November 1980


November 8, 1980

Questioner: Why is it that we naturally seem to think of ourselves as separate individuals?

Maharaj: Your thoughts about individuality are really not your own thoughts; they are all collective thoughts. You think that you are the one who has the thoughts; in fact thoughts arise in consciousness.

As our spiritual knowledge grows, our identification with an individual body-mind diminishes ,and our consciousness expands into universal consciousness. The life force continues to act, but its thoughts and actions are no longer limited to an individual. They become the total manifestation. It is like the action of the wind - the wind doesn't blow for any particular individual, but for the total manifestation.

Q: As an individual can we go back to the source?

M: Not as an individual; the knowledge "I Am" must go back to its own source.

Now, consciousness has identified with a form. Later, it understands that it is not that form and goes further. In a few cases it may reach the space, and very often, there it stops. In a very few cases, it reaches its real source, beyond all conditioning.

It is difficult to give up that inclination of identifying the body as the self. I am not talking to an individual, I am talking to the consciousness. It is consciousness which must seek its source. Out of that no-being state comes the beingness. It comes as quietly as twilight, with just a feel of "I Am" and then suddenly the space is there. In the space, movement starts with the air, the fire, the water, and the earth. All these five elements are you only. Out of your consciousness all this has happened.

There is no individual. There is only you, the total functioning is you, the consciousness is you.

You are the consciousness, all the titles of the Gods are your names, but by clinging to the body you hand yourself over to time and death—you are imposing it on yourself.

I am the total universe. When I am the total universe I am in need of nothing because I am everything. But I cramped myself into a small thing, a body; I made myself a fragment and became needful. I need so many things as a body.

In the absence of a body, do you, and did you, exist? Are you, and were you, there or not?

Attain that state which is and was prior to the body. Your true nature is open and free, but you cover it up, you give it various designs.


November 9, 1980

Questioner: Should the type of dispassion which Maharaj is teaching us be taught to children?

Maharaj: No. If that's done, they'll have no ambition to grow further; they must have certain ambitions, certain desires, for their proper growth.

The one who has fully investigated himself, the one who has come to understand, will never try to interfere in the play of consciousness. There is no creator with a vast intellect as such; all this play is going on spontaneously. There's no intellect behind it, so don't try to impose yours to bring about any change; leave it alone. Your intellect is a subsequent product of this process, so how can your intellect take charge of or even evaluate, the whole creation? Investigate your self; this is the purpose of your being.

Spirituality is nothing more than understanding this play of consciousness—try to find out what this fraud is by seeking its source.

November 12, 1980

Maharaj: The "I Amness", the manifest Brahman, and Isvara are all only one; ponder over this and realize it. This is a rare opportunity, one where all has been explained in great detail, so take full advantage of it.

You are the manifest Brahman. I have told you many times what your true state is, but, through force of habit, you again descend into body identification. A stage has now arrived at which you must give up this bodily identification. The bodily activities will continue until the body drops off,but you should not identify with them.

Questioner: How are we to do this?

M: You can watch the body, so you are not the body. You can watch the breath, so you are not the vital breath. In the same way, you are not the consciousness; but you have to become one with the consciousness. As you stabilize in the consciousness, dispassion for the body and for the expressions through the body occurs spontaneously. It is a natural renunciation, not a deliberate one.

It does not mean that you should neglect your worldly duties; carry these out with full zest.

Q: Shouldn't we rediscover the freedom of the little baby from the body?

M: Understand the source of child. The child is a product of the sperm of the father and the ovum of the mother. Consciousness is there in the child as it is in the parents; it is always the same consciousness whether in the child or the adult. There is only one consciousness. You must become one with and stabilize in that consciousness, then you transcend it. That consciousness is your only capital. Understand it.

To what extent do you know yourself?

Q: I have held the feet of Sat-guru, beyond that I don't know anything.

M: You must do that, but you should understand the meaning of "feet of Sat-guru." Understand that, as movement begins with the feet, so movement begins from no-knowingness to knowingness.

When the knowingness occurs, that is Sat-guru movement. Go to the source for that movement where the "I Amness" begins. The effort of the one who has arrested that movement will not go to waste. Holding the feet of the Sat-guru is the border line between knowingness and no-knowingness.


