
June 6, 1981
Maharaj: The material of which the body is constituted is getting weary and weak, and along with it, this knowledge is also getting weak. The sense of presence is still with me because that material of which the body is made still has a little strength. When that little strength goes away, then the consciousness will also disappear, then there will be no sense of presence - but I shall very much be, without the sense of presence.
Each of you is trying to protect yourself. What is it that you are trying to protect? However much you may protect, how long will it last? Go, to the root and find out what it is that you are trying to protect and preserve, and how long it will remain.
The only'spiritual way of understanding your true nature is to find out the source of this concept "I Am." Before the sense of presence arrived I was in that state in which the concept of time was never there. So, what is born?
It is the concept of time and that event which is birth, living, and death together constitute nothing but time, duration.
Once you understand this, everything will be clear; until you understand it, nothing will be clear. Is this not simple and easy?
Questioner: Words are simple, but apprehending what those words mean will be difficult.
M: What is it in the absence of which you would not be able to understand even the words? Go to the root of that source.
In apprehending what I have told you this morning, the intellect is totally impotent. There must be an intuitive apprehension of it.
June 8, 1981
Maharaj: People don't really understand what I say. They partially understand and form their own concepts, but the real Self knowledge is not there.
Suppose there is a seed which is going to produce a great tree. If you cut that seed you must be able to see the tree in the seed. The tree which I got is that seed which is called the seed of birth, when I broke it open I got the Self knowledge. Other than Self knowledge, what other capital do I have?
I have met so many so-called jnanis, but the real one, who has seen the tree in the seed, I have not seen so far.
In the advanced stages what happens to the intellect? To the disappearance of the intellect at old age, there is a witness. How can you describe that witness?
Questioner: Thoughts and emotions are always arising and distracting me. What shall I do?
M. You are before any thought can arise. All thoughts, etc., which arise are merely movements in consciousness. Once consciousness arises, everything arises - the world and all the transactions in the world. Merely witness them. It takes place, there is no individual to. witness. Witnessing takes place of the total functioning of the universal consciousness.
Because I totally negate the individual, this will appeal only to one in a million.
Q: There are so many people who are thoroughly dissatisfied, always searching for something and never satisfied. Why is that?
M. You will never be satisfied until you find out that you are what you are seeking. If you want knowledge as an individual, you will not get it here. If you are satisfied with this knowledge, you may come and sit still. If you cannot accept this negating of yourself, you may leave. I will understand, it will not affect me.
That which has never happened at all, that is the child of a barren woman - what fear can you have for that? It is imagined, unreal. Out of that hallucination, if somebody wants something, is it not seeking the real in the totally unreal?
Q. If it were real then we could do something about it.
M. Correct. You see something, that is true, but what you see is an illusion, like a dream. What we see in a dream seems very real, but we know that it is unreal.
In spite of understanding all this, still it is difficult to give up this form identity of a male or a female.
Without the form, the knowledge cannot be given. For the Absolute to manifest Itself, the matter must be there. The Absolute unmanifested and the manifested are not two - it is merely the expression of It, like the shadow and the substance.
This love of being is not of an individual being, it is the nature of the entire universal consciousness.
June 11, 1981 (Morning)
Maharaj: It is only when the identity with the body-mind has been firmly rejected and identity with the consciousness has been thoroughly established that what I say will have any meaning. What you are is the unlimited, which is not susceptible to the senses. By limiting yourself to the body you have closed yourself to the unlimited potential which you really are.
In meditation it is consciousness which meditates on itself and remains within itself. If you accept what I have told you, then you do not take delivery of what is happening spontaneously in the world, and you are not concerned with either the cause or the effect. You then accept your true nature.
Whatever actions take place through the body will take place independently of that which you really are.
Bear in mind that when this life force (that which is the breath and consciousness) leaves the body, it will not seek permission from anything.
It came spontaneously and will leave spontaneously; that is all that happens in that which is called death. There is no one who is born or who will die.
Questioner: As I understand it, the purpose of life is merely to understand that what has been manifested and what is functioning is the universal consciousness. Other than understanding, there is nothing to be done. Is this correct?
M: Correct. Everything is spontaneous, automatic, natural, it is only the concept of me and mine that is the bondage. When simple people like you are here, I am at peace, not disturbed, but when people come who consider themselves jnanis, who have the pride of knowledge and wish to show off their knowledge, then there is disturbance.
Q. This is a very high kind of knowledge, at a very high level; until it is absorbed what should an ordinary man do?
M: So long as there is receptivity, a deep desire to understand it, there is nothing to be done. The knowledge itself will result in whatever is to result. It is not mental or intellectual caliber that is required, but an intuitive sense of discrimination.
So, now you are not the body, having accepted it, can you continue to identify with the body?
Q. Do body and mind have an importance?
M. Everything has its importance.
Q Must we not take care of the body?
