Independence Is the Name of the Self

Swamiji: You are all at the stage that you are hearing the same thing as before, but on your hearts and minds, the impact of hearing is now different. It is not regressive—it is progressive. So, definitely, hearing is going on from the very childhood. Like Manu is hearing, and when he will become 20 or 25 years old—like 20 year old Nandi is coming, and she will hear the same things that she heard when she was 3, 4, and 5 years old, but the impact will be different now. So what happened during this period is that on the level of the brain, the power got enhanced. You can see Manu. He is a person, he is delightful and everybody loves him. So much so, that all of you are not loved that much. But, he doesn’t understand what is happening. We have conditioned him into candies, as if candies are some interaction. He doesn’t eat them, he gives them here and there, and these many candies nobody can eat…but he doesn’t understand the satsang. Why? Because he is a child…

So, it is not a big thing that human beings, who are educated, can understand whatever I am saying. We all look like human beings, and we all claim to have the knowledge that we will understand whatever someone speaks. …but what is that who is understanding? That is not known to people. You began to know that it is not the form of Don, a very great yogi, whose understanding is not the same as it was before. He became more aware, more capable of understanding the words when I say, “You, Pure, Free, Forever.” Now, listening to me say the word “You,” Shaarda will hear, “You, Shaarda, a body who was studying, who was doing this.” Abhaya will hear, “You, Abhaya, who was building a house, who was studying and who was going to Chandigarh.” This “you” has now changed completely. Your view has changed. The world is the same, and the word is also the same. You are the same, and world forms are the same. Many times you must have heard DikPal Skund talk about the ring and the gold. He used to understand that the ring is a separate entity. Though he is the same person, he now understands that it might be a separate entity that can be bought, but it is gold.

You began to understand about the space and the earthen jug. The earthen jug is not a jug—it is earth. …knowing the fact that it is earth, you do not break the jug just to find out whether it is earth or not. In order to know the source, gold, you do not put the ring in the fire and then know that it is gold. … It is the development and growth of the mind or intellect that has the understanding that Self is, and the world is its ornament—big ornaments and varieties of ornaments. But it does not mean that you have to destroy, finish, or burn every object, and then you will come to know the space. You don’t have to break the jug to know the space. You take the lid off and know that the space of the jug and the space outside are just the same; and the space all around is just the same. And if you have grown up, like Don, he knows that space is also earth. Then there will be no sense of otherness and duality or doubt. Human beings are generally developed only to the extent that they know earth is not water. Water is not fire, and fire is not air, and air is not aakaash… Scientists like Glen Kezwer know that water must have air, that’s why all the ripples in the water are there. It must have fire, that’s why it becomes hot. And it must have earth…and it must have sky, because after some time there is no more water. So even scientists know that there are no separate things—it’s one reality. But the education for scientists is still needed, to know who is the one who knows that the sky is there? A human being does not know this. He thinks I, the body, know, or I, the brain, know. Therefore, the Knower—who is forever just the same—has never become not-Knower, even in a mosquito, an ant, an elephant, a camel, or a father, brother, mother, sister, or in anybody who is a sentient being. The Knower is there.

But why is it that a child does not know the Knower? And how has the Knower gone to a frog or a snake, a scorpion or an ant? If you leave a slight bit of honey somewhere, even on a piece of paper, and you throw that paper away, you’ll find that a day later ants have come. From where have the ants come? They know that the honey is there. So the Knower is there even in that smallest creature, and yet you do not understand that the Knower must be in you. That is what the human constitution is; a human being’s consciousness is covered. Unless it is opened—opened does not mean open a lid—opened means this: an iceberg is blocked, and you say “let the iceberg be opened.” It is not that you cut the iceberg into pieces and then say it is opened. Opened means it should be melted, and melted means it should be that which it has always been. So when you say he is an open channel it means he knows the Source. …

Guru is the light. Without light, no form on the television will appear. And without light or understanding, nobody can know things. That is Guru, and that light never changes. It does not mean that if a flower is put in the sunshine, the sunshine changes. Or if you take the flower from over there and put it here, the sunshine changes. …The sunshine remains forever the same, and in this way, Guru remains forever the same, and, of course, any person who has reached that height is able to adjust himself to all the circumstances…Guru knows that the Knower is everywhere just the same…

[Kim asks a question about independence]

Swamiji: It is in our own body where we understand everything. …We can talk about the point of independence, which will be interesting for every one of us. When a person sleeps or is unconscious, he never thinks about whether he is bound or independent. Whenever a person is dreaming, he also does not have this sense that he is bound to dream, bound to see this or that, or to be the victim of his nightmare. He does not say anything, he just sees the dream. …Therefore, the sense of bondage is felt, or comes, only when a person is in the waking state. So the waking state became chaytana, a consciousness, a state of consciousness. We are supposed to know the nature of the consciousness of the waking state. We already know the nature of the dream and deep sleep states. We already know the nature of our thinking and our existence. …it appears that we know so much, but we have not enquired about the waking state, which is our ground of study. And if we are not awake, we cannot study or come to know anything— exactly, perfectly, or falsely. Therefore, in the waking state we have to see who feels bound. And the same one who feels bound feels independent. How is it that this person who feels both independent and bound, is neither bound nor independent, but he says, “I’m bound.” And he says, “I’m independent.”

