Ramakant Maharaj:
"It is by the Grace of my Master, Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj,
That I am sharing this Knowledge,
the same Knowledge He shared with me."
Maharaj:
The Knowledge is simple!
Q: Simple, but hard!
Maharaj: I am saying simple because it is easily available within you. You have to go elsewhere for things that are not easily available in you. You have to go somewhere else. Everybody's roaming for peace and God, so many people going to the Himalayas, Tiruvannamalai, but when they are going to these places from South to North, they are not getting happiness. After going there people are coming to me. Why? Because they want peace and can't have peace. Because you have forgotten yourself, you are trying to find peace in various places. Where is Sanjay? Where is Sanjay? You are Sanjay! So what you have already, I am placing before you. Then you have to accept with complete confidence, complete trust. Examine it! Don’t keep blind faith. Examine what the Masters say and find out if he has given you proper or improper information.
Q: I notice and am aware of some layers inside. I always ran away from them but now I understand just to be with it. If you don't have fear, they just go. It is only the way because they should go, you cannot escape them. Sometimes it is very difficult.
Maharaj: Good, correct. It is commando training. Spirituality is commando training. Our training is more than army training. You are beyond a soldier, so that you can face any calamity, external calamity. Nobody will dare to attack you.
Q: Sometimes also I use intellectual understanding to escape, so everything is illusion so why, but still you feel it and it means that again something is wrong.
Maharaj: Have you packed everything? You have to be ready by 11 pm! Any final questions or doubts? I have told you to meditate, in that fashion you are to meditate, not to stress your intellect, mind. You are to recite that mantra very systematically for maximum benefits.
Q: The difficulties have gone, the sadness is gone.
Maharaj: Very good, very good. Be normal, complete silence, not to think. Whatever is happening, just let it happen. You are seeing something on a screen, seeing something - a picture on the screen, momentarily you are becoming happy or unhappy because of the scene/story, and when you leave the auditorium you forget it. This is an auditorium, a big auditorium. Thoughts are flowing, pictures are flowing, this is a dream. Watch the dream and forget it.
Q: I am not worrying any more.
Maharaj: Very nice. Be normal, be simple, be humble. Be normal, be simple be humble. Not to take any notice of whatever is happening around you, not to register anybody's thoughts that are happening around you.
One old lady came here this morning. She wanted to tell me something “such and such is my problem”, that is okay, she wanted to say something about it. Someone should listen to her, because nobody is listening to these old people. She wanted to say something. It is ok, and if out of my presence anybody is getting happiness, there should not be any restrictions. If out of my presence, anybody is getting happiness that is good for me! It is a type of reward, a thank you. Your happiness is my happiness. Your pleasure is my pleasure. Tomorrow you may be a Master, because Masterly essence is with you. Therefore Nisargadatta Maharaj says “I am making you Master, not disciple”. Don’t underestimate yourself. That power is with you. We are doing all types of hammering, hammering, to come out of all this illusionary circle.
It is very simple, very, very simple, not to stress, and not to come across such people who will distract you from the Reality. There are so many elements there, through which momentary temptation will appear. The world of attractions are there. Sometimes you will get temptation and you are to stop it, you are getting instruction, “Don’t do this, this is Maya - illusion”. It is like snakes and ladders, the game that children play - snakes and ladders.
You can go up and up and up. Those who are mountaineering, one lesson they get when they are climbing is not to look down. This is the first lesson of mountaineering, not to look down, not to look down or elsewhere. In spirituality, we are asking for the same thing. Forget about the past! Don’t think about the past because your spontaneous presence is your target, your spontaneous presence is your target. When you forget everything you are no longer a body, you are not the body. You are Ultimate Truth, Final Truth. This knowledge is to be absorbed and so every time and all the time, we are hammering this. Same, same, simple principle I am putting in different words. So be simple, humble, normal. There should not be any struggle with the thoughts, not to struggle with the thoughts. Whatever is happening ok, it happens, so many things happening inside, just watch it, ignore it, it never remains steady. Mind is a flow of thoughts, it never remains steady. They come: good thoughts are there, bad thoughts are there, they come, it is nature, you are totally different from that. As if you are standing on the bank of a river, some good things are flowing, some bad things are flowing, just watch it, no impressions stay with you.
So likewise you have to teach yourself. In the light of meditation, listening. What I am telling you - it is the listener’s story, invisible listener’s story.
So what I have discussed so much with you, just to absorb it. It is very simple truth, as Nisargadatta Maharaj said “Except your Selfless Self there is no God, no Brahman, no Atman, no Master”. Your spontaneous presence came into existence in body form so all these needs and requirements started. Who wants happiness? Who wants peace? Who wants tension-free life? When there was no body, no requirements were there, no tension was there, no relations were there. Because of the body we are having so many relations: friends, father, mother, sister, lakhs of relations, after leaving body no relations remain.
