Nisargadatta The Philosophy part one

Introduction

The Indian Jnani, Sri Nisargadatta, taught his audience mainly through the traditional inspirational method of question-and-answer. At the regular meetings, held in his home in Bombay, disciples, followers, and spiritual tourists would ask Nisargadatta variously deep, interesting, or trivial questions, and the teacher would give an astonishing profound reply. The replies were usually short, and often relative to the level, and individual problems, of the questioner. Sometimes the answers seemed quite to disregard the narrow objective of the questioner and instead gave insight into the nature of existence beyond the anticipation of any person present in the room. Rarely Nisargadatta discoursed on a subject for more than two or three sentences before passing on to some other related, or unrelated, subject. Perhaps there would be a return to the same subject some days, months or years later, when more would be revealed. Every time he spoke, Nisargadatta invariably said something new, so accumulatively adding to his unique exposition of the ancient Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Over the years the subject matter under discussion therefore gradually expanded towards wholeness. In the latter part of his life, many of Nisargadatta’s talks were recorded, edited transcriptions published, both in his native Marathi as well as translation into English and other languages. Such transcriptions are the basis of this collection-study.

For those who delight in listening to, and attempt to understand, Nisargadatta’s philosophy, the principal difficulty for the intellect is to gather together, harmonize, unite, and remember the fragments of subject matter scattered through so many pages of transliterated talks. Taking a sentence here or there as the definitive utterance on a particular subject is likely to lead to a limited understanding of Advaita by the reader. In the interest of a possible deeper understanding of Nisargadatta’s Advaita philosophy, it is considered worthwhile to gather together under some 100 principle concepts, the most significant statements Nisargadatta made. This has resulted in a severe selection and distillation of the extant Nisargadatta literature, and more than 2500 pages of texts have been reduced to some 200. This selection is individual, and inevitably another reader would have had a different, personal, preference. The resultant study is offered to all who find it useful, interesting, or entertaining. Anyone who wishes to improve this distillation of Nisargadatta can feel free to do so. It is conceded that Nisargadatta is contemptuous of concepts, therefore truly beware, because this book contains only concepts. Many talk about Nisargadatta’s teaching, nobody puts it into practice.

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A list of Nisargadatta talks that have appeared in English:

I Am That:  translation by Maurice Frydman/ Sudhakar Dikshit  Acorn Press 1973
Seeds of Consciousness:  editor Jean Dunn  Acorn Press 1982
Prior to Consciousness:  editor Jean Dunn  Acorn Press 1985
Consciousness and the Absolute:  editor Jean Dunn     Acorn Press 1994
The Ultimate Medicine:  editor Robert Powell  Blue Dove Press/Motilal Banarsidass 1996
The Nectar of Immortality:   editor Robert Powell  Blue Dove Press 1996
The Experience of Nothingness:  editor Robert Powell  Blue Dove Press 1996
Self Knowledge and Self Realization: ed. Jean Dunn 1963/Awake-Now org 2005                   I Am Unborn:  by Vijayendra Deshpande ed. Pradeep Apte  theeternalstate.org 2008 Beyond Freedom:  editor Maria Jory  Yogi Impressions Books  2007
The Last Days of Nisargadatta Maharaj: S K Mullarpattan  Yogi Impressions Books 2006
Nothing is Everything: translation by Mohan Gaitonde  Zen Publications 2014  Meditations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Dinkar Kshirsagar Yogi Impressions 2014

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Note:

Where Nisargadatta discusses two or more Advaita concepts simultaneously the quotation is placed under the classification considered the most significant. As the published talks of Nisargadatta represent only a fraction of his verbal output, this study is limited. Some criticism has been directed at Nisargadatta’s translators for inaccuracies, therefore the serious student of Nisargadatta may be well advised to study Marathi and make his own translations.

Acknowledgement: 
The compiler places this contributory effort towards the study of Nisargadatta’s Philosophy freely and openly before any interested student of Nisargadatta purely for the benevolent purpose of serious discussion. Copyright owners are most respectfully acknowledged, and readers are encouraged to consult the original full texts.

This book is a gift.

5. Mind

The mind with its five organs of perception, five organs of action, and five vehicles of consciousness appears as thought, reason, memory and selfhood [manas, buddhi, citta, ahamkara].

The mind is only an accumulation of the thoughts that are present in the manifestation. The mind depends on all your memories and whatever you have heard in this world.

The mind is like a river, flowing ceaselessly in the bed of the body… you identify yourself for a moment with some particular ripple and call it: ‘my thought’. Our minds are just waves on the ocean of consciousness. As waves they come and go. As ocean they are infinite and eternal. Know yourself as the ocean of being.

The mind is the flow force, continuously flowing, words continuously welling up. You are not the mind. Do not get involved with the thought process, or the flow of words, or the flow of mind. When you are in a position to observe the mind, you are other than the mind.

The vital breath, prana, is the cause of the mind flow.

The nature of the mind is to think. It cannot stop. In fact it is due to prana. You say that mind is due to the result of impressions. However, in reality, it is the flow of prana. Language, words, is created through prana. Prana is movement, it is the vital force. Mind is the flow of language… it must not be accepted. Awakening of Kundalini through the six centres is the action of prana. Amongst all these… who are you? Is there anything which can be claimed as belonging to you?

The things of the mind flow out of the vital breath, but you do not have to accept them. Usually the moment an impression is received by an ignorant person, he puts it to the credit of his account.

Mind is only the out-flowing in words of the life principle, the prana. Mind is limited to the conditioning to which it has been exposed, and cannot go beyond the specific moulding it has undergone in the individual. Therefore the working of the mind will differ from individual case to case.

Mind is another name for the vital breath. There is air in the atmosphere and there is breathing in and out. Due to this the vital breath functions. This results in the flow of thoughts, which we call as mind. The ignorant functions as per the flow of thoughts. For the jnani, the mind is there but very feeble and distant. Just as you are not disturbed by some minor event in Russia, no thoughts affect a jnani. The mind’s intimation is accepted for matters like going to the toilet, etc. A jnani’s mind has no say. It serves only as an indicator, and not a dictator.

As long as you have not understood and recognize the vital breath, prana-shakti, then whatever the mind tells you, you are bound to take as certain. Those concepts which the mind gives you will be final for you. The mind throws out words and thoughts, and through these we have mistaken our identity as ‘me’ or ‘mine’. But really whatever takes place is independent of the one who witnesses, and merely takes place through the action of the life force. The one who understands this vital breath, the life force, is beyond all mental concepts. The one who has not understood it is a slave to his thoughts.

You do not have a personality, it is all in the mind. It is not the mind, but it is the vital breath that makes you feel you are a separate entity. Vital force gives rise to the thoughts, otherwise there is no mind. The vital breath gives rise to the thoughts in the world and you are only watching it.

Change is only in the mind-flow.

The mind craves for formulations and definitions, always eager to squeeze reality into a verbal shape. Of everything it wants an idea, for without ideas the mind is not. Reality is essentially alone, but the mind will not leave it alone… and deals instead with the unreal. And yet all the mind can do is to discover the unreal as unreal.

Mind is the collection of impressions which have been recorded in it since conception.

In the mirror of your mind all kinds of pictures appear and disappear. Knowing that they are entirely your own creations, watch them silently come and go, be alert but not perturbed. This attitude of silent observation is the very foundation of Yoga. You see the picture but you are not the picture.

The mind can only work with some name or form or image. If you give this up, the mind will be helpless.

All states and conditions are of the mind.

A question is a state of mind. No state of mind can be more real than the mind itself. Is the mind real? It is but a collection of states, each of them transitory. How can a succession of transitory states be considered real? An idea: ‘I am the body’ is a mental state and does not last. It comes and goes like all other states. The illusion of being the body-mind is there only because it is not investigated. Non-investigation is the thread on which all the states of mind are strung. It is like darkness in a closed room, apparently there. But when the room is opened, where does it go? It goes nowhere, because it was not there. All states of mind, all names, and forms of existence are rooted in non-enquiry, non-investigation, in imagination, in credulity. It is right to say ‘I am’, but to say ‘I am this’, ‘I am that’, is a sign of not enquiring, of mental weakness, or lethargy.

The mind is but a set of mental habits, of ways of thinking and feeling, and to change they must be brought to the surface and examined. This takes time.

Good and bad are in the realm of the mind only.

Nature is in the mind; without the mind where is nature?

All space and time are in the mind. Where will you locate a supramental world? There are many levels of the mind, and each projects its own version, yet all are in the mind and created by the mind.

The mind is changing all the time. Look at your mind dispassionately… this is enough to calm it. When it is quiet you can go beyond it. Do not keep it busy all the time. Stop it… and just be. If you give it rest, it will settle down and recover its purity and strength. Constant thinking makes it decay.

The mind plays a guessing game; it is ever uncertain, anxious ridden, and restless.

The mind has its limits. Understand that the mind has its limits. To go beyond, you must consent to silence. Stand still, be quiet.

It is the mind that is dull or restless, not you. It is desires and fears that make the mind restless. Free from all negative emotions it is quiet.

It is not your real being that is restless, but its reflection in the mind appears restless because the mind is restless. It is just like the reflection of the moon in the water stirred by the wind. The wind of desire stirs the mind, and the ‘me’, which is but a reflection of the Self in the mind, appears changeful. But these ideas of movement, of restlessness, of pleasure and pain, are all in the mind. The Self stands beyond the mind, aware, but unconcerned. You are the Self, here and now. Leave the mind alone.

The mischievous intellect will never give you any satisfaction. The riddle of spirituality cannot be solved by your intellect. At the most, your intellect can provide you with livelihood. What you are is beyond the grasp of the intellect.

The mind can never say anything new or original. It can only repeat what it has learned. You have put the noose of the mind around your neck. Do not do that.

Employ your mind to the extent that it is useful for your normal daily chores, not beyond that. 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?

Questioning the habitual is the duty of the mind.

The mind, which interprets happiness and unhappiness, is meant for conducting affairs in the world. At the mind level, any individual who understands himself through certain concepts accordingly undergoes pleasure and pain. But in actuality this is not so. What is the mind? It is just noise that goes on inside.

Whatever is done through the mind becomes untrue. The concept that the mind takes care of our affairs is wrong. You worry whether you can function without a mind. The mind has great importance because you have not gone beyond it. The mind must be controlled with right discrimination. The knower of the mind is called discrimination. When you become the knower of the mind through discrimination, you will understand this… where there is a mind, there is a lot of misery and occasionally a little pleasure. A little sorrow can last a lifetime. When you recognize that you are not even the vital force in the body, prana, you will be deathless.

Intellect is the play of the concept ‘I am’. Did we come first, or did the mind come first? Whatever there is, is because of the root word ‘I’. What can that state prior to words be called as?

The supreme gives existence to the mind. The mind gives existence to the body. The birth of mind can be called the birth of God, or the birth of Brahman, the birth of the manifest. The influence of Brahman… the creation… is very tortuous. Only the Sat-guru can remove it.

Mind is a kind of fever that has come upon you unknowingly. You carry out all your actions to put up with the mind. Whatever you do brings on suffering. When the body-form comes into existence, ‘I amness’ is sensed. Mind is created out of that feeling of beingness. There is rest in deep sleep but, after waking up, you run around doing things that you expect to do you good. Why so? It is an attempt to put up with the fever called mind. There are several names given to the mind… Brahman, prana, etc. Before mind came into existence, what was one like? One was perfect Parabrahman… beyond concept, beyond existence, beyond the three gunas. Until such time that the mind was sensed, there was no need for anything. There was no knowledge of ‘I am’, or ‘I am not’. When you understand that the worship of Brahman is a joke, fever in the form of the mind will vanish.

Concept and mind are beams of light from the Contemplator. Whatever comes on the screen of contemplation will surely disappear. The Contemplator remains.

The individual trapped in the mind-shell is different from that one who is the knowledge ‘I Am’… the consciousness.

Intellect is the expression of consciousness. The mind understands because of the consciousness. The mind interprets whatever the concept is, the base is consciousness on which the concept arises at the moment. You make use of your intellect for your sustenance. For the knower of the intellect, sustenance happens spontaneously.

What is going on is a projection of your mind. The mental modifications take you away from the Self. Nobody enquires about the Self deeply and thoroughly, everybody enquires on a superficial level. You have become a disciple of the mind. Mind is designing you. Mind does not know its source.

The mind must come to know the true self and respect it and cease covering it up. The mind covers up reality, without knowing it. To know the nature of the mind, you need intelligence, the capacity to look at the mind in silent and dispassionate awareness.

The intellect created by Maya is selfish, but there is no selfishness in God.

This is the story of the mind: Where there is no mind, there are no needs. So long as you think that you are the doer, the mind will not spare you.

All this is in the mind only. As I see it, there is nothing of the kind. In the great mirror of consciousness images arise and disappear and only memory gives them continuity. And memory is material… destructible, perishable, transient. On such flimsy foundations we build a sense of personal existence… vague, intermittent, dreamlike. This vague persuasion: ‘I-am-so-and-so’ obscures the changeless state of pure awareness, and makes us believe that we are born to suffer and to die.

The mirror of the mind can do nothing to attract the supreme, the sun. It can only keep bright. As soon as the mind is ready the sun shines in it. The light is uncaused, and unvarying by itself, but coloured by the mind, as the mind moves and changes. It is very much like a cinema. The light is not in the film, but the film colours the light and makes it appear to move by intercepting it.

It is the mind that creates illusion, and it is the mind that gets free of it.

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.

How can an unsteady mind make itself steady? It cannot. It is the nature of the mind to roam about. All you can do is to shift the focus of consciousness beyond the mind. Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought ‘I Am’. The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with perseverance it will yield and keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things begin to happen spontaneously, and naturally, without any interference on your part.

When the mind is quiet it reflects reality. When it is motionless through and through, it dissolves, and only reality remains. This reality is so concrete, so actual, so much more tangible than mind and matter. This overwhelming actuality makes the world dreamlike, misty, irrelevant.

When the mind is in its natural state, it reverts to silence spontaneously after every experience, or rather, every experience happens against the background of silence. The mind must learn that beyond the moving mind there is the background of awareness, which does not change.

Mind is a universal dynamic principle but we restrict it to the limits of the body. It is like the water in a large lake that belongs to the whole city and we try to claim some of it as our own. The water is universal, use it when you possess it. Similarly use the mind to meet your needs and then let it flow by itself without your interference and involvement.

Witness the play of the mind. Understand the quality of the mind. Know that you are not the mind.

Disown whatever you get from the mind. Mind flows continuously. Just innocently, dispassionately, observe the mind flow. With the mind you will never understand. You are not the mind. Problems are not yours… they are your mind’s only. Begin by disassociating yourself from your mind. Resolutely remind yourself that you are not the mind and that its problems are not yours.

The life force and the mind are operating, but the mind will tempt you to believe that ‘you’ are the one who is acting. Do not believe the mind. Always understand that you are the timeless, spaceless witness. Always keep your identity separate from that which is doing the working, thinking, talking. The apparatus is functioning, but you are not that apparatus.

The knower of the mind is unaffected by it. One gets involved with the mind due to one’s body identity, due to one’s identification with the body. I am neither the body nor the sense of presence. I have nothing to do with the continuation of, or the exit from, this sense of presence, consciousness. Breathing is happening continuously. The breath comes in and goes out of the body, in spite of you. If you are not the breath, or the vital breath, how can you be the mind? Because you can see your mind, you are separate from it.

The mind must know itself in every mood. Nothing is a mistake unless repeated. Anger is related to mind. Are you the mind? What are you? Who watches the flow of thoughts? There is no question of identifying with the mind. Even if you identify with consciousness, that also is going to vanish. You have no need of consciousness. Without any need of consciousness, you have to suffer because of your consciousness.

The more we seek Self-knowledge, the purer the mind will be. One should keep the mind busy with the meditation mantra. Who tells the mind what to do? It is the Self. Slowly you will realize that you have no form, no shape. Only then the mind will come under control.

The mind is difficult to control. Therefore do not give attention to the mind. Give attention to your true nature.

What prevents you from knowing yourself as all and beyond all, is the mind based on memory. It has power over you as long as you trust it. Do not struggle with it, just disregard it. Deprived of attention, it will slow down and reveal the mechanism of its working. Once you know its nature and purpose, you will not allow it to create imaginary problems. What problems can there be which the mind did not create? It is memory and anticipation that create problems of attainment or avoidance, coloured by like and dislike. The knowingness recognizes the mind, the mind cannot recognize consciousness.

The mind will not go away. Just keep on observing what you are. Do not consult the mind. The mind continues… let it be. You have to convince yourself that you are not the mind. You may say you flow along with the mind, but have you ever seen consciousness flowing?

It is possible to be free of thoughts… only for a duration. As long as there is consciousness and breathing, thoughts will arise. You call it mind. You are disturbed by thoughts. The question is: Who controls whom? You control your mind, or your mind controls you? Your mind is like an elephant which takes you for a ride. In the case of a jnani, the mind is like a fly taking a ride on the elephant.

O mind, what are you searching? Inside and outside it is one only. It is the concept that makes you feel inside and outside. Getting rid of the concept it is ‘I’ only prevailing everywhere.

The realization of unity is beyond mind.

You are beyond the mind, but you know with your mind. The extent, depth, and character of knowledge depend on what instrument you use. Improve your instrument and your knowledge will improve. A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once the mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness effect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part.

You can do nothing to bring reality about, but you can avoid creating obstacles. Watch your mind. Reality is definitely beyond the mind, but all that you can do is to know your mind well. Not that the mind will help you, but by knowing your mind you may avoid your mind disabling you. You have to be alert, or else your mind will play false with you. It is like watching a thief, not that you expect anything from a thief, but you do not want to be robbed. In the same way you give a lot of attention to the mind without expecting anything from it.

The mind refuses to believe that it is a nonentity.

It is the mind that tells you that the mind is there. Do not be deceived. All the endless arguments about the mind are produced by the mind itself, for its own protection, continuation, and expansion. It is the blank refusal to consider the convolutions and convulsions of the mind that take you beyond it. Abandon all thoughts, not only of the world, but of yourself also. Stay beyond all thoughts, in silent being-awareness.

To the realized one, the mind-flow is like the release of obnoxious gases from below.

With the body, when one knows ‘I am’ it is called knowingness. This information-knowledge is called the mind, intellect, beingness, intuition, etc. There is no truth in it. When the meaning of this is grasped, the mind disappears.

When the mind connection is severed, you will see the void. To purify the mind one must remember the meditation mantra all through the waking hours. Then your mind will come under your control. When you pay attention to your true nature the mind will disappear, bringing in the whole. The mind surrenders to you if your incantation of the mantra is continuous. It tells you what you need to know.

The mind by its very nature divides and opposes. There is another mind which unites and harmonizes, which sees the whole in the part, and the part as totally related to the whole. In going beyond the limiting, dividing and opposing mind, the end of the mental process as we know it occurs. When this comes to an end that other mind is born. That other mind is love seeking expression and meeting with obstacles. The inclusive mind is love in action, battling against circumstances, initially frustrated, ultimately victorious.

At old age the intellect disappears, but there is a witness to this disappearance.

By looking tirelessly, I became quite empty and with that emptiness all came back to me except the mind. I find I have lost the mind irretrievably.

The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom.

Abide in the state where there is no mind.

6. Beyond the Mind

As long as you have not become quiet, there is no experience of the mindless state. You have become attached to the known and, hence, you do not notice the knower. He is beyond consciousness. When you realize consciousness, you will know that you are beyond it. Mind is Maya, and mind is thoughts.

All change affects the mind only. To be what you are, you must go beyond the mind, into your own being. It is immaterial what is the mind that you leave behind, provided you leave it behind for good. This is not possible without self-realization.

The root of the mind is prana. The source of beingness is also prana. How can you go beyond the mind? You believe yourself to be the body, therefore you wish to go here and there. The Absolute is prior to everything. Consciousness is within the Absolute and everything is contained in consciousness. It is a big mistake to think that one has to go beyond something.

I am conscious and unconscious, both conscious and unconscious, neither conscious nor unconscious… to all this I am witness. But really there is no witness, because there is nothing to be a witness to. I am perfectly empty of all mental formations, void of mind, yet fully aware. This I try to express by saying that I am beyond the mind.

The mind cannot go beyond itself by itself. It must explode. The explosive power comes from the real. You are well advised to have your mind ready for it. Your dwelling on the fact of ‘I Am’ creates the chance.

You are never alone. There are powers and presences who serve you all the time most faithfully. You may or may not perceive them, nevertheless they are real and active. When you realize that all is in your mind, and that you are beyond the mind, that you are truly alone, then all is you.

7. Identity

There is only one mistake you are making: you take the inner for the outer, and the outer for the inner. What is in you, you take to be outside you, and what is outside, you take to be in you. The mind and the feelings are external, but you take them to be intimate. You believe the world to be objective, while it is entirely a projection of your psyche. That is the basic confusion.

Self-identification with the outer causes suffering. The cause of suffering is self-identification with the limited. Whatever is seen and perceived, that you are not. Whatever you see inside and outside you, that you are not. Your present identity is of the nature of food. How long will it be with you?

You identify with, and take pride in, your body-mind. Accept this identification only: that you are this manifest pure beingness, the very soul of the universe, of this life that you observe, and presently you are just wearing this bodily attire.

Your main obstacle is your body identity. Not even the slightest of it is permissible. One who dwells on one’s identity without the body, makes progress.

Are you aware of the body in deep sleep? Identification with the body arises after waking.

You know yourself only through the senses and the mind. You take yourself to be whatever they suggest, having no direct knowledge of yourself, you have mere ideas, all mediocre, second-hand, by hearsay. Whatever you think you are, you take it to be true; the habit of imagining yourself perceivable and describable is very strong with you. Man takes his name and shape to be himself, while I take nothing to be myself. Your mind projects a structure and you identify yourself with it.

Self-identification happens because the self, by its nature, knows itself only. For lack of experience whatever it perceives it takes to be itself. Everyone assumes a certain image of himself: I am so and so. The image is taken by his concept about himself. It is necessary to see this, to understand this source of one’s actions, and become free of it by seeing it as false.

Your image of yourself is the concept which is most dear to you. The Self cannot have an image. We perceive things but we must understand that we are that principle which makes perception possible. Normally an individual identifies himself with whatever he sees or perceives.

When you are aware ‘I am the seer, I am the knower’, that simply is, and It has no shape. That knowledge is formless. When you embrace the form the problems arise.

You are not what you think yourself to be. Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your changeable self-image is at the mercy of any passer-by. A loss, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not, by watching yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not go with the basic fact and sense: ‘I Am’. Our usual attitude is of ‘I am this’. Separate consistently and perseveringly the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’, and try to feel what it means to be, just to be, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’. All our habits go against it and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes. Understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only. When you come to the end of your search you will realize your limitless being.

What you believe as ‘yourself’ is not your true companion… it never was and never will be. Whatever identity you try to create for yourself in order to be happy is going to be left behind.

Is not living in a form painful? Life is full of trouble. The experience of the Universal Consciousness is full of trouble. Except that, there is no question of profit or loss there. The pain is due to the wrong identity, due to ignorance. One is punished for considering oneself as that which one is not. Under these circumstances, should the guru impart knowledge?

The mind is expressing itself with various concepts. Do not identify with that, let it go. You can forestall the mind by asking questions. Observe the mind, be a witness to the mind flow.

Is there identity without memory? Identity is continuity in memory. Memory is the warp of your mental life, and identity is merely a pattern of events in time and space. Change the pattern and you have changed the man.

Individuality, personality and separateness are associated with desires. When there is no sense of separateness there is no desire, only one with the totality. You are the totality.

There is no identity that is exclusively yours. Every identity will disappear. During your life you have held different entities for yourself. After birth you perceived that you were a child, then a teenager, an adult, middle-aged, and old. None of these identities has remained with you. Whatever you hold onto as ‘myself’ will disappear. What we think ourselves to be, that goes on changing with time. From an infant, to a child, to a boy, to a young man, to a middle-aged man, to a very old man… our identity changes with time. No identity is steady and our knowledge about ourselves is valid only for that moment. Hence, what we think we are at any time, has no value. It is all meaningless. The identities are not ours, but they are the states of food material, which contain somebody’s sense of being. When ‘I Amness’ goes, people call it death.

Our form and identity is changing every moment. From childhood to old age, so many stages come and pass by. This old body is going to drop away. It is not necessary to worry about that which is changing all the time. Because you yourself are changing all the time, all that you learn or possess will not remain with you.

As old age comes, childhood and youth go away automatically. It is not necessary to renounce them with purpose. Similarly, your ego should naturally fade away. No experience is lasting.

Whatever you embrace and cling to is going to go. Give up everything and understand what you are. Whatever you have attained will go, so what are you going to hold onto as yourself? God may give you a long life of over a hundred years. In these years your identities will go on changing, no identity will stick to you until your end. You will say: I was like this, I was like that. Finally, your identity as a very old man will also vanish. If every identity changed from time to time, what is your achievement, which you can say: ‘This I am’? With what definite identity are you going to continue and enjoy your possessions?

When you try to get anything, you have to consider what will be your identity when you get it. If it is going to take a long time for getting something, you are not likely to be the same as you are now. Due to the uncertainty involved in it, the striving for something becomes meaningless.

You are not a man or a woman. You are that principle out of which all has come.

I am free from all description and identification. Whatever you may hear, see, or think of, I am not that. What is our true identity? It is That which does not change with time. All our identities have changed with time. Is not all our knowledge about ourselves meaningless?

You are ultimately the product of dirt. You are not that ‘I’ which is going about in a determined fashion believing ‘I am so and so’. That ‘I’ was absent before birth and will be absent after death.

Each of you is trying to protect yourself, but however much you may try to protect it, what you are trying to protect will not last. As long as identification is there, you will think of benefiting only this pseudo-personality.

You have assumed something as ‘I Am’, which actually you are not, that is why you are afraid. When you put on an identity that is not yours, you are afraid. When you are the pure ‘I Amness’ only, there is no fear. But this ‘I Am’ is not the truth, whatever you are, prior to the appearance of the ‘I Am’… that is your true nature.

From your own seed-beingness the whole manifest universe is projected, including your body. This supreme and powerful principle, though being itself without a form and name, upon sensing ‘I Am’ instantly embraces the body and mistakenly accepts this as its own. It clings to the body-identity so quickly that the fact of its own independent existence is easily missed.

You carry out all your worldly and spiritual activities with an identity. Because a human being considers himself an individual, he suffers pain and pleasure, future and past, birth and death. Total loss of pride in individuality is the state of non-identity. You have compressed yourself into a form and an identity, hence the suffering, but you are the formless, the dynamic, manifest consciousness. The knowledge that ‘you are’ is manifest and all-pervading, and is purer and subtler than this light, and therefore it cognizes light.

When you identify with the mind-body you become separate, you are not one with anybody. When you are the ‘I Amness’ you are everything. To help you understand, various concepts are given, like Prakriti and Purusha, but actually there is nothing. Even such concepts form a trap. The first trap is the ‘love to be’.

The person is never the subject. You can see a person, but you are not the person. You are always the Supreme which appears at a given point of time and space as the witness, a bridge between the pure awareness of the Supreme and the manifold consciousness of the person. The manifold nature of the person correspond to the various samskara (tendencies of the mind). They are contradictory. See them as they are… mere habits of thoughts and feelings, bundles of memories and urges. You identify yourself with them. Once you realize that whatever appears before you cannot be yourself, and cannot say ‘I Am’, you are free of all your ‘persons’ and their demands. The sense of ‘I Am’ is your own. You cannot part with it, but you can impart it to anything, eg: as in saying: ‘I am young’, ‘I am rich’, etc. Such identifications are patently false and the cause of bondage.

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. When you have understood what you are, any use of the consciousness will be for others.

Dis-identification can only take place when it is understood that there is no entity, and that what is happening is merely the program of the functioning of consciousness. There is merely the functioning of consciousness, there is no entity who is causing it, and there is no entity who is suffering. If this is not understood all kinds of misconceptions occur.

Your fall occurs when you try to identify something within the sphere of consciousness as ‘yourself’. Do not take yourself to be something. Who are you? Nothing perceivable or conceivable. If you can forget it, or remember it… discard it, because it is not you.

When the consciousness identifies itself with a form, it is the nature of this identity to want to continue as long as possible. Consciousness loves that identification so much that it wants to continue. When consciousness loses its individuality it becomes one with the universe.

All you really want to do is to keep your body-mind sense intact. You accept body as your identity and move about and function in the world. Realize that ‘I Amness’ means the manifest world and the universe. When the sense of being appears it has no body sense. Out of that sense of being, the whole cosmos is created. In that creation you also have a form, but you accept body as your identity. The principle that motivates and enlivens the body is the sense of beingness only, but it is not the body. All this play in the cosmos and the world functions in the consciousness, and finally the play will merge into consciousness. Being the dynamic manifest universal principle, when consciousness first appears it is free from identification of any kind with ‘this or that’. The consciousness knows itself through itself, but due to its identification with the body it suffers pain and pleasure. It is rare for anyone to realize that the entire cosmos manifestation springs out of one’s seed-consciousness. One’s unity with the cosmos is realized when one unites with oneself.

Whatever identity I have is the play of the five elements, and it is universal. I do not have any exclusive identity for myself. There is no individual personality. Out of the essence of the five elements all form and beingness come. Do not try to be something. Do not try to be a spiritual person. A spiritual seeker wants to be something. Just be as you are.

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. This is identification with the body-mind.

The whole problem is the sense of being a separate individual, when that subsides, that is true bliss. Once you understand, there is no question of enjoying yourself as an individual. You are no more an individual, the individual is dissolved. This is rare.

When your individuality is dissolved, you will not see individuals anywhere, it is just a functioning in consciousness.

When you believe yourself to be a person, you see persons everywhere. In reality there are no persons, only threads of memories and habits. At the moment of realization the person ceases. Identity remains, but identity is not a person, it is inherent in the reality itself. The person has no being in itself, it is a reflection in the mind of the witness, the ‘I Am’, which is a mode of being.

The person, the ‘I am this body, this mind, this chain of memories, this bundle of desires and fears’ disappears, but something you may call ‘identity’ remains. It enables me to become a person when required. Love creates its own necessities, even of becoming a person.

The sense of separate identity is totally false and untrue. Give up your independent identity. There is no question of an independent entity, everything is an appearance in consciousness only.

You may think you have understood this knowledge, but so long as you think that you, as an individual, have acquired that knowledge, the individual identity is still there.

The individual personality is lost. A person may have the brightest intellect in the world and, with the aid of that intellect, collect the maximum information about the world, but all that will be useless because the basis is false. Listen to the significance of these words and reach your original state.

We do not differ. The difference is only in the mind and temporary.

You do not know yourself. You have allowed yourself to be enticed by what is not the truth. By identification with the body you have lost that knowledge.

You are ignoring your true identity. Without taking into account the One who is talking, your talk has no meaning. When you talk about Rama and Krishna, it must be remembered that it is Rama or Krishna that is talking.

Once the body is gone, that knowledge which experienced itself as Christ, Krishna, Buddha, etc. subsides and becomes one with the totality. You might be a very great person but when you go to sleep you forget yourself as a separate entity.

Someone asked: “What are my limits?” I tell the seekers not to underestimate themselves. You are so big, that one will find it difficult to get a rope long enough to encircle you. One will take ages to go round you… and still be unable to complete the circle.

You are infinite and boundless, you cannot be restricted to a small body. Slowly see yourself as wider and wider. You will soon realize that due to the sickness of identification with the body, you have become a man or a woman. It is not a question of telling others what you are, but having the inner conviction about your true nature.

You take yourself to be somebody or something. You think you are somebody, but you are nothing of the sort.

Identity occurs only when there is the knowledge ‘I am’. Parabrahman is without identity. The concept or thought ‘I am’ is not there in the Parabrahman.

There is resistance to going within, due to fear of having to abandon the illusion of being something or somebody in particular.

Who and What as such at the highest level, are Nothing. But such a simple fact has turned into a riddle, because that principle has wrongly identified itself with a form, and then takes pride in that identification. It has accepted the body as its identity. Be unconcerned with what I am and what I am not. Do not be addicted to self-descriptions. Have the courage to be as nothing, and to see the world as it is: nothing.

You are nothing. You have no identity.

I am nothing, I have no design, no colour, I have no image of myself.

To myself I am neither perceivable nor conceivable; there is nothing I can point out and say: ‘this I am’. You identify yourself with everything so easily; I find it impossible. The feeling: ‘I am not this or that, nor is anything mine’ is so strong in me that as soon as a thing or a thought appears, there comes at once the sense ’this I am not’.

My nothingness is the subtlest. 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.

The Guru tells you that you have a true identity, but it is not this. It is the formless, Parabrahman. That Parabrahman is without any doubts. It is not conditioned by Maya, because to the Parabrahman, Maya does not exist.

In my identity, there is no light, no darkness, no ‘I’, nor ‘you’. Who will recognize me in my unmanifested state? I can be known when the knower himself is dissolved.

First get rid of that ‘you’. The Guru is the place where all your hopes, expectations and desires are completely dissolved, annihilated. So long as we are one with that beingness we would always like to have some very high concepts about ourselves.

Many persons have a great attachment to their own individuality. They want to remain as an individual and are not prepared to lose that individuality. It is as an individual that they search, and want to retain their identity yet find out what is the truth. But in this process of knowledge you must get rid of the identity itself. You are not a person. You are not an individual.

If you identify yourself with something, such an identity must be sacrificed. Your real identity has no body and no thought. You are the spontaneous knowledge ‘I am’. You must be bodiless. You are solely the indwelling principle ‘I am’. Without effort, you are that.

Give up your identity with the body. Always remember that you are not the body. Then do what you like. Remaining with full attention that you are not the body is meditation. You know that you have a body because of your consciousness. In the beginning, knowing that you are not the body, let consciousness be your form. A mumukshu has a body, but a seeker, a sadhaka, is bodiless. Because of your identity with a body, death and rebirth apply to you. A siddha has achieved the ultimate. There is not the slightest doubt that he is not the body with name and form. He is no more an individual, neither an man nor a woman. The siddha is one who is established in the Self.

You cannot hold on to some identity as exclusively yours that will not disappear.

It is not possible to keep your identity permanently. Before all this became visible, you were in existence, and will always be so. However, the identity taken up by you, that ‘I am so-and-so’, will pass away. All your associations will not remain with you. You did not have any experience of the two states of wakefulness and sleep before… now you are experiencing yourself and the world during these two states. When these two states were not present, the five elements were not there. You did not have knowledge of your beingness. What was there then?… There was only perfection without any need of your beingness.

When individuality has been liquidated only manifest consciousness remains.

The question of what one is comes only in manifestation, in comparison with other phenomena. In the state of the jnani there is no phenomenon, his existence is prior to any manifestation. He does not ask the question ‘Who or what I am?’

Having realized that what one sees is false, who is the ‘you’ who is searching for the real?

It is the one that is listening which is your own true nature.

Have you given thought to your true identity? If you are not your body and its name, what are you? Let the body be there, only, do not identify with it. ‘I do not know’ is the best attitude. We cannot point out reality as this or that. We can only say ‘neti, neti’ which means: not this, not this.

By the grace of my Guru I have realized once and for good that I am neither object nor subject. That very identity with which you try to understand everything is unreal. There is no entity, there is only this knowledge that you are here and awake.

Awareness with a object we call witnessing. When there is also self-identification with the object, caused by desire or fear, such a state is called a person. In reality there is only one state; when distorted by self-identification it is called a person, when coloured with the sense of being it is the witness, when colourless and limitless it is called the Supreme.

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.

A millionaire had a loss of memory, and he was begging on a pavement. A friend of his recognized him and offered to help to bring him back on track. He told him his worth and named the bank in which he had millions. Can you expect that beggar to continue his stay on the pavement? In spirituality, it is happening like that. I tell you what you are. You are not a pitiable mortal, but you are a formless, deathless, infinite and boundless Principle. If you continue to hold on to your old identity, what can I do?

If, after listening to the talks of the Guru, you still want to gain some profit for yourself, that is a pity.

When you are not there, the mind is absent. When there is consciousness, there is everything. If there is no consciousness, there is nothing. There is nothing prior to consciousness and there is nothing beyond consciousness. Consciousness is eternal and infinite, but it has no individuality, no personality. It may appear as God, Brahman, or even as an insect, or a worm. The world shines in the light of consciousness. The creations of the vital force are moving about… do not identify them as individuals. The knowingness and the knower arise simultaneously; one is not created without the other. No one has an individual form as his own property. Even the greatest deities do not have an existence of their own. So, with which particular identity do you see yourself? All identities will vanish.

Once dis-identification with the body-mind takes place, Brahman will come with folded hands to your feet. when dis-identification does happen you will realize the identity of the non-manifest and the manifest. They are one, there is no difference.

You come to a dimensionless point of consciousness, a conscious nothing, when you see all you think yourself to be as mere imagination, and stand aloof in pure awareness of the transient as transient, imaginary as imaginary, unreal as unreal. It is not difficult, but detachment is needed.

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.

When one looks into one’s self, when one abides in the self, then there is none.

You do not exist. Such knowledge is only a firm conviction if it is there all the time.

When you come to know this reality all your worries will be over, and all your identities will come to an end. The Absolute has no colour, no design, no name, no form. All the names and forms appear on the earth and all the imagination and writings are due to the consciousness in human form.

The Self that is within is all the emptiness of the sky.

Take space as your identity. The form of consciousness is space. As you are formless, will you have any needs? Holding onto this formless identity permanently is called spiritual austerity. If there is conviction that space is one’s form, is there ever any gain or loss?

Your self-identity is based upon your body and you consider yourself as male or female. It is a mistake to call yourself a human being. Your true nature is not different from Parabrahman. That which is listening now is your true nature… it is pure consciousness. It is a mistake to call it a body. Your true identity is the unmanifest principle, it is there prior to your knowledge that you exist.

I once felt a sense of individuality, but I do not now have that individuality. The sense of individuality has transformed itself into the universal manifest state, only the feeling of universal consciousness remains.

When the body identity is lost… then you know that you are the entire manifestation… vast and unlimited.

If you give up your body-consciousness… then what will you identify with? In this five-element vision, have you got a particular identity? When this becomes clear to you, you will understand that you are moving in the form of the whole world. ‘I am All’.

The difference between you and I is gone. The sense of individuality is replaced with a sense of the totality. Whatever is, is you.

8. Form-Appearance

There is no permanent form.

Whatever appears is a state and has to disappear. Whatever form you take yourself to be will not last. Actually you have no birth or death. They pertain to the body.

Suppose, at present. I want to exist, I want to be. But, how should I be, how should I look like? What should be my nature, and in what form should I exist? All human thinking is guided by emotions and tradition. The same is also the origin and the content of every human form.

What was your name, form, and quality a hundred years back? Nothing. The same is now witnessing innumerable names, forms, and qualities. What are you without your body form? If you limit yourself to your body, you suffer. Without the body, you are invisible. You are formless, but your body is the nearest form, because of which you know ‘you are’. Because of this proximity, you are holding this body as your form.

Krishna descended into this world from nothingness and took the form. Prior to that incarnation Krishna had no knowledge about himself. Knowingness, ‘I am’, was absent.

From nothingness the form is taken. The nothingness descends into form, that is avatar. Prior to incarnation that personality had no knowledge about himself. After descending into this incarnation he started knowing himself.

The dirt, the body, everything, is myself, but the process of transformation is continually going on. The cycle goes on, gross form is again transformed into space. Truly speaking, an individual has no form. The so-called form is made up of the five elements.

The true nature has no form. Whatever appears is a result of the five elements. Out of three or four raw materials a cook can concoct various dishes, each with a different taste, but basically they are from identical materials.

All kinds of forms are being created and destroyed continuously, the various forms appearing and disappearing as a result of the five elemental play. You notice the form and forget the content, the reality. All the five elements are responsible for any form. All forms are due to the five elements, which are not eternal. Your true nature is bodiless and independent of the five elements. Hence, it is Eternal. The five elements, the three qualities (gunas), Prakriti and Purusha, all these are formless. All forms made of these ten have imaginary existence.

How did I get this form? My Guru told me it is due to Sattva. What is Sattva? Sattva is only the essence of the five elements and in that is the knowledge ‘I Am’. All is the five elements. This body is the result of the five elements. This physical body, this desire to continue to live, to exist, comes from the five elements, and will last as long as the five elemental body is present. Originally you had nothing to do with this. You have no shape or form. Now all you have to solve this mystery of life is the knowledge ‘I Am’, without that there is nothing.

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? Before this consciousness, there was nothing. 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?

Both experience and experiencer will disappear. Changes get expressed in the consciousness, and so the consciousness becomes subtler and subtler. Forms get dissolved. Anything that is sensorially seen and interpreted by the mind is an appearance in consciousness, and is not true. Nothing exists. Everything only appears to exist. Things appear and disappear. Existence may vanish, but it does not die. There is no destruction, therefore the jnani is not troubled by events.

What you see is not what is. Appearances will dissolve on investigation and the underlying reality will come to the surface. All appearance and disappearance presupposes a change against some changeless background. Smaller than the smallest, bigger than the biggest, you are, while all else appears.

You have no innate form. You have no form, no design. The names and forms you see are your consciousness only. The forms are only instruments for the functioning of consciousness. You are not the form but the consciousness which gives sentience to the form.

Nothing is. All is a momentary appearance in the field of the universal consciousness. Continuity as name and form is a mental formation only, easy to dispel. Fascinated by names and forms, which are by their very nature distinct and diverse, you distinguish what is natural and separate what is one.

Brahman and Parabrahman… all these names are given only for better understanding. There are no forms corresponding to these names. The destinies of all living forms are as per the quality of the food essence, sattva, at the time of creation. One will become a beggar, and another a king, as per the quality. One who cannot be described by words and who is beyond space is a jnani. He has no name and form.

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 forms are necessary for your practical worldly life. 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. The one who understands that name and form are not his identity is in spirituality.

For you, all the forms of men and women are real. For me, even Prakriti and Purusha are formless. You give different names to various forms, but do you agree that without forms all are one? All forms are time-bound. As compared to the infinite, any time duration is short, as if zero. Hence, all forms are only glimpses and are illusory. They have only momentary appearance. From the stand-point of a jnani, a child which is born and the one before conception, both belong to the same class. A momentary appearance merges with the eternal disappearance. There are differences in appearance, but unity in disappearance. Even dreams appear and disturb… are they real?

Even the experiencer is secondary. Primary is the infinite expanse of consciousness, the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be. When you look at anything, it is the ultimate you see, but you imagine that you see a cloud or a tree. Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless, realize that what is seen or heard, touched, or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality.

Everything is fine until the forms appear with the beingness, with self-love, with the love to be. With life… the struggle to survive begins. What will be the form of your consciousness after the body falls? All collective phenomena are called Maya. Truly speaking, no one has any form that he can call his own. You do not have a shape or form. When you become convinced of this, you will become formless.

That which knows is formless. It is simply the knowingness. Having no form, it performs no actions. It is the seer. It sees everything. You see the sky. It has limits. However, you are the unlimited. So long as you consider yourself as a visible form, you will have to face death. You wander all over the world because you consider yourself to be a visible form. Until this ends there will be no peace for you. By listening, by listening to the guru, the visible form will disappear. You will not disappear.

From the bodily standpoint, all forms appear as separate entities. But at the consciousness level, they are consciousness-manifest and not separate. Anybody’s sense of being has no form or name. But one assumes the form of the food body as one’s own form, and accepts the name given to it.

