I Am That Chapter 16 Desirelessness-The Highest Bliss Part 7

I'll read that again.

So you know the witness because you are the witness.

You need not see the witness in front of you.

Here again,

To be is to know.

Questioner says,

Yes,

I see that I am the witness,

The awareness itself,

But in which way does it profit me?

Maharaj says,

What a question!

What kind of profit do you want?

Are you looking for money?

Are you looking for name fame?

What are you looking for?

What a question!

What kind of profit do you expect?

To know what you are,

Is it not good enough?

Questioner says,

What are the uses of self-knowledge?

Maharaj says,

It helps you to understand what you are not,

Niti,

Niti,

Niti,

Niti.

It helps you to understand what you are not and keeps you from,

There are four things in the Marathi,

In the English they are missing.

So you can write it down and keeps you free from,

Number one,

Mithya.

In English it is written as,

It is translated as false idea,

A better translation would be illusion.

Number one,

Mithya.

Number two,

Kalpana.

Kalpana,

The translation is imagination.

That is completely missed in the English translation.

Number three,

Asha.

Asha is hope or desire.

It's translated as desire here in English,

But the better word for it is hope.

And number four is kriya,

Action.

So mithya,

Kalpana,

Asha and kriya,

These are the four things you become free of.

What are they?

Illusion,

Imagination,

Hope and action.

When I recognize who I am truly,

When I recognize my true self,

That I am this awareness,

I am that field in which everything appears and disappears.

I am that field of awareness in which the waking body-mind comes up along with the waking world,

It plays for a while and it disappears.

I,

The field of awareness,

Remain intact.

After some time,

In the same field of awareness,

A dream body comes up,

A dream body-mind comes up and it plays along with other dream characters of a dream world and it dissolves and disappears after some time,

Completely dissolves and disappears after some time.

I,

The field of awareness,

Remain intact.

I,

The field of awareness,

Keep remaining intact for some time and there is absence of these objects.

This is termed as deep sleep state,

But it's not really a deep sleep state.

It's actually the absence of the waking body-mind and the waking objects and the waking world and it's the absence of the dream body-mind and the dream world.

All these are absent.

That's why this state is called the deep sleep state.

It is not really the deep sleep state.

It is simply the field of awareness in its full glory,

Devoid of any imagination,

Devoid of any action,

Devoid of any desire or hope,

Devoid of any illusion.

Mithya,

Kalpana,

Asha,

Kriya,

All four are not there here.

And the closest to my true self in the deep sleep state.

What has been labelled as the deep sleep state has been labelled as the deep sleep state from the point of view of the waking state.

A waking body-mind has labelled that as the deep sleep state.

Do you recognise that?

The waking state has given that name.

Why?

Because the waking body-mind thought that it is sleeping.

It is not sleeping.

It is not there.

It just doesn't know that.

Just like a dream body-mind does not know that it is not here now in the waking state.

A dream body-mind does not know that it is not there in the deep sleep state.

Similarly,

This waking body-mind does not know it is not there in the deep sleep state.

So deep sleep is a label given by the waking body-mind from the perspective of the waking state.

But it is not reality.

Reality is what I see in my own direct experience.

This field of awareness is constant.

Is constant from the waking state to the dreaming state to the deep sleep state.

Oh,

These are just labels.

Really I am there throughout.

I am the fourth,

Turiya.

So from the perspective of Turiya,

Really there is no first,

Second,

Third.

There is no waking,

Dreaming,

Deep sleep.

Turiya does not see anything as separate from it.

It's just like in the waking state there is a tsunami.

In the dream state there are gentle waves.

And in the deep sleep state there is absolute silence.

Silent,

Serene,

Still.

So Turiya does not see that these waves and the stillness is separate.

Turiya sees all of them as one.

It is called Turiya Dita.

Beyond the fourth.

Beyond the fourth means seeing everything as one.

Not seeing a difference.

When you recognize this experientially,

That there is no difference when you attain the state of Turiya Dita,

Then you become free of the four.

What are the four?

Mithya,

Illusion,

Kalpana,

Imagination,

Asha,

Hope or desire and Kriya,

Action.

Because I,

The consciousness,

Do not act.

I,

The consciousness,

Do not have any illusions.

I,

The consciousness,

Do not have any imaginations.

I,

The consciousness,

Am free of any desire or hope.

No Asha.

I am that stillness itself.

That stillness in which there are tsunami waves and then gentle waves and then absolute nothingness.

There is no two.

Clear?

This is the full elaborated answer of that one sentence.

What is the use of self-knowledge?

Self-knowledge helps you to understand what you are not and keeps you from Mithya,

Kalpana,

Asha and Kriya.

Illusion,

Imagination,

Hope and action.

So,

Questioner says,

If I am the witness only,

What do right and wrong matter?

