The Nature of Enquiry
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Question: How does the aspirant move ahead with the investigation of the "I" and the four bodies? *
Maharaj: By thinking (Vichara; enquiry) you have to go ahead. By non-thinking you have become a body, or a demon. By understanding, you have to prove that it's not true. You must think again and again. All people put Ignorance in you. The Master says that you are the Reality and what you see is not true. He pours Knowledge in you. So with that Knowledge understand everything. Then automatically you will say that "I am the Creator of the world." Why not? By Knowledge you can understand this. Some Saints stop at this point only. For final understanding you have to go beyond this. Knowledge is very powerful, but it's still dreaming. Knowledge is the greatest Ignorance.
Question: I guess what I'm asking is how to proceed, not to think I am the body?
Maharaj: You have to think about it. Since you take it as true, to make it not true you have to think again and again. If you make a mistake on something you have to find out where the mistake was made. Come on and find out your mistake. The Master clarifies your mistakes, but if you continue to make them who is responsible? You have forgotten yourself and all this was created, what to do? You take the touch of everything and you create the whole dream. Follow me?
In a dream, if a thought becomes objective, you get the dream or not? Sometimes you are sleeping and a thought comes, but you are a little bit awake so the dream doesn't come. But when you take the touch of the thought then the dream comes, and you become Knowledge. So you have to say, "I'm not this," then who are you? "I don't exist." This you have to say. As long as Sat-Chit-Ananda is there, the body must work. When Knowledge is there, you have to act accordingly. For a Saint or realized person it's the same. He works in the world also. If someone comes to my door, I'll tell them to come in. Should I not say something? But the Saint is like the lotus leaf in the water. He lives in the water but doesn't take the touch of it. It's not true. You must think again and again to teach the mind up until non-thinking (no-mind) comes. Then there is nothing to think, everything is over. Then yourself remains or not? So there is a saying, "To be or not to be is the question." All people think or not? To do this ,or not to do it. As long as Knowledge is there the question remains. If you understand that Knowledge comes from Ignorance, then you have to kill that Knowledge. Master tells you to forget it, that it is nothing but a dream. Ignorance and Knowledge are both in the dream. To be or not to be is the question now. Take it as true then it has to be. Don't take it as true, then the question doesn't arise.
If someone says, "Take this road," and then someone else says, "No take this road." Then the mind enters duality. What to do? This or that, to go one way or the other. On one side the whole world is there, on the other side Final Reality. Nothing else. Cut it through understanding. The Master gives you the understanding to cut it. As long as you are connected with the Knowledge, to be or not to be must be there. Otherwise, how can you understand also? As long as Illusion is there, you have to think of the Final Reality. If no Illusion, what to think? What Reality? Then Reality and unreality both go off. Without thinking you can't understand this. People say to understand and be That. But what to be, or not to be? Don't be like a bee and buzz around. By thinking everything can go off now.
Question: I understand that movement in thought creates something physical or emotional. I've also experienced dropping off of that when there is nothing going on. And now you are speaking of something beyond the nothing going on.
Maharaj: I agree. What is going on is in the dream. Why should you worry? It's not true. When you worry you take it to be true.
Question: Then what's left when everything falls away, when there is nothing?
Maharaj: You are left without you! A dream comes and you do many things. The dream goes off, then are you still there or not? Do you remain or not? A dream comes, but what harms you? You are sleeping and you've done nothing. And if you understand that here? Let the dream go off, nothing has happened. Then no question remains. While doing also, say "I'm not doing." That understanding should come. In a dream you do many things, but you didn't do anything. Suppose you kill a person. When you awake, you say how is that possible? You only experienced that in the dream, so when you awake it becomes nothing. It's null and void. It doesn't remain. If it doesn't remain what value has it got? He knows that nothing has happened, so he says that he's the "Creator of the World." So, when you awake, you know that nothing has happened, and this is how you stay in the world.
As long as the body is there, even when doing, I do nothing. When I eat, I don't eat. Body or mind eats, I don't eat. If a man has a meal in a dream, and he tells his wife, she says, "I won't have to cook now." He objects and says he's hungry. Same way, what you do in the world has no value. Otherwise bondage comes to your mind or not? Why should the body-mind concern you? If you say, "I do," you become the smallest creature. So if you understand what the Master says, you will automatically say, "It's not true." So go ahead with Knowledge, and make the balloon (of mind) bigger and bigger. But how can what starts from Ignorance be Knowledge, or True? Mind gives the understanding and then goes off. Once you've reached the destination where is the need for understanding? You're at the fortieth floor. What is left to understand?
Question: At the same time we say we are all and nothing. It is that correct?
Maharaj: Yes, yes. Say at first "I am All," Then say "I am nothing, and I do nothing." Unless you pass through the thirty-ninth floor you can't say I'm on the fortieth floor. When you reach the fortieth floor, then nothing remains to go further ahead. Then you can understand it's not true. Then the "I" doesn't remain.
- Shri Ranjit Maharaj from Illusion vs. Reality
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