What Remains?

“Unborn Undying” has become very famous, but one has to know its underlying meaning. That remains hidden, because it has not been expressed to you—for you have to use your intelligence to check what it means. When you use the intellect to check your state of Unborn, you will find that there is nothing: it is zero, shoonya, or like the sky. When I say you are Unborn, you will know “you” as meaning the body. So you will wonder and question, “Why is it said that I am Unborn when I am born?” This shows the human mind will always remain wondering on the point, “What is Unborn and what is born?” He will prefer to get the meaning of born as the body or the appearance of the body. So he will say, “I am born, but I don’t think I am Unborn.” But the idea behind this, as expressed by scriptures or a teacher, is you should know who you are.

If you are born, then you are an apparent manifestation; and if you are Unborn, then you are unmanifestation. If you are born, you are saakaar, with form; if you are not born, then you are niraakaar [formless].But when you will inquire into yourself, by again and again examining, you will see that you do not know niraakaar, nor do you know saakaar either. Neither do you know “I am born,” nor do you know “I am Unborn.” This means that both will be cancelled. That will be baadh, which means it will be eliminated—your Unborn and born both. What remains? That is being indicated to you, that That you are. When I say, “You are That,” then you say you are niraakaar, or formless, because you know “I am this.” So I say, “You are this, but this is not right, because you are That.” Then you’ll say, “Why is this not alright?” And I will say, “This will die. It is changing already. Why do you call it reality?”

So you will understand, and the unfoldment will take place of that knowledge which may assist you to know your own true nature. Then you will say, “Well, I’m really not this body. That is what Swamiji says, that’s what scriptures are saying.” Everyone concludes, “I am not this body” and so thinks, “If I’m not this body, then I will not die.” So then I’ll say, “You are undying.” Why? Because you know the body and death and birth. But what is that which is anubhav, which is experience, which is knowing that this body-born—which is not real—will die? And what is that which is not born and is not unmanifest, which is real? So real is your truth. That truth is so much hidden to the mind that, however hard you try, the mind either makes this or that. On that day I had said, “This Manohar is the same as That,” I had said, “That Manohar.” When you hear, “That Manohar,” it means Manohar is somewhere That. But I say, “This is the same Manohar.” What am I saying? I am cancelling That—and I’m cancelling this. And whatever you are knowing, that Knower is the reality, that Knowingness is the reality.

Not many people can apply their understanding to this point, because they are established in “I am this.” Each says, “I am this.” This is to be cancelled again and again by “I am That.” Scriptures are saying it, the mahavaakyas [great statements] are there, like Tat Twam Asi, You are That. A man hears this and says, “What’s the meaning? It’s all fictitious, false.” Whereas scriptures are saying it’s very simple: Thou art That. Because you think “thou” is this which will die, and you don’t want to die, so I say, “Thou art That.” Then you’ll say, “Yeah, if I know That, then this will not die.” [Laughter] But that is also not there, it’s already dead.

Under all circumstances you are hearing me: That, Pure Free Forever. Pure Free Forever is not like water after hearing about a bubble. If I say, “The bubble is water, and water is Pure Free Forever, and because it has never been involved by the bubble or wave, so water is pure,” then you can understand that water is and the bubble is also water. But when I say, “Thou art That,” That is not being seen, heard or known. So how to approach a brilliant human being who actually wants to realize That? His ambition is to realize the Highest.

Now, this flower is. When the flower is gone, when it is not, that is what a human being knows. But the flower was never there. You say, “It’s alright, when the flower will not be there, I’ll be alright,” but that which you call alright is also mental. For the unmanifest is also not. So neither is there saakaar nor is there niraakaar. But how to approach the knowledge of saakaar and niraakaar? How, without your Knower, will you know saakaar? How, without your Knower, will you now think of niraakaar? So niraakaar is cancelled and saakaar is cancelled. You remain. That is Pure Free Forever. Thank you. [Applause]

To that which a human being has become established in, we have to do baadh. Baadh means complete elimination. … A small child does not know what the world and God are. Why? Because he is born as a body, and the body became his upaadhi, a qualification, a condition. “The upaadhi of the soul,” “the body and the soul,” we understand like this. So we speak of the mind and body, the soul and body, the ego and senses. This we continue. But when the body was not born, there were no upaadhis.

When you were not a filmmaker Jonty, you were not a filmmaker; when you were not a father Jonty, you were not a father; when you were not a husband Jonty, you were not a husband. But how is it that one person is a filmmaker, a father, a husband and soon a grandfather of a grandson? That means these are upaadhis. Now upaadhis are not, yet they are considered to belong to Jonty. Jonty is born, so Jonty-born is an upaadhi, which means something visible. In the case of a qualification, like an MA or BA, it’s not visible, so we say it’s a degree or qualification. Yet even to these, we say, “I am.” In this way, we say, “I am the body”; as “I am an MA,” so “I am this body.” The same thinking. As long as you are “I am the body,” then this is an upaadhi. Of whose? Of the soul. And if God says, “I am God,” what is that? “I am an upaadhi because of the world.” Then, “I am the world.” Then, you are God. This upaadhi belongs to whom? Who is saying this illusion? It’s an illusory filmmaker sitting over here. But we don’t love him as he is. We love him as a filmmaker, as a father, as a boy, as a lover, as a son. This is what the worldly mind is.

So the worldly mind is mental. Then the world is mental. But if you say, “The world is mental,” people hear this and leave it. They don’t inquire what “mental” means. How will this world become mental? It is concrete: concrete flowers, concrete everything. We are seeing the world. I am seeing the body. How are they mental? No one will understand this. Because that which is our reality and we want to call Unborn Unchanging Undying, Pure Free Forever, is unknown to the human mind and senses. And a human being is using his senses and mind to deal with all the forms and situations. Therefore, he will never know it. But he wants to know it. If he wants to know it, then the answer must be there. If he wants to know that reality, that reality must be there. But how should you communicate to a person who does not know?

Therefore, when the teacher, guru, aware or realized person comes, then you know him by the Self itself, because you and he are the same. But then you have your body, so how can you be the same? So Chaytan Aatma will say, “Look, you have a beard and I haven’t. So how is it that you say you are me? So I’ll try. I’ll study.” Twenty-four hours a day for forty years she’s studying, “How can I be Guruji? How can I be Guruji? Maybe I will close my eyes, then I can be Guruji. I can open my eyes, read the Gita, read about Self, Oneness, Krishna and all that”—that’s all written, because we try to repeat the same thing again and again.

So study doesn’t work. And action does not work. And your devotion does not work. So what is going to work for an intelligent man at this time? They all died before and they were intelligent. [Laughter] We are in the present day, and we know for certain that “I really don’t want to die.” That’s the main thing. That is, death. But nobody says, “I don’t want to take birth.” Watch! [Laughter] Rather, people are elated about birth, again and again it is appreciated. Yet all born people say, “I don’t want to die.” That means they have never lost the knowledge. Even when a man is a born-man, he himself knows, “I don’t want to die.”

This means we do not know where our I is. But at least it indicates; “I don’t want to die” is the indication. I hear it and understand that he is afraid of death, he denies it. But what is that which he is holding himself as? He is holding himself as that where birth was not. Now, how would you approach a brilliant human being? A dull human being nobody wants to approach [laughter], because you conclude he is not going to understand anything. If you don’t want to die, then certainly in the same knowledge you have the Knower that “I don’t want to take birth.” I use the words “birth and death.” For millions of years, this wheel is going on in the head of a human being, so man’s mind is a wheel. Because he thinks birth, he thinks death. When he comes here, birth; when he comes a little up, death; when he goes there, heaven; when he comes over here, earth; when he goes there, hell. So hell and heaven and birth and death are the same thing: hell means death and birth means heaven. But even after you get birth, you are again going to be in hell.

Now the jigyaasu [inquirer], the real being—maybe among you, all of you are such—will know, “Look, if this is the wheel of birth and death and it is unending, it cannot be eliminated. And I want it to get eliminated. Then what should I do?” I say, “Make efforts.” Such a person is ready to make efforts. [Laughter] So he says, “Well, in the sixth chapter of the Gita, Arjun says, ‘I don’t think I can do it. Why? Because my mind is so fidgety. I have tried hard, but it never stops, it never stops.’ And I don’t think anyone can do it.” So Krishna answers, “It can be done, but it will take time. You can listen to what I say.”

