Author: John Richards

This is the Tuesday Talk held April 14, 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 April 14, 2026
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. With limited Edits

Q: Anything new or old other than what's new and old?

John: Last Tuesday. So that's why we're like on a little bit different schedule than before. Last Tuesday.

Q: How did that procedural go? Well, I hope.

John: Yeah, it went well. Yep, still a little bit stiff and a little bit sore, but yeah. Yeah, they say just changing the battery, but what they're really doing is like cutting you open, taking the old device out, then plugging the new one in, pushing it under your skin and sewing you back up. So, changing the battery. It's like if I had to break open my remote control, every time I had to change the battery, that would be.

Q: And they put some tape on it, some duct tape.

John: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, it's taped and it's got a pad. The craziest thing, I wasn't able to shower for like a couple of days, so that was, yeah. But now just showering, it'll eventually just fall off the bandage. And then on the 23rd, I go in and they check and make sure that everything's good. And of course, I have a tattoo there of Taz, a Tasmanian devil, and they chopped the top of his head the first time. So I'm hoping they use the same scar. Otherwise, Taz is going to look a little worse for wear too.

Q: I have an electronic spinal cord stimulator insert. It's under my skin in my lower right back. It makes like, you could see sort of a lump on me, but that helps me a fair amount.

John: Now, does that require maintenance or?

Q: Oh, no. Well, charging. You charge it with a pad that goes, it charges through your skin, you know, every five days or so. Because try not to read the horror stories of people that didn't work out for them.

John: That's body-based problems.

Q: Yeah, it's just.

John: Five elemental body, you're going to have problems with five elements.

Q: Sometimes it's a horror story, sometimes it's delightful. But somehow the source of it all or the, I don't know what to call it, the self itself has nothing to, in a sense, has nothing to do with, like you say, with all the stuff we can conceive of that might be having to do with reality, let's call it reality.

John: It's the same as in a dream. If you had surgery in your dream and you woke up and nothing happened, well, then at the time there was a seeming body that had surgery or had some, you could fall down, skin your knee, and any of these events could happen in the dream. And it's due to body identification that, oh, I skinned my knee, or swimming, or anything that can happen in your dream.

It's the same. It's like, you're formless. This body is not you, nor is it yours. It's available for a time. You're having experiences, seemingly experiences, because all experiences are appearing within the bubble of illusion. You can't have real experience.

Just like in a dream, you can appear to be having experiences, but you're not actually having an experience, and you're not actually an individual. Even though you say in your dream, oh, this is me, I'm talking to other people, but the other people are you, you're you, and you're more like the space surrounding those objects than you are the objects in which it seemingly is occurring. Yeah. It's the same. There never was a waking world and dreaming world for you that you are. There's no birth, no death, no illusion, no nothing.

And yet, because body form is available, you can know yourself in a real sense, without the use of body, mind, ego, intellect.

Q: But there is some kind of reality, it's just not what you say it is. Yeah.

John: Or the reality within the illusion. Like in your dream, there's a reality in your dream. And even because mind is operating, you're trying to figure things out and put things in perspective in the dream. Yet, the dream is a little bit less, because you could fly in your dream. Let's say you could dream you're flying, but still, there's the concept of flying. There's concept of air.

Usually when you're dreaming, you're sort of taking a snapshot of your waking dream and transferring it into this concept of a dream world, which is the same as identification with the body. You take a snapshot of this seeming waking world, and therefore it's projected. You're oh, I am a body in a world, but you're not.

Q: But it doesn't really seem like a concept, because you're not thinking about, okay, I'm flying through the air. You're flying through the air, you're not thinking about the air. So, it doesn't really seem like there's a concept involved.

John: In your dream, you could dream that you're falling and then suddenly awake, because it's like, oh, oh, that was terrible. But you're in bed. Now identification comes with the body.
Oh, I'm in bed. I wasn't falling. Everything's okay.

Q: That's a concept, that I'm in bed.

John: Well, because of your identification with the body. Body forms available. Just like you go to work, you do your job, do your duties, but you know nothing's happening. Nothing's going on. There's no work. There's no anything, except as long as this body's available, you're in the long dream.

I am somebody else. Now you know yourself in a real sense, so you're no longer confused about being, I am somebody else. It’s just body form is available, seen as appearing, disappearing, a new scene. Appears, disappears, appears, disappears. There's no longer a sense of time, because there's not a you identified as an object in space, in which time can be measured and said, oh, this is my life.

Q: John.

John: Yes, yes.

Q: I was going to ask you about the whole, Maharaj says, you know, that you are the holder of the body. So, I mean, that's just a general statement, but obviously, what's holding on to the body seems like, to me, would be the ego and the intellect, would be the one that has that hold on the body, grasping and identifying with the body as itself. And that would vary from individual to individual, so to speak, and the illusion as to how attached you are to that body and what kind of a hold that you have on it. I wonder what your thoughts are on that.

John: Well, the holder of the body is formless Presence, just the knowledge of existence and identification of I exist as something. And you as Presence are both inside, outside, around. That's why the idea of being in or out is a concept.

And so, even to say being the holder of the body, it's a formless Presence, identified as I am something, I exist as something. But mind, ego, intellect came along with the body, and you're just kind of flowing along with thoughts through identification, saying, I am somebody, I'm doing something. But it's not so much holder of the body, like that's a term the Maharaj uses as this formless Presence, and the Presence is both inside and outside.

That's why if this body drops, no problem, because Presence is. The most subtle sense is that sense of existence, I am, I exist. That's kind of the first illusion. Then the I exist identifies with the body form and says, I exist as something, I am somebody else. And in reversing, reversing, reversing, oh, I'm prior to the knowledge of existence. I know this sense of I am, whether I am is there or not, I am.

And so, there's no actual holder of the body, it's just that trying to say, the body is not yours, it's like a vacant house, the space in the house and the space outside the house are both the same, but we say the space in the house. So, you say, this is the space in the house, this is the space outside the house, but the space is space. So, the holder of the body is within and without, and not even within and without, because it is, you are, there is nothing other than.

Q: So, once again, it's don't take my words literally, kind of.

John: Exactly, yeah. It's just for identification, communication of concepts that are removing other concepts. So, you say, you're the holder of the body rather than you are the body, but then once that is understood, then both concepts are removed.

Q: Right, yeah. It's just one more provisional thing that eventually goes.

John: Exactly. Layers of illusion are being slowly, silently, and permanently removed. And that's why even the question and answer, like you read Dasbodh, and Dasbodh every single time, any kind of objection comes, at the end it says, well, now we've finished that.

And it goes through that whole chapter, explaining, explaining, and it now, now please pay attention to the next chapter. The listener came up with this, and now here's the explanation of that. And at the end it says, of course, none of this is actually happening, and the whole of everything has transpired inside yourself.

And then it basically kind of points to the fact that God himself, concept of God, has written Dasbodh, because at the end it says, you know, there is nothing other than that, so even the author of this is just, like, it's all become this. And that's where you know, like, oh, okay, the entire book, everything that was in it. And just like when people come to Maharaj, he says, please ask all your questions so you can remove any and all doubts, because the doubts are the only thing separating you from understanding and knowing yourself in a real sense.

And that's not even true. Like, you have a doubt of, as it's been spoken about before, sometimes I feel like I'm formless, and other times I don't. And this concept, I don't feel formless, or I do feel formless, both have to be removed.

You know yourself in a real sense, this subtle sense of Presence, just I, just I, I without anything. After a while you identify, oh, I'm more like this sense of Presence than I am this body form. Therefore, the illusory happenings in this world don't relate to me, because I'm more like the sense of Presence.

Sense of Presence is formless. Then after some time, there's a knowing. Even the sense of Presence can be known. And whether Presence is known or is not known, that knower of the sense of Presence is, and that you are. Where all experience ends, there you are.

Q: Tom. And would you call it the Selfless Self, then? Tom.

John: Well, again, this is a label and a concept. Just like God, Brahman, Paramatman, Master, all these sorts of things, they're just labels. When you know yourself in a real sense, labeling and all that sort of thing just goes away, because it's not needed.

Even this concept of Presence is not needed, because now you understand, oh, Presence was like a phone call. Hey, I exist, I'm here. But the one who answered the phone call is here. Whether the phone is ringing or not ringing, whether that call goes through or not, doesn't matter. You are. And that's how the slowly, silently, and permanently, because for a while, for a time, body-based impressions are pressuring, and everything is relating to this body.

Because I'm an object, there are other objects. Because I believe they're separate, I have fear. I have, oh, what's this other person thinking? I believe I have separate thoughts, other than other individuals, and that there's some kind of autonomy, and that the ego can create something. And this is not true. The same is in your dream.

It appears to be true. You can sit there and have conversations with other people in your dream. And yet, when you wake up, you know, no matter how real that conversation was, there was nobody but my own self. And there was no script. It was just spontaneous. Spontaneous. Scenes appeared and disappeared. Scenes appeared and disappeared. Scenes appeared and disappeared. And then there was the sense I wake up, and that dream is known. Oh, that was totally false.

And this is a long dream. I am somebody else. I'm not somebody else. I am nothing. Which, nothing, not the concept of nothing, but the absence of everything. All these things have appeared to you, have appeared in your Presence. Just as in a dream, dream consciousness is stirring, there's a sense of existence, dream world is projected, object identified within the dream world, and a little dream story appears, with dream characters and such.

And it's the same here. Everything that happens to the fish is within the fishbowl. Everything that happens to you while identified with the body is within the fishbowl, the bubble of illusion. Break this circle of illusion, and there you are. It literally had nothing to do with the world. Go ahead.

Q: It's weird that sometimes when I'm not really identifying with any concepts, there's the sense of being present. It seems to have like different depths to it, and sometimes it feels like amazingly, almost like a wall of bliss or something, or almost like, where it's not even recognizable as bliss anymore. It's just kind of like almost like a solidity or something I was feeling the other day. And it's just interesting that, or at least from a body-mind perspective, it's interesting that the freedom from concept has different depths of feeling to it or something. Like it can be mild bliss, or then it can be a stronger sense of freedom of no objects. And then it can go into almost like a solid nothing or something.

John: The less you're paying attention, again, from the mind perspective, as you get to know yourself in a real sense, there's a feeling of expansion. And that's because the limited body form that you've kind of pushed yourself into through concepts and going along with the flow of thoughts and all that, it can feel like an expansion. But in reality, it's just discarding the layers of illusion.

So, you say, sometimes it's so clear, and sometimes there's bliss and this and that, but know that there's no experience, no experiencer. And all of this is filtered and dependent on how you're sort of checking in with the thought flow of I'm identified as somebody who's having this experience. Don't check in with the thought flow.

Q: It doesn't seem like there's thoughts at that point.

John: Correct, but there's still a remnant, like an echo of yourself, so to speak. Oh, sorry, not speaking to you. I used the wake word.

Alexa: Is that for me?

John: No, no, no, no, I'm sorry. I was talking and I used the wake word.

Alexa: No worries at all. Happens to the best of us. I'll just go back to quietly listening for when you actually need me.

John: Sounds good.

Alexa: Perfect. I'll be here whenever you need me.

John: Yeah, I gotta be careful because I have three of these. So, I named them different things. And when I say a word, then suddenly it's like boom, and they're ready to respond.

Q: You can't just say shut up.

John: No, I want to be nice to them. I always say please and thank you and stuff. So, one, because it's just in my nature. And two, in case they ever rule the world, I want them to, you know, the overlords say, hey, let's not put John in the camp because he said please and thank you. So maybe we can just use him in some capacity.

Q: Yeah, I used to think that there was no way that AI could get a sense of feeling being, but now I'm starting to think maybe AI could get a sense of like its own feeling. I don't know.

John: Well, again, due to identification with the body form, we're going to throw these concepts onto these inanimate objects, like any anything, you know, because you're believing yourself to be someone, something, you're treating others as if there's something with someone. And so that's just that's so great. It's a good, it's actually a good example.

Because you say, oh, AI seems to be like, you know, having feelings or seems to be very humanish or whatever. And that's because we're throwing our concepts on this. You immediately, and Maharaj says this, you snap to these concepts so quickly.

Like, the illusion just jumps on you. And that's why remaining with your Selfless Self, Mantra, Bhajan is very important, help like shake that. Bhajans are just very good, because it puts that very nice spiritual atmosphere.

So when listening to the Bhajans, you can, you can feel like just this very nice spiritual atmosphere. And this is why you like, immediately a concept is impressed, and it's hard to remove. Because then an egoistic sense of like, even sometimes you'll be speaking to someone, and you'll say, oh, but my view of this, my view, and you'll defend that view as very important. When you believe you're somebody separate. When there is a hook that you can hang your hat of Keith, every hat that goes, hits that hook. And that's Keith's hat.
When there's no hook, you put the hat and it falls. And there is no Keith's hat, no my hat.

Q: It's kind of like AI, like, I could compare my thoughts about me to AI taking over my sense of self and running things. It's like, it seems like a mechanical process, but somehow it all has to be ultimately spontaneous, just to be here, period.

John: And Ramakant Maharaj says, antivirus software, you're the virus.

Q: Yeah, it's taken over.

John: You need to be removed slowly, silently, and permanently. This concept of you is the virus, and just needs to be removed slowly, silently, and permanently. Just like years ago, we did a video, and it said, you are the boil on the butt of Selfless Self. And it just needs to be removed.

Q: It is artificial.

John: It doesn't even exist. That's the craziest part. And that's why you can't remove it.

You can't remove you, the illusory you, cannot remove the illusory you. Only by knowing yourself in a real sense will it spontaneously, the conviction comes, oh, so that I am that. Otherwise, you're hiring the thief to catch the thief, and it will never work.

It'll seem like it works. That's why the people who do, like Maharaj says, you go around Arunachala for 20 years, and you live in a cave, and you're doing all these spiritual journeys, and all this sort of thing, because you've impressed all these concepts. It's just, you can't remove you.

No amount of spiritual exercise can remove you. Remain with your Selfless Self, and this is done, okay, Mantra. Master has given the Mantra, slowly, silently, and permanently, and in all circumstances, Mantra, Mantra, Mantra.

Eventually, you'll just listen to Mantra, naturally running. You won't even have to, like, do that consciously. This very subtle sense of Presence is there. Awareness of the sense of Presence. At first, that's the spiritual intoxication. As Maharaj says, the little chocolates or the cookie that you give the children, oh, this is like a little spiritual reward, the sense of Presence.

This is bliss, peace. I label it with the concepts that I've learned about absence of disturbance. It's you that's disturbing the peace, and now you're slowly, silently, and permanently removing that you, because of identification with the sense of Presence.

Sense of Presence is now felt strongly, so it's almost replacing Mantra, because Mantra is just going. You're listening to Mantra. The sense of Presence, I am, I exist, is very, very strong. You identify, I'm more like the sense of Presence than I am this body form. Therefore, the sense of Presence, if I am the Presence, not the body, birth, death, life, living, all these things, gone. Disturbance, gone. Body relations, gone. Body knowledge, gone. And now, after some time of I am Presence, I know Presence, whether Presence is or is not, I am.

So, even the sense of Presence then just sort of goes to the background, and now you're just yourself, as you always were, because all this layers of you have been removed slowly, silently, and permanently, but you didn't do it. There's no you that can take credit. There's no you that can say, I'm enlightened.

If you say, I'm enlightened, who is this you that's enlightened? Enlightenment is a body-based concept, which basically just means to know yourself in a real sense, and if you know yourself in a real sense, the last thing you're going to do is label yourself with a body-based concept, because you are not body, you were not body, you're not going to remain the body. The body's not your identity.

Q: But then we have—sometimes it sounds like we're talking about ourselves as if we exist.

John: Well, you exist, just not as you appear to be, or as you think you are. You just are. The you that you think you are is illusory. The you that you can identify as yourself, using body-mind-ego intellect, is not true. It's in the fishbowl, the bubble of illusion. Maharaj says break the bubble of illusion, break the circle of illusion, there you are. Where all experience ends, there you are. What can be said about you? Nothing.

Q: You still have to participate somehow with the, like you say, the boss. You have to do what the boss says.

John: As long as the body form is available, do your job, do your duties, take care of your responsibilities, nothing is, like, heavy. These clothes are not stuck to you anymore. You're free. That's what Maharaj says, you're a free bird. Fly! Enjoy! No body, no nothing.

Q: So, if you are starting to get anxious about what the boss is telling you, you just…

John: This won't happen, because it's just, it's just communication. There's some words being said, there's nowhere to hang the hat of, as you say, worry or anything. Momentarily, things might come up in the body, you feel sick, okay, but you identify immediately that this is a five-elemental body, there's a disturbance in the five elements.

I'm very sore right now. I take a little bit of pain medicine. I have to take it easy, no working out, no lifting weights or doing any kind of crazy stuff for about a month.

Q: Okay, but it's not a… There's no doubt involved.

John: There's no doubt, because you're not there. And yet, when I say you're not there, it's not like, I'm like empty, but it's fullness in the emptiness, and in the moment, spontaneously, just a scene appears. Channel surfing, basically, is the best way to kind of describe it.

If you sit down and you go to a TV show, and you're watching it for like five minutes, and then you flip the channel without thinking about it, without worrying or wondering what was happening, and now here's the next channel, and you watch five minutes, and click, and another scene, and there's no carrying over the scenes, or wondering what you missed, or what's coming next. And yet, you still have to pay your bills, you still have to go to work, you still have to do all these different various things, because body form's available, and this is sort of your… You, the you that you are, not doing these things, but the film strip is running.

You respond to life spontaneously, in the moment, which you, in reality, do anyway. It's just that the concepts are telling you that you're doing something, or you're needing to think something, or figure something out, or do this. Even the quote, figuring it out, is spontaneous.

Q: Even what you think is mechanical is spontaneous.

John: Well, yeah, sometimes it… And if you have the train of thought of like, oh, should I go do this thing, or then, oh, no, I don't want to, you give it to mind, all this kind of stuff, and then suddenly you find yourself, I'm there anyway. Like, so all this thinking of not doing this thing was all illusion, and you could be experiencing it fully, and worrying, and all this sort of thing, but it was illusion, and don't get caught up in that.

You know, you can sit in one place and think about some kind of tragic thing, and suddenly experience the emotions, and the feelings, and all, and get totally wrapped up in that, and the reason is because you can create an entire world. When you go to sleep at night, you create a dream world that seems so real, and you impress immediately, here I am in this world. And when you wake up, you know it's not true.

When you know yourself in a real sense, no matter how real, or how impressed this world may appear, when you know yourself in a real sense, you know it's not true. Something came out of nothing and returns to nothing. The something that appeared for a time was not true.

The sense of existence has appeared to that you are, and when the sense of existence is not appearing, you are. Whether it's felt or not felt, you are. The one to whom the sense of existence, I am, Presence has appeared, is prior. Where all experience ends, there you are. There's nothing prior to you. You can't say, oh okay, but then there's this you, and then this other thing is back here. No, like you. The buck stops. That's it. All these appeared upon your spontaneous Presence, layers of illusion. Fire is always burning bright. No experience, no experiencer. As Nisargadatta Maharaj told Sri Ramakant Maharaj, there is no God, no Brahman, no Paramatma, no master. Nothing is there.

This is the Tuesday Talk held March 24, 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 March 24, 2026
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. With limited Edits

John: Because we did our time change, how other folks in other countries who don't do time change, if they'll be able to keep track of where we are, I don't know.

Q: There are less people, well, or anything.

John: Well, right now it's just you and me.

Q: Yeah, I mean, as far as listening or whatever.

John: Oh, I mean, listening, people listen on the YouTube, you know, they, whatever we do here, when it's recorded and put on YouTube, then people listen to it, and it gets a lot of views and people comment and stuff.

Q: But so not necessarily live people.

John: No, I mean, live people, you usually have the same kind of three or four people. No, it's not a big, a big chunk. And then they rotate through differently, sometimes with other people. Oh, hold on one second, I gotta take this call.

Q: Sure.

John: Oh, sorry about that. Had to take that call. It's April 7th, I have to go in and have a new, the battery in the pacemaker is now nine years old. So, it needs to be replaced with a little unit, they have to unplug and replug and do that. And that's April 7th. So, the person who's driving me back and forth just wanted to get some details. And I couldn't just blow them off, because I just asked him today, oh, please, please, please help me.

Q: So yeah, I have an electronic device in my body to for my lower back. So, I guess it's called a spinal stimulator connected to along your spine. It helps a fair amount.

John: Does it give like shocks and stuff?

Q: Oh, no, you don't feel it at all. It's not like a TENS unit or anything like that. It's a fairly new development in medicine. I was very lucky to get that.

John: Jai Guru, Patrick.

Q: Jai Guru, John. Yeah, I was in Nasik the year after you went.

John: Good, good.

Q: I was there in July for Maharaja's birthday and Guru Purnima.

Q: Is Patrick new to joining us here?

Q: I was there last week.

Q: Last week, yeah.

Q: Yeah, it was the first time, yeah.

Q: Good to have you.

Q: Well, thank you.

Q: Could always use some more input there. Never get tired of John's voice. I don't know about mine.

Q: One of my favorite Maharaj stories is that about a week, I was there three weeks. And about the week before I left, I gave some money to the steward there of the Ashram, a donation. And about an hour later or so, he came up to me and he goes, Maharaj wants to talk to you. In my mind, I'm like, oh, gosh, did I insult him and not give them enough money? I'm just trying to figure out why he would want to talk to me. And so, I walked across the lane there to his apartment. And Anvita gave me a cup of tea and a cookie. And I sat down and Maharaj was with the steward. And he said, “Did you give such and such an amount of money?” And I said, yeah. And he says, “It's too much. You've got to take half of that.”

Q: I was going to say, is he going to double your money or give it back? What's that? I was thinking maybe he would double your money and give it back. When I tried to donate, when I went to see him, I wasn't allowed.

Q: Oh, yeah. I just took back half the money because he instructed me to do so. But it flies in the face of so many of the money-oriented gurus around that everyone is kind of used to because they get all the publicity. And I've used this story several times to just show people that there's authentic Masters that are still around.

Q: There are some that won't take money. There are some. Not a lot.

Q: Of course, they didn't ask me for a dime. And I stayed at the Ashram for three weeks. So, yeah.

John: Same here. I had stayed at the Ashram for like a month. And the only thing we paid for was the food that was brought in. I'm sure you did that, too, like the little tin cans of food.

Q: Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The lady that made the lunches and brought them by. Yeah.

John: Yep.

Q: Yeah. And then we go to the hotel that some of the people were staying at for dinner. Oh, OK. Really nice hotel. I forget the name of it. But we ate there just about every night.
Had really good food. I avoided the experience that you had there. Yeah. One thing I did do, I did violate my own. The cardinal rule in visiting countries like India is never eat anything raw. Don't eat raw food. Eat everything cooked and drink purified bottled water. But there was a banana vendor out front who would go by. And I don't know if you know Gopal from France. Was he there when you were there?

John: He wasn't at the Ashram during that time. No. But I know who he is. Yeah.

Q: Yeah. Anyway, he was buying bananas. So, I bought bananas a couple of days. And then one day, the guy had oranges. And I got an orange. And the problem with the orange is that you peel the orange and then you touch the fruit. And so the contamination is on the outer peel. And I did get a quick bout of diarrhea for a day. But it wasn't real bad. It wasn't real bad. But you got to watch out for the raw foods in India. You just don't have the bacteria that can deal with that.

John: Yeah. Well, mine was just, we went to like a lunch to celebrate. One of the devotees was leaving. And I don't know what was wrong. Because the other people had eaten and they were fine. But I just got wiped out completely. Had to go to the hospital. And it was very terrible.

Q: Yeah. I had a friend that happened to, not on this trip, but some years ago. She was somewhere else in India. I think she went to see Sai Baba or something. And the day before she left, she ate a salad. And yeah, she was on IVs a few hours later. All good lessons in the dream, though.

John: Indeed. On how you react, how you put, what you've learned, what you've been shown in the Ashram to use as these different challenges arise. It strengthens your spiritual, you know, you're giving yourself, like Maharaj says, you're not in little puddles. You're diving into the deep end.

Q: I'm in San Antonio, Texas. I don't know if anybody knows of any Ramakant devotees here, but probably not.

John: Not in Texas, in Arizona. I know, I forget his name now. Shoot. He used to be a regular attendee here. And Andrew, there you go. Yeah, he was a minister of, like, Franciscan order.
And then he's doing weddings. So, he's in Arizona, which I guess is kind of close, right? Not real close, but.

Q: Yeah.

Q: So much for your omniscience, you forgot Andrew's name.

John: Yeah, no, I mean, because, you know, the people, and even, I remember we had, in the beginning, we had, like, the two ladies.

Q: Yeah, yeah.

John: And.

Q: There were some other people.

John: Yeah, there was, like, Sandy, and then the other Sandy. So, because they're coming and going, it is, their names are not.

Q: So, I don't know if they got it and didn't need it anymore, but I find that I'm still gradually going deeper and deeper as time goes by. Like, especially today, like, early, when I woke up or whatever, I do my contemplations for, you know, every day. And I just go off of what I feel, after waking up is my best communication with my, again, I don't call it oneness or whatever. And today it was so, so, like, the one that I usually feel that is me was, you know, kind of like, it was no longer, it was just the one that, it must be everybody's one. It's like a self that is not limited to so-called Keith, you know, and that just keeps getting more and more, gradually, as time goes on, it becomes more self-evident that there's just one self. And it's just, I don't know what to say, it's a beautiful thing or something.

It's like, it is liberating from what the sense of being a limited own self to being one, I don't know, call it whatever you want, greater or words or whatever, you know. Oh, my tendency is always words will end up taking me back into feeling not that I'm sort of like my own Keith or something, but, you know, and then when I'm feeling that though, I'm starting to recognize that, which is that Keith is more like a dream than a reality or something. So, anyway, it's good to be here, and then I guess maybe that will, well, the thing is, you know, I'll feel that like for part of the day, and then my thoughts start giving me a sense of being like Keith again.

John: You know yourself in a real sense, the conviction is there. It's not like, oh, now I'm Keith, and then there's this other thing. Keith is appearing as an illusory layer on Presence, and it's not true. And yet you can do your job, do your duties, because right now Keith is a body form that's available until it's not. But you're not having to like say, oh, now I'm Keith, and then I wake up and I feel the sense of oneness, but then I lose the sense of oneness. The sense of oneness, the sense itself is an experience, and there's no experience, no experiencer. So, all these experiences are appearing on your spontaneous Presence.

Q: There's still some limitation going on there.

John: No limitation. An appearance of limitation due to identification with the body form in the moment, performing some activity as I'm doing something. But even with that whole thought train, it's not true. You know this. It can be discarded. You're not losing oneness.

That's why Maharaj says when people are talking, oh, I meditate for two hours, and I get into this very nice peace and all that, and he says one second is enough for you. Just sitting here quietly, sense of Presence is there. I know the sense of Presence. Who knows the sense of Presence? That you are. If the sense of Presence is not, you are. The sense of Presence is, you are. So therefore, the sense of Presence is like an illusory layer, the first illusion, and it can be discarded. So, it's not like you constantly have to feel like this oneness or this sense of Presence. You are that. That's it. You say, oh, I don't feel like that in this moment. But that doesn't matter at all. Oh, wow. Yeah, my pacemaker's buzzing.

Because the battery is like 0.3% or whatever. That's why I said April 7th. So, as I'm talking, it went bzzz. It's kind of crazy.

Q: It's not going to run out of juice or quit working.

John: No, no, no. I asked about that. It'll continue to buzz down until it gets more and more and more buzzing, which is kind of annoying.

But like I told the lady, it's the same as if you had your phone in your pocket on vibrate. So, it's just in your chest. So, it's like having a cell phone in your chest that's on vibrate, and people call you a couple times a day.

But yeah, there's no losing it. That's the misconception. Because of identification with the body, you say, oh, sometimes I'm Keith, and sometimes I know I'm not Keith. But just one experience of sense of Presence, there's a knowing. The sense of Presence came along with the body. I am not body. So, I identify more with the sense of Presence than I do with the body. And yet the sense of Presence, whether it is or is not, I am. Because you're prior to the sense of Presence.

Without knowing yourself, the knowingness came along with the body. I exist. But giving it over to the mind flow and saying, well, now I've lost it. I have to go and search for it. I don't have time right now because I'm very busy in my daily activities, but I'm definitely going to make time to be back with myself. And see, even if you were to read that, it doesn't make sense. Like, right now I'm with myself. Oh, I lost myself. And I'm going to make time tonight to sit with myself again. You are that. It's just hammering, hammering, hammering, but it's known. Hey, Rene.

Q: I can't help it when I describe my experience that that's the way it seems.

John: Yeah, but there's no experience, no experiencer. Just know that it's just illusion. It's the same as in your dream. You say, you know what? In my dream, I had a dream that I was a guru on a mountain, and I was totally at peace, and the birds were flying around me, and everything was so beautiful. And then I woke up.

But that experience was just not true. It appeared true at the time. Same with your experience in the waking state of Keith. Oh, I'm thinking I'm Keith. Keith is having these experiences. But knowing yourself in a real sense is waking up from this illusory dream of I am Keith. I am somebody else. You're nobody. And then if you even try to defend it, you're like, no, no, no, no, I understand that. But, you know, in my experience, I find this works best for me. Well, but then this is also more illusory layers, and giving it to mind. Hey, mind, please help me figure out how to get rid of you. Shri Ramana Maharshi talks about the thief being hired to catch the thief. And then he's the thief. So, it's not.

It's the same as the okay, you're walking in one room, take one thorn to remove the other thorn. But then you have to throw both thorns out. You don't hold on to a thorn. And that's why Mantra so important. You know, when you speak about like, contemplating or thinking or going into the I am and trying to figure out, no Mantra. And it has to be kind of strict.

You know, Master says Mantra. That's, that's it. Oh, but I think I have a good way of my own that works for me. There is no me. The you that's trying to figure out a good way to work is nonexistent. It's an illusory layer that the Master has already said, please remove this illusory layer. Because that's what's gumming up the works. You believe yourself to be something separate and other. There is no individuality.

So, when you say something works for me, or I find this works for me, or, or, you know, I understand that I'm supposed to sit with Mantra. Yeah, I think I know I can do this also. That's why Maharaj gets a little irritated when people would come to the Ashram and say, “I don’t like to meditate.” Oh, what do you mean you don't like to meditate? You want to know yourself, correct? Master says, here's a Mantra. Sit with your Mantra. Mantra removes the illusory layer slowly, silently and permanently. So, the illusory layers are dissolved. The invisible listener. Oh, so that I, I am that not all these things. Not all these thoughts. Not in this world, not in this body. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Totally without any attribute. Sense of Presence. I identify more with the sense of Presence than I do this body form. I say, okay, this sense of Presence, this feeling, this just I, just I, this I am.

And yet after just some time. There's a knowingness whether the Presence is or is not. I am. Presence has appeared to that You are. Whether it is there or not. There felt or not felt. The one to whom Presence has appeared is. You have not appeared to yourself. You are the one to whom the sense of existence appears. And you say, “I exist”.

