Questioner: Some say the universe was created. Others say that it always
existed and is for ever undergoing transformation. Some say it is subject to
eternal laws. Others deny even causality. Some say the world is real. Others
-- that it has no being whatsoever.
Maharaj: Which world are you enquiring about?
Q: The world of my perceptions, of course.
M: The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed. And it is
entirely private. Take it to be a dream and be done with it.
Q: How can I take it to be a dream? A dream does not last.
M: How long will your own world last?
Q: After all, my little world is but a part of the total.
M: Is not the idea of a total world a part of your personal world? The
universe does not come to tell you that you are a part of it. It is you who
have invented a totality to contain you as a part. In fact all you know is
your own private world, however well you have furnished it with your
imaginations and expectations.
Q: Surely, perception is not imagination!
M: What else? Perception is recognition, is it not? Something entirely
unfamiliar can be sensed, but cannot be perceived. Perception involves
memory.
Q: Granted, but memory does not make it illusion.
M: Perception, imagination, expectation, anticipation, illusion -- all are
based on memory. There are hardly any border lines between them. They just
merge into each other. All are responses of memory.
Q: Still, memory is there to prove the reality of my world.
M: How much do you remember? Try to write down from memory what you were
thinking, saying and doing on the 30th of the last month.
Q: Yes, there is a blank.
M: It is not so bad. You do remember a lot -- unconscious memory makes the
world in which you live so familiar.
Q: Admitted that the world in which I live is subjective and partial. What
about you? In what kind of world do you live?
M: My world is just like yours. I see, I hear, I feel, I think, I speak and
act in a world I perceive, just like you. But with you it is all, with me it
is nothing. Knowing the world to be a part of myself, I pay it no more
attention than you pay to the food you have eaten. While being prepared and
eaten, the food is separate from you and your mind is on it; once swallowed,
you become totally unconscious of it. I have eaten up the world and I need
not think of it any more.
Q: Don’t you become completely irresponsible?
M: How could I? How can I hurt something which is one with me. On the
contrary, without thinking of the world, whatever I do will be of benefit to
it. Just as the body sets itself right unconsciously, so am I ceaselessly
active in setting the world right.
Q: Nevertheless, you are aware of the immense suffering of the world?
M: Of course I am, much more than you are. Q: Then what do you do? M: I look
at it through the eyes of God and find that all is well.
Q: How can you say that all is well? Look at the wars, the exploitation, the
cruel strife between the citizen and the state.
M: All these sufferings are man-made and it is within man's power to put an
end to them. God helps by facing man with the results of his actions and
demanding that the balance should be restored. Karma is the law that works
for righteousness; it is the healing hand of God.