In Marathi,

If I am the witness only,

Then what is the importance of Dharma and Adharma?

Dharma is not just right and Adharma is not just wrong.

It's not just about righteousness and unrighteousness.

Dharma has been used as a political divide between people and waking up to this truth is very important that Dharma is not Adhyatma.

Religion is not equal to spirituality.

Where does religion fall?

If we look at this,

When somebody follows some religion,

Doing some rites and rituals,

Where does it fall?

Who does the rites and rituals?

It is the person that is engaged in the rites and rituals.

So,

Any religion,

Your followers,

Your followers,

Your followers,

So any religion you're following,

Whether you're following Hinduism,

Whether you're following Jainism,

Whether you're following Christianity,

Whether you're following Islam,

Whether you follow Judaism,

It doesn't matter which religion you are following.

Any religion that you follow,

Who is doing the rites and rituals?

It is the body-mind that is engaged in the rites and rituals.

It is this person that is engaged in rites and rituals.

Is this very clear?

To understand Maharaj's answer,

First we have to understand one step before.

That's what I'm telling you the step.

So,

Any of these religions that are followed,

Any rites and rituals,

Who is following?

This body-mind,

This so-called person is following.

Yes,

Now that I recognize I am the field of awareness,

I recognize I am not this person that I thought I was.

I am this background of awareness.

Can you say this background of awareness belongs to a particular religion?

Is this background of awareness a Hindu,

A Muslim,

A Christian,

A Jew?

No,

No,

It does not have any religion.

Religion belongs to the body-mind.

The body-mind.

If I am clear that I am not this body-mind,

If I have recognized that I am the background of awareness,

Then where does religion stand in my life?

Where does it stand?

This is a question we need to ask ourselves.

So,

The questioner has asked,

If I am the witness only,

Then what do right and wrong matter?

And look at his question.

What does,

What is the point of dharma and adharma?

And that is the right question in Marathi.

If I am the witness only,

Then what is the point of dharma and adharma?

Maharaj says,

To know yourself,

The one who helps you,

That is dharma.

I will translate that.

That which helps you to know yourself,

That is called dharma.

That which becomes an obstacle,

That which prevents you from knowing yourself,

That is adharma.

That which prevents you from knowing yourself,

That is adharma.

That which prevents you from knowing yourself,

That is adharma.

That which prevents you from knowing yourself,

That is adharma.

Recognizing my own true self,

This is bliss.

And forgetting my own true self,

This is sorrow.

It's translated correctly,

That dharma and adharma has been translated as right and wrong.

So I will read out the English translation.

What helps you to know yourself is right,

What prevents is wrong.

To know one's real self is bliss,

To forget is sorrow.

Translation is okay,

Except the part of dharma and adharma.

This question-answer session is going on in India.

India has seen a lot of divide in its society because of lots of religions all living together,

But yet there is a big divide in society.

You ask yourself the question,

Is this divide really worth it?

Is it taking us to the truth?

Is this divide helping me move towards the truth or taking me away from the truth?

What is it?

So most of us have come from that society where each one of us was brought up with certain religious conditioning.

Now don't be too harsh on your religious conditioning.

It was important for you to grow up in a particular way.

That's the way the script was written.

A point comes in every child's life that the child has to give up something.

As the toddler grows older,

It gives up its feeder.

As the infant is no more an infant,

Grows up to be a kid,

It gives up its little baby toys.

When it grows up to be a teenager from a kid,

It has to give up the idea of Santa Claus.

As you grow up,

Mature to an adult,

So many teenage,

All romantic ideas are given up.

When you become an adult and you start working and maturing in life,

There are so many conditionings that you give up.

Yes,

Tyaga is the truth of this body-mind.

Isn't it?

We went to primary school,

We gave up primary school,

Moved to high school,

Went to high school,

Then we had to give up high school,

Move on to college.

We had to even give up that college,

Move on in life to a job.

So Tyaga is the truth of this life.

At every stage,

Tyaga,

Sacrifice,

Renouncing,

Letting go,

Has been the truth.

So similarly,

Continuing on the same,

A point comes where you have to let go of old spiritual conditioning.

Do you get it?

That giving up of that spiritual conditioning,

Such that it strips off the idea of the person from you,

That is the final giving up,

The final Tyaga.

Is this very clear?

Tyaga is the operational factor that is responsible to take me all the way to spiritual maturity.

If I refuse to do Tyaga,

I will remain a kid forever.

Kid,

How immature,

Not really a kid,

The body will grow,

The mind will grow,

It will age and it will die,

But you would have refused to grow up,

You would have remained immature.

So giving up,

Renouncing is a natural progression of this life.

So we come to a point where we move away from Dwaitam towards Adwaitam and we recognize the importance of Tyaga or renouncing.

So what is Maharaj saying here?

Maharaj is saying you will have to recognize that which is Adharma and do Tyaga of that and recognize that which is Dharma and only adopt that.

