In Meditation when you are witnessing, you are, by and by, without knowing it dispelling unawareness unconsciousness. You become more and more aware. The thin layers of awareness become our companion in life. This is witnessing. We become the witness. If happiness comes, we witness it; if misery comes, we witness it and this witnessing becomes so strong that if death comes, we witness it as we witness the life. Death or life makes no difference when we become the witness, we become conscious. If we have learnt how to be a witness, there is no question of being afraid. We will be a witness in our death too.

Ego is the state of unawareness. The mind has taken possession of our whole being. It spreads like a cancer all over us, nothing is left out. The ego is the cancer of the inner, the cancer of the soul. What is needed is to move from unawareness to awareness, from outside to inside, from unconsciousness to consciousness, not from here to Himalayas but from deep slumber of this ephemeral world to permanent inner Bliss. In unawareness, we move as if drunk, not knowing who we are, not knowing where we are going, not knowing why we are going. In his holy voice, Gurudev Shri Swami Vishvas Ji recites to wake us up: -

कहाँ जा रहा है तू ऐ जाने वाले
अंधेरे हैं मन के दिया तो जला ले

O traveller! Where are you going? Engrossed in thick darkness, kindle the lamp of Meditation which will lead you to awareness from unawareness.

Our consciousness is in a deep bondage, we are chained with our diseased mind inside not outside. The walls of prison are not outside us, they exist deep in our unawareness. Ravinder Nath Tagore states in Gitanjali: -

He whom I enclose with my name is weeping in this dungeon. I am ever busy building this wall around, and as this wall goes up in to the sky day by day I lose sight of my true being in its dark shadow.

I take pride in this great wall, I plaster it with dust and sand lest a least hole should be left in this name, and for all the care I take I lose sight of my true being.

The adamantine wall living over true being is the obstinate ego, the restless mind, the diseased mind which is the cause of our unconsciousness, our misery and unawareness. We know what our shackles are but tremble to break them. Beautifully is described in Gitanjali:

Obstinate are the trammels, but my heart aches when I try to break them. Freedom is all I want, but to hope for it, I feel ashamed.

I am certain that priceless wealth is thee and that thou art my best friend, but I have not the heart to sweep away the tinsel that fills my room.

The shroud that covers me is a shroud of dust and death. I hate it, yet hug it in love.

My debts are large, my failures great, my shame secret and heavy, yet when I come to ask for my good, I quake in fear lest my prayer be granted.

How true it is that in spite of knowing that we should be the master of mind, a flame of awareness, a source of Bliss, we are leading a miserable life and we don't wish or try to come out of it. Not only that, in the words of Gurudev Shri Swami Vishvas Ji, we quake in fear lest our prayer be granted. We pay more attention to others than to ourselves. We are aware of others but unaware of ourselves. We are capable of finding faults of others than directing that search light within ourselves.

We are very wise as for as others are concerned and we are very unwise as far as we are concerned_ with our own being, our own awareness, if we witness anything that has been repressed in unconsciousness will disappear and awareness will replace your drunkenness. Witnessing is the key to awareness. Consciousness, awareness cannot be produced through chemicals. Unconsciousness can be produced through chemicals because unconsciousness is a very gross low phenomenon. Awareness is the highest peak of growth of coming home. It is not possible through chemicals. It is possible only if we become more and more aware of all what we do, of all what we think, of all that what we feel.

If we are miserable - as everybody is, it shows that we are unconscious. Misery is the shadow of mind, mind means deep sleep, mind means unconscious, and mind means darkness. If we are to be blissful, we have to go beyond mind, we have to be the master of mind and we have to be more aware, we have to seek light through meditation and we have to find the inner flame (INNER JYOTI) and we have to find inner awareness. Light represents awareness, darkness represents unawareness. Light means consciousness and darkness means unconsciousness and we are living in unawareness.

We have to move towards awareness, towards light. To be aware, to be conscious, to be true to your being, we are to be a witness to our thoughts, feelings emotions and to our mind without any evaluation, judgment and condemnation or appreciation. Just look at the mind without any involvement or interference and you will be surprised that the mind is dropped and our consciousness is the master. We are in the blissful moments of present. We are free from the future and past.

And the moment we are free from future and past, we are fully aware and present bursts in all its splendour before us, its glory is infinite, its joy is immense, its ecstasy is inexpressible.  The real fight is not there outside with others but the real fight is in with your ego and with your unconsciousness, with your unawareness. Hell is not something geographical, it is something psychological. Hell is another name for diseased mind. In Meditation, awareness springs forth and we witness our thoughts, our mind. The more we see our mind, the less we will find it. It needs unconsciousness to be there.