
Questioner: The film which Maharaj was speaking of yesterday: I was wondering whether when we inquire, “Who am I?” the answer is the idea of whatever is going on in the film. That is, “Who am I?” and “Who is doing this?” are linked together in the film. Is this correct?
Maharaj: Ever since the beingness has appeared on you, whatever is being done through that knowledge is entirely the result of the five elements working through you and through whatever knowledge of “I Am” you have received out of those elements. “I Am” is prior to the “knowledge I Am,” but that which is working through the knowledge, at the moment—that personality which you have taken to yourself—is the result of the essence of the food which comes out of the five elements. Unless you are absolutely quiet and stabilize yourself in the “knowledge I Am” this result of the worldly activities will get separated from “I Am.” You must stabilize there first.
Q: Is the witness part of the film witnessing part of the film?
M: As soon as the “I Am” appears on you when you awake, that is the witness, but after that moment the whole manifestation comes within the view of the “I Am,” and he witnesses the whole manifestation.
After deep sleep, as soon as the consciousness dawns on you of “I Am”—that is the witness. Before that moment you did not know that you are; there was no witness, no knowledge of “I Am.”
You got the evidence that you are as soon as the consciousness appeared on you, but as soon as the evidence was received, that consciousness took hold of the body. As soon as that “I Am” caught hold of the body he had to behave through whatever thoughts were appearing in this manifestation. We call it disposition, or mind.
Q: Is “I Am”—the primary concept—what is actually doing the witnessing, or is that witnessing an aspect, like impersonal witnessing?
M: Consciousness is to me or to you an individual body. I say that I am conscious, you say that you are conscious; so apart from consciousness there is a principle which is aware of that consciousness.
Q: So it is the original state which is the witness of the consciousness, but that is not a personal thing. In the original condition Maharaj says that witnessing requires no effort; it automatically happens.
M: Whatever is, is the consciousness; that is all the capital we have. Once this consciousness is made clean of anything, you automatically reach the original state; but if you want to know what that state is, all this knowledge will be there. Because to know what your original state is you must understand, and you must give up this Self identification with the body and be convinced that you have no form or name. That is all that is to be done.
So long as you identify with the body-mind you are conditioned. Once you stabilize in the knowledge “I Am” unconditionally, you are the manifest “I Amness”—no more an individual. In the manifest state of “I Amness” there is no question of your doing, because you are no more an individual. Whatever happens, happens in your consciousness.
Whatever happens through this, you also know it will happen, but there is no question of doing or being anything.
Out of the rainwater good and bad things grow; no sin is attributed to the rainwater for the growth of bad things and no merit for the growth of good things. Where is the question of rebirth for the rainwater and where is the sin or merit for the rainwater?
Q: The “I” and the “I Am” without words are not the I that we think of?
M: Prior to naming it, you know you are. At that stage everything is your Self, including the dirt and the sun and the moon. That is the Self. All are your manifestation, but you are still beyond that.
One step higher now. Consciousness means this world, this manifestation, “I Amness,” beingness. This consciousness has all color; it is ample, plenteous, infinite. I, the Absolute, am not the earth, the fire, the water, the air, nor the space. I am unblemished, untouched by anything. But if we consider “I” as “I Amness”—the beingness—then all this manifestation is myself, and in this manifest “I Amness” I also am untouched by any sin or merit.
Q: I would like to know why conception is more important than any other moment for determining the future.
M: Conception is the time when, unknowingly, spontaneously, the photograph of the parents is taken, besides the world situation at the moment.
Q: Tibetan Buddhism holds that it’s not until maybe the third or fourth month that the soul enters the womb.
M: What is the womb?
Q: It is not my idea; I’m just repeating it.
M: All this manifest world is a combination of the five elements. We are in the five elements, we are a part of the five elements; all the play goes on in the five elements.
Q: When were the five elements born?
M: At that moment there was no time.
Q: You can’t win!
M: Don’t try.
Q: Who conceived the five elements, whether in time or out?
M: That primary concept, Mula-Maya, the source of illusion. Who conceived all these houses and buildings? The mental concept.