What is Consciousness? | Thus Spake Babaji, online Q&A #73

"If you practice the cleansing of the mind and achieve total silence, you settle back into the real Self that is pure consciousness, then you realise that it is the same consciousness everywhere."  

Babaji explains the truth about consciousness in this online Q&A.

Thus Spake Babaji #73, recorded on 4 December 2021, with worldwide participants.

To register for the live online meditation sessions with Babaji please visit: https://www.shivarudrabalayogi.org/en/online-satsang 

0:00 Intro
0:16 Is consciousness all pervading and do all forms of life have consciousness?
1:03 Why is there conflict between different parts of the same one consciousness?
2:56 Is it that the brain's reflections misguide the consciousness to misidentify itself?
4:19 What is the connection between the brain reflecting and the mind imagining?
7:15 When you achieve a silent mind in meditation, is that the consciousness of existence?
9:04 Once we achieve silence in the mind, why can we not sustain it permanently?
12:51 In meditation, when our attention is between the eyebrows, is this what allows us to see the consciousness of existence?
15:32 Does the identification of the 'I' remain until towards the end of tapas?
16:50 Towards the end of tapas as the mind becomes more and more powerful, can the ego also become more powerful?
19:23 Supreme consciousness and supreme energy - are they one and the same?
21:36 What is prana?
27:22 What is Mahasamadhi?
29:32 How does someone with God consciousness see the world?
33:09 Is there an intelligent consciousness allowing the creation to unfold with a purpose?
36:44 Did my consciousness create different people and will they disappear if I stop thinking about them completely?
42:17 What does Nirvikalpa mean?
44:21 In some stories Realised sages get into arguments and curse each other, how can Realised masters curse each other?
 
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Transcript

Discourse: Thus Spake Babaji - online Q and A No. 73
 What is Consciousness
You tube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkMWRuDQOGE
Recorded: 04 December 2021

Start of Questions and Answers

Question:   So the first question is, ‘Is consciousness all-pervading and do all forms of life have consciousness?’

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah.  So, in deeper samadhi you experience this all-pervadedness, just like for all the creatures, objects, stories, everything that is in your mind, your mind is simply all-pervading.    That is the purest form of consciousness, when no thoughts or visions are there. Thus the same consciousness is one single Self and is all-pervaded.

Question:   So if this consciousness is all one and the same, why is it that we all have the same consciousness and yet there's conflict between these different parts of that same consciousness?

Babaji Maharaj:   Consciousness is the same, one, but many portions of the consciousness have come in touch with the reflections of the brain, the brain in human beings and in all other creatures in different ways.    If it is not well developed-brain, at least some instincts would be there.  So, thus getting stuck into that, this portion of the consciousness has identified itself, in fact misidentified itself as the body.  So thus the differences occur, what it thinks, what it visualizes, what it can understand - all these things differ from person to person.    So, thus the consciousness that is stuck in that brain’s reflections also will have the different beliefs. I would also like to say that it has become a victim of the brain’s reflections, thus the differences occur.    So when you practice the cleansing of the mind and achieve total silence, then you gain the awareness of the Self, means you settle back into the real Self that is pure consciousness. Then you realize that it is the same consciousness everywhere.

Question:   So it's the brain’s reflections misguiding the consciousness to misidentify itself?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.  So that is why we also tell, you need to be the master and the brain needs to be your assistant or your servant. That you need to use the brain to live in this world.    Instead, if you simply take everything that the brain reflects in good faith, you can become a victim of the brain.    Brain is like a computer, it's an organ, a biological organ in the body; through the nervous system it is active and it is in touch with the world, means it has given us consciousness of this world, the universe that what we would like to call for understanding.  So thus, whatever brain reflects, if we consider that to be the truth, it is like whatever the mind imagines, the mind considers that imagination as the truth.    So thus it becomes a victim of its own imagination; it becomes a victim of whatever the brain reflects.  A truth might be something else.

Question:   So the brain is reflecting -what is the connection between the brain reflecting and the mind imagining?

