Let
there be peace and love among all beings of the universe. OM
Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.
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IDDHARAMESHWAR
Maharaj
is one of the greatest unknown saints of the age
who attained the highest abode of Eternal peace. He
was born in August 1888 in the small village of
Pathri, in the district Sholapur of India.
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Since his
childhood he was very intelligent and had very
sharp imbibe abilities. He did not study much at
school but was very intelligent, clever and smart
in his behaviour. He was always very straight
forward and spoke with a thoughtful idea. He
retorted his answers to every question with full
meaning. At the age of 16, even though he was
premature to work, he took a job as an accountant
in a Marwadi firm at Bijapur. He did his work with
earnestness and settled down in Bijapur. Here he
met his master, Bhausaheb Maharaj, who had built a
monastery [Math] in 1885 in the small
village of Inchgiri in Karnataka. Bhausaheb
Maharaj, understanding the mental capacity and
lifestyle of the people then, started teaching
meditation to his disciples at his monastery. The
main aim or goal of teaching meditation was to
attain Final Reality, or Self-realisation. This
method is known as Pipilika Marg, or the ant's
way.
After the passing away of Bhausaheb Maharaj in
1914, Siddharameshwar Maharaj focused his attention
on the teachings of his master. In 1918, he
renounced the world and joined his four brother
disciples to popularise his master's teachings. In
1920, when he was on the tour of popularising his
master's teachings, he got the idea that one should
go beyond meditation because meditation is only an
initial stage to Self-realisation. His brother
disciples disagreed with him, saying that Bhausaheb
Maharaj had never taught this. He agreed with them,
but reiterated, "Okay! Can one not go beyond that?"
He decided to set on that arduous path on his own
and left them to return home to Bijapur. He said,
"I will attain the ultimate Reality even at the
cost of my life", and began meditated on a hill in
the village. He continued for nine months without
any break, and his efforts were finally rewarded.
He then explained that one can achieve
Self-realisation via the Vihangam Marg, the bird's
way. Ignorance has come by hearing and thinking,
and so by contemplating and practising the
teachings of the master one could attain the Truth.
Ignorance is nothing but thoughts, and if all
thoughts get absorbed in Reality, one can easily
attain freedom.
In 1925, he began teaching the Vihangam Marg, step
by step. First he taught his disciples the
knowledge of Reality, and then asked them to
renounce everything, even the act of renunciation.
He taught them that single-pointed devotion by
oneness and non-differentiation inevitably lead to
Reality. He always used a very simple and lucid
language, giving examples from daily life to make
it easy for them to understand the absolute
Reality. In September 1936 at the age of 48, his
body contracted a deadly boil, and on November 9th
he passed away in Bombay.
From 1925 until 1936, he taught many disciples and
helped dozens attain Self-realisation. His
teachings were further spread around the globe by
his most revered disciples, such as Ranjit Maharaj,
Nisargadatta Maharaj, Muppin Kaadsiddheshwar
Maharaj and Ganapatrao Maharaj Kannur. His samadhi
shrine today is located at Banganga, Walkeshwar in
Bombay.
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Men certainly
reach Reality [Brahman] through devotion to
the Self. All doubts are dispelled and all problems
related to worldly life are resolved through
Self-knowledge. This is my experience. The answer
to "Who am I?" will reveal one's true nature. One
who has the desire for his well-being, to be
liberated from mental bondage, acquires the
knowledge of the Self, sooner or later, and avoids
birth and death. Man alone has the ability to think
and to understand his true nature. To attain
Self-realisation is to fulfil one's duty, which is
to live as Reality while in a human form. The One
who resides in each heart is Reality and He alone
is real. He who takes refuge in the seen perishes,
and he who takes refuge in Reality attains Eternal
peace.
All appearance is illusion and the witness is
Reality. The seen is false because it is visible.
The individual seer remains only as long as the
objects are taken to truly exist. There is nothing
apart from the seer and the seen in the world.
Whatever is seen is an illusion created by the
eyes. In a mirror a face is seen, but the fact is
that there is only one "you". One who worships the
Self will become the Self because you become
whatever you worship. The mortal world is only
dust, so why worship it?
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When objective
knowledge comes to an end, the individual seer does
not survive as a seer. At that moment, the pride of
"I" just melts away. As the individual being is
conceptual, so also is the seer. If you call this
city "Bombay", it appears as Bombay; if you call it
earth, it will appear as earth. It all depends upon
the seer's concept. If you call an object a chair,
it is a chair; if you call it wood, it is wood. If
you call the all as Reality, then the all is
Reality. If you call it the world, it is the world.
Perception of objects depends on the concept of the
seer. But Reality is beyond concept and no concept
can capture It.
There is a woman whom one man calls his "wife",
another calls his "sister" and a third calls his
"daughter". Actually she is nothing but a lump of
flesh and bones. Whatever you give a name to comes
to exist. All is conceptual and depends upon the
concept of the seer. The world and the beings in it
are conceptual. The "seer" who takes the world to
be real is the ego, and that ego has to be
eradicated. If the ego vanishes, then only Reality
remains.
King Dhrutarashtra of the Mahabharata was
blind. He gave birth to a hundred sons called
Kauravas and had pride in them. The one who
embraces the body as oneself is the blind
Dhrutarashtra. He is also the one who is called
Ravana, a demon in the mythological book
Ramayana. One should have a feeling that all
the objects are untrue and Reality alone exists.
All objects are demons and because you give them
the status of the demons, you are King Ravana.
Ravana is not the rightful king. He is not the
Lord. Because you consider the objects as being
true, you become Ravana. You have to get rid of
this Ravana "I". The "I" does not exist. Getting
rid of the "I" can be called a wishful death.
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In the
Ramayana it is stated that Ravana was a
great devotee of Lord Shiva and on the request of
Ravana, Shiva gave him a boon of wishful death.
