All Ends In Joy

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Let us come back to the man in need of help. He comes to you.

If he comes, he is sure to get help. Because he was destined to get help, he came. There is nothing fanciful about it. I cannot help some and refuse others. All who come are helped, for such is the law. Only the shape help take varies according to the need.

Why must he come here to get advice? Can't he get it from within?

He will not listen. His mind is turned outward. But in fact all experience is in the mind, and even his coming to me and getting help is all within himself. Instead of finding an answer within himself, he imagines an answer from without. To me, there is no me, no man and no giving. All this is merely a flicker in the mind. I am infinite peace and silence in which nothing appears, for all that appears - disappears. Nobody comes for help, nobody offers help, nobody gets help. It is all but a display in consciousness.

Yet the power to help is there and there is somebody or something that displays that power, call it God or Self or the Universal Mind. The name does not matter, but the fact does.

This is the stand the body-mind takes. The pure mind sees things as they are - bubbles in consciousness. These bubbles are appearing, disappearing and reappearing without having real being. No particular cause can be ascribed to them, for each is caused by all and affects all. Each bubble is a body and all these bodies are mine.

Do you mean to say that you have the power to do everything rightly?

There is no power separate from me. It is inherent in my very nature. Call it creativity. Out of lump of gold you can make many ornaments - each will remain gold. Similarly, in whatever role I may appear and whatever function I may perform - I remain what I am: the 'I am' immovable, unshakable, independent. What you call the universe, nature, is my spontaneous creativity. Whatever happens, happens. But such is my nature that all ends in joy.