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:
THE AMNESS and MAYA and CONSCIOUSNESS
"This 'I Amness' is the very source of all misery."
"The problem is universal - suffering and the ending of suffering. The cause of suffering is dependence and independence is the remedy."
"Life and death do not create problems; pains and pleasures come and go, experienced and forgotten. It is memory and anticipation that create problems of attainment or avoidance, coloured by like and dislike. Truth and Love are man's real nature and . . . the heart is the means of its expression."
"The I-am-ness is the power of maya."
"This touch of 'I Amness' is in each being; this beingness has that touch of love for the Absolute and it is a representation of the Absolute."
"When you got yourself separated from the Absolute with this identity 'I Am', you felt fragmented, isolated, and that is why your demands started. In the Absolute there are no needs."
"Only the Absolute prevails. [With] the touch of beingness, with 'I Am', separation started; 'otherness' has come. But this "I Amness" is not just a small principle; that itself is the mula-maya, the primary illusion."
"What I am expounding is not meant for the common people because they have not reached the stature to understand what I am saying. Therefore I tell them to do bhajans, japa, meditation. After doing that, when the purifying takes place, they will be worthy enough to receive my talks."
"That maya is so powerful that it gets you completely wrapped up in it. Maya means 'I Am', 'I love to be'. It has no identity except Love. That knowledge of 'I Am' is the greatest foe and the greatest friend. Although it might be your greatest enemy, if you propitiate it properly, it will turn around and lead you to the highest state."
"All these activities go on, but they are only entertainment. The waking and deep sleep states come and go spontaneously. Through the sense of 'I', you spontaneously feel like working. But find out if this sense of 'I' is real or unreal, permanent or impermanent."
"The 'I' which appears is unreal. How unreal it is I have proven. The moment the 'I' is proven unreal, who is it who knows that the 'I' is unreal? This knowledge within you that knows the 'I' is unreal, that knowledge which knows change, must itself be changeless, permanent."
"You are an illusion, Maya, an imagination. It is only because I know that I'm unreal that I know you also are unreal. It is not like this: 'Because I am real, you are unreal.' It is like this: 'Because I am unreal, everything is unreal'."
[Understand first that "consciousness" refers to conscious-energy, which
is only one of many forms of energy. It is nothing more and nothing less
than that, and it is no more "special" than any other form of energy. It
can only manifest in a space or form or "instrument," and it can only manifest
temporarily. Just as the form of energy called "lightning" manifests
temporarily and functions the way that it functions automatically and
spontaneously, so too does consciousness manifest temporarily and
functions the way that it functions automatically and spontaneously. The only
rub with consciousness is that it can be blocked from being accurately conscious
of - from being able to witness clearly - via programming, conditioning,
etc.; thus, it can facilitate the manifestation of illusion and delusion and maya.]
"Consciousness depends on the body; the body depends on the essence of food. It is the Consciousness which is speaking now."
"If the food-essence is not present, the body cannot exist. Without the body, would I be able to talk? Can you do anything to retain this sense of 'I'? As it came spontaneously, so will it go. It will not forewarn you by announcing, 'I am going tomorrow.' A doubt has arisen and you are trying to find the solution, but who is it who has this doubt? Find out for yourself."
"In deep sleep, consciousness was in a dormant condition; there were no bodies, no concepts, no encumbrances. Upon the arrival of this apparently wakeful state, with the arrival of the concept 'I Am', the love of 'I Am' woke up. That itself is Maya, illusion."
"One must understand how clever this fraud of Maya is; first it shows us our body and makes us believe that we are the body, but the body is nothing but a speck of fertilized sperm, and in that sperm the consciousness is latent. You see what a fraud it is?"
"Out of that no-being state comes the beingness. It comes as quietly as twilight, with just a feel of the 'I Am', and then suddenly the space is there."
"What is called 'a human body' is also mainly space."
"In the space, movement starts with the air, the fire, the water, and the earth. All these . . . elements are you only."
"Out of your consciousness all 'this' [that is, all things in the relative existence] has happened. There is no individual. There is only You, the total functioning of You."
