I Am That .chapter 22

[Guest guest]

Life is Love and Love is Life

 

Q: Is the practice of Yoga conscious? Or, can it

be quite unconscious, below the threshold of awareness?

 

M: In the case of a beginner the practice of Yoga is often

deliberate and requires great determination. But those who have

been practicing sincerely for many years, are intent on self-realization

all the time, whether conscious of it or not. Unconscious

sadhana is most effective because it is spontaneous and steady.

 

Q: What is the position of the man who was a sincere student of

Yoga for some time and then got discouraged and abandoned

all efforts?

 

M: What a man appears to do, or not do, is often deceptive.

His apparent lethargy may be just a gathering of strength. The

causes of our behavior are very subtle. One must not be quick

to condemn, not even to praise. Remember that Yoga is the work

of the inner self (vyakta) on the outer self (vyakti). All that the

outer does is merely in response to the inner.

 

Q: Still the outer helps.

 

M: How much can it help and in what way? It has some control

over the body and can improve its posture and breathing, Over

the minds thoughts and feelings it has little mastery, for it is

itself the mind. It is the inner that can control the outer. The outer

will be wise to obey.

 

Q: If it is the inner that is ultimately responsible for man's

spiritual development, why is the outer so much exhorted and

encouraged?

 

M: The outer can help by keeping quite and free from desire and

fear. You would have noticed that all advice to the outer is in the

form of negations: don't, stop, refrain, forgo, give up, sacrifice,

surrender, see the false as false. Even the little description of

reality that is given is through denial - 'not this, not this " ,

(neti, neti). All positives belong to the inner self, as all absolutes-to

Reality.

 

Q: How are we to distinguish the inner from the outer in actual

experience?

 

M: The inner is the source of inspiration, the outer is moved by memory. The

source is untraceable, while all memory begins

somewhere. Thus the outer is always determined, while the inner

cannot be held in words. The mistake of students consists in their

imagining the inner to be something to get hold of, and forgetting

that all perceivable are transient and, therefore, unreal. Only

that which makes perception possible, call it Life or Brahman, or

what you like, is real.

 

Q: Must Life have a body for its self-expression?

 

M: The body seeks to live. It is not life that needs the body; it is

the body that needs life.

 

Q: Does life do it deliberately?

 

M: Does love act deliberately? Yes and no. Life is love and love is

life. What keeps the body together but love? What is desire but

love of the self? What is fear but the urge to protect? And what is

knowledge but the love of truth? The means and forms may be

wrong, but the motive behind is always love - love of the me

and the mine. The me and the mine may be small, or may explode

and embrace the universe, but love remains.

 

Q: The repetition of the name of God is very common in India. Is

there any virtue in it?

 

M: When you know the name of a thing. or a person, you can

find it easily. By calling God by His name you make Him come

to you.

 

Q: In what shape does He come?

 

M: According to your expectations. If you happen to be unlucky

and some saintly soul gives you a mantra for good luck and you

repeat it with faith and devotion, your bad luck is bound to turn.

Steady faith is stronger than destiny. Destiny is the result of

causes, mostly accidental, and is therefore loosely woven.

Confidence and good hope will over come it easily.

 

Q: When a mantra is chanted, what exactly happens?

 

M: The sound of a mantra creates the shape which will embody

the Self. The Self can embody and shape - and operate through

it. After all, the Self is expressing itself in action - and a mantra

is primarily energy is action. It acts on you, it acts on your

surroundings.

 

Q: The mantra is traditional. Must it be so?

 

M: Since times immemorial a link was created between certain

words and corresponding energies and reinforce by numberless

repetitions. It is just like a road to walk on. It is an easy way -

only faith is needed. You trust the road to take you to your

destination.

 

Q: In Europe there is no tradition of a mantra, except in some

contemplative orders. Of what use it is to a modern young

Westerner?

 

M: None, unless he is very much attracted. For him the right

procedure is to adhere to the thought that he is the ground of all

knowledge, the immutable and perennial awareness of all that

happens to the senses and the mind. If he keeps it in mind all the

time, aware and alert, he is bound to break the bounds of non-

awareness and emerge into pure life, light and love. The idea -

" I am the witness only " - will purify the body and the mind and

open the eye of wisdom. Then man goes beyond illusion and his

heart is free of all desires. Just like ice turns to water, and water

to vapor, and vapor dissolves in air and disappears in space,

so does the body dissolve into pure awareness (chidakash), then

into pure being (paramakash), which is beyond all existence and

non-existence.

 

Q: The realized man eats, drinks and sleeps. What makes him do so?

 

M: The same power that move the universe, moves him too.

 

Q: All are moved by the same power: what is the difference?

 

M: This only: The realized man knows what others merely hear,

but don't experience. Intellectually they may seem convinced,

but in action they betray their bondage. while the realized man

is always right.

 

Q: Everybody says 'I am'. The realized man too says 'I am.

What is the difference?

 

M: The difference is in the meaning attached to the worlds 'I am'.

With the realized man the experience: 'I am the world, the world

is mine', is supremely valid - he thinks, feels and acts integrally

and in unity with all that lives. He may not even know the theory

and practice of self-realization, and be born and bred free of

religious and metaphysical notions. But there will not be the least

flaw in his understanding and compassion.

 

Q: I may come across a beggar, naked and hungry and ask him:

'Who are you'? He may answer: 'I am the Supreme Self'. 'Well'.

I say, 'since you are the Supreme, change your present state.'

What will he do?

 

M: He will ask you: 'Which state? What is there that needs changing? What is

wrong with me?'

 

Q: Why should he answer so?

 

M: Because he is no longer bound by appearances, he does not

identify himself with the name and shape. He uses memory, but

memory cannot use him.

 

Q: Is not all knowledge based on memory?

 

M: Lower knowledge - yes. Higher knowledge, knowledge of

Reality, is inherent in man's true nature.

 

Q: Can I say that I am not what I am conscious of, nor am

I consciousness itself?

 

M: As long as you are a seeker, better cling to the idea that

you are pure consciousness, free from all content. To go beyond

consciousness is the supreme state.

 

Q: The desire for realization, does it originate in consciousness, or beyond?

 

M: In consciousness of course. All desire is born from memory

and is within the realm of consciousness. What is beyond is clear

of all striving. The very desire to go beyond the consciousness is

still in consciousness.

 

Q: Is there any trace, or imprint, of the beyond on consciousness?

 

M: No, there cannot be.

 

Q: Then, what is the link between the two? How can a passage

be found between two states which have nothing in common? Is

not pure awareness the link between the two?

 

M: Even pure awareness is a form of consciousness.

 

Q: Then what is beyond? Emptiness?

 

M: Emptiness again refers only to consciousness. Fullness and

emptiness are relative terms. The Real is really beyond - beyond

not in relation to consciousness, but beyond all relations of what -

even kind. the difficulty comes with the world 'state. The Real is

not a state of something else - it is not a state of mind or

consciousness or psyche - nor is it something that has a beginning

and end, being and not being. All opposites are contained in

it - but is it not in the pair of opposites. You must not take it to

be the end of a transition. It is itself, after the consciousness

as such is no more. The world 'I am man'. or 'I am God', have

no meaning. Only in silence and in darkness can it be heard

and seen.