SWAMIJI:  The river cannot understand it, unless it actually enters the ocean. You are talking about a condition which you have not yet reached. That is why these questions are rising. Unless you have reached that state, it is like a sleeping man asking, "What will I do when I wake up?" When you wake up, you know what to do. Why are you putting a question? It is because you have not woken up that you are putting a question. You have woken up, and you know what is your duty; it is clear to your mind. When you reach the Absolute Being, you will behave in the same way as the Absolute Being behaves. It is up to you to decide what It does. You will be doing the same thing, because you are inseparable from That.

As the Swami said, "What does the river do when it enters the ocean?" It will do what the ocean is doing. It will not behave like a river at that time. It will behave like the ocean only. And, there will be no river in the ocean. The Ganga, the Yamuna, the Mississippi, the Volga, the Amazon - there will be no such thing in the ocean. You will see only ocean. You will not find the Amazon, the Mississippi, etc., in the ocean; yet, they are there. Likewise, you will all be there, yet you will not see anything there. It will all be ocean. This is what will happen to you, and you will do what the ocean is doing.

It is a great joy, isn't it? It purifies the mind, satisfies the soul. You feel healthy and vigorous, even by hearing it. What do you say? That is why satsanga is necessary. It makes you healthy, even the thought of it.

Visitor:  In my experience before I was with my teacher now, I was involved in doing certain rituals and that kind of thing with another teacher. After I met my teacher and experienced enlightenment from him, all desire to do any of those kind of things just completely vanished. It was like there was no need anymore.

SWAMIJI:  There is no need anymore, when you have reached the Universal Absolute. There is no need, because there is nobody to do anything at that time.

Visitor:  Right.

SWAMIJI:  So, the question does not arise. You need not do anything, because, who is there to do anything? Doing is a manipulation of the individual in terms of external relations, and external relations cease there. So, the question of doing does not arise. Everything vanishes into the Total Universality. Unless there is an external, there will be no doing, also.

Visitor:  That is why it made me wonder why anyone after enlightenment would do any kind of rituals.

SWAMIJI:  Anyone with enlightenment will do anything - what are you asking?

Visitor:  Why is it that after enlightenment someone would do rituals, etc?

SWAMIJI:  It all depends upon what you mean by enlightenment. If enlightenment means unity with the Absolute, there will be no question of doing anything afterwards. The question itself is redundant. But, if your idea of enlightenment is something else, then you have to define, first of all, what you mean by enlightenment. If in enlightenment you maintain individuality as Mr. so-and-so, then, in spite of enlightenment, you will be propelled to do actions by the very law of your biological existence. You will feel hungry, you will feel thirsty, you will like to sleep, you will like to travel, you will like to speak. These are all rituals only. But, you will do that only as long as you are existing in the body, and are conscious of the body.

But, if enlightenment means merging in the Universal Being, the question is not there. There is no question. You do not exist there at all. So, there is no doing; what will you do at that time? It is as "being" only, not "doing." God is Pure Being, not "doing." In Sanskrit we call this state sat-chit-ananda - existence-consciousness-bliss. That is the nature of God - pure existence, pure consciousness, and pure bliss. This is God in essence.

Visitor:  After one realises unity with the Absolute, can there be any thing that is of not living in accord with that profound realisation, according to the depth of one's surrender to It?

SWAMIJI:  Once you have become united with It, you do not exist anywhere else as this person. Your questions have no meaning then. You do not exist at all. You become one with the sea of universal force, so you will not put a question like that afterwards. The question arises on account of the persistence of individuality even after enlightenment. But, enlightenment means merging in the Universal. The personality ceases to be there; then, you need not have to raise this question at all. The person himself is not there. Then, what question arises? So, you do not maintain a duality after attainment of That. You should not think that still you are outside It.

Only if you are outside It, the question arises. In the path or the process of realising It, there may be difficulties of this kind. But once you have actually touched It, there is no problem. On the way, there are problems, and many varieties of problems. You will have hundreds of difficulties. Many of them, you cannot even imagine; such problems will arise.

You have to read the lives of saints who passed through all these stages, about the problems they had to face. Like Buddha, for instance - you must have studied or read about the life of Buddha. I am giving one example among many others. He tried many ways of enlightenment. First he went to a guru who taught him physical exercises - asanas, pranayamas, and all that. He went on doing it and nothing happened. No enlightenment came. Then, he started fasting: "Let me not eat. I will sit here until my bone melts, and I will not get up from this place." There was no eating, and his body started withering, as if it was collapsing and finishing. He could not crawl, also. Even that strength he did not have. He felt at that time that it was all a waste, a worthless pursuit - nothing comes: "This is the last day for me." At that time, some lady on the way brought him some porridge, some gruel, and gave it to him to eat. He had some friends who saw him eating this, and they thought this man has fallen. "Oh, you have eaten! You are no good. We will leave you and go away."

