Seeking Truth in Ambiguity


But the problem with the seekers today is this, that they don't know what they are seeking. They have no idea as to what to seek, how to seek, what to expect. They - it's an unknown area they are entering into, it's very unknown to them. And this unknown area which they are seeking is now represented by so many people. Everyone says, "I am the one who will deliver the goods." Another one says, "I am the one who can do it." Naturally confusion is created. As it is, modern times are the times of confusion, great confusion. And when there's such a confusion comes in, then only we find out a great solution also, a permanent solution, to solve the problem once for all. There has been never such confusion in the minds of human beings as it is today, as to the right or wrong, never so much. Whatever was said this was not good they would do, knowingly that they are doing wrong. If they were good people they would say, "All right, this is good, we'll do the good." But everybody knew that this was wrong or right - they may do it. But today no one knows what is wrong and what is right.

Apart from wrong and right, it's much beyond that. You have to know yourself; because this awareness is within us that we do not know ourselves, we do not know the absolute. We live in a relative world. Of this everybody seems to be conscious - maybe in the subconscious or maybe in the unconscious, but definitely there's a feeling in every one of us that we do not know. And it's a very honest feeling, it's a very sublime feeling that we have to know something more.

Now when we say the word "know," we think as if I would say, "I don't know about Derbyshire, I have never been there." Now this means what? "I don't know about Derbyshire" - I mean, what don't I know about Derbyshire? I can read it in the books, I can find out. I can know all the history of Derbyshire. I can find out who were the people who were making beautiful porcelain here, I can find out all about their history; everything I can read about it. Still, why should I say I don't know anything about Derbyshire? Because I have not been to Derbyshire before. I have not been to Derby, I have not been to this area, I have not seen this place, I have not visited it, I have had no experience of this place, so I don't know about it. This is exactly what is the situation.

The situation is that we do not know about the Divine. We have read about it, we have heard about it. So many people have written about it. Once they know there's an enquiry about it, they come out with books - books after books, thousands of books they have written. How many of them are true and how many of them are untrue? It is impossible to find out, because we do not actually know. Supposing somebody says that Duke of Bedford was born in Derbyshire. All right, how will I know? I would not know till I meet somebody who is really belonging to that place, who knows about it. In the same way, the knowledge that we have also about Divine is very confusing; but this is not knowledge, this is never the knowledge.

The idea of knowledge comes to us as if it is a kind of an answer to our enquiries which is rational, which we can understand intelligently through our intelligence. But now this area is beyond intelligence, beyond rationality. Beyond all that is limited is the unlimited area. All such unlimited areas can be only known by experience of your awareness. Now this one should understand is a very delicate thing, how to know something, an experience of our awareness. Not an experience, they suddenly see a light so it's an experience - I mean, you can always see a light. It's so great, the people feel about it that they have seen some light suddenly sparking before them - nothing so great. There could be some area from there a sparking can come, and maybe it is of no use to you, but just you might feel that you have experienced. So one must know that seeing is not experiencing.


Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi   July 10, 1982   " We Have To Know Something More "    Public Program    Derby, U.K.