Identify Yourself with That

by Papaji

Remove the notion that you are bound. If this separation - this idea - is removed, you will find that you have always been that which you are now. These notions, ideas and intentions have to be instantaneously withdrawn, and you are here.

Identify yourself with cosmic consciousness during meditation. You are That. There is no difference. A notion arose that you are a separate individual with some higher supreme consciousness to arrive at, which is not true.

A wave rises from the ocean and feels she is separate from her source and is therefore not the ocean. But let the wave inquire, "Who I am?" Let her discover the place from where she arose. She will arrive at her source, at the ocean itself. Her notion of being a separate wave instantaneously vanishes. A river discharges into the ocean and becomes one with it.

This understanding arises through inquiry. What is the relationship between a ring and the gold from which it is made? Can you separate the gold from the ring or the ring from the gold? It is impossible. Without the ring you can't see the gold, and without the gold and you can't see the ring. Abandon the name - ring, and the form - round. The ring is name and form only, the substance is gold. When you remove name and form what is left to be separate?

If you feel a separation between the meditator and the one who is meditated upon, discover your true identity and you will see that you were never separate. You have always been consciousness itself. Through consciousness you are meditating, through the consciousness you are establishing your separation, and through consciousness you will establish your unification. These are notions. Remove the notion that you are bound. If this separation - this idea - is removed, you will find that you have always been that which you are now. These notions, ideas and intentions have to be instantaneously withdrawn, and you are here.

This is why we are here under one roof. This is a great occasion that so many blessed people are collected together under one roof seeking enlightenment. You have already spent millions of years - some say 35 million years - waiting to be here today. Before, it was never possible for so many to come together under the one roof, to help each other, to remove our separation and bondage, to declare our freedom.

We are not to return to this samsara - this never ending cycle of birth and death - again. Even samsara is only a concept; not actually true. We speak of it only for convenience, to make you aware of how important it is to win freedom, to be wise, to be enlightened right now. For this reason it is suggested that it has taken a long time. Otherwise in this moment you will see that time and past and future do not exist. You are what you are even now. What problem can remain in this?

13 January, 1992