More and more questions coming:
Q: Perhaps my question is too personal, but I am curious whether you have attained Self-realization.
A: I have been asked that question several times in the past. If I answer “No”, the person might think: “If that is true, how is it possible for him to be teaching a method to attain spiritual enlightenment here in this blog? He is a liar!” And if I answer “Yes”, the person would probably think that I am a liar too because… “He lacks humbleness! A Self-realized person would never say that!” So, what should I answer then? This is puzzling, isn’t it? Hehe.
In my eyes, the entire question about Self-realization is just divine Moronism. I knew that only when I attained Self-realization and not before. So, if I have to give an answer to your question, I gave it already. It would be impossible for me to deal with the entire subject about Self-realization by only relying on scriptures or teachings coming from others or mere deduction. I need personal experience to accomplish the difficult mission of teaching people how to get rid of their divine Moronism, hahahahaha. I laugh because Self-realization is a monumental Joke played on the Self by the Self Himself. Or you can call it: His Play. Whatever the name, it is a huge tribute to His divine Madness. In this world there are many spiritual communities devoted to realizing the Self one way or the other. But all of them are like mental hospitals to me. All those people, except the spiritual teachers (unless they are false guru-s), are crazy individuals who intensely strive to realize that they are the Self. In my eyes, in the eyes of the Self turned into a spiritual teacher, all that is absolute craziness, and I am not joking… or maybe I am Joking divinely, hahaha. And in the eyes of the Absolute Self, all that is Him, I have no doubt about it. So, every time I play the role of spiritual teacher (e.g. right now in this blog), I see crazy people around, but when I am not teaching I can return to my real nature again, which is extremely Blissful. As a result, in order to be a spiritual teacher I need to go a little crazy so as to see people in bondage who need my help. Can you follow me?
Q: ¿Could you expand your explanation, because it looks insteresting?
I will perfectly clarify the topic for you by an example. Suppose that you are a guy called John A. (name is not relevant in this example, obviously). But on day, for some strange reason, you begin thinking that you are Napoleon. It is something insane, but here you have it: “I am Napoleon”, you say the whole day. If you are unlucky, you will be on the loose on the streets, but if you are fortunate, you will be taken to a mental hospital to have your mental health restored. In this example, John A. would be the Self (one’s own real identity), while Napoleon is the limited individual (the Self gone crazy). In turn, if this mad limited individual is not taken to a mental hospital, he is at large (along with the rest of Napoleon’s, of course) and lives a “Napoleonic” life for some years till he dies. So, an ordinary person is a limited individual who is at large, viz. he has not been taken to the mental hospital yet. And the mental hospital is the spiritual community where he will be taught that he is not really Napoleon, but John A., hahahahaha. I am speaking the truth despite my laughing. That is why I told you that when I have to assume the role of spiritual teacher, all those spiritual communities look like mental hospitals to me. There, in the spiritual communities, all those fortunate Napoleon’s will be hopefully cured of his mental disease someday. Meanwhile they are known as spiritual aspirants, i.e. patients of the mental hospital, hahahaha. I cannot stop laughing because the matter of the Self striving for years in order to realize Himself is just hilarious.
Coming back to my example, when you are John A. and you know it, there is no effort to be John A. because it is your nature. The question about effort appears when you start to think you are Napoleon, do you understand? So, if you are fortunate enough to find a good psychiatrist (a spiritual teacher), he will try to cure your insanity by and first will listen to your story about your Napoleonic life. One day you will tell him that you are so glad because you won the battle of Austerlitz, but the next day you will tell him that you are so depressed because you were defeated at Waterloo… and you will also tell him all about your affair with Josephine, haha. All these dumb dialogues between you and your psychiatrist will continue for long and he will write everything down. One day, he will tell you that he is convinced that you are Napoleon but, in the meantime, you could start repeating the following phrase: “I am John A.” From then on you will begin to repeat “I am John A.” for years. Similarly, a spiritual teacher has to hear all about the Napoleonic lives of his disciples for a long time till one day he can give them a mantra. The mantra tacitly or directly indicates that “You are the Self”. Can you get it? Of course, this is the general process because sometimes the spiritual teacher can give the disciple a mantra from the very start.
