Guru Knows the Nature of Aatma

You know that the work we are doing is for the unfoldment of strength. In Hindi we call it shakti. …We begin with a human being. A human being is all right, as other beings are, but other beings do not need any other information. It is only a human being who is conscious and aware enough that he knows that he is not perfect. This awareness is not found to be in any other sentient being. They have the sense that they exist and they have a sense that they should eat and drink and be happy or satisfied, and they are also afraid of some things that they don’t like, especially of their death or of being beaten. But a human being is par excellent. He has been given a nervous system through which, by himself, he becomes aware that he has to know so many things, so many forms, and so much. This means that he knows that he is imperfect. For that human being the journey of his life is towards making himself strong and perfect.

How can he be perfect when he is made imperfect? His body is imperfect. You can watch the body of a child that falls down, stands up, falls down, stands up, and in this way he becomes big. In the same way he listens to his mother or people and does not grasp things—his body is bound, imperfect. He grasps and he forgets—his body is bound with forgetfulness. A human being has been given this power, that he can understand that he is imperfect. Now a human being is born imperfect, so he comes to know at one stage that he needs to know the beginning of the rules that will make him perfect, or the information or education that will make him perfect. …I am building the point for which you are ready to understand. You do not know what you want, and I am aware of the fact of what you want, and then we’ll meditate.

[Various people arrive in satsang and Swamiji greets them.]

So you have to know where you are at. You are at a level where coming and going is there and that belongs to the body. And after you are settled, coming and going belongs to your mind. So the mind is chanchal [fidgety]—that is mind—it goes here and there, that is the mind. The mind is chanchal and the body is chanchal, therefore, a human being is the representative of action—action belonging to the gross body and action belonging to the subtler body that is the mind. I’ll not say chit, man, buddhi, ahankaar—they are divisions, you know it—one thing is enough for you—mind. The mind is not seen, as to when it gets up and what it does. The body is seen, the body’s actions are seen and felt also, but the body is only a container. But then, in the body, above your shoulders, there are the senses. And the senses work for their function, which is their knowledge. You call it action, function, but it is knowledge, because the senses are knowledgeable, gyan indriya. Gyan indriya will be used or will use themselves for having the knowledge or experience of things and forms, and the matter that belongs to each of them. Therefore, action, watch—suppose you are sitting, action is still going on. Your eyes are seeing me, and ears are hearing me, and mind is making your neck shake! (Laughter) For no reason, watch, whether it is right or wrong, but it is now a habit, many of you now do that. …So, the body remains sitting and it can remain still, but the mind keeps moving. …Amrit’s mind reached Chandigarh, because Diwali is coming and she is thinking of that. And Joya’s mind reached Delhi, from where she is coming, and she must have met so many people there. …

I’m leading the attention of the listeners towards the mind, how the mind assumes itself to be the highest. …Now we begin—it is the mind, maansik chaytana [mind consciousness] that is a human being. Each human being, whether male or female, is man, mind, and I have described the functioning of the mind, that it is chal or chanchal. As soon as it wakes up, it starts its journey. And its assistants are the senses, indriya. It gains everything, so far as knowledge is concerned, through the knowledge of the senses. So if Joya has gained the knowledge of an MBA, then she teaches that. But she is not satisfied with an MBA. She has learned literature also, she has learned science also, learned horticulture also…she learned everything and then thought, "This is not for me." And when she reached Swamiji she said, "This is for me." So all that which she wanted to have, she got; but now comes the question—why does one have to gain it again and again, again and again? By describing Joya and welcoming Joya I have described the mind of human being, which all of you have. And it cannot be given up, because everybody says that the practical life is lived with the mind and the help of the mind’s knowledge. No sleeping man can take up any task. All the tasks and projects are to be taken up by a human body, but with the help of the mind. The tasks and projects are known and turn out to be wonderful, but the very mind that gives the knowledge is not known to a human being.

Therefore, tasks and work are aadyaatmic. Aadyaatmic means not the science of the body, which is the job of the scientist. That task which is the study of aadyaatma, which means ego, intellect, mind, and senses—this field is to be tacked by the one who is jigyaasu, who wants to know what is that which is prior to consciousness. What is that which is prior to I, what is that which is prior to senses, and what is that which is prior to material objects, things and forms? That’s called jigyaasu, jigyaasa. Now, jigyaasa will be only when a man knows the mind; that the mind is there and it is sometimes this and sometimes that, it sometimes changes like that and sometimes re-changes like that, it sometimes gets back to that or starts this or that—everything is fitful with the mind. So, the jigyaasa is the one who is aware that his mind should be established in peace, in shaanti, in shaman, sham, [evenness] in that state where his ego, intellect, and mind do not move to all sides. It should be the intellect or mind of a human being that remains always in that dhi, in that buddhi, which is aatmabuddhi. Up to this time, the intellect has been vastu buddhi, which means it has been for forms, things, status—all kinds of things. Every human mind is vastu buddhi, it goes to the forms and projects of the senses.

So, the jigyaasu is that one who seeks the information for settling the human mind and putting it in the ocean of the Aatma, the Self. Aadyaatma is higher than vaigyaanic science, or the physical science. This mind is a human being, and among these human beings, the jigyaasu is the one who is deserving to receive the information, if he seeks it, that I, as mind, wants to be settled in the space where the mind should not move. It should remain the way it is in the deep sleep state. But it should remain awake. This is the desire, the ambition of a human being. What is that? It is a desire for the knowledge of the Aatma. Knowledge of the Aatma is called Realization of the Self, Aatmagyaan. Realization means gyaan, Aatma is That. Now, even a man with senses does not know where the mind is, let alone will he know the Aatma. Aatma is the deeper side, the Self is the deeper side. It is underground, and underlying the underground. So the underlying reality is—what? We know, as human beings that life could be underlying. Because the life of a stone is life, the life of a tree is life, the life of a chipmunk is life, the life of a monkey is life, and the life of a human being is life. So if life alone is, he wants to know—where is the life?

