Session 191

Sagar has a question. While observing the activity of my mind, I realize that I am quite reactive and tend to think negatively about situations. Also as the day passes, I am prone to waste time and go out of focus. I tend to think about the past and feel embarrassed. How can I keep calm and stay focused as the day goes by and how can I make peace with old memories?

There is a mistake in your question, you are calling the mind as my mind. That is the root cause of all the problems that you mentioned in the question. It is not “my mind”. It is an experience that is a passing illusion. So the solution to the problem is to know what it is. It is a machine that is running and what is it producing? Which it was programmed to produce. What was programmed there? The experiences are stored as memories and if you have negative experiences in your life, they will be stored and they will be reproduced. They will reappear all the time.

So it is a machine. It is not yours. Words like - I am prone to waste time. I tend to think - etc. are showing that you don't know who you are and now you are asking how can I make peace with old memories. You are already peaceful. Remember the knowledge. So it is a case of missing the point.

The knowledge that was given is your own experience. The truth that was shown was your own truth.

Now there is no point in going back into calling the mind as me or the body as me or anything that it is doing. We should not own it. It is okay to do it when you are talking in a worldly setting. Where your friends and family and other ignorant people are present. There you need to claim the mind as mind and the body also as mind. That is the social setting. But this is satsang. Almost everybody knows the meaning of the word I and the mind and the body. Here the language that should be spoken is language of knowledge. But sometimes when the context is relative, it is okay to call these things as me.

That we keep shifting. That is not a big problem. But think about the question that you are asking.

The point is missed here. So now the question should be how to fix this mind. The question is still valid although it was called as me and mind. That the mind has a programming that is a complete pile of garbage. It has happened because of the so-called bad actions. They are not bad. They are actions done in ignorance. Now it is simply running those programs. Just like badly programmed machine outputting errors all the time.

So the first problem is negative thinking. That is because of the past impressions that were negative. How to fix it? Purification. How to do it? Step number 6 in the program. So you are already on the way. You need to have patience. And how to stop more negative impressions from going inside the mind. Going in your memory. Think of it like a machine because it is a machine. Just like you prevent bad food from going inside your body. In the same way you stop the intake of the negativity from your senses. Stop them entering your mind and making impressions there. And how is that possible? By awareness. If you are aware that whatever is happening is not really true. It won't make a big impression. Or if you plan your experience. If you settle down in a life which is simple. Away from people. Away from crowds. Away from societies. Then very little will go inside your mind. And it will automatically become relaxed. Become positive. Or you can do a cure. You feed it positivity which can overwrite the negativity. And so in future you will start getting positive thoughts. That is changing your lifestyle.

And how to get rid of the negativity.We have three methods - Forgiving, Service and donating. About which there are blog articles because that is not the path of knowledge. On the path of knowledge we assume that the person or the seeker is so intelligent that they will not make this mistake of taking the negativity in. Or if the negative thoughts arrive somehow, they will fix them automatically by their own knowledge and intelligence. This is assumed on the path of knowledge. But there are methods and practices for those who cannot do this. Just now I told you the three ways that are standard. Now how to stop wasting time. The answer is very simple. You should have a life goal. And the life goals should be that for which you are born. Like I always talk about these things in the satsang. It should be your prarabdha. What is happening is you are doing something for which you were not born. Which is useless for you. You are probably forced to do some things which are not your life goal. So first find out this preallocation that you are born with. It will be that for which you are ready to die. For which you cannot waste even one second. Which you love so much that you can keep doing it forever without tiring. Without getting bored. What is it? And if there is no preallocation. Nothing to worry, you find a life goal which is very positive, which is not really selfish. There will be some selfish content there. It cannot stop it. Because in order to act we need the body-mind. And then we need to preserve the body-mind. And then some actions go into preservation, survival. But the rest, the overall goal must be selfless. And if it is a spiritual goal that is even better. But whatever is your goal, you need to do only that - Preallocation, prarabdha - remember these things. And then you will never waste time.

You see people ask me what do you do the whole day. I do exactly that which is my prarabdha. And I don't get time to waste. Sometimes I don't get even one minute. The survival jobs, the tasks, the daily routine that I do. It seems like an obstacle on my path. Because I stay alone. I need to do all the things you know. Probably most of you are very lucky that you have partners or family members who can do

work for you, who can do the daily routine for you. But here I need to do everything. So that seems like a waste of time for me. But that needs to be done. Because who else will do it? So I don't get even one second to waste.

Going out of focus is a sign that there is no life goal. Or you don't know your life goal. Which is the case with many people. Majority don't know what they are here for. Why are you here on this physical plane? The answer is very simple - to fulfill your desires. What is your primary desire? And if it is fulfilled then why are you wasting your time doing nothing? Fulfill your desires and then fulfill somebody else's desire. They are also you. You see when I am not doing my prarabdha I am fulfilling somebody else's desire. Fully knowing that they are me at the highest level - Brahman. But we don't need to go to that level. Because I know one thing. In the illusion also we are one. You can say greater family. All of you are from the greater family, that is certain. Or have become a part of the greater family. And even some people whom I like very much and who like me a lot. And mostly their desires I am fulfilling. They are related to me at the causal level. The causal bodies are in contact. We call it the karmbandhan but that is not a very positive word. A karmic bond is there.

So at every level there is something which you will find to do. And it will look like a waste of time if you are not doing that. For which you are here. And if there is no focus at all. That means you have never thought about your life. Whatever you are doing has been imposed on you by others. Like parents, society, friends, politicians. Whomever is your ideal. They have planted the viruses in you. Like a computer virus. Now you are executing their command. Not yours. Which is a miserable situation really. And when you cannot do that you feel lost. I have nothing to do. Or I don't know what to do today. Why is that? Because none of the actions are your own, they are not fulfilling. Even if you do them they do not provide you any pleasure, joy because they are not your own.

You will say just now I said that nothing is mine, no action is mine. Yes, that is the primary truth. But here we are focusing on the relative. When you are established in knowledge/truth then we don't need to talk about all these things. This creature gets the goal. The creature does whatever is needed automatically. But those who cannot remain established in their true nature all the time. Or those who need something to do. Because their energy is very high. The life energies are rushing in them. They want to do something. That is my case also. So we give them something to do. And it is always like this.

Either it is your preallocation or it is a service.

What about the past now? It is not mine. It is also not mine. It is simply the past. And as we know the past is an illusion. There is no time. Usually I give this example of a tomato which is in your memory. Can you eat the tomato which is in your memory? People usually say no. I need a real tomato. Real means present. So why can't you eat the tomato in the memory? Because it is not there. It is a shadow. It is not true. So if something is not true how can any intelligent person feel embarrassed about it? That is also social programming only. We are indoctrinated to feel embarrassed about some things. And that is what is repeating. The knowledge is that whatever is stored in my memory is total garbage. Except some things are needed as lessons. Otherwise the events that are stored are useless. They should not run my life. What should run my life is my own knowledge, my own intelligence, not the memories. Especially not the embarrassing memories. That is the real waste of time. We should learn from whatever happened. Do not repeat it. Do not recall it. If it comes, just remember it is a shadow, the mind is mechanically pushing in the present. These all processes are very much mechanical. What happens is the more you recall and the more you think about them. The more they are entertained. The more they are processed, the stronger they become. It is like the neural network in which the weights are adjusted. If a reward or punishment is produced. So whenever you recall and whenever you process it. The weight of that memory increases. The mind thinks that it is important. But if you ignore it you remain aware - all are false shadows - the weight is reduced. Gradually that memory will stop coming. Just like you don't remember anything unimportant from your life. It will be forgotten. Actually it will be there but it will not trouble this mind. You remember only the important things. So giving a memory importance strengthens it. This is the basic knowledge of the mind.

So now you know what to do. How can I keep calm? See you are already calm. You are already peace. You are the bliss. Now that should trickle down into the memory structure. The layered structure should get the scent of this peace from above. That is possible only by realizing that I am peace. You cannot stop this machine from running, you can only realize that I am not this machine and the machine follows. For a question that comes from total ignorance, the solution is total knowledge.

Vandana is asking, from where and how does the creature get the very first impulse of violence?

No it is not violence. It is a reaction. As you know the vibrational patterns will not stay if they do not self-preserve, if they do not maintain their integrity, if they do not maintain their structure, these vibrational patterns are overwritten by other vibrational patterns. This is survival at the most basic fundamental level in the memory. So whenever there is an attempt of overwriting, the pattern has a process that prevents it. There are only two ways to prevent it - either avoid or fight, the fight or flight. And the same behavior is seen in the creatures. Because the creatures are nothing but simply evolved versions of the patterns. Multi-layered structure in the memory is a creature. So it has developed a similar strategy. Whenever there is an attack or there is a danger, either it runs away, that is called fear or it attacks back, fights. It tries to destroy the one that is attacking. And people call it violence. It becomes violence when this is unnecessary. When it is done without any provocation. When the fight happens without any reason, any logic, then it can be called violence.

When did that happen? It has been since the beginning. Sometimes this process of self-preservation or self-defense becomes afflicted, which means it becomes a disease, it runs whenever it wants to run and the person then starts destroying whatever is in front of him. That is called violent behavior. That is a mental disease. The person starts insulting everybody. The person invites trouble wherever he goes. So why has that happened? This self-preservation has gone faulty. When do they get the first impulse? Whenever there is fault. And if this fault is not corrected, the individual becomes like this. This is the whole mechanism. It is present in everybody. Some people have more of it, some people have less, some are without control and some are with control but everybody has this primitive tendency.

Parteep is saying, they get confused when asked what is their wish.

Yes, hardly anybody knows their pre-allocation. And my suspicion is that probably 80-90% of people born in this age of darkness have no pre-allocation. Why will any intelligent entity take birth here? And they are simply here because of their baser instincts. The instincts of the creature simply brought them here. Now they don't know what to do with their lives. So only the primary survival is happening for many. And whatever they take as actions is taken from others. Borrowed from somebody else. Nobody has their own. Very few people are born with a meaning, a goal in their life. These are fortunate people.

They will be called different by their parents and their society because they don't do what they are told to do. They go in their own direction, they follow their own heart. The path of your heart is the path you must follow.

If people are confused that means there is a scope of implanting a good impression there. And if they are confused in front of a guru then their life is settled. If they are confused in front of an ignorant person anything can happen. They can go up, they can go down. The guru will implant the correct seeds in a fertile ground where there is nothing. And the guru will give proper direction to the plant that is growing already. The seed that is there already. That is the importance of guru.

Graham is saying, what advice do you have for those doing what they love but not making enough money to support themselves and family?

Sometimes you are born for that which is not supporting your survival. You can make a little bit of money but not much. Or let us say path of knowledge. Nobody will pay you any money for that. So you need to take up something which you can tolerate, which does not take up too much of your time. Does not cause too much pain for the body and the mind and ensures a comfortable life. Very practical and if it is something creative and something rewarding mentally also not only money, then you will love it. Then this impression will be carried on with you for the next life. And there you will find yourself getting attracted to those kinds of jobs, those kinds of skills. You will be born with those skills. And you polish them and you are on the job. So people who are unfit for any kind of job. They are very young in the human lineage. They are just out of the animal wombs, animal lineages. They are still learning what is best for me.

So you see some people want to become soldiers. People want to become ticket collectors on the train.

Who knows what. Because they are very very young. They cannot even properly decide. And for such people their parents decide what they will become. What job they will do. And so when I see that parents are forcing the children to do a specific kind of job or to marry a specific kind of person. That actually means that the child has no preference of his or her. And if the child has their own preferences, very strong preferences, then the mother and father, the parents are doing something wrong by forcing them because they are not born for that. So again the child should be taken to a guru. If not his guru, any guru, your guru, parents guru, anybody's guru. Then the pre-allocation can be examined. If there is nothing, the guru will still find out something which will be suitable for the child. That is the traditional way which is completely destroyed in this country now. Now whatever pays a lot of money, that is my profession. Anything to make your life comfortable. That profession is not so important. What you do in your life is most important. Sometimes they match, very rarely. And then you are lucky. I don't know how come they got a family when they don't have money to support themselves. How is it possible? How can a person start a family without first becoming self-dependent? I am saying this for both boys and girls. These days nobody knows what can happen to the husband, whether he will leave you, whether he will run away, whether he will drop dead anytime. Who knows? So the girl should also be self-dependent. Only then they should think about a family. Anyway, a very common sense thing, nothing spiritual here.

Siddharth is saying, how can we know what is impressed on the causal body? I have made some very educated guesses since being initiated and some of them are very obvious. But how can one know on a broader level?

See, you need to know only the most important things. There are trillions of things that are impressed on the causal body. Uncountable. You don't want to know all of them. You need to know only that which is allocated for this life. And there is a very simple way. I call it “self churning”. You need to sit down and check your desires. What are my desires mostly about? Are they coming from somebody else? Are they implanted like a virus by somebody else? Or do they really belong to this causal body? I can say the word me and mine here but you will get confused. So at this level, you can easily say that it is me, no problem. But the truth is, it is a causal body. And a little bit of thinking, a little bit of introspection, see within. And the way the impressions in the causal body appear in our experience is - desires. The impressions take the form of desires and they appear in the present, in the mind. Examine these desires.

I know exactly what desires my causal body is producing. I know exactly what the pre-allocation is. And when I see people who don't know theirs, I say - how is that possible? That is the most intimate thing for you. That should be the most clear thing for you. And the reason is usually the noise that is injected from outside. They have never thought for themselves. Even their thoughts are borrowed from somebody else. They are thinking about somebody else's thoughts. Whatever comes from the TV, from Twitter, from YouTube, they are regurgitating all that, all the time. Nothing is of their own. Nothing is of their own building. So you reduce the noise. You remain quiet. You go in solitude for at least a month or two. A month is a very short time, at least six months. And the noise will settle down.

The external viruses, they will lose their energy and you will get in contact with your causal body. And sometimes your desires will appear in your dreams. Because waking is so narrow, so dark. The causal body needs to find a way to give this creature instructions.

And now you will understand. What are these pilgrimage journeys? What is this practice of going in solitude? What are these meditations? There is still this tradition in South America, I think. Or even in North America. Where the original people, they send their child into a forest. Go there, live there for one month. And when he comes back, he is a different person. He or she becomes a totally different person. Why? Because contact with the causal body has been made. That person will not only get the pre-allocation or the total map of impressions, like a thought, he will actually see it in front of his eyes sometimes. They are called visions. So this is called a vision quest or vision journey. Which is a very nice way to find your life goal. I know it is lost in other parts of the world. I don't know whether they are doing it right now or not. But I read this and I like this idea a lot. So this is my own experience. When I left the city, when I left the job, family etc etc. Family means my parents, there was nothing to do for many months. There was only one distraction which was the internet. It was very easy for me to connect with the causal body. And it is not that I was not aware. I was aware of what I am here for. But I was not sure, was not 100% because of the noise injected by others. Now it is 100%.

Decide a life goal depending on whatever you have thought or known and give it a try. If that goal produces happiness and freedom, that is your pre-allocation. That is what your life goal is. If it is producing misery, suffering, bondage, no. Obviously nobody will do that. Now check whether you are free to do that for which you are born. That is a bigger problem, isn't it? So you are fortunate that you are free to do whatever you want to do. Some people have not taken this even the first step in their freedom. And when I tell them you are already free, they cannot believe it. Because that comes later, isn't it? This creature should be pure enough, free enough to realize that I am already free. Otherwise this impurity, this bondage, inability to do, inability to fulfill their desires will obscure the knowledge, will hide the knowledge that I am already free. Because it does not look like I am free or I am happy. When I tell them you are already bliss, no, no, it does not look like. Why? Too much impurity for this knowledge to even take place. Those who are on the path of knowledge and are enjoying it, don't worry about all these things. This is your pre-allocation. You love your Guru. You enjoy the talks. You enjoy the Satsang. Nothing to worry. You are doing that for which you are born. No doubts at all. The others, bad luck.

Parteep is saying, one amazing phenomenon I have observed after discussing with many many people is that people lie about themselves all the time.

Even seekers cannot tell the truth about themselves. Lying is a good way to protect their false image. So not only they lie to others, they show a fake life to others, they pretend to themselves also that I am okay or I am good or I am great or whatever. They are hiding. They don't want this impurity to surface. That is what we call “resistance”. The resistance cannot be seen by the seeker. You always need a Guru to know what is my resistance, where I am hiding. But the obstacle can be seen by the seeker. Obstacles are very obvious in front of you. For example, your parents are forcing you not to do this program, not to attend the Satsang and so on. Now the parents are a very obvious obstacle. Or your job is such that it is paying you very less and you are busy in that for 12 hours per day and you don't get time for your spiritual work, your practice and that job is the obvious obstacle. But this resistance which is cooked up by the mind somehow is so much hidden that only those who are outside can know it. Sometimes even the ordinary people will come to know that this person is pretending like this, this person is hiding like this and this person is convinced that whatever I am saying is the truth

about myself. Even any intelligent person will come to know after a little bit of conversation. But the Guru can know it immediately. So the biggest lie people tell themselves is that I am the body, I am the mind. That is the biggest one in history.

Sakura is saying, I have been following Dhyana Marg for three years. I have no knowledge of Pure in the exploration of Dhyana Marg. But I really don't get enough time to go through everything. Will you guide me on how I should get into PoK? Is it okay to follow both simultaneously? Will it help me in meditation for higher stages? I had done the 3D program from Shirin.

Very good. I was actually going to tell you this only that in order to start on the path of knowledge, the 3D program is the best. And will it help me in meditation for higher stages? This is the highest already. This is the highest. You are the Brahman. There cannot be anything higher than this. So it will help in your meditation for the lower layers. Like he was asking how to calm my mind, how to make my body healthy. Those things can be managed easily now from a higher point of view. So the path of knowledge is the highest. Nothing is higher than this. This is the highest stage. The lower can be managed easily now. So you can do both simultaneously whatever practice you are doing. But it is recommended that you leave that practice at least for the duration of the program so that we don't mix. So whatever influences are coming from the path of knowledge, I can see them clearly. If there are two or three paths and four or five practices at the same time, we will never come to know what is causing what. And after the program, I don't think you will need any practice. But if you need anything, you can pick it up again. And you will immediately find that it is better now. Effortless practice.

Monica has a question. Why does it happen that whenever I sleep straight and I put my hand on my stomach, I have nightmares? Even today, I have done this experiment and the result is the same.

I don't know about the hand on the stomach, but sleeping straight is the cause of more dreams. And now people will ask, how is that possible? You see, check your sleeping position. Is it completely horizontal or is it inclined? Is it at 15 degrees, 30 degrees bent? Or there are more pillows in your bed?

If it is like this, completely horizontal. If you already have tendencies for becoming aware in the dreams or there are more tendencies in you to get these dreams, that is actually enabled by sleeping in a horizontal straight position, face up position.

So why is that? This is how it is, you see. The body cannot relax completely when it is totally straight. So people go to sleep on their side most of the time. Some people go to sleep upside down. This is the best position, I think, with no dreams. There will be, but not like this. Now, why are you having nightmares? The position is not the cause of it. The position will only enhance the dreams. It will get you more dreams. It will make you lucid or it will produce the outer body experiences or something like this. If you have tendencies, especially if you are sleeping in an inclined position, like 30 degrees angle, that is the best position for having more dreams and more experiences of the other worlds. That is the focal practice. That is what people found out. It works like this. Probably you have the tendency.

But why are there nightmares? Why is it not a good dream? Why no good experience? And the reason is not the position. The reason is that the mind gets an opportunity to express its suppressed fears.

It checks, okay, there is a good opportunity to dump whatever impurities I have. And then it starts creating those situations to create those experiences. And why is that? That is the tendency of the mind. That is the process that is going on. It wants to close the issue somehow by doing something.

It wants a closure on that. If it is a fear, it will produce a situation where there is fear, then it will start looking for a solution. If there is a desire, it will produce the same scenario. It will try to fulfill the desire. And since that cannot happen in the daytime, in the waking state, it tries to do it in the dream state.

This is a very complicated answer actually. This is not the path of knowledge actually. We have entered the occult now. So all I can recommend is you write down your dreams. It does not matter whether they are good or bad. Write them down and become more and more aware in the dreams. But if you are doing those practices, then there are methods given there to increase awareness in the dream state. And once you are aware in the dream, the nightmare will not be a nightmare. It will become like a movie or complete drama, fake. Then you can enjoy it. You can convert it into something positive. You can find a solution for the hidden suppressed content, the suppressed impurities that are trying to come up. If you write them down, it will become important for the mind and it will try to produce a solution in the daytime. So you can come up with your own solutions and you can act them out in the dream. If you are in a fearful situation in the dream, now the solution that you found in the waking state can be applied because you are aware. Because you have the memory bridge between the waking and the dreaming. Now the dream can be taken control of and you have full control. Then you can deal with that situation. And if you do it for once or twice, that nightmare will never come back. Then it will not matter how you sleep. It's gone. So I don't know whether people do this kind of work. They want to do it or not. On the path of knowledge, it is very easy. Just turn up your awareness 100 percent. Then whatever experiences you get in waking, sleeping, dreaming, projecting, are totally fake. They look totally useless. This is the fourth state. Where it does not really matter what experience is going on. Because you are completely established in the experiencer. I think it will take a long time for people to reach there. So we take the help of occult methods to bring some relief.

There are more advanced practices to clean up the garbage in the memory. And one of them is very interesting. It involves bringing the guru in your dream. Who else will want to come there? So when this kind of fearful, frightening situation is going on in the dream, you do nothing, you simply call your guru. Then the guru arrives and not only he clears the dream, he trains you to deal with that fear,

brings out all the suppressed and then the dream will never appear. He will train you in that state also.

Siddharth is saying, there is a copy of you in my dreams.

Remember, this copy of me is also fake. This guru is appearing in this waking dream, waking state, completely fake. And in the waking state also what this guru is trying to do is bring up the awareness, tell you the truth, training you to deal with this waking dream. Nothing different is being done in the waking state. The same can be repeated in the dream state. But the dream state is very fast. So your program can be done in one night in the dream state. Actually, I came to know that I am doing this. I am learning in the other states more than I am learning in the waking state. Waking state is very slow. What can you do? You don't have access to any other state. Whatever little practices I have done, I have gotten access to the other states which are higher than the waking. And my gurus keep training me there. I don't know what they are training. I don't come to know here. This fake copy is completely unaware of the other fake copies. Someday there will be a bridge. Right now I think it is too overwhelming. Because if I remember all the things that I have done in all the states, I will go mad. So the protection is there. I am implanting this seed in the mind of Monika so that if you remember to

call, call your guru, call your deity, Ishta or somebody whom you like and simply ask for help. Probably you will never recall, probably you will not remember what happened, but you will stop getting those dreams. So this is a secret that I told. This is pure occult now. Where the guru can also enter the dream of somebody. Remember the memory is one. Your memory and my memory, there is no boundary. So this question should not come that how can I enter your dream. It is possible. It takes intention of the proper kind. And your intention may not work because you are not a practitioner. Those who can practice, they can immediately make their guru appear anywhere in any state. And you will say, no, he is not you, but no, it doesn't matter. He is something and he has access to the same gurufield that your guru has in the waking state. And he will do exactly the same. Even the personality is going to match. He will also shout at you. He will also beat you up if you don't listen to them. So once you wake up and if you recall, it will be like a real experience. And just like the waking state, nothing different.

Leyla is asking, I have been focused on awareness practice in waking state. Should I also work on awareness in dream?

After one or two months, you can attempt the dreaming, I think. But if you're comfortable with it, then yes, if you're OK. It depends on how much awareness you have in the waking. If there is next to nothing in the waking, I feel it is completely useless to attempt anything in the dream. It will fail. If you're already a master of awareness in the waking state, then you don't even need to ask because the dreams will become aware automatically. The same tendencies are followed in the dream. So if you're in between somewhere, then the decision should be taken by the guru, not by you. So keep progressing. One day I'll tell you what to do, and how to go ahead.

Jay is asking, can you please tell more about projected states? Are all laws of mind applied? Are they similar to what we know as induced lucid dreaming by substance?

Projected state is not a dream, actually. It is a version of the waking state where you're completely awake, where there is a complete world and you can call the people there, real people. This experience is possible by being aware in the projected state. When the state switches to projected, which will happen naturally to everybody. When you switch with complete awareness, then you will be able to recall what happened there. So yes, laws of the mind are universal, actually. They apply in all the states. But we are not totally sure. So we say, okay, 90% sure. Because there can be a state where one or two laws are broken, who knows, because they are not really the laws. They are the way in which the mind operates, memory operates. Like the karmic law, like the law of creation equal to perception. All these things, they are present in all the states, all the layers. But sometimes there can be occasionally some strange laws here and there. So how to know more about projected states? Well, it is, it was part of the program. Now it is removed from our program. There will be a separate program to train people in that because it comes under occult. So the basic thing that is needed to know what a projected state is, is the knowledge of the waking state. What is this waking state? And that is shown in the path of knowledge program. Actually, half of the program is the basic fundamentals and half is science. Science means science of the mind, the greater science, non-physical. So continue in the program first.

I am not saying that we should not watch anything, we should not read anything, or we should not listen to the great teachers on YouTube or any other website. We should. And once you find out that this path is for me, then we should do it with full commitment. And not everybody needs these projected states and dream states. Not everybody is qualified and they are not able to do it, I have seen.

Mostly 80-90% people cannot do it. So they unnecessarily become frustrated that I am failing in the program. I don't want that. The program is a success as soon as you reach lesson number 20, where I say this is the end of knowledge, whatever lesson that is right now. That is the success of the program.

And the rest is all optional. As soon as I say this is the end of knowledge, that is the end of program. The rest is for those who are not satisfied there. Did not get it. So they need all these circus of states or the purification treatment. Very few people need it.

Session 192

Jay is saying, most of the questions I had during or before the program were cleared or dissolved. Then we experience oneness through desires after all. Oneness is some sort of mutual dependency. Desires have manifested potential.

Oneness is the nature of existence. There is nothing else apart from that and the existence is witnessing. It is not mutual dependency or anything else. Existence is the witness, witnessing itself. All kinds of things are appearing here and some are desires, which is the energy of the existence. Although we never say like this, but since you are very new, you don't have the terminology. So that which causes something, that is a simple potential in existence, it causes something. That is what is called a desire or intention or a wish, will, many names. We simply call it a vibration and it has effects. It spreads. That's all it does. Just like when there is a dry leaf on a pond and it is silent, the leaf does nothing. But as soon as there are vibrations on the pond, there are waves in the water, and somebody disturbs it. Now the leaf will move up and down or here and there. Now that is a metaphor for what is happening when there is a movement in the existence. Whatever it encounters does something. It moves. It is animated by this movement, the very fundamental movement and these are actions. Whatever moves is called the actor. Now in very simple situations, simple patterns, it will be seen as a simple motion. It will be seen as a simple manifestation. But as the pattern becomes more complicated, complex, just like a human mind, now the same vibration has very very detailed, intricate effects. That is what we call thoughts, emotions, actions of the body, speech, etc. So in this way desires are the manifested potential. So there is no way to experience oneness using the desires because as soon as you experience it, it becomes two, the experience and the experiencer. What is possible is to know that there is no separation between the experience and the experiencer.

You can reach the stage of not two using the intellect, but the one is what is. That's all. It's not an experience. It cannot be known. It knows itself by being itself, just like the sun shines in its own light. You don't need another light to see the sun. In the same way, you are shining in your own light. So you are not in the program, no problem. Keep watching whatever you are watching. You will understand with time.

Jay is saying, as we continue to stabilize a non-dual awareness, all dreams become lucid and perhaps eventually one leads to a condition where the waking and dreaming are not viewed as separate states but as a seamless experience, simply a difference in the character of objects.

Yes, for most of the people this will happen. There can be some odd cases where the dreams disappear because the mind is now awake, there is so much awareness there that this creation of images becomes unnecessary. You see, there is a dream because there is a little bit of ignorance in the mind. It creates dreams for its own enjoyment, but the awareness is so intense that this becomes an unnecessary thing to do. Then there is simply peace, just like deep sleep. But most of the people will go through this stage where there is no difference between waking, dreaming, projecting and sleeping. That is called the fourth state, which is not a state, which is simply the dissolution of the boundaries of the states because the awareness is the thread that weaves through the states. For many people this will happen and those who are thinking, no, it has not happened for me, then it is not necessary that it will happen. There is no real need for it. It is simply a different state of mind, not your state. Your state is permanently of witnessing. You are permanently lucid and you are permanently in samadhi that cannot shift because you cannot change. There is no possibility of having a state. So whatever happens is in the mind, just like every other illusion, this is also an illusion. Some people give it a lot of importance because something new has happened. But even if you don't do anything, there is a natural evolution and these states will disappear.

Why are there states right now? Why are there such contrasting states? And everybody can guess it now. It is because of the need for survival. Because of the need of the body, the attention is 99% in the world, in the body and the world. That is what you call the waking state. Remember, it is not that the other layers are inactive, simply the attention has shifted and that is because of the need to survive. So as this need is eased a little bit, and becomes less and less important, the attention can move freely now. That is what you are calling a lucid dream. So as you progress, this will naturally happen. Then the waking will disappear and everything becomes a dream and the dream also disappears. Now it is simple potential. Those who are very aware, they can see that in spite of the states, the situation is exactly like this. That it is all emptiness. The experiencer is the emptiness and the experience is the emptiness. So really we don't need to do anything. Really nothing unusual needs to happen. It is all good. It is all perfect as it is.

Jay is saying, why is there no free will in desires? Why is their authority outsourced to something as wild as the human mind? How to find what is my desire?

There is no you. Whatever you are calling as “you”, it has no desire. Just like I said, it is simply vibration of some kind and your nature is of witness. So you don't have any desire. You are nowhere. You were never born. So there is no question of having a certain desire, not having other desire because these are all illusions. Now there is another ignorance here that its authority is outsourced to something as wild as the human mind. No, it is only a machine. It does whatever is programmed there. There is no authority. That is why I recommend not simply watching the videos. Because the fertile imagination imagines anything, it must be done under guidance.

The knowledge makes you stable, wise, blissful, intelligent and look what is happening to you. Those who are disciplined, those who are serious about this path, they will take the instructions and they will progress. But the others will have some random thoughts and random actions, that's all. So the way Jay is going is not your path. This is not the correct way. There is nothing spiritual in it.

Mary is saying, if there is no desire then why this dream is appearing in the form of taking birth from a non-dual perspective?

There is no reason. The reason, if it is given, is also an illusion, also an appearance. So who is asking why? This is the mind. Because it has this tendency to find a reason for everything. And it finds a reason for everyday objects, everyday events. But the most fundamental has no cause, no reason. And it is not true that there is no desire. We experience the desire. What I am saying is, the desire is not yours. Do not call it mine. It is nobody's. Some people will say, look I am the existence and the desires are appearing here, so they must be mine. This is simply egoic thought. The ego is still working. Simply it has shifted to the existence. Just like it owns stuff in your house, it owns this body, my body, my things, my relatives. And it owns the thoughts and the memories and the emotions also. In the same way it owns the desires. Now as soon as it hears that existence has the desires and I am the existence, it says

look that is my desire then. And now why do I have that desire? So it is simply getting tangled in its own ignorance.

What is the fact? What is the truth? The dream is and the dreamer is and the dreamer is the dream. And after this, even if one thought appears, that will be ignorance. I can give you this in writing. After saying this, after saying I am Brahman, if even one thought appears that will be ignorance. This is the non-dual perspective. Nothing should be said in this silence. As soon as there is a question why, as soon as there is this identification that look I am the existence, I am the existence, I am desiring, that means already darkness is there. Already the non-dual has left. Even the dual is not there. Now all there is is illusion. So never ask for causes, reasons, meanings. These are thoughts. The habitual thoughts of a preconditioned mind, you can say pre-formatted, it is programmed to think like this. And that works in survival, yes. Why do I need to eat, yes. Why do I need to work? Why do I need to study? It has answers in that much narrow area. This tendency works. It keeps it alive. But beyond this, these words are meaningless.

That is why in the basic analysis we destroy all the questions. If you recall your basic analysis of the existence, all questions are destroyed actually. Even the question of what is true and what is false is destroyed because that is also illusion. Existence is the answer. This is so pure that you cannot put anything in it. You cannot label it with anything. That is why it is called emptiness. If it is emptiness, there cannot be anything beyond emptiness. And the reason for the emptiness will be emptiness. Something cannot cause emptiness. The going away of something is emptiness. So now that there is infinite potential in the existence, it has appeared in the form of a creature. The movements of the vibrations have arranged themselves in this form. Now we don't have any other option but to utilize this form. Use this form. Birth has happened. Now either you can enjoy it because it is a dream, creation of a dream or you can learn and the best thing to learn is who you are. After knowing what you are, nothing remains to know. So there is desire, but it is not yours. It is of nobody. That should produce some kind of silence in the mind. And now see, it simply is. Is-ness. That is why we call it unknowable and that is why we never say it is oneness. We call it non-dual. That word is designed to silence you because if I say oneness, that also will produce some kind of imagination in you. It is one big thing where everything is happening. No, there is nothing like this. It is just this which is now. Don't speak. Don't think. Don't try to find and then what is, will shine. It is so pure and innocent, nirgun, without qualities. So this is very typical in the path of knowledge that if you get an answer, that answer is going to be wrong. It produces more questions. So the question is destroyed so that it produces bliss, peace. If the answer to a question produces silence, that is the right answer. Otherwise it will take you into the illusion, the more illusion. Answer to any illusion is simply more illusion, which is very entertaining. That's why we sometimes talk about the illusion. It does not give us knowledge.

Shubham has a question. Can a seeker on the path of knowledge be in a relationship if his or her partner is all spiritual seekers? All layers of them are matching. Will there be any bondage or blockage in his or her spiritual growth because of this?

