The Fourth Morning

Date: Fri, 7 June 1964 00:00:00 GMT

I am indeed very happy to see all of you! I can feel the depth of your desire, of your thirst to know the truth. I see it in your eyes and feel it in every breath you take. And as your hearts throb for the attainment of truth my heart throbs as well! I am deeply touched by your thirst for knowledge. It is such a delight! It is so beautiful! There is nothing sweeter or more beautiful on earth than the desire to know the truth.

In this moment of joy what shall I say to you? What shall I say to you in this moment of your quest, as you await my words? It is only in moments like this that we realize how insignificant and obscure words are - just how meaningless and powerless they really are. When there is nothing particularly worth saying they are able to convey it; when there is something profound to say they are miserably inadequate. This is only natural because the realization of truth, the experience of bliss and the vision of beauty are so subtle and ethereal that no earthly form can be attributed to them. And as soon as one attempts to ascribe a form to them the experiences become dead and meaningless, and then the living experience does not come into our hands alive, it is its corpse that comes. The spirit is left behind and whatever the words refer to is no longer true.

Then what should I say? Would it have been better not to have said anything, for you not to have heard anything at all? How nice it would have been if we had remained calm and quiet, speechless and silent, and it you could have awakened and seen something in that silence, something that truly is. In that case I would have saved myself from speaking and you from listening and yet the truth would have been conveyed because the eternal truth is within everyone. The music you are searching for resounds and every moment in the depths of your being, and the moments when you are searching for truth, even if they are silent, are transformed into prayer. Both thirsting for god and waiting silently are prayers.

What man is seeking is within his own self. What you have gathered here to ask me about and to know from me is always within you. You have never lost it. Nor can you ever lose it. It is your existence, your being. I is the one treasure that can never be lost because you yourself are that treasure. But we are all looking for it, searching for the very thing that can never be lost. What a contradiction in terms!

I remember a wonderful sermon but I do not recall when or by whom it was given.

One evening there was to be a very big gathering in a temple and so a large number of monks had assembled. After a long wait the speaker arrived. As he stood up to speak someone in the audience asked a question, "What is truth?" An alert and expectant silence filled the room. It was known that the speaker knew the answer and consequently every one of his words was considered to be important. But do you know what he said? He said, and very loudly, "O monks!" The silence resounded with the two words and every eye was on him. All were silent, watchful. But the speaker spoke no more. His speech was over; he had finished his sermon.

Do you understand what he said? Had he said anything? In my view he had said everything.

Whatsoever was worth saying had been covered by his two words. I too want to say the same thing.

I will say the same thing. It is the only thing that deserves to be said, that something words cannot convey.

Then what did he say? He said, "Don't look for truth anywhere outside. Ask nobody about it. If it exists at all, it exists in you. otherwise it does not exist at all." So when he was asked about truth he said absolutely nothing about it. He simply called to the congregation. he called to them as you would awaken someone from sleep. This is the only answer to the inquiry about truth.

To awaken is to attain truth. There is no other way. You are asleep and therefore you cannot see what is standing by your side, you cannot see what you really are. And in your dreams you wander far and wide in search of it, in search of something that is already there in you, in the seeker himself.

You are like musk-deer wandering in search of musk.

But no matter how hard you try to find that which lives in you, you will not be able to find it. It cannot be attained by searching. Outside things can be attained by searching but one cannot attain one's self with this kind of quest. The truth is not found by searching, it is found by waking up. And that is why the speaker called out to the assembly and spoke no further. And for this same reason Mahavira, Buddha, Krishna and Christ have all been calling to you. This is not speaking, but calling.

This is not a sermon, but an address, a call.

I do not intend to speak either, I intend to call. Will you hear me? Will you allow me to disturb your sleep and shatter your dreams? It may well be that your dreams are sweet and gratifying, but it is the sweet and gratifying dreams that are harmful because they will not let you wake up but make the intoxication of sleep all the more intense.

