February 1981


February 5, 1981

Questioner: It is very difficult to give up this attraction to the bodily identity.

Maharaj: You have to find out what this body is, then the job is done. Initially, the body is very minute. The consciousness appears in the body, and then the tiny body changes into a large one.

That causal body, which is very minute, needs to be known. By meditation you can know it.

The quality of that causal body takes on the appearance of the consciousness and the form. In this world there are many species, in all sizes; initially what was the size of each variety?

At the point where you first feel knowingness, consciousness is not static; it is a continuous state, just like a wheel moving. The center of the wheel, the axle, is not moving. As you proceed from the center of the axle outwardly, the movement increases, does it not? Similarly, the beginning of consciousness is like the center of a wheel; that point is steady, constant. In a human being that is the most constant principle. Since the day I was born until I am dead, that consciousness principle is there at that center. As you merge into the world, the movement increases. Watch that center point, watch that movement of consciousness. Chaitanya and Chetana, that central, stationary point of the wheel watches the movement of consciousness. The one that observes the movement is almost stationary.

To bring about the actions of the world — the movement — consciousness must descend. If there is no consciousness, there is no worldly movement.

Similarly, you must become stabilized in a more stationary position, near the center. When you leave that center point, the movement takes over.


February 7, 1981

Questioner: I am becoming more aware of my "I Amness" as a product of the food body.

Maharaj: You must be that principle prior to the emanation of the word "I". Suppose I get a prick here - that principle prior to the emanation of words knows there was a prick. Prior to words and feelings, you are.

Q: How is it possible to know and feel that Absolute?

M: This knowingness, or understanding, is in the realm of consciousness. Whatever you say that you know and feel is consciousness only. The Absolute is beyond this.

Q: In practice, how can we go further?

M: Deal with the consciousness only, get to know it thoroughly. That is all that can be done. Later on, everything happens spontaneously, doership goes.

Know the inside-out of consciousness and recognize it as useless; it is a fraud. When you transcend it, you will say, "I can manage without this. This is imperfect! Therefore, meditate in order to know the consciousness.

Q: I have never been able to meditate.

M: When you were unaware of this message of "I Am", how did you function? The questions I put, nobody can answer. All of you great scholars, people with a lot of knowledge, have gone in to quietude.

Q: My questions are answered.

M: When your problems are solved, you are also solved. I want you to dwell on that borderline of consciousness, no-consciousness.


February 8, 1981

Questioner: Sometimes I have a feeling of mindlessness I feel that only I exist. There is only one thing in the world. I don't have to do anything. I simply exist.

Maharaj: That state of being is common to all, that is the message "I Am" without words.

Q: Is it possible to remain stable?

M: Change is only in the mind-flow. All the studies you are doing are in the realm of the mind flow.

The sense of "I Am" is present because of your birth, through which you encounter many thoughts and concepts, always changing. Presently the message "I Am" is constant.

Q: How can one be in that no-mind state?

M: Prior to your birth and receiving the message "I Am", what were you?

Q: That is a mystery.

M: It is open, very clear, but still it is a mystery. Subsequent to that "I Am" and body-mind, and in the realm of the mind, there occurs what you call spiritual seeking, or spiritual knowledge. This is nonsense. In due course this message "I Am" will disappear.

Q: How can you say that? What about rebirth?

M: There is no rebirth. In the case of a jnani, the disappearance of the "I Am" will be termed as Niruta, free from the "I Am". In the case of an ordinary person, involved in mind, the disappearance of the message "I Am" will be expressed as "the person is dead and has taken another birth." You can never undertake studies about that no-message state; you are making studies in the mind zone.

Q: So the witnessing is only possible when there are modifications of the mind?

M: Witnessing happens. Remember one thing, I am addressing my talk to the message "I Am".

Q: How can I communicate with the "I Am", how can I listen?

M: Listening will come spontaneously—just as you wake up spontaneously and fall asleep spontaneously. Don't make any effort.

I did not extract my beingness from "there" and insert it into "here". It is happening spontaneously, and therefore I am experiencing it. During these talks you have gotten very angry; this is in the zone of mind modifications - it is not a reflection of your consciousness. The one who understands that anger is the message "I Am". All your spiritual studies are conducted with your identification with the body-mind.

Q: I think so, yes.

M: Unless you identify correctly who you are, how can you identify others correctly? Recognize your real Self.

Q: How shall I start?

M: Faith in God is one of the sadhanas. The firm faith in the Self is not a sadhana, it is abidance.

Q: I believe in God, or I do not believe in God-are these beliefs the same?

M: Who is saying this? What you say will be correct only when you have the conviction that you and God are one, then you will recognize that there cannot be a God without you. To know yourself is the real knowledge, but you cannot LOOK at yourself, you can only ABIDE in your Self. Give up your attachment to mind modifications.

Q: Sometimes it does happen. How can I transcend the mind?

M: Understand that you have no connection with this mind-flow; you are apart from it. Be watchful, be alert. A century ago, were you possessed by these mind-modifications?

Q: No.

M: Remain exactly like that.

Q: How can I remain in the "I Am"?

M: It is a stupid question. You are ALREADY that. Are you not already the "I Amness"?

Q: I can't be free from that?

M: A jnani has transcended the "I Amness" and only witnesses it.

Q: What kind of rule should a man choose for conducting himself in life?

M: This question emanates from your concepts. Throw out your concepts. In the course of your study of spirituality, you have acquired many concepts which you call that knowledge. Do you want me to be embroiled in your concepts?

That thought-flow is always there, except in deep sleep. Even for a jnani, the thought-flow is present but the thought has changed.

Most people are carried away by the thought-flow, but a rare person turns around, goes to the source and departs from the track of that original thought-flow, saying, "It is not mine, not my affair. This 'I Amness' is the product of objective material, it is not me. I am out of it. "The statements which come out of here will stick to you, and with that sticking, your spiritual job will be done. When you do anything it is for "me", but there is a limit to which that can go, isn't there?

Q: The needs are limitless.

M: I meet many people who, in the pursuit of happiness, are always miserable. Rarely do I encounter someone who says "I am content."


February 9, 1981

Maharaj: My present state is such that this consciousness and all this physical suffering are unbearable. I am prepared to dispose of it right now; this is the state of affairs. Nevertheless, people come here and these talks emanate out of the consciousness. I am addressing you as consciousness; you are the Godly consciousness. I am not concerned with your bodily affairs. But you listen from the body-mind standpoint; it is quite natural.

I am telling you about the consciousness. In my true state, if I had been aware of consciousness at the moment the body formation was taking place, I would have rejected it. But at that highest state such knowledge is not there and this body formation and consciousness are both spontaneous.

Questioner: Maharaj, will you please explain how we can dive further into that consciousness?

M: How long have you been following spirituality?

Q: For the last ten years.

M: Who were your guides or Gurus?

Q: Mostly I was reading. I had a Guru in Delhi.

M: Who is employing the body and the name given to it?

Q: That is what I want to discover.

M: You need not go in search of it. It will be spontaneous, but you have to wait. I had to wait such a long time to meet you.

Q: I will wait.

M: Now, understand the subtle difference, what are you and what do you understand to be you?

The body is not you, the name is not you. The body is the food you have consumed, the taste of it is the knowledge "I Am". That is Self, the feeling "I Am", that is the love to be.

How amazing, how incredible, it has no name, but you give many names to it. It is the Self, the love to be. That love to be is all-pervading.

Heaven, hell, countries, houses, these are all concepts. There were rock and earth, a concept was employed and buildings were built. Before you conceptualize anything, you are, even before the knowingness, you are.

You have only to apperceive this knowingness, the love to be, the Self.

Who will be listening to such dialogues? Only the Self in the body has the urge to understand.

People hasten to this place, traveling from distant countries, leaving their families for the time being, because the Self wants to know itself.


February 11, 1981

Maharaj: I studied the five-jeweled ornament, I have understood. It was a very precious gem, and the ultimate product was that diadem. I have understood the value of that, but I am not that.

The five gems are the five elemental body and consciousness, which I considered myself to be.

It is very precious because it has the value of the cosmos. I recognize it, and in the process of recognition, I know that I am not that.

Now I rarely speak, and when I speak, rarely does anyone understand. You might collect a lot of words, but will they remain with you? You are bereft of words and the meaning of words, you are not a personality. That birth principle which gives rise to the consciousness is not conditioned; it has come spontaneously and manifests as consciousness.

How caught up you are with the world! Until yesterday you did not have knowledge of your existence, and today you are loquacious; you are speaking so loudly, and you claim that you areBrahman.

Questioner: I know that I have to understand all this play of consciousness and conclude that this is like the child of a barren woman.

M: How are you going to catch that child of a barren woman? Just be in your beingness.


February 12, 1981

Maharaj: Nothing in the world is of any use to me. That very identity with which you try to understand everything is unreal. Daily you have to convince yourself about yourself. You have to carry out your life, first of all assuring yourself that you are. Nothing has happened except the knowingness, only a pin-prick of knowingness against the background of your innate nature of no knowingness, and this is of no help at all. 

I don't have any identity arising out of consciousness.

Presently this body is undergoing a lot of agony: dizziness, pain; all these things are happening at the physical level. In spite of this state, the talk comes out inspiringly. What permits that? It is the guna, the beingness. That beingness not only experiences your visits here, but it also experiences various changes and transformations in this body and in the world.

Sometimes I experience the state of lying in some rubbish, and other times I experience that people are worshipping me. But that is all in the realm of consciousness. I realize this is all the outcome of that birth principle "I Am".

Will the space and the stars feel unhappy about the dirt in the world? It is part of the game in that universal space. Consciousness is subtler than space. You are bent on having knowledge at the most mundane level, but whatever knowledge you collect is bound to disappear.

