Saint Kabir Session 12 - QAs On Guru, Witness, Seva, Sadhana

Listen to Ektaji answer questions about Saint Kabir's teachings on non-duality. These teachings are aimed at the experiential understanding of the true nature of the self and are focused on the idea of the oneness of everything.

Transcript

The all the out An external guru, His job is just to show you that there is an internal guru. Look there. Do not crave for me. Do not run behind me. Don't make me a messiah and put me on a pedestal. Every authentic teacher has said this. Buddha said that. A lot of people came to him and said let's start a path. He said no, Not at all. I am not God. I am not a guru. You do not do anything like that. Otherwise you will get stuck in another kind of maya. You're already stuck in the maya of your money and your house and your name and your fame and your wife and your husband and sex and all those things. Now don't create one more obstacle on your path by craving for again a spiritual teacher and the spiritual teacher takes me here and gives me blessings and I do prayers and I do teerath and I do this and the teacher will bless me. Nope. Wrong. Absolutely wrong. He said. Buddha said do not put me on a pedestal. How many times do you see this quote about Buddha? All over the internet you see it. I am not God. I am a human who got there by my own effort and so can you. Do not Godify me. Do not diaphy me. I am there to share my experience because I found something that will help you and where is he coming from? He has reached that level of witness consciousness where he sees everything is one. Everybody is one. So somebody else's dukkha feels so painful for him. He is actually helping himself by just telling you that look within. That's all Buddha did in all his teachings. Look within. Look within. Look within. Same thing happened with Kabir. I will tell you Kabir's story. Tamil was Kabir's son. After Kabir became so popular that people contributed and made an ashram. Kabir did not want to even do the ashram. They said no we sadhus are homeless. We need a place to just come and listen to what you teach and you also need a place to stay so we will make it a very simple ashram where we just come for the teachings and that's it. And it was a very simple ashram till Kabir passed away. He didn't make any very big ashram. Simple small place people would come, Listen to him, Go back, Implement in their lives. So when he became so popular what happened to Kamal? Kamal was Kabir's son. He started having all these great ideas. We can make lots of money. We can make a path of this and let's start the Kabir panth and Kabir was absolutely not. No. There will never be a Kabir panth. At least till I am alive there will not be a Kabir panth. What is the meaning of Kabir panth? Again you are creating a section of society that now follows Kabir's teachings and again we are creating a divide. Oh I am a Kabir panthi and you are Buddha's panthi or you are Krishna's panthi or whatever. Again we are creating a divide. Not at all. I am continuously explaining the same thing that we need to drop the divides. This is an absolutely wrong way to go. Kamal did not listen to him. Kamal said think about the money that can come in. All my life I have led a poor person's life just because my father does not want to take money. So Kabir was very strong about it. Kabir said no means no. Kamal even went to his mother and said that you know he listens to you. Can you convince dad? And she said no. This even I do not agree on. Can you believe it? Kamal said I am leaving the house and Kabir and his wife said that's okay. That is the true guru. He did not want to create a section in society. He did not want to divide society, Create a different path again. Then again paths, Same thing happens and till Kabir was alive, Kabir pant was not created. Kamal left and went. This is the real guru. He is there to show you that the true guru is inside and that's it. It's over. Now you go home and you practice. Like you are coming to Ekta's sessions. Ekta is just telling you look within, Look within. Whether you attend Advaita session, Whether you attend Ramana Maharshi, Whether you come for Buddha, Whether you come for Kabir irrespective of any session you come to. There is only one thing Ekta is teaching you. Awareness, Awareness, Consciousness, Witness, Sakshi, Chidakasha. There is just one. That is the guru. That is the meaning of Guru Tattva in the Upanishads. Why is it called Guru Tattva? Why wasn't he called a Guru Purush? It's not an external guru. Guru Tattva is that element within me. I am so lost in the world. My mind is bogged down with the world. That is why I cannot see the Guru Tattva. Somebody who is also a human and a friend tells me look within, You will find it. It is beyond the body. It is beyond the mind and you get it. That is a guru. That's it. That was his job. It ends there. Now your journey begins. The real gurus, The true gurus like Guru Nanak Dev, Saint Kabir, Buddha, They all encouraged people to look within and walk the path on their own. They wanted them to be spiritually independent, Not dependent on the guru, Not running to the guru again and again, Not getting lost in the name and fame and the fun around the guru. No, No. Within. Within. Find the Guru Tattva within. That is the function of an external guru. Very clear? Finding the witness itself is equal to Ananda. The name of that witness is Ananda. You have not tasted Ananda. You have no idea what is Ananda. Even if you are a billionaire, A billionaire, You have tasted zero Ananda. You have no idea what is Ananda. There is only one taste of nectar and that is oneness. That is Advaita, Non-duality, The taste of consciousness, The taste of the witness. There is nothing higher, Dear. There is nothing higher. Nobody in this world can give you that taste. Only you can do it for yourself. You are your own guru. Look inside. Look inside. Yes. The name of the consciousness is Ananda. Sat, Chit, Ananda. Sat is truth. It is the only truth. That is who I am. That is why it is called Sat or truth. I am not the body. I am not the mind. The truth is I am that witness, That consciousness. This is the meaning of Sat. It is Sat. It is consciousness. It is the consciousness. The feeling in the body of being conscious is not real consciousness. Otherwise what happens to you in the night? You are lying like a corpse on the bed for eight hours. Where is your conscious body? You cannot experience touch. You cannot experience taste, Smell, Sight, Sound. Everything gone. Dukan banned. Why? Because that Dukan really is a Dukan. It just opens up when the Vyapari comes in. Who is the Vyapari? This is also Doha. The Vyapari is that witness consciousness. It comes in and it opens the shop. The body is not conscious. The mind is not conscious. The mind just feels conscious because it reflects the consciousness from the witness. The mind is like a mirror. And a mirror only reflects the light. Like that only the mind reflects the consciousness and does not just reflect it to itself. It reflects into this body and that's why the body and mind feel conscious. But when you go to the deep sleep state, Dukan ban. Even of your mind. Shop is closed. Why? Vyapari is not there. The shopkeeper is not there. So when you feel chit or you feel conscious in the body or mind, It is a borrowed consciousness from the witness. The witness itself is consciousness. That is the meaning of chit. And ananda. The moment you recognize that witness consciousness, It is just bliss. It is peace. There is no graph moving up and down, Up and down. And I'm explaining this graph I think the umpteenth time in my sessions. The graph going up is excitement. The graph going down is depression. This is not happiness. Yeah? Happiness or real. True happiness is a straight line. A quiet peace. Like an absolutely quiet, Serene lake that does not move, That does not have a ripple. Yeah? You are thirsting to be like that. You are just saying, Oh, I want few moments of peace. Just quiet. I don't want anything. I just want quiet. Yeah? You're not really looking for happiness because happiness is that excitement, That peak in the graph that also tires you. This also becomes very evident when you start doing meditation. Silent meditation, Not sound meditation, Not instructions meditation. Silent meditation in a 10 days, 20 days when you sit quietly, You start recognizing that even a happy thought is like spoiling my peace. This is another hera. If you reach this, It's done for. Their cravings don't pull you so much. The hold of cravings starts weakening on you. Yeah? You become the master of raga then. Raga is no more your master. Raga means craving. Yeah? So recognizing this itself is an insight. Understanding the nature of that consciousness, That witness, That it is just peace, Quiet, A straight line, Absolutely quiet. That is ananda. Bliss, It is bliss. Sat chit ananda. That is the true nature. That is who I am. The small sukha that you call happiness from money, From relationships, From sex, From food, It's not sukha. It's not real happiness. You have no idea then. It is just a little reflection of the real ananda. Yeah? If a little bit of money can give you that kind of sukha, Imagine what real ananda must be because this little sukha is just a reflection of this ananda. Just a little reflection. Yeah? Again, Like I already described, There are levels. The level of the mind and the level of the witness consciousness. The answer is not going to change. And the level of the mind, If you are agitated, Then what? You have to take care of that agitation at the level of the mind. Then you do whatever your japa, Your tapa, Your shvasa, Whatever works for you, You do. No problem. Very well knowing that this is not the highest truth. Otherwise you'll feel deceived after 10, 20, 30 years when you wake up and you realise, Why wasn't I told this thing? Very clearly Kabir is telling you there is something higher. You do your yoga for your body, You do your pranayama for the breath, You do your japa and tapa and whatever for your mind, Your meditation, Your music, Prayer, Seva. He's not saying that is wrong. All he's saying it is all at the level of the body and the mind. For somebody who cannot see himself beyond the body and beyond the mind, He needs something at the level of the body and the mind. Then he walks the path for some time, His mind and body becomes very calm and he realises, Oh there is a higher level, There is a witness that is witnessing this body, There is a witness that is witnessing this mind. So now we move to that higher level of the body. It is just one second, One second kathalas. It is the search of one second. It is not a path that will take ages for you to get to. Once you are there, Of course in the void there is a different journey. You enjoy that void and that void itself is so beautiful. There is no description of that journey in the void. The journey to the void has been described by Ashtavakra. We did Advaita Vedanta weekend last month, Indriyadrishya Vivekam. Properly it has been described how to get to the void. Step wise it has been described. Adi Shankara was the best in describing how to get to the witness and somebody sent me that question so here I am answering it for you. Your question was, I have reached the void. Now what about the journey within the void? Congratulations for getting there first of all. Now the journey within the void begins. And the journey within the void is indescribable. There is nothing to describe there. That is why poems were used. It is just truth, Sat. It is just consciousness, Chit. And it is just bliss, Ananda. There is no description of sat, Chit, Ananda. There cannot be because it is beyond the mind. That journey is beyond the mind. So it cannot be phrased into words that the mind can even describe. That is why it is transcendental. It is beyond. Transcendental literally translates as that which is beyond. That which transcends the level of the mind. It is indescribable. You can just go through it. Yes, If you reach there, Please keep communicating with me. It is very lonely on this side. There is nobody to communicate. This also has a song. In Kabir's Doha's, It is so amazing. The song is Milore Milokoi Mara Desara. Vah ki bata karyat karangaji. Somebody from that des, That land, The land of the void, Please meet me so that we can converse, We can talk about two things. I cannot converse with people who are lost in the body and the mind. I have gone to that des. I have gone to that level. Now in that des, It is just the void and how can the person stuck in body and mind understand the void? So there is nothing, No conversation for me. I am very lonely here. Please come. Oh dear, If you have reached that des, Come to me and let's sit and talk about it. It is such a moving song. It moves you to tears definitely. So we will do that in a separate session. But it is a thirst, The thirst that develops when you get there and it cannot be described. How can you describe no-thingness? And you just want to meet another person who shares the same no-thingness. You just want to be in the company of that person. That is the real meaning of satsang. That is the authentic translation of satsang, The company of the truth, The company of that void and meeting somebody else who has experienced that void. It's just a delight for me to speak to some people. Some of them just come on a one on one. I have nothing to say. That's fine. Just talk. Just talk. And it's so much fun just talking to them because we connect at that level. It's a different connection. It's beyond words. It's beyond the body and beyond the mind. Milore milo koi maradeesvara dodo bata karanga ji. Kabir's path is the path of Advaita Vedanta. Kabir's path is not the Bhakti path. Yes, Not the Bhakti path. It is Advaita Vedanta. A special category of Advaita Vedanta is Vishishta Advaita Vedanta. In Vishishta Advaita Vedanta, There is that teaching of the fake I, Which is body, Mind, Intellect, Memory and ego. That is the fake I. F-A-K-E. Jhoot. Jhoota I. Fake I. The fake I has to all the time bow down to the real I to be able to experience the non-duality. Yes. That is why it is called Bhakti. It is not the regular Bhakti that people really think. In fact, Kabir himself was a teacher to his guru. We will do the sutras, The dohas tomorrow where the guru touches the feet of the disciple. So he himself was the teacher of the guru he went to. This is another level altogether.