“Wants are like parasites – they take control of our brain, producing the hallucination that we are a self that is ‘alive’ in the past and the future, because wants do not exist in the present,” Vivek said, and CC was shocked by the uncanny coincidence of Vivek using words which he himself had just used while talking with Bogra.

“So, is this rat-racing, pendulum-swinging, hallucinating-self the ‘S’ of AIMS!” CC exclaimed.

Vivek beamed and gave a thumbs-up.

But things did not seem to click for Ishan. “How can that be? Before the coffee-break you said that the most important side-effect of liberation from memory is liberation from ‘S.’ Now you say the ‘S’ of AIMS is the ‘self.’ How can the ‘self’ be a side-effect of memory?”

“I’m also confused,” said Mukesh with a smirk. “If the enlightened person is liberated from his ‘self,’ then who enjoys the bliss of CeLiberation?”

“Good questions,” Vivek commented smilingly. “Let us first be clear about this ‘self’ that we are liberated from. You must realize that we not only have a hierarchy of needs and a hierarchy of wants, we also have a hierarchy of selves. The actual or cuckoo self ‘needs’ food and shelter in the present moment. The illusory or pendulum self ‘wants’ food and security in the illusory future.”

“I’m not very clear about these actual and illusory selves,” remarked Andrew. “Is it the physiological self, versus the psychological self? Say, body versus mind?”

“Well, there are various ways by which these two selves are referred to – as a true self and an ego self; a physical self and a conceptual self; an experiencing self and a narrative self; a self that we are and a self that our memory stitches together; a Me and an I, or what I prefer, a MeAli self and a MyIlli self,” Vivek explicated.

“Now what’s this MeAli and MyIlli?” Andrew was intrigued.

“The actual-self, with its hierarchy of actual needs, exists in actual time in the actual present moment. To get over the confusion I call it the MeAli self – the Me-Alive self – the ‘Me’ implying a self that is Being. The illusory-self, with its hierarchy of illusory ‘wants,’ exists in illusory time – a remembered past and an imagined future. I call it MyIlli – My-Illusory-I – the ‘My’ indicating the ‘possessive’ nature of the illusory I, which even professes to be the possessor of the ‘me.’ This produces a sense of duality – of one self-possessing another.”

“Wants may be an illusion, but how can a self be an illusion?” Andrew asked.

“Just as actual needs get extended into illusory wants by memory, so too the actual MeAli-self, alive in the present moment, gets extended by memory into a MyIlli self that exists nowhere in the now and here, and hence is illusory,” Vivek explained. “It is this illusory self that dies, and the actual self lives on to experience CeLiberation. The actual self that survives enlightenment is the ‘me’ self – the autonomic visceral ‘MeAli’ self. The software program creating the ‘phantom’ illusory ‘MyIlli’ self gets uninstalled, and probably cannot be re-installed because the recall-replay mechanism of memory is deactivated.”

CC realized how the loss of self that occurs in enlightenment differs from the loss of self that occurs after a head-injury. After an accident memory storage can be lost and one wonders, ‘Who am I?’  But the one who is asking, ‘Who am I?’ is the Illusory-self’ that has lost its data about itself. Such loss of memory is merely data loss, and the mechanism for data recording is still intact and it soon accumulates new data – a new I. The Liberation from memory in enlightenment is not liberation from data, but liberation from the process that records data, so that the ‘I’ can never again come alive.”

“Even if I agree that this self is an illusion, how can you say my soul is illusory? Every major scripture talks of the soul,” protested Mukesh. “Yesterday you said: It is not some illusory soul that has to live after death… It is our illusory self that has to die before death! The soul cannot be illusory, and as per the cosmic laws, the soul cannot be destroyed.”

“What Law? Which authority has laid down this law?” Vivek asked gently, but Mukesh continued without pause, for he did not want to be challenged or contradicted. “The soul or individual consciousness or atman, reflects the cosmic consciousness or paramatman. It is bound by the law of karma and continues its journey from one birth to another towards final liberation when the individual consciousness will merge back into the cosmic consciousness.”

