When you sneeze, then before the sneeze comes, you can always put your hand over your mouth. I learned this when I was learning yogic science, that whenever a sneeze comes we can bring our palm to our cheek, to our mouth. So there are certain things that we cannot succeed in stopping. The body is like that. That is why, seeing the state of affairs of the body, we realize that one does not want to have another body!
People speak of liberation, moksh, mukti, freedom. There is no freedom that anybody can expect on the level of the body; yet, because of the body, everybody wishes to have freedom. That clearly shows, to intelligent persons, that we must be bound. But how can I explain that a child is born bound? Everybody sees the child and calls him innocent; but he is going to be, for a hundred years, terrible, in depression, worry, tension, and agitation for the mother. At least, it is our good luck that mothers die earlier than their children. If the mother is twenty-five years old and a child is born, then the child has to live for a hundred years, and the mother has only seventy-five years. So, generally, all mothers die before the child’s turn comes.
See, all of you were seriously meditating, and I heard someone sneeze two or three times, so I was ousted. It is not that it is your fault. Many times, people are happy, sitting in the middle of the audience, and then they have to get up and go across all the people. They wait, thinking what to do, what not to do. And we have just a little bit of space between two rows, and we have only this much room in the hall for this many chairs. That is why we say that on the Himalayas, if you come, you have to be inconvenienced. When you come to satsang, you come on your legs, and you come after breakfast, and you come with all kinds of worries, tension, agitation, and then it takes at least ten to fifteen minutes for you to become easy. That is why it is not that I am Indian and so I am late. I deliberately come late!
What I mean is that we are in the field of being born on earth, and thus everything will be complicated. Therefore, only if we transcend time and then talk, it is possible that the answer can be given to you as to why it is that we have to speak in time, we have to hear in time, we have to think in time. Unless we transcend time, there is no way for a human being to recognize or realize that which is shuddh, pure, free, forever.
That is pure, free, forever. Now, why is it that you, as a human being, want to realize pure, free, forever? You should not. You cannot.
Yes, Mary, come and say something.
Mira: So since a human being cannot realize pure, free, forever, it means it is only Guru that can realize us.
Swami ji: I mean that a human being is born, and the human being has to wait for his death.
Mira: So the human being can never know more than that?
Swami ji: Yes. Therefore, the one who wants to know—he is not a human being! So you can see that it is all divinity sitting over here, because you want to get out of the idea of death.
A small child has no idea of death. You know it. What do you know? You use the word “idea.” Now, from where does an idea come? In a child, there is no idea. Yesterday Karen said that she was meditating and she heard some voice saying “pure, free, forever.” How would she relate to that now, being Karen, a girl, with mind, ego, understanding, intellect, and senses? She has to forget that voice, because she understands only that a voice must belong to someone. So there is no way for a human being to know what is what, what is this, what is that, and what are the scriptures.
Dikpal, come and say something.
Dikpal: You say there is no way. But if a human being hears the explanation of those things from someone who does know what is what, and what is this, and what is that….
Swami ji: That is the only way! And you do not find it anywhere, because the one who knows cannot say “I am the way,” because the moment he says “I am,” he has to become a human being, and then a human being can relate to him only as a human being. That is why, in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishn speaks only to Arjun. He does not speak to the whole army, or to the whole group of relations. And, too, he speaks at a time when Arjun has expressed that “I do not know. I have used all my wits, all my reasoning. What to do now? All my relations are pitted against me, and I am seeing them. They are all venerable, and I have been taught not to disrespect them, let alone kill them!” Only then, Krishn began to open his mouth. Until then, he was driving the chariot and the horses, and he did not say a word.
Only when such a situation arises in a person, only then, is knowledge given by the one who has the knowledge. “Has the knowledge” does not have the same meaning as the kind of knowledge that all of you have. Knowledge is pure, free, forever, and there is no way to put it in the words of a human being. When you hear it, then only the voice of that person who has this knowledge, only that vocabulary and words, or that smile, or anything which comes out of that person, becomes the knowledge that cuts the ignorance asunder.
