
Maharaj: Have you people been moving about India together?
Questioner: Yes. Some of us have been studying Hatha Yoga, and we have also been to Sri Ramanasram for meditation.
M: Moving in pairs or in groups is for entertainment. The real quest is solitary. If you want to master Hatha Yoga you must go someplace else. For meditation go back to RamanasraM: it is a nice place. Here we have Jnana Yoga, not Hatha Yoga.
Q: But does it not help to learn to control the mind?
M: It is only when the Atman is present that there is mind. Maya is the language of the Atman.
Q: Is the Atman the thinker?
M: Atman is the observer; the mind and the prana are only activators.
Q: They do become one?
M: Because you consider yourself to be a body, you think them to be separate.
Q: What about karmic knowledge?
M: All the energy that you have is karma, but it is not the Atman.
Q: Man is always an incarnation of something he doesn’t know.
M: It’s only the food body. It is only because of the mind and body consciousness that these concepts come up.
Q: Are mind and the Self different?
M: They are one.
Q: What is death?
M: Only the fear of death is present, but not actual experience of death. Just as you do not have the experience of birth, you do not have the experience of death—only the fear of death.
Q: What is the experience of death?
M: It is rest.
Q: Do we have the experience of dying?
M: Not of death. At the most you may see a dead body lying there, and you are watching here.
Q: When I try to find out who I am I cannot stay long without other thoughts intruding.
M: Who knows the thoughts?
Q: I do.
M: Since you know the thoughts, you are not the thoughts. If the principle was not present who could have the thoughts?
Q: Can one be free from thought but have insight at the same time?
M: Who wants to be free from thought and have insight into something else? Who is this “I”? You are prior to the thought, you have to go back to the source.
When you ponder these talks it could be called meditation, but in actual meditation you should meditate on the meditator, contemplate the contemplator. When you do so you will know who you are. You will realize it without consulting anybody. In worldly life, as well as in spiritual pursuit, you always want to consult somebody.
Q: In our normal worldly daily life is it possible that our
M: It is not possible. That is why all these great incarnations have taken Maha-samadhi. Maha-samadhi means the beingness was merged into the Absolute.
Q: By doing Hatha Yoga I can concentrate much better, my body feels lighter. I feel that it is good for me, that I need to do it.
M: Until you know your Self you will not know what you need or do not need. Whatever you do until that moment when you know your Self is useless. You know that the body is going to be left; who is going to leave that body? Think of that.
Q: Does it mean that this identification is an obstacle?
M: Yes. It is only the concept that is the obstacle.
Q: How did we get this concept?
M: The child gets his first instructions from the mother, beginning with “We are the parents/' “You are the son,”
were only physical and he did not know anything about himself. Later on he gets instructions from his teachers in school, others in his family, etc. Whatever he comes to know is what he has been told by others. The individual accepts and discusses various concepts with others, but hardly anyone gives any thought to that principle which is always present, which recognizes all this.
This knowledge is the earliest, the base of all the concepts. Knowledge is merely a name given to it—it has no name and no form. That is the source of all perception. It has no need of peace and quietude because it is itself peace and quietude. In this principle of basic quietude, without duality, no change occurs at any time. This basic principle is beyond any state. Whatever one perceives through the senses can only be a movement in consciousness, which is present when the states of waking and sleep are present. Whatever transpires in these states can only be temporary.
Consciousness is itself God, and that beingness, or consciousness, is the only thing by which is divulged to one the secret of all manifestation, all creation. Nothing else will so divulge; all else is a concept.
Until this basic principle—this basic knowledge of beingness or consciousness—divulges its own secret to you and you are intimate with it, whatever knowledge you have can only be based on concepts and is untrue; and even this basic principle, which is the source of all knowledge, is time- bound. This consciousness not only brings to you the knowledge of your own existence, but also the knowledge of the world; and when this knowledge disappears with the disappearance of the body, there is no knowledge of oneself or the world.
The secret knowledge of how “I” came into being, without any effort, will be divulged only by this conscious-being- ness. Any Guru who gives you spiritual knowledge can base that knowledge only on his own concept, which he considers as Truth. The concept may be excellent; still it is a concept, and whatever you try to understand through it is not going to be permanent.
It is amazing that I am expounding this knowledge through this seed. Great Yogis and Munis who are doing penance are not able to receive it, because they are holding on to certain ideas, hoping to acquire something very great. Although ostensibly they are doing penance for the sake of Self-realization, in the process they are very happy with what they acquire, and they stabilize there.
Q: Now I have understood what you have said and I am going to study this. . . .
M: What do you mean by study? That means you are only trying to remember the concepts. What I am saying is that you must become concept-free. Put the ax to the concepts, including the concept “I Am.”
Q: Are there any efforts required to eliminate the concepts so that we can know the Truth, or does it happen by itself?
M: It is spontaneous. The very concept that “I woke up” is the root of illusion.
Q: So there is to be no effort, just accept it as it is?
M: One in a million will accept this. Others want to gain something.
Q: How do we get out of the mind flow?
M: These mind things are flowing in me also, out of the vital breath, but I don't accept them. The moment an ignorant person receives an impression, he puts it to the credit of his account, he registers it in his diary.