If you hear me saying the world is causeless, or a human being and humanity are causeless, you won’t understand. Then what is to be done? That which can be brought so understanding can take place should be brought first; then it will be called “unfoldment.” If unfoldment is not there in a human being, he will not understand. But unfoldment of what? He is not a paper that rolls down and then he is unfolded. When we talk to human beings, we know they were born small children, who had no power to understand. But when they grew big, they began to understand what their mother, father, house, pets, and exhibits were and what the lawn, trees, and ground were. They knew how to play by sitting, picking up grass, taking it out and putting it in mud and mud in grass—all this a little child does. What happened to him that he began to do this? When he was being led in a perambulator, there were only his head and eyes and nothing else.
When a man grows big, he forgets that state. Why does he forget? There is some kind of system in his nerves so that when they grow he forgets what it was like when there was no growth of the nerves. Thus, being a small child is not remembered by anyone, although everyone was one. Even if we continue saying, “Be like a child, be like a child,” a human being cannot give up his mind and growth. He can never think the days, nights, and years he spent can be given up now. They made him something. Time has made a human being in space. But many people do not know what time is, unless they see a clock or watch. If a clock or watch is not there and the sun does not rise, they don’t know time. When the sun arises, they do not know night, and when the sun is gone, they only know night.
In this way, human knowledge—or the mind, ego, and intellect, which are one being—grew. When it has grown into this, how can it go back? Therefore a human being cannot understand that this mountain and scenery all around us are causeless. His eyes see the mountain as an effect. If he has read geography, then he understands that earth came out of water and an island came out of the ocean. How it happened, he doesn’t care. His eyes see his parents and house, the earth and road, and he thinks the earth is available but does not know how all that happened. As a human being, nobody will know what this earth, water, sun, sky, and the air in between them are, yet he sees them. He will not know anything that has come in front of his system—his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, skin, hands, and legs—and that which is inside his system, churning his food and maintaining his existence. Thus, he does not know all this which I am talking about. He just knows that it is.
Anything that is present in front of our eyes we call present, pratyaksh, or in front of our eyes—prati–aksh. Aksh means eyes and pratyaksh means in front of them. Because of a human being’s eyes, all that is in front of them has become something that exists for him, and is to be known by somebody, or something, inside him. It has been concluded by all human beings that there is the ego-intellect-mind, which is not seen but which functions, or works, for seeing things that are outside. So it is the mind which knows things and forms. When the ears hear sound, sound is also is in front of the ears. Mostly the eyes and ears are responsible in the system for making the mind. How did the mind come? There is no reason. It came by itself, like kak (crow) talee (clapping) nyay (logic). [A crow sat on a tree branch above a coconut, under which a man sat. The man clapped, the crow flew, and the coconut fell—without any reason.] Nobody knows how the mind came. They know there is the earth, a house, and in it a child with his eyes and system, but nobody knows how his mind came. When the mind came in a child without any knowledge of the reason and cause for it, then it is causeless. Without cause the mind came, so the mind is considered to be causeless.
Thus, the mind was not there and the child was not there. Nobody can find out the cause for a mother producing her child. If the mind is causeless and the mother’s causeless mind is saying a child has come out, then the child is causeless—by definition. If the mind is causeless and is making a human being who does not know his cause, then it falls in the category of illusion. The mind is causeless, the mind is illusion, and illusion is causeless. The whole world depends on a human being who has a mind to know it, therefore the world is causeless.
Yet all human beings are busy confirming the knowledge gained through their eyes to be true—that they are seeing everything all right, that all the effects are what they think, though the causes may not be known. The cause is the eyes, and the eyes were never there when the child was not there, even the mind was not there when the child was not born. So it is a causeless humanity, a causeless world. For a human being, the world is outside his eyes. He himself is there, but he does not know why he thinks the world is there and he is not the world, even though he is this body, which is the world. They are all forms. So all forms are causeless.
Now, the mind. When a child grows big, how does it happen that he gets attached to his mother? She is causeless and he is causeless, and what is causeless is illusion. Illusion means it is not there. Then the mind is not there, the body is not there, and the world is not there. If I say, “If anybody knows this,” you will hear it but conclude that nobody knows this. The result of this ignorance, or the idea that nobody knows it, will be that you will live life only as it appears.
If you are in a family, whatever you are learning, that is your family. In each house, there is a different language with different words associated with different forms. And words were never there, forms were also not there. Therefore, a human being remains victimized. We know what a victim is, so we say he is victimized. What is victimized? It is a kind of illusion. How does it happen that you became a human being who is Canadian, you became an Indian, and you became a New Zealander? Through words, through whatever your elders said. So you are not original. Nobody is, especially when you can now think you were not even born.
