August 20, 1979


Questioner: Your philosophy starts where science ends. I have myself learned a lot in the field of medicine and elsewhere, but after reading your book I have humbled myself at your feet. Who is the one you call Atman? Who is the knower and where is he situated in the body? If there is some injury or wound to the toe, you understand it, but from where does this understanding come? From the neck to the head, there is somebody who knows. Where is that knowledge situated? 

Maharaj: It is in the Brahma-randhra [opening in the crown of the head]. Some Yogis collect all their vital breath there and steady themselves, but they do not understand the fundamental principle. 

A great man performed severe penance for a long time; in the end a vision appeared before him. The great man was very dirty, so he said to the vision, “I will clean myself and then meet you.” When the man appeared completely clean the vision ate him up. They became one, one beauty, bliss, and joy. All that you are experiencing now is what is to be discarded as dirty, and in what is to be discarded that one knowledge, beingness, is existing. 

Q: What does this mean? 

M: That portion of the body below the neck is full of the stench of sour food, but it is in this body that the secret soul is living: it doesn’t get dirty. That one lives here and his life, his sensitivity, or knowledge, has spread all through the body. It gives you everything that is beautiful, everything that is fragrant. Your existence is all-pervading. All the four Vedas do not know how to praise you. 

In the drop of “I Amness” all the universe is contained. Since you understand the drop, can you be the drop? “I Amness” indicates the Parabrahman, but it is not the Parabrahman. 

Q: Is the consciousness real or unreal? 

M: It is a dreaming consciousness. You are unreal, therefore the world is unreal. It is an illusion, Maya. 

Q: Why is the illusion, Maya, creating all these embodied lives? 

M: The farmer produces grain in order to eat it, and Maya produces life in order to eat it. Maya doesn’t live on life but on the death of that life, because without these forms it cannot function. 

Q: According to scientists matter cannot be destroyed; it always gets transformed from one state to another. 

M: What is that state where there is no change, that immutable condition? The homogeneous state in which there is no “I” and no “you”—nothing is there; only that is the eternal truth. What is your real nature? How do you identify yourself? If you identify with the body, along with the body you will die. 

Q: I am trying to break this identity with the ego. 

M: To feel that you are an individual is itself a conditioning; the one who wants to break the conditioning is also imaginary. How can you destroy an ego which is not there? The knowledge “I Am” is the first ignorance and whatever knowledge you acquire with it is ignorance. Go back to the source of your ignorance. 

With half knowledge we think we are full of wisdom, profound; that is our presumption. When we are without thoughts, then only are we profound. Realize the thought- free state. Don’t worry about other people and other things. Do your own research, try to find out how you happen to be. 

The principle which understands—its language is the mind. In the end, both whatever is understood and the one who understands are liquidated. Many people have understood and they have gone into quietude. 

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