Question: When I look in your eyes I see just Self. And I realise that when I honour you, I am honouring my Self. But I still haven't learned to honour the Self in everyone. I can honour it in you but I still make comparisons and judgements of others. I don’t see the Self in everyone.

Papaji: First you have to see the Self within you! Then within me, and then everywhere else.

Question: But when I look in other people's eyes I can't see it so clearly.

Papaji: First see the Self within you. Then you will se that the Self in you is not other than the Self in me; it is the same Self. Then you perceive that the same Self in you, in me, is everywhere else. And Self alone is that Self. There is nothing apart from the Self. This experience you will surely get if you stick to Self alone. Nothing else ever existed at all!

Question: But I …

Papaji: Okay, lets tackle it another way. When you see the Self, don't see the 'not-Self' also at the same time. If you do not see the 'not-Self' here and there and everywhere, what will you see?

Question: Only the Self.

Papaji: Only the Self everywhere! The 'not-Self' doesn't exist. And the Self is not absent at all! So you will se Self everywhere. When I say everywhere, it is nowhere. Nowhere itself. Because no distance is involved. No here and somewhere. Self alone is total awareness of Self.

All the wave, eddies, drops and bubbles in the ocean are the ocean. So, according to your question , "I see the ocean", is saying, "I see the ocean within myself but not in the waves or other eddies, tides, bubbles. There I do not see." So you have to see first the ocean within the ocean, Self within the Self. And this will include everything else. You will contain everything.

The Self contains everything. There is nothing apart from it. This is why you can call it emptiness. There is nothing beyond emptiness. All are empty. Nothing ever exists.

When you see something existing, it is not other than you. So, wherever there is an idea or concept of duality, of something else, there is confusion there about this. There is no duality at all. Oneness and wholeness is all.

If we accept duality, then there must be frontiers between the two, and then it cannot be limitless. There will be a division between duality and union. So, there cannot be any divisions or frontiers in limitless Reality or in Truth or emptiness. There are no frontiers. This is seeing Self everywhere!

Question: I have just come from a very busy culture and very busy life in San Francisco - a life and culture filled with stress, noise, choices, confusion, and so much doing and activity. Suddenly, I come here and suddenly, there is just Self. Everything turns back to the Self. It is so simple. I am struck by the simplicity of your guidance. Just immediately! So simple. Just paying attention to the Self. How will it be when I go back to San Francisco?

Papaji: Simplicity will not be lost. You cannot lose simplicity. Simplicity is nature.

Question: We forget that.

Papaji: It will not forget you. You may forget you, but she will not forget you. She is very chaste.

Question: I will try to remember that.

Papaji: It is the easiest and simplest of everything that you do, even easier than breathing. Easier than the breath that you inhale or exhale. For here you are neither to inhale nor exhale. Where does the inhalation and exhalation take place? You inhale, and it stops. You exhale, and it stops. And there, this is what you are. In between the inhaling and exhaling. Not even the effort to inhale or exhale is needed.

Or, from where does thought arise? There must be some activity for the thought to arise and go somewhere. But the source doesn't go, doesn't come - it is as it is. How simple it is. [much laughter] I have to laugh sometimes because I see fish in the river who say, "I am thirsty". Saying "I want enlightenment" is the same thing. [more laughter]

What is near and easy you don't pay any attention to. What is difficult and far - the moon, Mt. Everest - you are attentive to. No one arrived at the Self this way.

"Who am I?" Investigate it. Start with the question itself. First investigate 'who'. Next, investigate 'am'. Next, investigate 'I'. When you return to the 'I', the question will disappear and no answer will be there.

That is your answer. That no answer is the answer. The river returns to the source from which it arises - the ocean - and disappears. No further enquiry to search for the river is needed. The river becomes the source.

We are all returning to the source. Every sentence that we speak returns. Every activity is moving towards itself. You only have to be aware and your journey will be ended. We are in the source itself. Even if you don't try, you are already there. Make this choice. Choose "I am free", and you are free. Choose "I am bound", and you are bound.

It is your choice. You choose to be bound. You choose to suffer. So if you have the choice, choose happiness and freedom. Let it be a good choice of love.

When all other choices have failed miserably and the result is suffering, we have been cheated. So let us go the other way. Nothing known has ever given us lasting happiness so far. Anything that has name and form is not permanent. Let us try nameless and formless emptiness this time, in this blessed span of life.

Question: I make it so complicated when I think "What is the Self? You make it sound so simple. You say, "I am the Self".

Papaji: Yes. This simplicity is too difficult for you to digest.

Question: I am looking for a concept of Self instead of "I am the Self".

Papaji: You need not make any speculation or conceptualisation. This is the does itself and you have to agree. You cannot disagree. Can you speak to anyone else and say, "I am not Self"? And if you do, what will he think of you? [laughs]

When you are through the word 'I' you are complete. 'I' contains everything. It is sufficient. If you call yourself by the name 'I' there will be no difficulty. You will be Eternity. No death can touch you. Just remain 'I'. That's all you have to do. How difficult is it? What is the difficulty in baptising yourself "I am I"? That's all.

Question: I was very touched yesterday when you spoke of obedience. Living obedience every second, obedience to that every second.

Papaji: Yes.

Question: Obedience implies a duality, doesn't it?

Papaji: It is your own Self. Where is the duality?

