Be Empty

Thoughtlessness

It is not necessary to pick out certain striking phrases from the SUTRAS or from the SHASTRAS and regard them as expressing the highest TRUTH. Discussions on such subjects are left to those addicted to intellectualization. Mere cleverness is not meant to cope with the facts of birth and death. If you really wish to get into the TRUTH, get it while walking or remaining silent, or while engaged in all kinds of your daily work. When you have done this, see whose doctrine you are following or what SUTRAS you are studying.

O you thoughtless one! Listen to me, full of patience. At present you are with thoughts. This thought alone is the cause of both liberation and creation. You are liberated when thought is turned towards thoughtlessness – which is your real nature – the base of all – SUPREME SELF.  At the same time, if you turn this thought towards the environing objects and do not cherish, or are not attached, to false views – all goes well with you and there is no harm to dwell with thought in this condition because this is just a thought as long as it is not stained with any objective views. This unstained pure thought is the primal cause of creation – and this we call Ego – because this is the threshold of both creation and liberation.

But – when thought travels towards the environing objects and is attached to any false view (ie. reification -Ed.) – this thought itself helps to create your separate identity. Thus, infinite thought turns into finite thought, which we call Ego. Now this thought is automatically involved with ‘mine and thine’ when it becomes a slave of projected objects and thus this creation starts, full of imaginations in which you see your existence. 

The moment you feel ‘me and mine’ then automatically ‘you and thine’ take place. Thus pleasure and pain start reflecting in you as long as your Ego survives. Otherwise, all goes well with you as long as the thought of ‘mine and thine’ does not arise in you. But as soon as it does, you are not the free SELF – you are a slave of this imaginary creation.

When you understand my saying clearly, you will realize FREE – STAINLESS – PURE – NO-THOUGHT-NESS – TRUTH. This is the one ultimate goal of all teachers and shastras. If you try and continue your search until your mission in life is fulfilled, without doubt you will reach to the destination. After realising TRUE SELF you will be convinced and understand that slayer and slain you are definitely not. These are nothing more than your mental projection – this whole creation is just like a dream. In dream also you are engaged in some good or evil actions. You feel pleasure and pain in the dream and start acting according to what you face. Thus you are concerned with worries and happiness.

Do you know why there is this pleasure and pain? It is just because of your ego, and because of this you don’t take this dream to be negligible. As long as you are within this dream, you are definitely a slave of ‘mine and thine’, but the moment you wake up to this consciousness you understand that it was all a dream. After that you won’t want to think about your dream body, dream friends or dream bodies, position, property or have any relationship at all with the whole dream world that you saw just a few minutes before coming to this consciousness. Therefore I tell you, in this present consciousness or any other consciousness which you may see, even after death, involving ego as a separate identity, it is sure you have not realised your ‘true nature’. You are simply travelling from one dream to the next. The mission of life is still uncooked. It is not even half cooked. Understand, my friend!

Come on, march ahead, break down this dream consciousness completely forever and reach no-thoughtness if you want to fulfil your mission in this life itself. Do not be engaged – perplexed just with this unreal dream world. This is nothing. I tell you if you will see the TRUTH, you will know this juggler’s trick.

Jiva and Shiva

21 July 1977 - tapescript

It is no good to look for the mind with the mind. As long as the mind is objective, it is no good to look with the mind. To this mind, objects are the cause of misery. Ignorance is the root of life and death – it is the only cause of creation. Ignorance (avidya) is deeply rooted in the mind, therefore mind is the only cause of the bondage of transmigration. When it (the mind) is manifested, everything else is manifested, and when it is destroyed, all else is destroyed – including avidya. Hence it is clear that bondage or liberation is for the mind.

The feeling of bondage takes place when the mind is tainted by the effects of tamas and rajas. Similarly, the mind makes for liberation when it is pure. Thus the seeker after liberation must strengthen the mind with purity. To attain purity, discrimination and renunciation are essential. Gross or fine objects always attract the mind through the senses. Thus the Pure Intelligence (jiva), which is really unattached to ideas of ‘I and mine’ (as Shiva), through the ties of body, organs and pranas (vital energies) – the mind causes to wander in the midst of pleasure and pain in this world.

