When somebody comes and listens to Vedanta, he or she should automatically gain the knowledge “I am Existence shining as Consciousness. I was never born. I was, is and always will be free,” because that’s the only message.
If your teacher asks if you are liberated, you need to say, “I am free in spite of the worldly problems I face.”
But if you still ask your teacher when you will get liberation, the teacher may be disappointed, but will patiently repeat the teaching.
However, in the middle of life-changing problems just saying “I am liberated. I am liberated. Polly wants a cracker!” like a parrot won’t magically remove the problems.
So if the teacher asks if you are enlightened yet, you should have the courage to say, “Yes, I am ever-free unborn existence shining as whole and complete consciousness” no matter how inauthentic it feels to utter these truthful words. And inwardly you should go on steadily repeating the teaching and thinking about what it means in terms of your problems, because you have faith in the teaching and the teacher. You should repeat “I am not an object of experience. I am the experiencing subject. Consciousness is myself. I am problem free.”
Don’t claim you will only be free when your family and financial problems are solved. The knowledge of myself should be there despite any problem.
Suppose one of your spiritual friends asks “How can we get knowledge when we are surrounded by problems” or the reverse, “Self knowledge is only for people without problems.”
“Śaṅkara says that if the knowledge doesn’t come even though the Upanishads have spoken about it for several thousand, it means I am the problem.” In other words, it means I am not qualified to understand. My mind is undeveloped. I believe that duality is real and that the presence of a problem is the absence of myself. But. myself is non-dual. It is big enough to accommodate a thing and its apparent opposite.
So, please don’t blame your teacher or seek like- minded frustrated seekers to support your point of view. Instead work on yourself with the utmost dedication and wait until the simple message of Vedanta makes complete sense.
