
Maharaj: You come here with your concept “I am like this/' so I have to start demolishing it, to throw it overboard.
The Absolute does not know itself, but the Absolute is offered an opportunity to understand itself through this food product, the “I Am/'
Questioner: Before I came here I expected to be full of love, but I feel weak and tired.
M: This is because of the demolition process. To start with, you must be completely dismantled and rebuilt. Before the seed is planted the ground must be cultivated and fertilized. Only after plowing the ground and planting the seed will the sprouting take place. The demolishing process is necessary; what remains is only consciousness, and then the sprouting takes place.
Whenever foreigners come here they raise the question of love. I Amness is love only. You have assumed this shape, this flower of “I Amness, 1 ” out of love only. The very core of all atoms is permeated by that knowledge “I am.” Embrace all the atoms of the universe with the feeling that all of them have come inside us in the form of the knowledge “I Am.”
You are listening to this knowledge of something which cannot be experienced by the body-mind consciousness in words through your body-mind consciousness.
Whenever you speak, you first identify yourself with something, but that “I” is not going to last, it is not honest, it will not be eternal.
Whatever I am telling you will be absorbed only by those who have the ground already prepared for it. Even those who think they have understood have not understood as I mean for them to understand.
Q: Yesterday I couldn’t sleep. When I was lying on my bed I kept hearing sounds and seeing lights. I was scared, sweating. I thought I was dying.
M: Whatever is happening is happening as it should. Even if whatever you felt was dying actually was dying, you were not dead. Keep that firmly in mind.
What sort of love is advocated in your religion?
Q: Love thy neighbor.
M: Your religion advocates that you love every being out of the love for God. Christ said to love your neighbor as yourself. How do you put that into practice?
Q: By sometimes coming here. That love is here.
M: The love is in the most purified form when there is no difference between the lover and the beloved. In all this world of yours what is the cause of the most suffering?
Q: Duality.
M: When did this duality start?
Q: With the first perception of something other than myself.
M: The beginning of duality is when you know you are. This is the primary duality, the very source of illusion.
Don’t just listen to me meekly. Ask questions. What knowledge would you like to acquire?
Q: Of sin and merit.
M: That by which you feel happy and satisfied is merit, and that by which you are disturbed or dissatisfied is sin.
Q: If a man commits a sin and does not feel sorry for it, is it still a sin?
M: Don’t talk from the standpoint of a person, a human being, an illusion! When did you get to know about merit and sin? Only after you were given a concept.
Q: If you do something wrong, do you suffer immediately or in your next life?
M: You may have to suffer immediately, and definitely in your next birth. The beginning of suffering was with the memory that you are.
Q: Those who commit sins do not appear to be suffering.
M: This is your concept, but inside there are traumatic experiences.
Q: How do we face our problems in daily life?
M: According to your own identity with that Self, carry out your duties. Look upon all as your Self.
Q: In the life of a lawyer so many things happen every day. There is always trouble.
M: You are speaking from the body-mind sense. Get out of that.
Q: And then do whatever I like?
M: Then you will behave according to your own worthiness.
Q: So once you clearly understand the knowledge of the Self, the difficulties disappear. Then everything goes on automatically.
M: True. Then why do you ask questions?
Q: Are there no activities in that state?
M: Then you will know that not a leaf moves without you. Because of you all activities take place.
Q: There is talk of equanimity and tranquility, but it seems to me that with suffering there is more of an urge to realize. Kunti, the mother of Pandavas, asked Krishna for suffering so that she could remember him. Can I have your comments?
M: How long have you been here? That is meant for the ignorant. If you find your own identity such questions will not arise. Such ideas are given to instill courage into the ignorant. Not for you. The next question would be: “Who was the priest who performed the marriage of Rama and Sita?”
Q: If Self-knowledge is the proper approach, where is the place for devotion?
M: They are not different-Bhakti and Jnana. This is realized only when you realize your own Self. Because “I Amness” is there you have devotion to God. The process of loving the Self by the Self is taken up by devotion to Rama, Krishna, Christ, etc., and its fruition is when the Self realizes the Self. Then you know that everything is the Self only.
Q: Is it any help to pray that the soul rest in peace?
M: It is only a concept. For a dead person is there a soul left so that he is going into peace? Out of love for the dead person you take a bowl of milk and offer it to the dead soul. Is he going to come and drink it? It is only to give you satisfaction. Why inquire about what occurs after death? What are you today? This illusion always keeps you away from your own Self. You are always inquiring about everything outside, but you do not try to find out what you are. All during your life you have held different identities for yourself. After your birth you perceived that you were a child, then a teenager, an adult, middle-aged, and old. None of these identities has remained with you. Whatever you hold onto as “myself' will disappear.
This is to be understood. A Sat-Guru must guide you. He only is the Sat-Guru who has fully understood.
You have to understand the contradiction clearly. Whatever I am expounding, I am driving at something.
If you say that you have understood it has not clicked. You must come to a state of “I have not understood anything/’ You must go beyond this understanding stage, come to a stage beyond. You must come to this conclusion: the various stages from childhood up to old age—whatever you have understood and got stabilized in as your identity—has proved false. Likewise, whatever you have tried to understand during your spiritual search will prove false. Therefore nothing is to be understood. Deliberate on this.