This is the Tuesday Talk held February 10, 2026. Tuesday Talks is a gathering on Zoom of devotees from the Ramakant Maharaj USA visit. This is a gathering of devotee’s to discuss and clarify the teachings of Sri Ramakant Maharaj. These spontaneous utterances are recorded and shared with anyone who may find them useful.
Jai Sadguru!
Tuesday Talk February 10, 2026
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. with minimal editing
Q: Anything new? New is such an old word.
John: I did start transcribing the talks for 2025, putting them on the website with AI, this transcription service, where it like listens to the video and then you can make a transcript. So that was asked for by a couple of folks. So, it's on the website now.
Q: Anybody can do that? You can like play a video and it'll make a transcript for you?
John: Yeah, it is. Let's see, what is it called? It is called turboscribe.ai dashboard. It's totally free. You're limited to three a day and you're also limited to half hour. So, I have to take this talk because it's like 39 minutes, cut it in half and then upload two different versions that then create one document.
But yeah, it's totally free. And so, I started doing that because several people had asked, you know, why, why we didn't have that available. It's not, there's going to eventually be at the end of the year, it'll have everything and it'll be in one sheet and PDF that can be downloaded.
But for right now, you can just go to the website and read it. That'll also help with translations because there is one person who speaks mostly German who they asked through an intermediary, is there any way to translate the talks? And I think actually this AI service would translate what we're saying into a different language.
I don't know how accurate it is, but it can do that too. So, I know that's not the sponsor of this video and we're not doing advertising or anything like that. It's just, you know, we started doing that to further do whatever.
Q: Yeah. I wonder how long that's been available.
John: Yeah, I don't know. I just started researching it because somebody had asked me, hey, why don't you do transcripts and you know, put them together in a PDF or whatever. Like, so I looked into it and it is available and I am right now putting them in a Word doc, which will just keep going and going and going at the end of the year, convert that to a PDF, upload the PDF to the website, and then anybody can download like the whole year's talks.
Q: So spooky action at a distance.
John: Indeed. And it's not edited, by the way. So, like even our little casual chitchat, like what we're chitchatting right now will be in that.
So, it's not like some great spiritual manifesto or whatever. It's just the transcript of everything that we're doing here.
Q: Okay. I better not be inane.
John: It doesn't have your name. My name is the only one that's there. It'll just say question on each sheet, even if you're not asking a question, just to keep it so that it's not privacy wise. There might be somebody who attends, like we've had a few people who come in just for like one or two sessions and then we don't see them for a while. So, I don't want their name to be out there like permanently associated because they might not like that.
Q: Well, I know I said I better not be inane. I know you probably heard me say name, inane, you know the term, which I often am inane.
John: Well, no, I guess inane means like kind of, I don't know what it means exactly to be honest with you, but you're saying like, in case you say things that would make you look goofy or would make you...
Q: Something like that, irrelevant or whatever.
John: Exactly. So that's why I'd just say Q. And nobody would be like, oh, look at this dumb question that Keith asked, or look at this thing that he, you know, no, it's not like that. Because this is, we encourage everybody to come join us, question freely, and do as you wish.
Q: Indeed. I was kind of thinking about how funny it is, but then again, also not funny necessarily, that, well, that I put, that I'm always interested in and I desire to know stuff. And I like to; I desire to know how my mind works and all that stuff. And I, you know, I do, you know, inadvisably, I guess, spend...
John: Once you know yourself in a real sense, that won't be a thing. Like you'll have no desire. It's just like in a dream. Do you have any desire to know exactly how everything's operating in your dream? How is the dream world manifested? How are people interacting?
How is it that when you wake up, you understand that it was all you, but while you're in the dream, you're completely deluded into believing that it's separate than others. Who cares? You know yourself in a real sense. I'm the dreamer. Whatever happened inside my dream is not true, can't be true. And when you know yourself in a real sense, this quote-unquote waking is the same as that quote-unquote dreaming.
There's, okay, activities are happening and appear to be going on, but you're formless. Again, if you can really visualize, because I remember I was with Conner in the bouncy house right after having seen Maharaj, and it came so strong that all those little kids were just lumps of goo. And that the formless Presence was animating each one of these.
It's like the space in this room suddenly becomes aware that it's alive only because a body form, an instrument or food for that consciousness is suddenly made available. And then it's like, oh, there's life. But before that, you are. After that, you are. It's just a body factory, no matter what the elements are, no matter how they come together in whatever animal or human or fish or, I don't know, fish is an animal. I think fish is separate from animal.
But anyway, it's like marine life. Oh, no.
Q: There's plants and animals, I think the general term.
John: Plants and animals. Yeah.
Q: Did this break?
John: Hold on. There it is. That was weird. Okay. Anyway. So, it's just a body factory.
Whatever that body is, two bodies get together, they create another body. Once that body's created, and the blood and everything is coming through it, there's an awareness of life, that livingness. And suddenly, you know, I exist. But you haven't changed form. You haven't gone down into that form, even. There's just because a form is available, the food body, so to speak, the food body, the food for consciousness. Now there's an awareness of, I am something. Because suddenly, this food body is available. And when the food body is no more, then there's the sense, oh, and that's it. You're not like traveling into now, what is death? What is death like? Or whatever. Because you never were born. You knew yourself for a time as something other, because a body form was available. And as you know yourself in a real sense, body's here, but I'm not that.
Whether body is or is not, I am. And now, I can, because of the awareness of the subtle sense of Presence, because I'm holding a body form, oh, I'm more like this Presence than I am this body. The world is occurring within my Presence, including the body that I believed myself to be at one time. For a long time, I was convinced I'm this body, I'm living this life. Now I know better.
Q: And that's, being aware like that is what makes you able to see the bodies as just goo. And I had like a little flash of what I could say is a similar experience to that, maybe a week ago or something. It just seemed like I could see all bodies were just bodies. I was observing that, and I was not that. So, but this is just an experience. That's just, I could say, oh, I knew something at that time. No, it was just like an experience, just like a dream, like you say, that would, it formed as a type of experience at that time. And then I'm not going to remember and always see things just that way.
John: But the understanding, even in this incident that I was speaking about while I was sitting there, watching Conner and watching him play with all his friends, the understanding was very deep. Like, it was, you can't unsee that, basically. You can't really say like, because, and this was after Mantra, you know, I'd been with Maharaj practicing Mantra, and it was before he came to the USA.
So, I had gone to India, and this was a gap between India visit and him coming to USA like a year later, and him winding up just right up the street doing Ramakant USA and all that. But it was just, you know, you just knew. It's self-evident, and it's not even, I wouldn't even say an experience, because it's just like an understanding dawns within your own self that I'm not body, and that all these bodies jumping around, the parents playing with the kids, and the kids themselves are just the formless Presence, believing itself to be separate because of knowing yourself in the moment as a body in a world.
And we've gotten used to thinking of it that way. Well, the delusion of separation comes about because the parents believe themselves to be bodies in a world, even though it's the formless Presence, telling the little person that you are a little body in a world, and then the sense of doership, because you do good things, you do wrong things, you get punished, you get rewards, all this sort of thing. It's impressing, impressing, impressing.
Nobody sits there and tells you, oh, you know what? You're not this body. You know yourself now because of this body, and as long as this body form is available, you'll continue to know yourself, but please don't delude yourself in believing you're a body or that you were born. You've just suddenly made the realization that you exist, and you equate that existence to this little body that you believe yourself that I exist as this, because prior to that, formlessness doesn't know I exist. It's formless. And even the word formless comes along with the body when we're trying to sit there and explain it using concepts that the mind can sort of latch onto. Oh, formless, what does that mean? It's like space or sky, but it's not even that, because space and sky are within you.
Q: So, experience does depend on some kind of reflection.
John: Experience, you have an experiencer, and you have a subject-object kind of, I'm doing something, I'm experiencing something. But again, the deeper understanding, because you can experience in your dream. We talked about before, in your dream, you can jump off a building and experience flying, or you can be swimming and experiencing swimming, but you wake up, and of course, you're not wet. So, experience right there shows you that's not true. It appears that you are experiencing, but there is no experience, no experiencer.
Q: But there is reflection. What could be described as reflection going on there? It's knowing.
