– Transcript 143
and Karma-Marga
R: …shanti, shanti, peace. Greetings and salutations. It is wonderful to be with you again. This beautiful Sunday afternoon. All is well. Everything is unfolding as it should. There are no mistakes. Everything is in its right place. My heart is filled with joy when I look at you. For you are all really evolving to a higher state of consciousness.
You’re all doing very well. You’re filled with happiness and peace.
I love you all with all my heart. Because of this, because of the exuberance and the warmth that you show forth we’re going to have another day of satsang. We’re going to add an extra day. Which will be on Saturday. From 1 to 4 in the valley.
Remember the Indian family that came here one Sunday? We’re going to be at their house from 1 to 4. It will give you an extra day to come if you desire. It will be relatively different than this to an extent. But I will not make speeches and I will not talk too much. It will be like Ramana Ashram, where you come in, sit down, leave whenever you like, ask questions. And we sit in the silence together. We will have chanting. Ed will give you further information when we have announcements.
What do I teach? What am I sharing with you?
Many centuries ago, thousands of years ago some Sages got together and through their own revelations divided the universe in four sections. Like a piece of cheese. Each section received a name. Each section was a different age in time and space. According to that tradition we are now in the Kaliyuga stage. We are in the darkness coming into the light. The Kaliyuga started approximately thirty five hundred years ago. And this stage lasts approximately to two hundred and fifty-thousand years.
So what do we care about this? (students laugh)
SK: We’ve got thirteen thousand to go. (laughter)
R: The point I’m trying to make is that the Sages understood that at this age the way to realization, the way to unfoldment, the way to liberation, the easiest way is through namah japa, the chanting of God’s name. This they say was the thing to do in this age. This is the meditation to do in this age. Namah japa, chanting of God’s name. As an example, “Sri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram.’ This is what human beings were supposed to do in this age to awaken.
As the years went by people such as Buddha, Shankara, Jesus, some others, people that we know about like Sri Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj and others including myself came to conclusion that what is needed in this age is a combination of teachings.
Jnana Marga, the path of wisdom is the highest stage of all yogas. That combined with bhakti Marga, the path of devotion and karma Marga, the path of service. These are the stages, these are the principles that we have to learn and understand. Therefore what I do is teach those three methods together, combined.
When you teach Jnana Marga by itself as many so-called beings, gurus are doing today it becomes a bunch of rhetoric. It builds up the ego, it doesn’t destroy it. Jnana Marga by itself becomes cold and calculating. People start to feel as if they are superior to others. It is called also the talking school. Where people talk to each other debate issues about Jnana Marga. Get involved in heated discussions, debates, arguments and you get absolutely nowhere.
If you teach and you learn bhakti Marga, the path of devotion by itself you can become a fool. Where you become devoted to all the statues and all the trees and become devoted to all the gurus and you have just blind devotion, without knowledge. So that is not sufficient.
When you practice karma bhakta, the path of service to humanity. You become the servant of other bodies. The servant of the people. Yet you become confused because you don’t really know who to help. You really don’t know to whom to give service to. There are so many poor people, homeless people, deprived people, whom shall you serve? And again you become confused. But when you combine all of them together, Jnana Marga, bhakti Marga and karma Marga you have a beautiful teaching.
For as you are beginning to unfold as you begin to go forward on the path. You are of service to humanity. You become a devotee of the Self and you realize “I am that I am.”
In other words you understand the highest Jnana teachings. That your true nature is absolute reality. You are pure effortless awareness. But at the same time you realize that you do not understand it thoroughly yet perhaps you have not come to the conclusion that you are enlightened. So you practice the rest. Karma yoga, bhakti yoga. You become a beautiful person. You become a genuine person. No phony airs about you. No showing off in any way. You develop humility and humbleness.
You understand what Jesus said when he meant…what he meant when he said, “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” If you believe you know anything then you fall into the ditch. When you develop humility and you don’t know anything you practice divine ignorance, then you stand up tall and you’re known by beings as being a pure being.
