Contemplation on the Ashtavakra Gita Ch. 18, Vs. 46-50 and Q&A - 7th September 2017

So this self-recognition knows only self. Then, one who has no doubts. What do I always say? If you come to this recognition, but very quickly the 'but' might come. So this 'but' is the doubt. 'In the self, I see only there is a self, but...' and this 'but,' this doubt, is always from the wrong identity. All doubts are false. It means, 'I am awareness, but how do I stay there?' Is this a doubt from awareness? So immediately it contradicts your own insight. So these are what we call conditions. No doubt can arise unless you have a condition about yourself. So as you come to satsang, finding that the recognition is happening, only the self is, and the dropping of the false ambitions, the beliefs in the wrong identity, is happening. It's so simple, isn't it?

The entire journey, or seeming journey, of satsang is captured in this one line: 'A man with no doubts who knows only self has no need of practice or liberation.' What does this mean? That there is nothing to do to get there. As I'm saying, don't take a step. What are you before you take the step towards your path, towards your perception, towards your relationships, towards anything that is happening? What are you already? Practice is needed or liberation because what you find is that there is nothing that can truly be bound. All your doubts are about this bondage. All your conditions are about this bondage. But it is even more ludicrous to say that you can be bound than someone coming and telling you that 'I have bottled up all the space in this room and I want to sell it to you for ten dollars.' If you buy this deal, what do you recognize about yourself? What cannot be bound is what you are recognizing now about yourself. It's forever unbound.

Then whose problem, like I was saying the other day, whose problem are you trying to solve? Something that you don't recognize about yourself, about one mythical entity trying to give freedom to the Loch Ness monster. At least if you remain with the recognition of yourself, not believing that which is false, then show me how you can pose as someone who is bound looking for freedom. But the point of this pointing is to bring you to neutrality, to emptiness. It is not to get you the idea that 'I am free.' The idea 'I am free' is not so important. Please hear now that we're on Chapter 18, Verse 47. Because why? Because this 'I,' which means the proclamation of freedom, is itself the limited one. Neither bound nor free. If you are forever unbound, can you be free? There is no bondage; it is not applied to you. The quantity of freedom is like if I ask you, 'What color are the diamonds on your crown?' A related example: what is the color of the diamonds on your crown? Or are they real or artificial? And if you're convinced that they are fake and you want to get real ones, then you'll spend your entire life in misery because there is no such thing.

That's why you see it said, 'A man with no doubts, he knows only self, has no need of practice or liberation. Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, he lives as he is, happily.' Why? Why did he put the last line in? Because most often what we hear in satsang—and even the other day someone new came to satsang and he said, 'I'm willing to talk this, but the fear comes. How will my life go? Is it going to disintegrate into bits?' That's why it is said, 'Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, he lives as he is, happily.' The outward expression can continue to move. The rules that seem to be required can continue to be clear that it is designed. This entire play, complete, the role of partner, of parent, any situation, is all by the design of consciousness and being. You right? Needs no support from that. It does not exist by itself. It is the play of that.

'He or she is one whose mind is emptied by the mere hearing of truths, sees nothing to do, nothing to avoid, nothing to warrant his indifference. One whose mind is emptied and unconvicted by the mere hearing of truth sees nothing to do, nothing to avoid, nothing to warrant his indifference.' So beautiful that we are attracted to this pointing to the truth. We find that by the mere hearing of it, the recognition of the self emerges. You don't have to do any spiritual heavy lifting. Just by the mere hearing of this, we recognize what we are. We are blessed in that. 'One whose mind is emptied and unconvicted by the mere hearing of truth sees nothing to do, nothing to avoid, nothing to warrant his indifference.' So neither desire nor aversions. We looked at this many times.

'A sage does whatever appears to be done without thinking of good or bad. His actions are those of a child.' The classic: 'A sage does whatever appears to be done.' Actually, for all of us, this is just a movement within consciousness. All this seeming doing, when itself a sage does, means that consciousness itself is doing all of this. Although outwardly it might appear that the sage is saying this, the sage is doing this, all of this is just moving. 'A sage does what appears to be done without thinking of good or bad. His actions are those of a child.' A child leads a very natural life. All that is needed for the child's life is taken care of. He's not strategizing the five-year plan: 'I am one and a half years old now; by the time I'm six and a half, I want to achieve these goals.' And this top-secret identity is not yet fully developed. The sense of false ego control over life is not yet developed. His actions are those of a child.

'Depending on nothing, one finds happiness. Depending on nothing, one attains the supreme. Depending on nothing, one passes through tranquility to oneself. Depending on nothing, one finds happiness. Depending on nothing, one attains the supreme. Depending on nothing, one passes through tranquility.' This is clear to us that as we empty any dependencies, as our mind is unconvicted, as the sage says, not using the crutches of any appearance, you find that there is so much space to come to the simple recognition of who you are. You find that naturally happiness is present. But what is usually found is that very few, upon hearing this, depend on nothing, are able to just depend on nothing. You seem equal to that simple. When Christ told everyone, 'Go down to the streets and tell everyone just to be happy, just depend on nothing,' they are not able to relate to this homelessness because we're so used to depending on something. We've always felt that happiness will come in some form, through some form.

That's why the master is a great gift. So the master is a great gift because we are not usually ready to depend on nothing. Then we get, if you are blessed, we get the company of one who is actually depending on nothing. And for a while it can seem like that is something for me. For a while it can seem like the master is something, which himself or herself depends on nothing for nothing. So this is the green light because we are not yet ready to depend on nothing. But the longing is for the truth. Then in the form itself, something arises which we call the master, who is pointing you to your homelessness. Now, this master is the one you are using for first aid. All the other forms are embedded; all the conditions are embedded. This is the thorn that you are using for first aid to remove these forms, including forms. So that is why this one is thrown away at the end. It is not thrown away like the rest, as the rest are discarded. Great having as the discarding too. Once the master is discarded by merging with the—merge into that nothing itself, as I prefer to say, that no-thing itself.

So be careful when the mind comes and tells you that 'I have now, I have gone beyond the master.' See that 'I' can usually be very smelly. Don't be in a rush for that. This discarding is the most beautiful merging. It's the most beautiful oneness. To see what I'm saying, as long as that is not clear, then grace is also sent to you in the form of the master, which might seem like it is something but is only pointing you to your nothing. So depend on that. If depending on nothing is not apparent, not clear yet, this lifeboat is what is sent to us in our lives, and it is completely dependable. Then you will find that the master is my own holy presence, my own divine presence, your own. And what is this presence representing? What is it the presence of? It is the presence of the self itself. This self is no-thing. So the self is nothing and...

The form of the Master, which might seem like it is something, is only pointing you to your nothing. So depend on that. If depending on nothing is not apparent, not clear yet, this lifeboat is sent to us in our lives and it is completely dependable. Then you will find that the Master's own holy presence, my own divine presence, is your own. And what is this presence representing? What is it the presence of? It is the presence of the Self itself. This Self is no thing. So the Self is nothing, and the Master's pointing has got you to the recognition that you are the Self, therefore you are no thing. Then what things can you depend on now? If you yourself are nothing, if nothing really touches you, if nothing actually brings anything to you, nor can anything hurt you or affect you, what thing can you depend on now if you have gone beyond all things? Once you have gone beyond time and space in the recognition of what you always were, what thing can you desire or run away from?

In India, in the small villages and towns, there's usually this one stall. They have no certificate of any sort, okay? They just have this one stall. Some of you have been here, you've seen them. And they will have these small bottles with some pills or some liquid in it or something. And you go to them and you say, 'I have a headache.' He will say, 'Take this bottle, ten rupees.' You say, 'I have a stomachache.' 'Take this same bottle, ten rupees.' 'I have cardiac malfunction.' 'Take this bottle, ten rupees.' How quaint! You must take this bottle. Technically, everything is level. So, in the same way, we have one bottle, which is: find out who you are, recognize who you are. All your ills, all your conditions, all that you believe about yourselves gets resolved in this discovery.

As I said earlier, don't work on becoming desireless. Don't work on depending on nothing. See that you are nothing. So this is the same working here, but we have it in multi-colors. Between colors, are you aware now? Who are you? Can you stop being? Because if you get bored, I just came here every day and said, 'Are you aware now? Who is aware of this awareness?' You'll say, 'I am done with this. Who's next?' This is to keep you entertained as you come to the same recognition of what you were, that's what you are. And what you are representing, does that have a reality?

Why do I prefer to use the word 'no-thing'? I was seeing on Facebook the other day—and I don't know if it's true of anything there on Facebook, which is a stomping ground for fake news, so I don't know if it's true—but I heard that there have been instances of some of the recent Advaita teachers committing suicide. I don't know if any of you heard this or saw this. Maybe my Facebook is more costly than yours. I saw this because somebody reported that they got into some sort of a nihilism. You know some of you know this term, nihilism, which is that, 'Oh, what's the point of it all? It's all nothing anyway.' So the discovery that you are making about yourself, although it is empty of qualities and attributes, is not nothing; it is no-thing. This is a very important distinction.

