Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra – Encouraging to Experience Pujya Gurudevshri explains how one can rise to the realm of direct experience by internalising the message propounded by Param Krupalu Dev in Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra Burns and Scalds Param Krupalu Dev, in Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra, has cautioned the seekers against dry intellectualism because we learn words and consider that to be knowledge. But words are not knowledge. Truth is beyond words, before the words. It remains even after the words disappear. We assign words to the truth, but the words are not the truth. Knowing the word ‘salt’ is not knowing the substance salt. Our knowledge is limited to understanding words, memorising them, retaining them and expressing them at events. But doing just this will make us dry intellectualists, not enlightened. The Enlightened One is the lord of silence, while a dry intellectualist is just a master of words. We live with words, wake up and sleep with words. One word can take us on a heavenly experience or dump us in a hellish experience. Words are a Hindrance Like leaves on the pond hide the pond, words hide consciousness. When you turn inward, at first you will find only words, not consciousness. You can recognise consciousness only if you can let go of your focus on words. But your mind is habituated to translate every experience into words. You see the sun rising and soon translate it into the word ‘sunrise’. In doing so, you miss the difference between seeing and wording it. You must become vigilant about this difference and realise that sunrise is an occurrence, not a word. Words become a hindrance to meditativeness. To blossom in meditativeness, first become aware of the mind’s habit of phrasing and then learn to stop it. Just see, but don’t give words to what you perceive. Meditation is to live without words. Language is needed for worldly interactions. Existence does not need language. Transacting in the world, use language as a mode of communication. But when in solitude, you should be able to drop it too. If you can’t, you have become a slave to the mind. When mind becomes the master, you are in a state of unawareness. While you are not talking with anyone, there should be no talk going within. If that happens, you will grow in meditativeness. There should be moments where you are silent within. Words make the consciousness dull. In their absence, consciousness becomes sharper and more alive. What Should Be Done? The way is very simple. Do not repeat thoughts. Simply look at the thoughts. They will begin to disappear. Even if you wish to forget thoughts, you can’t; but simply seeing makes them vanish. Like dew drops get evaporated by the heat of the rising sun, when the sun of witnessing rises in the skies of consciousness, words vanish. The day you understand this secret, you have experienced the process of dissolution. You become available for meditation. Meditation means to just see, stay a witness. It is wakeful relaxation. Don’t try to stop or oppose thoughts. Who opposes the mind? Mind alone opposes itself. You divide the mind into two parts. One part of the mind tries to control the other. This is a meaningless and imprudent play. This will make you restless. Give mind full freedom, do not try to control it. Stay witness to the mind’s play. Don’t look at the mind as an enemy. If you have such preconceived, biased view about the mind, you have already concluded that there is a problem with the mind. Now you will not be able to see the mind as it is. Interval Between the Thoughts See from a distance, without participating, the mind’s subtle forces, modifications, flow, play, dreams, memories, and it’s thousands of projections. Continue seeing and gradually you will notice that as the witnessing mode is becoming stronger, as your awareness is becoming deeper a distance is created from the thoughts, and a gap is created between thoughts. In this gap you get the glimpse, the taste of no-mind. Your vision is no more veiled. You see clearly and the whole existence becomes transparent. In the beginning, these moments will appear occasionally. But they will give you subtle glimpses. Small cisterns of silence will appear and disappear. But now you know you are on the right track. When a thought passes, you see it. You also see the interval between the thoughts, like the sky between the clouds. But now you are no longer longing for intervals. Wanting to see these intervals between the thoughts is imprudence because once you become obsessed with the desire for interval, you are once more against the thought, and therefore that interval will be lost. It only occurs when you are neutral and very far from thoughts and no-thoughts. It happens by itself; you can’t force it to happen. Keep looking. Let the thoughts come and go. Do not try to control or direct them. Let them flow freely. There will be an interval. Keep watching it too. The traffic of thoughts will reduce and there will be complete and uninterrupted silence. No-mind State Attachment is food for the mind. It nourishes the mind and keeps it going. The only way to stop it is to not try to stop it. Kindle the non-attached witnessing mode. And when you start revelling in those blissful moments, you get the ability to sustain it for a longer time. And one blessed day, you will become the master. If you want to think, you can think; if you want to rest, you can be relaxed. Not that the mind doesn’t stay. But you become its master. To use it or not is your decision now. No-mind is not the opposite of mind. No-mind is beyond the mind. No-mind is not created by killing or destroying the mind. No-mind is born when you understand the mind in such completeness that thereafter thought is not needed. It is then replaced by awareness. The mind is habituated to be the master. It will take some time to bring it to its senses. Witnessing is enough. The mind will struggle when you try to be a witness because that is the question of its life and death. But the final victory will be yours. You have nothing to do but watch. There are many techniques of meditation, but the essence of all is witnessing. It will transform your entire existence and open the door to bliss. By attaining the no-mind experience, the consciousness becomes an ocean of bliss. In the no-mind state when the ‘I’ is realised, all the problems come to an end and that is why that state is called Samadhi. It seems like a new life is being attained; forgiveness instead of anger, love instead of hatred, fearlessness instead of fear, meaningfulness instead of meaninglessness arises. Now those blessed beings do not try different ways to become happy because for all 24 hours bliss drips within them. There is light within, fragrance all around and spirit of bliss prevails. Getting attuned to the verses of Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra and their profound meanings leads to such a blissful state. Topicsawarenessintellectualmindshri atmasiddhi shastrathoughtswords Quotes Whether you get favourable or unfavourable situations, resolve to be happy. You are in prison if you cannot let go of your painful past. You are free if you unhook from it. The Guru is like a mirror. Looking at Him turns your focus towards your pure and powerful self. Are you emotionally fit? Your emotional strength is measured by how quickly you become reactive. View All #SadguruWhispers The Guru is like a mirror. 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