Hooked by the 'Fate' of Your Awareness

Questioner: What do you mean when you say, as you did the other day, "You are hooked by the fate of your awareness?" The phrase has been going through my head like a mantra, but I cannot make meaning out of it.

Swami Shyam: Awareness is not some substance, like sand, or water, or gold, or silver, or skin or forehead. So awareness is to be understood. By now, you must have concluded something about it. At least you have concluded that you are hooked (laughter). But you have never paid attention to that 'You' and where it is hooked. If you have made a meaning out this phrase, or even if you have not, you are supposed to know who made meaning or who did not make meaning. The one who made meaning out of it must either be a big fool or is non-existent. The one who occupied your mind and body and began to conclude -- ask yourself: "Who is this concluder?" It is not the person who is asleep. And it is not the one in a 'super-state' of consciousness. The concluder is what a human being is. And human being is mind. And mind is such that it always interprets real as unreal and unreal forms as real. As long the mind of a person does this, it is easy to say that this person is bound, or hooked, by 'the fate of his awareness'. But people have no idea what 'fate' is.

Questioner: How are you using the word 'fate'?

Swami Shyam: I was meaning that it makes no sense that you are bound. I always say that you are free. But you always say that you are bound. Your true nature is mangal aanand (bliss). But if you don't know that your true nature is aanand, then that is your fate. You cannot make yourself free by understanding the meaning of my words. Your understanding is that you are the body and I plan that you should be free of such understanding. Now you can check. Do you ever wake up and think you are Space? You always wake up and think that you are just this body. We will only get out of this when we realize that we carry this fictitious, false entity with us throughout the day. If you want to be free, first realize that you are bound. Then go and find out who 'You' are.