Transcription
You are bound by the chains of ego for a long time, O son. I am the awareness. Cut that chain with the sword of knowledge and be happy. In the view of Ashtavakra. And that is the purest vision. The ultimate vision. Bondage is only of belief. Bondage is not real. There is such a mention in the life of Ramakrishna. That throughout his life, he worshipped Mother Kali. But ultimately, he began to feel that this is duality. The experience of oneness has not yet happened. It is loving, it is pleasant. But two still remain two. Someone loves a woman, someone loves wealth, someone loves position. He loved Mother Kali. But love is still divided into two. The supreme non-duality has not yet occurred. When pain began, he started waiting for a non-dualist, a Vedantist, someone who could show him the way. A Paramahamsa Totapuri was passing by. Ramakrishna stopped him and said, "Show me the experience of oneness." Totapuri said, "What is so difficult about this? You consider two, therefore it is two. Give up the belief." But Ramakrishna said, "Giving up belief is very difficult. I have practiced it my whole life. When I close my eyes, the image of Kali stands before me. I get immersed in the bliss. I forget that I have to become one. As soon as I close my eyes, it becomes two. I try to meditate. It becomes duality. Save me." So Totapuri said, "Do this. When the image of Kali appears, pick up a sword and cut it into two pieces." Ramakrishna said, "Where will I get a sword from there?" So what Totapuri said is the word of Ashtavakra. Totapuri said, "Where did you bring this image of Kali from? Bring the sword from there too. This too is imagination. This too has been decorated and adorned with imagination. You have practiced it your whole life. You have repeated it your whole life, so it has become deep. This is just imagination. Not everyone sees Kali when they close their eyes. A Christian closes his eyes, and after years of effort, Christ appears. A devotee of Krishna closes his eyes, and Krishna appears. A devotee of Buddha closes his eyes, and Buddha appears. A devotee of Mahavir closes his eyes, and Mahavir appears. A Jain does not see Christ. A Christian does not see Mahavir. Whatever imagination you practice, that appears. Ramakrishna practiced Kali, so the imagination has become deep. Through repeated repetition, through constant remembrance, the imagination has become so real that now it feels like Kali is standing in front of me. No one is standing there. Consciousness alone is. There is no other here. There is no second. You close your eyes." Totapuri said, "Pick up the sword and break it." Ramakrishna closed his eyes, but as soon as he closed his eyes, his courage failed. To pick up a sword and break Kali. To pick up a sword to cut God. This is a very difficult thing. Leaving the world is very easy. What is there to hold onto in the world? But when a deep imagination of the mind has been created. When a poem of the mind has been created. When a dream of the mind has been realized, then it is very difficult to leave. The world is like a dream of sorrow. The dreams of devotion, the dreams of emotion are not dreams of sorrow, they are very pleasant dreams. How to leave them? How to break them? Tears start flowing from the eyes, the body trembles with emotion. But that sword would not be raised. The memory of the sword would be forgotten. Finally, Totapuri said, "Enough. Sitting like this for days won't work. Either you do it, or I will. Don't waste my time. This game is over." That day, Totapuri brought a piece of glass and said, "When you start getting absorbed, I will cut your forehead with this piece of glass. When I cut your forehead here, gather courage within yourself, pick up the sword, and cut it into two pieces. This is the last thing. Then I will not stop." Totapuri's threat of leaving, and then finding such a Guru would be difficult. Totapuri must have been a person like Ashtavakra. When Ramakrishna closed his eyes, the image of Kali emerged, and he was about to get absorbed. Tears were about to flow from his eyes. Emotion was rising. Ecstasy was about to happen, when Totapuri took the piece of glass and cut his forehead from top to bottom, where the Ajna chakra is. A stream of blood flowed. At that moment, Ramakrishna gathered courage within himself, picked up the sword, and cut Kali into two pieces. Kali fell there, oneness occurred, the wave merged into the ocean, the river descended into the ocean. Then it is said that for six days, he remained immersed in that supreme void. There was no hunger, no thirst, no awareness of the outside world, no consciousness. He forgot everything. And when he opened his eyes after six days, the first word he spoke was, "The last barrier has fallen." This first verse says, "O son, you have been bound by the chains of ego for a long time. You have started considering that chain as your existence. I am the body. I am the body. I am the body. You have repeated this for countless births. Due to repetition, we have become the body. We are not the body. This is our superimposition. This is our practice. This is our self-hypnosis. We have believed so deeply that we have become it." There is another mention in the life of Ramakrishna. He performed the practices of all religions. He was the only person in the history of mankind who tried to reach truth through the paths of all religions. Normally, a person reaches through one path. Then who worries about other paths? You have reached the peak of the mountain. Then do other trails lead there or not? Who worries? You have reached. Whichever trail brought you, brought you. Whether the others bring you or not, who cares? Ramakrishna reached the peak of the mountain again and again, then descended again, then climbed from another path, then climbed from a third path. He is the first person who performed the practices of all religions and attained the same peak from all religions. Many people spoke of synthesis. Ramakrishna, for the first time, created the science of synthesis. Many people said, "All religions are true," but that was just talk. Ramakrishna made it a fact. He gave it the strength of experience. He proved it with his life. When he was practicing Islam, he became exactly like a Muslim fakir. He forgot Ramakrishna. He started chanting "Allah, Allah." He started listening to verses from the Quran. He would lie at the door of a mosque. He would pass by the temple without even looking. Offering salutations was out of the question. He forgot Kali. In Bengal, there is a sect called the Sakhi sect. When Ramakrishna practiced the Sakhi sect, the belief of the Sakhi sect is that God is the only male, and all others are women. God is Krishna, and all others are his companions. So, even the men of the Sakhi sect consider themselves women. But the event that happened in Ramakrishna's life never happened to anyone who believed in the Sakhi sect. A man might consider