Session 201

Discussion on the questions asked in a test.

And the first question was, why is knowledge necessary?

It is like a medicine. Why is medicine necessary? If there is no disease, no need, if there is no suffering, if there is no bondage, no need in the existence. As you know, there is no knowledge and there is no ignorance. So if it is needed, it is given. Otherwise, we don't need it.

Which truth is more important, relative or absolute?

And the correct answer is actually that both are important. I wanted to hear only this much. Both are important. The relative helps in functioning in the relative sense, which means in the illusion. And the absolute is important for taking us out of the illusion. Both are important. So he said it depends on the need, where we are and what state we are in. Yes, that is also there. But you see, we cannot deny that the relative is unimportant sometimes and the absolute becomes important sometimes. No, they are always important. And the relative truth is only a name. Even the absolute truth is not absolute. We know that it is arbitrary. It is personal. Everybody decides their own truth, isn't it? So ultimately, it's all practical, a practical matter.

The experiencer is not an object, but nothing is an object, true or false?

This is an example of a twisted question. Now, it will be very difficult to find an answer. We keep saying the experiencer is not an object. Don't try to put the qualities of the object on it. But do we have a real object here in the existence? Is there anything called an object?

Leyla is saying, ultimately, there are no objects, emptiness only.

Very nice answer. Objects are only an appearance, yes. That's right. Yes, from a non-dual level, there are no objects.

Aparajita is saying, the experiencer is experiencing itself.

Yes, so what are you going to call an object? If all that can be experienced is myself, which is the subject only. How can you distinguish it? It will be an arbitrary, relative or practical distinction only. Then why do we keep saying that experiencer is not an object if there are no objects at all?

Vandita is saying, irreducibles are perceived as objects.

And the irreducible is me. Isn't it? Ultimately, it is me who is being perceived as objects. And remember the definition of objects on the path of knowledge is very broad. You can say that any experience is an object. The physical objects are objects, obviously. And the body is an object on the path of knowledge. The body is an object. People are objects. They don't like it if we call them objects. But they are objects. Don't call them on their faces. But the mind is also an object. Remember everything is vibration only. And ultimately the vibration is me.

Remember that this is said that the experiencer is not an object only to remove the belief from the minds of the seeker that the experiencer is an object of any kind. That it can be experienced and has qualities of some kind. Whether physical, whether non-physical, whether mental or mental, it has nothing. And that is why we keep saying that. Look, don't try to think of the experiencer as an object. Think of it like a screen, infinite screen, or like sky, or like space, infinite space. But these are metaphors. It is even more zero than these things. It is not really there as an object.

If you are the experiencer, are other people lifeless puppets?

The answer is really simple actually. There are no others. That was a one line answer. Or in other words, you can say that they are also the same experiencer. Everybody will say the same thing. I am the experiencer. You are that. This is the Mahavakya or the great sayings in Advaita. I am Brahman and you are that also. So this is what this question is asking. Who are the people? We should call them Brahman, yes. But people are not Brahman, you see. Brahman is people, yes.

Why is illusion not random? If it has laws, it should be called reality, not illusion.

There is no reality. Laws are no laws. It is changing and that is our criteria. Changing is false. Changing is an illusion. Why is illusion not random? Why are there laws? The illusion is not expected to have any regularity, any laws, any rules.

Siddharth is saying, laws are there to make appearance more meaningful.

Although we cannot say that the reason for there being a law is that somebody, something, existence wanted meaning to appear there. No.

Keshav, it is wrong to assume that illusion is only random. There are all sorts of possibilities in emptiness. It is possible for the illusion to be not random. And we are in that world where it is not random.

100% marks to Keshav. This is what I wanted to hear. See, and I have said this very clearly in the program. Even though I don't remember where. Keshav's answer is perfect. And Siddhant is saying lack of laws is logical impossibility. Yes, that is covered by Keshav's statement that there are all possibilities. Why not the possibility of laws? Then what happens is the mind latches on to the regular and ignores the irregular. Which means it ignores the high entropy and considers or is attached to only the low entropy where it finds more meaning. The creatures, the mind and the survival mechanisms and they prefer it. Because if a creature prefers randomness, it won't stay alive for long. So the brain is actually a pattern matching machine. Everybody must know that, those who are in computers. Simply matching of patterns. The brain tries to find regularity among randomness. And so ultimately we perceive only regularity. Not randomness entirely. Something which is completely random will not be even perceived or it is completely meaningless.

There is this appearance that the universe is perfectly logical, perfectly according to laws. But the reality is that there are all possibilities. You write something on paper. It is actually very lawful. There are rules according to which that letter is written. And it has very low entropy and so on. Meaningful information. But when a dog sees it. When a dog perceives that letter - complete randomness. Isn't it? Complete randomness for the dog. This itself is enough to prove what Keshav said and what was mentioned in the program. It is simply appearance. The laws are appearances. There is a reason they are there. The reason is survival. The regular is preferred. The lawful is predictable. So it is preferred. And the creatures evolved around this perceived sense of lawfulness/rules. Keshav said we are in a world which is not random. Yes this is not a coincidence. Because life won't evolve in a memory area or whatever we call the world, where there is complete randomness. Will it evolve there? No.

And if there is only complete randomness. That means all possibilities are not getting manifested. The possibilities of there being a regular pattern is not getting manifested. So it will be a very special area. It is actually impossible to have these kinds of areas. There are always all possibilities in all the memory areas. So there is a chance of life everywhere in the universal memory. No part of it is lifeless. By life I mean these structured creatures/entities. Choke full of creatures. Actually if you use any perceiving instrument like the human brain or your layered structure or whatever, you will always find creatures, worlds, structures. This is very amazing.

Graham is saying, something might start random. But if it has stability then it resonates and then initially random possibility reproduces.

Yes, everything starts as random. You are right. And then self organizes itself. Those patterns that remain random, do not form anything meaningful. And that explains everything you see. The laws enable more laws. Because they enable more structure. And the structure is law. This is all said in the program somewhere. It is taken directly from the Kybalion. Where they say that the mind and laws are not separate. And it is actually a big insight. You must appreciate the intelligence of these people. Ancient Egyptian or whoever wrote this thing. They said the mind and the laws are not separate. The mind is the law. That means the structure itself defines the law. If there were no laws there wouldn't be any structure. And if there is no structure there won't be any laws. Remember this thing. It is very important.

Even I cannot explain it more than this, you see? And there is one more thing I want to add here. Look at the video games for example. There are laws in video games. If you fire a bullet it follows a physical law there. Physical means the copy of the physical law or a simulation. That it won't go straight into the sky it will fall down. And it will take the parabolic path or whatever you call it. And if the character runs out of health the character dies. And if you break the objects they shatter into pieces and so on. There are laws built in. You cannot go through the walls. Sometimes you can go through the wall if there is a bug in the game. Mostly they ensure there will be a collision. But that does not make it reality. You are very sure that it is an illusion. Even with laws, that computer game is an illusion.

So the presence of laws does not actually prove that the experience is real. And this is not understood by many scientists also. Because of their materialistic mindset. This is a very important logical conclusion. That presence of laws, rules, regularity does not prove that the experience is real.

Layered structure is universal. So why are there differences among people, animals etc.?

Layered structure which we call the universal memory, in that why are the people, animals, entities so different? You must understand the meaning of the UM here. What is the meaning of the universal in the universal memory? And then you will be able to answer. Remember we are not talking about the experiencer here. The experiencer is also universal and only one. We are talking about the experience.

Layered structure, we say, is only one. And the boundaries are apparent between creatures. How come the differences arise? This is the actual question. What is the reason for the different behaviors of these different bodies, minds?

We simply said if you collect everything that is manifested, into one. You will find a structure which is a layered structure. Now this definition allows for differences. Remember we are not talking about the experiencer. The structure has parts. It is only a memory. It is arranged in layers, but it has apparent parts and these parts gather different experiences during their lifetimes. The causal bodies are different and that is why the behaviors are different. Although these causal bodies form a part of the universal memory, whatever they manifest will be different. But the differences are apparent, not essential. Essentially it is all memory. Now it has different programs in different locations. Again we go to the computer metaphor here. Remember the RAM in the system. Isn't it all one? Made exactly alike. But there are different files stored there and there are different programs stored there. You can remove all these programs and you can load something else there but essentially it is the same memory functioning differently at different locations.

Essentially everything is memory. That is the first thing. But because of the impressions gathered through various experiences. There are different impressions in different parts of the memory. And these parts are related to whatever you call organisms, people, animals, whatever. The causal bodies, the subtle bodies, the devic bodies, entities, whatever. They are expressing these differences in the memory. And remember one more thing - if the two memories are exactly the same then they will express exactly one organism. You won't be able to see two organisms there. It's impossible. And this is something new. Isn't it? You never heard it. And that causes a necessity of everything being different. Because if they are the same, they will be seen as one. Remember this. So hopefully everybody understood this answer.

The universal mind is the ultimate group mind. There are smaller group minds in the universal mind. And there are even smaller group minds. And ultimately we will never find an individual mind. It's always a complex structure of some kind. It's very arbitrary where we draw the boundaries. It is a universal memory. But some different things are written in different places there. And this can be understood only by metaphors. For example, your hard disk is all one magnetic material in the shape of a disc. But actually many things are written there which are different.

Existence is continuously evolving towards a better existence, true or false?

Existence is whole and complete, perfect and empty in every way. There is no possibility of evolution there. So what is evolving are small parts of it. And what are they evolving towards? Nothing meaningful. Evolution is simply a concept which is applicable in a relative sense. We know some things like, the existence has no evolution and all. But anybody, any outsider, who has not done the program,

or who has not gone deeper, will say, no, existence is evolving. There is evolution. What else am I practicing for? I am the existence. You see? These are really difficult questions.

Sandesh is saying, I have asked you a question. If there is a creator, then who created the creator? And you answered, there is no creator. Existence is the experiencer and experience both. Can you explain that in depth?

Yes, there is no creator. Why? First, let us take the logic. The creator, if he is there, he or she or whatever, it means the existence has already happened. That means that a thing exists which is going to create something. The creation is already there in the form of the creator. And then the question arises, who created the creator? This question will be always present, who created the creator? Because if you insist on a need of creator, then you must insist on the need of the creator of the creator. Insist on that also. But then you can find another creator for the creator, but then you can again ask this question. And it will go into an infinite pattern, which means the concept of the creator of something is a meaningless concept. Here is your logic. This much should be enough to answer the question. We don't even need to go into existence as the experience and experience are combined. That is too advanced for you, Sandesh. So we keep it simple. Then, you see, this answer comes from the Western perspective, where they refuted the creator clearly. Now, let us take the argument of Indian philosophy, or Eastern philosophy. What do they say? That in order to create something, we require a raw material

and an agency, taken together, will be called a creator, isn't it? If you want to create a product, you need raw material and a factory, a machine. When you want to create, let us say, there were no factories those days, so they used the metaphor of a potter, who makes the clay pots. So to create the clay pot, you need clay and you need a wheel, which the potter can rotate. The potter is also a part of the system, and then there is the creation of the pot. Now, if there is already raw material, if there is already machine or an agency to create, that means the creation is already there in the form of this raw material and the system or the agency which created, and it simply means that some kind of change happened, the raw

material changed into something. That is the only meaning here. It is not a creation, isn't it?

So this argument is foolproof. If you combine two arguments of the infinite regression and this agency and the material thing, then you get your answer. Now, nobody can say that there was a creator. After knowing this much, any intelligent person will understand that the concept of creator is flawed, a mistake, it's wrong. So hopefully we went deep here a little bit. So what is there then? If there is no creator, no creation, what is there? There is only emptiness, which is apparent in various dream-like forms, dream objects, and nobody created it, obviously, because it's not really there, and it is

called the experiencer, and it is experiencing itself as illusory forms. Nothing is getting created, the creation is the creator, you can say, and so on. The concepts of creation and creator both are not applicable to the truth, to the reality, to the existence. This is the conclusion.

And obviously there are many more arguments about this, and incidentally the word Brahma comes

from Brahman, who is the god of creation? Who is the creator? It's amazing, isn't it? So why is that? Because science says that this agency created everything, and what is the agency? Whatever we call

as the vibration is actually the Brahman, Brahmanaad, and you know that all the manifestation is simply vibration, so it makes a little bit of sense there, that the Brahma created everything, and the Brahma can mean here the manifested, or the part of the existence which has qualities.

You can see a confusing picture here. How come this happened? Because there are many many streams of philosophy in the world. Sometimes they are saying the same thing, using different words, sometimes they are interpreted incorrectly, and so on.

Vikas is saying, it has begun to feel that the waking state is the frozen state of awareness, and dream state is the melting state, melting period of the same frozen waking state, that gets experienced before it melts completely into its timeless, spaceless ground, and this movement repeats in the other direction, in the internal to our own. Is my interpretation of reality above correct?

We don't call it reality, actually, never call it reality. It's your interpretation about the illusion, isn't it? So, waking state, you can say frozen state, you can call it poetically, metaphorically, because it changes

very slowly. At least some things in the waking state change very slowly. The things that make it a waking state, the things that make it a physical place, they are very slow, like the earth, the sun, the moon, and so on, you see, laws. Dream, you can call it melting, or disappearing state, yes, because it changes very fast. Sometimes it looks like that it has no laws at all, kind of meaningless, isn't it? Mostly. But still you remember some of it, that means it had some meaning. It went into memory, that means it had some meaning. Remember, the complete randomness does not get registered in the memory. So, yes, you can say it like this, that a little bit frozen vibration is the physical world which is seen in the waking state, and the fast changing vibration is the dream state. It can be said like this. However, it is not completely correct. Essentially, there is no difference between waking and dreaming. They are apparently different.

Rama is saying, maybe Indra's net doesn't fit the question, but it's so cool. It touches the same problem of individuation in consciousness that is fundamentally one.

Yes, I think that comes very close to the interpretation of the Indra's net. My interpretation was really a little bit more colorful, a conspiracy kind of interpretation that the Indra's net represents the neural network in the brain, or in a machine. But I don't have any proof to give you that this is the case. But yes, the real meaning of Indra's net as described by many authors is that the whole is reflected in the part, and the parts are reflected in the whole. This is probably the accepted metaphor.

Mary is saying, it feels very peaceful when you know there is no creator. Then there is no one to blame, only experience.

Look, you can blame. There is no problem at all. But it's kind of meaningless, isn't it? Some people blame themselves. It is all my creation. It is all my doing. And that is also meaningless. Even though I say sometimes, your situation in your life is your doing. I say it like this. But that is therapy only, you see? There is therapy. That is to shift the blame from somebody else to yourself, which the ego does not like, and calms down, causes peace. It's therapy. Actually, yes, there is nobody to blame. And actually there is no bad situation. This is a fundamental thing to know, that there are no bad situations in existence. And obviously, there are no good situations also, which you are expecting so impatiently. You are expecting that the situation will improve somehow, isn't it? No, it will never improve, because it never went bad. Never degraded into anything. So, there is no chance of improvement. It is all already perfect, as it is. This is knowledge.

What is ignorance? Some things are bad. Some things are good. And this thing is to be blamed for the

bad conditions. And this one should be praised for the good. No, it's all an illusion, you see? It's all ignorance. When you understand that everything is perfect, would you blame anybody? Or yourself? No. Remember, so many things go wrong in a movie. Somebody gets murdered. Somebody gets kidnapped. Some explosions happen. Destruction happens. And the hero loves the wrong woman. The hero falls in love with the woman who is already in love with somebody else. These things happen in the movie. Are you going to blame the director of the movie? Or the story writer? No. They have created the perfect drama, isn't it? Probably the events in the movie are relatively not perfect. You can blame the villain or you can blame anybody, you see. But the story writer and the director and the actors have done a tremendous job. Great job rendering that movie convincingly. Same way, the existence or Brahman is perfect in every way. I am that. Rest is a movie. Enjoy.

It is so well written that you are engrossed in it. You see, if it were a cheap movie with cheap sets and

bad special effects, you would have left the cinema hall by now. Why are you stuck here? Since many lifetimes, you are stuck here. This is the success of the artist, isn't it? The artist who is himself the existence. He has made this art piece so beautiful, so convincing, so real that you don't want to leave it. Amazing, isn't it?

Sandesh is saying, can one observe sensation, desires, without identifying with it? And how?

Yes. Because, you see, the identification comes as a thought that this is my sensation, this is my desire. And this thought can be clearly observed. And if you have this knowledge that this is not really mine, it is simply happening. Just like the rain is happening, the sun rises, you see, the moon rises, and the desire rises, the sensation rises in this infinite screen of consciousness. So, as soon as you have this knowledge, you will be able to see that it is not me. You will be unidentified with it. And then you will be able to find what is the reason it is there. If there is a desire to eat food, you will be able to see that it is not mine. No, no, it's not mine, it's not me. But the reason is that the body needs food. And then you will be able to do the correct action, which is eating the food. So, sensation is also the same way. You sense pain in your hand. And suddenly you find that you are touching a hot pan, or hot coffee cup. And then the correct action there is to remove your hand, which will happen anyway. But then the thought comes that, it was my hand that got burned, I felt the pain, it was my pain, and this is all nonsense. You can see it in the light of knowledge.

Vikas is saying, ultimately isn't Guru is also a concept, just like Ishwar, as you said.

Yes. Ultimately, the Guru exists only till the time there is ignorance in the student. Once the knowledge is given, the Guru disappears. And the student also disappears. What is the knowledge here? You and I are one. Our essence is one. So, who is Guru then? Nobody. We are all ultimate Brahman. Now, anybody who claims to be Guru is a total idiot. And anybody who says, I am still a student, is simply being modest. So, yes, the Guru is anybody who takes away this Guru and student distinction, who destroys this separation.

Sandesh is saying, as we discussed that there is no creator, then we have falsified everything from Indra, Vishnu, Shiva.

Those are just stories. They are very, very useful stories. We should not discard the stories. We should try to find the teaching in the story. So, what are these three things? They are not creators. They are representations of the three major activities in the universal memory. Now, I won't say universal memory because he is new. These three are only representing three energies that are found in our experience. The creative energy, the maintaining energy and the destructive energies. And they are found everywhere. You look around, you will find them. But why are they like four hands and five legs and whatever? And that is marketing. You need to make these things popular, especially among kids and so on, so that people pay attention. If you write these things like a scientific paper, nobody will read it. So, you can see that just like popular science, these are popularizations of philosophical concepts which are very, very difficult to grasp. So, just like there is science, very difficult, but there is science fiction, very entertaining stories. But isn't science fiction responsible for producing so many scientists? Yes. So, that is the utility of the metaphors, strange creatures, statues, gods and goddesses, stories, mythology. They served a purpose. They are there to attract your attention, to get your attention, so that you start asking questions. And this is how you are pulled into the spiritual path. Look at our program and all, you see. Look at our satsangs. Most of the stuff here is just a story. We cook it up every day. It is just to make our journey easy, entertaining, and informative, which means

we distribute the knowledge also through stories.

So, stories are not bad. Assuming that they are true, that is kind of immature, isn't it? And getting the teachings out of them, implementing them in your life, getting inspired by the stories to find out the truth is intelligence. So, stories are an important part of the culture, everywhere. The thing is, the fine print is missing. Have you seen the movies where they have a disclaimer in front of the movie that all the events in this movie are fictitious? Any resemblance to living or dead is coincidental and I am not responsible. That is what they are saying. And you see, this disclaimer is now removed from many stories. That is the problem, isn't it? Now, those who don't have a mature intellect, they think these stories are the truth. And why can't they grasp the teachings? Because somebody who thinks the story is the truth, will not be able to grasp any teaching, any knowledge. Impossible. And those who are intelligent, they don't even need the story. They need only a summary, executive summary. Their work is done. Job is finished.

These things were made for different kinds of seekers, who are found on different levels of evolution. Everything is tailor-made for these people, by which I mean, some or the other teaching or material exists for all kinds of seekers. This is the richness of the spiritual field. Nobody is returned empty-handed here. They are given something. If they cannot pay attention, the distraction is their attention, for some people. They cannot be forced to pay attention, but they can be distracted easily. If that is the condition of their mind, then they are given a distraction. That is a very brilliant idea, isn't it? Like children in the school, they are distracted by toys, colorful shapes and whatever you see. So, they learn something. This is the brilliant idea that the old people, ancient people came up with. And we still use it. So, as you grow up, you will leave the stories, but you will retain the knowledge. That is the beauty. Sometimes, the stories are very important, like the concept of Devi in Tantra. And if you go to Tantra, they will say, Devi is real. Devi is the truth. And can you simply leave that ashram and can you call that Guru some kind of ignorant Guru? No. They do it for a very good purpose.

One more question by Sandesh. Can you tell us about your Guru and your experiences with him?

I had many Gurus and there was no special experience with anybody that is worth mentioning. And the only good experience I had was that ignorance was beaten out. That is the worth mentioning experience. Everybody I met, they just did not give me any extraordinary colorful experiences, or spiritual experiences. They had that kind of character that they used to simply show where I am wrong. As soon as I open my mouth - you are wrong. This is my experience. About the Gurus and all, I learned one thing that when you face a Guru, just wipe yourself clean, wipe your slate. Do not even try to show that you know anything at all because it will be shown as wrong, you see?

All you need to do is simply sit down there and say that I don't know anything. Please teach me. This is what I learnt. Do not ask anything also because you are asking something on a subject that means you know about that subject. That means your slate is not blank. Just sit down, surrender and he knows what to say. The Guru knows what to say, what to teach. He is only looking for surrender. He is looking for a place to start. So, when you go there with all the beliefs, superstitions already full, then he struggles to find a place to put his teachings. There is no space to put the teaching in. It's an over-packed suitcase. What are you going to pack there? The Guru's job is made difficult by such a student. Now, he needs to first make you empty and that is more difficult than giving you the ultimate knowledge of the universe, because people are not ready to let go of their blind beliefs. That is more difficult than actually telling the truth. I learnt it, because nobody told me these things so I had to learn all these things.

How to sit in a receiving pose? And it is not a pose that you make with your body, you see? That is your attitude that I am ready to receive now. I am empty. I don't know anything at all. I have this only curiosity or a desire to know, desire to be liberated. You express this much and take the kitten path, the path of a baby cat. I think everybody knows about this path of the kitten. This mind is so volatile that it does not stick to anything specific. It keeps changing so much and then you see whatever you look at, whatever you read, whomever you meet, the music, the movies, they keep changing, isn't it? That is the sign of freedom. What is the sign of bondage? That you cannot even look at something which is not familiar. That kind of mind does not want to explore anything. He wants the same old thing in front of him every day. That is a very limited mind. Any person on the path of knowledge, any seeker should have an open mind. Let me check what this teaching is - This should be the attitude. That means you never get stuck on a specific kind of thing. That means you keep yourself open to exploration all the time. Any book, any movie, any music, as soon as you stick to one thing, that is a sign of bondage. Are you not stuck to a specific kind of life, specific kind of food, specific people? You don't want anybody except your mom and dad or only these one or two friends because you don't like anybody. These are the signs of bondage that keep us stuck in the world, in the same pattern.

You see, there is nothing wrong with the world. It's a very huge place. Very good, beautiful world. But this repeating pattern is the problem, which we call the habitual pattern because it has stopped the evolution of the creature because of its preferences for the same, same, same. You are stuck here because of this kind of pattern that prefers only one thing. So how to start your liberation? Explore. Don't say no to new things.

Sandesh is saying, now I am thinking that I am that student with the bag fully packed because I have lots of questions to ask and I already gathered information. How can I empty it and surrender?

Very good question. I simply assume that I don't know anything. Start from there. That probably, you know, whatever I know is all wrong because probably, not probably, absolutely. You have heard it from somebody. You never saw it yourself. This is not your experience. And you should doubt it. What if it is wrong? What if whatever I heard from here and there is wrong? And this doubt will empty you. Then you are in the receiving pose. Then the Guru will know what to do with you. Otherwise, you know, I have seen that people who are already full, they are not offered any teaching. What are they offered? Sometimes nothing is offered. Because the Guru knows by the time I make this fellow empty

by scolding or calling him stupid or whatever, by that time I could educate twenty people. I could enlighten fifty people by the time this one fellow gives up his beliefs. So they don't do anything. And I learned it the hard way also. You know, nobody told me these things. So I had to learn it. And I saw that it takes a lot of time to handle a person who already knows everything. And it is very easy to teach somebody who has simply surrendered. Who says, I like you. I like whatever you say. I want to learn whatever you have learnt. Okay. Come on then. Let's go. So easy, isn't it? And that fellow absorbs everything like a sponge. And that is not the condition actually. We constantly ask people to be critical

of the Guru. Keep asking the questions. But the art of asking the question is somewhat different. That is called critical thinking. Not gathering facts and trivia from here and there. That is not the proper way to question. The critical thinking is, you said this, now show me how this is true. That is called critical thinking. What logic is behind this? How did you arrive at the solution here? Just like mathematics, the teacher can tell you the right answer after writing the problem. Will you simply go away with the answer? No. Any student of mathematics will ask for a derivation. Okay, this is the

right answer. No problem at all. But I will accept it only when you show me how you arrived there. So this is called critical thinking. These kinds of questions must be asked all the time. But when you approach a teacher, a Guru with, look, I know this thing now, please tell me. Please explain everything about this. It's not very productive. Go empty. I want knowledge. This is a sign of emptiness.

Actually this thing is there in the application part of our program when people enter the program. There is a filter in front of the program. This is called step one of the program. And one of the questions is - What do you want? And the correct answer there is I want knowledge. And there are other answers that are simply distractions to find out who does not want knowledge, who already has a lot of knowledge. And they are not allowed in the program.

Session 202

Graham is asking, Can you talk about Diwali? As a Westerner, all I know is it is the festival of lights

and is associated with Lakshmi.

Yes, well it is also the start of a new year. And the rest is simply like any other worship, celebration, parties, shopping. From the point of view of the path of knowledge, the light here means the light of awareness. So all of these things have no significance except the light. And then anybody will say, why should we light the light of awareness only once per year? What about the rest of 364 days? So somebody on the path of knowledge celebrates Diwali every day by lighting the lamp of awareness within. There is no need to show off. There is no need to spend money like crazy or to pollute the atmosphere or to do the blind worship of some strange gods and goddesses. Celebrate it every day and you will get the joy of it every day. Why wait for one day, one year to get the joy of it when you can have it every day?

So anybody on the path of knowledge totally discards the celebrations done by ordinary people. They are not only useless, they are very limited. And the ordinary people themselves, they don't know what they are actually doing. For them it is nothing more than eating and shopping. So the festivals of significance happen every day for a seeker. You can celebrate any day, not on a day prescribed by some random society, some random culture. You are free. You don't need to give it a name which everybody has given. And you don't need to do the ritual which these mindless people are doing mindlessly. You make it your own. You celebrate it whenever you want, however you want. And I do it every day actually. Every day is a festival. Somebody who is still following society is a slave of society. The knowledge has made no difference at all.

Some people will say, no, I need to celebrate because my family celebrates. Then that is your bondage. It cannot be called an excuse. It has to be a bondage. Some people will say, I like it when everybody celebrates. I enjoy it. That is another bondage. Dependency. You are deriving your happiness from the celebrations of others. And there can be many more excuses. All you need to remember is that you are totally free. Not bound by the rituals, festivals and whatever of these people who mean nothing to you. Especially when these days all these festivals are totally distorted. Those who celebrate it, they don't really know what they are doing. And if you join in thinking that it's a good thing, you are actually doing a disservice. As you know, Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth. Now we understand why this is the biggest festival. This is the festival of materialistic people who blindly believe. There is a superstition there that worshiping something is going to make them rich. Is it spiritual? Is it even human? Totally animalistic. Festival of lights. You see, there is enough light in the daytime. And people spend a lot of electricity burning lots of lights which is completely useless. And not only that, they burn the oil, they burn the butter and whatever expensive things, which is stupidity.

So, this festival has become a disaster. Nothing to enjoy. Nothing to celebrate here. So, Graham made a big mistake. You asked me. Do not ask me these questions. They will be destroyed completely. So, if you want to know more about the mainstream version, just google it.

Prashanth is saying, please explain the difference between experiencer in Gyanmarg and “I am” as in the teaching of Nisargdutta Maharaj and “who am I” as per Raman Maharshi?

As far as I know, Nisargdutta Maharaj has a completely different terminology. And thanks to the translators, it is complete nonsense. So, it will be very difficult to find out the exact definition of “I am”. As far as I know from the quotations and little bits and pieces that were recorded in the books, that by “I am” he means ego. He calls the experiencer the ultimate. So, he will say, there is no I am-ness in the ultimate. Something like this. But very difficult for a newcomer, at least, to find out what he's saying.

And as per Raman Maharshi, it's more clear. “Who am I” points to the essence of what I am, not to the person that I am. And again, these words are a complete disaster. He could have easily said, find out your essence by checking what you are not. But he went with the three word sentence. Who am I? And now it causes a lot of confusion. So, something which becomes popular does not mean that it has some quality in it. It is just popular. But it is important. Why? Because we know of the path of knowledge

through these people. These famous people are your first point of contact with the path of knowledge. And you get there whatever you can get. You absorb whatever you can absorb and then you will be left

with more questions and confusions. But at least you started.

So, it takes a little bit of knowledge to understand what these masters are saying. If you just pick up the book and start reading it, probably 90% of the time nothing will be understood. But some people can easily grasp what they are saying because they have previous practice or they are highly intelligent. We don't know the cause. My solution is to not look at what other teachers are saying. Try to learn what your teacher is saying. That is most important. And then let whatever others are talking about, let them talk about it. Unless you need to teach in that tradition, which you will never do, why will you go and teach in that tradition? With the traditions and with the teachers, the terminology changes. And then it is an endless pursuit to find the real meaning of the words. And what do you get in the end? Nothing actually. Why? Because the Guru and the words, they are not the means of knowledge. Your experience and your intellect gives you knowledge. So this whole exercise is actually fruitless.

Did you get it through your own experience and through your own intellect? Done.

Nothing more is needed. Be at peace. Be in bliss. There is no need to torture your intellect because there are hundreds of these teachers. How many are you going to study and for what? The words, it's very funny that they change every 100 or 200 years. They keep changing. Will knowledge change? No, because knowledge is not based on the words, not based on the meanings of the words. It has to be your direct experience. And nobody can show you your direct experience, not even you, except your Guru. And then whatever words he chooses will be dropped also. You will become wordless. You will become silent. Silence is the language of path of knowledge, not the words. Once you get the knowledge and if you listen carefully for a few months, read a few books, you will understand what they are saying and it will be exactly that which you already know. Only that they are encrypted and headache causing books. Compared to that, this movement gives you the whole knowledge.

Sometimes it is very educational to read what others are saying because sometimes you get better metaphors, some beautiful examples, stories and probably somebody has explained this one concept better than you can explain. These are the advantages and they are useful when you're teaching, when you want to perfect your skill of teaching, how to convey the idea, how to transmit the knowledge, then you should explore how it is taught in different traditions. It can take a long time, 10 years, 20 years, like the academics do, but I'll tell you the shortcut. This program is the best. You will never find this path of knowledge explained more clearly anywhere else.

It is a struggle. Everywhere is a struggle. This is the clearest so far in the history because it came directly from the source. It was not taken from the scriptures. That is why you will find new names or the words are redefined because they were so popular. There were very clear teachings in the past, but the context is now lost. The culture is gone, the language is gone and the people who could interpret those teachings are gone. So right now, presently, this one is the clearest. You will get the whole knowledge

simply by listening because it points to your experience, not to your dictionary. Don't need to open the dictionary. Don't need to analyze the books of Nisargadatta or anybody. The knowledge is in front of your eyes. But since it is given so easily and so conveniently, its value is not understood. So people keep thinking that probably Ramana Maharishi has more. This Upanishad has more and they waste their time. This program has more than words, which will never be found in any book.

So it looks like marketing, but this is my experience. This was possible because there was no one guru. There was no single guru. Otherwise, I would be repeating that guru like a parrot. Same words, same examples and same errors. But since it was taken from many, we took the best from the experts. So that's why after doing this program, you won't need to read any book and you will have so much that you can write many books.

Krishan is saying, the 3D program alone was so direct and clear.

