I Am That - Session 76 - Personality, An Obstacle - Part 2

Questioner,

The yoga of living,

Of life itself,

We may call the natural yoga,

Nisarga Yoga.

It reminds me of the primal yoga,

Adi Yoga,

Mentioned in the Rig Veda,

Which was described as the marrying of life with the mind.

So he's read a few books,

He's read the Rig Veda,

So he's just talking about the marriage between life and mind that is mentioned there.

So Maharaj says,

A life lived thoughtfully,

In full awareness,

Is by itself Nisarga Yoga.

Please highlight.

What is the meaning of life lived thoughtfully,

In awareness?

As the witness,

Yes,

Constantly as the witness consciousness.

Some of you have already done the Nisarga Yoga chapter from this book,

So you know what he's talking about.

Constantly living as the witness consciousness,

As the sense of I am.

So questioner says,

What does the marriage of life and mind mean,

That which is mentioned in the Rig Veda?

Maharaj says,

Living in spontaneous awareness,

Consciousness of effortless living,

Being fully interested in one's life,

All this is implied.

So spontaneous awareness,

Those who've done the previous chapters,

You know Maharaj speaks about the Maryada,

The body-mind work together.

You do not need to interfere,

They do not need your input.

You do not need to jump in.

You are the witness consciousness and you maintain that stand.

You will realize you do not need to make any decisions for the body.

You do not need to make any decisions for the mind.

They run according to a predetermined flow.

That's when you will clearly recognize,

Oh,

I was always sitting in the audience and unnecessarily screaming at the hero,

Do this,

Telling the heroine,

Do that.

Now I realize my folly,

That screaming was the suffering.

Now I quietly sit behind and watch the movie.

Spontaneous awareness,

Effortless living,

Not putting in any effort,

No jumping in.

The moment I jump in and say,

Oh no,

This should be like this,

This should not be like this.

I like this,

I hate this,

I want this,

I don't want this.

This is all effort.

Do you recognize this?

So much stress you create just by saying,

I like,

I don't like,

I want,

I don't want,

I want it to go this way,

It should be this way,

It should not be this way.

Do you see that?

So effortless living from the level of witness consciousness,

Never ever jumping down to the body,

That is pointless.

It's like screaming at the hero on the screen,

He's not real,

He's made of light.

This body mind person is only made of the projected consciousness,

You cannot change what its flow is.

That is why you really try and say,

I want to do this,

I want it this way,

I want it this way and it doesn't happen that way.

Have you realized it?

So much grief,

Craving,

Feverishness to make something happen your way and it does not happen.

Why?

Because you're screaming at an empty screen.

You simply wake up,

This is not in my control,

Relinquish that control,

You have that control freak nature,

I am in charge,

You are not in charge,

You're a liar,

Wake up and see,

I am a liar.

When I say you need courage,

That is what I mean by courage,

Acknowledging that I was lying all this while,

I was pretending,

That is where the courage is required.

So I'll just complete that.

Spontaneous awareness,

Effortless living and being fully interested in one's life.

What is fully interested in one's life?

Being interested in perception,

Sensation,

Thought,

Feeling?

Recognizing experience is nothing but consciousness,

This is life,

Fully interested in one's life.

So turning away from bahirmukhi,

Turning inwards,

Becoming antarmukhi.

That is what is required.

Sharda Devi,

Wife of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa,

Used to scold his disciples for too much effort.

She compared them to mangoes on the tree,

Which are being plucked before they are ripe.

Why hurry,

She used to say,

Wait till you are fully ripe,

Mellow and sweet.

Maharaj says how right she was.

There are so many who take the dawn for the noon,

A momentary experience for full realization and destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride.

Humility and silence are essential for a sadhaka,

However advanced.

Only a fully ripened Jnani can allow himself complete spontaneity.

The questioner is just talking about Sharda Devi,

How she used to tell people,

Why you in such a rush?

Why so much effort?

Relax,

Let the flow take you.

It will happen,

That is what she was meaning,

That why this effort,

Why this hurriedness to get enlightened.

And Maharaj says she was really right.

And he is telling you straight away that lot of people take the dawn for the noon,

Means what?

They just see a little bit,

A little glimmer of light,

A little spark and they think,

Ah,

I am fully enlightened.

No,

It was only a glimpse.

Hold your horses.

Till you get completely established as the consciousness.

Is witness consciousness the last step?

Tell me.

What is the higher step?

Primordial awareness.

Even the witness consciousness is simply an object.

This object collapses and you can see the collapse.

You yourself,

When you recognize the collapse,

You say,

Oh,

If I can see the witness conscious collapsing,

I must be beyond this.

How can I see it arise and collapse?

That's when the first glimmer happens,

That little light sparks come on.

Oh,

I am beyond the witness consciousness.