Does sky have any relations? Nisargadatta Maharaj said, “If at all you want to compare, compare just like a sky, space”, you are beyond space. You say how? You see the dream, in the dream you see the sky, sun, moon, ocean. Where did they come from? It is your projection, the same thing every day. You see the entire world, so many people, and all actions and relations. They came out of your spontaneous presence. The entire world, projected out of your presence. If your presence is not there who will talk about the world? Who will talk about the God, Brahman, Atman? You are the centre point.
The names Brahman, Atman, Paramatman, God, Master are given to that Power. Only mistake is you are measuring yourself in body form. We are removing this mistake through this meditation. Very simple. No karma, no dharma, no prarabdha, nothing is there, no hell, no heaven. All these concepts are impressed upon us by various, so called Masters. Why to accept this? Becasue of last karma, last birth... Why? Nothing is there? Why become a slave of somebody’s statements? Forget about bookish knowledge, literal knowledge!
Be a completely blank slate! Remove all the files, the wrong files, the illusionary files, and insert a new programme. Come to know Selfless Self. So insert the programme ‘Selfless Self’, and it will take care of all your mobiles, computers, laptops.
It is very, very interesting. We are searching for Brahman, outside, outside. You are searching for Rahul. Where is Rahul? Where is Rahul? Where is Rahul? You are Rahul! So where is Brahman, where is Brahman, where is Atman? Why to search? Searcher himself is Brahman, Atman, Paramatman. Names have been given.
But because we have a lot of attachment to the body, therefore we are not paying attention. We are not so serious about what we are doing. All our lifestyle is in connection to body knowledge. The whole lifestyle, the spiritual life is also illusion. This is very, very clear knowledge, knowledge of Reality. Just to know your Selfless Self, then the knower will dissappear. There are no words to describe, cannot be defined in any words. So be strong, have courage. Don't live a cowardly life. You have not to live a cowardly life.
You know the story of the lion, the lion cub was brought up in a family of sheep. The young lion started to think, “I am one of the sheep”. It was afraid of dogs, afraid of wolves. Then one time in the forest another lion saw this cub. He said "You are one of us!" The cub said “No I am a sheep”. So the lion replied, “Don’t worry, I will explain to you how you are really a lion”. He asked him to stand at the bank of the river at the opposite side. The lion cub was on this side and the lion said “Look in the water. See your face”. He then started narrating, and the cub saw every part of its body. “So I am very serious. You have the same body I am holding, so you are not a sheep, you are lion”.
The Master says the same thing, “You are not a man, nor a woman, you are Brahman”. See yourself, remove this cover. The spontaneous presence is a sign of Brahman, Atman, Paramatman. Why to fear? Is God fearing somebody, anybody else? You were considering yourself as a man or woman, and you were afraid. As long as that lion was considering himself to be a sheep, he was fearful of dogs and wolves etc. But when he come to know that he was a lion, he left his life as a sheep and went into the forest roaring “I am a lion”.
It means that after knowing the reality you are going to your original place, your place of origin. These are just the words I'm using because you are to have spontaneous conviction. Master has placed before you Reality. Just with a glance, the cub sees the neck, the body, each part, ok, ok and so it realized and accepts “ So I am just like you. There is no difference, so far I have been living as a sheep but I am not a sheep at all”. And then you give a great roar [Maharaj roars] and go into the forest.
[laughter]
It is a nice story that indicates the spiritual lion within you. But you are living just like a sheep. We say you are no longer a sheep. You are a lion, so come out! I am narrating each part of the spiritual body. So as you examine yourself, you will realize that the same body is with you. Then you will give a big roar, “I am a lion, I am That!”
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You have got to teach yourself, not to fear, not to be depressed. If something happens, it happens, unpleasant things also happen. It will come and go because we get involved, and therefore we are suffering, Because we are having involvement something happens, because we are paying attention seriously it affects us, but if we ignore it, we are not affected. Don't take the touch! It's because you are taking the touch, that you are suffering.
This is a technique you will get spontaneously - how to live life. It is a technique that is concealed within you. Therefore you will say just like Nisargadatta Maharaj “If I am fortunate there will come all the calamities”. It is a commando training process. His involvement was a very, very strong involvement. The same thing I am trying to share with you. He was having strong faith in the Masters, very, very strong. Therefore you must have strong faith within you.
Don’t listen to others. Because you have conviction. When they say karma, dharma, religion, Master, destiny. Who’s karma? Forget about spirituality, when your presence come into existence the first time, what karma was there? Forget about all this! Suppose in between so many births are there, all these births are there, but when you have taken the first birth, first presence, what wrong have you done? You have not done anything, no sin was there, no karma was there.
