Maharaj: Before the nine months imprisonment in the womb what was my condition? I don’t know, but I conclude that this imprisonment occurred because of the agreement of the male and female. The anada [bliss] which the couple enjoyed is now in the form of this particular consciousness. How can you account for this? Find out the futility of it; you can't find the truth there. You have to come to the point: “How can this be the truth—can that which depends on the body be the truth?" Use your intellect.
In order for this consciousness which you love so much to be, the body must be there.
Questioner: Would the body have any purpose for that which is before its conception?
M: What is your state?
Q: The body.
M: Is this body a form of food?
Q: Yes.
M: And in the form of food is the memory of your being, and that is the consciousness of “I love.”
This knowledge is very rare. With it you can make plenty of money and get the things of this world; you can go about here and there and talk about this knowledge and people will worship you if you want.
Q: I don’t want that.
M: From my angle you are nothing, you have no identity; but if you feel you have an identity you can go ahead in the world with this knowledge which I have imparted so far.
The original illusion, which is without any words, will not stop acting. You cannot remove the original illusion—it has to continue; subsequent illusions you can remove, but not the original illusion.
Q: I see.
M: This will continue. You will see grass growing, water flowing in the rivers, waves on the ocean, etc. That is the original Maya—you can’t stop that, it is the very nature of the illusion. The original Maya has no color, no shape, nothing at all. You cannot conceive of that original Maya.
Can you use this for anything? You might accumulate enormous wealth. Who is going to benefit? After your death your children might use part of it, the government might take part. It is all public, all non-personal. Your knowledge will not remain personal, it is meant for others. If you understand at the time of death what you are, that you were never a person, it is enough. Don’t feel that you are a personality and that you can do something for yourself. There is no person.
Whatever you earn you will try to protect, but it is not going to comfort you at all. You are not going to see the world again, so everything is to be used by others, not you. Right now, try to know what this consciousness is.
You are dependent for your living on the strength your body gets from the food you eat, and the essence of this food and food body is this consciousness “I Am.’’ Your beingness is within you, not somewhere else.
The only thing to be understood is this: This beingness is because of the Satva guna, which behaves in the world according to the other guna [rajas and tamas]. You are not any of these. The attributes refer to everything manifest, and the expression of the Satva guna is this beingness.