To Remove The Mistake:
Space Is Freedom

On July 15th, Guru Poornima, Swamiji did not attend satsang. He later said that on that day he had meditated for all the souls who were in grief after the terrorist bombings in Mumbai on July 13th. He had Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum sung on Guru Poornima, as a reminder to everyone of the Immortal Being. The following are excerpts from Swamiji’s satsang the following day, July 16th.

… Those who cannot find the mistake cannot remove the mistake. There must be someone who knows where the mistake starts and where it takes place. That is your Senior Self. Your Senior Self means your “Highest Self. This Highest Self is not known by human beings, because they say, “Every human being is like me. My mother, my child, my father, my brother, my auntie are like me.” There is no way for a human being to get emancipation from this rigmarole, or the process of the sense of duality. That is, unless you treat it that you are a very special person who is born on earth for this purpose: to expand the mind and attain the Source of the knowledge of the body, senses and mind. So it is the Source of the knowledge of the mind and senses that must be attained, whereas a human being only has knowledge of the senses and mind. He began to call that knowledge, and if he forgets, then he calls that ignorance. So for him, ignorance is when knowledge is not, whereas such knowledge is already dualistic. So even if that knowledge is not, duality still remains.

Thus, as long as the mind exists, one is left with no alternative but to hear Guru, who informs you that you are the Space. Now, he cannot use any other term. Why? Because the mind knows every term; and it knows its opposite. And the opposite means that he has to oppose you. Then the functioning starts. So Guru, who is the Space, knows the Space, realizes the Space—that Space is the reality. So for Guru, Space is not your photo or your body. For Guru, or the Space, Space is not the earth, not the sun, not the sky. And when Guru says this, the persons who are with the mind are unable to understand; but whatever they do understand is not the mind—Guru knows it.

So you are the Space. But all the scholars are trying to find connections—”What is the connection between a teacher and a student?” If you do not accept that you are unique in knowing the Space, as against all the mind’s outings, or vrittis, which are of contact, relationship or connection, then you are like every human being, who is trying to understand something which is relation to relation, connection to connection. When a connection is there, then you say, “You are my friend.” You are hungry, so you expect your friend to cater your hunger, whereas he is also hungry. Two hungry persons cannot help each other. Two ignorant persons cannot help each other. This human mind is human: the human bodies may be in millions, but the mind is the same. There may be millions of people, but action is the same, energy is the same, vision is the same, hearing is the same.

What is that which the human mind does not want to grasp? The mind is only able to grasp form. When you know this, then again you can be free, because then you know that you are not the mind. When you are not the mind, what remains? Space. Whatever the eyes see and the ears hear, that world is in front of you—and it’s all the mind. Since the mind has forgotten the Self, so the mind is agyani [not knowledgeable of the Self]. Thus, the whole world falls into the category of agyan [ignorance of the Self] and the agyani. …

Now, if you want to follow the same, then you are following the same tradition—that a male is a male and a female is a female. You will never know that when both the male and female are burned, they are Space. When they were not born, they were Space. Try a hundred times to speak to a human being, “In the middle, there must be Space,” still he says, “Well, you say there is Space there, but I see form.” Then, we take the example of his own: the dream. He sees the forms in the dream, but when he wakes up, why does he not see those forms? Guru says, “It is the Space. How would you see form?” But the mind says, “No, I only see form.” So this is the maaya, this is the magic, this is the agyan, this is the mind. Then people have to pass the time—because agyan makes them miserable. So they have to play games and pass the time. … Your parents built the imaginary castle before you when you were a child, that you will live in that with a queen or king. Nobody told you that you are also going to die.

So the body will die. Then we say that you only know birth and death. Yet people do not come here for satsang. Like all of you do not come for satsang. Veena said that yesterday you sang songs and then went; nobody conducted satsang. [Laughter]. It’s the same day as always, nothing happened. Whether it is Guru Poornima or not Guru Poornima, Diwali or not Diwali, Christmas or not Christmas, New Year’s or not New Year’s, time is the same, so why is satsang not there during those celebrations? Because what does a human being like? Bugles, bands, festivals and pleasure fairs. Why? His mind gets a kick out of things and forms. So each human being is ready to be attached to things and forms and relations. … And satsang is to get you out of the thought of birth and death, because that’s all you understand. It’s only for that. You must know that you have come on earth to get out of the idea of birth and death. Suppose you are intelligent enough and the idea of birth and death goes away. Then what remains? Only Life. That Life is the Space. That Thou Art. That I am. Thank you. [Applause] …

Why is Guru Poornima on the day of Poornima, or the full moon? Where is the full moon? Why is it not Guru fifth, Guru sixth, Guru half, Guru fifteenth or Guru first? All of you are now fully capable to understand, with your intelligence, that the sun is the sun and the moon is the moon, and that we take the moon into consideration not for heat but for light—which is liked by us, which is liked by all creatures, by all sentient and insentient beings. Without the sun, sentient and insentient beings could not exist. If the sun were not there at all, no progeny could ever come. So the sun is there, but the sun’s light is not the same kind of light as moonlight. Why does this difference happen? If the question is asked to you, you have several explanations; if you fear the examination, then you’ll say something—not to define it, rather, to get good marks.

That means a human being does not know why this Poornima is. If they say that Poornima is because of the sun and because of the earth and that it became in this way and that way, then it’s alright. But why does the whole earth move? Does your intelligence make it move? Or do you order it with your mind and intellect to move? That means you are those persons who are not children, who are not MA’s, PhD’s or doctors who don’t care about this. They say that it happens that a child is born, but they never question why a child is born, why a male child is born, why a female child is born, and what the purpose of this child is. They don’t question.

You hear these words, but you are expected to get into knowing that no mind can do it, no earth or grass blade can produce children. They don’t have the intelligence of the kind a human being has. Then who is that whose intelligence is better than a man’s? You will say an elephant, because he is bigger and he can bring down big trees. Now, what is that? There, a human being stops. And I’ve heard people saying, “I do not know. God knows.” If God knows, then you must be knowing that God knows. But you do not believe in this, that God knows. Why? You are established in, “I know that God knows.” [Laughter] Watch! You are still doing the trip of your ahankaar, your ego: “I know that God knows. Whether God knows or not, it doesn’t matter, but because I know that God knows—so God knows.”

So we cannot use the word “God.” And we cannot use the words “Pure Intelligence,” because people say, “Without a human being, where is Pure Intelligence?” Arguments are there. Then what do we say? That which you do not know and you cannot grasp. And what is that? Space. So we translated all the words into “Space.” But then again you wonder, “Space does not use words. So what is the source of words? Space cannot be the source of words.” But from where does your mouth say, “Ah,” if not from the Space? You cannot say, “Ah,” if you are dug in the earth. In this way, we throw some words for you to start examining, which you have not done before. When you come to satsang, you do not come only to celebrate Guru Poornima. The photographs were sitting there [the day before], of one Guru [Swamiji] and a second Guru [Swami Ramaanand]. And you said, “This is my Guru, and that is his Guru.” …

Poornima is the day of the full moon. Now, the full moon cannot be reduced a bit into the moon on the fifteenth day of its cycle, nor can the whole moon be reduced into how it appears on its first day. Why is the first day of the moon like that? And why is the fifteenth day of the moon like that? You cannot say. It is neither less nor more. That is Poornima. So any human being who reaches that height of awareness which knows the Space—which is neither less nor more—has realized the Space. Because Space is of the type that it is neither less nor more; it neither dies nor does it take birth. So, about anyone who understands the nature of the Space, Krishna says, “Any mind which is absorbed, which is in love with the Me, the Space, he is the highest, and I take care of him.”

You hear these words because I speak them, because there is some reference. So for you, I am the only reference with whom you hear and see and then are able to conclude, “Why did he not come yesterday? When everybody came from faraway places and they were sitting with their flowers, with their garlands, with their food, and all those things, had they come only for that?” They had come to have the darshan of Guru. And they say that Guru is a person. So they came to see a person; and Guru has a neck, so they had to bring a maala, or something like that. Why? So they could say, “That’s my maala, and I can see it on Guru’s neck. But it’s my maala. And it’s Guru’s neck. If I put it on myself, then I cannot see it. So I put my maala on Guru’s neck so that I can get a double advantage.” [Laughter]. “Everything is mine, but I offer it to you.” The moment you offer it, it is not yours. The moment I take it, it’s not mine. Because I say, “It’s yours.” And you say, “No, I have offered it.” The difference is that for Guru, for the Space, all is Me. And for them, “No, no. All is mine. And Space, you are seen by me.”

So Poornima, the Light Day, is Guru. Guru is neither less nor more. The full moon does not speak, therefore they added Guru in it. Our elders were very intelligent at some time, God knows when, but now there are differences. Suppose you are the progeny of One Being. Then why are your wife, your husband and your house different, and then you are all fighting together? Nations with nations, religions with religions, they do all that which you are seeing.

