Dikpal: I heard you say that as long as imagination is there, a human being cannot know the Knower. Is this correct?
Swami ji: Well, you are not dead. We see that a dead person does not use his imagination or his no imagination. Now, for a dead man, what would be no imagination?
Dikpal: The same as imagination!
Swami ji: So we are persons of a very worthwhile, useful existence, and two great scientists are sitting here, to my left and right. They can describe how it is that a human being is useful, and why a dead man, a dead body, is not useful.
What is the difference between a dead body and a live body? If we consider only the body, then the dead man’s body is the same body which, a couple of minutes before, was useful. So what is that which is useful?
Bhakti Nath: It is that force, or power, which was animating the body and is no longer doing so.
Swami ji: Yes. That force is known and seen only in a lively body, and that force is not seen in a dead body. But in between the two, who is that who sees the force in a lively body and who is still there, seeing no force, in the dead body?
Bhakti Nath: That is the Knower, who remains unchanged whether the force is functioning or not.
Swami ji: Yes. You have explained the force that animates the body, or animates the life in the body. That force is known by the Knower. So, is the Knower useful or not?
Bhakti Nath: Yes.
Swami ji: The Knower is useful, because it animates the body. And the Knower is also there when it is knowing no-force in the dead body. Why is the Knower useful at that time?
Bhakti Nath: For knowing the state of lack of force, also.
Swami ji: Yes. The lack of force is known by the Knower, and the lack of imagination, which is the outcome of that force, is also known by the Knower. So if you have the knowledge of the Knower, why do you have to worry about a lively body or a dead body? Tell Dikpal!
Dikpal: I totally embrace that. But it seems like you are saying that the only way to have the knowledge of the Knower is to go from the state of imagination to that of no-imagination.
Swami ji: Since you are not dead, you can use the animating force. That force will not be in a dead body; the force will be in the lively body. But the body, both lively and dead, is the same body. So who is it who knows only the lively body? Imagination. And from where does imagination come? From the Knower.
From the Knower, imagination comes. From a rose bush, the flower comes. So when you know the rose bush, then what is the value of a single flower?
You do not leave the knowledge that the flower comes from the rose bush, and so the flower exists. But when only the rose bush is there, without any flowers, then what is the value of the flower? The flower is not there! So when the flower comes, why is it that you say the flower has become something else, other than the rose bush?
Dikpal: Because of imagination.
Swami ji: Yes. Now, why has imagination become more important than the Knower? When imagination arises, it is the Knower who makes the imagination arise. So then, when the Knower is known, what is the value of imagination?
Dikpal: The only value of the imagination in that equation is to not let the Knower be known.
Swami ji: Yes. So why would you like to have this power of imagination, which does not allow you to know the Knower?
Dikpal: I think I would like not to have it.
Swami ji: Then be the Knower! Be the rose bush!
The rose bush will never know whether a flower exists, outside or inside. It is the imagination that makes the flower something other than the rose bush; it is the imagination that makes the human being something other than the Knower. The Knower is that from where the flower-man comes, along with the imagination and everything else. So if the Knower is known, then where is the value of the man?
Dikpal: There is no man. There is only the Knower.
Swami ji: No man at all! So no-man is that which is the Knower.
The Knower is not being realized by you because you are holding the flower, holding the man, holding the mind—and you want to know the Knower. The moment you really want to know the Knower, then man is not, imagination is not.
Dikpal: Right. So just the awakening of that wish to know the Knower will dispel the imagination and let the Knower be known?
Swami ji: Only if the Knower is known. Only then. But the wish must be there, the wish to know whether the flower is real or the rose bush is real.
Dikpal: Right. So if I am wishing for something to do with the flower, I am not going to tune in to the rose bush.
Swami ji: No, you will not. Because you are not leaving the flower, you are holding the flower. What is it that is holding the flower? That is your imagination, with which you made the flower—though the flower is nothing other than the rose bush. When only the rose bush was there, then imagination was not there. But imagination appears, and then imagination makes the form of the rose bush and the form of the flower.
