Transformation Tools for Inner Health

11. Witnessing

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11.1 You are the witnessing consciousness

Adi Shankara¹⁶ sings beautifully in the verses Bhaja Govindam¹⁷: Within the potter’s wheel’s rotation, the pivot stands still, amidst constant motion, So too a man of perfection Is poised, although engaged in action. When you understand that you are unclutched, suddenly you realize you are like the pivot of the potter’s wheel, unmoving and untouched by the kind of pot being made, the kind of experiences being felt. Understand that you are not the movie being played. You are just the screen on which the movie is projected. The screen is never touched by the play of emotions that appears on it!

The boy sage Ashtavakra¹⁸ tells King Janaka¹⁹, Verily you are ever free You are the one seer of all and really ever free. Verily this alone is your bondage, that you see the seer as other than such. When the scene affects the seer, the problem of bondage starts. Our very being is pure.

But the moment you start thinking of yourself as someone other than the seer, the problem starts. This is the only bondage that you have. There is no other bondage.

Even when you create a shaft and suffer, remember, even this idea ‘I am creating a shaft’, is one more shaft. The shaft you created ten years ago, the shaft you created nine years ago, and the shaft you created yesterday are not connected. Connecting all these shafts is one more shaft! That’s all. When this understanding goes to a deeper level within you, it will take care of itself. Your thinking and actions will be transformed.

People ask me, ‘Tell us some way that we can always remember to not create any shafts.’ When you are trying to create that assurance, be very clear you are creating one more shaft. The moment you decide this is joy and you want this to permanently be with you, what have you done? You have started creating one more shaft. Then you are in trouble. Whether it is joy or pain, the moment you create the shaft, you are in trouble.

Adi Shankara - Enlightened master from India. Greatest exponent of the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta or nondualism, whose movement

restored glory to the declining vedic tradition and Hinduism during his period.

Bhaja Govindam - Collection of 32 (sometimes 34) devotional verses composed by enlightened master Adi Shankara. This is considered to be

the essence of Vedanta and Advaita, non duality.

Ashtavakra – An enlightened vedic sage who was born with eight crooked limbs. He is the author of the Ashtavakra Gita.

Janaka – Indian King of the kingdom of Videha with the capital of Mithila, well-known for his righteousness.