Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of Nature, a unique action of the total Universe.
The child as child doesn't know how to play the adult game, the power game. And so must be educated to learn what's what. But when he's mastered that game he realizes it has no rewards. That all those things are not worth having.
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing; for the devotee may feel vain and self-satisfied; ceasing to seek profundities of the Divine. Only he who is free from the sense of self-importance becomes more and more spiritual until he is one with God. A humble devotee is lacking in vanity and pettiness.
Fighting the ego, the mind, is precisely what the ego wants. You cannot fight the mind. You cannot suppress the ego. Fighting, resisting, controlling is an impossible action. What is really needed is to yield, to see things as they are.
To remain without thoughts in waking state is the greatest worship.
God is silent. Now if only man would shut up.
All things happen in the inner world long before they happen outside. If you concentrate and watch silently, you can know what is going to happen to you in the future, but usually your mind remains busy in the material world. Everything happens in the subtle world long before it takes place externally.
Question: How does one get rid of fear?
Bhagavan: What is fear? It is only a thought.
If there is anything besides the Self there is reason to fear.
Who sees things separate from the Self?
First the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is nothing external.
For anything external to oneself implies the existence of the seer within.
Seeking it there will eliminate doubt and fear.
Not only fear, all other thoughts centred round the ego will disappear along with it.
Bhagavan: What is fear? It is only a thought.
If there is anything besides the Self there is reason to fear.
Who sees things separate from the Self?
First the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is nothing external.
For anything external to oneself implies the existence of the seer within.
Seeking it there will eliminate doubt and fear.
Not only fear, all other thoughts centred round the ego will disappear along with it.
There is a stillness in you no heavenly or earthly being can remove. In front of it, the mind is performing and somehow attention goes there. Behind is pure Silence - your real Being. All this is your dynamic dance. As you stay rooted in impersonal seeing, the inner and outer are revealed as One. Knowing this, you will not suffer existence.
The feeling "I work" is the hindrance. Enquire, "Who works?" Remember, "Who am I?" The work will not bind you. It will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce work. Your effort is the bondage. What is bound to happen will happen. If you are destined to cease working, work cannot be had even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work you cannot leave it; you will be forced to engage in it. So leave it to the Higher Power. You cannot renounce or hold as you choose.
Happiness and peace are you, without any attachments.
Pure essence.
This essence is everywhere present.
It is all-pervading.
It is pure awareness.
It is in the trees, the flowers, the sky, and those things are within you.
It is you who are all-pervading, everywhere present at the same time.
Pure essence.
This essence is everywhere present.
It is all-pervading.
It is pure awareness.
It is in the trees, the flowers, the sky, and those things are within you.
It is you who are all-pervading, everywhere present at the same time.
Do not be fooled any longer.
Do not believe what your eyes show you.
What your ears make you hear.
What your senses want you to believe.
Go beyond that.
It may take some effort, it may take some time.
Yet you must do whatever you must do to free yourself from the pull of the world.
96 Self-inquiry Precursor: A Disgust for the World - September 22, 1991
Do not believe what your eyes show you.
What your ears make you hear.
What your senses want you to believe.
Go beyond that.
It may take some effort, it may take some time.
Yet you must do whatever you must do to free yourself from the pull of the world.
96 Self-inquiry Precursor: A Disgust for the World - September 22, 1991
You are not the body. You are the immensity and infinity of consciousness.
To tell ourselves—to tell life—that it shouldn’t be the way that it is is a type of insanity. This insanity destabilizes us. It’s a bit like going up to a brick wall, telling it that it shouldn’t be there, and then continuing to walk into it. Every time you bump “your head on it, you judge the brick wall for being there, and then you walk into it again, again bumping your head. Then you say it shouldn’t be there, at which point you condemn yourself for the pain you have in your head. It’s a kind of insanity to be constantly arguing with what is and thinking it should be different. It’s a way that we keep bumping into life. When we collide with life in this way, we always feel interior friction, and we can never find the inner stability for which we yearn.
One of the most important things in life is to be able to find a sense of “inner stability,” because it’s this foundation that allows us to look into the nature of our experience in a clear and objective way. Unless we can find this inner stability in our lives, we’ll always be pushed around by the next experience, by the next thing that happens to us, by the next person or situation that we encounter that is difficult or challenging. Yet, for many of us, a real inner stability—on an emotional and an intellectual level—is very hard to come by.
A helpful analogy for this stability is that it is like the ballast of a boat. Deep in the bottom of every boat is a ballast, which helps prevent the boat from tipping over in the face of the wind. It keeps the boat tracking straight. For a human being, this kind of ballast, or inner stability, comes from our capacity to be open to an interior silence. It’s through this inner silence—this inner stillness—that we find a certain stability, so that we’re not always pushed around by our minds, by the conditioning that[…]
A helpful analogy for this stability is that it is like the ballast of a boat. Deep in the bottom of every boat is a ballast, which helps prevent the boat from tipping over in the face of the wind. It keeps the boat tracking straight. For a human being, this kind of ballast, or inner stability, comes from our capacity to be open to an interior silence. It’s through this inner silence—this inner stillness—that we find a certain stability, so that we’re not always pushed around by our minds, by the conditioning that[…]
We are looking for freedom. What is freedom?
It is not in anything objective. It is neither the creation, nor the creator of this universe, nor the God who is looking after preservation, nor destruction. It is none of that. It is neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the wind. Those are not freedom. No object is freedom. Go on rejecting everything objective from the mind. Freedom is nothing that the mind can conceive or perceive or understand. Finally you will arrive at that which cannot be rejected. Go on rejecting everything that can be rejected, all objects. Get rid of all objectification.
