“Enlightenment – Have it.”
Enlightenment – Have it. On the first day we saw few basic things about enlightenment based on Ashtavakra Gita: Enlightenment - It is possible. Next day, we understood few things from Enlightenment – Guaranteed. Now today, Enlightenment – Have it.
Let us enter into the Sutra and see how Ashtavakra says that we have it and how to have it.
Sutra:
Virtue and vice, pleasure and pain are of the mind, not of you.
Oh all pervading one, you are neither doer nor enjoyer.
Verily you are ever free.
In this sutra, Ashtavakra directly addresses Janaka as the all pervading one. Here he directly says to Janaka, oh, all pervading one.
Till this point he was saying, ‘You are this, you are that, you are pure consciousness.’ Now he straightaway addresses Janaka as, all pervading one.
Virtue and vice, pleasure and pain are of the mind, not of you.
Actually, Ashtavakra is answering the doubts that will come after listening to the truth of being unattached. Yesterday I talked about how there is no shaft in our being. We are completely un-clutched. Every moment by our nature, we renounce our thoughts. Unless we renounce one thought, we cannot have the next thought. By our very nature, constantly we are renouncing our thoughts.
Only fools try to create same thoughts over and over again. Whether you try to visualize or verbalize the same things constantly, you are damaging your being. Please be very clear, the eastern consciousness is suffering so much because you are constantly trying to visualize or verbalize something. Almost all the people who take up spiritual life try one exercise or another. Constantly they try to visualize something or verbalize something through some mantra or some form of technique. Both damage our being. By our very nature we are unattached. By our very nature we renounce thoughts. The more we try to stay with one thought, the more we suffer.
I’ve seen people who try to chant some mantra or use some visualization for thirty or forty years. After forty years they come to me and ask me, ‘Master, how can I learn to concentrate? Please teach me how to concentrate.’ To tell you honestly, let me be very clear, I do not know, because it never happened in me. I’ve seen thousands of seekers constantly trying to repeat a thought or to repeat the same mantra or to bring the same visualization in their minds. But until the end they never succeeded. They got utterly frustrated and completely failed.
After that failure, they try to find other solutions. Please understand, by our very nature we constantly renounce thoughts. Unless we renounce one thought, we cannot go to the next thought. The moment we renounce one thought, we go to the next thought. By our very nature we are renouncing thoughts.
If we try to keep our mind focused on a single thought, we will only be torturing ourselves. I’ve seen people torturing themselves through some mantra or some visualization. But whether mantra or visualization, both create only more and more pressure and stress in us.
By repetition of words or repetition of mantras you can’t achieve anything other than trying to create a consistent shaft. Trying to create a consistent shaft is impossible. I have done it myself in my own life and I can tell you that it is impossible. If you are in the habit of repeating some syllable or some word or mantra, you will understand what I mean. You will be just waiting, ‘When will I finish this?’ You will be waiting to finish it. In the same way, if you are trying to avoid something, you will see it constantly surface and you will be fighting with it.
Already you have so much of pain and problem. Now you create one more pain of repeating some mantra or creating some visualization. Be very clear, by your very nature you cannot be with the same thought constantly. You cannot be with one thing. All you need to understand is that by our very nature, we are unattached. That is what Ashtavakra means when he says, ‘By your very nature you are unattached.’
There is no linear connection between one thought and another thought. The only relationship between thoughts is that they are from the same source, that’s all. There is only a vertical connection but no linear connection between a thought and a thought. The moment you hear this truth you are shocked because you are constantly connecting a thought and a thought in a linear way.
For example, you will connect your today’s depression with yesterday’s depression. The moment you connect the independent incidents that happened in your life, you start creating an idea that you are a depressed being. Or if you connect all joyful incidents of your life, you come to the conclusion that you are a joyful being. You come up with some concept about yourself by connecting all your thoughts in a linear way.
Be very clear, thoughts are not linear; they are vertical. Just like the bubbles in a fish tank, how the bubbles come up from the bottom, constantly rising - just like that your thoughts also come. When one bubble comes and reaches the surface of the water, the next bubble starts and then the third bubble starts. You start connecting all these bubbles on the top, the surface layer of the water. Because of your memory of pain or pleasure, you start connecting all the bubbles and start thinking that your mind is linear. No, your mind is not linear; it is vertical. Between every bubble, from one bubble to the next you can’t go horizontally; you can go only vertically. Every bubble is coming from the Atman, soul, your being. Every bubble is coming from below.
One big problem is that you do not connect all your thoughts. Instead you choose just a few thoughts and connect them. Some people feel that their whole life is pain and some people feel that their whole life is joy. When you connect your thoughts in a linear way, you create an idea that whole life is pain or whole life is joy or pleasure. If you feel that your whole life is pain, you try to break the shaft. If you feel that your whole life is pleasure, you try to extend that shaft. Either way you will fail. You will be a complete and utter failure because there is actually no shaft.
Connecting and seeing your thoughts in a linear way is the original sin you commit. Creating the shaft is the first original sin. It is because of this, you create something that does not exist in you. This something is what I call the mind. Mind is a pure myth.
Somehow we have learnt the habit of keeping files. I’ve seen people keeping files, not only about themselves but about others too. Let me tell you about an incident, which happened during one of my visits: One gentleman around forty–five years of age came up to me and said, ‘Master, I am going to divorce my wife, please bless me.’
I told him, ‘I only bless for marriages, what made you come and ask me to bless you for a divorce?’ He replied, ‘No, no Master, you have to bless me, because I have suffered too much.’
I said, ‘Suffering is always give and take. It is never just taking. You must have given her enough suffering too. So please tell me the truth about what happened, and then we will analyze the situation.’
But again he said, ‘No, no, no, Master, you don’t know how much I have suffered. You are a Swami, so you don’t know about all these things.’
I said, ‘Please do not attack me directly. Just tell me a few incidents. Then we’ll come to some understanding.’
To this he replied, ‘Which ones you want me to tell, and which ones you want me to leave out? From day one she has been torturing me. You do not know how much of torture I’ve gone through!’
In Bharatn villages, when weddings take place, after the ceremony the newly married couple plays games. For one of the games, a ring is placed inside a pot filled with water. The husband and wife put their hands inside and compete to pick up the ring. Whoever grabs it first wins. These small games were created mainly to zero down the distance between the couple, because in arranged marriages it was only during the marriage that the couple first meets. They have these kinds of small, small games to zero down the distance between them, because they are new to each other.
This man mentioned, ‘During that game after our wedding, she scratched my hand. With her nails, she scratched my hand Master.’ And he started a big story about everything that she supposedly had done to him since that day. He practically had a file, like a CID police report from day one of his marriage.
After two or three incidents were narrated I just told him, ‘Please stop; if this is the case, she will be happier than you to part ways, because it is very difficult to live with someone who keeps such big files in their head.’ For anything she does, he will be constantly looking through the files. For example, he told me the immediate reason for the divorce was that she spilled little bit of coffee on his clothes! That was the immediate reason.
He said, ‘Yesterday we had a fight. She spilled coffee on my clothes, Master.’ I replied to him, ‘Spilling coffee on the clothes cannot be a reason for a divorce. You cannot give me such small reasons for divorcing your wife.’
To that his response was, ‘No, no Master, you don’t know. Today she poured coffee; tomorrow she will pour acid!’ He really said this. I did not understand the connection. I asked him how he could connect coffee and acid. Again he said, ‘No, no Master you don’t know.’
Then I told him, ‘Look at the incidents as independent incidents. She brought you the coffee and she spilled a little bit on your clothes by mistake. And in any case, probably she is the one who washes your clothes. You are not even going to wash them yourself. It was just an independent incident. But when you have a huge file, when you have a huge case history, before passing judgment about a small incident, you just verify the whole file. In two or three seconds you verify the whole file and then you start shouting. Then you start creating words in your mind that today she poured coffee and tomorrow she will pour acid. You start creating big, big statements in your mind.’
Please understand, when I mentioned that he said, ‘Today she will pour coffee and tomorrow she will pour acid,’ you all laughed. But you all are also doing the same thing with yourselves. Constantly you are creating a connection, which is illogical. You forget to see incidents as independent. You forget to see thoughts as independent. By your very nature, you have only independent thoughts. All your thoughts are completely independent.
If you just learn this one simple technique of un-clutching, the energy released in your system, in your being will be so much you will be ten times more productive and more creative. Your relationships will have so much of friendliness because you will not clutch and see. As of now you will never trust the other person, that your spouse has become intelligent in the last few years. You sincerely never trust that he or she has grown and become intelligent because you never trust that you could grow and become intelligent.
Because you do not trust that you could become more intelligent, you cannot trust that your spouse could also become intelligent. You will be maintaining the same idea that you had formed about him ten years ago. Whatever he does you will only look through the same lens. Whatever she does, ‘She is trying to disobey me’; whatever he does ‘He tries to boss over me’. You have this pre conceived clear-cut idea.
That’s why I tell people; you live with the other person only for six months; in six months you create an idea about the other person. Once you create an idea about the other person, it’s over. You have created an idea – ‘I don’t have to go to hell after death because punishment is given now.’ And she creates an idea, ‘God has sent me this as punishment; I will finish all my karmas.’ You will create some ideas like that. After that whatever he or she does, you look only through that angle. You never un-clutch from your ideas or your prejudices. You do not listen to arguments to pass judgments. You only collect arguments to support your judgments. Judgment is ready and you are just waiting for arguments to support your judgment. Whenever you find a solid argument, you catch hold of it and support your judgment. That’s all.
If you do a very simple experiment for just ten minutes then you will understand this better. Sit and pen down whatever thoughts go on in your mind. Sit alone and write down whatever is going on in your mind. Do not edit, do not suppress. It is an experiment only for you and don’t show it to anyone else, at least not to your family members. Visualize as if transcribing software is connected to your mind. Just like how transcribing software connected to a taped speech transcribes everything, transcribe whatever is going on in your mind.
Pen down everything. You may think, ‘Oh, nothing is coming out.’ Pen down that also; that is also one more thought. Whatever goes on just pen down for ten minutes. After that read that paper only once. You will understand how a big, mad asylum is going on inside you.
When you pen down do not edit, do not say it is a wrong thought, do not say it is a bad thought or do not say it is a good thought. Don’t judge; just pen down whatever goes on for ten minutes and read that paper only once. You will understand how every thought is completely illogical, irresponsible and unconnected to each other, how they are completely un-clutched. For example you are sitting here and suddenly you will get these thoughts, ‘Why not I take a month’s vacation? NO, no why don’t I go home and do some work. Think I should go to this Swami’s ashram and see what he does. Can I go tomorrow? He is still not finishing and I’m hungry. What is happening?’
You can see how it is flowing in your mind. Actually if you pen down like I said even only once, sit silently, just pen down and read, you will understand how un-connected, illogical, independent and un-clutched those thoughts are. This understanding is so transforming. I can tell you, this very understanding transforms your way of thinking about yourself and your way of conducting yourself with others and with yourself. It just transforms your whole life.
When you read what you’ve written, you will understand what I meant when I said that you are nothing but unconnected, illogical, independent, un-clutched thoughts. For example, if you see a dog in the street, you will immediately remember the dog about which you were afraid when you were young or with which you used to play when you were young. The next thought would be about your childhood. Third, the teacher and the room you used to sit in the school and fourth, the place where your teacher used to stay.
You can see the thoughts flowing. There is no logical connection between the dog you saw on the street and the teacher who taught you in school. But in few seconds you would have just drifted away. There is no logical connection between the two; but your thoughts are moving away, drifting away.
By your very nature you are unconnected, independent, illogical and unconnected thoughts. So many things are happening in you. For the sake of your convenience, you pick up few thoughts randomly, clutch them and create a shaft and start believing that shaft is you or that is a representation of your past and that is your identity.
It’s like ten thousand flowers are there in different colors. You just pick a few flowers randomly and create a garland. You start thinking that the garland is the representation of the ten thousand flowers. No, that garland cannot be a representation of the ten thousand flowers.
Same way, the shaft that you have created that your life is painful - sometimes by mistake you even create a shaft with the idea that your life is joyful, but it is very rare and it is by mistake - anyhow even if you created that shaft, whatever shaft you created, whether ‘life is pain’ or ‘life is joy’, that shaft is not the representation of your past. That is not the totality of you.
Understand, you pick up thoughts in a very random way and connect them, clutch them and create a shaft.
Let me give you a small diagram; then you’ll understand how you clutch and create the shaft. It’s a simple diagram to understand how thoughts flow in your being and how you connect them. Each thought is a square or rectangle, different shape and different size. Thoughts are flowing in you, moving. One maybe related to pain, painful experience. Another one may be related to joy, joyful experience. The next one maybe related to joy but you think of it as pain. We can call it as JP – joy pain. Similarly you may have a thought that is related to your painful experience but you may think of it as joy. This we can call PJ – pain joy. Many times you may name pain as joy and joy as pain. Something continuously goes on in you. This is how thoughts are flowing n you. Understand they are all completely unconnected, independent and illogical.
Each thought may be related to some experience which you had in the past or which you want to have in the future. All your thoughts are related to something about the past or something about the future. You can’t have thoughts about the present. In the present moment you can have only consciousness, not thoughts. The thoughts are either related to some joyful experiences, which you had in the past or want to have in the future or painful experiences which you had in the past or which you don’t want to have.
Of course sometimes you want to have pain also because it gives you ego boosting. Really, it satisfies your ego a lot. You can tell others, ‘See how much I struggled, how much I suffered for you.’ Constantly this is what you tell your kids to create guilt, so that they listen to you - ‘See how much I am doing for you.’
Sometimes we go through even sufferings or we invite sufferings because it gives us ego satisfaction. It gives us an identity; it gives us a feeling of fulfillment. That is why we allow suffering also to happen. Many times we have vested interest with our suffering.
Sometimes, when you suffer you get attention from others. Small, small sickness like headache, fever, body pain - there are lot of this type of things, which are nothing but just ways to get the family’s attention. The mind knows that with a little sickness, the whole family will give attention; at least they will listen to you. Now-a- days who listens to others? No one has time for that.
Actually if you look inside yourself a little bit, you’ll understand that you create these small, small diseases just to get attention. If you are asked or forced to do something that you don’t want to do you just say, ‘I have knee pain, I have this pain, and I have that pain.’ And once or twice you’ll say that as an excuse and the third time you’ll see that really happening. Your mind is very powerful to create whatever you want.
Anyhow, some thoughts are related to some joyful experiences that you had, or that you want to have. Some thoughts are related to pains that you had and which you don’t want to have.
There are so many thoughts; so many experiences are going on like a conveyor belt inside your inner space, your inner consciousness. Some are related to joy and some are related to pain; some are related to past and some to the future. Things are constantly happening. Each thought is completely independent, completely unconnected to the other thought. Understand, this is one of the important steps. No thought is logically connected; no thought holds responsibility for the other thought. They are all randomly appearing, independently appearing, illogically happening.
For your archival purpose, you collect all the painful thoughts and create an idea that your life was depression, your life was pain and you create a pain shaft. The moment you create a pain shaft, your life is hell. Because after the pain shaft is created, whatever goes on in the conveyor belt, you will not bother. You will only pick up the painful incidents and again and again confirm what you believe.
They are all independent pain experiences, no way connected to each other. But in your memory, you want to keep them all in one file for archival purposes, for reference. You put all your depression experiences in one file and keep them in one file so that you can refer to that archive file.
See, for archival purpose storing them all in one file is OK, but by and by you start believing they are all connected to each other. That is where the problems start. Please understand that you do not collect arguments and pass judgments. You pass judgments and collect arguments. You have ready-made judgments in your life. You just collect arguments to support your judgments.
So if you have already decided, passed the judgments that your life is painful, life is suffering, your life is depression then you will be just waiting to get more and more arguments to strengthen the judgments which you have already made, which you have already created.
Sometimes rarely you may create a joy shaft connecting all the joyful thoughts. You may start believing life is joy. Again, even if you create a shaft that life is joy, you will create an idea that there is some object, which gives you joy and which is the reason for the joy. You will try to hang on to that object or person or incident or space. You may identify your joy with an object or a person or a space or an incident or with something. Now you will try again and again to bring that back in your life. Anything that you try to bring again and again will not give you the same excitement as it gave you the first time.
First time when you enjoy a sweet the excitement is totally different. The experience is totally different from all the other times you eat the sweet later. It is the same way with a person also. First time the experience is totally different; the excitement is totally different. Later on the excitement will not be the same; the experience will not be the same. That’s why we call that experience as honeymoon and not ‘honeysun’. Have you heard of the term ‘honeysun’? No. What is the life of a moon? Sixteen days. Honeymoon is the excitement that will stay only for sixteen days.
When you try to bring the same person, same object, same thing again and again in your life, suddenly you will realize that the same excitement is not there. Please understand, same person, same object same place do not bring the same excitement again and again. So whether you have created a pain shaft or a joy shaft, both ways you have created hell for yourself.
The moment we create an idea by connecting our thoughts in a linear way, and create the thought that I have pain, I have suffering, I have this, I have that, I am this type of person, I am this type of being - if we are blissful or joyful we will try to extend this idea. We will try to stay in the same mood for some more time. And if the idea is painful, we will try to break it. Neither breaking nor extending is possible, because the shaft does not exist in reality.
After a discourse one of the devotees came up to me and said, ‘Master, it is such a blissful experience for me, I am so clear about everything; I am afraid I may lose this. Please tell me, how I can retain this?’
I told him, ‘Do not try to retain the feeling. You felt the bliss because you understood that nothing could be retained. You felt the deep joy because you were choice-less. You felt the deep joy because you were completely disconnected. You felt such a big relief because by your very nature you are un-clutched.’
If somebody comes and tells you, ‘I am in ecstasy because I played tennis and I enjoyed it,’ you think, ‘Oh, playing tennis brings ecstasy.’ You create an equation. Now continuously you are banging, playing tennis. But nothing is happening in you, no ecstasy. Then you think that this guy cheated you. Be very clear, he did not bother about joy; he was completely relaxed while he was playing. Because of that joy happened. Choicelessness is bliss. If you choose bliss, it will not happen because you have chosen already. When you are choice less when you are utterly relaxed bliss happens in you. When you are concerned about bliss, whatever you do to get that will never happen in you.
Someone who is playing just to achieve joy can try their best, but nothing will happen because you can do nothing directly to get joy. When you decide this person, this object, this place, this space may bring joy to my life and if you try to reproduce the same thing, you will see very clearly it will not bring the same thing.
Knowing that the same object is not bringing the same excitement in your life, but not being able to give up is addiction. You know that it is not giving the same experience but you are not able to give it up. It is because you think that you have at least this now and if you give up this also what will happen, you will be alone, what to do? That is what I call addiction.
Whether you create pain shaft or joy shaft you end in hell. Creating shaft is hell; if you create pain shaft then you will be creating pain. If you create joy shaft then you will be creating addictions. All addictions lead to hell. Whether it is pain shaft or joy shaft you are creating hell for yourself. Understand that they are all independent experiences; no way connected to each other.
The moment you try to retain an un-clutched experience, you clutch yourself. The clutching starts. The moment you clutch yourself, you create a shaft. Then you will be fighting to extend the shaft or destroy the shaft. The moment you start trying to extend the shaft, you will start suffering because you are not able to extend it. The moment you try to break the shaft, you will suffer that you are not able to break the shaft. Both the ways you will be a failure; utter failure.
Understand only one thing - there is no shaft. Do not try to renounce your depression, because by your very nature it will be flowing, it will be going away. By your very nature just as joy disappears from your mind, depression also disappears from your mind. The moment you try to kill the depression, you will extend it. You will create more and more complications.
Thoughts are purely independent just like water bubbles coming from the bottom of a fish tank. Just as independent water bubbles come up in a fish tank, independent thoughts come up in us. When the gap between them is too small, we think all the bubbles are connected to each other. But they are not; each bubble is an individual, unconnected, illogical, independent, and un-clutched bubble. It is because the gap is too small you think all the bubbles are connected.
In the same way in our mind, by our very nature every thought is independent, illogical, unconnected and un-clutched. Between every thought we experience a neutral space. As the gap between the two thoughts is too small, as the neutral space between two thoughts is too small, you think all the thoughts are connected and it is in the shaft form, but it is not.
When we change the gear while driving a car, whether we change from neutral to first gear, first to second, second to third - whatever gears we may change, every time we come to the neutral space. Only then we can go to the next gear. In the same way, between every thought we experience a neutral space. That neutral space, that silence is what I call peace, bliss. The peace that exists is the bliss that already exists in us between every thought. The gap between the thoughts, that neutral space is peace. That is bliss.
When you understand that you are unconnected, independent, illogical and un-clutched by your very nature, you will start experiencing the neural space in you. With knowledge of this neutral space, which exists in you, you will start living from moment to moment in spontaneity.
But the moment I utter the words that there is no linear connection between thoughts, people are completely shaken, frightened. Their first fear is, ‘If that is the case, if I start living without connecting my thoughts who will pay my bills? I may lose all my wealth, I may not remember where I kept all my money; I may not live in the society successfully.’
Then you start asking, ‘How will I do my job? How will I take care of my things? Will I not just lie down in my bed without doing anything?’
Understand, the moment I say these things the first question people ask, ‘If I am un-clutched, why should I go to my job?’
I ask, ‘Why should you not go to your job?’ The moment you ask that, it means that you have a little hatred or a little vengeance against the job. That is why the moment you find some excuse you want to escape from that. You are expressing your anger, your violence against your routine, nothing else.
I always tell people, ‘Alright, if you don't do anything and just be un-clutched, how many days will you be lying in your bed? Probably ten days, until your tamas gets exhausted.’
See, you have a certain amount of tamas in you. In Sanskrit, keeping quiet is tamas, doing hard work or restlessness is rajas, and doing smart work is sattva or pure intelligence. Be very clear, if you just un-clutch you will not work hard, you will work smart. Until your tamas gets exhausted you will lie there. But after that what will you do? Naturally you will start working; you will start moving.
Do not be afraid; do not be afraid that if you are un-clutched, you will not do your daily routine. I tell you, what you think as you is not necessary to run your day-to-day life. This is the basic truth. This truth hurts us. See, if somebody is happy, independent of us, we can't tolerate it; it is too much. Constantly we want to feel that we are needed. That is why we project our sufferings, so that we feel important.
You know that in your profession, the first thing you have to do is to convince your boss that the job you are doing is too big and it cannot be done. And second thing, if it can be done, it can be done only by you. Third thing, even then, only if you give your whole life to it, it can be done. Only if you convince your boss or your customer of all these three things, you will get a high paycheck.
First, anybody who wants to exploit you has to instill a thought in you that you cannot live without him. Even your employee can exploit you, cheat you if he can manage to instill a thought in you, that without him your mission cannot happen; without him your business cannot run. If he instills that thought in you, he can easily exploit you, he can cheat you.
Same way your mind, your ego has created a churning thought, a fear in you that you cannot live, you cannot survive in a balanced way without it. The moment you accept that fear, it is over; your mind will completely exploit you. Your ego will completely cheat you. Please be very clear, that all these things are just simply fears.
See, in the story of the blind man, he is not able to understand that he can walk without the stick after he gets his eyesight. Only when the man opens his eyes, only when he gets his eyesight, he will understand that he can walk without the stick. Same way, only when you relax and understand that by your very nature you are unattached, suddenly you will realize you can live without a mind.
The walking stick is just extra for the blind man. Same way, the mind is extra for you, because by your very nature you don’t need the mind to live. Because you have gone to such an extreme of relying on your mind, you cannot understand that you can live without the mind. You are afraid that you might go to the other extreme of being a mindless person with no morality in your life.
But let me tell you, a person who has understood that by his very nature he is unattached, can never go beyond basic morality. You can never disturb a life with discipline. It is only in his life that you will see a strong, deep sense of morality and it is only in his life you will see an extraordinary discipline. It will be a discipline, which can never be shaken and morality, which can never be taken away. It will be morality, which does not come out of fear or greed. Only in him, morality happens out of understanding. In all other beings it happens out of fear or greed.
Morality based on fear or greed cannot take you beyond the body; it will constantly bind you in the body. Only when you understand that by your very nature you are unattached a new, beautiful morality starts happening in you and you start tasting your being and you start experiencing your being.
There are so many fears constantly happening in you. You might wonder that if you start living with this one thought and have no linear connection between thought and thought, how you can live your life. Do not get stuck with hypothetical questions. Just drop the mind and start living. You will see that you are able to.
There was a Zen Master who was once crossing a river with his disciple. Suddenly the disciple slipped and fell into the water and started shouting to his Master for help. He thought he was drowning.
The Master just looked at him and said,
‘Atma deepo bhava’
‘Save yourself, guide yourself’.
The disciple cried out, ‘Master, do not talk philosophy now. I am dying. Please help me.’
The Master just said, ‘Stand up’, ignored him and walked on. This was too much for the disciple to handle. He shouted out, ‘Please help me, I said I am drowning.’
The Master simply turned around and shouted, ‘Fool, I said stand up.’ The disciple was completely shaken by the very voice of his master and he just stood up. To his surprise he found that the water came only up to his knee level!
You are always asking for help because you think you are getting drowned. Just stand up, water is only up to knee level.
In this sutra Ashtavakra says: Virtue and vice, pleasure and pain are of the mind, not of you. They belong just to this shaft that does not really exist. They are not from your being. Only an enlightened master can boldly declare, you are ever free. Only he can say, there is no virtue and vice, there is no pleasure and pain. It is the people who want to keep you under their control, who will never declare the truth to you.
In almost all the fields a person who wants to keep you a slave, constantly tells you that you are weak in some way. People who want to keep you under their control socially, constantly beat the idea that you are weak.
Even in the film industry, where so much importance is given to looks, a person who wants to keep you under their wing will give you an impression that you are ugly. They project the movie stars in an extraordinarily beautiful way to make you feel that you are not beautiful enough. You would also find that it is normally the cosmetic industries that conduct the beauty contests to constantly promote the idea of beauty, which makes you believe that you are not enough unto yourself. Unless you feel you are not enough, you will not opt for cosmetics.
There is no need to constantly compare your body with some other body. God is not an engineer; he is an artist. If he were an engineer, then he would have made a mold and ordered for one million Ms. Universe models and one million Mr. Universe models to be made and sent to planet earth.
But He is an artist who paints each one of us and carves each one of us. That is why each one of us is unique. The very moment the thought enters your head that someone is more beautiful or more handsome than you, that very moment you create a gap between you and your body.
We can see in our very lives that constantly many us are craving to look like somebody else. The more you try, the more you feel that you are not. The moment you crave to look like someone else, a gap is created between you and your body. Then you start using cosmetic products and start trying all artificial methods to project yourself in a different way than you are. Unless you are given the idea that you are not enough unto yourself, you will not buy these artificial things. You will not help the cosmetic industry sell their products. So people who want to exploit you and sell their products, give you the idea that you are not enough unto yourself.
People who want to enslave us socially, give us the idea that we are weak and that they are necessary to protect us. A person who wants to sell his products, teaches you that you are not enough unto yourself by putting these kinds of ideas in your mind. We forget that we are created by the Divine. We start chiseling ourselves to develop God’s work and give it a final touch. We are trying to give a final touch to what He has done. But it cannot be developed any further.
Even in the spiritual field, people who want to keep you under their hold, constantly instill the idea in you that you are not enough and you need to perform various meditations, mantras, pujas etc. so that you will go back to them again and again. In all the three fields – socially, physically and spiritually people try to exploit you by putting the idea in you that you are not enough unto yourself.
Only an enlightened Master such as Ashtavakra can liberate us from all these bondages. He has no vested interest, which is the reason that he straightaway gives us the truth with such honesty. Honestly, I have never found straight truths like the ones in Ashtavakra Gita.
In my opinion, even when Krishna gives his teachings in the Bhagavad Gita, it is because of an ulterior motive - to convince Arjuna to fight. Actually the entire gist of the Bhagavad Gita is narrated in just the two sloka in the beginning, in the second chapter, when Krishna begins to talk. But the entire Gita consists of seven hundred sloka delivered by Krishna to Arjuna, in order to explain the supreme truth. In one of the chapters, Arjuna declares that he is more confused at the end than he was before asking Krishna to talk. Krishna talks continuously in seventeen chapters until Arjuna becomes completely tired and frustrated and surrenders to Krishna.
Some times when you torture people with your talk, they go out and praise you to others, so that others can also experience the torture and suffering.
Let me tell you an experience that happened to me. When I went to San Jose, the devotees there were trying to get me to go on a roller coaster ride. Even though I refused, somehow the devotees finally convinced me to try it. Actually, devotees convincing the master happens more easily than the other way around. Especially the women devotees just stand there and won’t let go till they convince you.
Anyway, then I said that first I would go and watch the people getting off the ride. If they seemed to be coming out with joyful expressions on their face, then I would try the roller coaster. When I watched, I could see that the moment the roller coaster stopped, these guys getting off were screaming, shouting and were full of joy. That convinced me and I agreed to go on the next ride.
The first thing that happened when the ride started was, my turban went flying! The ride was a complete churning process, from side to side and up and down. It was a complete churning process. Now I tell people, that a roller coaster ride is just like marriage. Anyone sitting inside wants to jump out and the ones standing outside are tempted to try it at least once.
They had secured me to the seat with a belt and I had no means of escape until the ride was over, just like the belt around one’s neck in a marriage. In many parts of Bharat, instead of a wedding ring, a necklace is given to the bride as a token of marriage. In both the cases, the belt is secure and one can’t even jump out! After a minute or two, the roller coaster stopped and I was also screaming and shouting. It was then that I understood, that the people getting off were screaming and shouting not out of excitement about the ride, but because of the relief that the ride had stopped and it was over.
When I came out, the other devotees standing by asked me, ‘How was the ride, Master?’ I said, ‘It is really good; go, go, don’t miss the ride.’ I thought, ‘Why should only I suffer, let these guys also go and have the same experience!’
Same way, sometimes when you are tortured in a discourse, you go out and say, ‘You can’t see another Swami like this. He is so intelligent. Please come tomorrow and listen to his lectures.’ You try to bring somebody else to go through the same torture.
Here Arjuna is completely tortured. If somebody recites seven hundred sloka continuously in front of you, what will happen, tell me? But Krishna goes on reciting one after the other, what to do? Finally Arjuna tells Krishna, ‘I do not know anything; I have given up. Please do whatever you want to.’
Then finally Krishna recites the Sloka about Surrender:
sarva-dharman parityajya
mam ekam saranam vraja
aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah
Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear.
Now what else can Arjuna do? Naturally he has to surrender. It is actually a technique. It is a method to make the other person surrender.
But here Ashtavakra has no other ulterior motive. He has only one motive: Janaka has to experience the truth that he has experienced. He has no other reason to speak. All he wanted to do was to transmit the experience, just to share that experience which happened in him.
He is creating the technology, through which Janaka can experience the same thing, which happened in him. That is why I say that Ashtavakra Gita is pure, honest truth. There is nothing in Ashtavakra Gita that could be taken out; that could be edited. Ashtavakra is pure energy and pure truth. That is the reason he is so courageous to declare: Truthfully you are ever free.
He is not playing with words such as your atman is free, you have to do this or that, etc. He says:
Verily you are ever free
You are the one seer of all and really ever free.
Verily this alone is your bondage, that you see the seer as other than such.
When the seer (one who is looking) is affected by the scene, the bondage starts. Please understand, when the seer is affected by the scene, the bondage, the problem starts. Your very being is pure. But the moment you start associating yourself as one other than the seer, the problem starts. This is the only bondage, which you have. There is no other bondage. There is nothing else.
I was telling you in the last chapter, enlightenment – guaranteed, how the bird is afraid and tries to hold on to the stick, thinking that if he lets go of the stick, he may drop and die. He does not realize that if he lets go, he will only fly. In the same way let me tell you: let go, you will only fly. You will never drop and die.
In Vedanta they say, srishti-drishti and drishti-srishti. It is not that the world is there and you see. No, because you see, the world is there. You need to understand that. But the next question that you will immediately ask will be, ‘How can you say that Master? I am not the only one who sees it, but the person next to me also sees the same thing. So how can you say that the world exists only because of our seeing?’ Be very clear, the world exists just because you are seeing.
Even the modern day psychologists say that you see only what you want to see. Your mind records only two percent of what has happened, only two percent of what is happening around you. You do not see what is happening; you only see in the way you want to see. You choose the two percent and see the way in which you want to see.
Drishti-srishti means that you project in the way that you want to, you connect in the way that you want to and you understand in the way you want to. You neither see things as they happen, nor realize, nor hear things as they are said.
Many times people ask me questions starting with, ‘Master, you said this’ and misquote me. I tell them, ‘Never say, you said; always say, I heard.’ Please be very clear, in the gap by the time the word travels from one place to the other, the meaning becomes totally different.
A small story:
In a Christian high school, at the end of twelfth grade all the kids were leaving after a farewell party. The chief nun was enquiring the kids as to what they wanted to become in the future.
She called the first girl and asked, ‘What do you want to become?’
She said, ‘I want to become a nun and serve God’s mission.’ The nun said, ‘Oh, that’s nice, beautiful, you can do it.’
She called the next girl and asked her, ‘What do you want to become?’
‘I want to become a doctor and serve in our mission hospital, mother.’ The mother superior was very happy. She said, ‘Yes, that is great.’
She called the third girl and asked ‘What do you want to become?’
The girl said, ‘I want to become an engineer and serve the mission.’ Mother superior was happy.
She called the next girl and asked ‘What do you want to become?’ She said, ‘I’ll become a prostitute.’
The Mother fainted and fell and after regaining consciousness, she questioned the girl again. ‘What, what, what did you say?’
The girl clearly repeated, ‘Prostitute’. Again mother asked, ‘What did you say?’ Again she said, ‘Prostitute’. Again mother superior fainted. After few minutes when she regained consciousness and asked the girl, ‘Tell me clearly, what did you say?’ The girl said loud and clear, ‘Prostitute’.
The Mother then heaved a sigh of relief and said, ‘Oh god, I thought you said protestant.’
Understand, you listen to only what you want to listen to, and not to what is said. In the same way, you only see what you want to see; you do not see what is.
When the seer is affected by the scene, the scene can never be the reality. When the seer is affected by the scene, the reality can never be seen. That is what Ashtavakra emphasizes here: when you start seeing yourself other than the seer, you are affected.
Sutra:
Do you, who have been bitten by the great black serpent of egoism
I am the doer; drink the nectar of the faith,
I am not the doer and be happy.
I think Janaka missed. Janaka missed what Ashtavakra is saying. That is why, now Ashtavakra has to compromise. In this sutra Ashtavakra also gives a technique. Be very clear, techniques are given only to fools who simply miss the truth. An intelligent man does not need techniques. When the truth is uttered the intelligent man immediately captures it and understands it. It is only the person who misses will ask, ‘Master, what you said is really a beautiful truth, but how to practice it?’ The moment you bring the words, the question – ‘How to practice’, you miss the truth.
When you understand that the fire can burn you, do you ask, ‘Master, I understand that fire will burn, but teach me how not to put my hand again and again in the fire so that I do not get burnt, teach me?’ No, you don’t ask this question. The very intelligence that the fire burns is enough for you to take your hands away and you will never put your hands near the fire again. The very intelligence is enough. If you think, ‘This is the truth, but I should know how to practice it,’ be very clear that you have not understood the truth.
To tell you honestly, the whole gist of Bhagavad-Gita is in the first two statements of Krishna. The moment he starts speaking - and that too only in the second chapter he starts to speak, he says:
klaibyam ma sma gamah partha
naitat tvayy upapadyate
ksudram hrdaya-daurbalyam
tyaktvottistha parantapa
O son of Partha, do not yield to this degrading unmanliness. It does not become you. Give up such petty weakness of heart and arise. O chastiser of the enemy.
Just two sloka - the whole gist of Gita is finished, but Arjuna simply missed. And because Arjuna missed, Krishna has to continuously confuse him. Krishna has to completely tire Arjuna. Now unless Arjuna is tired, he cannot be helped; nothing can be done. So the first thing that needed to be done was to get Arjuna tired.
Arjuna was an intellectual person. He has lived with Krishna for more than thirty years. If have you lived around a master for a long time and have not become enlightened, you become a dangerous intellectual. Arjuna has lived around Krishna for a long time, and he has not become enlightened. It’s a big problem. When you are an insider, without being an ‘in-sider’ you will create trouble. Arjuna was an insider; he knows the ‘behind the curtain scenes’. But he has not realized the consciousness of Krishna. So naturally he will become a cunning criminal and a dangerous intellectual.
Dangerous intellectuals miss the truth. Always from time immemorial, there are these dangerous intellectuals. With Jesus, Judas missed the truth. I think he had become a dangerous intellectual. With Ramakrishna a man called Hridhay, and with Ramana Maharshi there was another such person. Always few people who live around the masters miss the truth. When they miss the truth, they become dangerous intellectuals.
Here Janaka missed, which was the first blow. That is the reason now Ashtavakra has to give a technique. He comes down to giving a technique.
Sutra:
Do you, who have been bitten by the great black serpent of the egoism, I am the doer
Drink the nectar of the faith, I am not the doer and be happy
Ashtavakra gives the technique. He tells Janaka, ‘You think that you are the doer. Now start thinking, I am not the doer.’ Please understand, thinking that I am not the doer or having faith that I am not the doer will not liberate you directly. But it will create such a pressure on you, that you will become completely frustrated and drop everything.
People always come and tell me, ‘Master, I tried to start meditating; but I am not able to. Please advice me what to do.’
Meditation techniques are given to you just to make you understand that you cannot meditate. Let me be very clear, this is the case with any meditation technique. In the last two and a half years, more than one million people have taken my meditation techniques. But I am boldly declaring, that all meditation techniques are given to you just to make you understand that you cannot do any meditation technique continuously.
I am making another bold statement and if you are offended, I apologize. But it is the truth. No intelligent man can practice any technique for more than twenty-one days with inspiration. He can practice it with perspiration, but never with inspiration. I say that because by your very nature you are intelligent and by your very nature you understand the truth. Techniques are just to make you tired; just to give a blow to the mind, which jumps thinking, ‘I am not catching the truth or I do not know.’
Here Ashtavakra is telling Janaka, ‘Constantly remember that I am not the doer.’ Be very clear, this will not liberate you. This will just make you tired. You will understand that you are not able to remember that constantly. The moment you understand that you are not able to remember ‘I am not the doer’ constantly, you will be completely frustrated and will just drop. The moment you drop, the truth that you are not the doer will simply become reality. It will simply become reality.
Now I will tell you a few things about my enlightenment. On the first day of the Ashtavakra discourse series, someone asked me if I could talk about my enlightenment. I asked him, ‘Do you want an honest answer or a social answer?’ He replied, ‘honest answer’. I said, ‘Then please wait till the third day of the discourse.’
This is because, unless you get the glimpse of the truth, you will not be able to understand that I have achieved the truth, I have achieved realization. Unless you experience the technology created by me, you can never understand that I discovered the truth.
Another person asked me, ‘Master, in those days there was only one incarnation during each age. But now a days, how come there are so many incarnations, so many Gurus, and so many enlightened masters?’ Modern man has become so complicated. Working with modern man has become so difficult. We need millions of masters. It is because we never listen when the truth is being said.
Never think you are listening to me. As long as I utter the words, which relate with your logic or go with your vested interests, you listen. The moment I say something that goes against it, then you close yourself. If you are courageous enough, you stand up and question me. If you are not so courageous and want to be socially polite, you do not allow the words to enter into your being. Either you stop and question or you do not allow the words to get inside your mind. Be very clear, you are not listening. That is why I told the person who asked about my enlightenment that I would talk about it on the last day.
Let me tell you a few things: I left the house when I was very young, when I was seventeen. I started going to various monasteries, ashrams and was wandering from village to village. I tried so many techniques, so many methods. Of course, the ego and determination that comes at that young age that I can do, helped me do all those things.
To tell you honestly, if I talk about those things now, people call it tapas (ascetic practices) and what not, but actually it was not tapas. I was just enjoying it all. They ask me, ‘Master, how did you do such great things, you are great, you are a Mahatma.’ I tell them, ‘Actually I think you are the Mahatma - to be living in the same house, with the same car, same routine, same wife! I cannot imagine living in the same house for more than few months.’
It was not tapas for me. It was just freedom and I was enjoying the freedom. Everyday I was in a new place. I was experimenting with all these truths. I was playing with all these techniques. I even stayed inside the Taj Mahal for seven days. I related well with the security people there, and lived in their quarters itself. I felt a strong Shiva energy there. Can you imagine this kind of freedom in your life?
After a few years of all this, the effortless withering away of the will was just happening in me. I had tried all possible techniques and methods. After seven or eight years suddenly one day, I was overcome by a deep depression. I started looking at my life from day one. I just thought, ‘What is happening? I have given my whole life and after all that, everything is lost.’
The cream of life is youth. I have gambled with my youth. I’ve gambled my whole life on this enlightenment idea. It is very easy to go to lectures and listen to all these big, big ideas and go back to the same house, to the same wife and live the same life. There is no need to take any risk. But I’ve gambled with my whole life.
Meditators are the ultimate gamblers. Ordinary people gamble with little bit of money, little bit of wealth. But meditators gamble with their whole life. I have sacrificed my whole life. The cream of my life has been sacrificed in this journey. Neither had I achieved the truth, nor did I feel I was going close to it. I was not able to convince myself that I was doing well. I was in a deep depression. You know what type of thoughts come when one gets in depression.
I started thinking that the very idea of enlightenment itself was foolishness; it was just a conspiracy against humanity. I felt that a few egoistic people who wanted to claim that they were in some way higher, because they could not claim their superiority in any other field had just started creating some concepts and had created this idea about enlightenment.
Honestly that is what I thought. I thought that these people who had created this concept were the ones who were not able to create wealth and show they were superior in any field. Neither had they achieved something in the political field to show their worth or success in the society, nor did they have good looks so that they could go into some sort of show business. I thought that these were the people who could not achieve success in any field. Hence they created their own field, selling imagination and created a new market.
My whole life was inspired by Ramakrishna. I had a beautiful photo of him, which I always carried with me. I used to offer puja (prayer) to this photo every morning. I used to constantly repeat a mantra twenty-four hours a day. I had mastered the technique of rolling the japa-mala (a rosary) even in my sleep. Actually, it is not a big deal. Just try to sit and do japa (repeating the name of God); automatically you’ll learn the technique! Japa is the best technique for sleeplessness.
If you are suffering from insomnia, start repeating some mantra, that’s enough - straightaway you’ll have a peaceful sleep. Or take huge books like Brahmasutra, Shankara bhashya or any of the big titles that you can’t read or understand. Either huge books or japa mala - either one will work. That is why there is no insomnia problem in Bharat. All other countries suffer from insomnia problems; 66% of the population in America suffers from sleeplessness. Why do you think such huge volumes of these scriptures have been written? So that after reading a few pages, you can put them under your head and sleep. It serves a two-in-one purpose: one to infuse sleep and the other to help with the sleep!
I had two malas with 108 beads in each. I would hold one in each hand and if I finished chanting the mantra 108 times on one mala, I would move one bead on the second mala. By the time the 108 beads were completed on the second mala, I would have chanted the mantra 10,000 times. This is the way I practiced constantly.
Once the frustration happened, it was so deep. I just picked up the photograph and threw it with such a force. I also took both the malas that I was using for the repetition of the mantra and threw them also in the Narmada River (sacred river in central Bharat). Not only did I throw the mala, I said to myself, ‘Along with these malas, I am throwing the mantra also; let it leave me.’ I just threw the mantra along with the mala.
And let me tell you this: Although it will be difficult for you to believe, this is honestly the truth that happened. From that day, I forgot the mantra that I had been using for so many years. I simply forgot the mantra. It just left my mind. I decided, ‘Now I’m neither going to do any spiritual practice, nor am I going to lead a sanysas (ascetic) life.’ I decided to live as I wanted. First thing, I wanted to rest. Then, I thought I’d get married or live a life as I wanted to, or live life as it comes. But no more spiritual practice for me. I was convinced that the whole thing was a conspiracy against humanity. So I threw the whole thing and rested.
The seventh day after that, I too joined the same group that was conspiring against the humanity. Something had happened. Because of the deep relaxation, suddenly something broke inside. The un-clutching had happened and never again the shaft was clutched.
Now I know the view from both the sides: The view from that side and the view from this side. I know the struggles of that side; I know the other shore also. That’s why I tell you very clearly, that no technique that I have practiced has led me to the truth. It only did one thing to me; I just became tired and completely frustrated.
If some of you are frustrated, be very clear, blessed are those who are frustrated by meditating. You have achieved the results of meditation. If you are frustrated by meditating you’ve achieved the result. It’s time to drop, so drop.
