Nisargadatta's I AM THAT Session 22 Awareness& Consciousness

Listen to Ektaji talk about Nisargadatta Maharaj's book I Am That. Nisargadatta Maharaj was a teacher who did not propound any ideology or religion, but gently unwrapped the mystery of the self. I Am That preserves his dialogs with the followers who came from around the world seeking guidance in destroying false identities.

Transcript

So welcome to I am THAT chapter 11 Awareness and Consciousness.

This is a very high level chapter that is why the senior participants have joined us today.

It is an Advaita level 3 chapter,

Ajatavada.

So those who are beginners might not really get it completely but that's fine.

We just understand that there is something like this that participants are actually practicing to get to,

Okay.

So we'll start with chapter 11 Awareness and Consciousness.

Questioner,

What do you do when asleep?

Maharaj,

I am aware of being asleep.

Questioner,

Is not sleep a state of unconsciousness?

Maharaj,

Yes I am aware of being unconscious.

Questioner,

And when awake or dreaming?

Maharaj says,

I am aware of being awake or dreaming.

So I'll pause there,

Just look at what Maharaj has just told us.

He is saying,

I am aware when the body-mind is awake.

I am aware when the body is asleep and the mind is dreaming.

And I am aware when both body and mind are asleep or unconscious.

Did you get all the three?

Yes,

I am aware when the body-mind is awake.

I am aware when the mind is dreaming.

And I am aware when the body and mind both are unconscious.

All three states very clear,

Seniors?

Questioner,

I do not catch you.

What exactly do you mean?

Let me make my terms clear.

So he's not a beginner.

He's somewhere at the say Advaita level 2.

He's saying,

Let me first clarify my terms,

How I look at this.

By being asleep,

I mean unconscious.

This is the questioner telling,

Maharaj.

Asleep is equal to unconscious.

That is your definition also.

By being awake,

I mean conscious.

This is your definition.

You connect with the questioner.

Your terms are the same.

By dreaming,

I mean conscious of one's mind,

But not of the surroundings.

This is also your understanding.

This is the questioner,

Not Maharaj.

Very,

Very clear.

Yeah,

And read that again.

What are the questioner's terms?

He says,

By being asleep,

I mean unconscious.

By being awake,

I mean conscious.

By dreaming,

I mean conscious of one's mind,

But not of the surroundings.

So Maharaj says,

Well,

It is about the same with me.

Yet,

There seems to be a difference.

In each state,

You forget the other two.

Which are the other two?

When I'm in waking,

I forget about dreaming.

I forget about sleeping.

When I'm in dream state,

I forget about waking state.

I forget about deep sleep state.

And when I'm in deep sleep,

The whole world is gone.

Dreaming is gone.

Waking is gone.

Correct?

This is the way you are.

Yeah,

So I'll read that again.

In each state,

You forget the other two.

While to me,

There is but one state of being,

Including and transcending the three mental states of waking,

Dreaming and sleeping.

There is just one state,

He says,

Which is the substratum or the background of all the three states.

When is the sense of I am there?

When I'm in the waking state,

There is the sense of I am whatever perception is there in front of me.

This is my waking state.

This has arisen on a background and both fall,

Collapse on a common background.

Yes?

In that only,

The dream state arises.

I,

The dreamer,

Am experiencing some dream sequence,

Whatever the dream sequence is.

This I,

The dreamer,

And the dream sequence arise together,

Play together and dissolve back together on some silent background.

Deep sleep state is the dissolved state where the I and the known have dissolved.

Where there is just this background.

So this background is common to all three states.

Is this very clear?

Some of us have experienced this even in our waking state.

We recognize it as gap between two thoughts,

Gap between two perceptions,

Gap between two sensations.

Some of us have started practicing being in the witness.

We notice the collapse of that witness and the witnessed and we are in that void for a few seconds,

Few glimpses.

Again that comes up but we do recognize this background.

Yes?

Those seniors who have already started practicing being aware in the dream state have started recognizing that the dream also arises like that,

Plays for a while.

Sometimes there is just sound.

Sometimes there are images with sound.

Sometimes there is a proper,

Clear,

Vivid picture and sometimes it's just blurry.

Yes?

But I,

The sense of I am is there and the dream is there and then you notice the collapse also.

Now some of us are practicing to recognize the arising of just the I am.

I am arises,

It collapses back.

It arises,

It collapses back.

It arises,

It collapses back.

Yes?

