Recorded on 1 March 2026 with US participants
0:00 Intro
0:40 Chapter 17, “The True Knower”, verse 6
1:34 What is the eternal Soul? “In consciousness you are established in that.”
4:30 Is that the consciousness of existence that you are referring to?
6:06 Are you considering the Soul as the Parabrahman or the consciousness of existence?
6:51 Pure consciousness
7:37 Pure awareness
7:56 Chapter 17, “The True Knower”, verse 6 contd.
8:32 What is the mechanics of how the Self-Realized Souls can come to you?
9:34 Is it our mind that creates and our love and faith in that form that makes the Guru manifest to us?
9:59 Verse 7 – “The Wise One neither longs for the dissolution of the universe, nor is averse to its existence.”
11:15 Is it because a Yogi is aware the he is not the body or the mind?
11:35 What is it like to be a Self-Realized Yogi? Is there no longer a sense of ‘I am’?
13:28 Does ‘existence appearance’ mean anything that appears in consciousness?
14:07 “Even if the world disappears, it doesn’t matter to a Yogi, as their attention is not at all on this universe.”
15:04 The achievement of Nirvikalpa Samadhi
15:31 Savikalpa Samadhi
18:00 A Self-Realized Yogi, externally would appear like any other ordinary human being but consciously they’re never attached to their body actions.
19:41 Verse 9. For a Yogi there is neither attraction nor aversion.
20:58 “For a yogi, the appearance of this universe is like a vague dream.”
22:18 “Conscious attention will be on the Self.”
22:59 During meditation, if our attention is on anything that is in the mind, then our attention is on the world, away from the Self.
24:30 “They are the ever silent one in consciousness. Their consciousness does not go into cravings anymore.”
25:50 What has made it possible for us to be here hearing this wisdom of the Self and be guided and inspired to know the Self?
26:29 Our own consciousness has manifested You as this form to guide us back to the Self?
26:50 Once you’ve kind of gotten this far, can you get off the path?
28:50 Verse 11.
29:06 Does the Self-Realized person enjoy being alive in the body?
30:30 “Supreme Peace is beyond Bliss”.
31:16 People think a Yogi would know when they’re going to drop their body.
33:11 Often you hear that the Guru is going to come back in another body.
34:08 A Yogi is never attached to anything of the world.
36:49 Awareness of who we are.
38:49 A Yogi remains in the Self, allowing the body to act mechanically, not with any mental resolutions or attachments.
40:38 Is survival wired into nature?
41:23 Was it difficult to get rid of the sense of ‘I am’ in Tapas?
42:24 A Yogi is free from the dualities of either accusing or praising somebody, becoming neither excited and happy, nor annoyed.
44:31 Is awareness a sense of knowing?
45:34 How to overcome the six enemies of the mind during meditation?
48:35 Is it ok to meditate while rocking my daughter to sleep?
49:17 When we see Babaji, we’re seeing a person, but what we’re really seeing is consciousness?
50:28 The moment you have your awareness in the present, is the consciousness with God?
51:33 Hearing a little cricket sound in the brain during meditation.
52:01 The first day Babaji met His Guru, was the faith already there?
53:20 What was the first experience of the nature of the mind?
54:08 Is every single thought continuing our illusion? When we keep quiet is there an automatic return to the Self?
55:53 In my business life, can I trust that what is coming is exactly what I need?
56:28 Dwell in the ‘I am’ but not the words ‘I am’.
57:24 When was it that you surrendered to your Guru? Was it right from the beginning?
Discourse: In Quest of Truth – online Q&A no.262
The True Knower – Ashtavakra Samhita
Chapter 16, verses 6-12
YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/TDVv81_rUtA
Recorded: 01 March 2026
Start of Questions and Answers
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Question: So we’re continuing with chapter 17. It’s titled “The True Knower of the Ashtavakra Gita.” And we’re on verse 6. So, I’ll read the verse and continue with Your comments from the book. And if You have anything You’d like to say about it, just join me.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah. Okay, certainly. Okay.
Question: So, chapter 17, The True Knower, verse 6.
“Rare indeed is that broad-minded one who has neither attraction nor aversion to righteous work, prosperity, pleasures, liberation, or even cares about life or death.”
Babaji’s commentary: A real yogi neither likes, nor dislikes any duty and has no attraction to worldly prosperity, desires, and even liberation. Such a yogi will not be bothered whether their body is alive or going to die. They are that eternal soul, and in consciousness are established in that.
Baba, would You elaborate a little bit on what that’s saying – “You are that eternal soul.” What is the eternal soul? “And in consciousness you’re established in that.”