Babaji Maharaj:   Watching the brain, it registers in itself, then gets into the imagination of that to be the truth.  So that is what happens, and thus it gets carried away in that imagination, forgetting its true nature, true Self also, and the truth about the ultimate existence.  Everything is forgotten.  So that is how it catches.  As I told, brain, apart from the blood and oxygen that it needs that we all know, it also needs the mind’s application.  It's a peculiar relationship of mind getting applied to the brain and the brain reflecting.  If the brain reflects, then again mind becomes activated, it catches that reflection of the brain.  And then the mind firmly believes that to be the truth, thus it becomes a victim of the brain’s reflections. Instead, if you can control the mind.

 Mind is a separate part, at least for now we can consider.  So that is how you are able to withdraw the mind from the reflections of the brain and keep it under restraint, control.  You won't allow it to become a victim of whatever the brain says.  Like the brain can be a good servant, but a bad master.  That's what it needs to be, then we have to use it.  With all the concentration if we use the brain, we can utilize brain’s services in a much better way, to a larger extent we can use.  So thus we can understand - always be aware of the truth of existence and the imagined world and its play.  We won't become a victim of the world also.    We will simply as a witness we will live in a matured way in this world.  Nothing shall affect us, our consciousness, and we can sort out our own problems.    We become more matured and have that peace at all times.    We won't lose.  And we won't depend on this world for our happiness and unhappiness.  Whatever happens we will always be happy and at peace.

Question:   Thank You.  So, in meditation we're trying to ignore the imaginations and finally have a silent mind with no thoughts.  When we achieve that, there's no thoughts, is that consciousness of existence?  And is that the same as pure consciousness?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, you see, first when you are able to clear all the thoughts and visions, what remains is the consciousness of your existence.  This is there even before also.  Like I tell, in your mind, as millions of thoughts are there, in the midst of that there is one thing which is not an imagination and a reality, the consciousness of your own existence.    But you don't know what it is.  Simply there is a consciousness that you exist.    Just now you have misidentified that consciousness to be the body, as your personality, as yourself.    And thus everything connected to the body can affect your peace or happiness, anything, and that awareness of the truth.    So as you clear all the thoughts and visions, as the mind becomes silent and silent, then you will see that consciousness of existence always remains.  That will not disappear; you cannot make that disappear.  The more that you become silent, it is there.    That is how you gain the awareness of yourself as That.  That is the pure consciousness.

Question:   And once we achieve that, why can't we sustain that and just stay in that state permanently?  Why does the mind start becoming agitated again?

Babaji Maharaj:   Habits and lack of proper practice to remain in that state at all times.  You see, a yogi achieves this.    Though I might appear normally living in this world, conscious of what is happening in the world, but we won't become a victim of what is happening in the world.    There is a firm conviction, ‘this is only an illusion, not a reality.’    It is impermanent.    It keeps happening.    It keeps happening.    So, as a witness we will watch.  Mentally we don't get involved.    The mind is now pure consciousness and it is ever silent one.  Mechanically even if we are talking, we might be using a very little consciousness necessary to apply the brain - would be good enough. Minimum that is required and then you remain withdrawn.    You won’t allow the brain to reflect on its own, in its own way.  You're now aware of the truth.    So you won't become a victim, whatever it reflects, whatever the world projected appears to be.    But that is not the truth - you are well aware now.  

So thus you can remain at peace at all times, remain unaffected by the happenings of the world.    So here I would like to clear - many times the question has been asked - that doesn't mean that we are going to be indifferent to the world.  We can always help somebody, help the world.    If somebody is suffering, we can help.  But that doesn't mean that we have to lose our peace.  The doctor is attending to the patient.  He doesn't have to lose his own peace or mental stability; keeping the stability intact, he can always attend to the patient.    So whoever is in need, we can always attend to them in any way that is possible for us, physically, mentally, psychologically, whatever is said. That is possible without we ourselves becoming a victim or getting affected by that happening.  So this comes when you totally realize - totally realize means, once for all, when the mind abandons all cravings, means all imaginations, all visualizations, it settles into itself.

   It is into the Self, it's settling into itself, both are same.  That is the truth.  It settles into itself and remains in that state totally contented.  Once it has realized, there is nothing else that we need, and nothing else that the world can give us for our existence or for our happiness, nothing can happen.  So then it becomes totally satisfied and contented.  So then no desires arise anymore; it remains contented.  So that is how you have to achieve.  Till then you have to continue the meditation if you are interested in Self-Realization.

Question:   So, in meditation, the aim is to put our attention between the eyebrows, and for that attention to become more and more concentrated and single-pointed.  And that's what allows us to see the consciousness of existence, that appears?

Babaji Maharaj:   In that you will see that consciousness of existence is there.  That is the gateway for Self-Realization eventually.  Here, like we ask you to concentrate in between eyebrows, but no anchor is given.  Just watch in-between eyebrows; what you have to watch is not mentioned.    So inside, when you close the eyes, you won't see the outside of the in-between eyebrows, because the eyes are shut.    Simply you have to try and concentrate, fix the eyeballs.    So as you progress in that concentrated effort, as the mind becomes more and more concentrated, you will realize that the mind is trying to watch itself and not anything else.    The master teaches, “Do not recognize any thoughts or visions, ignore.  If it comes, just watch.  Don't get excited for any visions or any thoughts, nothing - just watch them, don't become interested.  There is much more there, further that you have to achieve.”    So thus you continue with that one without bothering, then all the visions and thoughts totally disappear, dissolve, once for all evaporates, then the pure consciousness of existence is there.  

Then all your attention automatically comes on to that.    So then the mind starts going introverted.    Introverted means paying attention to itself.  It becomes aware of itself.  The existence awareness is there, but no definition, no calling, no name, nothing is there, simply the ‘I’ consciousness is there.  Eventually that will also disappear when you merge with the Self actually.    So you have to proceed like that, concentrating on that one.    So becoming quiet and quiet, remain concentrated, quiet and quiet.    So that is what will take you towards the Self.

Question:   So that identification of the ‘I’ remains through most of tapas and deep samadhi until towards the end, and that's when it goes?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yes.  Finally, when the ‘I’ also dissolves, then that nirvikalpa happens.  Till then, that vikalpa is there of wanting to know the ‘I’ or the ‘I.’  So that can give rise to ego always, of the ‘I,’ what I am.  So, I am not that God.  As long as ‘I’ was there, we recognized that truth as God; once the merger happens, both disappear - both the seer and the seen, the devotee, and God, or the ‘I’ and the Self, everything disappears, no identification, simply existence.    Before that merger you realize that you always exist.  When the merger happens, there's nothing else to realize.

Question:   So, towards the end of tapas, the mind is becoming more and more powerful.  Is it that the ego could also become more and more powerful or does the ego become smaller and smaller?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, that is why detachment, vairagya is recommended; it is necessary.  But the mind can go into  a vairagya only when there is a firm conviction about the impermanence of this world, and have faith that the appearance of the world is also an illusion.  These two things you maintain and cultivate, never doubt about it, then the detachment comes.  As long as mind believes the world exists, it gets attached to something or other.  You try to remove one, it gets attached to another; it happens.    So you have to give up these two, and need to have the firm conviction of the impermanence of the world, the appearance of this universe or whatever it is.  So then only the detachment comes, then the mind gets withdrawn, then the ego disappears when you realize that is nothing on which you can rule.  

Then there is no need of any power at all.    And that vairagya comes, and then you remain in yourself, contented; no ego can occur.  As long as there is a separate entity is there, always the ego can occur – ‘This as mine.’  ‘Me and mine’ is the problem that has started somewhere.    And it has to come to an end when we realize there is something wrong in this aspect of the me and the mine.    “That's what is giving me the trouble. Why the piece is not there at all times?  Naturally, effortlessly, simply in that way it must be there.  Why is it not there?  Is something wrong in me or is there something wrong in this world?”  That is how the botheration should come.  Then when you give up the ‘me’ also the mind goes.  When there is no separate second entity there, there is nothing.