So we are recognizing that quiet background when that I am is in the collapse state.

That moment when you catch that void,

That no-thingness,

That is what Maharaj is calling the state which is the substratum of the waking,

Dreaming and deep sleep.

Either it's the substratum or the background,

Doesn't matter what word you like to use.

In Sanskrit,

It is the fourth state,

Turiya.

The word Turiya equals to the fourth.

It is the substratum of the waking,

The dreaming and the deep sleep.

Very clear?

I'll read that paragraph again now.

Maharaj is telling the questioner,

In each state,

You forget the other two.

While to me,

There is but one state of being,

Including and transcending the three.

Three mental states of waking,

Dreaming and sleeping.

Clear?

So those of us who have started practicing to just recognize that I am that arises and dissolves and you're just there,

Just there in that no-thingness,

You have to start recognizing that as the fourth,

The Turiya or the substratum of the waking,

Dreaming and deep sleep.

Questioner,

Do you see in the world a direction and a purpose?

Maharaj,

The world is but a reflection of my own imagination.

What is he talking about?

A personal world creation.

How do I create?

I have my own aversions and cravings and according to my cravings and aversions,

I say I like this,

I don't like this,

I want this to be like this,

I don't want this to be like this.

I create a story in my mind and that's exactly what I project and I see in my world.

Somebody else in my own family,

He projects his own world.

He sees through his yellow glasses,

I see through my own pink glasses.

Though we think we are looking at the same thing,

We are not really talking about the same thing.

That is why there is conflict.

So personal world is nothing but my own personal imagination.

His personal world,

Her personal world is their own imagination.

So the world is but a reflection of my imagination.

Maharaj is telling you this.

Whatever I want to see,

I can see.

Do you understand this?

He's not talking about some miracles.

You do the same miracle.

You want to see that your spouse is wrong.

Yes,

I know you are wrong.

I am right.

Then how much ever logic he or she puts in front of you and explains to you,

But you will say no,

I know you are wrong and I am right.

So what am I doing?

I am seeing what I want to see.

Whatever I want to see,

I can see.

But why should I invent patterns of creation,

Evolution and destruction?

I do not need them.

Do you understand creation?

You start a great idea.

You and I will go here.

We will do this.

You initiated one project.

You only create.

Then there are thousands of issues that happen in your project and then you both start fighting with each other.

You created.

You are responsible for its evolution.

And then you decide no,

We are not going to do this project.

We go our own ways.

You are responsible for the destruction.

I like the Marathi words.

The Marathi words are Nirmiti,

Utkranti and Naash.

Creation,

Evolution and destruction.

He says I do not need them.

I have had enough of this Samsara and that is why Maharaj will never go and initiate something.

Not even a knowledge talk.

He will do it only if it comes as a flow.

He will not create it.

As the flow means,

Somebody else requests Maharaj,

Please explain this.

Please come and talk about this.

Please do this.

Then he will do it as part of his flow.

It is a demand,

So I supply.

But he will never start anything.

He will never do any creation.

No initiative.

This is exactly opposite of what you are taught in the corporate world.

In the corporate world,

You take initiative.

You be the leader.

Here it's exact opposite.

Because the more you take initiative,

The more you do,

The more you're projecting your personal world and the more you're getting trapped in the Samsara.

So he says,

I do not need them.

The world is in me.

The world is myself.

And there is a typo there.

I am not afraid of it.

It is I am not afraid of it.

I'll read it out to you in Marathi.

I am not afraid of it.

I am not afraid of it.

I am not afraid of the world and have no desire to lock it up in a mental picture.

So we understood how I project my world every morning.

Yes,

I from my deep sleep state into the dreaming state project sight,

Sound,

Smell,

Taste,

Touch.

Even before my eyes are open,

Even before I come into the waking state,

I have already projected my world and I've already started seeing it.

I've already started experiencing it.

Then I come into the waking state.

Yes.

So from where is it coming?

It is obviously coming from all the cravings and aversions that I am holding on to.

Maharaj has gone beyond them.

He has recognized I am not this body-mind that is weaving this personal world,

That is projecting this personal world.

He has gone to Turiya,

The fourth.

He has taken that step to the fourth and he says that waking,

Dreaming and deep sleep,

Waking,

Dreaming and deep sleep,

All three are mental states,

Are happening at the mind level.

Even deep sleep.

That is why in deep sleep when I start transitioning out,

The I starts coming up and dissolving up and dissolving and then finally it comes up.

Yeah.

So the seed of the I is in the deep sleep state.

Then it moves to dreaming state.

Then there is the waking state.

I am forever established in Turiya.

I have got nothing to do with these three states.

These belong to the Deha Buddhi.

On account of Deha Buddhi's own programming,

They project and on account of their own programming,

The projection ends.

I am always aware.

That is why when I have recognized that I am separate from deep sleep,

Dreaming and waking which belong to the body-mind,

I have got nothing to do with the body-mind.

I have recognized I am separate and when I recognize I am separate,

I am no more afraid of it.

Why are you afraid of your world?

Oh,

I lose some money in the stock market.

Oh,

I will lose this relationship.

Oh,

This should not happen to my childhood.

That should not happen to my parent.

This is fear.

Why do you have this fear?

Because you are still stuck at the deep sleep,

Dreaming and waking states.

You still identify with the body and mind.

We are practicing to recognize,

Oh no,

I am the awareness.

I am the fourth.

I am Turiya.

I am not these three mental states and therefore whatever gets projected from here is like a film.

It's got nothing to do with me.

The film plays its own story.

The hero and the villain fight and then the hero dies or the heroine dies and the story ends.

It's going to end.

I have got nothing to do with that story.

It plays of its own accord.

I remain separate.

That is why I am not afraid of it.

I am not afraid of it.

And have no desire to lock it up in a mental picture.

It's like a phrase,

You know,

Trying to tell you in a poetic way that you lock up your world in a mental picture because it's nothing but imagination.

You have no proof of the existence of your spouse,

Of your own child,

Of your own parent.

It's only a mental picture and you have trapped yourself in that mental picture and you have become a character in that picture and you then play according to that character.

Maharaj says,

I stay beyond,

At Turiya,

The fourth.

Very clear?

Yes?

So those who have started the practice,

We add one more level where we attempt to recognize that I am in the fourth now.

Till now,

We just use the words,

I am in the gap,

I was in the void,

There was just no thing missed.

Now I start recognizing,

No,

I am clearly in the fourth.

So the questioner didn't quite get what Maharaj was saying and says,

Coming back to sleep,

Do you dream?

So we go back to our three states.

So we go back to our three states.

Maharaj says,

Of course,

Of course,

I dream.

So questioner says,

What are your dreams?

Maharaj says,

Echoes of the waking state.

See,

He's not attached to his dreams.

So clear he is.

Whatever in the waking state,

Some craving has developed,

Some aversion has developed,

That craving or aversion automatically manifests in my dream state.

You wanted to eat chocolate ice cream and you didn't get a chance to eat it all day.

You couldn't step out of the house.

What happens in your dream?

You're eating chocolate ice cream.

So it is an echo of the waking state craving.

The chocolate ice cream dream.

You apply this to your personal dreams.

They are echoes of either the cravings or the aversions from the waking state.

And your deep sleep.

Maharaj says,

The brain consciousness is suspended.

See,

It's very clear.

Brain belongs to the body.

The brain consciousness is suspended,

Which means it cannot even dream.

There is no dreaming happening.

There is no waking happening.

The brain consciousness is suspended.

So the questioner says,

Are you then unconscious?

So Maharaj's answer is missing over there.

You might have to insert answer for M for Maharaj.

And he says,

Not conscious of surroundings.

I'll read it out in Marathi.

Translation,

I am not conscious of the surroundings.

That is missing.

They somehow just skipped that complete line.

And then the next line is the questioner asking again.

Question mark.

You're not quite unconscious.

That is the questioner asking.

Then Maharaj says,

I remain aware that I am unconscious.

So the same thing you will experience those who are practicing this.

Those who are doing the Swatana Nidra Jnana.

You're practicing to see that,

Oh yes,

The body is completely unconscious.

There is no consciousness of what's happening in the surrounding.

There is no room,

No husband,

No wife,

No child,

Nothing.

So you are unconscious to the surroundings.

The body is unconscious.

You are aware that the body is unconscious lying on the bed.

So this questioner is now confused.

You use the words aware and conscious.

Are they not the same?

Yeah,

Because Maharaj says,

I remain aware that I am unconscious.

So what do you mean?

Yeah,

You're saying,

I am conscious that I am unconscious.

But then who's conscious?

Yeah,

Unconscious.

But then who's conscious?

Yeah,

Because the questioner thinks awareness and consciousness is the same thing.