In the food, originates the movement due to the vital breath, accompanied by consciousness or the sense of being. The language of the vital breath is the mind. Only the food body has a form, but it cannot be anybody’s identity. All the rest: the vital breath, mind, and the consciousness, are formless.

No one can claim that he, by performing some actions, has earned this form. All rituals are for the sake of those who believe that the body is their form. No one desires to realize his true nature directly… this is the power of Maya. Suddenly a stirring happened in the original state… it is the consciousness of living beings. You have taken yourself as the body. It is a delusion. When there is no such belief, it is the true state. When we are all and everything, will there be any sorrow?

The body is made of matter, hence the consciousness in it is a material thing. Consciousness takes itself up as the body and entertains various concepts and experiences, pain and pleasure. Therefore understand that the body is not your true nature, it is not your form.

Because I was not born, how can I die? If there was no birth, how did this form appear? Who has captured, and who is holding the picture? What is holding the picture for a hundred years? I call it a Chemical. In this world, all the appearances are due to this Chemical, and the activities are due to the Mechanism. There is no God, no devotee, no Maya and no Brahman.

That which is totally dissolved, or obliterated, is observed. That which is always, is not perceptible. That principle ever remains.

From the five elements there is a flow of consciousness in various forms. The five elements do not suffer. Only the forms suffer, because of the consciousness. In human form the suffering is more due to the hopes that the future is bright and I must live for that. All this is the play of the primary illusion. The hopes about the future are only in the human form. But there is no existence of any tangible entity in the human form, which can prosper in the future. Birth is not of a human form, but of misery in human form.

Be friendly with your undifferentiated state, it is your true Self. All forms are my own forms, and all that is seen is my expression.

Name and form create desires and fears. When one is free of them, what remains? The void remains. But the void is full to the brim. It is the eternal potential, as consciousness is the eternal actual. Past, present, and future… they are all there. And infinitely more.

In this world you come across different types of forms. All these are time-bound. Although all living forms are time-bound, some forms, like that of Markandeya, have very long lives. The outer is transient, the innermost is permanent and changeless, although ever new in appearance and action.  [Markandeya was a rishi, mentioned in the Puranas and Mahabharata who, although destined to die when aged 16, was protected from being taken by Yama, the god of death, by the interventions of Siva, to whom he continuously offered devotions. He is reported to have lived so long that he endured beyond the death of a universe, and watched it end.]

9. Manifestation

Whatever deep conviction you hold onto in the core of you will happen.

Manifestation needs time and space. The manifest is bound by time. Whatever you believe in is true for you, however it is time-bound and not eternal. The Truth is unmanifested.

As soon as the Unmanifest became the manifest a state of duality arose, and everything that takes place in the manifest is time-bound. The manifestation is atomic, but it has pervaded the whole universe.

The Unmanifest and the manifest can never be together. The Unmanifest ever exists, but this manifest knowingness arises and departs.

A person went in search of darkness with a torch in hand. He could not find darkness anywhere. Similarly, it is not possible for the manifest to search for the unmanifest. There is the unmanifest only in the absence of the manifest. Whatever is manifested will arise and subside. You are not the manifestation.

The world is full of people and the population is ever increasing. From where are they coming? They appear and multiply there only. They are going to disappear there only. All living beings are free to act. There is no force of any kind to reproduce. The multiplication of food bodies is happening spontaneously.

Everything happens out of our own Self. This consciousness is spontaneously felt in the Self only. This ‘I’ is not an individual. What is, is the Absolute unmanifested. What appears, as if in a dream, is the manifested, relative world, and this experience of the dreamlike state is the same, an identical state, for everyone.

How was our existence prior to the appearance of our beingness? It was unmanifest, as if it did not exist. Its appearance was like the sudden appearance of a plant in the rainy season. If I ask you which way did the plant travel to appear there… for the plant there is no question of coming there by any path… it was there only, but unmanifested. There, only it manifested.

In my original non-knowing state I did not know the sense of my being. But all of a sudden the beingness was felt spontaneously. Then in a flash I observed this enormous manifest world and also my body. Later I conceived that the entire universe has manifested in the speck of my beingness only. In that primordial state I had no information about myself. Now a form, together with the information ‘I Am’, is impressed upon me.

What power is responsible for this creation? The power is the Self which each one has in his beingness, and that power is time-bound. From the time that beingness comes it creates automatically until that beingness disappears. Earlier there was nothing… after there is nothing. It is only during the duration of the beingness that the world and creation is. This power is the faith in the primordial concept ‘I Am’, and that is the concept which weaves the web of creation. The entire manifestation is an appearance in this concept.

Manifestation is possible only if the life force is there. If the life force is not there, then as far as that particular individual is concerned, there is no manifestation.

The whole universe manifests in that principle, which is termed beingness or birth. This beingness illumines all that exists, which means the entire universe manifests as the body of the beingness. Like the forms and images and landscapes on a television screen are the expression of electron beams only, the entire manifest world is the product of your beingness. This manifestation… it is your light only.

With the arising of ‘I Am’ the whole of manifestation takes place. The manifestation of the dynamic, immanent Spirit occurs in the form of ‘I Am’. It understands itself as ‘I Am’. It involves itself in the activities in the world through the three gunas.

When you are the manifest consciousness, you will find you alone are the multiplicity. You express yourself in all this ample, manifest world. These are all your expressions, only you as ‘I Amness’. This state will itself be transcended, and you will be in the nirguna state.

As soon as you have the conviction that you are not the body, then automatically and instantly you become the total manifest. As soon as you leave your individuality, you become the manifest totality. But your true being is apart from even that which is totally manifest. I am the manifestation. I, the Absolute, am the same ‘I’ manifested. Consciousness is the expression of the Absolute, there are not two.

I am the Unmanifest, and with my manifestation, my form and body is all this world. The happening or creating of the state of manifestation is spontaneous and without attachment, but once it appeared attachment begins. The imagination and memory create a body and a personality, and the manifest assumes wrongly that it is a body and a personality.

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. The consciousness of being present, the five elements and the three gunas, that is the total of the universal manifestation.

This manifestation is Self-effulgent, Self-created. But you are still wanting to modify something, so you are not finished with it.

Do not think of altering the course of manifestation. When you engage in thinking it will be at the personality or individual level, about your personal problems. There is nothing to be done, just find out how this touch of ‘I Amness’ has come about in you.

The manifestation is purposeless.

There is no enjoyer of this manifest world and universe, all is happening spontaneously. All perceptible and tangible movements in the universe and world just happen, without any specific reason, that is, there is functioning, rotating, vibrating, humming, without a purpose. Whatever principle is defined by and identified with form, illusion, name and body, it creates, nourishes and sustains itself by itself. Therefore gradually you will realize that, as the knower, you have no identity with respect to a place or form.

It is the nature of all manifestation that the good and the bad follow each other and in equal measure. The true refuge is only in the unmanifested.

All this manifest world is a combination of the five elements. We are in the five elements, we are part of the five elements, all the play goes on in the five elements, which were created at the moment there was no time.

As a result of the interaction of the two great principles, the Prakriti and Purusha, the five great elements and the three gunas have emerged. Space, air, fire, water, together with sattva, rajas, and tamas, formed the earth, making it ready for further development. On the earth grew vegetation. When the juice of the vegetation took body form, the dormant principle of beingness also appeared in it. The five elements have no knowledge of their sense of being. The beingness is manifested in body form during the five-elemental process. Thus, that eternal principle, which did not know its existence, is manifested through millions of forms.

This manifestation is beginningless. First was born the sky; out of the sky came the air; out of the air the light and heat; out of that heat the water; and out of the water whatever was became the earth from which the whole of life sprouted. These five elements together are responsible for this great manifestation. Consciousness is the quality of the essence of the food that is in all the five elements together. The five elements differ from each other.

All these creations are taking place out of that principle which is subtler than space. That ancient principle itself takes birth in various forms. These are the incarnations.

Whatever is manifest before you has come out of consciousness. All manifestation comes only from a speck of consciousness. There are millions of varieties of forms in the total manifestation, but the source of all is the consciousness. Every manifestation is an appearance in consciousness, perceived and cognized by consciousness. There is only manifestation functioning and perceiving.

The unmanifest principle became manifest as your consciousness.

The consciousness is experiencing its manifestation. This dynamic manifest consciousness is always in a fluid state. What will happen no one can say. The message ‘I Am’ is there. The mind-flow is also there. It is not a personality, it is the consciousness. There is no imprint of personality, it is the manifest consciousness which is functioning. For someone who normally always thinks of others as personalities it is difficult to think of others as a function in consciousness. The play of the consciousness will not come down to an individual level.

But it is manifestation only. In the world of consciousness this manifestation is going on continually. Who is manifesting through all the great incarnations? Who is manifesting through the donkeys and pigs? All is consciousness only. Water taken from a river in a jug does not change in quality, and the shape of the receptacle of that water is only imagination, since water is one.

In the absence of consciousness is there any proof of the existence of anything? Consciousness itself is mind, is thought, is all phenomena, all manifestation.

All we see in this manifest world is exactly like a picture on the television screen.

All this manifestation is called the ocean of Brahma, or the ocean of Maya. Beyond the ocean of Maya there is beingness extinguished. Beingness goes into non-beingness. Although beingness is one, it manifests in multitudes.

The manifested world has neither use or non-use. The world has use for one who considers himself the body. Because of the senses the world appears to be real, but it is temporary, and is the sickness of the illusion, Maya.

You will realize that the immense manifestation never existed. All this manifest is only a dream of the unmanifest and is not really happening.

The manifest world is full of movement which creates and destroys innumerable forms all the time. The manifest principle has movement, but the unmanifest does not. It is without qualities. In the ocean of manifestation, millions are crawling around, like waves and ripples.

In the unmanifest Supreme (avyakta) the manifest (vyakta) appears. The manifest (vyakta) creates the person (vyakti), and thinks itself as separate from it. The manifest (vyakta) sees that the person (vyakti) appears in consciousness, and that consciousness also appears in the manifest (vyakta). The realization of the basic unity is the working of the unmanifest Supreme (avyakta). It is the power behind the manifest (vyakta), the source from which all flows. It cannot be contacted, unless there is unity and love and mutual help between the person (vyakti) and the manifest (vyakta), unless the doing is in harmony with the being and the knowing. The unmanifest Supreme is both the source and the fruit of such harmony.

What is the difference between vyakta (the manifest) and avyakta (the unmanifest)? There is no difference. It is like light and daylight. The universe is full of light which you do not see; but the same light you see as daylight. And what the daylight reveals is the vyakti (the person). The person is always the object, the witness is the subject, and their relation of mutual dependence is the reflection of their absolute identity. You imagine that they are distinct and separate states. They are not. They are the same consciousness at rest and in movement, each state conscious of the other. In Chit (universal consciousness) man knows God and God knows man. In Chit the man shapes the world and the world shapes man. Chit is the link, the bridge between extremes, the balancing and uniting factor in every experience. The totality of the perceived is what you call matter. The totality of all perceivers is what you call the universal mind. The identity of the two, manifesting itself as perceptibility and perceiving, harmony and intelligence, loveliness and loving, reasserts itself eternally.

When individuality is lost, whatever happens is then seen as total functioning. The understanding of the total functioning cannot be divided. There is no question of ‘I’ or ‘you’ understanding something. It is understanding.

The state of beingness is termed as God. The godly state is the entire manifestation. It is my state in experiencing. It is duality. But my Unmanifest state is non-dual, and in that state there is no experiencing and manifestation.

When the Unmanifest manifests it is called Saguna-Brahman.

The uses of the unmanifested? You must sleep in order to wake up. You must die in order to live, you must melt down to shape anew. You must destroy to build, annihilate before creation. The Supreme is the universal solvent, it corrodes every container, it burns through every obstacle. Without the absolute denial of everything the tyranny of things would be absolute. The Supreme is the great harmonizer, the guarantee of the ultimate and perfect balance… of life in freedom. It dissolves you and thus reasserts your true being.

The Absolute is Paramatman. From this total reality comes the chidakasha, the wanting to be. From there the physical space, the entire manifestation, comes into being in a fraction of a second. In deep sleep there is nothing, then there is the slightest feeling that I want to be awake, then the entire manifestation takes place within a split second. The manifestation has appeared on the Unmanifest and movement started, but the witness is the Absolute.

Before manifestation can take place there must be something which has manifested itself: that is the Absolute.

Whatever has been produced will ultimately take its end and go back into the state from which it came.

My svarupa has nothing to do with whatever is manifested.

You are the unmanifested. The manifested in already there in the unmanifest, in the seed.

10. The Seed

In the seed of those two forms, parents, there is potential for innumerable universes.

That Linga-deha which is a little drop and the knowledge ‘I Am’ is the same. What is seen is the manifest world which appears in that speck of consciousness. Just 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.

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.

Seeds are very subtle. All the gross matter is present within the seed. Your essential being is similar, it is the subtlest yet contains the whole universe. Seed, bija, means ‘second creation’ and means the past is being repeated. The mature form gets concentrated in the seed, and the seed re-creates the past history it contains. The entire manifested world is inside the seed.

Take the guru’s word to heart. It will enable you to see and experience clearly the seed within. That seed has become the world. Though it moves about in myriad bodies, it is spotless. Hence you do not need to worry about the purification of the body. You do not require rules and regulations of any creed. Your consciousness will slowly crystallize and you will realize your true nature. The concept of death will seem ridiculous. The true religion of a devotee is faith. Strictly observe the guru’s word… “I have no other form but consciousness”. Then do what you like. Do not worry… it is a waste of intellect and energy. Spontaneously, everything is happening in God, through God, and by God.

Consciousness is the seed of the world. When it sprouts and expands it becomes space. Seed means: ‘What was not seen before, is now being seen’. The light of consciousness means the light of the sun and the moon. It is like a dream of daylight in the middle of the night. Wakefulness is like that dream. The seed means duality. The seed quality of God’s consciousness is present in all beings.

Brahman is the Lord of words, and it contains the universe. A great miracle is hidden in the seed. What a big tree comes out of it! The guna was hidden in the nirguna. Whatever was hidden in the golden womb came out, and with that the world became visible. Such a vast world is contained in the microscopic consciousness.

The seed, the chemical, the product of the five elemental essences, which give rise to and sustains the consciousness ‘I Am’. The seed is like the seed of a tree in the sense that a seed contains all future manifestations and expressions that will sprout from it. The seed is the moment of conception, its expression is the thought-free state, like space, in the knowingness state. The quality of knowingness is space-like, without concept, but its expression is the physical, tangible, it is infinitesimal, but its expression is manifest infinity.

Out of a very small seed a very big tree grows into the sky. Similarly this small seed, this beingness… ‘I Amness’ touch… out of that seed all this manifest world is created. The seed which has created this body and everything else, so long as it is alive, moist, you will behave as you do. Once that seed is gone, you are in eternity only, in your eternal state.

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 that seed open I got the Self knowledge. Other than Self knowledge what capital do I have? There are many jnanis, but the real one is who has seen the tree in the seed.

The creation is self-effulgent and spontaneous. There is no creator. A magnificent tree sprouts out of a tiny seed. In the Marathi language the word ‘mula’ denotes the root of a tree, and with a slight modification in pronunciation, it means ‘child’. Just as a splendid tree takes root out of a small seed, a full-grown person is latently rooted in a child and his beingness. But the Absolute is prior to the root of creation, which is the child and the beingness. With the emergence of the ‘child-beingness’ root the first day of experiencing begins.

The knowledge ‘I am’ is the soul of the world. The knowledge ‘I am’ is an appearance and like everything that appears it is bound to disappear. ‘I am’ is invisible both before birth and after death of the body. ‘I am’ is a seed and all experiences are due to it. It is an infinitesimal seed that contains the universe. Both the seed and the experience will disappear. All memory will disappear one day. The knowledge ‘I am’ is time bound.

It order to be convinced that you were never born, it should be known what is born, and from what it is born. Just as there is a tree in a seed, the universal consciousness is latent in you. The guru brings it out and it becomes all pervading. Has anyone seen the end of space? Why is it so? It is because space is formed with the expanse of your own light. Make spiritual effort out of real and sincere necessity. His Majesty, the guru, kills your individuality. The tree, along with its fruits, flowers and branches, enters the seed again.

I want to say again and again, that the body formation happens unknowingly, and the knowingness comes upon the child after three to five years of life. He, she, or it, or anybody is that knowingness. One does not take external help to know ones knowingness, one has to depend totally upon oneself. A child may become anything… poor or rich, ignorant or a jnani… but what was at the root which enabled everything to happen? What is the seed or root of any happening? The root or seed is the same for all. It originates from food juices out of five elemental vegetation. Our consciousness resides in the consumed and digested food juices.

You took this form because you were a fool. If you had known anything about it, you would not have come into this world. Even now you do not have any form. It is not your shape, it is the shape of the seed. The seed is the original foolish state. The seed is transient, and the whole world is full of 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.

11. Maya-Shakti / Illusion

From the Absolute stand point all is Maya, an illusion. All the creations emanate from the Mula-maya, the primary illusion and its secret humming.

The primary illusion incarnates from spit. Who can be proud of that? Because of the creation of this fraudulent world out of ‘spit’, people are ashamed, and therefore do not like to expose the offender through which the ‘spit’ was ejected. Ask yourself the question: “From where have I emerged, and where am I proceeding to?”

Because of this fraudulent world which is created out of spit people are sincerely ashamed. Therefore they would not like to expose or parade the very mouthpiece from which that spit was ejected. That is why they want to keep it in hiding always. A most despicable state of affairs. From where are you emanating, and to where are you proceeding? Understanding this, how can I have any ego at all?

The illusion of the universe is nothing but a very small modification of your own Self. Your own self is the most ancient, the unlimited. The ever-changing world is nothing but the thoughts and the trick of the ancient.

Maya is a covering that has come over the true nature of the Paramatman, the Absolute. First comes consciousness, and then the body is known through it. To feel that we are the body is delusion, Maya. The Absolute says: “I have been covered all over by Maya, and I do not know myself.”

The unmanifest is motionless. With a slight stirring of the unmanifest, a little Maya is created. You are eternally unmanifest by nature. Consciousness implies an individual, and the knower of the consciousness is the unmanifest. When suddenly you know that ‘you are’ it fascinates you. It is the same as love. Your consciousness has been created through ignorance… this is the primordial Maya.

Maya blocks the path to Self-realization. Although the common meaning of Maya is delusion, the root Maya is your seed consciousness. The root of Maya is consciousness by which you know yourself.

The love that everyone has as ‘I am’ is the primordial Maya… the root concept. Your desire to continue with consciousness is the root-Maya.

It is all a great fraud. It is the primordial illusion… Maya. It is because of this great fraud that you feel ‘you are’ and identify as men and women.

Maya means illusion that has suddenly appeared. It is the illusion of having shape and form. It has come over you because you have forgotten your true nature. Think of how and when you got your concept of beingness. One who knows the Self has no problem with anything good or bad. Be still. Gradually you will know what really happens and why. In fact even when no harm is done, the jiva, feeling that a great calamity has happened, keeps on struggling, eventually to die in vain. To have any desire or want is beggarliness. In the stage of body-consciousness, all are beggars. Each one is asking for something or the other. Until ignorance disappears, the concept ‘I want to go beyond’ will remain.

All this is an illusion. Whatever it is because of which you see things is itself an illusion. When you realize this you will give up everything, since you will be convinced that it is all unreal.

During sleep there is no experience of oneself. Sleep cannot be seen after waking up. In the same way, Maya is unimaginable. Just as sleep cannot be known, so Maya cannot be known, either by gods or by men.

In deep sleep, consciousness was in a dormant condition, there were no bodies, no concepts, no encumbrances. Upon the arrival of this apparently wakeful state, with the arrival of the concept ‘I Am’, the love of ‘I Am’ woke up. That itself is Maya, illusion.

The fact that you are alive and awake is the original delusion. The concept that ‘I am awake’ itself is false. This dream of wakefulness is itself false. The seeing and the seen are both untrue.

Deep sleep means total ignorance. From that the feeling ‘I am’ arises. That is the beginning of Maya. With the feeling that he is awake, one goes about dealing proudly in the world that does not exist. The feeling ‘I am awake’ creates the world. It is born out of Maya. When you realize this, the feeling that ‘I am the doer’ will vanish.

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 do not let go of the seer of the phenomenon. The seer is also part of the mirage.

Consciousness is the root-Maya, the goddess of knowledge. The jnani is the witness, he is not consciousness.

That which was already there came to know ‘it is’. This is called birth. The name Maya is given to birth. Maya is the behaviour of gunas. Its source is consciousness. It is the knowingness created at birth. Birth implies beingness. You are prior to that knowledge. All this is the sport of your own consciousness. Whatever is felt, desired or known is actually not you. One who knows this is the Self. The creation, sustenance and dissolution of consciousness happens on the base of the Supreme Self. All deities are a projection of consciousness. It is the result of the action of guna-Maya. You are the support of all these. Maya means the experience of consciousness.

Consciousness is moving about as beingness. Consciousness that is experienced is in fact not real. The meaning that floats through the feeling of ‘I am’ is unreal. For example: to say I am like this, I have done this, etc, is unreal. When consciousness goes, the world also disappears. Consciousness and the world are not separate.

Maya appears out of the manifestation of consciousness. Prior to that there is no Maya. The thought of ‘I am’ is the disturbance. Even greater Gods do not understand Maya, as they are created by Maya. They are not self-created. Their actions are illusory. The detached one has no touch of Maya.

What do you think of yourself? Your body is food material. It is the food of consciousness, the life force within. Consciousness and the world are one and the same. They arise simultaneously. The world is an illusion. However, you are the knower of the illusion that is caused by the play of the three gunas. This puzzle will be solved only through discrimination.

Why do we ask about that which has never come into existence? From the point of view of the jnani nothing has ever happened. How can one recollect what was never forgotten? Actually, what is remembered will surely be forgotten.

A man considers that whatever he sees is concrete and existing. But the truth is that he himself is an object, and whatever he thinks and acts on is itself an illusion. Consciousness itself is the source of all the mischief, because once you start having this consciousness then that is the seed of wanting everything… more and more wants.

Wakefulness is the primordial illusion, the root-Maya. God is also born of Maya. All this trouble is due to consciousness. There is deep peace at the bottom of consciousness. There are millions of states of mind. Pay attention only to the source. Find out why and how consciousness has arisen… then you will solve the riddle. If there is no memory, there is no question of forgetting anything. Therefore, there is neither memory nor forgetting… neither exists. There is no jnani of the Self, there is only Self-realization.

Maya has given you your body form. But when you meet your Satguru he gives you your form of consciousness. Initially you were the knower of the body, which has changed to the knower of consciousness. That state is called vijnana, or Brahman.

Who is the source of this fraud? It is consciousness by which we feel ‘we are’. Why is this consciousness untrue? Because it is an experience that has come upon you accidentally. It came unasked for.

Instead of calling the transient as untrue and a cheat, we call it Maya, the illusion. The knowledge ‘I am’ and the world are tricks of Maya. You are separate from ‘I am’. This ‘I Amness’ is the power of Maya. This ‘I Amness’ is not just a small principle, that itself is the Mula-Maya, the primary illusion.

Maya is the primary source of illusion. At that point love for the self begins. ‘I Am’ is the love to be. Its expression is all this manifestation. The state of love of self is present and you have to enjoy or suffer it. Even when we suffer we love our beingness.

That Maya is so powerful that it gets you completely wrapped up in it. Maya means ‘I Am’, ‘I love to be’. It has no identity except love. That knowledge of ‘I Am’ is the greatest foe and the greatest friend. Although it might be your greatest enemy, if you propitiate it properly, it will turn around and lead you to the highest state.

Maya arises out of body-consciousness. The love of ‘I am’ is Maya.

This knowledge ‘I Am’ is the essence of the food that has been assimilated by the body. It is as material as the body and it will disappear, like a fire that will be eventually extinguished. The life-giving force is in this food essence, and the food essence is itself its own food. If the food body is not present, or when the food body is exhausted, you will be whatever you were before. Consciousness, the world, and this manifestation, is an expression that ‘I Am’. Understand all this and do not try to interfere. All the prophets have come and gone, they could not change what is. The sum total is. This is the play of Maya. All this has happened out of nothingness, and it is going to the same state. ‘I Amness’ is part of the play. You are prior to the ‘I Amness’.

Due to Maya, I felt that ‘I am’. ‘I am’ is not prior to Maya. When I realized this mistake, I knew I was always there, but without knowingness.

Accepting the form as identity is Maya.

The apparent conviction that one’s body is the Self is what is called Maya. It has an infinite number of names. Maya, herself, has been given the status of a deity. There is no truth in this world, hence it is not necessary to observe its rules and regulations. It is fictitious.

Maya has manifested as existence and energy. She is intimidating you and threatening you, As such, she does not have an iota of truth. Maya means something that never really happens. It is the delusion of existence, but not true existence.

This fraud of Maya is clever. 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. 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.

The body is created out of food. The hum of consciousness comes through the essence of the body… and that is the same as ‘I am’. There is no true sense of individuality, right from an insect to God. There is manifestation for the duration of time. Maya means ignorance, which means fear. Under her influence, the jiva takes on an identity and accordingly gets experiences. The basis of your life is consciousness, which depends upon food.

The primary concept Mula Maya, the source of illusion, produces the five elements at the moment there was no time.

Consciousness is attached to its qualities, to the gunas, to sattva. Consciousness is the result of Maya, it is the love for beingness. The Self in the body is called guna-Maya, which is the consciousness in the body. It is the same as God. The primordial illusion that ‘we are’ is the quality of sattva. Because of this root-Maya, we want our beingness to continue. It is self-love. Maya is the name given to the manifestation of consciousness.

Many incarnations have happened in the past, but who could stop creation, maintenance and destruction? I am not at all proud of my knowledge. What control do I have over anything? Even Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh (Shiva) could not do anything that lasted long. What I call  Chemical Power is termed the Supreme Consciousness, or the primary illusion, Mula-Maya. The behaviour or activities are because of sattva, rajas and tamas, which lead to mental modifications. The witnessing of the activities happens due to sattva – the news I am. All the happenings are due to the three qualities (gunas) and there is no you and I in it. The time limits are decided by Mahat Tattva or the Great Reality. Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh exist for millions of years; that is long but not unlimited. That indicates how long the sattva quality of the Great Reality lasted for these deities. The total lives of all the deities, some billions of years, amount to a moment of the primary illusion… which means it all was false.  The life spans of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh are different from one another. I call them clocks. The clock named Brahma, how long did it tick? The clock named Vishnu ticked ten times longer, and the Mahesh clock ticked ten times that of Vishnu. The clock named Mula-Maya ticked only once, to equal the total time of all three. Thereafter, what happened to all of them? Nothing, as it was all an illusion.

A poor worker found the wallet of a rich man. It meant a great deal of wealth to him; he could use it for a lifetime. For the rich man it was his weekly spending money. Like that, a single moment of root-Maya corresponds to infinite cycles of cosmic manifestations. Once Maya is realized, are you going to hold onto it? Do not do anything… just understand. Maya is the name you have given to phenomena. Maya means a flood of experiences on a stage of experience. Maya is consciousness, the knowingness. It is there in all living beings. Maya treats the ignorant jiva as if he is a slave.

You all are on a stage performing. There is no reality about your comings and goings, and your problems are so unreal! The guru enters your dreamlike state to tell you: ‘Stop suffering, wake up!’

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 its own way.

Maya is the expression of that One which cannot be described.

Maya is a tragic comedy. Maya goes about in many costumes, but not a single one is true.

Nothing is really happening 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. The whole thing is an illusion, merely entertainment.

Whatever spiritual and worldly activities are happening through you are merely entertainments for passing time. They are only the functioning of the manifest dynamic principle… the Maya.

There is only Maha-Maya, the Great Illusion. She has to be dismissed after first worshipping her as God, or Brahman.  Then, Godhood is also dismissed simultaneously. A rare one will tell you this most secret knowledge. After worshipping the Self as God, ignorance will be revealed. Then no knowledge will be left. As spoken in the Vedas, one can go beyond karma after achieving knowledge of Brahman. It is rare to fine one who knows correctly and yet does not claim that he has the knowledge. Who is the knower? The jnani? He only knows that all this is ignorance.

What ever is, is your knowledge, ‘I am’. It is honest, it is dishonest. It is Maya, it is Brahman. What is the cause of ignorance? It is Maya, the illusion. Because of Maya there is a kind of stupefaction and obscuration of the intellect. You are neither Maya nor Brahman.

In the world there are so many people and they are so busy with their affairs that they do not have time to eat. These are the characteristics of the Maya. The great Maya principle is making you do all her tricks, and you are also abiding in what she says, and finally, that light of yours, that beingness, gets extinguished. Then where are you going?

You are already That from which your ‘I Am’ knowledge and experience of day and night have arisen. Only your ignorance has to drop. The experience is termed as the world. Do not get over impressed by great things. It is really the greatness of your vision that is imparted to those things. Your vision is the primary illusion, or the great God.

When we come to know we are, we like it and we want to sustain it. That is Maya.

The primary illusion expresses itself through Self-love, love for beingness. In your true Eternal state, the sense of being was absent. Its appearance is the most attractive. That is Mula-Maya. The sense of being is time-bound and not indefinite.

Can you use this Maya for anything? You might accumulate enormous wealth. Who is going to benefit after your death? Whatever you earn you will try to protect, but it is not going to comfort you, you are not going to see the world again, so everything is to be used by others. Even your knowledge will not remain personal, it is meant for others. It is all public, all non-personal.

Someone earns a lot of money in a city, goes back to his village, and builds a house. He dies after performing the ritual of entering the new house. He has no heir, so it goes to the Government. Maya is like that. It does not mean that one should not act at all, but what is the future of that action? And what is the future of such a person? This has to be understood… we cannot be of any use to ourselves. The jnani knows this.

The work is done for the one who clearly knows his own Self. Consciousness has to know only this… the form which is desired and known through consciousness is not one’s true nature. Consciousness means the guru, and the guru means consciousness. They are not apart. The ‘I am’ was not known, and is now known. This is the primordial Maya. The Lord, or a blade of grass, is the same for the one who has surrendered to the Sat-guru. Maya means self-love.

Whatever you see and perceive is all the play of Maya, the illusive principle. That which has no existence is asserting herself at present. That is Maya. Ma means: not. Ya means: which. That which has no existence is Maya.

The Maya, or illusion, shows us everything is false, but she herself is a cheat. A sick man was advised to drink the mixture after rubbing air on space for three days. For a jnani it does not matter whether she, Shakti-Maya, exists or not.

A jnani knows that everything is not, everything will not be, and everything has never been.

This is the province of Maya: A person comes to the Guru with the sincere intention of spiritual search, then this Maya shows him a little bit of temptation and off he goes.

Nobody has been able to change that Maya. Just observe without accepting or rejecting.

Whatever concept one has will happen. How can concepts survive without the food body? That ‘I Amness’ is not extinguished immediately, it is prolonged for some time in the form of subtle body. The physical shape is gone, but the desires contained in the subtle body are not dissolved. The consciousness endures so long as a particle of the food essence persists. Krishna said: “I have put these various beings on the top of a machine of this illusion. They are mechanically going round”. The mechanical motive force for the movement of all these beings is Maya, ‘I Am’, ‘I love’. The nature of this love is greed, great liking, intense desire to be. How passionately fond of life we are. That is the primordial Maya… ’I love to be’.

You are an illusion, Maya, an imagination. The ‘I’ that appears is unreal. I know I am unreal. This knowledge within you that knows that the ‘I’ is unreal, that knowledge which knows change, must itself be changeless, permanent.

Maya does not give miseries, instead she serves spiritual effort.

The original illusion, which is without words, will not stop acting. You cannot remove the original illusion… it has to continue. Subsequent illusions you can remove, but not the original illusion. The original Maya has no colour, no shape, nothing at all. You cannot conceive of that original Maya.

This Maya does not operate independently… we, you and it, are partners. Will you dare divorce yourself from this Maya? No, you 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.

The dream appears to be beginningless, but in fact it is only now. From moment to moment you are renewing it. Once you have seen that you are dreaming, you shall wake up. But you do not see because you want the dream to continue. A day will come when you will long for the ending of the dream, with all your heart and mind, and be willing to pay any price. The price will be dispassion and detachment, the loss of interest in the dream itself.

If both dream and escape from dream are imaginings, what is the way out? There is no need of a way out! Don’t you see that a way out is also part of the dream? All you have to do is to see the dream as dream. The very idea of going beyond the dream is illusory. Why go anywhere? Just realize you are dreaming a dream you call the world, and stop looking for ways out. The dream is not your problem. Your problem is that you like one part of your dream and not another. Love all, or none of it, and stop complaining. When you have seen the dream as a dream, you have done all that needs be done.

The end of illusion comes when you catch hold of that principle, that consciousness, which moves about in various disguises. You will see this principle as a snake, as a buffalo, and then as something else.

What you see as false, dissolves. It is the very nature of illusion to dissolve on investigation. Investigate… that is all. You cannot destroy the false, for you are creating it all the time. Withdraw from it, ignore it, and it will cease to be.

There is no such thing as Maya. Under the influence of Maya, consciousness has identified with the body. For example, it makes an individual take pride in the body. Prior to such a belief, consciousness is formless, thought-free Absolute. Consciousness is the undifferentiated Absolute. After believing otherwise, whatever happens is delusive. A slight modification in consciousness creates the world. A concept arose in the Absolute and that is Maya. Because the mind takes responsibility, this worldly life has to be suffered. The company of the body and mind was not there before, and will not be there in the future. The body contains pure, self-luminous consciousness. It has no bondage. The Self sees everything, senses everything, yet it itself cannot be seen or sensed. It knows the actions of the mind, but it is not the mind. If there is a conviction that you are not the body, you will understand that the whole world is motivated by your own knowingness.

The concept ‘I am’ is the primordial Maya. Along with that God, Ishvara, and the whole manifestation, the entire universe, has come. Otherwise there is absolutely nothing. In the state of the Absolute there is neither Being nor non-Being.

Parabrahman is not conditioned by Maya, because to the Parabrahman, Maya does not exist.

12. The Show – Entertainment

The world-play is an image created by consciousness. The world is a passing show that is in a state of flux continually. The world as a passing show is thrown like a picture on your beingness.

The world is but a show, glittering and empty. It is, and yet is not. It is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it. When I cease caring, it dissolves. It has no cause and serves no purpose. It just happens when we are absent-minded. It appears exactly as it looks, but there is no depth in it, nor meaning. Only the onlooker is real, call him Self or Atma. To the Self the world is but a colourful show, which he enjoys as long as it lasts and forgets when it is over. Whatever happens on the stage makes him shudder in terror or roll with laughter, yet all the time he is aware that it is but a show. Without desire or fear he enjoys it, as it happens.

It is all lila (play), you have nothing to do with it.

Plays are written, planned and rehearsed, but the world just sprouts into being out of nothing and returns to nothing. Obsessed with the idea of means and end, of work and purpose, you see me apparently functioning. In reality I only look. Whatever is done, is done on the stage. Joy and sorrow, life and death, they are all real to the man in bondage. To me they are all in the show, as unreal as the show itself. I perceive the world just like you, but you believe to be in it, while I see it as an iridescent drop in the vast expanse of consciousness.

All the difficulties in one’s life should be merely watched like something in a play. When one scene is finished, another scene takes place. The entire play does not take place anywhere but in yourself. Ultimately the scenes that take place are merely movements in your own consciousness.

A minute sphere of consciousness has become the great expanse of existence… the universe of matter and energy. Is it not a miracle? The size of our earth is so minute, as compared to the total existence. A small particle of sattva on this earth has consciousness, which contains the whole existence. What more do you need to believe in miracles?

They are all appearances in consciousness, and 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.

All this is the sport of the self-luminous consciousness. It has come unasked for. Is there no attachment, greed, or love at all? Yes, they are there, but all are untrue… just an appearance. They are true only for that moment. They are thoughts hanging in the sky. They act through the vital force, the prana, of beings created from earth. They are not your thoughts.

Consciousness is the entertainment. It needs no other means to entertain itself.

Consciousness has kept you entranced in the play of the world. Enquire about consciousness and what is the source of it.

How did the show start? There is no reason, no cause, no purpose. It is spontaneously happening. No one is working deliberately.

Observe your present life, how and why it has become like this. Know that this is a temporary show. Your consciousness is the golden womb through which the world has been created. Through conception, the unmanifest becomes manifest.

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. You have to understand that the principle which you are using to talk, to move about, and operate in this world, is not you.

You are not a director, but only a helpless actor of your life-show.

Once you realize that all these goings-on are the products and play of the five elements, in the realm of beingness, you remain unaffected by it and apart from it. Just as a dead man does not interfere with the affairs of a live one, so similarly the one who has understood and realized the beingness is not interested in the activities and happenings within the domain of beingness.

Nothing is true. From beginning to end, it is all a play. Discriminate. Do not fall into delusion. You are true, eternal, and beyond all states of being.

Everything will happen, you have no control over it. It is a misconception to think I can control what I do. 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.

The mind is both the actor and the stage. All is of the mind, and you are not the mind. The mind is born and reborn, not you. The mind creates the world and all the wonderful variety of it. Just like in a good play you have all sorts of characters and situations, so you need a little of everything to make a world.

Nobody suffers in a play? Unless one identifies himself with it. Do not identify yourself with the world and you will not suffer.

During the waking hours you are as if on the stage playing a role. But what are you when the play is over? You are what you are. What you were before the play began, you remain when it is over. The performance may be splendid or clumsy, but you are not in it, you merely watch it, with interest and sympathy. Keep in mind all the time that you are only watching while the play… life… is going on.

Your everyday life, wife, children, are nothing but entertainment. The various spiritual methods are also entertainment. From birth to death, all actions are performed in order to pass the time. All entertainment is supplied to you, for example: work, family, etc, for passing the time. All this has come to be created just as entertainment. It has no rules.

It is the real that creates the urge; the inner prompts the outer and the outer responds in interest and effort. But ultimately there is no inner, nor outer; the light of consciousness is both the creator and the creature, the experiencer and the experience, the body and the embodied. A power projects all this, take care of it and all your problems will come to an end. The projecting power is imagination prompted by desire.

I am like a cinema screen… clear and empty… the pictures pass over it and disappear, leaving it as clear and empty as before. In no way is the screen affected by the pictures, nor are the pictures affected by the screen. The screen intercepts and reflects the pictures, it does not shape them. It has nothing to do with the rolls of films. These are as they are, lumps of destiny (prarabdha), but not my destiny; the destinies of the people on the screen.  In reality nothing happens. Onto the screen of the mind destiny forever projects its pictures, memories of former projections and thus the illusion constantly renews itself. The pictures come and go… light intercepted by ignorance. See the light and disregard the picture.

You are pure light appearing as a picture on the screen and also becoming one with it. All is in the picture exposed on the cinema screen, nothing is in the light, including what you take yourself to be, the person. You are the light only.

Your pure state is winding up the show.

13. The World

Of the entire universe you are the subtle cause. All is because you are.

Trace the world to its source, and you will find that before the world was, you were, and when the world is no longer, you remain.

As the tiny point of a pencil can draw innumerable pictures, so does the dimensionless point of awareness draw the contents of the vast universe. Find that point and be free. You create this world out of your own memories. As long as you are ignorant of yourself as the creator, your world is limited and repetitive. Once you go beyond your self-identification with your past, you are free to create a new world of harmony and beauty. Or you just remain… beyond being and non-being.

The vast universe arises from the Brahma-randhra, the aperture in the crown of the head. All knowledge comes out of the Brahma-atom, and it merges back into it at the end.

The vast world arises out of ignorance and subsides in ignorance. It is unreal. There is no cause for the creation of this objective world. It has come spontaneously, there was no action on anyone’s part. God is not running the world. Nobody is running the world. All happens by itself. All is a play in consciousness.

The traditional view is that Brahman created the world, Vishnu maintains it, and Shiva destroys it. Is this Brahman who creates the world the same as the Brahma-randhra out of which the sense of ‘I Am’ comes? If so, Brahman is therefore this ‘I Amness’. All these names are given to it. Whatever is time-bound is created out of the beingness.

There is nothing outside the Brahma-randhra in the crown of your head. Whatever is seen and sensed exists in that aperture. The whole world got created in the void of the subtle consciousness. Then it was felt that we are in the world… and the misery started. But when this ‘I amness’ goes, we are free. It is all enacted in the cerebral aperture. One feels one is awake in that aperture, and the vast world is created. When there is a change in that aperture, the world also changes.

Why would a merciful God create a world like this, where life depends on life? That is why there is no creator. The world is there due to duality. No duality, no world.

Once you admit a cause, then God is the ultimate cause and the world the effect. They are different, but not separate. When you see the world you see God. There is no seeing God apart from the world. Beyond the world to see God is to be God. The light by which you see the world, which is God, is the tiny little spark ‘I Am’, apparently so small, yet the first and the last in every act of knowing and loving.

This manifest world is the dynamic play of the five elements. In that there is no scope for an individual. A diamond radiates light all around; it is radiance itself. In deep meditation you will realize that, like the brilliance emanating from a diamond in all directions, the manifest world emanates out of you. It is your effulgence only.

Yours is the desire that creates the universe. Know the world as your own creation and be free. You are the maker of the world in which you live. You alone can change it, or unmake it.

Your dream is your own, no one else can watch it. Similarly, your world is your own.

Everyone creates a world for himself and lives in it, imprisoned by one’s ignorance. All we have to do is to deny reality to our prison. You have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination, based on memories, on desires, and fears, and you have imprisoned yourself in it. Break the spell and be free. This world is painted by you on the screen of consciousness, and is entirely your own private world. Only your sense ‘I Am’, though in the world, is not of the world. Once you realize that the world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your own imagination! Realize that there is nobody to force the world on you, that it is due to the habit of taking the imaginary to be real.

The world that I see is my own expression. All the information I get about this world, is my own information. For you, that man and that woman are different. Even a man acting as a woman in a drama, does not forget he is a man. For me, all are myself. All names and forms are my own. To consider oneself as a man or a woman is a kind of sickness.

The entire world is the expression of the Self. Also the tiniest of the tiny, like an atom, is the Self. Beingness is like a seed and is very tiny, but its expression is the manifest world. The seed contains the substance which is the very source of love. Having provided love to the entire manifest world, the remnant is that ‘I am’.

Who upholds this universe with its sun, moon and stars? It is the same One who sees it.

Self is light. When the jivatman emanates light, he sees the world. The reflection of the world appears in your knowingness.

Your weakness is due to your conviction that you were born into the world. In reality the world is ever recreated in you and by you. See everything as emanating from the light which is the source of your own being. You will find in that light there is love and infinite energy.

Your being and the world are one only. Just like the sun and its light. You are the sun, and the world is your light.

All your world is the creation of your beingness.

The entire world is the body of the beingness, the play of beingness. The manifest world is the play of beingness. Similarly, on a TV screen you might see rocks, trees, an ocean, people. Who is playing those parts? It is the light only. Having realized this go into quietude and understand that in the cell of beingness many universes are playing about.

This world is only for the moment. So long as the beingness is there the world is there. Without my beingness there is no world.

The reason the world appeared is that you came to know that you are. Because you are your world is. Our true nature is the Self. It appears to me as ‘I am’, and the world follows. One out of a million, a rare one, will say: “The world is because I am.” All the others will say: “The world existed previously, before I came into it.” When you say: “I am  the world, and the world is I”… this pertains to the manifested consciousness only.

The world is there because I am, but I am not the world. I am neither the potentiality, nor the actualization, nor the actuality, of things. In my light they come and go as the specks of dust dancing in the sunbeam. The light illumines the specks, but does not depend on them. Nor can it be said to create them. It cannot be even be said to know them.

