Why Are You Here for Satsang?

We are here in satsang to save ourselves from the suffering of repeated rebirths. We are here… we are completed at least one round of thirty five million years. It happened to 8.4 million different kinds of species that we all know, and if we miss this chance again we have to go round. So let us make up some kalpa this time - no repeated birth - and pray the almighty divine comes from Mount Purity to lead us from ignorance to light - britumam amritam astumount satgarum. This should be the aim of our satsang and we are speaking here every day. And you are here from almost all countries of the world with desire to be free. And some of you have also been to several ashrams in our country and also in many centers in other countries too. Every country is now… is having yoga centers and different kind of therapies, and you have been traveling into those centers also and wherever you have gone you have been told, “Do this and do that.”

A one year old baby is provided with the baby walker by the parents. The child learns how to walk and throws away the baby walker and is very happy for the first time; and look at its majestic walk. But in those centers and those ashrams once this baby walker is given to you, you are so much attached with this you don't get rid of it, and you are not allowed to do it. You have to walk on the baby walker. This is the teaching in every ashram. And this is the discipline and this is the sadhana. And you are no more a baby, why get attached to the baby walker? And even if you can walk as a symbol you have to carry this on your shoulders. Because you often speak in such and such ashram, “We have been told to do this, we have been told to do that.”

There was one center in China. The teacher was preaching, “First of all you have to purify your mind like a mirror.” and he had a great following. “You have to clean, clean the mirror; wipe out the dust from the surface of the mirror so that you can see your face.” So this was the teaching of this teacher and he had following. There was another teacher about five hundred miles away on the other side of the mountains. The people used to visit both of these centers and speak about these teachers. So some teachers would come from this, this other center - go to this center holding mirrors in their hands and wiping out the dust. They speak, “That center, that teacher doesn't ask us to clean your mirror, to purify your minds. This teacher says “What kind of teaching could it be? If your mind is not pure how can you have reflection? It sounds quite reasonable.” So he sent one of his most trusted student. "Go visit, come back and tell me what is the teaching of this teacher."

"He doesn't teach anything; he sits quiet. And there are some students who sit too.” “You go and don't disclose that you are from such and such teacher.” And he's still sitting on the third day and this teacher asked, "You are… you belong to CIA not this teacher. You are intelligence reporter.” He said: "No sir. I came as the CIA of my teacher, no doubt. He told me to come here and see what's going on here. And I have come for that purpose to tell my teacher. But now I am no more a CIA agent. Now I am your disciple. I stayed with this teacher for forty two years cleaning the mirror, again dust will alight. Wherever there is mirror there dust has to arise, alight on it; but here when I find your teaching is, ‘There is no mirror at all; and where the dust is going to alight?’ That was all, my dear master. It opened up to me. I am free. No mirror do I need now to clean. There was no mirror at all. And now please allow me to see my teacher, let me go back. Because I promised to my teacher, and I will speak to him because, ‘This no teaching, no way, no sadhana is not known to him.’ So I will tell to my teacher and come back soon."

So he says, "Go, my son, go." He tells to the teacher, "This teacher was very good person. He also understood, he said. Because my teacher told him to go on wiping the mirror and my grand teacher also was doing the same thing, and we belong to that lineage of dust cleaners." So listening to this he also followed. And some of his students who are very arrogant - they didn't listen. The teacher followed the student and stayed here - welcomed.

So actually the Brahman, atman, is omnipotent, omniscient, self-effulgent. If there is a candle you don't need your torch in hand to find where the candle is in the room because it’s light itself. You don't need any… any extra light to see the light. Light is the same. Like this, your atman is self effulgent, eternal, beauty, love, and consciousness, bliss, existence. You don't need to do anything about it. Only you get rid of your arrogance, your separation that you are not this, and it will reveal itself to the self.

So for the last two days, repeatedly I have been asked to give you some practice. Never did I speak about any kind of practice in my life. For the last fifty years I never speak about practice. People are here who have spent minutes, hours. And here also you have seen a man from Washington DC stay two hours - immediately woke up and the satsang is still going on. I thought, “Perhaps he has to catch his flight.” I said. I have never asked him a name also, and his bag was also alongside him. And then he just prostrates and he goes up. And someone asked him, "Why you are in a hurry to go? Since you have come you can stay for at least one satsang." "It's no use to stay here," he says. "It's no use. I'm coming from Thailand, and twenty six years I have spent from center to center, and this couple of hours is quite enough. What more could any teaching be? It's enough."

Another man - he was Doctor James. In 1953 he went to attend international Buddhist conference in Bangkok. From there he comes and I was working in Bangalore for a shipping corporation and this man straight away walks to my office and he came, he came by a taxi and he was very dusty, you see. I said, "You go and have a hot shower, have a cup of coffee, and we speak." "No, no, no, I have to ask. And if your friends who are seated here, they excuse me, I'll ask you a question." And then I said, "Carry on. Ask me." He asked one question and I replied and the taxi was in front of the door itself. He said, "I am going now." I thought, “He is not satisfied.” He said, "No, I don't want to waste your time. Just five minutes it took me, because I spent many years. I have seen many teachers in China, Japan, Thailand and the rest of the centers in India, Nepal, Bhutan, and other countries also. This straight-away - no teaching - there's no teacher at all. So I will write to you before I go, even in Delhi if I have time between my flights. I will go back to London and I will write." And he did write.

This experience he wrote to me. So here this depends upon how serious you are. The people who want to hang on postpone their desire for freedom. There are thousands ashrams here. They can go there if they don't understand these things. They can go if they want to follow any practice. They can go there. There are many people there you see.

Even Lord Buddha himself. He was a prince - married to the beauty of the land, blessed with a son; and this desire for freedom arises in the midnight - wakes up, rides on the horse. (Contic was its name.) Even that horse which rode him out of the palace is now immortal horse. He went from ashram to ashram, many different kind of tapas, sadhanas were being practiced and always he said, “Not it. It's not it. This should not be like this thing.” People were hanging head down feet tied to the branch of a tree and doing penance, tapas for freedom. What relation has this kind of tapas with the freedom? Hanging like a monkey from a tree… branch of a tree… and wanting to be free, has got no relation. Yet this is being practiced even now. So different kind of… he went round different places. He rejected all ashrams and then finally he goes to Bodhgaya; sat down by himself under the bodhi tree and found it, you see.

This is the desire who is your teacher itself - this desire is your teacher itself, your guide itself. And this will bring you to your own Self. And it will not fail you if you have decided very well, “I want to be free.” But if you are egoistic, arrogant, having desire for the things which are not eternal, happiness that fade away every moment. Your relationship with those whose legs are in the mouth of the crocodile of Lord Yama, isn't it. If you want to love, if you want to be related, why not relate yourself with your own Self? And this relationship is the only relationship which is going to help you. It's not going to deceive you at all and you will not appear again into this land of suffering. It can be had instantly you see, the people have done it and every day I tell you the stories how… how people have won this freedom instantly.

Once there was king, king of the Vedas - very noble king. Desire arises in his mind to be free. He needs a teacher now. So he sent word all over the country to hold a conference so then he invited the enlightened people of this country to lead him to freedom. But his condition was he wants to be free in an instant. And what was that? Condition: as quick as to embark on a horse. So many people from the country - say about five thousand saints, sages, yogis - assembled in this camp belonging to different views, different shades, different sects. And the king stood there also, and there was a horse, and he said, "As a token of my dedication - guru dakshina - I will give eleven hundred cows, gold plated horns, garland of gold coins around their neck and a land at the bank of river Ganga. And I will build an ashram who gives me gyanam as quick as I ride this horse which stood just… just next to him.

And five thousand people assembled there. They are looking to each other, speaking to each other, “This king is not reasonable. Look I have been doing meditations in the Himalayas sixty years. I have grown gray beard and yet I do not know what is freedom.” So they are discussing, "This king is not reasonable." speaking between themselves. There comes one very dirty looking young boy. Nude he was, also deformed - in physically deformed. He didn't know what's going on here in this congregation. He looked inside. Many people were there - he also entered. And where the king stood on one foot, the left foot in his stirrup and the right was to go on the saddle. "How much time is needed to just embark on the saddle?" That was the condition of the king.

This man stood up nude, deformed, dirty, and people were laughing at him: "He doesn't know, he's insane, he's mad boy." He addressed them… addressed them first of all: "Why do you laugh… why do you laugh at me. Seeing my body you laugh. Seeing my deformity - seeing this physical form which is skin or leather - you are leather merchants. You are leather merchants; you have no business to come here in satsang." he said. "You go and do your trade in the leather market." That's all he said. That is all he said to five thousand people. "You are looking at my physical form and you are laughing, you are joking. You look after your business. You know this is satsang," he said. "No other talk is allowed here - not looking at the form. In satsang if you look at the form you are in your usual profession."

Now he addresses to the king: "Yes sir, now you come along to me. Come, I will give you freedom. But now I am your teacher and you are my student. And you have according to Indian custom you have to give me guru dakshina in advance, because after, you are free – after, you are enlightened - then me and you are equal. I can't ask anything from you because you are equal to me and you will not give anything to me. We both are equal. Therefore now you want something from me, therefore I am your teacher and you are my student. Give me guru dakshina. He says: "Here are the cows. Here are the cows, here is the land I promised." "But that land doesn't belong to you. You want knowledge of your Self, and this land before it belonged to you to whom did it belong? And these cows, too. This is public property. This land, this kingdom, was ruled by your father, isn't it? And before your father, who was the king here?" He said: "My grandfather." "And after you?" "My sons," he said.