“Who has told you such stories? And why do you want to believe in them?” Vivek responded. “Your ego ‘self’, and your immortal soul are both illusory – one, a fictional character constructed by memory; the other a fiction created by that fictional character to overcome the fear of death through self-deception.”

“Well, I’m not sure about the soul, but I’m not an illusion – I’m for real, man!” said Sid, standing up and thumping his chest. “Why should I want to cook-up a story about myself? It doesn’t make sense!”

“Listen Sid, we don’t deliberately cook up a story. The ‘fiction’ that we are is not a want, nor a need, but a by-product of memory. As brains evolved, mankind developed a better memory that became capable of recording and recalling more and more events. When these accumulated events get recalled as a storyline, the concept of time forms. Then, as our brains evolved and we developed the prefrontal cortex, rationality develops and man now starts ‘needing’ a reason for the events that occurred, and thus the storyline ‘develops’ a plot,” Vivek explained.

“Is a ‘plot’ different from a ‘storyline?’ Sid asked.

“A storyline is just a timeline – a chronological record of events, but a plot is a causal sequence of ‘why’ the events happened, that was necessitated by the development of rationality. But with increased memory, the plot gets extended into a script. Overabundance of memory provides a playground on which rationality creates imagination by extending the past into the future – giving birth to illusory time and an illusory world, and the plot gets extended into a script, with an imaginary hero-self enacting the script,” answered Vivek.

“The illusory self is a story we tell ourselves about our self, but at the same time, it arises from a two-way dialogue with the mirror-of-relationship which is the world. In this mirror, the self we project is the story that we tell others after wearing different masks, depending on the role we are playing – as child, spouse, friend, professional or whatever. The world reflects it back as the story that others tell us about who we are – the labels that they fix on us. We end up becoming an illusory self that is a mixture of who we are, who we tell others we are, and who others tell us that we are! Our final self-image depends on which source we give more importance to.”

“This illusory self with its illusory attachments and insecurities exists in illusory memory and illusory time and considers itself as my illusory ‘I’ or MyIlli – the ‘possessor’ not only of the hopes and desires, of hurts and guilt, of schemes and plans, and of all the illusory wants that exist in its illusory memory, but also considers itself as the possessor of its own self, and becomes the voice in the head. Just as a want is the constant presence of a ‘need’ that resides in memory, so an illusory self is the constant recall and replay of events and imagination of the future giving rise to guilt and tensions, regrets and sorrows, hopes, ambitions and the incessant ‘cortical chatter’ in our heads.” “You see, man lives in two worlds, but he can live in only one at a time, and with the passage of time he has come to live more in the illusory than in the actual world, more in the past and future memory than in the actual present,” Nutsy commented. Vivek professed. “Man is perhaps the only creature on the planet that inhabits two worlds – the actual world in the eternal present, a world that we can share with all things and animals, inhabited by MeAli, and an illusory world of the projected future, ‘possessed’ by MyIlli – a world in which no other creature can enter.”

“Well, that’s because the cuckoo sleeps whereas the pendulum always keeps swinging! When a need is fulfilled, the actual self, the cuckoo disappears, and one can be in self-forgetfulness; but the illusory-self, to keep its illusory existence alive, constantly ‘needs’ to keep the wants alive – the pendulum, is ever in action, proclaiming itself to be the hero of the story! It even raises its head in sleep – when you dream! And like every other illusory ‘want,’ there is no satiation of the hero’s ‘wants.’ The ego, which is the mask that the ‘I’ wears, develops complexes, seeks justice for its hurts, and seeks a ‘special’ meaning for its existence,” said Vivek.

‘Is this special meaning the self-actualization mentioned at the peak of the pyramid?’ wondered CC.

“But I do not consider myself illusory,” Sid repeated.

“Ah, that’s because your illusory MyIlli self believes that it is actual by experiences its emotions, feelings and sensations through your actual MeAli self, and so feels ‘alive’ and not illusory,” Vivek clarified.

Vivek laughed. “Now who is this ‘I’ that proclaims that it is possessing its body? It’s your illusory self, your MyIlli! The illusory-self that resides in some brain neurons, uses the actual visceral-self that resides in each cell of the body, to create the illusory impression that it is alive. To experience itself as alive, it uses the body’s autonomic nervous system to arouse reactions in the body, producing visceral ‘psychosomatic’ responses,” Vivek continued with his reasoning.

“How can that be? Am I a parasite possessing my own body? My body belongs to me,” Sid argued.

The need for survival triggers the actual self’s hierarchy of needs – for food, safety, belongingness and creativity, but it is the fear of mortality that triggers the illusory-self’s hierarchy of wants – for attachment, insecurity, memory and a more secure self. Only when one is liberated from the illusory self that there is no longer any fear of mortality; and one is liberated from AIMS. And this leads to the experience of immortality and bliss. The actual self experiences that so long as even a single blade of grass exists, so long as even a grain of sand exists, then it too exists, for it is That.

“Well, this masked hero does not give up so easily. Memory gives birth to imagination; imagination gives birth to a future; and the future predicts the death of the body as end of story. Now the scared little hero that had been using the body to feel alive, and has been hiding behind a mask, does not want to die with the body. The illusory self fears death, not because it is the end of the body but because it negates a happy ending of the plot that constitutes the illusory self. It makes the storyline, and the efforts and achievements that it accumulates, appear meaningless. So, it tries various tricks to prove that it is immortal and merely possesses the ‘body’ for a brief period of time. The memory and imagination which give birth to it and predict its death, are used by the masked hero to cook up a story of being an immortal soul that can live beyond the death of the body, and MyIlli conveniently detaches itself from the body and begins to consider itself as the immortal soul that can survive the death of MeAli!” Vivek characterized the masked hero.

“A story within a story! The immortal soul is even more fictional than the hero who was cooking up the story of having a soul. Well, your explanation sounds plausible,” said Sid, ignoring his mother’s angry glares.

“Do the DoDo,” hissed CoCo Master Sri Ghantali Maharaj.

“No, DoDo, no Susana, O Suusaaanaa,” said Nutsy loudly, “There is serious discussion going on here,” he said, and the CosConners, who were half out of their seats, settled back.

“Now, to give credence to its own cooked-up ‘soul,’ the hero needs to make that fiction appear true to itself,” said Vivek. “A lie big enough, repeated often enough, especially by people we trust, like parents and teachers, is easily accepted as the truth. And so, to make this story of the immortal soul within a story of an illusory self appear real, man gets together to form society and religion that serve as ‘ego booster’ and ‘anxiety buffer.’ Society strokes the masked hero’s ego by recognizing and rewarding its achievements, with the ultimate reward of remembering it after death. The religious books and priests are presented as authorities on matters of the ‘immortal soul’ and ‘death’ and given importance as unquestionable and sacred ‘guardians of the lie.’ They are given the authority to feed the insecure, masked hero with stories of heaven and hell, to strengthen belief in the immortal soul, and then promise to book a seat for the soul in heaven. And so, the hero rides on the back of the immortal soul and flies away to heaven to be reborn and begin a new story, or reside forever in heaven or hell,” stated Vivek with a laugh. “Our self is an incomplete story that tries to complete itself in an afterlife!”

The illusory self does not like its machinations being exposed, and hence the illusory selves that were ‘listening’ to Vivek’s words were already in denial and in resistance mode, for the sake of their survival.

 “The soul IS real and it is immortal,” Guru Gyan Dass proclaimed vehemently.

“The soul is indestructible and does not die. The CosConners promise rebirth through SusAn Samadhi,” Kishore insisted.

“It’s just wishful thinking,” said Vivek gently.

“Even you refer to immortality, Mr. Enlightened,” Mukesh addressed Vivek in a challenging tone.