M. One takes care of something with which one identifies, but you have nothing to do with body-mind anymore, so why are you concerned in taking care of them?
When you are the space you are no more the body, but whatever is contained in the space, and the space, you are. You are now manifest whatever is known - the space. This space is known by chidakash. When you are the chidakash you are subtler than the physical space, expansiveness is more. A jnani transcends in various stages these subtleties, skies, spaces. In chidakash he is still confined, still conditioned by thinking "I Am," therefore the next is Paramakash. Paramakash is the highest, in which there are other akashes - seven. In chidakash this knowingness is "I Am." In Paramakash there is no is or is not, It transcends everything.'
June 11, 1981 (Evening)
Questioner: What is love? Does it fu 111 a need or pleasure?
Maharaj: Yes. When you see something and you like it, this liking is love for that object. When anger and frustration arise, that too is part of love. It is quite good and very bad also. All the experiences of suffering are the result of love. Find out what is the requisite for all this play of love and hate. It is that love for beingness, existence, which gives rise to all pain and miseries. You have to face it because you love to be. Prior to any love, that love for being is there. It tastes both the qualities of love and misery, pleasure and pain.
Take the case of this flame (of the cigarette lighter) it gives the light, the warmth, and it can also burn.
Q. Can I be away from it?
M. What are you that wants to be away from it? If you are apart from me I can keep you out of me, but whatever is is not apart from me.
What is the "you" that has sprouted, that has taken root? That alone is the cause of pleasure and pain.
When you understand this, it is all over - finished. Then you do some clapping, shout and scream out of exuberance; all the show is over.
The knowledge I am giving is going to dispel all the so-called knowledge you have.
Ajnani is subtle like the space. What is the space like? You assume there is the sky - what is it like? This knowledge is subtler than the space. The father of the space is the knowledge "I Am."
Q: How do you know consciousness?
M. The way you started knowing yourself -exactly the same way. When you know that you are it will be the same as acquiring yourself nevertheless, you were all along, were you not? What is the use of concluding logically? You must say right here and now - here he is - in actuality.
Q. Why does Maharaj take such an interest in me then?
M. Who is taking an interest in whom? Who is having the doership of that? It is all happening spontaneously.
June 13, 1981
Maharaj: In common spiritual parlance knowledge means repeating what you have heard - presentation of intelligence. They think it is spiritual, but no one tries to find out what he is, does not look at himself.
When a boy and girl get married they are intensely interested in each other, similarly, when one gets married to spirituality one is always occupied with thoughts or deliberations concerning spirituality.
Are you the blood flowing inside, are you the skin, the bones? You are not. When you investigate thus and come to understand that you are not the body, you will eliminate everything -whatever you are not.
Finally, what will you be? Come to this point.
You are so much addicted to the things which you learn by heart, the rituals, the bhajans, etc., that unless you recite them every day you will not get any satisfaction of feeling happy.
These ritualistic practices are given for the ignorant, to keep their body-mind busy, but having the body-mind is to know that you are and it has no name or form.
These is no question of pleasure or pain, nor fear of death, for one who understands. If one identifies with the body then one is caught up in the relations related to the body.
My words are few and short, but they are very effective. There are many volumes written about spirituality which do not destroy your concepts, but add to them. All the volumes do not tell you what you are.
Questioner: What is meant by chinmayananda and sat-chit-ananda?
M. People sometimes dance when they sing bhajans, they lose themselves, so that state is called chinmayananda. To have that chinmayananda, the first touch of consciousness is necessary. Ananda means bliss, and this is a quality of mind - a higher realm of the mind - but present in the consciousness. The prerequisite is the kiss of consciousness which is necessary for that highest state of exultation or exhilaration, that is chinmayananda and sat-chit-ananda.
I have come to the firm conclusion that I am nothing, I have no design, no color, I have no image of myself.
In the early morning when the waking state happens, that kiss of beingness appears, vibrant in the entire universe, and vibrating in myself. Also I observe this same thing when I take rest in the afternoon.
But if you want to judge me at a physical level, I am not able to lift this pot of water, that is how much strength is left in the body, but that touch of all the vibrant universe - that is the touch of my "I Amness."
I am the knower of the Brahman, I am the Brahmanjnani, nevertheless, this touch of beingness is misery only.
June 15, 1981
Maharaj: Once the knowledge has dawned in you, you are a jnani, you are no more a human person. You are the manifest Brahman, Chetana, the dynamic manifest Brahman.
Earlier your thoughts used to be connected with the body and the relatives of the body, but having gotten disassociated from the body mind and established in the state of dynamic consciousness, what could be the quality of your thoughts? Your thoughts will be more subtle, if there are any thoughts. Nevertheless, this dynamic consciousness is the quality of the food body. So long as the body is, the consciousness is.
Whatever you talk and receive in the morning, you will continue repeating until you fall into sleep; nobody inquires at this level - all this functioning - how does it happen? What is the quality of this functioning and how does it occur? What are you? Inquire into it.
