Satsang  –   Volume 12, Number 5: April 15, 2009
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Whatever Remains Is Pure

… The Being, who has been only one reality, Pure Awareness, has become the body, the senses and all. Then a human being has to live life, and the wheel of death and birth goes on, and he can’t get out of it—although the elders have said that there is a possibility you can. … How is it possible for him to attain the sense of Oneness? I never think that a person who is there on earth will think that he is not. Some religious people have said, “You are not the body, you are not the body,” and many of you have heard this. In my upbringing, I never heard, “You are not the body.” It is a kind of idea of those philosophers who must have seen that as long as the body is there, pain and suffering and death are there, therefore if a person can think he is not a body, perhaps he will be alright. But he will think he is not a body with the body [Laughter]—so he cannot be free. Therefore, that did not succeed.

The illusory world has been spoken of—to those people who became conscious. To children and others, we don’t say this. We say, “Well, you have to do this, you have to do that, whatever your talent can do.” When someone could not make sense of it all, then they said it is an indescribable situation, where there are no answers to such questions as, “Why is it I am born? Why is it he died? Why is he poor? Why is he sick? Why does he have pain? Why is it he has sympathy and suffers because of the pain, suffering and trouble of others?” A person can ask this. But he has no answers.

Because everybody is also in that state, no one tells him that there is no such thing as you as a body ever existed. You have the power to know that the body was never there—but that does not mean that the body is not. If the body was not there, then what was that? You can unfold that. The possibility is there. That is called Self Awareness. Awareness of the Self—this is not intellectual, it is realization. There are no words for it that we can convey through language. Therefore, we remain handicapped and continue trying. And after listening to this again and again, we say, “Well, it’s not my field. My field is the road, and the goal is there. We have to be here, we have to be there, there are relations,” and all that. So that became a very small world. …

We just practise. While practising, if it can be your luck, or it can be the result of your pursuit, then you can get it. Otherwise, remain whatever you are, but you cannot be free from birth and free from death. As long as this exists—that you are born and you will die—you cannot say you will not die, because daily you see it, and immediately you identify, “My turn will also come.” So you think that the body is you. But it cannot be said that body is not. The moment you say that, you will not go to the doctor, get medicine, look after your body, look after your food, etc. So we cannot say that the body is not. Through the body we are growing. The body is. But having the body and its use for everything, your intellect can be used to unfold that which you see lies in deep sleep. There, a person with the waking state cannot examine.

Shiv Naath: That doesn’t seem to be the intellect.

Swamiji: It’s not the intellect, but still you want to see it. If you want to see it and know it, then the intellect is there. You are knowing that there is no intellect, and that’s why the school answer or question is alright, “There is no mind or intellect.” There may not be the mind, but existence is there. So you are not you, this body. But if you are neither you, nor a body, nor a mind, nor intelligence, nor the functioning of the senses or organs, then what are you? That can never be attained through psychology.

We need its practical examination, having a body. Through this examination, if the examining power appears, we call it vichaar. You translate vichaar as thought—such as “I have a thought. This thought came. He’s a thinking being. A human being is a thinking being.” Whereas in our scriptures, by vichaar they tried to communicate Anubhav [Pure Experience]. Now, you have anubhav of your deep sleep. With which thought do you have it? No. That is the reality. In this way, when you just reach there, we say, “This is the reality.” If you accept it, then you have faith in the space of Anubhav. So Anubhav is the reality that has been. The same has become a bubble, a form. And the same bubble gets broken in the end. But Anubhav is ever the same. …

Nityaanand: … Could you talk about what Bindu is?

Swamiji: You appreciate the mantras, and those mantras are in Sanskrit. In the word “Sanskrit,” krit means action and action stands for the mind—which ordinary people do not know. They say that the mind is knowledge and action is the shaking of a finger. … Aum is a mantra. Aum has no form, yet people with mind have made it like this [he draws Aum in the space in front of him]. We, as human beings, are not supposed to know the abstract. We can hear the word Aum—but that is sound, it is not Bindu. Bindu is where there is no division. It cannot be cut. That is Bindu. Bindu means indestructible substance. So Bindu is the Space. But people have tried to explain Aum like this [he draws it] and put a bindu [he adds a dot, the bindu which symbolizes the humming sound]. They call this the chandra bindu, chandra is like a moon and then a bindu [he draws the moon shape and dot]. Like a child, our eyes will be confused, that the bindu is what? In your understanding, the bindu is the centre of a circle; if you put a dot there [he draws a circle and adds a dot at its centre], that becomes your bindu, a point [another definition]. But Bindu is not a point.

