"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Saturday, December 4, 2010

I want to do something spiritual

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Do you want self-knowledge or not? You want to do something spiritual, but you must be there for doing something. You must know "You". Who is the doer of spirituality? "I am" is the doer. When you are involved in daily activities, in the house, street and office, "who" is the common factor? It is your "I-am-ness". This "I-am-ness" of yours is doing everything.

Suppose from morning till night I have been doing a lot of things. What is the sum total of my activities? All these many activities took place in my state of beingness. In deep sleep, "I am" went into oblivion; it forgot itself. Then what is the use of everything that was done? Beingness is not an eternal state. It is a temporary phase - a passing show. Consciousness is the product of the five elements and their interactions. The result of the five elements is temporary, and time-bound. Your knowingness and all that you accumulate always come subsequent to your beingness. You can know something only when knowingness knows "it is". Your fall occurs when you try to identify something within the sphere of consciousness as "yourself". Your consciousness manifests the world. When you try to equate the body with yourself, the fall begins.

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad