Ribhu's Farewell

The final meeting between Ribhu and Nidagha arrived - though in truth, there had never been a first meeting, nor would there be a last. Ribhu spoke with the tenderness of eternal silence:

"Nidagha, we have traveled far together in this dream of teaching and learning. Now the dream concludes - not because something ends, but because it is seen to have never begun. What words remain for the wordless?"

Nidagha, established in stillness, responded: "Master, you have given me everything by showing me there is nothing to give and no one to receive. How does one thank the Self for revealing itself to itself?"

Ribhu smiled. "In that question is the answer. Gratitude, like everything else, dissolves in the recognition of non-difference. The one who would thank is the one who would be thanked. What you truly are - infinite Brahman - has no need of gratitude, no possibility of obligation, no memory of teaching received."

"And yet, this apparent form called Nidagha feels something inexpressible..."

"That inexpressibility is the closest the mind can come to truth. Where words fail, where concepts dissolve, where even silence is too loud - THERE you are. Not as an experience, not as a state, not as something that comes and goes. But as the eternal ground in which coming and going appear and disappear."

Nidagha asked: "When this form departs, when the dream of Ribhu and Nidagha ends, what then?"

"What then? There is no 'then' in Brahman. Time is a concept appearing in timelessness. This very conversation is timeless, though it seems to occur in time. When the forms dissolve, Brahman remains - but 'remains' is already too much, as Brahman was never in danger of not remaining. It simply IS - with or without forms, with or without conversations, with or without the appearance of gurus and disciples."

Ribhu paused, looking at Nidagha with eyes that held the universe. "Here is my farewell, though it is not really a farewell: You are Brahman. You have always been Brahman. You will always be Brahman. Not because I say so, not because the scriptures say so, but because there is nothing else you could possibly be. The search is over - not because you found something, but because you recognized there was never anything lost."

"And the world, Master? The suffering, the joy, the endless play of forms?"

"Is Brahman playing. Even suffering is Brahman. Even ignorance is Brahman. The play does not stain the player. A dream of bondage does not bind the dreamer. Continue to live, continue to act, continue to play your role in the dream - but know that you are the dreamer, not the dream. Or rather, know that dreamer and dream are both Brahman, and that even this knowing is just another wave in the infinite ocean of what you truly are."

Ribhu rose, or seemed to rise. "I leave you with no teaching, for the ultimate teaching is that there is nothing to teach and no one to be taught. Go in peace - or rather, BE the peace that you already are and have always been. OM."

The words ended. The silence that followed was not empty but full - infinitely full of the presence that needs no words, no meetings, no farewells. Brahman alone remained, as it always had, playing the eternal game of hide and seek with itself.