Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

 

To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought ‘I am’ is the polishing cloth. Use it.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

 

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Nisargadatta himself tells of his time with his Guru, and what transpired in the more mature phase of his spiritual practice (sadhana):

My Guru told me: “...Go back to that state of pure being, where the ‘I am’ is still in its purity before it got contaminated with ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that.’ Your burden is of false self-identifications—abandon them all.” My guru told me, “Trust me, I tell you: you are Divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done.” I did believe him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words. I did not condition my mind by thinking, “I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond.” I simply followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, “I am,” and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the “I am” in my mind and soon the peace and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared—myself, my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable silence. 

(I Am That, Dialogue 51, April 16, 1971)

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Disciple- Maharaj, What do you actually see?? 

Maharaj- "I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self. 

Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. See how you function, watch the motives and the results of your actions. 

Study the prison you have built around yourself by inadvertence. By knowing what you are not, you come to know your self. The way back to your self is through refusal and rejection. 

Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about your self anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be your self, the need for the ‘I am’ is over -- you are no longer intent on verbalising what you are. 

The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused. Just like gold made into ornaments has no advantage over gold dust, except when the mind makes it so, so are we one in being -- we differ only in appearance. We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one's life to this discovery!!

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta maharaj

A Dialogue with a visitor 

Maharaj: During your entire lifetime, you do not have any permanent identity. Whatever you consider yourself to be changes from moment to moment. Nothing is constant.

Visitor: And what you think you are going to become changes too, with time, in spite of yourself.

Maharaj : That change is also made possible by the child-conciousness. Because of that, all these changes take place. That is why you must grasp this principle.

If you really want to understand this, you must give up your identification with the body. By all means, make use of the body, but don’t consider yourself to be the body while acting in this world. 

Identify yourself with the consciousness, which dwells in the body; with that identity, you should act in the world. Will it be possible? 

If you identify yourself with the body, you will feel that you are dying, but in reality there is no death because you are not the body. Let the body be there or not be there, your existence is always there; it is eternal. 

Now who or what has heard my talk? It is not the ear, not the physical body, but that knowledge which is in the body; that has heard me. So identify yourself with that knowledge, that consciousness. Whatever happiness we enjoy in this world is only imaginary. 

A patient who is suffering from cancer is, as it were, all the time silently chanting “I’m dying from cancer”; and that chant proceeds without any efforts. Similarly, in your case: Take up that chant “I am consciousness.” That chant, too, should go on without any effort. One who is constantly awake in his true nature — having this knowledge about himself — is liberated.

A patient suffering from terminal cancer always remembers his state and ultimately undergoes that very end; so much is certain. Similarly, one who remembers that he is the knowledge, that he is the consciousness, has that end, he becomes the Parabrahman.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

                                     The Sense of "I am" 

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self." I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a  difference it made, and how soon! 

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his 

advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. 

All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound. 

I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the 

mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.

(Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Dear All,

On May 8th, A quote by Ananda mayi ma was explained in the blog post  and then the same was further explained with few additional points and the same was sent through mail to few devotees.

In that mail, the last para given is reproduced here.

"At the highest level,  the truth is that we, the pure SELF, choose our future in every birth, so as to clear our karmas and to evolve higher and higher. Even if this is difficult to be digested, for now, it is enough to give that SELF, a name as God and take in the above secret for today and for every day!!!"

Maharaj  has poured the same essence in His quote today.

It is difficult to take in and absorb but still, the essence is explained in few words by the author for the benefit of those who can take in and reap the benefit in their spiritual journey.

The first line of today's quote is -" What happens, happens to you, through you".

What does this mean?

This is what is exactly explained in the last para of a mail which is given above and is being related here for more clarity.

"At the highest level,  the truth is that we, the pure SELF, choose our future in every birth, so as to clear our karmas and to evolve higher and higher."

• In the exposition of Ananda mayi ma's quote, Ramana's affirmation that God chooses our good and bad karmas and fills the same in our basket of karmas which we have to exhaust, for which we have to get the results- good or bad. Ramana explains that the choice of Karmas for us to clear in each birth is made by God in such a way that in the process of getting good/ bad  experiences while getting the result of those good/ bad karmas, we get more spiritually evolved than before and this process continues till we attain Self Realization.
• God is replaced by SELF in the above gospel of Ramana to arrive at Maharaj's gospel.
• That is, We, the pure SELF/ divinity ourselves, God ourselves as pure consciousness, choose our own karmas and people who have to be around us, to give us all the experiences to clear those chosen karmas, the aim being that the pure consciousness is rushing each moment, in each birth of ours, to erase the super imposition of Ego which we have made ourselves so that we verily realize that we and HE/THAT are one non dual, pure existence.

The second line of today's quote is " You  create, preserve and destroy all that you perceive"

• So, we are the creators of the world around us, people around us, our family, our friends, our not so good friends, our enemies, everything around us.
• As per the script written by us, directed by us, each human being walks into our life, plays his/ her part, gives us smile or tears, clears our Karmas to that extent and when the purpose of his/ her entry into our life gets over, they just walk away from our life/ die/ gets separated from us some how, in a mystical way!!

The main essence and purpose of the whole thing is beautifully given by Krishnananda ji thus:

"As rivers rush in to the ocean, all souls move towards God – rush towards God, as it were – because the goal of all life, all creation, whatever be its form, is the realisation of God, the Supreme Being, the Absolute."

Today's  post's essence can either be known and experienced with the above few words or the same cannot be experienced even with explanation with millions of words!!!

Love

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj