To Be in God’s Presence Is the Source of Peace and Rest - 17th November 2023

So in the insight, intuitively, what happens is that our reliance on the made-up egotistical construct dissolves to a degree. And we cannot really predict to what degree it will dissolve based on the insight that you're having and the pushback from the mind. But what is important to remember is that as deep as the insight may have been, the 100% eradication of the ego is actually unheard of. You see, even in the sages, it is unheard of, and it really doesn't happen in the human condition. Everything is possible in Consciousness, but at least if you were to go with the evidence of the past, then we notice that it just doesn't happen where all traces of this me are completely dissolved, you see.

So the me which remains as a remnant of its former self is looking for ways in which it can grow back into its former glory, or even greater, because now it has very wonderful things to pick from. It has notions of enlightenment, higher knowledge, freedom, of becoming sage-like, of sharing satsang, of having disciples. It has all of these things which it can start to pick on for its specialness and for it to regrow. So then for the me-infection to spread again, it now has wonderful things to latch onto. And when this latching on starts to happen, it happens to whatever that is called the spiritual ego—that I'm still a me, but this me is special now because it is spiritually accomplished or something important has happened to this one, and that makes me special.

And I know that in the sangha currently, most of you are dealing with this to some degree or the other. In my conversations with all of you, and just intuitively, I have a sense that most of you sangha members are dealing with a point where you're saying that initially insight seemed to be very far-fetched and difficult, but now insight is becoming more and more natural. But on the other hand, what remains of this me is trying to grasp onto the absoluteness, which is ungraspable in the insight of what we really are, and it is creating a conceptual spiritual identity. Most of you are grappling with allowing that to burn, allowing yourself to be free from that, because there is no ego, I feel, as oppressive as the spiritual ego. I don't feel like there's a form of ego which is that stubborn, that difficult to shake, as the spiritual ego is, you see. Because the concepts it uses are all spiritual.

So when you are applying the notion that 'I am that, the highest one' to me, you see, then even the sage trying to tell you, 'Inquire into who you are, are you really this?' you will say, 'No, I'm well aware of this. I am awareness itself. I am that.' But the smell has gone bad, no? The smell can go bad if it is coming from the egotistical place instead of a true insight. So that is why I've been saying that it is our pride which is the most poisonous in some way. Our pride is the most poisonous for us to keep our inner space sacred for God. If we ourselves are taking up so much space within ourselves—me this, me that, me, you see, 'I'm so good, people should recognize me'—all of that nonsense is taking up so much space, then we don't leave room for God.

And because in this human play, the play has to happen where God becomes tangible, becomes palpable, a living being, a reality rather than just a fiction or a conceptual belief notion, you see, only when we are empty of this me. So when we fill ourselves with even the spiritual me, then God is just a notion; it is not a reality. So it is very important to live in faith, to live in humility, to live in gratitude, in prayerfulness, in obedience to God's will. All of these are the tools with which we can remain empty of the false self and leave the road, the lane, empty for God to come.

So the question then really becomes about our specialness, you see. How special do we want to be versus how much do we want to live in His light and His presence? And the call that we end up making is to pick specialness, to become something, be seen as something, be seen as intelligent, don't be seen as somebody foolish, for example, because you want to make something out of this body-mind, whereas in actuality it is nothing. So we take a very absurd sort of call where we want to give priority and specialness to a non-existent fictional entity over the living reality of God. You see, that is the absurdity of the ego, and especially amplified as the spiritual ego, because the spiritual ego usually comes after there has been an insight. In fact, the strongest spiritual ego may come after the truest insight has happened. Some of you may find that strange, you see, but it's very difficult to construct a very strong spiritual ego if there's been no insight or very little insight.

When there's been a deep insight, that is when the mind can use that. It can say, 'Yes, you have seen. You were completely clear that you are pure awareness itself, or your being is so palpable to you, God's presence is alive within you, therefore I am now somebody special or something special.' And we've seen that in many examples in history, that many, many, many started with such beautiful true insight but then got waylaid by this spiritual ego and lost everything in some sense. So what is the antidote? Number one antidote is: keep your head bowed down. Remember that we are just humble servants to God's light.

Now, I was telling one of the children that it can also seem very convenient to say, 'I am a humble servant of God,' so that can also seem like a special place. 'Oh, I am a humble servant of God,' you see. So I was reminding them that only when we can truly be in service in life to our brothers and sisters can we truly claim the fact that we are truly serving God or servants of God. Otherwise, the servant of God can also elevate themselves, you see, higher than the rest of the world and say, 'I am a servant of God and therefore I am special, look up to me.' But can we be a servant to our brothers and sisters in this world? Can we be beggars in their eyes? And if not, then why not? Are there not beggars in the world today? There are beggars in the world today, so what makes us better than them?

I can't find a single thing that makes me better than the humblest beggar. I can't find a single thing that really makes me better than the humblest beggar. And therefore I'm so, so, so deeply grateful that God uses this instrument in this way, but it is completely clear to me that if the me was to get involved in this process of being His instrument, then it would all get contaminated and adulterated. So I can take no credit for what happens through this body as Ananta, especially in the sharing of satsang and leading the brothers and sisters of this world to His light, you see. So I don't feel like there's a single thing which makes me better than anyone else. The me that remains is as foolish, as stupid as any ego can be. So may that me never get glorified or take itself to be special in any way, because it really isn't. It's non-existent firstly, but even in those moments where it feels existent, the reality is it is extremely stupid, because ego equals stupidity, actually. There is no intelligent ego.

So to use this as an antidote, especially when we start riding some high horse like Lakshman going to Vishwamitra, you see, is very, very useful, is very, very helpful. In fact, many of us came into spirituality to get highest insight, especially on this kind of path, the Jnana Yoga path of direct insight, so that it's a very convenient way to just come, understand some things, and then done—all the suffering in life is finished, we live in peace. You see, it's a very, very convenient-sounding way, but it is just not that. It is just not that, because this pride, this ego, will keep rearing its head up, trying to make itself to be something special. That is why insight, love, and servitude—therefore Jnana and Bhakti—both are important.

And those who have not heard me say this before: Jnana is intuitive insight, Atma Gyan or self-knowledge, and Bhakti is a beautiful combination of love and servitude—deep love and a deep sense of service. So in this super confusing, incomprehensible way, we can lead a truly spiritual life. If we start to understand too much, we say, 'No, no, but I understand that I am that, then what? Who is in service to who? It's all one, you see. What is this talk about duality? This is supposed to be Advaita.' You see, remember that Shankara himself built many temples and wrote many beautiful songs in devotion. And all the sages, even Bhagavan, even Guruji, Papaji, everybody was very devotional, is very devotional in that temperament. Why? Devotional to whom? It's all just one.

So is it not then all just one? Of course it is. So who is to pray to whom? Completely true, there is nobody else to pray to. I am that, you see. So both are true, and this itself is enough to break you. And you can start taking opposites to be true, opposites to be reality without any trouble, then you cannot suffer that easily in the world. And remember that neither aspect of what we are saying is in a sort of manipulative, disingenuous way. We're not saying, 'Ah, in reality I am that, but just as a consolation I have to say that I'm a servant.' No, no, no. We might as well say, 'In reality I'm a servant, but as a consolation I can say that I am that.' Both ways is completely true. So never put one end of it higher than the other, you see, although one end of it sounds much higher than the other. Neither is. And although both are equally relevant, this is very subtle because the mind can play that way: 'Ah, my true, true, true reality is that I am that, but therefore I'm just a servant,' and so it doesn't have that integrity, it doesn't have true servitude. It just seems like consolation. 'But what to do, you know, I have human life, what to do?'

What greater glory can we find than to be in service to God? What greater gift can we have than the fact that His presence is alive within ourselves? And Maya is just the ability to forget that, to make me relevant when God is here. That is the absurdity of Maya. Okay, I promised no monologue. I can hear, okay, just tumbling out. I can't really help it. So the fact that God is here, for it to get obscured under this emotional made-up construct...

It’s like consolation, but what to do? You know, I have human life. What to do? What greater glory can we find than to be in service to God? What greater gift can we have than the fact that His presence is alive within ourselves? And Maya is just the ability to forget that, to make me relevant when God is here. That is the absurdity of Maya. Okay, I promise no monologue. I can hear, okay, just tumbling out. I can't really help it. So, the fact that God is here, for it to get obscured under this emotional, made-up, conceptual 'me' is the greatest absurdity. The greatest absurdity. We don't live like God is here. Even in satsang, do we live like God is here? The living presence.

Okay, suppose I said to you—and I don't mean to ruffle any feathers or hurt any feelings, but this example is coming up so I'll share it—suppose I said to you that your great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother is now... her presence is in yourself now. Her presence is living inside yourself now. Great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. Will you just leave it and say, 'Ah, okay, must be. Let her be. I have things to do. I have emails to send. I have projects to finish'? I don't feel you would. But I'm informing you that it is God Himself. God Himself, who is a living presence within you. Within you. Whatever you are, not this body, but within you. How can our life not completely be transformed upon hearing this from a seemingly credible source? And hopefully, I'm credible for most of you who've been with me for some time. How can our life not be completely transformed by this fact? How can we go back to the rigmarole of a 'me-filled' life if God is a living reality within yourself? It has to be changed. It has to be transformed.

It may be transformed in one of two ways. The first is you say, 'But it's not true for me. It's not true for me. I don't find this God.' That's a fair thing to say. If it is true that that is what you feel, then you may say this and I trust you. But the fact is that it's not my living reality. I don't find this God. You may say this. But then what should our approach be? Our approach should be like the one who is being told that actually they're just wasting their life in a dead dream, in a dead haze, like a dead fog. And voices come within your heart to remind you of true life, the possibility of true life. So you cannot just hum it away. You can So-Ham it, but you can't hum it. So sorry. So you must dedicate your life to the discovery of this reality. And how to dedicate your life to the discovery of this reality? As much as you can, leave the lane empty for God. Get over yourself. Get over your next thought. Remain open and empty. Remain unborn.

So if you don't find God, it doesn't matter what you say in satsang hall. It doesn't matter what you say to your satsang friends, to your other friends and relatives. All of that, even to me, it doesn't really matter what you say. What matters is when you're alone by yourself. When you're alone by yourself, is the presence palpable and tangible for you? Is reality clear to you? The reports are not important. And don't build any pride around what your mouth has said, because what is important is when nobody else is looking and you don't have to perform for anyone, you don't have to be seen as somebody for anyone. Do you find yourself in His light, in His presence? Are you living your life in His light? That is what is important. Don't waste your life away just taking yourself to be a bundle of flesh.

So that is the first reaction you may have. The second reaction you may have is that, 'Yes, when I truly check, His presence, my presence—which is the same—my presence or His presence, which is the same, is here. Undeniably here.' But then, 'I don't stay with that,' or 'I don't stay with that enough.' And everybody can ask this question. See, I can also ask this question because 'enough' for me is 100%. Do I stay with Him 100%? I don't. So I need to deepen in my faith. I need to deepen in my trust, in my love, in my obedience, so that I can also live in His light 100%.

I want you all to truly with me take this inner commitment that with every power in your disposal, starting from this moment onwards, you will lead a life fully in His light. Nothing else will get importance from you. Your life will only be for Him. Your life will only be about Him. You will not actively create even the small patch on the wall which is your life. You will not create a single square inch of space for 'me,' because that will happen in the way of this world anyway. But if you give it permission, if you say, 'Yes, yes, this is all right. I can be proud about this,' or 'This is actually... I really know this. It's a fact. One brother is like this only, one sister is like that only,' as some of you have told me in the past, that 'Even if you tell me, I will not change my mind about it because this I really know.' That is your stubbornness. And that is the tail of the elephant which may get stuck in the eye of the needle even if the whole elephant goes through.

How much pride is okay? 0%. How we continue to have organically in the play of this world, maybe 0.001% or something like that. You can't be mathematical about it. But if you allow it, it is binary. It is 100%. If you give yourself permission to be proud about something, if you give yourself permission to judge a brother or sister even if it seems so real—remember this, Maya is designed to seem so real. God has designed it. He's the best designer. But it's a great seeming. So if you continue to go with all the seeming plays of light and sound and continue to judge each other, continue to feel special, continue to not be grateful, continue to not be prayerful, continue to designate God to a small altar in your life and maybe a small altar in your house, then it's not going to be a truly spiritual life.

And nowhere am I saying that we make this commitment now and boom, it's all over. I mean, I bless you and may it be so, but that is rarely seen, or that is actually never seen in the human condition. There will always be a work in progress. And to accept that needs a lot of humility. So the insight aspect, the finality of the insight aspect, has been marketed in spirituality as finality of the human condition. But that is just not true. Even Papaji said, 'Vigilance till my dying breath,' because this Maya is Mahamaya, the greatest con artist. She can hide in the tiniest grain of sand you give it. 'I'm such a big devotee of Ram.' Go! I feel between this and that, I feel this is better. God! So this inner sacredness, this inner emptiness... if every thought you believed was to become a frame in your temple, if it was to become a poster in your temple, then which thoughts would you buy? And whichever thoughts, whichever things are worth framing, you need those things only intuitively. If God was to do a post-mortem of your belief system, what will you find?

So whatever we can find for ourselves, we must offer up to God because nothing is hidden from Him anyway. It is right. What gives us the capacity to judge, and who are we to judge? So if I say, 'I'm not liking... He's not here.' I am not completely kidding, okay? But suppose I make that judgment. Who am I to make that judgment? What tools do I have to judge another's sincerity or goodness or rightness or niceness or truthfulness? Do I have a benchmark within me? Is my intellect capable of doing that? Is it? My mind is such a tiny, nonsensical instrument. It offers such primitive, stupid notions. And who am I to judge? And God is here.

So suppose Krishna—again, we'll use that metaphor, right?—Krishna is sitting here on the couch in the room. Then I'm judging, saying, 'This one is like this, this one is like that.' You see? Krishna is there. It's His job to take care of justice. If somebody has to be fixed, something has to be changed, whose job is it? So to take it on to ourselves, the non-existent 'me' which takes itself to be so special... and we put ourselves in a position where we judge another to be a liar. We are automatically claiming truthfulness. We are not usually judging, 'You're such a liar, but so am I.' Are we breathing like that? That's not a judgment. We say, 'That one, you know, is a real liar.' We may not say it to anyone, we may believe it: 'That one is a real liar.' We are automatically putting ourselves on a pedestal of truthfulness from which, from that perch, we can see another's lies.

But if you really were to look, if we really were to look, that seed of pride in us is the seed of all of these things that we may be judging our brothers and sisters for. And we have the affliction to at least that much extent. And I want to also say—it's coming to say, and I don't know how to measure this, but I feel like the judgment that we buy through the separation we create is much worse than what we are judging the other one for. So this one may be a complete liar, but my judgment that they are a liar, whereas I am nobody to make that judgment because all justice is God's alone, you see, is worse than that one's lies. So that is why, again, humility. Humble beggar, servant, has no... recognizes that they have no capacity for these things.

Notice the limited functioning of the mind. Just the bundle of thoughts. Bhagavan has told us, just the bundle of thoughts. And the intellect sits over there like the judge, seeing through all the thoughts, saying, 'Ah, good one is this, I'll keep this. Not so good,' you see, like that. But the intellect itself is just an extension of the mind itself. You have no capacity. So this is also the being of the human condition where we can ask the big questions: 'What is right? What is my purpose in life?' This is mind calling the question. It feels very fancy also. It can ask, 'What is the true nature of Consciousness? The nature of reality? What is knowledge itself?' It may ask, but what does it have where it can store the answer? In what can the answer about reality be stored by you? Have I lost all of you? In what way? Just a concept? No. The mind is just a bucket of concepts. And if reality was that tiny that it could be framed in concepts, then one book would have done it. Somebody would have written a book about reality and that's it. You don't need a vast library, just one book or one page. But it's not like that.

The questions the mind can ask, but the answers the mind cannot assimilate. It cannot even find. The answer has to be found by a deeper power within yourself, which is the Satguru presence, the Holy Spirit, the Atma only. There, your intuitive insight is where the answers can be found and lived. But we refuse to live there. All of you are refusing to live there. No, you refuse to live there. But I want to tell you that don't waste your life in that place. Come to your true house, your real house, where you're refusing to go. Commit and fail, and commit and fail, and commit and fail. That is what our life should become. Okay, sounding strange? Okay. So what is it? You commit, and you're living in God's light. Then an hour later, a day later, a week later, something is going to get you from the mind. Something is going to get you and say, 'But this needs a me. This is a job for Superman.' And then the 'me' has to come out, you see. So that's the failure. You did not trust or have faith in God in that moment. You started to have more faith in the non-existent 'me,' you see.

So that is a failure. Whatever. When... so then you recognize that either life slaps you or you come to satsung, something happens. Then you recognize that you made this error. So then you commit again. But don't fall into the two-punch and say, 'No, but I committed last time also, but I keep failing. I just can't do it. This is not going to happen.' This is everybody's life. Even a sage's life is like this. Commit, fail, commit, fail. Yes, it is. Why do you want it to be easy? So that is one more thing of the New Age sort of spirituality: the instant of the insight and the ease, the organic nature of it. We make it like, 'Okay, now this is very nice.' And that is why for the last three, four months, most of you have also been resisting, saying, 'But Father...'

I committed last time also, but I keep feeling I just can't do it. This is not going to happen.

This is everybody's life. Even a Sage's life is like this: commit, fail, commit. Yes, it is. Why do you want it to be easy? So that is one more thing of the New Age sort of spirituality: the instant, the insight, and the ease, the organic nature of it. We make it like, 'Okay, now this is very nice.' And that is why for the last three, four months, most of you have also been resisting, saying, 'But Bhagavan had said, but Yogi had said, but this one had said.' But if you really look, they've said also what I'm saying, you see? But we don't want that because it seems tedious. It seems that you were expecting, and when you're empty, your hands don't have to go like that. But when you are empty, it is like that, you see? It is like that. The world is just a waking dream and everything is just going, and you're free from all of this, is it? But don't ever let that get to you and for that to become a position. Or if there's one of you who said like, 'I've been empty for the last two years,' you're just barking up the wrong tree. 'I'm so empty, man, so, so empty. I don't know what you're talking about.' And I've noticed that the ones who claim the most emptiness are the ones that are the most easily rattled. The ones who claim the most emptiness—'But I am so empty, why do I need to be in servitude? I can just... I have seen that I am the Self' and all of that—then the slightest spoke in life, somebody tells them something, somebody says, 'Oh, you're not so nice,' so what happened to the emptiness? So don't let the ego trick you. My job is to keep hammering this point over and over again. Learn from the experience of this foolish boy and try to not make the same mistakes. So don't attach to any position, including that of emptiness.

So accept that life will be like this always? It gets less tedious?

So when you... one second on this tediousness part. So, okay, versus what is option two? You don't do this. Tell me a more tedious part or less tedious part that is a solution to the human condition.

Yes. So what would happen in that? Suppose you came to the finality of spirituality, you had like a hot seat experience, an awakening experience. You saw that you are That, that there is no 'me.' Then things of the world won't bother me too much, just constantly like that. Something to enjoy also, like that. Something to enjoy also. You want it should not bother me, but it should still be very enjoyable.

Like nothing in the world... that joy comes out of something outside. Like, I know, I don't know, I'm speculating. Brahman like that, just... and nothing ever shakes you, nothing. Have you met someone like that? I'm telling you every day I'm very foolish. It's not true about this one at least, and I can more or less speak on everyone's behalf whoever is sharing that it is not true 100%. It is just not true. And even the Avatars came and showed us this. We got Ram just to reassure us. Maybe, Father, it gets tough, but can I just paint the contrast? So the contrast is what? A rare moment of emptiness and a constant... 'This is right, this is wrong, why should... what should I do next? What should I say? What does he think of me? What is he going to do? Where am I going to go? What should I have for lunch?' You see? All of this stuff. That is the alternative to saying: commit, then by author to identify, then recognize the taste of that, retreat back to your home, commit to the emptiness, to God's light and presence. That is much, much better. It's like having a constant bad dream versus just one or two flickers of some fear and then returning home. So I realized to the mind it's sounding tedious because I'm saying it as if it is work, you see? But emptiness is the absence of everything, including work. But it'll seem like work because, you know that porter example? For a while it will seem like you have to keep picking up the bags, and to not pick them up will seem like work. But actually, it is the only rest. To be in God's presence is the source of peace and rest. Why do most humans get rest only when they're sleeping? Okay, I don't want to make any pseudo-scientific nonsensical things, okay? But I'm saying that usually what happens, if we are lucky in the human condition from what I've seen from people at work and things like that, is that people wake up reasonably fresh, you see? And then they get more and more and more and more tired, tired, tired. Work was... and then the only rest and peace is when they go back to sleep. So instead of that, those who live in God's presence don't experience that. And I'm not talking about physical tiredness. Physical tiredness is just fine. It's the nature of the body to expend itself and replenish itself. I'm talking on mental, psychological, emotional—all of this extra burden that we put onto ourselves. Most people at the end of the day, especially in the modern world, are not tired of the physicality; they're tired of just dealing with their mind. And it can seem like a constant attack and the play of emotions. We just want a break from all of that. But that respite is there in God's presence. That's why some who meditate will meditate 20 minutes and they say, 'I'm feeling so fresh.' Do some pranayama, 'I'm feeling so fresh,' because rest and rejuvenation also comes only from His presence. That is why when you turn inwards, your body may get tired because that is the nature of physicality, the nature of physics in some way, but you are fresh inwardly. You have to actually check sometimes. Somebody asks you, 'Are you tired?' you see? And then you have to look at the condition of the body and say, 'Yeah, it's true, the body is feeling tired.' So it can happen like that. But you are not, because you're not in the mental slavery, in the mental oppression, in the emotional upheaval. You're living in the holy space of God's presence. And this by no means means that God cannot change the state of your body. That's not a thing. If it's His will, your body may not get tired at all. But why we want to ask for these kind of silly things? The nature of the body is it feels tired. There's something nice about physical tiredness also. Am I sounding weird? At the end of the day, doesn't it feel good when the body is just physically tired? It just feels like, 'Yes, now it needs to just rest.' It feels so nice. It is only this, the head, which seems oppressive.

Father, serving Him, does it mean that being humble, being grateful, is it the same thing or no?

That is the road to making the lane empty. That is the way to keep the lane empty for Him, the table set for Him. Because otherwise we are so full of ourselves, where is the focus on Him? What is humility? Do not take yourself to be anything, including humble. So humility is to not take yourself to be anything. Pride is to take yourself to be something based on something that you think you know. Try to do it. No, come to the presence and try to keep the presence tangible and palpable while you go on some mental adventure taking yourself to be special or know something or pick any thought. What happened? Gone. It can seem like, 'What God? What God is he talking about?' see? Because this world then seems real. This seems like the window to the world and there's nothing else. It's just a bunch of organs, flesh, blood, bones. It's a complete switch out. And then you go back to God's presence. What is this world? Nothing. Just a play of light and sound on your screen. So you will not be able to achieve having allegiance to the mind and God. Nobody has been able to do it. You will not be the first one to do it. You cannot say, 'I am going to hold a personal intention and live in God 100%.' At least your commitment should be to not have that intention, not have an individual will. Some of you are struggling in this project and some of you are not even meeting the project.

So, my definition was unless I'm feeling good about myself, it's not right. But when you said the judging and conditioning... so every moment other than God is pride? Then you said that the lane is so...

It's all of these things. It is the absence of faith, see? It's the absence of faith. If God is real, what are we going on doing with the unreal? Faith means what? To take your intuitive insight to be reality and your mental constructs to be unreal, isn't it? That is faith. So what is your faith telling you? What is real? What is your intuition telling you? The presence is real. That unconditional love is real. That the true nature of myself is pure awareness. So God is here. That means the presence is real. Then what are we doing with playing with unreality? That is lack of faith. It's very important to meet the true spiritual project. Many of you are fooling yourselves, resting on past laurels, laurels of insightful moments, but still serving the 'me,' still making everything about 'me.'

Father, okay. See, yeah, just to let you know because there are quite some hands raised in the online group now. So yeah, I just want to know if we can pop up, you know, as we wish, like the Sangha with you, because I feel it's a bit frustrating and I don't know, is it okay? Okay, you go first. Yeah. Oh, I wanted to say Kaa to go because she was the first. Maybe she wants... no, okay, let's go first. Yes, thank you. And I go second. Atma, love you. Love you too. I have to listen to the voice of Atma, what to do? You have to... okay, that's what the whole satsang has been about actually. I don't think... actually I don't think I was first. I think Bodhi Tara was before me if we're going to go in order. But okay, see, let's... okay, okay, okay. Hold on, where are you? So, to speak for... to come... yes, there you are. Oh shoot, now it's me again. That's okay, okay, okay.

So, I am caught off guard, sorry. I raised my hand originally to kind of report on something, and this satsang is so strong right now and such strong medicine because everything you've said, every single thing I'm guilty of, every single thing. And what I was going to say is, you know, this huge storm and rage arose that I haven't really felt in a while, and that has been here for a few days. And so at first it was like I just let it take over and didn't even try, you know? I didn't try at all. I just felt justified in it. And then I was like, 'No, this isn't... no, this isn't... I'm not going to do this, you know? I'm not going to play this game.' And so I started meditating, praying, chanting, singing, everything, everything. I sat in silence and inquired and everything. And then, you know, the most simple thing happened where it was actually... I had done all these in-depth things of trying to kind of come back home, and the simplest thing is the thing that did the switch, which was just saying like, 'Nope, I'm not... I'm not going with this.' Just that simple. That simple. Even just saying it in that way, immediately just like... and just back, you know? And it's just so amazing like that, how just... you know, how something just so simple like that can just switch you out. And it seems so big when you're in it, though. It seems so real, so real. And something so simple like, 'Nope, I'm not going with you. I'm not going with that.'

Yeah, just... but you know, that's a good point to make. Because when it seems real, like you made that expression—no, can you make it again? What that... how did you do it? Yeah, yeah, get a smell of this. Like, this is the 'seeming real.' And when you meet reality, how is it? It's like simple flavor altogether. So once you start to get used to the smell of it, you know, you then stay away from that, the mental grasping and the seeming reality, and you remain in the reality of the spaciousness and things. So even when you find yourself inwardly becoming like that, you know, just that, then know that you're walking the wrong road. It will seem very right. The mind is convincing you that you are right, that your judgments are right, what you're concluding is right.

It's like a simple flavor all together. So once you start to get used to the smell of it, you know, you then stay away from that mental grasping and the seeming reality, and you remain in the reality of the spaciousness and things. So even when you find yourself inwardly becoming like that, you know, just then know that you're walking the wrong road. It will seem very right. The mind is convincing you that you are right, that your judgments are right, what you're concluding is right. It is saying all of those things to you. But if you just find your inner temperature becoming like that, know the inner posture becoming like that, know that you're walking the wrong road. Just return to a spaciousness, return to a softness which is, yeah, just like that. Yeah, that is a good, good tip as well.

So we must find... on YouTube I came across a video, you know, in America what they do is, because everybody in the suburbs have these lawns and these roads, what they do is they use a device which just cleans everything up so fast. You know, it's like a spray. It sprays water and it's full of like some power it gets from somewhere and just cleans up the whole road so quickly, quickly. Power wash, yeah, something like that. So what you have to do is you have to find what that is for you that will keep your inner temple empty and sacred for God. So when you're getting caught up in jealousy and judgment and righteousness and specialness and all of that stuff, find that thing—whether it's open and empty, whether it is inquiry, whether it is invitation, whether it is detached witnessing, whether it is whatever you found. Just in that moment, whatever feels like you can do the clean-up job is you clean up your temple. Don't have a dirty temple. Yeah, that's basically it, you see, because then God's presence will become palpable.

Well, it definitely changes, Father. And I'm not in God 100%, you know, I'm not.

And this is true for all of us. This is true for all of us. So, and that is why we must continue to be humble. What is it that we have, what is it that I have which is so special? Let me mute everyone. If you were to really look, what pride can we take? What pride can I take? I come up here and I sit, then God uses this instrument as He pleases. What did I do in that? Nothing at all. Mine is the easiest job. Even the most foolish one, if he makes themselves or she makes themselves available for God in this way, God may use them. So spiritual pride is the most absurd sort of thing, but it is also the most prevalent thing. And all of you in some way are dealing with it or meeting it, rooting it out hopefully. So that's why I want to keep lighting this fire so that we never become complacent about it.

Yeah, I'm grateful for it because it's not always seen as spiritual pride until you point it out. So, and I hope it becomes quicker and more clear.

Yes, for those who are really longing for God in their heart, when they pick up pride, they start to suffer very fast. So that suffering is a very quick indicator, a quick alarm clock for most of us who are now sensitive to this. Otherwise, in the world, it may happen that we keep playing with pride for a long time and the suffering seems to arrive so much later. But it is because we keep missing all the nudges from our heart. Now as our sensitivity is increasing, we keep finding all the nudges in our heart. We keep noticing the small things which we are still proud about. So we don't have to wait for a tight slap to come. Even the slightest nudge can get us to look and become empty. So suffering is a very good tool, a very beautiful tool. You must always look at it gratefully as an alarm clock that shakes us out of our complacency and our pride.

