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 ASSUMPTION OF THE ROLE OF EITHER 'THE SPIRITUAL GIANT' OR 'THE SUPER RELIGIOUS ONE'"
[NOTE TO READERS:
Previously it was noted that Maharaj advised seekers to
" . . . go back, reverse, to the source"
and to
"follow the same path by which you came."
There are seven steps on that "reverse path," and it is at the third step that religious and or spiritual knowledge is sought and where religious and spiritual identities are assumed.
(More accurately, in most cases, religious roles are set in place during the earliest years of each child's life; then those are unquestioningly clung to throughout adulthood. According to research, 97% of the persons on the planet are assigned a religious role early on. That false identity is augmented by, or replaced with, another false identity - namely, a spiritual role, which soon self-upgrades itself to the role of "The Spiritual Giant" - which, granted, must be played for a time by most on "the path")
However, that step must be transitioned if seekers are to complete the remainder of the "journey" to what Maharaj called "Full Realization" (i.e., to full freedom from a belief in any and all "learned ignorance"). Such is the requirement if the shift to total freedom from personality and persona-assumption and new-identity-adoption is to happen.
For those who are willing to consider Maharaj's later teachings on the subject of spirituality, he offered during his last years a reassessment of the bhakti-influenced talks in the book I AM THAT and recommended to seekers that they stop reading those talks and listen instead to his later, psychology-based pointers:
"That book and whatever was expounded at that time was only relevant for that period. I am speaking differently today, emphasizing different aspects."
What he offered later differed considerably from much of the content of his earlier talks, making clear that the pointers in I AM THAT will take you to the midpoint of "the path" but that his final talks point the way to the actual end of "the path."
As his understanding evolved, his talks evolved; thus, in the end, he stopped talking about dogma and spirituality and offered pointers based in psychological understandings which focused on addressing what he came to see as the key elements of the Ultimate Sickness, namely, the programming-and-conditioning-blocked consciousness and the resultant warped mind.
To look back over his sharings objectively, one can see that his preferred teaching method and his preferred yoga varied over the decades as his focus shifted from an assorted combination of guru-bhakti yoga to bhakti yoga to jnana yoga to nisarga yoga.
In the end, the earlier shades of nisarga yoga began to blossom fully and singularly, and he became more direct and less concerned with bhakti yoga's religious and spiritual influences and more focused on inviting seekers to abide naturally rather than supernaturally / spiritually.
His pointers below are likely only for those that are willing to consider what he meant when he said "I am speaking differently today" and are only for seekers that are interested in understanding those "different aspects" as he offered pointers that could free seekers who were fixated at the midpoint of the "journey" and allow them to move on to the end of "the path."
The following quotes / pointers invited visitors to move beyond the third step of seven steps on his version of "the path"; to abandon all roles, including religious and / or spiritual roles; to complete the "journey" to what he called "full realization"; and then to abide naturally.]
“From my angle, you are nothing. You have no identity.”
Questioner: "The scriptures say that we have our karma and our sins and that is why we are here."
Maharaj: "That is for the ignorant masses. One who has realized . . . , for him these stories are of no use."
"Forget spirituality."
Follow your "normal inclinations."
"Just give up spirituality."
"I do not follow the spirituality of the masses."
"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."
"I am not addicted to self-descriptions [such as] 'soham' and [such as] 'brahmasmi'."
[Note: "Soham" means, "I myself" or "It is I" or "He is I". "Brahmasmi" means, "I am Brahman" or "I am the Supreme" or "I am God" or "I am the Infinite Supreme Soul" or "I am part of the Brahman" - that being an implication of duality in itself.]
"Subsequent to that 'I Am' and body-mind, and in the realm of the mind, there occurs what you call 'spiritual seeking', or 'spiritual knowledge'. This is nonsense."
"I appeal to you with my folded hands: don't get into this spirituality."
"The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing. Even that word 'nothing' is not there, so there is no spirituality left."
“When the birth is disproved, the great noble meaning of spirituality and the meaning of this world—everything—is disproved.”
“If [persons] come face-to-face with that root, they will be stunned into silence.”
"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."
“From the Absolute no-knowing state, spontaneously, this consciousness ‘I am’ has appeared—there is no reason, no cause.”
"There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play."
"Those who have apperceived my knowledge will not fall prey to the logic or spirituality expounded by others."
Q.: "I want to live a good life, a holy life. What am I to do?"
M: "Go home; take charge of your father's business; look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you. Be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue. Live silently."
Q.: "So many saints and mystics lived and died. They did not change my world."
M.: "How could they? Your world is not theirs, nor is theirs yours."
"I got involved in spirituality, in the business of spirituality, [but] finally I lost that love of 'the Self' also. I have no more love for 'the Self'."
"Do your normal duties."
"Just give up spirituality."
To the contrary, those spreading all sorts of duality-based beliefs will also be the ones encouraging persons to assume and play a host of false identities to include two in particular which they take to be "The Two Really Good Roles": "The Super Religious One" and "The Spiritual Giant."
To the contrary, those spreading all sorts of duality-based beliefs will also be the ones encouraging persons to assume and play a host of false identities to include two in particular which they take to be "The Two Really Good Roles": "The Super Religious One" and "The Spiritual Giant."
To be continued.
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