Guru Means Forever Consciousness

Let me tell you that which I am sure will be remembered by you. That is, after living life for so many years and meditating for so many days, months and years, we have finally concluded, “My true nature is Pure.” When I use the word “Pure,” it is false for the intellect to grasp. But when I say, “I am Pure, you are Pure,” all of you somehow know it. It is not that you accept it. Acceptance would be from the mind’s side. Believing would be from the mind’s side, as we began to believe that H2O makes water without ourselves making the experiment, or we began to simply believe in mathematics, that 2 + 2 = 4, or that 0 is not equal to 1 and 1 is not equal to 0.

When we say that we are Pure, how would you know the Purity? It is through your intellect. So when you know, “I am Pure,” the intellect is involved in it—but not the functioning of the intellect which is dull and is not aware of its Source, the Knowledge or Knowingness from where the intellect pot becomes the intellect and begins to function like a torch which spreads light.

So how would you know that which is Pure? That is why I said I would like to tell you something very novel, which is to be retained. And I will tell you in a very short manner. Because there are so many scriptures, so much satsang, and so many situations, which you generally forget. But this you will not forget. It’s very easy.

A human being says, “I am conscious,” as well as “My teeth, blood, bones, hair and nails are not conscious, so they are inanimate.” Now by birth all human beings have this capacity to understand, “I am sentient and my body is insentient.”

I say that this can be altered. It can be transformed. How? When you hear me say that you are Consciousness alone. The moment I say “Consciousness alone,” then the doubtful intellect will creep in and say, “Swamiji, that is not correct. I’m sentient and insentient. All the parts of my body are insentient—which is especially seen when a person dies and the body is not there, for it is insentient.” You will conclude this. This is the functioning of the intellect.

I say that now, after hearing me, the intellect, with its capacity, can be used for the purpose of understanding “I am Pure Consciousness. Only Pure Consciousness.”

You will ask, “How?” Then I will extend an example, which is your experience as well. Take the case of the body of a spider. Now a spider is a spider and has the ability in it to throw the web out of its mouth. The spider is conscious. The web is not.

But a human being, with his intellect, is able to understand that the web cannot be insentient—because it is coming from sentience. So when the spider is Consciousness, then this web is also Consciousness.

You have used your intellect. The intellect became expanded. The intellect came to know, “I am the intellect, with all the vrittis, thoughts and thinking, but I am Consciousness. I am the spider, not the intellect. So I am not insentient. I am Pure Consciousness. Then Pure Consciousness alone is. Then, there is no insentience.”

Therefore, you have the example before you. Take the example of the spider. The spider is Consciousness, and for you its web is insentient. But for me, it is only the spider.

Now check the spider’s functioning of intellect. After it makes the web and forgets that it has made it, it cannot withdraw it back into its mouth from where it had thrown it away. So a human being is like that. The Pure Consciousness has made him a body. It is a web. It is a birth-web. It is an existence-web. It is a world-web. And it is insentient. We say insentient. That’s why when all human beings die, they are burned.

But if they can be burned, then they cannot be insentient: they are Consciousness. If you take a web and burn it, then there is no web, no insentience. So ultimately, there is no death. When the dissolution takes place, it is all Consciousness. And when appearance, like a web, takes place, it is all Consciousness.

But the intellect or mind is such that a human being begins to think, “I am only this body, a combination of sentience and insentience.” Whereas I say, “No, you are Guru.” Guru means Forever Consciousness. There are no sentience and insentience separate from each other. Therefore, the world, separate with forms, is not inanimate and away. It is all Consciousness. It is all You.

So when you are Pure, only then you will know that you are not a whirlpool and not a wave, as in the song, “I am like an immortal water who witnesses waves but is not bound, because I know that the waves are Me.” Although he says that the wave is there, although he has made it appear, yet he says, “The wave is Me.” So he is not bound. He has made the whirlpool, but it does not bind him because he knows, “I am water.” In this way, when you know, “I am that Self,” then the Self alone is the Whole. …

All that has been done to you is You: nobody else has done it. So you cannot blame, saying that “God has done this thing. They have done that thing. Politics has done this thing. And I have done this thing. …” Just nothing. It is always You. If you know that You alone are, that is the spider, that is your Pure Consciousness, Pure Existence. Thank you. God bless you. [Applause.]