Ravana rules over fourteen regencies [i.e. the
fourteen senses: five each of knowledge and action,
mind, intellect, consciousness and the ego].
When God rules over the earth, the demons go to the
lower regions, and when the demons rule over the
earth, God goes away and performs penance. If the
objects are taken to be true, it means that the
demons are ruling and God is not there. There is no
trace of Him. But when God becomes victorious
[i.e. when the determination or the feeling
comes that all these objects are untrue], then
the demon "I" also disappears. When the ego is
destroyed, then all is Reality. One has to practice
that the "I" and all objects are untrue. A
Self-realised being feels that all is Reality. The
food, the wooden plank on which one sits while
taking meals, for him or her the spouse and water
are all expressions of Reality. All is Reality.
Your should study and practice this. Then it will
be God's rule.
Reality is without attributes: it is not colour, it
is not music, it is not yellow or black, etc. The
ghee [purified butter] which is liquid and
the ghee which is solid are the same just as water
and ice is the same. When a seed [form of
earth] meets earth, there is a rise of
consciousness. All that you see and perceive is
nothing but the Reality. What you see is only the
qualified consciousness just as you see that
bangles or armlets are both made out of gold.
You must stop insisting that good alone should
happen to this body. You have become the gross body
because only one body is the object of your
concept. Servants and the attendants should be
considered as God. There is no other Reality with
or without quality. All is Govinda [God].
Because we categorise all objects, there is the
ego. You perceive the wife as wife, the daughter as
daughter, the horse as horse and the dog as dog.
They are all Reality only. There is no need to
change the form of the objects. Only the attitude
of the seer must change. Reality is the same even
when it is in a state with attributes. You should
see Reality in whatever state He exists. Even the
atoms and molecules of a chair are all Lord Krishna
[Reality]. Once this attitude is taken,
then you yourself are Reality. Even though one
sleeps, awakens, or goes about, one has not slept,
awakened, gone about or taken a meal. When all is
Reality who is eating and sleeping? The one who is
without quality and the one with quality who is
speaking are both God. Whether a king is sitting on
the throne or hunting, he is always a king. The one
who is walking and talking is the idol of
consciousness. One is a devotee when one gives
names to different objects as well as to himself or
herself and is a saint, or the Supreme Self
[Paramatman], when one looks upon the
creation as Supreme Reality [Parabrahman].
To forget the Supreme Self while eating food is
just turning the food into faeces. The silkworms
are better, as the silk wear made from their
cocoons are used by priests while worshipping
God.
Those who desire hells can digest hell. Gods and
demons are right here. Gods and the demons together
churned the ocean of the world which produced
nectar and wine. Lord Vishnu gave the nectar to the
gods and the wine to the demons. To say "Vishnu did
this" means the inner sense-consciousness did this.
Both nectar and wine are right here. It is within
our own hand to drink the nectar and to become
Immortal. One who "awakes" will achieve Reality.
All are God. May all be happy. If you practice this
and take it to heart, then the realisation will be
that "All is Reality." One has to water a plant
until it grows roots, and then it will grow by
itself. You should persist in your practice until
you achieve Reality.
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Reality is One
and only One, without any duality. Reality is only
One, besides It, nothing else exists. Then why does
It appear as a universe? There is only gold in
various ornaments, nothing else. Later on, they are
named as bracelets, bangles, necklaces, etc. They
are all different but their base is just gold and
nothing else. But then, what appears is untrue.
Even if many shapes are given to gold by bending
and twisting, it is nothing else but gold. The name
and the form are nothing and are untrue. Why do we
call someone Haralal [diamond]? Just to
spot him out. He does not excrete diamonds. The
world of name and form is untrue, but consciousness
alone is true.
If it is gold, the colour and the appearance are
the same. Even if a camel is made of gold, it is
gold and even if Lord Vishnu is made out of it, it
is still gold. In all that, only the gold exists.
Existence is all-pervading, even in inanimate
objects like chairs. In a chair, it is only the
wood that exists. Similarly in this world
everything else is conceptual. There is nothing
else other than Reality. One should see without
categorising, then the "seer" is no more. "I" must
be uprooted. This is the purpose of the entire
struggle in Vedanta. Because "I" is like Rahu and
Kehi, the two demons who swallow the entire sun.
[In India when a solar eclipse occurs people
say that the sun is swallowed by these two
demons.] Fire itself never says that it comes
from the house of an "untouchable". Even when you
are effulgent like the sun, "I", the Rahu, has come
to obstruct you. The Self is forever shining but it
is swallowed by the "I".
When the ego-self disappears, that is the sign of
the ultimate experience. Ego is not Reality, but
appears as such. Everything is consciousness. It is
not necessary to say, "I am Reality." Birth and
death belong to this "I". The five elements, as
well as consciousness, are just as they are, but
the subtle body which calls itself "I" and which is
full of desire eventually succumbs to death. When
someone tells us, "Wamanroa has expired", it means
the name is dead. He came therefore he died.
Eradicate from your mind that you are some
particular "I". That is the sign of "knowledge". He
who says, "I am the one who experiences" is
swallowed by Rahu and still remains within the
illusion.
It is the hand that lifts, but you say "I lift".
The eyes see but you say, "I see". The nose smells,
but you say, "I smell". All this is the power of
the Self and yet you say, "I did it". That power
belongs to God. Who is this ego arrogating "I"? He
has no place in the palace, but once admitted
inside, he overrules the king and affirms his own
existence. But after some enquiry, this ego's
existence is easily disproved. Then the king once
again affirms, "I am Reality." There is one thing
about this condition – there is bliss. If
there are two, then there is pain. Where there is
One, there is bliss.
An aspirant invariably faces the question, "Shall
we continue to run our household or shall we leave
it altogether?" Whether one runs a household or
leaves it, it accounts to nothing. There is no
sense in wearing a Holi bail leaf garland around
the neck and yet having a rush of anger in the
heart. If one is not attentive to one's inner Self,
what is the use of the saffron coloured robe? The
trees, tigers, beasts and birds do not run a
household, but does this means that they have
become saints? What is the use if one is not
attentive to one's inner Self? One should be alert.
