When Nothing Spoke...

Robert: Good evening. It's good to be with you again.

A devotee of Ramana Maharshi, who had been with him about twenty five years, had a son that died, and he was grief-stricken. So he begged to have an audience with Ramana. Now Ramana rests from twelve to two. He agreed to see his devotee. When the devotee entered the hall, Ramana was reclining on his couch with his eyes closed, and he started to cry and tell him all his troubles, how much he loved his son. And then he asked Ramana, "What is God?" Ramana didn't answer. He kept still for about fifteen minutes. Then he opened his eyes and he said very softly, "What is, is God.” We'll talk about that tonight.

What is, is God. It's like when someone asks the question, "Is the world real?" The world, by itself, is an illusion, but God, as the world, is real. As we progress we find there never was a God, so there never was a world. But for the sake of talking, because God is, the universe is. Everything, from the lowliest microbe to the fullest galaxy, is God in expression. Everything is God. Every leaf, every piece of clay, every star, every planet has no basis for its existence, by itself. Because God is, everything else is.

That's what Ramana meant when he answered, "What is, is God." He was trying to explain to the devotee, "Your son dying, that is God. Your son living, that is God. There’s no real difference. Only in your mind."

We differentiate only in the mind. If the mind were made quiescent, quiet, there would be no differentiation between death and life. We make the differentiation because we think. It's a mental concept that someone dies, and that's bad, but someone lives and that's good. There's no such differentiation. There is only God, and everything that exists, everything, is God. There can be nothing apart from God.

But then I say that God doesn't exist, except in your mind. That is the reason that, in reality, no thing exists. Do you follow that?

As long as you think, there will be existence, person, place and thing, but when you stop thinking there's no room for existence, because there cannot be the silence and existence. Everything that appears to be opposes the silence. The silence is consciousness, absolute reality, sat-chit-ananda.
The self exists as itself, yet when you begin to modify it you say, "Well, God exists." God is the first modification of consciousness, and it's God's job to create the world, and then to dissolve the world, and then to create the world. Who gave God that job? Henry? Henry didn't do it. Who did? Why would God want to create worlds, universes, and then dissolve them, and after a period of time bring them back into existence?

Yet this is what we read about in all the scriptures. This information is for the ajnani, for the man steeped in ignorance. You have to explain to this man how the world became existent, or he will not be satisfied. You therefore go into all the modifications. There is the self and the self is consciousness. Consciousness modifies itself, and you have God. God modifies itself, and you have existence.

Ramana realized that if he explained this to the devotee, the devotee wouldn't understand. If he told the devotee that only the self exists, and your son didn't die because he was never born, it would be too much for the devotee to comprehend. Therefore, instead, he said God is. What is, is God. It made the devotee feel better, for he realized that his son was in God's hands, and all is well.

But yet, if we have a questioning mind, we question, "Where did God come from?" and "Why does God appear as all these things? What is its purpose?" Most of us know there is no purpose. No thing exists the way it appears. Your real nature is pure awareness. Pure awareness is the universal. There is no place for anything else. In other words, you cannot have existence as it appears and pure awareness. Otherwise you would have diversification, as the appearance shows you. There's a beautiful tree, there's a sky, there are flowers, there are animals, there are insects. If pure awareness, or the self, is self-contained, how could there be anything else? Where would the room come from?

It's just like space. When you have a room filled with furniture, what happens to the space it takes up? And then you take the furniture out of the room. Has the space changed? Nothing has happened to the space. The space is the same whether the room is filled with furniture, or not. And so it is with reality. Reality exists. The self exists as the self. But it appears as if there are things in the universe, as if there is a universe. There are people, there are animals, there are planets, there's the vegetable kingdom, the mineral kingdom. All this appears real. You therefore have to ask the question, "To whom does this appear? Who sees this?" You know by now it's the I. The I is the culprit. If it weren't for the I there would be no universe, there would be no God, there would be no creation.

So Ramana couldn't tell this to the devotee, because the devotee wouldn't understand. He therefore said, "What is, is God.” The world appears to exist. The world, by itself, could never exist. So the next step is to say that God exists as the world.

But I say to you there is no God, and there’s no world, and nothing is as it appears. The appearance is called false imagination. And whose fault is it? The I. Blame the I. Whenever you make a mistake, say it's the I's fault, because there are no mistakes. It sounds funny because it's true. If you did not identify with I, no thing would exist. Things only exist because you identify with your I.

Now the grand secret is to follow the I back to it's source. If you really follow the I back to it's source there is no God. Where would God come from? Even as I talk about the word God, some of you are still thinking of a figure up in the sky, an anthropomorphic type of deity. Who created him? It's the same old question. If God created the universe, who created God? There is no verbal answer, for it goes beyond thought. You'll know the truth about this question when you quiet your mind. When the mind is no longer in existence the answer will reveal itself, for you will be the answer. Otherwise there's no answer. But I can assure you there's no such thing as God, there's no such thing as creation, and there's no such thing as the universe. So there's no such thing as the world. And there's no such thing as you. There's no such thing as I. What is left? Silence!

(silence)

Robert: I realize that many of you are bhaktas, and I'm taking away your enjoyment. I'm taking away your God that you worship, be it in the form of Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, Moses, whomever you like to worship. But I speak at many levels. As far as a jnani is concerned it’s virtually impossible for a God to exist, separate from yourself. But yet, such people as Nisargadatta Maharaj, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, and many other jnanis did bhakti. Ramana used to pray to Shiva in the form of Arunachala. Nisargadatta also prayed to Shiva. So the question is, why did they do that? And the answer is, for the sake of others.

To get to the stage where God does not exist for you any longer is a very high transcendental stage. I do not expect you bhaktas to give up your worship. As you know, on Sunday we have puja and we have chanting. To whom are we chanting? To Hari, to Ram, to Krishna.

I must again tell you, as long as you believe you are the doer, that you are the body and the mind, do not fool yourself into thinking you're not. For if you weren't you wouldn't react the way you react to situations. So as long as you believe that things are real, then you have to pray to God, because God does exist for you. You can call God the law of karma. In reality karma does not exist. Yet how many of us have such reality? Therefore the best thing for you to do is to practice the jnana practices, but keep doing your puja. Do not give it up. If you're doing japa, whatever practice you have, keep it up.

But practice self-inquiry, and as you practice self-inquiry you will notice something very interesting happening to you. You will notice that little by little you begin to give up your worship, slowly but surely, until the day comes when you become the object of your worship. If you've been worshipping Krishna, you will see yourself as Krishna, and so forth. If you try to act like a jnani before your time, you will have a lot of problems, for you will develop "I don't give a damn" attitude, and that's not what were talking about.

I'll give you an idea of how a jnani acts. There was once a jnani who lived in a little shack on the mountain by himself. He was radiantly happy. He was coming back from his walk, and he saw some thieves breaking into his house. He crept up by the window to see what they would take, and of course he owned nothing. There was just a torn blanket on the floor. So the thieves started to curse, and one said to the other, "This guy has nothing here. Let's just take the blanket and leave." So they took the blanket.

The next day he intuitively perceived that the two robbers were caught by the police, so he hurried down to the police station to see what would happen. And when the sergeant saw him he said, "Come in. Are these the men who stole from you?" And he said, "Yes." So the policeman asked him, "What did they take?" and he said, "They took my hat, and my shirt, and my pants, and my shoes." And the two thieves started screaming, "What a liar this man is. He didn't have anything. He just had a torn blanket." And the sergeant said, "Is this true?" The jnani said, "When I put the blanket on my head it becomes my hat. When I put it around my shoulders it becomes my shirt. When I tie it around my waist it becomes my pants. And when I walk on it, it becomes my shoes." Of course the sergeant laughed and he said, "Shall I press charges?" and the jnani said "No." The two thieves became his disciples.

The meaning of that story is, because you're a jnani it doesn't mean you don't have compassion. A real jnani has more love and compassion than anyone else, but it's not attached to anything, and he'll be the first one to run to somebody's aid, to help somebody. It sounds like a contradiction, but it's not, for while the jnani carries a body, the body becomes under the jnani's jurisdiction, and becomes an instrument for good in this world. Therefore you can never judge a jnani, for you have no idea what a jnani is. You can see a jnani praying to God, just as ardently as a bhakta, yet the jnani knows there is no God, but does it for the sake of others.

So when I tell you there is no God, and there is no universe, and there is no world, and there are no people, there's only absolute reality, do not take it too seriously. See where you're coming from. Be true to yourself. Do not fool yourself. Whatever you're into, whatever you're going through, if you sit in the silence and practice self-inquiry, things will begin to stir within you. Things will begin to happen. You will find that your feelings change, your reaction changes, you become less selfish, you develop loving kindness, you understand what this universe is all about, and you are at peace.

(silence)

I feel what we've covered so far is very important, so let's have a discussion about this. Are there any questions or comments you'd like to make?

Student: Robert do you think that worshipping God, or believing in God, impedes realization?

Robert: On the contrary, worshipping God makes you pure. It makes you pure enough so that you can follow the I back to the source, whereas, if you did not worship God, you would just know everything intellectually, and you would have a hard heart. Worshipping God softens you up, makes you mellow, kind, causes you to become one pointed, and lifts you higher. So, by all means, worshipping God is good. But what kind of God will you worship? Worshipping God in the form of a sat-guru, or in the form of a Buddha, or a Christ, whatever, is even better.

Student: Why so?

Robert: For if you worship God without form, the energy is not as strong. For what kind of a God are you worshipping? An invisible God that has no form, no shape. Therefore you have doubts. You're not too sure, and the energy you send out is not that strong. But when you worship God as form, you can give that God all of your energy or totally surrender to that particular deity. That's the purpose of worship, to finally, totally surrender your ego, your pride, your body, your affairs, your life, to that deity. And then you become that deity itself.

Student: Is it better, Robert, to focus on one form?

Robert: Yes, of course, for you become one pointed. It causes your mind to become one-pointed. And then your mind becomes your servant, and finally the mind disappears. It's like the sun. When the sun spreads its rays all over the place, it's not as powerful as if one ray of the sun moved to a certain place. A fire would start. that's how powerful it is. But when the sun dissipates its rays they're not as powerful. In the same way, when you worship many deities, you dissipate your energy, and the worship is not as powerful.

