Question:

Being grateful is your very nature and I totally understand that. What is confusing is, in earlier verses of Ashtavakra, he says if you are grateful to me that means you recognize myself as someone other than yourself (not seeing myself in you and yourself in me) or this consciousness as one. How do we differentiate this? Does he mean be grateful to everything around you with the eyes of someone who is witnessing and not necessarily someone as a person. I am not sure if I am clear with my question but I think you will understand.

Answer:

Absolutely! Today he has taken you to the highest level. He is asking you to be grateful from the point of “the consciousness”, “the self” that you are…… The Self is the one who is witnessing everything around. This ball of consciousness that you are could have been in an animal body, be grateful for the human body, be grateful for this knowledge, etc. When you are grateful to the consciousness, you are in your true nature which is love and gratitude, then you do not see a difference between I and you. You become one with everyone and everything. This is Divine Love! This is enlightenment!

Question:

I had an experience – I felt the self to be in immense gratitude for the ultimate love we have with the Brahman. Ektaji, how is it that I had this experience while I was packing lunch?  I mean I was not meditating or doing puja but doing a regular activity and it was like a flash. Am I going crazy, Ektaji?

Answer:

No, you are not going crazy. The mind is in a meditative state since the weekend, the prana level is high as if in meditation. That is why such experiences are stronger. Usually as the days progress, you will see that the prana level starts coming down and such experiences diminish. That is why some of us need to meditate regularly to keep our batteries charged.

Because once you lose charge completely (like a dead phone), then you need a kick start again with a course. So now that the plane has taken off the ground, don’t run out of fuel. Meditation is the FUEL, and the best part is you can fuel in midair while flying. Remember meditation is just being, and stopping the ‘doing tendency’ in the mind!

Few years down the line with continuous meditation and knowledge, you will see that you are completely a transformed individual and you may have a continuous meditative state and a continuous joyous state – the fourth state that Ashtavakra spoke about and the fourth dimension which the Upanishads speak about.

Rejoice in this beautiful experience and keep smiling!