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Practice is Needed
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Different
practices have been described which are being followed in the world.
One is gyanamarg - the path of knowledge; one is bhakti,
or devotion;and one is karma. Rituals, yoga, rajyoga, kundalini
yoga, pilgrimages to shrines, worship of the personal deities, recitation
of the holy books, repetition of the sacred formulas, and many other
types of exercises, or sadhanas are being practiced. The question
is: What is the goal that you have selected to arrive at? What do
you want? What is your aim? For different aims there are different
roads, different practices.
Here we are mainly
dealing with Brahman. I will use the word 'Brahman', rather
than 'Self', because in all other languages 'self' can be also
be used for the individual soul, for the individuality. Brahman is
that which is without any attributes - knowledge itself which has
no association, with no duality whatsoever. Brahman is the word that
has been used in the book of knowledge. We are working here on how
to arrive at that attribute-less Brahman which is beyond the reach
of the mind and the intellect. It is said by those who have gone beyond
and realized this goal, that this is where the intellect and its associates
like mind, senses, and so on beat a retreat. They cannot go there
because it reveals Itself by itself. You need no agent, no-one to
take you there, neither the intellect, nor the mind, nor the senses,
nor any kind of practice, because it is self-revealing.
You need a candle
to find something in a dark room. You need the light of the sun in
the day or of the moon in the night, and if they are not there you
need a candle or a lamp in the house. But you don't need a candle
to see a lamp - it is light itself. It is self-revealing. It is self-luminous.
No association is possible; it is attribute-less. It is advised to
realize the attribute-less Brahman, immaculate Brahman, eternal Brahman,
or to adopt a practice which is very near to your goal. Everything
else - like pilgrimages, purification, visiting churches - may do
some benefit. Worship of the deities may also give you some temporary
relief, chanting of holy books may focus your mind on one object.
But with all these practices the mind is not yet obliterated.
The practice nearest
to truth for those few who want to realize absolute Brahman is meditation
only on attribute-less Brahman itself, without any object of concentration.
When people start to mediate they do something, they hold some image
in the mind or some word. That may be useful, but it is even better
to think of attribute-less Brahman, to always keep aware of the attribute-less
Brahman during meditation, knowing that, “I am Brahman.” without focusing
on any object of the past, present, or future.
This is the nearest
practice. If you want to do any practice, to meditate on attribute-less
Brahman, immaculate Brahman, which is none other than your own Atman
- your own fundamental nature. If you are not able to realize the
truth instantly you can continue this practice for a while. Slowly
you will see that the meditator and the meditated upon vanish. Neither
attribute-less Brahman nor meditation upon attribute-less Brahman
has anything to do with a meditator or something meditated upon.
So this constant
exercise is advised, constant sadhana on attribute-less Brahman, thinking,
“I am Brahman.” If you want to think something, why think, “I am the
body?” The body does not last. Why think, “I am this.” or “I am that?”
If you want to have a thought at all and you cannot live without thinking,
then have this supreme thought: “I am Brahman.” This is the exercise
which is nearest to your goal of Brahman itself. The meditator and
the meditated upon will vanish. This is the goal that we started meditation
for. No other sadhana or exercise is as near as this for one who wants
to be free of this samsara, from this going again and again
from death to birth and birth to death. This is how to break the cycle.
There is only one way and this is this way. This can continue always
wherever you are.
You do not need to
go to any ashram, because nobody there knows how to sit quiet. In
every ashram and center recently different therapies have been introduced.
There should be at least one person who could teach you silence, peace,
and tranquility, and direct you to that place. He should be in the
know of things himself, but nobody is there like that. Therefore wherever
you go, some kind of therapy has been introduced in every ashram.
Because no one teaches, “Sit quiet and don't do anything.” If a center
were to do that what would be the use of that center? A center is
there for some commercial reason, for some material gain.
This is the only
teaching that is not practiced anywhere in the world! What better
teaching could there be, or what better teacher who tells you, “Keep
quiet!” This was the teaching of my master. Nobody else has taught
this recently, in this century. There were a few teachers also in
the past but not in this century. In the twentieth century he alone
was the teacher who could say, “Keep quiet!”
To keep quiet is
the only goal that you have to practice to do away with this cycle.
If you can't keep quiet, then the practice closest to this quietness
is prescribed: To repeat, “I am Brahman.” There is no harm in this,
because when you utter the word “Brahman” it has neither name nor
form. This Brahman word is not a name, because name and form go together
immediately. When you utter a name there is a form. There is no form
to accompany this name, so the mind is again formless and nameless.
This does not depict any object or any subject.
This practice is
not even a practice. It can be continued at home with whatever you
are doing in your routine of life. Just keep this thought here and
do whatever you want. This is the way which is nearest to your own
Atman. In this life a human body is very rare so we have to make the
best of it. Once lost it cannot be regained. We would have to go around
again. You are here from many countries, so let us find some way to be happy in ourselves, to be peaceful ourselves, and take this message back to our country and spread it. Now is the time. We know what is happening in the universe. We can only keep quiet and wish that sanity descend on human beings. We send good vibrations of peace and love every morning. Let us behave at least as human beings, working for our own good and for that of the world.
Buddha has done it.
Janaka has done it.
Yagnavalka has done
it.
Vasishtha has done
it.
And Shikaraj has
done it.
Vishvamitra and many
others have done it.
So why can't you
do it?
If you are bent upon
doing it, it is here and now. 26 May, 1992
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