Hridaya Kshetram

The Screen Behind the Movie: The Focus on the Self Alone

1 September 2025

Question: I would like you to talk, if possible, about the transitory nature of life, the transitory nature of every moment, and the beauty that is hidden inside this transience.
AMMA: Whatever appears on the curtain (screen), which is moving, the eternal consciousness has not moved anywhere. All the stories which appear, all the forms which appear, move on. Whether it is a small story or a great big story, it moves on. But something which is not moving, the base of this movie, is eternal. Without that base, no movie can be projected. Yet, the curtain is ever pure. It has not entered into this movie at all.
So the screen of awareness, the screen of consciousness, on that, all this is a movie which is appearing and disappearing. You see, in different forms and names and stories, what is transitory, whatever moves, it changes, it doesn't stay, no stability. What is beauty? Beauty is of the screen or the movie? You have to decide.
Question: It can also be the other way around. Like yesterday, I was walking up Arunachala, I saw the beauty of the moment and the consciousness expands in the beauty. I feel the same when I see your presence today.
AMMA: What is its beauty? Where does that beauty come from? From your own Self. It's beautiful as long as we don't forget the screen.

Question: How do you manage to always look at the screen?
AMMA: Be the screen. Experience the beauty, expansion, all that is in it. How to look at the screen? Don't look at the movie. If you go on looking at the movie, you will not see the screen.

Question: Does the Guru have the power to stop the desire or to kill the desire to look at the movie?
AMMA: You should ask Guru. What we call as Guru is the screen. It shines ever. There is no question of power in it. That is the ultimate power.