… That, who speaks and who hears, is Amaram Madhuram. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. When you say Hum, it is not a phrase. It is Hmmm, Hmmm, Hmmm… [pause]. It gets absorbed—in the same Being, who thought to manifest. It’s one Being. When it’s one Being, there is no past, no present, no future. But when a child is born and the sense of otherness, or dwait, arises, then he knows there must be that which is a-dwait [non-duality]. That adwait is Oneness. You have heard of Adwait Vedant. Whenever your mind knows, it is ved: it is something which knows [and ant means end]. But when the knowingness of the mind is absorbed, then it is adwait. …
We can never leave our own abode, the body, yet the one who is identified with the body is someone who has never been the body. But we cannot see him, we cannot know him. Anyone who realizes “That which is within me, out of me, everywhere is just that Me,” his vision becomes so clear, his mind becomes so vast and his heart becomes so full that it covers up the whole universe. Then, all persons are in that heart. So we are human beings, in whom the very God Being, the very Bliss Being, the very Absolute Being is hidden in the cavity of the heart and is our centre.
It is as you see a tree in the heart of a seed. The seed appears to be small, but the whole banyan tree is there. When our eyes see or know the heart as here, inside the body between the ribs, then that becomes a mistake for us. Someone has to correct it, that we are not talking about some blood or a few ribs of a human being, which is this individual identification of a man with his name and form. Rather, we are welcoming That, which is the Space Infinite. That we are. …
It is the Whole. The whole universe is one Self, one atom: Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. We have come to know because of the voice of the universe that Hum is Me. You have seen That is everywhere. It is represented by a dot on top [the bindu, or anuswaar, which is the humming sound in Sanskrit, resonated from the inside channel, and which is represented as a dot].
Those who are Sanskrit scholars know that am is first. Am has no letters for it, it’s just a dot. Am is the highest. So Am represents the Space. That is Am Ram Hum Madhu Ram Hum. … Madhuram Hum is representative of Bliss. And Amaram Hum is representative of the Absolute. Neither is it born nor is it going to die. That which neither is born nor dies, the Space, everybody loves, so it is Madhuram. … You are That which Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum represents. Or, translated in English, we can say you are that which Immortality, Blissfulness, unborn, unchanging, undying represents. …
We close our eyes and we say, “That which I have made as I, or the body-mind-language, that is not Me.” Then, what is Me? Nobody told you. Everybody concludes that when you close your eyes, it is darkness. But Guruji says, “That is Me.” So, for that, you don’t need practise. What do you do? You should know that if you close your eyes and meditate for a few minutes or a few hours, the unfoldment of this perfect knowledge—that I am I—happens.
This is missing. This knowledge has been covered by the body itself, which is born. But now it is covered, as I say that the Space is covered by a jug all around. What is to be done? The jug is to be broken or the lid is to be opened. So in meditation, we open the lid of the intellect. The intellect says, “There is a jug and there is space: two.” Whereas, it’s all Space, the jug was never there. Even if a jug is sitting all around in the Space, you are the Space. But you think that the Space is nowhere, that you are here, sitting in a chair. Whereas somebody’s eyes are open and he will know that Space alone is. …
Annette: … Tell me more about Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. When one offers it, how does that benefit people?
Swamiji: First of all, I can tell you the originality of it. I was meditating. My Guruji had given me a mantra, which was not this. But one day I was meditating, and there was nothing but Space: no thoughts, nothing. It was just like Sky, Sky alone. There were no clouds, no sun, just Sky. I was closing my eyes. And at that time, this, the whole being, was nothing but Sky, because I did not remember this. It was Sky. From the centre of the Sky—which I still see, every single moment I see, whenever I close my eyes—from that Sky, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, a kind of light, appeared. And I heard it, the Sky heard. The very Sky spoke, the very Sky heard, the very Sky understood, and the very Sky is the totality.
This became obvious to me when I opened my eyes. I opened my eyes, I saw everything, but in the light of That. Which means the whole universe was shrunk, or was burned, or had gotten back to that Source; and again I closed my eyes, and from that Source, again the whole universe appeared. When I saw That, I knew That, I had no words. But because I was reading scriptures—the Upanishads, the Vedas and such scriptures—I came to know that all the sages and saints spoke about That. But That is not a word, T-h-a-t, That. It is So-hum [the mantra that sounds like the movement of breath]. Hum is that which is Space; and so, sa, is this, saakaar [form]. Hum is niraakaar, no form, and now that no-form represents Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. And that niraakaar, that formless, is represented by the sound Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.