Sometimes you look and you say, 'Oh, you don't come to the discovery of yourself and you see, oh, this is the same as an empty coconut or something.' That would mean that there is nothing there; it's empty inside this coconut. You see, the discovery of yourself is not that. You come to this discovery of the Self, which is so pristine, beyond limits, beyond time and space, beyond attributes and qualities, and yet it is prior to being this. It is you. So please don't rush to picking up ideas of nothingness. Come to the recognition of this no-thingness. Then all these terms of emptiness... otherwise, sometimes when you hear the term 'empty,' it can seem like a scary thing to you. It is not the loneliness of emptiness, not that kind of empty. It is the source of all things, present prior to presence, aware before your being.

So this pristine nothingness, in which all things seem to appear and disappear—all presence, all love, peace, joy, and opposites—is part of its play. The Self is all intelligence. It is not an inert object. All intelligence emerges from this. All of this beautiful, wonderful play of consciousness emerges from the source, the absolute truth, which is what you are: the Self. If you hold on to your personal identity, then more and more, if we look at the functioning of this world, then it can be a depressing meaninglessness. One thing hits me at that point, which is that if you look at yourself as a person and more and more you're realizing and recognizing the meaninglessness from a personal standpoint of this world, then it can seem like a depressive meaninglessness.

Once you see that you are the source and you are the light and you are the screen, then it is a joyful meaninglessness, with beautiful 'is-ness.' You're not trying to look for meanings in events because you completely find yourself to be meaningful. You need no other meaning to define you. What are we looking for? We are looking for self-definition. What is it people are searching for? Who they are. 'What is my purpose in life?' And then you might come to see that these questions have been looked at for thousands of years, but nobody has come to a conclusive meaning, except to say some things which sound good and take the question away. But as you discover yourself to be this consciousness and the source of even this consciousness, then the meaning is found in yourself automatically. There is no further need for self-definition.

Who you asked... I just want to say Paul has mentioned someone may... and the report that I... well, someone else will. Good, thank you for sharing this about this one as well. I don't want to say the name out loud. They sound a bit different from when he says this nothing. To me, this quality, this is just void. It's because even dark would be a quality. I doubt very much you're going to say, 'I don't know the world of all quality points.' Is a void? Rises comment, but it is nothing to say. It is a totally disappear. But friends is too... we see that again. When I am there is a non-phenomenal awareness, okay? Is awareness ever to be unaware of itself? There's a very deep image.

Oh, this is a very good point. And as I was also saying earlier, what is the maturity that is happening? You must see that it's very good. So you see that awareness is quality-less, so the sense of progress or maturity cannot apply because that is also a quality. So for the Self, for the truest absolute Self, nothing is changing. The awareness that you recognize has always been that, not changing in quality because it has no quality. And yet it is empty of quality. This is the only discovery that will be, which is now. What is it that is maturing? What is it that is dropping? What is maturing? Maturing means that we are dropping all that which we falsely believe about ourselves. Consciousness has attached attributes to itself: 'I am doing, I am that, I am this, this is the way I have to live, this is my plan, this is my future.' All our projections, past and future, all our qualities that we've given to ourselves.

You see, that is what Guruji would say: associated consciousness, associated with these. So we come into unassociated being. So who came and who is here now? And don't quote me on this: is what is more mature now? What changed? Awareness? Nothing changed. Consciousness playing in this expression of a person continues to be. My teenage son only thinks he's maturing. Why? Because most of what was believed by that aspect of consciousness earlier, it does not believe now. Only some sticky ones are there that seem to come back over and over, but these don't have that much power. So in a sense, what happened to the Self? But for that aspect of consciousness playing as a person, there was a lot more in your basket of goodies. All of you, I can see that. So this is a process of maturing, which is part of this outward play of consciousness.

So what is coming to the recognition of awareness? It is consciousness. Awareness is your own dynamic aspect, your own dynamic seed. You see, all qualities come from the quality-less one. So all these qualities taken together in a bunch is called consciousness. Since I am the tiny quality, the final vibration, the primordial, we see himself before is what? It's the same Self alone. But then it plays as if separation happened: 'I am something, there is another,' all this. So we're talking of all these false ideas in the spiritual nature. So what happened to the Absolute? Nothing. That's right. At some level, if you are millions of lifetimes with full conditioning, nothing really happened. Yet at another level, from the point of view of consciousness, to come from associated consciousness to your consciousness, in a way to say, or unassociated consciousness, the greater we receive, partly ready to play that we are playing in this. Is anything changing? You know, such an all-in-one satsang or thousands of satsangs, nothing is changing. All remains because it was always the absolute, quality-less Self.