But are they the same thing?

No,

They are not the same thing.

So there is consciousness and there is pure consciousness.

When I just say consciousness,

It means I'm saying witness consciousness.

Yeah,

When I say pure consciousness,

I am saying awareness or primordial awareness or When I am in that primordial awareness,

In that,

Let's say the fourth state,

When I'm in deep sleep,

I'm the closest to that.

Let's say,

For the sake of the beginners,

When I'm in the deep sleep state,

I'm the closest to that fourth state,

Which is the background,

Which is the substratum,

The turiya or the fourth.

In that fourth state,

There is absolutely no thingness.

It is absolutely primordial.

In that,

The sense of I am arises.

That sense of I am is the witness,

Arises.

That sense of I am is the witness,

The sakshi.

It is not separate from it.

That awareness itself is becoming aware of itself.

It has not become aware of anything yet.

It is just aware of itself.

It's absolute peace,

Absolute quiet,

But it is aware of itself.

That is the sense of I am.

You start transitioning from the deep sleep state towards the dreaming state.

That witness becomes a witness to some dream,

Whatever,

The tiger in your dream or the ice cream in your dream,

Whatever it is.

It is a dream object.

So,

The witness now forgets its witnessing position.

It becomes I,

The one who is experiencing the tiger or experiencing the ice cream.

So,

The witness consciousness loses itself in the mind.

So,

Inside the primordial awareness,

The witness consciousness arose.

The witness consciousness forgot itself and became I,

The experiencer of the mind.

The tiger is in the mind,

In the dream state.

The ice cream is in the mind.

Inside that mind,

Then dreams go from one to the next,

One to the next.

There is I,

The experiencer experiencing the dream.

I,

The doer doing an action in the dream and then you wake up into the body.

So,

The bigger state is the primordial awareness or the fourth,

The turiya.

Inside that is the witness consciousness.

Inside that is the body-mind.

Everyday projection happens from the primordial awareness to the witness consciousness to the body-mind and projection goes back from the body-mind into the witness consciousness and from the witness consciousness again into the primordial awareness.

Super clear?

Now,

We'll read the question and answer again.

You use the words aware and conscious.

Are they not the same?

Maharaj says,

Awareness is primordial.

In Marathi,

Instead of the word awareness,

Here was shuddha jani.

So,

Pure consciousness is primordial according to the Marathi book.

They are interchangeably used,

Awareness and pure consciousness.

It is the original state.

Which one?

We are talking about the primordial awareness,

The pure consciousness.

It is the original state,

Beginningless and endless.

Why beginningless and endless?

Can you find a beginning or an end to awareness?

The body ends at the end of the waking state.

The mind ends at the end of the dreaming state.

They go back into that nothingness of awareness,

Into that field of consciousness,

Pure consciousness.

But do you know an end to it?

No.

Again,

Next morning,

I come out and I come out in that awareness,

In that consciousness.

Again,

Every night,

I go back in,

Into that.

There is no beginning,

No end.

There is no border for this consciousness or awareness.

I cannot say it exists in time.

It is beyond time because time belongs to the body and mind.

You see that little white circle?

That's all body and mind is.

Time is limited only to that little white circle.

The primordial awareness is beyond time.

So,

It is beginningless and endless.

It is uncaused.

You cannot say this has caused the consciousness or the primordial awareness to be.

No,

It is uncaused.

It just is.

It is what it is.

Unsupported.

It doesn't need support.

The mind needs the support of the awareness or consciousness to exist.

The body needs the support of the mind as well as the consciousness to exist.

The primordial awareness does not need any support.

So,

It is unsupported,

Without parts.

Sounds very weird,

But in Marathi it is indivisible.

That which cannot be divided.

Indivisible.

And changeless,

Without change.

Same thing,

Changeless.

It cannot change.

It does not change.

The flavor of nothingness is always nothingness.

There is nothing else in it.

There is no object.

It is objectless.

So,

It is changeless.

Consciousness is on contact.

It's a weird translation,

But the Marathi is Sambandh is the word used here.

Sambandh Mude means what?

The witness consciousness arises to witness something.

There is a sambandh,

A relationship between the witness and the witnessed object.

There's a relationship between the knower and the known object.

So,

Jani,

Which is witness consciousness,

Arises because of a relationship to something.

It is dependent on this relationship.

Sambandh Mude,

Because of a relationship.

