If you bring any questions of making an effort, of making it a method, or of trying to achieve something in the distant future, then this will bring you into time, and time is mind. This will be play of mind only, but your original nature is empty. You are all, at every time, empty. That's all! Then, follow what thought arises in your mind. You will find that all thoughts arise from emptiness, from their source. When you are aware, when you see that ,"I am that source itself", then there is no longer a need to practise anything and there is no longer a need to go anywhere. You will see that you already have been That. This is called freedom, which you have not to achieve or attain in the distant future. It is already there! So, if there are any questions about this, then we can discuss about this together.

Question: If one is aware that that is one's nature, but when there is any concept of time or movement there, then fear arises and there is hesitation.

Poonja: This is the fear of facing the emptiness, because you are living in so many things, so many concepts, you see. You are meant to face the emptiness, face to face, and you lose everything - all concepts of the past, present and future which you consider to be your life. You're holding on to them because the feeling is that you're living along with them. So, when they leave, you have the fear of dying in the ocean of nectar. The fear of death in the nectar. And what's the meaning of nectar? Eternity, deathlessness. So, we have fear of eternity, that 'I' will become eternal. This is a fear because we want to cling onto something for our safety. We find that we are already holding on to the body, mind and senses. This is for our safety and we do not know that when we get rid of these things, we will have peace.

When we go from the waking state to the sleep state, we lose everything. What we held onto during the waking state - our relationships with people, our relations - all this will leave. When we enter into the sleep state, we have lost everything. At that time we have no fear. But we are afraid of entering into emptiness, because we have never heard about it, nor have we experienced it. Sleep, we've experienced and we're not afraid of it. We love to get into sleep, get into the state of conceptlessness. Getting into the state of emptiness is the same, there is no difference. We cannot experience it because we are already in it. You cannot have an experience of what your true nature is. Therefore, don't get the idea that you have to achieve something by practise at some time later. You have to get rid of this concept. By doing something at a later date, you will enter, or receive or achieve the same thing which you are now. So, why not do it at this very moment? What will be the difference? This moment is available to you right now! Look into this moment, look into this instant of time. Look into it just now and see how you feel. You cannot speak of this instant.

It is a very beautiful subject that we are discussing. It happens, you see. "It happened", this is the experience of everybody. There, we forget that this itself will dissolve. It will find itself, you see. So, that fear will vanish and everything ends there. What will happen is, this 'I' will dissolve.

Q: How do I get rid of the ego?

P: Turn your sight inside and look behind the retina. In front of the retina, there will appear objects, but try to look inside. When you look inside you have solved all your problems of the ego, of everything. You will find no ego inside. Ego, jealousy and fear are all outside. You will feel jealous with someone who is higher than you and hate people who are lower than you. This is the trend of looking outside, so for one instant look inside and you will see beauty and love, behind the retina itself. It is easier to look inside than to look outside.

There is no difference between looking inside and stillness, quietness and peace. They are all the same. So, look inside and see what happens. Peace will come up by itself. There is no difference between looking inside at the Reality, and outside at the dream, the creation. This cannot be explained. In quietness, in stillness or on the battlefield - to still be quiet on the battlefield, or on the high peaks of the Himalayas, meditating with no associate around you. There is no difference, and this is called equilibrium of the mind.

There is no need to meditate and no need to practice. Keep quiet without even a thought of making an effort, as in deep sleep, even only for a second. There is one's true nature. Trust this thing - nothing ever existed! As a leaf falls from a tree, it has got nothing to do. It has no intention that , "I must go northward or southward". It flies with the wind and this wind is grace. Now, you have fallen from the tree of the ego, from where you came. You are falling on the ground, lying. So, whichever direction the wind blows, it will take you. You have no choice. This is how you have to live now.

Q: How can I be free of troubles?

P: Don't peep into the past because the past of everybody is dark, troublesome, and if you look to it you cannot have peace of mind. So, the only thing to do is not to look to the past. If you say, "It is very difficult", I will not believe you. All past at one time was present, and you enjoyed very well. This enjoyment was a stupid enjoyment because you desired the joy from someone else, didn't you? You are not happy by yourself. You took out somebody, some snake to love and it bit you. All relationships of the past are the cobras. This poison will not keep you alive, keep you happy. Therefore, the best way to keep happy is to not go to the past. Try! Any thought that comes, you have to be watchful.

