К вопросам о самореализации

Объявление

Форум переехал ----> https://selfrealization.info

Информация о пользователе

Привет, Гость! Войдите или зарегистрируйтесь.



Quotes of Nisargadatta Maharaj

Сообщений 21 страница 30 из 37

21

http://uploads.ru/i/w/d/W/wdWSc.jpg


July 9, 1980

Maharaja Understand that it is not the individual which has
consciousness, it is the consciousness which assumes innumerable forms.
That something which is born or which will die is purely imaginary. It is
the child of a barren woman.
In the absence of this basic concept "I Am" there is no thought, there is
no consciousness.
Questioner: Maharaj has said that ifyou stay in the consciousness, the beingness, it
will automatically happen, that you will transcend the consciousness. Is this true, there
is nothing more to be done?
M. Suppose I am sitting here and you come, I come to know that you
are, the witnessing happens automatically. Has anything been done?
No. It is like that. It is simple. You should understand. Just like a raw
mango becomes a ripe mango, it happens. Many people get satisfied in the
consciousness state.
Q: I am not going to be satisfied until I am in Maharaj s state.
M. Whatever you consider yourself to be at the moment, when you get rid
of that, whatever your true nature, it is spontaneous. Abide in the words
of the Guru.
Q When you read Maharaj's teachings you want very much to be in his company.
There is something very enlivening about that. Is it important or essential?
M. It is very advantageous to get rid of all your doubts. That's why the
questions and answers are required. This is the place where you get rid
of all concepts. The trees which are near the sandalwood tree also have
the same smell, because of proximity.
What is the Self? If you want to expand, the entire world is the
manifestation. At the same time it is very tiny - the seed beingness - like
an atom, a pinprick of "I Amness."
That is the very source of love. Such a potential is there, having
provided that love to the entire world; it remains in that seed "I Am," the
leftover is that "I Am." That pinprick or touch of "I Amness" is the
quintessence of all essence.
One must have firm abidance or faith in the words of the Guru. Here I
do not repeat or imitate what other sages do. I am not championing any
religion. I have no pose or stance for anything, not even that I am a man or
a woman. The moment you accept any pose or stance you have to take care
of that by following certain disciplines relating to that pose. I abide in the
Self only.
I do not believe that anybody did exist prior to me. When my beingness
appeared, then everything appeared. Prior to my beingness,
nothing was. Originally I am without any stigma, uncovered by anything.
The Paramatman is the core Self, the highest Self. Its identity is without
any stigma, it is subtler than space.
Why are you dying? Understand the first moment, when you
understood that you are. Due to what? How?
Once you understand this, you are the highest of the Gods -the
point at which everything rises; the source and the end is the same point.
Once you understand that point, you are released from that point.
Nobody tries to understand this happening of the "I Amness." I, the
Absolute am not this "I Amness."
In meditation your beingness should merge in itself, a non-dual
state. Remain still. Do not struggle to come out of the mud of your
concepts, you will only go deeper. Remain still.

July 15, 1980

Maharaja What is the effect of what I have spoken on you?
Questioner: Whatever Maharaj has spoken is the truth, but I also request him to
show me a way. Maharaj says that sadhana is not the way, but the determination
that I am the consciousness is a very difficult thing. I am practicing.
M: Who is practicing? It has no form, it is dwelling in this body. How
long will it continue and what is the gain? Abide in the Self only. Until
then it will continue the sadhana; once it is established in the Self, the
objective, the person who is practicing, and the process of practicing is
gone. A sankalpa indicates a need, an objective.
Q. What is a sankalpa?
M: You want a medical degree, that is the sankalpa. Sadhana is the study,
practice, homework. You wanted to meet me today, that is a sankalpa. You
walked here and climbed the stairs, that is the sadhana. That sankalpa has
no form, the one who makes the sankalpa also has no form. So long as you
are identifying with the form the practice will go on. Once you reach the
objective, which is that you are not the body-mind, then there is no
practice.
You have great faith in the Bhagavad Gita: is this correct?
Q. Yes.
M.• Gita is a song sung by Lord Krishna. He sang the song just as I am
singing this talk to you now; this is Rg Gita. You have read the Bhagavad
Gita, recited it, remembered it; but what is important? You must get to
know that Krishna who sang that Gita. You must get his knowledge,
what he is.
Is it not an incarnation? In short, from nothingness the form is
taken; the nothingness descends into form, that is Avatar. Normally we say
from nothingness a person is there, but for these great personalities, great
sages, you will say Avatar. Are you trying to understand that Krishna?
No, you are creating certain concepts and trying to understand him.
That is not correct. From nothingness he was - how did it happen? This
incarnation you must understand, the descending into Avatar, or form;
what is this? Prior to incarnation that personality had no knowledge about
himself, after descending into -this incarnation he started knowing
himself. What are your comments?
Q: Before Avatar he had no knowledge of himself?
M. Before descending into this Avatar this knowledge quality is not
there.
Q. But Parabrahman ...
M. These are all conceptual titles and names; they are shackles on you. In
your core Self there is no imposition of any title or name, externally you
have accepted them.
Any embodied person with the knowledge "I Am" carries on his activi
ties in the world with the name only. That inner core, the "I Am" has no
shackles. Once it is understood that I am that "I Am" only, and not this
shackled form, then no liberation is called for; that itself is liberation.
You know the historical facts about Sri Krishna by heart, but you
must know what this incarnation is. Names are the handcuffs, the bondage.
Every person is shackled because of his identification with the body.
Without that name and form, please proceed to talk and question.
Q: The only words I have are very much words with name and form. They are
words of gratitude. Gratitude for what Maharaj has blessed me with since I have been
here. To even see a sage in one's lifetime would be an incomparable grace, and to have had
'so much grace from him in the form of his instructions just overwhelms me, and there is
absolutely no way I can ever thank him.
M. What do you mean by grace? Grace means that you have come to
me. I and that you are only one. That you understand that we are one is
grace.
Q. At times like these that is the hardest thing to understand.
M: Grace means totality, wholeness, there is no fragmentation.
Q. [another] Why I am ostracized? Why can't I see the truth?
M. You are ostracized because you are identifying with the body-mind
and the memory that you are a body. Give up that identity, and that
memory, and then whatever you see will be the truth.
This is a very rare, a very precious opportunity, wherein you get this
conflux of three entities: body, vital force and the touch of "I Amness,"
and with this alone you can reach right up to the Absolute - you can
abide in the Absolute.
In the name of spirituality people carry out various types of acting,
likejapa, penances, etc. Once you accept that actors pose, you undergo the
disciplines and therefore all the sufferings are related to that. This is not
going to lead you to the Ultimate, the Absolute.
For you, the first step is worship that vital breath; here you must
focus your attention on that vital breath pulsation - and together with
that, carry out the name-japa. When you do that, the vital breath will be
purified, and in the process of purification this beingness will open up.
Just reciting the name of God is concentrating the vital breath. The
meaning of the mantra is that you are not the name or form.
All the 24 hours this vital breath, or vital force, through various
perceptions, is recording the pictures of all your experiences and
memorizing whatever is relevant. Can you do that with your intellect?
Q: [newcomer] I saw the article in the Mountain Path4 about Maharaj and I have
come to ask his blessings.
M: Your spiritual acquisitions, everything is very good, but when you f
inally realize yourself you will come to the conclusion that all is useless,
redundant, superfluous.
Q. That is why I am asking for the blessing of Maharaj - to have that experience. M:
In that highest state there is no experience. Experience, experiencing,
experiencer - everything is only one.
Q: Can Maharaj give a push to reach that state?
M. Somebody has already given a push to you and that is why you have
come here. From the front you are pushed backward. Recede into the
source. [To another] Has your talking machine gone out of order?
Q: Before I acquired this body, did I know everything?
M. You were perfect, total.
Q. Just because I am encased in this body I am suffering.
M. How did you reach your parents? Deliberate on that.
Q. I had the desire?
M. For the time being let us assume that you had the desire, but just teli
me, how did you reach those parents?
Q• I do not know.
M. Whatever you do not know is perfect. Whatever you know is
imperfect, fraudulent.
Q. Just because I am encased in the body I am in agony to be perfect, which I am not.
M: Why do you worry about this encasement in a body?
Q: Who is worrying? That cannot be me.
M: The worrier is not you, it is the affair of the intelligence. [In English
Maharaj said, "You ... No!"] Now I am talking in English.
Q.• The English language is blessed.
M: My teaching is spread among all the foreigners through the English
language. Very intelligent people, very advanced, thousands of them.
The beauty lies in the fact that my knowledge will be in conflagration in
foreign countries. It will be spread in America and from there it will be
spread back to the Indians. When the Indians receive it they will say, "It
has the approval of the foreigners, therefore we will accept it."; that is
the nature of the Indians. Indians are like this. If somebody goes to
America or England and works, even washing dishes, when he returns
many people will go to see him and present garlands; that is our nature.
Q. Ramana Maharshi was a great sage, he was unknown in India. When Paul
Brunton wrote the book in English about him, everybody went to see him and he
became well known.
M I agree with that. Ramana Maharshi was discovered by Paul Brunton
and I was discovered by Maurice Frydman.

http://uploads.ru/i/v/Y/F/vYFdP.jpg



July 19, 1980

Maharaj: In this spiritual hierarchy, from the grossest to the, subtlest,
you are the subtlest. How can this be realized? The very base is that you
don't know you are, and suddenly the feeling of "I Amness" appears.
The moment it appears you see space, mental space; that subtle, skylike
space, stabilize you there. You are that. When you are able to
stabilize in that state, you are the space only.
When this space-like identity "I Am" disappears, the space also will
disappear, there is no space.
When that space-like "I Am" goes into oblivion, that is the eternal
state, nirguna, no form, no beingness. Actually, what did happen there?
This message "I Am" was no message. Dealing with this aspect, I cannot
talk much because there is no scope to put it into words.
Questioner: Does Maharaj go into samadhi?
M. I am stabilized in the Highest. There is no going into samadhi, or
coming down from samadhi; that is over.
Q. Should we continue our meditation?
M.• It doesn't mean this is an excuse for you to give up meditation, you
must persist in meditation until you come to a stage when you feel there is
no meditation. When the purpose of meditation is gained it will drop off
naturally.
Q Which is the way to the Supreme state?
M. There is no question of going into that state. You are the Supreme
state, but whatever ignorance you have will drop off.
I've been advised by doctors not to talk, therefore I am not talking.
Q. Is there a desire not to die and lose your body?
M. The sage is not concerned with that.
Q. Is there a desire of the body, not of the Self?
M: You may say something like that; this is the administrative action of
that beingness.
It is a very complicated riddle. You have to discard whatever you
know, whatever you have read, and have a firm conviction about That
about which nobody knows anything. You can't get any information
about That, and about That you must have firm conviction. How difficult
it is.
Most people reach that state which is, but nobody reaches that state
which is not. It is very rarely that one can reach that state. It transcends all
knowledge.
Most essential is that knowledge "I Am." Claim it, appropriate it as
you own. If that is not there, nothing is. Knowledge of all the stages will be
obtained only with the aid of this knowledge "I Am."
From the Absolute no-knowing state, spontaneously, this consciousness
"I Am" has appeared -there is no reason, no cause. Spontaneously
it has come, with the waking state, deep sleep, the five elemental
play, three Gunas, and Prakriti and Purusha. Then it embraces the
body as its self and therefore identifies as a male or a female. This "I Amness"
has its own love to be: it wants to remain, to perpetuate itself, but it
is not eternal.
This passing show may be likened to the following situation: suppose
I was well all along, then suddenly I was sick and the doctor gave me
medicine. After three days my fever was gone. So this stage of fever for
three days is the "I Am" consciousness. Exactly like that -a passing
show, a time-bound state. This principle loves to be, and one must not
belittle it - it is a very Godly principle. This "I Amness" contains the entire
cosmos.
It is said that all this is unreal. When is it certified as unreal? Only
when one understands this temporary phase. And in the process of
understanding one is in the Absolute and from there recognizes this as a
temporary, unreal state.
In my present state I am not able to talk much. The difficulty is that
you have been accepting this as real and I have to disprove this and a lot of
talking is to be done by me, which I am not in a position to do now. So,
you go now, do bhajans.

July 20, 1980

Maharaj: You are having experiences in the world with body and
mind, but what do you know about your identity? You have an image of
yourself, but that identity is only a temporary thing.
Questioner: What is mind?
M: Mind is the language of the vital breath. That mind-language will
talk only about the impressions it has collected. The knowledge "I Am" is not
a thought but observes the, thoughts.
Out of prana, the pranava, the beginning of sound, in the sound is the love
to be. The innermost, subtlest principle is that gnawing principle "I Am, I
Am," without words, by which you know you are. It has no form or image,
it is only beingness, the love to be.
Para shakti is the beingness or love to be. The next stage of the Para
shakti is Para shunti, the formation but not yet perceptible. The next stage
is mind formation: the language is formed in the mind, next is the explosion
of words, vocal words. In this where are you? This is a process happening.
For you I am expounding very secret knowledge about your own
beingness, how it came about - that is what I am talking about.
This play is just happening; you are not playing a part. When you
are ignorant, you think you are playing a part in this manifest world.
There is no one working deliberately - it is happening spontaneously.
You cannot claim anything in this process. When you are thoroughly
knowledgeable you will come to the conclusion that this beingness is also
an illusion.
Q. Who recognizes that it is illusion or ignorance?
M. Only that one recognizes or witnesses all that as ignorance. That
M: According to the time and the situation they have taught their
concepts, but they are concepts meant only for that period, that situation,
and then their concepts have developed into religions.
All of you presume that you are very knowledgeable spiritually.
Before you think of deriving any benefit out of anything, first of all, find
out what is your identity.
July 21, 1980
Questioner: Why did I take this form?
Maharaj: Because you were a fool. If you had known anything about it, you
would not have come into this world.
Q: First I hadn't any form, isn't that so?
M.• Yes, even now you don't have any form. It is not your shape, it is the
shape of the seed.
Q Isn't it the nature of the seed that it grows, like a tree grows out of a seed?
M. It is its nature.
Q: So, I am not to blame. The seed must be foolish.
M. Because the seed is foolish it has come like this. The seed is the original
foolish state, yet what big titles are given to that seed. The seed is
transient, and the whole world is full of the seeds. All the five elements, all
the objective world, is in that seed. You are not the seed - you are the
observer of the seed.
For many centuries the Western people were not interested in spiritual
matters, but now they have realized that, in spite of all their riches, they
cannot get real peace, so they are searching for the truth now. The nearer
you get to the truth, the more you lose interest in worldly affairs. Such a
one will not have any particular interest in the world, but will act like an
ordinary person.
The sum and substance of spirituality is nothing but to come to a
decision, make a judgment, about the Self, God and the world - what is it?
You must first dispose of this question.
This world is filled up. with selfishness due to your association with the
body. Once you know what these principles are, then you dissolve the
personality, and in the process that selfishness vanishes because you are
no more an individual.
Q. How can I be in my true state and lose my fear?
M. You are already in your true state. Because of the mind, duality
comes in and therefore you are afraid. The association with the body and
mind is because of love for the body-mind; that is going to go away,
therefore everyone is afraid of death.
Q. The world is given tome by my senses. When you go beyond that state of "I
Amness" do you experience the world?
M.• There is no question of going beyond. I was never born, will never die.
Whatever is - is all the time. Going beyond is only an idea meant to
remove all other ideas you have accumulated. You think about birth. Do you
know anything about your birth?
Q: No, I do not know that 1 am born. I feel that I am really not born, and yet the
world seems so real.
M. Do not worry about the world. First start from here: the "I Am," and
then find out what is the world. Find out the nature of this "I."
Q• Why find out about the "1" which is not real?
M.• It is the seed from which everything comes out. If the seed is not
there, the universe is not. How have you come into this so-called objective
world? Here everything will be wiped out. I invite you, in your own
interest, to go home.

http://uploads.ru/i/U/2/9/U29aJ.jpg


July 22, 1980

Maharaja All these discussions are an exchange of ideas and mental
entertainment, meant to while away the time.
Questioner: If you don't make some kind of effort, you get nowhere.
M. Don't think that some progress has to be made. You will continue to do
something, even if it is conceptual, but the one who understands that he is
already there, what will he do?
Q. Okay, but isn't there tremendous scope for self deception here?
M. Who is this who is going to be self-deceived? Q:
The empirical ego.
M. There is no entity. It is not possible for a phenomenal object to
achieve something, and this is only a phenomenal object.
one cannot understand That one, he can witness and understand only the
ignorance. The one who recognizes all this as ignorance, that one is
knowledgeable. Why are you calling mejnani and listening to my talks?
Because I have recognized and understood that child ignorance, the "I
Amness," and have transcended that.
Finally you have to understand that the principle which you are using to
talk, to move about, and operate in this world, is not you.
Q- I have read and listened to so many stories about the different sages and personalities
of the past, and they were all dierent, they founded different sects, etc.; why is this so?
Q. Don't you have to make that effort to stand back?
M.• Not doing anything means what kind of doing?
Q. Our normal way of living is identifying. If we stand back, is there a qualitative
difference?
M: Carry on your entertainment, but don't be under the misapprehension
that you are doing anything.
Q: When I say that 1 am God, how come people don't come and prostate before me?
M. If you have truly understood that you are God, before that conviction
comes you will have lost your identity, you will have merged with the total
manifestation, therefore who will expect whom to come and do pranams?
Q: Is there such a thing as using one's will to do something? If one is trying to stay
awake,, saying a mantra, or meditating, and keeps pulling himself back from sleep, is
he not doing something?
M. At the stage of a seeker what he is doing may be right, but he will
soon find out that the seeker disappears in the seeking. When the seeker
disappears there is no question of doing. Later the seeker will understand
that it was not his true nature which was doing all this, but that to
which the label "born" was attached - that is the consciousness which
has identified itself with the body and the states of waking and sleeping.
That whole bundle is what was doing and he is not that. This body is
perceptible, but my true nature is That which was before the body and the
consciousness came into being. Anything that is sensorially seen and interpreted
by the mind is an appearance in consciousness, and is not true.
I am not telling you anything which is foreign to my experience, I am
telling you what I have understood and experienced. It is very simple:
this is time-bound and anything which is time-bound is untrue, because
time itself is a concept.
What I am telling you is based on this simple fact, as it is based on my
experience. If it appeals to you as a concept at the moment, accept it.
Otherwise not.
If at all you want to do something, do that which you cannot do at all.
That is the state of no-being.
Q. There is a constant restlessness in the mind, wanting to realize something; that in
itself seems to be an obstacle.
M: Are you prior to the mind or after?
Q. Prior to the mind.
M. So don't worry about the mind. Employ your mind to the extent that is
useful for your normal daily chores, not beyond that.
M.- The knowledgeable one just witnesses or cancels whatever
experiences are obtainable through the mind as having no substance. All
this world play is in the realm of the mind; once you understand that you
are not the mind in what way are you concerned? This is a temporary phase,.
imperfect, inadequate.
Q. Even beingness is an imperfect temporary phase?
M. That consciousness is a product of the food essence body; the body
is the fuel on which "I Amness" is sustained. Do you not observe what
the body is? Is it not a morsel of food and water? Presently you are embroiled
in this "I Amness," but you - the Absolute - are not this "I
Amness."
Q What you are saying is, even the "I Amness, " the way you recognize it in the
mind, that is not the way it is actually?
M. Take it like this: this is as good or as bad an experience as having a
tummy ache or a pain in the neck. In my perfect state [never had a pain,
but when the "I Amness" was there, suddenly I felt the pain. That "I
Amness" will merge, will disappear, I am the perfect state when "I
Amness" was not. I definitely know that "I Amness" was not. Just as I
have to suffer a chronic ailment I suffer this beingness. Just understand at
what level I am talking, to what level I am leading you.
Just imagine the flight to which this spiritual talk has gone. The normal
spiritual approach everywhere is to worship this consciousness with so
many titles, but to me it is a pain and I want to get rid of that.

http://uploads.ru/i/4/9/w/49wWp.jpg


July 23, 1980

Questioner: Maharaj says all that is necessary is to be aware. The mind keeps on
casting doubts, and particularly keeps on saying that there must be more practices or,
something more to be done.
Maharaj: All the activities are in the field of consciousness, the mind,
and vital force. The knower of the mind is just a witness. It does not
interfere in anything.
Guru's grace means the knowledge you are. When you stabilize in
this conviction, that will open up and give you all the knowledge and
that is the grace.
If you are there, then everything is immeasurably there. You give no
significance to the fact that you are - you are carried away by all the
manifestation which is the expression of your beingness.
Q: My tendency is to look outward, rather than inward.
M. That is the quality of your "I Amness," not of you, the Absolute.
You have embraced the body as your Self. That also is superficial, you
don't know what is happening inside the body either.
Q. Correct. I don't know what's happening in my organs or how they act.
M. All the actions happening in this wide world, the samples of all
those, are also happening in the body.
Q. That which is, does not know Itse�P
M. In that state you do not know you are. With the tool, or aid, of
beingness you know you are.
Q. With the tool we try to go beyond?
M. Don't try to go beyond consciousness, only recognize, understand,
what the beingness is, that does the trick. The proof that consciousness
was not lies with you only. You, the Absolute, are the proof of that.
Spontaneously, uncalled for, this beingness has come and this beingness is
being witnessed by you, the Absolute. Ask questions - you will not have
such an opportunity again.
Q: The urge is not so much to ask questions, as to just be with Maharaj.
M: That is quite proper. Just by sitting here quietly and listening to the
talks you mind will be annihilated. In case the mind sprouts again you
forestall it by asking questions.
The mind is sprouting, expressing itself with various concepts. Don't
identify with that, let it go. Don't be a customer to your mind concepts.
Q: Things like getting food, eating at regular times, earning money, all these are
concepts of the mind and are responded to by the mind. If one does not respond to
these things, then how does one live?
M. By all means employ the mind, but don't get lost in the mind.
Observe the mind, be a witness to the mind flow.

July 26, 1980

Questioner: I have come to Maharaj in the hope that he may help me put an end to this
search.
Maharaja Can you communicate to me what you have understood? Q It
is all concepts, all illusion.
M. Yes.
Q I don't believe in processes that take time and disciplines, I've done all that. I
want it to end.
M.• The basic fact - that you are not the body - must be clear to you by
now. You are working in the world and you think that you are doing that
work, but what is really happening is this: the life force, when it comes out
in thoughts and words, is the mind, so it is this pram mind, life force mind,
which is the acting principle. The beingness, the consciousness, is the God
which witnesses the life force and mind working. It does not interfere; it
merely witnesses. The reason for your unhappiness is that you think it is
you are working.
Q. I realize that anything I say is a concept arising out of my consciousness.
M: That you are, and the world is, are both concepts. You must know
that.
Q. How does this knowledge work? I mean: you tell me words and there comes a
sense of understanding. Is it a mental process? Is there still a faculty witnessing all
this?
M: The mind understands because of the consciousness.
Q Then it is all an automatic happening?
M. That is true. The mind interprets whatever the concept is, the base is
consciousness on which the concept arises at the moment.
Q So what is there actually to attain ifyou cannot change this consciousness and
you cannot touch, cannot reach by words? It is there all the time, right now. So for
what are we here? Doing belongs to the mind - that is clear - it is going on like an
automaton. I see clearly now. I want this mind to surrender to the consciousness. Do you
understand?
M: All this conceptualizing, all this articulation, has been taking place
only after the original concept arose that you are . What was the position
before this concept arose? At that time did you have any concepts, any
needs?
Q Like deep sleep?
M.• This concept that it is like deep sleep is not incorrect, but it is still a
concept, and the original state is beyond concepts.
Q What is the fact now?
M: That you are awake is itself a concept at this moment. Let this sink in.
Q. It's a movie.
M. Go back to the source: before this concept of beingness, "I Am,"
arose, what was your state?
Q, I don't know.
M: That which you don't know, that is the right state. Everything that
comes after this consciousness is attained, is like a dose of salts - it is
useless, consciousness is useless.
Q. So the search, all aspects of it, belongs to the same?
M. Throw away every thought, every experience, everything that happens
after this consciousness has come. Other than throwing it away as useless,
there is nothing to be done beyond this firm understanding in which you
become more and more absorbed.

....................................

22

http://uploads.ru/i/9/o/K/9oKiU.jpg


August 1, 1980

Maharaja All your worldly and unworldly activities are based on the
individual identification. You, as an individual, want to have liberation.
You remain as an individual, that is the difficulty.
However much you may think you have understood this knowledge, so
long as you think that you, as an individual, have acquired that
knowledge, the individual identity is still there.
One who has made certain progress which gives him some tangible
results is a Yogi, but because his self identity is there he rests content
with what he has achieved as an individual.
You must understand both the aspects of this beingness, this lowly
physical nature from which it has arrived, and that at the same time
there is no end to what this consciousness can do although this state is by
nature limited. How can he who is aware of his true nature and the total
potential be satisfied with anything that this limited state can give him?
Further, the potential of his abiding in the Absolute is so great that
people are not able to imagine how it could be in the Absolute, what it is
like - therefore they can only think of him in his consciousness state.
Questioner: How can one understand that we abide in consciousness?
M.• Right now you are in that state, but you always try to judge through
body-mind. You are still attached to the body-mind. Even if you might
live for a hundred years, you would still like an extension of five years. In the
Absolute there is no need of any kind, even the need to know oneself.
Q: There must be some cause for this temporary state arising out of the Absolute?
M. Because of the friction or interaction of the five elements this temporary
phase has occurred. For example, there were two intimate friends,
whose friendship had endured for a very long time, but suddenly there was
some friction, some disagreement, and immediately they had a fight.
Q. At the time of death there might be a very traumatic experience, physical and
mental.
M. It is not always so. For the one who has purified the mind of all
concepts, to that one death will be very blissful.
You have had a lot of learning and spiritual wisdom and still with all
this, at the moment of death you will open your diary, wherein you have
noted all your relatives.
Q. With your blessings I will have a peaceful death, I will not remember anybody.
M. Abide in the high state. You have to do nothing, only the listening. If
you listen correctly, everything will happen. Now I have told you what this
beingness is, it is the outcome of the five elemental play; that knowingness
is the result of this food body, and you are not that. So why worry about
the departure of the knowingness?
Have you understood that you are the witness of the consciousness
that appears on you? You are not the consciousness, you are not the
knowledge, sat-guru is your true nature.
Consciousness cannot be separate from the world and the universe,
it is the same. This is my maya, it has come out of me, and, I know that I
am not the maya. I am the witness of this, it is just my play, but I am not
the play.
The final meaning of all this sadhana is you. Whatever is, you are.
Nobody has written these things in the books so far, some people may
write hereafter. One who would write on this should have a scientific
outlook.
That knowledge which appeared on me, I pampered excessively, and
what is the final fruit of such knowledge? That knowledge has been
branded now, "You have a disease and now you are going to go away," so I
know the nature of this knowledge which appeared on me. You find out for
yourself. I danced with that knowledge, I called it God, and now this
knowledge has been branded as sick - but I know what I am, I am prior to
this. I complained to my own nature, and my own nature says it is all lila
(play), you have nothing to do with it. The very consciousness is dis
honest, what have I do with it? I am the support - people think I am the
cause but I am not the cause, I am the support.
Q. In the jnani beingness has reached the state of no-beingness, still the
appearances will happen, how will one act?
M. It is something like acting in a dream world, in the dream world
everything is happening, you are not doing anything. From that highest
state only witnessing of the beingness and the activities of the beingness
happen.

