Atma Darshan – There Is No Greater Gift in Life Than Atma Darshan

You see, now there is no actual distinction between Atma and Paramatma, just like there's no distinction between the finger and the rest of the body. It's one, you see. So it is the way in which God can be met. And as far as I know, and I know that in consciousness everything is possible, but as far as I know it is the only way in which God can be met: through meeting the Atma. So in the sense that Atma itself then shows us its source, its reality, where it came from, you see. So you cannot bypass the Atma and say I'll go straight to Nirguna Brahman, I love Nirguna Brahman, so let me go straight to Nirguna Brahman. What will happen with those people mostly is they will settle on a dark empty place, an imagination of a dark empty place, or the absence of other perception, to be Nirguna Brahman, which is a disservice.

So this is the Atma. Now what is the function of the Atma? You see, the Atma is a Satguru, the true guru, which is the only one who can show us the reality of God. Only Atma can bring that light. That is why guru is called the bringer of light. You see, because it needs an extraordinary light to be able to see, to recognize the Saguna Brahman and the Nirguna Brahman. It needs an extraordinary, this kind of light will not do, even if you have stadiums full of this light. So that special light, and the light of which we can come to the recognition of God himself, and then ultimately the recognition of that which is unfathomable, ineffable, without any attributes, is possible only in the light of the Atma itself. So it is the Satguru.

It is the Satguru also because it teaches us, as if we are the most loved disciple in the universe. Each of us, each of us, is treated in that way. If we turn to the Atma, we will feel like we are the most pampered disciple in the universe. Doesn't mean that tough lessons won't come. But even the toughest lessons are given to us in the most loving way. You see, it's like the guru who picks us up on their lap and just takes care of us. So the most loving teacher, this gives us rest, you see, because the mind, if you were to live just in the mind, we would never get any rest.

You see, so when we turn to the Atma, when we turn to the holy spirit, the spirit is the giver of rest, relaxation, what we call unwinding, letting go. You see, it provides us as a gift. Otherwise, we would have just riled ourselves up and up and up every day. You see, so it gives us deep sleep state. It gives us, allows us to dissolve into the highest. All of these things are gifts of the Atma. That's why you find people who are very mindy, too much in the world, not in touch with spirituality. Especially as they get older, we'll have trouble sleeping. They'll not get sleep. They will constantly be worried about things. You'll have a lot of this struggle going on. But once you learn to stay with Atma, you feel rested. Even in the waking state, you will feel relaxed. So it rests us. It's the comforter. It's the relaxer. It's the guru. It's actually the light of all our perceptions because I am is here. That's why the world appears to us. So it is the light of the waking state as well. So there's a lot of things and maybe more attributes of it will come.

But this is the Atma: the presence of beingness which we can meet in our heart itself. And how do we know we met it? We cannot know through empirical means. You see, so if it's a pure perception, you just saw some light, it's not it. You see, you just saw some dark empty space, most likely your mind is visualizing a darkness. You see, so that's why last time we were discussing that the only way I find to say it is that the most primordial light, which is both perceivable and yet unperceivable, that is when you come to Atma darshan. You see, that is when you come to Atma darshan. So that gate, the door of the heart temple that we are talking about, is to come to the door of the Atma. And we wait over there, you see, because in the light of the Atma we'll see Ram, Krishna, Jesus, Allah, all these, whatever our heart truly desires, which is graceful and merciful for us. He will show us all of these gifts. It is the Atma itself which introduces us to heaven in our heart, to Vrindavan in our heart, to the Ram Darbar in our heart. It is the Atma itself which shows us all of these things.

The Atma also increases our virtues. The more time you spend with the Atma, it is contagious. So we learn to pray, we learn to become humble, we learn to deepen our faith. You see, so all the virtues also are gifted by the Atma itself. So that's what's coming up about the Atma at the moment. It's very important. Atma darshan. A life without Atma darshan, as I keep saying, is a zombie life, because this is the light of life itself. We are born for this. It is put there for us. Atma is in your heart. Who is it put there for? You. Now imagine you spent your whole life and you didn't meet it. It's very important. So we must never buy into the idea that it's very rare to come to Atma darshan. It happens to the very special ones. You, everyone, is that special one. All of you are special.

Yes.

