Find what you never lost

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q. You speak of sat-chit-ananda. That "I am" is obvious. That "I know" is obvious. That I am happy is not at all obvious. Where has my happiness gone?

M. Be fully aware of your own being and you will be in bliss consciously. Because you take your mind off yourself and make it dwell on what you are not, you lose your sense of well-being of being well.

Q. There are two paths before us - the path of effort (yoga marga) and the path of ease (bhoga marga). Both lead to the same goal - liberation.

M. Why do you call bhoga a path? How can ease bring you perfection?

Q. The perfect renouncer (yogi) will find reality. The perfect enjoyer (bhogi) also will come to it.

M. How can it be? Aren't they contradictory?

Q. The extremes meet. To be a perfect bhogi is more difficult than to be a perfect yogi. I am a humble man and cannot venture judgments of value. Both the yogi and the bhogi, after all, are concerned with the search of happiness. The yogi wants is permanent, the bhogi is satisfied with the intermittent. Often the bhogi strives harder than the yogi.

M.What is your happiness worth when you have to strive and labor for it? True happiness is spontaneous and effortless.

Q. All being seek happiness.The means only differ. Some seek it within and are therefore called yogis; some seek it without and are condemned as bhogis. Yet they need each other.

M. Pleasure and pain alternate. Happiness is unshakable. What you can seek and find is not the real thing. Find what you have never lost, find the inalienable.