November 17, 1980

Questioner: Don't we have to discard all knowledge?

Maharaj: You must have a thorough knowledge of this consciousness, and having known everything about the consciousness you come to the conclusion that it is all unreal, and then it should drop off. Having listened to these talks, sit and meditate, "That which I have heard, is it true or not?" Then you will understand that this is also to be discarded.

The principle which can pass judgment on whether the world is or is not, that principle antedates the world. That by which everything is known, whether it is or is not - who knows this?

When I say Parabrahman, then you say that you understand. Names are merely an instrument for communicating. Do you understand what I am driving at?

Q: The jnani knows that this is all an illusion, that there is no path; but if from within the illusion, one is convinced that there is a path, and there's somewhere to go, does it make sense to use techniques to get to that further illusion?

M: Illusion - is it a word or not?

Q: It's a word that relates to a concept.

M: That is also a name only, is it not?

Q: Yes.

M: So what illusory word do you want that will satisfy you?

November 18, 1980

Maharaj: My present outlook is without limitation, total freedom.

Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation. By meditating, the knowledge "I Am" gradually settles down and merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally free, like the sky, or space.

Those who come here with the idea of getting knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, come here as individuals aspiring to get something; that is the real difficulty. The seeker must disappear.

When you know your real nature the knowledge "I Am" remains, but that knowledge is unlimited. It is not possible for you to acquire knowledge, you are knowledge. You are what you are seeking.

Your true being exists prior to the arising of any concept. Can you, as an object, understand something that existed prior to the arising of a concept? In the absence of consciousness is there any proof of the existence of anything? Consciousness itself is mind, is thought, is all phenomena, all manifestation. Apprehending this is being dead to "I am the body" while alive. This kind of knowledge comes only in a rare case, and is a very elusive kind of knowledge where no effort is necessary; in fact, effort itself is a hindrance. It is intuitive understanding.

Questioner: Then should all spiritual disciplines be dropped?

M: At the highest level this is so; at the earlier levels you have to do your homework.

Those who are able intuitively to grasp this lose their interest in worldly affairs. Having lost it, what will they get? Whatever they have lost, they will have lost as an ordinary person, but what they get in return will be fit for a King. Those who have comprehended and who have reached a certain stage will not ask for anything, but everything will come to them spontaneously. There will be no wish for it; nevertheless, it will be there.

This does not happen for an individual — it happens for the universal manifestation, or for the one who has become one with his true nature. For the jnani, only witnessing is taking place.


November 20, 1980

Maharaj: The principle which can know itself is in the organism. In a worm crawling, it is there, because the worm knows itself instinctively.

By listening to my talks you will be transformed back to your original state, prior to your birth.

Right now, in spite of your present life, it will happen. My present talk is quite different now, at a higher level; therefore I do not invite anybody to listen to my present talks. I recommend that nobody should come and listen because they will develop a dispassion for their family or daily life.

Language energy and vital breath energy should merge and stabilize. Otherwise, if you allow them to go outward, they will be dissipated.

If you want peace, stabilize at that point where you started to be, stay put there. Om is the unstruck sound, the unpronounced word.

You don't respond to my talks, you have not been able to perceive the nature of your consciousness. Consciousness is something like the drama of a play, play-acting. You are unsupported, you have no support at all. The birth, the parents, all this is illusion. Taking the body as oneself is the accident. If you don't cling to the body as your identity, everything is all right.

When beingness forgets itself, that state is Parabrahman. This knowingness is not your true state, it is the outcome of the food essence body, and you, the Absolute, are not that.


November 21, 1980

Maharaj: Whatever I had thought earlier has now changed. What is happening now is that even the slightest touch of individuality has completely disappeared, and it is consciousness as such which is spontaneously experiencing. The result is total freedom. All the time there was complete conviction that it was consciousness which was experiencing; but that "I" which the consciousness was experiencing was there. Now that has totally disappeared; therefore, whatever happens in the field of consciousness, I, who am there before consciousness, am not concerned in any way. The experience is of consciousness experiencing itself.

