Chapter 6 You Are Free To Fly!🔗

Beloved Master,

I can't begin to thank You enough for showering so much of love on me. But I often feel that I am not worthy enough. Am I worthy of so much?

Be very clear: there is nothing called worthy or unworthy. These thoughts are simply an expression of passive ego – the inferior ego. Just understand that the master is a river; he flows and offers himself choicelessly to the people he encounters in his flow. How much you want to receive is up to you. The master's energy is limitless. It is your decision as to how much you want to take from him.

The master is like an endless ocean. It is completely your choice to decide how deep you want to go. The master's waves are always trying to pull you in deeper, but it is up to you whether you want to resist it or go along with it. The choice is yours. But whatever you do, the Master will not say a word. He will only allow you to do what you decide.

One more thing: to love the Master is an opportunity which not everyone gets. You see, love arises out of a deep feeling of oneness and gratitude. Love has nothing to do with beauty or outward appearance. It is an emotion that happens unconditionally.

So what you must understand is that you are worthy and everyone is. In fact you are worthy of much, much more than you are already receiving.

But how much love you get is up to you. It all depends on how receptive you are.

Beloved Master,

All this time that I have been with You in the ashram, I always did as I was told. But now, it feels like it is all up to me. But who am I to know what to do?

Actually, everyone wants to be relieved of all responsibilities. It is very natural. But the moment the responsibility is gone, we tend to feel uncomfortable.

On the other hand, there are people who are more than willing to take responsibility. This is because they are at the same time taking away your freedom. And this is what everyone is mad about: power. When you take responsibility upon yourself, you are at the same time taking freedom away from others.

But here in the ashram, things are different. No one will dictate you. Initially, when you come, you are bound to do as you are told. This is bound to happen because you are still new to the whole atmosphere. You don't know the ropes yet. But over time, when you become accustomed to the way things work, it is completely natural to start listening to yourself and abiding by your own rules.

This can work either for you or against you. It is perfectly alright to have enough freedom for yourself; in fact it is necessary. But this is all to a limit. There should be certain guidelines to follow. I don't even want to say rules, because they are not rules. Rules are only for people who don't know how to choose wisely. But here you have a choice. That is why I say guidelines and not rules. There are just enough guidelines to live in a blissful way. And all these guidelines are simply made with the same motive - to live happily. There is no other reason for the instructions that are given to you.

And I tell you honestly: the easiest way to live in freedom is to follow these few guidelines.

Just look into your lives. When you have many rules, you feel bound, you simply want to escape. But when you finally do escape, you feel even more bound. The problem here is that you have so much freedom that you don't know how to handle it.

This is why in the ashram, if I want to teach any of them a lesson, I simply give them freedom! There is nothing more that I need to do. It is the best punishment! When I relieve them of all of their guidelines, initially, they will be so thankful to me. Only after a couple of days, the fellow will understand what he has gotten himself into! If freedom is given to a person who is not ready, it will be just a torture.

But let you be clear: freedom is not a bad thing; in fact it is a beautiful thing. If freedom is happening on its own, it is beautiful. This is the way it should happen. But if you are forcing freedom upon yourself, it is just suppressing your responsibilities. This is not the way it should happen.

Allow freedom to happen on its own accord; only then will it be an amazing experience. And when I say amazing, I mean amazing! It will throw you out of your mind…into no-mind!

Yes.

Beloved Master,

I have a small doubt. You said that we are reborn every moment. But then another time You said that we die every moment. So now, I am wondering: am I dying or being reborn?

You are both dying and being reborn, at the same time, all the time. Both are happening simultaneously. Each new moment comes, and then in less than a second, it becomes the past. And what is the past? It is nothing more than death. Each moment goes on bringing the future. And what is the future? It is nothing more than life. In between the past and future, there is a small gap called the present. This is the transition point where both life and death meet.

You may have asked this question thinking that I will give you a very simple reply. No, it is a question that deals with your very existence. It has to do with what is happening to you every moment of your life.

We are both dying and being reborn every moment. But we are unaware of what is happening within us. It happens all the time. We are unaware of the life force entering our body, as well as the life force leaving our body. Just see how unaware we are! It is a major transition; it only looks small. This is why we fail to notice it.

We are never actually in our bodies. We are always outside of ourselves. We pay attention to everything in the external world, but never take the time to look within ourselves. If you are at your center for even a single moment, you will notice this rebirth. To notice this will change your whole perspective of life. You will no longer see death as something far away from you. You will see death as right here; happening right now. And the very fear will disappear for you because it is happening all the time. And you can't call it death as you know it anymore!

Death is not death as you know it; it is just the life force which leaves your body. You start looking for a different body to express yourself. And this is what your so-called death is. Death has actually always been coming, but just because the life force did not leave you, you continued to live. To tell you honestly, you are reborn with every breath; you exhale death and inhale life.

Actually, if you see, your inhalation is very full, very alive. You do it fully, without holding back. But just see your exhalation. It is very shallow - too shallow. It is not done as a total exhalation. When you inhale, you become fresh and alive; ready to move around. When you exhale, you become completely relaxed. You become quiet and still. It is death - nothing more.

Just try this. Inhale once, fully. Now, exhale totally.

You will notice that there is no holding back for you when it comes to inhalation. But you held back when you exhaled. This is because of the fear of death. Exhaling means death; it is death. It is relaxing into Existence.

It is like this: when you inhale, you are active; it is like you are preparing your bed. But when you exhale, you finally sleep in your bed.

The problem is that your mind cannot handle relaxation. It begins to feel uncomfortable. It will not allow you to sleep on this bed of yours! It always wants to be engaged in some activity or the other. But you go on making all possible excuses like, 'I'm so fed up! I need a vacation!'

Nonsense! And what vacation will you have? You don't even know how to relax, and you want a vacation? In your so-called vacation, what will you do? You will sit and worry there also! So what is the use of going to some beach and worrying? You might as well sit in the house and enjoy your worrying!

And this is always happening. You don't know how to relax. This is why there is such a huge suppression of death, of exhalation. The only reason is that we don't know how to relax.

Now you will ask, 'How to relax?'

Simply become aware. That's all! Become aware of every breath. Watch every exhalation and every inhalation. Don't miss even a single part of your breath.

Awareness brings in clarity. And worrying comes only when there is no clarity.

So with awareness, clarity comes; and with clarity, relaxation happens. Only when you have fully relaxed, complete exhalation will happen to you. I am not saying that the life force will stop. No! You will be completely balanced, that's all.

When this balance is there, you will be energetic and healthy, as well as relaxed and passive. You will be lively about things and at the same time be untouched by whatever happens. This is the way to be.

Yes.

Beloved Master,

I always think that I know. But I have come to find out that I don't know. I don't know anything. And even though I understand this, I still feel as if I know. Can You please give me an explanation for this?

There is actually no need to fall into a state such as I don't know. There are two things: either you know or you don't know. If you know, it is perfectly alright; if you don't know, then it is even better! But why are you sitting and unnecessarily worrying and simply creating problems for yourself thinking that you know or you don't know?

If you do know, be happy with that. Live happily. And if you don't know, then be happy with that also.

Even if you are not clear about whether you know or not, it does not matter. After all, whether you know or not is not the problem. When you don't know, you have the desire to know; when you know, you have the desire to feel as if you don't know! Either way, the desire will be there. So what can be done?

You must drop the very urge, the very craving to reach the state of knowing or not knowing. How to drop it? Be in between both of these states, that's all. Find a balance. You should know and the same time, not know. Now you will be wondering how to do this!

Do not think, 'I know a lot, but I think I know too much. I wish that I didn't know.' And at the same time, you should not think, 'I don't know anything, I wish that I knew. But in a way it is good that I don't know...'

These types of thoughts will be running through your head, is it not? So what I am telling you to do is to be in-between the two. Then automatically both will drop and it won't matter anymore. You will simply be spontaneous, that's all.

Simply be. Be in the moment. You should know, but don't know at the same time. And if the effort is made, the balance has to come.

It will come.

Yes.