Look for Yourself and Validate What I Say - 12th Sept. 2016

For me to be able to say that things are coming and going, I must be outside of that. As a passenger inside the plane, if all the windows were closed, if I could not sense the turbulence of the plane, then I do not feel like the plane is moving at all. It is not coming and going, you see? So to be able to spot that something is moving or coming and going, there must be already a seeing from the outside. So what are we really saying? We are saying that all objects in this phenomenal level, and the phenomenal realm itself, is coming and going, you see? So there must be something outside of this phenomenal realm which is able to report that not only are the objects themselves in the room coming and going, but also then the realm seems to be coming and going. In different terms, I have experienced... so we don't even know for sure whether we are coming, going, and coming back, or there is coming and going. So for this coming and going, we see that this unchanging witnessing, this awareness which is outside of the phenomenal realm, must be present for us to even make this report.

Then you say that so many great sages have come to this point of 'I don't know' and it is enough for them. They are not reporting anything. I am being indicative of this there. There is no need for such a report, and this is completely fine because 'I don't know' means that I don't know who I am, therefore I can have no attachment, you see? First, there has to be an identity with the 'me' for there to be something which can cause suffering. If you are beyond that suffering, you see, it doesn't matter what their expression is like—whether they are speaking about Advaita or they're talking about love, or whether they're just the poor guy who is walking from door to door—if you have lost individual identity, that itself is enough to be free from suffering, you see? So this 'I don't know, I don't know who I am' is very, very, very beautiful and not to be looked down upon.

And we must not... so okay, so this was the second thing. A related point which you said was that you have to believe me when I say that you are awareness, you see? So therefore, you must not make these kind of beliefs. You might just say, 'Okay, he is proposing that I am this awareness.' I'm giving you a hypothesis, you see, and you must validate that for yourself. Yeah, so don't take it as a belief. Yeah, you must not take it on as a belief, as an idea, because no belief is the truth. Even the belief 'I am awareness' is not the truth because awareness does not capture the reality of what I am, you see? So anything that I can say after 'I am' is not true. So 'I am whatever' is not true. And ultimately, you know, 'I am' is not true, you see? There is great power in Nisargadatta Maharaj when he says that, you see?

So let's not take these as the gospel truth, bringing a new religion here. So I'm not saying just accept. I've never said this: 'Except I'm saying you're awareness, accept.' No. 'This, accept. You're not seeing, very bad.' No. You see, what do you find when you check? What do you find when you check? Then all the reporting can happen and you see that what my report is, is that everything is coming and going, you see? But you are not making up this report. You are aware of this. There is coming and going. Aware of this, that everything is coming and going. Is that coming and going? And you're finding that this is not coming and going. So whether you label this awareness or the Absolute, it doesn't matter. If that which can report, that which is aware that everything is coming and going—is that itself coming and going? And who would be aware of that if even this was coming and going? Is it possible to see or experience or even intuit anything without there being this awareness?

So therefore, the words in Satsang are not to be taken as beliefs but, just like you said, to be taken as pointers to check for ourselves. And then what to do? Correlate with what is being shared. Then we can feel like, 'Yes, this is in resonance with my direct experience.' And when they don't seem to correlate, you can come and say, 'Yes, what you said is like this, you see, which is coming and going, but in my experience, it is awareness which is coming and going but Being stays.' You can come and make this kind of question and then we can look at it together, you see? Then we can say, 'Okay, so to report that Being is here, mustn't there be an awareness that Being is here?' If you are unaware of anything, including even consciousness, has it ever existed for us in truth? Then these kind of interactions can happen. So those are the beautiful ones because the interactions here are not meant to be, 'Oh, I believe this.' What are we fighting for? Our beliefs? Because it's the worst thing we can do in this world, killing each other for their beliefs. Yeah. So here what we are saying is that this is what is seen here. What is seen over there? Can we see whether there is some blind spot or it is not clear? So we are just here to clean up our eyes, using our true vision.