I want you to witness the joy I am experiencing as the result of my awakening. And so I have decided to call you. I will not speak to you either, I will simply call you. Pardon me if my call disturbs your sleep and disperses the fog of your dreams. I am helpless. Without shattering your dreams nothing can be said about the truth. We are enveloped in sleep and as long as this sleep continues all our actions are useless. So long as you are asleep whatever you know is nothing but dreams.

The first thing to do is to awaken from this sleep. Everything else will come later. Nothing is to be done before this. Don't attach any importance to the thoughts you think or to your actions during this sleep. Just look on them as happenings in a dream. While your own self is unknown to you it is impossible to do anything that is right, in the real sense of that word. Your knowledge, your conduct, everything is bound to be false. &Your faith, your beliefs, your convictions will all be blind.

Whatsoever path you follow, it will not lead to the truth. But there is no question of walking a path at present. Do you walk along a path asleep? It is only a dream about walking.

The ignorance of the self is the sleep I am talking about to you. It is necessary to awaken from it. In order to wake up from this sleep it is also necessary to understand the factors that stand between you as you are and this awakening. Before knowing religion you should first know what religion isn't and also understand what you are holding on to as religion. Instead of awakening you this religion is more likely to be like a sleeping pill.

Karl Marx called religion an opiate, a drug containing opium to put you to sleep. Religion is definitely not an opiate but what is generally mistaken for religion is. Marx was wrong to brand religion as an opiate and you too are wrong. What you have done is mistake an opiate for religion. Therefore, it is essential to know which is religion and which is the opiate.

Let's first consider what religion is not and then we will experience what religion is. Thinking about irreligion is enough to see what religion isn't but for religion thought is not enough. To achieve religion you have to pass through a sadhana.

First of all I want to mention one thing. If you really wish to reach some level in religion or in religious life, you must begin by not taking any belief or idea for granted. If you wish to know the truth do not hold on to any preconceived notions about it. You must approach truth in perfect calm and emptiness, and without any dogmas. Preconceived notions and biases dim and distort your vision.

What you know then is not the truth but a projection of your own thinking. That way, truth does not descend in you. On the contrary, you impose yourself on truth.

Hold no theory or particular view about truth. Use your own judgment. Only then will you know what is true. Otherwise you won't be able to get out of the web of the mind. What you know won't be knowledge, it will be imagination.

Man's imagination has unlimited power and this imagination is the wall between you and the truth.

If you make up your mind about God, the truth and the soul beforehand, your mind will stick to that decision and will lead you to believe that you have really known something. But as a matter of fact you have known nothing and are wandering in the realm of imagination. This is not a vision of truth but a dream.

You know very well that your mind has an infinite capacity for dreaming. Our desires show us things that do not exist at all. They create mirages, and then that which truly is becomes hidden and that which is not becomes apparent.

But you will say that dreaming only happens in sleep. It is true that dreams happen in sleep, but sleep can also be induced and in one sense you can even be asleep while you are awake. Don't you day dream?

So if one continuously has a particular idea of God and, awake or asleep, fills himself with that image, he can most definitely project that image and have a direct vision of it. It is an intensified daydream. There is actually nothing in front of the eyes, but what has been nourished and nurtured behind the eyes has come up before him. This is a projection; this is how dreams are seen.

And visions of truth based on preconceived ideas become possible as well - and in this very fashion.

A devotee of Christ has a vision of Christ, a follower of Krishna sees Krishna and someone else's disciples sees someone else. By no means is this the vision or realization of God or of truth. This is a projection of one's imagination because there cannot be two truths, two gods. Truth is one and realization is one, and one who would know truth must give up his countless concepts and imaginings. I am not asking you to give up your concepts in favor of one concept in particular, I am asking you to give up all concepts. These very concepts have given birth to many creeds and dogmas, and because of this, innumerable creeds exist but there is no religion.

To know the truth all theories about it have to be forsaken. Only those who are in a state beyond all prejudices and partialities, in a state of total innocence and independence can know it. Where there is neither concept, nor notion, nor expectation, is where and where alone the truth can be realized.

As a matter of fact, the effort to realize the truth is not the effort to realize the truth but the effort to rid ourselves of the state of dreaming.

