Mahaprabu: Whenever you and yours is absent, immediately at those times the silence will be felt. He said it in a certain deep tone with eyes closed as he drifted into samadhi.  Around 2 hours had passed in meditation sitting in front of Sri Mahaprabu. All track of time was lost. He gave a sweet (palkoa). As we were eating it, I could sense a total detachment from the sweet, the resulting sensation and the person eating it. This came out in words from my mouth.

Sri Mahaprabu: Detached is a very correct word. One has to be detached. How is this detachment created? It is because of the Awareness. So being detached and being Aware is one and the same. If you are not Aware you are lost, you become addict to being a person. Now you are enjoying the sweet with Awareness. In this state is there anything wrong with the senses? No.

IT is enjoying. It has created the senses for that purpose. See it has created the sweet, created the tongue, and the taste buds on the tongue, all to enjoy its creations. And yet nothing, not even a small particle of the sweet will reach THAT.  A part of the sweet may enter into the body, even to the cells. But it never touches THAT. Similarly, the taste in this sweet also does not reach THAT. Nothing reaches THAT. Yet there is a joy. By feeding the Palkoa to the body, it is kindling the joy in itself! (Palkova ve udambukku utturadhu mulama, adhu thana thane magizchi uttugiradhu – The word uttugiradhu has two meanings feeding and adding!). Palkoa is gross. Taste is subtle, but it is still in the gross body, in the taste buds, and brain. Neither of these reaches IT. Yet it has created everything just to enjoy, and kindle the joy already in it. (Laughing).

SC: While eating this tasty sweet, there is certainly enjoyment, there is a pleasure. So IT is enjoying that?
Mahaprabu: Yes, definitely. IT only is enjoying it. But without knowing this, the brain thinks there is a person who is enjoying it. See there is a False center (pointing to the head) and there is a True Center (pointing to the heart). The Palkoa,  a soft sweet is entering the body. The False center and the True Center both recognize it. But where your recognition stops is at the False center. It doesn’t come to your Awareness that the True center is enjoying. You stay at the surface. Really IT (the Boss) is enjoying the experience. But the brain (the Servant) has forgotten that this is happening in the background. I will give you an example so you can see. <span class=”example”>There is an owner of a very large estate with so many workers. A new worker has been appointed as a driver of the estate jeep. It is his first day at work. All the workers know their boss very well, but the new driver (the servant) has not seen him. The driver has been asked to pick up someone at the airport. (He has not been told that the person being picked up is the Boss, the owner of the estate). He brings the Boss to the estate. The Boss is sitting at the back of the Jeep. But the servant has forgotten that. He enjoys driving the jeep now imagining that he is the owner. As the jeep enters the estate, all the workers in the estate salute the BOSS (who is sitting in the back seat of the jeep). The SERVANT driving the jeep sees them saluting and believes they are all saluting him!!!!

(Laughing). You see! The body, the entire system are like the workers in the estate. They know the real BOSS, the True Center. They have no confusion. But this SERVANT, the False Center, the idea of a Person, the Ego is the only one that thinks he is the Boss. In fact, he never questions that he is not the boss.

So the experience of eating the sweet is not an imagination. It is happening. And the BOSS is actually enjoying it. But this SERVANT gets in the way and thinks HE is enjoying the sweet, and that HIS happiness comes from the sweet. (Laughing)

SC: Makes sense. Then why is it that beyond a point the very sweet becomes too much, we don’t enjoy it?
Mahaprabu: Because the body becomes troubled by excess. Who owns the body? The owner (the True Center). He has created limits in the body. These external joys are cittrinbam – Little Pleasures. All sense pleasures are little pleasures for him. In samadhi is the perinbam (Great Joy, Bliss). See how it limits how much you can put into the body at one time. It stops you. But tomorrow you will resume liking the same sweet. But the Servant can override it and result in over-feeding the body, resulting in negative consequences. Like this in many places the Boss says enough but the Servant who is addicted to the sense pleasures wants to keep enjoying and suffers the consequences.

See the enjoyment in eating the sweet with awareness, with detachment is so different. It is not indulgence. It won’t result in over-eating. Because IT is enjoying. And see how it has created a variety of things for its enjoyment. Imagine you are extremely hungry. There is a lot of rice that has been cooked. But that’s all there is. Just white rice. Say half a kilo of rice but that is all is given; one taste only. Can you eat that plain rice beyond a point? Even though you are hungry you cannot. You might eat around 200 gms. Now say there are so many dishes to eat the rice with, such as vegetables, sambar, rasam, etc. Now you will eat a lot more rice. You will even finish the half kg of rice! See how it has created variety for its enjoyment. And even with that variety, it has set limits. Once your tank is full you are unable to eat. The Boss has set it all up correctly. It knows the Body needs energy. It knows the limits of the body as IT as set it. Why has it set limits? Because a) it does not want the body to get affected physically and b) It doesn’t want the body to get tired of things. It has to eat food the next day!! It is like you have been given a bank account with money. You can spend it all in a day. It is your freedom. But you will suffer the rest of your life. So ideally you will spend a required amount each day. That’s how even sense pleasures have been set with limits.

