silence

#silence

Q: What is mouna [silence]?

A: That state which transcends speech and thought is mouna. That which is, is mouna. How can mouna be explainedin words?

Sages say that the state in which the thought ‘I’ [the ego] does not rise even in the least, alone is Self [swarupa] whichis silence [mouna]. That silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the jiva [individual soul]. Self alone is this ancientworld.

All other knowledges are only petty and trivial knowledges; the experience of silence alone is the real and perfectknowledge. Know that the many objective differences are not real but are mere superimpositions on Self, which is theform of true knowledge.

Q: As the bodies and the selves animating them are everywhere actually observed to be innumerable how can it besaid that the Self is only one?

A: If the idea ‘I am the body’ is accepted, the selves are multiple. The state in which this idea vanishes is the Self. Since in that state there are no other objects. It is for this reason that the Self is regarded as one only.

Since the body itself does not exist in the natural outlook of the real Self, but only in the extroverted outlook of themind which is deluded by the power of illusion, to call Self, the space of consciousness, dehi [the possessor of the

body] is wrong.

The world does not exist without the body, the body never exists without the mind, the mind never exists withoutconsciousness and consciousness never exists without the reality. For the wise one who has known Self by diving within himself, there is nothing other than Self to be known. Why?

Because since the ego which identifies the form of a body as ‘I’ has perished, he [the wise one] is the formlessexistence-consciousness.

The jnani [one who has realised the Self] knows he is the Self and that nothing, neither his body nor anything else,exists but the Self. To such a one what difference could the presence or absence of a body make?

It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything newor achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and createa huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was fillingthe space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-

long samskaras [innate tendencies] which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shinealone.

Q: But how to do this and attain liberation?

A: Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from allbondage is our real nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid of the false notion that weare bound. When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation, so

long, you may take it, one is in bondage.

Be As You Are