“I talk of the actual experience of immortality, not the illusory concept of an immortal soul,” corrected Vivek. “One does not need to believe in an immortal soul in order to experience immortality. Rather, the illusory hero needs to be courageous and rational enough to reject the comforting idea of an immortal soul, before it can confront its mortality.”

“The fiction of an immortal soul is very dangerous. Nearly all of mankind’s disasters—war, famine, oppression, social injustice, environmental pollution, extinction of species—arose from the delusional belief of the illusory self that we have a ‘soul’ that has an existence independent of the world we live in.

“Now, as the brain evolves, man needs not just the narrative about the past, he also needs to know ‘Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?’ He needs to locate himself within his own history and construct a ‘rational and coherent’ story to explain how he came to be who he is today,” said Vivek. “When the illusory hero encounters Mr. Logic, it realizes that the stories of the immortal soul, and of worldly success that it has been fed upon by religion and society, is a patent lie. But only few have the courage to honestly accept the truth and act upon it. The adolescents do react against the sham of society and religion but most of them again fall back into the system… the stream gets drowned and lost in the stagnant wayside pool. The courageous little hero who rebels and drops the crutches now stares death in the face and quakes in his little boots. Physical death does not frighten, but the resultant meaninglessness frightens. The courageous hero develops an existential crisis as it realizes the absurdity of its ‘soulless’ situation.”

‘What absurdity?’ asked Sandy.

‘Isn’t it absurd – this cycle of our birth, education, occupation, marriage, children, and death – with our children again repeating the cycle,” said Matt. “When the illusory self wakes up to the stupidity of society and religion, it feels alienated – an outsider – lost, wondering what madness it has met.”

“This is the first step in the quest for the meaning of life, when you realize the absurdity of life and wonder whether you are mad, or the whole world is crazy except you,” Matt expressed. “I am not running away from the absurdity by joining an organization that thrives on the tale of the immortal soul. I do not seek escape from the absurdity. My response to absurdity is my revolt. I rebel against the absurdity by seeking coherence and clarity.”

“Atheist or believer, everyone believes that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves to it. Being one with that would provide us a meaning of life and a morality. So my seeking a meaning of life is not wrong,” said Andrew. “Would liberation from self lead to liberation from the desperate search for meaning of life?” asked Andrew. “It’s the illusory-self that wants a meaningful plot with a happy ending, isn’t it! The actual self doesn’t need any abstract meaning in order to lead a meaningful life!”

“So, when one is liberated from the masked hero in enlightenment, one is also liberated from the absurdity and the rebellion,” said CoCo Ma Anandi, grudgingly acknowledging Vivek’s words. “All that Vivek is saying sounds very coherent and logical, but how do we know that it is not another story. How do you know all this about the self?” she asked.

“Well, sometimes it is easier to realize the ‘presence’ of something by its ‘absence!’” said Vivek with a chuckle. “The one who has lost his illusory-self can know what all it was doing when it was masquerading as the actual self. Philosophers, psychologists, sociologists and religious scholars, have asked through the ages, ‘What is the self?’ And then they get confused, for they are not able to define the self. But I asked, ‘What is the self that dies when we experience enlightenment?’”

“Yes, this makes the question more precise,” said Nutsy. “All that dies in the experience of enlightenment is the illusory-self; all that survives is the actual self! There have been vast tomes written about the self by philosophers, psychologists, sociologists and religious scholars, but their problem is that they themselves are not sure what ‘self’ they are talking about. Vivek has devised a litmus test to distinguish between the actual self and the illusory self. All that dies in the experience of enlightenment is the illusory-self and its side-effects; all that survives is the actual self.”

“Once liberated, there is no recall and replay of memory and no further scripting of the illusory self. The story and the plot end. All AIMS end. All duality ends. All karma ends. Only the actual self and the functional memory remain. Now one goes with the flow, living ever in the Now, with no boundary between self and not-self! The illusory ‘hero’ gives way to the true ‘zero’ self that is liberated from all Attachment, Insecurity, Memory, and illusory self. This Zero self is the self that experiences the nothingness of CeLiberation.”

