Sandesh: … From what appears to be inanimate, or the grossest, to the subtlest, all is in motion. You said the means is to bring the consciousness back to its originality, where it is the Source of all kriya (action). You also mentioned in my letter about my living, on the daily level, the state of Shanti, or peace. Do you mean that for me to have peace means to go to that point from where all action, all manifestation, emanates?
Swamiji: You use the word “peace” in the world as against war—war and peace. The second thing you say about peace is that when you are in good surroundings, like in a beautiful garden and house where you have a beautiful family, who love each other and eat and drink together, then people say, “You are living a very peaceful life. You are at peace at home.” Also, if you make peace with somebody with whom you were always struggling and you stop it and don’t quarrel, then it is called peace. This is what you understand as peace, and then you translate the word “peace” as Shanti. But Shanti is not peace. Shanti is where there is no subject, no object, and no relationship, where the trio, or triputi, settles and gets absorbed into That [Oneness]. The triputi comes only when your waking state, with its subject, object, and relationship, comes. Thus, peace is never found on the human body level. That is why as long as a human being is awake, he will never be fully at peace. He will plan his peace: he will be quiet, sit quietly, not interact, not indulge in anything, maybe be in a cave and all that, and then he will conclude he is at peace. But he is always with the body and mind.
Shanti is where Om is. Om is where language has no meaning. It is the source of sound. When all the sounds taken together subside, that is Om, which is not a word, not a sound. Om is the source of all the sounds which make the forms and names. Shanti is before that. Even when you say Om, there must be someone to say Om. So Shanti is when you meditate and after meditation you come to know that you did not see the human being. There were no eyes or ears; you were not seeing a dream; there was no sense of thinking, no sense of imagination. That is the space of peace. That alone is the source of all the manifest activity. Action comes from there, and knowledge also comes from there. But knowledge becomes agyan, or no knowledge, because as soon as knowledge comes, it forgets itself, or Shanti. So Shanti is beyond knowledge and no knowledge.
When people are ashant, or peaceless, we say, “Just don’t mind this.” Then we take them from the forms towards inside. When they are inside, they can think—and think anything. Always when thoughts come, they either blame someone or praise someone, or else they blame others and appreciate themselves. The mind does this. Wherever this mind functioning is not, which means it is transformed, that is the purification of the mind. As long as purification, pawan, pavitrata, or purity, has not been reached, till then Shanti is not. So Pure Free Forever—that is what you hear me say.
In the womb of your mother, you were quite shant for some time, and before that you were all shant. From shant—this is a shock—the whole world appears! The egg is broken and this world appears. So manifestation comes. Till you include the whole manifestation in Shanti, Shanti will not come. It will be disturbed. That is what I mean when I say that “Be at peace” means “Be not a human being, the way you think you are a human being.” Rather, be the one who sees the human being, who sees manifestation, unmanifestation, varieties of things, plurality, the sense of duality. That is the one who uses the eyes and so sees, who uses understanding, the inner eye of the mind, and so sees. But where the gross level, the internal, subtler level, and the subtlest level are not, where prakriti (nature), the gunas (the three powers of manifestation), ahankar (individual consciousness), and chidavali, or the creeper of consciousness, are not, what remains is called Pure. That is Shanti.
When you meditate, you reach there. Then identify as that! The problem is that many of you reach there in meditation, but then you come onto the same. You say, “No, I have to maintain this. I have to maintain my emotions—my love, my anger, my sense of possession, and all those things like lust, etc.” We have so many names for a human being. But the main thing is you were not born. Then what peace do you need?! And if you are not born, why would you die? Then why would you have the thoughts of death and fear? Why would you be angry? Why would you be possessive? Why would you be loving someone? Why would you have aversion, hatred, or anything?
According to whatever vocabulary has been used to approach you or to put all the meanings and sounds in you, you have become a human being. A child is at peace. We can lead your attention up to when you were a child at one time and you never needed moksh (liberation), any kind of gunas, or anything. There was no sakar (form) or nirakar (formless)—nothing. So a human being as he is, wherever he is, is taken from there towards that side which you call depth, or subtlety. With the help of the senses, a human being can only be quiet, and when the senses stop, he thinks it is peace. So many people do not work, see, hear, go anywhere, interact, and all that. In this way, they plan peace, but they plan it with the help of the sense of duality. The sense of duality is the human mind, the ego-intellect-mind happening, the system. This much psychology they have come to know.