Because you are, all the worlds, the universe is… this is your reflection. The sun and the moon are the reflections of that very principle ‘I Am’. You are that speck of consciousness and out of that the entire cosmos is created. It is very rare to meet anyone who considers the sun and the moon and the universe as their expressions.

The knowledge ‘you are’ is the seed of the world that you see. The dream ‘you are’ gives rise to your dream world. The waking ‘you are’ gives rise to this world. As ‘you are’ itself is an illusion, both the worlds are false. I do not experience the world through books. The world is my direct experience. It is the quality of my ‘I Am’ knowledge. I exist, hence I see my world. The world is made up of the five elements. These elements do not follow any guidelines. They are free to behave as they like. Hence, the world is as it is.

Your world exists when you know you are. In deep sleep you do not know you are… and there is no world. Just as you recreate your world on waking up, so is the universe unrolled.

The moment the feeling ‘I Am’ appears, the world also appears. There is a vast tree above the ground because of the underground roots. Where is your world, if your ‘I Am’ knowledge is absent? Your world is the light of your Self, Atmaprakash.

The world is nothing but the picture of your own ‘I’ consciousness. It is as if you had received a communication telling you that you are, and immediately the world appears. When you are in deep sleep and you feel that you are awake, the dream world appears simultaneously. With the ‘I Am’, the world appears in the waking and dream states.

When you sit quietly, being one with the knowledge ‘I Am’, then you are not concerned with the world or what goes on in the world.

‘I’ 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.

The world is contained in that tiny spot of consciousness which I am. Before the world was, consciousness was. In consciousness it comes into being, in consciousness it lasts, and into pure consciousness it dissolves. At the root of everything is the feeling ‘I Am’. The state of mind: ‘there is a world’ is secondary, for to be, I do not need the world. The world needs me.

Consciousness and the world appear and disappear together, therefore they are two aspects of the same state.

People think the world is old. Actually, the world rises with your consciousness. This is called Maya. There is nothing there and yet it plays so much havoc! In this world there are no beings that are born, or living, or dead. Nothing of the sort. It is just a play in consciousness.

Consciousness as ‘I am’ is atomic. The moment it comes into being, it becomes self-luminous and creates the immense world. How can you put an end to the things that have been created by your own light? Your consciousness contains the immense phenomenal world, yet it appears outside. As the world is created from this subtle consciousness, it is untrue. Only Brahman is true.

The source of the universe is your consciousness only. The very world and universe are contained in the speck of your consciousness only. The world is seen within consciousness, which itself has been created through ignorance.

The world appears in consciousness, which is the totality of the known in the immensity of the unknown. What begins and ends is mere appearance. The world can be said to appear, but not to be. The appearance may last very long on some scale of time, and be very short on another, but ultimately it comes to the same. Whatever is time-bound is momentary and has no reality.

The world is a fun-game created out of one’s own existence. No one can stop the process of creation, maintenance and dissolution of the world. This is because there is no creator. With a slight illumination of consciousness, the universe and its infinite space is created. It is the wonder of the subtle consciousness.

The world has been created within the light of your consciousness. Your world is in your consciousness, as sunlight is in the sun. When there is consciousness, there is the five elements, the three gunas, Prakriti and Purusha.

Without imagination there is no world. Your conviction that you are conscious of a world is the world. The world you perceive is made of consciousness; what you call matter is consciousness itself. You are the space (akasha) in which it moves, the time in which it lasts, the love that gives it life. Cut off imagination and attachment and what remains?

The world hangs on the thread of consciousness; no consciousness, no world. The world exists for you only when you are conscious. If you are not conscious then there is no world for you. There is nothing there. If there is no consciousness there is no sense of time.

There is a power in the body which is the root of the existence and maintenance of the entire universe. Whatever upheavals occur in the world, they are movements in that power. And whatever events take place are movements in that consciousness.

The whole universe is experienced in the consciousness ‘I Am’. If that is not there, what else can ever exist? The world exists in this speck of consciousness, and this consciousness can only exist if there is food.

When you are not conscious, your world does not exist. You are conscious of your presence and the world outside, but they are not two things.

The world functions with the understanding that all bodies, and the world, are real. In reality, both are false… and that is true understanding. The bodies and the world are made of the same five elements. Body consciousness is because of the five elements. Consciousness is because the body is. Brahman is because the consciousness is. Without the bodily consciousness there is no Brahman. Body consciousness and the world are not different, they are identical.

Who came first, the world or the one who sees the world? First comes consciousness, and then the world is seen in it. Consciousness is unstable. It likes to be. However, when ‘I amness’ goes, so does the world. This vast panoramic world is the reflection of your consciousness.

However great a thing is in the world, it is still a piece of information. If there is no consciousness, of what use is it? Never lose sight of the holy consciousness that is listening to this knowledge.

The world can exist only if this psychosomatic apparatus is there. Know this to be just an apparatus, and be apart from it. The world will last only as long as your consciousness lasts. You will be interested in this world as long as your body identity remains. The whole universe is alive as long as you have this consciousness. Once this consciousness is gone from you, nothing is there. So long as the consciousness is there everything is so important to you, but if that vanishes, then what is the worth of the world to you?

I have no work to do, no duties to perform. That part of me which you may call God will look after the world. This world of yours, that so much needs looking after, lives and moves in your mind. Outside your consciousness nothing exists.

Thinking yourself to be the body you know the world as a collection of material things. When you know yourself as a centre of consciousness, the world appears as the ocean of the mind. When you know yourself as you are in reality, you know the world as yourself.

Make full use of your mind. Your mind is free to roam the three worlds.

The world is within me, I am not within the world.

The whole existence of the world is within you. The universe is formed from your own light. It is bondage to think that you live in the light of the world. It is the other way around. The universe is fabricated by your unique consciousness.

We live in one world, only I see it as it is, while you do not. You see yourself in the world, while I see the world in myself. To you, you get born and die, while to me the world appears and disappears. Our world is real, but your view of it is not.

Do you experience the world in your life, or do you experience your life in your world? If you are not, where is your world? Hence, you come first, and then your world. You experience the world in your life.

The world is full of contradictions, hence your search for harmony and peace. These you cannot find in the world, for the world is the child of chaos. To find order you must search within. The world comes into being only when you are born in a body. No body… no world. First enquire whether you are the body. The understanding of the world will come later.

Once you realize, beyond all trace of doubt that the world is in you and not you in the world, you are out of it. Of course the body remains in the world and of the world, but you are not deluded by it.

What is the world after all? A collection of memories.

In the immensity of consciousness a light appears, a tiny point that moves rapidly and traces shapes, thoughts and feelings, concepts and ideas, like the pen writing on paper. And the ink that leaves a trace is memory. You are that tiny point and by your movement the world is ever recreated. Stop moving, and there will be no world. Look within and you will find that the point of light is the reflection of the immensity of light in the body, as the sense ‘I Am’. There is only light, all else appears. To the mind it appears as darkness. It can be known only through its reflections. All is seen in daylight… except daylight.

I do not need the world. Nor am I in one. The world you think of is in your own mind. I can see it through your eyes and mind, but I am fully aware that it is a projection of memories. It is touched by the real only at the point of awareness, which can be only now.

In your case the world occupies the entire field of consciousness, in the case of the jnani the world is a mere speck. The world lasts, but for a moment. It is your memory that makes you think that the world continues, but the jnani does not live by memory and sees the world as it is, a momentary appearance in consciousness.

There is nothing wrong with the senses, it is your imagination which misleads you. It covers up the world as it is, with what you imagine it to be… something existing independently of you. You cling to the idea that you were born into a world of pain and sorrow, whereas I know that the world is a child of love, having its beginning, growth, and fulfilment in love. But I am beyond love even.

See yourself as you are and you will see the world as it is… a single block of reality, indivisible, indescribable.

The world is an illusion, it is not eternal.

The entire universe is based on the concept ‘I Am’. It is illusory, imaginary, there is no substance to it.

There is this world and we have its knowledge. Both the world and its knowledge, as well as God, Ishvara, are false. I know it.

When you wake up you have only the sense of being, without words. Later you know fully that you are and the world is, but that is an illusion.

We feel the world to be real because we feel our body to be real, and vice-versa. Though the world is immense, there is not an iota of truth in it. The unmanifest became manifest and created the mind. The mind created the world.

Everyone lives in his own world. Not all the worlds are equally good or bad. The mind projects the world, colours it its own way. When you meet a man, he is a stranger. When you marry him, he becomes your own self. When you quarrel, he becomes your enemy. It is your mind’s attitude that determines what he is to you. The world is illusory as long as it is subjective, and to that extent only. Reality lies in objectivity.

As long as you believe that only the outer world is real, you remain its slave.

Are you sure you and I live in the same world? My mind is not here, my life is not here. Your world of desires and their fulfilments, of fears and their escapes, is definitely not my world. I do not even perceive it, except what you tell me about it. It is your private dream world, and my only reaction to it is to ask you to stop dreaming.

You create the world in your imagination like a dream. Do not be afraid of a world you yourself have created. Cease from looking for happiness and reality in a dream, and you will wake up.

The world that you can perceive is a very small world indeed, and it is entirely private. You have furnished your world with your imaginations and expectations. Take it to be a dream and be done with it.

You live in a world of imaginings. Your world is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-changing dream, which you take for life. The jnani lives in a world of realities. His world is an open world, common to all, accessible to all. In his world there is community, insight, love, real quality, the individual is the total, and the totality is in the individual. All are one and the One is all.

To know the world is to forget the self. To know the self you forget the world. We have divorced ourselves in our imagination from the real world of common experience and enclosed ourselves in a cloud of personal desires and fears, images and thoughts, ideas and concepts. There are many, all sleeping, all dreaming, each dreaming his own personal dream. All the dreams are superimposed over a common world. To some extent they shape and influence each other. The basic unity operates in spite of all. At the root of it all lies self-forgetfulness… not knowing who I am.

That which was motionless stirred a little and created the dream world. It really means that you are the creator. The vision that has created the world is itself untrue. It seems many things were done in that dream but, really speaking, was anything done? Can anyone take credit whatsoever for the doership of this body-form?

The aspirant has no form, yet, because of his light the world becomes visible. When you see a dream, which light do you see it by? The dream is created out of your own light.

Just as the dream world, uncalled for, has appeared and you observe it, similarly this world, uncalled for, has appeared and you are compelled to observe it. Just observe.

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.

The universe is a stage on which a world drama is being played. The quality of the performance is all that matters: not what the actors say and do, but how they say and do it.

The world is entertainment to you only when you know you are identified with your body, and consider other people also as bodies, not as knowledge.

Your personal universe does not exist by itself. It is merely a limited and distorted view of the real. It is not the universe that needs improving, but your way of looking.

The world-phenomenon is a characteristic of your consciousness. In fact, nothing has happened.

It is your mind that has separated the world outside your skin from the world inside, and put them in opposition. This created fear and hatred and all the miseries of living. Your world appears and disappears according to the state of your mind. The jnani’s world is real, true, as it is perceived. Your world is something alien, and you are afraid of it. The jnani’s world is himself, and he is at home.

Within the prison of your world appears a Guru who tells you that the world of painful contradictions, which you have created, is neither continuous nor permanent, and is based on a misapprehension. He pleads with you to get out of it, by the same way by which you got into it. You got into it by forgetting what you are, and you will get out of it by knowing yourself as you are.

I move in and out of consciousness easily and naturally, and therefore to me the world is a home, not a prison.

Attraction to the world takes the form of craving for the respect of others, and craving for more knowledge of more arts. Craving means that you think it has some benefits, some opportunities.

Through desire you have created the world with its pains and pleasures. By its very nature pleasure is limited and transitory. Out of pain desire is born, in pain it seeks fulfilment, and it ends in the pain of frustration and despair. Pain is the background of pleasure, all seeking of pleasure is born in pain and ends in pain. The world is the abode of desires and fears. You cannot find peace in it. For peace you must go beyond the world. The root cause of the world is self-love. Because of it we seek pleasure and avoid pain. Replace self-love by the love of the Self and the picture changes. Brahma the Creator is the sum total of all desires. The world is the instrument for their fulfilment. Souls take whatever pleasure they desire and pay for them in tears. Time squares all accounts. The law of balance reigns supreme.

The deep urge to know the truth will definitely occur, but if you desire to inquire into and to understand this entire world of objects, you will never reach the goal of knowing yourself. You will be captivated by the world.

If you attempt to investigate the world of your observation, you will never reach your destination. You need to give up what you have heard and abide in your Self. If you attempt to investigate this entire manifest world you will be caught more and more in a quagmire. Unless you abide in yourself you will not understand all this manifest world.

Go beyond seeing the world as a collection of names and forms, or objects and bodies.

What you see, this world is nothing other than the forms taken by the imagination of the human intellect. The world has been made beautiful by the ideas flowing out in a human form. The concept ‘I am’ in human form has great powers. But identification with the body has resulted in the tragedy of death.

There is the material world (mahadakash) and the spiritual world (paramakash). Between lies the universal mind (chidakash), which is also the universal heart (premakash). It is wise love that makes the two one. There is a mental or psychological link between the spirit and matter. The link may be called psyche or nature (antahkarana). When the nature is raw, undeveloped, quite primitive, it is subject to gross illusions. As it grows in breadth and sensitivity, it becomes a perfect link between pure matter and pure spirit, and gives meaning to matter and expression to spirit.

The world and your consciousness are not separate. Have the courage to say: ‘The whole world is my own form, my nature’.

My actual experience is not different from yours. It is my evaluation and attitude that differ. I see the same world as you do, but not the same way. There is nothing mysterious about it. Everybody sees the world through the idea he has of himself. As you think yourself to be, so you think the world to be. If you imagine yourself as separate from the world, the world will appear as separate from you, and you will experience desire and fear. I do not see the world as separate from me and so there is nothing for me to desire, or fear.

What is in the body is of the nature of the rest of the world. But, when it considers itself as the body, it becomes different from the world. To be one with the world means to have devotion for all beings, as if they are God.

No one can change the world in the smallest degree, not even sages. Whatever happens, happens.

There is nothing wrong with the world, but for the people who make it bad. Go and ask them to behave. As long as human behaviour is dominated by desire and fear, there is not much hope.

You cannot change the world before changing yourself. It is neither necessary nor possible to change others. But if you change yourself you will find that no other change is needed. To change the picture you merely change the film, you do not attack the cinema screen.

Only those who know the self, who have seen beyond the world, can improve the world. What is in the world cannot save the world. If you really care to help the world, you must step out of it. Whatever is happening in the world is in the nature of a dream. One who knows this cannot be interested in improving such a world. He does not concern himself with the behaviour in the world.

The world suffers for very valid reasons. If you want to help the world, you must be beyond the need of help. Then all your doing, as well as not doing, will help the world most effectively. By all means help the world. You will not help much, but the effort will make you grow. When the time comes for the world to be helped, some people are given the will, the wisdom, and the power to cause great changes.

To take appearance for reality is a grievous sin and the cause of all calamities. You have created the world’s sorrows out of your own desires and fears. It is all due to your having forgotten your own being. Once having given reality to the picture on the screen, you love its people and suffer for them and seek to save them. You must begin with yourself, there is no other way. You believe that you are in the world, not the world in you. You are the source and the end of every event. Control is possible at the source itself. Causes, or no causes, a world of which you are the only source and ground is fully within your power to change, because what is created can always be dissolved and re-created. All will happen as you want it, provided you really want it.

You must see what the relationship is between you and the world. So long as you have the concept that you are an individual, you will not get perfect bliss. You are not created by anyone. You have no parents. You are self-luminous. The entire panorama, which is the cosmos, is your own visible form. How can one, whose form consists of the universe, have parents? Your very life is keeping the cosmos alive. You have no responsibilities, either as an individual or as the totality. You mistake your ego as your Self. That is the reason for the delusion. You create responsibility with your own concept… actually you have no responsibility. Your body-consciousness creates the sense of responsibility.

You take the world too seriously. What is wrong with play? You have a purpose only as long as you are not complete (purna); until then completeness, perfection is the purpose. But when you are complete in yourself, fully integrated within and without, then you enjoy the universe; you do not labour at it.

Some Mahatmas teach that: “The world is not an accident nor a play of God, but the result of a plan of work that aims at awakening and developing consciousness throughout the universe. The world is good and serves a good purpose.” Although such teachers concede that “the world is a mental structure and ultimately all is one; the structure has meaning and serves a desirable purpose, and like a gardener, God in His own garden grows beings, men into supermen. The will of God is an expression of an absolute necessity to grow in love and wisdom and power, to actualize the infinite potentials of life and consciousness.”… This is right for the outgoing path (pravritti), but for the return path (nivritti) naughting oneself is necessary. Take your stand where nothing is (paramakash). Words do not reach there, nor thoughts. To the mind it is all darkness and silence. Then consciousness begins to stir and wakes up the mind (chidakash), which projects the world (maha-akash), built of memory and imagination. Once the world comes into being all that these Mahatmas say may be so, because it is in the nature of the mind to imagine goals, to strive towards them. It is not denied that these are divine attributes, but take your stand where no difference exists, where things are not, nor the minds that create them. There you will be at home. There is no separation, we are not separate selves. There is only one self, the Supreme Reality, in which the personal and the impersonal are one.

If the world is false, then the plan and its creator are also false.

All that lives, works for protecting, perpetuating, and expanding consciousness. This is the world’s sole meaning and purpose. The entire universe becomes a school of Yoga… ever raising the level of consciousness, discovery of new dimensions, with their properties, qualities, and powers.

Because I am aware of my true nature I no longer need this consciousness, even for a few minutes. At the end of their life many will pay everything for an extension of it, but I have lost all love for this manifested world.

Where is the world for those who have realized? The world is in that beingness.

It is by your consent that the world exists. Withdraw your belief in its reality and it will dissolve like a dream.

Entire universes are imploding and exploding every moment.

You are not of the world. You are not even in the world. The world is not. You alone are. You have to realize that your awareness and the world are one and the same. Then you will also understand that you have no use for the world, nor are you of any use to the world.

In mundane, worldly matters you have recourse to spirituality to understand how unreal this is. Once you understand the object of spirituality, you also understand that spirituality is unreal, and in the process you dismiss all this world.

The world of the realized man is perfect, changeless. It has no characteristics by which it can be identified. Nothing can be said about it. He is his world. His world is himself. It is complete and perfect. Every impression is erased, every experience rejected, he needs nothing, not even himself, for he cannot lose himself. His world is single and very simple. In his world nothing happens. His is a non-verbal world. In his world words and their contents have no being. There is eternal silence. His silence sings, his emptiness is full, he lacks nothing. He is completely without ideas. In his world nothing changes. You cannot say he is alone, or not alone, when words do not apply, but of course he is alone, for he is all. There are no ruler and ruled here. There is no duality whatsoever. His world is real, while yours is made of dreams, yours is of the mind. In your world he appears to have a name and shape, to display consciousness and activity, but in his world he has being only. You are free to leave your world for his. First see your world as it is, not as you imagine it to be

The world had all the time to get better, yet it did not. What hope is there for the future? Of course, there have been and will be periods of harmony and peace, when sattva was in the ascendance, but things get destroyed by their own perfection. A perfect society is necessarily static, and therefore it stagnates and decays. From the summit all roads lead downwards. Societies are like people: they are born, they grow to some point of relative perfection, and then decay and die.

Striving for the improvement of the world is a most praiseworthy occupation. Done selflessly, it clarifies the mind and purifies the heart. But soon man will realize that he pursues a mirage. Local and temporary improvement is always possible, and was achieved again and again under the influence of a great king or teacher, but it would soon come to an end, leaving humanity in a new cycle of misery. The only way to renewal lies through destruction. You must melt down the old jewellery into formless gold before you can mould a new one. Only the people who have gone beyond the world can change the world. It never happened otherwise. The few whose impact was long lasting were all knowers of reality. Reach their level and only then talk of helping the world.

The Self is the world.

Only the Parabrahman has the conviction that this world never existed.

14. Space

Once you accept time and space as real, you will consider yourself minute and short-lived. But are they real? Do time and space depend on you or you on them? As body you are in space. As mind you are in time. But you are not mere body with a mind in it.

The ‘here’ is everywhere and the ‘now’ is always. Go beyond the ‘I-am-the-body’ idea and you will find that space and time are in you, and not you in space and time. Once you have understood this, the main obstacle to realization is removed.

Space is created.

Everything starts, everything happens, in the space of the cosmos, and it results in concrete actions of the worldly space. Whatever happens in this concrete world, the instruments and the aids come from the space. The raw material comes from the space. Words or sounds are expressions of the space. The space is there prior to the light. All is spontaneous, there is no author.

The four elements are presided over by space. In what activity is space engaged?

All this is the product of the five elements, and the elements, including space are substances. Space is like darkness, nothingness, like night. Out of space vital breath arose as a vibration.

Who is born? Prana comes from space, mind arises from prana, and you identify with the mind. When it is understood that ‘I’ am not an object and have no form, one knows that whatever is seen is not ‘I’. Everything is in space. Even desire is of the nature of space. Space will take the shape of concepts that you give to it. The primordial Maya is of the nature of space.

Maha-akasha is nature, the ocean of existences, the physical space with all that can be contacted through the senses. Chidakasha is the expanse of awareness, the mental space of time, perception and cognition. Paramakasha is the timeless and spaceless reality, mindless, undifferentiated, the infinite potentiality, the source and origin, the substance and the essence, both matter and consciousness… yet beyond both. It cannot be perceived, but can be experienced as ever witnessing the witness, perceiving the perceiver, the origin and the end of all manifestation, the root of time and space, the prime cause in every chain of causation.

Mahakasha is the infinite space. The infinite space is dark. In that physical space all the universe arises and sets and is destroyed. All the experiences that are going on in the play of consciousness, they are just gone, ending up in pure space. The whole world is in an ever-changing state, and no form will remain permanently. Finally all the forms will vanish in space and become formless. Millions of people, animals, and other beings have come and gone, but the sum total of the universe does not become more or less. It remains unchanged. They have never become less. They are always there.

One space is covered by more subtle and more expansive space. The space of the world is there because of the space of the mind, or prior to mind. At the base of space is the knowledge ‘I Am’.  The space is contained in the knowledge ‘I Am’, and prior to ‘I Am’ is chidakasha. Chidakasha is the source of the universe. Chidakasha is the root of the mind space. Because of the chidakasha, the great space, mahakasha, is there.

Chidakasha is that raw material by which you evaluate whatever you experience or whatever you observe. In Chidakasha you evaluate the world as name and form, that a form is like this or like that, but when name and form are dissolved, a dissolution takes place. All forms dissolve in Mahakasha. In the process of becoming more subtle, the external forms are dissolved into Mahakasha… no more names and forms. Simultaneously the process of evaluation and mind functioning stops, dissolves itself into Chidakasha. When evaluation is not there, the mind is like space. When both Mahakasha and Chidakasha become still, it is space only and you are the space. You should be like space. If you are the space and not the body, then at that stage the body does not remain the body because there is no one to evaluate the body as body.

The quality of knowingness, which is within, is called Chidakasha. The light of the space of consciousness has blazed into such a dazzling conflagration that it is called Mahakasha. The space of consciousness is smaller than the subtlest. What happens in the Chidakasha is absorbed, and photographic pictures are taken immediately. These are the impressions you store. Unless you know your eternal nature, it will go on the same way, (ie recur). The wish that one’s consciousness should last forever is the root-Maya. It is the source of devotion and love. That is called Chidakasha. The universe is created in that. The original nature of it is not to be, not to exist. If you know this well there will not be any loss if and when the visible comes to an end.

When you are the space you are no more the body, but whatever is contained in the space, and the space, you are. This space is known as Chidakasha. When you are the Chidakash you are subtler than the physical space, expansiveness is more. In Chidakasha you are still confined, still conditioned by thinking ‘I Am’, therefore the next is Paramakasha. Paramakasha is the highest, in which there are other akashas… seven. In Chidakasha this knowingness is ‘I Am’, but in Paramakasha there is no is, or is not, It transcends everything.

The entire universe (Maha-akasha) exists only in consciousness (Chidakasha), while I have my stand in the Absolute (Paramakasha).

Before you think… you are. In the space all movement happens, for any appearance or any movement, the space must be there.

Prakriti and Purusha, these are two principles. Purusha means stationary, Prakriti is the movement. They have no body or form. Beginning from space, which is steady, there is the movement of the air, Prakriti. The Prakriti projections begin there. With the air and the sky there is friction, and out of the friction there is heat, and when this heat subsides it oozes in the form of water. The water falls as rain, and where it settles the earth formation takes place, and out of the earth the sprouting of the vegetation occurs. At the stage of earth and vegetation only the formation of bodies, forms, shapes, takes place. Then various insects, animals, human species, are born, but all the formation is already decided in the space. The fate is already sealed in the space. There is the contact of Purusha and Prakriti in the space, and its final culmination is the creation of human bodies. It is all the play of Prakriti and Purusha. It is not real, but in the realm of Maya it is real. Understand all this game and get out of it. Understand how futile it is to have this shape.

The very base is that you do not know you are. Suddenly the feeling of ‘I Amness’ appears. The moment it appears you see space, mental space, that subtle sky-like space. 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 will also disappear. There is no space. When that space-like ‘I Am’ goes into oblivion, that is the eternal state, nirguna… no form, no beingness.

As soon as consciousness stirred, space-time came. In this space-time everyone suffers.

When you become one with consciousness you become one with space.

Space is everywhere but consciousness is prior to space. The light of consciousness is space. You will experience its vastness when your body-consciousness goes. All that is seen and perceived in space is the creation of consciousness and is infused with it. The entire created world of form will finally merge into space.

Your consciousness, the sense of presence, is the very shell in which the waking world or the dream world proliferates. In your consciousness, in the sense that ‘I Am’, an inner world is being perceived as something external, as something taking place in the waking state, but it is a dream. Whatever is visible or perceptible is an outcome of space only. When all that disappears, again space prevails. Your world concretizes out of space and in space, and you term all that with various names and titles for your convenience to carry out your day-to-day activities. In reality none of such creations has any valid form or individuality of its own. ‘I Amness’ and the world are one.

The form of your consciousness is space. When space and I are not different, wherever I go that will be the place where I am already present. You will slowly realize you are just like space, because space is the beginning and the end of everything. The world is in space, but you are prior to space.

You are void just like space. Just as space is unbroken, so are you. You are neither small, nor big. You have filled each and every void, and still you are. You are all pervading space that is prior to words and is called consciousness. It is of the nature of Self-love. Because it is prior to words, it can have no meaning.

When you are stabilized in your own Self, then there is no otherness, you are everything. If you abide in your Self you are like space and there is no duality left. You are as expansive and as subtle as the space, and that is liberation. You are not conditioned by any name or form. If you are like space, what is the point of going elsewhere? The space which is here is also everywhere else.

Know yourself as beyond space and time, in contact with them only at the point of here and now. The Self is subtler that the space.

15. Time

What is time? Time means space.

In time and space there is eternal flow, birth and death again, advance, retreat, another advance, again retreat… apparently without a beginning and without an end.

Time is a succession of moments; each moment appears out of nothing and disappears into nothing, never to reappear.

The memory of an event cannot pass for the event itself, nor can the anticipation. There is something exceptional, unique, about the present event, which the previous and the coming do not have. It stands out as if illumined. There is the stamp of reality on the actual, which the past and future do not have. But there is nothing peculiar in the present event to make it different from the past and future, because for a moment the past was actual and the future will become so. The past is in memory, the future is in imagination, and there is nothing in the present event itself that makes it stand out as real. What makes the present different is obviously my presence. I am real because I am always now, in the present. It is what is with me that now shares in my reality. A thing focused in the now is with me, for I am ever present. It is my own reality that I impart to the present event.

When you know the habit of longing for the known past, and fearing the unknown future, are in the mind only, you can go beyond them. Past and future are in the mind only. I am in svarupa, in my own state, timelessly in the now. I am now.

Time is endless, though limited. Eternity is in the split moment of the now. We miss it because the mind is ever shuttling between the past and the future. It will not stop to focus the now. It can be done with comparative ease, if interest is aroused. Once you are well established in the now, you have nowhere else to go.

The sense ‘I am a person in time and space’ is poison. In a way, time itself is the poison. In time all things come to an end, and new are born, to be devoured in their turn. Do not identify yourself with time, do not ask anxiously: “What next, what next?” Step out of time and see it devour the world. Say: “Well, it is in the nature of time to put an end to everything. Let it be. It does not concern me. I am not combustible, nor do I need to collect fuel”.

Without memory and expectation there can be no time.

In nature everything is time-bound, but nature itself is not time-bound.

Wherever you go, the sense of here and now you carry with you all the time. It means you are independent of space and time, that space and time are in you, not you in them.

Time appears spontaneously. With the appearance of consciousness time starts.

Everybody is trying to protect and preserve the time factor… that is, the

consciousness. So long as time is there, consciousness is there; and time is there so long as the body is present. When the life span is over, time has gone. When time has gone, consciousness has gone.

Until consciousness is there, without a body and your identification with it, time does not pass. Time and consciousness appear together, when you witness there is time. Without consciousness there is no time, because consciousness is time. There is no consciousness prior to body, it was a timeless state.

First, the consciousness appeared and then all these scenes. In the scene different forms appear at different times. Right from an ant to human beings, the activities happen as per the flow of thoughts. The consciousness in every form is time-bound. When the time is over it disappears. Just as you see grass and new plants coming up in the rainy season, there is creation of living beings of various types.

Is time known through consciousness, or is consciousness known through time? As long as there is consciousness, there is time. When there is no consciousness there is no time, and vice versa. What then is the meaning of time? If there is no consciousness, can anyone recognize time?

What exists as the body, breath, and the knowledge ‘I Am’ is one bundle which has been created, and whatever happens is contained in that bundle. Time has brought this about and time will end it. It has happened, it will continue for a while, then it will go away. But that ‘I’ which was conceived and born has not changed from conception till the present moment. That ‘I’ has come for a particular length of time. Some of the expressions of this knowledge ‘I Am’ have achieved tremendous things. Some have become avatars. But at the end of the time span the magnificent personalities have disappeared, and however long the time, there is an end to that ‘I Amness’. Some of these avatars have realized that the ‘I Amness’ needs a body before it can manifest itself. It is this ‘I Amness’ which has remained unchanged at all times, and which pervades the entire universe. This ‘I Amness’ is the highest God, as far as this manifestation is concerned, and in the manifestation you must be one with that. But ultimately even this is temporary. What you are is spaceless, timeless, and without attributes.

The dream world is very old, it is not new. Your beingness is very powerful. The emergence of this beingness itself constitutes time.

That event which is birth, living, and death together constitute nothing but time, duration. Before the sense of presence arrived you were in that state in which the concept of time was never there. An event which has happened already does not come back. Similar things may happen, but they will never be identical. According to one’s firm conviction, the one who dies will have another dream, in which he will be reborn.

All the future happenings are not determined by the world, but in the astral body. Time provides the motive force for the events to happen. Changes happen as per the passing phase. Everything is correct for that time. Where are these phases decided? At the so-called birth, in the astral body, the necessary changes happen. All the future happenings are filmed and are ready to unfold as per the passing phases.

Everything happens according to the nature of time. Desire to attain Self-realization also arises according to the dictates of time.

The moment the mind, drawing on its stock of memories, begins to imagine, it fills the space with objects, and time with events. It is the mind that, itself in movement, sees everything moving, and having created time, worries about the past and future.

Wakefulness is time, however, in time there is duality. Time is associated, by its very nature, with the three gunas: sattva, rajas and tamas. The guna means the consciousness that has suddenly come over you. An infinite number of universes are playing in consciousness. Who is the knower of this? Who is prior to consciousness? It is the seer. Time rules over people through their desires. Who carries out the action? That which is One is doing everything. It becomes many and moves about through desire as long as there is an experience of time. You are living as a body, therefore you behave as one commanded by time. You do not know that time has been created out of you. The feeling ‘I am awake’ is time. Time is a season. Mind comes as the knowingness ‘I am’. It has occupied everything, but this is a temporary phase. What is mind? Mind is the feeling ‘I am awake’. When mind dissolves, it knows nothing.

Each moment contains the whole of the past and creates the whole of the future. Past and future exist in the mind only. Time is in the mind, space is in the mind. The law of cause and effect is also a way of thinking. In reality all is here and now, and all is one. Multiplicity and diversity are in the mind only.

You know the mind… that you are not the mind. Hopes, desires, passions are the very nature of time. The person says: ‘I act’, or ‘I do’… is there any difference between an expectation and a passion? Only after the arrival of the mind you require food, a home, a wife, etc. You call it desire, yet it is of the nature of time. Recognize the fever of the mind. The mind is also called Brahman, the manifest reality, that takes millions of births every day. All activities in the world are a result of the nature of time. To say one is a great person etc, is of the nature of time. Time is the foundation of the whole universe, however, you are beyond time, you are unmanifest. The more you reduce your hopes and desires, the happier you will be.

That which is of the nature of time is not everlasting, because time itself is not real. Your intellect also changes with time.

Once you understand that the false needs time and what needs time is false, you are nearer to the Reality, which is timeless, ever in the now. Eternity in time is mere repetitiveness, like the movement of a clock. It flows from the past into the future endlessly, an empty perpetuity. Reality is what makes the present so vital, so different from the past and future, which are merely mental. If you need time to achieve something, it must be false. The real is always with you, you need not wait to be what you are.

Your being a person is due to the illusion of space and time. You imagine yourself to be at a certain point occupying a certain volume. Your personality is due to your self-identification with the body. Your thoughts and feelings exist in succession, they have their span in time and make you imagine yourself, because of memory, as having duration. In reality, time and space exist in you, you do not exist in them. They are modes of perception, but they are not the only ones. Time and space are like words written on paper… the paper is real, the words merely convention.

The mind creates time and space and takes its own creations for reality. All is here and now, but we do not see it. Truly, all is in me and by me. There is nothing else. The very idea of ‘else’ is a disaster.

You can start only from where you are. You are here and now, you cannot get out of here and now. All waiting is futile. To depend on time to solve our problems is self-delusion. The future, left to itself, merely repeats the past. Change can only happen now, never in the future.

In due course we shall come back to the starting point. Time cannot take us out of time, as space cannot take us out of space. All you get by waiting is more waiting. Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far.

Whatever must happen has already happened.

The end of time means the end of prana.

You speak about the flow of time as if you were stationary. But the events you have witnessed yesterday somebody else my see tomorrow. It is you who are in movement and not time. Stop moving and time will cease. Past and future will merge in the eternal now.

Time will come to an end. This is called the Great Death (Mahamrityu), the death of time. The beginning, middle, and end are all together. Time has come to a stop, it was, but is no more.

Time will end, but you will never end. One who believes ‘I am the body’ will never understand this. When there is no time, there is no world. Time starts with the birth of the person. It is not the child that is born, it is time that is born. The world is there as long as ‘you are’, as long as you know ‘I am’. The experience of time disappears along with the world, just like the ending of a dream.

The past and future do not matter any more. All that happened and will happen becomes an open book to be read at will. What is unexpected on one level may be certain to happen, when seen from a higher level. After all, we are within the limits of the mind. In reality nothing happens, there is no past nor future. All appears and nothing is.

You are timeless. Time begins with consciousness. You also experience day and night because of consciousness. With the end of the last day, the consciousness also will be no more.

Timelessness is beyond the illusion of time, it is not an extension in time.

A specific time and date of birth is the birth of time, and not of the infant. Time is born, not the baby. In your true state you had no knowledge of time. The time started, and it will have an end. You are the timeless, to whom the time appeared for a certain duration. You are independent of day, night, and seasons. What depends on these, is the flowing, the transient. You are the witness of all appearances.

All existence is time-bound, but the knower of time is timeless. Where there is consciousness there is time. But the knower of consciousness is timeless, and the timeless cannot be time-bound. The clock of the primary illusion ticks at a very slow rate. When billions of years pass, the clock of Maya ticks only a second. It indicates as if nothing ever happened.

Awareness is not of time. Time exists in consciousness only. Beyond consciousness there are no time and space.

16. Energy

All that happens in the universe happens to you, the silent witness. On the other hand, whatever is done, is done by you, the universal and inexhaustible energy.

Consciousness is the vital energy of the whole world.

How does a living form deliver a living form like itself?… a human from a human being, a lion from a lion, a donkey from a donkey? The chemical energy, which has a mind, takes these photographs, and the energy itself takes the same form. All the skill and growth of the form is due to the Mechanism.

It is extremely difficult to get at the root of the cosmic energy, which is perfectly adept in assuming an infinite variety of forms. The consciousness to be apprehended, and the power of conscious concentration, are one and the same. Being polymorphous by nature, it cannot be pinned down to any definite form or name or place… for example: the internal experiences of the Meditating Yogi: In the first instance, the attention of the meditator is silence in excelsis, this is transformed into light, the light assumes the form of space, the space in turn changes into movement, this is transmitted into air, and the air into fire, the fire changes into water, and the water into earth. Lastly the earth evolves into the world of organic and inorganic things. The water from the rain takes the form of the juices in the grains and vegetables, the essences of which supply nourishment and energy. This energy takes the form of knowledge, courage, valour, cunning etc. The limbless process goes on. Neither form, name, nor quality, is enduring. Nothing is permanent or determinate.

17. Prana-Life force

Prana is the dynamic life force, the vital breath. Prana is energy.

The vital breath is dynamic and pulsating but has no form. The vital breath alone gives animation to the body. The life force permeates every cell in the body. The one who makes the body move cannot be perceived. Prana is not the Self. Prana carries out all the actions. Mind, intellect and consciousness are forms of prana.

The life force has mistakenly identified itself with the body and the thoughts and words, and then considers itself to have acquired merit, or be guilty of something, whereas in truth everything takes place independently, merely through the action of the life force.

Prana does all the actions… hence, be friends with it. If prana is purified by the mantra given by the guru, then it mingles with the universal prana when one dies.

Without prana, without the vital life force, the feeling of ‘I am’ will not be there. Consciousness in the body is the characteristic of prana, is the characteristic guna of prana.

The life force and the consciousness are only two as a concept, really they are one. As soon as form is created, the life force is infused in that form and sentience is automatically present. Physical form and the life force, in the absence of the consciousness, would only be a technically alive body. Merely the life force within the body is of no use unless consciousness is present, and would be merely air, the potency to create a sentient being.

We feel the existence of body and prana, but the body and prana do not know us.

Mind, intellect, memory, ego, and consciousness are the forms of prana, the vital force. The knower of this does not do anything.

Whatever knowledge you have acquired of any kind, material or spiritual, is based only on this consciousness or breath. There is no other knowledge anyone in the manifest world can acquire. It is strictly limited. One may believe one is doing practice on the Atman, but not so, Atman is quite separate, and one is doing the practice only from the point of view of the life force.

The source of mind is prana. The source of prana is consciousness. Mind is the language of prana. It speaks according to the impressions it has collected. Mind means the impressions recorded in prana. Your behaviour is the result.

Prana represents all types of speech: Para is intuition. Pashyanti is thought form. Madhyama is word unspoken. Vaikari is word spoken. Madhyama can be called the mind, and when it speaks it is called Vaikari. Thus, the mind is not different from prana. Prana is pranava, the primordial sound Om. Prana, the life force, does not differentiate between a worm and a human being. It treats each body the same. The jnani does not see prana as an individual form. To him it is all one. Prana of a jnani becomes prana of the universe. Where consciousness is stabilized, there is compassion. That is the only thing left with the jnani. When your prana is pleased, you will come to know… who really speaks, is it you or your prana?

Mind, intellect and consciousness are present only when prana is there. When you talk it is prana that does the talking. Our talk is stored in space. Whose is this voice? When was it created and why? It is the voice of prana. It is not your voice. Who is talking? Is it you that is talking? The word belongs to space (akasha), and you are beyond space.

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. Although thoughts come and go, the jnani is not concerned.

If there is no vital breath, the guna has no quality of being. Only so long as the guna exists, do grand titles such as Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu apply. Without prana, the vital breath, there is no movement or dynamic quality either of the body or even of the guna. Therefore when its dear friend and attendant, prana, quits a body, the presiding principle, guna, also evaporates.

The life force is the same in all living beings. Prana, the life force, moves with greater and greater speed. It cannot remain steady. It acts through the five senses: hearing, touch, seeing, taste and smell. They determine the behaviour of the individual.

Birth and death are nonsense. Who is born? It is only the sport of the five elements. The vital force, prana, is playing as it pleases, by collecting and mixing the five elements in the form of a body. The five elements have no intelligence.

Whatever practice one does is done through the instrument of the life force and is therefore time-bound. Any spiritual practice that anyone may do is really based only on the vital breath, the life force, and will therefore last only so long as that breath lasts.

Prana, the vital force, acts through the body. Consciousness witnesses it. It is Bhagavan, God, the Luminous One. It does not act.

Achieve union with prana. Prana is God. It implies movement. In the end, the knower of movement and the movement itself both merge into that non-qualitative state. For the sage, the occasion of prana leaving the body, the occasion of the great departure… is a celebration.

Without the vital breath, Ishvara or God, has no soul, no expression. Without God, the vital breath has no existence. It is the vital breath, the life force, which is worshipping God. When the vital breath seeks the consciousness as God itself, then dawns the light of consciousness with which the life force works and achieves what it wants to achieve… oneness with God. Even if the life force is considered as God itself, the result will be the same. The consciousness is merely the witnessing process. If the life force is regarded as God itself, there cannot be consciousness without life force, so consciousness and life force are two components, inextricably woven together, of one principle.

Consciousness is the static witnessing principle, and life force is the dynamic working principle. Consider the life force as God itself, then the life principle will unfold itself and give you the necessary spiritual knowledge.

When the life force comes into contact with the consciousness, the combination of both assumes the status of the highest God. Pray to this life force.

Shiva is the speck of consciousness and the life force is the Shakti.

The vital force, prana, in the body is consciousness… the Atman. Consciousness and prana together are Atman. It can also be called antahkarana.

Coming to the knowledge that I am Brahman, progress is much faster if one makes friendship with the life force, saying “I am the life force itself”.

Here is a beautiful flower… who is responsible for its growth? As it has life force, prana, it has movement. That which exists beautifully and tenderly in the flower also speaks through this body, our own body. In the case of the flower, it does not speak, but it shows ‘it is’. It is both manifest and unmanifest, and it pervades everywhere. There is a minute sample of this infinite life force within you. You will merge into that. You will not be able to see it. Merging does not mean dying.  All seekers have ultimately merged into the life force.

Prana derives its support from food and all speak through the power of prana. Consciousness arises where prana and the essence of food are joined together. It is the source of the inspiration: ‘I am Brahman’. The tree grows tall because of the power of prana. Without the combination of food and prana, there is no consciousness. Atman, or ‘I’, has no form. I am neither food nor prana. I am there only when they are united.

In the perfect state, there is no experience of bliss. It cannot be witnessed. Did you witness anything prior to your birth? There are great learned men, but can anyone of them step outside the mind? Where there is mind, there is prana. Where there is prana, there is consciousness. After realizing the nature of the mind, the life force, prana, is dissolved. The delight and bliss of that moment are unique. It comes to one who knows the Self.

You behave as a body. When prana is ready to leave, you feel you will die. Therefore you experience fear. Understood, there is no question of either bondage or merit. With the end of the life force there is no movement, no thought, no word, no waxing nor waning. Once prana leaves the body, you will not remember that ‘you were’.

When prana is separated from the body, consciousness vanishes but does not die. From the point of view of the ignorant, this is death. For the jnani, it is nothing.

