October 1980

 

October 1, 1980

Maharaj: The Self is subtler than the space. There is no birth or death for the Self. Don't accept what I tell you blindly; ask me questions. Thoroughly scrutinize and examine the knowledge which I expound and only then accept it.

You live in the house but the house is not yourself. Similarly, the knowledge "I Am" is in the body but it is not the body. 

Questioner: I do not, fully understand it.

M. With the mind you will never understand. You are not the mind, nor the words, nor the meaning of the words. I expound the knowledge of the Self to the Self but you accept it as the knowledge of your body. 

I am completely detached from the body and the consciousness which is within the body. Nevertheless, because of the disease, the unbearable suffering of the body is being experienced through the consciousness. It is unbearable but since I am detached both from the body and the consciousness, I am able to speak to you. It is something like the fan - the breeze is.there and the sound is also there. In the same way the vital breath is there and the sound is also emanating, but all this happening is unbearable... the suffering has to be endured.

When the knowledge "I Am" is not there do you perceive or observe anything? Knowingness is knowledge and no-knowingness is also knowledge, but it has no form. If you equate it with the body, only then you say that you are a male or a female.

In the absence of knowledge, the question of I know or I do not know does not arise. When you understand what I have said about knowledge you will fully identify with that.

Spontaneously I have realized that I am written off from the book of consciousness. You will not feel happy unless you taste yourself through your body. The body has importance only because the "I Amness," the consciousness, is dwelling therein. If the "I Amness" or consciousness is not there the body will be disposed of as refuse.

Call that knowledge "I Am" as your Self, don't call the body as knowledge. Normally the Gurus will not introduce to you the Self so deeply. They will only introduce to you all the rituals.

The knowledge "I Am" is the primary God; meditate on that only. Presently, one may ask why man has created a God. The concept of a God is, if you pray to such a God, that God will give you whatever you want. Such a God is great. We have an idea that if we demand something of Him he will give it.


October 2, 1980

Questioner: I want to give up this ego, but I don't know how.

Maharaj: What is the measurement and the color of this 'ego that you want to give up? What have you understood about this ego?

Q. It is a false conviction of the mind.

M. It is a pinch in my fingers, this "I Amness," but all the scriptures, the sixteen sastras, eighteen puranas and four Vedas have been screaming and shouting, trying to describe this Brahman. All those praises are only for that tiny little pinch "I Am." The moment you start making a design of that "I Amness" you are getting into deep waters.

This incense holder is silver, you have the knowledge that it is silver. What is the shape, color, or design of that knowledge? If all knowledge is formless, could there be a form, design or color to the knowledge "I Am"? Could it be subject to sin or merit?

In this timeless ether the touch of "I.Amness" is not there.

Q: Is it not true that out of compassion for the ignorant thejnani expounds knowledge?

M. You can say whatever you like. There is no such thing as compassion in that state. I have elevated you to that state where you should know that you are the very illuminant of everything, and the love to be is also therein. When I lead you there why do you ask me such questions? How do you know anything?

Q. Through the mind.

M: No. The knowingness recognizes the mind, the mind cannot recognize consciousness. You are overpowered by sleep, you wake up - who recognizes this?

Prior to mind, the knowingness principle is there. Prior to knowingness, there is the priormost principle which knows the consciousness. In the final analysis out of the absence of knowledge, knowledge was born and knowledge delivered the world, all beings and all things.

The one who enters spirituality is like cold water which is put on the fire. When you put it on the fire the bubbles start rising and in due course it starts boiling. That boiling stage is something like the sadhaka entering the highest class of spirituality; at the boiling point he likes to talk a lot, put a lot of questions. When the fire is applied continuously the boiling stops and simmering takes place. That is the stage where one acquires knowledge in spirituality. After listening to these talks will you be able to go into quietude? I have my doubts about that, because you still like to please your pampered mind. If you have really understood what I say does it matter if you please your mind or not?