Then what is your originality? Childhood. Human beings are living life from childhood onwards, growing the way they are taught, or are informed by their parents, teachers, and people around them, and from what they are learning. But it has not been known who learns. When a child is very small, he does not learn. When a man dies, he does not learn. When a man is sleeping, he does not learn. Then, the psychology came that the waking state is responsible. Lying in deep sleep, the child is a child, a man is a man; but neither is he a man nor a child, not an old man, a rich man, or a poor man in the state of deep sleep. The waking state comes and it is causeless. It has no cause. It is not grass, earth, water, gold, silver, brass, copper, iron, or wood, but the waking state comes. Eyes, ears and the inner knower know that the waking state takes place. Everything is based on the waking state—the way a man has been made through the functioning of his eyes and ears, seeing things and forms, at each place he is made like that.
Nobody knows the cause of an animal, and the animal knows only to graze in the grass, drink water, and live. He has no ambition, nothing. Therefore, among all the sentient species in the world, although he does not know where he is from, a human being is considered to be the highest. While man is the highest species, he only has the type of mind called the ego-intellect-mind, antahakaran, inner mind, or inner being. It is not outer, because the outer being doesn’t show it has something to know. Thus people say, “Well, the inner being is there.” When the inner being leaves, the outer being is innocently lying, like a container. That means the inner being is to be taken into consideration for the purpose of knowing, because a dead man does not know things, nor is he acquainted with this and that.
The whole system is responsible for making a human being happy by seeing useful things, and not happy by seeing useless things. Thus shubh or ashubh, good or bad, came into existence. That which is good, people like and remember; that which is bad they don’t want to have. But when bad takes place, they remember it. So memory came into existence. How did it happen? Akaran. Causeless. But it is there. When the eyes and ears see and hear something, then memory is built. The same memory is found to be in the dream state, where the eyes and ears are closed, where everything is closed and not functioning. But then how is a dream experienced? Because of memory. Memory is causeless, therefore the dream is causeless. But the dream is. How does it happen that dream figures are made, which do not have the value of a single cent? Dream mountains, a dream ocean, a dream boat, the whole show has no value. But when a man wakes up he thinks, “I was afraid in the dream, I had a nightmare” or “I had a good dream. I had a good show, I was enjoying and had a good time.” There, time is much less and so much happens.
All these examples which man has experienced are to be taken into consideration to make him unfold more power of understanding—for which there is no way anywhere. If it has happened, supposed to us, then we are premier in knowing that as long as the unfoldment of the mind, intellect, and ego has not happened, a man will remain similar to animals. That shows there is no answer for such a human being without the unfoldment that can remove his pain and suffering, or remove his undue happiness which turns into unhappiness. There is no way. All human beings are doing all the things as they are in front of them to the maximum that can be done by the intellect—which is causeless. It is the case with everything. You make a cell phone, and it gets deteriorated and breaks. You spent so much, but it becomes useless. Why? It is already causeless. But we are using it. So the use of things and forms by a human being became knowledge and science. As long as a man is useful as a system, he is considered to be a man. But when he dies he is thrown away in the ground, with all that system that had made him respected and able to know how to do and not to do. Therefore, a human being is living traditionally, and the tradition of a human being is ignorance, which is based on causeless mind.
If you know that all this is gone, then causeless is gone. What remains? That is the reality which is nirakar, or formless, which is again causeless, or formless. You have understood that something must remain, there must be that which remains after all things are gone. Thus people started saying “Neti, neti, neti,” or “Not this, not this, not this,” just to remove. If I say that which remains is your reality, you are not going to accept it. But anyone will be free who accepts Guru’s words. He will know, “All this is causeless; therefore I should not get attached to it, because it will change and die.” …
Daily we talk for unfoldment, not about what you should do, what your child is, what your relations are, and all that. We just want to be in the situation of satsang, hearing and saying, hearing and saying. The result is the unfoldment of highest awareness, which knows nothing has been there and everything is there. This now explains everything, and nothing beyond it is necessary. Whatever we are doing, we are taking into consideration the field of birth and death, which is the ignorance of humanity as a whole. In that we can talk unending, and when the end comes, we come to know that Pure Free Forever, Highest Awareness, is your true nature, your original nature, or existence. That Pure Free Forever is the cause of everything. Pure Free Forever has no meaning, so what is form, or cause and effect? If it is akaran, if akaran is the cause, if God is akaran, then the whole world is just causeless. Chalo (Let’s go).
…
Causeless means akaran. Causeless can be understood by the example that a desert has no water, yet in it the sun’s rays create river water. Thus there is mrig trishna (a deer’s desire), whereby a deer has immediate illusion in him—because his eyes and brain are there, he thinks a river is there. Now, a river has been created. It is called utpatti, or that a river is born, and he goes towards it. If the river’s birth is not there, why should the river die? But due to the illusion in his head the deer goes to the river, treating it as true. That means the river water has no cause yet it appears to be—even to human beings it appears. They may not go towards it, but it appears to them that the whole ocean is there in the desert, that all the river water is there.
We do not take the deer into consideration because we are talking to human beings. A human being is of the type that in the evening’s darkness he makes a snake in a cord. He sees a cord, but in him he now sees a snake, and he is afraid. Why? Illusion. There was illusion in the sun’s rays in the desert, and here there is darkness in front of a man’s eyes. He does not see the rope, he concludes there is a snake, and he is afraid it will bite him. The snake is not there, so the snake is called causeless. There is no reason for it. There is no rationality that there is the birth of the snake. There is no birth of the snake, yet the snake appears.
Exactly the same occurs in a human being who sees an oyster near the seashore but thinks silver is there. Silver is not there. That means silver is not born but it appears, which means there is utpatti, the birth of the world of silver. There was the world of water and the world of the snake. Thus the world of these single objects is nothing but each object. In the same way, the forest was not there but now the forest has appeared, and people say the forest is there. The road was never there to Karaun, but now they say a road is here. Tunnels are still not there in the mountain, but they appear. Anything that appears is the world. Anything that appears is the child. The child was not there, but it appears now that the child is there. How should one know this is based on illusion? How should one know the forest is based on illusion? Illusion is what? In a human head. Without any reason, illusion comes. We say “Kak tali nyay.” Without any reason, a fruit falls from the tree just because the man clapped.
Now this world with relations and parents is there. Parents were not there, but they appear to be there. Then the child appears to be there. Then the shops, market, administration, and world appear to be there. So a human being appears to be there. A human being is a system which is illusory. Then pain is there, suffering is there, sukh or dukh (happiness or unhappiness) are there. How to eliminate janam and maran, birth and death? It is causeless. It is not there. The one who knows it is not there, he is free. He is a human being like others. But others see that the world and their relations are concrete, that every sanskar (mental impression) is concrete, that education, jobs, and professions are concrete, that everything is there.
One man. He is sitting over here. If you see him in the school, he is a teacher. See him in the kitchen, he is cooking, and you will know he is a cook. How is it that the same man is a cook and he becomes a teacher? Under illusion. There is the bahurupee (shape-shifter), the face-making person, who makes many, many faces, yet he is only one. He appears to be Mahatma Gandhi, he appears to be Subhash Chandra Bose, he appears to be a person with this cap and that cap, of this religion and that religion. It is all causeless, but this is not being understood by a human being—unless unfoldment takes place, unless illusion is removed.
Unfoldment of real knowledge, real brain, real power of understanding, or real awareness is not there, because a child is illusory and illusion is all the things that are happening. In this way, you can’t get out of it because illusion is there in the head—you call it the intellect, the mind, the ego, body, and senses. They are all illusion, but they appear to be true—because you eat, you drink, you are taking this thing, you are filming, and everything seems to be real. Anyone who comes and sees, it is real to him. So the whole world of people with their eyes will see just the same as you are seeing.
From where do you bring those eyes with which you see a dream? A man is sleeping, his eyes are not being used in sleep, but he is seeing a dream. Then how would you say the dream is true when you are in the waking state? Then I have to tell you that you are not in the waking state, you are also seeing a dream now, and you are upset when you come back in this dream. Pain and suffering. In this way, you can understand now why you have pain and suffering and happiness. Happiness is not gold, silver, or mud. Unhappiness is not earth, cotton, nails, thorns, a tree, or a rock. Happiness and unhappiness. But because of the illusory system of a human being—the ego-intellect-mind—everything seems to be real. If the ego-intellect-mind remains the same illusion, if it doesn’t turn into disillusion, then a man has no chance to become free from birth and death and thorns, happiness and unhappiness and defeat, and all these things such as sound and action. He will not be free.
For all of you who are here with me, the purpose is to be free. But free you cannot become—you keep the illusion. You don’t want to throw the illusion, as it is thrown in deep sleep. You think it is real. If you start thinking, “It is not real, it is jhootha (a lie), it is not true,” then you will come to know “I am Truth.” Up to this time you think “I am this [individual].” I has never become this! But name and form made you an illusory person, and then all the illusory world. It goes on like that. You cannot remove the illusion of a human being unless the unfoldment of the ego-intellect-mind takes place into shuddh buddhi (pure intellect), as against viparya buddhi (opposite intellect), or the buddhi of the objects, things, and forms. You came to know that this takes place through sadhana, through practice. Practice is done all the time after hearing this and knowing that it is the truth that Swamiji is speaking. But if you don’t work on it, you will not know. Early in the morning you wake up, and you are the same name and form.
