Everything begins with YOU!

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q. Some yogis attain their goal, but it is of no use to others. They do not know, or are not able to share. Those who share out what they have, initiate others. Where lies the difference?

M. There is no difference. Your approach is wrong. There are no others to help. A rich man, when he hands over his entire fortune to his family, has not a coin left to give a beggar. So is the wise man (jnani) stripped of all his powers and possessions. Nothing, literally nothing, can be said about him. He cannot help anybody for he is everybody. He is the poor and also his poverty, the thief and also his thievery. How can he be said to help, when he is not apart? Who thinks of himself separate from the world, let him help the world. 

Q. Still, there is duality, there is sorrow, there is need of help. By denouncing it as mere dream nothing is achieved.

M. The only think that can help is to wake up from the dream.

Q. An awakener is needed.

M. Who again is in the dream. The awakener signifies the beginning of the end. There are no eternal dreams.

Q. Even when it is beginningless?

M. Everything begins with you. What else is beginningless?

Q. I began at birth.

M. That is what you are told. Is it so? Did you see yourself beginning?

Q. I began just now. All else is memory.

M. Quite right. The beginningless begins forever. In the same way, I give eternally, because I have nothing. To be nothing, to have nothing, to keep nothing for yourself is the greatest gift, the highest generosity.

Q. Is there no self-concern left? 

M. Of course I am self-concerned, but the self is all. In practice it takes the shape of goodwill, unfailing and universal. You may call it love, all-pervading, all-redeeming. Such love is supremely active - without the sense of doing.