SWAMIJI:  When the drop dissolves in the ocean, at that time, what does the drop think? That experience is the Higher Self. Do you understand?

Malaya:  But I am thinking that I am a drop only, Swamiji.

SWAMIJI:  No. Who asked you to think like that? Otherwise, what is will power? A person has feeling, understanding, and also will. Do you know what will is? Will is determination: We determine that "it" is like "this." You have sunk into the ocean, and this ocean is your Higher Self.

Malaya:  The ocean cannot see itself?

SWAMIJI:  Why do you want to see? How can you see what you are? You can see somebody else. How will you see yourself?

Malaya:  The process of thinking is there, Swamiji.

SWAMIJI:  There is no thinking. As long as you are a drop, thinking is there but the ocean doesn't think, because there is nothing to think. What is there to think? Only "itself" is there. All the drops are inside it, so what will it think? That is the Higher Self. The drop is the lower self; the ocean is the Higher Self. But it does not mean that the Higher Self is separate, just as the ocean is not separate from the drop. You are not applying your will. Perhaps you are not fully interested, also. The heart is not eager. Will is nothing but the application of interest.

Malaya:  Understanding is there, but...

SWAMIJI:  No, no. Interest, not understanding. There is a difference between understanding and interest. When you are interested in a thing, you will not forget it. If you are not fully interested, you will have so many excuses.

You cannot break a mountain. However much you may try, it will not break. But if you apply dynamite, it will split the mountain into pieces. That is, dynamite is the will, you have to acquire it. It will split the egoism; the whole thing will break. If you do not want it, that is a different matter. If you have a suspicion that it is perhaps not possible for you, then it will not be possible, also. But, if you say, "No, it is certainly possible for me," then it will be possible. What you feel you are, that you really are. You should not say it is difficult.

To carry yourself is not difficult; to carry another person is difficult: Oh, he is a very heavy person; who will carry him? But you can carry yourself, whatever be the weight. Even stout people carry themselves, but they cannot carry another person. So, likewise, there is no problem in handling yourself.

Malaya:  Swamiji, in practical life...

SWAMIJI:  There is no such thing as practical life. You are unnecessarily creating differences. That "practical life" is an activity of the lower self, and the lower self is included in the Higher Self. Thus, the activity also is of the Higher Self only. Then, who is telling me that there is practical life? There is no such thing as isolated practical life. It is the Higher Self only doing all these things. Do you understand the implication of it?

Malaya:  Yes, Swamiji.

SWAMIJI:  When the Higher Self does all your Magazine Department work, it is a cosmic action taking place. The whole world will throb when you go into the office. Actually you are not going to the office; you are entering into yourself only. The office is your own self. Wherever you go, you find yourself only, just as in the ocean, wherever you go, you find the ocean. Whether you go to a station, or market place, or dining hall, you are actually entering into yourself only. You should not say that you are going to the dining hall, and all that. There is no dining hall. You are entering into yourself, in various forms.

Malaya:  There is no...., Swamiji?

SWAMIJI:  That is entering of the self. The self enters into the Self. It is a metaphorical way of speaking. Everything is taking place within one thing only. You have to exercise a little bit of thinking on what it actually means. Do not say that you are going to the market, etc. You are going to yourself only, even when you go to the market. The market is inside yourself.

You think over it; a wonderful experience will come, and a miracle will take place. But, if you are doubting, then nothing will happen. "God is somewhere, and daily life is something else" - this is the argument of everybody. This is a silly argument, because the mind is not catching the point. "Practical life is something else," you are telling me. There is no such thing as practical life. It does not exist. It is your own self moving within itself.

The huge ocean is there, and tremendous waves are dashing over it. The ocean will not say, "I am sitting quiet, but the waves are practical life." The waves are not the practical life of the ocean. There is no practical life for it. The ocean is itself the waves. The waves are the ocean. The Self itself is all this practical life.

There is no such thing as secular life and spiritual life. There is no distinction. People make a distinction between earth and heaven, God and world, spiritual and secular. These do not exist, really. They are all tricks played by the mind, so that you may not do anything worthwhile. "I am working in a factory every day and I have no time to think" - you should not say that. You are not working in a factory; you are working in yourself only. There is no factory outside yourself. Is your mind catching what I am saying?

Malaya:  Yes. Swamiji.

SWAMIJI:  You will be a different person in one day. You will not be what you are. For such a transformation to take place, it may take one day, or even less than one day. The whole earth will tremble, if you think like this.

Malaya:  The mind has to ...

SWAMIJI:  There is no mind there. It is consciousness. You are not a mind, nor a body, because in the state of deep sleep you have no mind, and you have no body. So, your real nature is pure consciousness, as it is in the state of deep sleep. So, don't say "mind" and all that. That is another "practical life" you are bringing in. There is no such thing. You have seen in the state of deep sleep that the body and mind are not there. Then, who was there? It was not Malaya existing there. He, also, was not there. Who was there? That thing you grasp and cogitate.

In sleep, you had no father, mother, relations - nothing was there. Just, you were there. And, the state of sleep brought you such a joy that you would not like to have any other joy compared to it. Even a king cannot be so happy as a person who has entered into deep sleep, because he has entered the Self, the ocean of Self. And, you had no relations, no property, no friends, no body, no mind at that time. What was there? "You" were there.

This is what I call the ocean. Do not make a distinction between practical life and factory life, office life etc. There is really no such thing. See, this is a very interesting and important point. You must be always happy, blissfu - everything is fine; nothing is wrong. Everything is good; all is well with me. Why should it not be? It must be. Nobody can create trouble for you. Who can create trouble? You are creating trouble for yourself, because you yourself are the trouble. So, why do you complain? The mind is very subtle. It cannot think like this. If it starts thinking thus, it will become giddy, and you will fall into sleep, again.

This is the highest purificatory process that I am suggesting. Your mistakes and your sins are all completely washed off by this kind of meditation. All the sins of many lives that you have lived are all cleansed, as hundreds of years of darkness vanish in one second when the sun rises. The darkness might have been there for hundreds of years, but removing that hundreds of years of thick darkness requires only one minute of the rise of the sun. So, whatever be the mistakes that you have made in many lives, they have no consequence before the light of this kind of experience. All your old karmas are like mountains of straw. They can be burned into ashes by one matchstick.