So Atma is at the innermost, as St. Teresa of Avila said, the innermost mansion of the soul. Or as Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi said, that heart center. Or as Anandamayi Ma said, that cave in your heart where the supreme being dwells, the human must learn to dwell over there. You see, so at the very primordial center of our existence is where the Atma lives. You see, so some have described the Atma as the tiniest particle. But that's, I would not fall into that representation. You see, because many times they'll start imagining a small light or something. I understand their attempt because they are trying to convey that perceivable yet unperceivable subtlety. But in taking it to be tiny we may make a big misunderstanding. It is God himself. Atma is not less God than God. You see, as much God as the rest of God. You see, so God has sent, a simple way of putting it is, God has sent a part of himself only to bring us back. So it is part of the Saguna Brahman aspect of.

Yes.

That's like: Saguna Brahman has Nirguna Brahman. Nirguna Brahman is Saguna Brahman. Saguna Brahman is Atma. You see, it's like water. Water sometimes is ice, sometimes is snow, sometimes but is still water. You see, because where will Saguna Brahman come from? Has to come from the Nirguna. Where will Atma come from? Has to come from the Saguna Brahman. Where will the rest of this universe come from? Within Saguna Brahman itself, within consciousness itself. The closest, the most intimate reality that we can meet is Atma.

Thank you. Thank you for that question. I feel happy with what the Atma shared through this instrument about itself. So the sharing of Satsang is actually a sharing by the Atma itself, using the outer body as an instrument, to give everyone a taste of what Atma tastes like. You see, a taste of that love, a taste of that peace, a taste of that sometime blissful feeling. You see, which we can't explain, but that is seeded in us in even an outer Satsang, so that when we go inwards, something is already seeded with that fragrance. That's why many teachers say that it is not possible to find the inner Satguru without the outer guru. Now I don't say it's not possible because I know that for consciousness everything is possible, everything is possible. But I like to say it's rare. It's rare to find the Atma within. There are great ones who didn't have a physical human outer guru. They took all the elements themselves to be his guru. But a very rare one.

So the outer guru is just to give you that, he's just a sampler, just the sampler, sample pattern. Get a taste of it. So then you know what to look for in the real thing within your heart. So there are such beautiful words in our spirituality: Atma, Atma Gyan, Atma jyoti, the light of the Atma itself. And one meaning of Ram is that the jyoti of the Atma is also called Ram. Beautiful. So Ram Ji is right there as the light of the Atma within you.

But look at the kindness and mercy of God: made it so accessible that we can come to the unfathomable, and he does all the work. We just take, like we were talking about, we just take that half step. Atma does all the work. He's literally spoon feeding us. Literally spoon feeding us every day. You see, that's why you'll find, if you're really noticing, you'll find that you'll notice there are themes in our lives. Like in a week or two weeks we are learning a particular aspect, then some other book shows up, or something shows up, or video shows up, then we immerse in that aspect. So it is the Atma that determines all of this curriculum. You see, it can be Maya also determining the curriculum, depending on which way we've turned. You see, if you turn to Maya, Maya is very quick to give the curriculum: here, money this way, relationship this way, body this way. It'll give also curriculum. But if we go to the heart, you see, there's a different texture in how we are learning.

One good sense of if we are learning from the Atma is that we are not immediately able to put things into words. We are not immediately able to put things that we are learning into words. And after some time, something just comes and you say, when did I learn this? I don't know when. When did, what did I read? Nothing. See, where did this come from? We're not able to say, and we're not able to articulate a lot, you see. And also a good sign is that if we are always a bit like intimidated by the highest questions, you see, that is a sign of humility. You see, so when we realize that, okay, he's asking, what is the Atma, then you realize that I cannot rely on learned knowledge, cannot rely on everything, anything that I may have learned. I must have to go to the Atma itself, to give its own introduction, to go to the Atma itself. So if we have humility, then we are good disciples of the Atma.

The minute we have pride, Atma will say, okay, you stand out of class. Actually, pride is our desire to stand out of class ourselves, because we think we already know, isn't it? So it is the most, the kindest, most merciful, most loving teacher: the Atma. And if I spend the rest of this life only singing praises to the spirit, that will not be enough. So there is no greater gift possible in any life. God is shown. Everything is shown.