Student: Even if you think of them as more or less representative of the same consciousness?

Robert: That's hard to do. You can't worship Buddha, and Christ, and Muhammad, and Krishna at the same time.

Student: I thought you could in the sense of them all being the Christ consciousness.

Robert: So how will you worship them then? How will you do that?

Student: As a unit.

Robert: How can you do it? What will you think of?

Student: The underlying consciousness that they all represent.

Robert: If you can do that, that's good, that's wonderful. But I still think you'll think of each one of them, and dissipate you energy. Whereas, if you have one, they will eventually all merge into oneness. In other words, if you worship Krishna, if you worship Krishna correctly, eventually Buddha, Christ, Shiva, everyone will become Krishna. So it's better, in the beginning, to worship one. Then the whole universe will become that one. …

Student: Could you tell us again... I remember a long time ago when I first started coming to your classes, you talked about a vision that you frequently had, in which you would encounter these entities...

Robert: Oh yes. I haven't had that vision in a long time. I had a vision that I was flying through the air and I went to Arunachala, the mountain. I went through the mountain, it was hollow inside. And when I landed in the middle of the mountain, there was Buddha, Krishna, Ramana, Nisargadatta, and many others that I didn't recognize. We all formed a circle. We smiled at each other and we walked toward each other, until we became one blazing light. And the light turned into a lingam. And then I opened my eyes. But I was aware that I was having a vision. And that's it.

Student: That came to you many times, right?

Robert: It used too. It's stopped now.

Student: Did you do self-inquiry with that?

Robert: No. I've never done self-inquiry.

Student: Why do you recommend it then?

Robert: Because it's the way to go.

Student: You're a card.

Robert: I'm the whole deck.

Student: Why do you say you've never done it.

Robert: Why do I need to do it?

Student: Well if you studied with these people from the east, my understanding is that's what they teach.

Robert: I didn't go to them for a teaching. I went to confirm my own experiences.

Student: But you said you went to Paramahansa Yogananda.

Robert: Sure, because I was a kid. I had my experiences when I was fourteen years old, and I didn't understand what was going on, so Paramahansa Yogananda explained it to me, and he sent me to India, to see Ramana, who explained it further.

Student: Ramana didn't suggest that you do self-inquiry?

Robert: No.

Student: Or who am I?

Robert: Never did it.

Student: You didn't need it. You were already...

Robert: Whatever...

Student: How did Ramana confirm your unitive experience?

Robert: With a smile. And most of the things we talked about were mundane.

Student: He just knew that you knew, and smiled.

Robert: I have no idea what he knew.

Student: How did you receive his smile?

Robert: I smiled back. Then for the rest of the time he inquired about my needs. And he wanted me to tell him about New York.

Student: What did you tell him about New York?

Robert: I said, "New York, New York, It's a wonderful town.”

Student: Did that satisfy him?

Robert: Sure.

Student: Robert, is it just insight that you can understand how direct and how powerful self-inquiry is? Is it just wisdom that...

Robert: I may make a joke about it, but it works.

Student: So its through some kind of inner wisdom that you know.

Robert: Definitely.

Student: So once again, self-inquiry is you could breath in by saying who am I, exhale by saying...

Robert: No, that's not self-inquiry. Seif-inquiry is when you inquire, "Who am I?"

Student: And the take it to the source...

Robert: The source of existence. The source of the I.

Student: Last Thursday you had us go through an exercise which you have us do periodically...

Robert: Yes. Breathe in saying, I, and exhale saying, "am.”

Student: I remember the one she's talking about though. You used to also teach us one where we would say, "Who am I" on the inhale, and, "I am God," or "I am that." You said it helped to become more focused.

Robert: Oh yes. When you inhale you say, "Who am I,” between exhaling you say, "I am consciousness,” and when you exhale you say, "I am not the body.”

Student: I thought you weren't supposed to answer that question. Just leave it silent and open.

Robert: That's the other meditation. …

Student: So the answer to her question would be, the question, "Who am I?" is self-inquiry.

Robert: Yes.

Student: And the others are exercises.

Robert: Yes. These are all practices that make you one pointed. And they work beautifully, if you need them.

Student: Robert, you say you went to Ramana to have the experiences confirmed?

Robert: Yes.

Student: That experience, God knows what its like, but conceptually it seems like it would be self authenticating.

Robert: It is self authenticated, but I was a kid, so I felt all these things, and I thought I was going crazy. So I went to find out what was going on.

Student: Even when you're not a kid you want to understand.

Robert: If you're already grown up you can read the books and you can do other things. But in my day there were no teachers except for Joel Goldsmith, and Paramahansa Yogananda, and people like that.

Student: Was the bliss of the self part of the experience, even though you thought maybe you were going crazy?

Robert: Oh yes, of course. By going crazy I mean I no longer conformed to my environment. I didn't care about school, I didn't care about my parents, I was just radiantly happy being by myself. I stopped associating with certain friends.

Student: Why would you need that confirmed? That's self sufficient.

Robert: It's self sufficient, but I didn't know what it was.

Student: Why do you have to know? Does it require some idea about it?

Robert: Because I was still in body consciousness. And the body's got to know. Inquiring minds have to know.

Robert: Peace, shanti, shanti, Om, Peace.

Greetings and salutations from the land of the jnanis. The land of the jnanis is where you live. You are all jnanis, but some of you believe you're a body. And as long as you believe you are a body, you separate yourself from the land of the jnanis. You believe you belong to the earth, and if you're earthbound, you have to partake of all the problems, sufferings, happiness, joys, that come from the earth. You have to choose whom you shall follow, if you should follow the divine urge that tells you that you are absolute consciousness, or the call of mammon, which is the world. You have to make that choice.

The choice you make determines what happens to you from here on. It's very simple. You either realize that you are not of this world, that you are absolute reality, your divine nature is pure awareness, and you rest in that, or you worry, and you fear, and you try to make things happen, and you're always scheming, and planning, and looking at the future with dismay, worrying about the past. The choice is really yours.

And even when some of you say, "I am absolute reality," you’re still referring to the body, for you are saying, "I am," and you don't know I am as consciousness. You're saying, "I am absolute reality," meaning that your body, your ego, is absolute reality, and this is a great mistake. You have to understand when you say, "I am absolute reality," I am and absolute reality are both synonymous. You're declaring the highest truth. You can say it this way, you may say, "I am is absolute reality," for if you’re having problems, if you think something is wrong, and you say "I am absolute reality," you're really saying my problems, and my negative thinking, is absolute reality. That's what you mean by I am.

So remember what I am really means. I am is God. I am is nirvana, emptiness. I am is consciousness, and that is your reality. So there’s no real difference between me and you. Absolute reality, consciousness, is all-pervading. If it's all-pervading, how can you be something else? You see the folly of your thinking? There is only absolute consciousness. There is only the reality. It is all-pervading. There’s nothing else.

Just being aware of this, your thoughts stop. There is nothing to think about. There is no thing you have to do. There are no mantras you have to keep chanting. There are no formulas that are going to turn you into a jnani. There are no yoga practices that you have to keep doing. You simply have to be aware that absolute reality is omnipresent, all-pervading, and there is no room for anything else.

I am is Brahman. It goes further than that. I am is Parabrahman, beyond Brahman. It's unpronounceable, unfathomable. You are that. You are that consciousness, and there is absolutely nothing to think about. There is no thing you have to get rid of. There is no special reading you have to do. There is no one you have to really see. You simply have to be aware of the fact that absolute reality is all there is. There’s not even room for a thought, for a question, for an answer. There’s no room, because the absolute reality takes up all the room.

There is nothing to wonder about. You do not have to be worthy. You do not have to deserve it. There is no use thinking about your past, because your past never existed and never will exist. The past and the future are just dreams. Awaken from the dream by realizing absolute reality is the only power. It is everywhere. There is not the world and absolute reality, and then you have to overcome the world to find your reality. There is no world to overcome. There is no God to pray to. Brahman is yourself. Shiva is your consciousness. You are that.

What else is there to know? You do not have to be a scholar of the Upanishads. You do not have to memorize various passages. You have to become like a little child and stay centered in the present. No one exists but you. You are the only existence. There is no other existence.

If you took this room and everything in it, the tape recorders, the bodies, the flowers, the carpet, and began to melt it down to its most minutest particles, you would get pure energy from everything. Everything will come from the same source. That source is absolute reality. It is the substratum of all existence. And that source is you. You are that. You are nothing else. Everything else is a lie. You’re searching, and you’re striving, and you’re looking for this, and you're looking for that. Give it up. Stay put. Do not allow your mind to think past your nose. Catch your mind. Observe it thinking, and laugh.

Where do the thoughts come, that you think about? They are formed by habit. For years you've been using your mind to think, and you believe the only way you can survive is through thinking. But now you are beginning to understand that what you call your mind is not really your friend. It is an optical illusion that keeps you earthbound, and makes you worry about your affairs, and concerns you with the ways of the world.

But what if you understood that the world doesn't exist? The world is like the water in a mirage. It appears to exist, just as your body appears to exist, but when you investigate you will laugh, for there is nothing at all that exists. If you wish to listen to your mind, you're going to have a hard time on this earth, for you will find that some things go good one day, and seem to go bad the next day. And then you're happy when you get things going your way, and you become miserable when they go the other way.

This is the way of the world. It plays games with you. You have to awaken. You have to surrender all of your games, all of your mental attitudes, all of the past and future, all of your beliefs and conceptual thinking. All of these things must go, all of your objects and subjects, all of your so called human intelligence, everything you've learned. It has to be transcended and then you'll be free.

But as long as you hold on to the slightest thing… It may be that you're in love with the rose. If you look at the rose and believe in the rose, it will keep you earth-bound. You are the rose. The rose exists because you exist, just as the world exists because you exist. When you cease to exist, the world ceases to exist. When you cease to exist, there's only the reality, and you become absolutely free.

(Musical interlude.)

Many people still can't understand why people who become self-realized seem to suffer, physically or otherwise. A week doesn't go by when somebody doesn't ask me this question, "How can a person who claims to be self-realized like Ramana Maharshi and Ramakrishna and many others, die such horrible deaths? Is it worth going after freedom like that? Is it worth becoming liberated when you're going to die a horrible death of cancer, or something else?"