John: Not even so much reflection, it's just a, I can't explain it, because you're just sitting there and you're watching all this activity, and because of sitting with Mantra, seeing Maharaj, the knowledge is hammering, hammering, hammering, hammering, which we're doing all the time here, just hammering, hammering, hammering. You are not body, you were not body, you're not going to remain the body, body is not your identity. Except your Selfless Self, there's no God, no Brahman, no Paramatman, no Master, nothing is there.
Formless you. Just I, just I. All these things are hammering, and then intuitive understanding just comes. Oh, so that I, I am That. And since I am That That is all there is, regardless of the appearances, regardless of the children, regardless of the parents. Regardless, you are That, because That is all there is.
And That is not born, That does not die, That cannot be burned, buried, cut, separated in any way. As Sri Ramakant Maharaj says, the Ashram, you have, if the walls come down in the Ashram, does the space in the toilet go to hell, and the space in the Ashram go to heaven? No. Space is space. The concept is that this is the Ashram, this is the toilet, this is the living area, all separated. But this is not true. Space is not separated. Even after the whole thing is demolished, and it's just, you know, building, they knock it down to build another building. Now it's all different rooms. So where is the space in the Ashram, if it's a totally new, if it's a shopping mall now, suddenly? But the space doesn't know, oh, it was an Ashram, now I'm a shopping mall. How disrespectful.
You know, it's space. We create the concepts, just like we create the concept of wall, mud, water, and make cement and all that, and we say, oh, it's a wall now. No, technically it's just a bunch of rocks ground up with some water and mortar and things. But we don't say that. We say it's a wall. It's a house.
Q: That's why it can seem so contradictory at times.
John: Because words betray. No word can be true because words, you're prior to words. That's just like Maharaj gave the example. Hand, if I said, oh, these are your toes. Oh, these are my toes. There's no difference. It's labeled. Hand is toes. How? Which one? We create the labels.
Q: Yeah, right. Of course, they're going to contradict other terms. Some terms are gone.
John: Dramatic. Because it's words. Anytime you start using words, you start creating worlds of concepts. And what's worse is I can say some words, and you'll interpret them through your understanding and through your concepts. You won't interpret them like cleanly because you have all your concepts that you're coming and putting on. So, when you have ash over the fire, and then they're speaking about the ash over the fire, then you go and you add some more ash to the fire as we're speaking about removing the ash.
Q: And then you see, or I do, seem to know stuff. And then you live in that. We live like that.
John: Again, no knowledge is knowledge. Because when they talk about the knowledge that this Presence, I exist, the knowledge of existence, it's not knowledge like book knowledge. Maharaj used to say literal knowledge, bookish knowledge. It's not this. Knowledge is to know yourself in a real sense. Because after that, there's no need to know anything else.
What can possibly need to be known when you know that you are That? And the conviction is very strong. Nothing other than myself, regardless of the appearances. In a dream, nothing other than yourself, regardless of the appearances. If you dream tonight, again, we always talk about a park setting. We have people and dogs running around, and the sky, and it's a very lovely day, and people are picnicking. There's the appearance of separation, the appearance of things happening, people having experiences, quote, living lives. When you wake up, you know it was not true. It could not have been true.
And when you know yourself in a real sense, yes, okay, look out the window and you see cars coming and going on the road, and people in their houses, but it's not true. You know yourself in a real sense. Now you play your part very well. Whatever needs doing in the moment, okay, do your job, do your duties, take care of your responsibilities. You want to go to the movies, go to the movies, read a book, read a book, go outside, have a picnic, whatever, doesn't matter. Just like in a dream, it doesn't matter, because you know yourself in a real sense.
And if there is irritation, it should be fast removed, because there's no like, oh, I will get revenge on this person. It's just, oh, coming, another thing happening, another scene, scene change. You go out, especially when you go out to like stores, or you go to the grocery store, maybe there's a long line, people are rude, people are butting in front, whatever.
But it's just like, that's a scene. Scene is coming, scene is going. You can't even sit there and say, oh, that person's doing that on purpose. Well, that's not even possible. It'd be like if you said somebody was doing something on purpose in the dream, and you're very angry, and you woke up feeling angry, and wait a minute, they couldn't have been doing that thing that you were so angry about, even when you were coming into the waking state, you were thinking, I'm very angry. But they weren't doing that thing. You don't want to live in an illusory prison of illusory problems with illusory people. Put yourself in a little box and be like, oh, I'm angry with these people. They're so bad people.
Q: And then pride gets involved, because you think you know that they did something.
John: If you have identification, if you have a local identification, then you're going to want to protect that. That goes back to Sri Ramakant Maharaj talking about the ants. Pour some water and those ants run, because they have a local identification and they want to protect the body. You know yourself in a real sense, okay, this thing's happening, and it's finished. And in the, quote, human sense, you just say nothing lasts forever, nothing good and nothing bad. So, whatever this is, it passes. And because you don't have a hat, a hook to hang your hat, there's no like, oh, this is such a terrible thing and drag in days and days and days. Is it happening? A scene has changed, a new scene. Just like if you turn on the TV and you're channel surfing, you don't get angry that, oh, this program is so terrible, and then sit there and watch it, suffer it. You know, oh, this is just a terrible program. I can't believe there's 100,000 other channels. You can switch the channel. You can change the scene easily. No need to just sit there and dwell on the suffering, because if there's suffering, you've created a sufferer, a local identification. And the mind is happily able to produce thoughts of a suffering machine. And with a local identification and a thought stream of a sufferer, you can manifest illusory suffering that feels quite real, as real as the dream, until you wake up.
Q: And we love to justify our suffering.
John: Well, there should be no suffering, because maybe you have a bad experience, good experience, bad experience, they come and go.
Q: Yeah, at least I do that. You know, I think I know that I have a problem. And I just forget that I'm just creating that, like, and I'm causing myself to suffer, because I'm creating this problem out of whatever.
John: You know, remember, your imagination is so wonderful that you can create this entire waking world and make it appear true. Just like you can create an entire dream world and make it appear true. So, if you have that kind of power in creating, the consciousness is able to manifest in just about any way it likes and take any form it likes, then you know, that is a powerful thing, that you do not wish to suffer and create this world that you're living in, you'll feel it, like in the past, I'm sure, if you're very, very depressed, you get into that depression, and then all the thoughts come in, and you're manufacturing this depressive state.
Q: You don't realize you're doing it.
John: And now, now you know. Now, even if you catch yourself starting to get a little angry or starting to get a little depressed or a little of this or a little of that, this number one, depression should always be equated right away to body-based issues, body-based problems. This is a five-elemental body.
Just as we have storms, just as we have wind, as we have snow, those are the elements. When the elements are disturbed, and this is a five-elemental body, then there will be a disturbance. You might feel sick, you might feel tired. That's the body. And because you're holding the body, even though you're formless, it's registering there's tiredness in this body. But if you know yourself in a real sense, okay, if there's tiredness in this body, sleep. If there's hunger in this body, eat, drink if you're thirsty. But it's just a scene. You're not holding on to something and dragging it through your day or dragging it through your week because you have no hands.
Q: I don't suppose this probably hasn't happened to you, but I don't think it has anything to do with my study of this topic. But for the past month or two, maybe two months at least, I fall asleep and I wake up after like two hours. And I don't know what's causing it. Anyway, I'm losing a lot of sleep. I'm getting insomnia. And it probably has nothing to do with like an energetic thing due to the teachings or anything like that, I don't suppose. Any ideas there?
John: I mean, I don't know. It's a five-elemental body.
Q: It's disturbance in the five elements. I'm 72 years old. It could have to do with age. Yeah, definitely.
John: I mean, I wake up a couple of times in the night to use the restroom.
Q: I don't drink water later in the day. So that doesn't happen. I avoid that. But yeah, it's just, I'll be tired. And sometimes the energy shifts. I think I'm going to, for sure I'm going to fall asleep. But then the energy shifts and then. It's true.
John: You know, truly, many times when I, right away, turn off the TV, and I just sit there and listen to Mantra and just relax. And then boom, you're asleep.
Q: Yeah, I do Mantra. Sometimes that does help to fall asleep. Especially if I count each Mantra, the counting also can help sleep.
John: I mean, if that's, I don't know. I’ll just sit there because I sleep in a recliner. It's the best way for me to sleep. I'm sitting there, I watch TV, turn off the TV, put the recliner, start listening, breathing in, breathing out, breathing in, breathing out. And then that's it. It's just you're gone. That's it. But again, remember Sri Ramakant Maharaj, because somebody asked about it, you know, I'm doing the Mantra, and I'm having too much energy, and I'm having a really hard time sleeping. And he said, there's no sleeping, there's no waking.
So don't make a problem about it, or have your mind sit there and try to figure it out. No sleeping, no waking. Okay, sometimes there's a little bit of trouble sleeping, sometimes not trouble sleeping, nothing to worry.
Just like if you do Mantra, you begin the Mantra, and suddenly you're very angry all the time. You know, that's, those are those tenants leaving the building. As Sri Ramakant Maharaj says, you know, you have the experience I had in India with the gold, where I was overwhelmingly, I wanted that gold. There was, and it was weird, it was like this burst of like, I must have, this is such a good deal, I want this, I want this. And I went back and I talked to Maharaj about it. And the coolest thing was, because I spoke with Maharaj about it, I continued my Mantra, just as I did, not worrying about, oh, these are disturbing feelings.
When we went back with another devotee, there was nothing. I looked at the gold, whatever, and showed him, here's the store, because Tata had sent us there, and nothing. There was nothing. And that was really very beautiful. Same with the food. There were a couple of times where suddenly I just started to get very, very angry.
And I told Maharaj, I was like, and I don't like the food, and there's geckos in my room, and this and that. And he's like, oh, would you like to move rooms? You know, there was nothing pushing back. It wasn't like two people. And it was just okay, this is happening because Mantra, these things are coming up and discard. Alex actually talked in a video very nicely about, he felt like it was a corked bottle, you know, that you shake it, and it's like boiling, boiling, boiling. And Maharaj was just like, no, don't worry about this. Continue with Mantra. The tenants are leaving the building. They're going to abuse you on the way out. You just concentrate Mantra, because Mantra helps you see the reality. Instead of all this conceptual noise that can take you and put you in a different place, just Mantra.
Remain with your Selfless Self. Be normal, be simple, be humble, be always with you. I actually have that saying with Maharaj's face at my work. And throughout the day, anything that's going on out there, it's like, oh, be normal, be simple, be humble, be always with you.
Q: Sometimes I don't, like, don't respect or don't value the Mantra enough, because I don't, because it doesn't seem to connect me to a sense of space or anything at times. But other times, it does seem to be like a sense of openness or bliss is sort of connected to the Mantra.
John: It’s true for me. I took it as God himself. I asked for freedom. And God himself says, to be free, this Mantra. That is my only thing. To be free. You want freedom? Great. Here's this Mantra. And it's given to you by God himself. That is the most important thing. They tell a story about the, we've told before about the people who look for the silver and this and that and the gold, all this, because you have to value it so high. When the guru gives you a little stone and says, this is the most valuable thing, go find the value. He goes to his mother, and his mother says, oh, I'd give one or two rupees. Then he goes on to the next town. Oh, this is worth a hundred rupees. He goes into a bigger town. This is worth a thousand rupees. He goes to another town. And the guy's like, this thing could, I don't have enough money in my store. That's how valuable this is. So, you have to understand that the perception of the value, that this is invaluable.
Q: And that's what you're really devoted. That's what, like I said last week, that's what we're here for is devotion to that supreme value or whatever, you know.
John: It is in the understanding of God, as you understand God, he has said in human form, this Mantra will eliminate the illusory world, and you will live completely free. This Mantra will remove the concept of birth and death, will remove the concept of suffering, will allow you to experience, so to speak, Heaven on Earth. And you say, well, you know, I give it like, how much, how long do I have to do it for? Like, is it like two hours in the day? Or like, I can't really spare that. Like what? Okay. Keep living your illusory life, playing spirituality, keeping the egoistic spirituality of I've learned so much, I can quote Sri Ramana Maharshi, I can quote Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I read this, I read that, or worse, I've traveled around Arunachala 55 times, and I even wore a little loincloth, just like Sri Ramana Maharshi. No.
Eliminate all concepts, slowly, silently, and permanently. Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj called it the Master key, and it doesn't have to be sitting. Like, so many people will say, oh, I don't like meditation, I'm not into meditation, I have to do it a different way. Okay, just remain with Mantra throughout your entire day, and non-stop, just remain with yourself, the Self, through Mantra.
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.