Okay, that is because of the difference in tradition. The concept of the void is a Zen concept. In Vedanta, you know very well that this is not considered a void, right? Because the void can also create this reference of like nothing. There is no dark void in that way. All there is is a pure witnessing, the Self itself. So this absolute witnessing, this void of all qualities, including holiness... see, otherwise when you hear 'void,' what can happen is you can have a sense of there being this like this blank, empty space of something like that. But you are the witness even to that. So, for example, one might say that the non-self witnesses even this void. And then Shankara said that this which you call the non-self is what we call the Self. So don't get confused with the terminology. You don't have to go looking for some dark void.

Well, the world disappears every night in your sleep. We're not to worry about just the 'I' that disappears. Can that give the truth? What is the definition of reality? That which is unchanging. So if it was also disappearing and appearing, what value would it have? We are not looking for that. We are looking for that unchanging reality, the Self, which can never appear or disappear. Did you appear to disappear? You have to first appear. Did you appear? In what sense did you appear? As waking consciousness. Consciousness, you appear, yes. As consciousness, you will disappear every night, yes. So what has to happen? Something has to change for consciousness to change. That has to happen for consciousness. Consciousness comes to recognize itself to be something limited. Consciousness considering itself to be something comes to this disappearance of that individual 'I.' 'I am something limited to me.' Even for 'I'm coming to feel I am the Self and I'm so sleepy,' that's all the seemings that we have to misbelieve.

How does it happen? Consciousness recognizing its own source, which is this awareness empty of quality, and consciousness now finding it more and more difficult to believe the gate will lead to limited ideas about itself. So then the idea that you have about yourself that was created in form, that disappears. Consciousness remains, yes. It is. I'm doing that, this, that. That is why ultimately the seers say the coming and going of all these states of waking, sleep, dream, turiya—all these states for the Self don't really matter. That means the unchanging Self, you. The appearance and disappearance of being ultimately for your reality does not matter. But only from that perspective can we say that. If you still consider yourself to be an object within this world, this being, this consciousness, is the supreme God. I'm not taking space. Attention... it is going. Attention, give attention to everything. What happened? Is it not the birth of the ego? Usually, even by giving attention to this dynamism, dynamic life, is there an ego? It's only when you instead consider yourself to be an object within this dynamic life and not the source of this.

Only from that perspective can we say that if you still consider yourself to be an object within this world, this being, this consciousness, is the supreme God. I'm not taking his space. Attention—it is going. Attention, give attention to everything. What happened? It's not the birth of the ego. Usually, even by giving attention to this dynamism, dynamic life is there. Is it ego? It's only when you instantly consider yourself to be an object within this dynamic life and not the source of this. You consider yourself to be subject to this dynamic life, not the witnessing of it. That is the false side.

So you need to be contacting me to stay here, and all has already happened for you. What is your next move? It's just the way it is. You who have to be honest in some way—it is you who heard it from Ashtavakra, but your next move was to pick up again. If you heard rightly, say that has come since then. If you do the same, that works on all of us. But if you are able to drop the idea of 'next,' of finding something more, I think they don't have to become. Why we continue to play this game? In what form is this voice? Finally, you come to speak. It is the same voice. It will come as bombs in the grave to remind you of the very same thing. The terminology might vary from time to time, from form to form. Some will say 'void,' some would say there is no way. Most importantly, no matter who is saying what, everybody's clear: the only thing that is needed is for you directly to come to the recognition of who you are, which you have come now. When will you leave that which you are not?

What is after your plea? If you see there is nothing to do, well, that means there is no time left. Drop the 'but.' The 'but' will come. 'This is fine, it was very good when I was sitting with Ananta, but...' will come. It has come often. Has it not been bought? It has been bought. Now, all that you said is very beautiful. When you step out of this room, does the reality of you change? If the reality of you changed, then what changes is that different events come in your phenomenal plane. At that point, to believe yourself to be a limited identity, that is forever now. Don't do 'forever now.' Yeah, you talk to 'forever now.' Let's go. Not want to do it. Burn it in the final section. So when the next time the mind comes and offers you, 'But what about the forever?' did you stop it? Ashes of you are still here because you burnt the concept of forever. The laughing at his heart is an outcome of your true recognition of who you are. You're laughing at this once. I'm telling you, it hasn't happened as yet. Believe me. They say about one president that every time he lied, he says 'believe me.' They're repeating the same. What do the same to you? 'Hasn't happened as yet.' Checking all of you, who is the 'I' that it is representing? I just said that that will happen. The laughing will happen as a natural byproduct of this. You just don't believe anything false about yourself and leave the idea of the future.