Finally, when you see nothing more to be rejected, the mind will be quiet. Mind will be no-mind: That cannot be described. All description belongs to the objective world only and consciousness cannot be objectified. In the beginning when there was nothing there was consciousness - total consciousness - where no objects and no subjects existed. You are this consciousness.
Starting from the beginning, before the beginning, you are this consciousness. And this consciousness became all that you see. You are this consciousness itself. There are millions of kinds of manifestation existing in consciousness and you have become all this. You are the fountain of all this creation.
For this you do not have to exert or make effort, or search for any way or method or practice. Somehow you have to arrive here. How can you do it? Through adoration of the wisdom of the Self. That s consciousness. Adore your own consciousness with wisdom and you have achieved what you are aspiring for here and now.
It is not in anything objective. It is neither the creation, nor the creator of this universe, nor the God who is looking after preservation, nor destruction. It is none of that. It is neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor the wind. Those are not freedom. No object is freedom. Go on rejecting everything objective from the mind. Freedom is nothing that the mind can conceive or perceive or understand. Finally you will arrive at that which cannot be rejected. Go on rejecting everything that can be rejected, all objects. Get rid of all objectification.
Finally, when you see nothing more to be rejected, the mind will be quiet. Mind will be no-mind: That cannot be described. All description belongs to the objective world only and consciousness cannot be objectified. In the beginning when there was nothing there was consciousness - total consciousness - where no objects and no subjects existed. You are this consciousness.
Starting from the beginning, before the beginning, you are this consciousness. And this consciousness became all that you see. You are this consciousness itself. There are millions of kinds of manifestation existing in consciousness and you have become all this. You are the fountain of all this creation.
For this you do not have to exert or make effort, or search for any way or method or practice. Somehow you have to arrive here. How can you do it? Through adoration of the wisdom of the Self. That s consciousness. Adore your own consciousness with wisdom and you have achieved what you are aspiring for here and now.
The scriptures speak of three Holy rivers Within.
These are Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss.
Being beyond thought or effort
they cannot be objectified or subjectified.
They are so dear, so near, behind the retina and before the breath.
You need not see This, you are it.
These are Existence, Consciousness, and Bliss.
Being beyond thought or effort
they cannot be objectified or subjectified.
They are so dear, so near, behind the retina and before the breath.
You need not see This, you are it.
The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.
The unnameable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.
Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.
Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.
Fall in Love with the agony not the ecstacy,
then the Beloved will fall in Love with you.
then the Beloved will fall in Love with you.
I want to let you in on a little secret. There are no problems. There are no problems. There never were any problems, there are no problems today, and there will never be any problems. Problems just mean that the world isn't turning the way you want it to. But in truth, there are no problems. Everything is unfolding as it should. Everything is right. You have to forget about yourself and expand your consciousness until you become the whole universe. The reality in back of the universe is pure awareness. It has no problems. And you are that.
If you identify with your body, then there's a problem, because your body always gets into trouble of some kind. But if you learn to forget about your body and your mind, where is there a problem? In other words, leave your body alone. Take just enough care of it. Exercise it a little, feed it right foods, but don't think about it too much. Keep your mind on reality. Merge your mind with reality, and you will experience reality. You will live in a world without problems. The world may appear to have problems to others, but not to you. You will see things differently, from a higher point of view.
If you identify with your body, then there's a problem, because your body always gets into trouble of some kind. But if you learn to forget about your body and your mind, where is there a problem? In other words, leave your body alone. Take just enough care of it. Exercise it a little, feed it right foods, but don't think about it too much. Keep your mind on reality. Merge your mind with reality, and you will experience reality. You will live in a world without problems. The world may appear to have problems to others, but not to you. You will see things differently, from a higher point of view.
Stop right here!
Don't think more - it is quite enough.
Don't say more - it is quite enough.
Don't strive more - it is quite enough.
Now, don't touch any idea of moving forward, - simply rest as This, as it is, Without that, as it could be. Now drop the idea of being This.
Don't think more - it is quite enough.
Don't say more - it is quite enough.
Don't strive more - it is quite enough.
Now, don't touch any idea of moving forward, - simply rest as This, as it is, Without that, as it could be. Now drop the idea of being This.
You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe.
An intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person.
But a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.
An intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person.
But a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.
The Self is like a powerful magnet within us. It draws us gradually to Itself, though we imagine we are going to It of our own accord: when we are near enough, It puts an end to our activities, makes us still, and then swallows up our personal current, thus killing our wrong personality. It overwhelms the intellect and overfloods the whole being. We think we are meditating upon It and developing towards It, whereas the truth is that we are iron filings and It is the Atman-magnet that is pulling us towards Itself. Thus the process of finding the Self is a form of Divine magnetism.
Look, and it can’t be seen.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can’t know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
Listen, and it can’t be heard.
Reach, and it can’t be grasped.
Above, it isn’t bright.
Below, it isn’t dark.
Seamless, unnamable,
it returns to the realm of nothing.
Form that includes all forms,
image without an image,
subtle, beyond all conception.
Approach it and there is no beginning;
follow it and there is no end.
You can’t know it, but you can be it,
at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from:
this is the essence of wisdom.
Happiness is our natural state. Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture. To acquire happiness you don’t have to do anything, because happiness cannot be acquired. Does anybody know why? Because we have it already!! How can you acquire what you already have? Then why don’t you experience it? Because you’ve got to drop something. You’ve got to drop illusions. You don’t have to add anything in order to be happy; you’ve got to drop something. Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels!
Death is extraordinarily like life, when we know how to live. You cannot live without dying. You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute.