The Question of Rebirth

Papaji: This is what all the scriptures say: If a man has not completed his work in this life, he has to be reborn in better circumstances in his next life so that he can finish his work or fulfill his desires.

I don’t believe this anymore. I don’t accept it. Birth, death, and rebirth are just ideas created by the mind. Bondage and liberation are just ideas you create to keep yourself busy. Get rid of the idea that birth, death, rebirth, bondage, and liberation are real. They are not. They are nothing more than ideas. There are no gods, no demons and no heavens. No one exists, nothing exists. This is the truth. The mind can think about so many things. Why can’t it think about this fundamental truth instead? Nothing ever existed. This, ultimately, is the only truth. Whatever else you read in the scriptures comes from a different perspective, a relative perspective which assumes the reality of ideas such as birth, death, bondage, and so on. I will tell you the bare truth: there is no birth, there is no death, there is no creator and there is no creation. This is now my conviction, my experience.

Devotee: What about your own case? In you last life you went into samadhi many times, but you didn’t attain liberation because your pending vasanas were too strong for you. You still had unfulfilled desires, so you had to be born again. This is exactly what the in Tripura Rahasya is describing.

Papaji: Yes, this happened because I listened to the people who talked like this. I listened to the saints, I listened to the elders, I read the books. All these sources told me that I would be reborn if I didn’t attain enlightenment. Because I believed all this, that belief manifested. In that dream world I made for myself out of all my beliefs and ideas, I took another birth. Nowadays I don’t listen to anyone or believe anybody who tells me, Because I know the truth that nothing ever happened. I don’t need to listen to or believe in stories like this any more.

Devotee: It seems that the enlightenment state can, by the Guru’s grace, come to anyone at any time, but the final sahaja state only comes to those in whom there are no more pending desires. Do you agree or disagree?

Papaji: I absolutely agree with you. Whenever there is a desire, you are bound. That desire will manifest in front of you or you yourself will be manifested as that desire.

Someone goes to the beach and sees a beautiful girl there. He feels some desire for her. That night he has a dream in which he is swimming with her. This is how desires manifest. This is how it works in the waking state also. When there are desires, desires manifest and there is no liberation.

Everything and everyone you see around you are manifestations of your desires. When you have no desires, you don’t see anything at all. Try it now and see for yourself. Stop the mind and its desires and see if there is anything left to see. When there is a desire, the eyes start working and they start seeing things, which become objects of desire. The seer and the seen are maintained by the desire of one for the other. When the desires are not there, there is no seer and nothing to be seen.

If there is no desire, you can’t see, you can’t hear, you can’t smell, you can’t taste. Try it, just for a fraction of a second. Make your mind be absolutely absent just for a second and see what happens to all the objects of desire that you used to think were real. This one second will give you happiness and love. It is bliss, perfection, happiness, enlightenment, wisdom. Call it by any name that appeals to you.

Actually, this love, this bliss, has no name at all. It is just emptiness of mind, Nothing is there any more. We arose from emptiness and sooner or later we will return to that emptiness. In the interval between we think, have desires and suffer the consequences of them. But don’t think, ‘I came from emptiness and sooner or later I will return to emptiness and be happy.’ That will not solve the problem of your present suffering. Instead have the conviction, ‘I am emptiness right now, Emptiness is my nature.’ This conviction is enough to give you bliss, love and freedom.