Satsang Is Going From Head to Heart

Please. One thing worth exploring in this 'All is Grace, Guru Kripa Kevalam' is whether it is a tool of change or it's a tool of recogniHon. Like, we may have the approach that I have to remember God and say, all is Grace, all is the Master's Grace. But the statement is 'All is Grace'. It is not 'All will become Grace'. So, is it a reminder which aids a recogniHon that all is already Grace or is it something that we can use to bring about a change into the non-Grace [which] now becomes Grace because we say 'All is Grace, all is Grace'? So the Kevalam part of Guru Kripa Kevalam only is worth exploring. Otherwise what will happen is that we will run to spirituality to get something for ourselves. We run to spirituality for a Me, you see. As long as we are searching for God for a non-existent Me, then that can remain a struggle in a journey, in a sort of fuHle endeavor. Although it's good, your report is good. I'm just saying if we can go a step further and see deeper into that and really explore. So, when it is presented by a Master that all is Grace, all is the Satguru's Grace, all is the Master's Grace, it is not that once you remember this then it then it will start becoming Grace. It is just that in remembering this you will recognize the Grace which is present, no maZer what the situaHon may be, because your mind's construct will be creaHng problems. 'So, this is the problem, I'm here to help you, this is the soluHon', like that, and then we live in this problem solving mode, constantly trying to resolve things, solving problems that don't exist. And that is the definiHon of suffering. So the reminder is, all is Grace, all is good already as is. To recognize that is helpful and then, if you can take like a step further, actually a quantum leap further, then can we go on to an exploraHon of whether we have the capacity to understand what is good and what is bad? And if we do, where do we have it? Okay, before we jump into that, I just want to ask everyone, so that my daughter oeen says 'read the room'. I don't read the rooms. Tell me a liZle bit... [3:48] [Par%cipants repor%ng about their spiritual prac%ces so far, not transcribed] [6:05] The usual reacHon of those who come, who've been brought by friends, is, I can't generalize, but mostly say, it's too weird, it's too out there. And more common than all of that is, that we didn't understand what he was saying. So, what you could do is, if there's a point where you don't understand, even if it feels like I'm gonna flaw or something, just stop me. Because many Hmes what happens is, mind creates like a block, and the name of the block is, I can't understand, it's too difficult for me, or, I don't have a Advaita Vedanta context or history. So, it just puts it in the box of un-understandable. And I spoZed that many Hmes. So, just stop me and say, what are you talking about? And we can really rewind right from the scratch because most of them aren't used to the terminology, the way of speaking. We use words like Awareness, Consciousness, all of that. But they may sound a bit strange, so let's see if you can deconstruct right from the beginning, if you come to a point that you don't understand. I feel, so far what I've said is very sraight forward. [Par%cipant repor%ng about his coming to Father's Satsang, not transcribed] [8:05] Just let's see if we can make the discovery of God, the so-called aZainment of the Self, let's see if we can make it a real possibility for everyone in this room, independent of whether it is the first Satsang or the thousandth Satsang. … [8:35] Let's see if at the end of Satsang today everyone can confirm that they found what the spiritual quest is really about. Yes? Let's see. So, that is about Grace and Surrender. It is not an instrument of [snaps fingers] wish fulfillment, it's not a Jeannie. It's more of a recogniHon, because [raises one hand], like I keep asking, what is this? What is Ananta doing? Raising the hand, some may say, he's saying Stop!, Stop! Somebody may say, he's blessing us, like tradiHonal Guruji types, he's blessing everyone. Inherently, what can we say? Nothing, we can't say. It is the perspecHve that we bring on to it. It is the perspecHve that we bring into it, that makes all the difference. So, can we look at spirituality, can we look at the Truth as something that is universal, independent of whatever perspecHves you may have, or belief systems you may have? That is the key. The discovery of God, the discovery of the Self must be the same for everyone. And the way of finding it must also be the same for everyone. Not in the preparatory steps or the other things you did to get to the point of discovery, but the discovery in itself has to be the same. Okay, let me ask a quesHon. If you were looking for something that has no quality, can you as different seekers find two different things? You are looking for Nirguna, it is said that the self is without Gunas, without qualiHes, without aZributes. Is it possible to find two different things as a result of that? Take a moment. Some of you may not be used to exploring in this way that the Truth, everything that you perceive is in the realm of changing. And what is the realm of changing called? It is called Maya, or the Leela. So, all percepHons, they are changing. It is said that God or Brahman is the unchanging Reality. So, let's see if we can find the Brahman. To find that which is unchanging and therefore not perceivable, because everything perceivable has a quality and it changes, then to find that which is unperceivable, without a quality, can there be two discoveries, both without a quality? So, if you are looking for something which is beyond percepHon, because what have we been told since we were children? All this is Maya, all this is an illusion, all this is a coming and going, everything that you perceive is phenomenal and therefore coming and going. That which witnesses all of this is the real deal, you've been told. That which is the Sakshi of all of this is the real deal. How will you know that you found the Sakshi? It will be empty of change, it will be empty of all qualites. Now the quesHon is a strange one, because if you're not used to Satsang this can sound like a strange one. So, we're saying that there are so many different spiritual paths, one has done mindfulness, one has done Tai Ching, one has done Kundalini, one has done Vipassana, all of these spiritual pracHces have been done, but the discovery, that which we all spiritual seekers are looking for, is beyond change, beyond quality. So, if it is empty of quality, what can differenciate it? I said, this one is different from this one, but they have the same, everything is the same about them qualitaHvely, but they are different. What would you say? Too complicated and too sounding academic. Let's go to a different mode. We are looking for something without quality, because all qualiHes are in the realm of Maya, in the realm of changing. So, if you're looking for something without quality, how will we disHnguish, how can it have a difference? Like, can Saurabh come to a different discovery of the Self, and she comes to a different discovery of the Self? And on what basis will the difference be? The difference can only be on a quality. You can say, Ah, the Self that Saurabh found is red. The Self that she found is blue. But I'm saying, it's empty of quality. No shape, no size, no color, no duraHon, none of these dimensions that we are used to. That is the discovery that we are trying to come to. So, the qualitaHve or quanHtaHve disHncHons can only come from the Guna, from the differences. If it is empty of all quality, then there cannot be two of them, there cannot be two Selves or two Atmas or two Paramatmas. It's not possible. Now, with what tool can you come to this discovery? What do you have in your arsenal with which you can find this non-qualitaHve Self? What do you have? What are your percepHons used for, what is sight used for?

Yes. And what do you see? You see qualiHes, you see colors. So, for the non-qualitaHve, you cannot use sight. What about hearing? Sound is also quality, you have a vibraHon, you hear it. So, all of our senses are used to determine that which has qualiHes. So we cannot use our senses for our discovery of the non-perceptual, non-phenomenal, empty of quality. We cannot use our senses. Then, what else do we have? What other tools are available?

What is imaginaHon? Thinking. Thinking in a way that images are forming. What are you doing with those images? You're perceiving them. And what are you perceiving about them? They are qualiHes. Did you imagine a tree or a house? How would you tell the difference, because the shape was of a tree, the color was of a tree. So then we cannot use imaginaHon also. Then what else can we use? This cuts to the root of the spiritual problem. I've been exploring, I've been contemplaHng this topic as to why 99.99 percent of the seekers never end up finding the Truth that they are looking for. And the quesHon becomes a mulH-lifeHme sort of thing according to them. And yet, there is no complete saHsfacHon in the human condiHon Hll this Self is aZained, because everything else is changing. And if you He yourself to that which is changing, what is going to happen? You are going to suffer, you see. [16:59] Many Hmes I say that to He yourself to the world and to want peace and stability is like tying yourself to a drunk donkey and say 'Why am I not peaceful?'. It's not going to be fun. So, this is the realm of changing, you see. If you He yourself to it, what's going to happen? You're going to get beaten up. So, you're looking for stability, and stability is only possible in the unchanging Reality of the Self. Now, I want to take this unchanging Reality of the Self, and I want to make it your direct insight, not just a conceptual 'I am Brahman'. Everybody knows we are Brahman. How can it become your Reality? To recognize Reality, that is what Satsang is really all about. So it is important first to discover what not to do, and then what to do is very simple. Most spiritual seekers waste their Hme in doing what not to do, in trying to aZain the Self, in trying to aZain God. And that is why lifeHmes upon lifeHmes may go in the quest for this search. So, what not to do first. Don't try to perceive God or perceive the Self as if it's a percepHon or a perceptual discovery. All these experience chasing, bliss chasing, feeling chasing, wanHng to feel beZer, all of that is not truly Atma Ghana. It is in the realm of what the world may call self-help or wanHng to feel beZer, and all of that has it's place in the world. But Satsang like this is, like we call it, and maybe it's arrogance, but we call it direct Satsang, because it is poinHng wthout any of the fluff, it is not for anything else but for Atma Ghana, for the discovery of the Self, for the aZainment of the Self. And if as a byproduct other good stuff happens, then as a byproduct it happens. So, what not to do? Don't try to look for the Self as if it's a mobile phone. I lost my mobile phone, so I'm gonna look for it. How would you know you found it? I can see it, it has the shape and the color and the size of it. So you will not find the Self as an experience. So stop chasing the Self as an experience. Many are chasing the Self as if an experience is going to come, and this problem is not new. If you read the oldest Upanishad, same thing. If you read the Bhagavad Gita, same thing. Krishna has told Arjuna that the Truth is deathless, it is birthless, without all qualiHes, all this is a coming and going. Discover your Reality, and you will be free from this fear of death and fear of losing your aZachments, he has told us. But what did Arjuna say? 'Can I see it?'. His Lord himself has appeared as his Guru and best friend in front of him, he is seeing him, but he says 'Show me the special You. Till I see the special You which is the real You, Hll then I won't be saHsfied'. But the special You, the real You is not in the realm of change. The Virat Roop which he saw was also something that came as a vision. He saw him as a perceptual vision, and it went away. And was Arjuna free aeer the conversaHon? He wasn't free. If you look at it even metaphorically, the metaphor of Arjuna is sHll here today. And the metaphor of Krishna as the Guru is sHll here today poinHng to the same thing. And the same conundrum, the Guru has appeared, he is poinHng you to your Reality, but we are looking for an experience. So, the quest is different from where the poinHng is poinHng to. Although in your Heart you are longing for the same stability of the Self, but because in the world it seems to be so uncommon to look for that which is beyond percepHon, we can only try to chase the highest experience to say, once I have that experience, then I can confirm that I found God. But that's not going to be the way it is. How many of you had spiritual experiences, like fantasHc ones? Come on, don't be shy. [Laughing in the room]. Okay, who has not had?