So all these imaginary concepts are placed upon you by half-knowledge people and you are accepting it as it is: “Oh my karma, What to do? My karma!” And with a little nervousness, because you are having some sensitive presence, you accept this instantly. But if you are alert there is no karma. Whose karma? I am not having any shape, this shape is not my identity at all. Is sky having any karma? Is sky having any prarabdha? Does sky go to hell or heaven? Knowledge is with you but you are applying your spiritual knowledge, you are applying your intellectual knowledge. You are not applying your spiritual reality but you are applying your intellectual knowledge and accepting everything ok, ok ,ok. Though you are not guilty, you are feeling guilty. Though you have not committed any crime, you are feeling I have done something wrong.
That open secret is within you. Different feelings are bound to be there inside, just watch and don't pay so much attention. Under different circumstances, you will know how to behave, how to act. The instructions will come from you only. Just like in that story of Eklavya. I told you the story of Eklavya, the young archer in the forest. His Master had not guided him, had not taught him anything, but he took instruction from his Inner Master. He received all the instructions from his Inner Master. OK
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The story of Pingala
King Bhartri was lost in a long dream. He had many wives, but Pingala was his favourite, the love of his life. Pingala reciprocated his love. She had been overheard saying, “If anything ever happened to my beloved, I would die”.
The
king decided to test the veracity of her love. One day, he sent a
messenger to inform her that the king had been killed by a tiger on a
hunting trip.
On
hearing this terrible news, Pingala was broken-hearted, and took her
own life. When the king heard of the tragedy, he was beside himself
with grief, filled with remorse: “Oh! What have I done? How am I
going to live without my Pingala? I want her back. I cannot live
without her”. He had played such a foolish game, a cruel and
dangerous game, and now his beloved Pingala was gone.
He spent his days grieving at the cremation ground, weeping and groaning out loud for his dear Pingala. Many people joined him in his unending sorrow.
One day a Yogi was walking close to the king in the cremation grounds, when he dropped his clay pot. The pot broke and smashed into many pieces. The Yogi began to cry, he started sobbing heavily, even more loudly than the king who was crying nearby.
The
king was annoyed: “Stop your weeping! For goodness sake, stop
weeping! I will buy you a hundred new pots”. “No! No!” wept the
Yogi, “I want my old pot back.” “What nonsense said the king,
what is gone is gone”.
The Yogi stopped crying and said, “Oh wise king, if you know this, then why are you still crying? Your Pingala is gone and will never return.”
The
king replied “You cannot compare my loss to yours. I have lost my
beloved, my beautiful Pingala that I loved so dearly, with all my
heart. You have just lost a meaningless earthen pot”.
The Yogi replied: “They are both made from the earth, and what comes from the earth must go back to the earth.” He then created one hundred identical Pingalas and asked the king to point out his special Pingala. Naturally, the king was unable to identify her. He understood that Pingala was part of the dream he had projected out of his Spontaneous Presence.
All of a sudden, the king became enlightened. He realized that he had been crying over a dream, for something illusory and impermanent. He was so ashamed because he had taken the dream for Reality. Shortly after, he renounced his kingdom and became the Yogi's disciple and awakened to Reality!
"Reality is Engraved in the Invisible Listener"
Maharaj: If you are strongly dedicated it is not difficult to absorb the teachings. You know better. This external identity is not going to remain constant. Conviction is essential for spirituality. Some spirit is there through which we are talking. Some power is there working. We are looking, we are hearing, all activities are for the body, all are for the body. Some power is there, some strength is there, some spirit is there, just like electricity.
It is invisible, anonymous and unidentified. It is that with which we feel, without which you can’t utter a single word, without which you can’t raise your hand. No movement can be there without its power. That spirit is called Brahman, Atman, Paramatman, God, Parabrahman. Names are yours (ie the names you call things by). That’s yours. What is the content of spirit? It is not your death, or your birth...Just that, just that….
After the death of the body, what remains? There is no experience, no experiencer. No knowledge, nothing is there. Simple. Simple. After the disappearance of the body what remains? Nothing! But for some persons for whom body is their world, for them, all is the body. Suppose his body disappears. How is his world coming, appearing then?
How is this world for me? If for me it is nothing, it meansa nothing…. Merged with nothing. So, it is merged with nothing. Something merged with nothing. And out of nothing, there is something. They are inter-related. Just for conversation we are using some words.
We have to have the conviction that: "I AM TOTALLY UNCONCERNED WITH THE WORLD".
All these relations, conditions, sensations are there. All expectations are there. All needs are there.
I am totally unconcerned with the world. They are all body things. All body related. We want peace. Who wants? We want happiness, more happiness. Who? We want a tension-free life. Tension-free life, happiness, peace.
Those (things) we are not knowing prior to beingness. They came across with the body. They are the
bodily requirements, not the spirit requirements. The body dissolves. We fear that, because of our attachment to the body. No one wants death, everyone is afraid of death. But when you come to know the Truth of death, there is no fear.
