You Are Not the Person. You Are Self-Aware Reality Itself.

Every human eye has a little blind spot where the optic nerve attaches itself to the retina. Right? So, which means there is no light there at all. This means that right now, a portion of what is in front of you on the screen is completely missing. However, you never see a black hole in your vision. Why? Because your brain hates void. Instead of showing you the blank truth, your brain automatically invents a visual pattern based on the surrounding colors and puts it onto itself. It completely fabricates a piece of reality, and you look right at it every day without even noticing that it was a lie. And this is the truth. So, that means to say, what you're seeing is not me. It's your version of me. Just like the text says about the ego, your mind creates a seamless illusion out of nothing, and you mistake it for the absolute truth. Look at yourself. You are like a woman bound hand and foot with ropes of her own imagination, weeping bitterly that she cannot fly. Who tied the knot? Did the world bind you? Did reality change you? No. You know, I many times use this word called the pathetic creatures. You know why I say that? There's a reason, because in one hand, we hold on to the truth. In another hand, we hold on to our bondage and our suffering. That's why we are all struggling. I have been in the place where I said, "I cannot do this. This is difficult for me." I have also gone through all those unwanted things of life. But I'm telling you with experience, we are suffering because we hold on to our suffering. We love the story of suffering. We want to blame ourselves for everything. We love to play the role of victim. You know, I could make a web series out of my life, because there's so much of ups and downs and dramas and unfairness that I've gone through. I could really make a web series out of it. But because I was holding on to them, there is bondage. Let me tell you something. True wisdom is not leaving suffering and holding on to goodness. True wisdom is not leaving hate and holding on to love. That is still narrow-minded stuff. True wisdom is neither loving nor hating. True wisdom is neither good nor bad. It's absolute neutrality. You have tied the knot of your own bondage with the phantom thread of the ego. And now you ask me how to struggle against the room you refuse to leave. Many people ask me, "Aswin, how do I come out of this? How do I become enlightened?" First of all, enlightenment is not something that you attain. If it means that you have to attain it, then it is not truth at all. Truth has to be there whether you believe in it or do not believe in it. Right? It has to exist even now. If it is something that you have to attain, that means to say, it is not worth your time at all. You are already liberated. Only the person who searches for liberation is a creation of mind. Hear this clearly. If your ears are capable of hearing anything beyond your own mental chatter, then this is the thing: The human struggle against reality is the ultimate hallucination. Reality is, and you are not. Yet you, the phantom, the shadow, the ripple on the ocean which imagines itself to be separate from the ocean, have decided to wage a war against the absolute. How can the mirage fight the desert? How can the reflection fight the mirror? How can a warrior in the dream conquer reality? You see, I do not offer you a plan for the battle. I only tell you that the background or the battlefield itself is a lie. I do not wish to insult you by giving a method to become divine, because how can I give a method to a woman to become a woman? How can I give a meditation technique to a wave to become ocean? What procedure should I tell a fire to produce heat? Your very nature is liberation. You're already liberated. To think that I am not liberated is your assumption. It is your bondage and your suffering. And you are holding on to your suffering and bondage. That is the thing. A lot of people tell me, "Aswin, I have sinned. I don't think I am capable of attaining the truth." Don't be narrow-minded. See that you are the self-aware reality which is the substratum of all, and be done with this drama. Once you see that you are that on which all these things are happening, all the unwanted qualities will go away, and what will be left is only the reality. Many people think that enlightenment is knowledge that is added onto them. That's nonsense. It is not knowledge that you get. It is the removal of all that is unwanted. You see, in a room, when you have to make space, you don't add space in the room; you only remove the unwanted furniture, unwanted dust, and things like that. What remains is space. Similarly, when you remove all that is unwanted within you—unwanted desires, unwanted people, unwanted attachments, unwanted circumstances, unwanted ambition, drama, spirituality, gurus, ashrams, everything—when you remove that which is unwanted, what remains is the absolute, unfathomable, self-aware reality, and that is your true nature. One who considers oneself free is free. One who considers oneself bound remains bound. So, there's a popular saying like that, you know: "As you think, so you become." You think you are a person struggling with the difficult