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Question:
They probably still feel that they can get something from
the illusion.
Ranjit: They wish, but if I tell them that nothing is
there, then? Then, they make a face like this [makes a
sad face]. What to do? "Master says it's nothing,
everything is nothing". What to do? But one who has got some
understanding and who wants the Reality, he accepts. So one
should try to accept that, nothing else.
Mind should be taken to that side [Reality]. Turn
your mind, nothing else. One should turn the mind. Mind is
the greatest thing, it makes all the differences. Good man,
bad man, worst man - mind makes the difference. People say,
"From day by day, it's going from bad to worse". Nothing is
the 'worst'. According to your mind it happens, no? In our
time, we were getting twelve kilos of rice for 4 rupees.
Now, one kilo is between 52 and 60 rupees! Time changes, so
why to worry? The world is going ahead and ahead. So,
Siddharameshwar Maharaj has written in 1926 that, "The world
is galloping towards hell." One finally goes where? One dies
and everything ends. Nothing remains for him. So you are
always free.
There were freedom fighters fighting for the independence of
India. Once Siddharameshwar Maharaj said, "Don't think that
after gaining independence from the British that it will
rain gold! Rain of water is sure to come. After
independence, you will have to toil more." For example, if
you are under the protection of your father, then do you
have to worry more? No. He looks after everything. But when
you become independent, then you have to worry about
everything - "What to do, how to do it, how to earn money?"
All these questions come in the mind. The mind is like this.
So he said, "Okay, I may be independent, but how much
trouble is there now, you don't see that. Forget the
independence! Reality is always there and everything that is
happening is okay. Nothing is bad and nothing is good, take
this in the mind." If anything goes against your wish, say "
It is for my good, because I am the creator. I have created
this!" That should be the understanding. Why to worry about
anything? If death comes to the body, then say, "It's okay,
I am prepared to die, because I am not that." Who dies?
Nobody dies. Death has no value. Everything is zero and
becomes zero. What is death, tell me? What is here
[pointing to a cupboard]? Light a fire in it and
then it becomes zero. It's the same for everything. What is
there? Let everything be there and understand that it is not
true.
Question: So in a sense, should we stop creating
things?
Ranjit: Don't create anything! Create your Self
[laughs]. Find out Reality, create your Reality more
and more. Then, automatically you will understand that it's
nothing, just a play! Suppose a small boy is playing cards
with you. He puts an eight down, but he says, "King!". "I am
the winner", he then says. Your love is there. You say,
"Yes, yes, you win". Same thing, nothing else. So everybody
says, "I am the winner"! "Yes, yes, you are the winner, I am
defeated." Take it for granted because I don't exist. Who is
defeated? When I don't exist, then who is defeated? Nobody
is defeated. You take it as true and then defeat comes to
you. So forget everything and you are He without doing
anything now. Eyes bring everything, no? Close your eyes
then you are He. How much time does it take? But you don't
accept that, so what to do? When you close your eyes, you
are there or not? You without you, Self without self is
there. Why to worry? If everything becomes zero, you are not
going to be zero. Screen remains always the same. Many
pictures come and go. When the end comes, then all the
people go. You pay money, sit for three hours and still you
have to go home without getting anything [giggles].
So this is a fancy of the mind. Mind fancies always. What
fancy will come to him, one cannot say. Understanding should
come, nothing else. Siddharameshwar Maharaj gave that
understanding, so, I am still living at 87, take it for
granted [giggles]. Otherwise I would have died and
gone at any time, huh? My body was always weak. Now I am
stronger, I tell you! [giggles] When I was at school
I have taken permission, "I won't go to the gymnasium and
play sports!" I couldn't do it, no? Weak body was there,
what to do? Permission was taken from the headmaster. "I
will sit and look at others doing their work."
Question: Maharaj, what is awakening?
Ranjit: Awakening is nothing but understanding - a
complete thorough understanding. A clear cut understanding
of a thing is awakening.
Question: And it's a mental understanding?
Ranjit: First, mental is required and then practical
is required. Talent is the greatest thing, intellectual
talent. Without the intellect, one cannot understand. So,
you have to understand with the full intellect and then,
that knowledge, or that understanding should submerge,
because knowledge is a thought. A good thought or a bad
thought, both are thoughts. So, knowledge is a golden thorn,
and ignorance is an ordinary thorn. And it's a bondage, both
are bondage. Suppose your hands have been put in cuffs,
maybe they're iron or maybe golden, but it's still bondage.
So, both are thorns. One should understand and then throw
them away. It is very difficult to throw out the knowledge,
because ego remains up to knowledge. Knowledge is ego,
nothing else. To erase that knowledge, one should say, "I
know nothing." As Socrates said, "I know that I don't know."
In this way I understood that even after understanding, one
should always think of his mind, thoughts, knowledge and
ego. It could come in any time, any moment, you can't say.
