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Questioner:
When an ordinary man dies, what happens to him?
Maharaj:
According to his belief it happens, As life before death is but imagination, so
is life after. The dream continues.
Q: And what about the jnani?
M: The jnani does not die because he was
never born.
Q: He appears so to others.
M: But not to himself. In himself he is free of
things -- physical and mental.
Q: Still you must know the state of the man who
died. At least from your own past lives.
M: Until I met my Guru I knew so many things.
Now I know nothing, for all knowledge is in dream only and not valid. I know
myself and I find no life nor death in me, only pure being -- not being this or
that, but just being. But the moment the mind, drawing on its stock of
memories, begins to imagine, it fills the space with objects and time with
events. As I do not know even this birth, how can I know past births? It is the
mind that, itself in movement, sees everything moving, and having created time,
worries about the past and future. All the universe is cradled in consciousness
(maha tattva), which arises where there is perfect order and harmony (maha
sattva). As all waves are in the ocean, so are all things physical and
mental in awareness. Hence awareness itself is all important, not the content
of it. Deepen and broaden your awareness of yourself and all the blessings will
flow. You need not seek anything, all will come to you most naturally and
effortlessly. The five senses and the four functions of the mind -- memory,
thought, understanding and selfhood; the five elements -- earth, water, fire,
air and ether; the two aspects of creation -- matter and spirit, all are
contained in awareness.
Q: Yet, you must believe in having lived
before.
M: The scriptures say so, 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 happens to me. Only those who think themselves
born can think themselves re-born. You are accusing me of having been born -- I
plead not guilty!
All exists in awareness and awareness
neither dies nor is reborn. It is the changeless reality itself.
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. If you think it out carefully and
brood over it for a long time, you will come to see the light of awareness in
all its clarity and the world will fade out of your vision. It is like looking
at a burning incense stick, you see the stick and the smoke first; when you
notice the fiery point, you realize that it has the power to consume mountains
of sticks and fill the universe with smoke. Timelessly the self actualises
itself, without exhausting its infinite possibilities. In the incense stick
simile the stick is the body and the smoke is the mind. As long as the mind is
busy with its contortions, it does not perceive its own source. The Guru comes
and turns your attention to the spark within. By its very nature the mind is
outward turned; it always tends to seek for the source of things among the
things themselves; to be told to look for the source within, is, in a way, the
beginning of a new life. Awareness takes the place of consciousness; in
consciousness there is the 'I', who is conscious while awareness is undivided;
awareness is aware of itself. The 'I am' is a thought, while awareness is not a
thought, there is no 'I am aware' in awareness. Consciousness is an attribute
while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious
of awareness. God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all
-- being as well as not-being.
Q: I had started with the question about the
condition of a man after death. When his body is destroyed, what happens to his
consciousness? Does he carry his senses of seeing, hearing etc. along with him
or does he leave them behind? And, if he loses his senses, what becomes to his
consciousness?
M: Senses are mere modes of perception. As the
grosser modes disappear, finer states of consciousness emerge.
Q: Is there no transition to awareness after
death?
M: There can be no transition from consciousness
to awareness, for awareness is not a form of consciousness. Consciousness can
only become more subtle and refined and that is what happens after death. As
the various vehicles of man die off, the modes of consciousness induced by them
also fade away.
Q: Until only unconsciousness remains?
M: Look at yourself talking of unconsciousness
as something that comes and goes! Who is there to be conscious of
unconsciousness? As long as the window is open, there is sunlight in the room.
With the windows shut, the sun remains, but does it see the darkness in the
room? Is there anything like darkness to the sun? There is no such thing as
unconsciousness, for unconsciousness is not experienceable. We infer
unconsciousness when there is a lapse in memory or communication. If I stop
reacting, you will say that I am unconscious. In reality I may be most acutely
conscious, only unable to communicate or remember.
Q: I am asking a simple question: there are
about four billion people in the world and they are all bound to die. What will
be their condition after death -- not physically, but psychologically? Will
their consciousness continue? And if it does, in what form? Do not tell me that
I am not asking the right question, or that you do not know the answer, or that
in your world my question is meaningless; the moment you start talking about
your world and my world as different and incompatible, you build a wall between
us. Either we live in one world or your experience is of no use to us.