"Consciousness depends on the body; the body depends on the essence of food. It is the Consciousness which is speaking now. If the food-essence is not present, the body cannot exist. Without the body, would I be able to talk? Can you do anything to retain this sense of 'I'? As it came spontaneously, so will it go. It will not forewarn you by announcing, 'I am going tomorrow.' A doubt has arisen and you are trying to find the solution, but who is it who has this doubt? Find out for yourself"
"You must have a thorough knowledge of this consciousness, and having known everything about the consciousness, you come to the conclusion that it is all unreal, and then it should drop off."
"The principle that can pass judgment on whether 'the world' is or is not, that principle antedates 'the world'."
"When pure awareness is attained, no need exists any more, not even for ‘I Am’, which is but a useful pointer, a direction-indicator towards the Absolute."
"The awareness ‘I Am’ then easily ceases. What prevails is that which cannot be described, that which is beyond words. It is this ‘state’ which is most real, a state of pure potentiality, which is prior to everything. The ‘I Am’ and the universe are mere reflections of it."
"What I am expounding does not relate to worldly knowledge. You do not want to give up either worldly knowledge or so-called 'spiritual knowledge', and yet, through these worldly concepts, you want to understand the riddle of your existence, and that is precisely why you are not able to understand."
"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'."
Questioner: "Where does consciousness come from?"
Maharaj: "It never comes or goes; it just appears to have come."
Questioner: "Where is the seat of consciousness?"
Maharaj: "In every particle of the juice of the body."
"Even this primary concept, I-Am-ness, is dishonest, just because it is still only a concept. Finally, one has to transcend that also and be in the nirvikalpa state, which means the concept-free state. Then you have no concept at all, not even of 'I Am.' In that state one does not know that one is."
"Once your body is gone, along with the vital breath, consciousness also will leave. Only that which was prior to the appearance of this body-cum-consciousness, the Absolute, the ever-present, is your true 'identity'. That is what we all really are. That is reality. It is here and now. Where is the question of anyone reaching for it?"
"This sickness gave the confirmation that there is no personality, no individual. Sickness to whom? Sickness is part of the functioning of the entire manifest, dynamic Chaitanya; it is the play of consciousness. My true state is prior to this consciousness. That state does not depend on the consciousness"
"I told the consciousness, 'It is you who is suffering, not I'."
"I have no individuality. I have assumed no pose as a person. Whatever happens in the manifest consciousness happens."
"Now the last traces of personality or individuality have left me. Last year I used to talk to people with a certain affection, but that is not available now. My dwelling place in the grosser world is gone now; presently it is in the subtler sphere, as in space."
"Just understand that it is not your personal action or choice. Do not get involved as the doer. Why do you get involved in all these concepts? First, find out what you consider yourself to be."
"Are you an entity? Get that problem solved instead of getting involved in all kinds of concepts. What are You? You cannot understand with your intellect; it is beyond the grasp of the intellect."
"There was a house, and in the house there was a person; now the person is gone and the house is demolished."
"The sum total is, whatever experiences you have, whether for a day or for years, it is all illusion. The experiences begin with knowingness."
"What is the most ingrained habit you have? It is to say 'I Am'. This is the root habit. Words and experiences are unworthy of You. This habit of experiencing will not go until you realize that all this domain of the five elements, and the experiences in the five elements, are unreal. This 'I-Amness' is itself unreal."
"You are not a personality. That birth principle which gives rise to the consciousness is not conditioned; it has come spontaneously and manifests as consciousness."
"A jnani 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 jnani cannot be sick."
"The core of this consciousness is knowingness, to know "I Am". It is not a personality, not an individual. It is total manifestation. Beingness is there. It fills everything."
"All happenings are only in body consciousness. Personalities only exist in body consciousness. The usual knowledge is concerned only with the body image. You are not the body; You are the consciousness. There is no imprint of personality; it is the manifest consciousness which is functioning. This dynamic, manifest consciousness is always in a fluid state. What will happen no one can say. This dynamic consciousness does not have any concept that something good or bad is going to happen to it; it is just happening. No one is doing it."
"When you look at others, that other 'person' is just food essence, as yourself."
"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."
To be continued.
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