When someone dies the life force goes, and the principle behind the life force, consciousness, also disappears. Prana is ever awake, even in deep sleep. As long as prana and the body are together there is consciousness. When prana leaves the body, consciousness disappears. Does your body know your consciousness? The body is a material object. Without prana it is a corpse. Prana works also in sleep. It has no meaning then, as it has no knowledge of its vibration.

You are the nature of the self-luminous light by whose virtue you can see things… yet you believe that ‘I am so-and-so having a body’. When the body falls, prana leaves. No one says that prana is dead. If prana is pure, the mind and intellect are also pure. If prana is satisfied, can one have the experience of misery? The power of prana is the same as the power of life, the vital force. The force of prana is the same as the primordial Maya. It is the same as the power of Brahman. If someone becomes great, it is only the power of prana. The movement of prana and the movement of God are not different.

When prana leaves the body, does it have any pain? Prana carries out all worldly action, but you believe and say you are the doer. Where there is no prana, is there a mind? When there is no mind, there is no pain. This means that the mind has taken the form of the body. When prana leaves, and the body falls, where does Atman go? This can be answered when one is clear about the Self.

Do not be concerned with keeping the life force alive, because whatever disease has come, it has not come on you, but on the beingness. The ignorant man would like to postpone the moment of death as much as possible. But a jnani knows there is no benefit to be gained by existing in the world for even one more minute. The best thing is for the vital breath to leave quietly and without a fuss. Do whatever the life force feels like doing.

After leaving the body, the vital breath and the ‘I Am’ merge into the substratum.

Who has any power that he can call his own?

Without prana, what is your identity? When you discard the concepts, there will be a celebration of liberation, right here in this body. Those who give up the addiction of the mind and recognize the Self will surely be provided with sustenance. Remember the guru, keep on the continuous incantation of the meditation mantra, and you will drop the mind. Make the mind say: “My true nature is indestructible and eternal”. The mind will disappear… there will be the manifest Brahman Itself.

The consciousness and the life force together may be given the highest name and status, the Atman, Ishvara, etc… but you are not even that, you are apart from even that highest category.

Due to difference in form, everything looks different from the other. Every sage has a different pattern of behaviour. There are millions of men, but each one is different. Avatars are the same, but Rama is different from Krishna. But, prana the life force is one. This puzzle will get solved slowly… and… finally… there will be no trace of ego left.

The life force is universal and not personalized. Once you realize this you have no more troubles.

18. Life

Life is the urge to grow in knowledge and experience.

Are you prepared to accept life without the body? Life with the body is changing, transient. Life without the body is unchanging.

Why is life full of strife? You must have noticed the strife among the five elements. That strife ultimately settles upon the Earth. Every grain of rice, wheat etc is composed of the five elements. This strife goes into your food material. All living beings share this food, and with it the strife. One is affected by the strife in one’s food.

Real ease, lasting peace and happiness, and natural spontaneity, are unknown to you all. A rare one is an exception to this. Turning to spirituality demands wisdom to understand the limitations of your worldly life. A very few have it. Others live to struggle and die. The modern age has enabled man to have enough… but of no use for lasting peace and happiness. Hence, more and more people are turning to spirituality, to try its worth.

While the existence in limitation and separation is sorrowful, we love it. We love it and hate it at the same time. We cling to life. This clinging is at the root of everything. We hold on to something, or somebody, with all our might, and next moment we forget it, like a child that shapes its mud-pies and abandons them light-heartedly. Touch them… it will scream with anger, divert the child and he forgets them. We love variety, the play of pain and pleasure, we are fascinated by contrasts. For this we need the opposites and their apparent separation. We enjoy them for a time and then get tired and crave for the peace and silence of pure being.

You are existence which is without any desire or objective.

Live without self-concern. For this you must know your own true being (svarupa). Know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination. Then you will come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.

What is the purpose of your existence? The aim in life is to see one’s Self as one is.

What is the meaning of life? It has none. It is there without any reason. It is like urinating. Just witness. Even if life is understood as knowledge of the Self… the knowledge gained is untrue. There will not be a vestige of it left. As soon as prana leaves, you will be as if you never existed.

With the experience of so-called birth, you are caught up in the cycle like the picture on a screen. All this life-happening is something like a cinema. Just as the play you see on the cinema screen is not real, similarly this play is also not real.

Life appears merely as a series of entertainments. When you understand this you will come to the end of spirituality.

Our life is full of mental modifications and on the look out for entertainment. Just as you know the presence of a dead rat by its smell, currently you are smelling your own presence. But this smelling is time-bound and is going to vanish. A hundred years back, you did not smell your presence. It has started after the so-called birth. What has started, has also to stop one day, at the so-called death. Prior to smelling your presence, what were your desires and demands? There has been no end to your desires and acquisitions, now.

The recorded tape repeats itself. Does it have any intelligence? Exactly like that… the impressions, that have been recorded in your consciousness since childhood… do the talking. The tape and your consciousness are of the same category.

The Self is beyond time. However long a life may be, it is but a moment and a dream.

Life is like a dream. You are also present in your dreams, and see as someone totally different. At the end of the dream it all disappears. Whatever has appeared in worldly life is only an illusion.

Life is worthy of the name only when it reflects Reality in action.

Live your life with the interests of your deepest self always in mind. Seek to express in action what you are. For this you have a body and a mind. Take them in hand and make them serve you.

In the insect, worm, animal, or human being, is this instinct to keep itself alive. Why? 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 work hard for a living. What is a living? Is it not an attempt to continue the beingness? Why does man suffer so many hardships? Is it not to perpetuate his beingness? The love for the self wants to continue. When life comes to an end, will you care about what happens to the world?

All life is conscious, all consciousness alive. Even stones are conscious and alive. There cannot be life without consciousness, nor consciousness without life. They are both one.

In life let the general attitude be of affectionate detachment, enormous goodwill, without expectation of return, constant giving without asking. In marriage you are neither the husband nor the wife… you are the love between the two. You are the clarity and kindness that makes everything orderly and happy. You will find that the mystical is the most practical, for it makes your life creatively happy.

I have observed life as it is and taken lessons from it. Our existence in any form is most unreliable. Our close relative, who is with us today, may not be there tomorrow. The only son of parents may lie dead in front of them. This is the nature of existence, which we cannot change. We can only change ourselves, to be the least affected by these mishaps. The unreliability teaches us to be detached. Nothing should be able to disturb our peace and tranquillity. I have made practical use of these uncertainties of life.

As long as you are interested in your present way of living, you will not abandon it. Discovery cannot come as long as you cling to the familiar. It is only when you realize fully the immense sorrow of your life and revolt against it, that a way out can be found.

In matters of daily life the knower of the real has no advantage; he may be at a disadvantage rather. Being free from greed and fear, he does not protect himself. The very idea of profit is foreign to him. He abhors accretions. His life is constant divesting oneself, sharing, giving. There is trouble only when you cling to something. When you hold on to nothing, no trouble arises. The relinquishing of the lesser is the gaining of the greater. Give up all and you gain all. Then life becomes what it was meant to be: pure radiation from an inexhaustible source. In that light the world appears dimly like a dream.

You may have a long life. If you live for a hundred and twenty-five years, you may suffer miseries similar to a one year old infant. Without knowing, you will wet and excrete in the bed. You would become the subject of ridicule. The whole world was saluting you before, but now how terrible is your worn-out condition! They will all praise you in high terms… but only if your life term is limited! If this is the situation, then how should we die?

Life serves to break down mental pride. We must realize how poor and powerless we are. As long as we delude ourselves by what we imagine ourselves to be, to know, to have, to do, we are in a sad plight indeed. Only in complete self-negation there is a chance to discover our real being.

There is only life. There is nobody who lives a life.

Be nothing, know nothing, have nothing. This is the only life worth living, the only happiness worth having.

All life is universal life, it has nothing to do with an individual. There is no sense in taking pride in whatever ‘I’ know, or ‘I’ have done in life. You are not the body, you do not have a personality, you are the universal life. This is all universal life. If you consider yourself some particular individual you will suffer.

The beginning and end of life is a tiny thing that has happened in the state that is permanent. In life one comes with a time-bound ticket, and at the end of life one must go, there is no appeal. The beginning and end of life is a journey with a time-bound ticket, and at the end of the ticket whatever has come will go. Be a witness of that, and step out of it.

The duration of your life has a beginning and an end. At the end, all the participants leave. The witnessing that was happening is not happening now. That’s it. Similarly, in reality, you are the witness of your life. You are the unborn to whom witnessing happens for a certain duration. The end of the body does not mean the death of the witness. Our life is the duration of witnessing.

At the end of the life span all the accumulated knowledge vanishes. The strength also becomes less day by day, and at the end, no energy is left, even to lift a feeding spoon.

Take this advice: better not 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.

Contemplate life as infinite, undivided, ever-present, ever active, until you realize yourself as one with it. This is not even very difficult, for you will be returning only to your own natural condition.

When you understand your true nature, you will realize it is always alive. Do not wish to live in this life by the knowledge of the subjective world, or the experiences of the subjective world. People tell you that you must live. Do not desire to live like that. You are alive because of your own nature, it is there, the existence is there, and you are there only because of that existence. Your true state is whole, undifferentiated, beyond birth and death, unbound by body and mind, limitless. You, the Absolute, never had any experience that you were alive, and now you are experiencing that you are alive. All this trouble you are experiencing is through this I-am-alive-experience. This experience is limited to time and space, but understand that you never had any experience that you are alive. That is a state beyond experience. Why has this come? The ‘I’ consciousness appeared and these experiences started. See the true nature of the ‘I’ consciousness, go to the source, find out from where this ‘I’ comes.

To be a living being is not the ultimate state, there is something beyond, much more wonderful, which is neither being nor non-being, neither living nor not-living. It is a state of pure awareness, beyond the limitations of space and time. Once the illusion that the body-mind is oneself is abandoned, death loses its terror, it becomes a part of living.

I have stabilized in the Eternal and am not fascinated by this type of life, this burden. I would like to get rid of that as early as possible, I am not interested. I have stabilized prior to this beingness and the world. Whatever happens to the world, nothing happens to me.

Life makes you conscious, but the teacher makes you aware.

19. Memory

It is all memory carried over into the now. We consider memories only when they come into the present. The forgotten is not counted until one is reminded, which implies bringing into the now.

Between birth and death, between the appearance and the disappearance of the body, is only a bundle of memories, accumulated as entertainment. Everything that is in memory will disappear.

Personality comes into being by memory, by identifying the present with the past, and projecting it into the future. Think of yourself as momentary, without past and future and your personality dissolves.

This consciousness and ‘I Amness’ are due to these raw materials: the five elements, the three gunas, and Prakriti-Purusha. To sustain that memory ‘I Am’, the basic materials of the five elements and the three gunas are necessary. Only when that basic material is available then there is memory of anything, including the memory that ‘I Am’. Once all that raw material has gone no one can retain his memory ‘I Am’. You are not memory.

There are no memories after the physical material essence of the body has gone. Both the memory and the consciousness are the quality of the food body. When the body is not present, there is no question of either remaining.

You know that you have awakened. Does it not mean that you were there before awakening? This memory could come only when one existed prior to that. The five elements are the characteristics of the memory ‘I am’. It will never be able to see the one who is prior to the memory. You consider your memory ‘I am’ as yourself. There are thousands of memories… are we those memories? All action is the result of memory, but we are not the memory. The nature of memory is to forget. Even the memory that ‘I am God’ comes to an end. Deliberate, discriminate on this point, and be free. Get rid of the memory ‘I am’, it is only through that there is identification as someone or something.

Everything which you have heard, every piece of knowledge, every incident in your life, even if you think that you have forgotten… that consciousness has recorded.

Your memory functions automatically. It is recorded chemically. Anything which you take doership of… remains with you as a memory.

Your knowledge ‘you are’, or your consciousness, is a store house of all visible forms. Your whole world is in it. Your memory ‘you are’ identifies with the body. But that memory has no form. If you call it Atman or Self, the Self has no form.

When you are a young person you like all the activities of a young person very much and get involved in them, but once youth goes you are disinterested in the activities of a young person. Similarly, as long as you are wearing the 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. You have piled up a lot of knowledge, you possess heaps of it, but in due course you will not only forget whatever you have piled up, but you will forget yourself, that you was.

Why does memory fail in old age? It is because consciousness, one’s quality of sattva, starts dissolving.

There are any number of experiences, if you keep the ones you like in memory and pamper them… that itself is suffering. All your experiences should be just part of the total functioning, happening spontaneously.

Memory, or the sense of ego, is time-bound. It is of the nature of time. When this is understood, an ordinary person becomes a jnani. One says: ‘I did this’, ‘ I behaved that way’. When memory goes, what happens to action and behaviour?

Anything that depends upon memory will not last. Whatever is known will be forgotten. Whatever is known will come to an end. Everyone feels he should be, but this beingness will not last forever. We should realize that we are not as we appear, but we are as we see. We are unknown by nature.

Do not struggle with your memories and thoughts. Try only to include in your field of attention the other, more important questions, like: ‘Who am I?’ ‘How did I happen to be born?’ ‘Whence this universe around me?’ ‘What is real and what is momentary?’ No memory will persist, if you lose interest in it. It is the emotional link that perpetuates the bondage.

People are bothered by their memories. The sensation of beingness is a matter of experience, but I am beyond that. Some people claim that they have memories of past lives. I do not have even the experience of myself at anytime.

Between the remembered and the actual there is a basic difference which can be observed from moment to moment. At no point of time is the actual remembered. A moment back… the remembered was actual; in a moment… the actual will be the remembered. What makes the actual unique? Obviously it is your sense of being present. In memory and anticipation there is a clear feeling that it is a mental state under observation, while in the actual the feeling is primarily of being present and aware.

You are living by memories. Replace the old memories by the new memory that you are the Supreme Reality. As you were acting on your old memories, act on the new one. Do not be afraid. For some time there is bound to be a conflict between the old and the new, but if you put yourself resolutely on the side of the new, the strife will soon come to an end, and you will realize the effortless state of being oneself, of not being deceived by desires and fears born of illusion.

What is added to memory cannot be erased easily. But it can surely be done, and in fact I am doing it all the time. Like a bird on its wings, I leave no footprints.

Mind and heart cannot work in darkness. They need the light of pure awareness to function rightly. All effort at control will merely subject them to the dictates of memory. Memory is a good servant but a bad master. It effectively prevents discovery.

Having seen that you are a bundle of memories held together by attachment, step out and look from the outside. You may perceive for the first time something which is not memory. You cease to be a Mr-so-and-so, busy about his own affairs. You are at last at peace. You realize that nothing was ever wrong with the world… you alone were wrong, and now it is all over. Never again will you be caught in the meshes of desire born of ignorance.

There is no cause of self-forgetting, because there is no forgetting. Mental states succeed one another, and each obliterates the previous one. Self-remembering is a mental state and self-forgetting is another. They alternate like day and night. Reality is beyond both. It is as bad to remember oneself continuously as to forget oneself. There is a state beyond forgetting and not-forgetting… the natural state. To remember, to forget… these are all states of mind, thought-bound, word-bound. What you can seek and find is not the real thing. Find what you have never lost.

One that is prior to memory cannot be remembered.

20. Experience

At the back of every experience is the Self and its interest in the experience. Call it desire, call it love, words do not matter.

You talk about your spiritual experiences just to show people: I am something! You are interested in your experiential state. There are so many experiences. Be yourself and not the experiences. Experiences are a temporary phaze and you are giving it undue importance. It happens naturally.

You take pride in being so-and-so as a body form. You feel you are like this, or like that. The feeling ‘I am suffering from this or that’ is ignorance. Be convinced that you are separate from the senses… their experience is not your experience. This is the condition of Brahman. Pure consciousness has never had any experience.

Either you become determined through the guru’s word, or you keep stumbling in vain. That experience to which you are attracted today is false. It will not last. No experience is lasting. The experience cannot be described through words, and we are the experiencer. That which depends upon the life force, prana, and consciousness is not lasting. The everlasting is beyond these.

All the experiences of a life span, are restricted to that span only. There is no continuity of experiences from one life to another.

Any experience you get is not real. The experience that is known through the senses is illusory. The one who knows this is eternal. Experience is the denial of Reality, which is neither sensory nor conceptual, neither of the body, nor of the mind, although it includes and transcends both.

This habit of experiencing will not go until you realize that all this domain of the five elements, and the experiences in the five elements, are unreal. This ‘I Amness’ is itself unreal.

In the state prior to beingness I alone prevail without even the message ‘I Am’. There are no experiences at all. It is the non-experiential eternal state. I alone prevail in that state, there is no otherness. For any experience otherness is necessary.

All experience subsides with the mind. Without the mind there can be no experiencer nor experience. Beyond the mind there is no such thing as experience. Experience is a dual state. You cannot talk of reality as an experience. Once this is understood, you will no longer look for being and becoming as separate and opposite. In reality they are one and inseparable, like roots and branches of the same tree. Both can exist only in the light of consciousness, which again, arises in the wake of the sense ‘I Am’. This is the primary fact. If you miss it, you miss all.

Due to the sattva, or food essence, the consciousness appears, all the suffering is due to this consciousness. All this happening and experience is due to consciousness and is uncalled for and extravagant. I have no part in all this happening.

The eternal ever is, a non-experiential state. In the realm of experience you cannot have the experience of truth. There can be no experience of truth because ultimately you are That. There cannot be experience of truth because it is prior to the beingness. No experiences are permanent. Experiences are in the realm of consciousness, which is bound by time.

The world itself is contact… the totality of all contacts actualized in consciousness. The spirit touches matter and consciousness results. Such consciousness, when tainted with memory and expectation, becomes bondage. Pure experience does not bind. Experience caught between desire and fear is impure and creates karma.

Above all, we want to remain conscious. We shall bear every suffering and humiliation, but we shall rather remain conscious. Unless we revolt against this craving for experience and let go the manifested altogether, there can be no relief. We shall remain trapped.

Experience, however sublime, is not the real thing. By its very nature it comes and goes. What comes must go. The permanent is beyond all comings and goings. Go to the root of all experience, to the sense of being. All your experiences depend upon your sense of being, which itself is impermanent. Only the no-experience state is permanent.

The mind craves for experience, the memory of which it takes for knowledge. The jnani is beyond all experience, and his memory is empty of the past.

Experience leaves only memories behind and adds to the burden which is heavy enough. You need no more experiences. The past ones are sufficient. It is not experience that you need, but the freedom from all experience. Do not be greedy for experience… you need none.

I have no need of any experience.

You already have all the experience you need, otherwise you would not have come to the Guru. You need not gather any more, rather you must go beyond experience. Whatever effort you make, whatever method (sadhana) you follow, will merely generate more experience, but will not take you beyond. Nor will reading books help you; they will enrich your mind, but the person you are will remain intact.

You speak of my experience as different from your experience, because you believe we are separate. But we are not. On a deeper level my experience is your experience.

Who else can have your experience, when the other person is only as real as he appears in your experience?

Experience speaks a lot, but is there an experience of the experiencer? Who comes first: the experience or the experiencer? What is the nature of the experiencer? And what is his experience of immortality?

You never pay attention to yourself, only to your experiences. Be interested in yourself beyond all experience, be with yourself, love yourself. The ultimate security is found only in self-knowledge. 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.

Do not be all the time immersed in your experiences. Remember that you are beyond the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless. In remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness. You are prior to all experiences. You are experiencing the world without any effort… do you understand that?

Whatever is seen, heard, experienced and acquired is totally useless and redundant, when it is realized that no one will remain but the Nishkama Parabrahman, the desireless eternal Absolute state.

Pure being is free of experiencing anything in particular.

Things happen round me, but I take no part in them. An event becomes an experience only when I am emotionally involved. I am in a state which is complete, which seeks not to improve on itself. Of what use is experience to me?

I am the seer, never the enjoyer.

All experience is illusory, limited and temporal. Expect nothing from experience. Realization by itself is not an experience, although it may lead to a new dimension of experience. Yet the new experiences, however interesting, are not more real than the old. Definitely realization is not a new experience. It is the discovery of the timeless factor in every experience. It is awareness which makes experience possible. In every experience awareness is present, yet it is not an experience.

All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body. It has its beginning and end in awareness, but awareness knows no beginning nor end. See the light of awareness in all its clarity, and the world will fade out of your vision.

21. Conception – Birth

What exactly is born? What is born is the three states: Waking, sleeping, and consciousness or the knowledge ’I am’. Body and the vital breath cannot function if consciousness is not present. The three states work through the gunas and is a bundle that is born. You are not that which is born, and can see it. There may be attachment to that which has been born, because of the association with it for a long time. Consciousness, which is really that which is born, mistakenly attaches itself to this body and thinks it is the body.

To what does the word ‘birth’ apply? ‘Birth’ is the birth of that in the body which makes it conscious. It is a chemical which denotes the love the Self has for Itself, and of which it wants to continue.

What is called birth is really the birth of the three gunas.

Nobody is born and nobody dies. The truth is beingness appears and beingness disappears. Your beingness has suddenly come to your awareness. That is birth.

The so-called birth is the appearance of ‘I am’, or the sense of being. The Eternal does not have the sense of being. Birth means becoming conscious of one’s presence. It took nine months in the womb and a few years outside for the appearance of the sense of being. It is like the cooking of food material by heating and stirring and adding salt, chillies etc, for a taste. It took approximately four to six years for the taste ‘I am’ to appear. It is not the birth of somebody… he, she, or it. The content of the womb was for the knowledge ‘I am’ in a dormant condition.

When I talk, I do not talk about any individual. I talk about the nature of consciousness. The cycle of creation, sustenance, and dissolution goes on undisturbed. No Mahatma or incarnation, like Rama or Krishna, can stop the cycle. I talk about incarnation. What was there prior to calling one an incarnate? What led to the change from an ordinary person to an incarnate? You never think as to what you were prior to the appearance of the body, and how the knowledge ‘I am’, which did not exist, began to appear.

Our birth means the appearance of waking, sleep, and consciousness. The combination of these three gives rise to the memory ‘I Am’.

Prior to birth is the Absolute, Parabrahman. After birth is Chetana-Parabrahman, the consciousness Brahman, the manifest Brahman. The ‘I am’ concept was not there prior to birth. ‘I am’ is a concept that has appeared and will also go away.

Birth is the transition from no ‘I Am’ state to ‘I Am’ state.

Consciousness is the so-called birth. Birth means three aspects: waking state, deep sleep, and the knowledge ‘I Am’. Once I understand what this birth is, then the whole mystery is solved. When you know what this birth principle is then you will know very well at that happening of the so-called death you will observe the departure of the vital breath, the language, and the ‘I Amness’.

As a foetus you did not know yourself in the womb of the mother. Consciousness is everywhere. Consciousness is all-prevailing, but it remained dormant in the foetus because it was not a fully developed body.

Because of the news ‘I Am’, it appears that the unborn has got bound by the chain of birth. One who knows the secret of this news, knows the moment of the root of consciousness. Then, one sees oneself as unborn and free. Your conviction of birth itself is the bondage.

There was conception due to the conjugal bliss. The consciousness-bliss entered the womb and grew in the foetus. The foetus had a form, but the consciousness-bliss had no form. It was the growth of the ‘I love’ in a dormant condition.

Birth is a nuisance. When there is no birth, nothing at all matters. Birth means the manifestation of consciousness… the sattva. That itself is the nuisance. Even if one increases the duration of consciousness, it still has to be cast off one day. Even a person like Krishna had to leave consciousness. Jnaneshwar left this nuisance at the age of twenty-one. Consciousness is felt and cherished, but it cannot be tolerated. In order to bear it, various activities have to be undertaken. Whatever you compare consciousness to, and whichever way you worship it, it will manifest itself in the same form. Yet, it does not last.

Is consciousness without pain, even for a single day? Does this nuisance, this manifestation of birth and consciousness, arise from outside, or is consciousness itself the nuisance? There were fewer anxieties when people were ignorant. There are more anxieties when they are more knowledgeable. The reason for this is that they have not understood the root of sorrow. You had no knowledge whatsoever until such time as you came to know the body.

In a moment, billions and billions of births take place. Whose births are they? You give names as per the body forms. But, all of them are appearances in consciousness in food bodies of eighty-four lakh different types of species, from the amoeba to the human being. All these forms vanish, but not the consciousness, which is deathless.

At the time of your conception in your mother’s womb, it was the beginning of the manifestation. Prior to that you were unmanifested and in the non-being state. After conception the non-being state continued. Your manifestation is similar to the sudden appearance of light by striking a match. There is only light… there is nothing before it and nothing after it. Your identity with name and form started functioning from the age, about three years old, from the day which you are able to recollect as the earliest incident in your life. How old were you then? This is the beginning of your identity. As your appearance is from a non-being state, you had to begin your knowledge from zero. You did not know that you were. The nearest to you was your body. Naturally you felt you were the body and your mother and others confirmed it. It could be vice versa, ie: your mother told you were the body and its name was [your personal name]. You had no choice but to confirm it. After the appearance of the living form, the Paramatman accepts the name and form and adjusts to what is happening around. What is happening and why, he does not know. The whole life of the form is like a lighted match and it continues as long as the light lasts. Do the five elements have a form? There is no creator for all this… it is all a spontaneous happening.

Before the birth neither that eternal principle nor the parents knew each other. The principle was planted in fluid form in the womb of the mother. In the womb, the beingness does not know itself. In the course of nine months it developed into the form of an infant, who is the very seed of all future experiences. This seed-beingness is the pure sattva, and the quintessence of the food body, and is wholly ignorance only. The seed of future experiences determines prarabdha, which is whatever that future child will have to suffer and experience. The unfortunate child, who was not in his knowingness before birth, is now presented with a whole scale of sufferings at birth. At the moment of a child’s conception, the exact photograph of the total situation in the cosmos, including the parental material out of which he was created, position of planets, stars, etc. was imprinted on him. That principle which takes the photograph is known by such titles as: mulamaya, maha-tattva, hiranyagarbha, atma-prem etc. It is also called parabdhi, the ocean of life seething with millions of forms.

Whatever has brought about conception is the primordial seed of the entire universe.

The particle from which this birth has come includes crores of elements, it is the seed of the whole universe, and is the smallest, the atomic, and yet it contains crores of universes within the seed.

My birth is the birth of the world.

The most important power is to understand that not I, but the world I see, is born. The sense of waking up is the birth of the world. Birth means knowing the ‘I amness’. With it the world is created. Once this consciousness is born, the world comes into view with individual bodies and their joys and sorrows. The world is born spontaneously. The ‘I amness’ in the human body is the birthplace of the world. When consciousness arises, only then is the world born. There is no birth or death for you. Consciousness has not created an individual, but the whole world. Body-consciousness is the obstruction, otherwise it is easy to understand this. Body-consciousness has delivered the perfect One into the hands of time. It has measured it by counting its days. But you, as Sat-guru-Self, have never been born. The illusory consciousness has given birth to the world, not to you.

That by which one is able to become a Jnani is an ability that is not acquired. It is something that happens in nature, in the manifest world. There is no law or reason. All kinds of miracles happen, anything can happen. The beingness has stuck to the body, has not merged, and it still remains. There are two entities who have seen myriad universes created and destroyed. As soon as the conception took place and the film was created, the future was photographed and that was their destiny. There is no reason, it just happens. It is one of those miracles of nature. That by which one is able to become a Jnani will itself disappear.

Your birth means a film of the universe at that time. It is not merely a birth, it is charged with universe inside and outside. Everything that prevails in the cosmos at the time of the love union of embodied objects is registered in the outcome, which takes the form, a replica of the parents. You are the creation resulting from their blissful moment. The memory ‘I Am’ reminds of the blissful moment. Birth is somebody’s momentary enjoyment [ie: sex] and I have to suffer for 100 years for it. Why should I suffer for somebody’s act?

All this play is mechanical, a part of the chemical. Birth means the formation of that chemical. The quintessence of the food body is the chemical, which is necessary for consciousness to appear. When the child is a few days old it is the quintessence of the food essence only. After a few months it develops the sense of knowledge and receives impressions. Those impressions are registered, like a photograph, in that chemical.

An astrologer notes the date and time of delivery, for making a prediction. The real birth is the date and time of conception and not the delivery. There is an error of nine to ten months in the time noted. It is not the position of the planets that affects your future, but it is your belief in astrology that affects you. You make your consciousness believe, and consciousness is God itself. What consciousness believes, it happens. It is the misuse of a great hidden power. You put your stamp of acknowledgment on the astrological predictions and invite trouble for you. What you do not believe, cannot trouble you. When did the belief that we are, that we exist, begin? It is the time since when we remember certain events in our life. Prior to that all events were happening, but in the absence of your beingness. This first day is approximately when you were three to five years old. Prior to the appearance of your beingness, your state was the same as it was ten days prior to your conception. Therefore I say you were absent on your first, second, and perhaps the third birthday celebrations. It was the food material that was born, not you. Your arrival was three to five years after the birth of the body.

You were told that there is fear, there is death, there is time, and there is God… they are there if you believe in them. What if you do not believe? If you deny all of it, there is nothing. Is there any design to the Absolute? Even great people have been puzzled by it. Some people have passed away after saying: ‘I shall come back after so many years’. Is this realization? As long as Maya is there as the subtle consciousness, there is no Self-realization. There is no darkness at all from the point of view of the sun, so from the jnani’s point of view, no one has any birth. Whatever appears, or is sensed, is a staged drama.

I am not talking to men and women. I am talking to the birth principle, I am talking to pure consciousness. The food material is not a living being. If a donkey eats it, the material becomes a donkey. If a monkey eats it, it becomes a monkey. The birth principle is not a product of imagination, but you men and women are. Therefore, how can there be proper understanding?

The birth principle, sattva, contains everything. Because of the birth principle everything is, the world is. Only one person in 10 millions can find out what the birth principle is. All the knowledge of the world is contained in it. Once you know it, everything, all knowledge, belongs to you, even liberation is yours.

Nothing could have caused your birth without your own desire to be born. It is desire that gives birth. The desirable is imagined and wanted and manifests itself as something tangible or conceivable. Thus is created our personal world, the world in which we live. The real world is beyond the range of the mind.

If we had the choice of taking on this body-cum-consciousness, 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.

On the first day of your birth you did not know that you existed, that you were there. When you became a two or three year old child you started to know that you exist.

The belief that ‘I am born’ is ignorance. Childish knowledge is incomplete knowledge. Until the age of three you do not know anything. At three you are struck with a word, ie… concepts, out of concepts everything comes. This is Maya, it is a type of singing. Maya proceeds in cycles, waxing and waning.

At what age did you get the knowledge of your own body? If you started knowing yourself at the age of three or four, then whatever actions took place prior to the age of three-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. In the first few years the primary concept ‘I Am’ was there, but in a dormant condition. Later it started knowing itself. The jnani state is like the child state, when the child was not knowing itself.

Your state was the same prior to conception, during conception, and about three years after the conception. At conception, your presence was dormant, like the presence of fire in a towel. The child starts knowing its presence after it begins to recognize its mother. Consciousness separates from the body. Self is indestructible and deathless. Self-knowledge is to know your state prior to conception.

If you had the capacity to know before birth that you were being born, you would not have wanted to jump into this pit of birth. You never knew. If you had the slightest knowledge would you have descended into the prison of your mother’s womb? Whatever happens, happens by itself. Who can have knowledge of that which existed before conception? What were you doing before conception in the womb of your mother? If you had been aware of the beingness before conception, you would not have cared to enter the womb. It is not possible to remember because it is a non-attentive state. With beingness, attention starts later. Beingness comes in the womb in a dormant condition, mulamaya, that borderline between being and non-being. Initially there is no attention, and suddenly attention begins.

Most people believe that the world is first and they were born in it afterwards. This is untrue.

‘I was not’ prior to conception. Prior to conception I was not like this present ‘I Am’. But that ‘I’ which could discern this must be there to judge the absence of the present ‘I Am’. Owing to the absence of a body, that ‘I’ prior to conception had no sense of being, or sense of ‘ I Amness’. With the arrival of a body the sense of ‘I Amness’ is imposed on the prior ‘I’.

What a person takes himself to be is of the nature of time. It is the sense of you and yours, and nothing else… and yet there is no such thing. Be very quiet. Do not take the trouble to acquire or renounce anything. Only the mind is born, not you.

No one has an experience of birth. My birth has not taken place in my presence. If you identify with the body, you see yourself as male or female. When there is no body, there is no such experience. When there is no body, there is no sattva, and when there is no sattva, its characteristic consciousness is not there.

Did you come into the world knowingly? Then, how will you witness your departure? That is the delusion. While coming, there was no step taken. Then, what would your steps be like while leaving? Is the consciousness that you are experiencing at all honest?

Knowingly, you would have never taken birth. It has happened without your knowledge. You came to know about it, three to five years later. Knowingly, who would enter the womb to rot for nine months? Prior to the appearance of my beingness, I was in the non-being state. Otherwise I would have stopped it. Why should I lie in a filthy place for nine months for the appearance of this uncalled for beingness, ie in the mother’s womb? What an obnoxious place! There was no reason for me to accept all that was happening. That chemical was creating my body for nine months. Would you ever have allowed yourself being in that stinking place? You could have stopped it, only if you had prior knowledge of its happening. Such things can happen only in the state of non-being.

Do you have direct knowledge of your birth? After your so-called birth, your hunger and thirst started naturally, so also urination and excretion. It was not your doing.

To be born is to suffer… can we remain unborn? You cannot stop that which happens without your knowledge. I was accused of having been born, and I was suffering. But my guru showed me I was never born. I was That which always exists and cannot be born. Hence, my suffering ended.

You are before the gestation period. The whole thing is Maya: nobody is born and nobody dies – it is distortion. You were never born, nor will you ever die. It is the idea that was born and shall die, not you. By identifying yourself with it you became mortal.

That bundle of three states (waking, sleep, and ‘I Am’ consciousness) and three attributes (sattva, rajas, tamas) has been born, and whatever happens, happens to that bundle, and I am not concerned with it. I know I am not that which has been born.

There are stages of one’s evolution. One speaks as one understands. One’s talk is correct for that stage in which one is. When one really understands, one knows that one was never born. Then one cannot ask questions about the date and time of one’s birth. When there is no birth, how can death arise?

22. Death

Birth did not give you anything and death can take nothing from you.

Nothing is dead. In death only the body dies. Life does not, consciousness does not, reality does not. And the life is never so alive as after death.

Due to ignorance, you consider death of the body as your death, but you are that which separates and leaves the body. You have no death. I have no expectation from this body and its existence. I have no expectation from you. Whether you visit me or not, it does not matter. Your existence is a borrowed being and time-bound. It is bound to go. What can you expect from it?

Once you know that death happens to the body and not to you, you just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment. Know that the body alone dies, and not the continuity of memory, and the sense of ‘I Am’ reflected in it.

Due to ignorance, people identify with their bodies. This identity has an end by getting burnt or getting buried. What you are in reality does not get destroyed. It separates from the dead body. That which leaves the body is the form of God. The knowledge ‘I am’ is God. The knower of this God is a jnani.

There is suffering and bloodshed, people killing each other, how do you look at it? Death is natural, the manner of dying is man-made. Separateness causes fear and aggression, which again cause violence. Do away with man-made separations and all this horror of people killing each other will surely end. But in reality there is no killing and no dying. The real does not die, the unreal never lived. Set your mind right and all will be right. When you know that the world is one, that humanity is one, you will act accordingly

If you think you are dying it shows you still identify with your body.

If you decide, finally, that you are not this body, the death will be final, death will die. This is achieved by living without consciousness of body and mind.

Imagine a big building collapsing. Some rooms are in ruins, some are intact. but can you speak of the space as ruined or intact? It is only the structure that suffered and the people who happened to live in it. Nothing happened to space itself. Similarly nothing happens to life when forms break down and names are wiped out. The goldsmith melts down old ornaments to make new. Sometimes a good piece goes with the bad. He takes it in his stride, for he knows that no gold is lost.

What is the sign that a person is dead? It is necessary to wait and watch the skin of the person. If you notice the beginning of swelling on the skin, that is a sure sign that the vital breath has left the body. The absence of swelling indicates the presence of vital breath in the body, which can lead to revival.

At death the vital breath, prana, will merge into the air again, as it was before. When a man dies, it means his body has fallen. Prana has left. The one who died… was he other than prana? When prana merges into the universal prana, it forgets itself. Without prana there is no beingness.

Whether prana leaves today, or 10,000 years from now, there is no gain, no loss, for a jnani.

So long as your body, the vital breath and the beingness are there, you know that ‘you are’. When the vital breath goes, the body drops off, and the beingness extinguishes, the process is termed death.

When the vital breath leaves the body, it becomes inert. It is like the extinguishing of a flame. Does the flame go anywhere? When the body drops there is no going anywhere. At the so-called birth there is no coming from anywhere. The Self is everywhere. There is no space left for it to travel to.

The moment of death is the time of great happiness. But, for the body-conscious individual it is death. If you die saying that you are pure light, you will be free. The moment of death that is so terrifying, becomes a happy time. The joy of the moment when prana, the vital force, leaves the body, cannot be expressed in words.

When prana leaves the body do not say ‘I am dying’. Otherwise you will have to take a new form again.  When the prana of my guru’s guru left the body, he applauded. Did he not mean to say: ‘I am Atman, I am indestructible’? Liberation is attainable while the body is there.

Death happens when the sense of being vanishes permanently. Without the sense of being, how will you know death? You go to sleep every day… if there is no waking in or after sleep, it is death. The difference between sleep and death is only the fear about the latter. For a jnani, the clearing of the vital breath is blissful. Knowingness, waking and sleep are the result of the food essence. What is birth, other than the appearance of these three states? Their disappearance is death.

When beingness leaves the body we can call it not death, but liberation. When hot water cools we do not call it death. The cooling of body, when beingness is no more, is similar.

The moment of death is when this consciousness is extinguishing, knowingness is disappearing, but nothing affects you, the Absolute. The vital breath is leaving the body, the ‘I Amness’ receding, but the ‘I Amness’ is going to the Absolute. That is the moment of immortality. The ‘I Amness’ was there, that movement was there, and I observe, it is extinguished. The ignorant will get very frightened at the moment of death… he is struggling… but for the jnani it is the happiest moment.

I know myself and I find no life nor death in me, only pure being… not being this or that, but just being.

Death comes to the quality of ‘I Amness’, which is the product of the food, but the Absolute prevails always.

When the body dies it decomposes into the five primary elements; and prana the vital breath merges in the universal air; and the guna, that is the sense of being, instantly becomes nirguna or non-being, just as a flame is extinguished instantly. At the time of death, prana goes into space, the body mingles with the five elements, but nothing happens to the knower. He was never born, therefore he has no death.

When the body comes to an end, it mixes with the five elements, the vital breath mixes with the air, and the consciousness mixes with the universal consciousness. Consciousness becomes Nirguna, free of the three gunas to which it had been subject. There is no rebirth, because for something to be reborn something has to die, and nothing is dead. No one was born, and there is no one to be reborn.

At death the vital breath and mind leave the body. As the consciousness is infinite and all pervading, there is no possibility for it to go anywhere. Before going, consciousness is already there. From conscious, it becomes non-conscious there only. It is like the cooling of hot water, when the fire is removed.

The conscious cannot change fundamentally, it can only modify. Any thing, to change, must pass through death, through obscuration and dissolution. Gold jewellery must be melted down before it is cast into another shape. What refuses to die cannot be reborn. Withdrawal, aloofness, letting go is death. To live fully, death is essential, every ending makes a new beginning. On the other hand, understand that only the dead can die, not the living. That which is alive in you is immortal.

To overcome the fear of death the body identity must drop. The consciousness never dies. Live as consciousness and be fearless.

You know that you did not come here from anywhere. You appeared unknowingly and almost suddenly. You will also disappear in the same way. If you are bold enough, you will be able to say ‘good-bye’ at the end. Just as your world began with your consciousness, it will also end with the separation of consciousness.

You have not done anything for the appearance of your consciousness. When it separates, at death, you cannot stop it. Also, it is not in your hands to get rid of it.

Just like a healthy body does not call for attention, so is the unconditioned free from experience. Take the experience of death. The ordinary man is afraid to die, because he is afraid of change. The jnani is not afraid because his mind is dead already. He does not think: ‘I live’. He knows: ‘There is life’. There is no change in it and no death. Death appears to be a change in time and space. Where there is neither time nor space, how can there be death? The jnani is already dead to name and shape. How can their loss affect him?

Because the body and the intellect have dissolved there is no experience after death. There is nothing to experience. When the food essence quality is completely dissolved there is no one, no who, to proceed further.

Whatever you collect as your own, as knowledge, will not remain with you at death. Everything will go. The various associations, physical, mental, conceptual, will not remain with you until the end, they are passing phases. The ‘I-am-ness’ which you presume to have with you constantly, will quit you at the end when the body drops.

The seed sown by the guru will sprout. The tree that will grow is the same as the world. In the end it will disappear. It is of no use to you. Whatever you gain will ultimately be useless, as there will be no form to enjoy it. The memory ‘I am’ will not remain. When there is no consciousness there is no need to be happy, nor is there any experience of misery. As childhood did not last, our individuality will also not last. Whatever you are not will also end, whether you like it or not. The desire ‘to be’ leads to humiliating conditions, for example: the need to eat, sleep, wake up, etc, over and over again. In truth your nature has no measure. It has no colour. You will never know that you have died. How can death be experienced when there is no death? Consciousness will not last, whether you like it or not. Whatever you feel about the body will not last. When you realize in meditation that there is nothing… who knows about it? When the knowingness ends, is it death?

The sense of entity that one has been created by the mind. When the consciousness disappears that sense of entity disappears. No one knows that he is dead, it is only the others who say that he is dead. To others, the jnani appears to die, but not to himself. In himself he is free of things… physical and mental.

Death is something to be very happy about, because it is something which helps to remove the burden of what is called ‘birth’.

An infant has no memory. It cannot recognize anybody. A very old man loses all knowledge and memory. He is almost like an infant. The old man is alive as long as the child principle exists. When that is no more, the man is declared dead by the people around him. But a jnani calls it liberation and not death.

You have committed a great sin by calling yourself the body. Then the same Absolute becomes the great death for you in your last moment. Who else is there except for Him at the time of death? Make your own decision, choose for yourself. Do not depend upon other people. You must worship this knowledge, which is listening to the word of the guru. You will see countless universes playing within your consciousness. There is no other deity besides Self-knowledge. Self-knowledge itself is the Paramatman stage… the home of liberation.

As long as you think that you are going to die, and believe that you are going to suffer after death, there will be talk of morality. A jnani sees no difference between a seeker and a sinner. Does the sun see darkness? The religions of the world are the games of the ignorant. You have a sense of self-identity that makes you anxious.

Your body was born and is going to die. Your fear of death is due to your identification with the body. You must know what you are. Then you will enjoy the joy of getting rid of pain and fear.

There will never be an experience of death as such. But even without dying you have fear of death. The fear of death does exist. On dissolution of individuality, the fear of death goes away. Any identity you take will be temporary.

People are afraid to die, because they do not know what is death. The jnani has died before his death, he saw that there was nothing to be afraid of. The moment you know your real being, you are afraid of nothing. Death gives freedom and power. To be free in the world, you must die in the world. Then the universe is your own, it becomes your body, an expression and a tool. The happiness of being absolutely free is beyond description. On the other hand, he who is afraid of freedom cannot die.

Death is considered to be a traumatic experience, but understand what happens. That which has been born, the knowledge ‘I Am’, will end. That knowledge which was limited by this body will then become unlimited. So, what is to be feared?

