Today's Considerations
Nowadays, there are persons who travel to Mumbai and pay an
entrance fee to visit the loft and “commune with Maharaj.” They have far too
many beliefs which trap them in their warped perspectives to understand that their actions are totally contrary to what was taught by the one they
have paid a fee to “commune with.”
Many believe that the loft is “another of the many places on
earth that are holy” or that “the loft is now, as it was back then, a spiritual
center” or that “the loft is one of those holy places to which all non-dual
seekers should make a pilgrimage to at least once during their lives.”
Maharaj: “All desires, ‘holy’ and ‘unholy,’ come from the
self.”
It is only a false self who would make statements about “holy
places” and who would do what some other "Maharaj fans" do nowadays, namely,
visit the room where a handful of his ashes – collected after his funeral pyre cooled
down – are enshrined. There, those also trapped in a false self identity (1) visit a handful of earth elements and (2) bow to those ashes and
chant and clap in the presence of those ashes.
As for Maharaj’s take on guru-bhakti, yes, he did begin with that,
but he later abandoned it. While he adhered to the direct orders given by his guru
early on, he stopped following most of those instructions later on. In a single
pointer, he dispelled as well as the notion that THAT should be worshipped or
focused on either:
Maharaj: “The sadguru, the eternal guru, is . . . the road itself.
Once you realise that the road is the goal (and that you are always on the road
not to reach a goal but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom), life ceases to be a
task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”
[Yes, "life ceases to be a task," and that is why the invitation here includes a different perspective: "Stop with all the religious work and spiritual exercises and seeking. Stop making a second job out what should be mere living."]
[Yes, "life ceases to be a task," and that is why the invitation here includes a different perspective: "Stop with all the religious work and spiritual exercises and seeking. Stop making a second job out what should be mere living."]
[See? Maharaj's eventual message tried to re-focus seekers on what can
change NOW during the relative and tried to re-focus their attention away from anything post-manifestation
since there will be no WHO to be aware of anything after taking mahasamadhi.]
He said: “Running after saints is merely another game to
play.” To one attracted to visiting "holy men," Maharaj asked: “How
will you know who is great and holy? By hearsay?”
It’s all nonsense, persons crying and emoting in a loft or
in a room with ashes, and Maharaj would have been the first to say so if he were to have
the opportunity nowadays. Yet nonsense remains and continues to generate emotional intoxication
(which again was the opposite of what Maharaj’s was offering):
Maharaj: “Emotional reactions, born of ignorance or
inadvertence, are never justified.” Rather than seeking out the four walls
where Maharaj sat or where some of his ashes are on display, consider a
relevant recommendation he offered at one point: “Break down the wall of ignorance
first.”
Later on, he modeled shifting away from a guru’s orders and
basing what one shares in one’s own “experience,” so the message (or
"approach" or "focus") changed as Maharaj eventually
(a) "evolved" beyond what seemed to be an
absorption in guru-bhakti, god-bhakti, and jnana yoga;
(b) shared fewer
pointers which were merely "Siddharameshwar, Part Deux" and which
became more of a "Pure Maharaj" message;
(c) behaved in ways that were based more in "the
experiences" of Maharaj than in the guidelines and "commands"
issued by Siddharameshwar; and
(d) "evolved" into "Maharaj the Giver of a
Psychological / Nisargan Message."
Those are more of the perspectives here that differ from the
perspectives held by the masses. So, in the book below entitled “A Different
Perspective,” some of the different perspectives offered in the loft there and in the electronic loft here are shared, including those in the following passages from that book:
There is no such thing as peace of mind; there is only peace
if you are out of your mind. Why? Because the "mind" is a storehouse
of fiction, myths, superstitions, false concepts, bogus beliefs, erroneous
ideas, etc. How could such content not cause problems when it subconsciously
controls people and their thoughts and their words and their actions?
Charlatans and religious leaders and spiritualists and pseudo-Advaitins and those "on the circuit" whom Maharaj referred to as "the Big Name Teachers" are all accumulating fortunes as they promote and peddle the various plans which they claim will provide "peace of mind." They may as well be claiming that have "Perpetual Motion Machines" for sale because "Perpetual Motion Machines" and "peace of mind" are both illusions. There is only peace if mind-less.
