The Last Step - The Complete Story

 

The

Last

Step

 

Welcome.  The last step is the first and last step.   There are no more of it.  You are done with it and have arrived.  Am already there, waiting for you all, please do come, you are most welcome.  If you really want to be where I am and where you want to be, you can.  Everybody can, no exceptions.  Everyone can if he has an inclination to be there.  There is space for all.  It can accomadate each and everyone and all can be at this place, it will never get full.  There is no place like this.  This is it.  Welcome…and come back home discover self.

The ladder of life, and the last one.

Life is a mystery.  It has to be lived, to experience it. The one who has reached can only help or guide others to make the process or the journey easier, but cannot lead anybody over there.   It is like a maze.  Everybody has to go through the process alone.  It is not a competition to win or lose.  It is not about running away from the crowd. You live amidst the crowd, but you are not part of it.  You become a witness to the crowd and self. It is to be lived to be understood.  Out of understanding you evolve.  Your way of living will be different, because you are out of the race.  You have to outlive the momentary pleasure that keeps you going thinking ahead somewhere, something at the end you will have lasting happiness.  It is a game played by a body part on you, in which, you will be left in an insatiable state.  It will never allow you to sit.  It will keep you on your toes all the time giving you an impression that you have to reach somewhere.  It is like chasing a mirage in a desert.  The way in which it leads you is a never ending game.  It itself does not know where to let alone take you there or somewhere.  It is more external than internal.  It is more extrinsic than intrinsic.  Life is balanced growth.  A journey of combination of both, a mixture of both in right proportions. 

 

Life depends on life.  Life is not independent; it is always interdependent.  It is a process in continuation.  You yourself is not enough, you have to have the other to exist.  Nature has evolved in such a way that everything is interdependent.  There is nothing which can proclaim it can without anything or nothing can without it.  Every product of nature has a role to play in all others products around it, directly or indirectly.  Nothing is unessential.  There is no superior or inferior, everything is important, the essential and nonessential.  Day is equally important as night to be.  Man is diurnal creature.  He needs the other, the night, to compensate the day.  Both are essential for his existence.

Life is possible for someone who is ready to die.  Only a fearless person can venture out in this direction full of risk of unknown.  Out of his knowing he becomes a true human being.   A rebirth.  A virtuous human being.  A righteous person, who is flexible, can take any form or shape, indefinable, indestructible, and invincible.  Nothing can alter his pure consciousness.  A being who never dreams of anything and there is nothing to dream of.  Everything is fulfilled in present, so nothing to carry forward in the subconscious mind.  There is nothing that remains unfulfilled.  He is never in the past or future, always in present with pure awareness.  He has become himself.  He has discovered his true self.  He is no more in illusion.  He is as is in his true form.  He lives life in its real terms.  A man of no belief systems.  A being living aligned with nature.  A true religious human being.  The grace sets in.  A man of true convection.  

The journey of life has to be travelled by each individual.  There is no short cut or you cannot have a substitute or follow a fixed route.  It is a pathless path.  Every individual has to create his own path.  A hint can be given by a being who has gone through the arduous journey.  He can only help someone in quest to reach the point of no return.  It is a journey where you reach the last step.  There is nothing beyond and behind, cannot retreat.  All the steps you have seen till today is the same steps you used to climb down, but the situation you are going to be in, the steps you have taken, where the moment you take the next step, the previous one disappears.  You align with the existence.  You have to undergo the difficult journey to come to a point where it is revealed to you the ultimate that there is nothing beyond, you have arrived.  

Even though you were born physically, you will have a new birth.  In one sense, it is reaching and in the other it is arrival.  An end with a new beginning.  A birth of a new individual with pure consciousness.  Simply sitting doing nothing. The existence made you come here in the first place and it takes care and it will take you back.  You were not aware when you were born, but when you depart you will be aware of it and it makes a significant difference.  You will be a witness of your life and death. You have transcended both, the cycle of birth and death.  A birth of a new human being who cannot die.  He is so powerful that nothing can alter his consciousness.  Birth was not your choice, but life can be.  It is up to you to take the risk and know what life is.

 

This last step is not something different.  You were standing on it all along, but you lacked realization.  Only through understanding you come to a realization that you are already there where you want to be or have to be.  You have a great laugh at yourself, at your absurd behavior.  You were born in heaven and you thought you had to sacrifice this precious life to reach somewhere that you do not know.  Only out of unknowing man acts in a ridiculous way.  A man of knowing does not act, he just lives, and accepts life as it come. He never judges.  He is in a let go mode.  He is innocent, never commenting on the situation, accepting in its entire totality.  The yin and yang of life.  He has reached the point of zero.  He is a more balance individual.  Nothing can upset his balance.  He has reached a point where anything more or anything less does not alter his state of consciousness.  Nothing is required.  A point of no deduction or addition.  A pure conscious individual.

 

The journey starts with a question, an enquiry, but does not end with answers, it ends with no questions.  A being who has reached has neither has answers or questions. The man of question is no more.  A pure awareness.  There are can be only questions, but no answers.  The day you have no more questions, you become an answer.  The master is an individual with no more questions, not that he knows answers to questions.   The day you are exhausted with your questions, you become aware that you have reached and found the answer.  It is neither a consolation nor an achievement.  It is a state of pure awareness, blissfulness.   A feeling of getting up from a deep slumber after many days or years of sleep.  A real awakening as if waking up for the first time.  A great dawn, where the sun rises but never sets.  A land beyond time.  He cannot be tempted or influenced.  A man of nothingness.  A man of knowing with zero knowledge.  A whole man with all the body parts in communion with no domination.  Every body part functions as it should be without interfering in one another and working as a collective system, falling into the rhythm.

 

Any product of nature has energy within with which it sustains.  Man is a bundle of energy.  When the energy is channeled in the right direction, it will have a quality of radiance and the positive one.  You become luminous.  You will start radiating the energy you posses in excess without anything in return in a let go fashion.   He is fearless and does not instill fear in anybody.  He can only give warmth and strength.  He can or cannot be doing something for a living, to have enough money to take care of day to day needs.  He is not after it, it is after him and he is not running away, like he used to.  He is not obsessive about anything.  He desires nothing.  He lives for no reason.  He cannot be categorized because he can be anything, everything, and nothing.  No categorization is possible because of his abundance of positive energy.  He flows with the rhythm of life.  He is life.  Life is, he is not.  He is never against.  He is in a trance state.  He is so intoxicated with life, he overflows.  He transmits the thing which is in abundance in him, which keeping within himself is death for him.  Any energy in excess has to be dispersed irrespective of its usefulness to things surrounding him with no regret.  It is a compulsion.   He cannot contain it, he has no capacity to.  He does not have the capacity to contain it, it has to be dispersed and that is the only way out.  He has to let go his excess energy.

For a lay man, a man of consciousness appears like a drunkard, under the influence especially of alcohol, the spirt.   He is, he is under the influence of nature.  He is so intoxicated with life that he might appear to be a drunkard.  He is so drunk with life that nothing else can give him the kick the way the life has.  The only difference is he has full control of himself, conscious of what he is doing, and anything that he does, he does it with full devotion with 100% of his involvement.  He does nothing half heartedly; his wholeness is there in all his doings.

 

Life is a maze.  It appears as if you are (when you are mature enough to) stuck somewhere from where you have to find your way out, and the right way, otherwise you will end up with a wall thinking that it is a door, the way out.  The day you realize, you will find a way out.  It is like a blind man trying to come out of a room he is not accustomed to.  Unless you have the quest, you will never take the first step to reach the last one.

 

Enlightenment, blissfulness, benediction, awareness, consciousness are all the different words to describe the feeling you go through when you have reached.  Enlightenment is your nature.  It is your default state and everyone's too.  It is not a goal.  It is not some thing to be achieved. It is not something.  In fact the something which you already have is not allowing you to be in your natural state, it acts as an obstruction.  You are already in it.  The reason why you are not aware of it is you are not conscious enough to realize it.  You live life in an unconscious way.  You are born in conscious state, but got deviated, altered in the course of time.  The route you had been lead to by your parents, teachers, friends, relatives and the society in general, which you are put up has only helped you to get farther and farther away from your source.  On the way, if you encounter it, it might feel familiar to some who has had a glimpse of it over the course of time being on this lovely place called earth and strange for many due to your crowed mind, you brush it aside, thinking that it is not your cup.  You are so involved outside that you do not want to accept your consciousness.  You are happy with your unconscious state thinking that otherwise.  If you come across someone who gives a hint about what it is, you disregard it due to lack of understanding.  It is as if explaining about light to a blind man.  He can only listen to but he can neither see or visualize it.  In fact, he will not know darkness as well.  Unless you know what light is you will not know what darkness means; same is the case with darkness or no light, unless you have known what darkness is, you will not know what light can be.  You need the other to know the present.  A contrast is needed.  Unless you know what bitterness is you will not know what sweetness means, it is vice versa.  The other is essential although, it appears to be unessential.  Both are required to know it in its totality.  If you have to know about something, you need to know what nothing is, and when you know nothing, you know everything.  It is a paradox.  Life is not logic, it is beyond, but not illogical.
     Life starts with nothing, then something gets in the way, then you realize and come back to nothing, the source.  A journey from O-to-O.  Both the zeros are same, it appears to be different, there is no difference.  Zero is zero, any number of zero amounts to zeroooooo……  Nothing is more important than something.  With nothing you have everything, with something you only have a part, you are not full, totality, the whole.  Only when you are full with all the miseries of life, something, that you move towards the other extreme, nothing, you empty yourself, you become pure again.  The fullness has got you everything, but it amounts to nothing, you feel empty.  Nothing has got you nothing, but it is everything.  If you are full, something can be added or deducted to make a difference.  But being nothing you can neither add nor deduct, because it is like a hollow pipe, nothing can be held, there is no base. 

 

Enlightenment starts with glimpses and you are pulled towards it, later on it might prevail for seconds, then minutes, then hours, then days, then months, and then it is and you are not.  It all depends on you, if you want you can be.  It starts as a desire, but ends with no desire.  It starts sprouting from a seed and takes over you.  The day you realize you are no more, you have reached, The Samadhi.  The one who started the journey is no more.  A new human being is born.  His physical appearance remains the same but he is different than what he was earlier.  A new essence has contributed to this change.  You cannot call him the same man.  He has left his past behind and emerged from the cocoon to fly into existence where he belongs to.  Nothing can restrain him.  He cannot without himself, how can he, when he is not in control of himself, a no self person.  There is no one to be restrained.  He has gone beyond and out of reach.  Whatever he does he does it in alignment with existence, he cannot be otherwise, that is the only way he can be, there is no choice.

A man of consciousness has a different quality.  Anything and everything that he does has a quality in it, a mild fragrance.  He does not have to proclaim that he has reached.  His existence itself is enough.  Like a flower blooming in wilderness attracting bees, his fragrance spreads and he creates an attraction. The people who had a glimpse of it flock knowing what it is and people who had never tasted it, will get pulled to know what it is.  He radiates what he has in abundance and there is no way he can contain it.  He is in let go mode.  He becomes the sun, the moon, and every element in existence.  He has a quality in himself.  He simply is and existence takes care.  It is not a defeat, he has accepted his reality.  He has understood his program.  He lives life as it comes.  He has accepted the nature and the nature has accepted him back to its fold.  He is ready for anything and everything.  He expects nothing.  He expects/accepts the unexpected.

If it is possible for somebody to attain to the level of consciousness called enlightenment, then everybody can, with no exception.  If he is, you too can.  It is just like groping in the dark.  Everyone comes in darkness and a light has to come or you move towards light when it comes.  Everybody is kept in darkness about the fact.  Light reveals, the truth dawns, the secret that everyone can reach a higher plane is revealed, you need not be where you are.  When the light comes into your life, the darkness is gone forever without a trace.  You become the light for yourself and everybody else.

You are not here to take credit for anything.  Everything was going on gracefully before you entered this garden of Eden, this paradise called heaven.  You created a hell here and started dreaming, projecting heaven somewhere else.  You started fabricating a thesis that only if you sacrifice this life you can go to heaven.  It is a projection of a sick mind, a corrupt mind.  An illusion created by immature being.  A statement of man whose understanding of life and life forms is zero.  A statement from a depressed and confused soul, not from a conscious being.  This is the only life, if you miss it, that is it.  If it not possible now, it is never possible in any number of life.  This life span is enough for you to understand about it and you can die with understanding, and without almost all do so.  Be finished with it now or never.   It is do or die situation.  You can die now and live instead of dying in the end like everybody else, the majorities are ignorant.

 

Time is money – whoever has coined this phrase must be sick to the core.  It is a statement from a sick mind.  He has no understanding of life and life forms.  The race started the day people took this phrase seriously and continues till today for the unfortunate ignorant.  Until then everybody were going at their own pace, never in a hurry, they had all the time in their life.  The pace of race has increased ever since.  The way in which the humanity is going seems to be like an animal fashion, where in, the life span is limited to just 10-15 years ie., dog, cat or it can be any other four legged creature.  Speeding up the process is to lose the grace.  The sheen is missing.  It is the process which is important not the end thing.  There is no perfection in nature.  Nature evolves in a continuous fashion, never disturb the setting, never disturb the alignment, everything is good as is, nothing can make it better.  In fact anything more can spoil the show.  Accept it with gratitude in its wholeness.  Do not influence it.  Do not try to change its course, you will have to face disastrous consequences, which will be irreparable, irreversible damage, and a ill-mind catastrophe.