But what is there when you sleep? I do not recommend sleep, but I lead your attention to when you sleep: are you ever ashant? You are never, never worried and agitated in deep sleep. The world does not exist, and you, your friends, and relations do not exist. Then what exists? That is Existence. Who came to know? You. But to identify with that means, Know it! Someone said to acknowledge it. But the moment you acknowledge it, then there are two, something and somebody. So don’t acknowledge it—leave this acknowledgement. (Laughter) … You got the benefit of meeting me and asking for peace. Ask and ye shall get— but get it! (Laughter).…
Meditation is our main part. For that, we have come together. I am the one who has been meditating for the last eighty years. So I can well recognize your difficulties in meditation, your beginning, middle, and end of meditation, your inside questions, and all that. I will tell you that meditation is a must if one wants to be at peace. But there are people who do not want to be at peace. They want to be active and do not allow themselves to give rest to their senses, which remain always functioning—the whole system remains always churning. In meditation, it so happens that every single cell becomes at rest. Daily, meditation brings in that much energy that you can cope with your activities of the day, and, if you continue, the activities of the month, of the whole year, and of the whole life. You can take care of it. What is that? Without closing the eyes, meditation does not happen. So you have to close the eyes and listen to me—which will immediately shut your world off.
As soon as you close the eyes, you succeed in transcending the idea of the world. But then the mind will come, immediately. Up to this time, it has not come. The moment you close the eyes, thoughts will come. They will be of your experiences, from your childhood up to this time—all that which you have experienced can come. Then you may be disturbed, thinking you are meditating and have heard that in meditation you have to concentrate, and thoughts should not come. You will again open the eyes, again struggle, put force on your eyes, and then the whole system will get more agitated. But you will not do that—this is the second instruction. So you will close the eyes and thoughts will come. Allow them to come. Thoughts will go. Don’t look for them to bring them back. Just have the same attitude that you have about how your hair keeps increasing daily, yet you never mind how much it has grown or not. After that, take easy. “Take easy” means “as you are.” You are that one who has never become uneasy. “Take easy” means to know your Self is unborn, unchanging, undying.
You will never have this knowledge on the level of your mind and intellect. You will say it is the space, but even space becomes blue, and it becomes yellow when the sun comes. This is not the space. So close the eyes, and the special knowledge or information is you are That. “That” is not against “this.” We say That because you only know this. Since this is changing, getting old and diseased, and dying, so we say you are That. But you are not That. Yet by my saying That, for some time, in your imagination, you got away from this.
Suppose you close the eyes and are taking easy for two, three, or four minutes, which even means the way you know easy—that thoughts are not there, sleep, dream, and thinking are not there. What is there? Knowledge, Knower, Knowingness. But you know this knowing aspect only after seeing things, hearing sounds, smelling flowers, breathing in, tasting food, and touching the softness of objects. That is not Knowledge. Knowledge cannot be described, so we say it is Pure Free Forever. During this period, Knowledge will remain forever, always, every moment. That Knowledge is throughout life. It remains all the time, during sleeping, dreaming, waking, thinking, which means Knowledge is the Source.
You are this Source, but because of the senses and their functioning, it is not made available. It is only at this time that you are not connected to the Source, rather you are the Source. There is no division in it. It is not … [any sound]. It is neither happiness nor unhappiness, not white light, dark light, or darkness. It is not sense, which is mind, which is duality. It is not chaytan, it is not achaytan, it is not conscious, it is not unconscious. This Knower is your Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss. They are three words, but it is the same Being. This Knower is attracting every mind, so it is attraction. That is because everybody would love it, everybody is missing the love of it.
