Understand What You Are

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

[The questioner was quoting scriptures right and left.]

M: The moment the waking state starts the worshipping of misery begins. When did you have the first birth?

Q: I don't know anything about it.

M: Then how do you accept this about the Ultimate? This is not your direct experience, it is borrowed knowledge from books. How can you accept what is not your direct experience?

There was a robbery in Delhi, the police may arrest you here and accuse you of it. Have you ever been to Delhi?

Q: No.

M: Then why did you accept this birth? What are shastras or scriptures? It is merely the do's and don'ts on how we should behave in the world. Don't bring that in here. Whether you accept this birth or not was the original question. Why bring in all this tall talk? Reading scriptures is all right for the ignorant. The next step is to give it up and try to understand what you are.

Shake off all that you have read and try to understand now. You must apply your discrimination. It is of no use just blindly accepting what the scriptures have said. Accept them up to a certain stage - after that you must be strong enough or mature enough to use your discrimination.People move about in search of knowledge but they are caught up in the trap of words and in the fond concepts developed by so-called Sages. A certain Sage will ask you to behave in one way; you go to another Sage and he will have you behave in another way. Thus you are caught up in the concepts of others. There is the story of a rishi in the scriptures who drank the waters of the seven oceans in the world - are you going to believe this? Employ your discrimination. You speak of acharana, the code of behavior; charana means the one who has to behave. Charana means only "I love" state, the state of consciousness, the feeling of being, without words. From that condition the movement of consciousnesses begins.

Loki and aloki: loki we normally take as worldly; lok means various personalities. Whatever is prescribed by the personality is loki, or whatever is followed by the people. Aloki is transcending the worldly. Aloki, it is not known to you. These devotees love me, but they don't understand me in the aloki sphere.

Spiritual talk is lokic talk, common talk, trying to give an image to others. Here there is no image or design - now, how can you become one with that? You have to have an image or design. Whatever knowledge we talk about has to be communicated by words, but that is not the Ultimate.

You want to possess knowledge. to collect knowledge. Such knowledge is plentiful and available in the world, but a rare person will understand that such knowledge is a bundle of ignorance.

You will make a study of those concepts which erupt from you; those concepts which you do not like will not occur to you. If you are interested in spiritual living, your thoughts and concepts will relate to that.

I have said what I have to say. There is no question of saying anything more. Because you come here I treat you with courtesy, but I am fully convinced that you and I have no design. I am afraid that what I say will not reach your real core; therefore you do bhajans. As a matter of fact,you should not visit me at all.

Bhishma was on a bed of arrows in his last days; I am also on a bed of arrows of suffering.