Now this kind of question is completely ludicrous to me. It's ludicrous to me because who asked the question, the jnani or the ajnani? Who suffers? Can't you see by now, that what you see is only in a certain dimension. Where most of you are right now, you see birth and death, sickness and health, poverty and riches. You see duality. So naturally your body was born to die if that's what you see, and that's what you're coming from, and suffering appears to ensue. But from the jnani's viewpoint, there is no one who was ever born, and no one suffers.

Ramakrishna appeared to be wasting away, and some of you say, "How can you say that? Look what happened to him? We witnessed it. We saw it. We read about it." Who’s this we? Who are you anyway? If you consider yourself a human being, naturally you are going to witness suffering. But did Ramakrishna admit he was suffering? Did Ramana Maharshi admit he was suffering? They were laughing all the way to hell. No one ever suffered, and no one will ever suffer.

It's the way you see things. You have to lift yourself up, and you have to see things from a different viewpoint. You did not come to this earth. You were never born. Your body is not even maintained and sustained. Neither is the world. There is only the absolute reality.

So many of these sages, to make the public feel better, they say what happened to these people is they took on the karma of their devotees. Now that's a lie. It's a lie because there's no karma. There is nothing to take on. It appears like this to the ajnani, who beholds, with his or her eyes, somebody suffering.

Now I don't want you to go out and laugh at the people in the hospital who are dying, or go to a dying person and say, "You're not suffering. You're just making believe." That would be nonsense, stupidity. When you realize a person believes that they are suffering, you should never tell them they're not, because at that stage of life they don't know what you're talking about. It is therefore your duty to help. It is your duty to come to the aid of everyone in trouble, as long as you believe you are human, and you are the body, and you go through experiences. So does everybody else that you see.

But when you come to the life of a sage, it's a completely different ball game. The sage doesn't see the same things that you see. A good example of that is the chalkboard. Imagine the sage as the chalkboard, and you draw a picture of a human being suffering, dying of cancer, wasting away. Everyone who looks at the chalkboard will relate to the human being drawn on it. They will not relate to the chalkboard. They will relate to the picture, especially if the picture looks real and covers most of the chalkboard. But did anything happen to the chalkboard? Did the chalkboard get hurt? Was the chalkboard born? Did the chalkboard grow old and die from cancer? Now you can erase the picture and the chalkboard is all the same, as it was before. No change.

Therefore do you see yourself as a dying individual, who gets older, and has problems, and might catch a disease? Or do you see yourself as the substratum, as consciousness, as pure awareness, and a so called problem is merely an imposition upon the self ? How do you see it? Ponder this. How do you see all the situations in the world? Think of a gigantic chalkboard if you will, and now someone is drawing pictures of the whole world on the chalkboard, the whole universe, galaxies, planets, people, places, things. The whole chalkboard is covered with images. Does the chalkboard feel this? Does the chalkboard feel the good images and rejoice with it, and cry over the bad images? The chalkboard remains ever the same. New pictures come, old pictures go.

And so it is with most of us. Your life is planned on the chalkboard, and then when you appear to drop your body, someone appears to draw a new one on the chalkboard, and that's called reincarnation. And the picture that is drawn on the chalkboard of your new body, goes through those experiences in accordance with karma. That's part of the grand illusion. But nothing ever happens to the chalkboard.

A sage is like the chalkboard. His or her body may be appearing to decay, to waste away for one reason or another, but the sage is not identified with that. To others it may appear that way, but the sage is absolute reality, all-pervading. There is nothing but the sage. There’s no room for anything else. There’s no place for anything else. The sage is the self. The self is all there is.

You must subsequently awaken. When you hear these words, chew them up, assimilate them. Let them go into your spiritual heart center. Understand what this means. You are free. You have always been free. You have no bondage to anything. Do not believe what your eyes show you. If I make hospital visitations, if I help the homeless, it doesn't mean that I'm agreeing with this or accepting it. It is just being done. Again, I do not become arrogant. I do not become cynical. When I see a homeless person I do not say they are not really suffering. Of course they are, because they are the images on the chalkboard.

This is the maya. This is the illusion. This is the dream, and they’re caught up in that dream. It's all prearranged, preordained. That's the experience they're going through now. But when they wake up, then there's no such thing as anything being prearranged or preordained. That all goes out the window with everything else, into the garbage. Then there’s only pure awareness, ultimate oneness, and there's nothing else.

This is what you have to work on, to clear up your idea of what's going on. And the easiest way to do this is, no matter what you see, or what you believe, or what feelings come to you, simply say, "To whom do they come?" Find out. To whom do these images come, these chalkboard images? Who sees them? Who identifies with them? Who becomes angry over them? Who sees disease, poverty, lack, limitation, man's inhumanity to man? Is this reality?" And then you'll realize they are chalkboard images, that's all they are, and you'll be able to erase them.

You begin to understand that all these images belong to the personal I. Imagine a string, and you tie onto the string everything in the world, and everything in the universe. It's all hanging on to the string. If you get rid of the string, there’ll be no place for these things to hang onto, and they'll have to dissolve. It is the string that gives them their power. The string is your personal I.
When you wake up in the morning, the personal I comes out of your heart center and runs up into your brain. You then identify with the body, and when you identify with the body, the I expands and you become the world, and you say, "I see the sky, I see the moon, I see man's inhumanity to man, I see love," and you see all these human things, which you gave birth to.

Can't you see now, they all came out of you. They came out of your mind. This is what the teaching of no-mind means. When there is no mind, there is no existence. So the idea is to transfer them back to whence they came, and you do that by tracing the I thought. It's only a thought. You trace the I back to its source. As far as you’re concerned, the source is the spiritual heart on the right side of the chest. Has nothing to do with chakras. It is absolute reality. It is nirvana, your spiritual heart. The I and the whole world goes back into the heart. Then there is only self contained absolute reality and nothing else.

Do not make it complicated. Do not be analytical. Simply realize the source of your problems is I. I belongs in the heart center, not in my head. As long as I is in my head, I relate to the world. When I abide in the I, hold on to it, and you do that by inquiring, "For whom does the I come?" or "Who am I?" the I will finally disappear, and only the source, or Brahman, will be left. That's what you are. That is your real nature.

Abide in it. Love it. Be it, and be happy.

Robert: Om, shanti, shanti, om.

Good evening. It's good to be with you again. Welcome. I want you to ask yourself the question, "What is my real reason for coming here tonight? Why have I decided to come to a meeting like this? What do I want to achieve? What am I looking for?" If you're real honest with yourself you will find most people are interested in improving their humanhood. They want to become better human beings. They want to improve their affairs, their health, their finances, their positions, their status. And of course you realize this is the wrong reason for coming here.

We're not interested in your humanhood, for the premise of this teaching is you are inhuman. You are not your body, nor your mind, nor are you the doer. So to improve your humanhood is folly. You're not trying to become better human beings. You’re trying to forget that you are a human being and focus your attention on your divinity, on your self, on the I am, until your humanhood has been transcended and transmuted. That's called liberation or awakening, which is really your real nature. Then you are free.

Sometimes it's difficult to understand. What if I'm dying of a disease? What if I'm impoverished? What if people are trying to kill me? How can I forget about that? If I become self-realized what will happen to my body? Will it continue being sick, or impoverished, or waiting to be killed? By asking a question like that, you're taking the wrong direction.

You don't exist as you appear. You have no body. The body appears to be real, but upon investigation you will find that it’s not. When you discover your reality, your real nature, the body is transcended. It no longer is the same thing to you. It may appear real to others, but to you it's no longer there. It is like the water in the mirage. It appears to be real, but it’s not. As far as your bodily functions are concerned, they will go on. That's how it will appear to others. Your body will appear to go through experiences, but not to you when you are awakened. You will appear to be the doer to others, but not to you.

You're not trying to hide it, or make believe that you don't have a body. You do not even identify with something that makes you think you don't have a body. You become yourself, absolute reality. That's what you've always been, pure awareness, sat-chit-ananda, I am that I am. That is your real nature right now. That's what you really are.

This is why it was difficult to understand when people like Ramana Maharshi or Ramakrishna were dying from cancer. Devotees were weeping, crying, and both Ramana and Ramakrishna tried to explain, "Don't be fools. I'm not going anywhere. I am where I will always be. What you see is not a true picture." Yet the devotees still couldn't understand, because they were coming from a human standpoint, and of course in the human world, there's suffering, there's death, there’s birth, there’s misery, there’re all kinds of things. And there are also beautiful things. But they are all part of the same maya, the same grand illusion.

Therefore try to understand this. Everything will work out. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. All is well. The more you try to think about your body, in order to improve it any way, the worse it will become, for you are using your mind to out-picture something that perhaps is not your karma. When I tell you, "Do not worry about your body," I know from whence I speak. Your body does not exist. It never existed. It never will exist. Your real nature is unbounding joy, love, peace. You are not what appears to be.

Do not be afraid. There is no thing in the universe that can possibly hurt you. Everything is all right. If you believe in a God, see that God as omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. Realize that that God is your true nature, that God is you, no one else, but not as your ego, not as your body, not as your mind, but as you. You are that. Understand the true meaning of the self, unalloyed happiness, pure intelligence, ultimate oneness. You are that. You focus your mind on God, by realizing I am. I am not this nor that, just I am. I have always been and I will always be.
Do not pray for things. Spend your time identifying with your self. Praying for things is a waste of time. You may get the things, but you'll be sorry afterwards.

It reminds me of the story of this Catholic man who wanted $50,000 to remodel his home. So he went to his church and he said, "Father, I have been coming to this church since I was a child. Now I need $50,000 to remodel my home. Can you please let me have it?" And the father said, "Son, we do not lend money here, nor give money. Go home and pray to Jesus and you may get it."

So he went home and got on his knees and he said, "Jesus, I have to remodel my home. Please give me $50,000." Nothing happened. He did this everyday for a month, and nothing happened.
So he said, "Jesus, I'll make a deal with you. I'll take $25,000. Can you see your way to let me have that? Nothing happened. He prayed for $25,000 all month, and nothing happened.

So he got angry. He got up one dark night and went to the church, snuck in, and stole the statue of the Mother Mary, Jesus’ mother, took it home, got a handkerchief, tied it around her mouth, got another handkerchief, tied it to her eyes, and said, "OK Jesus. If you want to see your mother again, you'd better get me $25,000.

That's the way we pray. We think that God is going to give us gifts, presents, if we pray hard enough. And sometimes we get them, and that's unfortunate, for then we believe that whatever we need, we just have to pray. Prayer has its points. It can increase your concentration, and make you come closer to the deity of your choice, but asking for gifts is a mistake, for you just might get them, and then your problems will really start.

Forget about your body, your needs. Everything will work out. Ask yourself, "Who has to do all these things? Who’s worried? Who fears?" and wait. The answer will come, "I am. I fear. " Then what is the source of the I? And trace the I to it's source, by holding on to it, by following the I, abiding in the I. The day will come when you finally awaken and you will be free.

What I'm simply telling you is this. Make your life simple. Keep inquiring, "Who am I?" Whatever your need may be, whatever your position is, wherever you come from, makes no difference. Do not compare yourself with anyone else. Keep inquiring, "Who am I? Where did this I come from? What is its source?" Follow the I to the spiritual heart center, on the right side of your chest. Allow it to merge.

The spiritual heart center is the self. It is infinity. Watch yourself, be aware of your thoughts. Whatever thoughts come to you, good or bad, always ask yourself, "To whom do they come?" You do this all day long. Catch yourself. Remind yourself. When you ask, "To whom do they come?" observe the thoughts that come into your head. Become the witness. Then ask yourself again, "To whom do they come?" Do the same thing.

You can do this when you're meditating formally if you want to, or do it during the day, all day, even when you're sleeping. Forget about time. Forget about the world. Remember, when I say, "Forget about the world," I'm not saying to ignore your responsibilities. There’s something that will take care of them. There's something that knows how to take care of your body, that you believe is real.

That's the wonderful thing about this teaching. You do not have to wonder about your body. You do not have to worry that if you do not do so and so, such and such, the work will not get done. Your body will continue to do whatever it came here to do. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. Leave your body alone. It will always take care of itself. You do the work you came here to do. That's abiding in the self, the source, the spiritual center on the right side of your chest. The I appears to have come from that. The I appears to emanate from the spiritual center. That's how it appears to rise, when you wake up. When you were asleep, the I subsided in your chest, in your heart.

When you wake up, become aware, what happens? Notice how the I becomes larger. It goes from your heart to your brain. When it gets to your brain you identify with the world. You say, "I am hungry. I am thirsty. I am late. I need this. I need that," yet when you’re falling asleep, those thoughts begin to leave you as the I subsides again into the spiritual center.

Become aware of this. Watch what happens. Observe. Catch the I doing all those things. This is called abiding in the I, when you watch the I becoming stronger as it goes to your brain, and you become worldly, and again when you fall asleep, the I leaves your brain and goes back down to the spiritual center.

The whole secret is to keep the I in the spiritual center at all times. This is called liberation. And this happens by inquiring, "Who am I?" What you are really saying is, "What is the source of the I?" You have been watching. You have been observing. You have been observing the I going back to the spiritual center at night, as you’re falling asleep, and you have been observing the I coming to life again, as you wake up, and you inquire, "What is this I? Who gave it life? Where did it come from? What is its source?" and you keep still. As thoughts come to you, you inquire, "To whom do they come?" You do this again, and again, and again.

One day something will happen. Your I will melt into the source while you’re awake, and you will experience yourself as consciousness, as pure awareness, as absolute reality, and you will be free.

Om, nama Shivaya, peace.

Robert: Good afternoon. I guess you have no mothers. Half the people are not here because of mother’s day. Happy mother’s day.

It's really interesting, so many people call me, and talk to me, and tell me, "What else must I do before I awaken? I've been practicing atma-vichara, I've been practicing meditation, I've been practicing everything for twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years. How come nothing is happening?" What do you think?

This tells you why. Because you are attached to holidays. It's one of the reasons, believe it or not. It's an attachment. Christmas comes around. "I have no time for spiritual life. I have to decorate my Christmas tree." All the holidays that come around, we can walk somewhere to see our relatives, and we wonder why we can't awaken completely. This is something to think about. Where your heart is, that's where God is. So if you are attached to anything, mother, father, country, trees, rabbits, cows, whatever, this is what is keeping you back.

I'm not saying that you can't spend time with those you love, or be with those you love. On the contrary, I'm saying mentally you have to feel in your heart the oneness of eternity, and until we mature, and this comes first in our lives, we will only go so far on the spiritual path. I'm not saying this because I want to see everybody come on a holiday to satsang. As you know I couldn't care less if one person came or nobody came. But for your benefit, for your good, think what you put first in your life. If you do not put consciousness first, absolute reality, God, then you will never see the light. You will never completely awaken. You have to virtually give up everything mentally.

It's like that story, if you remember in The Autobiography Of A Yogi by Yogananda, Lahiri Mahasaya, one of the triuna of Yogananda's path. He had been meditating for years practicing Kriya Yoga, doing all sorts of austerities. He developed many siddhis, powers. He was able to levitate, but he never became fully awakened, yet he was so sincere that Babaji appeared before him and told him, "Look, the reason you never awaken is because in your heart you always want to live in a palace, with servants, good food, dancing girls and everything else." So Babaji materialized the palace for Lahiri. And Lahiri stayed there for a period of time until he got disgusted and tired of it. Then it disappeared, and he was all cooked.

The reason Babaji did this for him, because he was a very devoted person and spent his life in meditation. But he had one last thing to get rid of, the palace. Therefore it was materialized before him in order for him to live in it and to see if that’s the answer. And of course it wasn't, so then it disappeared.

Whether this story is true or not makes no difference. It's symbolic. We have things in our mind that worry us, concern us. Thinking about the future, thinking about our health, and our loved ones, are all these worldly things that come to mind. Yet all the sages have told us, you have to let go of these things. Don't worry about your so called body. Do not concern yourself with your relatives, or the world, or man's inhumanity to man. Drop it. If you don't drop it you'll never make any headway.

So it is with us. We all have something we're leaning on for support, and we're afraid if we lose that we'll be finished. How can you ever be finished when you realize you are of a divine nature, that your real state is Brahman, ultimate oneness, pure awareness. No matter what your body and mind seem to be going through, no matter what you think, you can never get rid of your real self, because your real self just is. Your mind may tell you otherwise. You may be mesmerized in the world, believing you have to have this, and you have to have that, and you have to live here, and you have to live there, and you have to be with someone that you think you're supposed to be with, and you're afraid of being alone, or you're afraid of being with the wrong people, many fears, many false beliefs. These are the things that are keeping you back.

You and your self are the universe. You are the whole universe. You are the self, omnipresent, all-pervading. This is your real nature. If you just have a glimpse of this, how can you possibly fear anything? If you learn to live in the present and become spontaneous, forgetting about the past, not concerning yourself about the future, but understanding who you are right now, can't you see that this will take care of everything?

It reminds me of this old story about Krishna and Arjuna. They were invited to a rich man's home for dinner. When they entered the home and they sat down at the table, the rich man abused him. He told Krishna he doesn't believe anything he says. His teaching is a waste of time. He told him, "Why don't you go and get a decent job someplace?" and Krishna didn't say a word. When they were finished. Krishna blessed him and he said to him, "May your prosperity increase a thousand fold, and may your riches become a million more than you have now," and they left the home. Arjuna wondered about this, but he didn't say anything.

The following morning they were invited to breakfast to a poor man's house, and the poor man had no possessions except for a cow. But the poor man fell at Krishna's feet when they came in, and he worshipped Krishna and Arjuna, gave them the last bowl of rice he had and sang glories to Krishna. When Krishna and Arjuna were leaving the house Krishna blessed him also, and he said, "May your cow drop dead soon," and they left.

And Arjuna couldn't hold it in any longer and he said, "Krishna, tell me what you’re doing? What's going on? You went to the rich man's house and he abused you, and you blessed him and told him his wealth will multiply. And you go to the poor man's house who loves you, and his only possession is a cow, and you told him his cow will drop dead. What is the meaning of this?

And Krishna said, "You see, the more you're attached to, the less of a chance you have for enlightenment." So I told the rich man his wealth will increase. This means he will be attached to his wealth for many, many incarnations. Thousands of incarnations he will be attached to his wealth, and he will never become enlightened for a long time. Now the poor man, his only attachment was his cow. When he got rid of his cow, he would be finished on this earth, and he will become self-realized. So I told him his cow will soon die and he will be free.

This story is very significant of the way we live. We have something we own, a person, place, or thing. We can not get it out of our mind. We're attached. Because of this attachment we go through many lives, it appears, and we go through many experiences, simply because we are attached to something. It can be mental or physical.

Even if you hate someone. If you hate someone or something with a passion, that's attachment. You will come back to this earth, or to another planet similar to this earth, again, and again, and again, and you will meet this person that you hate so much under different circumstances again, and again, and again. One time he may be your daughter, he may be your mother, he may be your husband, he may be your wife. But that person that you despise so much will meet you again, and again, and do things to you in order to upset you. And you will hate again, and again. You will never be free until you understand.

The understanding is to turn within, to forget about the person, but to see your own reality, to trace the I thought to the source. After all it is the I thought that hates and loves, that has attachment to person, place or thing. When the I thought is transcended, only the self remains. Then your karma is finished, your body is finished, your world is finished, your God is finished, and you're home free. But as long as you allow a person, place or thing, and it may be your own body that you're attached to, your own mind, that's person, place or thing also, as long as you feel deeply about those things, you will never become free until you let it go.

You have to reconcile yourself with the whole universe, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom. When you have become friends with the entire universe, you will not have to do atma-vichara. You will not have to trace the I, or worry about the I. Just the reconciliation with the universe will free you. After all, when you love everything, unqualified, what else can you do? There's nothing else. The total love of the whole universe kills the ego. For it is the ego that plays the other games with you, that makes you love someone special or hate someone special, that makes you despise certain animals and eat them, that makes you think poison ivy is worse than the rose, that causes you to qualify life. A sage sees everything as equal. No thing is worse or better than any other thing. And just by hearing this, allowing it to go into your heart, feeling it, will lead you to an awakening.

