Filled With a Sense of Wonder (Ashtavakra Gita 2.10 - 2.14) - 11th October 2016

I just want to read a few more and maybe come to a point where Ashtavakra asks him something. These words were so beautiful: 'As a pot returns to clay, a wave to water, a bracelet to gold, so will the universe return to me.' Then verse 11: 'I am wonderful indeed, beyond adoration. I cannot decay or ever die, though God and all the universe should perish to the last blade of grass.' I am wonderful indeed, beyond adoration. You see, what does this mean? I am that which is even beyond the Supreme Lord. As we've been saying, wonderful of wonder, we can really wonder about that, you see? As we come to the recognition of this, we are filled with the sense of wonder.

It is, and sometimes—and I've been making this point recently—that I see many times we come to satsang and we keep hearing these words 'You are not a person, you are awareness' and it's become wonderless many times, you know? So I try to inject a sense of wonder in this sometimes. You are not a person. How wonderful is that? And you are recognizing this. What are you? You're not a person. What kind of discovery is this? This discovery which was only made available to a handful over centuries, you see, now through the graces of Bhagavan and all the masters is now being brought to everyone. You see, you are not a person. Even the light of Consciousness, this God, appears within you and dissolves back within you, the entire universe. What are you?

That's why I have to laugh when sometimes someone says it's too boring or intellectual. I know how it can feel like that, but what is really being said? All our concepts are rubbish. All our ideas are rubbish. There is no individual entity here. All that exists is in the light of this one Consciousness. And from the perspective of the world, this light of Consciousness, beingness, is the Supreme Lord. But from the perspective of what you really are, even this is coming and going. You are that solitary witness to this entire play, this realm. Is that not wonderful? Beyond wonder. I am wonderful indeed. I'm really jumping to get back into this. Beyond adoration, or even die, or ever die, though God and all the universe should perish to the last blade of grass. Who can say like this? It's completely shocking to the mind, you see? 'Though God and all the universe should perish, I cannot decay or not die.'

Okay, now one conclusion that can come up is that some of you would like to use the definition of God to be this absolute awareness itself, you see? So if that is your definition of God, then the 'I' that cannot die is this God that cannot die. So it depends on what you are referring to as God, you see? Usually in satsang, what we refer to as God is this Consciousness which ultimately, for that absolute awareness, is also a coming and going. But I have no problem if you want to refer to that absolute awareness, that Self unchanging, as God. Absolutely fine. But just know that when the sage is speaking, he's talking about Consciousness also coming up and dissolving within awareness.

This one also starts with again: 'I am wonderful indeed, beyond adoration. Even with the body, I am one. I neither come nor go. I am everywhere at once.' I am wonderful indeed, beyond adoration. Even with the body, I am one. So what this means: even the body appears and seems so intimate and tries to convince me that I am this through the play of its sensations, I see that I am that one, the eternal witness untouched by the coming and going of this body. Because I neither come nor go. This body will come and go, but that which witnesses this body will neither come nor go. And I am everywhere at once. See, another way that we say it is that everywhere is within me. Time and space are within me, you see? So there is nowhere that I am not, because if the entirety of space is just an appearance within myself, then where can I not be? I am everywhere.