In fact, the varied enjoyment of results is achieved by the mind in the name of Pure Intelligence (jiva), but strictly speaking, jiva has nothing to do with the mind and its enjoyment. Mind, when it is attached to objects, is bound – while at the same time, when it is subjective, taking the help of discrimination and renunciation, it is freed from the attachment caused by avidya.

Thus mind turns to purity. When mind develops its habit to have a strong hold on purity, it gradually changes into purity, with the perfection of which the mind disappears completely and turns into Pure Intelligence. This is how the mind, having taken the help of jiva, the Pure Intelligence, to wander about in the universe, looking for objects through body, organs and pranas with ideas of ‘I and mine’ – disappears completely forever. 

Thus the idea of jiva turns into Shiva. This is the true knowledge for the Vedantin and yoga (union) for the yogins, parabhakti for the bhaktas, etc.

This is just to speak in words. In fact no word can be uttered – because It is beyond time, space and everything. Except He, nothing exists, or if it appears to exist – He alone is all in all for all.

Letter 13,  14 October 1978

Dear Pat,

Here is my greeting for you – let your heart be enlightened with divine light. Think of Him all the time – this is definitely needed. Do not be afraid of anything – have faith in Him, that is all. He is your only mother, father, master etc. When this is true, why should you have to think of anything and fear?

Surrender unto Him like a small newborn baby – this is what is definitely needed – nothing more is required to be the real son of Him. Here is Christ’s warning from ‘Thus spake’ – ‘Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. Beware of false prophets (wolves in sheep’s clothing). O Father forgive them for they know not what they doeth. Amen, amen, I say unto you if you ask the Father anything in my name, He will give it to you. Hitherto you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. Father said unto son, ‘Thou art ever with me and all that I have is thine’. Jesus answered and said unto Martha, ‘Thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. These parables are a parable for you from my side also – keep this in mind and enjoy this beautiful world – which is none else than God Himself manifested in this form.

Jesus saith unto Thomas, ‘Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. I came from the Father and am come into the world. Again, I leave this world and go unto the Father. Follow me and let the dead bury their dead. I will not leave thee comfortless, I will come to you. And that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me and I in you. If a man love me, he will keep my words and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him.

That is all for this time. See you by next. Let God bless you.

Thank you,

Thy own Atman,

True Love.

Secret Wisdom

This, which is possibly the draft of a letter and reminiscent of the Bhagavad-Gita, plus the following item in the notebook, were written there directly by TL himself. - Ed

O good fortune! Listen carefully. Supreme Lord alone is existing – if at all anything is existing. Therefore fix your mind on Him – by His grace you will pass through all difficulties without the least trouble. His grace is perfect, this you will know when your mind becomes full to the brim with Him. But, if due to egoistic pride, you will not listen to Him, the terror of earthly existence will frighten you as long as you are living in this body and at every step of your life you will suffer destruction of the self, and at the end you will perish for certain - because LORD HIMSELF alone is abiding in the heart of all beings. His power only causes this universe to turn round. This is the known fact. His wish alone is the beginning and end of this creation.

Therefore clean your mind from all stain. Make yourself holy, fixing your thoughts on Him. Once you are fixed you are fit to have His blessing. Thus develop your practice repeatedly so that you will be filled up with His blessing. Being worthy enough, you will realize the full glory of supreme Bliss (Brahma).

Drawing your attention once again, I would like to repeat the same point to give more emphasis to you: if you really want to obtain the eternal abode, make yourself worthy by fixing your mind on Him forever. When you are performing your duties sincerely towards Him, there is no question why you will not receive His blessing. Therefore flee unto Him for shelter with all thy being. By His grace you will reach to the goal of life (Him) without any doubt in this life itself - this is my personal experience. So take refuge in Him forever and by His grace you will enjoy the bliss of union with Him. This is the only resting place where rest takes its rest.

This is the sum total (summa bonum) of the Truth in a few lines for the reader who wants to read it, and for the practitioner this is the guideline for those who really want to practice. Only the realized soul will know its value – no other.  Om Tat Sat.

Therefore my friend, surrender yourself unto Him as a devoted wife surrenders herself to her husband wholeheartedly (and vice versa -Ed). This is the only way to obtain liberation. Being free from good and evil actions, one renounces their fruit, entirely depending on the Supreme and performing one’s duties without neglect.

To please one’s master (guru) is indeed to serve Him. Likewise, the child that depends on its mother - she is the sole support to him because she knows it well that her child knows none except herself. Therefore one should feel that there is no other way of salvation but the performance of one’s allotted duties. He who is determined to attain his aim in life should apply himself diligently to the performance of his duty. As the responsibility for her beloved child entirely rests with its mother, so also the deed of one who risks his life for his Lord – his whole burden is carried by the Supreme Lord of the universe. Thus the dawn of devotion announces the advent of the day of liberation.

Whatever hardship one may have to face while performing one’s own duty, do not reject it – do it at any cost. One day you will definitely enjoy the fruit of that duty and the joy of liberation, there is no doubt about it. For this reason again, I say to my friends, please perform your own duties without fail. None of you should neglect the practice of your duty. One day the performance of your duty will speak to you with the result. That day you will know Me without fail. That is all for today.

One

There is only ‘ONE’ that has to be understood correctly, just only ‘ONE’. To find out that ONE in the right way, people of the world are investigating through different means, knowingly and also unknowingly.

The nature of this ONE is one alone but according to the concept of these investigators, it is everything. It is a substance to some, solid matter to some, liquid to some other or ether etc. to someone else. Thus that ONE is everything to the creatures of this world and beyond. When it is neither solid nor liquid, then some of you may think it is a semi-solid substance but in the way that you are trying to find out you will never be in a position to find out exactly.

Just as, according to the concept of each individual, this ONE changes into substance in their eyes, so the moment you look at that substance, it changes into semi-solid. Again, using the concept of investigation, you see it is neither liquid nor solid – it changes into light. When you see it as light it changes into ether and when you try to hold on to the ether it is no longer that either – it is something beyond it.

This ONE changes into all of you in the form of the beautiful creatures of this creation and you are trying to investigate ‘IT’ with your concepts. 

This ONE is life to some of you and lifeless to others and according to the concept of each, changes are taking place in what is seen in it. In fact this change is with the man of concept, not with the real ONE. Concepts take various forms from micro- to macro-organisms, but at the same time it is beyond what you see here. That means it has got no life in the concept of this modern scientific outlook.

It is substance for the scientist, matter for the investigator and light to the researcher. Say ten different investigators try to investigate this ONE – to each of them it appears different according to their physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual movement of concepts that takes place during their investigation. The whole confusion is due to their concept and its movement only. So as long as they are moved by this idea of investigation, they cannot get the correct answer because the object of their investigation is always changing its form.

So if someone really wants to know what this ONE is exactly, investigation should take place without giving any stress to concepts. That is to say, the investigator must go beyond the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of mind.

He who can travel with investigation beyond the space of mind, ego and all – there, the investigator, without existing in the eyes of ‘man of eye’ (worldly people) – he exists. Such a person is the real and correct investigator to understand these sentient and insentient substances and what is beyond both of these also. He investigates the substance as it is when he, the investigator himself, merges with the substance and becomes one and the same. Such alone is a real investigator and such alone is fit to explain about the Truth to the world when he is here. He is worth hearing and all investigators should listen patiently, understand the practical value of his words and put his message into practice.

You scientists of the modern world! ‘Modern’ means that even after 100 centuries, that time will also be modern for the scientists of that era – so this is a challenge to all of you, both now and in the future – if you really want to investigate this substance, you must rise above this mental and scientific approach. Whichever way you move you have to come to that height where you are merged with that substance and are the same. 

Without any doubt, this is the only way to get victory in your investigation. Except this, there is no way out at all.

Whether you listen and follow with the right understanding right now or any century later, it is up to you. Liberty is in your hands to investigate – but the result is in my hand. I mean that unless you follow what I say strictly you will not have the right answer for your investigation. Apart from this, if you want to follow something different, I will definitely say this is and will be a mere waste of your time and energy. Therefore do as you like. It is up to you. To give the right suggestion and to warn you is my duty. This is what I feel and have said here. Take your own time to think and decide.

I love you all because love is my nature. I alone am correct, therefore to correct is also my nature. I am hate for the hateful, hate to the loving and love to the hateful also. For in me all are existing and all are none else but myself only. This is the true nature of this substance which is Me if someone wants to find out. Otherwise I have no nature, I am just as I am, this is what I am at all times, past, present and future – there is no change in Me at all in any condition.

