|
Q: They probably
still feel that they can get something from the
illusion.
RM: They wish, but if I tell them that nothing is there,
then? Then, they make a face like this (makes a sad face).
What to do? "Master says it's nothing, everything is
nothing". What to do? But one who has got some understanding
and who wants the Reality, he accepts. So one should try to
accept that, nothing else.
Mind should be taken to that side (Reality). Turn your mind,
nothing else. One should turn the mind. Mind is the greatest
thing, it makes all the differences. Good man, bad man,
worst man - mind makes the difference. People say, "From day
by day, it's going from bad to worse". Nothing is the
'worst'. According to your mind it happens, no? In our time,
we were getting twelve kilos of rice for 4 rupees. Now, one
kilo is between 52 and 60 rupees! Time changes, so why to
worry? The world is going ahead and ahead. So,
Siddharameshwar Maharaj has written in 1926 that, "The world
is galloping towards hell." One finally goes where? One dies
and everything ends. Nothing remains for him. So you are
always free.
There were freedom fighters fighting for the independence of
India. Once Siddharameshwar Maharaj said, "Don't think that
after gaining independence from the British that it will
rain gold! Rain of water is sure to come. After
independence, you will have to toil more." For example, if
you are under the protection of your father, then do you
have to worry more? No. He looks after everything. But when
you become independent, then you have to worry about
everything - "What to do, how to do it, how to earn money?"
All these questions come in the mind. The mind is like this.
So he said, "Okay, I may be independent, but how much
trouble is there now, you don't see that. Forget the
independence! Reality is always there and everything that is
happening is okay. Nothing is bad and nothing is good, take
this in the mind." If anything goes against your wish, say "
It is for my good, because I am the creator. I have created
this!" That should be the understanding. Why to worry about
anything? If death comes to the body, then say, "It's okay,
I am prepared to die, because I am not that." Who dies?
Nobody dies. Death has no value. Everything is zero and
becomes zero. What is death, tell me? What is here (pointing
to a cupboard)? Light a fire in it and then it becomes zero.
It's the same for everything. What is there? Let everything
be there and understand that it is not true.
Q: So in a sense, should we stop creating things?
RM: Don't create anything! Create your Self (laughs). Find
out Reality, create your Reality more and more. Then,
automatically you will understand that it's nothing, just a
play! Suppose a small boy is playing cards with you. He puts
an eight down, but he says, "King!". "I am the winner", he
then says. Your love is there. You say, "Yes, yes, you win".
Same thing, nothing else. So everybody says, "I am the
winner"! "Yes, yes, you are the winner, I am defeated." Take
it for granted because I don't exist. Who is defeated? When
I don't exist, then who is defeated? Nobody is defeated. You
take it as true and then defeat comes to you. So forget
everything and you are He without doing anything now. Eyes
bring everything, no? Close your eyes then you are He. How
much time does it take? But you don't accept that, so what
to do? When you close your eyes, you are there or not? You
without you, Self without self is there. Why to worry? If
everything becomes zero, you are not going to be zero.
Screen remains always the same. Many pictures come and go.
When the end comes, then all the people go. You pay money,
sit for three hours and still you have to go home without
getting anything (giggles). So this is a fancy of the mind.
Mind fancies always. What fancy will come to him, one cannot
say. Understanding should come, nothing else.
Siddharameshwar Maharaj gave that understanding, so, I am
still living at 87, take it for granted (giggles). Otherwise
I would have died and gone at any time, huh? My body was
always weak. Now I am stronger, I tell you! (giggles) When I
was at school I have taken permission, "I won't go to the
gymnasium and play sports!" I couldn't do it, no? Weak body
was there, what to do? Permission was taken from the
headmaster. "I will sit and look at others doing their
work."
Q: Maharaj, what is awakening?
RM: Awakening is nothing but understanding - a complete
thorough understanding. A clear cut understanding of a thing
is awakening.
Q: And it's a mental understanding?
RM: First, mental is required and then practical is
required. Talent is the greatest thing, intellectual talent.
Without the intellect, one cannot understand. So, you have
to understand with the full intellect and then, that
knowledge, or that understanding should submerge, because
knowledge is a thought. A good thought or a bad thought,
both are thoughts. So, knowledge is a golden thorn, and
ignorance is an ordinary thorn. And it's a bondage, both are
bondage. Suppose your hands have been put in cuffs, maybe
they're iron or maybe golden, but it's still bondage. So,
both are thorns. One should understand and then throw them
away. It is very difficult to throw out the knowledge,
because ego remains up to knowledge. Knowledge is ego,
nothing else. To erase that knowledge, one should say, "I
know nothing." As Socrates said, "I know that I don't know."
In this way I understood that even after understanding, one
should always think of his mind, thoughts, knowledge and
ego. It could come in any time, any moment, you can't say.