One should always be on the alert, because ego is such a
thing, it can erupt at any moment.
Question: This discrimination, between real and
unreal, does it just come to the person or do you have to
achieve it?
Ranjit: One has to achieve it. Mind is just like a
knife - it should be sharpened at every moment. If the
Master is there, he sharpens your mind. When he's not there,
you have to sharpen your own mind. Because the illusion is
such, one can be thrown off from any place. Illusion wants
that the person be under 'my' control. He opposes illusion,
so the illusion doesn't like him and tries in any way to
take him down, or attract him in anyway. So, it is said,
"You have to walk on a sword. Any little mistake, and you
will get cut." In this way, one should go, one can go.
Reality is not to be achieved, it is there. The farmer
works, everything comes up, finally the corn comes, but
still he has to work and harvest it. In the same way here
also. After receiving or understanding the final Reality,
one should be on his guard. After a thorough understanding,
then nothing is required.
Question: So, is that the advice you give to your
disciples?
Ranjit: I teach them that when doubts come, I have to
solve their doubts.
Question: You have to solve them?
Ranjit: I must. Always, because I give sermons every
Sunday in Bombay. For the majority, their doubts are
automatically cleared in the next sermon. One who has got
more doubts, he can come and ask, and I give them my full
co-operation. I don't believe in these big, big fuss's -
that one should take an appointment, and one should do this.
It's all nonsense. Why? When you say it is all an illusion,
why do you make the illusion more in you? [laughs]
Ego only wants that, no? "I am a great saint and they should
ask me..." and all these things, it's all nothing! One
should put his own self at the feet, which means, in the
teaching of the Master. If one can do that, then I can take
him up to the door of the Reality, and after that, he has to
experience. There, I am not there. Because your Master and
the experience, both are one. There is no duality, there is
no duality. Is there anything more?
Question: I have a few more questions. One is, can
the individual all of a sudden choose to wake up, or does
the awakening happen only when the time is right?
Ranjit: What the Master teaches, if you have got full
faith in it, why then can one not learn? It's not so that it
will take time, or suddenly it will come. I don't believe in
that. You must have the faith.
Question: And if you don't have that faith?
Ranjit: Then it's useless. Faith is required up to
understanding only. Afterwards, 'no faith' is also required.
Suppose you have got 60 lakhs [6 million] francs in
the bank, and I say, "Keep faith." Is there any meaning in
it? You say, "No, I know I have got it." Once you
understand, when a clear cut understanding comes, then even
faith is not required. There are many steps here. Step by
step you have to go up. 'Suddenly', I don't believe in
'suddenly'. Many people say this and many saints even say
it. 'Suddenly', I don't believe. When you've got 60 lakhs in
the bank, why talk of 'suddenly'? You know! If you've
forgotten then it's my duty to make you understand.
Question: Would you say that the faith comes when
there is surrender?
Ranjit: Ego should be surrendered.
Question: So, as long as there is 'someone' who
thinks he is other than That, then it cannot work?
Ranjit: Yes. The small baby has so much faith in the
mother, so the mother does everything for him. Before he
cries, she gives milk, and everything. In the same way, the
Master is also like that. If you've got faith, then nothing
is impossible. Suppose a women falls with a child. When she
gets up, she first sees that the child is not hurt. In the
same way, the Master also knows. When one has got the faith,
He knows, so all his misunderstandings and doubts are
cleared by Him. Otherwise, how can 'suddenly' or 'abruptly'
come up? How can it come up? You have to know your Self
only. You only represent or misrepresent your Self. If that
understanding doesn't come then the ego will remain.
Question: So, once you know or once you've tasted,
then how can any doubts arise. Is that what you're
saying?
Ranjit: Yes, you become doubtless, no? Once you know,
"I am not this", then? My Master told me, "After
understanding, if you want to stay, stay. Stay in the jail
if you like, but take it in your mind that "I am not a
victim"". One cannot not afford to leave the illusory fast,
so live there, but understand that much, "I'm not the
victim." So, stay in the jail but take it for granted, or in
the mind, that "I am not a victim." Ego is such - in very
many ways he remains, in different shapes, in different
ways, he remains. So, one should really be aware, always of
understanding, and then, once you are complete, then there's
nothing to worry about. What you see is illusion. If you
understand 'myself' is illusion, then where does everything
remain? People don't understand. Illusion is nothing, how
can it block you? How can nothing block you?
Question: For you it's an illusion, but for most
people it's so real.
Ranjit: When the Master teaches you, you can get the
experience. Experience brings everything. The boy is an
ignorant boy, then he goes to school. Finally, he graduates
from the college as a doctor, or a barrister, or an
engineer. He gets the knowledge. In the same way here, also.
Nothing is impossible in the world, bas. But everything has
become impossible in the world, because people are stealing
for this. You are He, so what is impossible? You don't
understand, you don't take it to heart. That is the
impossibility.