himself a woman superficially, but inwardly he remains a man. He knows he is a man. So, people of the Sakhi sect sleep with the idol of Krishna on their bed at night, considering it their husband. But what difference does that make? But when Ramakrishna practiced, an unprecedented event occurred. An event that would surprise even great scientists. He practiced the Sakhi sect for six months. After three months, his breasts developed. His voice changed. He started walking like women. His sweet voice became like women's. His breasts developed. His body's male structure began to change. But even this is possible, because men also have breasts. They are underdeveloped in women, developed. So, perhaps underdeveloped breasts became developed. The seed is there. Nothing very significant happened up to this point. Many men develop breasts. This is not a very surprising thing. But when six months were completed, he started menstruating. That was the miracle. The onset of menstruation. This is contrary to the entire science of the body. Such a thing has never happened to any man. What happened in these six months? The belief was, "I am a woman." This belief was held so deeply. This emotion resonated so deeply. It echoed in every pore and every particle of the body that "I am a woman." The opposite feeling disappeared. The idea of being a man was forgotten. So, the event occurred. Ashtavakra is saying, we are not the body. We have become the body because we believed so. We have become whatever we have believed. The world is our belief, and if we give up the belief, we can be transformed instantly. To give up, one does not need to change reality, only to let go of a notion. If we were truly the body, then change would be very difficult. We are not truly the body. We are truly the consciousness hidden within the body, the witness, the seer. "You are bound by the chains of ego for a long time, O son. I am the awareness. Cut that chain with the sword of knowledge and be happy." Raise the sword of awareness, I am awareness. Raise the sword of such a feeling and cut off this notion that "I am the body." Then you will be happy. All sorrows are of the body. Birth, illness, old age, death. All are of the body. Identification with the body means identification with all the pains of the body. When the body gets a little old, we think, "I have become a little old." When the body gets sick, we think, "I have become sick." When the body approaches death, we panic, thinking, "I am dying." Belief is just belief. I heard that Mulla Nasruddin slept with his wife one night. They had no children yet, and his wife was very eager to have a child. As they were going to sleep, his wife said, "Listen, if we have a son, where will we put him to sleep? Because there is only one bed." So the Mulla moved a little to the side. He said, "We will put him to sleep in the middle." And the wife said, "What if another one comes?" So the Mulla moved a little more. He said, "We will put him here too." "What a stingy man," said the wife. "What if a third one comes?" The Mulla moved even further. He was about to say, "We will put him here too," when he fell down with a thud, and his leg broke. The neighbors gathered, hearing the commotion. He screamed and cried. The neighbors asked, "What happened?" He said, "The son who is not even born yet has broken my leg." And if a false son can cause so much harm, then what about a real son? I beg forgiveness, I don't want a son at all. This experience is enough. Sometimes, often, we live like this. We assume, then we start acting based on that assumption. Then real consequences start happening in life. The belief may be false, the sons were not there, but the leg was actually broken. Even a lie can have consequences. If a lie is believed deeply, its consequences start to manifest in reality. The Manusmriti says that the differences seen in this world are less of reality and more of belief. A psychologist at Harvard University was conducting an experiment. He brought a large bottle, properly sealed and packed, into his classroom. About 50 students. He placed the bottle on a table and told the students, "This bottle contains ammonia gas. I want to conduct an experiment to see how long it takes for the smell of ammonia gas to reach people once I open the lid." So, whoever smells the gas, raise your hand. As soon as you sense the smell, raise your hand. So I want to know how many seconds it takes to reach the last row of the room. The students sat alertly. He opened the bottle. As soon as he opened the bottle, he quickly covered his nose with a handkerchief. Ammonia gas. He stepped back and stood. Not even two seconds passed, and in the first row, one person raised his hand. Then another. Then a third. Then hands were raised in the second row. Then in the third row. In 15 seconds, ammonia gas had reached the entire class, and there was no ammonia gas in that bottle. It was an empty bottle. The notion becomes the result. If you believe it, it happens. When he said, "There is no ammonia gas in this," the students still said, "Whether it is there or not, we smelled it. We smelled the belief. The smell came from within. There was nothing outside. We thought, so it came." I heard that in a hospital, a man was sick. A nurse brought him juice, orange juice. Before the nurse who brought the juice, another nurse had given him a bottle and said, "Fill this with your urine for testing." He was a bit of a prankster. He put orange juice in that bottle and kept it. When the nurse came to take the bottle, she was a little surprised because the color was a bit strange. So the man said, "You are also surprised, the color is a bit strange. Let me pass it through my body once more, the color will be fine." He picked up the bottle and drank it. They say the nurse fainted and fell because she thought the man was drinking urine. He says again, "Let me pass it through the body once more, the color will improve. It will be normal." What kind of person is he? But there was only orange juice. If he had known it was only orange juice, no one would have fainted. But this fainting is real. It is of belief. You can find thousands of such incidents in life where belief works. Belief becomes reality. "I am the body." This has been happening for countless births. It is a believed thing. Because we believed it, we became the body. Because we believed it, we became Shudras. Because we believed it, we became limited. The fundamental basis of Ashtavakra is that this is self-hypnosis. You have not become the body. You cannot become the body. There is no way for this. How can you become what you are not? What you are, you still are. You just have to cut off the false belief. "I am the awareness. Cut that chain with the sword of knowledge and be happy right now." Raise the sword of knowledge and be happy. Awaken happiness now, because all sorrows are the aftermath of our belief that we are the body. Even the Buddha dies, but there is no pain of death. Ramakrishna also dies, but there is no pain of death. Ramana also dies, but there is no pain of death. When Ramana died, he had cancer. Doctors were very surprised. It was a very difficult illness, a very painful illness. But Ramana was as he was. As if the illness had made no difference. No change occurred anywhere. The doctors were troubled, thinking, "This is impossible. How can this happen? Death is at the door, and the person is undisturbed." We can understand the restlessness of the doctors. So much pain is happening, and the person is undisturbed. Detached. We can understand their restlessness, their logic. Because the body seems to be everything to us. One who knows that "I am not the body" is approaching death, but it is the body that is approaching, and the pain is happening, that too is happening in the body. A new consciousness has emerged, which is watching from a distance, and the distance between the body and consciousness is as vast as the distance between the earth and the sky. There is no greater distance than this. The farthest things in the world are meeting within you. You are the horizon where the earth and sky meet. "That which is born, exists, grows, transforms, decays, and perishes. That is not you. You are the one who sees all this." You saw childhood, then you saw childhood leaving. If you were childhood itself, who would remember childhood today? You would have gone with childhood. You saw youth, saw youth arriving, saw it leaving. If you were youth itself, who would remember today? You would have gone with youth. You saw youth arriving, saw it leaving. Naturally, you are different from youth. It is such a simple thing, such a clear thing. You saw pain, saw pain arising, saw clouds of pain descending all around you, then you saw pain leaving, saw pain dissolving. You saw sorrow, saw happiness. A thorn pricked, you felt pain. The thorn was removed, you felt relief. You saw that too. You are the observer. You stand apart. You are untouched. No event can touch you. You are like a lotus in water, unattached. You are actionless, self-luminous, and blameless. Your bondage is that you perform the practice of Samadhi. These are wonderfully revolutionary words. It is impossible to find such revolutionary words in any scripture in the world. If you understand its full meaning, profound awe will arise. Patanjali said, "Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind." This is the common belief about yoga: until the modifications of the mind cease, a person cannot know themselves. When all the modifications of the mind become calm, then a person can know themselves. Ashtavakra is saying the opposite of Patanjali's sutra. Ashtavakra says, "You are unattached, actionless, self-luminous, and blameless. Your bondage is that you perform the practice of Samadhi." The practice of Samadhi cannot happen. The arrangement of Samadhi cannot happen because Samadhi is your nature. Modifications of the mind are inert states. The cessation of modifications of the mind is like a person's house being filled with darkness, and they start fighting with the darkness. Understand this a little. Bring swords, spears, clubs, and start fighting with the darkness. Call young men, strong men, push the darkness. Will he ever win? Although the definition is correct that the absence of darkness is light, understand the matter a little. The absence of darkness is light. This is true. The absence of modifications of the mind is yoga. This is true. But do not grasp the matter from the wrong end. The absence of darkness is light, so do not get caught up in trying to eliminate darkness. The actual situation is from the other side. The presence of light is the absence of darkness. Light a lamp, and darkness will disappear on its own. Darkness does not exist. Darkness is merely absence. Patanjali says, "Calm the modifications of the mind, then you will know the Self." Ashtavakra says, "Know the Self, and the modifications of the mind will become calm." Without knowing the Self, you cannot even calm the modifications of the mind. It is because of not knowing the Self that the modifications of the mind arise. If you identify yourself as the body, then desires of the body arise. If you identify yourself as the mind, then desires of the mind arise. Whatever you associate with, its desires are reflected in you. Whomever you sit near, their color rubs off on you. Just as if you place a crystal near a colored stone, the color of the colored stone reflects on the crystal. Place it near a red stone, the crystal appears red. Place it near a blue stone, the crystal appears blue. This is the fault of proximity. The crystal does not become blue. It only appears to be. Darkness only appears. It does not exist. Darkness is the name for the absence of light. Darkness has no existence of its own, no real existence. So do not fight with darkness. Yoga and Ashtavakra's view are very opposite. That is why I said, if you want to understand Ashtavakra, try to understand Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti is the modern version of Ashtavakra. In pure modern language, in today's language, what Krishnamurti is saying is the essence of pure Ashtavakra. Followers of Krishnamurti think that Krishnamurti is saying something new. New.
There is nothing to say. Everything that could be said has been said. All possible aspects of life have been covered. Man has been searching for eternity. There is nothing new to say under this sun. Only language changes. Appearances change, clothes change. The application of new concepts changes with time. But what is being said is exactly the same. Ashtavakra's language is ancient. Krishnamurti's language is very new. But anyone who can understand even a little will see that it is the same thing. Krishnamurti says there is no need for yoga. There is no need for meditation. There is no need for chanting or penance. These are all rituals. Rituals are to be performed for that which is not our nature. What ritual is needed to attain one's nature? Leave all rituals and look within yourself. Your nature will be revealed. You are unattached. You are actionless. You are self-luminous and blameless. Look at this declaration. Ashtavakra says you are blameless. Therefore, do not ever think that you are a sinner. Even if a million saints tell you that you are a sinner. Wash away your sins. Repent. Atone for the bad deeds you have done. Keep Ashtavakra's words in mind: you are actionless, so how can you perform actions? Ashtavakra says there are six waves in life: hunger, thirst, sorrow, delusion, birth, and death. These six waves. Hunger and thirst are waves of the body. If there were no body, there would be no hunger or thirst. These are the needs of the body. When the body is healthy, it feels more hunger. When the body is sick, it does not feel much hunger. If you stand in the sun, you will feel more thirsty because sweat will evaporate. You will feel more thirsty in the heat. You will feel less thirsty in the winter. These are the needs of the body. These are the waves of the body. Hunger and thirst are of the body. Sorrow and delusion are of the mind. If something is lost, there is sadness because the mind clings to it. It develops attachment. If a loved one is found, there is happiness. If a loved one is lost, there is sadness. If an unloved one is found, there is sadness. If an unloved one is lost, there is happiness. But these are the games of the mind, the games of attachment and detachment, the games of attraction and repulsion. For the person within whom the mind no longer exists, there is no sorrow, no delusion. These are waves of the mind. Birth and death are waves of the prana. Birth happens with the breath. Death happens with the departure of the breath. Therefore, when a child is born, the doctor makes sure it breathes quickly and cries. Crying simply means that by crying, it will breathe. In the jolt of crying, the breath will be taken. The closed lungs will start working in the jolt of crying. If the baby does not cry within a few seconds, the doctor hangs it upside down and slaps it so that it breathes in the jolt. Breath is the process of prana. When a person dies, the breath stops. The process of prana has stopped. This is happening every moment. When breath comes in, life comes in. When breath goes out, life goes out. Birth and death are happening every moment. Every incoming breath is life. Every outgoing breath is death. So, death and birth are happening every moment. These are the waves of prana. Ashtavakra says these are the six waves. You are beyond these six. You are their witness. Therefore, Buddha built his entire practice system on the breath alone. Buddha said one thing is enough: keep watching the incoming and outgoing breath. What will happen by watching the incoming and outgoing breath? Gradually, if you watch the outgoing breath, it goes out. If you watch the incoming breath, it comes in. Then, in between, you will also find a short period when the breath becomes still. It neither goes out nor comes in. There is a momentary interval between every incoming and outgoing breath when the breath does not move, does not stir, does not move out. Then it pauses for a moment and comes in. It comes in, then pauses for a moment, then goes out. Then you will see the intervals. In those intervals, you will find that you are. The coming and going of breath is the play of prana. And if you are capable of watching the breath, then the watcher is separate from the breath, detached from the breath. The body is our outer periphery. The mind is the inner periphery. Prana is even deeper within. So, it is possible. The body may become disabled, may break down, yet man lives. The mind may become fragmented, deranged, inert, yet man lives. But without breath, man does not live. Even if the entire brain is removed, man continues to live. He will lie there, but life will remain. Cut off all the limbs of the body. As long as the breath continues, man will live. If the breath stops, even if everything is present, man is dead. These are the six waves, and you are beyond these six. You are unattached. You have no companion. The body is not your companion. The breath is not your companion. The thoughts of the mind are not your companions. You are unattached. There is no companion within. What to speak of the outside? Husband, wife, family, friends, relatives, no one is a companion. Being together is merely an external event. There is no inner connection with anyone. You are unattached. You are actionless. Therefore, do not even bring up the topic of the web of actions. If you ask Ashtavakra if liberation can happen right now, what about actions? What about the sins committed over lifetimes? How to get rid of them? Ashtavakra says you never committed them. The body might have done something due to hunger. Prana might have done something due to prana. The mind might have done something due to the mind. You never did anything. You are always unattached. You are in inaction. Actions never happened from you. You are the witness of all actions. Therefore, liberation can happen this very moment. Consider this: if we had to break all the webs of actions, then perhaps liberation would never happen. It is impossible. How many actions have we done in eternity? Make an account of them. If we have to be freed from all those actions, it will take eternity to be freed from those actions. And during this eternity of being freed, you will not just sit there; you will do something. So, actions will continue to happen. This chain will be endless. This chain will never end. No conclusion will come from this. Ashtavakra says if one has to be freed from actions, then liberation happens. But liberation happens. The happening of liberation is proof that the soul never committed actions. Neither are you a sinner, nor are you a virtuous soul, nor are you a saint, nor are you an unholy person. There is no hell anywhere, nor is there any heaven. You never did anything. You only had dreams. You only thought. You slept within. The body kept doing. The bodies that performed actions are gone. What is their fruit for you? You slept within. The mind performed actions. The mind that performed them is going through the consequences. I have heard that a former king saw that the drawing-room was dirty. So, he scolded the servant, Jhaku. He said the drawing-room is covered in cobwebs. What do you do all day? Jhaku said, "Your Highness, the spider spun the web. I was resting in my room." You were resting within. The spider spun the web. The body spun the webs. The mind spun the webs. Prana spun the webs. You were sleeping. Wake up. Upon waking, you will find that you never did anything. Even if you want to do something, you cannot. Inaction is your nature. Being an actor is your natural state. You are unattached, actionless, self-luminous, and blameless. This is the declaration: you are blameless. So, whatever the scholars and priests have taught you, throw it away. You are blameless. Their teachings have caused great danger. They have made you a sinner. They have taught you a thousand things that you are so bad. They have filled you with humility and a sense of guilt. You are blameless. You are innocent. Your bondage is this: you perform the ritual of samadhi. Look at the revolution of this statement. Your bondage is this: you perform the ritual of samadhi. You plan how samadhi will flourish, how liberation will come through meditation. You are bound by rituals. Samadhi is un-ritually performed. This is your bondage. Take the sword of knowledge and cut it. So, two things will become clear to you here: one is the path of yoga, and the other is a completely different path of knowledge. The ancient name for the path of knowledge is Sankhya. Sankhya means knowledge. Yoga means practice. Sankhya means