Babaji Maharaj: These two things’ meaning: you have a mind. If you silence the mind, what remains is the consciousness of existence. And that consciousness of existence, you can see, it is infinite. It is not visible as a matter to the naked eyes. It would appear as if it is void space, but it is not actually void space. Void space is because we have assumed it to be space as the void one. Simply, it is the absolute existence. Its recognition is the consciousness of existence. Like the mind itself is so infinite. None of you would ever have seen in naked eyes. But yet you recognize you have a mind, and you know that one. Now this mind, because of its preoccupation with its imagination, is away from itself in consciousness of illusion. Something like you are sitting on a chair watching the movie on the TV screen. But your consciousness is totally drawn onto the movie screen, and you experience as if you are one in that movie. So, you would have forgotten that you are sitting on the chair and you are not even consciously aware that you are sitting on the chair. Now, the yogi stops that consciousness attention to the movie that is going on within the mind. Then when the silence happens, it comes back to the Self that is just sitting – as an example I’m telling – and it merges with that Self.
So, that is what a yogi would have experienced remaining in the Self always. Even though a little bit consciousness might be in touch with the brain, or even if the yogi needs to think but it will quickly go back to the Self. It will always be settled into the Self. So, mind settling into the Self. It is all infinite. It is not a matter. It is not a lid coming onto the box. It is… neither box nor lid is there. It’s only, just like in the space.
Question: So, Baba, is that the consciousness of existence that You refer to?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, first clue is the consciousness of existence that you will notice thoroughly when you get rid of all thoughts and visions. So, first what Ashtavakra talks, even for a seeker also; to develop detachment. It is not as easy as we are talking. So, whether it is there or not, but mentally it is always okay. Something like, today there is 10 dollars; it’s okay, tomorrow you may get 100 dollars; mentally it’s okay. There is no brooding, no anxiousness, no insecurity. Because such a seeker would be ready. If at all the body has to go, it goes. What to do? “It’s fine. We will come back again and do sadhana.” But that practice comes with meditation and the understanding of the impermanence of the world, a real seeker when he is determined to go for Self-realization. So, that’s what Ashtavakra talks. And a yogi, once He would have achieved also would remain like that. As long as the body is there, He is not attached, He is not anxious that the body should always be there, it should not go away. If it has to go, He has nothing to lose. He is settled into His real Self.
Question: So Baba are You considering the soul the Parabrahman or the consciousness of existence?
Babaji Maharaj: In the beginning it is the consciousness of existence. Once that merges, where it merges, that is the Parabrahman. That is the Ultimate Truth, which is beyond imaginations. That is the all-pervaded omnipresent, omnipotent Divinity.
Question: So, it’s eternal existence.
Babaji Maharaj: So, we can call that as Supreme Consciousness of existence.
Question: You used to call it pure consciousness.
Babaji Maharaj: Yes, pure consciousness is when mind gets rid of all thoughts and visions and nothing comes. Mind is totally silent. When it is totally silent, still you will feel that you exist. That is what I talk of consciousness of existence. And that is pure consciousness also. Because there are no thoughts. That is the nearest definition or terminology I can use; to call it pure, like the pure sky type. And when that merges with the Self, that we call it as Supreme Consciousness of existence. Because it is the Ultimate Truth of this consciousness of existence.
Question: Could you also call that just pure awareness Baba?
Babaji Maharaj: Finally, a pure awareness is also fine. Without any identity, without any other ideas.
Question: Thank You. Reading on.
Babaji’s commentary: It is very rare indeed to see such yogis in the world. Our beloved Guru Sri Swamiji Shivabalayogi was one such great yogi. Even after dropping His physical body, He continued to give experiences to devotees that He is always available for all those who have complete faith in Him. Swamiji Himself used to say, “You can see monks and mahatmas but to see a yogi, one must be very fortunate and must have done some sadhana in previous lives.
So, Baba, here, what are the mechanics of how those divine beings or Self-realized souls come to you? This is the saying, basically, that if you have enough faith, then even after dropping a physical body, the Guru can come to the devotee.
Babaji Maharaj: Mechanics is that your mind gets connected to its Ultimate Truth. So, that only graces upon you, and in your imagination, it will be your Guru. Once the body is dropped, there is no identity. It is one with the Parabrahman. Parabrahman, we have to identify for sake of our understanding and communication. Whichever yogi, once dropped the body has become One. They don’t have any identity. They don’t exist as an individual soul anywhere in the space.
Question: So, it is our mind that creates and our love and faith in that form that makes It manifest to us?
Babaji Maharaj: Through that, your mind becomes single pointedly connected to the Ultimate Truth, enabling it to manifest.
Question: Verse 7.
“The wise one neither longs for the dissolution of the universe, nor is averse to its existence. That blessed one lives happy, accepting whatever simply comes as a matter of course.”
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, you see, when you are attached to a particular thing of this world, then you get affected if that particular thing doesn’t happen according to your desires. But if you are well aware that this is only an appearance and impermanent and you have nothing to do with that one – your Ultimate Truth is the Parabrahman, which is simply all-pervaded as an infinite Supreme Consciousness. When you are being there, so you are unaffected by this world; whether the appearance is there or the appearance disappears, it is the same thing. Mind is quiet and at peace. The appearance or disappearance doesn’t make any difference for the Supreme Peace that is in the yogi.
Question: And that’s because He’s aware that He’s not the body, and He’s not the mind. He’s the consciousness of existence that’s witnessing it.
Babaji Maharaj: Yes, this awareness also He has gone beyond. He has just become quiet, that is all.
Question: So Baba, what’s it like to be a Self-realized yogi? I mean, the mind merges back into the Self into consciousness. But a yogi continues to operate in the world, but He no longer has a sense of ‘I am’?
Babaji Maharaj: Yes. Suppose He answers a question or He guides the seeker, He instructs how to do sadhana, in all these things, nothing is coming out with any idea of ‘I’, or ‘am doing’ or ‘what I am.’ These ideas all are dropped, all. Simply, the instructions are given. There is no idea that I am your Guru, and you are thinking me as your Guru. All these ideas get dropped. Nothing is there. Simply giving that technique; “You meditate,” that is all. More than that I don’t have any idea. I don’t keep thinking that “I am a tiger, I am a leopard,” all these things. Nothing comes.
Question: So, the Self-realized lives without a sense of ‘I am.’
Babaji Maharaj: All ideas are dropped, yes. See, somebody might address me as Shivarudra, but in me that imagination is not there, “O, I am Shivarudra. I have become special or two horns have come on my head.” No such imaginations are there at all.
Question: Right. There is no identity with being that body or that person. Is it just no identity at all? Just universal?
Babaji Maharaj: Just the quietness. Simple.
Question: Babaji’s commentary:After achieving Self-realization, the yogi is unaffected by the existence appearance of this universe.
Baba, there is that that term of ‘existence appearance.’ Does that mean just what appears in consciousness? Anything that appears in consciousness?
Babaji Maharaj: Maybe, I would have used this to tell, ‘appears to be existing,’ with that meaning.
Question: So, maya basically. Anything that appeared in consciousness.
Babaji Maharaj: Maya. Yes.
Question: Babaji’s commentary: A yogi while alive in the physical body as a jivanmukta, liberated while alive, is always established in the Self. And even if the world disappears, it does not matter to a yogi as their attention is not at all on this universe.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, mentally is not getting involved, is only a witness. And with this body also, which everybody calls as a yogi or a Shivarudra, any such thing, that idea is also not there. That in this body, “I am dweller” also has gone. Everything is gone. Just like the world’s appearance is there, this body is also an appearance simply. So, with this function also, we remain unaffected. Means there is no ‘I’ there. So thus, remains unaffected.
Question: That’s achieved when you achieve nirvikalpa samadhi?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, that is what is known as nirvikalpa samadhi. Means the mind once for all has stopped and merged it into the Self without an iota of any idea; any vikalpa is that one. No imagination is there at all about anything.
Question: And before that in savikalpa samadhi, does that come or do you just skip over that? In savikalpa, there is a sense of “I am the witness.” The ‘I’ is still there
Babaji Maharaj: That is also gone. That also actually is not there. You can skip over the savikalpa if you directly give up the idea of everything. That’s what through the meditation technique that Swamiji taught; one of the most ancient techniques of Rig Vedic era or even before also, perhaps, in which the mind is not given any idea or any target what to watch – just asked to watch. When you are just watching, it becomes quiet and it loses all ideas then, all imaginations of itself, of the ‘I,’ everything disappears. Thus, it straight away goes to nirvikalpa. There is no need that you have to experience the savikalpa and then come to nirvikalpa. You can straight away already start watching without any idea. The beginning itself is without any idea.
Question: That’s a beautiful point, Baba. That’s a beautiful distinction. I’ve wondered about that, whether or not you had to go through that stage. But what You’re saying is probably hanging on to that idea then you might have to go through that stage. You go through the savikalpa, “I’m the witness” stage. You just keep watching, watching, watching and then everything disappears and you have the nirvikalpa. No need to go through the other.
Babaji Maharaj: That’s it.
Question: That’s an important point.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah. The beginning itself is with no idea. Just watching.
