Never will one again have a feeling 'I am this body'. That illusion is broken forever. There is only spontaneity that remains, but spontaneity isn't concerned with the worldly things like before. There is no driving self, no point of self, no doer-ship, no one doing. What needs to occur does; the body goes through the actions. There is simply peace: not one resting in peace, not one looking for peace, not one attempting to create peace, it simply is. The body and the universe are like a by-product, like an echo. Even though the body is apparently here, there is no relationship or connection to it. It is like moving some dead puppet image, and what happens is spontaneous.
Don't worry, in time all settles, but at first it is a total paradigm shift and a total perceptual awareness, a complete shift of reality. It gets better as one settles. The world cannot understand the reality of one who is without worldly attachments. There is a vast difference in true vairagya, which needs no mental promptings. Within Realization all this falls away, the world and its attachments simply dissolve along with self, into this ever-present pristine pregnant void that is called Self or Absolute. Although one cannot even say that "i" is Self, for while clearly it is the one nature of being, there is no personal sense or identity to be found anywhere.
Eventually it will come to a fuller resonating where, rather than feeling like a dream, one will externalize enough that the world simply becomes more in view and empty in nature, and therefore, also non-dual. Simply the movement of Shakti, the visual image of the Absolute, but this takes time to enter.
Realization is being "blown out"; that is exactly what is occurring. One is blown out. It is stepping into the essence of Being, the singular seed state of all Being. Realization is the essence of Being, simply IS. It is beyond debate; it IS. It is eternal and unchanging, the vast void where all rises within and returns to. The rest is surface movement, the domain of Shakti ripples. In Realization there is no personalized identity, no self-image that holds specific patterns of social acceptance, as the social structure demands. If this mind is arising, then there is residual self-image that is fighting. It is the mind that causes the confusion. Let it go... and within the stillness where can the confusion remain? The actions which spontaneously occur will be satvic. If there is confusion then there is an "I", attempting to gain some ground to cling to a known. It is like dropping though a trap door at great speed. But once though: sudden, ultimate, stillness, endless. One doesn't enter Enlightenment and then go back to work on the mind... [You'll hear some people say that on some of these lists. They'll say they rest in Realization. That first is Realization and then you have to go back and work on yourself (laughter). If that's the case then one has simply had a glimpse, but they're not resting in Realization.]
In Realization there is no denial, for the world is no more. It is nothing other than a temporary dream, nothing in it that is anymore important or meaningful than the shorter dream state at night. Not everyone is within the midst of mental stuff, it truly does fall away. It cannot be manufactured either, so no matter how many times people will want me to get involved with small talk and mundane woes, trying to... how can this be explained... it's like a layman trying to understand a latin liturgy - it's simply no longer computes. Yes a body is seen, yes pain is felt, but it's not "myself"; this may only be directly experienced and not explained to the logical mind. There is an awareness of it, like awareness of the radio playing; you can hear the radio, but there is no connection with it. Traffic going by is as much a part of something within this Self as is the physical vehicle. [Once you enter into that Realization, once there are no boundaries, you know, to keep subject/object in place, whatever motion is there is also within your being. Okay? I think its kind of like what you were saying you were feeling, like everything is connected. You can have a quick glimpse of that as well.
Student: But how about enjoyment? Can you still enjoy what happens to the physical vehicle?
Guru-G: Oh, of course, there's still pleasure. Of course there' pleasure... But its not so much that its just connected to the physical vehicle. Yeah..
A Realized One lives fully in the moment. There is nowhere else to go, and why would there be a need to? Suffering is at an end. No matter where one is or what is going on in the external world there a center of peace, that unmoving eye that cares not one whit about what is raging about it. One is more grounded than ever was before, and yet, there is no attachment to actions; they flow, they're momentary, emotions are momentary. When that moment is over there is no residual fall-out being clung to to bring into fruition the bitter fruit of suffering. This in itself is Bliss. Actions come from rajas, tamas, or satvic leanings. Was Christ being a good shepherd or an abuser when he entered into the temple and turned over the money changers' tables saying, "My fathers house is house of prayer, and you have turned it into a den of thieves." Yes, the action was harsh, was hard, wasn't pleasant, but it was satvic in nature. Being that in the final call i was for the benefit of those that were engaging in actions of ego that are binding and creating bondage rather than freedom, shaking them up to the end that maybe they will look at their actions and turn in new direction.
