"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

Monday, June 13, 2011

Consciousness is Pure

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

May 11, 1980.


Just as in the winter the heat gets less and less, as this identification with the body gets less and less the pain that is felt gets less and less, to a degree that, with complete disidentification with the body, one can put his hand in the fire and not feel the pain. The effect of the fire will be there, but the pain will not be felt.

The consciousness in the body cannot have any blemish at all - that is the quality. But when you identify with the body, then, conceptually you might pollute it, but by nature it is very pure. Vital breath is very pure, and this beingness is purer than that. I am talking about Atman, the Self. This knowledge is likely to create a great sense of frustration in one who doesn't have the right perspective. The intention is to see the state of things in their correct perspective. Having seen it, live your life in the world to the best of your ability.

Immortality is beyond time and space; in that timeless, spaceless existence there is no entry for the five elements, for light or darkness, for the sun or the moon. Timeless, spaceless existence doesn't know that it is. That is reality. That is the truth.

Normally a common spiritual seeker will not understand what I am driving at because he is seeking something which he can enjoy. What is your ambition in being a spiritual seeker?

Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to an end. So long as there is that stigma of the memory that you are a body-mind you will not understand.

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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