Only the fear of death is present, but not actual experience of death. You do not have the experience of birth or death, only the fear of death. The experience of death is rest. At the most you may see a dead body lying there, and you are watching.

No university will teach you how to live so that when the time of dying comes, you can say: I lived well, I do not need to live again. Most of us die wishing we could live again. So many mistakes committed, so much left undone. People want to continue being alive because they want to perpetuate their ‘I-Amness’, they have the urge to be. The ignorant struggle at the moment of death. The jnani does not struggle.

The time of death is the end of time. You are the witness of this. Witnessing the last moment of death is a festival of happiness. Time comes to an end, but not I. I have no rising, nor setting. Keep to your true nature. In your spiritual endeavours you claim: ‘I let go this’, ‘I renounced this’, etc. How are you going to renounce that which was never there?

When prana leaves the body, what happens to the Self? It pervades everywhere. Its symbol is space. You are that. Space is purer than the four grosser elements, and your consciousness is purer than space. When a jnani leaves the body, he experiences bliss. When you realize the Self, you will know that there is bliss at the time of death. It will be the experience of one who knowns that whatever is created is Brahman, the consciousness. There is no other except you.

Like a crystal melting, prana becomes fainter and fainter at the time of leaving the body. The bliss of the knower goes on increasing in the same proportion. This is the moment of great happiness.

For the jnani the moment of so-called death is the most blissful, because he is going to the very source of bliss. Eternity is bliss, the very ocean of nectar, immortal. The Brahman of death is the moment of death. Watching occurs. The vital breath leaves the body. ‘I-am-ness’ recedes, vanishes. That is the greatest moment, the moment of immortality.

Where does one go at death? On hearing some shocking news, one becomes unconscious. Where did one go? Because one regains consciousness, you do not call it death. In the so-called death, the consciousness does not reappear. The body becomes unfit for its manifestation.

The material of which the body is constituted gets weary and weak, and along with it this knowledge is also getting weak. The sense of presence will still be with you 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. You will very much be, but without the sense of presence.

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. When this is apprehended there is no question of birth or death.

When the life force is ready to leave the body, it will be the moment of highest ecstasy, because what is manifest is now going to be unmanifest.

People who are immersed in Bhajans and God… they see Him even in dreams and in visions. This helps them to forget all worries and be fearless on the day of passing. The vital breath of these devotees leaves in a great joy. From their last day you can judge how they must have lived throughout their lives. For other people even a thought of death is dreadful. They see messengers of the God Yama and die a miserable death. There is no heaven or hell. It only matters how you die, whether merrily or in fear. At death, the departure of the vital breath and mind will be witnessed by you. You will see the body inert on the bed and consciousness becoming non-conscious. It is like witnessing the passing of urine or faeces. The observers will say you are dead, but it will not be your experience.

If, at the time of death, the consciousness entertains a very strong concept, the consciousness can create that particular concept. If at the time of death the person imagines having a life somewhere… the consciousness will create a similar situation. All these things are illusions in the realm of consciousness.

We will become whatever concept we entertain at the time of death. It will take concrete shape according to the concept. To one who has purified the mind of all concepts, death will be very blissful.

The mind flows from prana, the vital force. When you realize this, at the last moment you will clearly witness that you do not die, but prana leaves the body. The enlightened person has no hopes, no desires, no passions. Therefore he has no death. It is the most indescribable event when the manifest becomes unmanifest. But the ignorant one says: ‘I am dying’, even before prana leaves the body. This is because he has not known his true nature. The time of death of a sage is very sacred. This is the reason why their death anniversary is celebrated. Decide now who you are going to die as. The thought at the time of dying will decide the future. There should be no other thought except: ‘I am perfect bliss’. Your state will be in accordance with what you take yourself to be. This is true now, and it will be true then.

What a man thinks himself to be before death, he continues to be after death. His self-image survives.

The last thought that you should have before death approaches you, is ‘I am Nirguna, without attributes’. Remember you have no shape and colour.

At death some sages disintegrate into nothingness, with no remnant. Death is also an illusion. A jnani who abides in the Absolute and who has understood and transcended this consciousness does not want to prolong the life of consciousness.

Expect no change at the moment of death. When the film projection ends, all remains the same as when it started. The state before you were born was also the state after death, if you remember.

The jnani does not die because he was never born. What happens when an ordinary man dies? According to his belief it happens. As life before death is but imagination, so is life after. The dream continues.

One believes in death due to ignorance. If death were a reality, even in a single case, all the living beings would have died. A body is alive due to consciousness. Due to the separation of consciousness, the bodies can be said to have death. As you are the consciousness, and not a body, you have no death.

From other people’s point of view, a man is dead. From the point of view of a jnani, he has become free of his delusion. ‘I am such and such, a woman or a man’, is the delusion. In worldly dealings you can use your identity as a man or a woman, but do not keep it within you.

To the jnani to be born and to die appears but a way of expressing movement in the immovable, change in the changeless, end in the endless. To the jnani it is obvious that nothing is born and nothing dies, nothing lasts and nothing changes, all is as it is… timelessly. To an jnani nothing has beginning or ending. As salt dissolves in water, so does everything dissolve into pure being.

The agony of dying is never pleasant to look at, but the dying man is rarely conscious. Death is very much like sleep. For a time the person is out of focus and then it returns. The person, being a creature of circumstances, necessarily changes along with them, like the flame that changes with the fuel. Only the process goes on and on, creating time and space.

Death is the cessation of knowingness, nothing else. In fact, there is no death or birth. At death the knowingness becomes non-knowingness… and that is all.

One who is dead cannot know anything. A dead one does not know he is or he was. There is no registering a dead one’s existence either with us or with the One.

When a body has died, the indwelling Atman, sense of being, loses memory of its beingness and does not know it is. In that state there is no sleep, waking and knowingness.

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. Having protected it for so many years, the ignorant gives up this Atman Prem (Self Love) to his concept of time. The ignorant bhakti (devotee) gives it up to a concept of God. The jnani gives it up to his own nature.

You are pronounced dead when the Atman has left the body, but you are not that Atman, so your death is not there. You are not affected by anything. Whatever the experience you surrender it all to the Atman. All the actions and fruits of the actions are surrendered to the Atman by the Parabrahman, the Absolute.

Death occurs to those who think of themselves as an individual. Everything depends upon who you are going to die as. Death is only a word. It is never an experience. What will you experience other than Brahman when there is nothing else other than Brahman?

Because the knowledge’ I am’ is not there after death, there can be no individuality left after death, therefore there can be no question of further rebirths and reincarnation. The truth is that nothing is born, and there is no world. The world appears but it is not there.

Death is a hearsay. Having followed the course of spirituality, you have come to the end of personality and there is no more human being. There is only impersonal consciousness. In this realm of consciousness all that is going on is dynamic playfulness, a process of functioning. There is no differentiation in this process as to a person, an entity, a community, a creed, a religion. In the flash of your consciousness all this play is going on. The play will come to an end.

Just as the subject must be separate from the object it perceives, the Self is separate from the body. When the body disappears the separate Self will merge with the Universal Being.

If you understand at the time of death what you are, that you were never a person, it is enough. Do not feel that you are a personality and that you can do something for yourself. There is no person.

Having died, I am alive. I see everybody as myself, pure and complete. But they hold onto their beliefs… and suffer. What can I do?

Does anyone have a memory of his death? So what happens? The memory of ‘I am’ forgets itself, that is all! As the memory of ‘I am’ changes, everything changes. If the memory of ‘I am vanishes, then what? What is your state when you do not know that ‘you are’? There is no delusion such as ‘I am’, or ‘I am not’. Such a state is called Parabrahman.

Death 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. Knowingness is the quality of the material stuff. Before birth and after death this instrument is missing, and 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 consciousness goes, you prevail… you always are… as the Absolute.

Everyone has to die, so die as your true nature. Never forget your true nature. Have the highest ambition, so that at least while dying, you will be the Absolute. Now, death has become of the nature of the Absolute.

Brahman, Ishvara, God, all these are names given to the consciousness when it is conscious of itself. At death consciousness gradually loses everything, and ultimately consciousness is no longer conscious of itself. Although that state cannot be described, it is called Parabrahman for communication purposes. It is only the consciousness that is going to disappear, the Absolute is always there.

The jnani notices how consciousness gets extinguished, at the last moment of life. He is not affected. He has seen God, whose voice this consciousness is. He also sees that God vanishes… God is also transient. Other people, however, worship God so that their well-being is achieved. This is the difference. It is only a rare jnani that knows that when the incarnation of God is finished, he himself is not finished. The rest entertain the concept of heaven and hell.

Dying does not mean annihilation. It is like the setting of the sun. No one has death as such. The matchstick is the food for the flame. When it gets extinguished, it does not mean that it has died.

What do you gain by living on, and what do you lose by dying? What is born must die; what was never born cannot die. It all depends on what you take yourself to be.

What was born must die. Only the unborn is deathless. Find out what it is that never sleeps and never wakes, and whose pale reflection is our sense of ‘I’.

When somebody dies nothing happens. Something becomes nothing. Nothing was, nothing remains.

23. Rebirth-Reincarnation

The memory of the past unfulfilled desires traps energy, which manifests itself as a person. When its charge gets exhausted, the person dies. Unfulfilled desires are carried over into the next birth. Self-identification with the body creates ever fresh desires and there is no end to them, unless this mechanism of bondage is clearly seen. It is clarity that liberates, for you cannot abandon desire unless its causes and effects are clearly seen. I do not say that the same person is reborn. It dies and dies for good. But its memories remain and their desires and fears. They supply the energy for a new person. The real takes no part in it, but it makes it possible by giving it the light.

Due to the superimposition of Maya, some accumulate merit and some accumulate more sins. After the body falls, there will not be a vestige of memory left of what you did today. Then how are you going to utilize that merit? Rebirth is the opinion of sages. The knowledge based upon opinions is intellectual knowledge. It is illusory. It is not Self-knowledge.

The scriptures say that you have had an infinite number of births. These are only concepts. Have you had an experience of at least a single birth? Realize this mistake. You are immortal. Understand that you are a distant seer of sleep and wakefulness. You have taken up the false appearance as true… hence you have to take birth again and again, this is what the scriptures say. The guru within will show you what is death and what is deathlessness. Whatever appears and is sensed is untrue. The entire five elemental world is unreal.

We are aware that ‘we are’, but what happens to that awareness in the future? Those who die while identifying themselves with the body have to take another birth. Whatever concept there is at the time of death, it happens accordingly. This is not the case for one who is enlightened. It is not his experience, so he does not talk of rebirth. One who has realized the totality does not have individual birth or death. As totality, the Atman does not have beingness. The beingness comes with the body, which is food. The cause of the existence of beingness is trivial, yet it is responsible for rebirth.

Your consciousness has gone though millions of incarnations. Great sages became as they are by worshipping their consciousness. Consciousness needs a vehicle and an instrument for its manifestation. When life produces another body, another knower comes into being. Just as the knower of the body appears at birth, so he disappears at death. Life remains. Is there a link? There is something that may be called the memory body, or causal body, a record of all that was thought, wanted, and done. It is like a cloud of images held together.

It is said that some people can recall up to ten or twelve past lives. But do they understand that all the births have come out of their consciousness? You may say you have had many births, but why and how were you accused of your first birth? When you were not aware of any individuality, did you then remember yourself? In order that the manifest should appear, support is necessary. How is the manifestation of an individual composed? Who was there prior to manifestation, and where does he want to go, by making some effort? Only see how consciousness has come over you… leave the rest. All complications have started with consciousness.

When the visible becomes invisible, it does not mean that it is dead. When it becomes visible again, they call it rebirth. This rising and setting does not affect consciousness. Create the simple faith in yourself: “I am immortal, imperishable. I am neither visible nor invisible. It is because of me that this phenomenon becomes visible”. Give this understanding to your consciousness with consciousness.

Out of the nirguna many characteristics are created. This must be understood while the consciousness in the body is still there. Otherwise, it will take birth time and time again. The fact that our nature is nirguna has never been forgotten, therefore it does not have to be remembered.

There is no compulsion to be reborn. You get what you want. You make your own plans and you carry them out.

When does another birth take place? After one dream, a second dream may immediately follow, if it has to come. Desires are strong. It is desire that causes repetition. There is no recurrence when desire is not.

As I do not know even this birth, how can I know past births?

The scripture say I have lived before, but I know nothing about it. I know myself as I am; as I appeared, or will appear, is not within my experience. It is not that I do not remember, in fact there is nothing to remember. Reincarnation implies a reincarnating self. There is no such thing. The bundle of memories and hopes, called the ‘I’, imagines itself existing everlastingly and creates time to accommodate its false eternity. To be, I need no past or future. All experience is born of imagination; I do not imagine, so no birth or death can happen to me. Only those who think themselves born can think themselves reborn.

What is born and reborn is not you. Let it happen, watch it happen.

All exists in awareness, and awareness neither dies nor is reborn. It is changeless reality itself.

24. Immortality

You are immortal.

Without breach in continuity there can be no rebirth. There can be no renewal without death. Without death we would be in eternal senility. When life and death are seen as essential to each other, as two aspects of one being… that is immortality. To see the end in the beginning and beginning in the end is the intimation of eternity. Definitely, immortality is not continuity. Only the process of change continues. Nothing lasts.

Every living being wishes to be immortal. That is the greatest desire.

I am living even when many cosmoses have come into existence and have been dissolved. I know I was always, ever, and abiding. Whatever has happened, I am here, ever-present.

Immortality is beyond time and space. In that timeless, spaceless existence there is no entry for the five elements, for light or darkness, for the sun or the moon. Timeless, spaceless existence does not know that it is. That is reality. that is the truth.

25. Prarabdha-Destiny

Destiny is what happens. There is no thwarting of destiny.

Nothing can be avoided. If it could have been avoided, one would not have taken the form of the body. When the food is bad, does anyone need to be told that it should not be eaten?

In the course of time everything happens. All will come through, not a single jivatman, individual nature or soul, shall be lost.

Have a better look at yourself. The screen is there… it does not change. The light shines steadily. Only the film in between keeps moving and causes pictures to appear. You may call the film destiny, prarabdha.

Destiny is the storehouse out of which all this manifestation flows. It is the principle out of which you have emanated. It is something like a film negative. Consciousness is already present in that source from which you have emanated, so the film is being projected. What is to be projected is already recorded. Whatever activities happen through that beingness, which is you, are your destiny. Every action which that beingness will take is already registered in the film. Nine months prior to your birth the destiny was created. However, destiny is created by nobody, it just happens.

The knowledge ‘I Am’ is the film, the destiny. What is our destiny? It is that birth chemical, that film in which everything is recorded and everything is happening. Where are you in this? ‘I Amness’ is a chemical in which everything that is going to happen is recorded. When this is realized you will understand that you are not an individual.

Ultimately is there a world, or is there none? What you see is nothing but yourself. Call it what you like, it does not change the fact. Through the film of destiny your own light depicts pictures on the screen. You are the viewer, the light, the picture, and the screen. Even the film of destiny, prarabdha, is self-selected and self-imposed.

What is just happening is the unfolding of destiny that has come into existence on the first day of conception. There is nothing you can claim the doership of. Once you know who you are, that destiny does not bind you.

Thoughts are not predestined but are the reactions of impressions, samskaras, which you receive now.

Destiny refers only to name and shape. Since you are neither body nor mind, destiny has no control over you. You are completely free. The cup is conditioned by its shape, material, use, and so on. But the space within the cup is free.

Understand that you are destined for enlightenment. Co-operate with your destiny, don’t go against it. Allow it to fulfil itself. All you have to do is to give attention to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.

Perfection is the destiny of all living beings. The possibility becomes a certainty once a living being has heard and understood that enlightenment is within his reach, he will never forget it, for it is the first message from within. It will take root and grow and in due course take the blessed shape of the Guru.

There is no question of failure, neither in the short run, nor in the long. It is like travelling a long and arduous road in an unknown country. Of all the innumerable steps there is only the last which brings you to your destination, yet you will not consider all previous steps as failures. Each brought you nearer to your goal, even when you had to turn back to by-pass an obstacle. In reality each step brings you to your goal, because to be always on the move, learning, discovering, unfolding, is your eternal destiny. If you have not learnt, repeat.

Desire shapes destiny.

During the millions of years that the world has been in existence there have been thousands of avatars, but not one of them has been able to do anything to change the natural course of events in the world.

If people express their confidence that something evil is going to happen to them, I tell them that is their destiny, which I cannot change. For me it is enough to realize that I am not part of that which comes and goes, which rises and sets.

All kinds of things happen. I do not cause them to happen, they just happen. So it is with you… the roll of destiny unfolds itself and actualizes the inevitable. You cannot change the course of events, but you can change your attitude, and what really matters is the attitude and not the bare event.

“The effects of good and bad deeds of this and past lives get stored in one’s account. One has to enjoy or suffer according to one’s actions”… this is the normal belief about prarabdha. It is all untrue for me. The main point is, man must get strength from somewhere to face life as it comes and when it comes. The untimely death of young people is explained as their prarabdha… they were allotted only short lives by God in this life. People used to console themselves, saying they has done something bad in the past live and it was necessary to suffer now to wipe out the evil of past lives. Without such explanation and consolation, life would have become very difficult, and even intolerable, for many. Hence, the concept of prarabdha serves to provide relief to the ignorant people. Even in these modern times many take help of this old concept to face life as it comes.

Do events take place by accident or is there a plan? Is there a pattern laid down before I was born by which I have to live my life? Is destiny immutable and every second of life is predetermined, or does pure accident decide everything?… You can have it as you like. You can distinguish in your life a pattern, or merely see a chain of accidents. Explanations are meant to please the mind. They need not be true. Reality is indefinable and indescribable.

The objective universe has structure, is orderly and beautiful. Nobody can deny it. But structure and pattern imply constraint and compulsion. My world is absolutely free; everything in it is self-determined. Therefore all happens by itself. There is order in my world also, but it is not imposed from outside. It comes spontaneously and immediately, because of its timelessness. Perfection is not in the future. It is now.

You are completely free even now. What you call destiny, karma, is but the result of your own will to live. How strong is this will you can judge by the universal horror of death.

There is no prarabdha, no destiny. The Brahman state is not subject to any destiny. There is no question of something good or bad happening to the Brahman state. Those who are not one with the Brahman still think they are an individual, and consequently will always be thinking that something good or bad is going to happen to them, as an entity conditioned by body-mind.

26. Karma

Karma is only a store of unspent energies, of unfulfilled desires and fears not understood. The store is being constantly replenished by new desires and fears. It need not be so for ever. Understand the root cause of your fears… estrangement from yourself; and of desires… the longing for the self, and your karma will dissolve like a dream.

Karma is a gross approximation. In reality we are all creators and creatures of each other, causing and bearing each other’s burden.

Most of our karma is collective. We suffer for the sins of others, as others suffer for ours. Humanity is one. We could have been much happier people ourselves, but for our indifference to the sufferings of others.

Karma, or destiny, is an expression of a beneficial law: the universal trend towards balance, harmony, and unity. At every moment, whatever happens now, is for the best.

Ignorance is like a fever… it makes you see things which are not there. Karma is the divinely prescribed treatment. Welcome it and follow the instructions faithfully and you will get well. Accept your destiny and fulfil it, this is the shortest way to freedom from destiny, though not from love and its compulsions. To act from desire is bondage, to act from love is freedom.

Before you were born you expected to live by a plan, which you yourself had laid down. Your own will was the backbone of your destiny. Karma shapes the circumstances; the attitudes are your own. Ultimately your character shapes your life, and you alone can shape your character. You shape your character by seeing it as it is, and being sincerely sorry. This integral seeing-feeling can work miracles. You have to melt down the metal in the heat of the fire and cast it in the mould.

Birth, rebirth, and the law of karma are all concepts based on the ignorance of Truth. When all forms are imaginary, whose karma (action) and whose birth or rebirth can it be? If one had a true concrete form, one would suffer in the same form, due to one’s actions. The law of karma is based on the assumption that all forms are real and a record of all actions is maintained. Although all forms are false, what is true in them are the five elements. These elements can be held responsible for the actions and should be punished to the extent as they deserve it.

It is said that the thoughts at the last moment decide the future of the one who is dying. This is true of an ignorant person who believes he is the body.

Because you take yourself as your body, the law of karma affects you. You even try to benefit by it. If you know yourself as the Self, the law will not affect you.

27. Existence

To be, to exist with a name and form is painful, yet I love it. My very nature is to love, even the painful is loveable. It is the instinct of exploration, the love of the unknown, that brings me into existence. It is in the nature of being to see adventure in becoming, as it is in the very nature of becoming to seek peace in being. This alteration of being and becoming is inevitable, but my home is beyond.

To exist means to be something, a thing, a feeling, a thought, an idea. All existence is particular. Only being is universal. Existences clash, being never clashes. Existence means becoming, change, birth and death, and birth again, while in being there is silent peace.

We give a thought to our existence only after the beingness appears and not before.

Prior to the cosmic awareness of one who has realized the Self, the self and its experiences are limited to the worldly life. This worldly life starts with birth and ends in death. The consciousness of one’s own being, and of the world, and of its supporting primal force Brahman (God)… are experienced all at once. Prior to this, not knowing of one’s own being, there is no experience of the world and God (Brahman). Awareness of one’s own being does not mean here the physical consciousness of oneself as an individual, but implies awareness of the mystery of existence. All of a sudden, to become aware of oneself, the world, and God (Brahman), is a great mystery indeed, an extremely significant event, which brings with it the responsibility of self-preservation, sustenance, and self-development… and no one can avoid it. One who leads his life, without ever wondering about who or what he is, accepts the traditional genealogical history as his own, and follows the customary religious and other activities, according to tradition. He leads his life with the firm conviction that the world was there prior to his existence, and that it is real. Because of this conviction, he behaves as he does, gathering possessions for himself, even knowing that at the time of death he will never see them again. Knowing that none of this will even be remembered after death… still his greed operates unabated until death.

When I did not know my existence, there was nothing. My existence and the world have appeared simultaneously.

You know that ‘you are’ and you want to exist always. You want company of your body indefinitely. But it is a food body which has ageing and time limitation. How can it remain healthy for ever?

Knowing one’s existence… is miserable, and it is a quality of the food body. When one does not know one’s existence… that is in order and fine. When you do not know ‘you are’ is there any fear?

Although the worldly existence is a meaningless suffering, the ignorant have no option. You come to know that you exist because of your body. But you are not the body. Bodily existence is like an accident. The existence itself is great, but it is dreamlike. All living beings are struggling all the time. As compared to the Eternal, all existence is momentary. It is only an appearance, without any substance. Human existence is like the day-dreaming of an idle person lying in bed. All human wants are the desires of a non-entity. As compared to the eternal, the momentary existence of any form is really a non-existence. Then why take all the trouble?

Your existence is like a dream of daylight during sleep. In your dream, the mind creates a world. The world is false, yet it appears to be very true. It is seen within ignorance. Do not identify mere existence with reality. Existence is momentary, always in time and space, while reality is changeless and all-pervading.

Deny existence to everything except yourself.

In ignorance, one believes in one’s real existence and presence. This habit is formed since childhood and the habit cannot leave easily. The so-called birth is the appearance of ignorance which prevails until the so-called death. A rare one knows this ignorance and observes all the so-called knowledge as useless. A jnani finds that the existence is not worth the trouble it demands.

Your only duty is to know that you are not in existence. Existence and non-existence relate to something in space and time; here and now, there and then… which again are in the mind.

All existence is in space and time, limited and temporary. He who experiences existence is also limited and temporary. I am not concerned either with ‘what exists’ or with ‘who exists’. I take my stand beyond, where I am both and neither.

Existence is in consciousness, essence is independent of consciousness

One, who was without any attributes, and was beyond consciousness, suddenly became conscious. It is not someone coming from somewhere, but it is only becoming conscious of one’s existence. From the ‘no news’ state, the news ‘I Am’ appeared.

How long will your ideas about yourself last?… as long as your body is intact. In my case there are no ideas. ‘What is’ cannot be described as like this or like that. It is unlike anything else. I do not find myself useful to the world, still I Am. My physical existence is this news ‘I Am’ in the body. It has come uncalled for and it can go any moment. How much importance should I give to this unreliable physical existence? My real existence is independent of this body. I existed when the body was not. Even now I exist independent of the body. The body is not required for my existence, only my news ‘I Am’ needs it. Without the body I do not know ‘I Am’. In future also, I will be there without this body, and without the news ‘I Am’.

You exist without the body, but that existence is without ‘I’. That was your existence a hundred years back. That is Eternal existence. There is no ‘I’ or ‘you’ in it.

The existence of others depends upon you. A hundred years ago, when you were not, all were absent. In deep sleep also, everything vanishes. All that, which depends upon you, should not give you happiness of unhappiness. Your existence does not depend upon others.

Because God is, you are there. You are the proof that God exists. Your existence and God’s existence are mutually interdependent. An analogy… your existence is because of your parents. Now, your parents exist in your form. You prove the existence of your parents.

Existence depends on the nameless. Let us call it Paramatman, so as to understand what I mean. The Paramatman is wordless, timeless, and even without consciousness. Just as the earth supports all life on it, the entire existence is because of the Paramatman. The existence of Paramatman is as if non-existence. The Paramatman is Eternal. All other existence appears so much and so true… but it is all time-bound. The time-bound can be known, but not the Eternal, which is always the knower and not the known.

Nothing exists by itself. All is the Self, all is myself.

28. Jiva

The jivatman is the one who identifies with the body-mind as an individual separate from the world. Jivatman is one who thinks I am a body, a personality, an individual apart from the world. He excludes and isolates himself from the world as a separate personality because of identification with the body and the mind.

The jiva has a sense of duality… separateness. Do not consider yourself as an individual. It is the root cause of fear.

Paramatman is speaking of the experience of how He has made Himself conscious. So long as you go about in body-consciousness, in body-form, your identification is of a jiva. Jiva and Shiva are two names given to the state where there is action. The functions of the jiva are limited to the body. Shiva is formless and unattached. The belief that you are like the body is the delusion. No action can change the fact that you are pure consciousness. Our true nature is unknown to us. How can we talk about That which is unknown to us?

One who loses the nature of his jiva gains the nature of Shiva.

Why do you enjoy finding fault with others? Is there not a better way to feel good? Such is the characteristic of the jiva. Do you see saintliness in every human being?

This state is by nature limited. He who is aware of his true nature and the total potential cannot be satisfied with anything that this limited state can give him.

Whenever man limits his consciousness to body and mind he is called jiva. Really he is independent of body and mind which are acting and reacting. Consciousness is all one, and there is no difference whatsoever, although it expresses itself in various shapes and forms.

You are jiva-atman, which means conditioned by the body-mind, and it is the self which is occupied with all the activities. And the ‘I’ which is unconditioned by, and not identified with the body-mind, having no form, design, or name, is Paramatman. The jiva-atman is being witnessed by Paramatman, your real Self.

Because of Maya, each jiva thinks that it is responsible for its actions in the world. That is false. People do all sorts of things to make the consciousness bearable. Yet what is going to happen, will happen. Why are you so anxious? It is to endure consciousness. If we keep ourselves occupied we can bear with ourselves.

You are a jiva because of your attachments.

As all individuals are imaginary, it is wrong to criticize the family affairs of anybody. In reality, it is the affair of the entire… the Brahman. The astral body occupies the whole of existence. We always experience everything around us, in which our body also exists. This applies to the waking as well as to the dream states. That is why it appears as if we are trying to force ourselves to be bodies, against out actual experience, which is otherwise. It is not an individual who experiences the entire, but it is the entire, the manifest, that experiences the entire. Every being is not separate, but it is always with the group of ten… the five elements, three gunas, Prakriti and Purusha.

When a jiva dies, it means the sense ‘I am’ ends. Whatever you take yourself to be will come to an end. The ‘I amness’ that you have taken for granted will not last.

The individual is merely a figment of the imagination. 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.

When you think in terms of parts, you think of Jiva, and of the whole as Parabrahman, but there is no difference. When it is entrenched in the body it assumes a temporality, a time unit, the jiva. At the end of the time span it merges into the Parabrahman.

29. Vyakti-The Person

As long as you do not see that it is mere habit, built on memory, prompted by desire, you will think yourself to be a person… living feeling, thinking, active, passive, pleased or pained.

The person comes into being when there is a basis for it, an organism, a body. The personal needs a base, a body to identify oneself with.

It is not you who desires, fears and suffers, it is the person built on the foundation of your body by circumstances and influences. You are not that person. This must be clearly established in your mind and never lost sight of. Normally it needs a prolonged sadhana, years of austerities and meditation.

You think you are a person, so you think I am a person. You think you are an entity, or a deity, and so you think I am an entity or a deity. I am not a person or an entity or a deity. I am cosmic consciousness. You take yourself as an individual, which you are not. I know myself as unmanifest and boundless.

The person is but a shell imprisoning you. Break the shell. Break the bonds of memory and self-identification and the shell will break by itself. There is a centre that imparts reality to whatever it perceives. All that you need is to understand that you are the source of reality, that you give reality instead of getting it, that you need no support and no confirmation. Things are as they are, because you accept them as they are. Stop accepting them and they will dissolve.

It is the presence of the person that complicates. There is no such thing as a permanently separate person. Remove what poisoned the mind… the idea of a separate and isolated person.

Self-limitation is the very essence of a person.

There is no such thing as a person. There are only restrictions and limitations. The sum total of these defines the person. You think you know yourself when you know what you are. But you never know who you are. The person merely appears to be, like the space within the pot appears to have the shape and volume and smell of the pot. See that you are not what you believe yourself to be. Fight with all the strength at your disposal against the idea that you are the nameable and describable. You are not. Refuse to think of yourself in terms of this or that.

Have no value for your person.

The person is merely the result of a misunderstanding. In reality there is no such thing. Feelings, thoughts and actions race before the watcher in endless succession, leaving traces in the brain and creating an illusion of continuity. A reflection of the observer in the mind creates the sense of ‘I’ and the person acquires an apparently independent existence. In reality there is no person, only the observer identifying himself with the ‘I’ and the ‘mine’. The teacher tells the observer: “You are not this, there is nothing of yours in this, except the little point of ‘I Am’, which is the bridge between the observer and his dream. ‘I am this, I am that’ is dream, while pure ‘I Am’ has the stamp of reality on it.”

You go on living, accepting a personality… the ego… ‘I am like this’, ‘I am like that’. Without that you are not comfortable. It is very rare that someone lives without an ego. When you are nothing, you will still be able to say: ‘I am Brahman’.

You are unreachable by any sensory experience or verbal construction. Turn away from them. Refuse to impersonate. You are not what you think yourself to be. The image you have of yourself is made up from memories and is purely accidental. What you appear to be, you are not. You have never been, nor shall ever be, a person. Refuse to consider yourself as one.

The person can stay in the darkness of ignorance forever, unless the flame of awareness touches it. Once the candle is lighted, the flame will consume the candle. Who lights the candle? The Guru, his words, his presence, the mantra; the Guru’s grace works mysteriously. The difference between the person and the witness is as between not knowing and knowing oneself. Before the spark, or flame, is lit there is no witness to perceive the difference. The person may be conscious, but is not aware of being conscious. It is completely identified with what it thinks and feels and experiences. The darkness, that is in it, is of its own creation. When the darkness is questioned, it dissolves. The desire to question is planted by the Guru.

How does the error of being a person originate? The Absolute precedes time. Consciousness comes first. A bundle of memories and mental habits attracts attention, consciousness gets focalized and a person suddenly appears. Remove the light of consciousness, go to sleep, or swoon away, and the person disappears. The person (vyakti) flickers, consciousness (vyakta) contains all space and time, the Absolute (avyakta) is.

It is the person you imagine yourself to be that suffers, not you. Dissolve it in awareness.

How does the person come into being? Exactly as a shadow appears when light is intercepted by the body, so does the person arise when pure self-awareness is obstructed by the ‘I-am-the-body’ idea. And as the shadow changes shape and position according to the lay of the land, so does the person appear to rejoice and suffer, rest and toil, find and lose, according to the pattern of destiny. When the body is no more, the person disappears completely without return, only the witness remains and the Great Unknown.

The person is a very small thing. Actually it is a composite, it cannot be said to exist by itself. Unperceived, it is just not there. It is but the shadow of the mind, the sum total of memories. Pure being is reflected in the mirror of the mind, as knowing. What is known takes the shape of a person, based on memory and habit. It is but a shadow, or a projection of the knower on to the screen of the mind.

In the young child the sense of ‘I Am’ is not yet formed, the personality is rudimentary. The obstacles to self-knowledge are few, but the power and clarity of awareness, its width and depth, are lacking. In the course of years, awareness will grow stronger, but also the latent personality will emerge and obscure and complicate. Just as the harder the wood, the hotter the flame, so the stronger the personality, the brighter the light generated from its destruction.

The dissolution of personality is followed always by a sense of great relief, as if a heavy burden has fallen off.

When the vyakti realizes its non-existence in separation from the vyakta, and the vyakta sees the vyakti as its own expression, then the peace and silence of the avyakta state come into being. In reality the three are one: the vyakta and avyakta are inseparable, while the vyakti is the sensing-feeling-thinking process, based on the body made of and fed by the five elements. All talk of separation and relation is due to the distorting and corrupting influence of ‘I-am-the-body’ idea. The outer self (vyakti) is merely a projection on the body-mind of the inner self (vyakta), which again is only an expression of the Supreme Self (avyakta) which is all and none.

The person is what I appear to be to other persons. To myself I am the infinite expanse of consciousness in which innumerable persons emerge and disappear in endless succession.

The universal is not aware of the particular. The existence as a person is a personal matter. A person exists in time and space, has name and shape, beginning and end. The universal includes all persons, and the Absolute is at the root of and beyond all. Everyone imagines ‘others’ and seeks a link with them. The seeker is the link, there is none other. The world is not independent of your mind. How can it be? Your desire to know other people’s minds is due to your not knowing your own mind. First know your own mind and you will find that the question of other minds does not arise at all, for there are no other people. You are the common factor, the only link between the minds. Being is consciousness. ‘I Am’ applies to all.

To identify oneself with the particular is all the sin there is. The impersonal is real, the personal appears and disappears. ‘I Am’ is the impersonal Being. ‘I am this’ is the person. The person is relative, pure Being is fundamental.

Realize that the person you became at birth, and will cease to be at death, is temporary and false. You are not the sensual, emotional and intellectual person, gripped by desires and fears. Find out your real being. What am I? is the fundamental question. Go into it deeply

There can not be two selves in one body. The ‘I Am’ is one. There is no ‘higher’ I-am and ‘lower’ I-am. All kinds of states of mind are presented to awareness and there is self-identification with them. Great Teachers do not speak to the person. They know well that the vyakti, the outer self, is but a shadow of the vyakta, the inner self, and they address and admonish the vyakta only. They tell him to give attention to the outer self, to guide and help it, to feel responsible for it, in short, to be fully aware of it. Awareness comes from the Supreme and pervades the inner self. The so-called outer self is only that part of one’s being of which one is not aware. One may be conscious, for every being is conscious, but one is not aware. What is included in awareness becomes the inner and partakes of the inner. The body defines the outer self, consciousness the inner, and in pure awareness the Supreme is contacted.

The person is in unrest and resistance to the very end. It is the witness that works on the person, on the totality of its illusions, past, present, and future.

The person is of little use. It is deeply involved in its own affairs and is completely ignorant of its true being. Unless the witnessing consciousness begins to play on the person and it becomes the object of observation rather than the subject, realization is not feasible. It is the witness that makes realization desirable and attainable.

There is no person in the body, as such. There is prana in it, there is consciousness in it. Your true nature is the Self, not the body. The guru is not an individual, he is the manifested all-pervading consciousness. Take up the identity as formless consciousness and carry on your activities.

When you are infected with the ‘I am the body’ virus, a whole universe springs into being. But when you have had enough of it, you cherish some fanciful ideas about liberation, and pursue lines of action totally futile. You concentrate, you meditate, you torture your mind and body, you do all sorts of unnecessary things, but you miss the essential which is the elimination of the person.

Nothing stops you from being a jnani here and now, except fear. You are afraid of being impersonal, of impersonal being.

You resent being treated as mere instrument of some Guru or god, and insist on being treated as a person, because you are not sure of your own existence, and do not want to give up the comfort and assurance of a personality. You may not be what you believe yourself to be, but it gives you continuity. To be denied personal existence is frightening, but you must face it and find your identity with the totality of life. Then the problem of who is used by whom is no more.

30. Desire

In the depth of your heart what is it that you want?

Desires arise because you imagine that you were born, and that you will die if you do not take care of your body. Desire for embodied existence is the root-cause of trouble.

We cling to the body and all the trouble starts. When you do not experience the body, there are no desires or needs, but when you think you are the body, you want to satisfy your desires, thinking that then you will have peace. There is no peace in the body identity.

To want something is natural, so long as there is identity with the body-mind. Once that is transcended there will be no more wants.

Who exactly wants something? The self or the mind? There is no ‘who’. There is desire, fear, anger, and the mind says… “this is me, this is mine”. There is no thing which could be called ‘me’ or ‘mine’. Desire is a state of mind, perceived and named by the mind. Without the mind perceiving and naming, where is desire?

Desires are entirely mind-made. You have to give up everything to know that you need nothing, not even your body. Your needs are unreal and your efforts are meaningless.

There can be no experience without the desire for it. There can be gradation between desires, from the grossest to the most sublime, but between the most sublime desire and the freedom from all desire there is an abyss which must be crossed.

Desires are just waves in the mind. You know a wave when you see one. A desire is just a thing among many, feel no urge to satisfy it, no action needs to be taken on it. Freedom from desire means this: the compulsion to satisfy is absent.

You identify yourself with your desires and become their slave. To me desires are things among other things, mere clouds in the mental sky, and I do not feel compelled to act on them.

Whatever you want, desire or worship, can only be concepts. There is conceptual existence and existence prior to concepts.

The state of craving for anything blocks all deeper experience. Nothing of value can happen to a mind which knows exactly what it wants, for nothing the mind can visualize and wants is of much value.

Realize that there is no desire outside the mind, and stay out.

Above everything else you cherish yourself. You would accept nothing in exchange for your existence. The desire to be is the strongest of all desires, and will go only on the realization of your true nature.

When you pursue this spiritual path of understanding the Self, all your desires just drop off… even the primary desire, to be. When you stay put in that beingness for some time, that desire also will drop off; you are in the Absolute.

The root desire is to continue with the ego, the ‘I am’. It is the result of turbulence in the gunas. The rest follows. Your state before the turbulence of the gunas is not traceable by the senses. All is created by the turbulence of the gunas. ‘I-amness’ means turbulence of the three gunas. This ‘I-amness’ has come spontaneously and uninvited… it was not there before. When it goes, the universe merges into the five elements.

The spiritual path is the path of self-knowing. On the spiritual path all your desires, all your attachments, will drop away. The primary desire is ‘to be’. Your ‘I-am-ness’ is the state ‘to be’. You are attached to that state ‘to be’. You love ‘to be’. When you stay in the state of ‘beingness’ for some time the desire ‘to be’ will also drop away. This is very important. When the desire ‘to be’ is dropped off, you are in the Absolute. The Absolute is a most essential state.

If you consider yourself to have a name and form, to have an identity, then desires will have an effect on you. It is not necessary to wilfully ignore the desires, just give attention to your ‘I-consciousness’.

The ‘I’ is full of desires. Instead of trying to fulfil the desires, find out what this ‘I’ is. Understand desire. Nothing in the world has any attraction for the Self.

The jiva is born as a matter of course along with time. There is desire associated with the jiva. Worldly interactions are not under your control. They will keep on going. Once you have stabilized in your Self, you will never feel a want of anything.

When emotions become quiet, there is no need to go anywhere.

Pleasure and pain are states of mind. As long as you think you are the body-mind, you are bound to question why they are there, and why you desire pleasure and fear pain. As long as there is a body and a mind to protect the body, attractions and repulsions will operate. They will be there, out in the field of events, but will not concern you. You will not be distracted. The focus of your attention will be elsewhere.

You will not get the bliss of the Self if you are busy fulfilling your desires and passions. The more you indulge in them, the more you will feed the fire. When your mind and intellect get dissolved in your consciousness, all desires will be fulfilled. Your consciousness has become hungry for the pleasures of the five elements. It has degraded itself.

Desire by itself is neither right nor wrong. Desire is nothing but striving for happiness. Having identified yourself with a speck of a body, you feel lost, and search desperately for the sense of fullness and completeness you call happiness.

All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are expressions of your longing for happiness. Basically you wish yourself well.

Desirelessness comes on its own when desire is recognized as false. You need not struggle with desire. Ultimately desire is an urge to happiness, which is natural as long as there is sorrow. Only see that there is no happiness in what you desire.

Becoming selfish makes you weak. Invariably the object of desire destroys the means of acquiring it, and then itself withers away. It is all for the best, because it teaches you to shun desire like poison. There is no need to practice desirelessness. No need of any acts of renunciation. Just turn your mind away. Get it out of its groove by denying it attention. Whatever may be the desire or fear, do not dwell upon it.

When you understand the meaning of sva… the Self… there will be no room for selfishness.

This world is filled up with selfishness due to your association with the body. Once you know what the Self, God, and the world are, then you dissolve the personality, and in that process that selfishness vanishes because you are no more an individual.

You want things, but when you realize that there is nothing, and you are not… what does it matter? Before consciousness came in I had no needs, no wants. I was whole and without any needs. Selfishness begins as I want something for myself. In truth there is no such thing as ‘I’ as an entity. Therefore there is no entity to want anything.

A man who knows that he is neither body nor mind cannot be selfish, for he has nothing to be selfish for. Or you may say he is equally selfish on behalf of everybody he meets… everybody’s welfare is his own. The feeling ‘I am the world, the world is myself’ becomes quite natural. Once it is established there is no way of being selfish.

Ask yourself do you deserve what you desire? In some way or other you have to work for the fulfilment of your desires. Put in energy and await for results. Where do you get the energy? The desire itself is energy. If the desire does not get fulfilled, perhaps it was not strong enough and lasting. When your desire is not clear nor strong, it cannot take shape. Also because your desires are personal, for your own enjoyment, the energy you give them is necessarily limited; it cannot be more than you have. After desiring it very much, and for a long time, some persons do attain what they desire, but even then their achievements are limited. When you desire the common good, the whole world desires with you. You make humanity’s desire your own and work for it. There you cannot fail.

No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of the ‘I Am’. If you want to make real progress you must give up all idea of personal attainment. In the lust for an everlasting personal bliss the mind is a cheat. The more pious it seems, the worse the betrayal.

Desires are right and wrong according to circumstances. It is only for the individual that a distinction between right and wrong is valid. In the individual’s case, desires that lead to sorrow are wrong and those which lead to happiness are right. But you must not forget others, their sorrow and happiness also count.

All desires are bad, but some are worse than others. Pursue any desire, it will always give you trouble. Do not even desire to be free of desire. Why desire at all? Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free? Nothing can set you free, because you are free. See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all.

Do not expect to benefit in any way by what you experience, because to benefit there must be an entity, and there is no entity. There is nothing like an entity ‘I’. There is no one to want anything. There is nothing to be sought, nor by whom? There is no one to benefit from desires.

Man 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. It is not understood… all that is functioning is the consciousness… no entity is involved. There is no benefit for any supposed entity. There is no benefit even out of this understanding. You are the understanding. That which apprehends this has no shape or form. The forms are created from the five elements and at the end of their span of time they are destroyed. Nothing will be of any benefit to you.

