=============
acorn_press
link to -10
1 -------- sentences {-2..2}
link to 20
2 -------- sentences {25..29}
Paperback.
"This publication is alive with the intensity and force of Nisargadatta Maharaj's spiritual realization, and the fierceness and dedication with which he relentlessly strove to accelerate others' liberation.
" Available from The Acorn Press, P. O.
Box 3279, Durham, NC 27715-3279.
Tel.
link to 20
3 -------- sentences {29..33}
Tel.
(919) 471-3842.
FAX (919) 477-2622 CONSCIOUSNESSANDTHE ABSOLUTEThe final talks of Sri Nisargadatta MaharajEdited by Jean DunnTHE ACORN PRESS Durham, North Carolina Copyright ©1994 Jean Dunn All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For information, address: The Acorn Press, P. O.
link to 30
4 -------- sentences {31..35}
FAX (919) 477-2622 CONSCIOUSNESSANDTHE ABSOLUTEThe final talks of Sri Nisargadatta MaharajEdited by Jean DunnTHE ACORN PRESS Durham, North Carolina Copyright ©1994 Jean Dunn All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For information, address: The Acorn Press, P. O.
Box 3279, Durham, NC 27715-3279.
First published 1994; reprinted 1998, 2004ISBN 0-89386-041-7 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.
=============
aham_brahmasmi
link to 2400
1 -------- sentences {2402..2406}
I try to feed them this knowledge.
M: If they are deserving, whatever has been fed will be received by them.
June 28, 1981 Maharaj: The sprouting of Aham Brahmasmi takes place at some subtle place and when it grows, it grows continuously.
What is the meaning of this sprouting?
It indicates that I am the Brahman; then the inspiration, the intuition, begins.
link to 2400
2 -------- sentences {2405..2409}
What is the meaning of this sprouting?
It indicates that I am the Brahman; then the inspiration, the intuition, begins.
The deeper meaning of Aham Brahmasmi means an intuitive, inspirational growth from inside, the firm conviction that I am the Brahman.
Such a one in whom this growth of Aham Brahmasmi starts might undergo sufferings, but that one will not lose his understanding or this sprouting of Aham Brahmasmi.
That is firmly rooted.
link to 2400
3 -------- sentences {2406..2410}
It indicates that I am the Brahman; then the inspiration, the intuition, begins.
The deeper meaning of Aham Brahmasmi means an intuitive, inspirational growth from inside, the firm conviction that I am the Brahman.
Such a one in whom this growth of Aham Brahmasmi starts might undergo sufferings, but that one will not lose his understanding or this sprouting of Aham Brahmasmi.
That is firmly rooted.
"Aham Brahmasmi" means that "I am the Brahman", but before saying "I am the Brahman", you are already one with Brahman, then only will you be able to say "I am the Brahman".
link to 2400
4 -------- sentences {2408..2412}
Such a one in whom this growth of Aham Brahmasmi starts might undergo sufferings, but that one will not lose his understanding or this sprouting of Aham Brahmasmi.
That is firmly rooted.
"Aham Brahmasmi" means that "I am the Brahman", but before saying "I am the Brahman", you are already one with Brahman, then only will you be able to say "I am the Brahman".
It is just like the waking state.
After awakening, you might say, "I woke up.
=============
another_person
link to 740
1 -------- sentences {740..744}
Q: Everything is happening on its own and I have no concern with it.
M: If that is so, it means that you have understood everything and there is no need for you to linger here any longer.
Questioner [Another person]: It is different for me.
I have to make an effort not to get involved in thoughts when I meditate.
M: It is the nature of the life force to express itself through thoughts and words, so they will keep on coming.
link to 1680
2 -------- sentences {1680..1684}
A Siddha is one who has stabilized in the knowledge "I Am", and in the process, has transcended it.
In this journey you know very well where you are.
M: [Speaking to another person] This young man's mother was on her deathbed, but I said with conviction that she was not going to die.
This was some years back and today, she is still alive.
His mother was so convinced that she was going to die that she had purchased the particular flowers which she liked for her funeral.
link to 1890
3 -------- sentences {1894..1898}
M: You will be broken into how many pieces with that fall?
With all that, do what you like!
Another person is searching for himself, but you are hiding.
Q: What is reality?
M: Whatever is permanently there, immortal, unchanging.
=============
anybody_else
link to 530
1 -------- sentences {533..537}
You have done all your homework and now your sadhana or spiritual practice is bearing fruit; now you are here.
Let it grow in you.
You don't have to go to anybody else after you leave this place; that part of the work has already been done by you.
Because you are worthy of that state of realization, you are here today.
Get to know that "I Am" without words which arises in the morning.
link to 910
2 -------- sentences {917..921}
Before the words come out, before you say "I Am", that is you.
You must be concerned only with yourself.
Don't worry about anybody else.
What are you?
January 14, 1981 Maharaj: The Ultimate state is that state in which nothing exists, neither I, nor you, nor manifestation.
link to 1690
3 -------- sentences {1699..1703}
You are stabilizing in the highest state.
It is not a worldly attraction which brings you here.
Neither you nor anybody else knows anything about this attraction.
The attraction for you is to be in your eternal dwelling place, that is your home.
When that attraction is there you come here.
=============
ask_questions
link to 1380
1 -------- sentences {1382..1386}
February 13, 1981 Questioner: I have so many questions to ask that it is chaotic.
Maharaj: Your questions are regarding the concepts of others.
Ask questions only regarding yourself.
Q: I don't know my Self, how can I reach that point, how can I come to that?
M: The fact that you do not know your Self is very appropriate; you are not the body, nor the name of the body, therefore how can you know your Self?
link to 1440
2 -------- sentences {1444..1448}
Q: That is why it is valuable to be with Maharaj.
M: I am not able to speak much.
Don't ask questions.
If you want, you may go elsewhere.
Q: I have been with Maharaj before and I have felt a profound effect from that visit.
link to 1940
3 -------- sentences {1943..1947}
You have to understand that when you are being stabilized in a state prior to waking state, deep sleep, prior to words and even prior to consciousness, something happens in your body state without your doing it.
Leave it alone.
Don't ask questions about that.
You are on this side and if something is happening, why are you worried about it?
Be yourself.
=============
barren_woman
link to 940
1 -------- sentences {941..945}
It is only when one thinks of himself as an individual that he thinks of bondage and liberation.
Whatever concepts you have collected in this world are totally useless.
Understand that the total manifestation is the child of a barren woman, but having understood this, give full attention to your work, and let that work be done as efficiently as possible.
Take good care of this work that you do in the world because it is an orphan!
January 17, 1981 Questioner: In consciousness is there doership and also witnessing?
link to 1350
2 -------- sentences {1353..1357}
How caught up you are with the world!
Until yesterday you did not have knowledge of your existence, and today you are loquacious; you are speaking so loudly, and you claim that you are Brahman.
Questioner: I know that I have to understand all this play of consciousness and conclude that this is like the child of a barren woman.
M: How are you going to catch that child of a barren woman?
Just be in your beingness.
link to 1350
3 -------- sentences {1354..1358}
Until yesterday you did not have knowledge of your existence, and today you are loquacious; you are speaking so loudly, and you claim that you are Brahman.
Questioner: I know that I have to understand all this play of consciousness and conclude that this is like the child of a barren woman.
M: How are you going to catch that child of a barren woman?
Just be in your beingness.
February 12, 1981 Maharaj: Nothing in the world is of any use to me.
link to 2470
4 -------- sentences {2472..2476}
Because the "I Amness" is a quality of the body, later on you come to know you are and that you are trapped.
But once you know, you are liberated.
June 30, 1981 Maharaj: All knowledge is like the son of a barren woman.
Presently there are only beingness and the functioning.
The individuality and personality are thrown overboard.
=============
become_one
link to 70
1 -------- sentences {74..78}
" He said one must find out what the body is, where it came from, study it with detachment, watch it without judging.
One soon sees that it is just like a robot which has been programmed by others.
We are to turn within to that which lets us know that we are, to become one with that.
Abiding in the "I Amness" (or Consciousness, which is pure love), that Consciousness itself will give us all the answers.
At the present time, Consciousness is what we are, not personal Consciousness, but impersonal, universal Consciousness.
link to 310
2 -------- sentences {311..315}
M: You can watch the body, so you are not the body.
You can watch the breath, so you are not the vital breath.
In the same way, you are not the consciousness; but you have to become one with the consciousness.
As you stabilize in the consciousness, dispassion for the body and for the expressions through the body occurs spontaneously.
It is a natural renunciation, not a deliberate one.
link to 360
3 -------- sentences {368..372}
Those who have comprehended and who have reached a certain stage will not ask for anything, but everything will come to them spontaneously.
There will be no wish for it; nevertheless, it will be there.
This does not happen for an individual — it happens for the universal manifestation, or for the one who has become one with his true nature.
For the jnani, only witnessing is taking place.
November 20, 1980 Maharaj: The principle which can know itself is in the organism.
link to 420
4 -------- sentences {428..432}
If you abide in consciousness everything will be happening spontaneously.
If you are still at body-mind level, you will think that you are doing something.
If you really abide in what I say, you become one with your Self.
Then people will be serving you, they will fall at your feet.
Whatever is necessary for you will happen.
link to 1600
5 -------- sentences {1604..1608}
Consciousness loves that identification so much that it wants to continue.
Q: If this individuality is lost, will consciousness still want to continue?
M: Once consciousness has lost its individuality and has become one with the universe, it will have no need to continue?
March 24, 1981 Maharaj: If you sit here quietly, being one with the knowledge "I Am", then you are not concerned with the world or what goes on in the world.
It is only when the consciousness starts operating and there are various movements in the consciousness that the behavior in the world takes place.
=============
birth_principle
link to 860
1 -------- sentences {869..873}
Having stabilized in the consciousness, the next step is to be in a position to observe the consciousness, and all the play that is happening in the consciousness, just to understand.
Attachment to the body and to the consciousness is very strong, to get rid of it is very difficult.
The birth principle, the chemical around which the body formation takes place, has no form or design and actually didn't exist.
That non-existing thing suddenly came into existence.
What is the validity of its existence?
link to 870
2 -------- sentences {876..880}
This is a big hoax, a big fraud, created out of nothingness.
Can you create something out of nothing?
Whatever I said is securely planted in that birth principle of yours, you cannot extract it.
In due course it will proliferate into knowledge.
I don't want life, even for a moment, but in that momentary life there are so many lives.
link to 980
3 -------- sentences {983..987}
Words are very necessary.
Q: We are prisoners of our own concepts.
M: Just enquire into that birth principle.
You are; because you are, the father and mother are.
It's a simultaneous happening.
link to 1350
4 -------- sentences {1350..1354}
You might collect a lot of words, but will they remain with you?
You are bereft of words and the meaning of words, you are not a personality.
That birth principle which gives rise to the consciousness is not conditioned; it has come spontaneously and manifests as consciousness.
How caught up you are with the world!
Until yesterday you did not have knowledge of your existence, and today you are loquacious; you are speaking so loudly, and you claim that you are Brahman.
link to 1360
5 -------- sentences {1369..1373}
Sometimes I experience the state of lying in some rubbish, and other times I experience that people are worshipping me.
But that is all in the realm of consciousness.
I realize this is all the outcome of that birth principle "I Am".
Will the space and the stars feel unhappy about the dirt in the world?
It is part of the game in that universal space.
=============
bodily_identity
link to 1180
1 -------- sentences {1188..1192}
There must be an internal reaction; without the reaction what you hear won't do you any good.
You should know it when the arrow reaches its mark.
February 5, 1981 Questioner: It is very difficult to give up this attraction to the bodily identity.
Maharaj: You have to find out what this body is, then the job is done.
Initially, the body is very minute.
link to 1970
2 -------- sentences {1978..1982}
Grace is always there.
Your first conviction, that "you are", which is prior to words, to that you have given the form of a body.
Give up this bodily identity.
Prior to words you are, just be that.
Q: How can I be that?
link to 1990
3 -------- sentences {1998..2002}
Unfortunately you have conditioned your Self to believe that you, the Brahman, are the body.
Now you know you are not the body.
Why are you overwhelmed by that counterfeit bodily identity "I"?
You have a lot of knowledge but it pertains to the practical world.
So far you have not got the knowledge of the Self.
=============
body_consciousness
link to 2070
1 -------- sentences {2074..2078}
Even the title of "parents" is also due to the bodies; as a result of the body this title of "parents" has arisen.
I want you to understand clearly that without the bodily consciousness there is no Brahman; the Brahman is because the consciousness is and consciousness is because the body is.
The body consciousness is the result of the five elements.
Body consciousness and the world are not different; they are identical.
Ponder over this in this fashion.
link to 2070
2 -------- sentences {2075..2079}
I want you to understand clearly that without the bodily consciousness there is no Brahman; the Brahman is because the consciousness is and consciousness is because the body is.
The body consciousness is the result of the five elements.
Body consciousness and the world are not different; they are identical.
Ponder over this in this fashion.
Whatever is grasped by the mind and intellect is this objective world.
link to 2120
3 -------- sentences {2121..2125}
Are they spiritual?
I abide in the state where there is no mind.
June 19, 1981 Maharaj: All happenings are only in body consciousness.
Personalities only exist in body consciousness.
The usual knowledge is concerned only with the body image.
=============
body_formation
link to 860
1 -------- sentences {869..873}
Having stabilized in the consciousness, the next step is to be in a position to observe the consciousness, and all the play that is happening in the consciousness, just to understand.
Attachment to the body and to the consciousness is very strong, to get rid of it is very difficult.
The birth principle, the chemical around which the body formation takes place, has no form or design and actually didn't exist.
That non-existing thing suddenly came into existence.
What is the validity of its existence?
link to 1310
2 -------- sentences {1313..1317}
But you listen from the body-mind standpoint; it is quite natural.
I am telling you about the consciousness.
In my true state, if I had been aware of consciousness at the moment the body formation was taking place, I would have rejected it.
But at that highest state such knowledge is not there and this body formation and consciousness are both spontaneous.
Questioner: Maharaj, will you please explain how we can dive further into that consciousness?
link to 1310
3 -------- sentences {1314..1318}
I am telling you about the consciousness.
In my true state, if I had been aware of consciousness at the moment the body formation was taking place, I would have rejected it.
But at that highest state such knowledge is not there and this body formation and consciousness are both spontaneous.
Questioner: Maharaj, will you please explain how we can dive further into that consciousness?
M: How long have you been following spirituality?
=============
called_knowledge
link to 1930
1 -------- sentences {1932..1936}
Q: Have I to become idle?
M: Jump about!
You understand what I say but you are afraid that whatever so-called knowledge you have collected is being devalued.
Krishnamurti said whatever he has said, very rightly, but do you assimilate it thoroughly?
Whatever Maharaj tells you, you try to absorb it through concepts.
link to 2160
2 -------- sentences {2161..2165}
True knowledge is to abide in your own Self.
Try to understand all this knowledge which you are now gathering.
The so-called knowledge you get elsewhere talks only about ignorance; it cannot talk about the Self, true knowledge.
All of what is pursued by the mind it is not true knowledge.
True knowledge cannot be understood easily.
link to 2160
3 -------- sentences {2166..2170}
If I had the experience "I Am" before, would I care to enter the womb of my mother?
Prior to entering the womb I did not know myself, there was no knowledge of "I Amness".
All so-called knowledge is tainted by words, which is only ignorance.
You, the Absolute, watch the waking state, you know the consciousness, you know the sleeping state; therefore, you are not that.
Among the millions of people who have come and gone, where am I counted among them?
=============
carried_away
link to 1290
1 -------- sentences {1298..1302}
That thought-flow is always there, except in deep sleep.
Even for a jnani, the thought-flow is present but the thought has changed.
Most people are carried away by the thought-flow, but a rare person turns around, goes to the source and departs from the track of that original thought-flow, saying, "It is not mine, not my affair.
This 'I Amness' is the product of objective material, it is not me.
I am out of it.
link to 1390
2 -------- sentences {1398..1402}
M: That awareness will be there provided you are.
You must give up all you have read and heard, and just be.
Don't be carried away by concepts.
Truth is eternal; whatever you can grasp is unreal.
Even your experience that you are is not your true nature.
link to 1740
3 -------- sentences {1744..1748}
April 22, 1981 Maharaj: The whole universe is experienced in the consciousness "I Am".
If that is not there, what else can ever exist?
This consciousness is beating a drum; everyone is carried away by the noise of the drum.
Who looks for the drummer?
Who is sounding and beating the drum?
link to 2070
4 -------- sentences {2078..2082}
Ponder over this in this fashion.
Whatever is grasped by the mind and intellect is this objective world.
Although you have heard these talks, still you will be carried away by your conceptual experiences.
This body is made of food, but what is your true identity?
It is something like the body having completely adjusted, like the grains which you have stored being completely adjusted.
=============
causal_body
link to 130
1 -------- sentences {130..134}
When these emissions merged in the womb they started taking form.
After nine months of gestation, an infant was delivered.
That consciousness which was planted in the womb was the causal body, the "lingadeha".
In that "lingadeha", the knowledge "I Am" was in a dormant condition.
This is what I saw in meditation.
link to 1190
2 -------- sentences {1192..1196}
Initially, the body is very minute.
The consciousness appears in the body, and then the tiny body changes into a large one.
That causal body, which is very minute, needs to be known.
By meditation you can know it.
The quality of that causal body takes on the appearance of the consciousness and the form.
link to 1190
3 -------- sentences {1194..1198}
That causal body, which is very minute, needs to be known.
By meditation you can know it.
The quality of that causal body takes on the appearance of the consciousness and the form.
In this world there are many species, in all sizes; initially what was the size of each variety?
At the point where you first feel knowingness, consciousness is not static; it is a continuous state, just like a wheel moving.
=============
cigarette_lighter
link to 470
1 -------- sentences {473..477}
There is a couplet we sing at Bhajans, to Chakrapani.
Chakrapani means that "I Amness", the life principle, the manifest principle.
It is like this cigarette lighter.
The gas as such has no light, but its manifestation is the flame; it is full of light, life, energy.
Even in the atom and sub-atom, that energy is there.
link to 770
2 -------- sentences {776..780}
M: Liberation means what?
It is no more there.
[Flicking his cigarette lighter on and off] This cigarette lighter is the body; the consciousness is the flame.
Now it isn't there anymore; it is liberated.
Where is the need to label it in the absence of consciousness?
=============
come_spontaneously
link to 1260
1 -------- sentences {1260..1264}
Remember one thing, I am addressing my talk to the message "I Am".
Q: How can I communicate with the "I Am", how can I listen?
M: Listening will come spontaneously—just as you wake up spontaneously and fall asleep spontaneously.
Don't make any effort.
I did not extract my beingness from "there" and insert it into "here".
link to 1350
2 -------- sentences {1350..1354}
You might collect a lot of words, but will they remain with you?
You are bereft of words and the meaning of words, you are not a personality.
That birth principle which gives rise to the consciousness is not conditioned; it has come spontaneously and manifests as consciousness.
How caught up you are with the world!
Until yesterday you did not have knowledge of your existence, and today you are loquacious; you are speaking so loudly, and you claim that you are Brahman.
link to 1480
3 -------- sentences {1485..1489}
M: To the Absolute, the witnessing of this "I Amness" happens.
March 4, 1981 Maharaj: How did you get this "I Amness"?
Did it come spontaneously, or did you try for it?
As the Absolute, you were free from all concepts, including the primary concept "I Am"; suddenly you were caught up in this "I Amness".
Who did it?
link to 2030
4 -------- sentences {2035..2039}
Because one identifies oneself with his body, he thinks he is born and is going to die.
What is born is the general sense of presence, as such.
The sense of presence which has come spontaneously will leave spontaneously.
There is no individual except through identification with the body.
The sense of time, or duration, or the event happening in time, all that can come about only if there is consciousness.
=============
conscious_presence
link to 650
1 -------- sentences {656..660}
The essence of the combination of the five elements is the sense of being, of existing.
It has all come simultaneously, I have no part in it.
Feeling that I am present depends on having a body; I am neither the body nor the conscious presence.
In this body is the subtle principle "I Am"; that principle witnesses all this.
You are not the words.
link to 860
2 -------- sentences {860..864}
Understanding is not a matter of time.
If you really apperceive the truth, it is simple and quickly grasped.
The conscious presence depends on the body, and the body is nothing but the sperm and ovum, so where is this "you?
" This body is like an instrument that says, "I Am", like an announcer.
Presently you think that you are the body-mind, and whatever concepts you have collected are flowing out.
link to 1110
3 -------- sentences {1116..1120}
And what am I telling you?
You are not the body.
You are the conscious presence.
Accept it and you can forget it.
In future, I will not be able to go into the problems of each one of you.
=============
consciousness_arise
link to 200
1 -------- sentences {207..211}
This state, this Parabrahman principle, is eternal and is also the Sat-guru.
It is the eternal property of any devotee of a Guru.
July 29, 1980 Questioner: Why did this consciousness arise?
Maharaj: You are both the question and the answer.
All your questions come from your identification with the body.
link to 480
2 -------- sentences {482..486}
" That energy which moves all things in the waking state is latent in deep sleep.
How long is one unaware of awareness?
One doesn't know, but suddenly consciousness arises.
Does anyone think along these lines?
Is it not amazing that consciousness, which might remain latent for any length of time, suddenly arises spontaneously?
link to 550
3 -------- sentences {553..557}
I have had no aims except to find out.
I was not aware of my awareness, and suddenly I became conscious that I am.
Where and how did this consciousness arise on me?
That was my enquiry, going back to that state when the presence of phenomena was not there.
That is, original knowledge of the original Self.
link to 1130
4 -------- sentences {1135..1139}
Would you accept this?
Q: Yes.
Why did consciousness arise at all?
M: Hang on to this consciousness which has come and it will explain why it arose without cause.
No one else can explain to you why and how it arose.
=============
deep_sleep
link to 90
1 -------- sentences {95..99}
Q: But I like to act; I like to work.
M: All these activities go on, but they are only entertainment.
The waking and deep sleep states come and go spontaneously.
Through the sense of "I", you spontaneously feel like working.
But find out if this sense of "I" is real or unreal, permanent or impermanent.
link to 150
2 -------- sentences {157..161}
M: Because you want some satisfaction according to your own concepts, you try to qualify unalloyed bliss.
The term "ananda" has significance only when it signifies that the bodily beingness is available to experience it.
When you are in deep sleep and you start to see forms, you are actually dreaming.
Aren't those dream forms coming from your own beingness?
Whatever you see, even in the waking state, doesn't it come from your own beingness which is dwelling within the body?
link to 160
3 -------- sentences {160..164}
Aren't those dream forms coming from your own beingness?
Whatever you see, even in the waking state, doesn't it come from your own beingness which is dwelling within the body?
In deep sleep, consciousness was in a dormant condition; there were no bodies, no concepts, no encumbrances.
Upon the arrival of this apparently wakeful state, with the arrival of the concept "I Am", the love of "I Am" woke up.
That itself is Maya, illusion.
link to 480
4 -------- sentences {480..484}
This is the way the process will go on.
This Chakrapani is "like a flywheel," Lord Krishna said, "rotating all beings.
" That energy which moves all things in the waking state is latent in deep sleep.
How long is one unaware of awareness?
One doesn't know, but suddenly consciousness arises.
link to 700
5 -------- sentences {700..704}
What is the worth of all the activities of human beings?
It is all entertainment, just to pass time.
You get pleasure only when you forget yourself; in deep sleep you have forgotten yourself, that itself is joy.
It is the Atman, not the personality, that is drawn to spirituality.
I will not expound knowledge in the future; a few words here and there will be all.
link to 820
6 -------- sentences {821..825}
M: When he talks, saying "I am doing this" or "I am doing that," what he means is, I am that knowledge "I Am"; that is, consciousness.
Because unless the consciousness is there, the body is not.
In deep sleep we are not aware of the body, we are aware of the body only when we are awake and the consciousness is there.
Therefore when I say this, I mean that it is this consciousness which I am and not the body, which comes later.
This sickness is an aspect of the consciousness and I am not the consciousness.
link to 930
7 -------- sentences {933..937}
To that principle you cannot give a name or a title.
Who is the one who knows that there was no day, no night, the consciousness was not there?
Day and night, remembering and forgetting, the waking state and the deep sleep state, are they one and the same thing or are they separate?
The capacity of consciousness is something astounding.
I didn't know I was, and then suddenly I knew "I Am".
link to 1290
8 -------- sentences {1296..1300}
In the course of your study of spirituality, you have acquired many concepts which you call that knowledge.
Do you want me to be embroiled in your concepts?
That thought-flow is always there, except in deep sleep.
Even for a jnani, the thought-flow is present but the thought has changed.
Most people are carried away by the thought-flow, but a rare person turns around, goes to the source and departs from the track of that original thought-flow, saying, "It is not mine, not my affair.
link to 1800
9 -------- sentences {1809..1813}
M: Even this birth is false.
The quality of "I Amness" is because of the body.
You don't know whether you exist or not in deep sleep; you don't know you are, that is all.
You were not born at all; only the announcement of your existence is there.
You existed even prior to your birth; your existence is eternal, but the knowledge that you existed came about when you were a few years old.
link to 1850
10 -------- sentences {1857..1861}
What are you going to get for yourself as "I Am"?
In what position or concept did you stabilize yourself as "I Am"?
The firm conviction that I am this, the three states -waking state, deep sleep and the knowledge "I Am" ~ are the aspects of that Tej Sesh Bhagavan.
You are not that.
Question: Then who am I?
link to 1940
11 -------- sentences {1941..1945}
Why are you interested?
It is spontaneously happening.
You have to understand that when you are being stabilized in a state prior to waking state, deep sleep, prior to words and even prior to consciousness, something happens in your body state without your doing it.
Leave it alone.
Don't ask questions about that.
link to 2210
12 -------- sentences {2212..2216}
The food body you are not.
The waking state you are not.
The deep sleep state you are not.
You know the waking state.
Since you know the waking state you are not the waking state.
link to 2210
13 -------- sentences {2215..2219}
You know the waking state.
Since you know the waking state you are not the waking state.
You know the deep sleep state; therefore, you are not the deep sleep state.
Q: I am lost.
M: That Ultimate "you" can never be lost.
=============
direct_experience
link to 190
1 -------- sentences {193..197}
May 14, 1980 Maharaj: Doctors have diagnosed that this body has cancer.
Would anyone else be as joyful as I am, with such a serious diagnosis?
The world is your direct experience, your own observation.
All that is happening is happening at this level, but I am not at this level.
I have dissociated myself from Sattva Guna, beingness.
link to 1640
2 -------- sentences {1644..1648}
With what do you identify?
Q: I am the Brahman.
M: This is not your direct experience.
You are just repeating what you have read or heard.
What do you think you are?
link to 2150
3 -------- sentences {2152..2156}
My sentences will tear to pieces the doubts of anyone who listens to them.
First of all, you abide in your own Self and transcend it, and in transcending, you will realize your Ultimate.
The words emanating here are not borrowed knowledge, which is available in scriptures and other books; this is from direct experience.
Nirupana means the normal practice of these professional spiritual people, they will be expounding knowledge from various books.
You must thoroughly understand what you are, or what you could be when nothing is.
=============
dream_world
link to 170
1 -------- sentences {171..175}
Everything is beingness, but I, the Absolute, am not that.
In meditation, there was space, when suddenly two forms appeared out of no-form, Prakriti and Purusha, and the quintessence of these forms was the knowledge "I Am".
There were no forms, then suddenly forms appeared, just as in the dream world.
You as a dreamer are sleeping on the bed, but in your dream world you see a body and you think it is you, and you are doing everything through this dream body.
In that same way, bodies are created in the so-called waking state.
link to 170
2 -------- sentences {172..176}
In meditation, there was space, when suddenly two forms appeared out of no-form, Prakriti and Purusha, and the quintessence of these forms was the knowledge "I Am".
There were no forms, then suddenly forms appeared, just as in the dream world.
You as a dreamer are sleeping on the bed, but in your dream world you see a body and you think it is you, and you are doing everything through this dream body.
In that same way, bodies are created in the so-called waking state.
The Prakriti and Purusha state has no form and is eternal, having neither a beginning nor an end.
=============
elemental_play
link to 440
1 -------- sentences {444..448}
It is in totality; it is not going to pick out a fragment of the manifestation and say," I am this.
" The consciousness expresses itself as does a light.
This five elemental play is the manifestation of consciousness, the effulgence of consciousness only.
The play of the five elements will finally merge into the consciousness, because it is an outcome of the consciousness.
November 25, 1980 Maharaj: People come here and stay for days, weeks, even months.
link to 600
2 -------- sentences {602..606}
You have accepted the identity of the uniform and that identity becomes your ego.
Isvara is the manifest principle by which all activities are carried on.
It has no form -the forms are given because of the five elemental play.
Now, that principle gets completely lost in the uniform and is recognized by the uniform only.
You have the fear of death because you fear losing your identity, the body.
link to 960
3 -------- sentences {967..971}
So long as that knowingness, "I Amness", is there that attraction will be there for others.
The knowingness is the outcome of the food body; when this body is consumed, where is that "I Amness"?
There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play.
You are nothing better than vegetation.
Just as grass is growing, human beings are growing.
=============
essence_body
link to 380
1 -------- sentences {387..391}
If you don't cling to the body as your identity, everything is all right.
When beingness forgets itself, that state is Parabrahman.
This knowingness is not your true state, it is the outcome of the food essence body, and you, the Absolute, are not that.
November 21, 1980 Maharaj: Whatever I had thought earlier has now changed.
What is happening now is that even the slightest touch of individuality has completely disappeared, and it is consciousness as such which is spontaneously experiencing.
link to 1140
2 -------- sentences {1149..1153}
This knowingness is the scorpion which is giving me all the pain in the form of various experiences and concepts.
I am telling you with the authority of a jnani, everything is unreal.
This is all the play due to your consciousness, and your consciousness is due to the food essence body.
Q: I am grateful to my body which has brought me here.
M: You have come here just to commit suicide.
link to 1720
3 -------- sentences {1729..1733}
He watches the play as a witness.
Now, understand clearly.
This "droplet" of knowingness is a result of the food essence body; in understanding it, you are out of it.
If this last step is taken, knowing that I, the Absolute, am not that "droplet", the consciousness, it has to happen only once.
There is no more involvement with the play of the consciousness.
=============
everything_else
link to 1010
1 -------- sentences {1016..1020}
The world is not there, but the material of the world is there.
From there I start feeling "I Am".
With air the movement is there, with fire the heat, with water all seeds and everything else, and because of water the taste is there.
But you are dispossessed of these elements because of the Satguru.
Satguru {Parabrahman) is all love for no-knowingness.
link to 1980
2 -------- sentences {1982..1986}
Q: How can I be that?
M: Whatever you are, don't give it any shape or design, that is all.
If you are, then everything else is.
Worshipping books and being devoted to books will lead you nowhere.
Be your Self.
=============
everything_happens
link to 1220
1 -------- sentences {1221..1225}
M: Deal with the consciousness only, get to know it thoroughly.
That is all that can be done.
Later on, everything happens spontaneously, doership goes.
Know the inside-out of consciousness and recognize it as useless; it is a fraud.
When you transcend it, you will say, "I can manage without this.
link to 1560
2 -------- sentences {1565..1569}
All the activities go on because of the consciousness, but no one really understands it.
When people come here they have many questions and they think, after a while, they know something, but when they finally know there will be no questions to ask.
March 13, 1981 Maharaj: Everything happens out of our own Self.
This consciousness is spontaneously felt in the Self only.
This "I" is not an individual.
link to 2370
3 -------- sentences {2371..2375}
June 25, 1981 Maharaj: I am inspired to talk but I have no energy.
But whatever I say will be so profound that very few people will understand.
To start with, everything happens in the space of the cosmos, and it results in concrete actions of the worldly space.
All this happens spontaneously.
There is no author or doership there.
=============
experiential_state
link to 1940
1 -------- sentences {1947..1951}
Be yourself.
If you are yourself, you need not worry about what is happening at the other end.
You are interested in your experiential state.
There are so many experiences; such as, I saw blue light, I went up, etc., don't tell me all those things.
Be yourself and not the experiences.
link to 2190
2 -------- sentences {2195..2199}
Maharaj: You know you are.
That itself is awareness.
If you think that you have to be aware, then it becomes an experiential state.
You want to experience something.
Don't recognize your body as yourself.
=============
feel_like
link to 90
1 -------- sentences {96..100}
M: All these activities go on, but they are only entertainment.
The waking and deep sleep states come and go spontaneously.
Through the sense of "I", you spontaneously feel like working.
But find out if this sense of "I" is real or unreal, permanent or impermanent.
The "I" which appears is unreal.
link to 1020
2 -------- sentences {1020..1024}
Satguru {Parabrahman) is all love for no-knowingness.
Because of your association with this Satguru, it means illumination for you.
I don't feel like talking at all, I want to go into a sort of silence.
My present talks, if they are really understood, require no more discipline or sadhana.
They should click right there and then.
link to 2430
3 -------- sentences {2431..2435}
When you people come here, you feel very satisfied and contented.
Why?
You feel like that because when you are here, you are under the shade of, or you abide in, your own consciousness.
That means you are in a state which transcends body-mind and intellect.
Since you are in that state, you do not have any form, you do not have any doubts; therefore, you are in that satisfied state.
=============
five_elemental
link to 440
1 -------- sentences {444..448}
It is in totality; it is not going to pick out a fragment of the manifestation and say," I am this.
" The consciousness expresses itself as does a light.
This five elemental play is the manifestation of consciousness, the effulgence of consciousness only.
The play of the five elements will finally merge into the consciousness, because it is an outcome of the consciousness.
November 25, 1980 Maharaj: People come here and stay for days, weeks, even months.
link to 600
2 -------- sentences {602..606}
You have accepted the identity of the uniform and that identity becomes your ego.
Isvara is the manifest principle by which all activities are carried on.
It has no form -the forms are given because of the five elemental play.
Now, that principle gets completely lost in the uniform and is recognized by the uniform only.
You have the fear of death because you fear losing your identity, the body.
link to 1340
3 -------- sentences {1344..1348}
It was a very precious gem, and the ultimate product was that diadem.
I have understood the value of that, but I am not that.
The five gems are the five elemental body and consciousness, which I considered myself to be.
It is very precious because it has the value of the cosmos.
I recognize it, and in the process of recognition, I know that I am not that.
=============
five_elements
link to 170
1 -------- sentences {175..179}
In that same way, bodies are created in the so-called waking state.
The Prakriti and Purusha state has no form and is eternal, having neither a beginning nor an end.
But from it come the five elements, and with them, simultaneously, the body is formed at the moment that time is first experienced.
This process is ever continuing, with the body-form merely indicative of the opportunity to experience time.
This explanation will not reach home to everyone.
link to 280
2 -------- sentences {280..284}
It comes as quietly as twilight, with just a feel of "I Am" and then suddenly the space is there.
In the space, movement starts with the air, the fire, the water, and the earth.
All these five elements are you only.
Out of your consciousness all this has happened.
There is no individual.
link to 440
3 -------- sentences {445..449}
" The consciousness expresses itself as does a light.
This five elemental play is the manifestation of consciousness, the effulgence of consciousness only.
The play of the five elements will finally merge into the consciousness, because it is an outcome of the consciousness.
November 25, 1980 Maharaj: People come here and stay for days, weeks, even months.
The first few days what they have heard takes root, and that is when they should leave, so that what has taken root will have time to grow and blossom.
link to 630
4 -------- sentences {639..643}
December 26, 1980 Maharaj: Out of what is the body created?
Questioner: It is an expression of consciousness.
M: Is this body not composed of the five elements?
You know that you exist; does not this knowledge depend on the five elements?
The consciousness cannot be known without the body.
link to 640
5 -------- sentences {640..644}
Questioner: It is an expression of consciousness.
M: Is this body not composed of the five elements?
You know that you exist; does not this knowledge depend on the five elements?
The consciousness cannot be known without the body.
It depends on the form.
link to 650
6 -------- sentences {651..655}
Q: My English is not very good, I cannot express it, but I know "I Am.
" M: Before you were born, could you have felt or sensed or known that you exist?
A jnani is free because he sees that the body is made up of the five elements and it works according to the nature of these elements.
I see that body, but I am not concerned with whatever that body does.
There is nothing in it with which I can identify.
link to 650
7 -------- sentences {654..658}
I see that body, but I am not concerned with whatever that body does.
There is nothing in it with which I can identify.
The essence of the combination of the five elements is the sense of being, of existing.
It has all come simultaneously, I have no part in it.
Feeling that I am present depends on having a body; I am neither the body nor the conscious presence.
link to 880
8 -------- sentences {887..891}
January 12, 1981 Maharaj: [Referring to his lighter] The flame will last as long as the fuel is there.
Is there any question of emancipation or awakening for that flame?
The body and consciousness, which come into being because of the five elements, can there be any emancipation for them?
The One who is prior to the appearance of the elements is always there.
What you are doing is using your mind and intellect, but what I say is not based on the intellect, but rather on whatever comes up spontaneously in consciousness.
link to 940
9 -------- sentences {947..951}
Q: Are all the actions in the world being done through consciousness?
The movement of the five elements also?
M: The sum total of the five elements is consciousness.
Q: It's beautiful to praise this consciousness by consciousness, no?
M: Oh, yes.
link to 1050
10 -------- sentences {1050..1054}
This is the root habit.
Words and experiences are unworthy of you.
This habit of experiencing will not go until you realize that all this domain of the five elements, and the experiences in the five elements, are unreal.
This "I Amness" is itself unreal.
January 29, 1981 Maharaj: You must give up identity with the body.
link to 1510
11 -------- sentences {1516..1520}
Maharaj: Whose behavior?
And considered peculiar by whom?
All that IS is the essence of the five elements.
By this aperception, the nature of the five elements is not going to change.
The essence of the five elements is this momentary sense of presence, as compared to eternity.
link to 1510
12 -------- sentences {1517..1521}
And considered peculiar by whom?
All that IS is the essence of the five elements.
By this aperception, the nature of the five elements is not going to change.
The essence of the five elements is this momentary sense of presence, as compared to eternity.
You come here with a sense of love and regard for me, and you will benefit to the extent of how you perceive me.
link to 1510
13 -------- sentences {1518..1522}
All that IS is the essence of the five elements.
By this aperception, the nature of the five elements is not going to change.
The essence of the five elements is this momentary sense of presence, as compared to eternity.
You come here with a sense of love and regard for me, and you will benefit to the extent of how you perceive me.
If you continue to see me as an individual, that will be the extent of your benefits; if you see me as I see myself, and as I see you, that will be the further measure of your benefits.
link to 1570
14 -------- sentences {1575..1579}
By assuming a separate identity one taints that which is taintless; that is the original sin.
Go to the very root: who are you, what are you?
You are the product of the five elements, you have taken the support of the five elements.
Your feeling of "I Amness" emanates from the five elements.
Focus your attention at that point.
link to 1610
15 -------- sentences {1618..1622}
When you are in that state, you have no awareness of your existence.
March 29, 1981 Questioner: If the consciousness in all the different forms is identical, then why do thoughts and actions differ from one human being to another?
Maharaj: The thoughts and actions belong to the body-mind and the body-mind is the essence of the five elements.
The nature of the form depends on the various degrees of the five elements and the three gunas.
The thoughts and deeds depend on the conditioning received right from the time the consciousness is there.
link to 1610
16 -------- sentences {1619..1623}
March 29, 1981 Questioner: If the consciousness in all the different forms is identical, then why do thoughts and actions differ from one human being to another?
Maharaj: The thoughts and actions belong to the body-mind and the body-mind is the essence of the five elements.
The nature of the form depends on the various degrees of the five elements and the three gunas.
The thoughts and deeds depend on the conditioning received right from the time the consciousness is there.
Without the consciousness, there would be only dead forms.
link to 2040
17 -------- sentences {2044..2048}
The sense of presence, this consciousness, is everything.
So find out how that arises and how long it is going to last.
Just as the light will remain only as long as there is fuel for it, so this consciousness will last only so long as this fuel is there, fuel being the body, which is made of the five elements which are an accumulation of food.
If the food is not supplied constantly to the body, the body will not last, and if the body will not last, then the consciousness will not last.
Therefore, this consciousness will depend on how long the body is there.
link to 2070
18 -------- sentences {2074..2078}
Even the title of "parents" is also due to the bodies; as a result of the body this title of "parents" has arisen.
I want you to understand clearly that without the bodily consciousness there is no Brahman; the Brahman is because the consciousness is and consciousness is because the body is.
The body consciousness is the result of the five elements.
Body consciousness and the world are not different; they are identical.
Ponder over this in this fashion.
link to 2250
19 -------- sentences {2259..2263}
June 22, 1981 A.M. Maharaj: This consciousness and "I Amness" are due to what?
What is the basic material necessary for that to sprout?
It is the five elements, three gunas, and prakriti-purusha.
All those result in this space "I Am".
What do you have except memory?
link to 2280
20 -------- sentences {2281..2285}
Nothing more, nothing less.
One cannot see rays of light, as such, they reflect only when they encouter another object.
Similarly, "I Amness" is the interruption because of these five elements and three gunas.
That is why the feeling "I Am" is felt; but without the feeling of "I Am", still you are.
Light itself emnates from the sun.
link to 2280
21 -------- sentences {2284..2288}
That is why the feeling "I Am" is felt; but without the feeling of "I Am", still you are.
Light itself emnates from the sun.
Everything is stored, the five elements are there; therefore, it is reflecting as the sun.
Brightness is seen as the sun because something is there; if something were not there, the rays of light would be spread all over and become invisible as a source of light.
Mahakash is the infinite space.
=============
food_body
link to 710
1 -------- sentences {711..715}
Consciousness alone feels the expanse of consciousness, but I, the Absolute, am not that.
Whatever is known is known by consciousness, is in the field of consciousness.
The consciousness and the knowledge will subside when the food body dies.
