From OrganicDesign Wiki
Questioner:
On all sides I hear that freedom from desires and inclinations is the first
condition of self-realization. But I find the condition impossible of
fulfilment. Ignorance of oneself causes desires and desires perpetuate
ignorance. A truly vicious circle!
Maharaj:
There are no conditions to fulfil. There is nothing to be done, nothing to be
given up. Just look and remember, whatever you perceive is not you, nor yours.
It is there in the field of consciousness, but you are not the field and its
contents, nor even the knower of the field. It is your idea that you have to do
things that entangle you in the results of your efforts -- the motive, the
desire, the failure to achieve, the sense of frustration -- all this holds you
back. Simply look at whatever happens and know that you are beyond it.
Q: Does it mean I should abstain from doing
anything?
M: You cannot! What goes on must go on. If you
stop suddenly, you will crash.
Q: Is it a matter of the known and the knower
becoming one?
M: Both are ideas in the mind, and words that
express them. There is no self in them. The self is neither, between nor
beyond. To look for it on the mental level is futile. Stop searching, and see --
it is here and now -- it is that 'I am' you know so well. All you need to do is
to cease taking yourself to be within the field of consciousness. Unless you
have already considered these matters carefully, listening to me once will not
do. Forget your past experiences and achievements, stand naked, exposed to the
winds and rains of life and you will have a chance.
Q: Has devotion (bhakti) any place in
your teaching?
M: When you are not well, you
go to a physician who tells you what is wrong and what is the remedy. If you
have confidence in him, it makes things simple: you take the medicine, follow
the diet restrictions and get well. But if you do not trust him, you may still
take a chance, or you may study medicine yourself! In all cases it is your
desire for recovery that moves you, not the physician.
Without trust there is no peace. Somebody
or other you always trust -- it may be your mother, or your wife. Of all the
people the knower of the self, the liberated man, is the most trust-worthy. But
merely to trust is not enough. You must also desire. Without desire for freedom
of what use is the confidence that you can acquire freedom? Desire and
confidence must go together. The stronger your desire, the easier comes the
help. The greatest Guru is helpless as long as the disciple is not eager to
learn. Eagerness and earnestness are all-important. Confidence will come with
experience. Be devoted to your goal -- and devotion to him who can guide you
will follow. If your desire and confidence are strong, they will operate and
take you to your goal, for you will not cause delay by hesitation and
compromise.
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. But again you must have the strong desire to find him and do nothing that
will create obstacles and delays. And do not waste energy and time on regrets.
Learn from your mistakes and do not repeat them.
Q: If you do not mind my asking a personal
question...?
M: Yes, go ahead.
Q: I see you sitting on an antelope skin. How
does it tally with non-violence?
M: All my working life I was a cigarette-maker,
helping people to spoil their health. And in front of my door the municipality
has put up a public lavatory, spoiling my health. In this violent world how can
one keep away from violence of some kind or other?
Q: Surely all avoidable violence should be
avoided. And yet in India every holy man has his tiger, lion, leopard or
antelope skin to sit on.
M: Maybe because no plastics were available in
ancient times and a skin was best to keep the damp away. Rheumatism has no
charm, even for a saint! Thus the tradition arose that for lengthy meditations
a skin is needed. Just like the drum-hide in a temple, so is the antelope skin
of a Yogi. We hardly notice it.
Q: But the animal had to be
killed.
M: I have never heard of a Yogi killing a
tiger for his hide. The killers are not Yogis and the Yogis are
not killers.
Q: Should you not express your disapproval by
refusing to sit on a skin?
M: What an idea! I disapprove of the entire
universe, why only a skin?
Q: What is wrong with the universe?
M: Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury;
all the calamities flow from it. Take care of the most important, the lesser
will take care of itself. You do not tidy up a dark room. You open the windows
first. Letting in the light makes everything easy. So, let us wait with
improving others until we have seen ourselves as we are -- and have changed.
There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself
and everything will fall into its proper place.
Q: The urge to return to the source is very
rare. Is it at all natural?
M: Outgoing is natural in the beginning, ingoing
-- in the end. But in reality the two are one, just like breathing in and out
are one.
Q: In the same way are not the body and the
dweller in the body one?
M: Events in time and space -- birth and death,
cause and effect -- these may be taken as one; but the body and the embodied are
not of the same order of reality. The body exists in time and space, transient
and limited, while the dweller is timeless and spaceless, eternal and
all-pervading. To identify the two is a grievous mistake and the cause of
endless suffering. You can speak of the mind and body as one, but the body-mind
is not the underlying reality.
Q: Whoever he may be, the dweller is in control
of the body and, therefore, responsible for it.
M: There is a universal power which is in
control and is responsible.
Q: And so, I can do as I like and put the blame
on some universal power? How easy!
M: Yes, very easy. Just realize the One Mover
behind all that moves and leave all to Him. If you do not hesitate, or cheat,
this is the shortest way to reality. Stand without desire and fear,
relinquishing all control and all responsibility.