Then you are on to the higher level.

Now,

No more looking down,

Not even at witness consciousness.

Now you have to hold on to that dear primordial awareness.

Otherwise,

Again,

You slip down to the witness consciousness very easily.

So Maharaj is saying a lot of people take that little glimmer of witness consciousness.

I have attained it.

No,

There is the primordial awareness.

So don't take the dawn for as if it is the noon.

Very,

Very clear.

He says a momentary experience for full realization.

They take a momentary experience and they think it is the full realization.

No,

No.

You just recognize the witness consciousness.

That is not the full realization.

It's just that momentary experience.

Fantastic.

But it's only a stepping stone.

Do not stop.

Keep moving.

Keep moving.

And that is how they destroy even the little they gain by excess of pride.

You will lose it.

You will lose that witness consciousness also if you become too proud of this achievement and think that you have achieved something higher.

Who becomes proud?

Ego.

The I has come up.

It has lost its witnessing.

The moment it takes pride on,

It has lost its witnessing.

It's lost its stand.

Then you have completely gone back down.

You played that game of snakes and ladders.

What happens at 99?

The cobra.

The big cobra.

The long one.

You go down to 9.

From 99 all the way to 9.

Now you have to start all over again.

This is that cobra sting.

The 99.

So be really aware of this.

Humility and silence are essential for a sadhaka.

However advanced.

Only a fully ripened Jnani can allow himself complete spontaneity.

Are you a fully ripened Jnani?

No.

So don't get into that.

Always seek clarification.

Am I right?

Am I moving in the right direction?

Am I moving in the right direction?

And that's how the path will get lit.

That humility should always be there.

Not to get into that pride.

That see,

I see this.

Humility will take you there.

Because ego will not become an obstacle then.

Your obstacle is your own ego.

Nothing else.

Ramana Maharshi also.

He didn't speak for 20 years.

He took his time.

Buddha also took his time.

Whoever gets enlightened,

For some time they just take their time.

Do I really see?

Do I really see?

Is this it?

There's a story about Ram Krishna Paramhansa.

He did every marg.

He experimented with every marg before he opened his mouth and started spreading the word.

The bhakti marg,

The yog marg,

Everything.

Because he said,

No,

How can I reach the peak?

I have to be sure.

Then he started another marg and he reached the peak.

Again he started another marg,

He reached the peak.

This is a self-evaluation,

The self-inquiry,

Self-investigation.

Testing yourself.

Till you are really clear,

Oh,

This is it.

Every path comes here.

Till that time,

Silence.

He'll talk about it.

Till that time,

Silence.

So humility and silence are essential for a sadhaka,

However advanced.

Only a fully ripened jnani can allow himself complete spontaneity.

So questioner says,

It seems there are schools of yoga where the student after illumination is obliged to keep silent for 7 or 12 or 15 or even 25 years.

Even Bhagwan Sri Ramana Maharshi imposed on himself 20 years of silence before he began to teach.

There.

Maharaj says,

Yes,

The inner fruit must ripen.

Until then,

The discipline,

The living in awareness must go on.

Please highlight,

This is very important.

You must wait for that inner fruit to ripen.

You must wait.

And from within you will know.

Till that time,

Silence.

And continuous discipline of being the awareness itself.

Not being in the witness.

Not trying to be the witness,

Knowing that there is no other option for me but to be myself the consciousness.

That level of confidence,

Recognition,

Conviction in who you are.

That needs to be the part of this discipline that he is talking about.

Clear?

Till that time,

Silence.

Till that time,

Silence.

Maharaj says,

Yes,

The inner fruit must ripen.

Until then,

The discipline,

The living in awareness must go on.

Gradually,

The practice becomes more and more subtle.

Until it becomes altogether formless.

By formless,

He means nishkriya.

As if I am not doing it.

For example,

I say I am not teaching.

I am completely convinced about it.

No two ways.

I never have a plan.

I cannot plan.

Automatically,

The flow directs what is going to happen.

It was never in my hands.

Whatever happens is the flow.

I can never decide.

What I am speaking,

I know at the same time that you know.

I never know in advance.

I don't have a write-up.

You are reading that book,

I am reading the same book at the same time.

Explaining and knowing what Ekta is explaining at the same time that you know.

I am not teaching.

I cannot teach.

I cannot speak.

I have never spoken.

I cannot do.

I have never done.

That recognition of being formless.

That formlessness cannot do,

Cannot think,

Cannot speak,

Cannot teach.

I am not,

Yet I am.

That,

That is that golden master key.

That secret of seeing the truth.

You come to that point.

Then you are permitted the spontaneity.

Because when you come to this point,

There is no question of wrongdoing.

Because I am not doing anything anyways.

There is no right doing,

There is no wrong doing.

