
Maharaj: As soon as the Unmanifest became the manifest a state of duality arose, and everything that takes place in the manifest is time-bound. You think that I am talking to you as an individual, but I talk to the manifest and not to the individual. The individual is merely a figment of the imagination.
You are a gynecologist, you deal with birth and medicine. What has given rise to the births is the five elements. When the baby is one or two years old its existence is made known to it by the mother. The mother says, “You are a girl, I am the Mother,” etc. The baby merely acts until that time. Later on, whatever knowledge is obtained is what one word gives to another word. It is based on words.
When a person is operated on medicine is administered to make him unconscious, and when he comes back to con- sciousness and begins to feel pain, another medicine is given to make him unaware of the pain. Later on he doesn't feel hungry, so another medicine is given to stimulate the appetite. All that which gives rise to the baby is nothing but another kind of medicine, a natural medicine, made of the five elements. Whatever is, is of the five elements. If this is clear, where do you, as an individual, come in? What does one take pride in, as an individual?
Questioner: What is to be done? What is the aim in life?
M: To see one's Self as one is, to see one's true nature.
Q: How is that stage to be obtained?
M: By continuous Japa [repetition of mantra].
Q: What do you mean by Japa?
M: Japa means “take care" in Marathi. You only take care of something which you have a desire to maintain, so the Japa is based on desire.
Q: So the sadhaka is one who does the sadhana in order to achieve something?
M: It is true that the sadhaka has a desire to achieve something. These things are given to a mumukshu, the first stage, when one feels that there is something beyond this material universe. The mumukshu is still concerned with his body-mind, but when he becomes convinced that he is not the body-mind he goes to the stage of a sadhaka, where he is convinced that he is the beingness or the consciousness. Ultimately he comes to the conclusion that he is not the beingness, because the beingness depends on the food and is also time-bound.
Q: Is there any value in repeating the mantra, and, if so, to what extent?
M: Yes. By repeating the mantra with a great deal of concentration the inner receptacle in the body is purified so that one becomes receptive to such inner knowledge that may come, and the mind disappears into a spirit of reality.
What generally happens is, one starts repeating the mantra and then wonders if the tea is ready, or the telephone rings, etc.
Q: My patients will ring up and I must deal with them. So how do you get out of the obligation?
M: You must make up your mind what you want. If your desire is so keen that whether the body lasts or not you must have it—if the determination is that great—then it must come, but if you want something in the material world, it is not possible. The true pupil keeps this in mind and meditates. This beingness in the body is so powerful that you will be able to see whatever deity you meditate on. It is basically the strength of the beingness. Most people do not have time to spare to repeat the name, or whatever the sadhana is. Ultimately, the aim is to forget one's individuality.
Q: Does it mean that one shouldn't have anything to do in the world? One must give up the world?
M: The crucial question is, by whom? Whatever has brought about conception is the primordial seed of the entire universe.
Q: I have a question about Babaji. Was his ability to sustain himself for so many years learned before becoming a Jnani?
M: That ability is not acquired. It is something that happens in nature, in the manifest world. There is no law or reason; all kinds of miracles happen, anything can happen. The beingness has stuck to the body, has not merged, it still remains. In the traditional Hindu literature there are two entities who have seen any number of universes created and destroyed. As soon as the conception took place and the film was created, the future was photographed and that was their destiny. There is no reason; it just happens, one of those miracles of nature.
Q: The followers of this man Babaji say that for centuries he is supposed to have been appearing and disappearing in the Himalayas. What Maharaj is saying is that such a man must have had that ability by birth or that he learned it from somebody before he became a Jnani. After he became a Jnani he would not appropriate any powers to sustain the body.
M: I know that this beingness is time-bound, so why should I worry about somebody else? Why does anyone worry about this? Whatever has been produced will ultimately take its end and go back into the state from which it came. At the end of that happening it will go.
Q: Does one discard all the Yoga when one becomes a Jnani?
M: That by which one was able to become a Jnani will itself disappear. There is an insect whose sting causes itching and nausea. When the insect is removed the itching and nausea stop. All the itching and nausea in life is because of that tiny speck in the Brahma-randhra; because of that beingness all these troubles arise in the consciousness. Once you know that you are not that, everything is over.
The moment the Sat Guru makes everything clear, there is no need for Japa, or mantra, or anything. If you have understood what I have been telling you there is no need of any sadhana. There is no need to do anything, and you can do anything.