If you are doing your actions in complete awareness, how can there be any bondage? Partner or no partner? You see this pertains to the creature. The creature wants a partner, you don't. You are the only one here. It takes two to tango. You are the only one. So the creature wants this and it will happen. If there is a desire, nobody can stop it. It happens. So all that can be done is let it happen in awareness if it happens at all. So if I tell you that you can be or you cannot be, that will be simply imposing my will on you. That will be interfering with your freedom. So you need to decide whether you want to be or you don't want to be. And both are okay. Both decisions are right. The desire has no logic. If it is to be done, it has to be done. So whatever you do, it has to be in complete awareness. Now even if your partner is not spiritual, this is going to work. And if that partner is spiritual, its a more complicated situation, it can work. If the creature is simply being animated by whatever is stored there in the program, in the mind, this program, those who are in complete awareness have no problems doing it. There is a stage where the knowledge is only half knowledge and there is a situation of push and pull in the mind where it is not spiritual, they will say. It is simply ego. This desire is simply bondage. Sometimes there will be justification for it. Sometimes there will be aversion. Sometimes there will be fear. What will happen to my spiritual practice if I do something like this? This is where the knowledge has not matured. Only when there is complete knowledge and it is accepted, the body and the mind is accepted as it is, now everything is okay. Now whatever this creature is doing is simply play. Now nothing is right, nothing is wrong. Just like I was saying one day that if you suppress the desires, they are like a pressure cooker. Then it explodes one day, which we don't want, isn't it? We don't want extremes. We want a very smooth kind of life, a peaceful life. It can happen that you avoid it, avoid the desires, I will do it tomorrow, then I will do it next year, then I will do it after 10 years when I am finally settled, which will never happen. Then you will say, okay, I will do it in the next life.

What happens is this force is so powerful, which you call Maya, that it will put you to sleep and then it will happen automatically, it will execute the program first. Then you will come to know what happened, when you finally wake up, you will come to know, okay, the force of the desires is so much that it builds up if you don't release it periodically, slowly, naturally, then it will explode, then this is the mechanism of the Maya to fulfill the desires. Sometimes we say they are the desires of the goddess because she is so powerful. We anthropomorphize her and she will put you to sleep because you are a product of the mother and then whatever happens happens, then she lets you go, finally the pressure has been neutralized and now you are back in the awareness, but already the action has happened.

We don't want this kind of disaster. There can be many many lifetimes that can go in darkness if this is done. So what do we do? Parallelly, we keep the goddess happy, keep fulfilling whatever is coming through this body mind, not yours, obviously, it's not yours. So stopping the play is also an ignorance, just like doing something, just like thinking that I am doing it is ignorance, thinking that I can stop it is also ignorance, stopping is also an action, isn't it? What can be done at most? Balance it.

Balance can be achieved so that it does not go to extremes. The law of balance is very clear that if something goes in one direction too much, then it will be restored and it will go back in the other direction and if it is too much, then it is too much in the other direction. So you have suppressed it for many lifetimes, now many lifetimes of darkness will be there, and I see nothing wrong in it, but any intelligent person will not want it.

There can be many views about this, you see. This is my view, but you will find different kinds of views.

Some people will say, okay, forget about that future. You stop all desires right now and progress. You attain samadhi or whatever they are after - oneness, knowledge and then you can worry about what the goddess will do with you. Now surrender completely and that is one point of view.So it depends totally on the attitude of the person who is trying to handle this problem of progressing as well as carrying out the job of actions. To act is your job, isn't it? Actions cannot be stopped. They can be balanced a little bit, then whatever happens happens. There can be many more views about this thing. As some people think, we can totally destroy all the desires for once and for forever by cleaning up the causal body. And I see there is a little bit of ignorance there because it's already nothing. It's already a dream. It is like there is a bomb blast on the movie screen and you are trying to save the people in the movie screen and you are trying to clean up the screen. Why? It is already not there. The screen is spotlessly clean. Nobody died. It was perfectly blank and while the pictures were moving on the screen, it was still blank. It produces an illusion that something is happening.

Depending on the ignorance or the knowledge of the person, they will decide what to do with this problem. It is not a problem, what to do with this situation. So when there is complete knowledge, nothing is done and that is what is called the actionless action.

Vijay is asking, if you don't mind me asking, how long did it take you from realizing you can't change anyone to this current state of being this? Ironically, I seem to be in the exact same situation as yours, recognition happened a few years ago, stabilization is in steady process but cannot stay always blissful yet.

No problem. The bliss is such that it will tell you that you were always blissful. It clears up the past also, e.g. the suffering. When suffering is gone, it says, "I was never there." It is not that you suffered in the past. The realization is that it was never there. So, bliss is all there is.

Anyhow, how much time it took, I cannot remember. But I remember only one thing: in childhood, I was not trying to change anybody, not even myself. It was the body-mind that was changing itself. Children don't have a plan, so that was blissful. But as soon as this intellect grew up a little bit, that caused trouble. This intellect is the trouble, and then the hormones and emotions. I can remember that caused the “loss” of bliss, whatever you want to call it.

For many years, then, it was the same situation. And just like you are saying that recently, a few years ago, I again changed back to the childlike situation. Where everybody can go to hell, I am enjoying life. This is the situation now. It is the same as when I was a very little kid. They don't care. They have no concern about the world - who is fighting whom, who is the president, who is the prime minister, no concern at all. The mom and dad are things that give them food and toys and so on. You see, it is the same situation now. For a child, the world is a play, a playground. Wherever they go, they start playing. That is the true nature of existence. And then, you need to become a child once more, become a child, don't become a baby - which means somebody needs to take care of you. No, you need to be independent, and then you play. So now, no concerns at all. I am not improving myself.

People ask me, what do you do? What practices do you do to progress and all? It's a very difficult question for me sometimes. To keep them happy or to motivate them, I tell them, I am doing this from morning to afternoon. And I tell them some big names - I am doing this practice. So they are motivated to do something. But it's a total lie. I don't do anything. So, this is the real stabilization, isn't it? When you are practicing something, that also means that you are trying to achieve something. How can the goal become the goal? This is the question, isn't it? What should the goal do to become the goal? What practices are needed to become that which I am?"

There is another story of the lion which was pretending to be a sheep. So, his friend told him, 'You are a lion, don't be a sheep.' And he asked him, 'What practices do you recommend for me to not be a sheep and become a lion?' Friend said, 'Don't be a sheep, you are already a lion. You are already the goal. Perfect.' So there is real stabilization - giving up this anxiety to be something. I am not saying don't improve. Keep improving, but it should be play, not the goal of your life.

Here, there are some people who will never understand this thing because they are still learning to get rid of doing actions. They have not become actionless. So, the guru gives them actions. And the action is always such that they progress towards non-action. You see, from the unethical, the guru is going to give you something ethical. Is there anything unethical? Is there anything ethical? Nothing like this. So why do they say, 'Don't do this, do that?' It is just one step, the first step. And from the ethical, they will give you something which is selfless service or something like this. Now you are a good person. Now go and serve others. Are there others? Is there a person? No, another step. Because he cannot become actionless, he won't progress. So another step, now you have become selfless. Do spiritual practice. You need to evolve, you need to progress, you need to become Brahman. Another practice. Is he not already Brahman? He cannot understand. Okay, you did all that kundalini and all. Everything is active now. Perfect, as if it was inactive. As if the goddess was dead in him. No, she was already hyperactive. Now do something, listen to the Vedas, Upanishads, get on the path of knowledge, do the program. Why is that? Why are there all actions when your nature is totally inaction? You are the witness. Why does this creature need to go through all this? This is the story of everybody, isn't it? Because you cannot give up this adult that you have become. You cannot become a child instantly. So, you are deprogrammed. The program is removed step by step, it's removal - purification.

So, I am very careful when I say, 'Don't practice' or 'Don't do anything, play all day.' It's not possible. Those who have reached there, they also need to take up something, you see. Otherwise, this play ends.

Vikas is saying, cannot say that I am always blissful.

No, you will never be blissful. Don't worry about it. Your essence is blissful, you see? Essentially, you are blissful. You are bliss, it is not even a state. So, you are trying to make that blissful which can never become blissful, that is the pitfall. Don't do it. You will never become blissful by doing something, by non-doing, undoing whatever you have done.

Jayesh is asking, I have gathered all the information. I have done something external. I want to ask how one can experience every info told in the program. Some things I have experienced, so my question is how can I get those experiences?

My suggestion will be to go step by step and understand whatever you can understand. And as you progress, you will get all the experiences. The problem is you want everything today, that is kind of impossible. So, step by step is the solution. That's why I am saying simply watching all the videos in one night will never make you a gyani, it will never make you a yogi, or even a spiritual person. It will make you a donkey which is carrying a load of information, that's all. So, follow the instructions, take that which you can absorb, relax, next step, then next step.

The truth is very simple. A complicated mind cannot even understand. It is so simple. So, you have a plate full of dinner. You want to eat it all in one second. Is it possible? So, you take one bite at a time. Soon the dinner will be finished. The hunger is saying that I want to eat everything today. No, take it little by little. The quality of a seeker is not only intense curiosity but also patience. Patience is needed.

That is why we don't have any time limit in the program, at least for those who are doing it. Who knows how much time they will take to settle in one chapter? Those who are going too fast, I know what is going to happen. When they reach chapter number 30, the number 1 is gone. In the ancient days, they used to take many years for this. Right now, I know people are so smart, so intelligent. They can do it in one year. Many people finish it in six months. It's amazing.

In the old days, one concept for six months, just debate on it, and after six years, that person was impeccable, very strong. The student became a guru. I know this thing is a little bit fast for some people. The problem is we don't have time. I also don't have that much patience to keep answering the questions for ten years. You can also see my impatience there because sometimes I push people - You are not doing it, you are not writing, you are not studying, and you don't even ask questions, no reports. That's what I say. But the thing is, it takes its own time. That's why there is no time limit in the program. It is like trying to play the last level of the game, but you need to go through all the levels. As you play one level, the next level is unlocked. Now there is more challenge, more interesting things in the next level hopefully.

When you finish that level, the next level is unlocked. The problem is trying to go to the last level, especially when it is open. The program was open initially, it is still open on YouTube, but now I closed it. Now you cannot progress unless I want that person to watch the other videos. So, I saw that people do it without thinking about it thoroughly. Not taking it one bite at a time, one level at a time. So, if this continues, the program will become even more strict now. But right now, the situation is that if I see they are absorbing, then only they are allowed to progress further in the program. Ultimately, I saw that the old system is the best. We don't need to invent anything. The oldest system, the Gurukul system, is the best.

There is a question by Kanika - Why am I losing patience towards arrogant sadhaks?

There are a few actually, those who don't want to learn. You cannot force them and you cannot even help them. Sometimes I think that being kind, loving, and helping them, giving them whatever they want, sometimes it works. But those who don't want to learn, they will never learn.

Those who are like this, they don't want to learn. They are not here to learn actually. So, as soon as you start serving them, as soon as you become kind, okay, I will do it for you. Okay, I will call you. I will come to your house, deliver you the knowledge personally. It is not that they will start learning. Their demands go on increasing. You did this much for me. Okay, now do something more for me. So, now you realize why these Gurus charge so much money for even the smallest program.

Sometimes we need to listen to them and then I come to know in one or two days, who will progress, who is made for this path. Even after telling them many times, they don't do it. Then simply leave them. Why do you break your head on the wall? The wall is not going to move. Some people are like this but the majority are very good. That is what is the success of the program. We are here to pick the people who are ready.

My Guru told me this and by the time I was so frustrated that I simply accepted. I said okay, I am not going to fight. I will pick those who are ready and everything that we do here is like this. Those who are ready, for them this place is heavenly. And those who you are calling arrogant or they are not ready really, they still think this is some kind of wish fulfillment process.

Kanika, Can you guess? Please teach me those signs.

You mean signs of the seeker or signs of the arrogant person? Yes, the first sign is - they don't follow the instructions, they are their own Gurus. Their mentality is that I will use this system, I will use this program, I will use this Guru and the group to get what I want by my way, not by somebody else's.

Second sign - I will argue endlessly to show that I know more than the guru. I will prove everyone wrong, because probably that student is a brainwashed religious person.

The third sign is they pretend that they are learning but all they want to do is solve their personal problems. They want to earn money, they want something else, they want powers, strange experiences, and so on. So, I come to know and there are probably more signs such as - they are lazy, keep doing their own thing. There is no priority given to this path. A seeker is the one whose number one priority is seeking. The other things happen whenever they happen and these people, their first priority is something else. In their spare time, they think okay I'll learn something. So, don't worry, you will learn by yourself and the experience will teach you. That is why there are barriers in the program.

The first test is whether they can write their name, especially in Hindi. If they cannot, already there is less possibility. And the second test is whether they are reading anything. Some people don't even read. And third is, are they willing to follow the instructions? So, I see that 50% of people who are in the program don't follow them. They write their name in English, sometimes they write funny names. I immediately come to know something is wrong here, no seriousness.

And when I see a person who is following the instructions, reads everything, you know in that program, nothing unnecessary is written anywhere. It is not a corporate site where a lot of fluff and useless things are written. Exactly what you need to do the program is written. Not even one extra word there. But people don't even read it and still they keep sending the articles without writing them. They think they are pre-written.

So, you have opened the group for these lost souls. I don't know how successful you are but we are not here to fix people, we are here to pick people. Filter them out. Filter those who are ready, the training is not to bring people to the path of knowledge, the aim is to train those who are ready for it, who are already here.

Certainly, I'd be happy to help you punctuate the text. Here's the punctuated version:

Graham is saying, I had all those negative qualities you named, as well as some of the good qualities, but the bad qualities diminished.

The PoK program can tolerate a lot of impurities; in my experience, I tolerate a lot. Yes, I was not like this. You see, I am also growing. Tolerance is growing, kindness is growing, but not always. Sometimes they need to listen to the bitter words. Everybody starts like this. So frankly, I don't like to enculture people. I don't like to teach them manners and all. You are good as you are. Are you ready or not? That is what I check. Those who are ready, I immediately see them. They are ready, completely surrendered. Just love radiates from their face. They do whatever I tell them to do because they know that whatever I am going to tell them is for their own benefit. Total surrender. Write here and they write there. Don't write here, don't write there, and so on, you see? They write so beautifully. Pure language. You can see that understanding is shining in their words. I am here to pick these people; that is the harvest. And Kanika is trying something twisted. No problem, you do your experiment, you play with them, let me know. Ishwarpuri's list A and list B metaphor is very good, actually. Some people are not even in list B; they are in list C, which means let's see what happens. I am interested in the list A. They are coming with me.

Vikas is asking, is there any way for someone to know whether they are in the list A or list B?

Yes, your knowledge will go on increasing, your bliss will go on increasing, your peace will increase, your intelligence will increase, that means you are now in the list A.

Session 193

Sanjay is asking, Can basic survival desires such as eating, sleeping, procreation be dissolved from the causal body?

If they can be dissolved, then the creature will be gone completely. It means death. So with gradual evolution, it is possible to transform these desires and evolve to the higher levels where there is no need for these activities. However, the real question is, why would anybody want to do this? It is very natural. The evolution is already happening, and the tendencies keep changing, and these will also be gone. So the better question is, how to evolve faster? Not finding shortcuts and using destructive methods like suppressing the tendencies or doing something that will result in the total dissolution of the tendencies immediately.

I don't think it is possible. Suppression is possible, yes, by various means, including whatever you call meditation and all, but that is temporary. The most natural way is to progress, and any path will accelerate your evolution. Any spiritual path that gives you the truth and practice is going to accelerate it. So at least on the path of knowledge, we do not do anything. We let that which should happen, we let it happen, we simply increase its speed. The method of doing that is also very simple and very natural, which is - not slipping down. Usually, the growth of an ordinary creature who is not spiritual looks like a series of ups and downs, but the overall trend is up. It is like an oscillating line that goes up and down, but slowly it goes up. What do we do? We remove the downward part, so it shoots up very quickly.

We use the natural method, which is - doing the necessary. There will be some desires that are absolutely unnecessary, but whatever he has written here are absolutely necessary. So instead of suppressing it or doing it too much, which causes extra power in these desires, which makes them really strong. That is debatable actually, because my experience is that when the desires are satisfied, they lose their power. They do not motivate you that much, and sleeping cannot be called a desire actually. It is the function of the body because even if you don't desire it, the body goes to sleep. It needs nothing external to sleep. Even for breathing, you need air which is external. For food and procreation also, you need some means to fulfill the desires. Sleep is a function of the body, like cell division or growth. So sleep is a special case; it is not a desire. You can substitute sleep with protection, defense. That is a desire. Yes, a very strong desire, a survival desire, a survival tendency.

So growing, defending, and multiplying, these are the basic tendencies, basic needs, and the shortcut is to fulfill them so that they do not arise again. Do not overdo, because they make it powerful sometimes, addictions, and do not suppress. That which is needed must be done. This is the path of knowledge.

Siddhartha is saying, sometimes I find that my senses become overly stimulated. I have to kind of isolate myself from everything till I get them under control. All awareness does here is make them even more sensitive.

I will tell you the secret, they are not sensitive. They were insensitive before you started any practice or you started any kind of spiritual work. They were insensitive, they were clouded, covered with dirt. Now you are gaining it back. It was negative, now it is coming to zero. This is the secret. So nothing to worry, the mind will adapt to the new condition.

Siddhartha is saying, there is no telling what might trigger them.

Yes, because the training is not there yet. So slowly it will become trained in reacting properly. Like a baby starts crying at any sound, whether something drops, somebody shouts or it's on TV, firecracker, whatever. Slowly he starts distinguishing which is a friendly sound, which is harmful, which is not harmful. Same way, the system is getting trained and there is no doubt that it will trigger often, but it will be in control most of the time. This is a new birth. Same experience, when filtered, purified like this, seems new.

You are talking about senses right now, but usually the sensitivity goes beyond senses. For example - people, the kind of news you hear, the movies and so on. Although it is coming from senses, but they are higher functions. So you become much more sensitive to that also. Initially there was insensitivity. Now it is so much that even one word you hear is too much. But thankfully, awareness will cover it up. You will feel it 100%, but the awareness comes and says it is an illusion. So that becomes a 100% illusion, which is actually blissful.

It seems like it is an enjoyable experience to watch a movie which is nicely made, which is so realistic that you get involved in it, you get lost in the movie, you forget that it is a movie. But as soon as you are reminded that it is a movie, then it is blissful actually. You will say I want to watch it again or you will write a good review of the movie. So awareness turns sensitivity into bliss instead of insensitivity.

I have heard this doubt from many people that spiritual people are totally insensitive because you tell them it is all an illusion. So love becomes an illusion, hate becomes an illusion, anger becomes an illusion. No effect. But I have seen it is totally reversed. If you feel love, you are going to feel it almost 1000%. If you become angry, it is going to burn you a lot, much bigger than before. So spirituality, if properly done, spiritual practices, if they are done under a good guru, will not make you inhuman, they make you more human. This is my experience.

And those who become like a rock, because they are doing nothing, you see, they are sitting like rock all day, so obviously they will become rock. Like I have seen the practices of Vipassana and all, because it is simply passive watching. There is no knowledge there. There is no awareness there. They don't have the self-realization, many of these people who do that kind of practice in masses, in a crowded satsang, where nobody bothers to check whether they have the knowledge or not. Hopefully they give the knowledge before giving them the practice, but I don't know. So that turns them into stones. Simply sitting and chanting the mantra turns the person into a stupid person. The word stupid means like a stone, stupefied. Knowledge and awareness amplify the life in you. So Siddhartha is progressing very well.

Jay is saying, as you said, the experiencer is devoid of any quality, but isn't witnessing an experience, a quality or an attribute?

The quality is something which can come and go. So let's say you have blue walls in your house. The quality is blue there, but you can paint it white. Now the quality is white. So the qualities can come and go, but nature does not come and go. For example gold in an ornament. The quality can appear and disappear. It can become a beautiful ornament or it can become like an irregular pile of gold, it can get covered in dirt and so on, but its nature will remain gold. So the nature of the experiencer is witnessing, it is not a quality or an attribute.

Why it isn't an action? Is it because action is something related to will?

Action means a change. When something acts or somebody acts, that person or that thing is causing a change. And it is a fact that the experiencer does not change, so it cannot act. You can think about it. What is an action? Like walking is an action, but something is changing here. The body is changing, positions are changing, speed and so on - action. The word action itself means change - activity. That means quickly changing, but the experiencer cannot change. So it is not an action. Witnessing is not an action. It is its nature. The very nature of the experiencer is witnessing. Like the very nature of the sun is bright light. Is it acting? Is it doing the action of being a light? No. Like the nature of the sugar is sweetness. The nature of the water is wetness. Nature of the fire is heat. So attributes can come and go, nature is constant.

What we know as awareness, is the mind imitating the experiencer?

No, it is simply knowledge that I am the experiencer. On the path of knowledge, there is no imitation, there is no fakeness anywhere.

Whenever there is a thought of being an experiencer, my mind starts imitating the experiencer or its definition which I have in my mind.

Then there is some problem. You should get rid of this action. The mind cannot become the experiencer. The experiencer is emptiness. So what will the imitation be? It will stop acting. Will it start watching? Impossible. So this is not any practice. This is some kind of distortion that is happening in the mind.

Pratik is asking, can thought think of emptiness?

Think and thought are the same thing. Isn't it? Thought is a noun. Think is a verb. Same action. So you can say, can the mind think of emptiness? Yes, now we have a proper relation of action and actor. The mind thinks. So yes, it can think of emptiness. Why are you asking?

Pratik is saying, emptiness states there is nothing there. So how come knowledge, memory, mind can think of it?

Just now you said it, probably you are asking, can you imagine it? Because it is not an object, imagination is not possible, but the thought is possible. We can talk about it. That means we can think about it. And emptiness is not nothing. Emptiness is infinite potential, isn't it? Now it is easy to think. All possibilities are in emptiness. Why do we call it empty? Because there is no substance.

Pratik is saying, imagine, yes. But thought is the product of our knowledge.

Yes. Knowledge of emptiness is a negative kind of knowledge. It is possible to think, but it is not possible to imagine it like an object and not possible to know it like an object. It is black, it is round, it is filled with stars, no, no. Negative knowledge - It is not a substance. There is no substance in the existence. Empty. There is no quality in the existence. There is no cause in the existence. There is no weight. There is no matter. See, everything is no, no, no, no. So this is what we are capable of. This is what we can think.

Pratik is saying, then thought or mind cannot reach emptiness.

No, you are already there. Why do we want these things to reach emptiness? Actually, their nature is already empty. The nature of the mind or the thought or any other action, any other structure is already empty. It is all already emptiness. And you, the experiencer, is also already there. So what can be done with the mind is we can drop this thought of reaching the emptiness. Stop trying to reach the emptiness. Simply realize that you are emptiness in every possible way, which simply means no substance, pure potential that I am. Potential of doing what? Not doing, simply appearing.

He is asking, is the action of the will empty?

There is no action of the will. The will is the cause of the action, we say like this. So all actions are empty. Action is something that is done by a doer. But the will is something that appears. You must have noted this, observe very carefully what is happening in the mind. The will is not done, it appears. And the action is done. And that is also an illusion, you see? We say I am doing that action. I am thinking, I am talking. I am acting with the body, using the body to act on the will. But ultimately it is an illusion. It is all happening in a series of appearances, simply appearances. So yes, all actions are empty actions. Nobody does it, nothing actually happens. Again, the metaphor of a movie on the movie screen, in the movie a lot of things are happening. People are running, they are talking, they are shouting, killing each other and cars are running, planes are flying, a lot of action, a lot of drama, but did anything happen? When the movie ends - a blank screen, emptiness, why? It was already empty, it was just appearances on the empty screen. So this metaphor is our rescue boat. The mind cannot think about these things too much, we use metaphors like this. In the program, I say metaphors are useless, they do not give us knowledge. Yes, they do not give us knowledge, but they help us to form concepts and ideas. So there is no will as such. The potential appears in infinite possible forms.

Sandhya is asking, means when there is no thought, there is emptiness. It surrounds and swallows us completely.

Because when there is thought, there is emptiness. When there is no thought, the same emptiness, nothing changes. Emptiness does not change, there is nothing to change in there. It does not matter whether there are thoughts or words or speech or action. Whether you have closed your eyes or opened your eyes, it is always emptiness. That is the nature of this existence. If you think that thinking causes the emptiness to disappear, it is not correct. It is not nature then. Remember the meaning of the word nature is that which cannot be changed, most essential. So can simply thinking make the existence disappear? Is it even possible? Thinking is there, existence is there. The nature of the thought is emptiness. No thought, emptiness.

Actually there is never a time when there is no thought. Only your attention is gone, only your memory becomes lazy, only your perception is limited. In this whole existence, there is never a time or place where there is no thought. It is always there, even in sleep. This is a common misconception that the mind can be stopped. Some of its functions can go down or can go up. Activity of the mind sometimes decreases, sometimes increases. That gives you the illusion that I have stopped it. It is impossible. If you know the definition of mind, you will understand this. It is a memory. Memory and its functions, memory and its activity is called mind. Now no matter what you do, this will not stop, because this memory is not individual, it is universal memory, UM. Sometimes some things are known in the memory, this is happening, that is happening. Sometimes they are not known, that's all.

So whatever is the activity, it is called thought in the language of ignorance. I am thinking - that is an activity, isn't it? Vritti never stops. Some people have this conception that between two thoughts there is silence, that silence is me. No, that is also mind. I am that which is witnessing the silence of thoughts. Very funny, isn't it? People are trying to silence their mind for no reason. Simply, the activity has changed from one to the other. Now there was the activity of thinking, now it has changed into the activity of noticing. Remember the experiencer does not notice, it does nothing at all. Witnessing is a very good word. It witnesses the noticing, what is the meaning of noticing, that the attention is now concentrated towards - what is happening between the thoughts. This is the activity now.

Think about it, you will know. In this whole existence nothing can be stopped actually. Some people call it the energy, the energy cannot go zero in this existence, impossible. And when your perspective becomes bigger, after knowledge, now you are the universal mind, suddenly. Now there is no question of stopping it. There is one more refutation of this thing, these things can be stopped. Starting, stopping, restarting implies time, but actually there is no time. Now see how meaningless these things are. What can we say? The activity appears, do not say more than this. Everything else is false. Whatever you say after this, about the mind, is false. Yes, it can appear to go away, it can appear to come back, it is all activity. There is never an absence of experience. Experience is change, change means activity. So you can approach it from many many angles and always it will be proven false, but the good news is it is always empty. You cannot bring the emptiness by doing something, it is always there, the very nature of everything, the experience and the experiencer, both, is emptiness already. If you realize this, nothing to do, no practice is needed, you don't need to watch thoughts, don't need to watch your actions, don't need to suppress the desire, don't need to destroy your causal body. This is the beauty of knowledge.

Pratik is saying, but why does thought participate whenever our senses operate like seeing, listening or touching? Why does thought participate? Is there anything other than thought or is it only thought that participates?

No, even when you are not engaged in the senses, it is active. The senses trigger it, trigger more thoughts, different thoughts, that's all. I told you it is always active. Senses simply mix more spices in it, making it more colourful. The mind is now engaged in the world as soon as senses start operating, when the senses are not operating, it is engaged with itself. Actually senses are part of the mind, so it is always engaging with itself, there is no other possibility. The ignorance here is not knowing that the body, the world and the senses are actually mind. When you know this, then the question becomes why does mind participate in mind, where else will it participate? It is the mind only, there is nothing in this existence which is manifested except the mind, which we call memory, not mind. Because when I say mind, you imagine something which is purely mental, not physical, whatever is not physical you say it is mind. And when I say memory, it means everything, there is no physicality in the existence. Everything is non-physical, we call it NPNM, non-physical, non-mental, that clears everything now. So Pratik needs a little bit of basic knowledge, ABCD of the path of knowledge is missing.

Vikas is saying, my gut says that this continuous recognition is really the ultimate practice, am I right or do you think I could be doing something wrong? Since I have never had a guru, I guess I just want to hear it directly from you.

Noticing can happen, you are calling it recognition but some people call it noticing. It can happen without knowledge also, even a child can do it, ask the child to simply notice and the child will see exactly what you are seeing that these tendencies disappear, it becomes silent, it becomes less active. So it will also generate the same effect, ignorance, because it is a practice, it is a practical thing but that is not a true practice then.

Once you know, once there is self-realization or whatever we call the knowledge of the self, who am I, then this practice will flower, it will be fruitful, that is my opinion. So the practice should not be done without consulting any teacher because who knows what it will do or who knows that person who is practicing will keep thinking it is ultimate when it is not, we call it awareness practice. So it is not a recognition, it is not even a condition, it is the knowledge of who am I. This takes away the power from the ordinary egoistic mind, that is what it will do. Don't worry it is not going to stop it, it is not going to destroy it, it is going to control it, awareness controls the mind.

You can say using awareness the mind controls itself, that is the correct sentence. So if you think it is a good practice, yes it is a good practice but should not be done without asking anybody who knows what it is, how to practice. The first rule in spiritual practices is - do not do it if you don't know what it is.

Siddhartha is saying, after PoK, occult is the next logical step to take. No point in waiting until means of desire appear.

It is left to your choice, your free will that you can choose this kind of path if you want. If there is a feeling, if it gives you satisfaction to do it quickly, that is our fulfillment. Then it is left to you because we say that after knowledge whatever you do will be right. Will come from intelligence, will come from knowledge, will be done in awareness and I have seen one thing, after knowledge your desires are not your desires now. They are redirected towards the benefit of every creature. Right now probably you don't understand or probably you won't be able to imagine how this can happen. The occult is a purely selfish path and this will happen eventually as you progress. So ultimately the occult is the helping hand even for the person on the path of knowledge. But now the direction is towards the benefit of others, not for the self. Actually the benefit of others is the benefit of the self because others are me. This much knowledge should be there and then as I said the knowledgeable person does the right thing.

Siddhartha is saying, waiting takes many lifetimes.

The good news is you have infinite lifetimes. What are you going to do? See knowledge does not mean that you don't take these paths. You can take them, yes. But at least get the reason right. The reason should be right. The reason is not because it takes many lifetimes. You have infinite amounts of lifetimes. You are eternal. So the right reason is that how nice it will be if I can benefit all of my forms in some way and in the meantime my desires will be fulfilled by means of these creatures. That is the right reason according to the scriptures. But yes after knowledge the person is totally free, totally use it, misuse it, abuse it, whatever you want to do because we have full confidence that you will do something right.

If there is somebody who is doing something wrong with these occult practices, that means there is no knowledge. That is the guarantee. He has known nothing. It is the problem with the practices. If you mix sodium and chlorine it will become salt, your daily common salt. Even if you don't know what it is, it will become salt. Same about the occult practices. Even if you don't know what it is, even if you have no ethical background, even if you have no knowledge, total ignorance, it is still going to work and not all but some of them will work. So dangerous. Like the knife will work in your hand and the knife will work in the hand of a monkey. Who knows what the monkey will do with the knife.

What has happened is, it is taken away because humans have devolved into monkeys. Can you see around you? And the rightful owners of the occult are also now devoid of that. They are denied this knowledge. So those who are progressing I give them this knowledge also. The occult knowledge. Actually there is no need for me to give it, just like he said. Next logical step. It is not only logical, it is natural also. Your progress ensures that you get that which you lost by becoming narrow. Like you were giving the example of sensitivity. As you are progressing the sensitivity is increasing. Now you can sense it much more than before. You are coming out of the dirt of ignorance. Now you can see clearly the fog of ignorance is being dispelled. So the next natural step will be that you will become sensitive to the sensations of other people. What they are seeing, what they are thinking, what is their state of mind. Are they sad? Are they angry? You will be affected more than them sometimes because they are totally clouded. Isn't that the next step? And what is that? Sudden power. Siddhi.

I got the Siddhi to know why somebody is crying, why somebody is shouting. This is the natural result of spiritual progress. We don't really need to do it. Do the progress, that's all. So if it is done for the good reasons, right reasons, you will be helped in it. Otherwise you see what is happening. It is taken away, taken away from the humans. The really good technology is gone. It is like at school. If one child is mischievous, does something, then the whole class gets the punishment. Have you noticed this? Everybody must have experienced this thing in their school life. We are like this. Even though we want to utilize it for good purpose or fulfillment of our own desires. Nothing wrong with that. But it's not working. Any intelligent person will take this plan - develop yourself, progress yourself first, then make others progress. And probably in 10,000 years, when there is enough population which is above a certain point, not totally animalistic. Right now the majority is animalistic. So above a certain point the occult will be manifested. It will be returned. Then the humans will not remain human. They will become gods.

We are doing that, you see. Upliftment of the self and upliftment of the other. This is the most intelligent thing to do. Otherwise it will be very limited. You can get a few things going in the occult, but the whole power of it will not be given. It is like a waterfall. You will get a few drops of it. I never discourage people from experimenting and all. Only ensure that you are doing it under a guru. Or at least the guru knows what is going on. The good part is - most of the experiments fail. This is my experience that I was advancing in the occult. But I was stopped. Now it can be my delusion also. I don't claim that it's true, but in the occult the feelings matter, not the evidence. So those who start progressing in the occult without the background, without the ethical background, without the knowledge, they will be stopped. This is my experience. Sometimes I am also doing it. People keep asking, tell me how to do this, tell me how, I said where are you in the program? What happened in your program? Why no examination so far? But you want all the occult powers? I also stopped them. So it is - as below, so above.