The typical "mindset" of many seekers (as well as the "mindset" of many of those claiming to be "knowers" or “jnanis”) can be illustrated via the words and actions of one man who has assumed the role of "The Super Seeker" . . . along with many other roles. He came here for a retreat, flying into the city after spending a week in Central America where he paid a man $1,000.00 a day for five days to "teach him to breathe." It was asked,
F.: "You just paid a man $5,000.00 to teach you to breathe?"
Visitor: "Yes."
F.: [Laughing, joking, but in a way that proved to be totally unacceptable to the visitor]: "Who are the others you have paid, the others who took your money to teach you to eat, to swallow, to digest? Did you pay someone as a child to teach you to suckle, or did you simply suckle?"
V.: "Don't get smart. Of course I knew how to breathe before I went, but I did not know the right way to breathe in order to shift into a peaceful state."
F.: "There was no attempt to 'get smart.' There was a question that arose spontaneously - rooted in the Nisargan understanding - intended to assist you in seeing that nothing which is natural need be taught or learned. Only that which is unnatural or supposedly supernatural is taught or learned. What is required for abiding naturally you already have."
V.: "Regardless of your opinion, his method worked. I have never been so at peace in my sixty-plus years." [That was said in a way which showed that it was anger - not peace - that was beginning to boil to the surface.]
F.: "Then it must be asked, 'Why are you here?'"
V.: [Raising into the air, reverently, his copy of I AM THAT - which he said he now carries with him everywhere he goes - he said]: "I was very impressed with the spiritual message in this book, but I have been living according to the teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for decades and am trying to reconcile the two . . . maybe find what both have in common and expand my consciousness to an even higher level."
[At that point, he was asked if he would be willing to hear some different perspectives and if he would be willing to consider those objectively. When he said "Certainly," the following was offered . . . with no conviction at all that he was actually and "certainly" ready to consider objectively any pointers that ran contrary to his firmly-fixed, supernatural / spiritual beliefs]:
F.: "First, to that book you're carrying about as if it were your bible or some other type of holy test: how would you feel if you learned that Maharaj eventually discounted the value of that book and its contents and even stated on occasion that his preference would have been that it was his later talks - not the earliest ones in that book - which were being circulated widely?"
V.: "I would not believe that."
F.: "Maharaj said, 'That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period.' He also said, 'I am speaking differently today' and he said, 'I am emphasizing different aspects'."
V.: [The only reaction was a blank stare, not unlike a deer caught at night in the middle of a road in the headlights of an oncoming car.]
F.: "As for 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama,' you evidently hold in high regard his wisdom and his talent for passing along his wisdom to you and to others?"
V.: "Yes."
F.: "Yet he does not even have the wisdom to understand why hurricanes form where they form and go where they go. He claimed that Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans because of 'the negative karma of the people there.' Do you really believe that it is evidence of wisdom if someone erroneously assigns a supernatural cause to what is merely a natural event? Or would the actual wisdom be shown by those who explain, scientifically and factually, exactly why Hurricane Katrina formed where it formed, why it followed the path it followed, and why landfall occurred where it occurred? At the end of his teaching career, Maharaj would teach that 'holy' and 'unholy' are just false and dualistic concepts, so he would give no credibility to such a title as 'His Holiness'."
V.: "I have put up with a lot of your comments, but I'm not going to sit here and listen you to defame His Holiness."
[With that, he picked up his copy of I AM THAT and stormed out in anger. No, there was no suggestion that he come back, sit down, and make use of newly-purchased breathing techniques to restore his peace.]
The exchange is offered to illustrate the presence of all of the perspectives and beliefs that the Nisargan understanding will eradicate. The man was exhibiting the typical behaviors that come with the assumption of "new and improved roles" to replace one's former "bad" roles.