The Absolute always remains.
The seed of knowledge is planted in you by these talks; now you have to follow it up.
link to 960
2 -------- sentences {966..970}
It is having its play, let it have it.
So long as that knowingness, "I Amness", is there that attraction will be there for others.
The knowingness is the outcome of the food body; when this body is consumed, where is that "I Amness"?
There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play.
You are nothing better than vegetation.
link to 1210
3 -------- sentences {1210..1214}
Similarly, you must become stabilized in a more stationary position, near the center.
When you leave that center point, the movement takes over.
February 7, 1981 Questioner: I am becoming more aware of my "I Amness" as a product of the food body.
Maharaj: You must be that principle prior to the emanation of the word "I".
Suppose I get a prick here -that principle prior to the emanation of words knows there was a prick.
link to 1770
4 -------- sentences {1776..1780}
This "I Amness" has appeared because of the body, so what knowledge do we have about the body and what knowledge of this "I-ness"?
Questioner: When the body falls, when the person is dead, do the memory and the consciousness remain?
Maharaj: Both the memory and consciousness are the quality of the food body.
When the body is not present, there is no question of their remaining.
The "I Amness" is a quality of the food body, but that is not the nature of the true Self.
link to 1770
5 -------- sentences {1778..1782}
Maharaj: Both the memory and consciousness are the quality of the food body.
When the body is not present, there is no question of their remaining.
The "I Amness" is a quality of the food body, but that is not the nature of the true Self.
Q: What is turiyal M: Turiya means that only you remain; nothing else remains.
So long as you know that you are, everything is.
link to 1960
6 -------- sentences {1966..1970}
What is it and what are you?
Body is the form or shape.
The taste of the food body is the knowledge "I Am".
What is your identity which you feel or experience in this body?
Your words are all right but are you the words?
link to 2080
7 -------- sentences {2082..2086}
It is something like the body having completely adjusted, like the grains which you have stored being completely adjusted.
This is food only.
This is the food body and the consciousness.
The Absolute is your true identity.
I have given you some indication of the Absolute.
link to 2210
8 -------- sentences {2210..2214}
Why has this face gone lean?
Because the food supply has been reduced.
The food body you are not.
The waking state you are not.
The deep sleep state you are not.
=============
food_essence
link to 380
1 -------- sentences {387..391}
If you don't cling to the body as your identity, everything is all right.
When beingness forgets itself, that state is Parabrahman.
This knowingness is not your true state, it is the outcome of the food essence body, and you, the Absolute, are not that.
November 21, 1980 Maharaj: Whatever I had thought earlier has now changed.
What is happening now is that even the slightest touch of individuality has completely disappeared, and it is consciousness as such which is spontaneously experiencing.
link to 1140
2 -------- sentences {1149..1153}
This knowingness is the scorpion which is giving me all the pain in the form of various experiences and concepts.
I am telling you with the authority of a jnani, everything is unreal.
This is all the play due to your consciousness, and your consciousness is due to the food essence body.
Q: I am grateful to my body which has brought me here.
M: You have come here just to commit suicide.
link to 1720
3 -------- sentences {1729..1733}
He watches the play as a witness.
Now, understand clearly.
This "droplet" of knowingness is a result of the food essence body; in understanding it, you are out of it.
If this last step is taken, knowing that I, the Absolute, am not that "droplet", the consciousness, it has to happen only once.
There is no more involvement with the play of the consciousness.
link to 2420
4 -------- sentences {2426..2430}
I have seen it in other people.
That impels one to try to find it in oneself.
M: When you look at others, that other person is just food essence, as yourself.
What more understanding do you have?
What is the quintessence of what you are, the inner core of you?
=============
full_well
link to 1850
1 -------- sentences {1853..1857}
Having got caught up with the concept that you are, the first concept, you started giving names and titles and ideas to others and you became enmeshed therein.
Although one may call oneself a jnani, one enjoys entertaining himself with a number of concepts.
Although such a one knows full well that he is not going to get anywhere, still one becomes busy with a number of concepts.
That Taj Sesh Bhagavan has spontaneously come and will spontaneously go.
What are you going to get for yourself as "I Am"?
link to 2300
2 -------- sentences {2307..2311}
What part of the miseries or happiness still remains.
One who has transcended the consciousness, or one who has seen the end of this, for such a one, where is there the question of any gain or loss?
I know full well that this knowingness will not remain.
I abide in that no-knowing state.
So, this being the case, where is the question of one's engaging in activity?
=============
get_involved
link to 680
1 -------- sentences {681..685}
M: I think of them more than you know.
December 30, 1980 Questioner: I think there should be beauty in the whole manifestation.
Maharaj: You should not get involved in what has appeared.
Take a tree -the bark, the leaves, the blossoms, the fruit, all have a different nature.
If you get involved in the appearance of these, you will lose sight of the source, the tree.
link to 680
2 -------- sentences {683..687}
Maharaj: You should not get involved in what has appeared.
Take a tree -the bark, the leaves, the blossoms, the fruit, all have a different nature.
If you get involved in the appearance of these, you will lose sight of the source, the tree.
Intellectually, you have understood, but you have to be one with it, you have to identify with what you have understood.
Understand that the seed of this body is the sperm of the father mixed with the ovum of the mother.
link to 740
3 -------- sentences {741..745}
M: If that is so, it means that you have understood everything and there is no need for you to linger here any longer.
Questioner [Another person]: It is different for me.
I have to make an effort not to get involved in thoughts when I meditate.
M: It is the nature of the life force to express itself through thoughts and words, so they will keep on coming.
If you have to make an effort in the beginning not to get involved, make that effort until it becomes effortless.
link to 740
4 -------- sentences {743..747}
I have to make an effort not to get involved in thoughts when I meditate.
M: It is the nature of the life force to express itself through thoughts and words, so they will keep on coming.
If you have to make an effort in the beginning not to get involved, make that effort until it becomes effortless.
Q: Does the jnani have a mind and thoughts also?
M: Although thoughts come and go, the jnani is not concerned.
link to 840
5 -------- sentences {846..850}
Q: When an action must be done or a choice made, how should one make the choice?
M: Just understand that it is not your personal action or choice.
Do not get involved as the doer.
Why do you get involved in all these concepts?
First find out what you consider yourself to be.
link to 840
6 -------- sentences {847..851}
M: Just understand that it is not your personal action or choice.
Do not get involved as the doer.
Why do you get involved in all these concepts?
First find out what you consider yourself to be.
Are you an entity?
=============
go_beyond
link to 340
1 -------- sentences {347..351}
M: So what illusory word do you want that will satisfy you?
November 18, 1980 Maharaj: My present outlook is without limitation, total freedom.
Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation.
By meditating, the knowledge "I Am" gradually settles down and merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally free, like the sky, or space.
Those who come here with the idea of getting knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, come here as individuals aspiring to get something; that is the real difficulty.
link to 920
2 -------- sentences {925..929}
Can you describe it?
My talks are not meant for normal human beings.
The normal person's field of understanding does not go beyond his own body.
The one who identifies with the body is the consciousness itself.
It mistakenly assumes that it is the body and behaves as if its unlimited potential has been limited by this one single phenomenon.
link to 1520
3 -------- sentences {1523..1527}
The real state is that state which was prior to the arrival of consciousness.
Very few will have reached that state.
Most of you will not want to go beyond identification with an entity or a body.
This identification, which has been changing from infancy to your present state, and which will continue to change in the course of time, is purely seasonal.
You identify with the body on the strength of hearsay.
link to 1900
4 -------- sentences {1908..1912}
You are the permanent.
Experiences are there in the realm of consciousness, which is bound by time.
Q: How does one go beyond time?
M: How did you come?
Experiencing things happens unconsciously or spontaneously.
=============
great_sage
link to 1830
1 -------- sentences {1830..1834}
June 9, 1981 Maharaj: Rajneesh is not a small personality or small principal.
He is tremendous -he is very big.
He is a great sage.
When you already have a guru [Rajneesh], why do you visit other sages?
Since you already have a great sage as your guru, you should not sit here or come here.
link to 1830
2 -------- sentences {1832..1836}
He is a great sage.
When you already have a guru [Rajneesh], why do you visit other sages?
Since you already have a great sage as your guru, you should not sit here or come here.
I do not like those shiftings from gurus to gurus.
I do not like wanderers.
link to 2130
3 -------- sentences {2138..2142}
The play of the consciousness will not come down to an individual level.
It is quite different, it is manifestation only.
Are you not a disciple of a great Sage?
How many years have you been going to him?
Questioner: For seven or eight years.
=============
happening_spontaneously
link to 420
1 -------- sentences {426..430}
Q: After we leave here, what are we to do?
M: It is up to you.
If you abide in consciousness everything will be happening spontaneously.
If you are still at body-mind level, you will think that you are doing something.
If you really abide in what I say, you become one with your Self.
link to 2390
2 -------- sentences {2395..2399}
Now you know that you are awake because, you are here and you have that knowledge.
There is nothing else other than this knowledge, no entity.
When you are dwelling in this consciousness you see that you are not doing anything, it is all happening spontaneously.
There is no question of your trying to do anything.
You cannot try to be your Self, because you are your Self.
=============
happens_spontaneously
link to 740
1 -------- sentences {748..752}
Thoughts will come in consciousness; witnessing also takes place in consciousness.
You must have the conviction that you are consciousness Thereafter there is nothing for you to do; leave it to the consciousness to do what is to be done.
Whatever happens, happens spontaneously.
Q: Where is the seat of consciousness?
M: In every particle of the juice of the body.
link to 1220
2 -------- sentences {1221..1225}
M: Deal with the consciousness only, get to know it thoroughly.
That is all that can be done.
Later on, everything happens spontaneously, doership goes.
Know the inside-out of consciousness and recognize it as useless; it is a fraud.
When you transcend it, you will say, "I can manage without this.
link to 2370
3 -------- sentences {2372..2376}
But whatever I say will be so profound that very few people will understand.
To start with, everything happens in the space of the cosmos, and it results in concrete actions of the worldly space.
All this happens spontaneously.
There is no author or doership there.
At world level, various bodies are formed and at body level, we encounter the attraction of the body; first of all our own body, then attraction of the other bodies.
=============
highest_state
link to 1690
1 -------- sentences {1697..1701}
It is your own beingness.
You are attracted to this place because of a certain quality in you.
You are stabilizing in the highest state.
It is not a worldly attraction which brings you here.
Neither you nor anybody else knows anything about this attraction.
link to 1720
2 -------- sentences {1723..1727}
Nevertheless, this quality "I Am" is the result of the material, objective body.
In the seed the whole tree is latent; in the droplet "I Am" all three worlds are squeezed in.
The highest state is the state of a jnani.
The first step is to be that droplet.
In the process of knowing that droplet, you are out of it, and that is a jnani.
=============
human_being
link to 220
1 -------- sentences {220..224}
Q: Does Maharaj see us as individuals?
M: There are no individuals; there are only food bodies with the knowledge "I Am".
There is no difference between an ant, a human being, and Isvara; they are of the same quality.
The body of an ant is small, an elephant's is large.
The strength is different, because of size, but the life-force is the same.
link to 690
2 -------- sentences {698..702}
"I love" gives rise to great joy, and at the same time there is nothing so miserable as "I love".
Giving up the body is a great festival for me.
What is the worth of all the activities of human beings?
It is all entertainment, just to pass time.
You get pleasure only when you forget yourself; in deep sleep you have forgotten yourself, that itself is joy.
link to 920
3 -------- sentences {924..928}
Disassociate yourself from your body and tell me something about that.
Can you describe it?
My talks are not meant for normal human beings.
The normal person's field of understanding does not go beyond his own body.
The one who identifies with the body is the consciousness itself.
link to 960
4 -------- sentences {969..973}
There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play.
You are nothing better than vegetation.
Just as grass is growing, human beings are growing.
Will anybody accept this?
Birth is a material aspect.
link to 1200
5 -------- sentences {1200..1204}
As you proceed from the center of the axle outwardly, the movement increases, does it not?
Similarly, the beginning of consciousness is like the center of a wheel; that point is steady, constant.
In a human being that is the most constant principle.
Since the day I was born until I am dead, that consciousness principle is there at that center.
As you merge into the world, the movement increases.
link to 1500
6 -------- sentences {1502..1506}
It ever prevails.
In your true state there are no words, but you think yourself important and you embrace many words.
Poor human beings are caught between worldly life and spiritual life.
One in a million understands all this play of consciousness, transcends it.
Q: What is death?
link to 1500
7 -------- sentences {1507..1511}
M: Death is also a hearsay.
Have you experienced death?
Having followed the course of spirituality, you have come to the end of personality and there is no more human being.
There is only impersonal consciousness.
In this realm of consciousness all that is going on is dynamic playfulness, a process of functioning.
link to 1610
8 -------- sentences {1617..1621}
That is the deep, dark blue state in which there are millions of stars and planets.
When you are in that state, you have no awareness of your existence.
March 29, 1981 Questioner: If the consciousness in all the different forms is identical, then why do thoughts and actions differ from one human being to another?
Maharaj: The thoughts and actions belong to the body-mind and the body-mind is the essence of the five elements.
The nature of the form depends on the various degrees of the five elements and the three gunas.
=============
human_beings
link to 690
1 -------- sentences {698..702}
"I love" gives rise to great joy, and at the same time there is nothing so miserable as "I love".
Giving up the body is a great festival for me.
What is the worth of all the activities of human beings?
It is all entertainment, just to pass time.
You get pleasure only when you forget yourself; in deep sleep you have forgotten yourself, that itself is joy.
link to 920
2 -------- sentences {924..928}
Disassociate yourself from your body and tell me something about that.
Can you describe it?
My talks are not meant for normal human beings.
The normal person's field of understanding does not go beyond his own body.
The one who identifies with the body is the consciousness itself.
link to 960
3 -------- sentences {969..973}
There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play.
You are nothing better than vegetation.
Just as grass is growing, human beings are growing.
Will anybody accept this?
Birth is a material aspect.
link to 1500
4 -------- sentences {1502..1506}
It ever prevails.
In your true state there are no words, but you think yourself important and you embrace many words.
Poor human beings are caught between worldly life and spiritual life.
One in a million understands all this play of consciousness, transcends it.
Q: What is death?
=============
identify_yourself
link to 800
1 -------- sentences {804..808}
Now there is no more center, thoughts don't come from the center as a body.
M: If thoughts don't come from your center as an individual body, then how do the thoughts come?
Do you now identify yourself with the thoughts?
Do you think the meaning of the thoughts and you are one and the same?
Q: No.
link to 1090
2 -------- sentences {1093..1097}
M: Very good.
In the later stages this consciousness is itself the pain.
Until you recognize and completely identify yourself with the knowledge "I Am", you will identify with the body.
That knowledge "I Am", you do not know her.
Some others here have no pride that they are knowledgeable; you alone are claiming all the knowledge and pride.
link to 1970
3 -------- sentences {1972..1976}
There is no permanent form.
The body continuously changes.
So long as you identify yourself with the body, you will not have satisfaction.
This is the space, I am not the space.
You must have the firm conviction about your own Self.
link to 2430
4 -------- sentences {2439..2443}
Abide in this state of shade, in the Self, in the consciousness that you are, even when you go out.
Here there is no room for the intellect to play about.
Since you do not identify yourself with any form, mind has no avenue for any propagation; the mind subsides in the consciousness.
This is space-like, a shade-like state.
Q: If you are in that state of beingness, is it necessary to say one's mantra?
=============
ignorant_one
link to 830
1 -------- sentences {838..842}
January 9, 1981 Questioner: What are thoughts?
Maharaj: They are the result of previous conditioning which the mind has had.
Q: Are the thoughts of the jnani and the ignorant one different from one another?
M: The difference is that the jnani has divorced himself from the body-mind, the body-mind thoughts will come and go but the jnani is not concerned; whereas, the ignorant one gets involved in those thoughts and the ignorant one considers himself as a name and a form.
Q: Should I keep in mind constantly that I am consciousness only?
link to 830
2 -------- sentences {839..843}
Maharaj: They are the result of previous conditioning which the mind has had.
Q: Are the thoughts of the jnani and the ignorant one different from one another?
M: The difference is that the jnani has divorced himself from the body-mind, the body-mind thoughts will come and go but the jnani is not concerned; whereas, the ignorant one gets involved in those thoughts and the ignorant one considers himself as a name and a form.
Q: Should I keep in mind constantly that I am consciousness only?
M: You are consciousness and consciousness is you and that's it; it is not necessary to always keep your attention on that fact.
=============
important_thing
link to 910
1 -------- sentences {910..914}
Is there anyone of them who has knowledge about himself?
Q: I am practicing nama-japa, is that all right?
M: Recite the sacred name, that is all right, but the important thing is to recognize and understand what is the presiding principle by which you know you are and by which you perceive everything else.
You must look at yourself, get to know yourself.
The riddle of spirituality cannot be solved by your intellect.
link to 1460
2 -------- sentences {1464..1468}
Whatever is temporary and time-bound cannot be the truth.
It is good, as far as it goes, that you have identified with this sense of presence, but understand that even that is temporary and not your true nature.
The most important thing for you is the "I Am".
Just be that and the necessary guidance will come.
March 2, 1981 Questioner: Maharaj has said that he used to think of himself as an individual, but now he does not, for that would be identification with the body.
link to 1780
3 -------- sentences {1787..1791}
It is not you.
Find out what you are.
The important thing is the consciousness.
You must give your full attention to the consciousness itself.
That is the process of meditation; then all the secrets will be revealed to you by the consciousness.
=============
jean_dunn
link to -10
1 -------- sentences {-2..2}
link to 0
2 -------- sentences {7..11}
But the real is not invented and cannot be destroyed ..." says Maharaj.
SEEDS OF CONSCIOUSNESS; THE WISDOM OF SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
Edited by Jean Dunn; introduction by Ramesh S. Balsekar.
215 pages.
Paperback.
link to 10
3 -------- sentences {12..16}
(Selected talks of Maharaj from July 1979 to April 1980.
) PRIOR TO CONSCIOUSNESS; TALKS WITH SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
Edited by Jean Dunn.
157 pages, illus.
Paperback.
link to 20
4 -------- sentences {29..33}
Tel.
(919) 471-3842.
FAX (919) 477-2622 CONSCIOUSNESSANDTHE ABSOLUTEThe final talks of Sri Nisargadatta MaharajEdited by Jean DunnTHE ACORN PRESS Durham, North Carolina Copyright ©1994 Jean Dunn All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For information, address: The Acorn Press, P. O.
link to 80
5 -------- sentences {80..84}
All shadings of his singular wisdom are reflected during these last, poignant conversations with those who were privileged to be in his presence.
When you read his words, may you find in them his blessings.
JEAN DUNN May 1, 1980 Questioner: How does a jnani see the world?
Maharaj: A jnani is aware of the origin and the value of consciousness, this beingness, which has spontaneously dawned on him.
This same consciousness plays a multitude of roles, some happy, some unhappy; but whatever the roles, the jnani is merely the seer of them.
link to 480
6 -------- sentences {489..493}
If you get too much involved in what I am saying you will throw away the books you are writing, everything.
Q: I will finish the books, then I am finished.
M: [To Jean Dunn] You have promised me that you will complete the books.
Universal consciousness will not write the books.
How will you write the books?
link to 1750
7 -------- sentences {1751..1755}
M: Who is stabilizing?
Is it not the consciousness itself?
This one [referring to Jean Dunn] has understood her nature.
It is all due to her faith in the Guru.
Everything that has any concern with me is sacred to her.
=============
know_yourself
link to 320
1 -------- sentences {323..327}
That consciousness is your only capital.
Understand it.
To what extent do you know yourself?
Q: I have held the feet of Sat-guru, beyond that I don't know anything.
M: You must do that, but you should understand the meaning of "feet of Sat-guru.
link to 540
2 -------- sentences {544..548}
Unless you abide in your own true nature you will not be able to gauge the depth of another's nature.
When you try to understand others, the Self-effulgent nature of one's Self should open up completely.
You will know yourself in the process.
The knowledge being expounded here you will not find in any books.
Now, having given you so much, you may see me tomorrow or you may not, that is immaterial, but don't forget what I have told you about your Self.
link to 630
3 -------- sentences {633..637}
M: Where is the need?
If you accept that uniform as yourself, then the question of giving it up will be there.
Give up your identity with the body, try to know yourself.
It is merely knowingness, you cannot perceive that state.
You come here because you are ignorant, not because you are knowledgeable.
link to 660
4 -------- sentences {669..673}
When this consciousness goes into oblivion, who is to say what that state is?
Q: I don't know.
M: Because your "I Amness" is not there, you do not know yourself.
When you began knowing that you are, you did a lot of mischief, but when the "I Am" is not there, there is no question of mischief.
Q: Is the "I Am" there all the time, as long as my body is there?
link to 910
5 -------- sentences {911..915}
Q: I am practicing nama-japa, is that all right?
M: Recite the sacred name, that is all right, but the important thing is to recognize and understand what is the presiding principle by which you know you are and by which you perceive everything else.
You must look at yourself, get to know yourself.