Look at your own life and see what’s happened to you all these years. The many teachings you’ve gone through. The friends you’ve had and left. The places you’ve been to.
And now you’re all here. What are you doing here? Where are you going? What is the truth about you? These questions have no answer.
To whom is it different? It is only different when you begin to think about it. But as you hold your mind in check and do not let your mind go further than your nose. Nothing ever happens to you again. By nothing ever happens to you again I mean, no matter what transpires you leave it alone. It has no power over you. It cannot hurt you. For you no longer think about it. Only what you think about can hurt you. Only what you are aware of has power over you. If you stay within the Self and are aware of the Self all of the time how can anything in this world frighten you? Or hurt you or do anything to you?
This world can only hurt those people, those beings who think about things.
This is a very important point to understand.
As long as you think about things. Things change. Things are never the same. You will always be hurt. You have to be hurt because you are invoking the laws of duality which are ever present. But as you check your mind and stop it from going forward. As you become introverted and the mind keeps going back, back, back. The true happiness, the true love, the true peace shows itself in your life.
I can never reiterate enough that the things of this world will continue to go on as they do but they will not affect you, they will not bother you, they will not annoy you, they will not frighten you. Again it is only when the mind goes out. When the mind leaves the body when it expands that the whole universe is created with all its manifestations of good and bad. When you begin to realize you are not the mind that goes out and does all these things. The mind will begin to recede, will turn backwards into the heart. You are in control. You’re in charge. You are the one that has everything to do with this. No one else.
You must practice self-inquiry.
When I tell you many times to awake. To wake up. To become totally free. This is difficult for most beings in the Kaliyuga stage. There are people who have done this but they are very few. Self-inquiry is usually the best method in this age for awakening. For it transcends the ego and sets you free.
Many of us will become self-realized before we leave the body. And there will be no coming back and no going out again. Remember the way to this self-realization, to this awakening is only by quietening the mind. And all the methods we discuss and use is to quiet the mind. There are many of you who practice various forms of yoga. Hatha yoga, pranayamas, kundalini yoga. All these things are good to an extent they make you peaceful. They make your body healthy but they do not bring you to self-realization. The only thing that will bring you to self-realization is when you empty the mind. And you can see this now.
When the mind is filled with practices, with meditations, it’s just another form of thought.
It’s a higher form of thought. That is all it is. There has to be somebody to be doing these things. That somebody is the ego. It is the ego that tells how good you are in meditation.
How you can make your mind one-pointed. But you fail to realize that the proper way is to get rid of the ego that does this. If the ego is totally transmuted and transcended there will be nobody left to practice any form of meditation or yoga or anything else. Think how easy this is, it’s not hard.
You do not have to go through any rituals. You simply have to make the mind quiescent. Quiet the mind totally and completely. This should be your goal. You should remember this always. By saying, “All I have to do to awaken is to quiet my mind. That’s it!” There is nothing else you have to do. But the way to quiet the mind seems to be a problem for some of us.
If we would just watch the mind as soon as we get out of bed in the morning and see which direction our mind is going and then drop it! Let go of it. Do not follow it along with the thoughts. Do not get involved in all the thoughts. Simply watching the mind will cause it to slow down. When you become aware that you are not the mind and the mind is functioning by itself the mind will begin to slow down. But when you identify with the mind. When you identify with all the things the mind is thinking about, you know what happens you become fearful, frustrated, sad, upset or you become happy about some event that is going to take place today or tomorrow. All this keeps you back from realization.
Therefore the best practice for this would be self-inquiry. Again you simply ask yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come? Who is thinking this way? Who is feeling these thoughts? I am. Who am I? What is the source of the personal I that feels everything everyday?” And keep still. Feel how wonderful you are and how good you feel when your mind is quiet. When the thoughts are very slow in coming to you. Or they stop coming at all. Feel how good you feel. When there is no one left to think, you are free. As long as the thinker is there, telling you this and telling you that. Showing you this and showing you that. You are bound to the earth. To Maya. But as you refuse to listen to your mind you evolve, you expand.