August 8, 1980

Questioner: Should we have a firm conviction that there is a state beyond the consciousness?
Maharaja The Absolute is there is any case, so there is no question of
your having faith - it is there.
Q. Would a firm conviction change the consciousness into the Absolute?
M: There is only one state, not two. When the "I Amness" is there, in
that consciousness you will have many experiences, but the "I Am" and the
Absolute are not two. In the Absolute the "I Amness" comes and then the
experience takes place.
In the Absolute there is no individuality, no memory that I am this or
that, but there is continual stirring.
I have nothing to say which can be termed, as hearsay, or which has
been read, or has authority from the scriptures. What I have to say.is
coming out of my own Self.
Whatever is happening, from the Absolute standpoint, without the
knowledge "I Am," is very profound, unlimited, expansive.
In the realm of beingness the fragmentation begins; it is limited, conditioned,
because in this beingness we try to claim all the actions as ours.
In the Absolute I have no occasion to say that I exist, because It is in
eternity. I do not have to make any comments about my existence.
Because of the existence of the Absolute Parabrahman state a lot of
incarnations have come and gone, but the Absolute remains untainted by
the movement of all these incarnations.
Q. What is the purpose of the creation?
M: This is the language of the earnest seeker, not one who is established
in the truth. Out of an infinitesimal seed a magnificent tree has grown;
will the seed reject the tree, the branches, the leaves, etc., asserting that
this is not me, not mine? Spontaneously, it is going on. Let it go on.
Q. Is this "I Amness" a necessary threshold to obtain that Absolute state?
M. The Absolute state cannot be obtained. That is your state. To the
Absolute state the witnessing of the consciousness happens.
Q. How long must one practice?
M.• How long did you practice to become a woman?
The first stage is to transcend this body-mind sense, it is easy, but to
transcend consciousness is very difficult. Beingness is a very powerful
potential knowledge, because of that you have all other knowledge,
therefore it is difficult to get rid of this knowledge.
Q. Is it separate from the Unmanifest?
M. From your point of view it is separate; from my standpoint it is not
separate. Sri Krishna said that whatever is, is myself only. Saguna and
nirguna, both myself only. This touch of beingness is a temporary phase.
Enquire at that point. How did this beingness happen to be?

August 21, 1980

Maharaj: I am not very keen on having people stay longer than eight or ten
days, whatever they have understood, they have to digest, any further
talks will not reach them.
Presuming that one is knowledgeable, having left here and gone
elsewhere, he will not be able to remain alone - he will crave
somebody's company so that he can deliver the goods of spirituality. He
will want the company of others with whom he can discuss spirituality -
otherwise he will feel very unhappy. Will you feel happy and satisfied if
you do not encounter other sadhakas?
Questioner: Oh yes. Is this a necessary threshold for a serious seeker - to go
through the stage where he would like to share his knowledge with others?
M: That is part of it, but that must also come to an end. The highest state
is the unborn state in which there is no experience of mind. Investigate
that concept "I Am." In the process of trying to find your true identity you
might even give up the Self, and in giving up the Self, you are That.
[Maharaj is watching some sparrows on the windowsill.] The consciousness
indwelling the sparrow and the consciousness indwelling this body is the
same. Here the instrument is big, there it is smaller. They [the
sparrows] are planning for food, their tummies are not full. All the species
are suffering; creation itself is suffering. All these concepts about rebirth,
etc., has the rain rebirth? the fire? the air? In short, it is a mere
transformation of the five elements. You may call it rebirth.
In the process of this spiritual search, all will happen in the realm of
this consciousness. You finally stumble on, or culminate, into the Absolute
Parabrahman state, which is desireless.
I have understood and transcended beingness. Suppose I live for 100
years more, waking state, sleep and "I Amness"- what is the use of that? I
am fed up with that.
I don't have any exclusive identity for myself. Whatever identity I
have is the play of the five elements, and it is universal. Since there is not
much that can be said from my state, I will not be keeping people long. I
will just dole out some knowledge and tell them to go. With this
profound knowledge, at this level, they are not able to understand. What
benefit can they derive?

August 23, 1980

Maharaja Some people I will request to stay but I can't explain why,
and some people, although they would like to stay, I say, "you go." There
are various types of seekers: some come exclusively for knowledge and
are not interested in the person who delivers, perhaps least interested in
him. Some people want knowledge, but for them the prior requisite is
gurubhakti, devotion to the guru comes first; after that they collect knowledge.
There are some great sages who, in their seeking stage, used to do
devotion or worship of a God only for name, .s sake, but the intensity was
devotion to the guru and because of the intense gurubhakti they reached
such a high state.
Now, for this lady, devotion to the guru is predominant, and she get,
knowledge incidentally, but starting with guru bhakti, to such a person
even the God is devoted.
Whatever natural experiences you encounter, just accept them,
don't try to alter them, just accept them as they come.
The sum total of all this is illusion and nobody is responsible for creation
- it has come spontaneously and there is no question of improvement
in that - it will go on in its own way.
I have come to the conclusion that the world is there spontaneously
without any seed, that creation is seedless but the world is full of seeds
and procreation is going on daily.
Questioner: Having knowledge, how is it that you have been able to deal with all
these different persons?
M. Who is to deal? I have no pose or stance, no set form of my own. If I
had a set form, it would have been difficult to accept or coalesce with
anybody, but my nothingness is the subtlest, so I can fit into anything,
any situation.
Suppose a rich man, wearing a lot of expensive. ornaments moves in the
street, he will be afraid, he will be in danger. But a naked fakir has
nothing to lose, so he moves in the streets without fear.
So, having lost everything, I have nothing further to lose, I can encounter
and fit into any situation. So long as you wear a name and form, all
these problems will be there. In this spiritual pursuit you gradually lose
your form and as the form is shed off, the name also disappears.
There are many customers to gain and possess something in the
name of spiritual knowledge, but nobody is a customer for the real, true
Self knowledge.
There was a man who worked hard and gathered possessions for
many years and now he is on his death bed in his village house. On his
death bed he was looking into the cattle shed, he was not thinking noble
thoughts, he was looking at the calf who was chewing a broomstick, and he
was worried about the damage to the broomstick. So, even when he was
dying, he was shouting, "The broomstick, the broomstick!"
Q. What is the yardstick to measure the progress of a seeker?
M.- There was a very weak man who was not able to walk. Gradually he
acquired strength and started walking, so he knows that he has the
strength, isn't that so?
The indication of your progress is your disinclination to associate
with normal people; your desires and expectations get less and less.
When out of intense hunger for Self knowledge, the door, or the flood
gate is opened, then you start rejecting everything, right from the gross
state to Iswara state, your own consciousness, you reject everything.
In worldly life, by the power of money you can purchase anything,
by donating money you get everything. Similarly, by donating the Self
you get the Brahman and when you donate the Brahman you get
Parabrahman. You must have a deep, intense desire for Self knowledge.

August 24, 1980

Questioner: If chaitanya (consciousness) is all pervading and consists of all
these powers of various kinds andyet, the individual consciousness is connected with the
body, for this universal consciousness is there a body? A universal body - or a
combination of bodies for the universal consciousness?
Maharaja Universal consciousness does not have a body. The universal
consciousness becomes manifest whenever a body comes into the picture.
The essence of the five elements constitute the sustenance of the
universal consciousness.
Q. The universal consciousness and the consciousness in the body, does it have any
connection?
M: It is an intimate connection. It is a continuum from the individual
consciousness to the manifest consciousness. For example, you have the
vital breath: outside it is called universal air and when you breathe, it is
your pram.
Q. What is the difference between Paramatman and Jivatman?
M. When you think in terms of parts, you think of Jiva, and of the
whole as Paramatman, but there is no difference. When it is entrenched in the
body it assumes a temporality, a time unit, thejiva; at the end of the time
span it merges into the Paramatman.
Q: Why does Paramatman, which is whole, limit itself to the body as a part?
M. There is no reason for it, it just happens. But in the Paramatman
there is no awareness of existence, there is awareness of awareness only. As
soon as awareness of existence comes, there is a duality and the manifestation
comes.
Q: Earlier someone said that man alone can realize. I feel that every living cell is a
manifestation of God and therefore that this is a wrong idea.
M. The consciousness is the same, but the mind can only work according
to what is known to it. What is known to the lower creatures is only the
basic physical requirements. It is only man, who from an early age, has
been thinking of, and has been fed, higher ideas, other than merely the
physical aspects. Man is able to fly and go to the moon. No other
species can do this; the mind of the lesser species is limited.
There are 84 lakhs of different species, as soon as any conception
takes place in any of these species, there is a sort of a causal body on
which the print has been made at the time of conception about the
nature of the form and its working. Nobody tells a bird to fly, a fish to
swim, or a worm to crawl, it is all in the conception itself. That which
cannot die is now firmly convinced that it is going to die. How has this
fear of death crept in? It is based on the concept that one is born, on
mere words; this is the bondage.
All that one has to do is find out one's source and take up
headquarters there.

August 29, 1980

Questioner: After knowing that one is not the beingness, the beingness still wants to
be - it protects itself. Is it built into that unit?
Maharaja Yes, that is its nature.
Q. Is it that these units of beingness are of no more value than a picture, they arejust
like a picture on a TV screen - is that right?
M. Yes, you may take it that they are just pictures. Nevertheless it is a
most amazing instrument because inside it has a certain principle which
contains the universe. Don't just dismiss it as a picture.
The Self cannot experience its knowingness without the help of the
body. It is a necessary instrument. Sour food and pulsation (vital
breath) - without these the growth is not there and beingness will not be
there.
This body is a bag of nourishment but that knowledge "I Am" is not
individualistic, it is universal.
Q. Is it the consciousness enjoying itself through all these units of beingness?
M. Yes. This beingness goes into individuality because of the form of the
food package, the body. From my standpoint it is dynamic, manifest
beingness only - no individuality.
Once you take to this understanding there is no question of enjoying
yourself as an individual. You are no more an individual, the individual is
dissolved. A rare one will do this.
The one who has understood all the five elements and its play is not
worried about the essence of these five elements, the beingness - this
state is transcended also. That one has the fragrance of humanity: he
remembers humanity, but knows that he has nothing to do with
humanity.
Having understood this and transcended it, the words are of no use.
The beingness feels that it should not die, but if the so-called death
has occurred, there is no loss to it.
From my standpoint, whatever beingness in the form of a human being
was there is all gone; because of that dissolution it has become
manifest.

August 30, 1980

Questioner: Does the consciousness remain forever?
Maharaj: No, the consciousness is there only so long as the body is
there.
Q; Even when one understands, will there be bodies coming into existence and dying? M:
Yes. The five elements, three gunas, prakriti and purusha, together are the
means of demonstrating the "I Amness."
In the original state there is no sense of consciousness, no awareness of
being, but as soon as the "I Amness" comes the entire manifestation is seen
at once, this is the expression of the consciousness. In the Absolute the "I
Airiness" is whole but the expression is in many. I manifest Myself in many.
Human beings are one type of form and each type of form will act
according to its nature, according to the combination of the three guns.
How can an individual come in?
The only way to understand this mystery is to realize your identity
with the universal consciousness, which is expressed in the total space. So
long as you identify yourself with the human form it is impossible for the
mystery to be solved.
Why do you come here and waste your time for an hour or so? If you
do some physical or mental work for two hours you would have
something to show for it.
Q. These are the hours that are useful; all the others are useless.
M. How can they be useful? I am destroying that for which you say
these two hours are useful. I am destroying the identity.
Isn't it amusing that the teaching which destroys the individual is exactly
what the individual wants? The answer is that there never was an
individual. The knowledge comes that the individual was never there.
Q. What is the realization?
M: Before the idea "I Am" sprouted, you are, but you don't know you
are. Subsequent to that there have been many happenings with which you
have started decorating yourself. You try to derive the meaning of
yourself out of subsequent words, happenings, and the meaning of
words ... that is not you ... give it up. You are prior to the idea "I Am."
Camp yourself there, prior to the words "I Am."

September 11, 1980

Maharaj: Whether one be a jnani or an ignorant person his bodily
nourishment, sustenance, maintenance, etc., goes on through the
meaning of the words of his mind. His thoughts will also flow according to
the impressions he has received since childhood. The activities came out
from. the vital breath, the words, and the knowingness "I Am."
If you want to invoke your Deity you will have to worship the vital
breath; through the vital breath you approach your Deity. The image of
any God is given through the vital breath. the language of the vital
breath means words. When all aspects of the vital breath are purified
there is no scope for desires, there are no physical or mental sufferings. As
per the command of the Guru hold on to the "I Amness" - the Atman preen
- I love." All our activities, physical or spiritual, are based on emotion.
All these details I accept, but I know that the sum total is zero.
My,earlier talks anybody could understand, to some extent, but my
present talks are very difficult to understand. To become qualified to
understand, stay put at that source of your birth.
Tfie talks are spontaneously flowing out. I am not framing them. I
myself am often amazed as to why these types of profound expressions are
emerging, and people who listen to my talks are also nonplussed
because they are not able to frame any questions based on my talks.
Everything is spontaneous, the stage of witness also has come spon
taneously. All my activities come out spontaneously, there is no scope for
thinking.
Since I know my state prior to birth, I also know that birth point, and
since the birth, whatever I am - my beingness - I also know. That's
why I talk like this. The experiencer and the experiences, both are to be
dissolved. The moment the translators come and I take my seat for talking,
I am energized, my battery is charged - otherwise I am down and out and
have to use this cane. I am least inclined to collect any spiritual seekers of
any grade.
Questioner: We can understand with our mind but beyond mind we cannot
understand.
M. From deep sleep to waking state, what is it? It is the "I Am" state
with no words, later the words start flowing and you get involved with the
meaning of the words and carry out your worldly life with the meaning of
those words - that is mind. But before this "I Am" and waking state, that
borderline, there you have to be.
It is only a rare one who understands what I am driving at. To a normal
spiritual person we have to say, "You do this or that and you will get
this benefit." Then for the time being he feels happy and relieved, but
this is not final; he again comes back to the same cycle. But we can't help
because he has no capacity to understand the subtlest aspect of this
spirituality.
At the most, I would say, "You know you are; you worship that `I
Am' principle. You worship that, be one with that only, and that `I
Amness' will disclose all the knowledge." That's all I will say, but the
subtlest part is this, from deep sleep to waking state. To abide in that
you must have an intensely peaceful state. In that state, witnessing of
the waking state happens. You must go to that limit, but it is very
difficult. For a normal person, with the arrival of the "I Am" and the
word flow, he will go with the word flow. The one who has discrimination,
who is intelligent, and is intensely spiritual, we must bring here
prior to that "I Amness."
If you have regard for me, remember my words. The knowledge "I Am" is
the greatest God, the Guru; be one with that, be intimate with it. That itself
will bless you with all the knowledge relevant for you and in the proliferation
of that knowledge it will lead you to the state which is eternal.
You will become mature enough to be in the province of that nirguna
(without attributes) state. You cannot convert a raw mango into a ripe
mango, full of juice, overnight. It must pass through the course of time to
maturity. Is this clear to you or not?

September 15, 1980

Questioner: In meditation when I try to stabilize at the point behind the mind,
there is darkness, nothing, blankness. I don't like the state.
Maharaj: Don't you see - You are still there. Prior to stabilizing in the
Self, traces of the mind are still there.
This machine is a self-generating machine; when you go into that the
momentum helps clear all doubts in your mind. This is exclusively your
knowledge which you will enjoy most, and then all traces of the mind are
completely uprooted. This is the stage where you are - you are not, that
is the borderline. The moment you know you are duality is there, when
you do not know you are, you are perfect, but you must go through this
process. In deep sleep you do not know you are, but that is a grosser
state. In this alive state you must recede into the state of noknowingness.
What is this knowingness? It is the stamp or registration of the booking
"I Am." You are booking a flat which is under construction but where
is that flat? It is only the booking. Similarly this "I Am" is only booking,
it represents your Absolute state.
Q: What gives you the courage to transcend in the nothingness which you know is
there?
M. Your deep urge to understand the Self. Receding only means to go
within, your normal inclination is to come out through the five senses
and see the world. Now reverse; I am not the body, I am not the mind, I
am not the senses; now you are stabilized in consciousness. After
stabilizing in consciousness all further things will happen automatically.
You expand into the manifest.
I was, I am, I shall be in that original state before the "I Amness"
came.
Why is it that the terrible name of this disease has no effect on me? For
the simple reason that what I am has nothing to do with that of which
the disease is just a name.
Q: What does Maharaj think about all the different religions?
M. As far as I am concerned all religions are based on concepts and
emotions. Those emotions are so violent and absorbing that people have
immolated themselves.
Being one with some other personality emotionally can be so effective
that those who have identified themselves with Jesus Christ have
had the marks of crucifixion appear on their own bodies. All these
experiences are totally useless. One individual has identified with another
individual, and unless individuality is given up the Reality can never
manifest itself. Do not repeat what you have heard, parrot-wise, unless
you have it with the conviction that I have.
I know my state before the body and consciousness came, I have the
knowledge of it, I have the awareness of it.
Merely listening to these words will not do - you must be one with the
consciousness. Don't treat that knowledge "I Am" as insignificant, because
it is the stimulating force for your entire universe.
The expressions of consciousness are limitless; if you enter into the
expressions you will be lost. Surrender to and be one with your
consciousness and your consciousness alone will show you the process of
how it can be dissolved.

September 21, 1980

Maharaj: All that one does is for the continuance of the consciousness,
but for me there is nothing at all that I would like to continue.
You come here as individuals expecting to get something from me,
that is where the mistake atises. There is no individual, so how can I do
something for a non-existing individual? Your true nature is in no way
different from mine. This happening is just a happening which has come
and which will go.
If one feels he has to urinate, he just has to urinate, it is not
something different for each one, it is a process of urination which happens
to everybody but you consider everything as something happening to you
as an individual.
Questioner: How can I understand what Maharaj is saying?
M: Discrimination is very necessary to understand what I am saying. It
is only after the arrival of consciousness that we try to understand
ourselves. Consciousness is the so-called birth; birth means the
three aspects: waking state, deep sleep and the knowledge "I Am." Once
I understand what this birth is, then the whole mystery is solved. Since I
have thoroughly known what this birth principle is, I will know very well
at that happening of the so-called death, I shall observe the departure of
the vital breath, the language and the "I Amness"; there is no question of
death.
If I understand right now that my vital breath is quitting, I am not
going to arrest it, I am not going to say "You stop now, wait for some
time," because I know very well it is of no use retaining this vital breath
and life force.
Any number of dissolutions have come and gone, but in my true,
eternal state I am untouched by them. Prior to this experiential state I
was perfect in every respect, with the arrival of this beingness this imperfect
state has started, and I am fed up with that.
If you really want eternal peace, don't bother about anybody else,
worry about your own self, investigate only your own self.
Who is going to give you eternal peace? It is only that sun, that "I
Am." If you embrace that Self-effulgent sun everything else will go, but
you will prevail eternally.
Investigate fully. With what authority can you sustain yourself? To
what extent can you prolong your life? You should realize that beingness is
not independent - it depends on something. When you investigate you
will come to the conclusion that you, the Absolute, do not depend on that
beingness.
Q If Atman is sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss), what is
Paramatman?
M. Sat-chit-ananda will, in due course, become the Paramatman. Satchitananda
is "I Amness" and is itself a state of bliss, a state of love, but it is an
experiential state, so long as consciousness is there, and consciousness is
there so long as the body is available - it is a time-bound state. You
must transcend the sat-chit-ananda state.
Q. Should I stabilize in beingness or should I, flow with the thoughts?
M. If you stay put in beingness the thoughts will get less and less. If you
get mixed up with the thoughts they will multiply. Stay put in beingness
only.

September 24, 1980

Maharaja How many years back did you take the mantra from me?
Questioner: Three years ago.
M. The knowledge you are is God. You worship that and one day you will
realize that you are not an individual. You will realize that you are
the universal consciousness which cannot'suffer; there is no pain or
pleasure for that consciousness. Not through intellect, but through
intense meditation you will know it.
The meditation will be done by that consciousness itself. To meditate
on something is to become that.
I am fully established in that unborn state but still I am experiencing
this state of multiplicity, but it has no effect on me.
Q. What is the effect of being with the Maharaj?
M: Presently the effect on the seeker is more. If you have the purity it is
faster, for the impure and dull it is slow.
I didn't know I was, presently I know I am, this is the same "I" with the
knowingness mantle over it. This is the way the very Absolute transformed
Itself into this grosser consciousness state, the state of appearance.
I am the God, I am the devotee, and I am the worshipping; all
the same, one common principle.
Q. Was the saint we were speaking of, who was so irritable, a jnani?
M.• Yes. Jnani means knower of the knowledge.
Q. How could he be so irritable if he was a jnani?
M: In the manifest consciousness all the activities are happening,
socalled good and bad. In the manifest consciousness this quality was
expressed. You cannot attribute this tamasic quality to a jnani because he
has transcended the individual consciousness.
Q: Is it all right to eat non-vegetarian food?
M. So long as you feel that you are an individual you have to abide by the
code of conduct given to you. Once you are the manifest
consciousness there is no question of do's or don'ts.
In the universal manifest consciousness is there anything good or
bad? Nothing of the sort. The fragrance of flowers will be there, garbage
will be there; it is all the play of this consciousness. The witness of
thconsciousness cannot come in the realm of the consciousness.
Q: Suppose the witnessing stops, is it samadhi?
M. Suppose you all go away, there is no more witnessing, I am still
here, but I have nothing to witness. In that beingness the otherliness is
there and witnessing takes place. If consciousness is not there the
Absolute cannot know Itself - there is nothing but the Absolute - therefore
no witnessing.
Q: Suppose I am just watching that all actions are happening through me and I am
doing nothing, is meditation necessary?
M. That is a sort of meditation, but the right meditation is when you
meditate on your Self. You come to that state when you woke up in the
morning and you watch the consciousness; that is the state when you
meditate on your Self.
Presently you think that consciousness is watching consciousness, but
consciousness is being watched from the Absolute platform only.

September 27, 1980

Maharaja All this spirituality is only for understanding your true
nature. To achieve this what is "being alive" is the whole question. Once
you know your true nature then being alive is not as an individual but
being alive is simply being a part of that spontaneous manifestation.
There is nothing to be sought, the seeker is what is to be seen. Merely see the
picture as it is.
All of you are seekers: let me know what it is that you are seeking.
Questioner: Can you reach that, not just by meditation, but by living with others in
the world?
M. Unless- you are part of the manifestation can you live? Know this!
When you are not conscious, your world does not exist. You are conscious
of your presence and the world outside, they are not two things.
Understand this. The world can exist only if this psychosomatic apparatus
is there. If you consider this apparatus as yourself, you accept death
and die. Thejnani knows this to be just an apparatus and is apart from it.
Having understood this, you do your job happily. What is happening
is spontaneous and all activity is part of the total manifestation.
Q. If manifestation is spontaneous, is there any reason, or cause, of all actions? M:
In dreams you live for 100 years but when you wake up that dream lasted
for just five minutes. How did that happen?
Q. Does Maharaj relate the causeless happening to that dream?
M. The basic reason for all this great cause is that you exist, so find the
nature of that. All these acts are done by the child of a barren woman. All
these are problems of the consciousness; find out the root of the consciousness.
Q. How?
M. Catch that consciousness by the throat. Conceptual consciousness by
conceptual throat. Pamper and woo this basic consciousness, it alone can
satisfy your quest, not your intellect. Unless that knowledge is
pleased, you cannot have knowledge.
I never knew; if I had the slightest knowledge would I have descended
into the prison of my mother's womb? Whatever happens, happens by
itself. Who can have knowledge of that which existed before conception?
There is nothing to be acquired. You are That.

September 28, 1980

Questioner: Why so much attraction of the "I Amness"for the body?
Maharaj: When it expresses itself as "I Am" it is already fully charged
with that love to be. Why, in the insect, worm, animal, or human being,
this instinct to keep itself alive? Because with the sprouting of the life
force, this "I Amness," that is itself the very instinct to live, to love to live.
That love to be is the prime motive force for all life's activities.
You will find, when you are the manifest consciousness, you alone are
the multiplicity; you express yourself in all this ample, manifest world.
This state will itself be transcended, and you will be in the nirguna state; but
these are all your expressions, only you as "I Amness."
What I am talking about now is more subtle and more profound and
very difficult to understand, but if you understand the job is done.
Consciousness is an aid to know. Presently that consciousness knows
itself as the body, it should not be so, consciousness should know
consciousness bereft of body sense.
Understand logically what I have been telling you again and again.
This "I Amness" is the outcome of the food which I eat. Am I the food?
No, I am not; the outcome of the food I also am not.
All will realize this knowledge, but presently you are caught up with
this intimacy with the body.
"I Amness" has no authority of its own; it is a puppet in the play of the
five elements; it is an outcome of the five elements.
The one who expresses "I was not," Its position is secure and stable
and eternal.
Whatever you witness will not remain with you. It is imperfect. The
One who recognizes the imperfect is perfect, It is total, It has not to do
anything for Itself because it is perfect and complete in Itself.
Why can the Parabrahman afford to have this luxury or suffering of this
manifest world? Because to the Parabrahman, this does not exist.

September 30, 1980

Questioner: Oh, when will I understand what Maharaj is telling us?
Maharaj: It will come gradually, because of all the concepts. You have to
get rid of those. and that takes time.
Some people are in search of knowledge which is acceptable to their
mind and intellect, but the sphere of the mind and intellect is of no use to
receive this knowledge. All your experiences and visions depend on your
knowledge "I Am" and this itself is going to dissolve.
For this knowledge there are no customers, no devotees, because
they want something concrete in their hand, but when your knowingness
itself is going to dissolve, is it possible to hold on to something?
Your guru tells you that you have a true identity, but it is not this. It
is formless, Parabrahman. That Parabrahman is without any doubts. It is not
conditioned by mays, because with reference to Parabrahman, mays does
not exist.
When you listen to this you feel satisfaction and with that the matter
ends for most people; they don't meditate on this again and again and try
to find out that principle behind everything.
When will I be pronounced dead? When the Atman has left the body, but
I am not that Atman, where is my death there? I am not affected by cancer
because whatever happens, whatever the experience, I surrender all those
to the Atman. All the actions and fruits of the actions are surrendered to
the Atman by the Parabrahman, the Absolute.
You can never have knowledge about your Self because Parabrahman
cannot be witnessed. You know what you are not - what you are you cannot
know.

October 1, 1980

Maharaj: The Self is subtler than the space. There is no birth or death for
the Self.
Don't accept what I tell you blindly; ask me questions. Thoroughly
scrutinize and examine the knowledge which I expound and only then
accept it.
You live in the house but the house is not yourself. Similarly, the
knowledge "I Am" is in the body but it is not the body.
Questioner: I do not, fully understand it.
M. With the mind you will never understand. You are not the mind, nor
the words, nor the meaning of the words. I expound the knowledge of the
Self to the Self but you accept it as the knowledge of your body.
I am completely detached from the body and the consciousness
which is within the body. Nevertheless, because of the disease, the
unbearable suffering of the body is being experienced through the
consciousness. It is unbearable but since I am detached both from the body
and the consciousness, I am able to speak to you. It is something like the
fan - the breeze is.there and the sound is also there. In the same way the
vital breath is there and the sound is also emanating, but all this happening
is unbearable... the suffering has to be endured.
When the knowledge "I Am" is not there do you perceive or observe
anything? Knowingness is knowledge and no-knowingness is also
knowledge, but it has no form. If you equate it with the body, only then
you say that you are a male or a female.
In the absence of knowledge, the question of I know or I do not know
does not arise. When you understand what I have said about knowledge you
will fully identify with that.
Spontaneously I have realized that I am written off from the book of
consciousness. You will not feel happy unless you taste yourself through
your body. The body has importance only because the "I Amness," the
consciousness, is dwelling therein. If the "I Amness" or consciousness is
not there the body will be disposed of as refuse.
Call that knowledge "I Am" as your Self, don't call the body as
knowledge.
Normally the Gurus will not introduce to you the Self so deeply. They will
only introduce to you all the rituals.
The knowledge "I Am" is the primary God; meditate on that only.
Presently, one may ask why man has created a God. The concept of
a God is, if you pray to such a God, that God will give you whatever you
want. Such a God is great. We have an idea that if we demand
something of Him he will give it.

...........................

23

http://uploads.ru/i/O/E/L/OELJa.jpg

October 2, 1980

Questioner: I want to give up this ego, but I don't know how.
Maharaj: What is the measurement and the color of this 'ego that you
want to give up? What have you understood about this ego?
Q. It is a false conviction of the mind.
M. It is a pinch in my fingers, this "I Amness," but all the scriptures, the
sixteen sastras, eighteen puranas and four Vedas have been screaming and
shouting, trying to describe this Brahman. All those praises are only for
that tiny little pinch "I Am." The moment you start making a design of that
"I Amness" you are getting into deep waters.
This incense holder is silver, you have the knowledge that it is silver.
What is the shape, color, or design of that knowledge? If all knowledge is
formless, could there be a form, design or color to the knowledge "I
Am"? Could it be subject to sin or merit?
In this timeless ether the touch of "I.Amness" is not there.
Q: Is it not true that out of compassion for the ignorant thejnani expounds knowledge?
M.• You can say whatever you like. There is no such thing as compassion
in that state. I have elevated you to that state where you should know
that you are the very illuminant of everything, and the love to be is also
therein. When I lead you there why do you ask me such questions? How do
you know anything?
Q. Through the mind.
M: No. The knowingness recognizes the mind, the mind cannot recognize
consciousness.
You are overpowered by sleep, you wake up - who recognizes this?
Prior to mind, the knowingness principle is there. Prior to knowingness,
there is the priormost principle which knows the consciousness.
In the final analysis out of the absence of knowledge, knowledge was
born and knowledge delivered the world, all beings and all things.
The one who enters spirituality is like cold water which is put on the
f ire. When you put it on the fire the bubbles start rising and in due
course it starts boiling. That boiling stage is something like the sadhaka
entering the highest class of spirituality; at the boiling point he likes to
talk a lot, put a lot of questions. When the fire is applied continuously the
boiling stops and simmering takes place. That is the stage where one
acquires knowledge in spirituality. After listening to these talks will you
be able to go into quietude? I have my doubts about that, because you still
like to please your pampered mind. If you have really understood what I
say does it matter if you please your mind or not?
I have told you that presently you are like that warmth in the body.
What is the Parabrahman like? The Parabrahman does not experience this
warmth,of"I Amness" at all. If you understand, this puzzle will be solved
for you.
After understanding this, if one becomes a jnani, that consciousness
principle and body is available, and they will be involved in the
emotional field also. It will give full vent to crying and it will also
enjoy whatever situation is there. Such ajnani is not going to suppress any
expressions of emotions which spontaneously come out of this
consciousness and body apparatus.
Normally people suppose that ajnani should suppress all the
emotional outbursts. That. is not correct. With your standpoint in the
Absolute, you are not concerned with the feelings and instinctive outbursts
of the apparatus.
Ajnani does not volitionally participate, it is spontaneously happening;
while an ignorant person is deeply involved in that, he assumes
everything is real. For the jnani, the warmth is also unreal, so whatever
happens in the realm of warmth is unreal.
All devotion, liking, and love, is dissolved for a jnani, but whatever he
does is for others.

October 4, 1980

Questioner: 'What is the diference between my state and Maharaj's state?
Maharaj: For the jnani there is no difference. The difference arises in the
case of the ignorant because he is still identifying with the body. Give up the
identification with the body and see what happens.
Q: How?
M: I can only tell you, "this is it" - how to accept it is beyond me and I
have no remedy for that. I tell you but you must understand it.
Q. Once and for all: if we take his words literally is this all that is necessary?
M. Yes. That is the one to be caught hold of, but what is the instrument
with which you will catch hold of it? It is not the body, mind, and
intelligence.
Q: The will?
M: Any effort you make will land you in further trouble. Therefore it is for
this knowledge that you exist -to accept this knowledge, not the
pseudo-identity. Just keep what you have heard from me in mind as
true, and then act in whatever way arises spontaneously.
My Guru told me that I am timeless, spaceless, without attributes.
Then I decided that if that is the case why should I have any more fear?
Who is to have fear? Suppose you meet a tiger: the tiger is going to eat you in
any case, therefore there is some chance that if you attack the tiger it may
run away, so why not take that chance? Why not try and disidentify yourself
from the body? Whatever unhappiness you have, whatever fear you have, is
based entirely on identification with the body. Make an effort gradually to
disidentify yourself from the body.
It is a simple thing. Death is inevitable, so why don't you accept what
the Guru has told you, that death is something which cannot affect That
which you are. This identification with the body is time-bound; why not
disassociate yourself now?
How many of you will remember and understand what I tell you?
Whatever fear you have is based only on memory, concepts, and hearsay.
So long as you cling to any concept or memory this fear will not
leave you. Don't protect this fear-give it up, let it go. Can you do it?
You have been accumulating what you have heard from me, but
ultimately, whatever is accumulated has to be given up. It is to be
understood, used, and then given up.
Q. Maharaj says that everything has happened spontaneously but we are accustomed to
thinking that everything must have someone to start something, someone to control.
Without this controlling authority it is difficult to imagine anything functioning.
M. In the state of duality this idea has to be there, otherwise there can't be
any concept or any functioning, this is the basis of manifestation. When
ultimately the knowledge merges in knowledge, the seeker disappears
and there is no one to ask questions.
What is being said and what is being heard is time-bound - from a
particular time until today - but That which we are is totally separate
from that which is time-bound.
I can understand and measure this time duration, so I must obviously
be separate from this duration.

October 8, 1980 (morning)

Maharaj: All knowledge is available through the body, but this knowledge
which you are, which is an outcome of the food body, is not you.
This beingness itself is the love. It is most natural and therefore I
love all others because I love myself. The fountain of my love for others
springs from the love to be.
The Unmanifest is manifest through that waking, dynamic, manifest
spirit; that is the state of love to be. The wife is not devoted to the
husband, she is devoted to that love to be.
You have an earnest desire to be living in the body but you have to
dispose of this body. Just as you eat delicacies and the next day you have to
evacuate it as fecal matter, in the same manner you have to dispose of this
body. My own condition is complete manifest consciousness and the
expression of the body is only the sum and substance of the vital breath, the
language of the vital breath (the words) and the love of Self.
There is no other thing like Paramatman except "I Love." In that
ecstasy who is going to look at the body? Body becomes irrelevant. How
many titles have been given to it, but what is it ... only that love for Self.
Always, forever, your knowingness has been moving about, but you
have limited it to your own body, and therefore you are killing it.
Paramatman is not maya, it is your real nature.
Questioner: What should one do about one's daily duties?
M. You should attend to your duties - they are not personal, they are of
the manifest consciousness, they belong to all.
Try to expand yourself to Infinity as the manifested consciousness.
There is no other God but you.
One day this body will drop dead; people think that death means
completely unmanifest, but it is not so, it is not like that. When something
is consumed or exhausted, it becomes more, it becomes manifest.
Sri Krishna said, "I reincarnate myself at everyyuga (eon),." but I say,
every moment I expand, ever more I am created, I proliferate more and
more every moment.
I never seek anything from anybody else. Whatever I want to get, I
want to get out of my own being. I worship that very principle "I Am"
and demand what I want out of that; because of that, all these things are
coming.
His Majesty the Emperor has gone to sleep - it doesn't mean he is
dead. You are not able to realize this knowledge because you hang on to
the body. Only a Self-Realized Guru can direct you.
Without this body sense I am perfect, total, complete. You will not be
able to comprehend my talk.

October 8, 1980 (evening)

Maharaj: What is the cause of the waking state, sleep and "I Amness"?
Questioner: The chemical.
M. When you utter that word -"chemical"- do you consider yourself to
be that?
Q. I have studied that chemical thoroughly and I am not that. Everything is
contained in it but it is not me.
M. Just as this flame is the quality of the burning of the gas, similarly,
because of this chemical, there is the experience of the waking state,
deep sleep and knowingness; they are not your qualities.
Various names are given to the chemical, mula-mays, sutra pradam,
etc. It is all illusion. There is no God, no individual soul, nothing.
The primary illusion expresses itself through Self-love, love for
beingness. From deep sleep you wake up; similarly the disciple who considers
the words of the Guru as final, and follows his words and does accordingly,
remains like that. Ultimately he gets the knowledge of the
Self. Just as you wake up from deep sleep, you get that knowledge "I
love"; Self love, it merges into the Parabrahman unknowingly. When you
meditate you and that Self love should be one - there should not be any
duality.
The main problem with jnanis, those who intellectually have this
knowledge, is their attachment to their relations and their belongings.
Nobody dies, death means finished; for example, a drop of water when
it evaporates has become infinite. There is no death for anything,
everything finishes to become infinite.
The purusha is that principle from which everything flows, all the
manifestation; it is the support for everything. When you know
something, you have to become that; in order to know the God you have
to become that. In order to know that purusha you have to be that.
Q: Maharaj was speaking earlier of attachments, what about attachment to the
Guru? I find all other attachments are gone but this remains.
M: What do you mean, attachment to the Guru? You and Guru are
one, not two.
Q: How am I to follow what Maharaj says when I have so many things to care for
family, etc. ?
M: Your consciousness alone is taking care of everything; look at your
consciousness as God. The first thing you do after waking up is to
meditate on that consciousness, that "I Amness"; worship that
consciousness for some time before you start your daily activities.
Before you fall asleep at night, again abide in that consciousness, "I
Amness." Be devoted to that, and in such a mood go into sleep.
That consciousness which meditates on the Self, that Self will be
revealed to you.
People worship so many Gods, but these Gods are only concepts
which have occurred to the mind.
People say they want to save themselves; save what? What are you
trying to save?
All your knowledge is dissolved here, so you can have no pride of being
ajnani when you leave here.

October 14, 1980

Questioner: In the presence of the Maharaj I feel there are no more questions.
Maharaj: You feel that the doubts are dispelled, still the day is far off,
just wait.
Q: Can Swamiji suggest one thing so that we may enjoy eternal bliss?
M. I have a very simple remedy, and that is that I am not the body. Had the
world been real, there could have been some treatment - but it is not real.
Whatever you do is of no use. Everywhere you see all this chaos, in spite of
all efforts. You cannot stop it - it is in a continual state of flux, and it is all
unreal.
After listening to my talks do you acquire and store knowledge, or is
whatever knowledge you had being dissolved?
Q Becoming dissolved. Can I carry Maharaj to my home?
M. I am just like the city of Bombay; can you carry Bombay home with
you? This experience of the world is happening to you spontaneously, not
out of your efforts. Even your understanding of the Guru must come
spontaneously. Nothing will stop - all the process is going on without
your effort - so many bodies are being created and dying. All actions for
the running of the world are already happening. The process of creation
of millions of bodies is already going on in the space. Out of the weeds,
the grains have come, in those grains the "I Amness" is latently present.
That phone message, "Hello, I Am, Hello, I Am," is already there in
that grain of food. If you create something out of your own efforts, only
then can you destroy it - but this creation is not your effort.

October 15, 1980

Questioner: There are many moments in my life when I don't like the situation
and I want to change it.
Maharaj: You may fight with the situation but you are not the situation. Q:
When you start watching the mind you know that you are apart from the mind and
you would not like to get involved with the fight of the mind, so naturally the friction
will become less.
M. In this process you, as an individual, are not left at all. Try to understand
that "I Am" is a product of the saliva guna, food essence product.
The friction is the fight between that quiet witness and the world.
The fight began when the words began emanating from the consciousness.
Words have come out of you and you embrace those words; you
become the champion of the meaning of those words which have come
out of you.
You have a mountain of concepts and words. To get rid of these you use
other concepts. When you throw out all the concepts, including your
primary concept, then whatever is, is. Stay put in quietude.
Q. Are words necessary or is it just the presence of Maharaj?
M: No doubt association with a sage is conducive to realization,
nevertheless it must be followed up by questions and answers. There
are always some doubts arising from mind, so until all traces of mind are
removed you must clear them out by words.
Q.• These days, when thoughts come, I just turn away, I feel I stop them now.
M. If you can do this it is all right, but if they are flowing, let them flow.
Q. Not being involved in your thoughts - is that enough?
M. Yes, that is the only thing, and whatever has to happen will happen;
the very doing you have given up.
Q. So, it is no more necessary to try to change yourself, to try to do better things?
M. When you don't hang onto thoughts, you are no more a person.
Q It makes me a little scared. Everything can happen - I can do crazy things.
M: This is a common stage, all people go through this. Fear is a quality of
mind and mind does not want to lose itself.
Recite the nama-mantra, hang on to the mantra, because this is a stage
where the mind is losing all support, therefore you give it the support of
the mantra.
Q. The things that I don't like in myself, they derive from a thought as well, so I
can let go of them also?
M. Yes. Don't say myself, that is also a thought.
Q. So in the end it is as simple as that: it's just getting rid of thoughts - it's true. M:
It is not a small achievement. You may feel that you are thoughtfree
but at some stage thought will pounce on you suddenly. Many so-
,called sages, although they attained that thought-free state, still had
their fall.

October 17, 1980

Maharaja Just be as you are, don't imagine or picturize. Your body and
your image have changed continuously all during your life and none of
these images has remained constant.
After twenty-five years your body will give up this image and will
have an old person's image; later on that image also will go. If these
images had been real they would have remained; they are unreal. The "I
Am" principle has no form, no color, no design. Through these designs we
enjoy or suffer, but nothing is real; any experience you get is not real.
Whether you are crying or laughing, this is the image for that moment
only - the next moment it will be changing.. Some people are very good at
weeping, crying, lamentation, only for that moment.
So long as the body is there this passing show will be there, continously
changing, and finally, that very consciousness through which
you see the world will quit. The days are numbered of this body and consciousness.
Questioner: If I have not fully attained when I die, will I have another birth?
M. If you go with that concept, that concept will have another birth.
You don't know what form that concept will take.
Only that person will be visiting me whose destiny is being fully
exhausted. Nothing of his destiny will be left.
You are a lady from some far off country, why should you be visiting this
place? Because your destiny is being annihilated.

November 7, 1980

Questioner: Consciousness is time-bound, so whatever I am, is it also
timebound, or is there not something which is eternal?
Maharaj: So long as the body is there you are this consciousness, but
once the body and the consciousness go you are that original state upon
which all this has come as a temporary state. Your original state is
changeless and permanent.
The difficulty comes because you are all searching for That, forgetting
that That is what you are. You, as the subject, are seeking you as an object.
You are what you are seeking.
The moment there is a pose, there is fear. Anyone who has assumed
the pose of a seeker will be bound to follow the traditional practices of a
seeker, and the limitations.
What is the purpose of all that I am saying? It is a direct attack on
identification with the body-mind. So long as that identification is there
my direct attacks will continue.
Once dis-identification with the body-mind takes place, Brahman
will come with folded hands to your feet.
Q. Does this dis-identification take place suddenly or gradually?
M: It depends on how you look at it. If you are waiting for it, it will be
gradual; when the last step is taken it is sudden. When it does happen you
will realize the identity of the non-manifest and the manifest; they are
one, there is no difference.
The true knowledge can only come when all possible concepts have
been given up, and can only come from within.
Parabrahman has no beginning and no end, It is eternal, whereas this
consciousness is time-bound - it has a beginning and an end.
Just as you wake up in the morning and come to know that you are,
similarly this has happened. Because I am, I woke up, if I was not, how
could I have woken up?
Parabrahman comes to know that It is, the consciousness is how Parabrahman
knows that It is. Parabrahman is your eternal state, you cannot
remember it because you have not forgotten it. It is your dail: experience,
you know it. There is consciousness, there is no question of I"; It is.
The life force is in the grain in a dormant condition. Understand that
life force and do not condition it to any form. This beingness is not something
which you can capture a handful of, it is manifest - like space, it is
all over.
All this profound talk is nothing but mental entertainment. As you go
further into spirituality you will realize that "I Am" is the very God or soul
of an infinite number of universes, but that "I Am" is again entertainment.
All my talks are conceptual entertainment.

November 10, 1980

Maharaj: Up to what point in the past can my memory go? I was a
small child and I remember riding on the shoulder of someone, an elderly
person; he was taking me on some hill and I could see the sun rise - that is
my first impression.
Have you even given a thought to this? At what age did you get the
knowledge of your own body? Suppose you started knowing yourself at the
age of four - whatever actions took place prior to the age of four happened
without your knowing and there is no record in your memory of that. You
have heard from others of things that happened, but you directly do
not know. There is a scar and it is said that I was bitten by somebody,
but there is no memory of that. So many things happened before the child
knew itself.
In the first few years the primary concept "I Am" was there, but in a
dormant condition. Later on it started knowing itself.
Thejnani state is like the child state, when the child was not knowing
itself. The apparatus through which that knowingness expresses itself is
now quite different, but the principle is the-same.
Thejnanis will have different ways of expressing. Ramana Maharshi
used to wear only a loin cloth, just washed, not ironed - but here, I
would like to see that there are no wrinkles, very neatr-
There was another great Sage who was not conscious of his body; he
used to move about naked. Lord Krishna was also up-to-date, like me,
and very well dressed. People get lost in the external expressions of a
jnani and try to imitate that instead of going to the presiding principle.
Now I thoroughly know that very first moment, I know what is birth,
everything I know, nevertheless, could I volitionally enter into that
birth? What doership or authorship did I have, to enter or not to enter, or
to decide anything? When I say that I got the knowledge of my birth, do I
really know directly what happened at that moment? This is all conceptual
knowledge; also all knowledge since then is conceptual.

November 11, 1980

Maharaja There are Sages or Saints abounding all over, but they still
aspire to be, they would like to continue their beingness.
How long should I continue this waking state and deep sleep, waking
state, deep sleep? So long as this cycle continues the knowingness also
will prevail there. Have you encountered anyone who was tired of this
waking state and deep sleep state? In the waking state you carry out a lot of
activities, and when you are tired you fall into sleep. In this continuous
cycle what is the advantage?
Questioner: It is said "Rarely somebody appreciates the skill of God. " What is that
skill of God.
M. Where is that God? If you want to inquire about some skill, inquire
about the skill of your parents.
You have created a God because you want to beg from somebody
and that is what you call spirituality.
Q. I don't believe in that kind of God. I believe that God is that touch of `I
Amness, "as Maharaj says.
M.• If you really understood and digested what I have said- you would not
set foot in this place.
Q. If I have understood whatyou have said there is no need for me to come - it's all
right - but let me ask you, factually it is like . .
M. What do you mean by facts?
Q. Even to understand that what should I do? M:
Do that thing which you can't do.
This world of mays is built up of concepts only. I cannot charge the
world with giving me the pain; the, whole cause of the pain is this know
ingness "I Am." When this knowingness was not there, was there any
pain or pleasure?
If you want to encounter God, dive deep into your own Self; that is the
very storehouse of everything.
Q. How does the dream -state happen?
M: In deep sleep there is an apparent waking state in which that "I
Amness' feels itself waking up and creates a dream world.
You know very well how you proceeded into this mess. You inquire
into this and keep quiet.
After listening to my wildly virulent talks you may not come tomorrow,
it doesn't matter. I tell you again and again, you might run around
and around the world, but nobody is going to give you the knowledge.
Recede into your own Self. Surrender to your own beingness and that
alone will give you all the knowledge necessary for you - no one else will.
You don't inquire into this, you blindly follow the rituals of spirituality.
You maybe anywhere, but be honest, be devoted only to your being.

November 23, 1980

Questioner: Is the witnessing done by That which. is prior to consciousness, or
does consciousness witness itself.
Maharaja Cross that bridge when you come to it. Don't worry about the
principle prior to consciousness, you just be the consciousness.
Q. Are Gods only concepts?
M. Gods means consciousness only. Collect whatever you can in the
absence of consciousness.
Q: We are not able to understand the state of a jnani. If the jnani has become one
with the Absolute, where is the scope for the display of consciousness? We don't
understand how a jnani can be Parabrahman and be here also.
Translator: Ajnani can transcend consciousness and be the Absolute on
demand; he can come into consciousness because that particular body is
still available - through that body communication takes place with the
beings in consciousness.
The example given in our scriptures is like this: You have an ocean
and the water from the ocean in a pot, now that pot is dipped into the
ocean, the pot is still there, but the water in the pot merges with the ocean
water, so that water does not feel any difference, but the water in the pot
can also witness the pot. It has the advantage of being one with the
Absolute and to use the body also. With this example I am able to
understand what the state of ajnani could be.
M.- Understand beingness and all will be solved. It iS all your speculation
about that Absolute state from your grosser state. Presently it is like a
signboard indicative of the Parabrahman. The word Parabrahman is not
Parabrahman.
Your habit is to ask questions. A few words are flung at you, some
concepts are given to you, and you say that you understand.
The only theme of my talks is you - you know you are. How and
why do you know you are? It is only about that which I talk.
You have no authority over this consciousness, it has come by itself
and it will go by itself. You can't do anything with it.
Q: The whole idea of control is meaningless then?
M. Yes. You have absolutely no authority over it.
Q. The very foundation is taken out from under us.
M.- All your moments of spirituality are based on the "I am the body"
idea. This knowledge "I Am" is going to remain for a short period.
Q: What about those who say they are the incarnations of this one or that one? Are
they just ideas?
M: This will be very clear to you when you remain in your real position.
Until then, accept it if you like. Until you know your true state you will
accept all these hearsays because you don't know the truth.
You need not go to that prior state. Presently, what you are - this
primary concept - thrash it out. When you thrash it out, what you are
prior to the concept is open. Normally, ajnani will not explain in such
detail to a seeker.
You have thoroughly studied the teachings of Ramana Maharshi. In his
teachings did you come across this aspect?
Q. The more I listen to Maharaj, the more I understand the teachings of Ramana
Maharshi.
M.• Have you understood Ramana Maharshi?
Q. I can never understand, because he is the Absolute, not an object to be
understood. I am not an object either.
M.• Yes. Ramana Maharshi is the Absolute, you are also That. The Ab
solute cannot be caught in the domain of your experience. Are you
convinced?
Q. Yes.
M. Why did this beingness of mine happen? What was the cause? You
must get to know what this is thoroughly.
Q. What is the point of trying to find out answers to these questions? Is it not
sufficient for me to know that I am, that my beingness has appeared and will disappear?
Why do I need to know all this?
M. You must know! The knowingness is the outcome of what? The
quality of what?
Q: It's a quality of food.
M. Oh yes, but when do you come to know of it?
Q. It is not my experience.

24

http://uploads.ru/i/I/q/n/IqnzF.jpg

November 29, 1980

Questioner: This that I am - and the consciousness which is time-bound - what is
the relationship?
Maharaj: What is the concept of "I" with which you are trying to find a
relationship? This is exactly where the misconception arises.
In this concept of space and time there is total manifestation, in that
you consider that you are something separate. There is nothing separate,
you are part of the function of the total manifestation.
As Absolute, I am timeless, infinite, and I am awareness, without
being aware of awareness. As infinity I express myself as space, as timeless
I express myself as time. Unless there is space and duration I cannot
be conscious of myself. When space and time are present there is consciousness,
in that the total manifestation takes place and various phenomena
come into being.
I, by Myself, Awareness, descend into this consciousness, and in this
consciousness I express Myself in manifold ways, in innumerable
forms. This is the crux, the framework of manifestation; there is no
question of any individuality.
What is this? [Holding up a bag of apples] There is no difference
between this fruit, a goat, or a human being. They are all food products,
all three are food.
All creation, every creature, is made up of the five elements, and the
behavior of each creature depends on the combination of the three guns;
satoa, rajas, tamas. There is no question of being responsible for anything that
happens in the world. It is only by taking delivery of responsibility that
one suffers.
The consciousness of being present, the five elements and the three
gunas, that is the total of the universal manifestation.
In your original state there is no awareness of awareness, therefore
no question of knowledge. The knowledge comes only with the appearance
of the body and consciousness. This knowledge is really ignorance,
and whatever knowledge is based on that is also ignorance.
You have been practicing spirituality for many years, what do you
have in hand?
Q. I am consciousness, that is my profit.
M: Is this profit permanent? Is that your true nature?
Q. I identify myself with the total manifestation.
M. All that, is it not only after you got your consciousness? Go back to
your state before this consciousness came upon you.
First you identify with the body, then you identify with the
consciousness, after awhile you continue to be the consciousness, but the
trap is that you will think you have become ajnani. Even being in
consciousness is time bound. The original state is before the consciousness
came upon you. In one case the knowledge was given, it was
understood, and the person became That in one day; another took a
thousand years, and also reached that state. Is there any difference?
What was originally something which I loved, now I no longer want it
because I am aware, of my true nature. I no longer need this
consciousness, even for five minutes.
At the end of your life you will be prepared to pay five lakhs of rupees for
an extension of even five minutes. I am not prepared to give even one rupee.
I have lost all love for this manifested world.
M.• You must maintain this knowledge "I Am" in proper order. I quarrel
with my people if they don't keep these utensils in proper and clean order.
Suppose this towel is left unwashed - then I will play hell with whoever is
responsible. All the dirt which is not the towel should be removed.
Similarly, "I Am" is the tool through which you get all the knowledge. You
worship that "I Am," remove all the adulterations, the dirt.
Q: How to worship the "I Amness",7
M. That knowingness alone points out all the dirt which is imposed on
it. Even the space is not as pure as the knowledge "I Am." Innately the
world is very pure; it is rendered dirty because you identify with the
body. Since you do not recognize your "I Amness" in its purity, you refer to
various books and Sages to get an identity.
Q. (another) I am afraid of losing my beingness, my existence.
M. Where is the question of worry? Even the Parabrahman does not
know Itself. When we come to the conclusion that you are not, I am not,
what is left is said to be Parabrahman, but what is Parabrahman? You can't
describe it, so you are silent. I am also silent. Parabrahman cannot be
compared with anything.
Q. Is Nama Japa useful?
M. By all means do it and its worth will be proved in due course. You
have to abide in that Japa; it is no use conceptualizing what benefits you
are going to derive from it. Follow it and realize the benefits. Even if the
one following Nama-Japa is like a donkey or dud, he will become a great
Sage - that power is there in the recitation of ajapa. When that person
comes across a Sat-Guru, the Sage tells him, "You need not take care of
yourself because you are that immanent principle "I Am." You need not
take care of anything. You just be and everything will be taken care of
for you."
It is a pity that you depend so much on hearsay and you don't try to
investigate for yourself. Your knowledge is confined to your body and
borrowed knowledge.
All the activities of the world are going on because of this "I Amness." It
is the source which creates the world. Understand that "I Amness' first --
only then can you transcend it. First of all, be that "I Amness."

