Satsang in Singapore on 15th April, 2017
Bliss of Silence
(Satsang after the Bliss of Silence meditation)
M: How many of you connected to the silence inside? Could anybody feel at least a drop of silence? Have you felt this before? How many of you have gone into that zone before, where there is nothing, which is totally empty? Not through this meditation, but otherwise. It’s very fearsome state for the mind, total emptiness. No thought because lack of thought is useless state for the mind. Mind is terribly restless. It will keep asking,“What are you doing? Nothing? Do something. I’m getting bored.”
So we are pushed into activity and pushed into thinking. I didn’t talk about heart. I talked about lungs because we ignore the lungs. Do we normally consider lungs at all? When lungs are very peaceful, very silent, the system gets silent. Everything becomes silent and then it’s a state of peace. Bliss. You wouldn’t care what’s happening outside. Whatever happens outside,“It’s ok, I’m peaceful.” So you are able to go within into a zone where you are extremely peaceful.
How many of you have gone into that zone before, where there is nothing, which is totally empty, the zone where you are extremely peaceful?
Mind
We cannot see the truth at all, except through the eyes of the mind and the mind is filled with concepts, memories, theories, so many things. We are completely deluded all the time and through the eyes of the mind we see the world. We do not see a real world. We only see a distorted world. When we consistently see a distorted world, our reality gets distorted. When our reality is distorted, our destiny is distorted. It is never clear. It is like murky water. If you pick up some water from the river which is full of mud, how will it look? You can’t see through the glass right? But if you keep a glass there for some time, then the mud settles down. Then you start seeing through the glass, through the water. Until the mud settles down, you cannot see well through it.
Like that, until the mind settles down, all the dust settles down, you are not able to see well clearly. This is important to understand. So we have to settle the mind at some point in time. The effort is detaching from things outside. I’m not saying run away from anything. Do NOT run away from anything. That won’t work. Do not suppress anything. Whenever you suppress, that stays longer in your system. If you have a desire and you suppress it for whatever reasons, it stays longer in the system. Be very clear about it. It’s not going away.
Karma
There are two ways karma can be exhausted. Natural culmination of karma is fulfilment. Karma is coming out of unfulfilled desires. So what is the natural culmination? How can you solve karma? Fulfilment. Fulfilment with your mind completely with it when you are experiencing it. That works. Then a desire is fulfilled because you experienced it. When you experience it, it also leaves a residue memory. That gets stored as an impression in your causal layer and that can manifest as karma in the future. This is a usual pattern of karma.
One more way you can exhaust your karma is to increase the awareness. The awareness which you brought when you took the birth, is good enough to operate the karma till the end of life. That’s good enough, because you brought that stuff when you came. This is part of your constitution. Then you are evolving to a level where you are able to see from above. I’ll give you a simple example. You badly wanted to buy a bicycle because you were fed up with walking. You thought it would help your movement. Then your parents are gifting you a motorcycle. Do you still have the desire for the bicycle?
Your original aim was faster movement. You got better stuff than you expected, would you still think about a bicycle? You wouldn’t, because you already got something better. Likewise, when your awareness grows beyond the usual pattern, then the lower drops off. That is NOT suppression. Please understand clearly.
Suppression is that you are postponing something. You are pushing something down or keeping in the closet, because you don’t want to express it due to whatever reason. That is suppression. That is not going away. When you open the closet, you get all the skeletons.
The usual conclusion of karma is fulfilment and once you have the experience karma is exhausted. Otherwise, you raise your awareness into a level where you do not need this thing. Then, again, it drops off. What masters do is they bring your awareness to a much higher level, so that you do not need any of these things any more.
That is what masters do. When you are in the proximity of a master who is connected to consciousness, who has already transcended, what they do is they raise your awareness to a level where you are able to see through.
An Acharya vs. a Master
What is the difference between an Acharya and a Master? An acharya is an exponent of knowledge. Somebody who has learned and is able to impart knowledge in a particular way that people understand. A master is somebody who has already transcended. He has raised his awareness to the level where nothing lower matters, they probably dissolved the mind too. If you do not have trash, you don’t need a trash can at home. If you are producing trash, you must have a trash can to put it all together.