That which is the original Being, pure, free, forever, is the reality. When you are knowing that, or realizing that, then all this world does not have any meaning for you, so you have no rag for it and no dwesh for it. Then you have no rag for birth and no dwesh for death. Then there is no rag and no dwesh.
So as long as you are under imagination, you think imagination is real. But when I explain it to you, you say that imagination does not exist, imagination was not real, it is imaginary. If it is imaginary, then why do you call it true?
Dikpal: That is the power of Maya. That is you, Krishn.
Swami ji: If it is the power of Maya, then Krishn says, “Have it with you! Continue with it! You do not have to be free from Maya.” But when Arjun wants to be free from Maya, then Krishn says, “Well, leave Maya and prefer Me!”
Dikpal: Right. So it is just a matter of having that wish to leave Maya, rather than having a wish to achieve something within Maya.
Swami ji: Yes, yes, of course. You have to have the wish of leaving pain, suffering, and death, because you have seen that you do not like it. That which you do not like, leave it!
Dikpal: Right. The problem is that….
Swami ji: The problem is that you do not leave it.
Dikpal: You don’t leave it because you don’t have the knowledge that that which you are holding in your imagination is, in fact, pain and suffering.
Swami ji: Yes, that’s right.
Dikpal: You think it is going to give you some joy and happiness.
Swami ji: Yes. So knowledge should appear. We call it grace—and then you stop. You think that grace will come from somewhere else. Thinking that a rose has appeared, you do not hold that the rose is the grace, the rose is the rose bush; in the same way, thinking that matter has appeared, you do not hold that matter is Bhagawan.
Dikpal: Yes. It is.
Swami ji: And Bhagawan is no such thing as you know. You speak of vibration. “Vibration has made the world. Vibrations interact, and they make forms. And when vibrations are released, then the form is released. And when vibrations multiply with other vibrations, then other forms are there.” That is what you know. But what is vibration? If I say that vibration is God, then you want to see a form of God.
Why do you know about vibration? Because you are the Knower. But you do not know the Knower, because the Knower cannot be known the way a flower or a rose bush or a man is known. So we use the human system. We say, “Look, the human system is such that it does not know when it is born.” But you cancel this.
You see a small child, and you know that a short time ago the child was not born. When you know that the child was not born, why should you deny this fact? When you say the child is born, you deny that which was your basic knowledge before the child was born. That happens. So we have come to know that the human being is such that as soon as the body is born, the Knower has been killed. As soon as the external world appears, the essence, or truth, is killed. Because of this, the whole body, the whole world, is dead to the knowledge of itself. The human being is asleep to the knowledge of himself. You understand this, but you are not trained. You do not have the knowledge of just this one thing—that that which you have come to know is poison. Leave it! Why resort to it a second time?
Bhakti Nath: Swami ji, the Knower always is, the Knower exists always….
Swami ji: The Knower exists always. “Always” means before the birth of the human being, also.
Bhakti Nath: Yes. So my question is, it seems that there is a qualitative difference between the state of the body being alive and the body not being alive, or even between the waking state and the dream state and the sleep state.
Swami ji: Yes, qualitative difference is there. But this does not mean that it is true.
Bhakti Nath: Okay. So that “seeming” is just to the mind?
Swami ji: Yes. “Seeming” means deceiving. “It seems to be”—it is not, but it seems to be. Behind the mountain, a fire is burning. You say, “It seems to be that there is a cloud.” But it is only smoke! Why does it happen? Exactly the same phenomenon exists: “It seems to be that Glen is a human body,” whereas Glen is not a human body. Yet it seems to be—to Dikpal, but not to Bhakti Nath. So what is the value of “seeming”?
“Seeming” is a lie, which has killed the truth. It is explained like that. “It seems to be.” It seems to Dikpal that Bhakti Nath is married, and to Bhakti Nath it seems that he is not married. That is called the seeming reality. The seeming reality is the human being and the world—and all of you are not on the path of following the seeming reality. So you should know, “Look, I have seen the seeming reality, but it is not really real. So, Guru ji, tell me what is real.” Then we can say something.
I say that you cannot deny the Experiencer. Even if you deny the Experiencer, you need experience to deny the Experiencer. So I say, “You will never die. Your experience is that you are not dying.” But then you say, “No, no, my experience is that people die.” Now, through experience you are saying that they die, and through the same experience you are saying that they are alive. So experience is the reality. The human being can be informed, “Look, you can deny everything, but you cannot deny your experience.” Then you can say, “No, I can deny it.” This is called argument. “I can deny.” With what can you deny? With the same experience!
So experience is the reality. We begin to call it the Knower. But the moment I say “Knower,” you say, “Mind, which knows the flower.” So we do not say “Knower.” What do we say? We say, “Oneness.” But oneness does not fall in any category, except the idea of the same pants, the same shoes—the same Russian idea. Again, the mind.
So we made Bhakti Nath aware that the I which is making the qualitative difference does not exist. That I exists for you, so you say, “qualitative difference.” But I did not hear it. That is what my I is. So you have to know the difference: What is the I that I understand, and what is the I that you, and you, and you, understand?
Mahabir: Okay, so….
Swami ji: Now you can say simply, to terminate the talk, that you do not understand this.
Mahabir: Well, there was a question that I did have.
Swami ji: You have a question because you do not understand. If you say you have a question, and you want me to accept that you have a question, it means that I should treat you as a real person.
Mahabir: Well. I would like some clarification on something. You said that “qualitative difference” does not exist, it only seems to exist. But what is the process by which I can….
Swami ji: Clarification will come when you accept that “I don’t know”—which you cannot do.
Mahabir: No, I do accept that. That is why I am asking the question.
Swami ji: Then the matter ends. If you know that “qualitative difference” does not exist, then that is the I which I am talking about.
Mahabir: Right. Thank you.
(Sita arrives from the airport.)
Swami ji: Namaskar. Aao! Very good.
So a human being is that which knows, “I exist.” Then why is the human being expected to deny it, and to say he does not exist? That is wrong on your part, to think that Devindra should say he does not exist. I say that he exists, he went to the airport, he waited, we were in contact with him, he told us that Sita came, that her plane had been a little bit delayed because there was no visibility, but it came.
This is what we already know: that we exist, the plane exists, the sky exists, Devindra exists, Sita exists, and we all feel at heart that we welcome Sita. And in this big box, mangoes exist. You know this, which means that you say, “I know.” This means that you are I. And when I say that they do not exist, that is my I. So why do you expect my I and your I to be just the same?
Mahabir: That is what I wanted to see clearly. What is the process by which I will come to know the I?
Swami ji: I am educated in another science, which you have never reached. For you, science is that which makes things and forms exist—and that has made your I.
As a child, neither you nor I had any I. So why, now, does this I belong to your body? And why do you think that this I belongs to my body, also? My I has been trained in the awareness that this “I,” which human beings are saying that they seem to be, does not exist. I am educated in that, and Mahabir is terminating that. He is terminating the awareness that “I do not exist.” His imagination says, “Up to this time, I knew that I, as a flower, existed, because I did not know the bush. But now I know the Knower.” But when one has known the Knower, there is no I, no flower. He becomes that which is pure, free, forever.
To the human being who knows that he is a flower, and does not know from where he has appeared, I say, “You appeared from the sky.” But he cannot know that he appeared from the sky, just as a flower cannot know that it has appeared from the bush. That is your I. “I,” as Don, does not have any knowledge of my originality. So I have to continue saying that you are original—because up to this time, people have said, “You are Don! You are Don!”
When I said, “You are Mahabir,” was there any process? You became Mahabir! So when I say that you are pure, free, forever, why do you seek for some process to be there?
Mahabir: Yes. Thank you.
Bhakti Nath: So there was no process. You said that when the child is born, the Knower disappears, or is not known anymore, or some phrase that you used a little while ago.
Swami ji: I said it because you think the child is born. But for me, the child is not born. In dream, I had many children, many wives. And they all died. Where were they born, and where have they gone? You know this, also. You know it regarding the dream, but you do not know who made the dream appear.
That one who made the dream appear must be the same as the one who is the dream figure. A seed makes a mango tree, so the seed must be the same as the mango tree, or the mango tree is the same as the seed. So the dreamer is the same as the one who made him into a dreamer. But as soon as the dreamer is made, the dreamer does not know who made him; as soon as you become a child, you do not know who made you. And on the basis of that loss of knowledge, you have to live the whole life.
Bhakti Nath: So it is not a process. So to undo that loss of knowledge, or whatever, that is also not a process?
Swami ji: No, there is no process. Just remember! When I say, “You are That who is unborn,” there is no process. But you have got into the knowledge of process, the knowledge that “There must be some process with which I should know the unborn. My fingers should be cut, arms should be cut, knees should be cut, stomach should be cut, and then I should be just a bubble, and then the bubble should go to the organ or limb of my father, and my father should go to….” This is the process that you want to apply. But where is any process, when you get the Ph.D. degree in your hand? Is there any process?
Before you got the degree, you were not a Ph.D. You studied so much, and you got the Ph.D. Before that, in your head, there was no Ph.D. Then, immediately, the upadhi (qualification) came. Upadhi comes immediately. Suppose one day you cook your dal chawal (dal and rice); then you are a cook. Prayma says, “You are not a husband, you are a cook!” What process do you need? For a mother, what process is there? She was a child, and now she became a mother. She is the same child! Why does she say that she is a mother? Because everybody says, “Now you are a mother, now you have to take care of things, you have responsibilities.” All those silly things have been told to her, and she says, “Yes, I am a mother.” Why do many of you do not say, “I am a mother”? Because you have not seen any flower come out of your stomach. If, now, a flower comes out of your stomach, you will say, “A child is there. I am a mother.” When the same child is in your stomach, unseen, you do not say that you are a mother. But you are the same person.
You understand this, but you are not able to rest with that awareness. For that, we meet together, and we go according to our waking-state mind. We say that we have a mind, and our mind knows certain people, and Sita came from Delhi today, and we know that our process is to welcome her so that she should feel that she actually has come. But for that, she does not really need a process of welcoming. She knows that she has come. To see me, she did not have a process. She opened her eyes, offered the flower. She knows that I exist, and I saw her, and she exists. So, to exist, you do not need a process.
Everybody says that a child is born. From there, we apply the idea of process. The child does not have a name, so we give him a name. At first, he does not take the name, but we say, “You are Pappu, you are Titu, you are Danny, you are Dicky,” all this. Now, what is the process? Don will say, “There is a process. The mother says something, and the child hears.” So your process is in the scheme of cause and effect, and that is called the human being, the human mind.
I will stop over here, and you can welcome Sita, who has come with the sense of oneness. The sense of oneness is devotion. I am using the word “devotion,” but people say, “He is devoted to the nation, so he has devotion.” People say also, “He has devotion to the family, he has devotion to his work, he has devotion to his feelings.” So devotion is being explained by taking a person and seeing that certain thoughts are there in him. This is our limited approach. We can go to the extent of a man’s thoughts, which are expressed through his tongue, in words. But this is what we do not know: words have no meaning. “Devotion” is a word, and the word “devotion” has no meaning. But still we want to have devotion, devotion to the Self, devotion to the Divinity, devotion as love for the Self. This is what they call devotion.
So the human being is always trying to express as much as he knows. And he knows only in the waking state, through his I which he has made, knowing that “I have some knowledge to express.” But he is never capable of knowing what that I is. So he compromises with the knowledge of the body, and he says, “The body is I,” and nobody can make him think otherwise. He is the body, so the body is given a name. Now, how did the name happen? The name was given to Abhaya, and she became Aviva Robibo. Aviva Robibo, Aviva Robibo, Ali Baba! Ali Baba and the forty thieves! We do not know who Ali Baba is, who the forty thieves were. We know only the story. And “story” means that which is not there. So the human being is known by his story, and his story is whatever he does, whatever he is, whatever he eats, whatever he drinks, and all that. We are busy with stories. That is our process, as Don has expressed.