This doesn’t mean that your work will not get done. Your work will always get done without you thinking of it. Since you are not your work, you are not the mind, you are not the world, you will be completely out of the picture. Yet you will also be doing this at the same time.
Again this is very paradoxical. It appears that there are two of you. It’s an appearance. There is only one but it appears as if there are two. There’s the one which does not
It’s like in the growth of a tree. The tree doesn’t take thought about what it’s doing.
It has no idea what is going on. Yet the branches come out. The leaves come out. The fruit comes out. And the tree is growing, expanding. Yet it has no idea what is going on.
In the same way you will do the work that you came to this planet to do. You will continue with your affairs and doing everything you do but then you are not doing it.
There is no one doing anything. I realize it’s difficult to comprehend this. That you’re doing and then again you’re not doing. Yet this is exactly what is happening. You do not have to think about this. You just have to be. Be yourself. Love everyone, love everything yet leave everything alone.
Let us practice this now. Close your eyes and watch the mind thinking. Observe the mind. The mind is clear and quiet. Look at that. Watch it. As soon as the mind starts to think about anything makes no difference what it is, inquire within yourself, “To whom does this come? To whom do these thoughts come? They come to me. I think them.” I is the root cause of all the thinking of all the thoughts. Now you begin to examine this I-thought. You examine it thoroughly.
“Where does this I-thought come from?” You ask. “What is the source of the I? I am.” Yet the I is telling me something else. The I is telling me that I am this and I am that, but I just am. If I-am then where does this elusive I come from that tells me something else? That tries to tell me that there are problems, there is horrendous conditions going on in this world. There is a world. There is a body. There is a mind. It is always the I that does this. It is the I-thought that tells me these things. What is the source of this I-thought?
Where did it come from? Who gave it birth? And you keep still.
Sort of imagine the I-thought returning to the chest, the heart. The I-thought which is also the mind returns to the Self. There are no longer any thoughts. The thoughts have all returned with the I to the Self. Now you are pure consciousness. Absolute reality.
As thoughts come to you and they try to deny this by bringing up various subjects, again inquire, “To whom do these thoughts come? Where did they come from? Who gave them birth? I did. So the I is the cause of these thoughts, these feelings, these fears.
What is the source of this I? That brings to me all of these thoughts and feelings and emotions?”
(long silence)
SB: Robert in our last talk a few weeks ago on Thursday you said if we had any purpose we will always be disappointed and if we have no purpose we’re already awake. That is really a profound statement. Can you go into that?
R: What else is there to say? (laughter) If you have a purpose you’re bound. You’re bound to the purpose. Your mind bounds you to it. When you have no purpose there is no thinker. There is no one left to do anything and you’re free. (SB: So the ego is the one the entity the purpose.) The ego always has a purpose. The mind always has a purpose. The mind wants to achieve this and to achieve that. To become famous, to have all kinds of beautiful things in the house. To buy new cars, to do everything. But when the mind dies there is no one left to do these things. And you have the happiness that is real. That does not come from things. The true happiness comes from the Self. That no one can ever take away from you. This is your real nature. This is what you really are. Unalloyed happiness.
SL: Robert earlier you were talking about three different ways, three different - you said to get to the highest path, there is devotional and there is the karmic and you said a combination of all these paths that we can use to help us free ourselves. (R: Umm.) And the highest path is very intimate, the devotional is following with no mind with no guidance or direction or whatever. Can you talk more about that? Or things we really need to know. Do we really need to think in order to… (R: Do we really need to think?) …yeah I guess that’s what I think creative thinking is. The highest path, in my mind, I translated that to thinking versus devotional just doing. Doing minus cerebral and the other is…
R: The highest path of Jnana is no thinker left to think at all. Nobody is home.
