Consciousness and the Absolute

[Guest guest]

June 21, 1981 P.M.

 

 

 

Questioner: How can I stay stable in awareness?

 

Maharaj: You know you are. That itself is awareness. If you think that you

have to be aware, then it becomes an experiential state. You want to experience

something. Don't recognize you body as yourself. That is all right for your

daily worldly affairs, identifying with the body, but when you have to

understand yourself, don't understand that you are the body. You have the

knowledge "I Am" That itself means you are.

 

Awareness is that state in which the consciousness subsides into itself.

 

This body is the expression of the product of the food consumed. Material

is consumed in the form of food and this is the result. When the food becomes

less and less, the body is bound to become emaciated, become thin. This is not

your identity. This is not your image. This is a tiffin box {referring to the

body}. Why has this face gone lean? Because the food supply has been reduced.

The body you are not. The waking state you are not. The deep sleep state you

are not. You know the waking state. Since you know the waking state you are not

the waking state. You know the deep sleep state; therefore, you are not the

deep sleep state.

 

Q: I am lost.

 

M: That Ultimate "you" can never be lost. Whatever you have lost, you have

lost only the words. Who told you that you are lost? You know you are, "I Am".

 

The moment the feeling "I Am" appears the world also appears. "You are"

is

not alone in isolation. You are part and parcel of the world knowledge.

 

In consciousness hierarchy there are three stages:

 

1. Jivataman is the one who identifies himself with the body-mind. One who

things I am a body, a personality, an individual apart from the world. He

excludes and isolates himself from the world and as a separate personality

because of identification with the body and the mind.

 

2.. Next only the beingness, or the consciousness, which is the world. " I

Am" means my whole world. Just being and the world. Together with the

beingness the world is also felt - that is Atman.

3.. The Ultimate principal that knows this beingness cannot be termed at all.

If cannot be approached or conditioned by any words. That is the Ultimate

state.

The hierarchy I explain is common words, like: I have a grandson {that is

Jivatma}. I have a son and I am the grandfather. Grandfather is the source of

the son and grandson.

 

The three stages cannot be termed as knowledge. The term knowledge comes

at beingness level. I have passes of the essence of my teachings.

 

With what identity do you recognize yourself now? With what identity did

you come into this world? With what identity would you like to quit this world?

Normally people cling to this bodily identity but now I have thrown overboard

this identity - you are not the body. I am asking, "What are you? What would

be your identity now, since you are not the body? Whatever you would say in

words would be incorrect, would be wrong.

 

You are tenaciously clinging to the body as yourself. You must have a firm

conviction that you are not the body, and not even the consciousness in the

beingness.

 

Experiment upon yourself. You are witnessing the stick and are you telling

the stick that "I am witnessing you?"

 

Nothing is useful, no talk is useful when one is by oneself. When one

subsides in one's true identity, nothing matters, because noting is. When "I"

subsides, it's all awareness.

 

 

 

jivatman [jeevaatmun]: the individual self

 

 

 

atma (atman) [aatm(un)]: the Self; principle of life and sensation; I AM;

subjective moment of consciousness; in the highest sense, the Universal Spirit

or the Supreme Soul of the Universe