Meditation Is Training The Attention

Katharine: … I find on some days that I naturally have something to say, and on other days I sit and feel as if there is no connection between my brain and my mouth. On those days, it seems kind of uncomfortable, because I think, “If I get called, what will I say?” So I just wanted to ask your advice about it.

Swamiji: Do you know the mantr, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum? [Laughter.] … You begin to watch that you can speak your mantr in your head. Keep watching, that every single time you speak it, your attention is there. But your attention will leave this practice. I’m recommending that you watch that you are able to speak it inside—mentally, or whatever you call it, knowingly. Watch that whether it is with open eyes or without open eyes, it doesn’t matter. But watch whether you are constantly with it or not. You will find that there is no connection between your mind and your mouth—those are the words you have used. So there is no connection between the Knower and the thing to be known; whether it is spoken by itself or by the Knower, there is no connection.

If you want to get this connection, then training is needed. And the training is that you watch it. Don’t use your concept that “It’s meditation, I have to meditate, I have to go blank—and I’m already going blank, because there is no connection. Therefore, leave it like this.” No. Just train yourself, because I have said to. You have done shravan, you have heard me.

Your attention will go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, which means it will be less gross, less gross, less gross, less gross. It will be away from the gross things and gross forms, gross forms, gross forms. It will be deeper and deeper. You will know that you are still speaking. It will be so fine, so fine, that it will be just slight, like an eye of an ant. I can know a subtler thing. I see an ant. I also see an elephant, but I also see an ant. …

I can conceive that it is the subtlest. What is the subtlest? That which you cannot catch with this gross-mindedness. That’s why if someone says you’re stupid, you immediately react. You are never stupid, yet you react. But if someone says, “You’re very wise,” you don’t listen. [He laughs.] So the subtlest ability will make you connected to every set of thoughts and thinking, anywhere. It can connect you from here to England. Even if your Daddy speaks something, you’ll know it.

Such as in a dream, generally you know. Alka told me she saw a dream and said that “You were dictating, and I was trying to write it down, but you were too fast. Then I thought that something is worthwhile, so why should I write? I can listen to it.” She began to try to listen, but she could not understand what I was saying. What do I mean? There is the Knower, even in deep sleep. What is the Knower doing? The Knower is making itself the voice of Swamiji, making itself the listener to Swamiji, making itself that “I am having difficulty in writing,” making itself a pad of paper, and making itself the experience that “I should listen.” The Knower alone is. Then, why do we seek a connection? That is the difficulty. We’re trying to seek a connection with the things and forms—which are already the Knower. … Alka woke up and the CD was on, in which I was speaking. What is it? In the waking state the CD is on, and in a dream you are listening to it. If the Knower were not everywhere, then how would that be possible? …

It’s one reality. We don’t have to seek a connection, or no connection, and all that. Whatever you are, you’re just perfect. But whatever your need is, you do that. Those girls are going to school. Whatever the need is in their learning the subject, they should do that. The subject that they have accepted, that subject they should attend—again and again, again and again, without thinking, “I have read it once, so I got it.” Some people are such that they can get it. But everybody is not like that. … If you want to speak, or you want to remain with the thought, then attend it. But you have made a concept about meditation that “Don’t attend thought, because then the meditation will be disturbed. Don’t attend it. Don’t attend it.” And I’m sitting over here and attending cricket. …

This way, you say, “I guess.” You don’t guess, you are there. Yes. You never guess anything, you are there. You say, “Well, someone phoned me from Delhi, and I got upset.” Many people are like that. Somebody calls and they are upset. See. The person is not there, even the phone is not there, and the person was alright, yet he got upset. You should have some brain to understand that it has nothing to do with the person. But you say, “He made me upset.” What is it? You are everything everywhere. And if you make yourself upset, then you are Mr. Upset. If you hear upsetting, you are hearing upsetting. You are everything. You are the only one who is the whole world.

Now, how great a responsibility there is for you to see that this body is a car, a tool, in which everything will appear. You see a mirror. In the mirror, whatever is there, it appears. So in your mirror, whatever your mind makes, that appears. It becomes tad roop, just the same. When I spoke of an ant, the leg of an ant, or an eye of an ant, I was that. When I spoke of an elephant, I was that. There is no elephant, no ant over here. But you are thinking that Swamiji is talking about some ant which was in Guru Bhoomi and of an elephant that was there in a movie about Rajasthan, which you saw and is in your head. And in your head, you can’t understand, because it’s too small.

So I said that you are speaking Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. Know that not only are you speaking it, the whole universe is speaking. Because you are that universe. But you are taught to become a little person. … Check what your mind does, and what you have been taught, and what you have become. Guruji says that you are the whole universe, you are making everything by yourself, condemning your mom, dad, brother and sister, and knowing everything wrong about them. You are doing it. Yet you are saying, “I am invaded by the whole world, so the world is so bad.”

