Know It Here, Become Deathless🔗

Listen. This verse is a direct slap on the face of postponement. “इह चेदवेदीदथ सत्यमस्ति — iha cedavedīdatha satyamasti.” If It is known here, now, then satyam asti — truth is. Life becomes true. Understand, the Upanishad is not giving you some poetry to enjoy, some philosophy to decorate your intellect, some belief-system to keep in your showcase. It is declaring the urgency of life. If you know It here, now, life becomes true. If you don’t know It here, now, “महती विनष्टिः — mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ” — the loss is great.

I tell you, the greatest loss is not losing money, not losing name and fame, not losing relationships, not even losing body. The greatest loss is living without knowing what is really living in you. “भूतेषु भूतेषु विचित्य धीराः — bhūteṣu bhūteṣu vicitya dhīrāḥ.” The courageous ones look into every being, every form, every living creature, every expression, and recognize That which is present in the heart of all things. Only such a person who has the experience of every being as part of Cosmic Consciousness can really radiate love. Only that being knows what love is. Others can think they love, or act as if they love. Be very clear, there are so many who act as if they love. But when you recognize Consciousness in every being, love is not an action you perform; love is the radiation of your very existence.

Understand this verse: “iha” — here. Not after death. Not after one more birth. Not after all outer arrangements become perfect. Not after your mind gives certificate. Here. Now. If you know It here, life becomes true. If you don’t know It here, the loss is great. I am telling you, do not play the in-between game. Either have the urgency or forget the urge itself. Don’t play hide and seeking. The people who play the in-between game think they are seeking, but they never seek. As long as the blood is hot, they pull along; when the blood becomes cool, they fall into depression, because all along they were only playing the game of seeking.

Look inside. Whatever you thought as you is not there. And it will not be there. Just it will not be there. The body you think as “I,” the mind you think as “I,” the patterns you think as “I,” the memories you think as “I,” the identities you think as “I” — when you look inside with integrity, they are not there as you. They appear, disappear, move, change, collapse, rise again. But you are not them. Once you understand you are not the body and mind and are beyond it, you will be totally free from psychological slavery. You will experience Consciousness and freedom. This is the direct meaning of “If you know It here, then life becomes true.”

The courageous ones are called “dhīrāḥ.” Dhīra is not the person who has no fear in some outer situation. Dhīra is the one who has the guts to look inside and see whether he is sitting on a mud horse or a real horse. You can sit on a mud horse and have a photograph. You can keep it in your showcase. But not for travelling, not for entering into the river. Don’t come to the Upanishad sitting on a mud horse of intellectual understanding. The river of death, the river of delusion, the river of body-mind identification cannot be crossed by the mud horse called borrowed ideas. Bend and see. Are you really seeking or doing the game of hide and seeking?

This verse is not asking for your argument. Atman cannot be attained by argument. It is truly known only when taught by one who is living it, who has become it; only when you listen from that space, with receptivity. Intellectually you cannot be convinced till you get your eyes, till you can walk without stick. Understand, if it could happen from Me mechanically, long before I would have given you enlightenment. It is not that I have to give; you have to receive. This is not a hide-and-seek game. An utter, clear, total decision to wait is the basic necessity to become enlightened.

Waiting is not laziness. Waiting is not postponement. Waiting is not dullness. Waiting is the ultimate technique when it is born out of deep quest. All Masters have used the technique of waiting. When they say they will come back, they mean: learn the technique of waiting. The moment you learn the technique of waiting, they will be back in you. When the deep quest happens, it becomes a tremendous waiting. Until the quest is fulfilled, you think by doing this and that you will get enlightenment. Only when you are filled with the quest and cannot be fulfilled by anything else, the truth opens.

Let this incident be allowed to stand by itself.

Understand the lesson. Power without recognizing the Source becomes pride. The Source may be reflecting in all brains, but all reflections don’t focus on the Source.

“भूतेषु भूतेषु” — in every being, in every being. I have declared: It is existing within all living creatures and present in the hearts of all things. Attained by yoga, difficult to accomplish, hard to attain. Even though It is living in all beings, It is difficult to be accomplished by all beings. I exist in all living beings, but all beings do not experience Me. Even though the Source is reflecting in all brains, all brains do not focus towards the Source. Source may be focused on all brains, but all brains don’t focus on Source. Meditate on this. It is available to all of you as your individual self, but your individual self is not always available to It.

This is the tragedy the verse calls “mahatī vinaṣṭiḥ” — great loss. Not that Brahman is absent. Not that Consciousness is far away. Not that Paramashiva has to newly enter you. Other than Him nothing else can exist. There cannot be anything other than Oneness. But your cognition may be small, fear-based, anxiety-based, agitation-based. Whenever you have a large vision about life, chastity and stability become part of your cognition. Whenever you have a small vision about life, agitation, anxiety, insecurity, fear-based movements become part of your life. The great loss is not the absence of Consciousness; the great loss is not turning toward the Consciousness which is already the life of your life.

“इह चेदवेदीत्” — If you know It here. But how will you know? Not as an object. Anything you know is not God. Anything you know, if you think you know it, whatever you know as an object is not God. Then what should you do to know God? Go on doing new, new things — in thinking, in action, in aligning your life. Because Brahman is not the finite, limited object you cherish and worship as “this.” That which speech does not illumine or reveal, but by which speech is illumined and expressed — know That alone as Brahman. Not through which words and visualization can describe, but the Source from which visualization and verbalization itself gets life.

Listen carefully. Mind always wants to arrest Brahman as a concept. It wants to say, “Now I understood.” It wants to make a small mental cage and put the Infinite inside.

So don’t mistake mental clarity for realization. Mental clarity can prepare your inner space, but the Source of mind cannot be captured by mind. That which reveals even visualization and verbalization to your perception — That is to be meditated upon, That is to be lived.

The Upanishad says: if you know It here, life becomes true. This knowing is not collecting one more idea. If you go on repeating “I am not mind, I am not body, I am Shiva,” but from the space of incompletion, that is not the solution. The one who sang “chidānandarūpaḥ śivo'ham śivo'ham” sang after Completion. If you use that as an antidote for incompletion without actually completing, you are wrong. The straight process for non-dual consciousness is to see the thoughts and patterns that distance you from the space of Advaita, pen down the root incidents where those ideas started, relive, complete and drop. Then the declaration is not a cover-up; it becomes your space.

“Knowing they are not body and mind, but Consciousness beyond it” — don’t make this into a slogan. Make it into your breathing. Make it into your inner cognition. When you understand you are not body and mind and are beyond it, psychological slavery breaks. The body-mind is kshetra, the field. Inner Science Technology liberates your inner space from this kshetra. It is not anti-body. It is not anti-mind. It is knowing their place and not allowing them to possess your identity. When your muscles are not feeling possessed by your ego, when even inside your bone marrow you feel sweetness, restful awareness, peace without heaviness, peace without brooding over worries — that receptivity opens the door.

Just being a disciple opens a new door. The word “I am your disciple” opens a new door. Surrender is not slavery. Surrender is becoming a receiver of the Cosmos. When you sit in the deep receptive mode, the highest words can enter you. Otherwise, pure truths cannot be continuously uttered into you. If the receiver is not open, even the highest declaration remains only sound. Let your inner space become receptive.

I tell you, this verse is asking for “vyavasāyātmikā buddhi” — determination to stay and see the end in the inner world. Just sit with this one truth: determination. Create determination through determination. Not casual mood. Not weekend spirituality. Not “let me see.” The Upanishad is not giving you a hobby. It is saying: know It here, now, or the loss is great. Determination to stay and see the end in the inner world is the minimum honesty expected from you.

“प्रेत्यास्माल्लोकादमृता भवन्ति — pretyāsmāllokādamṛtā bhavanti.” Having gone beyond this world, they become deathless. Understand: death should come on the way to life. Life should not come on the way to death. Be always on the way to life. We are for life. Even if death comes on the way to life, there is fulfillment. But if your whole life is only on the way to death — body, mind, sense-gratification, fear, insecurity, flowery words, good birth, power, opulence, and saying there is nothing more — that is collective delusion. The Upanishad is breaking that mental setup.