Yes, you see, the knowledge is very simple. The truth is very simple and the mind is very complex. So it always makes it very, very complex. So the 3D program is the simplest so far and it can be simplified even more. Some people who are conducting the program have told me that it is possible to do the 3D program in 45 minutes. 15+15+15. Does not take 3 days. Depending of course on the intelligence of the receiver, the person who is receiving. So the actual knowledge is very, very simple actually. That is why we say it is only for those who are ready. The simplicity is going to obscure the knowledge for others. They are not ready. If you get enough powers, like spiritual powers, then this can be reduced

to 3 second program because then you can manipulate the mind, show the illusion, show that you are not the body, make the body disappear, make the world disappear, do few more miracles to show that you are the existence. Then 3 seconds. We don't have those powers. We have only words. So it takes 3 days, 3 hours per day actually. But that is the complete. The bigger program is simply details, training of some kind, training for the mind. No new knowledge is given, but the skill is given.

Shanti is saying, please throw some light on what is necessary.

Very easy. That which cannot be avoided is necessary. If you can avoid it right now, it's not necessary. Now you can do this homework. You can find out things which you are doing every day that are necessary. Things which are not necessary, they can be done later, can be skipped completely. For example, sleeping and eating are very necessary. But your entertainment, gossip, YouTube videos, are unnecessary. So usually it is seen that that which is related to survival is most necessary. But our knowledge and all these gurus and whatever, you need to decide it. The lower layers have already decided what is necessary for them. Because here you will need to break this person down into layers. So the lower layers already know what is necessary and they are doing it. The problem is in the higher layers, they don't know. There is more freedom there. That's why this question arises. An animal is not going to ask what is necessary. That complete programming is already there. But because we have a little bit of freedom, we can do the unnecessary. That is actually not a negative thing, which means the arts, the music, the science, the spirituality - this was made possible because the program does not say that you need to do exactly this and this.

Now you need to decide what is avoidable. That will depend on your life goal. If there is no life goal, how will you decide what is necessary? Excluding the lower stuff. The base, once they are taken care of,

you need to decide your life goal. For the majority, the life goal is eating, defending and reproducing. That is necessary. But most probably many people have gone past that stage. Now there is a blank/vacancy in their lives. What to do? So they keep doing the same thing. The triple action. Triple X. So this guidance, the light is shown by the guru. Because you are lost, you don't know what is necessary, you need to approach the guru. Then with some rain washing, you will be told what is necessary. Because normally an average seeker does not really know what they want. So the guru hears actually, patiently, what do you want? Whatever nonsense is told. Usually the guru says, yes, it will be done. That is what I always say - It will be done. Slowly the seeker progresses, and comes to know what is necessary. And ultimately you will see that after knowledge nothing is necessary. Getting the knowledge was most necessary. Knowledge means - the essential knowledge. And after that it is a play. Everything can be discarded.

The path of knowledge starts with a goal. It is necessary. Then we become aimless. That is the goal. The aim is to become aimless on the path of knowledge. Because existence has no goals. No aims. It is already everything. So here you can relax your intellect. Simply enjoy. That is called bliss. Being in the present. Simply letting life flow. Now what is necessary? Nothing at all. But you won't appreciate this thing. So you are given a goal. Or because you are so adamant, your goal is accepted. Okay, we will start with your goal. Slowly it is the skill of the guru to bring the seeker on the track of aimlessness. Then some people ask me because they want to follow me - What is your goal? And then I need to cook up a story. People ask me how can I tell them that you need to become aimless? Their whole practice is going to be ruined. So something, some lies are told. White lies. That my goal is to serve everybody, that my goal is to ensure progress for other seekers, to keep the knowledge alive and so on. But that is all wrong, you see? Not true. It is not the goal, it is a play.

What this creature has found is this is the most entertaining play. This is the best drama in the universe. Everything else is a little bit boring, isn't it? It is just like putting your little boat in the river and pretending that you are rowing the boat in the direction of the river. And then you are enjoying your success because yes, the boat is going very fast in that direction. It is like this. So the whole guru field is actually a play. A drama. Which also I say many times but people don't understand it. A big drama company. But let me tell you there is nothing better than this. Yes, this is the biggest joke. Somebody is trying to enlighten somebody, how is it even possible? If you do this work, the service, thinking that I am doing it and it is a great work then you already failed. Nothing will get done. Yes, you can get involved in it but from time to time something happens which wakes you up.

Parteep is saying, the only work left which is not possible. Which work are you talking about?

Bodhisattva work. It is not a job. You can guess it from the Sutra itself. If you read the full text there - I will liberate everybody till the end of time and in doing so nobody is liberated - That's what is written there. People do not mention the last sentence because they don't understand what was said there. It is impossible, yes. Parteep is right. Whatever we are doing here is a joke. But unfortunately there is nothing better.

Even Guruji, somebody was asking me that after completing the path of knowledge what is your final say? I said - just laugh. There is nothing.

Yes, there is nothing to do, you see? Your aims are also taken away. You are made so empty that there remains nothing to do actually. You will only know this thing that already nothing was happening. There was nobody to do anything already. So it's like permanent emptiness now. A lot of spirituality is just lies. Just decoration on the nothingness that is in the heart of spirituality. Because nobody wants to go there. They are taken in circles and rounds and rounds and rounds. Even - what is Bodhisattva? They don't want to go there. They have justification, yes. Who will do it? If you don't do it, somebody else will do it, who will be me only, everybody is me only. So even the logic fails here. After you master the awareness what do you do? You do the Mithya-Spirituality where the awareness itself is a joke. So you see today we invented a new word. Now in the future people will discuss endlessly what he means by Mithya-Spirituality. Like nowadays we discuss what is emptiness, what is vibration and so on. Those who made those words were joking. Now you will understand that most of the great teachers did not teach simply. Their ways were very colorful. They had to kill monsters. They had to cause wars. They had to save beautiful women. So on. Because you see, this knowledge cannot be given directly. Nobody will take it. So the lies are added to spice up spirituality. That is called the Leela. Every Guru is doing that actually. More or less colorful. You will see the more controversial the Guru is the more Leela he is doing. The more enjoyment he is taking out of this Bodhisattva work.

Everybody on the path of knowledge needs to start playing a little bit. See what happens. Just like a game but there is another option that you do nothing which is also just as good. Because here the intellect fails, the logic fails actually. What is good? What is better? Cannot be defined now. Once you understand that existence speaks the language of silence, you can play. And there the words are allowed.

Parteep is saying, so much is happening that it cannot be conveyed to others. So much happens in Maya.

Yes and all that adds to a big zero. Why is so much happening? Because actually nothing is happening. So infinite events can appear here. But yes you will need to surrender the intellect. It is beyond intellect.

Cannot be understood. You will encounter the limits of the intellect here. Because newcomers can ask - Why is this happening? Why is that happening? Why was this created? Why was that created? Why was I created? And so on. In the same way they can ask - why there is a play? Go on asking. Nothing will be learnt. So yes surrender in the end. Play is the beginning.

Sometimes some teachers tell long stories to explain a simple concept. Like the story of the lion that is raised by sheep. And after listening to the story I used to get irritated. Why? Because why do we need this big story to explain something which is so simple? Then I came to know that it is simply for the people who will not accept the final conclusion directly. So the gurus go on inventing things to cater for the different kinds of seekers.

I was of a different kind - Tell me the final point. The bottom line.

Read the Upanishad.

No, tell me what is written there.

Okay this is written.

How is this true?

This is how it is true.

Thank you very much.

Nothing more was needed. Now I am doing the same actually. I am inventing the tomato and so on. The program, the 3D and so many personal projects are going on where I need to lie every day to the seekers. Because they are not there where we have to simply ask what is the truth and how it is true. And there is one more level above this level of seekers. I think I discussed this some time ago. That they need to be told the valid means of knowledge. That's all they need to hear. These are the means of knowledge. One, two. The whole spirituality ends there.

Now it is your homework. Find out why. Do we need a six month program and then a 12 year program? Then purification. And then 20 lifetimes of human births to cut your karmic stuff and so on. Do we need all that?

So yes, this zero is very small and the non-zeros are infinite. Anybody who is perfectly ready will be given the means of knowledge and will be left alone. No need to describe anything. Because from the means of knowledge onwards it is so natural and so simple, smooth, right? So probably that gives me an idea that I will simply make another program where only this much will be told. These are the means of knowledge and this is the reason for choosing these means. The job of the Guru is so simple now. But what has happened is because of the conditioning and very low quality education system that we have in the society the job of the Guru is very difficult now. You must have seen these brilliant students who are given simple theorems or something, one rule is given in mathematics and something. Next day they can solve the whole book. Spirituality is like this.

Pathless is asking, after spiritual awakening, what is left to discover?

There are two things. Like I said, you can play or there is an infinite amount of illusion which if you want you can discover. You can explore that. Totally depends on the choice of the seeker. And that exploration must be done in complete knowledge which means knowing fully that it is worthless, useless, a waste of time. So it is also a play, a different kind of play. So like I said, some people will choose the Bodhisattva tendency which means they will play in such a way that they can create more players. So what is there to discover? How to do this? How to spread the light of knowledge? Effectively, quickly and in the most entertaining way. It looks like we have three choices now. But they are all plays, which means you don't really have a choice.

Graham is asking, isn't grace required?

Yes, grace is required. Absolutely. There is no doubt about it. There are no two opinions about it. So that's why I told you that the Guru is actually pretending that he is doing something. He is rowing the boat in the direction of the river. So ultimately it is done by grace not by the Guru. The Guru takes advantage of this grace. He searches for those who are ready and he appears before them. The student is ready, the Guru appears before the student. He is anyway going to go there but the Guru makes it convenient, faster. That's all.

Guruji, one more important thing, I have noticed - if the seeker is completely ready then even the master sees everything regarding the seeker. Even the causal body or what is going to happen. If the student is perfectly ready then the master can see everything. And if the student is not ready then only the perception is limited to that extent.

Yes, your experience is very good. Yes, it is possible that and the sign of the grace is that the master recognizes the student, like he said and the student recognizes the master. How will I know I am under grace or the time has come? This will happen. Falling in love happens automatically. And like he said, yes, everything is clear after that. The Guru knows what to do. So even though I cannot explain these things, this will be your direct experience. This is how it happens. So sometimes we say it is predestined but it is not so simple. It is possible that even if the Guru is a small Guru, tiny-whiny Guru, newcomer Guru, he will be given all the information about the student who is in front of him by the Guru field. Ultimately they are the Guru. We are not, you see? We are clerks. So grace decides what will happen. If the student is not ready the Guru can do whatever he wants to do but nothing moves actually.

Sometimes this exercise is taken up as self-training - let me see if I can motivate this student to progress forward. Even I do that. I am working on people who are refusing to move since many years. So the Guru has infinite patience. But it is a learning experience. What will trigger the grace? Like they say, nothing happens by effort. It happens by grace. But in order to become eligible for the grace you need to do the effort. Even the Guru is doing the effort, you see? These are well-known facts in the field of spirituality. And it is contradictory. It is paradoxical. This is how it is. We don't claim to know it. We don't claim to understand it using the intellect. So that is why it is all thrown in the category of play

because what else can the intellect say about these things?

Parteep is saying, even about the death of some of my students. I cannot tell them because it brings karma, if I tell them. Guru is supplied anything he wants.

Yes, you will be given a lot of information. And yes, we should not reveal it unless it is necessary. Sometimes the information is latent. Like intellectually we don't know what is there. But when the time comes to provide direction to the student, exactly the right words will come out of your mouth. The information that is given is something which is deeper than the intellect.

Parteep is asking, I don't know for how many years you have been witnessing these miracles. Can you tell?

Yes, actually I have been seeing it for a long time. But it started happening more frequently when I actively started teaching. You know, we sit down and discuss spiritual matters with our friends and so on. And I used to know a few things. Especially who will fail, I don't know why. This is probably the design of this equipment here that it knows who will fail more precisely than how to direct the person. That I used to get many times. But as soon as I actively took on the responsibility of teaching, then I was given immediate help. Now also it comes whenever it is required. Because if I demand information, probably nothing is given. When it is needed, it is given. Sometimes it can happen that I come to know many things instantly. But then this intellect is not sure. Because the nature of the intellect is skeptical. Where is the proof? Did I imagine all these things and so on, you see? We simply do our best. How many years I can't even remember? I think three or four years. And I want to make it clear that it's never 100% accurate also. Sometimes it is simply a product of our imagination. Most of the gurus I have seen will say that they are given. They don't do it. They don't even know how to do it. Like performing miracles and so on. They become the instrument of that action. That is why, you know, most of the gurus, fail to pass the skeptic test. Okay, you healed somebody, now heal this fellow in front of me. All the doctors present and the meters around. And almost 100% of the time that miracle man fails. Cannot do anything. So many of the gurus I have seen, will say that it happens. I don't do it. What happens is exactly that which is needed. Which this small intellect is incapable of deciding. So I have seen these things. Yes, I have witnessed many events like this.

I remember somebody sent me a message that their relative is very sick in the ICU. And because, you know, we are gurus, everybody thinks that they know the miracles. So the fellow asked me, requesting that I pray for that person. And I said, yes, I am going to pray for your relative. And then I kept the phone. Then I prayed to the guru field - let that which is best happen for this fellow who is sick. And there I got the answer that he is going to die. That is the best that is going to happen. You don't need to pray. Don't waste my time. That was the answer. And did I tell him? No, I did not tell him. Next day, that person died.

Vikas is asking, how did you decide or at which point did you know that you must teach? I think you mentioned in your last Satsang that the final destiny of every seeker is Bodhisattva. How would a seeker know that she is ready to teach?

A seeker does not decide to become a guru. It is not a planned action. So I did not come to know or I did not decide. What happened is, I decided to express, to share, fully knowing that very few people want this thing. And now they have hundreds of gurus who are saying the same thing. So anyhow, the expression was decided. I came to know when to express myself. When I was 100% certain that this is the truth, there cannot be anything else. This certainty is like the sun shining in the sky. It is so clear when all the doubt is removed. And many people in our Satsang are in this position now. They don't have any doubts. So there the expression becomes very beautiful, very meaningful. Because you are so clear, you can explain it so clearly. Otherwise, you'll parrot the scriptures. When people start asking the questions, you don't have any other option but to teach. Yes, then you are helped by the Gurufield. It has to happen naturally somehow. If you go naturally with the flow, then all these events will happen simultaneously. That you will get the knowledge, then you will express it beautifully. Then the students will approach you and the guru field will open their business with you. So all these events, they come together.

How would a seeker know that he is ready? No, they will never know. Just like I said, clarity is one thing. But they are happy with their clarity. Why will they take this trouble to teach anybody? So the guru comes to know who is ready to teach. If you don't have a guru, then you can rely on the Gurufield

because they will arrange this thing. But I have seen that if the student or the seeker tries to become the guru by hook or crook, very mysterious things happen. Nothing works.

Parteep is saying, since childhood I had this desire to help people and it got manifested. It's my own play.

Yes, it looks like that is your prarabdha then. You have realized it. This life is fulfilled. If you complete your pre-allocation, that means your life is done. That is why I ask people to express themselves. Even if they don't have the permission to teach, they can express themselves.

Session 203

Siddharth is asking, I am in step 4 of the program. I have had very few dreams now and not much attention is paid to dreams that occur due to busy schedules. Please guide me.

If you try to find the cause of the dreams, you will see that mostly that is a replay of our daily activity, whatever remains unfulfilled, whatever our fears are in the day time, whatever happened in the past and it is a meaningless jumble of those scenes. That is what is a normal dream, so that is not happening a lot and what does it mean that probably there is no need of doing this meaningless activity now and why is there no need? Because the mind thinks that this is totally unnecessary. So these kinds of effects are seen when you start your awareness practice.

What awareness is doing is checking what is necessary, what is not and the same tendency keeps working in the night time also and probably some mechanism there thinks that this jumble of images, sounds, whatever, imaginary stuff is no longer necessary. So this can happen, yes, very normal, many people have reported this thing. There is another way to explain this is that the dreams are unconscious activity of the mind, this is more traditional way to answer this thing and since you are trying to be conscious, using these words conscious and unconscious in a popular way, since you are trying to be conscious, now there seems to be no need of the unconscious activity.

In the same way, suppose you were a daydreamer, you used to get lost in the day dreams, fantasies,

imaginations, worries, worry is also a daydream. Now the awareness ensures that that does not happen because it is totally unnecessary. Because the thinking, the imagination, and creativity can happen, it is not that it is destroyed, but the unnecessary, unintelligent activity stops, this is the magic of awareness.

Being aware, being in the present, being in my true nature causes these things. So nothing to worry at all. My suggestion is to simply remain aware in the day time and this awareness will continue in the night time or will continue in your night dreams, daydreams, whatever dreams, whatever you have left over. If you are not able to do the dream practice, nothing to worry, these are optional practices and I think it is not there in the version 2 of the program now. Only the waking state practice is worth doing, the other stuff falls under tantra, you will get a lot of time, you are very young, rest of your life can be spent in exploring the manifestation.

There is an opposite thing that happens for some people who had no dreams at all or they never remembered their dreams but when they start the awareness practice, after a few weeks, they start getting the dreams, they start remembering each and every detail of their dreams. What is the explanation here? The explanation is very simple, the dreams were always there but because there was total darkness, total lack of awareness there, that seeker never noticed this activity and now since there is a little bit of light, it looks like that, why are there so many dreams now? They were always present, the lights were off, now you can see them, you can remember them.

And there is a third category of people who have advanced a little bit and their dreams turn into waking dreams, another name is lucid dream or aware dream. Now there is no difference between their waking state and their dream state. So there are many possibilities, you should explore whatever you can and if something happens the other thing does not happen, nothing to worry. Watching these random images in the night time is not our goal. Always remember this thing, our goal is to remain aware whatever happens, whatever appears on the screen of the experiencer. If you are doing that successfully, your sadhana is complete, your practice is perfect. If at all you are interested in cultivating the dreaming experience, then I would suggest and join the tantra bodhi later on, probably after 2-3 months. Waking state is the most important and the path of knowledge is the whole and complete. The rest is, you can say, a leisure activity, to mess with the dreams, to mess with the projections and so on. No knowledge will be gained, nothing will be perfected by that.

Leyla is saying, writing down your dreams helps with remembering.

If you are doing the dream practice then follow the procedure, by procedure I mean these tricks

are given in the videos. Usually when you are told to do the awareness practice, there is no mention of it. Not much importance of these states there, what state you are in is not very important, the ultimate goal is to remain aware in all the states, all the changing states, but we start from the waking state, that is most important.

Siddhartha is asking, you mentioned sometimes about blockages that seekers are restricted, some progress, why so? Is not being able to experience different projected states, one of them?

Actually blockage means some kind of defect, some kind of problem, issue. We also call it impurity, which means some kind of process in the mind is not working as it should, not working perfectly or it is working in an abnormal way, producing some kind of mental sickness. For the path of knowledge the worst kind of blockage is not being able to understand the teachings, that is the worst.

There can be many different kinds of blockages, for example a really common one is not able to pay attention continuously to the teachings, to the guru, to the books, not able to meditate or contemplate for more than 2 minutes, 3 minutes, that is the attention span is very less, it is a very common blockage. Another example of blockage is an unhealthy body, body has pains, the body is lethargic and so on, you see, weakness, disabilities, blindness, deafness, so these are called shortcomings or blockages. Obviously that stops the progress or slows down the progress. There can be more subtle kinds of blockages, like some kind of emotional issues, the person hates the guru and is totally incapable of accepting even the truth that he knows, something like this you see, very twisted things can be there in the mind.

But what about the projected states? Blockage means a defect, but not experiencing the projected state is not a defect, it is normal, only that the seeker has not explored the potential. I will give you an example, suppose you have never driven a car, because you don't have a car and probably you are young so don't have that license also, so are we going to call it a blockage that you are incapable of driving the car? No, you have the potential, you can become a good driver if you start practicing now, get the license, start driving, in no time you will become perfect in driving. So when people say no I cannot experience the projected states or any other uncommon state like the Jnana state or Samadhi state, that simply means that they never tried properly or they tried something they heard here and there, some tricks and they spent a total of 10 minutes on that trick. Oh I don't get the Samadhi, oh I don't get

the projection. Then it's not called a blockage, it's called laziness.

Yes there can be a blockage that can prevent the projected states, but how will you know that if you don't practice it? And remember since many many lifetimes you are accustomed to the waking state and then a sharp transition to sleep, do you know anything else? It takes hardly a few seconds to transition from waking to sleep. You can observe somebody else because you probably won't be able to observe yourself. Because it is a totally automated function and the projection is totally relying on the border between the sleep and waking. As you know, the method that is recommended by me is to let the body go to sleep but keep the awareness on, to let the memory function not turn it off and it takes a lot of practice, especially this method takes a lot of practice. How much practice? Those who have past life impressions active will take at least seven days, but those who have never done it, can take seven years, ten years, twenty years. I've heard this thing, people are doing it since 20 years and so on, but I don't think they're really doing it or they have any guru or they have any purpose behind the practice, because if you don't give the mind a purpose the mind does not take it seriously. That is what is called intention, sankalp. It has to be meaningful for you, it has to be your personal adventure or goal, you must invest in it, you must be tremendously passionate and attracted to this practice, otherwise no, it won't happen.

The habit is very strong - to remain in the waking state or to go to sleep. On the path of knowledge this is also normal, but in the occult, it's a failure actually, if you cannot do it, if you cannot reach the altered state or whatever they call it, projected state, the practitioner has failed badly. We concentrate on the waking state and we come to know that if there is a blockage because of which the projected state is not happening only after many years of practice. It is not so easy to find out the blockages of that kind as you can guess. You are doing the awareness practice in the waking state and you come to know the problems or you don't even know but you know that I'm not progressing. The guru can find a solution easily. But what about the projected state? Total darkness, lack of awareness, there is no context, there is no language, how is it even possible to find out what is happening there? So even the master must be highly evolved for that, by which I mean that the guru must have gone through that kind of training many many times, it must be his profession by which I mean he must be a real master in the art of projection. Only then he can guess a little bit what is happening with the student and as you know our path is the path of knowledge so you can find experts in the waking state, not in the projected state and then it is mostly your luck. If you manage to get to some distance like you are experiencing the sounds or the visions, you are able to separate yourself, your projected body from the physical body etc. After that we can start digging where the problem is, usually it's not a blockage, it's simply lack of practice. Everybody has the potential and if they are not able to experience the projected state, we don't call it blockage.

Leyla is asking, I have not had any projections that were intentional, they just kind of happened like spontaneous awareness inside the dream.

That is the indication that there was some practice in the previous births or there are some kind of extraordinary blessings on you. Sometimes these experiences are given. By which I mean if the student shows a little bit of potential, they are given for that student, even if the student has no talent at all, no practice, nothing, has never seen these things before and that is what we call the blessing or the grace. That is done sometimes. It can be found out easily. You had a very awesome projection experience but just once or twice and then you keep trying nothing happens, you just fall asleep, then there is a very good chance that it was given. You can find out why it is given. So that you don't give up your practice, it is like giving chocolate to a school boy so that he keeps going to school. That kind of motivation makes him come to the school, attend the classes, do the homework and so on. We are like babies for the guru field and they keep doing these kinds of things. Only to the courageous, only for the sincere seekers. The lazy-daisies are not given any attention.

Anjali is saying, how does the transition from physical body to astral body feel like, what all happens during that transition phase? I have few experience of the state afterwards but I was never able to maintain awareness during the transition, it's full blackout.

It seems like a floating sensation that you're rising above the body, that is the most common, there can be others like spinning and there is a very funny one like falling. It's not funny. Actually, some people don't like it. It feels like I fell and then the body then wakes up with a shock. If you're practicing then it will be smooth rising, smooth like a balloon, the astral body rises out of the physical and yes there will be blackness initially because the non-physical senses are not online, they come online only after a good amount of practice and to bring it online quickly we use the intention, that is the traditional method.

Another method, and that is also traditional is imagination, you never shut down your senses, non-physical senses, you keep imagining, you keep a scene alive in your non-physical sense, vision or whatever or you combine many senses which are non-physical and that is called imagination in the ordinary language but in the occult the imagination means something totally different. It is not a fantasy, it is not something fake. In occult the imagination is true, it is a tool, it produces results.

So my suggestion to Anjali is more practice and if there is a blackout during the transition, nothing to worry, if you gain back the awareness you make the intention to activate the non-physical senses. It is okay, it is fine, you see the beggars are not choosers, you are getting something that is good enough. Continue with it slowly and blackout will be gone and it may feel like a blackout but actually it's not a blackout because there is nothing to see or do for a few seconds where the physical senses have shut down but the non-physical are not yet active. There is this gap and nothing goes into the memory because there is nothing to store in the memory, it looks like that I blacked out, I was unconscious but nothing to worry. This is the process and if you don't feel rising out of the body then also it's okay. You should feel light, just like air, you should feel free. That feeling is totally different when you have lost the body then you can simply get up and walk/fly, do whatever you want.

There are more advanced kinds of projections where you simply appear in the non-physical world. That does not mean that the body disappears here. There are no bodies now. Simply the scene appears on the screen. There is no need to go through this drama of leaving the body and walking via the body, going out of the room and so on. That is the advanced kind of projection where you make the experience appear on demand. That is the best and there is no blacking out, there are no sensations or weird things/noises, nothing happens.

In the advanced version, while waking, you become completely aware of another non-physical world. Though you may be starting out, there's no problem; keep practicing. Even one glimpse of the non-physical is enough to reveal that everything is an illusion. There's no need to know how it got created, what created which layer, or what vibration. It's like tasting sugar; you can read a book about how sweet sugar is, but you won't truly know until you take a little bit. Similarly, you can talk about the illusion all day, but these experiences show you the illusion right in front of your eyes – it is an illusion.

Right now, realize not to take everything so seriously. Yes, don't take everything seriously, but the things that need to be taken seriously should be taken seriously. By that, I mean do that which is necessary. Even though it is an illusion, this lifetime and the waking state are also projections. Now, we should utilize it; otherwise, why have this experience? There was no need for this experience, so don't take all those events seriously which are completely useless distractions on your path. But yes, you should take something seriously, like your practice and probably your guru.

Seeker is asking, Are there many births? It's confusing because most of the time, we say there is no birth. Are there different points of view?

You say that what you are is never born, never dies; it is the existence, the Brahman. It never changes and is eternally the same – eternally the witness. So, then what is born? Something happens, some experience occurs, some structures appear and disappear. Then how many births? Unlimited – whose births are they? Nobody's; they simply appear. Then why does it look like I was born? That is ignorance (avidya). Somebody told you, 'You were born,' and that was accepted without critical analysis. Are there different points of views?

The witness has different points of view – how many? Infinite. What is the real point of view? There is no real point of view; all are illusions. So why are these questions still there? Because you never had a guru; you never walked on any path; you never systematically studied any spiritual topic. It is highly recommended to start from the ABCD.

The seeker is asking, "How does past life sadhana help one in this life?" It is actually not needed if you have a good guru; nothing is needed from the past. If there is some past life practice, then you can continue where you left off. That means, in this lifetime, it will be easier to pick up the practice. The difficulty lies in the lack of knowledge. We try to discipline the seeker with whatever method works, but I always see a lack of discipline in people, and that is the cause of slow progress.

When I started this practice, nobody had to tell me to do it or discipline myself. The passion was so much that it required me to get up at 3:30 a.m in the morning or at night. It is the same method – you stay awake for one hour or 30 minutes, then you go to sleep, and by early morning, you should be out of your body. At that time, I was also doing a job, and you can understand how much dedication it takes. Plus, I was so passionate that if somebody told me not to eat something because it would make me drowsy or reduce life energy (prana), I would do it if it helped in the practice. Whatever kind of sacrifice or discipline it required, I immediately implemented it. For example, she said to write down your dreams, and I filled my diaries with even the most stupid kind of dream. This much dedication is needed.

So, it is not that people have not been successful in this kind of practice; in our program, they were successful. But all of them had past life tendencies, and nobody picked it up in this lifetime. This is what was seen. Actually, I got some feedback from the videos that some people watched my videos on projection, and in two or three days, they automatically got the projection. How is that possible? You need so much discipline and practice, and that fellow gets it without doing anything. There is only one explanation – they have done it; they have done the disciplined practice; they have taken the trouble since many lifetimes. They're doing this, and this video simply reminded them. There was some deep trigger there, and just like you don't need to teach a fish to swim, you don't need this kind of practitioner to project; don't need to teach him to project. So, discipline is the key.

Once you get the knowledge, simply knowledge is not going to give you the experience. What experience do you need? You need to do it only once or twice because on the path of knowledge, all we want is to simply confirm that our teaching about every experience being an illusion is really true. This is a fact, and this is simply another experiment to confirm it. Although it is a very powerful experiment, it seals the deal. And yes, your direct experience, logic, and intellect are actually effective in knowing that this is a dream. But some people are not convinced by that; they don't get that shock. Oh no, this is a dream? Yes, because it is very intellectual. By that, I mean it is very difficult to believe that this is a dream. That much is our intention, and that is why this intention helps in getting there.

When you don't have any intention, let's say you simply want to do it for fun or you want to check whether what these people keep saying is really true or not. That much only, you're not serious about it. But once you have the intention, "I want knowledge; I want to confirm my guru; I want to cross-check my guru, and I'll do whatever it takes." Which does not mean madness; you should do it properly; no need to do anything extreme. So, this intention, if it is strong and you repeat it every day before doing the practice, that "I'm doing it for this only – to solidify my knowledge," and then pray to whomever you want to pray that, "Let this happen, please." You know, I did that because if somebody is desperate, that fellow will do everything possible. So, yes, you need to be thirsty, hungry, desperate – read everything, listen to every video, and just immerse yourself in this desire. Then something can happen, you see. So, those who are really interested, they should join the Tantra Bodhi because whatever I said just now is never told in our Path of Knowledge program. What do we say? Keep the awareness on; that's what I tell you.

The real juice is never given, which comes under the occult. There are extreme methods like sleep deprivation and fasting, and who knows what. For some people, they can be effective, but we never recommend it. Instead, we recommend dedication, discipline, prayer, intention – a good intention, which means an honest intention to get knowledge. Many people fail in this thing because they don't have an honest intention; they don't have any serious effort. So, they fail. Sometimes, they just say, "Let me try it; if it happens, it happens." You know, then it will never happen. You see, Mother Nature is very possessive about this thing. She does not want anybody to know what is beyond the physical. Although this is not true, this is just a metaphorical and poetic way of saying it, this is how we feel.

"Why is everybody not born with this kind of gift? Everybody's born with eyes and the ability to speak and the ability to walk. Why is everybody not born with the ability to project?" Because Mother Nature wants only those to experience her bigger illusion, Maha Maya, only after they grow up a little bit. By grow up, I mean grow up spiritually – a little bit of spiritual progress is needed. Then, you're promoted; otherwise, you are limited to this one experience. So, you should not oppose Mother Nature here – whatever we call Devi or Maya, goddess. We should not oppose her; we should hold her hand. She wants your good, so hold her hand and then go wherever she is taking you. She wants you to progress first and then experience all these mesmerizing experiences. Then yes. If you say, "Who wants to progress? I just want a little bit of fun here and there – non-physical kind of fun like they show in the movies." Then, Mother Nature is not really interested.

Arvind is asking, Is the gurufield also interested in eradicating misery from this world? We see so many human beings suffering in so many ways – physical diseases, hunger, lack of basic conditions in many places around the world. Is the gurufield interested in doing something about it?

Yes, the gurufield is doing whatever can be done, but their point of view is very wide compared to ours. I don't think any guru sees misery or pain as bad; they see it as the dual experience because existence is whole, complete, and perfect. So, it must have everything. Can you eradicate it completely? Impossible. It is like saying, "Given a white paper, can you draw only with white color and produce a beautiful painting?" No, you must draw with the black color, and then this black and white combination produces a beautiful picture. That is perfection. It takes dark to appreciate light; it takes suffering to appreciate joy. This teaching must be had firsthand.

So, if you eradicate misery, yes, that's kind of an immature point of view. Their perspective is much bigger, and probably we won't even understand it. Creatures don't progress if they don't suffer; this is the mechanism here. What is suffering, actually? It is an illusion. So, would you like to eradicate the illusion? It is meaningless because happiness is also an illusion. We want this kind of illusion, not that kind of illusion. So again, a limited thought here.

What they are interested in, now I'm telling you the secret of the guru field, is utilizing suffering so that you ask for the teaching; otherwise, you'll never ask it. "Who am I?" Nobody wants to ask this. "How beautiful am I?" Yes, everybody wants that, if they are not beautiful, it is suffering. Then the question appears, "Why is it like this? Who am I?" So, the gurufield wants to exploit this, hack it, and use it to make people progress. See how beautiful it is; they don't want to waste it.