Yet those seeing this side of Christ may stand on the sidelines and judge his actions as being hard. Were they the actions of ego, or were they the actions of one moving within the highest good? The reality of One that is an awakened Being translates out to the flowing of actions in which a Realized Being always does the best for those being interacted with. It does not engage in the actions of abuse. That is an egotistical psychopath thinking themselves to be the highest thing in creation. The Realized One is not the highest thing in creation, they are no-thing, they are only a moving shadow of events. What is real is simply God in action. God does not abuse God, although what is best is not always stroking and pleasant. You don't stroke ego games because while it may make one happy for a moment it only secures the entrenching of the illusion.
Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Saint Theresa of Liso, Saint Theresa of Abala... you would judge outwardly that they are in a female body. Can you say what their conscious reality is? This one can assure you that there is no male or female within Realization. There is no duality of self and other. This is something, apparently, at this point you cannot even imagine. What is known and lived either stands in the light of day or it doesn't. If it doesn't stand the test of Sages then perhaps look in the direction of seeing that there just might be further to go. When Realization is in place the words of Sages will be simply a mirroring point for what is directly lived. If there is a discrepancy, then perhaps one isn't quite clear. If one is told they are Realized, yet their lives are still in mental turmoil and suffering then i say you have a blind guru, and he didn't do you any service in allowing you to believe that what you have is Realization.
In Realization there is no longer a self that runs anywhere, no longer a past to be reconciled, fought against or come to terms with. It was nothing other than a body attached to mind, sensory experience, desire and aversion. When that falls away what remains? When self is, where is ill in self's mirage? (?) It's spell is broken, at and end. In one moment the illusion of death, despair, bondage, conditioning, is over. One doesn't get it through a glimpse, which takes back a persona. It isn't gained by having a philosophy of denying mind as Self. Its a living Reality, in which the illusion falls away and it doesn't return - over, dead, gone; mind stills. No persona is seen or felt. It is the judging masses with minds steeped in duality who will point and say, "but i see you speaking therefore you must have a personal sense of self." Ramana dispels this over and over again. Realization is not gained by debate, or by gathering what one has read into some litany of parroting, nor by besting anyone in a debate. Realization is an unshakable point of balance, in that there is no persona that holds to any attachments of mind, form, emotions - knowing them to be empty in nature.
Enlightenment has nothing to do with monetary means. Don't think that in Realization one gets some magical tree that produces money. Before there was deep suffering, and now there is none. Before there was deep depression, and now there is none. Before there was no hope, now there is no need. Before there was empty speculation, now there is none. Before there was fear, now there is nothing to fear. Does this mean one no longer encounters the disgruntled, the angry, the sarcastic, the scornful, the prideful, and the pompous? Of course not. One wades daily through the suffering sea of humanity. Seeing others' continued suffering one is moved to speak the truth that Realization is not a myth. One stands their ground amidst the cacophony of naysayers. For this truth, this Self, that holds no temporal comings and goings, no care for ups and downs that are part of the Shakti flow, this truth is not moved by temporary disturbances. A momentary wave of emotion is exactly that; one moment it is there and the next it is as if it never was. One speaks that Enlightenment is available to all, equally, and that each has the same Essence of Divine Potentiality.
This myth of Realization being a momentary, feel-good phenomena is just that, a myth, being continually put forth by those who have had a glimpse yet feared their demise and have taken back the suffering persona (ie: better to be a suffering self than to let go of the driving desires and aversions). If the work is not taken place alongside meditation then glimpses at best may happen, insights may occur, but Realization will elude those suffering souls of dvaita mind. To those i say you have given up too soon, taken insights and wrapped them around an suffering persona, choosing a philosophical stance rather than holding out and confronting self with deep inquiry, which does not create a bigger self but tears the foundations asunder. One carries on, and not only do the foundations crumble but the false identifications are burnt, one by one, until nothing remains but a pile of ash.