When you have no sense of otherness, you are at peace. That Peace, that Oneness, that Sap, that Knowledge has made your body manifest out of that Peace, so it is the Source. When I say the Source, you know the source of a river, an object, or a tree, so you still imagine a form. I am speaking about that which is formless, nameless, soundless. Sound and form both are forms. So it is the Knowledge, or Love, which has no form of the kind that a human being can make. You cannot make Knowledge—your ego cannot make it. Your ego can make a cellphone, but your ego cannot know what is hidden in the cellphone, how the sound travels thousands of miles and a man on the other side hears you. It is only the space; there are not even wires inside. But you understand there is a chip, and what does that chip do? In one small atom of this space, millions of universes can be made. You are that big! Mahato mahiyan anor aniyan—bigger than the biggest, smaller than the smallest. Such things we can say. But when we are maun (silent), we are That. That is the name. We say silence, but that is another name. Silence can be misinterpreted. To you, silence means you don’t speak. In the classroom, everybody heard the professor’s finger saying, “Be silent!” That is not silence. Rather, this now is maun. So you become a muni (sage). Where there is no attachment to forms and sounds, it becomes Yog (Unity). So this mind becomes a yogi.…
That is everywhere just the same. Why? It is timelessness. I am using words, which you have heard in time and space. But now I will be quiet. The moment I am quiet, you are unborn, immortal, undying, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. Its meaning is not an object. Its meaning is only Existence, and Existence has not yet even become conscious. We have to go deeper, from the human body and senses, from the grosser to the deeper. We continue watching. We watch the objects, watch the thoughts, but we know the Watcher. Nobody knows the Watcher, because everybody knows name, form, and his upadhis, or qualifications. There is no qualification in this. It is just at ease, at peace. These are words which we conclude with Hum, Amaram Madhuram. So if at all the mind comes, then we give the meaning, “Mind, you are immortal—provided that you should not forget. You should remember your Source. The Source is immortal.” Thus, we will not hate the mind, because we have to use the mind and senses, which means we are living, so we have to use them. But then the mind gets absorbed in that Space, which is nameless, formless. I cannot describe that, so we just speak of anirvachaneeya, indescribable, and that’s it.… [Meditation]
Mary mentioned inner communication. Outer communication belongs to the external senses, which are bahirmukh (outward facing). This space was antarmukh (inward facing). It was not that it was inner travelling. Antarmukh means Atma, to be the Self. You don’t have to accept what I say, because you are the same which I am. If you say “I am” and I say “I am,” where will we end up? You end up in the body and I will also end up on the body. When I say I, you end up in nothingness. But since I have meditated, I is the Source. There is no division in it. It is indivisible, akhand—no dukh (two spaces). In English, dukh is translated as pain, suffering, trouble. It is not. Dukh means division. Suresh spoke of and (egg/the individual) and brahmand (cosmic egg/the universe). It is as if an egg has been cut into two, one part has gone up and one has gone down. So the brahmand became cosmic and this became the individual. We use this because it is what our eyes see—a vast world in front of our eyes. But nobody informs you that it is not a vast world and a small individual. This description is mental. Through mind we can speak, describe, write books, and write a will.
But this is Self Realization, Atma Darshan, Atma Gyan, Self Vision. No dwait (duality) and no opposite, adwait (non-duality). The result of this will be in everybody’s life: for whoever takes ten to fifteen minutes in meditation daily, peace will start. That means, relaxation will take place, anger will go away, agitation will never be there, and worries will never exist. What exists? It is neither appearance nor disappearance, neither love alone nor love made big, neither God there nor God here. It is everywhere. Everywhereness is not a human being, big or small, born or unborn. We use these words so that the same Being, which is trapped in a human body, mind, and intellect, gets released. That release is slowly and slowly Shanti. It enhances and increases like the moon, which, from the first to the second to the third day, grows bigger and bigger. But when it reaches there, it is full. Whether we, as human beings, understand full or not full, but it is. That is direct experience. It is not that you experience from some instrument. Direct experience, Aparokshanubhuti, means the Self.
The Watcher will start coming, with its closeness to the mind. It is the Watcher who unfolds its own consciousness and pours it into the mind. The mind is innocent. Never condemn the mind. Never condemn the senses. Never blame anybody. The words “sense of duality” exist; simpler still is “sense of otherness.” Why will sense have other? Why “I,” why “you”? Why aham, why twam? Why Brahm (the Whole), why aham (the individual)? This is puja (worship), or perfect joining. It is Yog. We only use examples, stories, kahani, everything that is written. Small or big, correct or not correct, joyful or not joyful, it is all a story. But what is the store?