Mira has used the word avidya, because she knows Sanskrit and she studies all those things. So she could say avidya, but she forgot that here nobody knows avidya. They know “ignorance,” but they think that ignorance only means when you forget some spelling. Then they say, “Oh, the editor became ignorant, the person became ignorant.” Or when, as a human being, you are not knowing something and you want to know it, then you are called ignorant. So all human beings, born as they are, are ignorant. A child is born, and you cannot really say that the child is pure. The child is the symbol of purity, but, as well, he is ignorant.
So the child is the representative of the imagination of the pure. He is, at the same time, pure and imagination. Imagination is supposed to forget pure, and pure, being caught in the imagination, forgets itself. That is the situation. Then what can a person do? A person can just die, that’s all! And watch, all we intelligent persons have seen that when one dies, only then, he has no way to speak words, no way to think, no way to know that “I am in the state of death, or the elimination of the body.” So what is that? When you die, then it is Absolute Bliss Consciousness! So we are using “Absolute Bliss Consciousness” for death, and “death” is being used for Absolute Bliss Consciousness. But “Absolute,” “Bliss,” “Consciousness,” are words, and “death” is a word. So the whole of humanity, now, is what? Can you conclude?
Dikpal: It is death-ridden, because….
Swami ji: That’s all. Death-ridden! And if it is death-ridden, then it is Absolute-Bliss-Consciousness-ridden!
Dikpal: It doesn’t sound very nice!
Swami ji: That is where you are caught. The moment you are born, you have to be a human being, and everybody knows what a human being is. Yet all the anthropologists have studied the human being, and they have found that there is something in a human being that knows. So why should it not sound good, whether you say “Absolute Bliss Consciousness” or “death,” if you know the Knower?
Dikpal: If you know the Knower, yes.
Swami ji: That’s all. That is the only way.
Gyata, or Knower, gyan, or knowledge, and gyeyya, or that which is known, is only one reality. This has been sorted out. But if it is sorted out, then it must be relayed or released to people. And if people hear it, they get confused, because their knowledge is of only one type. “One type” means name and form. They do not want to lose name and form; rather, many people work to retain their name even after death, for centuries after centuries. They want to make a great pillar, like Ashok Samrat (King Ashok). He made a pillar, a big pillar, with lines over it and the Indian flag, and all that, and he is known up to this time. And he was never there! To us, he was never born.
So the human being will remain a human being until he is eliminated completely, until he dies. Thus Absolute Bliss Consciousness comes only when you die. So what a difficulty and miserliness it is for you not to die right now! But a human being cannot know this. That is why, as long as the human being exists, he has to be tuned in to birth and tuned in to death. The whole of humanity is like this. That is why this knowledge is not meant for human beings. It is meant only for Arjun.
Arjun was only Krishn, but Krishn forgot and became Arjun. The story goes like this: Krishn and Arjun were not two forms, but the earth begged the Devatas, saying, “We are suffering! Too much terrorism is over here! People are coming on and on and on and on, and I am pressed by all of them. I need some relief from these terrorists, so please do something!” Then the Avatar Krishn took place, and he told Arjun, “You are the same Being as I am. I am neither Krishn nor Arjun. But now I am taking a form, out of myself, and you are also taking a form, out of the same Self, my Self. But you have to learn archery and all the vidya, or knowledge, to eliminate these terrorists, and I will be the one who will be advising you. So we two, together, can do this job.” But when Arjun came on earth and started eating food, poori and halwa, he forgot completely! For one hundred and eighty-five years, he remained forgetful, until the situation arose.
So without a situation, you will never learn any lesson. As you have seen, today Suresh said that his mother’s sister’s son died yesterday, at 4 o’clock in the morning, and she phoned and asked him to tell Swami ji. So I wrote a letter to everyone. Now, what can you do? You have to act as a human being among human beings. You have to send condolences. When Hari ji passed, I sent people a letter, and they said, “What kind of person are you, that your wife died and you are not feeling sorry and mourning?” In my letter I did not mention mourning, or all those things, and then many letters came to me, saying, “How is that? Who are you, that your wife, your better half, has died, and you are writing such a letter to us?”
