Three Ways To Liberation

… How can you clean a human being? And he wants to be free from this confusion. The confused state is the same as cloth with dirt; and he doesn’t want to have it. Why? Because he has been Pure. How should he know what has happened to him, when no one has done it? It was all he himself: he got into the situations, he adopted the sanskaars—the projections, or impressions of things—and then he became impressioned.

Every human being is impressioned. We call them san-skaars. Sanskaar means he was pure Sam, he was pure Even; then aakaar, or form. Everything, wherever he had gone, was aakaar. Even if he had gone to a swimming pool, now he remembers the swimming pool; he had gone to the ocean, now he remembers the sand, the mountains, this and that. Televisions, newspapers, daily everything entered into him. How pure he was, and how muddy he has become. You have to know it, that you want to be pure. And I say you are Pure Free Forever. How can you understand Pure Free Forever? You cannot go and become a one-day old child, or even one-week old. Because there are sanskaars, a heap of mountainous garbage on the head. … And a human being has taken on this whole garbage by himself.

If he has chosen everything that he did, who can release him—if he does not become aware? Somebody should tell him, “It is you who chose all this, all the relations, all the illusions, all the mamata [sense of mine], all the moh [attachment], all the ahankaar [ego], all the intellectual decisions, all your ego fancies, all your senses and sensualities.” Who did it? It was he himself, who was pure at one time. But now he has all these things. I have not to answer. You came to know. You became a computer engineer, not me. Now, the mouse does not go away from you. … [He names various professions and the lives of people sitting there.] Who chose this? It is your own choosing. What can Guru do? Guru has been telling you, “Well, look, you are Pure Free Forever. You were born free, you are free, and you will remain free.” But you should know where that freedom is. Who will tell you?

But people respond, “No, I feel like this. I feel like that. You try to do something. You clean it.” I have cleaned my garbage. That I can do. In my house, whatever was there, I cleaned it. On my mirror, what was there I cleaned. In my gold it was there, I purified it. All my clothes, I cleaned. But how can I go to you and clean that which is in your head? So, who is responsible? You yourself. But I can give you a technique. And if you can understand it, you are released now.

When you were born, you did not bring anything of the kind that I have described. So nothing belongs to you. All that which you say, “This belongs to me, that belongs to me, that belongs to me” … [it all changes and goes.] You did not bring anything with you. But now you claim they are yours, just because of the body. … You were not the body at one time, so you must have adopted this body due to some mechanism. Here they say it is because of your karmas, your actions; your past actions made you this. You had some good karmas so that you are sitting in satsang, and some bad karmas so that you have to go and be in hell. Both the things are there. Why are both good karmas and bad karmas there? Because of the loss of knowledge of your Self. The moment you lose the knowledge of your own Self—immortal, blissful, Pure Free Forever—you become the mind and the acquisitions and achievements of the body and of everything that belongs to the body. The body is there and you are there. You chose every act of the gunas, every act of the eyes, every act of the ears, every act of your eating, drinking and doing, and all the cells that are moving, and you began to say, “I am doing it.” …

Now you are living in the field of that lie with which a human being has forgotten the Truth. The Truth is, “I am Pure Free Forever.” And the untruth or lie is, “I am the body acting, doing things, owning things, owning my relations,” and all that. I say your I is Pure Free Forever. But you are already the body-I. So you say, “The body must be the changing I.” Your I changes. But I am saying, “No, no, your I is Pure Free Forever I. I cannot be anything else but I.” But you are already trained into those sanskaars, into a heap of habits. … On the relative field, each person has become relatively habit-ridden: habitual in this, habitual in that, habitual in that. What do they say? “It is all needed. My eyes need to see flowers, my ears need to hear music, my nose needs to smell fragrance, my tongue needs good gourmet food, my hands need to feel the soft little poodle dog, my feet need to go to the high mountains.” …

When you have come to satsang, what happens to your sanskaars? You are sitting, but there is no sanskaar of any kind. It is me who is imaginarily making all these things. There is nothing in your head. Why? The moment you are in satsang, you are free from sanskaars. And that state you need. … I know the value of your awareness—Pure Free Forever, immortal and blissful, which you are. That is Me. But you think yourself a body. And with that body, your eyes see only bodies. Your eyes have the mind, and the mind and body are both defective, for they see forms—that is their movie. You cannot change the movie of the eyes, so that they can see something for something else. They exactly see these flowers, the flower vase, the paper, all this, and me. But you think, “He must have the same type of habits that I have.” So I have to become the ideal, I have to act totally against you. Everything that binds you, I release it. I clean it. From the broom, the Brahm. [Applause]

I say you have chosen to be like this, and you have lost the power and have become small. You chose it. So you are the one—if you are reminded of your own power—who can choose something higher, all the time Highest Awareness, “I am Pure Free Forever.” Then, what will happen? This “I am Pure Free Forever” will rain on your intellect and your intellect will become Pure Free Forever. The function of the intellect, which is all pain, suffering, and decision material, will change. It will be reformed, relaxed and expanded, and it will say that everybody’s I is Pure Free Forever. …

If you do not succeed in changing the consciousness of the body, you will never become Guru consciousness, liberated or free consciousness. So Guru is the one who releases you and tells you only those things with which Self Realization-knowledge should arise. For all the knowledge that has been gained by you is for making forms, forms and forms. …You are having all your thoughts and ideas and saying, “This is very important, that is very important.” Death is waiting, yet you say, “This is very important”! Watch. So here, when you come to satsang, you are actually overhauled. [Applause] Then it is me who says, “No, no. You go there, do your duty and perform the responsibilities you have taken on yourself. Whatever you have taken on, you have to do it. You have taken it yourself.” One day somebody told me, “Swamiji, you tell me all these things, that I have to go here and go there, that I have to do this and do that.” I said, “I say this because you are a devotee and you will listen to me, so you will go as Me, not as you.” And the devotee [he snaps his fingers] within one minute is released forever.

