Questioner
How can I distinguish between the real and the unreal? Everything seems so real to me—my body, my thoughts, my world.
Maharaj
Use this simple test: That which changes is unreal. That which is permanent, unchanging, eternal—that alone is real.
Questioner
By that definition, nothing in my experience is real. Everything changes.
Maharaj
Exactly. The body changes every moment—cells are born and die, it grows old, it will perish. Thoughts come and go like clouds. Feelings rise and fall. The world is in constant flux.
But tell me: Does your awareness of all this change? You are aware now, you were aware as a child, you were aware yesterday. Awareness itself—does it change?
Questioner
I hadn’t thought of it that way. The content of awareness changes, but awareness itself seems constant.
Maharaj
Yes! The movie changes, but the screen remains. The dream changes, but the dreamer remains. All experience appears in awareness, exists in awareness, and disappears in awareness.
The content is unreal—it comes and goes. But awareness itself is real—it is always present, unchanging, eternal.
Questioner
But awareness seems so simple, so ordinary. Surely there must be something more?
Maharaj
This is the great joke! You are searching for the extraordinary while being the extraordinary. You are looking for awareness while being aware. You want to achieve consciousness while being conscious.
It is like a fish searching for water while swimming in the ocean. You are what you seek. This very awareness, here and now, is the reality you are looking for.
Questioner
Why then do I feel limited, separate, bound?
Maharaj
Because you have forgotten what you are and have identified with what you are not. You think you are the body-mind, which is limited, separate, and bound. But this is simply a case of mistaken identity.
When you were a child and played a game of make-believe, you knew it was a game. Somehow, you have forgotten that this identification with the body-mind is also a game, a play of consciousness.
Questioner
How do I remember?
Maharaj
By investigating. Ask yourself: “Am I the body?” “Am I these thoughts?” “Am I this person?”
Look deeply. Every time you find yourself identified, ask “Who is identified?” “To whom does this identification appear?”
In the light of inquiry, false identifications dissolve, and what remains is your true nature—pure awareness, infinite and free.
Questioner
Is realization then just a matter of discrimination?
Maharaj
Discrimination (viveka) is essential, but it must be paired with dispassion (vairagya). You must see clearly what is real and what is unreal, and you must lose interest in the unreal.
If you know a rope is not a snake but still fear it, what good is your knowledge? When discrimination is complete, fear dissolves naturally. When you truly know yourself as infinite awareness, the drama of the body-mind continues, but you are no longer caught in it.
Key Teaching
Reality is that which is unchanging and eternal. By this measure, all objects, all experiences, all phenomena are unreal—they appear and disappear. Only pure awareness is real. Through discrimination and inquiry, recognize yourself as this unchanging reality, and be free.