But that which has no story must not have any past, present, or future. He has no history. Who is that? He is ever the same. One who realizes that which is ever the same—he is a devotee. He is the Knower. And the Knower is ever the same; therefore, whatever your knowingness is, that much knowingness I, too, have. Whatever you know, I know the same. If you know half, then I know half. If you know full, then I know full. It is only one reality.
Whatever forms the senses present to the Knower, the Knower becomes that. Therefore, the Knower has become nature; the Knower has become prakaar, or all the different kinds; the Knower has become all the things that he has seen. That is the way you know the Knower: “I am the knower who knows this, who knows this, who knows this.” But the Knower has existed before any kind of matter was produced, before any kind of experiencing knowledge was produced. That is the Knower.
Guru says to you, “Know this: you have the same Knower in you.” And sometimes I say, “You know it.” You say, “Well, I don’t accept it.” I say, “No, accept it!” You say, “How should I accept it”? Then I say, “Change your view!”
So you know change. If you can change the location of a house to another place, then you think you have succeeded in changing the house from here to there. But who is that who does not change, who knows the first house and knows the second house? You say, “The one who knows is in my head, in my mind.” But in deep sleep, you do not know. So illusion appears in the waking state, with which everybody says, “I am Pardarshi, I am Abhaya, I am Bhakti Nath, I am Devindra.” How did the one I become all these kinds? You are expected to work on that.
Whatever they said in the school, you immediately admitted, accepted, or became that. “A flower has petals, many petals.” It is one flower. You see only one flower, but you say there are many, many petals. Why? Because somebody told you. So this is what we are engaged in sorting out: “Why do I think like this? Why do I think that I am the only one, and you are not also somebody? And if you are somebody, a second person, then why is it that I am the only important person?” Why? Because without you, you cannot see the things and forms. So you must be important. But the same importance belongs to another person, also. So what is importance?
Keep knowing that anything which is abstract is not known to the mind. Still, the mind says, “I know the meaning.” Here is a mango fruit. For a small child, you say, “mango fruit, mango fruit,” but what does he know about mango fruit? You show him a cat, and you call it “mango fruit, mango fruit,” and he does not know whether it is a cat or a mango fruit. He sees the form, and if you say “mango fruit, mango fruit,” he will think, “Give me the mango fruit!” You give him the mango fruit, but he thinks “mango fruit” is the name of a cat. He wants a cat, and you are giving him a fruit. So he throws it away, “This is not what I want!” And the mother does not know, “What do you want?” Whatever he has heard, he wants that.
So it is a great advantage for all of us that you are not meeting only one person daily. You would have no such sense of varieties, that somebody knows the truth, somebody else is still in the process of knowing the truth, somebody else has reached there, and somebody else is expressing there. All kinds of people are here. Every leaf is speaking about the sap, but each leaf speaks according to its own size, its own form.
(Sita asks Swami ji to speak about Virat Swaroop.)
You are pleasing all of us, and we are very happy to hear your expression, Virat Swaroop. But you are talking about Virat Swaroop, while you exist as a human being. You are asking about Virat Swaroop as if it was somewhere else, other than in you.
I say that you are individual and, at the same time, you are Virat Swaroop, because without your individual being, there is nobody to experience Virat Swaroop—whether good or bad, holocaust or no holocaust, remarks of one person or of a second person, or the death of many persons or the birth of other persons. You are the one who is Virat Swaroop. That is what Krishn wanted to let Arjun know, that you are watching your own Virat Swaroop, because Arjun was saying, individually, “No, I am watching the Virat Swaroop over there, on the battlefield.” You say, “I am watching Cambodia, I am watching Libya, I am watching Israel, I am watching Pakistan, I am watching India,” and all that—as if they exist without you.
Sita: They are all in me!
Swami ji: They are all in you. Within you, you are Virat Swaroop.
So now you have to choose: you can shut off all the things which are not pleasant to you, because it is all in you, and you can also bring in nice things. So have the remote in your hand, shut off those channels showing war and battles, and bring in nice shows, all dance and drama.
We have shut off everything, past and present. We are watching, and seeing that Sita came. Now, for all of you, it looks like Sita is here. But in the morning I was sitting beside Alka, and on the phone she said, “Sita, are you coming?” Sita said, “I am still in Delhi.” So I said, “Why Delhi? She was supposed to come to Kullu!” So Alka again said, “Are you in Delhi? How much time? Swami ji wants you to be in Kullu.” Now, what is all this? It is all in me.
There is nobody else, other than Me. That Me is your Virat Swaroop. That Me is the individual, that Me is a butterfly, that Me is existence, that Me is consciousness, that Me is space, and that Me is all the things which the eyes can see. And when all the things, eyes, and ears, are all gone, that is still Me. That is your Me.
Sita: Thank you.
Swami ji: Thank you very much. God bless you.
If you know Me, then you have heard me saying many times, “You are just Me.” Why? I do not see Sita through Alka’s eyes, I do not see Dikpal through Devindra’s eyes. I see with my own eyes. Now, if I say “my own eyes,” there must be somebody who owns them. Who is that, who owns my eyes? My eyes are the same type of eyes as Don’s are, so where is there any distance or difference between us? Why would we not have the same knowledge of sight? Whatever he sees, I see. Whatever Krishn sees, Arjun sees. Whatever you see, I see. But there is something which they call avaran, a cover. Don said, a cover takes place. That cover is mal, vikshep. Mal means mind, illusion. So illusion, dust, comes over the looking glass and covers it. What is the fault of the looking glass? Dust came. What is the fault of the sun, when clouds come? The sun cannot see us. We are unfortunate, at that time, that clouds came and the sun does not see us. But we attribute some fault to the clouds, that the clouds cannot see me. We attribute some fault to awareness, that awareness is not seeing me.
Awareness is Awareness throughout, whether clouds arise in it or do not arise in it. Awareness knows, “The clouds arise in Me, they will go out of Me, and again they will be in Me. Me alone is.” That is the possibility in a human being, that he can understand the Me-sense. And that is not really a sense, because the moment Me creates a sense, it has become consciousness, which is negative to Me.
Everybody is saying, “Sita is a good girl, Sita is a good girl.” I also say, “Sita is a good girl.” But you should know why each person wants to be good, or wants to be known as good. It is because, basically, Me is good. Me is Sat-Chit-Anand. That Me is spread in different forms, so we say, “The sap is Me in the tree, with all the flowers and leaves.” But now it is up to you, what you hear. You will hear only that which you have been taught in order to become “I.” So your I will think, “Well, the leaves are not flowers, so how can the sap be one and the same? The flower sap must be different, the leaf sap must be different. My mind sap, my mind source, must be different, and my ear source must be different. Alka’s Guru cannot be my Guru, and Sita’s Guru cannot be Poornima’s Guru.” Because you think only of the kind of Guru that you want.
Guru is all that there is! Guru is tadatmya (sameness, oneness). Whatever you put in Guru, Guru has that taste. Like water—if you put mishri (sugar) in water, then you taste mishri. If you put salt in water, then you taste salt. It is all water. It is all Guru.
Sita: I would like to know how I can remain in my keep-knowing state.
Swami ji: Yes. Each human being knows according to his size and form and learning, and each person is a human body. Now, if each person is a human body, then what is that in a human being which he wants to know, and which the body as a whole cannot describe? The eyes can describe forms, ears can describe sound, nose can describe breath or fragrance, mouth can describe eating or speaking, hands can describe touch. But what is that which the senses cannot describe and the mind wants to know?
The mind says, “I have so much power to know whatever I want.” And each person believes that whatever the senses know, that should be the knowledge of the mind. So the mind agrees with whatever the senses are saying, that the forms are good, the sound is good, or the forms are not good, and all that. But the mind wants something about which the senses, including the mind, cannot provide any knowledge.
So now comes the question: What is it that you want to know? What is it that you should keep remembering, or knowing?
