To Have Darshan of Your Own Atma Is the Simplest Thing in the World - 19th February 2018

It is a mental confusion, like a concept. Yes. What is it reliant on? The sense of 'I'. If I say, 'Now outside this building there is a portal,' now for something, maybe if the child is born into living on these little steps outside, then you only come from a conclusion to the parents to all this is an outside. But once you step down, there is a deeper than concept, as a perceptual 'now'. We are talking about that which is deeper than even perceptual 'now', that which knows all perception, that which is aware of even perception. So did you come to a place from a place of not meeting yourself to a place of meeting yourself because you came to satsang, or did you realize that you are only ever meeting yourself?

I realize that nothing has changed in my being, but it's the notion which the black hood has not resolved, which can come back with its—it's no, you made me experience something, but often we know in a very English way, can I achieve an objective experience? It's not so. The cat hood, as you say, or the false notion about ourselves doesn't get dissolved. And that is what we call dissolved, that belief, yeah.

So that is what we call it: dissolved. The notion has dissolved, but it was just a notion. But what were you always? This is the first 'now' is quiet and being seems to be. And that which you discovered about yourself, or you are discovering about yourself, is that discovery—what is the qualitative nature of that discovery? Does it look like something? Does it feel like something? The discovery itself, the recognition itself, not the byproducts.

It doesn't look like anything. Does it have to feel like something?

And this is the part which is so important, which over here, recognizing now, keep looking for some benchmark to freedom. That something physically has to change, emotion may have to change, some level of structure for me to find myself. What is your very existence? It has always been the existence of God. You have always been the only being there is. But somehow, as part of some strange play, some Leela, we have taken this existence to be the existence of something small, something tiny, something limited. So what is that 'you'?

So this being, this consciousness, playing as if it is limited and then trying to find this great being is very convoluted. But this being, which is just naturally, effortlessly here, coming to this recognition that this 'I am' actually is all there is, and I am aware of even this. So let's use a metaphor. If you are trying to lose weight, but you're eating one samosa, one—whatever works for you, wherever you are every minute, let me say. But this is like how God, pretending to be the person, trying to find God. Because every minute, consciousness, God, is believing the notion about himself, herself, including the notion of time. Now, the good part of the story is that you are at your perfect weight already. The perfect being, the most enlightened ever, is already your being.

I'm still going to play with masks.

That is your will, the will of consciousness itself. And because you have this ultimate freedom to pretend to be whatever you like, that's why this play can seem to go on. But you'll never be without your cooking of this mask. And when I speak of the play, I'm not speaking about the appearance of this universe; I'm speaking of the play where you pose as if you are just this body-mind entity in this moment. Right now, nobody has a mask on. See, this is the second great piece of great news: first is that you are already Brahman, or God is your very existence, and second is that in this very moment, there is no mask of ego that you have to get off. What greater gift, the only gift to have of this good news? I'll meet this God, unavoidable you. But the God is unavoidable because you exist. Existence is here, and you are aware of this. This existence is the very one, one being which has been misunderstood as part of this Leela, a part of this play, to be something that has the boundaries with birth and death. But you are beyond boundaries.

As you meet yourself in this way, don't take some miserable interpretation, the judgment. This is the raw awareness. This is the nakedness that we speak of. Does this mean that the mind has to stop? No, it could come and go. A lot of these offers: buy one, get one free. One suppose you get one free, or one thousand is really changing. It's allowed, these offers. So you can feel like you have to do something, and this is all that you have to do, because in this being itself, the so-called seeming doing of this, the concept of doership will get extinguished. The main of the simple awareness of your very existence without any interpretation.

To have the darshan of your own Atma is the simplest thing in the world. You can never not have it. But it is these concepts about the interpretation of it that make it seem like you are experiencing yourself as something limited. As you allow yourself to remain motionless, you'll find that this truth, unlimited existence and that which is you, is beyond completely apparent. Now, some of you are mistaking motionlessness with motionlessness. This can often change. Motionlessness does not mean motionlessness. The world of activity, of movement, can continue to appear with all its movement: the people, events, body sensations, feelings, thoughts. All these apparent activities can continue to appear. But as long as you remain motionless, you will see that nothing will be more apparent before you believe the next idea about yourself. You are already there. But what you will receive once you believe the idea about yourself is a notion of limitation, is an idea of you.

The other seeming error that many are making is looking at the movement of the outer shell, the coconut, as I call it, and saying that this coconut has to become like the ocean. I've been saying we are trying to fit this insight that we are having about ourselves and we are trying to fit it into this body-mind contraption in some way. But that cannot happen because the insight you have about yourself is that you are much beyond this time and space. You are this manifest universe, and this body-mind exists as a tiny aspect of this manifest universe. So trying to fit that—it is not limited to these three dimensions anyway, four dimensions including space and events, including time. Then impossibility. You are dimensionless. If I was a person and I tell you, 'Can you fill a bucket of water in this?' and this is two-dimensional, your container, the three dimensions, you cannot fill water in a sheet of paper. In the same way, this body is an object within time and space. We cannot fit the being which is beyond all that into this. This is an aspect of this being. But if you say, 'See, yesterday this happened to I,' then senses again mistaken the coconut to be the Self.

