Question:

Why does Kabir talk about burning down the house in this Doha?

Main mera ghar jaadiya, liyo paleeta haath, koi agar jaado ghar aapro, chale hamaare saath

I burnt down my house with a flaming torch If you can scorch your own house, come join me!

Answer:

Kabir is explaining the method of getting out of duality [Dvaitam] in this doha. He says that Dvaitam [duality of the subject ‘I’ and the object universe ‘you/it’] is the cause of suffering.

• • Once duality drops, conditioning drops.
  • Once conditioning drops, clouds clear away.
  • Once clouds clear away, one can see that one is the witness consciousness.
  • Once the truth is revealed, the wrong understanding that ‘I am the body’ drops. 
  • Once the truth is revealed then the wrong understanding that ‘I am the mind’ drops too.
  • Once this wrong identification drops, clinging to the world of body-mind drops.
  • Once clinging to body-mind drops, suffering TRULY ENDS.

P.S. The world of people, situations, things do not disappear. They continue to bring the events your way according to your past karma. But the suffering that is borne from getting attached to the events is eroded totally by the truth that one is not the body-mind.

If the above sequence is clear, it will be apparent that one needs tremendous courage to let go of the attachment to the object.

It is described as subject and object because:

• • a subject is required to experience an object
  • a dreamer is required to experience the dream-world
  • a waker is required to experience the waking-world
  • a sleeper is required to experience the blankness of deep-sleep-world

When the subject-object duality drops, one recognizes that there is ‘no two’, also called Advaitam in Sanskrit.

Why is Dvaitam a problem and how is Advaitam attained?

Dvaitam [the firm belief that ‘I’ am a subject experiencing an object that causes suffering or happiness to occur for me] is the root cause of misery.

Advaitam [the clear understanding that there is in reality no separate subject or object but simply an ocean of awareness] is the way to uproot the misery.

How does one attain a clear understanding that there is in reality no separate subject or object?

By recognizing the witness consciousness that is at this moment:

• • Behind the mind understanding these words which itself is
  • Behind the eyes reading these words

It is NOT rocket science to recognize that there was always a witness before; it is there now and it will always be. It has been there since birth but simply ignored.

Why can’t everyone recognize this witness easily?

Because of the story-telling disease of the mind. The mind is constantly repeating a story to itself like:

• • I am so-and-so person.
  • I have experienced so-and-so and attained this position in life with so-and-so effort.
  • My family expects me to be so-and-so.
  • Society respects only so-and-so.
  • Success must be attained at every cost even if it means doing so-and-so.
  • My spiritual community behaves like so-and-so and expects me to conform.
  • If I do not follow so-and-so norm then I will be an outcast.
  • so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so…

The story told by family, society, spiritual community, keeps one bound and that is called CONDITIONING.

Conditioning cripples a person and prevents him from recognizing something that is so clearly evident.

The one who burns his own house of conditioning can alone attain the witness. This is what Kabir means by burning down the house.

Do you have the courage to burn the house and think out-of-the-box?  

#Non-Duality