Satsang  –   Volume 8, Number 8: April 18, 2005
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The Reflection of the Self Is Shining

Aatma Shakti: Yesterday Swamiji was bringing in such a subtle point about the way that the mind usurps all of that which is the pure awareness. He put it this way: It’s like the sunshine is shining on a form, let’s say a human being. So then the sunshine will say, “I am the human being.” And in the same way, the human being will say, “I am the sunshine.” Now the way I understood it also, is that the human being is the mixture of the sunshine of awareness and the antakaaran, or the inner instrumentality— and that mixture will then say, “I am the mirror,” and will understand that it is the unmixed, original being. But Swamiji said that you need to meditate on it because it keeps slipping away. And I would ask you if you could make it clear again, please.

Swamiji: It is clear that she wants to say, “I am That.” But somebody has said, “I am That” when he has realized it. He is telling this to those people who are saying, “I am this.” “This” means I am this body. So the body may be there, then “I” am there. But the one who is saying, “I am this body” is the human mind. And the one who says, “I am That” is not the ignorant functioning of the mind. It is the realized, transformed functioning of the same mind who came to know “I am That.” And it is smiling, thinking, “Why do I say I am this?” He wonders from where this mechanism comes—that he feels “I am this,” and when Guruji says, “I am That,” he also feels that “I am That.” To describe That, there is no example, no words for your description.

So, we take a second rate example, which is a lake of clear water, where the sun shines. The sun is shining everywhere, but the reflection of the sun is only in the clear water—not on the rocks, not on the trees—to be seen by a human being. I am not giving the example to the lake water, nor do I say that you are the sunshine’s reflection. I am speaking to a human being who sees that the lake water is lake water, even before sun began to shine. And the reflection is a reflection of the sun, which is not the water. But when the water moves the reflection moves. It means the reflection and the water became one and the same mixture, which Aatma Shakti said. Now, regarding this mixture—I said the sun was shining on your body, and your body became mixed with the sunshine. It then says, “I am this body, on which sunshine is there” though he doesn’t talk about the sunshine, he just says, “I am a body.” And on the other hand, the sunshine will say, “I am the body.” So now this has become known to you, that the water is separate and the reflection of the sun is separate. This description is about the reflection of the sun, which you still know.

But the reflection of the Self is shining in the magnaminous heart of a human being—which is bigger than the sky—and it is shining in everybody’s heart, because that is the same heart. But a human form, being born as he is, does not know that the consciousness of the Self, or the sunshine of the Self, is falling in the heart of my body and is becoming mixed with the sunshine. And it is saying that I am one with the sunshine, or one with the Self Consciousness—and consciousness, or the reflection, began to say, at that time, “I am a body,” or “I am a body lake.” This is a kind of history of the introduction of the mixture.

Now take the example of a mirror: In a mirror, your face is shining. Suppose you are the Self, and your reflection is also the Self, but it will be called the reflection of Aatma Shakti. So if the reflection of Aatma Shakti shines in the mirror, it is Aatma Shakti throughout. And the mirror says, “Oh, at this point or place, in the middle of me, I am Aatma Shakti, and I am not the mirror, as I was—pure.” Pure means even. So now, her face or reflection is gone, and Satyam’s face came. The mirror says, “I am Satyam.” The mirror does not say now, “I am Aatma Shakti.” Because whatever the reflection is, at that time, it creates the effect in the mirror, and the mirror gets that consciousness or mind and says, “I am this, Aatma Shakti.” So that “I am” is the mirror—but it is saying, “I am Aatma Shakti.” And Aatma Shakti is the reflection of the body of a rabbit—and it has got nothing to do with the mirror—but she says, over there, that “I am the mirror.”

This is a kind of situation of a human mind who says, “I am the Self.” And his intellect says, “I am the knowledge or I am the Knower.” So the Knower is reflected in the mind or intellect, and the intellect becomes the Knower—and the Knower becomes the intellect. This is where we try to communicate to you that the intellect is never the Knower; and the Knower has never been the intellect. This ignorance, or this consciousness, can be rectified by a human being—and when you’ll become 50 or 60 years old, and you’ll study, you’ll come to know, “Yeah, actually, whatever Swamiji is saying: that I’m pure, free, forever— I’m that Self—and all is my reflection. And my reflection is Me—so if my reflection is a shadow over there, because the sun is shining behind it, why should I not say, that’s my reflection?” At that time you’ll know—reflection and you are one. At that time Aatma Shakti and you, the speaker-intellect is one, and the intellect is also the reflection of That who is the pure Knower. Up to that we can say. And then we say, as the Knower, you are Knower, Pure-Free, you are. You are forever the same. If you can understand this, the job is done. If you cannot, then practice!. …

Aatma Shakti: Thank you. I’ve understood.

Swamiji: Understood? Yes. You will again forget, so again you have to check it and do it—because you have come to know. “Come to know” means “I”—the very realization, or Realized Self, came to know. But if you think that “my intellect came to know” it will again be a mistake. Then you will try to understand everything through the intellect. And that is a human being. As soon as a human being is born out of the womb, he is only a drop of the cloud. And a drop cannot say, “I am the whole cloud.” So the intellect cannot say, “I am the whole.” The intellect says, “This is all natural… The whole world is saying that I am born and the whole world is saying that I am going to die.” Only Guru is saying, “Look, you are not that who is born and you are not that who is going to die.” Then you say, “I feel I’m sick. I really feel it.” You feel it—it’s all right. Why, in the reflection, all the qualities, and all the vices and virtues are not? All the gunas are there, but you have never been these gunas—you are not even prakriti. I keep saying this because it was not your background. And I know that without knowing this, you will not realize—there’s no way. You go up to “energy”…energy is there, but why does energy, as a bird, die? And how was energy, as a bird, speaking and flying? So you came to know it’s all energy. Now you have to go a step forward to know from where the energy comes!

Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum




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