Question:   Sometimes You talk about Supreme Consciousness and also about Supreme Energy.  Are they one and the same, or different aspects of the same, or different?

Babaji Maharaj:   They are one and the same actually.  Just to give an understanding when still the mind is there, and I have spoken that the mind is actually the combination of consciousness and energy.  And to explain, the same consciousness and energy has been explained in the concept of Shiva and Shakti.  Shiva: your existence in total thoughtlessness state, nischestit - when the mind doesn't spin anymore, it is totally stabilized and still.    So that's what Shiva is.  Like in our culture, Hindu culture, when the body dies it is known as a shava, means it is totally inert, it won't move anymore.    It's over, finished.    But Shiva appears to be inert but it is supremely conscious of existence.    That's why the shava and Shiva difference, it is told.  To explain this only, I have tried to give. 

 Thus, if you are the mind, which is a combination of consciousness and energy, its Ultimate Truth, that is the Supreme Consciousness and Supreme Energy, is the Divinity, is recognized as God.  As long as you exist as the mind, as an individuality, the Ultimate Truth of that, the source is recognized as God.    So once the merger happens, both names disappear, both identities. If there is no disciple, there is no Guru.  If you don't have a son, and that son has to call your father, so how can you be a father?  So that ends, the story ends.

Question:   Thank You.  And also somebody asked about prana.  Could you explain about prana - the meaning and what it’s involved with?

Babaji Maharaj:   Prana is the Self only actually, this mind, consciousness.  As long as this is in touch with the brain, there is prana in the body, there is life in the body, the body keeps moving.    So this happens as long as the brain is alive.  Either way.  So when the brain is dead, it is finished, it won't function anymore, then the mind gets detached from the brain's reflections because there is nothing to catch.  So thus the prana is gone, is over in that body.  This is the simple language, simple understanding.    So many explanations, terminologies might have been used.  But this is what really happens when you do tapas.  In the simplest way I can tell.  Like also I have explained, when the mind gets detached from the brain, because the brain is dead, is dying, or is dead, so in the end, intensity of thoughts forms, based on the acquired habits of the mind.  Its acquired habits like forming an attitude, temperament, judgments, analyzations, understanding, observation; through all these the mind acquires habits.    “This is mango, this is the world, this is a rock, this is iron,” whatever it has assumed, it stubbornly says “That is the truth.”

   If somebody like us come and tell “This is God,” they won't believe; they will ridicule and make fun of us.  Even that God also is imagination, finally.  Nothing is there.  So like that mind acquires the habits.  Based on that, it assumes next incarnation.  That mind spins within itself, then and there itself; it doesn't have to travel anything.  Traveling into lokas; everything is an illusion.  Simply doesn't really happen, anything.  Because there are no lokas at all, so where to travel?  It's not an individual that it will travel simply.  Then and there itself it spins and it feels as if that such a thing is happening.  You see, if you observe your mind, sometimes when mentally you are deeply absorbed into a particular thought, particular vision, particular story or incident, anything, so that story within the mind appears to be so solid and real.  You would have forgotten that you are sitting and simply visualizing, or thinking.  That scene would have gone.  

Only that which is in the mind would be would have taken over dominantly, just like watching a movie as I tell.  So if this mind has so much of power, imagine the Supreme Consciousness.  So when that merger happens, and if that visualizes, an enormous amount of consciousness visualizes what happens.  So like that the reincarnation happens.  To stop this again and again to be reborn, or to die again; if you are born you will die again.  If the body is born, it will die. The moment it is born it is guaranteed that it will have to die.  It’s a matter of time.  So that's what happens.  So that keeps on happening, reoccurring again and again.  So when you come into that vision of your own creation, your peace is not guaranteed at all times.  Because you start depending on the surroundings, on the happenings, and your own imagination for your peace and happiness.  So that's what happens.

