TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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Next, quotations from Maharaj will be offered, excerpted from the book QUOTATIONS AND POINTERS dealing with NON-DUALITY, ADVAITA, NISARGA YOGA and more:
The quotations and pointers from Maharaj which will be offered during the next few days will be arranged by category and subject matter. The quotes offered today will deal with his take on the body and the mind. [For more, you may use the search feature at the top of this page.]
MAHARAJ ON "THE BODY"
"Subsequent to that 'I Am' and body-mind [that is, following the manifestation of the consciousness and the assumption of false identifications] there occurs what you call 'spiritual seeking' or 'spiritual knowledge'. This is nonsense."
"Looking outside for light and sound, all disciples undergo some spiritual experience and that itself is bondage. They compare their experiences with others. Those disciples think they are very advanced. They are attracted to the experiences of sound and light, etc., because they identify themselves with the body. They want a shape and design; therefore, they revel in experiences which indicate shape and design."
"I appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens, as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my 'world,' nothing ever goes wrong."
" . . . Remain unaffected. This complete aloofness, unconcern with mind and body, is the best proof that - at the core of your being - you are neither mind nor body."
“From the Absolute no-knowing state, spontaneously, this consciousness ‘I am’ has appeared—there is no reason, no cause.”
"Prior to taking this form, you were formless; spontaneously the form came, and when the form came there was a natural longing to return to the formless state. When you want to return to the formless, desireless state, then only you come here, [to the loft] to seek what you are. The consciousness has to know the consciousness. When it realizes itself, then only do you return to normal."
"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."
"Understand that it is not the individual which has consciousness; it is the consciousness which assumes innumerable forms."
“In order to manifest itself, the consciousness needs a frame, a particular construct in which it can appear.”
“Consciousness is present everywhere, but knowledge of that consciousness is dependent on the form.”
“Every organic being, whether an insect or a human, depends on food. All these flowers, this foliage, is our antecedent state.”
[Emphasizing that you are not the body]: “When you travel in a car, are you the car?”
“ . . . You are the light.”
“From birth, what has made the body grow? It is no power in the world. It is the power of beingness, the atom, the Self, the consciousness . . . call it what you will.”
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved" and “If they come face-to-face with that root, they will be stunned into silence.” [Thus those who talk and talk and talk have not realized that root.]
" . . . By clinging to the body, you hand yourself over to time and death - you are imposing it on yourself."
"Don’t you see that all your problems are your body’s problems - food, clothing, shelter, family, friends, name, fame, security, survival; all these lose their meaning the moment you realise that you may not be a mere body."
"I cramped myself into a small thing, a body; I made myself a fragment and became needful. I need so many things as a body."
"Consciousness opens the gate for you to transcend consciousness. There are two aspects; one is conceptual, dynamic consciousness which is full of concepts, and the other is transcendent consciousness. Even the concept 'I Am' is not there. Conceptual, qualitative Brahman, the one that is full of concepts and is qualitative, is the outcome of the functioning body."
"It is selfishness, due to a self-identification with the body, that is the main problem and the cause of all other problems."
"Consciousness has identified with a form. Later, it understands that it is not that form and goes further. In a few cases it may reach the space, and very often, there it stops. In a very few cases, it reaches its real source, beyond all conditioning."
"It is difficult to give up that inclination of identifying the body as the self. I am not talking to an individual, I am talking to the consciousness."
"I have told you many times what your true state is, but, through force of habit, you again descend into body identification. A stage has now arrived at which you must give up this bodily identification. The bodily activities will continue until the body drops off, but you should not identify with them."
"It is not identification as a person, as you think. The body is an aid for the manifestation of consciousness, for experiencing. So long as this consciousness exists, it needs an instrument; without the body, consciousness cannot exist in that form. What is lost is the feeling of being a separate entity. A jñani is like an unborn child: the consciousness is the child when it is born, and the child is sick. This material, objective body is sick. The jñani cannot be sick."
"Having stabilized in the consciousness, the next step is to be in a position to observe the consciousness, and all the play that is happening in the consciousness, just to understand. Attachment to the body and to the consciousness is very strong; to get rid of it is very difficult."
"You did not know your own existence after you were born. Nine months in the womb and for sometime afterwards that 'I am so and so' is absent. When you start recognizing your mother, then you also come to be aware of your own existence. That 'I Amness' comes sometime later. Mother teaches you, in ignorance, that you are the body and you begin to believe that. Your mind also starts slowly to develop. So right from the beginning, because of ignorance, the Absolute does not know itself; and because of the body, it started knowing that it is - 'I AM'. Because of the ignorance, you had to ask somebody, 'Who am I?'; otherwise, you would not have asked anybody. Even so-called incarnations such as Rama were like this, they had to be taught. The incarnations are just like you. The bondage with the body came because of wrong teaching, and then the guru came and told you that you are not the body, and then you were liberated. That is why all these births are taking place. If you knew of the bondage, you would refuse the birth. But because the 'I Amness' is absent, you are trapped. Because the 'I Amness' is a quality of the body, later on you come to know you are and that you are trapped. But once You know, you are liberated."
