I am That

unperceived by their owner; only occasionally, through pain or suffering they call for attention and
insight. Why not extend the same to the entire personal life? One can function rightly, responding
well and fully to whatever happens, without having to bring it into the focus of awareness. When selfcontrol
becomes second nature, awareness shifts its focus to deeper levels of existence and action.
Q: Don’t you become a robot?
M: What harm is there in making automatic, what is habitual and repetitive? It is automatic anyhow.
But when it is also chaotic, it causes pain and suffering and calls for attention. The entire purpose of
a clean and well-ordered life is to liberate man from the thraldom of chaos and the burden of sorrow.
Q: You seem to be in favour of a computerised life.
M: What is wrong with a life which is free from problems? Personality is merely a reflection of the
real. Why should not the reflection be true to the original as a matter of course, automatically? Need
the person have any designs of its own? The life of which it is an expression will guide it. Once you
realise that the person is merely a shadow of the reality, but not reality itself, you cease to fret and
worry. You agree to be guided from within and life becomes a journey into the unknown.
13. The Supreme, the Mind and the Body
Questioner: From what you told us it appears that you are not quite conscious of your
surroundings. To us you seem extremely alert and active. We cannot possibly believe that you are
in a kind of hypnotic state, which leaves no memory behind. On the contrary, your memory seems
excellent. How are we to understand your statement that the world and all it includes does not exist,
as far as you are concerned.
Maharaj: It is all a matter of focus. Your mind is focussed in the world, mine is focussed in reality. It
is like the moon in daylight -- when the sun shines, the moon is hardly visible. Or, watch how you
take your food. As long as it is in your mouth, you are conscious of it; once swallowed, it does not
concern you any longer. It would be troublesome to have it constantly in mind until it is eliminated.
The mind should be normally in abeyance -- incessant activity is a morbid state. The universe works
by itself -- that I know. What else do I need to know?
Q: So a jnani knows what he is doing only when he turns his mind to it; otherwise he just acts,
without being concerned.
M: The average man is not conscious of his body as such. He is conscious of his sensations,
feelings and thoughts. Even these, once detachment sets in, move away from the centre of
consciousness and happen spontaneously and effortlessly.
Q: What then is in the centre of consciousness?
M: That which cannot be given name and form, for it is without quality and beyond consciousness.
You may say it is a point in consciousness, which is beyond consciousness. Like a hole in the paper
is both in the paper and yet not of paper, so is the supreme state in the very centre of
consciousness, and yet beyond consciousness. It is as if an opening in the mind through which the