That is why in Sanskrit the words are all from Sam. Sam [Self, evenness] is that which never begins and never ends. Then, there is sam-skaar [mental impression]. Out of Sam, the chaytna samvaydan, which means the consciousness of the mind, arises. It arises just like this, “shhuu” [he blows outward]. So, sound arises. A human being cannot understand how it is that you begin to speak. What is that—your Source—which inspires you to speak, or to say Aum? Where did Aum come from? Our ears, our eyes and our head will say Aum came through your mouth, that any word which you use is always from the body. But when the atmosphere is still and slowly and slowly you watch a breeze begin to flow, where did the breeze come from? Many naturalists answer, “From trees.” Vaayu [air] was already there, but when it moved, it became a breeze. And when the breeze stopped, it became vaayu.

Ultimately, the true existence is pure, self-effulgent Being. Being is your Bindu, Being is your centre, from where awareness arises. So awareness is below Bindu. When we say awareness, awareness means the body, things and forms, knowledge and the mind. We call the ego-intellect-mind awareness. But how does the ego-intellect-mind arise? How does imagination arise? A breeze may arise from vaayu, air or space, but from where does imagination arise? A human being is quiet—because he has no capacity and power to know this. When it arises, he calls it the mind. Before the mind, it’s deep sleep. So out of deep sleep, the waking state or imagination arises. Until that arises, for a few seconds it’s not there—neither is deep sleep unconsciousness there, nor is there the waking state, or imagination. That is the space which is Bindu.

If anybody can grasp it, he will say, “That I am.” That is your I. So your I is the Bindu. But psychologically, your I becomes this body. From where does the I come? It is the same as Aum: Aaay-aaam [I am], Aum. Now this we can understand, because we are human beings. But if the capacity of the senses is put to use, that ability, then we have no chance. So we have become maun [silent]. How will you describe it? Quietness. You can say noiselessness, soundlessness—even thoughtlessness, mindlessness or egolessness. But that is perfect pause. It is stillness.

Now, we use words, and each one of you can check by yourself: how is it that a child in the womb of his mother was still, wrapped up in the embryo? How did he become one day old in the womb, and then two days old? From where did he come? From Bindu. Then, Bindu alone is. Bindu does not mean that when a pencil writes over here [he draws a circle and a point in the middle], then the circle becomes different from the pencil. But that is our differentiation of the mind.

That emanation is from niraakaar—from Bindu, which is formless. But we understand only form, when the Bindu becomes form. Form is the mind—because we perceive it, we feel it, and we know it knows something. But before the mind is, there is the sense of ahankaar [I-sense], which will then make the mind, the field of consciousness, the intellect, senses, body, bodies and the world. Therefore, Bindu is making everything. … So this is Bindu, formless reality. That is why Bindu has no description. In Sanskrit, they speak of Bindu, which is the space that is called anu—you call it an atom. But anu is not an atom, it is the space infinite, the anu aakaash. …

Gyan Prasaad: …Could you tell me what physical pain is, which I feel in the body?

Swamiji: Physical pain does not depend on unconsciousness. Physical pain will exist when consciousness exists. Wherever consciousness is not—in the unconscious state of a body, in a dead body, or in a deep sleep body—there is no pain. So pain is due to consciousness in a human being, which was never there before he was born. That was Pure. A human being cannot know what Pure is other than the word “energy.” Pure Energy is existing something, so it is Pure Existence; it is knowing something, so it is Pure Consciousness. But that which is Pure will belong when mind-consciousness is not there.

Pain and joy both are pain—because division is there, and division is for a human form with consciousness. As soon as he becomes conscious in the waking state, happiness and unhappiness both come together. They are two wings of the bird, and that bird is the mind. Even if you want to avoid pain, you cannot do so, because you want to have happiness. If you go beyond the sense of happiness or pain, then whatever remains, that is Pure. If that arises, then you are free completely. No birth. No death.

This is where a human being gets baffled, confused. He will say, “How is that? Consciousness is a must.” We don’t argue with him. We say, “Yes, consciousness is a must. Use it. Use it for whatever is good for you, and that which you think is not good, you should not do.” They are happy hearing this. But it is not release which they will get. If they want some thing, form or person for their happiness, then they are dependent. And because they have dependent consciousness on matter or a person, so they are bound. It is the bondage of a human being that in the morning he becomes the mind.

Nityaanand asked, “Can you talk about what is beyond the mind, that Bindu?” He has read some Sanskrit words that Bindu is the beginning. I also wrote something about the beginning. So Bindu is our true nature. The moment we say “our true nature,” you will hear that “our” means this body, and then you think that “true nature” must be in heaven somewhere; so again you divide heaven and earth, or your body. As long as division is there—call it the ego, intellect, mind, senses or body, it doesn’t matter—till then you cannot be free from this kind of struggle of avoiding pain and picking up joy.

