Questioner: There are very interesting books written by apparently very
competent people, in which the illusoriness of the world is denied (though not
its transitoriness). According to them, there exists a hierarchy of beings,
from the lowest to the highest; on each level the complexity of the organism
enables and reflects the depth, breadth and intensity of consciousness,
without any visible or knowable culmination. One law supreme rules throughout:
evolution of forms for the growth and enrichment of consciousness and
manifestation of its infinite potentialities.
Maharaj: This may or may not be so. Even if it is, it is only so from the
mind’s point of view, but In fact the entire universe (mahadakash) exists only
in consciousness (chidakash), while I have my stand in the Absolute
(paramakash). In pure being consciousness arises; in consciousness the world
appears and disappears. All there is is me, all there is is mine. Before all
beginnings, after all endings -- I am. All has its being in me, in the ‘I am’,
that shines in every living being. Even not- being is unthinkable without me.
Whatever happens, I must be there to witness it.
Q: Why do you deny being to the world?
M: I do not negate the world. I see it as appearing in consciousness, which
is the totality of the known in the immensity of the unknown. What begins
and ends is mere appearance. The world can be said to appear, but not to be.
The appearance may last very long on some scale of time, and be very short
on another, but ultimately it comes to the same. Whatever is time bound is
momentary and has no reality.
Q: Surely, you see the actual world as it surrounds you. You seem to behave
quite normally!
M: That is how it appears to you. What in your case occupies the entire
field of consciousness, is a mere speck in mine. The world lasts, but for a
moment. It is your memory that makes you think that the world continues.
Myself, I don't live by memory. I see the world as it is, a momentary
appearance in consciousness.
Q: In your consciousness?
M: All idea of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, even of ‘I am’ is in consciousness.
Q: Is then your ‘absolute being’ (paramakash) un-consciousness?
M: The idea of un-consciousness exists in consciousness only.
Q: Then, how do you know you are in the supreme state?
M: Because I am in it. It is the only natural state.
Q: Can you describe it?
M: Only by negation, as uncaused, independent, unrelated, undivided,
uncomposed, unshakable, unquestionable, unreachable by effort. Every
positive definition is from memory and, therefore, inapplicable. And yet my
state is supremely actual and, therefore, possible, realisable,
attainable.
Q: Are you not immersed timelessly in an abstraction?
M: Abstraction is mental and verbal and disappears in sleep, or swoon; it
reappears in time; I am in my own state (swarupa) timelessly in the now.
Past and future are in mind only -- I am now.
Q: The world too is now.
M: Which world?
Q: The world around us.
M: It is your world you have in mind, not mine. What do you know of me, when
even my talk with you is in your world only? You have no reason to believe
that my world is identical with yours. My world is real, true, as it is
perceived, while yours appears and disappears, according to the state of
your mind. Your world is something alien, and you are afraid of it. My world
is myself. I am at home.
Q: If you are the world, how can you be conscious of it? Is not the subject
of consciousness different from its object?
M: Consciousness and the world appear and disappear together, hence they are
two aspects of the same state.
Q: In sleep I am not, and the world continues.
M: How do you know?
Q: On waking up I come to know. My memory tells me.
M: Memory is in the mind. The mind continues in sleep.
Q: It is partly in abeyance.
M: But its world picture is not affected. As long as the mind is there, your
body and your world are there. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed
within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of
memory.
Q: So is yours?
M: Oh no. I live in a world of realities, while yours is of imagination.
Your world is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody
can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think
your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your
ever-changing dream, which you take for life. My world is an open world,
common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is community, insight,
love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality -- in the
individual. All are one and the One is all.
Q: Is your world full of things and people as is mine?
M: No, it is full of myself.
Q: But do you see and hear as we do?
M: Yes, l appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just
happens, as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine
looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry
about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just
happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes wrong.
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