Thus, whoever repeats it, he automatically gets connected to That. But the intelligence, the intellect and mind, they interfere, they do not allow it to be experienced. It’s a kind of road full of people, full of people, and your car is standing there, you can’t get through. In this way, all our sanskaars, all our impressions of things and forms, are so cluttered, so fixed in it, like a big heap of junk, that we cannot get through. This is what the mind is.
So, what we do? We close our eyes and we repeat:
Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum [he repeats this softer and softer until it is no longer audible] …
Gyan, or knowledge, unfolds, that this sound came from There and became obvious, and now … [pause] it is absorbed in it. Automatically this happens, so we have not to see what the meaning of this is and how it works. You just eat food, you don’t have to know how it works, how you swallow, how the food splits into this and into that: you get satisfaction. So Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum brings that Light, which has been, and forgetfulness is removed. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum tears and removes all kinds of dross, and then you become that clean, pure gold Space, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum knowledge and intelligence.
This is why the mantra has worked miraculously for whoever has come to know Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. Even when I explain the meaning, how would you know that you as a girl were not born one day? That means this form, this indication, is of That. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum is the sound which indicates that Space, so when you stop repeating Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, it automatically goes There. Then your mind, which was riding on the thread of this Space, reaches There. It is unobvious, indescribable. Only that much I could describe in words.
When you are quiet and Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum is going on, it means the whole universe is nothing but Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. But in what form? The Space. When you close your eyes, your Knower knows. As your eyes see the garden and the leaves, so the Knower knows itself, the Space. It’s as if it’s filled with millions of particles, very tiny, smallest particles—like the sun’s rays have particles, they are not full rays. All the particles make the sun and are spread, and it’s called light.
This Space has no name, no form. Therefore, when you repeat the mantra, automatically you start becoming healthy and relaxed, all your faculties begin to work, you become joyful and all that. This does not mean it happens to the body. The body has never been here on earth forever, but this Space is Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum: it remains. So if you don’t take the name of Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, it still is, you are; but you cannot know this without it.
So then we repeat it and know when it becomes quiet. It still goes on without your speaking it with your tongue and teeth. It is as if your mind is knowing: it is just as you know the figures1-2-3-4-5 even if you don’t repeat them, for you still know them and can repeat hundreds of figures. So from that Space, you can know millions of names. You can remember Claire’s mother, you can remember what she was doing, whom she met and whatever she has told you. It is not the memory of someone, it is the Intelligence from where all the beams of memory have come.
That is Pure. That, we call Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. That is Pure Free Forever. The same is birthless, so it is deathless. And every human being is frightened of death, because he has become the body—he has made himself the body, which means he thinks that the Self, that Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, is the body. So he thinks that without the body he cannot speak it, that Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum is second to him and first is his body. Whereas I say no, the Space is first, and then the world of bodies is later on. Not only this one body—the sky body is next to it, the air body is next to it, the fire body is next to it, the water body is next to it, the earth body is next to it, and whatever is on earth is next to it, next to it, next to it. If you take the earth, it reaches water, water reaches fire, fire reaches air, air reaches sky and sky reaches You. That is Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. Thank you. God bless you. [Applause] …
We have to bring the mind into a state of cessation. Somehow, in that silent meditation, it happens. When you close your eyes, the Space, which was involved in words, involved in things, involved in forms, immediately becomes free. The moment you have given rest to the senses, the Space is. Thus, many people tell you to control the mind. That’s not my meaning. Rather, bring the mind and get it absorbed in the Space. And that is possible, because we know thought and we know thoughtlessness. If you can be thoughtless, then you are That: and when you are That, then you are thoughtless—because That also permeates thought. Thus, the Space says: Space is all that there is. So Space is One, as you have come to know. And that’s it. …
What do I say? Listen to the words that I am saying:
Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum
Keep repeating it inside your heart [he begins to sing]:
Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum Amaram Hum Madhuram
Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum, Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hum Hmmmmm Hmmmmm Hmmmmm Hmmmmm … [Meditation] … |