What is the witness state?


"But witness state is not a mental state, it is a state of a spiritual ascent where you become a witness. Best way to practice witness state is not to criticize anyone, not to criticize. I've seen people who are all the time criticizing others. They cannot criticize themselves, so they start criticizing other. So much so that they don't even see what's wrong with them. They don't even see what wrong they have done to others, because they think they have a right to criticize others, and they enjoy this criticism very well. Actually there's nothing to be criticized. You just watch and see for yourself. That's all is your right. You have no right to criticize anyone or anything. But some people think if you do not criticize, then it will go on like this and it will never stop. It's not that! Once you watch the thing yourself, only just watch. Your attention itself is enlightened now, with that enlightened attention you can just watch and stop the nonsense that is there. But we are always conscious that we are something great, and we have to do this and we have to do that. Under these circumstances what happens is that you become another problem. Because what can you do? You can't do anything. But what you can do is to watch. By watching and by just seeing things as they are, you really develop a very different state of being."

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi - 16 August 1998, extract from Shri Krishna Puja talk, Cabella, Italy.