What is the realization of truth? It is simply freedom from hallucinations. This freedom is the realization of truth. Since we are lost in dreams, what is always present appears to be absent, despite its continuous presence.

Truth exists because truth always is. it does not have to be brought from anywhere. It is ever- present. But we are not present. We are lost in the wilderness of our dreams. No, it is not the truth we have to bring to ourselves, we have to bring ourselves to the truth. It is possible, not by seeing dreams and visions about God, but by doing away with all the dreams and visions - and waking up.

Therefore I say that the truth does not need imagination, but realization. The realization of the mind free from all imagination is the realization of the mind in a state of truth. We see the world when the mind is divided, when it is in a state of duality. We see the truth when the mind is an undivided entity, a unity.

All concepts and all beliefs are conjecture and therefore not gateways to the truth. They are obstacles and lead nowhere. On the contrary, they block your path. The path of truth does not lie through them but beyond them.

Please don't adopt any idea or concept, or form any conviction or belief about truth, because the belief you form will become an experience. And that experience is not real but mental, imaginary.

These experiences are not spiritual. All beliefs about the truth that are formed in ignorance are false.

Do not think about what truth is and what it is like. All such thoughts are blind. It is like a blind man trying to imagine light. Poor thing! How can he conceive what light is! Without eyesight he cannot conceive anything about light. Whatever he may think will be fundamentally wrong. He cannot even imagine darkness accurately, let alone light. One needs eyes to see darkness as well.

What can a man without eyesight do then? I would say to him, "Don't think about light. Treat your eyes." It isn't thinking but treatment that can be helpful. But what do I see? I see him being given sermons, I see the philosophy of light being explained to him. But nobody bothers about treatment for the eyes.

And what is more surprising is that those who are sermonizing on the subject of light have never seen the light themselves! They too know about light, but they have not known light. I say this because if they had known light they would have realized the futility of all sermons and would have focused their concern and sympathy on the treatment for blindness. If the eyesight is cured, light is experienced automatically. What is required for sight is always present. If there is sight, there is light.

"Sight" and "light" are words that can lead in very different directions. Thinking about light leads to philosophy. It is the direction of thinking alone. It does not lead to experience; it is merely thought.

There is a lot of walking but no destination is ever reached. There are many conclusions but none that can solve our problems. This is only natural. Even the most perfect thought about water cannot quench one's thirst the slightest bit. The way to quench one's thirst is quite different.

The path, the sadhana, is not the way of thinking, it is the treatment of sight. I have said that thinking about light is philosophy and now I want to say that vision through sight is religion. You can reach intellectual conclusions by thinking, while a sadhana gives you spiritual vision, spiritual experiences. The former is like thinking about water; the latter, like quenching one's thirst. The former is a problem; the latter, a solution.

I ask everyone this question: "Do you want to know light or to know about light?" and you - do you want to know truth or do you want to know about truth? Do you want to know about water or do you want to quench your thirst? Your answer to these questions will decide whether you are thirsty for knowledge or whether you just want to collect information.

And don't forget that these are opposite directions. One leads to the ultimate dissolution of the ego; the other, to its peak. One makes you innocent while the other makes you complex. Knowledge destroys the ego whereas information pumps it up and inflates it all the more. All collecting, all acquiring fills the ego, and for this reason the ego is always on the lookout for more.

Thoughts are also acquisitions, although quite subtle ones. Thought also feeds the ego. The hypocrisy you find among scholars is neither spontaneous nor accidental, it is the natural outcome of thought.

Thoughts are acquired. They crowd in from the outside world, they are not born within. They are not of the soul but they are its wall sin a way. From outside, information about light can be given to a blind man but the sensation of light has to be produced in him from within. One is acquisition and energy is the difference between information and knowledge. Acquisition comes from outside; energy, from inside.

But acquisition gives the illusion of energy. This illusion is quite strong and it nourishes the ego.

Egoism is not energy, it is an illusion of energy. It is non-energy in fact, because one tiny spark of truth can destroy it, can evaporate it. It is for this reason that one's true energy is entirely free of egoism.

