must have that deep urge to know yourself. Grace is always there. Your first conviction, that “you are”, which is prior to words, to that you have given the form of a body. Give up this bodily identity. Prior to words you are, just be that.
Q: How can I be that?
M: Whatever you are, don’t give it any shape or design, that is all. If you are, then everything else is. Worshipping books and being devoted to books will lead you nowhere. Be your Self. Be devoted to your Self, worship only that . Worship the knowledge “I Am” as a God, as your guru. Do you see the image of yourself in the mirror first, or do you know you are prior to that? Which is first? If you are not, can you see your image in the mirror? Give up trying to evaluate the real I or the counterfeit I, but associate the I with the Brahman, I am the Brahman. Whatever you have heard is good enough for you. No further listening to any such knowledge is necessary. Whatever you have listened to so far is good enough for you if you imbibe that and abide in it. Nothing more will be available to you. You are the Brahman in totality, nothing more. Unfortunately you have conditioned your Self to believe that you, the Brahman, are the body. Now you know you are not the body. Why are you overwhelmed by that counterfeit bodily identity “I”?
You have a lot of knowledge but it pertains to the practical world. So far you have not got the knowledge of the Self. I will not talk about the worldly knowledge. It does not end here.
This is the world. The world is covered by the space. The knowledge of space is there. The space is contained in the knowledge “I Am” and prior to “I Am” is chidakash. Chidakash (“I Amness”) is the source of the universe. Chidakash is the root of the mind space. There can’t be any knowledge of I am like this or I am like that; you cannot be like this or like that. Because of the chidakash, mahakash (the great space) is there. The space of the world is there because of the space of the mind, or prior to mind. One space is covered by more subtle and more expansive space. At the base of that space is the knowledge “I Am”. If one abides in the chidakash knowledge, one will realize that one has no birth and no death. June 14, 1981
Questioner: Continuous daily activity is making the mind dull. I want to know how to make the mind alert.
Maharaj: I do not speak about the body-mind and what goes on in the world. I talk only about your true nature and your true nature is the sense of presence you have, this consciousness. If you are not conscious, then there is no world for you. There is nothing there. The world exists for you only when you are conscious, so it is about this consciousness, this sense of presence, that I talk.
Once this sense of presence comes, how you act and what you do in the world I don’t deal with. This sense of presence, this consciousness, is it not prior to anything else? Even thinking about anything for which you have to use your mind, if you are not conscious, can any thought come? Therefore, this sense of presence, this consciousness, is it not the primary thing without which nothing else can happen? Nothing—no thoughts, no concepts—can arise by themselves. No activity can arise if the sense of presence is not there. The sense of presence does not need any activity of the mind to know that you are present. You do not have to ask yourself, “Am I present, am I conscious?” There is that intuitive sense of presence, you know you are present.