Do I Know Knowledge Or Not?

In short, we can know the meaning of vivek and vairagya. We use these words, we have already told you many times, for the discrimination between happiness and unhappiness. A human being doesn’t want to do those things that harm him. Things which harm him come to him thrown by people who are ignorant, or created by himself when he is ignorant. So vivek or knowledge is needed, that’s all. From anything that is a hindrance to the state of knowledge you have to have vairagya, or take off. …

This is where, as a fully developed human being, you begin with knowledge. Now suppose you are such a fully developed human being, then it is your initiative to find out that which you like to be. You don’t like to be full of pain, sad, or suffering. Yet while living in society, unless you suffer, they don’t appreciate you as a human being. [Laughter.] Then you can understand where you are, who you are talking to, and why you are talking all that. That’s why when we meet together, then we are two persons, and so we can talk to each other and can understand something. But when we meet so many people at one time, we cannot know what they want.

A human being needs to know himself, how he grew and what happened to him, why he began to call himself a girl or boy, a male or female, when he was not female or male, and when after he’s burned, in the end, he is ashes. So if you take his ashes, or his end, he’s not a human being. But the question will arise that he is a human being now and not ashes. Since we are not ashes, so we have to take a human being into consideration as he’s made. Thus, according to whatever has been done for the last several millions of years, we are taking them as human beings.

But only to those persons … [who have worked on this subject] I’m speaking of vivek and vairagya, knowledge and discrimination, not to all. If you go to your places and meet persons and relations, wherever you are, talk to them that which human beings need to talk, rather than start talking about Pure Free Forever, Self Realization, Self Knowledge, and all those words which they have never heard.

So when you come here and say, “This is my mind, and I as the Sky became the mind,” then it gives you a chance for study, that if you have intelligence, then why is it at one time you say “I am Sky,” while at another time you say “I am a body”? Then come some of the things which your mother and father, or elders or Guru, who would sympathize with you, would say. Then, what is that which you want? Knowledge begins from here.

As I said in the beginning, you want knowledge of the Sky and of this body. Knowledge will not be of the sky and earth. Any geography student can tell you what is the earth and what is the sky and what is in between. So it is your personal work in the waking state to inquire what is that where you are born from? And born from whom? You can answer, “My mother.” Then such questions are asked, “Then, from where was your mother born?” So you remain only in the field in between the birth and death of a human being. That is where you want to have this knowledge that “I am unhappy,” which you cannot say to anybody. Because if you say you are unhappy, then they say, “What have you done? What have you achieved?” Even if you are sad, you say, “I am ok. Yes, I was unhappy, but I enjoyed it.” [Laughter.] So we do not know what it is. So this is a personal study that you have to do: what do you stand for in this lifetime?

Everyone says you should take Guru’s knowledge and spread it everywhere. So now we’ll say to … [someone leaving Kullu], “You have achieved Guru’s knowledge, so speak about it over there—Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.” Nobody will easily understand what Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum is. Why would you like to change them? Then, you have to find some people who can understand your meaning of words. The meaning of words can be shown very easily. And I expect you to be that meaning: happiness. If you remain happy, everyone will come to you. I’m not happy, still people come to me. [Laughter.]

The greatest weakness is that whenever you learn anything, you want to teach it to people. If you learn how to knit a sweater, you want to teach your friends. You have learned how to make karaylas [a vegetable] and you want to teach everyone how to make them. It’s not that: they don’t want to learn what you have learned.

You have learned Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, so why is it that you are not that? That is the study. And that study is not being done, because you have not practised it. You have practised all the time, “I have to get up in the morning and go to the bathroom, go for breakfast, have tea, and have other things,” whether you need them or not. So the whole day, from morning till evening, you practise the body. And the body is not the meaning of your Self. So if you practise meaning—that’s all—then you’ll become meaning. That is where a human being stands, whatever he does. If you practise the meaning Pure Free Forever, why would you think, “My mind comes”? Or my ego comes? Or my ignorance comes? There is no ignorance in You.  There is no ego in You. There is no mental disruption in You. There is nothing that can touch You. You are that uninvolved state of Pure Awareness.

It is to know that. The practice is not like you are practising as a parrot does, “I am David, who are you? I am David, who are you?” Everyone says, “I am David, who are you?” A parrot. So this is not parroting things. But everybody learns his subjects by practising like a parrot. There are some great musicians here; they are great parrots. Of what? Music. Everything that they know is music. Now, how can we put them down? They are most wonderful people. We put them on stage and say, “You go and play for me.” Everybody is extracting something from you, and you have practised that. You have computer engineers, and you want them to do all those things, like on the internet etc, so that this message should go. Who learns it? And you think, “If I can give it to these people, they will learn it.” When you come over here and stay for thirty or forty years and still you do not learn this fully, then how can you expect them to?

We have seen living with a wife or husband, they don’t learn; living with a father and mother, they didn’t learn; living with children, they do not learn; living with assistants, they do not learn. So, what is that which each person needs? And that is you, personally. So when personally you know, “I am Pure Free Forever,” then you can safely talk about it—rather than every time talk about mind and ignorance, about love and aversion.

Love cannot be without two persons. And knowledge cannot be without two things. Whereas only Knowledge and only Love do not need a subject and an object. For that, you have to dig Knowledge in your real Being. You have to be silent for some time and check: Where is this Knowledge? You will come to know that thoughts are coming, or ideas are coming. They cannot come from the wall, your stomach, your skin, your eyes, or your ears—these are the faculties with you. So, from where are thoughts coming? You will come to know. Somebody will answer you. First, you hear him: Thoughts come from Knowledge. Then, dig Knowledge: Do I know Knowledge or not? Then close your eyes, or be quiet and watch. And question. The answer will come. The answer is Knowledge. That’s all. …