You are looking after Swamiji because Swamiji is a person, and you think he’s a great person, and then you are a less person. In this way, for you there is a less person and a big person. And you are not there, I am not there! You are not born, I am not born. You are not born, I am not born. You are not born, I am not born. You are not born, I am not born. Nobody is born, but man does not understand this when he wakes up. In deep sleep, he cannot understand it. In a dream, he cannot understand it. Then where is the chance for a human being to understand this if he does not listen to Guru again and again? It is only Guru who can make you free from the ego-intellect-mind illusion. The ego-intellect-mind has become perpetuated, a forced entity in you, with the idea it is real. It is in mathematics, geography, history, the iPad, the iTouch, television, the shows, the sky, a rocket, a satellite, the moon, sun, and the whole world. Everything is like that. Many people saw that when they went to the moon. From there the earth looked like a moon—there was no earth. They were disillusioned over there. And we do not think we should be disillusioned of the moon. But no, we have to work in the field of birth and death.
“Birth and death” is not there. Then the world is not there. Then there is nothing, no problem of an old person or a young person. But how to remove the idea of birth and death from a human being? He thinks the mind is there. The mind is real for him, illusion is real. Then there are the illusory man, illusory things, and the illusory world. It is all illusion. Many intellectuals say, “It is illusion.” But they think illusion is real! [Laughter] If illusion is not real, then the world is not real. They think illusion is real, it is all illusory, an illusory world. If it’s all an illusory world, why should you be weeping and crying, becoming attached and detached, condemning this and condemning that?
The one who knows the Truth uses his illusory consciousness in such a way that there is no displeasure. Then he gets good chapatis (bread) and good chana (chick peas), as we ate today. And now good ladoos (sweets)—bring them. This is where eating, drinking, and all that goes on. Then whoever meets us is an illusory figure, but we think they are real. …. Nobody is on earth—but everybody is on earth, due to illusion. If illusion is freed, then you become mukt (liberated). Then enjoy and experience all the things. They are working there, we are working here, we have ten minutes of a saga of a mela (pleasure fair), and after that we go.
Anybody who can realize can make a wonderful, illusory world, because he knows that nothing is there. Therefore, whatever people know—the rules, regulations, and all that—according to that we act, so that we should not be prevented from doing the practice of meditation. Because meditation will remove illusion, so we do it. Deep sleep has already removed illusion, but we do not know it—we again wake up. In meditation, after practice, everything becomes causeless. Then you are hearing on the telephone, “Where is Arun? Where is Roger? Where is Bodhi?” They were never there—and now they are there. Why should we get caught in it? … We have found the solution for those human beings who can know, after hearing what Guru says. Guru says you can be free. The disciple says, “I cannot be. I have a wife, children, a mother, a father, a shop”—like Neeraj does. If I tell him that nobody is born, he says, “What about me?” I cannot say, “You are also illusion.” But you are also not born, so why are you not illusion? Why are you there? Because of illusion. Because of mind, the world is made. And if the mind is absorbed in the disillusioned state, the unborn state, then there is only freedom.
As long as the mind remains with you as something you believe is true, then you are in it. For how long will you keep it? When the body dies, the mind is not there. So it is not your mind. But we have to attribute it to you, that it must be your mind and it will take birth again. Then mind alone is, and the whole world is mental, intellectual, egotistic. These three—the ego, mind, and intellect—if you can turn them, palat do, and become shuddh buddhi, then shuddhi buddhi is Gyan (Knowledge of Self). Then Gyan alone is—Anubhav (Pure Experience), Anubhav alone is that. Then there is no world of any kind, no relations of any kind. Suppose you wake up again. Then you see the world and love your relations, give them freedom, and give them food, ladoos, and parties if you can do it.
All human beings have made this society at many different places, based on many different words, based on many different minds. The world will always remain like that. It is not made by you, or a person like you. It has been. Parents have come and gone. Grandparents have come and gone. Now you have come. Body-wise, you will not be there. But who is that who is ever-present? That is what you are. Ever Present. Ever Present. Ever Present. Ever Present means not bound by time, born, or ending. That is freedom. But this is very difficult, so we don’t talk about it, because people want to have jobs and such, so they ask for blessings for jobs, for marriage, not to die, for health, for happiness. As Suresh says, “Blessings. Keep blessing, keep blessing. What do I lose in blessing?” [Laughter]
The main objective, by birth, of a human being, who is illusory, is to be free after getting the knowledge of disillusionment, or that there is only Pure Free Forever, Akaran, Causeless. Causeless is Atma (Self). But we are talking to human beings. You won’t understand causeless, because you know cause and effect, cause and effect—that is the nature of the mind or intellect. Chalo.