Now, he is "The Consummate Seeker," "The Super Spiritual One," but also "The Very Restless One" who is engaged in the search for the sake of the search. To the contrary, the result of Realization, combined with the Nisargan (natural) understanding, is this:
At some point, all of the searching can end, all of the playing of "this super role" or "that super role" can end, and natural abidance can happen simply and spontaneously. [Again, Maharaj said: “The sadguru, the eternal guru, is the road itself. Once you realise that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”]
The visitor showed the miserable, costly, peace-interrupting alternative: rather than resting in a state of concept-less-ness, the visitor was so attached to his concepts that he became ready to fight when invited to consider being free of his concepts and the distortions that they were supporting;
and rather than enjoying a state of duality-less-ness, he is sure that some persons are holy, that some persons are more holy, and that some persons are unholy;
and rather than abiding in a peaceful state of belief-less-ness, he was being driven to roam the globe in search of externals and persons who would pile more beliefs onto his pile of already-accumulated beliefs rather than allowing a guide to direct him to that which is already within;
and rather than abiding in a state of mind-less-ness, he was constantly filling his mind with more and more of the concepts and ideas (beliefs) that had already proved to be useless, though his clogged "mind" and blocked consciousness would not allow him to see their uselessness;
and rather than functioning in a Nisargan (natural) manner and abiding in the peace of a state of identity-less-ness, he was spending a fortune in a globe-trotting effort to reinforce his currently-assumed ego-states and to acquire even more.
His case is not rare; in fact, his case is often witnessed. Most reach the third step (of the seven-step "journey" which is shared here) and then fixate at that third step which is the step where religious and / or spiritual roles are played. In the end, Maharaj offered a rarer perspective: “Give up all your spiritual work and just be.”
That requires either seeing “what you are not” or requires completing the four steps beyond the first three. That requires being free of the partial understanding that paralyzes the masses who are trapped by their beliefs and dogma at the third of seven steps where they practice what Maharaj called "their kindergarten level spirituality" and where they “stand in the dim light of the dawn while thinking that they are being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun.”
Charlatans and religious leaders and spiritualists and pseudo-Advaitins and those "on the circuit" whom Maharaj referred to as "the Big Name Teachers" are all accumulating fortunes as they promote and peddle the various plans which they claim will provide "peace of mind." They may as well be claiming that have "Perpetual Motion Machines" for sale because "Perpetual Motion Machines" and "peace of mind" are both illusions. There is only peace if mind-less.
The typical "mindset" of many seekers (as well as the "mindset" of many of those claiming to be "knowers" or “jnanis”) can be illustrated via the words and actions of one man who has assumed the role of "The Super Seeker" . . . along with many other roles. He came here for a retreat, flying into the city after spending a week in Central America where he paid a man $1,000.00 a day for five days to "teach him to breathe." It was asked,
F.: "You just paid a man $5,000.00 to teach you to breathe?"
Visitor: "Yes."
F.: [Laughing, joking, but in a way that proved to be totally unacceptable to the visitor]: "Who are the others you have paid, the others who took your money to teach you to eat, to swallow, to digest? Did you pay someone as a child to teach you to suckle, or did you simply suckle?"
V.: "Don't get smart. Of course I knew how to breathe before I went, but I did not know the right way to breathe in order to shift into a peaceful state."
F.: "There was no attempt to 'get smart.' There was a question that arose spontaneously - rooted in the Nisargan understanding - intended to assist you in seeing that nothing which is natural need be taught or learned. Only that which is unnatural or supposedly supernatural is taught or learned. What is required for abiding naturally you already have."
V.: "Regardless of your opinion, his method worked. I have never been so at peace in my sixty-plus years." [That was said in a way which showed that it was anger - not peace - that was beginning to boil to the surface.]
F.: "Then it must be asked, 'Why are you here?'"
V.: [Raising into the air, reverently, his copy of I AM THAT - which he said he now carries with him everywhere he goes - he said]: "I was very impressed with the spiritual message in this book, but I have been living according to the teaching of His Holiness the Dalai Lama for decades and am trying to reconcile the two . . . maybe find what both have in common and expand my consciousness to an even higher level."
[At that point, he was asked if he would be willing to hear some different perspectives and if he would be willing to consider those objectively. When he said "Certainly," the following was offered . . . with no conviction at all that he was actually and "certainly" ready to consider objectively any pointers that ran contrary to his firmly-fixed, supernatural / spiritual beliefs]:
F.: "First, to that book you're carrying about as if it were your bible or some other type of holy test: how would you feel if you learned that Maharaj eventually discounted the value of that book and its contents and even stated on occasion that his preference would have been that it was his later talks - not the earliest ones in that book - which were being circulated widely?"
V.: "I would not believe that."