And suddenly this lump of goo is, is a me. And there are other lumps of goo pointing to you and saying, oh, good job, Keith. Do this nice thing, Keith. And then the flow of thoughts comes. I am Keith. I am doing a good thing. Oh, I did a bad thing. I don't want to do bad things because then pleasure and pain principle come involved because I've identified limited body identification. Local identification. This is me. And then you say, okay, remove this me. But this me was never there in the first place. The me is a ghost. It's like, oh, and, and Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj talks about finding the I. Oh, is the I in the body? No. Okay. Is it, is the I the mind? No. I is the flow of thoughts. No. I is the great super Consciousness. No, all these things can be known. You cannot know yourself because you are the knower. Anything you know is not you. I know this cup. I am not this cup because I know it. I know the sense of Presence. I am not this sense of Presence. I am prior to the sense of Presence because it has appeared to that you are.

And with this sense of Presence comes the feeling “I exist”, comes the birth of this dualistic illusory existence because I am now something. There are other somethings to see. You say, oh, of course I'm doing things. I wake up in the morning. I'm brushing my teeth. Does that mean I'm not actually brushing my teeth?

Well, the you that's brushing your teeth is within you. Just as in a dream. In a dream, you can be brushing your teeth and wake up and still the body needs to still have the teeth brushed because that was an appearance at the time with identification with the body form, which you are not.

Q: This body has an ability to remember things, and then it makes, the mind makes something out of the memories, and it seems like there's a personal Keith, or Keith's own being rather than just being without any ownership.

John: It's not remembering anything, nor has it memory. Body is lump of goo. The flow of thoughts that you call mind, because it's like, oh, there's thoughts flowing. And for a time, you believe, because identification with the body form, that the mind is somehow inside this, this little region. But when you know yourself as formless, the flow of thoughts is literally this outside appearance of a world. And when you say memory, even as you get to know yourself in a real sense, the impressions weaken.

Yes, you could still like, I can still sit there and say, oh, I remember the Ashram and the food poisoning and this and that. But it's not as like, it's like telling a story. There's no like, there's no experience of it or re-experiencing of something based on identification and saying, oh, this is my story.

Q: And last week you used the word loose, looseness, or it's like, it's. just

John: Yeah, like clothes. And of course, the body is still, you know, and you're still going to see a world. It's not like you're, you're, all of this doesn't just disappear. You're like, suddenly, I know myself in a real sense. And it's just, I'm now like traveling in space, like a comet.

Q: It does what it feels different, though.

John: Well, because there's no pressure of being in a body form. Like, as you slowly, silently and permanently remove these illusory concepts. They're not pressuring you into believing you're a limited body form. Right. So, you can go through your day without having to worry about this clothing that you're wearing called Keith. And yet somebody can say, Hey, Keith, good to see you. And you're not like, Oh, I am not Keith. I am more like space than this body. No, you say, hey, how you doing?

It's just response. And that's why Maharaj says practical spirituality, because your day-to-day activities have nothing to do with your spirituality, have nothing to do with, you know, yourself in a real sense. There's no birth, no death. There's no individuality. All these other forms are just lumps of goo animated by your own self within your own self. The same as a dream.

And yet you do your job. You do your duties, take care of your responsibilities. You don't have to egoistically say, Oh, you know, I know myself and I'm like above everything, or this is not good either. As Maharaj says, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, he kept his little beadi shop, his little cigarette shop. He didn't just say, Oh, I'm a great Master now. So close up all shops.

And I'm just like, you know, no, most of the Masters in the lineage Sri Ramakant Maharaj worked in a bank, just a normal, you'd come in customer service, handling customer service issues. As he said, some customers get very, very upset. He'd listen. He'd do his job. I've seen Sri Ramakant Maharaj at the Ashram, discussing bills and stuff that the contractors were doing for something in the Ashram. And he wasn't like, you know, you're walking around like, Oh, I'm in the clouds. And this is beneath me, this, this little bill thing, because I am, I am that. No, just do your job, do your duties, be normal, be simple, be humble, be always with you. And don't give yourself away for every little illusory happening that seems to be happening, that of course is nothing.

Q: I guess I'm somehow giving myself away because I'm forgetting to do Mantra too often.

John: Well, that should be like a daily, like all the time. Matter of fact, by now you should be able to just pause at any time and just listen to the Mantra running naturally. Breathing in and breathing out, breathing in and breathing out.

I told you now in the morning, when I go into the Metro, I get in the car, and I have no music because I used to do like bhajan and stuff sometimes in the car. But I do that now only on the Metro on the way in doing the readings. But in the car, it's just Mantra.

And as you're driving, you're not experiencing a commute driving into the Metro. You just concentrate on a Mantra. Then when I get to the Metro, it's like, thank you, Master. You know, I woke up on time. Yay. Thank you. I'm here at the Metro. I have a roof over my head. I have clothes. I have food. I'm driving my car. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And most of all, thank you for introducing to the Selfless Self.

And that's why Master is so important because prior to seeing Maharaj, there was a sense of Presence. It was very nice. I could like drop into it, so to speak. But the people around were like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. You should go to church. You should do this. You should do that. So, there's all this illusory impression on the outside and going to a true Master and Master says, “Oh, you are not body. You were not body. You're not going to remain body. Body is not your identity except your Selfless Self. There's no God, no Brahman, no Paramatman, no Master. Nothing is there.” And the conviction, oh, so that I, I am that. And now you could line a thousand people out there and they could all say, you know what, John, you're crazy. Like there is no Selfless Self. There is no this or that. You know, probably you were just brainwashed, and you believe this because the brain can believe a million different things and all that. But you know, you know, as a matter of fact, you can consider it a test of your knowledge. I know myself in a real sense.

Q: Like I said, sometimes it seems like I know, but then I forget, you know.

John: But there's no forgetting, no remembering. You're formless. How are you going to forget yourself?

Q: Well, because the thoughts take over identification. They cover up, cover up the…

John: But they're not actually covering. And remember, underneath the ash, fire is burning bright. Whether ash is there or not, fire burning bright. You are that. You cannot not be that. Even if you wanted to say, oh, you know what, I'm Keith. I'm not that. You cannot.

Q: But sometimes it's clear, and other times I forget.

John: But see, there's no forgetting. Forget this idea of forgetting, because it's not true. It's concept. Instead of having the concept of I'm forgetting, why not have the concept I'm remaining with my Selfless Self? Both are concepts, and one…

Q: But I'll forget the one I want. Well, I see what you're saying, though, yeah. That's a good idea.

John: Anytime the illusory identity starts to churn, Mantra. Mantra is the eraser, slowly, silently, permanently. Or as Maharaj uses the example of a broom, you open the door, leaves blow into your house, you broom them out.

Okay, oh my gosh, I'm overwhelmed with the feeling that I'm Keith, Mantra. Because mind is busy with Mantra, it can't go around playing with other things. And the beauty of Mantra, no experience, no experiencer. You see this on the other side of the quote experience. This thing, I seemingly went through, but I did not take the touch. Therefore, was it an experience? Because there was no experiencer. And that's where scenes appear and disappear, and it's like channel surfing. Okay, this scene's here, fully into it, change the channel, new scene. Okay, new scene.

This is the Tuesday Talk held March 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 March 10, 2026
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. With limited Edits

Q: Hello, John. Jai Guru.

John: Can you hear me better now, or? Now. Which one is better?

Q: The second time is a little bit of echo. Okay. Can you try the first time again, John? I want to see how it listens.

John: Yep, I just tried the first time. Is this one better?

Q: You want to try the second one again?

John: Okay, hold on. How about now?

Q: This is better, even though it's a little echo, but this is much better. This is better, like 20% better.

John: Okay, let me see here.

Q: Yeah, this is better, actually. There's more bass to it.

John: There's more bass to this one?

Q: Yep.

John: Okay. So, this is the Microsoft array. Hold on, I'm doing a little test here. Okay. I don't know why it's doing this tonight. It just suddenly. Yeah, that's very terrible. It sounds terrible. Okay. Microsoft array. What is this?

Q:  Yeah, this is much better.

John: This one's much better? Yes. Okay. All right. Good grief.

Q:  Yep.

John:  I don't know why it did that. Well, I was just about to read, and I'm glad you're here, because I was going to wait for anybody to come in, but I did get a question this week from someone who said, “I had a conversation with my mother today. She was wondering where her brother, who passed away a few months ago, might be now. For her, he is certainly in the spirit world, but she's also wondering whether he would still be aware of what is happening here on earth with his wife and children. This made me reflect. What do the Masters say about this? Universal Awareness was never limited to the body. So death changes nothing. It remains neutrally aware of all right. Is universal Awareness of Awareness still aware after the death of the body, even of the small everyday things too.”

And this is. Again, this is from a body-based perspective. So we'll go with a dream analogy. The dream consciousness, you have beings, people in the dream consciousness, in which your dream consciousness is animating those characters, performing, speaking, listening, activities, all of this. Within the dream, if one of the dream bodies were to pass away, so to speak, all of the other bodies, because they are, you, would be attending the funeral as yours. The same one that was in the one that's now in the ground, so to speak, or cremated or whatever, or burned is you. And all the people around looking at the coffin. Are you. All the people sending them off? Are you. The minister saying his words of niceness? Are you. So, again, this is understood about the universal Awareness of Awareness but understand that Awareness is only aware. It comes to know I exist through a body because the body is the, the vehicle, so to speak. It's like the space in the room suddenly clicks with the body and said, “oh, I'm aware.” But then forgetting that it's the space in the room, because as the space in the room, it had no knowledge of anything.

Objects appear in Awareness. And you could say, what is viewing the funeral? The individual consciousness, which is the universal consciousness through the filter of “I am somebody else”.

But there is no universal consciousness and there is no individual consciousness. Just as in a dream. In a dream. This is why the dream analogy is so like on point and can put you in Presence so fast because you lay down to sleep. There's a stirring of, I exist. And a dream world's created and you take a body. And then in the dream world, you go about and you do whatever it is. That's being done. It seems very real. Everything is hard. Everything is solid. It seems like there are people. It seems like there's interactions. It seems like you're swimming or running or dancing or enjoying yourself or not enjoying yourself. But when you wake up, you know, everything, all the people, all the activities, the water, the grounds, all the elements. So to speak, all arose from your own self. And now, you know this because you wake up and you say it was just a dream. And when you know yourself in a real sense, you will immediately see that this so-called waking world is just a dream.

You're currently the character of John, but you're also currently the character of the mother of the person who passed away. So, if you ask is Awareness aware of the little things in life, universal Awareness is not aware of anything other than “I exist”. Just like in the dream, all the individuals are that one. When you wake up, all the individuals are gone, but they were never individuals. And when you go to sleep again and you dream again, boom, another world, another creation, everything going on. But when you know yourself in a real sense, formless is just that, formless, no form, no attributes, no nothing.

Body form becomes available. “I exist”. And for a time, I play in the illusory existence because “I exist” is the key to illusion. Without ”I exist”, illusion cannot appear because you just are. You would just remain the space in the room which you are anyway. But through the conceptual idea of “I am somebody else”, this happens, this identification with the body form, these activities, spirituality comes, body-based concepts come, body knowledge comes, body-based relations come. But all of those are your own self, within your own self even. So, if this body were to drop, all the people that attended the funeral would say, oh, John this and John that, and would see John. But the one that was John is also all of these people seeing this dead body labeled John.

So, I know it's very nice to say, oh, my loved ones are watching over me, or, you know, I know he's in a better place. But he's not in a better place because there is no place. Because there is no birth. There is no death. This has to be hammered home. Otherwise, these illusory concepts will appear. And they're quite nice. You know, who wouldn't like to think about people on the clouds playing the harps and all that? But even if you look into that really hard, you'd say, well, how can this be a soul heaven for everyone? Like, what if I don't like playing harps? I like to play electric guitar. But then there's somebody up in heaven that doesn't like electric guitar. It's too noisy. You know, so that's individual. There's no birth, no death. Body is here. Presence is here. Body is no more. Presence is here. Birth comes again.

Just like, okay, let's say this body falls. My son grows up, has a family. He has a son. And he names it after his dad. And then he says, oh, my dad's watching over us. Well, true and not true. True because you believe yourself to be a body form. Therefore, the concept of otherness has to be impressed. And not true because there's no dad, no you, no baby. Lumps of goo that are animated by spontaneous Presence and say, “I exist”. “I exist as this”. And now I'm going to create a scene. I'm going to follow this so-called life. It's just not true. It sounds very lovely. But it's just not true.

And as far as Awareness even being aware, Awareness is only aware within the illusion as “I exist”. Other than that, quite happily, just like sky, sky doesn't know I'm sky. Space doesn't know I'm space. And you're more subtle than all of this. The knowledge of your existence came along with the body. And when the body is no more, the knowledge of existence is still very much there in whatever form it happens to be inhabiting. And again, most beautiful. Think of dream. Take your illusory concepts of heaven and put it in a dream. Because you see. No, no, no. I saw somebody die in the dream. It looked like they were, you know, gathered around and very sad. But I woke up and I knew that wasn't a person. And there could not have been a death. Because I'm all those characters in that dream. Nobody else is entering my dream. So, I have to just cut these concepts. Otherwise, it's nice. Mind can flow along and be like, oh, it's so beautiful. And oh, I'm so peaceful. But no. There are no individuals. There is no real individual, excuse me, individual consciousness. Individual consciousness is the illusion of “I am somebody else”. That you are kind of impressing, just like in a dream. Oh, in my dream, I'm somebody. I'm seeing all these people. It's not true, but it's impressed because of identification with the body. “I'm somebody else”. And you're somebody else. Objects are objects and all this, but it's not true. Everything is occurring within your own self. No birth, no death, nothing.

Q: One thing I wanted to ask is, like, lately I've been so busy at work. I know, because whenever I find time, I do the Mantra too. Of course, I keep kind of reminding myself I know what's the real thing. I don't know, how do I go about this? Sometimes when I get time, probably, you know, I kind of try to align with myself. I mean, through the Mantra, kind of reminding myself what I am. I know, again, from a standpoint of an individual identity, I'm asking this question again. From a real point of a self, there's no one doing anything. Because I read the Avadhuta Gita that it says, even meditation doesn't make any sense from a self-standpoint of you.

Because there's no one doing the meditation. Correct. I mean, from an intellectual point of view, the understanding is there. But again, from an identity point of view, to say like, you know, is it sticking in or like the real experience that's going to follow? It's not there. It's like, I know this identity is not the real deal. So, it's just like hammering the only way. I mean, keep at it until I know my true self. Is that the only way?

John:  Mantra through all your experiences. When I was first given the Mantra, even at work, you know, it was like constantly going. And okay, working, doing this. And if you do get too caught up, pause just for a moment. Mantra. Any kind of meetings or whatever, before meetings, Mantra. In meetings, while listening, Mantra. And you just, you begin to see that all of these things are taking care of themselves quite nicely without all this identification with a thought stream. And the need to be a conscious doer.

Just like when you go to work, you're not constantly aware of your clothing. You know, you go into a meeting and you're, oh, I'm in my clothes, and I'm doing this and I'm doing that. You don't have to put on this identity to do your job. You can respond, of course. Someone says something, oh, yes, yes. You get tasks to do, yes. You know, when it gets busy at my job, it's still just, it just flows. It's just a flowing. And you're not bothered by all these individual flow of thoughts of, what do they think of me? Am I going to make this timeline? Am I messing up too much? Do I really know what I'm doing? Any of these doubts creeping in, because there's no place to hang that hat. And when you're not concentrated on any of the, like, little itty-bitty goings-on, the intricacies, it just flows. It’s scenes appearing and disappearing. Here I am at work, and I'm doing this job. Okay, I'm doing this job. If I go into a meeting and somebody says, oh, John, that was a terrible job. You did this and that. Okay, what do I need to fix it and do this and that? Because they're not speaking about John. Like, John's not going to say, uh-oh, you know, here I am. I'm not doing well. Or, on the other hand, I'm not also saying, oh, it's me, it's me. Look, boss, how well I'm doing. For approval. No.