   Like early morning, when you get up some time, it's likely that you would you feel refreshing, very refreshing, mind is at peace.  Suddenly unknown to you, it starts imagining.  When it starts imagining, generally it imagines pleasant things only.  Nobody wants any unpleasant thing.  But due to its own habits, as the day passes by, it slips into both happiness and unhappiness, good and bad, right and wrong, whether it is correct or not correct, like that it gets into the confusion, all sorts of things start coming into the mind.  Like that, for the consciousness, if it assumes any rebirth and a world of its own, so that is also not guaranteed because that consciousness goes into a duality, only then a creation happened.  If there is only one single Self remains, a creation, nothing happens, no imagination comes.  And in the duality only you realize that you always exist eternally.  There is not extinct for you.  So that is guaranteed.  This also is a matter of feeling secure is necessary.  So that's why this topic is taken in philosophy to teach by the ancient sages in the teachings. So that's how it happens.

Question:   So when a realized yogi’s body is lost, that's called mahasamadhi.  And that's different, there's a difference there?

Babaji Maharaj:   It is known as mahasamadhi generally, because electric current is switched off but the fan is going; after some time it will stop. Like the mind, maximum of the mind is withdrawn from the brain's clutches.    So brain is also very minimum active, and at peace, relaxed.  So the mind, consciousness it is now.  It is totally in the awareness of itself and no imagination stays there as a reality.    Like you write on a white paper, instantly it gets erased.    Mind doesn't register anything; mind is now pure consciousness.    Nothing is registered as a reality.    Sometimes it could appear as a very funny state.    When you're walking, it's like a sleepwalking type.  Like Ramana Maharishi says, “It's like measuring the sky by sky.”    Only the space can measure the space, nothing else can measure the space.    So that type, when you are in yourself.    So that's what happens.  Then one day the body gets dropped automatically in due course of time, when the brain is dead it stops functioning, then the consciousness which was hidden till this day in that body simply becomes one with itself.  It is not reborn because there is no desire and no more imagination; there is nothing else to achieve, nothing else to work in this world also, everything is done.    So it all finishes.    So that is known as mahasamadhi.  When finally you settle peacefully into the Self, and no rebirth or no visualizing happens, no spinning of that consciousness happens.  It is stabilized.

Question:   So for a being that is realized it is said that they've achieved God-Consciousness.  How does somebody with God-Consciousness see this world?  Do they see the Divine in all of the manifestation?  Or is it different to that?

Babaji Maharaj:   Different terminologies have been used.  Earlier days Self-Realization, then the later days some people try to use, “It's God-Consciousness, God-Realization”, that type of thing.  It's all the same; the consciousness becomes quiet.  So you see that.  Like I will explain in other terms, when you enter a room, the space that is there seldom attracts your attention.  Your attention easily goes to all the objects; wall, pillar, sofas, beds, all objects it attracts. You start counting what is all there.  You would seldom count that there is a space also.  If anybody asks you “Look what are all in this room,” so you will count all such things and you won't count the space.  But that space is the truth actually, truth of existence.  So your attention, if it is realized, the same space that is in this body, it is the same space everywhere, all-pervaded in all the objects, outside the object, inside the objects, everywhere it is that same space, so that awareness will be there.  So in the same way for a realized Master, that awareness will be there.  So He won't have anything, either for or against for anything, for anybody.  There is no ‘me or mine,’ there at all.    So He just watches as a witness.    So that's what happens.  So He is able to be aware of that Self only at all times.

   This world really hardly matters, because it's only a drama that is happening.  Like for example, if you're one of the audience, the movie might be quite thrilling.  But if you have produced or directed the movie, if you were there throughout the shooting of the movie, then the reality of the movie may not appear to you as a reality. You will just watch it.  At the most, technically you will watch it, how technically that was made, how these things are happening; that could be quite interesting.  In the same way, when you do meditation and tapas, for some time, mind and its technology can be quite interesting - how it produces, and how when a thought is imagined; and then the same mind considers that thought to be a reality, forgetting that this thought is there because of my own imagination.  Such is the power of the mind.  So that appears so solid, that thought, and everybody believes whatever they imagine that to be the truth.  And everybody thinks they are the true people, they know the truth, they are the reality. Never try to think that we are simply imagining it, this need not be the truth, the truth might be something else.

