August 25, 1979


Questioner: I am very confused, but I think it is best for me first to meditate. 

Maharaj: It will be of no use; as long as there are questions it is better to bring them out. Suppression leads nowhere. 

Q: Is there the need for the mind to become quiet? 

M: You are before the mind is. Don't pay attention to the thoughts, pay attention to the consciousness. Thoughts will always flow because of the vital breath. Whatever thoughts are useful to you, you can make use of. 

Q: Is it possible to attain a state where the mind is still? 

M: Yes, that state you experience in deep sleep also. Through meditation you will attain it. 

Q: There is no process involved? 

M: With greatest interest you get absorbed in your Self. By giving attention only to your “I" consciousness you can reach it. Without giving attention to the body, but to the sense “I am." 

Q: Is there a way as such? Each individual has his own path, doesn't he? 

M: Your urge is to know your Self; I tell you the direct way. 

Q: Which is that? 

M: I just show you what you are prior to words. None of your experiences are eternal, so they cannot be the truth. 

Q: Still humanity glimpses the Divinity. 

M: This humanity is the untruth. 

Q: But you can’t deny the humanity, can you? 

M: This human body is not the quality of the Self. 

Q: It is its reflection. 

M: In utter loneliness the touch of “I Amness” appeared. Just as in a small seed the entire tree is contained, the “I Amness" contains the whole creation. 

Q: Is Maharaj able to see our level of awareness? 

M: No, because I do not see you as an identity. 

Q: But the level of awareness is a reality, not just a concept. 

M: Do you say that by your own experience? These are ideas only. How can you say that the fire in the incense stick makes progress? It is there or it is not. 

Q: There are the different distances until it is extinguished. 

M: Ultimately, when it is extinguished, is there any progress after? Gone is gone. 

Like the worms in the cow dung, the moment the cow dung dries they are finished, however much progress they have made. 

Q: But the Maharaj is not a worm. 

M: It is no different; this consciousness is a product of the food material. Whatever form the food material takes— man, monkey, or worm—doesn't matter; this consciousness is a product of the food material. 

Q: What is the exact difference between the jiva, Brahma, and the Absolute? 

M: You remove all the names and understand. These are all concepts, a chaotic confusion of words, nothing else. Whatever I tell you, this knowledge is never-ending, it has no beginning and therefore no end. All this is the product of the five elements, and the elements, including space, are substances. Space is like darkness, nothingness, like night. Out of it vital breath arose as a vibration. 

This body has appeared on me automatically, without my willing it, and therefore I became puzzled. What I have experienced is-I am not that matter. That quality of beingness, knowingness, which is a product of matter, gets extinguished and again goes into the atmosphere with increasing progression and the cycle continues. That beingness has gone to that state of matter, but it will not stay in that matter, it will take care that it goes back to its state of absolute subtlety. 

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