“But let’s not go away with any wrong notions. After the death of my illusory hero ego self, I’m not without fear – I can still experience fear, but I have no feeling of insecurity! I can feel joy, without creating any attachment! And I can experience pain but without creating any memory of it!” Aruna elaborated. 

 “Before we conclude, let us discuss the other side-effects of Liberation from self,” Vivek suggested.

“Obviously, we are liberated from all AIMS – from all attachment, insecurity, memory and the self,” said Hannah with a chuckle.

“After Liberation from self, we are without shoes and without sight,” said Nutsy with a chuckle. “But why no shoes? And no eyes?” asked Sharika, intrigued.

“Ha, Ha! Nutsy means we become barefoot – for only then we can step into the other person’s shoes! Now we are able to see things from the other person’s perspective, for we have no personal ‘stands’ or ‘feelings’ of our own and we can empathise fully with the other! And being barefoot, our feet are sensitive to the path on which we walk,” answered Vivek. “And as for becoming blind, well, one is not able to ‘see’ any difference between himself and everything else. There are no distinctions, no boundaries,” elaborated Vivek amidst twitters of laughter.

“Well, liberation from self leads to liberation from all grumbles – low, high and meta-grumbles and one reaches the state of no grumbles,” said Neeraj.

“Not only no-grumbles; it’s a liberation from the grumbling self itself. Mr grumbler is no more,” corrected Matt.

“There is liberation from time,” ventured Matt. “As you said a while ago, we are ever in the Now – ever in the present moment. The illusory ‘I’ exists only in past or future, never in present. The amness, the isness and suchness is in the eternal now.”

“There is also liberation from ageing,” Nutsy stated, casting a meaningful glance at Ma Anandi. “The old ‘self’ with its storyline and plot is dead and gone, the new-born Self is ever born anew at every moment, and the mystic is always childlike.”

“With the liberation from the illusory self, one is liberated from all boundaries, external and internal. The illusory-self not only creates dividing boundaries between self and non-self, but also fragmenting boundaries within one’s own self – boundaries between what we are and what we want to be, between what we accept and what we don’t accept about our own selves,” Matt elucidated. “So, when boundaries dissolve, one becomes an integrated, indivisible individual and experiences yon-duality?”

“Why not call it oneness – being with the one god?” asked Andrew.

 “There is a vast difference between being one, being non-dual, and yon-duality,” explained Vivek. “The one, the singular, needs to pass through the experience of duality, so that it can become aware. The aware child is non-dual for it does not feel itself to be separate from what it is aware of. An adult experiences duality. You can never become one again, after you have passed through the experience of duality. But you can go beyond duality and become yon-dual! The mystic goes ‘beyond’ that state to experience yon-duality. A child may be said to be in a state of bliss of non-dualness, but cannot be said to be enlightened, for it is not aware of its blissful non-dual state. Only after experiencing the distress of dualness can one appreciate the bliss of yon-dualness. The enlightened mystic, on experiencing yon-dualness, again becomes like a child, but now this childlike mystic is aware of his treasure.”

“So god is one, the world is dual, the child lives in a state of non-duality, the adult lives in duality and the mystic goes to the state of yon-duality,” summarized Vivek.

“It’s a wonderful word – non-duality or A-dwait,” said Ishan.

“Before we proceed, can you please clarify what exactly you mean by duality?” asked Sid. “Am I in duality because I feel I am separate from you?”

“Separation is not dualness if my separate presence is just your ‘subjective’ experience. But when your ‘I’ considers itself as an observer and the other as the observed ‘object,’ then this ‘objective’ knowledge creates dualness, for now there is a separate ‘objective’ observer. Observation without the ‘I’ carves out the observed from the background to create a ‘subjective’ experience. But when the ‘I’ further separates the observer from the observation and observed, then it creates ‘objective’ knowledge and the experience of duality.

“An ‘I’ eye-view,” said Nutsy, drawing a capital ‘I’ in the air.

“Now what’s this? I’ve heard of bird’s eye view or worm’s eye view, but what is an ‘I’ eye view?”

“Tell me, what do you see when I ask you to imagine yourself walking towards the AoOa?”

“I’m seeing myself walking on the garden path towards the Academy entrance. I see the façade of the academy…”

“But where are you seeing yourself from? And who is seeing whom?”

“It’s as if “I’ is watching ‘me.’ I’m seeing myself going towards the academy from somewhere high enough to observe myself within the scene… and I also feel as if I’m hovering above or floating in space, watching myself.

‘That’s the ‘I’ eye view! This is where the Ego is. This is the view whenever you try to memory recall yourself in some situation. The memory carries the ‘I’ that sees! And this I creates the duality, for this ‘I’ separates itself from the observation and the observed.”

“We experience duality on two levels – the judgemental duality of good and bad, and the relational duality of I and not-I.”

“But is the world actually dual? Or is duality just a way of thinking?”

“When I am That, you are That, all this is That, then there’s nothing but That! The universe, according to Advaita philosophy, does not simply come from Brahman, it is nirgun Brahman or Absolute truth,” said Prashant. “But this ever-changing universe, which appears separate from That, is then a Relative Truth which we experience every day when we are awake. And then there is an illusory or mistaken truth – a reality based on imagination alone, like a rope in the dark mistaken for a snake,” explained Prashant. “And on top of all this, the ‘I’ itself is an illusion! All this sounded quite bookish, till I got it!” he said with a chuckle.

“Enlightenment is nothing but the realization of the truth of all this. Insight, satori, illumination, or enlightenment is nothing but the realization of the illusory nature of the ‘I,’ with a permanent loss of attachment to a separate sense of self. It is the personal realization that ultimate reality is yondual, and this psychological state is labelled as religious or mystical experience.

To be in samsara is to see things as real and to interact with them accordingly. To be in nirvana, is to see those things as they truly are – virtual and illusory. After enlightenment, you don’t step into a different world, you simply see the same world differently!

“So, any other side-effects of liberation from Self?”

“One is liberated from all definitions,” claimed Matt, then immediately tried to explain what he meant. “Definitions define – and any definition is a limitation, a boundary. If I define myself as a man, a physicist, a Buddy of AoOa, then more than telling what I am, I am telling all that I am not! Definitions define and limit and are needed by the illusory self to create its self-image, its mask.”

“There is liberation from death! One experiences immortality, for the mortality fearing ‘I’ is already dead! Now there is no death-fearing I, only Thee. Man lives in an I-Thou relationship. When the dividing self is gone, merged with the universal, then there is no fear of death, for there is no one left to die, nothing to possess, nothing to lose, nothing to recall and replay, and everything to love,” Matt concluded.

Sid was jumping in his seat, his hand raised to get Vivek’s attention. “Another side-effect is that we become better lovers,” he said, “When there is no ‘I,’ then only the beloved exists.”

CC agreed. ‘One name is enough,’ he muttered as he thought of Abhilasha.

CC realized that it was not two different ways of relating to a person – as I-It and I-Thou! There were two different CC’s, two different selves, relating in their own individual ways. The I of I-It is different from the I of I-Thou. The I of I-It was the illusory self. The I of I-Thou was one’s whole being – one’s actual self! The I-It relationship arises from and strengthens the illusory self that lives in the head. It is the I-Thou relationship that makes one meet one’s actual self residing in the whole being. Love is the easiest and the most wonderful way of liberation from the illusory self and experiencing CeLiberation.

“So, the illusory hero self justifies its birth by its death! The birth of the masked hero leads to the experience of duality which triggers the quest for non duality. The birth of the masked hero also spawns the fear of mortality, and this too triggers the quest for meaning and primes one for the experience of immortality. But this bliss of immortality is available only to the one who doesn’t deceive himself with the fairy tales of immortal souls, and rebirth and karma and what not.”

