
Questioner: What does a Jnani think about all the different religions in the world?
Maharaj: A Jnani does not concern himself with the various religions in the world. Those have been started by human beings. What has man created out of his various religions? Very little happiness or satisfaction and a great deal of jealousy, hatred, disturbance, and differences. Man torments himself by his concepts and imaginations about various religions. Every nation has several religions; all is the play of the five elements.
Each person has entangled himself in certain concepts of his own and is keen on perpetuating them. The unfortunate thing is that he does not see the fundamental basis of what he himself is. For one who has realized this basis there can be no fear of death.
Q: Was Hitler a product of his own thought or a product of the food essence?
M: He was a product of the five elements, so there is no sense in personalizing him. The true nature has no form. Whatever appears is a result of the five elements.
Q: How does a Jnani distinguish between a Jnani and a Hitler?
M: A Jnani does not distinguish between them at all.
Q: How did they arrive?
M: They have just come out of the five elements. Out of three or four raw materials a cook can concoct various dishes, each with a different taste, but basically they are from the identical materials. So if you ask where did this dish come from, what can you say? It is a mixture of those materials.
Q: India has millions of oppressed persons. Some want to help them, but the teacher warns us not to assume any such aim.
M: When there is a certain state of affairs, it is all movement, it keeps on changing. There must be some people who have the capacity to remedy the condition. Whatever turns up as a remedy is part of the play of the elements; so where does the individuality come in? Everything is part of the happening.
Q: How did the five elements arise? Who is responsible for them?
M: You. Find out how this body arose. The original question takes you back millions of years. Let us take a nearer one, that is, your own body. Find out how this body arose and you will come to the answer of your original question.
We have this body, mind, and consciousness. Find out how much of it is temporal, seasonal, and what is permanent, which will not change. Once you find that out there is nothing more to do.
Q: I understand, with conviction, that just as the body and the breath have appeared they are going to disappear, and this consciousness also will disappear, but there must be something which is changeless and permanent. How do I find it?
M: There is a little water in a pot and you pour it into the sea. So which part of the sea will want to know whether it is joined with the water in the pot? How do you know which part was separate? So that tiny bit of consciousness merges with the total consciousness.
Q: After the death of the body this consciousness will merge with the universal consciousness. While the body is present is it possible to know the Ultimate state?
M: When one is merged who is it that will want to know? Many people, particularly Westerners, feel that their questions have not been answered to the point. Is this view correct?
Q: No. Maharaj answers what we really need to know, and when he answers I always realize that I would be better off not asking many of my questions. He always answers what I want to know anyhow.
M: The ideal answer is to know who is striving for happiness and suffering difficulties. What is the real that I am striving for.
Q: Some sects in Christianity stress that if you really accomplish all the promises in the Bible you will disappear at death, rather than be buried. I was convinced of that for years, because when I was young I had a Guru who did disappear in front of us and reappear many miles away at the same time. I used to think that this was important. Of course, I gave that up a long time ago, but still, when I am with Maharaj, I can see it is an absolutely ridiculous idea.
M: There is no end to the miracles that can happen in the world, but they are still of the manifest. There have been many powerful minds and powerful beings, who, by their penance or strength of mind, have acquired powers and performed miracles. What has happened to them?
Q: The same thing that happens to everyone.
M: If they have had the experience of their true Self, such people would not be trying to acquire powers.
Q: Many Westerners who come here believe that if you become a Jnani or become enlightened, everything improves. This is what they seek.
M: Let them come. Each one comes with his own concepts. Whatever their concepts they will realize that ultimately there is no accounting. This consciousness is not going to remain with me—that I know—so what have I got to do with anything, any concepts or ideas that anyone tells me?
Q: Is it possible to transcend this consciousness which I have?
M: Where is the need? Have you started this consciousness? Why are you taking this ego responsibility for this consciousness? You did not ask for it.
Q: I am tremendously grateful to Maharaj. What is most different is that, regardless of anything, he answers what is most helpful and right, but people want to make the teachings into a system, which ruins them. But Maharaj doesn’t worry. He just says on Wednesday that red is black and on Friday that red is white, but the answer is correct at the time, because it changes the orientation of the questioner. It is tremendously valuable and unique.
M: Like an actor who plays different roles.