How To Live In Total Acceptance Like Awareness

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Our true nature is completely free from attachment and resistance.

[00:00:06]Today we're going to explore a teaching from the Bhagad Gita that points very directly at this truth and it also offers us clear instructions on how to embody this truth in daily life. So today we're going to learn how to be detached or non-attached just like awareness is. I will first read out the teaching and then I will offer some words on it. Enjoy.

[00:00:36]You have the right to work but never to the fruit of work.

[00:00:42]You should never engage in action for the sake of reward.

[00:00:47]Nor should you long for inaction.

[00:00:52]Perform work in this world as a person established within himself without selfish attachments and alike in success and defeat. Neither agitated by grief nor hankering after pleasure, they live free from lust and fear and anger.

[00:01:21]Established in meditation, they are truly wise, bettered no more by selfish attachments.

[00:01:32]They are neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad. Such are the seers. When you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion alike, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end.

[00:01:54]And you live in the wisdom of the self.

[00:01:58]Use all your power to free the senses from attachment and aversion alike and live in the full wisdom of the self.

[00:02:10]Such a sage awakes to to light in the night of all creatures.

[00:02:24]This instruction is important for anyone on the spiritual path, but especially those who are pursuing the path of self inquiry.

[00:02:46]Because what is the greatest obstacle to self inquiry?

[00:02:52]A mind which is deeply attached to the world. Which can never stop thinking about the world.

[00:03:00]About the next experience to be had about the next personal quality to be fixed or perfected.

[00:03:14]Self inquiry is inwardness.

[00:03:18]A mind full of attachment and aversion is the definition of outwardness.

[00:03:29]So here we are given the instruction, use all your power to free the senses from attachment and aversion.

[00:03:42]The senses are conditioned by attachment and aversion. For example, the senses will always be attracted to that which is pleasant and averse to that which is unpleasant.

[00:04:05]Naturally, the mind also is always pursuing the pleasant and shunning or running away from avoiding, rejecting, resisting the unpleasant.

[00:04:25]The spiritual seeker his or her whole life can no longer be dictated by just chasing the pleasant and avoiding the unpleasant. The spiritual seeker has to rise above this surface level chase of life.

[00:04:54]Before we encountered the spiritual path, that was the whole purpose of our life to pursue the pleasant and try to get as far away as possible from the unpleasant.

[00:05:10]That is no longer our main drive.

[00:05:19]We are no longer to just dwell mentally forever constantly on what more pleasant experiences we can acquire, how pleasant we can make our experience.

[00:05:44]See for yourself that this keeps you outward dwelling in the realm of objects.

[00:05:55]It blocks all self-nowledge.

[00:05:59]It blocks all capacity to be as you are.

[00:06:09]It is also your greatest obstacle to meditation.

[00:06:23]On the surface level, you have to play the game of life as other people want you to play it.

[00:06:32]You're going to be expected to try to keep bettering your life, maybe to make more money or get a nice place to live or have a loving partner, have a very healthy and fit body, have many hobbies.

[00:06:57]On the surface of life, we have to play the game of betterment, of progress, of growth.

[00:07:08]But now you're also living life at a deeper level.

[00:07:13]At the core of your being, what you truly prioritize, what you truly care about while you are playing the game of betterment.

[00:07:27]personal betterment, worldly betterment.

[00:07:33]We must hold no attachment.

[00:07:41]We must harbor no aversion, nor resistance.

[00:07:55]Please see before you encountered the these teachings when good things happened to you, you you loved it and that's what you want more and more and more of. It's natural. It's very natural as a person.

[00:08:11]You want good things to happen to you.

[00:08:13]You want to be healthy. You want to be rich. You want to be loved. You want to be this and that. All the good things totally normal natural. We don't have to fight against our personal nature.

[00:08:31]But we have to rise above our personal nature.

[00:08:37]As the person is playing the game of betterment, you do not mind the unpleasant.

[00:08:49]To you, one experience is not better than the other.

[00:09:01]To you, success is not better than failure.

[00:09:06]Pleasure is not better than pain.

[00:09:18]Difficult life experiences are not a problem for you.

[00:09:29]These aren't things we have to wait to realize. These are things we have to practice. Only then will we ever realize them.

[00:09:45]The instruction says use all your power to practice this and that's what it will require.

[00:09:57]Seems like an easy instruction. It takes everything you have to live in this way, right?

[00:10:03]We've all felt it.

[00:10:11]This is what brings us close to God.

[00:10:14]This is what helps us to discover our oneness with God or our true nature.

[00:10:24]This is how we have to be in a world that is constantly swaying between pleasure and pain, gain and loss, success and failure.

[00:10:39]In all of these dualities, you have to be even at the core of your being.

[00:10:46]On the surface, anything can arise.