So,

A loose translation has been done in English where it says consciousness is on contact,

Which is okay,

But it is based on a relationship.

It arises because of an object,

A relationship with something.

It is a reflection against a surface.

This is also a weird translation.

Pratibhim is reflection.

So,

A reflection behind literally means like a shadow.

Your shadow is always behind you,

Right?

So,

It's like a shadow behind.

The witness consciousness is the shadow of the primordial awareness.

The witness consciousness is based on a relationship with the object and it is like a shadow of the awareness.

It is the shadow of the primordial awareness or pure consciousness.

What does this mean?

This awareness that I feel,

That I feel alive right now.

I feel I have life.

I feel this body has life.

This body has energy.

I feel this mind is active.

It is alive right now.

Why do I feel this aliveness right now and why do I not feel it in sleep?

Oh,

Because it is not my inherent quality.

It is borrowed.

Like a phone borrows electricity and it can run only for a certain while on that electricity.

That's called the charge of the phone and it will run for 10 hours,

20 hours,

Whatever the life of the battery of the phone.

After that,

It will die,

No?

Why did it die?

After that,

It will die,

No?

Why did it die?

Because that electricity is not inherent to the phone.

It is borrowed by the phone.

Do you get it?

Similarly,

Right now in the daytime,

This body feels alive.

It feels energetic.

The mind feels alive and conscious as if it is working on its own.

It is conscious by itself.

No.

It is borrowed consciousness.

Chitta Chhaya.

The reflection.

It is just a reflection.

It is borrowed energy.

By the time it's midnight,

One o'clock,

Two o'clock,

Finish.

All this energy is gone.

This body collapses.

The mind collapses.

Now,

It needs recharging.

So,

Where is the source of this?

This consciousness,

This energy,

This aliveness,

Where is the source?

That is the primordial awareness.

When you go into the deep sleep state,

It's like you are getting plugged into the wall.

You are plugged into the wall and now you are getting charged.

The only difference is this phone doesn't work when it is charging.

So,

In the deep sleep state,

This body-mind does not work.

It cannot work at a time of charge.

Now,

In dream state,

It slowly gets unplugged from the wall.

Yeah,

Now it starts up.

It has some problem.

It takes time to start up.

That's why a full,

Big,

Long dream state happens.

Those 1980 Fiats and Ambassadors,

Dhakka maar ke chalti thi gadi.

Remember those cars,

They used to stop on the way and then you had to like really push it to get it started.

That kind of a dhakka maar gadi this is.

It takes so many dreams,

So much pushing of this body-mind to wake up and come to the waking state where it is fully alive and conscious and now it feels that yeah,

I'm the king of the world.

Your kingdom lasts for 15 hours.

After 15 hours,

Finish.

Your kingdom is over.

You go back into the world.

So,

This body-mind's energy and aliveness is only a reflection,

Prati bimbu,

Reflection of that awareness,

Of that pure consciousness.

Therefore,

It is a state of duality.

Dwaitam is there.

Body-mind and that awareness that keeps charging.

So,

I'm still stuck in dwaitam.

So,

Witness consciousness is dwaitam.

Sense of I am is dwaitam.

Yeah,

This is very,

Very clear for everybody.

There can be no consciousness without awareness,

But there can be awareness without consciousness.

That's very evident.

Without the big circle,

The small gray circle cannot come up.

So,

Witness consciousness is that sense of I am that comes up.

That sense of I am cannot come up without that pool of awareness,

The ocean of awareness,

The field of primordial awareness.

So,

That consciousness cannot be without awareness,

But awareness can be without consciousness.

So,

There can be no consciousness without awareness.

Clear?

So,

There can be no consciousness without awareness,

But there can be awareness without consciousness as in deep sleep.

Every night in deep sleep,

There is no sense of I am.

There is no sense of witnessing.

The witness has collapsed.

The consciousness has collapsed.

There is only pure consciousness.

There is only primordial awareness.

Awareness is absolute.

Consciousness is relative to its content.

Awareness is absolute.

Absolute,

It can be by itself.

It is absolute.

It is complete.

It is not dependent on anything.

Yes,

But consciousness,

The witness consciousness,

It is relative to its content.

Means,

I am witnessing the witnessed object.

So,

I am relative to my content.

I,

The knower,

Am knowing the known object.

So,

I am relative to the content.

So,

The witness or the sakshatva or zani is relative to its content.

Whereas,

The primordial awareness is not related to anything.