I have told you that presently you are like that warmth in the body. What is the Parabrahman like? The Parabrahman does not experience this warmth,of"I Amness" at all. If you understand, this puzzle will be solved for you.

After understanding this, if one becomes a jnani, that consciousness principle and body is available, and they will be involved in the emotional field also. It will give full vent to crying and it will also enjoy whatever situation is there. Such ajnani is not going to suppress any expressions of emotions which spontaneously come out of this consciousness and body apparatus.

Normally people suppose that ajnani should suppress all the emotional outbursts. That. is not correct. With your standpoint in the Absolute, you are not concerned with the feelings and instinctive outbursts of the apparatus.

Ajnani does not volitionally participate, it is spontaneously happening; while an ignorant person is deeply involved in that, he assumes everything is real. For the jnani, the warmth is also unreal, so whatever happens in the realm of warmth is unreal.

All devotion, liking, and love, is dissolved for a jnani, but whatever he does is for others.


October 4, 1980

Questioner: 'What is the diference between my state and Maharaj's state?

Maharaj: For the jnani there is no difference. The difference arises in the case of the ignorant because he is still identifying with the body. Give up the identification with the body and see what happens.

Q: How?

M: I can only tell you, "this is it" - how to accept it is beyond me and I have no remedy for that. I tell you but you must understand it.

Q. Once and for all: if we take his words literally is this all that is necessary?

M. Yes. That is the one to be caught hold of, but what is the instrument with which you will catch hold of it? It is not the body, mind, and intelligence.

Q: The will?

M: Any effort you make will land you in further trouble. Therefore it is for this knowledge that you exist -to accept this knowledge, not the pseudo-identity. Just keep what you have heard from me in mind as true, and then act in whatever way arises spontaneously. 

My Guru told me that I am timeless, spaceless, without attributes. Then I decided that if that is the case why should I have any more fear? Who is to have fear? Suppose you meet a tiger: the tiger is going to eat you in any case, therefore there is some chance that if you attack the tiger it may run away, so why not take that chance? Why not try and disidentify yourself from the body? Whatever unhappiness you have, whatever fear you have, is based entirely on identification with the body. Make an effort gradually to disidentify yourself from the body.

It is a simple thing. Death is inevitable, so why don't you accept what the Guru has told you, that death is something which cannot affect That which you are. This identification with the body is time-bound; why not disassociate yourself now?

How many of you will remember and understand what I tell you?

Whatever fear you have is based only on memory, concepts, and hearsay. So long as you cling to any concept or memory this fear will not leave you. Don't protect this fear-give it up, let it go. Can you do it? 

You have been accumulating what you have heard from me, but ultimately, whatever is accumulated has to be given up. It is to be understood, used, and then given up.

Q. Maharaj says that everything has happened spontaneously but we are accustomed to thinking that everything must have someone to start something, someone to control. Without this controlling authority it is difficult to imagine anything functioning.

M. In the state of duality this idea has to be there, otherwise there can't be any concept or any functioning, this is the basis of manifestation. When ultimately the knowledge merges in knowledge, the seeker disappears and there is no one to ask questions.

What is being said and what is being heard is time-bound - from a particular time until today - but That which we are is totally separate from that which is time-bound. I can understand and measure this time duration, so I must obviously be separate from this duration.


October 8, 1980 (morning)

Maharaj: All knowledge is available through the body, but this knowledge which you are, which is an outcome of the food body, is not you. This beingness itself is the love. It is most natural and therefore I love all others because I love myself. The fountain of my love for others springs from the love to be.

The Unmanifest is manifest through that waking, dynamic, manifest spirit; that is the state of love to be. The wife is not devoted to the husband, she is devoted to that love to be. 

You have an earnest desire to be living in the body but you have to dispose of this body. Just as you eat delicacies and the next day you have to evacuate it as fecal matter, in the same manner you have to dispose of this body. My own condition is complete manifest consciousness and the expression of the body is only the sum and substance of the vital breath, the language of the vital breath (the words) and the love of Self.