One should always be on the alert, because ego is such a
thing, it can erupt at any moment.
Q: This discrimination, between real and unreal, does it
just come to the person or do you have to achieve it?
RM: One has to achieve it. Mind is just like a knife - it
should be sharpened at every moment. If the master is there,
he sharpens your mind. When he's not there, you have to
sharpen your own mind. Because the illusion is such, one can
be thrown off from any place. Illusion wants that the person
be under 'my' control. He opposes illusion, so the illusion
doesn't like him and tries in any way to take him down, or
attract him in anyway. So, it is said, "You have to walk on
a sword. Any little mistake, and you will get cut." In this
way, one should go, one can go. Reality is not to be
achieved, it is there. The farmer works, everything comes
up, finally the corn comes, but still he has to work and
harvest it. In the same way here also. After receiving or
understanding the final Reality, one should be on his guard.
After a thorough understanding, then nothing is
required.
Q: So, is that the advice you give to your disciples?
RM: I teach them that when doubts come, I have to solve
their doubts.
Q: You have to solve them?
RM: I must. Always, because I give sermons every Sunday in
Bombay. For the majority, their doubts are automatically
cleared in the next sermon. One who has got more doubts, he
can come and ask, and I give them my full co-operation. I
don't believe in these big, big fuss's - that one should
take an appointment, and one should do this. It's all
nonsense. Why? When you say it is all an illusion, why do
you make the illusion more in you? (laughs) Ego only wants
that, no? "I am a great saint and they should ask me..." and
all these things, it's all nothing! One should put his own
self at the feet, which means, in the teaching of the
master. If one can do that, then I can take him up to the
door of the Reality, and after that, he has to experience.
There, I am not there. Because your master and the
experience, both are one. There is no duality, there is no
duality. Is there anything more?
Q: I have a few more questions. One is, can the individual
all of a sudden choose to wake up, or does the awakening
happen only when the time is right?
RM: What the master teaches, if you have got full faith in
it, why then can one not learn? It's not so that it will
take time, or suddenly it will come. I don't believe in
that. You must have the faith.
Q: And if you don't have that faith?
RM: Then it's useless. Faith is required up to understanding
only. Afterwards, 'no faith' is also required. Suppose you
have got 60 lakhs (6 million) francs in the bank, and I say,
"Keep faith." Is there any meaning in it? You say, "No, I
know I have got it." Once you understand, when a clear cut
understanding comes, then even faith is not required. There
are many steps here. Step by step you have to go up.
'Suddenly', I don't believe in 'suddenly'. Many people say
this and many saints even say it. 'Suddenly', I don't
believe. When you've got 60 lakhs in the bank, why talk of
'suddenly'? You know! If you've forgotten it's my duty to
make you understand.
Q: Would you say that the faith comes when there is
surrender?
RM: Ego should be surrendered.
Q: So as long as there is someone who thinks he is other
than That, then it cannot work?
RM: Yes. The small baby has so much faith in the mother, so
the mother does everything for him. Before he cries, she
gives milk, and everything. In the same way, the master is
also like that. If you've got faith, then nothing is
impossible. Suppose a women falls with a child. When she
gets up, she first sees that the child is not hurt. In the
same way, the master also knows. When one has got the faith,
He knows, so all his misunderstandings and doubts are
cleared by Him. Otherwise, how can 'suddenly' or 'abruptly'
come up? How can it come up? You have to know your Self
only. You only represent or misrepresent your Self. If that
understanding doesn't come then the ego will remain.
Q: So, once you know or once you've tasted, then how can any
doubts arise. Is that what you're saying?
RM: Yes, you become doubtless, no? Once you know, "I am not
this", then? My master told me, "After understanding, if you
want to stay, stay. Stay in the jail if you like, but take
it in your mind that "I am not a victim"". One cannot not
afford to leave the illusory fast, so live there, but
understand that much, "I'm not the victim." So, stay in the
jail but take it for granted, or in the mind, that "I am not
a victim." Ego is such - in very many ways he remains, in
different shapes, in different ways, he remains. So, one
should really be aware, always of understanding, and then,
once you are complete, then there's nothing to worry about.
What you see is illusion. If you understand 'myself' is
illusion, then where does everything remain? People don't
understand. Illusion is nothing, how can it block you? How
can nothing block you?
Q: For you it's an illusion, but for most people it's so
real.
RM: When the master teaches you, you can get the experience.
Experience brings everything. The boy is an ignorant boy,
then he goes to school. Finally, he graduates from the
college as a doctor, or a barrister, or an engineer. He gets
the knowledge. In the same way here, also. Nothing is
impossible in the world, bas. But everything has become
impossible in the world, because people are stealing for
this. You are He, so what is impossible? You don't
understand, you don't take it to heart. That is the
impossibility.
