Guest guest Posted September 12, 2001 Report Share Posted September 12, 2001 > The ideas of 'me' and 'my way.' > >Questioner: The war is on. What is your attitude to it? > >Maharaj: In some place or other, in some form or other, the war is >always on. Was there a time when there was no war? Some say it is the >will of God. Some say it is God's play. It is another way of saying >that wars are inevitable and nobody is responsible. > >Q: But what is your attitude? > >M: Why impose attitudes on me? I have no attitude to call my own. > >Q: Surely somebody is responsible for this horrible and senseless >carnage. Why do people kill each other so readily? > >M: Search for the culprit within. The ideas of 'me' and 'mine' are at >the root of all conflict. Be free of them and you will be out of >conflict. > >Q: What of it that I am out of conflict? It will not affect the war. >If I am the cause of war, I am ready to be destroyed. Yet, it stands >to reason that the disappearance of a thousand like me will not stop >wars. They did not start with my birth nor will end with my death. I >am not responsible. Who is? > >M: Strife and struggle are a part of existence. Why don't you inquire >who is responsible for existence? > >Q: Why do you say that existence and conflict are inseparable? Can >there be no existence without strife? I need not fight other to be >myself. > >M: You fight others all the time for your survival as a separate body- >mind, a particular name and form. To live you must destroy. From the >moment you were conceived you started a war with your environment - a >merciless war of mutual extermination, until death sets you free. > >Q: My question remains unanswered. You are merely describing what I >know - life and it sorrows. But who is responsible, you do not say. >When I press you, you throw the blame on God, or karma, or on my own >greed and fear - which merely invites further questions. Give me the >final answer. > >M: The final answer is this: nothing is. All is a momentary >appearance in the field of the universal consciousness; continuity as >name and form is a mental formation only, easy to dispel. > >Q: I am asking about the immediate, the transitory, the appearance. >Here is a picture of a child killed by soldiers. It is a fact - >staring at you. You cannot deny it. Now, who is responsible for the >death of the child? > >M: Nobody and everybody. The world is what it contains and each thing >affects all others. We all kill the child and we all die with it. >Every event has innumerable causes and produces numberless effects. >It is useless to keep accounts, nothing is traceable. > >Q: Your people speak of karma and retribution. > >M: It is merely a gross approximation; in reality we are all creators >and creatures of each other, causing and bearing each other's burden. > >Q: So, the innocent suffers for the guilty? > >M: In our ignorance we are innocent; in our actions we are guilty. We >sin without knowing and suffer with out understanding. Our only hope: >to stop, to look, to understand and to get out of the traps of >memory. For memory feeds imagination and imagination generates desire >and fear. > >Q: Why do I imagine at all? > >M: The light of consciousness passes through the film of memory and >throws pictures on your brain. Because of the deficient and >disordered state of your brain, what you perceive is distorted and >colored by feelings of like and dislike. Make your thinking orderly >and free from emotional overtones, and you will see people and things >as they are, with clarity and charity. > >The witness of birth, life and death is one and the same. It is the >witness of pain and of love. For while the existence in limitation >and separation is sorrowful, we love it. We love it and hate it at >the same time. We fight, we kill, we destroy life and property and >yet we are affectionate and self-sacrificing. We nurse the child >tenderly and orphan it too. Our life is full of contradictions. Yet >we cling to it. This clinging is at the root of everything. Still, it >is entirely superficial. We hold on to something or somebody with all >our might and next moment we forget it; like a child that shapes its >mud-pies and abandons them light-heatedly. Tough them - it will >scream with anger, divert the child and he forgets them. For our life >is now, and the love of it is now. We love variety, the play of pain >and pleasure, we are fascinated by contrasts. For this we need the >opposites and their apparent separation. We enjoy them for a time and >then get tired and crave for the peace and silence of pure being. The >cosmic heart beats ceaselessly. I am the witness and the heart too. > >Q: I can see the picture, but who is the painter? Who is responsible >for the terrible and yet adorable experience? > >M: The painter is in the picture. You separate the painter from the >picture and look for him. Don't separate and don't put false >questions. Things are as they are and nobody in particular is >responsible. The idea of personal responsibility comes from the >illusion of agency. 'Somebody must have done it, somebody is >responsible'. Society as it is now, with its framework of laws and >customs, is based on the idea of separate and responsible >personality, but this not the only form a society can take. There may >be other forms, where the sense of separation is weak and >responsibility diffused. > >Q: An individual with a weak sense of personality - is he nearer self- >realization? > >M: Take the case of a young child. The sense of 'I-am' is not yet >formed, the personality is rudimentary. The obstacles to self- >knowledge are few, but the power and the clarity of awareness, its >width and depth are lacking. In the course of years awareness will >grow stronger, but also the latent personality will emerge and >obscure and complicate. Just as the harder the wood, the hotter the >flame, so the stronger the personality, the brighter the light >generated from its destruction. > >Q: Have you no problems? > >M: I do have problems. I told you already. To be, to exist with a >name and form is painful, yet I love it. > >Q: But you love everything! > >M: In existence everything is contained. My very nature is to love; >even the painful is lovable. > >Q: It does not make it less painful. Why not remain in the unlimited? > >M: It is the instinct of exploration, the love of the unknown, that >brings me into existence. It is in the nature of being to see >adventure in becoming, as it is in the very nature of becoming to >seek peace in being. This alteration of being and becoming is >inevitable: but my home is beyond. > >Q: I you home in God? > >M: To love and worship a god is also ignorance. My home is beyond all >notions, however sublime. > >Q: But God is not a notion! It is the reality beyond existence. > >M: You may use any word you like. Whatever you may think of, I am >beyond it. > >Q: Once you know your home, why not stay in it? What takes you out of >it? > >M: Out of love for corporate existence one is born and once born, one >gets involved in destiny. Destiny is inseparable from becoming. The >desire to be the particular makes you into a person with all its >personal past and future. Look at some great man, what a wonderful >man he was! And yet how troubled was his life and limited it fruits. >How utterly dependent is the personality of man and how indifferent >is its world. And yet we love it and protect it for its very >insignificance. > >Q: The war is on and there is chaos and you are being asked to take >charge of a feeding center. You are given what is needed it is only a >question of getting through the job. Will you refuse it? > >M: To work, or not to work, is one and the same to me. I may take >charge, or may not. There may be others, better endowed for such >tasks, than I am - professional caterers for instance. But my >attitude is different. I do not look at death as a calamity, as I do >not rejoice at the birth of a child. The child is out for trouble >while the dead is out of it. Attachment to life is attachment to >sorrow. We love what gives us pain. Such is our nature. > >For me the moment of death will be a moment of jubilation, not of >fear. I cried when I was born and I shall die laughing. > >Q: What is the change in consciousness at the moment of death? > >M: What change do you expect? When the film projection ends, all >remains the same as when it started. The state before you were born >was also the state after death, if you remember. > >Q: I remember nothing. > >M: Because you never tried. It is only a question of tuning in the >mind. It requires training. of course. > >Q: Why don't you take part in social work? > >M: But I am doing nothing else all the time! And what is the social >work you want me to do? Patchwork is not for me. My stand is clear: >produce to distribute, feed before you eat, give before you take, >think of others, before you think of yourself. Only a selfless >society based on sharing can be stable and happy. This is the only >practical solution. If you do not want it - fight. > >Q: It is all a matter of gunas. Where tamas and rajas predominate, >there must be war. Where sattva rules, there will be peace. > >M: Put it whichever way you like, it comes to the same. Society is >built on motives. Put goodwill into the foundations and you will not >need specialized social workers. > >Q: The world is getting better. > >M: The world had all the time to get better, yet it did not. What >hope is there for the future? Of course, there have been and will be >periods of harmony and peace, when sattva was in ascendance, but >things get destroyed by their own perfection. A perfect society is >necessarily static and, therefore, it stagnates and decays. From the >summit all roads lead downwards. Societies are like people - they are >born, they grow to some point of relative perfection and then decay >and die. > >Q: Is there not a state of absolute perfection which does not decay? > >M: Whatever has a beginning must have an end. In the timeless all is >perfect, here and now. > >Q: But shall we reach the timeless in due course? > >M: In due course we shall come back to the starting point. Time >cannot take us out of time, as space cannot take us out of space. All >you get by waiting is more waiting. Absolute perfection is here and >now, not in some future, near or far. The secret is in action - here >and now. It is your behavior that blinds you to yourself. Disregard >whatever you think yourself to be and act as if you were absolutely >perfect - whatever your idea of perfection may be. All you need is >courage. > >Q: Where do I find such courage? > >M: In yourself, of course. Look within. > >Q: Your grace will help. > >M: My grace is telling you now: look within. All you need you have. >Use it. Behave as best you know, do what you think you should. Don't >be afraid of mistakes; you can always correct them, only intentions >matter. The shape things take is not within your power; the motives >of your actions are. > >Q: How can action born from imperfection lead to perfection? > >M: Action does not lead to perfection; perfection is expressed in >action. As long as you judge yourself by your expressions, give them >utmost attention; when you realize your own being, your behavior will >be perfect - spontaneously. > >Q: If I am timelessly perfect, then why was I born at all? What is >the purpose of this life? > >M:It is like asking: what does it profit gold to be made into an >ornament? The ornament gets the color and the beauty of gold; gold is >not enriched. Similarly, reality expressed in action makes the action >meaningful and beautiful. > >Q: What does the real gain through its expressions? > >M: What can it gain? Nothing whatsoever. But it is in the nature of >love to express itself, to affirm itself, to overcome difficulties. >Once you have understood that the world is love in action, you will >look at it quite differently. But first your attitude to suffering >must change. Suffering is primarily a call for attention, which >itself is a movement of love. More than happiness, love wants growth, >the widening and deepening of consciousness and being. Whatever >prevents becomes a cause of pain and love does not shirk from pain. >Sattva, the that works for righteousness and orderly development, >must not be thwarted. When obstructed it turns against itself and >becomes destructive. Whenever love is withheld and suffering allowed >to spread, war becomes inevitable. Our indifference to our neighbor's >sorrow brings suffering to our door. > >Nisargadatta Maharaj > > " I am That " >Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj >The Acorn Press > >Reposted from: >http://www.ccnet.com/~rudra/yoga/n_absolu.htm ______________________ With Love, Cyber Dervish ```````````````````````````````````````` Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 13, 2001 Report Share Posted September 13, 2001 Hi Jan, Even in a universe where everything is appropriate, this is especially appropriate! Thanks. Do you happen to have any favorite chapters in " Nectar of Immortality " or " The Ultimate Medicine " ? I have permission to reprint a chapter from each on the website, trying to pick. (If I asked this previously, sorry. I forget.) thanks. rob - " Jan Sultan " <swork <Realization > Wednesday, September 12, 2001 12:38 PM Fwd: The ideas of 'me' and 'my way.' > > > The ideas of 'me' and 'my way.' > > > >Questioner: The war is on. What is your attitude to it? > > > >Maharaj: In some place > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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