Nisargadatta Maharaj

[Guest guest]

I Am That. Chapter 22

 

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 perceivables

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 any 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.