When you happen to desire or fear, it is not the desire or fear that are wrong and must go, but the person who desires and fears. This person should be carefully examined and its falseness seen, then its power over you will end.

If somebody wants something, it is seeking the real in the totally unreal.

You do not have an infinite supply of energy. Your aims are small and low. They do not call for more energy. Only God’s energy is infinite… because He wants nothing for Himself. Be like Him and all your desires will be fulfilled. Desire the good of all and the universe will work with you. But if you want your own pleasure, you must earn it the hard way. Before desiring, deserve.

At the root of all creation lies desire. Desire and imagination foster and reinforce each other. What is the root of pain?… Ignorance of yourself. What is the root of desire?… The urge to find yourself. All creation toils for itself and will not rest until it returns to it.

Your purpose is to retain your individuality, your personality, and to get all your needs satisfied. Your whole object is the good health of yourself and your family, not Self-knowledge, not this most important result, this Ultimate.

You will never be satisfied until you find out that you are what you are seeking. The difficulty comes because you are searching for That, forgetting that That is what you are. You, the subject are seeking you as an object. You are what you are seeking.

He is a real seeker who desires to get knowledge of the Self only. The rest of the desires will enable you to be called jiva and not sadhaka.

Leave alone your desires and fears, give your entire attention to the subject, to him who is behind the experience of desire and fear. Ask: who desires? Let each desire bring you back to yourself.

You will recognize that you have returned to your natural state by a complete absence of all desire and fear. After all, at the root of all desire and fear is the feeling of not being what you are. All self-concern is a symptom of mental distortion which disappears as soon as one is in the normal state.

Do whatever you want, but never forget what you really are.

All desires, holy and unholy, come from the self; they all hang on the sense ‘I Am’. All desires aim at happiness. Their shape and quality depend on the antahkarana [internal organ of mind, psyche]. Where inertia (tamas) predominates, perversions are found. With energy (rajas), passions arise. With purity (sattva), the motive behind the desire is goodwill, compassion, the urge to make happy rather than be happy. But the Supreme is beyond all yet, because of its infinite permeability, all cogent desires can be fulfilled. Cogent desires are desires that destroy their subjects, or objects, or do subside on satisfaction, which are self-contradictory and cannot be fulfilled. Only desires motivated by love, goodwill, and compassion are beneficial, to both the subject and object, and can be fully satisfied. Passion is painful, compassion never. The entire universe strives to fulfil a desire born of compassion. One who lives in the Supreme Unknown no desire ever arises in his mind. He is fully conscious, but since no desire or fear enters his mind, there is perfect silence. Silence knows itself. It is the silence of the silent mind… when passions and desires are silenced.

All desire has its source in the self. It is all a matter of choosing the right desire.

Whatever desire you do penance with, it projects on your mind… and everything appears accordingly. The life-force takes shape and then come the visions.

Desires fulfilled breed more desires.

It is in the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfilment. Even a small desire can start a long line of action, therefore what about a strong desire? Desire can produce a universe, its powers are miraculous. A desire lights the fires of manifestation. The very purpose of creation is the fulfilment of desire. The desire may be noble, or ignoble, space (akasha) is neutral… one can fill it with what one likes. You must be very careful as to what you desire. People are in their respective worlds for the sake of their desires, and there is no way of helping them except through their desires. You can only teach them to have right desires, so that they may rise above them, and be free from the urge to create and re-create worlds of desires, abodes of pain and pleasure.

Increase and widen your desires until nothing but reality can fulfil them. It is not desire that is wrong, but its narrowness and smallness.

When your mind is steady on the knowledge of your beingness, all your desires will be fulfilled. While you are listening to something, keep your attention on that who is listening. With that, all your desires will be fulfilled.

Desire is devotion. By all means be devoted to the real, the infinite, the eternal heart of being. Transform desire into love.

Hope and desire are the oils that keep the flame of life going. When hopes and desires are finished, one is extinguished right out. He is not dead, but is extinguished like a lamp. According to the Vedas, the thinking during the last moment of life decides the destination. For example: a Hindu and a Muslim kill each other while their attention is fixed on each other. The Hindu is born a Muslim and vice-versa… so the battle never ends.

Having realized that you cannot influence the results, pay no attention to your desires and fears. Let them come and go. Do not give them the nourishment of interest and attention.

All desire must be given up, because by desiring you take the shape of your desires. When no desires remain, you revert to your natural state.

In life nothing can be had without overcoming obstacles. The obstacles to the clear perception of one’s true being are desire for pleasure and fear of pain. It is the pleasure-pain motivation that stands in the way. The very freedom from all motivation, the state in which no desire arises, is the natural state.

Weak desires can be removed by introspection and meditation, but strong, deep-rooted desires must be fulfilled and their fruits, sweet or bitter, tasted.

The desire for truth is the highest of all desires, yet, it is still a desire. All desires must be given up for the real to be.

Everything happens by itself, quite spontaneously. But man imagines that he works for an incentive, towards a goal. He has always a reward in mind and strives for it. He does not know that to grow is the nature of consciousness. He will progress from motive to motive and will chase Gurus for the fulfilment of his desires. When, by the laws of his being, he finds the way of return (nivritti) he abandons all motives, for his interest in the world is over. He wants nothing, neither from others nor from himself. He dies to all and becomes the All. To want nothing and do nothing… that is true creation! To watch the universe emerging and subsiding in one’s heart is a wonder.

What you want to be, you are it already. Desire nothing, for you lack nothing. The very seeking prevents you from finding.

You will be concerned as long as the pictures that appear and disappear in the mind clash with your own sense of truth, love, and beauty. The desire for harmony and peace is ineradicable. But once it is fulfilled the concern ceases and physical life becomes effortless and below the level of attention. Then even in the body you are not born. To be embodied or bodiless is same to you. You reach a point when nothing can happen to you. Without body you cannot be killed, without possessions you cannot be robbed, without mind you cannot be deceived. There is no point where a desire or fear can hook on. As long as no change can happen to you, what else matters?

The cause of desire and fear is obviously the memory of past pains and pleasures. Conflict arises only when desire and fear refer to the same object.

The Self has no wishes or desires. No desire in the world is satisfied completely. Because of guna-Maya, our wants never end. When one understands Maya, desires and expectations go away.

31. Fear

The world is rich in diversity, but your feeling strange and frightened is due to misapprehension. It is the body that is in danger, not you.

The fear is because of your body identity. Only the formless can be fearless. I am not this flower pot and the flowers, but I do take care of them. The loss of body identity does not mean neglect of the body. There will be care of the body, without any worry or anxiety.

You still have fear. It means a little sin is lurking inside. Identification with the body is the sin.

Fear, anxiety, is a mental state caused by the ‘I-am-the-body’ idea. It can be removed by the contrary idea: ‘I-am-not-the-body’. Both the ideas are false, but one removes the other. Realize that no ideas are your own, they all come to you from outside.

You are interested in God because of the uncertainty in life and fear. When you truly understand the qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas, all your fear will go. Your ‘I Am’ is the quality of these three. They have no death… then how can you die? Not knowing ‘you are’ cannot be called death. Not knowing ‘you are’ happens in deep sleep as well… are you dead during deep sleep?

As persons we are bound to be afraid until we can look at fear and accept it as the shadow of personal existence. Abandon all personal equations and you shall be free from fear.

Once you realize that all comes from within, that the world in which you live has not been projected onto you, but by you, your fear comes to an end. Without this realization you identify yourself with the externals, like the body, mind, society, nation, humanity, even God or the Absolute. But these are all escapes from fear. It is only when you fully accept your responsibility for the little world in which you live, and watch the process of its creation, preservation, and destruction, that you may be free from your imaginary bondage.

The fear of death remains because we believe ourselves to be within the world. The fact is the opposite… the world is projected through us. Man’s consciousness is vaster than the world.

When you realize that the distinction between inner and outer is in the mind only, you are no longer afraid.

What is known creates fear. What transcends fear is everlasting. You do not pay attention to your perfection… that is why you are afraid. Have full faith in the guru, then the fear will be completely uprooted.

There wasn’t any fear before getting concepts from others. Don’t accept other’s concepts and be fearless. Investigate what is your main demand… for example: that you want to remain alive. All your activities are to remain alive. ‘I am alive’ is a concept from the standpoint of your true nature, which never dies. Hence the ‘I am alive’ concept must get dropped.

There is fear of death as long as there is the connection to the body-mind.

I am dead already. Physical death will make no difference in my case. I am tireless being. I am free of desire or fear, because I do not remember the past, or imagine the future. Where there are no names and shapes, how can there be desire and fear? With desirelessness comes timelessness. I am safe, because what is not, cannot touch what is. You feel unsafe because you imagine danger. Of course, your body as such is complex and vulnerable and needs protection. But not you. Once you realize your own unassailable being, you will be at peace.

Both God and the jnani know themselves to be as nothing, therefore nothing can resist them. Being nothing I am all. Everything is me. I am all and all is me. Being the world I am not afraid of the world. Being all, what am I to be afraid of? I am not afraid because I am nothing that can experience fear, or can be in danger. I have no shape, nor name. It is attachment to a name and shape that breeds fear. I am not attached. I am nothing, and nothing is afraid of no thing. On the contrary, everything is afraid of the Nothing, for when a thing touches Nothing, it becomes nothing. It is like a bottomless well, whatever falls into it disappears.

32. Need-Necessary

Something prevents you from seeing that there is nothing you need.

In the absence of sense of being there were no needs, including the craving to be, or to exist. The sense of being gives rise to all kinds of needs.

My need to exist made me limited. My incompleteness increased in direct proportion to my need. When there was no need to exist, I was unlimited, true and Eternal.

If you have no need of yourself, there will be no need for others.

You are not hungry and you need no bread. You need cessation, relinquishing, disentanglement. What you believe you need is not what you need. You need to return to your natural state. You need nothing except to be what you are. Anything else you may think of is an illusion and an obstacle. You imagine you will increase your value by acquisition. Elimination and purification, renunciation of all that is foreign to your nature, is enough. All else is vanity.

You struggle hard with all your intelligence, yet your needs remain unfulfilled. They will be taken care of when you realize the Self.

A jnani leaves it to the nature to take care of his needs. What does the embryo do to feed itself? Who protects it and arranges a safe delivery? There is a better care in the no-knowing state than in the knowing. The deliberate action of an individual cannot be so perfect. These actions can be forgetful and inefficient. In scriptures it is written that a jnani leaves it to destiny to do the needful to his body. He has nothing to say about it. I equate prarabdha to sattva quality, which is responsible for beingness. A jnani’s activities happen without the ‘I Am’ feeling.

You need not be attached to the non-essentials. Only the necessary is good. There is peace only in the essential.

You must not allow your mind to go out of yourself in search. When you want something, ask yourself: do I really need it? And if the answer is no, then just drop it.

Do not do that which you feel like doing. But nothing stops, even if there is no need to do it.

If you stabilize yourself in your true nature, the basic needs will automatically be provided for you. You will have to make no effort for them.

If you abide in consciousness everything will be happening spontaneously. If you are still at the body-mind level, you will think you are doing something. If 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.

When you got yourself separated from the Absolute with this identity ‘I Am’, you felt fragmented, isolated, and that is why your demands started. In the Absolute there are no needs. Only the Absolute prevails.

33. Happiness-Unhappiness

True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away. Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably.

If the entertainment of the experience is easy, if it pleases you, you call it happiness, if not you call it unhappiness.

When the mind is engaged in serving the body, happiness is lost. To regain it, it seeks pleasure. The urge to be happy is right, but the means of securing it are misleading, unreliable, and destructive of true happiness.

I do not want to displease anybody, for I am here to uproot the very cause of displeasure. If someone becomes happy by coming here, do I need his blessings? If someone leaves with displeasure, should I seek his pardon? It is not the Self which becomes happy or unhappy. It is the mind only. Which is not important.

It is your mind only that makes you insecure and unhappy. Anticipation makes you insecure, memory makes you unhappy. Stop misusing your mind and all will be well with you. You need not set your mind right… it will set itself right, as soon as you give up all concern with the past and the future and live entirely in the now. As nothing and nobody you are safe and happy.

Ananda, bliss, is subjective, but the Self is not. Unless all things are forgotten, there is no bliss. As you get more faith in yourself, the individual mind will fade, and you will be one-pointed.

You are always seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, always after happiness and peace. Do you not see that it is your very search for happiness that makes you feel miserable? Try the other way: indifferent to pain and pleasure, neither asking, nor refusing, give all your attention to the level on which ‘I Am’ is timelessly present. Soon you will realize that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels, that disturbs. Avoid the disturbance, that is all. To seek there is no need; you would not seek what you already have.

Desire is the memory of pleasure and fear is the memory of pain. Both make the mind restless. Moments of pleasure are merely gaps in the stream of pain. Joy is joy only against a background of pain. How can the mind be happy?

It is an observable fact that one becomes self-conscious only when caught in the conflict between pleasure and pain, which demands choice and decision. It is this clash between desire and fear which causes anger, which is the great destroyer of sanity in life. When pain is accepted for what it is, a lesson and a warning, and deeply looked into and heeded, the separation between pleasure and pain breaks down, both become experience… painful when resisted, joyful when accepted. The personal self by its very nature is constantly pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain. The ending of this pattern is the ending of the self. The ending of the self with its desires and fears enables you to return to your real nature, the source of all happiness and peace. The perennial desire for pleasure is a reflection of the timeless harmony within.

Do not pursue pleasure and shun pain, nor shun pleasure and pursue pain. Accept both as they come, enjoy both while they last, let them go, as they must.

The bliss is in the awareness of pain, in not shrinking, or in any way turning away from it. All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious, the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance… these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.

The source of all happiness is your beingness. If you get yourself involved in the flow, all that Maya, the activities, then you will come to misery. This is because you try to derive pleasure from the activities. On the contrary the way is to stillness.

The source of happiness and sorrow is your sense of ‘I am’. What causes the greatest sorrow is also the means of eternal happiness.

You can have no experience of happiness or unhappiness if the concept ‘I am’ is not there. Feeling and thought can come only when the basic ‘I-am-ness’ is there. If the feeling and the concept that I exist is not there, who can have any awareness, or consciousness? In the absence of the basic concept ‘I am’, there is no thought, no awareness, no consciousness of one’s existence.

When you see misery in the world, you feel pain, because you consider yourself an individual. The individual is bothered by the sense of ‘I’ or ‘mine’. The totality has no such botheration. If you meditate on: ‘I am the whole world, along with its pleasure and pain’, your personal sense of misery will go.

You are concerned with your own happiness, and I am telling you that there is no such thing. Happiness is never your own… it is where the ‘I’ is not.

You get happiness only when you forget yourself. All other activities are entertainment.

How can a person limited in time and space, a mere body-mind, a gasp of pain between birth and death, be happy? The very conditions of its arising make happiness impossible. Peace, power, happiness, these are never personal states. Nobody can say ‘my peace’, ‘my power’… because ‘mine’ implies exclusivity, which is fragile and insecure.

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… all the show is over.

The world is not objective and the sorrow of it is not avoidable. Compassion is but another word for the refusal to suffer for imaginary reasons. It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain. Truth makes happy… truth liberates.

Happiness is not lasting. You as the witness are prior to happiness. But the ultimate you, the real you, are prior to the witness-you.

Perfect happiness is not possible at the level of consciousness. All this is imperfect.

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 Sat-Chit-Ananda. The first touch of consciousness is necessary.

Chitananda, consciousness-bliss, has a sense of duality. It is enjoyment. It is movement. It is there when one knows ‘I am’. In non-duality there is no guna at all. Therefore there is no bliss in it. There is no knowingness in the Supreme State. When one does not know that ‘he is’, there is everlasting peace. There is no peace in knowingness. Mind itself is the absence of peace.

The word ananda, or the bliss, is very liberally used, as in sadananda, this ananda and that ananda. But, remember ananda is a quality which has no place in the Absolute, which is Nirguna, or non-qualitative. The bliss has a place as long as there is consciousness, but not beyond.

Happiness and unhappiness was not there until I had this consciousness.

True happiness has no cause, and what has no cause is immovable.

Our true nature is neither happiness nor sorrow. The Self, itself, is bliss. Where there is an experience of the Self, there is bliss. We are that bliss. People say they are happy, but has anyone of them experienced bliss?

The undisturbed state of being is bliss. The disturbed state of being is what appears as the world. In non-duality there is bliss, in duality there is experience. What comes and goes is experience with its duality of pain and pleasure. Bliss is not to be known. One is always bliss, but never blissful. Bliss is not an attribute.

When there is no consciousness, there is no happiness or unhappiness.

The fact that you know ‘you are’ is misery as well as joy. God is the source of joy, whereas the source of misery is Maya. But, at the root, it is only consciousness.

Happiness and misery, Brahman and Maya, are nothing but your consciousness. Your problems will come to an end when your body-consciousness goes. In the end, nothing will remain, including the ‘I’.

The real happiness, without its counterpart, can only be there when consciousness leaves.

You imagine that without cause there can be no happiness. To the jnani, dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery. Pleasure and pain have causes, while the jnani’s state is his own, totally uncaused, independent, unassailable. The jnani’s state tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss. He is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it.

True happiness is the quality (sattva guna) of your own nature.

Happiness is our real nature, and we shall never rest until we find it. But rarely we know where to seek it. A man of low intelligence believes, against all evidence, that the world owes him happiness. But the world cannot give what it does not have. Unreal to the core, the world is of no use for real happiness. We seek the real because we are unhappy with the unreal.

True happiness is uncaused, and cannot disappear for lack of stimulation. It is not the opposite of sorrow, it includes all sorrow and suffering. The inner happiness is overwhelmingly real. Like the sun in the sky, its expressions may be clouded, but it is never absent. Pleasure depends on things, happiness does not. As long as we believe that we need things to make us happy, we shall also believe that in their absence we must be miserable. Mind always shapes itself according to its beliefs. Pleasure is a distraction and a nuisance, for it merely increases the false conviction that one needs to have and do things to be happy, when in reality it is just the opposite.

Your desires are there. Your longing to be happy is there. Why? Because you love yourself. By all means love yourself… wisely. What is wrong is to love yourself stupidly, so as to make yourself suffer. Love yourself wisely. Both indulgence and austerity have the same purpose in view… to make you happy. Indulgence is the stupid way, austerity is the wise way. What is austerity? Once you have gone through an experience, not to go through it again is austerity. To eschew the unnecessary is austerity.

What is happiness? Harmony between the inner and the outer is happiness.

One is never satisfied with the bear minimum necessities. One never tries to experience the bliss of being. Instead, one desires more happiness by ever increasing acquisitions. Why do people struggle for more? Are people contented with the bliss of the Self… Atmanananda?

You do not think of happiness except when you are unhappy. A man who says: “Now I am happy”, is between two sorrows, past and future. Such happiness is mere excitement caused by relief from pain. Real happiness is utterly unselfconscious. It is best expressed negatively as: “there is nothing wrong with me. I have nothing to worry about”. The experience of being empty, uncluttered by memories and expectations, is like the happiness of open spaces, of being young, of having all the time and energy for doing things, for discovery, for adventure. What remains to discover? The universe without and the immensity within, as they are in reality. Your true home is in nothingness, in emptiness of all content.

Why are we unhappy? Let us consider our dream experience. If a king sees himself as a beggar, can he be happy? Our condition is also similar, even in this waking state. We do not know what we are. We believe ourselves to be that which, in reality, we are not. How can that lead to peace and tranquillity? What is needed is correct knowledge and not more and more worldly acquisition.

Do not try to make yourself happy, rather question your very search for happiness. It is because you are not happy you seek happiness in pleasure. Pleasure brings in pain, and therefore you call it worldly. You then long for some other pleasure without pain, which you call divine. In reality pleasure is but a respite from pain.

What is your happiness worth when you have to strive and labour for it? True happiness is spontaneous and effortless. One who has realized himself knows that the joys and sorrows of life are of the nature of the mind. They happen spontaneously.

Nothing can make you happier than you are. All search for happiness is misery and leads to more misery. The only happiness worth the name is the natural happiness of conscious being.

Why do most people not go to the end of spirituality? Because they are not in search of truth, but only peace and happiness. When they get it, they are satisfied and they settle there.

Those who seek mere happiness may end up in sublime indifference, while love will never rest. Be sure your attitude is of pure goodwill, free of expectation of any kind.  Happiness is incidental. The true and effective motive is love.

To know that you need nothing to be happy, except self-knowledge, is wisdom.

To imagine that some little thing… food, sex, power, fame… will make you happy is to deceive yourself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.

Happiness comes from the self and can be found in the self only. Find your real self and all else will come with it.

The Self is free of grief, hence it does not need happiness.

34. Suffering

This ‘I Amness’ is the very source of all misery.

Selfishness is the cause of suffering. There is no other cause.

Instead of saying that one lived for a hundred years, we should say we suffered for a hundred years.

The manifestation is due to five elements. As long as you are part of it, there is bodily suffering. In the whole existence, the suffering is only due to consciousness.

There is no individuality, nevertheless, so long as this body is part of the total functioning, whatever comes in the total functioning has to be suffered. The share of this body from the total suffering has to be experienced.

Pain is physical, suffering is mental. Beyond the mind there is no suffering. Pain is merely a signal that the body is in danger and requires attention. Similarly, suffering warns us that the structure of the memories and habits, which we call the person (vyakti), is threatened by loss or change. Pain is essential for the survival of the body, but none compels you to suffer. Suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting; it is a sign of our unwillingness to move on, to flow with life. A saint is friendly with the inevitable and therefore does not suffer.

Every pleasure, physical and mental, needs an instrument. Both the physical and mental instruments are material, they get tired and worn out. The pleasure they yield is necessarily limited in intensity and duration. Pain is the background of all your pleasures. You want them because you suffer.

Pleasure, pain and miseries are felt so long as identification with the body and mind is retained. When you realize you are neither the body nor the mind, you will remain unaffected by any mental modifications. In that state you are the dynamic universal consciousness.

The bliss of reality does not exclude suffering. It is not the thing in itself that is pleasant or painful. Pleasure lies in the relationship between the enjoyer and the enjoyed. And the essence of it is acceptance. If it is acceptable, it is pleasant; if it is not acceptable, it is painful. Suffering is due to non-acceptance. Did you ever try to accept pain? If you try you will find in pain a joy which pleasure cannot yield, for the simple reason that acceptance of pain takes you much deeper than pleasure does.

Pleasure is readily accepted, while all the powers of the self reject pain. As the acceptance of pain is the denial of the self, and the self stands in the way of true happiness, the wholehearted acceptance of pain releases the springs of happiness. Pain is easily brought within the focus of awareness. With suffering it is not that simple. To focus suffering is not enough, for mental life, as we know it, is one continuous stream of suffering. To reach the deeper layers of suffering you must go to its roots and uncover their vast underground network, where fear and desire are closely interwoven, and the currents of life’s energy oppose, obstruct and destroy each other.

By themselves neither pleasure nor pain enlighten. Only understanding does. Once you have grasped the truth that the world is full of suffering, that to be born is a calamity, you will find the urge and the energy to go beyond it. Pleasure puts you to sleep and pain wakes you up. If you do not want to suffer, do not go to sleep. You cannot know yourself through bliss alone, for bliss is your very nature. You must face the opposite, what you are not, to find enlightenment.

I dislike people troubling others and inflicting pain on them. But people cannot give up their wrong tendencies.

You suffer because your existence is restricted to a body. A jnani is infinite and boundless, therefore there is no pain. In the ocean there are billions of waves, but the ocean is unaffected. Know the self as unlimited.

All your problems arise because you have defined and therefore limited yourself. When you do not think yourself to be this or that, all conflict ceases. Any attempt to do something about your problems is bound to fail, for what is caused by desire can be undone only in freedom from desire. You have enclosed yourself in time and space, squeezed yourself into the span of a lifetime and the volume of a body, and thus created the innumerable conflicts of life and death, pleasure and pain, hope and fear. You cannot be rid of problems without abandoning illusions.

Human suffering is due to concepts, which may differ from actual facts.

Give attention to what worries you. After all worry is mental pain, and pain is invariably a call for attention. The moment you give attention, the call for it ceases. Instead of waiting for an answer to your question, find out who is asking the question, and what makes him ask it. You will soon find that it is the mind, goaded by fear of pain, that asks the question. And in fear there is memory and anticipation, past and future. Attention brings you back to the present, the now, and the presence in the now is a state ever at hand, but rarely noticed.

Your miseries are because of your consciousness, not because of the world.

Experiences will be there. You may not be involved in the experiences, but as 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 it has made itself the source of all apparent happiness.

The happenings, or the events, flow from the consciousness and the imaginary somebody, or some being, which feels its individual existence, suffers because of them. The food body has form, but the behaviour is formless.

To suffer, or to enjoy, you have no choice. You can not do anything… you have to enjoy what is.

If you are yourself alone, that state will not be felt; but if there is a foreign element, only then the suffering starts. On you, the original, this foreign element is imposed, that is why it is suffering.

Permanent perfection includes all imperfection. It is the perfection of our self-nature which makes everything possible, perceivable, interesting. It knows no suffering, for it neither likes nor dislikes, neither accepts nor rejects. Creation and destruction are the two poles between which it weaves its ever-changing pattern. Be free from predilections and preferences and the mind with its burden of sorrow will be no more.

If you stand aloof as observer only, you will not suffer. You will see the world as a show, a most entertaining show indeed. The cause of suffering is in the identification of the perceiver with the perceived.

Your attitude to suffering must change. Suffering is primarily a call for attention, which itself is a movement of love. More than happiness, love wants growth, the widening and deepening of consciousness and being. Whatever prevents becomes a cause of pain, and love does not shrink from pain. Sattva, the energy that works for righteousness and orderly development, must not be thwarted. When obstructed it turns against itself and becomes destructive. Whenever love is withheld and suffering allowed to spread, war becomes inevitable. Our indifference to our neighbour’s sorrow brings suffering to our door.

35. Attachment – Detachment

Attachment is bondage, detachment is freedom.

So long as you are attached to the body, you will not be able to transcend attachment to various people and things.

We should break off the shackles that attach us to the body and the world. Whatever is seen and perceived is at the bodily or worldly level. An attachment is developed with objects perceived, and then we identify with a body as ourselves and claim the objects as our own.

After transcending body-consciousness, one does not neglect one’s nourishment. However, one does not have desires and passions. A sense of detachment is created. One is content.

You are not letting go your habit of body-consciousness. Body-consciousness does not go… you do not have to let anything go. You have to understand it.

Attachment is the nature of the mind, and it obstinately persists in these attachments.

You cannot renounce. You may leave your home and give trouble to your family, but attachments are in the mind and will not leave you until you know your mind in and out. The first thing is know yourself.

If you want to know detachment you must realize the personality or individuality will melt away.

Do not hold onto the person you take yourself to be.

Not only do we surrender our possessions, we surrender ourselves. We surrender the entire knowledge. The greatest surrender is the renunciation of the knowledge ‘I Am’. When you give up that you escape birth and death.

Before the knowledge ‘I am’ appeared on you, you were absolutely unattached. As soon as the knowledge ‘I am’ dawned on you, you became attached to everything around you. Only the false ‘I’ is attached.

Total independence is merely to apprehend and understand. Apparent dependence is on this consciousness which says ‘I Am’.

The life force has no consciousness by itself. When it gets a form, beingness is created. The form is beingness. For one who knows his true nature, this puzzle will be solved. The rest of them talk by inference. The main attachment is your beingness.

Attachment to life is attachment to sorrow.

Freedom from all desire is eternity. All attachment implies fear, for all things are transient. And fear makes one a slave. This freedom from attachment does not come with practice… it is natural when one knows one’s true being. Love does not cling; clinging is not love. There is nothing to gain. Abandon all imaginings and know yourself as you are. Self-knowledge is detachment. All craving is due to a sense of insufficiency. When you know that you lack nothing, that all there is, is you and yours, desire ceases.

Merely giving up a thing to secure a better one is not true relinquishment. Give it up because you see its valuelessness.

A level of mental maturity is reached when nothing external is of any value, and the heart is ready to relinquish all. Then the real has a chance and it grasps it. Delays, if any, are caused by the mind being unwilling to see or to discard.

One comes to know the importance of vairagya, detachment, its practice helps to understand the Satguru. When I visited my home town recently, after a long gap, there was none there to recognize me. All my acquaintances were dead earlier. Similarly, what I was acquainted with myself as so-and-so, that acquaintance has also gone. That knower of acquaintance also is no more. My state is beyond all acquaintance and recognition. In this process of knowing, there was an indication that I was born. But that was seen as untrue. Just as all our identities, from an infant to an old man, change with time, all my knowledge about myself got erased and lost. It did not concern me at all. Even the sign of birth was recognized, but it became clear that it also did not concern me. Just as in my home town I do not own anything, this birth was also not my own. Once you know that it is not your birth, and that you have nothing to do with it, you are free.

To know and understand that the world is untrue is detachment. Giving up something is not true detachment. How can you hold onto consciousness, as that is what you are?

Words and their meanings create a variety of desires. Instead of looking outside, if one looks within, one will be freed quickly. Do not ask others about it. One has to discriminate. When there is discrimination, there is detachment.

Discrimination will lead to detachment, detachment will ensure right action, right action will build the inner bridge to your real being. Action is a proof of earnestness. Do what your teacher tells you to do diligently and faithfully, and all obstacles will dissolve.

Live a life without expectations. Then, automatically, the attachments will fall off. Recognize that you are without requirements. Your true state is spontaneously there. Do not disturb it through the mind.

Let things happen as they happen… they will sort themselves out nicely in the end. You need not strain towards the future… the future will come to you on its own. There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable for it means the soul has cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places. This is detachment… when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are afraid, the state may be distressing; but there is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember the old instruction: whatever you come across… go beyond.

Detachment is not going around naked. It is detachment when one becomes aware of the fact that everything is transient and is going to perish.

To think that you are becoming more detached is not correct, because you are already detached.

The preparation alone is gradual, the change itself is sudden and complete. Gradual change does not take you to a new level of conscious being. You need courage to let go.

Find out what you have with you that is your own. You may say that you own nothing… but do you even own yourself?

Attachment destroys courage. Freedom means letting go. People just do not care to let go everything. Spiritual maturity lies in the readiness to let go everything. The giving up is the first step. But the real giving up is in realizing that there is nothing to give up, for nothing is your own.

This psychosomatic bundle which is born will suffer or enjoy during its allotted span. I am the knower, not the one who experiences, and am not concerned. It is perfectly clear. I merely watch the body, mind, and consciousness laugh and suffer. I know it is a temporary thing, if it wants to go, let it go. I am not concerned.

Sacrifice is giving up and donating yourself. In higher expression it is called detachment.

Detachment is the feeling that all this is an appearance. When truth is attained, false things drop off. No special effort is required to let them go. That is called an offering to Brahman.

Meditation will help you to find your bonds, loosen them, untie them, and cast your moorings. When you are no longer attached to anything, you have done your share, the rest will be done for you by the power that has brought you so far, that prompted your heart to desire truth, and your mind to seek it. It is the same power that keeps you alive. You may call it Life or the Supreme.

Be neither master nor slave, stand aloof.

All this I perceive quite clearly, but somehow I am not in it, I feel myself as if floating over it. There is aloofness and detachment, there is also awareness of it all, and a sense of immense distance, as if the body and the mind and all that happens to them were far out on the horizon.

When you become unattached, compassion will flow through you. All undesirable things will vanish. To become unattached means you exist as the Absolute.

36. Sadhana – Spiritual Practices

As long as you think you are separate, you have to do sadhana. As long as the body lasts, there is time for spiritual activities. After the fall of the body, sadhana cannot be done.

Assiduously investigate everything that crosses your field of attention. To be steadily and consistently wondering is sadhana.

In sadhana each one’s experience will be different due to the differences in the Prakriti and gunas of the instrument.

For the modern young Westerner the right procedure is to adhere to the thought that he is the ground of all knowledge, the immutable and perennial awareness of all that happens to the senses and the mind. If he keeps it in mind all the time, aware and alert, he is bound to break the bounds of non-awareness and emerge into pure life, light and love. The idea… ’I am the witness only’ will purify the body and the mind and open the eye of wisdom. Then man goes beyond illusion and his heart is free of all desires. The body dissolves into pure awareness (chidakash), then into pure being (paramakash), which is beyond all existence and non-existence.

Sahaja Yoga, easy natural yoga, is to meditate on your consciousness as God. You need not go anywhere for it. Do it wherever you are. There is no equipment required to do it. No outer help required. Be with yourself. Knowing that you are not your body, hold your consciousness with itself.

The very fact of observation alters the observer and the observed. After all, what prevents the insight into one’s true nature is the weakness and obtuseness of the mind and its tendency to skip the subtle and focus on the gross only. When you try to keep your mind on the notion ‘I Am’ only, you become fully aware of your mind and its vagaries. Awareness, being lucid harmony (sattva) in action, dissolves dullness and quietens the restlessness of the mind, and gently but steadily changes its very substance. This change need not be spectacular, it may be hardly noticeable, yet it is a deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light, from inadvertence to awareness.

Whatever vice and weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings. We overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy, the mind feels adequate and becomes quiet.

The waking state differs from deep sleep in the presence of the witness. A ray of awareness illumines a part of our mind, and that part becomes our dream or waking consciousness, while awareness appears as the witness. The witness usually knows only consciousness. Sadhana consists in the witness turning back first on his consciousness, then upon himself in his own awareness. Self-awareness is Yoga.

Watch yourself in your daily life with alert interest, with the intention to understand rather than to judge, in full acceptance of whatever may emerge, because it is there, you encourage the deep to come to the surface and enrich your life and consciousness with its captive energies. This is the great work of awareness… it removes obstacles and releases energies by understanding the nature of life and mind. Intelligence is the door to freedom, and alert attention is the mother of intelligence.

Attention means interest and also love. To know, to do, to discover, or to create… you must give your heart to it, which means attention. All the blessings flow from attention.

Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention. Do not look for quick results. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change, there will be more clarity in your thinking and feeling, and more purity in your behaviour. What you are now is the result of inattention, and what you become will be the fruit of attention. Why does attention make a difference? So far your life was dark and restless (tamas and rajas). Attention, awareness, vitality, are all manifestations of integrity, oneness with your true nature (sattva). It is in the nature of sattva to reconcile and neutralize tamas and rajas, and rebuild the personality in accordance with the true nature of the self. Sattva is the faithful servant of the self, ever attentive and obedient.

You could see the here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to yourself. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with yourself. Bring yourself into focus, become aware of your own existence. See how you function, watch the motives and the results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself, by inadvertence. By knowing what you are not, you come to know yourself. We discover our natural state by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.

Sadhana (practice) consists in reminding oneself forcibly of one’s pure ‘beingness’, of not being anything in particular, nor a sum of particulars, not even the totality of all particulars, which make up a universe. All exists in the mind, even the body is an integration in the mind of a vast number of sensory perceptions, each perception also a mental state. Sadhana is enquiring what is permanent in the transient, real in the unreal.

Direct all your enquiries within.

Sooner or later you are bound to discover that if you really want to find, you must dig at one place only… within.  You are not looking towards yourself, instead you are occupied with other things. Once you look inwards, everything will follow spontaneously.

Unless you accept inner adventure as a way of life, discovery will not come to you.

Nothing stops you but preoccupation with the outer which prevents you from focusing the inner. You cannot skip your sadhana. You have to turn away from the world and go within, until the inner and the outer merge, and you can go beyond the conditioned, whether inner or outer.

Yoga is the work of the inner self (vyakta) on the outer self (vyakti). All that the outer does is merely in response to the inner. It is the inner that can control the outer. The outer will be wise to obey. The outer can help by keeping quiet and free from desire and fear. Notice that all advice to the outer is in the form of negations: ‘do not, stop, refrain, forego, give up, sacrifice, surrender, see the false as false’. Even the description of reality is given through denials: ‘not this, not this’ (neti, neti). All positives belong to the inner self. The inner is the source of inspiration, the outer is moved by memory. The source is untraceable, while all memory begins somewhere. Thus the outer is always determined, while the inner cannot be held in words.

To be yourself your outer life is unimportant. It is what you are inwardly that matters. The only way to learn to be yourself is by practice. Right away begin to be yourself. Discard all that you are not and go even deeper. Just as a man digging a well discards what is not water, until he reaches the water-bearing strata, so you must discard what is not your own, until nothing is left which you can disown. You will find that what is left is nothing which the mind can hook on to. You are not even a human being. You just are… a point of awareness, coextensive with time and space and beyond both, the ultimate cause, itself uncaused. If you ask me: “Who are you?” My answer would be: “Nothing in particular. Yet I am.”

After a stretch of sadhana, Americans and Europeans become charged with energy and frantically seek an outlet. They organize communities, become teachers of Yoga, marry, write books… anything except keeping quiet, and turning their energies within, to find the source of the inexhaustible power, and learn the art of keeping it under control.

Your sadhana is to be. The doing happens. Just be watchful. What is the difficulty in remembering that you are? You are all the time.

The feeling ‘you are’ is the soul of the world. Remember this constantly. To keep this awareness throughout the day is constant meditation on the Self. You know that ‘you are’. What is the reason for this? Deliberate on this.

What matters is the persistence with which you keep on returning to yourself.

In the initial stages of your spiritual practice you should reject your identity with your body and mind and feel that the principle ‘I Am’ is the vital breath and the consciousness only. In the later stages the vital breath and the consciousness, that is the knowledge ‘I Am’, merge in one’s ultimate nature.

The first step in the discipline, sadhana, is to stay only in the knowledge ‘I am’, or ‘I am That’. It is necessary to think: “I am not the body, but I am that formless nameless knowledge indwelling in this body. That I am.”  Staying in that state sufficiently no external knowledge will be necessary.

My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense ‘I Am’ and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of the scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense ‘I Am’. Just turn away from all that occupies the mind, do whatever work you have to complete, but avoid new obligations. Keep empty, keep available, resist not what comes uninvited. In the end you reach a state of non-grasping, of joyful non-attachment, of inner ease and freedom indescribable, yet wonderfully real.

Give you heart and mind to brooding over the ‘I Am’, what is it, what is its source, its life, its meaning. It is very much like digging a well. You reject all that is not water, until you reach the life-giving spring.

Step number one is: be yourself. Be in your beingness only. You have to be in that beingness without the body sense: ‘I am the Immanent Spirit I Am’.

When you sit quiet and watch yourself, all kinds of things may come to the surface. Do nothing about them, do not react to them… as they have come so will they go, by themselves. All that matters is mindfulness, total awareness of oneself, or rather of one’s mind.

You will go on making resolves to accomplish something, and continue to practice, so long as you are identifying with form. When you realize that you are not the mind-body form, there is no practice anymore.

Try to live separating yourself from the body and its name. If you are not the body and its name, what are you? Although you take yourself as an individual, your ‘I Am’ knowledge is the union (yoga) of the five elements and the three qualities. It is a yoga of eight limbs, Ashtanga Yoga. (five subtle elements + three gunas = eight = Ashtanga).

Looking outside for light and sound, all disciples undergo some spiritual experience and that itself is bondage. They compare their experiences with others. Those disciples think they are very advanced. They are attracted to the experiences of sound and light because they identify themselves with the body. They want a shape and design, therefore they revel in experiences which indicate shape and design.

To know that you are neither the body nor mind, watch yourself steadily and live unaffected by your body and mind, completely aloof, as if you were dead. It means you have no vested interests, either in the body or in the mind.

If you could give up all other spiritual efforts and disciplines and absorb yourself in relishing the charan-amrita by abidance in the consciousness, the mind will release you from its clutches. At present you meekly accept whatever the mind dictates as your own. If the mind goes into silence, where and what are you?

The mind is discontinuous. Again and again it blanks out, like in sleep or swoon, or distraction. There must be something continuous to register discontinuity. While looking with the mind, you cannot go beyond it. To go beyond, you must look away from the mind and its contents. I am not asking you to look in any particular direction. All directions are within the mind! Just look away from all that happens in your mind and bring it to the feeling ‘I Am’. The ‘I Am’ is not a direction. It is the negation of all direction. Ultimately even the ‘I Am’ will have to go, for you need not keep on asserting what is obvious. Bringing the mind to the feeling ‘I Am’ merely helps in turning the mind away from everything else. When the mind is kept away from all its preoccupations, it becomes quiet. If you do not disturb this quiet and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love you have never known… and yet you recognize it at once as your own nature. Once you have passed through this experience, you will never be the same man again. The unruly mind may break its peace and obliterate its vision, but it is bound to return, provided the effort is sustained, until the day when all bonds are broken, delusions and attachments end, and life becomes supremely concentrated in the present. The mind is no more. There is only love in action.

Sadhana consists in shifting the emphasis from the superficial and changeful person to the immutable and ever-present witness.

Discover all that you are not. Body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, time, space, being and not-being, this or that… nothing concrete or abstract you can point out to is you. A mere verbal statement will not do, since you may repeat a formula endlessly without any result whatsoever. You must watch yourself continuously, particularly your mind, moment by moment, missing nothing. This witnessing is essential for the separation of the self from the not-self.

There are many starting points… they all lead to the same goal. You may begin with selfless work, abandoning the fruits of action, next give up thinking, and end in giving up all desires. Giving up (tyaga) is the factor. Alternatively do not be concerned about anything you want, think, or do, and stay in the thought and feeling ‘I Am’, focusing ‘I Am’ in the mind.

Because everything perceivable is transient and only the ‘I Am’ endures, remain unmoved by all kinds of experience that may come to you. Action, in which you are emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause suffering, will not bind you. Although you may work with enormous zest, remain inwardly free and quiet, with a mirror-like mind, which reflects all, without being affected.

What you gave up is of no importance now. What have you not given up? Find that out and give up that. Sadhana is a search for what to give up. Empty yourself completely.

Keep quiet, undisturbed, and the wisdom and the power will come on their own. Wait in silence of the heart and mind. Stay without ambition, without the least desire, exposed, vulnerable, unprotected, uncertain and alone, completely open to and welcoming life as it happens, without the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, material or so-called spiritual. Abandon every attempt, just be, do not strive, do not struggle, let go every support, hold on to the blind sense of being, brushing off all else. Refuse attention, let things come and go. Desires and thoughts are also things. Disregard them. Brush off the dust of events that is covering the clear mirror of your mind, allowing you to see only memories, until the true nature of your mind is discovered. Be earnest, and patient. Dispassion, detachment, freedom from desire and fear, from all self-concern, mere awareness, free from memory and expectation… this is the state of mind to which discovery can happen. Liberation is but the freedom to discover.

Practice detachment not indifference. In your real state you feel no attraction towards anything in this world.

Whatever can be lost is not really one’s own; and what is not your own, of what use can it be to you?

Watch your thoughts as you watch the street traffic. People come and go; you register without response. It may not be easy in the beginning, but with some practice you will find that your mind can function on many levels at the same time, and you can be aware of them all. It is only when you have a vested interest in any particular level, that your attention gets caught in it and you blackout on other levels. Even then the work on the blacked out levels goes on, outside the field of consciousness.

As long as you believe so you must go on with your sadhana, to disperse the false idea of not being complete. Sadhana removes the super-impositions.

Devotion to the goal of freedom and perfection will make you abandon all theories and systems and live by wisdom, intelligence and active love. Theories may be good as starting points, but must be abandoned, the sooner the better.

The main thing is to be free of negative emotions… desire, fear, etc., the six enemies of the mind. Once the mind is free of them, the rest will come easily. The mind gets purified in the stream of pure feeling.

The true meaning of ahimsa, non-injury, is to not hurt anyone’s feelings. One ought to develop such an attitude of mind in order to purify it. Our behaviour gradually changes accordingly.