Question: I think that people who are meditating a while are aware of that. There’s this awareness. There’s no sense of ‘I’ or anything. But you can still get your attention caught on that “I am the witness,” instead of just being that awareness.
Babaji Maharaj: Right from beginning itself, you start losing the idea of “I am meditating.”
Question: Verse eight.
“Completely fulfilled by the knowledge of the Self, the mind, absorbed, settled and fully contented in the Self, that one lives happy, seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and eating.”
Babaji’s commentary: A Self-realized yogi externally would appear like any other ordinary human being, moving, talking to people, eating, etc. But consciously, they’re never attached to their body actions. A yogi would of course behave upholding moral values for a larger cause.
Babaji Maharaj: You see people around us would like to know that I love them, I am kind to them, I am compassionate, or I am answering. So, all these ideas have been dropped here. So, those terminologies have lost its meaning. Answering these questions also have lost its meaning for me. Because it has gone beyond and become quiet. This is a clue, the answer is a clue for the seeker to become quiet as soon as possible. That is all.
Question: Thank You, Baba. Well, if you look at the world today, it gets easier; if you’re going to find any peace it’s inside yourself.
Okay, verse nine.
“For that one, for whom the ocean of this world has dried up, there is neither attraction nor aversion. Their gaze appears vacant. Their actions purposeless and their senses inactive.”
Baba, that does not describe you.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, definitely, you are right. Because in this world, people are used to dualities; one of them. If I try to tell one, they will imagine another. If I keep quiet, they might imagine as if it is ‘okay’ or ‘yes’. Like Buddha, to “Does God exist?”, He kept quiet. Then the seeker thought, “Does it mean that He doesn’t exist?” Buddha said, “When did I say so?” Neither of that one. But always common men, common people of this world want to understand with one of them. “Tell either it is there or it is not there.” How can I tell that one? That’s what ‘existent’ and ‘non-existent’ people keep arguing. Both have lost its meaning.
Question: Babaji’s commentary: For a yogi, the appearance of this universe is like a vague dream. Even if they are watching this world, their consciousness attention will be on the Self.
Baba, You’ve said that several times in the past, which always is fascinating; I asked how the world appears You and You said, “Like a vague dream.” Would You explain what that is?
Babaji Maharaj: Vague dream means which doesn’t stay erected there, which has no existence value. Like I keep telling also for the same, you write on the white paper, it instantly gets erased, disappears, whatever you write. Like that nothing stays, actually. If I have to act upon a certain thing, sometimes I have to practice repeatedly. So, for a while it is there and then it disappears. After the job is done, it doesn’t stay as an imprint or as an attitude, as a perception. No perception is there at all. See, this world appears to you based on your perception. The perception itself has gone. So, the rest loses its meaning.
Question: Baba, the last part of that sentence, “their conscious attention will be on the Self,” this really is the key message, that it’s our attention that liberates us, where we put our attention.
Babaji Maharaj: Yes, it is the attention which will bind you. It is the attention which can liberate you. If you are attentive to imagining, or the imagined thing, or the appearance of the world, you are binding. You stop that one. So, your attention goes back to Self. Then you liberate yourself.
Question: So, basically if we pay attention, at least during meditation, anything that’s in the mind, any feeling, any memory, any imagination, then our attention’s on the mind or on the world and not on the Self?
Babaji Maharaj: See, that is the effect of the magnetic field of the Self. On one side, when the same consciousness has become mind, everything appears so solid; the world, or whatever it imagines, its perception about the world, everything appears so serious. And thus people get affected. But when it has crossed that barrier, has come into the magnetic field of the Self, all ideas get dropped for the same consciousness. No more ideas are they because in the Self also, there are no ideas. We might call it as Divinity, but that Self has no idea that it is the Divine. For whose sake it needs to think that it is Divine, when it itself is there simply, that’s all. Nobody else is there.
Question: Yeah, You’ve used the analogy that the sun is unaware of where all its rays are going. It’s just absorbed in itself.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah.
Question: Babaji’s commentary: The ever-silent one in consciousness, their consciousness does not go into cravings anymore.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, you see, one important point here, while answering the question as a teaching, I don’t think further that everybody should absorb this and everybody should consider this or adopt this and do sadhana. Simply go on telling; whoever has the attention, they absorb, it’s done. Otherwise, it simply flows away, gets melted. That is why in Katopanishad also, Yamadharma talking to Nachiketa tells, “Only once I will go on talking about it and you must absorb. Do not ask any question.” That was the way they used to teach, the ancient Masters, because that used to be the status of a yogi. I go on answering when you question. Again, about the same thing if a right type of question comes only, the answer comes. Otherwise, that would have melted already, finished.