People ask me, ‘Master, you became enlightened because of your long tapas. How can I achieve enlightenment? How can that happen in us?’ People ask me this again and again.
Let me tell you very clearly, I did so much of tapas just because I was a simple fool. Be very clear, there is no need for any of these techniques or tapas. It is because I lived in a way in which there was no need to live, I have a right to tell you in what way you should live. Because I lived the life, which is not necessary, I can tell you that which is necessary for you.
I had 10,000 keys in front of me and only one lock. The opening itself took only one second. Finding out the right key to open the lock took nine years. The time I spent on playing with the keys is what you call as tapas. I was playing and playing and playing with 10,000 keys. The opening itself took only one second. Why should you play with 10,000 keys? Here I am giving you one key; straight away open it.
But you’ll say, ‘When you played with 10,000 keys, why not us too?’ Then go ahead and play; what can be done? Have the whole bunch and play. If you are really interested in getting liberated, there is no need to play with all the 10,000 keys.
But if you are interested in postponing the experience, like these professional seekers who claim to be seeking and studying for the last 30 years, then you are free to do so. These are the kind of people who come up to compliment me after my discourse, saying that I spoke very well in order to gain some attention. They will not be listening to me when I speak because they are busy creating words inside about how to come and compliment me after the discourse. Somehow they want to get attention and this is one way for them to do so, that is all. There is no need to compliment me. Just digest the truth that is expressed. If it can go into your being, then I’ll be happy that whatever was to happen has happened, because a master also grows with the disciple.
To tell you the truth, along with the disciple, master also grows. That is why, in the Vedic system we say:
#### Om Sahana Vavatu Sahanau Bhunaktu
Sahaveeryam Karavavahai
Tejas Vinavati Tamastuma vidhwishavahai
Om Shanti.
The Vedic prayer does not start as, ‘May you be liberated’. Instead, it says ‘Let both of us grow’. Understand this one simple thing: A woman is a woman until she gives birth to a child. It is only after that she becomes a mother. When she gives birth, not only is the child given birth, the mother is also given birth. Only after that she can be called as a mother. Till then she is just a woman. It is only at the time of birth, both baby and mother are delivered. Not just the baby, the mother also is given birth.
Same way, when a disciple opens up master also happens. The disciple teaches the Master and the Master learns from the disciple. Master also grows with the disciple. If he can’t grow or update himself, he can never be a master.
Be very clear, enlightenment is not the end. It is ultimate but not final. You need to understand these two words; they are different.
For example, let me tell you this: After the first day of discourse in this series, one person came to me and said, ‘You’ve said everything. Why do we need one more class?’ Yesterday another person said, ‘Master, on the first day, I thought you cannot take us much deeper; it’s over. And today, suddenly I felt that you have taken us deeper than yesterday and you cannot take us any deeper than this. Everyday I feel that you cannot take us much deeper than this, but we do keep going deeper.’
Everyday he feels, that is the ultimate. Ultimate means living every moment totally, completely. Ultimate is not final, it can be updated. Any enlightened master who cannot update himself can never be called as an enlightened master. Only Vedic masters are courageous to declare that you can update.
Krishna is the only person who is courageous and bold to declare: Sambhavami yuge yuge - again and again I will come down. He is the only person courageous to create space for the next generation of masters. He is not bothered just about His business. Krishna understands that humanity needs spiritual masters.
Any one can stand up and boldly express the wisdom of Krishna and anyone who expresses the wisdom of Krishna, is Krishna. Krishna creates space for other masters to come. That is the greatness of Krishna. That is the greatness of the Vedic rishis. They are not interested only in their own business. They are not egoistic that only their photos or only their influence should be there. They are ready to allow the next generation. Growth is possible only when you update.
Vivekananda beautifully says that freedom is the basic condition for any growth. I am questioned again and again in the west as to why we have so many Gods. It is because, in the Bharatn cultural system, we had spiritual freedom but not social freedom. That is why we went to the heights and depths of spirituality. Whereas, the West has social freedom, because of which they can change everything in their lives such as car, house and wife as frequently as possible. They can constantly change things because of the social freedom.
In the vedic system at the age of seven, the child is given the Gayatri mantra (Vedic prayer to illuminate the intellect) that says, ‘Let me meditate on the light that creates intelligence in me; let that intelligence help me meditate on that intelligence,’ that’s all.
Aum bhuh bhuvah svah
Tat savitur varenyam
Bhargo devasya dheemahi
Dhiyo yo nah prachodayat
Only the torch is given. You have to start your journey with that.
Let me give you an example. Somebody comes to you and asks the way to cross the forest. If you say, ‘Oh, when I crossed, I walked seven miles straight ahead till I reached the place where there was a big snake. I walked four miles further till I saw a lion. I took a left turn there and walked seven more miles till I reached a river and crossed it. I walked four miles further and I reached the other side of the forest,’ can that person cross the forest with these instructions?
The snake would have left the place long ago and the lion would have moved away by then. Instead of giving directions like this, give him the torch and he will cross by himself.
Vedic culture had tremendous spiritual freedom, which is why there were 33 crore (10 million) deities. I think the population of the earth must have been 33 crores at that time. Each one could have a customized God and the people had the spiritual freedom to seek fulfillment in their own way. That is the growth of the Vedic culture. For any growth, freedom is the basic condition. Here, all techniques are created and given to you to make you understand that techniques cannot help. Instead, you need to go straight to the understanding.
If you are already tired of techniques, now is the time to drop and look into yourself. Just understand this one truth, that by your very nature you are un-clutched. Again and again because of your social conditioning, fears and worries, you are trying to clutch yourself and make a shaft. Neither the shaft exists, nor does the continuity. You are just un-clutched; by your very nature you are un-clutched. The person who understands this does not need any technique. If you cannot understand, then you are free to torture yourselves with the technique of constantly trying to remember, ‘I am not the doer’.
Sutra:
Burn down the wilderness of ignorance with the fire of the knowledge,
I am the one and pure intelligence
And be free from grief and be happy.
Again, Ashtavakra comes up with one more technique. I think, when Ashtavakra spoke to Janaka saying, ‘You are unattached by your nature’, he did not see the light in Janaka’s eyes. When you understand the truth, suddenly your eyes will light up and expand and you will relax. This inner healing has not happened in Janaka. That is why Ashtavakra has to compromise and create more techniques.
Burn down the wilderness of ignorance with the fire of the knowledge,
I am the one and pure intelligence
And be free from grief and be happy.
I am the one and pure intelligence - be very clear, the moment you start saying this, these words will start creating more and more words in you. It’s one of the beautiful techniques to completely tire you. This is a good technique to make your mind understand that you are not able to do this.
Instead, straightaway if you can understand and penetrate with intelligence and see the truth that by your very nature you are un-clutched, it does miracles in your being – in the physical level, mental level and in the being level. When you understand the truth that by your very nature you are un-clutched, a tremendous, quantum transformation happens. Transformation happens in quantum, not in a step-by-step fashion. Just one jump, you take a quantum jump and experience the truth, the awakening in your self.
All your physical and mental problems can be addressed by this single idea, that you are un-clutched. The moment you understand that by your very nature you are un-clutched, that very moment simply your depression will disappear. The very idea of depression is created by you by constantly linking of all your moods.
People ask me, ‘Master, it is clear to me that the moment I understand that we are un-clutched by our very nature, depression will disappear. But how can physical healing happen?’
Be very clear your body is straight away guided by your mind. Let me explain two important things, so that you can understand how the un-clutching brings better health or the healing effect in our body.
First thing, not only yoga but the medical science also says that our body constantly not only rejuvenates, but it also replaces itself. Please understand, it not only rejuvenates but it also replaces itself. We are constantly replacing ourselves. This is the first truth.
The second truth, an important truth that is again proven not only by yoga, but also by biology and medical science: Our mind creates our body. 5000 years ago yoga and ayurveda sincerely started believing and experiencing that our mind creates our body. In this modern day many scientific studies are proving that our mind creates our body. Our body is straightaway guided by our mind.
There is a book called, ‘Biology of belief’ written by Dr. Bruce Lipton. After 30 years of research in the field of biology, he came up with a powerful research report, in which he clearly proves that our positive and negative emotions play a major role in our body. They control our body in a big way than DNA and cells. Our body is guided by our beliefs, faith and positive and negative emotions. He says that even our body structure can be altered by our mind.
Step by step, he proves very clearly that all our genetic problems and all our physical and mental problems are created by our faith alone. He conducted several researches, in some of which children who had been separated from the biological parents from day one were studied. The children would grow up thinking that the foster parents were the real parents. In these cases, the children expressed all the symptoms of the foster parents, including the diseases thought to be hereditary. He has done several researches similar to this. He has come up with a clear report that the body is directly guided by our faith, our beliefs and our positive and negative emotions.
Biology again and again says that once in every 6 months we completely create new body parts. Once a year not even a single cell of our liver is the same; the liver is completely replaced. And once in twenty-one days our intestine is completely replaced, skin gets renewed every five weeks and the skeleton is entirely new every three months. There is specific number of days for each of the body. The body is completely replaced.
