Sunday, March 5, 1978

A teacher instructs according to his own concepts. People accept that and become his followers. This is the way various creeds come about. Sai Baba of Shirdi was an exception. He was always immersed in the Absolute. He had no concepts. He never gave initiation. He had no disciples. So there was no creed around him.

During this act of the body and prana, the experience of a concept is there in one form or the other. Most people are tied to the body. A rare one recognizes that the body depends upon consciousness. It is because of the nature of time that a person says, ‘I am the body’ and takes on the doer-ship, followed by misery and happiness. To think ‘I am like this or like that’ is external knowledge. To see one’s true nature is direct internal knowledge. The ignorance (consciousness) arises and shines, but it is not permanent. It is not steady because of wakefulness and sleep. So long as one is aware of being awake, there is no lasting peace. Dismiss everything that is not you. Here, no action is required.

In the 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 while 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.

Krishna said, “Your consciousness through all the five senses is protecting you. It is My own manifestation.” Accept consciousness as the Guru and worship it. It sustains all the bodies. It has no form of its own. It is self-luminous. It has come over you uninvited. The bliss from this consciousness has no match in material happiness. It gives sustenance to innumerable beings. It is pleased with love, it is a devotee of love. The flavour of your beingness is love. (The sense ‘I am’ is love.) Remember its worthiness. The scriptures describe its greatness. It dwells in your heart. It will offer you enlightenment, perfection, and you will be bliss yourself. Without it, the tongue does not know taste. When this tiny consciousness leaves, people say the person is dead.

That which is self-sensing, which is your own beingness, is within you. It is blissful. It is inside you. Without it there cannot be any witnessing. It is the holy feet of Sri Guru. It is the life force. It has the flavour of self-love.

Your true state precedes the five elements, the sun and the moon. Scriptures never get tired of praising It. It is microscopic. It nourishes and protects the body. Take refuge at Its feet, as It is your own true nature. This is the Guru’s word. It is through this that you will be liberated. After getting liberation, you may behave in any way you like.

When talking to ignorant people, do not contradict them. Do not react. What they believe according to their understanding is correct.

Thursday, March 9, 1978

It is true that the association of a sage is beneficial but one should be prepared internally. One should have inner worthiness. The concept of sin and virtue has importance so long as you consider yourself as the body. The effects depend upon your idea about them. What is said at a certain time is true at that time. It ends when that time has gone.

The light of your beingness is of the nature of space. Is space seen in sleep? (In deep sleep there is no consciousness, hence there is no space.) Your consciousness ‘I am’ is directly within you. You have a great need of your beingness. You take care of yourself so as to preserve it. The reason is that you know you are going to die one day. That which is everlasting need not be taken care of. Are you watching your beingness without making any effort? It is true that previously you were not known to yourself, but now you know ‘you are’. You are the witness of this knowingness. One who witnesses it must be prior to it.

You will not understand all the things you have heard unless you have worthiness. For this, you have to practice meditation. The sadguru introduces you to meditation and consciousness. First what was not, now IS. Who knows that it was not there? Similarly, who knows that it is there? Those who say that one will need many births to be liberated base it upon hearsay. Only an ignorant person keeps traditional faith. Will the jnani do so? You must see what is correct, directly. Keep quiet until you are not aware of your silence. When someone claims that he is liberated, it should be understood that he was liberated in a dream. (Liberation means there is no duality. Then how can one say he is liberated?)

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. You know that ‘you are’. What is the reason for this? Deliberate on this. You must practice japa, meditation and listening. With sharp intellect, one gets liberated in a short period of time just by listening.

Your daily behaviour is the result of your impressions.

First think through these things and then remain in a thoughtless state. Do not become a slave of your own thoughts. One who has reached the stage where there is no thought will not have to do anything for his sustenance, for his protection. Whatever experience there is in the world, there is no doer. Everything happens spontaneously. 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.

‘I am’ is the root thought. Without that basic feeling, what can we take ourselves as? Are we in deep sleep or in a trance? When there is no feeling of ‘I am’, it is called the unmanifest. All worldly dealings of an entire lifetime are based upon the concept of ‘I am’. However, it has no real existence. This concept is not born of the body. Even if you have no concept that ‘you are’, you still are. Consciousness is subtle, luminous and self-sensing. It is subtler than space. You will know all this when you become of the nature of consciousness. You accept the body as your uniform but you are not the body.

Yoga means union. Unless Purusha and prakriti unite, there is no knowledge of beingness. A yogi is one who achieves this union. By identifying with the body, you will not understand That which has been created in the body out of this union.

All things are identified with names, which are words. Hence, all dealings are based upon these words. The world is not known without words. The word arises out of prana. The basic word has appeared in various forms. The word is also called the mind. It is the result of impressions received by it. Behaviour depends upon the mind. Meditate with the conviction that ‘I am not the mind’.

When the atomic consciousness manifests, the vast world is created. This atom is the subtle consciousness. There is no peace until this atom is realized. You believe you are the gross body because you have not realized the subtle. The vast world arises out of ignorance and subsides in ignorance. It is unreal. When you will really say, ‘I do not know’, you will be in a state of Parabrahman.

The blessing, ‘May good things happen to you’ has meaning only with reference to the body. From deep sleep, the atomic wakefulness has sprouted. Without it there is no world. Both are illusory. It is the root-maya. All existence is in words. Hence, go beyond the words. Understand worldly dealings as unreal, and then you will not suffer from them. Think over why and how all these things have come into existence.

Sunday, March 19, 1978

‘I am not the body, I am the Self.’ If you meditate like this, you will become God. This great mantra is the same as pure consciousness. Do not worship it by giving it a form. The idea that you are the body must go. Then the rest will be fine. You say, ‘I forgot to meditate’, but the one who says it has not forgotten it.

Just as gold is the source of ornaments, similarly, the sense ‘I am’ is the source of all words. When consciousness realizes itself, it is called the grace of the Guru. One must be the proof of the Guru’s words. The initiation with mantra establishes a special relationship with the Guru. Hence, you must have faith in the Guru. One could die anytime. Then how can he neglect the Guru’s words?

Real devotees are illumined by Self-knowledge. Their existence is like that of space. When the stage of the seeker evolves, his behaviour also changes. Some behave in a peculiar fashion. Some go about naked, some keep silent, and some become very abusive. As they are Self-realized, they do not behave consciously. A Self-realized person has no concern with how the body behaves. His conduct is not governed by any rule of law.

The flavour of your beingness is the holy presence of God. The concern about the individual self can be compared to a snakebite. Sages do not consider themselves as the body, so they are not bitten. The Self is beyond light and darkness. Only the body or the mind gets stained.

Bhagavan means light. The light of Bhagavan is a big void of light. Is there a difference between that light and your own light? When you know your consciousness and become a witness, you will understand that the sky is your light. There is nothing beyond the light of God. The natural quality of God is your own consciousness. As soon as consciousness arises, the five elements are created along with the world. Your sight has the same colour as that of space. All the names are of the incarnations of God. Were there any names prior to that? Bhagavan means the manifested consciousness. That by which you know ‘you are’ is the same as His nature. Embrace it tightly.

In everything all around, there is God and only God. Does this light see any difference between a man and a woman? All this, one and all, in its totality is consciousness. That taste or knowledge of self-existence is Bhagavan. To understand this means to see God in every living being.

Forget that you are a human being. Your light is the light of Bhagavan. In all that appears, what is the underlying luminous Source? It is this light alone. It is present even in a stone but it is prominently expressed in you.

In all things there is only one true quality. It is consciousness. It demonstrates existence. All other knowledge comes about because of knowingness. Paramatman means ‘I, myself, am Atman’. He is not a deity. Deities worship Him. It is my own Self. It is the direct, correct knowledge. It is there before a single word is uttered. The one that rises and the one that sets finds his rest in Paramatman. People are awed by the knowledge of Paramatman. How can it even be felt when one has no body? The enlightened devotee says, ‘I am not the body’. Then who is it that became enlightened? (When a person becomes realized, he no longer considers himself a body. Then who says, ‘I have become realized’? In other words, there is no one who has become enlightened. There is neither knower, nor known. No one is born, no one dies, nothing has happened.)

The experience can be described in many ways but the experiencer cannot be described. When words are silent, there is no sense in enumerating the divine names.