Giving up 'I' and 'Mine'🔗

Now the next line, 'I bow in reverence to siddhas, means the liberated souls. You should understand the word 'namo' also. 'Namo' means you offer 'I' and mine, ahankar and mamakar. Na mama. Ahankar and mamakar, you offer both 'I' and 'mine'.

You see, an important thing is it is very easy to offer 'mine', which means wealth. You can very easily give wealth. At some point in time all rich people feel the futility of wealth - because then you can buy anything which money can buy. But after all the basic things, what will you do with the money? Maybe more and more zeroes get added in your bank balance sheet. Only in the pass book or the bank balance sheet you see more and more zeroes getting increased. For those zeroes you give your whole life and you are constantly running, running, running. Finally only the ego of the person who is making you run ends up expanding. And suddenly one day you will leave all those zeroes and yourself become zero!

After some time all rich people feel the futility of wealth. Once they have wealth, they feel it is very easy to give money. I have seen almost all rich people erecting temples in every city. Why? They understood money has no value. Money is valuable only till you achieve all your basic needs.

Understand, we have everything that we need. A right strategy is all we need. Right planning is all we need. And we have enough intelligence. For the first time in the history of humanity, we are facing a situation where so much of intelligence is available, and so many miracles of technology and science are available. We have everything and we can take care of the whole society. All the basic needs can be taken care of, it is not a big thing.

[A rich person knows money is valuable only for a common man who has not achieved fulfillment in his basic needs. Giving up the 'mine' is not a big thing for him, it is very easy. But giving 'I' is the real thing. If you give 'I' you become god in that temple. If you give 'mine' you become the person who builds temples, that's all.

Mahāvīra became Mahāvīra because he gave 'I'. He gave away the 'I'. He dropped the ego. He went beyond the ego. He went beyond the 'I' and 'mine'.

Understand, do you want to be a donor or do you want to be the one who is sitting inside the temple? Do you want to become a worshipper or the person who receives the worship? The moment you give away the 'I', you become the one who receives the worship. If you are giving away only the 'mine', you are a worshipper. The person who gives up 'I' and 'mine' both, becomes the arihanta.

Now when you give away your 'I' and 'mine' to the arihantas, you achieve the same state in which they are living. You see, the 'I' and 'mine' is the only thing which separates you from enlightened beings. When you drop this boundary, you become one with them.

There is a beautiful stotra, a beautiful line by a great enlightened master, Ramana Maharshi. Let me repeat the words and then I will translate. It is an amazing line!

Thandhathe, endhanai Kondhathe, undhanai sādhurar yaargolo Arunachala

This is a verse in Tamil. He says, 'I gave 'me' and 'mine', and got you and what you are having. Who is the winner in this game? Tell me Arunachala. Tell me O Lord!'

Ordinary Being Vs Enlightened Being

Understand, 'I gave up 'I' and 'mine' but achieved you and what you are having. Now who is the winner in this game?' You got only what I had. See, normally what will you have?

Sareera rogamaya, mana sogamaya, atma dukkhamaya, that's all. These three are our property. Sareera rogamaya means the body with sickness. As long as you have head, you will have headache. As long as you have knee, you will have knee pain. As long as you have a body, it will be rogamaya. Sareera rogamaya.

Mana sogamaya. Mind means depression. Understand, if you don't have depression you will feel something missing in you. If you don't have anything to worry about, suddenly you feel empty, a vacuum. And you think, 'What is happening? I don't have anything to worry about. What is going on in me?' You feel lonely, and you catch something and start worrying. And atma dukkhamaya. Your inner is space filled with pain and suffering. This is what is our property.

Now let us see what are the properties of an enlightened being, an enlightened master, the arihanta. Sareera tejomaya, means body with which they are not even connected. Tejomaya means the consciousness-filled body.

See, there is a beautiful verse which says Mahāvīra's body is filled with milk. Understand, it is a metaphysical example. You need to understand that it means he is filled with that consciousness. Do not visualize in a physical way he is filled with milk. The story says when a snake bit him, only milk came out ofHis body. It is a metaphysical example.

He is filled with such overflowing consciousness. Milk was considered a very sacred thing, an auspicious thing in those days. That is why they used milk as a simile, as an example to say he is overflowing. Sareera Tejomaya means the body which is filled with overflowing consciousness. That is why he doesn't feel like covering His body with cloth. He is radiating His consciousness, he is liberated.

He does not need to cover himself. You see, we cover our body because we feel it is ugly. We don't feel completely settled inside our boundary. We always want to change the dimensions of our body in some way. The moment you think somebody is beautiful, be very clear you are not completely comfortable with your body.

I am not talking about the male and female getting attracted towards each other. No. I am talking about the male feeling, 'This guy is so handsome, I should look like him,' the female feeling, 'Oh, she is so beautiful, I should look like her!'

The moment you start appreciating somebody else's body, it means you are not completely comfortable with your dimensions. You try to work on your dimensions. Be very clear, the other person may be handsome or beautiful but you can't enjoy even a cup of coffee through that body. You have to experience that only through this body you have.

Sareera tejomaya means filled with consciousness, completely comfortable inside one's body. If you are completely settled and completely comfortable - sthiram sukham - then it is tejomaya.

Masters don't have a mind, so there is no description about mind. Atma anandamaya - radiating the bliss.

Understand, surrender whatever you have - means actually what you have. We don't even have something worthy of surrendering, that is the Truth. We don't even actually have something worthy to surrender also. We may think that we have something. All you need to do is have a little bit of intelligence about what you really have. Simply you will surrender. All I am telling you is to see the accounts properly, with open eyes. You will surrender. You will realize sareera rogamaya, mana sogamaya and atma dukkhamaya, simply you will surrender.

There is a beautiful sutra in which Mahāvīra speaks about the past life. The bhashyakara, the later acharyas explain beautifully that the intelligence about the past life will help you to surrender because you will understand you are doing the same nonsense again and again.

When you offer whatever you have with the word 'namo' - let me surrender the 'I' and 'me' at the feet of arihantas, immediately you will achieve what they have. See, to tell you honestly, surrendering is the best way to get the ultimate thing. When you offer whatever you have, simply no other way, they have to open whatever they have. There is no other way. The moment you open up they have to open up. Actually they are already open, only you are stopping them.