So let's see what is Dharma and what is Adharma.

In this little diagram of us,

We followed rites and rituals.

Which way was the arrow?

Was it taking you towards the I,

Towards the nothingness or was it taking you more towards the person?

Though you were talking about God,

What were you doing?

Finally,

You were asking for something in return.

You were praying for a desire to be fulfilled.

You were looking for something in return.

So where was your focus?

Was it on the person or was it on nothingness?

The focus was on the person.

In every religious activity,

In every understanding,

In every little rites,

Rituals,

Everything that I did,

The focus was always on the person.

The focus was on fulfilling the desire of the person.

The focus was never towards the I.

Where is the I?

The I is here at the periphery.

There is nothingness.

Nothingness is beyond.

The focus was never on the nothingness.

The focus was never on the sense of I am.

The focus was always on the false person.

Now comes along a guru.

To make the guru look different,

We can make him a different color.

A red color.

This is the guru.

He comes in your life.

This guru says,

You do rites and rituals such that you glorify me because I am enlightened.

You get a Nobel Peace Prize for me.

Go out.

Become my volunteers.

Go out.

Make my name very popular.

Do all the seva in the world and give that name to me and get the Nobel Peace Prize for me.

So where is this guru's focus?

Is he helping you to focus on the nothingness,

On the sense of I am?

Or is he moving your focus towards the person?

He is moving your focus towards the person.

So whenever your focus is inwards,

It prevents you from seeing your true self.

Your true self is here at the periphery.

So anything that is pointing inwards is adharma.

Unrighteous.

Because it is taking you away from your true self.

Now comes along a guru like Maharaj.

And Maharaj says,

Forget all this.

You turn inwards.

Look inwards.

Look at the nothingness.

And in his every instruction,

He only tells you to look inwards.

Look inwards.

There is no other direction to look.

In every instruction.

So what is this?

That which helps you recognize your true nature,

That is dharma.

So this is dharma.

This is righteousness.

Where again and again,

You look towards the nothingness.

Is this very clear what Maharaj is saying?

What helps you to know yourself is right.

What prevents is wrong.

To know one's real self is bliss.

To forget is sorrow.

So he gets the point.

He asks,

Is the witness consciousness the real self?

Now he gets very interested in the sense of I am and witness consciousness after Maharaj has described this in so much detail.

So he asks,

Is the witness consciousness the real self?

Maharaj says,

The witness consciousness is the reflection of the real in the mind.

Or the buddhi.

The real is beyond.

The witness is the door through which you pass beyond.

That's why I drew the green circle,

Just to show you,

That is the doorway.

That is the I,

The sense of I.

This field of awareness.

This is who I am.

And this field of I is only the doorway to that nothingness,

The shunyata,

Which is also called pure consciousness,

Which is also called primordial awareness,

Also called my swaroopa,

My real self.

This field of awareness or the sense of I looks there and vanishes into it.

It looks into that direction and dissolves.

There is no more I there.

So that is why he says,

It is the reflection of the real in the mind.

When you look at the mirror and you see your reflection,

You start doing this,

Okay,

I'm looking good,

But really that is not me.

This is me.

Have you sensed this ever?

I'm looking at the reflection and thinking it is me,

But that is not me.

This is me.

That is only a reflection of the real me.

Is this clear?

Yeah.

Similarly,

The witness consciousness,

The sense of I,

Is only a reflection of the pure consciousness.

It is the reflection of the real in the mind.

Mind is the mirror in which the reflection is there or the buddhi.

The real is beyond.

The witness is the door through which you pass beyond.

So questioner says,

And what is the purpose of meditation?

Maharaj says,

Seeing the false as the false is meditation.

The better translation would be seeing the illusion as the illusion is meditation and this must go on all the time.

In Marathi,

Maharaj says,

Constantly seeing this is an illusion.

This is an illusion.

The family member is an illusion.

This money is an illusion.

This house is an illusion.

You're in office.

This is an illusion.

You're driving to the grocery store.

This entire road that I feel I'm so familiar with.

This grocery store that I'm so familiar with.

Everything is an illusion.

You're walking in the grocery store.

You're picking up food items.

All these food items are an illusion.

You bring them home in your cooking.

That entire act of converting ingredients to a completely cooked meal is an illusion.

Eating itself and tasting that is an illusion.

Experiencing discomfort because of overeating.

This is illusion.

Taking a tablet is an illusion.

Going to the doctor,

Sitting in that waiting room,

Waiting to be received by the nurse or the doctor is an illusion.

Talking to the doctor is an illusion.

Coming back home and taking those medicines is an illusion.

Going through the motions of life,

Moment to moment to moment and seeing everything is mithya,

Everything is mithya,

Everything is an illusion.

All this is an illusion.