Therefore, O my good friend of the world, don’t look at me as something different from you. If you look with a ‘different’ eye, you are and will be lost forever in the future also. I am never separate from you, here and hereafter. For I am time, space, matter and everything else that you know and don’t know, and even that which you will never know until reaching Me and knowing Me in the right way. This is because I am knowledge, knowable and knower. In other words, I am everything, ONE Truth alone, which is DOG and GOD both and at the same time beyond both.

Now the point is this – when both are one single Truth, then why is there different meaning and understanding?  In reply to this I would like to ask you, for whom is it different – you?  If it is your concept – who are you?  What is concept?  ‘We have not yet understood who I am’ – this will be the simple answer from those whose concept gives rise to different meanings and they find themselves wrong. To understand who I am is not a problem, but to change concept from wrong to right is a big problem.  Due to misconception all go wrong.  For example, if a man is suffering from jaundice, he will see everything yellow due to too much bile secretion in his vision.  If you try to talk about a red flower, he will not agree with you because he sees only yellow, no matter how hard he tries as long as he is suffering from this disease.

In this case, the diseased one is looking at the object, say a red rose, in the same way as the other man. The act of seeing is the same, but the colour appears different. Although the original rose is red, and this is absolutely correct and the Truth for all, still for this poor man, suffering from disease thinks this is absurd because he sees it as yellow. He cannot agree with the man of real understanding until he is cured of the disease. Thus argument and logic regarding reality through one and many means will all be in vain. So the important point is that the disease should be removed. It is pointless to try to convince him through various methods so we must root out the disease with the correct treatment.

Similarly, a man of strong concept will not realize Truth until their ego, mind and body consciousness vanish completely. To get rid of such a contaminating disease one must go through certain means under prescribed treatment with full confidence and patience until one realizes the Truth.

Letter 14, 23 January 1980

“Sorry, I had in mind that I should write to you but do not know why I was late. Anyway do not take it otherwise. You know it happens like this sometimes. This is how the world is. For these are both desires, but the soul is not that, It is free. He who knows, good and bad he does not do - because he passes both - things done or undone afflict him not. This is the quality of the unborn soul. This is the quality of the deathless soul. For the soul is immortal and eternal. My good son, for him who knows this, that soul grows not greater nor less through any action. He is fit to walk in this line to find the pathway of the soul. Such a man is the only seeker of the soul. He will find it. He who knows is lord of himself because in his soul he beholds the soul. He knows that all things are nothing but soul.

The knower of the Eternal is a ‘Free Man’. He who goes will come after, as corn is born again, but my dear, listen! My first wish is I choose not to come and go. For I have no place to go and come. When one will understand this, he will reach Me. He will not remain separate from Me. He grows one with Me who knows this well and is my everything and Me alone. Therefore he is full of peace, Eternal Lord, the King of Kings.

This is the only holy life among all lives. “IT IS” – therefore it is to be gained. This is the real gain – no other gain is gain – no other pain is pain.

Bless you all the time at the end.

True Love

No Separation

10 June 1980

See the petal with the eyes of the petal not with your own eyes, for they may destroy it. The eyes of the petal give life to the petal. They do not destroy it but other eyes can destroy it at any time. To have that petal eye one should give up one’s own eye. Know this truth and you will have the real eye.

If you look at the petal through your own eye, searching to know something about it, you are separating yourself from the petal. With the desire to understand the petal in a wrong or right way, you will be looking through your own eyes. This search of yours is really dangerous to the petal, that is why it fades, discolours and changes its course.

Why is there this deformation? Why is the petal spoiled and changing?  It is because of nothing but your looking. You are separating yourself from it. Separating thus, you cannot understand it because your search itself is a barrier – and that is coming out through your eyes. The search covers every cell of the petal so that the search itself covers the reality of the petal (or its cells).  So then how can you understand the reality of the petal if this is so, if you are missing it this way?  This is why reality is always far from those who are in search of reality!

O good friend of my age, give up this idea of searching. The moment you give up this habit the reality is always there – where the search stops forever. Now, if you stop, you have to make it a full stop where nothing lies – no seeker, no seeing and no object to be seen. These three will have no existence. That means creation has stopped because that full stop has got no meaning where these three are not existing.

