 Namaste, Maya. Namaskaram. I've been soaking in your teachings. Very grateful for spending these very valuable hours here. And the resonance keeps being a prominent tone for me. Besides, sometimes maybe a few small controversial statements. Yes, and I'm sure of that. There is one specific thing that I was hoping to get a little bit more clarity about. What you specifically understand when you talk about this. Which is around meditation. Especially when somebody asked about the whole contemplative traditions of Buddhism. In my understanding you said that you don't see as much usefulness in those. In my experience with meditation, what it has made possible is to step out of the autopilot, or the compulsive way of being in the world. Which very much is in my understanding ego driven. Conditioning driven. To a way of being that is way more from moment to moment in the present moment. With an open awareness. With a sharp clear scheme of all the things happening. And based on that making the most truthful decision. For example, Adya Shanti talks about true meditation. Which is more of a state of letting everything be as it is. Letting go of control. And really having this open field of moment to moment being here present. And feeling in. And this allows a thing that needs to come true. And not just in the binary yes or no, left or right. But also when for example there is tension or pain in the system. It enables for just letting this have its place. It's not putting just the focus and tension on it. But it's letting it be one thing. Which is in a way a form of surrender to it. So that is a bit about how I feel meditation has been a very powerful part in my process. And still is. And I just wanted to clarify a little bit how you see that. So whenever you take up any kind of meditation. Whether it is actually observing the thoughts. Or it is the traditional vipassana type meditations. Or it is even mantra japa. Or it is even long hours of bhajan for example. Kirtan and so on. Any kind of meditation form which takes the consciousness in a sense out of the system. Which leads you into states of dissolution of identity. Or not forms of meditation which will lead you into self realisation. That's what I say. So if the meditation is described as being present here and now. And aware of what's happening. And if that's what you call meditation then wonderful. Then that's the surrender to love meditation. It is only when the meditations because they cause distress to the system. Because for example the body has to sit in a state like this in a Padmasana for 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours. At one point the awareness leaves the system. And the practitioner experiences a sense of dissolution of identity. Which is seen as something amazing to experience. Because it is a transcendental experience. A cosmic experience. And not a terrestrial corporeal experience. Then we start to have a problem because the perceiving awareness is less and less and less in touch with this. And with the soul which is the impulsing entity of this. So that is when I say that any meditation that takes you away from this moment. Is something which is taking you away from your soul. And is therefore only causing distress to the system in the long run. So if you have a meditation that is keeping you in this moment and you are aware of her and her and her and her. And you are aware of your soul. And you are aware of discernment between the impulse of the soul and the action of the ego. Then that is the surrender to love meditation. This whole practice is that meditation. It is that practice. And therefore there is no contradiction whatsoever. It's only when you start spacing out through your meditative practices. I mean you know each one has to space out where they want to space out. You want to put on a moonsuit and take off into space. But remember that when you come back things will not have changed that much. They only transform when you transform them. With conscious awareness. So I see no contradiction actually in what you are presenting. Yeah, that helps a lot because there was a bit of this inner conflict about you know how it is when you are really resonating with someone. You want to really embrace it fully. But there are a few things where there is this inner feedback of it doesn't fully resonate with my experience. It won't resonate with your experience fully because there is something which is there, which is actually contradicting what I am saying. Which I might present to you so that you have a bit of discomfort also. I want discomfort. Well, I don't wish it on you. What I am saying is that the choice of the truth is a conscious precise choice to be made. It is not something flowy. It's not flowy. It's very precise and it's very black and white. So when this body is taking an action it is actually in surrender when it is aware, completely aware that the impulse is from the truth. So the flowiness of it is something which may not necessarily be experienced as flowiness. It can be also just surrender because when you are in surrender there is no need for flowiness and freedom and all those things because you are in surrender so you just go with it. You go with the truth though, not with what you feel is the flow. This is a difference, you know. And if a person is really a seeker and really wants to actually take up that sadhana, then that is the sadhana. So surrendering to the moment is not what this teaching is about. That is what neo-advaitha is about. Surrender to the moment, you know. And surrendering to the moment in the neo-advaitha approach is actually detaching from all that is causing suffering. Saying, I am the presence, this is the ego at play and moving along, flowing like that. That is not what is said here. It is clearly not that. So you can also look at it as something which is the next step beyond what you know already. And you can embrace it because