What should have... okay, I'm going to repeat because as they are being the transcripts later. It is good. Paulo speaking, he says, 'Hearing is nearly effortless, but when I'm at home or something and then I seem to be stuck with something, then I ask: Am I aware now? And it seems full.' Look at me now. What can happen anytime is that we come to the topic of doership. If we still hold on to the experiencer, is there a person sitting there experiencing any nuances? The peace that you experience, is it personal? It's peace. So who's tasting all of this, experiencing all of this? You're seeing, but you have to be. The dynamics which has to come on, you have to be before any experience can be. Witnessing doesn't go away even in deep sleep. Still, once you be, I'm sure we can see it is there only. All this drama—no satsang, no such—all this can happen only in the waking state. So we have to be to be to be all these experiences.

So if all of this happens in the light of being, then whose problem is it? Is it anybody's personal which is happening? And how you know it is wrong? Even this, for example, it be known that, okay, satsang and outside should be just the same, but life is showing us differently. This is what life wants to experience: a taste of the contrast of the peace enjoyed in satsang and the seeming constriction outside. Who's to stop life from doing what it is to live? Experiencing life is playing the way it is wanting to play. Who wants to control that experience? This is the voice of the separation. This is the voice of the limitation. Once I told all of you that everything that arises is your child. Can you not accept that which is arising naturally in a different environment as this, as another creation, as another aspect of your own play? The one who is sitting and checking it—'it should be like this, it should not be like this'—this one is the trickster. Yeah, it says everything has to always be hunky-dory. It's the same thing, but obviously only chocolate flavor. Awareness is not a problem. So consciousness is not a problem. But the one it is a problem did not exist. Awareness, no being, consciousness is doing all of this. Anything can really become a problem? Being is just being. For whom anything is a problem? Where is that one? The one that sits and says, 'Yes, experience at satsang 80 plus, outside C minus. Limitation is mine.'

Here it comes, another 'but,' which allows us to know that we must not make even this attitude—in the sense, we might not even make this a benchmark. It's okay as a report, but not as a benchmark. Because then you can like... those who've been coming to satsang, they said that at all, even the output, 'Look at my day, look at my life.' Like I said, there's really one medicine which is available here. I know who you are and not concerned about life, what is going to happen, including about freedom. All states, leave that up to Guru power. Guru power is the best power. No waiting, no expecting, no judging, no interpreting, no resentment. Guru power in your life or no? Ultimately, it all boils down to this. All the 'but' depends on this question: Guru power can do that or no? Does the Guru power need your controlling, driving, and doing? Many times with a disciple, you can either have the car of the disciple going to the Master, or the Master... so this is the disciple who is driving the Master. 'Do it today, do it tomorrow, day after when I may be you.' Then who is the Master actually in this situation? Once this is over, yes. So when do you want me to do it? I'm doing this to make this point that even that is an expectation. Whatever the state wants to keep, that kind of argument is okay.

Actually, sometimes like, 'Ram Ji, what is life?' I said, I sent that audio in the Sangha, Bangalore Sangha, only for you. Otherwise, I would not post anything like that in that group. Listen to it. Okay, then the Guru has to do what he has to do. Whether he has to do what he has to do, everything is already done. No, not at all. This 'but' and Guru power cannot both survive. Is it? Either the Guru power you will see, or what does not survive... or you keep giving value to the 'but' and then you find that more and more it is ego, spiritual ego. Then Guru power seems to be... that is the play of this world. Ultimately, the term Advaita is always more currently. That is how it seems to play. You have to... this is always okay.

So capsules are these two sides. Now, at least in India, capsules are like using two different colors. So one could be two sides to my medicine. One is: find out who you are. The second is: leave your life to Guru's power. This can be the final... both are not independent. It's one in terms. The recognition is the discovery of your own intuitive presence, and the more you remain with your intuitive presence, you will see that the recognition is in this Guru's grace. We can trust this Guru power, this unassociated being, consciousness, from which all these aspects, even the gods, arise from this. Everything, even the primal forces in this creation, rely on this presence, this light, and form, space and time. Nothing exists without this presence, this existence.

It's nothing new that is being offered here in satsang. The one also said the same thing: inquiry or surrender, or both. All the sages of the past in their different flavors have always wanted us to see this very same truth. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you all so much for being in satsang today. Guru Sri Moojiji Ki Jai.