That psychiatrist also gives you medicine which will affect your mind somehow. In the same way, a spiritual guru will give you rituals to perform, techniques for meditating on the Self in a better way, etc. All this treatment would not be necessary at all if you could realize that you are the Self and that is it, but as that is generally not possible right away, you have to continue to take pills, repeat “I am John A.” and the like for a long time. After many years, you are cured enough as to be sent home again. No, you are not yet completely free from the Napoleon syndrome but there are clear signs that your mental health has improved significantly. On the spiritual path, this is called the transitioning stage when you are about to be promoted from the middle category to the advanced one. Such aspirant looks for isolation and calmness. Why? Because contact with other Napoleons reaffirms his disease. In ordinary life there is a great deal of Napoleons. In a spiritual community, there are also people with Napoleon syndrome at its height… yes, it would be a kind of a spiritual Napoleon, but it is the same craziness except that it had turned into spiritual insanity. All those people are a distraction to our aspirant and disturb his treatment.
When you are discharged from mental hospital, you come back home. Sooner or later you discover your identity card telling that you are… John A.! You are in awe! The psychiatrist was right after all because you are really John A. This is the stage when you abandon your interest in human guru-s (the psychiatrists) and become increasingly interested in the scriptures (your identity card in the example). After some time of reading more documents that affirm that you are actually John A. and not Napoleon, you suddenly get fully cured of your mental ailment. In spirituality, that moment is Self-realization and comes in the advanced stage after reading one or several scriptures which state that you are the Self. After you finally realize that you are John A. and not Napoleon, the game is over… but, as there are so many Napoleon’s at large in the streets and in mental hospitals, you have to keep that to yourself for the most part. So, you will know for sure that you are John A. but you will keep playing the role of Napoleon.
In spirituality, a Self-realized person will continue his life as usual, i.e. he will retain his external individuality while inside he will enjoy his true identity as the Self. Some of these enlightened people will play the role of spiritual teachers, which is never good news to them, trust me. Apparently, being surrounded by disciples that praise their spiritual teacher is a great thing, but that is not true. A spiritual teacher has to come down a little from his state of the Self in order to see spiritual aspirants in need of his help. This means that the spiritual teacher will have to accept a little insanity for the time it takes to play that role. If he goes up to his natural state as the Self, he stops seeing disciples because he sees them as the Self, as Himself. For this reason, he must keep himself in the arena of craziness in order to help other people. This is something that is not fully understood till the moment one gets Self-realization. Before Self-realization, being a spiritual teacher looks like a delight, but after Self-realization it just looks like a mission to be accomplished. There is no delight in that because who will be delighted by going crazy, even slightly?
Q: Is there a shortcut to avoid the mental hospital and to quickly realize that one is not this limited individual but the Self?
A: In theory, there is nothing preventing you from realizing your own Self at all, because you are Him day and night. Anyway, in practice, He (i.e. You) makes the decision of going crazy and it generally takes a lot of time to recover His lost nature, which, paradoxically, is constantly here as Himself. All your problems are not related to the Self but always related to the “limited individual” (Napoleon in the example). You can apply yourself to solve one problem after another, but this is also crazy because there is no end to it as new problems constantly come up. The real solution is Self-realization because you get rid of your false identity which is the source of all problems. Even if problems persist, they affect the limited individual but not Yourself. In this sense, a Self-realized person seems to be affected by so many things but really remains unaffected by them all.
In my own case, it took 27 years to get full Self-realization, that’s how crazy I used to be. Apparently, the more years it takes, the prouder one should be because he had been meditating for so long and is such an experienced aspirant, etc. However, the longer Self-realization takes you, the crazier you used to be, hahaha. People who are very proud because they have been in spirituality for decades and still haven’t attained Self-realization are only exhibiting their absolute foolishness and not their wisdom. Wise people get Self-realization in a short time. Yes, this is rarely seen in this world due to the very low quality of aspirants, but it is completely possible though. All in all, to spend 27 years repeating “I am the Self” in order to realize what I was, am and always will be, is absolute insanity to say the least. Anyway, here you have it: my spiritual path, hahaha. I laugh because all this is a huge divine Joke!
Some aspirants will even need several lifetimes in order to realize that they are the Self, which just increases the dimension of His Joke. The Power of the Self is the root-cause of all this confusion and the mother of all these Napoleons, both the ones at large in the streets and those in mental hospitals called spiritual communities. That is why I always affirm that the Power of the Self is the real Doer and not the limited individual. This Power brought this craziness called bondage, and through His Grace (i.e. Your Grace), this Power will sweep it away in the end. There is never Grace being bestowed by an external factor despite I use the word “the Self” in the third person. It is always about Your own Grace bestowal, i.e. You bestow Grace on Yourself. There is no external Lord bestowing Grace upon you. If you do not think so, you are still suffering from the Napoleon syndrome. All this confusion is constant and makes this world what it is. An endless number of limited individuals are born and die. For the time they live, they strongly believe that they are limited individuals, but then they are gone. All these limited individuals that are alive now will be dead sooner or later. Before their birth, they were the Self and after their death they will be the Self. It is only in the middle that they are the Self who looks like somebody else. This is the greatest Joke ever!
Q: So, in your example, a Self-realized person is a person who has finally understood that he is John A. and not Napoleon.
A: That’s right! When one thinks he is Napoleon, there is tension. Why? Because it is not his essential nature but a false role. That person will have to make intense efforts to keep Napoleon alive. If you cannot see this in your own life, you can see it all around. Look at all those people constantly doing their utmost to keep their Napoleons up and running. For example, if their Napoleons are insulted, they get so upset. The more effort they make to keep their Napoleons functioning, the more they suffer. All that effort involves tension and lack of real Happiness. Why? Because Napoleon (a.k.a. the limited individual) is a mere invention of the Power of the Self and not their real essential nature. That is why the Self cannot be attained by any effort: He is one’s own essential nature and not something fictitious or artificial like the limited individual. After Self-realization there is no effort at all in order to keep the Self as one’s identity because He is naturally so. This was taught by the great sage Patañjali too in his Yogasūtra-s IV.25.
Paradoxically, spiritual aspirants are making effort to replace their false identity with their true one. All this is completely absurd and crazy, but His Play (i.e. Your Play) is like that. If those aspirants were really intelligent, they would realize the Self instantly because they are always Him. Unfortunately, they are not very intelligent for the most part and the divine Joke continues.
In my own case, Gabriel is my personal Napoleon. I am not including my spiritual name, because that name was given to me by one of my ‘psychiatrists’, in order to remind me that I am the Self and not Gabriel. When I started with my crazy nonexistent spiritual path (because the Self is always the Self and never evolves), I was told by that ‘psychiatrist’ (spiritual teacher) the following: “When you attain spiritual enlightenment, you will be the same person you are now”. That was intriguing to me, because at that time I imagined that Self-realization meant a complete change in myself. I continued to harbor that fantasy for many years after having received such instructions. But, after Self-realization I continued being the same Self as always. There was no change in Myself because I am completely immutable in the truest sense of word. Since I am constantly a dense mass of Freedom and Bliss, how can I change even a little bit? The changes happened to Gabriel, i.e. to Napoleon, but this is irrelevant and nobody cares.
At the moment of Self-realization one finally understands that this Napoleon and his respective problems never affect the Self, He is never affected by anything at all. The State of the Self is so Amazing and Full that everything else is eclipsed by His Light. There is no return to the previous condition of limitation except for when you are playing the role of spiritual teacher and consequently you need to come down a little from that State in order to see disciples in bondage. In this sense, guruhood is certainly alienation or craziness assumed at will by a Self-realized person. Instead of staying delighted by his own essential nature as the Self forever, that person has to go a little crazy and renounce this Delight in order to help other people that, surprisingly, still cannot get that they are the omnipresent Self replete with Freedom and Bliss. Nobody wants to be in the shoes of a spiritual teacher then, except for a person who is still suffering from the Napoleon syndrome.
Q: Who decides that a Self-realized person will become a spiritual teacher?
A: The Self does. There is no limited individual making any decision regarding this matter. If Guru is not active in guru, the latter will be useless. As Guru is the Self in Grace mode, if He does not assume this condition of Guruhood, no human guru will be effective. I have already explained the entire process of Guru emerging in guru. When one feels that Guru emerges that way, one knows for sure that he is a spiritual teacher. In this sense all guru-s are always Self-proclaimed. I said that because some people surely think that a guru should be proclaimed by his own guru, but as both are the very Self, it is always Self-proclamation because there is never “another”. If those people think that “another” is needed to be a guru, they are still suffering from the Napoleon syndrome because they are mistaking guru for a physical body. Guru is the Self in Grace mode and not a mere human being. In this sense, if you become a genuine spiritual guru, you only need Guru active in you and not for some other human being to announce that you are a guru.
