27. Liberation, not choices brings freedom
We all attend discourses delivered by realized masters. We listen to everything they say. We agree or we disagree, and we go home.
Once home, we forget all about the discourse. For a lasting change to take place, we must be able to internalize the key points in the discourse. We must remember, recall, and practice at least some of the key points of the discourse.
We need ways to remember what was said at the discourse. The question and answer session at the end of each discourse is a way to clarify doubts.
The question and answer session is like dining in a restaurant. Everything I have presented to you is like a series of choices. They are like the items on the menu card we hold in our hands. We have several choices here. First, we have to decide if we want to eat. If we want to eat, then we must decide if there is anything interesting in the menu presented to us. Once we make the choice, we can eat the food of our choice.
Similarly, in a discourse, I touch so many topics. It is our choice to internalize them. We can select the best method. We can seek clarifications for our doubts in the question and answer session. Again, the choice to implement and internalize it is completely up to each individual.
We have choice in everything we do. We have the choice to follow the truth or ditch it. We have the choice to cling to our lies or banish it. We can make the choice to follow the master or not. We have to be honest about the choices we make.
A great truth supercedes all our choices. We need to recognize that truth. Of course, the truth does not care whether we believe in it or not. It simply exists.
The great truth is that we are all connected. We are connected at the physical, mental, and spiritual levels. We are each not individuals or islands as we think we are. We cannot be. We are all interconnected with each other like the pieces of a puzzle.
Another great truth is the experience of enlightenment.
How much of this great truth are we willing to allow to operate on our lives? That is a matter for each one of us to internalize and examine. Are you game? Ask yourself. Answer consciously. Work towards it.
28. Surrender alone brings Bliss
We are interconnected through our bodies and thoughts.
The moment we understand how deeply, totally, and intensely connected we are, we will open many new dimensions of living. We can experience bliss. This is the ultimate spiritual experience.
Every day in our lives, we are stressed. We are continuously disturbed. We think that we have too much to do. We think that we have one body, one small body, to think or enjoy. And the troubles and trials the body faces everyday is too much for some of us. All our troubles melt away when we disappear into the collective consciousness.
When we disappear into the collective consciousness, we will have so many dimensions, so many possibilities. These are unimaginable now. Sometimes we have so much fun, so much joy bubbling within our body. Suppose we have two bodies, imagine how much joy can pour forth from it. Being in the collective consciousness, disappearing into the collective consciousness, is simply multiplying that joy many fold! It is something like having three different bodies in three different continents living in different cultures. The joy derived from each of them is all the same. The bliss or joy of living in the collective consciousness is beyond all these.
When we completely experience that we are consciousness without boundaries, it is an inexplicable experience. It is difficult to imagine or visualize the experience.
At the end of the programs that I conduct, I have seen people filled with ecstasy. In their exalted state of ecstasy, they forget their name, identity, social status, education, qualifications, wealth, and religion. They forget everything. They forget who they are and what they have. They simply begin to look at each other with great respect, as a microcosm of the universe! They start respecting the other effortlessly. They fall at each other's feet with no second thought!
I have seen a father-in-law fall at the feet of his daughter-in-law. In Bharat this never happens. It is too much to ask for from the traditional people. But this has happens at the end of our programs. They do it because they get a glimpse of the divinity in the other person at that moment. The mother-in-law sees the divinity in her son-in-law and falls at his feet! A grandparent touched the feet of a granddaughter. The bosses touch the feet of their staff.
We need to go layer by layer, level by level, to realize that we are a part of the collective consciousness. We each are a part of the collective consciousness. Think about this concept. Meditate on it. It will cause radical changes in you.