I hope you have been able to follow the distinction between learning and wisdom. It is imperative you understand it. False knowledge is an even greater hindrance on the path of self-realization than ignorance. False knowledge is the impression of "I know" when you really do not know . Such a false impression can easily grow out of the acquisition of others' thoughts, from learning, from schooling.

This false impression also comes out of a knowledge of the scriptures, of a knowledge of words.

And because of this knowledge of words men seem to think they have realized the truth.

Words become part of the memory. They form into questions and each question carries an automatic reply. One's sense of discrimination is lost in and dominated by the borrowed ideas and, before a man can look for any reply from within, the thick layer of borrowed words and ideas pops out a ready-made answer. In this way we can't work out the problem, we are robbed of its solution. If a problem is mine it is my solution alone that is required. No borrowed or secondhand solution can be of any help.

One can neither borrow life nor the solutions to its problems. The solution to a problem does not come from outside. It is inherent in the problem. The solution evolves out of the problem. If the problem is within, the truth cannot be outside. And the truth cannot be learned therefore. It has to be laid bare. You have to discover it. It isn't through training but by realization alone that the truth can be known. And this is the fundamental difference between the one who has learned the scriptures and the one who has realized the soul. It is enough to be well versed in the scriptures as far as this world is concerned but not so in the realm of the spirit. In that sphere, it is far less than even the starting point.

You can only have information about that is not you, about the world, about the world of matter. Of these things you cannot have knowledge. Whatsoever pertains to outside can only be known from outside. You may be very close to it but it will still be far away. However tiny the distance between us might be, it will never end. It will always be there. So we can only become familiar with things that are non-us but we can never have knowledge about them. We can know about something but the something itself we cannot know.

The total elimination of distance is the prerequisite of all knowledge. Only then can you enter your inner being. But what is distant can never be anything but distant. It can only be otherwise if there is no distance in reality. Distance can be eliminated only if it is illusory. If it is real, its elimination is not possible.

There is one and only one being not distant from me. It is impossible for this being to be distant from me. I am that being. Yes, it is my own self. Of that being alone, is real knowledge possible. The distance from this being is just an illusion because how can there be any distance from oneself? I alone am the center of my self and it is here I have my inner portal, my inner abode and the abiding throne of perfection. Knowledge of this alone is possible.

I also want to remind you of another fact: we cannot know the world, we can only make its acquaintance and gather information about it. But of the self, only knowledge is possible. So there can be no information about the self, about atman - only knowledge of the soul is possible. That is why, in the case of objects, in the case of material things, in non-us things, it is enough to be expert in the shastras, in the scriptures, but in the case of the self it is not enough.

Science is a shastra; religion is not. Science is a shastra; religion is not. Science is information about objects while religion is knowledge of the self. Science is a shastra, a scripture; religion is a sadhana, the path to realization.

I am not preaching a sermon. That approach is totally fruitless. What is required is not a sermon but treatment. I do not intend to expound on any doctrines pertaining to truth. They are altogether useless. However, what is of value is the method by which one can see truth. This method serves as a treatment for the illness and because of it the eyes open. Then you don't have to think about light, you see it straightaway. When sight is absent you have to think, but when there is sight, thinking will be out of the question. In blindness, thinking does the work of the eyes, but as soon as sight is restored thinking becomes unnecessary.

In my viewpoint, thought is not a sign of knowledge but of ignorance. Knowledge is a state of thoughtlessness. It is not thinking, it is insight. And this insight is not possible through any dogma about truth. Dogmas merely reduce things to intellectual acquisitions and they become parts of the memory. They can never become parts of knowledge.

Dogmas can be taught but they cannot change one's real personality. Like clothing, they effect a change on the outer level but the inner being remains what it was. The spirit remains untouched by them and the veil, the cover, takes on a new form and a new color. If you are this way, wisdom cannot descend upon you. On the contrary, you will fall into the ditch of hypocrisy.