Krishna says, “You are just Me. You do not have to make very great efforts. Just know you are Me.” But Arjun is holding “Me” as Arjun, so he wonders how Krishna can say, “You are Me.” So Arjun says, “Well, you are deluding me somewhere.” And Krishna says, “I have already deluded you. [Laughter] That’s my maaya. With my power, you are deluded. But now I am opening it. You should accept it. Why have you become the victim of your own mind?” Arjun asks, “Then what should I do?” Krishna answers, “You should devote your mind to Me. Surrender your mind to Me. Do not function from your mind at all.” So then what does Arjun say? “What happens to those people who are devoted to you and die early?” [Laughter] He cancelled that. After the whole chapter, in the end, he said this. So then Krishna says, “Don’t worry. They will be born again to a good family and good people.” And the chapter ends. [Laughter] So satsang ends and death takes place. And you say, “This time, I couldn’t do it. Next time, wherever you go, take me along. And then I’ll learn and practise.” You also want me to be with you! [Laughter]

So there is Krishna, Oneness or the Self. Now, all of you, cancel everything that I have said. Now you begin to understand or realize: Pure Consciousness is your anubhav [experience]. That Consciousness exists. You cannot deny it. So when you say that Consciousness exists, then you are also supposed to know Existence. Because if Consciousness exists, then Existence must be there. You are knowing an existing body and then existing consciousness in the body. You are knowing an existing body that dies, and you are knowing consciousness that is the mind, which also dies and then also is not there, which you have seen: sometimes the body is not, sometimes the mind is not. So you are convinced that birth and death will continue like this. Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not. When the mind comes in the morning, you are born; when the mind goes in the evening in deep sleep, you are dead.

This is maaya, magic or the power which is unknown, indescribable. Yet you are supposed to know that if it is indescribable, then you are making me quiet. I cannot do anything, because I cannot describe. But I’m saying it is indescribable so that you should not apply your mind to the things which can’t be described. That which cannot be described is not your birth, not your death. It is before birth and after death. You know between birth and death. Yet, because of what is in between birth and death, you came to know before birth and after death. That means you are That, that Knower, who knows before birth and after death.

But as soon as the body is born [he snaps his fingers], it forgets. That’s why I said yesterday that the Chilean rock could be drilled, but you can’t get a person out of ignorance. Ignorance is so colossal, so rigid, so much in the waking and dream states that again and again you become the body, again and again the body. So we have to do baadh. Many times Manohar said, “I am that very Self which Swamiji has said. I have understood. So I’m not this body.” Now, he said, “I am not this body” in front of so many people. If you are not this body, why do you impress it upon them? Remain not the body and be free. So again and again I have to say you have to maintain the body. Because if the body were not there, who would understand? If Manohar-body were not there, who would understand that Existence or Consciousness is there? So I say that the body-incarnation is a must.

Now, incarnation has taken place. But this does not mean that I’m saying it is a must, so it should be a must. Because if it is a must, then you’ll have all the trouble again and again, the same trouble. There will be a mother, father, brother, sister and all this paraphernalia. There will be conditions, and until you die you will be waiting, “My mommy, daddy, brother and children should come and see me. My cow and dog should come and see me.” You’ll be so conditioned in that. And you need freedom. If you need freedom, it means you know Freedom. So I define it: Freedom is Pure Free Forever. Freedom is not consciousness which you have seen in the mind. The mind changes and ends in the night. The consciousness which you call consciousness-me changes and dies. Existence also, which you are born with and think you’ll remain, changes and dies. So neither consciousness is true nor matter is true. …

A human being got caught by a human being, yet he has the possibility to be free, because he can become his own friend, which means his own Self. There are no words for it, but I have to use some words. A bubble has the possibility to remain a bubble and can become his own friend if he knows, “I am water.” If he wants to be his own enemy he can say, “I am this form-consciousness.” So as long as you want to be aware and get help, who will give you help? Only you. You are your own enemy and your own friend. When we say a friend, you think of somebody else; an enemy, you think of somebody else. I’m speaking about your mind. The mind is that which was never there yet has assumed, “I am a man.” You can understand the mind was never there, but you think a man was there. When the mind was not there, then where was the man? Because it’s the man—it’s the mind, the ego—which has formulated the whole world.

But human understanding is so limited that it cannot hear that Nameless Formless is your reality. He understands Nameless Formless as niraakaar and no mind, no consciousness. So we know consciousness-existence. We do not talk about birth and death all the time, because that means the body. You think that birth and death is of the body, that the body will be burned or buried, but the mind has nothing to be buried or burned. You think, “My mind can go to Halifax and be my mom. So how does this mind get burned or buried?” But I’m saying you are not even the mind. You are not the mind, senses or body—which you can understand, because seeing a dead man you can understand it. You say, “Well, this can also be applicable to me,” and you remain at the same place. Whereas I’m saying you have the power—original power—and original power is neither consciousness nor existence, neither zero nor millions, neither words nor wordless, neither birth nor death. The description can be given in this way to a human being. Then you say, “What is that? Give me something to hang on to.” So I say yes, because I am aware that you can get it. How can you get it, if I don’t give you a clue? If I don’t give you a path, how can you reach the goal?

So I have to give you something which belongs to you. You are not supposed to obey or to know because I have said it. Because whatever I have said, you will forget in the night when you sleep. Again in the morning you will become the same person, and again you can repeat it, read it in scriptures again and again, and say that, “Swamiji said this thing.” So this is the system of a human being. You are not at all at fault, you have never committed a mistake. Man is like this that he appears to have taken birth and he appears to have taken death. This is the general knowledge of the whole universe, or of the universal mind. Among all, you are the ones who are determined to be free, and you are making your efforts.

What is that effort? It is very simple. Very, very simple. Very simple. The effort is you close your eyes. Everything completely dissolves, this world is dissolved. But it is dissolved to the eyes. So again you do not know, because consciousness is there and it is attached to the body and senses and so has become conditioned. Now, you are hearing. How can a dead man hear? You will conclude: Life. How will the life of a mad man hear? It means all your arguments are so futile that they do not help you. And you do not yet have the power to accept that which should be your conclusion—not what I say. I give you a path, a way, a technique, a word which indicates Thou art That, I am That. Your nature is Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, because you are not ready to die and you are not ready to become diseased and sick. That means you are Immortal Blissful already.

I can speak up to this point. But now when speech stops, where are the words? Your Being should know. Now, when words are not there and forms and speech are not there, where is name and form, where is the world? There I’ll say, “Whatever remains is there, ever-present.” You are sitting, but you should identify with that which is ever-present rather than with this upaadhi. So baadh karo. Just have baadh. Baadh means remove: remove your condition of the mind which is colouring the I, which says, “I am the mind. Not only am I the mind and know the subject, I am representing I as the mind. I am the mind, the mind am I.” And I say, “No, look: you are Space.”

There it is wordless Pure Consciousness. I use the word “Pure” again and again, again and again, because you are established in consciousness and existence—of the visible body and comprehensible consciousness. The one who is You still has anubhav. But your anubhav is “I am a body.” Your anubhav is “I saw a dream and ate a dinner.” You woke up, and then neither was the dinner there nor was the anubhav there. So I’m not saying that anubhav is reality. That which remains when the waking state, dream state and deep sleep state mind or illusion subsides or becomes baadh is not duality, not the reality of this kind which you make.

This becomes possible for the one who will identify with That. How simple it is! Wherever you go, you are sure, “I am That.” You are writing a drama or a thesis, you are studying alright. You are seeing the world, moving here, sitting in an airplane, living with your relations, with your mommy, daddy, brother and sister, with the whole paraphernalia. Why do you have to renounce anything? Renounce only this identification. Don’t become deidentified and then have satisfaction. Many people say, “I’m nobody.” It does not mean that you become the Real Being that you want by saying, “I am nobody.”

We can speak of deidentification and identification. But even the word “identification” is not known. Why? Suppose you are Dr Satyam, or Dr Ellen Rosenberg. Neither Ellen, nor Rosenberg nor Dr were your names, nor even was your body born. When I say these things, it’s not that I cancel them. Live the way you are, whatever you are doing. But check if you can realize what I am saying: that is the Me. So Me, being realized, or Me, who has realized, is speaking about Me, forever the same. Me alone has been like Space, or sky. The world was never there. Even if I say this, it is wrong to say. That’s why I sometimes don’t say that the world is or is not, that Manohar is or is not. Me is equal to the Self, which a man identifies as a body. And I say, “No, just do baadh. Do remove.”

Baadh is a very good word. Do baadh. The sentences you have heard and made a meaning of and the sentences which have not been spoken and you thought you got, both are not. And you are hearing this from me. Neither you are saakaar nor are you niraakaar. Pure Knowingness is there. That Knowingness is Oneness. This is possible in your anubhav. I speak of anubhav because you are a human being, and a human being has experienced that every single sentient being has the identification that “I am this form.” But the Knower-I has never become the form, the Knower is still the Knower. But when an ordinary person hears of the Knower, he takes the Knower and puts it in the mind, body and senses, in the earth and all that. So you should not become ordinary. You are unique. You are beyond any example. That which remains, these words convey.

That is the Knower in the waking state. The Absolute Knower does not have to know. This human incarnation, this human body, this human form is most essential for this purpose. It is not essential for suffering and dying. The purpose of the human body is only for this: you have always been, you are ever-present. Don’t associate with the things in time and space and causation, which appear and die. You are neither the soul nor the body, nor are you God. Those are upaadhis, those are names. So in order to approach you, the brilliant ones, I say that you are wherever name and form do not exist. Then I’m expecting you to know that your understanding of name and form, that illusion, also does not exist. If you know that, you came to realize. …