I AM is the Truth; All Else Inferred

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

M: The perceiver of the world, is he prior to the world, or does he come into being along with the world?

Q: What a strange question! Why do you ask such questions?

M: Unless you know the correct answer, you will not find peace.

Q: When I wake up in the morning, the world is already there, waiting for me. Surely the world comes into being first. I do, but much later, at the earliest at my birth. The body mediates between me and the world. Without the body there would be neither me nor the world.

M: The body appears in your mind, your mind is the content of your consciousness; you are the motionless witness of the river of consciousness which changes eternally without changing you in any way. Your own changelessness is so obvious that you do not notice it. Have a good look at yourself and all these misapprehensions and misconceptions will dissolve. Just as all the little watery lives are in water and cannot be without water, so all the universe is in you and cannot be without you.

Q: We call it God.

M: God is only an idea in your mind. The fact is you. The only thing you know for sure is: 'here and now I am'. Remove, the 'here and now' the I AM remains unassailable. The word exists in memory, memory comes into consciousness; consciousness exists in awareness and awareness is the reflection of the light on the waters of existence.

Q: Still I do not see how can the world be in me when the opposite 'I am in the world' is so obvious.

M: Even to say 'I am the world, the world is me', is a sign of ignorance. But when I keep in mind and confirm in life my identity with the world, a power arises in me which destroys the ignorance, burns it up completely.

Q: Is the witness of ignorance separate from ignorance? Is not to say 'I am ignorant' a part of ignorance?

M: Of course. All I can truly say is I AM, all else is inference. But the inference has become a habit. Destroy all habits of thinking and seeing. The sense I AM is the manifestation of a deeper cause, which you may call self, God, reality or by any other name. The I AM is in the world; but it is the key which can open the door out of the world. The moon dancing on the water is seen in the water, but it is caused by the moon in the sky and not by the water.