There is a great gulf between a man's being and knowledge. He is one thing and what he knows is quite another thing. His personality is split in two. There is both conflict and duality between his inner being and his outer shell. And the natural result of this is hypocrisy. Such a man begins to present himself as someone who is not really there in him, and begins to hide the one who is. This acting is irreligious. It not only ruins the lives of others but one's own life as well. This is self-deception but it passes for being religious.

The intellectual teachings of dogmas, of doctrines, can only do this much: they can change the outer wrapping for a spiritual revolution some other approach is necessary. The approach should not be one of doctrine but of sadhana, of walking the path of self-realization. It is not the approach of sermons but of treatment. It is not the approach of thinking about truth but of opening the eyes to truth.

Religion is the method of opening the eyes. If your eyes open the vision of God becomes easy. But doctrines will not open your eyes. On the contrary, those who are deluded by them forget that their eyes are closed and that the truths they discuss have not been seen by them with their own eyes but by the eyes of others. The truth seen by another is like a meal eaten by another. It has no purpose whatsoever for anyone else.

The realization of truth is wholly private and personal and is by no means transferable. It can neither be received nor given. It has to be attained by oneself. It cannot be stolen or accepted in charity.

It is not a piece of property, it is one's own self. Truth is not property, it is one's own self and it is therefore non-transferable. So far no one has ever given it to anyone. Nor will anybody in the future ever be able to give it to anyone because the moment it is given it ceases to be the truth, it becomes an object. An object can be given or taken. Truth has to be attained within oneself, by oneself. It is subjective. In fact, it is not really to be attained - one has to become it. It is your own being, your own existence.

So where does the question of learning truth come in? It must be discovered. Learning only forms layers over the self. All outside teachings only cover truth. Whatever comes from outside can only cover. Covering is the only thing possible from outside. And the garments of thought continue to cover the self more and more. Strip off these garments and be naked. Throw all these garment away. In order to know your self you have to unlearn, not learn. When all the outside guests have gone you will know the one who is not a guest, but the host.

The truth cannot be taught but the method of knowing truth can. Today, no one speaks of this method. Although there is a lot of talk about truth, there is no talk about the method of realizing the truth. There can be no greater mistake than this. It is clinging to the body and missing life. As a result of this there are countless religions, but no religion with a capital R.

The numerous sects that masquerade under the name of religions are not religion at all. There can only be one religion. There can be no adjective to describe it. It is without any qualifying term.

Dharma means dharma - religion means religion. In my language you can't say "this dharma", "that dharma". Where there is "this" and "that" there is no religion.

These sects have come into being because of the many doctrines and theories about truth and they will continue to exist as long as people demand theories and doctrines. Doctrines consist of words and sects form around these very words. The words become causes of conflict, feeding animosities and petty hates. These words divide man from man. and how strange it is! The people believe that the very words that divide man from man will unite man with God! That which divides man from man cannot possibly unite him with God, with truth, nor with his self.

This splitting up of religion into sects can be traced to various doctrines, to words, to beliefs, to opinions. All of this is based on ignorance and not on knowledge. Truth has no sect. All sects evolve out of doctrines. As soon as a man knows the truth he is free from sects and at that very moment he enters religion - a religion that is neither Hindu nor Jain, Christian nor Mohammedan, but simply religion - unqualified, nothing but light, nothing but consciousness. Religion is truly the realization of one's self.

A sect is not religious. What does organization have to do with religion? All organizations are political or social; they are all worldly. They are based on fear of one another and where there is fear there is hatred. They come into existence not out of truth, but for security. Be it a nation, a society or a sect, all are born out of fear, and the satisfaction of what is born out of fear lies in causing fear in others.

All sects are exactly like this. They do not intend to make anyone religious, they want to increase their numbers. Numbers are power and guarantees of security. They are both self-protection and the capacity to attack. Sects have been like this all along. They are still like this and will continue to be the same. They haven't united man and religion, they've torn him away from it.

Dharma, religion, is not a social phenomenon, it is purely and simply the most personal transformation. It has nothing to do with others; it is concerned with one's own self alone. It isn't concerned with what a man does with others but what he does with himself. Dharma is concerned with how you behave with yourself in your total isolation and loneliness.

