The Reality Is Never Changed - 4th December 2017

Godhad posted something very beautiful from Swami Ram Tirtha. So Swamiji is saying: What is self-realization? It is the giving up the pretension that you are not the Atma, that you are a mere body. People say to me, 'You are God himself.' I reply, 'You are also He.' 'We are not He,' they rejoin. 'We are not He,' they rejoin. What else is this but that they simulate for some Leela of their own, what I call the play, hide behind a mask the real and divine nature. It sounds so, so, so similar to what we share in Satsang because the reality is never changed. There's only this pretense, what he calls pretension, that I am not the Atma, I am the body, I am the mind.

The Master is saying that we are one, we are the same, but the mind will come and say, 'But I still don't have what he had.' This is the nature of the mind. Until we are able to take the Master's words in our heart and just look what is true. The Master says, 'I have no boundary.' If I keep my belief system aside for a minute, what do I actually find? Seconds of open looking. So we will take in this example of the Master saying that you have a boundary. Is it possible to keep our belief system aside for a few moments? The mind will come and say, 'No, no, you can't find this yet. You're too attached to the body. The sensations are too strong right now. Tell you later.' All these noises from the mind just come and go. And check for yourself: Is it true that I have a boundary? Is it true that I am contained in something? Am I also an appearance? Will I also come and go? Any of these, just check openly without any expectation, without any concept or judgment.

No meaning, then what Swamiji is saying, 'You are also He,' will completely be apparent. Because he did not say that there is anything really wrong; he just said it's a pretension. What is self-realization? It is giving up the pretension that you are not the Atma, that you are a mere body. He did not say that you have to find the Atma. Like one also said, knowledge is just dropping of the ignorance, dropping of the false. Knowledge does not have to emerge; it is already there. The Atma is self-illuminating. People say to me, 'You are God.' He says, 'I reply, you are also He.' Then the 'but' comes. 'But, but we are not He' or 'I have not...' they rejoin. What else is this but that they simulate for some kind of masks their real and divine nature?

Now, he does not also say that you have to now proclaim that 'I am the Atma.' This is the common confusion. Dropping of the pretension is not picking up another concept. Can we remain empty of all notions? This is a natural skill. Our original nature right now is this. Right now you have no pretensions. All that is gone. History is gone. Seeker is gone. Everything is gone. Masks are coming on the conveyor belt of the mind. Some are terrible masks of the unworthy seeker, some are fancy proclaimer masks, but they are masks. Let them come and go. And if you picked one up, what happened? Nothing. It is not the end of the world. So don't make a big deal about it because it is gone now. So no guilt, no unworthiness, no perpetuating the seeker identity based on something from the past.

And I see that we have the best cleanup crew in the world. And all your past, all your guilt, all your conditioning, everything is gone now. Which notion now is greater than your existence, your being? Like, no notion is greater than your being. Why you want to exchange a notion for your being? Should it be your being for a notion? Your being is here effortlessly. Are you going to put it in the box called the concept? The idea comes, 'I've got it' or 'not got it,' 'I am just not ready for this,' 'I am completely...' so damn easy. It is the mind's notion. It has nothing to do with any real you. It would mean so far, how many are lost, missing anything? Their mind is saying has nothing to do with the real you. It is just the mask salesman. The mask salesman is coming and saying, 'This mask now is worthy of you. This mask now is worthy of you.' When are you ready to remain naked of these masks? Now.