There is no other thing like Paramatman except "I Love." In that ecstasy who is going to look at the body? Body becomes irrelevant. How many titles have been given to it, but what is it ... only that love for Self.

Always, forever, your knowingness has been moving about, but you have limited it to your own body, and therefore you are killing it. Paramatman is not maya, it is your real nature.

Questioner: What should one do about one's daily duties?

M. You should attend to your duties - they are not personal, they are of the manifest consciousness, they belong to all. Try to expand yourself to Infinity as the manifested consciousness. There is no other God but you.

One day this body will drop dead; people think that death means completely unmanifest, but it is not so, it is not like that. When something is consumed or exhausted, it becomes more, it becomes manifest. 

Sri Krishna said, "I reincarnate myself at everyyuga (eon),." but I say, every moment I expand, ever more I am created, I proliferate more and more every moment.

I never seek anything from anybody else. Whatever I want to get, I want to get out of my own being. I worship that very principle "I Am" and demand what I want out of that; because of that, all these things are coming.

His Majesty the Emperor has gone to sleep - it doesn't mean he is dead. You are not able to realize this knowledge because you hang on to the body. Only a Self-Realized Guru can direct you. 

Without this body sense I am perfect, total, complete. You will not be able to comprehend my talk.


October 8, 1980 (evening)

Maharaj: What is the cause of the waking state, sleep and "I Amness"?

Questioner: The chemical.

M. When you utter that word -"chemical"- do you consider yourself to be that?

Q. I have studied that chemical thoroughly and I am not that. Everything is contained in it but it is not me.

M. Just as this flame is the quality of the burning of the gas, similarly, because of this chemical, there is the experience of the waking state, deep sleep and knowingness; they are not your qualities. 

Various names are given to the chemical, mula-mays, sutra pradam, etc. It is all illusion. There is no God, no individual soul, nothing. The primary illusion expresses itself through Self-love, love for beingness. From deep sleep you wake up; similarly the disciple who considers the words of the Guru as final, and follows his words and does accordingly, remains like that. Ultimately he gets the knowledge of the Self. 

Just as you wake up from deep sleep, you get that knowledge "I love"; Self love, it merges into the Parabrahman unknowingly. When you meditate you and that Self love should be one - there should not be any duality.

The main problem with jnanis, those who intellectually have this knowledge, is their attachment to their relations and their belongings.

Nobody dies, death means finished; for example, a drop of water when it evaporates has become infinite. There is no death for anything, everything finishes to become infinite. 

The purusha is that principle from which everything flows, all the manifestation; it is the support for everything. When you know something, you have to become that; in order to know the God you have to become that. In order to know that purusha you have to be that.

Q: Maharaj was speaking earlier of attachments, what about attachment to the Guru? I find all other attachments are gone but this remains.

M: What do you mean, attachment to the Guru? You and Guru are one, not two.

Q: How am I to follow what Maharaj says when I have so many things to care for family, etc.?

M: Your consciousness alone is taking care of everything; look at your consciousness as God. The first thing you do after waking up is to meditate on that consciousness, that "I Amness"; worship that consciousness for some time before you start your daily activities.

Before you fall asleep at night, again abide in that consciousness, "I Amness." Be devoted to that, and in such a mood go into sleep. 

That consciousness which meditates on the Self, that Self will be revealed to you.

People worship so many Gods, but these Gods are only concepts which have occurred to the mind. People say they want to save themselves; save what? What are you trying to save?

All your knowledge is dissolved here, so you can have no pride of being ajnani when you leave here.


October 14, 1980

Questioner: In the presence of the Maharaj I feel there are no more questions.

Maharaj: You feel that the doubts are dispelled, still the day is far off, just wait.

Q: Can Swamiji suggest one thing so that we may enjoy eternal bliss?

M. I have a very simple remedy, and that is that I am not the body. Had the world been real, there could have been some treatment - but it is not real.

