January 14, 1980


Maharaj: I have put my ax at the very root; there is no question of any sprouting. Whatever my state was prior to the child is my true state. The moment the child appears is also the moment of your first experience of the world. Your body needs a lot of care, special foods. What is it that you are nursing? That beingness; you are trying to protect it. 

Questioner: So that which is there before beingness becomes Maharaj’s conscious experience? 

M: Yes, that is the eternal state, while this beingness is time-bound. 

Q: Maharaj knows this from experience? How does he know? 

M: Because I prevail prior to anything. I ever exist. Paramatman, Parabrahman—those are the titles of my state. Prior to the appearance of childhood, that is my eternal state. In that state there was nothing, and in that state I have no knowledge of anything. 

Q: That is true for everybody. Some people know it and some don't. 

M: I have no association with anyone in that state. I am—always—with out words. 

Q: How do we acquire the consciousness? 

M: When you swallow this beingness state, what remains is that state. 

Q: In one of the Upanishads there is something about “I Am alone, let me be many." Did you feel lonely? 

M: This sentence occurred when beingness appeared. When that vibration first appeared it was only beingness; then it felt "I am alone" and wanted to become plenty. I reject the Upanishads and all those profound teachings because they do not touch me. Whatever is written in philosophy is only ignorance. All the three gunas are full of emotion, emotion-bound, and are not the truth. 

I am ever non-objective, unmanifest, I am ever in that state. It is the Yoga Maya, that beingness, through which everything is happening. It is something like a photochemical which is expressing that image; so this beingness expresses it in the world. 

Q: The experiencer is an object which is taken to be a subject; there is no experiencer. 

M: Is this only theory or is it a practice? 

Q: Practice. I have been looking everywhere for an “I” and I cannot find it. 

M: Do you have this firm conviction always? 

Q: Yes. 

M: The word “I" is not there, but the manifestation is. 

Q: Maharaj has said that only the false wants to continue. 

M: Correct. 

Q: I still feel the sense of “I.” 

M: The sense of “I Am" is always there; only when it identifies with the body it is called the ego. 

Q: Why did I come to Maharaj? Does he know? 

M: Because you wanted confirmation that whatever you say is correct. You insist that whatever you say is correct. Those who come here presume that they are knowledgeable. I understand that they don’t have an iota of knowledge; therefore I tell them to sit here and listen to the talks, and spontaneously, automatically, all doubts will be cleared. 

People bring all these knickknacks—the house is full of them: but I don’t belong to them, I am apart. Someone brought this carpet, which cost him four thousand rupees; it is not mine, I use it. Similarly, the beingness, in the realm of beingness, is being used or experienced, but I am not it. 

This knowledge of beingness has appeared, and it is going to disappear. The one that observes the appearance and disappearance of beingness sees it without eyesight, and that witness does not relate to this realm of “I Amness’’ or beingness. 

The entire world is the body of the beingness, the play of beingness. Take the example of the TV screen on which you view various scenes. You might see rocks, trees, or an ocean, but it is all the play of light. Similarly, the manifest world is the play of beingness. On the TV screen who is playing the part of people, rocks, trees, mountains, etc.? It is the light only. Having realized this, when you go into quietude you will understand that in the cell of beingness many universes are playing about. Why do I have such respect for the foreigner? Because he is very serious; whatever he pursues, he proceeds to the end. 

Q: Then all the archaryas are not in India? 

M: They neither belong to Europe nor to India. They are the products of the play of the five elements. 

I am not concerned with any miracles except the three within myself. The first is that I am able to see the world; the second is that the world is contained in that tiny spot of consciousness which I aM: the third is that from that nobeing state this beingness has come. Give thought to these miracles. Since then all my inquiries have been directed within. Surely I, who am having the experience of this world, must have been prior to it. When I see something and say I understand it, that which I was before I acquired this form must be there to understand it. If you must give a name to it you can call it God, Iswara; names are not important. Who has given this name? I have given this name. 

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