
Maharaj: How long have you been wearing this garb
Questioner: Twenty-five years.
M: Have you realized your Self?
Q: I am not realized. I am just wandering about, as you say, in the dark jungle, going here and there.
M: Who is it that says this?
Q: Probably the Self.
M: Remember that whatever is called God or Self is in the body, and as long as He is there, that beingness will be also. When beingness is not there, there will be no God, no Self. When a person dies it is not the Self that is turned into a corpse, it is the body.
Q: It is true. You see, I understand all that theoretically, I know it as a philosophy, but to experience the void, to know the Real, I am as far off as possible.
M: Whatever is called God or Self is because there is the beingness, the feeling that “I Am.” That is the fundamental principle, the basis behind all your knowledge, but you are identifying yourself with the body.
Q: True.
M: When there is no soul there is no God, and when you are not there, your feeling of beingness is not there, there is nothing.
Q: I understand the theory of it. I have read so many books. But how to realize it?
M: When you understand the meaning of the words, you must find out who it is that understands.
Q: You see, that is the gap, to know is very difficult.
M: That which is going to turn into a corpse—you are calling that “me,’' “I.” This is the sin that you are committing and the obstacle between you and the knowledge.
Q: That is the difference; that gap needs to be bridged.
M: All these words are absolutely unnecessary. Because you are, there is the light, the light of knowledge, and when you are gone the light of knowledge will be extinguished. Did not your Guru tell you this?
Q: It’s just like saying that this candy is sweet, do you get the taste of it?
M: Has not your Guru told you whatever you are hearing now?
Q: Yes, yes.
M: That means that you do not agree with him. You still have not trusted him.
Q: I agree, I trust, but maybe I am lacking in effort.
M: You are lacking in nothing! You have understood yourself as a corpse, a body. Are you that which is going to be extinguished?
Q: I know I am not.
M: Then what kind of sadhana are you going to perform? If you are not that which is going to be extinguished, you are not going to die.
Q: I understand that position—it is not that I don't understand.
M: Why are you traveling around then?
Q: I am looking for something. I am trying to find something I have not been able to find.
M: You say that you understand and yet you say that you don't get it; so, are you telling a he?
Q: I don’t know myself. You see, for me, it is all there, I know you don’t have to go about. You sit in one place, in your own home, and you find it out; but I have yet to find it. So the thought comes to go around, that impatience to find out which drives one from place to place, till one finds something. Well, I haven't found it. The day I find it, then I also will say, “Yes, it is within."
M: When you close your eyes, inside you see Ganesan eyes, the same shows you what is outside. You do not have to think to perform that act. All has appeared without your active contribution.
Q: That is the philosophy of it, but doing it is the difficult part, very difficult.
M: Why are you not taking delivery of that fact? What is the use of wandering from place to place? You are defaming the ocher robes.
Q: True.
M: You see, your soul is so wonderful, so great, and so important that if you sit in a barren land, it will be filled with beautiful gardens. You do not understand your own greatness, the knowledge that you are, your beingness.
Q: No, I am not great. I am very humble, very small.
M: What is humble and what is small? What is there without your beingness? Even if you perform great penances, you can, at the most, punish your body. Can you punish your beingness?
Q: No.
M: When they send a man to the gallows, can they hang his soul, his beingness? This body is hanged. Can you possibly punish the beingness?
Q: No.
M: So He is not humble or small. He enjoys all the wonderful qualities, but He is absolutely unattached, not smeared by any of them. You see, your attire is showing you have that. We don't wear such attire. Nobody will call me a Mahatma.
Q: I am not a Mahatma.
M: Then why are you wearing these robes? You don't worry about what you are telling others by wearing such robes, but you enjoy feeling “I am the great Mahatma, I am the greatest of all.” Because you know and yet do not enjoy that knowledge, it is a sin for which you will have to suffer. If a great soul, a Mahatma, calls you a fool, you have to suffer it. If the Mahatma calls anybody a fool, he has to suffer, and you are calling your Self something not knowledgeable yet, not knowing. That is the sin you commit. You are abusing your great soul.
I do not want to teach anything to anybody; I only hold up a mirror to those who come here. I will make you stand before the mirror and look at yourself. You have to get the vision of yourself in the light that is emanating from your own Self.
At bhajans we say, “You close your eyes and see that everywhere He is standing, everywhere—inside, outside, up, down,” and that you have to experience. If God is not residing in your body you will not be there.
Q: True. With this clear vision Maharaj can see and say. I can say, but not see.
M: If you do not recognize Him right now in this birth, several thousands of births will not give you the opportunity to know Him. At least now would you try to catch hold of Him with concentrated attention?
Q: One does try.
M: Who is that one and who is trying? Why are you worried about others? What about you, I am addressing this to you?
Q: That, to me, means the same thing as I answered. It’s addressed to the Self and the Self is answering.
M: I have not asked you what the Self is doing. I am asking you what are you doing about you?
Q: Where is the difference? Are I and the Atma two different things?
M: You see, when you talk, you refer to the consciousness that is limited to your body. If you refer to the universal consciousness, that is Atma or God. Therefore you make it clear whether you refer to yourself as limited or unlimited.
Q: I am limited. As I have been told, I understand that I should say that I am unlimited. With the knowledge I have, with what teachers have told me, I am unlimited; and yet I know that I am limited.
M: Because you identify with the body, that is why you are conditioning yourself.
Q: True. I understand that. I know that I should get over that.
M: By your identification with the manifest body you have lost sight of your real nature. You must always be conscious of That. That state of consciousness is a natural thing, only don’t break away from it.
You see, I don’t disclose the acrobatics of the Vedas to the masses here. It’s for other people to do, who dabble in body-mind.
Q: There is so much knowledge printed and dissemi- nated here, there, everywhere; yet I would say that the majority of people live in darkness, in spite of that knowledge.
M: I don't ask anybody to follow any particular path. I just tell them to be what they are, in their natural, spontaneous state. Stabilize there, in the beingness.
Q: Those are exactly the same words as Baba uses. Just be.
M: Having served him for twenty-five years, why did you deny?
Q: I don't know.