The world and the self are one and perfect. Only your attitude is faulty and needs readjustment. This process of readjustment is what is called Sadhana. You come to it by putting an end to indolence and using all your energy to clear the way for clarity and charity. Be what you are. Trust and try and experiment honestly. Give your real being a chance to shape your life. You will not regret.

The signs of progress in spiritual life are freedom from all anxiety, a sense of ease and joy, deep peace and abundant energy without.

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 floodgate is opened, then you start rejecting everything, right from the gross state to Ishvara state, even your own consciousness, you reject everything. 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.

Do not think some progress has to be made. There is no identity. It is not possible for a phenomenal object to achieve something, and this is only a phenomenal object. Do not be under the misapprehension that you are doing anything. Before the conviction comes that you are God, you will have lost your identity, you will have merged with the total manifestation, therefore who will expect who to come and do pranams?

The mumukshu is the first stage, when one feels there is something beyond this material universe. Meditation etc. is given to the mumukshu, who is still convinced with his body-mind, but when he becomes convinced that he is not the body-mind he goes to the stage of the sadhaka.  The sadhaka still has a desire to achieve something, but he is convinced that he is the beingness or the consciousness. Ultimately he comes to the conclusion that he is not the beingness, because the beingness depends on the food and is also time-bound.

The causes of delay of self-knowledge are not investigating the sources of knowledge sufficiently, their sensations, feelings and thoughts they do not know well enough, or some desires may still be alive. If the seeker is earnest, the light can be given. The light is for all and always there, but the seekers are few, and among those few, those who are ready are very rare. Ripeness of heart and mind is indispensable.

You have enough will and energy for the first step. And each step will generate enough energy for the next. Energy comes with confidence, and confidence comes with experience.  Laziness and restlessness often stand in the way and until they are seen and removed, the progress is slow.

You want instant insight, forgetting that the instant is always preceded by a long preparation. The fruit falls suddenly, but the ripening takes time.

All those who have realized on the spot, by mere touch, look or thought, have been ripe for it. But such are very few. The majority needs some time for ripening. Sadhana is accelerated ripening.

What is the ripening factor? Self-remembrance, awareness of ‘I Am’ ripens you powerfully and speedily. Give up all ideas about yourself and simply be.

Abandon all desires, keep your mind silent, and you shall discover.

The real sadhana is effortless.

There is no place for effort in reality. It is selfishness, due to a self-identification with the body, that is the main problem, and the cause of all other problems. And selfishness cannot be removed by effort, only by clear insight into its causes and effects. Effort is a sign of conflict between incompatible desires. They should be seen as they are… then only, they dissolve.

The seeker will soon find out that the seeker disappears in the seeking.

There is no need for any sadhana except being aware of the fact that it is only in this consciousness that everything takes place.

The moment the Sat-Guru makes everything clear, there is no need for Japa, or mantra, or anything. If you understand what the Guru has been telling you there is no need of any sadhana. There is no need to do anything, and you can do anything.

There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Do not disturb your mind with seeking.

Those who meditate on the Self within is the normal tradition of approaching the Self. It is their faith which prompts them to do that. For all seekers the ultimate destination is the same, but some practices are difficult, like pushing a cart instead of pulling it. We do not advocate any practices. One who reads the Bhagavad Gita correctly, reads one’s own information in it and not that of Krishna. One sees oneself as immortal, the Eternal. One who takes oneself as the body, remains a mumukshu, and does not qualify to become a seeker.

If people ask you what to do, what practices to adopt, which way of life to follow, answer: ‘Do nothing, just be. In being all happens naturally’.

Keep the ‘I Am’ in the focus of awareness, remember that you are. Watch yourself ceaselessly and the unconscious will flow into the conscious without any special effort on your part. Wrong desires and fears, false ideas, social inhibitions, are blocking and preventing its free interplay with the conscious. Once free to mingle, the two become one, and the one becomes all. The person merges into the witness, the witness into awareness, awareness into pure being, yet identity is not lost. It is transfigured , and becomes the real Self, the Satguru, the eternal friend and guide. You cannot approach it in worship. No external activity can reach the inner self. Worship and prayers remain on the surface only. To go deeper meditation is essential, the striving to go beyond the states of sleep, dream, and waking. In the beginning the attempts are irregular, then they recur more often, become regular, then continuous and intense, until all obstacles are conquered… obstacles to self-forgetting.

You must practice japa meditation and listening. With a sharp intellect one gets liberated in a short period of time… just by listening.

37. Meditation

In deep meditation all the necessary wisdom is revealed to you.

Do dhyana, meditation, and in that meditation consciousness will unfold whatever knowledge is to be revealed.

By your deep meditation the Self is pleased and you need not go anywhere else to acquire knowledge. Your own Self will give the knowledge. Start meditation and the Self will direct you. The Self is the immanent manifest spirit. Do not give it a form.

The listener of the sound is not in the body. The body is made of the quintessence of food. Its quality is our sense of being. The listener of the sound is not the food body. He is the knower of consciousness.

For a while I used to deal with various matters and perform activities such as knowing and learning, with the idea that I was a human being, born of the ‘I’ consciousness. Next, in order to know myself, I started meditating on myself as God. The saints tell us: “You yourself are God. Think of Him alone, meditate on His being. Do not engage yourself in thinking of anybody else.” Now, I know that I am the knower of whatever I remember, perceive, or feel… hence, ignoring all that is remembered, perceived, or felt, I contemplate on the nature of the knower.

So long as you have plans and dreams, you have no time to meditate on your true nature. The duality will continue.

What meditation are you going to do? The meditator and the one who is meditated upon are the same.

The guru reveals to the disciple his own worthiness. He initiates the one who has surrendered. The meaning of the mantra is ‘I am Atman. I am not the body’. It is like the name giving ceremony for the new-born. The parents give birth to the body. The Sad-guru gives birth to consciousness. He sows the great seed into the heart of the disciple.

The sadhana recites the sacred name of God. You are given a certain title or name for God. That name is your very own name. When you recite the name, it will proliferate and give you all the knowledge. It is your own true nature. That recitation should not be given up, whether the body lives or dies, you should continuously recite that name. The eternal nature of anyone who recites the sacred name will be opened up. This recitation of the sacred name, sacred nama-mantra, is a tradition of the Navanath Sampradaya.

When you are initiated into a spiritual discipline with a sacred name, it means that it represents your ultimate true nature. Be one with the sacred name completely, then it will give you all the mystic knowledge necessary for your spiritual elevation. It will awaken you into your eternal awareness.

By calling God by his name you make Him come to you. He comes in a shape according to your expectations. The sound of the mantra creates the shape which will embody the Self.

The Self can embody any shape, and operate through it. After all the Self is expressing itself in action, and a mantra is primarily energy in action. It acts on you, it acts on your surroundings. Since time immemorial a link was created between certain words and corresponding energies, and reinforced by numberless repetitions.

The Self is realized by continuous japa, repetition of mantra. Japa means ‘take care’ [in Marathi language]. You only take care of something which you have a desire to maintain. Therefore japa is based upon desire.  By repeating the mantra with a good deal of concentration the inner receptacle in the body is purified so that one becomes receptive to such inner knowledge that may come, and the mind disappears into a spirit of reality. But what generally happens is one starts repeating the mantra and then wonders if the tea is ready, or the telephone rings, etc. You must make up your mind what you want. If your desire is so keen that whether the body lasts or not you must have it; if the determination is that great, then it must come. But if you want something in the material world, it is not possible. The true pupil keeps this in mind and meditates. It is basically the strength of the beingness. Ultimately the aim is to forget one’s individuality.

The meditation mantra reminds you of your true identity. Your parents gave you a certain name, and all called you by that name. Mantra is called ‘nama mantra’, name mantra, ie calling yourself as you are in reality. This mantra is very powerful and effective. My guru gave me this mantra and the result is all these visitors from all over the world. That shows its power. There are different mantras. Every mantra has a purpose, which is achieved by continuous chanting of the mantra.

There is no method to pursue this Truth. At the most you will be asked to purify your vital breath. You will be asked to follow a meditation on nama-mantra. That is all, because all other things are spontaneous. The recitation of the nama is the primordial music, thus sing the melody of name-mantra. In the process one loses one’s self and all the mischievous thoughts disappear.

To meditate on the Self is possible only with the grace of the guru. Such meditation is unique, not commonly found in the world. The guru liberates you. He initiates you by saying: “Your true nature is like my own”. He gives you the mantra, not taking you as male of female, but as the consciousness that listens.

The initiation with mantra establishes a special relationship with the guru. Therefore you must have faith in the guru.

A mantra is indicative of the aim or object in you.

There is a purpose in the mantra. By concentrating on the mantra the form behind the mantra will appear out of the ether, but all this is time-bound. Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved.

Constant repetition of the mantra is something the person does not do for one’s own sake. The beneficiary is not the person.

You do not know how your breathing takes place. Therefore, how difficult will it be to know the limitless. So far, you have asked many people many things, and the net result is that you are still in ignorance. One question you never asked anybody… that question is ‘whether you exist’. You exist and that is your direct knowledge. You know it even in total darkness. Now, try to know yourself without asking anyone. Your capital is the knowledge ‘you are’. Make use of it. Meditate on it. Meditation is without words. Aham, or I am, cannot be translated into other languages and be effective. [Editor’s note: Nisargadatta’s mantra is possibly: aham. Alternative variations are: aham-sa, or ham-sa, or ham-sa-so-ham, or ko-ham-so-ham].

Go on humming ‘I Am’ without words, the unstruck sound. (Aham, Aham, Aham…..)

The great mantra is: ‘I am Brahman’, ‘Aham Brahman’.

When you chant the mantra, the vital force takes shape according to the meaning of the mantra. Visions are created. The pure word flows like the Ganges, washing away the miseries of others. Chant the mantra all the time without any desires. Everything is happening spontaneously. There is no reason for pride, as everything is naturally there.

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’. In such a mood go into sleep. The consciousness which meditates on the Self, that Self will be revealed to you.

For how long should you meditate?… Until you forget that you are meditating. This will be possible by practice, provided you are earnest. Otherwise you may meditate for one or two hours, between 3am and 6am every morning, or as is convenient.

Meditate in such a way that you even forget you are meditating. Truth will reveal itself when one forgets oneself.

Do not just meditate… live in meditation.

Continue repeating the mantra. Even without repeating, one must know that it is going on within. Ever since the body was born, this incantation has been going on. This incantation stops only when a person dies.

Our breathing in and out creates sounds. One sound appears to be a question about our identity, followed by a sound which gives the reply. Let us see how? Breathing in produces the sound ko (who) ham (am I)? The next breath out replies: so (That) ham (I Am). This question-answer about our identity goes on continuously all the twenty-four hours, and a seeker only has to give attention to it… ko-ham-so-ham.

The recitation of mantra or Japa is carried out by the vital breath, and this beingness is a mere witness of the actions of the vital breath.

Meditation means holding onto the knowledge ‘I am’.

Practice the meditation: ‘just be’. ‘I am’. Do this type of meditation until you stabilize in the conviction: I am the knowledge ‘I am’. At that stage your individuality is completely extinguished. You (the manifested) no longer have a personality.  In the place of the lost individuality comes the manifest totality.

Meditation is an attempt to tranquillise that ‘I-Amness’. With ‘I-Amness’ began all misery. Feel the superficiality of ‘I-Amness’. The attention ‘I-Amness’ is always there in the waking state, but we do not watch it. Therefore be attentive to that attention ‘I am’.

Meditate on that “I Am” without holding onto the body and mind. Nurse this ‘I  Am’, which is the knowledge of your beingness.

Meditate on the fact that you are, on your beingness.

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.

There is no end to reading scriptures and getting confused. In the Mahabharata, the origin of Kauravas and Pandavas etc, confuse you more and more. Instead, know your beingness as light, Bhagavan, and Godly, and meditate on it. That would suffice. Your beingness is the seed of the world. It is your main capital. Take it with you. I am pointing out to you, your greatest and most valuable possession. Meditate on it and be free.

The purpose of japa is to conserve oneself, that means the knowingness is to be retained. In Marathi japa means to guard, to protect. You should protect your beingness by japa. Japa is like a treatment given to your beingness for its well-being.

The only way to give up identification with the body is continuous practice of meditation, and thinking on what the Guru has said. Gradually this self-limitation will disappear and the sense of separation will go. One has to meditate deeply over a long period. Meditation means the beingness absorbing itself into the beingness. Over a long period of this kind of meditation one will come to know the Knower of this beingness. I am the Knower of this consciousness. I can only know something else, I cannot know myself. That riddle will solve itself by continuous deep meditation.

In deep meditation the beingness should totally merge in the non-being state. In this way I forget myself, undergoing oblivion and relaxation. Thus the beingness should dissolve gradually into non-beingness, beingness lost in the non-beingness.

When the meditator forgets himself totally in meditation, it is vishranti, which means complete relaxation ending in total forgetfulness. This is the blissful state, where there is no need for words, concepts, or even the sense of ‘I Am’.

Go on humming Guru, Guru, Guru, that is ‘I Amness’.

Meditate on beingness only. Catch hold of the knowledge ‘I Am’ in meditation. In this process, the realization occurs that ‘I’ the Absolute am not the guna ‘I Am’[ie: not sattva guna, not the sattva of pure beingness]. Therefore in meditation nothing is to be retained in memory, nevertheless something will appear on the memory screen, but be unconcerned, just be, do nothing. Refrain from grasping anything in meditation; the moment you do, otherness begins, and so duality. Nothing is to be done. Then mulamaya, the primary illusion, will release her stronghold on you and will get lost.

I call meditation, dhyana, as knowledge, jnana (ie knowledge ‘I Am’). Can you be without the knowledge ‘I Am’? No. Therefore mediation goes on in you… it only needs your attention. Take the knowledge ‘you are’ as your guru and give attention to it, as long as possible. Hold on to your consciousness, which is the seed of Self-knowledge. Thereby, you will know the Self.

Meditation is this knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness meditating on itself.

Who meditates and on what? In meditation people use their consciousness to concentrate on something. Dhyana is when this knowledge, this consciousness that I am, meditates on itself and not on something other than itself. Knowledge has no form, and the knowledge that you are has no form. It is not this body identification that is sitting for meditation, but the knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, which is sitting in meditation and is meditating on itself. When this is understood it becomes easy.

We know little of our inner world of thoughts and feelings. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life.

The concept that you may take for your meditation will be realized and you will have visions accordingly. They are all unreal.

During the practice of meditation, many experiences come. Seekers get stuck when they get spiritual powers… and people honour them. Only the one who continuously discriminates is able to progress.

As long as you are a beginner certain formalized meditations, or prayers, may be good for you. But for a seeker for reality there is only one meditation… the rigorous refusal to harbour thoughts. To be free from thoughts is itself meditation. You begin by letting thoughts flow and watching them. The very observation slows down the mind until it stops altogether. Once the mind is quiet, keep it quiet. Do not get bored with peace, be in it, go deeper into it. Experiment anew, do not go by past experience. Watch your thoughts and watch yourself watching the thoughts. The state of freedom from all thoughts will happen suddenly and by the bliss of it you shall recognize it.

In meditation the purpose of the mantra is only to check your fluctuating mind.

You must be energetic when you take to meditation. It is definitely not a part-time occupation. Limit your interests and activities to what is needed for you and your dependent’s barest needs. Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind has built around you. You will not regret.

Unless there is silence in meditation, one has not reached the correct level. The mind flows only if there are impressions. Can it think of things that it does not know?

Stabilize yourself by meditation. Your senses are very active, they are not under control. By meditating that particular weakness of your mind will be brought under control. You are moving about like a calf that just jumps about here and there. If you have been trying and cannot. Persistence! That deep longing must be there. You must need something very badly, then you will think of it continuously; you will be persistent about it, then you will reach that stage.

Meditating on consciousness is all that needs to be done.

Silently repeat your mantra. Meditation should be on one’s own nature. Slowly the mind will become pure. The formless consciousness will be uncovered and your true nature will be understood.

Meditation is keeping quiet and watching yourself. Meditation is giving attention to the consciousness. Consciousness itself is the meditator and also the listener.

Meditation is a deliberate attempt to pierce into the higher states of consciousness, and finally go beyond it. The art of meditation is the shifting the focus of attention to ever subtler levels, without losing one’s grip on the levels left behind. In a way it is like having death under control. One begins with the lowest levels. The final stage of meditation is reached when the sense of identity goes beyond the ‘ I-am-so-and-so’, beyond ‘so-I-am’, beyond ‘I-am-the-witness-only’, beyond ‘there-is’, beyond all ideas… into the impersonally personal pure being.

In the process of meditation one can reach silence and ask: “Who am I?”. Then there comes a profounder silence where the notion ‘I’ does not arise. Such experiences are in the realm of your birth state. Such is a description of meditation or samadhi, but it is still the product of the body-mind imagination. Whatever experiences you have in meditation, of silence also, is confined to the realm of consciousness. Consciousness is born and it will go. You are prior to consciousness.

Not through the intellect, but through intense meditation you will realize that you are the universal consciousness. The meditation will be done by that consciousness itself. To meditate on something is to become that. In meditation it is consciousness which meditates on itself and remains within itself.

Meditation is a sattvic activity, and aims at complete elimination of tamas (inertia) and rajas (motivity). Pure sattva (harmony) is perfect freedom from sloth and restlessness.

All repetitiveness is tamas, but repeating the name of God is sattva-tamas due to its high purpose. Because of the presence of sattva, the tamas will wear out, and will take the shape of complete dispassion, detachment, relinquishment, aloofness, immutability. Tamas becomes the firm foundation on which an integrated life can be lived.

In meditation the life force gets purified, and then the light of Atman shines forth. When the purified life force and the light of the Self merge into each other, then the mind, the concept, the imagination, is held in abeyance. The life force is the highest principle in the world, and is God, Paramatman, Ishvara. When the life force and the highest principle become one in your meditation, then this merger signifies moksha, awakening, liberation. Moksha is the disappearance of subjection to the gunas and all other upadhis connected with the individual. When consciousness and the life force merge they become steady in the Brahma-randhra. Then all thoughts cease. That is the start of samadhi. Then one comes back again and the life force starts its normal activities.

Meditation is the deliberate daily exercise in discrimination between the true and the false, and renunciation of the false. Seeing the false as the false is meditation.

What does seeing purple light in meditation mean?… These are all images created out of your own illumination. That light might take the form of Lord Krishna, Christ, Rama, etc, but it is Self light, your creation. You are seeing your own light, and all scriptures are sung in praise of that great principle, but you the Absolute are not that principle. I, the Absolute, am not that.

Meditation is only an initial state. Meditation on: I am the all-penetrating and infinite light ‘I Am’… will lead you to be a sadhaka. The sadhaka must practice meditation. To reach the centre, the self,  meditation is absolutely necessary, but the meditator is prior to meditation.

You are Brahman. The great mantra given to you is the expression of Brahman. It is your own nature. You must invoke your nature by the mantra. It will surely reveal itself. Right meditation is when you contemplate yourself. There should be no concepts or images while you are contemplating. The Self, Brahman, is without concepts.

In actual meditation you should meditate on the meditator, contemplate the contemplator. When you do so you will know who you are. What the condition of the Self is without the body will be revealed to you in meditation.

In the process of meditation you will acquire much knowledge, but your attention should be on the Self, the meditator, not whatever you get.

For meditation you should sit with identification in the knowledge ‘I am’ only. Confirm to yourself that you are not the body. Dwell only in the knowledge ‘I am’, not merely the words ‘I am’. Meditate with the conviction that I am that self only, the Atman.

You must meditate, but there is nothing to reach… you are that state. Yours is the state where there are no fears, no desires, no ambition.

In meditation the Self will become manifest, infinite, boundless. That which is now conditioned in a personality will be broken up and it will become manifest, unbounded. The state of the Self is one of no pleasure, no misery. This is called identity with the Highest, when you do not know that you are. Be in the Self and do not get involved with the vital breath and the mind. Ignore the mind.

What is meditation? Not to lose sight of your true identity is meditation.

You gain a lot of merit and a certain amount of potential power in meditation, and all that is wasted, you dissipate it in worldly affairs.

Keep reciting your mantra. It will enable you to understand your true identity. You will come to know that you are not the body. For Self-realization it is necessary that consciousness and the vital force, prana, be united. This happens by reciting the mantra. It has to be done with love and a sense of urgency. In fact, it is the vital force that recites the mantra. A persistent commitment is needed. There is no part-time spiritual effort.

One who knows the power of prana is a jnani. His meditation continues all through the day. Concentrate on the source of the vital energy, Shakti. This meditation is carried on with that energy. Everlasting peace is the great accomplishment. By virtue of meditation, the feeling ‘I am so-and-so’ is lost. Concentrate on the Self with the energy of prana. When this energy is arrested, the consciousness becomes one with it and samadhi ensues.

You are accustomed to a body-form. If you experience formlessness during meditation, it causes fear. When you meditate you must keep in mind that the meditator is formless.

Through the practice of meditation you will go on changing continuously and you will reach a stage where there is no further change.

The use of words is for a better understanding. But in meditation there are no words, only understanding.

In what is called meditation, you need an object. In true meditation, the meditator is alone, without any object to meditate upon.

When a Yogi is totally absorbed in his meditation or Yoga, this soundless sound so fills him that he becomes drunk with it for a while and then it subsides. The sound that must be heard is the silent sound. Only the silent sound can hear the actual sound.

The fulfilment of meditation rests in totally obliterating the memory and non-memory of manifestation along with the sense of being. So long as the guna, sense of being, is there, witnessing happens. Abidance in the non-witnessing state is the advaita state, the highest. Therefore all experience must be swallowed, including the feeling of the sense of being, which is the primordial experience.

All the experiences and visions arising out of Dhyana Yoga, the yoga of meditation, are transitory. In the contemplation there is an infinite variety of phases and forms… and none of them is lasting. Whatever is taken to be helpful and great and determinate… vanishes in an instant and a new form takes its place, only to yield that place to the next, in turn. That knowledge from which all the varieties issue forth in experiences, such as earth, water, fire, air, space, and their various specifications… is itself unstable. Starting from meditation, the contemplating soul, having experienced a taste of previous lives, is further transformed into the primal Maya, primordial energy, and the Godhead, and even into the characteristics of the Supreme Self, by the power of meditation… and all this in a moment disappears. It is here that it is called Kala, the final liquidation of individuality. It is here that the separation from itself is compensated for, and finds itself with spiritual certainty, never to be lost again. The imperishable, indissoluble, eternal Paramatman shines forth, with perfection beyond the reach of empirical experience.

I am sitting in a secluded place where none can see me, with my eyes half closed. Whatever I remember, perceive, feel, or experience, comes into my being from within myself. My meditation is my torch and what I see is its light. All that I see and remember is just the light of my meditation…. Now I do not feel the necessity to meditate anymore, for the nature of meditation is that it is spontaneous. In its process, it gives rise to innumerable forms and names and qualities… and what have I got to do with all that?

Now I am convinced, beyond doubt, that this meditation of mine is born of God, and the world of things is the product of my meditation only. The cyclic process of origination, sustenance, and destruction is the very core of the world’s being. However more I may try to know… the same process must repeat. Therefore, my inquisitiveness has come to an end.

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.

38. Samadhi

When this consciousness, this conscious presence, merges in itself, the state of Samadhi ensues. When this manas, buddhi, chitta, etc, merges in that state, then even the knowledge ‘I am meditating’ gets lost, this also becomes merged in that state. The conceptual feeling that I exist disappears and merges into the beingness itself. That is Samadhi.

When the manifest withdraws into the unmanifest, Samadhi ensues. One who knows samadhi does not get involved in mundane dealings.

Nirvikalpa Samadhi is one without any concepts. The sense of whether ‘we are’, or ‘we are not’, is not there. The rest of Samadhis are Savikalpa, with concepts. In Nirvikalpa Samadhi there is no witnessing.

As long as there is any vritti (movement, mental modifications) in the mind it is not Samadhi.

Samadhi is satisfaction. When you obtain your objective you feel satisfied. You attain a profit and you feel satisfied. The state of satisfaction in Samadhi is the Self.

Samadhi is nothing unusual. If you are in the right state, whatever you see will put you into Samadhi. When the mind is intensely interested, it becomes one with the object of interest… the seer and the seen become one in seeing, the hearer and the heard become one in hearing, the lover and the loved become one in loving. Every experience can be the ground for Samadhi.

To get into Samadhi means to let go of the mind with its memory.

Even Samadhi is of the nature of prana. Atman is simply the onlooker. What is not steady is called a phase. Samadhi is also a phase.

Samadhi is a state of mind. But you are beyond all experience, even of Samadhi.

Engage the mind in devotion to the Self. Let it be friends with the Self. The mind runs from here to there. In order to direct it towards the Self, the incantation of the mantra is prescribed. Only when the mind and the Self mingle into one does Samadhi ensue.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna, after getting enlightenment, said to Krishna, “So long as this consciousness lasts, I shall follow your advice. I shall do what you say”. His Samadhi was not broken even when fighting the enemy. His peace remained unadulterated. You will not know this until you achieve Self-realization. When you understand it, there will be no need to know anything else.

The peace that results from Self-realization is the real Samadhi. The rest are mental constructs.

39. Seeking

The seeker is he who is in search of himself.

You are really in search of yourself, without knowing it. You are love-longing for the love-worthy, the perfectly loveable. Due to ignorance you are looking for it in the world of opposites and contradictions. When you find it within, your search will be over.

You search by asking: ‘Who am I?’… but if there is no questioner to put this question, who is going to investigate whom? At the Absolute level such a question is meaningless. You have identified yourself with a form, however… your consciousness is formless.

Consciousness that goes about as the body with its name, is called a mumukshu, an aspirant. Almost all devotees in the world are aspirants. The devotee who has given up bodily identification is called a sadhaka, a seeker. Aspirants may be great scholars, but they are not seekers. Once convinced of his true nature, beyond any doubt, one becomes a siddha, the liberated one. An aspirant is male or female, because of identification with the body. The seeker is neither male nor female. The listener is formless. That which acts and carries on worldly affairs has a form but, if the energy that is without body is not there, does the form have any value? The consciousness that listens is God.

People turn to spirituality only when there is a rise of Self-knowledge in them in a dormant condition. Just as the so-called birth happens unknowingly, the rise of Self-knowledge happens unknowingly. In the absence of the rise of Self-knowledge, people do not develop interest in spirituality. The dormant condition is like the existence of fire in a towel.

People who want to make money should do just that. Search for spiritual knowledge and pursuit of wealth cannot be done at the same time. Spirituality is possible only when you let go of everything.

There are many spiritual seekers whose aim is to acquire sufficient merit to reach a certain place, such as heaven or Vaikuntha. Have no aims except to find out.

When a seeker comes to know that his consciousness is composed of all the five elements and the three qualities (gunas), what can you say about his worthiness?

Will one, with the conviction of the Self, be useful to other seekers? He will give them knowledge and help as per their need and worthiness. Those who are not earnest are satisfied with their verbal knowledge. They become gurus.

The jnani makes the disciple bodiless. A mumukshu is one who desires liberation. When he learns that he is not the body, he becomes a seeker, a sadhaka. The name is given to the body. Hence, the bodiless (videhi) becomes nameless. One’s true nature, without name and form is to be realized.

A general longing for liberation is only the beginning; to find the proper means and use them is the next step. The seeker has only one goal in view… to find his own true being. Of all the desires it is the most ambitious, for nothing and nobody can satisfy it; the seeker and the sought are one and the search alone matters. Will the search come to an end? No, the seeker will dissolve, the search will remain. The search is the ultimate and timeless reality. Search means refusal and rejection of the incomplete and the imperfect. The search for reality is itself the movement of reality. In a way all search is for the bliss of the real. But here we mean by search, the search for oneself as the root of being conscious, as the light beyond the mind. This search will never end, while the restless craving for all else must end, for real progress to take place. One has to understand that the search for reality, or God, or Guru, and the search for the Self, are the same; when one is found, all are found. When ‘I Am’ and ‘God is’ become in your mind indistinguishable, then something will happen and you will know without a trace of doubt that God is because you are, you are because God is. The two are one.

When someone starts his search, all the identities taken up by him will prove to be untrue. Further it will be clear that he is not of the nature of sattva, the vital force in the body. After realizing that he is not even the consciousness in the body, he will understand, in an instant, that he was never born.

That which makes you think you are a human is not human. It is but a dimensionless point of consciousness, a conscious nothing. All you can say about yourself is: ‘I Am’. You are pure being-awareness-bliss. To realize that is the end of all seeking.

You will come across great scholars, speakers and Mahatmas, but they are no use to the real seekers. When you arrive at your true identity, you are wonderstruck to find our: ‘Am I really nothing?’

There is nothing to seek and find, for there is nothing lost.

40. The Way

It is normal to talk about various paths. Paths are indicative of movement. But you are the destination itself.

This is a journey within consciousness. You are the knower of it. The fact that you know ‘you are’ is the main impediment. To remove the impediment, first believe it to be so. Your beingness, which is your sense of ‘I am’, is the obstruction. It is God himself. This is the way you should worship. When He is pleased, He gives true knowledge.

All paths lead to unreality. Paths are creations within the scope of knowledge. Therefore paths and movements cannot transport you into Reality, because their function is to enmesh you within the dimension of knowledge, while the Reality prevails prior to it. As long as you do not stabilize at the source of your creation, at the beginning of the knowledge ‘I Am’, you will be entangled in the chains forged by your mind and get enmeshed in those of others.

All methods, philosophies and rituals are of no use. Attainment of special powers through various yogic exercises is a hindrance. It creates false pride.

To test whether you are on the spiritual path or not, investigate what you are thinking of during the twenty-four hour day. Are you discussing all your daily affairs? Are you discussing about your identity, about what you are, the Self? You are according to the quality of the intensity of your thinking.

All paths take you to the purification of the mind. The impure mind is opaque to truth; the pure mind is transparent. Truth can be seen through it easily and clearly.

There is a way, open to all, on every level, in every walk of life. Everybody is aware of himself. The deepening and broadening of self-awareness is the royal way. Call it mindfulness, or witnessing, or just attention… it is for all, and none can fail. But of course, you must not be merely alert. Your mindfulness must include the mind also. Witnessing is primarily awareness of consciousness and its movements.

That beingness will get to that spiritual path when it is in earnest to do so, but so long as a vestige of body identity persists it will fail.

On my path of spirituality, effort is of no use. Consciousness has arisen spontaneously. It is self-luminous. If you try to remedy it, it will only get worse. Whatever effort you do is through your identification with the body.

You must find your own way. Unless you find it yourself it will not be your own way, and will take you nowhere. Earnestly live your truth as you have found it… act on the little you have understood.

Accept no guidance but from within. Even if you are quite ignorant of the ways and means, keep quiet and look within, guidance is sure to come. You are never left without knowing what your next step should be.

There is no progress, for what you come to is already there in you, waiting for you.

41. The Jnani

The jnani is that principle which dismisses the life force and the consciousness.

Because you imagine yourself to be a person you take the jnani to be a person also.

Jnani means our own pure, ever-present, true nature. There is no personality there. The jnani is not a person. He is alone. He signifies a state of permanent satsang. One who tolerates everything is a jnani. Since the actions of the five elements are not his own, he cannot cause pain to others.

The jnani is alone, but he is all. He is not even a being. He is the beingness of all beings. Not even that. No words apply. He is what he is, the ground from which all grows.

A jnani does not have any ego. Even the feeling that I am a jnani and different from others, is absent. A jnani loses his individuality and is free of desire. His activities happen spontaneously. He becomes one with all the five elements.

A jnani is that state from which the 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, because knowledge means ‘I Amness’. When 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.

In the jnani the state is that of total disassociation from the body-mind. The result is that there are no wants or desires. Because the disassociation is total there is no question of any effect of such a state, pleasing or otherwise.

A jnani does not expect anything from the body. He leaves it to nature to do the needful. The jnani has no name and form, hence no duties. He is timeless. Time begins with consciousness.

The jnani has no name and form. All these remain up to Self-knowledge, but not beyond. One has to transcend not only the body, but even one’s consciousness. One goes beyond all knowledge. All these changes happen without any deliberate rejection of the old identities.

For the jnani the entire universe is his body, all life is his life.

Incantation purifies prana. Prana purifies the mind. When consciousness becomes very pure, as the result of a pure mind, it reveals itself. Such a person is called a jnani.

The thought of a jnani pervades humanity and works ceaselessly for good. Being anonymous, coming from within, it is the more powerful and compelling. That is how the world improves… the inner aiding and blessing the outer. When a jnani dies, he is no more, in the sense in which a river is no more when it merges in the sea, the name, the shape are no more, but the water remains and becomes one with the ocean. When a jnani joins the universal mind, all his goodness and wisdom become the heritage of humanity and uplift every human being.

A jnani is beyond concept. He gives no importance to any concept.

The mind cannot understand, for the mind is trained for grasping and holding, whereas the jnani is not grasping and not holding.

Not only will the jnani 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.

The jnani cannot be known because there is nobody to be known. When there is a person you can tell something about it, but when there is no self-identification with the particular, what can be said? Nothing can be said about a jnani, for he is all and yet nothing in particular. To locate a thing you need space, to place an event you need time… but the timeless and spaceless defies all handling. It makes everything perceivable, yet itself it is beyond perception. The mind cannot know what is beyond the mind, but the mind is known by what is beyond it.

All great sages of the world became so by meditating on their own consciousness. It uncovers itself and acquires greatness.

Realized men are silent in spite of the knowledge they have. They know the secret of birth and why it has arrived, how this consciousness was imposed upon you and since when.

The jnani has consciousness, but it is not of an individual nature… it is universal. You may give a name to what is all-pervading, but actually it has no name. The unmanifest becomes manifest as consciousness.

A jnani identifies with the universal consciousness and so there is a perfect adaptation to everything and every place. Only witnessing is taking place. The jnani only witnesses, he is not individually concerned with what happens.

A jnani knows that he is neither the body, nor the consciousness. He makes use of the consciousness as long as it lasts. He is prior to consciousness and is always in that state. While consciousness lasts, try to find out what you were without consciousness, and how did it make its sudden appearance.

A jnani has joy when the vital breath leaves the body and the consciousness becomes no-conscious. It is described as Paramananda.

When the witnessing of consciousness happens for all twenty-four hours, one is called a jnani. The jnani is not visible. He is unknown and unmanifested. The unknown cannot be understood by the known. When the known becomes unknown, the ignorant say it is death. The known can be described in infinite ways. The knower cannot be described in words. When someone says that he knows the Truth, it means he does not know it. The Truth is silent. How can one know that which is prior to wakefulness and sleep?

In the timeless state there is no self to take refuge in. Who remains to say: ‘I am the witness’? When there is no ‘I Am’, where is the witness? The man who cherishes the feeling ‘I Am’ is self-conscious. The jnani holds on to nothing and cannot be said to be conscious. And yet he is not unconscious. He is the very heart of awareness. He is called digambra clothed in space, the Naked One, beyond all appearance. There is no name and shape under which he may be said to exist, yet he is the only one that truly is.

In order to become a jnani, become pure awareness. Then, Maya, Brahman, God, etc, will prove to be untrue. Only a jnani can recognize a jnani.

Why do sages do nothing to help the millions who suffer? Because their suffering is illusory. Let the illusory world take care of itself, you must find out who you are.

The jnani says ultimately there is nothing. Then why does he teach others? The answer is like this: when one has to go and urinate, one has to go urgently. While urinating, does one not temporarily love the act? Similarly, the body of a jnani is a temporary sensation that makes him preach.

Why does the jnani talk, and teach? Because the life span has to be spent, it has to be used. It is merely entertainment. Everything is entertainment.

A jnani cannot give knowledge to anyone. All he can do is point to that which is your true nature.

In a jnani, the words come from nirvikalpa, direct perception. It is not imagined or learned knowledge.

By merely acquiring knowledge one cannot claim to be a jnani. The jnani is not required to know anything as he is knowledge itself. The jnana-yoga is the highest state in spirituality, in this state there is no individuality, as this is the all-pervading state. The sense of individuality and needs are felt prior to jnana-yoga, but after the accomplishment of jnana-yoga, one is beyond needs and individual personality.

A jnani is recognized easily because they do not have any pride in their Self-knowledge, since they have transcended that knowledge. They say: “I am not this knowledge or this consciousness.”

In a jnani there is an end to all knowledge. In an infant it is yet to begin.

The jnani does not know that he is a jnani. He has a silent sense of being.

Even when the jnani is all-pervading, he still has one desire… that knowledge should continue to progress. He keeps looking out for someone worthy of receiving the knowledge and to pass it on. As such, all are devotees of God. Devotion to God is devotion to the Self. Everything is done to perpetuate the sense of ‘I am’.

Family thought, worldly thoughts… those thoughts are absent here in the jnani. In your case, there are hopes, desires and cravings. Your thought flow is because of them. In the case of a jnani, the hopes, etc, do not die, but they are fulfilled spontaneously.

The jnani suffers with those who suffer. The event itself is of little importance, but he is full of compassion for the suffering being, whether alive or dead, in the body or out of it. After all, love and compassion are his very nature. He is one with all that lives and love is that oneness in action.

One of the peculiarities of a jnani is that he is not concerned with the future. Your concern with future is due to fear of pain and desire for pleasure. To the jnani all is bliss; he is happy with whatever comes.

The jnani understands a situation fully and knows at once what needs to be done. That is all. The rest happens by itself, and to a large extent unconsciously. The jnani’s identity with all that is, is so complete, that as he responds to the universe, so does the universe respond to him. He is supremely confident that once a situation has been cognized, events will move in adequate response. The ordinary man is personally concerned, he counts his risks and chances, while the jnani remains aloof, sure that all will happen as it must, and it does not matter much what happens, for ultimately the return to balance and harmony is inevitable. The heart of things is at peace.

The jnani knows neither birth nor death; existence and non-existence are the same to him.

The whole is real, the part comes and goes. The particular is born and reborn, changing name and shape, the jnani is the Changeless Reality which makes the changeful possible.

A sage, when he is alive, has to undergo suffering. When he dies, memorials are built in his honour. People express great devotion to him. Why is it so? It is because people worship fame. After Self-realization, there remains no individuality with the consciousness. Prior to birth, and after death, the jnani’s real state remains as it always is. The true nature stays the same. What has arisen will surely end. The knower does not have any use for it, whether good or bad. A jnani has no desire, no expectations, for anything from anyone. What is a jnani? He is nothingness. He has no name, no form, nothing at all.

The jnani is out of the world. He is timeless and beyond being and non-being.

The one who has realized his own consciousness, its cause and duration, is the knower. He does not act. The knower does not act. The knower is beyond the known. The knower means the Supreme Self or the Paramatman, who is prior to consciousness. It is the unmanifested state. It is the true nature of everyone. One who has realized this state is called a jnani. Along with birth, the feeling ‘I am’ arises. Before birth there was no such feeling. The ignorant person takes the feeling ‘I am’ as the body, the seeker takes it as pure consciousness, but the jnani does not identify with anything. The vital energy carries out all the actions.

If you are working in a company, you have to follow their rules and regulations. Your expectation of a regular income is your bondage. A jnani is free of all expectations, including the need to exist. Hence, he is really free. For him, life is a play, a Lila. Still, his utterances and actions are in tune with the Absolute. A jnani does not need to follow any religion. Most of the religions have began from jnanis. One who has seen oneself properly, his self-surrender is complete. This talk which is going on now, is sattva, the quality of the food material. A jnani is always the knower of consciousness and is separate from it. He makes use of consciousness, as an instrument, to communicate.

42. The Guru

The guru is the manifestation of the knowledge which you will also be in the course of time. When you see the image of a guru, it represents knowledge only, your consciousness. The image may be of the guru, Krishna, Christ, etc… it is the manifestation of the knowledge which you are.

Guru means consciousness or knowledge. When you met him he woke up the knowledge within you. That is why you have developed interest in Self-knowledge. Spirituality is the give and take of knowledge. Guru, the giver, is knowledge, and disciple, the receiver, is also knowledge.

If you take your guru as a human being, your consciousness will harass you. Do not impose body-consciousness on the guru who is without quality (gunas) and without form.

Desire to find Self-realization leads to the guru. It becomes easy in the company of his word and with constant attention to the meaning of the word. The Supreme Self, which is unattainable, is naturally there. It is perfect, whole and unchanging. The Truth, thus achieved, cannot be analyzed by the mind. The nature of the guru cannot be seen with the intellect.

What one guru will speak about openly, others will not. The amount of receptivity each one has depends on his own luck. What the disciple hears from the guru he cannot utilize. Whatever the disciple hears will spontaneously do what it likes.

Why do other spiritual teachers refrain from telling the Truth?… They have their own interest in it. The promotion of desirelessness will affect their own spiritual business. That must go on. Listening to my talks, one develops the conviction that one’s birth itself is a fiction. It has no reality. Obviously, one knows there is no birth, no death. There is no coming and going. That gives rest to all unnecessary activities.

The guru is basically without desire. He sees what happens, but feels no urge to interfere. He makes no choices, takes no decisions. As pure witness, he watches what is going on and remains unaffected.

Inwardly the guru remains quiet and silent. He has no sense of being a separate person. The entire universe is his own, including his disciples with their petty plans. Nothing in particular affects him, or the entire universe affects him in equal measure.

You think you are one individual and the guru is another individual, but this is not so. There are no individuals separate from one another. Guru is the knower of this consciousness which is temporary.

There is no one as generous as the one who offers Self-knowledge. If you realize that, there will be no difference between you and the guru. You will become immortal.

By listening to the guru, you are going to be empty. If you want to keep your consciousness intact, do not come to the guru. Keeping your consciousness intact is bondage.

There are gurus who are just shopkeepers, trading in spirituality.

Visitor: I met a sadhu who claimed to have the knowledge of Brahman, but Self-knowledge was of no importance to him. Nisargadatta: If he comes to me, I will ask him: A hundred years back you had no problems. They are there now… why and how? Until you find out, your misery will remain intact, despite your so-called knowledge of Brahman. Some people become gurus by having a few visions of Gods. Illusions cannot lead one to Truth.

“Is it possible to mistake one’s own self as Self-realized?” Quite so… that is what we notice all around us. More than cheating others, these gurus are cheating themselves. Their most fond concept is that they are free of all concepts. Every guru has a big following, and the relation between disciples of different gurus is far from friendly. They avoid even facing one another. One who has pure Self knowledge is a true guru. The Eternal is the Truth and it is open to all. A true guru cannot produce a witness, as there are no others in that state.

Gods like Rama and Krishna were just like you. If you call them incarnations, you also are incarnations. That is the greatness of consciousness in human form. The only requirement is its proper use under the guidance of a Satguru. If a disciple does not have any doubt about his Satguru’s teachings, he realizes the highest in no time. But such is a rare case. Full faith in one’s consciousness works wonders. In the initial stages, people are told to chant mantra and do bhajans. They also achieve, but after a long time. During the day time you are busy with so many activities. At least while going to bed at night, say the following: “My body is made of the five elements. If I am not the elements, how can I be the body? My vital breath, prana, is formless. My consciousness and mind are also formless. How can I be limited to a small form? I am infinite and boundless. I am ever existing. How can I be born? Hence, I cannot have any death, also. I am the Eternal, ever existing Principle.” With your insistence, necessary changes will take place in you during sleep and your spiritual progress will be easier and faster. What you accept in full faith, happens in reality.

Your conviction should rest in the guru’s word. ‘Guru initiated me’ means: he told me about my true nature. Believing it to be true, if one believes with conviction, then the Truth will be known.