It is absolute.

Stand alone.

Consciousness is always of something.

I am conscious of the body.

I am conscious of the mind.

I am conscious of this emotion in the mind.

I am conscious of this thought in the mind.

So,

It is always conscious of something.

Consciousness is partial and changeful.

Sometimes,

I am conscious.

Sometimes,

I am not so conscious.

It's changing.

Yeah,

It's partial.

It's changing.

Awareness is total,

Changeless.

It is always complete.

It's always absolute.

That field of nothingness is complete.

It's the absolute.

It's changeless.

It is calm and silent.

Silent why?

Because there is no witness and witnessed coming up in the primordial awareness.

Its own nature,

By its own nature,

It is silent.

But the witness is not silent because the witness is witnessing maybe the noisy object.

So,

It is not calm and silent.

And it is the common matrix of every experience.

All experience happens in this one matrix.

Everything happens here.

Nothing can happen outside the ocean of awareness.

There is no outside.

So,

It is the common matrix of everything.

How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?

So,

He is now imagining himself as that little white circle and he's saying,

Okay,

I can go till the witness consciousness,

The sense of I am.

He's not a beginner.

So,

He started recognizing I am the witness.

He recognizes that I am the gray circle.

Now,

He wants to step one step beyond.

So,

This is what the seniors have started practicing moving from consciousness to awareness.

So,

Here is your answer from Maharaj.

How does one go beyond consciousness into awareness?

Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible,

There is awareness in every state of consciousness.

So,

Don't assume that the awareness is not there in the gray circle or in the white circle.

Awareness is there.

It's not possible that there is no awareness there.

So,

First Maharaj calms him down because he's all like excited.

I want to go there as if it is somewhere outside,

Somewhere else that I have to go.

Maharaj is saying,

No,

Right where you are,

There only awareness is there.

So,

He calms down his anxiety,

His agitation,

His restlessness and read that again.

Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible,

There is awareness in every state of consciousness.

Therefore,

The very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness.

Consciousness of being conscious.

Oh my God,

What does this mean?

It's not so difficult.

Now that you have recognized the sense of I am and you recognize I am conscious,

The consciousness of being conscious.

Before this,

You were unconscious to this state,

Right?

Because you were thinking I am this body-mind.

This body-mind is unconscious.

Now,

You have become conscious of being conscious.

You've started recognizing I am that witness and you've started resting as the sense of I am.

Now,

I'll read that line again.

The very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness.

Awareness.

You're already moving towards awareness.

It's a movement in awareness.

Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness.

Please highlight.

This is the most important.

I like the Marathi word better.

Interest sounds very lukewarm.

जी ओड हत्स तुमहाला शुद्ध जानी वे कड़े नेते What do you need?

The ओड.

ओड is that longing.

Not interest.

Yeah.

A lukewarm interest.

Only Saturday,

Sunday,

I have interest.

Monday to Friday,

I'm busy.

I'm busy with my money.

I'm busy with my family.

I have time only on Saturday,

Sunday.

Not more.

Not interest.

ओड,

Longing.

So,

Please scratch out that word interest.

It is longing in the Marathi word,

In the Marathi book.

And the exact word is ओड.

ओड literally can be translated as a pull that you are not anymore interested in this samsara.

Complete dispassion has happened.

You have recognized the body-mind anyway functions on its own.

I don't need to really interfere with this body-mind.

It will take care of everything.

And you're constantly turned inwards.

All the time turned inwards.

Interested in being in the sense of I am.

Resting as the witness.

Because you have experientially recognized that knowing is my only possibility.

I do not do.

I cannot do.

Not possible only.

I have never done anything.

I cannot think.

It's not possible only.

I have never thought a single thought.

I have only assumed false ownership of the thoughts.

I have only assumed false ownership of the actions.

Now that I wake up that,

Oh,

What was I doing?

I was involved in a false assumption.

I was fooling myself.

Then I stopped fooling myself and I just stay established as the sense of I am.

As the witness.

And I keep recognizing moment to moment,

See the body is working on its own.

It's doing its thing on its own.

Even the important decisions whether we should take route A or route B towards investment to a future retirement plan.

That also is happening on its own.

All the big decisions and small decisions are happening on their own.

I just remain a witness.

And I stop giving importance to this body-mind.

It operates on its own program.

I do not interfere.

Now I just invest all my energy into looking inwards instead of looking outwards.

So I'm turned inwards.

