June 1980

 

June 27, 1980

Maharaj: The waking and sleep states and the "I Am" consciousness these three are not your attributes but the attributes of that chemical. To what does the word "birth" apply? Is it not the birth of that which is in the body which makes it conscious? The chemical denotes the love the Self has for Itself and of which it wants to continue.

All experiences will be a means of suffering if one hasn't realized what they are. All experiences are due to memories and are merely movements in consciousness and therefore they cannot last. Happiness and unhappiness come and go. If you have a correct perspective, the world is still going on with a sense of quietude.

Nature has the institution of death. If death did not exist, there would be an unbearable accumulation of memories. People come and go, the memories are wiped out, therefore there is a sense of balance.

Questioner: But what is known to be temporary seems as if it were going to last forever when it is enjoyed. What is to be done?

M: Whatever you do will end in a calamity but you will not stop doing it because this is the nature of the body consciousness. Death is considered to be a traumatic experience, but understand what happens. That which has been born, the knowledge "I Am," will end. That knowledge which was limited by this body will then become unlimited, so what is to be feared?

Q. My fear is not being able to love or be loved.

M. Please understand, feeling love for others, consciously and deliberately, cannot be done. That feeling of love must be understood and then love will unfold itself. Love for the Self, this consciousness, "I Am," those who have understood this as the true love, have themselves become love. All has merged in them.

This chemical which makes the body function is the smallest of the small, and the biggest of the big. It contains the entire universe, it is itself love and God. That chemical, the consciousness, provides the light which enables the world to get on. That love is not individual love; the indwelling principle in all beings is that love, the life force. Begin with this emotional love and dwell in your beingness. Whatever happens, happens in that which has been objectified in time and space; from complete absence has come plenty. The body is born, takes its space, and then it goes, but the Absolute is not affected. That eternal state prevails in spite of all happenings. Whatever tangible and visible world there is merges into nothingness. However that nothingness is also a state - so that nothingness also goes into the Absolute state.

Q. How did I happen to identify myself with the body?

M. What is this "I" to whom you are referring who has become entangled in the body and wants to know the answer?

Q. I don't know. Why is it that I cannot know who I am?

M: I can only know something different from me. How can something know itself when there is nothing with which to compare? It is alone, without identity, without attributes. We can only talk about it at the phenomenal stage.

I have got this illness. What is the illness and on what has it come about? The illness is not separate from what exists as the body, breath, and the knowledge "I Am." This is one bundle which has been created, whatever happens is contained in that bundle. I have been separate from it before conception, and. I continue to be separate from what has been created. It has happened, it will continue for a while, then it will go away. Time has brought this about and time will end it. Is not what was conceived and born the same now? That "I" has not changed from the conception till the present moment. It has come for a particular length of time.

What was conceived has grown physically, and some of the expressions of this knowledge "I Am" have achieved tremendous things. Some have became avatars, some have achieved success in various fields. At the end of the time span the magnificent personalities, and whatever they have achieved - both have disappeared. It may have been for many years; this "I Amness" may have remained existent for hundreds of years in particular cases; still, however long the time, there is an end to it.

Some of these avatars and jnanis have understood what the "I Amness" is, that it needs a body before it can manifest itself, and the body can only come out of sexual intercourse. Having understood it, instead of remaining in that knowledge apart from manifestation, and merely observing manifestation, they started giving advice to that which is only conceptual; all manifestation is conceptual. They said, "Let there not be sexual relations." Many of these avatars andjnanis have given this advice. Has it happened? Has the rain stopped? Has the production of population stopped? No. Nature will take its course. It is only to be understood, nothing is to be done.

Remember only one thing: that it is this "I Amness" which has remained unchanged at all times, and which pervades the entire universe. It is the highest God as far as this manifestation is concerned. 

Ultimately even this is temporary, and what I am is prior to the senses, spaceless, timeless, without attributes, but in the manifestation this "I Amness" is the highest God and you must be one with that. 

Q. When the body dies is there a question of rebirth if I still identity with the body?

M. So long as you identify with the body, whatever is written in the scriptures you must follow. When you lose your identity with the body, then you can do whatever you like.


June 29, 1980

Maharaj: Whatever concept you have about yourself cannot be true. The "I Amness" is the prime concept, and it has to be satisfied by letting it do its normal work in the world. The important thing is the realization of the fact that it is a concept.

Questioner: In the world this concept is always trying to be at the top. Even to the children we say, "You must be first in the examination. "Is it wrong topush your personality and individuality on others?

M. What is wrong is that you consider yourself to be limited to this body and shape. What knowledge I try to give is given to the knowledge "I Am" in each of you, which is the same. If you try to get that knowledge as an individual you will never get it.

Q. If "I Am"is a concept and it disappears, how is one to know that that concept has disappeared?

M. That "I Am" is a concept is to be understood while the concept is there. Once it merges in the original state, who (or what) is there who wants to know? The illusory entity has disappeared.

Q. I am convinced that this "I Am" is a concept and it will end, but why should I take it that it is a false concept?

M. How and when did this very thought come? Did this thought not come merely as a movement in that concept itself? If the consciousness were not there, the thought would not be there. 

Consciousness is a temporary condition which has come upon the total, timeless, spaceless, changeless state. It is a happening which has come and which will disappear.

This psychosomatic bundle which is born will suffer or enjoy during its alloted span; so long as I know that I am not the one who experiences, but I am the knower, how am I concerned? It is perfectly clear. I merely watch the body, mind, and consciousness laugh or suffer. In suffering it may cry out, all right, cry out. If it is enjoying, it may laugh. I know it is a temporary thing, if it wants to go, let it go. While I am talking to you, imparting knowledge, at the same time I am feeling unbearable pain, if it becomes a little more unbearable I may whimper. It can do what it likes, I am not concerned. So long as you have not known what this consciousness is, you will fear death; but when you really understand what this consciousness is, then the fear leaves, the idea of dying also will go.

This consciousness is time-bound, but the knower of the consciousness is eternal, the Absolute.

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