Question:   Somebody has asked, which I think perhaps follows on,  “Is it Your experience that there is an intelligent consciousness allowing or helping creation to unfold with a definite purpose?”

Babaji Maharaj:   This intelligence is the application of the brain only.  Consciousness, when it becomes pure consciousness, it won't have any meaning for the creation at all.  It's like a dream that was there and it's over.  The purpose also doesn't serve anything.  When a thing appears and after some time it disappears.  So, like the body appears, we call it as birth.    When it dies, it disappears.  In between the time, we call it as life.  So that life whether we like it or not, often we are forced to do it when we depend on the body and its urges.  Like when you are hungry you have to eat something, then you can sustain, then you can live.  

   That's what Sri Rama asks in Yoga Vashista, first question, in the vairagya prakarana, the detachment chapter – “The whole world seems to be struggling to earn a livelihood, some food for this physical body.  If they go on feeding the body, they will die one day.    If they don't feed the body also, they die.  So what is this fun?  Is there any purpose in this or simply we are made to do like a drama?”  That's what Rama asks Vashista which had puzzled Him about this world in Yoga Vashista.  That’s a beautiful question that comes.    

So that's how the purpose - what's the purpose of the world?   We have to achieve peace.  That peace is achieved when we become quiet in the mind.  For that peace only we are all looking for; everybody in the world is looking for happiness.  They want to become an emperor because they want to be happy.  They want to become a watchman because they want to be happy, if that is all the imagination.    One has imagination to become an emperor, another has an imagination just to become a watchman.  One has the imagination to own a supermarket.  Another has the imagination to have a small chocolate.  That person thinks, “This chocolate only can give me happiness.”    He won't consider, “That supermarket can give me happiness.”  So nobody really knows, hardly people know what is it that can give happiness or peace, though everybody is looking for that.  So if you are peaceful, you have peace.  This is the simple formula, means where? Mentally, mentally, you are peaceful, you are quiet.  That is the enjoyable peace - then you have peace.  That is the purpose.  There is no other purpose for anybody because anything else is impermanent; the purpose won't be served at all, once for all.  It's only for a temporary, for some time. And then it disappears.

Question:   Thank You Babaji.  Someone just asked, “Did my consciousness create different people?  And if so, if I ignore someone and stop thinking of them completely, am I erasing them and will they slowly disappear from my life?”

Babaji Maharaj:   These things don't happen like that.  Whatever is in your mind, you need to make it to dissolve.  Don't bother about the outside world, that a certain person is there and if you ignore that person that person will get dissolved.  Things won't work,  technology doesn't work like that.  The things are all in your mind.  Whatever is in your mind, if you stop visualizing, if you stop thinking, if you stop recognizing what is in your mind, then that thing that is in your mind gets dissolved.  And then you realize your real Self.  Let this world be in its own place.  It has come in its own technology, it will go away in its own technology. The human mind has not created, it is a much larger consciousness which has created the universe.  Like I have explained in Indian Hindu philosophy, the first Trinities, the Divine forms recognized are Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara (Shiva).  Brahma is the concept of creating and Vishnu sustains that creation, Shiva is withdrawal of this creation back into Self, into thoughtlessness state, anything.  See initially, when the Ultimate Truth existed as one single Self, Puranas say from that enormous amount of consciousness, much bigger, larger content what our mind is; if our mind is of ten-percent potency, its billion hundred thousand-potency, something like that we can think - that arose.  That remained in its awareness - that created by imagination but did not get involved into its own imaginations.  After imagining it remained in itself.  

So that's why that consciousness remained uncorrupted.  That is the Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva - these Trinities are known.  So very quickly, in due course of time, the withdrawal also is to happen, creation happened, and when sustained also, watched as the witness, never mentally got involved.  But the next generation, in the stories of the legend puranas all the devatas are mentioned.  The devatas are mentioned as the maya, consciousness started becoming bit corrupted because of insecurity, wanting power and wanting to hold on to the seat and position.  Thus they all went into conflicts. One was called the evil, another was called the good, one was called the demon, another was the angel, something like that.  Slowly the consciousness started becoming a little bit corrupted. Still they might have remained in that position, but afterwards reincarnation started happening. It became more and more corrupted, desires, insecurity feelings, so all these things increased.  So then the mind, the consciousness started getting diluted.  So after long journey in illusion, in that imagination, so what the human has this mind is just nothing compared to that Supreme Consciousness or that enormous consciousness. But yet in this world, this mind has so much power - when a person becomes genius he can be discovering or inventing so many things, all these things. But yet, humanity has failed to discover some machine or some planet or some weapons, something which can give peace to humanity, make them remain peaceful and considerate to each other. 