Life is here to enjoy. God has given so many things in the world. God is so compassionate, merciful, helping his children. He has given a beautiful world to live, full of snowcapped mountains, rivers, forests, trees full of fruit. So, why not enjoy this world? But you must know the technique of how to enjoy, by not having these snakes or scorpions. Look at it and it will vanish. You have not been looking, therefore you are having troubles.

Q: How can I end my fear of death?

P: Everybody is afraid to die. There is only one trick to avoid death and that is, "Know thyself now!" Everybody is senseless, sleeping in a coma. They don't know what to do. Therefore, the best way is don't waste time. Do it now! Find out what is the reality about the beings that appear to you. It may not be true what you see. After you wake up from a dream, where is the wife you had in the dream? Like this, for generations you have been having wives and husbands, brothers and sisters. Where are they? If they disappear like in the dream, then let us think that this might be a dream also. Anything that appears and disappears must be a dream. So, whatever does not disappear and does not appear must be real. Find out what it is! Find out within yourself. Find out who is That which has no attachment with the body, mind, ego, senses or objects. You can make this theory into practice whenever you understand closely what is the purpose of that appearance in the world - enjoyment, attachment, or finding freedom? Then your eyes will open and you will not be afraid of death.

The mind is no different from the object. Any object is objectified mind only. So, do not let your mind abide anywhere. The mind has to abide on an object, and if the object is removed, then there will be no place for it to abide. Then, there'll be no-mind. When the mind dies, you will live and be free. The mind has been living with you for generations and now it will not die so easily. Let death come, let it come to cowards, those people who are afraid of death. To them she comes and takes them away. If you invite death yourself and say, "I am not afraid of death", then you become eternal. Only two choices are there - either you allow the mind to live, or you live without the mind. This is your decision.

Q: How to end suffering?

P: You must divorce all physical relationship, all names and forms. Whatever stays in the memory of your head is a form. If it is formless, then you cannot see it. Now, in formlessness you are quite free. All forms will disappear someday, so what's the use of living with that form which will trouble you later on, which will die? This form will not stay. Why love it? Be careful, you have to love one Beloved which you cannot divorce. That is called, 'Miss Peace'. That you cannot divorce. One glimpse of It will give you happiness. She is hiding because you are looking somewhere else. Stop your looking, just for one second, and She will reveal Herself. All other beauties will fade away. So stay quiet, It will show Itself.

You're in Manhattan and somebody has slapped you on the street. Then, you go to your house in New Jersey and sleep. During the night, will you not remember this place where you have been slapped and insulted? New Jersey is where your house is. It has got nothing to do with where you got slapped. Here you are kissed by your friend. When you think of grief, it belongs to somewhere else, and that somewhere else is in the past. When you go back to grief, you have to go back to Manhattan, to be slapped again. That is the habit of most people. They can't avoid it. A slap on this side, a slap on that side. Repeating it, yet not learning a lesson. Go your way! Don't go to areas where you are insulted. Stay at home and you will be happy. I don't mean stay in your apartment. Staying at home means staying within your own Self. And if you stay there, nobody will harm you, everybody will love you.

Q: This samsara (continuous round of birth and death), this duality, how does it arise and how do we end it?

P: It has no beginning, but has an end. This ignorance, this samsara appears and there must be a beginning to it. This beginning is as if you see a snake instead of a rope. Only when you inquire, reason out, then the snake disappears. This ignorance has no basis. Due to ignorance of the rope, the snake appeared. On reasoning out, through inquiry, it disappeared. So, ignorance of the Self gives rise to samsara, and when you inquire into the samasar, then it is going to end. Otherwise, for millions of eons, it will stay. It's not going to end.

So, how to stop this samsara? Only still the mind. There is no difference between stillness of mind and freedom. When the mind is still, you are free. There is no method to still the mind. Only by reasoning. Only when you inquire, "How did this samsara arise? Where does it begin?" It started from 'Sat-Chit-Anand', Truth being in bliss. With the association of prana (vital energy) it became the individual self. 'I' arose, then everything arose. So, this ego is beginningless, so it is not going to end. Whatever you do, it will spread more and more. Samsara has become real, but when you still the mind, then there is no reality of the samsara. Reality is only knowledge, existence and bliss.