So, who created diseases, hunger, lack, etc.? They are part of the package. In India, if you get into a car, you get bad traffic, noise, dust, dirt, and smoke also. That is part of the package. Who created this? Nobody did. So, who should remove this? Nobody. But there are some people who can use this if they have the agenda to make you progress. And yes, it is being used very nicely, and the biggest suffering is death, actually. If there is no death, there won't be any progress, there won't be any evolution. So ultimately, we see that the negative part is not really bad; it is simply the dual of the positive part.

Why is there disease? Because people forgot to maintain their bodies; they don't know what to eat, and they live worse than animals. Animals live in beautiful places, and humans live in concrete boxes in polluted cities. So, they are the troublemakers, really, and the gurufield has no obligation to fix this. It is their own doing. Who created hunger? Did Mother Nature create a lack of food on this planet? No, there is so much of it. So much of it that those who have more, waste a lot of it. So, hunger is created by human greed, that is the real cause, and the gurufield has no interest in this.

Who wants to progress? Are you hungry? Do you know why you're hungry? You are in a mess now, get out of there. How? How can I get out of here? Yes, hold my hand; this is what the guru is saying. "I'm not here to fix the world; I'm here to help people progress." This is what the guru is saying, and you will notice no guru has tried to fix the world. And those idiots who have tried to fix it, they all failed; they actually made it worse. You can count all your politicians in it. It must be done one person at a time – individual effort, like me talking to you. Nothing can be fixed; you can only leave the rotten and take the fresh. Why is it rotten? Your mistake.

"Why am I suffering?" Why are you there, where suffering is the prevalent thing? No, I'm not free, I need to be – that is the problem. Is it ignorance? You are not bound here. "I don't know how to." That is why there are teachings; that is why the guru is teaching you. So ultimately, something is being done which is well beyond the normal intelligence of humans. It is the most perfect thing that is being done, not a patchwork here and there.

Now, many people ask, "If suffering is an illusion, happiness is an illusion, then why avoid one thing and why prefer the other thing? Why not accept?" Yes, accept. It is your choice. You came here; that was your choice. Just like you go and watch a horror movie – that is your choice. You spend money on it; money means time, isn't it? And then can you say, "Please don't show me these horrible pictures"? It was your choice. So, you came here in the physical world where duality is the law. There will be black and white; otherwise, there is no world. You need at least two shades of color, and they need to be opposite; that is the law.

Now I accept – yes, I wanted this immersive virtual reality experience, and the reason can be anything. The reason can be total fun, entertainment; that is what we say is the play. That is my play, or it can be a learning experience, or it can be both. Or there can be another kind of experience which we call service because I learned a little bit; now I need to bring other people out of it. That is the Bodhisattva tendency. There is another reason to take birth here. Otherwise, your desires brought you here – nobody else.

Now accept, and if you had enough, get out of here; never come back – you are free. How to do that? Proper path, proper guru, proper practice – no shortcut is given. Actually, the biggest shortcut is the guru. Look at the guru; if he could do it, you can do it. The guru comes as an ordinary person, looks like an ordinary person, is suffering like an ordinary person, is happy like an ordinary person, and even talks the same language as them, just to show, "Look, if I can do it; you can also do it." That is the motivation. There is no magic here. If the guru came in a flying saucer, spaceship, radiant form, and walking on air and whatnot – "Look, I am free!" – is anybody going to be impressed by that? "Oh, you are this big one, almighty, and we are like this dirt?" No, I cannot do it. So, the guru appears as an ordinary human being.

There is no real gurufield without the human form. What are they doing, observe, you will know. No, can’t they simply shift the entire maya from here to there? But they don't; they never do it. A guru who is a magician will be worshiped; people won't follow that guru, or there will be a long line of beggars in front of his house – "Please do some miracle for me also. Please make me a billionaire, tomorrow. I have only daughters; please do something so that my wife gets sons," and so on – "Make my neighbors disappear. Make me the president," you see? And the real needy seekers who are struggling for bits and pieces of knowledge, they won't get access to this kind of guru.

So, a real guru never does any miracle; if they do it, that is their play probably. They want to simply advertise, "I'm here." Or sometimes, the miracle happens because the seeker badly needs it, stuck somewhere because of nobody's fault. So, they add just a little bit here and there – you married the wrong person, now boom! divorce – unnecessary trouble, they remove it, and nobody comes to know what actually happened, and the result is you progress. So, there are all kinds, but the real goal of the gurufield is your progress – nothing else.

Suppose you are listening to the recording and the Wi-Fi is not working, yes, that is a very good prayer. There is no progress because the Wi-Fi is so terrible. Yes, they will fix it, don't worry. Sometimes we should be really careful about what we ask. You are asking about a good Wi-Fi, and the gurufield checks that this fellow lives in a really bad country, where there is no proper internet. So, they will cause some events there so that you are forced to leave your country and shift to some other country like South Korea, where there is 100 Mbps internet, free for everybody. That can be a shocking, dramatic experience!

So, we should be careful what we ask from the gurufield because if they do it, you won't be able to really tolerate it. Instead of recommending you experiment with the gurufield, my recommendation, my suggestion is always to pray like this – “Thank you for whatever happened; thank you for whatever you have given. Now, please do that, which is for my best. Do that which is in my best interest”. Don't try to use your own intelligence to tell them what to do, because obviously, we don't have that kind of intelligence. This, you can guess, is called surrender – surrender like the kitten surrenders to its mother. We cannot dictate our progress; we can only surrender. And those who surrender, their progress happens very fast. This is my own experience.

Actually, those who have a lot of resistance, don't follow the instructions, do whatever they please – I say that they don't progress much. Sometimes, they're kicked out completely.

Sushanth is asking, "Won't surrender or not-surrender happen automatically in desire, thought, and then action?"

Yes, if you say everything happens automatically, then there is no doer. So, with the right combination of the guru and the student, surrender happens. It is like with the right combination, the love affair happens; it cannot be planned. So, the real test of the guru is that if you don't feel any kind of love or surrender for the guru, he's not the guru, you're wasting your time. This is the litmus test of who is my guru – sometimes it can be incorrect, but most of the time, this is the test. You will always learn anyhow, even if you don't like the guru; you will learn something from the guru. But surrender means, it is the complete responsibility of the guru to take you to where he is.

We have seen in this country extraordinary amounts of surrender. And for that, even if the student is lagging behind and has many lifetimes to cross, the guru keeps coming for the student. And obviously, they won't come for one; they have many like this. So, surrender is very powerful. That means you are giving the whole of your life to the guru, and that is why it is so risky also because you surrender to the wrong guru, and then you're gone also, surrender to a fake guru, and everything bad can happen. Now, that is why the path of knowledge is so special because here, surrender means simply removing the resistance to the removal of ignorance.

Somebody wants to remove your ignorance, stop resisting; this much surrender is required. If somebody says, "Pay me tons of money or be my slave," and so on, then there can be a problem. That is not the path of knowledge. Here, you remove your resistance to the teaching; explore, be open enough to explore what is being said because what is said is nothing but the evidence. Evidence is being presented; nothing is really said, nothing is really claimed. Look, this is how it is; this is the evidence. What does it tell you? This much is said; this is what your guru is telling you. And then, the surrender is so easy because all you need to do is look at what he's saying, think about it seriously, and that is why we have listening as the first phase, and it is strictly done. Which means you're not allowed to move here and there, listening needs to be exact, and that also checks your surrender. If people are not surrendered, then no, I'm not interested, because they failed initially. So, who will waste their time on such people? I prefer those who surrender, and they progress fast, they deserve it, they get my blessings.

Session 204

Sanjay is asking, are there any techniques to identify existing tendencies in the causal body?

If you observe your own behavior, your own speech and thought, you will come to know

what is there in the causal body because this physical body is simply manifestation of the

causal body. This is the most accurate technique. Then the other techniques are more into the occult, where you go into the dream worlds and so on, to find out that which is suppressed or that which is going to be your next pre-relocation. But usually that is unimportant. The current tendencies which are being manifested, they are most important. And they can be seen already, right now.

Siddharth is asking, is thought in itself karmic, even if no action is taken?

Yes, thought is an action. Karma means action. So why is it an action and why is the action done by the speech or the body is a more real action? The only difference is the consequences. The consequences of thinking manifest later and the consequences of speaking, they take a little bit of time, but not that much time. But whatever you do, the consequences are almost at the same time. So always remember that everything is happening in the memory. When the body is acting, actually it changes in the memory, nothing else. When we are speaking, it changes in the memory. Thinking changes in the memory. Whenever change is caused, it is called an action.

So from this perspective of the memory model, action is simply action. Usually we are expecting the consequences in the physical world. And because thought is somewhat far away from the physical world, it takes a little bit of time to manifest. But the consequences of the thought are seen instantly in the thought itself. If you think something negative, you will see that there are negative emotions. Then there is a chain of negative thoughts. That is the consequence. However, if you are plotting somebody's murder or something like this, that can happen very late in the physical. Sometimes it may not happen. Some other thoughts can overpower this thought. So it takes some time to get to the physical level, but ultimately they are all vibrations. Those who don't know this, they keep thinking something without any control. And their belief is that there are no consequences of thinking. I can think of anything, good, bad, but there are always consequences of any change made in the memory.

Vikas is asking, since there is no individual doer, towards whom does the prarabdha/preallocation

apply?

Obviously to the creature that has taken the birth, because preallocation simply means the list of actions, the list of work, jobs, this creature is programmed to do. There is no doer. There is this machine which simply executes whatever is allocated to it or it tries to do it.

Vishal has a question. What is destiny? Is destiny predetermined or we can create our destiny?

Actually, destiny means predetermination. It means that which is bound to happen. So, since there is no doer, nobody can change it. Because if we say it is predetermined, that means there is no chance of changing anything. And here the word "we" means the humans, the body, mind; they are actually predestined to follow whatever happens to them. There is nobody who can change anything. That is the meaning of predetermination. So, as soon as somebody says that I can change that which is predetermined, that simply means that nothing is predetermined then. If you can change one thing, that means you can change everything. So the whole concept becomes meaningless. So as soon as you say predetermined, that must mean logically that cannot be changed.

But there is an opposing concept that whatever we do is done by our own will. And that is totally false because there is no doer. Nobody has the will. Nobody owns the willing process. So ultimately you must find something that transcends the two extreme views. Because these both views are extreme and they are very limited. So what is the middle view? It says that things are happening. The events are simply happening. And since there are infinite possibilities in existence, anything can happen. But it is not done by somebody. Everything is not predetermined. However, nobody can determine it. So how does it happen? It happens according to something we call the laws of the mind or laws of memory or laws of the illusion. This illusion operates in this part of the memory, in this part of the universal memory, according to some laws. And these laws, they govern what will happen, not the individual. The individual is a product of the laws. This is the middle ground. If the law says that yes, there is something which must happen in this way only, like the karmic law, then yes, that will happen like this. Nobody can change it. Because there is nobody to change anything. And if there is some law which says that there is some scope of deviation, it is not really determined what can happen, then whatever is the current situation will happen. Depending on that current situation, something will happen. So this is the middle ground and all three ideas are simply ideas. And what is the truth? Nobody knows the truth. The illusion is unknowable. Why? Because it is me. I am the illusion. I am unknowable. So all we can do is just guess something about it. And ultimately your experience will determine what is the truth.

If your experience says that no, everything is already written somewhere and it is being executed like a movie, the movie is already printed, now it is being shown. If your experience says something like this, then that is the truth for you. If your experience says no, I am free to “will” whatever I do, then yes, that is the truth. And if the experience is in between, like some things are random, some things are fixed, then that is the truth. So because this is the illusion, it does not yield to any inquiry about the truth. Because the nature of the illusion is that it is false. So whatever you come up with as an explanation of the illusion will be false. I usually give this example of the movies, that you know, there is a bank robbery scene in the movie. Now something goes wrong and they get caught. Now nobody knows actually. The movie ends there, and probably there is part 2 of the movie where their plot is exposed and so on. The viewers then go about finding the cause, finding an explanation of what happened, and they make up many many stories that this must have happened, that must have happened. Somebody told, somebody betrayed their gang and so on, you see, and they will give the proof. Look, this scene in the movie shows that this was bound to happen and so on.

But what are they doing? Whatever they are saying is actually false because the whole movie is false. Remember this. Whatever explanations and logic they come up with about the events in the movie will be totally false. Why? Because the movie itself is false. Whatever you talk about in the movie will be a story. Nothing true. Nobody got caught. So it has an entertainment value only. Like you must have seen the review videos on YouTube of every movie where they dissect frame by frame and I say what is this madness? But they are enjoying it immensely. So this illusion has only one value, entertainment, play, leela, and there is no point in dissecting it frame by frame. There is no point in trying to find a cause of something or to make very strong opinions or to believe something so strongly. It is false. And that is why in the Advaita philosophy we do not study the illusion because its study is also false. Be the truth. Remain the truth. That is the recommendation. Be in awareness. Watch the play. It is for entertainment. Don't set your head on fire because you don't understand it. Because you will never understand it. You can make one statement about it, and you will find that in another world, another dimension, exactly opposite is happening. Now what is true? Nothing is true here. So when we go and try to study the illusion, we only get a headache, not knowledge.

So I think these were the words of Gautam Buddha or somebody like this. I don't remember who said this. Don't even try to understand the Maya. You will only get a headache. I read it on the internet. I don't know how true this saying is. And I heard this story of Shri Krishna also that his brother asked him or somebody asked him, I think, "You are the all-knowing God. Please tell us about Maya." And he immediately became nervous and he said, Krishna said, "Please ask me anything but don't ask me about Maya."

So in Advaita, the discussion about the Maya is only for entertainment purposes. We should not take anything seriously that we say about what is happening, what is manifested. Other than that, it is my false face. It is my illusionary face. The true face is the experiencer or the witness. That is most important. But nothing more can be said about it. So highly boring, isn't it? Like the movie screen. If no movie is playing, there is a blank screen. What can you talk about? How long can you stare at it? Yes, it's peaceful. That's all. Blank. That is the truth. As soon as the movie starts now, it is mind-blowing. Awesome. It is false. False is entertaining. The truth is boring. Plain. Blank. Fully knowing this, you can talk about the illusion. Those who simply talk about the illusion as if they are gaining the knowledge, they are ignorant people.

Siddhant is saying, certain things like aging can be predetermined.

No, it is possible to reverse your age or die prematurely. Everything is possible. Like I said, as soon as you make a statement, you can give an example where it did not happen like this. Yes, the illusion is very complicated. And why is it so complicated? Because of the enormous possibilities. Like one scientist had given this example of a ball of string. You take a long string and just throw it on the floor a few times. And you will see that it has arranged itself in the most complex way. You will not be able to untangle it. It will take you at least one hour to disentangle, make it straight again. But how much time did it take to get into that position of complexity? One second.

If you throw the tangled ball of string again on the floor, will it spontaneously arrange into a straight string? What is the probability? Or will it simply take a round shape, a perfect circle shape by itself? Can somebody tell me why this never happens in the illusion? Why does everything go from order to disorder here? Everything becomes so complex. Any ideas?

Why is the illusion not like this, that you throw a handful of clay and it arranges into a clay pot, a beautiful flower pot or something. The reverse is seen, that you throw the clay pot or flower pot and then it arranges itself into a pile of clay.

Vikas is saying, the law of entropy.

Yes, but that is substituting the words. Entropy also says the same thing, that entropy always increases. That is what I am saying. Why?

Sita is saying, it has to happen like this because of its cyclic nature.

I don't know why cyclic nature comes here. Obviously, the pile of clay is a more complex shape than the clay pot. The clay pot is a very regular, simple shape.

Vikas is saying, it can't be answered since to talk about it would be to investigate the cause of illusion, which is impossible.

We are not talking about the cause of illusion here. This is established that it is unknowable. Ultimately, it is unknowable, but we can find an explanation for simple things, like in science.

Siddhant is saying, the potential wants to express as many possibilities as it can.

It is partially true. Siddhant's answer is a little bit true.

Arvind is saying, because arranged form has very very small probability out of millions of arranged possibilities.

Yes, this is exactly true. Arvind's answer is very good. At the extreme end of something, it is the simplest out of many other things. From simplest to complex. So it is simply the fact that there are so many ways to arrange these dirt particles. Let us say in one kg of dirt/clay, uncountable particles are there. So mathematics says that if you simply throw it, there are countless ways to arrange those particles. The arrangement of a flower pot will be just one out of the infinite ways to arrange. So it will never actually happen. This is basic mathematics in science.

And now you can ask why it is like this only. Now there is no answer to this. Why there have to be unlimited possibilities and why it cannot do this magic trick of arranging itself into a flower pot. There is no answer to this question. You can get intermediate answers sometimes. But they are not satisfactory. Like somebody can ask if it is an illusion, why can't we arrange the illusion so that when we throw the clay, it always forms into something good. Some good shape. And the answer is yes. Why not? Probably you can make a world where throwing this clay powder arranges itself into something good. Something beautiful. It is possible. Right now, wherever we are, the law of entropy is the governing law.

Siddhant is saying, randomness is a fundamental pattern. Patterns might occur in it.

Yes, randomness or you can say all the possibilities, they form the background. And very few patterns are meaningful for the mind. You can take another creature which is totally different from you, like an alien and probably they can see a pattern there which you cannot see. So our minds demand a certain kind of pattern to be recognized as meaningful. Probably very simple kinds. We are limited to very simple kinds. But probably there can be a mind, there can be an intelligence that can decode something which looks totally random and complex to us. Like the ball of the string or something.

Like you must have watched the movie Rain Man where Tom Cruise drops a box of matchsticks on the floor. Does anybody remember this movie? It is a very good movie actually. He drops a box of matchsticks on the floor, and all the matchsticks fall out. And that fellow, I forgot his name. He counts all of them in one second. Dustin Hoffman. Thank you. And he even says that look one is missing. And actually, one was missing. So how is that possible? What kind of mind did he have? He was a genius. We could not find any pattern in that. He could. And something similar is shown in this movie called A Beautiful Mind.

So what we are exploring here is this possibility that probably nothing is random. It is our limitation. If you take the universal memory, for example, and you imagine a being with that kind of universal memory, then probably nothing is random, you see. Everything is meaningful. Even after the entropy action of millions and billions of years, that being can find out the pattern there. You can call him God if you want. So nothing is random in God's mind. But we are tiny, we can't remember a 10 digit number also because they look random to us. So this is a very entertaining discussion about science and the Maya.

Vijay is saying, can we call it the field of infinite possibilities?

Yes. A probability distribution field. That is what is me, actually. There is nothing which is manifested in me. There are only possibilities in me. This emptiness has infinite possibility, which is I am. The intellect cannot understand what is here. So we use our intellect to simply clear what it has understood wrongly. We remove avidya or ignorance. And we gain nothing actually because what will you gain? If you have infinite possibilities, what will you know? So ultimately this is unknowable. Whatever is, is unknowable. And that is me. I am unknowable.

Arvind is asking, how is the study of Maya different from modern science? What is the difference in approach?

I think it is fundamentally the same. When the ancient people started the study of the illusion, they found this empirical science, experimental science. We form the hypothesis, then we test it using experiments, and then we arrive at some solution. This is very ancient. There is nothing modern about it. In fact, that science was probably more developed than current science. So what is the difference between this kind of study, scientific approach, and the modern approach? Modern science is limited to study of the physical world only, the inanimate. Whatever you call medicine or psychology is actually called a soft science, not a hard science. In medicine and psychology, the scientific method is not followed that much. Mostly it is hit'n trials.

But when the ancient people studied the illusion, it was absolutely systematic. And that is what we call Tantra in India. So modern science is a small and degraded branch of Tantra, which has become somewhat limited. And why has this happened? Because the study of the inanimate is very useful for survival. When they study medicine, they treat the body as an object, a mechanical kind of machine, which is very good actually because the body is like this partially. And then the approach they take to the study of the mind is also mechanical. Before computers came, it was seen as a machine. So that much is the limitation of the modern approach.

And why did this happen? Because this is very useful for survival. What crops will grow faster in this climate? How to build a building? How to make a machine? How to make a weapon? This does not require the knowledge of the full illusion or this does not even require this knowledge that it is an illusion. It simply requires empirical science, which means experimentation. And then you can use your intellect to manipulate this thing and produce the machines and tools and so on, even cures. So this is a very limited form of study.

For example, if you take medicine, there are two parts, according to me, one is surgery and the other is chemotherapy. So what surgery is doing, it is not healing anything actually. It simply arranges the body parts in such a way that the natural healing of the body happens in a better way. Like if you break a bone, they will operate on you and they will arrange the bone so that the natural healing can be assisted a little bit. It is not that the body parts are remade or something like this. Chemotherapy is simply a process of refinement of what is happening, what is occurring naturally. You take the turmeric, you do the experiments with it, and then you get the active ingredient in it. What is it in the turmeric that is curing this disease? Just refine that natural thing, and you will get the medicine. You can copy it by synthetically producing the same.

You can see how limited it is. When the Tantra goes a little bit deeper there, it can actually create a body. It can actually heal the body, although they claim it, but it is very difficult to get the evidence. So modern science is mostly hacking nature, not really creative, although we should not say this because whatever has been done is already magnificent. Very good. The drawback is that the old knowledge is lost in this limelight of modern science. People have stopped studying that knowledge which is ancient, which is still more fundamental and pure. It got distorted because there are no pioneers in that field, although there are, but single individuals. So it is getting wasted.

Arvind is asking, is Tantra's approach as objective as modern science or more subjective? Is consciousness used as a tool for exploring and arriving at conclusions?

Yes, Tantra's approach is probably more systematic and objective than modern science. It is immensely logical. There are no words like objective or subjective in Tantra. Nothing is objective and nothing is subjective. It is all an illusion. Is consciousness used as a tool? I don't know the meaning of the word consciousness, we never use it. So probably you can define your words first. Because in Advaita philosophy, there is no word for consciousness. We have Atman, Brahman, Maya and so on. There is no word like consciousness in Tantra also, there is Devi, that's all.

Vikas is asking, it can become difficult sometimes to communicate since I know their view and illusion hasn't been even shaken. Is this normal period one goes through during post-awakening?

Yes, it is normal, and because they do not understand, you must understand. Because they cannot adjust. So you should adjust. This is the solution. And always remember that it will not remain like this. These people will not remain with you forever. The speed with which this creature is evolving, depending on that, they will all be left either in this lifetime or in the coming three or four lifetimes. Four maximum. Like my guru says, I don't know how they arrived at this number, there is no proof for it. But as soon as you meet your guru, four lifetimes is the maximum. And after that, the whole human birth is transcended. So I have seen it with my own eyes, my own experiences, the same thing, that as soon as it becomes difficult to communicate, that means the breaking has begun. It is a sign of what is coming. You see, at the subtle level, already the causal bonds are being broken.

What do you mean by causal bonds? The Sanskrit word is the Runanubandha, it is being taken care of now, thanks to the gurufield or whatever you want to call it now, because we don't know how this happens. We think that it is happening because of the knowledge that I have. Now I have become somebody else. No, it is changes in the memory structure. Whatever bonds we form with people are due to ignorance. So since you know this well, you know this better than these ignorant people, you will need to adjust somehow. But it is all going away now.

Jayesh is asking, What is the difference between the objectives or goals of the path of occult and POK? Do they have the same destination? Does the association really lead to bliss, or does one have to disidentify with desire?

You see, the goal of the occult is desire fulfillment, and the goal of the path of knowledge is the destruction of ignorance. Totally different. So association does not lead to bliss. You are already bliss. So how can you become bliss? How can you get it? Not by doing something. What does it do? It simply gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. The occult gives you the freedom to play in the illusion. Freedom to what? Creature. Not to the self. Not to the experiencer. It is already free. So if you disidentify with the desires, then obviously the play is not going to take place. So those who are in the occult, they glorify their desires rather than doing the opposite. They hold their desires as the blessings of the Devi, and they do whatever they can to fulfill it. Obviously, it will never get fulfilled. New desires come, but ultimately progress happens out of the human world.

Arvind is saying, by consciousness, I mean one's awareness, subjective perception.

The perception is always subjective. There is no objective perception. And the perception is called the experience, anubhava. And one's awareness means nothing. The person has no awareness. The person is a perception. Whatever you are looking at, the mind, body, and whatever it thinks I am, the ego, ahamkara, is actually an experience. So that is why we don't use this word consciousness has no meaning in Advaita. So my recommendation to Arvind is to go systematic, A, B, C, D. Learn the words. Do not use random words. Do not make up the meanings in your mind. What will you achieve? Nothing. Confusion only. Right now, the terminology is so different that you cannot even meaningfully talk to me.

Yes, if you talk about politics and sports, yes, the terminology may match there. But this is philosophy. We cannot use the words from the internet and dictionary to talk about it. Philosophy means you must study under the master for several years, and then the question that you form will have some meaning. It will be meaningful. Otherwise, no. Otherwise, I say one thing and you say another thing. It is oranges, apples and tomatoes.

So the right question for Arvind should be, 'Should I use this word consciousness in your philosophy? What are the methods? Fundamental questions - Why should we explore it? Something like this. Basics - What are you teaching? What is this path of knowledge? What words are being used here? What are the definitions of the words we are using? These should be your questions. And obviously, that is why we have the program. Without the program, it is impossible to talk to me. Remember, every teacher is going to use their own terminology because this is philosophy. Sometimes they talk about the same thing, but they use different words. And English is actually the poorest language to talk about philosophy. No standardization has been done there. There are no traditions there. Nothing.

Whatever there was is totally distorted. So that is why we invented our terminology to teach non-dualism. You can check the translations of these people, Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta, Vivekananda, all using some kind of different language. If you check Sanskrit, same, exactly the same. Because Sanskrit is the language of philosophy, not English. That is why I do not allow mixing of English and Hindi and whatever.

Vikas is saying, there is a very strong bond between my father and me. Is it possible that both our body-minds could be participatory? Precipitation of the same causal body. It sometimes feels that the causal body had decided to pay out its karma with two simultaneous expressions of father and son. Is it possible?

Yes, it is possible. But the chances are very less. A causal body that can take two births will be highly evolved. So what is more probable, is that there is a karmic bond between these two causal bodies. There is a strong give and take. And that connection can become so strong that it looks as if one. This is not your case only. This is the case for many people. Their causal bodies are so strongly bonded with other people that they repeatedly take birth there. Your son will be your grandfather, and your sister will be your grandmother. Something like this. She is a great-great-great-grand ancestor, they keep coming in the same family, same genetic lineages or we say bloodlines. So rarely it will happen that some unknown causal body takes birth through this one mother. No. Always somebody who is bonded with this mother or the father, always.

And this is also a karmic law, you can say. Like you are saying, whether it is predetermined, if the bonds are so strong, then obviously you can calculate the probability, yes, predetermine where you will be born. And that is why all these astrologers and gurus, they can actually see what is going to happen for your next ten births. Why? Because you have such strong deterministic bonds with everything. Some people have bonds with the land they are born in, where they have done their farming and so on. They cannot go anywhere else. They take birth there only. So we are fortunate that we found a way out of these bondages. All you need to do is make a wish, a very strong intention. I don't want this and then intend for something more positive.

I want this kind of birth, I want that kind of birth, I want a spiritual birth, a spiritual mother in this country, Bhutan, probably that is the spiritual country today. So on. Or I can give you a shortcut. Simply pray to the gurufield that no matter where I am born, I will get a guru who is of the same path. So that my practice is not wasted, which I did in this lifetime or previous lifetimes. And that guru takes care of everything because your life is completely superficial. It has no meaning. The only meaningful life is a spiritual life, and without a guru, that life is impossible. Otherwise, it is what? Forming bonds, getting more and more entangled in the illusion. You remember the law of the illusion, entropy increases. So it is going to dirt only, but a spiritual person has this freedom to evolve, and that is possible because of the guru. So the best advice in spirituality, everywhere I have seen this thing, in every tradition, that - hold this intention to meet a guru. Some people even plan for this, the age they will meet the guru, I want to meet the guru after the age of 35. Why? Because I want to marry, I want to do business, I want to earn money, there are unfulfilled desires because the guru won't let it happen if he meets me before that. So they program their birth somehow like this, but it is very complicated.

For a simple seeker, holding the intention that I should progress is enough. Pray to the gurufield that no matter where I am born, no matter how many births I take, I should progress, I should remain on the path. This is my wish and then everything is taken care of. You don't need to micromanage things because probably nobody knows how to micromanage it. You say your overall wish. If you cannot pray to the gurufield, you don't know what it is, simply email it to me. That is the modern method.

Preeti is saying, it is said that the guru knows past, present, future by seeing the person. What do gurus actually see? Do they see it like a movie or like an energy field?

I don't know. What my experience is, if I want to guide you, look, you should do this, you should not do that, then the needed information is already present in my mind. There is no need to see the full future. Is it even possible? The overall tendencies can be seen and the right guidance is now given. That is all I know, actually. Yes, there can be some really talented people who can actually see the events that are going to happen. And yes, sometimes these are also made known to me playfully that look, this fellow is going to be born as a woman, not as a man, and she will do this and that. Sometimes it comes up there like this. Now, whether it will happen or not, we don't know. But yes, if you need spiritual guidance, whatever is needed to guide that person is given, especially when you are peaceful, you have good intentions, you are selflessly serving that person.

Probably if a guru is saying, I need ₹10,000 before I can guide you. Not very selfless, you see? So he is doing it for money, and then whatever he does is his own guess. So the guru needs to remain pure so that he can guide properly. As soon as you take something from the student, the ego jumps in and the ego decides what to do with the student. That is impurity. It is like a loving detachment. That kind of relation is there with the student. Loving detachment and then the right guidance can be given. Like she was asking, or it's like an energy field, yes, if you sit with a person, you will come to know many things. If you are silent within, there is no boundary between the minds. So you will get an overall impression of that person. Actually, if you have a little bit of experience in dealing with people, simply looking at them will give you a little bit of information about their past lives and future lives and whatnot. Simply look at the person, what he does, how he talks, how he looks. It starts from there. And then the energy comes later.

You hear what they say, and you can get the contents of their minds, which is what I do mostly. I talk to the person, let them speak, and then I come to know everything about that person. Don't need to do any kind of magic. Or the subtle vibrations are picked up by the sensitive people. And then you can come to know about everything, present, future, past. I don't think it will be like a movie or pictures. It is mostly like feelings. You feel good or you feel bad, that is the basic thing. Yes or no. Or there can be more complex feelings. You feel joy, you feel love, or you hate that person. He is simply sitting there, but you hate the person. You need some training to interpret these signals that are coming. We call it the energy field, in the occult - vibration. So without this training, we are going to interpret it differently. So only a guru is trained to know something. Otherwise, there are many people who are so sensitive, but they don't know why they are getting these kinds of feelings.

How to say or rather feel that guru is found? It is very easy. Your ignorance will drop, your happiness will increase, your peace will increase, your questions will be gone, and you will feel comfortable with that guru. It's not like I am stuck with this fellow. It is not like this. So it is like a love affair. Where you want to be with the guru, you want to listen to the guru, you want to talk to the guru, you want to meet the guru. If this has happened, then you have found the guru. Yes, you learned a few things here and there, some big words, Sanskrit words, and they are not the guarantee that you have found the guru. You have found a knowledgeable person, surely a teacher, somebody who can guide you. But the guru is something totally different. Like he was talking about the bonds, if a person attracts you so much, even though he has only a little bit of knowledge, like Neem Karoli Baba or similar, but there is a bond, and that means he is the guru.

The bitter truth is that if you never studied in all your previous lifetimes, previous births, then there is a chance that you will not find a guru. Then you go to the nearest person whom you think can teach me, start there. Start building the relation, start building the bond. And of course, if you don't like it, leave that person, find somebody else. So the new seekers struggle to find their guru. They don't even know who will be the suitable guru for them. What will be my path? They don't know this thing. Guru can see this also, and they simply help them, whatever they can. Those who are on the path, let us say the path of knowledge or any other, recognize their guru immediately, simply by listening to the words, probably not by looking at the face because, you know, the face does not tell you much.