Many people come and ask me, "Where's the Master, and what
to do?" Their Master is not living at the moment and still
they ask the question, "What can we do?" Somebody said to
me, "I have got three Master's - Nisargadatta Master,
Siddharameshwar Master and yourself also." This is a wrong
thing of the mind. Only one sword can stay in one sheath.
Two cannot stay. You must leave either that Master and
forget him. That is the main point, nothing else. So I was
loving Lord Krishna like anything, but still I left him
because I saw Siddharameshwar Maharaj. So I always say, "I
saw him and he conquered me." That is the main point in it.
One should have great love for the Master and great devotion
also. What he says is correct, if you understand that. At
that time, he taught meditation. He also told us, "You can
see many Gods also. No harm - one can see, but there's no
need for all this nonsense, this is also a trial." I was
very young and so he has to tell me that. I never minded
that thing also. Why should I mind? What he says is correct,
no? I can say now myself, that "I am He now." Very strongly
I can say that "I am He". I don't exist myself. I don't
exist as a Master also, not anything. I am He. Master is
also ego. To be a Master is also ego. Forget that!
Question: Yesterday, you also mentioned the saying,
"This is not me, this is not me". I find that this is also a
beautiful way.
Ranjit: Yes, exactly. "I am not", you have to say
that. "I am" is very thorny. 'I' never exists. In a dream
you become something, you become 'I', no? When you awake,
you say, "Oh it was wrong." So this [waking state]
is a very long dream. So, seeing the Master is required, so
that then after you, yourself have the understanding and
will say, "Oh, this is all illusion, why to worry?" It is
very easy and very hard also, both ways. If the mind
accepts, then it is very easy. Thinking should be changed,
nothing else! The track of the mind - the mind is derailed,
like a train. Put it on the right track, and then it
goes!
Question: Could you explain to us what the
significance of the pilgrimage is for you?
Ranjit: Significance means - Siddharameshwar
Maharaj's last remains are kept there in Bagewadi. Then,
what to do now? Bodily, he has left. So we go there and
worship for sometime. He is everywhere, so there is nothing
to worry about. Yourself is He. Still, there you have to
make the duality to understand, to realise or cherish
something. You follow me?
Question: So, it helps to make the understanding
stronger?
Ranjit: Yes, yes, yes, understanding. It helps you
more. When you go on the pigrimage, your thoughts all go
away. Worldly thoughts also go away. All are the birds of
the same feather there. So you worship there, you do many
things, and that helps you. That's the meaning of the
pilgrimage. And other things also. We also visited Chimmud,
no? You can see how the pyre was built there - the man who
made up his own pyre and then he slept over it and said,
"When my breathing leaves me, light the fire." And still it
stands today. It's about 18 feet high. It was built over a
hundred years ago, a hundred years have passed away. So,
your mind takes you, drags you there. And you also forget
all the worldly affairs. What to do? So this is the only
thing, nothing else. After understanding, why does he go on
a pilrimage? Where to go and where not to go? So he goes
there. If you go to the cinema then all troubles come, no?
Money is required, first.of all [laughter] Nothing
is required to be with Him. That's the pilgrimage. So, we
also visit my Master's birthplace [Pathri], where he
took the birth, and he achieved such Reality, which most
people cannot understand.
Many saints also don't understand, I dare say now!
Ramakrishna Parmahansa was there and some realised person
met him. Ramakrishna told him that he was only worshipping
Kali Kamata. A power, a Godess - her name was Kali. That
person told Ramakrishna, " Take that photo and spit on it,
then only can you realise." These are all worldly affairs.
Worshipping is also a worldly affair, no?. All of these
things, forget them, and then you can understand your Self,
"Who am I?". Otherwise you can't understand. So, my Master
also said, "Forget everybody." Idols also. When you go to
church, Christ's body is not there, only the emblem is
there, no? If you worship the emblem only, then you will
become only the emblem. You won't be He. But if you worship
the Reality, then you become the Reality. Christ said, "I am
God", and then his own disciples killed him. At that time
people didn't have a very high intellectual capacity. Their
caliber was very poor and so they could not accept what
Christ said.. So they killed him. "How can he be God?"
Understanding should come. So, Christ taught with
understanding. He said at the end, "Oh my Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they are doing. They kill my
body, but they can not kill me." That's the meaning in it.
In the same way, if anybody comes to you and says, "I'm
going to kill you", you say, "Kill me! It is very good for
me not to remain in the body because I am He".
[giggles] As I have taken the birth I must remain in
the body for a certain time.
So, never worry. Siddharameshwar Maharaj was the right
person, he has given this understanding. So what to do now?
So we do these pilgrimages, we go there and pray. What we
pray here, we pray there as well. We are doing nothing more.
It's just a different way - we all go there at the same
time. Then your mind can be dragged to that side
[Reality], nothing else. So, for that purpose all
these things are required.
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