Yes, no idenHty [Laughing in the room]. So, accept this [inaudible 22:29], and thank you for your honesty, ...and yet you would not claim, and if you are claiming then you are making a mistake, you would not claim that experience to be the experience of the Self, or as Self recogniHon. You would say that this was a fantasHc experience I had along the way of finding the Truth, I had a fantasHc spiritual experience, even if we say that in that experience I found that there is no Me. But as long as it's something that came and went, then it's sHll in the realm of percepHon because what comes and goes is perceptual. Yes? Okay so far? [23:04] So, with our senses, we can't do it. Then what else do we have? Now it's ge^ng more difficult. With our percepHon senses we usually in the world, like Ravi was saying, in the world we may take senses to be this way, but let's take external objects and seeming internal objects to be percepHons through our senses, because you are seeing them, you may be hearing a voice, all of that. Let's include all inner objects and outer objects as perceptual experiences, as sense experiences because [that's another Satsang in itself], but actually the dividing line between inside and outside we don't know. But we'll come to that. For now, let's just treat all of that as sensory experience. So, that is not possible. So then, what is the other way we can find God?

Yes, ideas. We can think. We can try and resolve it like I need to find this, we can try to solve it like an equaHon, like 54 into 76 = God. So, the great [inaudible 24:24] said, you may think and think and think a hundred thousand Hmes, but you cannot do it through thinking. God will not be a product of your thinking. You don't have to take their word for it. Has any one that you are devoted to, any of these teachers [here] on the walls, have they said that one day I thought so much and I resolved the problem of God in my head? You cannot do it. You may be a master of thought, but God will never be received as a thought, or a product of a thought.

So [the noumenal? inaudible 35:19] is the term, it's just like saying Nirguna Brahman. It's a term, but it can't really point to it.

