What Is A Mango? … in less than a word

This Discourse was given by Shri Guru Maharaj Ji to a group of His disciples at Prem Nagar Ashram, Hardwar, India, November 1972.

Dear premies,

Once a merchant went to see a king and said, "Your Highness. I would like to sow some mangos in your kingdom." The king asked, "What is a mango?"

And the merchant said, "A mango is yellowish, it grows on a big, huge tree, it is sometimes sweet and sometimes sour," and so on.

The king said, "I don't understand what a mango is."

So one of his courtiers tried to understand the merchant's explanation and explain it to the king himself, but he couldn't.

Then all of the courtiers began going to and fro, asking the merchant for his explanation and trying to tell it to the king: "A mango is yellow, a mango is like this, a mango is like that, a mango is juicy" but the king couldn't understand any of it.

At last one of the courtiers went out, found a mango, washed it, peeled it, cut it, and brought it before the king. The king ate it and said, "Now I understand what a mango is! Go ahead, sow it."

So we can just sit and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk for years or centuries, but we will not come to any conclusion, because the ultimate cannot be expressed by finite words. We can see, we can experience so much in this world, but to realize the ultimate and then speak it with the tongue is completely impossible. The ultimate is beyond space and time.

When we speak a language, it is compiled of both space and time. Our lives take place in the dimensions of space and time. We occupy some space on the earth: that is space. And we live in the future, because the future comes into the present and then goes into the past; that is time. But the ultimate is beyond these two, and to speak anything beyond these two is impossible because there is no language like that. Language is composed of alphabets, alphabets were composed by human intellect, and this is beyond human intellect.

Energy is so subtle. Right now everyone in the world is giving out energy, everyone is glowing. But that glowing is so subtle that only a sensitive thing can pick it up. It is so subtle that to understand it we also have to become very subtle. The mind is so subtle that to understand it we have to use a subtle Knowledge.

There are two kinds of ropes, one kind that you use to tie an elephant, and one that you use to tie a small ant. But if you try to use the elephant rope to tie the ant, you won't be able to do it, because the ant is so small and the rope is so big. And if you tie a knot in the elephant's rope, such a big hole will be left that millions and billions of ants will be able to pass through that hole at one time. For an ant you need a rope like an ant, and for an elephant you need a rope like an elephant. Because the elephant is so big and you need a rope that big for him, while the ant is so thin that you need a very subtle thing for him.

So understand how subtle the mind is, and how subtle this Knowledge is which every Master has been revealing in His own time. Jesus did not preach Christianity. Krishna did not preach Hinduism. They preached the true Knowledge of the self, they gave self-realization to their devotees. Rama did not preach Hinduism: He gave self-realization to His devotees.

And what is self-realization! Who are you? If your name is

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Ron or Milky or Gary or John, that is not your real name, because you existed before you were born! There was something in your mother's womb which existed before your name was put upon you. So what is your true self? Only by meditation of this true Knowledge, only by meditation of your perfect self, will you be able to realize the perfect, infinite stage, and cross the limit, of space and time which all human beings exist in.

Because there is nothing like death. What are you? You were never created, you were composed out of the elements. When these things were composed and sustained by energies, you became alive. And when these things disintegrate, you will be dead. So actually death doesn't exist. It is just these elements building, composing, and disintegrating. So understand the third dimension, the dimension beyond space and time. This is reality.

Now, there are some people who are probably almost freaking out. And they're freaking out because they have certain feelings, they think certain things. But I do not understand it. It you don't think a thing, it doesn't appear. It doesn't come up.

Once a joke was played in Dehra Dun. A man was sent to a graveyard at 12:00 midnight, and the bet was that if he could go with a big wooden nail, hammer it into the ground and then come back, be would be the bravest man. So be went to the graveyard at midnight, wearing a dhoti. Do you know what a dhoti is? I wear one sometimes.

So the man hammered that nail, but unfortunately, since it was nighttime, be couldn't see that his dhoti was also being nailed. And when be tried to get up, he couldn't do it. So he thought that a spirit had caught him, and he had a heart attack and died, just like that!

In the same way, we can go into lower and lower and lower and lower and lower and lower consciousness and get these freaky feelings. But get out of them, and those things aren't there at all. Because the world is made up of two things, good and bad. You know what I mean by bad: spirits, devils, Draculas, Frankensteins, werewolves, and so on. But beyond that is goodness, and once we come into goodness, what can a Dracula do? He wouldn't come there at all, just like it's impossible for a Dracula to walk at daytime.

Come into Light! Because when you get into lower and lower and lower forms of your consciousness, you might actually feel like you are going higher, but you aren't. You are going very low.

It's like a very smooth elevator. There is an elevator in a hotel in New York which is very, very smooth. I was standing in it, looking down, and I couldn't tell if it was going up or down! Not at all. I couldn't tell until I looked at the light going "3,4,5,6,7,8,9." Then I knew that it was going up.

So it's the same thing. When we go down, it's such a gradual process that we don't feel like we are going down into our consciousness, but we are. And when we go down, all these mysterious feelings come to us and we start freaking out. So please, when you have received Knowledge, do meditation and get up. Dracula won't come at daytime: he's afraid of light! So come into daytime and nothing will happen to you. You'll be out of those feelings, actually out of them.

Once there was a rich man who was riding an elephant. The man was drunk, and when be started smashing the elephant, the elephant just got wild, shook himself, and threw the rich man down. And when the man discovered that be had fallen down and that the elephant was going to smash him, he started running. But he was drunk, so he fell in a well. And while falling down, he caught a branch.

Now look at his condition. He is suspended. If he crawls out, the elephant will smash him, right? So be looks down. When be looks down there are snakes, reptiles, awful things. So be looks up. Do you know what be sees'! There are two rats, black and white, cutting that branch he is suspended on! Where should he go? Where should be go?

Now, the elephant is our action. If we get into a low form of consciousness, like by getting drunk, we smash the elephant, and our actions throw us down. First we were on the actions and then the actions throw us down. First we were on the actions and the actions were under us, but then the actions came on top of us. We ran from them and fell into the well of illusion, and now we are suspended. So if we get out of the well, our actions are there. If we look at the time, the two rats, day and night, are cutting the very branch on which we are suspended. And if we fall from that branch, the reptiles are going to eat us up.

The only guy you can call is someone who is in the forest, ready to help you, someone who is a saint, who can come and protect you from that elephant, take you out of the well and protect you. So call Him, give Him a call. I don't mean a telephone call, just call Him from your true heart and He'll come and protect you. Because there is no telephone in that well.

So simply understand this base point of mine, that you must not waste time. Do meditation so you can get privilege out of it. Because it's not a funny thing that I'm talking about. It's a fact: it has significance! It has importance, and you'll find out. In time you'll find out. So all right, have a good night's sleep.

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