QUESTION: When I contemplate my real nature I am in the "I AM," a feeling of love without cause pervades in me. Is this feeling correct or is it still illusion?

MAHARAJ: It is the bliss of the Self. You feel the presence of "I AM." You forget everything, the concepts and the illusion. It is a non-conditional state. This felicity appears when you forget the object, but in the felicity there is still a little touch of the self. After all, it is still a concept. When you are tired of the outside world, you want to be alone, to be in yourself. It is the experience of a higher state but still of the mind. The Self has no pleasure nor displeasure. Without the I, "I AM." The complete forgetfulness of the illusion means that nothing is, nothing exists. It is still there, but for you it has no reality. That is what is called Realization, or Self-Knowledge. It is the realization of the Self without self.

If someone calls you, you say, "I am here," but before saying, "I am here," You were. The illusion cannot glue something more to Reality. It cannot glue something extraordinary to Reality because Reality is at the base of everything that is. All that exists, all that you see, the objects of your perception, all that is due to Reality. The ignorance and the knowledge do not exist They are not. So what expression can you give to them.

When you objectivize something, that means there is something expenenced. As soon as you feel something, you are away from your Self, from the Self. You feel love, that is better than being in ignorance, but after all it is still a state and a state is always conditioned. The non-conditioned is stateless. It is the experience of the non-existence of the illusion. As soon as you feel the least existence, it is ignorance. It is very subtle; ignorance and knowledge are both subtle. It is difficult to understand, but if you really enquire, you will get that state. That is, and has always been, but you don't know; that is the difficulty. There is not a single point where Reality is not. You experience existence through objects but all this is nothing. It is omnipresent, but you cannot see it. Why? Because You are the Reality itself, so how can you see yourself? To see your face you need a mirror.

Real happiness is inside you and not outside. In deep sleep, you are happy. You forget the world. Therefore, happiness lies in the forgetting of the world. Leave the world as it is; don't destroy it, but know that it is not. Do everything you have to do, but be detached by understanding that whatever you feel, perceive, and achieve is illusion. It doesn't exist, and your mind must accept that.

The saints say, "Since all is nothing, how can this nothing affect you, touch you?" So what to do? The mind is nothing else but knowledge. People differentiate the mind from knowledge, but this is not correct. There is nothing in the world. It is illusion. Only Reality is, and when you understand that the illusion is really illusion, how can it affect you? How can you even feel that it affects you? The lotus leaf is produced from water; it is on top of the water, but it is not touched by water. If you pour water on it, it drifts away; it is not touched.

When you understand that nothing remains, there is no more question of love. The felicity of the Self that you feel is still the pleasure of knowledge. First you must be aware, and then you become Reality itself because you are He. Therefore, there is no harm in living in the illusion, the world, but as it doesn't exist, you are not touched. The lotus stays in water but doesn't care for it.

In this way you must experience your true nature. I say experience, but there the words do not exist because it is beyond space, beyond zero. And the words cannot penetrate there; they stop there. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna said, "From where the words come back is my state." Still, he was a king and was ruling but he knew that nothing is. You don't understand that nothing can touch you. When you feel that nothing touches you, you are out of illusion. That is the highest point of philosophy and you can reach there. There, there is no Master nor disciple, for both are one. The duality doesn't exist, only oneness is and nothing is outside it. Therefore, stay in the illusion, but by understanding.

Two friends wanted to play a trick on another friend. One of them started to insult the other one, but he was laughing at the insult. The third one was troubled, and said, "How can you laugh when he is insulting you?" He was laughing because he had the key to the game, but the third boy didn't understand. In the same way, a Realized person, though living in the world, understands that all this is nothing and whatever happens, nothing is happening. Therefore, they are not touched. People are always in fear of what happens or what will happen. They are afraid of what people will say. They think, "What am I going to do? What will happen to me?" They fight or enjoy.All these bondages are due to the mind.

The one who is out of the circle understands that all is nothing. It doesn't exist; it is only ignorance. it is said that only the one who dives deep into the ocean can find the pearl. The one who remains on the surface is carried away in the stream of pleasure and suffering. You must dive deep to the depths of the unlimited because that is where you are. Never stop at the limited. The gold doesn't care for the shapes it takes in the ornaments; it may be the shape of a dog or of a god, it is unconcerned with the form. In the same way, be indifferent to things because they do not exist.

Nothing can touch you. You are unattached. The mind must come to the point of the complete understanding of the illusion. There lies your state. Nothing remains for he who has understood. There is no more gain or loss. Don't ask if you can acheive Reality, because you are Reality, so why say "Can I?" First of all go out of the circle. Leave everything one after the other and go deep in your Self. Come back then, and be in all.

What you have described is a good state, no doubt, but go a little further. When the mind accepts that all is illusion, only illusion, then you are in your Self. The body and the mind are illusion; you should be happy to know that. Get rid of their identification. The only thing the Master does is to give its real value to the Power which is in you, to which you pay no attention. He does nothing more. It was a stone and the Master reveals its true nature which is diamond. He makes you the most precious stone.

I am omnipresent, almighty, I am the Creator of all which is. When you are at the base of all, you are in all. Therefore, even a murderer cannot be considered as bad. Whatever is happening, it is "my order." Be the master, not the slave! You are the master.

- Sri Ranjit Maharaj

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