The objective knowledge should prove to be untrue.
All the affairs we are conducting in the world
should prove themselves to be untrue and that which
has been taken as untrue should be experienced as
Truth.
What is the use if one is not detached internally?
The attitude must change. To know that all this
[moving manifest mundane existence] is
false is an act of great bravery. One should be
detached within oneself. Once one learns how not to
get involved or how to renounce, one then gets the
experience. In whatever circumstances or state one
is in, one should be detached. Live as you like but
renounce internally.
Objects are untrue. One must turn the attitude of
the mind away from them and cultivate the attitude
that the Self is Reality. Even if we consider the
existing body of five elements as benign, still we
know that they are dangerous. Even when one thinks
that it is only the Self that can bring happiness,
the great illusion [maya] tempts one and
brings him or her back to the former condition. It
is only when one becomes steady in Self with body,
speech and mind can one achieve this knowledge. One
can do anything, adorn oneself with gold, wear
expensive garments, but the Guru's Grace comes to
him alone who considers all this as untrue. If one
is not truly renounced, all the efforts become
futile.
One may wear gold, silver, a wire of brass or very
expensive garments, yet there is no hope of
experiencing joy in this life. A human being can
never get peace from any of these. The Self only
talks of the Truth and behaves the same way with
its body, speech and mind. If one thinks "I am the
body", then he will talk of the body alone. As is
the flower, so is it's fragrance. Even when you are
in this world, you should be as if you are not
there. For Reality all are equal, whether it is a
mundane existence or a forest. When you are not,
how can the mundane existence be there? Live as you
please but change your attitude. Then all is over.
A true devotee of Lord Krishna named Chokamela was
a butcher and used to live with a bone in his hand.
You may eat good purified food, but what are you
going to do with your mental modifications? You
must become Reality and feel that all objects are
untrue; your ego should not be there. Then truly
you have become Reality.
There is nothing else than Reality. Only one's
attitude has to change. This is an indication of
renunciation. In sleep when there is no world, a
king and a pauper are equal. When you leave the
world at night as in sleep, how much do you feel
happy. On that side, you do not need a world, a
house, a job or a wife. When alone, one is all
bliss. When you think that you have a lot of thing
to do, you become miserable. When we have nothing
to do, what is there to worry about? So, be happy.
One who has a duty to perform is a labourer. Even
if he is a king or a God, he has to labour.
Saints must show compassion. One who is desireless
is the God of all gods. Be desireless at least
once. This can happen only when you ridicule this
world and feel that it is untrue. Take your mind
off this world and fix it on the Self. The objects
are untrue and Reality is the Truth. When you make
this attitude your own, you are through. Then you
are at liberty to live as you will. One who cannot
dance finds the ground uneven, but one who wants
the knowledge of the Self will somehow get it.
Prahlada, a great devotee of Lord Narayana, was
ordered not to take the name of God by his father.
Prahlada told his father, "You may be the owner of
my body, yet you have no control over my mind." If
you are very busy, identify your mind with Reality
and perform the duty. Then the duty also becomes
Reality. The intellect has to metamorphose.
Mentally say, "I am Ram [consciousness]."
Then whatever you do becomes consciousness. Reject
the idea "I am so and so" and become the pervader
of the whole universe.
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One who was
without quality was recognised in His qualityless
nature. One who was meaningful got His own meaning.
After many days He met himself. He
was the Supreme Self, without qualities. He was
taking his body as himself and had become
miserable. He was released from birth and death
after reaching Him to His original place, state. He
was identified as He was originally. All the forms
in the world is in his own Self. He is imminent in
all, so He does not have the idea of difference.
The curtain of difference was pulled away. At once
he became the servant at his master's feet. To
honour that Supreme Self for whom all that effort,
scriptures and purpose were practised, all those
methods became full of meaning. By God's Grace a
birth in human species was acquired. If a man acts
he can become God.
That came to bear fruit today. One's own nature was
attained. A golden day dawned. He was satiated with
the drink of the nectar of Immortality. Today I
reached my own Home. All that labour was
successful. We met ourselves after many, many
years. We had missed each other. I was serving
someone else taking him to be Myself. For millions
of births we had missed ourselves. We were deluded.
That delusion has gone away and He became the
Supreme Self.
He was giving service and behaving as a donkey in
the form of a body. Taking the body for the Self he
was nursing it. In this way he wasted his whole
birth. This is night in the form of ignorance
– which is to labour for the donkey in the
form of a body for one's whole life and then get
born in the other various species. This ignorance
is responsible for not allowing us to be aware of
our true nature. This human birth is here to
dissolve such ignorance. Poor fellow, he does not
get any time during the night. This is itself the
forgetting of one's own nature. Call it night or
ignorance, that is the source of our misery.
For example, some friends of a retarded man made
him drink a lot of liquor, and seeing him
completely intoxicated, the other friends,
according to what they had decided before, started
crying aloud and spoke to the intoxicated man
thus: "What
can we do when we see your condition, we feel so
sad. Just a few minutes ago we had gone to your
house when we saw that your wife had become a
widow." As soon as he heard this the drunken man
started howling and crying, and when other people
asked him why he was crying, he told them that his
wife had become a widow. "A mountain of misery has
come down and is crushing me." Then they explained
to him, "How can your wife become a widow while you
are still alive? You being alive and your wife
becoming a widow, are these two not contradictory
things?" The drunkard, however, said, "No, no, you
people do not understand anything. My friends
recently had gone to my house, and they saw with
their own eyes that my wife has become a
widow."
Then all his friends had a good laugh at his
stupidity. This ridiculous scene is not presented
only in the case of the drunkard but such a blatant
mistake is made by every human being. Without
making use of their brain they look through other
people's eyes. Let others say anything. My Self is
pure and changeless, It is the light of all lights.
It is impossible that It perishes at any time. He
is of the nature of existence-consciousness-bliss,
and is the witness of all. Yet, even if this is so,
we still ask in such a pitiable way, "How can we
achieve happiness?" And we pray for God's mercy
thinking that we are caught up in a big calamity.
We rub our nose before God and slap our own face.
We even blurt out the words: "We are mean
insects."
Yet this sort of situation is not at all proper.
Find out the goal of your life and try to
experience your Self. Remove that wrong feeling
that you are mortal. You have created this false
concept for yourself because you are intoxicated
due to the drink called "ignorance". Stand up with
confidence in Self. Turn within. Do not entertain
any fear for anything. Eradicate completely the
mental modification which goes out. Actually, if
you think of your true nature by asking yourself
"Who am I?", or "What am I?", you will realise that
there is no one as great as you are. Have
self-confidence. Make the thought, "I am the
Supreme Self", steady within yourself. You will
surely never fail to cross the ocean of this
mundane existence. See only through the sight of
Self. Do not look through other people's eyes. All
the relations are ready to fool you.
Never mind the body while practising this, even if
it goes to the gallows. "I am a witness of this
body. Let the body stay or go, but my heart is at
the feet of Panduranga [master]." Go on
contemplating this and intuitive perception is sure
to come. When one is practising this there are many
obstacles that appear on the way. For example,
there are seventeen hundred difficulties for a girl
with a flat nose who has to get married.
Ignorant corpses are only moving about in the whole
world. Life in ignorance is like death. Who is
eating? All this service is for whom? You do not
know. He serves six ghosts [the five elements
and the ego]. This body has to perform many
kinds of service till its death and the whole life
was wasted. After death, according to hindu
customs, the body and bones burn as a collection of
wood and the hair burns as a bundle of grass. Those
who were looking started weeping. This dead man
asks, "Are you free from this fate, because you
behave exactly as I did?" Even if the toilet is
cleaned thoroughly, it is still a toilet. World
means "living corpses", where there is no idea of
one's own true nature. They serve this body, and
take along with them a bundle of sins and virtues.
This is worldly existence of an ignorant person.
But when he knows Himself, and rejects all the
pride that he is the body, then, immediately he
meets Himself. Then all his actions have borne
fruit.
According to the hindus, the ancestors keep
waiting. The last of the seventy two generations
has achieved, so they are happy. These mean thirty
six ancestral generations of mother and thirty six
of the father. One who has redeemed them was born
to be one who knew his Self. That is the reason
why, when a son is born they distribute sweets. It
is impossible to describe the glory of
Self-knowledge. Human life is meaningful because it
is given with a purpose to achieve Self-knowledge.
When that has been achieved it has indeed become
fully meaningful. Its purpose has been served. For
example, there are nine hundred thousand stars but
it is only the moon that shines brightly. The sun
rises, the rain falls, because there is only one
who knows Reality. It is for the sake of that
knower – therefore, there is no limit to his
merit. Along with the position of the Immortal One
he also gets a throne of Almighty.
Now, let what happens just happen. Let whatever was
going, go, the last doubt is eradicated. We have to
live a few days. Let us pass the days playfully in
joy, then let this body die on a bed or on the
ground. Wherever the diamond is placed it is sure
to shine. It may be in one's hand or on one's neck.
This Supreme Self in the form of Reality will
likewise remain happy whatever the situation. The
conviction should not shake. If the conviction is
steadfast on Truth, then even on the path of
knowledge, strength can be gained.
That body, which has the knowledge of Self in it,
will perforce emit light. But there should be that
one strong conviction, "I am the Lord who exists, I
am the Lord who pervades." All that ought to have
been achieved, He has achieved.
The world is as one looks at it. One who identified
himself with the divine Self found all as Reality.
If one becomes an ego [gross body] he finds
the world accordingly: "For one who is good, the
world is also good." The ignorant one finds the
world full of different entities. For the realised
person, "It is all One and there is no
duality."
The rise of the physical eyes happens due to two
people. Therefore, duality is seen. Oneness appears
to the master's sons because they are born from
One. The master gives the third eye, The Eye of
Knowledge. Duality moved away. The veil of the
illusion was pulled away on one side. Nothing
appears as anything but One. The vision could see
no difference. The state of being became sans
difference. All that entered inside from outside
created difference. But whatever is Truth is
without difference. The five ghosts
[elements] ran away. The ghost was
exorcised. The bad period of seven and a half years
[due to the wrong positioning of saturn]
has passed away. All the nine planets have also
gone away. All ran away to their respective homes.
The ego himself vanished. A veil of dirt had come
over him due to delusion. "I am the body", "I am a
brahmin" – these ideas deluded him. Then he
realised himself as the Supreme Self.
This monkey who acts according to his mind was
eating fruits and flowers in the jungle. But when
he met his master, he became God. He got that which
belonged to him due to his master's advice. All is
divine Self. One who saw Himself, his birth and
death vanished. To see God in all beings is the
worship song for God. One who is in the heart of
all is God. Otherwise, some people were caught up
in customs of purity and impurity, or a rosary or
repeating mantra. Thus Saint Kabir says, "Worship
the ever existing God, then 8.4 million births are
evaded."
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The worldly
illusion [samsara] is a dream within a
dream. Having understood this, indeed you have
thought of what is the real Truth and what is
not. The One
who is never born went off to sleep. He has no old
age. He is one who has no death. How is it that a
dream was seen during a dream? That is, "he slept
and dreamt" means He is deluded. "He slept" means
he has become ignorant and thinks "I am the body, I
am so and so."
Reality was covered with ignorance and in that
delusion there is again delusion, which is this
mundane existence. It is a dream during a dream.
