Hridaya Kshetram

The Movementless Self Alone Is: from ‘I’ thought to Pure Awareness and Supreme Love Within

13 August 2025

AMMA: The mind only knows two things; to be active or to sleep. So you are asking the mind to be quiet and meditate. Then it struggles. Its nature is these two, either active or to sleep. But you are asking something in between. Don't be active, don't sleep, be awake and meditate. It will not, it will struggle, it will fight with you.

Question: Amma, you spoke about finding and holding onto the root of the ’I thought.’ Can you explain how to do this successfully?
AMMA: Just being aware of the ‘I’ thought. The ‘movementless I’, which rises from being aware, that awareness is prior to that ‘I’ thought. That awareness is light. The ‘I’ thought rises from that awareness only. So once you are aware of the ‘I’ thought, you are already coming to the root of the ‘I’ thought. Once you come there, maybe this ‘I’ thought will struggle, it wants to get out. But hold on to it. That awareness is the root. That light is the root. You can see the struggle of the ‘I’ thought to get out and escape. But not allowing it, but holding it. There it gets destroyed.
So the rising point of that ‘I’ thought is the awareness, is the light, is the Self. Because your identity, once it is with the ‘I’ thought, it becomes difficult. So that identity makes the I’ ‘thought to survive. Whereas you are switching on your identity, something beyond it. That is awareness. The ‘I’ as a light.

Question: Amma there is a longing for love here. Is this from the mind? And is it a barrier to spiritual growth?
AMMA: We should know why we are longing for love. And where is the love? It's natural for anyone to long for love. But we should know where that love is. What is its essence? Is it deposited in someone? Or is it deposited within us? Once we experience the true love within us, you will not expect someone else's love. Because even that is an idea.
The essence of love is coming from the heart. So you are self-satisfied. You don't beg for love. Love comes to you because it's nothing other than oneself. Becoming that love is much easier than asking for it. Because even the love which comes from outside will go away one day. It's not stable. It's not consistent. Our nature is love.
That longing should be turned within to the source of the love, which is a fountain of love. So that you are totally content with what you are. The pure Shiva is love. The pure Self is love. Once you start experiencing that love, you feel like giving. Not taking. You feel like disappearing into that.
If the love is not making us disappear into that Absolute, then the love becomes a business. Giving and taking. When the love comes within, you feel like surrendering. That is what the true surrender is.
Such love will not fade away at any time. Total satisfaction. Because that is the very essence of existence. Once we touch that supreme love, this absolute, we don't even feel like coming to this world. Because it is so powerful. Long for it. For the supreme love which never fades away.

Question: I'm a bit confused about the difference between consciousness and awareness. It seems subtle, but there's a distinction?
AMMA: In its essence it is the same. How we use it and how we understand it may differ. I am aware, I am conscious. If I am conscious of something, it is not a self consciousness. It is a consciousness itself, it is a quality of consciousness. You are conscious and you are aware. Both are the same.
But that awareness and consciousness is independent. In Sanskrit we say bodham. That is much more perfect to that word. And that bodham is pure. But when we use that quality of that bodham, we say I am conscious of; and I am aware of. But that awareness is pure. So it is just the words which are switched over. Existence, consciousness, bliss. We say existence, awareness, bliss. It is all the same.
That awareness is not choosing anything. Unless and until your mind chooses. Its existence is independent. It is not localised. You are aware of everything here. But that awareness, is it only limited to one body? It limits when the mind catches it. If the mind doesn't choose anything, the awareness is not choosing anything. It is independent. It exists. It is eternal.
If you are aware of this body, this world, everything, also with the awareness you say it is the impermanent nature of us. The permanent nature of us, which is the true nature, has no death, no birth, no individual. There is nothing to choose, nothing to reject, nothing to accept. That alone exists and it doesn't know it exists. But it is not an emptiness. It is paripoornam,Tamil for completeness. Nothing more to be said.