Go To The Source

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

March 30, 1981

Q: We come here with so many concepts and what you are teaching is so astounding that it is like a shock treatment. So how do you expect us to ask questions? Let us absorb the shock for sometime, then the questions will come. We are stunned into silence.

M: Those who come here and listen to my talks and understand will become the Gurus when they return to their own countries. It is so easy to understand, why don't you understand? At the present time, in manifestation, what you are is the consciousness, and the consciousness cannot remain unless the food body is there; therefore consciousness depends on the food body - which is essentially of an ephemeral nature - and I cannot be that. It's as simple as that; why don't you understand? 

It must happen that the consciousnesses is no longer conscious of itself.The sweetness is in the sugar and I am the one who understands and tastes the sweetness. All these spiritual concepts have come in conventionally. The last step is - knowingness in its ultimate state state is no-knowingness. Transcending consciousness is when the consciousness knows and understands the consciousness.

Q: This morning, between deep sleep and awakening, there was this quiet, for a fraction of a moment, when there was a complete knowing, a stillness, just beingness. 

M: It is quite an elevated state, but don't get caught up only in that. Deep sleep is something like a block of ice; nothing is there, now it is again reshaping, the warmth is taking place, and with that warmth you feel that you are. In the playing of the flute, the whole world is fascinated. The consciousness has kept you entranced in the play of the world. Enquire about that flute and who is playing it. Go to the source. 

Q:  When you are living this life a number of questions arise and we have to be constantly aware of the consciousness, but the mind won't let us.

M: The mind is an instrument of communication, for practical purposes. The mind cannot grasp the truth. The Self witnesses the mind, but the mind cannot catch hold of the Self.