The riddle of spirituality cannot be solved by your intellect.
At the most, your intellect can provide you with livelihood.
link to 1100
6 -------- sentences {1104..1108}
You have committed a grave offense by equating these people with the level of your wisdom.
Take care of yourself, don't worry about others.
How dare you bother about others when you do not fully know yourself?
Q: There is some link which binds us together.
M: Never criticize others.
link to 1270
7 -------- sentences {1276..1280}
M: Who is saying this?
What you say will be correct only when you have the conviction that you and God are one, then you will recognize that there cannot be a God without you.
To know yourself is the real knowledge, but you cannot LOOK at yourself, you can only ABIDE in your Self.
Give up your attachment to mind modifications.
Q: Sometimes it does happen.
link to 1970
8 -------- sentences {1975..1979}
This is the space, I am not the space.
You must have the firm conviction about your own Self.
You must have that deep urge to know yourself.
Grace is always there.
Your first conviction, that "you are", which is prior to words, to that you have given the form of a body.
=============
like_space
link to 1020
1 -------- sentences {1027..1031}
" M: At that time the devotion was so strong that the very object of meditation would take a complete shape in front of the meditator.
Because of that devotional state, the whole atmosphere was imbued with that devotion, now it is only with the intellect.
People are not going to accept anything blindly , because their intellect has become more subtle, like space.
They are going to pick and choose, to analyze everything.
January 24, 1981 Maharaj: Listen to what I am saying, but do not expect to benefit in any way by what you hear, because to benefit there must be an entity, and there is no entity.
link to 2140
2 -------- sentences {2144..2148}
Q: I wanted to have your darshan, I wanted to meet you.
M: When you are stabilized in your own Self, then there is no otherness, you are everything.
If you abide in your Self you are like space and there is no duality left.
You are as expansive and as subtle as the space, and that is liberation.
You are not conditioned by any name or form.
link to 2320
3 -------- sentences {2321..2325}
They are attracted to the experiences of sound and light, etc., because they identify themselves with the body.
They want a shape and design; therefore, they revel in experiences which indicate shape and design.
You should be like space.
If you pay attention to things external to you, you will be carried away.
If you are the space and not the body, then at that stage the body does not remain as the body because there is nobody to evaluate the body as body.
link to 2320
4 -------- sentences {2327..2331}
All forms dissolve in mahakash.
You evaluate a form, that it is like this or like that.
When evaluation is not there, the mind is not there, it is like space.
Chidakash is that raw material by which you evaluate whatever you experience or whatever you observe.
In the process of becoming more subtle, the external forms are dissolved into mahakash; no more names and forms.
link to 2330
5 -------- sentences {2337..2341}
June 23, 1981 Maharaj: Just as you are not the clothes that you wear, similarly you are not this body.
This is the most important step.
You will slowly realize you are just like space, because space is the beginning and the end of everything.
Suppose you are sick: you want to know all about your sickness, the more serious the sickness, the more you would like to know about it.
Similarly, this "I Amness" is also like a sickness.
=============
maharaj_said
link to 510
1 -------- sentences {514..518}
The sense of "I" has come and has gone, that is all, I am not going to die.
One who has rejected this identity will understand.
Q: Maharaj said that he is not going to die?
M: How can one who is not born, die?
When people first learned about this illness, those who have affection for me came to talk to me, or wrote to me, giving advice and medicine.
link to 710
2 -------- sentences {715..719}
The seed of knowledge is planted in you by these talks; now you have to follow it up.
You must nurse it, ruminate over it, so that the tree of knowledge will grow.
January 4, 1981 Questioner: I was pondering what Maharaj said about all consciousness being the same this morning, and for just a few seconds, it was as if everything was one and I was behind it.
Is this the aim?
Maharaj: That is not the aim, IT IS SO.
link to 950
3 -------- sentences {957..961}
Q: My consciousness is due to this body, sustained by this body, not other bodies.
M: In your consciousness all the bodies are there.
Q: Maharaj said that I am not in the body, that the body is in me.
M: If you are an author, a number of books are potentially in your pen.
Since when did you realize that you are?
=============
manifest_brahman
link to 300
1 -------- sentences {302..306}
Investigate your self; this is the purpose of your being.
Spirituality is nothing more than understanding this play of consciousness—try to find out what this fraud is by seeking its source.
November 12, 1980 Maharaj: The "I Amness", the manifest Brahman, and Isvara are all only one; ponder over this and realize it.
This is a rare opportunity, one where all has been explained in great detail, so take full advantage of it.
You are the manifest Brahman.
link to 300
2 -------- sentences {304..308}
November 12, 1980 Maharaj: The "I Amness", the manifest Brahman, and Isvara are all only one; ponder over this and realize it.
This is a rare opportunity, one where all has been explained in great detail, so take full advantage of it.
You are the manifest Brahman.
I have told you many times what your true state is, but, through force of habit, you again descend into body identification.
A stage has now arrived at which you must give up this bodily identification.
link to 1950
3 -------- sentences {1959..1963}
You are not the one crying, you are not your emotions, are you?
So many people come to Maharaj to tell him of the spiritual experiences which they have undergone through meditation, just to show people, "I am something!
" When you fall into sleep, be alert and remind yourself that "I am the manifest Brahman" at that moment, on the borderline.
During the course of sleep, your transcendence is prior to mind, and continues during sleep also.
If you fall into sleep reciting japa and at midnight you wake up, you will find that japa continuing.
=============
manifest_consciousness
link to 240
1 -------- sentences {246..250}
October 5, 1980 Maharaj: I have no individuality.
I have assumed no pose as a person.
Whatever happens in the manifest consciousness happens.
People identify me with their concepts and they do what their concepts tell them.
It is consciousness which is manifest, nothing else.
link to 580
2 -------- sentences {588..592}
My dwelling place in the grosser world is gone now; presently it is in the subtler sphere, as in space.
The effect of these talks is that you will stabilize in the very source from which the words sprout.
Abiding in the dynamic, manifest consciousness is abiding in the words of the Guru.
The meaning of the mantra I have given you is that you are the manifest, dynamic principle, not the body.
When you abide in that, you become that.
link to 1130
3 -------- sentences {1138..1142}
M: Hang on to this consciousness which has come and it will explain why it arose without cause.
No one else can explain to you why and how it arose.
It is the manifest consciousness which is continuously talking, I am not talking.
How does the language emerge?
Is it because of your efforts?
link to 1550
4 -------- sentences {1556..1560}
Q: That is why we are here.
M: When you came, was it not on account of your body-mind?
Not only is the body-mind unreal, but this manifest consciousness, this universe, is also unreal.
The "I Amness" is dream-like, ephemeral.
Even the feeling of having understood is likely to lead one into a sense of illusion, because the individual thinks he has found something to impart to others, but there is no individual.
link to 1670
5 -------- sentences {1674..1678}
This is merely a conventional spiritual jargon.
Now you go from here with the firm conviction that "I am the Brahman, without any shape, form or design, and without any mental inclinations.
I am the manifest consciousness.
" When you realize that you are formless, there is no caste or creed for you, there are no concepts left.
The mumukshu is in kindergarten, spirituality inclined, but identifying with the body-mind.
link to 2120
6 -------- sentences {2125..2129}
The usual knowledge is concerned only with the body image.
You are not the body, you are the consciousness.
There is no imprint of personality, it is the manifest consciousness which is functioning.
This dynamic, manifest consciousness is always in a fluid state.
What will happen no one can say.
link to 2120
7 -------- sentences {2126..2130}
You are not the body, you are the consciousness.
There is no imprint of personality, it is the manifest consciousness which is functioning.
This dynamic, manifest consciousness is always in a fluid state.
What will happen no one can say.
This dynamic consciousness does not have any concept that something good or bad is going to happen to it; it is just happening.
=============
many_people
link to 50
1 -------- sentences {52..56}
JD IntroductionThe teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj have been published in several books using the original question-and-answer format in which the teachings were given.
Maurice Frydman's translation of Maharaj's talks, "I Am That" and other collections which followed, including my own, have served as guideposts to Maharaj's philosophy.
Many people from the West have come to follow his precepts through their reading of these collections.
Now, another in the golden link of guideposts is presented here as "Consciousness and the Absolute".
In this book you will find the last teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, the final dialogues he had with the people who had come from all over the world to hear his words.
link to 1160
2 -------- sentences {1165..1169}
Suppose that vital breath goes.
What will happen then to all your associations with the world?
This knowledge which has been expounded will not go to waste, many people have taken advantage of it.
The time will come when they will be enlightened also and then they will expound knowledge.
A jnani's state remains the same with or without the body.
link to 1300
3 -------- sentences {1304..1308}
When you do anything it is for "me", but there is a limit to which that can go, isn't there?
Q: The needs are limitless.
M: I meet many people who, in the pursuit of happiness, are always miserable.
Rarely do I encounter someone who says "I am content.
" February 9, 1981 Maharaj: My present state is such that this consciousness and all this physical suffering are unbearable.
link to 1950
4 -------- sentences {1958..1962}
" So what!
You are not the one crying, you are not your emotions, are you?
So many people come to Maharaj to tell him of the spiritual experiences which they have undergone through meditation, just to show people, "I am something!
" When you fall into sleep, be alert and remind yourself that "I am the manifest Brahman" at that moment, on the borderline.
During the course of sleep, your transcendence is prior to mind, and continues during sleep also.
=============
many_years
link to 40
1 -------- sentences {41..45}
However, they were not in print until after his death.
Since Maharaj spoke only Marathi, translators were always present.
Chief among them were Saumitra K. Mullarpattan, who was with Maharaj for many years; Ramesh S. Balsekar, who was with Maharaj for the last three years of his life and Damayanti Doongaji, who was a long time disciple.
Our most grateful thanks go to all of them.
I am especially grateful to Marjorie Russell, for her assistance in preparing this manuscript for publication.
link to 210
2 -------- sentences {211..215}
All your questions come from your identification with the body.
How can any questions relating to that which was prior to the body and consciousness be answered?
There are yogis who have sat in meditation for many, many years seeking answers to this question, but even they haven't understood it.
And yet you are complaining.
Q: It is a great mystery.
link to 2130
3 -------- sentences {2139..2143}
It is quite different, it is manifestation only.
Are you not a disciple of a great Sage?
How many years have you been going to him?
Questioner: For seven or eight years.
M: Then why did you come here?
=============
maurice_frydman
link to -10
1 -------- sentences {-1..3}
link to 50
2 -------- sentences {51..55}
Nowhere is this more apparent than in his final words to us in Consciousness and the Absolute.
JD IntroductionThe teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj have been published in several books using the original question-and-answer format in which the teachings were given.
Maurice Frydman's translation of Maharaj's talks, "I Am That" and other collections which followed, including my own, have served as guideposts to Maharaj's philosophy.
Many people from the West have come to follow his precepts through their reading of these collections.
Now, another in the golden link of guideposts is presented here as "Consciousness and the Absolute".
link to 60
3 -------- sentences {62..66}
We knew his body was suffering because he told us; yet we never heard a moan or a whimper from his lips.
It was awe-inspiring simply to watch him.
Maurice Frydman described this great teacher as "warmhearted, tender, shrewdly humorous, absolutely fearless and true; inspiring, guiding and supporting all who come to him.
" Others have described him as a tiger.
He was whatever was needed: kind, gentle, patient, abrupt, abrasive, impatient.
=============
must_go
link to 260
1 -------- sentences {269..273}
It is like the action of the wind -the wind doesn't blow for any particular individual, but for the total manifestation.
Q: As an individual can we go back to the source?
M: Not as an individual; the knowledge "I Am" must go back to its own source.
Now, consciousness has identified with a form.
Later, it understands that it is not that form and goes further.
link to 340
2 -------- sentences {347..351}
M: So what illusory word do you want that will satisfy you?
November 18, 1980 Maharaj: My present outlook is without limitation, total freedom.
Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation.
By meditating, the knowledge "I Am" gradually settles down and merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally free, like the sky, or space.
Those who come here with the idea of getting knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, come here as individuals aspiring to get something; that is the real difficulty.
link to 440
3 -------- sentences {448..452}
November 25, 1980 Maharaj: People come here and stay for days, weeks, even months.
The first few days what they have heard takes root, and that is when they should leave, so that what has taken root will have time to grow and blossom.
As soon as the seed takes root, they must go.
What has taken root must bloom, must express itself within each heart.
Questioner: Maharaj has said, in this respect, that the teachings were his Gurus, but the understanding was his.
link to 810
4 -------- sentences {818..822}
Q: That is right.
Thank you.
Now I must go.
M: When he talks, saying "I am doing this" or "I am doing that," what he means is, I am that knowledge "I Am"; that is, consciousness.
Because unless the consciousness is there, the body is not.
=============
must_understand
link to 460
1 -------- sentences {460..464}
How did it come about?
That is the question which needs investigating.
One must understand how clever this fraud of Maya is; first it shows us our body and makes us believe that we are the body, but the body is nothing but a speck of fertilized sperm, and in that sperm the consciousness is latent.
You see what a fraud it is?
The essence of the body is the essence of the foodstuff, and this consciousness lies dormant in it from the very beginning.
link to 590
2 -------- sentences {593..597}
People think that they are coming here of their own volition, but it is the consciousness which is bringing them here, because the consciousness wants this knowledge.
My talks are addressed to the consciousness, "You have identified with the body, but you are not the body.
" It is knowledge which must understand its own nature, and merge with the knowledge which is its source.
People come here and ask for blessings; they don't understand that the knowledge that one is not the body, but the consciousness within, is the blessing.
December 25, 1980 Questioner: When we are busy with our worldly jobs, what should we keep in mind?
link to 1160
3 -------- sentences {1161..1165}
When you are in that state of consciousness, it is all one, all the same, only the expressions are different.
Everything which gets consumed, exhausted, is unreal.
Your knowingness will, in due course, be consumed, will disappear, so it cannot be real; but you can't just dismiss it, you must understand it fully.
Presently there are an infinite number of items in your associations with this world because you have the association of the vital breath.
Suppose that vital breath goes.
link to 1430
4 -------- sentences {1431..1435}
Q: What responsibility do I have towards other people?
M: You have built your responsibilities around the teachings which you have derived from the world, but what is that "you" which is accepting all the responsibility?
You must understand that first.
You are identifying yourself as a body; that is not Self-knowledge.
Q: I don't always feel that I am the body; when I become still and concentrate, I realize that there is more than just flesh and blood there.
link to 1460
5 -------- sentences {1460..1464}
Q: The sense of presence is what I feel I am.
M: Will that remain permanently?
You must understand that truth is not changeable.
Truth is constant and eternal, whereas the combination of these three states has come upon you and were not there earlier.
Whatever is temporary and time-bound cannot be the truth.
=============
nine_months
link to 1490
1 -------- sentences {1490..1494}
Has it not happened spontaneously?
Questioner: Yes, that is true.
M: You did not have this concept "I Am" in the course of the nine months in the womb.
Understand this state of affairs; the concept "I Am" comes spontaneously and goes spontaneously.
Amazingly, when it appears, it is accepted as real.
link to 2450
2 -------- sentences {2456..2460}
It is not palpable.
You did not know your own existence after you were born.
Nine months in the womb and for sometime afterwards that "I am so and so" is absent.
When you start recognizing your mother, then you also come to be aware of your own existence.
That "I Amness" comes sometime later.
=============
nisargadatta_maharaj
link to -10
1 -------- sentences {-2..2}
link to 0
2 -------- sentences {6..10}
"What the mind invents, the mind destroys.
But the real is not invented and cannot be destroyed ..." says Maharaj.
SEEDS OF CONSCIOUSNESS; THE WISDOM OF SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
Edited by Jean Dunn; introduction by Ramesh S. Balsekar.
215 pages.
link to 10
3 -------- sentences {11..15}
Paperback.
(Selected talks of Maharaj from July 1979 to April 1980.
) PRIOR TO CONSCIOUSNESS; TALKS WITH SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
Edited by Jean Dunn.
157 pages, illus.
link to 10
4 -------- sentences {16..20}
Paperback.
(Selected talks, 1980-81.
) EXPLORATIONS INTO THE ETERNAL: FORAYS INTO THE TEACHING OF SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
By Ramesh S. Balsekar.
xiv, 261 pages.
link to 20
5 -------- sentences {20..24}
xiv, 261 pages.
Paperback.
POINTERS FROM NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
By Ramesh S. Balsekar; edited by Sudhakar S. Dikshit.
xvi, 223 pages.
link to 20
6 -------- sentences {24..28}
xvi, 223 pages.
Paperback.
"This publication is alive with the intensity and force of Nisargadatta Maharaj's spiritual realization, and the fierceness and dedication with which he relentlessly strove to accelerate others' liberation.
" Available from The Acorn Press, P. O.
Box 3279, Durham, NC 27715-3279.
link to 20
7 -------- sentences {29..33}
Tel.
(919) 471-3842.
FAX (919) 477-2622 CONSCIOUSNESSANDTHE ABSOLUTEThe final talks of Sri Nisargadatta MaharajEdited by Jean DunnTHE ACORN PRESS Durham, North Carolina Copyright ©1994 Jean Dunn All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For information, address: The Acorn Press, P. O.
link to 30
8 -------- sentences {35..39}
First published 1994; reprinted 1998, 2004ISBN 0-89386-041-7 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.
94-94237Maharaj's photographs by Jitendra Arya Printed in the United States of America.
AcknowledgmentsSri Nisargadatta Maharaj's talks were taped by Ms. N. Vanaja, who never missed a meeting.
We are all grateful to her for her dedicated service.
I was with Maharaj continuously during the time I was transcribing the talks from tapes to manuscript, and I transcribed all these tapes on a daily basis.
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9 -------- sentences {44..48}
Our most grateful thanks go to all of them.
I am especially grateful to Marjorie Russell, for her assistance in preparing this manuscript for publication.
Abiding by the wishes of my Guru, Nisargadatta Maharaj, who wanted to publish his talks without any alterations, I have not changed the wording as translated.
The manuscript has been edited for punctuation only, not for language or style.
If readers have any difficulty in understanding some of the expressions, a glossary has been provided at the end.
link to 50
10 -------- sentences {50..54}
The explanation is that even toward the end of his life, when his body was very weak, Maharaj continued to hammer home his teachings.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in his final words to us in Consciousness and the Absolute.
JD IntroductionThe teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj have been published in several books using the original question-and-answer format in which the teachings were given.
Maurice Frydman's translation of Maharaj's talks, "I Am That" and other collections which followed, including my own, have served as guideposts to Maharaj's philosophy.
Many people from the West have come to follow his precepts through their reading of these collections.
link to 50
11 -------- sentences {54..58}
Many people from the West have come to follow his precepts through their reading of these collections.
Now, another in the golden link of guideposts is presented here as "Consciousness and the Absolute".
In this book you will find the last teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, the final dialogues he had with the people who had come from all over the world to hear his words.
These talks, coming during the last days of his life, were the culmination of the rarest teachings he had to give us; they were the summit of the heights of his wisdom.
The scene for these talks was the small upstairs room which he had built some fifty years before, for his own meditation.
=============
nothing_else
link to 240
1 -------- sentences {248..252}
Whatever happens in the manifest consciousness happens.
People identify me with their concepts and they do what their concepts tell them.
It is consciousness which is manifest, nothing else.
Who is talking, who is walking, who is sitting?
These are the expressions of that chemical "I Am".
link to 1770
2 -------- sentences {1779..1783}
When the body is not present, there is no question of their remaining.
The "I Amness" is a quality of the food body, but that is not the nature of the true Self.
Q: What is turiyal M: Turiya means that only you remain; nothing else remains.
So long as you know that you are, everything is.
Find out what you are and you will get all the answers; find out the source of the body and the source of this "I Amness".
link to 2020
3 -------- sentences {2025..2029}
This sense of presence, this consciousness, is it not prior to anything else?
Even thinking about anything for which you have to use your mind, if you are not conscious, can any thought come?
Therefore, this sense of presence, this consciousness, is it not the primary thing without which nothing else can happen?
Nothing—no thoughts, no concepts—can arise by themselves.
No activity can arise if the sense of presence is not there.
link to 2050
4 -------- sentences {2054..2058}
Therefore, you are something separate from either the body or the consciousness.
So long as the body is there, anyone who considers himself an individual has as his only capital the sense of presence, this consciousness.
Treat that as the highest God and worship nothing else other than the sense of presence, and when you are one with the sense of presence, then whatever is necessary by way of spiritual knowledge will sprout by itself.
If you have any problems or questions with which you are concerned, you will find these problems and questions, are based on your identity with the body and mind as an individual.
If that identification is not there, then no questions can arise.
link to 2270
5 -------- sentences {2278..2282}
You stabilize only here.
This is your first step.
There is nothing else but the knowledge that you are, just be that.
Nothing more, nothing less.
One cannot see rays of light, as such, they reflect only when they encouter another object.
link to 2390
6 -------- sentences {2394..2398}
There is no such thing as an entity.
Now you know that you are awake because, you are here and you have that knowledge.
There is nothing else other than this knowledge, no entity.
When you are dwelling in this consciousness you see that you are not doing anything, it is all happening spontaneously.
