Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Your expectation of something unique and dramatic, of some wonderful explosion, is merely hindering and delaying your self-realisation.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
People mistake bliss for self-realisation.
Bliss is connected to serotonin in the brain. It comes and goes.
A man of open intuition may realize Self upon hearing a casual instruction, while a man of cluttered intellect inquires bewildered for a lifetime.
यथातथोपदेशेन कृतार्थः सत्त्वबुद्धिमान् ।
आजीवमपि जिज्ञासुः परस्तत्र विमुह्यति ॥
Ashtavakra Gita
Through the film of your mind you project a world and also a God to give it cause and purpose. It is all imagination. Step out of it.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
There is no ‘me’ or ‘you’ to seek enlightenment. Personal entity and enlightenment cannot go together. Indeed, there is no such thing as ‘enlightenment’. The apperception of this fact is itself enlightenment!
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Each one of us, as a phenomenon, is merely an appearance in the consciousness of those who perceive us, and, therefore, what we appear to be is a phenomenon — temporal, finite and perceptible to the senses; whereas what we are, what we have always been and what we shall always be, without name and form, is the noumenon — timeless, spaceless, imperceptible being.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
I do not think that I know this well;
nor do I think that I do not know this.
He among us who knows that –
“Neither do I know, nor do I do not know”
- perceives That well.
Kenopanishad
नाहं मन्ये सुवेदेति नो न वेदेति वेद च ।
यो नस्तद्वेद तद्वेद नो न वेदेति वेद च ॥
Yoga means union, joining. What have you re-united, re-joined? Even to talk of re-uniting the person with the self is not right, because there is no person, only a mental picture given a false reality by conviction. Nothing was divided and there is nothing to unite.
~Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. I am That. Ch.34
All the concepts of religions including traditional vedanta - like karma, reincarnation, progress, do this, don't do this, etc., - are all based on the presupposition of a pseudo-entity which seeks enlightenment. Such an entity does not exist. Anything that prescribes a definite set of dos and don'ts which guarantees your upliftment, is religion, not nonduality. It is as simple as imagining a dragon in your backyard. The only way out is to stop imagining. You will never achieve anything by learning more about how the dragon moves.
Question: I have, as advised by you, retired to a solitary place where I am engaged in investigating the Self. Even so, I have diverse visions and experiences. Thinking that the constant Self-awareness is dimmed by the uncalled-for interference of mental activities, I forcibly repressed my thoughts and remained calm. Darkness superseded, light appeared, sleep supervened and finally unique bliss overpowered me for a little while. Is this the Self, or something different? Please analyse these experiences of mine and tell me, so that I may clearly understand them.
Answer: Listen to me, closely. What you have now done to restrain thoughts with the mind turned inward (vichara) is a good beginning and praised by the worthy as the best way. Without it, no one has ever been successful anywhere. However, it does not produce Self-realisation, for the Self remains realised at all times. If a product, it cannot be the Self. For, how can the Self be got anew? So then, the Self is never gained. Gain is of something which is not already possessed. Is there any moment when the Self is not the Self? Neither is control of mind used to gain it.
I shall give you some examples:
Just as things unseen in darkness are found on its removal by means of a lamp, and are therefore said to be recovered from oblivion. Just as a confused man forgets his purse, but remembers and locates it on keeping his mind unruffled and steady, yet still says that he has gained the lost purse, though the steadying of his mind did not produce it. So also the control of your mind is not the cause of your Self-realisation; though the Self is always there, it is not recognised by you even with a controlled mind because you are not conversant with it. Just as a yokel unacquainted with the system cannot understand the dazzling lights of the royal audience-chamber at night and so ignores its magnificence at first sight, so it is that you miss the Self.
Attend dear! Blank darkness was visible after you controlled your thoughts. In the short interval before its appearance and after the control of mind, there remains a state free from the effort to control and the perception of darkness. Always remember that state as the one of perfect and transcendental happiness. All are deceived in that state because their minds are accustomed to be turned outward. Though people may be learned, skilful and keen, still they search and search, only to be thwarted and they do not abide in that holy state. They grieve day and night, without knowing this state. Mere theoretical knowledge of sculpture can never make a man a sculptor. Though he will be a pandit well-grounded in the theory and the discussion of the philosophy of the Self, he cannot realise the Self because it is not realisable but already realised.
Realisation is not attained by going far, but only by staying still; not by thought, but by cessation of thought. Effort towards Realisation is like the attempt to stamp with one’s foot on the shadow cast by one’s head. Effort will always make it recede. Just as an infant try to take hold of his own reflection being unaware of the mirror, so also common people are taken in by their mental reflections in the mirror of the pure, luminous Self and are not aware of the mirror, because they have no acquaintance with the Self. Although people understand space, they are not aware of it because they are taken up by the objects in space. They understand the universe in space but have no regard for space itself. Similarly, it is with them in regard to the Self.
- The teachings of Sage Dattatreya.
Tripura Rahasya.
Excerpt from the Chapter IX.
