Sri
Bhagavan on the Illusion of Self
Question : If
self is an illusion, who am I. What is
my real existence?
Bhagavan: You do not exist. That
is the truth. That sense of “I and you”,
the sense of separateness, is an
illusion. It does not really exist. For
example, as you are listening to me, you
are seeing me but you are not hearing
me, and when you hear me, you are not
seeing me. But that is happening so
fast, that you have this illusion that
you are seeing and hearing. The two
senses have got coordinated, like in a
movie, unless you have those 16 shots
moving per second you will not see the
hand movement, in the movie theatre. If
the projector is slowed down it becomes
only like a slide. Similarly, here the
senses are coordinating at a particular
speed whereby you are feeling that you
are seeing, touching as though all these
things are going on at the same time. It
is this illusion that creates the sense
of “Me” and “I”. If this is slowed
down, you all just vanish! So, now you
are there. If I were to slow down your
senses, if you would give me permission,
you would just disappear. You will go
back home minus yourself! But you will
still be very functional, you will in
fact be very efficient. The sense of
separateness would completely be gone.
What remains there is life or you may
call it pure consciousness; the stuff
from which this whole universe is made.
What is there ultimately is
consciousness and that has to only to be
experienced. How can you see yourself?
There is no way to see consciousness,
because you are that. Its true nature is
Ananda and Love. It is a causeless Love.
What you call love is not truly love.
You either beg for love, asking somebody
to give you love, or if you give love it
is because somebody is big or famous or
great or wealthy or you have something
to gain from that. You love your wife or
husband because he or she means
something to you. You possess somebody,
you are attached to somebody. That is
not the love we are talking about. This
love is a causeless love. It is just
there. This can happen only if the “I”
the “self” disappears. It’s a very
simple thing - the senses have to be
slowed down a little bit… and behold;
You are not there! What is there is only
life. You will feel you are one with the
universe, completely one. It is not a
mystical experience. A mystical
experience comes when the kundalini
rises to the chakras, but when it comes
down… the experience is lost. We are not
talking about that. We are talking of a
very robust state of 24 hours
irreversible consciousness. You are
completely gone. To attain this state
you must qualify. The qualification is,
you must set right your relationship.
It takes only 7 minutes for me to give
you that state you perceive everything
without the “Me” or the “I” . For
example: when I look at you people, I
don’t feel you are outside of me. Its as
though all of you are inside of my
belly, I can never see anything as
separate. It’s a fact and reality for
me, and this is how all these 320 people
who have got the state are experiencing.
You can experience it. Somebody is not
outside of you. Strangely the boundaries
of the body cease. You no more can see
it as your hand or your body, Its gone.
The whole thing has become your body, it
is a part of you. It is then that you
have this true love, because it is a
part of you. There is no cause, and
there is no question of the mind
slipping into the past or worrying about
the past or projecting into the future
or thinking about the future. It lives
in the moment. Every moment it lives and
you start really living. Right now, what
is happening is, you are merely
existing. You live because you are
afraid of dying. Otherwise you see no
reason, why you should continue with
your mediocre life. You get up in the
morning, go to the toilet, brush your
teeth, have your breakfast, pack up your
lunch, go to office or do some business,
come back, have a quarrel with your
wife, have a fight with your child…
again comeback watch your TV… day in day
out…this routine, mediocre, meaningless,
purposeless.
You create of course some meaning. You
say “I’m doing some social work…helping
man….” and all kinds of things because
you have to invent these things. There
is no meaning, because deep inside,
there is only sorrow inside you. You
don’t know what to do with your lives.
You’ve got into this mechanical trap
created by self, by the “Me”. So, you
have built up various escape systems,
mechanisms and you continue with this
kind of life and the only reason you are
not sick is because, I can probably say,
you are afraid of dying ….
You have had no moments of ecstasy or
bliss or joy. It is what really life is
all about. You’ve certainly missed out
on all that. So, sometimes I marvel how
people are able to live. It really
baffles me. To me, giving enlightenment
is not a big problem at all. To me the
problem is, I wonder how people continue
to live, how many escape systems can
they build! They have TV systems,
computers, sky diving… and what
else….somehow you must manage your
lives. You are managing your sorrow, you
are escaping from your sorrow, doing all
these things but fundamentally that pain
is there inside; that ache, what’s all
this ? What is the meaning of life?
Where are we going? We are getting
older, and seem to have achieved nothing
and what is the purpose of all this….?
That is the meaning of the word ‘Dukha’.
There is no translation for it in
English. We use the work ‘suffering’,
which is not the true meaning of the
work ‘dukha’. It is a very abstract and
not clearly definable ache you have, the
ache which Buddha had. He had everything
in life yet that pain was there, that
sense of “what’s all this about”. That
is what we mean by the work ‘dukha’. So,
this has to go, That’s the reason for
the Mukthi Yagna. But you must first
feel that pain. That’s the 1st
qualification. If you don’t feel the
pain and say “OK! I’m managing my
suffering and I’m happy with it” then I
have no business with you.
I can help you only if it is going to
really trouble you. The second thing is,
your relationships. That’s very
important. Then you are ready for
receiving my grace of Mukthi. Only then
you’ll know what true love is, what
compassion is, what it is to share your
life with others, what all this talk of
oneness is. All the scriptures will
start revealing themselves to you.
Nobody needs to teach you. You are your
own guru you can see it for yourself.
Liberation from Work
is
Liberation from Society
is
Liberation from Civilization
is
Liberation from Knowledge
is
Liberation of the Mind
is
Liberation from the Self
is
Liberation of the Senses
is
Liberation of Life
is
Enlightenment.
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