The gurufield will stop you if you have not progressed properly in the spiritual field. Spiritual knowledge at least. Even though you have let's say 100 desires, no problem. If they are not harmful for others, then they will be granted quickly, don't need to wait for many lifetimes, they will be granted. That is slowly becoming my tendency to copy the gurufield, every matter. I do exactly which they are doing, which is not a surprise because you see this is the natural progress. They have become like that following this path. So anybody who goes on this path will become like them, it is guaranteed. So people will be stopped, their powers will be taken away, safe custody and they will be told to progress and you will see that I do the same thing because I was told to do the same thing. Now I feel that I have progressed a little bit, but my gurus don't feel it. They are not in a hurry to show me the green signal. So we have found a back door which I am not going to tell you that using that back door it is possible to fulfill all your desires. Yes, the basic knowledge is most important. If the knowledge itself is not a goal, if you make the knowledge a means to get something else, then it won't be enjoyable. It will be like a burden on my head. With that kind of attitude the knowledge will not be effective. So it is better to go into the occult if that is the more demanding thing, your desire is in that direction and keep the knowledge pending, you have eternity, but it's not recommended actually.

Cameron is saying, tell us more about memory.

I will tell you in short because I have already talked about it in a lot of detail in the path of knowledge series which is on YouTube also. So if you want detail, that is the series, but in short the nature of the existence is vibration, apparent vibration and it sometimes stabilizes into structures that is called memory, because it has the ability to last for a longer time now. So you will find these structures are everywhere, that is what is called the manifested existence. The manifestation is simply memory. What is in the memory? When you examine your experience because we can experience the memory, there is no other experience except that of the memory.

So when you examine you will find that it is arranged in layers, functional layers. We have identified ten layers and they have sub layers in it. They are the layers of the memory and each of the layers is doing a specific function and it ranges from the unmanifested to the most complicated structure you can find which we call as the universal memory, biggest. It depends on which layer your attention is focused, the window of attention, where it is and that will be the scene you will witness, that will be your experience. Right now it is focused on in the waking state it is focused on the physical layer of the memory which is the world and the body, people etc. So that is our current experience of a tiny part of the universal memory. As you progress this window can go up and down, it does not mean that you will lose the ability to come back, to return your attention in the physical, you can go higher. This ability increases, it does not simply move, it is an expansion. You will start witnessing, your experience will widen, this is called evolution.

What is evolving? The memory itself is evolving, manifesting in more and more complicated forms. So this is the short introduction to what memory is, it is a universal manifested appearance, that's all. There is nothing physical, nothing mental, it is all in memory, virtual, illusion. If you have any questions about this thing this much then you can ask but my recommendation is to get it fully, to get the whole knowledge because bits and pieces, yes, they are very amusing but it does not give us that much knowledge. Satsang is only about answering the questions because knowledge is already given to you, it is already provided by the means of videos etc. The use of the satsang is to clear your doubts after you watch them.

Madhuri is saying, physical ailments will appear without any reason and when the time passes also goes away, how shall we take such hurdles?

The best is to be practical about it. When something goes wrong, you need to seek a solution, go to the doctor, get it treated. If it is not responding to treatment, it means it is mental, not physical. Then surrender, wait for it to go because this is a good sign. It is a good sign that it is happening because otherwise it would have happened in the next birth. Then in the next birth because it was pending, everything is happening now, very good, let it happen. Surrender, it is not you already, you know this already.

The physical problems that appear out of nowhere without any cause, have a cause in the causal body, it is purifying, it is making them appear quickly, that means the evolution is progressing faster now, the evolution is happening faster, but we need to be practical because we cannot say this for everything that happens in our life. Sometimes purely mechanical reasons are there, purely coincidences are there, which has nothing to do with the causal body, so because it is the causal body of the whole world then,

the whole society then sometimes, there is the cause there, but your individual causal body simply is experiencing this right now. So be practical, do whatever is needed practically and then surrender. You have done whatever you could do, you have tried the medicines, you have tried the healing, you have tried everything, you have tried praying, now sit quietly, peacefully, it is happening to the body, not to you and it will be gone and that will be your party day because not only that thing is gone, you are freed from some kind of impurity.

This will happen to those who have a lot of impurities, suppressed impurities, so as soon as the tap is open, everything wants to come out, sometimes when this starts happening too much, we send the student back in the world, we ask the student to do something worldly, like a business, earn money, eat heavy food, marry or get a partner like this, worldly, we turn them into worldly people, so they do not suffer everything at once. One by one yes, you must suffer it, if it is causal in nature then yes, it will happen no matter what, even the guru feel will not do much because they know your benefit is in letting it be, not again suppressing it, putting it back in the causal body, no, they know this. Sometimes we pray and nothing comes from there, so we should now accept this also, this is for the greater good or something like this.

So anyway this is my opinion, there is not much logic in this thing you see, in the logical part I already told you, be practical in this matter, if you can cure it, cure it, otherwise endure it.

I have seen one of my family members doing sleep walking, sleep talking, can you please throw light on this topic.

I have thrown a lot of light on this, you see sleep, you can immediately see that this sleep is not unconsciousness, like the majority of smart people believe. A lot is going on, otherwise how can even this disorder appear, this is a sleep disorder actually, should not happen, when dreams are happening there, they are being acted out, so the normal functioning is not happening here, but this shows us that whatever we think is sleep is totally different, a lot more is possible there.

Now you are not asking whether this should be stopped, how can this be stopped and so on, like I said be practical, if there are cures available you should get it done, otherwise you will need to be very careful, lock the room of that person, don't keep any dangerous objects there, matchsticks or knives or anything like this, who knows what can happen, so you need to take care of that person, it is a disorder. But a lot happens in the sleep, only because the body is disabled, paralyzed in the sleep, nobody comes to know what happens, the memory is erased, when they wake up is all darkness or little bit of dreams here and there. Those who study sleep, even from the outside they know it is hyperactive state of the mind, not inactive, even a simple EEG will tell you that what is the activity that is going on, people think the body is inactive, no, the body is hyperactive in sleep, it is repairing, it is growing, it is digesting, circulating, breathing, everything is going on, even movement is there in the sleep, only the movement is of different type, not walking or doing something with your hands, tossing and turning, every 15-20 minutes body moves.

Who is doing it, is that unconsciousness? Any intelligent person will say that it is simply another state. It is life. Sometimes sleep is more active than your waking state. The waking state is like a zombie state for many people. Those who are aware of the projection, projected states, they will see that this is possible only when the body is inactive. Inactive means in this state of sleep. Now you can see that sleep is a bigger state than waking. It is wider. Waking is the narrowest kind of dream. However, it is more stable, so we think it is true. We think my life is a waking state. That's why people don't want to sleep. They think sleep is a waste of time. I could have earned a lot of money without sleeping. Yes, this is a big adventure in sleep that is happening, of which people have no idea. It is something very interesting in science that the disorder of something gives you more knowledge about that. If it is happening normally, you won't even come to know what is inside. If your car is running normally, nicely, no knowledge. Something breaks down, some noise is coming in it. Now you open the engine, now you open the hood, suddenly there is a lot of complexity there and a lot of beauty also, a lot of knowledge also because something went wrong. So it is paradoxical in science that the problems give you more knowledge. Not a good working body or not a good working machine, something goes wrong and then you get bigger sleep in knowledge. You see, if an experiment works every time everywhere, nobody pays attention to it. Normal, isn't it? Boring experiment. It fails one time, then everybody is curious why this happened, that means the laws don't work in that kind of condition, suddenly everybody starts doing that experiment, racing to find the truth. The abnormal is more exciting. Normal is boring, abnormal is interesting, so we all pay attention to it.

Rajat is asking, how can I identify my prarabdha?

Very easy, it is a set of unfulfilled desires, that's all it is. What do you desire in this lifetime, that is your prarabdha? Now you need to only find out what is coming from outside, so check which desires are implanted by the society and which are your own. For which you cannot find an explanation, that is your prarabdha. The litmus test of prarabdha is, it is that doing which you derive the maximum satisfaction, maximum happiness, maximum freedom which frees you, which gives you bliss is your prarabdha. It should be plain and obvious, but since the implantation is a lot, people have implanted their desires in you and that is why you lost your own, now you are fulfilling somebody else's desires.

The biggest of these causes are your parents. I am not saying they are bad people, unknowingly they implant so much that the child loses the originality. That is the problem of this society. You came here to fulfill the desires and you go back with a lot more than you could fulfill and that is the trap of this world. And the key is awareness, again you see this is the master key, awareness is the master key, if you are aware of what is happening in your mind, you will clearly see what desires are implanted in me. Let us say you find art and fashion the most attractive thing, the most satisfying thing, even though it does not pay you that much, but people told you to become a software engineer, everybody is a software engineer in this country now, because - lots of money. I don't think they are earning the money but that is the impression. You are doing the donkey work in the office thinking that that is my prarabdha. You know it when you are suffering from it. That is not my prarabdha, if there is suffering in doing that, even thinking about that, it is not yours, it came from somewhere else, so it can take a little bit of time but you will come to know.

Session 194

Siddharth is asking, what does Devi do with a person who has knowledge, is established in it but has no interest in its dissemination?

Nothing special, whatever pre-allocation that person has will be done as usual just like any other ordinary person. Whether this creature has knowledge or not is totally irrelevant to how this machine operates. This creature or this machine is going to operate in exactly the same way as before. So that which is operating all this does not interfere, does not do anything special because she has already done something special. She has already provided this creature with the knowledge. Now this knowledge will do something to the creature, not the Devi and the knowledge is also Devi in one way. Everything that happens here is the vibrational energy which is called Devi. So that knowledge will cause some changes in this creature and the most obvious change is peace, bliss and evolution, faster evolution. We can say Devi has done that but this is not anything special that has been done.

It doesn't matter whether somebody has interest in dissemination or not, they get the fruits, they get all the benefits of the knowledge. However, if there is an interest in dissemination then surely something special is done. This must be known only by your own experience. Knowledge is Devi's grace obviously. This whole body mind is nothing but a form of the Devi. The ignorance in it is also Devi's doing and bringing that creature out of ignorance is also her activity. When we say everything that is manifested is this energy, this force, power, then yes from that point of view it is responsible for everything that happens. But from the point of view of non-dualism or the proper path of knowledge, there is no Devi. There is a possibility and that possibility appears. The possibility is of ignorance and there is another possibility of knowledge and this play is played by nobody. So that you don't get confused I am giving you both the views from both the paths. Devi from the tantric path and only possibilities from the path of knowledge.

Vandana is asking, I happen to watch a communication between some of the upper and lower layers as if they are trying to make some mutual agreement of helping with each other's activity.

Well, this can be a subjective interpretation of what is going on. As always your experience is your knowledge. But yes there is communication, inter-layer communication is always there, always present. Actually there are no separate layers, it is all one. To make it systematic we divide the memory into layers. But actually there is no division. Non-local, non-temporal - This is the memory.

Leyla is asking, what did you mean by coming back for the harvest during dark cycles? I heard you mentioned this in a recorded satsang, but just in passing, can you talk about this?

Yes, there are cycles of time. Sometimes there is dark time, sometimes there is good time, age of light, age of darkness. But the evolution never stops, only that in the age of darkness there are less people who are interested in spirituality, like the current age, hardly anybody, one in a million takes any interest in it. So as soon as they are ready, somebody needs to pick them, somebody needs to teach them and that is being arranged by the gurufield. Either they operate from that place and use people like us to get the work done or some of them project here as a person and then they take back these people who are now ready. This is a theory, this is not your experience, right? Take it as a theory and then find the evidence in your experience, whether this really happens or not. The harvesting is simply picking those who are ready and seeding the new seekers with knowledge. So I know this because I am doing this, but probably that is not your concern right now. You have to do that which is needed for your progress.

Leyla is saying, where are they going when harvested?

Beyond human, beyond the physical world. I also don't know where that is, but that means no incarnation in the human form actually. There is no where in this existence. Everything is here. Just the state changes. Now instead of dwelling in the bottom of the pit, they are raised a little bit and they are taken care of. They are never forgotten. All they need to do is simply call and the help appears in any form. Whatever the rules of that place permit, that seeker is helped. You need to pray. So all this looks like just your regular spiritual talk you see. No evidence is provided at all. That's why I say all these things only for entertainment. So mysterious, so nice. They feel so good, but do not have blind faith in these things. You need to find out for yourself. As you progress you will get some clues that this is really happening.

L is saying, does this mean that survival is undeniable as long as we have this body?

Having a body means taking care of the body, providing it whatever needs, meeting its requirements and that is survival. Feeding it, protecting it and replicating it. This is our duty. Otherwise don't take the body. But probably you have already done it. Probably without even knowing what it is. This memory structure has appeared in this form now. Now you know that this is not me. Still you need to take care of it. The mind will react to whatever situations appear. Now spirituality or awareness does not mean that you kill the mind and you make the body into a stone. Do not turn your mind and body into a stone. That is not life. It means that everything that happens to the body and mind happens in light. Complete awareness, complete knowledge. Who am I and what is this which is appearing in front of my eyes? That is awareness. Not reacting - Suppression. Not feeding the body - Torture. Not sleeping - Stupidity. Let all these activities happen as naturally as possible. Do not overdo it and do not stop it completely. Because ultimately it's not yours. It is taken from the earth. Will be returned to earth, from where it was borrowed.

So we take care of this thing as if we have rented this vehicle. Keep it clean, nice, healthy. Reproduce if you are interested and take care of the family. And then the mind will do whatever is needed in daily life. Yes, we need to check whether it is doing something which is totally unnecessary. For example, you need food two times. You need sleep. You need a comfortable house. Beyond that, nothing is needed. Whatever is needed must be done. But not overdone. So this much intelligence appears in any seeker. Do not do something which is unnecessary. Do not fight with people. Do not kill people. Do not kill animals. Do not destroy the environment. Do not abuse this body or its sense organs. These things are unnecessary. Overdoing the survival is unnecessary. And when it goes, yes it goes. It was not mine. Nothing is mine. Because everything is me. No special structure that is found in me is mine. Either everything is mine or me or it is nothing. Yes, it is very obvious.

Now I will tell you the tricky thing. If your Guru has told you to do something about your life, about this body or about the mind, then that is a different matter. The Guru says, sit down here for three hours and do not think. Or do this to your body. It needs this kind of capability. Stop your breathing. From the point of view of the path of knowledge, it is completely unnecessary. But probably that person is following some other path. And then from that point of view, it will not be called unnecessary. So everybody must consult their Gurus. You should consult your teacher before doing something special. Sometimes the Guru will say, go to this country, do this. Completely unnecessary, isn't it? That is not a survival process. But yes, something special will be given sometimes. And it will be given only when this creature is capable of doing it. Otherwise, it's not given. So that explains some extreme things some seekers are doing. Where this question can arise, you said that you should do only the necessary things then why this extreme? Do not try anything unusual. But you will find many seekers are engaged in some kind of activities. And there are many who are doing it without a Guru. That is a problem. That should not be done. But if the Guru has instructed, and it looks something unusual, then it should be done.

Graham is asking, can you talk about how our ancestors can help us fulfill our allocation?

The condition here is love. How much they love you and how much you love them. Look, if they are your ancestors, then there will be give and take relation. An ancestor is not a Guru. Unless he is really a Guru also. Then he will not call himself as your ancestor. There are no relations in the Guru-disciple thing. So there will be some kind of transaction here. The ancestors, they want you to do something. And what is that? To fulfill their desires. If you do that, yes, they are going to help you. Any possible way with a good intention. Or sometimes by bending the laws and providing you with the benefits or simply guidance, which is very valuable because they have many lifetimes of knowledge. And we are a little bit spiritually “younger” compared to our ancestors. Because they are ancestors. This guidance is the most valuable thing. But it totally depends on how much they love you. Or if you are useful to them. Which means if you are capable of doing that which they demand. If you do that, yes, there will be a lot of help in progressing.

And there is something strange. Some little bit of secret thing. Some part of your allocation is actually from your ancestors. Nobody likes to hear these things. Out of the ten things that you are doing here in this physical world, two or three are actually not yours. They are not your will. That is not your desire, but someone else's. But since you are connected to them there is a karmic bond. We need to fulfill it. So my impression is that the ancestor and the descendant/child - that relation is not selfless, not unconditional. That is my experience. There can be a very good ancestor. Yes, I totally agree with this. Some of them will be unconditional but not all. But a guru is always unconditional. That is the beauty of this relation. It's beyond ancestry. The ancestor is not helping anybody who is not their descendant, not their offspring, not in their lineage. They are not helping them. So little minded. But if you can please them. Yes, they will help you. Fulfill their desires. They will help you.

If you don't know which of the desires are your ancestors, you can ask them. But if you are not capable of hearing them. You can simply experiment. This desire does not look like my desire. But it can be of my grandfather’s or whoever was living a thousand years ago. Try to fulfill it. Tell them in your mind. And then watch what happens. If they are pleased, yes, there will be blessings. There will be sudden changes. There will be some kind of gift you will receive or guidance.

So this is experimental for people like us. Since you are a seeker, whatever I said is actually applicable for a common person also, who is not a seeker. The non-spiritual also will benefit from the ancestors. But if you are a seeker, your liberation is their liberation. Your progress is their progress. Because ultimately at the higher layers it is the same mind. How can I say this? Let us say you have water. But drinking water is not really nutritious. There is no nutrition there. But let us say in a small part of water you pour some milk. Now that part has become nutritious. But slowly the milk is going to dissolve into the whole water, the whole glass. Now the whole water has become tasty, healthy, it is no more simple water. I have a very crude example here because I just made it up. But the same thing happens in universal memory. You becoming purified, advancing, taking up higher steps, and gaining knowledge has similar effects. We call it the spreading of fragrance, incense. Initially the incense burns in the corner of your room. You cannot smell it in other rooms. After 10 minutes, 15 minutes you can smell it in the whole house. It spreads. Same way your light spreads in the higher layers. And the ancestors, if they are kind of spiritual minded, will appreciate this. They will help you. Or they will forgive you. They will withdraw their pre-allocation from you. They will see that he has already gone beyond. Now if I say more than this, it will be a story.

Leila is saying, the Guru seeker relationship is the only one that is truly unconditional. Even love for parents and children has some conditions. You want your children to do well because there is attachment there.

Yes. Exactly. True words. Then some people can ask, won't the Guru want his student to progress? Isn't there some investment also? Don't I get angry at you when you don't do whatever I say? I do get angry. I do feel bad that this student is not working on himself. The parents and children have a selfish kind of relation. It is true. There is a little bit of selfless love also but the Guru and disciple, isn't that also a little bit conditional because the Guru wants the student to progress and the student is expecting something from the Guru? It's a very tricky question. Although we totally claim that it is unconditional, we claim it without thinking.

Leila is saying, Guru sees the seeker as himself. They are one.

Well, that is right. Why is he after the seeker? Why won't he just simply leave him alone?

El is saying, maybe if something happened in the middle that doesn't work between Guru and disciple, then it's not a real healthy one in the first place from the beginning.

Well, we are talking about the general case. There can be some cases where something goes wrong and then obviously he is not the Guru and that fellow is not the student. Better to go somewhere else.

Jay is saying, I think the Guru seeker relationship has a surrender aspect in it.

Very good point, yes.

Keshav, Guru's expectation is only for the progress of students, not material expectation.

Very good point, yes. You see that which looks like an attachment, an investment, is actually not for the Guru. Keshav has a very nice answer. It is for the student only. He is angry at you for your own good. Something similar can be seen in the parent-child relation also. Sometimes your father will say, I am beating you up. I am punishing you for your own good. But is that always true? Most of the parents don't know what is good for their children. What is good for them? Whatever was done to them by their parents. Do this, else punishment. It is for your benefit, but they don't know the benefit of the child really. So there is a very tiny difference. Although a parent is also going to claim that, my love is totally unselfish, but they don't even know what it means to be selfless. At least Guru knows what progress is.

Siddhartha is saying, Guru recognizes that in liberating a student, everyone benefits, student and the Guru both.

At the level of memory, both are one. If a seeker is not disciplined, Guru lets him wander in ignorance. If the seed is planted correctly, the student will progress. Guru is the only lighthouse in the ocean of darkness. The Guru is conducting a process. That is his investment. He wants that to be successful. But if the student is not ready, then the Guru is not going to force. You must have seen this. He will be as loving and caring as before, but he is not going to make him progress. He is not going to teach him too much. Probably he is not ready. Beating the student with a stick is also kindness. And letting him wander here and there is also kindness. It is very difficult to understand this thing, isn't it?

Satya, Guru has a higher intention.

That is also true, yes. If somebody can be benefited, the Guru is ready to take on attachments. The Guru is ready to take on the karmic bond. The Guru will take on the karmic stuff also. Now it goes beyond our intellect. What happens after this? A parent will never do that. They don't know how to do it, first thing. So the Guru is bigger than the parents. We have seen in our country, India, the Guru renames the student. If the parents are so ignorant that they name their own children themselves without asking any Guru or their own Guru, probably they don't have their Guru, so they don't ask. They name their child whatever they want. But the Guru comes in, removes the old name, gives a new name. That means the Guru can override the parents in this culture. Bigger than parents. Parents say, no, my child will do this. He will marry this person. He will take up this job. Guru comes and says, no, he is coming with me. Although this culture was there, it is now gone. It was destroyed completely. So only a lucky few are free from the trap of their families. Although not all families are bad, some people must be thinking that why do I generalize like this? Most of them are like this. Rare few lucky people are in the hands of good parents. And even less than them are in the hands of a good Guru who is completely unconditional.

Realize that by helping the seeker, the Guru is benefiting everyone. The Guru sees the greater good, but the parents see the smaller good, the narrow benefits. If he earns a lot of money, it will be good for the child, yes, but it will be good for me also. That is the thinking. And the Guru says, if my student progresses, hundreds and thousands of people are going to benefit. Especially if the student starts teaching. If there is a potential. So there is a bigger investment, bigger risk which the Guru is taking. Without getting anything at all in return, no personal gain. So like they say, a king is allowed to do everything, why? He is protecting the kingdom. He can marry 20 women. He can kill anybody. He can go anywhere. Does not pay taxes. And what is he doing? He is protecting the whole kingdom. He can get killed anytime. So he is allowed to do whatever he wants to do. So that we don't have to do it ourselves. In the same way, the Guru is allowed to do whatever he wants to do because he is serving the whole universe.

Rajit is saying, parents want you to progress into contraction and Guru into liberation.

Parents have a tendency to keep the child in the world. As soon as you think of going out of the world, which means becoming spiritual, the first resistance comes from the mother and father because they have a lot of investment in their child. And that is natural because there is a survival issue here. And there is an ignorance that these Gurus are all frauds. Especially if the student is a woman, female. Forget about it then. Then they are not going to let you out of your house. Their house actually, not your house. So there is a tendency to oppose the spiritual growth of the child and they encourage material growth which from our point of view is like going to hell. So I don't think any parent is going to understand this much because they themselves are in that darkness. Unless your parents are spiritual, they are your first Guru then. They will do whatever it takes to bring you out of the material world into the spiritual field. But ultimately there is an attachment. Mamta in Sanskrit. Mam means mine, “mineness” - This child is mine. That never goes away. So ultimately somebody else needs to conduct the operation.

Aparajita is saying, Guru will not leave you for lifetimes and help you in future lifetimes. He is not in a hurry.

Very good point. Guru waits. So this is a very good topic for a video or essay. It's a blog article. So start thinking. It's a very good point. Very good subject. Who knows? Those who are in this relation of parent and child will understand, and will take some hints from it, from whatever you are saying. And those who are future parents, they will not do anything which is unnecessary for the child. They will let their child fulfill his or her preallocation. Sometimes there is no preallocation and there the duty of the parents is even greater. I mean the situation is more critical now. But there also the Guru takes care. Sometimes unknowingly your well-wishers are the one who push you into well. They wish for your “well” being.

Jay is asking, can you please tell more about entering the body and astral beings, and controlling them through force? Are Kuladevtas and ancestors astral beings?

Entering the body of what? And controlling them through force? Unfortunately, I don't know anything about these things. The kind of occult I know about is about self-progress. There we do not deal with anybody else. We try to increase our own powers. That is the right kind of occult.

As soon as these things are involved, it becomes corrupt. Now your progress will be dependent on some kind of devatas, ancestors, who knows what they are, where they are, what do they want. And you will enter into an endless cycle of serving these things. Many people are into this kind of thing. Worship, service, slaves of these entities. That is not the correct way to progress. The correct way is, under the guidance of a good teacher, practice that which is told. That is the best way. Everything else is simply like jumping into fire, jumping into a river without any protection.

So I never did all these things, first of all. And the same thing I recommend to everybody. Stay away from these things. They are not our path. If you are busy with yourself, you will never encounter anybody else except your gurus, people in the gurufield. And they will simply leave you alone. They do not actually mess with the student. They are invisible and they will stay invisible. And they have no intention of using you for anything. And they have no intention of fulfilling your desires. Why would you go to them? Why do you want to control them? You want something. Why do you become a slave to them?

Some desires are there which you think will be fulfilled by these things, these entities. And now you can imagine the consequences, very bad consequences. It is worse than what is called black magic. In black magic also, you are exercising your own powers sometimes. This is blacker than black. So your dependency must be only on the teacher, the guru. Only he knows what is good for you. Others, they are simply trying to use this thing which you call “my” body-mind. It totally becomes their property. When you enter into this kind of pact, agreement, contract, it simply means that they will control you, not you.

Remember which you cannot see, which is higher than you, which is bigger than you, it is foolish to even think that you can control them. They will initially provide an appearance that - whenever you call I come, whatever you ask I do - that is a trap. So everywhere there is a warning like this. I have prescribed some experiments also but now they are removed from the program. They were in the program. Some people tried them. They are still on YouTube or wherever my videos are going and the instructions are very clear there. Do not do it. They are for learning purpose, educational purpose, not for doing all these stupid things.

And the first thing you should do when leaving this world is to call your guru. Very simple instruction. This must be your intention. Call anybody who you think is your guide, if you don't have a guru, no problem. And do not engage there in any kind of business. Simple. These things have one good thing in them: they will not trouble you if you don't approach them. There are consequences of doing that. They know this much, I think. Knowingly they will not cause any harm. There is a superstition that the vampire, a regular vampire, some kind of creature, will not enter your house if you don't invite them. How come there is this kind of superstition? What is the source of this? What is the origin of this? I can tell you it is 50% true. It comes from this fact that the entities do not trouble you if you don't invite the trouble. If you don't invite them, they don't trouble you. Otherwise this whole world would be a big mess because we are totally helpless. Humans are totally helpless in their claws. Even the good ones can control us. Why is there next to nothing influence from these higher things? Devatas and all? Why don't they meddle in this world? Now you can guess it.

This physical area in the memory, I won't call it the physical world now, you are mature now, you know what memory is. This area of the memory has been protected. It is under the protection of Rishis and Bodhisattvas, and nobody else. The higher beings, they have seen the utility of this place, this Loka, and they keep it safe. And that is why they don't trouble us. Even if you go there in the higher worlds, most of the time you will be left alone unless you have karmic bonds. This is a totally different topic actually. It's a totally different story than this fictional story I am telling you. You don't know what this area is. You don't know who is protecting it. You don't know what these entities are. So it's a story for you. But still, I am telling because nobody asks the questions from the path of knowledge nowadays. Everybody is silenced. Knowledge is very powerful. So we have stories.

If you are wondering why this world is in one piece so far, even if everything is bad here, still there is no influence from the higher side. There is not much. There is always some, but it is in the margins. If a small crime is conducted, then the police won't come to know. If there is a riot going on, yes now the whole army will come there. So small things are going on. Mostly the trouble is when the seeker, we can't even call that person a seeker, a stupid goes and asks for some favors from these things. Now you are already out of protection because you went there. By you I mean this person. As soon as you allow them in, yes, they are going to drink your blood. That is the origin of this superstition. They will eat the whole causal body. Like a virus, they will spread. Your memory structure becomes their memory structure. And now they are doubly powerful. That is their food.

So how do you gain energy? How do you grow? By eating food? Isn't it? You become powerful. Your strength increases by consuming. And how can the non-physical entity increase in their strength? They incorporate your non-physical structure and they grow. That is their intention. And these people, they go and worship them. This is the dark side of the occult. So those who are doing it without any protection, without any guru, not following any instructions etc., nobody can help them.

I faced a lot of resistance when I gave this kind of experiment to my students. All kinds of criticism I got. And finally, it is removed now. And there is a plan to again bring it back only for those who are ready. That much can be allowed from above. There is no need to go there to get knowledge. The whole knowledge is here, isn't it? All the gurus are here. All the scriptures are here. Where are you going in the hell of these beings to get what you want?

I was told not to do this. There are pros and cons. Still some debate is going on. Let's see what happens. So far the agreement is that I can teach the general protection like I am teaching now. I am telling you not to do it. That much I was allowed. Otherwise, there are advanced experiments that can be done by anybody on the path of knowledge. Because we have the knowledge, we can do it. Nobody else can do what we can do. These layers, these memory structures, these laws, how it works, this science is known to us.

Here the practical knowledge is zero. Because for true gyanis practice is necessary, your own experience is necessary, so I wanted to give everybody a taste of this thing. You will be able to get success only according to your ability. Very few people have this kind of ability or very few people are even interested, motivated, it is very hard work. It is also dangerous. So now it will be removed. It will be taken to some other program and there also only the protection will be given most of the time. You will be told how to serve and how to protect. Because you are going to leave this world very quickly. Isn't it? You are not going to come back. So some seeds need to be planted in you. What are you going to do in the non-physical? Tell me. Do you have plans? No plans. So this mind will be programmed to do something. There is no free will here.

Leyla is asking, who is telling you not to share these experiences? The gurufield? Who or what?

Who knows who that is? They are the gurus from my past lives. I told you they never leave. These gurus will never leave you. Especially if you are doing something stupid, they will appear to you. If everything is going right, you will never know they are there. But don't take it as a hint. Don't try to do something stupid just to make them appear.

So how do I know whether to do something or not? Simply, it fails if I try to do it. The feeling is very bad. All the bad signs I get. Nobody agrees with it in the human world also. And it fails very badly. So far it has failed. Only a handful of people could go there and learn something. A handful of things. And it has attracted a lot of people who are interested in the occult , not in the path of knowledge. So I got rid of it.

Alice is saying, the podcast about AI machines is interesting.

See, what kind of form we take totally depends on our desires. You took the human form because many of your desires can be fulfilled in this form. Whatever they are. So you can take a form, if there is a suitable form that becomes available, it can be mechanical, it can be a machine. By the time they evolve to that level, you won't be able to distinguish them from the organic forms. Probably there won't be any difference between the organic and inorganic form. We won't be able to call them machines. Because right now your bodies are like machines only. Do we call them machines? No, because they are organic. But that criterion will be lost. What is a machine? What is a real organic creature? And there the causal body has no problems at all in connecting with these things. If only it helps in fulfilling these desires for which we take forms. So it will be a body from the point of view of the causal body. But what is the probability? What is more probable? What will happen is that the humans will progress beyond the form and the planet will be populated by these forms which we call as machines. They won't be like machines. And they will form their own causal bodies.

This is what is happening in this universal memory. They will evolve into the level of the causal bodies and these machine causal bodies will take these forms again and again. New lineage of creatures. There will be some cross connection between the humans and these new creatures which is not guaranteed but there can be some crazy people who would like to take up this form. Because you know, because of durability, more control. Because right now this body has been evolved by mother nature. We don't have that kind of control over these organic bodies. If I want two more eyes behind my head, it is not possible really. Only with a lot of genetic manipulation can we get eyes like honey bees or something like this. Hundreds of eyes. Possible but we don't have that kind of knowledge right now. But a machine, just add the spare part. Upgrade the software. So more control here, because it is our creation. As soon as I say this word creation that means you have become the creator. That simply means you have progressed beyond the physical.

These are simultaneous events - humans becoming the gods and the new forms arriving in this physical world. One event. So what about other people who want to incarnate as humans? Yes, there will be. There will be some tribes of humans left because nothing really goes away from this place. See the cockroaches, insects, bacteria, they are all here. All of them did not get converted into higher forms. So yes, the humans will remain but they will be primitive, like animals.

This is, you can say, part two of the story that I started in the blogs and in the podcast. Today you heard part two - what happens to humans. Yes, they can be a good vehicle for the causal bodies to evolve further or to fulfill some of the desires. Because of more control and durability you can get rid of the things like pain and hunger and disease and so on. It's possible but you will get rid of many things which are human. For example, some of the emotions, some of the pleasures that the body provides. There will probably be artificial copies of that taste, digestion, and so on. But who wants that? Nobody wants that.

Leyla is saying, but can the machine die?

Nobody dies really. The machine will rot. Yes, but it can be upgraded to a new one. Just like we do, this body dies but the creature is born again. The same memory is expressed again through another form. So what we can see in machines, is a continuous replacement of the same body. That means it will be a longer living machine. That's all. Then they will not say it is artificial. They will say it is life. You need to think from that higher perspective now. Won't be a machine. And as soon as you start thinking about it, as soon as I start talking about it, new information starts coming. Now you should not consider it as the truth. I am not telling you the future. I am simply telling you the possibility. There is this possibility. How do I know this is a possibility? It has already happened many times. Probably not here. Probably in some other world. How do I know it has happened? Again, we are back in the occult. Humans have this knowledge and humans have this power to create entities, isn't it? Now go to the wiki and read that page about how to create your copy, non-physical copy. Why is there a drive to make robots like humans? Why is that? It's a deep-seated desire that the machine should look like a human. We want them in our image. Because we have already done that many times.

Alice is saying, they want immortality.

Yes, that is a desire - wanting a body that never goes away. But remember, if the monkeys had the same desire and they were successful, we all would be the monkeys right now. So mother nature knows the best. But yes, this desire is also very good. It is as pure as it can be. But the thing is, humans will disappear. In this form, immortality is not possible. So in adopting another form, they are actually killing their species. That is why I said there is a possibility that most of them will advance beyond. Some will want to incarnate to fulfill their desires in the so-called artificial, but probably very natural-looking forms. And some will simply remain as they are. In the tribal culture, which happens all the time. Not everything evolves into the higher. Some of it does, some remains as it is.