[00:10:54]And on the surface, you're playing the game of betterment.

[00:10:58]You're pursuing betterment at the depth.

[00:11:06]You have resigned your life over to God. And whatever God gives you, you accept with open arms.

[00:11:18]Even if it's a lifetime of pain, inconvenience, difficulty, whatever be the destiny of this body and mind, you are going to experience it as the self experiences it.

[00:11:50]Perfect pristine awareness.

[00:11:55]Total allowance.

[00:11:57]Not an ounce of resistance.

[00:12:13]Observe and see.

[00:12:17]Whether life is good or bad, pleasurable or painful, it matters only to the mind.

[00:12:28]Mind is running after this.

[00:12:32]It does not matter to you.

[00:12:42]Even your fears about this teaching.

[00:12:44]What will happen to my life if I start practicing this?

[00:12:48]It is a fear that belongs to the mind which is afraid of losing pleasure.

[00:12:55]It does not belong to you. You are not the mind.

[00:13:02]This path requires courage.

[00:13:10]We must have courage to walk the path in this way where everybody else in your life will be chasing pleasure and status, the next experience, the next thing to do.

[00:13:26]And you may have to play the game along with them. But at the core of your being, you are following the spiritual instruction. And you don't even have to tell people about it. You don't have to make it known. This is all what's happening within.

[00:13:57]When you move amidst the world of sense, free from attachment and aversion, there comes the peace in which all sorrows end.

[00:14:09]If you feel the truthfulness in this teaching, then practice it. Don't wait.

[00:14:16]You cannot realize these things before you practice them. We have to practice them so that the realization can open up to us.

[00:14:38]Enjoy every flavor of life.

[00:14:42]The good, the bad, the up, the the down.

[00:14:48]Good mood, bad mood, solutions, problems, health, illness, difficult people is just another flavor of life.

[00:15:24]Every worry you have, every fear you have, even when you are wronged by others, you can leave it all up to God. Give all of these to God and let God deal with them.

[00:15:45]all these worries and fears and difficult themes, people, experiences and then God will guide you.

[00:16:01]But hold no resentment, hold no resistance. Otherwise your mind will be polluted and become worldly personal and will get deeply entangled.

[00:16:18]No matter what you do from that state, there's only suffering lying around the corner.

[00:16:27]The way of of peace has been shown to us. We have been instructed now to walk the way of peace is our initiative in your work.

[00:16:53]Whatever you do, you have the right to work, but you do not have any right to the fruit of it.

[00:17:04]What you receive is entirely up to God.

[00:17:08]And God will give you what is meant for you to be had.

[00:17:20]Yes, the ego doesn't like this.

[00:17:25]It challenges the pride of the ego.

[00:17:31]That's the point.

[00:17:34]This path requires courage and ultimate humility.

[00:17:41]Humility means I am not a somebody, a someone in charge.

[00:17:52]I do not dictate circumstances.

[00:18:01]Humility means be as you are.

[00:18:07]Welcome what comes your way.

[00:18:11]Resist nothing.

[00:18:14]Brave for nothing.

[00:18:22]And again here you can see the teaching works at multiple levels. On the surface level of life, you are working for reward and you're going to have to play that game. It's not like you're going to show up to work tomorrow and tell your boss, I don't need to get paid.

[00:18:40]That's not the point of this.

[00:18:44]You're going to work for money, for betterment. You have to play that game.

[00:18:51]But inwardly, you hold no attachment to what that work, all your efforts must bring to you.

[00:19:03]Look at what all the things that mind is chasing through your work.

[00:19:12]Maybe money, status, advancement in career and personal life, maybe fame, and maybe many of those things are part of your job. So, you're going to have to play that game. But inwardly, you're completely empty of needing any of those things. happy with whatever God gives you.

[00:19:43]Your work is no longer about reward but the work itself which you do as a form of service to God.

[00:19:54]Previously the world possessed your mind.

[00:20:02]Now you are to be filled with the divine love of the divine.

[00:20:14]Everything you do is your service to the divine.

[00:20:21]And whatever the divine gives you, whether little or a lot, you welcome without attachment, without resistance, without making your home in whatever is given to you.

[00:20:43]Pleasure and pain are both transient.

[00:20:50]They do not define you.

[00:20:57]They are not to be identified with.

[00:21:03]They are meant to simply be witnessed and experienced as they are.

[00:21:17]You should never engage in action for the sake of reward. Nor should you long for inaction. So on this path, it is very tempting.

[00:21:26]If I had less things to do, I would meditate more. Maybe if I quit my job, maybe if I leave my life, if I was a monk, it would be easier. No, it wouldn't.

[00:21:39]No path is easier.

[00:21:42]The path you are on is the easiest path for you.

[00:21:46]Practice in the middle of it.