I'm poinHng you to the noumenal, now the no-mind is the [clicks fingers], the mode of the discovery of the noumenal. So, the no-mind [clicks fingers], are you on that? Not possible perceptually, not possible conceptually. You need to find something which is beyond percepHon. How do we do that, that is the quesHon. With the mind we cannot do it, we may think and think and think, and we may become the best thinker in the world, we may even memorize all the scriptures. You may know everything, you may know like across all cultures in the world, you may become a spiritual encyclopedia. But that will not hep you with the discovery of the Self, yes? Then the clue that all the Masters have given us is that [clicks fingers] don't idenHfy. Keep quiet. Remain in the Unborn. Come to the no-mind. Now the mind will say 'I can't do it'. Yes. It can't do it, so let it say what it is saying. Now, this part is like really important. What would be the opposite of no-mind? Mind. But mind or thinking is not the appearance of thoughts. The mere appearance of thoughts is not thinking. This is a very important point. Just the mere appearance of thoughts is not thinking, because then what also many spiritual seekers are trying to do is, say 'Shut up, shut the thoughts up, when will they shut up?'. Once you hear that the mind causes all the trouble, and you have to get to the no-mind, then the mind itself will play that game. Who do you feel is being shut up? The mind itself. Then the thief dresses up as the policeman pretending to help you catch the thief. And that is the checker guy, or the devious one who is trying to confuse you, is trying to distract you saying 'Why will this mind never shut up? I want the mind to be quiet'. That is the mind itself which is posing like that, saying 'I'm not the mind, I'm your friend. I'm helping you, I'm your spiritual guide, inner spiritual guide'. When you speak like that, you beZer shut up [Laughing]. I'm making light of it, but actually it's a very important point. Many Hmes we feel like the spiritual concepts that we have, or the things we've heard in Satsang, that is actually something other than the mind, that is our intuiHon, we feel that that is so. But it is not so. The spiritual mind is sHll the spiritual mind and the progress of the spiritual mind, the aZainment of the spiritual mind is the aZainment of the spiritual seeker which is to become a spiritual ego, and not a enlightened one or a free one. It's a very, very important point which will save you maybe a lot of Hme, maybe a lot of trouble also. So, you are not trying to understand, remember, you see. Not trying to do this stuff because with all of that you will just become like Raman (?), he knew everything, very great spiritual Sadhaka himself, he knew all of spirituality, but he took it conceptually. He said 'Why should I bow down to Ram, I am God, he is also God, I am also God', and maybe he quoted some Upanishads too, to prove his point. So, with conceptual understanding, with remembering, with belief you will only give power to your spiritual egos. With true insight it will not progress into that [40:00]. So, the empHness, Shunyata, or the discovery of Brahman itself, Nirguna Brahman, only happens in the intuiHve mode. What is the intuiHve mode? Same as the no-mind. Now the trouble is, how to stay in this no-mind. I already said that just [by] the mere appearance of thought does not mean mind or thinking. It also needs something else. What does it need? And this is the master key to everything I have said so far. Thoughts appear, they are seen. Most spiritual Sadhanas have to try and get aZenHon away from thought into something else, focus on the breath. What are you not doing then? Your aZenHon is limited, so it cannot go to thought at the same Hme. So you feel like you can fixate your aZenHon. Many spiritual paths will say, make in one-pointed, make your aZenHon one- pointed. What happens then? You cannot fall for the mind because your aZenHon is limited. So, whether you're doing breath [demonstrates breathing], or you're doing chanHng 'Ram, Ram, Ram...' with full heart, with full aZenHon, when you're walking, walk, when you're chopping a vegetable, chop. You've heard all these things in spirituality. Stay in the moment, all of these things is to try and keep aZenHon away from thought, to try and come to the no-mind through not using thought. Now the problem is that I was terrible at this. So I cannot give you any advice as how to do this part. This part of it is terrible act, like my aZenHon was to run, I used to be terrible, one day Pranayama, one day chanHng, one day this, one day that, like I was all over the place as a spiritual seeker. So I was never able to keep my aZenHon one-pointed at something for a very long Hme. So, I'm not going to propose that to any of you because that would be hypocrisy. I was not able to do, so why should I tell you what to do. But there is a simpler way, and that simpler way, like another way to look at a simpler way, surrender. But what actually happens in surrender, or le^ng go? Let's not even say surrender, because it brings elements of devoHon and things into it which we don't even need at this point. They may be helpful at a later point, we'll talk about that. But right now we're just looking at what we can do with thought. Can we do this? So, try and do it, what all can you do with a thought? I have said already that I'm not telling any of you to try and control your aZenHon, try to be in a no-mind state. I'm not saying any of that. But there is something else you can do, or not do. Can you explore with your own thoughts, what all you can do, one is aZenHon, what else?

Story finding, is that different from belief?

Is that different from belief?

How do you idenHfy? Show me the process. So, the thought comes 'I want to eat a mango'. AZenHon is already on it, otherwise percepHon is not possible. AZenHon is only the light of percepHon. Now you perceive the thought 'I want to eat a mango'. Now, what will you do with it besides aZenHon?

How do you do all of that process?

You're sounding like me [chuckles]. Thought has come 'I want to eat a mango'. Then exactly go in super slow moHon replay. I'll try it. What happens next?

Just regularly, what happens, and everyone can do this. Just really slow. Any thought comes, aZenHon has already gone to it. That's why you can report 'This thought is there'. Now, what do you do?

Don't jump any step. Thought is there, aZenHon is there. Now, what is the next step?

In what way do you see this?

With aZenHon, and now with Consciousness?

So, now there are two. AZenHon and Consciousness, going to the thought. So, aZenHon has gone to it, 'I want to eat a mango'. Now, what else is going, Consciousness is going. How do you see this? Just this liZle bit of subtleHes if you noHce once, if not today, I feel like all the spiritual thing will get resolved. Don't presume anything. Just dive in, just five, ten more minutes [and] the base construct of Self discovery will be clear [inaudible 46:45]. Just slowly. 'I want to eat a mango'. This is perceived either like we're hearing it, or you're seeing some message, something like this. But the message has come through my mind 'I want to eat a mango' with our aZenHon. Now, what else will you do?