State Beyond Suffering and Enjoyment

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

March 15, 1981

I am not inclined to collect more people and expound knowledge because I am not able to deliver myself as something tangible to you. Krishnamurti is talking, I am also talking - there is no substance in that. You are recording the talks and writing it down - in the final analysis, there is no substance in that.

Once it is realized that it is only a total functioning of the manifest consciousness and there is no individual entity, there will be no question of liberation, of birth and death, or of a doer doing anything.

Normally, in the name of spirituality, knowledge is expounded. Knowledge is in the realm of the five elements and it is talked about as real or unreal as long as the Knowledge I AM is there; it is a product of the knowledge I AM.

A jnani is that state from which witnessing of the knowledge I AM takes place. In that jnani state there is no touch of IAMness (it is a quality-less state) and it is not knowledge - knowledge means I AMness. Suppose there are no thoughts, time has stopped, but space will be there. A thought-free state is there, that is the Self, I AM, the being. Because the being is there, having removed all the pollution, including thought, time is also gone and space and beingness is there. When that state ends, it is the Absolute state, a something sweet-like state. You are just playing with words and the meaning of words - you don't go to the root from where the words emanate. Nobody goes to the root; they are fascinated by the display. When the support of the body-mind is not available, what are you then like?

I am in the state beyond suffering and enjoyment. It is said that when knowledge is realized, the devotion persists still but actually there is no personality left. There is no question of devotion; devotion to whom? However, they say that devotion is there - it might be for the guidance of other seekers.