Saadhana Is “That Alone Is”

… It is a very great contradiction that we are taught to know we wake up. Actually, when we wake up, we sleep. The waking state is the sleep state. If we had begun to sleep when we woke up, then we were awake when we were in deep sleep. For in deep sleep there was the free Being, who knew himself and didn’t know any other agency in order to know himself. He knew himself and he was blessed, because that is his nature. But when he sleeps, then he forgets, thus the waking state appears to be forgetful. We call it forgetfulness because we are awake but we forgot, we fell into sleep. So when we go from the waking state to the enlightened state, from the enlightened state we are then in sleep. And this sleepy man calls that as sleep!

This is the contradiction, or human consciousness, which is totally opposite. That’s why no human being can easily be approached to know this. For if you say, “Be enlightened,” it means, “Please, this sleepy state, which you call the wakeful state, should not be there,” but you would never like that this sleepy state should change into any other space. Rather, you hope that there should be more awakening, and then more awakening, with which you will know how many leaves a tree has. You want such a kind of knowledge. Whereas knowledge is of the original Space, where there is no deep sleep, no dream state, and no waking state—because all three states are sleepy states.

Having heard this, you at least have the chance to examine. If you don’t hear it, then for you the waking state is the waking state, and whatever is happening, you will do that. You will say, “My mind says this, so it is real.” Then his mind says something else, then that is real. Then her mind says something else, then that is real. This became the individual sense of existence. Whereas there is no individuality at all, there is only one Being. That one Being is called You. You can understand, “If everybody is You, then I’m also that You,” and so there must be some sense which is only of one Reality.  In this way, we examine. If we can get it, very fine. If we can’t get it, then we compromise with this and continue living life. It is said that God is not known by a human being. Whereas we are saying, “No, if you are doing saadhana [practice], then saadhana is that you have been That.” …

We have to change the mode of study that we have been doing up to this time and get up into that study which will answer the question. And the question is that if this is form, and if it is not there after death, and if it was not there before birth, then why should it be here even now? That is the main thing you have to check. Who says that it is here now? …

We always talk about saadhana. Because there are the saadhak [the one who practises], the saadhana, and the saadhya [what is to be realized]. If this is perfected, then you are siddh [realized, perfect]. So the saadhak is not siddh, that is why saadhana has to be perfected. The result of saadhana is the saadhya. What is the saadhya? That for which you are doing saadhana. What is that for which you are doing saadhana? Not for getting the knowledge of the Taj Mahal or the Norwegian park. Saadhana is for the answer, which means the knowledge that has been forgotten by us, the mind, of its Source. Although the Source and the mind are one, but the mind has forgotten this and has assumed to be the reality as soon as it is born, for then the mind works. And if Guru is not there, if the one who knows is not there, all those who do not know cannot answer you. Since you yourself do not know, you too cannot answer your question. Then you read books and go here, go there, and ask, but you are the same person. There must be someone who should transform your mental forgetfulness and replace it with the knowledge of the Source.

For knowledge of the Source, it is said to just forget about mental consciousness. But this does not happen, because you cannot forget it. It is also said that you should gain the knowledge of the Source. But this also will not be, because you are the same person. Therefore, the main saadhana is to purify your tool, the vehicle, the intellect, which we have and have come to know. We don’t neglect it—call it the mind, intellect or ego, or call it just a person. Many people are not educated and are not called intellectual, but they are—intellectual means that you are born, that’s all. [Laughter.]

If you are born, then why is it that you do not know that which was not born? And if that was there and you are now, then it didn’t die. Because if it was there and the same is here, so you didn’t die. Maybe someone’s body has left, but he did not die. Again, he will have another dream. But the Being has not become dead. If you can grasp that Being as Eternal Flow, Eternal Being, Eternal Light, Eternal Time, Eternal Self—whatever you call it—it is Pure Truth. That Pure Truth alone is, because it has never changed even while becoming a form.

But a human being thinks if Being has become a form, so it must change. Then we bring in some examples that a man sees and has knowledge of. Such as we say that water changes into a bubble but has not become a bubble, it is the same water. Water has not become a wave, it is the same water. Water has not become a whirlpool—although action is there, it is the same water. Water has not become anything else when you see a cloud, it is the same water. So it is the same Being as these many people. It is permeating. Permeating means only that it is. Many people think permeating is like water and a sponge. All-permeating means That alone is.

Now if your intellect becomes purified, I guess it will happen that you will know that there has never been a form about which we have said that it should remain forever, or that it is useful, or it useless, or it is mine, or it is yours, or that you possess it, or you dispossess it. When pure intellect will take place, then the result will be “That alone is.” That’s all. When That alone is, then this will be contradicted, automatically. Then you will be able to thank this body, or somebody who made this body, that through it we did our saadhana and we got the saadhya. The moment you got the saadhya, then you are siddh. Siddh means perfect. Perfect means unborn so undying, and in between unchanging.