We never get information about who is doing what, how brilliant they all are—unless you die. Then, when you die, the information comes. Dr. Delbray also died, two or three days ago. We never knew where he was, what he was doing, and all that, but when he died, we got the information. So why should we not be free from knowing that any human beings have died? Then we are free!
Unless we reach that state, you really cannot expect freedom. Continue meditating, meditating, and hoping that meditation will give you the answer, that meditation will give you the answer. You are not going to get the answer! Meditation is nothing but a prison cell! You just forget everything over there, and you are sitting all alone.
That is why we have to create the situation now, when we are human beings of the type that we really, earnestly, want to know to what it means: Na jaayatay mriyatay vaa kadaachin, naayam bhootwaa bhavitaa vaa na bhooyaha, ajo nityaha shaaswato ayam puraano, na hanyatay hanyamaanay shareeray. (“The Self, God, never takes birth and never dies. Even when God, having manifested, appears to have become something, taken birth, or changed into a form separate from Himself, the truth is that He is unborn, ancient, and everlasting. When a body appears to be killed or destroyed, it is only the form changing or dying; the Self remains forever the same.”) Stephen has learned it, but he has a wife, under whose control he is, so what can he do? He would have never joined here, but his wife brings him here again and again, and so he gets off from his work and business. Otherwise, he would have written more, two more books on Aum.
Thank you. You are such a joy, Stephen. That is why I really love you—though my Guru ji said, “You are not going to learn English at all. Learn Sanskrit!” But I could not learn Sanskrit, because my pandit was like Stephen. Not only that, he just twisted my ears! Since then, my ear is crooked. So whenever I talk like a crook, you will excuse me! After that, I never learned Sanskrit. I never went back to that teacher, because he was the only pandit and he was a kind of terror. And Sanskrit grammar, English grammar, terrible! Your mother tongue is better, the mother tongue is good. When children learn English, they do not learn grammar, and if Sanskrit is spoken at home, they learn in the same way. Otherwise, too much grammar! What I mean is, this is the situation of human beings. They are in sheer bondage.
So we remain human beings, and we continue doing that which good human beings can do. At the most, we get established in non-killing. But watch, our Gandhi ji was established in non-killing, Yudhishthir was into non-killing. He was the premier non-killer, Yudhishthir, and watch, the Bhagavad Gita war ensued because of him. And then, later on, Arjun had to take up his cudgels, when Krishn told him to.
So if you are not really against death, then you will be pro-death. That is why we are saying all the time, for the last forty-six years, that death does not exist. If death exists, then you have to go through all the pain, suffering, and disease. These days, the greatest disease is cancer. And each human being, by birth, has a cancer—the very birth is a cancer! If nobody talks about this, then you will never want to be free from this human incarnation, to get rid of it. Everybody asks, what was I in the past incarnation, what am I going to be in the next incarnation? All those things are going on.
I should stop at this time. Please say something. Nice things!
(Here Shuddhanand speaks about the scriptural injunction that one should not covet another’s wealth.)
Swami ji: But why has he said, do not covet anybody’s wealth? We should have everybody’s wealth!
Shuddhanand: I think you already have it!
Swami ji: Yes. These Upanishads have spoken to those people who are human beings. So, to make human beings good, it has been said, “Look, if you are a human being, earn your own money. You should not think about getting anybody else’s money.” And watch, it is only money that nobody can part with! So the whole of the Upanishads and all those things, they are all useless. But one has to learn them because then he gets all the reverence, he gets two or three Doctor’s degrees.
See, the education system has made everybody small, smaller than the principal, or the vice-chancellor, or the professor. Little boys become professors, and they are respected just because they got first class first, second class first, third class first, and all kinds of things. So the human being is that which is made by the ego.
Ego is illusion, and illusion is the Lord Himself. Therefore, those who worship the Lord are under illusion. Just check, all those who are in the religious field say, “You should worship the Lord! Worship the Lord! Worship the Lord!” And no small children know how to worship the Lord. In your country, they worship the Lord who is hanging on the cross, and so your children are afraid, from the very beginning, just by worshipping the Lord.
