Introducing You, to You!

(Curtain open, music playing welcoming Swamiji)

Now I am going to introduce you to you. Please listen. One of the greatest gift you have is YOU. One of the biggest curse you have is YOU. You are your friend, you are your enemy. There is some part of you, your friend; some part of you, your enemy. Gita says beautifully

uddhared ātmanātmānaḿ nātmānam avasādayet

Raise yourself by yourself. If you can raise yourself by yourself, you are your greatest friend. If not, you are your greatest enemy.

I am going to introduce just four words. Please listen to these four words. (Swamiji drawing on the white board) It’s a cartoon of aam aadmi :) All of us. Listen, whatever ideas you have about you, inside you - not how you tell about you to others, no. What you believe as you inside you; secretly inside four walls, if you sit, and analyze who you are, and ideas you have about you - is inner image.

I am going to introduce four words to you. Inner image - the ideas you have about you, inside you, inner image.

Next, how you show you to others - Like your son, daughter, father, mother, in-laws, spouse, boss - to all of them, how you show you to all of them. For each one you show yourself in different, different way. All that put together is outer image.

See, you may show yourself in one way to your son, one way to your spouse, one way to your boss. But there are something underlying, it will be always more than what you are. Am I right? How many of you understand what I am saying? So that underlying pattern, the way you project yourself to everyone - That is outer image.

Third, how others perceive you - never ever believe the way you show people same way they perceive you. No. You may show very humble way, they will say, “See see, how he is acting, we know about him, see see.” You may show in some way, but others may perceive you in a different way. How you show you, how you show you to them, will not be the same way they perceive you. How you show to, how you show you to them - is outer image. How they all perceive you - is other’s image.

And you have an idea about others and life, “life is always cheating,” “everyone is there around me to exploit me.” You have some ideas about others and life. That is life image. You have some ideas in your head, about others and life. That is life image. Please understand, your whole life is just this four word, that’s all. Conflict between this four word is suffering. If all these four are in sync, it is joy, fulfillment. That’s all.

I am introducing you to you. Your whole life is just this four words. And whatever Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Brahma Sutra, all the Hindu scriptures, Purana’s, Ramayama, Mahabharata, Agama, Shastra, whatever spiritual books are teaching, essence of all that is just aligning these four. Aligning these four. I am not saying how you believe you, same way you should talk about you to others, no. How you believe itself is not true, it is not stable, even that should be changed.

First, let us study how our Inner image is, how our outer image is, how others image is, how others perceive me, whoever is in my life. Don’t tell, why should I bother about what others think? No, they are part of your life. You need to bother about what your wife thinks about you. Otherwise she will make you bother. You need to bother about what your family thinks about you. Whoever is part of your life. You have to bother, what they think about you.

Understand, because you are having the benefits of them. So naturally you need to be responsible for what they think about you, in your life. And what is actual inner image, outer image, others image, life image we have. And what we really want to have, what type of inner image we should have - You may have a idea, you may have a desire. What type of outer image you want to have - You may have an idea, you may have a desire. What type of others image you want to have - You may have an idea, desire.

So what you have, what you want to have... We will sit and analyze step by step, and make what you want to have, drop what you have now. What will make what you want to have. That is completion. If you can make the inner image the way you want, outer image the way you want, others image the way you want, life image the way you want- that is completion.

I will give you an example from My own life. Listen, the inner image I have, when I look inside to see the inner image I have… Once I tried to look into the mirror and see what I have inside Me. It is just a vast empty space. You call that as Nirvana, Atmajnana, Bramajnana, enlightenment, consciousness, atma, Paramatma, God, whatever word you want you can use. I saw only pure emptiness.

So the inner image I carry about Me is a pure emptiness.

And the outer image, how I project Me to all of you, My declared outer image is - person who is working to transmit this experience to everyone. Who is here to transmit this experience to everyone. That is my outer image, I am projecting.

Others image, how you perceive Me, it can be any way. You can look at Me as a healer who will heal your headache, or healer who will heal your knee pain. Or a Swami if he blesses, you may have lottery, you may have wealth or you may have a peaceful life. Or you may even look at even Me as a fraud, how the media projects. So many in, out, your image, others image is there. So many images. Somebody looks at me as a teacher, who teaches this knowledge. Somebody looks at me as a Master, who gives the spiritual experience. Understand, but whatever image you create, end of the day I am responsible.

I may declare I am here to give that enlightenment to you, but if you ask Me, “No, no, no, first I want my headache to be healed. Bless me for that. Bless me I should have, become wealthy. First bless me for that.” Even if you ask the things which I have not declared. I am responsible, because they are within the purview of My declaration. Listen, I’ll tell you, to give you enlightenment, I have to, I may have to transmit thousand volt spiritual energy. But to remove your headache, I may need to give only one volt spiritual energy. Because it is within the purview of My declaration, I am responsible.

Anything which can be done by the spiritual power, like healing, giving you peace, mental health, or making your life peaceful and happy relationships, making you fulfilled, contented, all that if you ask, even though I have not declared, I am responsible if you are expect that from Me. If you expect I should become like a Sachin Tendulkar and get hundred century, in the cricket, I am not responsible for that. Because that is out of My purview of declaration. If you expect I should become a politician, become CM or PM in some government, I am not responsible for that. Because that is not My declaration. My declaration is I am here to give enlightenment. Anything which falls inside that is My declaration.

Do you understand what is under My purview of My declaration and what is outside? Look in your life. Whenever you declare yourself as a husband or wife of somebody, whatever that person’s expectation which is under the purview of the wife and husband’s expectation, you are responsible for it. So you are responsible for others image, as per your declaration. How you project you to them - outer image - based on that, you are responsible for their expectation. So whatever your expectation is, I am responsible and I have to fulfill it. Either I have to give you the boon of what you are asking, if you are not capable of receiving, I have to prepare you and make it happen; that is My responsibility. Understand, this seat is not that easy. Everyone’s expectation I should see to it, that becomes reality. That becomes reality.

Next, the life image I have, as far as My experience is concerned, I feel the whole life is here to celebrate with Me, celebrate the existence, life, with Me.

So now, look into your life and pen down what is your inner image - How you feel about you inside you. What is your outer image - How you project you to others. And what is your others image - How, what kind of image they carry about you? And what is the image you have about life and others - life image.

Few minutes, look in and pen down.

And dig deep and really see, exactly what’s the inner image you are carrying, and outer image you are having, Life image you have, and others image you carry. All the four, answer in a detailed way, so that you can analyze, whatever is you.