But you can check the mind. You are never convinced that the seed alone is the whole tree and all the seeds and a number of trees, or that water alone is all its outings, or that fire alone is all the trees. You understand it and then say, “I have understood intellectually.” Well, that’s the functioning of the intellect—that the Source has turned out to become something. It’s the same earth, but it turned out to be a jug. Now you, with your intelligence, see that a jug is earth, or a broken jug is earth, or that earth not made into a jug is earth. But how did a human being become a jug? With that water which is put into earth and then a potter made a jug. Without water, earth will not turn into a form. So without ego, a human being will not turn into a soul. The very soul has been the mind, and the mind became only when the ego-water was put in the Self. Now the mind is a jug, and the jug cannot say “I’m earth,” because the jug sees an earth ball, or itself, as round. Then it becomes form reality, and this is a human being.

So we are doing saadhana and we are seeking, which means asking questions and answering. If you get it, well and good. If you don’t, at any time you will be the same. It doesn’t matter how many millions of times you take birth, but you will reach There. You are There. Because you cannot afford to be anything else and remain this, you will be always That. … When your attention is on That, then age, form or country-allegiance is taken off and the Pure Light or Pure Sky is your consciousness. When that Pure Sky is your consciousness, then form, even if you have it, but you know it is not there. Like dream figures. When you woke up and you remember dream figures, then you know they are not there—yet they are there. Such a thing can happen to the mind. And it is the greatest thing. …

If you know that forms were never there and you are convinced of them, then even if forms are seen with these eyes, you will still be knowing forms were not there—because I was there. That is a kind of freedom that will remove mamata [“my-ness”]. … If you get it, everything will change in your life. … Trust yourself. If you got it, then act according to it. Only you can do it. Guru can give you the information, seeing how much you can take it. Otherwise, he will not. … Mamata means my-ness on that which is not yours. Mamata is my-ness on the body, which is not yours. The body belongs to time. Kaal Devata [the Time God] will eat your body—sooner or later, maybe later, maybe latest. It will belong to that. So why do you worry about it? …

Me is 99.999% compared with Space. You can understand, Do you identify with Space? That is where the work is. And you can do it, because I am saying this and you are hearing it. But that is the saadhana. If you have not done saadhana, you cannot become siddh, perfect. …

When relative consciousness arises, that is called maaya. It is now sorted out, so we can bring it before you and you can work on when maaya arises. Maaya arises at a time when you are born. Maaya has made your body, but it belongs to the one who is knowing, who is the Knower, whose maaya it is. He knows maaya and has ordered maaya to make the body. So maaya is a kind of potter, an “imaginator.” Imagination is maaya. Intelligent persons among you can understand this. When imagination arises, why does it? It cannot do anything original—it will imagine something. But you will interpret, “I have imagined that I am God, I have imagined that I am free.” The imaginator has not seen it, but it has imagined, and imagined on the basis of something. That imagination has been given to a human being—not to the body, for if the body lies dead or in sleep, imagination is not there. So now you have come to know that imagination is not there. But when I will stop you will think, “I have imagination.” That doesn’t leave you. When it leaves you, then you are free. …

We’ll close the eyes and remember from where the words “welcome” and “farewell” arise. They are two words on the level of obvious form—a person is arriving and a person is going—so the meaning differs. But that which is non-different Being is ever the same. When you become one with That, which means your individual I or mind does not have any resistance to somebody’s coming or somebody’s going, then that state is sam [even, one]. But in that sam, consciousness arises, which becomes “I am awake,” which becomes “I am speaking,” and which becomes a sense that “I am welcoming, I am giving a farewell.” That is why every single day we check that which is no samvedan, no consciousness of duality, rather which is sam. When it is sam, then it is not san-sar [world], it is only sam. It is not asar, or negative.

In English, we have the word “pure.” Pure has no meaning unless you put another word along with it in juxtaposition, such as pure butter, pure heart, pure action, or pure experience. But the word “pure” has no meaning, just as the word Om has no meaning. Why? That which is the dualistic sense of the intellect or mind does not exist there. What is that? We are fortunate enough to have met each other because of That.  That is You. And from that side, this is You. From my side, “That is you and this is me.” From your side, “This is you and that is me.” When me and you are interpreted only in relation to the body, it is duality. But when from where thought appears, from where sound appears, from where meaning appears is realized, then we don’t dwell on the apparent meaning, or the words. We get to that which is unapparent, which is our original nature, the Truth, the Source.