Think of the problems you think you have. Why are they a problem? What difference does it make? There is nothing in this world that it's important for you to want to feel badly, where you want to get revenge, or you’re afraid that something will happen to your body, you're concerned about a loved one, you're worried about the world situation. When you're like that, you are assuming responsibility for these things. After all you didn't ask to really get born. You didn't ask to get born into the family where you were born, into the nationality, into the religion that you were born into, into the city and state and country that you were born into. The power that takes care of that knows how to take care of you. Don't you see? There isn't anything you have to do to help.

In other words, God doesn't need your help. All you have to do is to take a deep breath and say, "Take it God. I'm finished with it. I will never worry again. I will never be upset over anything again."

Again, think what is the worst thing that can possibly happen to you. You can die. There is no such thing as death. You all know this. You can lose a fortune. You came into this world without a fortune and you're going out without a fortune. Have no concern about these things. Karmically you have and you're going through the experiences you have to go through. But that's for your body, not for you. Do you not see by now that you're totally free? Your real nature is absolute goodness, Parabrahman, absolute reality. You are the self, the all-pervading self. What can you possibly fear? What can anyone possibly do to you?

The other day I was speaking to a fellow from Bangladesh, and you are aware of the problems they’re having there. So he told me, "Those problems are for the ignorant. I was in the cyclone. I was there through all these calamities. I laughed, because I realized this is really a cosmic joke. It appears that God is picking on all the Bangladesh people because they have the worst calamities, and I stood my ground," he said. "If I was supposed to leave my body at that time I was well prepared, because I have been practicing self-inquiry for many years. I had no qualm whatsoever. It's because of this I'm here in America. I have no concern about coming to America. I've been here before. But something happened, I was able to get a visa, and I wound up here without even thinking of coming here."

That's like the story that I always tell you. The same things happen in nazi death camps all over the world. The suffering is done by the ignorant. Now this may seem strange to you, especially to some people here who don't know me too well. It appears as if I have no compassion. It appears as if I don't care. On the contrary, I care more than you can ever know. I also realize that nothing can happen to anyone. Nothing ever happens to anyone.

We go to the example again of looking through a keyhole. When you look through a keyhole you only see a part of the picture. So you look through a keyhole and you see a guy in Bangladesh getting hit by a cyclone, drowning, and you say, "Poor soul." But then you are allowed to open the door, and now you see the complete picture. You see the previous life. The same fellow was part of the inquisition in Spain, and it was his job to torture people by drowning them. And you move to the other end of the picture and you see that the person that he drowned and himself are both laughing now. The whole thing was a lie. It never happened. Nothing ever happened.

It's like you're watching a movie. In the movie there is a war going on. Everybody is being killed, torn to pieces. But then the movie is over. Nothing happened. They were just images on the screen. When you are aware of body-mind , and you think you are the body-mind , then your life is simply a superimposition on the screen of life, on consciousness. It appears to be happening to you. But in reality no thing is happening. You are free. You are whole. You are complete. And there’s only one of you. There never was you and me. There is only the one, and that one is absolute reality. You are that one. You are the body of bliss.

Wake up. Get rid of all those feelings that are beseeching you to do all these stupid things. Awaken. Be free. Simplify your life. Have no fear. Fear is another thing that you become attached to and it keeps you back.

Look at the world. The world is a cosmic joke. It appears to be real, the good things, the beautiful things, the horrible things. They are all imposters. This world is a world of duality. For every good there has to be a bad. It has to balance. For every bad there has to be a good. For every up there’s a down. For every forwards there’s a backward.

We can never understand this world. It's too complex. Get out of it, not by committing suicide, but by transcending the mind and body, and awakening to your real self. That's how you get out of it. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop paying so much attention to your thoughts, to the world, to your body. Let come what may. Surrender totally to yourself. Yourself is God, consciousness. Begin to identify with the I am, not with conditions. Leave conditions alone.

As I told you before, you are not responsible for anything. Get rid of your guilt feelings. Turn within. See the truth. Become the truth. Do not look to others for advice, what to do, how to live. Be a lamp unto yourself, as the Buddha said. All the answers are within you.

Some of you are saying, "Well, what about you Robert? Can't we come to you for advice?" I am a guide, a mirror, for you to see yourself, and to guide you within yourself. I can only see you as one way, perfection, consciousness. I see you as myself. When you look at me, you're looking into the mirror. What do you see? You're seeing yourself. How are you seeing yourself? As depraved, homely, sickly, as an ego maniac? Drop it. Awaken.

There is no thing that wants to hurt you. It is all in your imagination. It is your imagination that causes your problems. Now do not let what I tell you make you cynical or sarcastic. While you are on the path of self discovery, you help others. You do what has to be done. It will happen by itself. If you're supposed to feed the homeless, then feed the homeless. It will happen by itself. If you're supposed to go live on top of a mountain, and never see civilization again, it will happen by itself.

The main thing to understand is that you have absolutely nothing to do with it. You may think you're taking action, and you may say to yourself, "If I don't do it, no one will. If I don't take care of this thing, everything will fall in on me." What can fall in on you? No thing is ever that bad. What you're really talking about is change. You are attached to a certain condition and you're afraid of the change. That's what you really mean. But if you've been working on yourself, and you have taught your mind to rest in the heart center, you have trained your mind not to go out, by going out I mean leaving your heart center and going into the world and becoming the world, then if your mind is subdued, only joy can come to you, due to the fact that what we call the substratum of life is total bliss. When you turn within, you merge with the bliss and you become a body of bliss. The choice is yours.

If holidays are so important to you, Easter. Look what fools we make of ourselves during Easter. We think we're doing something great. Jesus never knew anything about Easter or Christmas. We make up these holidays. There's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself, but don't make it into a fetish.

I remember when I was a young kid about twelve or thirteen, my family always wanted me to spend the holiday with them. And at that time I even felt in my heart, "What good would that do? External things do not matter," and I used to go downtown to listen to Joel Goldsmith. Where your heart is, that's where God is.

Today, think, "What is this thing I am attached to? What is so meaningful for me in this world?" and realize it’s that which is keeping you back. Let go of it mentally, by turning within, and realizing that, "I feel this. I feel I need this." Where does the I come from? Follow the I thread to the source and become liberated.

That was my mother’s day message to you. Any questions?

Robert: It's good to be with you again. I welcome you with all my heart. On Tuesday I attended my mother-in-law's funeral. So somebody asked me why am I not crying? I therefore started to cry, and I cried louder than anybody else. They had to go get me a towel. That's how much I cried. And it made everybody happy. I cried for about ten minutes, I don't know why. Somehow when people ask me to do something, I do it. Yet my feelings never change.

And what feelings are those? All is well. Those words never come to my mind, but there is something that knows all is well. There’s some mysterious power that is continuously felt. This power of course is the self, consciousness. It is beyond consciousness, beyond the self. What is called I is simply an image, superimposed on this power. Therefore I can be the body and the power at the same time. So the body can cry, can laugh. It can go through all sorts of experiences, but nobody is affected.

The experience is like a burnt rope. They're of no value. You can't do anything with a burnt rope. If you try to touch it, it falls apart. So the feelings, and the emotions, and everything else that this body expresses, is like a burnt rope. It's of no value. There are no words to explain this. But I can assure you that everything is unfolding as it should. No matter what's going on in your life, or what appears to be going on in your life, believe me it's all for your ultimate good.

There is nothing in this universe that can ever hurt you, no matter how things appear and how they look. First of all, you're not your body. There is nothing hurtable. You're not your mind, so there are no thoughts that can attack you, or destroy you, or repel you. You're beyond that, you're above that.

What you really are you have to find out for yourself. And you do that, of course, by stopping identifying with the body, and do not react to conditions. That's being yourself. It's not knowing words, or paragraphs, or phrases. It's not by memorizing scripture and trying to impress others. It's by being yourself. To be yourself you just have to stop the thinking process.

Always remember it is your thoughts that keep you from yourself. Every thought that comes to you is your enemy. Even the good thoughts, for the good thoughts are just leading you on. It is your mind playing tricks on you. The good thoughts are trying to make you feel that this world is real, and you should strive after certain things, you should enjoy the world, and take it for what it's worth. But then you have to come under the law of change, and you become disillusioned because the things in your life are no longer the same, after a while.

Then you have to jump back into yourself and take refuge in your self. When you take refuge in your self you become happy. When you take refuge in your self you have peace. When you take refuge in your self you have harmony, you have joy. It’s a mystery to me why people would take refuge in the outside world, in person, place or thing, when you know the outside world is subject to the law of change, and is never the same continuously. So whatever you take refuge in becomes a disappointment, whether it's a person, place or thing.

There was once a young girl who was brought up in a house of prostitution. This was her destiny, at the time. She couldn't get away from it. But she used to pray to Ramana Maharshi, "Oh Lord, if I must go this route, be with me. I'm not praying to change my life, if this is my destiny. But I'm praying that your strength and your love will always be with me."

Now across the street, there was a so called jnani, and he used to stand in front of the market place, telling everybody they're consciousness and absolute reality, preaching and screaming. This went on for years.

Finally the time came when they both died and they went before God. And God told the girl, "You have to go back to the earth, and you have to be a jnani." And he told the so called aspiring jnani," You have to go back to the earth as a snake." And the man said, "How come Lord? I extolled your virtues to everyone. I told all the people they were consciousness and they were absolute reality, and you send me back as a snake. What did I do?" And God said, "You have no heart. You come from the talking school. All you did with your life was to talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. But this girl gave me her heart. She surrendered to me. She didn't bemoan her fate. She just wanted me to be with her during her trials and tribulations. And I gave her the strength to carry on, so now she is free. But you still have a lot to learn. So you have to go back as a snake."

This makes us think. What are we really doing with our lives? We read lots of books, see lots of teachers, have a lot of head knowledge, but how many of us have given our hearts to God? And God is not far away. God is really the self. But in order to contact that self you have to have a lot of humility. To feel God’s grace means you have to surrender completely, have a lot of humility. You have to have the attitude, "I know nothing, you are everything." This kind of an attitude will set you free.