The worldly illusion appears true. He was all
pervading, He became small. Then he considered the
worldly existence as true. In that very dream, he
discriminated between Guru and disciple, merit and
sin, and what is true and what is untrue. Other
people pass away in this dream. It
is a piece of great fortune to think of what is
true and what is untrue during this long dream.
"Even a dog does not eat a thing which belongs to a
sinner." Renunciation of wealth, feeling of
detachment and respect for a saint is the result of
former merit and good fortune. He alone starts
thinking of a sadhu. It is extraordinary to have
such an intellect in the dream within a dream. To
be conscious to be fully on senses, inspite of
taking a doze of brandy shows that though money
brings demonic pride, he still is on his senses.
This is his good fortune. He is in a dream within a
dream. But on account of his virtuous intellect he
went to a Guru and discriminated between the True
and untrue. He got the experience that everything
else is false and "I am Reality". This means that
he has woken up from one dream. When in this dream
he deliberated again he came to the further
conclusion that even saying "I am Reality" is false
– the whole world
and words are illusion. As a result he became
tranquil by staying in his own blissful state.
Truth was revealed.
He fully realised "I am Reality." This condition
means "I am fully awake." Not only the delusion but
also "I have experienced" vanished. For if one says
that he has experienced the Self, it means that he
has taken himself to be different from the Self.
The real test is when the self has no sense of "I".
If the mango says, "I found myself sweet", then it
is not a mango. If you say that "you had an
experience", that means your "I", ego is still
there. The idea that "I had an experience" is a
delusion. The "I" in "I have become knowledgeable",
or "I have become Reality" is ego. The former "I"
should disappear. Whatever was before naturally is
Reality. The thorn "I" has to be extracted, then
you are through. When you become all-pervading, you
become Reality. The sense of "I" disappears. It is
One only and there is nothing else than
That. To go
beyond nothing is to be in thoughtless Reality.
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How is Reality?
It has no quality nor shape. Reality is unattached
and never changes. It has no limits, that is what
the sages say. It
is the natural state that remains when all the four
bodies [the physical, the subtle, the causal,
i.e., complete ignorance, and the supra causal,
i.e., knowledge "I am"] are set aside. One who
knows his beingness is called "God". Whatever
remains prior to the "beingness", or knowledge, is
Reality. After transgressing the four built in
bodies, whatever remains is shapeless, detached, in
Its own natural state and is steady. It never goes
anywhere nor does It come from anywhere. That is
Supreme Reality, the Innermost
[Antahkarana].
The seer, the witness, the one who sees and the one
who sleeps is God [Ishwara]. He is a
concept conceived through intelligence. When He
sleeps He is quiet. One who experiences the state
of awakeness does not disappear when experiencing
the state of unconsciousness or sleep. Why can't we
express joy in sleep? Because the mind and the
intellect are not at all there. Only when one
awakes, can one express the experience.
A woman's nose-ring fell into the water. She told
one man to find it and inform her as soon as it is
found. The man found the ring deep inside the
water, but obviously could not inform her instantly
as he was completely under the water. As the water
and fire are enemical to each other the power of
the deity of fire was absent when he was immersed
in the water. Thus he could inform the lady that
the nose-ring is found only when he came out of the
water. Just like this one can not express anything
in sleep, for during sleep there are no instruments
that are required for expression. The mind is not
touched by anything and so cannot say anything. A
man climbs up the stairs, but if his mind is not
touched by the question of how many stairs he
climbed, then he would not be able to tell the
number. But the Self knows, on the whole, that he
has climbed the stairs.
He [Self] was there during sleep, during
awakeness and during samadhi. Who is experiencing
sleep and samadhi? He alone! If he were not there,
who could sleep? So Self is consciousness and of
the nature of knowingness, and prior to that is
Supreme Reality. The the innermost Self is the "I".
He is God and His nature is always consciousness.
They may be beasts, birds, deities, demons, Ram,
Krishna, yet He resides in the heart of all. If He
is not there, the objects become dead like logs of
wood. When He disappears, the ears, eyes, nose,
etc., are all useless. When He disappears all
objects become immovable. Because of Him, is all
the grandeur. If He goes then all is perishable. It
is due to Him, that there is worldly activity, as
well as spiritual understanding. All this is due to
His existence.
Till such time that He is there, gods, demons,
customs, etc., are there. But if He leaves, people
do not touch the body. It is the inner Self that
gives the status of God to the body. One who calls
the body "God" is none else than this Self. The one
who writes the Vedas is also the inner Self.
So long as this inner Self keeps interests in the
worldly ideas, till then He is the individual self,
or gross body [jiva]. If He starts talking
of knowledge He is Shiva. When jiva and Shiva both
disappear, what remains is Supreme Reality.
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If a
man works as an officer, he is an officer; if he
works as a judge, he is a judge; but when he
retires from everything he is thoughtless Reality.
There is nothing [i.e., emptiness or
ignorance] and beyond that is the Fourth body
which is of the nature of God. When a man worships
a multitude of gods and goddesses, like Keshava
[one name of Lord Vishnu], that worship
goes straight to the inner Self. Keshava [ke
means "knowledge" and shava means "corpse"] is
in the form of knowledge in the body, and the body
is a corpse without the knowledge. After worship,
the offering of food is shown to that idol God and
then consumed by the devotee. Each being, knowingly
or unknowingly worships the inner Self alone, but
does so without understanding. Therefore he is an
ego-self, or ignorant being. If he worships with
the full understanding that he is God, that he is
Reality, then he becomes Shiva, one with true
knowledge.