“So, friends, as we conclude the last talk and proceed towards the closing ceremony of the JoliFest, can anyone summarize what a person, suffering from the side-effects of liberation from AIMS would be like?”

“He would be like you,” said Sharika with a laugh, and looking at the points she had been noting on her smartphone screen said, “He would always be in a holiday mood, enjoying his work, liberated from the clockwork life, empty-handed, with no fear of loss. He would be ever-fresh, never bored, alert, adventurous, always experimenting with new, exotic things. He is not governed by any rule book. He would not do the catwalk, but would always be natural, frank, jovial, spiritual, caring, with no religious hangovers, no fear of god.

“His relationships would be with no strings attached, no prejudices, no wants, no grumbles, no dishonesty, liberated from fear of mortality, he lives the enlightened life, full of unconditional love, peace, and bliss,” Sharika said.

“You’ve not listed all the hundred side-effects of liberation from AIMS,” joked Vivek as the screens switched off and the talk ended.

“Following the talks of the past two days, you must have realized that CeLiberation is a good bargain with a hundred wonderful side-effects – or at least ninety-nine positive side-effects and only one negative side-effect.”

“What negative effect?” asked Guru Gyan Dass, surprised.

“Well, you won’t be able to enjoy a drink after the experience of CeLiberation!” Nutsy claimed with a chuckle.

“Why not! I do enjoy my daily glass of wine,” said CoCo Master Sri Ghantali Maharaj.

 “I have nothing against drinks, but after CeLiberation you would be on such a permanent high that alcohol will reduce your intoxication,” Nutsy said. “But jokes apart, those who attended the talks to get some how-to instructions must have been disappointed, for Vivek prescribes no technique, no meditation, no shortcuts. He doesn’t even project himself as a guru, nor does he encourage you to find one! Those who truly seek the truth, would not need a guru; and those who seek for a need, no true guru would need them.”

“To put it in a Nut(sy)shell, ‘Be a True seeker, and be a Truth seeker!’ That’s my take-home message,” said Nutsy. “Be satisfied with nothing less than the Truth. Do not be reassured by false answers.”

“Well Andrew, CeLiberation is a package deal! And Attachment, Insecurity, Memory and the Self are all interconnected,” Nutsy replied.

“I would take this opportunity to invite all of you to CosCon, to attend our Re-Lease course which we hold every month in the secure and loving environment of our welcoming family. Here we teach you how to detach yourself from attachment to physical, mental and emotional possessions one by one,” said Ghantali Baba haughtily.

“But I’m talking of complete liberation from AIMS, not merely lowering them,” corrected Nutsy. “Would you like to get rid of a poisonous plant by being ever vigilant and cutting off its branches one by one as they keep regrowing, or would you like to uproot it permanently?” asked Nutsy. “Look here,” he said, writing the word ‘CLAIMS’ with the laser pen. The word showed up on the top of the screens. He wrote another ‘CLAIMS’ under it. Then he prefixed a C to the top Claims and suffixed a S after the Claims written below, to make the words CCLAIMS and CLAIMSS.

“My dears, there are ‘CCLAIMS’ and ‘CLAIMSS’ about seeking enlightenment, and we must understand the difference between the two,” said Nutsy with a smile. “Many scriptures give the example of a chariot, which is our body, that is pulled by 5 untamed horses, which represent our senses. The senses need to be continuously reined in by the mind in order to constantly lower our attachment, insecurity, memory and ego-self. This I call CLAIMSS – the ‘Continuous Lowering of Attachment, Insecurity, Memory, illusory-Self and even our actual Self,’” he said, pointing towards each letter. “Most preachers encourage us to constantly lower our Attachments by practising renunciation and celibacy; to keep lowering our Insecurities by burying them under the comforter of ‘Trust in God’; to suppressing the ‘record and recall’ of Memory by practising to forgive and forget; and to constantly subdue the ‘illusory’ self by encouraging us to work without craving for the fruit of action and also telling us that we have no ‘free will’ and are bound by karma or destiny.”