Constantly our body gets updated. Our body has enough intelligence to replace itself. Constantly our body replaces itself. You may ask, ‘Then why am I creating the same disease again in my body? If my body is again and again replacing itself, rejuvenating itself, then why are we carrying the same disease?’ Because, you strongly believe that the same mind is continuing. Because you are carrying the same mind, you reproduce the same problems in the body. By clutching, by connecting, you stop the self-healing happening in your body.
The moment you allow the inner healing to happen, simply the outer healing will start happening. The moment you understand that you are an un-clutched being, that moment the depression will disappear and I promise that you will completely create a new body. You will not carry your diseases.
It is because of your faith that you are connected and that you are a continuous flow, you carry the same disease. When you create the new part, you carry the same disease in the new part also. Just understand, that you are completely un-clutched; you are disconnected and you are completely independent every moment.
Understand these two truths: first truth, our mind creates our body and the second truth, our body constantly replaces itself. Now we can understand this statement: If we carry the same mind, same shaft, we will reproduce the same disease or the same problem in the new body also. Everyday our body is creating a new body; automatically it replaces itself. Because we carry the same old mind, we bring the same disease back to our body and we force our body to suffer.
Let me tell you very clearly: Based on my experience of having worked with at least 100,000 patients in the last two and a half years, who have come to me for healing or meditation, the moment you understand that you are an un-clutched being, you create a new body. You simply heal yourself. You come out of even physical diseases - not only mental problems, even physical problems.
Be very clear, if we understand that we are un-clutched, if we realize the truth that we are un-clutched, unconnected, independent, illogical thoughts, we will stop carrying the same old identity and mind within us. When we stop carrying the same mind and the same old identity, we will stop reproducing the same disease in the new body. We will stop reproducing the same pain, the same depression, the same difficulties and same disease in the new body, which our nature is creating.
If you are un-clutched, you will allow your body to heal from the disease, which you already have and you will create a new body, a new system, which will be more immune, energetic and alive. Constantly by bringing the same old mind, by clutching yourselves with your past, you are bringing the same diseases into the body. You are not allowing the body to heal itself. You are not encouraging the body to rejuvenate and replace itself. The body by its very nature constantly replaces itself. You are stopping the healing process by clutching and connecting to your past.
For example, if your mother has taught you, has conditioned you in your young age that if you play in the rain you will catch cold, the memory gets engraved in you and even after thirty or forty years, you do not even have to go out when it rains - if you see the rain through the window, you will start sneezing. When you bring the old engrams, when you bring the conditionings, when you bring the past and connect it with the present and make a shaft, you abuse the future.
Un-clutching dramatically improves your health and brings a healing effect in you. Almost all the mental problems - mental problems related to desires, related to guilt, related to fear, related to addiction, related to depression - every mental problem can be addressed with this single truth that you are un-clutched.
All the depressed moods are nothing but clutching all the low moods and creating a shaft of depression. For example, the low mood which you suffered ten years ago, the low mood that you suffered nine years ago, the low mood that you suffered eight years ago, the low mood that you suffered seven years ago, the low mood which you suffered six years ago - they are all unconnected, independent, illogical, unconnected experiences that happened in your life.
When you connect all of them, clutch and see them as a shaft, ‘Oh, my life was a depression’ - you create a shaft for yourself. The moment you start believing that you are a depressed being, you will create more and more arguments, collect more and more data, to prove your judgments, to prove your understanding. Then naturally you will label yourself as a depressed being - ‘I am depressed’.
Understand that all your mental problems, whether related to addiction, depression or low mood, everything is directly related to this clutching. If you understand this single truth, the ultimate technique that by your very nature you are un-clutched, by your very nature you are beyond clutching, suddenly you will see that so many mental problems disappear by themselves. You do not have to do anything; they will disappear by themselves.
So many things, whatever you think as your problems are nothing but connecting and seeing. When you understand you are un-clutched you can work on your physical aches and pains – they will be healed. For example the knee pain you had ten days ago, the knee pain you experienced nine days ago, the knee pain you had eight days ago are all unconnected, independent experiences. But when you connect all of them and put a label, ‘I have knee pain’ you make a shaft.
If you understand your un-clutched nature and stop creating a shaft, you will see your pains dissolving. Pain is a pain because you call that as pain. Depression is depression because you create a shaft of depression.
If you allow your mind to un-clutch from your past you will create a new body. You will create a new body, which will be more balanced, more energetic, have more healing power and more immunity. If you strongly believe that you had knee pain for ten years, naturally you will strongly believe you are going to have the same knee pain for the rest of your life. This faith is more than enough to reproduce and create a knee pain in the new body that you are create every morning. Because you clutch with the same mind, connect with the same mind, you reproduce the same disease in the new body that you create everyday.
When you un-clutch from your thoughts, from this shaft and sit, you will see suddenly a new inner healing happening in you. You will forget about whomever you are not able to forgive. Not just forgive, you will even forget about the whole thing. I am not only talking about others, many times, in many incidents you will not be able to forgive even yourself. You might not be able to forgive yourself over the decisions that you had taken, the life that you had led, or the relationships, which you had maintained or the things that you did in your life.
When you can’t forgive yourself it is called guilt. When you can’t forgive others it is called vengeance. When you un-clutch, both the guilt and vengeance will disappear. Not only you will forgive, you will also forget because there is no connection. See, the mistakes that you made ten years ago, the mistakes that you made eight years ago, the mistakes that you made seven years ago are independent, unconnected incidents that happened in your life.
When you connect all of them and think, ‘I am the worst person because I have done all these things,’ you do not realize the hell that you are creating for yourself. You may ask, ‘Then how can we learn from the past experience, Master?’ That’s another important question. Be very clear, you will never be able to learn from past experiences. Past experience can only make you do the same things again and again.
Any memory about the past experience can only make you do the same thing in a smaller way or in a bigger way, but the quality will be the same. You will never be able to take a quantum jump by connecting, by clutching. Be very clear, you will never be able to achieve any big transformation, any big change in your personality by remembering your past. All of you are trying your best to update yourself by remembering your past. Have you been successful? No, because when the past is remembered, it has got the power to make you do the same thing again and again and again. You’ll be made to do the same mistakes again and again.
So be very clear, connecting with the past is in no way going to help you to update your self, up grade yourself, transform yourself. Whether you want physical health, mental well being, emotional balance, the basic thing that you need to do is un-clutching.
Connected, clutched minds create more and more miseries in personal life, professional career and relationships. It tremendously affects our creativity, and economic wellbeing. When we un-clutch, the first thing that will happen to us will be the inner healing effect. It’s a deep silence and peace in us. Second thing, that inner healing will start radiating in the physical wellbeing, which is our health. Third thing, naturally it will start radiating in our relationships. Fourth thing, because these three are going beautifully, we will be creative and productive.
It may be a little difficult for you to digest this. People ask me, ‘Master, the problem does not seem as simple as you make it appear; it is a deep-rooted unconscious problem.’
Please be very clear, I am making a bold, courageous and challenging statement. Of course, I have the support of the Vedic rishis who have dived deep into consciousness, who have done enough of research in the inner world and consciousness. One important statement: Man does not have unconscious or subconscious mind as it is taught to us.
It is a very challenging statement, very bold statement. It goes against the theory of psychoanalysis, all the so-called theories of psychology and the so-called modern philosophies, which try to explain the workings of the mind. Be clear, the modern day psychologists worked only with sick people, they had only sick specimens; not with one fulfilled being. So the standard, which they set as normal is itself abnormal. Freud did not have an opportunity to work with a Buddha; Adler did not have an opportunity to have a Ramakrishna as specimen.
So be very clear, the idea of unconscious or subconscious is one more concept to create more fear. One set of people have created the idea of sin and guilt and another set of people have created the idea of sub conscious and unconscious, both of which could exploit the mass.
Every master who worked on the inner space, who is awakened, knows that you do not have unconscious or subconscious mind. The idea of unconscious or subconscious is a concept that just creates more fear. The idea of sin and guilt and the idea of unconscious and subconscious are concepts that could exploit people.
Psychoanalysis never ends. Your life may end; psychoanalysis will never end. You will be lying down on the couch talking, talking and talking. What will happen? Actually you may get bored of talking and say, ‘I am all right. I don’t need psychotherapy anymore.’ People get bored of talking about the same thing and they say, ‘I am all right. Please leave me, I am okay.’
The concept of sin and guilt has been created to always keep you down, to take your confidence away. Unless someone feels guilty, he cannot be exploited. So the moralistic ideas are created, which could cause guilt in you so that you could be constantly exploited.
The one and the only sin you commit is clutching the old thoughts and creating a shaft. Be very clear, you may commit an act, do something, which is called by society as sin. But you are not a sinner.
That is why the Vedic rishis are beautifully addressing you as Amrutsya putra – sons of immortality. You are by your very nature immortal. There is no need to achieve that state separately.
Shrinmanda vishve amritasya putra
vedaha veham purusham mahantham
The rishis do not address you as sinners. They say, ‘Oh, sons of immortality’. For practical purposes we have started translating the word putra as son. But the literal translation for the word putra is, ‘outcome’.