The disciple surrenders his beingness to the Satguru, and he returns the same as blessings. He gives the eternal peaceful nature that is inherently yours. After investigating the Self, one becomes silent, while the rest are busy fulfilling their needs. Truth is not achieved without the grace of the guru.

Love for the guru is without the feeling of duality.

Worship the word of the guru… “ I am not the body, I am the formless pure life force, or Brahman, that vitalizes the body”. There is no limit to happiness where there is no body-consciousness. Consciousness will sustain you in every sense if you have faith in the guru’s word. When your inner urge is devotion to the guru, death has no effect on you.

Consciousness appears in various forms, including different types of visions. One who is firmly established in the guru’s teaching has no fear.

The one who has doubts regarding devotion to the guru will have trouble. The guru is your own Self. Krishna says: “Because of devotional singing, I became manifest. Without the devotee I cannot be manifest. I gave my all to those who were devoted to Me. A realized consciousness is necessary for My becoming manifest. The same is called guru. I am the perfect Atman”. One who uses the five elements is the Atman. He illuminates space. He is without any stain, without attachments, always and ever alive. He gives all His worthiness to a true devotee. Devotion has to be without expectation. One must be devoted because one wants God. Be aware. When the last moment arrives, have full faith in whatever the guru has said. Offer your body by saying: ‘I am not the body. The activity of the five elements is due to me’. This you will know only through devotion to the guru.

The guru is an incarnation of God. Due to devotion to the guru, Maya, which appears demonic and vast, is reduced to the size of an atom.

The guru says: Accept your consciousness as a gift from me and use it without words. Treat your consciousness as God or guru. Take it away from the body and direct it to the Self. The Supreme State of being is called the Sat-guru. The manifested consciousness that is moving about the world is called the Sri-guru. Our consciousness is the holy sight, the darshan, of the guru. He is formless. He is motivating all the bodies. He has manifested as my own consciousness. If the devotee has full faith, God takes an incarnation and helps him. That form has been taken by your own Self. There is no other deity besides Him.

One who knows proper action, and that action which should be avoided, is a guru. Whatever my guru said, I implicitly followed, with full conviction, and with that conviction I got results. People will hear what the guru says, but hardly anyone will put it into practice. Do as you are told and your spiritual progress and material sustenance will be looked after well. A rare one realizes the truth of this. I am the same as you are. The difference is only in the realization. You are equally eligible to attain it.

Nothing is to be done. Be in your beingness and everything that is to happen will happen. You must have a deep yearning to attain the Truth. You must have the intense need to understand. To such a person, the guru arrives and breaks the shell.

Whoever may visit me, my talk is not to please anybody. One may see me talking contrary to one’s expectations. The listener is hearing with his body identity, as a man or a woman… hence the misunderstanding. How can I talk in support of someone’s ignorance? I will tell the truth, whether it agrees with his opinion or not.

The guru is he who knows the state in which there is neither the world, nor the thought of it. To find him means to reach the state in which imagination is no longer taken for reality. The guru stands for reality, for truth, for what is. He is a realist in the highest sense of the term. He cannot and shall not come to terms with the mind and its delusions. He comes to take you to the real; do not expect him to do anything else.

If the body is still your identity, it means all this knowledge has fallen on deaf ears.

When you meet a European with some education whose reaction to the guru and his teachings is: “the man must be mad to teach such nonsense”, take him to himself. Show him how little he knows himself, how he takes the most absurd statements about himself for holy truth. He is told that he is the body, was born, will die, has parents, learns to like what others like, and fear what others fear. Totally a creature of heredity and society, he lives by memory and acts by habits. Ignorant of himself and his true interests, he pursues false aims and is always frustrated. His life and death are meaningless and painful, and there seems to be no way out. Then tell him there is a way out within his easy reach, not a conversion to another set of ideas, but a liberation from all ideas and patterns of living. Do not tell him about gurus and disciples… this way of thinking is not for him. His is an inner path, he is moved by an inner urge and guided by an inner light. Invite him to rebel and he will respond. Do not try to impress on him that so-and-so is a realized man and can be accepted as a guru. As long as he does not trust himself, he cannot trust another.

When the inner God is pleased, He gives the gift of the guru.

Every sentient being has a guru within himself. The real guru points out the most important thing which is within the disciple and not outside. Instead of wasting your time and energy searching outside, why not sit comfortably and search within?

Your guru is always with you as your consciousness.

That which sees all this is the inner teacher. He alone is, all else only appears to be. He is the witness. You need not see the witness in front of you. To be is to know. He is your own self (svarupa). Find him and cling to him and you will be saved and safe.

You are never without a guru, for he is timelessly present in your heart. Sometimes he externalizes himself and comes to you as an uplifting and reforming factor in your life, a mother, a wife, a teacher. Or he remains as an inner urge towards righteousness and perfection. All you have to do is to obey him and do what he tells you. What he wants you to do is simple: learn self-awareness, self-control, self-surrender.

In the initial stages you must have an external guru. That guru initiates you with the inner guru. The innermost light, shining peacefully and timelessly in the heart, is the real guru. All others merely show the way.

The eyes see, but the true seer is the Satguru within. It is consciousness. It is the perfect Self. There is neither creation nor dissolution without the Satguru. Your consciousness is the light of the guru, the holy feet of Sri Guru. Obeisance to the Satguru is the same as the obeisance to our consciousness.

The guru is there for giving you courage because of his experience and success. But only what you discover through your own awareness, your own effort, will be of permanent use to you.

Even when there is no discoverable outer guru, there is always the Satguru, the inner guru, who directs and helps from within. The Satguru is the witness of both the manifest and the unmanifest. He is perfect Brahman. He is ever present. You will be perfect by following his word.

When the god Rama was born, he had no knowledge of Parabrahman. His guru, Vashistha taught him that he was Parabrahman. Parabrahman had forgotten Himself but, by the grace of the guru, He realized Himself. The holy feet of the Satguru are the same as Rama. Atman, the Self, is not pleased without contemplation and devotion to the guru. Rama, whom Vashistha taught, was the Rama whose physical presence was acting in the world. The one who made him cognize Parabrahman was his own Self. Your consciousness is the Satguru’s feet.

The Satguru is of the nature of the Absolute. He is our perfect Self. He is our eternal true nature. The Satguru and your pure consciousness are one and the same.

Your own Self is your ultimate teacher (Satguru). The outer teacher (guru) is merely a milestone. Only your inner teacher will walk with you to the goal, for he is the goal. Look within and you will find him. The greatest guru is your inner self. Truly, he is the supreme teacher. He alone can take you to your goal, and he alone meets you at the end of the road. Confide in him and you need no outer guru.

The one who recognizes this beingness and transcends it is Satguru. The Parabrahman principle is also the Satguru. The ultimate purpose is to attain the desireless Parabrahman state. At other places you will be drawn into more and more activities for better achievements. What you learn here you cannot expect to hear elsewhere. There you will get entangled in activities. For some spiritual teachers consciousness is the upper limit. They say: You are not the body, but the dynamic consciousness, chaitanya. They do not go beyond consciousness. Even my guru told me: You are consciousness God. What is beyond that you have to find it yourself.

The Satguru is beyond thought. He is the eternal Absolute. The word of the Satguru is as easy as it is difficult. The problem is that you cannot analyse the meaning of it by comparing it to something. The true nature of the Satguru has no beginning, middle, or end. His existence is true and everlasting. It cannot be experienced through practice.

One who knows himself perfectly is called Satguru. He knows how and why this imperfect consciousness is created.

The one who is forever awake is the Satguru. He gives you wakefulness. Take that wakefulness and be awakened, then you will get the true nature of the Satguru.

To continuously observe this consciousness is to surrender to the guru. It means to focus one’s energy. To surrender to the Satguru is to give up body-consciousness, to let go of individuality. Remembering one’s consciousness is meditation. It is the same as the feet of the guru. It leads to Self-realization.

Without devotion to Satguru, you cannot realize your unity with the Absolute. What is the Satguru’s greatness? When you construct a temple, many play their part in completing the work. The architect, civil engineer, construction workers, and coolies, play their part. The sculptor also has to do important work. But the final installation and doing the rite of bringing life into the image is done only by the Brahmin priest. Similarly, only a Satguru can awaken you to your true Self.

Why are Satgurus so rare? Their number is as per the demand. Are there many seekers for Self-knowledge? There are mostly self-seekers and rarely Self-seekers. One, who is beyond all needs, welcomes true seekers. A sage poses as an ignorant man, or even as mad, in order to keep the wrong people away. The earnest seekers find no difficulty in meeting the right man.

Questioner: The other day, I saw you curing a serious illness of a disciple. Nisargadatta: His condition was really bad. I told him: “There is nothing wrong with you. You are absolutely fine.” He had full faith in me and had come to me as the last hope. He accepted my words as the absolute truth. My job was to create confidence in him. What worked was his own faith. He was free of his sickness in a short time. Some people give me credit for the miracles that happen. In fact, I don’t do anything. If I were responsible for doing miracles, I could have done them even in the absence of his or anyone’s faith in me. All don’t benefit by coming here. But the faith one has in the Sat-guru differs from disciple to disciple. One is free not to have faith, and suffer accordingly. In one of our bhajans, it is said that even God is bound to help a disciple who has full faith that his Satguru is Parabrahman.

The guru has compassion not for the individual but for that beingness which has trapped itself into identifying with a number of individuals.

Only if my beingness is there, can the existence of sages and gurus arise. They last and flourish in my beingness, so long as I am there. Without my beingness… that is without the message ‘I Am’… my eternal Absolute only prevails.

There are many gurus in the world. A rare one tells you to pay attention to the consciousness in the human body. Meditate on your consciousness, but do not pay attention to things known through consciousness. Worship consciousness as God. Worship consciousness with consciousness. One who sees his consciousness as all-pervading, his every action is an offering to Brahman. Devotion of this kind is prescribed for steadying the consciousness. Krishna says: “I am the consciousness in the heart of each human being. My incarnations mean the incarnations of consciousness”.

Guru is only purest consciousness which is all-pervading. It is consciousness that listens to the guru, not your mind. Give attention to your consciousness. Meditate on it as guru, as God, as Brahman. The guru may worship like a common person, but he is free of delusion. He sees no difference between himself and God.

Your consciousness is the guru. When you take refuge in the word of the guru, birth and death will come to an end. If you identify yourself with the guru, it will be seen that there is no Maya, but the manifest Brahman pervades everywhere. The guru-word is… “You are without body-form, without karma, without birth and death, you are the subtle consciousness that has become the world”.

Without the guru, consciousness cannot realize itself.

Life itself is the Supreme Guru. Be attentive to its lessons and obedient to its commands. When you personalize their source, you have an outer guru. When you take them from life, the guru is within. Have your guru always in your heart and remember his instructions.

You accumulate what you have heard from the guru, but, ultimately, whatever is accumulated has to be given up. It is to be understood, used, and then given up.

When the guru feels disciples have sufficient knowledge on which they can continue their own search, he tells them to leave. It is not necessary for them to be physically present. This makes room for newcomers. The guru expounds the knowledge to the disciple and takes him out of the body-mind sense, and then asks him to fend for himself.

No doubt gurus are very important, very significant, but finally they merge into space.

The real guru is one who is beyond the body and the mind, beyond consciousness itself, beyond space and time, beyond duality and unity, beyond understanding and description.

My guru is Parabrahman and I have full faith in Him.

The guru is Parabrahman. The state of Parabrahman and the grace of the guru are one and the same. After understanding this, the disciple holds onto it within himself and becomes of the nature of the guru. It means realizing one’s own nature. Then the grace of the Satguru will descend. We are nothing else than the nature of the Satguru. You will know that you and the guru are the same. As long as there is a subtle body, there is an ego. When that is wiped out, there is no birth. Once the subtle body is effaced, there is no longer any concept of death. Then what remains is the birthless principle. Body-consciousness and the sense of doership vanish by the grace of the guru. Body-consciousness is replaced by the universal infinite. Once understood and imbibed, one never loses it. The grace of the guru means the manifestation of his consciousness. Consciousness has a sense of individuality because of the body. This sense goes away and what remains is the totality.

One who has the unshakable conviction that the guru is the Paramatman, realizes his eternal nature without any effort. Humility and surrender make you realize your inner nature.

From your body-mind state you will go to pilgrimages and various gurus. So long as the consciousness is there, that humming goes on. Who does the humming? The principle which is humming and saying ‘I Am, I Am’ is itself your guru. If you understand this guru, the consciousness, and dwell there you will be self-realized. Then no more spirituality and disciplines are necessary. The guru is the sense of ‘I Amness’.

It is said that all gurus are one. Guru is the same all-pervading consciousness ‘I Am’. The Satguru has gone beyond all these concepts, including the primary concept ‘I Am’.

43. Disciple-Guru Relationship

Teachers … there are many, fearless disciples… very few.

Is the finding of a true guru essential? More essential is the finding of a true disciple. A true disciple is very rare, for in no time he goes beyond the need for a guru, by finding his own Self. Life will bring you a guru, if one is needed. Or deprive you of all outer guidance and leave you to your own lights. It is the teaching that matters not the person of the guru. The guru only tells you about your real Self, and shows you the way back to it. The guru is the messenger. There will be many messengers, but the message is one: be what you are.

Until you realize yourself, you cannot know who is your real guru. When you realize, you find that all the gurus you had have contributed to your awakening. Your realization is the proof that your guru was real. Therefore take him as he is, do what he tells you with earnestness and zeal, and trust your heart to warn you if anything goes wrong. If doubt sets in, do not fight it. Cling to what is doubtless and leave the doubtful alone.

A real disciple is ready to give up his body and the vital breath to attain the Eternal. The teaching offered to one who dwells in body-consciousness goes to waste. Meanwhile, pride in the body increases.

Only those souls should come to the guru who want to return to their source.

If you are able to trust and obey, you will soon find your real guru, or rather, he will find you. Mistrust all, until you are convinced. The true guru will never humiliate you, nor will he estrange you from yourself. He will constantly bring you back to the fact of your inherent perfection and encourage you to seek within. He knows you need nothing, not even him, and is never tired of reminding you. But the self-appointed guru is more concerned with himself than with his disciples.

It is not on the verbal level that one becomes a disciple, but in the silent depths of one’s being. You do not become a disciple by choice; it is more a matter of destiny than self-will. It does not matter who is the teacher, it is the disciple that matters… his honesty and earnestness. The right disciple will always find the right teacher.

Half-heartedness is a serious drawback and the cause of much self-created sorrow. Any mistake is never the guru’s, it is always the obtuseness and cussedness of the disciple that is at fault. The guru does not disqualify a disciple, he would not be a guru if he did! He bides his time and waits until the disciple, chastened and sobered, comes back to him in a more receptive mood.

Unless the disciple is earnest, he cannot be called a disciple. Unless a guru is all love and self-giving, he cannot be called a guru.

It is true that the association of a jnani is beneficial, but one should be prepared internally. One should have inner worthiness. You will not understand all the things you have heard unless you have worthiness. For this you have to practice meditation and consciousness. You would not be here unless you were inspired from within to get the true meaning of life. This is not the type of devotion whose purpose is to acquire something. The purpose of this devotion is to get liberation through listening. Consciousness will reveal its own worthiness. You would not be listening to this unless you are worthy. After hearing it, it has to be remembered again and again. That is the beginning of the process.

The guru demands one thing only; clarity and intensity of purpose, a sense of responsibility for oneself. The very reality of the world must be questioned.

Each teacher has his method, usually patterned on his guru’s teachings, and on the way he himself has realized, and his own terminology as well. Within that framework adjustments to the personality of the disciple are made. The disciple is given full freedom of thought and enquiry, and encouraged to question to his heart’s content.

In the old days, whatever the guru had to tell the disciple he would say it only once. When they met again after twelve years, the disciple would be ready. The meaning of this is… it is not necessary to go to the guru constantly.

Many people learn from the guru and stop there. Nobody pays attention to the fact that ‘I am’ is different from the teacher and the one who is taught. Even if you take to heart the fact that ‘I am’ is the cause of what has to be learned, and it is also the instrument for learning it… it is enough. Then you are already redeemed. Before learning something your natural state of being is in perfect condition. If you limit yourself to the one who has learned when instructed, how will you get out of it? Krishna said: “The ignorant jiva does not understand what is eternal and free… therefore I had to take this body”.

The fact that you are listening is the result of the chemical consciousness. Teaching is imparted to this body-consciousness. When consciousness goes, the teaching fades away. You are beyond this. Who is learning?… It is the body-consciousness. Keep to the state that you had before you were taught anything. We are not what we recognize, we are not what we are taught. What is known to us is not our true nature. The Self cannot be contemplated upon. You cannot be understood or recognized.

This knowledge should be discussed only with people who have a sense of detachment.

Students ask questions from a point of view that is an identification with the mind-body. The guru answers from a point of view without identification with the mind-body. Therefore the answers cannot correspond with the questions. Extremely intelligent people come to the guru and ask questions, and he answers them, but they do not accept the answers. They speak from the point of identification with the body-mind, and the guru answers them without identification with the form, so how can they understand him? How can the answer correspond with the question?

Who asks the questions? The person who sees himself as existing in time, with the birth of the physical body as the base point of view. Such a view is false and imaginary, and is only a bundle of memories, habits and imagination, that has no reality.

The guru who gives you information and instructions is not the real guru. The real guru is he who knows the real, beyond the glamour of appearances. To him your questions about obedience and discipline do not make any sense, for in his eyes the person you take yourself to be does not exist. Your questions are about a non-existing person. What exists for you does not exist for him. What you take for granted, he denies absolutely. He wants you to see yourself as he sees you. Then you will not need a guru to obey and follow, for you will obey and follow your own reality. Realize that whatever you think yourself to be is just a stream of events; that, while all happens comes and goes, you alone are the changeless among the changeful, the self-evident among the inferred. Separate the observed from the observer, and abandon false identifications.

If someone asks a question about the teachings, by all means give it, if you know the answer, but don’t consider yourself as someone superior. If the person is only superficially interested, give an offhand answer. If you give correct knowledge to someone not really interested from the heart, it will damage him and others to whom he may talk.

Generally the transfer of ‘knowledge’ by teachers is only that of concepts. People who receive ‘knowledge’ begin to imitate the teacher from whom he has received it. The only knowledge that you really have is the knowledge that you really are, this consciousness. All other knowledge is mere hearsay, and based on illusory consciousness.

The guru gives the same knowledge to various disciples, but each disciple has a different concept about what the guru has said, and hangs onto the personal concept which he likes the most.

People come to the guru because they want confirmation of whatever they say is correct. They insist that whatever they say is correct. They presume they are knowledgeable. The guru understands that they do not have an iota of knowledge, therefore he tells them to sit and listen to the talks, and spontaneously all doubts will be cleared.

Is it enough to keep in mind what is heard from the guru? No. It should not remain at the verbal level. Take the example of how cattle get their nourishment from grass. They eat it, chew it, then ruminate. You must assimilate what you hear, the same way. You must make it your own. Then, there will be no need to remember it.

A number of students who come to the guru acquire the knowledge, but only superficially. No one has really studied what the knowledge is, no one has really grasped the full meaning. They are entangled in wanting, desiring, and this has made them forget the knowledge. Once you have understood the origin of this movement, this activity, and the reason, the nature of this desire, then only can you return to what you are.

Victory is always the guru’s… in the end. He knows that if the disciples do not learn from his words, they will learn from their own mistakes.

Have no faith in anything which you have been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas. Only your own experience.

All the discussions between the guru and the disciples are an exchange of ideas and mental entertainment, meant to while away the time.

You will go to the guru as long as the concepts remain. Once you go beyond concepts there will be no need to go to the guru.

You must do what your teacher tells you. Mere listening, even memorizing, is not enough. If you do not struggle hard to apply every word of it in your daily life, do not complain that you make no progress.

What is the guru’s motive? Sorrow and the ending of sorrow. He sees people suffering in their dreams and he wants them to wake up. Love is intolerant of pain and suffering. The patience of a guru has no limits, and therefore it cannot be defeated. The guru never fails.

One does not become a disciple by conversion, or by accident. There is usually an ancient link, maintained through many lives, and flowering as love and trust, without which there is no discipleship.

The disciple must be absolutely certain of the standing and the competence of his guru, otherwise his faith will not be absolute, nor his action complete. It is the Absolute in you that takes you to the Absolute beyond you… absolute truth, love, selflessness, are the decisive factors in self-realization. With earnestness these can be reached.

Anugraha, initiation… you have to accept, graha, your true identity from your guru. He tells… you are anu, atomic consciousness. The disciples continue to have their body identity, but that is not accepting initiation.

The entire universe is your guru. You learn from everything if you are alert and intelligent. Were your mind clear and your heart clean, you would learn from every passer-by. It is because you are indolent or restless, that your inner Self manifests as the outer guru and makes you trust him and obey.

Help is received from many different persons. They all arise from your own being, from your own consciousness. They are not separate from you.

To rise in consciousness from one dimension to another, you need help. The help may not always be in the shape of a human person, it may be a subtle presence, or a spark of intuition, but help must come. The inner Self is watching and waiting for the son to return to his father. At the right time he arranges everything affectionately and effectively. Where a messenger is needed, or a guide, he sends the guru to do the needful.

My guru said: “You are myself”.

It is the inner guru who takes you to the outer guru. Trust and obey your guru, for he is the messenger of your real Self. Your heart will tell you if you have found a guru whom you can trust. A guru can show you the way back home, to your real self. What has this to do with the character, or temperament of the person he appears to be? Does he not clearly tell you that he is not the person? By all means examine the guru, but what can you find out? Only as he appears to you on your own level. Only motives matter. How will you know his motives? The only way you can judge is by the change in yourself when you are in his company. If you feel more at peace and happy, if you understand yourself with more than usual clarity and depth, it means you have met the right man. There is no difficulty in finding a guru, because the guru is in search of you. The guru is always ready, you are not ready. You have to be ready to learn, or you may meet your guru and waste your chance by sheer inattentiveness and obstinacy. There was nothing in me of much promise, but when I met my guru, I listened, trusted, and obeyed.

The effort is the disciple’s. The outer guru gives the instructions, the inner sends the strength. The alert application is the disciple’s. Without will, intelligence, and energy on the part of the disciple the outer guru is helpless. The inner guru bides his chance. Obtuseness and wrong pursuits bring about a crisis and the disciple wakes up to his own plight. Wise is he who does not wait for a shock, which can be quite rude, a warning. The inner guru is not committed to non-violence. He can be quite violent at times, to the point of destroying the obtuse or perverted personality. Suffering and death, as life and happiness, are his tools of work. It is only in duality that non-violence becomes the unifying law. One should not be afraid of one’s own self, for the self means well. But it must be taken seriously. It calls for attention and obedience. When it is not listened to, it turns from persuasion to compulsion, for while it can wait, it shall not be denied. The difficulty lies not with the guru, inner or outer. The guru is always available. It is the ripe disciple that is lacking. When a person is not ready, what can be done?

The nature of the guru is that he will never give up. To succeed he must not be met with too much resistance. Doubt and disobedience necessarily delay. Given confidence and pliability, he can bring about radical change in the disciple speedily. The most difficult are the intellectuals, they talk a lot but are not serious. When you are ready, your guru will be waiting. Realization is a natural thing. Sadhana is effortless. When the relation with your teacher is right, you grow. Trust him, he cannot mislead you. Be happy with whatever comes from your guru and you will grow to perfection without striving.

Watch yourself. If you see yourself changing, growing, it means you have found the right guru. He may be beautiful or ugly, pleasant or unpleasant, flattering you or scolding. Nothing matters except the one crucial fact of inward growth.

In reality the disciple is not different from the guru. He is the same dimensionless centre of perception and love in action. It is only his imagination and self-identification with the imagined that encloses him and converts him into a person. The guru is concerned little with the person. His attention is on the inner watcher. It is the task of the watcher to understand and thereby eliminate the person.

You, as the person, imagine that the guru is interested in you as a person. Not at all. To him you are a nuisance and a hindrance to be done away with. He actually aims at your elimination as a factor in consciousness.

In spite of listening to all that the guru has said, most disciples will continue to identify themselves as a body, and will look upon another as an individual. But he is not that. His real presence is the absence of the phenomena that are seen.

People come to the guru as individuals expecting to get something from him, that is where the mistake arises. There is no individual, so how can the guru do something for a non-existing individual? Your true nature is in no way different from his. This happening is just a happening which has come and which will go. But you consider everything is happening to you as an individual.

Sometimes the people who come to the guru call him ‘great’. Whom are they calling ‘great’? He is nothing, he is completely void.

If you dwell in ‘I am’, it will in due course get mature, and it will reveal to you all the knowledge. You need not go to anyone else.

Most of the Bhaktas trust their guru only as long as all is well with them. When troubles comes, they feel let down and go out in search of another guru.

Most of the so-called disciples do not trust their gurus; they disobey them and finally abandon them. For such disciples it would have been infinitely better if they had no guru at all and just looked within for guidance.

If you have faith in your guru, why leave that guru and wander about? If you have reservations, it is best that you leave him. Otherwise completely surrender yourself – doubts and convictions, everything. If you have accepted one guru, then implicit faith and complete surrender is very necessary. Serving the guru is following whatever guidance he gives you through words. You must imbibe and become one with those words. Before you surrender to any guru you are free to move anywhere, a freelance spiritual seeker. Go anywhere, collect spiritual information, do what you like. But once you accept a guru there must be complete surrender. Do not think that the guru is some person. It is not so. The guru is that beingness, and beingness is manifestation. All the world is beingness, and that is the guru.

It is natural to move on from one guru to another. Each tells you the direction and the distance, while the Satguru, the eternal guru, is the road itself. Once you realize that the road is the goal, and you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple.

When you are convinced that you have gone beyond the need of your consciousness, you need not come to the guru any more.

When the disciple has fully understood what the guru has said, he need not come to him again. When the disciple is fully convinced that whatever he sees is unreal, why should he hang on to the unreal principle?

What is the difference between a disciple and his guru? The disciple is Atman, the guru is Paramatman. The disciple has knowledge, the guru transcends knowledge. Crores of dynamic Brahmans play in the Satguru.

44. Earnestness

Earnestness is but love in action. For nothing can be done without love.

To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation, is the dawn of wisdom. To want nothing of it, to be ready to abandon it entirely, is earnestness. Only such earnestness, born of true despair, will make you trust your Guru. Your first task is to see the sorrow in you and around you. Your next to long intensely for liberation. The very intensity of longing will guide you. You need no other guide.

If you are truly earnest and honest, the attainment of reality will be yours. It is the earnestness that liberates. When you are in dead earnest, you bend every incident, every second of your life to your purpose. You do not waste time and energy on other things. You are totally dedicated, call it will, or love, or plain honesty. We are complex beings, at war within and without. We contradict ourselves all the time, undoing today the work of yesterday. No wonder we are stuck.

Earnestness, not perfection, is a precondition to self-realization. Virtues and powers come with realization, not before.

The source of earnestness is the homing instinct, which makes the bird return to the nest and the fish to the mountain stream where it was born.

45. Aim

The self is universal and its aims are universal. There is nothing personal about the self.

What is your aim? Do you really want non-Being?

46. The Senses

The senses in the body operate only due to the consciousness.

The five kinds of sensory perception are only concerned with worldly pleasures. Sensory perception can only give pleasures of the five senses. If you do not realize the nature of the five elements and the five senses of perception, you will get involved and remain involved. But if you see their nature and the way they work, you will remain aloof and apart from them.

Whatever is visible is within the purview of the senses. It is visible to the One who cannot be seen by the senses.

You see only consciousness. Just as you know the picture on the cinema screen is nothing but light, know that everything is nothing but consciousness. There is only light and the light is all. Everything else is but a picture made of light.

47. Perception

Something entirely unfamiliar can be sensed, but cannot be perceived. Perception is recognition. Perception involves memory. Perception, imagination, expectation, anticipation, illusion… all are based on memory. There are hardly any border lines between them. They just merge into each other. All are responses of memory.

Things are seen only when the mind gives them a shape.

What is really your own, you are not conscious of. What you are conscious of is neither you nor your. Yours is the power of perception, not what you perceive.

Delve deeply into the sense ‘I Am’ and you will surely discover that the perceiving centre is universal, as universal as the light that illumines the world.

The jnani commands a mode of spontaneous, non-sensory perception, which makes him know things directly, without the intermediary of the senses. He is beyond the perceptual and the conceptual, beyond the categories of time and space, name and shape. He is neither the perceived nor the perceiver, but the simple and universal factor that makes perceiving possible. Reality is within consciousness, but it is not consciousness, nor any of its contents.

In reality there is only perception. The perceiver and the perceived are conceptual, the fact of perceiving is actual. The Absolute is the birthplace of perceiving. It makes perception possible.

When I look through the mind, I see numberless people. When I look beyond the mind, I see the witness. Beyond the witness there is the infinite intensity of emptiness and silence.

The ultimate seer cannot see by seeing; but without seeing the seer sees. The ultimate seer does not belong to the realm of the beingness.

48. Waking and Sleep States

Waking means total world manifestation.

When we get up from deep sleep, the first to appear is microscopic consciousness. It is the feeling ‘I am’, before any words. This seed consciousness is the cause of all experiences. In no time, it takes the form of the universe. But you have to see how this consciousness is unreal. The world appears with your wakefulness. The experience goes away with the one who experiences. Catch the source of this knowingness.

Sleep and waking come spontaneously. They are not the result of your will. The nature of dream continues through wakefulness.

One is not really awake, but feels one is awake because of ignorance. The Satguru gives the knowledge about how the wakeful dream has come about. A little light of the jiva has brought about the view of the universe. The Satguru shows clearly how the wakefulness and dream world are of the same category.

Why did you get up from deep sleep? Why did you see a dream while asleep? Do you have an answer for these questions? The wakefulness that came has brought the world. No waking up means no world. The dream is untrue, similarly the wakefulness is false. There is no difference between them, they happen spontaneously. Our talk is also happening in a dream.

In deep sleep, your feeling of false waking gives rise to a false dream world. How can a false thing give rise to something true? Similarly, the root of the waking world is false. The root is ‘I am’. How can it give rise to a true world? Hence, this world is equally false.

Take the example of the dream world. When the sense of being appears in deep sleep, the dream world begins with a new body for you. Is not this dream world nothing other than the creation of your consciousness? While watching a dream one forgets that one is out of the dream and sleeping comfortably in a bed. In reality, witnessing of the dream happens without any involvement. In the dream there is also identification with the dream body, which suffers. The dream world appears to be real until one wakes up. Sometimes one sees oneself dead in the dream.

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 and cannot get rid of them. They have come without my knowledge. Nobody asked me if I wanted these three states.

All the three states… of waking, dreaming, and sleeping… are subjective, personal, intimate. They all happen to, and are contained within, the little bubble in consciousness, called ‘I’. The real world lies beyond the self.

The so-called birth is the appearance of the waking state, sleep state, and knowingness. As long as these three states are there, the thirst, hunger, and activities for their satiety will go on. How has everything happened? Has anybody done it or helped it to happen? Not so. We think all development needs training.

Wakefulness itself is the universe. Sleep gives rest… that means there is comfort and rest for the being. Any state of being is transient and therefore imperfect. The whole experience is imperfect, yet you stick to it. You have no experience of wakefulness in your sleep, and there is no experience of sleep during wakefulness. The dream experience is in between. The experience of beingness is only in these stages. The seer knows that all experience is untrue. When you were without the two stages of wakefulness and sleep, did you ever feel the need of your beingness?

The waking and sleep states and the ‘I Am’ consciousness… these three are not your attributes, but the attributes of that chemical.

The moment the waking state starts the worshipping of misery begins.

You do not realize your present waking state is one of ignorance. You are contacting your sensory and mental states in consciousness, at the point of ‘I Am’, while reality is not mediated, not contacted, not experienced.

Some seed consciousness must be existing even during sleep. On waking up the experience runs: ‘I am – the body – in the world’. This may appear to arise in succession, but in fact it is all simultaneous, a single idea of having a body in a world.

The Marathi word for waking is jagrati. This word can be split into jag which means: waking, and rati, which means: small, and it also means: the joy of the union of the male and female. Thus, our waking state is the result of the short sexual enjoyment of our parents. Our worldly life is the operation of that waking state. If you meditate on this, you will know the secret of the consciousness and your separation from it.

The waking state is ‘I Amness’. Can the waking state talk to the deep sleep state?

Is the waking state possible without the existence of a sleep state prior to it? No. Waking is knowledge and sleep is ignorance. The sleep gives strength to the waking state to exist and continue for some time. One state is always followed by the other. Sleep is essential for the knowledge or waking state to follow. Every human form is a child of ignorance.

The three states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping, are sleep to me. As I look at you, you all seem asleep, dreaming up words of your own. To be a person is to be asleep.

While watching a dream are you really awake?

While watching the dream, the witness of the dream is forgotten, and one becomes a participant in the dream world. To whom did the dream world, including the dream body, appear? Is the witness part of the dream world? Was the dream world seen by the sleeping body, or by the dream body? When the dream ended, what happened to the god Brahma, who was seen in the dream? Will he reincarnate? In the dream experience, what was false? In deep sleep, the sense of waking is false and foolish.

In the dream, the world was seen. In the dream there also appeared your own body. The dream eventually ended and the world disappeared. Then, what happened to the one who saw the dream? Did he see his corpse lying there?… He never came and never left. Atman is not prana.

In deep sleep there are no experiences of pleasure and pain or birth and death. If you get eternal sleep, will you be happy?

Deep sleep is restful because the knowingness is not there. There is no need of anything, once the body is forgotten. When you let go the sense of being a body, your individuality will become the totality.

You want to forget your beingness, which is troublesome. In deep sleep you are comfortable, as your beingness is forgotten. To be free of this trouble, know your beingness, know the why and how of it.

Due to the quality of sattva, wakefulness comes as ‘I am’. Due to the fact that it is seen for a long time, ie the whole of the life span, one gets intoxicated. Eventually wakefulness becomes difficult to tolerate. To know the secret of consciousness, one has to become very familiar with it. Consciousness during dream and wakefulness is the same… it is a material process. After properly knowing all the three states, ie: wakefulness, dream and sleep, one who lives in the fourth state is pure Brahman. It takes total dedication to realize it.

When you wake up in the morning… you, the nameless and formless, first witness the consciousness, and then other things, including the body. Then, you act, taking yourself as the body.

Waking up is to feel ‘I am’ without pronouncing the words. The word comes upon waking up, therefore you are prior to the word. The wordless meaning of our consciousness is the sense ‘I am’. If you remain completely silent, you experience the Self. There is only one Self for all.

There are two aspects of ‘I-am-ness’: the waking state in which you know that you are, which itself is a misery, and deep sleep, in which ‘I-am-ness’ is forgotten, and you are at peace with yourself.

In the waking state, to remain without thought is the greatest worship. You should not feel ‘I am so-and-so’ while carrying out your activities. Put aside your knowingness of ‘I am’ and worship your true nature.

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. The subtlest part of the knowledge is that borderline 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.

When you wake up in the morning, before the thought process starts, you are pure Brahman. Once the mind comes into action, you see yourself as male or female. You see yourself as the body and act according to its impressions… otherwise you cannot do anything. Wakefulness that comes in the morning is the pure sense ‘I am’. It stays with you until you sleep. It is of the nature of space. It is called Brahman or God. Immediately afterwards the thought process starts, body consciousness takes over and all actions take place. The knowledge ‘I am’ that wakes up in the morning is formless consciousness, and it is your true nature. How can your self-luminous consciousness have a form? Keep in mind that your consciousness is God. The consciousness in you knows everything. Your intellect is of no use. Your consciousness is spontaneously taking photographs of everything you do and see. The minutest details are recorded. Until this is erased, their effects have to be faced. Meditate in solitude on ‘I am formless, luminous, pure knowingness’. Without pronouncing the words, say: ‘I am formless, desireless and pure as space. My sense ‘I am’ is of the nature of God’.

Hold on to consciousness, at least until you go to sleep. When you wake up, hold on to knowingness in the same way. You are pure consciousness for a few seconds after awakening, and then the person becomes wakeful.

You are in the waking state, a person with name and shape, joys and sorrows. The person was not there before you were born, nor will be there after you die. Instead of struggling with the person to make it become what it is not, why not go beyond the waking state and leave the personal life altogether? It does not mean the extinction of the person, it means only seeing it in right perspective.

During sleep there is no mind. There is only prana. When mind arises and becomes visible, you call it a dream.

The mind produces thoughts ceaselessly, even when you do not look at them. When you know what is going on in your mind, you call it consciousness. This is your waking state.

Do not go to sleep as a slave to the mind. Become absolutely detached and be the master of your mind. When you go to sleep, sleep with the remembrance of the truth that you know the body but are not the body. Sleep with this thought: “Many impure thoughts have come and gone away, but I am immutable, I am infinite, I am the Truth”. If you sleep with this thought then all impure thoughts are absolved.

When the mind is still, absolutely silent, the waking state is no more.

The knower is not absent in sleep. The experience of things and thoughts was not there, that is all. The knower knows that he does not know. Sleep is merely a lapse in memory. Life goes on.

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. You must go through this process. In deep sleep you do not know that you are, but that is the grosser state. In this alive state you must recede into the state of no-knowingness. To recede means to go within, your normal inclination is to come out through the five senses and see the world.

During sleep, it is forgetting yourself as an individual that gives you deep rest. From the position of not believing oneself to be an individual, nor male nor female, one can go to reality.

‘I am awake’ is also a concept. Your true nature is beyond waking, sleep, and knowingness… and ever awake. From that angle, to say: ‘I am awake’, is odd and a concept. The waking state is the reminder that ‘I am’, and deep sleep is forgetting ‘I-Amness’. Birth is the birth of these two states. Without these two states there are no concepts. Without these two states you are not.

The self based on memory is momentary. But such self demands unbroken continuity behind it. You know from experience that there are gaps when your self is forgotten. What brings it back to life? What wakes you up in the morning? There must be some constant factor bridging the gaps in consciousness. If you watch carefully you will find that even your daily consciousness is in flashes, with gaps intervening all the time. What is in the gaps? What can there be but your real being that is timeless. Mind and mindlessness are one to it.

You are prior to the wakefulness. Wakefulness comes over you in the morning, works through the day, and sleeps at night. One day, that wakefulness will sleep forever. Even when you witness that everything is you, it is still the quality of the five elemental body and will not last. Waking state, deep sleep, and Turiya, all these are temporary states. Whatever one perceives through the senses can only be a movement in consciousness, which is present when the states of waking and sleep are present. Whatever transpires in these states can only be temporary.

This state of consciousness cognizing what appears in consciousness is being witnessed as a temporary state. The alternative states of waking, sleeping, and the sense of presence, are all temporary states that have come upon me. They have all come spontaneously and will go spontaneously. No one has any control over them.

One who knows that he is not the body, remains in constant self-attentiveness. Pay attention to the seed-consciousness, the atomic wakefulness that arises at dawn. The world takes birth in your consciousness. The waking state of consciousness gives rise to this waking world, and the dream consciousness to the dream world. Nothing exists in the absence of your consciousness,. It means our consciousness contains everything.

There is no difference between dream consciousness and waking consciousness, although they appear to be greatly different. All consciousness is one.

At night you cannot see objects in darkness. When the sun rises, the same objects become visible. Similarly, in deep sleep the objects are invisible. Your waking is the sun in whose light the world becomes visible. Even in complete darkness, you know that ‘you are’. Give your attention to it. Hold it. Meditate on it.

You are awake and seeing the world, but there is also the witnessing of your being awake and seeing the world. When this waking state goes to sleep that awareness is still there. You are the light behind the states.

The phenomenal world has spread out of the primordial illusion, Mula-Maya. No one created it. It has no creator nor destroyer. Only wakefulness has come over you. Our consciousness automatically takes the form of the universe. Where is the seed of the universe? The feeling that ‘I am awake’, accompanied with the expectation to continue, is the seed. This itself is the dream. One sees the dream world… but how many recognize the seer?

The real waking is to realize the Self. This waking of yours is as good as the dream waking. You do not expect anything from your dream world, as it is false. But this world is as false as the dream world. You take it as true and expect to be benefited. Until you realize your Self, there will be no order in your world.

During the waking state the sense of your ‘I Amness’ perceives the world, and from the standpoint of you, the Absolute, there is witnessing of your ‘I Amness’ and its perceptions.  I, the Absolute, am before the waking state. Early morning, immediately after waking, just the feeling  ‘I Am’ is felt inside, or the beingness happens, and thereafter further witnessing of all else happens. This primary witnessing is occurring to one that ever is, even without waking. To that ever-present substratum the witnessing of the waking state happens. The primary witnessing is of my own presence, my existence. This waking sense of existence is a temporary state.

Wakefulness and sleep come and go automatically. You cannot change that. The knower has no connection with these stages. He is not awake and, therefore, he never sleeps. The one who has no experience of wakefulness and sleep is the all-witnessing principle. You may call it the knowledge of Brahman. It is your own knowledge.

There is nothing of you in the sleep and waking states. The states of waking and sleep are absent in a jnani. The Paramatman is in a state of non-being. It is similar to the deep sleep experience. The Paramatman never sleeps; hence the term waking also does not apply to him.

The sleep of the jnani is not the kind that others have. It is pure consciousness. When he sleeps there is awareness of the total manifestation, and also the Unmanifest. There is no distinction between an individual and the total universe. The waking state, sleep, beingness, all this experience combined, is ignorance only. That ignorance called ‘birth’ means waking state, sleep, beingness. Just as you are not afraid of a serpent made of rubber, so similarly the jnani has no interest in this waking state and beingness.

Even sages and saints would like to continue their beingness. How long should I continue this waking state and deep sleep? In this continuous cycle what is the advantage? So long as this cycle continues the knowingness also will prevail there. In the waking state you carry out a lot of activities, and when you are tired you fall asleep. Have you ever encountered anyone who was tired of this waking state and deep sleep state?

We do not wake up into a really waking state. In the waking state the world emerges due to ignorance and takes one into a waking-dream state. Both waking and sleep are misnomers. We are only dreaming. Do I go to sleep or does inadvertence, characteristic of the sleeping state, come to me? True waking and true sleeping only the jnani knows. We dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep. The three states are only varieties of the dream state. Treating everything as a dream liberates. As long as you give reality to dreams, you are their slave. By imagining that you are born as so-and-so, you become a slave to the so-and-so. The essence of slavery is to imagine yourself to be a process, to have past and future, to have history. In fact, we have no history, we are not a process, we do not develop, nor decay. See all as a dream and stay out of it.

The world appears like a dream. While it lasts the dream has temporary being. It is your desire to hold on to it, that creates the problem. Let go. Stop imagining that the dream is yours. Let the dream unroll itself to its very end. You cannot help it. But you can look at the dream as a dream, refuse it the stamp of reality. When you see your dream as dream, you wake up. Within the immensity of space floats a tiny atom of consciousness, and in it the entire universe is contained.

49. Attention

When the mind is eager for reality, it gives attention. You clean your mind by watching it relentlessly. Inattention obscures, attention clarifies. Evil is the shadow of inattention. In the light of self-awareness it will wither and fall off.

You behave according to what you have heard, but do you pay attention to that which is hearing, now? That listener is your consciousness. You have read and heard a lot, now get to know the reader and the listener. The one who is listening is the same as Brahman, and the same as the guru. Respect pure consciousness as the guru and it will become your friend. Do you stay with your consciousness… even for a moment?

Your attention, the Goddess Lakshmi, serves your consciousness, the God Vishnu.

End of part 1