Purity Is the True Nature of the Universe

Keerti Narayan: Swamiji, the other day you told me the meaning of surrender. You said… that it is just to know that you are pure, free, and forever. And this is a beautiful definition of surrender, which has stuck in my mind, and every time that the mind strays, it just comes back to this thought. …And with your grace, Swamiji, I hope that this thought remains with me when I go back to Mumbai.

Swamiji: It will be forgotten, or you will forget it, if you think that it is a thought. It is your reality, the reality of everybody. Pure, free, forever—eyes cannot see, ears cannot hear, tongue cannot speak, because it cannot read, pure, free, forever. Human beings cannot conceive of what it is. I’m quiet, looking at you, because you will know everything which comes after pure—pure jam, pure butter, pure ring, pure gold, pure earth, unpolluted, pure sky—you will know. But if you take out all the words after pure, that pure you will never know. So pure is not a thought. Therefore, you cannot forget it, because the things that are supposed to be remembered—remembering, forgetting, or knowing—are not there in pure. That is why Saskia has said that all of you have meditated and you have done well all these years. And she has been waiting to come here, and to see the growth in you, that which is pure—faces are not pure. The moment a beard comes, the face is not like a girl’s face, which appears to be pure. That’s why everybody likes girls, because they are pure. [Laughter] A bearded fellow nobody likes. …but these are forms, so forms are not pure. If you mean pure is the form, you are not seeing your dictionary correctly. Our Kaanti must be there, only one person…what is the meaning of pure?

Kaanti: I think it means unmixed, Swamiji.

Swamiji: Unmixed of mud, or cotton?

Kaanti: I don’t think they specify.

Swamiji: Yes, so she also does not know. I thought that she might give some meaning of unmixed. She expects that Swamiji should know what is mixed and then try to find out what is unmixed. So, my dear ones, human beings as they are born, having the senses, are imperfect in the knowledge of these senses. All the senses go only that far and then they stop. I need not describe this; you already know it. The eyes can see only that much—the sun or sky at this time—beyond the sky they cannot go. And you have seen that the sky is not only this. [Indicates the air in front of him] Dr. Glen has seen Venus. He has described the qualities of Venus. He has written a thesis and got a PhD. He has written about that which is never there and he has never seen it, but he got a PhD. [Laughter] He’s a doctor. What kind of authenticity is there?

Pure is not known by animals, birds will never know it. The birds will not even know their egg, or the yellow yolk, because they have never seen that. So animals do not know and birds do not know. Then who should we expect to know?—only a man. …a human being. Human beings are made only as forms from the wombs of their mothers, but you have never, never cared to study and examine why you do not remember your birth. You need a jyotshee, an astrologer, to tell you the date when you were born, and what happened, and what the stars were, and all kinds of things; they think perhaps this will lead you somewhere, so you are the victim of astrologers. …So, what is that? That is our ongoing question, which means enquiry. …and this is where pure, free, forever is not known to you, so you are afraid that you will forget it. If you have realized, why would you forget?

Pure, free, forever is your own source, and that is you, and that never goes away anywhere, whether you are born with a body, or somebody hits your car and you die somewhere, as a body. But you never become impure. You never become unfree or bound, and you never come in the space, time, or place—you never come. And this body is only time and space; I think you know time and space. I only know that from the toe to the head is the length of the body, and it is time and space for the body. That’s how you measure it. From here to Manali is how many miles? That is your distance. And what is the space in Manali? When you see the mountains and all the snow falling, for you that is Manali. You began to call places as the space, and you began to call Swiss clocks as time. That is what the standard of understanding of a human being is. Therefore, he forgets. If you take the clock off or it gets broken, then there’s no time. And if you close your eyes and sleep, there is no space, no form. A human being is such that he sleeps, he wakes up, and he dreams, thus he never knows the purity. So pure is not a thought, because a thought will be like a thing, in time and space, a form that you think is pure. You say, "I have meditated, therefore I became pure." Who became pure? For you, the body became pure. Many times I say you are largely made of Chandu’s ladoos [an Indian dessert] so that is not purity! [Laughter] And then you say, "Yes, I’m pure, but I’m related." Yes, you are relatively bound, and yet you say you should not forget! Why would you not forget when all the forces are on your head to make you forget, to forget. …

Her concern was, "I have come to know this thought, that I am pure, free, and forever, and I wish that, please Swamiji, be kind enough that I should not forget it." I’ll be praying for you and you will forget, so what does my prayer do? I’ll be wishing you well and giving you hundreds of blessings, but you will forget. You know only the words "pure, free, forever," and the dictionary meaning—the words. Pure is where words are not and where meaning is not, and where your form is not. And at the same time, pure is that where words are, meaning is, and form is. That is your purity. That you will never forget because you are That. Nobody will forget "I am." Till your last breath, when they become asleep, they will never forget. And even if the body lies over there, like in a dream—the body lies in the bed, but you dream. How is it that you remember dreams, and not only that, you see your ancestors there! So why would you call yourself dead and say you will not know? That is what the laboratory is over here, and you have worked for that more than 35 years. …but if you have not worked for that, then you cannot retain this, pure, free, forever…it needs years after years. …

You will know the person who is pure, free, forever is the one who never dies and is never born—so Amaram Hum, Madhuram Hum—if you continue closing your eyes and watching the space—close your eyes and watch the space…now let me know, why will anybody not be convinced that this space will always be there, whether you close the eyes or you open them? But eyes have the functioning of two types: when they get opened they see white light; and in the night, when the sun is not there, they see dark night or darkness. So the eyes interpret what they see as the truth. That which is not seen is considered darkness or untruth. If you depend on the eyes, then after closing them if you interpret this space as darkness, you are doomed—or you have forgotten. It is not that it [pure knowledge] comes only when you are closing your eyes in the daytime, even if you close your eyes in the nighttime, dark night…it is the same—this sameness is called pure. Also, we have some words: it is undying, unchanging, unborn, pure, Self, Being, not becoming—those are only words.

Here we have experimented, all of you have made research. … but this is knowledge space, it is not atomic space, that’s why it cannot be measured. …it cannot be measured and you cannot have a proof of it. The proof is direct—you close your eyes and it is there. …it can never happen that you found the knowledge and then forgot it. Because you have never lost it—remember this—you have never lost your true nature, you have never lost your purity. But there are people who are brought up from the very beginning saying that you are a sinner, you are mistaken, you are committing sins, and then you are removing sin by so many methods. Sin! A one-year-old child or a five-year-old child, what sin has he committed? And he is being chided for that, punished for that…but I say you are pure, free and forever. You have never committed any mistake. You are forever pure, you are born pure, you are pure, you are doing everything in purity, in the light of purity…the whole earth is pure, the whole sky is pure. Why? Just because you have come to know that purity is the true nature and source of the universe. You daily speak about the source. If you have known the source, the home—these are many words, but to reduce them and keep you in the space for some time, I’ll be quiet, and you will interpret, what is the source of quietness? [Meditation]

Next time, let me hear that you are so convinced that I should be able to have pride in you—that you have come to know, and you will never forget. If all of you are there, what a great joy it will be for me that anybody who comes, I can recommend him to you anytime, to go there and meet you, a person who has come to know the truth, the Self, the home; and you can never forget, and will tell that person the way—it is there. This is the masters’ group—you have already known it; nobody comes over here who is not a master, and he will remain the master. …

Keerti Narayan: Swamiji, thank you. I know there is no forgetfulness and there is only pure, free, forever.