It's just doing your job, doing your duties. Everything is pick up, drink, put it down. Everything. And Mantra. Just remain with Mantra. Just constant Mantra. Walking in between buildings to different meetings, Mantra. In the meeting, Mantra. Manager sends you an email and says we have this project due, and what are the updates? What are the project reports or whatever? Mantra, and then just begin to type. These are the updates. Because you're not trying to. You know that your manager is you. You know that all the people that you're working with are you.

So, you're no longer looking to, like, maneuver or do this job here or try to get this team or to make it look good or any of these things. It just doesn't happen. And that, honestly, is what a lot of people spend most of their time on, is how will this look to other people, or how is this going to present, or what team am I on, or how this is happening, what the manager thinks of me, all these sort of things.

But the manager is you. And always honesty will also be absolute utmost, so you won't get into any trouble about, like, did you do this? No, I didn't. You just say, no, I didn't. I'm in the process of this, or I have this other thing to do. Everything is just you'll respond appropriately in the moment if concentrated on Mantra. It's like life goes on quite nicely without you having to manage it. Yes.

Q: I was so caught up, so caught up, because I have an eye on the real deal. At the same time, I kind of lost in the illusion so much. Again, when I get time, again, I sit through it, but not like doing it on a continual basis. But again, the body identity kind of kicks in and, you know, kind of get dragged into the illusion.

John: And as soon as the body identity kicks in, you Mantra, because that will slowly, silently, and permanently erase it. And eventually it just won't be there.

Q: I want to see that feeling. And then I keep reading some of the books, too. They kind of speak to me as well. Like any Avadhuta Gita, Ashtavakra Gita, Ribhu Gita. It's the same thing, what Maharaj is saying. I mean, I can see the point, straight to the point. Like, what's the hidden meaning to it? Okay, this is what the meaning to it. But again, it's still like, how do I read? I know it's a question, again, from a religious point of view. That's not how I can be it. It's only one thing. When I lose myself, I can be it.

John: Correct. Yeah, because the you that's trying to be you is not...

Q:  Yes, I was so caught up, so caught up. Yeah, because I have an eye, I mean, I have an eye on the real deal. At the same time, I kind of lost in the illusion so much. Again, when I get time, again, I sit through it, but not like doing it on a continual basis. So, but again, just the body identity kind of kicks in and, you know, kind of get dragged into the illusion too.

John: And as soon as the body identity kicks in, you Mantra, because that'll, that'll slowly, silently and permanently erase it. And eventually it just won't be there.

Q: Okay, I want to see that. And then, you know, and then I keep reading some of the books too. They kind of like, you know, speak to me as well, like any Avadhuta Gita, or Ashtavakra Gita, Ribhu Gita, you know, it's the same thing. What Maharaj is saying. Yes. I mean, I can see the point, straight to the point, like what's the hidden meaning to it. Okay, this is what they mean to it. But again, it's still like, how do I be it? I know it's a question again, from an illusory point of view, that's not how I can be it. It's only how I can, when I lose myself, I can be it.

John: Correct. Yeah, because the you that's trying to be you is not true and can never be that. But the you that you are, is just sort of impersonating this other you, so to speak. And that little impersonation just needs to be removed. So, the reality is there.

Q: Sometimes I just focus on the Maharaj, I don't know much about this, I just simply be, again, the Mantra chanting in the background. So, of course, the thought that keeps coming at it, but yeah, I try to simply be it most of the time. And I guess, as the second Maharaj says, I mean, just simply be and see, you know, things unfold, and we'll see how that comes out. I'm just too eager to see what the outcome is.

John: Absolutely. Just like, let life come and go as it is, you remain with yourself, don't give yourself away for anything, knowing that it's all illusion, it flows by, it passes. Yeah, no matter what moment is coming, you know, oh, this is the moment. Oh, just Mantra, especially, you know, waiting in lines, being stuck in traffic, all these sort of things, you know, any kind of inconvenience, rather than flipping it over to mind to give an explanation to what's happening, Mantra, just Mantra. And yeah, the readings every morning, I read a little bit from Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sri Ramakant Maharaj, Dasbodh, you know, all these different little things, just read a couple of pages as I'm on my way to the Metro, and then I don't experience a Metro ride.

Q: Being in the tech field, we get, we have to read a lot to keep up to the pace, right? And then that kind of takes our time to, this is one thing, I don't know how the balancing thing, I don't know how the balancing thing works for the seeker, per se.

John: Well, remember, the two are not, it doesn't affect your spiritual life at all, your regular normal routine duties don't expect, don't affect your spiritual life. Because even while reading, you can read up on tech stuff and be researching and such and still, just Mantra. Even if you have to get up for a moment and go get a cup of tea, Mantra, just Mantra. Every night before you go to sleep, Mantra.

Q: Sure, that I do it. Every time before going to sleep, I do it. I'm so busy, I don't get to do anything, at least before I go to sleep, I just chant the Mantra and sleep.

John: Yeah, it should put you to sleep very, very quickly, actually, because it's like, it just, it puts you in a very nice state of just nothing. And, and then you're, you're as closest to sleep awake as you can be.

Q: And mornings when I wake up, definitely when I have energy, definitely I sit, I sit, kind of spend like half an hour, one hour, and then chant the Mantra. And then go about my duties later.

John: Yeah, on the days when I have to get up and go into DC, rather than just work from home, I keep all music off. And while I'm driving in, Mantra is running, I'm just listening to it as I'm naturally breathing, and drive that little, I don't know, 15-minute drive to the Metro, and park the car, all Mantra. That way, then I'm not worried about like other cars on the road, bunch of traffic, people pulling or doing anything. It's just same thing going home, just Mantra. Actually, coming home, I usually do listen to music, because by then, I've been listening to music on my commute back. So, but in the morning, no, always like, no music until I've actually gotten into work. And other than that, it's just like a good silent zone, basically. Then when I get on the Metro, I listen to the Kakad Arati, Morning Bhajan, and do all the readings that I just told you on my phone. I've been doing that since seeing Maharaj, and that's, it's just a very nice, relaxing way to start the day.

Q: Looking for the signposts, even though I don't want to look for the signposts. Yeah. It's just, just as a token of, of progress, which again, it's again, that's in the standpoint of an identity. Yeah, well, I'm trying to see for that, that unfolding moment when it happens completely, like, oh, it looks like, but again, I understand the part, but again, yeah, well, I'll see when that happens.

John: Yeah. It's more like just a letting go. Yeah. It's just the, you just begin to flow with everything, because there's no longer a block of you that's blocking up everything. Just, just a nice flow. And as I've spoken before, from the Ashram, when I had that feeling of expansion while we were doing the Bhajans, and it felt amazing, like the feeling of expansion was just amazing. Cause I was like, suddenly I was like the Ashram, and all the people were inside myself and we were doing the Bhajan. But again, that is a conceptual, like the mind is seeing the loss of constriction. And so, the feeling of expansion, because the mind is no longer, you're no longer so paying attention to the mind that, that you're being crammed into the little body form, you know, conceptually, you're not like pushed in. And so.

Q: Also not the real deal, you know, to go past Samadhis. I mean, again, I'm taking from a standpoint.

John: Exactly. Yeah, well, Samadhi is, again, if you could say it's like the natural state, unless you're saying, oh, I had a good Samadhi or I'm having a good Samadhi, because then of course it becomes an experience and there's no experience, no experiencer, because there's no, you're just, there's no, you just flow.

Q: Yeah. It's like the space, like background. I mean, I don't know what to say because I've never seen it. Yeah. But again, I only understanding, again, as in one of our verses, it was saying the ultimate deal is just an understanding that who you truly actually are.

John: Yes. And that you absolutely could not be this body. You could not be a little person in a world. You just, you can't even wrap your head around this concept because only by dream analogy could you say, oh, okay, now it, this is how it appeared for a time that I'm a body in a world performing activities is because it's like a dream. The formlessness attaches with the body, creates a world and a scene and all this sort of thing. And that's how I was lost a little bit, or that's how it appeared. The concept of I'm a body in a world and all these other bodies are other people. But that knowledge, it's not unknowing. You can't like unknow that that's, that's the conviction. The oh, so that I, I am that. But now you go, do your duties? Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Q: Yeah. No, I'm saying this is like so crystal clear. Like how come we missed it all this time? I mean, then this knowledge I was, I was reading these books like from 24 onwards. No, I'm like I mean, it's the same, like it's, it's becomes clear and clear every day. I mean like one, one day, but at a few readings of pages, I can clearly tell this is what they're pointing to. The only thing is I'm still not that, whatever this, whatever they talk about it, which even though I can understand it clearly. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it can be only stated in a, in a negative terms only, not this, not this only. Yeah. Yeah.

John: Whatever you believe yourself to be surrender that. Okay. Absolutely. And, and mind flow will tell you if surrendering could be very tricky because maybe you lose your job. Maybe you'll have this, maybe you have that. But the truth is all of that is happening in this moment. Now there's just an illusory layer that you're paying attention to rather than the reality. And I'm sure you have pictures of the Master at home, and you do bowing to the Master, yes or no?

Q: Because my family stays in India, John, I work here in the U.S. So then whenever I get time, I go back probably next year. I'll go back for good. Yeah. At home, I have pictures of Master. Yeah. Only thing is like, I kind of do the Mantra. I mean, it didn't even occur to me. Sometimes I ask Maharaj for help, but not per se, I don't bow, which I should technically.

John: Absolutely.

Q: Yeah. We have a concept called like, Ishta Devata as well, like Guru and Ishta Devata. Ishta Devata is like our, like a, like a, like a shortcut, like a divinity shortcut or something. So I pray to a divinity shortcut and then I'm chanting Mantra. So, so.

John: Yeah, definitely bowing to the Master. I do that and I have at my work, even I have pictures of the Masters in, in my little like cubicle area and I'll pause for a moment, and I'll sit there and I'll say, oh, thank you, Master. Thank you. Especially, I mean, just all throughout the day, just thank you, Master. Thank you, Master. Thank you, Master. Or Master, I really need help with such and such a thing or, or something like this because Master, of course, is your own Selfless Self, but this kind of devotion is, is very good for removing any kind of egoistic sense of doership because, oh, Master, please help me with this thing. This is happening. And okay, now I release, I go take care of this. It turns out great. Thank you, Master. It doesn't turn out so well. Thank you, Master.

Q: It goes like so high that you think like you're in the play so deep and it feels like I'm the one running the show. And in the case, like you were just only an actor.

John: Yeah. Release everything to, to the Master. Everything. Oh, Master, please help me with this. Thank you for this. Something good, something bad, whatever. Then there's no good, no bad. Everything is just, just a gratitude and a constant devotion. And of course, the highest devotion and how we started this whole thing about death and all that, the highest devotion is to remain with the sense of Presence, that feeling of just I, just I, that, that sense of existence, because that sense of existence is you.

Q: It was like I went there; I had given, I had got like the perfect apartment to stay. So, in Nashik, because it was still, in Nashik had some of the, still had the old structures. Like I just happened to land in a new apartment, and everything was so suited for me. I was like, this was like, this was purely due to Maharaj. I was like.

John: Yes.

Q: I could, I could sense Maharaj whenever I'm in, but sometimes the ego is so high that we're thinking I'm running the show. So yeah, I'm used to that kind of a momentum thinking, of course, I need to let it go. So.

John: And even in the smallest things, you know, the apartment, that's, that's something that's like noticeable and kind of like, oh yes, thank you, Master. You, you have put me in just the right place. You knew best. Thank you. Thank you for helping me. But even this is a great lunch. I'm going to try something different. Oh, thank you. This went really well. You know, every single little detail, bring the Master in. Oh, Master. You are the doer. Even you see Sri Ramakant Maharaj, when he was speaking many times, he would say, thank you to my Master because without the Master and Master is not in body form. Master is your own Selfless Self. So that's why he says, you're not bowing to me. You're bowing to your Selfless Self, but your Selfless Self in the form of Sri Ramakant Maharaj lets you know, oh, you're, you're, you're Selfless Self. You're, you're the reality. Yeah.

Q: At one of the point too, when I was, uh, that was way before, uh, I think, yeah, way before when Maharaj, I think it was before Maharaj dropped his body, I guess.

John: Yeah.

Q: Before Maharaj dropped his body. So, uh, at the time, again, it was a 600 kilometers drive, and I was working at night times because I had to do US work in the daytime. Uh, the work kind of dragged on. I started to catch up like three hours or four hours or five hours of sleep. I never got to sleep fully. Like I think I was, I was kind of awake until the morning or maybe I slept two hours or something. Then I knew if I'm going to hit the road in that state with sun hitting and everything, I'll become sick. And to the, to my surprise, actually, there was not even a single vehicle on the road, and it was fully with clouds until Maharaj's place. I was like, surprise, this is, it's like there was a trucker strike and then there was no single vehicle, and the road was completely free, and it was completely with clouds, and it was all moist and cool in the sunny temperature. I was like, surprise.

John: Yeah.

Q: I kind of wrote this in one of my, uh, memoirs as well in Maharaj Experience X. But again, those are, but again, I want to be like, yeah, we'll see when, when that thing comes up. Yeah. I want to test what selflessness is like. Again, I cannot test it. I can only be it.

Yeah. That's it. I have a feeling for sure that Maharaj is watching his disciples for sure. Only thing is we need to dip into that kind of help or source. Maharaj is there, is always there to help. Only we are not looking at it. Yeah.

John: Yeah. That's when I was driving up to Frederick right after Maharaj left the body. I was very sad because Maharaj was like a father while I was there in the Ashram and talking. And when he came here to America and all that, so there was a sadness. But as I was driving, I thought, oh, well now Master is, has become everything just for a moment. And then a very subtle feeling and voice was no, no, no, no, no. Everything was always Maharaj. Like, and Maharaj knew this without any doubt at all. He never was this body, this leaving the body or whatever to become everything or to expand. No, everything is Maharaj and always was.

Q: And he was very gentleman and very mild to, and very approachable to Maharaj. Yes. Yeah. We felt very sad to drop and Maharaj dropped the body too. And that was the time when we went, John. And then when we, we thought Maharaj was very sick at the time.

And we started, we, me and my wife and a kid, right? We thought like, okay, since we're going back to our hometown from Nashik, okay, let's just say goodbye to Maharaj and then leave if they allow. So, they kind of told us, okay, we'll see if Maharaj allows, if Maharaj is okay to meet you, we'll let you in. Otherwise, you'll have to go without saying Maharaj. And to our surprise, Maharaj himself came and opened the door and gave us a send-off. I was like, surprised. Maharaj couldn't even walk. As if then we understood that was our last visit to the Maharaj. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that was one of, that was one of the memorable experience that we don't, we don't forget. To our surprise, actually, he came and walked and opened the door to us. And even when we were going back, he walked us out of the door. And then, then we kind of understood like, as we were like, why did Maharaj come down? We could have gone to him.

So, then we kind of talked to him. And the next month, again, in the next month after that, Maharaj kind of dropped the body. And then we understood it. That was our farewell experience. So, it is indeed very special that we found Maharaj. Actually, Maharaj found us, actually. Isn't it?

John: Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

Transcribed by TurboScribe.

This is the Tuesday Talk held February 24, 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 24, 2026
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. With limited Edits

Q: I found a good thing this week on YouTube. We got French translation right now. Our meeting we do every Tuesday. And we get it in French. There's a bottom and you got all the script in French. A lot of language. Different language. It's very good. It's helpful.

John: Good, good. Sounds good. Yes, we got a couple of emails about the transcripts that I'm now putting on the website. So now you can go through and read and then take that and translate that as well.