And yet, how many of us have an attitude like this? Many of us think to become a jnani, to become self-realized, we become proud, and you actually become more egotistical than you ever were before. We have a holier than thou attitude. This will never do it.

There is really no difference between a bhakta and a jnani. One surrenders to God, and they have no other life. They realize that whatever they do, it is God doing it. Therefore it’s good. They never complain. They never think of their problems. They think of others and their problems, rather than their own.

And the other one realizes that the I is responsible for all their problems, and for their existence. So they trace the I back to its source, to the heart, and they become free. At that stage there is a merging of both bhakta and jnani. So a bhakta is a jnani and a jnani is a bhakta.

Therefore if you see a teacher who thinks they are better than anybody else, and they seem egotistical, be careful. Most jnanis never take on a teaching role at all, and they have very little to say. After all, what is there to talk about?

This is what I was trying to explain on Sunday. Just being is enough. Not being this, not being that, just being, being at satsang. And whether I talk about ice cream, or jelly beans, it makes no difference. The words themselves have value because the sound of the words are the grace that you feel. But the meaning of the words are only interpreted in your mind. That's why whatever I say is taken differently by each one of you, for it filters through your mind, and your consciousness and your beingness mix with the words, and the words come out according to your way of life. But if you listen with no mind, then you get the true meaning. In other words, do not put too much value on everything I say, but open your heart so the grace portion of it may enter, and you may pick it up, and lift yourself upward.

How do you do this? Just by becoming still, by stopping the mental activity. And you may stop the mental activity by any method you know. If you like to do pranayama, do that. If you like to practice vipassana meditation, do that. If you wish to observe your breath, do that. If you wish to practice self-inquiry, do that. In other words, do whatever you have to do to stop your mind from thinking. Vichara, self-inquiry, is only to keep your mind from thinking. That's all it is. All the practices of yoga lead to the place where you stop thinking. All of the higher religions are to make your thoughts one-pointed. And when your mind stops, you become your self. You're free.

There are no rituals you have to go through really. You don't have to chastise yourself and try to get rid of your guilt feelings, samskaras, or anything else. By identifying with an empty mind, will do the job for you. But the empty mind is not realization. It is the step before realization. Realization is not an empty mind. Realization can not be explained. Suffice it to say, that realization is beyond everything and anything you can ever imagine. But if you achieve empty mind, then you're on the way to realization. At that stage the guru within yourself, will pull you inwardly, and you will awaken to your self.

So, number 1, you have to develop humility. You have to open your heart to loving kindness. Number 2, you have to forget about yourself and your problems, as if they never existed, and help others, give of yourself to others, because there is only one self, and I am is that. Number 3, you have to stop quoting teachers and telling yourself that I am Brahman, I am no-mind, I am consciousness, for that really inflates your ego.

You have to stop comparing yourself with anybody or anything. In other words, you have to become nothing, and that hurts some of you, because you say, "After all I've gone to school for fifty years, I've got a profession, I'm doing this and I'm doing that. And now you tell me I have to become nothing?" Well, consciousness is nothing, it is no thing. What you call God is nothing. So if nothing is good enough for God, it should be good enough for you too. Can't you see now that when you say to yourself, "Well, I'll never be nothing, I'm somebody. I've studied for years, I'm somebody important," can't you see now that this is what holds you back? Every sage has come to the point where they have thrown away the scriptures, thrown away the books, thrown away their body, thrown away their knowledge, and thrown away themselves with a small s. When you get rid of all that stuff, then you become your self.

Can you see now why it takes so long for some people? Because they're holding on to something. They say, "I can let go of this, but I can never let go of that." I don't mean you get to the point where you don't care. I don't mean you have to quit your job, or leave your family, or go anywhere. You have to do all this mentally. You do all this in your mind. You use your mind to do all these things, and then the mind turns within itself, and disappears into the heart. So take a look at your life and see what's holding you back. What are you attached to? What do you think is important in this world?

You cannot have both. You cannot mentally be attached to person, place and thing, and awaken at the same time. If you want liberation you have to pay the price, and the price is letting go, giving it all up, surrendering, having perfect faith that all is well. Not trying to interpret what all is well means. Just realize that everything is in its right place, just the way it is. That’s it. Don't interpret that. There are no mistakes.

As you begin to dwell on this, as you begin to dwell on these things, automatically you will come to the place where you will realize the last thing you need to let go is the I. Everything has been attached to the I. But you see how long it takes to get there? You have to do everything else first.

This is why it's dangerous for some people to just teach jnana marga by itself, for egotistical people become greater egotists. It builds up your ego. You have to have humility first and go through all these things we discussed. If you really want to do this, you will. You will not do this by taking action, but by sitting in the silence, and surrendering your mind and your body to your self. I am will take care of itself. You see, I am is your real nature. Therefore you don’t have to try to bring it about. All you've got to do is to realize that the stuff that's holding you back, has to be given up. Everything has to go, your whole belief system.

What are you holding onto? Think. What's in your mind that’s so strong? Fear? A job? All those things are meaningless if you want to awaken. You will still have your job. You will still do whatever you came here to do. I have to emphasize this because we always believe, and the question that I get from most of you is that, "How will I function if I do what you say?" I keep telling you, have no fear, you will function. You will function much better than you can ever imagine. It's hard right now, working with your ego, to think how can I function without a mind, but you will.

Here is something that cannot be explained in words. When you get to the ultimate state, you become human like everybody else. That's why it's difficult to know who a sage is, because a true sage appears no different than you and I. The ultimate state is functioning like everybody else, except there is something inside, there's something that makes you understand that you are like the mirror, and your body, your affairs, and everything else in the universe is a reflection. You become both. It appears that you act out your humanhood, but you're not human. And this is the most difficult state to explain, for it is beyond words. It is beyond thoughts. It is beyond reasoning.

You cannot be reasonable to become liberated. It's beyond every human faculty. That's why you can't think about it, and you cannot try to explain it, and you can't even discuss it. All you can do is to do whatever you have to do to get rid of all your stuff. That's all. And everything else will take care of itself.

It's so simple. Words make it so complicated. The fact is you were never born, you can never die, there is no power that sustains you, maintains you. You do not exist the way you appear. The same is true for the whole universe. It's only a reflection. It's an optical illusion, like the mirage in the water, or the water in the mirage. They're both the same. The water is the mirage and the mirage is the water. So the appearance is water, but when you try to grab it, you grab sand.

Everything you grab in this world is like sand. It seems so real. And then your emotions grab a hold of it and give it more power, so that the maya becomes stronger and stronger and stronger, until you're in such a state that it takes you many incarnations to get rid of all the fears, all the frustrations, thoughts about the past, samskaras. You have made these things real for you, but they do not exist. None of these things are real, but you have made them real. You’ve done it to yourself.

Therefore when you leave your body, you appear to go through an astral plane, and you take a rest. You meet your long lost relatives, that you couldn't stand. And then you go onwards and go back into a body again. And you continue, and continue, and continue. But it's a lie. You are making it the truth. It is your truth because you believe in this, and you refuse to let go.

Therefore the mature aspirant of jnana will always work with their I. That's where it begins. Trace the source of I. Where did my I come from? Watch it. Observe it. Watch when you get up in the morning. You feel so peaceful in the beginning, but as soon as you start to think about I, all your problems, your troubles in the world, gang up on you. But if you begin to catch yourself, grab hold of the I, "Where did it come from? Where did it just come from? A moment ago I was at peace. A moment ago everything was all right, but now I'm worried, I'm upset, I'm thinking about my job, my future, my finances, my health. Where did the I come from that thinks about these things?" and trace the I back, back into the heart, which is the source.

People have asked me what they are supposed to look for in the heart? Well, remember the heart we're talking about, on the right side of your chest, two digits from the center, that's your spiritual heart, that's the source. The I comes out of there. So don't follow the I externally, follow the I internally. You see the difference? Don't go catching the I as it thinks about the world. Reverse the procedure. You want to follow the I back to its source. So you can see the source as a brilliant light a thousand times more brilliant than the sun. You can imagine the I going back into that light, merging with the light.

Or, if you're bhakti-inclined, devotional, you can think of your favorite saint or sage, and see your heart center as that sage, and the I goes back into the sage or into the light. The sage absorbs your I.

I can assure you that if you practice this only a little bit, you'll have some amazing results. But for some reason, most people have to be on a spiritual path for years practicing some form of yoga before they can come to that stage where they can follow the I back into the source. Yet there are those people who do not have to be like that. There have been those people who have had no previous experience. They were just able to see that the source of their I is the self. And they became liberated that instant.

The secret is not to allow the I to take you over. How does the I take you over? You begin to allow it to identify with worldly things, and you do that by thinking about them. Now, as an example, you got up in the morning and you start to think you've got to conserve water, you've got to pay your rent, you've got to buy new clothes, and a million other things about I, I, I. But if you keep remembering that all worldly things are attached to the I, you become introverted, and the I goes back into the source.

Once the I goes back into the source, even for a few moments at first, you become joyously happy. You have much peace and harmony. You feel it immediately. In the beginning it might not last, but at least you had it for a few moments, and you are able to prove the truth of what I'm saying. And some of you have told me you've been able to do this for a few moments, and you felt a joy, and a bliss, and a peace, that you never felt before. You're beginning to feel your self, your real self.

As you continue to do this every day, especially when you wake up in the morning, those periods will last longer and longer. They will expand, and you will be able to rest in that space, which is called the fourth state of consciousness, the gap between sleeping and waking. You will be able to stay there for longer periods of time, and you will feel what I'm talking about.

Yet there are some of you who do no practice whatsoever. If you are a bhakta you really don't have to. All you've got to do is surrender, total surrender, which leads to the same thing. But if you’re an aspiring jnani, and you want to get it over with, grab hold of your I, follow it to the source, and become free, totally and completely.

Robert: I welcome you with all my heart. It's good to be with you again. Get the preliminaries out of the way. Ask yourself, "Why did I come here today?" What is the reason you came to satsang? Is it because you had nothing better to do? Or you are an active person and you've got to go somewhere on Sunday? You could have gone to the beach. You could have gone to play golf. You could have gone to a local bar and got drunk. You could have done many things, but you chose to come here.