November 30, 1980

Maharaj: This "I Amness" is a function of nature, a product of the five
elemental food body. It knows itself, it loves to be. With the aid of this
knowingness, get to know your Self.
Many eons have come and gone, but no person could retain his identity
or his memory perpetually - it is gone with the departure of the
body. The five element essences, plus the three gunas, means a person;
with that this knowingness comes, the memory "I Am." This personality
is sustained by the provisions supplied by the five elements. So long as the
provisions are supplied in proper order the body and "I Amness" will be
there. Once the supply is stopped the touch of "I Amness" is gone.
That which has come to see Maharaj, do you recognize that? Is it the
body, or something outside the body?
Questioner: Inside or outside, I don't know.
M: Very good reply. Keep aside the body and describe that.
Q. I can't describe it.
M: Since you can't describe that, what is the use of that?
Q. No use.
M. Once you understand this, you will get the truth. The one which is
listening, which you do not know, is you, and the one which you know as
you, you are not.
The highest purpose of spirituality is the Paramatman - that
knowledge that indwells the body, "I Am," and that cannot be
described. When you firmly agree that this is right, does it not mean that
you have the spiritual wisdom?
Q. Who can get spiritual wisdom?
M. Except you, who could that be? You and you alone. Who could ask
"who am I" but you? If the questioner "I" is not there, who is going to ask
questions? This is the culmination of spiritual knowledge for you; you
need not come again.
Q. I like to be with Maharaj.
M.• You can sit here. Now whether you live one year or a thousand, the
result will be this only.
Q: Maharaj answers my questions before I ask them.
M. Initially you accept what other people say but in due course,
whatever is accepted is thrown overboard.
Q. I cannot have any experience of how beingness came into being because I have no
knowledge of what existed before being.
M. This knowledge is very simple and, at the same time, very profound.
Who will know all this process, the appearance of the knowingness,
and finally its disappearance? The one who understands this
reaches the state of Sat-Guru, but an ordinary person cannot understand
this. Sat-Guru is not the child of human parents.
To know these secrets, to understand these secrets, You surrender to
that very principle "I Am," and that consciousness alone will lead you to
this. Presently, stabilize in the consciousness. If you don't do that, your
very concepts will be very dangerous to you - they will throttle you to
death. The knowledge you are is the source of all energy, the source of all
Gods, of all types of knowledge.
Having heard these talks, you need not come again, you have only to
abide in that conscioussness you are, that very dynamic principle
because of which everything is. Stabilize yourself therein. Confirm your
stability there. You are only that. This is the simplest method: you know
you are, just be there.

http://uploads.ru/i/F/W/M/FWM8A.jpg


December 7, 1980

Questioner: I want direct experience of the Ultimate.
Maharaja The Absolute cannot be experienced. It is not an objective
affair. When I am unicity then that is pure awareness which is not aware
of its awareness, and there can be no subject and object - therefore
there can be no witnessing. Any manifestation, any functioning, any
witnessing, can only take place in duality. There has to be a subject and
an object, they are two, but they are not two, they are two ends of the
same thing. When consciousness stirs, duality arises. There are millions
of objects, but each object, when it sees another, assumes the subjectivity
of the Absolute, although it is an object. I, as an object, perceive and
interpret all the other objects, and I assume that I am the subject, and
the witnessing takes place.
Q. Why does consciousness stir? What is the cause?
M. Without any cause, spontaneously, it happens; there is no reason.
That consciousness is universal - there is no individuality. But when the
consciousness stirs in a particular form which has also arisen
spontaneously, and starts functioning in that form, that form assumes that
it is an individual and what is unlimited limits itself to a particular form
and the trouble starts.
Let us say that someone has become ajnani, but what was it to begin
with? It was that sour, bitter, principle, that secretion because of which the
consciousness has taken place. That very principle, the knowledge "I Am,"
has developed, grown, and become sweet; it matures and becomes the
manifestjnani state; but what is that? It is the product of the five ele
mental food essence. When that goes, what remains? The Absolute
which does not know Itself.
Q; The desire for liberation is also a desire, isn't it?
M. Don't talk about liberation, talk about yourself, what you are.
When you understand that, both knowledge and ignorance disappear,
You only require knowledge so long as the ignorance is there.
A knowledgeable person can tell anything to an ignorant person to
remove his ignorance. For that purpose he takes the aid of the so-called
worldly knowledge, concepts, and both the worldly conceptual knowledge
and the ignorance go simultaneously. Ajnani will give you any concepts
to remove your ignorance. This "I Amness" is the knowledge and.
you are embracing that. To remove that he gives you all these concepts;
to understand that you are not this "I Amness" which is an outcome of
the food essence product. Once you realize that, whatever concepts he
has given you, together with this "I Amness," are to be thrown out. What
remains is the Absolute.
This is the actual state of affairs. You can never say I am like this or
that - you are without knowledge. Rarely will one ugflerstand this and,
transcend the domain of consciousness.
After listening to my talks, you think it is all very simple, but it is not
that easy.

December 9, 1980

Maharaja Here you will get to know what is, not what you expect to
hear. Duality arises when consciousness arises. I am present and I know
that I am present - that is duality. I am and I am not conscious of being
present - that is unicity. There is only one, 'but when this conscious
presence is there, then there is a sense of duality.
Questioner: Is a Realized person aware of everything?
M. Actually no one is realized, there is only pure knowledge. It is only for
reasons of communication that we say a person is realized. The
knowledge has realized that it is knowledge; that is all that has happened. I
am not the body, I am not the words; when knowledge recognizes this it is
called Self-Realization.
Q, The knowledgeMaharaj is giving isforjnanis. What happens to the very simple
man who is not able to comprehend this?
M: Bhajans and meditation. By meditation the knowledge which is
immature will gradually grow into maturity.
Q. A thousand years ago people were primitive. They could not have understood
this. It is only for developed minds.
M. Whether primitive or civilized, people can understand this. Even in
those days there must have been some to whom this knowledge did appear
and they instinctively understood.
This knowledge is not new; it has always been in existence. People
came to know instinctively.
Q. Why is it that India seems to be the cradle of this knowledge? No other country
seems to have this knowledge.
M: That is not so. This manifestation is the expression of the Absolute,
and the manifestation may take various forms in various countries.
Where it takes what kind of expression is immaterial; basically all is the
manifestation of the Absolute. There is no cause and effect, no reason
why one thing should be in one place and something else in another.
What is to be found out is what one is, by oneself.
Q. Can the Guru give a push toward that knowledge?
M. You think that you are one individual and the Guru is another
individual but that is not so. Guru is the knower of this consciousness,
which is temporary.
Understand this curious situation: while I am talking to you there is
unbearable pain in the body.
I have understood firmly that there are no individuals separate from
one another, no knowledge separate as worldly knowledge and spiritual
knowledge. There is no Guru and no disciple, there is no God and no
devotee. There are no opposites - they are a polaristic duality, not two
separate parts, but two parts of the same one. I am convinced of that and yet
I am talking to you. You accept it as knowledge and I give it as
knowledge. Understand this amusing factor.
The talks emanate spontaneously out of me; prior to the emanation of
the words there is no meaning fabricated inside. There is no part
played by the mind. It is direct spontaneity.
Q What is the definition of consciousness as used by Maharaj?
M. Consciousness, as it is used here, is this sense of being alive, of being
present, the sense of existence. It is the love of being that is the source
and cause of all desires.

December 13, 1980

Maharaj: The Absolute is unicity, by Itself, but it is expressed in manifold
ways and forms. As Absolute I have no experience of myself. The
devotion without another is devotion to the Self, where there is no duality.
Once the duality comes, the devotion is divided between subject and
object. Before birth we were not conscious of ourself; only when a foreign
element, the birth, was introduced, did we become conscious of
ourself.
Apprehending this is awakening and for this there is no path or
technique. This is so subtle that I would like to speak more about it, but it
is physically impossible for me to speak more than a few words.
What I speak about openly, others will not. The amount of receptivity
each one has depends on his own luck. Understand also that what you
hear from me you cannot utilize. Whatever you hear will spontaneously do
what it likes.
Questioner: Sitting here and listening to Maharaj is pure joy. Even though it appears
to be in duality, it strikes something deep inside.
M: So long as there is that sense of duality amongst you what you hear
cannot reach the target.
Understand what I am saying. The consciousness arises
spontaneously. Once I am conscious of myself I know I exist, and I love
this beingness; I do not want this beingness to depart from me and it is
this that makes me strive all the day till sleep overcomes me, in order
tokkeep this love of beingness satisfied.
Then the Guru tells me the true state of affairs, that this
consciousness which I love so much is only an illusion. It is the basic cause of
all unhappiness and my true state is before this consciousness arose.
That is beyond all concepts and any name given is a concept.
Understand it thoroughly, intuitively, beyond words, but also
understand that that understanding can be of no use to you, because it is at
the level of consciousness, and consciousness is illusory.
What is being recorded and transcribed here will be of unimaginable
value in course of time when the basis of understanding will be broadened
and people will want to know what the state of affairs is. At that time,
when this is exposed on a wider scale, there will be wonderment. These
words will be few, but those who at a certain time will be proud of their
own achievements, when they hear these few words their own knowledge
will evaporate so suddenly they will be wonderstruck.
Q. I don't understand the way the word consciousness is used here. I thought
consciousness was pure awareness, the Ultimate reality.
M. This consciousness, which depends on the food body which is born, is
time-bound. That which is prior to consciousness is the Absolute, and when
consciousness is without a form and not aware of itself, it is the Absolute. We
are nothing but this consciousness.
You come here and I talk to you but I am not concerned whether you
come or go. I am totally independent. I, as the Absolute, do not need the
consciousnes. Total independence is merely to apprehend and
understand. My apparent dependence is on this consciousness which says
"I Am." It is this sentience which enables me to perceive you. This concept
I did not have but even then I existed. I was there before this
consciousness appeared.
Whatever you want, desire or worship, can only be concepts. Have you
heard what is conceptual existence and what is existence prior to concepts?
Many people have come here purely for spiritual purposes and they have
professed great love for me. Subsequently some good fortune happens to
them and they prosper and in their prosperity they have no time to come
here. All the earlier love is where? This is the province of mays. A person
comes with the sincere intention of spiritual search, then this mays shows
him a little bit of temptation and off he goes.
This mays does not operate independently - we are partners. Will he
dare divorce himself from this maya? No, he will accept that maya. That
ego (that I am so and so) is very difficult to get rid of, but the ego cannot
touch one who really understands what I say.
You will continue coming here as long as the concepts remain; once
you go beyond concepts there will be no need to come here.
Since when and because of what, is what you think you are?

December 23, 1980

Questioner: When you observe a problem, any problem in the human mind, ifyou
observe it very strong and pure, the problem dissolves and there is only observation.
What is that observation, who is that observation, what is the essence of that
observation? How to go further?
Maharaj: _ This is a traditional way of understanding. It is a traditional
mood of the world observation, nothing beyond that. Just a mood, that's
all. When did this process of observing start? It started with the arrival of
the waking state, deep sleep state, and the knowlege "I Am," all rolled into
one "I Am." This is known as birth. With the so-called birth this triad
has come, and with its arrival observation started. Every day it is going
on. The moment the "I Amness" comes it is being used for
experiencing, observing, etc.
Prior to the happening of this birth, where was that "I Amness"? It
was not there.
Q. Going on further, one is in observation, one is just observing, is there any further
question then? What should be the question?
M. When does the observation occur and of what? You have collected a
profound vocabulary, but the Self-knowledge has not dawned.
Q You see, that is what I was observing. How to enquire into that?
M: You know you are. Because you know you are, everything is
happening. Get to know that knowledge "I Am." When you understand
what that "I Amness" is, then the shell of the mystery is broken.
Q: What is the procedure to get at that?
M.• Xou go to the source out of which this question arose. That source
will solve this question.
Q. Is there any enquiry in that?
M. Oh yes. If anybody, any principle, wants to pose the question he
should not embrace the body as himself. Pose the question from the
standpoint that you are only the knowledge "I Am."
Q. You put the question because you don't know.
M. Yes, but the primary ignorance is about our "I Amness." We have
taken it as the Ultimate, that is ignorance. We presume that this consciousness
is the eternal, the Ultimate, that is the mistake. This "I Am"
principle is there provided the waking state and deep sleep are there. I am
not the waking state, I am not the deep sleep - therefore I, the Absolute,
am not that "I Am." Leave aside this triad; what are you?
Q. It comes again to the question "Who am I?"
M. Understand clearly. When you keep aside the very instrument of
questioning, where is the question?
Q: If you don't question...
M. Which you? You have removed that "you."
Q. I don't know. How can you answer?
M. What questions can you have without this triad? Let us presume that
you are fifty years old. You have had the association of that triad for f ifty
years; go behind now, five years earlier what was your experience? What
were you like?
Q. I don't know.
M. That is correct. It was a no-knowing state. In that no-knowing
state, suddenly knowingness has appeared. It has created all this
mischief. Since when are you and how long will you continue to be?
Q. Well, I would say, since I have been experiencing and for as long as I am
experiencing.
M. Right. Now, without the experience of "I Amness," talk something
about that.
Q. I can't.
M. The association with this triad state, this bundle of mischief, due to
what?
For example, a building is on fire, it is said because of a short circuit in
the electricity: The arrival of this triad, due to what short circuiting? There
was some friction.
When you press here on the cigarette lighter the flame is there;
because of the friction or short circuiting, all the three states are aflame.
Q. And the flame is?
M: "I Am."
Q. I have been born into this.
M. Because of that triad you are experiencing life and doing spirituality
also.
Q. At the end there is no question at all, no who am I or what am I if I put aside this
triad there can only be silence.
M. Silence or peace is related to chaos or turbulence.
Q. It has nothing to do with peace and turbulence. I mean, ifyou just sit quiet in
your Self, leaving aside these three states, knowing that I don't know myself, you can
only be silent.
M. What you say is impossible. The knowingness will be there provided
waking state and deep sleep are there. If they were not available you
would not have been here in this form.
If you had the capacity to know before birth that you were being
born, you would not have cared to jump into this pit of birth.

December 24, 1980

Maharaja There is a great difference in my present state; earlier when I
listened to bhajans I was conscious of the words and the deeper meaning of
the words, and I was totally involved in the bhajans. Now my consciousness
reacts only to the extent that there is consciousness of the bhajans
taking place, but no involvement.
I am no longer concerned with anything to do with "me" or "mine."
This sense of "me" and "mine" is so strong that there can be quarrels over
nothing more than a little piece of cloth with no intrinsic value, simply
because of the identification of "mine."
This consciousness is nothing but energy. When the body essence
grows weaker, the consciousness grows weaker, and ultimately will
leave; nothing is dead.
Food is one item that keeps this energy in good order. I take hardly
any treatments, but I do have my body massaged. This massage revives the
warmth in the body (which is the energ y) so the energy in the body,
which tends to be lax and cold, is warmed up again by the massage.
What is born is the waking and sleep states and the concept of time
and consciousness. Once this consciousness is conscious of itself it takes
on certain items as its own, because of conditioning, and others as not its
own, and it will fight for and try to protect those which it considers its
own. When consciousness realizes its potential power, its universality, the
"me" and "mine" concept is lost.
This universal consciousness is known as God, which is the
Almighty, the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent, all the
attributes. These attributes are given to God in consciousness, not to the
Absolute. The Absolute is without attributes.

December 27, 1980

Maharaja The trouble is, everybody wants to have the knowledge of the Self
without giving up the identification with the body, they are contradictory.
Give up this identification and everything becomes simple. I am
there before anything can happen. If anyone is asked whether he knows
when the sky came into existence, he will say he does not know. He does not
know because he considers his presence only as a phenomenon when the
body was there.
That the sky was not there I know, and who is this? It is the One who is
prior to everything. My true nature is not circumscribed by the concept of
time and space.
When you hear this you promptly get confused and say, "In that
case, how can I carry on my normal business?" Understand your true
nature and then do any amount of business you like.
I say all this with great sincerity and great urgency. People hear it but
do not give up the identification with the body. They hang on to it with
great determination.
Even the statement that you existed before the sky existed will not be
acceptable to you.
A child may be playing with the smallest coin, and if it is removed will
be greatly agitated. You accept your identification with the same
determination, the same anxiety, in spite of the knowledge which you are
being given. Even if you give the child a toy made of gold, he will reject
it because he has his heart set on that small coin. Even if I give you
this knowledge, which is priceless, it will not be acceptable. The sound
which first comes to denote the presence I am not; I am neither the presence
nor the sound denoting the presence. Whatever one sees or perceives,
that one must be prior to what is seen or perceived. It is simple.
When this knowledge of the Self gets firmer and firmer we are no
longer attracted to those things which had previously attracted us so
much. You see me talking, apparently at ease, but there is continual
suffering, particularly between 2 and 4 p.m. the existence of this
consciousness itself becomes unbearable. This is no one else's experience
I experience it myself.
What is being recorded now, when it is typed and put into book form
and someone reads it, what will he make of it? He will say that he cannot
imagine anyone having lived who could say this. The actual-fact now is
that I have reached a stage where it would require good fortune for anyone
to have even a sight of that principle. The words are so profound,
there is deeper meaning behind it. Presently only fortunate people will
listen to my talks.
I repeatedly tell you that there is nothing save this consciousness, the
knowledge "I Am" -if you feel like worshipping something, worship
that. I am giving blessings. Blessings mean what? I am giving
confidence and courage.

December 28, 1980

Maharaja Can any Qf your concepts grasp the total, the Ultimate? Have you
understood that knowledge itself is ignorance? If it were real it would have
been there eternally - it would not have had a beginning and an end.
Now the experience "I Am" is felt, earlier that experience was not.
When it was not, no proof was called for, but once it is, lots of proof is required.
How did you wake up in the morning? Why did you wake up at all? It
is not the mind which knows - somebody knows because of the mind. Now
my hand has lifted, who knows? The one who has lifted my hand knows it
has lifted it. You are before the mind; because you are there the mind is
working.
When will you wake up? Provided you are, you wake up.
Through the concepts of others you have built up so many things
around you that you are lost. "You" is decorated and embellished by the
concepts of others. Prior to receiving any hearsays from outside, has
anyone any information about himself?
The purpose of Sat-Guru is to tell you what you are like prior to the
building up of all those concepts of others. Your present spiritual storehouse
is filled up with'the words of others - demolish those concepts.
Sat- Guru means the eternal state which will never be changed: what you
are. You are that immutable, eternal, unchangeable Absolute. Sat- Guru
tells you to get rid of all these walls built around you by the hearsays and
concepts of others.
You have no form, no design. The names and forms you see are your
consciousness only - the Self is colorless but it is able to judge colors, etc.
The one who is directed by a Sat-Guru has no more birth. Your sadhana
is over, you have reached this place.
To you who search for the Self, I explain this type of knowledge, I
lead you to a state where there is no hunger, no desire.
When you have knowledge you see the "I" as all-pervasive, as long as
the consciousness is there, but the witness of the consciousness has no "I
Am," that is your true eternal nature.
Giving up the body is a great festival for me.

............................

25

http://uploads.ru/i/X/v/e/Xve1r.jpg

December 29, 1980

Maharaj: Sitting in meditation helps the consciousness to blossom. It
causes deeper understanding and spontaneous change in behavior.
These changes are brought about in the consciousness itself, not in the
pseudo-personality. Forced changes are at the level of the mind. Mental
and intellectual changes are totally unnatural and different from the
ones that take place in the birth principle. These take place naturally,
automatically, by themselves, due to meditation.
Most of the people see the tree of knowledge and admire it, but what is
to be understood is its source - the seed, the latent force from which it
sprouts. Many people talk about it but only intellectually; I talk about it
from direct knowledge.
A small speck of consciousness, which is like a seed, has all the
worlds contained in it. The physical frame is necessary for it to manifest
itself.
All the ambitions, hopes and desires are connected with an identity,
and so long as there is an identity, no truth can be apperceived.
Questioner: Is there any destiny for the total manifestation or the phenomena as a
whole?
M. As there is no single identity, where will it go? The fuel is the destiny of
the flame; so also, the food essence body is the destiny of the
consciousness. Consciousness alone offers destiny and destiny offers
suffering. Because of the mistaken identity we think of personalized
consciousness, but actually it is vast and limitless.
The source of consciousness is prior to time and space. Manifestation
needs time and space; but the source of consciousness was there before
manifestation took place. The manifestation has five elements, three gunas
and, above all, consciousness, the "I Amness." Now how can anything be
without my conscious presence? Even the elements cannot exist without
me - I do not do anything, I do not create anything - they happen because
of my conscious presence. My presence, is throughout and I say this with
conviction.
Some may read these words, some may have heard these words,
some may hear the tape recordings, some may want to hear, but will be
thrown so far away from the tapes, due to circumstances, that it won't be
possible. There are millions of varieties of forms in the total manifestation,
but the source of all is the consciousness. What is this
consciousness? Does anyone think along these lines?
In dreams one sees moons, stars, etc., but the identity is not there.
The consciousness has to be understood during the waking state. People
come and go, sights come and go, elements come and go, but I remain. I
am conscious of my consciousness, and then alone the whole show is
there.
Suppose a very important person is coming to visit in two months.
The houses are decorated, the stands are put up, the streets are
decorated, a lot of show is there. Why? It is due to that V.I.P.
Some people fast for a month, and take a lot of hardships on
themselves, but they expect to get back more than they give away.
People look everywhere but to the source. Exclude this birth energy
and see if anything can be done by anyone. We, limit this limitless energy
to the simple phenomenon which is one body. Intently examine the
words: if my conscious presence is not there, what will I be? I enjoy the
words that come up spontaneously and watch how true and
unconditional they are.
A murderer is loose; he has committed many murders and the
international police are after him but unable to catch him. That is like
the traditional scriptures not being able to locate or find the Absolute. It is
beyond the grasp of the Vedas, Puranas, etc., because it is not conceptual.
This murderer is very proud to escape all the efforts of the police force; he
is so fearless that he sits where the plans to catch him are discussed and
hence he cannot be caught.
Everyone has to die, so die as your true nature. Why die as a body?
Never forget your true nature. It may not be acceptable to many, but it
is a fact. If you must have an ambition, have the highest, so that at least
while dying, you will be the Absolute. Decide that now, firmly, with
certainty and conviction.
A tiger is coming at you: you know that when he attacks you, death is
certain. So, why die like a coward? Attack him and maybe he will run
away. But if the tiger is passing by, do not unnecessarily attack him! Only
when absolutely necessary, jump on him.
God is great and maya is vast, but what are you in the end? The mental
modifications take you away from the Self. Nobody wants to enquire
about the Self deeply and thoroughly; everybody enquires on a superficial
level.
Q. My mind does not stay quiet, it goes here and there.
M.• With all these ramblings you will be entertained, but you will not
obtain knowledge. This is all spiritual entertainment, because the factual
state of affairs is that what you are, you are, without modifications.
Q The desires are there; they will keep on demanding.
M: Finally, what are you?
Q. I am nothing; mind, etc., keeps on going.
M. Then why are you learning all this? Q:
To serve the people.
M. So many great people have rendered so many great services, but
where are they now?
Q: So many waves come and go. I want to pass my time by having no desires and
serving others.
M. Do what you like. Rain falls and renders service to the beings. It
does not suffer while rendering services. All the beings that come about
are sustained due to rain, are they happy?
Q. They are all suffering. I too do not have peace. How does Maharaj see us?
M. I see everyone as I am. This being is the combination of the parents.
All are engrossed in concepts, they enjoy them.
Q. When lam one with music, etc., it is all joy, but when lam in conflict, it is all
misery. Sometimes I feel angry. Why?
M. Mind and body and their actions and reactions is not my subject. I do
not deal with these problems. There are numerous other people who can
deal with such problems.
Q But almost all people are on the side of body-mind. One in one million is open to
you.
M: Ask about yourself, do not bother about others.
Q. On one side I feel attracted towards silence and yet I feel that millions suffer and
Sages do not do anything about them.
M. Because their suffering is illusory.
Q: I know that there are four states, waking, dreaming, deep sleep, and a state
beyond all three. I can understand intellectually, but still suffering is there.
M. Get rid of all the four states and also rid the people of their suffering.
Let the illusory world take care of itself, you must find out who you are.
Q. I want to practice Naturopathy and teach others and learn wisdom myself.
M. By developing these concepts you will not come out of it at all. First
understand what is circumstantial and what is real. You are the product of
the concepts of your parents, are you not?
Q. Yes, at a conceptual level.
M. Mind and all the concepts are due to your primary concept "I Am."
Your parents and you are simultaneous concepts. Now, without trying to
experience, what experience are you having?
Q. I Am.
M: Is it not a concept? There are concepts formed from concepts, it is a
vast world of concepts.
Q. I would like to be free from them.
M. This is to be realized by one's self; it is not to be passed on by word of
mouth. Who is obtaining the Self-knowledge directly? When did I happen
to be? I must know about it myself, first-hand, not from others.
You are, you know you are - this is the great Lord, the sudden, explosive
effulgence. Surrender to it, and you will know all. It is without
form or name. It is to be abided in by firm conviction.
You could not see and judge the quality of light if you were not light
yourself. You are that subtle knowledge, and if that is there, then only
everything else is possible.

December 31, 1980

Questioner: When you become one with everybody's consciousness there is an emotional
drain because you feel their sorrow and everything. Is that a right state in
which to be?
Maharaj: It is one of the preliminary stages, but it is excellent. There is
still separateness but gradually it will ripen into complete oneness.
Q.• I don't feel any desire anymore to strive for anything in the world.
M: There is nothing wrong in that. Your hunger and thirst for bliss or joy
is absolutely fulfilled and therefore you stop going after things.
Q. Is there still some individuality left to continue one's duties?
M. That individuality does not create any kind of discontent or fear. It so
happens that there is no memory at all of that individual "I," it goes on
acting on its own energy. There is a memory that this is the total
manifestation but no memory of an individual acting.
Q: I feel that I am one with consciousness but it wavers.
M: You are not yet stabilized in consciousness; you are getting some
glimpses. Being one with consciousness is going beyond these states of
waking and sleeping. You know the sky, you know the space, but can you
become one with the space? Not yet, it is not possible. When you become
one with consciousness you become one with space.
Q. Is there something which I can do to help me to grow, to progress?
M: Consciousness does not undergo any progress. Even the space cannot
have any progress and the space is number three.
One is the Absolute, two is consciousness, three is space. Where
there was no knowledge "I Am," that is number one; later on there is the
sense "I Am," that is number two; then there is space - number three.
Passing the examination of the Upanishads, does it give you knowledge of
the Self?
Q. No. However it does something.
M. In my case, everything is spontaneous - that is my dharma. If the
knowledgeable people come and tell me I am foolish, I will say, "This
foolishness is my richness, my freedom. That knowingness which has
come over me, that itself is foolishness."
You are a very gentle woman; if someone comes and abuses you,
thinking you are a man, you will get very angry at this misunderstanding.
To identify with anything, "I am like this," is abuse of your nature.
Q. How to lose this identification with the body?
M.• Increase the conviction that you are the formless consciousness.
You develop your firm conviction that you are the total manifestation,
universal consciousness. There is nobody who can have the knowledge of
the Truth, the Eternal. It is one's eternal true state, but it is not a
knowledgeable state-you cannot know It. So-called knowledge is
boundless and plenty in the state of attributes, "I Am."
In this body is the knowledge "I Am." When the body drops down the
knowledge "I Am" will subside there only - what remains is the Absolute.

