Nature Of The Self Session 15 - Importance On Mouna

Listen to Ektaji talk about Ramana Maharshi's teachings on non-duality. These teachings are aimed at the experiential understanding of the true nature of the self and that consciousness is the only existing reality.

Transcript

Salaam. Salaam. Salaam. So keep practicing this self exploration. If you are a beginner on the path, This exploration will be only words. It will not make sense. If you started getting the taste of the seer and the seen, The witness and the witnessed object. And then you started experiencing the collapse of the witness and the witnessed object. Getting a glimpse of the field of nothingness. Then this self exploration will start making complete sense to you. Your journey has begun. Then you get to a point where you recognize, Oh I am just this background of nothingness. This is who I am. Thoughts just float around. I don't think a thought. I hold on to a floating thought and say my thought. Similarly, Feelings are just floating around in this field of nothingness. There is no particular location of the body that I can even find in the field of nothingness. Only when I open my eyes, I become the body-mind and then I recognize a form. This is nothing but Namarupa, Name and form. When I learn the skill of just being the field of nothingness, Then it becomes very clear, Very clear. It takes time. The clarity opens up bit by bit, Bit by bit. But the point comes when it becomes very clear that I am this field of nothingness in which feeling arises. Feelings are just hovering around and I hold on to the feeling and say my feeling. Let me just breathe this Tadatma and just observe. When you learn to just observe, You notice, Oh they just arise and fall like waves. Ashtavakra describes it perfectly. They are waves. They arise and they fall. It is a field in which they come, They arise, They play and they fall away. I remain untouched. I only have the possibility of knowing them. That's it. I just know. When you recognize your potentiality is only knowing. That is called Gyan Matra. When you become knowledge itself, When you recognize, I am Gyan Matra. Because I have no way to do, Act, React, Feel, Think, Create. I don't do any of these. I, The background, Consciousness, The nothingness, That silent heart does not act. It does not do. It does not experience. And this becomes your day to day living reality. There is no end to your bliss, The source of happiness, That bliss, That equanimity, That peace. In fact it becomes fun to see, Oh the body is acting but I am not acting. A distance is created. You are doing everything. You are taking care of your family, Your cooking, Cleaning, Doing your office work, Everything you are doing. The body-mind is working but I am not doing a single thing. When Buddha was, It was his time to pass away, I think 81 or 82 years old, He tells Ananda, Ananda, Since when have we been going from town to town and spreading the Dhamma? Dhamma is the Pali word for Dharma, For knowledge. So Ananda says, Oh Buddha we have been doing it for 42 years. So Buddha says, Ananda, In the past 42 years I have not said a word. The day you awaken, You recognise this distance you have awakened. That is the real good morning. You have really awakened. You have recognised this distance between I, The Turiya or this heart or the self or the awareness or the consciousness, Whatever name you like. I, This field of no-thingness and all this body-mind activities going on, There is a distance, Clear distance created. Not physical distance, A recognition of the truth. The distance already is. I forget my truth as that background of no-thingness. I become the body-mind, I get consumed and I feel I am suffering, I feel I am miserable, My life is horrible. I am Dukhi, He is Suki, Blah blah blah blah blah blah. Because I am consumed, Because I am not seeing the truth, The distance. Point comes and distance becomes permanent. Now there is no going back. Now you know the body works automatically and you all have had glimpses of this. Sometimes you see that the body is automatically doing things. How many of you have had a glimpse at least, One second glimpse? So you know this. It's a glimpse of your own nature. When it becomes permanent and continuous, That is called self-realisation. It's that simple. On the path of Advaita, You actually see these glimpses, They are called out, Spelled out for you so you can recognise your destination right from the beginning. And then you walk, Just keep walking. Some of us will get there like that. Some of us might take some time. And it's all okay. Keep walking, I am with you. But this needs to be done in silence. Can this be done by talking to friends? No, This is self-exploration. Even when I keep looking within, Can I recognise this truth? So now reduce your Shravana and Manana and increase your Nididhyasa. You have lots of points to work on already. Nididhyasa means self-exploration. Every day start giving some time, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, 1 hour, Whatever you can. 2 hours, 6 pm to 8 pm would be the best. Every day just to be myself and explore one new point today. You don't have to do a zillion chapters and zillion knowledges. Only this one knowledge, This one chapter of the nature of the self is sufficient to get you there. And how? In silence only. So we stay away from chit-chat, We stay away from getting consumed too much and not being totally withdrawn from the world. You are living in your family, You will have to give time to the family. But you always have me time, No? And what do you give your me time to? Netflix, TV, Surfing, The internet or reading rubbish news. It does not contribute to your life anyways. You only develop more conditioning, More negativity about how bad the world is, How bad people are. You are just adding on all that, Piling more. That me time that you are giving to all these things, Now give it to self-exploration. And how does self-exploration have to be done? In silence. So there is a ball sangit. Ball is a Bengali folk culture and there is this ball sangit in which there is this song Kichudin Moni Moni. If you google it, You will find the song. So in that song, It goes that Kichudin Moni Moni. For a few days, Keep it secretive, Keep it quiet. Be in the silence of the self. And now that you have understood about the nature of the self, You started doing self-exploration. This is the time when you keep it silent. You just explore in silence. So Kichudin Moni Moni. Gharar kone means within the corner of your inner house. Shamar pirit rak mopone. Keep your love for sham a secret. Kichudin Moni Moni. Only for a few days, Keep it a secret. Isharai koi bhi kothe guthe mathe. Speak using gestures while in the pastures of love field. Means when you are in that self-exploration mode and you are recognising something and a family member or somebody comes to talk to you, You speak in gestures. You do communicate with them. Don't push them away. Speak in gestures and you get back to your self-exploration. Dekhes jenu kyuna jaane kyuna bhoje kyuna shone. See that no one knows, No one understands and no one hears about your secret. Kichudin Moni Moni. Few days, Keep it a secret. And sham here is Lord Krishna's name but the indication is the self, The background, The nothingness, The consciousness, Awareness. Su sham ke joko poorve moni. Chai bhi kala meghar apane. Then sham's memory troubles your heart. And while you are looking at the black clouds passing by, Doing your exploration of course, Sham's memory troubles your heart. And when tears fill up in your eyes, Ranan shalai kand bhi bhoje bhi jai kat diye unone. When tears fill your eyes, Sitting at the kitchen put some wet wood in the stove. Kichudin Moni Moni. Keep it a secret. Basically when you start crying, In the olden days they used to put wet, If you put wet wood into the stove then the blazing fumes would hurt the eyes and automatically tears would come. So if tears are coming in that memory, So that nobody in the house knows why you are crying, You just put some wet wood in the stove. But keep it a secret. Don't tell anybody. Sham shaayori nahi te jabi. Gaye raboshu na bhi jibe kehne. You go wade in the river of sham but don't let your clothes get wet. Shaayori shatar diye ash bhi phire gaye raboshu na bhi jibe kehne. Swim to the other bank and return but why should your clothes get wet? Few days, Keep it a secret. Means what? Means you go and do your self exploration in silence. Why should you talk about it and tell others and discuss with others? Don't tell others, Don't discuss with others. That is the meaning of why should your clothes get wet and why should others know that's what you are doing. You swim to the other bank, You return. Why should your clothes get wet? Beautiful poetry na. Few days you keep it a secret. Ki chudinu mone mone. Utar jabi shatar ho bhi bol bhi ami jaye dathine. If you are headed north, Be alert. Tell them you are headed south. Don't even talk about it. If you get turiya avastha, You do not speak about it. You keep it as a secret. So you don't tell people, Oh I got the understanding of turiya avastha. Tell them no no no, I am just sitting and meditating. I am doing my yoga. Tell them I am headed south. Why? Mone rakotha mone thake aur oshike jaanime kehne. Lovers delight in the secret vine of the heart. What will a dry heart understand? The secret vine of the heart. You keep it a secret for some time till it becomes really fermented and strong. And it is your nature. Why? Because other people do not understand. And you must be experiencing that at home. Other people don't understand. What will a dry heart understand? Ki chudin mone mone. Few days keep it a secret. So Bengali folk song, Very apt for this highest wisdom. When you get to turiya avastha, Now just stay there. Just be there. You keep it silent. Don't tell others. Don't talk about it. Don't discuss. Don't share. Just be. Just be. Let it strengthen. Proceed where it is buried deep into the earth. That's when it gains its strength. And then the sprout comes out. When the sprout comes out, It's still not strong enough to bear the elements. The rain, The sun. You still protect it. You nurture it till it becomes strong. It gets a strong bark. Then you expose it to the elements. So don't get lost in the samsara immediately. If you get a taste of the turiya, Now keep it silent, A secret. Just be. Let it expand more and more. Stay away from samsara. That is the way you are protecting yourself from the elements. Away from the samsara, Just with your new secret, Your new turiya avastha. Till the turiya does not become turiyatita, Stay silent. Yes? You speak only to a person who already knows it. You want a one-on-one? You can come for a one-on-one with me. But otherwise, Keep silent. Don't share. Don't talk. Because by sharing, Talking, You make it mind and intellectual and you step out of the field of nothingness, Get consumed in the mind and it will be lost. A lot of people on the spiritual path struggle at this point. Why? Because they don't know this secret. You have to keep it as a secret in your heart for a few days. Don't talk to the samsara that pulls you out of it. It consumes you and whatever it is, Maybe the wife, The husband, The child, The friend, Even Advaita friends talking about it, Dilutes it. Do you understand this? When you speak about the truth, The truth gets diluted. That's why it is said that few days till your seed sprouts and becomes a strong bark. Stay silent. You are not alone. You are not alone. You are not alone.