A foreign visitor who could spend only three days in Bombay attended both the morning andevening sessions every day. At the final session, he said that during the three days he had absorbedso much that he was not able to sort out the priorities and did not know what to do first and whatcould be postponed. He earnestly requested Maharaj to review the fundamentals so that he couldretain them in his mind in an orderly manner.Maharaj laughed and asked him if there was any confusion in his mind about his being a malehuman being, about being the son of his parents, or about his profession! If not, then why shouldthere be any confusion about his true nature!
- A form got created through a natural process
Anyway, said Maharaj, let us take up what you have asked for. What you really want is toreach an acceptable understanding of your self (which you have been conditioned to regard as abody-mind entity with complete control over its actions) and your relationship with the world inwhich you live — you on the one hand and the world on the other.Now, what you think you are, is nothing but the 'material' essence of your father's body whichwas conceived in your mother's womb, and which later grew spontaneously into the shape of a babywith bones, flesh, blood etc. Indeed, you were not even consulted about your 'birth'. A human formwas created which grew from a baby to an infant and at a certain time, perhaps in the second year ofyour life, you were told that 'you' were born, that 'you' have both a name and a form.
Thereafter,you had the knowledge of your 'beingness' and 'you' began to consider yourself as a separateindividual, with an independent entity, apart from the rest of the world. Now consider: (i) Did yourparents specially and deliberately create 'you? (ii) Did your parents know the moment whenconception took place? (iii) Did 'you' specifically and deliberately select a particular couple as yourparents? and (iv) Did you choose to get born'?
From the answers to these questions it would be clear that a form in the shape of a humanbeing got created almost accidentally (without any concurrence or selection on any one's part),which you subsequently accepted as your self. Therefore, 'you' as such do not exist either as a 'fact',or as an entity. This is the first fundamental. A form got created through a natural process.
- Appearance of Maya in the consciousness
Then, the question is what are 'we'—all of us? Each one of us, as a phenomenon, is merely anappearance in the consciousness of those who perceive us, and, therefore, what we appear to be is aphenomenon — temporal, finite and perceptible to the senses; whereas what we are, what we havealways been and what we shall always be, without name and form, is the noumenon — timeless,spaceless, imperceptible being.However convincingly you may think you have 'understood' this basic fact, you will find italmost impossible to dis-associate yourself from the identification with your name and form as anentity. This can happen only when that which you have been thinking of as a separate entity hasbeen totally annihilated. This is the second fundamental, the power of Maya.
What is merely aphenomenon, without any independent existence of its own, is considered to be 'real', and efforts aremade by this phantom to 'become' something — a shadow chasing its substance. Whereas actuallyyou have all along been the substance and never the shadow in bondage wanting liberation. Howvery amusing, but then that is Maya!
- Concept of Space and Time
Now the third fundamental: Would you have been able to conceive any aspect of themanifested world if there were no 'space-time'? If phenomena were not extended into space andgiven a three-dimensional 'volume', and if they were not measured in duration, you could not haveconceived, let alone perceived, anything of the apparent universe. Please note that all phenomenaare mere appearances in space-time, conceived and perceived in consciousness. And even the veryidea of the wholeness of the Absolute can only be a concept in consciousness! When consciousnessmerges in the Absolute, who or what can there be to want to know anything, or to experienceanything?
- Realize/Apperceive your true state
And now the final fundamental: If what I have said so far is clearly understood, should it not bepossible for you to apperceive your true state, the state before 'you' were 'born'? Could you go backto that primal state, before consciousness spontaneously arose and brought on the sense ofpresence? This latter state of the 'sense of presence' is true so long as the body exists. When the lifespan of the body is over, this conscious presence merges into the original state where there is noconsciousness of being present. No one is born, no one dies. There is merely the beginning, theduration and the end of an event, objectified as a life-time in space-time. As phenomenon there isno entity that is bound and as noumenon, there can be no entity that needs to be liberated. This iswhat is to be apperceived: The dream-world of phenomena is something to be merely witnessed.
The visitor bowed before Maharaj and said that he had received the highest knowledge in thefewest words. "Having learnt about my true identity, I have nothing else to learn now." he added.
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Go back—at least conceptually — to the state that prevailed prior to the appearance of this physical form, this psychosomatic apparatus; prior even to the conception of this form? If I were to ask you to tell me something about your state before you were conceived in your mother's womb, your answer must necessarily be "I don't know." This 'I' who does not know that state (in fact the 'I' who knew nothing until consciousness appeared), is what we really are —the Absolute, the noumenon, spaceless, timeless, imperceptible being; whereas, relatively, phenomenally, finite, time-bound, perceptible to the senses, is what we appear to be as separate objects.
The state of non-manifestation, the noumenon, is one where we (strictly, the word should benot 'we' but 'I') do not even know of our being-ness. When we become conscious of our beingness, the state of unicity no longer prevails, because duality is the very essence of consciousness. The manifestation of that-which-we-are as phenomena entails a process of objectivization, which is necessarily based on a division into a subject which is the perceiver or the cognizer, and an object which is the perceived or the cognized.
The interesting point about this process of objectivization is that it does necessarily take place in consciousness, which is the source of all conceptualizing, and, therefore, in effect, the so-termed cognizer-subject and cognized-object are both objects phenomenalized in consciousness like dream figures.
But, that cognizer-object (which cognizes the cognized-object) assumes the identity of the subject as a separate entity — a 'self' — and gives the cognized object an identity as the 'other'. Thus is born the concept of the 'individual' through illusion, the power of the Maya, or whatever. Once this identification with a supposed separate entity takes place, the concept of duality gets broadened and the conditioning becomes stronger. The separate subject-entity then sets itself up as an arbiter to analyze and criticize various objects, and the entire scheme of inter-related opposites comes into existence — good and bad, big and small, far and near— providing scope for condemnation and approbation.
The sub-stratum of the entire creation of this phenomenal universe is, of course, the concept of space-time. Space is needed for objectivization and time to measure the duration of this extension in space. Without space how could objects have been given forms to become visible, and without time (duration for the appearance) how could they have been perceived?
Maharaj continued: If you have apperceived what I have said, you should be able to say exactly how and where the so-called bondage arises, and whom it hurts. Understand this very clearly. Manifestation of phenomena is nothing but the process of the functioning of consciousness, where there is no question of an individual entity. All are objects, dream-figures functioning in their respective roles. Our miseries arise solely through accepting responsibility by 'taking delivery' ofour respective dream-roles as ourselves, by identifying what-we-are with the subject-cognizer element in the process of objectification. It is this illusory and totally unnecessary identification which causes the 'bondage' and all the resulting misery to the illusory individual.
Once again now: What-we-are-not is only a concept, and this concept is seeking what-we-are. The conditioning—the misunderstanding — can only be got rid of by a proper understanding of what-we-are and what-we-are-not. It will then be clear that the 'bondage', and the 'individual' who suffers thereby, are both mere concepts, and that what-we-are, the noumenon, can manifest itself only as total phenomena. You will find peace — or, rather, peace will find itself — when there is apperception that what we are searching for cannot be found for the very simple reason that thatwhich is searching and that which is sought are not different!
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