Who Are You?

Our Guru’s Teachings at Dawn – The Pinnacle of Brama Gnana Kriya (10.08.2023)

“Is what you seek something separate from you? If it is something separate from you, you can seek it. But how can you seek something that is inherently you? You cannot seek your own self externally like other things. In this matter, there is no difference between the seeker and the sought. You can seek the world and its contents externally, but you cannot seek your own self outside. One who searches for their true self externally strays far from the truth of their own self. It is essential to fully understand this truth for the seeking to be possible.

If you desire material things in this world, you must seek them externally. But if you want to discover who you are, you must abandon everything and turn inward, becoming still and calm, free from agitation and restlessness. You can only perceive that true reality in complete silence and a state of empty mind. Remember, even seeking is a form of tension, desire, thirst, and restlessness. The self cannot be experienced when it is restless. The soul cannot be perceived within a restless mind. This is the challenge here. Desire is the urge to become something or to attain something. But the soul is already achieved and attained. The soul is you, your true self. Desire and the soul are two different poles, opposite dimensions.

The soul is something to be realized, but it cannot be sought as an object. We must understand this well. The soul has no thirst or desire of its own. Desires and needs belong to worldly and illusory matters, not to the soul. Seeking sensual pleasures is desire; seeking the bliss of wisdom is also desire. Running after money is desire; sitting for meditation and penance is also desire. Striving for positions and honors in the world is desire; renouncing the world to realize divinity is also desire.

Whether for small pleasures or the great bliss of wisdom, desire remains the same. All desires are fundamentally the same. Desire is attachment; it is a binding force, a chain. When we understand what desire truly is, we will be freed from it. This understanding reveals the nature of desire’s pain. Understanding what pain is brings liberation from it. After experiencing pain, no one will desire to cause it again.

In that moment without desire, in that instant when the mind is undisturbed by desire, when you seek nothing, in that supreme moment, in that peaceful, deep, silent state, you will truly experience your self. When desire vanishes, the soul naturally blossoms. Wisdom is a pure awareness without any content. It is emptiness, a void. Wisdom is an empty consciousness, pure consciousness, a holy awareness. In this silent moment, the door to truth opens. In a mind that becomes empty, truth is realized. As a result, a person’s entire life transforms.

This state of emptiness, this experience of wisdom, is attained through meditation and penance. But what is commonly understood as penance is not truly penance. Even that is a form of thinking. That thinking may be a noble thought related to the soul or divinity, but it is still thinking. What we think about does not matter. Fundamentally, thinking is outward-oriented. It engages with what is not the self. There can be no thoughts, ideas, or consciousness about the self. Because thinking requires two things: the thinker and the object of thought. Thinking is a dual activity. Therefore, thinking does not lead you beyond duality to the singular, majestic soul. To know the non-dual soul, you must fall inward, dive deep, and understand the soul through penance, not thinking.

Thinking and penance go in completely opposite directions. One is outward-oriented; the other moves inward, towards the depths of the mind. Thinking is a way to understand what is external. Penance is a way to understand what is the self—the soul. But thinking deeply has often been mistaken for penance. True penance is being in a state of non-doing. Penance is not about doing something; it is about remaining fixed like a nail in a state of being. It means being firmly established in one’s soul, the self.

We connect with the external world through various activities. But through a state of non-doing, we establish a connection with our own self. In a state of non-doing, we realize who we are. Conversely, when we are busy with all sorts of things, we miss the opportunity to encounter our self. We even forget that we exist.

Our work and its pace are unrelenting. Our body may rest, but our mind and intellect never take a break. We think while awake and dream while asleep. This constant activity makes us forget who we are. Amid our daily activities, we lose our sense of self. What a strange wonder this is! But it is the truth. We are lost, not in a grand festival crowd, but within our own thoughts, dreams, daily tasks, and activities.

