NON-DUAL BRAHMAN

[Ram]

If anyone, as soon as he realizes Brahman, falls like a log of wood, who would be there afterwards to show the way to Liberation? Who would impart Knowledge to others, and who could have even taught that man in the first place? If he lies in samadhi like a wooden log, who would teach others? All Knowledge would have been lost. While explaining, one has to talk about all things, either permanent or perishable. Therefore, it would not do, being sanely aware one moment, and being motionless the next. That man also would be in bondage. That is why, without falling like a log of wood in samadhi, we should have the Knowledge of Brahman while we are awake and active in speaking etc. Brahman is Self-Existent, without imagining. However then, if everything is Brahman, your imagination is also Brahman, and worldly life is Brahman. Where did this so-called "worldly life" meet you? Where is it and when is it? All is Brahman. You are also not outside of Brahman. Where is separate existence of the mundane life as such? The very nature of the "Realization of Brahman" is like this.

How can one set out to find out the darkness by taking a lighted torch in hand? Extinguish the torch, then the darkness is near you. The one who searches, is himself Brahman. If without knowing oneself, one wanders all over the earth, one will not meet Brahman even after eons of time. On the other hand, if the seeker knows that he himself is Brahman, then it is the nearest thing to him, and wherever he may go, he is "Alone." Brahman is filling every space. He will experience that there is nothing except Brahman everywhere. The torch, means the sight that sees. If it is itself Brahman, whatever it looks at, is automatically only Brahman. Moreover, if that sight, the power of seeing, is ignorant, then whatever it sees, it is Ignorance, the Illusion, that is seen. Everything is already without any entanglement. A man may lie down after awakening from his sleep, yet he is still by all considerations awake. Once you realize Brahman, even if you try to forget it, you will not forget it. On the contrary, you will be deeply aware of it in Unity.

There is a story in which a man gave the mantra of Shiva to an aspirant to repeat, and warned him that while repeating that mantra, he should not think of "monkey." Then what happened? That man always thought of monkey while repeating that mantra of Shiva. Not only this, but even in dream, he saw the monkey. He got into an illusion and saw monkey in everything, his wife, his children, other people, even his house. Therefore it can be said that what is prohibited comes foremost in the mind. What is expected to be forgotten, is twice remembered. To forget is very difficult. So long as you have the body, there is involvement. How can you avoid it? You collect things for enjoying. You have accumulated things by your own desires, and now you feel it awkward. You are destroying your Contentment. Please remember a simple fact. As a rule, no one does anything in vain, for anybody. In short, do not hope to get rid of your involvements in the future, and to be free afterwards. This will not happen. Everything including the family life is Brahman. How can you say that there is Brahman in deep sleep, and there is no Brahman in your waking state? The life led with the concept that you are your body, that you are an individual, is dangerously destructive. However, when you are Brahman, in each and every active moment, then life itself is Brahman and there is only Bliss. Only if you live with the identification with the physical body, is it harmful.

- Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj 8/10/35

From "Master of Self-Realization"