Only a few people are capable of understanding this. That is why I send people away - because it is of no use, just listening to words - but if that firm faith is there what I say will dawn in them. The inadequacies of the intellect should be made up by this very strong faith.
Beingness is there, the consciousness is there, and because it is there, the world is there. When the consciousness only prevails, when people talk, I don't understand; only the conscious presence is felt and not the details of what is happening. Because of the conscious presence you count me as present; if the consciousness is not there, you will say I am not present.
June 17, 1981
[The questioner was quoting scriptures right and left.]
Maharaj: The moment the waking state starts the worshipping of misery begins. When did you have the first birth?
Questioner: I don't know anything about it.
M. Then how do you accept this about the Ultimate? This is not your direct experience, it is borrowed knowledge from books. How can you accept what is not your direct experience?
There was a robbery in Delhi, the police may arrest you here and accuse you of it. Have you ever been to Delhi?
Q: No.
M. Then why did you accept this birth? What are shastras or scriptures? It is merely the do's and don'ts on how we should behave in the world. Don't bring that here. Whether you accept this birth or not was the original question. Why bring in all this tall talk? Reading scriptures is all right for the ignorant. The next step is to give it up and try to understand what you are.
Shake off all that you have read and try to understand now. You must apply- your discrimination. It is of no use just blindly accepting what the scriptures have said. Accept them up to a certain stage - after that you must be strong enough or mature enough to use your discrimination.
People move about in search of knowledge but they are caught up in the trap of words and in the fond concepts developed by so-called Sages. A certain Sage will ask you to behave in one way; you go to another Sage and he will have you behave in another way. Thus you are caught up in the concepts of others. There is the story of a rishi in the scriptures who drank the waters of the seven oceans in one handful - are you going to believe this? Employ your discrimination. You speak of acharana, the code of behavior; charana means the one who has to behave, charana means only "I love" state, "I Am" state, the state of consciousness, the feeling of being, without words. From that condition the movement in consciousness begins.
Loki and aloki: loki we normally take as worldly; lok means various personalities. Whatever is prescribed by the personality is Loki, or whatever is followed by the people. Aloki is transcending the worldly. Aloki, it is not known to you. These devotees love me, but they don't understand me in the aloki sphere.
Spiritual talk is lokic talk, common talk, trying to give an image to others. Here there is no image or design - now, how can you become one with that? You have to have an image or design. Whatever knowledge we talk about has to be communicated by words, but that is not the Ultimate.
You want to possess knowledge, to collect knowledge. Such knowledge is plentiful and available in the world, but a rare person will understand that such knowledge is a bundle of ignorance.
You will make a study of those concepts which erupt from you; those concepts which you do not like will not occur to you. If you are interested in spiritual living, your thoughts and concepts will relate to that.
I have said what I have to say. There is no question of saying anything more. Because you come here I treat you with courtesy, but I am fully convinced that you and I have no design. I am afraid that what I say will not reach your real core; therefore you do bhajans. As a matter of fact, you should not visit me at all.
Bhishwa was on a bed of arrows in his last days; I am also on a bed of arrows of suffering.
June 26, 1981
Maharaj: For those who are sitting here the benefit you get will not be different from the benefit you get sitting under the shade of several thickly leaved trees. Sitting under the trees there is a certain amount of peace and the feelings of well-being. Stay in peace.
My teachings are emanating out of this consciousness. It is like a big shady tree for relaxation; you come here and sit and feel the relaxation, but you are not able to say what it is like. In that state you are not able to explain by words. You are in a relaxed state but the deeper meaning is reveling in the Self, abiding and subsiding in the Self - that is why you feel relaxed and happy.
Whatever sentences you hear in this state will not be forgotten.
Swartha - swa means Self and artha - meaning. Swartha has great meaning. Swartha means selfishness and swa means the meaning of the Self. Words have meaning in the practical world which will make you selfish, but the words which emanate here will give you the meaning of your own Self.
[A mother and son came and garlanded Maharaj and distributed prasad to everyone present.]
M. The deep state of simple, innocent people comes to fruition in this fashion. She prayed that her son would pass the examination. Her own faith worked.
If you enjoy this relaxed state here, and if you become one with this state, you will also transcend this state. You will even transcend into a state prior to the birth of Gods.
With this understanding, do what you like. Carry out your worldly activities. When you understand the meaning of swa - the Self - there will be no room for selfishness.
Understand this thoroughly, abide in it, then in due course you will realize it. When the time is ripe, only then it will happen.
What is your worth? You are the consciousness through which the world is expressed. Abide in that worthiness. Don't step down into mind and the body. Again, you must have the firm conviction that you are unaffected by birth and death. You are like space, not only like space, you are prior to space.
That Ultimate you can never be lost. Whatever you have lost, you have lost only the words. I have told you enough and whatever you have heard, retain it, deliberate over it, ponder over it, and be one with that.