New Year's 2004:
Perfection is Devoid of Hatred and Duality

Be happy and remain tuned in to your True Nature, which is devoid of hatred and duality. … We can close our eyes for a while—we have begun every year with meditation. Even though we have made efforts and have succeeded in the unfoldment of Freedom, which is our Reality, Truth, Love, Joy, and Bliss, but as each person is a human being, because he has a form he calls himself by a name. He has felt as if his senses and body were not fully competent, thus he assumed or imagined by himself that he also was not competent. He began to say, "I am not perfect. I am not competent," and then he began to seek competence and perfection by locating them in the field of action.

Every action that begins appears not to be perfect. Even in nature, when the spring season commenced, in the beginning it seemed that there were very, very small, tiny, little existences of flowers, leaves, and twigs, and nobody could say that they were all perfect. They kept growing and growing and so reached the full-fledged state of a big green tree, with flowers and thereafter fruit. Then we began to think, "Now the tree has become perfect." We began to follow this style of nature and have thought that every little child, every little being who is born, who is appearing as a sentient being, is not perfect because he is small. He has just appeared, and slowly and slowly he has grown, and we have concluded that he is going to be perfect.

So everything that began for a child was not perfect. We saw this in the beginning when we are ourselves were small. We began to walk, we were not perfect. We began to talk, we were not perfect. We began to dance and run, we were not perfect. We began to play, our games were not perfect. When went to school and began to study, we were not perfect. We were declared to be small children who were uneducated. So we continued repeating the process of action with our bodies and action with our minds, and we unfolded a great awareness of things, forms, and names, and of the whole universal existence, but we were still not satisfied and could not say that we were perfect.

Therefore, we have all sought Perfection. Fortunate are those who have got the result of it. The seeking was very strenuous, it was lifetime consuming, but when we got it, at that time it felt that it was very, very easy, very simple. We began to remember how many troubles we had undergone for this purpose—while the Perfection was always there. The result of our doings, of our studies, of our dramas, of our travelling, was so easy, so simple—just to know that Perfection was always there—but as human beings we could not actually get confirmation of this unless we met together. We did not do much—we just met. It’s not that one drop came and surrendered to another drop and so it became big—they just met. Wherever we met, we became big. Wherever we got separated, we became half or small. Even though it is 2004, yet it appears that there are many, many people who became individuals who always know themselves to be separate, who forgot about meeting the universal Being.

At this time, taking the pretext of the celebration of the year 2004, whatever we have heard while expressing words of happiness, we have found that Perfection was coming from within. Every word was perfect, every sound was perfect, every gesture was perfect, every song was perfect, every coming was perfect, every leaving the stage was perfect, and every sitting was perfect. We are fully immersed in the ocean of Perfection, the Purity, the Pure Being, who has always been with you. It appeared—it was with you. It disappeared—it was with you. It never left your side. It never left your heart. It never left your mind. That, friend, as Oneness, was there throughout the millennium, rather forever.

Therefore we wish that that friend of lifelong friendship, which resides in our hearts, may remain forever. Depending on that Awareness, on that friendship, on that Oneness, we know that it is the Ultimate Reality and that it is our True Nature. This very True Nature naturally appeared to be individual bodies and became the world as a whole. But it was possible to know this, friends, only when just by closing our eyes for a while we withdrew our vision from the field of differences, of multiplicity, so that the vast ocean of Oneness would appear before us—an ocean not of earth, not of water, not of air, not of fire, not of ethereal sky. It is just the ocean of Oneness, which, for a human being, can be given the name Freedom, the sense of Freedom, the sense of Knowledge, the sense of Love, the sense of Light. It is the sea of perfect Awareness. That Thou Art.

It’s now not words that you are hearing. It is the very ocean of Being, which is there as a Creator, a Seer, a Knower. Being That, experiencing That, it is all Oneness. I have said this in the previous years also, but that is my honour, my privilege, and the sense of freedom with all of you, that everybody came, and from their hearts that friendship appeared. Without having any kind of resistance, we just uttered it, we wished everyone new year’s happiness, especially in 2004, now, which is present.

We are human beings, and when we watch the clock we know that time exists. But when we withdraw from seeing the clock, close our eyes, and have yet not slept, time is not there. So time, we conclude, does not exist. But it does not mean that time does not exist, so it is all empty. Oneness exists. When we see all the forms we conclude that there must be space which has the forms, and so space appears. But when we close our eyes, naturally the objects, the words and meanings, the names and forms, do not remain. But that does not mean that Purity is not there. That Purity is the Creator, the creation, and the creative, and all the forms created by it are all one Purity, forever Free. Its name, for our daily practice sake, we say is Immortal, Blissful, Deathless, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.

Now, everybody is experiencing this, realizing it. That which is the sting of the sense of otherness, of duality, is not found, even if we locate it. It’s gone. It has disappeared. Thus, all the strife, all the struggles, all the pain and suffering based on the sense of otherness or hatred of the year 2003, that has disappeared. This group has come out as if with a beautiful, beautiful sun from the sky, radiating its myriads of rays and beams, yet always the same sun, the same light. There is nowhere anything other than Sameness. That is why it is Freedom, that is why it is Love, that is why it is Light. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.

I’m so appreciative of your efforts and your participation, of your sense of freedom even when while coming over here to the Himalayas where you had trouble, especially by leaving your comfortable places. Yet you willingly chose to share with us the joy that you carry with you. We are grateful to you and will remain grateful to you forever. Thanks. [Meditation.]

The Self, the Experiencer, is witnessing. Therefore, experience is the Witness and that which is being experienced is the Witness, which means that the Witness is permeating. As water is in a drop, so water is the witness self of the drop; as water is in a snowflake, so water is the witness self; as water is in frozen ice, so water is the witness self; as water is in an iceberg, so water is the witness self. In exactly the same way, the Pure Being was not to be called the Witness Self before your birth, but when he himself assumed to be a child, so the child is that Being, the Witness Self, and remains throughout Pure Existence. May you call yourself a hundred trillion cells, each form of the cell is witnessed by that Witness Self. For want of words, we say Pure Consciousness, for want of names we say Pure Existence, and certainly for not finding out any words for that joy that we have experienced at this time, we call it Supreme Delight, the basic Reality, forever Pure, Free, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.

Prasaad is waiting for all of us. It’s the first day of the new year. I’m sure you must be very hungry for the last year. [Laughter.] Today, lunches and dinners are waiting for you. So open your eyes, wait for the prasaad, and sing the verse three times, Om Poornamadah Poornamidam: It has been Perfect, it is Perfect, it will always be Perfect. There is no past which is not Perfect. There is no present which is not Perfect. And there will never be any future which is not Perfect. Perfect alone permeates. …