What are you in your total isolation? That is what you must know - who you are. Only the knowledge of your being will lead you to religion. There is no other way to lead someone to religion. No temple, no mosque, no church can take me to the place where I am. You don't have to climb any outside stairs to get there. All temples are outside. All temples are part of samsara, of the world, and you cannot reach the self through their doors. No journey in the outer world can be a pilgrimage to truth, to the holy place. That place is within, where one has the experience of religion and where the mystery, joy and beauty of life are discovered. Without these everything is miserable; everything is useless, meaningless.

In order to know the self you have to go inside, not outside. But all man's senses take him outwards.

They all move outside. His eyes look outwards, his hands spread outwards, his legs move outwards and even his mind reflects and echoes external phenomena. And this is why he has erected idols, images of god, and has created temples to truth. It is so his eyes can see God and his feet can make a pilgrimage to truth! We have created this self-deception ourselves; we have taken this cup of poison with our own hands. And now we waste away our lives nad spend them in stupor, brought about by this poison and self-deception.

To suit the convenience of our senses we have visualized religion as being outside ourselves and so have directed our sight outwards. But you have to go behind the scenes to know dharma, to know religion. Your knowledge and consciousness of the world comes through the medium of the senses. You cannot possibly know the self by the same route. It is not possible to know the one who knows, to know the one who is knowledge, like another person or an object can be known.

The seer, the power to see, cannot be looked at like an ordinary object. Knowledge can neither be transferred nor degraded into an object. And the whole problem is because this simple fact has not been understood. People search for god as if he were an external object. How stupid this is! God is not to be searched for, he is hidden in the seeker himself.

Truth is within you. It is within me. And it is not that it will be within you tomorrow, it is in you here and now, at this very moment. I am. My being itself is my truth. And whatever I see may not be the truth, it may all be a dream. I see dreams too and while I see them they seem to be true. You may all be a dream for me. It may well be that I am in a dream and you are not present here at all. But the seer cannot be false. He cannot be in a dream because if he were he would not be able to see that it is a dream. A dream cannot see a dream. Untruth cannot know untruth. Seeing a dream requires someone who is not a dream himself. Even to see untruth a true seer is necessary. Therefore I say I am the truth. Truth is my being. I don't have to go anywhere in search of it.

You only have to dig out the truth from within yourself. Just as you dig out a well, you have to dig truth out. There are always a few layers of stones and earth covering the spring of water, but as soon as you remove those layers the spring is freed. In the same way your self is pressed down by layers of other things, of things that belong to non-self. You only have to break through these layers and what you have been searching for through countless past lives is attained.

So far you have been unable to attain the truth because you have been searching for it far and wide, while as a matter of fact it has always been very near. It is really the one who is searching. You must dig out the well of your soul. And meditation is the means to that end. With the spade of meditation you have to remove the layers of earth, the layers of otherness that have piled up on the self. It is the only remedy, the only treatment. This is what I intend to talk about.

First of all, it is necessary to know what it is that has covered up your own being, your very nature.

What is it that hides you from yourself? Can't you see it? Can't you see what the covering is? When you go inside what do you find?

Hume has said, "whenever I have gone inside I have been unable to find anything but thoughts."

Hume did not locate any soul, nor will you find yours in this way. Hume saw only the covering layers and came back; he went only as far as the shell and returned. It is only when you break the shell open that you will see what is inside. This is just like a man who goes to a lake and seeing the surface covered with moss and leaves returns to say there is no lake at all. Generally this is what happens.

We go inside every day, see the covering of thoughts and return. Thoughts always surround the self and you know nothing but thoughts. Thoughts are your world and he who lives in thoughts alone is a worldly man. To know anything beyond thought is the beginning of becoming religious. To know the state of thoughtlessness, to know what is beyond thought is to enter the domain of religion.

It may be that your thoughts are not about this world but are about the soul, about God, and you may be under the illusion that you are religious. I want to smash this illusion of yours. All thoughts are a covering, an outer shell. They are all desires, passions, because they are external, directed outwardly. There can be no thinking about the self. There is knowledge but not thought about the self. Thoughts are a covering, a shell.