"So you are just a manager looking after a property. Give me something that belongs to you." He says, "If you give me knowledge I will serve you all my life. All my life I will serve." He said, "How? How you are going to serve me? If you want to serve me physically, you are already… this body you have already pledged to your wives isn't it? You had an oath in front of the fire at the time of marriage, isn't it? And… and they say… all your queens, they call you ‘my king, my husband' isn't it? So your body belongs to your queens; and also the public when they say you are their king. Your body belongs to the public. It doesn't belong to you. Give me something that belongs to you itself. Body belongs to public; body belongs to your queens; body belongs to your children. It’s not your own. How can you give me something which you have already sold to others? The king was very wise; very noble king was he, very intelligent. He's now thinking that he has only one thing on which nobody… nobody can claim. “It belongs to me. I may be belonging physically but inside me there is something which I know is only me.” And then he said, "I have one thing, sir, that I have for you and this is my mind. I surrender my mind unto you."

He said, “Then let us have this ceremony. Let you bring Ganga water and repeat thrice so that this agreement of disciple and student is to be completed, so that you don't withdraw from this, and make sankalpa. Here do I surrender to you, Master. I have given you this token of my present, my guru dakshina, and you impart me knowledge. And then after this ceremony is over now; and this boy walks out of the tent and goes away - disappeared. Everybody… this congregation of five thousand people looking… do not understand. This boy is very funny. After this ceremony is over he disappeared.

King is also thinking now; king is also thinking now. One foot, left foot in the stirrup - right is to embark on the saddle of the horse. Look at his longing and look at his dedication also. Discipleship has been accepted, ceremony is over, and this man disappeared. So he is astonished. He can't help. And he's looking through the hole of the tent. This king is thinking something. Now he is outside and now king thinks… king is now is thinking himself, within himself that, "I have surrendered the mind and I am feeling in this agreement." He was very wise man. So he instantly thinks, "I have no business to mentate. I have no business to mentate, even to start a single thought - why this man has gone out of the tent." There he stopped thinking. The king stopped thinking, you see. No thought is there in the mind of the King. Here is the point which we speak every day about. There he comes and from the face you can very well know when you think, when you start a thought in the mind. And what is this thought and where are you?

This thought takes you straight away to the graveyard, mind you. This thought - any thought that rises in your mind - is it… isn't it a past; isn't it a past? Mind itself is past. Thought itself is past. Whatever you think is past. And what is past is graveyard. Therefore you are in the graveyard. You are not living being, you are speaking to the dead. What is dead? Memory. Memory is graveyard. It's not satsang. Here now satsang is going to take place; give me your attention. So that face is very different when you have no thought - that face you have been seeing. Yesterday also people were here. Instantly this same question was there about enlightenment. I do not know that man. Perhaps if this young man from Germany and the other one from Sweden, I will call them and see what's happening with them today.

And now this… this young person, he arrives in front of him - one foot in the stirrup, other was to go on the other side on the stirrup to embark on the saddle. That was the promise and this is the time. No thought in the mind of this king. When there's no thought and this previous thought, “I want freedom, first of all.” Everyone is bound because we separate ourselves from… from our own existence, consciousness and bliss - bliss. Somehow, we think and we call: “Now we are bound.” The wave rises from the ocean and separates and searches, “Where is the ocean?” Searches day and night - the wave is searching, “Where is the ocean?”

Like this all this manifestation we are all searching, “Where is… where is consciousness and where is existence and where is bliss?” This is what's going on here, so when I am bound? It’s very few people who have this concept who have superimposed bondage on them - superimposition that also - and then they will give rise to another superimposition of freedom. He who's bound, very few will aspire for light, wisdom.

So when your thought stops, mind stopped, bondage vanish, also the freedom vanished, isn't it? There is no mind. It was the mind that troubled you – “I am bound.” Can you sleep? Neither you are bound nor you are free because mind is not there. So when this king stood up thoughtless, his urge for freedom also disappeared, bondage disappeared, also the freedom disappeared. Now at that time, what else could be That is beyond description. He who has this experience will know how to describe it and this King has described very well, you see. He brought the other foot which was planted into this stirrup back on the deck itself, prostrated in front of him three times, went round three times, and he blessed him and he went away. He disappeared, you see. This is over.

So I started this, this morning satsang, this practice, because many people want. So I… so I have to agree to them because they want some direct practice. So have I told them yesterday, day before yesterday, till… till you can't walk on your own legs you can practice on existence - on Existence. “I am existence. I am consciousness. I am bliss.” To have your relation with what really you are. This also is creating knower, knowing and known. So finally they have to merge into that where there is no duality at all. How long you can live in dualities - knower, knowing, known. If you want some support there's no problem, you see. You can have instead of doing any other exercise. This is acceptable in the shutees, and the sages allow it - to do it, therefore I can agree. “I am existence.” Who can deny, “I don't exist.” first of all? Do you ever go and ask someone, "Do I exist or not?" Do you… do you ask, "Am I conscious or not?" You don't ask this question. If you ask you'll be sent to Nuermunser here. You do not know what's Nuermunser. Someone who belongs to this talk, they will know it.

First of all, those people who are there who can't deny, “I am that.”? In the ancient times also, the student who has a burning longing for freedom; he goes to the teacher in the forest and just asks this question. "Ho ham?" This question he doesn't know, "Master, save me! I am afflicted with this serpent of samsara. Now I am fed up again, again, and again appearing, disappearing. In society I have been troubled. Oh masters, save me. Ho ham. Who am I?" "My dear son, why not?" He gives indication, "Thou art That, that's all. Thou art That." He follows That. Instantly he says… instantly he finds it is That - finger pointing to the moon. He will see the moon that takes you to your own Self, and he agrees. Then he says: "I am, I am, I am, I am."

This moment will never come again, mind you. This moment which is passing in front of you is gone, as father who is dead will never come back again. This moment just in front… just in front… in front of you is possible, is not going to make the best of it. And best of it, best use of it is only… only to get into it. Get drowned into this moment… This Moment - not the previous, not the next.

This is what happened to the King of the Dehas, this what is happened. He didn't sit… he didn't sit for meditation. Neither has the teacher told him to meditate now. The real teacher has no teaching. There may be preachers who tell you do this and do that. Perhaps in my own words I call them murderers, butchers. They butcher you, they murder you who tell you do this and do that, you see. Teacher has no teaching. He doesn't give you teaching because you are that already. What the teacher is going to tell you, “You are already that.” What can she tell you distracts you and every exercise, every sadhana, every practice is distraction from your own Self, because you get otherwise engaged and you are already afflicted by thirty five million years.

Are you not afflicted like to add something more on it? Why not to throw away this burden once for all; and here goes. A very sharp one has to have this knowledge now itself - in this moment - and you have been seeing the result. The dull ones have no place in this satsang. First of all the dull ones have no place in this satsang. The sharp witted person, intelligent person like Ashoka, [chuckle] yeah, Shankara, one word, even Vivekenanda recently, Ram Tirtha recently, you see. So this satsang I don't think is for the dull people. I tell every day and so many people are here there must be something wrong going on here under this roof. Never it has happened in the past, so many people coming for satsang. Only one teacher, one student. Even Shankara had only four students, you see. So sometimes I think, “Why these people are here? Sometimes five hundred, four hundred people here. Some falsehood is being practiced here. I should take care of it.” Wherever there is someone dancing there will be crowd of it. Where truth is being spoken who could be there, you see. Now it's some dance is there on the road, you can see everyone will disappear. Who will be with me, you see? Some dancing you see on the road, you will just give a test yourself. It’s not satsang, you see.

So those few people, I don't some get into trouble and then they… they need this because this is a fire. This is a fire which will burn everything. They can't stay in satsang, therefore you see some people… some get up and during the satsang disappear. The next day they don't come. You are seeing every day; you are seeing every day. Some are here since a year, two years. Some read the papers, some magazines, and come from far off countries you see. Some come here, and you will see new faces who are to come for the first day and I guarantee tomorrow they are not coming here. You have been telling every day, isn't it? Because this is a jump into their arrogance. Because their arrogance is… is struck at the root. Who wants to separate from his arrogance, “I am so and so. I am this much, I am that much from the bank. This my land, this is my apartment, this is my ninety-three model Benz.” That's all what everybody wants.

I think one satsang is quite enough. If you decide on going for satsang don't tie your rope. Some have tied even today. They have fixed up their appointment with their wives, with their offices, “I'll be back at eleven thirty.” isn't it? Tied a rope as… as you slide a bucket into the water and the bucket things are very happy in this shower-bath; the bucket is very happy into the wells of the water. Outside is 44 degrees (celcius) and this bucket is very hot. And this kind man has put me down to well. Now I am very happy but she doesn't know. She is tying me with the rope. She is just taken in. Like this everybody is sitting for that bucket. They tie the rope around their waist with something or the other… appointment. “After this satsang I will meet you,” isn't it? If you cut your rope once only – once - that is quite enough.

You need not come again and again - only one time. Once just for five minutes because your atman is not away from you, only you are driven by the rope. Everybody is thinking… everybody is thinking, “It’s getting late. Papaji is getting too much time. Isn't it? Tying a rope and coming to satsang, many people say. One man came who is here who lives in Indira Nagar, in this 'A' Block itself. He just came and he requested that, "I want to see Papaji before satsang." I said, “He may have a question.” When he came in I asked, “Let him come before satsang and I want to know if he has a special… he wants special time. I will give him.” He asked me, he will get summer vacation in October. Will I be here in October? "Where do you live?" He said, "I live here itself. I live here, I live here." I said, “Attend this satsang. You come here.” "No, no, no, no. I've not come for satsang, I just came to make inquiry." I said, "Are you? Have you a guarantee that you will live in October, or will I have a guarantee will I live in October?" You see, I cannot know what's going to happen next moment, you see.