You don't fall in love with that person, you fall in love with what he is saying, actually. That is more useful for you. Immediately somewhere inside, you will recognize that, yes, this person is the one I was looking for, I was searching for. And even if there are no bonds there, the bonds will be formed in this lifetime. All you need to do, the condition is that you must like the guru. This is the condition. Sometimes we are impressed by people, but we don't really like them. He has done this, he has done that, he has done the consecration and all, but probably there is no resonance.

He can do miracles, but somehow you say, no, I don't want this headache. The bitter truth is - many people will not find their guru in this lifetime. So manage somehow. Try from somewhere. Start from somewhere. Pray, please send me a guru. That is the most potent prayer in the world. Please send me one million. Please send me a beautiful girl. No, nothing will happen. As soon as you pray for a guru, almost guaranteed something will happen sooner or later. We don't know when. Pray like this. I need to progress. My path is spiritual now. I don't know which one. Please send the guru. Like a baby, you can pray like this. Remember, something will happen and then you should be open to it. That means you are ready. And that means something can be done. Somebody can appear there in front of you, otherwise you will spend your whole life finding the guru. Many people will agree about this. The guru finds the disciple. It's the opposite.

Preeti is asking, is it possible that someone on their deathbed can get the realization of the truth?

Possible, yes, but chances are very less. Because when the person is dying, his last wish will not be to know the truth. That will be the last thing on his mind that I want to know the truth. There can be some extraordinary people who will be, there will be more opening at the time of death because they are facing death now. So the existential question, who am I? Why do I need to die? What is beyond death? Will I meet God or will I go to hell? There is a little bit of opening in the end. So sometimes it can happen, but it is really useless, isn't it? However, if that happens, if somebody dies with these questions or a little bit of glimpse of the truth, then probably their next birth will be in a place, in a family where they will get the knowledge ultimately. So the last thought on your mind is most important actually. You must have seen this in your daily routine that if you sleep with a thought, thinking something, it has to be something important, you will wake up with the same thought. Sleep is like a little death. In your last moments, last few days, let us say week, two weeks, one month, old age, if you spend completely in spirituality, in reading about it, listening with your guru, with the seekers, then there is a good chance that your next life will be beneficial for you.

The ancient people knew this very well, they designed some rituals for the dying people. And nowadays, it's all garbage. And this superstition appeared that it is a good thing if you die near this river or in this Kashi city etc., because these “holy” cities were the headquarters of spirituality in the old days. But they did not literally mean that you go there and die, they meant that you spend your time there with knowledgeable people, spiritual people, philosophers and so on, spend your last days there. This was the recommendation. And now it has become a superstition. All the rituals that are performed on the dead body are totally garbage. So you need to find a good place to die in a good environment so that you can take advantage of this last thought. And who knows you can get the realization. It will be useless because you're going to forget it immediately. The best way is to get the guru, get the knowledge while you're still alive. That is common sense. What happens is some people listen to these kinds of rumors, miracles that, oh, he got the realization when he was dying, okay, then no problem, I'll also wait for death. And that is stupidity. It is not a general rule. One out of a million got it by chance.

An intelligent person never wastes time, he does that, which is most important. His first priority is always knowledge or cultivation or you can say evolution, purification, whatever is prescribed by his guru is his first priority. And the other things may happen, may not happen, completely useless life.

Mostly you will see the worldly people are upside down. For them, spirituality is the last. And this example is probably one of them that right at the moment of the death, they say, okay, who am I now? Wasted the whole life, you see?

Siddhartha has a question, I realize that thoughts have consequences. I want to get rid of this pattern. I know awareness will help here, but is there something to get rid of this immediately?

Yes, that is called stubbornness. You need to become stubborn. You know how these people are, they are told not to do this and they do only that. I need to leave everything and do only this, whether I fail or I don't fail. And yes, it needs no awareness, actually, just stubbornness. And yes, people are going to say you are mad. You need to ignore it. This is very fast.

So what we are doing here is we are channeling the same energy that went into doing something useless if you're stubborn, isn't it? When you're stubborn, you do something useless, but we can channel the same energy into removing this blockage. You will find a little bit of strange reactions from the mind, but then it will settle down and this blockage, this pattern will be removed. You can try this one, this trick for some time, and then you can ask me again. And I don't know how much immediately you want it, but it cannot happen in one night. You see, it can take a little bit of time.

I used to be very bad at mathematics. So everybody laughed at me because they were geniuses somehow. I don't know how these people knew the answer to every problem in mathematics. So one day I became irritated by this. Whenever I tried to solve a mathematical problem, the first thought I got was that it is impossible. I will never be able to do this, but then I went into secrecy, I did not tell anybody and I became stubborn that I will learn this thing. I got all the books and I started studying myself stubbornly. Finally, it became my subject, mathematics and science.

It is a very powerful technique. Nobody told me about this technique. That is the funny thing. It is something like reverse psychology or something. You challenge somebody that you cannot climb this hill, you don't have the guts to climb this hill. Show me. You are challenging that fellow. Now, even if he does not want to climb that hill, he will climb it simply to show that he can do it. So you can use this trick on your own mind, but the permanent solution is awareness. But since you don't want it right now, you do both. Who is stopping you? You're already doing the awareness practice. More fuel in the fire.

But you see, we don't recommend it to everybody because it has very strange effects. The mind can retaliate or rebel sometimes. It will cause very physical manifestations. So be aware, if you fall sick doing this, it's not real sickness. Habitually it was negating that job that it finds difficult because of the indoctrination. And now you are trying to overcome it. So it produces a physical manifestation. Oh, no, I'm tired today. I'm sleepy today. I'm having a headache today. Tomorrow I'll do it, you see, and there will be real sensation in the body. This is nothing but mind. This happens to many people who are doing the program. They are alive, lively, jumping here and there as soon as they start the video, they fall asleep or they get one or the other problem, they feel hungry or a sexual arousal, something like this. What is that? That is the mind. Normally we call it impurities. These are the impurities. And on the path of knowledge, we don't do anything about the impurity. Nothing at all. Unless it is causing some kind of damage or the person is very slow on the path, we don't remove it. Why? Because it gets removed as soon as you become perfect in awareness. As soon as you are established in your true self, now you will find it very easy to do whatever you want. Of course, there are limitations of the body and the mind, but these kinds of blockages will be gone in seconds.

Session 205

Siddhant is asking, in one of your videos on existence, it is established that there is no such thing as prior existence, which I agree. But does that mean that things spontaneously appear? If I go for a walk and see a stranger, does that stranger have prior existence or is just spontaneously appearing?

Yes, a very good question. And according to our model of the illusion, yes, everything is already there in the universal memory. However, it is simply data. It is simply information or you can say vibration, patterns of vibration, highly structured. So the stranger is simply a pattern of vibration. The stranger has no existence as a person, as a human, whatever, but there is existence of these patterns in the memory.

And if you go deeper, then the memory or the vibration is simply a possibility. So actually there is only potential for these things to appear, there is a potential for anything to appear. So ultimately there is nothing and that nothing is the existence actually. The emptiness with infinite possibilities is the existence and it is actually you. You are that.

So obviously you are always present, eternally present. There is no prior, there is no later, there is no time also. So you will need to climb down some steps into the illusion to even answer this question. Otherwise from the highest point of view, the question has no meaning because there is no before and there is no after in existence. Your nature is timeless.

But if you allow the illusion a little bit, then there will be some answers which will be false answers because the illusion can give you only illusory answers, nothing more. So we form a model and our model says that everything is actually a memory and the memory has the potential to be anything, to store anything and whatever appears, appears through the laws of the memory, laws of the illusion. So what actually is, is simply you and what actually appears is totally different which this intellect cannot grasp what it is and simply calls it a stranger or a person. There is nothing there except you and that “you” is completely empty without any qualities.

Benjamin is saying, can one be in bliss if there is still a notion of good or bad attached to the sense perceptions?

Yes, you are always in bliss, eternally blissful even if there is a notion of good or bad attached to the senses or even if there is no such notion attached. No matter what the experience is, the experiencer is always in bliss, it will never go away because that is your nature to be blissful or bliss is your nature. What comes and what goes is not you and this good and bad and attachment and perceptions that keep coming and going, so you can be sure about the bliss. So probably he is asking about the bliss of the mind and there is no such thing, peace, whatever they call as mental peace, there is no such thing. It is always a duality, whatever you call happiness, there is always a counterpart which is the sadness, suffering, depression, whatever, it comes in lots of varieties. That is not bliss, bliss is the background and these things are just like waves. The mind is never blissful, it can be happy, it can be sad, but it is never blissful and it can be inactive and it can be highly active, but it can never be peaceful. We should not confuse the word bliss with some kind of mental state or mental activity, emotion, thought or even pleasure, bliss is not any of that, it is simply your nature. Where there is no activity, where there is no activity, not positive, not negative, that state is called the bliss state. That is the only state of the experiencer. Peace and bliss are the same thing.

Some people may ask why is happiness not bliss? That is what people think is bliss, it is not bliss because it is impermanent. The definition of the bliss is it is eternal, like we say you are eternally blissful, we do not say that you are blissful sometimes and not blissful other times, we never say like this and whatever makes you happy that is also impermanent and that is why the mental states are impermanent because they are dependent on something external to them and whatever is external to you is impermanent.

Bliss is your nature, it is not dependent on anything and that is why it is permanent. In ordinary language people take bliss to mean some kind of happiness, joy, but any spiritual seeker should know that that is the wrong meaning. Even in Sanskrit and Hindi the same corruption has happened, the translation of bliss is ananda but the ordinary people, ignorant people think it is happiness. You are never happy, don't worry and you are never sad, you are always blissful. There will be some people who will say what is the use of bliss, it is completely useless. I want this other kind of bliss which is even if it is temporary I want it, no problem actually because whatever you call happiness is simply the emergence of your inner bliss only. And whatever you think is the emotion of happiness is simply a reaction of your mind to the bliss state. This can be easily shown that if there is a desire that is not fulfilled, the mind enters a state of suffering, as soon as the desire is fulfilled the mind enters a state of happiness. Why? Because something is gone, not because it got something, something is gone, that which was troubling it is gone and in that moment the inner bliss shines in the mind and the mind reacts to this thing, finally I got it! Something like this and that makes you happy.

So you can have that happiness also but it is like loose coin, loose change, pennies compared to that which you are, it sometimes shines in the mind. Like we say in the hermetic philosophy, that the experiences are not really dual, they are one, there is only difference of degree. Whatever you think is happiness is only one, when it becomes too low you call it suffering and when it comes to zero you call it happiness, so it is always negative, that means your happiness is also suffering but zero suffering and your suffering is actual suffering but actually negative happiness, that is how they saw it and I completely agree because experiences are relative, that is the law of relativity and the first one is called the law of polarity. How to make something polar, obviously by picking its relative parts, so your happiness and suffering is actually one state, only the degree is different. If the degree is very negative you call it suffering, I am sad, I am frustrated, I am angry, and so on. If it is not to that degree, if it is not troubling you that much then you call it happiness, which is simply shining of your background because there are no clouds of suffering, the sun of the bliss shines for a while. Obviously it does not last for more than a few seconds and people instead of actually tasting that bliss, they react to it and you laugh, dance, pride, sense of achievement and as soon as this suffering is removed, there is no happiness, only removal of suffering, temporary removal. As soon as that happens a new set of thoughts appear that I did it finally, I got it, I am the best and then the negative thoughts also come, what if I lose it, what if somebody snatches it from me, what if something happens to me and I die before enjoying this thing which I got, where is my lock, I need to protect it first.

So immediately the suffering starts which is in the form of these thoughts and that's why I tell you that the mind can never be happy, it is not meant to be happy, who is meant to be happy? You.

Hopefully, Benjamin is understanding my points. Forget about the mind, forget about improving it or making it happy or whatever. You can only become detached from whatever it is doing, and now everything is okay. The ignorance is to think that the activity of the mind is fulfillment. But it never brings fulfillment, it simply brings fruits.

Some people are depressed by this thought that, oh no, there is no real happiness and this bliss is totally boring because it is not as exciting as whatever the mind produces. Obviously, these words are being said by the mind, the ego; the witness never says anything. It is blissful, it is happy always, but the seeker is actually relieved by this knowledge. Finally, I don't need to be happy, finally, this burden of making this machine “happy” is gone.

It is my experience that when I learned this thing, when I understood this thing finally that happiness is an illusion, then the desire to be happy was gone, and the real bliss was seen for the first time. The desire to remain continuously in happiness is actually suffering because it never happens. And what are the ways to remain in that kind of state? Using objects, people, food, drinks, whatever you want, whatever this machine is asking right now, it sends pleasures and they never give you happiness; that must be everybody's experience. So when I learned this thing, I finally realized that it was as if I had finished the big project of my life, which was to become happy. The project was finished, it was done, now there is no need to do anything more for happiness because it is simply a mental state, an illusory mental state, which because of ignorance, appears to be your life goal.

Vikas is asking, how long ago did you realize that happiness is found within, and can you please comment on the quality of peace, happiness over the period of time.

I never count the years or time, and your question about asking the time, how long ago, can you tell me why is that so important for you? Why are trivial things important for you when the meat of the matter is served? I mean if I tell you this many years, is it going to make you progress somehow faster? So that is called a shallow mind, where the important stuff is totally discarded, and the fluff that is totally useless is held on.

Focus on the teaching, the teaching is - happiness is not found within or outside; it is all illusion. You are bliss; nothing needs to be done to get it. No, I don't answer such questions, you see, because they waste your time. Your mind is asking for a leave from the knowledge. There is a resistance in the mind. Probably, let me ask something which is not so heavy, and I will be kind of freed from this burden of getting the knowledge. So many people keep doing this.

Quality of peace, happiness over the period of time, as I said, you see this happiness and peace that the mind wants is non-existent, so its quality is always zero; no quality. The bliss and the peace that you are is always 100% pure, best quality. If you say that your bliss is changing in quality, that means something is wrong because the bliss cannot change; it is your real nature. How can it change?

Siddhant is saying, if we use our criteria to discard everything that is changing, bliss will shine.

Yes, you don't even need to discard it; simply be detached from it, that is enough. Discarding or rejecting also means that it is affecting you in some way.

Paramjit is asking, if Guru puts his hand on your head in your dream, what does that mean? I had that experience last night.

I don't know, it simply means that it can be a sign that you are in the right direction, you are progressing, you are on the right path. Okay, I was in your dream, no problem at all, that is even better. But you see, nobody knows really, the art of finding the meaning of a dream is simply black magic; it can be anything.

If you ask somebody else who is a little bit negative, he may say that okay, the Guru is now blessing you because he is departing forever, he is going away forever, so he is giving you a final blessing. You see, that is also a valid interpretation, and somebody can say like those in the psychology people that your desire to be with the Guru is too strong, so that is why you are dreaming it. That is the simplest explanation. So Paramjit, you can have 20 explanations, but nothing will be satisfactory. Dream is not important, your waking state is important. He was desiring something during his waking state, that is all dream is, it is a reflection of your waking state.

Siddhant is saying, I think some psychologists may make valid points about dreams.

There is a big section of the dreams, like 99% of the dreams, that you can simply explain as garbage; there is nothing important there. Sometimes we are amazed by some kind of dreams that you cannot explain, and then we don't call them dreams, we call them visions. And what happens is, ignorant people think that all dreams are visions, but no, all dreams are mostly garbage. You will need to evolve to a very great degree, you will need to become somebody great to have that kind of vision, that kind of experience which is really meaningful. Right now your waking state is also garbage, so there is no possibility of some meaningful dream there. Remember your waking state is nothing but a dream; is it good?

You should start from the waking state, not from the dreams. Start making your waking state as aware as possible; right now it is just like a dream, sleep, zombie state, so that is most important for you. If you found a guru in the waking state, that is more important than seeing some flickering images of somebody strange in the dream for a few seconds. How is that important?

So I think again, there is some strategy of the mind that tries to hold on to the important things instead of doing something which is really needed, which is really necessary, which is approaching a guru and then studying under that guru for your whole life. This is a very difficult job, so what the mind holds on to are some images in the night time, fleeting images. 'Oh, I am progressing because I got this dream.' So this is called laziness of mind. It is not a power; you are not really making any spiritual progress. If you simply dream, nothing is actually happening. You can say it's an escape mechanism because there is a strong desire that 'I should be on a path, I should get a guru, I should systematically study now, I should do the practice as described in the tradition.' But no, these things are too difficult for an average seeker. What is easy?

Close your eyes and dream something random, that is what the mind does – simply reflects the desires in a few seconds in the dream. And why do you give it so much importance? Nobody knows, nobody knows why they give so much importance to the dream. Remember, if you are giving so much importance to the dream, you must be giving probably a thousand times more importance to the waking state, which is also a dream. And that is why you are trapped here. So, should we not give any importance to the waking state?

We should, just like I said, this waking state is more important. But what is the job of this state? What is your job here? Your job is to wake up from the waking state, to go beyond it. That cannot be done by watching some dreams here and there; it is hard work. Although I keep criticizing dreams and these visions, I don't know why people keep asking me. Every satsang, there are one or two questions about dreams, and they want to know how much progress they have made, how extraordinary they are. Every time, I tell them these bitter words: if you are not progressing in the waking state, then dreaming is totally useless. At least you should make some effort in the waking state. Join a path, do the program, or whatever your guru told you to do. What will I do? I will keep reading books, watching videos, and imagining things in my dreams, and that is how I am going to progress. So, this is complete stupidity, isn't it? That's why I call this the lazy mind. They don't really want to practice; they don't really want to progress. So, they keep finding ways to entertain themselves with the so-called “spiritual” things.

Muni is saying, psychologists, psychoanalysts, have made dreams very popular and appear meaningful, but that is only for the purpose of therapy, to deal with mental afflictions.

Yes, they are like blood tests in the case of physical illness. They try to find out something that is wrong in the body using blood tests. Similarly, the kind of garbage that the mind throws out at night is useful for finding what is wrong there. It is diagnostic, yeah. So, saying "I still dream about failing in exams" is useful for diagnosing phobias and so on, you see? But nothing good for spiritual progress. I know some mechanics who can tell what is wrong with a part of the car by simply listening to the noise of the car. They drive around for 5 minutes, and then they tell you what is wrong with your car. Similarly, the noise of the mind is useful in finding out what is wrong with it.

Some childhood phobias, fears, and desires are stored in the mind, which could not be expressed in the daytime. But if you are on the path of knowledge, do you really need this kind of diagnostic? Why don't you simply open the doors, open the cupboard, and look inside during waking hours, the waking state? Is it impossible? Actually, if you are in awareness all the time, the waking state itself is going to tell you a lot about what is going on in the mind. What happens is - people are not aware at all, and there is complete darkness inside. It goes on and on, complete darkness, so they are unable to find out what is wrong with this mind. Then these doctors and all, they use these kinds of tricks to find out: hypnosis, pictures, random dots, and so on. These are the tricks to get something out of a completely dark mind. But if there is the light of awareness, then everything will be crystal clear in your view; you will know what is happening there. It is all known clearly, and that's why we don't have terms like unconscious mind or subconscious mind because they are simply degrees of ignorance, degrees of unawareness. Just a little bit of awareness, and you can get 90% of knowledge of your mind; you don't even need to be a doctor. You need to know what it is, that's all.

As I said in the videos also, once you know your mind, you will know all the minds, you will know everybody. You don't need dreams and all kinds of analysis to do that. Simply stay with them for a few minutes, and you will know their past ten lives and future ten lives. It is possible. Nothing is unconscious, nothing is subconscious; people are simply in complete darkness. They don't even come to know what they are talking about because of this complete darkness. If somebody is talking to you, there is very little chance that you will really understand what they want, what they mean, what they are saying, or if they are lying or something like this. So, the ability to know others comes from the ability to know your own mind.

How will you know your own mind? Simply watch, become aware. Is it necessary? No, it's not necessary. If you are progressing spiritually, no problem at all because this will be dead in some years. Whatever you think is "me," "mine," or is causing problems will be gone very soon. It is not necessary to know what is going on there, and it is not necessary to improve it also because it disappears.

But what about my next life? It will reappear with the same tendencies, so you need to kill your prey completely; you see, don't play with that thing, just kill it. The ultimate solution is not to reappear here, and the patchwork-like repair of the Indian roads, that kind of work is to improve yourself. By yourself, I mean this mind; they never improve. Next time there is a rebirth, it again goes down the drain, just like in the next monsoon, the shiny roads become potholes. The same thing will be repeated in your next life unless you set your goal to be complete liberation from human birth. What will happen after that? Nothing unusual, the same mind, but this time it will be a little bit more manageable.

Benjamin is asking, isn't mind continuously offering what you used to like or dislike, but with awareness you won't grab or repel so the bondage is thin away.

Yes, simply becoming aware is the cure of past habitual actions.

Vikas is asking, in your experience, did the transfiguration from being the illusory individual to pure Brahman happen gradually, or did it all happen all at once?

I can't recall now what happened, but the knowledge is that you are always the Brahman, you are always the whole, so what really happens is not transformation; what really happens is the destruction of the individual. The individual does not become the whole; the individual is destroyed, and the whole appears from behind this dead body. Ego death happens, not transformation, and sometimes the individual is still there, only its illusion is seen; that it is illusory and that much is the ego death, that much is the dissolution of the illusion or dissolution of the individual. Now what is known is that I was always the whole; I was always this whole existence. I can give you an example: you are watching a movie on the screen. Now after the movie is over, you realize that there is no movie; there is only the screen. And when did this movie disappear and the screen reappear? The screen appeared; when did the movie transform into the screen? Never; you see? This never happened; the screen was always there.

When the movie is playing, let us say it did not finish, and you simply realize, "Look, this is the screen only; the movie is the illusion." Then also, it is ok; you see?

Thinking that this individual will be transformed into Brahman is complete ignorance. That means nothing was understood in the non-dual teachings; it is not a transformation; it is like uncovering. Now you can ask, "When did that uncovering happen? How did it happen?" So on; probably you are

trying to get a method to become Brahman; so you already have the method. The method is simply to adopt your path, start your spiritual study, go to the guru; that is the method. And when it happens is not really important because you are always the same screen all the time. When it gets uncovered, do you want to mark it on the calendar and celebrate it every year or something like this? No, it is unimportant; the important thing to do is start the process, take up the path. You will find that it was not a process also; it was grace. It all happens by grace.

Sushant is asking, please once again shed some light on local memory.

Local memory is simply the hypothetical part of the memory, universal memory, which is being used in the waking state by this creature. Like whatever happened today is stored there, whatever experiences have happened are stored there and so on. What is the use of that? The only use that I know of is survival; there is no other use. Why does it do that? Why can't you store everything in the universal memory? Actually, it is the universal memory; it is not different from the universal memory. It is simply a demarcation in the universal memory. The system has allocated this much memory for the waking state to remain alive; that is called local memory. As soon as the survival job is over, the maintenance job starts, and the local memory becomes inactive. Because, the senses are feeding it in the day, and in night the senses are somewhat inactive, but not totally inactive. It looks like they are inactive, but they are not feeding the local memory now. That is why we do not remember what happened in sleep because its use is only in survival. The sleep state does not require it. So, the creature is free to process some other kind of memories, and there you will find the larger areas of the memory they come into play. That is what is called the projected states. And you can even access your causal memory and even bigger memories. And now you can understand the obsession of people for the dream states; they think it is something great.

So yes, the local memory is the smallest memory that the creature is using. And then the dream memory comes, then the projected memories, and then causal memory, greater memory and so on. As you go away from the waking, the area that you can access in the universal memory becomes bigger and bigger. You can also call it going higher and higher, the words do not really mean anything, it simply means what you can access in the other states, how much area, how much part of the memory, because the word “area” is also saying that it has a size or a shape, but no, these words are only helpers. It is completely RAM; you can access anything from anywhere.

Why does it happen that only in these states where you are completely gone, bigger memories become accessible? Because your waking state is actually a bigger problem, not the other states. The other states have a bigger freedom; the waking state is the narrowest possible state. Now, this is mind-blowing because we consider the waking as the highest possible, isn't it? Waking is taken as the best. Just now I said, give more importance to the waking, not to the dream, yes? But the fact is that waking is the narrowest part of your experience. Why is that? Because of this local memory; it takes hold of the waking state. As soon as the local memory becomes active, you are in the waking state. That is called waking up from sleep in the morning. And now, it takes over the whole attention. It is so strong that it takes over whatever is coming from these five senses and little bit from the internal senses and even the tiniest part from the non-physical senses, which is your emotions, thoughts, and whatever. That goes in the local memory, and the whole attention is narrowed down to this much. And that is done simply for survival. Survival demands this kind of extreme measure.

You can verify what I am saying. Try to dream while driving the car or while working in your office. Look at the reaction of your boss, or if you are a student, try projecting in your classroom. Survival is challenged by this. So, this structure becomes trained in keeping it in a narrow band for almost 16 hours per day, and that is a torture for a seeker, isn't it? Why? Just like I said, there is no happiness, there is no fulfillment, nothing is achieved in this human life. So, it becomes a torture, unnecessary activity, very, very limited. And that is why it is recommended to get rid of human births. Do not take birth in human form again because it is a torture, it is very boring also. And then, you are devoid of all that goodness of the universal memory where there are infinite things to experience. And that means you are not progressing; the evolution is held up because of this local memory.

So, there are more functions of the local memory. First is survival, of course, but the second is collection. The karmic storage or the causal memory is updated every night from the local memory. It is like a backup process. Those who are in software will understand this process completely because the mind is simply an information system. So, whatever experiences were gained in the daytime or in the waking state, they are then backed up in the causal memory. This causal memory never forgets anything, but the local memory is very limited. You have forgotten what you did one week ago, probably yesterday also. It is short-term, but the casual memory remembers everything that you have done since you were born and probably even something from many, many lives also. It is all stored there. That is what is called Sanchita or your karmic storage. The local memory is the cause of the growth of this storage, and it dies with the organism, because survival job is over now. So, its need is over; it is destroyed. But the storage lives on, and then the new life experience, “life packet” is allotted from the storage, which is what we call the pre-allocation. And if you remove the local memory, there won't be anything in the storage. Probably, there will be something else, but right now, it is so much of it that the pre-allocation is mostly about human life again, and that is why there is human birth again. So, your local memory is actually responsible for rebirth because it is the one that is feeding the causal.

Now, you can join the points of the puzzle. Why do people live alone in corners, away from society, in the jungles, in the caves? Why do they do that? Why do they sit there with eyes closed most of the time, or they remain engaged in some kind of service or spiritual work? Cut down the activity of the local memory, and you will cut down your storage, probably after a long practice of many lifetimes. There won't be anything to pre-allocate, and finally, you are freed from the jaws of the local memory.

This is the whole story, and it is fascinating actually because it is interesting that we know this much also. And I can tell you this is not written in any of the psychology books or psychoanalysis or whatever. They are limited to dream analysis only. They don't know all these things. You will also say, "How do you know all these things?" Yes, most of it is not based on my experience; it is from the guru's mouth. But it is so logical, just like I said, you can connect the dots, and everything makes sense now. So logical that you must accept it as the working model. This will not fail; this has not failed since many thousand years. There is no chance that it will fail for a few thousand years. And if you are lucky, you will be the one who made some discovery that validates something else, invalidates some hypothesis here and there in the causal memories and so on in the process of rebirth and so on. You can do that kind of research. But how will you get the evidence that this story is true? By your own experience, try to find the evidence in your own experience. Look, is there a local memory? Try to find it. Look, what happens to the local memory in the sleep state? What happens to the memories that are present in the local memory? Where do they go? Look at these people who can remember all the events of their lives, all the dates, and they need to look at the whole city for 5 minutes, and they can draw everything in that city. These kinds of people, they provide the evidence. Somehow, in them, the boundaries of the local memory have broken. They must be some kind of seekers in their past lives.

Vandita is saying, local memory is stored like cookies.

Yes, you can say that. They are a good tool to keep this body alive, keep this interface working nicely. So, you can dig down into this very interesting topic. And what is the use of going into so much depth? You see, knowledge is the starting point. From here, you can start applying this knowledge. Instead of sitting in the cave and so on, don't do these things; they are extreme things. But cut down the unnecessary. How to do that? By simply being in awareness. What is awareness? Knowledge of who you are. How to get that knowledge? Path of knowledge. See, everything is so straightforward. By being in awareness, you will cut down the unnecessary. Why should I cut down the unnecessary? Because you know the nature of the local memory and the trap of the causal memories and so on. And then you will be freed from the repetitive existence. What is wrong with this repetition? Nothing is wrong, but the evolution is held up. Some people can think that is also ok, but we don't. We are logical people, we want progress. And this is the way to progress forward. Knowledge is the starting point. I can tell you, I can order you to cut down these things from your life, including your wife; you will be very happy. But you will not know why I told you to do that. So, I need to tell you the whole theory. I need to tell you the whole science of the mind. And then, because you are so intellectual, you will be pleased finally. Now, I need to progress; this will be your decision. So, this is the path of knowledge, you see? You cannot order people here.

Anjali is saying, Can you please share some information about Tom’s park?

I don't have a lot of information, but I heard him talking about this thing, and it is his own project. Where is this park, and what is he doing with it? Now, this is the interesting thing. He did not buy property and started making a park there for kids and all. No, he has created his own world in the non-physical domain. Now, people will be surprised, how is it even possible? So, this happens eventually, inevitably. You will also do it; probably you won't call it a park or something, but it will be your own world. And we call it the Gurulok in Sanskrit. So, Tom’s park is nothing but a Gurulok; he has created it in the non-physical somewhere, “astral” in the occult language, and he invites people there. So, anybody who is following him is allowed entry in that park. That's all I know. What is there? I don't know really; I never went there. The interesting thing is - I know about it because we are doing this since many thousand years. Yes, resort-like parks, just like any good hill station, like a pleasure activity. We are doing this since thousands of years, and many of the Gurus have their own worlds. What is the use of this kind of park? Having fun is one use, you can have fun there, you can enjoy that world which your Guru has created. And you can also learn and progress.

Knowledge is another function. You can be taken out there in the Gurulok and free from all the distractions that this kind of world offers you, and you can progress there very fast. Even the dead people are taken there. If you died because of something which was not so good, then it is almost guaranteed that the next birth will not be so good. So, what do they do? Hopefully, your Guru himself will come and pick you, but you need to be somebody important to be that, to be served like that. But there are helpers, there are volunteers who will pick these dead people, and specifically from the path that they are following, the tradition and the path, not random people from the street, no, they don't pick them. Anybody who has done some effort in walking on any kind of spiritual path, they are picked if they die suddenly or something bad happens, and they are taken to that world. Then, they recover there, and instead of the knee-jerk kind of rebirth, they get a little bit of time to decide what to do in the next birth.

The biggest function of the Gurulok is to prevent rebirth. Let us say if you have a desire to drive a new shiny car, I am giving just a very random simple example, and your causal body says yes, sure, go ahead, back into the human world, the death world, this is called the death world, Earth, and you come here and you work for 20 years, 30 years, you get the car, you drive around, and so on, and it amounts to nothing, but you have wasted a whole lifetime for that. What the Guru can do is, pick you up just after you die and can sense that you have this desire. Now, he can immediately transport you into part of his world, a “park”, where you can drive 20 cars at the same time, and in one day, you are done. So, your one birth is saved. So, this concept is not new; even a newbie tantric is taught how to create a world. Yes, you won't be able to create the whole world right now, but you will be able to create a room, isn't it? It's possible. These kinds of worlds, they are artificial, you can say, shelters, only for seekers, nobody else can go there.

And what kind of seekers? Those who are the favorite of their Gurus. And who is the favorite of the Guru? Those who want to progress, that is the criteria. You don't want to progress, you just want to listen to the stories, no entry in the Guruworld. You are sweating, you are working hard, you are even giving away, you are serving, then you become the favorite of the Guru, and obviously, you get a free pass in the Guruworld. Not only that, he will teach you how to create your own so that you can do the same thing. Not only Gurus, every deity has their own world. Who are these deities, who are these Devas? They are humans only; they were humans, they progressed. So, that is why I said, you will also do it, nothing new. We all are going to do it.

Sure, here's the punctuated text with relevant paragraphs:

Siddhanth: Thomas said that people can come there after death?

Yes, that is the whole purpose of this thing, you see, you can go there right now also without dying, but you will be sent back, you can go there as a tourist.

Jay: Are we talking about projections or there's something else to these worlds?

They are a world in themselves, just like your world.

Vikas: There seems to be a minor disagreement between the two, Tom's philosophy is not really non-dual philosophy.

Not minor, there is a major difference. Tom is mostly on the experience side, although he holds the consciousness as the fundamental and so on, but that is where he leaves the non-dual philosophy and he is more into the occult side now, that is why he is doing experiments, setting up the worlds and teaching you remote viewing and healing and so on. And that is also very useful, but yes, the Advait fellows will disagree at some point there because he has his own theory.

Vikas: Isn't all the affliction of the mind there because it is devoid of pure love?

It totally depends on what you mean by pure love. You and me are pure love, if somebody is devoid of this, that means they are devoid of this knowledge that we are all one. And yes, this ignorance is an affliction in itself, actually it is the biggest affliction. If you interpret this question like this, yes, everybody is afflicted because they don't know who they are. Now if you take the meaning of the love as the emotion and the social need, the emotional need and the intellectual need and the physical need, that kind of love, then yes, now you have entered psychology again. Yes, lack of love causes lots of afflictions.

Ordinary people are afflicted, yes, but even seekers are afflicted by this thing and no matter how much I tell them that look, you are the love, you are the one in everyone, no, they don't understand because, the mind has the need, not the experiencer, the experiencer has no need at all, it is free from desires and all these activities. But the mind has this need and if, just like any other need, if this is not fulfilled or this is suppressed or worse case, they get the hate instead of love, you know, many cases are there where people are hated bitterly and they become like mad, crazy people - afflicted, it can cause issues. Why is this desire most important compared to all other desires? This is fundamental, there are three fundamental desires - security, growth and reproduction. Suppose if nobody loves you, what will be your security? Zero. Yes, love is needed. Growth means food, shelter, if nobody loves you, not even your mother, is it possible? No. And reproduction? I need not say it. So what is the most important need now? Yes, to be loved and what is most lacking in this world? Love. The result is - everybody is crazy.

Who is free from all these things? The one who knows his true nature, I am love and so I can only give it, I am the source, not the sink, I am the giver, not the receiver. Those who know these things, they are free from all afflictions, instantly they become free. Now you are not begging for love, you are not begging for your security or your food or your reproduction, that is all taken care of, because you are not all that which this mind body does and instantly this burden is dropped, this need is gone. Then you see, you realize that I am the source of love, because I am the one in everyone and so the fountain sprouts from you, instead of you becoming the drain, where sometimes few drops are drained, you become the fountain of love and you start giving, instead of asking, demanding and that makes the mind healthier.

For those who like one line solution - the solution is to give, not to take.

If you are doing the give and take, or take and take only, then that is selfishness, not love. As soon as I see a dependent relation, that means a bond between two people, either they are forced to live together or they are emotionally bound. They are very much dependent on each other. I can immediately see a lack of love there, because love means total independence, freedom, not bondage. So highly demanding people, highly possessive people or those who like relations of all kinds and so on, these people they lack love most and you can see their behavior is totally afflicted, not normal. Those who are helplessly dependent on each other, they both lack love and they're both demanding, that's why they never get it, then they're businessman kind of people - you do this much for me, I'll do this much for you, plus a free gift! And this is the most hopeless condition in this society and the biggest example of that is marriage, a marriage is a sure sign of lack of love, somebody who is full of love will never marry anybody.

The path of knowledge turns everything upside down and if you tell these things to ordinary people, they will think you are crazy. Yes they are crazy and to those who are standing upside down, those who are standing right side up, they look like upside down, that is the issue with this society today. So as you grow in your spiritual path, as you travel, you become less and less social, that is the side effect. You won't be able to talk to anybody, you won't be able to sit with anybody, it does not mean that you don't love but you cannot tolerate that thing. You seek the company of seekers, you seek the company of the guru, because only the seekers/guru understand you, nobody else. And then you go into solitude because nobody wants anything unconditionally. If you want to give, they will start exploiting you, that is the problem in this society. The situation is almost impossible to cure and the only way is to grow out of it. You need to evolve out of this society and then service is the best expression of love.

The best service is serving the knowledge. You can give money, you can give food, you can give anything that you have but that is considered as the inferior kind of service, the superior service is serving knowledge, otherwise what do you do is you create an army of beggars demanding people, exploiting people. I mean the people start exploiting you because you are selflessly giving. If you serve knowledge, it's completely safe, if they take advantage of you, they will become more knowledgeable, that is a good thing.

Now you can connect the dots here also. What are we doing here actually? Whatever we are doing is simply love, there is nothing else that is going on. As soon as you recognize that the other is me, the only thing you can do is service. It should start with self-service first, you should serve whatever you think is “me” and obviously the witness does not require anything. You start with something which is closest to the witness, which is your mind, you serve it, make it healthy, wealthy, rich, intelligent, then you serve the body because that is the vehicle, then you serve the society, other people because this body needs to live with these people, we are social animals and then you serve the environment because without it nothing will survive. Now you come to know the importance of service, why it is so important in the spiritual field.

Graham is saying, I think you have said modern temples are not as powerful as the ancient ones. Do you think what Sadhguru is building is authentic like the old temples, Dhyanalinga temple?

What I can tell is, only the words that I heard from his own mouth and some devotees, you can call them devotees but they are practitioners, they are seekers. So, if you believe him, yes, this has the power, this is the authentic one.

How will you come to know this thing? Okay, Parteep has the testimony. Many people have told me that yes, this is authentic. And they don't know much about it. How many chakras they could perceive and so on, but Sadhguru says it is consecrated up to the sixth chakra. Who knows how he did that, but if you want to experience, if you want to experiment what the deities look like, how they feel like, what is the effect of these deities that were consecrated for spiritual growth, etc., etc., then your best experiment is this Dhyanalinga temple created by Sadhguru.

I know there are some more, but they are top secret. I don't know their location. I don't know who built them because they are private, just like your private swimming pool. You don't allow others to swim in your private swimming pool. They don't allow others to practice in their own temples which they have consecrated. So yes, this is the public one. This is the first one that is public in recent times.

Parteep is saying, experiment inside, then you will know what's there in Dhyanalinga and Devi temple. Other than you, I cannot talk about it to anyone. That stuff is so rare.

Yes, it's rare, even the experiences that you get there, you won't have any language to express them because I know the experiences of the worshippers of Devi he created. I mean he created Devi also, not only this Lingam, and he's selling the Devi. That is being sold like an object, but that's okay, that is the occult path, Linga Bhairavi.

People have told me the experiences they had with this Devi which was created by Sadhguru and sometimes they cannot tell what what happens there, but I know what it is doing, I know what Sadhguru is doing, I know what this Dhyanalinga temple is doing, but that should not be told in public. People will get scared if we talk openly, and then you will need to face him some day, then what will you do, where are you going to run? So, it is our duty to keep the occult secret, but you can understand a few things about these things. The deities were created by humans, not the other way. They were created for our service. What is happening? Humans are serving these things. It is like after, let us say, 3000 years, people will set up a temple of Google and they will start worshiping Google. And then somebody will tell them, look, this was created using this technology, and it was a search engine for your service. And probably, they will kill you because it is their religion now, Google religion. So, this has happened, and Sadhguru is trying to reverse it. There is knowledge, there is technology to create things like this, it is lost. So, this is my interpretation based totally on whatever he says because who else can say about these things? Who knows about these things apart from Sadhguru? Hardly anybody, those who know they do not talk. You need to go and experience it, that is my recommendation. If nothing happens there, then it is nothing, useless or you can say it is simply a beautiful thing to behold. But, if you are sensitive, then it will speed up your spiritual growth.

Session 206

Vikas is asking, is Tom's Park same as the astral worlds projected states that Ishwar Puri speaks

about?

It is not a state, it is a world. There is a difference between states and worlds. All the difference is only technical. So just like you are in a world right now, there is a body and there is a state that is called the waking state. It is possible to create another world, another body and that will be called another state. We call it the projected state. There is one thing that should be kept in mind that there are only states. There are no worlds or no bodies. So you must have seen in the program, there is a drawing which shows that the layers extend into the universal memory and these extensions are called the worlds. And then the layers are seen by the senses present in the layers as a body. The sum total of the senses is perceived as coming from a point and that point is assumed to be me. This is the phenomenon that is happening in all the worlds, all the states and you can see it right now also. It is assumed that I am here inside the head as the center of all the senses. What is the center of all the senses? The brain. But that is an illusion. It is not true because, if the dominant senses are moved into the other parts of the body then that person will assume that I am there. Suppose all your senses are moved in the feet, then you are going to assume that I am somehow located in the feet. So that is an illusion. The real you is the screen on which all this scene is happening and the main thing to note is that the witness or the experiencer remains the same in all the states. This is the founding statement of spirituality.

What is it that does not change when the states change? And the ancient people, they found it out. That is me. That is the experiencer. If there were no state changes, let us assume that the state did not change, it always remained the waking state more or less, then there wouldn't be any spirituality. There was no possibility of any spiritual knowledge. The illusion is so convincing that we would be born in this illusion, we would die in this illusion. Fortunately for us, the layered structure goes through different states and there is the opportunity to see what does not change when the whole body, whole world, whole personality, all the people, all the entities, all the past, all the future changes right in front of your eyes. But you don't. Your true nature remains the same witness, experiencer, Atman.

Just because this happens, spiritual knowledge becomes possible. Otherwise there was no way to know who I am. There was no way to know that this existence is the witness. And if the states did not change, there was no way to know the layered structure also. And you can see that those who are not so evolved, those who are not spiritual, who are completely materialistic, what do they assume? They assume that they are the body, they are inside their heads somehow created by the brain and the world is real. And that there is only one reality which is this world, the earth. And this is not only found in the West. This is the dominant view in the West because of poor development of spiritual traditions. But this is also very commonly found in India and other Eastern countries also. Progress happened because people here paid attention to the changes of states. They explored the states instead of dismissing them as some activity of the body, which is unimportant. And this exploration led to non-dualism. This is the story of spirituality.

That is why many traditions are focused on change and control of states. They want to refine the mind progressively so that it can stay in some particular state. States are given importance because of this reason only, that this is the sure way to know who you are. And unfortunately, this is not possible without some spiritual growth which has already happened. Like we say, the right time comes only due to grace. Nobody can bring it. You can cultivate the environment, the body, the mind so that the right time comes quickly or it comes without any obstacles. That much is possible. But certainly, mastery over states, it comes only by grace, which is our well known evolution. As we evolve through repetitive births, we reach a point where the intellect or the layered structure becomes so developed that it can ultimately take hold of the states and there is the possibility of spiritual knowledge.

So what non-dualism has done, they have taken a shortcut. But their knowledge is based on this foundation only. Without this play of states, there was no possibility. And they found that it is possible to know some things. Even without doing this circus of states, it is possible to know the basics while staying in the waking state alone. And that was their genius. That was mankind's biggest discovery. And that gave rise to the highest philosophy possible in the universe, which is non-dualism or the eternal knowledge, Sanatana philosophy. Eternal because even if this knowledge is forgotten, evolution continues and the same results will be obtained again and again by all the intelligent creatures. They will all discover the same non-duality again and again throughout the cycles. And yes, this knowledge is going to go away very soon. This is already predicted. It is just like the electric bulb. It flickers for a while before fusing completely, before going bad completely. So you are witnessing this flickering of knowledge now.

Few people get it. That's all. Those who master the states, they also don't get it. Because the illusion is so convincing that they assume that, yes, this is me, changing bodies, experiences, which are seen in every state, are me. I change my forms from the physical to the astral to some other non-physical forms. I am the one that is taking births. This much will be known by any person who is ignorant, but has mastered the states. Because mastery of the states does not require higher knowledge. It comes by practice or by grace, by chance. If you live in this kind of environment where it is considered normal routine to change the states, then the child that is born in this kind of society will naturally be gifted with this control over the states. But without a Guru, it is not possible to know the truth of the states because it takes very high intelligence to find something of value. It is just like the car mechanic or anybody can repair the machines, can open the machines, can do whatever they want to fix it, and can invent a few things, tools, etc. to get their job done. But they cannot design a new machine. It takes another level of intelligence, engineering intelligence. They can repair whatever is already built. That much is their capability. Engineering intelligence is limited because they know some rules of thumb. They have extensive knowledge, but not the basic principles. They cannot discover something new. Sometimes they do, but it takes a scientist to do the fundamental research. In the same way, simply having mastery over the states does not make you spiritual. You need a Guru to learn. You need that kind of intelligence to conclude something from this play of states.

So we have taken the shortcut on the path of knowledge and we get the basic knowledge, the essential knowledge, without changing the states or you can say without having a mastery over the states. It is possible to know your true essence. What to do after that? This topic came up many times. Now I know everything. I am Brahman. I am the whole existence. Now what is the use of this mind and body? Many must have guessed that the use is an application of the knowledge. Yes, some people do not prefer it because the knowledge is so blissful. They want to float away in bliss for many thousand years, not assuming any kind of body, not venturing into any worlds. But there are few that will say, I want to play this play, which is me only. This dream is my dream and I can create any dream. So they get the mastery over the states and they get the mastery over the bodies in the various states, which is nothing but the layer. Actually, it is a combination of layers. And this group of layers, they appear as a structure that will be called a body or you can say more accurately, body-mind. So they venture into this study of the body-minds and layers and the surrounding part of the body mind, which is the world. It is actually one, the world, the body, the mind is one. It's one thing. And this is a profound discovery because just like you can change your mind at will, you should be able to change your body at will and then you should be able to change the world simply by willing. Will is called intention and intention is the source of all magic, which is called Tantra.

So some people go into this Tantra technology and they master the bodies, they master the minds, they master the worlds and those who are intelligent, they do not manipulate these things because it is perfect as it is created by the biggest engineer of all, Devi herself, mother nature. So what do they do with this ability? They create their own worlds, they create their own bodies and they create their own creatures that inhabit those worlds. In other words, they become the gods. So what Tom has done is a baby step towards becoming a god. In one of the podcasts, I said that the world you are right now in is actually created by a few tantrics. That is not entirely true. They hacked that which was originally present and they made it suitable for knowledge. They protected it in the ancient scriptures. They will be called the Rishis, but the Rishi is a very respectful name. They are engineers, architects of universes and actually we are living in their bodies. This world is their body. Our intelligence is so limited that as soon as I say they or I name somebody Rishi or Tantric, people start imagining a person. They start imagining a human, but no, they are not humans. These things are entire universes. Can they appear as human? Yes, they can appear as anything they want.

That reminds me of a very ancient or you can say childish belief that when people die, they become stars. They tell this to children to probably distract them. Look, your grandfather who died yesterday has become a star. How could they think like this? The modern people are very stupid, but the ancient were not stupid. Why did they say that? How can the dead person become a star? They have made their own world there. The star comes from the word astral or the astral comes from the star. They are there now. It was believed or you can say they knew these things that ultimately evolution takes you to this level that you become the universe or you become at least a world somewhere. You give birth to this whole scenery of the worlds, bodies, minds. So it is poetically said that the dead person has hopefully left this world forever and will be evolved and will become something which is just like this universe. So yesterday he died and today he is a star. Not possible. It will take millions of years of evolution. So the tantric is not in a hurry to create worlds.

I know of at least three or four groups that have tried this experiment of creating a small world. One of our group created a temple-like structure. You know those Greek temples with big pillars and all, big statues. So these people tried to create that world and one of the groups tried to create an island, only one island, a small island with hills and coconut trees, beaches and so on. And this is the third experiment that I am seeing. Ancient Indian books are full of these stories where these rishis or tantrics or powerful people create entire worlds. We think these are stories, they are stories, yes, but there is some truth behind these stories. It cannot be purely wild imagination because humans are not capable of imagining something which is never in their experience. So creation of the worlds is a basic training in the occult. In the tantra bodhi we are going to introduce one chapter which will teach you to create a small world.

Arvind is saying, Shri M has talked about a serpent creature who came to visit his guru on earth. Can we say such a creature came from such a world?

We can say anything because it's open-ended, isn't it? Open-ended speculation. So out of the infinite possibilities of the illusion, these serpent creatures, not impossible isn't it? Everything is possible but did it really happen? We don't know. There is no evidence. So you need to trust the guru and it is possible that they came from one of the non-physical worlds. How to know whether somebody is from non-physical, not our physical universe? Only a few people will be able to see them. Those with the eyes, those with this kind of vision and those who are restricted to the five senses will never see them, never hear them and these are the majority. So those who can see using the non-physical senses were called mad, crazy. There was a time when these people were called divine or something like this. God's people who could see things which nobody could. Now it is the reverse. If you can see something which nobody can see, you are sent to asylum.

Parthiv is saying, shall I share something why it happens? Actually I have seen that whenever a seeker is paying attention in a very loving way or even in a little surrender to the person having high awareness or at least more advanced than the seeker, then just by being paying, allowing attention to the master, the seeker also gets the similar qualities. For example, let's say the master has mastered the sweet emotions in him. 24 hours the master is in bliss. Now if a seeker who has not done even a bit of sadhana for energizing that particular layer, if he comes or sits or gets in touch or even pays attention towards the master, then he gets the seed from the sadhana of the guru and that seed after some months or maybe depending on the intensity of seeker, that seed grows up suddenly and after some months, the seeker finds that this quality of sweet emotion appears. Obviously, all the layers are present in the seeker also, but just by being in resonance with the master, those particular layers get activated even when the seeker is not doing any sadhana for that particular layer. I have seen this and the only common element I have found is the loving attention when a seeker pays to the master, things happen rampantly.

Yes, a very good explanation. Nothing can explain it. Only the intention to become just like the master or the guru and you can call it resonance, that they are attuned to the master now. So yes, it can be called seeding. It is just like seeding. I have heard many stories like this and this is the sign of progress. But those who are not having these experiences, they need not become frustrated. They need not give up the search or the practice because it's not necessary that these things will happen to everybody. You can progress nicely and quickly even without getting all these experiences, experiences of oneness, of complete silence or of other worlds or visions. They need not happen, you see. But will they never happen? No, they will eventually happen. You should prepare yourself mentally for these experiences so life becomes magical.

Just like he said, the more devoted you are to your study and practice, the fruits will be seen quickly and if you are doing it as a side job then it will take time and if it is only your hobby, probably nothing will happen. These are signs of progress but they are not the necessary signs. Everybody should do and get this thing. Only then will they be called progressing. The progress is seen mostly by self-evaluation, not by experiences. So check what is the internal environment, what is going on inside you. That will give you a more accurate picture of whether you are progressing or not. You will know your whole structure, the layered structure intimately. Each and every corner of it will be known, and will be in the light of awareness. Side effect of this is that you will be able to evaluate others also. This is like a minor power. So we get motivated by looking at people who are progressing, by looking at the masters, great people, by reading, by watching and that should arouse will in you to progress. And if you have the will, there will be a way. The best way is the path of knowledge.

Sanjay is asking, besides spreading knowledge, what activities can a seeker engage in post completion of the program?

Just like I said, you can create the whole universes if you want. It totally depends on your will. There is one will in you to spread the knowledge, to benefit all the seekers. And there can be other things like research because the research is not actually spreading knowledge. But you can invent, discover new things. If you have a lot of money, you can assist the people who are spreading the knowledge without doing it directly, without teaching directly. Or you can assist in the efforts of your master, help in that which he is doing in any way possible. But these are small things. Big job that you have is your own progress, your own evolution. By your I mean these creatures. We cannot even call it my evolution. We can simply say that evolution is happening. It is nobody's evolution. Because everything is me. So it looks like my will. And then we go and fulfill our desire to evolve. That is one thing. But the most important job for any seeker is to rise above human birth. That is traditionally recommended. Although I don't give it that much importance. But it looks like that many of our students, many seekers, after getting the knowledge, their primary goal becomes the end of human birth.

If you are interested in that, that can be done systematically. And the method is given in the path of knowledge also that as soon as your karmic storage is over, as soon as your to-do list in the human body is over, there won't be any human birth. So you try to finish that as artistically, as skillfully as possible, as beautifully as possible. Or you can simply sit and enjoy the show because you are not the doer. You are the witness. Then everything is already happening as it must, as it should. It's already happening in the most perfect way. So both choices are actually the same. There is a little bit of doership in the first. I am doing it. No problem, because you know that it is not true. And the second is mostly the way of surrender, where whatever comes, happens. It is done automatically.

Arvind is saying, what is Nirman Kaya? Is this possible for a Yogi to create a body for himself on this earth?

The Nirman Kaya comes from Buddhism, the Sambhog Kaya, the Nirman Kaya and all these various Kayas. Kaya means body. So we assume different kinds of bodies. That is what they're saying, which is general knowledge probably for all of you. It is possible to have many kinds of bodies. Yes, Kosha, Sharira, many words, many names. So is it possible for a Yogi to create a body for himself on this earth? Not Yogi. The Yogi is interested in Samadhi, not in bodies. Tantrics, yes. They are interested in superior bodies. It is possible that somebody on the Yoga path is also on Occult. If you know this art, it will be possible to create any body, including a physical body.

Now there are many kinds of tricks and many methods to achieve this. And one of the cheap ways, without doing much effort, is to simply possess some other body. And this must be very familiar for many people. You simply possess another body. You are getting old. Now you are 80 years. You want to continue your service or you want to continue your practice. But you don't want this trouble of rebirth. You don't want to waste your 20 years going through the womb again. So you simply possess another body, a young body. And that should be illegal, isn't it? That is not recommended. So what do they do? They possess a body which has died naturally. That is called the Parkaya Pravesh. You see, the Kaya word appears here also. In these tiny articles on Tantra, I have given three or four ways to incarnate, to assume a body. One is through natural birth, where the little body, the baby, appears in the world by natural process. That is one way. Second way is to simply possess another body, dead or alive, depending on your ethical mood. And the third way is to create a body for yourself, which is the superior way, which is what we do in the independent Tantra. Probably that will be called the Nirmankaya, because Nirman means creation, isn't it? So you can create any body you want. And probably it will be very difficult to do this in physical, but it is child's play in the non-physical. It can be done. Anybody, any age, male, female, any creature, bird, snake, elephant, because these blueprints are already there in your causal body. You have already assumed these bodies, now you simply recall. Yes, just by willing it. But it is not that easy also, you see. You need to be competent in this art and then you need a guru.

BK is asking, can you explain the statement of Krishnamurti - Truth is a pathless land. What did he actually mean?

Nobody can tell what the other gurus are saying simply from two or three words. It will be very difficult, unless I am some kind of PhD on Krishnamurti, where I have read all the books, I have heard all the talks. So I can only guess. I can tell you what I mean by my statements, but what the others are saying, you can only guess. It is best to ask the teacher, why did you say this? But obviously, he is not there right now. So we can say, truth is the pathless land. Probably he means that you cannot reach the truth by traveling there or by doing systematic practices. You cannot reach the truth. It is an act of grace. There is no path to the truth. Now, why did he say that? Because if that were possible, we would have taught everybody in schools, in colleges, everywhere. Everybody would have known what the truth is. But that is not possible. What is possible is what I call ripening. Ripening means that a time comes in the life of this human being that he becomes ready for the truth. And then the guru appears in front of him, and gives him the truth. As simple as that.

Then why do we keep saying you should join this path, that path? Probably the time is coming. That is why. That is why that person is listening to any guru, reading any books on spirituality. Because the time is near. So we simply take care that this opportunity is not lost by guiding that person suitably. And that is my interpretation. But who knows what he said? If you are a newcomer to spirituality, do not start with J. Krishnamurti. Start with somebody who is accessible, not somebody who is so cryptic and mysterious. Simple people, you see. Those who are on YouTube, on gyanmarg.guru website, you will see a page where I have listed many teachers. They are handpicked. I mean, I have listened to their talks. It is not simply a search engine kind of thing. Go to those channels, listen to them. And there is some chance of understanding something.

So I never recommend these great teachers to my students. I recommend those who speak very, very clearly. Once you understand what they are saying, that means once you get the knowledge, then you can go and read these mysterious people. It's a waste of time. The newcomers should start from a tradition. And then you let go of the tradition. Then you join the gang of Krishnamurtis. Right now, you won't understand anything. Yes, his teachings are so different. And he denies everything that is kind of not useful for beginners. He is useful if you have very solid beliefs. If you blindly worship your tradition, then you listen to Krishnamurti and he will make you straight. But personally, I never listen to him that much. Only very, very rarely.

Arvind is asking, can we say that PoK is the most appropriate path for the world today?

See, if you are a promoter of the knowledge, then obviously you're going to advertise like this. Yes, it's the most beautiful, it's the complete best path and that is all marketing. Yes, we should say like this. But the world is a mixed bag. Nobody is equal here in any way. They are not equal in terms of financial conditions, health, body, intelligence, emotions and indoctrination. Everybody is different. So how can one path be suitable for the whole world? You know, the one path is not even suitable for you and your brother. That is also impossible.

Arvind is saying, the world is mostly intellectual today compared to the earlier times.

We don't know about the earlier times actually. Probably the number is greater these days, not the percentage. And my view is that in all the times, except the Satyuga, the percentage is the same. One percent are intellectual people, 99 percent are not. But today because billions of people are there, you know, one percent is also a very big number. So what we do, we do not go after the statistics. We simply wait for the right person, for ripe fruits. These ripe fruits are found in every time, every age and every country. So the educated people today are in a good position to comprehend the path of knowledge. And now, including this program that we are doing, it is crafted in this way, so that it will be easily graspable for anybody who is educated in our school and college system. So what we have done is we have changed the teaching depending on the ability of the people. It is the reverse actually. And it happens in every time, every age, that the teachings are modified to suit the people at that time. It's never that people will change themselves. The guru needs to change.

So yes, there is an opportunity now that in this form, which is presented in our path of knowledge program and being presented by many teachers actually, not only me, it is very beneficial for at least those who are educated. But what happens, you must have seen, is that education is simply another kind of indoctrination. Their own intellect becomes their enemies. Why? Because they cannot let go of their education now. So we need to somehow circumvent this fortification of their minds. What is your education doing? It's turning you into a materialistic laborer, slave. And that is a big problem. So we find people who are bored of this thing, or they are suffering from modernization. I'm talking about the intellectual kind of people now. We don't want to comment on anybody else because they have their own paths. So what happens is either they get bored of their intellectuality, they do not find any

answers there in your education system, or they suffer a lot because of how the societies are set up. And then they look for the guru, and the guru is waiting for this.

The situation is more complicated than we can imagine. And I don't claim to understand it at all, but this is the play that is going on, that those who are ready, they get it anyway. No matter what kind of personality - intellectual, non-intellectual, it does not matter what kind of body that person has, or in which country they are. It can be a little bit difficult or easy, that's all. But those who are ready, some help is sent to them somehow. This is being ensured. And yes, we take advantage of social situations sometimes. But yes, a systematic, disciplined, and step-by-step approach is the best.

Arvind is asking, Guru appears when the seeker is ready, please elaborate.

It is very easy to see actually. If that person is not ready, that person has no inner will, or does not possess enough intelligence to understand what the Guru is saying, then even if he is surrounded by all the scriptures, all the temples, all the gurus, all the stories, he won't be able to pick up anything. This is common sense, isn't it? We are all like this. We were born in India, but it took so many years to understand one single thing. Who am I? So, when the seeker reaches a certain point, he becomes a recipient of knowledge. He can receive the knowledge. We call it in Sanskrit, paatra. Paatra means utensil, you know, clay pot. Now you can fill him with the knowledge. Otherwise not. Everybody is a clay pot, but they are standing upside down. Nothing goes in. So, when the person matures to a level, and the interest arises in him through the grace of God, then the Guru discovers this person, or he starts finding, and as soon as the Guru notices that he is ready, the Guru does his effort to put him on the path. And this effort is like a big drama company, you see. Everything possible is done to pull him out of that world. It is two-way actually. You are seeking, and the Guru is also seeking the proper student. So, that is why we say it is a net, a net to catch the fish.

It is not that the Guru is interested in turning everybody in this world into a spiritual person. That is impossible. Why do we do marketing? Because we want to spread the net, so that those who are seeking, they will at least hear, and they will be attracted. Once they are in the net, they are gone. Just like the fish are drawn out of the water, the student is drawn out of the world by hook or crook or by any means possible, you see? The Guru has no rules. Many times there is a lot of failure, so that is why we say Guru comes with a list. So, those who complete the program, they will notice this thing, that it was a trap, nothing else. Guru's struggle is two-way. On the one hand, he is trying to lure the people into spirituality, and on the other hand, he is trying to throw away those who are not yet ripe. We pick the ripe fruit. Sometimes we get the raw ones, we throw them away. So, this thing is designed like this. It's kind of a filter.

Parteep is saying, you are creating traps which will go on trapping even without you.

Actually, I am not doing it. This is since the beginning of the time, this is happening. This is the only way to do the farming. What else can you call it? Mother nature produces the seekers, and the Guru is like a farmer, checks who is ripe, picks them, puts them on the next level. So, this is how it is happening. This is the system of spirituality that is timeless. This is the overall system of spirituality which is happening in all the worlds, not only in this world. So, that is why we say when the seeker is ready, yes, then the Guru can start the work. If they are not ready, you cannot do much. That is why I keep saying that your will is paramount. Your will is most important. Then the Guru will do anything possible to materialize your wish.

Vikas is saying, ultimately I feel that the seeker realizes the Guru to be existence, Brahman itself. It's only as long as the seeker believes himself to be an individual.

Yes, obviously, after the knowledge, no Guru, no student. They are one. Although because of our human nature, we keep respecting, loving, and admiring the Guru. That is how we humans are. But at the essential level, even before there was no difference between the Guru and student, after knowledge also, obviously, no difference. So, only the ignorance was dropped. Ultimately, all are one. This play of the Guru and student happens in this drama of the illusion, and that is why it is so dramatic.

BK is asking, are you not on Facebook?

No, no, no. Facebook is in me.

Session 207

Arvind has a question, why has Bharat been at the forefront of spiritual seeking and progress?

This is a big misconception. Spirituality is found in every part of the world. Here there is a specific kind of spirituality that has survived a long time, that's all. In other places on the same planet, the same knowledge has happened many times throughout history and this will continue to happen. Not only on earth, this is happening in the total universe, which means the total manifestation is like this. Whatever you call as India came into being only 70-75 years ago, otherwise there was no such country called Bharat. So how can we say that it is in the forefront? These locations, the geographies, they keep changing. What does not change is the knowledge. And it appears wherever there is prosperity, peace, education, intelligence, etc. And these conditions can happen anywhere, anytime. So certain places, certain times, they look like they are in the forefront, but then they disappear. Some other places come to the forefront, they disappear. And there are certain times where the knowledge is more than normal and there are certain times where knowledge is very less. So this is the bigger picture. This is how it is happening and this is how it will keep happening.

Rahul is asking, why do criteria of truth keep on changing for normal people? Is there a pattern for this?

People adopt criteria according to their own intelligence and requirements. If the requirement is not so strict, then they go with the simplest possible. It is in the newspapers, everybody is saying it, your friend is telling it. And they say that yes, that can be a good criteria for truth. Because probably the requirement is not so strict. But if somebody tells you, please invest in this and this share or company,

you will get a good return. Buy this property, it is good. Then they do not believe it blindly, most of the people. They have that much intelligence to check. Because now the requirement is strict, they must use better criteria. And this is what seekers also do. In day to day life, there is no other way. This is almost like a dynamic truth that truth can become false anytime. When it is a question of knowing the ultimate reality, then you must adopt the most strict criteria possible where there is no chance of a mistake. And that is why we use this ultimate criteria for truth.

Amazing thing about the criteria that we use, criterion, is that it puts everything in the category of false except you. So this is the heaviest possible classification of true and false. Probably the pattern is like this: the more important it is, the stronger is your criteria, the stronger is your checking. You need to check it thoroughly, precisely. Otherwise anything goes and you will find that more than 90% of the people, their lives are - anything goes. It doesn't really matter for these people what is true, what is false, it is simply going on. So that is why ordinary life happens in total falsehood. And a seeker also need not worry too much when it comes to worldly life. You can also have a dynamic kind of truth there. But if your goal is finding the ultimate truth, then you must refine your criteria.

The justification for any criteria is that it must be applicable in all contexts. It should not change anywhere. It should not change with the situation, should not change with new information, should not change with time and place because if your criterion changed, that means you are going to get a different kind of truth. So when we do the 3 day program, we ask the people what they think is true and 100% of the time they don't know. Ordinary people, even if they are in spirituality since many years, they don't know how to find the truth. Only those who have heard it a little bit somewhere from my videos or read from some books, have some knowledge of the scriptures, they say that yes, change is the criterion.