He said, "All right, you can go away." Actually, they did not understand, nor did Buddha understand at that time, whether fasting is good, or eating is good. Anyway, he took it and a little strength came, but he was dejected very much. "What is the matter? Nothing comes - no enlightenment. I am in the same condition as I was." He went on sitting.

Suddenly, he saw in his presence his own wife, whom he had left. The wife was with a little child on the lap: "My Lord, you have left me and come. Are you so cruel?"

He said, "How this lady has come here?" He was in the forest, far off under a tree, and the palace of this lady was somewhere else. "Oh, it is an illusion!" he started telling himself, "My desires are manifesting themselves in the form of this individual. Get away from here!" he said.

It was cruel, you could see, because she was sitting there. She was weeping, "Oh, my Lord, you have left me."

He said, "No, no, no. Get away! You are an illusion. You are trying to tempt me. Get away!" Anyway, that vision vanished afterwards. Again he sat.

Edwin Arnold has written a poem called "Light of Asia." I do not know if you have read that book. "Light of Asia" is a poetic biography of Buddha written by a learned scholar. He describes in one chapter what psychological tortures Buddha had to undergo. Angels descended from heaven with temptations of thousands of kinds - with dance and music and nectar. They said, "Everything is here. Come on. You have attained enlightenment, Master! Now, stop your meditation. Here is the river of nectar; there is the pool of honey; here are the maidens for your servants; here are the palaces; you are the king of these gods. Come on!"

"Get away from here!" Buddha said, "You are trying to tempt me with all these dances and all that. No! I do not want it." After he persisted in rejecting them, these visions vanished.

Then, another more ferocious vision started: "What do you think you are? We will pound you to dust just now. We will belabour you! Get up from this place! You are an idiot!" Demons started coming and talking to him.

He said, "What is the matter? First some other vision, now another thing is coming. Do not talk to me! You can pound me to dust or belabour me. I do not want to talk to you," he said. He kept quiet and went on with the meditation. Then, that vision vanished.

Then, there was vast wind, tornado, cyclone, with mud and a hailstorm - everything on his head. It was not actually a physical hailstorm. A psychological world manifested itself before the dross of the mind was thrown out. When you sweep the floor, all the dust goes up and blinds your eyes; yet, it is a cleaning process. Even then, he was thinking to himself, "Nothing has happened to me. I am not having any enlightenment or anything." On that day, when he was in this very difficult situation and in a state of despondency, in the middle of the night, light opened; he had enlightenment.

I am just mentioning to you the difficulties that spiritual seekers have to pass through. It is not easy going, a bread-and-jam path. It is a very hard job, difficult to control the mind. The mind cannot be controlled; it cannot be concentrated on anything continuously. It will jump here and there, in twenty places. When you are wanting to think something, another thing will come. This is the difficulty in Yoga practice. Even God you cannot think then. When you think of God, the idea of the market place, or travel, or a railway train, or something, will come and obstruct you.

Months and years of practice, and tenacious, adamantine persistence in concentrating the mind on one thing is necessary - and a perfect faith that after getting it, "I shall get everything." Therefore, tell the mind: "Oh foolish mind! Why do you go here and there? When you get that, everything will come to you, so what is the good of running here and there for little tinsels?" You tell the mind.

The mind feels that it is losing everything when it goes to God. All the friends, relations, money, wealth, and good things vanish. It may feel like that; it is not concentrating. You tell it, "No, it is not like that. This is a shadow that you are seeing. The realities are somewhere else. If the shadows are attracting you so much, what about the realities? And, not only that, these shadows also are included there in that thing which is your goal in meditation, so you are going to lose nothing. You are going to get everything."

Tell the mind. That is one way of controlling the mind. Like a little child, you tell the mind, "Don't cry, don't cry!" Otherwise, it won't listen. Even children don't listen. They are very naughty. So, these are some of the interesting things on the spiritual path. It is very hazardous and takes much time; yet, it is worth pursuing, and it is the only thing worth pursuing, finally. What do you say?

Visitor:  You said earlier that after enlightenment, external relations do not exist? Is that right? Could you explain more about that?

SWAMIJI:  What explanation? I have told you. It is very clear. I think the sentence is very clear. What difficulty have you got in understanding it?

Visitor:  I am wondering about how people live together after enlightenment.