I Do Not Lose Nor Attain (Ashtavakra Gita 13.6 - 13.7) - 25th November 2016

I do not lose by sleeping nor attain by effort. Not thinking in terms of loss or gain, I am happy. It is said that the mahamantra of the ego is: 'What's in it for me? What's in it for me?' So that's the second line. I want to attain something in this world; you want to get something. What's in it for me, you see? But the first line is the most important: 'I do not lose by sleeping.' This is not making an excuse for being lazy. This is saying what I am remains even in sleep state. What is it that remains in sleep state? If you can recognize this in the waking state, that is an awakening, you see. If you can recognize what is it that remains even in sleep state, if you can recognize that in the waking state, that is called waking up in the waking state.

What is it that remains even when I go to sleep? Who is there to see that I woke up and the time was 7:30? Who is there to be able to distinguish the difference between sleep and waking? Where did the concept of sleep come from if it is not our direct experience? Even if the direct experience is that there is nothing there, who is experiencing this nothing? This is very, very, very beautiful and powerful because it will make you, in the waking state, to see that that which I am continues irrespective. Even if the whole world disappears, then there is nothing that this world can take from me and there is nothing that I want from this world.

If you can recognize yourself to be this Self, which is unchanging even though the state is changing from waking to dream to dreamless sleep, what is that which is constant? Who says, 'I experience these three states, including that state in which nothing is'? So the question, 'Are you aware now?' is pointing you to this. Am I aware? What is the distinction between I and aware? That which is aware is that awareness itself. Okay.

I do not lose by sleeping nor attain by effort. Not thinking in terms of loss or gain, I am happy. When we see that I am unaffected by anything, which is lost does not truly apply to me in reality, then this whole world is just a movie, a game, and the Leela becomes fun. As it is said in A Course in Miracles, this life becomes, is experienced like a happy dream. That is the usual experience.

And the last verse in this chapter is that pleasure and pain fluctuate and are inconsistent. Without good or bad, I live happily. Again, looking deeply at what we were saying about the sensations of the body, and we saw that the appearances of these sensations are just appearances. When we attach it to the 'me' thought, then we say, 'These are my experiences.' They're very intimate, so I'm not saying that they are not intimate, but intimate as they might be, they do not touch the reality of you. If you're able to just bring yourself to look at the sensations of pain and pleasure, you'll find that they are not being experienced personally. They're just part of the same universal experience that Consciousness is having, because you cannot find that individual entity which we have presumed to be the experiencer.