The Quiet End of the Separate Self

Guruji upon graduating with his master’s degree from Andhra University.

(from lecture of Guruji at Andhra University on 5th of April 1988):

Again, consider an example.

Imagine a sheet of paper (a field of Consciousness), and draw a closed loop in it. Inside the loop is “I” (that is me), observing the Universe, “U”. The Universe “U” is observing me, because “U” is also conscious. “U” knows about “I” through my motor actions; they are its sensory organs. “I” know about “U” through my sensory organs; they are the motion organs of “U”.

“C”, the contour interface, is creating the “I” out of “U” (or the “U” out of “I”); it is also conscious. It is like the set of software packages intervening between the computer hardware, which understands only 1 and 0, and the people working with application programs.

“C” is the interface between “I” and “U”; it connects them. It is also the limitation through which “I” is seeing “U”.

Now the question we asked above is, how can “I” have the vision of “U”?

The answer is simple. Erase “C”.

With limitations removed, “I” becomes “U” and “U” becomes “I”; we cannot speak of two different entities.

Erasing “C” implies:

• disconnecting the sensory organs from the mind;

• disconnecting the motor organs from “I U”;

• disconnecting memories (internal processing of I’s mind);

so that “C” is made non-functional.

Then “I” merges into “U”, the great one; (AHAM inverted, becomes MAHĀ).

When they are burning my body on the funeral pyre, I am looking at it through the eyes of my crying relatives, wondering why they are crying. For, I have transcended death. For, I am all that I see; and others that see me. I am all, the Field.

Is it really necessary to erase “C”? Not really. But it simply must be made non-functional.

Let us look a little into why it is necessary to disconnect the mind from sensory information, and memories of it.

Every sensory organ we have is not only a spectral delimiter, but also a local magnifier. Our eyes (sense of sight) see what is near to be bigger than what is far away. Inverse square law.

So, my house, my people become more important to me than other houses, other towns, other countries, other people.

This local magnification of the sense of sight is creating the distinction of “I” and “mine” from “they” and “theirs”.

Look at the skin. It is even worse. It does not recognize anything more than a millimeter away from it. It has a cutoff — it sees, or is blind. It is quantal.

Our hearing is a little better, but it does not extend beyond this room.

Such then are our senses.

Our mind cannot but develop affections, and avarice, with their help. It gets bogged down in detail. It can’t see the forest for the trees.

Can you visualize this room if you have an electron microscope permanently stuck on your eyes? Such is the problem of “I” getting the vision of “U”.

The conditions necessary to get anywhere near “U” are not difficult to state.

They are:

1. A state of good health — a fit body and a fit mind — alert.

2. Withdrawal from sensory, motor actions. To help this, you need a quiet, undisturbed place.

3. Withdraw from memories of pleasure and pain.

4. A steady flow of awareness into one-pointedness, without an effort at concentration. Effort is like the wind, which distorts the light of the mind.

As to why one should worry about “U”, the answer is curiosity.

A slightly better answer would be, if I enlarge my ways of looking at things, maybe I can know better what it is that I am seeing. Maybe, I can overcome fear. Maybe, I can enhance peace and joy.

As to what is the purpose of life, the answer is that I want to know who I am.

Curiosity is the purpose.
Adventure into the unknown is the purpose.
Overcoming fear, death, ignorance is the purpose.
Love of the Universe is the purpose.

Vira Chandra: In a simple words, Guruji is saying:

You are not actually a small person living inside a big world.

That feeling appears because your senses and your memories constantly feed a picture of “me here” and “world there”.

This picture is practical.
It is useful for survival.
But it is not the truth of what you are.

The “interface” is simply the habit of identifying with sensations, thoughts, and personal history.

When attention stops clinging to sensations, stops replaying memories, and rests quietly in awareness itself, that interface loses power.

Nothing mystical is added.

Nothing new is created.

What falls away is a misunderstanding.

Then it becomes obvious:

The same awareness that looks out through your eyes is what appears as the world.

Not two things.

One field.

Guruji is not asking you to destroy the body, senses, or mind.

He is saying:

Stop letting them define your identity.

Use them.
But don’t take them as who you are.

Silence is not emptiness.

Silence is clarity.

In that clarity, fear weakens, because fear depends on believing you are a fragile object.

Curiosity remains, but it becomes clean — not desperate.

Life’s purpose, in this view, is simple:

To directly see what you already are.

Not as a belief.
Not as a philosophy.
But as lived fact.

That is all he is pointing to.

Quiet.
Direct.
Unspectacular.
Total.