Question: So, Baba, what has made it possible for us to be here and hearing this wisdom of the Self and being guided, inspired to know the Self?
Babaji Maharaj: Your own consciousness has thought of returning to the Self in this way by finding a Master who can teach you, who can give you clues, who can tell you what to do. So, that’s why you have a Master in front of you. That’s why you all are sitting here.
Question: So, our own consciousness has manifested You as this form to guide us back?
Babaji Maharaj: All of you participants had resolved some time ago, previous life or long ago, don’t know when it is. So, that has enabled this to be sitting like this.
Question: Baba, once you’ve gotten this far, can you get off the path, and could you go another life and never be involved in meditation?
Babaji Maharaj: When you have achieved total Self-realization once for all, that has stopped. Then it won’t get dropped from that status. It is always there. Such is the magnetic power of the Self. You see, now we will try to understand; the magnetic power of this world, universe appearance, that is the magnetic power of the illusion, that is a micro speck compared to the magnetic power of the Ultimate Truth, the Self. That you have to understand. If this micro speck has such power to attract your consciousness so strongly… because your mind is micro speck of this worldly illusion’s power. So, you have to cross this barrier. That is why the tapas. You have to cross and come to the magnetic field of the Self, Ultimate Truth. Then that Self takes you back. That is the power of the Self, actually. So once a yogi has come into the Self, then the magnetic power of anything else all has disappeared. The world has disappeared. That magnetic power also has disappeared. Of the illusion itself has disappeared. Illusion itself doesn’t exist.
Question: I have to think about that Baba. The illusion itself doesn’t exist. Okay, verse eleven.
“The liberated one, abides in the true Self in all circumstances, free of desires, free of mental inclinations, ever free, enjoying.”
So, Baba, does the Self-realized person enjoy being alive in a body?
Babaji Maharaj: No, the word has been used for sake of understanding by somebody, ‘live happily in this world’; just to tell that, just for sake of understanding. So, it’s not that in the world I am happy. Whether this world is there, whether I am this world, whether the body is there, it’s always at peace. I would like to repeat the word of ‘peace’ as a clue, that it is totally settled. That peace is the real enjoyment, if that is the word you all can understand. There is no need for me to use the word of ‘enjoyment’. Because what I am trying to tell, enjoyment is, in duality you obtain a relative existence, and then start enjoying that with the thought that you have obtained that. That duality has disappeared here. There is no duality that ‘I’ is there, that “I have obtained a Self-realization.” All these ideas have gone. There is nothing that exists. It is just at peace.
Question: Yeah, peace is a beautiful thing. Because Supreme Peace, there is nothing wanted, nothing can add more or less. Baba, You have that saying that “Supreme Peace is beyond bliss.”
Babaji Maharaj: Yes. That’s why I tried to use that one to tell that it is totally composed and settled in the Self, being in the Self, being there; to give that idea.
Question: Bliss is an excited state of the mind.
Babaji Maharaj: It can give rise to excitement.
Question: Babaji’s commentary:People have a lot of myths about yogis. A yogi is consciously established and abides in the Self at all times, situations and circumstances. People think a yogi would know when they’re going to drop their body and things like the past and the future. In fact, for a yogi, there is no past or future. The past is only in the memory.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, many times people have asked this question. When the idea of the body is not there at all, I having a body, so, dropping that body doesn’t arise at all. Something of a clue is you are in a deep sleep, one day the body gets dropped. There is no need for me to know. It is for the people of this world. It’s an excitement. Myths gets created. After the Master goes away, sometimes the devotees create or spread this, “The Master had already told “On a particular day, at this particular moment I’m going to drop their body.”” This is all story. Whereas I’m not having any body at all that I’m going to drop it. So, I don’t have to have any imagination. I don’t have to look into the future, which is another imagination. When there is no imagination, I don’t have the idea of the body at all. So where is this? This is only a myth created. People want to believe in that way, “O, our Master knew when to drop the body, when He would drop the body.” That is a big news for them; breaking news, type. But for a yogi, it is nothing breaking. Everything is broken already.
Question: Also, Baba, often you hear that the Guru is going to come back, going to come back in a new form and another body.
Babaji Maharaj: It’s the belief that the devotees would like to exercise. Because they are attached to the form. Once this form has gone, where is the identity even? In that sense also, in that sense also. That identity has been put to samadhi. The body has been put into the ground or has been burnt or something has happened. It’s over. And that which achieved the yoga would have merged with the Ultimate Truth, Self.
Question: Babaji’s commentary: The past is only in the memory of ordinary people, which does not exist. There is no future, only the present. If a yogi has to exert their consciousness to know any future at all, then their consciousness comes away from the Self. Such a one would not be a yogi. If at all a yogi thinks, it will be in the purest form for the welfare of all beings in all worlds. Even then, their consciousness would be abiding in the Self only. Even if someone talks to the yogi or a yogi is talking to somebody, always the yogi’s consciousness is silent, does not go into any craving. Dramaticizing or picturizing, etc. does not happen as Their consciousness is totally settled in the Self with contentment. Thus, a yogi is never attached to anything of the world.
Babaji Maharaj: You see, try to understand this point. Now the Ultimate Truth, Parabrahman. Do we want to say that the Parabrahman will be thinking when He will have to be reborn again, when He needs to come to the world? Then how can He be the Divine or the Parabrahman? He is mentally worried about it that He needs to be reborn, He needs to be coming, He needs to do all these things, so much has been done. He doesn’t have any idea that the world has been created at all. So, that is the clue how a yogi also who has become one with That, regarding the idea of coming back, for what purpose. The devotees want to believe in that way. We try to make them understand. You see, if you have attachment in the name of the Guru, it is no problem. You do that one. When you invoke, the same Parabrahman will grace upon you through that form or through that name; when the grace descends, you will think “It’s my Guru‘s grace.” The actual truth is this.
Question: So, Baba, the Self… disappeared.
Babaji Maharaj: All that is needed is to keep quiet. That is all the teaching.
Question: I think everybody who has been meditating for some time or maybe even a short time, there is an awareness that you are the awareness. You are not anything that is being thought or imagined. And when we meditate, we are trying to keep our attention on that so we can become more aware.
Babaji Maharaj: See, actually when we talk of the awareness, that also amounts to a little bit of duality. You are aware of. What is it that you have to be aware of? You simply have to be in yourself. Keep quiet. When you keep quiet, when you are in the quietness, you would have transcended that awareness also.
Question: Yeah, I mean, that is the breakdown of terminology, Baba. I used to play with that, awareness and consciousness. And I kind of settled on consciousness. I am conscious of being alive. I am conscious of existence. I am conscious of You being here, us being here, everybody being on the call. But awareness steps back from that. And there is no ‘I’ involved anymore. And of course, I realize that any terminologies are going to fall short of the Parabrahman.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, so that is what Ramana Maharishi simply said, “Both seer and the scene disappear. Both the devotee and God disappear.”
Question: The seer disappears too?
Babaji Maharaj: Everything. Means the ideas disappear, to tell, finally.
Question: Verse twelve. “Though seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, eating, talking, speaking, walking, the great one moves free of all efforts and non-efforts completely liberated. “
Babaji’s commentary: Though it might appear active bodily, like eating or hearing or touching, walking, etc., one is free from any resolutions, efforts and non-efforts. Their consciousness is totally established and remains in the Self, allowing the body to act mechanically, not with any mental resolutions or attachments. A yogi is always a totally liberated one while alive, known as a jivanmukta.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, you see, somebody might try to stab this body of a yogi. But by a mechanical practice, a reaction might happen to save this body or to escape or to go away. But that doesn’t mean that the mind has become attached to keep this body and mind is thinking of this body as ‘me’. The mind is not there – the Self is there. That doesn’t get affected. In that process, if somebody stabs and the body goes, the consciousness is not affected. An effort might be done to save. So, that’s what it is. An effort will be done to save this ashram. But finally, if the result, whatever happens, we remain unaffected, “This is the prarabhda.” That’s it.
Question: Yeah, isn’t that just wired into nature? Every living thing tries to continue its existence, tries to survive. It’s just wired into the manifest consciousness.
Babaji Maharaj: Yes. That is the reason.
Question: Nobody, even if their lives are miserable, they don’t want to give it up or even give up the things that are making it miserable.
Babaji Maharaj: Because the first thing is “That is ‘me’, so I don’t want to give up ‘me.’” ‘Me and mine’, that is the problem that always comes.
Question: Did You have to deal with that during your tapas? Was it ever difficult to let go of that sense of ‘I’, ‘I am?’
Babaji Maharaj: It was simple and easy, actually. Whenever the manifestations happened, because there was no attachment to that manifestation, very quickly that used to finish. Even an astral travel type also, it used to finish. And the attachment would never occur. “That’s all, this was simply an illusion. It never existed. It never happened at all.”
Question: Like astral travel, anything it could be.
Babaji Maharaj: All disappears, it is all nothing. Not any significance at all. It’s not a big thing that I have to be boasting all the time, “O, I travelled like this. I hit like this.” Nothing. It’s done. It’s over.
Question: Verse 13. “Neither blaming nor praising, neither pleased nor angry, uninterested in giving or taking, ever free of all attachment and expectations.”
Babaji’s commentary: Sometimes people may see a yogi pulling up a student showing some annoyance for a cause, appreciating somebody or pointing out a mistake. In spite of all these actions, which are done whether verbally or through bodily gestures, the yogi is totally free from these dualities of either accusing or praising somebody, becoming neither excited and happy nor annoyed. The yogi is free from attachment to all objects and actions.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah. You see, in a simple way to put in one sentence; we may keep quiet, but if some people are trying to take it granted and trying to cross the boundaries, a little bit of hissing noise, “Pss, pss” you do and then become quiet again, that is all. Don’t get involved into long escalated fights. Done it. Just shoo-away, or you withdraw to yourself. That’s it. Nothing happens.
Question: No ruminating in the mind, playing things over and over and over.
Babaji Maharaj: Nothing. The mind wouldn’t be keeping anything or brooding or worrying or sad or all these things, all disappeared. These words are not there at all.
Question: Baba, is that what You meant when You said it’s like writing on a piece of paper and then immediately it vanishes?
Babaji Maharaj: It gets erased, disappears, yes. Nothing stays. Either somebody has to remind, keep reminding “This has to happen, this has to happen”, otherwise that goes.
Question: Namaste, Babaji. I just wanted some validation, I guess. Talking about consciousness and awareness. Is it okay to say that awareness is a sense of knowing?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, you are aware of. You become aware of yourself. It has to be, that is what it is, ultimately. You are in that awareness of yourself.
Same Questioner: So, you’re essentially knowledge. Like it says in the Guru Gita.
Babaji Maharaj: More than knowledge, I would like to say, you are in the awareness of yourself. Means, in conscious, you are settled there. This is what is the nearest I could find, the words, terminologies to tell.
Same Questioner: Thank You.
Question: Pranaams Babaji. Babaji, while I was trying to meditate today, I had a clear feeling that besides having to overcome the six enemies of the mind working towards becoming a saakshi, we actually need to overcome also the trigunas. Because without that, we won’t go any further. So basically I said, “Wow, that’s a big hoop to jump.”
So, my question to You is, how does it go? As we keep going into just watching, also are we going to get away from the trigunas or not? Because the thing is, the six enemies of the mind brings us, I guess, towards the righteousness. So, I mean, the idea of fighting for what’s right, fighting for what’s the common good. And kind of getting ourselves from becoming egoistic and all the other five enemies. The problem is, at some point, then we start getting into meditation, and then we get closer to the observing. But I mean, It’s a big step from observing to actually not getting attached to what’s the duality.
Babaji Maharaj: See, I understand what you are trying to tell. As you go on meditating, at least you try to understand this point – say, the six enemies, any one of them comes into the mind or the trigunas, any one of them comes into the mind, how quickly you can overcome that, you can get rid of that in the mind is the effect of the meditation. That means your meditation is very effective. If quickly, it can get erased or disappears; it shouldn’t trouble your mind too long. If simply this much of understanding is there. For that only, you have to watch and practice meditation.
Same Questioner: So, forget about worrying about duality.
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah.
Question: I’m a busy mother. And I do a one-hour meditation, of course. But I would like to do more. I rock my daughter to sleep three times a day, twenty-minute time. And I realize I’m just rocking her, and can I meditate while I rock? I’m a beginner, so I don’t think I would be in samadhi and drop her. I have been in samadhi a couple of times, but it’s not very common occurrence. Is that okay or no?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, a little bit keeping the outside awareness that you don’t do any accident to your child. So, you can try to do that one, what you are telling. No problem.
Same Questioner: Okay. Thank You so much.
Question: Beautiful session today. Just wonderful. When You were talking about why many of us are here; actually, You said all of us are here because from a past life we’re doing sadhana, and now we’re just continuing that sadhana. What I’m sensing is that we are attracted to Consciousness. And that this is what we’re really seeking, this is what we’re trying to experience. And that when we see You, we’re seeing a person, but what we’re really seeing is Consciousness. We’re drawn to this Consciousness. And it’s not so much a person, but that You are Consciousness, and that’s what we’re really drawn to. Is that what’s happened?
Babaji Maharaj: Right. You are right. Yes.
Same Questioner: That’s good. Thank You.
Question: Hi Babaji. I would like to thank You as well as Agastya for asking wonderful questions. It was a really fantastic session. I just have a quick question. So, just now You mentioned about the awareness. I just came to an understanding that, if you think about the past as well as the future, I think that’s where the awareness of ‘I am’ and worry and everything is. But the moment you have your awareness in the present, I think the only way you can be is with the consciousness, or spirit or God, or whichever you can say.
Babaji Maharaj: Exactly. Actually meditation neutralizes the mind, brings it to the now, present always. Because otherwise, the mind is brooding about the past or is anxious about the future. With this imagination keeps rising. When it comes to the present, that imagination all recede and become quiet. In that quietness, the consciousness of existence is there. That is what is the awareness we are talking.
Same Questioner: Thank You so much. So, is that God or is that you?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah, that is what is recognized as Divinity.
Same Questioner: Thank You so much, Babaji.
Question: Pranaam Guruji, sometimes when I meditate, I can hear like a little cricket song in the middle of my brain. Do I have to worry?
Babaji Maharaj: Nothing. It’s common. It will be all right. Simply, gently, just keep watching. It will disappear. It will be all right.
Same Questioner: Thank You.
Question: Pranaam Guruji. Guruji, can You please tell me the first day when you met Your Guru, that You already had the faith and the faith of experience, the permanent faith. And the first experience of Guruji realized, “O, now this is nature of mind.” Not asking that, “I believe it is nature of mind” – “I know this is nature of mind.” Can You please?
Babaji Maharaj: You see, when I first saw the Master, I just fell in love. It means hundred percent my mind went and sat on Him. So, that’s what I experienced. When that love happened naturally without any expectations and unconditional, then it had transcended the faith also, actually. So, that’s what I told my mother, “I don’t know what He is, whether He is a yogi or bad, or anything. What I know is I have fallen in love. I will not regret.” So, thus, I knew “This is the Master I have been waiting.” My inner consciousness told me. That felt satisfied, contented; “This is the Master.”
Same Questioner: And the second question, the nature of mind; the faith first came, right? And then after Master taught You how to meditate, right? And then when You realized “This is the nature of mind,” what is the first experience?
Babaji Maharaj: First experience, the mind receded, it surrendered. It understood “This Master has that thing which I needed. So, He is my Ultimate Truth. This Master is the Ultimate Truth, Parabrahman. So thus, the mind started becoming quiet, quiet and quiet. That quietness is the experience and there was peace. It had surrendered thus.
Question: Today You said so many amazing things. And I’m seeing like it’s so much more when You just say keep quiet, silence the mind. I feel like that is like just the tip of the iceberg. And you also say when the mind is quiet, it automatically turns inward and goes back to the Self. And so, a couple of days ago I was reading something of Nisargadatta, and He was saying, of course, “Keep quiet, silence.” And then He said something like “If you were just quiet, you would get everything you need. But you keep coming in the way and asking for other things.” And it’s like what You said today. So, my question is, then every single thought… we call it imagination, but is this true that every single thought; past, present, this self-talk, is continuing our illusion? And that when we get quiet, like You say, “Just keep quiet,” there is an automatic returning to the Self there. But we’re not seeing it?
Babaji Maharaj: Yeah. Then that ‘I’ also get dropped. The moment ‘I’ gets dropped, everything else drops. As long as the ‘I’ continues, the ‘I wants’, ‘I looking for’, ‘I this’, ‘I that’, all keeps coming. That’s what Nisargadatta also is telling, the same thing we told. When that’s dropped, everything is there. Just become quiet.
Same Questioner: So, even in my business world, I’m trying to just not plan so much. I’m trying to just respond to what is coming. Allow what’s coming. Can I trust that what’s coming is exactly what I need?
Babaji Maharaj: Yes, definitely. Then you will see your mind starts remaining in the present. It will never be anxious about any future. It will not brood about the past. It will just attend to the thing in the present, and thus giving you that quietness.
Same Questioner: One more comparison, just because I have You to ask. Nisargadatta said something like “Dwell in the ‘I am’, but not the words ‘I am.’” I think He’s saying the beingness. And what I’m seeing with ‘just watch,’ are we going to a state, that state of just beingness when we watch?
Babaji Maharaj: No. What Nisargadatta means, now I can understand, not in the words, but dwelling in that ‘I am’ is what I tell as consciousness of existence. I’m telling consciousness of existence so that you can overcome that ‘I-ness’ and just be there. That’s what He also means.
Same Questioner: Thank You, Baba.
Question: When was it that Your soul and mind and heart surrendered to Swamiji, to your Guru? Was it right from the very beginning or did it develop over time?
Babaji Maharaj: No, I think right from the beginning. Then afterwards, my mind never questioned anything about Swamiji, about what He is and what He is not. I could only tell “I want Swamiji.” More than that I could not explain anything else to anybody.
End of Session
