You Have Never Left the Destination (Ashtavakra Gita 12.1) - 23th November 2016

Chapter 12 is abiding in the Self, in the Self. And the first verse: 'Becoming first intolerant of action, then of excessive speech, then of thought itself, I come to be here.' So what is he speaking about? He's seeing that it is not my action to see that the one who pretends as if these movements which are appearing in this instrument called the body—we find that all of it is operating in its own way to be completely natural and at ease. It doesn't need any intervention from the identity. So let's become intolerant of the idea that it is my action, that I must be the doer of something. And as the urge for freedom arises, one of the aspects of the seeker identity is also the struggle to do something to find freedom. 'What can I do? What must I do?' You see? 'Which practices? Which teacher? Where do I go?' You see? So this impulse can be very strong. And just like doership is the key leg for the regular ego, the spiritual doership is an aspect of the spiritual ego.

Now, if you were trying to experience the space in this room, what steps do you have to take to experience it? You're trying to experience the space in this room, then what steps? Do you go left or right? You already are here now. To experience yourself, what steps do you need to take? Left or right? So even to experience this room, we don't have to take any step. Then how would it be that to experience myself I have to take some step? That's why I'm saying that this right now, you are free from all identity, all conditioning. It's gone. But the step that we seem to take is the step of pretense. The step of pretense, isn't it? The step of pretense means that I'm pretending to walk within this room so I can come to finally the experience of this room.

Okay, so if you have this idea that 'I'm not in this room yet, I've not reached the Satsang hall,' you see? If this was the idea which was predominant, then we would still be walking trying to get to the Satsang hall. Then what happens? We are here, but the mind is saying, 'No, no, you're not here yet. You're not in the Satsang hall yet. Okay, what should I... maybe a little to the left, maybe a little to the right.' It's going round and around in the same room, only in the Satsang hall, you see? So trying to find ourselves is this way. Where must we go to find that which we are? If it is the pursuit of something, it must come with the implication that we don't already have it. What is famous? That pursuit of happiness implies that I don't have happiness; that's why I'm pursuing it. If I already have it, then why would I pursue it? The pursuit of the Self implies that we start with the presumption that I don't have it already.

But right now, what are we? Is any step needed to experience your own Self? You see? So all the pointing, all the inquiry, all the questioning is so that we come to the end of this pursuit. We come to see what is already true. So the master is just saying that check and see: you are already here. Stop running. You never left. You have never left the destination. Now the mind will come and say, 'But this is not what I heard about the Satsang hall. I heard the Satsang hall is really big and it's got all multicolored lights happening everywhere and I'll find a lot of bliss the minute I enter.' You see? So if you have these ideas, then these ideas will try to fight back and say, 'Okay, if this is the Satsang hall, then where is the light? It's not so big.' It will try to give you these ideas to tell you that no, it is not this. So the dropping was only of the false.

How to find the truth? Yes, how to find the truth? Okay.