Question Answer Sessions with Sirshree Tejparkhi
On this page, you will find answers given out to truth seekers by Sirshree Tejparkhi. Some answers have been given to individual seekers who later wrote from their memory. Some are excerpts from his discourses where seekers asked questions and his answers thereto were documented.
Q : What is the most important aim of mans' spiritual search ?
A : Self Realization.
Q : But, can a householder , a man with responsibilities, ever attain self realization ?
A : Definitely. Married or not, male or female - it does not matter. One can surely attain this experience. Because this experience is already there with everyone all the time. It is inside. Here and now.
Q : However, because of all responsibilities a householder never gets time for listening, meditating, contemplating, devotion, etc
A : Yes. If actions are happening with attachment, then it increases your burdens, your obligations. Because of which you start feeling that "there is no time". But once you get the understanding - then there after man experiences solitude even while working. Then work becomes real devotion. Then being on oneself becomes real meditation.
Q : But all said and done, doesn’t man not reap the actions of his past lives?
A : Were you born now ? Are you today able to abandon all the concepts of your mind? Are you ready to raise yourself to a higher level than merely the concepts of heaven and hell? If you haven't done these now, then why do you bother about other births? Know the one who gets born. Identify the one who never is born. If you do FIRST THINGS FIRST then these entire questions would be answered. The fact is that you are ignorant about your true blissful state. In between, the clouds of "concepts" have overshadowed your true self. Unfold the knots and your true self will manifest.
Q : Is it necessary to become a monk, a recluse?
A : A householders thinks, "I am a householder." After becoming a monk - a new thought occurs to him - "I am a monk." By all this, you don't get freedom from thoughts. You don't get relieved of the mind. If you think by becoming a recluse you get relief from this mind only in the jungles - then why not at home? Instead, I ask you to become a "bright householder" . - The one who is beyond both householder and monk.
Q : Why is the mind always troubled?
A : " I do work " .This is the thought that generates all these troubles. First know how work happens. Remember who you are? Then work won't be a burden to you. Thoughts occur spontaneously and mind generates more thoughts on it. It shades these thoughts with its imagination and concepts. Due to which it somersaults in the past and the future. It goes away from the present. This is the exact trouble of the mind. The moment it knows the truth - it becomes silent. And then the bliss that is hidden behind the mind - bright happiness - it surfaces.
Q : Then how does all work happen ? What is this truth? - this true happiness?
A : Understand this with an analogy of a film screen. The movements of pictures on the screen do not effect the screen. The VIEWER always concentrates only on the pictures. Without the screen, the pictures do not exist. Yet it is the picture that gets all the attention. If the pictures are of fire- it does not burn the screen. Similarly, all the fire - the anger and the hatred inside man can not even touch that thing (true self) - It is man's duty to find out this - untouched spot and then try to get stabilized there. He will surely be successful.
Q : How to reach that spot?
A : Between you and that spot - there is this thin film of you mind. When the mind starts getting the understanding that is told in the "Final Truth" Sessions - Then that film disappears. Then, when, the mind falls, that place manifests. Where there is no happiness, no sorrow. Beyond both is "ultimate peace" - whose bright happiness man can experience and may want to share with others.
Q : But , there is also a director to the movie?
A : Movies happen on a non living screen. Hence a conscious entity is required to direct it. But the screen (spot) inside us - it is full of consciousness. There - no director is required.
Q : Then doesn't work happen according to our doings ? Does everything happening in our lives get directed from that place? So should we just wait with our hands tied?
A : The concepts of action and doership either trouble you or liberate you . The crow uses only one eye to see both sides. The elephant uses its trunk both as a hand as well as nose. Believe it or not, truth is one and the same. The door is one. To attain that place is man's final aim whether you believe it or not. The doer of action and non-action is one.
Q : What is "silence"?
A : The state beyond speech and thought is silence. Words originate from silence. And it is in this inner silence that thoughts disappear as well. In between every word, silence is available. In between every thought, silence is available. It is in the paper {background} of silence - those words are written. And attaining this silence is attaining yourself. Silence is the ultimate language.
Q : Is remaining in solitude necessary?
A : Solitude is inside a man himself. Even in a crowd while doing work, if man is able to always keep his mind at peace, then he is actually savoring {enjoying} solitude. If a recluse, staying in a jungle is trapped in a swamp of thoughts - then even in solitude he is not. Understanding takes you easily into solitude.
Q : The moment one sits to meditate, thoughts arise with great rapidity & then trouble you.
A : Yes. During meditation all kinds of thoughts arise. This is correct. The thoughts that are hidden [suppressed] in you- they have to come out one day or the other. If they don't arise - if they don't appear before the WITNESS - then how will they get eradicated? Thoughts are able to trouble you because you get attached to them. The witness who watches these thoughts are you, not the thoughts themselves. Knowing the witness who witnesses every experience in meditation - is Self Realization.
Q : How can I experience myself?
A : Experience of yourself is not a thing that is outside. That has to be again attained. It is already present. Because we think of ourselves as our body, we have forgotten our true nature.
Q : Would “knowing myself” help others?
A : Definitely ! Indeed - this is the biggest service. Seeing you, a desire would arise in the minds if others to attain this bliss due to which they too would become seekers. And finally, they would become disseminators of the Bright Understanding.
Q : How to see the omnipresent God?
A : For seeing God - it is necessary to know "What is not God" or attain the understanding level that "There is only God".
Q : How to find a Guru?
A : When a seeker’s desire to know the truth increases, when he becomes ready to listen the final truth - then the Guru automatically reaches the disciple. The Guru is the inner witnessor himself. It is through his grace that Self Realization is possible. Because you understand yourself to be the body - you make the mistake of thinking that the Guru is also another body.
Q : How to identify the Guru?
A : Is the Guru the one who can walk on water? Who can fly? Who can make things manifest out of thin air? - Not at all. Due to listening to whose words, due to whose presence you start to feel the bliss in life - that is the criterion - that is the way to identify the real Guru. The one who will make you realize yourself. The Guru will show you all the facets of your mind. The Guru will break your ego of being the doer. He would make you experience the truth of this world. Who would liberate you from all bondage. Who would liberate you from himself too.
Q: Who am I?
A: This is something that only you have to tell that who you are.
Q : I try a lot. Yet I cannot find out that "I". How is that "I"? Even after lots of effort I'm unable to find it. Nothing is clear.
A : You are trying to know it with the help of your imagination. Truth is beyond imagination. When the mind is unable to see a particular thing then it starts imagining about it. Who is that who says that the "I" cannot be seen? Instead of imagining, experience it with peace. Before grasping the "I am" feeling - "Understanding" has to be gained. Otherwise the mind will again and again raise its head and will weave a web of imagination. Reach the roots of it. Understanding that is imparted in the final truth sessions -- that can make you reach there. Due to which the mind falls or then it surrenders itself at the feet of God where everything is acceptable to it. This way, the mind will die. Surrendering yourself and understanding is one and the same. When the ego grasps the power of God - then it surrenders. By understanding, it goes into silence.
Q : How should this surrendering be?
A : Surrendering is successful only after the real meaning of surrendering is understood. This knowledge - comes only after getting Bright Truth and Bright knowledge. Surrendering is only then complete when it is doubtless. This is not something on which there could be a compromise. Whether our demands are met or not. In such a surrendering - everything is encompassed.
Q: But isn't it something to be laughed upon - that we keep finding this 'I'. "Who am I? Who am I?" - We keep thinking only of this.
A: You think of yourself as the body - that is why it seems humorous. But it is exactly the opposite. This thing is very serious. Because the moment you know yourself - all problems, all the depression, anger, worries, hatred vanishes. The fear of death and the war of life end.
Q : From time immemorial - the search for God has always been on. Has there been any final conclusion to all this?
A : Yes. God is silence manifest. It is only in silence that he can be known. Words can merely act as indicators. But when these words fall in the hands of sectarians, then they become the reason for differences. That is why people like Buddha never even mention God.
Q : What stands between me and God?
A : Your fickle mind and its wrong concepts and beliefs.
Q : I have lots of shortcomings. Will God remove them?
A: If your faith persists - all these shortcomings would be overcome.
Q: Why doesn't God Himself raise this faith in me?
A: For this you have to understand the truth or do surrendering.
Q : If I surrender myself before God - then don’t I need to do prayers?
A : Surrendering is the most supreme and powerful prayer of all.
Q : But how to keep faith on God's grace?
A : According to your mind, you do not feel God's grace. If you are not feeling His grace - it doesn't mean that God's grace is not happening. In your imagination - do not compare or judge God's grace. That you were born as a man - itself - is a big grace of God. Then in this body - if the desire for Truth arises - it is the second grace. Meeting a Guru who tells you the Truth - is the third grace. Faith arising on the Guru is the fourth instance of grace. Some of this grace has already been done. If you can't identify it - Why blame God?
Q : Please tell something in the end so that I can start contemplating.
A : In the night there is no sense of your body. When there is no body - the senses of the body don't work - due to which even this world disappears. You get up in the morning and say I slept well. In that deep sleep who was knowing who was awake? Who slept during the night? Who remained awake? Who got up in the morning? Who slept in the morning? Did it actually sleep in the morning or did the concepts of the mind cover it? How to know that 'never sleeping, ever awaking' witness? How to attain the sacred spot inside? How to attain it while in the awaking state? Then liberation from every sorrow, liberation from the aversions of the mind will happen. The mind, that was trying to understand all the things of the world - how to make it an object itself ? How should it bow down? Let the somersaults of the mind stop. Start living in the present. Be stabilized in your true self - these good wishes and blessings.