I move towards that pull,

That inner pull,

That od.

And I walk towards that silence,

That nothingness,

That turiya that is pulling me.

The primordial awareness that is pulling me towards it.

So I'll use that line again.

Instead of interest,

We're using longing.

Longing in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness.

Just longing for that awareness awareness takes you towards it.

That's all you need.

Nothing else.

It is not a new state.

It is at once recognized as the original basic existence.

There's nothing new about it.

Which is life itself and love and joy.

So in your awareness column,

You will write basic existence.

The Sanskrit word is asti.

For love,

The word is priti.

And for joy,

It is anand.

Asti,

Priti and anand.

That is that is your own nature.

That is the nature of the awareness,

The primordial awareness,

The pure consciousness.

That is your nature.

So the questioner says,

Since reality is all the time with us,

What does self-realization consist of?

Maharaj says,

Realization is but the opposite of ignorance.

In Marathi,

Swaroop gyaan is but the opposite of ajna.

To take the world as real and one's self as unreal is ajna,

Is ignorance.

To think this world of people,

Situations,

Things is real and that consciousness is unreal.

I don't know what it is.

What consciousness?

I have no idea.

This is ajna.

This is ignorance.

To give importance to this world and not give importance to the self,

The consciousness is ajna,

Is ignorance.

And it is the cause of sorrow.

To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal,

Temporal,

Worldly,

Samsaric and transient,

Transient,

That which is constantly changing.

So to know the self as the only reality and everything else is only samsaric and changing is freedom,

Peace and joy.

So you decide what you want.

If you keep running behind this world,

You are going to keep suffering.

It is the cause of sorrow.

If instead you turn inwards and move towards the primordial awareness,

The pure consciousness,

You will know your true self and that is joy,

That is peace,

That is freedom.

So start looking at everything as just a film.

You know how there are images on the film and they keep playing like that.

It's just images on a film.

And don't take it too seriously.

Focus again and again,

Hold on again and again to the sense of I am.

Focus again and again inwards.

Again,

Again hold on to the witness.

I am that witness.

I just keep getting lured by this.

This is illusory.

This is not real.

It is all very simple.

Instead of seeing things as imagined,

Learn to see them as they are.

Maharaj is giving you tips on how to again and again establish in the witness and then move towards the awareness from there.

How?

Recognize this is not real.

This is projected this morning and this projection will halt in the night.

Again it will project next morning.

It's changing.

It's transient.

It's illusory.

It's not real.

It's imagined.

It's there because of some past craving and aversion has been nurtured and that projected this.

So it is unreal.

It is illusory.

It is changing.

It is not permanent.

It will not bring me freedom.

It only brings me sorrow.

So I'll read that again.

Instead of seeing things as imagined,

Learn to see them as they are.

Seeing them as film is seeing them as they are.

When you can see everything as it is,

You will also see yourself as you are.

This is the most important.

This is that clue.

When you start seeing everything clearly,

Oh see it is so dreamy dreamy.

It is not real.

It is not real.

It's projected every morning.

Projection stops every night.

It is just based on my previous imagination.

Whatever I had imagined in the past that has got projected.

I had a fear this should not happen.

This should not happen.

That got projected.

That really happened.

So what is happening is my only imagination.

Don't get trapped in that imagination again.

Don't get trapped in that mind story.

Stay aloof.

Stay as the witness and see things as they are.

Only a projection.

So now when you start seeing things as they are,

Now you will start recognizing yourself.

Oh I am not this body mind.

I am the witness and I am no thingness.

There is no solid entity called the I inside.

This will crumble the ego.

Ego doesn't like this truth and that is why it resists this.

It wants to be this or it wants to be that.

It wants a title.

It wants something.

But I am no thingness.

There is nothing there.

Empty radio.

Like in Ravana Maharshi's language.

From the radio there is songs coming out,

Voices heard.

You break the radio and open it and see is there somebody inside.

There's nobody.

Like that only.

There is nobody here.

It's a walking talking robo.

So you will know what you are if you see the world as it is.

So when you can see everything as it is,

You will also see yourself as you are.

It is like cleansing a mirror.

The same mirror that shows you the world as it is will also show you your own face.

The thought I am is the polishing cloth.

Use it.

It's given you the technique.

Hold on to that sense of I am.

That's the polishing cloth.

It will again and again help polish out the dirt.

I like the way it is in Marathi so I'll read the last line again.

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