you are also a teacher, right? You teach these things. Somewhat, yes. I am getting more into that but I am letting things show me when I will feel more and more in my effort to do that. That is all. It is about tuning in. So if you tune in, then there is no flow or anything. You tune in and the system acts from the truth. You tune in, it acts from the truth. So what is the flow and the freedom about? I am trying to actually demystify, Ayushman Bhava, I am trying to demystify this whole thing, you know. Because that going with the flow can also be the ego's way of sliding its way in and taking over again. How do you know? How do you know if it is not the ego? How does Adyashanti know that it is not the ego? How does anyone know that it is not the ego? Unless you take that discernment in hand with the Viveka Buddhi. The Viveka Buddhi is there for that. It is there to discern. And I truly feel this discernment has grown tremendously and I am also aware that it is not always there. But the flow is more the word I use for when it simply feels like the right thing and when that happens throughout the days it is not like a spacey flow. The important thing is that you are in a state of discerning. This sadhana or this practice is not about feeling and flowing it is a practice. It is like an agori sadhana. You sit there at the crematorium and you sit with that dead body through the night and you eat from a skull and you rub your body with the ashes of the dead people and you cover yourself with the cloth that covers the dead bodies only. This is a practice. This is not a feel-good sort of thing. It is not trying to be more precise. It is not a wellness initiative. It is a very clear practice and cannot be so easily undertaken and it has to be seen for what it is as a practice. And that practice is discerning between the impulse of the truth and the onslaught of the ego from moment to moment to moment acting from that. Certainly just because it is a practice does not mean that the experience is limited in its description. He might have a different experience he might have, she might have and that is the beauty of the whole spiritual journey in a sense that each one's experience is different and beautiful and suited to them but we still cannot fool ourselves that what is an impulse is an impulse and what is a conceptual feeling about something in the conceptual is something else. You quite know that. I think where the itchy scratchiness for you comes is because there is a resistance to go into that kind of discipline. You want the practice but you don't want the practice. You know what I mean? You want it but not all of it. Which is also a way to move into it. To embrace something new is not so easy. This is very, very precise. It's not mincing words, you know. It's very, very precise. It seems to be very simple because it's so precise, you know and it lacks all the embroidery of the, you know, the freedom from it all and the floatiness is not there. I don't mean your freedom, I mean the other freedom. The floatiness is not there but the floatiness doesn't have to be there because life is not a floaty thing. You have to know where you're going to put your foot or you're going to put it in that cow pat. It's a preparation for a life of coherence and presentness. It is surrender to the impulse of the soul not surrender to life not surrender to an idea. No surrender being spoken about is very precise, you know and it's very, like it's much easier to present a spirituality which floats you because everybody wants to, who wants to deal with the cow pads, you know but this is not this sadhana and this practice because in the long run the floatiness brings the suffering and in the long run this practice which is so precise literally because the entire system goes into surrender is what brings the joy. You cannot fall from surrender. You can fall from detachment. How are you supposed to fall from surrender? Where? I know that you're not practicing that detachment. Practice, I'm just bringing that in as a reminder also to those here that whenever you detach from something you can fall into the attachment but when you're in surrender to something you can't fall beyond that, you can come out of the surrender but you cannot fall into a state of depression because you've been in surrender and that is very, very important to know that especially in the light of hundreds of thousands of neo-advaithins around the world who assume that it is Advaita Vedanta when it is not and have left out completely the practice of surrender from their practices of identification and detachment without surrender no self-knowledge no self-knowledge and in that context someone like you who's really taken up various practices and followed various teachers actually and not one or two when you enter that door you've reached a place where it says surrender to the soul surrender to love means surrender to the soul it's not surrender to ideas or surrender to experiences it's surrender to the soul I feel that there has been a very useful part in the earlier stages when people's minds are incredibly compulsive and they're not even able to get to know this place which is beyond the ego and out of the pilot that their meditation is useful because this is one of the things I also invite others into I feel so truthful about that that's why you're attached to it because you invite others into it that's why I have to say it now I'm sitting on this asana if we were sitting in a cafe I wouldn't say it but I have to say it that's why you're attached to it because meditation meditation can also simply be the experience of this-ness here and now that can also be taught there are many people if you want to sit there and just be not to go into meditation doesn't have to be only detached in my experience like vipassana is all about in a way being with all the experiences and sensations that are there is not saying I'm not