Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
V: Thought can never understand this. It takes a while before thoughts are completely exhausted and stop trying to understand. The understanding sinks in the moment the seeker disappears.
M: Only when one is convinced about this, totally; there is nothing further that anyone can tell you and nothing further to be understood.
Where is even the question of conviction? The body is going to disappear and mingle with the five elements, the breath will mingle with the air, and the consciousness with the universal consciousness; it is as simple as that.
Be without the body first, and then whatever words emerge will be knowledge itself. They will not be coming from a particular apparatus; the words will be knowledge itself. The body is the nature of food, and if there is an illness it is an illness on the body because there has been an imbalance in what constitutes the body. How am I concerned?
This life force, the breath, and consciousness, they are like the sun and sunlight; there is so much unity in that, they are really one. So when one disappears, the other also goes. To start with, if you cannot consider yourself as consciousness, at least consider yourself the life force, because the two are one but in any case not the body. The life force and the consciousness are always free, but because they have associated themselves with the body the bondage has come about.
Once you decide that you are not the body and this conviction grows, your body will be all the healthier for it.
V: Is that the carrot to make the donkey run?
M: That you will know best yourself.
This consciousness that I am, I am the original, I am the landlord not the tenant. Take any concept that you like, but don't look to me for giving you any further concepts. You may adopt any concept that will make you happy, but remember it is still only a concept.
Suppose you are sitting quietly. Suddenly one thought appears, and we are very very unhappy. Then some other thought comes and the original thought and the unhappiness both disappear. So long as one depends on the mind, the mind will always make us unhappy.
What is suffering really? Suffering is only something which has been engendered by a thought or a word - the mind. If that does not arise, where is the question of unhappiness?
Whatever knowledge I give is always free and open, but the one who receives it, if he does not keep himself open to receptivity, what can I do?
On this point, are there any questions?
Your speech - that breath of words, that breath of thought, that breath of mind - it is with the body or is it without the body? The speech is without the body, the mind is without the body, the life force is without the body, and whatever happens is through the effect of the life force. The life force signifies movement, consciousness is movement.
Only when I interpret what is in the mind, do I become happy or unhappy. So long as the mind does not work and there is no interpretation, there is no question of being happy or unhappy. Whatever you consider as happiness or unhappiness, sin or merit, heaven or hell, all those depend entirely on the meaning of the words; and that is the word, that is the thought, and that is the mind.
I repeat this: One who has understood this, I will not have him here, but those who think they have understood and are still in the process of digesting it and come here with great zeal and sincerity, to them I will tell them in brief words what the position is and then send them out too.
Unless there is consciousness, how can there be concepts of ether and atmosphere, the sky and space? The consciousness is always the prime factor. And the life force and this consciousness within the body are bound to disappear.
The manner is which the subject is being discussed here, is it all similar to that in which your guru was expounding the subject?
V: Of course, that depends very much on who was there. Sometimes, the approach was more like this, other times more like that.
V: Thought can never understand this. It takes a while before thoughts are completely exhausted and stop trying to understand. The understanding sinks in the moment the seeker disappears.
M: Only when one is convinced about this, totally; there is nothing further that anyone can tell you and nothing further to be understood.
Where is even the question of conviction? The body is going to disappear and mingle with the five elements, the breath will mingle with the air, and the consciousness with the universal consciousness; it is as simple as that.
Be without the body first, and then whatever words emerge will be knowledge itself. They will not be coming from a particular apparatus; the words will be knowledge itself. The body is the nature of food, and if there is an illness it is an illness on the body because there has been an imbalance in what constitutes the body. How am I concerned?
This life force, the breath, and consciousness, they are like the sun and sunlight; there is so much unity in that, they are really one. So when one disappears, the other also goes. To start with, if you cannot consider yourself as consciousness, at least consider yourself the life force, because the two are one but in any case not the body. The life force and the consciousness are always free, but because they have associated themselves with the body the bondage has come about.
Once you decide that you are not the body and this conviction grows, your body will be all the healthier for it.
V: Is that the carrot to make the donkey run?
M: That you will know best yourself.
This consciousness that I am, I am the original, I am the landlord not the tenant. Take any concept that you like, but don't look to me for giving you any further concepts. You may adopt any concept that will make you happy, but remember it is still only a concept.
Suppose you are sitting quietly. Suddenly one thought appears, and we are very very unhappy. Then some other thought comes and the original thought and the unhappiness both disappear. So long as one depends on the mind, the mind will always make us unhappy.
What is suffering really? Suffering is only something which has been engendered by a thought or a word - the mind. If that does not arise, where is the question of unhappiness?
Whatever knowledge I give is always free and open, but the one who receives it, if he does not keep himself open to receptivity, what can I do?
On this point, are there any questions?
Your speech - that breath of words, that breath of thought, that breath of mind - it is with the body or is it without the body? The speech is without the body, the mind is without the body, the life force is without the body, and whatever happens is through the effect of the life force. The life force signifies movement, consciousness is movement.
Only when I interpret what is in the mind, do I become happy or unhappy. So long as the mind does not work and there is no interpretation, there is no question of being happy or unhappy. Whatever you consider as happiness or unhappiness, sin or merit, heaven or hell, all those depend entirely on the meaning of the words; and that is the word, that is the thought, and that is the mind.
I repeat this: One who has understood this, I will not have him here, but those who think they have understood and are still in the process of digesting it and come here with great zeal and sincerity, to them I will tell them in brief words what the position is and then send them out too.
Unless there is consciousness, how can there be concepts of ether and atmosphere, the sky and space? The consciousness is always the prime factor. And the life force and this consciousness within the body are bound to disappear.
The manner is which the subject is being discussed here, is it all similar to that in which your guru was expounding the subject?
V: Of course, that depends very much on who was there. Sometimes, the approach was more like this, other times more like that.
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