Let us take the case of an average foreign visitor. His first visit almost invariably raises acertain amount of doubt in his mind, whether he had done the right thing in spending so muchmoney and his hard-earned annual leave in coming here. The dirty surroundings of Maharaj's house,the simplicity of his tiny loft-room, his unimpressive physical appearance and his plain attire — allthese contribute to the initial doubt. Of course, after attending a couple of sessions and certainly bythe time he leaves, the foreign visitor, is already looking forward to his next visit!There is also one other factor which initially keeps pricking the foreign visitor's mind.
Maharaj's behaviour is not unlike that of any other common man on the street. And it goes againsthis concept of how a sage, or Jnani, should behave, though this concept itself may be exceedingly vague. He finds the walls of Maharaj's small room cluttered with pictures of numerous gods andsaints. He sees him participating in the chanting of Bhajans four times a day. He finds him smokingcheap country-made cigarettes all the time, and sometimes talking on trivial matters in a lighthearted manner. He finds all this very confusing. His pre-conceived notion about Maharaj wasperhaps that of a saffron-robed patriarchal figure, conversing gravely from an elevated seat somedistance away from the visitors, occasionally bringing about a miracle or two in a condescending manner. Instead, he finds an utterly ordinary man!
It is, therefore, not surprising that before the end of the very first session, our visitor cannot resist the temptation of asking why Maharaj, inspite of being a Jnani, sings Bhajans four times aday. Or, perhaps, the question could be: Why does Maharaj find it necessary to smoke? Maharaj'susual answer in such cases is simple: Why not? I have been associated with this body for eighty-odd years; why should it not receive the few crumbs which it has got used to? As for Bhajans four timesa day, it is a practice from the times of my Guru. If since then I have had what is usually called 'awakening', should I feel compelled to give up this old and harmless routine? One must go throughone's allotted span of time. Does it matter what one does, so long as one does not knowingly hurt any one else? It is as simple as that.
Maharaj continues with this theme somewhat as under: If one sees — apperceives — things asthey are, if one apprehends the total manifestation with the whole mind and not with the dichotomized mind of an individual, one is not far away from the great awakening, and then whatever one does is of no importance. Indeed, to think that an individual being can act independently is itself a mistake. What we are is the conscious presence, and not the outside casing of consciousness; not the body which is only a psychosomatic apparatus used for cognizing the manifestation. This apparatus is only a spacio-temporal concept and as such has no independent existence and, therefore, cannot act independently, despite all appearances to the contrary. Let us understand this basic fact.
What then is life? Life in this universe is nothing other than the 'functioning of manifestation*,despite what each individual might think. Viewed in this perspective, the various destructive manifestations like floods and earthquakes lose their sting. Each body is nothing but food for someone else — mouse for a cat, man or beast for a lion, lamb or chicken for man and so on. So what is good for one is evil for another; indeed whatever events seem to happen constitute nothing but the functioning of manifestation. To each individual it all appears to be his own doing and experiencing, but the fundamental fact is that no phenomenal object (and that is all that a sentient being, relatively, is) can have any independent existence of its own. Once this is clearly apprehended, it will automatically follow that all responsibility and guilt are also imaginary concepts,based upon the mistaken notion that a sentient being has independent existence, autonomy and choice of action.
Then, what about all the eminent examplars in the various spheres of human activity — thearts, sciences, athletics — the greatest thinkers? We must admire the work done by consciousness 'through' these various physical forms, but not the individual persons who are nothing more than conceptual phenomena. Let us understand and be clear about what really happens. The question that would follow is: If the individual persons do not achieve whatever has been achieved, who does?The answer is: No one individually. The 'functioning' of the manifestation takes place in consciousness through Prajna that brilliant actor/producer of this total dream-show, who assumes all theroles in the great dream-drama that this manifestation is. And the source of this conscious presenceis the noumenon. Sentient beings appear to act and react, but the real functioning happens in consciousness.
Let us, says Maharaj, admire the azure sky, the lovely moon and the twinkling stars; let us write poems about the beauty of nature; let us love the many Avataras that have descended upon theearth through the ages, let us sing Bhajans four times a day but, let us at least understand the true position! I, noumenon, am all the 'functioning' in consciousness!
Finally, we may ask ourselves: What then are we doing all day? Are we not living our lives, we the millions of people in the world? If we could think deeply and rationally about what we know as life, we would easily come to the conclusion that all that we do, throughout the day and day afterday, is nothing but objectifying. Indeed, manifestation is itself nothing but continuous objectivization, because, when in deep sleep consciousness rests objectivization necessarily ceases;so does the objectified universe. In deep sleep, there is no self, no world, no God.
What we think as 'doing' is nothing but objectivization; functioning of manifestation takes place so long as there is consciousness. By unnecessarily identifying oneself as the doer one attracts responsibility and guilt. When the mind, which is the content of consciousness, is blank — when it 'fasts' or rests — the spinning and weaving of the mind ceases, and it calms down. When the mind stops 'doing', it merely is. In the absence of objectivization, our absolute presence is, the manifested universe is not — we are. Or, rather, 'I am'. Let us at least understand these basic facts. ••
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