not possible. You want to swim and ride the horse at the same time? It's not gonna work. Are you going to swim or ride the horse?

That's why I'm saying it's not a comfortable spirituality. It's not like people say, 'What are your hobbies? Oh, I go to satsang.' Are you doing the job interview? 'What are your hobbies? Oh, I have a spiritual teacher.' That's not what this is. This is not meant to make your lives easier, although it does, but it is not an inclusion into your life where you learn something that you can plug into your life and say, 'Ah yes, I balanced my life.' Complete giving up.

To continue to belabor a metaphor, how many of you know what DOS was? This operating system. This is awesome. This operating system is the old operating system on the computer, the first computer in the world. So, to want to have the way of the mind and to have the way of the heart is to want DOS and Mac OS, whatever, to work together and collaborate. That's not gonna happen. To do one 'del root star dot star' or something—I mean Linux used to have a full system cleanup over that command in Linux where you could just wipe out everything.

This operating system, this is awesome. This operating system is without an operating system on the computer—the first computer, okay, in the world. So, to want to have the way of the mind and to have the way of the heart is to want DOS and Mac OS, whatever, whatever, to work together and collaborate. That's not going to happen. You do one Dell root, star dot star or something—I mean, Linux used to have a full system cleanup over that command in Linux where you could just wipe out everything; it doesn't even ask you for confirmation.

What happened, Father, when you say surrender your individual completely? When I surrender completely to the target, it's not only a burning, which is of course there, but there's also a joy emanating.

The aspect I haven't mentioned is the deep longing, the deep calling from your heart which is being fulfilled in this. It's been a deep longing, a deep call of your heart which is now coming to some satisfaction. You come to satsang because you're tired of the old way anyway; you're coming to fulfillment of the new way.

All of you are walking on the path of faith beautifully because you're confirming the presence of God. You're confirming the vastness of your inner lives, although it is even clear—even to say 'inner life' is not rational. What inner life? In the mind's version of life, you are the body; inside the body, you are only flesh, blood, organs, bones. To confirm that you have an inner life, you have a presence which is palpable. You are aware, boundlessly aware. The recognition of it is effortless, but the acceptance of it in the seeming outer life is an act of faith already because it is irrational. It is unreasonable that you're finding the boundless within you.

How can that ever be rational? Within itself is a boundary, but you confirm that the boundless you are finding within you, and you know it is not a lie because it is known beyond conceptual understanding. To share this, to live this, is an act of faith; it is to live in faith. And you're realizing that it is only the sharing of this field which we can truly call love. Love cannot really be called love unless God is involved now. Because a Godless love is a love of Maya, is a love of delusion. And now, knowing the truth, to spread delusion cannot be love.

It doesn't mean that you force it if you feel like there's a lot of closeness, but also accept that many times the price for love is to get hate in return. And the Beloved could be a stranger you meet on the road; then accept that many times you will feel that you are attacked in response to your love. Many of you are going to share this in your own way, and it is inevitable. The moment you share from your heart, you will get a lot of fight back from the Maya. Sometimes I get into, you know, delusions of grandeur or something, feel like, 'Wow, this was a great satsang, yeah, everybody must love me' or something. I go back home and I open my messages... oh.

So know that the deeper you are sharing the truth, the more the mind is going to give you hate in return or attacking later. Don't get attached to those outcomes as long as you're being true to yourself. You're not lying just to be nice. It's very easy to be very light, approving, nice lies. The fire that comes in satsang is because my heart directs me in that way, and I cannot share in opposition to how my heart is directing me.

Follow your heart. I don't know if it was like this at the beginning or anything, but it went easily because it's a kind of frustration and restlessness to be waiting to kind of get at least something to move. But to spend one hour kind of, 'Am I able to move or should I please?' or it's like, yeah. It's like this because I remember that Guruji was also trying her kind of limits to move with this. He was telling that he was feeling so much joy, but afterwards he was stopped. After some time, he was taking a book or something with himself to show that he's not crazy, but that he's doing something. I don't know if you remember that? Yeah, he pretended he was not sitting or staying for one hour there, you know, just a thing. Then everybody starts to get really concerned, so you have to show that yes, you're doing something. It's like you have to find your movement with your spirit as your heart and just trying yesterday, hours of life. I remember that is very good. It's the best sadhana ever to allow yourself to remain in the unknown.

