Message 78

Fatima (Portugal), 22 April 2005

Astavakra (continued from message 77):

41Meditation, | Controlling the mind, | These are mere distractions! | Now Intelligence is here. | Intelligence is meditation.

42Doing, or not doing, | Both come from not knowing. | Knowing this fully, | Intelligence is here.

43Thinking | Of what is beyond thinking | Is still thinking. | I give up thinking, | And Intelligence is here.

44Bound to his body | And the embodied consciousness, | The seeker insists on striving | Or on sitting still. | But I no longer suppose | The body is mine, | Or is not mine. | And I am happy!

45I sleep, I sit, I walk¹ | And I am happy.

46I have forsaken the joy of winning | And the sorrow of loosing. | And I am happy.

47And I have forsaken good and bad, | And now I am happy.

48I think of things without thinking. | All my impressions of the world | Have dissolved.

49Know you are free, | Free of ‘I’, | Free of ‘mine’. | Be happy.

50The body is confined | By its natural properties. | It comes, | It lingers awhile, | It goes. | But the Intelligence neither comes nor goes. | So why grieve for the body? | If the body lasted till the end of time, | Or vanished today, | What would You² win or lose?

51You are the clear space of awareness, | Pure and still, | In whom there is no birth, no death. | No activity of mind, | No ‘I’.

52Rid yourself of all purpose. | And be happy.

53Never upset your mind | With yes and no. | Be quiet. | You are awareness itself. | Live in the happiness | Of your own nature, | Which is happiness itself.

54Give up meditation! | Hold nothing in your mind. | You are the Intelligence, | And you are free.

55You may read or discuss scripture | As much as you like. | But until you give up everything, | You will never live in your heart.

56Striving is the root of sorrow. | But who understands this? | Only when you are blessed | With the understanding of this teaching | Will you find freedom.

57But if you desire nothing, | And disdain nothing, | Neither attachment nor detachment bind you.

58When desire persists, | Feelings of preference and aversion arise, | Of liking and disliking. | They are the root and branches of the world!

59But the man of wisdom is a child. | He never sets one thing against another. | It is true! | He is a child.

60Let Hari teach you | Or Brahma, born of the lotus, | Or Shiva himself! | Unless you give up everything, | You will never learn anything.

61Some crave pleasure, | Some seek freedom. | But it is hard to find | A man who wants neither!

62Without pride or humility, | Nothing disturbs him. | Nothing surprises him. | Because he is free, | He neither craves nor disdains | The things of the world. | He takes them as they come. | He is not concerned with meditation, | Or the absence of it, | Or the struggle between good and evil. | He is beyond all, | Alone. | No ‘I’, | No ‘mine’.

63His mind has stopped working! | It has simply melted away… | And with it, | Dreams and delusions | And dullness have melted away.

64Undistracted, | He does not meditate! | Unbound, | He does not seek freedom! | He sees the world, | But knows it is an illusion. | Even when he is busy, | The selfless man is still! | And this is meditation, | This is freedom.

65The fool practices concentration | And control of the mind. | But the master is like a man asleep, but awake! | He rests in himself | And finds nothing more to do!

66In this world | Men try all kinds of paths. | But they overlook the Intelligence, | The Beloved. | Awake and pure, | Flawless and Full.

67But a man without desires is a lion.

68Just by hearing the truth | He becomes spacious | And his awareness pure. | He is indifferent | To striving or stillness. | He is indifferent | To his own indifference.

69By standing on his own | A man finds happiness. | By standing on his own | A man finds freedom. | By standing on his own | He goes beyond the world.By standing on his own | He finds the end of the way.

70For him there is no pain in pain, | No pleasure in pleasure. | Only those who are like him | Can know his exaltation.

71The master goes about his business | With perfect equanimity. | He is happy when he sits, | Happy when he talks and eats, | Happy asleep, | Happy coming and going.

72The master is like the sky. | He never changes. | What does the world matter to him, | Or its reflection? | What does he care about seeking, | Or the end of seeking?

73Even after hearing the truth, | The fool clings to his folly. | He tries hard to look calm and composed, | But inside he is full of cravings.

74Only the man without desire | Sees without seeing, | Speaks without speaking, | Knows without knowing.

75He thinks without thinking. | He feels without feeling. | He is intelligent, | But he has no mind. | He has some reference points only. | But with no thought for himself.

76Amid distractions, | He is undistracted. | In meditation, | He does not meditate. | Foolish, | He is not a fool. | Knowing everything, | He knows nothing.

77What is yesterday, | Tomorrow, | Or today? | What is space, | Or eternity? | I sit in my own radiance.

78I sit in my own radiance, | And I have no fear. | Walking, | Dreaming, | Sleeping, | What are they to me? | Or even ecstasy? | What is far or near, | Outside or inside, | Gross or subtle? | I sit in my own splendor.

79I am always without thought. | What is happiness or grief? | What is here and now, | Or beyond?

80For I have no bounds. | I am Shiva. | Nothing arises in me, | In whom nothing is single, | Nothing is double. | Nothing is, | Nothing is not. | What more is there to say?

Epilogue

Energy of understanding is perhaps the vast veracity of Emptiness wherein the embodied consciousness is so completely wakeful that there is no word at all which means no image, no experience at all ! Structure of experience is now held in abeyance for the sacred space of emptiness to be. This space is not the one with which we are familiar. It is not formed or formulated by the objects in the space, that is, not by the distance and time between the objects. In the SACRED SPACE, all distance, duality, and division in time totally disappear. This absolute and unconditioned freedom is the only enlightenment. Anything away from this, is separation and fragmentation, sorrow and frustration, burden and bondage of human conditon.

JAI GURU

1 totally free from past pretensions and from fancies of future
2 Life

Download the Message in PDF format:  Message 78: I do this, I do that (English)