All these gross bodies are actually walking and
talking temples. Due to ignorance the children
enjoy themselves by building a make-belief house
out of stones. Like this, they use a small rock to
serve as a utensil for drinking water, another
stone to serve as a bowl and another to serve as
God. In the same way, ignorant people worship by
creating idols. God has consciousness and
knowingness [the power to know], yet an
idol does not. The fool, the ignorant person,
worships an idol. Those who have yet no knowledge
of Self have to worship an idol. But if they
recognise whose idols they are, how wonderful it
would be! The one who recognises this is the man of
knowledge [jnani]. The ignorant man makes a
make-belief God and worships him – the
"knower" recognises the God of gods as his own Self
and then offers his worship. Shankaracharya
called the inner
Self "the original illusion". God may have an
infinite number of names yet the Truth is only One.
For example, if a child calls his own father
"uncle", does it mean that the man loses his
fatherhood?
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Through the
medium of this God one will understand the natural
state of the Absolute [Parameshwar]. If
this God becomes steady, one will understand
Supreme Reality. This God-consciousness is in the
form of the power of knowing, the will power and
the power of matter. Hence, it is constantly
moving. If this mundane existence is ignored and
the God-consciousness becomes still, then only He
will remain. When he becomes God he realises his
ignorance, that to do something means to take an
incarnation. God is unsteady while Supreme Reality
is steady. To know the nature of both the steady
and the unsteady is true knowledge. The intellect
of the students of the Vedas gets puzzled
while thinking of this subject.
The source of all this universe is this individual
self, yet the true source of this world is this
phase of "sprouting knowingness", which has no head
or tail. On one side the world is created and the
other side everything vanishes. If one's nature is
known, the self disappears. The steady nature is
always there and the unsteady one perishes. The
steady admits of no change but the unsteady, or the
self, admits change. The unsteady self has passion,
desire, anger, greed, pride, etc. If someone calls
him "good", he swells with pride and if another
calls him "bad", he becomes sad. The self is
subject to change. One who calls the changeless and
the changing as the same is a beggar. It means that
he is caught in the realm of the five elements, the
illusory appearance of maya.
The essence of the Vedas is that "You are
that Principle, the Self." The Self is beyond the
four bodies and is encased in the five sheaths
[koshas]:
1. The cover of food – the outside body
consisting of blood, flesh, bones, hair, etc.,
produced from food.
2. The cover of vital airs – the five
vital airs [pranas].
3. The cover of the mind – along with
concepts.
4. The cover of the intellect – along
with concepts such as "sin" or "virtue", "I am so
and so", etc.
5. The cover of happiness – rest,
sleep, etc., where one is happy having forgotten
everything that produces unhappiness.
If one forgets everything, then all is bliss. One
is happy because one has forgotten all sorrows.
Where does the ego-self find happiness? The answer
is "in forgetfulness". Unknowingly one enjoys
happiness during sleep. Narada [name of a saint
in Indian mythology] is our mind. He goes round
all the three worlds, namely the gross, the subtle
and the causal worlds. This mind sings praise to
the Lord and also enters into arguments and
quarrels. He always has a begging bowl under his
arm. The begging bowl is his stomach. When one goes
to the office or to a place where devotional songs
are sung, it is sure that the mind will take the
begging bowl along with him.
Self is beyond all the states. Recognise the five
sheaths explained above. Three hundred and thirty
million deities are on the summit. All are for the
sake of the body. Twenty five principles, five
sheaths of the ego-self and the three qualities
[sattva, rajas and tama] make up these
three hundred and thirty million deities who live
in the city of Kashi [the body]. After
transgressing the five sheaths, Vishwanath, the
ruling deity of this city can be contacted. Then,
here itself, it is Kashi [a holy place] for
you. Whatever is in the microcosm is also in the
macrocosm. Thus, then we have to put forward
infinite number of arguments as Supreme Reality has
to be proved. The individual being is one who can
be talked about, or indicated, and whatever is
expressed through the individual's speech is in
words only.
What is the real nature of God? The answer is Virat
[the all-pervading Spirit in the form of the
universe], made up of the five elements. The
subtle form of Virat is the three hundred and
thirty million gods, which is called hiranya
garbha. His causal body is the Unmanifest
[Avyakta], which is the state of the
primordial Unmanifest essence [Prakriti],
before any change occurred. This is
existence-consciousness-bliss. This is the
indication of the status of God.
The ego-self
has four bodies, namely the gross, the subtle, the
causal and the supra causal body. The first three
can be described. The supra causal body is the goal
to be achieved. From the earth comes the body. You
may say that the body is a part of Him. The air
outside and in the body are one and the same. Then
how can one say that this air belongs to you or me?
Air is only one.
Desire and senses make up the mind. The deity of
the mind is the moon. Mind [moon] is
treacherous to the Guru [Sun]. It does not
go to Him. The mind is accused of treachery to the
Guru because it does not want to get Self-knowledge
from Him. It knows it will die in the process.
Both the senses and the body have the same
expression and the same goal. Therefore, jiva and
Shiva are One – the individual self is none
other than Reality. Jiva has four bodies, Shiva has
four bodies. The eighth body, or primordial maya,
is steady. That
is His primordial nature. Whatever is Supreme
Reality is what cannot be expressed in words. The
God of the transitory is called "Ishwara", and that
God's devotee is also transitory.
Both of them are
false, perishable, therefore jiva and Shiva are
ignorance. Do not get tempted by these. All these
are perishable and false. One who knows or
recognises this Truth leaves them alone. He is a
jnani – the knower.
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Thought of
liberation and bondage are present only during the
state of ignorance. The Original nature is
self-evident. It is neither bound nor liberated.
The problem of bondage and liberation rises only
because man, enveloped in ignorance, takes himself
to be the body and the doer of all the bodies
actions.