This is how IT, the Atma keeps enjoying itself. It is always happy. Yet it reminds, rekindles that joy frequently. Without the Body also it is ever blissful. With body also it kindles its own joy. Osho has beautifully captured this point when he said: First you be happy, then you can worry about Jnana. Why? Because happiness is ITS nature. The existence which is existing here and now is ever happy. It can exist with or without the body. Once it takes the body also it tends to be happy. It cannot avoid happiness. That is how it is designed. But WE have entered (imaginary person) and say we should not indulge in pleasure, especially in the name of spirituality. That’s why those who engage in those paths of extreme denials rarely succeed. Osho is referring to enjoyment with Awareness. This way the body also is not affected, since you wouldn’t indulge.

See when you eat the sweet, it is going into the body. Who senses the taste? The body. So who should be happy then? SC: The body.
Mahaprabu: Yes, that is what is actually happening. By making the physical body happy, the Master behind that body is also enjoying it. Because the body is a servant to the Master. Good so far. But who is he which says “I am happy while eating this sweet?”  An imaginary person!! See how wrong the understanding is. So when eaten with the right understanding, this enjoyment won’t do any harm. But are we living with the right understanding? Forget about Atma Jnana. If you are present to what is happening moment to moment, you will be happy. The design is perfect. Just be in IT. So what needs to be fixed? The understanding, that’s all.

See carefully. Does Atma need Atma Jnanam? Only your Ajnanam (ignorance) needs Atma Jnanam (enlightenment).
SC: Oh my God. The wrong understanding needs the right understanding. (Mahaprabu laughing!)

So when will the right understanding happen? When you are present there. While eating the sweet if you ‘THINK’ it is over. ‘Oh what a taste. Where did you buy it.’ Etc. The minute you think, and then verbalize, you are not present. Then you are not in the flow. You don’t feel the real joy.

Suffering is false

Even this understanding right now is happening for you in the brain. It is very likely that the servant is doing the understanding! But after the meditation when you enjoyed the sweet, it was different. It was direct. When you are present moment to moment, you get the direct experience of everything. What IS Moment-to-Moment?
SC: Atma.
Mahaprabu: So what should we do? Be there moment to moment. (Which really means the i becomes absent).

And if moment to moment only Atma is there? What is there moment to moment?
SC: Joy.
Mahaprabu: Yes. That’s it. Only Joy will be there. Suffering will not be there correct? So now see, is suffering real? No. It is imaginary. (Laughing). How can you suffer? Even if you try you cannot. It is imaginary. (Continued laughter from Mahaprabu). Is suffering your right understanding or wrong understanding !!! (Laughing).

SC: I don’t want any understanding. Understanding itself is suffering! Experience alone is good.
Mahaprabu: When you live moment to moment, will you even talk about Suffering? Will you even talk about Atma? So besides living moment to moment, everything you do is a waste. Say you suffered a lot this morning. Is it useful or a waste? A total waste. All your suffering is a waste. How can you live with people in this world? Everyone believes they are suffering. Try telling them ‘Suffering is not existent’. They will make you suffer! (imaginatively).

As suffering is non-existent, Atma will not suffer even during the death of the body. It will be happy to get rid of this body and take on a new one. But the imaginary Servant, suffers tremendously!! Infact we are calling him Servant. That is a decent name. But what a treacherous thing this ego is. Buddha called it ‘Kodunkhol Mannan’ – An evil ruler, a tyrant! See which is the right definition. Servant or Evil Tyrant!

When you get a direct experience any understanding in your brain will not stay, and won’t be needed. But what everyone is doing, trying to cling onto so many understandings, thereby creating more opportunity for suffering.

Ok now that you know all this, when you still suffer, you will feel so bad. Because you will think, ‘Oh God. Even after understanding it, I am still suffering.’ So you have to develop the ability to jump out of it and come back to the moment. That ability to jump, requires strength.

SC: So IT has created everything for its enjoyment, even other people for it to interact?
Mahaprabu: Where is the question of ‘other’ people? How can I see you as ‘other’?

SC: Wow!
Mahaprabu: It is like In this room, air is There and air is Here. But can you say that is different air and this is different air? Two ends of a rope. One appears higher one end appears lower. But is there really a difference? No. In reality there is no difference. Only the understanding needs to be corrected.