Be the Aatma

When you dissolve the conscious functioning of the mind, then you become like a child when you see things and deal with them. A child with his mother, father, or friend does not have such a consciousness which thinks "This is my mother" or "This is my auntie." When you reach this state, then you live life with your senses, arms, and feet, but you always know the Aatma [the Self]. When you always know the Aatma, then you are not describing the conscious mind, as if you do not care what the mind says and what the mind knows. It is the Aatma which is Knowingness, in which there is no division. So division is the chitt [the mind, or consciousness]. This is said again and again to a human being, because he has not yet reached that which is the indescribable Self. It is said to him to give up one part, which he thinks means to give up the object. He has an apple in his hand, and when you say to give it up, then he leaves it. That is not giving up. To give it up means that the mind knows that it is an apple, while the Aatma knows that it is neither an apple nor not an apple. That is to be realized. So realization is being addressed. People in the scriptures only speak of two things—to give up or to pick up. To pick up and to give up is the mind, so you never come out of things and forms, you always remain objects/persons/forms-fixed or oriented. You cannot remember the Aatma. When I say that you are the Aatma … there is no description for it. And you need a description, which means you are always the mind. But I say no, you are already the Aatma. But you don’t get it, because you are awake, you are the conscious mind. Therefore, unless you reach the Aatma state, then your relations, persons, forms, and your own body is your object, or person. Even if somebody says to you to become bodiless, he’s saying to treat that there is the body first and then think that you are bodiless. So it never works. …

When you identify as the Aatma, then it is said that you are not describing the chitt. That’s all. The chitt is the world. Then you are not following the description given by unrealized persons, in whose consciousness only the world and worldly objects, relations, and situations are true. They are the truth for them—they call it practical reality. For them, that which is impractical is not there. …They are always accepting the truth of the description of the body. The idea of the knowledge of the body is the unrealized chitt. So it is said to put the chitt in the ocean of the Aatma, that that is realization—whereas realization means that neither is there the chitt nor is there an ocean in which it goes. [Laughter.] Right? Aatma is the name of Liberation. You need Freedom, and Freedom is the Aatma. But you do not have the ability to grasp Freedom, so you want the kind of freedom where nobody should interfere, and then you say that it is freedom. But suppose you are sick and a doctor comes with medicine—it is total interference. It does not mean that you are not free. The whole body is a total interference, but it does not mean that you are not the Aatma. [Laughter.] …

Samaadhi is the Aatma. We speak of samaadhi because people understand that it is not the waking state, deep sleep state, or dream state. So we call samaadhi the balanced state. People feel that "If the balanced state takes place, it will be alright, because then I’ll not be caught by one or the other." But samaadhi is that which has always been. You have never been anything else but the Aatma. But people began to call themselves I, and so they became the jeev [the soul]. Then it’s called the jeevaatma: you are still the Aatma, but you are the jeevaatma, because you say you know the Aatma, yet there is a division with which you think "I am a body, and inside me is the Aatma." So you do not know that you are the Aatma. In English, you call this the soul. You have never thought what the soul is. Then they say, "The soul is that which suffers and enjoys." But you never call the soul enjoyment—only when you suffer, then you say that it is the soul that is suffering. [Laughter.]

That way, it never gets opened. But here, when you hear, you know "This is it." Since it has no description, I never ask where you are. The moment I ask where you are, you say, "I am silent," as if you made some form of silence, which means no noise. How complicated it is. But for the one who reaches there, he knows that actually Oneness is being talked about everywhere, although everything is going on: animals and people are there, situations are there, birth and death are there, busyness and talking are there, hunger, cooking, eating, sickness, everything is there. We can describe everything, because you can understand it. If I come and say, "Oneness, Oneness. Oneness, Oneness," if you ask anything and I say, "Oneness," if you say, "What’s your answer?" and I say, "Oneness," then it makes no sense that we can live the life of Oneness. But when one has reached, which means one has used the mind and unfolded the capacity to know "My goodness, it’s surprising that everybody taught me to remain in separation or division, whereas there is no division," then that is samaadhi. Samaadhi means Indivisibility. A human being can understand this. Why? He can understand division, so he can make a concept of its opposite. But when I say that "There is no division and no indivisibility," then he says, "Well, say something that I can put a finger on." …

To say "How to finish these sanskaars [dualistic mental impressions]?" is like saying "How to finish these waves?" All the waves are in the water, so you as a human being think, "There are really waves, and they are lying in a pot of water," as if jewels are lying in a pot. They are not lying—there are no sanskaars, there is only one chitt. There is no chitt, it is all Consciousness. But that is the only drawback with human understanding, that he can’t get this. I say that it’s all Aatma, and then you say, "If it’s all Aatma, Swamiji, then should I eat with the pig?" [Laughter.] You made it all Aatma. So I say, "No, no, you should have relative consciousness. …"

