Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
One morning, the session was enlivened by the visit of a well-known social and political figure, a retired Indian diplomat, whose presence generally makes for a good-humored and lively discussion. This morning the subject was whether elf-knowledge and the practical life in the world could go together. Were they complementary or contrary to each other.
This visitor is not only not unfamiliar with Maharaj's teaching but has imbibed it sincerely, though it would seem hat once in a while his basic proclivities towards social and political catharsis would give him a feeling of spiritual instability, underlining the need for a quick refresher course. Apart from this, he loves Maharaj' greatly and does not mind driving down the distance of about 100 miles to Bombay only to see him.
His basic question was: Can a man honestly afford to spend his time absorbed in meditation on the self, to the exclusion of the many social and political problems in the country and the world?
The most refreshing part of Maharaj's talks is his unique approach to problems referred to him. He says that we should forget the conceptual jungle that grows quickly around any theme as well as the directives of the traditional scriptures and should get down to the fundamentals. Maharaj tackled the question of his distinguished visitor with his customary elan.
Let us deal with the matter, he said - you and I - now. There have been numerous great personalities and avatars in the world during the past two to three thousand years. Each one of them had laid down his own list of do's and don'ts, depending on his own concept of the right and wrong and the needs of the times as he saw them. So far so good. Let us now also ask ourselves: What have all these great men and avatars achieved? Have they been able to make the slightest change in the behavior of man or nature? There must be some reason - some fundamental reason - why they had not been successful. Could it be that the problem itself had been misconceived or misperceived? Could it be that attacking the problem directly was like attacking the heads of a hydra which when cut off are replaced instantly by others? And that the only way to decimate the hydra was to locate its heart and strike there?
Now, said Maharaj, what are the basic ingredients of any social, political, economic or any other problem? When we reduce the problem to its basic essentials, what do we find? The essentials are: I, you and the physical world. On analyzing these basic essentials what do we find? All me's and you's and the earth, the sky, the moon and the starts- are they not mere conceptual images in consciousness? All existence is objective. All me's and you's exist as one another's objects in the consciousness that cognizes them. And so far as the world or universe is concerned, is it in essence any different from the world which you create in your dream and which is made of the same ingredients and inhabited by the same kind of people, including yourself, as in what you call the 'real' world? Your 'real' world, you might say, had been existing long before you were born. Well, in your dream-worlds also there are seas and mountains and buildings and people which have obviously been existing for a long, long time. Are you going to solve the many social and political problem of the people in your personal dream?
Is it not therefore true, continued Maharaj, that the heart of the hydra - the root of the problem- is consciousness in which the entire manifested universe appears? Indeed, is not consciousness the hydra itself! And is it not consciousness n which the entire attention should be directed? Its nature, the cause of its appearance, and other relevant factors? Since it is consciousness in which the entire phenomenal world appears, it necessarily follows that all manifestation will become sensorially perceptible only if it is extended spatially and for a certain duration of time. One must, therefore, necessarily accept the purely conceptual existence of the psychic apparatus of space-time as a prerequisite for the perception of the manifested universe.
This leads us to the following conclusions:
1. Without the concept of space-time the manifested universe would not be sensorially perceptible; and therefore, all events based on cause and effect and extended in space-time must also be only conceptual;
2. If the manifested universe is only an appearance (in the absence of consciousness the universe cannot exist on its own) then the manifested universe is the reflection of something that is present in its own right;
3. Phenomena, then, are the objective aspect of the noumenon, the total potentiality - the totality of the known in the infinity of the unknown. Consciousness cannot be used transcend consciousness, and therefore, noumenon represents the outside parameter of cognition;
4. Noumenon - that which is - can only be, and it can be only now. In the absence of the conceptual space-time, there can be absolutely no 'where' or 'when' for anything to be. Now that we see that the world is only an appearance, let us get back to the me's and you's, who are supposed to solve the world's problems. Before we start to identify the world's problems and proceed to solve them, should we not identify ourselves?
We are relatively sentient beings and we want todo something to solve the problems in the world. Is it possible for a sentient being, who is itself conceptual, to do anything that is other than conceptual? What do we do from morning through night other than continuously objectivizing? And is the human body, which is actually nothing but a psychosomatic apparatus, capable of doing anything other than producing illusory images and interpretations? Whatever we may think of ourselves we cannot but be an integral part of the total manifestation and the total functioning and cannot in any manner be apart from it. We are better able to comprehend this in the case of a personal dream which we can review after waking up. What appears as oneself in the dream, with an independent identity is clearly seen to be totally devoid of any independent substance, a mere puppet being manipulated. Is it really any different in the world that we think of as 'real'? Ponder over this. Could it not be that we dream that we are awake, we dream that we are asleep, arid all the time life is being lived; all a product of the dreaming mind - objectivization going on in consciousness. And what is consciousness itself but only a concept which comes like an eclipse on the noumenon for a certain length of time?
If this position is perceived directly, intuitively, then we know that in relativity we are the conscious presence, the animating consciousness and the not the phenomenal object to which it gives sentience. When we see the false as false, the problem resolves itself. We are the content of this living -dream, actors in this living-drama. And actors can only play their roles, nothing more.
The distinguished visitor heard Maharaj in baffled silence. He had no words to express what he thought or felt.
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