Or did you? There is something within each one of us that moves us. The body is like a puppet, manipulated by cosmic forces, and where you go has all been predetermined. In other words, it's no accident that you are here. Perhaps you verbally said, "That's where I'm going," and you believe you made the decision, but the decision was made a long time ago, before you came into the body. This is true of your every act. This is true of everything you do in life. If you can truly understand what I'm saying, why worry? Why fret? Why be upset over anything? Whatever is going to happen, will happen. You simply watch. You do not react. And you realize it's all for the good. You are not what you appear to be. You think you've made decisions today of what you should wear, where you should go, what you should eat. Every thing has been made for you. What I'm trying to say to you is you do not have to carry the load.

It's like when you go on a train and you have your suitcase in your hand. Do you sit with the suitcase on your head and carry the load? Or do you put the suitcase on the train in the compartment? You will still get to your destination. It's the same with life. You're going to your destination. Your destination is awakening, liberation. You do not have to carry the load. The load is desire. You want it very bad, and the more you want it, the more you're pushing it away, because a strong want, a strong desire, is a strong ego. It's not desire you want to develop, it's love, compassion, understanding. Let everything happen as it may. When the smoke clears, you will still be who you are, and you'll be totally free.

There is absolutely nothing in this world, or anywhere else, to worry about. No matter how things may appear in your life, all is well. You are divinity itself, just the way you are. Now when you start to think about just the way you are, you spoil it, for you say to yourself, "How can I be divinity? I'm this and I'm that." Who told you to think? Your thoughts will do it to you all the time. You simply remain in that moment. In that moment all is well. In that moment you are free. In that moment you are filled with joy. As soon as you start to think about that, you spoil it.
The secret therefore is to stay in the moment. Never leave the moment. You become spontaneous. You never dwell on the past and you never concern yourself with the future. For if you are truly in the moment, the moment becomes your tomorrow, and your next week, and your next year.

I've got a new song on tape which is a beautiful poem that comes out of the guru Gita. It was originally in Sanskrit. It was translated into English. The bhaktis here will love it. The aspiring jnanis, when you hear the term sat guru, you can change that in your mind to consciousness, or absolute reality. I think that should be our theme song. See if you agree with me. Swami Muktananda's name is mentioned a couple of times. If you like, you can change it to what Muktananda really means, bliss of liberation. But listen to it and let me know what you think.
(Robert plays Kindle my heart's flame with thine.)

What do you think?

Student: Beautiful, beautiful.

Student: I was just feeling the energy. I wasn't even listening to what he was saying.

Robert: That's good.

Student: Because you really don't have to. You can just feel the energy while I listen to that.

Robert: Any other comments?

Student: I think we ought to have a half hour chanting before every satsang.

Student: And the rest please.

Robert: Should we use this as a sort of theme?

Student: Robert, we need someone to get the words down.

Student: Let me bring a copy in Sanskrit. It's really beautiful in Sanskrit.

Robert: I want everybody to hear the words to know what they are talking about.

OK Make no mistakes about it. If you want jnana, you have to have bhakti, in other words you have to have an open heart. When your heart opens, automatically the self appears. But how does the heart open? Through love, through devotion. Through devotion of that self. Many people do not understand this. When people get involved in jnana they become very talkative, and they discuss it, and talk about it, and memorize it, and read books about it. The years pass and you become a walking encyclopedia, but you’ve hardly make any progress. To make progress there has to be devotion. You have to love yourself, not what you appear to be, but your self, God. When you begin to truly become a bhakta, and you love your self, the self you love becomes omnipresence, all-pervading. So naturally, automatically, you love everybody in this world, insects, animals, insentient and sentient beings, everything. You can only do that when you open your heart and you love your self. That person becomes self-realized.

I have never known a person, who had a cold heart, who is self-realized. They may say they are, but it's impossible. You have to open yourself to the universe. You have to have a great compassion, loving kindness, and that's when everything happens by itself. But there are so many mean people around, so to speak, not here, but in the world. And they find out about self-realization, Advaita Vedanta. They start to read book after book after book, and they add it on to their arrogance. When you try to talk to those people they throw quotations at you from the books they've read. You've got to have love.

I received an interesting phone call this morning from a disciple who comes to this class, and many other people have asked me similar questions at various time. I talk about this once in a while. So I asked her, "May I share this question with the class today and give you the answer then." She said, "OK, but I want to be anonymous." I agree. And here's the question:

"Robert," she said, "Why don't you advertise that you are a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi? Why don't you make circulars? Why don't you put it in the newspaper so you can attract thousands of people, and then you can have ashrams all over the country, and have intensives, and charge a lot of money, and you can travel internationally. You'll be well known, and you'll have a lot of money, you can do with what you like?"

Well, first I kept silent. Because usually when people ask me ludicrous questions like that, I will try to explain this. Number one, Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi never had any direct disciples. He was not a guru. It is true there are many devotees who claim he is their guru. When they used to ask him, he would keep silent. He does not acknowledge devotees or disciples. Yet thousands claim to be disciples and devotees of his.

When I came to see him many years ago, I came because I wanted to confirm my own experience. I first went to see Yogananda, and I wanted to become a monk, because I no longer fit into the world patterns. But after a couple of weeks talking to me and observing me, he told me to go to India and see Ramana Maharshi. Of course I'd seen him before when I was a baby in the crib. We won't go into that right now. When I got to India and went to Ramana Maharshi, it was about 5 o'clock in the evening. He was about to take his stroll. He was with an attendant and I was climbing up the hill with my knapsack on my back. He turned around and looked at me, and he gave me one of his beautiful big smiles. I smiled back at him and he continued his walk.

For the three years I was there we had many conversations. Most of them are personal. But the first day I saw him personally he told me we had been together before in a previous life. I never thought that I would be a disciple of his, or a devotee or anything else. While I was sitting in the hall, during this talking with people, there were people who insisted that he is their guru, and he would keep silent. And they would pressure him. They wanted confirmation. And once in a while he would say, "If you believe I am, that's sufficient." But in all of his life he never claimed to be a guru or to have disciples. That's number one.

Number two, find out what a jnani really is. Read the works of Shankara, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita. Another word for jnani is an Avadhoot. The literal translation of that means a crazy, adept, non-conventional. This body has no desires. This body runs from fame and name. There is nothing that this body wants. If it usually appears that I'm in need of something, it's for others.

The only reason we have the transcriptions of the talks is because so many of you wanted them. And if you want the transcriptions, you should use them in the right way. And I talk mainly for the devotees now. The right way to use the transcriptions. I would suggest that for about six months, do not read any other materials. It's not because I do not want you to see what else is going on, but because it becomes confusing if you read the transcriptions, and then read books by others. Sometimes there are many transcriptions that are not only confusing, but contradictory.

You only see me about four or five hours a week. That's another reason why we have transcriptions. If we were together every day I'd tear them all to pieces and throw them away. But since you only see me four or five hours a week at this time, the rest of the time everything you need to know is in the transcriptions. So the proper way to read it is this. Go through it one time completely. Before you go to sleep is the best time. Then go over it again, paragraph by paragraph. Read one paragraph and ponder that particular paragraph, until you go through the whole thing. Do this for about a week for each transcriptions. If you do this and you come to satsang, I can assure you that you will make fast advancement. Any questions about that?

As I always tell you, I would rather have five devotees that are really into this, than have a thousand seekers and disciples who come and go, and compare notes, and compare me with other speakers and other people around town. Everything takes care of itself.

Think about your purpose. What do you really want? You should be an empty vessel. When you empty yourself of all your preconceived ideas, all of your concepts, all of your desires, when you empty yourself out completely, then reality shows itself. But you cannot add on what you learn here to your existing self with a small s. Remember you've got samskaras to work out. You've got the brainwashing you received since you were a baby to get rid of. You are full of nonsensical ideas, and that all has to go. Being here is the focal point for going further with your self-realization. It makes no difference what I say. I can be talking about ice-cream, or chocolate bars. It doesn't make any difference. Just by your being here there is a subtle energy that takes over and pushes you forward.

Many people call me, they want me to talk about this, or to change some of the things I do, or to do this, or to do that. If I were a minister or a philosopher and rehearsed the program, and had a written text to go by, then there can be changes. But I am what I am, and that's what I am, I'm Popeye the sailor man. I do not plan anything. I do not have any rehearsals. This body just does what it does. What you see is what you get, nothing more and nothing less. Any questions about that?

Student: What is this energy, how does it come about? It always happens when I get here?

Robert: It always happens when you get here?

Student: When I come here it always happens without doing anything.

Robert: The seat you're sitting on is charged. I have a little button here when you sit in the seat.

Student: I couldn't understand it, why, it just comes about naturally, without doing anything.

Robert: There is no real explanation for it. An explanation would be futile. Accept it.

Student: Amazing.

Robert: You know what's interesting. That's a good point. The people who do not try to analyze these things are the people who make progress. What difference does it make where it comes from as long as you are receiving it.

Student: Then why do I have to come here for it? Why not analyzing it? It happens consistently here. Instantaneously without any effort.

Robert: It has to do with our relationship.

Student: You know, you say you are not the doer. And I was thinking you're not the thinker either. So if you're not the doer and you're not the thinker, then you can let it all go.

Robert: Exactly. There's nothing to hold on to.

Student: There's nothing at all there.

Robert: And when you let go you feel the subtle energy you're talking about. Just be yourself. Everything we do here is important. Every song we play, every chant we do, every word, every silence, it's all important. I know there are some people who would like to keep quiet all the time. They'd like me to shut up and not say a word, and just sit still. There's a time for that also. But remember, if you will, that the words that come out, are words of silence. Even though I may be appearing to talk to you, you're sitting in the silence. Think about that.

What I'm trying to say is, do not look for faults. Do not say to yourself, "Well, I'd rather be doing this," or "Why don't you give us more of this and less of that." Remember it's you that says this. This is coming out of your ego. Allow everything to be.

That's what I meant before when I said you have to become a bhakta first. That means you just give out love, compassion, joy, kindness. You become a living embodiment of that. Then jnana starts to develop inside of you. But if you always find fault with others, you're always trying to correct something. You always see what somebody else is doing. When your mind is full of doubts, apprehensions and suspicions, all of this negative energy pays a price in your consciousness and you develop in reverse. As the years pass you wonder why you haven't made too much progress. Give of yourself. Open up. Love. And then see what happens.

The chanting we do has a very positive effect on the nervous system. It clears the chakras. It makes you one-pointed, so you can turn into your original self. The whole object of everything we do is to make you one-pointed, so you can ponder "Who am I?" The mind becomes quiet and everything unfolds as it should. So let us do a little chanting.
(Chanting)

There is only one problem that affects everyone. And that is, you think. It's your thoughts that get you into trouble. You have an opinion on almost everything. If you would only learn to control your thoughts you would become absolutely free. Even now, while I'm talking to you, there are many thinking of something else. Your mind appears to have complete control over you. Now if your mind were real you would have a battle on your hands. But, since your mind doesn't even exist, you merely have to see the mind for what it really is, the self. There is no mind. There are no thoughts. There is only the self. All the scriptures of the world have tried to explain this. Be still and know that I am God. Focus you mind on God, and all will go well with you. They're saying the same thing.

Do not allow your mind to persuade you with all the different thoughts that come into your head. Your mind is not your friend. It appears that it wants to survive, so it's going to do everything in the book to cause it to survive. It will tell you all kinds of stories. It will bring up everything from the past. It will bring out doubts, apprehensions, suspicions, anger, greed. It will make you believe that you're right to act the way you do, and to feel the way you do. Great rishis, sages, since time immemorial have realized that the only problem you have to deal with is your mind. If you can only stop your mind from thinking, self-realization will come of itself.

How do you do that? Through self-inquiry, no matter what thoughts come to you. Makes no difference what they are. We're not talking about negative versus positive thoughts. We're talking about all thoughts, no matter how true they may appear. Even if your eyes show you, even if your brother is over to your house and while you're sleeping he takes $50 out of your pocket, your eyes are showing you something is wrong. It doesn't mean that you let him go away with the $50. You confront him, but you do not react. You simply take back your $50 and you forget it. It's finished. It doesn't even mean that you have to continue inviting your brother to your house. Yet nothing is done with malice. The secret is to forget and forgive as fast as you can. Remember your brother is going through his own karma, and this is what he was supposed to do, so how can you hate him? You have a vocabulary of different names. You are ready to call him thief, crook, no good and so on. All this has to be forgotten. Remember again, you do not become a doormat for him to step on. You merely take the right action that you will do, and you forget it. And that's the end of it.

Your body knows what to do by itself. It's your mind that makes up all these things, that holds grudges, that holds malice, day after day, week after week, that's hurt by words. Give it all up.
Even the job that you have. You don't have to think about your job. Your body will know what to do. But if you allow your mind to get into control, you will hate your job. You will wonder why you have to do this kind of work. You will compare yourself with others, and cause all kinds of problems for yourself.

Remember where you are at the present time is your right place. There are no mistakes. Do not try to analyze it. Just be. And if you identify with God, with the self, with absolute reality, with consciousness, it will not even seem like work. You will always be filled with joy, with happiness, for your mind is on God, and your body is doing the work.

Now how do you keep your mind on God? By asking, "Who am I?" By inquiring, "Who am I? Who does the work? Who has the problems? I do. Who is this I? From whence did it come?" In other words, "How did the I arise?" and trace the I back. Trace the I back to its origin, which is your spiritual heart at the right side of your chest. As you abide in the I by tracing it back, that's how you're thinking about God. It's just another name for God, I.

Then you will do your work without thinking about your work, whatever you have to do.

So you see, it's your mind that causes you the problem. Your mind is just another name for I. If there were no I there would be no mind. Whatever pops up, ask yourself, "To whom does it come? Where did it come from? Who gave it birth?" Remember, you're not to do this only with things you don't like, but with all the stuff that comes to you of a good nature. Materialism, good and bad, are both sides of the same coin. They've got to go.

Student: Robert, I want to ask you a question. Is it possible to realize the self through a jnani without a body?

Robert: Yes.

Student: It is?

Robert: Yes it is. Because the jnani is all-pervading. And if you focus your attention on his presence, you'll make contact, if you are sincere enough.

Student: So even at a distance one could just focus on your picture for example.

Robert: It doesn't make any difference. The only difference is your mind. Your mind will tell you all sorts of stories. But if you do not listen to your mind, then the jnani is everywhere. People are still getting healings from Ramana Maharshi. And they claim that he comes into their lives and solves their problems. For a jnani there's no time and space. That's been obliterated. There is only the self as omnipresence, so he or she is everywhere. Of course it's up to you to exude the right energy from yourself, so you make contact. It's just like grace. God's grace is everywhere, but it's up to you to make contact with it. And of course the easiest way is through devotion, through love.

Student: When one has doubts, does self-inquiry help to bring oneself from doubts?

Robert: Of course. That, to my way of thinking, is the easiest way, for you merely ask yourself, "To whom do these doubts come? Who has these doubts?" Every time they come up, ask the same question, and the doubts will eventually cease.

Student: I don't understand this thing about love, because it seems to me that grace has nothing to do with anything. It just is.

Robert: Grace just is, and so is love.

Student: Well yes, but you don't necessarily…

Robert: If you surrender your heart to grace, surrender your heart to grace and you'll feel it. Love, grace, self, they're all the same.

Student: Robert, I was reading the other day, there was a guy in India who said that he felt that the human body was very precious. That it was very difficult to obtain. And he says that a number of beings around him were humans, reincarnated as animals who seek their liberation that way.

Robert: This is part of yoga. That's all possible on a lower plane. It depends where you are at yourself. The body is very precious so that you become self-realized by having a body. But since you are self-realized already, for whom is the body? There are all kinds of psychic, physical, causal planes that you can play with and get lost in those planes. Go beyond all that. Always try to remember that everything is an emanation of your own mind. Causal planes, astral planes, other bodies, demons, spirits, genii's, it all comes out of your own mind. When the mind is controlled you no longer see these things, and you have nothing to do with them. They exist on lower planes.

Student: Robert. On this business of letting the body do the work, according to your mental work....

Robert: What, if you never work?

Student: That's one thing. But what if you are doing mental work?

Robert: Mental work?

Student: Yes.

Robert: You mean you work with your mind?

Student: Yes.

Robert: Actually it seems that you work with your mind. But even if you're an accountant, you have to write figures, you have to calculate, and your body has to do those things. So your body will use the portion of your mind that it has to use, to make all those things happen. The body and the mind are synonymous really. When the mind goes, the body goes also. But for appearance sake in this world, the body appears to carry on. Therefore in order for the body to carry on, it has to use the mental energy that's available for it, to carry on. Consequently it will take care of itself, and the work will get done, without you being identified with it.

Student: Or it comes through in the practice. It seems like there is a procedure when you're doing physical work. It is easy to see how you can do self-inquiry. Or, if you're trying to calculate figures for example, it seems to interfere, seems to be different.

Robert: I understand what you're saying. It appears that when you're using your mind and you have to concentrate on what you're doing, it's more difficult. That's not true. When you get up in the morning, if you prepare yourself well and practice self-inquiry at that time, it will carry on when you go to work, by itself, and your mind will concentrate on the figures. And at the same time, the self-inquiry will go on.

You’ve probably hummed a song before, and the song was in your mind. And while you're doing your work, mentally you're humming the song. Yet you're still calculating, you're still doing whatever you have to do mentally. You're doing all the mental work, but the theme of the song never leaves you. The song is in the mind also. And so it is with self-inquiry. When you begin to practice as soon as you open your eyes, it will carry you through the day. No matter if you're doing mental work or physical work, self-inquiry will still go on.

Student: Robert, is there a reason why you are a vegetarian? Does it have a practical benefit in your practice?

Robert: There are so many ways to explain that. When I was about thirteen years old, I had eaten meat until that time. And then one day my mom gave me a steak, and I just blurted out, "I don't eat dead flesh.” And I've never eaten it since.

Now if you're in the body, and you believe you are the body, you have to look at the moral reasons. What right do we have to kill these thousands of cows and pigs and chickens, so we can stuff our face with dead flesh. Think about that. Right now there are cows standing in line to get killed. McDonalds alone uses a million cows a year. All these cows are grown and they put them in a feedlot, and torture them with all kinds of antibiotics, and then slaughter them, so we can eat them. Morally it doesn't seem right. It's been proven a pig is smarter than a dog. It makes a better pet. Would you like to see your dog or your cat slaughtered and people eating them? You have preference. All animals are the same. On one level, the reason the world is degenerating is because of what we're doing to all of the animals and the earth. But that's on one level. So you have to take it for what it's worth.

Student: You know, we see in the zoo, we see them feeding one animal with another animal, and you give your dog meat. And you say, well my dog can eat meat, why can't my husband?

Robert: No comment.

Student: Her husband doesn't bark.

Student: So if you could stop all the animals…

Robert: Well one thing leads to another. Because of ecology reasons the animals know how to take care of themselves and eat certain other animals, to balance everything out. But human beings are mercilessly killing animals for the fun of it. We think we have to eat animals, but we don't. Humans are not supposed to be carnivorous. You want me to prove it to you? Look at your teeth. Now look at the vegetarian animals that don't eat meat and look at their teeth. Like horses, cows, elephants. They have teeth like ours, gorillas. But when you look at your carnivorous animals, they have fangs, to tear flesh apart. This shows us that we're supposed to be vegetarians. We come from the animal family of vegetarians. You know when man started to eat meat? In the old days during the floods, thousands of years ago. Prior to that, man was vegetarian. But the floods destroyed the earth. It was impossible to plant, and man degenerated and started to eat meat. We've been carrying on ever since.

It's a personal thing. You've got to look at your self, and see what you're doing, and ask yourself why. I know somebody can be a smart ass and say, "Well nothing exists anyway, so what's the difference?" If nothing existed, you would know not to eat meat before that, and you wouldn't do it anyway. If you realize you're not the body, you would not eat animal bodies. You would eat very little, and mostly grains, vegetables and fruits. But you have to come to that conclusion yourself.