Many people, when they get this spiritual knowledge, say, “Oh, Gurudev, while I’ve been waiting for this, so much time has gone by. I’ve wasted 20 years. How nice it would have been if you had come years ago”.
I say don’t regret the past. Nothing is ever a waste. All the past, all you have gone through has built the foundation, has brought the walls up. Now we are here to put on the roof, to complete it. It is not a waste. What is it about the individual self that makes it different from another individual self?
My answer will not help you. You look into it. That is a question in your mouth like food in your mouth. Someone can bring food up to your mouth with a spoon, but you have to chew it. Someone else cannot chew it for you and put it in your stomach. This is such a question. You work it out. This much we can say, the self is not thoughts, it is not feeling, it is not emotions.
A scholar who has studied such things would answer this question. The answer to such a question is more harmful than good. It will only place more concepts in your mind. The other day a lady asked me a question. When I did not answer it, she became angry. She felt insulted. She said, “Why are you so unkind to me? You answer everybody else’s questions, but you don’t answer mine”.
I said, “I was kind to you, that’s why I did not answer your question. It’s the other way around. You have a bundle of knowledge. You think you know a lot already and you are chewing it like chewing gum.
It is not fulfilling your belly. All this knowledge is just like chewing gum in the mouth. Your jaws are aching and you are hungry. And you want more chewing gum in your mouth”.
