Dhyaan (meditation) means attention, alertness, knowledge, and awareness on the part of the Knower whom you know in the body as the knower of things. But this Knower also knows itself. The word 'knower' is being used here to refer to both the knower of things and the Knower of Knower.

When you see a flower with your eyes and know the flower, it is through the Knower. And when you see the image of the flower with closed eyes and know the image, it is through the Knower. I am saying to you again and again, "That Knower you are!"

Now a question may come: "The knower in the waking state and the knower in the deep sleep state, are these knowers of two kinds? If the knower that sees the flower in the waking state is one with the same knower who sees the dream or deep sleep state, then in deep sleep, should you not be able to see the flower and know it?" That is what the intellect asks. My answer to this question is: "The knower of the waking state differs from the knower of the deep sleep state and the Knower of the fourth state." I have to answer in this way because only then will you be satisfied.

Now, my point is very, very subtle and is to be grasped so that you can always meditate on your real Knower.

The sound of chirping birds which you are now hearing and knowing is very obvious. But when you were meditating, many of you did not hear the chirping birds. Now you are apt to say, "My knower in the waking state when I was not meditating did not exist when I began to meditate." So you always divide the Knower. And that is why I speak of the Knower within and the knower without.

I would now like to point out the Knower within. Whenever a thought arises such as, "Amaram hum Madhuram hum," who knows it? Who knows that it is to come? That is the real Knower. And the one who came to know after the thought of "Amaram hum Madhuram hum" came, that is the Drishta, the knower which is mind. That which knows the flower and all things is this mind-knower. I say, "Do not identify with the mind-knower; rather, know yourself to be the real Knower. The real Knower you are. For knowing it, no other knower is necessary.

Now, open your eyes, rub your palms together, lightly massage your face with your palms, and sing.

In relation to things, whatever you become, that is mind-knower. When nothing is coming and yet you are, that you is called the real Knower. That Knower is always one which is neither waking, nor sleeping, nor dreaming.

That original Knower is Oneness. It is neither things nor knowledge. But whenever it turns into subject, object and relationship, then it is called mind-knower. And this mind-knower is not free. It is bound by the object and, in relation to it, is called subject. But that which is free from subject, object and relationship, that is pure Knower. Have you grasped it? For those who have grasped it, how simple it will be to meditate on it. How difficult it becomes when, even though having meditated for years, this little thing has not been grasped. So freedom never comes.

Now I will speak about individuality. That universal Knower is the universal "I" or the universal "you". But the I that is individual, how did it come about? That is beyond the mind’s understanding. It just comes. And when it comes, what happens? It becomes bound. When it becomes bound it does not know the unbound state, just as when it is day, day does not know night. When you are bound, you have to say, "I need to realize." When you realize, there is no bondage.

This individual knower prays to his own universal Knower, "I am the flower of your garden. Therefore I must not be troubled. I must be kept near you with love." Just by calling oneself 'individual,' it looks as if the universal Being must be separate. By saying universal, it appears that the individual remains nowhere. A discriminative power must be evolved through meditation and saadhana. It is to be called 'freedom' or 'bliss'. It is not called joy, nor pleasure, nor this, nor that. It just is. To that Isness, which has become "am", "I am" is praying.

- Swami Shyam
1 November 1994