These ashes are blown away as Realization draws one beyond the worldly Samadhi and into that Samadhi that holds no world within it. When the work has been done then the Sahaj Samadhi remains. Mind does not arise again, with self-image to choke out the life. Tendrils of self-image no longer take root and grow to once again bring a world of bondage and freedom's search, just a passing experience that was experienced by a "me". For the one whom Realization is a Reality, and not myth, there is no connection to the activities of the form. What is encountered simply flows with spontaneity; no cares, no concerns. One moment flows into another, and yet no firm sense of time remains as a fixed past/present/or future. Although others see an outer form, although others take the actions to stem from an entrenched self-image, that has simply fallen away. What remains is spontaneous action. What comes passes like ripples on a stilled lake - momentary, empty in nature. This is Liberation.
Part 2
When Realization is in its early stages of settling the words flow most prolifically.Eventually, at least for this one, they are dying out. In simply Stillness, awareness prevails. Words not being as prolific as intellectual mindstuff is receding into Stillness. There is, at this point, very little linear thought process left in tact. Perhaps some wax more eloquently, and continue in eloquence, but for some it simply falls away. Aja is another example of this - speaking in conversation, which must come from thinking mentation, becomes quite difficult to access. That which flows spontaneously flows as it will. There is a difference between having Realization and having a glimpse, which becomes more of a philosophical stance than a living, breathing Reality - the difference between once having seen and tasted and apple 20 years ago and trying to remember the flavor versus having and endless supply of apples which are crisp and ever-present on the plate. Memories are vague at best. What was once before, that was so important that it drove ones life, now it is not seen. Its like trying to remember some old film you saw as a child. Small glimpses, bits and pieces remain, that is all. Very disjointed and of no importance.
Now is lived, Now is the only sense of vaporous reality. When this moment is over, for the most part, it is over. No memories, or slight memories that are not contained in a time frame. Was that a week ago, five minutes ago.. a month ago? Then its gone. Pure awareness remains. Not linear thought, which builds stone upon stone of constructed images held together by the glue of mental ramblings of the past "if onlys" and future "what ifs."
This cannot even be imagined until it becomes your reality. If one finds a need to use linear thought it can be accessed, but is difficult to maintain and hold. I am speaking about what is here in this consciousness. It falls away quite suddenly when attention is not being held in place to keep it in motion. What is most natural at the moment is pure awareness, which has no thought attached. Simply IS, not dividing into this or that. Sitting on the banks of the Ganges suddenly the last great fear arose - Terror. Was it total annihilation or possession that was a step away? Exhausted, with the realization that this seeker had done all that was possible to do, left only one option: to Surrender, within the impending doom which had engulfed every cell with the terror of its demise. The world ended, black.. . then whooosh.. no self. "I have never existed." There is nothing. No form, no person, no knowledge.. yet whole perfection IS. Unborn, One without a second. Also not one, but zero, for it is forever indivisible. Where all light proceeds from, and yet beyond light. Where all Shakti proceeds from, and yet beyond Shakti. Every atom of the universe is this infinite potential. For nothing has life except this Life. The mind ended as a repository for knowing "about".
What is paramount is this Absolute IS. There is nothing other or apart. Life remains as Lila, for there is nothing apart from the Reality of IS. Time no longer has linear references... was it a day ago, a month, a year? There is only ever-present Now. And even Now has no meaning in conceptualized understanding, as it takes the past and future to hold it in place, which only become words without much importance. The idea of bondage falls away into this intense overwhelming IS. There are no longer desires that move a limited mindset wrapped around a form. Form is only another image, like spoon or car, a tool, without a reference as "I". All takes place as Self.
How can this be shared? Words pale. Silence is the closest to IS. Silent Bliss that seeks nothing, and is complete as IS. Fall in love with Self. Self never leaves you. It is that same Self within all masters - not two, not two. Enlightenment is beyond the doership of steps to make lives outwardly better. What really happens in the dream? What is touched? Realization is like that. The world is simply a grander dream, and dreamer, but nothing ever truly happens. Neither real nor unreal. Its the same experience but on a larger scale. This is awakening. When that attachment is broken, and seen for what it is.