There is only one truth in the world, and that is that everything is unreal. I am the Unmanifested talking through the Manifest. When the body, the mind, the vital breath drop off, nothing happens; only I, the Absolute, prevail always. No knowledge is called for to understand this truth, because that knowledge is innate.

What you have learned here will be your guide. The sprouting will take place.


February 13, 1981

Questioner: I have so many questions to ask that it is chaotic.

Maharaj: Your questions are regarding the concepts of others. Ask questions only regarding yourself.

Q: I don't know my Self, how can I reach that point, how can I come to that?

M: The fact that you do not know your Self is very appropriate; you are not the body, nor the name of the body, therefore how can you know your Self?

Q: How can I experience my Self?

M: Is it because of the body that you do not see your Self?

Q: Perhaps because "l am".

M: I am leading you in that direction. You are; because you are, your world is. You are lost in the names and titles imprinted on that world. Give up the habit of labelling whatever you are. Be what you were prior to the label or title, be that.

Q: Is it intuitive, not of the mind?

M: Don't employ the mind, do nothing.

Q: Should you not be aware?

M: That awareness will be there provided you are. You must give up all you have read and heard, and just be. Don't be carried away by concepts. Truth is eternal; whatever you can grasp is unreal.

Even your experience that you are is not your true nature. You, as the Absolute, are not this "I Amness", but presently you have to abide in your "I Amness".

Q: I feel afraid.

M: Because you have assumed something as "I Am", which actually you are not, that is why you are afraid. Suppose you find a diamond ring on the road and you pocket it. Since it is not yours, a fear overcomes you. When you put on an identity that is not yours, you are afraid. When you are the pure "I Amness" only, there is no fear. Presently you are this "I Am", but this "I Am" is not the truth. Whatever you are prior to the appearance of "I Am", that is your true nature.

February 25, 1981Maharaj: Each one lives in the world according to certain preconceived concepts. Whatever spiritual knowledge he thinks he may have achieved, he continues to live according to those concepts.

Questioner: What is it like to live with no concepts?

M: Any answer given to you will be a concept.

Q: How can one know that he is beyond concepts?

M: Merely to understand, without the slightest doubt, with great conviction, that there is a state prior to the arising of this consciousness. That, itself is, sufficient.

Q: How can one differentiate between just having the thought of it and living it?

M: How do you understand anything? Any knowledge of any kind that you think you have can only be in the consciousness. How can the consciousness, which came later, give you any knowledge about that state which exists prior to its arrival?

Any thought that you have reached or are going to reach that state is false. Whatever happens in consciousness is purely imaginary, an hallucination; therefore, keep in mind the knowledge that it is consciousness in which everything is happening. With that knowledge, be still, do not pursue any other thoughts which arise in consciousness. What is necessary is to understand with sure conviction is that all is temporary, and does not reflect your true state.


February 27, 1981

Questioner: Could Maharaj speak on the relationship between body and spirit?

Maharaj: You must get to know your own Self. This body is not your true nature. The principle by which you know "I Am" is your true nature.

Q: What responsibility do I have towards other people?

M: You have built your responsibilities around the teachings which you have derived from the world, but what is that "you" which is accepting all the responsibility? You must understand that first. You are identifying yourself as a body; that is not Self-knowledge.

Q: I don't always feel that I am the body; when I become still and concentrate, I realize that there is more than just flesh and blood there. It is a new realization for me.

M: Have you come to the conclusion that there is no difference between different groups of people?

Q: Except that some people are more greedy and ambitious. I like to visit foreign countries, meet various kinds of people with different customs.

M: Don't roam about; don't come here, either. Abide in quietude, peace, stability. Here we are not engaged in any buying or selling. That knowledge "I Am", without concepts, is evoked or stimulated by the consciousness and peace which emanate from this place.

Q: That is why it is valuable to be with Maharaj.

M: I am not able to speak much. Don't ask questions. If you want, you may go elsewhere.

Q: I have been with Maharaj before and I have felt a profound effect from that visit. I understood more.

M: Whatever the experiencer feels or thinks is all in the consciousness, and is not real.

Q: It is difficult for me to express.

M: There is no individual looking at another individual; the sense of presence is cognizing. Other than that, there is nothing. This state of consciousness cognizing what appears in consciousness is being witnessed as a temporary state. The alternate states of waking, sleeping, and the sense of presence are all temporary states that have come upon me. I am not the states. They have all come spontaneously and will go spontaneously. No one has any control over them. Are any of these states your true nature?

Q: The sense of presence is what I feel I am.

M: Will that remain permanently? You must understand that truth is not changeable. Truth is constant and eternal, whereas the combination of these three states has come upon you and were not there earlier. Whatever is temporary and time-bound cannot be the truth.

It is good, as far as it goes, that you have identified with this sense of presence, but understand that even that is temporary and not your true nature.

The most important thing for you is the "I Am". Just be that and the necessary guidance will come.

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