The mind is like a trash can, it collects a lot of data from everyday life and the mind keeps them. What is mastery? Mastery is mastery over the mind. It means mind itself is unnecessary for that person. Such people do not have to teach anything.
That is why people like Bhagawan Nityananda, Shirdi Sai Baba, Sathya Sai Baba…you can see a lot of masters who never taught yoga, or particular meditations or anything. Their very presence was enough. It was so powerful that it burnt people’s residual memories and they were all getting elevated in the presence of the master. So a master and an acharya are different beings.
One is an exponent of knowledge and through knowledge they elevate your awareness, but a master with his presence itself clarifies the whole thing. Life becomes clear. This is important. I always say, whenever you have a chance to be in the proximity of a true master, never miss it because you save a lot of lifetimes with it. If you are supposed to live a 100 years, because various residual karma is burnt, you may only live 50 years and you can dissolve.
Enlightenment vs. Dissolution
Please do not confuse between enlightenment and dissolution. Enlightenment is like a graduation. You attain a state where you are able to see consciousness at work, in all states of everyday life which are waking state, dream state and deep sleep state. In all these three states consciousness is at work. Enlightenment is a state where you are able to see the consciousness at work in these three states.
Dissolution is even dissolving your sukshma, the subtle form. Even after enlightenment the subtle form still stays. So you have to dissolve the subtle form and become nothing. Then the drop actually merges with the ocean. Otherwise it remains as a drop for a longer period of time.
Q: How can I fulfil my purpose every day?
A: In the question, there is one ’I’. I do not understand this ’I’: ‘I fulfil the purpose.’So,’I’ am fulfilling, ’I’ am doing something. Who’s this ’I’? Whenever I am asking a question, I am asking you to think. Who is this ’I’ that is fulfilling the purpose? That means somebody is owning an activity. I agree you are fulfilling a purpose. How much of control, how much of your fulfilment do you have with your heartbeat? Are you pumping your heart as per your doer-ship? Digestion, circulation of blood, your activities of the body, activities of the brain, how much control do you have, from 0-100? Zero control.
So, how can I do something? This is a fundamental question you should ask. ’I’ am not fulfilling any purpose. Purpose gets fulfilled through me. That ’me’ is not what you are projecting. It’s an incarnation called… whatever. What is purpose? Karma is the purpose for an incarnation. What is getting fulfilled? Karma. What is the means of fulfilment? Incarnation. How is it getting fulfilled? When you experience it. When is it getting fulfilled? With time. You cannot get anything fulfilled in one day. If you live 90 years, it takes 90 years to fulfil. Then, what is the purpose? Karma.
Fulfilment is experience. Time is given, space is given, awareness is given. What are ’we’ doing then? Are we controlling anything at all? This is the truth. Time is given, space is given, awareness is given, karma is given, body is given, everything is given and also our vital functions are not controlled by our waking state mind.
Our waking state mind, the state in which we are, has nothing to do with our heartbeat, blood circulation, digestion, nothing. Everything is perfectly synchronised by the consciousness.
So, who is this ’I’ who is running the show? That is the question you must ask yourself. That gives all the answers of life. The personality which is defined by the ego is saying ’I’. The skeleton of the personality is ego. What we project to the outside world as ourselves, that is a projection, that is a personality. That has a form which people recognise. That is ego. By the way, ego and mind are not bad things. Why did God create mind at all? Why was mind created? Because mind was needed to experience karma. How can mind experience karma? You look at things.
We look at so many things. But how many things do we actually see? How many things can we see? Only when the mind is with the eyes, you’ll see. Otherwise, you’ll just look. You’ll see nothing. There’s a beautiful garden. You are visiting a garden with beautiful flowers, everything is pretty much good, pretty and nice. But if the mind is elsewhere, will you enjoy this garden? So mind is needed with the senses to experience life. That’s why God has given mind. Second thing is that, we have a level of awareness. That level of awareness is what makes us understand something.