There is a total blank. There is no one around to do any thinking or preparing anything or trying to solve a problem or trying to do anything. At that stage you’re totally free.
When you devote yourself to the Self, when you become a devotee of the Self, this means that you surrender all of your fears, your frustrations, your goals, your needs, your lacks, your limitations, everything is totally surrendered to the Self. This is devotion. (SL: Versus to surrendering to a guru or someone else.) You are the guru. The guru is within you. You give up everything. You surrender everything. You no longer have any needs of your own. You have no wants, no desires.
SH: That’s the same as being no one around. Nobody home?
R: Yes exactly. There is no difference.
SL: But from that devotional stage we try to move up to the other stage, the highest path?
R: They become the same thing. They’re all one. (SL: What about the karmic path you were saying?) The Karmic Marga path is when you give yourself away to people. When you give yourself away to helping the world become a better world. Even though the world is a mirage and the world does not exist. As you give yourself away you change.
You change into that being that realizes there is no one to give away, there is nothing to do, there is no one to really help. Yet you’re helping, you’re at service to humanity. So this brings you there also. For you have gotten rid of the ego.
The ego tells you that I have to help myself. The ego keeps telling you I’m important. I need this and have to have that. I get no respect. (laughter) I want people to love me and tell me how great I am. (laughter) Tell me how good I am. (SL: That sort of sounds to me like different ways to try to achieve total nothingness?) And you do not really have to try to achieve it you already are that. You simply have to remove the conditions that bind you.
R: There is a time to do all that, true. But don’t get caught up in those paths also.
Do not get caught up in anything. Simply do what you have to do when you have to do it and then drop it! (students laugh)
Nate (SC): Don’t be the doer. (R: Right.)
SD: Robert, Michelangelo once said that God created his sculptures that all he did was chip away the extra marble. I think that is what we’re trying to do with the Self, you know is just chip away the extra marble because the Self is there. (R: Exactly.) It’s just what’s hidden. (R: Exactly.) SV: Why does Michelangelo say anything? (laughter)
Fred (SF): In one sense in the path of devotion there is someone who is being devoted. (R: Yes.) And in the path of self service there is someone performing the service but in the path of knowledge there is nobody doing anything.
R: Yes but the other paths comes to that place too. (SF: Yeah I know, different ways to looking at it.) Different paths to go on which you are inclined to do. We have some of us who have an inclination to be devoted to God. Some of us have an inclination to help humanity, to be of service to humanity. Some of us have an inclination to die to the ego. So whatever our own inclinations, that is what we should do. (SF: Whatever feels right for the individual?) That’s a statement you have to analyze. You can’t really say, “Whatever feels right.” What if it feels right to go out and shoot somebody? (students laugh) This is what I mean when we get into the talking school of Jnana. We say, “Whatever feels right, do it.”
But you have to clarify that. The only thing that feels right is to get rid of the ego. (SF: One person will be inclined toward one path more than another…) Yes. (SF: …in combination) That’s true. (SF: that is all I really wanted to know.) Yes.
SE: Is there a path for couch potatoes? (R: Yes sure. The path of laziness. The path of stupidity.)
SL: That also leads to nothingness? (R: The path of stupidity?) (students laugh) SD: The couch potato-ism. (laughter) (SC: It leads to half-baked-ism.) (laughter) SG: Robert, I’m simply glad there is the Jnana path because if there was just the path of serving others and a path of devotion, I’d be a dead duck. (students laugh) (R: Why would you be a dead duck?) I’d hate to say. (laughs) I can just see that my tendency is for the Jnana path. I want to ask you question about all the groups you’ve had and all the groups out there. You now there seems to be this really horrible fact that hardly anybody ever gets enlightened. What I wanted to ask you is: Is there going to be one or two chosen few. Are all of us going to have one of these enlightenment party one of these days? (Students laugh) And in the past have there been many enlightened people?
