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RAMAKANT  MAHARAJ

REALITY  HAS  NOTHING  TO  DO  WITH  WORDS



Let there be peace and love among all beings of the universe. OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.

reality and knowledge | body and illusion

You have to have the conviction:
"I am totally unconcerned with the world."



AMAKANT  Maharaj is a direct disciple of the late Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and spent 19 years with him. From 1962, he visited Nisargadatta Maharaj and listened to his lectures regularly, until his master's Mahasamadhi in 1981. During the last decade or so at his ashram in Nashik, Ramakant Maharaj has been introducing devotees from around the world to the ultimate Truth.


Ramakant Maharaj: Why all the struggle and fighting to understand words and meanings, all this intellectual analysis, comparisons and conclusions? Reality has nothing to do with words, and nothing to do with the intellect. It is beyond all body-knowledge.

You can't say how you were prior to beingness.
There were no words, no knowledge, nothing.
Words cannot describe "nothing".

Spiritual knowledge is OK for the body-form, for as long as the body-form exists. When the body-form disappears, who knows what will happen? After conviction, this knowledge [jnana] comes quick and sharp, very quickly, with an edge. When this happens, there is no longer any need for peace or happiness.

Happiness and peace are for the body,
Because existence in the body-form is intolerable.


The moment you are convinced that the body-form is not your ultimate Truth, then whatever "negative" thing may happen to the body, is viewed with some distance, like something that has happened to your neighbour's child, and not to you. You will feel it because this body is a material body. At the same time though, you will not be involved because it is your neighbour's child, and not you.

Detachment is one of the signs of realisation.



Question: Before this stage, there is a strong sense of ownership, that people own their bodies which is very important.

Maharaj: Oh yes! But not ownership, you are not the owner. It is the five elements. You are staying on a rental basis. It is just the borrowing force of the body: you are borrowing water, borrowing food. For a few years you have a license, then the license is extended, Keep Out! As soon as you stop providing food and water?

Question: Then you get thrown out of your house!

Maharaj: It is a cage, not a house. You are staying in a cage and chewing a carrot. It may be a golden cage, silver cage, brass cage, whatever comes one's way. Rich people make a golden cage, and the poor people get an iron cage.

Question: It is still a cage.

Maharaj: The sage is staying within that cage. It is a "sage-cage". The moment you have conviction, you will break open that cage. I'm giving you courage:

You are to leave! Open the cage!
Open it wide!
You are a free bird!


These are the ways of conviction, using stories, various words, metaphors and analogies. But listen to me! The whole of spiritual science is just talking about this unborn child.

At the initial stage, people do listen.
But afterwards, there are not so many
Who continue to go deeper and deeper into the Reality.
They much prefer to dissect the teachings
And contest the words that have been used to express them.

When it comes to the crunch, generally, people are not so keen to turn within and be quiet. They are more comfortable with the old ways of body-knowledge. They find it easier to discuss and debate the meaning of Reality. This is pointless!

Reality is not up for discussion or debate.

This is why I ask everyone the same question: "What is your conclusion after reading all the spiritual books?" If you are fearless, then OK, you will hopefully be fearless when the time comes to leave the body. But make sure! If fear is still roaming around you, then all your literary pursuits have been a waste of time.

Trembling in the face of fear, is not knowledge.
Knowledge has to be useful to you on your deathbed.


Spirituality makes you fearless, with the result that you have spontaneous peace and happiness. Just like, if you have no money in your pocket, you have no reason to be afraid of the thief! Let the thief come! Your pocket is empty! Now that you have conviction, it will help you at this time. There will be no fear, nothing, just peace. Some day or other, you are to leave this house.

Every day you are to say to yourself,
"This house is not mine."
Forget it!

You have an opportunity to use this body to know your Selfless Self, and how you were prior to beingness. Every moment in your life is very, very important. Every moment in your life is very, very important. Otherwise, there will be another dream, another dream, another dream.

You are to come out of this vicious circle.
You can do it with your own power.
Break the vicious circle with your own power.
You can break it because
You are ultimate Reality.

Don't sign anything blindly again! You are unborn. Be cautious! Don't ignore Reality because of pressures from external forces, invisible forces. Don't ignore Reality because of spiritual forces, physical forces, mental forces, logical forces, intellectual forces.

Don't ignore Reality.

Everyone's trying to impress his own ideas in the name of the masters. Generally, it is expected that you nod your head to them and say, "Correct, correct". Not you! Not you, not you any more!

Now you can decide what is correct or incorrect,
Authentic or inauthentic,
Using the mirror of knowledge,
In the light of that mirror of knowledge,
You can discriminate and decide.

You have conviction! You may need to use some words, just remember that words are not ultimate Truth.

Don't become a victim of words again.
Don't fall into that trap again
.
It happens. I have seen it happening.

Question: I am not going to be seduced by any books or teachers, Maharaj. You don't have to worry about that. I understand their body-knowledge limitations. And why should I look for book-knowledge, when Self-knowledge is unfolding as never before?

Maharaj: Very nice! We have created the words and given them their meanings. We are using words all the time. Take the words, "God" and "donkey". We say "God" is a deity, whereas "donkey" is an animal. If we were to say that "Donkey means Deity", what happens? Nothing! It is simply the words that have changed, not the essence or substance. Forget about the words. Be with Reality! Have a nice time, enjoy your spirituality.

Be quiet and happy!



REALITY  AND  KNOWLEDGE


Except yourself there is no God, no Brahman, no Atman, no Paramatman, no master.

Know yourself in the real sense. We're knowing ourselves in body form. It's not your identity. Your identity is unidentified, invisible, anonymous identity. So your spontaneous presence is the cause of the projection of the world, so you are ultimate Truth, you are unborn. Devotees are people that want some happiness, peace of mind, tension-free life, fearless life. These things can happen once you know yourself in the real sense. You're totally unborn but you're thinking I am born and I am going to die. That concept is an illusory thought. True knowledge will help you realise what is the ultimate Truth, final Truth.

After knowing yourself in a real sense, you will be completely out of fear. Knowing "I am unborn", there is no fear of death and birth. There is no birth and death. You are beyond knowledge, beyond "words and worlds". This is conviction, enlightenment, realisation – you become one with the final Truth

That anonymous, that invisible, unidentified identity, called Parabrahman, Brahman, Atman for which there is no death or birth, no need of salvation. Questions of heaven and hell never arise. There is no prarabdha [concept of accumulated deeds from previous incarnations, brought into the present lifetime as "karma"], no religion. This is body attachment, body related. It came across [rises] with the body form. "This and that" – all have to do with the bodily state. It came across as the body form.

Outside of yourself there is no God, no Brahman – God is in you and nowhere else. This is very liberating because it means outside of myself there is no God, no nothing!. I am the Source of everything! You are the Source, you are the power. Enter the cave and uncover your treasure.

Be practical, everything is in you, but you are searching here and there. You are ignoring the searcher, you are ignoring the finder. You have tremendous power, but you are unaware it. You are underestimating yourself, saying "I am man or woman." That is not your identity. This identity is to be dissolved some day or other.

There is no mind at all! This is exceptional knowledge. This is Reality. It's not book knowledge. It's not literal knowledge. It is beyond everything, beyond knowledge, everything, beyond imaginations. Nisargadatta Maharaj used to say, "How you were prior to beingness, remain like that." So how were you prior to beingness? You were "not knowing". You were totally unaware of everything. You did not know anything.

It is invisible, anonymous and unidentified. It is That with which we feel, without which you can't utter a single word, without which you can't raise your hand. No movement can be there without Its power. That spirit is called Brahman, Atman, Paramatman, God, Parabrahman. Names are yours. What is the content of spirit? It is not your death, nor your birth... Just That, just That!

Self-enquiry, Self-knowledge and Self-realisation are the set stages. Everybody's reading so many books, they are talking about Brahman, Atman, Paramatman, God. It is very easy to talk. But one should question oneself. Out of all this knowledge, "What am I? What have I got?" Question whether I am completely free from the fear of death? Whether I have complete peace, whether I have complete happiness without any material cause? One should question oneself. If the answer is "No", then it is only literal knowledge that one has – both literal and little.