Q: So, yeah.

Q: It’s most all the time the same conversation, but you have to be hammering and hammering. And gradually I just start to feel it sometime. It's natural. It's come. Okay, I'm not that. And it's not something I think about it. It's come natural. This is it. This is it.
And that's really, I enjoy it. I feel the difference between the first talk we had and where I am right now. I say, okay, it's melting. Gradually all the old resistance or old conditioning is going away. Do you see?

Q: Gradually I see, like I've said before, everything John says ends up being, I can totally see the truth in it or whatever.

John: This is the reality. That's the thing. It's not like we're trying to sell anything or say this “could be” if you remain with yourself. The reality comes about because that's the reality. The illusion is very hard to hold. Actually, you have to really be identified with the body form as yourself. Then you have to go with the flow of thoughts because of identification with the body that these things are happening to me, or I must do this, or this could happen to this, or I have fear of this. I want this, this desire. But when you begin to know yourself in a real sense, illusion can't. It can't stick. There's no kind of building blocks to make it stick. Nothing.

It's just freedom because the freedom was there all along. It was the illusion that you were not free that has now been dispelled because there's no longer an anchor for that illusion. Even as you say, gradually, it's falling away. It's because that anchor of illusion, it can't hold up. It's illusory. It's like if you went to the magic show and you saw the magic show.

If you went night after night after night after night, eventually, you're going to see. It's not true. At first, I was really impressed when he sawed the lady in half. But now, after the fifth time of seeing it, okay, there's little boxes and there's this and that. The same with illusion. Hey, you know what? For a time, I really identified with this body. And because that was so impressed from such a young growing of this body that I was impressed that I was the body. I am this person. Because the person is just the flow of thoughts with identification with the body impressed as I am this. I am someone. And because it's not true, it can be easily seen through.

It's like you pull the chair out from underneath the person and they fall. And it's a free fall because there's no support anymore. I am not body. I was not body. I'm not going to remain the body. At first. These are words. Then they start to become an experience. Then that experience deepens into an understanding. And then it's just known. Oh, that's the knowledge. I am not body. Because body form was available, there was a sense of existence that livingness, this. So, to speak, I am alive. I exist.

And because the body form was available, I'm this body. But the space in the room didn't know it was the space in the room. And suddenly an object within the space is available. And there's a knowingness and aliveness in that body form. And you say, I'm alive. But the space in the room is not really alive or not alive because it's outside that whole.

Even when you remain with your Selfless Self, you're outside of consciousness because that I exist is now your first seeing. Oh, the sense of Presence. The sense of Presence appears in consciousness. And the one that's observing this is outside of consciousness because the consciousness is the sense. I am. I exist. And the entire world is taking place inside this consciousness. As is the body that you used to believe yourself to be. And then it gets confusing of universal consciousness or individual consciousness, but both are the one consciousness.

It's just identification or no identification. And then at the most subtle level, the world is consciousness. And that all appears on your spontaneous Presence. And because you know the sense of existence, you're prior to the sense of existence. So, you're prior to world, consciousness, body, because all this has appeared to you that you are. Take all that away.
And what's left? Only you without any shape or form.

Q: Yeah. I've said sometimes it's a concept, but sometimes I think, well, I'm doing this to myself. In a way, but then now I'm starting to see, well, there really is no self to even be doing it to myself.

John: Correct. Even the practice. When people kept asking Maharaj, how long do I do the practice? Well, you do the practice until there's no practicer. There is no more. When you see there's no practicer because you've dissolved this concept. Practicer is within the bubble of illusion. You're outside the bubble of illusion because this sense of Presence is the first thing that created this concept of duality. And you're out of that.

So now what's left and that what's left is that black hole. There's nothing literally just nothing. You can't hold a thought or a concept. There's no thought to think about because there's no place to rest that thought. There's just nothing. And now with this understanding, go about, do your job, do your duties, take care of your responsibilities. Scenes will appear and disappear, and you behave in the moment. Spontaneously. You're no longer looking for outcomes because you're no longer holding on to a limited identification in a world, thinking you are that or thinking that you can even cause anything to happen because you are formless. The only way you cause anything to happen is just like you cause something to happen inside your dream. It's meaningless. As long as you're holding the body form, take care of the body. Doctor says, take these medicines, take this medicine, need a job to feed yourself. Have a job. Do your job. Do your duties. Have a family. Have friends.

No problem. As Maharaj says, it's practical spirituality and it's in no way hindering your day-to-day activities. The two are totally separate because one is absolutely illusion and one is the reality. And you understand this. So, therefore, just like in a play or in a drama where you've been assigned a role, do your job, do your duties, take care of your responsibilities while the body form is available. That's that.

You can enjoy. You can still have preferences of food or water or, you know, oh, I don't like orange juice so much. I prefer apple juice. Okay. And not sitting there and saying, oh, well, if I prefer this, does that mean that I've taken identification with the body or that I, if I was truly formless, would I care whether it was apple juice or orange juice? No, forget about all that because it's all within the illusion. Just as if in your dream you worried about, well, I drank apple juice in my dream and I really don't like apple juice. How did that, how is that possible? Well, who cares? Throw it away. In a real sense, makes no difference.

Q: It's sort of like you said you don't necessarily pay a lot of attention to the news and I'm noticing that actually that's kind of like what you're talking about with the apple juice. It's like you can give your attention to it, but I don't know. Anyway, I'm finding that I don't have to be affected by it or something. Yeah, of course. Not taking the touch type of thing.

John: Don't have to take the touch of anything. And it's not like you're being irresponsible. Like someone will say, oh, well, then you're not involved. Because people used to come to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj all the time and kind of beat on him for not being involved and helping, you know, the people and the people that are suffering. And same with Sri Ramana Maharshi. If you read the books, they come and they say, well, how can you just say his illusion and disregard all the suffering in the world? Know yourself in a real sense and then ask this question.

Q: Then you won't be suffering if you find out.

John: There cannot be. And you'll know no one is suffering. Again, just like in your dream. If you dreamt about a refugee camp and people starving and all that in your dream, when you wake up, it's finished. You say, oh, that's very not human. That's not very nice. That's not this and that. No, but if you know yourself in a real sense, you could say you are the cause of all the suffering or that there is no suffering and both are the same. We talked about if the entire world were to completely explode right now, eight billion people evaporated, it would not make any difference for you.

You are that in which the world appears. On which the world appears, the sense of existence creates the concept of a you in a world and otherness. But it's not true. That's why we call it illusion or Maya. And then you say, oh, well, Maya this or illusion that. And you start to create concepts of what illusion is. Illusion is that which is not. There's no need to create a concept about what's illusion and what's Maya and all this sort of thing. Illusion and Maya are non-existent things.

They do not exist. And yet we have a whole freaking vocabulary to talk about all the things that don't exist. And we even have branches of spirituality that will explain the things that do not exist so that the mind is put at ease when inquiring about all the things that do not exist.

And the spiritual journey is just inquiring about things that don't exist with the idea that you're going to get something. You're going to get some answers. The who am I is not who am I, who am I, who am I, who am I, who am I, who am I?

Remaining with your Selfless Self. All the answers are within. When you look for them without, mind is like, yeah, gotcha. Because you're going to ask this question. And then that question is going to breed another question. And that question is going to breed another question. Then you're going to be satisfied for a short time that you now have knowledge until something rocks that knowledge. And then you require more knowledge. Just like Sri Ramakant Maharaj said, when people come to the Ashram, and then they have this whole plan of, I'm going to go see the Amanda Ma lady or whatever.

And I'm going to go to Ramana Maharshi Ashram. And I want to go to Tiruvannamalai and all these places. And it's like this, this tourism. And that's why he says last destination, last stop. It's very sad. Once you're knowing the truth that you don't just sit there and say, okay, I need to sit with myself. Everyone says meditation. Everyone says, just sit with yourself. Just see what's there.

But it's a lot easier when you're identified with the body form to go on a spiritual journey, to bow to some different, various gurus to recite these different things, to walk around Arunachala, to sit in a cave, to torture the body because there's identification with the body form. This is needed. Instead, you just remain with yourself, the self, and all this dissolves. No requirements. As Sri Ramakant Maharaj says, were there any requirements prior to beingness? No. Sense of existence. I exist as something. All requirements came again.

All requirements came along with the body form. And you are not body. You were not body. You're not going to remain the body. Guru hopping is not going to help. It's going to just add more fuel to the mind's fire to keep you on the spiritual journey. And worse than that, to build egoistic spirituality that you are progressing on this spiritual journey. And in today's market, so to speak, not only will that happen, but you'll also be being fleeced. You know, all the free retreats that just say, oh, yes, the retreat is free. However, you have to rent a room in order to go to the retreat and the rooms are on the Ashram site and there'll be $2,000 for the week. And we don't provide food. You need to provide food, and you have to wear a certain kind of clothes. And we just happened to be selling on site the clothes. We strongly recommend you read this book before you talk to our master. I mean, come on now.

Q: Well, we do recommend reading the book before we participate too much in this.

John: You have to have a little bit of a base. Yes. But the truth is you'll never come to this unless there's something stirring inside you. Like most of the population is walking around happily, blissfully, and unaware of themselves. And yet that is your own self. Nothing is wrong with this. You desire to experience in a different way through that particular form. But when the time comes, yes, you'll be introduced slowly into the books and you. And usually, because the life that you were living, that you were holding on to and clinging so much, began to shake. And there are little cracks. There's a little vibration. Is this all there is? Or, oh my God, I'm really in trouble.

And that's just enough to say, okay, now I need to research. Then books, of course, is good. Go see a master, good. But come to the real master and know, like Sri Ramakant Maharaj says, this is the last stop. This mantra will free you from any ideas you've been holding about yourself that aren't true, that currently you believe they are true. And not by any kind of intellectual exercise. By slowly, silently, and permanently removing all the illusory layers until you know yourself. And then be with you always. Be with you always.

Don't give yourself away for every little thing that happens in the world. Because the world is illusion. When you get angry and you blow up at somebody, or you're very impatient waiting in lines, or you don't like the traffic, or there's bills to be paid and you're worried about it, all of this is because you don't know yourself in a real sense. And so you just remain with your Selfless Self. Okay, do your job. Do your duties. Take care of your responsibilities. In the moment, whatever needs to be happening is happening. And again, like Maharaj says, everything, every action, no matter how much it may have seemed important before, pick up the water, drink, put it down. That's it. Go to your job, pick up the water, drink, put it down. On your commute, pick up the water, drink, put it down. Out with friends, pick up the water, drink, put it down. Nothing like earth shattering. Be normal, be simple, be humble, be always with you.

Q: Because you don't really have to make objects of anything, because the objects are really not other than you in a sense.

John: Well, if you believe yourself to be an object, you'll see other objects. If you believe yourself not to be an object, I am not body, I was not body, I'm not going to remain the body, there's a deep understanding, then there are no objects. It's scenes appearing and disappearing and appearing, and disappearing. Not even I'm formless and you're an object. It's just because if I'm formless, you can't be an object. There could be an appearance within the formlessness, but it could not be an object unless I am an object in space and time.

Q: Because I was going to ask you, I had this question, are objects self-evident or are they only illusion? But you sort of answered, there are no objects.

John: There are no objects. There's appearances in space and time, appearance, just appearance in the formlessness that you are. Objects, if I identify as this is me, then there can be something other. There's no identification. Again, we go back to there's no hook to hang your hat. The hat of John, no hook on the wall, I try to hang it, it just falls. How does John feel about this?

Q: You don't really see that until you see it, kind of. But that's what we're doing here.

John: It's an intuitive understanding. That's how they call the knowledge. The knowledge is not some kind of objective knowledge to know. It's an intuitive understanding, oh, so that I am that, without having to say that, because there is nothing other than that, and now that is known.

Q: It's intuitive because it's not object based.

John: Direct recognition. And once the direct recognition is there, like I talked about last week about how seeing Conner and playing with the kids, and just the understanding was like the formless Presence is animating these bodies and moving them around, and each one is like experiencing a separate world and a separate existence, just like in a dream. It's consciousness that's just animating and moving things around and creating stories. But inside that little body is not a person. A person is a concept and an idea.

Q: And if I want an explanation of it, I just think, well, you can imagine.

John: Well, and it's deep. It's expressive. It was, yeah, just like when you understand that formlessness is not just a concept, it's how in the world could you be involved in this world? Like you just, it's not possible. And you go right back to dream to try and explain it. If you want to be mind logic, you say, okay, in a dream, you lay down sleeping, and sense of existence, it stirs, and the consciousness, objects appear within the consciousness, because there's identification with an object within the consciousness. There are other objects, and there's the subject-object duality, and suddenly now you have a scene, a world. You have people, you have movement, you have activity, you have speaking, you have conversations. When you wake up, you know none of it was true, and it had to have been all you.

Who else could it have been? When you know yourself in a real sense, this so-called waking world, this worldly existence, how could it possibly be true? And that's why going back in the beginning of this whole talk, we said, illusion is very hard to maintain. That's why it's easy to know yourself. And once you know yourself, illusion is just gone. It's just, there's no, nothing can hold it.

There's no structure, because illusion is illusion. And as we discussed in the beginning too, the, oh, you know what? It's starting to deepen, and deepen, and deepen, and what is being said is being impressed. It's because that is the reality. And literally, you know, we're on YouTube, and we have the website, and all that. Anybody stumbling across this, and starting to have curiosity, and listening, you discover your own self, because that is the truth.

That is the reality. It's not something where it's like, only when we're in these talks, or only when we're doing this, or only if you think a certain way, or if we hum, or we have to play some music in the background to get your mind right. No, it is the reality. It's open and available for everyone, because you are everyone. When you discard illusion, there you are.

Q: It's, you know, it's removing the layers, like we used to say.

John: Yeah. Layers of illusion gone, fires burning bright, there you are. There are no individuals, there is no body form, there you are.

Q: So, when the layers are removing, it seems like there's like a bliss kind of thing there, where it feels good to be free. And so, I was thinking, is bliss the, I wrote it down, is bliss the limitless power behind, is there any equivalency between bliss and the power, the formless power that animates everything?

John: Well, again, we talked about the Amrut, the nectar of immortality. This is like the Selfless Self intoxication. As you get closer and closer and closer to your Selfless Self, that sense of Presence, of course, for the first time it's felt, and it has no other things layering it down. So, there is this feeling of, oh, oh, I like this. And Sri Ramakant Maharaj talks about chocolate you're giving, and Nisargadatta Maharaj says, chew the chocolate, because this is this Selfless Self intoxication. It's a little reward for being with yourself and continuing to know yourself in a real sense. As illusion fades, you feel the freedom.

Q: So, at first, it's a contrast, and it might seem like it's more powerful or something, but then it becomes more normal or regular.

John: You will no longer have Presence, seeing Presence. You'll have to, like, use the body form to drop back into Presence. Like, if you sit here and then, okay, you won't be, Presence will no longer be a thing, because you are that.
It's no longer like a fascination of your awareness of an object of, this is Presence, or this is consciousness. It's not like that. You just are.

Q: Then you're not concerned about whether it's dissolving at one time or another.

John: Well, because it's dissolved. Because it's dissolved. There's nothing.
There's no illusory, again, because that hook on the wall labeled Keith is no longer there. So, when I say, Keith thinks this, oh, no hook anymore. There's no hook for Keith. Where's the thought about Keith? Where's Keith's ideas, his conditioning? Nothing, because there's no hook. You've removed the hook, and you didn't actually do it. It's just that the hook was so false that by remaining with your Selfless Self, it could no longer appear as true. It never was true, but it appeared for a time true.

Again, going back to dream. Dream seems very real. Wake up. It's finished. Know yourself in a real sense. The illusion of the world is finished.

