Dedicated to the lotus feet of the divine Guru Shivabalayogi Maharaj

Nature of Self Realization – Ashtavakra Samhita, Ch7 vv1-5 – Q&A, No. 277

Recorded on 16 March 2025 with US participants

0:00 Intro
2:18 Verses
3:45 In me, the universe moves driven by its own inherent nature – I am completely unaffected by it.
5:50 What makes the absolute manifest into mind?
8:06 Is mind what is responsible for things appearing in consciousness
9:10 What is the nature of manifest existence?
10:23 What is the nature of consciousness?
11:55 Why does Creation come into existence?
13:42 We are actually living our life in our own mind?
14:29 When we experience something, the object is actually there, but our interpretation is just an imagination about that object?
16:00 So it’s a cooperation between the brain, the physical organism, and the mind that fabricates the whole illusion.
17:05 Verse 5 – “What a great marvel! I’m actually pure consciousness.”
19:36 You can stop thinking and all the imagery, but you can’t make the consciousness go away, because that’s your Self.
20:19 Do you rise above that, Baba, in Nirvikalpa Samadhi or Sahaja Samadhi?
20:37 Verse 5 comments
21:49 What is watching the mind through the mind?
24:31 So there is a duality in the sense that there’s a knowingness going on, but there’s no second thing, it’s just knowing itself.
25:40 So we’re using the mind’s attention to watch itself, is that what we’re trying to accomplish with meditation?
27:28 So once you get absorbed in that point there is just seeing?
28:36 As you become absorbed in between the eyebrows, you are no longer seeing with the eyeballs, but yet you continue to see with your mind’s eye?
29:40 Reading of verses.
31:25 All the universe has arisen in this Self simply by imagination.
33:14 “You realize that this space is the ultimate Truth and Pure Consciousness.”
34:32 “Space is the source of consciousness of Self Existence.”
35:10 “Every term used is as an imagination for the sake of understanding and communication in this world.”
37:21 “The universe is also a higher consciousness magic show with no existence value”
38:32 What’s the difference between pure awareness and pure consciousness?
39:09 Which will exist after the finishing of the body and mind — Pure Awareness, or Pure Consciousness?
39:26 So awareness requires mind?
39:45 What’s the difference between Pure Consciousness and Consciousness of Existence?
40:27 Sometimes you’ve given the example, if a person is looking in a mirror, the image in the mirror can’t see the person. Is the person in that example consciousness, and the image in the mirror the mind?
41:05 Why does the mind constantly test itself?
42:41 In reality is there a specific auspicious or inauspicious time?
44:15 Why would one come back to the body after the merger has happened?
44:51 Just before the merger there’s a warmth of duality that is experienced before you merge? Can one experience loved ones before the merger?
47:41 What is the concept of ‘the feet of Lord Vishnu’?
48:51 Is the external world and what’s happening also part of the mind — the same mind as the inner mind, but a higher potency?
50:01 There is only one divinity, there is nothing else? So then everything is God?
51:22 What do you mean watch the thoughts? Either thought is not there, or I am not watching it.
53:30 You don’t try to actually watch the thought that you’re having? You just continue to watch without imagining?
54:32 My video was off during the initiation. Have I received Baba’s initiation?
55:01 Just before merging, is there any Samyama that is helpful for Moksha, or is patience all that is needed?
57:38 If you have an intention when performing samyama, will it help to manifest that intention?
58:16 Is dhyana, meditaiton, the ending of experience?

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