There is no question of your trying to do anything.
=============
objective_world
link to 130
1 -------- sentences {134..138}
This is what I saw in meditation.
Questioner: How did we lose this pure consciousness state?
M: Every being experiences the Isvara state, either directly or potentially, but he is so wrapped up in this objective world that he loses his identity.
You must know what this "I Am" principle is.
It appears spontaneously and with its appearance begins the riddle of conceptual life.
link to 2070
2 -------- sentences {2071..2075}
Beyond the realm of consciousness arising from the body, there is no experience of consciousness.
I want to talk about that state beyond the realm of consciousness.
There are millions of names, but all these names relate to the objective world.
Even the title of "parents" is also due to the bodies; as a result of the body this title of "parents" has arisen.
I want you to understand clearly that without the bodily consciousness there is no Brahman; the Brahman is because the consciousness is and consciousness is because the body is.
link to 2070
3 -------- sentences {2077..2081}
Body consciousness and the world are not different; they are identical.
Ponder over this in this fashion.
Whatever is grasped by the mind and intellect is this objective world.
Although you have heard these talks, still you will be carried away by your conceptual experiences.
This body is made of food, but what is your true identity?
=============
one_identifies
link to 1470
1 -------- sentences {1470..1474}
Maharaj has said that when this sickness started, the last traces of individuality disappeared.
Maharaj: What is your question?
Q: Is the identification with the body so strong -I mean -is it such a habit that one identifies with the body even after one knows what lies beyond?
M: It is not identification as a person, as you think.
The body is an aid for the manifestation of consciousness, for experiencing.
link to 1620
2 -------- sentences {1625..1629}
In each form the thoughts, words, and deeds depend not only on the conditioning the form has received after it has been created; but they depend on even earlier conditioning at the time of conception.
The consciousness was latent in that birth chemical.
How amusing it is that one identifies with the body.
How long have you been following spirituality?
Q: For forty years.
link to 2030
3 -------- sentences {2033..2037}
This sense of presence, it is not the sense that I am present, you are present, or any individual is present.
The sense of presence is the sense of presence, as such.
Because one identifies oneself with his body, he thinks he is born and is going to die.
What is born is the general sense of presence, as such.
The sense of presence which has come spontaneously will leave spontaneously.
=============
one_must
link to 70
1 -------- sentences {72..76}
The repetitious style of his teaching is part of his wisdom and teaching skill.
He taught us to find out for ourselves, to ponder his words, and ask ourselves, "Can this be true?
" He said one must find out what the body is, where it came from, study it with detachment, watch it without judging.
One soon sees that it is just like a robot which has been programmed by others.
We are to turn within to that which lets us know that we are, to become one with that.
link to 340
2 -------- sentences {347..351}
M: So what illusory word do you want that will satisfy you?
November 18, 1980 Maharaj: My present outlook is without limitation, total freedom.
Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation.
By meditating, the knowledge "I Am" gradually settles down and merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally free, like the sky, or space.
Those who come here with the idea of getting knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, come here as individuals aspiring to get something; that is the real difficulty.
link to 460
3 -------- sentences {460..464}
How did it come about?
That is the question which needs investigating.
One must understand how clever this fraud of Maya is; first it shows us our body and makes us believe that we are the body, but the body is nothing but a speck of fertilized sperm, and in that sperm the consciousness is latent.
You see what a fraud it is?
The essence of the body is the essence of the foodstuff, and this consciousness lies dormant in it from the very beginning.
link to 1910
4 -------- sentences {1914..1918}
Q: Can we come out of it knowingly?
M: You want to step out?
One must know exactly what is time and what is you.
You must get to know that first.
What is your step?
=============
one_thing
link to 710
1 -------- sentences {719..723}
Maharaj: That is not the aim, IT IS SO.
It is there and it is only because of identity with the body that what is, doesn't seem as if it is.
Please understand that there is only one thing to be understood, and that is that you are the formless, timeless unborn.
It is because of your identification with the body as an entity that your consciousness, which is universal consciousness, thinks that it is dying.
Nobody is dying, because nobody was born.
link to 1250
2 -------- sentences {1258..1262}
Q: So the witnessing is only possible when there are modifications of the mind?
M: Witnessing happens.
Remember one thing, I am addressing my talk to the message "I Am".
Q: How can I communicate with the "I Am", how can I listen?
M: Listening will come spontaneously—just as you wake up spontaneously and fall asleep spontaneously.
=============
one_who
link to 140
1 -------- sentences {144..148}
Does that mean that 100 years ago you did not exist?
Q: I don't know.
M: The one who said, "I don't know" must have been there; in short, you were not like this, but you must have been something.
You must comprehend this correctly.
100 years back I was not like this; so, the one pointing this out must have been there.
link to 260
2 -------- sentences {263..267}
November 8, 1980 Questioner: Why is it that we naturally seem to think of ourselves as separate individuals?
Maharaj: Your thoughts about individuality are really not your own thoughts; they are all collective thoughts.
You think that you are the one who has the thoughts; in fact thoughts arise in consciousness.
As our spiritual knowledge grows, our identification with an individual body-mind diminishes, and our consciousness expands into universal consciousness.
The life force continues to act, but its thoughts and actions are no longer limited to an individual.
link to 290
3 -------- sentences {296..300}
Maharaj: No.
If that's done, they'll have no ambition to grow further; they must have certain ambitions, certain desires, for their proper growth.
The one who has fully investigated himself, the one who has come to understand, will never try to interfere in the play of consciousness.
There is no creator with a vast intellect as such; all this play is going on spontaneously.
There's no intellect behind it, so don't try to impose yours to bring about any change; leave it alone.
link to 320
4 -------- sentences {329..333}
When the knowingness occurs, that is Sat-guru movement.
Go to the source for that movement where the "I Amness" begins.
The effort of the one who has arrested that movement will not go to waste.
Holding the feet of the Sat-guru is the boderline between knowingness and no-knowingness.
November 17, 1980 Questioner: Don't we have to discard all knowledge?
link to 360
5 -------- sentences {368..372}
Those who have comprehended and who have reached a certain stage will not ask for anything, but everything will come to them spontaneously.
There will be no wish for it; nevertheless, it will be there.
This does not happen for an individual — it happens for the universal manifestation, or for the one who has become one with his true nature.
For the jnani, only witnessing is taking place.
November 20, 1980 Maharaj: The principle which can know itself is in the organism.
link to 400
6 -------- sentences {405..409}
Either way, I am not concerned.
All kinds of things were happening, thoughts and experiences, and they were credited to my account, but once I have seen what it is, all those account books have been burned and I no longer have any account.
How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever.
Whatever is happening, and the experiencing of the happening, takes place in this consciousness when the "I Am" arises.
November 24, 1980 Questioner: If there is no difference between what is prior to birth and what is after death there is no difference, is there any reason for attempting to learn who we are now?
link to 510
7 -------- sentences {513..517}
If it goes away, what happens?
The sense of "I" has come and has gone, that is all, I am not going to die.
One who has rejected this identity will understand.
Q: Maharaj said that he is not going to die?
M: How can one who is not born, die?
link to 510
8 -------- sentences {515..519}
One who has rejected this identity will understand.
Q: Maharaj said that he is not going to die?
M: How can one who is not born, die?
When people first learned about this illness, those who have affection for me came to talk to me, or wrote to me, giving advice and medicine.
Whatever is to happen will happen, I have no interest.
link to 520
9 -------- sentences {521..525}
It is quite in order that those who have affection for me write and come to discuss things with me; I don't listen to them, and that is also quite in order, because I am not afraid of anything.
You are asking, "Who am I?
" and you are not going to get an answer, because the one who will get the answer is false.
You may have an idea, a concept, and you will think you have found yourself, but it is only a concept; you can never see your Self.
Q: What is sat-chit-ananda?
link to 520
10 -------- sentences {527..531}
You can take it that sat-chit-ananda is the limit which your mind can describe of that state which cannot be described.
Your true state is non-manifest; the manifestation comes and the words come.
The one who experiences sat-chit-ananda is there before the experience.
The pictures on the following pages depict the various moods Maharaj as he responds to his questioners in his simple room which became the place of pigrimage for seekers from countries the world over.
December 15, 1980Maharaj: Consider the status you have reached if you are able to understand what I say, and if you have understood, there will be no status at all.
link to 730
11 -------- sentences {737..741}
I am experiencing that.
Maharaj: Witnessing takes place, there is nothing to be done.
It is total freedom for one who does not identify with the body.
Q: Everything is happening on its own and I have no concern with it.
M: If that is so, it means that you have understood everything and there is no need for you to linger here any longer.
link to 880
12 -------- sentences {888..892}
Is there any question of emancipation or awakening for that flame?
The body and consciousness, which come into being because of the five elements, can there be any emancipation for them?
The One who is prior to the appearance of the elements is always there.
What you are doing is using your mind and intellect, but what I say is not based on the intellect, but rather on whatever comes up spontaneously in consciousness.
You try to fix that knowledge which springs spontaneously from consciousness into the structure of concepts you have built out of the mind and intellect.
link to 920
13 -------- sentences {926..930}
My talks are not meant for normal human beings.
The normal person's field of understanding does not go beyond his own body.
The one who identifies with the body is the consciousness itself.
It mistakenly assumes that it is the body and behaves as if its unlimited potential has been limited by this one single phenomenon.
Therefore, with this identification, whatever behavior the consciousness adopts will be limited by the body.
link to 920
14 -------- sentences {929..933}
It mistakenly assumes that it is the body and behaves as if its unlimited potential has been limited by this one single phenomenon.
Therefore, with this identification, whatever behavior the consciousness adopts will be limited by the body.
The one who understands this ultimate meaning of life gets disassociated from the body and a transformation takes place.
The consciousness is universal, universal like the day, universal like the night.
To that principle you cannot give a name or a title.
link to 930
15 -------- sentences {932..936}
The consciousness is universal, universal like the day, universal like the night.
To that principle you cannot give a name or a title.
Who is the one who knows that there was no day, no night, the consciousness was not there?
Day and night, remembering and forgetting, the waking state and the deep sleep state, are they one and the same thing or are they separate?
The capacity of consciousness is something astounding.
link to 1260
16 -------- sentences {1265..1269}
It is happening spontaneously, and therefore I am experiencing it.
During these talks you have gotten very angry; this is in the zone of mind modifications -it is not a reflection of your consciousness.
The one who understands that anger is the message "I Am".
All your spiritual studies are conducted with your identification with the body-mind.
Q: I think so, yes.
link to 1300
17 -------- sentences {1305..1309}
Q: The needs are limitless.
M: I meet many people who, in the pursuit of happiness, are always miserable.
Rarely do I encounter someone who says "I am content.
" February 9, 1981 Maharaj: My present state is such that this consciousness and all this physical suffering are unbearable.
I am prepared to dispose of it right now; this is the state of affairs.
link to 1670
18 -------- sentences {1677..1681}
" When you realize that you are formless, there is no caste or creed for you, there are no concepts left.
The mumukshu is in kindergarten, spirituality inclined, but identifying with the body-mind.
The sadhaka is one who has dis-identified with the body-mind.
A Siddha is one who has stabilized in the knowledge "I Am", and in the process, has transcended it.
In this journey you know very well where you are.
link to 1670
19 -------- sentences {1678..1682}
The mumukshu is in kindergarten, spirituality inclined, but identifying with the body-mind.
The sadhaka is one who has dis-identified with the body-mind.
A Siddha is one who has stabilized in the knowledge "I Am", and in the process, has transcended it.
In this journey you know very well where you are.
M: [Speaking to another person] This young man's mother was on her deathbed, but I said with conviction that she was not going to die.
link to 1760
20 -------- sentences {1763..1767}
M: The habit of considering Self as the body has influenced everybody too much.
The knowledge "I Am" is your Guru, be in it.
Who is the one who sings the bhajan?
It is the intellect of that Guru - who are you, an intruder?
Of course, the action of the whole world depends on this intellect, but when this intellect reaches its apex, it gets merged into Parabrahman.
link to 1840
21 -------- sentences {1848..1852}
What is the leftover that means what you are?
[Maharaj then asked someone to leave and not to listen to these talks.
] One who has understood one's mystery as to what is, that one will not discuss or argue the largeness or smallness of anybody.
You have become a slave to a concept, and having become a slave to one concept you are fully involved and are immersed in more concepts.
You are drowning in concepts.
link to 2050
22 -------- sentences {2053..2057}
This food and water are certainly not you, and this consciousness is merely the nature of this food and water.
Therefore, you are something separate from either the body or the consciousness.
So long as the body is there, anyone who considers himself an individual has as his only capital the sense of presence, this consciousness.
Treat that as the highest God and worship nothing else other than the sense of presence, and when you are one with the sense of presence, then whatever is necessary by way of spiritual knowledge will sprout by itself.
If you have any problems or questions with which you are concerned, you will find these problems and questions, are based on your identity with the body and mind as an individual.
link to 2150
23 -------- sentences {2150..2154}
The space which is here is also everywhere else.
Spirituality is not a child's play.
My sentences will tear to pieces the doubts of anyone who listens to them.
First of all, you abide in your own Self and transcend it, and in transcending, you will realize your Ultimate.
The words emanating here are not borrowed knowledge, which is available in scriptures and other books; this is from direct experience.
link to 2180
24 -------- sentences {2183..2187}
Through this "I Am" comes the world knowledge.
You are not in isolation, you are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
Jivatman is the one who identifies with the body-mind as an individual separate from the world.
The Atman is only beingness, or the consciousness, which is the world.
The Ultimate principle which knows this beingness cannot be named at all.
link to 2220
25 -------- sentences {2225..2229}
You are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
In the consciousness hierarchy there are three stages: 1.
Jivatman is the one who identifies himself with the body-mind.
One who thinks I am a body, a personality, an individual apart from the world.
He excludes and isolates himself from the world as a separate personality because of identification with the body and the mind.
link to 2220
26 -------- sentences {2226..2230}
In the consciousness hierarchy there are three stages: 1.
Jivatman is the one who identifies himself with the body-mind.
One who thinks I am a body, a personality, an individual apart from the world.
He excludes and isolates himself from the world as a separate personality because of identification with the body and the mind.
2.
link to 2300
27 -------- sentences {2306..2310}
Among all of my experiences, I had occasions for joy, happiness and miseries.
What part of the miseries or happiness still remains.
One who has transcended the consciousness, or one who has seen the end of this, for such a one, where is there the question of any gain or loss?
I know full well that this knowingness will not remain.
I abide in that no-knowing state.
link to 2360
28 -------- sentences {2367..2371}
There is nothing but the Absolute.
The unmanifest manifested itself, that manifest state is Guru and it is universal.
Who is the one who recognizes this body-mind?
This "I Amness" which recognizes the body-mind is without name and form, it is already there.
June 25, 1981 Maharaj: I am inspired to talk but I have no energy.
link to 2420
29 -------- sentences {2421..2425}
I have been reading a lot.
Maybe it will take some time to try to develop a deeper emotional understanding?
M: To understand what you are, and ultimately to identify with the Self that you are, you must meet someone who has identified himself with the Self and also who has understood the Self thoroughly.
Have you come across that identity of yours?
Q: No.
link to 2630
30 -------- sentences {2636..2640}
Vritti: Thought wave, mental modification.
Yoga: Union, philosophy of Patanjali.
Yogi: One who practices Yoga.
=============
people_come
link to 440
1 -------- sentences {446..450}
This five elemental play is the manifestation of consciousness, the effulgence of consciousness only.
The play of the five elements will finally merge into the consciousness, because it is an outcome of the consciousness.
November 25, 1980 Maharaj: People come here and stay for days, weeks, even months.
The first few days what they have heard takes root, and that is when they should leave, so that what has taken root will have time to grow and blossom.
As soon as the seed takes root, they must go.
link to 590
2 -------- sentences {594..598}
My talks are addressed to the consciousness, "You have identified with the body, but you are not the body.
" It is knowledge which must understand its own nature, and merge with the knowledge which is its source.
People come here and ask for blessings; they don't understand that the knowledge that one is not the body, but the consciousness within, is the blessing.
December 25, 1980 Questioner: When we are busy with our worldly jobs, what should we keep in mind?
Maharaj: Because the "I Am" principle is there, it is moving all over.
link to 890
3 -------- sentences {894..898}
Questioner: Why do I feel such satisfaction here in Maharaj's presence?
M: Because that need which arises in consciousness and brings you here is satisfied.
Some people come here for knowledge.
I talk because the words naturally come out.
There is no intention behind my talks that you should get knowledge.
link to 890
4 -------- sentences {899..903}
Others come here because they are in difficulties.
I make no determination that those difficulties should go away, but the fact remains that in many cases they do go away.
I merely sit here, people come and go, I am not concerned.
They come here from long distances because the consciousness feels the need to come here.
The individual doesn't come here because of an intellectual decision to come here.
link to 1560
5 -------- sentences {1564..1568}
Man identifies with the gross form, he neither recognizes nor identifies with the manifest consciousness.
All the activities go on because of the consciousness, but no one really understands it.
When people come here they have many questions and they think, after a while, they know something, but when they finally know there will be no questions to ask.
March 13, 1981 Maharaj: Everything happens out of our own Self.
This consciousness is spontaneously felt in the Self only.
link to 2080
6 -------- sentences {2087..2091}
You have not surpassed the consciousness, and consciousness is the first step.
Total consciousness is not the end.
June 18, 1981 Maharaj: People come here because they feel there is a need to come.
The consciousness in your body feels pleasure in coming here.
So long as consciousness feels the need of anything, you will be compelled to do it.
link to 2420
7 -------- sentences {2429..2433}
What more understanding do you have?
What is the quintessence of what you are, the inner core of you?
When you people come here, you feel very satisfied and contented.
Why?
You feel like that because when you are here, you are under the shade of, or you abide in, your own consciousness.
=============
people_who
link to 50
1 -------- sentences {54..58}
Many people from the West have come to follow his precepts through their reading of these collections.
Now, another in the golden link of guideposts is presented here as "Consciousness and the Absolute".
In this book you will find the last teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, the final dialogues he had with the people who had come from all over the world to hear his words.
These talks, coming during the last days of his life, were the culmination of the rarest teachings he had to give us; they were the summit of the heights of his wisdom.
The scene for these talks was the small upstairs room which he had built some fifty years before, for his own meditation.
link to 1140
2 -------- sentences {1142..1146}
Is it because of your efforts?
If you grasp the essence of the talks which I am giving, you will illuminate the world.
Those people who run about from place to place aimlessly will gather nothing.
What is that you are after?
Eknath, a country sage who has written wonderful poems, said, "I am stung by a scorpion!
link to 1300
3 -------- sentences {1304..1308}
When you do anything it is for "me", but there is a limit to which that can go, isn't there?
Q: The needs are limitless.
M: I meet many people who, in the pursuit of happiness, are always miserable.
Rarely do I encounter someone who says "I am content.
" February 9, 1981 Maharaj: My present state is such that this consciousness and all this physical suffering are unbearable.
link to 2160
4 -------- sentences {2168..2172}
All so-called knowledge is tainted by words, which is only ignorance.
You, the Absolute, watch the waking state, you know the consciousness, you know the sleeping state; therefore, you are not that.
Among the millions of people who have come and gone, where am I counted among them?
There is no individuality connected with any of those forms, but I have always been, and I am, the total functioning.
Without me the functioning cannot take place.
=============
perfect_state
link to 190
1 -------- sentences {199..203}
That state is called Nirvana, Nirguna, that which is the Eternal and Ultimate Truth.
The essence and sum total of this whole talk is called Sat-guru Parabrahman, that state in which there are no requirements.
After the dissolution of the universe, when no further vestige of creation was apparent, what remained is my perfect state.
All through the creation and dissolution of the universe, I remain ever untouched.
I have not expounded this part: my state never felt the creation and dissolution of the universe.
link to 570
2 -------- sentences {577..581}
It is only the consciousness that is going to disappear, the Absolute is always there.
What a fall!
The perfect state, caught up in these experiences, and trying to derive certain benefits out of the experiences.
Q: Is it spontaneous?
M: Yes.
link to 820
3 -------- sentences {827..831}
Whatever sickness is there is in the domain of consciousness.
With the aid of consciousness, sickness is being experienced.
When I shall be totally in my Ultimate state, when this consciousness is finally extinguished, THAT is my total, perfect state.
When will I have no experience of this illness?
Just as the sun sets, only when this consciousness sets will there be perfect health or no experience of this sickness.
link to 1130
4 -------- sentences {1130..1134}
It has a time limit.
In this space-time everyone suffers, so why should I accept this suffering as something unique?
I was always in that blissful, complete, total state; suddenly I am in this imperfect state.
Those who have apperceived my knowledge will not fall a prey to the logic or spirituality expounded by others.
I dare to say to any scholar who considers himself full of wisdom, that when he was being born I was watching his birth from a corner.
=============
present_talks
link to 370
1 -------- sentences {374..378}
By listening to my talks you will be transformed back to your original state, prior to your birth.
Right now, in spite of your present life, it will happen.