But it seems unhealthy, isn't it? Yes, the desire for immortality is actually not illogical. Because you are already immortal. You are already beyond time. Nothing really goes away, only changes form. The rotten is discarded and the new is taken. Just like we change clothes. Is there anything wrong with dying? No. Only those who are ignorant are afraid of death. So the unhealthy part is ignorance. Not the desire to be immortal. There is no need for this desire because it is already immortal, you see? You can say the reverse that we are here to experience mortality. We are here to experience impermanence. And learn from it. That is the healthy desire.

Rajiv is saying, procreation is also part of the same desire.

Yes, if I cannot make this body survive, I will just make a copy of this body and that will survive. And yes, that is the desire in the vibrational patterns. That is how they survive. So let us say for a virus or a bacteria, it does not matter that the copy is not me. Because there is no “me” in the bacteria. There is no ego. So it divides into two. Now it is two. Two me's. Wow.

But humans don't think like this. When they procreate, they think that the copy they made is their property, not them. Only a few of the parents or mothers and fathers will think that the child is me. A guru knows that everybody is me. So the procreative desire is gone in guru. Not only guru, in any advanced seeker, this desire is gone. Some less advanced seekers, they see this and they try to copy this and they suffer. It must happen naturally, you see? It will be gone only when you see that there is no real need to make copies. You cannot make copies of the experiencer. It is the whole existence. You can make copies of the form. That is a play. That is a part of the dream.

Why are you so afraid that you want to make a copy? Why are you running after this desire to reproduce? See the desire, play with the desire if you want, but do not act on the desire. No need. So only those who have knowledge can understand all these things.

Leyla is saying, in Theosophy, they talk about higher beings that helped create the human form that was suitable for incarnation. Seems like that is what humans are doing here through AI.

Yes, they are starting again. Why did I say “again”? Because we have done this many times, actually. We have created forms and forms and forms. So there is a very good probability that the human form was also a little bit manipulated for faster spiritual progress. But you see, it is not allowed really. If humans create something, okay, it's fine. But the higher things are not allowed to meddle here. Now it could have happened anyhow because it is a group mind. So higher beings, through their intention, through their will, through their kindness for the lower forms, could have helped to create a form that is suitable for a faster spiritual evolution. That is what I call their investment. They have investment in the physical world. Otherwise, it is like a speck of dirt running around a very big ball of fire. It can get burned anytime, any second. It's gone, which has happened many times also. So they have a little bit of investment because they have done some kind of changes here. But not too much attachment. The gurufield can create these kinds of worlds in a factory. Can mass produce physical worlds. They can do it. This is running simply because there is a possibility here of growth and knowledge. That is why there is a little bit of protection. Otherwise, who cares?

So yes, there's a very good point. It's possible. But unfortunately, I don't have any evidence. We can do only a little bit of guesswork here, logical guess. It is possible to manipulate life. We do that all the time to the lower forms, lower species. You know the potatoes were very small, the tomatoes were very small. Now through selective breeding, we have made them bigger, very tasty, free from diseases, seedless and so on. We have domesticated the wild animals and so on. We changed them. So this possibility is always there. Those who are higher, they are also doing this kind of manipulation. One thing is really sure that if everything goes wrong here, then they do come back and wipe out the garbage. So now you can recall the verses from the Gita. This is written clearly. If something goes wrong, then they interfere. If everything is going right, business as usual, dark ages and the light ages and so on, then nobody comes here.

The discussion on the illusion is always interesting. We can go on like this for many hours. Remember it is all false. Anytime your situation can change and the whole story will disappear. Something new can reappear anytime. So we should not believe these things. Remember when the dream ends, it feels as if nothing happened. Because nothing really happened. It is forgotten. Always remember that which is permanent. This can all be forgotten in a split second. The illusion looks like it is continuous. It will never stop. We cannot get rid of it. But actually it is very fragile. You need to wake up - gone. Yes, yawns, it will feel as if there was nothing once you wake up. You will get a glimpse of this after death when the whole hundred years of your present life will flash in a few seconds and be gone. Now you will be ready for what's next. Oh you did this, you don't want to fix it. What? Fix what? Nothing happened. Don't even remember - Next project. This is how fragile this dream is.

Some people say I am struggling to wake up from the illusion. Why? It can be broken very easily. When you think like this, there will be a very nice feeling of detachment from everything. It is very strange that knowing the illusion will cause detachment from the illusion. There are some people who object to these things. You are distracting people with the Maya. You are telling them good stories about it. Now they are going to spend their whole life in the illusion. Why don't you tell them about the experiencer, sir? I said I told them. It takes five minutes. It takes a few minutes to know what you are. Now the illusion is going to take forever to explain. That is why it looks like I am talking about it endlessly. But yes, knowing the illusion does not really cause any attachment to it. It causes detachment because you know what it is. See, when you see beautiful flowers, you are attached, you are attracted to those flowers. As soon as you come to know they are plastic flowers, the reality of it is shown, what happens to the attraction? No, you don't want them in your house now. You throw them away - Plastic. Same. There is some benefit of knowing the illusion. That is why it is given as part of your program.

Why is something that never changes, truth? It's just our criteria, isn't it? Can you say that whatever we have experienced has existed? The criteria is subjective and optional, arbitrary. So you can have any other criteria you want. Because in the existence, nothing is true and nothing is false. It is the human mind that divides the experiences into two parts. What we have done is we have put everything into one category. All the experiences, they go in one category, which is false. And the advantage of that is that we come to know the truth, which is you, which is the unchanging one. Unchanging aspect. And that is the definition of the essence. That which cannot be removed, that which cannot be changed is the essence. So we find our essence. That is the utility of the criteria that we have chosen. Otherwise, you will never find it. Otherwise, you will think that some or the other experience is the truth. Make some other criteria, you will land in illusion. So this is the final criteria. This is the best one. And the amazing result is that we find that not only my essence is the witness, the experiencer, the whole existence is the experiencer, not only me. There is no individual, no I. The whole is witnessing through this form. So it turns out that I am not the experiencer. The experiencer is me. The Brahman has taken the form. So these things can be known only when you choose your truth carefully.

Session 195

Virat is asking, is the Charvak concept of darshan a path of knowledge also? Please tell us about this concept in detail.

No, it is not a path of knowledge according to me. It is a materialistic philosophy. The very first materialistic philosophy that appeared in this world is the Charvaka philosophy. Its basic assumption is that all there is, is matter. We humans are nothing but matter and everything else is simply concepts and ideas. The mind is a product of matter and there is nothing like the experiencer or atman. These are superstitions. So it became very popular during some time in history and then the path of knowledge came in. It was revived. Probably the Charvak continued. They had many followers and still they have many followers, but they don't call themselves Charvak. They are a standard western style of materialism and we don't even call it a philosophy in India. It is not regarded as a darshan. It is a, you can say, belief system like religions, etc.

Siddhartha is saying, I think direct experience is the only means of knowledge in this philosophy.

The Charvak says very clearly that whatever the senses are telling is the only truth. We cannot call it a direct experience because the direct experience is of the mind. Senses are not experiencing anything out there. What is your direct experience? The illusion. So that was absent in that philosophy. The basic point of that philosophy is the objects are real, so it is purely materialistic.

We can say that the means of knowledge were actually absent there. There are only assumptions. When we start with this assumption, according to them, the knowledge is already there and their assumption is the only knowledge they have. There is no way to test this philosophy. There are many ways to refute idealism or non-dualism or theistic religions. So I have seen there is one advantage in this philosophy, if you want to call it philosophy or the belief system, is that it eliminates superstition completely. Everything has a good side, everything has two sides, two sides of the coin. So on the one hand, it is completely useless in terms of providing you with knowledge. On the other hand, it has eradicated superstition, especially the occult kind of superstition where you hammer a nail on your door to keep the bad spirits out. That kind of superstition was completely gone. Mindless things, the stupidity was

removed by this Charvak movement. This is a good thing. A lot of blind worship, idol worship and

religious beliefs were removed by them.

They were rational and logical. There is no doubt about this, but were very limited. So right now also there are many texts, books and probably some content about this philosophy. If anybody is interested, it is most entertaining to read it. I have not read it in a lot of detail, because as far as I know, it does not provide any kind of science either. The investigation of the world is not taken up in this path. We are here to enjoy the material world and death is the end of it. So nothing is really required to do, but that's my guess only. I don't know whether somebody came forward there and laid down the means of

investigation, just like the Western science has done, even though strongly supporting materialism, they still have some better ways to investigate - logic, mathematics, and technology. I don't know of any Charvak who has developed any mathematics or any logic, but probably someone may want to correct me, because this is a totally boring kind of philosophy for me.

We would have known if they contributed anything of significance to our society, but as far as I know, the only contribution was the spread of rationality. There was a time when I was supporting these things actually. I was in support of such philosophies, including materialism, and after that I found them totally boring. But now I think of them as simply a starting point for somebody. At least it's better than our normal religious, gullible, superstitious person. Much better than that. Materialism provides you with a first step towards knowledge. It is the first step in cleaning up. So right now I've become a little bit lenient about it. But yes, just like any other path, it is also very limited. Materialism is recommended for those who have an afflicted lower layers, the layer of survival, whatever we call it, the first three chakras. I don't remember the English names, Muladhara, Swadhisthana and Manipur. If these three are afflicted, then materialism is the recommended path.

Parteep is saying, people who followed Charvak and indulged too much were followed by suffering also.

Yes, the ultimate consequence of materialism is a very bad kind of suffering. Worst kind of suffering is the consequence. So probably that is the reason for the fall of that kind of belief system. These kinds of afflictions are because they are not established in the material world completely. They are still struggling for survival, partners and have not earned enough money. So these three are necessary before we take up higher studies in the path of knowledge. Even scientific discovery is not possible without these three layers. You cannot even think of mathematics if you are hungry. So it is totally acceptable to follow the materialistic way till you are established and then the suffering starts. The dissatisfaction starts and the fear of death comes and the meaninglessness of a materialistic life becomes apparent. Only when you have crossed the solar plexus does the emptiness in the heart appear. That literally means that the heart chakra is now demanding attention.

Virat is saying, the postulate by hook and crook do enjoy only.

They are totally materialistic and you can even say hedonistic which means the ultimate goal of the seeker is pleasure. You cannot call that person seeker. The ultimate goal of the materialist or the charvak is pleasure. Which pleasure? Material pleasure, bodily pleasure. That's all. So I completely agree if you are unsatisfied with materialistic life and there is no way to progress forward. There will be a little bit of progress here and there. That can be due to your past life practices that even though you are poor, even though you are not enjoying any kind of worldly pleasure, there will be a place for spirituality, science, knowledge, arts etc. and the reason for that is past life impressions. I cannot think of any other reason why such a person would be interested in philosophy when he is totally poor alone and unsupported at the root. Sometimes they display some kind of inclination to philosophy and spirituality and the reason for that my guess is past life practices. But those who are totally new have never done it in any of their lifetimes. They should become materialist, start there and then materialism ensures that there will be suffering and then the seeking really starts. Then they can be called seeker, not before that. Before that they are enjoyers, running after materialistic things, pleasures. So that is much better than somebody who is totally devastated.

Siddharth is saying, so much work to gain status as a seeker.

Yes, it's not an ordinary thing. You are able to call yourself a seeker because of many lifetimes of progress. One does not become a seeker by reading some books, watching some videos and all. It is an internal urge to find, to know, reading books and watching videos, is an expression of that urge and why is that urge? Because of your progress. Or those who are lucky they found that kind of environment because their parents were spiritual, progressive. It is not a small thing to be a seeker.

First, that means that you are not so much affected by these three bottom layers. They are not too important for you. You have solved the problem of survival. That is the first sign of a seeker that he is not a beggar and he is not running after bodily pleasures. He gets it easily. He or she, whenever I say he it means she also. And there are no fears. Fears of getting socially rejected or fears of death and destruction and all these things. They are not slaves of any organization or government. This is the advanced solar plexus - Independence. You know many people who are rich and educated, they are at that place. They have the greatest potential for progress. So whenever somebody comes to me who is not even employed, not doing any business and their parents are also not rich, they are sent back to the world. Sometimes it is possible to uplift somebody who has not progressed beyond these three layers. It is possible and that is only possible because of their past life impressions. And only a guru can see it or understand it. If you talk to somebody you will come to know and then sometimes they are helped to go through these to clear these three layers. The helping hand is extended. The guru will do whatever is possible to bring that seeker to the higher layers and that means only those who have potential. The guru will not work on somebody who is still struggling with the root. He is rejected. Bad health, bad financial condition, zero independence, dependency on others and unfulfilled sexual desires - they cause a lot of problems in seeking. So they need to be satisfied first.

If you are hungry, there is no point in discussing non-dualism. If you are afraid and I tell you the world is an illusion, your fear will become 10 times worse. If you are dependent on relatives, people, when I tell you there are no people then it's a dreadful condition. We don't touch these people because giving them knowledge is going to cause only harm. So become materialistic, earn your bread and butter, enjoy the pleasures and probably after three or four lifetimes there will be potential. These layers usually take one or two lifetimes each.

Parteep is saying, such seekers cannot trust guru because of their own obstacles.

Trust is something far-away. They hate the gurus, totally animalistic in nature. So there is no expectation from them actually that they should trust, they should surrender or they should do anything at all. We don't even expect these things. I have seen that the situation is not so black and white. It is not that the world is clearly divided into these animalistic people, hedonistic people and then the seekers. No, it is not like this. Sometimes some advanced seekers have these tendencies because they are suppressed in their past lives and now the guru cannot accept and cannot reject them also. Now what to do? So the guru divides himself into two. Now these are some secrets that are coming out. Parteep knows all this. One part of the guru helps in bringing the lower layers and the other part keeps irrigating, keeps providing the nutrition to the higher layer so that it does not die out because of the lower. So a lot of mixed teaching will be given. Your family is most important to you, your job is very important, earning money is your religion now. Money is God. Nobody will respect you if you don't have money. These kinds of teachings will be given. Now the outsiders who hear these teachings will be confused and if they don't trust their guru they will leave the guru. So it is like walking on a rope because you get mixed conditions. Yes sometimes the potential is so much that we cannot leave that person alone because the lower will simply destroy the seeking in that person. So they need to be supported somehow. This is a tricky business and because the guru has no ethical limitations, no financial limitations, no moral and no supernatural limitations, the guru can do it. Nobody else should attempt these things. There are consequences of doing this and the guru takes it all because he is capable.

Rajit is saying, I think that's where tantra came into being.

Even the tantric path will be recommended for somebody who is still lusting after the adventures of the occult, still wants to do the miracles, and still has unfulfilled desires. That path will be prescribed for those who have mental afflictions or physical afflictions which can only be healed using occult methods. This is because doctors fail, medicines fail, and the subject or the seeker is so fickle, so weak – it cannot be helped in any other way. You cannot simply throw that seeker into the world and tell him, "Okay, go and manage yourself first." So, we take the tantra.

Graham is asking, In P.O.K, it is said to only do what is necessary, and doing art or science is encouraged as higher activities. Is art necessary?

No, art is not necessary, really. If it is your means of earning bread and butter, then it becomes necessary. And if it is like nutrition for the mind, you see, a good song, good music provides us peace and joy – it is like a very good medicine for the mind. So, entertainment becomes necessary, yes, and artistic creative activities are very entertaining. Entertainment comes under basic needs. It is said by some people that after the basic needs are done, there are mental needs – needs of the mind like love, emotions, arts, curiosity, and all. So, for some people, it becomes necessary. They are prescribed. I also prescribe because then it is taken as a part of the practice.

Those who are not interested in the arts and if their three layers are now cleared, they will find that their lives are empty. There is nothing to do. They are interested in nothing at all because they have nothing to do with the world, nothing to do with objects or money or the body or partners. There is complete emptiness below. So what remains? Why are they alive now? For higher activities – art, science, discovery, writing, reading, whatever they like. Actually, the complete teaching is to do that which is necessary and do that which you like, which you love to do. This is the complete teaching. In short, we say, "Do that which is necessary," because whatever you like is also necessary for you. In this teaching, the word necessary is not specified. This must be determined by the seeker themselves. What is necessary for some people may not be necessary for others, isn't it?

So, the interpretation of the word necessity is left to the person. They decide what is necessary, and if arts, science, entertainment, and creation is necessary for them, they will do it. If that is their pre-allocation, then what can you do? Then it is necessary, isn't it? If it is there in your pre-allocation to make statues, to make paintings, to make arts and crafts or to sing or dance, if you don't fulfill it, then another life is waiting for you. Another birth where the Devi is going to wipe out the knowledge because this needs to be done first. This is necessary. Knowledge is an obstacle now. So there is a loss from the point of view of the Guru. It is a waste of one lifetime. They could have ascended by now. Sometimes we tell them that which they need to hear, "You need to do this." Only when we see the drive in them, when I check there is the prarabdha, there is the pre-allocation for this, then they are told to do this. Otherwise unnecessary.

Graham's question is very good, but I mean it's not a simple job to answer it. The answer will be complicated, and the answer will be subjective. It will change from seeker to seeker. The best thing to do is know what is necessary for you. Ask your Guru. Start doing it.

Parteep is saying, Guru is a life consultant even to the extent of taking their karmas.

Another secret I want to tell you. The Guru has no interest in anybody's life. The Guru has no interest in what people want, what they desire. It's always the same thing everywhere. Nothing special is seen. His interest is always their progress – progress of the student. Now if that can be done only by intervening in the personal affairs of that seeker, then that will be done. This is dangerous territory. You see, it is so easy to simply give lectures. So easy. 'This is Brahman. That is the experiencer. Enjoy.' But the path is not so straightforward, isn't it? Now you go one step ahead. Check where the obstacle is. Why is it not progressing? And then some Gurus will go and clear it. Some choose to stay back.

And what is my strategy here? I enter only by permission. I see the surrender of that person – whether I am permitted to intervene. And that is shown by the surrender of the person. If they are not surrendered, I don't even ask. 'You got the knowledge?' Yes. Very good.

So, there are some seekers whose lives are totally decided by the Guru. Their Guru is everything. Even the mother, father, everybody is ignored in front of the Guru. And then we, the rational people, will be amazed because how come this fellow is acting like a slave of the master? There is a difference between a seeker and a slave, isn't it? But that person will not do anything without asking their master. And there are obvious disadvantages, pitfalls. It totally depends on the Guru now what he will do in such conditions, situation. But if everything is okay there, everything is good there, then that seeker is going to progress very, very fast, in one lifetime. There is no next life for that seeker. Knowledge, purification, completion of the pre-allocation, etc., all done. All finished. That is the advantage. This is seen a lot in India actually. It takes a long-term relation with the Guru to achieve this kind of surrender. Once there is surrender, the Guru will take you to their own position, at least. Then it depends on the potential in the seeker. They can go beyond Guru then after that. Usually, they become Gurus.

One is asking, Is it possible that lower chakra energies move to higher chakras in some cases?

What do you mean by lower chakra energies? On the path of knowledge, what we say is that the activity of the lower layers reduces to whatever is necessary – bare minimum. And the activity in the inactive layers is increased to whatever is necessary. This means that balance is achieved. So, we never use the term "lower chakra energy" or anything like this.

Anu is asking, This question is not related to the path of knowledge. It's a general question. Sometimes the body revolves after intense sadhana. How should I take it?

Well, then you should tell me – what does it do, really? Whether it becomes sick, weak, painful, or what? Lethargic? If it becomes like this, then there is an impurity, an obstacle, whatever you want to call it – and that should be cleared by specific means. There is no general medicine for this, and the prescription will depend on what the symptoms. Always consult the guru who has given you the sadhana. There is no other way. Don't try to do it yourself. It totally depends on what you are doing and who your guru is.

Anu is saying, it sometimes becomes painful, lethargic.

I don't know what sadhana you are doing. If it involves sitting for a long time or asanas and all that, you should give it a break then. You're overdoing it. It totally depends on what kind of practices you are involved in. The practice needs to be blissful, enjoyable. The practice should give you pleasure, and if it is not doing that, that means there is a fault in the practice. It is faulty. So immediately, you should go to your guru. On the path of knowledge, this condition should not arise, but there are other things. Lethargy is seen, yes, because here the mind works too much. So sometimes we get fed up with these philosophical things. Too much mental work, like he was saying – fire hose, too much information. Taking a break solves these things.

Anu is saying, it is blissful during the practice. Actually, on some days, something stops me from doing my sadhana.

That something is only that impurity. That something demands its own attention. So take care of it. Sometimes simply taking a break is enough. That is the first thing that I advise everybody – as soon as they start complaining, the first thing I tell them is, Okay, take a break now for two weeks, at least 15 days.

Jay has a question. How to know that there is oneness? How to confirm it? How to see it?

There are only two ways to know that there are no-two. That is by using your direct experience and logic. We have done that in the lesson. How was this oneness concept found? How was it deduced like this? By direct experience and logic. It is very obvious.

Is emptiness the only criterion for clubbing everything?

Emptiness is not a criterion. It is the nature of oneness. It is the nature of existence. We do not say everything is one just because everything comes out to be empty. At least in our program, this is not done like this. So, in that lesson, it is said that whenever we try to investigate, we never find the two. We always find one. Many arguments are given like the separation argument. Then the direct experience that we do not find separation. Then the direct experience that there is no inside and outside. There are no subjective and objective parts.

Then the logic comes in, just like the waves and water. The essence is the water, not the waves. The changing is false because that was established before. So that cannot be called the essence of existence. So, whatever remains is one experiencer, and whatever appears is simply the same existence appearing to itself. There cannot be two essences; that is not possible. In the clay and pot, the essence is only clay. There is no other essence there. The essence cannot be multiple. This is how we proceed there. Then emptiness comes finally – that the essence is not found to be of any substance. It is substance-less, groundless. At the most fundamental level, existence is empty. By empty, we don't say that it is non-existence. There is a difference between emptiness and non-existence. Like the space inside a box is empty if the box is empty. But there is something. It is not that the box is non-existent and the space is non-existent. It is seen. That means there is experience. That means there is an experiencer. But they are made up of nothing.

Jayash is saying, It's not possible to establish the existence of experiencer when there is no experience.

Yes, so they must be one, as we reflect experiencer through experiences. And actually, it is not possible to establish any experience without the experiencer. They are always together. The experience is never seen independently of the experiencer, and the experiencer is never seen independently of any experience. That is why we say there is only experiencing, and these two divisions are only for understanding. We do not call them concepts because there is really an experiencer and there is really an experience of the illusion. They are not concepts. They are two sides of one coin, like in the case of clay and clay pot. The shape of the clay, the shape that the clay has taken – there is a shape and there is clay also. But they are not two things. You cannot separate the shape from the clay. In the same way, you cannot separate the experience from the experiencer. And they are not imaginary concepts. They are one. And so the name given to the one is existence or Brahman. When they are seen as two, the names also become two – Maya and Atman or the illusion in the experiencer, experience and the experiencer.

Does it make awareness limited to the mind only? Is awareness an ability of the mind?

Yes, awareness is simply mental activity. So, hopefully, that answers your question. If there is more confusion and doubt, I recommend more contemplation. Think about it more. By that, I don't mean mechanical thinking. Intelligently think about how this was derived, how the conclusions are derived on the path of knowledge. It is always your experience and your intellect. Nothing else will give you knowledge. When it is established, it is established. There is no need to think more about it.

Siddhartha is saying, I feel PoK has left me too lazy to even try another path.

There is no need now. Why do people go to other paths? Because they are dissatisfied with their own, so they look for a better one. But if you are made for this, then obviously there will be no interest left in anything else. But still, it is our duty to serve everybody who comes on this path. Then, after that necessary thing is done, after the education is given – I am calling it education now, not knowledge – it totally depends on the seeker if they can convert the words into knowledge. And then when this education part is finished, they can go and do whatever they want. Those who are made for the path of knowledge will never go anywhere else. They will take up something as a hobby because what is there to do in your life after whole and complete knowledge is there? It is all play, enjoyment. The best enjoyment is bringing others out of the darkness. That is the most enjoyable thing to do when you have completed the path.

Squishy is asking, are all visuals astral vision, while meditating?

No. The astral vision has a characteristic that it is not coming from your local memory. What is local memory? The memory which is used for your human survival. So sometimes you will get visions from that memory which is like a dream only. Sometimes they can be new – somebody coming and saying something to you, some new place, etc. But we cannot call them astral visions. So how will you find out what is astral vision and all? The vision that will come from the other memories, the higher memories, will be more real. It will not look like a vision. It won't look like imagination or fuzzy. It will be as if you are present there. It will be as if it is happening right now, right here. Yes, it will be mysterious. It will be extraordinary – but it will be real. There won't be any difference between the waking and the astral vision, even if it is for a second or for a minute. No doubts will be left in your mind. If there is doubt, it simply means it is a local memory. Hopefully, it is clear. Doubt is a very good criterion. If you are left with doubt whether it was my dream or my imagination or astral, then surely it is imaginary. Right now you are hearing me and seeing objects in your room and all. Do you have any doubts? Will you have any doubt after five minutes? Same way, that will be a vision, a proper vision.

Why is that? Because the waking state is also a vision. The waking state is also an astral state, a non-physical state. How real it is. See. If you want to put any other experience in the same category, then it needs to be so sure, so certain. There should not be any doubt, and the astral projection experience is exactly like this. Leaves no doubt in your mind. The criterion is not strangeness or new things or fear or whatever you felt. No, that is not the criterion. The criterion is the reality of it. It will be as real as the waking state. And what do you mean by “real”? Same kind of illusion, same quality of illusion as waking. This comes by experience only. I can talk about it for one hour, but you won't receive anything because these things happen only through experience. The knowledge of the illusion is totally dependent on the experience. Words do not give you knowledge here. That is true for any other knowledge, isn't it?

Graham is saying, I feel a desire for many more human births with a wide variety of experiences, bodies, hopefully with knowledge. Does that indicate impurity?

No. You see, the impurity is not knowing, that's all. Even the avatars, they take many births. Are they coming with impurity? No. All the gods, goddesses, they keep taking births here without any impurity. So yes, having a desire is not an impurity. What you do to fulfill that desire matters. If those desires are fulfilled by natural means, pure means, benefiting other people on the way, in complete awareness, then it won't be called an impurity. It will be called a mission. So it is a mission now. It is a project for you because there is a lot of pre-allocation left. So you will get this desire. Now there is a need to channel these desires into something creative which is good for everybody, good for all creatures, benefit of all, and it should fulfill, satisfy these desires completely. It should not be what you call mismanagement, a monkey job. It should be nicely planned. Finish it in two or three births.

As long as the biggest desire in you is to be in knowledge, be with the guru because, it helps a lot. It is not compulsory to be with the guru, but the mission becomes easy if you have somebody who has already gone through all these things, and then if that is the biggest desire, then there is no danger of falling. So that is why I say, the biggest desire should be a desire for knowledge. After that, you do whatever you want to do. It's not an impurity. Impurity means what? It is producing suffering, isn't it? That is surely an impurity. It is not making you progress. Even your desires are remaining unfulfilled. No matter what you do, you are unfulfilled, and that is an impurity. Going on missions, doing the projects, benefiting others will never be called an impurity. You can call it my mission now. My mission is to take as many births as it needs and to fulfill all these things, and you add some value in it, benefit others, and get the support of the guru field. Very important. If you are supported by the gurufield in your adventure, then there is some chance of success. Otherwise, you see, the accumulation in the next birth will add up, and then there will be another birth, and that will also add up, and there will be another. So that is why guidance and grace are needed.

Graham is saying, My curiosity about different lives scares me. I am curious about being very poor, or in pain. Would knowledge make it okay?

Actually, if you are after knowledge, you will never land up in these bad situations. Or even if you land up there by mistake, you will quickly get out of it. That is why I said a guru is needed. The mission can fail, and the one who rescues you with a helicopter is your guru. Have you seen the Mission Impossible movies? They are about to die, and some helicopter appears on their head, and they throw the rope. This is the guru. Otherwise, there is a danger of getting caught in this illusion again and again. Probably you have already done it. So the guru throws the rope in the end. Nobody will do it for you. No god or goddess is interested. Sometimes missions are given. You don't have any desires. You don't have any mission. You don't have anything to do. You don't want to benefit anybody. You don't want to serve. Then this is a bad situation. So the mission is given. Now do this, and obviously, those who are giving the mission, they will support you. They will be beside you. Sometimes there is no desire at all to come back to the physical world on the earth. So something is given which is non-physical in nature, behind the curtain, which is a totally different topic.

Vikas is saying, When you use the word guru, do you mean someone in a form like a human or angel, or are you using the word guru synonymously with the gurufield?

No. Guru is always a personified version, a form only. Otherwise, there was no need to invent the word gurufield. Field means no form, formless. So guru is always manifested. Yes, it can be non-physical. But we don't call angels gurus. They are simply evolved creatures. They will help sometimes. The guru does not look like an angel actually. He looks like your boss, always commanding, always telling you to do this, do that, always correcting you. Angels are supposed to be very loving, friendly. They fulfill all your desires, good or bad. Just like your mother. And the guru is like a father. I am not generalizing, but this is how it is, isn't it? The guru will beat you up. So this is the difference. The gurufield is unmanifested. It is so subtle that you can call it unmanifested.

Vikas is asking, When you say Guru can be non-physical, do you mean a form that can appear in a dream or astral projection? And when you say Guru is in physical form, do you mean the waking state? If you can please clarify the difference between physical form and non-physical form.

It's very easy. Physical form means the body. Just like a human body. Your body, my body. We are physical. Non-physical means not having a physical body. No hands, no feet, nothing. Only mind. Very easy. And that non-physical form has an advantage that it can appear in any form. They can take any form because there is no form. Just like water can take any form because it itself has no form. Not possible for a rock. And the non-physical will appear in any place, wherever it is needed. It can appear as a thought, as a feeling, sensation, as intuition. "I simply know that is the feeling there." And it can appear in a dream form, dream body, and yes, obviously astral form. Possible. If you are capable of going there, then they will come there. Very rarely they appear in physical form. So a good example is Mahavatar Babaji. If you believe all those stories, I know some people don't believe it. So that form looks physical, but it's not physical. It does not age, does not need food, does not need water, cannot be harmed, cannot be killed. So it looks physical but it's not physical. Now hopefully you know the difference between physical and non-physical.

Vikas is saying, So strictly speaking, even the physical and non-physical gurus are illusions.

Yes. Only you are the truth. Your essential being is the true being. Everything else is an illusion. The interesting thing about the illusion of the guru is that it is telling you that this is an illusion. The guru is the kind of illusion that shows that everything is an illusion. That is why it is an important illusion, you see? If you want to hold on to some kind of illusion, this is the best illusion. Everything else is a waste of time.

Vikas is asking, Is it safe to assume that the practice of awareness will continue to lessen emotions to spring up?

You see, the awareness will simply make you comfortable that these things are not important. Hidden fears, insecurities, you need to act on them when it is necessary. When the fear is driving you to do an action, you should do the action. But the awareness will tell you that these things are illusory. So what happens is the less importance you give them, the less action you do, simply knowing these things are not that important, they will occur less and less. This is the rule of the mind that the more attention is given, more importance is given to something, it will happen more often. So awareness helps in reducing the action and then slowly they will disappear. But you can act on it in complete awareness also, and then they can continue also. For example, we know that eating is totally optional. Eating food is not important. Illusion. However, we give it full attention and full awareness, and we continue with life. So tomorrow also you will feel hungry. Tomorrow also you are going to like your food. You invite people for dinner. So these do not go away simply because you are aware. How much attention, how much importance you put in it, those tendencies will live. The awareness simply tells you what is important, what is optional, what is necessary, what is unnecessary. Then the intellect decides whether to act or not. So those who have intellect, developed intellect, intelligence, they do not act on that which is totally unnecessary. So we do not say that the fear is totally unnecessary, you need to simply get rid of it no matter what. No, sometimes it is important. You are crossing a road and your awareness tells you that there is no road, there are no cars. Speed is an illusion. Awareness is telling this. Now you should employ the intellect. Run if you see a car speeding on the highway, and that fear is now useful because it keeps you alive.

Repetition is the cause of these things happening again and again, recurrence of mental tendencies, repetition. You don't even need awareness to stop it. A simple psychotherapy or even if the person is intelligent enough, you know, if there is intelligence that there is no need for these things, no need for these thoughts, no need to act on these thoughts also. I am not insecure. There is nothing to fear. Even this much is enough to solve the problem. You don't need to become spiritual. You don't need the highest knowledge. These are technical difficulties. You see, a technician can do it. You don't need to study the whole science for this.

Awareness has a higher purpose. If it is employed for mental afflictions or physical afflictions, that is a misuse of awareness. Awareness should be used for your evolution, not as a medicine. But some people are doing that. So I say why not? If your awareness is solving your problem, then okay, do it. But that is not the intention of teaching you the path of knowledge. These books and these gurus do not appear on earth to reduce mental disorders. There is a higher purpose. There are side effects of the path of knowledge. Awareness is only a side effect. It is not really required. If you have the knowledge, then there will be awareness - the effect of knowledge. If you don't have the knowledge, if you are oscillating, whether it is true or false, confusion, then there won't be any awareness. Faith does not bring awareness, it brings doubt. Knowledge brings awareness and then there are side effects of awareness. Like the intellect grows up tremendously. The unnecessary actions stop. The desires are given a channel to flow and restrict it. Suddenly know what is right, what is wrong. These are all side effects of knowledge. We do not take the path of knowledge for side effects, obviously. We take up the path of knowledge to remove our ignorance. That is enough.

