Question:

I have lots of suffering. Is there any possibility for me to have a private mentorship session for some guidance on this?

Answer:

If you go to a heart surgeon and tell him to cure your knee joint problem, he will refer you to the orthopedic as it is Adharma for him to try to cure you for that which is not in his domain range. Being upset with the heart surgeon for this reason would be a folly on your part. He is only doing that which is Dharma [Righteous for his role].

Similarly, the disease of the body-mind person cannot be cured by the spiritual teacher. The true spiritual teacher will only be able to help the one who is ready to see that one is not the body-mind person but only the witness of the body-mind. This is true spirituality.

The true spiritual path is not meant to get rid of physical or mental diseases, my dear. That is the promise of the fake spiritual shopkeeper. You-the-witness of the body-mind are assuming that you are suffering and hence selling yourself to the idea of buying happiness. Your issue is not the suffering, your issue is your belief of what happiness is.

Happiness is not the opposite of suffering my dear. Hence, I will not be of any help if you want to get rid of physical and mental diseases. I will only be of some help if you summon the courage to accept the truth that there is no way to escape suffering, the only way is to overcome the false idea of suffering said the Buddha.

I teach that one must have the courage to acknowledge and accept that suffering is the second name for life and it is always going to be one’s constant companion. The mind is incapable of being happy and life is incapable of satisfying. Nisargadatta Maharaj questions the seeker to investigate – Can the mind ever be happy?

Once these truths are seen then suffering is no longer seen as suffering because you take a step beyond the suffering body-mind to their witness. This breaks your false association with suffering. That is the only way out of suffering – to acknowledge that there is no way out of suffering other than NOT seeing it as ‘MY suffering’.

Arriving at this truth relieves you of all expectations of changing people, changing situations, and changing things. It is not that these 3 aspects will not change for the body-mind person, they naturally will as they always naturally do, but you-the-witness will no longer be feverish about their change or non-change. Your expectation of change and your unrest associated with non-change will be relinquished.

When expectation drops, desire melts away. When desire drops, an unfathomable relief dawns. When relief consumes you, a natural background of peace is revealed. Then you realize that you were the Background of Peace always. You are Peace. You don’t have an option but to always remain as yourself-the-background-of-Peace. That is the true meaning of Happiness. It is not the opposite of suffering, it is the background on which the idea of suffering dances and expires and is reborn. Happiness is the womb of the idea called suffering. Suffering is only an idea born of Me-the Background-Peace so it is inevitably peace itself. There is NO SUFFERING! There is no suffering to get rid of in the first place. 

Please remember that this takes enormous courage to see. You have to drop the association with the body-mind person that is assumed to be ‘I’. And that needs incredible inner power to self-explore, investigate, self-reflect, discriminate, dissociate, and relinquish.

Do you have the courage to see that? If yes, then you must start from Advaita Level I journey on the website – https://gnyanasangha.com/

Why?

Because private mentorship sessions are a mere spiritual test to check the spiritual progress of the spiritual seeker after the completion of certain spiritual levels. If someone is blocked, the blocker is worked upon together by the mentor and participant. One qualifies for them only after taking the Examinations offered. As all Gnyana Sangha teachings including the personal mentorship sessions are a free offering, this filter to sieve out the mind management technique seeker from the spiritual seeker is an essential prerequisite to ensure the mentor’s time is reserved for the earnest spiritual seeker. 

Hence, the personal mentorship sessions are not psychological counseling sessions and should be treated as ‘strictly for spiritual progress only not as mental wellness programs’. Those with mental difficulties will only be appalled by truths like there is nothing like suffering. The Advaitam path has a prerequisite of a solid mental foundation to be able to absorb harsh and bitter truths. This must be clear to all who walk the path. Hopefully, you see this truth!