Thoughtlessness removes the covering. Thoughtlessness is meditation. When there is no thinking, it is then we come to know the one hidden by our thoughts. When there are no clouds the blue sky comes into view. My friends, there is a sky within you as well. Remove the cloud of thoughts so it can be seen, so it can be known. This is possible. When the mind is at rest and there are no thoughts in it, then in the silence, in that deep thoughtlessness, in the total absence of thought, truth is seen.

What can we do to bring this about? We must do a very simple thing but you will find it very difficult because you have become very complex. What is possible for a new born baby is impossible for you. The child simply looks and does not think. He just sees. And just seeing is wonderful. This is the secret, the key that can unlock the gate of truth.

I am seeing you. I am just seeing you. Do you follow me? I am just seeing you; I am not thinking.

And then an unprecedented calm, a living silence descends upon me and then everything is seen and everything is heard but nothing within is disturbed. There is no reaction inside; there are no thoughts. There is only darshan, only seeing.

Right-awareness is the method of meditation. You have to see, only to see what is without and what is within. There are objects without, thoughts within. You have to look at them without any purpose whatsoever. There is no purpose, just seeing. You are a witness, a detached witness, and you are simply seeing. This observing, this watchfulness, gradually leads you into peace, into emptiness, into the void, into thoughtlessness. Try it and you will know. As thoughts dissolve, consciousness awakens and comes to life. Just casually stop a while - anywhere, anytime. Just look and listen and be a witness to the world and to yourself. Don't think. Just be a witness and see what happens.

Then let this witnessing spread. let is pervade all your physical and mental activities. Allow it to be with you always. If there is witnessing your ego will cease to be and you will see, will realize what you really are. The "I" will die and the self will be attained.

In this sadhana of witnessing, in this observing of one's mental state, an easy transformation, an easy change over, takes place between what is being witnessed and the one that is the witness. As you observe your thoughts you get glimpses of the one that is observing. And then one day the seer appears in all his majesty and glory and all your poverty and wretchedness come to an end.

This is not a sadhana one can practice only once in a while and still attain liberation. This is to be practiced continuously, night and day. As one practices witnessing, as one moves more into the state of witnessing, that state becomes more stable and begins to be present all the time. Gradually it begins to be with you all the time, both awake and asleep. It even begins to be present in sleep.

And when this happens, when it begins to be present even in sleep you can be certain it has gone deep within, that it has spread its roots far and wide. Today you are asleep even when you are awake. Tomorrow you will be awake even when you are asleep.

This witnessing dissolves thoughts by awakening us from our dreams and from our sleep. The waves dissolve in a mind free from thoughts and dreams. The mind becomes calm, waveless, without a tremor, just as the sea is calm when there are no waves, just as the flame of a lamp does not flicker when there are no breezes blowing into the house. It is in such a state that God is known, the one who is the self, who is me, who is truth. And then the gates to the palace of God open.

This gate, this entrance, does not lie in the shastras, in words - it lies int he self. That is why I say not to dig elsewhere but to dig within yourself. Don't go anywhere else. Go into yourself. I have explained to you how to go in.

From your serenity and the sparkle in your eyes I conclude you have understood what I have had to say. But this understanding alone is not enough. It is not understanding but spiritual experience alone that can become the foundation of a life of truth. Walk a bit in the direction I have indicated and see. Just proceed a little in that direction and see. Even if you only walk a little you will have gone a long way because when you move towards the truth, when you near it, you come under the influence of its pull - and then you do not walk at all, you are simply drawn to it.

And finally, remember that a man who keeps walking will reach his destination one day. No step taken in God's direction is in vain. I bear witness to this truth. How I want you too to realize this truth even for a moment so you can bear witness to it as well! It is so near to you. it is just a matter of your awakening. The sun is already up. You only have to open your eyes to see it.

I invite you to open your eyes. Will you hear my call and open your eyes? The decision is yours and yours alone. To open or not to open?