Krishnamurti too speaks of living in awareness.

Maharaj says he always aims directly at the ultimate.

Yes,

Ultimately all yogas end in your Adiyoga.

The marriage of consciousness to life.

Where consciousness is the bride and life is the bridegroom.

Consciousness and being meet in bliss.

Means Sat,

Chit,

Anand.

For bliss to arise,

There must be meeting,

Contact.

The assertion of unity in duality.

What is he saying?

Somebody today recognized the oneness the first time.

And because of her,

Everybody got the homework to recognize there is no toucher and touched.

There is just oneness,

No taster and tasted.

There is just oneness.

Do you recognize that?

How did that bliss happen to her?

How did that wow moment come to her?

When she saw non-duality in duality.

Do you understand that line now?

For bliss to arise,

There must be meeting,

Contact.

The assertion of unity which is non-duality in duality.

Buddha too has said that for the attainment of nirvana,

One must go to living beings.

Consciousness needs life to grow.

The world itself is contact.

The totality of all contacts actualized in consciousness.

The spirit touches matter and consciousness results.

Such consciousness when tainted with memory and expectation becomes bondage.

Pure experience does not bind.

Experience caught between desire and fear is impure and creates karma.

The world itself is contact.

Today you recognize that there is nothing but the consciousness.

You were looking at the object and you realize the consciousness itself becomes one with the object and that is what is experience.

Here the word spirit touches matter and consciousness results is actually spirit touches matter and knowingness results.

Knowingness is nothing but knowingness of that object which is equal to experience.

He has different words from Vidyaranyam Swami.

So the spirit touches matter and experience results or knowingness results.

The same thing you did today,

Consciousness is experience.

Such knowingness or experience when it gets tainted with memory and expectation becomes bondage.

The moment I say I like it,

I don't like it,

I want it,

I don't want it and I hold on to all these stories that is the building of the vyakti,

The bondage.

Very clear?

So you have to put the previous conversations together with this one because the vyakti was built from memory.

Do you remember few paragraphs ago?

Vyakti was built from memory and habit.

This vyakti gets built again and again whenever there is recognition of the experience but not recognizing it as consciousness.

Again and again you think I the body,

Mind,

Person am experiencing this.

I like this,

I don't want this,

This should happen this way,

This should happen that way.

Now you have created a story.

Very clear?

The last line is pure experiencing.

In Buddha's language,

Pure vijnana without jumping into sight,

Sound,

Smell,

Taste,

Touch,

Thought,

Feeling,

Sensation.

Simply seen,

Pure experience does not bind.

In Buddha's language,

Pure vijnana does not bind.

Experience caught between desire and fear is impure and creates karma.

Desire and fear,

Raga dvesha.

Any experience that is caught between I like this,

I don't like this,

I want this,

I don't want this that creates karma.

Karma simply means an impression.

Karma simply means an impression.

An impression is created,

Out of that the vyakti is created.

You are developing that vyakti idea even more and more and more.

That is what is karma here.

Nothing more,

There is no real karma.

It's only your own conditioning.

You are developing the conditioning called the vyakti.

Questioner asks,

Can there be happiness in unity?

Does not all happiness imply necessarily contact,

Hence duality?

Because I,

The consciousness,

See an ice cream and then I feel happy.

And the contact with that ice cream.

So,

Happiness comes only by contact is what he is saying.

That means happiness comes only by duality.

Duality.

Two.

Can there be happiness in oneness?

Oneness itself is happiness which he cannot see.

He is quite naive.

There is nothing wrong with duality as long as it does not create conflict.

Please highlight,

Very important.

This is where pure experience comes in,

Pure vijnana.

How will you do pure experience,

Pure vijnana?

Simply being the witness of every arising.

Recognizing flow is what?

It is just one arising after another,

After another.

Not jumping into the arising and saying,

I like this sensation or I hate this thought.

I don't like this perception of sight or I want that perception of taste.

No,

That is all jumping in.

Simply witnessing from the distance is pure vijnana.

This is in the Pali language,

Not Sanskrit.

Pure vijnana,

Pure experiencing,

Pure sakshi.

Simply being the witness.

Not jumping in and claiming doership or ownership.

Not claiming experiencership,

Not claiming mineness.

Mine,

Mine,

Mine,

Mine is mineness.

Simply being the witness.

So there is nothing wrong with duality as long as it does not create conflict.

The moment I jump in and grasp,

That is conflict.

The moment I am standing away,

There is no conflict.

Pure vijnana,

No conflict.

Is that clear?

Now you have to practice this.

This is one of your tasks for tomorrow.

So Maharaj says there is nothing wrong with duality as long as it does not create conflict.

You stay at pure experiencing,

Pure vijnana.

You are not jumping in,

So there is no conflict.

Even saying I love you is conflict.