January 1, 1981

Questioner: Does the universe exist without me?
Maharaja When you did not have the consciousness were you concerned
with the world? The world will exist as long as consciousness is there.
Don't get involved in too many questions and answers. Do medita
birth drop. Focus your attention on that and everything will be revealed to
you. If you, as an entity, want to make an intellectual study of this subject,
don't come to see me. Here it is you only; get in the test tube.
Why do you get entangled in the branches and leaves; why don't you go
to the seed? Without the seed the tree would not be there. Find out where
the seed comes from. This is what I am taking you back to again and
again. Whatever I have to suffer, physical or otherwise, is due to
what? It begins with self-love, the need to be present. This consciousness
is the cause of all suffering. This love of being, love of self,
love of consciousness, is the nature of what? It is the nature of the seed, the
sperm. The consciousness was latent in that to which the name birth
is given. Where is the one who understands this?
Having got the spiritual knowledge, why do you want to reduce it to
pen and paper?
People will hear what I say, but hardly anyone will put it into practice.
I did not have a long association with my Guru. My Guru merely
told me, "You are not this, you are This." That is all. I accepted it with
such conviction that the knowledge has flowered into what has come.
Out of food essence, the taste "I Am." The Absolute has no taste, no
color, no design. You cannot be witnessed by you; only what is other
than you can be witnessed by you.

January 6, 1981

Questioner: After death can I help other people to reach the light?
Maharaj: After death you will not remember that you are. You must
know what death is. You are talking about existence after this life; do
you remember any past lives?
Q• I was on an island, helping other people in my last life.
M. Do you remember your parents?
Q. No.
M: What is the proof that you were born there?
Q. I don't know.
M: This is only imagination, a phantasy, a concept occurring to you. If, at
the time of death the consciousness entertains a very strong concept, the
consciousness can create that particular concept. Suppose that at the
time of death the person imagines having a life somewhere - the
consciousness will create a similar situation. The realm of consciousness
is not eternal. The consciousness is a fraud. All of these things are illusions
in the realm of consciousness.
Q: Consciousness is always manifested, isn't it?
M: Consciousness will be there as long as a particle of space will be
available.
Q. Is it helpful to go into seclusion to realize that?
M: Yes.
Q: To go out of the ordinary life?
M. Not like that. You need not go out of your family life. Q
What kind of seclusion?
M. Even among this crowd be alone, abide in your own Self. Focus
your attention on your Self.
Q: Does it matter if one does not understand intellectually but simply has devotion?
M: If you have that devotion, knowledge will proliferate out of it. When it
is said that out of devotion somebody meets a God, it is not a
personality God, but the devotee himself proliferates into the knowledge,
into profundity - he becomes Godly. That God will be so long as the
devotee knows himself; when the devotee subsides into nothingness, the
God also subsides into nothingness. You have to come to the conclusion that
in the final analysis your balance sheet is nil.
Out of the essence of the digested food in the body the "I Amness" is
there. What you are presently is the outcome of this food material. If the
food isn't available, where are you? What about all this profound knowledge
which you have collected?
Don't arrogate to yourself the doership of anything - it is all happening.
If you are not, what is the need for all the disciplines, including
God? Even if you are fully convinced about this, you are reduced to
nothing; nevertheless, on the death bed you will take the last drop of
medicine to survive.
This is real liberation: to know that you are nothing. All your
knowledge, including yourself, is liquidated - then you are liberated.
If you think that you have done some great deed, then you will be
planning to go to heaven, you are obsessed by concepts, you are not
liberated. This knowledge is fit for that one who has devotion to the
Guru; only that person is fit to receive this knowledge.
Q: Although we have been listening to these talks for many years, we never feel
exhausted.
M: There is that fascination to listen to this again and again. You are
not collecting words and storing them, you are getting the impact of the
words and then letting them go.

http://uploads.ru/i/t/U/1/tU1aj.jpg

January 10, 1981

Questioner: Does consciousness work through the mind?
Maharaja Everything takes place in consciousness. I have long ago
given up my independent identity, there is no question of an independent
entity, everything is an appearance in consciousness only.
As in any piece of cloth the main element is the thread, so in any
appearance the essence is the consciousness. This must be deeply
apperceived and this cannot happen as long as there is identification with
the body. As long as identification is there you will think of benefiting
only this pseudo-personality.
The whole universe is alive as long as you have this consciousness,
once gone from you, nothing is there. Understand, there is a difference
between someone who speaks from book learning and someone who
speaks from experience.
Al . nanz identifies with the universal consciousness and so there is a
perfect adaptation to everything and every place. Only witnessing is
taking place. This psychosomatic apparatus is there both for the jnani
and the ignorant, but the ignorant one who identifies with the body, is
happy or unhappy, as the situation changes. The jnani only witnesses, he is
not individually concerned with what happens.
I repeat again and again, please listen; understand what it is because of
which we feel alive, understand the nature of it, understand the taste of it,
then the body identification will go.
This Atman Prem (Self love), this beingness, has come about with no
effort on your part. What is its nature, its taste, what is it? That you
must find out.
Fix your identity firmly in this beingness, do not give it limbs, shape or
form, for once you give it form you have limited it.
Understand this energy which is behind the entire manifestation of
the universe.
You ask many questions, you look for the answers in books and
words, not in intuitive experience. This is not knowledge. Knowledge
springs from the consciousness without effort, of its own accord.
Various names have been given to this energy which is the source of all
manifestation. People pray to these names and forms, they do not pray
to that beingness, that substance, which these names represent. Pray to
that beingness only.
As there is no separateness between two genuine friends, as a genuine
friend knows the needs of the other without speaking, who cares for
him and does it spontaneously, so you should develop such a deep
friendship with that substance, not in the attitude of praying for favors,
but as a friend seeking a friend. Be one with the knowledge "I Am," the
source of sentience, the beingness itself.
People think and talk about everything else except this basic thing
which I have told them. They are interested in scientific miracles, they
make science a God, they concern themselves with these shapes which are
already manifest. They are not interested in the original miracle, this
body and its life force.
We ignore this miracle. If there is no consciousness there is no God.
The existence and essence of God are both in this consciousness, and
therefore in this body.
How did these temples and churches come about? Because of the
inspiration of the consciousness within the body. The consciousness is the
seed of Brahman, God, of everything, events only happen and manifest
when consciousness is there, and in the body is the consciousness.
Nothing I say will benefit you in this world, I only tell you what you
are. If you are seeking that kind of peace which is priceless, it can only be in
establishing yourself in the consciousness with steadfast conviction. By
conviction I mean never doubted, firm, unshakeable, never wavering - have
that kind of conviction in your beingness. Think of nothing else, pray to
nothing else. Atman Prem, because of it everything is.
At the moment of what is called death, what happens? All it means is that
a speck of consciousness is given up. This speck is given up to a concept
you have accepted as time, you reluctantly hand it over to time. The
jnani gives it up to his own true nature.
This Atman Rem, this existence which we have protected for so many
years, to whom shall we give it up? If ignorant, to our concept of time. If
ignorant bhakti (devotee), to a concept of God. If jnani, to his own true
nature.
Whatever you think you have got as an identity, have you acquired it by
effort or intention? Is there anything you have really got? No. This
body, this consciousness, has come spontaneously, so sleep comes when it
likes, even waking and sleep are not in your control. What is yours? Who
has this knowledge of the Self by his own effort?
This pseudo entity thinks that it is he who is active and doing. I am
talking to you now as consciousness. Can any one of you give me an
indication of that knowledge, that beingness that you are?
Q. Consciousness thanks consciousness over and over again.
M. That about which nothing can be said, I have said. Accept that
drop, taste it and swallow it.
Hear this: God can only exist in the heart of man, not elsewhere.
You identify with the body and limit yourself, and yet, remember, do not
neglect this body, this is the house of God, take care of it. Only in this body
can God be realized.
It is only for an analytic understanding that God, your body, your
Self, have been divided, but it is one Self, each is intimately related.

January 19, 1981

Maharaja This sense of presence, is it not the most acceptable thing, as far
as you are concerned - do you not love it the most?
Why are you sitting here? You are sitting here for yourself, because
you want something for yourself. What is it that you are? Go into that.
You have no doubt that you are present, so what is it that makes you
want to continue all the time?
Aeons of time have come and gone. During this time millions of
forms have been created and destroyed. Do they have a sense of being
present? Are they worried about themselves? There is nothing you can do
without this sense of presence and there is nothing you can do to continue
it.
Questioner: Why does it love to continue?
M. That is its nature. Consciousness and love are the same thing. Ask
yourself, what is it that you want, what are you after? You consider
yourself an entity and want something. If consciousness were not there
would you need anything?
What you hear is totally different from what you expected to hear.
Q. Am I to identify myself with consciousness?
M. What is this "you" other than consciousness? Are they two? There is no
entity who can do anything in the world; there is no entity who can do
any spiritual search. If there is no entity there is no bondage and no
liberation. Just understand this: there is nothing to be done. Whatever I
am telling you, hear it and discard it. Before you acquired this body and
had this sense of presence, tell me what had you done? After this sense of
presence, the knowledge "I Am," then you have been shown a sort of TV f
ilm: "This is your family, these are your parents." Do you personally
have any experience of any of this?
Understand what has been created and will be destroyed;
understand what you are that cannot suffer anything.
I have come to the conclusion that consciousness and whatever appears
in consciousness is nothing but a gigantic fraud. There is no one
who has committed this fraud - it is a spontaneous happening. There is no
perpetrator of this fraud.
This speck of consciousness creates Gods of mud and earth which,
having been accepted, give us whatever we pray for. Having understood
this fraud, also understand that there is nothing that can be done about it,
therefore all that can happen is for the understanding to take place.
This body and the taste of the body - that is the understanding. Is
not the body the essence of food and is not consciousness the nature of the
essence of food? There is a very simple question one must keep in mind;
what authority or control do I have over my own existence? Therefore
what can one do by one's own efforts?
Understand that the total manifestation is the child of a barren
woman, but, having understood it, give full attention to your work and
let that work be done as efficiently as possible. Take good care of this
work that you do in the world because it is an orphan.

http://uploads.ru/i/S/9/z/S9zrG.jpg

January 20, 1981

M a h a r a j : The Absolute is ... to give you an idea, there is a place in India
where you have never been; if a description were given it would still
remain a description for you. The universal consciousness, the beingness,
is anything that is seen. When the universal consciousness manifests
itself as a phenomenon, the phenomenon is that limited form which
thinks that it is independent but is not. The phenomenon is the manifestation
of consciousness; when it is not manifested it is immanent in
everything. If you think you have understood, it is not so. Anything that
you know is not the truth.
The body is made up of the five elements and each body behaves according
to the proportion of the combination of the five elements. So long
as one is identified with the essence of the five elements it is impossible to
understand, because that which is trying to understand is a pseudo entity.
The biggest drawback to understanding is the concept that I am an entity
and, secondly, that any concept I have is the truth.
It is only when it is understood with the greatest conviction that there is
no entity, and what is happening is merely the program of the functioning
of consciousness - there is merely the functioning, there is no
entity who is causing it and there is no entity who is suffering - only then
can the disidentification take place. Otherwise all kinds of
misconceptions occur.
You have not understood until you have solved the riddle of the one
who thinks he has understood.
Do I identify myself with the dirt which I blow from my nose? The
stuff of which this body has been created, is it any different?
I am neither the material from which the body has been created nor
the consciousness which is immanent in that material.

January 27, 1981

Maharaj: Where are you from and who directed you here?
Questioner: I have been studying in a monastery in Thailand and the Abbot
suggested I read the books of Maharaj's teachings. When I decided to come to India
several friends, who had been to see Maharaj, told me to come here.
M.• Do you have questions?
Q. Will Maharaj explain what is the method of practice he recommends?
Mf : There is no practice or discipline to be followed. Merely listen to me
and accept what I tell you with firm conviction.
Q: What about the importance of meditation?
M: The only thing which anyone has is the conviction that one exists,
the conscious presence. Meditation is only on that sense of presence,
nothing else.
Q. During the meditation period one just sits and thinks of one's presence.
M. Not as an individual sitting, but the sense of presence without
words. Meditate on that which knows you are sitting here. Your feeling
that your body is here is identification with the body, but that which
knows that this body is sitting here is the expression of the Absolute.
Q. Is this known with the mind?
M.• Mind is the nature of the material; you are not the material, you are
that which understands the material. That sense of presence will explain
anything that is necessary for you to understand. Your effort will not do it,
but that sense of presence, with which you become one, will do it.
Q. Should I develop this sense of presence throughout the day, in all my activities?
M. It is not necessary for you to concentrate on it, it is always there.
Whatever you do, the essence of it is the body-mind. Let the body-mind do
its work but understand that what is doing the work is not you, you are the
sense of presence.
Whatever efforts you make, either physically or intellectually, will be
essentially the effort of the body-mind. There is nothing for you to do.
Whatever happens will happen by itself, with your conviction that you are
totally apart from body and mind.
Q. That sounds easy, but it must be very hard.
M. Whatever you think, easy or hard, you stick to one conviction, that you
are that sense of presence and not the body-mind. That which you are has
no shape or color.
Q. Does that sense of presence continue after the body and mind go?
M: When the body goes that sense of presence will go and
consciousness will no longer be conscious of itself.
Q: When the body goes, everything goes?
M. Correct. There is no experience of either happiness or unhappiness,
there is no need of experience either.
Q. Is there nothing that continues - nothing?
M. You are thinking at a conceptual level. At that level, who is there
who wants to know? Forget about That state.
Q. I would like to understand That.
M. Whatever can be understood or perceived can never be the eternal
Truth. The Unknown is the Truth.
I have no need of any experience, therefore I have no need to quarrel
with anybody. The body and mind will go on doing whatever they like
during their natural course of duration.
Q. Is it better to do one thing than another? For instance, with this mind and body 1
could just sit and do nothing, or I could go around helping people, doing gooa
things. Which would be better to do?
M. The body and mind will do whatever is natural for that combination. Q:
You can control things -for example you can eat too much or drink too much, things
like that - or else you can do good things, helping people, etc.
M. These are the do's and don'ts regarding the body-mind, which you
are not; that is the premise from where you have started. Understand
that when there is no body, consciousness is not conscious of itself. So
long as the body is there, the body must do its natural functioning.
Q. Then I just let it do what's natural?
M. There is no question of your allowing it to happen, it will happen,
you have no control over it.
Q. But some things I can control. If I come here or I stay outside - I-can control
that.
M. That is a misconception. Whatever happens, happens by itself. All
this is the show, or the expression, of consciousness - the nature of it is
change. It is the dance of the conscious presence. There are so many
ways in which consciousness entertains itself, many different forms,
abilities, capacities are functioning, but the functioning is merely to
entertain itself. When it is tired, it rests in sleep, when awake it needs
some kind of entertainment, some movement, some doing.
They are all appearances in consciousness; each will last according to
its own duration, but basically, nothing that happens has any validity or
importance. Until the awakening, or understanding, you think that you
are the doer, but once this apperception takes place you know there
is no entity that is working.
Q. I just think it would be best to do good things instead of bad things.
M: What do you mean by good and bad things? Good things in one set of
circumstances can be bad things in another set of circumstances. Even the
things you consider good can be so only as long as the body lasts. Only a
rare one will realize there is nothing to do -he is already That.
Q: Maharaj is helping us, is that a volitional state?
M. It is part of the total functioning. What is taking place is sort of a.
dream state and whatever happens will be part of the dream. Whatever
happens out of me, either spiritual or worldly, will not multiply into mind
modifications, because any actions are universal and spiritual. The
spirituality is perfect because of stabilization in the Unknown.
Many times the witnessing of physical pain happens to me, because the
body and the consciousness are still there, an instrument to register
pleasure and pain; because of my health the pain is registered more. I
was witnessing that pain earlier, but since you have come it is gone.
When you are established in consciousness it is full of joy only. I was
established in that consciousness and full of joy, but suddenly the disease has
appeared and the pain has come. So long as you are established in
consciousness and do not have any physical disorder, you will not have
any experience of pain. That is the quality of that consciousness itself.
You are prior to the consciousness. In that state there is no pleasure
or pain.
The association of the body and consciousness is something like this:
you are a bachelor and you are having a happy free life; with the association
with a wife, the pleasure and pain results begin. It is just like that.
Q. How can I acquire that state?
M. It always prevails but It is beyond knowing. That state cannot be
elucidated, these are merely pointers, "There It is" - words cannot enter
that state.

February 1, 1981

Questioner:' Maharaj says that the world exists only when the consciousness arises in
me, Does at mean that the world exists only so long as the consciousness exists, as
far as I am concerned?
Maharaja The world exists so long as this sense of presence is there. The
sense of presence is in consciousness - not my consciousness or your consciousness
but universal consciousness. The total manifestation of the
universe depends upon this sense of presence, the general sense of presence.
When this sense of presence disappears, where is your universe?
Other than the three states: waking, sleep and "I Amness," I have no
experience, but neither can I give up these three states. I am loaded with
them, I cannot get rid of them. They have come without my knowledge.
Nobody asked me if I wanted these three states.
I do not consider any of you to be different from me; at the same
time, as far as I am concerned, I have wiped out the total existence and
therefore, since there is no individuality, there are no bindings on the
words that come out of me. With the giving up of individuality, all the
poses go - that one is a sannyasi, a jnani, or something else. Along with a
pose are restrictions, "I am so and so, I must not say such and such." The
whole thing is an illusion, merely entertainment.
Consider from your own experience, is there anything constant?
Even your own image of yourself is always changing.
My own experience is that nothing has really happened in this
world. The seeker, the seeking and the sought - none of these three is
true. Nothing is happening - everything that goes on in the world is a
fraud. When will you come to an understanding or to peace? Only when
you understand this fact and understand the spiritual truth, only then
will peace descend.
Q: What is the ultimate truth?
M. You. You can get as frustrated and angry as you like, it does not disturb
me at all. My state is unchanging.
Q. Are my experiences in meditation the truth?
M. All experiences are in time, time-bound. Truth is not time-bound.

February 2, 1981

Questioner: How can I make the surrender to the Guru permanent?
Maharaj: Have you not been told that there is nothing permanent in this
world? That is the search itself - what am I when this temporary state is
gone and before it came?
You have a clock which is made to last for 100 years. At the end of
that 100 years the clock stops - it has served its purpose. When the clock of
the body stops, the same thing has happened - that body has served the
purpose of consciousness.
Q: Total surrender means two, something joining, one surrendering to another.
M. During that temporary state in consciousness, everything is correct.
Whatever the plot of the story, it is correct, but the story is fiction.
What I am telling you is absolutely open - an open secret. There is
nothing that I keep hidden from you. Try and understand. It is merely a
question of understanding.
Q Guru's grace is always there.
M: Guru is not an individual. You are thinking in terms of a form. The
consciousness is all pervading. You find out what is this "you" that is
seeking grace. In that body the "I Am" is ticking - that is the Guru. You
worship that "I Am" principle and surrender to that Guru and that Guru
will give you all the grace.
In consciousness there can exist nothing without its interrelated
counterpart. The moment you say knowledge, knowledge can only be in
ignorance, so this knowledge one has about Guru is also ignorance.
When will the knowledge be Guru? When that knowledge and the
ignorance both disappear into vynana. Jnana is knowledge, ajnana is
ignorance, both disappear into vynana.
Q: I am caught in that process of watching the body-mind.
M: Dream occurs in objective, material, manifestation, in the
consciousness. It is not you, it is something other-objective, material.
What you call "I Am" and birth, you are not that, it is material. Suppose
that there is a Muslim boy that I have adopted; I have not sired that boy, but
I now claim him as "my" boy. Like that, this "I Amness" is not directly me, it
is something other, something material, something Muslim, I am not that.
I, the Absolute, have nothing to do with that.
People are sometimes confused because they expect an answer which is
based on their concepts. You ask someone to bring you a spoon, and
instead he brings you a needle. Both are words, both are knowledge, but
that is not what you want. What you will receive is the true knowledge,
even if what you are asking for is not the true knowledge.
Q: I must reach that level to be able to understand.
M. There are millions of grains, made into millions of forms, but the
seed is only one. All these millions of forms are because of some particular
seed, but I am not that seed.
The Ultimate knowledge does not have any knowledge. This
knowledge "I Am" has appeared spontaneously, as a result of the body.
See it as it is, understand it as it is.
When the waking state is gone, sleep begins, when sleep is gone, the
waking state begins. When both are gone, I am at home. Why did they
leave me? Because it was all foreign, it was not me.
Take this advice: better not to be trapped in the spiritual knowledge
business; have a nice time, a good life, be of service to others, and in due
course, when the time is ripe, you will die.
Q: Without your advice, millions of people area tready following your advice.

.............................

26

http://xmages.net/storage/10/1/0/6/c/upload/ca556114.jpg

February 3, 1981

Maharaj: The knowledge that I am expounding will dissolve your identity
as a personality and will transform you into manifest knowledge. The
manifest knowledge, the consciousness, is free and unconditioned.
It is not possible to either catch hold of or give up that knowledge
because you are that knowledge, subtler than space.
This knowledge that you are the manifest must be opened through
meditation; you do not get it by listening to words.
Is not this consciousness prior to any other experience and is there
not something on which this consciousness has come about? That waking
state, deep sleep and the sense of presence, who has these experiences
other than That which was prior to these experiences?
That which is talking to you is that state which is time-bound, which
has come temporarily upon my original state. Therefore you and I can
have no sense of fear; it is only this changing state which has identified
with the body which has fear.
The fear of death is the fine for accepting the identity of the body as a
separate entity in the total functioning. It is only birth which fears death.
Presence and absence are interrelated dualities, this was understood
only after the sense of presence arose, earlier there was no sense of either
absence or presence.
Questioner: What if we understand only intellectually and we have not yet realized?
M: The big advantage of even intellectually understanding is that you
will not be bound by fear of death. Birth did not give you anything and
death can take nothing from you.
According to the world I have this terrible disease; I keep on talking
exactly as I talked earlier, it has no effect on me. Only that which has
taken birth will disappear, how am I affected?
You are fortunate to hear what I say. Listen, but do not make any
effort to understand it, because only your intellect can try to understand
and intellect does not reach That. What you have heard will have its
own results; do not interfere.
Even if you have certain emotions of fear, etc., understand that they
are of that chemical of which the body and mind are made. You have
nothing to do with that temporary state.
In the name of spirituality many people commit a lot of atrocities on the
body, thinking they will get superior knowledge. From where and
what? What are they going to gain?
This knowledge is - provided I am.

February 17, 1981

Maharaj: I am neither a Guru nor a disciple. This is all the play of the f
ive elements. Body is just a biological development, a vegetation
growth, and we take pride in it, asserting that I am somebody. But this is
just a natural growth, just like plants.
Questioner: Is the experiencer eternal?
M.- If the experiencer had been eternal he would have not made
enquiries, asking what is this, what is that. Had he been eternal he would
already have had all the knowledge of this objective world.
Q. How can we find the way that is meant for us?
M. If your urge to realize the Self is very intense, your urge and the
consciousness will direct you in the correct course.
Q. Sometimes when I understand, something happens to me. I either get tense or I
begin shaking in my head or neck and sometimes there are noises going on in my
head. I don't understand it. Should I ignore it or what?
M. Just ignore it. Those are good signs.
Q. Physical sickness is there sometimes.
M. It is not sickness, it is the expression of the five elemental body.
Q. Can one realize through nama-mantra?
M: So many sages have developed into the highest state only through
nama-mantra. Whatever you recite should merge into you, prior to mind.
Q: Some people tell about Gurus giving power and energy.
M. It is possible. I have deliberated only on my Self.
Q: Trances, visions, samadhi - did Maharaj go through all those experiences?
M. Any number of them. I did not take delivery of all those experiences.
Q. Why do some people go through it and others don't?
M. The design of each seeker is different. According to the seeker's quality,
he will encounter experiences. There have been so many Self-realized
Sages, but each one's experience has been different because the qualities
have been different. The experiences of Rama and Krishna were
different. Any jnani discards the experiences; he does not get associated
with them. He does not Lang on to them or try to invoke them again.

February 18, 1981

Questioner: This identity with a body, as an entity, is present. Could anyone, at any
stage, have done anything which could have prevented this identification?
Maharaj: It is the nature of this beingness to associate itself with a
form. How can an imagined entity separate itself?
Q: Is this wanting to be separate also natural, a part of nature?
M. Yes. It is all part of natural functioning - part of the show. The entire
thing is a concept. All that can be done is to understand.
Look at the apparent contradiction: my own form is suffering, when
that is known more people come here, more people receive advantages.
Those advantages happen automatically, spontaneously - I am not
working for those advantages which you get.
The talking which I do, and your listening, is part of the total functioning.
You consider it as one individual listening to another individual,
that is not so. What you hear is universal consciousness. This
knowledge is not to be conveyed to a human being who is a spiritual infant.
The human being is trying to collect benefits for an individual.
When this identification is given up, the receptivity for the talks will be
created. From an enormous tank of water you dip a tiny tumbler full and
say, "This is me."
Whatever status and achievements one has attained will remain only so
long as the name and form remain; once they have gone where is the entity
who thinks he has achieved something? If this is deeply apperceived how can
anything in the world bother you?
What I am talking about is this original concept, the consciousness,
before which there was nothing. Whatever is in this original concept will
remain only so long as the consciousness is there -- then we go back to our
original nature. When consciousness exposes itself to you and shows you
your true nature, then you will have no form. Without a form can there
be an image?
The entire manifestation is a hallucination, the nature of which is to be
inconstant.

February 22, 1981

Questioner: What should I do during the day? What kinds of thoughts or actions
should I have in order to find out my true nature and have Peace of mind?
Maharaja Any thoughts or actions will be based on body-mind identity and
in order to see your true nature there must be abandonment of this identity
with the phenomenal center. This cannot come by any volitional action -
it happens without any special efforts. There is no question of doing
anything because there is no one to do anything.
The mind can only work with some name or form or image. If you
give this up, the mind will be helpless. What I am saying about your true
nature ig so simple that the mind cannot grasp it.
What is has always been there. Give up conceptualizing and what is
remains. People will stop only at seeing the manifest. Who will go behind
the manifest and see that the manifest and unmanifest are not two - they
are one?
The manifest is seen as light, the unmanifest as dark, but what is is the
same thing-That which perceives both.
For the one who has abandoned the identification it is simple. Words can
only point at something. That which is is neither like me or like you, it is
not even aware of what it is. Only when consciousness is conscious of
itself can there be knowledge of anything. It is prior to any knowledge.
It is very simple. People who are considered to be very learned
come here, how do I see them? I see them as being in total ignorance.
Q Why is there a fear of darkness?
M: Your question is totally irrelevant. Go to the source without which
neither light or darkness could be cognized. What is the use of talking
about what is objective when I have told you to go to the subject?
Q. I consider myself to be good or bad at different times.
M.• This can only be with identification with the body; abandon this.
From now on I will only say what the position is, thereafter you must
perceive. I have no physical resources for a dialogue. Whatever you
hear cannot and will not go to waste.

