Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
[To a particular visitor] I consider you a jnani and I want an answer from you: What was born and how was it born? That is, as far as you are concerned.
V: Only the idea I AM.
M: Who told you about this?
V: My parents. They told me I have a body, a character and so on.
M: That is all. Whatever knowledge you have is hearsay. That is my point.
How can somebody who does not have knowledge of his true self be a guru? Only he an be a guru who has knowledge of his true nature. If one knew that he was going to be born, he would refuse. He would not have accepted the proposition that he should go in the food: Thank you, I'll pass, I don't want it.
M: In that state which prevails after the dropping of the body, is there any memory? Conventionally or traditionally, people say there is still memory even after the body goes. I do not believe that, because there is no experience of it. So long as the body is there, the mind is there; and the mind creates an individually made memory pattern; therefore the individuality is there. When you are the manifest state, with the consciousness, there is no play of mind and therefore no individuality. You are the manifest only. So if at all thoughts occur, they will not be related to the individualistic idea that manifests about nature only.
What about the sages, who are dead and gone? Whatever state they had prior to assuming a body, they have reverted to that original state. This knowingness, consciousness, "I am ness" comes only with the body that is given. When a jnani does not have a body, he does not need anything: he is Consciousness.
[To a particular visitor] I consider you a jnani and I want an answer from you: What was born and how was it born? That is, as far as you are concerned.
V: Only the idea I AM.
M: Who told you about this?
V: My parents. They told me I have a body, a character and so on.
M: That is all. Whatever knowledge you have is hearsay. That is my point.
How can somebody who does not have knowledge of his true self be a guru? Only he an be a guru who has knowledge of his true nature. If one knew that he was going to be born, he would refuse. He would not have accepted the proposition that he should go in the food: Thank you, I'll pass, I don't want it.
M: In that state which prevails after the dropping of the body, is there any memory? Conventionally or traditionally, people say there is still memory even after the body goes. I do not believe that, because there is no experience of it. So long as the body is there, the mind is there; and the mind creates an individually made memory pattern; therefore the individuality is there. When you are the manifest state, with the consciousness, there is no play of mind and therefore no individuality. You are the manifest only. So if at all thoughts occur, they will not be related to the individualistic idea that manifests about nature only.
What about the sages, who are dead and gone? Whatever state they had prior to assuming a body, they have reverted to that original state. This knowingness, consciousness, "I am ness" comes only with the body that is given. When a jnani does not have a body, he does not need anything: he is Consciousness.
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