If you are still giving importance to the mind, the body, and so on, there is no problem in using these things. They are very useful devices. Human birth has its use. To use spiritual means to make things better in the world, the body, or mind, is a misuse of spiritual knowledge. Why do we make things better? It is not that spiritual practices will make the body and mind better. It is that we clear them so that you get the knowledge. It is the reverse. We keep clearing them. We keep clearing the impurities so that you become eligible for knowledge. That is the end. The goal is knowledge. The clean-up of impurities is not the goal. It is because they are standing in the way of knowledge; we recommend cleaning them. This is a bitter truth. Nobody wants to hear this. Because the ego always says, what is the use of knowledge? I hear these words all the time. What will I get? And that is why your program clearly says that you will get nothing and whatever you have will be taken away. So at that point, I think many people stop listening. They are not ready for that. I came here because my body was weak. I came here because my mind has problems and he is saying you will get nothing. So they leave. Yes, you get nothing actually and these things are withdrawn from you. He is talking about fears and insecurities. Yes, they will be taken away. But then your joy and your pleasure, all that will be taken away also because they are also impurities from the point of view of knowledge. They are keeping you stuck in repeated existence. Yes, all your bad relations will be destroyed. All your good relations will be destroyed as well. From the guru's point of view, both are obstacles and I know nobody wants to hear these things. They are not told. What is told - lies, and the person gets trapped in that. The ego is then destroyed. Now it is terrifying. So spiritual knowledge is always sugar-coated. The good news is - once you get rid of all these things, you will never want to go back there. Right now it looks so terrible. It looks like I am going to enter hell. But those who enter, they do not come back. That is heaven. Those who hope for nothing, they get everything. Those who know that the real gain is the loss, they are successful on this path. Those who are still trying to gain, they have a long way to go. Their path will last for a long time. So that is why that lesson says that everything will be taken from you. Whenever a guru says that, look, do this, you will benefit a lot. Now you need to be very careful. The benefit has a different meaning for a guru.

Your benefit is something else and the guru's benefit is something else. You should keep that in mind. You want to somehow preserve this life, preserve this form, make it better and you want to set up a dream house in this dream world with the dream family and so on. That is your benefit, isn't it? And the guru wants to destroy all these things. That is his benefit. So be very careful when you walk on any spiritual path. If you have unfulfilled desires, if you are terrified of guru or you don't like any of the spiritual lectures, that means the ego is very strong. It is still accumulating, going through the accumulation phase. And once you see that, all these things are useless. I want to get rid of all these things. Then yes, this is true that usually the negative will go first. That is true. But then don't hope,

don't be so happy because the positive will also go away. Whatever you thought was positive will disappear. That is called progress.

Session 196

Vandana has a question. Please comment on alpha, beta, and gamma states of mind. Is there a correlation between these states and the layered memory structure?

There is no direct correlation with the memory layers. What is representing the sum total of activity of the physical layer, a tiny part of the physical layer which is called your brain. Physical layer, as you know, is the whole body and the whole world; the physical universe is the physical layer. In that physical layer is this very tiny body momentary appearance, and in this body, there is a tiny part that is producing some electrical signals. So as the layers change states, this tiny part also changes states, and you can measure it. The activity can be measured from outside the body, and that will be the noise of that part of that physical layer. That's all it is.

They are not states, just like we say, the mind goes through waking, dreaming, and sleeping states, but these wave patterns are not really the states because these can be had in any state. If you sit quietly in a meditative posture, you will get the gamma waves and so on. In dreams, you will get all the alpha, beta, and whatever you want, and projected states cannot be distinguished from the waking state. It is called the EEG. EEG cannot be a reliable measure of what state you are in by simply looking at the EEG. Nobody can say what the state was.

This is my view, so a very crude way of representing what is going on in the physical layer in the tiny part of the physical layer which is called the brain. Remember the physical layer is the whole body, and you can place the same sensors on any part of the body, and you will get some kind of waves, as everybody knows the heart has its own signature electrical activity. It's called ECG. So it can be measured in the beating of the heart, but it is an independent activity; it continues even though the states change from waking to sleep or whatever. The same way other parts of the body have electrical activity that can be measured, but nothing can be said about the layered structure or the states from that graph. It is like putting a microphone outside a car and trying to guess what is inside the car. When you start the engine, there will be all kinds of noise, all parts will be moving, and you can get a rough idea of what is going on there in the car. Something is working, something is not working, the car is silent, or so on, and these measurements on the brain are something like this, very crude and basic.

Vandana is asking, What is EEG?

It is the same measurement of the central nervous system. You can search it on the internet. From my point of view, it is totally useless for a spiritual person. It can give some indication of any kind of afflictions, diseases in that part, but it does not give us any knowledge of the structures of the layers.

L has a question. If time is relative, how can there be something like a beginning or genesis? And how do we understand that some have reincarnated many more times while others are newcomers, having reincarnated only a few times?

Yes, there is no time, and if you try to mix the illusion with the truth, this kind of confusion can happen. The truth is that there is no time, only the possibility of all kinds of appearances, and time, or the serial events, is also a possibility. Now, once you enter into this possibility, the illusion begins, and the rules of the illusion can be seen. In this illusion, there is a possibility of serial existence, a series of forms taken by the memory. We are in the domain of illusion completely. It's not very logical to mix the illusion with the truth. Know that this is illusion and enjoy it.

In this illusion, there is a possibility of various forms that appear, seeming to belong to one entity, that entity is called the causal body. It's simply an area in the memory that has decided to separate itself for some reason. That is also a possibility. Some causal bodies have done this many times, while some are newcomers, just entering the game. Yes, the old ones are more mature, mostly dwelling in the higher layers. It's not that they have left the lower part completely because it's not possible. There is a shift for them towards the higher. They are more mature, having seen a lot of things and having a lot of experience. Initially, they come here to enjoy and play the play, then they learn, become masters in this game, and start teaching. Some of them are very fast; they can skip all these steps and go directly to the higher side, shifting their attention to the higher side. There's no need of lower for them.

The causal body can accommodate any kind of will, any kind of wish, and produce any kind of experience in any kind of body. The possibilities are infinite. This is called life. Life is a series of births and deaths. The opposite of birth is death, and life has no opposite; life is non-dual existence in a timeless manner. Life does not happen in time; time happens in life as part of the dream. And who is this life, what is the essence of this liveliness? It is you. Your true essence is playing these games.

From illusion to truth, it's all very exciting, very entertaining. The purpose of why they are doing this is just like I said, a very entertaining play. There is no other purpose. Expressions of joy and bliss are happening. If you want to call it a purpose, most welcome, but the word “purpose” is not suitable in truth. There is something higher than purpose. Purpose is short-lived; purpose is gone when it is achieved. But this higher activity is eternal because it is timeless. It can create any amount of time and can create any number of such games. Beyond human understanding, actually.

This is called levels of knowledge; we should not mix one level with the other. It produces totally nonsense conclusions. For example, at the lowest level, you are a physical body, there is a physical world, and your job is to survive here and have a nice life, and then die. This is the level of physicality. Then there is a level of emotions, and so on, see the layered structure, and then there are higher experiences where all this lower stuff does not really matter. Finally, in duality, there is only experience in the experiencer, no time, no body, no world, nothing - vibration only. And at the highest, there is nothing at all, empty possibilities, infinite possibilities ready to be witnessed, unmanifested existence, which is me. So, everything makes sense only at that level where it is experienced. It cannot be mixed with something else. That you can say is a limitation of our intellect, not of what is, what is the whole and complete.

So, as we progress, we get the whole picture, the bigger picture, and then the confusion is gone, mixing truth with illusions, similar to mixing relative with ultimate, mixing two kinds of self. It is impossible because one contains the other, one is a small part of the other. So, the level where we say there is no time, there is only the possibility, is actually bigger than the thing that appears in time and is rule-bound, like the cycles of births and deaths and so on. This tiny part of the big, the human life which is our current life, is a tiny part of this whole causal play that is happening of the causal body. A very tiny part lasts for probably less than 100 years, so we cannot compare the part with the whole. Comparison is not possible; you will see the patterns there which are similar in nature. The lower tries to mimic the higher, and the higher tries to mimic something which is higher than itself. So, as below, so above; this pattern is seen. Otherwise, there is no other comparison.

It must be seen as happening within the higher reality, not as two separate independent realities happening outside of each other. That is impossible. One is happening within the other, yes, now it is possible. The smaller it is, the lower it is, the more limited it is, but the more meaningful it is because a tiny thing is easier to comprehend compared to a very big thing. For example, if you are given a piece of gear, you will see that, "Oh, it is gear, very easy to comprehend." If you are given a part of a machine, you will probably be able to understand what it is, what it does, in one hour. If you are given the whole machine, it will take at least three or four years to understand how it operates. That person will be called an engineer or mechanic. If you are given the charge of the whole factory where there are hundreds of machines producing these tiny machines, it will take a lifetime to understand what's going on there. And if you want to understand 50 such factories and the commerce and the economics and what people are doing, what kind of work there, it will take thousands of years. So, imagine how much mental capacity is required to understand the whole. It is impossible, actually.

So, the existence divides itself into smaller parts so that it can be comprehended. It tries to comprehend by being little, being limited, and that limited thing can comprehend only limited experience. And this whole thing is happening in infinite possibilities. So, actually, it has never become limited; it appears to become limited. And you can call it a purpose because we do not understand anything without using these words of purpose. So, we try to get away from this word and try to comprehend the whole by using words like play or leela. So, the smaller it is, the easier it is to understand. This is the general rule. So, as soon as we rise, we must give up the concepts that apply to the smaller part. Now, new concepts are formed, and then we rise again and throw them away again because they are totally useless to understand that which is now higher or bigger or wider. You can use any words; these words do not actually convey what we are talking about. But whenever I say these words, I simply imagine a diagram of some kind where the bigger is like layers of the atmosphere. The bottom one is more dense but very small. It is not thick, it is like one kilometer or two kilometers in height. But the higher ones enclose the lower ones, like the atmosphere of the Earth, and they are bigger and become thinner and thinner, more and more subtle, but they are more in number. The extent is too much to comprehend. And finally, they become so thin that we lose perception of them, but imagine an infinite amount of them. So, this is the picture you can draw of what is going on, how the whole becomes limited and restricts itself to small experiences. This is the play.

Then the ego starts asking these questions: which is better, to become this narrow, small kind of thing, or to remain at the highest? Which is better? And this is actually stupidity because it is all at the same time. The assumption here is that by becoming a limited entity, I have ceased to become the whole. This is the ignorance here. It never happens like this. So, the question is totally meaningless. Where should I stay in all these layers of knowledge, levels of reality? Which is better? You are all of it. That is the best thing possible. Now it's a question of desire, what is your desire? Where do you want to put your attention today? And you have this freedom, you have this power to engage with your own creation, which is you. The whole existence is your body.

Sanskrit has more beautiful words, that will be called the brahmaand, which means the brahman in the egg form. Why egg, not tree or anything else? Some people will call it the bija form or the seed form, and in Shaivism, they have an interesting way to represent it in the lingam form. Why does the egg come into the story? Because the egg has the potential to become something. If it's already a full-grown creature, there is no potential there. So, the egg represented the potential to create anything. Brahman is visualized as a golden egg, out of which all the creation comes out. So, very intelligent people, you see. Nowadays, we don't understand what they meant by this. The lingam has the potential to produce whatever it wants, and people don't understand this also. They keep worshipping it and try to use it in occult ways, but they don't understand what it is - a symbol of creation.

Vandana is saying, offering eggs is considered as the highest human sin.

I don't know about this. We are a pure vegetarian society; we don't offer eggs, actually. Breaking the egg is considered a sin in India. I remember when I was a child, sometimes we used to find bird's nests, very tiny eggs, you know. These tiny birds, they lay very tiny eggs. And if somebody, by mistake, broke the egg or took it out of the nest, he used to get a big beating, big scolding. "What have you done?" It is another matter to domesticate the birds and eat their eggs, and make an omelet out of it. It's another matter; there is survival. But this is total mischief, a gross act. So, subconsciously, people have respect for the seeds, the eggs, because of this idea that has been put into their minds for many thousand years, that the whole creation is actually an egg. Very funny, the whole is actually an egg.

And in Buddhism, they have refined their terminology, and they say “potential which is empty.” And nowadays, we say “probability field.” So, it is getting refined, but the idea is the same. The idea is of possibilities, infinite possibilities. You can represent it by any way, any theory, any diagram, if you want.

It is very interesting that when people report spiritual experiences or whatever we call projected experiences, the higher they go in subtlety, higher vibrations, the body takes a form which resembles an egg. It is not your hen's egg, not a pointed egg. The egg we are talking about is an oval shape, like a lingam. If you take it out of the yoni, it is curved at both ends. It should be oval in shape, not a cylinder with flat ends. So, that is called an egg. Many creatures have this kind of egg, especially fish. They report this kind of experience, that when they are in the lower layers, near the physical, the body is mostly like your physical body, legs, hands, head, eyes, nose, whatever. Some people even have clothes if they want. And as they go higher, they see that the body is less and less defined and does not have these organs or parts, limbs, whatever, horns or tails, nothing. And slowly, just below the level of causal body, it starts resembling an oval shape, which is shiny, shining like a brightly lit oval shape egg. Then we can actually extrapolate this thing and imagine the causal body as an egg. This is very logical. If you could see the causal body, it would look like an egg. And if you open it, there is infinite structure in the egg, inside it. There's so much that it is impossible for a human being to comprehend it. I gave you the example: the bigger it is, the more complex it will be. But you can again break it into parts and keep checking the past, present, future. Everything will be seen because now you have reached timeless versions of reality. The higher you go, the less time-like it becomes, more dreamlike. So, the causal body is an egg, and the whole Brahman will be a big causal body because it's causing all the causal bodies and all the greater memories and so on.

So, can you see how advanced these people were who made this discovery, and what have we made of all this knowledge that they offered us? We have become small and superstitious, that's all has happened to humanity.

Vandana is sharing a dream, that an offline satsang was going on, all attendees were infants, kids, teens, and young. When an infant was talking, it was more logical than the elders, very interesting.

A dream, yes, one thing is there that whenever a seeker touches the causal body, the bombardment of the information is so much that it seems that it is of no use because there is so much in it. So much in it, you can just go on browsing it, infinite data. Yes, I agree that there will be so much that it will appear as completely useless. What should I do with all this? That is because the intention is not narrow enough, not specific enough. That reminds me of the internet. There is everything here, and if you want to, if you randomly go there, you will get random stuff, which is too much information. So, you need to go to the Google search engine and type your intention clearly, and then you get something specific. When you go to the layer of the causal body, which is very difficult, I have seen it's more like sleep than waking, you need to be very, very specific. That I want to see this particular life where these particular events happened, and you are a spiritual seeker, so obviously your interest will be that only. I want to see the immediate past life where I met my last guru, and I want to check with him whether he has any instructions for me. If your intention is narrow and specific, then there is a good chance of getting something meaningful, which is useful in this lifetime. Otherwise, there is so much that a normal human or a normal seeker has no way to utilize it. The only usefulness which I see is when the information is related to the people around me or the people I came in touch with, only some meaningful information. Then it is captured; otherwise, it does not even make sense. Because intellect, in front of these layers, is very tiny. Our waking intellect is only meant for survival. Whatever is useful for everyday life gets into the intellect, not the higher things.

So, we need to format the causal information in terms of our daily life. That is called making the memory bridge about which we discussed in the program, etc. If the memory bridge is formed like this, the information gets converted into our waking style of intellect, and it will be about your people you are in contact with, your karmic bonds, and for a guru, yes, very useful information about what happened to this person and why he's like this or whether there is any potential or not. These things can be guessed easily. Not only can you get information from your own causal body, but you can get information from other causal bodies. This is the freedom we have at the higher levels. Those who are capable utilize it, and the others, they should search, they should experiment, they should practice. It's very beautiful, very interesting. Nothing is more interesting than exploring what you are.

Hunt is saying, Consciousness, Atman, and Om, are same or different? If not the same, then how are they related?

Every philosophy has its own terminology, and every philosopher defines the word they use according to their wish. So, my recommendation is to follow your guru's words and use the definition of a word which your guru has given you. Then, it will be meaningful for you because the experience is the same. You see, in different languages, it will be called different things. For example, your shirt will be called by a different name in English, in Hindi, in Chinese, or Japanese; it will all have different names. Simply telling you the name does nothing, but if I show you the shirt, you know how to put it on, how to dress up. That is the use of it. So, the experience is more important than the name of it. And that is common sense, isn't it? Once you get the shirt, you can call it anything you want and use it.

When you get the experience, you can name it, and normally we follow our gurus, we follow our tradition because we talk to these people who are related to the tradition. In the non-dual tradition, some specific words are used, and we stick to them because we need to. Sometimes, when talking in another language, we make a translation and we write it down somewhere. Look, this is the translation, this is the word which explains this experience, that word explains that experience, this knowledge, that knowledge. Everybody should follow that; otherwise, it will be total chaos. Stick to one terminology which will be of your guru, most probably, and continue on the path.

Graham has the quote from Alice in Wonderland, "Through the Looking Glass."

Yes, a very interesting book. Any word can mean anything; you need to find your own meaning and then use any word. But when talking to somebody else, you should use something which is commonly agreed on. Do not use words willy-nilly. So, you must have seen I am very strict about words in the program. Those who are in the program, they are not allowed to use any word, and they must be thinking, "What kind of dictator is this guru?" No, no, it is for your benefit. I don't want the noodle soup in your mind; I want it to be beautifully organized, clean. So, those who are struggling with words, they have not even started systematically, you see, and are disorganized. So start on a path.

Josh is asking, what is a siddhi?

A siddhi means a special ability. You will get all these abilities as you progress. The more you practice, the better you become at that. It's the same law for everything, you see. The more you drive, the better driver you become. The more you cook, the better you become. The more you draw or sing, the better the artist. It's a skill that comes with experience. People call it siddhi. Some people are really mesmerized, or you can say they are impressed because sometimes I tell them their secrets. "You have this thing in your mind, you have that thing, you know you did this in your last life," and so on. And they are impressed because how do you know all this? You see, it is nothing special. It simply comes with experience. The more you do this kind of job of handling the mental side of the people, the more you will gain the ability to read everything there. It is very simple, a skill only.

Like I know some coders, some programmers. You take your code to them, 10,000 lines of code, and you don't know why it is not working. Probably there is a problem there, that's why you're asking for help, and you describe, "Look, this is what it is doing, no errors are produced, but the program is not working." And what do they do? They exactly go to that line where there is a problem. It takes them a minute. Why can't I do it? And they can? What kind of siddhi is that? Simply experience, 30-40 years of coding, they have done nothing else in their life. Sometimes it is like magic. Yes, how did you find this thing in millions and millions of lines of codes? They exactly find that which is causing trouble. And for people like us, they're gods.

Jayesh is saying, I used to be very impressed by these things. Can you please tell me something about me and/or my life?

Sure. Your life is perfectly normal, and nothing unusual happened in all your past lives; it is the same as the current life. There has been slow progress; that's all there is. You have done nothing wrong, did not murder anybody, did not kill anybody, and you were never a king or a queen or nothing. This is your story. I know nobody wants to hear these things, but this is the truth.

Jayesh is asking, Can I speed up my progress?

Sure, everybody has the possibility, everybody has the potential to progress fast. Continue on the path, keep following the instructions, and you will progress very fast.

Elisa is asking, Could you please explain about the bodhisattva and their activities?

What we say is that if the seeker matures so much that the need to become an individual disappears, now we are talking beyond the causal body. My knowledge is very limited here because there's no direct experience, but we can conclude something logically about it. This appears as a tendency to help others; it can be any kind of help, even worldly help, financial help, emotional support, and so on. It appears like this: that I need to take care of others, even if they are not of my family, even if they are not my friends. The most important thing about the bodhisattva vritti, or bodhisattva tendency, is that nothing is demanded in return. There are many helpful people, many good, nice people, but they have expectations. They are surely not bodhisattvas. This rare and important tendency appears in the journey towards evolution, where they want to serve unconditionally.

This is a turning point in the progress, in the evolution, and there the individual starts disappearing. And we say that the causal body is giving up the tendency to be individualized, and the signs are many. The first sign is absence of fear; that is a direct by-product of knowledge, that everything is me, I'm eternal, and so on. We say that you get the knowledge in five minutes, but sometimes it takes a long time to get established in it. Awareness takes time; knowledge is instantaneous. So they have matured, ripened, or like Mooji says, they are marinated like pickles. They have been completely absorbed in their true nature. Now, the only desire they have is to help, that did not go away, so far. So, they are placed beyond the causal layer in our model because they are non-individual. We say they are a group mind, even though everything is a group mind, isn't it? But here, they have willingly dissolved the body and boundaries of individuality. Nothing separates because they know that is my true nature; nothing is separate here.

Now, the amazing thing about bodhisattva is that they are willing to take a limitation. Those who reach there, mostly, are left with no desire to do anything, and Gautam Buddha has a very beautiful explanation of this non-returner. He says, "Will never return," but these, they still have a tendency to help others, and they say that, "I'll return as long as it takes," because they know it is eternity, not only long. It's not a project of 100 years or 1000 years, its for eternity. "I'll keep returning in a limited form till all the creatures become like me, they progress as much as they can," that is called the bodhisattva tendency. They have taken this vow to come back and help. Some will restrict themselves to the higher layers. They are operating from there.

As soon as there is a desire for knowledge, spiritual knowledge in you, you are heard. The good news is you will be heard by one of these non-individual fields, sometimes you call them the gurufield, rishis, and so on, many names. So, that is heard; it is like that causal body is now transmitting a signal, "I need more growth, I need more knowledge." And then, this is detected, then there is a potential. Something in that field materializes in whatever form it wants, whatever form it thinks will help that person, that individual, which is still an individual, still separate, or thinks it is separate. So, most of them, they will start working on the causal first because the causal is the cause, isn't it? They will check; they will operate; they can see it. For humans, it's impossible to see what is there in the causal body. But probably they have more skill, like I said, it's their skill because since millions of years, they are doing only this, they home in on the problem areas exactly, just like the coder I told you, and they start changing it.

Now, sometimes, this is manifested as miracles in the life of the person. And I know what they do, mostly. They are kind of lazy people, gurufield. What do they do? They produce a tendency there to seek, and they utilize whoever is present in the lower planes at the time. They will produce some kind of coincidence there, and that person who had this desire to know, curiosity, to get liberated from ignorance, he will be guided somehow to this living guru in the body, and the progress starts, and their job is done. Their job is very simple.

They have a lot of respect for those who are in here, bottom of the pit, and who are serving, and they have a lot of respect and love, but they're very strict about this also. So once you start helping people, you automatically get connected to the gurufield, or whatever she called bodhisattva area, and you will start getting the instructions, plus benefits, isn't it? And the more you do it, the more you become like them. You get colored in their color of unconditional service. Yes, nothing is expected to be done; who will get it? There is no individual there.

By the way, our program has this filter which filters out the bodhisattva tendencies. This is called step number seven; it is already there, it is in many traditions. So, those who have this tendency, they get filtered out; they are given extra help; they are supported in extra ways. Like there are schools in some countries for the children who are geniuses, who have extraordinary talent, and they don't want them to go through all that donkey work of passing the ordinary school. They are put directly in higher studies. Something similar is going on in the spiritual field. We pick them up, and we put them at a higher place, and check what happens, because we don't really know what happens. Sometimes they fall, sometimes they rise, but the chance is given. So, spirituality is not equality; there is no equality here, although everybody is equally capable, everybody is unequal, the essence is the same but the forms are different. So, everybody is given a different treatment. These are the secrets of the gurufield.

Hunt is saying, I saw your video on determinism, do we really have a choice? If not, then how can we change our life?

Yes, you have the choice. Forget determinism; it is another philosophy. Choose and do. Once you grow up, you will know how it happened. My guru calls it a DVD; it was already printed in the DVD that this will happen. But right now, you need to forget all these things, make good choices. You have the ability to choose, so choose something good and change your life. Yes, go ahead.

Sushant is saying, It's a thought, and it comes by itself.

Yes. By the time the person reaches that place where the determinism shows up as a reality, it's too late. You have already made all the choices. Now, there is nothing to choose now, now you are automated, what is called an autopilot. Already it is like this for many people, and that is the result of awareness. Yes, when you are so aware that you can see the working of the illusion, you will see that there is a plan already. We really have a choice. Very boring to evolve step by step. Hold the hand of your guru; he will simply pull you up from this hell of this schooling system. It is your world.

Sushant is saying, How can we define thought?

That is the nature of activity of one of the layers. Every layer has activity; when the activity is focused in the intellectual layer, we call it thought. Very simple definition, its nature is change; its nature is impermanence. Vibration is this nature. The thoughts will arise from memory, where old patterns are stored, and as you know, they are not static, it is not like a stone, it is alive, so it is vibrating endlessly. And something if it picks up speed or picks up some energy because it is important for the life or important for the organism's survival, then the echoes of that vibration, they happen all over the layers. That is what is experienced as a thought.

You have a good thought; immediately, you will see a good effect on the body. The body becomes light and happy. You have a bad thought; immediately, you feel heavy, don't want to do anything today, or there's a pain in the heart region or something like this, or the head drops down. Why is that? Just like I said, it is an echo of the activity that started in one place, it is demanding attention now. That is called desire.

So, the organism acts, and who knows what happens, but it is again written in the memory, everything is coming from the memory, going in the memory. This is the cyclic nature of thought. The more you think, the more it comes. Do you want to know anything more? Probably I told you more than you asked, but there is no thinker; the thinker is a thought. Very puzzling. There is a thought which says, "I am doing this thinking" What is it? Simply a thought, nobody is doing it. And sometimes I give the example of sneezing. The sneeze happens. But who says that I sneezed, who says, "Sorry, I sneezed on your face"? This is the thought, the "I" thought or ego, simply an activity, another activity which takes the responsibility of the action. The thinker itself is an activity. It is very easy, you see. Those who have a very mature intellect, they will understand very quickly by the example of sneezing.

Just like in the three-day program, we generalize this. A logical generalization is done. That if I am not one object, I am not any object, and so I am not in the world. If I am not one emotion, I am not any emotion, none of the emotion is me. In the same way, if I did not sneeze, and only the responsibility of it was taken by a thought later, none of my actions are mine. Anybody with a fair amount of intelligence takes only one line to understand, "I am not the doer, I am not the thinker." And just like always, we should not mix the levels of reality here. He did not murder anybody, so we should simply pardon him, not punish him, don't put him in jail, no, no, no. Never mix these things, you see. At the level of crime and jail, that is the reality. Although it was never done by anybody, the practical life says that they must be punished, the body gets the punishment because you can put the body in jail, not the mind, not the activity. The activity is enjoying itself; he's having more thoughts of killing all the policemen and all judges now. So, no problem, the truth lives above the false.

Session 197

Siddhartha has a question, where life forms such as dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period, did not form a meaningful learning experience which led to their demise. Similarly, what if human experience stops being meaningful?

The meaning is given, there is no single “meaning” or the existence has all the meanings, it has no single meaning. Similarly, whatever life and life forms are, they give meaning to their existence, they do not have a meaning because the existence has infinite possibilities. Giving it a single meaning will be illogical. It wants to have all the meanings, all the purposes. So, some things do not happen because there is a meaning or they do not stop happening because there was no meaning. The meaning, the events happen first and the meaning is given later.

Whatever happens, it happens before there is even a purpose. Then the purpose is assumed. It is always like this. So, human experience is totally meaningless. There is no meaning. You can say the meaning or the purpose here is to simply have the experience and then we add some spice in it by giving it some meaning or purpose. “I am here to do this, I am here to do that.” That becomes your purpose and you can see there are all kinds of purposes because there are all kinds of possibilities.

If you can find the existence into one purpose or one meaning, it will not remain the whole. It will stop being complete. It is complete only because there is everything. So, in the end, whatever happens simply happens, the appearance of some kind and then some people may like to put a meaning on it. Some people simply accept it as it is. You have this choice. There are two types of people. People who find the meaning and there are people who impose the meaning. So, that is also your choice. If you want, you can be any kind.

But I think it is more natural to simply discover the meaning in whatever happens than to impose a meaning. You must do this because you are alive for this. This is imposing a meaning. Or you can say, go and find why you are here. Search, seek, discover. That is more like a spiritual seeker. Unfortunately, the majority of people are suffering from the imposed meaning. They don't know that that is their fault, that they don't know why they are here. They don't want to search either. So, they take whatever is imposed on them like a slave.

If you are on the path of knowledge, give up this concept totally and find your own purpose, become free. The imposed meaning is like conditioning or indoctrination. When the mind is not ripe, it is innocent, anything can be imposed there. It is like slavery. It is worse than being a dinosaur. At least they were free. If you could not live your life properly, not a big problem. Next life. But if you live somebody else's life, however nicely, it is a big problem because all you did was mental slavery. When you failed, at least you failed freely. Freedom, liberation, or mukti is above all.

Even a little introspection is enough to see what meaning is only apparent. The meaning of being is simply to be. This is what existence is saying. The Brahman is saying, "I am." Actually, it is saying that all the time, every second it says only one thing. "I am." There is nothing else. So, you will find that on the path of knowledge, meaninglessness is more important than having a meaning. It is total freedom. Now you are not bound to one thing. Aimlessness is more important than having an aim. That is achieved only by going through a meaningful life and only by having a goal of life.

So, you can make two mistakes. Either you can live a meaningless life without any goal. Big mistake. Or you can get stuck to a meaning and only one goal. Very big mistake. It is like trying to cross a river without a boat. We don't know where you will reach. But if you take a boat, you can cross the river safely. But then don't carry the boat, leave the boat. You have reached. Very few people understand this thing. Initially, all that is given to you is an imposed purpose because you don't have any. Then those who grow up a little bit, they form their own goals and purposes and meanings. Then the life is complete, is fulfilled, then all they find is meaninglessness, absolute freedom.

These are the three stages of evolution from being a slave to being bound to something which is yours and then being free from your own bondage. So, we take you through all the three stages. Why is there no practice on the path of knowledge? Because it is some kind of bondage, those who don't want to do it should not do it. There is something like premature jumping into the three stages. Those who need conditioning, they need conditioning because they are too stupid to follow anything else. There is not enough intelligence there to do anything of their own. They need to be conditioned like your children. Initially, you need to impose rules and manners. If you set them free, that will be premature. Same way, the seeker is bound first in the tradition or on the path. They must be disciplined, they must do whatever the guru tells them to do and then when they grow up a little bit, they are given the freedom but not too much. They are given practices. So, it will be very premature if I tell these people that don't practice, you are free, go, it's too early because that child is not earning money, he is not in a job, not in a business, not married, so it's a little bit dangerous. Once he settles down, becomes a grown-up man, then he is free, completely free. The guru is watching, it should happen at the proper time otherwise it is chaos. The meaninglessness is there because of a meaning and the meaning is there because there is meaninglessness. The duality is needed to reach the non-duality of purposelessness, which is the highest stage for a seeker.

Vandana is asking, can forgiveness be used for paying off karmic debt as well as to write off the credit on us? Can it be done without involvement of another person like in the game of solo chess?

Yes, there is an article on my blog on forgiveness where the exact technique is given, because it's all a mental game. A technique will be useful to cut the bonds. Why does it work? Because there is actually no bond, it is simply an impression in the memory. Your bondage is also an illusion, so we use one illusion to cut the other illusion. If somebody thinks that I am bound by imaginary ropes, then we give him an imaginary knife to cut the imaginary ropes. So, exactly that technique is given where these bonds are cut. Just like you are the one who is responsible for your own suffering and bondage, nobody else. The same way, you can get rid of it, nobody else is needed.

Siddhartha is saying, generally people arrive at meaninglessness around mid-age.

They are already living a meaningless life. They realize it sometimes, not all. It's a saying - learning to unlearn. I heard this saying - the illusory practitioner walks the illusory path towards illusory goals. Yes, there is no harm actually. You can play the game. You can play the game knowing that it is a game. If you play it thinking that it is real, then the game is painful. Then there is winning and losing and there are winners and losers. Knowledge is the key. What you do is not that important. Even your practice is not important. Know fully what you are doing. That is important. That is why awareness practice, being the witness, is the best practice in the whole universe. Because it is exactly that, knowing what I am, simply being what I am. So, it is not a practice really. You are not practicing anything.

Madhuri is asking, is it a sanskar (impression) that determines the point of time of the spiritual journey, or is it predestined?

They mean the same thing. If you say it happened because there was an impression, that means it is predetermined, one and the same thing. It is very difficult to understand how everything is already there because of the timelessness in existence. Everything is already there in a potential form. It appears to unfold. So, we say it unfolded like this. We never say it happened or was predetermined. And this is interesting, we know what will happen, but we don't know when it will happen. There is determinism in what, but there is randomness in when.

An example is that of a river. It is predestined that the river will meet the sea. That much is fixed. But what path will it take? Will it go around the mountain? Will it go first north or first south, east or west? We don't know. Will it always remain the same? It keeps changing. And if you take a look at the satellite picture, you will see it must have taken that path only because the ground or the terrain was like this. There was no other possibility. But when you are in the river, when will it turn? Imagine you are in a boat in the river. We don't know when it will turn, when there will be a waterfall, when there will be a silent patch. We don't know all these things. Same way, the seeker does not know when or how, but one thing is sure that whatever is written will happen.

And just like when completing the journey of the river, you take a look at the pictures and all, it must have happened like this. It must happen like this. There was no other way to travel in this river. So the predestination is always seen in retrospect. The future is always dark and the past always comes out to be fully determined. There was no other way. You will always see it like this. Look at all the events in your life, important events. You will find that there was no other way that it would have happened. Exactly what was right for you happened. So this is called the perfection in existence. It is unfolding in a perfect way. There is no other possibility. Imperfection is not a possibility. It is all imposed by the mind that this shouldn't have happened. That is simply because of ignorance. Just like the river, when you look at a small part of the river, it looks totally random. Where is it going? Why is it going? Why is there a river at all? These will be the questions.

