I Am That - Session 74 - Ch 25 Hold On To "I Am" - Part 4

You are mistaken.

The world has no existence apart from you.

At every moment,

It is but a reflection of yourself.

You create it,

You destroy it.

Questioner says,

And build it again,

Improved.

Maharaj says,

To improve it,

You must disprove it.

One must die to live.

There is no rebirth except through death.

Questioner says,

Your universe may be perfect.

My personal universe is improving,

Constantly improving.

So Maharaj says,

Your personal universe does not exist by itself.

It is merely a limited and distorted view of the realm.

It is not the universe that needs improving,

But your way of looking.

Questioner says,

How do you view it?

Maharaj says,

It is a stage on which a world drama is being played.

The quality of the performance is all that matters.

Not what the actors say and do,

But how they say and do it.

What happens is not important.

How you say and do it.

Why?

Why is he talking about that?

My quality?

Is there a recognition that I am not this?

The quality is important.

This story,

This person's story is different.

This role,

Character,

Character's role is different.

This is different.

This is different.

This content does not matter,

He is saying.

Is there a recognition I am not the character?

Is there a recognition I am not the character?

Is there a recognition I am not the character?

That is important.

Quality.

The questioner says,

I do not like this leela,

Play idea.

I would rather compare the world to a work yard in which we are the builders.

Maharaj says,

You take it too seriously.

What is wrong with play?

You have a purpose only as long as you are not complete or Poornam.

Till then,

Completeness,

Perfection is the purpose.

But when you are complete in yourself,

Fully integrated within and without,

Then you enjoy the universe.

You do not labour at it.

To the disintegrated one,

You may seem working hard,

But this is their illusion.

Sportsmen seem to be making,

Seem to make tremendous efforts,

Yet their sole motive is to play and display.

You think he is making so much effort to win the game.

He is going to make the country the winner.

No,

He is just playing,

He is enjoying himself.

He is completely like one with his play.

He is having fun,

100%.

But the one who is watching,

It is that person's illusion.

Either this guy can make our country win today or this guy can make our country lose today.

Do you see that?

So,

It is the person who is watching,

It's his illusion.

Is that clear?

Like that only he is saying.

It is all a play and display.

All a play and display.

It seems to you that Maharaj is working hard.

No,

It is happening automatically.

It's a program.

Nobody is working hard.

Nobody is working.

Period.

There is no work,

There is no worker.

Questioner says,

Do you mean to say that God is just having fun,

That he is engaged in purposeless action?

Maharaj is saying,

God is not only true and good,

He is also beautiful,

Satyam,

Shivam,

Sundaram.

He creates beauty for the joy of it.

Then the questioner says,

Well,

Then beauty is God's purpose.

Maharaj says,

Why do you introduce purpose?

Purpose implies movement,

Change,

A sense of imperfection.

God does not aim at beauty.

Whatever he does is beautiful.

Would you say that a flower is trying to be beautiful?

No,

It is beautiful by its very nature.

Similarly,

God is perfection itself,

Not an effort at perfection.

Then questioner says,

The purpose fulfills itself in beauty.

Maharaj says,

What is beautiful?

Whatever is perceived blissfully is beautiful.

Bliss is the essence of beauty.

Please highlight.

Means Ananda,

That which you did today.

Ananda is the essence of beauty.

Sundaram.

Questioner says,

You speak of Sat,

Chit,

Ananda.

That I am is obvious.

That I know is obvious.

That I am happy is not at all obvious.

You get it?

That I am is Sat.

That I know is Chit.

And that I am happiness itself is Ananda.

Sat,

Chit,

Ananda.

So he's saying I understand I am and I understand I know.

But I am happy or I am happiness itself,

This is not evident to me,

Not obvious to me yet.

Where has my happiness gone?

Maharaj says,

Be fully aware of your own being and you will be in bliss consciously.

Because you take your mind off yourself and make it dwell on what you are not,

You lose your sense of well-being,

Of being well.

Do you get it?

Yeah,

You also practiced this today,

No?

When you were the witness,

There's Ananda.

Absolute straight line of equanimity,

No disturbance.

The moment you forget yourself and you attach to that which is not me,

Whatever the tiger,

The butterfly,

Whatever you attach to,

That moment you lose that.

You lose that equanimity.

You're not well anymore.

The questioner goes on a different tangent now.

There are two paths before us.

The path of effort,

Which is yoga marga and the path of ease,

Bhog marga.

Bhog is to just experience the world,

All life and die.

Nothing else,

Just enjoy the world and die.

Yoga marga and bhog marga,

Both lead to the same goal,

Liberation.

Maharaj says,

Why do you call bhog a path?