If you are strongly dedicated, it is not difficult to absorb the teachings. You know better. This external identity is not going to remain constant. Conviction is essential for spirituality. Some spirit is there through which we are talking. Some power is there working. We are looking, we are hearing, all activities are for the body, all are for the body. Some power is there, some strength is there, some spirit is there, just like electricity.

There is the story of the rope and the snake. You are afraid of the snake. It is a matter of fact that there's no snake, it is a rope. Similarly, we are afraid of our death. Who is dying? Who is taking birth? Because [you realise] there is nobody, [you are] totally unconcerned, totally indifferent. This presence is spontaneous just like the sky. Out of presence the entire world is projected, we merge. Without presence we can't see the world, we can't see anything.


BODY  AND  ILLUSION


Prior to body form, nothing was there. Prior to beingness, to whom do these individual names belong? Just to stimulate a peaceful life, religions and the principle of religion were formed. This is the essential principle form, frame – "praying form". It is OK. The secret of your life, the gist of your life you must know, understand, realise what it means. Then only you will be totally fearless.

Your master is your reflection. As a matter of fact there is no master, no disciple. The sum total is that all of this is a dream which has come out of body relations – which you are not, which you were not, and which you are never going to be. So, how do you get rid of the body illusion?

You are the architect of your own life. Eventually you come to know that everything is a dream. In other words, you are acting in some drama/movie – you are the hero, heroine or villain – and even after two and a half hours, you know this is just my role. I am still doing my role, but there is not any connection with that role. Similarly, we are accepting these roles, like "man" or "woman", without question. It [Reality] has nothing to do with all these concepts. You are unborn.

You should ask yourself, "Why should I fear death when it is common for everybody?" You say, "I can't escape death". Who is dying? Who is living? Just enquire. Nobody is dying, nobody is taking birth. We're thinking from the body point of view, blindly accepting all these concepts, illusory concepts: man or woman, this religion or that religion, last birth, next birth, present birth, rebirth... so many concepts, illusions.

You've blindly signed and accepted all these illusions. You have not committed any crime yet you are signing "I am a criminal." [You are guilty of accepting a false identity of an individual person.] Masters say you have not committed any crime, but you sign "I am a criminal."

"I" is illusion,"you" is illusion,"Brahman" is illusion. Entire world is illusion.

Just think how I was prior to beingness? At that time there was not any God, Brahman, Atman – these are the words. After dissolving the body, what is my status? You say "I don't know." So all these requirements for these things, God, Brahman, Atman are body related. To have these, there is a material cause. That is illusion, so we have to come out of the illusion.

After the death of the body, what remains? There is no experience, no experiencer. No knowledge, nothing is there. Simple. Simple! After the disappearance of the body what remains? Nothing! But for some persons for whom body is their world, for them, all is the body. Suppose his body disappears. How is his world coming, appearing then?

Body is having some time limit but you are everywhere, you are Omnipresent, just like the sky. If at all you want to compare yourself, let it be like the sky. We are bound by the body knowledge, food-body knowledge, therefore we are trying to find out where there is happiness, where we can find complete peace. Complete peace and happiness are only words.

How is this world for me? It is merged with nothing. Something merged with nothing. And out of nothing, there is something. They are interrelated. Just for conversation we are using some words. All these relations, conditions, sensations are there. All expectations are there. All needs are there. I am totally unconcerned with the world. They are all body things. All body related. We want peace. Who wants? We want happiness, more happiness. Who? We want a tension-free life. Tension-free life, happiness, peace. We are not knowing all these prior to beingness. They came across with the body. They are the bodily requirements, not the spirit requirements. The body dissolves. We fear that because of our attachment to the body. No one wants death, everyone is afraid of death. But when you come to know the truth of death, there is no fear.

You have to have the conviction: "I am totally unconcerned with the world."

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