But they parrot it. They simply say it. When we ask why changing is false, why is that false? Then again they don't know. So not knowing the criterion will always land you in falsehood. Not knowing this prevents people from knowing the truth. This is a big problem. Because these things are never taught in your schools, not even in college, not even in the post graduate PhD or above that. How do I know this? Because I come in contact with people of all kinds, from villagers to most educated people. Everybody fails.

Another interesting thing is when it is told that look, changing is false, nobody believes it. This is called the projection of the illusion. The illusion prevents people or the minds from knowing what is true. There is a force there which does not allow any ordinary person to accept the truth. And here is the importance of grace. This means that finally that intellect has reached a point where it can be smoothly bent in the other direction, where it can finally turn to the truth by letting go of this belief in the ordinary truth, in the ordinary criterion.

This is impossible by preaching, by logic, by debating, impossible. So it is possible only by grace. Some people get it very quickly, what is true, what is not. Some people don't. Even if they are shown that look this is how it is, they say yes it is all logical and intellectual but for me the truth is whatever I see with my eyes or whatever is written in this book is true. That means the mind is not ripe at this time. And that means now that person must be left alone, you should not force the truth on this person because he will become either mad or violent or both.

In the three day program we take three steps to reach this understanding. First we show what is true on a worldly level, day to day life. What is true in our day to day life? How do we decide what is true? And it comes out very surprisingly that whatever is changing is not believed in day to day life also. It is taken as false. Changing names, changing cost, changing statements, changing behavior, nobody trusts these things. Then we go one step higher and we say how do highly intelligent people, those who are called big people, successful people or whatever, how do they decide what is true and what is false? And we give the example of a scientist, a doctor and a lawyer. Sometimes those who are money oriented are given an example of a successful businessman and again surprisingly same, changing is not believed by highly intelligent, highly educated, civilized people although they may not know it clearly but that is how they behave. And then we take the final step, what are the criteria in philosophy? And again the same thing comes out.

So it looks like there is a universal criterion there. It is not made up by some crazy philosopher. This is our direct experience and this is what our intellect tells us. Any intelligent person will arrive at the same truth, same criterion. So that is why I said it totally depends on the intelligence of the person. It is very surprising that everything falls in the category of the false. There you must have an open mind otherwise you fall back into the illusion. The Maya ensures that this will happen for 99% of the people about which we don't have any complaints. We don't want to disturb the illusion. The illusion needs these puppets who believe that everything they see is the truth. Otherwise this whole thing will collapse, the societies will collapse, the humans will collapse, the whole creation will come down because people found a way out of it. The drama cannot continue like this. So the Maya allows a handful of people out of a trap through an action, through an event that is called grace.

You will come to know the truth only if that is allowed. If it is not her wish, then even if it is told to that person, they won't recognize it, they won't accept it, they won't believe it, they won't even hear it.

Why is that? Because the patterns in the universal memory, they have a tendency to preserve themselves

and obviously telling these patterns that you are false is actually detrimental, it is harmful for their survival. We are talking at the level of the most basic patterns that replicate and self-organize and all. But the same is seen in the complex forms as below, so above. So ordinary people resist any attempts of teaching the truth, they don't want to hear it. And this happens in our 3D program and other programs also, that 2 out of 10, they do not get it. There are some odd cases who will say, yes, I am the experiencer, but whatever I am seeing is also true. That is a very good position actually, it's a compromise, but yes, no problem. Because at the highest level, the level of non-duality, there is no truth and then nothing is false also. It simply is. The distinction of the true and false is creation of the mind and that is also an illusion.

Graham is saying, maybe ordinary people are better actors than seekers. They know, but they are unwilling to break character in the play.

Yes, their time has not come actually. They need to play out their role first. Whatever illusory purpose they are serving here in the illusion, they need to do it, finish it. So they are not allowed. Or there is probably an internal knowing that probably this is the illusion, yes, right. But they don't want to give it up. This is seen in many seekers also, that they go back to the illusion. Nothing wrong in that also. Where are you going to go? Where is there to go? Where will you go? The illusion is also you. So we also allow that, because fully knowing that there is no way out of illusion, the only way is to know that this is an illusion and continue. The show must go on, but continue in the light of knowledge. This is the only teaching there is. Lead a simple, peaceful, pure life, fulfill your desires, help others, serve, light the lamps of knowledge everywhere and enjoy the illusion and then we should not worry about what is true and what is not. Because in the mind of an ordinary person, telling them that something is false leads to rejection. Rejection of that thing. Not only for ordinary people, even the seekers, they become renunciates, monks, sannyasi, whatever, because somebody told them everything is an illusion. So rejection happens. You can see it in the common people also that, look, this product is not genuine. This product is a fake copy and what do you do? You reject it. You don't buy it. You throw it away. Look, this person is a liar. Look, your husband is cheating with you. Divorce happens. We reject that which is branded as false and that is why I said that as soon as people come to know that everything is false, this whole thing will disappear.

So the Maya ensures that somehow even if they come to know, they will remain here. This is the projection ability of the illusion. Projection and the other ability, deception, whatever it's called. She is very good at it. So we wait. We pick only those that can handle this immense conclusion that everything is false, except you. And yes, people don't understand this much either. And the job of a guru is a little bit difficult here.

Suraj is saying, in my waking state there is an illusion that I am body and mind. In the dream, I am one of the dream characters. Even while watching a movie, I become one of the characters of the movie and feel the emotions of that character. There is a question that why can't there be just witnessing without being attached with one of the characters? It seems like it is necessary for the existence to have identification to perceive the experience. Is it really possible to be a witness without being identified as one of the experiences?

Yes, it is possible. Many people are doing it. Why is it not possible for you? Probably there is some impurity somewhere. Probably there are unfulfilled desires. Probably this illusion is still very much interesting for you. There can be many reasons. And the biggest reason that I have seen is the teachings are not yet embodied fully. You heard it. You are convinced about it. You have seen that I am the witness. But still there is some doubt somewhere.

Just yesterday this question was there in the satsang and I said, once you are told that you are a man not a woman, how much practice will you need to remain as a man? Once you are told that you are the witness, how much practice will you need to remain as a witness? So it is possible and once you get past the hurdles, the obstacles, you will be able to remain in the witness state forever 24x7 without any break. But yes, for some people it may not happen immediately. For some it can happen on the very first day. Like I said, there has to be some kind of grace or some progress already for this kind of miracle to happen. And for some it does not really matter. Witnessing is not important for many people. There are many kinds of people, many kinds of seekers.

So some will say, even if I do this drama of being the witness, nothing is gained in the end. Because what I am, I am. How this mind behaves attached or unattached is not my concern. Because that which is unattached is absolutely unattached eternally. Remember, that is you. The witness is never attached to anything. The mind is attached to this thing or that thing. And then it complains I am attached. Then it tries to leave the attachment and then it falls in the trap again. So a very intelligent person laughs at this drama of the mind. Actually Suraj is very new, so I am going to suggest that you try to be the witness. It is not harmful practice, isn't it? And it does not take any time. You need to only remember. So try it. Don't assume my words as ultimate. You need to find out. You need to discover what works for you. If being the witness, doing this witnessing, mindfulness, awareness practice is somehow beneficial for you, then you must do it. If it is not doing anything for you, it is a burden. It does not give you any kind of pleasure, happiness. Don't do it. It is not compulsory. And if you are a third kind of person who can actually understand that this witnessing practice and the desire to be the witness is actually part of the illusion, you will let go.

So find out your tendency and act accordingly. And if your choice is one of these, and you need help, you should ask your Guru. So it is not necessary for the existence to have the identification and it is not necessary for the existence to give up the identification. These are imposed thoughts. We should not impose our human tendencies on the whole existence. It has no tendency at all. It has no necessities. It does not want to be this way or that way. No, there are no wants. It is all mind. Once you know who you are, the rest is mind. Which means rest is all illusion. This is the bottom line.

What you want to do with it is your own personal choice. You are most welcome to do that practice which makes you happy. But it is not wise to worry about these things. Do that which comes naturally.

Since it is only Mother Nature that brought you up here with a little bit of help from the Guru, it will be Mother Nature who will take you beyond this. The human has no agency. We don't do much. The mind tries, worries, attempts, struggles, becomes happy, becomes arrogant. Whatever it does is of no consequence. So people ask me what practice do you do and I always lie depending on who is asking. The truth is I never do any practice. No practice at all. Why? There is no practice on the path of knowledge. Practice means you are still ignorant. The only practice is to know. Practice that. To know is to be because there is nothing to know also, isn't it? Simply be.

All the great masters have struggled a lot during their spiritual journey. I feel that the struggle makes the knowledge stronger and unshakable. But when one gets it without much struggle, it can be shaken easily. So isn't it important to struggle a bit. Actually, it is not important to struggle. What happens is if you make efforts for it, if you struggle for it, then its value becomes more. Remember? If you want to purchase something which is costly, you need to earn it. Then you give it some value. But if you get it without doing anything, you will probably not pay much attention to it. So it is not a matter of truth. It is a matter of human psychology.

Yes, the struggle is - not knowing, delay in knowing. That can be called struggle. You are not getting the proper guru, you are not able to practice, whatever is the reason. That can be called struggle. But the fact is, as soon as the seeker is ready, the knowledge is served. It is like going to a restaurant. Probably in the traffic there is a little bit of struggle. Probably you don't arrive on time. But as soon as you are sitting on the table, you order your order, food, it is served. No struggle.

When the student is ready, everything is given to that student. Probably if the student is ready without doing anything, probably that person will not value that knowledge that much. Such people are found to search for something bigger than non-duality or anything that they think is the ultimate. They start searching again and those who are intelligent, they come to know very quickly that there is no point in searching now, I got it. So yes, the value may not be recognized as soon as they get it. That can happen sometimes. So some gurus are very cunning in this matter. They make the student run here and there from post to pillar before telling them even the basics because they can sense that probably this student will not value it. Sometimes I also do that, very rarely. What is done on the path of knowledge is the person is given the knowledge unconditionally, then the student is left alone to do whatever he wants. If you don't want to value it, don't value it. If it is of such a high value that you start crying after listening to this, because probably for many lifetimes you are looking for this, excellent. Why? Because these things are unimportant. Getting knowledge is important. If you don't want to value it, who cares? Are you going to get anything better than this? More valuable? No. Then why waste time telling him that please value this thing? This is the most valuable thing. You're born for this. This is the purpose of your life, this is the purpose of human beings, this is the purpose of the whole existence that is appearing as a human to know itself. Probably they won't understand. So we don't waste any time. We know what will happen ultimately. The value will be recognized and if the value is recognized right now, excellent. The student is happy, the guru is happy. Yes, it depends on the personality of the guru. They can make people suffer for a little bit of knowledge, yes, possible. But after this is revealed, the student is forever grateful for this kind of drama that happened. Then he will see that it was not a struggle, it was a drama.

What is my method? Here is the knowledge. Take it. Don't like it? Okay, no problem. Seeding is important for me, not the consequence. What happened to that student after his knowledge? Who cares? Is he back in the world? Who cares? Is there anywhere else to go? Nowhere. Because the path of knowledge does not give any importance to the progress of the creature. We say Mother Nature will take care of it. Yes, those who are interested, they are given a lift. So seeding is the most important action on the path of knowledge. The biggest success of the guru is to create another guru. That will be the biggest success. Not putting the student into some kind of shame that, look, you don't have any value for this, or not sending the student on a lifelong practice of some kind, torture. You are not my student because you are not practicing. No, never do that. So you see, in many cases it will be seen that the struggle that they did was not actually a struggle. They were some stepping stones. They were the rungs of the ladder that they must climb to reach here. Those who think they have not done any struggle, probably they have done their own struggle in many previous lifetimes. There is a progress, evolutionary path that takes you to the truth. Some people are very lucky, they are born in the proper place, they are born near a proper guru, in a good environment.

Sandesh is saying, is Osho good for beginners to get into spirituality? What are your takes on his philosophy?

Osho is a little bit of a mixed bag. Actually he does not follow any tradition or any path. So my recommendation is always to pick up your specific path, specific tradition, and a guru belonging to that particular path. Osho is good for beginners, yes, because the beginners have no path. They have no idea of what is a path and they have no idea of what is a guru. So what he does is he serves you all kinds of food, spiritual food. Now according to your taste, you must recognize what suits me. He is doing the path of knowledge, he is doing the Kundalini, he is in the yoga, he is in the Zen, and he is also in the self-improvement a little bit, worldly advice, Jainism, Buddhism, Sufism, he knows everything. So you can get an overview of the spiritual scene, the spiritual landscape from Osho and similar people. There are many like this, who can speak on any topic. And then you pick and choose one thing which attracts you most, and that is your path.

Then at that point, you should take up a proper systematic study, get into systematic practice. Because how long can you listen to Osho, very attractive, very mesmerizing talk, but that is not a practice, that is not a path. Keep listening to one fellow forever, that's not the progress. It is just like the Bhagavad Gita, you see, a mixed bag of all the paths. Now the truth is told there, but nobody understands why. As you see, it takes a proper path, proper guru, proper practice. So my suggestion to Sandesh is, enjoy the talks, see what attracts you most, on what subjects you think he says, you know, the things he says are understood most, that's what you find interesting, and then approach a living master whom you like, who teaches the same thing, and try it, try to walk properly on that path.

Why are these people like this, and why are they so popular, just like cricketers and celebrities, we call them celebrity gurus, because they are called the Lokguru, which means guru of the people. They do not select, they do not say that you are not my student and you are my student and you should do this practice and you should not do that practice, they never say. They accept everybody who comes to them, because again, their purpose is simply to make the spirituality popular, their range is so wide, that they speak from politics to psychology to science to advaita, everything. There are many students of Osho, and they have progressed, but they have progressed only because they took a path.

We wait for the right person to show up, the right student. The guru field is eternally waiting, they have nothing else to do. As soon as they find a ripe fruit, then something, some arrangements are made, so that that student is properly guided. Obviously we don't need to do that much hard work, again it is a matter of simply picking the right person and that person is given some instructions and I check what they are doing, that's all.

So those who with the qualities, those with the potential to become the guru, they are guided further and I encourage yes, actually I encourage those also who do not have the qualities, because even a little bit of service is good enough, good for the people and actually it is ten times better for the person who is serving. The person who is serving is benefited more than the person who is served. This is the lure in this field, that it is in your advantage to impart the knowledge or whatever has been told, you get the fruit. You get most of it and yes, the other people, they also have benefited, so this is the only action which can be called a win-win situation. Both parties win here, it is not give and take that one person loses something, the other gains something, it is never like this. In the job of the spiritual service, both parties get paid.

How will you know this? You will know this only by doing this, only that you should not do it too much because it can become like an addiction, that I need to preach to everybody, I need to teach everybody, I need to do something big because there are too many ignorant people in the world. If these thoughts come to mind it means that it is going to cause some trouble now. That is why permission of the guru is needed. Anyhow, some people go ahead without permission and they learn the hard way how to do it. Permission is also not like this, don't do it, no it is never like this, very rare cases, it is always like this - look if you do this, there will be this consequence, if you do that, there will be that consequence, this is what we call a permission. Then the student must be intelligent enough to do something and not do something.

The living guru is actually a copy of the gurufield, just like the gurufield is waiting and provides the help at the right time, this living guru is also waiting, provides the right help, whatever he or she can to the right person, this much is the service, nothing more needs to be done. It will appear like a difficult job to some people only because they are trying to serve somebody who does not want to be served, they are trying to feed somebody who is not hungry and then it will be a very tough job. But we do that also sometimes in hopes that probably that is an obstacle and I will give my 100% to this student so that he goes past that obstacle. We do these things, but it should be taken as a play, you should not become serious about this and before interfering in the lives of the students, they must be given the basic knowledge, the seeding is the important part and then there is all play.

Vandita is asking, fakeness is a behavioral impurity, but sometimes it is absolutely needed. How to deal with this conflict?

It is very easy, if that lie, that fakeness, that drama, pretension is beneficial for you and for others, then it is good, you can say it is moral, ethical. If it is causing any kind of harm, then it's not good. It will be solved like this and this should be seen in the long term, not the short term. I am pretending like this, I am faking it like this, is it going to be good in the long term? If yes, you should do it, otherwise not. If it has a short term effect, but the problem is not solved by that, then it is better to be genuine, be true.

You will recognize very quickly that you had to fake something, you had to lie, you had to pretend, because you yourself are responsible for that situation, we say it is your karma. You are in that situation where you have to do this, which means that something wrong happened in the past, now you want to get out of that situation. So yes, check that nobody is getting harmed, if the harm is small, for example, that person can feel a little bit of sadness etc etc, then it's ok, but if the harm is big, for example, some

loss of money, something like this, you should not do it, wait for the right moment.

What is the correct way? Do not land in this situation where you need to lie, be straight forward from the first day, now we are all not that lucky, nobody taught us these things, we just behaved in an instinctual way and then we landed up in these situations and now we need to find some ways out, so the lesson that is learnt is always tell the truth, so that you don't land in a situation, always do that which is necessary. Just now I posted a video where Francis said a very beautiful phrase, very beautiful sentence - “the law of least action”, that is what we mean when we say, do only the necessary - law of

least action. If you need to pretend, do as little as possible, bring the truth out as quickly as you can. There will be consequences, yes, but there is something called hard landing and soft landing, so lying can convert landing into soft landing, but yes, there will be consequences.

I will give an example of lying that can be beneficial. It happens a lot in this country, let us say somebody's child dies in an accident, so this is the truth that the child died, but when you call his mother, what do you say? Your child fell down somehow and he is crying, you need to come back home and the mother comes back home - where is my child? Oh he was a little bit injured, he was taken to the hospital, go to this hospital. Still they are not telling her, but one step more, the news is broken in steps. She goes to the hospital, and the doctor says, oh he is seriously injured, so he is in the operation theater, ICU, emergency room, wherever, please wait here for one hour. And then everybody arrives, mother, sister, mother's mother, husband, family, there is a crowd now and then somebody says, we could not save your child. Because by that time the mother has gone through a lot of initial suffering, by then she is mentally prepared for the news.

Isn't this bad, isn't this lying, isn't this fakeness? Yes, but the suffering is there, you see the consequences are there, nothing has changed, but the only thing is that we made it a little bit softer, at least we tried. This is what we do and sometimes this is done for good news also, I know of some cases where some people were told that they won a lottery, many crores, many millions and they died of heart attack. I heard these things. Depending on the strength of the person, good news is also not revealed quickly, so they will be told, look you earned 1000 rupees in the lottery, why don't you check, by that time he is mentally prepared for the news. In this way, if the situation is like this, which can be eased by lying, then that should be done, otherwise not.

Sandesh is asking, is there any practice or way to observe the observer and is that the same you are referring to Sakshi Bhava?

Yes, you can call it the awareness practice or the Sakshi Bhava and obviously you will realize that there is no way to observe the observer, it's not possible, it is only possible to know that I am the observer. That is the practice, to remain in this knowledge. What will happen if you don't remain in this knowledge? Nothing will happen, the observer is always present eternally, this human is like a speck

of dirt for the observer, like a flash in the pan, eye blink. So this practice should not be given that much importance, just like I said, but if this human being is benefited in some way, look this is such a fantastic, wonderful experience to remain in the knowledge of who I am, very nice, go ahead, enjoy. What is most important is you see, you realize the truth and live a simple life, it will be made known to you whenever there is a need.

The example of hot pan is very beautiful, you touch the hot pan, you learn not to touch it again, but you don't remember it all the time - look I touched the hot pan, look it was so hot, I should not touch

It - you do not chant this mantra all day for years, no. Next time you see a hot pan, you remember - yes, I should not touch it. Or even if you see the cold pan, you just make sure that it is not hot, it is not on the fire, that much you ensure.

Isn't that simple, isn't that natural? Whenever there is a need, you drop your identity as the human, when there is a need, you assume the identity as human. That is intelligence in my opinion, although it totally depends on the seeker, what do they want, what is their wish. It is only a practice of remembering and it is prescribed to only those who tend to forget. Now the guru gets irritated, what did I tell you, who are you, oh sorry I forgot, ok now do the practice, write down hundred times you are the sakshi, you are the witness, you are the experiencer, every day hundred times. So in very poor cases this practice will be prescribed. It is there as a part of the program and the intention there is to make you familiar with this practice, that there is such a practice, do you want to do it? Ok do it for three months. After then I never ask you, how is it going. It is also given for another reason that probably you will become a guru yourself, probably you are interested, so now you have the training to train somebody else in this sakshi bhava. So nothing is done in this program which is unnecessary. Law of least action, yes follow it.

Lakshmi is asking, what is a simple and sattvic life?

Where you live in such a way that your karmic balance is reduced instead of increasing, that is one way, that which is causing suffering to you and to the others should be dropped immediately, that which is excess should be dropped immediately and that which is pleasing too much, if you are attached to those things, that should be dropped gradually when your desires are fulfilled to some extent. Then you will see that your life is very simple and that will be called sattvic life, sattvic means based on truth, it comes from satya, truth.

So how can this be done? That is what is called spiritual life actually, it is done by leaving not by gaining. It is done by letting go not by taking on and that is why it is difficult, isn't it? First things you should let go of those things which can be done easily, if it can be done easily let go of that and you know what can be done easily? The things that are causing suffering. You don't want them already, simplify by letting go, I don't want that, no concern. Then you let go of unnecessary things which are happening, it is not causing suffering but it is totally unnecessary like buying more stuff, eating more, sleeping more, talking more, more relatives, you start chopping them down like cutting the trees and you keep the bare minimum. By the time you are ready to leave this physical world, you will be so light that you will simply float out of the world, poetically, if you have the burdens on you like rocks tied to you, you won't be even able to walk and you will drop back here, next birth with the same burden.

I think that is the teaching in every path, not only on the path of knowledge, actually the path of knowledge recommends nothing because we know what is the consequence of knowledge. As a consequence of knowledge, your life turns into something simple and sattvic, ordinary, nothing extraordinary. Even if you become a servant of knowledge, even if you become a guru, you will remain ordinary. Although people are going to project you as something divine or great, don't worry, let them do whatever they want to do, you remain ordinary, you remain simple. Some people have dropped so much that all they have is a pair of shirts, clothes and slippers and a wooden pot, they drink in that

pot, they eat in that pot and they take bath using that pot and these people are called sannyasis. So hopefully you will become like that, but there is no need to do that kind of extreme because the attachment is in the mind, your physical appearance and whatever you possess may not be a good reflection of detachment. Some people pretend to be sannyasi but there are lots of attachments in their minds. The karmic stuff is not yet over, but yes they are doing something, they are doing some effort, probably their path demands this kind of action. But on the path of knowledge you enjoy your life, but

keep your mind clean. You should not be attached to whatever this creature is enjoying. You should keep checking - can I live without this thing? If you can live without that thing happily then you are detached and if that concerns you, that bothers you, that troubles you, when this one thing is not there that means there is attachment, there is expectation and now you work on it. You don't need to force, do it naturally, beautifully, properly, lovingly, like a play and you will improve.

Jayash is saying, in one audio, Sadhguru said one can change their genetic makeup in a matter of months as we know that anything is possible in illusion, but still apart from that what are your thoughts on it?

Yes anything is possible in the illusion and those who know how to do it, it will be done, it is possible. How will you know? The key is knowledge. Know what is this genetic makeup, who is there to change it, who can do it, what kind of progress is needed, what kind of spiritual attainment is needed to do that? And then a long practice. On the path of knowledge we leave everything as it is, because we know it is perfect and we progress forward, the progress happens by leaving behind, the use is over, you leave it behind. Probably there are other paths where you try to manipulate whatever you think is not good enough. My genetics is not good enough, that means there is a long path now. You will remain trapped

here fixing the genes, no problem, whatever you like. On the path of knowledge the progress is very fast like a rocket, on other paths they are busy doing something else which is totally unnecessary.

Vandita is saying, it is referred as Aparigraha means non grasping or non attachment, this Yama teaches us to practice moderation, taking only what we need, keeping only what it serves us in the moment and letting go if unnecessary.

Yes the same thing will be called Pratyahara in Ashtanga yoga and we call it doing the necessary, letting go or like he said the law of least action, that will make your life simple and sattvic, happy, unburdened. Actually it will be so much pleasure that you will look forward to the time of death, where finally there last letting go happens. This body, don't want this now, it is unnecessary isn't it? So that is the ultimate pleasure, that is the moment of rapture and just now he mentioned Sadhguru, Sadhguru has also mentioned this thing that your moment of liberation is actually your moment of death or your moment of death is your moment of liberation, now you understand why? If you have led a good life, spiritual life which means this life which we are talking about, of subtracting, of dissolving, then your death will be moment of liberation, otherwise no, otherwise it's a torture, it's a suffering, it's a loss and remember how do people see the death? For them it is not a moment of liberation or joy, it is a tragedy

for ordinary people or ordinary seekers. But those who have led a good life, life of knowledge and fulfillment, they are looking forward to that time. Like you are traveling in a car and the destination is far away, initially you enjoy the journey, music is playing in the car, the car is speeding, you get to see a lot of things out of the window, but after 2-3 hours what happens? Oh my back is paining, my leg is paining, I need to go to the bathroom and it becomes a torture. Now you look forward to the moment when you will finally arrive, when you will get out of the car. Leaving your vehicle is your pleasure now. Same way, live your life in such a way that leaving the vehicle, this body becomes a pleasure for you, that is possible only by knowledge, only by proper application of that knowledge in your life.

Everybody should think about this, if this is not your prarabdha, make it your prarabdha, who is stopping you? Give your life a goal, this is the highest goal possible. Surprisingly it is leaving, leaving, leaving, tyag, not gain. You don't need to gain anything. That which you gained is the problem, that is the burden, that is the ignorance, you are whole and complete - that is the knowledge.

Session 208

Kanika is saying, when you are referring to impurities, what are those?

In the layers of the mind, if something is not functioning as it should, then we call it impurity, you can see that there are thousands of processes going on in the mind, the vrittis, cyclic processes, so any of them becomes defective, it becomes an impurity, simple examples I will give you that it is a normal process to become hungry, everyday you become hungry 2-3 times per day, the body triggers this process and then the body follows, the mind and body, they do something to get the food, this is important for life, but what is an impurity? The hunger triggers every hour, you ate something and the hunger is again present, now you can see it is not really hunger, it is something else, it is an impurity.

What is the harm of this? That the body becomes unhealthy, becomes fat and ugly and what is the cure? Awareness is the cure, not my orders, you see I don't order anybody, not any trick, don't watch all the videos, no dieting needed, nothing, awareness is needed, because you are a student of the path of knowledge, now this is the best tool in the universe, what does the awareness do here? Simply detects the faulty activity, this process and does not allow any kind of action on it. You need two things actually, not only awareness - awareness and intention, sakshi bhava and sankalp, combine your intention with your awareness, the intention should be I will not act on this thing. What if your intention is weak and it takes over, no problem, with practice your intention will be stronger and stronger.

How to put more charge in the intention? By repeating, put more attention on the intention. The attention and intention have a common word in them - “tense/tend”, which means to pull. Fuel it, put more attention, more energy in the intention, not in the action. When the mind says do this action, which is unnecessary, simply pull your attention into the intention, put the energy there, repeat it again and again, don't let the attention go back into this thought of eating something or this imagination. The mind is very powerful, it will produce a sensation of hunger also, I am just giving an example of hunger, it can be anything, anger, lust or it can be jealousy or it can be something positive like attachments with people, like endless entertainment on Netflix, it is possible. Something which you think is positive, that can also be defective. So first thing you will observe is that the defective activity

will lower your awareness and the mind helps in that. The mind is a tricky thing, it will lower your awareness so that it can do what it wants to do, it can fulfill the desire, even if it is a faulty desire and now it becomes very complicated, it is now some kind of extreme mental disorder. Then the mind convinces itself. The mind says to itself, this is best, your guru is useless, your path is bad, trash and then completely changes the personality for a while and as soon as that desire is fulfilled, that action is done, it is back on the path of knowledge - I am a seeker now.

So what is going on here, a very tricky situation, so the awareness helps here by putting more energy into the awareness. I don't have any other words, now we are using the occult words, put more attention there, repeat it more, there are more tricks which will be told in the tantra bodhi, not here. So that is the sole cause of all your troubles that you have a very weak intention, your willpower is not strong, even if the intelligence knows, I should not smoke, I should not drink, I should not say bad words to anybody, intelligence knows these things, but the body-mind continues in the old fashion, because they have more energy, they have more power, the old habits have more power. It is a power game now. Whenever we talk of power, we talk of tantra only. Intention is the biggest cause of failure in not attaining awareness in dreams and projection states. Intention is the biggest factor, because your intellect says - I need to have this experience, being aware in the lucid dream, but as soon as you start the practice, the intention is so weak that it is drowned in other powerful tendencies, such as, to imagine something else, to worry about the future or I don't want it, I'll just sleep, the laziness. Intention is very powerful thing, so when we are training you for attention practice, just before the

awareness practice, there is a video on attention practice, it is simply perfecting your intention.

Rahul is saying, is there such a thing called justice, it cannot be experienced in my view, are these just conceptual tools to manage society?

Yes, the concept of justice means that somebody has decided what should happen in the society, what is right and what is wrong. It is very much connected to ethics and morals and people decide on their own. You can simply use your direct experience to check it, in one country the law says the murderer should be hanged, that is the justice. In another country, no they should not be hanged, should not be killed. In one country it is fair and just to divorce a woman easily, the rules are very easy, in some other country it is injustice. The same action will be called injustice. If it changes it is false, this is the rule, if the justice seems to change from time and place it has to be something man-made.

In this existence there is no justice and there is no injustice also. This is a common misconception or ignorance that whenever these natural disasters, floods, earthquakes happen and many people die and we say that this universe is not fair and just, innocent people died. But the universe is simply doing its work. Some people say the law of karma is justice, no it is not, anything can happen. You should come down to the level of the illusion and according to your needs and according to your society wherever you live, you create your own system of justice. That is all. It is totally a practical issue, nothing to do with philosophy or truth. I am the seer of justice, I am the seer of injustice.

Graham is saying, Plato said justice is the will of the stronger.

Yes, people in the power they decide, whom to punish, whom not to punish and they keep changing their strategy, it's okay.

Siddhartha is saying, a seeker is the most immoral person.

Yes, we have our own morals, as long as they do not conflict with the society, you can have anything, but it is trusted, we trust the seeker that they won't do anything abnormal because they have knowledge and intelligence and some people will say that non-violence is the best ethical position and that is what mostly I have seen, most of the seekers adopt non-violence, that does non-violence does not mean that we don't kill, it means we don't harm. If a wild animal is attacking you it is causing harm, so it is necessary to kill it, so the violence is not connected to killing or death, it is more connected to harm. I won't go into the details of that, but you can meditate on this, contemplate on this topic.

Shreya is saying, the law of karma is cause and effect.

Yes it is very basic, cause and effect, not justice, those who think that karma gives you justice, they don't know the law actually, if you fire a bullet to kill your enemy it is cause and effect and if the enemy kills you it is also cause and effect. One thing will be called justice, the other thing will be called injustice. Totally biased you see and the law of karma is unbiased, it is the same for everybody.

Siddharth is saying, stay away from the crowd in general, no need to worry about justice and injustice.

Yes, your life is whole and complete actually. Why do we get in trouble with these things, because some of your necessities come from the society, and there is the trouble. If you could grow your own food, get your own water and energy and have your own land to live in, some place where nobody wants that

land, then your life will be very very smooth. You won't need the social system. But that is not the case. You have so many needs, you have so many requirements and then there will be events of injustice. You should find a middle ground, middle path here, cut down the unnecessary and you will be saved from the trouble. Do only that which is necessary, this is the mantra on the path of knowledge. I keep saying it so many times, if you cut down the unnecessary you can be saved from a lot of injustice. For example you are walking on a street, lonely street in night wearing a lot of jewelry, gold, now obviously you are living in a society where there are all kinds of people, so you may face injustice there, because it was

totally unnecessary to do what you were doing.