February 23, 1981

know anything? Every manifestation is an appearance in consciousness,
perceived and cognized by consciousness. There is only manifestation
functioning and perceiving.
Questioner: My mind is too agitated for consciousness to be in consciousness.
M. You have not been listening carefully to what I have said. The
words have not reached you. I have told you that consciousness is always
there and anything that happens is in consciousness, so let consciousness
remain in consciousness.
Why do you, considering yourself as a separate entity, try to meddle in
it? All that is is consciousness.
Q. Can I ask about the meaning of suffering?
M: Now you are developing a new concept - that there is something
meaningful or profound behind suffering. This concept itself is going to
strangulate you. Any concept erupting out of you - how can it give you
knowledge? You must get rid of all concepts. You are the very basis, the
foundation, out of which concepts erupt. You are not the concepts, you are
prior to concepts. You must be firmly convinced about this.
Q. Do I suppress the concepts?
M. Leave them alone. You watch the concepts erupting and disappearing.
You are apart from concepts, do not identify with them.
Q. I don't have the ability to do that.
M. If you are not, where are the concepts? Where is the question of
ignorance or knowledge if you are not there? That primary concept "I Am"
hangs on to the body as its identity, hence all the trouble. Will you ever
come to the conclusion that you are not the concept?

February 28, 1981

Maharaja When the body was formed you did not bring any information
with you. Later on you- collected information externally, and on
that basis you are full of pride and conduct your dealings. Did you bring
any information with you, right from the beginning?
Questioner: No, I had no information.
M: If you had no information, who is the customer for all this now? You
have the primary information that you are which sprouted spontaneously
Maharaj: If you have really understood the core of the matter no questions
can arise. Questions arise only to an entity. The question is
usually - "What can I do?". Where the "I" itself is not, who will want to
in you - that was your primary capital and all this further mischief is
because of that primary information. Is it not so?
Q. That is true, yes.
M. Do you understand what it is, to have your own being, to be?
Q. I do not clearly understand.
M. It is not to be understood through words. Whatever knowledge you
derive out of words is ignorance only. To be is not to be understood, it is.
Q. It is just a feeling.
M. Who knows the consciousness?
Q.• Consciousness knows itself
M: Consciousness understanding consciousness - by this method you
will not have emancipation. You have torask yourself, "Who knows this
beingness?" If I know that I am, at a particular point, then it means that
prior to that point I did not know that I am. That which was not aware of
Its existence became aware of Its existence when the consciousness
came, and this consciousness is only the nature of the physical body - it is
made of material and is therefore temporary.
Q. There is no knowledge in the Absolute?
M: All knowledge is only in the grasp of the five senses and words. Suppose
these three, the waking state, deep sleep, and the knowledge "I Am"
are not there - what are you?
Q. Just knowingness, consciousness?
M. Is this knowingness, consciousness, in your association continuously,
forever?
Q. No.
M. Then give it up. Why do you lean on that which will not be in your
association eternally?
All our scriptures say that only the Parabrahman is the truth, nothing else
is, and you are That eternally.
Q. Why did I separate myself from That?
M: When nothing else but That prevails, how can you be separate from
It?
Q. There is a poem written by Jnanaswara to that 1400 year old Sage; one line
says, "The vision of knowledge becomes weaker and weaker. " What is the meaning
of that?
M: The vision of consciousness will also drop off in the ultimate analysis,
because knowledge and ignorance are in the realm of consciousness.
Q. I do not want to let go of a single word ofyours.
M.• How long are you going to hang on to words and the meaning of
words? How long?
Q. They are useful so long as the "I Am" is there.
M.• This "I Am" is a concept also, is it not? And you want to hang on to
this concept also. This "I Amness" is not going to remain in your association,
and when it goes, everything relating to that "I Amness" goes. When
this is the state of affairs, what is the use of trying to gain or assimilate
knowledge?
Words are not exactly applicable; I have seen exactly how I am not. In
the absence of "I Am," what that state is, I have seen, or am seeing,
therefore I don't lose anything. In that state there is no question of seeing or
experiencing, but for the sake of communication we have to borrow
these words.
These are great men, full of wisdom, profound; but how do I look at
them? They are just like me. This one is a legal luminary and a Sanskrit
scholar; with the combined effect he is trying to capture Parabrahman in his
words. He is very good at it, but what is the gain?
Q. To realize that my state is without concepts, that itself is the gain.
M• You are standing on a concept "I Am," and trying to paint that with
another concept.
Q.• This is a different kind of court, the lawyer is hauled into the dock.

March 1, 1981

Questioner: Is this "I Amness" which everybody has the same thing as consciousness?
Maharaj: Other than this consciousness and "I Amness," what is there
that can claim "I Am?"
Understand that this "I" is not different at different levels. As the
Absolute it is the "I" which in manifesting needs a form. The same Absolute
"I" becomes the manifested "I" and in the manifested "I" it is the
consciousness which is the source of everything. In-the manifested state it
is the Absolute with consciousness.
You may think that you consider yourself to be the consciousness, but
you generally keep on wanting something as an entity, even if it is
spiritual knowledge. The body is only an instrument by which consciousness
manifests itself; it has no separate, autonomous identity.
This body, which you love so much, is time-bound and this
consciousness, which depends on the material body, is also time-bound.
The vital breath is the active element which keeps the body in action.
Consciousness is the passive element. The vital breath will leave the
body after a certain span of time and leave dead material; the
consciousness will also leave the body and merge with the universal
consciousness. This is the normal process - within this what is it you
consider yourself to be? This is merely a functioning, there is no
separate entity. Actually our true identity is known to everyone, there is no
doubt about it. But because of identification with the body as an entity
what is definitely known to us is being forgotten.
Listening to what I say may give you a temporary sense of peace and
pleasure, but so long as you consider yourself a separate entity wanting
spiritual salvation, all this is useless.
There is no entity that can benefit from the listening that takes place.
What is birth after all? Birth is only the waking state, deep sleep and sex;
suppose the sex is removed, then there will be no interest. The sex cannot
fill your stomach, cannot provide you with food, but that is necessary. It
is easier to understand that the entire manifestation is of the nature of a
dream, or a mirage, but you interpret the rest of the manifestation as being
a mirage and won't let go of the seer of the phenomenon. The seer is also
part of the mirage.

March 6, 1981

Maharaj: If you have any questions I will try to answer them. This moment
now, of this particular situation, is a very peculiar one. You need not
talk if you don't want to, you may merely sit. Merely sitting here, at this
particular time, will be of great benefit. The moment ... the auspicious
symptom, and it will give the most amazing results ... incredible ...
this moment itself, this touch of"I Amness" is just a pinprick, just a touch.
If you apperceive what I have said, there is no reason to visit me
again. What I have told you is not something to be wondered over or pon
dered over for a period of time - it is a matter to be apperceived
immediately.
Have you had this way of expounding knowledge anywhere else, in
quietude?
Questioner: At Ramanasram. Everybody was silent there too.
M. How long were you with Ramana?
Q. Only a short while. How is it that I have been so fortunate as to find Maharaj
now?
M. Something good you have done in your past life. If you had not done
your homework you would not have visited this place, The rare, lucky
ones will visit this place and listen to the talks.
Q. I am having different experiences of warmth, seeing light, and I am afraid.
M. Don't worry about any experiences, try to abide in the experiencer.
The experiences are good indications of your development, but don't
stagnate at the level of experience.
Q: I usually feel that I am this or that, but I am losing this. I am feeling more
detached, not interested in the world. During the experience of the shedding away of
these concepts I feel a sense of death and fear.
M.• Yes, it will go on like that. So long as you are, such things are bound to
happen. You have to transcend the "I Am." If you are alert, focusing your
attention on the moment, the "I Am" is a continuous moment, you
transcend the "I Am."

March 8, 1981

Questioner: Can we understand our real nature through consciousness? Can we
grasp it?
Maharaja Is there any other instrument through which you can understand
your true nature? Whatever is_can be perceived by all, is perceived
by all. Who wants to grasp it? You, as a separate entity, want to know
That which is, as the Absolute. It can't be done, because you are the Absolute.
Where does the one who has attained samadhi go? The seeker himself has
disappeared.
Q If the seeker is a concept, then the Guru is also a concept.
M. Yes, but that Guru is the support for all seeking. So long as there is
word there is seeker; when the word vanishes, there is nothing.
I have experienced all four kinds of speech and transcended them.
Rarely will anybody follow this hierarchy to stabilize in the
consciousness and transcend consciousness. Starting from vaikhara (word),
normally we listen to words; from vaikhari we go to madhyama
(mindthought); in watching the mind we are in pashayanti where the
concept formation takes place and from there to Para (I Am - without
words), and finally from Para to prior to consciousness. This is the line to
follow, but only a rare one follows it - receding, reversing.
Q. Is deep sleep and the state prior to the "I Am" one and the same?
M: As a concept it is the same thing; until you become That, then there
will be no one to know. Not only that, but whatever actions are done -
whether through you or me - are originally done within that state of
deep sleep. In sleep you dream; this being-awake state is the primary
dream; the dream in the sleeping state is the secondary dream - it is the
transformation of the primary dream. In this state of consciousness, in the
primary dream, the entire universe is created and when it is realized that it
is a dream - then you are awake. Both dreams are consciousness.
Q. Then the actor cannot know that he is dreaming?
M: That is exactly the beauty of maya, the whole heart of it. Understand
that the basis of whatever dream it is, is consciousness.

March 9, 1981

Maharaja This sense of entity that one has, which has been created by the
mind, when the consciousness itself disappears, what happens to
that sense of entity? Is there anyone who knows that he is dead? It is only the
others who say that he is dead.
If the consciousness and the mind were the ultimate truth, then all
those millions of forms which have been created and destroyed would
have the knowledge of their existence.
In this country, in this life, you acquire something, but the rule of the
land is that whatever has been acquired cannot be taken out of the country.
Whatever you acquire is because of consciousness, but the law of the land
of this life is that nothing can be taken away, once consciousness
disappears, everything is gone.
How does man behave in the world? He forgets what it is that is really
functioning. He forgets that the forms are only instruments for the functioning
of consciousness. He considers himself an entity and spends his
whole life working hard, trying to achieve something. The motivation for
all this is the sense of me and mine. All kinds of forms are being
created and destroyed continuously -'that is part of the functioning.
Questioner; If there is nothing to be achieved by an entity, then what is the purpose of
this spiritual seeking?
M. What is to be understood is - all that is functioning is the
consciousness - no entity is involved.
Q. Then what is the use of understanding?
M. There is no benefit for any supposed entity. There should be no
sense of even a benefit out of this understanding. You are the
understanding. Who is to get the benefit? That which apprehends this has
no shape or form.
The forms are created from the five elements - at the end of their
span of time they are destroyed. If you live for hundreds of years,
nothing will be of any benefit to you.
I have obviously understood all of this and yet I have made sufficient
provision for my new flat to be constructed. Understand what might
appear as contradiction, but there is no contradiction so long as one sees all
this as part of total functioning. Will this appear to any normal person as
something reasonable?
Q: Can Maharaj -tell us how the diferent traps can be separated and avoided.
M. You had better get some hefty people to cut up the five elements into
little bits - then you will have this separation. It is just one.
Consciousness itself is the trap.
Forget all your other questions, merely concentrate on the source of
this consciousness because of which everything else is. How did this
body arrive, and within it this consciousness which is latent? Find out the
source of this.
Q. Maharaj has brought us back to the root.
M- I threw you at the root and buried you, and in that state in which I
have buried you, there is nothing to be known, because in that state,
consciousness is not. Once this is clearly apperceived, so long as the
body is there life must go on, but life appears merely as a series of entertainments.
You should understand from what standpoint I am talking; if you
understand you take it, otherwise you leave it. Nobody in the world will
tell you so bluntly. When you really, intuitively, understand what I
mean, then you will come to the end of spirituality.

March 10, 1981

Questioner: Why does the identification seem to change constantly?
Maharaj: In consciousness the identification with an individual will
keep on changing, but once the identity is lost it is possible to remain in
total manifestation.
Q. Can I reach the Absolute state while consciousness is there?
M. In that state there is no one to be conscious so there is no question of
reaching that state as long as consciousness is present.
Q: But I thought Maharaj said ..
M. That state is where knowledge is absorbed in knowledge, and
knowledge is not aware of itself. The instrument has to be there and
consciousness is the instrument. In consciousness, consciousness is
conscious of itself, but in the state prior to the arising of consciousness,
who is there and with what instrument can one be conscious?
In that state which is not tainted by anything there is no conditioning.
Take the example of space. In space there is darkness and light, the space
is there whether darkness or light is there; in the same way the state prior
to consciousness is always there. Right now it is there. It is the substratum
of everything. Ajnani is one who abides in that state of space in spite of
body and mind.
Q. What is the practice, is it meditation only?
M. You must possess that confirmation that you are formless, designless;
not only rely on meditation. Always insist that you are formless, free,
and are not conditioned. You must hammer on this constantly, that is the
practice.
Q: I have longer times when I am disassociated from the body-mind. I don't
understand what is happening to me when I see the body act and feel outside of it.
M. What is wrong with that? You must have a strong conviction; that
conviction means practicing. That conviction means not only "I Am," but
it means I am free from "I Am" also.
You know you are, without words. Just be that. You are not to think
or imagine anything. Before it occurs to you that something is, you must
be. You must be there in order to meditate. When you wake up the first
thing in the morning, at that moment you know only you are, emerging
from deep sleep to a waking state. Later on you think I am so and so, etc.
Q: In meditation I hear sounds and see visions.
M. To hear something you must be there. That state is a most Godly
state but it is more important to be your Self.
Q: There is always fear.
M. The fear is because of ignorance. It is not external sound, it is the
manifestation of your consciousness. The Godly illumination is there
provided the Self-effulgence is there. To see the God, you must be there. To
get to know the knower is difficult; it is something like knowing a
township; it is not individualistic, it is manifestation.
When you are that manifest consciousness state, it is something like. . a
deep dark blue state; you are in that homogenous, deep dark blue
state. That is the first step of beingness. From that deep dark blue
Selfeffulgent homogenous state into no-knowingness state - that is your
true identity. It is a no-knowingness state, a total, complete, perfect
state. In that knowingness state everything is imperfect, is is never
complete - that is why you want more and more. In spite of plenteousness,
the knowingness state is incomplete.
Q. What is the effect at death?
M. The effect is upon those who know that the person is dead and gone.
There is no effect on the one who is dead and gone - he doesn't know he is
dead and gone. The body is made of food, the true you is not in this body.
A lot can be said, but you will not be able to receive what I say.
Suppose I say that if you are not, the Brahman is not - will you
understand? You are so much obsessed by death because of your
identification with the body. Because you are thinking of death, death is
sure for you, but if you are the Self there is no question of death for you.

March 11, 1981

Questioner: By reading the book of Maharaj's talks, I feel great freedom and joy, I
think I am experiencing the living word.
Maharaj: What is it which was experiencing this? It was the sense of
presence.
Q I have read so many books, but this was a new revelation, a new experience.
Why don't I get the same experience from other books?
M. I am not going to accept any of your compliments. Your questions
are from the. body-mind level and you will accept the answers on the
same level. You are riding the horse of body-identification.
Q: I wanted to know why I got such experiences from reading your book and not
from others.
M. I am not interested in your experiences; I am interested only in you.
The talker and the listener are one. Most of the others who come here
may be said to be in a state similar to that of having had a really good
dinner; they have had their fill, and now they are chewing the cud, like a
cow - they are not interested in further food. That is why there are no
questions. If someone like you doesn't arrive and ask questions, there
will be no questions. You have come to seek knowledge and you are
knowledge.
Q: Dakshinamurti taught his disciples in silence.
M. Hang Dakshinamurti! That is hearsay, something you have read or
heard. What is your experience? I -am here and you are here: ask questions.
Q. Why is it that some die young and others live a long life?
M: Will there be birth or death without the consciousness or self? When
you say they die young or live long, those that are born, actually what
logic does the Self know? Does the sun know when it sets or rises? First
understand what it is that is born and then this mystery will be solved.
Q. The body is born, the Self is not born.
M: If the Self is not there, can the body be born? What do you
understand by the word birth? Are you born?
Q. As long as we identify with the body we are born.
M. I talk only to the consciousness about the consciousness, the common
man will not understand.
Q. What is the way to understand? What is there to do? The quickest way?
M: Understanding and being in that true nature is the task. There is no
other God than this sense of presence and I am this sense of presence.
Understanding this with conviction is the quickest way. Understand that
original state when there was none other. That is true knowledge,
my true nature. Plenty of avatars have come and gone, but that space is
there all the time.
Q: How does one overcome basic ignorance?
M. What is it that understands there is something like ignorance?
Q: Knowledge understands.
M: Understand that you are that knowledge and forget about ignorance.
Any beautiful music, when it is heard, any dancing girl, when she
dances - if by all this nobody is moved, he is either ajnani or a donkey.
Here is a roomful of such people who will not be moved by the beauty of
anything. I am in that state where there is total absence of any concept of
presence or absence. You are also in that state, but you don't know it.
My consciousness is not very effective; there is no recognition now of
anybody as an individual, a person. If you feel like sitting you are welcome;
whenever you feel like going you can go.

March 14, 1981

Questioner: By the grace ofMaharaj Ifind that now my eyes are able to see and my ears
are able to hear.
Maharaj: What the eyes see and the ears hear is only the false. Both will
disappear. You are That which witnesses.
What is understood and practiced by the common Hindu man as
spirituality is that water from the river is carried in a vessel and poured
over an image of God. Some of these images have been placed so that one
has to climb 500 steps to reach them. This is considered to bring great
merit. They collect water in brass vessels in Benares from the Ganges.
They carry that water, walking all the way, to South India, to
Rameshwara, and pour it over the idol, and they will take the•sea water
from Rameshwara back to Benares and pour it over the head of the idol
there. This is their concept of liberation - water is taken from one place
and carried to another-what a strenuous concept!
Q What we hear at the feet of Maharaj is something that is ever new.
M: What I am telling you about can never be new or old - it is
unchanging, everlasting.
This consciousness in which concepts arise is itself a concept, and so
long as consciousness remains all other concepts will continue to arise.
The Absolute unmanifest is what Is. Whatever we think about that
Absolute state can only be a concept, until the consciousness ends and we
are in that Absolute state.
One achieves something and one guards it, but how long can you
guard it? Only until you are in deep sleep. You have a fond concept and
you hang on to it all day; in deep sleep where is that concept?
Qr How does Maharaj talk to us if he does not accept individuality?
M. The sun does not shine for individuals. The words come out of the
consciousness, spontaneously, as part of the total functioning. There are
any number of experiences, some of them you like and you keep them in
your memory and pamper them - that itself is suffering. All your experiences
should be just part of the total functioning, happening spontaneously.

March 15, 1981

Maharaj: I am not inclined to collect more people and expound knowledge
because I am not able to deliver myself as something tangible to you.
Krishnamurti is talking, I am also talking - there is no substance in that.
You are recording the talks and writing it down - in the final analysis,
there is no substance in that.
Once it is realized that it is only a total functioning of the manifest
consciousness and there is no individual entity, there will be no question of
liberation, of birth or death, or of a doer doing anything.
Normally, in the name of spirituality, knowledge is expounded.
Knowledge is in the realm of the five elements ad it is talked about as
real or unreal as long as the knowledge "I Am" is there; it is a product of the
knowledge "I Am."
Ajnani is that state from which witnessing of the knowledge "I Am'
takes place. In that jnani state there is no touch of "I Amness" (it is a
quality-less state) and it is not knowledge - knowledge means "I Amness."
Suppose there are no thoughts, time has stopped, but space will be
there. A thought-free state is something like space, space-like. I am the
witness that the thought-free state is there, that is the Self, "I Am," the
being. Because the being is there, having removed all the pollution,
including thought, time is also gone and space and beingness is there.
When that state ends, it is the Absolute state, a something sweet-like
state. You are just playing with words and the meaning of words - you
don't go to the root from where the words emanate. Nobody goes to the
root; they are fascinated by the display. When the support of the
bodymind is not available, what are you then like?
I am in the state beyond suffering and enjoyment. It is said that
when knowledge is realized, the devotion persists still but actually there is
no personality left. There is no question of devotion; devotion to
whom? However, they say that devotion is there - it might be for the
guidance of other seekers.

............................

27

http://uploads.ru/i/p/6/J/p6JtK.jpg

March 16, 1981

Maharaj: Even in the highest Saints there is always some doubt about the
clarity of "I Am," and this enquiry of what I am must be gone into at any
and all levels. The importance and significance of the enquiry is that no one
can give you an answer to this enquiry except yourself. Each one, as "I," has
to find out what this "I" is. The merest description that can be given to this
consciousness is that it is as fine, as subtle, as space. In maturity your
consciousness is God.
That original state, prior to the arising of consciousness, cannot be
described, one can only be That.
I keep on repeating that whatever one listens to ultimately means
nothing - because whatever I am, that is exactly what you are.
Any action that one takes depends on a certain image that one has
about oneself, and that image remains only so long as consciousness is
there. Is this clearly understood?
People come here with a certain set of concepts; I hold the mirror
before them of what they are as phenomena and ultimately they realize
that as phenomena they are nothing and when consciousness departs
they will reach their original state - which was there before the bodycum-
consciousness arose. In that original state there was no experience,
even now any experience that one thinks one has is only a concept.
In that state, before consciousness arose, there was no query of
"Who am I?" because there was no one who wanted to know that answer. This
question arises only in consciousness; anything in consciousness is only a
concept and therefore it has' to be wrong.
Out of millions of people, why do only some come here? Obviously it is
when consciousness has this enquiry in consciousness that it brings
people here.
Questioner: Is the "I Am" a concept or the only reality?
M: "I Am" is only a few letters. Has anyone been able to keep this "I
Am" in his pocket for all time?
Qr 1 am - but without words?
M: Yes. If whoever feels this "I Am" had knowledge, would he have
cared to become this "I Am"? No, he would have said, "I don't want this
consciousness."
Q. I understand.
M: You are unreal - you know that you are - that is also unreal. This
sense of presence is an untruth; it is like a dream.
Q. How can this "I Amness" be the source of misery?
M. Try to find out when this concept of happiness and unhappiness
arose. It was not there until I had this consciousness.
Everybody loves this sense of presence and wants it to continue for
all time but they don't go further into the past and find out whose ecstasy
created this sense of presence. Because of some physical ecstasy, lasting
only for an instant, this speck of consciousness in which the entire
universe is contained has come into existence.
Q: I don'tfeel the misery of "IAmness",• Ifeel that everything is right. Does it mean
that I don't want to look at the misery?
M. You cannot do anything - you have to enjoy what is - is it not so? To
suffer or to enjoy, you have no choice.
Nevertheless, experiences will be there. You may not be involved in the
experiences, but so long as the "I Am" is there, experiences will be there.
The magic, the art, of this consciousness is that it has not only hidden
the fact that it is the source of all misery, but has made itself the source of
all apparent happiness.

March 17, 1981

Questioner: What does Maharaj mean by Linga-deha?
Maharaj: It is the seed, the chemical, the product of the five elemental
essences which give rise to and sustain the consciousness "I Am." Just like
the seed of a tree, that seed latently contains all future manifestations
and expressions of the tree that will sprout out of that seed. You
take a fountain pen and on the paper you put a drop of ink, so that drop is
the Linga-deha. That drop is the moment of conception; its expression
is the thought-free state, like space, in the knowingness state. That is the
quality of knowingness, space-like; there is no concept, but its expression
is the physical, tangible. Just imagine it is infinitesimal, but its
expression is manifest infinity.
Foreigners understand, but when the Indians come, they listen to the
talks, but they are still attached to all their bodily relatives.
At Linga-deha level, when you worship your Guru, you are the expression
of Guru, in so many ways. You will be experiencing so many
things at such a level, but all that has emanated out of you only, out of
your love and devotion for Guru, and finally, as you evolve, all those
expressions merge into you. This is very important, this is the
consummation of devotion or Saguna Bhakti.
That Linga-deha, that little drop, and the knowledge "I Am" is the
same. What we see is the manifest world which appears in that speck of
consciousness. As sweetness is the nature of sugar, so this speck of
consciousness is the nature of that drop of Linga-deha. The parents, the
source of the Linga-deha, are merely an excuse for preparing that which
was conceived. Your true state was there before the body and
consciousness arose, is there now and will be there after the body and
consciousness go. Somebody may challenge what I am saying.
I have never had any doubt about what you are or who you are,
because I have understood my true state - what I am, I know you are.
Some people will spread this illumination, but it will be the foreigners,
not the Indians. At a later date people will question, "Was there
really such a person who expounded knowledge in this way?"

March 18, 1981

Maharaja There is no duality between the Guru and the Bhakta. In That
which Is there is no duality, has never been any duality. The word
Bhakta means devotion, but in actuality it indicates togetherness, one
only, unity.
Questioner: The flame of devotion lights my way.
M. Who speaks about that flame? When we talk we don't talk about a
person, but about that dynamic, manifest flame "I Am."
Q. That is not extinguishable.
M. Who says that?
Q: I believe that.
M. Because it is your belief, is it right?
Q: I have no proof.
M. You are running. Who talks about the proof? With your faith,
whatever you are worshipping and devoted to, that you will get.
The trouble about your spirituality is that you are listening only to
that knowledge about Iswara which is useful to an entity, you are collecting
only that knowledge. As a man, an entity, this is a temporary phase
of your emotions, or sentiments. No person will be able to conserve his
personality or his identity forever. That guiding principle is not a person.
Nowadays I don't expound any theme of spirituality. I don't even
talk, but still, why the attraction which brings you here? With this I
develop my encumbrances. I have nothing to gain in this bargain except
these encumbrances.
Do you'know the ingredients of that personality? Unless you get to know
that fully, you will not go beyond.
Q: What about my desires, my needs?
M. You are in need of your Self.
Q: Is there any involvement between my desires and the raw material?
M. Plenty of involvement. Out of the interaction and play of the five
elements this food body is available, in that the fragrance and taste is the
knowledge "I Am." Now you find out what is the indication that you are in
this food body.
Q. Would fasting help me to find my Self?
M: Not at all. That "I Artiness" is the very expression of the food. Suppose
you want to find sweetness, sweetness is the quality of sugar, if you reject
sugar where is the sweetness?
Q. Then I always have to go outside myself to food, to get this taste?
M: Can you get the food from inside? The supply comes from outside.
Q. I have always been led to believe that this sense of presence did not depend on
body, that is the essence of spirituality, and now you tell me the opposite!
M. Therefore understand this mystery itself. Where does the world exist?
It exists in this speck of consciousness, and this consciousness can
exist only if there is food.
Whatever life you are living, you are only entertaining a concept.
Find out is there such a thing as an individual. Think over it.
If the entertainment of the experience is easy, if it pleases you, you
call it happiness, if not you call it unhappiness.
The feeling that you are - the sense of presence - what has caused it to
come about? Think on it.
Q: Everything is happening because I am.
M. Will you be able to retain this understanding always? Q:
Just for a moment and then the identification comes back.
M. It's a long way to get the understanding stabilized that everything is
happening because I Am. Now, for how many days will you be in India?
Q. I have only a few more days here.
M: It is not important where you are, once you are established in the "I
Am." It is like space - it neither comes nor goes; just as when you
demolish the walls of a building only space remains.

March 20, 1981

Maharaj: My personality, or individuality, is thrown to the winds, it is no
more there. What you are visiting is only that Duhkha Bhagavan, the God
of Sorrow. Bhagavan is this manifestation, but sorrow only. It is not
involved in thought or activities - it is just the manifestation. I am the
total functioning and whatever in the functioning, at the moment, has
certain significance, that I am.
It is only by taking the aid of this consciousness, which is suffering,
that I am talking. This kind of experience happens only to a very rare
one. Don't ask anything, just listen.
This consciousness, this manifestation, this functioning, has no
shape, form or color.
Questioner: Would Maharaj explain more about Duhkha Bhagavan?
M. Duhka means pain, suffering, agony. Bhagavan means not only God, it is
indicative of explosiveness, a flash ... an explosive flash ... world
perception - with the appearance of "I Amness."
When there is an explosion of fireworks there is a crashing sound, a f
lash of light, and lighting up of the surrounding area. Similarly the "I
Am" explodes into being and the whole perceptible universe is conjured up,
but consciousness, the "I Amness," gives rise to inadequacy, imperfection,
and therefore the beginning of sorrow, misery, etc., and the set
Cling into body-mind sense. From perfect to imperfect - from no-being to
being. In the reverse direction - from body-mind to beingness to Absolute
- then the consciousness state is a Godly state.
Q Why is there so much pain and unhappiness in this world?
M. Because you are always in search of happiness. Happiness and
unhappiness are interrelated. If you did not have unhappiness, how would
you recognize happiness?


http://uploads.ru/i/o/e/s/oesq2.jpg

March 23, 1981

Maharaj: I am That which represents the absence of what is seen. If you
try to accommodate what I say within this concept that you are a human
being, it cannot be done. In spite of listening to all I have said, most of
you will continue to identify yourself as a body, and you will look on me as
an individual, but I am not that. My real presence is the absence of the
phenomena that you see.
My sleep is not the kind you have, it is pure consciousness. When I
sleep there is awareness of total manifestation and also the Unmanifest.
There is no distinction between an individual and the total universe.
You think that I am ill but that is because you identify me with the
body. I consider this illness as an extraordinary state which comes to the lot
of a rare one so long as the individuality exists in the form of a body - but
the importance of that is impossible to describe. That state is full of
suffering; nevertheless, it is full of significance and it comes to a rare one.
The question of what one is comes only in manifestation, in comparison
with other phenomena. In my state there is no phenomenon; my
existence is prior to any manifestation. There is no question of who or
what I am.
Questioner: Would Maharaj repeat what was said earlier about that state where there
is no phenomenon?
M. Once it is said it is gone. The correct way of listening is to
concentrate on the words which reveal your own identity, forget all
other things. You arrive at your identity as that state which was prior
to words. Words cannot satisfy That.
This consciousness, because of which everything else is, is itself
merely the light of That which is, a reflection of That which is. The aver
age person who considers himself a seeker worships the various
concepts, not his true being.
Q. Would Maharaj talk some more about the state which was prior to consciousness?
M. What is the point? Anything you can think of that state is only a concept
and that concept will last only so long as the consciousness is there.
Only the experiencer remains - unsmeared by any experiences -
even the experience of remaining.
I am nothing but how dare I talk like this? Because I know none of the
experiences have remained with me.
You will not find anyone so blunt as I. Everyone is concerned with
these experiences from birth to death but no one gives any thought to that
state before experiencing began. One who has a clear understanding of this
consciousness cannot attach any importance to any experience.
Q. I want to give up this identity with the body, I want to find out who lam. How
do Igo about it?
M: If you do not have the knowledge "I Am" who is going to seek? You
must be, only then can the search begin. Remember the knowledge "I
Am" - that alone pervades everything - be only that, give up the rest.
Q: When I think "IAm, "then immediately come thoughts of the things that lam. I
know that comes from the mind.
M.• Before you think - you are. In the space all movement happens, for
any appearance or any movement, the space must be there.
For the question "Who am I" there is no reply, but you may reply any
way you like, you can give it any name or title you like.
People do not go to the root-meaning of whatever is heard or read,
they just repeat, parrot-like. I take a serious, objection to people just
reciting the bhajans, parrot-like.
How many people have understood the meaning of certain couplets
sung at bhajans? The sun and the moon are the reflections of that very
principle "I Am."
Spirituality is open and at the same time it is a mystery. Because you are,
all the worlds, the universe is; this is your reflection.
If you want to know what you are, that is all given in the bhajans. If
you close your eyes and almost forget yourself, half-sleep, that is exactly
what you are. But if you want to a glimpse, the first vision that you
get is that deep blue space, that very idol of beauty, the image of
beauty. Very often I have elucidated this point but rarely has anybody
been able to catch what I am driving at.
At bhajans I used to stress certain couplets by shouting loudly but
nobody understood what I was doing. I was stressing certain couplets so.
that people would go deeper into the meaning of it, but they were only
shouting louder! Not only was I loudly stressing that particular line but I
used to repeat it. I was inspired to shout those lines at the top of my
voice, "You are that speck of consciousness and out of that the entire cosmos
is created." I was deeply devoted to the singing of bhajans because it
was providing all the spiritual nourishment. Whenever I used to strike the
profound meaning of a particular bhajan I used to dance in the room. I have
all the exuberance to dance and sing now, but there is no energy.
After that I never went to any Sage or Saint. However, many Sages
and Saints visited me, but unfortunately I did not meet anybody who
considered the sun and the moon and the universe as their expression such
a Sage I did not come across.
Q; Although I do not know Marati, I have felt the deeper meaning of the bhajans
intuitively.
M: Many people do bhajans here, but they are not able to grasp the
deeper meaning. Many of the foreigners are able to catch the deeper
meaning. You (the foreigners) have that advantage because all of you
who are interested in this were in your previous incarnation the army of
that great incarnation Rama, followers of Rama, so you were already
blessed at that time. In further incarnations you migrated to the East;
you are more at home in this place than the Indians are.
Foreigners recognize me, but people in the street don't know me,
because that great Rama blessed all his army, all his followers, at that
time.
I admire the foreigners - not only do they come thousands of miles to
be here but they spend so much money to stay in Bombay.
Q: Unless there were that deep urge, we would not come.
M: That is your very destiny. In that chemical which you are, that urge is
already planted therein.
You people come here and sit, with determination to get what you
want. Therefore I have great respect and great regard for you.

March 25, 1981

Maharaj: Treat the body like a visitor, or guest, which has come and will
go. Yoa must know your position as a host very clearly while the
guest is still there. What is the exact nature of the host after the guest
leaves must be realized while the guest is present. Have you
understood? Give me some idea of that position in which you will find
yourself when this body guest leaves.
Questioner: There is no identity.
M. Good. Is this a firm conviction?
Q. Yes, in the meditation.
M. What is the significance of the guest, the sign?
Q. As soon as the guest comes there is the sense of identity as a host.
M: The sense of presence, "I Amness," is the sign of the guest. Are your
answers out of deep conviction?
Q Yes.
M. Then there is no need to come tomorrow.
Q. It is only in deep meditation that I know it.
M. Do you accept completely the knowledge that you do not exist?
Q. There are moments in meditation when I really feel the conviction.
M.• It is not a firm conviction if it is not there all the time. When one is
very sleepy -just at the point of going into deep sleep - at that point he
wants nothing else except to go to sleep. Similarly, at the last moment,
when the breath is leaving, there is also a moment of ecstasy. At that
point, when the life force and consciousness leave, there is that moment of
ecstasy, that last moment of knowing. One who has thoroughly apprehended
this is ajnani to whom there is no question of birth or death.
Even if you hear this and think it is true, the conceptualizing.will not
stop. Already some concept has begun in you. Whatever I have told you
now is only about that speck of "I Amness."
Q. Would Maharaj tell us more about that moment of death?
M. Nothing more can be said about it. It is the culmination or termination
of the Self experience, "I Am." After the termination of "I Amness" there is
no experience of knowingness or not knowingness; the knowingness is the
quality of the material stuff. What did you know prior to your birth?
Similarly, after death this instrument is missing; without the body there is
no experience. Eternity has no birth and no death, but a temporary state
has a beginning and an end.
Even when the consciousness goes, you prevail - you always are -
as the Absolute. As the consciousness you are everything; whatever is, is
you. All this knowledge has dawned on me, I am not that knowledge.
The knowledge "I Am," and all its manifestations, are understood. In
understanding, I am not That.

March 26, 1981

Maharaja The only knowledge you will get here is knowledge of the
Self; it will not help you to make a living in the world. Do you have any
idea of what your true nature is? Since you have understood what you
are not, you should no longer be concerned with what you are not. Is
that clear?
Questioner: Yes.
M. You still have an idea of what you are but even that image must be totally
erased, so that there is no idea of any entity, any identification. Now
that you think you have understood what you are, what use will you make of
the consciousness? Any use of the consciousness will be for others.
Q: The grace of the Guru is necessary in order to understand.
M. The grace is always there but the receptivity must be there to accept
that grace. One must have the firm conviction that what is heard here is the
absolute truth.
Instead of becoming impregnated with what I give you, to the extent
that you are one with it, you merely accept it, put it in your pocket and
keep on using concepts which you have accumulated already. None of you
will really understand what I am, you have your own concepts of me.
Q: I have understood with the intellect. What can I do to realize it?
M. There is nothing you, as an entity, can do. That which has taken
root will by itself flower into intuitive understanding.
Q. This understanding will take some time.
M: Is this not a concept? The very concept is a hazard. When my Guru told
me what the position is, I listened and said, "Oh, this is how it is." And
that was that - the end of it.
If there are no more questions I will close the session. I am not here to
keep a watch over you. If you really understand what has been said
there is no reason to come again, and if you can't understand, then what is
the use of continuing?
Q: On occasion there is a spontaneous feeling of universal love; is this based on
body-mind, or is it something else?
M: Total love is the very nature of consciousness. When this feeling arises
there is nothing you can do - how can one embrace the entire ocean?

March 28, 1981

Questioner: What is the relation between consciousness and the intellect?
Maharaj: Intellect is the expression of conscious ness.
Q. We understand and apperceive everything through the intellect only.
M. Things to be done must be done, things to be understood must be
understood. Things to be done are normally your present worldly life
and these you must carry out. In spirituality you have to understand,
there is no question of doing. In spirituality there is no name and form.
Name and form are necessary for your practical worldly life. The one who
understands that name and form are not his identity is in spirituality.
Presently you are still drawn towards name and form. Your identity in the
phenomenal world as name and form is temporary, a passing show,
and anything relating to name and form is not going to remain.
One who understands spirituality through various concepts will he
caught up in a vicious circle.
If you are caught up in concepts, you will be caught up in the circle of
concepts . . rebirth, reincarnation, these are all concepts. If you are
caught up in these concepts you are bound to have them. Out of concepts
the forms are created, such as buildings, etc. Originally you make
a plan, you have a concept, the concept is born out of you, and you give
it a concrete shape, but it remains a concept.
With the experience of so-called birth you are caught up in the cycle
like the picture on the TV screen. All this life-happening is something
like a cinema.
You must have observed daily that situations are constantly changing
- that is the quality or expression of your identity with the body-mind.
It is the consciousness that is playing about, and in that manifest
consciousness all these various faces and bodies are playing about. You
are not these faces and bodies, you are the consciousness out of which the
words are now flowing.
just- as the play you see on the TV or cinema screen is not real,
similarly this play is also not real. For ajnani all the play is unreal.
I am not going to give you solutions to your family problems, I am
telling you how this worldly life is not. After listening to these talks you
still want to gain some profit for yourself; that is a pity. How astonishing it is
. . in spite of my discouraging you from coming here, still you come here,
how does it happen?
Without making demands we see the dream. Why do we see the
dream? Because in deep sleep the consciousness wakes up, spontaneously,
and because it woke up, it manifests itself in certain visions.
Just like that, this also, your visiting this place.
I am not talking to you for my advantage, nor are you listening for
your advantage - all this language is sprouting spontaneously in a
dreamlike state.
I always try to direct you towards the truth but you come here with a
bundle of conceptual sticks and stones, and instead of listening to what I
say, you play with the sticks and stones - on me.
Right now, think of that last moment when the body will go - at that
time with what identity are you going to quit?
This is a fraud, everything is fraudulent, just like a dream world.
Q. What is the primary cause? What was the crime?
Al. The crime was that this consciousness started feeling conscious, the
mischief started.
Whether you like it or don't like it, I am going to place before you the
factual state of affairs. You know you are - but it is all imaginary. You
think you are - but it is a fraud. Whatever the nature of the beingness
and its behavior, it is not your behavior.
When you, abide in your true identity you are out of this michievous
dream world. I have placed before you what you are.
All of you have the fear that you are going to die, that this consciousness
is going to depart - all the expressions are the expressions of the
food essence body, not you. Sweetness or pungency are the expressions of
the food, you cannot conserve or preserve them. In the same way this "I
Amness" is a quality or expression of the food essence body, and you
cannot retain it forever.

March 30, 1981

Maharaj: I am amazed and astonished that you are sitting here. The talk
is emanating from a state where there are no words. What identity do you
think you have?
Questioner: How to establish oneselffirmly in the awareness of "lAm"? Does one
think "IAm, " "I Am".?
M. Is it necessary to think that you are sitting here? You know that you are
sitting here. However loudly and often I urge you not to think and act in
terms of an entity, identified with a body, you keep on doing so.
Whatever name and form there is belongs to that material, and that
material is not you. Do you analyze the problem and with a firm conviction
decide that you are- not the material? When the material disintegrates,
what does the name refer to? Does is have any significance?
Only one in ten million goes to the crux of the matter, analyzes what it
is, comes to a conclusion, and gets liberated, all by himself. The one who
gets liberated is the consciousness, there is no entity.
The ultimate understanding is that which enables the understanding to
take place and itself becomes so subtle, so fine, that it disappears. And when
this consciousness arises again, then the Samadhi is broken and this "I
Amness" starts again.
The words come from the consciousness, and the consciousness
needs the strength of the body. The strength of the body is gradually
weakening, and therefore the words do not come out as freely as I would
like. Spending great energy, I repeat and repeat - but how many have
understood? Basically the thing is so simple that I get frustrated when
you keep on coming here, listen to what I say, and show no indication that
the words have reached home.
What is the birth principle? You have understood or you have not
understood. If you have understood, why do you keep on coming? If you
have not understood, why do you keep coming?
Q: Maharaj, I just like being herewith you.
M: That is a different thing - but have you really imbibed what I want
you to understand?
Q: We come herewith so many concepts and what you are teaching is so astounding
that it is like a shock treatment. So how doyou expect us to ask questions? Let us absorb
the shock for some time, then the questions will come. We are stunned into
silence.
M: Those who come here and listen to my talks and understand will
become the Gurus when they return to their own countries.
It is so easy to understand, why don't you understand? At the present
time, in manifestation, what you are is the consciousness, and the
consciousness cannot remain unless the food body is there; therefore
consciousness depends on the food body - which is essentially of an
epnemeral nature-and I cannot be that. It's as simple as that; why
don't you understand?
It must happen that the consciousness is no longer conscious of itself.
The sweetness is in the sugar and I am the one who understands and
tastes the sweetness. All these spiritual concepts have come in
conventionally. The last step is - knowingness in its ultimate state is
no knowingness. Transcending consciousness is when the consciousness
knows and understands the consciousness.
Q. This morning, between deep sleep and awakening, there was this quiet, for the
fraction of a moment, when there was a complete knowing a stillness, just beingness.
M. It is quite an elevated state, but don't get caught up only in that.
Deep sleep is something like a block of ice; nothing is there, now it is
again reshaping, the warmth is taking place, and with that warmth you feel
that you are.
In the playing of the flute, the whole world is fascinated. The
consciousness has kept you entranced in the play of the world. Enquire
about that flute and who is playing it. Go to the source.
Q. When you are living this life a number of questions arise and we have to be
constantly aware of the consciousness, but the mind won't let us.
M: The mind is an instrument for communication, for practical
purposes. The mind cannot grasp the truth. The Self witnesses the mind,
but the mind cannot catch hold of the Self.

..............................

28

http://uploads.ru/i/z/i/w/ziwXc.jpg

Signature of Nisargadatta Maharaj in Marathi

March 31, 1981

Maharaj: When a clear understanding takes place of the nature and
function of consciousness, that understanding no longer needs consciousness,
because that understanding becomes the knower of consciousness.
Questioner: Is it possible to function as the total manifestation, not as an individual?
M. What do you understand to be the total manifestation and individual?
Q: What is manifestation?
M. I am the manifestation. I, the Absolute unmanifested, am the same "I"
manifested. Consciousness is the expression of the Absolute, there
are not two.
Q: If my life gives me great satisfaction and happiness, why should I bother about
what or who I am?
M. This consciousness will not rest until it gets the answer. This consciousness
cannot bear its own existence, cannot bear its own consciousness.
Q. It wants to go back. to its own place of rest.
M.- I am not inclined to discuss with words.
You people come here with steadfastness, diligently you come here
and sit. If you have such a liking, you are welcome.
My teaching is very simple; the experiencer and the experiences are
all fancies.
When you are a young person you like all the activities of a young
person very much, you get very involved in them; once youth goes you are
disinterested in the activities of a young person. Similarly, as long as you
are wearing this concept "I Am" you will be involved with all the
concepts. When this concept "I Am" departs there will be no memory left that
I was and I had those experiences: the very memory will be erased. Before
you are completely liquidated, while there are some traces left of you, it
would be better to quit this place.
You may not come across these teachings in such great detail, and at this
level.
This lady has piled up a lot of knowledge, she possesses stacks of it, but
in due course she will not only forget whatever she has piled up, but she
will forget herself, that she was.

April 4, 1981

Questioner: Is a Self-realized person always in a state of bliss?
Maharaja One who has transcended the body idea does not need the
ananda (bliss). When you didn't have experience of the body, you were in
that blissful state. That state which is prior to your birth cannot be
described as deep sleep, it is beyond that. The experience of the jnani is
the same as your state prior to birth, it is a complete state.
Q, How can 1 be That?
M. You are in that state all the time, prior to having the body, but you
are confused because of the body consciousness.
Q: The body is there.
M. Don't ask questions, just listen. You need the company of the Sages to
understand what I am saying. This knowledge cannot be understood by the
intellect.
Q: Is there sat-chit-ananda in the eternal state?
M. The food essence is sattwa, and the quality of that is consciousness,
and inside that is the sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss). The
eternal state is prior to that.
Q: I have read in the books that the main reason to be born is your own desire to be
born; how can it fit in with the state before birth?
M:. Your birth is the result of the desire of your parents. Q;
How can I be released from bondage?
M. There is no bondage at all, bondage is imaginary. If you are
oriented towards the consciousness all your questions will be dissolved
by your Self.
Q: What is the obstacle to my realizing this?
M. The only bondage is your constant memory that you are the body.
Q: Without understanding fully what Maharaj is, still people come here. Why is
that?
M. That is the union of knowledge and that principle which transcends
knowledge. There is attraction between these two. That is why people
from all over the world come here.
I am intangible, you cannot add to me or take away from me. I am
full, complete in all respects. Whatever you do, to me, you will have to
suffer yourself. If you are angry with me, you have to suffer. If you do
anything to me, it will rebound upon you. If you spit at the sky, the spit
will fall on you only.
Q: What is the material world created from?
M. Out of the manifest consciousness, the material world is created -
the eternal Parabrahman, the eternal Brahman, in which this play is
always going on. In that play you are the total, no separate identity
arises. In the body is the taste of "I Am," - when the body is gone, the
taste is gone. When you have some problem you refer to a book. Why
don't you investigate yourself - find out what you are.
In this play of the five elements, whatever is seen or experienced is
merely enjoyment, and for this enjoyment, or entertainment, mind is
very necessary.
Q. What are Brahma, Vishnu, and the other Gods?
M: They are merely appearances in consciousness. Each appearance
has its own duration. That duration may be for millions of years, but
they are all appearances and have an alloted span of existence.
The knower of the knowledge is not affected in any way by the
individual hopes, fears, etc.

April 10, 1981

Maharaj: The Unmanifest ever exists but this manifest knowingness
arises and departs. Presently I do not have any individuality - what is
available is only the consciousness for the expression of which this material
instrument is available. This consciousness is not a very desirable thing,
it is an imperfect state.
There is no reason or law of cause and effect for the functioning of this
universal consciousness. Why something happens at a particular time
cannot be explained in this dualistic state. We can only watch the
functioning and cannot ask for any reason for any functioning which
takes place. If we had the choice of taking on this bodycumconsciousness,
who would be foolish enough to accept it? It is
only because there has been no choice, everything has been
spontaneous. The suffering also has to be taken on because it is part of the
total functioning, and there is no entity who can pick and choose.
There is no individuality left; nevertheless, so long as this body is
part of the total functioning, whatever comes in the total functioning has to
be suffered. There is any amount of suffering in the total functioning - this
body is one of the millions of forms and the share of this body from the
total suffering has to be experienced.
nuestioner: I am trying to understand this.
M. You are hanging onto an entity that is trying to understand. All of
this is simply for the sake of communication. Who is an entity trying to
understand what?
You are carrying on a lot of activities because of certain concepts you
entertain, to satisfy the concepts that have arisen spontaneously in you. All
this process of communication, expounding, etc., will go on so long as this
conscious presence is available, and all this merely to satify the concept
"I Am," and you, the Absolute, are not the primary concept "I Am."
I am telling you all this and probably you like it, you enjoy it - but it is
almost impossible for you to assimilate or perceive what I am saying. I am
sure you have not understood exactly what I am saying. These are two
great personalities, legal pundits. By coming here and listening to my
talks how can they put to use their legal knowledge?

April 13, 1981

Questioner: The disciple is devoted to the Guru; is this not duality?
Maharaja In the world duality always exists. Manifestation can only
take place in duality because of the identification with the body-mind. If the
Guru and the disciple are not identified with the body, where does the
question of duality arise? The pupil and the Guru are only knowledge and
there is no form or design to knowledge.
Q. We have accepted that we are not the body, that we were never born and cannot die,
but it seems that something is missing; what is it?
M: Give me a sample of the one who has heard and accepted. I assume
that those who listen to me are knowledge.
An animal exists only to appease the hunger; is that all you are here
for? There must be a change in you after listening to me all these days.
One has to know that one is not the form but the consciousness which gives
sentience to the form. Has this change really occurred?
Q. The Guru explains that the attachment to the Guru is also a concept; how to get rid
of it? The sadhaka wants to pay his respects to the Guru all the time.
M: This is initial stage talk - duality is there. The sadhaka considers
Guru as something other than himself, so he wants to pay his respects. The
sadhaka is also a Guru, ajnani, there is no difference.
I am still doing this puja for my Guru. It has to be maintained for the
guidance of others; unless you have respect and love for a Guru the process
of your becoming concept-free will not be hastened. If you understand
what I say, only then do you come here. If nobody comes, I will not be
unhappy; whatever must happen has already happened.

April 15, 1981

Questioner: Would realization be possible by hearing the truth from the Guru or is
there any other way?
Maharaj: No, only with the Grace and guidance of the Guru. The
Guru is the one who knows totally what is qualitative Brahman and
nonqualitative, what is mundane matter and what is spiritual matter. You
are holding on to all these things you have heard here as concepts. You
don't try to be that. You like knowledge as a concept.
Q: Maharaj has said that the inner Guru is more important than the outer Guru. M:
In the initial stages you must have an external Guru. That Guru initiates
you with the inner Guru.
Q: What are mantras for?
M. A mantra is indicative of the aim or object in you.
Q: I am a physician and I sometimes get attached to my patients and involved in
their problems. Sometimes I can be detached and not feel involved, but my patients are
like warriors with their problems and try to get me involved. Sometimes I feel like running
away.
M: This is the knowledge of your concepts, this is not your knowledge. To
feel that you are involved in the world is a concept, to feel like running
away is a concept.
Q. If a person is very sincere and wants Self-realization more than anything else in
the world, is it easier for him if he goes away by himself and thinks of nothing but
that?
M. Not at all. It is not that you are going to acquire something externally,
the knowledge that you are is already there, only understand that.
This is all the play of concepts. Even to think that I am going to get
the knowledge, or I have got the knowledge, is still a concept. Prior to
getting the knowledge, whatever Is, That is the truth.
Q. When someone asks Maharaj a very difficult question, where does the answer
come from?
M: Out of the question the answer comes; with every question the
replies are attached.

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 f
lame? 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 mis
led. 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.

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

Maharaja 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?
Maharaja 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 yourselfnevertheless,
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 bodymind
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 bc.:ave.
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 andson 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.

July 1, 1981

Questioner: Deep sleep is no-knowing. The Absolute is beyond knowingness and
no-knowingness. I do not understand.
Maharaja To start with, a child is born: the infant does not know itself,
the reactions of hunger, thirst, etc., take place. These are physical
things, when life is there, but inside that state knowingness has not
developed or matured fully. After one or two years it comes to know
itself, the mother, etc. When the child knows itself, its knowingness has
started.
Prior to that it is ignorance, although it is no-knowingness, it is ignorance.
Then the knowledge "I Am" is attained: it does not know who it
is but it knows it is something. Later on the child starts collecting concepts
and ideas which other people feed it and develops certain concepts or images
about itself and others. The mind has developed. Then comes deep
sleep and the waking state, the daily cycle. In the waking state, in whatever
state of mind you are, you know the world, together with your concepts
and then you fall into sleep. Now, technically, you can call that
deep sleep no-knowingness. But this is not that no-knowingness beyond
which the Absolute lies.
Let us proceed again from the child. Ignorance, knowingness,
accumulation of concepts, meeting the Guru. The Guru tells you, "Get rid
of concepts, just be yourself." So, when you are, onlyyou are. This is the f
irst step: to abide in the consciousness that you are, without words that
is knowledge. When the child started knowing itself there was also
knowledge - but that is a general knowledge and is common to all. This
becomes spiritual now. The seeker, having understood what the Guru
said, gets rid of the concepts, and now, as the first step, the seeker dwells in
the state "I Am," just being.
First of all there is the knowingness "I Am," without words; with that
knowingness the world is. Now when the seeker goes into meditation, that
knowingness goes into no-knowingness. This is the highest in the
hierarchy when the body aspect is there because this knowing and noknowing
are aspects of the body, and body means consciousness, and in the
realm of consciousness knowingness and no-knowingness exist.
The Absolute transcends knowingness and no-knowingness. So,
noknowingness is the highest in the hierarchy of spirituality, and the
destination is transcendence of knowingness and no-knowingness.
Q: I thought no-knowingness means the Absolute.
M: Knowingness and no-knowingness are the expressions of the bodily
consciousness. When this food instrument body, together with the
consciousness is totally transcended - that is the Absolute.
The light is there, the darkness is there, but what is the background?
The space. The space is there which is neither the light nor the dark, but
the space is. You have to transcend light and darkness to abide in space.
Similarly, one has to transcend the knowingness and no-knowingness -
the aspects of bodily consciousness. If you have reached that state you are
watching consciousness and no-consciousness. That is called natural
samadh:, or sahaja samadhi.
Naturally you are in that state, but this psychosomatic instrument of
body and consciousness is always available. The moment somebody
comes the instrument is being operated - otherwise you revert to the
Absolute. It is something like this: in a big hall there is a door, and in the
door is a peep hole. That peep hole is the consciousness, but you are at
the back.
Suppose that those space ships are going up from the earth: when
you are in the space you feel that you have escaped the earth, but it is not so
-you are still under the influence of the earthly atmosphere. You must
go further into the space where there is no atmosphere. But where is the
thought of your going there? It is not like that - you are truly the
Absolute and these are all the coverings you have gotten.
You know you are but you forget that you are and that forgetfulness is
no-knowingness, which is the highest state. You can never describe it by
words; that state is never captured by words.
Understanding is necessary and you should not get confused. Suppose
you live in a state of knowingness: you should not think that you are
ajnani already simply because your knowingness receives many powers
in that state. You might think you are ajnani, but it is not so - it is simply
the first step. There are a lot of allurements at that stage. When you are
only being, without words, you are powerful. Give up the powers, don't
possess them.