Many people come and ask me, "Where's the master, and what
to do?" Their master is not living at the moment and still
they ask the question, "What can we do?" Somebody said to
me, "I have got three master's - Nisargadatta Master,
Siddharameshwar Master and yourself also." This is a wrong
thing of the mind. Only one sword can stay in one sheath.
Two cannot stay. You must leave either that master and
forget him. That is the main point, nothing else. So I was
loving Lord Krishna like anything, but still I left him
because I saw Siddharameshwar Maharaj. So I always say, "I
saw him and he conquered me." That is the main point in it.
One should have great love for the master and great devotion
also. What he says is correct, if you understand that. At
that time, he taught meditation. He also told us, "You can
see many Gods also. No harm - one can see, but there's no
need for all this nonsense, this is also a trial." I was
very young and so he has to tell me that. I never minded
that thing also. Why should I mind? What he says is correct,
no? I can say now myself, that "I am He now." Very strongly
I can say that "I am He". I don't exist myself. I don't
exist as a master also, not anything. I am He. Master is
also ego. To be a master is also ego. Forget that!
Q: Yesterday, you also mentioned the saying, "This is not
me, this is not me". I find that this is also a beautiful
way.
RM: Yes, exactly. "I am not", you have to say that. "I am"
is very thorny. 'I' never exists. In a dream you become
something, you become 'I', no? When you awake, you say, "Oh
it was wrong." So this (waking state) is a very long dream.
So, seeing the master is required, so that then after you,
yourself have the understanding and will say, "Oh, this is
all illusion, why to worry?" It is very easy and very hard
also, both ways. If the mind accepts, then it is very easy.
Thinking should be changed, nothing else! The track of the
mind - the mind is derailed, like a train. Put it on the
right track, and then it goes!
Q: Could you explain to us what the significance of the
pilgrimage is for you?
R. M.: Significance means - Siddharameshwar Maharaj's last
remains are kept there in Bagewadi. Then, what to do now?
Bodily, he has left. So we go there and worship for
sometime. He is everywhere, so there is nothing to worry
about. Yourself is He. Still, there you have to make the
duality to understand, to realise or cherish something. You
follow me?
Q: So, it helps to make the understanding stronger?
RM.: Yes, yes, yes, understanding. It helps you more. When
you go on the pigrimage, your thoughts all go away. Worldly
thoughts also go away. All are the birds of the same feather
there. So you worship there, you do many things, and that
helps you. That's the meaning of the pilgrimage. And other
things also. We also visited Chimmud, no? You can see how
the pyre was built there - the man who made up his own pyre
and then he slept over it and said, "When my breathing
leaves me, light the fire." And still it stands today. It's
about 18 feet high. It was built over a hundred years ago, a
hundred years have passed away. So, your mind takes you,
drags you there. And you also forget all the worldly
affairs. What to do? So this is the only thing, nothing
else. After understanding, why does he go on a pilrimage?
Where to go and where not to go? So he goes there. If you go
to the cinema then all troubles come, no? Money is required,
first.of all (laughter) Nothing is required to be with Him.
That's the pilgrimage. So, we also visit my master's
birthplace (Pathri), where he took the birth, and he
achieved such Reality, which most people cannot
understand.
Many saints also don't understand, I dare say now!
Ramakrishna Parmahansa was there and some realised person
met him. Ramakrishna told him that he was only worshipping
Kali Kamata. A power, a Godess - her name was Kali. That
person told Ramakrishna, " Take that photo and spit on it,
then only can you realise." These are all worldly affairs.
Worshipping is also a worldly affair, no?. All of these
things, forget them, and then you can understand your Self,
"Who am I?". Otherwise you can't understand. So, my master
also said, "Forget everybody." Idols also. When you go to
church, Christ's body is not there, only the emblem is
there, no? If you worship the emblem only, then you will
become only the emblem. You won't be He. But if you worship
the Reality, then you become the Reality. Christ said, "I am
God", and then his own disciples killed him. At that time
people didn't have a very high intellectual capacity. Their
caliber was very poor and so they could not accept what
Christ said.. So they killed him. "How can he be God?"
Understanding should come. So, Christ taught with
understanding. He said at the end, "Oh my Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they are doing. They kill my
body, but they can not kill me." That's the meaning in it.
In the same way, if anybody comes to you and says, "I'm
going to kill you", you say, "Kill me! It is very good for
me not to remain in the body because I am He". (giggles) As
I have taken the birth I must remain in the body for a
certain time.
So, never worry. Siddharameshwar Maharaj was the right
person, he has given this understanding. So what to do now?
So we do these pilgrimages, we go there and pray. What we
pray here, we pray there as well. We are doing nothing more.
It's just a different way - we all go there at the same
time. Then your mind can be dragged to that side (Reality),
nothing else. So, for that purpose all these things are
required.
|