Now, let’s put this question, “Why this full stop then?  In this case there is no reply because there is no seeker, seer or seen. When one will come to this height, one will understand what I have said and will see the petal only through the eyes of the petal, not through any other eyes. He who will know this technique and will see as I have said, he will see all the objects of the world as well as of the universe through its own eyes, that is, through the eyes of those objects themselves. He is a man of universal eye. He alone you can say has the real eye. Thus reality reveals the real.

Why is this search a barrier? It is not only a barrier, it is a dangerous barrier that is spoiling everything now and will spoil in the future also because the search is a search of ‘mine’, it is ‘my search’. It is not your search. If you think it is yours, let us try to understand what this ‘mine’ is. ‘Mine’ is there when ‘I’ is there, so in that case just put this question to that ‘I’. The moment you put this question to that ‘I’, you have no reply.

You may say “I am this body as a whole” but with this it is clear you are not any particular part of your body but you are in every cell of the whole body. When you look at your brain, you are those brain cells and when you look at your eyes you are the eye cells, your heart, each and every heart cell. Thus you are in each cell of your body. You are not looking at the heart cells through the eyes of the brain cells, nor the brain cells through the eyes of the bone cells etc. If you look at the heart through the eyes of the bone cells, the heart will not be the heart. If you look at the brain through the eyes of the nerve cells, the brain will never be the brain. So instead of looking that way, look at all your body cells through the eyes of those particular cells. Thus you are equally equal to all the organs that you have. You are no lesser or more to any one of these cells.

Thus you are universal with this whole phenomenon. Although you are not visible to this searchful eye, the function of the universe proves your existence. The moment the search comes out in search of something, in a quest for understanding something, it is because of your habit – which has got no existence. It is nothing else than the habit of searching and not understanding the fact.

You don’t need to make any effort to make water flow downward – it is its own nature. Similarly the search climbs down in all creatures. The tendency of people is to seek an easy life. To make a remark to someone is easy, but it is very hard to blame oneself or make the same remark to oneself. To blame others is quite easy, but to blame oneself is difficult. When one cannot stand this, how can one be in a position to blame others?

Therefore search the searcher first instead of searching for other things. Blame the blamer first instead of blaming others. Instead of searching outside objects, search the subject first. This is also a habit – change the course of habit to search within and then you will have the real and correct answer. Thus your search will have an end. Although the search within looks like a barrier, he who searches within will find an end because the seeker himself is the search and therefore the search is no more. Where lies the barrier then?  The barrier exists only for the object, not for the subject.

The symptom of the subject search will be totally different to that of the object search. You alone will be sufficient and satisfied without any problems, but the object-seeker will never be satisfied even after searching hundreds and thousands of objects because he cannot reach to the depth of any object as long as he has not understood himself. He who has not understood himself will search but he who has will not. He who is hungry will eat but the full one will never think about food or talk of eating. Search is the only cause of pain and pleasure. Search ends not if it moves towards the objects but will have an end if it moves towards the subject. This is how one should move with the search.

Letter 15,  26 June 1980

Dear Pat,

Coming and going is common to everybody. He who comes will go without fail. This is not enough for a person like you who wants to travel beyond coming and going.

The question may arise, if coming and going is not enough, what else then? To him I will say to stay where he is. No movement at all. Movement is death. Movement can be divided into physical, mental and spiritual movement. The dangerous movement for the aspirant is spiritual movement. If he has this kind of movement he must develop the habit of controlling his mental and physical movement.

The cause of movement itself is you, the ‘ego’. Whatever takes place in this creation is taking place because of you (ego) but not you the Real. Therefore movement is the function of the mind.

Now, let us see who wants to reach that goal. You?  Which you?  The real one or the unreal ego?  The real one has nothing to do with coming and going.  So now it is clear that the unreal one alone is moving.  To reach the real one, the unreal one must undergo physical, mental and spiritual discipline.  With the help of discipline alone, ego will have its end and then one will reach to the real one.

Thus, aspirants remaining under strong discipline will end their journey of life. For him who reaches that goal, there is no physical, mental or spiritual discipline inwardly, although outwardly he may appear to be moving. To understand this, one has to reach that destination of life – otherwise not.