R: Everybody is enlightened. But we don’t know it. We keep fooling around with all kinds of nonsense, with all kinds of things to try to become enlightened but we already are enlightened. So what we have to do is to quieten the mind again. The faster you quieten the mind the faster you awaken. There will be many people who will awaken, who are awakened. Or will always be awakened. Do not look at others. Do not try to count how many people are awakened. Forget about all that.
When you see yourself in the right way, you will realize that everyone is awakened. No one is asleep. Everyone is in their right place. Doing the thing that they’re supposed to do. Yet you cannot judge others. Do not compare yourself with others. Do not be competitive at all. Simply do your own thing and leave everything else alone. And you will see what happens to you.
Fred (SF): You said a week or two ago that we shouldn’t spend time in comparisons. I’m beginning to perhaps realize that there is not much point in comparing. Because comparing involves judging. (R: Umm.) We’re told not to judge. For instance I’ve always had the tendency to compare Swami Vivekananda against Swami Bromananda or perhaps compare Sai Baba with Rajneesh or Pope John Paul with the Delai Lama but it’s all a waste of time. (R: Of course it is, you said it.) And nothing is to be gained. (R: Nothing at all.) Even if it was a valid exercise, I don’t know enough about any of those guys to compare them. (R: True.) Thank you. I know it, so it’s just a kind of, maybe I can quit comparing.
R: Compare no one. (SF: Sir?) Do not even compare yourself.
SB: Robert is it possible to be partially enlightened? Because there’re some teachers that seem to have tremendous wisdom, unparalleled teachings and yet seem to do the craziest things that look like it came from someone who was totally bewildered, you know. Demented even.
R: Who sees all this? (SB: Well a lot of people. (students laugh) All of his disciples and all his…) Let all the disciples work on themselves. If you work on yourself correctly you will have no time to judge others. You will have no time to look at others. If you work on yourself you will be drawn to the right person at the right time at the right place. (SB: Is it possible to be highly advanced and have glimpses of the Self to some degree and yet have lots of failings, human failings?) It’s like science. There are many scientists that go to a certain point, Einstein goes beyond that point. There are many scientists that go to a certain level of consciousness. There are levels in the human consciousness. But when awakening takes place there is no one who is half awakened and half asleep. (SB: So real enlightenment there is no levels in that?) There are no levels. When you’re enlightened, you’re enlightened. There are only levels are on the path.
Fred (SF): Enlightenment consists of getting rid of the idea that we’re not enlightened. (R: Of course.) There is nothing to be added nothing to be taken away, no changes or anything.
R: Of course. It’s like when you’re sleeping and then you wake up. Same thing.
You’ve been asleep and now you’re awake.
SD: How about groggy. (laughter) Sort of intermediary stage. (R: Take a cold shower.) SL: Robert could it be that Bob is describing the situation, could it be that the person is enlightened, then your body is just doing whatever it’s supposed to do, which is maybe to be crazy, or semi-crazy or to…
Fred (SF): There is always the question, are there other people?
R: Are there other people? What do you see? (SF: I see other people but in reality there are no other people.) Don’t worry about reality, as long as you see other people go work on yourself. When you disappear then everybody else will disappear also. As long as you believe you are a body you will see other bodies. There will be millions of bodies all over.
Because you see yourself as a body. When you see yourself as the immutable Self then there will be no room for anybody else. When the Self is all pervading it takes up all space.
There is no room for anybody else.
SD: In that light Robert I remember you once mentioning a book, “The Divine Madman”
and having read it I realize that point of his apparent madness was to shock people awake. So I think there is sometimes(quote, unquote) purpose for bizarre behavior that is beyond our understanding.
R: True. It is very difficult to understand people like that, to judge people like that.
SH: The zen tradition is full of stories like that. (R: Yes yes) These crazy guys. Really outrageous. Beautifully outrageous. (laughs) (R: Yes.) SB: But then there are a lot of phonys who read stuff like that and maybe partially awakened and then they copy that and they’re really not enlightened they’re just really exploiting people, financially and sexually and all that. (R: True.)
SE: You mean like Dapayan, sex for vigor, ??? (SB: No I’m talking about you. (laughter) SG: Robert is it possible to ever fall out of that? (R: To fall out of what?) You hear that some people are enlightened and they fall out of it that they are maybe not quite prepared to hold it and then they fall back is that possible? Or was ever enlightenment to begin with if they were ever able to fall out of it?
R: If you’re awakened you cannot go back to sleep. You are totally awakened and that is it. There is nobody left to fall in and out of anything. You are totally liberated. How can you go back? There is nowhere to go.
SH: There is no you to go anywhere. (R: Exactly.)
Glen (SG): If you use the sleep analogy people do wake up in the middle of the night and go back to sleep again. (SD: People do.)
SE: Rama Krishna went back to sleep. He had the highest truth and he decided to go back to worshiping Kali. (SH: That’s not going to sleep.)
R: No he had a vision of the highest truth but then he wanted to go back to Kali.
He never actually became that. He had a high vision of the truth, of oneness but he started crying, “I don’t want this, I want my Kali.” (students laugh)SF: That was before his initiation into Advaita, that what my understanding is… (R: What’s that?) After initiation into Advaita he said, “Tie Advaita to the India cross and face the world.” That’s what my understanding of what… (R: That’s good.) Sir? (R: That’s good.) Well my idea was that he told that not too many people are attracted to the path of knowledge and his main thing was devotion. That’s my… (R: Yes that’s true.) And of course he aspires karma too.
(R: Yes.)
SH: But he slew Kali. Totapuri told him when Kali appears in your mind again take out your sword of determination and slash her to pieces… (R: Right that’s what he did.) …which is tough talk. And that’s what he did. Yeah. (R: Yes, but that didn’t last long.) Well, he liked mother.
He was a mamma’s boy. (laughs) (R: He was a very unusual being.) SF: I’ve always put him in the same category as the other well known ones. (R: Yes.) Jesus and Buddha, those ones. (R: That’s a good crowd.) None better.
R: Being a spy. (students laugh)
Announcements?
Mary (SM): Oh yes I have the transcriptions. We finally are caught up believe it or not, this is number 59 we have 60 that’s already been put out. This is “There Are No Mistakes” and I have five copies to hand out. I have any willing people? (hands out transcripts) SD: Robert and Lee have reminded me that there will be a bhandara on the 26th of April which is the last Sunday of this month and we’ll repeat this announcement. As usual everyone bring a main course and if you can also supplement with some juices. Maybe someone can volunteer to bring paper cups and plates and utensils. It’s in celebration for two fantastic events. One on April 28th was Robert’s awakening and the second although it comes first was the maha-samadhi of Sri Ramana Maharshi on April 15th. So we’ve chosen a day in between those two to commemorate both.
Jay (SJ): When was his birthday? April 14th? (SD: Ramana’s maha-samadhi?) R: The 15th. (SJ: 15th?) Yeah.
SD: Facts day. (students laugh) So we’ll repeat that announcement. So everyone think about what you’re bringing. It usually turns out to be great. No one is in charge. No one is in charge anyway. (SM: Everyone’s in charge.) And Ed I think was going to announce how to get to the Indian peoples house on Saturday or…
SE: Yes, the….
(tape ends)
Absätze ohne Sprecherpräfix gehören dem zuletzt genannten Sprecher — so steht es im Buch, wo der Präfix nur den Anfang einer Rede markiert. Die Zuordnung ist eine Folgerung dieser Ausgabe. Namen in Klammern sind aus dem Text erschlossen: sicher belegt sind SM = Mary, SF = Fred, SJ = Jay, SC = Nate, wahrscheinlich SG = Glen, SR = Jorge. Alle anderen Kürzel bleiben stehen, weil der Beleg nicht trägt.