Why The Ego Cannot Go With You Through Spiritual Awakening

Just be true to who you are. It’s hard to be completely honest with yourself, yet this is exactly what you need to do. Forget about being enlightened, spiritual awakening or self-realization. I get too many calls like that. People call me from all over the world and tell me they have had a spiritual awakening and are now Self-realized. So now I just say, “Fine, what do you want me to do?” They want the confirmation. So I thought about printing certificates and mailing them. This is to inform you that you are now Self-realized. Congratulations!

I’ve gotten a lot of calls this past week, and you’ll see why I smile when I explain it to you. This morning I received a call from someone I have been corresponding with in Texas. And he said to me, ‘Robert, I have been reading your transcript for a month, as you said, and I am now enlightened.’ So I said, ‘That’s great. Why do you think that?” He said, “I don’t argue with my wife anymore, I feel more peaceful and I don’t care about what the world has to offer. But I have a question. What should I do now?” What can I say?

There are many people who claim that they are more enlightened than ever. It doesn’t really matter to me, but it is funny. It is interesting.

First of all, what does the word enlightenment mean? I’m not talking about a dictionary definition. What does enlightenment mean on the path of Jnana? The answer is: such a word does not exist. No one becomes enlightened. There is no body, no I, no I, there is no ego that can ever be enlightened. The word enlightenment is used by the jnani
by students.

Absolute Reality, Choiceless Consciousness, Sat-Chit-Ananda, Parabrahman – these are all words that exist only for the student to explain that there is a condition beyond the so-called norm. A state of total transcendence, and we give this a name: enlightenment.

When this actually happens or occurs in a person, the self is totally annihilated, totally annihilated. The I no longer exists, and for that being there is absolutely no one who has become enlightened. That being rests in its true nature, in nothingness, in absolute nothingness.

No one can become enlightened. No one can be liberated, because the you who thinks he can be liberated doesn’t even exist. There is no you. There is no person. There is no human being who is human one day and liberated the next. There is only the liberated Self, and you are That.

There is no you as you appear. The appearance of you that you think you are is false. This is why I say that all your problems, all your nonsense that you go through, all your worries, all your worries, all your emotions, they don’t exist. They never existed and never will exist. It’s all Maya’s game, the Leela. It does not exist. No one exists in this room. There is no you and there is no me. There is only the Self. And when the self becomes the Self, it is no longer the self. For there has never been a real self. This is why I emphasize: stop thinking. Your thoughts pull you deeper into maya, into illusion. Don’t think about enlightenment or awakening, or being liberated, or finding a teacher who can help you. You are beyond help. Nobody can do anything for you.

Actually, spiritual awakening happens this way. You begin to realize that you are not your thoughts, you are not your body, you are not your mind, you are not the world, you are not even liberated. You are nothing. If you start thinking this way, everything that needs to happen in your evolution will happen without you doing anything. If you are meant to be with a teacher, you will be with a teacher. If you are meant to be alone, you will be alone. Yet you have absolutely nothing to do with these things. Remain in the state of no-thinking. Leave the world alone. Leave people alone. Don’t come to a conclusion. Don’t judge anyone. Everything will take care of itself.

The worst thing you can ever do is look for relief, for liberation. This holds you back. It holds you back because there is a self that searches. There is an I that searches. There is a me trying to become something, and the whole idea is to remove something from your consciousness. Therefore, the process of realization is removal and not addition. Delete this and delete that. Removing all concepts and all preconceived ideas. Removing all your thoughts, no matter what type of thoughts they are. Good thoughts, bad thoughts, they all have to go. And what remains will be nothing, nothing. That’s you. You are that nothing.

Doesn’t it feel good to be nothing, instead of believing that you are thoughts, and that you are human, and that you have a job to do, and that you have a mission?

There are many spiritual people you know who think they are on a mission. They have come to save the world. They can’t even save themselves, and they want to save the world. The world will continue as it is now, without your help, for or against. Leave the world alone.

There is a power and there is a presence that I like to call THE CURRENT THAT KNOWS THE WAY, that takes care of everything. It’s all part of the great illusion. And even in this illusion that appears before your eyes, there is a presence and a power that uplifts you. It will lift you as high as you can. Until it lifts you completely out of your body, out of your thoughts, out of the universe, into a completely new dimension.

To people, it will appear that you are the same person as always, but you will no longer be that person. Because that person is gone, no longer exists. You have become Brahman. You have become all-pervading. You have become your Self without trying.

You should always have gratitude for the way you are. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Love yourself the way you are. By loving yourself as you are, you transcend the things that seem to annoy, bother, and cause you pain. They will all go. You will no longer be aware of it. Let everything go. Don’t have any wish. Dive deep into the Self. Do not react to the outside world or to your body. EVERTHING OKAY.

If you are without thoughts, without needs, without wants, without desires, then you are God. You are the universe. You are divine love. You are beautiful.