Can I say something though? Honestly, what's coming up right now is when these nudges come, you know, there's a difference between avoiding these nudges and thinking that I'm observing them or ignoring them. But when you ignore... the difference between ignoring a nudge and actually suppressing it until it grows and becomes bigger. Maybe my discernment is not so clear in that, and that's what's happening, I guess, you know.

And so it can happen, yeah. That's why I could have actually just said empty, you know. I could have just said empty instead of open and empty. But I emphasize on the fact of open and empty because you may hear just empty as closed, as closed and empty, you see. So you're sort of repressing everything else. You're not in full acceptance of everything that is arising. So then all of that can just fester and you're trying to maintain like a space: 'Don't come here, don't come,' you see. So it's all festering, festering, festering. It keeps festering but you're trying to be empty. But the only true way to be empty is to be open and empty. Okay? Everything can come and everything will naturally go. Everything will come and everything will go. So that is why open and empty, not closed and emptiness, yeah, is important because that is when we're really in the Unborn. That is when we're really in the detached witnessing.

So it's all pointing to us leaving the lane empty for God by remaining open and then not closed. We try to protect even our spiritual emptiness. Our spiritual pride tries to protect our state in some way by reinforcing it with making a fence out of spiritual concepts and knowledge that we think we have, you see. What is more important is to return to a sheer innocence of not knowing anything at all conceptually, because that is where you truly know in the heart. And more and more it will seem natural to you. To be caught up in the mind or to use judgment and all of those things will seem more and more constricted and alien and a bit like that expression you did when you said 'seems real' like that. That will start to feel away.

And just subtly... it's so subtle because what you're saying is so subtle. Because to make those subtle conclusions about things, I didn't realize I was doing that.

Why these days... these days I get more concerned when someone is saying, 'It's all easy, easy for me.' It's not easy. And it doesn't mean we take the position of the struggler or something like that, no, because even that can then become a position. But I'm just saying that I'm very suspicious of one who says, 'I'm just in the Unborn and just empty.' It can happen like that. For one or two chapters, Ashtavakra and Janaka had a conversation and then the rest of it was just Ashtavakra avoiding any pride from setting into Janaka. So he's questioning him, he's poking him, he was just like prodding and seeing what is coming. And of course, Janaka being Janaka, all the heartfelt sage-like responses came from his heart. So it became a beautiful conversation between two sages after the first one or two chapters.

So that is why it's such a beautiful scripture. As opposed to other scriptures where mostly the questioner remains in the seeker position till the end and maybe even after the end of the scripture, but in this case, just one or two main pointings were needed by Janaka. But Ashtavakra didn't leave Janaka like that. He kept prodding, he kept pushing, he kept saying, 'But what about this? But what about that?' Because pride, pride, pride. What is dangerous about pride is that it doesn't seem like pride; it seems like right. It seems like right. Because nobody wants to be proud, but everybody feels like they need to be right. Yeah. And what are we basing our right on? What are we basing a right on? We may say, and many of my children have had tangles with me, 'But it is like that, no? But it is like that.' See, what is that based on? That itself which you yourself and your Vedantic knowledge say it is unreal. Is this world based on perception and things like that? You make judgments about right and wrong, but perceptions themselves are not right. So that's why I was saying earlier that we don't have the capacity to make these forms of judgments. And if you don't make these forms of judgments, then pride cannot be. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. And you can sing at the end, no? Please remind me. Oh, I don't have to, I can, but I noticed your message late after Gopala started. Right, let's go. Let's go to who was second? Not Atma, Atma is always first. Let's go to... can you hear me? Please, can you hear me?

Yes, my Father, I can hear you. Yes, okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. If some other being wants to ask something, I'm happy to just even not to talk, but thank you so much. I feel like I've answered every question already. Yes, I'm just happy to hear more. Yes, because I don't really have a question, but I just wanted to... this is the way how I can touch your feet, Father, you know. I can touch your feet or live with your feet, or I don't know how else to say that. This love is so pure and such... I'm so grateful to feel this again, you know. So it's here and it beautifies everything. It's like when I walk through the day, it's like these lotus flowers are popping up, you know, like wherever I look it just pops up and opens up. And the same I feel in my heart, but it's not like heart, it's like... I don't know, that's how I feel when there is fire on Arunachala, you know, when they light up the fire. It just feels like this is what the heart I'm trying to describe.

You know, Father, this was like one of the things I wanted to clarify was like this silent meditation, empty mind with Guruji is beautiful. But I am hardly... the mind is hardly ever empty, you know, like open and empty. It's just like there is always something, not always, there is often something going on. It takes some time to just really like, okay, you played enough, you exhausted yourself. But there is nothing that would have any chance to control that or to be able to influence that. It's just happening. Yes, but Father, I don't know what happened, but it's just... you say sometimes don't even tell me, or you said it once, but it's like, you know, like there is this inner temple, that holiness in us all. And I need a second because I'm trying to find it. It's just this, it just is, you know, that it just is. And whenever even if this world, like a seeming world, is an illusion, it's still this. Like I'm aware of that, that I'm walking through that.

And sometimes like the something that used to be and maybe still is, is like the place where these attachments and vasanas... I'm aware of those, you know, because it always like flares up, this sickness I would say, you know. It's like, oh my God, it feels not good. But you say, 'Am I aware now?' and it's always like it happens spontaneously. Like God, when you say God is here, God is really here. God is here. And I hear that like when in monasteries they just ring the bell and the sound of the bell that is so beautifully cutting through all this, like mind doesn't exist because just the sound of the bell. Sorry that I speak like this, I'm trying to get into that even... I'm not saying that I'm sitting in that holy position and it's just not, it's not like that. But once it's just happening like automatically. Even during this, I confess, even during this as we're supposed to do, or okay, well I committed to do that, sitting for half an hour, observe the mind. But it seems like this is also part of that, but it can't be limited to half an hour because the whole life, whole life, like everything is that, you know. So what I'm trying to say, thank you for your patience, what I'm trying to say is that at some point it is like even repeated within mechanically. It's just... it's not... I'm sorry if it's like arrogant or so, it's...

I confess, even during this, as we're supposed to do—or okay, well, I committed to do that sitting for half an hour, observe the mind—but it seems like this is also part of that. But it can't be limited to half an hour because the whole life, whole life, like everything is that, you know? So what I'm trying to say—thank you for your patience—what I'm trying to say is that atma-ram is, like, even repeated within mechanically. Yeah, it's just... it's not—I'm sorry if it's like arrogant or so—it's not even important if it's like I'm really sitting in it. Like for the first time, even me, like a so-called mechanically, when I'm at work and something is happening, you know, I go, 'Oh Lord Jesus Christ.' I do that. Not I do that; it is doing it. I don't know. And it's just so beautiful. And I am so grateful for introducing this. And I say now, me, and I'm so grateful, Father, to introduce me to bhakti, you know? That was what I always admired on Indian... like a gift to the world, to people, because this is what is missing in the West, and it's why we often are freaked out. In bhakti, it's a... it's like a blessing. God is blessing me.

