Nisargadatta Maharaj - Photo 104

Once we have accepted the definition of Reality of being that which persists or is at all times the same, then we know that Reality can never change. The objective world and the consciousness of ‘I am’ (In deep sleep there is no feeling of ‘I am’) is constantly changing, so from this we can infer that whatever changes is only an appearance and not a Reality.

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Devotees welcome Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Sri Bhainath Maharaj - Photo 103

To earn your livelihood you have to think about your practical pursuits, but once they are over return back to this thoughtless, formless contemplation of ‘I am’. Do carry out your activities but remember that ‘You’ are Godly and completely untarnished by these activities. When you are in this ‘Ishwara’ state, all these activities in the world will go on spontaneously.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj - Photo 102

You should use this power of discrimination always, and find out in truth, whether you really are a person. If you truly inquire you will find that you were never a person at all. Even the ‘Great Cause’ or Creator (‘Ishwara’ or God) finally is only a word. The ‘Great cause’ is the ‘I am’ consciousness.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj - Photo 101

To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not, you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with basic fact ‘I am’. The ideas: I am born at a given place, at a given time, from my parents and now I am so-and-so, living at, married to, father of, employed by, and so on, are not inherent in the sense ‘I am’. Our usual attitude is ‘I am this’ or ‘that’. Separate consistently and perseveringly the ‘I am’ from ‘this’ or ‘that’ and try to feel what it means to be, just to ‘be’, without being ‘this’ or ‘that’. All our habits go against it and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding helps a lot. The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker you will come to the end of your search and realize your limitless being.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj - Photo 100

Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought ‘I am’. The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously and quite naturally, without any interference on your part.

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The end of a session with bhajans. Maharaj sounds the symbols - Photo 99

When you follow my advice and try to keep the mind on the notion of ‘I am’ only, you become fully aware of your mind and its vagaries. Awareness being lucid harmony (‘sattwa’) in action dissolves dullness and quietens the restlessness of the mind and gently but steadily changes its very substance. This change need not be spectacular; it maybe hardly noticeable; and yet it is a deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light from inadvertence to awareness.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj's discourses - Photo 98

Don’t you see that it is your very search for happiness that makes you feel miserable? Try the other way: indifferent to pain and pleasure, neither seeking, nor refusing, give all your attention to the level on which ‘I am’ is timelessly present. Soon you will realize that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels that disturbs. Avoid the disturbance, that is all. To seek there is no need; you would not seek what you already have. You yourself are God, the Supreme Reality. To begin with, trust me, trust the teacher. It enables you to make the first step - and then your trust is justified by your own experience.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj's discourses - Photo 97

Only your sense ‘I am’ though in the world, is not of the world. By no effort of logic you can change the ‘I am’ into ‘I am not’. In the very denial of your being you assert it. Once you realize that the world is your own projection, you are free of it. You need not free yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your imagination.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj and Bhainath Maharaj - Photo 96

My advice to you is very simple – just remember yourself, ‘I am’, it is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond, just have some trust. I don’t mislead you. Why should I? Do I want anything from you? I wish you well – such is my nature. Why should I mislead you? Commonsense too will tell you that to fulfill a desire you must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed.

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Devotees welcome Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and Bhainath Maharaj - Photo 95

The ‘I am’ is a useful pointer; it shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at it. Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about yourself anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing can be pointed at, can be your self, the need for the ‘I am’ is over- you are no longer intent on verbalizing what you are. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state. We discover the natural state by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj at Juhu beach - Photo 94

This ‘I am’ consciousness is great for it creates the vast world, but You are greater, for You are the Reality behind and beyond this ‘I am’ consciousness. You have come to me to ask me something and I have told you that ‘You are the Reality’, so remember this, stick to this and live by this knowledge. You are the Reality. You are the ‘Parabrahman’, so meditate on this and remember this, and finally the idea that ‘I am Parabrahman’ will also leave you.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj visits a devotee's house - Photo 93

My true state is always without this ‘I am’ consciousness – so if you live with this Knowledge, you won’t be always thinking about death and contemplating death, and hence you will live longer physically as your mind and body will be free of unnecessary tensions, thoughts and beliefs.

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A devotees offers pranams at the feet of Nisargadatta Maharaj - Photo 92

All yogas and practices come through the consciousness of ‘I am’  only, which is itself an illusion. Whatever is happening in this illusion, yoga, ‘Kundalini’ or anything else, is relative and time-bound.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj with Bhainath Maharaj - Photo 91

From consciousness alone we are directed to act. Consciousness appears on Awareness and acts. Awareness does not act, it is the pure witness. The consciousness of you, or Pure consciousness, is the ‘Ishwara’ or God or ‘I am’ state i.e., Universal consciousness. This is not personal consciousness. The whole world is created by the consciousness. When this consciousness is limited to an individual, it becomes the ego, intellect, mind or ‘Jiva’.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj with some of the devotees - Photo 90

All actions are performed by the ‘Ishwara’ principle (‘I am’) which is time-bound and has its being in the unknown. So what is there to do? Why say that I do anything? The ‘I am’ consciousness does everything and this ‘I am’ is nothing but knowledge without attributes, which is time-bound.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj with some of the devotees - Photo 89

In the waking state, the witnessing state is always there. There is no other Brahman greater than you, accept this and go, you are the greatest. In that small round cell is contained all the space, in it the Cosmos and earth are there, that small cell is the principle of ‘I am’ The moment it is there, space is manifested, the womb is space started from the small cell ‘I am’.

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The Altar at Nisargadatta Maharaj's residence - Photo 88

What do you mean by ‘I am’ or the feeling of ‘you are’? All the names relate to the ‘I amness’, Atman also is its name. If there is no ‘I amness’, whose names can these all be? You cannot say this and that consciousness, your consciousness is your world only. To fully understand and realize all this, do meditation. That sound, the humming ‘I am’, is the Ishwara sound. It is a reminder that, you are God, but your reject the soundless sound by identifying with the body. On your own authority, in absence of the ‘I am’ principle, what can you do?

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Nisargadatta Maharaj - Photo 87

Manifested Brahma is the ‘I am’, whatever principle is prior to the utterance of sound, that principle proclaims by itself. What I insists is that you must stabilize is that state. The recitation of the mantra ‘So Hum’ must be for a very long time, it is prior to words. When that ‘So Hum’ principle, is pleased, that principle, represented by these words, expounds knowledge.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj - Photo 86

The knowledge ‘I am’, without memories and concepts, is everything. The idea ‘I am the body and mind’ is not that knowledge. No effort is required, the main thing is that ‘you are’ (or ‘I am’) when you listen to me and stay there, you’ll understand that the knowledge ‘I am’ is independent of body-mind.

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Nisargadatta Maharaj with Bhainath Maharaj - Photo 85

Beingness is the lord of the universe, therefore, all the time, be with the lord of manifestation and all your problems and puzzles will be cleared. This knowledge that ‘I am’ makes perception possible, make it you own. Whatever you may want, just do this (abide in the ‘I am’) and you will have everything. In this knowledge ‘I am’ is the entire universe. Consciousness is the lord of all manifestation, only because of the body that we consider this consciousness as a bodily principle.

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