Innerwords Newsletter: Perspectives on the Attachment/Detachment Cycle

Why did we separate from God, our true Self, in the first place? You wanted to play. And in the process, you forgot. That caused separation. You couldn't have played the way you are playing, did play and will be playing if you were united. You created separation because you wanted to play.

Why would we choose to play? To enjoy! The intrinsic qualification of playing is to enjoy, to feel good. There is nothing wrong with enjoyment as long as you don't forget your true Self. But with limited ego created out of separation, you cannot enjoy much. That is exactly the point: you lost your joy and bliss and got to enjoyment. Joy is an abstract noun; enjoy is a verb. You had joy; now you want to en-joy. That creates separation.

God was Himself in joy and bliss and He said, "Let Me be many." He multiplied within Himself. You cannot enjoy without creating duality. You were being; now you become. Be is an abstract noun; becoming is a predicate. That is what makes creation of objectivity and that is exactly the definition of separation, unless by that coming out from your Oneness, Truth and Light, you maintain your Consciousness throughout.

Let's say there is an Enlightened being and an unconscious being and each is eating an apple. The unconscious one is enjoying the apple very much! The enlightened person may also feel good about it but is he enjoying the apple in the same way as the unconscious one? No. Why? This is the beauty of maintaining Oneness, where there is no separation. The conscious being is not getting excitement and enjoyment from the apple. He is already joyful within; he is just eating the apple. When you identify with the sensual world-the objective five senses-you lose the consciousness of the original Light or Spirit.

The Divine is everywhere, within and without, but you cannot realize this intellectually. Once you get back to your Self and see that everything is within you, including enjoyments, then the distinction of within and without will be lost. Krishna said very clearly to Arjuna, "All this is within me." It is all One. All that you are trying to gratify yourself with is coming from you. You have lost your original blissfulness. Once you realize this, you will not be starving like a pauper for sense gratification. Your life and whole consciousness will change.

Excerpted from Discovering the Joy Within Us, given by Swami Amar Jyoti in April 2000, available on CD and Audiocassette. This Satsang was published in Light of Consciousness Vol. 18 #2