And not move until your guide is from the heart. That burning is very auspicious. It's very auspicious. Of course, it's burning. So you know what happens? Everyone says, 'Please burn me, Father, burn everything that is there.' And we feel like once that request is made, then the burning will not actually feel like burning. And it's true that once we open, resistance doesn't feel like resistance anymore, but we still have blind spots. We still have blind spots. We did not know that we're still so attached to being right about something. So when that starts burning, it comes like burning and you say, 'Oh, this is really burning.' But that is what you wanted. But then, without saying it, the response usually is, 'But I didn't know that this is going to burn so much.' This has to burn. I didn't even know that I had this.

I feel that there are a lot of things because she wanted to move. If you would like really to do like Guruji, like every movement being aligned and always, it's... I have to start somewhere. And it feels like this is really... this is not really the core of the whole thing. And you realize how many blind spots you have. You are full.

Exactly, yes. And yeah, I haven't known that I had it. Absolutely. And this is where even our mind uses spirituality to save us, to save itself. Even 'open and empty' actually uses... like, so empty, the mind can say, 'But just be open and empty.' So no defense, no Advaita defense, nothing will happen. Just full on. This is the end of all our tactics because next moment you don't know how you will be guided by the heart, what will come, you see? And to trust that amazingly is to really have taken a bet on this life.

It's called... and that's why the instruction to die to yourselves. Yes, of course, I need to keep making sure I keep reminding everyone of this. It has nothing to do with the physical death or the death of the body in any way. It's that your righteousness dies, your ideas about yourself. Basically, the submission of the individual will then go to God's life, to God's presence. And that's what I mean by saying that you should not have comfortable armchair spirituality, your lip-service spirituality. Because I am loving your report as you're saying, because I know you moved out of that spirituality into this fire now.

But I know that this is true, but it's really... I see now that, oh my goodness, yes. Not only now it starts to do your thing already. Till now it was like just, 'I'm getting this.' Yeah, very nice. I was pretending a lot of things, but now it's like, 'Oh, this is...'

Yes, but I know this is the only truth. It's really good. It's only now, actually, after 11 years of sharing, 11 or 12 years of sharing satsang, for the first time I'm feeling like I just want to ask everyone. I want to ask everyone on the streets and whoever I meet—if I go in an auto-rickshaw, I want to ask, 'Have you found God in your heart? Have you looked at God in your heart?' Because what do I have to do, tell me, to get out of the water? But suppose one in a thousand that I meet, they actually become open to that.

I haven't had a missionary approach to this at all for so many years, but maybe something was sheepishly hiding in there. Because if my Master showed me the highest gift, then why am I so difficult to ask the brothers and sisters of this planet? A lot more of this conversation is happening now at work. Somebody came to meet us the other day about completely something else at work, and sort of got into this conversation. He said, 'Welcome to something,' because truly this had a deep impact on me as I read saying, 'Love is not love unless God is involved.'

I'm a crazy one because I can't talk even with my daughter. I found myself always talking about this, but my daughter says, 'Father, again you're talking, talking about these things.' But the time forced... I don't know, maybe I'm crazy with everyone. But I was thinking that I am really kind of... something is not right with me because with my own brother, I couldn't say. I always want to keep myself kind of tied, but possible. But I would like to ask your advice because it was a very deep touch there. There's a kind of one of the latest satsangs with Sahaja Express. At the end of the satsang, Guruji is talking about if there would be a fire in Sahaja and there will be everyone is called and the siren is going on and everyone comes. And then there is... in the place, we found out that one is missing. Wouldn't be someone that would go? And would you go without him happily? But to be happy? And he said, 'Would you at least want to say that okay, let's find him?' And this was wrong, but the last minute was like if you would be entering Nirvana or the heaven, and he's saying that, 'No, hurry, hurry, hurry, because now it's closing the door,' and you hear someone struggling behind you. And you wouldn't go back and help him and take him with you, or just remain with him? Because this is the same like Yudhisthira. Before taking the carriage to take to the heaven, he said, 'No, if you want... I have the dog with me, I remain here.' This is staying with... in spirituality, you have to kind of push the whole thing to go alone. But it seems like now it's the same like with Jesus, who will... everyone, you have to make available to everyone. Because if you're a shepherd, you know that even if one sheep is missing, you will leave the 99 to get the one back. So he said that.