Whatever you do is of no use. Everywhere you see all this chaos, in spite of all efforts. You cannot stop it - it is in a continual state of flux, and it is all unreal.

After listening to my talks do you acquire and store knowledge, or is whatever knowledge you had being dissolved?

Q Becoming dissolved. Can I carry Maharaj to my home?

M. I am just like the city of Bombay; can you carry Bombay home with you? This experience of the world is happening to you spontaneously, not out of your efforts. Even your understanding of the Guru must come spontaneously. Nothing will stop - all the process is going on without your effort - so many bodies are being created and dying. All actions for the running of the world are already happening. The process of creation of millions of bodies is already going on in the space. Out of the weeds, the grains have come, in those grains the "I Amness" is latently present.

That phone message, "Hello, I Am, Hello, I Am," is already there in that grain of food. If you create something out of your own efforts, only then can you destroy it - but this creation is not your effort.


October 15, 1980

Questioner: There are many moments in my life when I don't like the situation and I want to change it.

Maharaj: You may fight with the situation but you are not the situation. 

Q: When you start watching the mind you know that you are apart from the mind and you would not like to get involved with the fight of the mind, so naturally the friction will become less.

M. In this process you, as an individual, are not left at all. Try to understand that "I Am" is a product of the saliva guna, food essence product. The friction is the fight between that quiet witness and the world.

The fight began when the words began emanating from the consciousness. Words have come out of you and you embrace those words; you become the champion of the meaning of those words which have come out of you.

You have a mountain of concepts and words. To get rid of these you use other concepts. When you throw out all the concepts, including your primary concept, then whatever is, is. Stay put in quietude.

Q. Are words necessary or is it just the presence of Maharaj?

M: No doubt association with a sage is conducive to realization, nevertheless it must be followed up by questions and answers. There are always some doubts arising from mind, so until all traces of mind are removed you must clear them out by words.

Q. These days, when thoughts come, I just turn away, I feel I stop them now.

M. If you can do this it is all right, but if they are flowing, let them flow.

Q. Not being involved in your thoughts - is that enough?

M. Yes, that is the only thing, and whatever has to happen will happen; the very doing you have given up.

Q. So, it is no more necessary to try to change yourself, to try to do better things?

M. When you don't hang onto thoughts, you are no more a person.

Q It makes me a little scared. Everything can happen - I can do crazy things.

M: This is a common stage, all people go through this. Fear is a quality of mind and mind does not want to lose itself.

Recite the nama-mantra, hang on to the mantra, because this is a stage where the mind is losing all support, therefore you give it the support of the mantra.

Q. The things that I don't like in myself, they derive from a thought as well, so I can let go of them also?

M. Yes. Don't say myself, that is also a thought.

Q. So in the end it is as simple as that: it's just getting rid of thoughts - it's true. 

M: It is not a small achievement. You may feel that you are thought-free but at some stage thought will pounce on you suddenly. Many so-,called sages, although they attained that thought-free state, still had their fall.


October 17, 1980

Maharaja Just be as you are, don't imagine or picturize. Your body and your image have changed continuously all during your life and none of these images has remained constant. 

After twenty-five years your body will give up this image and will have an old person's image; later on that image also will go. If these images had been real they would have remained; they are unreal. The "I Am" principle has no form, no color, no design. Through these designs we enjoy or suffer, but nothing is real; any experience you get is not real.

Whether you are crying or laughing, this is the image for that moment only - the next moment it will be changing.. Some people are very good at weeping, crying, lamentation, only for that moment.

So long as the body is there this passing show will be there, continously changing, and finally, that very consciousness through which you see the world will quit. The days are numbered of this body and consciousness.

Questioner: If I have not fully attained when I die, will I have another birth?

M. If you go with that concept, that concept will have another birth. You don't know what form that concept will take. Only that person will be visiting me whose destiny is being fully exhausted. Nothing of his destiny will be left.

You are a lady from some far off country, why should you be visiting this place? Because your destiny is being annihilated.

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