This is where Guru’s words should go to your ears—if there is a hole in them. [He laughs.] Even if Guru’s words reach the brain, but if there is no hole there, then again the brain will not be activated. Many people hear me, but they are closed. Closed people do not hear me. All of you are able to hear me. And it is not necessary that when I say to hear me, you should hear. If you hear, it’s alright. If you don’t hear, it’s alright. Because it’s not your fault. You are alright. You are never there: the you which you call you, which means the ego. Everybody says, “Ego-I,” “I am.” And the ego is actually not there. Therefore, whatever the ego says, that’s not to be accepted, not to be attributed to you. Because you are Pure Free Forever—the whole universe. And you can make millions and millions of universes. You are that fertile.

So, attention. Attention should be. The mechanism is there. That means you are training the vehicle, not you. You are there, but you are a kind of field marshal. Millions of soldiers are there, and you have to train all of them. You have to devise a system. Mantr is nothing but a kind of system that has been devised by Guru, that you attend that which is Immortal, that which is Blissful, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. The meaning appears before you of that—which is you. That is your attention. So practise that, and tell me after a week or ten days how much you succeed in it. You will do it. Thank you very much. …

If any significant word goes to your heart and head, your coming and listening to me will be worthwhile. When I say or you hear “Unchanging,” then it immediately takes your attention out of the mixture, which always concludes there are changing things and forms and time and space. You immediately become freed. In the words of a few persons, you will be disconnected. In my words, it will be Freedom. When you are closing your eyes, you have the full period of this time with you, where you do not watch the clock, yet you can conceive of time. It could be 2:30, 1:30, or 12:30. It could be early in the morning, it could be the evening. It could be zero hours. All that is the work of your learning. So you are a learned person, not a child pure. You are now a student, and this student is your tool, that goes like an automaton, a lively one, to school. But you are the one who watches this tool, this little tool, this little chariot, this little chair sitting up on a chair, as those plastic chairs sit one on the other, piled up a lot. But the one who is knowing, that is not a chair.

By giving a name “mind,” that does not mean that you have made a mistake. By giving a name “body,” that does not mean you have been given the attribute of a mistake. No. The one who knows, the Knower, you did not hear of before. I say it now. That is what you are. Since you are the Knower, and the Knower knows your body, therefore the body cannot be anything else but the Knower. But in our schooling, in our learning, in the experience of people, in our interactions, this was never heard—that the Knower is the reality, the real Being. And the body is a body of the same, a gross form developed through food in time and space under the care of your mother and father and family members. But the Knower was never, never in need of being brought up. The Knower is.

When you close your eyes, you will never find anything of the type that you want to know. Then, this became your experience, Experience Pure. This Experience Pure is Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. Since there is no form to attend, therefore your habit pattern of the attention has to construct or make any image to attend, because it is always there. So when you are meditating or you are here, you began to train your Knower in such a way that it should be made useful to this body tool. Otherwise, there is no connection between the body and the Knower—about which, when I had said this, you made two persons, the body and the Knower. I know this fact, and I’m talking to you.

When I say this at this time, then examine: the Knower alone is. Because your eyes are not seeing the body, so you cannot depend on the eyes and say, “I see the body.” You will say, “I feel it now.” You won’t speak of the eyes. You will say, “I feel that I am sitting.” If you have used the word “sitting,” then you know that the body is sitting, but not I. Still you say, “Well, I is my body, my body is my I, so I say that I am sitting.” But the Knower is not sitting. The Knower is permeating. Fluidity is permeating water. From out of water, you cannot separate fluidity. So this Pure Consciousness is permeating. This means, that alone is every thing, every object, every person, every thought, every imagination—all whatever is in time and space for a human being. But when your inner eye of this Pure Being is opened, when knowledge is realized, when realization takes place, then the description of your own mouth or tongue in your own words does not hold good. … [Meditation.]

This meditation period is the period of your training—training the attention, not You. You are always there. Such as we were singing the Gita verses. You can hear them, but the attention will not go there. Yet you have the power to attend all that which you are hearing or saying—and at the same time, you can attend all other things also. So you should not say, “My attention should be one-pointed.” If you are learning your subject and your attention is at home, never mind. Your attention can go home, and at the same time you are learning the subject. … You are always You. But all that which is considered to be the object is not being included in You by you. Whereas Guruji says, you are the Whole

Take the example of your body. Your senses are there, but you are one. So how will the senses be separate and one be separate? You are the ears, eyes, hair, everything, all the pores. And you are one. So how is it that your one will not be the whole body? Somehow you have to bring in your understanding, and then you will know the whole thing. Sing Om Poornamada. … How many times did you sing this? Were you attending every word? Thank you. [Laughter and applause.]