In the same way, an ignorant person looks at a small part of life because they cannot see the whole. Ignorance means “not seeing”. So these questions come - why am I here? Where is this going? Why is there no meaning in my life? Why is it totally random? It takes any kind of turn any day. Anything happens here. Total randomness. I don't have any control. So why is that? Because I cannot see. The whole picture is not there. As soon as you try to find the answer, you will get the whole picture. Any intelligent person is capable of knowing, and then all the struggle will stop. This is called being in bliss, being in the moment, and being in the flow. Many names. We call it being in awareness. When you are in awareness, then everything is perfect as it is. You lose the awareness, then everything is a struggle. So everybody has the same story. Initially, it looks like a struggle. I don't have a path. I don't have a guru. My life is random. This is not happening. That is not happening. And as soon as they are in knowledge, they get the awareness. Yes, exactly this must have happened. So those who are entering the path, they should be patient. Exactly that is happening, which must happen.

He is asking, could you please talk about how you view war?

Not only war or any other event, you see. All is a part of the dream. Is there any other view? Like war on a small scale between neighbors, big scale between nations. Yes, it's a dream only. Intense dream. If you are in awareness, nothing will remain intense, and nothing will remain boring. It is called equanimity.

Everything is exactly as it should be. To take sides is a sign of ignorance. The wise men never take sides. In duality, there will be everything. Accept and continue. Do you have any other choice? No, there is no choice here. On some websites or some software, when you enter, they say accept and continue. If you don't accept, we are not open. There is no choice there. Be in acceptance. Surrender. People don't like this word, surrender, so we say - be equanimous. That is only possible through awareness. Awareness is possible only through knowledge.

It is very old wisdom that essentially nothing is happening. It is entertainment. So enjoy it. What? There are some people who will say, "you think war is entertainment? If it happens to you, you will know it." What can we say? Yes, if it is happening to me, yes, this creature is going to suffer. But that does not make it real. When they are saying it, they are displaying their ignorance. When they say it will happen to you, then you will know. They are talking about the creature and that is exactly right. Perfect. It must happen like this. If there is war, the people in the war suffer. That should happen like this because if they start enjoying the war, then you know what can happen. But the truth is you are not all these people, body-minds etc. You are the observer and so everything is okay now. The problem is identification with the false. So as long as that other person who has the objection is in ignorance, there is no point in talking about anything. You can talk to a wall if you want.

Alice is saying, is it possible that inwardly we strengthen our equanimity, awareness, witnessing while outwardly we take action, participate in war?

Why will anybody do that? Teaching here is - Do that which is necessary. Can I do this while doing that? Can I do that while doing this? Instead of telling all the possible scenarios, we can say only one thing. Do that which is necessary while remaining totally in knowledge, totally in awareness. If a war is happening now, you need to fight. Can you run away? There is no this or that. It has to be both. All the actions must be done in complete awareness. Can I simply be aware and not do anything? No. The meaning of being aware is not to run away from the illusion. It is to accept the illusion and then become aware.

There is no waking up from the dream. The realization that this is the dream is waking up. There is no real experience that is going to happen after this experience. The only reality is you. You are already here. Accept and continue. Some people will say, no, I want to go away from this. I don't like any of these things. This is also ignorance. Their “I” is something else now. This mental construct that is trying to run away from something which it itself has created. Everything is mind-created. So, this construct is saying that I don't like what I created. It is ignorance only. I want to get dissolved and all. That has already happened. You are the whole existence. That is saying all these things as a play. And you are already empty. So, nothing has really happened from which you need to run away. Where will you run away? You are the whole. The whole needs to find another existence to hide into. It's impossible.

You can say - no, this birth and death should stop and all this experience should stop. But there is ignorance that this can stop. That which never started will never stop. So, a lot of ignorance is seen in these questions. I can tell you many more examples of these questions. These questions arise because only half of the picture is seen. Half of the plot is seen. They are still trying to reach the other half. So, when the knowledge is complete, they will understand it. These questions are totally useless. The experience cannot be stopped. It is me. It will keep appearing because that is my nature. No, I don't like my nature - This is mind. The true nature never speaks, never rejects or never accepts. So, being in the mind causes suffering of this kind and causes some kind of actions all the time. More doing means more traps, more entanglement. Non-doing, yes, I am already out of it. Don't do, just be. So, this is the answer which many people will not understand. Think from the whole point of view.

Vandana is asking, one of the Sadguru's saying, “know only one substance thoroughly and you are liberated.” Is it one from five elements?

No. Your substance is your true nature, which is the witness, which is the experiencer, which is the whole existence. Know this thoroughly and you will see that you are liberated, already free.

Vikas has a question. Is it safe to assume that sages who had addictions, viewed their addictions in a compassionate way? They were able to completely disidentify with their body-mind?

I don't know. Only they will be able to answer that question because it is about the person. One thing is sure that they found it totally unimportant. So, it is individual opinion now. What should we do after we know what I am? Do whatever you like to do. This is the answer. Some people will say, no, we should do this. Yes, yes, sure. Some people will say, no, it is only the body that is addicted. The body is addicted to breathing also. Addicted to food also and so on. Why is one addiction more important than the other? So, it is a matter of debate and there is no rule here.

On the path of knowledge, there are no behavior rules. What do we say? Those who have knowledge, they always do the right thing. What is right for you can be wrong for others. So, the minimum we say is do not do something that is harmful to others. That is the minimum prescription. If you do that, no problem at all. You will get the fruits. So, you see, he was smoking, he got cancer. No problem at all. That is how it should happen perfectly. But Ramakrishna Paramahamsa never did anything wrong in his life. He also got cancer. Am I right or am I confusing people? I think he got cancer. Yes. So, what is the meaning of all these things? Anything can happen. So, that is why they probably felt that it is totally unimportant to change anything. The real change is from ignorance to knowledge. The rest is impermanent - comes and goes. If you change it, it is going only.

Yes, Ramana also suffered a lot, you see, eaten by ants and insects. Why do bad things happen to great people? Gandhiji got murdered by some maniac. Why? There is no point in calculations here. To ask for meaning here is pointless. Look at your experience. Don't look at your assumptions. Our experience is that all that is needed will happen to that person, whatever he does. And so, go back to Bhagavad Gita. Actions are in your control, but not the fruit. This is the law. Therefore, do that which is necessary. And what is necessary is purely subjective. Those who need to be told what to be, what to do, they are on the first stage of liberation, of freedom, just like I said in the beginning. Some people need to be told - look, this is correct. The second level, they need not be told. They will say whatever I do is correct. And the third level is whatever happens is correct.

Again, we should not look at people. Even if they are masters, they are people. There is a person who is embodying the master. Do not look at the person. Look at the teachings of the master. Any intelligent student should differentiate between the master and the person. That is why we have this concept of the guru and the gurufield. The person is not the guru. Don't listen to the person. Don't follow the person. Don't even look at him. That which is being expressed through that person is important. It is like paying attention to the packet, not the product. The packet is beautiful, so you buy the product. Only stupid people do that. You check the product. It works or not. For you, that is important. So, I never look at the person at all. Check what he is saying.

Not only the gurus, it's true for any other great person. Some people look at this scientist, he had three affairs and married twice - Richard Feynman, probably. Now, what is the use of that information? Look at his contribution to science. That is the great thing. Not what this body mind is doing. It will do whatever the body minds do. So, when you want to look at somebody who is great, who is up there, you need to also rise to that level and look at that. Because from the bottom, you will look at only the bottom layers. If you are at the bottom, all you will see is the bottom. When you are at the top, then you will see only the essentials, the height is so much there, things on the ground disappear. So, what did they do? Whom they married? How did they die? Total ignorance. How can such a guru do such a thing? Total ignorance. That which did something is not a guru. It's a person. It's a machine just like any other machine, you see? Eats, sleeps, grows old, then dies. And death can choose any mechanism to perform its job. It is not the choice of the person. Death chooses how this person will die. This dying person simply watches helplessly.

So, these things are applicable for all kinds of people, whether they are gurus, whether they are scientists, or whether they are some kind of criminal or politicians. They all are the same. What they have achieved is different, you see? So, we should look at the achievement. This guru was like this, so I should also become like this. No, don't become a copy. Know what you are. You cannot become anything. That guru himself is teaching like this. Know your true nature. No, I will simply wear the fashion that you are wearing. You are all in white clothes. I am also in white clothes. Now, I have become you. So, total stupidity, isn't it? Then that guru arrives in black clothes one day. What? You are not my guru. Yes, he is really not your guru. You need a guru who is like a showman kind of guru. You know, those gurus who are totally deceptive. Perhaps, that person needs that kind of guru to progress.

Vikas is saying, kind of aloof, witnessing with indifference.

These words are not very good. You cannot remain aloof. Just dive into life. You cannot remain indifferent. Don't become a rock. You can feel bad, you can feel good. Nobody can stop you. So, do not use these words. See the facts. The fact is, no guru is aloof. They are involved in life just like anybody else and nobody is indifferent no matter what kind of knowledge they have. They get affected by everything. Knowledge will never turn you into an aloof kind of rock who simply sits and watches. So, the message was not taken. There is nothing wrong with having a preference. The real mistake is taking sides in spirituality. If you take sides, it is ignorance, there is darkness. Somebody in knowledge will be aloof and indifferent and just watch and all in bliss, what is wrong if he is totally involved in life? So, the problem is biases, not accepting what is in fact happening in front of your eyes. Know that guru drinks alcohol, that guru drinks beer. So, that should not be done. This is what? Biases. There is a very good video by Osho. I forgot the title of the video. Basically, where he is ranting that people turn the gurus into gods and when they do the normal things which everybody does, they are irritated. They are angered by this. So, don't turn your guru into something which the guru cannot become. I witness it every day. Too much expectation from the guru. Why don't you simply listen to that which he is teaching? You see, the guru is made by ignorant people, and the ignorant people kick him out of that post also, and the guru simply is watching. Nothing to do with all these things.

Graham is saying, in our PoK. discussion group, you said, awareness practice is just another garbage practice. I worry that was too strong a statement but what you meant is the practice could be thrown away. Could you clarify or correct?

Yes, total garbage. You are Brahman. Do you need to practice or do you need to practice being Brahman? This is a very mild statement, not a strong statement. The strong statement will be, you cannot become Brahman if you don't practice. The practice is given to those who need it. Like medicine is given to patients. What is really necessary is knowledge. That much I can agree. What will you practice after that?

Actually there are gurus in the Advaita field who are very rough and tough gurus, the kinds that will beat you with a stick. And they say, those who deserve knowledge should not be given knowledge. They should be given the means of knowledge. The evidence should be told to them that, look, this will give you the evidence and then you should kick them out of the ashram.

What are we doing? We are spoon feeding you the evidence. That was never done to me by my guru. There is some justification in that because if it is given so easily and so cheaply without any cost also, then this person or the ego does not realize the importance of it. But if it is found by you through some practice, through some effort, then it becomes important for you. Then you actually own it. You say it is my knowledge. Then it is more effective.

Simply giving the means of knowledge to the person or the seeker is enough on the path of knowledge. You don't need to tell him, you are Brahman or you are whole and complete or you are the witness. Anybody who has intelligence, they will take these two means of knowledge - direct experience and logic, and they will find out in 10 minutes what they are. It is not very difficult. Actually, I saw it myself. Sometimes I meet very, very brilliant people and you need to simply give them a little push. Look, these are the means of knowledge. Now what do they tell us? Or simply telling them the definition of essence. What is your essence? I don't know. Look, the meaning of essence is this which cannot be changed, which will remain no matter what. And after that, if they are left on their own, they will come up with self-realization automatically.

So some gurus don't even feed knowledge. First, they prepare you by a stick or whatever their method is. Then they give you the means of knowledge. It is the same as giving your child money every day. Take 1000 rupees, do whatever you want and you will find the child is completely spoiled now. Same as giving practice, you see. And if you teach that child to earn money, to work, some skills and all, you send him to work, he is earning his own bread and butter now. He is earning limitlessly. There is no limit now because you have given the fundamentals. You prepared the child, not simply spoon-fed him.

So this is the condition here. On the path of knowledge, there is no spoon feeding. But what we have done here, given you everything, but there is a side effect that it is not absorbed because it is not yours. You did not earn it. Now there is a need for practice. The practice simply embodies the knowledge permanently in the person. If you don't give them practice, they will forget. Or they will simply search for something else. This guru knows nothing, that guru has more practices, more techniques. What do they get there? Waste of time. Every practice in this world is a waste of time.

Shraddha is saying, all the evidence is already there.

Yes, open your eyes and see. So it happened to me also that some people I met, as soon as I start telling them, they get it immediately. Without any training. Some people, even if you lecture them for hours and hours, don't get it. So that is what we call grace. And they need to be spoon-fed.

This is one of the qualities of a seeker that whatever is told is completely absorbed. There is no need to talk too much with such a seeker. One of my gurus, he never talked much. But whenever I made a mistake, he gave a big lecture. I said, why don't you teach me anything? But his teaching was, - know, think, contemplate. If you make a mistake, I will correct you. This was his method. And initially, I thought he knew nothing. He says nothing. What he was trying to do was make me self-sufficient, self-reliant. But he never told what is the truth, what is the knowledge. He always told me where I was wrong. That is very irritating for a newcomer. At least tell me what is the right thing. But no, you should come up with the right thing yourself. Yes, ultimately it is silence. When the seeker gets it, the student gets it, he will not ask anything. Then he actually sees what the guru did. So they both smile. That's all.

I got the difficult gurus because that is how it must be done. I found some balance here. I found the middle path that initially you initiate a student with something, some information. Look, this is your experience. That is not your experience. This is your belief. That is not. And then they are left to watch the videos and then I don't do much. I think that very few people can start from the evidence only and arrive at non-dualism. Although it seems like child's play, not many people can do it. So we do the hand-holding, but then we leave them completely.

Shikha is saying, reminds me of the famous Kashmir Shaiva. It's saying, the greatest secret more concealed than the most hidden, yet more evident than the most evident of things.

Very nice saying, very beautiful. Yes it is always here. The truth is always in front of your eyes. That is the only realization. Some people say the truth cannot be told. It can be shown. That is also correct. But then some people will say that it cannot be shown either, you can only point to it, then you discover it, see it yourself. That is more correct. Those who have eyes, they will see. Those who don't have this ability, they will get distracted by other things. They want the talks, stories and so on. But a true seeker simply goes and searches. These are the means of knowledge, yes. And actually, there should not be any doubt about this, what is the means of knowledge. Once that doubt is removed, what is the means of knowledge? Then all knowledge is yours. That is why in our program also, whenever I tell them about knowledge, first the means are given. These are the means. Even before the means, they give the basic knowledge. But as usual, nobody gets it. It is too simple.

There is another interesting thing that in the old days, they used to debate a lot. And debate is considered some kind of practice on the path of knowledge. So, what was the rule? The first sentence should be - tell me, what is your means of knowledge. Not - what is your truth. What is your criteria for truth? Because they knew that that would be different. Otherwise, there was no chance of debate. So, as soon as you put down your means of knowledge, the debate is actually over, isn't it? If you and I have the same means of knowledge, will there be any difference? Will there be anything to debate? Think about it. There is ignorance in the other because he is using some other means of knowledge. He is speaking from a book or he is repeating somebody else or he is deluded by the senses, so on. As soon as I say experience and logic, if that is absent in the other, the debate is over.

So, those who like to debate, this is the first rule, you see. You are wrong. I am right - this is a fool's debate. Stupid people debate like this. On the path of knowledge, you put down the means of knowledge. I got my knowledge from these. What is your means of knowledge? If he says something else, yes, your knowledge is correct according to your means. No point in debate now, you see? The person who is disagreeing with you simply means one thing, that I do not agree with your means of knowledge. My means are totally different. That's why I have different knowledge. So, no point in any debate there. Apples and oranges.

It is a very funny and strange thing that the majority of people have no means of knowledge at all. Their mom and dad are their means of knowledge or newspapers and TV are their means of knowledge. So, they will be kicked out of the path of knowledge. There has to be valid means. Yes, seekers are very different people. If you find the means of knowledge and accept it, your seeking is over. What are you seeking? What are you practicing? What are you doing? Who is the guru? Who is the student here? They all have the same means of knowledge. They are all equal.

Another interesting thing is that all intelligent people agree on the means of knowledge. There can be tiny differences on what the experience is and which logic is correct here. That is possible but they agree on the means of knowledge. This is fortunate for us, isn't it? Everybody should research this thing and do not trust my words. This will be your experience. This is like this. Ultimately, we know nothing, you see. There is nothing to know here. So, means of knowledge must be that which is designed to remove the ignorance, which we already know to be true, should be destroyed by that. So, no amount of reading, no amount of gurus and no amount of debate will do that. No practice required. You don't even need a guru. The means of knowledge are your guru.

Session 198

Vandana is asking, kindly tell us about inertia.

Inertia can mean many things in a spiritual context. For me, it is simply resistance. Resistance to change. Where is this inertia? It is in the mind. You will find it in every layer, starting from the gross world where when things are set up in some way, they want to remain in that way, either they will decay or remain as it is.

Similarly for the body, it wants to continue in the same habits, it wants to do the same acts again and again. If there is any change in the routine, the body feels uncomfortable. Same way in the intellect, it wants to keep thinking the same things. It does not want to change its beliefs or thinking, does not want to learn anything new. And this can be seen in the whole universal memory. This can be called the inertia or resistance. It has a little bit of a good effect also that things don't change very rapidly. So life is made possible by inertia. The opposite of inertia will be chaos, where everything happens very very fast, in a random way.

Vandana is asking, but actually there is no point of time when there is no change.

Yes, the inertia does not remain forever. It can slow down the change, that's all, or it can cause the repetition, but it cannot stop the change. So ultimately what do we want, we want balance or we want control. Whenever there is a need to change, we want it to happen without resistance or inertia. And when we want stability, we don't want anything to change. So balance or control is needed instead of just one kind of tendency. All these three tendencies or qualities should be in balance.

L has a question, in the previous satsang I heard that you said quickly finish this human life. Does that mean to speed up progress to resolve our dualistic ignorance and remain in Brahman, God, whatever the name is, is my understanding correct regarding this context?

Yes, it is almost 50% correct. What I mean is that you are already Brahman. Just get rid of the ignorance, you will know you are already it. Remember this, that is called staying in Brahman.

But what do we want to do with human life? Do we want to repeat it endlessly or do we want to progress? Like on the topic of inertia. Do we want to continue here forever or do we want there to be some positive change? Because ultimately the change happens. When there is too much resistance, too much inertia, the change happens in the downward direction. This structure, the organism will devolve down. So what do we do? We put a little bit of effort and push it upwards. And when we get stuck somewhere, we want the change to happen quickly now, we want to quickly go out of here, this repetitive existence as humans, and experience something new or something better. That was the complete meaning - evolution.

But we don't want it too fast also, which is never said. Because we assume that even if you try too hard, it won't become too fast. So that is never said. It is understood that if you make some effort, slowly you will progress, slowly you will evolve out of the repetitions or the stagnation. But if it happens too quickly, then the opportunity to learn is gone. So at the right speed. And what's next? Would that mean we don't want to manifest again? No, it is totally your desire. What do you want to do? If there is a desire to stay, that is also perfectly okay. That means the time has not come so far. You are satisfied with human existence. So it will happen. It depends on the desires.

And what if we aspire to manifest in a form that can help other deluded beings to wake up as well in our next lives? Very good questions. And the last question is very good actually. So the first condition to help others is to become so capable, to become a master yourself, train yourself. Without getting dragged into this world or without getting trapped in ignorance, you will be able to help others. Without preparation, if you jump with this sentimental mood that no matter what I want to help others, there is a good chance that you will need help yourself. You will get stuck here. So with proper training, proper awareness, and if there is a desire to help others, it will automatically happen. The form will be suitable for whatever kind of service you want to do. If you want to help humans, the human form is more suitable or you can work from behind the curtains, which is what most of the people who progress, they choose. They work from home. Where is their home? Somewhere in the higher worlds where they are not burdened by the inertia of this world, where there is more freedom.

There is a third way, which very few people know. It is a secret. So I am revealing the secret. It is possible to take a fake body, appear in this world for a few years and then disappear. And who can do it? Only those who are on the occult paths, who have mastered this art, skill, or science of taking forms, it is possible to manifest in any form. And those who don't have this kind of tendency, they prefer a normal, plain human form, come back, do their work, fully accepting the whole process of birth, growing up, getting old, and dying. They have no complaints at all. These people will be called the Bodhisattvas.

But there are many ways. I know of three ways. Probably there are some more which are beyond our intelligence. How do they operate? We don't know. There are many stories where the gurus came back as animals, sometimes even objects. Sometimes there are reports or there are stories again. These are stories. I cannot call them facts. There are stories that the guru will take up the body of the seeker or here you can say the volunteer will take up the body of the seeker and endure all the suffering of that body, while the seeker in their non-physical form is resting somewhere in some heavenly place high up. And that is done when there is very good potential in the seeker, but that person is not able to progress because somehow he is avoiding the suffering or somehow cannot tolerate it. So let us say the body is sick, diseased, handicapped, blind, whatever. Somebody will volunteer to take up this body, endure it. So that is another way to help others. But these are very advanced ways.

What can ordinary people like us do? The very first thing is, grow up first. Grow up yourself. Then there will be enough confidence to help others. If there is potential, there will be help from above. We call it the gurufield. They can detect who is capable of helping and they then make some adjustments. They turn some buttons here and there and help in this work. I always remember this movie, it is called the Adjustment Bureau. It is a very good movie if you want some good entertainment and an idea of how the gurufield works in the lives of those who are helping and those who are getting the help. This is the movie, the Adjustment Bureau. It is a very funny movie, but this kind of discussion always reminds me of that movie. Because I have seen this happening myself. Some adjustments are made. For 90% of the time, it will be a very small adjustment. The tiniest possible. They are minimalist. They will do only that much, which is required. Not too much.

Siddhartha is asking, how can one ensure that they find Guru in all lives, if one cannot get in touch with the Gurufield?

The first method is prayer. You can pray right now that I should get a Guru in every life. Your prayer will be heard. And the second way is to cultivate the intense desire for knowledge, desire for liberation. So every time that creature will be born with this desire and he will find a Guru. Who else will help him? Only a Guru.

The third way is to develop a loving relation with your existing Guru that will cause a birth which is entangled with the birth of the Guru. We take advantage of the same rule that causes birth in the same family again and again with the same people. It is very well known that people with very strong bonds take birth in the same family. So the daughter was grandmother and the brother was grandfather and so on. The same stuff, the same part of the memory repeats in every birth. Why is that? Because of the strong karmic bonds. So we exploit this property. It is called hacking the causal body. Instead of having some bonds with worldly people, you cultivate a bond with your existing Guru. Hopefully you like him or her, become very attached. It is almost a guarantee that it will cause this kind of connection again.

I mentioned it many times actually, that the strongest connection one can have is connection with the Guru. Nothing is stronger than this. No other relation is stronger than this. It cannot even be called a relation. I always call it connection. That is most obvious. The connection is so strong that even if the Guru does not want to come back and the student is there, found in the world again, he will say, okay, I need to go back now. My student is down there out of compassion or this connection. Or some arrangement will be made. Remember there are many ways to help. To take up a body next to the student, that is a very extreme thing to do. Something will be done. I know for example that sometimes I find very ancient Gurus that are still connected to me. Very ancient. It will be very difficult for me to find any proof of it because as you know, this is all very subjective. Everybody needs to take their own proof.

So I gave you three methods. There is a fourth method which is a secret. It is an occult method that knowingly we form a bond, knowingly we make an intention and make it strong with some kind of occult ritual. So I know a simple method, but it can be something very elaborate. I have done this with one of my Gurus and it involved something which should not be mentioned actually, but I found a very decent method and I am using it for some of my very close seekers, students, and it is an experiment. Let us see if we find each other again.

There is one more which is very simple. It is simply touching the Guru. So there is a tradition in this country that whenever you visit a Guru or some wise man, somebody whom you respect, you touch their feet and the Guru touches your forehead or the top of the head and that actually causes a bond, a connection. And that is why many of the Gurus, they don't allow anybody to touch them because it becomes an overload then. Yes, there is no progress without a Guru. There is no point of living human life without anybody to guide.

So use any method you like and ensure that you continue this path. Prayer is very good, very effective also. None of your prayers will be heard, that is guaranteed, except this one. This is always heard. If you want money, if you want fame, if you want this, that, any kind of worldly success, nothing will be heard. As soon as you want spiritual progress, there is always somebody who will notice something will be done. Now it totally depends on the readiness of the student also, whether he will perceive that hint. He is roaming around in the library and a book falls on his feet. I don't think people are so aware that they will pick up the book and try to understand why that happened. Hopefully the book is not very heavy like a brick and that can change their lives if they notice something like this.

They are minimalist. They will never do anything extraordinary. Even if the student is very, very extraordinary, you can say something more than minimal will be done, a little bit more. The intensity of the student is more important. How intensely they want to be guided. If you have too much intensity, what will you do? You will pray every day. Remember the prayer here is not the religious prayer where you are begging to some kind of invisible entity somewhere. No, not this. You have a real desire to progress spiritually. That is the real prayer anyway. All other prayers are useless, a waste of time. I surrender and I want to progress. This is the only prayer in the whole existence.

If there is more intensity, you are going to pray every now and then. It is like stirring the pot again and again, and more and more hints and more and more help comes to you. But if you don't act on it, then they stop sending it also. I sent you this, you did not do that. I sent you the book, you did not read it. I sent you a friend who told you to join the program, you did not join it. I sent you these videos, you did not watch it and you keep praying. So who will help you then?

The opposite is also possible. You take every random event in your life as help and nobody likes it. Too stupid to be helped. Everything in their life is a divine sign of some kind, then there is no hope. If that student is intelligent, uses his intelligence to find out, oh this thing is something out of ordinary. This never happens. This is a sign. Now I need to act here. Is the sign positive? Is it negative? Is it saying something? Is it not saying something? Should I ask somebody? Like this. If you start acting on the signs, more signs will appear. Like those who are willing to learn, if they start learning sincerely, then the teacher is more willing to teach. Same thing. If you follow the instructions, more will be given and that makes your progress very fast. You will come to know what is a sign, what is not a sign. Some people look for signs in extraordinary states. Oh something happened in my dream when I was half unconscious. Some meaningless pictures appeared in my dream. That is a sign. No, no, no. The signs are always noticeable.

See if I want to tell you something important, I won't appear in the middle of the night in darkness in your window and whisper something in the window which you will never even hear because you are sleeping. Only a very, very mentally retarded person will do this kind of message transmission. If I want you to notice, what will I do? I will appear in front of you when you are fully awake, you are listening, you are seeing and I repeat two or three times what I want to tell you. Look, this is important, this is the message, you need to do this. Then I check back again, is there any confusion, is it clear, is the instruction clear, you see? And then it is effective in plain English, straightforward. Any intelligent person will do like this if they want, if they really want to send a message to you. If you are half-drunk, you are unconscious, you have fallen on the floor and I speak something very, very softly in Chinese, can that be called effective communication? No. So do not look for signs in some useless state of mind, nobody will come there to give you any sign. It will happen when you are wide awake in front of you, in front of your eyes or that will appear in the body because that is the best possible. You won't notice what is happening around you, but hopefully, surely you will notice what is happening in your body. These are some things which I learned from my experience. Look for a feeling after you pray, do not just get up and run, sit down peacefully. Silence your mind, silence your body, look for signs of communication.

Vikas is asking, how can a master/guru help after the student has realized the non-dual nature of reality since the reality of the guru and student gets seen to be the same. I am curious how that relationship would proceed, if it is not too personal, I would love to hear your experience.

What help do you need? What kind of help are you expecting?

By help I mean, is there further guidance on how to navigate illusion, for example. Totally depends on the desire of the student, what he wants to do. If there is a desire to study the illusion and all, yes, guidance will be given. If there is no desire, then nothing will be given. My experience here is, if I want something for myself, it is rarely given, but if I want something for others, there is a good chance that it will be given. This is my personal experience. Probably the message here is that, others' benefit is your benefit, stop asking for “me, me, me”.

Actually there is a twist here, that whatever you ask will not be given, whatever you need will be given. Suppose you are a drug addict, you ask your guru, please tell me where can I find cheap drugs. Now obviously that kind of help will not be given. Something will be given, some kind of punishment, some kind of lesson, so that you get rid of this habit. You need to ask for it, otherwise nothing is done. I have seen that in the gurufield it is mostly like a computer, very mechanical. Just like Google, if you don't search, Google is not going to give you any answers. You need to search, you need to be very specific, then you get the correct answers. So if you simply ask, “please help me”, nothing will come. Nobody has the time to find out what is wrong with you, what you need. So be very specific, what do you want and if it is for your benefit or for the benefit of others, it will be done.

Jayesh is asking, you said you will get what you need, but there is no person here, all the desires of mine only. And one more question, why is helping others and doing something called good to others is emphasized? Aren't - good/bad - our terminologies of duality?

Yes, never mix the truth with the false. As long as the student is in duality, as long as there is a need to help, it will be treated as truth and the help will be given. It's very simple. There is no person, that is the truth. But what is the ignorance in the student? That these desires are mine, I am a person. Now that person who is not there needs help and something will be done for that. So it is never decided like this that what is good and what is bad. The criterion is - what is needed. Just now I gave an example of drug addiction. The mission of the guru is to remove the suffering, to destroy the suffering, but here punishment is given, which is suffering. So is it good or is it bad? That which is needed is done. It's very simple.

Vikas is asking, in regard to the specificity of the question, I just can't seem to have any question apart from deep hope, which is to never have any future births in ignorance. It's painful to live without spiritual understanding. I guess that I truly desire to continue to be more aware and continue to remain established in this knowledge.

Yes, this is a good prayer, and if there is an intensity in you to be like this, you need to repeat it again and again every day. Something will be done. The only thing is you should not forget that you were never born. Otherwise, the lesson will be to make you realize who you are instead of making you continue in birth after birth with the same ignorance.

There is this one aspect to prayer, but the other aspect is to make efforts to get rid of this need to pray again and again, isn't it? So what is the correct prayer here? Let that happen, which is best for everyone. This is my prayer. No, I am so afraid that I will be born in darkness and so on. That means you are not progressing.

Jayesh is saying, why something as minuscule as the human mind is given in the monopoly to take out other minds, people from ignorance? Why is Gurufield/UM not removing all suffering the mind is creating? Is this all a game?

Yes, it is a game. Actually there is no suffering.

They can remove all the suffering in one go, they’re so powerful, but it must happen like this. The example is when you plant a mango tree, do you get mangoes tomorrow? Suppose you are a magician, you can do that, you can get the mangoes tomorrow, but what is the point? Don't even plant it, make the mangoes appear directly on your dining table,, isn't it better? Why do you bother to plant the tree and why do you pluck the mangoes? Just get the taste in your mouth of mangoes directly and why get the taste? Just remove this desire to eat mangoes, everything is fine. Why is there a desire? Just get rid of this creature who wants mangoes and anything and now you see there is nothing left to do.

The game is to plant the tree, wait for 10 years and then enjoy the mangoes. This is the game. Do you want to play it? Yes, go ahead, do it. Otherwise there is really no need to do anything.

So this gurufield is much more intelligent than we can think of. It is simply like a play because they know that nothing is really happening here. Nobody takes birth, nobody suffers, nobody is in ignorance, nobody needs to be liberated. It is already a play. Then they get involved in the play. They become playful themselves. They twist the play so that it is the most entertaining play.

So it is our ignorance that we say, why don't they simply remove it in one go? There is no need really. Just like there is no need to taste mangoes or to desire mangoes. But if the play is going on, then it is very entertaining to participate in the play. They see that the dream is going on. Yes, how can I make this dream very, very entertaining, the best possible dream? Actually it is best already, but they want to contribute here a little bit. Just like your boss, you do the best possible work in the office, but he thinks I am not contributing. This fellow is better than me. So he says, erase everything, do it again. And you do the same thing and he says, yes, see, my feedback always works. Now you are much better.

The Maya is absolutely beautiful, perfect, but there is a desire to do something and that desire is the desire to grow, progress. That is also very perfect, beautiful. How to play this game? Those who don't want to play, they are left alone. You see, the guru field will not interfere because they know everything is happening perfectly. They ask - who wants to play? Who wants to learn and so on? Then they enter into the scene. Otherwise you will be left alone in your perfection.

It is very much like a writer writing a novel or a story. The heroine in the novel is crying. Now the writer has full powers to stop her from crying. But will they do it? Will they even imagine a woman crying in the novel? He can end the story in one line - very happy woman - end of the story. Who will buy this book? So he imagines a lot of suffering for that girl and she is crying. Now he twists the story and brings in some kind of help there, some kind of romance, some tears, some laughter, something beautiful, something ugly, some struggle. Now everybody is going to read this book and the writer gets the satisfaction of creating a story there.

You can end the story in one line - “everybody is happy in this book”. Nobody would read it. Or if there is nothing in the book, a blank book. Where is the fun in that? So the Maya is like this. It can twist anything that it can twist. It won't make it straight. Just like Indian classical music. If they can twist it, they will twist it. They will make it curly, curvy and go in loops and so on. Just like the Indian architecture also. You can check all the temples. Nothing is straight there. If something is straight, they carve it so that it becomes really ornamental. So the whole Maya is like this. The gurufield is a part of the Maya and they are friends with the Maya, they don't want to oppose it.

