Whenever there is a sense of individuality, personality, or a separateness, you have so many wants. You want to see a movie, you want to hear music, you want to play, you want to have sex, you want to eat fancy foods, you want to consume intoxicant, but when that sense of separateness is not there, when you are one with the totality, these things are not desired. And spirituality or what you call "religion" is mainly to understand this: that you don't require anything, you are a part of the totality, or reality. When you grasp that, you don't have any of these needs. But so long as you are separate from things, you need everything.
To exist as a separate individual constitutes the entire problem. And all these things, the various sense caterings, all reading, search for knowledge, for pleasure, everything is related to that. Once all that subsides, there is no more problem. Then the bliss you experience is true bliss. The foregoing, however, is not a ban on activities. Do whatever you want, but never forget the reality, never forget what you really are. You are not the body, you are not the food, you are not this vital air (prana). Whatever has appeared is a state, and as such it has to go.
M.: Yes, when you are in consciousness, you understand the nature of consciousness and you recede. Your progress continues. This consciousness is slowly extinguishing itself; knowingly it is disappearing. But nothing affects You, because that is the Absolute. Just like when the flame is gone, the smoke is gone, the sky remains.
V.: Beautifully said!
M.: That is the Brahman of death, the moment of death. Watching occurs, the vital breath is leaving the body, "I-am-ness" is receding, vanishing. That is the greatest moment, the moment of immortality.
The body, the flame, that "I-am-ness," is there; its movements are there, and I observe. And it is extinguished. The vital breath deserts the body, that flame is not there. You observe that. That observation occurs to You. The ignorant one at the moment of death is in great fright; he is struggling. But not the jnani; for him it is the happiest moment, the most blissful one.
From "Ultimate Medicine" by Robert Powell
Maharaj: That knowledge which experienced itself as Krishna, Buddha or Christ has subsided, it has become one with the Whole.* So if you abuse Christ, if you abuse Mohammed, if you abuse anyone, he does not come and ask you: "Why are you abusing me?," because that knowledge, that experience, has mixed with the totality. Similarly, now, you may be a very great person, you might be a dictator of the world, but when you go to sleep you forget what you were -- your name, your body, your age, your sex, your nationality, everything. This sense of a separate identity is very limited and not the truth; in fact, it is totally false. So if that is the situation with Christ, what is the case with you?
Or you may be a humble, virtuous person. Whenever you go to sleep, you forget sin, virtue; you forget yourself. What is the basic fact? It is that you forgot yourself as an individual, which gives you deep rest.
When you go to sleep, you might have had sex with a hundred women or a hundred men. At that time you were enjoying it. But when you sleep, when you take rest, that sensory experience is not there. So then you don't have an identity, no weight at that place. Don't say you are so and so, you are an individual, you are a man or a woman. Just stay put; from there you can move ahead. That is the truth, that is the fact; from there you can go to reality. And then whatever is manifested, will arise and subside. It is like sunrise and sunset, waxing and waning. That desultory manifestation you cannot be; it cannot be the real You.**
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Most of you are not going to understand what is being said here, because you are taking yourself to be the body. Whatever knowledge I am conveying is not directed to the body -- with you as bodily entities, as different persons.
So long as you are firmly convinced that you are the body, whatever I am telling you is not going to be of any use to you. Because whatever knowledge we take, we take it as body-mind, since it adds to our existing store of information. We then feel we have become more knowledgeable. For example, tomorrow some astrologer or palmist may want to come and tell me: I would like to tell your future. How can he tell my future, when I am not there at all? You would be happy when told, O.K., you will be President of the United States. But with me that is not the case.
In various books, they have written about God. Has anyone said what God looks like, what he is really like? Has he got a shape, certain qualities? A God with attributes is still time-bound. Once time comes to an end, even his knowledge of being God vanishes. Just like a beggar dressed as a king, he may feel as a king so long as he wears king's clothes. Once he throws away the clothes, he knows he is a beggar.
When we talk about God, we are referring to attributes -- loving, omnipresent, omniscient, and so on... yet all that is still time-bound. Once that experience goes, what is there left? Well, anything that has got attributes cannot be lasting. This is very clear to me. So what then can I ask for myself?
Whatever behaviour exists in this world, it is because of attributes, tendencies. For example, a person goes through four marriages and divorces in a month. Now that behaviour stems from tendencies, qualities. But that which witnesses this behaviour is beyond attributes. When that witness itself, which is "I am," subsides, what remains? With the witness gone, all other things have disappeared, too. By the same token, upon the arising of the "I am," the whole of manifestation takes place; these two are not separate, they are one. "I am" is the witness; the entire manifest world is there because of this.
That which is doing all this are the tendencies or attributes, or maya. Just like the sun and its rays: if the sun is not there, the rays are absent. Similarly, if the witness is not there, the manifestation or maya is not present. When "I am" arises, everything appears; when "I am" subsides, everything subsides. Now this is what I am trying to tell you, but you want something else. You want something about your future, something which is part of manifestation, but I am trying to hit at it.