My present talk is quite different now, at a higher level; therefore I do not invite anybody to listen to my present talks.
I recommend that nobody should come and listen because they will develop a dispassion for their family or daily life.
Language energy and vital breath energy should merge and stabilize.
link to 1020
2 -------- sentences {1021..1025}
Because of your association with this Satguru, it means illumination for you.
I don't feel like talking at all, I want to go into a sort of silence.
My present talks, if they are really understood, require no more discipline or sadhana.
They should click right there and then.
Q: At one time, there were a number of saints of the highest order.
link to 1040
3 -------- sentences {1040..1044}
Questioner: What remains when consciousness goes?
M: Nothing phenomenal remains.
The present talks are the culmination, or termination, of spiritual understanding.
The more the physical pain is observed, the more it is being realized that everything is illusory.
Q: Maharaj has reached the destination, we have not.
=============
raw_material
link to 1000
1 -------- sentences {1003..1007}
I appeal to you with my folded hands, don't get into this spirituality.
Whatever knowledge and concepts you are having, only that final spark is to be applied.
You have everything, the raw material is already with you, the symbol of birth and death is already removed.
The factual state of affairs is open, very clear, but nobody wants to look at it.
Translator: He has preference for simple devotion to God.
link to 2260
2 -------- sentences {2265..2269}
So when that basic material is available, only then is memory there-memory of anything, and finally, most important, the memory that you are.
Presently, the feeling that you are is also a memory.
To sustain that memory of "I Am", all these raw materials are necessary.
You are not that "I Am".
You are, as the Absolute, prior to this "I Am".
link to 2260
3 -------- sentences {2268..2272}
You are not that "I Am".
You are, as the Absolute, prior to this "I Am".
This "I Amness" is the product of these raw materials, but you, as Absolute, are not that.
At the most you might say "I Am", but what is this "I Am"?
"I" is merely a word.
link to 2270
4 -------- sentences {2274..2278}
Memory you are not.
Who has been able to retain his memory as "I Am"?
Once all that raw material has gone, where is that memory "I Am"?
Your most essential step is to stand firmly on your identity as the dynamic, manifest consciousness principle.
You stabilize only here.
link to 2320
5 -------- sentences {2328..2332}
You evaluate a form, that it is like this or like that.
When evaluation is not there, the mind is not there, it is like space.
Chidakash is that raw material by which you evaluate whatever you experience or whatever you observe.
In the process of becoming more subtle, the external forms are dissolved into mahakash; no more names and forms.
Simultaneously, the process of evaluation and mind functioning stops, dissolves itself into chidakash.
link to 2370
6 -------- sentences {2376..2380}
At world level, various bodies are formed and at body level, we encounter the attraction of the body; first of all our own body, then attraction of the other bodies.
Whatever happens in this concrete world, the instruments and the aids come from the space.
The raw material comes from the space.
The space is there prior to the light.
When the light is collected together, it reflects as the sun.
=============
sesh_bhagavan
link to 1840
1 -------- sentences {1844..1848}
The letters "I Am" are written spontaneously with a certain ink.
What is that ink which was used to write that which you are?
In that ink with which the letters "I Am" were written, in that ink the title of Tej Sesh Bhagavan is confirmed by the Vedas.
Sesh means the leftover, the remains.
What is the leftover that means what you are?
link to 1850
2 -------- sentences {1854..1858}
Although one may call oneself a jnani, one enjoys entertaining himself with a number of concepts.
Although such a one knows full well that he is not going to get anywhere, still one becomes busy with a number of concepts.
That Taj Sesh Bhagavan has spontaneously come and will spontaneously go.
What are you going to get for yourself as "I Am"?
In what position or concept did you stabilize yourself as "I Am"?
link to 1850
3 -------- sentences {1857..1861}
What are you going to get for yourself as "I Am"?
In what position or concept did you stabilize yourself as "I Am"?
The firm conviction that I am this, the three states -waking state, deep sleep and the knowledge "I Am" ~ are the aspects of that Tej Sesh Bhagavan.
You are not that.
Question: Then who am I?
=============
sleep_state
link to 90
1 -------- sentences {95..99}
Q: But I like to act; I like to work.
M: All these activities go on, but they are only entertainment.
The waking and deep sleep states come and go spontaneously.
Through the sense of "I", you spontaneously feel like working.
But find out if this sense of "I" is real or unreal, permanent or impermanent.
link to 930
2 -------- sentences {933..937}
To that principle you cannot give a name or a title.
Who is the one who knows that there was no day, no night, the consciousness was not there?
Day and night, remembering and forgetting, the waking state and the deep sleep state, are they one and the same thing or are they separate?
The capacity of consciousness is something astounding.
I didn't know I was, and then suddenly I knew "I Am".
link to 1930
3 -------- sentences {1938..1942}
What can I do to overcome that?
Maharaj: Don't raise this problem at all with me.
You are in the three states, the waking state, deep sleep state and the knowledge you are, so why are you dealing with the state which you are not?
Why are you interested?
It is spontaneously happening.
link to 2210
4 -------- sentences {2212..2216}
The food body you are not.
The waking state you are not.
The deep sleep state you are not.
You know the waking state.
Since you know the waking state you are not the waking state.
link to 2210
5 -------- sentences {2215..2219}
You know the waking state.
Since you know the waking state you are not the waking state.
You know the deep sleep state; therefore, you are not the deep sleep state.
Q: I am lost.
M: That Ultimate "you" can never be lost.
=============
slightest_touch
link to 380
1 -------- sentences {389..393}
This knowingness is not your true state, it is the outcome of the food essence body, and you, the Absolute, are not that.
November 21, 1980 Maharaj: Whatever I had thought earlier has now changed.
What is happening now is that even the slightest touch of individuality has completely disappeared, and it is consciousness as such which is spontaneously experiencing.
The result is total freedom.
All the time there was complete conviction that it was consciousness which was experiencing; but that "I" which the consciousness was experiencing was there.
link to 1030
2 -------- sentences {1032..1036}
Since I have had this disease there has been a slight change in the way I look at things.
Earlier, I had felt that there was a slight touch of individuality, to the extent that I felt that this universal consciousness was acting through a particular form.
Now there is not the slightest touch of any individual form nor functioning.
There is now cognition of total functioning as such, but even that will last only so long as the body lasts.
In that body there is consciousness, and both are material.
link to 1700
3 -------- sentences {1704..1708}
Q: Scientists have been talking of the "black hole" into which everything in the universe finally goes.
M: You are that Absolute, you swallow the entire universe.
April 10, 1981 Maharaj: There is only the slightest touch of "I Amness" left.
Henceforth, people will be able to have only darshan, there is not much chance of talking.
Whatever faith you entertain about me, that will stabilize in you.
=============
someone_who
link to 400
1 -------- sentences {405..409}
Either way, I am not concerned.
All kinds of things were happening, thoughts and experiences, and they were credited to my account, but once I have seen what it is, all those account books have been burned and I no longer have any account.
How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever.
Whatever is happening, and the experiencing of the happening, takes place in this consciousness when the "I Am" arises.
November 24, 1980 Questioner: If there is no difference between what is prior to birth and what is after death there is no difference, is there any reason for attempting to learn who we are now?
link to 1300
2 -------- sentences {1305..1309}
Q: The needs are limitless.
M: I meet many people who, in the pursuit of happiness, are always miserable.
Rarely do I encounter someone who says "I am content.
" February 9, 1981 Maharaj: My present state is such that this consciousness and all this physical suffering are unbearable.
I am prepared to dispose of it right now; this is the state of affairs.
link to 2420
3 -------- sentences {2421..2425}
I have been reading a lot.
Maybe it will take some time to try to develop a deeper emotional understanding?
M: To understand what you are, and ultimately to identify with the Self that you are, you must meet someone who has identified himself with the Self and also who has understood the Self thoroughly.
Have you come across that identity of yours?
Q: No.
=============
something_good
link to 2120
1 -------- sentences {2128..2132}
This dynamic, manifest consciousness is always in a fluid state.
What will happen no one can say.
This dynamic consciousness does not have any concept that something good or bad is going to happen to it; it is just happening.
No one is doing it.
The message "I Am" is there.
link to 2380
2 -------- sentences {2382..2386}
Determination of good or bad is made only through words.
Words, or sounds, are expressions of the space.
Only at word level does one think something good or bad will happen; when one identifies with the space, it is the end of good and bad.
First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself.
Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God -then you worship such a God and do bhajan and you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.
link to 2380
3 -------- sentences {2384..2388}
Only at word level does one think something good or bad will happen; when one identifies with the space, it is the end of good and bad.
First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself.
Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God -then you worship such a God and do bhajan and you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.
June 27, 1981Questioner: What is meditation?
Maharaj: To be one with THAT because of which we know we exist is meditation.
=============
something_like
link to 380
1 -------- sentences {381..385}
Om is the unstruck sound, the unpronounced word.
You don't respond to my talks, you have not been able to perceive the nature of your consciousness.
Consciousness is something like the drama of a play, play-acting.
You are unsupported, you have no support at all.
The birth, the parents, all this is illusion.
link to 580
2 -------- sentences {583..587}
It accepted some experience as itself.
Accepting experiences as the truth, it gets more and more involved.
December 22, 1980 Maharaj: Just now I was lying down in the waking state, but with no perceiving or receiving of any words, something like a prior-to-words state.
Now the last traces of personality or individuality have left me.
Last year I used to talk to people with a certain affection, but that is not available now.
link to 2080
3 -------- sentences {2080..2084}
Although you have heard these talks, still you will be carried away by your conceptual experiences.
This body is made of food, but what is your true identity?
It is something like the body having completely adjusted, like the grains which you have stored being completely adjusted.
This is food only.
This is the food body and the consciousness.
=============
spiritual_knowledge
link to 140
1 -------- sentences {149..153}
You did, and do, exist unto eternity.
What I am expounding does not relate to worldly knowledge.
You do not want to give up either worldly knowledge or so-called spiritual knowledge, and yet, through these worldly concepts, you want to understand the riddle of your existence, and that is precisely why you are not able to understand.
In truth, your state is one of Absolute bliss, not this phenomenal state.
In that non-phenomenal state you are full of bliss but there is no experience of its presence.
link to 250
2 -------- sentences {258..262}
All these things are connected only to that birth-chemical.
You are not this chemical "I Am"!
Spiritual knowledge should not be studied; it is knowledge derived from listening.
When the listener hears it, and accepts it, something clicks in him.
This "I Amness" is otherness; it is an expression of duality.
link to 260
3 -------- sentences {264..268}
Maharaj: Your thoughts about individuality are really not your own thoughts; they are all collective thoughts.
You think that you are the one who has the thoughts; in fact thoughts arise in consciousness.
As our spiritual knowledge grows, our identification with an individual body-mind diminishes, and our consciousness expands into universal consciousness.
The life force continues to act, but its thoughts and actions are no longer limited to an individual.
They become the total manifestation.
link to 340
4 -------- sentences {349..353}
Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation.
By meditating, the knowledge "I Am" gradually settles down and merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally free, like the sky, or space.
Those who come here with the idea of getting knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, come here as individuals aspiring to get something; that is the real difficulty.
The seeker must disappear.
When you know your real nature the knowledge "I Am" remains, but that knowledge is unlimited.
link to 1240
5 -------- sentences {1247..1251}
Q: That is a mystery.
M: It is open, very clear, but still it is a mystery.
Subsequent to that "I Am" and body-mind, and in the realm of the mind, there occurs what you call spiritual seeking, or spiritual knowledge.
This is nonsense.
In due course this message "I Am" will disappear.
link to 1410
6 -------- sentences {1411..1415}
Whatever you are prior to the appearance of "I Am", that is your true nature.
February 25, 1981 Maharaj: Each one lives in the world according to certain preconceived concepts.
Whatever spiritual knowledge he thinks he may have achieved, he continues to live according to those concepts.
Questioner: What is it like to live with no concepts?
M: Any answer given to you will be a concept.
link to 1730
7 -------- sentences {1733..1737}
There is no more involvement with the play of the consciousness.
You are in a state of no return, the eternal state.
Whatever you think of as spiritual knowledge was gained in the realm of consciousness; such knowledge is merely a burden upon your head and it is going to add more misery.
It is nothing more than spiritual jargon.
This "I Amness" is the very source of all misery.
link to 2050
8 -------- sentences {2054..2058}
Therefore, you are something separate from either the body or the consciousness.
So long as the body is there, anyone who considers himself an individual has as his only capital the sense of presence, this consciousness.
Treat that as the highest God and worship nothing else other than the sense of presence, and when you are one with the sense of presence, then whatever is necessary by way of spiritual knowledge will sprout by itself.
If you have any problems or questions with which you are concerned, you will find these problems and questions, are based on your identity with the body and mind as an individual.
If that identification is not there, then no questions can arise.
=============
sri_nisargadatta
link to -10
1 -------- sentences {-2..2}
link to 0
2 -------- sentences {6..10}
"What the mind invents, the mind destroys.
But the real is not invented and cannot be destroyed ..." says Maharaj.
SEEDS OF CONSCIOUSNESS; THE WISDOM OF SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
Edited by Jean Dunn; introduction by Ramesh S. Balsekar.
215 pages.
link to 10
3 -------- sentences {11..15}
Paperback.
(Selected talks of Maharaj from July 1979 to April 1980.
) PRIOR TO CONSCIOUSNESS; TALKS WITH SRI NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ.
Edited by Jean Dunn.
157 pages, illus.
link to 20
4 -------- sentences {29..33}
Tel.
(919) 471-3842.
FAX (919) 477-2622 CONSCIOUSNESSANDTHE ABSOLUTEThe final talks of Sri Nisargadatta MaharajEdited by Jean DunnTHE ACORN PRESS Durham, North Carolina Copyright ©1994 Jean Dunn All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, by any means, including mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
For information, address: The Acorn Press, P. O.
link to 30
5 -------- sentences {35..39}
First published 1994; reprinted 1998, 2004ISBN 0-89386-041-7 Library of Congress Catalog Card No.
94-94237Maharaj's photographs by Jitendra Arya Printed in the United States of America.
AcknowledgmentsSri Nisargadatta Maharaj's talks were taped by Ms. N. Vanaja, who never missed a meeting.
We are all grateful to her for her dedicated service.
I was with Maharaj continuously during the time I was transcribing the talks from tapes to manuscript, and I transcribed all these tapes on a daily basis.
link to 50
6 -------- sentences {54..58}
Many people from the West have come to follow his precepts through their reading of these collections.
Now, another in the golden link of guideposts is presented here as "Consciousness and the Absolute".
In this book you will find the last teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, the final dialogues he had with the people who had come from all over the world to hear his words.
These talks, coming during the last days of his life, were the culmination of the rarest teachings he had to give us; they were the summit of the heights of his wisdom.
The scene for these talks was the small upstairs room which he had built some fifty years before, for his own meditation.
=============
state_prior
link to 1880
1 -------- sentences {1888..1892}
Even this concept about knowledge is merely a concept.
With a jnani, there is no concept of either ignorance or knowledge.
The total absence of all knowledge or ignorance is that state prior to the arising of consciousness.
But you try to interpret whatever I say with various concepts and you condition yourself with all these concepts.
Q: Maharaj is taking everything away from me.
link to 1940
2 -------- sentences {1941..1945}
Why are you interested?
It is spontaneously happening.
You have to understand that when you are being stabilized in a state prior to waking state, deep sleep, prior to words and even prior to consciousness, something happens in your body state without your doing it.
Leave it alone.
Don't ask questions about that.
=============
sum_total
link to 190
1 -------- sentences {198..202}
The Ultimate state in spirituality is that state where no needs are felt at any time, where nothing is useful for anything.
That state is called Nirvana, Nirguna, that which is the Eternal and Ultimate Truth.
The essence and sum total of this whole talk is called Sat-guru Parabrahman, that state in which there are no requirements.
After the dissolution of the universe, when no further vestige of creation was apparent, what remained is my perfect state.
All through the creation and dissolution of the universe, I remain ever untouched.
link to 940
2 -------- sentences {947..951}
Q: Are all the actions in the world being done through consciousness?
The movement of the five elements also?
M: The sum total of the five elements is consciousness.
Q: It's beautiful to praise this consciousness by consciousness, no?
M: Oh, yes.
link to 960
3 -------- sentences {961..965}
Since when did you realize that you are?
Q: When the body and consciousness appeared.
M: The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing, even that word "nothing" is not there, so there is no spirituality left.
Suppose I do not like my body, or even the vital breath, what can I do -the body is there, vital breath is there, and therefore this "I Amness" is there.
They are functioning by themselves, why should I worry about it?
link to 1040
4 -------- sentences {1044..1048}
Q: Maharaj has reached the destination, we have not.
M: There was a house, and in the house there was a person; now the person is gone and the house is demolished.
The sum total is, whatever experiences you have, whether for a day or for years, it is all illusion.
The experiences begin with knowingness.
What is the most ingrained habit you have?
link to 2290
5 -------- sentences {2297..2301}
I am talking directly from my own experience, not from any books.
Millions of people, animals and other beings have come and gone.
But the sum total of the universe—has it become more or less?
It remains unchanged, has They have never become less.
They are always there.
=============
three_gunas
link to 1610
1 -------- sentences {1619..1623}
March 29, 1981 Questioner: If the consciousness in all the different forms is identical, then why do thoughts and actions differ from one human being to another?
Maharaj: The thoughts and actions belong to the body-mind and the body-mind is the essence of the five elements.
The nature of the form depends on the various degrees of the five elements and the three gunas.
The thoughts and deeds depend on the conditioning received right from the time the consciousness is there.
Without the consciousness, there would be only dead forms.
link to 2250
2 -------- sentences {2259..2263}
June 22, 1981 A.M. Maharaj: This consciousness and "I Amness" are due to what?
What is the basic material necessary for that to sprout?
It is the five elements, three gunas, and prakriti-purusha.
All those result in this space "I Am".
What do you have except memory?
link to 2260
3 -------- sentences {2262..2266}
All those result in this space "I Am".
What do you have except memory?
The memory is the result of the five elements and three gunas, the eight-aspects.
So when that basic material is available, only then is memory there-memory of anything, and finally, most important, the memory that you are.
Presently, the feeling that you are is also a memory.
link to 2280
4 -------- sentences {2281..2285}
Nothing more, nothing less.
One cannot see rays of light, as such, they reflect only when they encouter another object.
Similarly, "I Amness" is the interruption because of these five elements and three gunas.
That is why the feeling "I Am" is felt; but without the feeling of "I Am", still you are.
Light itself emnates from the sun.
link to 2540
5 -------- sentences {2546..2550}
Gita: Song.
Guna: Attribute, quality born of nature.
The three gunas are Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas.
Guru: Teacher, preceptor.
Hatha Yoga: Yoga system for gaining control of the physical body and breath.
link to 2610
6 -------- sentences {2611..2615}
Sat-Guru: Inner Self.
Satsang: Association with the wise.
Sattva or Sattwa: Light, purity, being, existence, one of the three gunas.
Shastra: Scripture.
Siddha: A perfected being.
link to 2620
7 -------- sentences {2620..2624}
Sutra: A terse sentence.
Swarupa: Essence, essential nature, true nature of being.
Tamas: Ignorance, darkness, one of the three gunas.
Tattva: Element, essence.
Turiya: Superconscious state, samadhi.
=============
three_states
link to 160
1 -------- sentences {163..167}
Upon the arrival of this apparently wakeful state, with the arrival of the concept "I Am", the love of "I Am" woke up.
That itself is Maya, illusion.
Q: Does Maharaj mean that the experiencer of the three states is the Self?
M: That is the Saguna Brahman state; because of your beingness the other states are.
The dream world is very old, it is not new.
link to 1460
2 -------- sentences {1461..1465}
M: Will that remain permanently?
You must understand that truth is not changeable.
Truth is constant and eternal, whereas the combination of these three states has come upon you and were not there earlier.
Whatever is temporary and time-bound cannot be the truth.
It is good, as far as it goes, that you have identified with this sense of presence, but understand that even that is temporary and not your true nature.
link to 1850
3 -------- sentences {1857..1861}
What are you going to get for yourself as "I Am"?
In what position or concept did you stabilize yourself as "I Am"?
The firm conviction that I am this, the three states -waking state, deep sleep and the knowledge "I Am" ~ are the aspects of that Tej Sesh Bhagavan.
You are not that.
Question: Then who am I?
link to 1930
4 -------- sentences {1938..1942}
What can I do to overcome that?
Maharaj: Don't raise this problem at all with me.
You are in the three states, the waking state, deep sleep state and the knowledge you are, so why are you dealing with the state which you are not?
Why are you interested?
It is spontaneously happening.
=============
total_freedom
link to 340
1 -------- sentences {346..350}
Q: Yes.
M: So what illusory word do you want that will satisfy you?
November 18, 1980 Maharaj: My present outlook is without limitation, total freedom.
Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation.
By meditating, the knowledge "I Am" gradually settles down and merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally free, like the sky, or space.
link to 390
2 -------- sentences {390..394}
November 21, 1980 Maharaj: Whatever I had thought earlier has now changed.