This is a very crude example but yes, so on the path of knowledge, we remove the unnecessary in three stages. Just one more time I am going to repeat it, these three stages are very important for newcomers, at least. First remove that which is causing suffering, very easy, you also don't want it, remove it from your life completely because it is causing suffering. Write down in your diary what is causing suffering, get rid of it. Second thing you remove that which is neutral but unnecessary, like jewelry and stuff, too many objects in the house and anything which is not really necessary but is not also positive, it's not giving you any pleasure or happiness. This is the second step. Third step - you remove all that which the mind says gives pleasure. That is very difficult. So most of us are in the first step, we are simply trying to reduce our suffering and you will always see that the suffering never goes away by getting something, it goes away only by giving up something, by letting go of something. You can do this kind of analysis - how did I get rid of this suffering and you will always find that in the heart of that action was some kind of letting go. “I don't want” - these words were spoken and then the suffering went away. Some people will say - no, my body is in pain, my body is unhealthy. Your clinging to the body is the problem, not the body, or whatever is causing that illness, unhealthy lifestyle or pollution or stressful relation whatever is the cause. I am not saying everybody should kill themselves because their body has some kind of pain, no you can manage it but ultimately when you are 80-90 years old then this complaint should not arise.

Rahul is saying, direct experience opened my eyes to the world, earlier I had just concepts of words like curiosity, melancholy, they were completely different than that I had learned in books, relearning every day, there is nothing better than doing this.

Yes, most of the time we will be unlearning, unlearning whatever was simply assumed to be true is your education, is your learning. Now the path of knowledge is simply about unlearning. What do we learn here? Nothing actually, nothing is given, everything is taken away. So you will find that is the cause of happiness, that is the cause of bliss, when you have less and less there is more bliss, it is totally counterintuitive for a worldly person who thinks exactly in the reverse - more money, more objects, more products, more consumption, more relatives, more relations and that is a recipe for suffering. Can we have a totally zero amount of these? No, only that which is necessary. Ultimately your decision to have a human body is the cause of suffering. So that should be dropped in the end, there also you say I don't want this and that will stop your cycles of birth and death. Nobody talks about what happens after that because nobody came back after that. So we don't have any knowledge of the state after that. We have only one thing which we are sure of, that it will be ultimate bliss, there is no other bliss that is bigger than that because it is completely empty. You can simply project your formula here of happiness - less is bliss, less means more bliss, less needs, less desires, less actions, they mean more bliss and so you can see now that zero amount of these will be maximum bliss. That much we know, however on the path of knowledge this is not given that much importance because you can attain that maximum bliss state right now right here. That will be called the Jeevan Mukta state. Hardly anybody is there, because you are the existence, you are the bliss right now, you can be that in spite of the presence of the body, mind, their activities. Why? Because they are all illusory.

Taking this experience of the human world as a play makes you as blissful as not being born, now immediately there will be a lot of expectation in the mind, it will be an extraordinary experience to be like this, but no, it is ordinary experience, devoid of the impulses of the mind, that's all is the bliss. Do not over expect. The last time I was in bliss was when I was totally drunk and we had a big party, it was my birthday and so on, we ate this much - that is the concept of bliss for an ordinary person - happiness. But it is extreme suffering, you had to do all that to simply become blissful. Extreme suffering, isn't it? But you can do all that, no problem, but take it as a play, whatever you do for getting the bliss, if you do it as a play, then this kind of abnormal situation goes away in the mind, this kind of ignorance goes away.

The world was created for play, entertainment, this is the original purpose, and if you go back to that purpose again without clinging to it, without thinking that it is real, it is really happening to me, if you stop thinking like this, just be present in full awareness and play the play, that is bliss. As soon as there is attachment, as soon as there is a belonging here, this is mine, that is mine, ego, then the play is distorted, it becomes a struggle and that is the cause of suffering. So ultimately the cause of suffering is the ignorance of what I am and what is this experience, and it takes only 20 minutes to get rid of this ignorance. It is so simple, but you are bound in this ignorance since many lifetimes, thousands of years, this is the paradox.

Abhishek is saying, if only necessary things remain, life will become simple.

Yes, true words, and this is my own experience. We are not repeating some shloka from some scripture here, my own experience says that. Will that be a lazy life, will that be a boring life? No, you can do whatever you want, just don't do the unnecessary. Do that which gives you pleasure, which makes you happy. And if you do something which makes others happy also, then it is the ultimate play. Now you can see what these gurus are doing, why are their lives so simple, yet why are they so powerful and loved by everybody? You just got the secret of the whole existence. The biggest secret in the existence is to live a simple life, immersed in the complete truth and serve others.

Play as much as you want, all your desires will be fulfilled, because hardly you have one or two, whatever is necessary will be left, and that is going to give you the whole pleasure. Your prarabdha will be gone completely. These are the miracles that happen when you apply this knowledge in your life. When we teach them, the new students, look, the world is illusion, and you are this nothing - zero, big zero, not hero, and they go away with this knowledge, they don't know what to do, they don't know how to apply this, because their mind is running on the old tracks - I want more, I want to look like this, I want to become like this, same old, old-fashioned thinking. The world is an illusion and I am emptiness, even if they call it Brahman, it doesn't really matter to them. So these people can be called

ignorant, even after hearing the words. They have only done the first step of the path of knowledge, which is listening, after that comes contemplation, meditating, and once you are convinced that this is the real knowledge, then abiding. And what is abiding? Just an application of knowledge.

Whatever I said, get rid of the unnecessary, the lifestyle of a gyani, knowing these mantras, less is more, letting go is the secret, these are worth knowing. It's not that these things are not told, they are told, they are repeated a hundred times, but people don't get it easily, because their minds are running in the old style.

Atul is saying, How does the spiritual alliance and being present in spiritual gatherings affect the ascension of the seeker? Also, how much do I need to manage the impact of materialistic surroundings around me?

It should have a positive effect, depending on whether you have some kind of negativity in you. Some people have these things – jealousy and competition. But instead of that, if you have a tendency to be inspired and to follow, and simply become a fan of people who have progressed beyond you, wanting to follow them rather than compete with them and so on, then it is very natural that if you stay with these people, you will progress. This is common sense, actually general knowledge: if you stay with intelligent people, you will start becoming intelligent, provided you don't fight with them or insult them. Stupid people have this tendency that I am stupid, and the only way I can feel superior is by insulting somebody who knows more than me, who is more intelligent than me. Stupid people have these kinds of tendencies.

If there is openness to learn and progress, then a company that is better than you is beneficial. This is actually called surrender in spiritual terms. We call it surrender when you say, 'Oh yes, I am surrendered to the path, I am surrendered to the guru, and to all my guru brothers and sisters.' Once this feeling arises in you, then progress is guaranteed because now the positive effects will be taken in by the mind. There is no resistance in it; it will simply absorb like a sponge. This is called the spiritual diet – spiritual diet does not mean boiled vegetables without salt. The ahar – what are you taking from your senses – that is the diet; that is your food. In spiritual terminology again, what are you taking in, what impressions are you taking in, that is your food – spiritual food. So, you get so much spiritual food that the spirit grows now. Your growth, spiritual growth happens – yes, ascension is simply a word for spiritual growth – progress, knowledge, happiness, love, power, self-control, all these things, they are pointers to spiritual progress.

So, how much do I need to watch the impact of materialistic surroundings? That which covers your material needs sufficiently, that much materialistic influence can be allowed. You can call it managing the materialistic surroundings – allow only that much which is necessary. So, here comes the problem of earning money – it is needed, isn't it? There is nothing wrong in being materialistic if it is needed, but if your 16 hours are spent only on earning money, something is wrong. Either you're very poor and you're trying to make up for this poverty, then it's okay. But if everything is fine and you're happy in your life, then that is a little bit of excess. So, that much should be cut down. What happens is people keep doing these survival-related things, thinking, 'What will happen to me tomorrow if I don't do these things?' Completely forgetting that anything can happen tomorrow. But yes, intelligence says that we should plan ahead, and you should. But you should draw a line also where it becomes excess – where your plan crosses this line of common sense. So, this is the strategy that we use.

There is nothing wrong in the materialistic world or materialistic actions, as long as they are not being done in excess. But ultimately you will find that there are no materialistic actions. Some people will say, 'I own three factories, I'm the CEO of four companies, and so on. Now, all my time goes in that – 24/7 I am there. What should I do? Should I leave all these things, become a sannyasi today?' You see, in that case, you should always consult your guru. Those who are listening from YouTube and podcasts and all, they don't have any gurus, so you should find somebody if you want to progress spiritually. But this is your situation that you are totally drowned in materialistic activities, and your intellect will say that this is stupid – 'I cannot leave these things.' Then some path will be suggested for you – that you can leave them slowly if you want, because that is the prarabdha. We are looking at the pre-allocation of that fellow who is trying to become a seeker – he has already accumulated so much that he won't be able to give it away totally today, quickly.

In fact, if you do everything that is only materialistic but if you do it in complete knowledge and awareness, then that becomes your spiritual practice. It is not the actions; it is the intention. Even if you are managing four offices, three factories, and two thousand employees – no problem. Do it in complete awareness; it is a play. Play does not mean carelessness, isn't it? Carelessness means the play is over. So, carefully, full attention – beautifully. This is called doing your work beautifully – in one word, the word beautiful in the spiritual field means completeness. Leave nothing undone; do it so completely that nothing remains to be done. That is called a beautiful action. So, hardly anybody knows all these words because you say they are not in the spiritual field. But this is how you should do it, and if it is something which ordinary people say is materialistic, then also it will be fine. In fact, people do all these things, but there is a hidden ego there, there is greed there. 'I am spiritual; I am serving; I am doing this.' But I am also getting one million every year, and that is the real motivation, actually. And they cover it up with some kind of spiritual actions. This happens to those who don't have a guru because the guru can see inside you – which nobody can; nobody else can. So, that is called materialistic spiritualism – spiritual materialism, whatever you want to call it – pretending to be spiritual.

I am doing something; don't blame me. But the intention is something else. So, not the action, the intention is important. If it is done with the intention of spiritual progress, then you can carry out all your material actions, objectives, fulfill your desires – nothing wrong. Yes, this is a very difficult subject, a very tricky subject. So, do not decide based on these two or three sentences that I said; it is a big subject.

Abhishek is saying, Comparison becomes a problem in doing what is necessary.

You are probably saying that we tend to compare ourselves with other people. Yes, if you live in solitude, this problem will go away because there won't be anybody to compare with. That is one extreme thing. The other way is to simply do your best – contentment, not comparison. And the contentment does not mean that you don't progress even materially. If there is an opportunity, you progress; you take the next step. But the feeling should not be here that somebody else is there, so I am going, I need to be there, I need to achieve that because somebody else achieved that. That is ignorance. If you can do it yourself, then go ahead; who is stopping you? It's a play. So, comparison brings competition, and sometimes it misleads the person.

If you do not play a good sport, if you are not good in cricket and football, then comparison will be made – look, you cannot even run, that fellow is so strong, scores so much. And that can mislead the child into that field where he does not belong. His pre-allocation is probably somewhere in the intellectual or artistic field, but his parents are pushing him due to comparison, and then he will do that which is totally unnecessary. He will spend his life trying to become a sportsman. For a person of high intellect, these things are boring – they are good for a while, but that is not their life goal. So, follow your bliss – again, this is the mantra here. Do that for which you are born; balance is the key. You are born to do this or that, but you know you cannot feed the family. Now balance is needed.

Sandesh is asking, What is the root cause of all kinds of suffering?

Ignorance is the root cause. Now, the real question is, why ignorance? I can see a lot of ignorant people who are very happy. Those people with no knowledge of advaita, the path of knowledge, science, or whatever. So, are they really happy, or are they ignorant? And ignorance is the seed of suffering, so this puzzle comes up in front of many new people, new seekers. How will knowing this philosophy or that philosophy make me happy? I am struggling here with money, food, don't have a car, don't have a house to live in, I have very noisy neighbors and evil parents, and you are teaching me these things – vibration patterns. What is the use of these things?"

Vandita is saying, They don't even know they are suffering. Probably they have never seen bliss.

That is one thing, but yes, the ignorance is very deep. They think that the fulfillment of everyday desires is happiness. But there is one more thing.

Sweety is saying, ignorance applies to the mind, but bliss is the nature of the self.

Yes, that is true. Knowledge and ignorance are in the mind, not in you. So anyway, there is an intermediate state between ignorance and knowledge, that is called innocence. The people you are looking at, they don't have all this knowledge, spiritual knowledge, but they are very happy. But they cannot be called ignorant; they can be called innocent. And this distinction was made in the program. If those who remember the program, there are three levels of knowledge – ignorance, innocence, and knowledge. So innocence also is a very natural state, which is equal to bliss.

Look at a child, for example – they don't need much actually, except food or security, basic needs, they don't need much to be happy. But look at a grown-up man, what has happened between childhood and adulthood? A lot of false beliefs were accumulated – that gold brings happiness, a child does not have this kind of belief. For the child, gold is chocolate. My reputation in the society and wearing Western outfits will make me happy – showing off or killing somebody, killing my enemies, going on a war with some other country somewhere in the remote part of the world, which I don't even know where it is, because my leader told me to. And you know, what is this? Is this innocence? This is called ignorance. Remember the definition of ignorance – presence of beliefs, not absence. And what is knowledge? Simply removal of beliefs. So knowledge actually makes you innocent but with intelligence.

You can look at a child or a tribal person or even an animal – they are very innocent, but there is no intelligence there. Lack of intelligence eventually causes ignorance. So, a child, even if he or she is innocent, grows up in a society with a very poor education system, very less intelligence, and filled with negativity, filled with ignorance. So, they acquire ignorance – like I said, indoctrination is the biggest cause of ignorance. Staying with ignorant people makes you ignorant – they fill you with poison. You were born innocent, but this happened to you. That is why you need a guru now, isn't it? The body is born healthy, pure, with all the organs functioning perfectly. What happens to it once you become 40, 50, 60 years of age? It has accumulated impurities. The same way, the mind accumulates impurities. So even though these people without any knowledge, they look happy, they are actually innocent – they are still not corrupted by ignorance, not corrupted by this poison.

So, you will find that primitive societies, the tribals, the villagers – they are more happy, laid back, and peaceful. Look at the cities – they are like madhouses. So that gives us the impression that these things are knowledge's problem and being in this state of not knowing is bliss – like he said, 'Ignorance is bliss.' That is not ignorance; that is innocence. So, the problem with innocence is it can turn into ignorance anytime. That is why a proper path is needed. If this path is taken early in life, in childhood, you will be saved from all kinds of suffering, completely. But that will not happen; it takes a little bit of maturity, intelligence, to approach a guru or to be attracted to a spiritual path. Stupid people are not attracted to spirituality; they don't want these things. And by the time some impurities are taken on, suffering has already happened. Otherwise, mother nature has created a perfect heaven here, only ignorance brings suffering.

Atul is saying, When I do start anything, an activity, I feel a lot of time inside that I have done all this. Is this insight really some indication or just an illusion that my mind makes up?

It is still searching for a purpose – that is what. Now, what do you really want to do in your life is a question? There will be dissatisfaction in the ordinary things. Like you said, it is not meant for simply eating, sleeping, reproducing, earning money, and whatever, watching news all day. This is not the purpose of our birth. This is the basis, you see, the basic needs; they simply provide a base for the higher purpose for which we are born. So these things which people think is life is actually infrastructure on which life is based – we call it Muladhara, the basic structure, basic support.

Once you are done with this, there will be emptiness, vacancy in the mind. That something important is not happening – only the unimportant things are happening. And you cannot call them unimportant also because if they don't happen, suffering happens. So it can be an illusion, but you need to find out, and that is called finding your preallocation, finding your purpose for which you are born. And nobody can tell you, and if you don't know, you can follow some simple guidelines. What is it that you want to do most? What is it that attracts you most? That will be your preallocation. What is it that you can do tirelessly without needing food, sleep, people, nothing? What is it for which you are always ready? That will be your preallocation. And there can be many things in preallocation, not just one. Usually, I have seen there are two or three things only. If you get a list of to-do things which are like 'I'm born to do these 50 things,' probably there is some error. Then it is an illusion. There will be two or three strongest tendencies in you which will be your prarabdha, which will be your preallocation. You need to simply listen – what is the technique here? Listen – what gives me most pleasure, what gives me most happiness?

We are not talking about bliss here because you see the bliss is beyond these. It is something very high up there. So, we are not born here for bliss – we are already bliss. We are born here to finish our preallocation, which is simply a bundle of desires, that's all – fulfill these desires.

Atul is saying, I want, and I am searching for the absolute. I lost interest in anything which is transient.

The absolute is you only – where are you searching for yourself? The search is over as soon as you know that I am absolute. So, anything which comes and goes, if you are not interested in it, there won't be the next birth – very simple, isn't it? Nothing will be preallocated. So, for some people, this is their last birth. Sometimes I can see that they don't really want anything, and I can see that whatever they want is the result of the current preallocation. So, as soon as you understand that you are the absolute, the game is over for you – for Atul.

This is probably the situation of many people who are on the spiritual path of any kind. We say that you are going at full speed. When this is the situation, there is a desperation to be free. We say in spiritual terminology that the seeker has a very high intensity. You must have heard this word from Sadhguru a lot. "If your intensity becomes this, you can achieve that," he says like this, and people don't understand the intensity of what. Should I start talking loudly? No, this desperation is the intensity, the urge to let go of whatever you have accumulated unknowingly.

So, if you feel that more strength is needed, "I am not able to do it today," nothing to worry, you see. These things happen at the right time. When the right time comes, that bondage will be lost, that chain will break. And even though you want it to happen today, that simply means there is intensity in you, but it may or may not happen, you see. Wait for it while keeping this fire burning. This urge to be free should be kept alive. It did not happen today, did not happen after one week also, after one month also. "I will just give up," what has happened here? You have killed this urge; the intensity is gone now. So it will not happen now. So, we keep it up – that which was gathered and that was totally unnecessary, which was gathered, now I want to leave it. It's not going today – no problem, it will go at the right time.

In fact, there are some people who say that it is already pre-decided, predestined what will happen, and some people can even see it on this day and this time it will happen, and it is amazing because sometimes it comes out to be true. I have some two or three students for which it looks like it was totally predestined – the events are happening like clockwork, which means mechanically. They don't even have that kind of intensity or something. Probably they have some kind of suffering, and the suffering is the driver sometimes, not the desire. "I want to get rid of this," this is the driver. Sometimes it is the desire to be free, so I've seen that the events are happening in their life automatically.

So, we should achieve some kind of balance here – keep your intensity on, but also let mother nature do her work. She is arranging many, many things; it can take some time. So, you see about me helping people – yes, if I'm not doing anything, that simply means that I'm waiting for the right moment. It is not that I'm not doing anything; I'm always doing something, isn't it? But if I'm not giving you daily instructions, "Do this today, do that," that does not mean it's not really needed. That means as soon as the point is reached where the person is ready, instruction is handed over, it is given instantly. I do not waste time on that. And then we need to wait again, you know, because that seeker may not be able to follow that; may not be able to execute the instruction like a computer – they also have some problems, you see, social problems, material problems, financial or family problems. But the instruction is given anyway – "Look, you need to go in this direction, this is the path for you, do this, something like this will be told." And you should enjoy the process, you see, instead of becoming impatient. Intensity does not mean impatience; it is a strong desire, that's all – fire burning, but patient, cool, calm, let it happen. Enjoy the process. Many people will understand this process; it is happening. As soon as you come on the path of knowledge, as soon as you receive the truth from the guru, this process begins.

Now, we should not worry. These are technical things – whether it is predestined or not. You simply assume that I am in control – this instrument, mind body should simply assume for a while that I am in control; I'll do it. Now, this kind of knowledge that I am not the doer, who will do it? It is all predestined, so I'll just sit here, no, no – symbolic action. Sometimes I tell people to do something which is totally unimportant, and that instruction is given because they are stuck in this non-doership. And then they actually take off simply because of this symbolic action, gather a little bit of force. It is such a complex matter that I depend on my guru for this. Sometimes I don't decide what to do – for simple problems I can now give instructions, for something bigger I simply wait for the instruction, I get the instruction first, that is passed on to the seeker, student – what will be the best. And we keep it on the safer side most of the time – although sometimes I see some people are very daring, fearless, and they are given the final instruction; that will be kind of very rare. So it totally depends on your readiness. As soon as you are ready, you will be given the next instruction. You see, these instructions are very specific, very, very personal, tailor-made.

Like in the ordinary satsang, I usually say, "Don't run after money, don't run after people, don't do this." And for some people who are totally lagging in this field, they are given the necessary instruction – "You should earn money, you should set up a house, you should set up a family," something like this. So, the general talk is completely useless for such people because everybody has different tendencies; everybody has different pre-allocation. And only an experienced guru knows how to hold their hand, make them walk on the path. And sometimes I make mistakes, but it does not matter, isn't it? As soon as you are walking on the path, you will ultimately reach there.

Your desire to let go is also a desire; you should keep it burning. Watch what happens; make this intention very, very clear in your mind. There will be some people, you never tell me anything – you tell others what to do, you never tell me anything because probably you are already taken care of. Your life is happening in a most natural way already. Or probably you're too new to even start on this kind of process. Many people must be wondering, "What is this process, and why don't I have this process?" Everybody has this process; don't worry. It is simply the process of progress, which is – you are already progressing, isn't it? Even without knowledge, you are progressing because of the grace of mother nature. But we put more fuel in this process by giving you the knowledge. The knowledge, it looks like that it started with the knowledge, but no, it speeds up with the knowledge. As soon as you have the knowledge, it will speed up. What is this process? Simply evolution, isn't it? Evolution. And nothing to worry, actually – you will not become a stone or you won't disappear. Only the unnecessary is dropped, that is all will happen. This creature is not capable of more than that – what will I do? This is the fear in many people.

The guru told me to leave this; better to leave the guru. First thing – unnecessary, isn't it? So this is the fear – what will happen to me? Nothing will actually happen. If you are already whole and complete, what can go away from you? The ignorance was accumulated, and that is being shed, that is all this process is. After the knowledge, obviously, it will speed up. You will actually see in front of your eyes that look, these and these and these things are totally unnecessary, totally stupid, idiotic, and they were, accidentally, not surprisingly, the cause of suffering. That will be your experience. Once this is gone, do I need to do anything more? No – just keep the fire burning; that means the process has started. Enjoy the process, you know. I don't think anybody will be initially able to enjoy because it looks like a torture – everything is taken away from you, the old habits say that I am losing something. And only the unnecessary is being burnt away, and that is called the burning of the vrittis in kundalini yoga – we say the kundalini fire burns up everything. In the end, it burns the entire body also – yes, the body is accumulation only. In the kundalini tradition, the body will be seen as an impurity; it is gotten rid of by the kundalini. But what really happens? Nothing – freedom happens, just like the case of innocence. You were not only innocent; you were free and powerful. Then you decided to become humans, and now there are so many accumulations that you think they are my belongings, I am defined by them – they will be taken away. It is painful in the beginning, yes, but then the bliss starts showing up. It was hidden behind these clouds, but then bliss is always there, isn't it – eternally blissful. So it starts showing up in the experience also, and then you should enjoy it. Those who have a guru, they are already enjoying like anything. Without the guru, it is a struggle, yes. The real guru is the one who is not preaching; who is showing – "Look, I can do it, you can also do it." This is the real guru. So normally, I don't tell people that which I have not done myself. If they have potential, then they are given something bigger, but usually I try it myself first.

Sweety is saying, even in the Vaishnava tradition, it is said, 'Sharir avidya jal'.

Yes, it is a jal. What can happen is that if you simply believe it, that will lead to a hatred of the body. People start hating the body; they degrade the body, and the needs of the body are overlooked. They want to become like a saint overnight, and that is not proper in my opinion.

So, on the path of knowledge, we accept that body because the body here is seen as an instrument of liberation and not an obstacle in liberation. It is an obstacle if you see it and say, 'It is my body, it is me.' Then it is an obstacle; yes, then you're trapped in it. If you use it like an instrument, as a tool to get out of here, then it is the most amazing tool. What else do you have, tell me? Body and the mind – you don't have any other instrument. And even the body is not that useful in spiritual practice; mind is your only instrument. You should sharpen it, make it very, very sophisticated, and we use this to come out of this trap because we don't have anything else. This is the genius of the path of knowledge; there is no rejection here, acceptance – yes, the unnecessary is discarded – yes. Do you need to cover your body with gold and paint your face with red color or something? No, just keep it normal, beautiful, use it; its primary purpose is to support the brain and the intelligence. Otherwise, we are not alive for the body; we are alive for keeping this instrument on, which is called mind. The waking state is supported by the body. Now you can see the importance of waking state and the importance of waking state experiments.

So, the body is being used as a support tool so that we can conduct our experiments here, and they lead to freedom from the body. What will you get? What is the meaning of freedom? It means you can get anything; you can become anything you want. This is the meaning of freedom, and many people prefer not to become anything because as soon as you become something, it is an additional burden, another trap. So, that is why it is called dissolution because as soon as you enter the illusion again, there is actually a guarantee that you will be trapped again.

Who is this 'you'? This is what we ask on the path of knowledge – who is trapped? And then you will see that it's completely meaningless actually. Now, the body becomes an instrument of knowing that 'I am not trapped; I am free.' And I am not this individual without the body; you will never come to know all these things. So, we make the instruments better. Actually, those who know this art can take any body; can go in any world and live for millions of years in any form; they will not be troubled. The key is knowledge, awareness, and the technical name for that is 'Bodhisattva' – essence of knowledge; that is the meaning of 'Bodhisattva.'

I know only that much; there is a possibility to become a Bodhisattva after you are freed from all these unnecessary things. Then you take on the unnecessary things because there is a will there; there is a desire there to free all the forms. And which is completely illogical. But the show must go on, isn't it? The play should happen; there is energy in the universe; it will manifest no matter what, no matter how dissolved somebody is. Liberated means to be able to play consciously with full awareness. So, you see, the body is not a problem; only ignorance is the problem that 'I am the body, and I am not free to do anything else except live as a human being.' Now you can see this is a very big teaching; this is probably the biggest teaching in the universe.

You see, the ego can be dissolved anytime; it is already not present. It is also an instrument to keep the body alive. So, only Bodhisattva is actually living; other people are puppets, including the seekers and the gurus. They are reaching there. And what is nirvana? When this much is also not needed, this much also becomes unnecessary. So remember that it is already like this in existence – nothing is necessary. So, the samsara is nirvana. So fully knowing this, you choose your play and do it; you are free already. This is the bottom line.

Session 209

Madhuri is asking, can there be an absence of mind? If it can be, can it be experienced?

As we know, the mind is nothing but a memory and the memory is nothing but the vibrations and can the vibrations be absent? That is impossible. So it is possible that one of the activities comes and goes and another activity starts. This much is possible. It is not possible to completely stop all the activities in the mind because that is happening on its own. It is not being done. And if it is not being done, then cannot be stopped. If nobody started it, nobody can stop it. And there are thousands of activities that are happening. Some people say it is my mind. It's not theirs. This statement is coming from the ego. That is simply another activity. So people confuse the absence of a certain kind of activity with absence of mind. It is not like this. And the whole experience is actually of the mind. So without it, there is nothing. And what is this mind? It is you only, your changing form at the level of non-duality. The mind is also me. Can you be absent? No. Is it really happening? No. That which is actually not there, cannot start, cannot stop, simply appears to be like this. Or we say that the concepts of starting, stopping, all these everyday concepts, do not apply to what is actually there. And they do not apply to mind also. Because the mind is beyond time. Starting, stopping, these words, they are in time. So that which is beyond time, because of which there appears time, it is completely meaningless to us.

Madhuri is asking, that means when we feel calm, it is also an experience.

Yes, it is a tremendous amount of activity only. The calmness is actually thousands of activities. The body is working, emotions are working, they are giving you a pleasant feeling. Thoughts are going on that today I am very calm. Even if you do not repeat these things in language, they are still there. Awareness is there, the causal body is active. The whole layered structure is active. Thousands of processes are happening. So that's why I said, those who don't know what it is, they will confuse it with stopping, starting. Like some people say, the mind stops it when we go to sleep and then it starts again

in the morning. But what happens is one state changes into another. If it really stopped, there won't be a body, there won't be any world, there won't be any person. They will also disappear because these things are mind only.

Shivakash is asking, what if one particular desire reappears again and again for years, despite watching that desire multiple times in awareness?

That means it is important for you, somehow, and if it is not harmful, it should be fulfilled. Usually the desires that are harmful, they do not repeat that much. But if something needs to be done, it comes up again and again. So if it is possible to fulfill it, fulfill it, it will go away, it will not appear again.

Leyla is asking, if fulfilling this desire will create more karmic bonds such as relationships, is that okay?

Totally depends on the kind of desire that is. It is never okay to form any bonds. But if something is so complicated that it cannot be fulfilled without forming a karmic bond, then no problem. That must be done. And then there will be fruits because all actions have fruits. Then you should be ready to experience those fruits also. And because this is all a play, you should do that action which is going to fulfill the desire, which is going to form bonds and you can remain in awareness while doing that. And when you get the fruits, that also should be done in awareness. There is like a flowchart of desires or actions. Is it really necessary to form karmic bonds? And if it says no, then no need to do it. Or is it possible to do it in some other way without getting into this bond? Then yes. And if there is no other option, it must be done, then yes. It should be done in awareness and then the fruits will come. They should be experienced in awareness. So what will happen is, it will not leave any imprint on the memory because it was done in awareness. In short, we should avoid unnecessary actions. And if it is not possible to avoid them, it should be done in awareness like a play.

Leyla is saying, nowadays I always hesitate when opening myself to new people.

Yes, we should always check whether it is really necessary. And the criteria should be, am I going to progress with this? And another criteria is, is that person with whom the bond is formed, is that person going to progress or not? Sometimes the second one is more important. You are already progressing, there is no doubt about it. But if the action is done in such a way that somebody else also progresses, then even if there is a bond, the fruits will be positive.

Shivakash is asking, is it not possible to burn that desire itself?

Yes, it is possible. By burning, it means that it is satisfied or it is suppressed. Is there any other way? You can watch it in awareness which you are doing, but you are saying that it is coming again and again. So usually the desires, they go away. When you watch them in awareness, they don't result in actions. You see, that's all that can be done. The action can be avoided while being in awareness, but the desires cannot be avoided because they are not coming from you. Because they are not yours. It is simply in the storehouse of memory from where these impulses are coming. So for that you will need to erase that memory which is somewhat difficult. But usually if it is simply some kind of unimportant desire, then it goes away by simply watching it. Because it is not reinforced by doing action on it or thinking about it. But if it repeats so much every day, many times, that means the impression is very very deep. And now it will be difficult. The awareness is helpless here. So the only way is to fulfill it. Then it becomes weaker and that weak desire can be burnt away in the light of awareness.

Rahul is asking, what is humor? When I become aware of it, then it drops.

Another mental activity where there is some contradiction which is funny. So normally it produces a reaction in the emotions and body etc. But when you become absolutely aware of it, then yes, it loses that energy. It's very natural. It is the same with all the activities that happen in the mind. If it is something which is sadness, not humor, not funny, then also it will go away if you are aware of it. Awareness is like a silencer, silencer of the car. There are explosions happening in the car, in the engine.

But when you add the silencer, you cannot hear it. Same way, mental activity is silenced by awareness. Also, something that is resulting in happiness will be silenced. Something that is causing suffering, sadness, that also will be silenced. Usual actions that happen, crying, depression, laughing, whatever, speaking, they are all silenced.

Chit is asking, I feel there is a strong connection between the layers of mind and your video of multilevel language.

Probably there is, yes. If that person has already grown to some level where the direct teachings can happen, when the direct teachings are useful, then they are given. That means the higher layers are already somewhat active and he needs a little bit of push. That's all. No preparation is needed. But yes, if the higher layers are not so active, by active I mean developed, then we need to drop down to some other level. Yes, there can be correspondence between the activity of the layers and the teaching that is given. Somebody who is living at the lower layers only, survival only, then they are given that kind of knowledge. And the knowledge is mostly like commands. What should you do? What should you not do? What is good? What is not good? But as they rise in the layers, they become more and more aware of their layers. Then they can grasp something which is related to that layer.

The path of knowledge is totally related to the intelligence, layer of intellect and awareness. Somebody who has already cleared the bottom layers is ready for knowledge. Otherwise, this is totally meaningless for a person who is still struggling with the lower layers. And that is why something different is given to them. That answers this question: why are there so many systems? Why are there so many paths? Because there are so many kinds of people. You can group them if you want. And that is the origin of the caste system in India. So you see, a lot of things are based on layers. The caste system was originally a psychological system of classification. And what was classified? Not people. Causal bodies were classified in four groups. And within the groups, there were subgroups, sub-castes. Now this is so controversial that we don't even want to discuss this because it has corrupted so much because of the fall of knowledge. There is a fall in the intelligence of people in this age. So what was very useful at one time has become corrupted and has actually become a genetic classification. Now the caste is based on your birth, family and so on. Which is totally garbage. It has become a social system instead of a spiritual system. People tried to classify people based on their abilities, their layers. And in India, the classification went to the causal layer. What is stored there, you can classify people based on that. But it always becomes an issue because people are not ready for this kind of thing. Spirituality is still happening based on this kind of classification.