There is the story of the rope and the snake. You are afraid of the snake. It is a matter of fact that there's no snake, it is a rope. Similarly, we are afraid of our death. Who is dying? Who is taking birth. Because (you realize) there is nobody, (you are) totally unconcerned, totally indifferent. This presence is spontaneous just like the sky. Out of presence the entire world is projected, we merge. Without presence we can’t see the world, we can’t see anything.
That anonymous, that invisible, unidentified identity, called Parabrahman, Brahman, Atman for which there is no death or birth, no need of salvation. Question of heaven and hell never arises. There is no prarabdha (concept of accumulated deeds from previous incarnations, brought into the present lifetime as 'karma'), no religion. This is body attachment, body related. It came across with the body form. 'This and that' - all have to do with the bodily state. It came across as the body form.
Prior to body form, nothing was there. Prior to beingness, to whom do these individual names belong? Just to stimulate a peaceful life, religions and the principle of religion were formed. This is the essential principle form, frame – “praying form”. It is OK. The secret your life, the gist of your life we must know, understand, realize what it means. Then only you will be totally fearless.
You should ask yourself, why should I fear death when it is common for everybody? You say "I can’t escape from the concept of dead, or death". Who is dying? Who is living? Just self-enquire. Nobody is dying, nobody is taking birth. We’re thinking from the body point of view, blindly accepting all these concepts, illusory concepts: man or woman, this religion or that religion, last birth, next birth, present birth, rebirth.. so many concepts, illusions.
We’ve blindly signed and accepted all these illusions… You have not committed any crime yet you are signing “I am a criminal”. (The understanding here is that you are guilty of accepting a false identity, ie as an individual person. You have taken your mind/body complex for real...unknowingly this has made you a criminal in your acceptance of the false, untrue.) Masters say you have not committed any crime … but you sign ‘I am a criminal’.
Master says you have not committed any crime. It's like you say “it’s OK I am a criminal.” The Master makes you enlightened. You were never a criminal, you are not a criminal ……..
Your Master is your reflection. As a matter of fact there is no Master, no disciple. The sum total is that all of this is a dream which has come out of body relations, which you are not, which you were not, and which you are not going to be, (i.e. you never existed). So, how do you get rid of the body illusion?
You are the architect of your own life. Eventually you come to know that everything is a dream. In other words. You are acting in some drama/movie - you are the hero, or heroine or villain…. you know better ….for a few hours …. even after two and a half hours, this is my role. I am still doing my role, but there is not any connection with that role. Similarly, we are accepting these roles, (these concepts), man or woman without question. It, (Reality) has nothing to do with all these concepts. You are unborn.
Then we have to undergo this discipline. The same principle is placed before you with different words, different manners, in different ways, different angles, different dimensions…
Q. “In order to hammer home the truth.”
M.: Yes! The message is the same: 'except your Selfless Self there is no God, no Atman, no Brahman, no
Paramatman.' It is the message. To establish that truth, some examples are given, just like telling stories to a child. You have to place before some principle of that story, but you are putting it in story form. If you want to convey something, you have to put it in story form. Mom or father is putting it in some story form. And they explain the story's principle. Likewise, the Master is placing before you the Ultimate Truth in story form, using certain language, certain words.
To have a conviction, to do, or not to do, that is up to you. Because you know your self better than anyone, you know your selfless self. This is conviction, enlightenment,realization… you become one with the Final Truth: "I was never born, so why fear death?" Then there is no fear there. This is direct hammering.
Q. Sometimes, you can listen and maybe not hear what is being said, and another time you listen, and suddenly there is a 'yes', there’s a click of understanding!
M. The invisible listener within you is listening quietly and calmly. Reality is engraved in the invisible listener. It cannot be removed. Perhaps you are not aware, you will not understand some things, but the silent listener is accepting all, just like a recorder. Silently! The process of recording is going on.. the process of analysing is going on, without your knowledge. No ego, no intellect, no mind, too. These are all external layers.
.
Q. “The mind, ego, intellect try to block...”
M. You can use them, it’s not bad, if you like, you can use them, but do not become slaves. Excessive use of anything is poison. Excessive use of anything will be poisonous.
M. There is no mind at all! This is exceptional knowledge. This is Reality. It’s not bookish knowledge. It’s not literal knowledge. It is beyond everything, beyond knowledge, everything, beyond imaginations. Nisargadatta Maharaj used to say, how you were prior to beingness, remain like that. So how were you
prior to beingness? You were "not knowing". You were totally unaware of everything. You did not know anything.
But since you came across with the body, you started knowing so many things. Therefore, mind is body knowledge. What remains - the food body. Some day or other, willingly or unwillingly, you will have to leave this body … it’s not Reality.
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