What is happening now is that even the slightest touch of individuality has completely disappeared, and it is consciousness as such which is spontaneously experiencing.
The result is total freedom.
All the time there was complete conviction that it was consciousness which was experiencing; but that "I" which the consciousness was experiencing was there.
Now that has totally disappeared; therefore, whatever happens in the field of consciousness, I, who am there before consciousness, am not concerned in any way.
link to 730
3 -------- sentences {737..741}
I am experiencing that.
Maharaj: Witnessing takes place, there is nothing to be done.
It is total freedom for one who does not identify with the body.
Q: Everything is happening on its own and I have no concern with it.
M: If that is so, it means that you have understood everything and there is no need for you to linger here any longer.
=============
total_functioning
link to 280
1 -------- sentences {283..287}
Out of your consciousness all this has happened.
There is no individual.
There is only you, the total functioning is you, the consciousness is you.
You are the consciousness, all the titles of the Gods are your names, but by clinging to the body you hand yourself over to time and death—you are imposing it on yourself.
I am the total universe.
link to 1030
2 -------- sentences {1033..1037}
Earlier, I had felt that there was a slight touch of individuality, to the extent that I felt that this universal consciousness was acting through a particular form.
Now there is not the slightest touch of any individual form nor functioning.
There is now cognition of total functioning as such, but even that will last only so long as the body lasts.
In that body there is consciousness, and both are material.
In all this there is no question of any entity cognizing anything as separate.
link to 1560
3 -------- sentences {1560..1564}
Even the feeling of having understood is likely to lead one into a sense of illusion, because the individual thinks he has found something to impart to others, but there is no individual.
It is so easy to get totally lost when juggling words, by attaching too much importance to them.
Just remember that the total functioning of the manifest happens through the friction of the five elements and the talking which takes place is a part of the total functioning.
There is no question of anyone seeking a particular benefit for himself as an individual teacher.
Man identifies with the gross form, he neither recognizes nor identifies with the manifest consciousness.
link to 1580
4 -------- sentences {1587..1591}
In that dream-like state, I am not keeping a record of anyone coming here, nor of any conversations among us.
March 21, 1981 Questioner: If someone understands the truth, does this have any effect on the world at large?
Maharaj: The first thing that happens is that the individuality is lost, and whatever happens then is seen as total functioning; the understanding of the total functioning cannot be divided.
There is no question of "I" or "you" understanding something.
It IS understanding.
link to 1610
5 -------- sentences {1612..1616}
Anyone in that condition, where the consciousness is present but the registration of the existence of the body is not, even in that state the conditions in the body change constantly.
All of this is an appearance in consciousness; therefore, consciousness has to suffer all of the changing conditions.
In that state any number of events happen, but all that is really happening is a total functioning against the background of this void which, in reality, is really consciousness.
There is no separate identity; what IS is this consciousness, apart from that no one can exist.
When you are very quiet, you have arrived at the basis of everything.
link to 2160
6 -------- sentences {2169..2173}
You, the Absolute, watch the waking state, you know the consciousness, you know the sleeping state; therefore, you are not that.
Among the millions of people who have come and gone, where am I counted among them?
There is no individuality connected with any of those forms, but I have always been, and I am, the total functioning.
Without me the functioning cannot take place.
I am the total functioning every moment, millions of years ago or now.
link to 2170
7 -------- sentences {2171..2175}
There is no individuality connected with any of those forms, but I have always been, and I am, the total functioning.
Without me the functioning cannot take place.
I am the total functioning every moment, millions of years ago or now.
In spite of my clearly understanding the foregoing, the bodily suffering has to be undergone because of the consciousness.
The name of the consciousness is suffering itself.
link to 2390
8 -------- sentences {2390..2394}
All of them represent the same thing --they represent this knowledge that one is, this beingness, consciousness.
This knowledge does not refer to an individual, but to the sense of presence as a whole.
Instead of accepting this knowledge as a total functioning, one wants to cut up the knowledge into bits and pieces, taking a part for himself, based on some concept.
Any knowledge based on a concept is not true knowledge.
There is no such thing as an entity.
=============
total_manifestation
link to 260
1 -------- sentences {266..270}
As our spiritual knowledge grows, our identification with an individual body-mind diminishes, and our consciousness expands into universal consciousness.
The life force continues to act, but its thoughts and actions are no longer limited to an individual.
They become the total manifestation.
It is like the action of the wind -the wind doesn't blow for any particular individual, but for the total manifestation.
Q: As an individual can we go back to the source?
link to 940
2 -------- sentences {941..945}
It is only when one thinks of himself as an individual that he thinks of bondage and liberation.
Whatever concepts you have collected in this world are totally useless.
Understand that the total manifestation is the child of a barren woman, but having understood this, give full attention to your work, and let that work be done as efficiently as possible.
Take good care of this work that you do in the world because it is an orphan!
January 17, 1981 Questioner: In consciousness is there doership and also witnessing?
link to 1710
3 -------- sentences {1719..1723}
April 11, 1981 Maharaj: The core of this consciousness is knowingness, to know "I Am".
It is not a personality, not an individual.
It is total manifestation.
Beingness is there, it fills everything.
Nevertheless, this quality "I Am" is the result of the material, objective body.
=============
true_identity
link to 730
1 -------- sentences {731..735}
It is unlimited.
You are seeking knowledge from the standpoint of identification with the body and whatever can be grasped by the mind.
When this body machine is there, the technique of using it is there, and that is what you are identifying with now, but it is not your true identity.
You have no control over it, it has appeared and it will disappear.
I talk to you from the perspective of the universal consciousness and I know that all bodies are the essence of food and that they will vanish.
link to 2070
2 -------- sentences {2079..2083}
Whatever is grasped by the mind and intellect is this objective world.
Although you have heard these talks, still you will be carried away by your conceptual experiences.
This body is made of food, but what is your true identity?
It is something like the body having completely adjusted, like the grains which you have stored being completely adjusted.
This is food only.
link to 2080
3 -------- sentences {2083..2087}
This is food only.
This is the food body and the consciousness.
The Absolute is your true identity.
I have given you some indication of the Absolute.
You have not surpassed the consciousness, and consciousness is the first step.
=============
true_knowledge
link to 2150
1 -------- sentences {2159..2163}
It is all one, and when everything is, still you are; that is understandable, but when nothing is, how can I be?
June 21, 1981 A.M. Maharaj: Any image you have of yourself is not true.
True knowledge is to abide in your own Self.
Try to understand all this knowledge which you are now gathering.
The so-called knowledge you get elsewhere talks only about ignorance; it cannot talk about the Self, true knowledge.
link to 2160
2 -------- sentences {2161..2165}
True knowledge is to abide in your own Self.
Try to understand all this knowledge which you are now gathering.
The so-called knowledge you get elsewhere talks only about ignorance; it cannot talk about the Self, true knowledge.
All of what is pursued by the mind it is not true knowledge.
True knowledge cannot be understood easily.
link to 2160
3 -------- sentences {2162..2166}
Try to understand all this knowledge which you are now gathering.
The so-called knowledge you get elsewhere talks only about ignorance; it cannot talk about the Self, true knowledge.
All of what is pursued by the mind it is not true knowledge.
True knowledge cannot be understood easily.
If I had the experience "I Am" before, would I care to enter the womb of my mother?
link to 2160
4 -------- sentences {2163..2167}
The so-called knowledge you get elsewhere talks only about ignorance; it cannot talk about the Self, true knowledge.
All of what is pursued by the mind it is not true knowledge.
True knowledge cannot be understood easily.
If I had the experience "I Am" before, would I care to enter the womb of my mother?
Prior to entering the womb I did not know myself, there was no knowledge of "I Amness".
link to 2390
5 -------- sentences {2391..2395}
This knowledge does not refer to an individual, but to the sense of presence as a whole.
Instead of accepting this knowledge as a total functioning, one wants to cut up the knowledge into bits and pieces, taking a part for himself, based on some concept.
Any knowledge based on a concept is not true knowledge.
There is no such thing as an entity.
Now you know that you are awake because, you are here and you have that knowledge.
=============
true_nature
link to 110
1 -------- sentences {117..121}
May 10, 1980 Maharaj: How did I get to the truth that I prevail everlastingly?
By meditating on the meditator, by "I Amness" merging into "I Airiness".
Only then did I understand what my true nature is.
The great Sages meditated in the same way.
Nobody had told me how to do it.
link to 290
2 -------- sentences {292..296}
Are you, and were you, there or not?
Attain that state which is and was prior to the body.
Your true nature is open and free, but you cover it up, you give it various designs.
November 9, 1980 Questioner: Should the type of dispassion which Maharaj is teaching us be taught to children?
Maharaj: No.
link to 360
3 -------- sentences {368..372}
Those who have comprehended and who have reached a certain stage will not ask for anything, but everything will come to them spontaneously.
There will be no wish for it; nevertheless, it will be there.
This does not happen for an individual — it happens for the universal manifestation, or for the one who has become one with his true nature.
For the jnani, only witnessing is taking place.
November 20, 1980 Maharaj: The principle which can know itself is in the organism.
link to 540
4 -------- sentences {542..546}
Abide in what I have told only you.
Kill that curiosity to know what others are told; to each seeker the appropriate advice is given.
Unless you abide in your own true nature you will not be able to gauge the depth of another's nature.
When you try to understand others, the Self-effulgent nature of one's Self should open up completely.
You will know yourself in the process.
link to 1400
5 -------- sentences {1400..1404}
Don't be carried away by concepts.
Truth is eternal; whatever you can grasp is unreal.
Even your experience that you are is not your true nature.
You, as the Absolute, are not this "I Amness", but presently you have to abide in your "I Amness".
Q: I feel afraid.
link to 1400
6 -------- sentences {1409..1413}
When you are the pure "I Amness" only, there is no fear.
Presently you are this "I Am", but this "I Am" is not the truth.
Whatever you are prior to the appearance of "I Am", that is your true nature.
February 25, 1981 Maharaj: Each one lives in the world according to certain preconceived concepts.
Whatever spiritual knowledge he thinks he may have achieved, he continues to live according to those concepts.
link to 1420
7 -------- sentences {1427..1431}
February 27, 1981 Questioner: Could Maharaj speak on the relationship between body and spirit?
Maharaj: You must get to know your own Self.
This body is not your true nature.
The principle by which you know "I Am" is your true nature.
Q: What responsibility do I have towards other people?
link to 1420
8 -------- sentences {1428..1432}
Maharaj: You must get to know your own Self.
This body is not your true nature.
The principle by which you know "I Am" is your true nature.
Q: What responsibility do I have towards other people?
M: You have built your responsibilities around the teachings which you have derived from the world, but what is that "you" which is accepting all the responsibility?
link to 1450
9 -------- sentences {1457..1461}
They have all come spontaneously and will go spontaneously.
No one has any control over them.
Are any of these states your true nature?
Q: The sense of presence is what I feel I am.
M: Will that remain permanently?
link to 1460
10 -------- sentences {1463..1467}
Truth is constant and eternal, whereas the combination of these three states has come upon you and were not there earlier.
Whatever is temporary and time-bound cannot be the truth.
It is good, as far as it goes, that you have identified with this sense of presence, but understand that even that is temporary and not your true nature.
The most important thing for you is the "I Am".
Just be that and the necessary guidance will come.
link to 2010
11 -------- sentences {2018..2022}
I want to know how to make the mind alert.
Maharaj: I do not speak about the body-mind and what goes on in the world.
I talk only about your true nature and your true nature is the sense of presence you have, this consciousness.
If you are not conscious, then there is no world for you.
There is nothing there.
link to 2610
12 -------- sentences {2619..2623}
Sunya: Void.
Sutra: A terse sentence.
Swarupa: Essence, essential nature, true nature of being.
Tamas: Ignorance, darkness, one of the three gunas.
Tattva: Element, essence.
=============
true_state
link to 300
1 -------- sentences {305..309}
This is a rare opportunity, one where all has been explained in great detail, so take full advantage of it.
You are the manifest Brahman.
I have told you many times what your true state is, but, through force of habit, you again descend into body identification.
A stage has now arrived at which you must give up this bodily identification.
The bodily activities will continue until the body drops off, but you should not identify with them.
link to 460
2 -------- sentences {469..473}
Sickness to whom?
Sickness is part of the functioning of the entire manifest, dynamic Chaitanya; it is the play of consciousness.
My true state is prior to this consciousness.
That state does not depend on the consciousness.
There is a couplet we sing at Bhajans, to Chakrapani.
link to 520
3 -------- sentences {526..530}
M: It is words.
You can take it that sat-chit-ananda is the limit which your mind can describe of that state which cannot be described.
Your true state is non-manifest; the manifestation comes and the words come.
The one who experiences sat-chit-ananda is there before the experience.
The pictures on the following pages depict the various moods Maharaj as he responds to his questioners in his simple room which became the place of pigrimage for seekers from countries the world over.
link to 1310
4 -------- sentences {1313..1317}
But you listen from the body-mind standpoint; it is quite natural.
I am telling you about the consciousness.
In my true state, if I had been aware of consciousness at the moment the body formation was taking place, I would have rejected it.
But at that highest state such knowledge is not there and this body formation and consciousness are both spontaneous.
Questioner: Maharaj, will you please explain how we can dive further into that consciousness?
link to 1420
5 -------- sentences {1424..1428}
Whatever happens in consciousness is purely imaginary, an hallucination; therefore, keep in mind the knowledge that it is consciousness in which everything is happening.
With that knowledge, be still, do not pursue any other thoughts which arise in consciousness.
What is necessary is to understand with sure conviction is that all is temporary, and does not reflect your true state.
February 27, 1981 Questioner: Could Maharaj speak on the relationship between body and spirit?
Maharaj: You must get to know your own Self.
link to 1500
6 -------- sentences {1501..1505}
The Truth, the Eternal, cannot be witnessed.
It ever prevails.
In your true state there are no words, but you think yourself important and you embrace many words.
Poor human beings are caught between worldly life and spiritual life.
One in a million understands all this play of consciousness, transcends it.
link to 2340
7 -------- sentences {2348..2352}
In this way you must try to understand, and the seeds of knowledge will sprout in you.
When you come to the end of material world-knowledge, at that stage you transcend the observer and the observed.
That means that you are in a true state of beingness.
Thereafter you enter the state of transcending beingness, where the identities of the observer and observed disappear.
Suppose somebody abuses you and you find out who it is.
=============
ultimate_principle
link to 580
1 -------- sentences {580..584}
Q: Is it spontaneous?
M: Yes.
Whatever experiences were happening in this field of knowingness, the Ultimate principle got caught up in that.
It accepted some experience as itself.
Accepting experiences as the truth, it gets more and more involved.
link to 2230
2 -------- sentences {2234..2238}
Together with the beingness the world is also felt - that is Atman.
3.
The Ultimate principle that knows this beingness cannot be termed at all.
It cannot be approached or conditioned by any words.
That is the Ultimate state.
=============
ultimate_state
link to 190
1 -------- sentences {196..200}
All that is happening is happening at this level, but I am not at this level.
I have dissociated myself from Sattva Guna, beingness.
The Ultimate state in spirituality is that state where no needs are felt at any time, where nothing is useful for anything.
That state is called Nirvana, Nirguna, that which is the Eternal and Ultimate Truth.
The essence and sum total of this whole talk is called Sat-guru Parabrahman, that state in which there are no requirements.
link to 780
2 -------- sentences {781..785}
January 8, 1981 Maharaj: Outwardly you can imitate a jnani, but the jnani has no fear.
Questioner: He is the Ultimate?
M: The Ultimate state is that state in which there is a total end to this body, name and form.
When there is no form, shape, color or name, who is there to ask anything?
Whatever happens, you accept it based on your identity with the body, and the body is time-bound.
link to 820
3 -------- sentences {827..831}
Whatever sickness is there is in the domain of consciousness.
With the aid of consciousness, sickness is being experienced.
When I shall be totally in my Ultimate state, when this consciousness is finally extinguished, THAT is my total, perfect state.
When will I have no experience of this illness?
Just as the sun sets, only when this consciousness sets will there be perfect health or no experience of this sickness.
link to 910
4 -------- sentences {919..923}
Don't worry about anybody else.
What are you?
January 14, 1981 Maharaj: The Ultimate state is that state in which nothing exists, neither I, nor you, nor manifestation.
Questioner: Can Maharaj describe the Ultimate state?
M: Can I cut up my sleep and make a design of it?
link to 920
5 -------- sentences {920..924}
What are you?
January 14, 1981 Maharaj: The Ultimate state is that state in which nothing exists, neither I, nor you, nor manifestation.
Questioner: Can Maharaj describe the Ultimate state?
M: Can I cut up my sleep and make a design of it?
Disassociate yourself from your body and tell me something about that.
link to 2180
6 -------- sentences {2187..2191}
The Ultimate principle which knows this beingness cannot be named at all.
It cannot be approached or conditioned by any words.
That is the Ultimate state.
I do not want meek and humble disciples, I want them to be powerful, as I am.
I do not make disciples, I make Gurus.
link to 2180
7 -------- sentences {2187..2191}
The Ultimate principle which knows this beingness cannot be named at all.
It cannot be approached or conditioned by any words.
That is the Ultimate state.
I do not want meek and humble disciples, I want them to be powerful, as I am.
I do not make disciples, I make Gurus.
=============
universal_consciousness
link to 70
1 -------- sentences {76..80}
We are to turn within to that which lets us know that we are, to become one with that.
Abiding in the "I Amness" (or Consciousness, which is pure love), that Consciousness itself will give us all the answers.
At the present time, Consciousness is what we are, not personal Consciousness, but impersonal, universal Consciousness.
In course of time, the Consciousness will show us that we are not even this, but we are that Eternal Absolute, unborn, undying.
All shadings of his singular wisdom are reflected during these last, poignant conversations with those who were privileged to be in his presence.
link to 260
2 -------- sentences {264..268}
Maharaj: Your thoughts about individuality are really not your own thoughts; they are all collective thoughts.
You think that you are the one who has the thoughts; in fact thoughts arise in consciousness.
As our spiritual knowledge grows, our identification with an individual body-mind diminishes, and our consciousness expands into universal consciousness.
The life force continues to act, but its thoughts and actions are no longer limited to an individual.
They become the total manifestation.
link to 480
3 -------- sentences {485..489}
Does anyone think along these lines?
Is it not amazing that consciousness, which might remain latent for any length of time, suddenly arises spontaneously?
Questioner: Is universal consciousness ever aware of itself as universal consciousness, or does it become aware only when there is a form?
M: Awareness is not aware of its awareness.
If you get too much involved in what I am saying you will throw away the books you are writing, everything.
link to 490
4 -------- sentences {494..498}
Q: It will happen spontaneously.
December 8, 1980 Maharaj: I am talking about the consciousness which works through this body at the moment, but which is not visible.
This consciousness is not limited to the body but is universal consciousness; I can't speak of anything else now.
A person who is already dead is not worried about anything.
Whether the people like it or not doesn't matter.
link to 490
5 -------- sentences {498..502}
Whether the people like it or not doesn't matter.
Perhaps you may be getting some blessings, some benefits, from listening to my talks, I don't know.
All my actions are the actions of universal consciousness appearing to work through this body.
I do not remember something from the past and then act; it is all action in the now.
Questioner: Where does consciousness come from?
link to 500
6 -------- sentences {506..510}
Q: Is it karmic, can karma be changed?
M: It is all consciousness working, not this one or that one working; it is all consciousness.
Q: Can Maharaj, out of compassion, give me a push into that state of universal consciousness?
M: Yes, of course, I can do that, but you must listen to me, you must have complete faith in whatever I tell you about yourself, and you must behave accordingly.
By nature I am non-manifest, yet I am manifested, but I am really not manifested.
link to 720
7 -------- sentences {720..724}
It is there and it is only because of identity with the body that what is, doesn't seem as if it is.
Please understand that there is only one thing to be understood, and that is that you are the formless, timeless unborn.
It is because of your identification with the body as an entity that your consciousness, which is universal consciousness, thinks that it is dying.
Nobody is dying, because nobody was born.
The millions of forms are the manifestation of consciousness.
link to 720
8 -------- sentences {723..727}
Nobody is dying, because nobody was born.
The millions of forms are the manifestation of consciousness.
It is the millions of forms which get created and destroyed, but universal consciousness itself is unborn and undying.
Just imagine if all the millions of forms which have been created were still here -how could other forms be created?
It is because consciousness is unborn and undying that the millions of forms get created and destroyed; it is a continuous process.
link to 730
9 -------- sentences {733..737}
When this body machine is there, the technique of using it is there, and that is what you are identifying with now, but it is not your true identity.
You have no control over it, it has appeared and it will disappear.
I talk to you from the perspective of the universal consciousness and I know that all bodies are the essence of food and that they will vanish.
January 7, 1981 Questioner: Every time something happens now, instead of getting involved in it, I am seeing that everything is that "I Amness".
I am experiencing that.
link to 2530
10 -------- sentences {2539..2543}
Chakrapani: Shakti, energy.
Chidakash: Consciousness, space, "I Amness".
Chit: Universal consciousness.
Chitta: Mind stuff.
Deva: Divine Being.
=============
various_concepts
link to 410
1 -------- sentences {412..416}
Q: The only difference is what happens in the middle?
M: Whatever happens between birth and death is also an expression of the consciousness only.
Even in the realm of consciousness you pass the time entertaining various concepts; what else are you doing?
Q: Is Maharaj playing with various concepts?
M: No.
link to 410
2 -------- sentences {413..417}
M: Whatever happens between birth and death is also an expression of the consciousness only.
Even in the realm of consciousness you pass the time entertaining various concepts; what else are you doing?
Q: Is Maharaj playing with various concepts?
M: No.
It is the consciousness, it plays by itself.
link to 1880
3 -------- sentences {1889..1893}
With a jnani, there is no concept of either ignorance or knowledge.
The total absence of all knowledge or ignorance is that state prior to the arising of consciousness.
But you try to interpret whatever I say with various concepts and you condition yourself with all these concepts.
Q: Maharaj is taking everything away from me.
I have nothing to hold onto -I will fall.
=============
vital_breath
link to 310
1 -------- sentences {310..314}
Questioner: How are we to do this?
M: You can watch the body, so you are not the body.
You can watch the breath, so you are not the vital breath.
In the same way, you are not the consciousness; but you have to become one with the consciousness.
As you stabilize in the consciousness, dispassion for the body and for the expressions through the body occurs spontaneously.
link to 370
2 -------- sentences {376..380}
My present talk is quite different now, at a higher level; therefore I do not invite anybody to listen to my present talks.
I recommend that nobody should come and listen because they will develop a dispassion for their family or daily life.
Language energy and vital breath energy should merge and stabilize.
Otherwise, if you allow them to go outward, they will be dissipated.
If you want peace, stabilize at that point where you started to be, stay put there.
link to 960
3 -------- sentences {962..966}
Q: When the body and consciousness appeared.
M: The sum total of my spirituality now is nothing, even that word "nothing" is not there, so there is no spirituality left.
Suppose I do not like my body, or even the vital breath, what can I do -the body is there, vital breath is there, and therefore this "I Amness" is there.
They are functioning by themselves, why should I worry about it?
It is having its play, let it have it.
link to 1160
4 -------- sentences {1162..1166}
Everything which gets consumed, exhausted, is unreal.
Your knowingness will, in due course, be consumed, will disappear, so it cannot be real; but you can't just dismiss it, you must understand it fully.
Presently there are an infinite number of items in your associations with this world because you have the association of the vital breath.
Suppose that vital breath goes.
What will happen then to all your associations with the world?
link to 1160
5 -------- sentences {1163..1167}
Your knowingness will, in due course, be consumed, will disappear, so it cannot be real; but you can't just dismiss it, you must understand it fully.
Presently there are an infinite number of items in your associations with this world because you have the association of the vital breath.
Suppose that vital breath goes.
What will happen then to all your associations with the world?
This knowledge which has been expounded will not go to waste, many people have taken advantage of it.
link to 1370
6 -------- sentences {1376..1380}
There is only one truth in the world, and that is that everything is unreal.
I am the Unmanifested talking through the Manifest.
When the body, the mind, the vital breath drop off, nothing happens; only I, the Absolute, prevail always.
No knowledge is called for to understand this truth, because that knowledge is innate.
What you have learned here will be your guide.
=============
waking_state
link to 150
1 -------- sentences {159..163}
When you are in deep sleep and you start to see forms, you are actually dreaming.
Aren't those dream forms coming from your own beingness?
Whatever you see, even in the waking state, doesn't it come from your own beingness which is dwelling within the body?
In deep sleep, consciousness was in a dormant condition; there were no bodies, no concepts, no encumbrances.
Upon the arrival of this apparently wakeful state, with the arrival of the concept "I Am", the love of "I Am" woke up.
link to 170
2 -------- sentences {173..177}
There were no forms, then suddenly forms appeared, just as in the dream world.
You as a dreamer are sleeping on the bed, but in your dream world you see a body and you think it is you, and you are doing everything through this dream body.
In that same way, bodies are created in the so-called waking state.
The Prakriti and Purusha state has no form and is eternal, having neither a beginning nor an end.
But from it come the five elements, and with them, simultaneously, the body is formed at the moment that time is first experienced.
link to 480
3 -------- sentences {480..484}
This is the way the process will go on.
This Chakrapani is "like a flywheel," Lord Krishna said, "rotating all beings.
" That energy which moves all things in the waking state is latent in deep sleep.
How long is one unaware of awareness?
One doesn't know, but suddenly consciousness arises.
link to 580
4 -------- sentences {583..587}
It accepted some experience as itself.
Accepting experiences as the truth, it gets more and more involved.
December 22, 1980 Maharaj: Just now I was lying down in the waking state, but with no perceiving or receiving of any words, something like a prior-to-words state.
Now the last traces of personality or individuality have left me.
Last year I used to talk to people with a certain affection, but that is not available now.
link to 930
5 -------- sentences {933..937}
To that principle you cannot give a name or a title.
Who is the one who knows that there was no day, no night, the consciousness was not there?
Day and night, remembering and forgetting, the waking state and the deep sleep state, are they one and the same thing or are they separate?
The capacity of consciousness is something astounding.
I didn't know I was, and then suddenly I knew "I Am".
link to 1850
6 -------- sentences {1857..1861}
What are you going to get for yourself as "I Am"?
In what position or concept did you stabilize yourself as "I Am"?
The firm conviction that I am this, the three states -waking state, deep sleep and the knowledge "I Am" ~ are the aspects of that Tej Sesh Bhagavan.
You are not that.
Question: Then who am I?
link to 1930
7 -------- sentences {1938..1942}
What can I do to overcome that?
Maharaj: Don't raise this problem at all with me.
You are in the three states, the waking state, deep sleep state and the knowledge you are, so why are you dealing with the state which you are not?
Why are you interested?
It is spontaneously happening.
link to 1940
8 -------- sentences {1941..1945}
Why are you interested?
It is spontaneously happening.
You have to understand that when you are being stabilized in a state prior to waking state, deep sleep, prior to words and even prior to consciousness, something happens in your body state without your doing it.
Leave it alone.
Don't ask questions about that.
link to 2160
9 -------- sentences {2167..2171}
Prior to entering the womb I did not know myself, there was no knowledge of "I Amness".
All so-called knowledge is tainted by words, which is only ignorance.
You, the Absolute, watch the waking state, you know the consciousness, you know the sleeping state; therefore, you are not that.
Among the millions of people who have come and gone, where am I counted among them?
There is no individuality connected with any of those forms, but I have always been, and I am, the total functioning.
link to 2210
10 -------- sentences {2211..2215}
Because the food supply has been reduced.
The food body you are not.
The waking state you are not.
The deep sleep state you are not.
You know the waking state.
link to 2210
11 -------- sentences {2213..2217}
The waking state you are not.
The deep sleep state you are not.
You know the waking state.
Since you know the waking state you are not the waking state.
You know the deep sleep state; therefore, you are not the deep sleep state.
link to 2210
12 -------- sentences {2214..2218}
The deep sleep state you are not.
You know the waking state.
Since you know the waking state you are not the waking state.
You know the deep sleep state; therefore, you are not the deep sleep state.
Q: I am lost.
link to 2400
13 -------- sentences {2409..2413}
That is firmly rooted.
"Aham Brahmasmi" means that "I am the Brahman", but before saying "I am the Brahman", you are already one with Brahman, then only will you be able to say "I am the Brahman".
It is just like the waking state.
After awakening, you might say, "I woke up.
" So the waking state precedes your saying "I woke up.
link to 2410
14 -------- sentences {2411..2415}
It is just like the waking state.
After awakening, you might say, "I woke up.
" So the waking state precedes your saying "I woke up.
" There are two ways of receiving the knowledge.
One way is you are taught the knowledge, you receive it externally.
=============
whatever_happens
link to 240
1 -------- sentences {246..250}
October 5, 1980 Maharaj: I have no individuality.
I have assumed no pose as a person.
Whatever happens in the manifest consciousness happens.
People identify me with their concepts and they do what their concepts tell them.
It is consciousness which is manifest, nothing else.
link to 390
2 -------- sentences {392..396}
The result is total freedom.
All the time there was complete conviction that it was consciousness which was experiencing; but that "I" which the consciousness was experiencing was there.
Now that has totally disappeared; therefore, whatever happens in the field of consciousness, I, who am there before consciousness, am not concerned in any way.
The experience is of consciousness experiencing itself.
Nevertheless, understand what consciousness is, even if consciousness is not an individual.
link to 410
3 -------- sentences {411..415}
Maharaj: The light coming from the sun and the sun itself -is there any difference?
Q: The only difference is what happens in the middle?
M: Whatever happens between birth and death is also an expression of the consciousness only.
Even in the realm of consciousness you pass the time entertaining various concepts; what else are you doing?
Q: Is Maharaj playing with various concepts?
link to 740
4 -------- sentences {748..752}
Thoughts will come in consciousness; witnessing also takes place in consciousness.
You must have the conviction that you are consciousness Thereafter there is nothing for you to do; leave it to the consciousness to do what is to be done.
Whatever happens, happens spontaneously.
Q: Where is the seat of consciousness?
M: In every particle of the juice of the body.
link to 780
5 -------- sentences {783..787}
M: The Ultimate state is that state in which there is a total end to this body, name and form.
When there is no form, shape, color or name, who is there to ask anything?
Whatever happens, you accept it based on your identity with the body, and the body is time-bound.
Q: I have experienced that it is not being.
M: What do you understand by the experience?
link to 1420
6 -------- sentences {1422..1426}
How can the consciousness, which came later, give you any knowledge about that state which exists prior to its arrival?
Any thought that you have reached or are going to reach that state is false.
Whatever happens in consciousness is purely imaginary, an hallucination; therefore, keep in mind the knowledge that it is consciousness in which everything is happening.
With that knowledge, be still, do not pursue any other thoughts which arise in consciousness.
What is necessary is to understand with sure conviction is that all is temporary, and does not reflect your true state.
link to 1580
7 -------- sentences {1587..1591}
In that dream-like state, I am not keeping a record of anyone coming here, nor of any conversations among us.
March 21, 1981 Questioner: If someone understands the truth, does this have any effect on the world at large?
Maharaj: The first thing that happens is that the individuality is lost, and whatever happens then is seen as total functioning; the understanding of the total functioning cannot be divided.
There is no question of "I" or "you" understanding something.
It IS understanding.
link to 2370
8 -------- sentences {2375..2379}
There is no author or doership there.
At world level, various bodies are formed and at body level, we encounter the attraction of the body; first of all our own body, then attraction of the other bodies.
Whatever happens in this concrete world, the instruments and the aids come from the space.
The raw material comes from the space.
The space is there prior to the light.
=============
who_identifies
link to 920
1 -------- sentences {926..930}
My talks are not meant for normal human beings.
The normal person's field of understanding does not go beyond his own body.
The one who identifies with the body is the consciousness itself.
It mistakenly assumes that it is the body and behaves as if its unlimited potential has been limited by this one single phenomenon.
Therefore, with this identification, whatever behavior the consciousness adopts will be limited by the body.
link to 2180
2 -------- sentences {2183..2187}
Through this "I Am" comes the world knowledge.
You are not in isolation, you are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
Jivatman is the one who identifies with the body-mind as an individual separate from the world.
The Atman is only beingness, or the consciousness, which is the world.
The Ultimate principle which knows this beingness cannot be named at all.
link to 2220
3 -------- sentences {2225..2229}
You are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
In the consciousness hierarchy there are three stages: 1.
Jivatman is the one who identifies himself with the body-mind.
One who thinks I am a body, a personality, an individual apart from the world.
He excludes and isolates himself from the world as a separate personality because of identification with the body and the mind.
=============
who_knows
link to 100
1 -------- sentences {100..104}
The "I" which appears is unreal.
How unreal it is I have proven.
The moment the "I" is proven unreal, who is it who knows that the "I" is unreal?
This knowledge within you that knows the "I" is unreal, that knowledge which knows change, must itself be changeless, permanent.
You are an illusion, Maya, an imagination.
link to 330
2 -------- sentences {336..340}
" Then you will understand that this is also to be discarded.
The principle which can pass judgment on whether the world is or is not, that principle antedates the world.
That by which everything is known, whether it is or is not - who knows this?
When I say Parabrahman, then you say that you understand.
Names are merely an instrument for communicating.
link to 930
3 -------- sentences {932..936}
The consciousness is universal, universal like the day, universal like the night.
To that principle you cannot give a name or a title.
Who is the one who knows that there was no day, no night, the consciousness was not there?
Day and night, remembering and forgetting, the waking state and the deep sleep state, are they one and the same thing or are they separate?
The capacity of consciousness is something astounding.
=============
who_thinks
link to 400
1 -------- sentences {405..409}
Either way, I am not concerned.
All kinds of things were happening, thoughts and experiences, and they were credited to my account, but once I have seen what it is, all those account books have been burned and I no longer have any account.
How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever.
Whatever is happening, and the experiencing of the happening, takes place in this consciousness when the "I Am" arises.
November 24, 1980 Questioner: If there is no difference between what is prior to birth and what is after death there is no difference, is there any reason for attempting to learn who we are now?
link to 2220
2 -------- sentences {2226..2230}
In the consciousness hierarchy there are three stages: 1.
Jivatman is the one who identifies himself with the body-mind.
One who thinks I am a body, a personality, an individual apart from the world.
He excludes and isolates himself from the world as a separate personality because of identification with the body and the mind.
2.
=============
whole_world
link to 1760
1 -------- sentences {1765..1769}
Who is the one who sings the bhajan?
It is the intellect of that Guru - who are you, an intruder?
Of course, the action of the whole world depends on this intellect, but when this intellect reaches its apex, it gets merged into Parabrahman.
You all go on writing a diary of your own concepts -I tell you, finally, it is utterly useless.
It will only serve as an instrument of bondage.
link to 2290
2 -------- sentences {2292..2296}
Finally, what is the result of all the experiences that are going on in the play of consciousness?
They are just gone, ending up in pure space.
The whole world is in an ever-changing state.
No form will remain permanently.
Finally all the forms will vanish in space and become formless.
link to 2300
3 -------- sentences {2301..2305}
They are always there.
With all these millions of forms in the world, can "my" image be left permanently?
Presently you have only the feeling of "I Amness" and because of that feeling the whole world is manifested.
Once the millions of people have gone, what traces are left of them?
Let us forget spirituality for the time being.
=============
without_concepts
link to 540
1 -------- sentences {548..552}
Now, having given you so much, you may see me tomorrow or you may not, that is immaterial, but don't forget what I have told you about your Self.
December 18, 1980Questioner: This consciousness is like a screen, and I am the screen.
Maharaj: Understand what I say without concepts; you are adding new concepts.
Now go to zero concepts.
There are many spiritual seekers whose aim is to acquire sufficient merit to reach a certain place, such as Heaven or Vaikuntha.
link to 1440
2 -------- sentences {1441..1445}
Abide in quietude, peace, stability.
Here we are not engaged in any buying or selling.
That knowledge "I Am", without concepts, is evoked or stimulated by the consciousness and peace which emanate from this place.
Q: That is why it is valuable to be with Maharaj.
M: I am not able to speak much.
link to 2100
3 -------- sentences {2104..2108}
This consciousness is dead to me; it is gone.
I have transcended that.
So whatever is, is that other consciousness, that one which is without concepts.
The principle that is conceptual and full of qualities, which I transcended, was like a very big ocean.
Now it is mostly dried up, just the dregs remain.
=============
without_words
link to 530
1 -------- sentences {535..539}
You don't have to go to anybody else after you leave this place; that part of the work has already been done by you.
Because you are worthy of that state of realization, you are here today.
Get to know that "I Am" without words which arises in the morning.
Knowing the Self, abiding in the Self-knowledge, is not a mere intellectual knowing.
You must be that, and you should not move away from it.
link to 860
2 -------- sentences {864..868}
Presently you think that you are the body-mind, and whatever concepts you have collected are flowing out.
When you begin spirituality, you reject the body-mind with "I am not that.
" Then you come to the "I Am" only, without words.
Then you are everything, you are not confined to the body.
Because of the instrument of the body, that feeling of consciousness is there and I, the Absolute, am not that.
link to 980
3 -------- sentences {980..984}
That you experience the world at all is the result of somebody's fun; now it has become the source of misery.
Q: Is it possible to be in a wordless state?
M: Can you live without words?
Words are very necessary.
Q: We are prisoners of our own concepts.
link to 1050
4 -------- sentences {1054..1058}
January 29, 1981 Maharaj: You must give up identity with the body.
Abidance in that knowledge "I Am" which does not identify with the body-mind is the spiritual light.
Self-love and "I Am" without words are the same.
The sicknesses may come and go, but the Self-love does not go.
Questioner: The realization of Self does not come.
link to 1230
5 -------- sentences {1237..1241}
I don't have to do anything.
I simply exist.
Maharaj: That state of being is common to all, that is the message "I Am" without words.
Q: Is it possible to remain stable?
M: Change is only in the mind-flow.
link to 1790
6 -------- sentences {1796..1800}
This "you" will know who you are, but awareness means pure consciousness and there is no "I" there.
Watching yourself, that itself is meditation.
To keep only consciousness, without mixing it with anything, that is knowledge without words, that you ARE.
Thoughts will be there, but they will be weaker and weaker, so only the feeling of "I Amness" will remain: just consciousness, without any activity.
Watching your activities is on a lower level, like watching anger, etc., that is identification with the body-mind.
link to 2180
7 -------- sentences {2180..2184}
In this place spirituality of the common type will not be doled out to you.
That Ultimate you can never be lost; whatever you have lost, you have lost only the words.
That Ultimate you knows or feels "I Am" without words.
Through this "I Am" comes the world knowledge.
You are not in isolation, you are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
=============
world_knowledge
link to 2180
1 -------- sentences {2181..2185}
That Ultimate you can never be lost; whatever you have lost, you have lost only the words.
That Ultimate you knows or feels "I Am" without words.
Through this "I Am" comes the world knowledge.
You are not in isolation, you are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
Jivatman is the one who identifies with the body-mind as an individual separate from the world.
link to 2180
2 -------- sentences {2182..2186}
That Ultimate you knows or feels "I Am" without words.
Through this "I Am" comes the world knowledge.
You are not in isolation, you are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
Jivatman is the one who identifies with the body-mind as an individual separate from the world.
The Atman is only beingness, or the consciousness, which is the world.
link to 2220
3 -------- sentences {2223..2227}
The moment the feeling "I Am" appears, the world also appears.
"You are" is not alone, in isolation.
You are part and parcel of the world knowledge.
In the consciousness hierarchy there are three stages: 1.
Jivatman is the one who identifies himself with the body-mind.
=============
worldly_knowledge
link to 140
1 -------- sentences {148..152}
100 years back I was not like this; so, the one pointing this out must have been there.
You did, and do, exist unto eternity.
What I am expounding does not relate to worldly knowledge.
You do not want to give up either worldly knowledge or so-called spiritual knowledge, and yet, through these worldly concepts, you want to understand the riddle of your existence, and that is precisely why you are not able to understand.
In truth, your state is one of Absolute bliss, not this phenomenal state.
link to 140
2 -------- sentences {149..153}
You did, and do, exist unto eternity.
What I am expounding does not relate to worldly knowledge.
You do not want to give up either worldly knowledge or so-called spiritual knowledge, and yet, through these worldly concepts, you want to understand the riddle of your existence, and that is precisely why you are not able to understand.
In truth, your state is one of Absolute bliss, not this phenomenal state.
In that non-phenomenal state you are full of bliss but there is no experience of its presence.
link to 2000
3 -------- sentences {2001..2005}
You have a lot of knowledge but it pertains to the practical world.
So far you have not got the knowledge of the Self.
I will not talk about the worldly knowledge.
It does not end here.
This is the world.
=============
worldly_life
link to 960
1 -------- sentences {967..971}
So long as that knowingness, "I Amness", is there that attraction will be there for others.
The knowingness is the outcome of the food body; when this body is consumed, where is that "I Amness"?
There is no such thing as spirituality; whatever is, is only this worldly life, in the five-elemental play.
You are nothing better than vegetation.
Just as grass is growing, human beings are growing.
link to 1500
2 -------- sentences {1502..1506}
It ever prevails.
In your true state there are no words, but you think yourself important and you embrace many words.
Poor human beings are caught between worldly life and spiritual life.
One in a million understands all this play of consciousness, transcends it.
Q: What is death?
link to 2130
3 -------- sentences {2134..2138}
The very idea that you are the body is ridiculous; the consciousness is experiencing its manifestation.
A rare being will realize this.
The worldly life of a jnani means the total functioning of consciousness.
Normally, a person who is always thinking of others as personalities will not think of others simply as a function in consciousness.
The play of the consciousness will not come down to an individual level.
link to 2600
4 -------- sentences {2605..2609}
Sakti or Shakti: Power, energy, force.
Samadhi: Oneness, when the self merges into the Self.
Samsara: The worldly life.
Samskara: Mental impression.
Sankalpa: Thought, desire, imagination.