just waking up. Just do nothing. Yoga means doing a lot, then awakening will happen. Yoga has practice. Sankhya has only the goal. There is no path. Only the destination. Because you never went anywhere from the destination. You are sitting in the temple within yourself. There is no need to come back. You just need to know that you never went anywhere. Unattached, actionless, self-luminous, and pure. This is the only bondage: that you are searching for liberation. The search for liberation creates new bondages. A person is bound in the world, then becomes agitated, and starts searching for liberation. So, he leaves his home, his family, his wealth, his shop. Then he gets bound by new bondages. He becomes a monk. Now, eat like this, sit like this, eat like this, drink like this. Now he creates new bondages around himself. You have seen that the condition of monks is like that of prisoners. Monks are not free. Because the monk thinks that to be free, one must first perform rituals. This is also a funny thing. To be free, one must first accept bondage. To be free, no bondage is needed. Krishnamurti's book, "The First and Last Freedom." That is the most modern statement of Ashtavakra. If you want to be free, be free at the very first step. Do not think that you will be free in the end. You have to be free at the very first step. Not at the second step. Because if you think at the first step that you will prepare to be free, then new bondages will be created in that preparation itself. Then you will have to prepare to be freed from those new bondages. In that preparation, new bondages will be created again. So, you will escape from one, and get bound by another. You will escape a well, and fall into a ditch. So, you see, the householder is bound, and the renunciate is bound. Both their bondages are different. But there is no difference. It seems that until the fundamental delusion is broken, whatever you do will be a bondage. I have heard that a man's wife ran away. So, he went out to search for her. While searching, he reached the forest. There, a monk was sitting under a tree. He asked, "Did you see my wife going?" She ran away from home. He was very restless. So, the monk asked, "What is your wife's name?" He said, "My wife's name is Fajiti." The monk said, "Fajiti. You have kept a wonderful name. All wives are Fajiti like this. You have chosen a wonderful name. What is your name?" The monk was pleased that he was clever with names. He said, "My name is Bewakoof." The monk laughed. He said, "You stop searching. Wherever you sit, Fajitis will come there. You don't need to go anywhere. Your being Bewakoof is enough. Fajitis will find you themselves." When a person leaves the world and runs away, his foolishness does not disappear. His delusion does not disappear. The delusion does not disappear. He sits in the temple with that delusion. He creates new bondages. That delusion spins new webs. He was bound in the world before. He gets bound in renunciation. But he cannot live without being bound. Liberation is at the first step. There is no planning for it. Planning means being bound by the plan. If you make arrangements, you are bound by the arrangements. Then you will have to be freed from this. How long will this go on? This will be endless. I have heard. A man was afraid to leave the cremation ground, and his house was across the cremation ground, so he had to leave every day. He was so afraid that he did not leave home at night. He would return home in the evening, trembling. Finally, a monk took pity on him. He said, "Leave this worry. Take this amulet. Always wear this amulet. Then no ghost or spirit will be able to affect you." The result was that the fear of ghosts and spirits disappeared after wearing the amulet. But now a new fear gripped him: that the amulet might get lost. Naturally, the amulet that saved him from ghosts and spirits. Now he would go out even at midnight. There was no fear from the cremation ground. Ghosts and spirits were never there. It was his own fear. The amulet freed him from fear, but a new fear caught him: that the amulet might get lost. So, even when he went to the bathroom, he would take the amulet. He would repeatedly touch and check the amulet. Now he became so fearful that when he slept at night, he would fear that someone might open the amulet. Someone might steal the amulet. Because the amulet had become his life. The fear remained in its place. If it was not of ghosts, it was of the amulet. Now, if someone gave him something else instead of the amulet, what difference would it make? This man's fearful state would not change. The question is not of ghosts. The question is of fear. So, you can move fear from one place to another. Many people play this game of passing the buck. They throw the ball here and there. It comes from there to here. They just keep throwing and playing, and life passes by. Ashtavakra says that the ritual of samadhi is the cause of bondage. If you want to be free, declare your freedom. Do not plan. Therefore, I say, look at the revolution of this statement. This statement is unique. It is unparalleled. Ashtavakra says, declare your freedom now and here. Do not prepare. Do not say that we will prepare first. Because then the preparation will become a bondage. How will you leave that preparation? You escape one disease, and another disease catches you. This is like changing shoulders. You have seen that when they carry a corpse to the cremation ground, they change shoulders. They get tired of carrying it on one shoulder, so they put it on another. They get some relief for a while, then the other shoulder starts to ache, so they change again. You have been doing this for lifetimes. This only provides relief. It does not provide ultimate rest. Stop carrying the dead. Declare. If you wish, the declaration can happen in a moment, in a fraction of a moment. People ask me, "Do you give renunciation to everyone?" I say, "Everyone is entitled to it. It is just a matter of declaration. You don't have to do anything else. Just declare." This declaration must reside in your heart. If you say, "I am a renunciate," then you are a renunciate. If you say, "I am free," then you are free. Your declaration is your life. Dare to declare. Why make small declarations? Declare, "Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman." You have become Brahman. In the next sutra, Ashtavakra says: This world is pervaded by you, woven into you. You are the true, pure consciousness. Therefore, do not attain a base mind. What small things it connects to. Sometimes it connects: this house is mine, this body is mine, this wealth is mine, this shop is mine. Why connect the mind to petty things? Tva vyapta midam vishvam, tatam yatharthata. The entire truth is permeated by you. The entire Brahman is pervaded by you. Shuddha buddhi svarupam magam shudata. Why declare petty things? Make a grand declaration. Make one declaration. I am pure consciousness. I am pure knowledge. Do not attain a base mind. We have made very small declarations. Whatever we declare, that is what we become. In this regard, India's contribution to the world is unique. Because India made the grandest declarations in the world. Mansoor declared in the Muslim world, "Anal Haq, I am Truth." They killed him. They said, "This man is making a declaration beyond necessity. I am Truth. Only God can say that. How can a human say that?" But we did not kill Ashtavakra. Nor did we kill the Rishis of the Upanishads who said, "Aham Brahmasmi." Because we understood one thing: whatever a person declares, that is what he becomes. So, why make small declarations? If the expansion of your life depends on your declaration, then declare the ultimate expansion. Declare the cosmic. Declare the omnipresent, the divine. Why settle for less? Why be so stingy even in declaration? If you are stingy, you become that way. If you consider yourself petty, you become petty. If you consider yourself cosmic, you become cosmic. Your belief is your life. Your belief is your lifestyle. You are detached, desireless, changeless. You are self-reliant, a mass of consciousness. You are the abode of peace and liberation. You are unfathomable intelligence. You are free from sorrow. Therefore, be established in pure consciousness alone. One conviction is enough. Not practice, not faith. Just this much conviction is enough: I am pure consciousness. This is the greatest magic in this world. Manu Smriti says that if you repeatedly tell a person that he is unintelligent, he becomes unintelligent. All the people who appear unintelligent in the world are not all unintelligent. They are God. They have been made to appear unintelligent, have been told so. So many people have repeated this, and they themselves have repeated it so many times that they have become foolish. Those who could have become enlightened have remained foolish. Manu Smriti says that if you meet a person on the road, and he is perfectly healthy, and you say to him, "Oh, what happened to you? Your face is yellow. You have a fever. Your hands seem sick, your legs are trembling." At first, he will deny it because he had not even thought of it a moment ago. He will say, "No, I am perfectly fine. What are you talking about?" "Okay, as you wish." Then, after a while, another person meets him and says, "Oh, your face has turned yellow. What's the matter?" Now he cannot deny it with such confidence. He will say, "Yes, I am feeling a bit unwell." He is starting to agree. His confidence is waning. Then a third person meets him and says, "Oh, now he will go home. I am feeling much worse." "There is no point in going to the market now." You have heard the story that a Brahmin was bringing a goat. Four ruffians saw him and thought that his goat could be snatched, but the Brahmin was strong, and snatching was not an easy matter. So, they thought of using some diplomacy. One met him by the riverbank and said, "Amazing, how much did you buy this dog for?" The Brahmin said, "Dog? Are you blind? Are you mad? It's a goat. I am buying it from the market. I spent ₹50." He said, "Brother, as you wish, but you know. You are a Brahmin carrying a dog on your shoulder. To me, it looks like a dog. Perhaps I am mistaken." The Brahmin walked away, thinking, "What kind of person is this?" But he touched the goat's legs once. It is a goat. On the other side, his accomplice was standing. He said, "The dog you bought is amazing." Now the Brahmin could not say with such confidence that it is not a dog. "Perhaps it is a dog." So, two people cannot be wrong. Still, he said, "No, no, it is not a dog." But now he was weak. He was saying it, but his inner conviction was shaken. He said, "No, no, it is not a dog, it is a goat." He said, "This is called a goat." So, the definition will have to change. "Brahmin, sir, if you call this a goat, then what will you call a dog?" "Anyway, as you wish, you are a learned man. Perhaps you will change it. It's just a matter of name. Whether you call it a dog or a goat, it will remain a dog." Saying it is a dog does not mean anything. That person left. The Brahmin took it down, put the goat down, and looked at it. It is absolutely a goat. A goat that looks exactly like a goat. He washed its eyes with water from a tap by the roadside, because his neighborhood was getting closer, and people might see that the Brahmin...
The dog has a head, so the priest will be shocked by the ritual. People perform rituals, they won't do them if people think they are mad. But then look, brother, it has all kinds of goats. But what happened to these two men? He put it back and walked away, but now he walked a little fearfully, lest someone else see him. Their third companion was standing there. He said the dog is amazing. Where did you get it? We have also wanted a dog for a long time. He said, "Baba, you take it. If you want a dog, you take it. This is the dog. A friend gave it to me. Get rid of it for me." He ran away from there towards home so that no one would know that he had taken the dog. Man is living like this. You have become what you have believed. And all around you are many scoundrels who are making you believe many things. They have their own purposes. The priest wants to explain that you are a sinner, because if you are not a sinner, how will the ritual continue? His interest lies in the goat appearing as a dog. He is a priest. If you are not ignorant, what will happen to his priesthood? How will his shop run? He is a religious leader. If he explains to you that you are not the doer. You are devoid of action. You have never committed any sin. Then what is his need? This is like you going to a doctor and he explains that you are not sick at all. You have never been sick. You cannot be sick. Health is your nature. So this doctor is committing suicide. What will happen to his shop? You go to the doctor even when you are perfectly healthy. When you have no illness, you go. Even then you will find that he will find an illness. You go and see. You are perfectly healthy. You have no illness, just go. And tell the doctor that you need some tests done. It is very difficult to find such a doctor who says you are not sick. Mullā Naṣruddīn's son became a doctor. So I asked him how it was going. He said it was going quite well. I asked how he knew it was going quite well. He said it was going so well that sometimes he tells the sick that they are not sick at all. This is what a doctor can say whose practice is booming. The practice is such that he doesn't want to take on too much trouble now. He doesn't have time. So he said, "From this, I understand that it is going perfectly well." Sometimes he tells people, "No, you don't have any illness." These are shops. They have their own interests. Thousands of shops are running on you. The priest's, the purohit's, the religious leader's. Your being a sinner is necessary. It