This is walking,

Talking,

Living meditation.

This is meditation.

This was just one example I threw out there.

Everything that you do,

Recognizing this is an illusion,

Moment to moment to moment.

Asatya madhe,

Asatya pahane,

Hates dhyan.

Seeing the illusion in illusion,

This is meditation.

And this must go on all the time,

All the time.

Sitting on the cushion 20 minutes and closing your eyes is for the beginners.

It's for the beginners.

Now you are no more a beginner,

According to me,

You are an expert now.

Experts should do the expert thing.

What is that?

Moment to moment,

This is an illusion,

This is an illusion,

This is an illusion.

When it comes up to very strong feelings,

This feeling is an illusion.

See how it disappears into nothingness.

Oh,

Big drama going on at home and it's creating all sensations of fear in me.

Oh,

The drama is also illusion,

The characters of the drama is an illusion,

The fear is an illusion.

All of it keeps disappearing,

Keeps getting sucked into the nothingness.

I am this field of nothingness.

I remain untouched.

Seeing this again and again and again and again,

A million times in a day,

This is meditation.

Questioner says,

We are told to meditate regularly.

Maharaj says,

Deliberate daily exercise in discrimination between true and the false and renunciation of the false.

That is meditation.

There are many kinds of meditation to begin with,

But they all merge finally into one.

I'll read this in Marathi also.

Daily,

Deliberately,

In discrimination between true and the false and renunciation of the false.

This is meditation.

Every day,

Discriminating between that which is real and that which is an illusion.

And then renouncing the illusion.

This is meditation.

And what is the real?

Only the sense of I am,

That is untouched.

Only that is real.

Only that is real.

Everything else is an illusion.

And then renouncing the illusion,

Not holding on to it.

Renouncing the illusion.

I'll read that in Marathi again.

Very important.

Daily,

Every day,

Deliberately,

For the benefit,

For the purpose of benefiting your own self.

Daily,

Deliberately,

In discrimination between true and the false,

Discriminating between real and illusion and renouncing the false.

And then renouncing the illusion.

Hetz Dhyan.

That is meditation.

There are many kinds of meditation to begin with,

But they all finally merge into one.

Because it's a one-way street.

Even if you take a dvaitam path,

It has to come to advaitam.

It has to come to this final point.

Otherwise,

The journey is incomplete.

It is incomplete.

Everything merges into the same.

What same?

Differentiating the real from the illusion and then renouncing the illusion,

Holding on to the real.

This is meditation.

As you are an expert now,

You should be doing this expert level meditation.

Discard everything else.

Renounce all the previous meditations.

They are of no use to me.

Just like I don't believe in Santa Claus anymore.

It does not mean I hate Santa Claus.

It does not mean the moment I see Santa Claus,

I'm going to throw an atom bomb on him.

No.

No hatred.

But no craving either.

No drama there.

Quit the drama.

Simple.

Quit all old techniques.

Quit all old meditation practices.

Quit all old ways of living,

Which I termed as my religion,

The conditioning of me,

Recognizing that I,

The background,

The awareness,

Do not have any of these.

Separating the real from the illusion and then discarding the illusion.

Second step is very important.

Many people,

They differentiate,

They discriminate,

But they are unable to discard the illusion.

They are still holding on to the illusion.

No point.

No point.

You're fooling yourself.

Self-fraud,

I call this.

Discard the illusion.

Just hold on to the real.

Then the highest bliss is not far away.

You'll recognize that it was always there.

I was ignoring it.

Questioner says,

Please tell me,

Which road to self-realization is the shortest?

Maharaj says,

No way is short or long,

But some people are more earnest and some are less.

The word in Marathi for earnestness is Tadmar.

So some people have more Tadmari.

Literal translation of Tadmari is that longing,

The longing to recognize my own true self,

The longing to taste that highest bliss.

Some people have more of that longing and some people have less.

That's all.

So no way is short or long.

It is the people that are either more earnest or less earnest.

I can tell you about myself.

I was a simple man,

But I trusted my guru.

What he told me to do,

I did.

He told me to concentrate on I am.

I did.

He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables.

Conceivable is imagination.

Perceivable is what I perceive by sight,

Sound,

Smell,

Taste and touch.

I'll read that again.

He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables.

I believed.

I gave him my heart and soul,

My entire attention and the whole of my spare time.

I had to work to keep my family alive.

As a result of faith and earnest application,

I realized myself,

Swaroopa,

Within three years.

This is Maharaj's short story to enlightenment.

You may choose any way that suits you.

Your earnestness will determine the rate of progress.

Please highlight.

It is never the path that determines your rate of progress.

It is always your earnestness that is the yardstick that measures your rate of progress.

So questioner says no hint for me.

Maharaj says establish yourself firmly in the awareness of I am.

This is the beginning and also the end of all endeavor.

That completes the chapter.