See the Tree in the Seed

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 8, 1981

People don't really understand what I say. They partially understand and form their own concepts, but the real self knowledge is not there.

Suppose there is a seed which is going to produce a great tree. If you cut that seed you must be able to see the tree in the seed.

The tree which I got is that seed which is called the seed of birth, when I broke it open I got the Self knowledge. Other than Self knowledge, what other capital do I have?

I have met so many so-called jnanis, but the real one, who has seen the tree in the seed, I have not seen so far.

In the advanced stages what happens to the intellect? To the disappearance of the intellect at old age, there is a witness. How can you describe that witness?

Q: Thoughts and emotions are always arising and distracting me. What shall I do?

M: You are before any thoughts can arise. All thoughts etc., which arise are merely movements in consciousness. Once consciousness arises, everything arises - the world and all the transactions in the world. Merely witness them. It takes place, there is no individual to witness. Witnessing takes place of the total functioning of the universal consciousness.

Because I totally negate the individual, this will appeal only to one in a million.

Q: There are so many people who are thoroughly dissatisfied, always searching for something and never satisfied. Why is that?

M: You will never be satisfied until you find out that you are what you are seeking. If you want knowledge as an individual, you will not get it here. If you are satisfied with this knowledge, you may come and sit still. If you cannot accept this negating of yourself, you may leave, I will understand, it will not affect me.

That which has never happened at all, that is the child of a barren woman - what fear can you have for that? It is imagined, unreal. Out of that hallucination, if somebody wants something, is it not seeking the real in the totally unreal?

Q: If it were real then we could do something about it.

M: Correct. You see something, that is true, but what you see is an illusion, like a dream. What we see in a dream seems very real, but we know that it is unreal. 

In spite of understanding all this, still it is difficult to give up this form identity of a male or a female. Without the form, the knowledge cannot be given. For the Absolute to manifest Itself, the matter must be there. The Absolute unmanifested and the manifested are not two - it is merely the expression of It, like the shadow and the substance.

This love of being is not of an individual being, it is the nature of the entire universal consciousness.