Does Self-realisation mean remaining actionless,
remaining motionless? In that case, when King
Janaka ruled a kingdom even after Self-realisation,
was everything lost? [read
story below]
Shuka Deva, a great sage, had also realised the
Self. How did he and other sages write mythological
books? If remaining motionless like a log of wood
means being Reality, then Shuka Deva and Vamadeva
would be like dead bodies. And how then could Shuka
Deva recite the Bhagavad Gita to the dying
King Parikshita? It is necessary to put forward
various versions and say things clearly when the
master gives sermons. If that is so, then how can
this work be done if one is motionless? Does it
mean that the one who gives sermons is not
realised? How can you say he has not not reached
Final Reality? To be motionless does not mean
becoming a realised person. Knowledge of Reality is
obtained through the teaching of the master. If a
realised person becomes motionless then who will
teach this knowledge? To be motionless or to be
unconscious is to do with the body and has nothing
to do with Reality.
Everything is the Self. If someone has the
experience of Self all of a sudden, he becomes
quiet. After this experience, consciousness stirs
back, and again he becomes conscious of the body.
"He is free for a moment and gets bound the next
moment", means he has not understood at all what is
Reality. If one continues to remain in
body-consciousness, one will never be liberated.
Even the gods will never become liberated if they
remain in body consciousness.
Self is beyond bondage or liberation. Those who
talk about bondage and liberation are only talking
about the nature of illusion. The Truth, or the
nature of Self, is self-evident. Bondage and
liberation have no meaning in Truth. One who says
he is bound is a fish in the ocean of this mundane
existence, and one who says he is liberated is a
crocodile. One who has bound himself with the stone
in the form of an idea that he is liberated will go
to hell [patal], the lowest region. One who
says, "Till now I have committed a number of sins
and actions, and therefore I was bound, but now I
am free", goes to the very base of the ocean of
worldly transmigration. He is in great
danger. The
jnanis have considered them as fools. Even at the
time of committing a sin he was the Self, but he
did not know that. So what great thing has happened
if he says he now knows Him. He is still searching
as he always was, as the duality is still present.
A jnani has no concept of "I" or "you". If "I" or
"you" remains intact, one is still eclipsed. Those
who know their own nature are the ones who know
they are beyond the body. Those who are ignorant
continue to maintain contact with the body. That
which gets into bondage is the body. Where is the
bondage if one knows that he is not the body?
One who has the purest knowledge of the Truth
thinks that being "bound" and "free" is all a joke.
When the illusion vanishes for him, with all names
and forms, then all words become silent. Then, how
can anything like "liberation" still remain? What
is the meaning of "liberation"? That is only a way
in which people talk. All the bondage is for him
who says he is the body. A jnani is free from the
sense of "I". For him "bound" and "liberated" is
only a delusion. "Bound" and "liberated" are only
expressed concepts, which are never true. One who
has understood the illusion is free from all fear.
The one who says, " I will practise Yoga after I
become Reality" is like the one going in search of
water in a mirage. It means that such people are
simply going backwards and forwards within a
mirage. One who considers a mirage as true gets
bound by it. For the man who is awake, the dream
disappears. In the same way, this mirage which is
in the form of illusion disappears for the
jnani.
So far as one's own nature is concerned, the
relationship to the body itself is untrue. Trying
to contemplate on one who admits of no
contemplation is not possible. As far as Reality is
concerned, no contemplation is possible. But man
has a habit of seeing and contemplating something
which is not true. If one cannot see or think about
the Self, then what can one do? If one contemplates
on a thing then that thing can be known, but the
nature of Self can never be known by the mind. Yet,
the nature of "knowingness" is very strong and
cannot be discarded, so what can one do?
The Truth [Reality] is beyond concept. When
one starts meditating, the trinity of the seer,
seen and process of seeing is produced. All other
objects and senses are alien to us, but because we
ourselves are the Truth, contemplation on our Self
is not possible. If contemplation is given up,
great doubts overpower us. But if one thinks and
deliberates upon what is everlasting and what is
transient, that is, what is Self and what is
not-Self, then the Truth is revealed. We are not
any of the things that exist in this world,
including the body. The Vedas, the
scriptures, the moon, the sun – we are none of
these. We must sincerely find out who we are.
"I am Reality". So, you must first understand who
this "I" is. The word "I" comes from within, so you
must be somewhere within. Where there is nothing,
that is called the "causal body". It is also called
ignorance. There is more happiness in the subtle
body than in the gross body. There is, of course,
happiness in the causal body. If everything is
rejected, then only the one who rejects everything
remains. That is the Eternal witness,
existence-knowledge-bliss
[sat-chit-ananda]. He is the one that
perceived the "nothingness" during sleep.
Existence-knowledge-bliss is the Fourth body. He is
God. That "there is nothing" is known without the
help of the mind. When you don't even feel that "I
am", then the modification of the mind which says
"I am" remains motionless in peace. It is not even
necessary to see how that modification is. If one
forgets the causal body, only then one has to
remember it. It is not possible to forget it, so no
contemplation is to be practised. One should
meditate as advised without any concept. Nothing is
to be brought to the mind and nothing is to be
known, otherwise duality will rise – the mind
and the "other" which is brought to the mind.
Knowing the conceptless Reality, there is no
necessity of applying any instrument, any "I", to
improve knowledge. If one tries to understand
without discriminating, then duality ensues. The
sense of "beingness" means "I am the one
remaining"; this also has to be left alone. Unless
the "I" dies, heaven can never be seen.
Supreme Reality is non-dualistic, One. Everything
that appears within It is That. To know That you
must be That. This does not require any other means
or an instrument. If we want to experience some
other object, we first have to see it. But because
we are That already, we are by nature That alone.
When we give up the consciousness of all the rest,
then we remain as we are. We have never forgotten
our true nature, so it is unnecessary to try and
remember it. It has to be remembered only when we
forget it. Therefore, our nature is beyond
remembering and forgetting. That which can be
remembered and forgotten is prone to death, but
there is no death for That.
Supreme Reality is the natural state and exists
right from the beginning without doing or thinking
anything. It is self-evident. In that natural
state, there is
neither happiness nor misery. Happiness is pervaded
by misery. They exist together. First comes misery,
and in that misery there is a little happiness.