You have been seeing me right from 5:30 in the morning -- working, talking and doing all that. But nowhere am I aware of myself as a jnani, as something different. On the other hand, I have not forgotten the child of many years ago. Now eighty-two years back, I had the childish knowledge, the incomplete knowledge, which was born from the ignorance that I was born. Until the age of three, I did not know anything. After that age, I was struck by my mother with what is a word, you know, concepts, and out of those concepts everything else came. Now this maya is that which started eighty-two years ago; it is singing. Maya comes up, subsides again; it goes in cycles, waxing and waning. Now after some time, this childish knowledge, incomplete knowledge, whose base is ignorance... that experience which started eighty-two years ago -- let us not call it an identity -- will also pass away, wither away.
This "I am" is an announcement; it is not the real. It has come out of something else. What the real is, I am not telling you, because words negate that. Whatever I am telling you, is not the truth, because it has come out of that "I am." The fact is, I cannot describe reality to you, I cannot explain it, because it is beyond expression. So from that, everything flows; but every time I say something, I am aware that it is to be negated, "not this, not this" (neti-neti)... that is my experience. And further, I have not seen God, have not seen anything else. But about my own experience, I am very sure, and that is what I am telling you about; I am not quoting anyone.
Because that food-body is there, and that slice of bread, the "I-am-ness" appears. Since this is dependent on the body, it is ignorance; therefore, this "I-am-ness" knowledge cannot remain permanently, it is a function of this food-body. So long as the food-body is present, this "I-am-ness" will remain. Thereafter, it will go.
As was said before, the same child knowledge, that "I-am-ness," still persists. The "I-am-ness" vista appeared in the child body, as it is here today. But because of maya, continuous changes take place; the situation has changed but "I-am-ness" still continues. For how long? For so long as the food-body is viable. When the food-body is dropped by the vital breath, the "I-am-ness" will set. So "I-am-ness" is not permanent either; the consciousness is not permanent.
Our prime minister has some firm ideas about himself and whatever concepts he entertains. He does not want to change them -- ideas of God, etc. We human beings have so many pet notions, preconceived ideas. Whenever we listen to somebody whose idea tallies with ours, we agree. Otherwise, we reject. Similarly, those jnanis who state they are established in the Absolute are actually in Beingness. They are known as sages. They like certain ideas, certain concepts, and they want to propagate those. But they propagate only "idea," and an idea is not the truth. Truth is the state beyond concepts.
You take the seed of the banyan tree. It is very small, smaller than the mustard seed. The seed is very subtle, but all the gross matter is already inside it. Do you see the paradox? Similarly, your essential being is the subtlest, yet it contains the whole universe. Another point is, what do you mean by seed? Bija means "second creation" and thus signifies that the past is being repeated. It was a tree; the tree got concentrated in the seed; and the seed re-creates the past history it contains.
Visitor: The "I am" is in the seed. At this point, when one is aware of the "I am," the seed, to become the Absolute...
M.: You are itself the seed, you are "I-am-ness." You don't grossify it even by words. The inner core, the self, what is inside? All this [presumably: the entire manifestation, Editor] is inside that seed!
V.: Maharaj also said that the inner core is light.
M.: No, light here is meant only symbolically. It is not light like this... Self-luminous.
Everything is truth, the Absolute. This Brahman is created out of your Beingness. All this Brahman is illusion, born out of ignorance, for your Beingness, from the Absolute standpoint, is ignorance only. Again, out of ignorance, this Beingness develops everything, the entire manifestation. On the Absolute, Beingness appears and out of that comes illusion, and the illusion occupies the truth.
V.: So what is our way of reversing this process?
M.: Recede, recede. The lion wherever he goes, looks back. Like that, look back, go to the source, the seed.
When you pursue the spiritual path, the path of self-knowing, all your desires, all your attachments, will just drop away, provided you investigate and hold on to that with which you are trying to understand the self. Then what happens? Your "I-am-ness" is the state "to be." You are "to be" and attached to that state. You love to be. Now, as I said, in this inquiry your desires drop off. And what is the primary desire? To be. When you stay put in that Beingness for some time, that desire also will drop off. This is very important. When this is dropped off, you are in the Absolute -- a most essential state.
V.: That is the exact feeling that came over us today. There is a certain sadness in realizing that and yet a greater understanding of the Absolute.
M.: Sadness, because that "I-am-ness" was sad. [laughter]
V.: You know that there is Being, and you are going towards non-Being. And there are all the things of Being and you know that they are really nothing. But it was fun; it was a great illusion while it lasted.
M.: Your true state, stay put in that. It is ever there, in its pure state, undisturbed. Only that consciousness, "I-am-ness," is consciously receding from the Absolute. That "you"... you are present only; there is not the slightest movement from you. It is winding up the show.
V.: Would you say that a little more clearly?
M.: Yes, when you are in consciousness, you understand the nature of consciousness and you recede. Your progress continues. This consciousness is slowly extinguishing itself; knowingly it is disappearing. But nothing affects You, because that is the Absolute. Just like when the flame is gone, the smoke is gone, the sky remains.
V.: Beautifully said!
M.: That is the Brahman of death, the moment of death. Watching occurs, the vital breath is leaving the body, "I-am-ness" is receding, vanishing. That is the greatest moment, the moment of immortality.