   This can happen only when the consciousness is purified; the corrupted consciousness of humans needs to get purified.  So this is the sadhana that is taught to erase the mind, to make it quiet - one of the highest is known as meditation, paying attention and other bhakti marga, karma marga, so many other things are taught.  So you slowly let the mind become less and less corrupted.  Then you go back towards the real Self.  So that's how the consciousness works.

Question:   Thank You.  Earlier Babaji mentioned nirvikalpa, nirvikalpa samadhi.  Can You tell us what the word kalpa and nirvikalpa actually means, please?

Babaji Maharaj:   It is vikalpa or nirvikalpa actually.  Vikalpa means there is a slightest iota of even the oscillation of the mind, spinning of the mind is there. So that is vikalpa. And nirvikalpa samadhi means the mind’s total stillness happens, totally stabilizes, and once for all - no return from there.  If it returns that means it was not totally nirvikalpa; there was an iota of savikalpa was there, vikalpa was there.  So that is what is explained in these Samskrit words, vikalpa and nirvikalpa.  Different teachers have explained savikalpa samadhi, means if the mind is still, stabilizes on one particular object, then that can be called savikalpa samadhi.  It is into samadhi, total stillness but there a little bit of vikalpa is there.  Along with the vikalpa, it is into the stillness.  So without any vikalpa it is into stillness means on its own it has stabilized.  That's why we tell explaining this technique of meditation - in this, you're trying to give a practice to the mind to become quiet on its own, not on any anchor, no mantra, no name, no form, no formlessness, nothing is explained.    Just concentrate and practice.  So then you go to the truth straightaway without imagining what the truth can be.  So that will take you to the nirvikalpa and then that also finishes.

Question:   Somebody's asked, “In some of the stories there are realized sages and they can get into an argument and curse each other.    How can a realized person or people be cursing each other?”

Babaji Maharaj:   [Laughs] Yeah, I also could never digest these factors.  Generally what is believed, a yogi, when his consciousness has become totally purified, still, stabilized, even knowingly or unknowingly also such a yogi cannot hurt anybody.  Swamiji used to say, “Even if a yogi slaps somebody, it will be beneficial for that person in some form or other to lose a karma or to get rectified, to take the right path, any such thing.”  Like if father scolds a son, nothing, no harm in it.  The father wants the child to be on the right path simply, that's why he tries to pull up.  So that is all can happen and not out of selfish ego or anger that one curses the other, that thing happens.  That's what it is.  That's my opinion.

Question:   Is the purpose of the story so that people can learn from it?    They are acting?

Babaji Maharaj:   Yeah, beware of your mind becoming corrupted and leading you to corrupted ways of life.  So in this world, one important thing philosophically – nothing is prohibited, but you should know where to stop.  Take care of the health of the physical body and the mind.  Based on that only you indulge in this world, then there is no harm.  So if you forget yourself, and if you don't know where to stop. Like I tell, “If you want to eat a sweet, you eat one ladoo, no problem.”  But you go on eating and you cannot stop yourself then you get into trouble.  The same ice cream which gave you happiness in the beginning will give you trouble also, will give you pain, your health goes mentally, physically, in every way.  Everything of the world also, having money or having family or having anything, any way of life is your choice.    It's no problem.  Just know the limitations of this world.  That's what one has to learn finally.

End of Questions and Answers

Babaji Maharaj now concludes the session.

   Wonderful, we appreciate all your participation in this question and answers and the meditation, giving me an opportunity to express my opinion, experience, and what my Master taught me.

End of Session