Everybody has a different level of awareness. Everybody has a different frequency. It’s not the same. It can’t be the same. People have different levels of awareness. Within that level of awareness only can we experience life. We cannot experience life based on somebody else’s awareness. Some person may say,“Look here, it’s a beautiful day!“ Another person will say,“Ok, it’s a nice day, but it can be better.“ Why are there two opinions? Two levels of awareness, two frequencies, different moods, various factors make us like or dislike. Between this we oscillate. So mind is provided, mind with the eyes makes us see and experience. Mind with the ears makes us listen and experience.
Mind with our tongue makes us taste and experience. Mind with the skin makes us feel and experience. Minus the mind none of these faculties work. So mind is not a bad idea. It is not negative. If everything is kept in its place, it is tidy, neat and clean. That is good. But if it is in various places, then it’s a problem, isn’t it? So mind with its proper usage and capacity is a very good idea. Mind also helps you to maintain the relativity. That’s what we say, ‘my father, my mother, my husband, my wife, my children’…’ This ’my’ comes with constitution which mind manages, or ego aspect which the mind manages.
This is the illusion which we work on. We like to maintain this illusion. But tell me the truth. Do we own anybody? Can we own anybody at all? Nobody is ours, including this body. We have taken it only for some time. When the soul leaves the body, people take it away. It’s called a dead body. Until then, we call it a name, a form and we respect it. The moment it’s dead, it’s finished, that’s it.
So we own nobody, we own nothing. The purpose of life is karmic fulfilment. Whether you like it or not, it’s happening, every moment. This group of people is supposed to meet me at this time. It’s called the time-space junction point. This time of the day, we are supposed to be together. Whether we liked it or not, whether we chose it or not, whether we are enjoying it or not, that’s not the point here. The point is we are together at this point in time, at this place. Nothing else could have happened.
Purpose
Because that is a way karma is designed. Time-space-junction point for a particular person, to experience a particular thing, there is a particular location and a time within which we live our life. Where is the good and bad in it? It’s only experience. There’s nothing good, nothing bad, all are experiences.
So purpose is very simple, purpose of every incarnation is fulfilment of karma. What is the root of karma? Impression. How does it manifest? As a desire. When desires need fulfilment, karma happens. Karma pushes incarnation for fulfilment. While you are incarnated, first level of effect is inclination (vasana). You like something, or you want to do something. You have a taste, a flavour, an inclination. That is the first level of manifestation of desires. Then it leads to thoughts. Inclination leads to thoughts. Thoughts lead to expressions. Expressions lead to actions. Impressions become unfulfilled desires, become incarnation, becomes inclination – thought – word – action. Every action has an experience associated with it. That experience becomes a memory. That memory comes back as impression stored in the causal layer (karan sharir).
You can call it subconscious mind or hard drive of the system. It’s stored in as impressions. Then it takes further shape. Impressions can also be a concept. It can become a character. Sometimes you have certain impressions, you form an opinion and it becomes character. It can associate with the character, too, not always unfulfilled desires. One aspect is unfulfilled desires, another aspect is a flavour of character. Both are possible. In any case, that determines your life ahead. Impressions decide how much you are living.
So why do all masters consistently say have nothing to do with the world, detachment…? All these things are said consistently. Why? Collect lesser impressions, empty the space more so that each of your lives will be lighter and lighter until there will be no more impressions stored. Why do masters say connect to yourself and bring things out? Whatever you have stored, bring it out and become empty, because that ensures no more incarnations. If there are impressions, there will be incarnations because impressions ask for manifestation.
I think I destroyed the question more than I answered it.
But it’s important to understand. This is not a bad question at all. What I mean to say is that we are not doing anything particular to fulfil our karmic desires. The destiny is bringing the time, space and experience for us. We must understand that. We are not particularly ’doing something’ so that my karma is fulfilled. In fact we are not even aware of the karma. Do we know why we are incarnated? Do we know why at a particular place, in a particular environment, with a particular knowledge? We don’t know any of these things, right? We are just experiencing life as it happened.
