Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Dec 31, 1980
Q: When you become one with everybody's consciousness there is an emotional drain because you feel their sorrow and everything. Is that a right state in which to be?
M: It is one of the preliminary stages, but it is excellent. There is still separateness but gradually it will ripen into complete oneness.
Q: I don't feel any desire anymore to strive for anything in the world.
M: There is nothing wrong in that. Your hunger and thirst for bliss or joy is absolutely fulfilled and therefore you stop going after things.
Q: Is there sill some individuality left to continue one's duties?
M: That individuality does not create any kind of discontent or fear. It so happens that there is no memory at all of that individual "I", it goes on acting on its own energy. There is a memory that this is the total manifestation but no memory of an individual acting.
Q: I feel that I am one with consciousness but it wavers.
M: You are not yet stabilized in consciousness; you are getting some glimpses. Being one with consciousness is going beyond these states of waking and sleeping. You know the sky, you know the space, but can you become one with the space? Not yet, it is not possible. When you become one with consciousness you become one with space.
Q: Is there something which I can do to help me grow, to progress?
M: Consciousness does not undergo any progress. Even the space cannot have any progress and the space is number three. One is the Absolute, two is consciousness, three is space. Where there was no knowledge I AM, that is number 1; later on there is the sense I AM, that is number 2; then there is space - number 3. Passing the examination of upanishads, does it give you knowledge of the Self?
Q: No. However, it does something.
M: In my case, everything is spontaneous - that is my dharma. If the knowledgeable people come and tell me that I am foolish, I will say, 'This foolishness is my richness, my freedom. That knowingness which has come over me, that itself is foolishness.' You are a very gentle woman; if someone comes and abuses you, thinking you are a man, you will get very angry at this misunderstanding.To identify with anything, 'I am like this', is abuse of your nature.
Q: How to lose this identification with the body?
M: Increase the conviction that you are the formless consciousness. You develop your firm conviction that you are the total manifestation, universal consciousness. There is nobody who can have the knowledge of the Truth, the Eternal. It is one's eternal true state, but it is not a knowledgeable state - you cannot know It. So-called knowledge is boundless and plenty in the state of attributes I AM. In this body is the knowledge I AM. When the body drops down the knowledge I AM will subside there only - what remains is the Absolute.
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