You Cannot Know It, You Can Only Be It!

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

January 2, 1981

Q: Despite the apparent suffering a person may have, is there ever a time when what Maharaj says is not true, a fact? I mean, you are always the Self, whether or not you are aware of it.

M: A little higher now. Consciousness is there, but it is not merely consciousness but some principle which knows the consciousness. That principle, together with the consciousness, is there. Christ did exist as a person some 2000 years back; prior to that, did you exist or not?

I must have.

You did exist prior to Christ also - that you have to understand. The one that witnesses the consciousness knows that the consciousness was not there.

The witnessing of the consciousness, that's not like the normal kind of experience we have, right?

If experiencing is there it is because of the appearance of the consciousness. If the consciousness is not there, no experience. 

But Maharaj is saying that there is something prior to consciousness which can be experienced.

No. It is not experienced. That principle knows or witnesses consciousness; if the consciousness is not there, the witnessing stops. You cannot conceptually know it, you have to become That. The Ultimate principle is there. Consciousness in the form of a Christ, or a Krishna came, the personalities were there, and those were identified as Gods because they stabilized in their consciousness. Due to that Ultimate principle only, consciousness has appeared. When this consciousness was not there, where was Christ or where was Krishna? They were the Absolute only. Before manifestation can take place there must be something which has manifested itself: that is the Absolute.

I can understand that what Maharaj says has to be the case, but how does he know that?

That you are and the world exists, how did you know? Did anybody have to tell you? If you were the only man on earth you would still know that.

I just know it.

Spontaneously you know; everything is like that. There can never be an understanding of this as long as you are thinking in terms of an entity intellectually. Really, the truth is like a speck, everything is contained in that speck of consciousness. I know what the position was before Christ or Buddha etc. acquired the body. Whatever the form and the consciousness within, it is time-bound. I am timeless.

Jesus said, "Before Abraham was I am." Abraham was the father of the Jewish race.

Ahhh. That's it! That I know.