Yes, there are self-proclaimed guru-s but they are false because they should be “Self-proclaimed” (“S” in uppercase). Besides, if another human guru has to tell other people that you are a guru, then what will you do if that human guru has left his body? This is my case. So, as my own guru has passed away and merged into the Self (i.e. Myself), he cannot be resurrected in order to announce that his disciple, Gabriel P., has finally become a guru. And, as this world is full of Napoleons in constant search of conquering the world, it would be difficult for me to find a real guru announcing that I am a guru. As you can see, the entire question is absurd and many teachings must be reformulated because, after all, the Self in Grace mode is the guru and not someone endowed with a human body. Since most people are completely identified with their own bodies, they mistake the human guru for the real Guru and the Joke continues.
Q: So, you feel like a guru.
A: Not the whole time, but only when I have to teach. Guruhood for me is alienation and madness because to me it is pretty obvious that all my disciples are the Self. The entire question about leading disciples to Final Liberation is completely absurd in my eyes. Anyway, I follow the rules of His Play (My Play, haha, this is a lot of fun!). There are many people who strongly feel that the Self is an omnipresent third Person. Consequently, they postulate that you and the rest are “other people” created by that Person. In my eyes, they are completely nuts to say the least, because the Truth is always non-dual and as a result there is no room for “another”. A limited individual that is always attached to his physical body and mind has no power to have divine autonomy and exist apart from His Creator. The limited individual is completely powerless, so how could he manage to exist apart from the Almighty Lord? Can you follow me? Who are all these limited individuals to exist apart from their Self? If they postulate that they exist apart from Him, that’s false and is mere arrogance. When they cannot cope with the simple task of controlling their own livers, how could they cope with the task of existing apart from the Omnipotent Self? That is a complete nonsense. However, those Napoleons thrive in this world and spread their message that the Supreme Lord is Someone Else apart from them. Their thriving in this world shows the magnitude of this cosmic Joke.
Therefore, even guruhood is felt like madness because one has to see disciples in bondage or the entire process is absolutely stupid. To do so, one needs to come down a little from the natural State of the Self and become a spiritual teacher. This is alienation in the fullest sense of word. For example, as I am writing I must remain “a little alienated” or “crazy” in order to perceive future readers of my present article. If I were to enter the State of the Self right now, my writing would stop because the readers would not exist as different from Myself. Hence, to be a spiritual teacher, a Self-realized person has to force the machinery in order to be a little different from the Self and in this way be able to teach other people in bondage. All that process feels like a journey to hell but it is necessary because my Napoleonic disciples still cannot get that they are the glorious Self. What a monumental Joke!
The Self says: “Now, let this limited individual be fully liberated!” and he is free. The Self says: “Now, let this limited individual be guru!” and he is guru then. Again, the Self says: “Now, let all these people remain as disciples in bondage!”, and all of them remain as such. As you can see, what the limited individual does or doesn’t do is completely irrelevant because what’s limited cannot control the Unlimited One. This is very difficult to swallow for a limited individual because he is very used to being “the doer” and “the one making decisions”. This is not true, because the Power of the Self is always the real Doer. But in the case of Final Liberation or bondage, this truth is even more obvious because all the efforts made by the limited individual will be to no avail if the Self decides that he will remain in bondage for eons to come. In turn, if He decides that you will become liberated right now, you, as a limited individual, will become liberated immediately. Finally, all the efforts of a limited individual as a spiritual aspirant in the form of meditation, repetition of a mantra, chanting, and the rest of practices, are only intended to kill time while the Unlimited Self decides what to do with him. Yes, this teaching kills all the spiritual egos on the planet, but it is the whole truth. If someone still doubts my words, he will realize with time that I am completely right regarding this absurd topic called “Self-realization”. When he realizes his Self, he will say: “What was I doing before?” He was suffering from the Napoleon syndrome, as I have explained.
May the Unlimited Self (the universal Joker) who has written and read this article be worshiped forever!