There remains only one Being who has no senses, and who does not function on the basis of the truth of the senses. That Being also does not depend on the information and desire of the mind. That is what Guru has said. Guru has said, “Look, all your senses are not your I. Your mind, with its thinking and vrittis, is also not I. The whole world that is seen and known and experienced by the senses—that is not your I.” So the student asks, “Then what should I know about I?” Guru says, “Know that I is pure, free, forever. Therefore, do not apply the sense of purity and freedom to the things described by the senses and by the mind.”
Keep knowing what Guru has said. That is knowledge, that is gyan. That is what you love. That is why you want to use all your army to perform all the actions, to get that victory. You are victorious! You are that Being which is pure, free, forever, where there is no name and no form that the mind knows. Guru knows this, so Guru says that you have identified with the knowledge of the waking-state mind, the knowledge that “I am this body, and I hear the radio, I watch the video, I see all the forms that appear on the television. I see that the game is going on, someone is defeated, someone is victorious, and sometimes the rain falls and there is no match at all. And, Swami ji, Guru ji, I as a mind treat all the figures and forms as true.” So Guru says, “Well, look. Ask the television. Even the television will not say that the forms and figures are true. The television says, ‘I am true.’ So why do you not identify with that which is the truth?”
You are the truth. If you continue remembering Guru’s words—remembering that Guru ji has said, “I am the truth; I am pure, free, forever; I am immortal, I am blissful”—then you are doing the right thing. You are doing satsang, you are talking, you are serving, you are seeing, you are doing all that, but you are knowing, “I is everywhere just the same. Guru ji said that I is pure, free, forever. It has no division of long or short, knowledgeable or unknowledgeable, knowing who is who or not knowing a bit. I is pure, free, forever.” That is what you have to continue knowing.
You are perfectly deserving. You are on the path of inquiry, the path of highest awareness, the path of knowing that which is the highest vidya (highest knowledge). The highest vidya is that which never changes. Therefore, the highest vidya is that which is never born, never apparent. This is what the student is expected to know, when Guru says, “That which you call you is not correct. It is mithya, illusory. But that which I am saying, that is correct. That is unchanging, Brahm, Self, Satyam.”
The human being is established, by birth, in the knowledge of illusion. That is why the result has never become satisfactory, however hard you tried. Whatever you try, in the end, you are tired of it or you do not like it—including your body. You do not like it! It becomes weak and just does not give you the same kick, the same joy of all those things which as a young person you used to have, and now you do not like that body. So you want to have another body. Some Guru says, “I will give you kaya kalp, I will give you some tonic,” and you get caught again in that. You want your body to be perfect. You want everything perfect for your body; you want your kitchen to be perfect, you want your living room to be perfect, you want your bathroom to be perfect, you want your health to be perfect. The human being does the maximum that he can do, because he does not want to ruin himself as the body and become the victim of a holocaust. That is what he does not want. But a holocaust is not something that Hitler will do. It is waiting for you. Death is nothing but a holocaust! You want to avoid that.
Guru says, yes, you can avoid it—if you have higher vidya, the highest vidya. Then Guru will give you the highest information: “Look, you say that you are born. That is incorrect. That is the body, the tool that has been prepared by you for the purpose of driving to that Guru who will give you the highest vidya, the highest knowledge of your I, the knowledge that I am pure, free, forever, unborn, unchanging, undying. What is wrong in it?”
But no. You hear, as a disciple, but you are conditioned in avidya. Avidya creates avaran, so that the moment you go away from here, your mind is covered by avidya and all your sanskars come up. And not only in this lifetime; sanskars come in the next lifetime, also.
So Guru says, “Don’t worry! You have come on this earth because of your previous sanskars, and they will fructify now and then. Just meditate, so that you can take off from the body altogether and not be the victim of your prarabdh (fructifying karm), saying, “This prarabdh belongs to me.” Time, prarabdh, space, and all previous things—they do not belong to you. You are I, pure, free, forever, uninvolved, forever the Self.”
Thank you.