Returning to the Source
30 October 1969 am iation Camp at Dwarka, Gurujat, India
Question 1
A FRIEND HAS ASKED: ACC TO WHAT YOU HAVE SAID, ONE TRIUMPH OVER DEATH THROUGH MEDITATION OR SADHANA.
BUT THEN, DOESNT THE SAME STATE EXIST WHEN WE ARE IN SLEEP? AND IF IT DOES, THEN WHY T DEATH BE QUERED THROUGH SLEEP?
The first thing that o be uood is that triumph over death does not mean there is something like death to quer.
To triumph over death simply means you will e to know there is h.
To know that death is not is to quer it.
There is nothing like death to be quered.
As soon as one knows there is h, oing and losing battle with death ceases.
Some enemies exist, and there are others that iy do but only seem to exist.
Death is one of those enemies with no real existe only seems to exist.
And so, do not take the triumph to mean that somewhere death exists and that we shall quer it.
This would be like a man going crazy fighting with his shadow, until someone points out to him, "Look closely, the shadow has no substance.
It is merely an appearance.
" If the man looked at the shadow and realized what he was doing, he would laugh at himself; only then could he know he has quered the shadow.
quering the shadow simply means there was not evei shadow to be fought with; aempting to do so would go crazy.
One who fights with death will lose; one who knows death will triumph over it.
This also means that if death is not, then iy we never ever die -- whether we are aware of it or not.
The world does not sist of those people who die and those who do not die -- no, its not like that.
In this world no one ever dies.
There are two kinds of people, however: those who know this as a fact, and those who dont -- this is the only difference.
In sleep we reach the same place we do iation.
The only difference is that in sleep we are unscious, while iation we are fully scious.
If someoo bee fully aware, even in his sleep, he would have the same experience as iation.
For example, if we were to put a person under ahetid in his unscious state bring him on a stretcher to a garden where flowers are in full bloom, where fragrance is in the air, where the sun is shining and the birds are singing, the man would be pletely unaware of all this.
After we brought him bad he was out of the ahesia, if we asked him how he liked the garden, he would not be able to tell us anything.
Then, if you were to take him to the same garden when he was fully scious, he would experience everything present there when he had been brought in before.
In both cases, although the man was brought to the same place, he was unaware of the beautiful surroundings in the first instance, while in the sed instance he would be fully aware of the flowers, the fragrahe song of the birds, the rising sun.
So although you will undoubtedly reach as far in an unscious state as you will rea a scious state, to reae pla an unscious state is as good as not reag there at all.
In sleep we reach the same paradise we rea meditation, but we are unaware of it.
Eaight we travel to this paradise, and then we e back -- unaware.
Although the fresh breeze and the lovely fragrance of the place touch us, and the songs of the birds ring in our ears, we are never aware of it.
A, in spite of returning from this paradise totally unaware