5 June, 1992

No Practice is Needed

Different practices have been described which are being followed in the world. One is gyanamarg - the path of knowledge; one is bhakti, or devotion;and one is karma. Rituals, yoga, rajyoga, kundalini yoga, pilgrimages to shrines, worship of the personal deities, recitation of the holy books, repetition of the sacred formulas, and many other types of exercises, or sadhanas are being practiced. The question is: What is the goal that you have selected to arrive at? What do you want? What is your aim? For different aims there are different roads, different practices.

Here we are mainly dealing with Brahman. I will use the word 'Brahman', rather than 'Self', because in all other languages 'self' can be also be used for the individual soul, for the individuality. Brahman is that which is without any attributes - knowledge itself which has no association, with no duality whatsoever. Brahman is the word that has been used in the book of knowledge. We are working here on how to arrive at that attribute-less Brahman which is beyond the reach of the mind and the intellect. It is said by those who have gone beyond and realized this goal, that this is where the intellect and its associates like mind, senses, and so on beat a retreat. They cannot go there because it reveals Itself by itself. You need no agent, no-one to take you there, neither the intellect, nor the mind, nor the senses, nor any kind of practice, because it is self-revealing.

You need a candle to find something in a dark room. You need the light of the sun in the day or of the moon in the night, and if they are not there you need a candle or a lamp in the house. But you don't need a candle to see a lamp - it is light itself. It is self-revealing. It is self-luminous. No association is possible; it is attribute-less. It is advised to realize the attribute-less Brahman, immaculate Brahman, eternal Brahman, or to adopt a practice which is very near to your goal. Everything else - like pilgrimages, purification, visiting churches - may do some benefit. Worship of the deities may also give you some temporary relief, chanting of holy books may focus your mind on one object. But with all these practices the mind is not yet obliterated.

The practice nearest to truth for those few who want to realize absolute Brahman is meditation only on attribute-less Brahman itself, without any object of concentration. When people start to mediate they do something, they hold some image in the mind or some word. That may be useful, but it is even better to think of attribute-less Brahman, to always keep aware of the attribute-less Brahman during meditation, knowing that, “I am Brahman.” without focusing on any object of the past, present, or future.

This is the nearest practice. If you want to do any practice, to meditate on attribute-less Brahman, immaculate Brahman, which is none other than your own Atman - your own fundamental nature. If you are not able to realize the truth instantly you can continue this practice for a while. Slowly you will see that the meditator and the meditated upon vanish. Neither attribute-less Brahman nor meditation upon attribute-less Brahman has anything to do with a meditator or something meditated upon.

So this constant exercise is advised, constant sadhana on attribute-less Brahman, thinking, “I am Brahman.” If you want to think something, why think, “I am the body?” The body does not last. Why think, “I am this.” or “I am that?” If you want to have a thought at all and you cannot live without thinking, then have this supreme thought: “I am Brahman.” This is the exercise which is nearest to your goal of Brahman itself. The meditator and the meditated upon will vanish. This is the goal that we started meditation for. No other sadhana or exercise is as near as this for one who wants to be free of this samsara, from this going again and again from death to birth and birth to death. This is how to break the cycle. There is only one way and this is this way. This can continue always wherever you are.

You do not need to go to any ashram, because nobody there knows how to sit quiet. In every ashram and center recently different therapies have been introduced. There should be at least one person who could teach you silence, peace, and tranquility, and direct you to that place. He should be in the know of things himself, but nobody is there like that. Therefore wherever you go, some kind of therapy has been introduced in every ashram. Because no one teaches, “Sit quiet and don't do anything.” If a center were to do that what would be the use of that center? A center is there for some commercial reason, for some material gain.

This is the only teaching that is not practiced anywhere in the world! What better teaching could there be, or what better teacher who tells you, “Keep quiet!” This was the teaching of my master. Nobody else has taught this recently, in this century. There were a few teachers also in the past but not in this century. In the twentieth century he alone was the teacher who could say, “Keep quiet!”

To keep quiet is the only goal that you have to practice to do away with this cycle. If you can't keep quiet, then the practice closest to this quietness is prescribed: To repeat, “I am Brahman.” There is no harm in this, because when you utter the word “Brahman” it has neither name nor form. This Brahman word is not a name, because name and form go together immediately. When you utter a name there is a form. There is no form to accompany this name, so the mind is again formless and nameless. This does not depict any object or any subject.

This practice is not even a practice. It can be continued at home with whatever you are doing in your routine of life. Just keep this thought here and do whatever you want. This is the way which is nearest to your own Atman. In this life a human body is very rare so we have to make the best of it. Once lost it cannot be regained. We would have to go around again.

You are here from many countries, so let us find some way to be happy in ourselves, to be peaceful ourselves, and take this message back to our country and spread it. Now is the time. We know what is happening in the universe. We can only keep quiet and wish that sanity descend on human beings. We send good vibrations of peace and love every morning. Let us behave at least as human beings, working for our own good and for that of the world.

Buddha has done it.

Janaka has done it.

Yagnavalka has done it.

Vasishtha has done it.

And Shikaraj has done it.

Vishvamitra and many others have done it.

So why can't you do it?

If you are bent upon doing it, it is here and now.

26 May, 1992

You Need Reminding Only Once!

You only have to be reminded once of who you are. You do not have to do anything. You do not have to read any book or listen to any cassettes or tapes. Just a reminder or even overhearing is enough.

I will tell you a story about a baby child. There was a king who was fond of hunting game. One day the queen also insisted on accompanying the king for the hunt. She decided to take her baby boy along with her also, and they started out. In the evening they pitched a tent in the forest so they could go out in the night, riding on an elephant to find some game. Generally hunting is done at night because all the animals go out for food then. The young prince was kept under the care of nurses and sentries were posted outside the tent. So the king and queen and all their retinue went out the whole night hunting for game and returned to the tent at about ten next morning. The queen found that her son was missing.

In the night the nurses and the guards had fallen asleep. The boy had woken up, and not finding his mama lying next to him he had walked out of the tent and deeper and deeper into the forest in search of his mama, the queen.

The queen came back and felt very sad. Everyone was exhausted; they had not slept the whole night. But she said she would not even eat breakfast until she had seen her son again. Some said that he had been eaten by a wolf or a hyena, but the queen said that there would be marks of blood inside the tent or nearby. A search was mounted to find the bones. The queen said that if the bones were produced she could be sure that her son had been killed by a wild animal and she would accept the situation. They looked all around the tent for a mile in all directions but they did not find any trace of blood stains. They had to return to the capital, but the king decided to send search parties in all four directions throughout the country and instructed them not to return until they found the boy, or at least a clue as to his fate. The parties were dispatched to console the queen. Months and years passed.

The boy was only three or four years old when he wandered into the forest dressed only in his underwear. A potter who lived on the farther side of the forest was collecting clay to make his pots and found the boy crying. His family had no child so they were very happy to find this child, a gift from gods - very handsome boy. They brought him home, gave him a bath and food and new clothes. The boy grew up with his new family, helping his foster father by collecting clay and bringing it home to help the family make the pots.

Twelve years passed and the teams of police were still searching for the prince. One search party was very thirsty so they stopped at a well where this boy was collecting water to take home to his family. The policemen saw the boy with a bucket and asked him for a drink. He gave them a cup of water and they were thankful. "What is your name?" they asked the boy. "My name is Junglee." he replied. Junglee means forester in Hindi. The family gave him this name because they found him in the jungle.

The police were very shrewd. They asked him, "This is very rare name. We have never heard of anyone with the name Junglee before. Who are your parents?" "Our house is over there. We make pots. My parents are at home," replied the boy. That was all he could say - he had forgotten all about his past. They were very suspicious about this boy's name. They wanted to see his parents and find out why they named him Junglee. Seeing the police party the parents became very afraid.

They asked the father, "Who is this boy?" "He is our son," came the reply.

"Is he your son? When did you beget him?" they asked. So the potter told his story: "About 12 years ago I was walking to the forest to fetch some clay and this boy was crying. I brought him home and for the last 12 years he has been with us. He is not our son but we have brought him up with great love and care because we didn't have a child of our own." So the policemen explained what had happened and who this child was, and the boy could overhear the entire conversation. Finally the police told the boy to come with them and they would take him to the king. The foster father was only crying out in fear, "It is not our fault, it's not our fault. We have found the boy."

At that point a party of boys arrived to call Junglee for a game which they had all left unfinished from the night before. "Come, Junglee. Come to finish the game we did not finish last night." This boy had only overheard what the police had said to his father. "Do you know that he is the prince?" They had said, "He is the prince. Come with us and you will be rewarded. You have no reason to fear." The boy only overheard the conversation, that is all, but he turned to his friends who were calling him to play and told them, "Shut up! I'll have you arrested by my police! Keep quiet or I'll have you arrested!" He became the prince by simply overhearing what had been said. He did not mediate to become a prince nor did he read any sutra or any book. He simply overheard the truth of his situation from an authority and immediately he became the prince.

Once you hear from an authority that you are That, it is quite enough. You do not need anything more. Overhearing the words of an authorized source is enough to know the truth. But not all who hear the truth respond in the same way. Some are very sharp witted - they are like camphor touching a flame. All is over, nothing is left. They belong to a very superior quality of seeker - in going to the teacher, once they touch the word and the ego is destroyed like camphor.

Others are like firewood - they will also be gradually consumed. They belong to a second type of person, a middle quality. The third type also touches the fire and they take some time to burn and to become fire itself. Those are the ones who are postponing, taking their time. They will also become the flame itself but it will take some time because they are busy deciding. They are like children who make sand castles on the beach and get lost in their play till the high tide comes. Some wise children see that their mother is waiting and kick over what they have built with double pleasure and meet their mother before the high tide comes. Everything will be swept away by the high tide. Before it comes it is better to return home, your mother is calling. The third type is that category which does not move - they are like stone. If you put a stone in the fire nothing will happen. The stone will remain a stone - there will be no ignition.

There are these three categories, and all three categories are represented here in this satsang, and in the world: tamasic, rajasic, and sattvic. All need to be free. Some have a burning desire of freedom - they need to meet a teacher only once. A perfect teacher and a perfect longing for freedom is all that is needed. Some who come to see me here say, "I have it! I got it! But now I cannot decide whether to leave you or whether to stay longer to stabilize what I have got." There is no question of stabilization here. One glimpse of atman is enough to give you light. One glimpse is more than enough.

A small window is enough to allow the rays of the sun to come into the room. A small hole is enough to allow you to expose your face to the sun. That light is quite enough to bring you home. Some people wait here and say they might lose what they have gained. I tell them that you will surely lose what has been gained. But how can you lose anything which you have not gained? When you have nothing in your pocket how can you lose it? You do not have to gain anything. You have come to lose all the burdens that you have been carrying on your shoulders since 35 million years.

There were once two teachers in China with ashrams about 500 miles apart. People used to travel from one ashram to the other. One teacher was preaching that it was necessary first to purify the mind like a mirror - to wipe the dust from the mirror so that you could see your face clearly. He had a great following. His students all got involved in cleaning the mirror for their whole lifetime. The other teacher on the other side of the mountains had a very different teaching. He did not say anything about any mirror to be cleaned. The first teacher did not understand: If the mirror is not cleaned, if there is dust on the mirror, if there are weeds in the lake, how can you see your own reflection? So he sent one of his closest students who was supposed to have grasped the teaching, to go and find out what the other teacher was teaching. He had full confidence in this student. The man arrived in the other monastery.

The disciples of the second teacher came to the master. "Some people say this man is a very confident student, number one after the teacher. The teacher has sent him here to steal your teachings." The master came to know about it so he called the man. A master has to speak to everyone, whoever comes.

The master asked this man: "Are you a spy?" "Yes, Master, I came as a spy. I was sent by my master," replied the man. "But staying here with you I am no longer a spy of my master; I am your student, bless me. My master does not teach this teaching. He only says, 'Go on rubbing the mirror.’ Now you tell me there is no mirror and no dust to alight on it. How simple! When there is no mirror where is the dust going to alight? This is a very beautiful teaching. Master, I am going to stay with you - please accept me. But first please allow me one thing. My master is very beloved to me. I spent eighteen years with him. I am very grateful to him. I have some responsibility, some gratitude, some duty to pay off this debt. So let me go and give this teaching to my teacher." The master said "Okay, you can go, you can go." So the student returned to his old teacher.

"What is the teaching that he gives?" he was asked. "No teaching! No teaching! There are so many mirrors we have been trying to clean. They will never be clean. When there is a mirror there will always be dust to alight. This master asked me, 'When there is no mirror where is the dust going to alight?' Come with me, Master! He is a very beautiful teacher with no teaching at all!" The teacher and all his students came to see this master with no teaching.

We are here for Freedom. Our aim is freedom but we get lost in sadhanas, practices, yoga methods and reading books. Why did you come here? What was the purpose of wearing this human body which so precious among 8.4 million species, the highest temple? Once in 35 million years you wear this beautiful form - don't waste it. You only need to be reminded like this prince, and you are the prince. You have been saying, “I am the body, I am the mind, I am the ego, I am the senses, I have objects to enjoy.” With this burden how can you face your own nature, how can you get on the throne? How can sit on the throne of the emperor if you have forgotten who you are? You have to be reminded; you do not need to perform any practices.

We speak here of Existence, Consciousness, Bliss. When are you not that? When was the time when you were not that? When will the time come when you will not be that? How can you lose Existence itself? How can you lose Consciousness? How can you lose Bliss? You have been lost somewhere else so you do not know who you really are.

19 May, 1992

Who am I?

Who are you? Where do you come from? And where are you going? Except by a very few, a finger count, these questions have never been confronted since time immemorial. You are here now, so let us try to solve them.

We discuss this everyday: You have forgotten who are you. You have forgotten that you are home, you have forgotten your destination, where you have to go. This is why we suffer again and again. Millions of years have passed and we have not yet solved these questions. It is so simple no time or practice is needed. We are simply otherwise engaged. We are busy with all our occupations, with wanting this and that, with holding to the idea that, “This is mine.” and “I belong to this.” Find out who you are and who are your relations.

Every night when you sleep you experience leaving everything behind - your relations and friends, your house, your country, the mountains, and rivers. You don't see anything when you are asleep and you have no trouble; you are happy. This is a very short experience which we have every night due to the compassion of your own Self; giving you a hint to discover Eternal Bliss. This is for a very short time. When you go to sleep you are at peace. The only troublesome states are waking and dreaming. Who wakes up and gets into trouble? Who dreams? The dreamer gets into trouble, but no one knows who they are and where they have to return to. This is so simple that every reasonable person can solve it, here and now.

We speak every day about this which has been lost. You turn outside to a guide who is deceiving you and you trust that guide. Who is that guide? It is your own mind. Although he has always deceived you, you return to the same guide because you are used to him. He has been your guide since the beginning, but he has always deceived you. Now ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” for the first time. This question has never been asked. You have simply trusted the mind to tell you what to do and you have obeyed. This is the time for all of us here to ask this question. Do away with this guide and you will return to your Eternal Home, to Existence, to Consciousness, to Bliss.

Is there any time when you are not in the mind, when you stop your race after pleasures of the senses, when you simply see? Keep still and this guide disappears, simply with the question, “Who are you?” Then you will know what the mind is, and it disappears. This question has never been asked. This guide has never been challenged before. Wherever you have gone until now you have allowed it to deceive you. It has told you this or that is good, and you accepted it - that this is a world of pleasure, and you accepted it - that these gods will give you pleasures in heavens, and you accepted it. When you challenge the mind it disappears instantly. This is why every day we emphasize the question, “Who are you?”

The qualification needed to ask this question is discrimination - the ability to know the real from the unreal, the eternal from the false, the pure from the impure. Discrimination must first be developed, and it will lead to the capacity to ask the question which dissolves all that is false. When you ask this question with discernment you will come to know what is real and what is unreal. Turn to any thing which has name and form and see where this name and form came from. Was it eternal or did it appear in the past a few years ago, and will it disappear after a few more years? Everything will disappear. In fact the whole world disappears when you sleep.

Whatever is eternal must remain constantly. It never disappears. That which appears and disappears is falsehood. All relationships up to this point have been with appearances and disappearances, and so there has been no relationship with that which is Eternal, which is your own Home, which is your own Self, your own Friend, your Atman, which is Existence itself.

Existence will remain always. It will never become non-existence. Consciousness will always remain consciousness. In the waking state you are conscious of doing this and that. In the dream state you are conscious of the dreamer doing something. In the sleep state you are conscious of not knowing anything, of enjoying the bliss of deep sleep, you are also very much conscious of this. Existence is there always, consciousness is there always, and bliss can also be there always. In the waking state, pleasure is mistaken for bliss. Pleasure is temporary. We may call it bliss, but bliss is eternal. It is your nature. It is your Atman, your own Self.

We may stumble on different experiences but we are still searching for the same thing. The one who is searching - the seeker itself - is what is needed. We are lost in a search without knowing who it is that is enjoying all this. We are attached, so we attribute the source of this joy to the object without knowing the enjoyer. It is the Self - the Atman - who is enjoying; not the object. No object has any capacity to give you happiness. It is ‘I’ who enjoys the object, whatever object it may be; anything, any relation, any idea, any concept, the source of their joy comes from ‘I’, not from the object or idea or notion.

When you rid yourself of all notions, all intentions and ideas, this will be revealed. Stop for a while. Give an instant to your own Self - just an instant that you have never found time for so far. You have spent 35 million years for others, seeking love, seeking beauty, seeking rest, and you have not got it. You have been hitchhiking millions of times and yet again you are here.

If this sounds good you can go through it and it is done, not by any kind of practice for you have done enough. What had to be done is done now. It is finished. What had to be attained is attained. You are here in satsang. In satsang no practice is needed, nothing is done. Only you are asked to keep quiet. Only you are asked to keep still. Only you are asked not to stir a single thought. And wait... Turn your back on whatever appears in front of you. Now is the time to turn your back on what you have done in the past. Turn your face to what has not been done before. Turn your face towards your own atman for the first time and turn your back on this name and form.

18 May, 1992

What Is Satsang?

Why do so many people come here for satsang from all over the world? Since time immemorial this area has been a source of knowledge. The East has been guiding the whole world in spirituality. For scientific knowledge you have to go to other countries - that is clear, but spiritual knowledge has always started from here. It is estimated from the position of the stars mentioned in the Vedas that this knowledge existed 25,000 years ago. There is no record of any other sect or religion existing before that time. It may be even longer than 25,000 years but that is the estimate in the Vedas - the book of knowledge. It is from that period that Vedic Dharma and all great religions have originated. Vedic religion has no founder. It did not begin at a specific time. It is the eternal religion. Religious leaders have been coming to this area since then to have some rest from the processes of the world and the psyche.

In the Vedas it is said that we pass though a cycle of 8.4 million species, taking about 35 million years, to have this human form. Today there are about 5.8 billion people on the face of the earth, which is nothing compared to all the other species, to all the fishes and the insects. Out of less that 6 billion people on the earth how many are there who need freedom? We are only a finger count. You represent your countries, gathered from all over the world for freedom. Out of your city or your state or even your country you will not find many who are here for satsang. And even out of these few who are here very few will be successful, because you come with a rope still tied to past attachments. With a rope still tied this is not satsang. When you draw water from a well, you throw the bucket into the well but you keep a rope in your hand to bring the bucket out. Even in satsang people keep ropes tied to concepts of the past. When we meditate together for 20 minutes judge for yourself how many minutes or even seconds are spent free from the past. It is for this reason that freedom is not available.

Freedom will happen when you outgrow all your desires and only then. You do not spend a second of your whole life on your own account, from your birth to your death. You were born for others, right from your birth. You belong to your parents; you are their child. Next you are baptized to this religion or that religion; you are possessed by a priest. You are told to go only in a certain direction; you are told to go to church. If you do you go to heaven, if you don't you go to hell. It is all based in fear. Where is religion without fear? If you take away fear and hell from any religion there is no religion left at all. They are founded in fear and hell. If you live in fear and hell, how can you be free?

You are never free of the past. Even here you are not willing to devote even one second to what this is about. Many people come to me in trouble. They say that they do not understand. They come from different backgrounds where they have been told to do this and that. Religions teach you to do this and that. Teachers preach to you to do this and that, but I do not call this a teacher; I call this a butcher. Anyone who tells you to do this or that is a butcher. He is destroying your life.

This is the time for you to be free. You have come here to remove your burden, but what is that burden? It is just the past. You have been carrying this past of 35 million years on your shoulders.

Freedom is Here and Now! It is to be found in the very second of your life span which you spend devoted to your own nature. You have not been told this before. Freedom is not the outcome of any exercise or of any sadhana that you have to perform. If it was it would be contained within that sadhana. How could that which is free be bound within your mind, within your sadhana?

I do not impose any such burdens on you. I only offer you this advice: When you come to satsang devote one second to find out who you are. You will have to steal this one second at some point from one birth or another. You have already spent 35 million years moving from species to species, and now you have arrived in the blessed temple. This is the temple of God.

Why not spend this one second in inquiry and see what happens? What is this one second that I speak about? It is satsang. What is satsang? Satsang is association with the Truth. And where is the truth to be found? To be truth it must be Eternal, it must be Omnipresent, it must be Omniscient. This is the very nature of truth. So where is the Truth to be found?

Let me offer you this hint. Wherever there is name and form; that is not the truth. Whatever has name and form begins and ends. And whatever begins and ends is not eternal, is not real, is not atman. You will have to search for the atman. To remain with the atman is satsang, to be in continuous association with the Atman as the atman itself. This will be accomplished by not doing anything; neither by thinking, nor by making any kind of effort at all, nor by postponing.

When I was a young man my friends used to say, "I will do this after my retirement." They used to tell me, "Poonjaji, you are still young. This is the time to earn money and save up for your rainy days. If you are spending all your money now like this, going to pilgrim places, going from saint to saint - if you don't even open a bank account, who will look after you in the evening of your life when you have retired?" But all those people who used to give me this advice are no longer alive!

Association with the saints has paid me very well and I am very happy. I want to share with you what I have received. You are all here. I welcome you, so let us share together. Knowledge is the only thing which you cannot keep. You can hide wealth. Rich people with many bank accounts are all suffering. They have no place to hide their money; they are afraid of income taxes raids. Everyone is in fear. You only need to eat. You can't eat more than a certain amount or you will end up in hospital, so what is the use of accumulating a lot of money? The peace you are longing for you will find in satsang. Money will only bring you trouble when you try to accumulate it.

You will have to be wise, you have to work. I am not telling you to run away - you have to be active. Soldiers have done it even on the battlefield. Arjuna was a soldier. There were nine military divisions on each side and the war was about to begin, and who was his charioteer, his guru, his teacher? It was the Lord of the Universe himself, driving him. Arjuna pulled him out of the battle. He was lost and he received knowledge from Krishna in the midst of the battle.

This was a great battle fought in this part of India 7034 years ago. As a soldier he received this knowledge and he also won the war! Knowledge and war are not incompatible. If you first know yourself - know who you are - you have won the whole world. If you have not conquered you own self you will end up empty-handed despite your riches. Alexander the Great wanted to conquer the whole world and his tutor, a student of Socrates, told him first to conquer his own mind. Alexander did not listen and had the man arrested and thrown in jail. He went to conquer India. He met a great yogi, and before he died he realized his foolishness.

In satsang you will have to devote time to not touching the past or the future. This instant can be called satsang, but really it has no name. If you enter into this you will discover the nature of peace, which is known as shanti. You will discover the nature of Light, of Wisdom. This will be the end of all suffering for the whole world, the end of the cycle, the end of hitchhiking from womb to womb. This is in your hands. You are here and it does not take any time - it takes just a moment. And this moment has to be exactly now.

Whether it is now or next year or next birth doesn't matter. You have to return home. Everyone has to return home, all of us. Whenever it happens it will always be just now. It will always be the same moment - no moment - which gives you satsang, which indicates freedom, which is Here, Now. Freedom is already here.

The concept, "I am bound." is only a notion. The concept, "I have to become enlightened after retirement." is also a notion. Get rid of all these notions and you will return to this. This is called satsang. This will lead you to Freedom, to Moksham, to Liberation, to Emancipation, to the end of the cycle of birth and death. Do this here and now. Why postpone? The mind needs to postpone. This postponement is called mind. The mind is nothing but the past. Discard all these concepts and you are Free.



7 May, 1992

What is Meditation?

A long time ago, Siddhartha went from place to place going through different processes, meeting different teachers who were performing different penances. Some were meditating, some were performing rituals, some were even hanging from the trees, some were standing with their hands always up, never sitting at all.

When Siddhartha sat down under the bodhi tree he got up as Buddha. Ananda was the first man to ask the master what he had got there. The reply was, “Nothing.” We do not know how to describe what he found under the bodhi tree. He spent the rest of his life, from 30 to 80, trying to describe what he had got and still he could not. This is something that still remains un-described, un-conceived.

When you know that you are meditating it is not meditation. The thought that, "I am meditating and this is the process." is not meditation. Sitting in a particular posture is not meditation. Concentrating on different centers in the sushpana channel of the spine is not meditation. Chanting a formula is not meditation. Having a vision or picture of a particular deity is not meditation. So what is meditation?

The important question is if the meditation is immaculate, untouched, without cause and without effect? To know what meditation is, you have to find who the meditator is: "Who is the meditator?" When you ask this everything will drop. The process will to drop because you are inquiring into the nature of the meditator, the one who is busy with this process of sadhana, who is executing the practice of meditation - the same one who executes anything that is possible through the mind. If you ask who the meditator is I don't think you will easily get the answer because everything will drop right here. You have to find out who the meditator is, who is meditating, and what is the purpose of meditation.

You forgot the purpose of meditation. We wanted freedom from this world process of suffering and to end this we meditate with the help of the mind. The mind itself is suffering, is samsara; so if we take the help of mind we are not going to arrive anywhere. Ask who the meditator is and you will reply to yourself: "I meditate. I am the meditator."

What is this ‘I’ who becomes the meditator? How is it different from what it is searching for? You will have to discover what has been concealed when you give rise to this meditator - what is buried underneath. What is that foundation out of which this meditator rises and performs different sadhanas and practices? Return back home to find the source of the meditator - the source of ‘I’. There is no difference between the meditator, the ‘I’, the mind, and the ego. Whenever we meditate it is the ego that takes the role of the meditator, so meditation has not brought any result so far.

Someone arose from under the bodhi tree. That cannot be attributed to any practice of meditation. When he was asked what he had attained he was quite honest and said, "Nothing." He had not attained anything during the process of long sittings of meditation. Something had revealed itself to itself. That revelation, that happening, is not in your hands. If you carry a gun on your shoulder and you are looking for a target it will take you elsewhere. The gun is effort, the gun is ego. If you drop the gun and don't possess anything it is going to reveal itself, by itself, to itself within itself. That which has been concealed since millions of years will have to reveal itself.

We are waiting, thinking that we have to do something about it. It is this doer-ship which is concealing the truth, existence, consciousness, and bliss. Otherwise this has always been with you, is with you now, and will always be with you. You can never separate yourself from it at any time. You cannot breathe without it, you cannot live without it. It was only a concept that the wave was different from the ocean, that the ring was different from the gold, or that the vessel is different from the clay. Because we do not see the substratum we find a difference.

Here and now, if we do not make any effort, if we do not activate a single thought, if we do not even allow the thought ‘I’, if we do not hold to the concept of time, if we do not postpone anything to the next moment, to the next breath, this is going to reveal itself. Here and now means out of time all together. This has nothing to do with any meditation or any process. We have tried endlessly through numberless incarnations and we have not been able to complete it. This time let us decide to return home. We have been different waves, different name and form; but if name and form does not arise where is the wave? We are the ocean, existence, consciousness and bliss. We have come here to realize this without any effort. We have tried every kind of effort, we have been advised in our different backgrounds to “do this” or “do that.” Now, here, for the first time you do not have to do anything. Simply sit quiet for one moment in time. That is all that is required to realize existence, consciousness and bliss.

How could existence be absent? Is it possible for you ever to deny that you exist or even that you are conscious of your existence? You can only deny that you are happy because no one is happy, from the king down to the worker. We have been missing bliss because we have been searching for it in things which are not permanent, which are not eternal, which appear and disappear.

Only bliss is missing. Existence can be found in rocks, in animals, in trees. We are human beings, a super species among 8.4 million species. This is the supreme form, the most blessed form, in which it is possible to know that we are That. Do not postpone the right use of a human form until the next life or the next day. Tomorrow will never come. This is not difficult, not located miles away from you. It is here, now, nearer than your own breath. It is behind the retina. It is that which shines through the eyes. It is that which even sunshine cannot reach, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor fire. You are That.

Om Hare Om.

15 May, 1992

Keep quiet!

When I speak about quietness - when I tell you to keep quiet - it is not easy for everyone to follow. Most people here are from different backgrounds, practices, sadhanas; and therefore feel they need to do something, to put something into practice. When I say, "Keep quiet." it is not a practice. There is nothing to be done and nothing to be undone. This cannot be followed. There is nothing to think about, no need to make any kind of effort. This is an indication of the quietness I am speaking about. Truth always exists. Existence alone is. It is called satyam.

We speak about enlightenment, but first we have created bondage. Bondage does not exist. How can you remove that which does not exist? First, teachers impose a concept of bondage and then various practices are prescribed. There may be millions of books in the world, thousands more are published every day. Nowhere does it say, "Be quiet". When you simply say "Keep quiet," what is the rest of the book to be about?

There is no ignorance at all; there is only existence - there is only satyam. If you simply keep quiet you will know that only this exists. Before the sun rises early in the morning it does not first try to remove the darkness of the night. The sun does not say, "Let me brush away the darkness and only then, in the daytime, I will rise." For the sun there is no light, there is no darkness to be removed. The sun does not even know that such a thing as night exists. What practice is needed to remove darkness, where is this darkness? All practices imply the reality of darkness, of ignorance, when in fact they do not exist. The river in the sand is a mirage; it does not exist, it never existed. If you go closer and closer the sand not even is wet; it is only a belief that makes us run after a mirage, nothing else. There is only satyam; there is only Truth. What need is there of practice? It is only practice which is concealing the truth.

You have been given a concept by most of the teachers that there is darkness, and that you have to spend your whole life clearing this darkness. No one speaks about light; everyone is trying to remove darkness and ignorance when it does not really exist.

First of all, look for yourself! Has anyone seen any ignorance? Sometimes when people who come to see me come closer to keeping quiet they say, "I do not understand." What is there to understand? Simply keep quiet - this is what you really are. How can there be any doubt? In keeping quiet you discover what you really are.

Through spiritual practices you overlook the one who is causing this to happen. Who is involving your limbs in the practice, your intellect in the practice? Who is causing your mind to be involved in trying to get understanding? If the one causing activity is not there you cannot conduct any practice. This is why I tell you to simply keep quiet. Then you will know what you truly are and what you have always been, and this is indestructible. All else will be destroyed, only Existence itself remains. The Truth will always remain - it Is - it is eternal. That which is not this truth does not exist at all.

You have two choices: Either you follow most teachers and spend your life trying to remove or clean out the mind. First you will have to find out if the mind exists. No one has seen the mind. Even if you found it, how do you propose to clean it? Everyone is practicing cleaning the mind but there is no one so far who has cleaned it. Where is this mind to be cleaned?

The second choice is to keep quiet and you will know who really you are. This is very simple. It is not going to take you time; in fact time does not appear. There is nothing outside that can help you, you have just to keep quiet - that's all - and you will know then you are eternal. You are Eternal Existence itself.



5 May, 1992

What Is The Self?

This the proper time for all of us to introduce the mind to the Self. What is the Self? It is your own original nature: satyam, shivam, sundaram - which means truth, consciousness, bliss. This is the Self which was before the origin and which is going to be after the end. That is the place where you always are.

It is not that you have to become something or that you have to attain something, or that you have gain something afresh. You are going to lose anything which is gained or obtained because it is not your nature. Anything gained is not permanent because you did not possess it previously - you got it through effort. It was absent before you attained it so you cannot keep it forever.

Somehow this notion arises and this notion becomes mind. This notion is only mind, which is not distinct from ‘I’. ‘I’ arises - this is what is called mind. 'I' is not separate from ego. How did it all start? The ego is not separate from the body; the body is not separate from the senses nor their respective objects, nor the entire manifestation with the notion of time - beginning, middle, and end. It all started with 'I'. We got involved in it.

This is the appropriate time to return home. You have to do this here and now by withdrawing the outgoing tendencies of the mind. That is how we meditate: We sit quiet. During meditation the mind is running outwards following its own tendencies, its own desires for respective objects and enjoyments that are deep-rooted in the mind.

During meditation this has to be checked. This is the meaning of meditation: to bring back all the outgoing tendencies of the mind wherever they are going. Check them! Bring them back to 'I'. From here you have to be very vigilant, very attentive. Do not make any effort. Do not become involved in any thinking process. Simply keep quiet. Through incessant vigilance allow it to happen, allow this revelation to take place, without keeping any gain in your mind, without making any effort to become anything else. This is an unfoldment - this is called revelation.

At this point bring everything back, bring all these tendencies back to the 'I' thought. Be very vigilant and find out how this notion of 'I' arises. It is absolutely necessary to keep quiet, to remain without thinking, without making any effort.

I don't think anybody could describe what is going to happen beyond this. It has never been described. It is for you to dive into your own source, to arrive back home. You don't need anyone else to lead you, you don't need any companion. You have to do it alone - without the mind, without the intellect, without the ego, without the body, without the senses, without their objects. Only vigilance is needed, natural vigilance with no effort, without even a thought. That can be had here and now… or never. This is up to you.



8 April, 1992

Open Your Own Book

All you have to do is to still the mind. There are two ways to quiet the mind: One is through inquiry, which is suitable to a very few qualified people; and the other is through yoga, which includes concentration, meditation and other practices.

First you need the capacity to discern the real from the unreal, to embrace what is real and to adhere to it. Reject what is unreal and false. Fascination with study, karma , pilgrimages, or dips in the holy waters will not help you. Learning all the Vedas, all the sutras, like a parrot is not going to help you. No gift, austerity or charity is going to help you.

More important than anything is the burning desire for freedom. This alone is enough. If you have this burning desire you will be led to satsang. Satsang means to stay quiet, to still the mind, to bring it back to the center wherever it goes. If you can't do it by yourself then search for a perfected teacher, but do not make any mistake, you see.

When you go shopping you have free choice about what to buy and you have this same freedom in selecting a teacher. In the supermarket you choose, "I don't want this, I don't want that, this is not good, that is not good." You have freedom of choice, no bargain can be struck. Your human life and enlightenment is on one hand, and wasting your life with someone incompetent to liberate you is on the other.

Someone came to see me saying, "I have gone to many teachers without finding enlightenment, and finally I found that my current master himself is not enlightened. He has initiated me and now he is filling me with all kinds of fear. He says that if you leave the teacher you will have to go to hell. I met someone who told me to come here. I am here to be enlightened. My guru is very loving, he is not withholding anything from me; he teaches me with great love. He has taught me all the scriptures so that I know them by heart, but I am missing freedom. I have found that my mind is not free, it is not quiet. But now I know that I am on the right track and in some way I am here to help my teacher. After enlightenment I will go and enlighten my teacher." I have never heard a student resolving to enlighten his teacher before!

If you are bent upon freedom - determined to win freedom in this span of life, this year, this month, today, now - you will have to make a choice. Anything will surface from the mind to sabotage you. Find the best ways to quiet the mind. The instant that the mind is stilled there is meditation. Meditation has to be perennial, permanent, not just sitting for an hour a day. It does not mean chanting the thought, "I have to be free." It means being centered in the Self, which is alone true; all else is false. There must be a very strong understanding in your mind. It is not difficult once you discover the ability to discern what is real from what is unreal. Pleasures of the senses may try to distract you, religions may promise you pleasures in heaven after life, but you will have to abandon all these things. Abandon studying any book; it does not help you. Now you open your own book for the first time. Open your own book and keep quiet.

22 February, 1992

Shun the Company of the Past

The past is stronger than the present in the mind because you cannot see the present. Everybody speaks to you of the past. Do you find anyone among your friends and relations who is speaking of the present? Everyone speaks to you of the past; therefore it has become very strong. You will have to seek out the company of those who speak to you of the present moment, then this will also become much stronger and you will shun the company of the past. To get rid of the past keep company with those who are trying to live in, or who have tasted this moment of present, who are speaking about this present life. Satsang means association with those who live in Truth. Here everyone is speaking everyday of this present moment, of peace and love and happiness.

The enemy is very strong: Mind is your enemy. You have to be very strong and tight fisted with your decision not to be lead away by those friends who trouble you. Shun their company, even if they are related to you.

There was a young princess in India, still in her teens. She had great love of freedom but the royal family would not allow her to meditate. They said that it was not the right way to live in a royal palace; that you have to live as queens live. Her mind was very serene and peaceful, and she had no one to turn to for guidance. In the royal palace there was the king and all his relations, but no one who could be a guide for her or a friend.

She heard of someone whose advice she could seek. She wrote a letter and gave it to a runner to get advice. She wrote in the letter:

"My dear father, I do not know which behavior will be better for me. These people threaten me, saying that I have to live in such-and-such a mold to suit the palace. But this behavior doesn't suit me. I want to meditate. I have to win freedom in this life. But these people threaten me and give me trouble. Please advise me what to do."

The reply came back: "Shun everyone, whosoever they may be, maybe near and dear to you - husband, relations, parents, whosoever. Walk out.” That was all he wrote. Then he quoted different stories of a son disobeying their father, a wife disobeying her husband, to find freedom. He gave many examples. The queen walked away from the palace and is still remembered today.

You will have to decide for your own good. You can't please the world. Who has ever pleased the world? If you have won freedom perhaps everyone will be happy with you. We still remember people who lived a life of freedom, even thousands of years ago. We don't remember our relations. We forget even those who have been dead for ten or twenty years. A person who worked for himself and won enlightenment and gave advice to others is still alive.

You have to make up your mind. Nobody can trouble you if you decide for freedom. You have to make a firm decision then nothing can trouble you. If you are weak everybody will trouble you. If you simply keep quiet I don't think any thought can come. Simply decide to sit quiet. This will be a fire - nothing can touch you. Until now it is only that your decision has been weak.

18 January, 1992

King or Beggar?

You do not need to desire anything; everything belongs to you. Everything you see you can have. It is all yours - everything is yours. Tell me now that which is not yours. The mind is your servant, the ego is your maid servant, the body is your foot mat - what else do you need? You can give commands: "Come on… come on mind, do this". Call to the ego; she is your maid servant, she will do everything that you need. You have to give commands, you have to be king. Don't enslave yourself to the mind, to the ego, to the senses. You have to command them and everything will be done. Otherwise you become a slave.

To be a slave means that, with any desire that you have you become a slave to it. You enslave yourself to anything that you need or desire, to petty things, you become a beggar. You choose: If you are a king, you must behave like king. If you are beggar take a begging bowl and beg. Any desire that arises in your mind makes you a beggar. So who are you now, king or beggar? Sit on your throne.

* * * * * * * *

Enlightenment is to relieve you from the concept of bondage. You say you are bound, then you ask for something that is the opposite of bondage. If you are in prison you need to be free. That means to get out of jail. Everybody is bound, everybody is in the prison of desires, the prison of, "I want this and I want that." They are never fulfilled. Any prisoner that desires something in the jail is not fulfilled. He is bound; he wants to be released. The whole samsara is a prison, the whole universe is a prison because your desires are not fulfilled. One is fulfilled and gives you sorrow. When you ask for another desire it ends in sorrow; and then the third one ends in sorrow. This is the life and this is samsara: No one is happy.

Here or there a rare one demands, "I want to be free of samsara." This is called enlightenment. To be free of sorrows, to be free of death and tensions and unhappiness is called enlightenment. This is a very welcome desire, which arises here and there. A very few - perhaps a finger count in a century - will ask for enlightenment. The world has not much capacity to produce many enlightened people in a century. We have to dig into the past to find some example of an enlightened person. We have to go and hunt it down from centuries ago to find an enlightened man, so it is a very welcome desire: to be enlightened.

To be feeling total in this moment is neither bondage nor enlightenment. This moment has got nothing to do with concept of bondage or even enlightenment. This moment has no name. It is the most precious moment. This moment is out of time, out of mind, out of concept, out of any ideation. This is free. This is your home and you are always in this moment. You went to the past to suffer. Out of suffering you wanted to be free. The thought, "I want to be enlightened." arose from the past. In this moment you have no desire, not even for enlightenment.

16-17 January, 1992

Identify Yourself with That

Identify yourself with cosmic consciousness during meditation. You are That. There is no difference. A notion arose that you are a separate individual with some higher supreme consciousness to arrive at, which is not true.

A wave rises from the ocean and feels she is separate from her source and is therefore not the ocean. But let the wave inquire, "Who I am?" Let her discover the place from where she arose. She will arrive at her source, at the ocean itself. Her notion of being a separate wave instantaneously vanishes. A river discharges into the ocean and becomes one with it.

This understanding arises through inquiry. What is the relationship between a ring and the gold from which it is made? Can you separate the gold from the ring or the ring from the gold? It is impossible. Without the ring you can't see the gold, and without the gold and you can't see the ring. Abandon the name - ring, and the form - round. The ring is name and form only, the substance is gold. When you remove name and form what is left to be separate?

If you feel a separation between the meditator and the one who is meditated upon, discover your true identity and you will see that you were never separate. You have always been consciousness itself. Through consciousness you are meditating, through the consciousness you are establishing your separation, and through consciousness you will establish your unification. These are notions. Remove the notion that you are bound. If this separation - this idea - is removed, you will find that you have always been that which you are now. These notions, ideas and intentions have to be instantaneously withdrawn, and you are here.

This is why we are here under one roof. This is a great occasion that so many blessed people are collected together under one roof seeking enlightenment. You have already spent millions of years - some say 35 million years - waiting to be here today. Before, it was never possible for so many to come together under the one roof, to help each other, to remove our separation and bondage, to declare our freedom.

We are not to return to this samsara - this never ending cycle of birth and death - again. Even samsara is only a concept; not actually true. We speak of it only for convenience, to make you aware of how important it is to win freedom, to be wise, to be enlightened right now. For this reason it is suggested that it has taken a long time. Otherwise in this moment you will see that time and past and future do not exist. You are what you are even now. What problem can remain in this?

13 January, 1992

Look through the Eyes of Love

Q: If someone insults me I feel angry and want to hurt them back.

If you return a slap with love, with a kiss, he will forget his behavior; he will not sting anybody else. You have to live wisely, if you want to enjoy this life, this is a beautiful world that is here for you to enjoy. There are so many beautiful things: there are mountains, there are rivers, there are birds, there are animals. What more do you want? There are clouds, sun, moon and stars. Why don't you open your eyes and enjoy this manifestation, which your own creation? Everybody is related to you.

So how can anger arise? Sometimes it happens while eating, especially if the food is very tasty, that the teeth hurt the tongue. You do not go to the dentist to pull your teeth out because they hurt your tongue; there is nothing wrong with them. The tongue knows, "We are friends, I am enjoying taste and they are munching. If they hurt me I shall not pull them out." Like this, coordinate life with everyone, then you will really know how to live in love.

Once many years ago a planter invited me to visit his coffee plantation. He took me there on a Sunday; it was my day off from work. He said, "We'll go on Saturday night in the jeep. My cook does not sleep in the bungalow which is at the top of the hill. The coffee is grown on the slopes and the area for drying it is at the bottom. When I go there I stay in the bungalow, which is well equipped, and the cook stays down the hill with his family, in the area for drying the coffee. So as soon as I wake up I will go down the hill to get him."

In the morning he drove off before I was up. I awoke to a very beautiful sight. The plantation was all around me, covered in orange trees. The trees were there just for their shade, to protect the coffee plants from the direct sun. He was not interested in selling the oranges so all the fruits that dropped in the fields were ploughed back in as manure. I came out of the bungalow and saw bushes and bushes full of oranges, very big loose jacket mandarin fruits. I felt so happy to see them, so many bushes laden down with oranges touching the ground, so many orange fruits. I saw all these oranges in the morning sun, and I felt such joy.

As this feeling arose, standing in front of a beautiful bush I addressed it and spoke to the bush out loud: "Good morning, Mother, how do you do? You are very lucky, you have so many children." It did not occur to me to hurt her, not even to pluck one of her fruits for myself. It was enough just to see the beauty of the oranges and this woman so proud of her children. I liked her, I loved her, and I kissed that tree itself. I was so very happy! The thought of picking the oranges did not even come into my mind. In that same moment she also spoke to me: "I am very happy with you so I offer you these fruits," and instantly twelve big oranges fell from the tree.

I am not making this up. This really happened as I am describing it. I have seen many things happen like this. We are all one - there is no separation between us, only we do not realize it. The same is true with rocks, with trees, with birds, with rivers: you can speak with all of them, and you will see how you can get love from everything. So I spoke with this tree, and she responded. She said, "I am also happy. I want to give you my oranges, please take them." I took one and again I kissed her. I could understand how she was feeling; I could understand her language.

What was the trick? It was only love. See everything with eyes full of love. If you look at anybody with that love I do not think that they can be angry with you. Sometimes anger may visit you. When the hotel is full, no rooms, no accommodation available, no one will go there. In the same way, if your house is full of love all these other tourists as anger, lust and greed will see that the house is already full and they will not come inside; they will go away and look for some other lodging house. If the doors are open to greed, lust and anger they will enter immediately; they will not wait for the check-in time.

If you love people who will not return love to you?

13 December, 1991

Be So Beautiful That It Finds You

When you are out walking and you become tired you stop, you sit down, you relax. So when you get tired of trying to find solutions to your problems, when you find no solution, sit down. By sit down I mean, don’t try to solve the problem at all - the problem is in the past, it is not now. Don't think about past problems, just leave them alone and sit down. This is the moment of relaxation. You only have to allow this, listen to it, do not do anything. Just listen: Don't go to the past. The past is a problem, the past is mind. When you go to the past all will be problems so don't go to the past. The mind is the past and the past is a graveyard. Don't go to the graveyard. All problems are dead, so return to this moment without trying to solve the problem. Trying has put you in trouble, so don't touch this trying any more.

Simply sit down, keep quiet. Keep quiet for one moment. This is the moment you need, this is the moment of rest. Keep quiet for a moment without going to the past and you will find relaxation. There is no other way - simply do not think of the past. First help yourself - which means to not think - and then if you still need to you can ask me for help.

Just for this moment do not think, but direct your mind to its Source. Bring the mind which is thinking - which is going to the past - to face this present moment, and this will give you eternal rest. Help yourself not to look to past moments and do you find any problems? In this moment, without going to the past, where is the problem? Has it gone away? Then you have helped yourself. This is truly Self help.

You cannot buy this in the market, you cannot acquire it, you cannot purchase it. It is not something to be had. It is something that is already here. Do not try to get things, to achieve things, to attain things which are not already here, because whatever is absent - once you get it - will also be lost. Instead of reaching out after anything which is absent discover that which is already here, which you do not need to try and attain. This will be something fresh, something which is here, which is now. Give up your desire to get something tomorrow, do not allow this desire to stir, to rise up form the ground of mind. Abandon all your desires to get something which you do not already have. No desire is needed for that which you already have here.

Instead of trying to get it offer yourself up so it can get you. Be so beautiful that this will be attracted by your beauty. It will come and get you instead of you getting it. Who are you to get it, anyway? Allow yourself to be taken by it - that's the only way. You must be immaculate, which means to be without desire. Your own nature is immaculate so sooner or later you will know this. When there is no desire there is Beauty, there is Love. You cannot disturb this beauty even by giving rise to a thought to get it. This thought will only be an impurity. Make sure that no desire arises and you will be so immaculately beautiful - so perfectly pure and spotless - that everything will be instantaneously unfolded before you. Then this beauty will hug Beauty itself.

Simply keep quiet. Do not do anything and it will happen. Abandon even the intention to get something in the next moment. Do not even make the distinction between "this moment" and "the next moment". Then something will happen instantaneously.

10 December, 1991

Just to Pluck a Rose Petal

Freedom, Love and Peace will be attained instantly as soon as you abandon vasanas - the impressions of the past that you have stored in your memory. If you abandon vasanas right now you can be free and happy, you can be in peace and love.

You can live well without vasanas, without desires, just as when you take off your hat or your coat you can live well and nothing is lost. Likewise, if you renounce vasanas - if you renounce the tendencies of the past - you will be well and happy. No time is needed, it is as easy as plucking a petal from a rose flower. It doesn't take time. You can attain freedom, light and wisdom now - instantly you can be free. You do not need to toil endlessly. Penance, austerities, even meditations - just abandon them. This notion that, “I am bound.” has to be dropped and instantly you will be free and happy.

I am very happy to see so many seekers of truth here in one place with the desire for freedom. It has never happened at any time before. In the past we can only find isolated cases of those who found freedom. Two thousand years ago Siddhartha became the Buddha. He had to travel from teacher to teacher; he had to go through all kinds of austerities before he could finally just sit under the bodhi tree in Bodhgaya and find silence. We do not have time to do all that. This teaching is so simple that it is not a teaching at all. So simple just to pluck a rose petal, just to give up the notion that you are bound, that you have to search for freedom in caves or mountains or monasteries. Freedom is revealed within yourself.

A crow sat on a coconut tree and the coconut fell. This does not create a relationship between the coconut and the crow. You may attribute freedom to meditation, sadhanas and effort; but when the coconut fell it fell on its own accord, not because the crow sat on the tree. When you get it you may attribute it to some sadhana, to staying with the teacher, to going to the Himalayas for years of contemplation or to long austerities and meditations, but it has nothing to do with these things. It is simply a question of keeping quiet. Keep quiet just for a moment, for this instant of time, and allow it to happen. Don't interfere. Just keep quiet and watch what happens.

This is a very simple way to freedom. You are free. The notion that you are bound has been dumped on your head by your parents, by your priest, by your society. If you get rid of all these instantly you will find that you are what you have always been. If you give up all that you have read, heard, seen, touched or tasted, freeing yourself from all past notions - what will be left? You alone will remain - that which you have always been, what you will always be, and what you are now. The exercise or sadhana or way is not something to be borrowed from the outside. Just keep quiet, keep silent, and you will know freedom from sorrow and suffering. I wish everyone would try this and see.

I Trust You Are All Lions

All ignorance has been started by shepherds. Shepherds are for sheep. I trust that you are lions. Lions are not to be herded; wherever they go they are on their own track. There are no lion herds; there are only sheep herds. You are all lions - so go your own way. Do not walk the beaten path like sheep, one after another. Do not follow any path. Lions do not follow each other like sheep.

Most people are sheep, following shepherds all over the world. Religions are started by shepherds and people become followers like sheep. But wherever you go you are lions, and there are no paths for lions. Wherever a lion walks, that is the path. For a lion no path is the only path. So don't count yourself among sheep needing a shepherd. Your way is no way - it is to know who you are. This is not following like a sheep. This is a novel approach, so far unknown. Once known it is known for good. He who knows this has fulfilled the purpose of the striving of human life. He is happy and peaceful. He enjoys both here and hereafter.

Please don't become sheep. Don't follow anyone. Don't look here and there. Don't look anywhere. Stop looking. Stop all your imagining of the future and conceptualizing of the past. Keep yourself in this moment, which is no moment. Find out where this moment is rising from, where time is rising from, where this thought is rising from, and you will see you have always been at Home. You don't need anything more!

When Fear Comes, Kiss Its Face!

Q: When I'm quiet - just feeling this love - it is so beautiful. Then this feeling of fear comes; as if the love will go away. I don't want that fear to come. I just want to stay in the beauty of the feeling of love.

I can only suggest to you that when the fear comes that is what is happening, so let it come. Hug this fear, don't reject it. Hug it and kiss it. If fear comes when you are happy it is a past habit that has been showing up, a dormant tendency of the mind. All that is dormant will have to rise up now; otherwise these tendencies would have given you much trouble again and again. You would have had to live out those things which were buried deep in the subconscious mind.

Now because the sense of an individual doer is no longer there these tendencies are no longer rising in the present and you don't need to do anything any more. When the concept of the future is discarded and in the present you have no desire; past tendencies are free to rise up. So don't try to bury them now. Before they could wait for another incarnation if they were not fulfilled now, but now they can no longer wait - this is the time for them to leave. So keep quiet and simply watch. They will not trouble you. Do not stop them. Do not say, "I do not want them." Invite them. Tell them, "Come! Please come now; this is the time." Do not resist any more. Allow whatever may arise to arise on its own. Be prepared. Do not stop them, do not run away, let them arise.

Previously you were always busy with day to day desires, with future hopes and expectations. You were so engaged so these dormant tendencies were waiting, saying to themselves, "We will be fulfilled next time." Now the time is here because there is no more expectation, no more hope, no more desire. This is the time for the dormant tendencies buried in the unconscious mind to appear and to leave this place. So do not resist. Let them arise, okay? Good.

6 December, 1991

Existence Takes Care

Existence Takes Care

I will tell you the secret of sitting meditation, standing meditation, walking meditation, sleeping meditation, dreaming meditation, and active meditation in the battle field as a soldier. Let me speak from my own experience, as I never speak from what I have heard or read. It is better first to experience and then to speak.

In 1953 I was loading a ship in Mangalore at a time when I was dealing in manganese ore. I stayed there the whole day for the loading, and once the hatches were closed I got a bank draft from the captain to certify that the ship had been loaded with 10,000 tons of manganese ore for Rotterdam. I wanted to cash the draft immediately at the bank in Bangalore, which was about 500 miles away. It was already about 9 p.m., and I had to reach the bank by morning. I was exhausted as I had been working offshore for the whole day from early in the morning until late in the night. I was not near the wharf where I could easily get out of the ship and it was very hot. I decided that I should rest before beginning my journey and then start early in the morning. But then I realized that the banks would be closed, and it would be better to cross the mountain pass and have a coffee and a nap on the other side, and then go to Bangalore. The road over the hill climbed from the town at sea level up to five thousand feet making eleven hairpin bends.

I don't know what happened. I could not stop on the mountain road because there were wild elephants which had lifted cars up in the air and thrown them in the valley, one mile below. It was better to keep going and then to rest.

When I arrived on the other side of the hill my head was resting on the steering wheel. I woke up from a deep sleep feeling very fresh, no longer even needing a cup of coffee. I continued the journey to Bangalore having had a complete sound, deep sleep. My head was resting on the steering wheel. I was feeling so fresh that I no longer needed a rest or a coffee, as though I had slept for eight hours. Who drove the car? This is a problem I have never been able to solve. Even in the waking state drivers have accidents but I was fast asleep. The road was narrow, no more than fifteen feet. On one side was a high mountain, on the other side was a very steep valley, and I cut eleven hairpin bends. Who drove the car? I have never been able to find the answer to this.

The other incident I want to describe to you happened in Lucknow. I was walking to the GPO from Kaiserbagh, in front of what is now Janpath market. I always kept a very safe distance, walking on the left side of the road, because sometimes I could never get out of meditation at all! I was neither troubling anyone else nor was I troubled by anyone. An old model Ford car came down the street, a 1934 or ‘36 model with footrests hanging on the side. These days cars no longer have footrests. The car hit me so hard that the footrest fell off onto the ground. People gathered around me saying they had noted down the number. The car had sped away leaving only the footrest. They wanted to know if I was hurt and to go to the police. My pants were torn and when I pulled them up, the car had struck me from behind. There was a little bloodstain on the back of the knee but nothing more. I told them I was perfectly alright.

When you are in meditation you do not need to look after yourself. A power will rise which is moving the earth, which is causing the sun to shine, which is giving the moon its brilliance, and which is allowing all these jivas to function as they want to. If you are attuned to that power you will have nothing to do, everything will be beautiful. That power will look after you in a way which you cannot manage. A man operating from his senses gets into many accidents. But I did not fall into the valley, I slept. Who took care of me? This is the greatest mistake, to fall asleep at the steering wheel. One is advised to be well rested before driving. Who cared for me?

That power is there but you are not looking at it. It is so compassionate that it will look after you. You have been denying it and depending on your own ego. Even this ego is getting its power from somewhere else, to become ego, to become mind, to think, to become the senses and to allow you to function. When you turn your face towards it, it will arise to help you; otherwise you cannot save yourself. How long can you be aware and careful?

Meditation means, no meditator and no object of meditation. Then you can do whatever you like. When the meditator is there it is ego. This is not something to be decided intellectually; it has to be directly experienced. There is no end to argument and logic. That has nothing to do with it. This is your own mother, your own supreme power, which is here and now.

If you close your eyes you will see who is responsible. You do not have to travel even a yard out of your own self - you do not have to take one step. You do not need to think or even to meditate. You do not have to do anything, just keep quiet as you are and you have got it. If you try to search you have lost it. There is nothing to search for - it is that through which the search is taking place. It is that which is found after searching has ceased.

If you know this it is enough. If you don't you will never find rest in millions of years. You have already passed through 8.4 million species. If you are fatigued then you will see this. If you want to hitchhike some more the goal will not be attained; you can continue as you like and it will never end. If you want to end everything is ended now. If you want to continue it will continue. As you think so you become - this is a formula. You think, "I am in trouble" and you are in trouble. You think, "I am free," and you are free. If you are attached to any object you are in trouble, you are in suffering, there is manifestation. If you want to end this it is seized immediately in the recognition, "I am free." That is all there is to it. What time do you need?

5-6 December, 1991