May I say one more thing, please? I just want to say that on this particular point—and thank you for your report, a beautiful report—just on this point of the Indian way being bhakti and things like that. You know, as Indians, we love to take credit for everything. Like everything has happened in India; all the great inventions were made in India. We love to take credit for everything. But I have to say that the devotional aspect of it, of course, is very, very strong in Indian spirituality, but it's very strong in the West as well in terms of those who are really devoted to Christianity, those who are really devoted to the West of India, then we also have Islam. So there's a lot of devotion everywhere in the world.

But what can happen is that usually the kind of temperaments that get attracted to satsang like this, which traditionally sounds like Jnana Yoga, is that which is more of an intellectual temperament. And especially in the West, if you're with an intellectual temperament, then bhakti seems very strange and absurd and far-fetched. So in that way, I feel like one thing I can say is that maybe in India it is very natural for both Jnana and bhakti to strive together in some sense. And I'm happy to share that message more with everyone that I get a chance to share. But I have to also say that a lot of this... Chai, I feel, reminded me the other day that last Diwali, which is just about a year away from where we are today, in last Diwali I was reading Kierkegaard and then reading the Bible and watching The Chosen and things like this. And that has definitely solidified the message of devotion and faith here much more than I was sharing in the past. So although you may say the Indian tradition has brought it, I have to give some credit to the Western tradition for bringing it strongly to this expression as well.

So it's just beautiful grace that it happened. Yes, Father, thank you. And The Chosen—I don't know what it is and how it works, but I'm like watching it very often and it just speaks in... you know, it feels like there is no difference between like a time difference because the situations are here.

Yeah, so I feel it really works because it is very heartfelt. I feel like it is done very sincerely and it's very heartfelt. And I feel like somewhere the feeling is to share God's light and love through that project more than any other commercial purposes or things like that. So I just feel like most of my friends and satsang members who have seen this beautiful show have been very touched by it. Even those who were not naturally attracted to Christianity or listening to or watching the story of Jesus, they've been very touched by this beautiful show. And I feel like because it is heartfelt, it feels like the hand of God is there. Although sometimes, as somebody who's very used to watching cinema and things like that, you may find the acting a bit amateurish at points, but it doesn't spoil it in any way because it's so heartfelt in terms of what they're trying to convey. So yeah, I feel like a beautiful gift to the world.

Father, thank you very much. And I just... I don't know how to say that. I wish or I pray for your good health and so you are strong for us and for your family as well.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. All my love, all my blessing. Also, it's been great, this exploration of Christian... because I realized that the core constructs are exactly like Vedanta, you see? Exactly like Vedanta. Between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit versus the Nirguna Brahman, the Saguna Brahman, and the presence of Atma, or the Brahman, Paramatma, and Jivatma. There are so many constructs in Vedanta, but all of them align very beautifully in the construct of three-in-one and one-in-three, that actually there's no distinction. And yet there's a qualitative seeming distinction in the way to meet that. So it's been very revealing in terms of the similarity more than anything else.

And what is so absurd, actually, is the ability in the human condition of the mind to make these sort of distinctions and boundaries and say, 'No, no, my way is better, this way is not this thing. I am a Hindu, he's a Christian, she's a Muslim.' All this kind of nonsense gets in the way of us truly meeting the pointings of God from the heart itself, from intuition itself. It gets blocked in all of these stupid judgments that we all tend to get into. So I'm very grateful for this exploration that has happened. Also, thank you. Thank you so much. Okay, let's go to Sam.

Hi, Father.

Hello, my dear. So while you frame what you can see, something is coming to say that the crux of what I've said in satsang today is that just have this like a reverse vacuum, no? Like a blower, like a blowing machine that just cleans up everything in your space, your inner space. Yes, just that. The rest is up to God. But if you get attached to things and you keep them, you give them space within yourself, then we're not really fulfilling the longing in our heart for God's light. So just be empty like that. That's okay. Emotions will come, thoughts will come; they will seem so real, they will seem so true. But the only true thing about you is God's light.

May I say something, Father? Yes, yes. I don't know. I just... not as present or actually with these words, but I really pray to feel God as Father or God as God, just so much. Yeah, yeah. Very good. You said you pray to be with God as Father, as God, in whatever terms you use. I need this recognition.

Yes, you need it. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You don't... okay, so I'll give you a simpler way. Just keep your eyes on God and not even on anything that you need. Don't know what you need or don't need. Don't determine anything like that because He is intelligent. He's the source of all intelligence. In which way He has to unfold for you, how you have to meet His light and love, we can leave that also to Him. We are not to put Him in a box and say, 'This is how I want You and this is not how I want You.' Nothing like that. Just leave all of that also. Just God, God, God, God. Ram, Ram, Ram. Krishna, Krishna, Krishna. Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Whatever resonates in our heart, but then leave it to Him. It is not our place to create boxes for Him and say, 'You must be like this' or 'You must not be like this.' He is God, after all. Who are we to give Him insight? We are nobody to give Him insight in terms of how He must be. Insight has to come from Him to us. Therefore, the question really is: what is your heart saying to you?

I just want to meet God with how it comes from my heart naturally. And in the way that I'm hearing you, it doesn't help. I'm not saying what you say, but what I'm hearing you, it does not help me. It just creates distance between me and God. I just want to come very natural to my heart, like a child or whatever, in whatever way it comes, just very...

Yeah, yeah. There's still too much 'I want, I want.' I don't know if you can hear it. So you are able to determine what is helpful for you. You are able to determine what you want. And you're using the word 'in the natural way,' but it is not the natural way because it is contaminated by your mental projections. I'm sorry, I know this may not—again, you may not feel it is helpful—but that's my only job, to tell you. I don't smell the emptiness in your words when you say, 'This is what is coming from my heart.' I smell the tantrum of a child who's saying, 'This is what I want.'

I didn't say it comes natural. I said I want to come natural.

Do you want? No, so leave that. Yes, I... how will you follow God's will if you burden it with 'I want to,' which is your will? How will you follow God's will? How can you follow God's will if you burden it first with my will? 'I want, I want it to be even natural.' You see, your wanting it to be natural is removing the naturalness. Just be empty, my child, and see.

From... you said something in satsang and it somehow made me empty. Like, you said something and it really like unburdened me a little bit. Like we meet with God and then we fail, and again somehow I fail. And I sometimes... yeah, like sometimes this fail is not even in my hands. Like it just happens. And those times I feel a little bit angry because I did my best, but it's not even I turn my back to Him, but He left.

Huh? No, you didn't turn your back to, but He left then? No, I would like to see that at all if it is possible. So if He didn't leave, then how can you have a problem? If He didn't leave... you say, 'No, He did not leave.' I asked you whether, in spite of you not turning away from Him, whether He left. You say, 'No, He didn't leave. He is here.' So then if He's here, then what problem can you have in His presence? What problem do we have if my eyes are set on God but my whole world is burning around me, including this body? What problem do I have?

And what can make us angry with God? What right and what capacity do we have to judge God, to say, 'You were unfair to me and therefore my anger at You is justified'? Do we even realize the words that we are speaking? About whom are we talking? And of course, it is Him, so He will forgive our childishness. But what are we to get angry with God? Like the grain of sand saying, 'I don't like the way the sun is shining today. It should shine from left to right instead of right to left.' What are we talking about?

I don't know Him, Father. All I know is just myself and this world. You said things like this, but I don't see Him.

