Today's Considerations
24. Yesterday, this was offered:
In so many ways, Maharaj turned the popular message of Hinduism on its head, and in so many ways he also turned the popular message of non-duality on its head. (A host of criticisms of Maharaj by those playing the roles of "The Super Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant" are catalogued in the eBook below which discusses Maharaj's Evolution.)
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among the Hindus who had once been visiting him but who ended their visits after he stopped offering a Hindu / non-dual message.
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among those playing the role of "A Spiritual Giant" after he began advising seekers to "give up spirituality and just abide naturally."
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among those who were totally convinced in the validity of the concept of reincarnation (and who were seeking, via a series of births and rebirths, to rise from one higher level after another) when he told them, "You were not born once, so how could you be born again?" and "There is no question of elevating to a higher level - here it is only a question of understanding."
In so many ways, Maharaj turned the popular message of Hinduism on its head, and in so many ways he also turned the popular message of non-duality on its head. (A host of criticisms of Maharaj by those playing the roles of "The Super Religious One" or "The Spiritual Giant" are catalogued in the eBook below which discusses Maharaj's Evolution.)
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among the Hindus who had once been visiting him but who ended their visits after he stopped offering a Hindu / non-dual message.
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among those playing the role of "A Spiritual Giant" after he began advising seekers to "give up spirituality and just abide naturally."
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among those who were totally convinced in the validity of the concept of reincarnation (and who were seeking, via a series of births and rebirths, to rise from one higher level after another) when he told them, "You were not born once, so how could you be born again?" and "There is no question of elevating to a higher level - here it is only a question of understanding."
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among those who, like "richard," were totally convinced that they were going to gain something from all of their meditation practices when he told them, "There is no going into and coming out of samadhi."
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among those who were totally subsumed with dogma and with having great, unshakable faith and with worshiping a God or gods and goddesses when he told them that "You have invented God" and "I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas."
Consider how unpopular Maharaj became among those who were carrying their copies of I AM THAT around as if the book were their Bible or as if it were a holy text and who were having book studies in their homes and using I AM THAT as their source when he told them to "Stop reading the book I AM THAT and listen to my later talks" [when he encouraged them to abandon all of their spiritual work and spiritual exercises and to abide naturally].
Maharaj turned down one offer after another from those willing to provide the funds to build a large ashram "in his honor" which could accommodate a large volume of visitors. He never had a large volume of visitors and he never wanted a large volume of visitors. He had a relatively small number of visitors who had tried it all and who had believed it all and who at some point had bought into it all, only to find that the results of all of their efforts and beliefs were nil.
Then consider how unpopular the message is here when visitors to this site hear an invitation to abide naturally rather than spend an entire relative existence focusing on "later things to come" or on "A Supreme Self" or "An Infinite Self," or "A True Self" or studying supposedly "holy" texts or seeking so-called "religious or spiritual experiences" rather than focusing on the "here" and the "now."
Again, the number of visitors here each day is relatively small when compared to the thousands that are filling up retreats and seminars and auditoriums where the Big Name Teachers are attracting huge crowds, in spite of the fact that Maharaj warned seekers to stay the heck away from those types who offer a crowd-pleasing popular message in order to sell millions of dollars worth of tickets and books.
[Remember in the March 25th post in this series (labeled "Part 'C'") that Maharaj asked "richard": "Do you think I am some wallah (seller) of false knowledge about a false self sold by those who want money and prestige from the ignorant?"]
Contrast the thousands who were showing up in ashrams all around Bombay in the 70's and 80's (to hear the standard religious and spiritual pitch being offered) with the small number of seekers visiting the loft each day to hear a message which was quite different from "the standard ones."
And contrast the thousands showing up in auditoriums nowadays with the 385 visitors that were welcomed to this site yesterday. Then see that the standard religious and / or spiritual pitch is preferred by the masses while only a handful of seekers are willing to take into consideration some pointers which do not reinforce the beliefs that have been handed down to them.
Only a few will ever become willing to consider any opposing views to (1) the ones which they were taught when a child, to (2) the ones which they accepted unquestioningly as a child, and to (3) the ones which they still cling to in adulthood as if they were still a child. Only a few will ever attain the courage to begin to question it all. Most will only seek out venues where they can find those who will reinforce their false beliefs, never venues in which they might be invited to question their previously-unquestioned beliefs (which are really not their own beliefs at all but are the beliefs of "others").
As noted yesterday, so many are attached to things deemed to be lofty and spiritual and heavenly and so many are attached to things that inspire mental and emotional and spiritual intoxication that they do not want to hear that "they" are nothing more than a three-part composite unity and that after mahasamadhi is taken that the elements will return to the universal pool of elements, that the conscious-energy will return to the universal pool of conscious-energy, and that the air will return to the universal pool of air and that that's the end which awaits every temporarily-manifested composite unity, period. End of story. They did not want to even consider the possibility that there is no continuing, eternal life for any individual after this existence and that if they want to enjoy anything, they better enjoy it now.
So many persons want "benefits" both now and later because every assigned or assumed personality has its own basic fear and its own basic desire. By accepting up to eighty false identities as real (a typical number among most adults), persons will be subjected all day every day to the mental chatter of a thousand monkeys screeching away between their ears as one-hundred-and-sixty subconscious fears and desires circulate continuously through "the mind part" of their brains.
How could freedom possibly manifest with all of that mental and emotional chaos going on between the ears? How could peace possibly manifest with all of that mental and emotional chaos going on between the ears? How could clear seeing and an ability to differentiate between true and false possibly manifest with all of that mental and emotional chaos going on between the ears?
How could freedom from learned ignorance possibly manifest with all of that mental and emotional chaos going on between the ears? How could freedom from personality disorders possibly manifest with all of that mental and emotional chaos going on between the ears? And how could sanity possibly manifest with all of that mental and emotional chaos going on between the ears?
None of that is possible under the mental and emotional conditions which typify the relative condition of the masses because all of that is the exact opposite of the way things were when abidance was happening as "Your Original Nature" as opposed to the very unnatural ways (and / or the supposedly "supernatural" ways) in which non-Realized persons are presently abiding.
So how can freedom and peace and sanity begin to manifest? By beginning to move beyond the unconscious acceptance of all false identifications as real identities and by beginning to abide once more as one happened to abide during the Child No-Knowing Stage - which is quite similar to the manner in which You were abiding as "Your Original (Natural) Nature."
To be continued.
Please enter the silence of contemplation.