When the mind is made free of its attachment to what it is holding, then it becomes still. Anything dear to you in your mind is samsara. So, when you get rid of this, the mind is left still. When you look at an ocean or river, you see waves and bubbles on the surface. There is no reason to because water is water. So, names and forms arise, but when you investigate, "This is water and water has not changed", then you will discover that the waves and bubbles are water. So, with a still mind you have to reason out. Discrimination, clarity, doubtlessness and desire for freedom will arise in a pure mind.

Q: How to still the mind?

P: Give up everything you are holding. That's all you have to do. Then your mind becomes free of any attachments, vasanas (tendencies) and desires. This is freedom. See that your mind is not running after any object. All objects are past objects. Attachment is an impediment to this wisdom, consciousness and light. When the mind doesn't go anywhere, this is 'no-mind', and when the mind goes somewhere, then it becomes 'mind'. If you can give up all the attachments of the mind until this moment, then just imagine what will happen!

Everybody wants to understand intellectually, but the intellect cannot carry you across to the other shore. So, be free of the mind and intellect, and then you will see that you are your Self, 'Being-Knowledge-Bliss'. Somehow, you have forgotten it, therefore in satsang you are reminded, "You are 'Being-Knowledge-Bliss'". Whatever you are doing, you are doing from within Consciousness. 'You' are not doing, 'It' is doing. Put the responsibility of action on Consciousness, and be free! 'It' is doing, that's all!

Q: Can you help me to see the emptiness?

P: Find out who this 'seer' is. Find out who wants to see the emptiness. And how is 'seer' this different from emptiness? When you let go of all concepts, what is left? Yes, emptiness!

The dress that we wear is not 'me', is not 'we'. The indweller, the person who wears the dress is more important. Likewise, the bodies are also like dresses. Who is wearing the body, who is wearing the bodies? And, 'That' is one. 'That' is one's essence, and at the same time 'That' wears millions of bodies and has millions of tongues to speak. If you identify yourself with That, that One, from where time, mind and personal consciousness arise, then you feel oneness with all beings. So, from there you can recognise that 'It' is speaking all the languages that others speak - the birds are chirping and the tigers are roaring, the water falls and the breeze whispers into the ears of the plants.

He finds himself to be identified with 'It', and he doesn't find any separation. So, if you go to that essence, that substratum from where everything arises, then you can speak and do whatever you want. All the activities rise from there and you feel that it is you who is speaking through all the mouths, and it is you who is active through all the activity of the world. It is not difficult, you can do it here and now. How? Just by searching. Where does the physicality arise from? Go on towards it, to where this thought takes you.

Follow from where does the wave rise and where does it dissolve, and you will discover something vast, from where the waves come. So, all these manifestations are just the waves which are rising from within, from a very secret, sacred cave of you own Heart, and you are This. When you hold something else, your mind takes hold of an object, a name and a form. Then you forget who you have been and who you are. Therefore, once again, return back to your original status, your own kingdom, and don't beg. Throw away the begging bowl. Begging bowl is desire, intention, hope. So, if you get rid of desire and hope, you are back home. Instantly, you are back home. Instantly, we become One. All is One, and 'It' is all. There is no doubt about it. In not going anywhere, I am everywhere.

From wherever you are, return to the center. You can do it in this moment. Postponement is suffering, mind and time. Get rid of this and arrive at eternity, happiness, beauty and love. You've got nothing to do, only give up your old habits of desire and hope. That's all. Desire has taken you out of the kingdom and this desire itself is a begging bowl, which is never full, which can never be full at all. So, once you throw it away, instantly you are emperor. Any wanting, even wanting peace, joy or happiness is obscuring the simplicity of who I am, and that simplicity is revealed in not wanting any of them.

What is the difference in what you speak and what another speaks? Nothing! It's very simple and very easy to follow. Look into 'who' is looking, that's all. The one who looks, the looking and the looked at are the very same.