M: Of course we live in one world. Only I see it
as it is, while you don't. 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. There is no wall
between us, except the one built by you. There is nothing wrong with the
senses, it is your imagination that misleads you. It covers up the world as it
is, with what you imagine it to be -- something existing independently of you
and yet closely following your inherited, or acquired patterns. There is a deep
contradiction in your attitude, which you do not see and which is the cause of
sorrow. You cling to the idea that you were born into a world of pain and
sorrow; I know that the world is a child of love, having its beginning, growth
and fulfilment in love. But I am beyond love even.
Q: If you have created the world out of love,
why is it so full of pain?
M: You are right -- from the body's point of
view. But you are not the body. You are the immensity and infinity of
consciousness. Don't assume what is not true and you will see things as I see
them. Pain and pleasure, good and bad, right and wrong: these are relative
terms and must not be taken absolutely. They are limited and temporary.
Q: In the Buddhist tradition it is stated that
a Nirvani, an enlightened Buddha, has the freedom of the universe. He
can know and experience for himself all that exists. He can command, interfere
with nature, with the chain of causation, change the sequence of events, even
undo the past! The world is still with him but he is free in it.
M: What you describe is God. Of course, where
there is a universe, there will also be its counterpart, which is God. But I am
beyond both. There was a kingdom in search of a king. They found the right man
and made him king. In no way had he changed. He was merely given the title, the
rights and the duties of a king. His nature was not affected, only his actions.
Similarly, with the enlightened man; the content of his consciousness undergoes
a radical transformation. But he is not misled. He knows the changeless.
Q: The changeless cannot be conscious.
Consciousness is always of change. The changeless leaves no trace in
consciousness.
M: Yes and no. The paper is not the writing, yet
it carries the writing. The ink is not the message, nor is the reader's mind
the message -- but they all make the message possible.
Q: Does consciousness come down from reality or
is it an attribute of matter?
M: Consciousness as such is the subtle
counterpart of matter. Just as inertia (tamas) and energy (rajas)
are attributes of matter, so does harmony (sattva) manifest itself as
consciousness. You may consider it in a way as a form of very subtle energy.
Wherever matter organizes itself into a stable organism, consciousness appears
spontaneously. With the destruction of the organism consciousness disappears.
Q: Then what survives?
M: That, of which matter and consciousness are
but aspects, which is neither born nor dies.
Q: If it is beyond matter and consciousness,
how can it be experienced?
M: It can be known by its effects on both; look
for it in beauty and in bliss. But you will understand neither body nor
consciousness, unless you go beyond both.
Q: Please tell us squarely: are you conscious
or unconscious?
M: The enlightened (jnani) is neither.
But in his enlightenment (jnana) all is contained. Awareness contains
every experience. But he who is aware is beyond every experience. He is beyond
awareness itself.
Q: There is the background of experience, call
it matter. There is the experiencer, call it mind. What makes the bridge
between the two?
M: The very gap between is the bridge. That, which
at one end looks like matter and at the other as mind, is in itself the bridge.
Don't separate reality into mind and body and there will be no need of bridges.
Consciousness arising, the world arises.
When you consider the wisdom and the beauty of the world, you call it God. Know
the source of it all, which is in yourself, and you will find all your
questions answered.
Q: The seer and the seen: are they one or two?
M: There is only seeing; both the seer and the
seen are contained in it. Don't create differences where there are none.
Q: I began with the question about the man who
died. You said that his experiences will shape themselves according to his
expectations and beliefs.
M: Before you were born you expected to live
according to a plan, which you yourself had laid down. Your own will was the
backbone of your destiny.
Q: Surely, karma interfered.
M: Karma shapes the
circumstances: the attitudes are your own. Ultimately your character shapes
your life and you alone can shape your character.
Q: How does one shape one's character?
M: By seeing it as it is, and being sincerely
sorry. This integral seeing-feeling can work miracles. It is like casting a
bronze image; metal alone, or fire alone will not do; nor will the mould be of
any use; you have to melt down the metal in the heat of the fire and cast it in
the mould.
