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Questioner:
I am not well. I feel rather weak. What am I to do?
Maharaj:
Who is unwell, you or the body?
Q: My body, of course.
M: Yesterday you felt well. What felt well?
Q: The body.
M: You were glad when the body was well and you
are sad when the body is unwell. Who is glad one day and sad the next?
Q: The mind.
M: And who knows the variable mind?
Q: The mind.
M: The mind is the knower. Who knows the knower?
Q: Does not the knower know itself?
M: 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.
Q: The mind remembers. This stands for
continuity.
M: Memory is always partial, unreliable and
evanescent. It does not explain the strong sense of identity pervading
consciousness, the sense 'I am'. Find out what is at the root of it.
Q: However deeply I look, I find only the mind.
Your words 'beyond the mind' give me no clue.
M: While looking with the mind, you cannot go
beyond it. To go beyond, you must look away from the mind and its contents.
Q: In what direction am I to look?
M: All directions are within the mind! I am not
asking you to look in any particular direction. 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.
Q: Where does it all lead me?
M: When the mind is kept away from 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.
Q: What difference does it make?
M: The mind is no more. There is only love in
action.
Q: How shall I recognize this state when I
reach it?
M: There will be no fear.
Q: Surrounded by a world full of mysteries and
dangers, how can I remain unafraid?
M: Your own little body too is full of mysteries
and dangers, yet you are not afraid of it, for you take it as your own. What
you do not know is that the entire universe is your body and you need not be
afraid of it. You may say you have two bodies; the personal and the universal.
The personal comes and goes, the universal is always with you. The entire
creation is your universal body. You are so blinded by what is personal, that
you do not see the universal. This blindness will not end by itself -- it must
be undone skilfully and deliberately. When all illusions are understood and
abandoned, you reach the error-free and perfect state in which all distinctions
between the personal and the universal are no more.
Q: I am a person and therefore limited in space
and time. I occupy little space and last but a few moments; I cannot even
conceive myself to be eternal and all-pervading.
M: Nevertheless you are. As you dive
deep into yourself in search of your true nature, you will discover that only
your body is small and only your memory is short; while the vast ocean of life
is yours.
Q: The very words 'I' and 'universal' are
contradictory. One excludes the other.
M: They don't. The sense of identity pervades
the universal. Search and you shall discover the Universal Person, who is
yourself and infinitely more.
Anyhow, begin by realizing that the world
is in you, not you in the world.
Q: How can it be? I am only a part of the
world. How can the whole world be contained in the part, except by reflection,
mirror like?
M: What you say is true. Your personal body is a
part in which the whole is wonderfully reflected. But you have also a universal
body. You cannot even say that you do not know it, because you see and
experience it all the time. Only you call it 'the world' and are afraid of it.
Q: I feel I know my little body, while the
other I do not know, except through science.
M: Your little body is full of mysteries and
wonders which you do not know. There also science is your only guide. Both
anatomy and astronomy describe you.
Q: Even If I accept your doctrine of the
universal body as a working theory, in what way can I test it and of what use
is it to me?
M: Knowing yourself as the dweller in both the
bodies you will disown nothing. All the universe will be your concern; every
living thing you will love and help most tenderly and wisely. There will be no
clash of interests between you and others. All exploitation will cease
absolutely. Your every action will be beneficial, every movement will be a
blessing.
Q: It is all very tempting, but how am I to
proceed to realize my universal being?
M: You have two ways: you can give your heart
and mind to self-discovery, or you accept my words on trust and act
accordingly. In other words, either you become totally self-concerned, or
totally un-self-concerned. It is the word 'totally' that is important. You must
be extreme to reach the Supreme.
Q: How can I aspire to such heights, small and
limited as I am?
M: Realize yourself as the ocean of
consciousness in which all happens. This is not difficult. A little of
attentiveness, of close observation of oneself, and you will see that no event
is outside your consciousness.
Q: The world is full of events which do not
appear in my consciousness.
M: Even your body is full of events which do not
appear in your consciousness. This does not prevent you from claiming your body
to be your own. You know the world exactly as you know your body -- through your
senses. 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.
Q: What I do not follow is what you say about
going beyond consciousness. I understand the words, but I cannot visualize the
experience. After all, you yourself have said that all experience is in
consciousness.
M: You are right, there can be no experience
beyond consciousness. Yet there is the experience of just being. There
is a state beyond consciousness, which is not unconscious. Some call it
super-consciousness, or pure consciousness, or supreme consciousness. It is
pure awareness free from the subject object nexus.
Q: I have studied Theosophy and I find nothing
familiar in what you say. I admit Theosophy deals with manifestation only. It
describes the universe and its inhabitants in great details. It admits many
levels of matter and corresponding levels of experience, but it does not seem
to go beyond. What you say goes beyond all experience. If it is not
experienceable, why at all talk about it?
M: Consciousness is intermittent, full of
gaps. Yet there is the continuity of identity. What is this sense of identity
due to, if not to something beyond consciousness?
Q: If I am beyond the mind, how can I change
myself?
M: Where is the need of changing anything? The
mind is changing anyhow 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.
Q: If my true being is always with me, how is
it that I am ignorant of it?
M: Because it is very subtle and your mind is
gross, full of gross thoughts and feelings. Calm and clarify your mind and you
will know yourself as you are.
Q: Do I need the mind to know myself?
M: You are beyond the mind, but you know with
your mind. It is obvious that the extent, depth and character of knowledge
depend on what instrument you use. Improve your instrument and your knowledge
will improve.
Q: To know perfectly I need a perfect mind.
M: A quiet mind is all you need. All else will
happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world
active, so does self-awareness affect 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.
Q: You mean to say that the greatest work is
done by not working?
M: Exactly. Do understand that you are destined
for enlightenment. Co-operate with your destiny, don't go against it, don’t
thwart it. Allow it to fulfil itself. All you have to do is to give attention
to the obstacles created by the foolish mind.