How can ease bring you perfection?

Do you get it?

Bhog means the ignorant one also is living his life.

He's saying that is also a way to liberation.

He's saying,

How can you call that a way to liberation?

How can you call that a path?

Questioner says,

The perfect renouncer,

Yogi,

Will find reality.

The perfect enjoyer,

Bhogi,

Also will come to it.

Maharaj says,

How can it be?

Aren't they contradictory?

How is it even possible?

Questioner says,

The extreme meet.

The extremes meet.

To be a perfect bhogi is more difficult than to be a perfect yogi.

I am a humble man and cannot venture judgments of value.

But the yogi and the bhogi,

After all,

Are concerned with the search for happiness.

The yogi wants it permanent.

The bhogi is satisfied with the intermittent.

Often the bhogi strives harder than the yogi.

Maharaj says,

What is your happiness worth when you have to strive and labor for it?

True happiness is spontaneous and effortless.

Please highlight.

When your ego comes up and it says,

Oh,

I want this success.

I want that.

It's okay even if I get a few minutes of fame.

I want those few minutes of fame.

Doesn't ego come up with such excuses?

When you tell the ego exactly this,

What is your happiness worth when you have to strive and labor for it?

True happiness is spontaneous and effortless.

That is called ananda.

Questioner says,

All beings seek happiness.

The means only differ.

Some seek it within and are therefore called yogis.

Some seek it without and are condemned as bhogis.

Yet they need each other.

Maharaj says,

Pleasure and pain alternate.

Happiness is unshakable.

Happiness is unshakable.

Yeah,

You did that today.

Sukha and dukkha alternate.

Ananda is unshakable.

What you can seek and find is not the real thing.

Find what you have never lost.

Find the inalienable.

Please highlight.

This is very important because the ego says,

I want that name that I've never had,

That fame that I've never had,

The power that I've never had,

The multi-million dollars that I've never had,

Etc.

,

Etc.

,

Etc.

So what you can seek and find is not the real thing.

Alien means that which I don't know.

Alien,

Inalienable,

Which can never not be known.

Find what you have never lost.

Find the inalienable.

So the same thing applies to your spiritual path.

If you can seek and find it,

It is not enlightenment.

If you can buy it in a spiritual shop by paying thousands of dollars,

You cannot find it.

It's not available there.

You cannot seek and find enlightenment.

Why?

Yeah,

Because you are enlightened.

You are the witness.

The witness is not for sale,

Not in a shop out there.

The big mart,

The big spiritual mart,

Witness for sale.

No,

Not possible.

This is something that you can never lose.

You never lost.

You are that.

That's why the name of the book is,

I am that.

I don't have to become that.

I don't have to seek that.

I don't have to find it somewhere.

I am that.

There is no new path.

Very interesting chapter,

No?

There is no person.

It is all simply an ocean of knowledge.

There is simply the ocean of knowledge with waves of knowledge arising and falling.

Then who is claiming the desire?

There is no who.

Yes,

There is no who.

Contemplate.

The world has no existence apart from me.

Contemplate.

Sensations arise and fall.

I label it as the body.

Thoughts arise and fall.

I label it as the body.

I label it as the mind.

There is no person.

Then how can there be anything personal?

Where does labeling happen?

Doesn't labeling end at the mind level?

Can labeling go beyond the mind?

Where does perceiving happen?

Next question.

Can there be perceiving without labeling?

Witness witnesses itself.

Only when there is love for the self.

Not when there is self-love.

The I arises along with the arising.

In bracket,

Thought,

Feeling,

Sensation,

Perception and dissolves with the arising.

Do I see this experientially?

Do I see this experientially?

Now simply perceiving without likes and dislikes is being the witness.

In bracket,

Sakshi.

Do I see this experientially?

I cannot think.

I cannot act.

Things happen to things.

Things happen on their own.

I do not make things happen.

But things happen when I am.

Contemplate on this.

Death is merely the passing away of a waking wave.

Do I see this experientially?

My belief in the existence of my family members is because I seek validation from them for my existence.

Do I see this experientially?

Remembering and forgetting are waves of the world.

The natural state is beyond remembering and forgetting.

Do I see this experientially?

Is the natural state different from ananda or peace?

Self-forgetfulness is inherent in self-knowing.

I can only forget what I know.

There is no proof of the existence of the world apart from me,

The tiger or the butterfly.

Does not exist apart from me.

On the stage of the world,

A drama is being played.

Is there a recognition that I am not the character?

Nothing is of value in this world.

Contemplate.

Do you see that you create your world and you destroy it?

Nobody is working.

There is neither work nor a worker.

Very interesting chapter.