Sharing Pointers from Ashtavakra Gita 1.7 - 1.10 (Day 4) - 30th September 2016

Many times we pray as if God is going to do something, but it has to be for me. Or 'God must take care of my life' or 'God must lead my life to a particular outcome.' So this is also what I call the half-surrender. If God is the one doer, then can there be a separate experiencer? Cannot. So then this consciousness is the one doer, one experiencer. And as the sages have said, this consciousness itself is the projector, it is the light, it is the screen, it is the movie, it is the characters, it is the script, the director, everything. And this consciousness is moving this entire manifest creation according to its own will. This is God's will. So to do this, to know 'I do nothing' is the wisdom of faith. So to see it like this, that this God, this consciousness, is the mover and the experiencer of the universe, you see? Then to see this itself is faith. That which runs the universe is also running this life. To see this is faith.

Verse number nine is: 'A single understanding, "I am the one awareness," consumes all suffering in the fire of an instant.' Single understanding, 'I am the one awareness,' consumes all suffering in the fire of an instant. So this understanding sounds like a master key, because if I just know this, 'I am the one awareness,' it will consume all my suffering in the fire of an instant. But who comes to Satsang who does not know that? We say this every day: 'I am the one awareness.' Is it the end of suffering? Then what is the contradiction? What is the contradiction?

The contradiction is that just as a concept, even this concept, although very beautiful and poetic, 'I am the one awareness,' is not enough to come to the end of suffering. Therefore, when the sage says 'understanding,' he is talking about the direct recognition of this truth. Coming to this seeing, coming to this pure recognition of the Self. I am the one awareness, where even these words fade away, even these words are not needed there. Awareness does not need these words, you see? So as the being is coming to this recognition that I am this one awareness, then this is truly the end of suffering, you see?

So if you were to look at this term 'understanding,' it must mean that this is clearly recognized. But even in this recognition, which many of us in Satsang have had, is it still the end of suffering? Many times it isn't. In fact, most times it isn't, because the understanding must also contain, you see, the dropping of that which is false. Understanding that's why there is a single understanding: 'I am the one awareness.' So to come to this recognition non-conceptually as a living experience, that's why we have the pointers: 'Are you aware now?' and 'Who is aware of this awareness?' to bring us to this recognition, you see? The recognition does not truly convert into the true understanding unless that which is false and conceptual is also dropped. So both the recognition and the dropping of the conditioning is contained here.

And it's important to see that the sage says 'in the fire of one instant,' because when I say 'dropping of the conditioning,' it can seem like now we are talking about the realm of time, is it? But even the conditioning has to be dropped now. It must be dropped now as you are allowing these thoughts to come and go. It is so simple, actually. It can seem like, 'Now I have a big task, I have to recognize and I have to drop the conditioning, so I have a lot of work to do.' Actually, it is nothing. It is just to use these pointers: 'Am I aware now? Who is aware of this awareness? I am.' Easy. And then just simply allowing everything to come and go—our thoughts, our emotions, everything that is coming and going in this realm is allowed to come and go at its own pace without attaching to it.

So this, when it says 'a single understanding, I am the one awareness,' also implies that I am not an object within the world. I am not the body, I am not this phenomenal world. And to see that I must be this one awareness is the true understanding. And right now you are free. Right now you are free in the fire of this instant. So don't wait for some holy instant; this is that. Also, the sage reiterates that 'I am the one awareness,' and you can see him stressing on this over and over in the past few weeks. So there the admission is that it is 'I' which is this awareness. So it's very important to see it like that. So it is not 'that' awareness, it is not a distant awareness, it is not an experience that you had of awareness; it is to see that awareness is I.

Verse ten: 'You are the unbounded awareness, bliss, supreme bliss.' Okay, so this is a hyphen. 'You are the unbounded awareness—bliss, supreme bliss'—and a hyphen again. So this awareness, we cannot find a boundary. We cannot find the start or the end. It is not contained within any phenomenon. It is not even contained within this phenomenal realm. When I ask you, 'Where are you really? Are you here in this universe at all, or are you just witnessing this universe?' you see? Then you see that I am not in this universe. My 'I Am' is the universe itself. My being contains this universe, but my truest nature, my true self, is not to be found in this realm.

And in seeing it like this, we see that there has been this sense of trying to discover the Self as if you find it as an object within this realm or within the body or within the mind. But it is not to be found here. Who witnesses the realm? Who witnesses the body? Who witnesses the mind? That is already what you are, and you have never left this position. So you are this unbounded awareness. And as this recognition is coming, then bliss can arise in service to it. But for now, you don't be concerned about the byproduct, because the recognition that I am this unbounded awareness is the important thing. So you are this unbounded awareness in which the universe appears like the mirage of a snake in a rope. Be happy.

Okay, within this awareness the universe appears. What form does the universe take? The most primal form of the first appearance is what? Is the existence, yes. So we experience this nothingness in the sleep, and then this primal, primordial appearance comes, the primordial vibration which is 'I Am,' also called Om. And in the light of this primordial vibration, the universe seems to exist. Seems to exist, you see.

Can you talk a bit more about the bliss?

The bliss? I would not like to say that. I would not like to say that because then what happens is that we are searching for the byproduct more than what we are truly recognizing for ourselves. So even when this recognition could be happening—that this witnessing is I, this awareness is I—then the mind could say, 'Hello, where is the bliss? You know, are you truly coming to the seeing? Because they said it's going to be supremely blissful.' So then we don't give it any space to unfold itself, the recognition, you see? Because immediately we go back to this sense of wanting something, the seeking of the bliss which will then supposedly take over and make everything else seem tasteless, you see?

All other worldly experiences... that you are the unbounded awareness which is accompanied by bliss as its servant, in a way. Actually, even that would not be completely accurate because we have to say that this unbounded awareness, manifesting in this form of consciousness which, when it remains unassociated—see, when this is not associated personally in any way—then it is completely followed around by love, peace, joy, bliss. So in this awareness, we saw that the universe appears, and then he says, 'like the mirage of a snake in a rope.' So all of this is one big seeming. From the perspective of awareness, nothing ever really happened. The mirage never really existed, but it can seem to be there.

And when you're in the desert and you're searching for water, it can seem like the mirage is real. Just like when we consider ourselves to be an object, it can seem like this world of objects is real, you see? But this mirage is like the mirage of a snake in a rope. So it could be late in the evening and you see a rope on the side of the road, and if the light is dim, then it will feel like it is a snake. It has happened to many, you see? So like this mirage, the universe is appearing. And like the mirage, when we truly look—it's a beautiful example of the mirage, isn't it?—when we truly get close and we look, we don't see the mirage anymore, you see? So when we truly look at who we are, we find that we are this unbounded awareness.