That is the struggling consciousness of a human being, which is not there in a child. The child is not mental consciousness, yet he too feels pain. If you put a needle to him, he will feel pain. Why? Consciousness is there. And consciousness came to him by birth. This consciousness keeps growing: as the whole body is unconscious, so consciousness also grows into unconsciousness, and we become a brick of unconsciousness. That’s why no one can powder it later on. So we just patch up—in meetings, in seeing each other, in talking to each other. You want to be free from the effect of consciousness. But you will be free from the effect of this consciousness when it will turn into Pure. So the mind has two powers. One is to go towards the tree side, towards the branches, flowers and fruit, again and again the same thing. And the mind has the power to go towards the root side, towards the source side, where there is no root even. So the mind can be led, through pacifying it from this desire scene, and then leading it, leading it, towards that from where thought arises. …

But you need time to examine it. When you close your eyes, only then will you succeed in examining. Otherwise, the eyes will remain here, and they will spend a lot of energy; whatever energy you have will be spent. So you close your eyes and repeat mantra—we recommend mantra so that the mind should hang on to something. It can be anything; you can say, “Pain, pain, pain,” it doesn’t matter, “Joy, joy, joy,” it doesn’t matter. It’s a work. The mind needs work, because it is action. You are going to succeed in no mind when the mind becomes free from action. The mind’s action is awareness. Free from awareness you find in deep sleep. But from deep sleep, the very deep sleep makes you become a dreamer. It is the very defect of deep sleep; out of that ignorance, the dream and dreamer start. You were not awake, so how did you become a dreamer?

Because that Bindu space, Pure Space, has almighty power to play and to manifest, to create any show at any time in any way. You see many types of dreams—in a dream you see all the dimensions, here and there, millions of planets. And when the dream is over, immediately you are the Self, because immediately with that awareness you know, “Oh, that was me.” You were the whole show. Show-less is the Self. Show-full is mind. Mind creates this. This is where through meditation you come to grasp the Space.

Pain or joy on the mind level will remain. But when you meditate, examine the Space and identify with it. When you recognize “this is Me,” then in that Me there is no pain, no suffering, no planets, no birth, no death, nothing. There are no two persons. There is only one Knower. That’s where my position is, that all of you sit together, coming from different fields of thinking, but when you watch that Space, you cannot deny it. That is your Oneness That is the field of unity. … That is where it is very significant that in meditation the recognition is that the Space is you. That is Bindu. But since you know Bindu as a dot at the centre of a circle, so you say, “This is the whole Space, how can it be?” No, everywhere it is the same. That is everywhereness. …

Mother earth has offered. We imbibed it and became the recipient of the knowledge that the earth as a whole has given us. There are beings, sentient and insentient, which we see in the form of plains, mountains, fields of greenery, trees, fruit, rivers, the sky, storms and all that is experienced on this planet earth. We are beings belonging to this earth—this is what we have learned. And we have learned it so much, according to the senses and their functioning, without ever acknowledging the fact that there is some Space that has shot us down to earth like an arrow, and we got dug over here. [Laughter] It is pretty hard now to get back to that Space and recognize it.

After being fully grown up, when we come to make the experiment, we see that we have the intellect and its use—it decides something is very good for us and something is not good for us, so avoidance or liking became our mind. When earthly things, solid things, or treacherous and troublesome things are avoided and are not there, we call it happiness. So happiness is in relation to the sense of pain, suffering, trouble and struggle, which we feel. Our feelings, belonging to the human mind, are always up and down. When we have no feelings, then it is even Space, sam Space. …

If you try by yourself, you will not succeed in making this sense of division one and the same. You have to add some other element, a catalyst, who knows your I is not one and your limbs, your senses and their functioning, the things, forms, world and planets are not multiple. You hear this. But you will know it only by the Knower. The ears and eyes remain when you are unconscious, but the knower is not there. So there is a possibility for you, each one of you, to come to grasp that Being who is not any kind of obvious form. When the eyes and ears become silent, they say, “Well, we do not function for this purpose.” Who remains still, when all the functioning of the eyes, mind and imagination is settled, concentrated, or is not in function or mobility? Who remains?

The human mind has no answer. Because that is the Space. So man knows earth and the things on earth, the ocean and waves, the hazards and storms, the sun and wheat. But he also knows the Space. How is it that his knowingness of the mind knows so many things in different forms—and it also knows when there is no difference and no different things there under the sky, and knows the sky? There, Oneness takes place. The sky and your knower is one and the same. Then you come to know that sky alone is, even when your system tells you, “No, I am a body, and the sky is that.” But the very knower of the body and the sky became one with the body and bodies and things, and one with the Space.

Then, the sense of Oneness arises. That is called truth, nature, oneness, love. When that arises, automatically the sense of duality, the sense of hatred, the sense of division, the sense of “I am small and you are great,” “I am great and you are small,” the sense of division of country and climate just gets washed off. That you recognize when you close your eyes. The moment you close your eyes, you have no way to describe what it is. But you do not deny something exists. In your words you say, “I exist.” Then I and the Space become one. The one who knows the Space is the same I. The I-Knower and the Space become one. Having realized this, our session and meeting becomes complete. Thank you very much.




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