Nevertheless, understand what consciousness is, even if consciousness is not an individual. The basis and source of consciousness is in the material. What I say is still in the conceptual world, and you need not accept it as truth. Nothing in the conceptual world is true.

Once the disease was diagnosed, the very name of the disease started various thoughts and concepts. Watching those thoughts and concepts I came to the conclusion that whatever is happening is in the consciousness. I told the consciousness, "It is you who is suffering, not I." If consciousness wants to continue to suffer, let it remain in the body. If it wants to leave the body, let it. Either way, I am not concerned.

All kinds of things were happening, thoughts and experiences, and they were credited to my account, but once I have seen what it is, all those account books have been burned and I no longer have any account.

How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever. Whatever is happening, and the experiencing of the happening, takes place in this consciousness when the "I Am" arises.

November 24, 1980

Questioner: If there is no difference between what is prior to birth and what is after death there is no difference, is there any reason for attempting to learn who we are now? Isn't it all the same?

Maharaj: The light coming from the sun and the sun itself -is there any difference?

Q: The only difference is what happens in the middle?

M: Whatever happens between birth and death is also an expression of the consciousness only.

Even in the realm of consciousness you pass the time entertaining various concepts; what else are you doing?

Q: Is Maharaj playing with various concepts?

M: No. It is the consciousness, it plays by itself.

Q: Does Maharaj's consciousness play, even though he is detached from it?

M: Consciousness is not private property, it is universal.

Q: Though we understand this, sometimes it seems confined to a body.

M: You are trying to understand with the intellect; just be. When I tell you that you are that dynamic, manifest knowledge, you are everything. What else do you want?

Q: I am aware that I came here because Maharaj gives me the mirror, but this time he is showing me that I am my own mirror.

M: That is why you should not stay for long.

Q: After we leave here, what are we to do?

M: It is up to you. If you abide in consciousness everything will be happening spontaneously. If you are still at body-mind level, you will think that you are doing something. If you really abide in what I say, you become one with your Self. Then people will be serving you, they will fall at your feet. Whatever is necessary for you will happen. Activities are bound to happen. Consciousness can never remain inactive, it will always be busy -that is its nature. When you come here, you have certain expectations, certain aspirations, but after listening to my talks you lose all that.

Q: Even when I have an intuitive understanding of this, what is this reluctance to give up all that I am not?

M: You have not stabilized firmly in that understanding. Your conviction should be such that no question at all should arise in future about that. For example, a person is dead and has been cremated, it is all over, is there any question about that? Like that, it will be all over.

Q: What effort do I need to make toward that?

M: Effortlessly, just be.

When the consciousness fully understands the consciousness, will it embrace the body as itself? It is in totality; it is not going to pick out a fragment of the manifestation and say," I am this." The consciousness expresses itself as does a light. This five elemental play is the manifestation of consciousness, the effulgence of consciousness only. The play of the five elements will finally merge into the consciousness, because it is an outcome of the consciousness.


November 25, 1980

Maharaj: People come here and stay for days, weeks, even months. The first few days what they have heard takes root, and that is when they should leave, so that what has taken root will have time to grow and blossom. As soon as the seed takes root, they must go. What has taken root must bloom, must express itself within each heart.

Questioner: Maharaj has said, in this respect, that the teachings were his Gurus, but the understanding was his.

M: My Guru told me that consciousness alone is the Guru, all other developments sprouted within me. The fruit should grow on your own plant. I should not sow my understandings in you.

I have no use for traditions or traditional knowledge. If you do the slightest research on tradition you will see that it is all a concept. I am concerned with only one fact. Here I was in my wholeness, not even aware of my awareness, then suddenly this consciousness sprang up. How did it come about? That is the question which needs investigating.

One must understand how clever this fraud of Maya is; first it shows us our body and makes us believe that we are the body, but the body is nothing but a speck of fertilized sperm, and in that sperm the consciousness is latent. You see what a fraud it is?

The essence of the body is the essence of the foodstuff, and this consciousness lies dormant in it from the very beginning. In that state of consciousness is the entire universe. Having seen this, whoever has understood is bound to be quiet, knowing that this is only a transient happening. An enormous structure of concepts being taught to us as knowledge is based on the simple appearance of consciousness.

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