The work that we are doing here is of a different nature. This is a place for the
transformation of the inner quality of your being. The aim is that, in this life, you should
become completely free from anger, anxiety, lust, greed, jealousy and all such negative
emotions. You should develop pure and infinite love, and come into complete harmony with
God and with the world around. In other words, your aim should be to lead a completely
successful human life.
Truth is what always ‘Is’, and our essential existence is a part of that Truth. It is just that
there is an illusion of separateness, but this illusion disappears after Self-realisation. Actually,
nothing is gained in Self-realisation, except that this illusion goes away. You do not gain
anything. It is only that you realise what you already are, and nothing except that.
For example, suppose that you are at home in your own house, but you have the illusion
that it is not your home. Your house is there, you are there but you are crying: “Where is my
home?” Then somebody comes and tells you that this house is actually your home, and,
through this knowledge, your misconception goes away: “Oh, I was always in my home!” It is
something like this. Saints have tried to convey this type of illusion in many ways, even
though it is difficult or almost impossible to describe. Anyway, these are some indications.
Another example that saints have given is that of a mother sleeping with her child in her
lap. The child was there with the mother for the whole night, but the mother had a dream that
she had lost the child. However, even while she was dreaming about losing the child, the child
was there in her lap.
The mother became very anxious in her dream and cried out: “Oh, I have lost my child!
Where is my child?”
Just then somebody came and woke her up and said: “Look you were dreaming. The child
is here in your lap.”
She realised that the child was always with her – the child was there even while she was
dreaming that she had lost it.
Another example that saints gave was of a lady who thought she had lost her necklace
while she was working at home. She used to wear the necklace everyday, it was very precious
and she had spent a lot of money on it.
Suddenly she cried out: “Where is my necklace?”
She tried to find it in every corner of the house. She even went outside to the
neighbourhood where she might have gone for shopping, to enquire about the necklace. She
was thinking that she might have dropped it on the way. She returned exhausted and collapsed
on the bed.
Then her husband saw her and said: “Oh, what is this that you have around your neck?”She looked in the mirror and realised that she was wearing the necklace. She had not
noticed it before. She was looking for it everywhere outside and yet it was on her neck all the
time but she had forgotten about it.
It is something like this with finding the Self or finding God. The Guru does nothing else
but takes such forgetfulness away.
The experience of the Self is the objective of all this practice – meditation, observation,
study and self-improvement - all these spiritual practices and all these paths. When one
realises the Self, then all the secrets of the universe get revealed and become known.
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