Q: What madness!
M: Yes, divine madness. What is wrong in letting
go the illusion of personal control and personal responsibility? Both are in
the mind only. Of course, as long as you imagine yourself to be in control, you
should also imagine yourself to be responsible. One implies the other.
Q: How can the universal be responsible for the
particular?
M: All life on earth depends on the sun. Yet you
cannot blame the sun for all that happens, though it is the ultimate cause.
Light causes the colour of the flower, but it neither controls, nor is
responsible for it directly. It makes it possible, that is all.
Q: What I do not like in all this is taking
refuge in some universal power.
M: You cannot quarrel with facts.
Q: Whose facts? Yours or mine?
M: Yours. You cannot deny my facts, for you do
not know them. Could you know them, you would not deny them. Here lies the
trouble. You take your imagining for facts and my facts for imagination. I know
for certain that all is one. Differences do not separate. Either you are
responsible for nothing, or for everything. To imagine that you are in control
and responsible for one body only is the aberration of the body-mind.
Q: Still, you are limited by your body.
M: Only in matters pertaining to the body. This
I do not mind. It is like enduring the seasons of the year. They come, they go
-- they hardly affect me. In the same way body-minds come and go -- life is
forever in search of new expressions.
Q: As long as you do not put all the burden of
evil on God, I am satisfied. There may be a God for all I know, but to me he is
a concept projected by the human mind. He may be a reality to you, but to me
society is more real than God, for I am both its creature and its prisoner.
Your values are wisdom and compassion; society's sagacious selfishness. I live
in a world quite different from yours.
M: None compels.
Q: None compels you, but I am compelled. My
world is an evil world, full of tears, toil and pain. To explain it away by the
intellectualising, by putting forth theories of evolution and karma is
merely adding insult to injury. The God of an evil world is a cruel God.
M: You are the god of your world and you are
both stupid and cruel. Let God be a concept -- your own creation. Find out who
you are, how did you come to live, longing for truth, goodness and beauty in a
world full of evil. Of what use is your arguing for or against God. when you
just do not know who is God and what are you talking about. The God born of
fear and hope, shaped by desire and imagination, cannot be the Power That is,
the Mind and the Heart of the universe.
Q: I agree that the world I live in and the God
I believe in are both creatures of imagination. But in what way are they
created by desire? Why do I imagine a world so painful and a God so
indifferent? What is wrong with me that I should torture myself so cruelly? The
enlightened man comes and tells me: 'it is but a dream to put an end to', but
is he not himself a part of the dream? I find myself trapped and see no way
out. You say you are free. Of what are you free? For heaven's sake, don't feed
me on words, enlighten me, help me to wake up, since it is you who sees me
tossing in my sleep.
M: When I say I am free, I merely state a fact.
If you are an adult, you are free from infancy. I am free from all description
and identification. Whatever you may hear, see, or think of, I am not that. I
am free from being a percept, or a concept.
Q: Still, you have a body and you depend on it.
M: Again you assume that your point of view is
the only correct one. I repeat: I was not, am not, shall not be a body. To me
this is a fact. I too was under the illusion of having been born, but my Guru
made me see that birth and death are mere ideas -- birth is merely the idea: 'I
have a body'. And death -- 'I have lost my body'. Now, when I know I am not a
body, the body may be there or may not -- what difference does it make? The
bodymind is like a room. It is there, but I need not live in it all the time.
Q: Yet, there is a body and you do take care of
it.
M: The power that created the body takes care of
it.
Q: We are jumping from level to level all the
time.
M: There are two levels to consider -- the
physical -- of facts, and mental -- of ideas. I am beyond both. Neither your
facts, nor ideas are mine. What I see is beyond. Cross over to my side and see
with me.
Q: What I want to say is very simple. As long
as I believe: 'I am the body', I must not say: 'God will look after my body'. God
will not. He will let it starve, sicken and die.
M: What else do you expect from a mere body? Why
are you so anxious about it?
Because you think you are the body, you
want it indestructible. You can extend its life considerably by appropriate
practices, but for what ultimate good?
Q: It is better to live long and healthy. It
gives us a chance to avoid the mistakes of childhood and youth, the
frustrations of adulthood, the miseries and imbecility of old age.
M: By all means live long. But you are not the
master. Can you decide the days of your birth and death? We are not speaking
the same language. Yours is a make-believe talk, all hangs on suppositions and
assumptions. You speak with assurance about things you are not sure of.
Q: Therefore, I am here.
M: You are not yet here. I am here. Come in! But
you don't. You want me to live your life, feel your way, use your language. I
cannot, and it will not help you. You must come to me. Words are of the mind
and the mind obscures and distorts. Hence the absolute need to go beyond words
and move over to my side.
Q: Take me over.
M: I am doing it, but you resist. You give
reality to concepts, while concepts are distortions of reality. Abandon all
conceptualisation and stay silent and attentive. Be earnest about it and all
will be well with you.