_________________________

29

Glossary

Advaita: Non-dualism. The doctrine which contends that only the Absolute
- the ultimate principle, has existence, and that all phenomenal
existence is illusion.
Adya: Primordial; original.
Agni: Fire.
Aham: I; the ego.
Ajnana: Ignorance.
Akasha: Ether; the sky.
Ananda: Bliss; happiness; joy.
Arati: Divine service performed in the early morning or at dusk.
Asana: Posture; seat.
Ashram: Hermitage.
Atma, Atman: The Self.
Avatar: Divine incarnation.
Bhagavan: The Lord.
Bhajan: Devotional practice; worship.
Bhakta: Devotee.
Bhakai: Devotion; love.
Bea: Seed; source.
Brahman: God as creator.
Brahma-randhra: Opening in the crown of the head; fontanelle.
Buddhi: Intellect.
Chaitanya: Consciousness.
Chakra: Plexus.
Chidakasha: Mental ether (all-pervading).
Chit: Universal consciousness.
Chitta: Mind stuff.
Darshan: Viewing; seeing.
Deva: Divine being.
Dharma: Code of conduct.
Ganapati: A Hindu deity; success-bestowing aspect of God.
Gayatri: Sacred Vedic mantra.
Gita: Song.
Guna: Quality born of nature; attribute.
Guru: Teacher; preceptor.
Hanuman: A powerful deity; the son of the Wind God; a great devotee
of Sri Rama; the famous monkey who helped Rama in his fight with
Ravana.
Hiranyagarbha: Cosmic intelligence; cosmic mind; cosmic egg.
Iswara: God.
Japa: Repetition of God's name; repetition of a mantra.
Java: The individual soul.
Jnana: Knowledge.
Jnani: The knower.
Kalpana: Imagination of the mind.
Kama: Desire; lust.
Karma: Action.
Karta: Doer.
Kendra: Center; heart.
Kosa: Sheath.
Kriya: Physical action.
Kumbhaka: Retention of breath.
Kundalini: The primordial cosmic energy located in the individual.
Layer: Dissolution; merging.
Lila: Play, sport.
Linga: Symbol.
Maha: Great.
Mahasamadhi. The death of a spiritual preceptor.
Mahattava: The great principle.
Mana: Mind; the thinking faculty.
Manana: Constant thinking; reflection; meditation.
Manolaya: Involution and dissolution of the mind into its cause.
Mantra: Sacred syllable or word or set of words.
Marga: Path or road.
Mauna or Mouna: Silence.
Maya: The illusive power of Brahman; the veiling and projection of the
universe.
Mumukshu: Seeker after liberation.
Muni: A sage; an austere person.
Nama: Name.
Namarupa: Name and form; the nature of the world.
Neti-Neti: "Not this, not this"; negating all names and forms in order to
arrive at the underlying truth.
Nirguna: Without attributes.
Nisarga: Nature; the natural state.
Pandit: A learned man; a scholar
Para: Supreme.
Parabrahman: The Supreme; the Absolute.
Paramatman: The Supreme Self.
Prajna: Higher consciousness; awareness.
Prakriti: Causal matter; cosmic substance.
Prang: Vital energy; life breath.
Prema: Divine love.
Puja: Worship.
Puma: Full; complete; infinite.
Purusha or Purusa: The Self which abides in the heart of all things; the
cosmic spirit.
Rajas: One of the three aspects of cosmic energy; passion; restlessness;
activity. One of the gunas.
Sadhaka: Spiritual aspirant.
Sadhana: Spiritual practice.
Sagunabrahman: The Absolute conceived of as endowed with qualities.
Sakti or Shakti: Power; energy; force.
Samadhi: Oneness; here the mind becomes identified with the object of
meditation.
Samsara: The process of worldly life.
Samskara: Impression.
Sankalpa: Thought; desire; imagination.
Sat: Existence; being.
Sat-Chit-Ananda Existence-knowledge-bliss.
Satsang: Association with the wise.
Satca or Sattwa: Light; purity.
Siddha: A perfected Yogi.
Siddhi: Psychic power.
Swarupa: Essence; essential nature; one's own form.
Tomas: Darkness; inertia; one of the guns.
Upanishad: Knowledge portion of the Vedas.
Vac or Yak: Speech.
Vasana: Subtle desire.
Vayu; The Wind God; air; vital breath.
Veda: A scripture of the Hindus.
Vedanta: The end of the Vedas.
Vichara: Inquiry into the nature of the Self.
Vijnana: Principle of pure intelligence. Vritti:
Thought-wave; mental modification.
Yoga: Union; the philosophy of the sage Paranjali teaching the union
of the individual with God.
Yogi: One who is an adept in Yoga.

__________________________

30

http://i.pixs.ru/storage/8/0/1/_6319150_2143801.jpg

A few Excerpts from

Consciousness and the Absolute

The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

May 14, 1980

Maharaj: Doctors have diagnosed that this body has cancer. Would anyone else be as joyful as I am, with such a serious diagnosis? The world is your direct experience, your own observation. All that is happening is happening at this level, but I am not at this level. I have dissociated myself from Sattva Guna, being ness.

The Ultimate state in spirituality is that state where no needs are felt at any time, where nothing is useful for anything. That state is called Nirvana, Nirguna, that which is the Eternal and Ultimate Truth. The essence and sum total of this whole talk is called Sat-guru Parabrahman, that state in which there are no requirements.

After the dissolution of the universe, when no further vestige of creation was apparent, what remained is my perfect state. All through the creation and dissolution of the universe, I remain ever untouched. I have not expounded this part: my state never felt the creation and dissolution of the universe. I am the principle which survives all the creations, all the dissolutions. This is my state, and yours, too, but you don't realize it because you are embracing your beingness. Realizing it is only possible when one get support from invincible faith, from that eternal Sat-guru Parabrahman. This state, this Parabrahman principle, is eternal and is also the Sat-guru. It is the eternal property of any devotee of a Guru.

July 29, 1980

Questioner: Why did this consciousness arise?

Maharaj: You are both the question and the answer. All your questions come from your identification with the body. How can any questions relating to that which was prior to the body and consciousness be answered? There are yogis who have sat in meditation for many, many years seeking answers to this question, but even they haven't understood it. And yet you are complaining.

Q: It is a great mystery.

M: It's a mystery only to the ignorant. To the one not identified with the body, it is no longer a mystery.

Q: Maharaj cannot convey it to us?

M: I keep telling you but you don't listen.

Q: Does Maharaj see us as individuals?

M: There are no individuals; there are only food bodies with the knowledge "I Am". There is no difference between an ant, a human being, and Isvara; they are of the same quality. The body of an ant is small, an elephant's is large. The strength is different, because of size, but the life-force is the same. For knowledge the body is necessary.

Q: How did Maharaj get the name Nisargadatta?

M: At one time  I was composing poems. Poems used to flow out of me and, in this flow, I just added Nisargadatta. I was reveling in composing poems until my Guru cautioned me, "You are enjoying composing these poems too much; give them up!"

What was he driving at? His objective was for my to merge in the Absolute state instead of reveling in my beingness.

This was the way I realized knowledge, not through mental manipulation. My Guru said, "This is so," and for me, it was finished! If you continue in the realm of intellect you will become entangled and lost in more and more concepts.

Consciousness is time flowing continuously. But I, the Absolute, will not have its company eternally because consciousness is time bound. When this beingness goes, the Absolute will not know "I Am". Appearance and disappearance, birth and death, these are the qualities of beingness; they are not you qualities. You have urinated and odor is coming from that -- are you that odor?

Q: No, I am not.

M: You require no more sadhana.. For you, the words of the Guru are final.

October 5, 1980

Maharaj: I have no individuality. I have assumed no pose as a person. Whatever happens in the manifest consciousness happens.

People identify me with their concepts and they do what their concepts tell them. It is consciousness which is manifest, nothing else. Who is talking, who is walking, who is sitting? These are the expressions of that chemical "I Am". Are you that chemical? You talk about heaven and hell, this Mahatma or that one, but how about you? Who are you?

In meditation, one sees a lot of visions. They are in the chemical, the realm of your consciousness, are they not? All these things are connected only to that birth-chemical. You are not this chemical "I Am"!

Spiritual knowledge should not be studied; it is knowledge derived from listening. When the listener hears it, and accepts it, something clicks in him.

This "I Amness" is otherness; it is an expression of duality.

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 you own thoughts; they are all collective 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 thought 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 you 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. It 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 that 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 the 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?

Maharaj: 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 the 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 you 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 the movement where the "I Amness" begins. The effort of the one who has arrested that movement will not go to waste. Holding the fee of the Sat-guru is the borderline 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 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 the existence of anything? Consciousness itself is mind, is thought, is all phenomena, all manifestation. Apprehending this is being dead to "A 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. hose 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, of for the one who has become one with his true nature. For the jñani, 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 you birth. Right now, in spite of you 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 you 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 will be 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 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 our 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 the 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.

December 5, 1980

Maharaj: This sickness gave the confirmation that there is no personality, no individual. Sickness to whom? Sickness is part of the functioning of the entire manifest, dynamic Chaitanya; it is the play of consciousness. My true state is prior to this consciousness. That state does not depend on the consciousness.

There is a couplet we sing at Bhajans, to Chakrapani. Chakrapani means that "I Amness", the life principle, the manifest principle. It is like this cigarette lighter. The gas as such has no light, but its manifestation is the flame; it is full of light, life, energy. Even in the atom and sub-atom, that energy is there.

The functioning of consciousness takes place spontaneously, and one doesn't know what will happen. For instance, I say something and M. will translate it one way, B. will translate it another, in whichever way they have understood it. This is the way the process will go on. This Chakrapani is "like a flywheel," Lord Krishna said, "rotating allbeings." That energy which moves all things in the waking state is latent in deep sleep. How long is one unaware of awareness? One doesn't know, but suddenly consciousness arises. Does anyone think along these lines? Is it not amazing that consciousness, which might remain latent for any length of time, suddenly arises spontaneously?

Questioner: Is universal cansciousness ever uware of itself as universal consciousness, or does it become aware only when there is aform.'

M: Awareness is not aware of its awareness. If you get too much involved in what I am saying you will throw away the books you are writing, everything.

Q: I will finish the books, then I amfinished.

M: [To Jean Dunn] You have promised me that you will complete the books. Universal consciousness will not write the books. How will you write the books?

Q: It will happen spontaneously.

December 8, 1980

Maharaj: I am talking about the consciousness which works through this body at the moment, but which is not visible. This consciousness is not limited to the body but is universal consciousness; I can't speak of anything else now. A person who is already dead is not worried about anything. Whether the people like it or not doesn't matter. Perhaps you may be getting some blessings, some benefits, from listening to my talks, I don't know.

All my actions are the actions of universal consciousness appearing to work through this body. I do not remember something from the past and then act; it is all action in the now.

Questioner: Where does consciousness comefrom?

M: It never comes or goes, it just appears to have come.

Q: Why does Maharaj know this and we do not?

M: It is not difficult for you to know also, but with what identity are you asking?

Q: Is it karmic, can karma be changed?

M: It is all consciousness working, not this one or that one working; it is all consciousness.

Q: Can Maharaj, out of compassion, give me a push into that state of universal consciousness ?

M: Yes, of course, I can do that, but you must listen to me, you must have complete faith in whatever I tell you about yourself, and you must behave accordingly.

By nature I am non-manifest, yet I am manifested, but I am really not manifested. Can you live like that, as the non-manifest?

As long as the attribute is there, the quality of the attribute, the "I Am", is there; therefore, I can speak like this. If it goes away, what happens? The sense of "I" has come and has gone, that is all, I am not going to die. One who has rejected this identity will understand.

Q: Maharaj said that he is not going to die ?

M: How can one who is not born, die?

When people first learned about this illness, those who have affection for me came to talk to me, or wrote to me, giving advice and medicine. Whatever is to happen will happen, I have no interest. I don't have fear so I don't have to do anything. It is quite in order that those who have affection for me write and come to discuss things with me; I don't listen to them, and that is also quite in order, because I am not afraid of anything.

You are asking, "Who am I?" and you are not going to get an answer, because the one who will get the answer is false. You may have an idea, a concept, and you will think you have found yourself, but it is only a concept; you can never see your Self.

Q: What is sat-chit-ananda?

M: It is words. You can take it that sat-chit-ananda is the limit which your mind can describe of that state which cannot be described. Your true state is non-manifest; the manifestation comes and the words come. The one who experiences sat-chit-ananda is there before the experience.

December 15, 1980

Maharaj: Consider the status you have reached if you are able to understand what I say, and if you have understood, there will be no status at all. Your worth cannot be measured. You have done all your homework and now your sadhana or spiritual practice is bearing fruit; now you are here. Let it grow in you. You don't have to go to anybody else after you leave this place; that part of the work has already been done by you. Because you are worthy of that state of realization, you are here today.

Get to know that "I Am" without words which arises in the morning. Knowing the Self, abiding in the Self- knowledge, is not a mere intellectual knowing. You must be that, and you should not move away from it. Remain firm. Do not consult others about the advice I have given to them. Abide in what I have told only you. Kill that curiosity to know what others are told; to each seeker the appropriate advice is given. Unless you abide in your own true nature you will not be able to gauge the depth of another's nature. When you try to understand others, the Self-effulgent nature of one's Self should open up completely. You will know yourself in the process. The knowledge being expounded here you will not find in any books. Now, having given you so much, you may see me tomorrow or you may not, that is immaterial, but don't forget what I have told you about your Self.

December 18, 1980

Questioner: This consciousness is like a screen, and I am the screen.

Maharaj: Understand what I say without concepts; you are adding new concepts. Now go to zero concepts.There are many spiritual seekers whose aim is to acquire sufficient merit to reach a certain place, such as Heaven or Vaikuntha. I have had no aims except to find out. I was not aware of my awareness, and suddenly I became conscious that. I am. Where and how did this consciousness arise on me? That was my enquiry, going back to that state when the presence of phenomena was not there. That is, original knowledge of the original Self. So, I went back, tracing this original Self, and I reached a stage where I wanted to know what my state was before this consciousness arose. That is the destination which I have reached. Brahman, Isvara, God, all these are names given to the consciousness when it is conscious of itself. If you have properly understood this knowledge, what will be your position at the moment of so-called death? It will be watching what is happening. This consciousness gradually loses everything, and ultimately consciousness is no longer conscious of itself. That state cannot be described. It is called Parabrahman, the Supreme Absolute, but that is only a name for communication purposes.

This line of enquiry started when I noticed that from the moment one wakes up until one falls asleep, one is very busy doing something or other. What is it that compels us to do these things? Because of what does this go on? Then I came to the conclusion that it is my beingness, the fact that I am conscious of existing, which is working throughout the day. That was how my enquiry started.

In the body the indwelling principle is the consciousness. Abiding in the consciousness, it became all manifestation. Now transcendence of the consciousness has also occurred. With the appearance of consciousness, the Absolute knows it is, "I Am". This is the experience. There are other experiences now, in this time factor, but experiences are gradually dropping off, including this primary experience "I Am". It is only the consciousness that is going to disappear, the Absolute is always there. What a fall! The perfect state, caught up in these experiences, and trying to derive certain benefits out of the experiences.

Q: Is it spontaneous?

M: Yes. Whatever experiences were happening in this field of knowingness, the Ultimate principle got caught up in that. It accepted some experience as itself. Accepting experiences as the truth, it gets more and more involved.

December 22, 1980

Maharaj: Just now I was lying down in the waking state, but with no perceiving or receiving of any words, something like a prior-to-words state.

Now the last traces of personality or individuality have left me. Last year I used to talk to people with a certain affection, but that is not available now. My dwelling place in the grosser world is gone now; presently it is in the subtler sphere, as in space.

The effect of these talks is that you will stabilize in the very source from which the words sprout. Abiding in the dynamic, manifest consciousness is abiding in the words of the Guru. The meaning of the mantra I have given you is that you are the manifest, dynamic principle, not the body. When you abide in that, you become that.

People think that they are coming here of their own volition, but it is the consciousness which is bringing them here, because the consciousness wants this knowledge.

My talks are addressed to the consciousness, "You have identified with the body, but you are not the body." It is knowledge which must understand its own nature, and merge with the knowledge which is its source.

People come here and ask for blessings; they don't understand that the knowledge that one is not the body, but the consciousness within, is the blessing.

Decem ber 25, 1980

Questioner: When we are busy with our worldly jobs, what should we keep in mind?

Maharaj: Because the "I Am" principle is there, it is moving all over. To recognize it, you put on various uniforms in order to give it an identity, but that principle is already there, and because of that principle you are engaging in various activities. Unless you wear the uniform (the body) you will not be able to conduct any activities.

This knowledge is meant for the Isvara principle, which is presently caught up in the illusion that it is the body-mind. You have accepted the identity of the uniform and that identity becomes your ego.

Isvara is the manifest principle by which all activities are carried on. It has no form - the forms are given because of the five elemental play. Now, that principle gets completely lost in the uniform and is recognized by the uniform only. You have the fear of death because you fear losing your identity, the body.

Since the uniform is available to you, by all means use it, but understand that you are not the uniform.

Q: What does one do when the uniform gets troublesome?

M: Recede into your own Self, be one with your true Self.

This "I Amness" enjoys various experiences. It becomes a beggar or a King.

Is this body eternal? The body has been changing all during your life, which identity is you?

Q: I identify myself with my body, I know that.

M: Who?

Q: I do.

M: Give me a photograph of the meaning of that word "I". You can't. That principle has no name or form or shape. My firm conclusion is that whatever is done through the uniform is perishable, it is not going to remain. Which uniform has any permanency? Once you know that you are not the form or the name of that uniform, it is all over. Suppose you have hoarded some thousand-rupee notes and suddenly the government order comes that they are all invalidated.

Once you discard this "I Amness" uniform, what remains is the Parabrahman. That which is eternally current is the Parabrahman.

Q: Will Maharaj help me discard my uniform?

M: What is the need? It is not eternal, it never was.

Q: We have not discarded ours, that is the problem.

M: Now, tell me, when the knowingness was not there, what experiences did you have? That little touch of "I Amness" and you felt the existence of yourself and the world.

Q: How to give up this knowingness?

M: Where is the need? If you accept that uniform as yourself, then the question of giving it up will be there. Give up your identity with the body, try to know yourself. It is merely knowingness, you cannot perceive that state. You come here because you are ignorant, not because you are knowledgeable. This knowledge I give is only to remove ignorance.

December 26, 1980

Maharaj: Out of what is the body created?

Questioner: It is an expression ofconsciousness.

M: Is this body not composed of the five elements? You know that you exist; does not this knowledge depend on the five elements? The consciousness cannot be known without the body. It depends on the form.

Q: Do you mean that without the body I do not know that I am?

M: That is correct. From your own experience, not what you have heard or read, can you know that you exist without the body?

Q: I exist without this body.

M: Forget about what you have read. When you did not have the experience of this body, did you have the experience of being?

Q: My English is not very good, I cannot express it, but I know "I Am. "

M: Before you were born, could you have felt or sensed or known that you exist? A jnani is free because he sees that the body is made up of the five elements and it works according to the nature of these elements. I see that body, but I am not concerned with whatever that body does. There is nothing in it with which I can identify. The essence of the combination of the five elements is the sense of being, of existing. It has all come simultaneously, I have no part in it. Feeling that I am present depends on having a body; I am neither the body nor the conscious presence.

In this body is the subtle principle "I Am"; that principle witnesses all this. You are not the words. Words are the expression of space, they are not yours. Still further, you are not that "I Am"

Q: What am "I" then?

M: Who is asking?

Q: There is nothing here, no "I"?

M: Who is asking this?

Q: There is a sense of something, I don 't know what it is.

M: If you feel that sense of something, can it be the truth? When this consciousness goes into oblivion, who is to say what that state is?

Q: I don't know.

M: Because your "I Amness" is not there, you do not know yourself. When you began knowing that you are, you did a lot of mischief, but when the "I Am" is not there, there is no question of mischief.

Q: Is the "I Am" there all the time, as long as my body is there?

M: The "I Am" is absent only in the state of samadhi, when the self merges into the Self. Otherwise, it will be there. In the state of a realized person the "I Am" is there; he just doesn't give much importance to it. A jnani is not guided by a concept.

Q: Do we have a relationship, Maharaj, when I think I should be here with you'

M: The very thought is the relationship.

Q: The intensity of my longing to be here made me wonder if Maharaj thinks of his disciples?

M: I think of them more than you know.

December 30, 1980

Questioner: I think there should be beauty in the whole manifestation.

Maharaj: You should not get involved in what has appeared. Take a tree - the bark, the leaves, the blossoms, the fruit, all have a different nature. If you get involved in the appearance of these, you will lose sight of the source, the tree.

Intellectually, you have understood, but you have to be one with it, you have to identify with what you have understood. Understand that the seed of this body is the sperm of the father mixed with the ovum of the mother. That is the seed for the manifestation of the phenomen, but I am not the seed, I am not the phenomena, nor am I the consciousness which is time-bound.

The names and forms which you see are consciousness only. Your consciousness is very pure and that's why you are able to judge. The Atman is colorless, but it is able to judge colors, etc.

Your sadhana is over; you have reached this place.

This knowledge is for those who have no desires. The Self-knowledge is the most precious knowledge.

To you who search for the Self I explain this type of knowledge. I lead you to a state where there is no hunger, no desire, therefore I am not inclined to invite those who are worried about their possessions and their relations to listen to my talks.

When you have knowledge you see that the consciousness "I" is all-pervasive, as long as the consciousness is there; but the witness of the consciousness has no "I Am" and that is your true, eternal nature.

"I love" gives rise to great joy, and at the same time there is nothing so miserable as "I love"

Giving up the body is a great festival for me.

What is the worth of all the activities of human beings? It is all entertainment, just to pass time. You get pleasure only when you forget yourself; in deep sleep you have forgotten yourself, that itself is joy.

It is the Atman, not the personality, that is drawn to spirituality.

I will not expound knowledge in the future; a few words here and there will be all.

January 3, 1981

Maharaj: Beingness has the quality to become whatever you think of. Whatever concept you feed to the consciousness, the consciousness will provide you with that. Whatever you hold on to intensely, you are bound to be that, that is the quality of your consciousness. You should never think that you are the body.

Consciousness is not the body. As a result of the body the beingness is felt, but beingness is all-pervasive.

Consciousness alone feels the expanse of consciousness, but I, the Absolute, am not that.

Whatever is known is known by consciousness, is in the field of consciousness. The consciousness and the knowledge will subside when the food body dies. The Absolute always remains. The seed of knowledge is planted in you by these talks; now you have to follow it up. You must nurse it, ruminate over it, so that the tree of knowledge will grow.

January 4, 1981

Questioner: I was pondering what Maharaj said about all consciousness being the same this morning, andforjust a few seconds, it was as if everything was one and I was behind it. Is this the aim?

Maharaj: That is not the aim, IT IS SO. It is there and it is only because of identity with the body that what is, doesn't seem as if it is.

Please understand that there is only one thing to be understood, and that is that you are the formless, timeless unborn. It is because of your identification with the body as an entity that your consciousness, which is universal consciousness, thinks that it is dying. Nobody is dying, because nobody was born.

The millions of forms are the manifestation of consciousness. It is the millions of forms which get created and destroyed, but universal consciousness itself is unborn and undying. Just imagine if all the millions of forms which have been created were still here - how could other forms be created? It is because consciousness is unborn and undying that the millions of forms get created and destroyed; it is a continuous process. Understand that what you are is this unlimited universal consciousness. Only that in which consciousness manifests itself is limited and is created and destroyed. The total potential of consciousness remains. It is unlimited.

You are seeking knowledge from the standpoint of identification with the body and whatever can be grasped by the mind. When this body machine is there, the technique of using it is there, and that is what you are identifying with now, but it is not your true identity. You have no control over it, it has appeared and it will disappear.

I talk to you from the perspective of the universal consciousness and I know that all bodies are the essence of food and that they will vanish.

January 7, 1981

Questioner: Every time something happens now, instead of getting involved in it, I am seeing that everything is that "I Amness". I am experiencing that.

Maharaj: Witnessing takes place, there is nothing to be done. It is total freedom for one who does not identify with the body.

Q: Everything is happening on its own and I have no concern with it.

M: If that is so, it means that you have understood everything and there is no need for you to linger here any longer.

Questioner [Another person]: It is diferent for me. I have to make an effort not to get involved in thoughts when I meditate.

M: It is the nature of the life force to express itself through thoughts and words, so they will keep on coming. If you have to make an effort in the beginning not to get involved, make that effort until it becomes effortless.

Q: Does the jnani have a mind and thoughts also ?

M: Although thoughts come and go, the jnani is not concerned. Thoughts will come in consciousness; witnessing also takes place in consciousness. You must have the conviction that you are consciousness Thereafter there is nothing for you to do; leave it to the consciousness to do what is to be done. Whatever happens, happens spontaneously.

Q: Where is the seat ofconsciousness?

M: In every particle of the juice of the body. In the scriptural books it is normally given that there are various chakras. Those are available if you want to locate them like that, but according to me, it is throughout the body.

Q: What is the difference between the body and consciousness?

M: What is the difference between sugar and sweetness? The sweetness is there in the sugar cane juice. In the body. the sweetness is the knowledge you are, the consciousness. This knowingness is due to what? What is the prerequisite for consciousness?

Q: Is it the body?

M: The body is necessary to sustain consciousness; for the body to be, food is necessary, is it not?

Q: Yes.

M: If the body does not remain, consciousness will not remain. In the absence of body and consciousness, what are you?

Q: I don 't know.

M: Now you want to get some benefit, some advantage, for yourself. To whom is the benefit?

Q: Consciousness.

M: If you are not the body or the consciousness, then what are you? When you realize the Self-knowledge, then the self is released, liberated.

Q: Then what?

M: Then you know, definitely, who you are. That by which you know, you know that, also.

Q: Is that liberation ?

M: Liberation means what? It is no more there. [Flicking his cigarette lighter on and off] This cigarette lighter is the body; the consciousness is the flame. Now it isn't there anymore; it is liberated. Where is the need to label it in the absence of consciousness?

источник