F.: "Maharaj said, 'That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period.' He also said, 'I am speaking differently today' and he said, 'I am emphasizing different aspects'."
V.: [The only reaction was a blank stare, not unlike a deer caught at night in the middle of a road in the headlights of an oncoming car.]
F.: "As for 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama,' you evidently hold in high regard his wisdom and his talent for passing along his wisdom to you and to others?"
V.: "Yes."
F.: "Yet he does not even have the wisdom to understand why hurricanes form where they form and go where they go. He claimed that Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans because of 'the negative karma of the people there.' Do you really believe that it is evidence of wisdom if someone erroneously assigns a supernatural cause to what is merely a natural event? Or would the actual wisdom be shown by those who explain, scientifically and factually, exactly why Hurricane Katrina formed where it formed, why it followed the path it followed, and why landfall occurred where it occurred? At the end of his teaching career, Maharaj would teach that 'holy' and 'unholy' are just false and dualistic concepts, so he would give no credibility to such a title as 'His Holiness'."
V.: "I have put up with a lot of your comments, but I'm not going to sit here and listen you to defame His Holiness."
[With that, he picked up his copy of I AM THAT and stormed out in anger. No, there was no suggestion that he come back, sit down, and make use of newly-purchased breathing techniques to restore his peace.]
The exchange is offered to illustrate the presence of all of the perspectives and beliefs that the Nisargan understanding will eradicate. The man was exhibiting the typical behaviors that come with the assumption of "new and improved roles" to replace one's former "bad" roles.
Now, he is "The Consummate Seeker," "The Super Spiritual One," but also "The Very Restless One" who is engaged in the search for the sake of the search. To the contrary, the result of Realization, combined with the Nisargan (natural) understanding, is this:
At some point, all of the searching can end, all of the playing of "this super role" or "that super role" can end, and natural abidance can happen simply and spontaneously. [Again, Maharaj said: “The sadguru, the eternal guru, is the road itself. Once you realise that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy.”]
The visitor showed the miserable, costly, peace-interrupting alternative: rather than resting in a state of concept-less-ness, the visitor was so attached to his concepts that he became ready to fight when invited to consider being free of his concepts and the distortions that they were supporting;
and rather than enjoying a state of duality-less-ness, he is sure that some persons are holy, that some persons are more holy, and that some persons are unholy;
and rather than abiding in a peaceful state of belief-less-ness, he was being driven to roam the globe in search of externals and persons who would pile more beliefs onto his pile of already-accumulated beliefs rather than allowing a guide to direct him to that which is already within;
and rather than abiding in a state of mind-less-ness, he was constantly filling his mind with more and more of the concepts and ideas (beliefs) that had already proved to be useless, though his clogged "mind" and blocked consciousness would not allow him to see their uselessness;
and rather than functioning in a Nisargan (natural) manner and abiding in the peace of a state of identity-less-ness, he was spending a fortune in a globe-trotting effort to reinforce his currently-assumed ego-states and to acquire even more.
His case is not rare; in fact, his case is often witnessed. Most reach the third step (of the seven-step "journey" which is shared here) and then fixate at that third step which is the step where religious and / or spiritual roles are played. In the end, Maharaj offered a rarer perspective: “Give up all your spiritual work and just be.”
That requires either seeing “what you are not” or requires completing the four steps beyond the first three. That requires being free of the partial understanding that paralyzes the masses who are trapped by their beliefs and dogma at the third of seven steps where they practice what Maharaj called "their kindergarten level spirituality" and where they “stand in the dim light of the dawn while thinking that they are being bathed in the full light of the noonday sun.”
Eventually, the following perspective - which differs from
that held by some other non-duality seekers or teachers - can result: If the non-dual understanding comes in tandem with the Nisargan understanding, then
no notions about "more-ness" will come at all; instead, all that does come will involve "less-ness," including:
concept-less-ness,
duality-less-ness,
belief-less-ness,
mind-less-ness, and
identity-less-ness.
concept-less-ness,
duality-less-ness,
belief-less-ness,
mind-less-ness, and
identity-less-ness.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
[NOTE:
The four most recent posts follow. You may access all of the posts in
this series and in the previous series and several thousand other posts
as well by clicking on the links in the "Recent Posts and Archives" section.]
