Living Life As It Comes (Ashtavakra Gita 4.2-4.6) - 27th October 2016

And he says truly the yogi feels no distinction though he abides in the exalted state yearned for by Indra and all the discontented gods. Very important also to see that in India, in our mythology, it is very common to see that when a sage comes to the recognition of the Self, achieves this illumination or enlightenment, then it is depicted that all the gods gather around and shower the sage with flowers and blessings. Because no matter what the realm of the experience is, no matter what the quality of the experience is, if you're still attached to experiences, if you're still attached to life being a certain way, even if the experiences are the most sublime, then that attachment itself makes us burdened. The attachment makes us identify. So it doesn't matter in which realm this illumination happens; it is what all beings in this world are yearning for.

The yogi is not feeling special. The yogi, the sage, is not feeling special about himself or herself. Just think that it's such a regular, simple discovery. There was never a person; all this was just a presumption. And it sees no distinction between itself and any other being that seems to appear. Surely one who knows That, with the capital T, is not touched by virtue or vice, just as space is not touched by smoke though it seems to be. What does this mean? When doership itself is gone, then the truth is seen to be That, and it is seen that all these actions are moving on their own. How can that be concerned about choices and all of these presumptions and ideas? Just as space is not touched by smoke though it seems to be.

And what we are talking about is the grandparent of space. This space that we are experiencing now is a product of our own being, that awareness within which this being takes birth—the birth of this sense of existence and time, space, and all other phenomenal forces. So this space itself, this worldly phenomenal sense of space itself, is untouched by any appearance within it. How can that which is so much prior to this space, how can that one be hurt? Which smoke can affect that space? You are that one, that space which is beyond this space.

Who can prevent the great soul, who knows the universe itself, from living life as it comes? So it is not that this one who knows that the universe is arising within me is leading life with this intent: 'I'm going to live my life now, nobody can stop it.' It is not that. The sage is saying that if there is a primal urge within awareness itself to experience its own being in this way, who can stop that? Who can stop the waking state from coming? The waking state has to come. When the dream state has to come, it just comes, fulfilling this primal urge. That which you truly are, to experience yourself as this, cannot be stopped.

There are many who are forcing themselves to move away from trying to control in such a way that it does not move and remains only in a void. This is also a fallacy because that happens every night in sleep. Their attention itself seems to dissolve. With the waking state, the phenomenal world will be experienced. That which gets our attention, that comes to life. So it is not about forcing attention. In some practices, under some guidance from a sage, if something is being suggested, that is okay. But don't try to control your attention too much. Allow it to go free. You cannot leave home; you can only report back to your own self. Allow your attention to relax, then you will find that this world seems to lose a lot of its light, seems to relax.