What am I saying? A man can understand the light of the moon; it is neither less nor more the whole night. And a human being? He is always less or more: “I am upset”; somebody says that he is down and depressed; he says, “I am not good today, but maybe tomorrow I’ll be good”; “I was born small today, but maybe tomorrow I’ll be a young man”; “It might be that the next day I will die.” The moon does not say this—and it keeps changing. See the moon. He is the representative of change, and he is also the representative of no change. But a human being is only the representative of change: as long as life is there, he says that life exists; and when a man dies, then he says that life is no more. Less and more.

So as long as this remains, you must conclude that you’re not going to be out of it. Therefore, this is the only lifetime in which you have to know. So don’t waste your whole life working like a horse for everything—for this also, for that also—exhausting yourself, so that in the night you come home exhausted. Then how can you meditate? You sleep. When you are exhausted, you meditate better; because when you sleep better, then you call it meditation. [Laughter]

So Guru has to define all that which you need the definition of. And words are the only medium. That’s all. This could be, if the language were the same. But it’s a mixture; somebody knows Hindi and somebody knows English. Now, how to plan for that? Therefore, Gurus always had only one disciple. See everywhere, in all the scriptures, there was a Guru and one disciple. To others he would say, “You work and you work. You do this cooking. And you do this thing. You do that thing.” Only one disciple was reading and understanding and sitting. But now we have made a mass of disciples, and all have different minds, and each says, “My mind is alright.” So Guru has to see millions of people and bring in that which each one is wanting to have. Each one is wanting to have Guru Poornima. Guru One. And what is one in a human being? Life.

You understand Life. But to a dead man, or to the family who is seeing a dead man, we will not speak about Life. We’ll say, “You lost the life, life is gone.” Guru or no Guru, you’ll say this, that there is no life. And here I’m saying that Life alone is. So then you see contradiction, and you question, “Why does he talk about Space, yet he’s doing puja?” … Guru Poornima is such a system that only those who have Gurus do it. Others are not supposed to do puja. Like all of you: all of you have no Guru, you have a friend of your kind, who eats and drinks, who walks and talks, who goes here and there. He reads the newspaper, he watches the tennis match, he watches the cricket match, and you also do. So then where is a Guru? He was only Guru for one day, and that was yesterday. [Laughter] That is the answer to all your questions. Thank you. …

I’m so satisfied and very happy, especially today, that all of you have grown up so much that you are able to exactly realize what I am saying: Space. I thank you very much. You deserve my attention, and you deserve all kinds of blessings that you have come to know that Space is your true nature. … It is the Space that is the answer, and you got it. So wherever you are, you are in life; whether you have children, you have relations, and all that, but you are the Space. If you remember the Space, you will always be free. If you forget the Space, then you are sure to get bound. So even for one day, even for half an hour, if you attend satsang, satsang will work for you—if you are determined to grasp the fact. Which means, suppose a flower is there. If it’s over there, I haven’t got it. When I got it, I possess it. So unless knowledge is possessed, then it’s only in the books or on the tongue of somebody else. It must be your own. …

I have worked the whole life under the command of Guruji, that wherever you are, you should not be bound. And wherever people are bound, you should hate it [he laughs]—because I don’t like that. So whenever you come with bondage, satsang is different. Today, at one glance, I came to know that you are so free after knowing just yesterday: participation with the Space, you turned out to be the Space. Space is freedom. Body-consciousness is bondage. So if you remain body-conscious, be ready to be unhappy and bound. The moment body-consciousness arises, you have a weapon with you, which is called Aatma Gyan. It’s called the fire of knowledge, Self Realization. You just wield it, and cut the head of the bondage. [Laughter and applause] …

I wind up by letting you know how to recognize Guru when you’re all alone: wherever you say, “Me.” Me thinks. It is even an English phrase, an English man will know, “Methinks.” [Laughter] The mind does not think, it’s Me who thinks. After Me, then the mind becomes thinking, the eyes become seeing, the nose becomes smelling, and then breathing, the tongue becomes tasting, the legs become walking, the hands become grasping. The whole world starts, all the world, after Me thinks. So if Me is left alone, then that is Unborn, Unchanging, Undying, which I say is very difficult for an individual mind to get, because he thinks, “I am an individual mind, identified as a human being” —he makes the mistake. So here, for the last forty-five years, we are doing only one thing: removing the mistake. [He snaps his fingers.] Thank you very much. [Applause] I’ll meet you more, to remove it. [Laughter] I’m erased completely. Thank you. [Applause]