Pragyan Maharaj Lecture 1

 When external things, people, objects and situations are perceived as the cause of bondage, our efforts are directed towards changing them, making them more favorable. And what does this favorable mean? It means in alignment with my desires and wishes and wants, in accord with my interior. 

But then comes a point, when you realize that even when the externality is in accord with your internality, with your desires and wishes etc, you are still not free. So the cause of bondage was not the external situation, but the internal demand that perceived and judged the external as favorable or unfavorable. 

Now the course of action changes. Now your efforts are not directed in changing your exterior anymore. But now, you are working to change your interior. 

But that does not mean you start adjusting your interior to match whatever exterior that you find yourself in. 

But it means, you no more insist on matching the external with internal, knowing fully well, that the internal also is changing and even if one internal demand is fulfilled, its not satisfied, it shifts to some other demand. In fact, fulfilling one desire makes you aware of ten different desires that are crying for fulfilment. So this is an endless game and this is an already lost battle. 

So the next step comes when you start to inquire into the nature and cause of these desires. And then you discover that they originate from a deeper sense of lack of identity within you. A deep sense of void, a deep sense of emptiness and inadequacy. The feeling of having lost something precious is constantly nagging me. And I also discover that, i am running away from it. I am trying to avoid it, trying to avoid looking into the face of it. And instead am trying to find a solution that has already proved to be a failure. 

And when I realize this, when I relaize that my running away from this void is giving more power to this void, i stop running away. And turn towards it. This turning away from exterior and turning inwards is the most important step in our spiritual awakening.

 

And when you thus muster your courage and look into and inquire into the nature of this void, into its reality, to your own amazement, you realize that it was never empty. It was your idea of exteriority , your lens of materiality through which you were looking, that was finding it empty and devoid of substance. But in fact it was always full. It was *Poorna*. 

And *Thou art That.*