The body, the flame, that "I-am-ness," is there; its movements are there, and I observe. And it is extinguished. The vital breath deserts the body, that flame is not there. You observe that. That observation occurs to You. The ignorant one at the moment of death is in great fright; he is struggling. But not the jnani; for him it is the happiest moment, the most blissful one.
But the fact is that you are going all over the place... to saints and ashrams and all that, collecting knowledge in your capacity of being an "individual." Don't do that. Go beyond. This amassing of knowledge is not going to help you, because it is in a dream. This dream will repeat itself, as a human body, as so many other bodies, as an animal or as God, anything. That is not the point. Try to understand what is being said here. That only is the solution and will lead you somewhere.
What is the relationship between me and you? I don't care whether or not you come here and listen. If you find it, you take it; if you don't want it, go away. The space in this room is neither against nor for, nor in love with, the space in that other room. It is one. Similarly, I am not bothered.
The knowledge I am giving out is like a stream, like a flowing river. If you want to utilize it, take the water, drink it, assimilate it. Let it flow by itself. I am not charging you anything. You are spending a lot of money every day. Come on, you keep the money and take my water.
Similarly, while talking about it I take you to the source of the spring. There, water is coming out in a trickle now. This trickle subsequently becomes a river, an estuary, and finally the sea. I take you to the source again and again.
Once you arrive at the source, you come to know that actually there is no water. The water is purely the taste, the news that "I am."
This body-mind is created out of mischief. So whenever I say, don't ask from the body-mind consciousness and you comply with that, it means you are out of mischief; you will not ask any more mischievous questions.
After listening to these words and understanding their meaning, stay convinced that you are That, you are the totality. Then, out of that, tremendous blessings will come your way.
You become a mahayu(k)* ; that is, you merge into yourself, union with yourself. There is only one principle; the principle is that "you are." Because you are, everything is. Hold it firmly to yourself.
What is your aim? Do you really want what I am talking about? You have heard what has been said. Now live accordingly, and remain with it.
You are indulging in worldly activity continually. Now before you go to sleep, forget about all that and start reflecting on reality. Because we can all break away from society. And the next thing is: don't run from door to door. I am of the opinion that most of you are doing that, just amassing knowledge; there is no point in that. Take one sentence of what has been said here, and stay with it. That is enough; that will lead you to your source.
My word, as knowledge, if planted in you, will remove all other words, all concepts. So for this purpose, I will tell you a story. One person takes another person to an hotel, makes him eat something. Afterwards he tells him, in six months you are going to die, because I have put some poison in the food. So that fellow gets frightened. He leaves him and meets another friend of his and tells him what has just happened. This man says, don't worry. You see this glass; it is filled with urine. Come on, you drink this. If you do, you will survive, there will be no death for you. So that man drinks it. What happens? He didn't die. So with the first concept, "I am duly poisoned," he is full of fright and convinced that he is going to die after six months. Later this second man gives him another concept, that he is not going to die, and he survives, he goes beyond death.
One of the attributes of life, of the vital air, is getting concepts, ideas, creation, over and over again. Who understands this? A person who has searched for himself. Only when you do that, you become aware of all this.
The source of all happiness is your Beingness. Establish yourself there, be there. But if you get yourself involved in the flow, then you will come to misery. You understand what is the flow? All that maya, the activities. You try to derive pleasure from the activities; this is a product of the illness. Whatever I have told you, reminisce on it, chew it, be still. Because it will lead you to stillness that way.
It will be clear to you that just as with the five fingers of the hand, this body of yours is made of the five elements. Because of the five elements, the body is there. Your Beingness, the consciousness, is the essence of what is to appear as the result of the vital breath which is circulating in the body. And when that consciousness disappears, or the vital breath deserts the body, everything disappears. This should be very clear to you. Just as this spark comes about because of this chemical ingredient [referring to his cigarette lighter], everything is present only because this food is there. So you understand that your "I-am-ness" or consciousness is there because of this food body, and because the vital breath is there. And you will be able to watch all these elements: your body, the vital force, and your Beingness. When you are in a position to watch all that, you get established in reality.
One can get rid of habits only with considerable difficulty. Once the habits are formed, it takes quite some time to get out of them. Similarly, although you have got this knowledge now, what it gives you you don't know yet. Because you have been associated with the body-mind for such a long period, to get rid of that will take some time. But for you to become established in the knowledge, reflecting and meditating on it is very essential. For that it is necessary to quit one habit you are normally given to and substitute another habit. Now what is this substitute habit? It is to think constantly that you are not the body.
For example, if you engage yourself in a quarrel with somebody, observe and understand clearly that there is a quarrel started by your mind, but you are only its witness. If you don't participate, whether there is a quarrel or not is no longer a concern. All the worldly activities happen through the mind. If you think "I am the body-mind," then you are doomed.
When you are absolutely one with Brahman, you don't resort to mind. So there is no sound or you cannot talk. You stay put or quiet. To talk, you have to take advantage of this instrument, the mind. So you need to get a little detached from Brahman; then only the talk can come out.