You are the outcome of the intense enlightened experience.
Again and again the rishis declare this one truth: You are much more than the two identities, which you carry.
If they say that you are a sinner then you can say they have a vested interest. When you make all the people around you believe that they are lower level people, then you have the confidence that you are a higher person, you are somebody important, holier than thou. But the Vedic rishis are not talking in that language. If they say, ‘you are sinners’ then you can say they are talking out of vested interest. But rishis are saying that you are much more than your identity, they are saying that you are God.
Shrinmanda vishve amritasya putra
vedaha veham purusham mahantham
Only a man who has experienced this truth, who has got the courage to tell this truth to others, who has the trust over his disciples that, ‘Even if I give him this courage and confidence, he will respect me, he will not disrespect me’ - only when you have that much courage, this truth can be reproduced.
The rishis were not only experienced, they had tremendous trust. They were only concerned about reproducing that solid experience, that’s all. They were not bothered about anything else. They were not even bothered about their name. They did not even bother about their identities because they realized that they were much more than these two identities.
Person, who realizes that he is much more than these two identities will never be shaken by the confusions, problems and dilemmas of these two identities. All your problems, including physical health - please understand when I say including your physical health - I mean all the diseases that you suffer in the body, are just because of these two identity problems.
You have neither a subconscious or unconscious mind, nor do you have sin or guilt. Be liberated from this sin and guilt, which is the mamakar, the identity that you carry in the inner world; and the unconscious and the subconscious, which is the ahankar, the identity that you project to the outer world. Be liberated from these two, from today. Both these identities are lies.
Look very clearly: You can have only one thought at a time, am I right? Is there any special being, anybody who is here, who can have two or three thoughts at a time? No, you cannot. You can have only one thought at a time. Then where is the question of subconscious or unconscious?
Be very clear, we can have only one thought at a time and each thought replaces the thought that precedes it. Each thought that comes up replaces the thought that precedes it. People come to me and ask me, ‘My whole life is filled with death fear. I don’t know what I can do. How can I get rid of this fear?’
I tell them, ‘Just have a glass of water, or a cup of tea.’
They say, ‘What is this Master, how can a cup of tea or having a glass of water help me get out of my death fear?’
I tell them, ‘Come and sit, have a cup of coffee now.’ When they are having coffee, I ask them, ‘What happened to the death fear?’
‘For that moment, it was not there Master.’
All you need to do is just have a cup of coffee or tea.
The moment you have the thought that you want to have a cup of coffee, the thought of death fear has been replaced. It has disappeared.
It is simple logic: The moment you decide to stand up, you renounce the thought of sitting. The moment you decide to walk out of this place, you renounce the thought of staying inside. The moment you decided to come in, you renounce the thought of standing outside. Every thought is replacing the earlier thought. At every moment you are renouncing your thoughts.
Understand, every moment you are renouncing your thoughts by your very nature. The moment you decided to have a cup of coffee, you have already renounced the thought of death fear. The death fear is replaced by the thought of having a cup of coffee.
A big problem would be if he would say, ‘No, no Master, again the fear comes back, what to do?’ Be very clear, the moment you decide that the fear will come back again you are bringing back the fear. It is not coming back. Your strong faith that it will come back brings the fear back.
Why are you bringing it back again? It has already left you. You’ll ask me, ‘How can it be so simple?’ Constantly you’ve been taught, made to believe that it is not so simple. It IS simple. If you really understand that, it is so simple.
Constantly people are telling me that it is not so easy. But I am telling you literally it is so easy. Nothing needs to be done. A simple understanding is needed, that’s all.
For example, no guests come to your house unless you invite them. Not only do you invite them, you send them e-mails, leave voice messages, fax them and send them a telegram. Even after that, you send someone to bring them personally. Once they enter your house you say, ‘Oh, I didn’t think you would come.’
In the same way you send message to your thoughts that you have a strong faith that the death fear is going to come back. When you have a strong fear, when you have a strong idea, when you have a strong desire that the fear is going to come back, you will fulfill your desire and the fear will come back. Understand, every moment by your very nature, you are replacing your thoughts.
People ask me, ‘Master, I am suffering with too many sexual thoughts. How can I escape from them? How can I get rid of it?’
I tell them, ‘Sit here. For one hour, meditate on sex.’
After that they open their eyes and say, ‘Master, mind is not able to stay on the same subject; it is going everywhere!’
He was the one who came to me and said that he was consumed by this thought; that he was not able to get rid of it. When I told him to concentrate on that thought, he said he was not able to. What does it mean? By your very nature, you are unconnected, independent, illogical, unconnected thoughts.
You neither have to worry about your fears, nor do you have to worry about your greed. Your worry about your worries, your worry about your fears, your worry about your greed is the only problem. Your fear is not the problem; your fear about the fears is the problem.
Similarly, you are not afraid of your failure. You are afraid of your fear of failure, not failure itself.
For example, you know for sure by the end of this year, you are not going to be a billionaire. Are you worrying about it or are you suffering over that – ‘Oh, I am not going to be a billionaire, what will happen to me?’ No, you do not suffer because of that. But you will always suffer with the thought, ‘Will I have hundred thousand dollars or not.’ Suffering is because of that uncertainty. Fear is because of the possibility of not achieving your goal. Fear is not connected to your failure. Fear is connected to your fear of failure. In every level, if you are haunted by greed or fear, it is just because of your clutching and connecting.
If you understand this one truth, that constantly you renounce, constantly you replace your own thoughts, just a glass of water is enough to get rid of death fear. Because the moment you decide to have a glass of water, the thought of death fear will have already disappeared. If the thought of death was so strong, it would still be there. Instead it can easily be replaced by just a single cup of tea. A cup of tea is more than enough. A glass of water is more than enough to get rid of fear of death, to get rid of great grief, to get rid of any problem in your life.
Whatever problem you may have, you can have only one thought at a time. Can you have two or three thoughts at a time? No. So be very clear that your enemy is only one thought. When you start believing in unconscious and subconscious, you make your enemy too powerful. You clutch all the thoughts. The problem is not a single thought of fear. The problem is, you connecting all the thoughts of fear that you have had since your birth, and creating a shaft and start believing, ‘I am filled with fear’.
The fear of death which happened in you ten years ago, the fear of death which happened in you nine years ago, the fear of death which happened in you eight years ago, the fear of death which happened in you yesterday - they are all unconnected, independent, illogical, un-clutched fears, un-clutched thoughts. When you connect all of them and create a shaft, you create a shaft, ‘My life is filled with fear.’ The moment you create that shaft, you create hell for yourself. And you start suffering with it.
Be very clear; do not empower your enemy before fighting with him. What you are doing is empowering the enemy - your mind, and then trying to kill it. First thing you need to understand is that you cannot kill him, because he does not exit. If he exists, you can fight with him. But you are fighting with a shadow, you are fighting with darkness, you are fighting with somebody who does not exist.
Mind is a myth. Your idea about pain or pleasure is a pure myth. In Sanskrit we call it maya. Maya means, yama iti maya. Literal translation of the word Maya in Sanskrit is that which does not exist- that which does not exist, but which gives an experience as if it exits is maya. Understand that your mind, your fear, your greed – all these do not exist. Just because you clutch all your thoughts and see, it gives you a feeling as if they exist.
If you are un-clutched, you will understand the simple truth that mind is a myth. Whatever you think as you is a lie. When you stop connecting and creating a shaft, suddenly you open up to the truth that by your very nature you are unconnected, illogical, un-clutched being.
I have only one message from Ashtavakra: You are an un-clutched being. By your very nature you are unattached. All you need is the courage to let go.
We are like the bird that is holding on to the hunter’s trap, afraid to let go without realizing he can just fly and be liberated if only he would let go. Same way we are holding on to our mind and ego, which are nothing but non-existent shafts. We cling to things that don’t exist. We are bound by the mind, which itself is a myth. The bird, which is trying to hold, thinks that if he leaves he may drop and die. If we leave we will only fly; we will never drop and die.
Similar to the bird trap, hunters have a trap to catch monkeys also. They catch monkeys using a small box for a trap. They place some sweets inside the box. The monkey puts the hand in and grabs the sweet. As long as the monkey is holding onto the sweet, he will not be able to take the hand out. If the monkey lets the sweet go, that moment he could remove or slide his hand out. But the monkey is not intelligent enough to realize that. He holds on to the sweet and just because he is holding it, he is not able to take the hand out. If he just lets go of the sweet, he can take the hand out.
In the same way, the bird holds on to the stick because of his fear that he may fall and die. But even by hanging on to the stick, he is not going to live long. He just waits for the hunter to come and grab him. If he just lets go, he can simply fly.
You are also clutching on to the ego and waiting for Yama - the Lord of Death. Let us understand this one truth. Just understand this one simple truth and let go; liberate yourself.
You are just having it and have it. May you radiate the eternal bliss, Nithyananda.
Details
The talk
- Date
- 12 November 2005
- Language
- English
The recording
- Recording
- No recording linked to this transcript
The transcript
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- Live notes
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- Not time-synced
- Length
- 17,280 words · 96 min read
- Topics
- None recorded
- Archive reference
- uni134