Napoleon Conquered Europe. They Cut Off His Penis. Nothing You Chase Will Last.

In 1821, the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died on a remote island. During his autopsy, it seems the doctor cut off his penis. And for the past two centuries, the most private part of the man who once conquered Europe, who killed millions to write his name into history, and who sacrificed everything to be significant, has been bought, sold, and traded by private collectors like a cheap baseball card today. And you know, it sits in a smaller leather box in New Jersey right now. It is in, I think probably, some museum or something. So Napoleon spent his entire life trying to prove he existed, trying to leave a footprint on this earth. And today, the ultimate symbol of his earthly power is a thing lying in a desk drawer. Look at your own mind. You run from one place to another, buying things, achieving titles, collecting praises, all to prove that you exist. What a strange, exhausting disease that we are all carrying. We want to be significant. But significant to whom, and for what? You are already the infinite ocean. Yet you are crying because you think you are a tiny, insignificant drop that needs to be recognized by other tiny drops. How long will you remain in this self-made prison? You are the one observer of all things, and you have always been free. Your only bondage is that you see that observer as someone else. You see, let these words cut through your illusions right now. Your bondage is not your family, your job, or your responsibilities. Your bondage is this imaginary "me" that wants to be special. You have invented a ghost called the ego, and now you are spending your entire life trying to decorate it with spirituality by visiting a lot of ashrams and following a lot of techniques. Let me tell you something: you are already the self-aware reality from day one. To put an effort to become shows that you believe that you are bound, and that is your bondage. You see, a wave does not need to put a method to become ocean. A fire does not need to practice meditation to produce heat. So ask yourself this question: if the whole world starts clapping for you today, what changes in your nature? Or if the whole world forgets your name tomorrow, like an animation movie, what happens to you? Nothing. You are seeking validation from mortal beings who cannot even save themselves from death. You want people who are asleep to tell you that you are awake. Is there any greater foolishness than this? Consider the wave on the ocean. The wave rises and shouts, "Look at me. Look how I am. Look how more significant I am than other waves." Then, in the next second, let us say, it crashes and disappears. Did the ocean gain anything when the wave rose? Did the ocean lose anything when the wave fell? No. You are the ocean. And I'm not trying to be poetic here. I'm telling you the truth. Why are you playing the games of waves? You do not belong to the caste of Brahmin, or any religion, or anything, or any other classes. You are not in any stage of life. You are not objects of senses. You are the unattached, formless, and the witness of everything. And see that you are the self-aware reality, and be done with this drama. You want to be significant because you are terrified of being nothing. But I tell you, nothingness is your true home. Nothingness is your freedom. The mind tells you, "If I'm not important, my life has no meaning." So you chase after meaning like a dog chasing its own tail. You create a cage of identities: I'm a successful businessman or businesswoman; I am the greatest scholar; I follow this devotee; I fell at the feet of so many gurus in the world; I follow him; I follow her; I'm a good person, and things like that. So you lock yourself inside the cage, hold on to the bars, and then cry that you are not free. How can holding on give you freedom? Who is holding the bars? Who is locking the doors? Drop the desire to be someone right now, not tomorrow, not after 10 years of unwanted meditation. Instantly, right now, you can be happy, fulfilled, and free from bondage if you only relax into your own nature as awareness. And I know I'm sounding poetic because it looks poetic, but it is not. It is the truth. Look at the sun. Does the sun shine to be significant? Nothing in nature does things for someone else. They just do because that's their nature. Look at the wind. Does the wind blow to receive an award from some celebrity? You see, nature functions perfectly without any desire to be recognized. We are part and parcel of nature. But we want to be recognized by the world that doesn't even look at us or care for us. Only the diseased human mind wants to leave a footprint on the beach or on the world, knowing fully well that the next tide will wipe it away. History has been doing that for so long. You worry about your legacy. You worry about what people will say at your funeral. What a joke. You will be gone, and the people who speak about you will also be gone. You are sacrificing the eternal now for a memory in the minds of corpses. Let me tell you something: whether you are good or bad, there will always be people in this world who will tell you that you are a good person. And there will always be people in this world who will tell you that you are an idiot. Even I receive a lot of mails: people who tell me, you know, "Aswin, you're truly good, you have really inspired me," and things like that. And there are also people who mail me by saying, "You don't know anything, man. You are too young. How can you have wisdom? You are just reading some books and all the blah, blah, blah. You are using ChatGPT." So let me tell you something: there will always be people like this. Why simply bother? Who are we, after all? We are all just corpses waiting to reach our destination at the end. So wake up from this dream. You do not need to become significant because you cannot be added to, and you cannot be subtracted from. You are the changeless awareness in which universes rise and fall like bubbles in a cup of tea. You are the pure self-aware reality, and the universe is like a magician's show. How can there be any desire or aversion in you? If the universe is just a passing show, who's trying to become famous inside the theater? The characters on the screen are fighting for crowns, right? But the screen itself remains completely unstained by their blood or their gold. You are the screen. Stop pretending to be the character. Stop pretending that only if certain things are there, you will be fulfilled in your life. Those are all absolutely narrow-minded stuff. You know, I think in yesterday's or a day before yesterday's video, I said something like, "If you're seeking love, you're only fooling yourself," something along those lines. So, one person mailed me asking, "So, you mean to say I should not love? So, you mean to say I should not get married? So, you mean to say love is bullshit?" And things like that. I was like, "Dude, when did I say that?" The whole point was much deeper actually. I did not say, "Do not love and be loved." I said, "Wanting to love and to be loved is stupidity," because if you're wanting something, if you want to love and to be loved, it shows you are incomplete; it shows you are hungry. And a person who is hungry cannot offer food completely to the next person. There's nothing wrong in love, in loving and to be loved back. But wanting to love and to be loved back is very stupid. Are you seeing what I'm saying? Because if you want something, you are incomplete; that's why you want, because you have incompleteness within you. Therefore, you seek. Is there, or is it not? Because you don't have, so you seek; therefore, you want. If you want something, it shows you want to receive it, therefore you cannot give it. Let us say that you want love from a woman, and the woman is ready to give love, but if you want, you cannot offer love completely; you can only receive love. Are you understanding what I'm saying? Well, maybe I should make a video on that, on wanting and seeking. However, the desire to be significant is the ultimate rope that ties you to suffering. Cut it with this sword of discrimination. The only difference between us and animals is that animals do not have the ability to discriminate in detail like us. You do not need to do anything to be free. You do not need to go to the forest, nor do you need to torture your body with rituals and unwanted spirituality to become who you already are. You only need to stop claiming what you are not. Stop saying, "I am this body." Stop saying, "I am the mind. I'm struggling," and things like that. Whose life is a bed of roses? You tell me, man. Nobody's life is a smooth path. When you stand naked of all labels, what is left? That which is left is you. It has no name. It has no status. It has no need for anything. It is perfectly at peace, completely satisfied in itself. Knowing yourself as the pure self-aware reality, and the world is merely a play or an illusion, how can you still desire anything that is unwanted? Let the mind scream for attention. Let the ego beg for praises. Just watch it as witness and do not feed it. Do not argue with it. Once you see that you are the self-aware reality, what needs to happen will eventually happen. Do not bother too much.