[00:21:49]You're busy. Practice in the middle of it.

[00:21:53]You have many responsibilities. Practice in the middle of it.

[00:21:58]Don't complain about your limitations.

[00:22:00]Rise above them. This path requires courage, humility, and strength.

[00:22:12]These come when we become willing to practice.

[00:22:18]These are given to us when we prioritize practice.

[00:22:26]When we are becoming full of the love of the divine.

[00:22:36]So don't long for inaction.

[00:22:38]Use action as your practice to act without attachment also takes everything out of you. It sounds simple but it will challenge the ego on every front because the ego is transactional constant. I do this, you give me that.

[00:23:05]And on the surface you'll have to play that game.

[00:23:08]But at the depth of your being, you're not engaged in it.

[00:23:28]Perform work in this world. Establish within yourself without selfish attachments alike in success and defeat.

[00:23:39]Embody this wisdom.

[00:23:45]Not just, oh yeah, it sounds good, you know, it sounds like the right way to be next time failure comes. But then when next time failure comes, just going back to your old ways, resisting, you know, fighting, wishing it wasn't you, wishing was this wasn't happening to me. Enough of that. That is weakness. And there's no room for weakness on this path.

[00:24:14]Whatever comes your way is your way to God, to self-realization, to truth.

[00:24:23]Don't be fooled.

[00:24:27]Personal misfortune also is part of the river that flows to God.

[00:24:33]Nothing to resist.

[00:24:37]Don't remember this. This wisdom only in hindsight or in anticipation in the middle of the circumstance you find yourself in. No matter how difficult.

[00:24:48]This is to be practiced.

[00:24:52]Remember yourself. Remember God.

[00:24:57]Go through that experience for God.

[00:24:59]Offering no resistance.

[00:25:12]Even your suffering.

[00:25:15]All your efforts to deal with the inconveniences and problems do it as a service to the divine expecting nothing in return.

[00:25:38]Once again, these things we find so difficult. This way of life we find so difficult because it completely goes against the ego.

[00:25:46]Being so identified with the egoic tendencies we find these things difficult even nonsensical. How can I do without expecting something in return?

[00:25:57]There you go. When you live in this way, the ego melts more powerfully than you can imagine.

[00:26:07]This path requires commitment.

[00:26:14]You cannot just dip your toes in this path, hear these talks and then you know that's it. No, this path requires total commitment.

[00:26:23]This is your life.

[00:26:36]Everything else about your life now is just the surface level activity.

[00:26:43]This love of the divine is consuming everything. This is the all important.

[00:26:48]This is the only priority at the depth of your being. Everything else is surface level play.

[00:27:34]So to conclude this I would like to just share this small teaching at the end of this chapter. It says they are forever free who renounce all selfish desires and break away from the ego cage of I, me and mine to be united with the Lord.

[00:27:58]It is true that these things do feel impractical to the mind almost like hey you are literally destroying the foundations of my entire reality the way I know how to be the way I know how to interact in the world you are literally destroying all those foundations of everything I've lived until now that's the point because we have we are standing on impermanence and that's why we are always afraid always restless always incomplete because everything we take ourselves to be and everything we claim to be real is impermanent that's why we are endlessly miserable so this divine message has arisen in our experience It is our it is a blessing but it is it so on top of that it is a privilege and at the same time a responsibility to then embody this wisdom to see the truth of it oursel so maybe some things you heard today you resonated with some things you didn't I would Say whatever you felt truthful, practice it to the fullest. As I said, this path requires total commitment. So, make it the most important thing in your life.

[00:29:34]I'm sure for um many if not all of us here, it already is.

[00:29:41]And honor that this teach that that that your life is always working on two levels. Now on the surface level you have to play the game of life you know trying to heal yourself trying to better yourself maybe trying to make more money or trying to uh provide for your family and responsibilities and maybe um you know going on vacation here and there going doing fun things on the like this is all the surface level of your life and you have to play the game of a person who's trying to advance themselves maybe or just seeking pleasant things. That's all fine. But at the depth of your being, none of it truly matters.

[00:30:26]The only thing that matters is your love of truth, your love of God, self-awareness.

[00:30:34]Be as you are.

[00:30:41]No attachment, no resistance.

[00:30:46]This is self-abidance through a different angle.

[00:30:53]I hope that you enjoyed this message.

[00:30:56]Now that you have heard it, what is required is daily practice.

[00:31:01]If you need help with your daily practice, if you need help staying consistent, if you need support, if you'd like to ask questions, join our free self-incquiry community. Over there, you can get access to my self-incquiry miniourse. You'll find other resources that will support you in your ongoing practice. Also, I post a teaching there every single morning, something that directly points you to your true nature. If you're interested, join us below. Thanks for watching today. I'll see you next time.