Message 191

Paris, 16 May 2010

Akshay-Tritiya

Akshay-Tritiya is an auspicious occasion, according to Hindu belief-system, when the blessings are showered from the Imperishable Trinity – Brahma-Vishnu-Maheshwar.

It is very important to understand, not verbally but actually, that meditation is not possible where there is the activity, gross or subtle; of the ‘I’ in any form or under any pretext and rationalization. What happens in the consciousness because of the desire to have expansive and transcendental experiences is not meditation. The very recognition of such experiences is an indication that they are not new – they are just projections from the background, from the conditioning in which mind may delight as though they are something new!

The conflict between ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’ is the blood and breath of the self, the ego. And then ‘experiences’ become means of self-hypnosis, an escape from daily life of choice-free awareness and sanity. In this, there is no separative entity who is trying to be aware. There is then only observation but no separation as ‘observer’. When one listens completely, then one is breathing the perfume, the truth. It is the truth that acts. There is no ‘me’ struggling to act. Listen totally, not merely with your beastly little mind. Listen from silence, not from a conclusion. Religion is action born of silence of the ‘me’. Let us ponder over what a devotee has written recently in this regard from India:

All human beings have the separative consciousness as long as there is breath in the body. This is a human characteristic and cannot be wished away. If, however, a body is penetrated by an understanding that is not a product of thought but something that can perhaps be called an insight, then the body is transformed into a different state of existence. This state co-exists with the separativeness and hence the conditioning that makes up the separativeness remains but the body does not perform according to that conditioning.

Words are, unfortunately, required to communicate any understanding or thought. Communication is a transaction where the one communicating expresses in words an understanding and the one to whom the communication is addressed receives and assimilates the understanding. The problem in spiritual communication from a Satguru is that the one communicating is often in different dimension from the one receiving the communication. When this happens, the receiver is ‘listening’ according to his or her own conditioning and with his or her own prejudices and traits and tendencies.

The word ‘teaching’ is used because it is conventional to use this word. However, in matters spiritual, there can be no teaching. There can only be sharing. The communication is expressed in words that are to a large extent governed by conditioning. Thus while one Satguru may speak softly another may use harsh words. However, what is being shared is always the same. ‘Listeners’ whose ‘I’s are receiving the communication may find the soft spoken truth pleasant and the harshly spoken one unpleasant, but in both cases no understanding happens; only misunderstanding. Holistic listening, on the other hand will understand the same thing from both without classification as pleasant or unpleasant.

Jai Akshay