though it's letting those be there and felt the only way out is true so in a way it's an embrace of without saying I'm not that that is true what I've seen in these 20 years of literally thousands and thousands of people in the satsangs is that the more people go into those kinds of meditations which actually keep the body in a given state for a period of time they detach they detach from actually everything surrounding them and when they have to re-enter into life or into society or into their family or with their children in fact we've seen that a lot with children people go deeply into those meditation practices when they have to re-enter into their family lives they have great difficulties actually bearing for example the noise of children or bearing the reality of the demands that a child can place on a person who has done that kind of meditation so that is clearly then something that is taking you away from yourself and actually I've seen this in practically everyone who has done it their ability to just connect with the partner is diminished because those meditations take you away from this moment rather than bring you deeply into this moment into soul and into connect with the other of course there are exceptions but the meditation of being present here and now and feeling your soul is also something that keeps you very present it's not going to detach you in any way why would you choose the one over the other why would you choose something that takes you even slightly away from thisness and let's say from the awareness of your children and yet at the same time I feel all these practices have their place you know what I mean just because you are sitting here and may take up this practice it doesn't mean that that practice but if you take up this practice and it holds with you then teaching a practice which doesn't hold with you anymore may be a question mark just because I'm saying that this is the way to go it doesn't mean there are no other ways there are lots of ways each one has to choose what they have to choose you can be an agori baba and sit there in the smashankart if you want that's also a sadhana it's also a practice but if you're sitting on the smashankart as an agori baba then you cannot at the same moment expect to appear in a business meeting an hour later because you need time to shave you need time to cut your hair you need time to exchange your dead body's cloth for a shirt that is what I mean you know one makes these choices and then one goes with that choice in my experience this type of meditation that has arisen in the way how I experience my day to night now I'm very engaged with the distance from which spontaneous engaging happens with things around me and it seems to come from a very crude place so therefore I wanted to verify that this in a way could be connected to when you speak about surrender if you're leading people into something which is connecting them with him and him and her and her and her and him connecting them with their soul then there's nothing to worry about but if it's taking them away then you'll pay the price in terms of your karma you teach something like that you pay the price for that child whose parents are not aware of them brings up this strong curiosity when you have all these people over so many years coming which you say are the results of either neo-advaita or wrongly interpreting neo-advaita or not being ready for this yet and therefore becoming very conceptual has that led you to maybe even go into direct conversation with some of the neo-advaita teachers that you feel are bringing these people to you rather than helping them all to go directly to the source there are many neo-advaita teachers who have come to me but I don't seek a dialogue with anyone because my work is to answer the questions of people not to seek dialogues I even don't allow a dialogue in the satsang only if a person has a question then because that's my Agnya that's the command of this truth command is to answer questions it's not to be in dialogue but if someone like there are many many masters who come to me to also to resolve the very problems that they themselves have created which is fine we are all in one big boat everyone is a seeker of the truth one is trying this way, one is trying that way each way has certainly got its pitfalls also seeking a dialogue to reach a consensus is not what my work is my work is to answer questions of anybody who comes and I do that definitely I do that we've had many masters coming neo-advaita in fact it's quite interesting that you bring this up because some of them are starting to tune the teaching now more and more into surrender in the last two years I have seen that suddenly the word surrender is appearing more and more everywhere because that is what was missing from the neo-advaitan teachings because mainly it was taken up by westerners and that concept of surrender was something too demanding and so it was nicely put aside especially from the middle of the last century onward now it is being reintegrated because without that surrender there is only a fall it cannot be anything else for the seekers as well as for the masters because if the master themselves doesn't live surrender or experience it or even speak about it conceptually then or if they speak about it conceptually it is only in connection with surrender to themselves as a guru then there's a problem because the guru's work is to show the antar guru surrender to the guru is not the last surrender it is the pen ultimate surrender after which comes the final you know and that has been a bit forgotten along the way it will come back it is already reappearing in their teachings of very very well known masters also that is something very tough to build in you know takes a lot of strength to build surrender into the practice there's more of what I'm going to question so thank you so much you can always come back after this time