One Power Controls All

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The urge to return to the source is rare. Is it at all natural?

Outgoing is natural in the beginning, ingoing - in the end. But in reality the two are one, just like breathing in and out are one.

In the same way are not the body and the dweller in the body one?

Events in time and space - birth and death, cause and effect - these may be taken as one; but the body and the embodied are not of the same order of reality. The body exists in time and space, transient and limited, while the dweller is timeless and spaceless, eternal and all-pervading. To identify the two is a grievous mistake and the cause of endless suffering. You can speak of the mind and body as one, but the body-mind is not the underlying reality.

Whoever he may be, the dweller is in control of the body and therefore responsible for it.

There is a universal power which is in control and is responsible.

And so, I can do as I like and put the blame on some universal power? How easy!

Yes, very easy. Just realize the One Mover behind all that moves and leave it all to Him. If you do not hesitate, or cheat, this is the shortest way to reality. Stand without desire and fear, relinquishing all control and responsibility.

What madness!

Yes, divine madness. What is wrong in letting go the illusion of personal control and personal responsibility? Both are in the mind only. Of course, as long as you imagine yourself to be in control, you should also imagine yourself to be responsible. One implies the other.

How can the universal be responsible for the particular?

All life on earth depends on the sun. Yet you cannot blame the sun for all that happens, though it is the ultimate cause. Light causes the color of the flower, but it neither controls, nor is responsible for it directly. It makes it possible, that is all.

What I do not like in all this is taking refuge in some universal power.

You cannot quarrel with facts.

Whose facts? 

Yours. You cannot deny my facts, for you do not know them. Could you know them, you would not deny them. Here lies the trouble. You take your imagining for facts and my facts for imagination. I know for certain that all is one. Differences do not seperate. Either you are responsible for nothing or everything. To imagine that you are in control and responsible for one body only is the aberration of the body-mind.

Still, you are limited by your body.

Only in matters pertaining to the body. This I do not mind. It is like enduring the seasons of the year. They come, they go - they hardly affect me. In the same way body-minds come and go - life is forever in search of new expressions.