world. This very thought is your prison cell. The bars are made of your memories, your preferences, your attachments, and your neurotic need to control what cannot be controlled. You have mistaken the rope for the snake, and now you are screaming in terror. You are throwing stones at it. You are meditating for getting rid of all your anxiety, stress. You are visiting different gurus and ashrams in order to become who you already are. You know how much we are all fooling ourselves. You're holding the entire cosmos in your hand like a fruit, but, or the better analogy is, you are like the king and queen who has the entire kingdom for yourself, but you're begging for a few spiritual coins which are nothing but coins that have fallen down on the roads of your kingdom. You are the absolute, unblemished, prior self-aware reality which is that on which the entire drama of creation is existing. See this for yourself and be done with this drama. What is your bondage? It is a bundle of reactions, a collection of past conditioning, or, you know, it's all just ghost. It's a phantom thing. A ghost that vanishes the moment you turn the light of pure awareness upon it. It's like switching on light in the room. You do not slowly become enlightened. There's nothing like that. Wisdom will happen slowly, but the dissolution will happen in one shot. Tell me, when you are fast asleep, where is your struggle? Where is your identity? Where is your gender, your status, your bank accounts, your profound spiritual seeking? They vanish completely. Yet you, you do not cease to be. The vast silent awareness remains there. The moment you wake up, you eagerly grab the chains of "me" and "mine" and strap them back onto your wrist, onto yourself, and cry out, "Oh, I have a heavy life. How do I deal with it?" You treat reality as your adversity. What can you do? You say, "If only my circumstances were different, I would be at peace. If only my preferences would have changed. If only my body did not age. If only the world conformed to my desires." You know, even I said all those narrow-minded stuff, you know, "If only she did not happen in my life. If only I would have done all these things. If she could have had a little more patience with me, things would have been different." Let me tell you something. All these are all excuses that you are giving. If you are still holding on to your story of your bondage and your victim stories, if you're still holding on to your selfless activity, selfless love, spirituality, nothing's going to happen, because, you know, people tell me, "You know, I leave the world and hold on to God. That's the greatest thing." You are fooling yourself. Leaving the world and holding on to God, you have just changed your chain of attachments. Before, your chain was bronze, let us say, holding on to the world. Now, your chain is gold. It is still a chain, man. You are thinking, "If I hold on to God, I will attain liberation." That is your narrow-minded stuff. That is like saying, that's like a, you know, a metal rock (Music) saying, "If I hold on to pure devotional song, I will attain silence." That's absolute nonsense. Those are all narrow-minded stuff. You are already the self-aware reality from day one. To think that if I do this, I will become liberated, is like saying, is like a wave saying, "If I go meet a wave which is an Indian ocean, I will become ocean." Those are all nonsensical stuff. See this for yourself and be done with this drama of world, death, rebirth, incarnation. You're already the absolute, unblemished, self-aware reality. See, this bondage is when the mind desires or grieves for anything, or rejects or accepts anything, or feels happy or angry at anything. Look into the mirror of your own mind and see that you are the absolute, unblemished, self-aware reality. Every time you say "I want," you forge a link in your chain. Every time you say "I do not want," you tighten the padlock. I'm not saying if someone comes and slaps you, take the slap and tell everything is divine. That is again your stupidity. Your body and mind knows how to deal with this world and how to involve with this world. You need not come like a superman and involve in doing things. This is the truth. Many people think that if they see the truth, they will leave their family, they will leave that, they will leave this. In my eyes, you will engage with the world even more better. You will still involve with your family even more better. You'll become a better husband, better doctor, better engineer, better wife, better servant, better this, better that, because you see everything as part of reality. To think that enlightenment or the truth is to abandon the world—that is your stupidity; it has got nothing to do with you. It's like this, you know, it's like a bulb covered with dust. When you remove the dust from the bulb, it shines brighter, actually. Similarly, when you remove the unwanted things within you, you involve with the world much better. You become a better musician, better student, better doctor, better husband and wife. We all need better husband and wife in this world actually, we don't need better, better. We need good husband and wife. And if that happens, I think the world will be in a better place.