We always check the causal layer. Because the kind of teaching that is given to a person depends on his or her current level of development. How much they have progressed. And it is very natural also that somebody who has progressed a lot and you start from the bottom and they will pick up in one or two days. They will pick up that teaching in one or two days and they will say I already know all these things. So they always start with where they are. It is very natural. Like we say, it is necessary to do this because nothing else is possible. If somebody is not that developed and if you start with a higher teaching, then obviously they will drop down to the lower, because their questions will start coming from the lower layers. And that the guru has no other option but needs to drop down. So it is impossible to do anything else. And that is why there is multi-level teaching. It is there in all the traditions. Although some traditions try to maintain purity like the Advaita. There is variation in intelligence also. Many people are highly intelligent. But there also some things can be seen. Some abilities are more and some are less and so on you see.

Satya is asking, some masters say deep sleep is ignorance, avidya. And some say it is a pure state of being. How?

Now we don't really know what they mean, do we? Who are these masters? In what context are they saying? But in our case, sleep is neither knowledge nor ignorance. Because if you recall the definition of ignorance, it is simply illogical connections in the memory. So the memory is not so active in deep sleep and therefore there is no ignorance. Is there knowledge? No, no knowledge. So yes, pure state of being. This is the only state of existence where it is not immersed in any kind of dreams. Sleep is the original state of existence. And then the dreams come as a disturbance in this peaceful state. So there will be many points of views depending on the paths and traditions. My recommendation is always to stick with one. So you will never get confused.

Anjali is saying, recently I have seen this ring which is given by Sadhguru for spiritual growth of seekers. What are your views on these types of metal ornaments?

They are useless on the path of knowledge. No metal can affect your growth and no metal can stop it. So they are for those who are doing energy practices or have done something in their past lives. Otherwise it is simply metal and it looks good. Beautiful design. So if you are doing something which is told by Sadhguru then probably these things will support the practice. Otherwise they have no effect on other people.

Chit is asking, what is the difference between Brahman and Para-Brahman?

As far as our system is concerned there is no difference. Sometimes the Brahman is taken as with qualities. And then to describe that which is without qualities they invented one more word. The Para-Brahman which simply means beyond the Brahman. So whenever we say Brahma we always mean the one without qualities where the qualities are apparent.

Yahiya is asking, Are physical and emotional negative symptoms during one's path a sign of some impurities? If so, how can one get to process and see beyond them?

There can be two reasons. There can be some simple reason like you are in a bad situation that is causing the negative emotions. And there can be something which is in the memory. Which is coming up again and again, that is causing the negative emotion. And that will be called an impurity. Which is not dependent on something external. So how can we process? There is only one method on the path of knowledge. It is seen as false, an illusion. And then whatever happens, happens in complete awareness. So its self-reinforcement stops. Because how does the memory continue? By copying, by repeating itself. And when it is happening in awareness, that reinforcement will stop. And it will be seen as simply another useless activity of the mind which is illusory. So that weightage is not given to it.

And it disappears. So always begin with knowledge. And then abide in knowledge. And this process will start. It will remove all impurities actually. And when will that remove it? That is not fixed. There is no fixed duration. So this practice will remain for the whole of your life. Because you will see that one of the impurities goes away, something else comes up. Because there are a lot. Whatever is accumulated is huge. So they keep coming out. But the major ones, they will be gone in this lifetime. This is the practice of abiding. Or we call it the awareness practice - remaining in knowledge.

Rajit is asking, is it possible to lose this knowledge due to old age?

Yes, it is possible. Old age, disease, memory loss, Alzheimer's. Or if something else comes up in your life which is more important than knowledge, then this is forgotten. And finally death wipes it out completely. But what cannot be forgotten? It is the impression. It changes the causal body. That cannot be erased. Whatever is happening in your day to day life, is that can be forgotten. So we say that all these defects in the body and the mind, which are simply the lower layers. Because of old age, the body and the other lower layers will be affected. Nervous system, recall of memories, some more activities, some more functions will be degraded. And that gives an impression that the knowledge is not there now. But it is already stored somewhere in the causal body. Deep in the memory. And when a new body is taken, that reappears as tendencies. And given the right atmosphere, right teachings, right guru, the person becomes knowledgeable again. So his knowledge resides in memory. And the memory can go away anytime.

That is why this practice of abiding and contemplation is so important because it makes a permanent mark on the causal body. If you remain involved in knowledge, if you dedicate your life to knowledge and awareness, then it makes a very big impression on the causal body. Simply listening, reading this book, that book, watching this video, that video falls in the category of entertainment. Not spiritual practice. And that is forgotten completely because you have done so many things like that. So contemplation, getting completely involved, and then doing the symbolic work, symbolic action,

that all puts a really deep impression on the causal body. Then it will be so deep sometimes that you are born with the knowledge that simply appears in the mind, in the waking state. So that is our goal. If your practice is so weak that old age or some disease can wipe it out, then no problem. Next life, do it well in the next life. This is the story of everybody here. We are doing this since many, many lifetimes. How do we know this? This is personal experience.

Graham is asking, unlike other knowledge, it seems that I forget awareness. I get into an unhappy state and that causes me to remember. But we can still forget.

That is not forgetting the knowledge. That is awareness. You see, old age and other diseases will cause so much damage that you will never become aware again. That is the worst case but this everyday unhappiness comes and goes because probably these tendencies are stronger than the tendencies of awareness. So this is the natural law. The stronger one always wins. Slowly with your practice, the other tendencies become weaker and the knowledge and awareness become strong. Those who don't want to wait, those who want to progress quickly, impatient people, there are ways to make it stronger. But on the path of knowledge, we don't do any practice. It is the most natural path. So we allow forgetting also. What is most important on the path of knowledge is getting the knowledge. That's all. Initiation is the most important. Then nobody bothers about it.

On other paths, there is so much focus on practice. If you are not practicing, the guru becomes angry, kicks you out of the ashram and so on. Practice is the essence of many paths. But the path of knowledge, knowledge is the essence. Did you understand it or not? Did you get it or not? Are there any doubts remaining? Are you pretending that I know but simply you have assumed it? Did you get the evidence or not? Evidence is crucial. Most important thing is evidence, otherwise it will be forgotten anyway. It is like the stories you hear from here and there without any evidence and they are forgotten. They do not cause any kind of awareness also. The real knowledge is that about which you are convinced. It is like the sun shining in the daytime and then you don't need any practice. Then whatever is happening, the river, the flood cannot be stopped in one day. So then it dries out. Eventually only awareness remains. And that is the stopping of the cycles of birth and death. So there is a long time before it can happen and we are not in a hurry because we have an infinite amount of time. Few births are not a big problem. What was the problem? Ignorance was the real problem. The poison was the problem. Now the recovery, poison is removed. You got the medicine. Now there will be a phase of recovery. Just rest, enjoy. Why do people worry about old age and so many things? Negative emotions and all. It's nothing. The most important job is done. Now there is some decoration and makeup, something like this. Beautification is happening, which is called purification. Purification is happening.

John Tay is asking, why are some people ambitious?

Because they have more desires. Their desires are stronger than average and then they are more active, determined, powerful because of the force of the desires, unfulfilled desires. And as they get fulfilled,

that force, that energy drops. So you will see this trend that young people are more ambitious, they want to do a lot. But as they grow old, their desires are being fulfilled, satisfied, more or less. And then their activity stops. Then in old age, nobody wants to do anything. They retire. We say we are retired

because nothing more is there to do. So it totally depends on how much desire you have. The desire is the driving force.

Chit is asking, is it possible someday we have a scientific theory of consciousness accepted through the globe like science and scientific laws?

No, it is not possible because science is the study of the physical world and consciousness is not a theory. It is the truth. Right now, right here, it is present. You are that. Do you need a theory to explain that you are there? And do people like to accept? Would people even think of accepting or rejecting

that I am there or not? So what is possible about consciousness or we say the experiencer or the existence, Brahman, is to know it. That's all that is possible. There is no theory. There is no science. Either you know it or you don't know it. This is called self-realization and it is possible in a few minutes. Like we do in the three-day program, it is possible in one hour, 30 minutes sometimes. So you don't need to wait for some day in the future. Right now, right here, the truth is in front of your eyes. Actually, the truth has been known since the beginning of the universe. It is the known thing. What is unknown is the science and that progresses little by little. It will never be known because it is the study of the illusion and the knowledge of the illusion is not possible actually. Knowledge of the illusion is also illusory. So it is a dynamic thing. The sciences, they come and go. But the knowledge is permanent. It is one and the same. That which changes cannot be true and that which is unchanging is the truth.

My suggestion is to dive into non-dual philosophy and try to understand that the truth is not a subject of science or study. Either you know it or you don't know it. There is no need to study it. It will never be achieved because it is already there. The truth is here since the beginning. The ignorance is new. Yes, ignorance comes and goes. The truth is like a screen and the ignorance is like movies playing on the screen. Something new is always happening on the screen. But the screen is the same. Unchanging background of all these activities. It is eternally present. But those who are ignorant, they ignore it. The meaning of the word ignorance it comes from ignoring. That means not paying attention. If so much colourful activity is happening on the screen then looking at the screen is boring and that is what this individual is doing. It is engaged in the colourful activity and is ignoring that which is always present. Then it tries to look for that truth in that activity. Impossible. It was always there. It will always be there.

Chit is asking, how do I know it is always there even before me or after me?

Because it is you. It is that which is experiencing and it is the existence that is experiencing. The existence never goes away. The forms through which it is experiencing come and go. The experiencer is always there. So if I tell you in these one or two sentences you will not understand. So you will need to take up the path of knowledge. Systematic study will give you the evidence because if somebody says

look you are eternal - that is not evidence. What is the evidence? Your own experience and your own intelligence will provide you the evidence. How to do that? Walk on the path under a very qualified guru. That is how you will know. Me simply saying look this is the truth, this is eternal, is not an evidence.

You are asking - was it there before me? That means you still think it is not me. It is something else. I am different from the experiencer, which is ignorance. And how can you know all these things? By going step by step on the path.

Chit is saying, experience exists with respect to experiencer. Are they not interdependent?

They are not interdependent, they are one. Like the waves and the water are one. So that is where the non-dual word comes in - Not two. How will you know that? By systematically walking on the path.

So my suggestion is always to go step by step systematically.

There are two aspects of one. That one is you. It is very easy to know that. The trick on the path of knowledge is to get the evidence. Not simply hear what people are saying. Because people can say anything. It is not reliable. You need very solid evidence. And then these questions come - What is truth? Who decides what is truth? Who decides what is evidence? What is evidence? And that is why

you need the proper training. And then you need a trainer who is called a Guru. Because he has done it already. He has taken the evidence. He knows what is evidence, what is not, what is knowledge, what is ignorance. And so the system comes in. And we have our own system. This Satsang is a part of this system.

Some people will say I already know all these things. I feel I have this knowledge already. Yes, that is very good. But as soon as some people question them there are queries, inquiries and so on. They fail to explain why that is truth. Why this is false and so on. Because there is no formal training. They don't even have a vocabulary. Proper words are not there. So you always need a little bit of training. If that knowledge is shaken by one or two questions it is not knowledge. It is simply a feeling. Probably it seems right. But that is not called evidence. Evidence is something which never fails. When somebody is forced to say that yes this is the case and the reason they are saying this will be called evidence. So I am saying this. Look, you are eternal. The experience and the experiencer are one. But merely saying this will not provide any evidence. We do not say on the path of knowledge, we show. And to see it, the seeker must have a little bit of dedication, patience, and interest. The guru is not going to waste their time in showing all these things to everybody because nobody is really interested. So we set up the systems, ashrams or institutes. Some people are going to charge a lot of money also. We have done this online ashram now which is free. That is the positive thing, a plus point.

Session 210

Vandita is saying, I had a vision, I was filling water in a tank and suddenly I saw that it had no rim on half the side and water inside was still holding ground.

Very good, continue your practice. Probably you are asking what is the meaning of that? It simply means that the mind creates these images and sometimes they are of impossible types, and that is your opportunity to wake up from the dream. Here you can become aware that this is a dream, this is an impossible situation and you can utilize this as a signal that I need to become aware now. That is probably the meaning of unusual dreams. You can use them to become aware because your intellect will say this is an impossible situation and then there is an opportunity to see that it is not real. So we train ourselves to detect these kinds of situations. Do your training in the day time and you will automatically become aware in the dream. This is one technique.

I know a very effective technique, it is very common and that is used as a trigger for awareness in the dream and that is the switching on and off of the lights. In the physical world if you switch on the light most of the time it will turn on. If it is faulty then no it won't turn on but that happens very rarely. But in the dream when you switch on the lights usually nothing happens because there is no real connection between the switch and the light bulb, so it can either turn on or it can remain off, or your finger will go through the switch something like this will happen. Whenever you turn on the switch in the day time you should check whether this is a dream or the waking state. Train yourself like this, train your mind to check it. Because we turn on the switches probably three or four times per day, probably more and the same training will continue in the dream and when you turn on the switch in the dream and nothing happens or something unusual happens then it becomes a trigger to become aware. The awareness trigger will work there and if you think now I never turn on the switches in the dream you can use any other trigger for example food. Food in the dream does not satisfy your hunger, probably it has no taste also. So whenever you are eating in the daytime just train yourself to check once - is it a dream? Is it a waking state? and then the same habit will continue, the same training will continue in the dream and the food will become the trigger.

This is commonly called the reality check technique. It is very effective. I did this to get rid of the negative dreams because I trained myself to become aware as soon as the dream turns negative. Some kind of messy situation happens there and within a few days those dreams totally stopped. So it has some use. This technique is very useful. Suppose, you often see the same person in most of your dreams, once or twice a week then you can train yourself that whenever this person appears I will do a reality check and usually that works much better. It works very nicely, naturally on people that are dead. If you see a dead person in the dream, if there is a little bit of awareness you can always question it. How come you are here? You are dead! And that will become your trigger, that this is actually a dream.

Those who are doing awareness practice in the day time they don't need to do these kind

of tricks they can become naturally aware.

Sky is asking, I do get violent thoughts, lower quality thoughts. How does it affect the progress?

What practices are you doing? What kind of progress do you mean? Are you doing any kind of practice where the thoughts are important? Everybody gets violent thoughts, everybody gets all kinds of thoughts. It does not really matter because it is a machine; it keeps thinking depending on what is fed into it. So yes, if your life situation is like this – that you got into some kind of fights, you are having problems with people and all – so obviously, it is most natural that there will be negative thoughts, violent thoughts.

What should we do about it? Stop thinking? That is not possible because there is nobody who is thinking. So you can only ensure that you don't stay in that kind of environment which is the cause of these thoughts.

Another thing which is in your control is that do not act on these thoughts, let them play out, because they need to be released. There is some energy there which is producing these thoughts. You can repress them but they will come back again. So just like we let the wood burn in the fire, then it won't catch the fire. In the same way, if you let the thoughts play in your mind and do not act on them, they burn out. But that is really a temporary cure. The permanent cure is knowledge that 'I am not these thoughts.' This cures them permanently. Just like I am not the rain, I am not the wind, they are not mine. And I am not also anything positive in the mind. And at the same time, making some effort to improve your situation, live a simple and self-dependent life where you don't need to hear anybody, where you don't need to live in a situation which produces these thoughts. It's very easy.

Raja is saying, Is the desire for seeking the same as other desires in duality or seeking an instance of grace?

Yes, it is the same as any other desire. You want something, and it is also grace because you get something useful out of it instead of something worldly. Both the problem is thinking that the grace will come as something extraordinary. This is the problem, this is the assumption that if it is an event of grace, it has to be extraordinary. No, it can come as any ordinary desire: desire to buy a spiritual book, desire to watch a video, desire to go to satsang, and so on. People will think, 'No, it is not extraordinary, nothing spiritual about it, so it cannot be grace.' But it is not like this. Your desire to know something is a very ordinary desire, but it is a great event of grace. Some people recognize it, and that becomes special for them, and some people simply ignore it, thinking that it is just like any other desire.

Guy is saying, In the path of knowledge course, you ask us to be financially independent. So far, it's not been the case despite years of my efforts.

No problem. See, that question is asked so that you can pay attention to the path of knowledge. If there is a financial problem, then most of your energy, time, and effort will go into that, and the seeker will not be able to pay attention to what is taught. They will not be able to listen peacefully; probably, that won't be their priority because there is no food on their table, on their plate. So how can they even take interest in these things that everything is an illusion and I'm Brahman? These things are meaningless. First, you need to be independent. You should have a good financial position. When that question is asked about the financial situation, there is an option that, 'I am dependent, but I don't have any financial issues.' And these people are also eligible because they are not going to think about money all day and night, even though they are not earning themselves. Probably they are so rich, their parents are so rich, they don't need to think about it. So they are also eligible for the program. It is not simply about financial independence. There is some logic behind it that the state of the mind should be peaceful in order to grasp this. Actually it is simple, but for newcomers, it is difficult. If you have the desire, then nobody can stop you. These filters are simply to stop overcrowding of the program.

Raja is asking, Waking state experiments have proved beyond doubt, convinced this mind: the reality is existence, and experiences in duality are illusion. Kindly throw light.

If they have done it for you, then you don't need any other explanation. If you are saying that you are completely convinced that the experiences are illusory and I am the experiencer, but they are one and the same anyway, if you have arrived at this essential knowledge, then you don't need any other explanation. Your job is done, it is complete. Now your study is complete, your seeking is complete, nothing more needs to be done, and nothing more needs to be known. What is there to know now? If you have anything specific, you can ask me, but this is the final knowledge. If you are convinced about it, your job is done. Now enjoy your life. There is no practice, nothing to do, nowhere to progress. But yes, if you want to know something specific, let me know.

Kunal is asking, since a few weeks, this body has been experiencing intense fear. Can the past habit patterns cause this fear, and what could be the reason for that experience?

Probably, this is a simple case of projection which happens to everybody every night. And because of your practices or you can say because you are on the path and if you are doing the awareness practice in the daytime, there is a little bit of awareness while this happens. While the projection, which is spontaneous projection, we call it the spontaneous projection, and it happens to everybody. But in your case, probably due to a little bit of awareness, you are able to remember it, you are able to witness it. But then the mind does not really understand what is happening. The waking state intellect has no idea what is happening. So it will interpret the experience as something strange. And if there is fear in the mind, then obviously it will interpret it as a bad experience, that something strange happened. Like you are saying some force was pulling me out of this body. No, nothing usually pulls anybody out of the body. But whatever natural process there is, will be interpreted like this, that I am not doing it, so somebody else must be doing it. This is the waking state intellect. It has no idea what happens. So it is a case of wrong interpretation of a spontaneous projection. And that is my interpretation. Who can know these things? So yes, the cause of wrong interpretation can be your fear, because you have never practiced in a systematic way, never taken any knowledge of this thing. But it is somewhat clear why you don't know what is happening, and there is an interpretation that sounds like a horror movie, because that's what your impression is anyhow.

Once you know what is this process of going in these projected states, how does it feel like, if you read about it, if you research and find out what happens, what is the experience of other people, and they will describe it in a similar way. Then it happens on its own, sometimes not always. Then you get control. Once you come to know all the steps that happen in this kind of experience, then the fear is gone. Then it becomes ordinary, this is the process, this is the progress. And then you get enough control that you can do it anytime. Yes, it will not happen simply because you have done the program. The program gives you only the knowledge, and the knowledge removes all the fear, because you see in this experiment, it will describe it in a lot of detail, what happens during such a projection, sounds and feelings, feelings of rising up, and feelings of leaving the body. Nothing leaves the body actually, the sensation of the body drops, and it feels like I'm gone from the body. So all these interpretations are a result of ignorance, and what is really happening is perfectly normal, natural. The mind cooks up a story, you know, the mind makes a monster out of it because it knows nothing about this very, very simple process of cutting off the senses, and the memory regions changing into other memory regions instead of the waking memory. This is a very simple and natural process. It is very important, especially in the occult; it is important because you get to know the larger illusion, Maha Maya.

So, it seems like nothing is wrong, only a little bit of training and knowledge is needed. Why is there awareness suddenly? Because you are listening to all the spiritual talk. You see, spiritual knowledge is so powerful that simply listening to it can cause changes in the mind. But if it is done systematically and properly, then there won't be side effects. You must have seen these people, they are told that the world is an illusion, your life is totally false. Now we're talking about non-systematic things here; they heard it somewhere. But see, this is powerful. Somewhere deep down, that mind knows that this is true. It's probably that that person has done a little bit of spiritual practice in past lives and so on. So, they hear it, they simply catch it. But the mind is not ready really, nor the intellect. It is not ready to hear these things. So either they fall into depression or they fall into disbelief, or they're shocked, and any kind of reaction can happen. But imagine if the same person is taken systematically into the same knowledge, now nothing unusual will happen, no bells and whistles, because it all was taken very smoothly. Because the teacher knows how to avoid this kind of collision, explosion in the mind. So when you go unsystematically, sometimes the mind is blown to pieces. That is not a healthy practice. So we do it step by step. Usually, self-knowledge precedes the knowledge of the illusion. And then there should not be any fear or depression or unusual mental disorder. If you provide that person, the seeker, knowledge of the illusion first, then nobody can predict what can happen, depending on the formation of that mind.

What is stored in the mind, depending on that, any reaction is possible. But as soon as you tell who you are, then the fear is lost, because all these things are not happening to me. All these experiences, all this illusion, is not happening to me. I am the truth. This is told. You see, when we say what is illusion, we also tell what is not illusion. This is called systematic knowledge, and it is proven, it's not simply said. And what happens when people listen to videos and read books and all? Yes, the mind is blown because they have no place to stand now, because whatever they thought is me, or that they assume that the world is real and so on, is simply taken away from them. So the obvious natural reaction is of fear, 'Oh, what is happening now? What will happen to me now? If I'm not the body, then who am I? Am I a ghost?' So, problem. You see, ignorance is the problem, and not going systematically on the spiritual path is the problem, not having a guru, a very big problem. Because then they search for the answers in the trash, like a hungry beggar. They will find anything that they find, that they can get in the trash, and that causes a lot of issues in their minds. They fall into conspiracies, superstitions, or they get deluded by these things. For such people, the word spirituality always means a horror movie. You must have seen these things, because they start seeing the spirits and all, and so on. There is a lot of difference between spirits and spirituality.

So, there is no end to ignorance, no end to the drama that is happening in the world in the name of spirituality. And probably that is the reason that the occult things were kept a secret, because they can cause problems in the mind, like a small experience can be troubling a little bit. But my suggestion is - nothing to worry about. If it happens two or three times more, the mind will become habitual of this. 'Oh, this also happens,' and then it will stop happening. Its novelty is frightening, not the experience itself, because it is not real. Even the projection is not real, because when the waking is not real, then what can be real? Nothing. So, nothing to worry, nothing will happen to you, because the fear comes from this thought, 'What is happening to me?' And the 'me' is taken as the body or the mind or something like this. Some kind of experience is 'me,' and that experience is going to end now. So there will be fear. So if there is no self-knowledge, then any experience will trouble you, because the mind will make up a story about it - something is going to happen to me. This is the ego now, it is doing its job, its job is survival. So it produces reactions, fear and so on, anger, but that is not productive. It is simply something random that has happened. Nothing to do with your spiritual progress.

Vipin is asking, What is initiation? Are all seekers that do the 3D program initiated?

It simply means beginning, initialization, initiation of the process, that's all it means. On the path of knowledge, there is no formal initiation. On other paths, there is a big ritual that happens when you start the path. So, it is not important on the path of knowledge. As soon as you decide that you want to take up this path, now you want to progress on this path, it is done. There it is - initiation happened, nothing else happens on the path of knowledge during this kind of beginning process.

Abhishek is saying, People have fear of losing the known, a fear of the unknown.

Yes, very common, and it is probably necessary for survival also. Otherwise, people will not take that kind of precaution. Fear prevents harmful action, so it is natural. We don't want to get rid of this fear, we want to get the knowledge so that it does not arise. Make the unknown the known, and the problem is gone. No, but I don't have any experience, how can it be known? Know from other’s experiences. This body-mind is very much similar to other body-minds. Yes, one in a hundred is going to have some kind of extraordinary experience, but that is not the general case. Once you read or listen to these people who are having these experiences, the fear goes away because the mind treats it as a confirmation, as a knowledge. Although the real knowledge you will have only during the experience, only after the experience, but this much is also convincing. When you don't have direct experience, then anything that can help is okay. No problem at all. Although strictly, you will never come to know from somebody else's experience, but the fear of the unknown can be reduced.

Oh, my guru is saying it is ordinary. These people are having all the experiences. They are not dead, and nothing was harmed. They have not gone mad, they were not captured by spirits and demons. And then this much is enough to calm down the mind. This baby mind is always worried about 'me, me, me'. Even after it gets the knowledge that 'I am not this body-mind', these tendencies continue, fear, worry and so on. I think that is healthy, nothing abnormal in that. But it should not be so intense because somebody comes behind you and shouts loudly, obviously the body-mind is going to react with fear. It will simply jump from the chair, perfectly healthy, perfectly normal. But if it stays in fear for one hour, then one day, then one week, now that is not normal. I'm just giving an example because after knowing that somebody simply shouted from behind, it was completely harmless, a joke. The mind should calm down. And same after having all these extraordinary experiences, strange experiences which are new to you, the mind will jump once or twice. After that, they are normal.

Siddharth is saying, A few satsangs ago, you mentioned using awareness to intensify intention. I tried this and it works, but it's extremely energy-draining.

I think I said that you should use intention to intensify awareness, not the reverse. Are you sure?

But usually, there is a question that, how should I maintain the awareness, and for that, one of the methods is to hold a very, very strong intention that I will remain aware no matter what. Repeat it, it must be done, and that has a good effect.

But this one, to use awareness to bring attention to your intent, I'm not very sure now. See if there is an intention and there is also awareness, then obviously it will be illuminated in the light of awareness, the intention, and obviously there will be a little bit of intensification, although I don't really understand what is the meaning of that.

What happens is, you see, when there is awareness and there is some desire, because intention is a desire, only strong desire. Because of awareness, actually, the desire will be washed out. It will look unimportant. This is what is called detachment. The awareness causes a loss of intention, sometimes not always, probably, but the unimportant. If there is something really unimportant that comes, the mind recalls your intention, and if you are aware, then it is guaranteed that it will be gone. No action will happen on that. So I don't have any idea why this can be extremely energy-draining, but I can tell you that if some kind of practice is draining, if it produces a negative effect, then it is a faulty practice. It should not be done. That much I can tell you. Probably it will be suitable for somebody else, but it looks like it is not suitable for you.

Graham is saying, Can you help me understand how we are not the doer when it appears there is the experience of making ourselves get out of bed and clean the house? When you get out of the bed and clean the house, you are the doer.

No problem at all. What is getting out of the bed and what is cleaning the house? It is the body. The body is doing it. So, in the most common sense form, this body and mind is the doer. Who is not the doer? Your essence. It is simply watching, it is the observer. So, you should not use the word 'we'. The correct word is 'I'. I am not the doer. There is only one 'I'. So, why should we use 'we'? Are there many, many experiencers to use the plural? No, singular. 'I am not the doer'. There is the same 'I' in everybody. I am that 'I'. So, the first language is totally wrong here. If you say, 'How am I not the doer?' and then you say, 'The experience of making 'I' get out of the bed', then it will become clear that the 'I' never gets out of the bed, the 'I' never cleans the house. This illusory form is doing it. No problem. It is the doer, looks like that. In the illusion, the doer is also an illusion. So, in reality, there is no doer. So simple, isn't it?

What is the error there in the concept of doer? I'll clear it even more - that the doer is an entity. It is a single thing which has desires, which has free will - all these assumptions are wrong. So, what do we say? It is happening. The getting out of the bed is happening and the cleaning is happening. But you say that is cumbersome to say like this and everybody laughs at these things, these kinds of sentences. So, we say in the illusion, the doer is the body-mind. Yes, but it is completely false. It is an assumed concept. In reality, there is no doer. No single thing that is doing anything. All is appearing. That is the very accurate sentence, that it all appears like this. It appears that the body got out of the bed. It appears that there is a house which is dirty. And it appears that somebody did the work. That somebody is me. So, a long series of illusions, like peeling of onions, layers of illusion. But what is the truth? All these things are simply appearing to be there.

The doer is twice removed from reality. Not only the body and mind are illusions, the concept that the body and mind is the doer and I am that doer, is actually doubly wrong. It is a double illusion. On top of this illusion of the body-mind. Let us take another example. We say that the flower is very beautiful. Now, this double illusion. Why? Because the flower itself is an illusion, and its perceived beauty is a double illusion. The beauty is then added on on the top of this first illusion of the flower. There are other examples like you are watching a movie, and there is a monster in the movie. And how do you describe the monster? The monster was terrifying and he ate so many people. What is the reality? That nothing like this happened. Second, it was a movie. The first illusion is - it was simply special effects or acting. And another layer of the illusion is that it actually happened in a movie. The movie's illusion and the monster doing things in the movie. Double illusion. So, the doer is such a thing. It is a double illusion.

Sky is saying, Please pardon me for many questions, perhaps close to the last question. I've been studying Vedanta for a few years. Intellectually, I understand, but many times, when a situation comes, either emotions or hormones overpower my actions. How to improve that? Is there a need to improve that?

This machine is made to do exactly this. What you should avoid is wrong action which causes suffering, that much you need to take care of. But whenever it is overcome by emotions or hormones, it is perfectly natural. That is how it functions. It is like saying that whenever I start my car and press the pedal, it starts running. What should I do? How to improve this thing? Now, it is made to run like this. It's perfectly okay. Just do not hit your car to a tree or do not let it fall down from a mountain. That's all you need to worry about. That is the only improvement you want in your driving. Don't want to stop the car forever. The hormones ensure that the body functions as it should. There is a behavior pattern of some kind. No problem. Is it causing harm of some kind to you or other people? Then, it's a problem. The hormone is not the problem.

Then, are the emotions bad? The emotions make you human. Without them, you are a rock or a robot. How to improve this situation of emotions? Just don't do that which causes harm. Let the emotions be there. What if it causes harm? You will learn. How do we learn? By mistakes. So, this is how to improve. You let Mother Nature function as she usually does. And if there is a mistake, learn from it. Improvement will happen automatically. Yes, some people, they simply let it run. They do whatever they want to do, and they never learn from it. And they never grow, they never become mature. So, what was set up for a beautiful life, a happy life, has become a curse for them because the discernment is not there. Or you can say in ordinary language, intelligence is lacking.

Another answer to your question can be: Do not try to improve these things - hormones or emotion. They are perfect. Improve your intelligence. That's all. And let the mind control its own instrument. Because who is there? Who else is there who can control? All you have is the mind. So, an intelligent person will let the hormones work as usual, no problem. They keep us alive. Let the emotions be, they make us humans. But we will not do anything stupid that causes trouble, that causes negativity. It is very simple. You see, what do people want? They want a magical cure, forgetting that the magic is inside you, not outside. Nobody can cure these things. You already have all these gifts, the gifts that people call powers, superpowers. You already have them. But you don't know how to utilize them. Isn't that emotion a superpower? Who else has this in the entire universe? There is an infinite amount of matter in the universe. Who has this ability of emotions? Only you, the humans. Some animals also, probably. It is a very rare power. But how are you using it? How are people using these powers? Emotion is very common, but intelligence is even more rare. How are they using their intelligence? To earn money, to exploit people, to consume things, to kill people, competition. That is how intelligence is being used, although it is a superpower, actually.

In this whole world, only humans have this kind of power. By world, I mean the planet, because our group is a spiritual group. We should always take care when we say the whole universe, because there are a lot many things in this, better than humans also. Especially on this planet, nobody has this kind of power. Do they utilize it? No. What are they running after? Imaginary things, imaginary powers which they will never get. So, the key to self-improvement is learning from your own mistakes, and that makes you intelligent. Get more experience, progress. Very simple.

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