Therefore discipline your mind first by all means. If you are maintaining that discipline you are always with me, whether you stay physically or not.

Thy own Atman,

True Love.

Letter 16, 23 April 1982

Dear Gyani,

Dear one! You know every step of our life is full of problems. In this world there is nothing without a shadow, just as there isn’t a single day without day and night. So also there is nobody without pain and pleasure. This is inevitable. Have patience and with full confidence try to develop your practice.

You know well it is not only your problem – it is a common problem. This world itself is a mass of problems - this is a fact - then why are you worried?  In pain and pleasure try to remain alike.  You know that everybody in this world has to die some day.  People know this well but they don’t want to know.  They want to kill others for the sake of this life – which one day, without fail, has to die – but they don’t want to kill themselves to protect others.  This is really nothing more than attachment.

Therefore rise above – this body, family, society, nation, world and all sorts of attachments that one feels – because this attachment of yours and these objects including the whole universe, whatever you see, is not real.  This is nothing more than your imagination – your dream.  You know, my good lady!  As long as you are in your dreamland, whatever you see and do seems real – but the moment you come out of the dream – I mean when you wake up from the dream and come to this consciousness, everyone realises this is real and that was a dream. And you know, the moment you understand that it was a dream there is no attachment any longer with the objects nor even one’s own body in that dream. Is it not so?  If it is so, then take what you see now with this consciousness also to be the same as a dream and move in this world without attachment.

This is only possible when one will advance in practice. By the grace of Almighty one will rise above body consciousness – otherwise it is impossible. To get His grace one must follow one’s guru with full faith. This faith will only come when one is fully determined – and this determination will come to him or her who hears their guru and follows him strictly in their practice.

Dedication is essential, therefore develop your practice by conquering your mind – by pressing your palms together – at any cost. Mystical is my Lord. This much for this time. See you by next. Thank you.

Thy own Atman

True Love.

Letter 17, 9 June 1982

My dear Gyani,

O pious lady! The devotee should not worry about worldly losses. Contemplation on her dearest Lord should be the only object of her concern. A traveller in the path of God-love should fix her thoughts on God alone, who is the root and substance of everything. But until perfection is reached, worldly activities should not be abandoned and devotion should be practised renouncing the fruit thereof.

This time I would like to tell you something about company. By dwelling on the objects of senses, one develops attachment for them. This attachment gives rise to desire, and it is desire which appears also as wrath. It is not easily satisfied and it is grossly sinful in nature – know this to be man’s foe. The exact meaning of evil company – the association with worldly objects and contact with worldly minded people are mainly responsible for one’s dwelling on objects of the senses, which brings about her ruin. This should be totally eschewed. When divine love is attained worldly activities diminish automatically – one has not to renounce them deliberately. I don’t mean one should not have worldly activities either. The worldly activities should be pursued in the ordinary course.

The traveller, you know my good lady, should take particular care to avoid hearing talk about sex, wealth, unbelievers and enemies. One can never contemplate on God as long as one’s mind is engrossed in thoughts of the aforesaid matters. Pride on any worldly objects is invariably the precursor of a fall. Even the pride of being prideless should be driven out of the heart. The practice of bowing before the representation of God kills pride. Cultivation of the spirit of humility, modesty, etc. is a sovereign remedy for uprooting pride.

The devotional love – in which the loving devotee finds herself merged, is wholly indescribable. This is the highest state of infinite bliss, where none else is seen, none else is heard, none else is cognised. Apart from this, all are the limited joys of the world finite.

My dear, please follow up what has been said to you very strictly. Let me say goodbye for this time. Thank you.

True Love.

Letter 18, 26 June 1982

Dear Great,

O mind! Vāsanā (latent impressions – Ed) are the trap to bind you. If Vāsanās are mastered, then you will score a tremendous victory. The all-pervading Supreme Self not even in the slightest degree can exist in objects. There is no snake in the eyes of the rope. Similarly there are no objects or Vāsanās in pure knowledge. This is the true vision – no other way. After destroying all conceptions of me and mine, it matters little where you live, whether in earth or in heaven or somewhere else. A person who is free from Vāsanās may pass through a market without longing for the things therein – is like one who never goes there. Similarly, to a person who is full of spiritual beatitude, death or life, city or forest, rich or poor, etc. does not make any difference, because such a person is never troubled in his mind. If a man possesses one rupee, there is always fear of loss, but at the same time if this man does not possess anything, he will be fear free. Therefore, my good great, see whether the mind possesses one rupee or not. If mind is clinging on the worldly objects, fear is there. If mind is absorbed in Reality, where is mind and fear?