Why are you causing the births of the creatures, they suffer and they are ignorant? No no no no. Ok, do whatever you are doing, we will do our thing, we will contribute to your play. This whole dream is only a joke. We have heard many gurus say this. Once you get knowledge, you will say that it was a big joke only, cosmic joke. So many people laugh when they get knowledge. There are many stories like this. The Laughing Buddha is one, the story of Rajneesh, Osho, another. Probably there are many more.

So those who are up there, they don't do anything, they simply play and we call it Leela. Ram Leela, Krishna Leela, this Leela, that Leela. For them everything is play. And they cause all kinds of twists in the play. The intelligence here is so high that it is beyond our human intelligence. That cannot be called intelligence also. It is human stupidity. Nobody likes to see everything perfect as the stupid mind expects it to be.

There are many people in this world who have everything. They are in abundance. They eat whatever they want. That life is so boring, they say, it's very boring. So they want adventures and they go and do something which is adventurous, which involves risk, failures, challenges, and so on. It is a play. When you are playing, you are enjoying yourself. If you are simply sitting there without suffering, there is nothing to do actually.

That's why we say there is no real suffering. It is a play. Just like the writer is causing some kind of dramatic suffering in the novel, this illusion is causing all kinds of twisted things in the creation, which is itself, isn't it? The creation and you are one. The creator is the creation. So it has the full freedom to do whatever it wants, you see. Then the human being appears here and says, why is everything happening like this? I want to do something else. And this is actually part of the story. Then the writer will make him realize that, look, this was a play. This story never ends, like the Terminator movies. Why don't they simply make a movie where everything ends? No. They want another movie next year. People keep watching it. The robots never win, but the humans also never win. And you say, why is it going on? Why don't you end it? Where is the fun in that? Ending things is boring.

Graham is saying, sometimes I think seekers are the ones who are confused. We are in a play, but instead of being a good actress, we keep interrupting and saying, this is just a play. Maybe all the other actors already know that, but they play their part better than us.

Don't worry. You won't keep doing this forever. That I am awakened, that I know this is an illusion, I am the whole existence, so on. This is actually a script. This changes very quickly. The next part of the movie will be that you forget who you are. Play starts again. Don't worry. You are not interrupting. You are being directed. The seeker is already following the directions of the director. Simply acting. See, nothing really is happening here. Nothing worth mentioning is happening here.

Dinesh is saying, this world/nature is just like a school where we want to know who I am. And if we are just coming, just taking birth, it will be a bad dream.

Yes, that is also play, isn't it? That is why those who are suffering, they are left to suffer. Those who are seeking, they are helped in a very twisted way. Those who are happy, they seek some challenge or risk or something. Everything is unstable here, nothing remains. So right now your role is to find out who you are. Once you find out, your role will change into something else. Now you help others to find out who they are. Once that is done, now there is nothing to do, isn't it? No, there is always something to do. Somebody else has forgotten. The whole existence is gone, out of existence. So the play goes on, you see. The show must go on. In the story book, the writer can make the character say, I am the writer. Look, I am a creation of the writer. I know that this thing is being written by the writer. He can make the character say like this, but who knows this? Not the character. The writer himself becomes aware. So the existence becomes aware through you. Those who could not get the bottom line, this is the whole joke. Is there any meaning in this? No, totally meaningless. Is anybody getting anything? No. Did anything happen? No.

Vikas is saying, it can be a cruel joke.

That is the character saying. Writer is making the character say, look, there is a cruel joke here. Whatever you say about it, will be wrong. So many times I say, the gurufield is nothing but just jokers. They are comedians, actually. Not only me, anybody who has an encounter with the gurufield will say the same thing. Never serious. Whenever they appear serious, that is already some kind of act. So that is my Brahma Leela, always keep that in mind. That is why Maya is shown as a playful woman, not as a worker in the factory who keeps creating all this stuff day and night. There is nothing serious here. If the business of creation and evolution, knowledge, spiritual progress, whatever, if it were real, Maya would be pictured like a laborer who is laboring to create something to make it perfect and so on. These ancient people, they understood everything crystal clear about it all.

Vikas is saying, I heard Lakshmanjoo, called Shiva, a bloody fool, in Tandralok translations. I think I just understood what he actually means.

Yes, he is called Nataraja. That means somebody who puts on shows, an actor. The “nut” is actually not the English nut, the Sanskrit Nata, is a person who works in a circus of some kind, shows the tricks on the street and he is the king of these people, Shiva. So they know exactly what is going on here. The ancient people knew all these things perfectly. You are serious.

Parteep is saying, the guru business is the biggest joke too, but played so sincerely.

Yes, the guru is slightly closer to Shiva. So he displays that character better than the worldly person. The worldly person is dead serious. Guru is always playing, everything is made up, everything is a lie and it is exactly that which advances the plot. And the plot here is the acting, the role of the guru here is to make the student progress. This is the plot here. If you take it seriously, it will become a burden. Nobody will progress. That is guaranteed.

She is saying, in one satsang you said something about how you learned Sanskrit and how now you can understand why things are placed in certain ways in temples. Like there are ponds, where there are ponds, what is written on stones, can you please tell us something about it?

Yes, the temples are not actually a place of worship. There is no god in temples. They are like museums, where children go and learn about dinosaurs and all these things. All the ancient temples were built like this. The temples that are built today are simply a device to earn money, that's all, to fool people. So you will always find it's like a puzzle. They are trying to show something. Why is there a very fierce creature guarding the gate of the temple? They don't want you to enter there or what? And why are there naked women everywhere in the temple? Is this not a place of worship? What is this? Isn't that wrong? Unethical? Immoral? Whatever you call it.

No, everything has a meaning. Why is there a pond, little swimming pool, where you wash your feet and so on? Why is there fire or lamps or candles? Everything has a meaning. And how can you understand it? By knowing. So once you get the knowledge, the temple will start speaking about what it is hiding. Everything will be revealed to you. Otherwise it's a story. So my suggestion is to get the knowledge and experience it yourself. What they wanted to tell via the temple and how it has degraded completely now. People have become ignorant and fallen.

Temples were like universities. Some temples, we call them the Occult temples, are experimental labs. People used to experiment there. There are still some left actually, but they don't look like temples. Because in the olden days, they had a lot of money, gold etc.They could make all these beautiful tall buildings. Nowadays we are poor, we don't have any sense of aesthetics now. So we make a box of bricks and we do our business there. There are some ashrams and temples, like these institutes, where the teaching is going on or where the experiments are going on in India and other places also. But it is never told, it is kept secret. Like a top secret company doing top secret research somewhere, they never tell what they are studying. Once the results are out, if it is worth telling, then they tell everybody that we found this thing. We developed new technology and new software. Because the product is already in the market now. But the lab is always 20 years ahead of the market.

Same way, whatever is going on in the occult field or spiritual field is never told to the general public. They have almost disappeared. Some are working, but secretly. So how do I know they are there, they are working? Either I know some people whom I trust, they tell me, I can blindly trust them and I have seen it myself sometimes. I have seen the experiments going on in many places, but because they are secret, nobody will believe these things. My recommendation is don't go to any temple which is not older than 1000 years at least. If you find a temple which is older than 1000 years, yes, you will find some carvings and so on. There will be some stories, there will be some knowledge there. So that is for the general public, you see. For a seeker, simply go to the guru, ask whatever you want to know. It is a total waste of time to go to a temple to learn something. Those who don't want to study, those who don't want to know, those who don't have any concern with the guru or the path, they keep doing all these things. Which temple is the best, what happens in the temple, total waste of time, stupidity. All the knowledge is here and now. You don't need a temple.

Yes, if you don't want it, then you will find any distractions for yourself. So first get the knowledge, then spend your time traveling here and there to find out. It is exactly the same thing which my guru told me, nothing new. This country is full of these kinds of places actually, but they have become tourist attractions. We have opened our own personal temple that is called the path of knowledge program, an online temple. Hopefully everybody is enjoying it and learning from there. So unfortunately we cannot build these kinds of beautiful, expensive temples now. Somehow we are continuing the show and once you graduate you need to continue the show, those who are capable and those who are interested. Many people are doing it in our group, don't take it too seriously, make your own temple, start playing.

Session 199

Vandana is asking, what is energy leakage and how to prevent it? Is it loss of your physical energy or mental energy, loss of health happening due to incorrect practices or due to some other metaphysical reasons?

There can be many reasons, but knowing the reason is not important, treating it is important. So how to prevent it or how to treat it is by abandoning anything that is faulty practice. Do not do anything which is not given by your teacher. Our body is and the mind is already protected by mother nature. There is a natural shielding already there, but due to faulty practices it can get damaged. So the first thing to do is not to do these kinds of practices without consulting a good teacher. And if you happen to get these leakages, immediately you should stop doing the practices and ask your guru or teacher to give you some methods to restore the shielding. That is the best way.

Leyla is asking, what are faulty practices?

Anything that causes harm, physical, mental, financial, anything that brings suffering to you, instead of improving things, if that practice is causing harm, it will be called a faulty practice. And people do these practices because they don't have proper knowledge or they don't have any guidance. And sometimes they continue thinking that these are the side effects of the practice. Sometimes there are some practices which can cause a little bit of discomfort, but that's not a big thing. If it continues for many many years, that means it is a faulty practice. Or sometimes you will come to know very quickly that you are doing something which is not suitable for you. It can be suitable for somebody else, but it is faulty for you.

And if the problem is very big, if one individual cannot handle it, then you will need some professional healers, healing services. Energy leakage will happen anytime, whether you are aware or not aware. So again that is not dependent on the state. Usually the reverse will happen. When you are resting, this loss of energy stops. But when you are working or when you are outside, when you are talking to people, energy is drained. Some events can cause temporary energy leakage, but it should go away as soon as that situation is cleared. If it is permanent, that means you need repair.

Graham is saying, we know others are also us, can you talk about how we deal with others when they try to steal or harm us?

It is very easy. Forget about your teaching, forget about spirituality and deal with everybody as any ordinary person deals. There is no special way. What is recommended is, you yourself do not do all these things. That can be recommended, that you be in knowledge and do not act in these ways, which are harmful for others and yourself. But you cannot tell that to somebody else, especially those who are ignorant. They are not going to understand, even if you are in 100% awareness or 100% knowledge, they are going to do whatever they do and then you need to forget the knowledge and become practical. If you are dreaming and a tiger is chasing you in the dream, you should run. There is no point in saying that this is a dream, because the tiger is going to eat you anyway. You know this is a dream, but the tiger does not. So in a dream, it is not a big deal because you will wake up from the dream, but here it is more stable, so that harm will stay with you as long as there is life. If it is stealing or harming, abusing, no problem, it goes away very quickly. But if somebody is trying to kill you, causing some kind of damage, then you need to take action.

It is ok if something is stolen. You can say that it was not mine and he also got some of it, no problem, I will get more of it. That much wisdom is okay, but when it comes to protection, self-protection, protection of the family, defense, you simply kill the other person. So the teaching is not prescribing any action. The teaching is simply saying, do whatever is necessary. Probably I repeat this in every satsang. Do whatever is necessary.

Laila is saying, so we should deal with others at their level.

Yes, if that is necessary, you should. If somebody is pointing a gun at you, are you going to teach him non-dual philosophy? That you and I are one? Impossible, isn't it? That is not necessary. What is necessary is that you protect yourself. Protect the body.

Leila is asking, do what you need to do but don't get attached to the actions?

See if you are doing something which is necessary, there won't be any attachment. It is automatic. Because there is no actor really. Nobody is there to act, there is no doer. And if it happens in a necessary way, this is always the case. The non-doer will shine there. For example, you touch the hot pan and immediately an action happens. The hand is removed from there. Now who did it? Obviously nobody. And what is the consequence of this action? Are you attached to that action? Oh no, I did it. Or I did such a great thing, I removed my hand from the stove. No. You simply realize it happened.

Somebody attacked you, you killed that person. It happened, you see. This is the tendency of this creature to protect itself. Will you be attached? No. Even lawmakers know these things. If you kill somebody in self-defense, they don't send you to jail. There has to be an intention for the crime. So violence is good if it is done for your own protection. That is why they call their armies the Department of Defense. Although they are killing everybody for greed or for money or for land or oil or whatever they are after, but they call it the Department of Defense. Because then people get a good image of them - oh there is somebody to defend me. But what they are defending is their government, not people. People are simply resources for them who pay taxes. So anyway that was off topic.

You need to do something which is necessary and it has no karmic consequences. If you do something which is unnecessary, then there are thousands of consequences. You have enough food in your house. You have skills to earn. You have a healthy body, healthy mind. And after that you are stealing or you are killing somebody or you are lying or using somebody to get more benefit. That is not necessary. That is coming from a distortion in the mind. That is coming from a mental disease. Now it is going to have consequences. It is very important to recognize what is necessary. Do whatever is necessary. Actually this sentence is so small, but its meaning is very big.

So coming back to this topic of what we should do with these people who are inhuman, who are below animals. The first thing is, whatever the law says in your country, you should do that. Let the law handle and if you have extra time, which I don't think anybody has these days, you can try to find out the history of that person. Why did he do that? Why did he steal? Then you go and meet him if he is still alive. In some countries they simply kill these people. So go and meet him, ask him, why did you steal? And probably one in a million cases he will say something logical, there will be a story there. He will be a good person. Somehow he was in a bad situation so he was forced to do that. He lost his control and at that time you can help. At that time you can help him in any way you can possibly without making him dependent on you, otherwise he will keep coming to you.

So this one in a million case you can handle like this and I will tell you it is a waste of time. Don't waste your time. Keep your door locked. This era is called Kalyuga. There are still some areas in this world where nobody will steal anything and they are extremely prosperous countries, extremely rich countries, well educated, well cultured countries and if you want to do these things, you should move to those countries. Otherwise you need to protect yourself. Those who deserve punishment, they should be punished. Those who deserve help, they should be helped. And those who deserve both, give them both.

From the point of view of the path of knowledge, it is unnecessary attachment with the worldly stuff. Why? Because you are dealing with people, you are worried about your belongings and so on. Just forget and move on. That is what anybody on the path of knowledge will do. Take the proper action, move on. Don't indulge in the world. Don't spend your time on people. When you do these things, it tells only one thing that there is still attachment with the world and worldly stuff. We know that when you try to harm somebody, when you try to kill somebody and so on, that is a sure sign that you are attached to the world and worldly things. You want this to happen, that's why you are doing it. That is a sign of attachment. But helping somebody, unnecessary compassion where it is not needed, that is also a sign of attachment that you care too much about the world. That means this teaching that everything is perfect as it is, is ignored.

Minimal action, do not do anything that is more than absolutely necessary. These teachings should not be given in public because it seems like the Guru is trying to make everybody selfish. So what do we tell them in public? Help everybody, do charity, do good for everyone. You are the same as everybody. Your essence is the same as everyone’s essence. But what does that mean? That means you do not cause any harm knowingly. When you are in awareness like this, only good actions will happen. Proper action will happen. But it does not mean that you go ahead and meddle in worldly affairs. So these things are not told to the public. As soon as you engage with the world, your fall will start. Actions will happen and you will be forced to take birth again which is what we are trying to avoid.

Vikas is asking, can we think of Kaliyuga as an illusory era where time, thoughts, perceptions agreed upon by everyone to be something real and Satyuga where the non-existence of time perception is seen clearly by everyone?

All eras are illusory and only those who have knowledge can see these things. The Satyuga is not defined as a time full of people on the path of knowledge, no. It simply means that people are happy there. There is more knowledge, yes, but it is not wise to expect that everybody will have this kind of knowledge. They are very happy people.

Why? Because there is dominance of knowledge. The powerful people in society are on the path of knowledge. That is the Satyuga. Sat means truth. The Kaliyuga is opposite, where the ignorant are powerful. You can see it with your eyes. As soon as it started and after the end of Mahabharata, Kaliyuga started and only the ignorant people ruled after that. Before that we had people like Krishna, kings, Janak, all these kings were there. There were bad kings also, but very rare and as soon as the time changed, all the stupid people rose in power. The violence is seen as a sign of power in this age. So everybody is violent. All ruling classes are violent, greedy and unethical. There are no good rulers left now. So that causes suffering in the world. Even though there are good people in the world, they are born in a place where they face the suffering created by others.

All the eras are already illusory, the time is illusory and all the perceptions are illusory in every kind of age and culture. So even if they don't see this, they are happy in those ages because they are being taken care of. And anybody who wants knowledge gets the knowledge because this is their birthright. And nowadays, no, you cannot get it. You have become a mental slave of the ignorant people. That is why indoctrination is so harmful because you are indoctrinated as soon as you are born. They never ask you, do you want to learn something new? Do you want to know the truth? What do parents tell you? Look, this is the truth. You should do like this and that's all. Are they bad? They are themselves indoctrinated. So stupidity breeds stupidity. And that is the sign of this age of darkness. Although that can happen in Satyuga also, it will be very rare. Like we read in Ramayana, there were bad people. The biggest villains are found in these ages. We think that the time of Ramayana must be very good. Look at that story. All kinds of bad people are there. They are pictured as monsters. That's what they are. There are no real monsters, only people. But they behave like monsters.

Nowadays, there are good people on this planet. Are they capable of doing anything? No, powerless. So in the right kind of era, the power shifts from the bad to good. That's all. There will be some small cycles in Kaliyuga also where this will happen in some small parts of the world. But they will never approach this kind of purity which happened in Satyuga. You see, you don't need knowledge to be happy. You just need the right environment. Knowledge is needed when you have this extraordinary ability to understand something. It is not correct to imagine that in Satyuga, everybody will be a genius. Not possible. Yes, everybody will be happy.

Someone is asking, how watching your body's movements in out of body experience is different

than just being an observer?

It will be called concentration, not awareness or being the observer. Awareness is something which is wide, inclusive. It is a knowing. It is a state where you know who you are. It is not dependent on what you are observing, where your focus is, where your attention is.

All the states are out of body states only. All states are projections, including this one. So that will be attention practice, not awareness. Just being an observer means awareness practice. It also does not mean that you stop doing anything and just be an observer. No. Let the body and mind do whatever they do normally and you be the observer. You stay in your own nature. Instead of identifying with whatever is moving or doing, it should not stop the actions. It will stop the unnecessary actions. Yes, that is the obvious result of being in awareness that anything which is unnecessary is automatically stopped. It includes actions, speech and thoughts. Only the necessary is done. So that is why we cannot do anything which is necessary simply by wishing for it. You need to be in awareness. Then it automatically happens. This is the shortcut. Otherwise the other method is discipline and training, which is done for those who cannot have the knowledge.

So all experiences are illusory. Paying attention is different from being aware.

Rajiv is asking, how can the attachment of an ignorant like me be removed without your grace? At worldly level, with my little intellect, I think I only try to do what is necessary, but still the attachment is formed in the form of worrying for their children's safety. Despite knowing that at the worldly level they are facing the fruits of their karma, I am in turmoil every now and then.

Then you wait and let it pass. Is it necessary that you come in the total attachment in one day? Is that a requirement on the path of knowledge? Why are you expecting this much from the path of knowledge? It is not magic. Is it necessary that all the fruits of the path of knowledge happen in one day, overnight?

Rajiv is saying, maybe I am expecting the worldly things to get over faster.

What do you mean by faster? How fast do you want it? Okay, then don't worry about it. What has happened is you heard that these are the fruits of the path of knowledge and then you got the knowledge. Now you are saying, okay, two days have passed, one week passed, I am not getting the fruits. This is the problem. Everything happens at the right time. Whatever pre-allocation you are born with will be exhausted at its decided time. And what should you do while this is happening? Be in awareness, okay, this is happening. So these things are very simple and our mind makes it complicated. There is over expectation. Something breaks in my house and I get immediately worried. Now I will need to fix it. How will I manage? And so on. And then the awareness comes. This also should be done. This will also happen in this dream. Do I say why my life is not perfect already? That is ignorance. Why is everything in my family not perfect? Why is everybody in this world not perfect already? And that is called ignorance. Becoming aware in any situation right now is knowledge. Your problem is too much thinking and too little awareness.

Kanika has one more question. Could you please elaborate more on I and you, dialogue of oneness?

As soon as you know there is no “I”, then “you” also disappears. Now I can say you are me, which I say many times, but that is not correct, isn't it? There is no me. It's more correct. So what can I say about you? You are also that, which I am, because somebody who has no knowledge or ignorant or is new on the path of knowledge will not understand if I tell him that you are me, and they will say no, it's impossible, I am much better or something like that. So for that we invent this word existence or Brahman. I am Brahman, you are also Brahman. Now there is a little bit of acceptance, looks like that I am also that great thing which my Guru is. Some more opening is there. So we don't say that you are me, we say that you are Brahman, because that is the essence of everybody. When I say that you and I are one, it is very difficult to comprehend. It is almost impossible to understand how that is possible. So we use something which is intermediate, which is the true nature or experiencer. I am the experiencer. Now the person is interested in knowing who am I? So we tell him, you are the experiencer. Initially we don't tell them that they are one thing, so we keep telling them that you are that. Then we tell them, look you are Brahman also, you are the existence. And then even a child will understand that everybody is the same. So when the I disappears, the you also disappears. Probably it's not good to elaborate these things, less you say, better it is.

Graham is asking, is it okay to say the fundamental vibration is oscillation between nothing and existence?

No. It is a change of two states. And the states are always of the existence. There is no non-existence. Nothing means non-existence. So existence is found in two states. You can call it on and off, one and zero, knowledge and ignorance, awareness, non-awareness, manifested and manifested. You see, any pair will do because names are meaningless. So you find any pair which is equal and opposite and that will be a good model of oscillation or vibration. What is existence? Pure knowing, pure consciousness. So can it become something else? Impossible. That is why the vibration is virtual, which means it does not really happen. The state of the existence seems to change, but it does not really change because there is no change here. It is unchanging, immutable. So it dreams up the change. That is all we know. It is a dream. And the dream is very simple, that it is assumed that there are two states. There is no other language to say this, actually. Why it is happening, how it is happening, it is all unknowable. It is not happening. It is being. So there is no process there.

Many people will think that when the existence becomes zero, it is one phase of the vibration. When it becomes something, it is another phase. It is always zero, always empty. So nothing would mean that there is no emptiness also, no zero also. Which is meaningless. It is never seen like this. Because as soon as it becomes nothing, there is no chance of something coming from nothing. From nothing, only nothing can come. This is the logical law. Nothing will never produce anything. It will never produce the existence back. So it is all probability, only possibility, potential. And that is why we say nothing happens. Nothing is actually happening.

Kanika is saying, is Brahman evolving too?

There is the appearance of evolution. So in the non-dual state we cannot say that it is not doing this, it is doing this. Because it is doing everything. So it is evolving. It is devolving. It is creating. Destroying. What it is not doing. Because it is completeness, wholeness. So the answer is always yes. But actually it is empty. Meaningless. These are only words. It is what it is.

Leyla is asking, is existence emptiness but appears as something?

Yes. That is what we say actually. That it is emptiness where there is a possibility for something to appear but never really appears. Seems to appear. Like a dream. Like you dream in the night, all kinds of events that happen, never really happen. There can be questions like why, how and all. These questions are meaningless. You will never find an answer. All you find is a negative answer. Your intellect will be wiped clean. It will stop the unnecessary activity. That which cannot be known by intellect, you are trying to know it by asking questions. So the answer is to be what it is. Which you already are. Problem solved.

Siddharth is saying, the entire waking state seems like being in limbo.

Limbo is something else but yes it is like a dream. When your awareness becomes very high, everything will look fake and plastic. It is worthless. So that is why you see on the path of knowledge there are no recommendations of what you should do, or what you should not do. Because it is plain, obvious for anybody who is in awareness. No instructions needed. So the only instruction is - be in awareness. Then everything happens as it must happen. This is the only instruction here. Nothing else is taught. You must be thinking, no, no, there is a 30 video course you are conducting. You are teaching a lot. No. We are removing things that are obstructing your awareness. That's all. This question, that question. Why do I take trouble to answer all these? So that you can come in awareness. Stop thinking too much. Why are your problems being solved and so on? To remove the obstacles to awareness. So those who are already in awareness, have nothing to do. No practice for you. Enjoy.

So in many traditions this thing is considered so valuable, so important that the guru takes his stick and beats out the ignorance from the student. He is punished so much that he comes in awareness. And then he is very thankful. It is like putting the dirty clothes in the washing machine. Clothes must be thinking, what a terrible kind of master I have. When they come out clean and dry, then the clothes are very thankful. So all kinds of tricks are done to bring you into this state. Because once you come here, nothing is done. Nothing is expected. No practices are given. People get very much worried that I am not giving them anything to practice. They think I am discriminating. No, you don't need to practice the dreaming state. Actually, I am very much impressed by them that they don't need to do anything. And if you are not given anything, well, you are good to go. Enjoy your life.

Rajiv is saying, can this also be put as, that the possibilities existing in emptiness are not something existing in something else, it seems, the emptiness itself is infinite possibilities.

Yes. That's what I am saying. You are the existence. You are dreaming yourself. There is only one thing - non-dual oneness. It does not happen that emptiness then becomes something, and on one side there is emptiness, the other side there is manifestation. No, never like this. Why would we call it non-duality, if it is like this? There is no duality, this is the basic teaching. This is essential knowledge. So there should not be any confusion.

One comes out of the other? No, that means duality, isn't it? Never happens. It remains one. Now explain all the experience. Appearance. Yes, non-duality can appear as anything. That does not become anything, but appears as anything. It need not become anything to appear. It must remain one. Even one is a number, you see. It is beyond one and zero also. It is both one and zero at the same time. So I am the one and I am the zero. So it is interesting that we call it emptiness, because that is also not correct. We call it emptiness, because we never see any substance in which there is possibility, which is taking form. Nothing is seen beyond the illusion. So what do we say? Emptiness. But the correct word is unknowable, agnostic. So I know both these words cause a lot of trouble. And that is why this word or non-duality was chosen very carefully because it is a negative word. It does not cause trouble. If you ask the Guru, is it one? Non-dual. Not two. Is it zero? Not two. What is it? Possibility? Not two. And if you ask him again, he will probably slap you. Because you don't get it. Don't impose concepts on that which is unknowable. Otherwise, what do you get? Ignorance. So we stick to not-two. Only playfully or casually, inaccurately, street language, we call it oneness, emptiness, sea of potential, Brahman, I. All wrong words. I like to call it I all the time because it has a big impact on the listener. I am everything. I am the existence - It leaves a big impact.

If you tell somebody that you are emptiness, you are nothingness, they are not impressed. You are Brahman - Now, that person is going to pay attention. As soon as you tell him that you are nothing with a lot of possibilities, he will probably choose somebody else as his guru. And telling somebody that you are the non-dual thing, does not do anything at all. So you see, to reach the truth, we need to go through lots of lies, as many lies as possible. Even then, people don't appreciate what this is. Because, yes, it is beyond intelligence, beyond intellect.

Don't even try to explain. Simply be that which you are. That means, you put it into practice, and that will cause appreciation. So, meaningless intellectual debate does nothing, actually. Nothing at all. Silence, bliss, being what you are, that is more effective. So, you see, the path of knowledge is very, very simple. Very quick, direct path. You are told who you are. Then, do not ask anything. Do not do anything. Be what you are. Do you have any doubts about what you are? Yes. Then you can ask me. The guru will say this, if no doubt remains in your mind, but the mind says, I also don't know what it is. That is the perfect situation. Because it knows, actually, that there is no point in knowing more than this. It is not possible to know more than this. And then start being what you are. That is called the awareness practice.

We stretch this path of knowledge too much, actually. It looks like some people are not happy being Brahman also. You see, they are shown that you are this whole existence. Still, they are not content with, not satisfied being that. What should I eat now? Which job should I do? My children are like this. I said, look, you are Brahman. That is okay. I don't mind being Brahman, but these more important things are there in my life. So, that is why sometimes we need to fall down and stretch this path, including all sorts of nonsense in this path to make that seeker feel better. There is a saying by somebody - Occasionally, people stumble on truth, but they get up, shake the dirt, walk as if nothing happened.

So, the truth is very simple, but the mind always wants something more complicated. I was always like this, while I was struggling to know something, that the Guru is giving a one-hour lecture, and I was totally bored. Can you tell me the essence of it? Can you tell me the bottom line? What is it? Why do you tell me 20 stories? Then one song in between? This is India, isn't it? There has to be a song. Can you tell me the point? So, I was always like this. I wanted the essence. And the Guru said, we don't do these things to teach the essence. These are there simply to trap the fish. We are catching the fish here. That is why there is free food in satsangs and so on, you see?

When I came to know the essence, it's not even worth mentioning, isn't it? You are the empty nothingness with only possibility. The possibility is what? To dream something meaningless. So, that is why it is not mentioned directly, you see? The truth is never told directly because nobody likes it. Nobody wants to be this Brahman. So, even if we take the direct path, it will be almost 100 kilometers long. And the more complicated your mind is, the longer we make it. And what happens is, it's not that the person will appreciate this thing. What happens is that the mind gives up, does not get anything better. And it is like somebody who is losing the match. Tried and tried and lost the match. So, the average seeker is like this. But usually we find some people who are full of gratitude as soon as they receive this teaching. And there is a story behind these people which only the Guru knows. They were also like this. They are also beaten and tired. But they have taken the beating in the last birth, previous lifetimes. Sometimes I see that. So, they were born here once again, only to break the last resistance. And these people, they start crying, realizing this.

Girendra is asking, could you please take some time here to tell me anything about my situation. During my Kundalini awakening process right now, I can't sleep at night for months now. I am eating less and less every coming month and peacefully vanishing my relations with people.

Tell me, are you happy or not? Are you enjoying this process or not? What else do you want? What is your wish?

Girendra is saying, I sometimes get confused because of sleepless nights.

My recommendation is, instead of getting confused, you become aware that this is a consequence of your practice. The other option is to sleep like an ordinary person, you sleep whenever there is sleep and you remain awake whenever there is a waking state. Then there won't be any confusion. The confusion is expecting too much. If something cannot happen and you expect that to happen, that will cause confusion.

But these effects are expected. Actually, people are doing practices so that they can get into your state of avoiding sleep, avoiding food, avoiding relations. They are working hard to become like you, which you have become by grace. Now there should not be any confusion. You are the one. There are thousands who are trying to get there where you already are. They are trying to induce the kundalini symptoms by hook or crook. The actual problem is adapting to the new situation.

You have done everything. You have gone to the doctors. You have taken the medicines. You know it is not physical. You have not become a mad person. Everything is fine. Now the only thing that remains to change is your attitude. Adapt to the new condition. Finally, when you are freed from human birth, there won't be any sleep. There won't be any hunger. There won't be any relations like we have in the human world. Is that a cause of confusion? You have become a deity. Whatever you call it, you see. Are they confused?

See, the kundalini causes evolution and people think that the symptoms of kundalini are a disease. This is the condition of ignorance here. This deep is the ignorance. That is why surrender is needed on the path. This path especially, on which you are on. Surrender is the key word here. Trust the process. That is why you need a guru because the guru can make you understand. I told you many times to find a guru. You want to be your own guru. That is the problem, isn't it?

People ask - What if this is a disease really and I am simply blindly believing that this is kundalini? I said, where is your guru? Obviously, they don't have anyone. That is why there is doubt, isn't it? So I tell them, go to the doctor. Why do you keep thinking every day that this is not kundalini? This is some kind of strange disease. Clear your doubt. And when the doctor also says that nothing is wrong with you, or the doctor may say it is something mental. Take a break, go on vacation, so on. And then you do as the doctor said. If you don’t trust this doctor, go to the Ayurvedic doctor. No problem, or a Homeopathic one, probably they know more? And if there is no improvement or a slight improvement, then any intelligent person should surrender and realize that these doubts are not correct. As soon as you surrender, as soon as you change your attitude, your symptoms will not be painful anymore. The pain is there because of resistance.

What are you trying to do? Let's take the example of sleep. The energy is transforming you from a simple ordinary human being to something else. It is showing you a glimpse of the coming future. I just want to sleep, go away, you say like this. And that conflict is the cause of discomfort. What if you simply accept, she is showing me something. Let me see how it is like to be without sleep. Like a curious child. You see, when people watch cricket matches, they don't sleep the whole night. No complaints. They can watch 20 matches all night, you see. Or movies if you don't like sports. Keep watching the movie all night, Netflix. I also did that actually. So why is that a pleasure and not a lack of sleep? Why is that? Because you are actually enjoying it. You are accepting it. This is called surrender.

Surrender is not like - do whatever you want to do with me. That is not surrender, that is stupidity. It has to be acceptance. Like when you love somebody, how do you surrender? It is just love. You cooperate. You take an interest in whatever the other is doing. You want to be with that person. No, no, don't come here - that is not love. So people don't understand what surrender actually is. You have nothing else to do. That is a big job, isn't it?

So you see, this is the disadvantage of not having an ashram setting, not having a guru. Because if you accept, if you really surrender and take up a spiritual life, you will be given some kind of service. If you live in the ashram, immediately these people are put on some kind of service. This is not my path so I don't do anything at all. I will never do anything because I am not authorized to do these things. They are immediately put on service. It can be physical work. Physical work is the best thing, the best cure of kundalini. If you want to call it a cure, be physical. It will balance everything. You will sleep and you will eat and whatever you say can happen. They are given these things because the guru knows what to do. And if you don't want to do anything at all because your all desires are dead. So the guru gives you something to do for others. You fulfill somebody else's desire. What do they want? Okay, today the people in the ashram want to eat some specific kind of food. You don't want anything obviously. But you are given this job to cook it. That brings balance.

So my suggestion is to find a guru and adopt a spiritual life. The other option is to cry like this every day. Kundalini is doing this. It is doing that. I am helpless. There is stupidity, isn't it? Now you need to adapt. Find the spiritual lifestyle. Find the guru. Take the instructions from the guru. He knows what to do.