Nataraj [the dancing Shiva] dances whether destruction or creation is taking place. Destruction makes way for a new creation or liberation, for one that confronts the illusory nature of such it doesn't matter, transient flow is empty in nature. Only the mind that is attached to one versus the other feels pain and pleasure, as separate identification. Realization is nothing other than the archetype of Nataraj is personification. Be aware or ardinardaschwara [?], be aware of that which is beyond social dictates and mores. Be aware that is time to allow Kali to break through what may be broken through.
Be aware that this thought of keeping women bound is that of social structure and is from ignorance. Women can reach Realization just as readily as any man. Self is not the form. It is time for the understanding of the Shiva/Shakti, and that it takes respect for all of humanity in order for full Grace to flow. There is no singular identity of a "me" that comes and goes and is reborn. This is why i continue to say that Sharon died and Ganga is an illusion. You simply are no more. Those within duality will not suddenly see that you are no more. Am sure that they would say that Osho, just as they say Swami-G, has a strong personality. But this is only within their minds of limiting existence to brain, body and emotion. For the Realized One there is no such inner cognition. There is simply the reality of the ever-pure essence, which is Shiva/Shakti, which is pure Being, which is even beyond I AM. For the I AM is the first projection. When illusion has imploded, at that point remains the "Peace that passes all understanding". There's nothing to hold for understanding, for understanding is from the point of view of a persona, a glitch in time. There is no person that attempts to hold powers in place. Siddhis come and go.
It is true that miraculous things simply take place in connection with and around realized ones. It's difficult to explain... But yes, have had people with spontaneous healings, kundalini awakenings,appearances to people before meeting them.. so many things take place but "I" am not doing it on any type of a conscious level. There's no"I" cognized to put anything into effect by desire, just like all of the images that showed up in the fire during the consecration ceremony... they simply appear. But Swami-G did not need to do anything to make it happen. It simply does.
What do you term "awakened"? If one is still dealing with mental issues then they are still within a maya type of mind. So how is this awakened? As Buddha termed awakened, "It is no longer within maya. The dream is broken, over and done as far as control over the mental faculties." Many have had a glimpse and are on soapboxes to say that's all there is. Then you simply walk around with some new perspective. There's nothing liberated in that whatsoever. Having been on both sides of that fence i can understand why they wish to believe that is all there is. But i would be unethical at best if i did not say that Liberation is being peddled quite cheaply, and if it were the case, i would say you are better off going to the movies and chugging down a beer at your local bar. In Realization, as with all things, it takes ntime for the tree to be planted, the tree to grow and bear fruit, and the fruit has to ripen fully before being ready to fall from the tree. When the fruit falls this is Realization.
Of course it is possible to be enlightened and smoke.... Enlightenment is of the Consciousness while smoking is of the body, the temporal. Although i don't advocate it; it cuts the forms time considerably. The form is the temple of the divine, so why pollute the temple... Forget about what the body is doing, look at where Nisargadatta's Consciousness is. The parabda karma plays out. If the body was addicted to tobacco it doesn' t mean it was anything other than the playing out of transients. His Consciousness was not infected by the transients; they come and go. Reality is forever the same no matter what the transients are showing. Reality or Self-realization is there already, as one doesn't become IT, one is already THAT. It's just a matter of stripping away the coverings that deny it. The ignorance of the egoic mind is to at first see everything in relationship to ego. There are not many enlightened "I"s - personal separated self ends as a focal point. There is only One (which is why every Realized being has the same reality - there is only One at that point.. Why all masters will say basically the same thing; their words will mirror one another because it's only one Reality. There are not many selves that have different realities of Realization - there's only One).
I'm neither mother nor father. Source has no identity or form, but due to your being caught within the confines of duality and form you may nsay that i am mother. If you're speaking of Liberation it means finding out what God is. What is Self? What is Internal and Unchanging? What is Pristine and Forever Pure? I only term Realization as "awakening". Until then one is still wandering and searching for answers. Perhaps it was your first insight that there was more. One has many many cognitive insights and shifts of perceptual awareness along the way... Brothers and sisters are within the dual mindset. A Realized One is neither male nor female within Consciousness. Only through Realization does a change take place that is significant. Look, i'll say it this way... I was in hell, now i am in Peace, and it has remained this way for 6 years now.
