Questioner: What are virtue and faith?
Maharaj: Virtue is what you possess when you know what you are and live in that knowledge. Knowing Truth you must act.
Q: Virtue is behavior then, and it comes as a blessing from the Sage, rather than something one can acquire. Similarly, faith is required for Self realization and it also comes as a gift from the Sage. Would Maharaj comment on these two statements?
M: What you have said is correct, and it is said for the good of an individual's behavior; but what I say is only about the universal manifestation and not about a personality.
Q: Maharaj has mentioned, on occasion, an advanced soul. Observation has it that all souls are similar; there is neither superiority nor inferiority, but rather there is the feeling of the brotherhood of all mankind.
M: We are intimately connected with all the universal scene. That universal brotherhood is present in every atom, whether in the food or in your body. When my individuality is given up, dissolved, my body and all the activities become universal; they are of universal use. There is no claiming any action out of it as “mine”.
Q: Maharaj didn't quite answer my question.
M: You are asking as an individual and I am replying from the manifest principle. As for how an individual should behave with others, there are different schools.
Q: Yesterday a question was asked about the efficacy of fasting and Maharaj gave an individual answer.
M: The answer was for the ignorant and not the advanced seeker.
Q: I was seeking aids which would help toward Self realization.
M: There is no question of Self realization. That “you” realizes everything, experiences everything, witnesses everything. You are prior to that. Whatever deep conviction you hold onto in the core of you will happen.
Q: The questions that I ask, aside from the major ones which have already been answered, are the small brush strokes which give the final touch to the painting.
M: When you have become the very soul of all the souls, is it necessary that you should seek the help of others on how to apply the finishing touches? You don’t depend on anybody, everything depends on your conviction that you are. The picture is complete now. You have come to get your recognition. Your recognition abides in the Self.
Q: This is a new experience, a new adjustment.
M: It is not new at all. It is most ancient and eternal.
Q: I know, I know! It is said that we should surrender; what do we surrender?
M: Ourselves we surrender, not only our possessions. We surrender the entire knowledge. There are various types of charity, but the greatest charity is the renunciation of the knowledge “I am.” When you give that up you escape birth and death.
Q: How should we move in the world?
M: Just leave off moving. You are doing nothing. Waking state represents activity, deep sleep represents peace, quiet When these two are present it means “I Am” is there, but you, the Absolute are neither the waking state, deep sleep, nor “I Amness.”
Q: Why do I feel only this body as me, a particular body as mine?
M: Stop thinking about that body; take hold only of the waking and deep sleep as you.
Q: How can I eliminate the fear of death?
M: Because you have faith in death you are pampering it. Do not ask any questions for fifteen days; listen quietly to the questions and the answers. All your questions will be answered automatically. Just keep quiet.
Among all this crowd, if one should open up that is good enough for me. This is the last step, from beingness to no- beingness. Whatever the acquisitions or accumulations of the last millions of births, they will be exploded here.
Q: At lunch yesterday some of us were commenting on that very fact. This is a unique and ideal place wherein you can bring something and get lots of nothing in return.
M: Very apt. The totality of nothingness.
Q: I have a question. Would a dog know that he is a dog or would he just know “I Am”?
M: It is you that call him a dog; he does not know that he is a dog.
Q: Do dogs have a sensation “I am hungry” when they are hungry or just a sensation of hunger? The reason I ask is that a famous Yogi said that most animals just have an awareness of hunger, they have no “I Amness.”
M: He knows. Even animals know. His only identity is body. He knows it by his body; therefore he always tries to protect his own body, just as birds, insects and human beings protect their bodies to preserve their “I Amness.”
Q: People who practice meditation apparently reach other levels of consciousness within the “I.” Are these levels as real as the three primary states, or are they a creation of the mind?
M: Know that knowingness only! Your beingness is like a tape recorder or a film in which all this has already been recorded and is being projected in the waking state, sleep, meditation or whatever, but the primary condition is the “I” consciousness. When you get this Self knowledge and abide in the quietude, you will realize that all the universes are already present in this atomic consciousness. All this knowledge is word-ly knowledge, but you have to understand, to realize that.
At present you have the knowledge of the words that have been given to you about that beingness, but when you abide in the beingness you will realize that all is the play of consciousness. When you realize that it is already recorded in that consciousness of yours, you will discard it. That consciousness is disposable.
The “I” is full of desires; instead of trying to fulfill the desires, find out what this “I” is. Understand desire. Nothing in the world has any attraction for me. If someone brings me gold or diamonds I will tell him to take them away. What good are they to me, I can't eat them. For me, the memory of my Guru is the most precious. I did not even bother about the power of doing miracles. For those powers you have to follow certain rituals, certain disciplines.
Q: The Sage then has no siddhis [powers] because he didn't observe those rituals?
M: A Jnani does not seek powers because he has recognized that that atomic consciousness contains it all. It is multi-energy, multi-power, and he has already discarded it.
Q: Does Maharaj follow a lineage of Navanath?
M: I follow all variations.
Q: Does Maharaj consider himself as following in the footsteps of his Guru?
M: He has no footsteps. He has no feet.