…Who is the one who is free from bondage and free from independence? That is the Self—the Self is independent. Unless one knows that, realizes that, and succeeds in removing the sense of otherness, he will become bound. …Then he will think, “I want to be free.” Or he will think, “I am independent, therefore I don’t want to be bound.” If he knows, “I am independent” then why does he do such things that cause him to become bound?…

A human being who wants to become knowledgeable about his freedom needs information regarding the one that is free. A free person, coming from jail, is a person, and a person who has gone to jail is a person. But who knows freedom and bondage? That Knower is independent. … We say, “I should be free. I should have this freedom,” which you daily have in the state of deep sleep. But you are unable to figure out why it is that in deep sleep you are free, but in the waking state you begin to feel bound, or begin to hope that you should be free. So it is a question of the waking state of a human being, which he knows. He lives in three states—deep sleep, dream, and the waking state—and he is caught by all three. That means we know that the free being is bound by these three states, and we want to see him as he is, independent. …So it is the desire, it is the effort of that being who is free, not to get himself bound. Therefore, if his body is hungry he will say, “Go there, go there and bring food.” He does not want to feel the pinch of the mind and the body that is hungry, but he is associated with the body and mind. So he is bound. Unless you take off from the sense of the waking state and do not get involved, attached, asakt, or bound—until then there is no independence.

If one wants to have independence, then this information is needed: as long as your mind-I is there as the identified I, the body, there is no independence. When it is not identified, then it will be independent. …So when I say, “You—Pure, Free, Forever” it means you are independent. And that independence is not found on the level of your ego, intellect, mind, and body. …So the question is, how should independence be gained? … You have to use your same ego, intellect, mind, and the body with senses to know that all these senses cannot work without life. A dead man’s senses do not work. Therefore, who is independent? Not the senses. Life is independent. But you do not understand life unless the air blows and the trees begin to move. Unless you breathe in and out, you do not think life is there. Unless you feel pinched, you do not feel life. Unless you feel happy, you do not feel life. There is no way for you to understand where life is, l-i-f-e, unless you see a lively being, a lively bird. You think that through action there is life. And if you think action is life, and then you see a machine move or a ferris wheel that keeps moving—but why are they not lively?

Therefore, for a human being it is a matter of study. She should start examining where that I is, about which she says, “I am Kim.” A dead person cannot say, “I.”…So you have come to know that without life you cannot say I. If it is so, then I and life must be one and the same. And life has got nothing to do with your feelings of “I am joyful, I am blissful.” Or “I am intelligent,” or “I am unintelligent.” Life will not say this. So why does your I say, “I am sick, I am sorry, I am small, I am feeling great.” You have to know where I is. But you will not be able to know I because you do not see it. It is hidden in every pore of your existence. It means you must be I, as a whole. But human beings have not succeeded in expanding their awareness that I is all that there is, the body; I is all that there is, the chair, the carpet, earth, ocean, sun, air, and sky. And still, I will be independent when the earth will be dissolved, when the sky will not be there. So this I cannot be the I of elemental things. Now, having heard this, you have come to know that intellectually you understand it. But an intellectual fire, a flame on the canvas, can also be drawn, but it doesn’t give you the light. With the flame on the canvas of an artist, you cannot see things in a dark room. So if you grasp I intellectually, it is not going to work unless it reaches your heart. …

Independence is the name of the Self. Independence is the name “Pure.” Independence is pure existence, not existing something. Pure Existence. So now, you have gained the ability during this period, through meditation, to know that purity exists. And in that purity you can add any thing. Pure existence, pure mind, pure senses, pure thinking, pure walking, pure grasping, pure eating, pure drinking—all that, but pure. But there is no brain-power in a human being to understand what pure is. So we say that purity is independent—and that purity is You. When I say, “Pure is You,” then at least you have a kind of book to read, regarding what Swamiji says: that you are pure, free, and forever…You are the only being who is the whole, the adishthaan, which means the source, in which the world knowledge will come. Without you, you cannot have the knowledge of the world or the universe. But what should I do so that your mind or intellect should expand enough so that you should begin to know, “I am That”? When you will know: “I am That,” treat it that your brain has become perfect, and you have come to know. And then truth is just like an apple on your palm. Nobody can deceive you. Nobody can say that it is not there. It will be like that. And many of you must be there. I hope, at all times, that you know you are Pure, Free, Forever. Then, where is that where you are not independent?

Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum