- I accept everything – the fourth state of turiya as well as the states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. I accept all the three states. I accept Brahman as well as maya, living beings, and the world – all. If I did not accept all, I would not get the full weight.
- When a man talks of the essence of a bel fruit, he means the pulp only – not its seeds and shell. But to be able to tell the weight of the bel fruit by simply weighing the pulp alone will not do. One has to take the pulp, the seeds, and the shell together to weigh it. So, I accept the Absolute as well as the phenomenal world. I don’t do away with the world by calling it maya. If I did, it would lose weight.
- Qualified Nondualism is Ramanuja’s view that the finite soul and the phenomenal world are parts of the Absolute and not separate from it. The three are one.
Embodied Being
- People can be divided into four classes: those bound to the world, seekers after liberation, the liberated, and the ever-free.
- There are four classes of human beings – bound souls, seekers after liberation, the liberated, and the ever-free.
- Why doesn’t the mind of embodied being turn toward God? The attraction (of Mahamaya) is much stronger than that of God. The orderly of a judge is more powerful than the judge
- God has become everything – human beings and all the other creatures that I see. They appear to be made of leather, while He Himself, from inside, moves the hands, the feet and the heads. It is the same as I once saw before – houses, gardens, garden paths all made of wax. Also cows, everything – all made up of the same wax material.
- I see that God Himself is the executioner, the sacrificial victim and also the sacrificial block.
Bound Souls
- Bound souls are attached to worldly things. They forget God and never give a thought to Him.
- A worldly man doesn’t think of God. Even when he has leisure, he either indulges in empty talk or engages himself in useless activities.
- One who constantly says, ‘I am bound, I am bound,’ that rascal really becomes bound! He who repeats day and night, ‘I am a sinner, I am a sinner,’ does become a sinner.
- Bound souls remain attached to the world, that is, to ‘lust and greed.’ They remain sunk in the sordid sea and think they are very happy.
- Bound creatures, the worldly, do not wake up. They suffer so much misery, so many trials, so many sorrows. Even then they do not awaken.
- A camel likes thorny bushes, but the more it eats, the more its mouth bleeds. Yet it keeps on eating the same thorny bush; it doesn’t stop. The worldly suffer so much agony, so much sorrow, yet they revert back to the old self quite soon.
- Bound soul state can be likened to that of a snake trying to swallow a mole. The snake can neither swallow the mole nor give it up. The bound soul may have realized that there is no substance in the world – that it is like a hog plum containing nothing but stone and skin – yet he cannot give it up, cannot turn his mind to God.
- There is yet another sign of a bound soul. If he is lifted from worldly life to a spiritual environment, he will pine away to death.
- They who live only with ‘lust and greed’ – who don’t think of God even once – are bound souls. What great work can they perform? They are like mangoes pecked by crows. Such mangoes cannot be offered to the gods. Eating them yourself is also risky.
- Bound souls, worldly people, are like silkworms. They could come out of their cocoons if they wished, but they have built their own homes and maya does not allow them to escape. And it all ends with death.
- Mahamaya wants to keep everybody bound to the world. You know how it is? “Many boats float on the ocean of the world. How many of them sink!” Again, “Out of a hundred-thousand kites, only one or two have their strings cut through and are thus set free; oh, how then You laugh and clap Your hands!” Similarly, out of a million people, only one or two attain liberation. All the rest remain bound by the Mother’s will.
Ever-Free
- The ever-free, like Narada and others, are those who live in the world for the good of mankind, to teach truth to others.
Liberated
- The liberated are not attached to ‘lust and greed’ – for example, sadhus and great spiritual personalities. There is no attachment to worldly things in their minds. They always meditate on the lotus feet of God.
- The Divine Mother is the creator of both bondage and liberation. Due to Her maya (illusion), worldly man is bound with the chains of ‘lust and greed.’ And then he is liberated by Her mercy and grace.
- When an embodied soul says, ‘O Lord, I am not the doer, You are the Doer; I am an instrument, You are the Being who uses the instrument,’ his trials and tribulations in the world cease. Only then is the embodied soul liberated; it doesn’t have to return to this field of activity.
- As long as a frog doesn’t shed its tail, it has to live in water. It can’t climb onto dry land and move around. Then it can live both in the water and on the land. Similarly, until a man sheds the tail of his ignorance, he lives in the water of worldliness. When he casts off the tail of ignorance and attains knowledge, he is liberated and can move about anywhere.
- When one says, ‘Naham, naham, naham’ (‘not I, not I, not I’), I am nothing, O Lord. I am the servant; You are the Master,’ it is only then that he is released, he is liberated.
- Liberated souls are not under the control of ‘lust and greed’. Some clever silkworms cut their cocoons and come out. But they are very few.
- Because of maya (attachment), one remains forgetful. Few attain spiritual awakening, few are not deluded by the magic of maya, are not subject to the control of ‘lust and greed.’
- What is the use of sowing boiled paddy seed? It can never sprout into a plant. When a man has been baked (perfected) in the fire of jnana, he is not used for new creation – he attains salvation.
- He who has attained this knowledge of Brahman is liberated in this very life. He rightly realizes that the body and the Soul are separate.
Seekers After Liberation
- Seekers after liberation struggle for liberation. But only some of them attain it.
- Those who seek liberation and those who are liberated look upon the world as a deep well. They don’t like it. Some of them who attain Knowledge, the vision of God, give up their bodies. But giving up the body in this way is very rare.
Maya
- Maya, or ‘I-ness,’ is like a cloud. The sun is not visible if there is even a patch of cloud. As soon as the cloud passes, one can see the sun. If, by the grace of the guru, the feeling of ‘I-ness’ vanishes, one sees God.
- I’m creating a barrier in front of my face with this hand towel. You cannot see me, though I am so near. Similarly, God is so near to us all! Even then, we can’t see Him because of the veil of maya.
- It is very difficult to go beyond the three gunas. It is not possible before God-realization. The embodied soul lives in the domain of maya. This maya doesn’t let one know God; it keeps a human being in ignorance.
- Love toward your relatives: toward father and mother, brother and sister, wife and son, nephew and niece – that is maya. But daya means love for all created beings.
- As long as you have not seen God, as long as you haven’t touched the philosopher’s stone, you remain under the delusion that you are the doer – that you are doing right or doing wrong. This awareness persists. The feeling of distinction is God’s maya and is necessary to run His world of illusion.
- By taking refuge in the maya of knowledge, by taking the road of truth, you can realize Him. He who realizes God, who gets His vision, he alone can cross over His maya. (BG 7.14)
- It is Her will that there should be some running around. Only then is there fun. He has created this universe in sport. That is what Mahamaya is. One must, therefore, take refuge in that Mother, the embodiment of Shakti (Power). One has been bound in the meshes of maya. By tearing its net, one can have the vision of the Lord.
- There is great confusion about the working of His maya. No one can say what event will come after this, or if this will produce that.
- One attains the vision of God only when Mahamaya steps aside from the door. What you need is the grace of Mahamaya. That is why God’s Power is worshipped. You see, God is so very near, and yet one does not know Him because Mahamaya stands between.
- Such is the supreme power of Yogamaya, She can perform this magic. In Her sport in Vrindavan, Yogamaya performed this magical feat. It was by Her power that Subol brought Radha to meet Krishna. Yogamaya – that is, Primeval Power – has this power to attract. I have made use of the same power.
- Rama said to Narada, ‘Narada, I am very happy to hear your hymn of praise. Please ask for a boon from me.’ Narada said, ‘Rama, grant that I may have devotion to your lotus feet and faith. And grant that I may never be enchanted by your world-bewitching maya.’ Rama said, ‘So be it. Please ask for another boon.’ Narada said, ‘Rama, I don’t want anything else.’
- Everyone is enchanted by His world-bewitching maya. Even when God takes up a human body, He too is enchanted by maya. Rama wandered about weeping in search of Sita. Bound by the five elements, even Brahman laments.