As soon as a concept rises, dualism rises. Truth is
One, but when we imagine something other, we become
two. When you played marbles in childhood, whatever
knowingness power you had then is the same as you
have now. You do not have to remember how it was.
To forget everything is to remember Self. It is
well done if you even forget that "I am Self".
Experience without experiencing. During sleep you
experience your true Self without making any
effort. There is not even a sense of
"experiencing". Self can never leave. Who will
leave whom? If one tries to see It, or hold It,
Self recedes far back in the distance. We have got
to sleep to know sleep. When you stop making
effort, then you will know Him. Making effort is an
obstruction in the way of knowing Him. You must
reject the "I" after knowing "I am". Till now you
were told that the impulse of knowledge is "I". But
now you should reject it. One who uses this method
of "I am not, you are not, there is nothing" is
indeed fortunate. Nothing is to be done. You are
not the one which imagines or conceives; you are
not even that which is conceived. The knower gets
absorbed in thoughtless Reality. This is the basis
of the knowledge of Reality. When you go beyond
knowledge and ignorance, you will find that nothing
exists. Beyond nothing is Supreme Reality. You are
That.
KING JANAKA AND SHUKA DEVA
A
saint who chose a king as his spiritual
guide
This is the story of King Janaka and Shuka Deva, a
wonderful tale that exemplifies non-attachment
[aparigraha] or the art of living in the
world, but not being of the world.
Long ago there lived a great sage named Byasa. He
was the writer of the greatest hindu scripture, the
Bhagavad Gita. By his great spiritual power
he invoked a saintly soul to enter the womb of his
wife. As the baby grew within the womb, he taught
the unborn child the secrets of the scriptures
through the subconscious mind of the mother. This
baby, when born, was named Shuka Deva. Because of
his prenatal training, he proved to be a most
unusual child. At the age of seven he was already
versed in the difficult hindu scriptures and was
ready to renounce the world and seek a true
master.
In India it is customary for a devotee to seek out
spiritual teachers until he finds the one whom he
recognises as his own God-chosen master or Guru.
The novice, through inner fitful urgings, receives
lessons from various sources, but when his
spiritual ardor becomes very great, God sends him a
Guru. God uses the divine soul-vehicle of the Guru
as His messenger or instrument to bring the novice
back to his spiritual home in Omnipresence.
When Shuka Deva decided to go in search of his
Guru, his father advised him to go to King Janaka,
the ruler of the province. As Shuka Deva entered
the royal palace he saw the king sitting on an
emerald and diamond-studded golden throne
surrounded by courtiers and by scantily clad women
who were fanning him with big palm leaves [as
is the custom in India during the hot season].
King Janaka was smoking a big oriental pipe. This
sight shocked Shuka Deva; he turned back and
started walking briskly out of the palace. He
muttered, "Shame on my father for sending me to
that matter-soaked king! How could such a worldly
man be my teacher?"
But King Janaka was both a king and a saint. He was
in the world, but not of the world. Highly advanced
spiritually, he could telepathically sense the
thoughts of the fleeing Shuka Deva. The saint-king
sent a messenger after the boy, commanding him to
come back. Thus the master and the devotee met.
King Janaka put Shuka Deva through a process of
discipline to teach him the art of living in the
world without acquiring misery-making attachment to
it. One day the king gave his new disciple two
cup-shaped lamps, filled to the brim with oil.
Janaka said, "Hold a lamp on the palm of each hand,
and enter all the gorgeously furnished rooms of the
palace. Come back to me after you have seen
everything, but remember, I will refuse to train
you further if you spill a single drop of oil on
the carpets."
King Janaka instructed two messengers to accompany
Shuka Deva and to refill the two lamps with oil as
quickly as they burned down. It was a hard test,
but after two hours, Shuka Deva returned
triumphantly without having dropped any oil from
the lamps in his hands.
The king said, "Young Shuka Deva, tell me in detail
what you saw in chamber of my palace." To this
Shuka Deva replied, "Royal Preceptor, my only
accomplishment was that I did not spill any oil on
your carpets. My mind was so concentrated on the
thought of not dripping oil that I did not notice
anything in the rooms."
King Janaka then declared, "I am disappointed! You
have not completely passed my test. My injunctions
were that you should see everything in all the
chambers of my palace and that you should not drip
any oil from the lamps. Go back with the lamps, and
remember, no spilling of the oil while you are
looking carefully at everything about the
palace."
After ten hours, Shuka Deva calmly returned. He had
not allowed any oil to drip, nor was he sweating
with excitement as before. He could answer all the
king’s questions about the contents, however
minute, of all the palace chambers.
King Janaka was pleased. "My son", he said gently,
"attachment to possessions is the source of misery.
In this world we do not own anything – we are
only given the use of things. Some have more to use
than others, but remember, the millionaire and the
poor man alike have to leave everything, all
possessions, when death comes. One should not live
a one-sided life thinking only of God and
neglecting one’s duties in the world –
like your concentrating on the oil lamps and not
seeing my palace. But on the second trip you kept
your attention principally on the lamps without
spilling oil, and at the same time thoroughly and
minutely saw everything in the palace. So should
you keep your attention on God, not letting a drop
of your desire slip away from the lamp of
God-revealing wisdom, and yet devote part of your
attention to thoroughly performing the God-given
duties of maintaining yourself and others given
into your charge."
This instructive story shows the basis of the
world's troubles. Indifference to spiritual matters
leads to selfishness and unequal prosperity amidst
plenty, and finally to widespread economic
depression. Hence those who want the unlimited
divine Power to work for them in business and
family affairs ought to be as earnest about
meditation as they are about earning money. He who
makes it his business to have communion with God
first, will find imperishable inner happiness as
well as outer material comforts. We must not be too
busy to try to realise the presence of God. lf God
stops our hearts from beating, we will not have any
chance for business success. Since all our success
depends upon powers borrowed from God, we should
give enough time to God-communion.
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