This Silence Is the Starting Point for Direct Satsang - 4th December 2017

Then somebody might say, 'Master, this question, it sounds too intellectual. You think I can't deal with this question. I'm not the inquiring type.' Most of the time this is a myth actually, because the same ones keep inquiring, 'Why me? Why me? Why me?' So that inquiry is fine. The question 'To whom?' suddenly we become the non-inquiring type. So to them, the Master said, 'Okay, for you, you don't have to inquire. Just everything which you consider yours—all your problems, all your grievances, your body, your actions or inactions, what others have done to you—everything, you let that be the Master's problem now.' That is surrender. It all goes, everything.

And as I've been saying the last few days, as you remain empty of any notion about yourself, the non-conceptual truth is completely apparent. What you truly are is clear. There is nobody who is confused. Then the disciple might say, 'Yes, Master, but my mind is too active. It doesn't keep quiet. Please help me.' And the Master might say, 'Let the mind do whatever it wants. You just let it come and go.' He might explain the difference between attention and belief and tell you that even if attention is going to these thoughts, you are not yet identified. You can allow thoughts to come and go, just don't tell them "be." Again, back to the silence. Same silence. It has nothing to do with outer silence. The outer silence is at best a tool for recognizing this inner being, this inner Self.

Some might say that, 'No, no, even this, I can't let them go. The minute this thought comes, I'm just caught. I am caught, and to not believe my thought seems impossible to me.' The Master might ask you, 'Have you had any devotion towards anything in your life?' And if the disciple said, 'Yes, yes, when I was growing up I used to love Hanuman, when I was growing up I used to love Jesus Christ, I was growing up I used to love whatever,' or even a great believer in Ram. And so then the Master might say, 'Okay, with all my blessings, with all my heart, I give you the mantra of Ram. Whenever you see that the mind is overactive and you can't—you have no control over your belief whatsoever—just a few minutes of dissolving in Ram, in Krishna mantra, Jesus mantra, I mean whatever you are devoted to.' And because the Master's blessing is there, and the names of the Lord itself have so much inherent power in them activated by our own devotion, that you will find that with this kind of repetition, it feels that the mind is not so big, not so out of control.

Now some might even say—you see where this is the point—some might even say that, 'Even this, I have no concentration, Master. I have no concentration. I start chanting and then all the emails I have to reply to, all the phone calls I haven't returned, all these things, they come back to me and I can't even chant at all.' So then the Master might try a different approach. He might say, 'Can you put your attention to your breath for a few minutes? Just stay with your breath.' So-ham. So, the flow of the breath. You know by now even this is not going to stop. So whatever the excuse is, the disciple might say, 'This is also not working.'

And Master will say, 'Okay, do something physical. Do Hatha Yoga. Yeah, do Hatha Yoga, Surya Namaskar a hundred and many times every day. And then do some Pranayama exercise.' And you find that the mind will get bit... they don't know how to... 'This too I'm not so inclined.' And after a theory, 'Okay, sing some devotional song, sing some songs for Guru, or just if you can't even do that, have some gratitude in your heart for anything at all. Say to yourselves, "I'm thankful to God or Guru or my friend, my wife, my husband, my whatever."' For this alchemy, I'd say just next when you meet, you smile at them instead of giving them a big background, just give them a nice smile.

But no matter what approach worked for you or works for you, which of all these paths—or there are many more also you can try—whichever path you've taken, you will only always end up here. It means one only: be with your own Self. It doesn't mean that you'll end up in this... I mean, with your own Self. That is all you actually have because it is all that you actually are. So if you remember that start of that journey, so this is the play of spirituality now. Where you want to meet the Master, that form of Master appears in front of you. And there are many of each in each of these terms. And even this you cannot hold on to as a concept.

And based on how you choose to play next—which doubt, which path you choose to believe about yourself—the Master's instruction, the Master's pointing will change. The form of the Master might change because every expression of the same consciousness expresses itself in a different way. But ultimately, all the true masters are saying the same thing.