is essential that you have done bad deeds. Otherwise, what will happen to those who free you from bad deeds? What will happen to the messiahs? Those who come for your liberation, if Ashtavakra is right, then all messiahs are useless. Then there is no need for your liberation. You are already liberated. You are liberation itself. Ashtavakra has no shop like anyone else. Just as Ashtavakra does not want to do any business with you. He tells you straightforward things. He tells you the plain truth. You are absolute, desireless, changeless, dependent, consciousness, peace, and liberation. You are profound wisdom, devoid of shame. Therefore, be steadfast in pure consciousness. There should be only one conviction: I am a witness. That is enough. Such a faithful person is religious. No other faith is needed. There is no need for faith in God. No need for faith in heaven and hell. No need for faith in the theory of karma. One faith is enough. And that faith is that I am a witness, changeless, and as soon as you have this faith, you will find yourself becoming changeless. A psychologist conducted an experiment. He divided a class into two halves. Half the boys on one side, half on the other, in separate rooms. Then he went to the first group and said that mathematics is very difficult. None of you will be able to solve it. He wrote a math problem on the board and said it is so difficult that you don't have the ability, even students from higher classes cannot solve it. But we are doing an experiment. We want to see if any of you can come even a little close to solving it. Can take even a few steps in the right direction? It is impossible. He repeated this many times, saying it is impossible. Still, you try. He went into the other room. Half the boys from the same class, he wrote the same math problem on the board and said that this problem is so simple that it is impossible for any of you not to solve it. Boys from lower classes have solved it. So we are not giving it to test you, you will solve it anyway, it is so simple. We just want to know if there is even one student in your class who can make a mistake even in this. The problem was the same, the class was the same, there was a big difference in the results. In the first group, out of 15 boys, only three boys could solve it. In the second group, out of 15, 12 solved it, only three could not solve it. Such a big difference, the problem was the same, the attitude given with the problem became effective. Ashtavakra does not tell you that religion is difficult to achieve. Ashtavakra says it is very simple. Those who say it is difficult make it difficult. Those who say it is impossible, like the edge of a sword, they scare you. Those who say it is like climbing the Himalayas. Only a few can climb it. You give up the worry, thinking you are not among the few. This is not your cup of tea. So let the few climb. But we are simple people, let us stay in this valley. Ashtavakra says it is very simple. It is so simple that you don't even need to do anything. Just observing by chanting is enough. This is the final declaration of human intellect. This is to make humans aware of their ultimate possibilities. Religion is the ultimate miracle of human genius. If there is a comparison, politics is the lowest form of human genius, and religion is the highest form of human genius. It happened. A politician recovered from a severe illness. So the doctor advised him not to do any mental work for two to three months. The politician asked, "Doctor, is there any objection if I do a little politics etc.?" The doctor said, "No, not at all. You can do as much politics as you want, just don't do any mental work." There is no mental work in politics anyway. Politics is violence. Not genius. It is snatching, struggling, not peace, not rest, restlessness, ambition, jealousy, aggression, not soul. Religion is non-aggression, non-violence. Competition is liberation. Not struggle, but surrender. Not snatching from anyone. It is declaring what is yours. What is yours is enough that what is there to snatch from anyone? Only those who do not know themselves snatch. They fight for fragments and God resides within. They die for fragments. And the ultimate expanse is present within. The ocean is present. They yearn for drops. Those who do not know themselves are in politics. And when I say politics, I don't just mean those who are in political parties. By politics, I mean all those who are in any kind of struggle, whether it is a struggle for wealth, then it is the politics of wealth. If it is a struggle for position, then it is the politics of position. If it is a struggle for renunciation, then it is the politics of renunciation. There is a great struggle among renunciates that no other renunciate should snatch. The Olympics continue among renunciates, that no Mahatma should become greater. So one Mahatma is engaged in defeating another Mahatma. So if there is ever an Olympics in India, there should be a competition for Mahatmas too. But wherever there is competition, there is politics. The fundamental tone of politics is: I don't have it, and others have it. I will have it only by snatching. But when will what you snatch from others be yours? How will it be? How will what is snatched be yours? What is snatched will be snatched. If not today, tomorrow someone else will snatch it from you. And if no one can snatch it, then death will certainly snatch it. Only that is yours which is yours without snatching from anyone, then even death cannot snatch it. Only that is yours which was yours before birth. It will be yours even after death. Search for that one. And for the search of that one, there is no need for any means. Ashtavakra says. Just awareness, just the state of being a witness. In life, you often feel that you are running pointlessly. But how to stop? It's not that you don't feel that this pointless running around is also felt by you. But how to stop? The practice of running around is ancient. We have forgotten to stop. The feet have become accustomed to running. The mind has become accustomed to running. The practice has become such that we cannot sit. The complaint had come to the lips, but to whom to tell? So what to say was useless. We walked on, enduring the pain, so we kept walking. We refused to sit down in defeat. And then people think that if they sit like this, they will lose. If they sit, people will think they have lost. If they sit, people will think, "Oh, he's an escapist, a fugitive." If they sit, the crowd going by thousands will look with condemnation. So people kept walking. Many times a complaint comes to the mind that everything seems useless, but to whom to say? Who will understand? Everyone here is like you. No one tells anyone. Hiding their own village, people keep walking. The complaint had come to the lips, but to whom to tell? So what to say was useless. If someone like Ashtavakra or Buddha were met, then there