So, karma is what happens to you. Lord Krishna said,“When the dharma is in decline, I happen.” He didn’t say,“I take birth.” He has no birth nor death. When your identification is with your soul, you have no birth, no death. So what Lord Krishna said was, “When dharma is in decay, I happen.” It’s a happening. Every incarnation is happening. The whole time-space structure including their level of awareness to experience the karma is happening. It’s happening at each point in time. This what we are talking is happening right now. Tomorrow I might be in another place. You will be in another location. Same thing cannot happen tomorrow. Forget about tomorrow .
Tonight you’ll be in different places. If you operate with that awareness at every point in time, you will be free from within.“Oh, this is happening now, there might be a reason.“ You cannot see the cause, you can see the effect as it happens. You do not know the cause at all. Which time of the day or when do we understand the causes of our life? Almost never. We cannot see the hard drive. We can only see what manifests on a screen.
Can we see at all what is stored in the hard drive? Of course, we can go and search and find, that’s different, but what seeds are sitting in the causal layer? We cannot find until they manifest as effect in life. So look at our limitations. Lord Krishna says again there are millions of sense objects, to experience them there are five senses and one mind and at one point in time you experience only one thing and that experience is squarely divided into happiness and sorrow. So this is life. Simple.
Millions of things outside of you, to experience them five senses, one mind. At one point in time, you experience only one thing fully. There’s no multitasking here, it’s not possible. Multitasking means you experience nothing, mostly on unconscious mode. I’m talking about conscious mode when you are living your life. So at one point in time, one experience and it can be classified either as happiness, or sorrow. That’s it, and happiness and sorrow are also conditioned. They are only sitting in the waking state mind, when you are awake. When you dream or are in deep sleep the same happiness or sorrow have no value.
The same thing has no value, so how limited are we? Do you see our limitation? Don’t think we are running any show. We are running nothing. We are running after-shows, that’s different, ha, ha.
Q: Why can’t I meditate without my mind going all over?
M: That’s mainly because that’s the nature of the mind. The nature of the mind is restlessness. Mind has to go all over because – why has mind been created? To experience sense objects. So mind will go over. Allow the mind to go all over but do not follow the mind. You are not your mind, are you? Mind is part of you. If you identify yourself with the mind, you will also fluctuate with the mind. Right? What are your main factors of existence? Physical i.e. the body-related, emotional i.e. mind-related, intellectual i.e. knowledge-related, personality i.e. ego-related, and spiritual i.e. soul-related. These are the five major aspects of our existence: physical, emotional, intellectual, egoistic or personality based and spiritual. What you are identifying with, that becomes you.
You can see a lot of people in this world who are very physical. They keep their body in shape and intact and when some small thing happens – finished. E.g. a body builder who is always in front of the mirror looking at each muscle, falls down and breaks his leg. What happens to him? He will be lost and helpless. He will cry the whole day or at least a few weeks until it’s healed. Likewise, emotional – we gravitate towards emotional things which the media freely gives, soap operas, all those kind of stuff, and then we cry because other people cry. Sometimes it is a sadistic pleasure, too. We watch a movie, people are suffering,“I’m glad I’m not suffering.“
But there is a problem here. Do you know what is happening? That impression is getting stored in your system. We may think it’s ok, it is on the screen, other people are suffering, I’m ok. It is not always the case that you are ok. On a subtle level you are collecting the impressions and storing them in your subconscious mind in the causal layer. So what happens is they become an ingredient for reality in the future. They become ingredients for another life. So it’s not always what you think. You don’t have to experience everything in life. Even watching a feature film or getting involved in somebody else’s matter can come to you. This is the karmic residual transfer.
One man is suffering and he cries and you are asking him to come to cry on your shoulder, then you carry all his weight and you suffer. This is what happens in life. This residual karma is getting transferred very, very quickly. What you see, what you experience always leaves an impression and impression never goes away without fulfilment. They sit in the causal layer until they manifest as a reality. Either as a concept, as a part of your constitution, or it becomes a pending matter. That is why the fear of something attracts it.
The root of the fear is sitting inside and it manifests as a fear of something, maybe without any obvious reason, but it comes back and it shows up because they are stored inside. Even when somebody tells you, look here, there was a burglar in our house, while you may not even have to do anything with that house or the burglary, the memory stays – oh, there is a possibility of burglary. Then you start developing fear around it and that fear becomes an obstruction in your life. Thus it goes, one leads to the other. It starts as an impression, it manifests as a reality later on.