Here, “this world” is not merely geography. It is the worldly delusion of body-mind identity. Going beyond this world means going beyond the cognition that you are only body and mind. The courageous ones, having recognized Consciousness in all beings, having seen That in every heart, go beyond this delusion and become deathless. Deathlessness is not a future reward added to you. It is the revelation of what you are when the false identities fall.

Let another sacred intensity stand here.

That is the courage of the seeker. When all that usually attracts the human mind is kept aside for the secret of the Self, then the door of Atma Vidya opens.

I tell you, do not reduce God to your small desires. If your idea of the Divine remains as a supplier of outer comfort, you are not yet looking into “bhūteṣu bhūteṣu.” You are only asking the Infinite to serve the finite.

Let this humor burn your unconscious pattern. Drop the small vision. When the vision is small, agitation and insecurity become your life. When the vision is large, stability becomes your cognition.

“भूतेषु भूतेषु विचित्य” — look, inquire, discern, recognize in every being. Not intellectually saying, “All are one.” Not socially acting as if love is there. When you experience every being as part of Cosmic Consciousness, only then love radiates. Then non-violence, patience, straightforwardness, stability, self-restraint, dispassion toward sense-objects, absence of ego, equanimity in pleasant and unpleasant — all these are not moral decorations; they are the natural fragrance of right cognition. Inner space liberated from body-mind slavery expresses itself as these qualities.

Understand, “here” means in this very inner space. “Now” means before postponement starts. Don’t say, “After I finish my responsibilities, I will know.” Don’t say, “After one more desire is fulfilled, I will turn inward.” All desires other than this are lower than this. Name and fame, palace, powers, outer achievements — everything is less than the joy of being a disciple, being receptive, resting in awareness. The Upanishad is placing before you the highest possibility: know It here, make life true.

If you miss, the loss is great because your very life-force is spent without recognizing its Source. The Source is not away. It is present in the heart of all things. It is living in all beings. But all beings do not experience It. That gap — between the ever-present Source and the unfocused individual self — is the tragedy. The courageous bridge that gap by vicitya, by looking, by discerning, by turning awareness again and again toward That which is aware.

Do not try to describe Brahman and feel satisfied. Speech is revealed by It. Visualization is revealed by It. Thought is revealed by It. The mind which tries to know is itself illumined by It. So, sit with this truth for manana. Let it work inside you. Not as dry philosophy, but as living fire. “That by which the mind knows, That by which speech speaks, That by which perception is perceived” — turn toward That. The Upanishad’s demand is immediate: If you know It here, now, satyam asti.

I declare: blessed are those who decide they are one with Paramashiva, who cognize they are one with Paramashiva, because other than Him nothing else can exist. If something else can exist other than Him, then He cannot exist. There cannot be anything other than Oneness. This decision is not arrogance. It is not ego claiming divinity. Ego cannot claim this truth and survive. This is the melting of all that is not true in the fire of the real.

Even I cannot take Myself away from you; only then you really got Me. Understand: no question of asking and getting. Just deciding — You-Me, Me-You — then simply I am there in you, you are there in Me. Neither can you take you away from Me, nor can I take Me away from you. This is the living cognition of Oneness. This is not sentiment. This is the truth of the Upanishad flowering as deathlessness.

Now take this verse personally. Don’t leave it in Sanskrit. Don’t leave it in translation. Don’t leave it as commentary. “If I know It here, now, My life becomes true. If I do not know It here, My loss is great. Let Me look into every being and recognize That living in all beings. Let Me know I am not body and mind, but Consciousness beyond it. Let Me go beyond worldly delusion and become deathless.” Sit with this as your strong resolve.

I bless you: let the determination to stay and see the end in the inner world happen in you. Let deep waiting happen in you. Let the courage of the dhīra awaken in you. Let your inner space be liberated from body-mind slavery. Let you recognize the Source shining in all beings and turn your own reflection back to the Source. Let you know It here, now. Let life become true. Let you become deathless.