There are three types of releasers. Should I tell you? [The audience says, Yes!] … People are active, they are karm yogis. Through action, they also want to be free. They do so much action, so they should have some technique that they should be free. There is a technique for that. What is meant for those who are doing duties and responsibilities, who are going home, where they will be with their wives and husbands, their children, their businesses, and all that, what should they do? While acting, they should know that without the Being, without the Spirit, the breath, without the source of the breath, they cannot act. Therefore, who is acting? The higher Being, the free Being. This mind, this ego which works, which does actions and all that and says, “I’m doing this,” you should dedicate to That. I call that Guru. Guru means the liberated state, Self Realization. But when you see that Guru is here, then you think, “Well, Swamiji, I can leave this thing and that thing to you, and then I’ll be free.” No. This is not what I am saying. Guru is not there.

Guru is every being, but it is prior to the sky, prior to ahankaar, the ego-consciousness, prior to the wave of consciousness of the Self. The Self sea is Pure Free Forever. But out of that Self-free the morning-I starts. In deep sleep, it was alright, but when the wave comes in the morning, that is consciousness. The very consciousness is your I-ignorant, the “I am the body.” Then the whole thing goes on. Since this has been spoken about, if you are active, you can dedicate every action, whatever you do, to the highest Being. … So, through action you can be free. Then you’ll never bind your actions. Anything that you do—if you make money, make things, make hospitals, produce children, love, make movies and all that— do it, but dedicate it to God. Because without God, you really cannot breathe in, you cannot speak, you cannot see. Dedicate it to God, who is your Self. …

How to do this? While acting and doing, take time to close your eyes, for five to ten minutes, somebody may do it for two hours, but keep dedicating everything. Know, “I am not doing this. If Guruji has sent me, then he is doing it. He should be worried, not me. I have to know the rules, and according to that I have to act, but I should not be caught by anything.” You have been given that much intelligence that you can do your job wherever you are. This became freedom through action.

The second is freedom through study. What do you have to do? Through study, you have grown up into an intelligent person. This you know. But in that you can ask what is that which you have learned which is changing? What is that which you have not learned which is Unchanging? So in study you decide that that which is changing, that is not you; and that which is Unchanging, which is Forever, that is you. Again, you will come to know the Unchanging through meditation. All things are changing—ideas, thoughts, places, forms, everything changes. But when you reach the space where you are unable to figure it out, that space is Unchanging.

To non-meditators it can also be said that when you are going to be awake, before you become the waking state and deep sleep has yet not gone, in between, that is the Self. That is one and the same every time. So your I is forever one. I call it Oneness. You cannot change it. You cannot say “one more” and then it will be two or three. It is “ness,” Oneness. Self-ness is unchanging. So if you know the Unchanging and do your studies, then you keep devoting every time to that unchanging Self.

Now comes those who don’t want to work nor do they want to study. They are also human beings, they also need some technique. [Laughter] Half of you are like that. [More laughter] That technique is very, very simple. It is for people who don’t want to get into those two paths, because they cannot manage them; they are so dull that neither can they act and get liberation nor can they study and get liberation. They say, “I don’t need this and I don’t need that.” But then, how would you be liberated? They say, “You do it.” [Laughter] I say, “Ok. Then if I do it, are you somebody?” At that time the bhakta [devotee] knows, “Yeah, I’m nobody.” This is the bhakta’s stand. He is nobody. He eats, he drinks and does anything and everything for God’s sake, for Guru’s sake, because he has come to know that Guru is permeating the whole universe, the whole active field, the whole study field. Guru is permeating everything, therefore he is nobody. He is nobody means he is Guru.

When Guru sees he is like that, then it is Guru who gives liberation. So it’s alright, if you’re bhaktas, then it’s my duty to give you liberation. If you’re not, then try and make efforts yourself and get it. [Lots of laughter] In this there’s nothing to be worried about. You have nothing to worry about anything. You can buy things, sell things, eat things, go to Dushera, go to Canada and come back, go to New Zealand and come back, but keep knowing, “I am nobody, I do not exist, Self exists.” …

These are three ways to liberation. You can choose one of them. The ball is in your court. You have to hit it and get to the goal. If not, then there is birth and death. You will rotate in millions of incarnations. The first birth will be of a pig. [Laughter] So if you want to save yourself, just listen. Go free from here [the occasion was a farewell]. Wherever you go, you are just that power of devotion. You are doing everything for God’s sake. Since God is not known, so Guru takes the responsibility for God. He says, “Fine, if you call me Guru, then listen to me. Then you are free.” At that time, you don’t have to listen. Just once you have to say, “Well, it’s your job.” That’s all.

Every single day I have been coming and doing things and letting you know this fact that a human being can be liberated through three things. So sometimes I speak about action, sometimes about your studies, and sometimes also about that which is devotion. All of you are fortunate enough that you have all three. We have created a situation that you are the recipient of liberation through these three means. And you will get it. All of you see that you are free. Whatever you have done up to this time, it’s alright. But the moment you came over here, you closed your eyes and you knew that you are free.

That freedom is jeevanmukti, Self Realization, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. It is so concrete that you can feel it. It is so tangible that when you close your eyes, you just see it. It is there. And if you continue, you will come to know that from that Self all the forms are made. They are made first inside, and then they are produced outside. It will be a little bit complicated so I say, you have now reached that stage that you are Pure Free Forever. You just have to know, “That I am.” The idea that “I am this body, I am doing this, I am doing that,” you will reduce this sanskaar slowly and slowly in your meditation.