Mind’s job is to be restless, you need to accept the mind’s job as restless. You cannot do anything about it, but allow it to be restless and have nothing to do with it. When I say have nothing to do with it, as it becomes restless, just allow that to flow. Just watch.
The technique that Babaji was suggesting to me in early 2000s was splitting the mind into two and observing one part of the mind with the other. That means imagine your mind is a huge canvass outside of you. It has all the things which you have carried, which you already have manifested from. It doesn’t mean what is stored, but what is manifested is sitting here all over and you see, oh this is making a lot of noise, it’s bothering me. So you isolate that part, keep watching.
Don’t get involved and don’t judge or criticise or try to manipulate it. It’s sitting and making a lot of noise.“Ok, keep making a noise, I’m not disturbing you, don’t disturb me either.“ Then after a while the noise is silenced because you are not energising it, and then it finally drops off. So use one part of the mind to observe the other part of the mind and allow the mind to exhaust itself. All the fears, anxieties, impressions, everything will come, one by one, let them come and go. Finally, you reach a stage where you are totally peaceful, empty. There’s nothing to feel or nothing to give, everything is quiet.
Just sit in that quietness. There will be provocations from outside. This is for sure because mind will be beat all the time. There will be something coming from outside. One of your relatives will say, “Hey, look, there is a big problem going on, you must get involved!” Get involved, but in the state in which you are already in. Get involved in anything, but not leaving the state that you are in, what you’ve already collected. It means you collected a state where nothing bothers you. In that state get involved in anything you like. Not in the state in which you were before this. There is a big difference here.
Understand carefully. Handle anything in life, don’t say something is good, something is bad. Whenever you say likes and dislikes, the mind is happy. Mind says ok, he doesn’t like this, he likes that. Mind likes to play with this kind of stuff. So don’t say anything about it. No likes, no dislikes. Then you are handling something extraordinary tedious about a neighbour or a friend. But at the same time you will remain peaceful so that your level of clarity will be very high. You will have a high level of clarity. If you operate in that level of clarity, you can solve a problem like this. There’s no big problem.
How does a problem become big? When there is less clarity. When you approach something without any idea or with a feeling that this is a problem. Otherwise you are looking at a situation, you are not the situation, nor you are going to solve it, you are pulled into it. You are not creating any situation, as I said earlier, destiny creates situations for you to experience. You are not the creator of a situation, are you? You are not even going to solve it. Solution happens through you. So again, you have no ownership. Thirdly, at the end of the day, you have an experience which you do not care about anyway, isn’t it?
Do you really care about an experience? If you don’t get involved in the problem, then you are not involved in the experience of it. That is what Krishna says, “Leave it to me. I release you from the memories of it.” So you don’t have to do anything of the activity, nor the memory of it, there is no impression stored. You would not even know you are involved in it, so you become completely neutral. When you operate in that level, every day is purification. More and more will leave you.
Please remember, we always present ourselves as a bundle, not as a human being. A bundle of concepts, character, constitution, personality – this is how we are presenting ourselves to the world and people recognise us with it. Think about yourself minus all these concepts. You could be a man or a woman, you could be born anywhere, you are not bound by a space, a time, a situation, remove everything and ask yourself,“Who am I actually?” That’s a question which is worth the answer.
Don’t allow the mind to answer – experience the answer. “Who am I without everything?“ That is You. Your name, form, gender, social status don’t matter, nothing matters. You are actually empty from all these thoughts. And you know what? The more thoughts dissolve, the more clarity comes to you. Thoughts are originating out of concepts or inclinations. Thoughts are dissolving. Allow the thoughts to come and go.
People have opinion about people. Does it really matter? It doesn’t. I can have any opinion about anybody, but it doesn’t change anything. So there is no need for opinion, there is no need for involvement, there’s no confusion. So when you get involved, get involved as empty as you can, not as a personality which you are projecting.
In that way the problem gets solved. This is something you should understand.
Transcribed by Biljana Vozarevic