So what is it? There's so many conceptual difficulties in everything that we think we have to decide. So what is it showing us? That we don't have the capacity really in our heads to come to the final answer. So you can only meet life moment to moment from the heart. From the heart, intuitively allow yourself to be guided. Because to do what is good, what is right... it's able to really see. Take the typical example in spirituality to say, somebody comes to your car like a beggar and says, 'Can I have some money?' You cannot decide in advance. You cannot decide, 'No, I don't give' or 'I always give.' People have that because it helps them not be confused in that moment. But really, it's important to remain empty because then your heart can guide you moment to moment. And it doesn't mean that it has to lead to the best outcomes, because even those best outcomes we can't really fathom what the best outcome would be. Maybe that outcome plays out over 200 years. So you can't say. We just have to trust the deeper intelligence in God's presence.

It's something because, yeah, and I remember myself thinking, I got to have a couple of 10-rupee spares for the beggars. And when the first came, I said, 'How many should I spare up because there are some more coming?' And that's really the opposite of just letting God decide. Yeah, it's a great success to be into you, because I spent eight months there. At the beginning, I was like, 'Okay...'

So yesterday I was talking to my mother in the car and I told her that—I told her very, very clearly—I said, 'This life is only for God,' you know? And I had never said it in that way. And we don't really talk about God, my mom and I, but I said it so clearly. And I just told her, and I said, 'And if that means that I don't live up to your expectations or this life looks...'

It’s a great success to be into you, yeah, because I spent eight months there. In the beginning, I was like, okay. So yesterday, I was talking to my mother in the car and I told her that—I told her very, very clearly—I said, 'This life is only for God,' you know? Yeah. And I had never said it in that way, and we don't really talk about God, my mom and I. But I said it so clearly and I just told her, and I said, 'And if that means that I don't live up to your expectations or this life looks strange, then that's okay.' And I wanted her to know that, you know? And she was quiet for a while. She went silent and, like, contemplative. Yeah, yeah. And not just externally silent; she went—she was internally silent as well. I was very surprised by it, actually. And then she finally said, 'Well, as long as I'm alive, I support you in that.'

I think I think I've been here. Yes, this is very good, very good. Every day there's just miracle upon miracle upon miracle. And not glorious, magnificent spiritual experiences, yeah, experiences like ordinary, constantly ordinary. Like, I don't really—can't explain it. Yeah, this itself is a beautiful miracle for me, where a parent can just let go of their projections and aspirations for their child and even say, 'I'll support you as long as I'm there.' It's very beautiful, very, very touched by this. Very good, very good. Can you repeat what her mother said? She said she went quiet for a long time and then she said, 'Well, as long as I am alive, I will support you in this.' Yes, it was great.

To be our full life, or to take out a life to reason... a majority of our lives is to live in a comfortable head, and the minute I'm not comfortable, so the switching over is actually a very urgent matter. Switching over to the way of the heart is actually a very important and urgent matter, more than anything else that I can imagine. Imagine we live in denial of this. You live in denial of God. Brothers and sisters, our families, our extended families, humanity lives in that denial of this. They take death to be death, and then use all sorts of strategies and tactics to try and not think about it, distract ourselves with attachments and desires, because the conceptual meaninglessness and the nothingness of all of this, without the recognition of God's light, is very, very scary for most. If this outer was all there is, and just this body moving from birth to death, then how to create a mental system to avoid myself going insane? Find some meaning in something here so that I don't confront the meaninglessness of it.

That is why there is so much anchoring in every way for materialistic meaning, for conceptual meaning, for some sort of... everybody says, 'I want to make my life worthwhile, I want to find my purpose, I want to find my meaning.' There's so many books on that, and they usually sell very well also, all as a balm to not face the meaninglessness of a personal existence. In fact, that was the whole first chapter in the Yoga Vasistha with Rama's dispassion. He looked at everything and said, 'This is just pointless.' He looks at everything—the so-called fun of childhood—he said, 'All rubbish.' This concept... children are crying. Since he looked at every aspect of life and one day we just die like this, so without the discovery of our inner selves, our true Self, it's a horrific existence actually. And we will never look down upon our brothers and sisters because they are trying to cope. Everyone is trying to cope with this. If they take to bad habits and to materialistic desire and all of that, it is just a way to cope. They are just trying to make the best of it, get the best of what they think life is.

