Talk 276.
The U. P. lady arrived with her brother, a woman companion and a burly bodyguard.When she came into the hall she saluted Maharshi with great respect and feeling, and sat down on a wool blanket in front of Sri Bhagavan. Sri Bhagavan was then reading Trilinga in Telugu on the reincarnation of a boy. The boy is now thirteen years old and reading in the Government High School in a village near Lucknow. When he was three years he used to dig here and there; when asked, he would say that he was trying to recover something which he had hidden in the earth. When he was four years old, a marriage function was celebrated in his home. When leaving, the guests humorously remarked that they would return for this boy's marriage. But he turned round and said: "I am already married. I have two wives." When asked to point them out, he requested to be taken to a certain village, and there he pointed to two women as his wives. It is now learnt that a period of ten months elapsed between the death of their husband and the birth of this boy.
When this was mentioned to the lady, she asked if it was possible to know the after-death state of an individual.
Sri Bhagavan said, "some are born immediately after, others after some lapse of time, a few are not reborn on this earth but eventually get salvation in some higher region, and a very few get absolved here and now." She: I do not mean that. Is it possible to know the condition of an individual after his death?
M.: It is possible. But why try to know it? All facts are only as true as the seeker.
She: The birth of a person, his being and death are real to us.
M.: Because you have wrongly identified your own self with the body , you think of the other one in terms of the body. Neither you are nor the other is the body.
She: But from my own level of understanding I consider myself and my son to be real.
M.: The birth of the `I-thought' is one's own birth, its death is the person' s death. After the `I-thought' has arisen the wrong identity with the body
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arises. Thinking yourself the body, you give false values to others and identify them with bodies. Just as your body has been born, grows and will perish, so also you think the other was born, grew up and died. Did you think of your son before his birth? The thought came after his birth and persists even after his death. Inasmuch as you are thinking of him he is your son. Where has he gone? He has gone to the source from which he sprang. He is one with you. So long as you are, he is there too. If you cease to identify yourself with the body, but see the real Self, this confusion will vanish. You are eternal. The others also will similarly be found to be eternal. Until this truth is realised there will always be this grief due to false values arising from wrong knowledge and wrong identity.
She: Let me have true knowledge by Sri Bhagavan's Grace.
M.: Get rid of the `I-thought'. So long as `I' is alive, there is grief. When `I' ceases to exist, there is no grief. Consider the state of sleep!
She: Yes. But when I take to the `I-thought', other thoughts arise and disturb me.
M.: See whose thoughts they are. They will vanish. They have their root in the single `I-thought'. Hold to it and they will disappear. Again the Master pointed to the story of Punya [?] and Papa in Yoga [?]
Vasishta, V. Ch. 20, where Punya consoles Papa on the death of their parents and turns him to realising the Self. Further, creation is to be considered in its two aspects, Isvara srishti (God's creation) and jiva srishti (individual's creation). Of these two, the universe is the former, and its relation to the individual is the latter. It is the latter which gives rise to pain and pleasure, irrespective of the former. A story was mentioned from Panchadasi. There were two young men in a village in South India. They went on a pilgrimage to North India. One of them died. The survivor, who was earning something, decided to return only after some months. In the meantime he came across a wandering pilgrim whom he asked to convey the information regarding himself and his dead companion to the village in South India. The wandering pilgrim did so, but by mistake changed the names. The result was that the dead man's parents rejoiced in his safety and the living one's parents were in grief. Thus, you see, pain or pleasure has no reference to facts but
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to mental conceptions. Jiva Srishti is responsible for it. Kill the jiva [?] and there is no pain or pleasure but the mental bliss persists forever. Killing the jiva is to abide in the Self.
She: I hear all this. It is beyond my grasp. I pray Sri Bhagavan to help me to understand it all. "I had been to a waterfall in Mysore. The cascade was a fascinating sight. The waters streamed out in the shapes of fingers trying to grasp the rocks but were rushed on by the current to the depths below. I imagined this to be the state of the individuals clinging to their present surroundings. But I cannot help clinging. "I cannot imagine that we are no better than seasonal flowers, fruits and leaves on trees. I love flowers but still this idea has no hold on me." After a few minutes, she pointed out that she had intended to ask Maharshi about death and matters relating to it but did not however do it. Yet Maharshi was reading the related matter in the newspaper and the same topic came up for enlightenment. She left after seeing the cow Lakshmi.