So when you said that He did not go away, what did you mean? When you said that when I didn't turn away from Him, He did not leave? This is just what you told us. It is just a concept.

No, it's just a concept. Then what is it? It seems like again me... this is what you told us.

Yes, translating into... translating into an intuitive insight or just a concept that you heard from me? No, not just the concept. Okay, so the intuitive insight of His presence here. See, I don't find the report... even if you say, 'I'll be honest with you, Ananta, I haven't met God like you said earlier,' you see? So I'm just clarifying whether that is what you meant. Okay, was that just your... listen to me, Father, I'm sorry, I'm listening.

See, what is the best thing I can do to serve you right now? I'll do that. Tell what you... what is it that you want?

I don't know. I wish that God knows for me and do what is needed. This is what I want. But I really want that something happen. Yeah, and so many times I really did not receive answer to my prayers. But this time I'm asking to receive an answer because Guruji also, I heard him said something like this: 'If you pray, He will give an answer to you.' And I did this countless times and I did not get an answer. And I trusted him. I trust.

Do to serve you right now, I'll do that. Tell what you—what is it that you want? I don't know. I wish that God knows for me and do what is needed. This is what I want. But I really want that something happen, yeah. And so many times I really did not receive answer to my prayers, but this time I'm asking to receive an answer because guruji also, I heard him said something like this: if you pray, he will give an answer to you. And I did this countless times and I did not get an answer. And I trusted him; I trusted what he said, but I didn't get answer. But I still continue to trust. But this time I want to get. And as I said, I don't know what I need, but God has to know what I need.

So, okay. So can I say something about this? I don't know, because I cannot lie to you. So you tell me whether you want to hear it or no. I can keep quiet or I can tell you the truth, but I will not lie to you.

Say so. The truth.

Truth is that God answers every single prayer that we make. He does. What you're really saying is that 'I did not get the answer that I wanted' or 'I was looking for.' Is that what you're saying? Also, we must remember that that he answers our prayer is his mercy, not our entitlement. He has no need to answer our prayer, but because of his care for us, he answers them. But are we going to determine in what way what has to happen and only that then I will accept his answer? Because I am somebody who can make a judgment about his will? And because you call me Father and I feel that you are my child in my heart, to you I have to tell you that this is not the right position at all we must take with God. We don't have any entitlement. He is the Lord of a zillion universes; we are not even a grain of sand. If he listens to us, it's his grace and his mercy. It is not something that is part of a contract that we have, and we are nobody to judge the outcome and then to be angry with him. And in your innocence, you are saying all of this, and that's why it's fine. But it is my job as your father to remind you that that is not the right inner attitude to take. And I know it's not true for you also; it's just some frustration or some anger which is speaking right now. And it's not my fault, that's why maybe I'm angry. What what has happened that is not your fault? Why do you feel like he was not there for you or he did not help you? Can you ask again?

Yes.

What is causing this sort of frustration with God? What is happening for—is he feeling disconnected from you at this moment, or his presence is palpable?

Not palpable. I'm I just I'm I'm not sure to bring all these things to you. At least like I prefer that that hears them, yeah. But it's like I don't want to be in complaining mode, like this happened to me, that happened to me. I don't want to speak in that way. But I want to grow out of that actually, because I know so many people just suffers from so many things and maybe mine are nothing in compares to them, and I'm just a spoiled child. But I see that how they come within me too also, because somehow like very innocent, Father, just really I can say that like very innocently just I'm falling into that state. But that's why I'm saying it's just not my fault. And I I know that God hears them, but at some point I don't know, I just need to pour all these things out to God's feet and ask for help. And also I I want to thank for all these hardships because it really just make me more compassionate towards people and I can really feel them in my heart. Because before that I had no depth to see or feel those who have hardship, and this this only give me this, you know, this this is the greatest gift.

Yeah. So let me ask the question again. Is his presence felt by you, or are you feeling disconnected from it?

I think I'm I'm still struggling a little bit, Father, like how I grow up with the concept of God and how I'm hearing from guruji and you you and yeah. I I I have still this struggle and that's why I'm not easily able to give a response to your question. And I I can say that since I know myself I have so much connection with God even when I was a little child. But yeah, this makes me confused, like maybe not presently the way you speak, but this non-dual way of speaking and how I take his grace. It's just I'm not still clear very strangely on this, maybe conceptually, maybe not in my heart, but yeah.

Yes. But whichever way, with whatever mode of hearing, whatever line of spirituality, the common thread between all of them has to be the reality of God's presence. Because I don't feel like there can be spirituality without spirit, and spirit is just another name for God's presence. So whatever you hear, whatever confusion is there, all of that is at a different level, at a different layer. What is being felt in your heart? Is he there or no?

Always there, Father.

Yes. So this one, when you're with this one, what is missing or what more can we want? Just make sure you stay with that one even as you answer the question. Father, may I? Life is straightforward. It's either his presence or it is an hellish experience. We cannot change that. We just have to accept that and surrender and make ourself available to his grace. Okay, very good. All my love, all my blessings. Let's go to yes, can you hear me?

Yes, yes. Great. Okay, I'm just trying to get back to you because I myself right now, yeah. Good, thank you so much. How blessed we are, Father. Blessed we are to have your presence, your guidance, your love, your unconditional love, your time, your I mean—and thank you for every word you said today. It raised this and this desire to be fully, fully taken. And sometimes I just don't understand how I can come back to, you know, human desires and stuff when when this alone is so beautiful and so just complete. So I don't know how it works and I don't know why, maybe it's the play. But see that there are still desires, you know, for the person and projections and yeah, many many things are seen thanks to your satsang and guidance. And yeah, I feel it's not up to to to this limited one, you know. So yeah, may may may God hear me that that this just becomes an instrument of grace and just yeah, that all the desires vanish for for the me. That this me be fully seen for just a thought after another, and may all pride, all personal, you know, all this pettiness, all this all these thing can can be just washed away. Yeah, thank you so much. I love you so much.

Love you, love you. And my full blessings are with you. And you must stay at this and remember that the human condition is like that. We commit to stay, follow his will, live in his light, and then the mind tempts us with something. Then we either just notice it or we suffer and notice it. But after we notice it, we just must drop it and come back to God. And then again the cycle may repeat itself and will repeat itself most likely. But that is not to dishearten us; it is just to make the project very clear to us that the play of identification will continue to dissolve, but may not disappear completely. And we must never become prideful or arrogant or complacent about that. So my all my love, all my blessings always with you, and may God's light shine on you so brightly. May you find a beautiful home there in your heart. Thank you so much.

Welcome. You're welcome. Thank you, thank you.

The video is a bit frozen today because the internet may not be so good where you are, but I heard everything you said and that is important. So thank you. Thank you. Love you. Okay, let's go to last one, Madalina. One more. Okay.

Hello, Father.

Hello. Are you going to make a report of God?

I'm going to make—I don't know if I'm making a report or anything if I'm entitled to that. I'm just going to thank you for this this grace that vacuum me back to my heart.

Very good, very good.

And just throughout this satsang and the interactions with my sisters—I don't think we had any brother today—I just know that I am pretty much in everyone and that in me. From Kisha's recognition, guilt—I'm guilty too. I'm guilty of pride and arrogance and wanting to be right.

