Talk 453.

[Guest guest]

Talk 453.

 

Three ladies are on a short visit here, Mrs. Hearst from New Zealand,

Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Allison from London.

 

One asked: What is the best way to work for world peace?

M.: What is world? What is peace, and who is the worker? The world is

not in your sleep and forms a projection of your mind in your jagrat. It

is therefore an idea and nothing else. Peace is absence of disturbance.

The disturbance is due to the arising of thoughts in the individual,

who is only the ego rising up from Pure Consciousness.

To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts and to abide

as Pure Consciousness. If one remains at peace oneself, there is

only peace all about.

 

D.: If it is a question of doing something one considers wrong, and hereby

saving someone else from a great wrong, should one do it or refrain?

M.: What is right and wrong? There is no standard by which to

judge something to be right and another to be wrong. Opinions

differ according to the nature of the individual and according to

the surroundings. They are again ideas and nothing more. Do not

worry about them. But get rid of thoughts. If you always remain

in the right, then right will prevail in the world.

 

D.: What should one think of when meditating?

M.: What is meditation? It is expulsion of thoughts. You are perturbed

by thoughts which rush one after another. Hold on to one thought

so that others are expelled. Continuous practice gives the necessary

strength of mind to engage in meditation.

Meditation differs according to the degree of advancement of the

seeker. If one is fit for it one might directly hold the thinker; and

the thinker will automatically sink into his source, namely Pure

Consciousness.

If one cannot directly hold the thinker one must meditate on God;

and in due course the same individual will have become sufficiently

pure to hold the thinker and sink into absolute Being.

 

One of the ladies was not satisfied with this answer and asked for

further elucidation.

Sri Bhagavan then pointed out that to see wrong in another is

one’s own wrong. The discrimination between right and wrong

is the origin of the sin. One’s own sin is reflected outside and the

individual in ignorance superimposes it on another. The best course

for one is to reach the state in which such discrimination does not

arise. Do you see wrong or right in your sleep? Did you not exist

in sleep? Be asleep even in the wakeful state. Abide as the Self and

remain uncontaminated by what goes on around.

 

Moreover, however much you might advise them, your hearers may

not rectify themselves. Be in the right yourself and remain silent.

Your silence will have more effect than your words or deeds. That

is the development of will-power. Then the world becomes the

Kingdom of Heaven, which is within you.

 

D.: If one is to withdraw oneself, why is there the world?

M.: Where is the world and where does one go withdrawing oneself?

Does one fly in an aeroplane beyond space? Is it withdrawal?

The fact is this: the world is only an idea. What do you say: Are

you within the world or is the world within you?

D.: I am in the world. I am part of it.

M.: That is the mistake. If the world were to exist apart from you, does

it come and tell you that it exists? No, you see it exists. You see it

when you are awake and not when asleep. If it exists apart from you,

it must tell you so and you must be aware of it even in your sleep.

D.: I became aware of it in my jagrat.

M.: Do you become aware of yourself and then of the world? Or do

you become aware of the world and then of yourself? Or do you

become aware of both simultaneously?

D.: I must say simultaneously.

M.: Were you or were you not, before becoming aware of yourself? Do

you admit your continued existence before and when you become

aware of the world?

D.: Yes.

M.: If always existing yourself, why are you not aware of the world

in sleep if it exists apart from the Self?

D.: I become aware of myself and of the world also.

M.: So you become aware of yourself. Who becomes aware of whom?

Are there two selves?

D.: No.

M.: So you see that it is wrong to suppose that awareness has passing

phases. The Self is always aware. When the Self identifies itself as

the seer it sees objects. The creation of the subject and the object is

the creation of the world. Subjects and objects are creations in Pure

Consciousness. You see pictures moving on the screen in a cinema

show. When you are intent on the pictures you are not aware of the

screen. But the pictures cannot be seen without the screen behind.

The world stands for the pictures and Consciousness stands for

the screen. The Consciousness is pure. It is the same as the Self

which is eternal and unchanging. Get rid of the subject and object

and Pure Consciousness will alone remain.

 

D.: But why did Pure Brahman become Isvara and manifest the

universe if He did not mean it?

M.: Did Brahman or Isvara tell you so? You say that Brahman became

Isvara, and so on. This too you did not say in your sleep. Only in

your jagrat state you speak of Brahman, Isvara and universe. The

jagrat state is a duality of subject and object - owing to the rise of

thoughts. So they are your thought creations.

D.: But the world exists in my sleep even though I am not aware.

M.: What is the proof of its existence?

D.: Others are aware of it.

M.: Do they say so to you when you are in sleep or do you become

aware of others who see the world in your sleep?

D.: No, but God is always aware.

M.: Leave God alone. Speak for yourself. You do not know God. He

is only what you think of Him. Is he apart from you? He is that

Pure Consciousness in which all ideas are formed. You are that

Consciousness.