"You can watch the body, so you are not the body. You can watch the breath, so you are not the vital breath. In the same way, you are not the consciousness; but you have to become one with the consciousness. As you stabilize in the consciousness, dispassion for the body and for the expressions through the body occur spontaneously. It is a natural renunciation, not a deliberate one. It does not mean that you should neglect your worldly duties; carry these out with full zest."
"Before you were 'born', could you have felt or sensed or known that you exist? A jñani is free because he sees that the body is made up of five elements and it works according to the nature of these elements. I see that body, but I am not concerned with whatever that body does. There is nothing in it with which I identify. The sense of the combination of the five elements is the sense of being, of existing. It has all come simultaneously. I have no part in it. Feeling that I am present depends on having a body. I am neither the body nor the conscious presence. In this body is the subtle principle 'I Am'; that principle witnesses all this. You are not the words. Words are the expression of space; they are not yours. Still further, You are not that 'I Am'."
MAHARAJ ON "THE MIND"
"Suppose you do not like mathematics. That subject will not appeal to you; it is a stranger to your concepts. You will be involved with only those subjects or matters which you like. Analyze your thoughts and see if this is not true. Find out the nature of your thoughts. I abide in the state where there is no mind."
"Out of my existence as the Noumenon has come this state of the phenomenal. The homogenous understands the play of the attributes, the projection of the mind, but the play, the projection of the mind, cannot understand the homogeneous."
"The thoughts and actions belong to the body-mind and the body-mind is the essence of the five elements. The nature of the form depends on the various degrees of the five elements and the three gunas."
“Before this knowledge ‘I Am’ appeared on you, you were absolutely unattached. As soon as the knowledge dawned on you, you became attached to everything around you. Only that false ‘I’ is attached. Everything is just happening, and the false ‘I’ is taking the credit for doing things.”
"The world is nothing but the picture of your own 'I' consciousness."
“That mind-language will talk only about the impressions it has collected. The knowledge ‘I Am’ is not a thought but observes the thoughts.”
“You are already in your true state. Because of the mind, duality comes in and therefore you are afraid.”
“People who depend on the intellect only always will be swinging like a pendulum.”
[Explaining why persons seem to grasp the understanding and then seemingly “lose” it]: “You are so used to the support of concepts that when your concepts leave you, although it is Your true state, you get frightened and try to cling to them again.”
"The thoughts and deeds depend on the conditioning received right from the time the consciousness is there."
"Humanity's problem lies in this misuse of the mind . . . ."
"You may die a hundred deaths without a break in the mental turmoil. Or you may keep your body and die only in the mind. The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom."
"In reality nothing happens. Onto the screen of the mind destiny forever projects its pictures - memories of former projections; thus, illusion constantly renews itself. The pictures come and go - light intercepted by ignorance. See the light and disregard the picture."
Questioner: "Imagine you are ill - high fever, aches, shivers. The doctor tells you the condition is serious . . . there are only a few days to live. What would be your first reaction?"
Maharaj: "No reaction. As it is natural for the incense stick to burn out, so it is natural for the body to 'die'. Really, it is a matter of very little importance. What matters is that I am neither the body nor the mind. I am."
Again, "I appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens, as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my 'world,' nothing ever goes wrong."
Questioner: "If my Real Self is peace and love, why is it so restless?"
Maharaj: "It is not your Real Being[ness] that is restless, but its reflection in the mind appears restless because the mind is restless. It is just like the reflection of the moon in the water stirred by the wind. The wind of desire stirs the mind and the 'me', which is but a reflection of the Self in the mind, appears changeful. But these ideas of movement, of restlessness, of pleasure and pain are all in the mind. The Self stands beyond the mind, aware . . . but unconcerned."
Q.: "How to reach it?"
M.: "You are the Self, [that is, the Pure Witnessing] here and now. Leave the mind alone. Stand aware and unconcerned and you will realise that - to stand alert but detached, watching events come and go - is an aspect of your real nature."
Again, " . . . Remain unaffected. This complete aloofness, unconcern with mind and body, is the best proof that - at the core of Your being - You are neither mind nor body."
"Any image you have of yourself is not true. True knowledge is to abide in your own Self. Try to understand all this knowledge which you are now gathering. The so-called knowledge you get elsewhere talks only about ignorance; it cannot talk about true knowledge. All of what is pursued by the mind, it is not true knowledge. True knowledge cannot be understood easily. If I had the experience 'I Am" before, would I care to enter the womb of my mother? Prior to entering the womb I did not know myself. There was no knowledge of 'I Amness'. "
"What I appear to be to you exists only in your mind. I am not concerned."
"All of what is pursued by the mind, it is not true knowledge."
"What you are doing is using your mind and intellect, but what I say is not based on the intellect, but rather on whatever comes up spontaneously in consciousness. You try to fix that knowledge which springs spontaneously from consciousness into the structure of concepts you have built out of the mind and intellect. This can never happen."
"All your spiritual studies are conducted with your identification with the body-mind."
"I have no mind."
"Go to zero concepts."
To be continued.
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