The newly Enlightened need time to settle. It does take time before one is settled into the fullness of ever-present IS, as IS, although it isn't a growth per se. Mind's last tendencies and tentacles as a see-er fall away. As one no longer grasps to understand or expound or figure out what has taken place within the confines of intellectual definitions. Waves of mindplay settle into peace, Stillness Flow of direct IS rather than mental projections of dissected waves into either/or. Truth or living reality dissolves, the remainder of conscious cognition of duality or sequestered Absolute IS reality vs the flow of Shakti. Then integration or fullness as expression takes place. In Fullness of Being there is equally spontaneous Flow. From dream state to empty in nature to non-dual IS, in which there is nothing that is not God; a living yantra, the Flow of Shiva/Shakti, One, or what Rama Krishna termed "into the fullness of expression". As Saint John of the Cross said, "I have entered into the Unknowing which is beyond all knowledge." And this was indeed Realization. I might say it rather that mankind meets the devil, the world of dark fog (?), and enters into a cloud of false knowing - illusional separational knowledge. It is in letting go of the so-called known, that one enters into the place of Unknowing, that is beyond all relational knowledge. Pure intellect without covering of knowledge into separation. Enlightenment, as i have stated many times, is in the end the greatest cosmic joke. We search here and there to the ends of the Earth, and we couldn't get away from it if we had tried. It simply IS, the truth of existence.
Part 3There is nothing that exists that is not God. One can say that God is and equally is not. How can this be? In order for God to exist there must be something other than God. Simply there is not. It cannot be spoken of, it is true, no one can look upon the face of God and live. God has no face. It is the formless Absolute which IS. One moment in the Holy of holies where all light proceeds from, dissolves all conceptualized ideas and belief systems. Shiva linga [a symbol for the worship of the Hindu deity Shiva. The use of this symbol for worship is an ancient tradition in India extending back at least to the early Indus Valley civilization] is the Absolute, seed state, primal intellect, essence unborn Eternal, Unknowing that's beyond all knowledge, ParaShiva [God Siva as That which is beyond the grasp of consciousness, transcends time, form and space and defies description- Attainment of this is called Self Realization or nirvikalpa samadhi], formless, Whole, complete, the Pregnant Void, simply IS. Entering here ones dissolves utterly as a separate personality and conditioned knowledge blows out, it is at an end. One must finally give up and let go, go into the Heart, let japa [a spiritual discipline involving the meditative repetition of a mantra or name of God] flow... Om Namah Shiva. Be the japa - One. Don't think about it. Once again that creates separation. Allow it to flow and simply be That, Mantra, Self is One. There is only That. There is nothing other than God: above, below, within, without, nothing other than THIS. It is not something separate to be striven for or something to be reached, it simply IS. It's the essence of All Being - Namaste - Om Namah Narayanah. There's no seperation from God or else there would be no existence or life. That's pretty simple... Absolute has no cognition of a world, yet the world is a by-product of the qualities.
No, you have been reading too many books and are postulating fantasy. Absolute, which is core reality, is not a form. To say it has a sex is utter nonsense. Bindu, Stillness is the point of Center. From that point, then the first movement of Shakti takes place. Ohhhhmmmmm. The Universe springs into Being, the fragrance then arises. It's all God, it's all good, it's all life - ocean and waves one and the same. Yes you are responsible for your life and choices. Grace happens as one comes into alignment with Truth, surrenders to the satvic way which Christ always pointed to. God's not a big guy sitting on a throne with a goody sack in one hand and club in the other. God is not a personality and is the seed of all the universe and creation. God is much more than imagined and yet not this big personal self imagined by many. One dissolves within the Consciousness of that Absolute essence which IS. It's undeniable, beyond question, with total Reality. One becomes many, in the same way a light through a prism makes the appearance of many colors. There's only One Light. There are not many gods but many aspects of God - the prism is Shakti. There are not many souls but many facets of One. Contained in all religions is God's message or God Directly. Look closer... which is it? Is God removed from the flowing of paths to or celebration of, or is a particle of light in God's essence in itself to be found within the flowering? Is one running to or dissolving within this very essence? When self drops there is nothing other than God. It has always been present. Like the bible says, "Wherever i go, you are there. I try to hide, but you are there. In the depths of the oceans and the tops of the mountains, there is no place that God, or divine essence, is not."
Om Shanti
Guru Swami G