Reaching this Space, wherever the body goes, it goes in your Self. There is no fear of anybody, there is no special attachment to anybody. There is no relinquishment of agyan, or ignorance, no renunciation, no vairagya. There is no vivek (discrimination between what exists and does not exist), no assertion for “is”—is never says “is.” There is no negativity, no not, thus there is no yes. That is shuddh (purity), shanti (peace), mukti (liberation). It cannot be cut by weapons. And that is You.
So whenever you are afraid of being cut, that is not you. It is your imagination, or illusion. Anytime any thought comes that you will be burnt, that is illusion, that is fear from the body and mind. Anytime you think you are going to be drowned, though you are not swimming or doing anything, it is fear. Anytime the idea that a storm will come and you will be blown, that is the mind. In daily, colloquial words we say “spaced out.” It is not spaced in, not spaced out, no bheetar (inside), no bahar (outside), no jug in the ocean, no ocean containing the jug.
After realization, all the scriptures will be even: whatever you read, whatever you do, you know they are all words. And for a little human child, there is no value of words or meanings. He has the knowledge of drinking milk, he has not to know that blood turns into milk in a mother’s breast. Who makes it? Why is the same milk not in another woman’s breast, when she does not have a child? Never condemn birth, never blame your mother, never blame yourself. Never worry about diseases, sickness, worry, tension, agitation, and condemn yourself all the time. Just eat well, drink well, live well, and work well. There is no small, no big. And as much as possible be away from people who create agitation, or mind, in you.
Whenever you will come to speak, never say the mind is speaking. The mind can never speak. It is not the mouth that speaks and the ears that hear. It is your best observation: Pure Free Forever. A dead man has everything, but he does not hear, speak, breathe, build food, blood, or anything. What is that? This question will come to you again and again. Just always remember Me. It is not that you have to have a photograph, a dress, or anything. No chair, no me, no photo, nothing. I am not that. Whenever you are there, you are never your own photograph; thus, you are never your body. You just know and use every dream, every form, every thing, whatever is there. Having realized this, you will never ever be uneasy. You have eaten this medicine. Doctors can prescribe hundreds of medicines, but if the patient does not eat it, does not get it in, the disease will never go.
I will wind up by letting you know your own observation. When the human body is born, death starts from there, change starts from there, so dukh (pain) starts from there. Opposite dukh, there is sukh (joy). People think there is this unhappiness and happiness, so they stick to material forms. They say, “The earth on which I walk is real. I drove on the road, it is real.” At this time, watch. There are no panch tattwas (five elements), no prapanch (visible world/trick). I am talking to those people who have experienced the Experiencer. I am just like you. Wherever you are, I talk according to the time, space, norm, standard, relations, friends, enemies, all that. Whatever you say to your folks, I also say to my folks. You say truth, I say truth. You say lies, I say lies. And when you say no truth, no lies, we are one.
We, of course, having realized, like to remain the ideal, so that our children, our patients, our family members, our schoolchildren, our teachers and professors can follow it. That is immortal, blissful, Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum. The whole world is anand srishti (blissful creation). It is eternal, it is Nityanand. It is the same power of Nityanand (eternal Absolute) that is Nityashakti (eternal power). Gyan (knowledge) and kriya (action), gyan shakti and kriya shakti, the power of knowledge and the power of action, are one and the same. There is no prakriti (nature) separate from Purush (the Absolute). It is always Purush, always Purush. All prakriti is used as a teaching device. We can use the same division as students use, the teacher also uses the same division. As iron cuts iron, we use that. We want to be successful in the world of duality. It is all right. We play games and want our team to win so that we should have victory and its momentary happiness. At the second game we are defeated, and we have sorrow or sadness. This is what we do. But you are here, listening to me about that which is required of you. For ages and ages, you have been seeking through this and through that—through some schools and colleges, through some family, through some religion or non-religion, through some atheism or theism, through some language. All the time got wasted. But now, you are there. It is not that I have to take credit or you have to be grateful. Oneness is Oneness. In the Atlantic ocean, this side is not grateful to that. It is all one Space, we call it Shyam Space. Thank you very much. God bless you. Amaram Hum Madhuram Hum.
