THE
IDEA OF ENLIGHTENMENT is of the utmost importance. Just to know
there is such a possibility changes one's entire outlook. It
acts like a burning match in a heap of saw dust. All the great
teachers did nothing else. A spark of truth can burn up a
mountain of lies. The opposite is also true. The sun of truth
remains hidden behind the cloud of self-identification with the
body.
Just as a
speck in the eye by causing inflammation may wipe out the world,
so the mistaken idea, "I am the body-mind" causes self-concern
which obscures the universe. It is useless to fight the sense of
being a limited and separate person unless the roots of it are
laid bare. Selfishness is rooted in the mistaken ideas of
oneself.
In the depths
there is perfect peace.
All your
problems arise because you have defined and therefore limited
yourself. You have enclosed yourself in time and space, squeezed
yourself into the span of a lifetime and the volume of a body,
and thus created the innumerable conflicts of life and death,
pleasure and pain, hope and fear. You cannot be rid of problems
without abandoning illusions.
And what is
liberation after all? To know that you are beyond birth and
death. By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal
creature, you created so much trouble for yourself that you have
to wake up — like from a bad dream.
A general
longing for liberation is only the beginning; to find the proper
means and use them is the next step. The seeker has only one
goal in view: to find his own True Being. Of all desires it is
the most ambitious.
Be devoted to your goal, and devotion to him who can guide you
will follow. If your desire and confidence are strong, they will
operate and take you to your goal, for you will not cause delay
by hesitation and compromise. The innermost light, shining
peacefully and timelessly in the heart, is the real Guru. Truly,
he is the supreme teacher. He alone can take you to your goal,
and he alone meets you at the end of the road. Be with your own
self, listen to it, obey it, cherish it, keep it in mind
ceaselessly.
Yoga is the
science and art of self-liberation through self-understanding.
The problem is universal — suffering and the ending of
suffering. The same urge that seeks birth, happiness and death
shall seek understanding and liberation. It is like a spark of
fire in a cargo of cotton. You may not know about it, but sooner
or later the ship will burst in flames. Liberation is a natural
process and in the long run, inevitable. But it is within your
power to bring it into the now.
All desire has its source in the
self. It is all a matter of choosing the right desire.
What I teach
is the ancient and simple way of liberation through
understanding. Understand your own mind and its hold on you will
snap. Realize once and for all that neither your body nor your
mind, nor even your consciousness is yourself, and stand alone
in your True Nature beyond consciousness and unconsciousness. No
effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding.
Trace your misunderstandings and abandon them, that is all.
Relax and watch the "I am." Reality is just behind it.
This is the
heart of the problem. Either you are body-conscious and a slave
of circumstances, or you are the Universal Consciousness itself
— and in full control of every event.
Realize that
whatever there is true, noble and beautiful in the universe it
all comes from you; you yourself are at the source of it. Be
aware that whatever happens, happens to you, by you, through
you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you
perceive, and you will not be afraid.
You are what
you are timelessly, but of what use is it to you unless you know
it and act on it? Your begging bowl may be of pure gold, but as
long as you do not know it, you are a pauper. You must know your
inner worth and trust it.
We believe in
so many things on hearsay. We believe in distant lands and
people, in heavens and hells, in gods and goddesses, because we
were told. Similarly, we were told about ourselves, our parents,
name, position, duties and so on. We never cared to verify. The
way to truth lies through the destruction of the false. To
destroy the false, you must question your most inveterate
beliefs. Of these the idea that you are the body is the worst.
With the body comes the world, with the world — God, who is
supposed to have created the world and thus it starts — fears,
religions, prayers, sacrifices, all sorts of systems — all to
protect and support the child-man frightened out of his wits by
monsters of his own making. Realize that what you are cannot be
born nor die and with the fear gone all suffering ends.
The mind must
have a purpose. To encourage it to free itself from the unreal
it is promised something in return. In reality, there is no need
of purpose. Being free from the false is good in itself, it
wants no reward. It is just like being clean — which is its own
reward.
The reward of
Self Knowledge is freedom from the personal self.
Once you say,
"I want to find Truth," all your life will be deeply affected by
it. All your mental and physical habits, feelings and emotions,
desires and fears, plans and decisions will undergo a most
radical transformation. If you are earnest, whatever way you
choose will take you to your goal. It is the earnestness that is
the decisive factor. Earnestness is the homing instinct which
makes the bird return to its nest and the fish to the mountain
stream where it was born. The seed returns to the earth when the
fruit is ripe.
You are the
infinite potentiality; the inexhaustible possibility. Because
you are, all can be. The universe is but a partial manifestation
of your limitless capacity to become. The world has no existence
apart from you. At every moment it is but a reflection of
yourself. You create it, you destroy it. Of the entire universe
you are the subtle cause. All is because you are. Grasp this
point firmly and deeply and dwell on it repeatedly. To realize
this as absolutely true is liberation.
You must give
yourself time to brood over these things. The old grooves must
be erased in your brain without forming new ones. You must
realize yourself as the immovable behind and beyond the movable,
the silent witness of all that happens. Find out your real
being. "What am I?" is the fundamental question of all
philosophy and psychology. Go into it deeply.
Self
Realization is not an acquisition. It is more of the nature of
understanding. Once arrived at, it cannot be lost. The permanent
is beyond all comings and goings. Go to the root of all
experience, to the sense of being. Beyond being and non-being
lies the immensity of the Real.
The end is in
the beginning. You end where you start — in the Absolute. The
universe is perfect as a whole, and the parts striving for
perfection is a way of joy.
Nisargadatta Maharaj -
I AM THAT