“What’s wrong with all this?” Guru Gyan Dass asked. “You have mentioned about the lowering of AIMS. What about the second S?”

“It is appalling that some preachers and gurus even try to weaken the ‘actual’ Self by encouraging the person to turn a blind eye to awe-inspiring beauty of nature and to steel his heart against grand emotions like love, to turn a deaf ear to melodious music, to shut the mind against the intellectual beauty of pure logic,” explained Nutsy.

“CeLiberation is an all-or-none phenomena, and any below-threshold activity, any partial lowering is as good as nothing – merely satisfied by the feeling that they are doing something. Continuous lowering is just a feel-good exercise leading nowhere. It is merely the illusory-self playing games with its own self, creating the illusion of progress.”

“So, striving for Complete Liberation through the practice of the continuous lowering is a myth?” Andrew posed.

“That’s because it is the MyIlli self which is trying to lower the attachment and insecurity of a self which it believes that it possesses, and in this process the illusory, egoistic ‘self’ thrives. It is easier for the illusory-self to terrorize the actual-self and try to make it do fasting and abstain from sex and other pleasures, rather than diminish its own illusory presence. In fact, it bolsters its own ‘ego’ by gloating over its ability to control the needs of the actual-self rather than the illusory self giving up its ‘wants.’”

“Yes! People are easily misled to torture their body by fasting and exposing it to uncomfortable cold or heat or pain in the mistaken belief that this would help them ‘control’ their ‘evil’ body which is sinful merely because it needs to fulfil its bodily requirements of food and sex, of comfort and shelter. People are also encouraged to cut off their relationships with others, in the mistaken belief that remaining aloof is liberation from attachment… they do not understand the difference between needs and wants,” lamented Sid.

The CosConners were looking self-conscious and uncomfortable, but Nutsy was not trying to mock their practices, he was just enumerating the facts.

“Religions and gurus that entangle us by placing us on this endless treadmill of continuous lowering are not deliberately trapping us. They are merely ignorant of the fact that the illusory-self is playing games with its own self.”

“But AIMS arise from the illusory-self. How can the illusory-self try to control its own self? It is like asking the thief to catch himself by masquerading as the policeman!” commented Sharika, surprised.

“Remember, the ‘hero’ self is very good at self-deception. But you cannot suffocate yourself by pressing your own throat. That is why your efforts to continuously lower AIMS not only fail, but rather make the illusory self more fragmented and in conflict within itself. But it puts the blame of fragmentation on the actual self and tries to suppress it more,” explained Nutsy.

 “CeLiberation as a package deal – an experience of Completion with Complete Liberation from Attachment, Insecurity, Memory and Self,” he explained, pointing to each letter of CCLAIMS. You have to be liberated from the illusory self. It is the whole illusory-self that dies, not one part killing the other. In that split second when the illusory-self dies, attachment, insecurity, memory all die – and they die immediately and completely. No time and effort is required in playing the self-defeating game of continuous lowering. Then there is no need and no effort required to control the actual-self. We continue to function perfectly, but there is no centre or ‘I’ now. All uncertainty and expectancy are gone, all thoughts and wants quietened! You function naturally and normally, without accepting any ‘imposed’ guilt,” he said. 

“If you get liberation from all AIMS then what after CeLiberation?”

“Get liberated first,” said Vivek with a laugh. “Those of you who are interested in experiencing enlightenment can participate in the Yearn Quest starting tomorrow. The earnest seekers may please attend the meeting in the Hall of Receiving at seven P.M. tonight, to know The Yearn question.

“What’s the prize for the one who wins the challenge?”

Vivek smiled. “The answer experienced would be reward enough for the winner! He will be liberated from all AIMS and will celebrate the Bliss, Immortality and Completion. He would not even look at any other rewards. Nevertheless, if you still insist, the winner will get a free one-month package for five to the Soaring Spirit, Daring Dive resort and a Lifetime membership to the Roots section of the AoOa, and to the Club for One This offer applies to all guests and to all Buddies of AoOa.”