Simple: It is You who come first!

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

December 27, 1980

The trouble is, everybody wants to have the knowledge of the Self without giving up the identification with the body, they are contradictory. Give up this identification and everything becomes simple. I am there before anything can happen. If anyone is asked whether he knows when the sky came into existence, he will say he does not know. He does not know because he considers his presence only as a phenomenon when the body was there.

That the sky was not there I know, and who is this? It is the One who is prior to everything. My true nature is not circumscribed by the concept of time and space. 

When you hear this you promptly get confused and say, "In that case, how can I carry on my normal business?" Understand your true nature and then do any amount of business you like.

I say this with great sincerity and urgency. People hear it but do not give up the identification with the body. They hang on to it with great determination. Even the statement that you existed before the sky existed will not be acceptable to you.

A child may be playing with the smallest coin, and if it is removed will be greatly agitated. You accept your identification with the same determination, the same anxiety, in spite of the knowledge which you are being given. Even if you give the child a toy made of gold, he will reject it because he has his heart set on that small coin. Even if I give you this knowledge, which is priceless, it will not be acceptable. The sound which first comes to denote the presence I am not; I am neither the presence nor the sound denoting the presence. Whatever one sees or perceives, that one must be prior to what is seen or perceived. It is simple.

To be continued..