
Maharaj: How many years were you with your Guru?
Questioner: Nearly six years.
M: What was the purpose of his Jnana, Yoga, whatever it may have been?
Q: He teaches that humanity is ready to take a big step in consciousness. An era of enlightenment can be created now. Until now all the sages, saints and saviors that the world has had have been working on ideas. Ideas cannot make that change, but if a small portion of humanity raises its consciousness level through the type of meditation that he has provided, the effect will be a higher level of consciousness generally.
M: The whole consciousness is already there, so what are you going to change? How are you going to change?
Q: But it is a fact that a change in consciousness can take place in any particular form.
M: Yes, it can be changed, but it cannot remain permanent.
Q: All right, it cannot be made permanent; but is that a reason why that improvement in consciousness should not be made?
M: You can change it for the better, but who is to enjoy that?
Q: That is a very important point to clear, a difficult point, you know. We know the world is going to explode into pieces, and some people say, let it destroy itself, it is impermanent. People won’t allow that such a change in consciousness can take place now.
M: That which is spontaneous, that which has come without any reason, how are you going to stop it? Who has made this whole thing? Find out from where this talk is emanating. What is the source? The source is the little touch of “I Amness,” that pinprick which has no dimension. But just see what a manifestation it has created, how that talk is flowing out, but from where? From that little pinprick, that dimensionless touch of “I Amness.”
You are angry with me and you feel it. What will happen? You can’t kill me. I will increase, more and more, a millionfold I will increase. I am speaking from that angle. Can you destroy me? Whatever is dead, you see, is the food of this illusion, the mind. It can absorb any number of deaths. It never dies. Maya will still be there.
Q: It is astonishing to us that Maharaj doesn’t seem to have love for this “I Amness.” He seems to be somewhere else, not involved in it.
M: You mean to say that I should love that trouble? What will happen if I love that self? I will suffer more pain, or I will get more money. What’s the use of that?
Translator: Maharaj says, if you bring more and more money and give it to him, what will happen? There will be a monument—beautiful stones, decorated and worshiped. That is of no use to him.
Q: Maybe not for him, but that might be useful for somebody else.
M: It will be useful only for other human beings, that’s all.
Q: Where did Maharaj find the courage to stand completely alone?
M: Who requires courage? It is your nature. Why should I bother about this body? Just last night twenty-five thousand people died in Gujarat, in just one night. Why should I bother about this body here?
I had faith, devotion, so many things. This consciousness, this pinprick, I know its complete nature. Nothing remains, no faith, no devotion, nothing at all. Whatever I used to have in those days, all is gone.
Translator: The “I” that met his Guru and the “I” speaking now are two different levels.
Q: What is the use of the manifested world then?
M: There is no question of use or no use. That is the nature of consciousness, in which the world appears. The world has a use for one who considers himself the body. Through your senses the world appears to be real, but it is only temporary, for a short duration. It is just like a sickness, when you are feeling sick. It’s the sickness of that illusion, Maya.
Q: We are incarnated in a body; then how can we not be the body?
M: If you consider yourself to be a body, you have more to lose than to gain. If you don’t consider yourself the body, then what can you say you are?
Q: But if you cut my leg I scream.
M: Look, this also feels the pain, it is shouting also—now it is quiet! You are wrongly identifying yourself with the body. You are not that. It is for you to realize it.
Q: There are sometimes glimpses, when I don’t feel the body, and there is no time—it is timeless.
M: Right. Although most of the time you are identifying with the body, if even for a short while you feel you are not the body, that’s enough. Out of ignorance the knowledge “I Am” comes into being; and into ignorance, where it doesn’t know itself, it will dissolve again. After understanding this you can go, and whatever you do doesn't matter; it's all God’s doing. You are not the doer anymore, you never were. When the television set is burned or destroyed, will the people in the movie feel the pain and die? You have no form, no shape, you are like the sky. The vital breath which you take in—will it feel any pain when you die? It will just merge into the air again, as it was before.
But just to sit here and listen will not do. You have to meditate.