How Do You Know?

It’s the easiest, simplest, thing to meet God if we didn’t have any idea about what God is or should be. [Pauses] And, it is impossible to meet God if God has to live up to your projections or the mind’s projections of what God is. That’s the only struggle here, actually. It’s the simplest, easiest. In fact, that seems to be the theme of Satsang today — that it is just simplest to meet God empty of our expectations of what God should be or is. And it is impossible to recognise God if that recognition is burdened with our mind about what God should be. Don’t burden your life. In fact, let me say it in a simpler way: Don’t burden anything with your idea of ‘should be’. That is where the struggle comes. ‘Should be’ is equal to ‘should not be’; they are the same — two sides of the same coin.

Should it be or should it not be? I’m saying, should it be sufficient or should it not be? [Chuckles]

[Chuckles] This is what I’m talking about.

OK. Magic done. Now? [Chuckles]

Another version of this conversation is this: A man came to Papaji [Sri H.W. L. Poonja] and he said, ‘Can you show me God?’ And Papaji told the story about the child, basically talking about the innocence of the child, and then he said, ‘You don’t have to wait till tomorrow to check this. If you don’t doubt, you will see God.’ And, then he said, ‘What do you see now?’ The man said ‘I don’t see God.’ Papaji said, ‘Don’t is doubt. I said don’t doubt. What do you see now?’ Now, you have to honestly say whether this still sounds like word play? Still sounds like word play? [Chuckles]. It’s like this, ‘It’s nice, this focus-focus thing. Can it be like that?’ That exactly is doubt. If you did not have a precondition on what God should be and you were just hearing with an innocence of a child, then everything is God. Then what do you see?

It’s not like this. It’s here now. But we sell it to the mind in a way. It’s here now. Before that ‘but, but, but’ comes. And its coming also is not the end of innocence. The buying of what it is selling is the end of innocence. And then it will sell you the idea that that just happened. So, then even what Guruji [Sri Mooji] said, which is that you are here and it is enough. It is enough, it is all. The minute you take yourself to be as if it is not, or as if you are something small, then even this beautiful pointing gets pushed to the background, isn’t it? So all pointings are just reminders or pointers for us to just check. You can start. If something appeals to your heart and you start with a belief about that, it is okay. But it cannot be the end because all beliefs are debatable, all concepts are debatable. A better debater may come and say, ‘But it is not all, it is like this. See how I was fooling myself? I got stuck in this spiritual track for so many years. Now I’ve realised that actually I am a person.’ Many actually go through like this because if it is just a question of belief, then any belief can be argued against. And then if it is only going to be at the level of belief, then a super debater or one with very seemingly rational arguments might come and shake us out of that belief. That’s why if there is belief in Satsang, use that belief to check for yourself, confirm to yourself, through your own seeing, that takes you beyond belief. That’s why Guruji said the other day that we are not a Sangha of just believers. It’s a very beautiful pointing. Not a Sangha of just believers. Because if belief is there initially, it is okay. Maybe some trust is there — use that. But use that to explore: Is this true or not? Is this really like this? Then you will find that what you are discovering for yourself, the concept which is pointing to it is tiny compared to that; even though it might sound like the greatest concept, it is tiny compared to your seeing, isn’t it? That’s why some teachers say that all you can do in front of God is to be in awe. If you try to define it — no chance. And it is actually our escape from this awe, from this wonder of what is. When we say we feel fearful, what are we feeling fearful of? Just this…awe of this thing, this manifest and un-manifest — all this is mental definition, but still, to just point to you. Just to taste yourself now. You cannot actually not be in awe of it. But then the mind will come and say, ‘Oh no, no, let’s calm down a bit, settle down. What’s actually happening here? This one body which you are is sitting here….’ It starts defining and somewhere that can feel because suddenly we are in awe, we like the comforts sometimes of going back to ‘Okay, okay.’ It’s like the comfort zone — our sufferings actually many times are also comfort zones. It can sound strange, but at least we can say, ‘Okay, okay, this is too much.’ Right now, if you would just assimilate everything without judgement, you will see that [Chuckles]…. Even phenomenal, (then, start like I say) include everything and then, don’t forget to include the elephant in the room, which is the non-phenomenal witnessing of all of this. Include everything in your perception, and then include that which is aware even of this perception. This moment is wonder. That’s all. We cannot put one word that accurately defines it, describes it. Be in awe of who you are — that’s all you can be in relation to yourself. Even that (awe) is just a three-letter word that does not mean much.