To dig ourselves out from the confusion and crowd we have created within our mind, penance is the only way. Penance is not an event; its nature is different. It is not an exciting activity. Penance is characterized by a mind not surrounded by any thoughts. We must practice being in a state of non-doing.

The word ‘penance’ implies doing something, but true penance is not about doing anything. Saying ‘I was doing penance’ is incorrect. The correct phrase is ‘I was in penance.’ Penance is like love. One can be loving, can be in love, but cannot do love. One cannot perform compassion or love. Hence, penance is a state of mind—a platform.

We gather here in the Gurukula not to do something but to ascend to a pure, actionless, serene state, experiencing it just as it is. This place of the mind is where the pure flame of the soul remains. Here, even the thought ‘I am one’ vanishes. Only the soul remains, and the ‘I’ dissolves in the divine realm.

This is the void, the emptiness. Here, we do not see the world we are part of; we see the truth. In this void, in the black dot of the eye, the obstructing wall that prevented you from knowing who you are crumbles to dust. Knowledge rises within you like the sun at dawn. This is the vision of wisdom.

Penance is non-doing. Doing is what we do if we choose to; not doing is what we do if we choose not to. But the nature of the self does not align with doing. It neither does nor refrains from doing. For instance, seeing and hearing are inherent traits. Even without doing anything, these two exist. Our true nature encompasses these two inherent traits continuously within us. This continuous, inherent presence within us is our true nature. This true nature is not our creation. It is our foundation. We are this. We do not create it; it sustains us. Therefore, we call this sustaining presence Dharma. Dharma means true nature. Dharma means the existence of truth, the soul.

Our continuous true nature is often obscured by the myriad activities we constantly engage in, much like the sun obscured by clouds. Our actions cover up our true nature. These layered activities on the surface conceal the depths of the soul. The waves obscure the secrets of the ocean’s depths, much like trivial actions conceal pure divinity. The true nature remains untouched by these actions, much like a small speck of dust conceals mountains.

However, the presence of waves does not dry up the ocean. The same life force in the waves exists in the ocean’s depths. Those who have attained wisdom can see the ocean even in the waves. Others wait for the waves to calm down to see the ocean’s silence. When do the waves calm? When do they attain wisdom?

So, our true nature is a pure awareness, a calm and compassionate, unperturbed ‘seeing.’ We must dive into our true nature without worrying about the waves. We must explore the depths to find where the self resides within us. Where is our soul within our head? Where is divinity settled within us?

This wave-free and still awareness is always present within us. But we are not in that place; we are somewhere else. We stand away from it, looking outward, observing the world and its things. Remember, we see. Whatever is seen is the world. But if one looks inward, it is not the world but our true self, the soul.

If the act of seeing is identified with the object seen, it is thought or cognition. But if the act of seeing turns towards the ultimate consciousness without relating to the object, it is penance. Seeing occurs in both thought and penance. But in thought, it is about the object; in penance, it is not. Whether we are engaged in thought or in the realm of penance, whether we are toiling in activities or have attained freedom from them, seeing remains constant. Seeing is permanent, unceasing. This is the nature of our soul. It has never ceased in any state. Therefore, to see ourselves within, to know ourselves, to see our life, to see the soul within life, to see the divine light within life, we must always engage in the practice of seeing. This is what our Supreme Wisdom Gurukula education teaches. What to see, how to see, and why to see are all hidden in the Guru’s sacred teachings.

By seeing ourselves within through this light, we can understand who we are, answer the question of who you are with life itself, and immerse ourselves in eternal bliss. Come, my dear students. Let us all journey through our world of living light. Let us begin this journey sweetly from our Supreme Wisdom Gurukula, melt into life, and bloom as life itself, my dear

beloveds.

With this blessing, our revered Guru began to merge back into his radiant divine form.”

Respectfully departing from you,
Rudra Shivatha from the Supreme Wisdom Golden Council
May all beings live in joy!
Thiruchitrambalam!
Thiruchitrambalam!
Thiruchitrambalam!