The blissful state is beyond light and darkness – gunās and non-gunās. It is Avidyā that creates everything. Rise above this – live in Brāhmic bliss, then you will know you are beyond the pairs of opposites, like ākāsa (space), the receptacle of vāyu (wind) etc. So long as the idea of agyāna (ignorance) exists, the false creation of the mind will not wear off, and the blissful state will not be attained. Maya is the necessary attendant of the ignorant. My good brother, you know this universe is an ocean of pain to the agyāni, but it is insignificant like a dream to the gyāni.

If your mind is absorbed in prayer, enjoyment of bliss will take place and there is no reason why you will not see me there. As because Lord of the universe is the cause of all, but be sure it is a causeless cause. It is the essence of all, yet there is no essence in it. God alone is stainless. 

Attaining this reality, mind becomes quiescent. Let God bless you to attain that ātmic state within this lifetime.  Vāsanās, which are very difficult to destroy even with strenuous efforts, through His blessing let this be easy for you. Therefore, my good great, please develop your meditation towards Him and you will attain the Supreme.

Thank you for this time,

Thy own Atman,

True Love.

Letter 19, 27 June 1982

Dear Gyani,

Longing for God in the path of love with full faith and determination, the devotee attains the supreme infinite ocean. True love neither craves for earthly power and pelf, nor grieves for the destruction of the world including oneself. The devotee sees this entire creation to be the form of her Lord. Nothing else she sees besides Him. Pure love will not be considered as pure until the lover forgets external as well as internal existence of the world completely.

What way will one be benefited simply uttering that God is my beloved? The real object of devotee’s love is to enjoy God realisation. Bhakta Mira’s love was saturated with divine knowledge, and was the purest love. Pure love is an end in itself – it is not the means to have an end. Bhakti (devotion) is both a means and an end. Therefore, true devotee, for your own sake practise real devotion.

I would like to mention below what Lord Krishna says in the Gitā –

“I AM EQUALLY PRESENT IN ALL CREATURES; THERE IS NONE HATEFUL OR DEAR TO ME. NEVERTHELESS, THEY WHO WORSHIP ME THROUGH DEVOTION ABIDE IN ME AND I ABIDE IN THEM”. (Bhagavad Gita IX.29)

To get His favour, practice is the only means – no other way. Therefore hear, chant, smell, touch the glory of Lord all the time. This practice one day will definitely lead you to Unity. Inscrutable are the ways of the Almighty. A devotee of genuine faith must not worry at all about material needs. ‘HE’ is all pervading and knows every body’s heartbeat. That being so, the devotee of genuine faith must not worry at all.

Pray – “Let my love be centred on my Lord’s feet. This is the only boon I crave for, nothing else. Love which is full of You – may it grow from day to day”.

Dear one, truly speaking, the duty of a devotee lies only in carrying on the practice. Lover should love for the sake of love. That’s all for this time – see you by next. Thank you.

Thy own Atman,

True Love.

Letter 20, 17 March 1983

Dear Great & Gyani,

... “Therefore, realizing these objects as full of sorrow, transient and born of ignorance, the sense of meum with regard to the world and its objects should be totally given up”.

You know, and everybody knows, this world really does not belong to us. This body, which we regard as our vey self – perishes. Then to claim other objects as our own – is it not foolish on our part? One can easily cross Māya – if one is sincerely willing to eradicate this sense of possession. The aspirants in the path of Self Realisation will then have to rise above concept. O my good heart, you know the mystery lies within the concept – as because this creation itself is nothing more than a concept.

Lord Krishna – in the Gita, says: “THOSE WHO ARE MINE, WORSHIP ME IN A DISINTERESTED WAY, FIXING THEIR INTEGRAL THOUGHTS ON ME, I MYSELF BEAR THE BURDEN OF THEIR YOGA AND KSEMA (welfare - Ed), SINCE THEY ARE EVER UNITED WITH ME”.

Now listen, in vain do the aspirants worry about food and other necessities of life. Do you think the master of the whole creation can ever forget His own devotees? He who attains unbroken love of God crosses Māya and he takes others across Māya. Deity’s love is indefinable in nature – there is no separation in True Love. It is like the pleasure of the palate enjoyed by the dumb. The sea of love is really deep. Some wise and clever soul alone can drown in it. He who is drowned cannot speak. He who speaks is ignorant.

This love is devoid of qualities, seeks no return, grows more to more every moment, knows no break, is subtler than the subtlest and is of the nature of experience. Attaining this love, the loving devotee sees nothing but love, hears only about love, speaks only of love and thinks of love alone.

This is pure love – where none else is seen, heard or cognized – that is the state of the infinite.

Let me thank you at this end, see you by next. Let God bless your life to be full of love with all in all conditions – which is always sweet. This is the Truth.

I thank you once again for your love,

Thy own Atman,

True Love.

Two Ways to the Supreme

Method 1:  Questioning

One in the spiritual path should keep on asking question after question until he gets to the point – the final goal – when there is neither the questioner nor the answer. For example:

Q. If one thinks one is the body, one should ask am I only the body?

A. He may say (to himself) – no, I am not only the body, but I am mind and intellect.

Q. Then again, am I only mind and intellect?

A. The answer may be – no, I am not the mind and intellect, I am an ego.

Q. Again the question – if I am the ego, what then is the ego?

A. Ego is the Māya – the magical power in the cosmos – may be his answer.

Q. What is Māya? ..... and so on and so forth...

When one keeps prodding within himself in this way, incessantly, a state will come when there will be no question and naturally no answer. Know then that one has arrived to the point – the final state – the state of Supreme non-duality – whatever name one wants to give it.

Method 2: ‘The state of balance’

Another way to get to the bottom in the quest for Truth is the balancing method, as with a pair of scales. When one first ventures or begins to tread on the spiritual path, the reading on the scale would probably be little or very little on pan ‘A’, and all the weight on pan ‘B’. Here ‘A’ represents the spiritual ‘commodity’, and ‘B’, worldly care.

As his practise continues, the spiritual commodity would go on being added to pan ‘A’ as he pursues his practice more earnestly and vigorously. As a result, pan ’A’ will get heavier and heavier until a stage comes when the scale is in perfect equilibrium. This is or will be the state of Self Realisation.

When the practice is continued after this attainment, pan ‘A’ will be continue to be heavier and heavier and pan ‘B’ will rise – just the reverse of the beginning stage.

Finally, a stage will come when there is neither pan ‘A’ nor pan ‘B’. This is an all silent, wordless and natural state. Duality vanishes 100% fully and completely.

Concept

'I am the body' is the cause of creation. It is the source of fears. It is ignorance. It gives rise to duality. That is why this primal ignorance is known as Hridaya Granthi, the knot of the heart.  'I am' is a concept.  Whatever one sees in this world and beyond is the symbol of ego. Therefore whatever one perceives, feels and sees through one's mind, intellect and sense organs are all nothing more than a concept.

Now, rise above this 'I' concept (gross, subtle and causal). It is wisdom. It is the real knowledge. It is liberation. It is the true natural state. It is formless God. The all-pervading supreme Self of all selves. This real Self is none other than yourself. In you there is no concept.

If one can root out concept, one will abide as that Real Supreme Absolute Being.  Apart from this, all are concepts, whatever you see here -including your meditation. The moment your mind moves out to enquire or you understand something, you are within the clutch of concept.  If you try (to perform), you are out-pocketed from your true natural state.  In other words, you are overpowered by ignorance - even if you enquire at the time of practice about your ultimate nature - your own existence, the cause of creation, the mind, or the supreme God etc. These are all nothing but concepts.

And yet all of these things containing or consisting of concept are in truth the Real, but until one has realised the truth through constant practice, one cannot get rid of ego. This ego concept, however, is like a magic show. It does not exist at all, like the son of a barren woman. When there is ego, there is concept. No ego - no concept, no desire, no objects or subjects, no master or disciple, no place of bliss or sin, no world, no such thing as separateness or oneness, no creation and no God. All concepts are really the reality of the Supreme Absolute Being.

- OM -