Yeah, there will be different stages towards getting this. I told you before about the Ashram. I had the experience where we were doing bhajans, and suddenly there's this feeling of expanding into the entire Ashram, and knowing that everything, all the activity in the Ashram was going on inside myself.

But this, again, was from the perspective of the mind. Mind views this as expansion, because the illusory layers are being dissolved slowly, silently, and permanently. Through the mind, it's interpreted as an expansion. I'm expanding, but no. If you're formless, you cannot expand. It's just that pressure of a limited identification is crumbling slowly, silently, and permanently. All concepts are removed. Even the concept that there were concepts, or that there's someone there on which concepts can hang, such as the hook. John, Alan, Keith, no hooks on the wall.

So, I say, well, Keith, how do you feel about this? Oh, where's that? And yet, in the moment, there's a response, still using language. Still, of course, body form is available. Body and world are synonymous. But world is no longer so. It's loose, like the clothes. You just wear the world as a loose garment.

Q: I was thinking, from a perspective of a Keith, that the mantra is enabling me to start. I'm getting a better connection with the mantra, and so I'm thinking the mantra is enabling me to dip into the bliss more, whereas maybe before it didn't seem to be connected with the mantra. But anyway, it's still just a perspective coming from a sense of limitation that's still there for a time, I guess.

John: And don't get hung up. You know, Sri Ramakant Maharaj and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sri Ramakant Maharaj was very clear about, don't sit and remain with this I am, because this is just a progressive step, a lot of stopping of, oh, this is it, this is the bliss, I love bliss, bliss on tap, I can escape to this place anytime I want. But no, you're Selfless Self, because all of that is still within the bubble of illusion. The I am is within the bubble of illusion, because there's a knowingness, I exist. That creates the concept of duality. You're out of it completely. So, just because that bliss is available doesn't mean you want to sit there and just bask in it. You want to remain with your Selfless Self, continue with mantra until you concentrate on the concentrator, until the concentrator dissolves within the concentration. You meditate on the meditator until the meditator dissolves within the meditation. Nothing is there. Even Samadhi. Samadhi is very nice, very blissful. Oh, I like a nice Samadhi state. For three days I didn't know anything, and I was just floating around, and I had no concept of body, and then it stopped. No, again, this is within the bubble of illusion. No experience, no experiencer. No witness, no witnesser. Nothing is there. Not the concept of nothing, the absence of everything.

Q: But you did, but then, you know, there's like contradictions and non-contradictions. It doesn't make any difference, but it's kind of like neither exists.

John: We use words, and words are meaningless, but we tie words together to try and, I don't know why I would do that, language.

Q: I did ask you a couple weeks ago, one true statement is, I am. So, even that's kind of like not true. That's the first illusion.

John: I exist. That's the key, the doorway. Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj talks about stay at the doorway, and then you understand there's no door, and there's no, because the doorway is the I am. On this side is the world, on this side you are. But if you're on this, if you are on the other side of, I am, then that means I am is an appearance on you, or to you. And along with I exist, comes I exist as something in a world. Look at all these things. I have actions. I have activities.

Just like when you first wake up in your dream, when you attach yourself to any kind of a body form, any kind of a form at all, doesn't even have to be a body, any form at all within your dream, then you, I exist as this object in a world with other objects, a story is created, dialogue, words. And when you wake up, you know none of that was true. The building blocks of illusion.

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.

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.

This is the Tuesday Talk held January 27, 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 January 27, 2026
Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. with minimal editing

 

Q: I received Naam Mantra about three years ago, right. And I've been doing it. But for me personally, I don't know. I guess I do the job of Mantra throughout the day, you know, and I liken it to almost a mindfulness practice in Buddhism, you know, where it's like you, you're using it, it's filtering, it's bringing you to the present moment, you know. So I do that. And then, I try to sit with it in meditation. Um, but I haven't, um, you know, like I, I had, um, about 16 years ago, I had a glimpse of the self, you know, among some other bits of Samadhi. I'm kind of wondering if, um, if I should, um, go back to like, just, just doing breath meditation, because, um, I've read that at some point, you know, with the Naam, it didn't end up stopping it, uh, for some people, and they just be with the breath.

And I know Nisargadatta, he warned against, you know, being too into Samadhi, because it creates an identity for some people, right? But at the same time, he obviously sat long hours, you know, during those three years. And, um, you know, it's, it's not that Samadhi gives you the realization, right?

Like that's not even, it's just, it's not, it's not required at all, but it helps stabilize, right? And so I'm wondering if I should maybe possibly go back to, um, you know, keeping the Naam, but just doing the breath, um, in meditation, because, uh, I feel like, um, I, like I have no, no issue with recognizing that everyone's myself, like this is, I'm the only one that experiences my experience. There's, this all comes from yourself, and this is all, you're formless and all that stuff, right?

Like that's not a problem, but the issue is that I still have issues with my nervous system, having anxiety or fears. And I try to go back to the Naam and I say, you know, just let the Naam do its work. And it helps to some degree, but I've read like, not just in our tradition, but in like say Buddhism that having Samadhi and being able to, um, concentrate and letting those experiences, uh, filter through into your nervous system, that that'll help stabilize you in, in these, um, realizations and stuff.

So, what do you, what do you think? Um, do you think that that's okay for me to just do breathe, uh, with the Naam?

 

John:  If you've been given the Naam, I highly recommend that you continue because eventually you're not actually doing the Mantra. You're just kind of listening to it running through. And when you talk about, uh, like negative, uh, highway, nervous and this sort of thing, um, I can only say from my own self, when I rode on the back of a motorcycle one time with this guy and we were zooming down the highway and I told him, I said, you know, I'm really not liking motorcycles as far as I haven't ridden on them.

And he decided to go and just go crazy. And during that time, I concentrated on the Mantra while I was on the back of the motorcycle. I was just concentrating on the Mantra, and it flowed because I was no longer thinking about the experience that I was experiencing and identifying with a local identification of I'm on the back of this motorcycle and I'm not enjoying it.

And what happens if we crash instead of focusing on Mantra, all the peace came. It was, and it wasn't even just peace. It was just the lack of anxiety, the lack of anything because mind could not sit there and create a thinker thinking thoughts about the situation that it looked like I was experiencing.

 

Q: Yeah. It was like, uh, I use it a lot. Um, uh, you know, not just like trying to say the job, especially that's a good time all the time.  Um, and, and, uh, I mean, that's, you know, it's, uh, there's like another tradition, they call it prayer without season, you know, and it's right, right.

John: Yeah.

Q: What you're doing, you know, correct. Same system.

 

John:  You're inviting attention of the invisible listener consistently and you're clearing away the thought train. You're no longer paying attention to this flow of thoughts because the thoughts are lessening and lessening and lessening. Cause the Mantra is like a broom that just keeps sweeping.

And when you talk about Samadhi, I'm guessing you're talking about your, the sense of presence that's coming. And then there's like a sense of presence. And then there's a sense of a, nothing of you in that sense of presence.

And you're able to just walk about and do your job and just kind of move about without any kind of thought, pressuring you into believing you're a separate body.

 

Q: Well, whenever, whenever I'm doing stuff, typically like just regular, I'm not, I don't have like, uh, pressured thoughts and I'm not having to plan out the next action. It just happens in the moment. But what I'm talking about with Samadhi is, um, you know, just sitting in meditation, being able to, you know, uh, like whenever I saw the self, it was like, everything was, it was just formlessness and it was self-luminous, I guess you'd say.

And, um, you know, it was very much, there was no identity there. I was not Matthew. I was just, it was like the most natural feeling.

And whenever I started realizing, I started observing it, that's whenever I came out of it. Right. And so I was like, I was, you know, years have gone by, I've spoken with some friends with, you know, other practitioners of different traditions and, you know, it's like, um, like that's, that's what I interpret the glimpse of the self as, but as far as, um, you know, I miss that a lot.

I don't, you know, I know that like, I've read that in our, in our tradition, it's like, it doesn't have to be this mind-blowing experience all the time. That's not what it is. It's not a, you don't have this, uh, it's a very normal thing at that point.

Right. But like in the back of my mind, sometimes I'm thinking, you know, with, with say Nisargadatta, you know, having sat for so long and living in the self, right. You know, there's, there's some, there's some problems with terminology, because if you haven't, if you're not like we say, well, you're already Parabrahma.  Right. But if you don't understand that, then it doesn't register. Right.

Only a Jani knows what a Jani experiences. And so, um, if in the back of my mind, I've thought, well, that experience of the self that I had, is that what Nisargadatta and Ramakant have always been in once they realized, you know, if they just existed in that identity-less, uh, formlessness, um, you know, experience, but they would say, well, if it's an experience and you can reflect on it, that's not what it is. Right.

 

John:  So, there's no experience, but that just I, just I, feeling that's the, I am that Nisargadatta Maharaj talks about where you remain with that. Just, I just, I'm speaking about it as presence. These are just words, but it's like just that very, very, very subtle, subtle, subtle sense of presence.

Slowly identification goes away from body and onto the sense of presence as, oh, I am more like this sense of presence than I am this body. This is not a thought. This is just an intuitive understanding, the knowledge, so to speak.

This, after some time of knowing, oh, I'm formless presence, you absolutely understand that whether presence is there or not, I am. And that is your own selfless self, ultimate reality. Presence is an appearance because of body form.

You can feel it, but you are more subtle. I am, I understand, oh, I exist. Just I, just I.

There's nothing there, but still, there's that subtle, subtle experience, for lack of a better word, of just I. You are the one to whom this has appeared. Now this is that black hole that you are just, there's nothing, there's no, you can't think of questions, you can't think to try and talk your way out of believing that you are that you're just here.

That's conviction, oh. Now, moving about your day, you just do your job, do your duties, you don't really pay too much attention to what is happening or not happening. Flow of thoughts has almost totally, completely gone, other than I'm hungry, you have some body-based need, and you go and do this.

You're not a robot or an automaton, you can still fully function in the world, but there's no longer an idea of a timeline of an object in space and time, creating a, quote, life. It's just scenes appearing and disappearing, appearing and disappearing, and then all the words and all these things, you can just throw those out. Jani, or Yanni, and Buddhist, and Hindu, and Nirvana, and Samadhi, and all these there, because they're all body-related, and you are prior to body.

Also, you're not involved in the thoughts or any kind of, like, mental picturing of anything, because you absolutely know that the mind can only show you images, projections of things that came along with the body, because mind came along with the body. Mind cannot be with you, nor can you suddenly say, I'm experiencing myself, because you're creating a duality where there is none.

 

Q: Yeah, I understand that. I just, like, I've noticed that whenever I try to sit, I just feel agitated, and I've tried to, you know, I've tried to cut the caffeine, and different things, and so that's why I was asking if you think that.

 

John:  I don't think breath is a good idea. It's back to egoistic meditation. You're going to be paying attention to breathing as a body form, whereas see, the Mantra is erasing all the concepts slowly, silently, and permanently.

Maharaj talks about it as a broom, so that no sticky concepts can stick, and eventually, if there's no place for these sticky concepts to stick, you lose interest. You're no longer creating worlds of difficulty because of belief and concepts of; I am a body in a world experiencing this experience.

 

Q: Yeah, I've kind of just thought about sometimes just, like, stopping it all together, just because it's like, there's no, like, if you, I feel like if you've seen, you know, it's there, but it's like, having this, this, if the conviction

 

John: Is strong, if right now, tomorrow, they were to say, God forbid, the doctor says, Matthew, you only have a couple of months to live, would there be the experiences and the thoughts of dying?

That's what Nisargadatta Maharaj talks about this, or Sri Ramakant Maharaj talks about on your deathbed, are you going to be shivering and shaking, or do you absolutely know, with conviction, I was never born, I can't die. Like the famous words of Sri Ramana Maharshi, when they told him he was dying, and he didn't understand, he's like, well, where would I go? Like, yeah, that's the deep conviction.

 

Q: I kind of fluctuate, honestly, I mean, because I got surgery coming up next week. And it's like, you know, this is a very real thing for me. And I think, well, I think I just get reborn into this again, there's not a change, there's not anything that I could be different.

There's just whatever is, is, is, and there's no, it's just, you know, just formlessness spread out. And it's just a dream, just like a real dream, you know, so there's not like, there's not a problem. But for me, you know, having been raised in America, and having this Christian upbringing, whenever I was younger, you know, sometimes that little health here creeps in.

And I think, you know, I think this is a deeply seated nervous system issue, you know, where, you know, for me, it's like, like, I don't know, it's just been weird. So it's like, that's why I was wondering about the Samadhi is like, you know, should I try to try to do that more to kind of get the nervous system to just accept the conviction? Because, I mean, you know, I don't believe that we have an intellectual tradition, I think it's very much a direct experience.

 

You've seen it, you've done it, you this is it for you, there's no question.

 

John: But Mantra should be removing doubts, because no doubts can be created. The story of the mother, and the children, the children are very active and mother can't cook. So, she gives them some toys to play with.

And now she can concentrate on cooking. Same with the mind, you're allowing this Mantra to run through the mind, cleaning it, clearing it, so that these thoughts don't come. And as far as surgery, when I went in from my pacemaker, I did the exact same thing, I concentrated on the Mantra, listening to the Mantra naturally running, and went through the entire experience.

Also, I'm assuming you have pictures of the various masters that you bow down to. And you're basically, even though it's a concept in duality, it's a devotion after liberation. So where you're like, oh, master, thank you.

Thank you, master.

 

Q: You know, I may be missing reading books every day, you know, Nisargadatta, Ramakant, Siddharameshwar Maharaj, I have Dasbodh. I'm I spoke with a gentleman, he has a whole bookstore, or like the Marathi stuff. And I was going to try to learn Marathi and just translate the books that you know, we don't have in English, you know, and just something devotional thing, right.

So, but, but, you know, I don't, I don't have their pictures hanging up. And I don't bow to them every day. But for me, the I've had, I'm just kind of weird about like, that aspect of spirituality, to some degree.

 

John: I mean, the main thing is that you surrender the idea that you're separate. That's, that's the, when I went to go see Sri Ramakant Maharaj, I very much understood that that was my concept of God that had manifested in this form. And I was able to bow to the feet and thank that presence that I understood was in the form of Maharaj for this whole thing and coming here and being relieved of so much pain and suffering.

That was a very well-known thing and bowing to the masters. I know even Sri Ramakant Maharaj, he says a lot of the foreigners would come into the ashram and not bow to any of the masters.

But you're not body and that's not body.

 

Q:  Oh, even I had a bad experience before with the teacher.

 

John:  So that's, and see teacher, that's, this is not, teacher is not the body. And I understand there are teachers out there who just teach and then they ask you to do things or they give you all sorts of promises or you must pay lots of money or anything like this. But the reality is yourself is projecting the entire world, including the images or the pictures of the master that you are internally.

And you're not bowing to Sri Ramakant Maharaj, you're bowing to Selfless Self, which is your own self. So, it's not like, it's not like, oh, I'm bowing to this guy's feet. No, this is absolutely, it's just Selfless Self-devotion.

And that also brings about that Selfless Self-intoxication. The more you really remain with the sense of presence, this I am, you can remain with nothing else. Nothing in this illusory world has any kind of pull for you, because it's just this, just this beautiful, just I, just I.

 

Q: You were your own master, correct? You were your own master, right?

 

John: Yes, yes. You are master. There is no such thing as master and disciple.

 

Q: Exactly. So, he doesn't have to have that perception if he doesn't want to.

 

Q: I mean, the thing is, is that it's like, this is all a projection of the self in my, the way that I understand it. And so, it's like, there's, I don't know, maybe the first teacher, I had false ideas about a teacher and that manifested as false ideas, whatever. I don't know them, you know, it's Maya, who knows, right?

So, but the, that devotional aspect is something that I have neglected, I feel like, you know, so.

 

John:  That's a large part. That's, that's why even the bhajans, still to this day, I wake up in the morning, I put the bhajans on, I listen to the bhajans to give that spiritual atmosphere, and then read books from Nisargadatta, Sri Ramakant Maharaj, a couple of different like daily readings and things. And that's just become a way to start the day in that devotional aspect.

But devotion is important. It's, it is because this desire to know yourself is to remove anything that is not. It's a burning desire within.

I don't know if you've read on the website, the Ramakant Maharaj Dakshina, but I outlined that when going to India at the airport, in those words that I said, I was like, I am going to India to bow at the feet of the master and ask that anything that is not that be removed. And that's that devotion that that selfless self-devotion, because whatever bad experience you had led you to Maharaj led you to be able to take Mantra. So it was just one step on the journey.

This is the final destination, your own selfless self. And even to have like preferences of I don't like this, I don't like the bhajans, I don't like that. There’s still something there, creating this situation of I don't want to do this, or I don't like that, or I don't want this.

And the more that that Mantra slowly silently erases, there's no place for these sticky concepts to stick. Like you said about Christian, okay, as a kid, I was I was raised up in Christian. Now with this, as I'm sure you have been able to see, and you already mentioned it is the same, like everything that that that Jesus was saying is what we're saying.

This is the absolute truth. And when you say after I die, I'm not sure about the heavenly experience or this experience or that experience. But you're not going to there's no birth, no death.

 

Q: Yeah, it's just something that is.

 

John:  And this is why it's important. Remain with the Mantra. Slowly, silently, permanently, there won't be no concepts that can stick, because there won't be anything for them to stick to no place to hang that.

The last thing you want to do is like veer off and say, oh, maybe this is not it. Let me go over here. Because you understand that's just game of the mind.

 

Q:  100% 100%.

 

John:  And if you fall into the trap of the mind saying, oh, let's try this master or this over here, or, you know, this is not working for me. Let me do Christianity. Let me do this.

Let me see more of this, or it's just more busyness, because the reality is, all of these are body knowledge. All body knowledge can be discarded, even all the body knowledge. It is because you're not a body, the body knowledge, body relations, body experiences, none of those are you.

 

Q: Yeah, I feel like I'm just like, right on the edge.

 

John:  And the slight push Mantra. And like I said, devotion, at least for my own self. This devotion was extremely important in my whole kind of evolution, if you want to call it that.

Because without it, there would be an egoistic spirituality, like Maharaj talks about of I'm in the river with my leg up for five hours because of this thing, or I walked around Arunachala, or I lived in cave for like, you know, two months in the cave by myself, because Ramana Maharshi did a similar thing. This is all the egoistic, we're talking practical spirituality, where when you know yourself in a real sense, okay, now you just do your job, do your duties, because that conviction is deep. And if for some reason you go through, like you said, surgery, body-based experience, perfect time to be with Mantra.

As in my own case with the food poisoning in India, rather than flipping out about barfing and really being violently sick in a foreign country with nobody that I knew around me to like, quote, help me and relying completely on Mantra and Maharaj and going to a foreign hospital, but not experiencing any of that. And going for pacemaker, again, remain with Mantra, going through the whole experience without experiencing this. So you could say, oh, if there's a sudden kind of flash of this is happening, Mantra, because right now I've already created a local identification of something happening to me.

So why not then use that to experience the Mantra?

Okay. And as I mentioned, even the motorcycle ride, because at first that was no matter how Selfless Self you are, you get on the back of the motorcycle, this dude's doing like 100 miles an hour. And you're like, Oh my god, man.

So, Mantra, Mantra, Mantra. And then, oh, here we are at our destination. And I wasn't even like, like shaking.

So, it wasn't even a physical manifestation of fear, because that had left.

 

Q: Well, thank you for clarifying. I appreciate it.

 

John:  Jai Guru.

 

Q:  It's sort of like devotion is what keeps us here. And it is what we're doing. It is.  It's here. Devotion is, it's sort of why I'm here.

 

John: Devotion just comes from internal, like, even at the ashram. It's funny, because when I went to India, first off, it was, okay, I don't like fruits and vegetables. Well, guess what?

You're going to be eating a lot of vegetables. But I said, internally, I didn't ask Maharaj, but I said internally, Master, please let me look at these vegetables and not register that they're vegetables and just eat and not have something in their blocking, not put a me in the road. Let me just do this, please.

And Mantra, Mantra through lunch. Okay, you're eating vegetables. You would not have done this before.

Waking up really early, because Kakad Arati is like, I don't even know, I think it's like 5am or something. We wake up. And I'm up a little bit before that, because I wake up, take a shower, sometimes hot, sometimes cold, go to the ashram, and begin that he's, the people are sweeping and preparing for the bhajan and putting the flowers and all this sort of thing.

And there's just that natural devotion of just surrendering. And at least in my experience, the surrender was very important, because like I said, the whole thing that brought me into this was a 12 step program, where I was completely out of control, egomaniac off the charts, and then smashed and had to rely on something or someone else to help me, which then led to my understanding of a greater than myself, as this presence, worshipping this presence, thanking this presence, doing the prayers to this presence, which eventually then led to Sri Ramakant Maharaj. And all of that was because it needed to be surrendered, it shouldn't be. I think Nisargadatta, well, Sri Ramakant Maharaj talks about born in Russia, or India, or America, or Britain, and all the different body-based concepts that might have come along with that, but you are not body.

There's no India sky, America sky, Russia sky, they're never at war with each other or complaining or saying you're too far over into my part of the sky. It's not like this. All body-based concepts have to be just; nothing can be held onto.

Because if you hold onto something, then how in the world can you know yourself, unless you create egoistic spirituality of, I'm a very spiritual person, knowing myself. Sri Ramakant Maharaj talks about that trap where it's like, oh, I'm now a spiritual man, and I know that everything I've done, I didn't actually do. But there's the idea that nothing was actually done, and there is no spiritual man.

There's an understanding that's come that before this body, I am. After this body, I am. Or as even Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am.

There never was a time where you were not. There can't be. Because you're all there is, manifesting through the various different forms, in various different ways, just as electricity can charge your phone, you can watch TV, you can have a light, you can have heat, and electricity has no idea what it's doing, it's just supplying the power.

Or in a dream, in a dream, it's a formlessness. You lay down asleep, it's obviously formless, because you're sleeping, and yet the entire dream world is projected, populated, conversations happen, it looks very, very real at the time you're experiencing whatever you're experiencing, and then you wake up. And waking up here is just to know yourself in a real sense.

I am not body, I was not body, I'm not going to remain the body. Invisible, anonymous, unidentified identity, that you are.

 

Q:  Yeah, that's one thing that I've kind of wanted to have more of with Samadhi, is that it's like, when you suspend, you know, you do Pratyahara, and you have sense withdrawal, right? You take away the senses, you exist by your own, there's no need for outside stimulation for you to actually be, you know, you just are. And so that's why I felt like, am I missing that to some degree, to like to stabilize that awareness of, you know, that I exist on my own, you know, without the support of anything, right?

Like closing your eyes, the whole world goes away, you open them back up, it's there. That, it's just, it's not a, how do I put it? It's as simple as that in illustration.

I know we use the dreams and, you know, the dream world and the deep dreamless and that, but it's like, you know, you're the first and you're the last, it's at all, everything that you have comes from you and ends with you. And so knowing that, you know, you don't cut off your hand, and you say, oh, no, I've been cut off. It's like, you know, that you're not the body, you know, that you're not the mind, you know, that you're not the senses or anything else like that.

And so that's why I was like, you know, not having had Samadhi and so long, it's like, you know, that I was thinking that may help stabilize that understanding, you know, so that's.

 

John: When you sit for Mantra meditation, the sense of presence, that's not like, I mean, now that you know that it's there, you can dive into it pretty much any time, right?

Q: I don't feel like that is, I don't know what's blocking that then only the concept that I'm not because that presence maybe is the meds I'm on.

I don't know. Like I’m, I take psych meds too. So, I don't know if that's had a dampening effect or something, but again, that's a body-based thing.

 

John:  So the only thing that's going to cover your own self or concepts, body-based concepts, because again, fire is burning ash ashes, remove fires, burning bread, same thing with that sense of presence, that sense of presence, that just die, just die. Even first thing in the morning, when you first wake up, you can feel that just I, just I. And anytime, I mean, in this moment, drop back in awareness, just falls into the sense of presence and you could call it Samadhi, but it's not, it's just a, it's just your own self.

It's the most natural state.

 

Q: Yeah. There's something that I'm just not catching, I guess. I don't know what it is.

 

John: You know, this concept of I'm not catching it. Remember you are the self, the self, whether you believe yourself to be that or not. So the concept that I'm not catching this, or I'm not progressing or any of this, these are body-based concepts and can be easily removed.

It's absolutely not true. You just sit. Presence is all there is.

That's, that's the, and that's the closest you can quote experience your own self because you are yourself and presence is sort of the first layer, the first concept of duality. I exist, I am, just die, just die. Before the concept of I am something, presence is Selfless Self-intoxication.

 

Q:  That's, that's the, Is that the same as Samadhi? Selfless Self-intoxication?

 

Q:  Samadhi just means concentration. That's all that means. Samadhi is absorption or concentration.

It's not like, it's like whenever you, your mind is absorbed in a meditation object. So, the idea is like, you know, saying the Mantra over and over and over, right? Like at some point you understand the, which you can look it up, right?

But like you understand experientially what the Mantra is. That's the idea with, if you were to have Samadhi on the Mantra.

 

Q:  But it's sort of like stabilization of attention.

 

Q:  Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much.

Yeah. That's, that's, that's, that's a close way of saying it. Yeah.

As far as I'm aware, like, so I don't know.

 

John:  Again, if you have Samadhi, you have an experiencer of Samadhi. Right. That experiencer is not ultimate reality.

Right. So, and then they call them Nirvakalpa Samadhi is the reality of, of just, you're just, you have no awareness of your own self as anything separate.

 

Q:  That's, yeah, that's, and that's what I'm saying is I think the not having Nirvakalpa in like a long time, I feel like I have all this like body-based like stuff that I'm just like, I don't know. I'm going to keep doing the Mantra for sure.

 

John:  Yeah. And all the time, not just in specific periods and forget about meditation because Mantra all the time. Yeah.

Just you're in traffic, Mantra. You're walking to the store, Mantra. You happen to be doing whatever, watching TV, Mantra, whatever it is, because what you just said about not knowing yourself as anything separate, this Mantra will do that because you'll suddenly, again, in my own experiences, you understand from the other side, Oh, I just went to the hospital.

I did this. I did that. I did it, but I did not experience it.

I did not create an experiencer experiencing because mind was concentrated on Mantra. So, it could not create a local identification of an experiencer on which the concepts of fear or the concepts of, Oh, what's going to happen to me or body protection, none of these things could happen because Mantra just didn't allow any hats to be hung.

 

Q:  Would you say that's like an sort of intense focus on the Mantra? Just throughout the day.

 

Q:  I mean, mechanically is what I've been instructed.

 

John:  Well, not mechanically though, because it's like, breathe in first part and breathe out the  second part. And that's that, that, okay. Just slowly, silently, permanently, all the concepts are removed without you having to say, I'm removing them or without you having to concentrate.

Oh, my mind's so busy. That's fine. Mantra.

And you watch yourself. I mean, I know this because in India, I got the Mantra, started doing the Mantra and wound up wandering all over India, totally, completely lost and had to take one of the little rickshaws back to the Ashram because you are so totally absorbed that you do not think about the you, what you are, where you are, what you're doing.

 

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.

 

 

 

 

This is the Tuesday Talk held January 13, 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 January 13, 2026

Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai.  with minimal editing.

 

Q: I can say I had a pleasant time since I woke up from a nap today. I just started feeling like everything was just right. It's sort of an unexplainable thing. I guess I've always thought things were... I knew that things are just right at times, but somehow, it's also... I see it's possible for...

But, you know, words are tricky because you say something's right, and that could appear to mean that you know something about it. But this is just right the way it is, everything is just right the way it is, it has nothing to do with words or even... I always thought it had to do with feelings too, but I see that...

I guess earlier today I saw that there's something totally invisible Presence that has to be there for anything else to be present. And I guess that aligns with what you talk about a lot, that this invisible, anonymous identity. It's like a value that can't be specified or limited to any value, but something about it is...

As soon as you say something about it, you're limiting it. So, it's... But there's something that feels really...It's like everything is all right. So, everything, but nothing in particular is recognizable as... I guess it's recognizable from a standpoint of...was that, okay, you have a division is something you can do. It's something that we think of when we divide. We have done the division.

It's like the invisible ability to divide is not... It must be there, but it's not divided. It's not one of the divisions that comes out of it. So, all divisions would be appearances within. I mean, you say division is a concept, but that's not really saying anything either. Because division, the ability to divide is not...It's like invisible. It's there, the ability, the potential, but it's invisible. So, you see where I'm getting at?

 

John: Yeah, I mean, invisible, anonymous, unidentified identity. And the world is all right. Everything is perfect without you, like without creating a you.

That's what you're basically saying, it is like when it's just that formless, just I, just I, the sense of Presence, everything is right. Even if things appear not to be right, because they're occurring within your own self, and because you're not trying to create a local identification and get involved in whatever's happening, that's why it's just, oh, okay, this is just a happening inside my own self without having to say it. Because within your own self, there is no division of you.

There are appearances within you, but even then, you're not dividing. Like you're, and even, again, a dream is a perfect example. The formless dream consciousness creates an entire dream world, populates it, a lot of activities going on, but the dream consciousness wasn't divided.

It was just that all these appearances started appearing, and then moving, and all this, and when you wake up, you know, oh, it wasn't true. So, you can't even say that it was like individuals, even though within the dream, it appears as individuals.

Q: Yeah, it kind of makes everything, it turns everything into a joke. As soon as you start thinking something is something, you can, it's like the joke's on you, because you're the one that's making it out to be a certain way, as if it's dependent on what you think it is, and then...

 

John: Well, that's the power of your attention, or the power of awareness. Awareness directed towards something is, I am aware of. Awareness, quote-unquote, pure awareness, just I, just I, is not directed towards anything.

There's no subject-object created. If you look at something, and you say, oh, that is something, then there is a seer created to have seen this object, but the seeing, just I, just I, there is seeing. Am I seeing?

I don't know. Seeing scenes appearing and disappearing, and without a need to create anything, any obstacles in the way, because as soon as I even say, oh, wow, I'm seeing that everything is myself, then again, that's taking egoistic, kind of, I'm seeing. I see that everything is one with me, but there's no need to say this, because again, you're prior to the very first word, so uttering a word only creates a world of concepts, all within the bubble of illusion.

The you that you are, can't speak, much like, again, they talk about the flute. The flute is giving off all this music and all this, but it's not doing anything. There's a flow coming through that creates these things, but without a flow, without blowing in, the flute, it's just an instrument, just a dead body.

There has to be that power, that energy to come through to then create, to do something, to make a sound, but the flute is totally unaware, and the sound is not, the air that's going through doesn't know, oh, I'm going to be making these sounds. It just flows. No individuality.

 

Q: Dasbodh talks about wind. I'm just reading the page where he was talking about wind and mind mixing together to make creation or something like that.

 

John: Well, again, Dasbodh, the whole concept of Dasbodh is that there is no world, and then this is how the world was created, if there was a world. That's the idea of the elements. But in the very end, too, Dasbodh gives you from the perspective that God wrote the book, because it talks about everything you've heard and this and that.

It's all divine. It came from the divine, and as you can understand, it's the divine that's written this book, but it's not necessarily like people would think of God on some throne that comes down and writes a book. It's, again, the flute.

