Nothing Is

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

M: [Pointing to a visitor] For years he has been trying to assimilate knowledge, but he has not got an iota of knowledge. What knowledge did you get?

V: The ignorant man has not got any knowledge and the sage has not got any knowledge. Then what is the difference?

M: The ignorant one has to acquire knowledge, because knowledge is valid for the ignorant. For the jnani, there is no sense of knowledge because he dismisses knowledge as unreal. Therefore, he does not entertain knowledge. That is why he has no knowledge. 

V: In reality nobody can have knowledge, nobody can have anything.

M: In reality nobody can avoid knowledge. Nobody means "who"?

V: This is the "proprietor".

M: "Nobody" means the one who could refer to "whom"?

V: This is the proprietor whom you cannot know. Even the proprietor goes at once .. so I could not be the owner of knowledge for two reasons. First, you cannot own any thought. Secondly, the proprietor does not live longer than one or two seconds. He also is a thought.

M: This is all right on the worldly level, but, truthfully, nothing is. At the highest level, in reality, nothing is. At the worldly level, everything is.

V: Does this mean everything is a form of consciousness?

M: Whatever is, is an expression of consciousness only. If consciousness is not there, the expression of consciousness is not there either. Therefore, nothing is. And this consciousness is an uncalled-for concept; it has appeared spontaneously.

V: So once one has heard the truth, there really is only one obstacle, to think that can one reach it when one actually can't.

M: After one has got the truth, there is only one obstacle..

V: It appears that you have to reach it to attain it.

M: When you have heard the truth, it still needs to be emulated in order to be reached.

V: Your attempt to understand it, that is the one obstacle. "How?"

M: Because the truth has no form, no name. So how can it be understood?