Question: Only Self.

Papaji: You love your Self. Is it not obedience?

The river merging, the river discharging into the ocean - is it not obedience? Externally, you can call it obedience, going back to meet herself. You can call it obedience, or you can call it return to the source, according to your temperament. And the ocean is happy to receive you.

If obedience is given o anyone else then you call it duality. But where is duality? You have two hands, two feet, ten fingers, a nose . . . how many parts to this body, but when you say 'I', is it duality?

When you see your face in the mirror, are there two persons? When you see the Truth you know there has never been duality. Right from the beginning until the end of the universe.

Question: I was thinking of the Self creating multiplicity for its own enjoyment.

Papaji: When you cross the ocean you will see the emptiness of unity. When you dream you see many different people; of many different ages, and you see mountains that are millions of years old and different stars or whatever. And when you are awake, was what you saw in the dream unity or multiplicity?

Question: A dream within the unity.

Papaji: When you wake up, unity also goes. Duality goes also. So when you wake up from this waking sleep you return to emptiness. Whenever we see objects we are dreaming. And when we are dreaming, this means we are also sleeping. So you have to wake up with a shout: "I want to be free!" With this shout you will wake up and everything goes. Otherwise, you will be reborn again and again in endless cycles of aeons.

Question: Is enlightenment, or Self-realisation, just an awareness, a self-evident awareness of being?

Papaji: Yes, it is awareness. Total awareness of being, same thing. No difference. Total awareness. Everything is there. And you are that awareness.

Question: I have this awareness. Yet, as everybody knows, your realisation is much deeper than mine. What is the difference?

Papaji: You make a difference. Otherwise, there is no difference.

Question: If I were to sit there, where you are, after one week nobody would come here anymore.

Papaji: You can try. Come here. [everyone laughs] When I asked the difference, my Master removed my difference and I accepted it.

Question: Maybe this is the point. I do not accept enough. But I have it.

Papaji: Do not accept enough? [laughs] I accepted it and then there was no problem. If you accept there will be no problem. If you accept "I am free", then you are free. If you accept "I am not free", you are not free.

Question: Yesterday, you said everyone must one day face the Truth. If I freely believe, then I am enlightened?

Papaji: No! "I am" does not need your belief or disbelief! From the "I am" there is no difference. Fully accept "I am", that's all. If you have some grades of acceptance, that is, "Slowly I will try to accept, I will practise to accept", then you will slowly accept. It depends on you. It will not change.

Enlightenment will not change today, tomorrow, the next day. It is the same. Get it now, or after one year, or in this life span. It will not change.

You are not accepting it. Accept it fully and where is the problem? You are already free. Who tells you that you are not free? You are not opening to it. You are afraid to even utter "I am free". I do not know what that fear is.

When people say, "I am bound, I am suffering, I am miserable", then they feel free to speak. "I am free! I am deathless" nobody speaks. Whose fault is this? Whatever you say, whatever you think, is going to happen. It will be fulfilled, now or tomorrow. If you think "I am free", then you are free.

People don't fully desire freedom. How many people desire freedom? I tell you that you are already free and you don't accept it. You want to do something. Freedom doesn't need any effort. Other things may need effort. Freedom is free. Free of your efforts.

Question: So no more struggle, just accept it.

Papaji: Then it will be there. When you don't make any effort it is there. When you try to catch it, it goes further away, because you are making an effort for the thing that is already there.

Question: That is what I have learned from you. I am so thankful.

Papaji: [laughs] Very nice. You learned it here, then your work is finished. If you don't make any effort whatsoever you are that itself.

Question: This morning I was lying on my bed and I had many doubts bout what I am doing here and many, many thoughts. And suddenly I felt, "But what is this? I am lying on my bed and that is it." All the doubts suddenly went away and I felt very calm inside.

Papaji: That is the present moment. How long did you stay in the present moment and what did you do to lose it?

Question: I tried to analyse what had happened.

Papaji: Whatever is too near is difficult to attend to. The eyes see everything. But the eyes do not see themselves. Like this, the Self through the mind sees all the world, but the mind doesn't return back home to be the Self.

Question: How do we overcome fear?

Papaji: By giving up all practices in the direction.

Question: At that moment when the fear is thick [snaps fingers] what do you do?

Papaji: At that moment between when you placed your fingers together and the snaps, what did you do? Where did the sound of the snap come from?

This sound came from undoing it. Do it [places fingers in position for snap], then undo. All that you have done, heard, seen and read - for a moment, forget about this and tell me what is your face? What do you see? By simply undoing, what do you arrive at?

Question: Nothing.

Papaji: Ah. That is the return to your question: how to do? Undo and where do you arrive? A distance between thought and thought. This dive is the same as nothingness. When you are absolutely happy, this is the same as nothingness. When you are absolutely happy to meet your beloved after twenty years, what is the thought in your mind? No thought.

Surrounded by nothingness you have to do nothing. You have to do nothing to be who you are. Nothing at all.

To become something, of course, to become a doctor is different. This is not a return to your true nature. You are always here. You deny it. You don't accept your greatness.

Being Eternity itself. Reality itself, how can you say, "I am suffering in this body?"

What can you do without 'I'? Wherever you go, who is there? You can't lose this even in suffering. "I suffer", you say. Try to leave. Breath in breath, who is more related to you?