By worshipping the Lord, you should be free! But no, they are not free from birth and death. That is why you have heard me saying that death does not exist. Christ never died on the cross! He did not get up on his own cross and say, “Kill me!” It is a story. All the Upanishads, all the Vedas, Karm Kand, and all those kinds of things, are just not for freedom. So how does it happen that here, after we have been on earth for many, many thousands of years, you came to me with that awareness with which you wanted freedom from death, freedom from Yam Raj? You are all Nachiketas! Yam Raj said, “Well, ask for wives, I can give you many. Ask for palaces, I can give you many. Ask for kingdoms, I can give you many.” But Nachiketa said, “I do not need all that, because I am aware that you will devour all of them. Give me that which you cannot devour!” And that was the Self.
Thank you very much. God bless you.
You can close the eyes again, and just watch. That is you, the Self. Never think that you have not realized the Self. At this time, you are That. I am speaking to all of you. All of you are realized beings. I use words, so I say “realized beings,” but this awareness does not fall in any category of the tongue of a human being. That is why we meditate.
Many times, words may be spoken which go against your own meanings, in your own language. But I have come to realize that all of you want to get rid of death—yet you do not want to leave birth. So now, in this space, I will be quiet. This has been realization.
Now you are sure that you will not talk about death in front of those people who believe in death, who believe in birth. You will not make a movement of deathfulness and birthfulness. Let humanity be as it is. It is your own creation, so why would you disappoint them? The way they are trained, the way they are taught, let them be like this. No human being will ever relish that they should die. That is why, mostly, in every country, in every family, the word “death” is not used—unless somebody dies. At that time, they say they have become disillusioned. All right, let them be disillusioned. What is it to you? You have realized that this is so. I, too, have come to realize that this is so. Still, we welcome all human beings, telling them that they are born, and birth is most important and significant, and it is wonderful for them to do all that which the great humanity is doing, not only today but for millions of years.
But this knowledge, our knowledge, is very rare. We will not teach deathfulness. We will continue saying anything that can make people uninvolved from the idea of death. Just this!
If people are uninvolved and do not remain attached to the idea of death, they will be free. And they will still be doing many great things. They will send their satellites to Mars, to Venus, and all that. They will continue doing it. And if they die, we will mourn. We will continue that. We cannot change it. I quoted the example of my wife’s sister: her young son, who was a lawyer, was suffering from cancer, and he died just today, in the night. I sent a letter of condolence from the whole family, though I am aware that the poor fellow has been released, and there should be happiness rather than sadness. But no, we cannot say such things to a mother, and we cannot say such things to a wife whose husband has died—unless they come over here. Then we know that they have come to be here just because of that Being which is pure, absolute, free.
All human beings are caught in consciousness. That is why this knowledge is very rare. No doubt, we thought to make such a group of people that, just by seeing them, people should be attracted. Just by seeing you, all the people will be attracted, because you are the one who is sitting on the seat. You are sitting in Sunday Silence, and you are giving meditation.
We can give meditation, but we do not have to tell them that in meditation, you die, you are extinguished. Otherwise, people will freak out. So we will not tell them. It is just for you.
Thank you. Sing Om Poornam.
All the satsangees sing: Om Poornam adah poornam idam, Poornaat poornam udachyatay, Poornasya poornam aadaaya, Poornam-ayv-avashishyatay. (Om. That is Perfection, Infinite, the Whole. This is Perfection, Infinite, the Whole. From out of Perfection, Perfection arises. When Perfection is taken from Perfection, Perfection alone remains.)
Swami ji: You have heard me saying that when people die, with respect to them and with a respectful heart we bury them, we burn them, and whatever humanity has evolved after that, we will continue doing it. But for those who want to be free from death, we will not shirk from letting them know that death does not exist. If they come to know this, they will be free in their life. They will be able to eat well, drink well, and do good things, and they will remain healthy. They will go to doctors and nurses, and all the nurses and doctors are not to be told that death does not exist, because science is going to be more and more important. People will be knowing more things on the computer network, and they will be experiencing, enjoying, and sending for all kinds of things from the computer. You can do it well!
Thank you very much.