Nobody knows anything except how to gain their points. That’s all. Since the Aatma is always the Aatma, so if anybody says, "This is my point," that is the Aatma. That’s why your eyes see this, they see that it’s a mike, so to you it will not be that it is also a dog. So you have to reverse the human sensory perception and mind and be the Aatma. You can understand the Aatma, but you cannot give up this. Why? Because you are still knowing the truth as the form. And I’m saying, "No, you should not have this sense, confusion, imagination, gluttony, or desire that this is true." I cannot say that this is not true, because you have only known that, that "That’s the truth, Swamiji. How can I act if the body is not there?" So I say that the body is there. But I do not say that when the body dies, why is the body not there? Right? It is only one who has a purified intellect who will understand this. …

The Aatma is not a child, nor a big person, nor a small person. There is no difference, no I, no you. But a human being is I—perpetuated. Even if one says, "I am Pure," it’s still I. Therefore, sanskaars cannot be eliminated or brushed aside, because consciousness is there. Consciousness does not remain consciousness for one or two hours when you are in meditation, so again and again you project to meditation, which means you take resort to it. …  When the form known by your name never exists in your Aatma, then what liberates? When your decision is Aatma, then you can say, "I do not exist, I do not have dignity or insult." As long as this has not been, then it is an agyani [one not knowledgeable of the Self], and an agyani remains an agyani. An agyani can know the language of an agyani. But a gyani [one knowledgeable of the Self] does not know the language of an agyani, because in his gyan, in his decision or realization, there is no such thing as who is a gyani and who is an agyani. That is where one reaches. … The final beatitude is when consciousness is not accepted as something. Because with consciousness you see birth and death, and retaining the same consciousness you say, "Swamiji, I have come to know that there is no birth and death." This is still the same thing, although the answer is alright. …

There are scriptures and Guru. These are essential, because they talk about You, the Gyan, the Aatma. Yet you think that you are a disciple, a form, and you think that Guru is a form! Scriptures and Guru talk about You, the Gyan, but you are so fixed on you that you think, "I am hearing, so gyan is coming to my head." … You intensely desire freedom. Desire is that poison which makes you a body, and so you entertain freedom on the level of the body, that your senses may not trouble you and your mind may not trouble you. So desire makes you a body, again and again—any kind of desire. But I do not say, "Give up your desire," although this is written in scriptures. I say, "You should understand—that you are the Aatma, unborn." But people say that You, the Aatma, are born, and you accepted it. Let them say this—you don’t have to accept it. You became free. …

She asked you, "Why does this happen to me?" It’s not a new thing. Everybody says this. You should answer her, "It happens to you because you are going to be realized as early as possible." [Laughter.] That’s all. That’s why it happens. He asked me, "Why does this karm happen to me? For how long will it remain?" I said, "Your karm is finished. There’s no karm now: you have come to know that you are neither birth, nor death, nor the effect of them, nor action, nothing. That is the Aatma." …

Now you have come to know imagination—that which she says is the chitt can be translated as imagination. Then Shiv Nath can understand that imagination cannot be real. He’s an artist, so before he imagines anything, it’s not there. So if he imagines, he imagines all images based on nothing. Then he carves them out, makes a drawing, and succeeds by taking these five elements to build something. So imagination means that the chitt is never there—which is what I say. When a human being has never been born as a human being, why are there eyes, senses, and images? … I’m saying, "Just see it [the form/body/world], that’s all. Know it. And then, admit not." When you admit not, then whatever remains, that is the Aatma. There is no cause why it happens that a dream starts. That which has no cause and is called a dream is called illusion, deception—you got deceived. It has no cause, and yet you say "I am Abhaya." There is no cause of Abhaya, so how did Abhaya become an effect? Because Abhaya began to think that there must be some cause—maybe God, maybe consciousness, maybe the Source, maybe freedom from imagination. This is name and form. When there is no cause, whatever is must be no cause—because it cannot be other than the Source. Thus, when you say freedom, then there is no cause and no effect. We can safely use words and understand imagination. Then we can understand that that which has been imagined and days have passed is memory. Memory is when you remember your experience, so that is sanskaar. Then there are memory, sanskaar, and experience. In a dream, when the dreamer is not and the dream is not, then what is the value of these three? Yet people are busy with this memory, that sanskaar, that experience, and so they remain in the field of illusion or deception. Free from deception is You. It is your choice whether you choose deceptive form, imagine it, and call it the body, mind, senses, status, learning, dignity, insult, and smallness—they are just imagination. All this is helpful for the purpose of reaching that there has only been the Aatma. …

February 16, 2004