Evolution of Love 2

There is Nothing but 'I'

Maharaj repeatedly asserts that he would not care to discuss ethics, the codes morality, the modes of conduct prevailing in society. He would deal only with the
unchangeable true nature of man himself. If one understands, apprehends one's true identity, all the rest loses its significance and importance because all subsequent thoughts and actions, not being based on duality, would be simple, direct, intuitive and spontaneous.

This view of Maharaj is found to be extremely difficult to accept, not only by the new visitors, who perhaps feel that he is shying away from the very crux of the problem of life, but also by some others who have listened to him over a long period. They find it impossible to accept the dichotomy of the two. Whatever conclusion and conviction one may come to regarding one's true nature, how can one afford not to give as much, or even more, thought to one's relationship with and behaviour
towards one's fellow beings?

So, when Maharaj defined his attitude in this regard at a session, one of the regular visitors, a lady, could not restrain herself from asking a rather pointed question:
Maharaj, would it be right and proper for a person to listen to you most attentively, understand thoroughly what you have to say to the extent that he becomes a Jnani, and then to go out and prepare an atom bomb and use it if he felt like it?

Maharaj promptly replied: If you had only thought seriously about this matter, keeping in mind the basic fact that you had no wants, no needs, no problems at a certain point of time — say, a hundred years ago — you would have arrived at the answer yourself; the answer being that the
question itself is misconceived!
If, as you say, a person understands and accepts his true identity to the extent of being a Jnani, would he not come to the conclusion that all phenomena, all sentient beings, including himself as a phenomenon, are nothing but conceptual images in mind, as imaginary as those in a dream?

Would someone who has deeply apperceived this truth think of preparing an atom bomb, let alone using it?
But this is only a superficial answer to satisfy the ignorant. What you must find out is who are these 'me', 'you' and 'him' that we are talking about, who are supposed to be doing this or that, according to their sweet will and pleasure!

How do you see yourself?
You see your body—or really a part of it— and you identify yourself with it. But in deep sleep, or under sedation, you do not
identify yourself with this body. What really happens is that the appearance of your body in consciousness is perceived and interpreted by you exactly as it is done by any other observer. Your own interpretation about yourself is as illusive and ephemeral as that of others, though maybe a little more flattering! The point to be noted is that the solid personality you think yourself to be is
nothing more than an appearance in consciousness. What is more, the interpretation will change, and has been changing, from time to time. Any thought about yourself, whether your own or
someone else's, is only a movement in consciousness, only a temporary mental image. That is all that you are.

But is that truly you?
Only a mental image?
Is there really any image with which one
could identify oneself as an unchangeable, independent, autonomous entity, with choice of action?

Relatively — phenomenally — 'you', or 'me' is nothing more than that speck of physical matter which was conceived in a womb and within which was latent the spark of consciousness that is immanent in the entire manifestation.
The innumerable forms of phenomena in relativity are all objects of the Absolute subjectivity— 'I',
the basis of manifestation being duality through a subject and object, every object being the 'other' to whichever object that is perceiving it in the capacity of a supposed subject.
Not a single object has any independent existence as such. We all are mere
appearances in consciousness, concepts in mind, each sentient being, being nothing more than his own concept and the concepts of those whom he considers as 'others'.
If you have no independent existence, how can you act?
Do you indeed act at all?
Or, do you only react to an outside stimulus like a puppet?

If you would sit still and see what happens, you would quickly realize that we do not really 'live' but are 'being lived'; that life as such is nothing more than what might be called an apparent functioning — apparent because all the functioning is, again, nothing more than a panoramic appearance in consciousness.

If there is no consciousness, as in deep sleep or under sedative, there is no functioning either.
Then, in all this functioning where do 'we' come in?
That is the ultimate joke in this comedy of
Maya! 'We' have not only never been out of it, but the entire functioning is nothing but us. What we are is the whole, holy, noumenal Absolute, sensorially imperceptible, and perceived and cognized
only in relative duality as manifested phenomena. 'We' are transcendence phenomenally as 'I', and immanence noumenally depending on how we see ourselves.

There is nothing but 'I', no 'me', no 'other'. I
n relative manifestation,
phenomena are conceptualized in consciousness as 'me', and each object, assuming subjective identity, cognizes the other objects as 'others', but noumenally, there is only the subjective 'I' without any duality.

Now let us come back to your atom bomb. If you have really apperceived this, is it possible for you to go on thinking any longer that there is any villain in life with an independent, autonomous entity, possessing enormous power for 'evil'?
Or, that there is any Avatar possessing enormous power for 'good'?
Are they both anything other than the drop that got conceived?
Surely you must realize that 'good' and 'bad' are mere inter-dependent opposites, essential manifestations in duality,
appearances in consciousness acting their respective roles in the total functioning. Indeed, believing in and identifying oneself with an entity is all the 'bondage' there is, and realizing that there can be no entity, separate from the overall functioning of Prajna, is instant liberation.