The journey of enlightenment starts the day you take a turn from the usual treaded path.  It is always a new path.  It is an arduous journey with lot of twist and turns you encounter over the course of time, but only who is determined goes on.  Giving up in the middle of the journey is very easy, that is the first thought comes to the traveler when he undertakes it, feeling it is impossible.  The mind makes you feel it is impossible, the same which is leading to leave you in imbalanced, confused, and can lead to take your own life.  Suicide is a mind affair.  Mind gives up easily and tries to get you a feeling that there is no way out, except to eject. Because the route you had choose is against the society in which you are against all the usual practice of masses you are part of, but that is how it appears to be, because you lack insight as well as foresight.  You are on a journey to know the unknown.  There is no exact route to it.  All the existing routes have lead to more chaos then peace.  You are the lonely traveler on this pathless path.  The only risk is losing yourselves and if you are ready for it, you are on the right track.  Unless you are lost, you cannot achieve.  You are the barrier, you let go, you have arrived, in fact you are already there.   You are going against the said norms.  You feel as if you are going against a river, taking an uphill path, till such and such a time, you will realize you are with the flow of the river called life.  It is the crowd who are going against the wind, so they encounter a lot of resistance.  You are open to the natures direction, its path, never opposing it, going with the flow, and in the course of time you will come to realization that you have fallen into the rhythm.  You started with effort, push was required, forcibly you started, but gradually you sail effortlessly.  You have become one with the nature.  You have accepted yourself and your true nature.  It is coming back home.

You start the journey with questions and realization comes when there are no questions.  It is not that you have found answers to questions.  A man who has reached has no questions.  Masters have no answers to your questions, he is there to clear you, empty you of all the questions.  The answer is without questions, not answers to questions.  When you have exhausted with questions, you have reached to a point, where there are no questions.  You have reached a point of no return, a balance, zero, a pure consciousness.  The questioning mind dissolves.  First of all there are no answers, so question never arises.  It is purely illogical.  It is not for a logical mind.  It is an area of no mind.  No mind, no questions.  A peace within, a tranquility, which is ever lasting, nothing can alter it.  You have reached a no alterable state.  There is nothing to alter.  You have reached home, where you were already, you realized, you fall out of the race.

 

An enlightened being has no questions are answers, he is empty of both.  An empty boat, just drifting in the river, going where the river takes it, no resistance, in a let go fashion.  The grace sets in.  You do not have to propagate, it radiates.  It emits in whatever he does.  A person who has had a glimpse of it, a taste of, will come to know a flower has bloomed.  He gets attracted to it like bees get attracted to fragrance of flower in wilderness.  A flower attracts bees or birds onto itself by its fragrance and a reward, the nectar, so as to propagate itself, its species.  It goes on with the life process, the way it is supposed to be.  It is going perfectly well.  It was perfect before your coming.  It will be perfect after you depart unless you become an obstruction in its path try to meddle in its way, you spoil the show.

 

If your intention is for something then out of competition the consequences will be despair, greed, anguish, helplessness, weak, disoriented, not focused, confused, frustrated, discontent, angry at yourself and everybody else, uselessness, meaningless, and thought of ending of life, suicide sets in.  You come to a point where closing the chapter of life is the only possibility.  Anything which is focused outside, extrinsic, materialistic can lead to permanent dissatisfaction.     It is as if fighting with self.  A conflict within.  Only silence can calm the chaotic mind.  Out of silence comes harmony.  A unity in your being.  No split personality.  There is nothing to fight about.  You let go and live, life become more meaningful.  You will neither desire life or death.  You have transcended both.  You are beyond body and mind.  You are just a living consciousness accepting life as it comes, living life spontaneously.  Your action does not demand compensation.  You do not work for any returns.  You let go yourself to such an extent that you can be anything, everything, and nothing.  You become an answer to all questions.  You are ready for everything.   You have reached the ultimate point in life, you understood and accepted your inner being, the nature, you become the blessed one.  Your work reflects your inner being.  The difference that was there earlier has nullified.  You are one and act as one.  You live with no reason.      The reasoning mind is put to rest.  Your doing will have immense quality in it, which reflects your personality.  You do not need any credentials or recognition from anyone; you know what you are and be so.

 

What is there to worry when a person has nothing to lose as he has lost himself and there is no one to lose or gain.  He has reached zero.  A balanced individual.  He has reached his equilibrium.  The one who is supposed to lose or gain has negated himself.  There is no more him.  He is one with existence.  He has become the whole.  The river has reached the sea or the river has become the sea.  There is no distinction.  Distinction arises from the mind.  No mind, everything is as is, in its true state.

The last step is the first and last step.  You take off from it and land back.  It is one and the same.  When you come back, you are in right sense, to know where you are.  You were all the time there, it appeared as if you had gone somewhere, where you already are.

 

See you there….the last step…. do not give up… I am already there waiting for you to welcome you, to accept you back to the fold…we were never apart, we are part of the whole - we are the whole –  and will be a lot called…the blessed ones.