
May 9, 1981
Questioner: If there is a painful illness, does the jnani suffer it like anyone else?
Maharaj: In the case of ajnani the mind and intellect do not function. They do not register what is being suffered, but the suffering is even more intense because in the case of an individual it is the body which suffers. In the case of ajnani it is the consciousness that suffers, so anything that is experienced in consciousness becomes exaggerated many times more. But you need not bother with this stage, because it is a rare case. In the case of ajnani the state is that of total disassociation from the body-mind.
As an entity, a certain amount of disassociation with the body is a pleasing state - a state to which people look forward and accept. In the case of ajnani, the disassociation is further and total, therefore there is no question of any effect of such a state, pleasing or otherwise. The result is that there are no wants or desires. This is the way in which I experience - I don't know about others.
Q. Can Maharaj give me knowledge?
M. Understand this: ajnani cannot give knowledge to anyone. All he can do is point to that which is your true nature. With such a condition offered here, I don't know why people are attracted to this place. There is nothing I can give anybody who comes here. The attraction to this place is spontaneous and not understandable intellectually.
If what I have been saying is clearly understood by anyone the effective result will be that even in the daily working of the individual's life there will not be any specific intention. Things will continue in a sort of ballbearing fashion - without any deliberate intention or deliberate action.
In my own case, throughout the day the body carries out its normal functions; things go on in a normal way and nothing is resisted.
Throughout the whole day there is no interest in understanding what is happening.
Up until eight o'clock the intellect did not function; now I am aware of a little perception of my intellect.
In the life of ajnani, nojnani will expose this secret. Not only will he have no desires or expectations, but neither will he have the attraction "to be." The attraction of the consciousness to be is not there. To have any hopes, expectations, etc., one must have an image, an identity.
May 10, 1981
Maharaj: That which you like most - that itself is "I Am," the conscious presence - but that is not going to last forever. When this flame is extinguished, what is the profit or loss to the flame? What does the flame represent?
Questioner: The knowledge, the consciousness.
M. What is going to happen to that consciousness? Only in order to realize it, to understand it, do we have all this spirituality. When the f lame is extinguished it needs do nothing about itself. Similarly, understand, when the body drops off and the consciousness is extinguished.
You need do nothing. With this understanding, do what you like in the world.
Presently you are tied down to the bondage of the body, and that is conceptual. The very thought of any advantage or disadvantage is dissolved when one realizes this knowledge.
For the sake of that principle you are involving yourself in many activities. When that very principle is dissolved into nothingness, what are you going to do?
Don't try to pick and choose, and say "this I must do and that I must not do." Don't impose such conditions on yourself.
An ant crawls on your body and stings you; by that bite or sting you know the ant is there. Just so, the feeling of this conscious presence "I Am" is due to the material body.
Having understood this, where is the person who should hold on to the worldly life or should give it up? The question does not arise. If you are fully charged with this knowledge, in spite of the worldly difficulties no difficulties will touch you.
This cryptic blunt talk will not be available elsewhere. At other places you will be given certain concepts arising out of consciousness and out of those concepts more concepts are developed, and you are misled. Any type of concept in the realm of consciousness is unreal. Will the world listen to such talks?
What are you? Are you that birth principle, that body, which is born of the secretion of the parents? The one who gets this knowledge is free from worldly or family problems.