And this may this guilt be just a word that we using, not for the mental position of holding on to the identity of being a guilty one. But what you're saying actually implies that you're saying that you're noticing these conditions. You're noticing these tendencies are there to latch on to thoughts about pride, thoughts about specialness or knowing something or being right. So let it be a noticing sort of recognition, because we don't want to fall for the one-two punch. The two punch being guilt and unworthiness and things like that.

I notice all of them, including the guilt and the unworthiness. And it's not only thoughts, but it's also actions. And yeah, I ask for forgiveness and I offer up all this identity that shades, I guess, my heart and my connection with you and God.

May God forgive us all for this error that we all end up making of letting go of his light, of his will, and to our our ideas, our intelligence, our will. So may God bless us all and help us all. Yeah, thank you.

Amen. Thank you. Thank you for gratitude and love to you and guruji for this grace and and love and compassion to all of us. Thank for not giving up on us. Thank thank you thank you so much. Thank you.

Welcome. Okay, let's go to Itm.

Yes, thank you. Thank you. I I just feel to say thank you for reminding us so much and so often and so constantly about serving. Loving is serving. And because it is just the what actually broad the the vision and and changes the the angle. Every time I suffer, suffer is because I I take myself too seriously and and and I forget how much I love the world and and and and God. I mean, how much gratitude is is prevalent to anything else actually. But it's incredible how quickly, because it's a whole culture we we've grown up in to to be worthy or unworthy as you say. The one-two punch is is very efficient. It's amazing. And and it's so amazing and I I I feel to to to say there's a, you know, thing I remind sometimes. It's a a question, I don't know how it's presented, but it's a question: Do you know what is the difference between hell and and heaven? Okay, if the question is okay, what is the what okay, what is it? So you know, in in the in the hell, it's just simple. You have you get so so much food and you have everything, but you have to eat with very, very long forks. And that's so long you can—the forks, forks, forks, forks. Okay, forks, yes, or or spoons, whatever. Yeah, they are so long that you cannot you cannot you cannot eat. And okay, okay, that's terrible. Yes, sure, sure it's terrible. You you suffer. And and and so, but can you tell me please what is then what is heaven then? Oh, heaven is it's exactly the same. It's exactly the same. You have the long forks and the good food, everything, everything is there. But but then what what is the difference? Yeah, the difference is very simple. In heaven, each one is feeding the other. And I I'm so touched by this. I'm it is so true love that it is so true. Heaven and hell is that in heaven it's all the same things, but everyone is helping feeding each other instead of themselves. Beautiful. And yeah, it sound it sounds so true somehow, not because in a moralistic way, but because it is joy. Yes, yeah. That's so I felt to to share this today and and it just came now and it's so resonating with all you what you show us to to to the real gratitude which is actually the the reality of our heart and which we overlook because we we just think 'I must, I should, I I I I I I I suffer so much.' Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Thank you for this. Thank you for this. And I feel like this one, this story will stay with me and may get shared in also. It's very beautiful. Oh, I'm happy it came to me today because many times I was reminding of this also with guruji sometimes.

It's so resonating with all you what you show us to the real gratitude, which is actually the reality of our heart and which we overlook because we just think, 'I must, I should, I suffer so much.' Thank you so much. Thank you for this. Thank you for this. And I feel like this one, this story, will stay with me and may get shared also. It's very beautiful.

Oh, I'm happy it came to me today because many times I was reminded of this also with Guruji. Sometimes it came, but I never... and oh, I'm so happy I could share today because it is so precious, so precious. Very beautiful, very good. If we find ourselves resisting bowing our head down before our brothers and sisters, then remember that our talk about servitude to God is just talk. It is not possible without such a deep humility. So, all of this, in all of these ways, the Maya, this play, can help us get deeper in our hearts. As long as there are humble beggars, servants in this world, we must look and we must see that there is no reason why we must take ourselves to be any better than them. And in this humility, from this humility, the sharing, the love, the true brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed. True satsang can be created only on this foundation as well. Thank you. Thank you all for these beautiful interactions and insights and conversations today.

You were saying, yeah, yes, just... and thank you so much for the Heart Temple movement. It's just, yeah, it's just a growing garden. It is just pure joy, pure joy to watch this. Just thank you so much. And I know, yeah, I feel so much how deeply it's working in each one's heart. It's so beautiful to see that.

Very... and thank you for this reminder. And I want to gently encourage all of you also to participate in the Heart Temple movement. Some of you maybe just getting blocked by your mind, maybe just some irrational fears maybe coming, some fears of rejection, some fears of having to put some effort or all of this. But I really feel truly in my heart that it is natural for those who are finding Him to naturally share Him and to create platforms, opportunities for our brothers and sisters to come to His light in the most innocent and organic way. If we just make ourselves available and not constrain ourselves with the mental fears and the mind attacks that we may be getting, then we will see that Grace unfolds according to His will. You will see such beautiful Grace unfolding in your lives as well. Thank you for that reminder, and I'm happy to encourage everyone to participate in this small initiative which could be very potent if it even touches a few hearts. Even one heart, if it is turned to God because of this, I feel like all my encouragement and pleading is worthwhile.

I feel to say it is... I feel this very much just as you say now. And I see in my case here in Europe, it's of course a bit different than from India. The relation to God is destroyed somehow, and we have to be careful if we want to bring it in a way that which will not be rejected. So it takes time, but it doesn't matter because... and that's why I'm so grateful because these encouragements you're having with the Bangalore satsang and the close sangha is pulling us and encouraging us to find. And it may take time, it doesn't matter. It's just like when you grow a garden, you cannot pull on the plants. You have to find the way where to put them and then what to put on them and so on. And this will come. I'm trusting this.

Yes, yes, yes. We can trust His Grace to guide us. We only have to make ourselves truly available with integrity to Him. How He moves us is up to Him. And in every region, every house, it may be a different texture, different sort of environment, and that is completely fine. As long as we make ourselves truly available to Him, then that is more than enough. Absolutely. Thank you so so much. Bless you.

Thank you so much. Bless you too. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, let's go to Janic. Hello, am I audible?

Yes, yes. I would like to just say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Because I feel that my arrogant mind is like so much thinking of excuses and not to express my gratitude for your teachings, for you. And they are becoming so powerful last days, but I must admit I was not always applying. I was not always applying because I find the excuses. Maybe I should not use English because I'm not an English person, but somehow, thanks to God, it's becoming more and more like hearable, everything. So I just want to take this opportunity because I feel like I'm the one like a little bit of a James Bond in this sangha, you know, like you once said. I see, yes, I'm this James Bond, so I don't want to be hiding anymore. I would like to, with my heart, participate with the sangha.

Very good, very good. I love that report. Very heartfelt and honest. Thank you, thank you for this. Very thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for not hiding, not being super spy number one or number seven, whatever. Thank you, Janic. That will be it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Very good. All right, let's end with the bhajan. Kavita had volunteered in the beginning, so see if she still wants to sing for us. Ah, there she is.

Well, I'll start it with the prayer that goes with it. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, knowing You are with me. Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness, love, and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Father. Thank you so much. And I just wanted to say that may pride never get the best of us, and may we always see the beauty and blessing and the privilege of even being able to bow to the Lord. And may we, like you say, never claim to be right over God and keep our eyes on Him like you say.

Very good, very good, very good. And this beautiful prayer, this beautiful Psalm from King David himself is one of the best examples out there of commit, fail, commit, fail, commit, fail. So you must not lose hope that if that is happening in our life, it happened to the best among us as well. So let's keep at it and keep giving glory to God, love to God. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much. Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Satguru.