A human being cannot understand Aatma. He can easily understand life. He will not understand what is earth and water and this and that…he wants to understand the life…it is only a human being who has been given the brain-power to understand. …it will be the special brain of a jigyaasu who will recognize Guru. That’s the point. Guru has not to tell him. Guru may be in front of the jigyaasu and that one will come to know that this is Guru. So I can speak to thousands of people but one or two who are like you will come to know and say, "He’s worthwhile." And what is worthwhile? The strength that Guru is aware of, and is realized of the sense that underlies all life—that is Aatma, Paramaatma, the Self, the Infinite Reality, the Truth, the love, the joy, the nishkaam. It all underlies.

Now, all your senses and body represent kaam, karya, which means work, action, dynamism. But what gives dynamism or the power to dynamism? That is Aatma. You can never become dynamic if you are not tuned in to Aatma. All the sportsman, all the intelligent persons are tuned in to Aatma. But they do not know the nature of Aatma. That is Guru. Guru knows the nature of Aatma. The nature of Aatma means, suppose I say, what is the nature of sugar cane? DikPal?

DikPal: Sweetness.

Swamiji: But can you catch the sweetness?

DikPal: I can squeeze the sugar cane.

Swamiji: The question is "catch." Can you catch it? Can you handle the sugar juice in your palm? You can say yes. Can you smell the sweetness of the sugar cane? No. Can you hear the sweetness of the sugar cane? No. So, how would you take out the sweetness from the juice of the sugar cane?

DikPal: I’d have to experience it.

Swamiji: Yes, so you are led now not to your hands and not to eyes, ears, or nose; you are led to experience. So you know experience. But where is that experience which will taste the sugar cane juice? Where is that experience?

DikPal: In me.

Swamiji: Does me mean in that chair? Where is that experience?

DikPal: In my Being.

Swamiji: Yes, in your Being. But in your Being; why is this [body] not your Being?

DikPal: Because my Being is the Being that is speaking from inside this body.

Swamiji: Yes, from this body. So, you are body conscious. "My Being." He said everything all right, that my experience is in my Being or in me. Up to this time it was correct. But more than that it has not been expanded. So he says that experience is in his head. Which means that his head and body is his reality. You will never get Self Realization.

DikPal: I’d better change my idea.

Swamiji: Yes, that is what Guru does. He changes your unfit idea and makes you fit and expanded, unfolded, to know that that madhurta [sweetness] of the sugar cane juice is in the Self. The same madhurta, the sweetness, is in a human being, in his life. So life is madhurta, life is dear. Everybody likes to have it. And the life is equal to that Self whose nature is Sat-Chit-Aanand, because the sugar cane juice may be dried, but that Self, from where the sweetness is coming was never found to be in the sugar cane before. There were only a few leaves at that time, on this side and on that side. But it grew. And there was no seed—it grew out of a stick. Who was that who gave the life to the sugar cane and produced the juice? Who gave the life to DikPal and produced the sugar cane brain? Who is that who has produced the life, as well as a sense of "I am this body?" That is Aatma, that is Self. Now you have realized that, after hearing about it. But you have not accepted it, that it should be your Self Realization, the way you experience the sugar cane juice. So you’ll say, "Well, I really don’t see the Self anywhere." Because for you, the body is separate and the Self is separate. For you the body is separate and life is separate, especially when the body dies. …

It is in the mind that the relations are there, parents are there, relative things and forms are there and the relative God is there…then relative love is there and relative knowledge is there. That which is not relative and not related is One, without a second. And that is Self and that is what the jigyaasu wants. …So this is a human being, and a human being has a mind. And his mind is imperfect. Guru says that this imperfect mind can be made perfect. Why? Because it was never there before, to be called imperfect. So I say, "You are That, perfect you." And you say, "No, I am Abhaya." That has been the maaya, which means mind, which means chit, which means buddhi, which means ahaankaar, which means sense, which means vaasana. That is where the human being is made. And it is the nature; you do not know what is nature—only you say the mountains, rivers, clouds, stars are nature—everything is nature. So much so that you are bound to include a human being as being a product of the nature. And that is where the human being is. …So people in the world say that you are only a body, because you have seen a child. You are only a body and it may reach 100 years old, and after that you say it will die…so how will that be possible for you to understand that which is immortal?

You just know that you are that who is Pure, Free, Forever. Call it I, I am Pure, Free, Forever. Call it ahankaar, it will be, I am Pure, Free, Forever. Call it intellect, I am Pure, Free, Forever. Call it senses, senses Pure, Free, Forever. Call it body, Pure, Free, Forever. Call it the world, Pure, Free, Forever. Call that God, God Pure, Free, Forever. Gyan, Pure, Free, Forever. Praym, Pure, Free, Forever. Prakaash [light], Pure, Free, Forever. It never becomes anything else. That is You. And that is Me, too. That is Oneness.

Today I have spoken this much. Tomorrow I’ll again say something. But to sum up today’s talk…human mind is the product of nature. And when man is made as such, he is a mental being. He has sankalp/vikalp [world and imagination] and in his kalpana and imagination something has happened that the Truth has been lost sight of…and the gross existence became his reality. Therefore, it is a big work to reduce it to that subtlety, and then it becomes only "ness." It is Oneness. It is not only one or two, it is that Sat or Truth which is ever the same. That is why it is avinashee—unborn and undying. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.

October 23, 2004