So it's never coming from a place of arrogance, only coming from a place of true service to help. I was an atheist too when I was twenty-three years old, and then I was hiding behind science and pop culture. Those were my coping mechanisms. I didn't realize my distractions were just like all this, and then living in mental fantasies. Without the discovery of this—provisionally what I'm calling the inner—what is this? Without the discovery of the timeless reality, this is a horrible game. You might as well be some bacteria or something just in a soup or something. But to come to God's light changes all of it. Coming to this, it's just a game changer.

To be able to say that, 'Oh, because of this I deserve the truth, I deserve to find God'—it's just pure grace. Nothing that entitled me to the discovery of God. In fact, I was a big, big, like, very vocal non-believer, to say God is for loser idiots. So every day I'm more and more awestruck by God's light, by His grace. And I'm probably saying this every day, but we can call, we can invoke God. We have a name for God: God, Ram, Krishna, Allah, Jesus. We can invoke God because it's just staggering. So unbelievable that that Supreme Being—if you can even call it Being—the Supreme Reality is rememberable, is recognizable. Just an instant of that takes away all the ideas of meaninglessness and nihilism and pointlessness of life. And the privilege of being able to utter 'God'—it's like any other word on the face of it, but invoking something so far out from human understanding. Thank you. To be able to be given the words to share His light, to allow this mouth to be used as an instrument of God's light, it's an unbelievable privilege. I'm completely in grace because nothing so deserving was here.

So this contemplation about who is a worthy teacher of God has been here, it's been alive for a few weeks, you know? And I feel like this is definitely an aspect of that. Only those who recognize the privilege in this, the great honor of this. Of course, I feel like more and more it is just clear to me, and reading about thousands and thousands—not just a few that are popularly known, but thousands of ones who were just sharing God's light from their heart and they were put to death in this world. I feel like only one who can say that they are willing to die in response to sharing the truths ultimately can be called a true teacher of God. But it's not even just that; it's so much more too. Many times in bravado also we can see that. So although at some level it's a very simple question, the simplest answer is that if you've seen the light for yourself, you of course can lead to that light, and therefore everyone can be a teacher of God. You found the light for yourself; of course, that much is a basic requirement. But that is not difficult for those in Satsang.

So from that starting point to really complete surrender of one's will, then if required, lies another... lack of selfishness is very important also, because the human ego wants to be put on a pedestal, play some very weird tricks on you. So if there's selfishness and desire that still overwhelms anyone, then for their own sake, it's not advisable. The willingness to take on every affliction from every one of their children, whether the child is even asking for that or no—every phenomenal affliction, energetic, whatever—not as if it is a sacrifice at all. 'I am willing to do this for my Sangha.' So not even that, just as a matter of how you do it for our children. Let's see parents, we all know who you said... he said, 'Just give it to me, God, give it to me instead.' And that same sentence... and yet at the same time, follow your heart when the burning is happening, because it is going to happen. In the light of God, the ego is going to burn. This unwaveringly following your heart, God's will, makes a true teacher of God. There are many, many aspects, so beautiful actually.

Unselfish willingness to share God with a brother or sister makes you worthy, but it doesn't stop there. Complete sacrifice of everything that the world can offer to you. Don't be in the delusion that today's world is a different world. The same way your belief systems are questioned, the ego will have the same reaction. Brahman is Supreme, the Absolute. There are no forms in the formless. But when we need to say 'God,' then which God, which form? Do you know, it's okay. Then the words today coming out... before it was deep with the mind trick. If the mind is just telling you something and it's not really that thing, then don't worry. But if you feel like there's a deep conditioning, because many have this, no? It's something deeper coming out. Many have this because of some childhood conditioning and things like that about the word 'God.' So then say 'Consciousness.' When I say 'God,' you hear 'Consciousness,' so...