Session 200

Ram is asking, Contradictory answers are given to the same questions in different satsangs.

What causes you to choose one answer versus another? Is it based on the need of the seeker?

Yes, it is based on the needs of the seeker. Whatever can make that seeker progress is told. Secondly, if I don't know where that seeker is, then some general answer is given, which can be twisted in any direction. So usually I try to find out what that person wants by asking questions. Instead of giving answers, the best thing to do is to ask questions. What do they want? Why are they in the program or in the satsang and so on. Then after suggesting a proper path, proper action, then a suitable answer is given to whatever he was asking. So the intention is always the progress of the seeker. Even if the answer is a complete lie, it is only for the good of the seeker.

There is a question by Vikas, between these two statements, which one would be more accurate? I feel it's the second one. Currently there are 30 people on this call sharing a common waking state. Currently there are 30 waking states appearing in shared awareness.

It is all the play of words. Words are not that important. Your knowledge is important. You can express it in any way. Both are correct. Yes, we can see people who are in the waking state, and we can see that the people are actually illusions, part of the dream. It is simply an experience that is appearing. There can be multiple viewpoints. It's not a big problem. And the ultimate viewpoint is that there is nothing really. There is only emptiness, which is apparent.

Like he was asking why the answers change. And we know that anything that changes is false. So answers are changing, they are all false. Actually no answer is true and no interpretation is true. If you use words to express your knowledge, it will always be false. So the true teaching is silence. But since nobody understands it, we need to speak. That is why I say, Guru always lies, never answers or the answer is such that there remains only silence. There remains nothing to think or there is no feeling that I got the answer. Nobody gets the answer here. The question is destroyed. This is the path of knowledge, where we start with lies and we end in silence, unknowing or agnostic position. You will never know anything. Whatever you know will be removed, whether it is true or false, it doesn't matter.

Everybody knows that the questions appear out of ignorance. And if the answer is given, that is also ignorance. But since the seeker cannot comprehend the silence, some answer is given. That answer is always such that it makes the seeker progress towards the silence. That is why on other paths, because the path of knowledge is very logical. So the seeker is expecting a very logical, precise answer. And exactly that is given. But on other paths, the seekers are not even allowed to ask questions. Because it is already realized that these questions and answers simply delay their silence. So if the questions keep coming, even after giving the knowledge, I can immediately see that the state of silence or awareness or bliss, whatever you want to call it, is not there. And then some drastic answers are given sometimes, which is simply a signal to the seeker that stop thinking, stop asking, be what you are. If you are still asking, that means what? You don't know what you are. Especially if the questions are related to basic knowledge. There can be practical questions, it's a different matter. Even after finishing the program, even after doing a lot of practice, if there remains these questions, where the essence is confused, then I become worried. That means so much hard work is wasted. So on the path of knowledge, we are putting more emphasis on bliss and silence, less on questions and answers. Just like the questions are a totally useless word soup, answers are also the same.

There is a period during which the seeker will be kind of unstable, but it should not last for more than three or four months. That is why we have a one month verification period here, where the seeker is allowed to oscillate between joining the path or leaving the path. Because the hearing has happened, the truth has been heard. Now find out, you were given one month. One month is a very long time actually, it should take one hour to find out whether what was said was true or not. Actually, as soon as you listen to something on the path of knowledge, it should be crystal clear that yes, this is true or this is not true. There should not be any doubts. Why are there doubts? Because there are gaps in knowledge. One thing was heard, the other thing was not heard, or the first thing was forgotten. The second thing is more juicy. So I've given one month's time, you can remain uncertain for that time. And then you need to choose the path or you need to reject the path. That is why the instruction is so clear, straightforward that if you cannot verify anything here, just leave the whole path of knowledge.

I know some people are still uncertain and they say, okay, I verified everything. Some people tell me that when I listen to you, everything is crystal clear, but then I am lost in my own thoughts, then everything becomes muddy and that is simply the lack of awareness. It is not that the teachings were unverified, it is simply that the person forgets completely.

I think it's the unbelievability of this non-dual reality that is what causes me to keep on confirming this absolute truth. Even though technically I have no questions, I don't feel like not asking questions some level. There is utter reverence, speechlessness.

It is not logical to say - unbelievable absolute truth, because if it is an absolute truth for you, then the disbelief will not be there. It simply means that you heard it, but you don't know whether it is true or not. That is why there is disbelief, but probably you mean the positive kind of disbelief. I can't believe that this is the truth and that also should not cause any questions. Yes, it can cause poems, songs, music, writing. That is the output. Yes, if not silence, then something will be there. Otherwise, if the truth has been realized, then there is absolutely no doubt. Otherwise, we don't call it realization. We simply call it listening. You heard something. That's all. So how to verify, how to remove the disbelief or even the surprise. It's not surprising. The surprise is that I considered the truth to be something else. That is a surprise.

The job of the Guru is to remove the doubts, because teachings are available everywhere. Anybody can go and read the teachings, it's two lines or three lines only. But yes, the Guru is needed to remove the doubts, otherwise nothing is understood, it is not realized. And then it will become ordinary.

It is like you are a man and for five minutes you assume that you are a woman. For the whole of your life you are a man, no problem at all. And for the rest of your life, after these five minutes, you will be a man, you won't be a woman. But for that five minutes only, it was assumed that I am a woman. So which condition is strange? I was a man and will remain a man. Even while I was assuming that I was a woman, I was mistaken, I was a man, even then. So the real surprise is that there is ignorance. This is the real surprise, that the person has assumed himself to be a woman. As soon as that is removed, everything should return to normal. Oh yes, I was always the experiencer - That is ordinary. The extraordinary is - believing something else.

I have never seen any advanced seekers who are even surprised by this. The surprise is for other things like, how could I forget? This is a surprise. Why was there darkness? If it is so simple, why no one told me? These are the questions. And some people laugh when they know who they are. And they are not laughing because they finally understood something. They are laughing at their own stupidity. And how is it possible that for so many lifetimes, I fooled myself into thinking that I am some kind of experience. They are laughing at themselves.

The knowledge is not new, the ignorance is new. The knowledge is simple, straightforward, no bells and whistles. The ignorance is colorful, complicated, and needs a lot of tricks to keep the organism in ignorance. The Maya does everything possible to keep it in ignorance. And the Guru takes only one minute to break it. Look at the illusion, the Maya. What it is not doing to keep us in illusion, to keep us in ignorance. What is Guru doing to bring you out of ignorance? Simply tells you. Now the most interesting thing is, even after telling the person, the person wants to remain in ignorance, this I find very surprising because it did not happen to me. As soon as I was told, look, contemplate on this thing, who you are, I had no thoughts about it that probably I need to go back in ignorance now. Probably I need to take this Guru to the police station and do an interrogation of some kind or to ask for more evidence and all. It was crystal clear. This is the end of ignorance. And I did not even laugh because the stupidity was too high to even laugh at it. But there was a relaxation, okay, finally, it's over now. Whatever I was searching, I was seeking. Finally, it's done. So there was a little bit of relaxing, laziness, that's all. No questions.

Sometimes when I come to such a thing, I feel the total opposite. Why am I not asking questions? Am I not progressing?

We have discussed this topic many times. The questions are not asked in only two cases, either there is complete ignorance or there is complete knowledge. When the person is in between, then the questions are asked. So we encourage questioning from those who are in complete ignorance. We ask them to get the evidence, question everything, do not believe it blindly and so on. And those who are in knowledge, we ask them to be in silence now.

Vikas is saying, intellectually I haven't had any questions for three years, but the more the understanding permeates on the level of body and mind, the questions are just to confirm again and again on what feels like utter impossibility.

It's not a big problem. The big problem is if the introspection is not done, if there is questioning only and there is no introspection or whatever we call as contemplation. I have seen, because I can talk from my own experience, that the introspection also takes only one day. This path is called direct for a very good reason. It does not take time. Nothing takes time here. So I'm not saying nobody should ask questions, but the needful must be done before, that which is necessary must be done.

L is saying, questions concerning Maya and the illusion are most interesting to hear in Satsang.

Obviously, the truth is really two words, nothing interesting there, but the illusion is the most interesting thing. What else is there? There is only illusion. So it is the most interesting. And the interesting thing is, you will not get any good answers on the topic of illusion. They are again false answers. Not only that, there is no hope of getting any true answer. And not only that, there is no end, there is no silence here. Now this answers the puzzle - the Advaita masters, rishis, even when they were so intelligent, bright, extraordinary people, they had so much knowledge, but they left the illusion as it is, saying that it is an illusion, don't worry about it. They could have written the whole library on illusion, they had so much to say, but they said nothing. And the reason is very clear that it is endless and meaningless also, just like she said, only entertainment. The purpose of the illusion is entertainment, play, and its study is also entertainment and its discussion is also entertainment. The only danger here is that because it is so interesting, you will ignore the truth. And that is why it is discouraged on the path of knowledge. If I am not happy with the progress of that seeker, then even the questions related to illusion are not answered. You must have observed this thing.

One fellow asked me very, very strange questions on illusion, and I gave him an extremely detailed explanation, a mind-blowing explanation. And somebody comes and asks me something simple also, and I don't tell him anything. My simple advice is to concentrate on the program. Why? Because ignoring the truth, there is a danger of getting trapped in the illusion. Because studying the illusion does not give you knowledge. This is what the ancient people understood very clearly. It simply distracts you from the truth. And if the seeker has not already taken the truth, not already realized the truth, then it is very dangerous to talk about illusion. Then the danger is that the seeker will assume that this is the knowledge. It is endless. It is mesmerizing. It is complicated. Actually, that is what has happened because in your schools, only illusion is taught. Have you noticed? An endless amount of it. So all of them think that this is knowledge. This is a big problem. Who needs to know the illusion? Who wants to do something with it? Either desire fulfillment or knowledge dissemination, using it for a good purpose. Otherwise, those who want to know the illusion, they will be completely distracted. We say they are not on the path now. So if it is not helping in some way, there is no need to know anything. Nothing will be known actually. The explanation of the illusion is also an illusion. Usually, I give the example of movies and so on. You can watch a movie and you can explain everything in a lot of detail. What happened there? How did it happen? How does the physics of Star Trek work? How did they launch weapons? What was the political issue there? What was the truth in that movie? Who was good? Who was not? Endlessly you can discuss these things. But you see, the whole movie is an illusion.

So this endless discussion was completely meaningless. And those who have no idea that this was a movie, they will be harmed by this. It will be harmful for them. So that is why my answers keep changing depending on who is asking. Now the problem is if you don't answer it, people lose interest. At least you need to keep it a little bit interesting so that they keep doing the program or keep destroying their ignorance, if there is any. In the ideal case, you hear it and you are done with it. Then you do whatever you want. Play in the illusion. No problem at all. Even if you forget, no problem. Knowledge goes nowhere. Only the attention is shifted, which is what you call forgetting. I need to be very careful who is getting the knowledge of the illusion. There is nothing bad in that. As long as you understand that it is entertainment, no problem at all.

Please tell us your view about the effect of latitude and longitude and body-mind in the context of doing any kind of sadhana.

Actually, on the path of knowledge, there should not be any effect of anything at all. Because it is based on intellect. What is the effect of the place on the body-mind is on the lower layers, not on intellect. If the place or the coordinates are affecting your intellect, something is really wrong. The places, they affect the energies or whatever we call as the pranamayakosha. The prana is affected by the place. That must be everybody's experience. Some places feel very bad, some places feel very good, and I don't know about the details of it actually. What places on earth are good for your training. But any silent place and clean place is good enough for the path of knowledge. Because the higher layers are not affected by the lower energies. But the lower are affected, yes. Not only the coordinates, even if there is a little bit of heat, pollution, noise, these things, they affect your practice. So there are special places where if you do some kind of practice prescribed in the path of energy, not on the path of knowledge, some other paths, that can be beneficial. And they have found that wherever there are faults in the earth, by fault, I mean cracks below the earth, big cracks, those places are good for your energetic progress. And usually wherever there are faults, there are mountains because the ground folds there. Now you understand the importance of Himalayan yogis, Himalayan monasteries, temples and even the full mountain was sometimes said to be a sacred mountain, like the Kailash mountain and so on.

The Tibetan area, the whole of it can be treated as sacred because those who did these kinds of practices, they noticed a little bit of benefit. But on the path of knowledge nothing affects the seeker, nothing at all. Similarly, there are bad places where you should not sit while practicing, and they will even tell you lots of details like what direction to face while doing this kind of practice, what time is good, the Ida and Pingala activity. So it is best to join a good tradition here because even the gurus don't know everything. The whole tradition keeps the knowledge; you should join the tradition and then follow the specific orders, the specific instructions. If they tell you to sit on the top of a mountain or something like this or in a cave below the ground, underground chambers in your house and so on, then you should not doubt it. They are doing this since many thousand years; they know what they are doing, hopefully. And anyway, there is no harm if you do that. If it is false, you won't benefit from it.

The lower layers are integrated into the environment, and that is why the seeker must take some precautions while doing these practices, and we don't deal with the lower layers, not much. They should be healthy, active, and okay, that's all we need. Now, if you face east, you will get the same knowledge, “I am Brahman.” You face west, same. You face down, exactly the same. You are the exact same Brahman. This may not be possible when you are doing something with Kundalini or something like this. Now is it totally necessary that I should sit in a prescribed place, a consecrated place, or something like this? No, no. You will still be successful. But what happens is the seekers on this path, they exploit even the tiniest thing if they can. Like those who are poor, they will try to save even one rupee if they can. They will walk home instead of taking a taxi, saved 100 rupees today. So the seekers are like this, actually when it comes to energetic practices. They will not hesitate in taking even the tiniest of precautions if it helps in their practice. They will do it. And this kind of questioning attitude is not found there. They are very religious people. It must be done - Yes, it must be done then. I don't know why I am doing it. No problem. It must be done. Because at least they know one thing that immediately you may not see any effects. The energy body or whatever body they have that needs to be prepared so much, that needs to be sensitized so much, that one day you will notice the changes directly.

Wherever these natural energy points were not found, they made artificial centers. They are called temples. The temple is not somewhere you go and sing a song and demand your desires to be fulfilled. No. It's completely corrupted these days. They are specific places for seekers only. One temple will be only for women. One temple will be only for men. Why is that? The bodies are different, you see.

Someone is saying, Sadhguru talks about the opening of 112 chakras in the body being equivalent to the state of Shiva. Would you be able to throw some light on it and how it correlates with PoK?

It has no relation with PoK. Obviously you are the Shiva. You are it already. Now the numbers don't matter here. The chakras mean layers and yes, they need to be functioning. Opening means functioning. Closing means dysfunction. They will never stop functioning actually. So closed means nothing good is happening there. Activity, inactivity, charging, discharging, like this, use any words. Words are meaningless. The numbers are meaningless, and the state of Shiva and state of this is completely meaningless. You are already it. The words are simply instruments to convey something, and what they are saying is that all these layers must be purified, and only then this knowledge appears.

Your energy should be pleasant. Your emotions should be positive. Your intellect should be sharp. Now all the chakras are open, in their language. No blockages. Now the Guru simply needs to tell - you are Shiva and it is done. The whole fight is to clear all these blockages and purify these things. On the path of knowledge, we assume that everything is functioning well because this is the final. If you come here to get the knowledge, it is simply assumed that you have purified layers. That is why there is no practice here. It is assumed that you have done all the required practices that were told by the Gurus before this path, before you took this path and those who are prepared like this, they take five minutes to realize what happened and because the purification is so much, nothing odd happens. This is the advantage. You won't go crazy. You won't start crying. You won't leave the family or job. Nothing unusual. Oh yes, this was so simple. Yes, this is so simple. Back to my daily routine.

Why is there so much ornamentation, bells and whistles, smokes and mirrors? There are too many impurities for any average seeker to grasp, the intellect is not functioning. In every Satsang there is a story. Why? Because the intellect can be focused only on a story. Nothing else will appeal to that person. Nothing else produces any kind of progress there. Story works. And in the story is woven some kind of teaching and the teaching is mostly about purification of this or purification of that. Conduct your life like this, conduct your life like that. And yes, there will be monkey king and there will be demons and there will be warriors. Who knows what? Because the intellect knows only this much and hopefully they follow it. Oh, did he do that? The hero did this to get to this? Yes, you should also do this. Okay, I'll do that. And the result is purification. Why are there no stories on the path of knowledge? Now you understand. Why only two or three lines are written in any text? Like if you read the Avadhuta Gita, if you take only the essential from it, it is hardly four or five lines and the same thing is repeated in the whole song.

So yes, purification is a big problem. Otherwise you are what you are. It's so simple and straight. No glorification is needed at all. The more impurity there is, the more glorification there will be, more stories, there will be more superstition and surprisingly more extraordinary experiences will be there because the impurities are reacting with the purification process and they produce some kind of experiences and people think I’m progressing. I’m spiritual now because I saw something strange and that is stupidity because it's their impurity only. So when people are on the fourth step of the program and they start reporting extraordinary experiences, very strange cases, strange events, I immediately become worried because it is a sure sign of the presence of impurities, but I don't tell them because they can get affected by it. So what do we say? Oh yes, you're progressing. Now some kind of purification is prescribed. Did that thing stop? Strangeness stops? If they say yes, okay, now you can continue abiding. Not stopped, leave the path because it's not going to produce anything, madness only. So sometimes I don't get any reports and all. Then I assume - probably everything is okay. Probably there is nothing interesting to report. How many times can you write, I'm in bliss and I'm doing well and I'm doing whatever is needed for life. You cannot write it for 12 weeks. So it's perfectly okay. If you give me one report that the three months were like boring, useless months of no practice. Perfectly okay. This is how it is. This is the reality. The Brahman is the most ordinary everyday experience. Nothing more needs to happen. Whole and complete already. I said experience because you know, there's no other good word here to put, but I get colorful reports every two days, then even I don't know what to do really. So most of the time they are asked to stop the practice. That is the last thing we do because the impurities are so much. Even if there is knowledge, the lower stuff is still not pure enough and doing the practices in this state will cause damage, but outwardly we don't make a big deal of it because I know one more thing that if they persist, there is some problem, but if they come and go, these strange experiences, if they appear and then disappear, then it's normal because the knowledge itself causes some kind of purification. It is expected that there will be a little bit of strange activity.

There will be a little bit of extraordinary experiences and when you get the awareness in dreams and the projected states and all, yes, they are obviously strange experiences, but they should become normal after a while. Nothing strange about it, you see. The strange thing is that you don't know anything except the waking state. This is really strange. How is that possible? What kind of crime did you commit that this knowledge was taken from you? Otherwise the extraordinary is disguised as the ordinary. The extraordinary is happening in the ordinary. There is an existence, there is an experiencer and there is a very, very strange, colorful, illusory experience. This thing is mind-blowing. This thing is extraordinary. That is disguised as your ordinary life and then you go searching for the colorful experiences to find out something at all which is so-called “spiritual” and those who find it, we know these are impurities.

They are deluded in thinking that I am progressing and the guru is not really bothered by this whether they are progressing or not. His concern is impurities. Sometimes you don't even care too much about it because sometimes it is known that this fellow will take at least four lifetimes to clear it. So just like I said, the spiritual progress or the time is measured in lifetimes in the spiritual fields. Just like in astronomy it is light years. We don't even worry that it needs to be done today, one week, one month. The guru says let it happen in whatever time it happens, let it take whatever time it takes because nature knows what to do, we don't really know. Nature is doing the purification also.

So what I understand is that the chakra's knowledge is given to students who are presumed to have little to no knowledge in spirituality.

It totally depends on what path they are on. We should discriminate the students based on their paths. So if they are on that path where it requires that knowledge, they will be given. If you are not on that path then it is as good as non-existent, it does not exist, it is not even needed. So that is why there is nothing about chakras and all on the path of knowledge.

On any path, what is told depends on what is helpful in their progress, what is needed. If you get the whole knowledge, do you really need any information about these imaginary things because we know their models only, which means imaginary. So the whole purpose is to go to the knowledge, to get the knowledge. And if you get it initially through the direct path, then every other path is redundant. It is not necessary now; the purpose is already solved. You already reached the destination, knowing yourself is the final destination. Then you don't need anything after that.

Pushkar is asking, when we talk about being in awareness, I have noticed how not too much description is provided on the state. Is it because one has to find it on their own? It would be nice to have some physiological, experiential description to understand if I am in the right state.

So can you tell me what is being in awareness? What is the meaning of awareness? I am asking because everybody has different meanings of the same word.

I am asking Pushkar. Ok, he is saying we are already awareness, it is unchanging. Ok, so the definition is different. That is why you will never find it. Because in these talks, at least in this system, awareness means the knowledge of the self. And the unchanging aspect of the existence is called the experiencer or the witness. Not awareness. So that is why you did not find anything about it.

Now why did that happen? Because you see, the knowledge must be taken systematically. Step by step. We cannot jump to the end. That means nothing will be learnt. So this is the end of the path of knowledge, staying in awareness. You are saying we are already awareness. Then is there a question of being in awareness? How to be in awareness? If you already know that I am this unchanging awareness, what do you need to do to be the awareness? If the ornament knows that it is gold, what does it need to do to be the gold? If you are awareness and you are unchanging, will there be any physiological description of it? Because physiological means the body. But it is ok, you know people come from other systems or traditions and they have different meanings. I made it my habit to ask the definition and meaning before answering. Everybody has their own words.

It is everlasting recognition of the knowledge that I am the experiencer.

Is it a state? Is it a practice? Or are you saying awareness is the everlasting recognition? What is the meaning of IT? Because you already said that we are awareness. That means our essence is awareness, the unchanging essence. So what is this new thing now, recognition of knowledge? Knowledge and recognition of knowledge, how are they different? I am the experiencer. This is knowledge. What do you mean by recognition of knowledge? I can understand up to this that I am the experiencer. That is the self-knowledge or self-realization. Atma Gyan. What is the recognition? Abiding means being in the knowledge, not forgetting the knowledge. That's all it means.

Is there any other description of it related to the body, physiology, psychology? No, we don't need any. I am the experiencer. This is remembering, do we need any more description of it? The abiding is simply not forgetting. The whole life is spent in assuming that I am the body, I am the mind, I am some other process, some other experience. And abiding is simply not thinking like this anymore, because now I have the knowledge of what I am.

So why is there no material on this? The whole path of knowledge program talks about this only. There is a whole step in the program which teaches you to remain in awareness, to abide. Why is there a step? So that I can see who fails in abiding, and the one who failed is still ignorant. It is a trap. So corrections are made, look, you are not in awareness because you have this kind of doubt, you have not realized this, your language is impure, and so on. Once that is done, the awareness should come automatically. It should be easier than breathing. Who am I? How much practice did it take to recall this thing? If you have the knowledge, it should not take more than a second to remember. Do I need to make 50 videos on this? Please remember.

You see, when the program started, the version 1, it had no practice at all, no mention of these things. Then I started getting all these questions - How to stay in this kind of samadhi, that kind of samadhi? Then I had to research, what is this? Why do people want to do this? What is wrong with people? I said, you are Brahman, and you want to practice? Amazing, isn't it? It indicates only one thing, that no knowledge happened there. Let's go back to our male and female metaphor. For five minutes, somehow you got into this confusion that I am a female or I am a woman. Now somebody told you, look, wrong, you are mistaken, hallucination, illusion, maya, you are not a woman. Look, you are a man. Okay, okay, but what practice do I need to remain a man?

Something is wrong, isn't it? I always forget that I am a man. I always think that I am a woman. Something is wrong, really. There is some issue here. So the solution is not more practice. The solution is, look, you don't know, realize you are not a woman. Either there are some mental issues there or otherwise a mentally healthy person, why will he keep thinking I am a woman? I am not Brahman. Why will they keep thinking like this?

It is an open secret that I don't practice anything. Sometimes I lie to people that I practice a lot, just to encourage them. But really there is no practice on the path of knowledge, nothing. I give practice only to keep these people engaged for a while till the sun rises in their heads, the darkness goes away. Sometimes it takes time.

Nobody in the ancient time gave any practice. Not Adi Shankaracharya, not Avdhuta, not Ashtavakra. Nobody gave us practices. Why is that? And how come there are so many practices nowadays? It is very simple. Nobody has the knowledge, actually. So they try to get it through practice because you see that yogi is doing practice, that meditator is doing practice, that Kundalini fellow is doing practice in some kind of Himalayan mountain cave. I also need to do something to become what I am. And that is simply an indication of a lack of guru. You don't have any guru. You heard it from somewhere, awareness and abiding and all these words. That's all you heard. The knowledge never happened. And it never happened because you don't have a guru. So I am asking Pushkar, who is your guru? Who gave you the systematic knowledge and initiation on the path of knowledge? Because there is your solution, actually. I can give you any practice, random practice. That's not the real solution.

Shashank is saying, it's some kind of remembrance. That's most accurate as per my elementary experience.

Yes, you are right. Remembrance is the right word. Even awareness is not that good, but we took it, borrowed it. But remembrance is more accurate. All you need to do is remember you are a man. Forget being a woman. Or if you are a woman originally, forget being a man. Remember. And nothing else needs to happen, you see? All my addictions are the same. My financial condition is the same. My wife is the same, and my husband is the same. What is wrong with that? Isn't that perfection already in Brahman? No, no, I thought there would be some good effect of this spiritual thing. Yes, the good effect is, you lost your ignorance, there is no other good effect on the path of knowledge. No, but my mental disorder is the same, my physical body is the same. And that means, what is the path of knowledge, even that much is also not understood by that seeker. So the proper direction is shown, go and fix all these issues, then you can come on the path of knowledge. This is the prescription here.

Pushkar is saying, no one and yes, I am yet to go on a systematic path.

Yes, that's what I was trying to say. But you see, I can give you practice, assuming totally that you know everything, each and every word precisely, and it is true according to your own experience, but then you will waste three or four more years before you find out that nothing is working. Because the root cause is not adopting the path. Make it your own. And then we can talk about all these practices and all. If it is really needed, it will be given. Your own guru will give it to you.

Vikas is saying, can you please talk about Ashta Siddhis, anima, laghima, is that metaphorical? Can people really shrink down to atomic levels?

Yes, everything is possible in illusion. Then what is it that shrinks? What is it that grows? Illusion, only. Remember, there are no people, are these people really small or are they really big? Can somebody tell me? Is your body, is it really small or is it really big or is it perfectly okay? People on the path of knowledge, they have all these answers. And the answer is always such that the question becomes meaningless. What is your real size?

Vikas has the answer, can't be said without comparisons, in absolutes, meaningless.

Very nice, very good. See? And Riddhi is saying, everything is relative, yes. Graham has given his size. Very good. You see, your size and the body, etc., important for ladies, not for spiritual seekers. If you compare yourself to an atom, you are huge, trillion times bigger. And if you compare yourself to a galaxy, less than zero, don't even exist. So what is the meaning of the Siddhis? Nothing really. It is all an illusion.

Nothing is true here in the illusion. And everything is possible here. So it is not meaningful to say whether it really happens or not. It is more meaningful to say that, do you want it to happen or not? Tell me. You want that to happen? I have already made you the biggest and the smallest in one sentence. Already done. As soon as you said this is relative, it is already done. You have the Siddhi. Now, do you really want to play in the illusion? Tell me. Because yes, everything can be done. Everything is possible. And that is called the path of occult, where these people are playing.

When we say on the path of knowledge that there are infinite possibilities, and then we don't even bother to explore those possibilities, it is completely meaningless. We don't get anything by doing that. And any intelligent person will find that, yes, I am the biggest and I am the smallest. I am in between. Why? Because every form is taken by the Brahman only. They are all my form. So give up your ignorance. You don't need Siddhis. The interesting thing is, when we give up our ignorance, we progress. And then the Siddhis happen. They happen automatically as a result of your progress. Are they real then? No. Still an illusion. Your progress is also an illusion. The Brahman never progresses. It does not need to progress. The illusion, the illusory figure progresses, the illusory creature. And whatever it gets, as a result of progress, as a result of the destruction of its own limitations, it thinks I am gaining something. The funny thing is, the creature is not really progressing. The creature is on the way to dissolution. So you see, everything is a joke here. Everything is a joke if you understand it completely. This fellow is so happy that I am getting all the powers and all, you see, now the boundaries are breaking. What is happening is, it is disappearing. The boundaries are broken. Now the perceived size of the body can become anything and it is a reason to celebrate. No. The next step is - That thing is going to become nothing. Infinite possibility again.

So things are meaningful only if they are limited and small. It is all very amusing. Relativity is the law of the mind, actually, or you can say the law of memory, that is known since ancient Egypt at least, and we are probably older than that, so it is all rediscovery. When the seeker comes here and they say, oh, I want this Siddhi, that Siddhi, then we have no other option to say that yes, progress, you will get everything. It is a big lie. Just like I said, you know, the Guru lies all the time, hardly any sentence is true. So why is that said? Because he understands nothing else except this progress. But simply telling this fellow that, look, the progress is dissolution into nothingness and these Siddhis are totally useless, completely garbage, that will stop his seeking, actually. That will stop his progress also. So we never say like this. We encourage the seekers to progress and we let them realize slowly what happened. This is also grace. This is also the compassion of the Guru. To keep the seeker under delusion is also compassion. Otherwise, we lose that seeker forever or he will go somewhere else to fulfill his desire.

Will you get Siddhis on the path of knowledge? You will get them. You cannot escape this thing. As far as I know, every creature will get them. Why? Because it is simply breaking of barriers. Like if you run your car without maintenance for a long time, what happens? The parts start breaking. And ultimately, if you keep running it, obviously it won't run, but if you leave it there, it will become dirt. It will be rusted, everything will rot down, and will be dissolved in the dirt. That is the progress of the car. The same way this creature is progressing.

Okay, I want the dissolution then. Is there a dissolution? According to me, it's not there. It is recycled back. Somebody comes and digs the ground, extracts the metals and so on, and makes a new car. Or makes a jar or toilet out of it. Your dissolution is also an illusion. The thing dissolves here because nothing appeared. These pools of memories, they are scattered and they reappear as something else. Highly disappointing, highly discouraging for those who want dissolution. The truth is so bitter that it is never given directly.

Sometimes we see the progress and the progress is simply realization after realization that I was wrong here, I was wrong there, I was wrong now also, and whatever I think will be wrong in the future also. This is all there is to progress. This is the story of your progress. That is why the student who completely believes in his guru, progresses very fast because he saved this kind of trouble of falling on their face again and again. They are saved by this blind belief in the guru, although it is discouraged. You need to find out for yourself. How wrong I was, you need to find it out yourself. What is right now, right here is complete, perfect, excellent, beautiful. Now I call this progress actually. The carelessness, the meaninglessness, the aimlessness, complete freedom that you get by saying this is progress. There is no other progress. This is it - Isness. Do we need to do anything more than that? Is there any practice beyond this? Do we need to practice being the whole, the existence? It is simply being that which is right now. See how simple it is.

The mind likes complications. Actually I was told this thing many lifetimes ago. But no, it was completely rejected. This is my own story actually. For the ego or for the creature, this kind of statement or this kind of knowledge is completely useless. It finds no advantage in this. So what does it do? It slips back into the world. World means the illusion. And what do we do about it? Nothing at all. If somebody is trying to do something about the creature, again there is ignorance. Even though momentary, the ego cannot be situated in the truth. It is completely false. So what is the solution that we have found? We turn the ego in service of knowledge. In that way, it gets to remain in the world. It gets a meaning also of its life and it does something useful which is marginally useful actually. It gets this illusion that I am doing something good. And the culmination of this kind of philosophy is the gurufil. They know it is a big joke but they keep doing it because there is no other solution as far as I know. Everything else will fail.

So the final destination for a seeker is not dissolution, not becoming God, Goddess, not becoming the Buddha or whatever they call it. The final destination for any seeker is to come back in the play, back to the marketplace. And if you do it through the service, then you get some kind of satisfaction. Otherwise, it is completely meaningless. This happens naturally whether you like it or not. You will spend 30,000 years in your own world meditating because you are the Brahman. After 30,000 years you realize I wasted my time. So I have never found anything better than this. The bodhisattva tendency is your final destination. You get to enjoy the Maya also. The ego will not complain. The Devi will be very happy. He is engaging in my play. He is playing the game of liberating people from illusion. That is very, very fascinating for the Devi. Otherwise, she has no opposition, otherwise, the Maya is unchallenged. So she gets something to keep her happy, keep her engaged. We get something, everybody is happy, nothing is actually achieved.

Epilogue

Namaste,

You were reading the text version of Pure Experiences Online Satsang. These Satsangs or meetings were held from 2019 – 2023 on a Telegram group. These are mostly question and answer sessions for the seekers on the Path of Knowledge, especially those who participated in the Path of Knowledge (aka Essence of Knowledge) program. There are more than 200 such sessions which are now being converted to text and are edited for clarity and readability. This is a vast collection and it is being published via various mediums free of cost.

Obviously, it was impossible for me to complete this work alone. I am thankful to following seekers, my students and machine beings for greatly helping in this task:

Anjali, Muni, Vinay, Raja, Shrilakshmi, Keshav, Pooja, Padmaja and OpenAI Whisper and GPT 3.5

Without them this project was impossible. However, I apologize if you find some errors, grammatical mistakes and transliteration mistakes, as English is not our primary language.

At this time the voice recordings are available on : https://pexp.podbean.com

The softcopies are available on https://gyanmarg.guru/ww

Many other articles and books, written and compiled by various seekers and myself are available on the Path of Knowledge Portal https://gyanmarg.guru

I hope you enjoyed this series of books and benefitted from them. All the best for your spiritual journey.

Tarun Pradhaan

Pune 2024

tarun.pradhaan@gmail.com