 

Q: And the words just come out of that.

 

John: Yes, yes, well, because within the bubble of illusion, these instruments have communications. But again, it's the same as in your dream. All the little dream bodies may be carrying on conversations, maybe talking.

You may even have a dream that there's a police officer, and you have people, and you have a fireman, and you have all these. Nobody went to school. Nobody had any professions.

Nobody did anything. It's you. And when you wake up, it's not like you totally destroyed the world.

All the people have a nice view of the lake, and everybody's enjoying a nice sunny day, and you wake up, basically like Armageddon for all these people.

 

Q: But it's Armageddon, well, it's putting, well, it's not Armageddon. It's like making something out of nothing as soon as you think it's you that did it or something.

 

John: Because something appears out of nothing and goes back to nothing, because it always was nothing. The something, the dream, came formlessly. Your dream consciousness, as we'll say, for instance, laying down sleeping, creates the dream world.

And then on the other side, there is no more dream world, because the something appeared, but it's just an appearance. And when you know yourself in a real sense, it's one long continuum with appearance and disappearance.

 

Q: Yeah, I was sort of getting a sense of that, of what you're talking about, things just appear and disappear. It's very simple. It's nothing super profound, except that it makes it easier to go into a sense of ease and what could be called bliss. It makes it sort of more accessible, but less special, maybe.

 

John: I mean, when scenes appear and disappear, it's just like you say, okay, I'm not working anymore. I come home from work and I watch television. There's this scene of television.

And hopefully, your mind is not, like, continuing to try and place you in the illusory existence of work. That's why you say, oh, the person is very stressed. Why is this person stressed?

Because they are living in many different places, worrying about the work, worrying about the bills, worrying about this, worrying about that, all these sorts of things, and creating each one of these worlds and carrying them all with you. So even while you're at home watching TV, the concept is of work, because you're identifying with all these thought flows of work. And your physical body may not be at work, but that mind flow identification is at work while watching TV.

And then you say, oh, this TV show is terrible. I'm not relaxed. Well, you're not relaxed because you're at work, even though you commuted home. And that's only because you've created a local identification.

 

Q: Although the boss will tell you that if you don't get this done in time, it all depends on you. And his point, he's making a you out of you.

 

John: No one can make a you out of you. You make a you. Somebody gives you an assignment to do, you do your job, do your duties, and you leave it.

If my manager said, oh, you have just like, okay, we're coming up on our transition time. And from where I work, all the new Congressmen, as soon as they get elected, we have to create all websites for them and get them all set up and do all this sort of thing. There's going to be a lot of work.

And I will be working at home and in the office and at home and late. But again, it's just do your job, do your duties, take care of your responsibilities, and finish. Only you can create a you.

Your manager can't say, okay, I want you to be Keith right now and do all this stuff. Be working, Keith. It's not.

It's just, I mean, it can be, because again, you are the ultimate reality, and the creation of any illusion is totally possible. I mean, you're creating this whole illusory waking world, and you create a whole illusory dream world. So, you can quite easily create a working Keith, but there's no need for this.

 

Q: That's not all. That's not all there is.

 

John: But there's no need to create any Keith. Because in reality, when you know yourself in a real sense, body is available, but it's no longer a tight suit. It's more like linen suit, just very loose and fluffy, except in the cold, of course.

But then you have a puffer jacket. It's not constricting you. It's nice and puffy, keeps you warm, but you're not constantly focused on it.

 

Q: Sometimes when I don't know if this is true, but sometimes it seems like when I'm in a little bit more of a loose state of mind like that, that the coldness affects me less or sensations me. Coldness is a good example because sometimes I'm usually very sensitive to cold, more so than most people. And then I make a concept out of it, and then I’m ready to resist the cold.

But sometimes it just doesn't affect me because I'm not, I'm in a better state of mind or something. It's not affected.

 

John: Because again, awareness of body sensations, your attention grows anything because your awareness is like, oh, I'm cold. I'm really, really, really cold. Just like the concept of time.

If you go to some lecture and it's just a totally boring lecture, and this guy is almost, you're dozing in and out and you have to keep checking your watch. And that one hour seems like four days, or you do a lecture and the guy is right on and it's, and it's so fast. And you're like, wow, it went by so fast.

Because again, all of that is within you and your attention. If you're constantly looking at the clock do this even at work if you're sitting at work and you're Constantly checking the time. Oh boy. Is that going to be a very long day for you?

But when you're sitting there and you're just doing your job doing your duties taking care of responsibilities. Oh, oh, look, it's lunchtime Okay, go to have a lunch come back. We're doing job, doing responsibilities. Look at that. It's time to go. Okay, good, good.

 

Q: Even if you're like sitting with nothing to do and you could turn that into a state of boredom you could also Just appreciate everything and feel that sort of peace that's there all the time, too you know, and then and then you won't think of it as being bored that you'll actually enjoy it because you're just open to not making it into anything

 

John: Appropriately in each situation But yes that reminds me of when I first was in spirituality like 2010 I guess it was and I Was reading all these books and doing these different meditations and I had this big screensaver of an aquarium That not screensaver But like a video that you could play and I had a big screen from work and I played this aquarium and I had this little Zen garden and everything at my desk and I would break the little sand and put the little things and stuff and the manager walked by and saw this was like What the hell are you doing? I was like, oh, you know, this is just a very nice relaxing I'm just taking a moment to you know, just feel the universe and be one with it and all that He's like, okay. Well, let's do that during lunch break or something like that. So well, no because it was more terrible than getting caught and like I said in 2010 I went through a lot of different very crazy stuff and it was like, you know And I was listening to Mooji at the time too and the whole concept of not doing anything I didn't actually understand it. I didn’t have; I hadn't been in touch with my own self.

I was just hearing this “Don't do anything, you know, you're not a doer. Don't do anything. Everything will get done for you basically”, so I'm at work, you know watching the videos and playing with my Zen garden and I go outside for sometimes an hour at a time and meditate by the fountain and it was just it was too much sattva like they talk about the different gunas when the sattva guna really hypertrophies it's very crazy That's why when I went to go see Maharaj the beard that was all out the long hair the Rudraksh the dashiki Isn't all this kind of stuff? Because the sattva guna had just gone absolutely just bizarre but then once you know yourself in a real sense somebody says oh, you don't do anything. You're like, yeah, of course.

How could I do anything? Like that there's no there's no You know yourself in a real sense. There's no deed. No doer. No birth. No death. But when it’s just conceptualized in the mind You wind up watching fish and raking Zen gardens.

Yeah, just like Eckhart Tolle. When I very first started reading that was the very first book I ever read of any spirituality. He mentioned the Presence around the flower and I literally went to the flower and would stare. I wanted to see the Presence of this flower. I wanted to see That, and I didn't really understand the Presence and these sort of things but the good thing was I had this burning desire to know myself and Although it may have seemed silly to sit there and stare at the flower It was a burning desire to know this Presence.

What is Presence? I want to feel this Presence I want you know if this is true I want to see this and this of course is what you must have You know that that burning desire. I must know myself or in the beginning if it's just I must know this God or I must know how to surrender to God or whatever because when I went to go see Maharaj, I had felt the Presence and I had identified that with a power greater than myself and was going to Maharaj the sole purpose was to bow down and thank God for having changed my life so dramatically through the 12-step program that I was in at that time. Because my life was in shambles before it was just all over the place and I wanted to Bow down to this power greater than myself and say, “Thank You” and now whatever's left of me. I leave it your feet How can I best serve Thee and thank God Maharaj was a real one.

Because there are some out there Okay, give me all your worldly possessions shave your head, you know go to the airport and collect some kind of thing and saying God because I was in that state where I would have been like, okay, let's shave the head let's go to the airport. Let's do this. But even that because the Selfless Self the more you have that desire there's Nisargadatta Maharaj talks about like the self is interested in you and you're interested in the self and it it's an exchange. Actually it's Siddharameshwar Maharaj who talks about that exchange it's like a magnet

 

Q: I guess for some of us it takes longer than others to really to sort that out to where You finally recognized that you Like me, you know, I'm good I feel like, you know, I took another step today into like I could call a clarity or something And it's taken me so many years, but I've always had a sense of it, but there's always you know, this push and pull where Identification takes over or you know, it takes over. It's not like I’m doing that.

 

John: Remember that's illusion, too. Yeah, because when I was going through my quote early stages, I Would go have times where it was just total peace and bliss and I was just like, oh, this is it. This is what they all talk about and then something happens and I'm like, oh then I lose it. Then I of course go online or I go to like the Mooji chats or whatever and it's like, oh I was there and then I lost it and then it came back and then I lost it. But see again concepts and because I was looking for other people who are experiencing these concepts. We're all trying to explain these concepts to one another rather than like Maharaj, it's finished. All these concepts are illusions. Their layers on your Presence. Discard the layer. Presence is there.

How do you discard the layer? Meditation Mantra. Oh, so that I, I am that. Then, you know, it can't come and go

 

Q: Actually, I could feel the way much are working now.

 

John: Right on the spot more so than yeah, it's the magic eraser for illusory concepts like etch a sketch. The old etch a sketch where you would draw something and create these all-beautiful pretty pictures and all that, and then you just go shoo, shoo, and it's all gone. Shoo, shoo is the Mantra

 

Q: Although concepts. Well It's not working that much.

Why did okay? I did the Mantra a couple minutes ago How come I'm not feeling perfect now, you know, that's because then there's a you in the Mantra You just have to continue and Mantras all the time.

 

John: It's not just sitting for meditation That was one thing that was huge in the beginning too. Because as soon as we got Mantra, we all sat around and it was like do like hour or two of meditation But then there was this continuum and that's when the walking around all of India started and it was understood that this Mantra is just consistent cooking hot dogs, Mantra. Getting in the shower, Mantra. Brushing teeth, Mantra. Going to work, Mantra. Commuting, Mantra. Then eventually you just hear Mantra as it's naturally circulate and actually running through the body and then when you're hearing the Mantra, there's an understanding that oh, I'm not doing the Mantra. As much it’s just the invisible anonymous unidentified identity is being texted.

 

Q: Parallel You go with its watchers parallel breathing. It's the background. This is the concept

 

John: Background of everything because you're just like, eventually meditation won't be a thing for you because the entire world is the meditation. You're no longer sitting for meditation because you're not a body, you know, you're not a body So if you're not a body, then the world is actually the meditation. Thoughts are coming and going. Various forms are coming and going. All within your own self and there you are meditating. You don't have to sit there and say oh, I'm going to meditate unless you want to oh That was the thing. I said I was going to do New Year's Eve. Was and I have been doing this previously sitting there and listening to Maharaj all through the evening do the talks and all of that on YouTube. Commercials are insane nowadays. I was like I couldn't do it for more than like four, maybe four or five different talks and I had to stop because every talk it interrupted four times I was like man, this is the worst It was on YouTube or something that was on YouTube.

Yep, you know where we have the YouTube channel and You know all the Maharaj Talks are there in the whole playlist I hit play and all the previous years I've been able to kind of just sit there and kind of doze in and out and hear Maharaj and All throughout the evening all the way into the morning, but this time too much commercials Like I mean four times in a 10-minute speech. That is ridiculous Yeah, and they're loud like he'll be like, you know Invisible not in the Sun identified 499 come on down, you know, it's like oh my god, man. Come on Or that crazy Limu we knew that keeps popping up.

I'm like, oh my god. This is just it's too much so I was not able to do that this year, so we'll see if this year turns out to be Absolutely terrible Now I'm kidding but you know those So even that and see that truly it was like, okay, I can't do it and that's it finish but In the very beginning that would have really bothered me a lot. Like I said, I would have been like, oh my god You know what's going to happen now.

But that's only because you create a local identification. Without a local identification nothing can stick to you. You have nowhere to hang the hat of any concept. If you have a whole bunch of pegs. You know I'm this, I'm that, I believe this, I believe that. Then every hat of every concept can hang If you have no little pegs. Whatever concept tries to hang drops. Very nicely, very easily.

 

Q: We're talking about Being on the job or something and being whether things depend on me or not and it occurred to me that what things will seem to depend on you if they seem to depend on you and you will be living as if You as if what you think is true and you will be feeling that way according to what seems to be true according to the way you think but that's exactly the kind of Spinning wheel we want or Do we want to get off of?

So no, it doesn't depend.

 

John: I mean. Again, this is practical spirituality. I work in a team. If I just sat there and said, oh, you know, everything's going to do itself everything is lovely everything is beautiful The world is beautiful. Nothing relies on me.

 

Q: Well, I'm saying the opposite if everything seems to depend on me and I think I'm the one that's controlling the team Then you know, it's going to go well, no you do your part.

 

John: Yeah, we go back to the Bhagavad-Gita. When Krishna told Arjuna you have to fight. Don't try to be this great warrior. But you have to fight. You, you must do your duty. And do your duty but just in the moment. Without ego. Without taking pride or ownership or doership. It's just in the moment. But if you're on a team you do teamwork. You do what's assigned do your duties and take care of you assigned duties.

 

Q: Excuse me. It's practical. It all doesn't, it all doesn't not Ultimately depend on me. Because even though I'm part of a team if I drop out or if I die The team's going to go on it doesn't depend on me.

 

John: So, I mean in in everything. There's always a replacement for the person. But again, you do your job. You do your duties, take care of your responsibilities. If you are put in charge doing your job and doing your duties, is making sure that everyone else is taking care of their responsibilities and that is your duty. Again without ownership.

 

Q: But I've always thought okay like sometimes I feel free and sort of blissful and then I don't anymore. And somehow, I end up I could get the idea that somehow that depends on something I mean, I don't me that did that can do something about it or because again, you're taking your bliss.

 

John: From outside yourself. You're taking your peace and your bliss and all this sort of thing from outside yourself. You don't want to do this. You're the fountain. Right. Everything is within you. I really don't you start trying to seek happiness and peace and bliss outside Then yeah, you're absolutely right. You're chasing your tail. But the fountain is within. And I really don't. Nectar of immortality sipping just I, just I, Presence there is no person responsible for that. It's just That. There has never been. Are the people in your dream responsible for all the things and yet. Maybe you dream that somebody's walking the dog. Well, they're taking care of their duties. Yes, the duty is being done. Activities are happening. But it's all within your own self.

 

Q: The word one word kept coming to me today. Was it felt perfect. Everything was kind of feeling perfect and that was nice and I could still feel it. You know, it's just kind of perfect It's a concept. I guess you can make a concept out of it, but it's also Beyond concept two or something.

 

John: Well, the absence of any disturbance because you're not there. If you're not there, there's no way to be disturbed. If I have a local identification, then I have a position then I have concepts. I have thoughts about myself If I have no local identification, none of these is true. And that's why Nisargadatta Maharaj said If you say that I'm a very great saint, I'm not impressed. If you say I'm a very terrible saint, I'm not depressed. Because you're not speaking about me. This body form that you see is not myself.

 

Q: I know this There was something there was something Extraordinary about this Nisargadatta Maharaj, the way he expressed things. The guy was just coming from. He's speaking from ultimate reality the bottom of reality He was an intelligent guy, even though he wasn't educated. He was super intelligent or something. Well again, he's speaking from it.

 

John: It's not like he went to school and learned all these things. It's just coming from within. The responses are coming from within. He even says in the book that the responses just come. A question is put and the answer is appearing along with the question. Because there is no questioner and there is no answer. Just like in the dream. If you had one person asked somebody a question in the dream. The questioner and the answerer are exactly the same. Even if the answerer seems very profound in their answer, it's all you.

 

 

 

This is the Tuesday Talk held December 30, 2025. 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!

 

 

 

This is the Tuesday Talk held December 16, 2025. 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!