Only One – In Gita Verse 10.37 Of the descendants of Vṛṣṇi I am Vāsudeva, and of the Pāṇḍavas I am Arjuna. Of the sages I am Vyāsa, and among great thinkers I am Uśanā.
Krishna says if anyone wants to see me, look inside yourself. To Arjuna he says that if you want to see me in Pandava then look inside of you. Don’t search me outside of you. Whoever has gone inside of themselves like Vyāsa or Uśanā, they found me.
Going in simply means The One Observer of All.
“You are the one observer of all, and in reality always free.”
The individual is the observer, not the observed.
There are three types of people. Those who have become objects to be seen, performers – they are in the deepest darkness…. Second are those who have become spectators. They are a little better than the first, but there is not much difference. Third are those who have become the observer. It is good to understand these three distinctly.
When you become – the observed, you become a thing; you have lost your soul. It is difficult to find a soul in a political leader. It is difficult to find a soul in an actor. He has become an object to be seen, he lives to be an object to be seen. His whole effort is to impress people: how to look good, how to look beautiful, how to look the best. It is not an effort to be the best, but an effort to appear the best. One who becomes – the observed becomes a hypocrite. He covers his face with a mask. He presents a good outward show but is rotting inside.
Second are those who have become spectators. They are a vast crowd. Naturally the first type of people needs the second type; otherwise, how can people become performers? Someone becomes a politician; he gets a crowd to clap for him. There is great harmony between them. A leader needs followers. If someone is dancing, spectators are needed. If someone sings, listeners are needed; hence some busy themselves as performers and some remain spectators. Spectators are the vast crowd.
Ashtavakra says man’s nature is to be a seer, an observer; it is neither to be a performer nor a spectator.
Never confuse these two again. Many times people make this mistake: they think they have become the observer when they have become a spectator. There is a very fundamental distinction between these two words. The dictionary may not show the difference. For dictionary spectator and observer may have the same meaning. But in the dictionary of life there is a great difference.
A spectator is one whose eyes are on others. And the observer is one whose eyes are on himself.
When the eyes are on the object you are a spectator, when the eyes are on the seer you are an observer. It is a revolutionary distinction, very fundamental. When your eyes stop on the object and you forget yourself, then you are a spectator. When all objects of vision have departed, when you, and only you, are there – only awakening remains, only alertness remains – then you are an observer.
When you are a spectator, you become completely oblivious. You forget yourself completely; your attention gets stuck there. You go to the movies and for three hours you forget yourself, you don’t even remember who you are. You forget all worries and anxieties. This is why crowds rush there. There is so much worry, anxiety, trouble in living – a method of forgetting is needed. People become completely one-pointed. Only in the movies is their total attention focused. They see… actually there is nothing on the screen, just shadows go on flickering, but people are all paying attention. They forget their illness, their anxieties, their old age, and even if death comes they will forget that.
But remember, you have not become an observer in the theater; you have become a spectator.
You have forgotten yourself; you have no memory of who you are. You have lost all memory of the energy of seeing which is within you. You have stopped at the object in front of you, you are totally drowned in it.
To be a spectator is a kind of self-forgetting. And to be an observer means now all objects of observation have disappeared. The screen is empty, now no film moves on it. No thoughts remain, no words remain; the screen becomes absolutely empty, blank and shining, white. Nothing left to see, only the seer remains. And now you take a plunge into the seer. You become the observer.
Krishna says putting aside these two, putting aside this duality and plunging into the observer, one finds that there is only one. This full moon is only one, and that is Me. In these pools, puddles, ponds, lakes it looked numerous. They were separate mirrors, so there seemed to be many moons.
There is no other here. The other does not exist.
Whoever is, is unique.
Here one is. But this will not be understood until you have caught hold of that one within you.
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