Do you recognize this?

I and you.

There is an I and you,

A two.

You could have stayed beyond and just been with the love,

In love.

Experience the love,

Soaked in love.

But what did you decide to do?

The jumping in and grasping.

After saying I love you,

What is the next step?

Expectation.

Now you say you love me.

And if you don't get that back in return,

What happens?

Conflict.

Do you see that?

Do you have a more rosier and dearer example than that?

No,

This was your dearest example,

Right?

Of the positive.

So all positives create conflict.

Negatives anyway create conflict.

I versus you,

I don't like you,

This to me is anyway conflict.

But all positives are also conflict.

Compassion.

Who are you compassionate towards?

You.

Why?

You are.

I am greater than you,

I want to give you.

Maharaj says,

Who are you to give anybody?

Just I think the last chapter before this.

Who are you?

Who am I to do anything for the world?

Then drop this I,

I,

I.

I am not.

Then you surrender to the flow.

Everything is happening because of the flow.

It's got nothing to do with me.

I am not.

Simplicity.

Come down to simplicity.

You were like that when you were a baby.

There was no recognition of an I.

Yet there was so much love.

Do you recognize that?

No I and you.

No giving love to you.

And no expectation back in return.

You all were there.

You cannot say that you were not there.

So you know it is your sahaja sthiti.

It is your natural state.

Get back to it.

There is nothing wrong with duality as long as it does not create conflict.

Multiplicity and variety without strife is joy.

In pure consciousness there is light.

For warmth contact is needed.

But above the unity of being is the union of love.

Love is the meaning and purpose of duality.

The whole purpose of this duality is to take you to that oneness that you recognize today.

When that wall between the toucher and the touched fell.

The seer and the seen fell.

Which means subject and object collapse.

That oneness.

That aha moment.

That itself is love.

That is the union that he is talking about.

The purpose of that duality is love.

That should be your goal.

If this duality is there.

Can I simply be in pure vinyana.

Pure seeing.

Then the oneness automatically is recognized with everything.

Not jumping in and claiming I want this or I want that.

Because then you are not in pure seeing.

You have assumed to be the body-mind person.

There is no I.

There is simply seeing.

Did you have few glimpses of that today?

In any of the walks?

Simply seeing.

Not take it down for tomorrow's work.

One is simply seeing and one is the person is not continuous.

Even if you are continuously walking.

The person is not continuous.

Can I recognize this?

These are two very important things from today's chapter.

You have to recognize it can be in the middle of work,

In the middle of chaos.

There can be pure seeing.

Right now for me there is pure seeing.

I am not doing.

I just know what Ekta is saying at the same time Prachi knows what Ekta is saying.

Like that.

Pure seeing.

Simply seeing of what is happening.

You relinquish this control freak nature.

Sit on the side and you will realize.

Yeah,

You are not that person that you assume to be.

It is automatically constantly involved in the Advaita session of its own accord.

I have got nothing to do with it.

Completely separate yourself out.

This is your chance.

I am telling you.

You have what?

Two days are gone.

Only eight days left.

This is your opportunity.

You have isolated yourself from your attachments.

It's very hard to do it back there.

Because you are so attached to the world out there.

This is your opportunity.

Completely dissociate from the body-mind-person.

Simply be the witness moment to moment to moment to moment.

There you will get that magic of pure seeing.

It's really magical.

It's amazing.

It's another level of power.

Then you don't feel so helpless and bound that you feel when you think you are the body.

You don't feel powerless at all.

You don't feel weak.

Nothing can shake you.

Nothing.

So get to that level.

Then jet lag will also not shake you.

Till the time you think you are the body-mind-person,

You will be jet lagged.

Yeah.

Now work on pure seeing.

I will go deeper into it tomorrow.

But I want you to practice a little before I go deeper into it.

This body-mind-person is not continuous.

Now when I spoke about it,

You became aware of the body called Shruti.

Just before this when Ikta was talking about pure seeing,

That time Shruti had disappeared.

It was just the sound of what Ikta was saying,

Then the sight of Ikta,

Then the sound of Ikta.

Shruti was not there.

Now suddenly when she said,

You take the task of recognizing the person is not continuous,

Suddenly the person came back.

Recognize that?

Work on this.

Can I recognize this continuously?

Go on a walk.

I am going to prove Ikta wrong.

Next 20 minutes I am going to do this walk and full 20 minutes there will be the person.

Challenge yourself.

Challenge Ikta.

And start on the walk.

And go.

Let's see.

Is the person there for full 20 minutes?

Now do it and see.

Do it and see.

You have to become convinced yourself.

So challenge Ikta tomorrow morning.

This is number one task.

When you become convinced,

Then come to pure seeing.

Drop the body,

Drop the mind,

Drop the world.

Pure seeing.