would be a point in saying something. To whom to say? Here, enduring the pain, we kept walking. People keep walking, enduring the pain. They refused to sit down in defeat. And this becomes a notion of ego that sitting in defeat means you are gone, drowned, dead. Keep walking, keep doing something, keep trying to get something. Otherwise, you will be lost. And those who sit down get it. Those who stop and pause get it. God is not found by running, but by stopping. Therefore, Ashtavakra says it is found in ultimate rest. Sometimes sit for a while, sometimes for a moment, just sit. Do nothing. Among Zen monks, there is a practice called "Jajan," which means just sit, do nothing. It is a very deep meditation practice. It's not even right to call it a practice, because it's not a practice at all. Just sit, do nothing. Just as Ashtavakra is saying, so is Zen saying: sit down for a while, just sit. In rest, for a while, leave all confusion, for a while, leave all ambition, leave the mind's running around, the hustle and bustle. Just sit for a while, be immersed in yourself. Gradually, a light will begin to spread within you. Initially, perhaps it will not be visible. Just like when you return home in the middle of the afternoon, it seems dark inside the house. Your eyes have become accustomed to the sun. You sit for a while, your eyes adjust. Then the light starts to become visible. Gradually, the room becomes light. It is the same within. You have gone outside for lifetimes, so it seems dark within. The first time you go, you will not understand anything. Darkness, only darkness. Don't be afraid, sit. Let your eyes adjust for a while. These pupils of the eyes have become accustomed to the sun. Have you noticed, when you go into the sun, the pupils of your eyes become small? After the sun, if you look in the mirror, you will find the pupil very small because so much sun cannot be taken inside, it is more than needed, so the pupil shrinks. It is automatic. A self-shrinking. Then when you come into darkness, the pupil has to expand. The pupil becomes large. After sitting in the darkness for a while, look in the mirror again, and you will find the pupil has become large. And the way this outer eye works is the same way the inner third eye works. To see outside, a small pupil is needed. To see inside, a large pupil is needed. So the practice is old. To erase that practice, no new practice is needed. Just sit. People ask, "What to do by sitting?" "Come, give us some Ram Naam." "Give us some mantra." We will keep repeating it. But give us something to do. People say they need a support, a crutch. If you perform a ritual, it becomes a bondage. Just sit. Sitting doesn't mean you have to sit; you can also stand, you can also lie down. Sitting means not doing anything for a while. For a few hours in 24 hours, become a non-doer, become inactive, become empty. Let what is happening happen. Let the world flow, let it flow. Let what is going on go on. Let the sounds come. Let the train pass, let the airplane fly, let there be noise. You just sit. Not concentration. You just sit. Samadhi will gradually intensify within you. You will suddenly understand what Ashtavakra means. What it means to be without ritual. Knowing the manifest as false, knowing the unmanifest as still and eternal, with this teaching of the true element, there is no rebirth in the world again. What Buddha called "Anagamin," such a person, when they die, does not return, because we return due to our desires, due to politics, we return due to lust. He who dies knowing that "I am only the knower" has no further coming. He is freed from this futile cycle of birth and death. Know the manifest as false, know the ultimate method as unmanifest, know the unmanifest as still and eternal. The form within us is deluded. The unmanifest within us is truth. Have you ever seen a whirlpool in water? A whirlpool is just a wave that rose in the water, then it subsides. So where does the whirlpool disappear? The whirlpool was not there. It was just a ripple in the water. A form rose in the water. Similarly, we are a ripple that rose in the Supreme Consciousness. The ripple disappears. Nothing is left behind. Not even ash. Not even a trace. Just as you write something on water. It erases as soon as you write it. All the formed states of life are just ripples. Just as the all-pervading sky exists inside and outside the pot, similarly the eternal and constant Brahman exists in all beings. Just as the all-pervading sky is inside and outside the pot. The same sky is inside the pot. The same sky is outside the pot. If you break the pot, the sky does not break. If you make the pot, the sky is not spoiled. Whether the pot is tilted, round, or of any shape, no form is imposed on the sky. We are all earthen vessels, earthen pots. The same is outside, the same is inside. Do not give too much value to this thin wall of clay. This thin wall of clay is making you a pot. Do not cling to it too much. If you assume that this clay wall is me, then you will keep becoming pots again and again. Because your belief will pull you back. No one else brings you into the world. The notion of you being a pot brings you back. Once you know that you are the emptiness inside the pot. The words of Lao Tzu are meaningful. Lao Tzu says, what is the value of the pot's wall? The real value is of the emptiness inside the pot. If you fill water, it will fill the emptiness. If you build a house, you call the wall a house, which is a mistake. The empty space inside the wall is the house. You live in it, not in the wall. The wall is just a boundary. In reality, we live in the sky. We are all naked. Live in the inner sky or the outer sky, it makes no difference because of the wall. The wall is here today, it will fall tomorrow. The sky is eternal. So if you mistakenly consider the house to be the wall, and the pot to be the layer of clay, and yourself to be the body, then this is bondage. A slight mistake in reading the scriptures of life, and everything becomes wrong. It is a very small mistake. Mullā Naṣruddīn once got lost in his thoughts and boarded a bus and sat down and started smoking a cigarette. It is clearly written that smoking is prohibited on the bus. Did you not read it? Can't you read? The conductor angrily said to him, "I read it, but there are many things written on the bus. Which one should I follow?" Naṣruddīn replied, "Look here, it says always wear handloom sarees." It is necessary to be careful about such small mistakes. The body is very close. Therefore, it is very easy to read the language of the body. And the body is so close that its shadow falls on the inner mirror, forming a reflection. But you are in the body, not the body. The body is yours, you are not of the body. The body is your tool. You are the goal. Use the body. Do not lose ownership. Even while living within the body, remain beyond the body. Like a lotus in water. Hari Om Tat Sat.