So don't wait for the symptoms of your freedom to start appearing in the coconut. If they have to appear, they appear. That has nothing to do with your reality. The reality is here. You don't have to wait for the diagnostics of the coconut to confirm that timeless, spaceless being you are. I'm not telling you about something which is happening tomorrow or in the future. I'm not telling you about something that you have to find in this special world. Can you recognize that you exist? The basis of this recognition, is it contained in time and space? This existence, say 'I am,' is it subject to time or space? You already left the universe. You left the universe in this moment of recognition. You are not in this phenomenal realm. Then you try to bring it back to this ceiling and cleaner. So when we say, 'Have I got it?' or 'No, people start recognizing me for the truth that I discovered,' why isn't it? But hardly see that we are still talking about an identification with one aspect of the universe. You are the entirety of the play, the movement of light and sound yourself. As the projector is making, you are the light of all things. What is body? The light animates this entire universe, and the body is just one aspect. Your light animates the sun. There is no sun unless you are. You see?

So we have believed the mind's version of you, which is this limited version. But something has never felt at home completely with that hood. Nobody ever really feels at home with the idea of just being a body. It's very—even those who come to satsang, even those who don't come to satsang, they say things like, 'I will rest only when I die.'

Of all things, what is body? The light animates this entire universe, and the body is just one aspect. Your light animates the sun. There is no sun unless you are. So, we have believed the mind's version of you, which is this limited version. But something has never felt at home completely with that hood. Nobody really feels at home with the idea of just being a body. Even those who come to satsang, even those who don't come to satsang, they say things like, 'I will rest only when I die.' I must have had this experience in my past life. When somebody passes away, much of the world says, 'May they rest in peace.' But if they were just the body, the body was left to rest in peace. So, nobody has completely felt at home with just this notion, not even the one who is not giving the one.

I'm just going to say some practical advice. If you're still very concerned about the life of the coconut, then you make a list of things that should happen for this person. Make that list and put it in the altar of your heart or the feet of the Guru because no Guru from the past has refused this label: something for Guruji to do. There's this joke about marriages which I keep telling. My wife told me, 'Once you've told a man what to do, he will get it done. You don't have to nag him every six months. He will get it done.' I won't keep saying it. And when you do this, you will be surprised. Actually, to clinically do this exercise will surprise you. Look at this list after a year or two. You will either find things where you say, 'Thank you, Guruji. Thank you so much for getting this done,' or you say, 'God, I'm glad you didn't do this.' There will rarely be anything left which you say, 'Oh, why couldn't you get this done?'

In India, often we say this in our prayers; we end our invocations with 'Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.' How do you emphasize this one? There is Shanti and there is Ashanti. Shanti is peace. Shanti, Shanti, Shanti is a prayer for peace. So you say, 'Let there be peace,' because when there is peace, the truth of what you are is completely apparent.

One time someone came to Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi. I don't know how she said it, some desire, so she asked, 'Bhagavan, please get this done for me.' So Bhagavan said, 'You know, in this body, this body has nothing special to make anything happen for you. But the Being that you're finding here has got unlimited power.' Which Being was he speaking about? Was he speaking about some special Being that only belonged to him? He was speaking of the only Being that is you, the very one whose backbone is your presence.

So, remain in this knowingness of your own existence, allowing all motions to come and go. And if motions do get picked up—because they will—don't become more notions about why you picked up those. Don't pick up any guilt or lowliness. It's all about this one. Don't get into any post-mortem. Start afresh. God is here right now.

You'll find that your life is becoming more and more 'God-now' and less and less 'me-ow.' Those who are new to satsang must feel like this is pretty crazy. It comes from the satsang where I was saying that every time you pick up this notion of 'me,' the 'how' has to follow. Then it might feel like there's some possibility that I can pick up on 'me' and 'how' doesn't come. As long as we're carrying this belief, there will be a 'how' to change it out of us because of the design of this.

So whether you say 'I am,' or you say 'God,' or you say 'Guru,' the basic truth is the Self. The words don't matter because we are in satsang about at least your very presence that you are aware of. If you live with the attitude of 'me-ow,' then God is not needed. Anytime you feel like life is asking you practically, right? God can do all the practical stuff. Even the practical advice we give you with the mask of personhood on to the mask, another mask of personhood, it is still Lord, the puppeteer, playing with these puppets.

This reminded me that an important point is that God is not a position. God is not taking a position. No satsang was just practical ends. Anytime we get this first, we think, 'Satsang is all fine for satsang, but what about the real world?' These positions do not apply to God. But it is still an idea of human tension that we have a wall, a hustle, which means it is distinct. We're meeting the world in this way, saying, 'No, no, I am just God. Don't ask me the practical thing.' Then that is also a limitation. Believing in the power of God is believing in the power of the Self. 'No, no, I am very practical. I'm not into God.' God is speaking. That's why this positionlessness, motionlessness. And that's what I was saying earlier, that luminousness does not mean motionlessness does not mean motion-fullness. It means just empty of any position with regard to it. Activities can happen or not.

This point is this nature of the mind, how it is. It hears something and it just believes, 'Okay, so I'm not going to take a position.' So if I say motionlessness does not mean motionlessness, it can feel like, 'No, no, I have to go and live a full life or something.' No position. The beautiful way scientists say is, 'Yes, remain in effortless awareness of your presence now.' Allow all sense to come and go. Listen to what I say: it is simply don't believe your next thought. The first one is great because it clarifies. Thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Anant Koti Brahmand Nayak Rajadhiraj Yogiraj Parabrahma Satguru Sri Mooji Baba Ki Jai.