Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
A sage is one who has transcended individuality, personality, and abides in the manifest consciousness. So the yardstick is his abidance in consciousness. That manifest consciousness expresses itself through a particular body that is the sage. But that body has no individuality. Such entities only are true sages, being the background of manifest consciousness.
V: Before coming to India I had tried everywhere to get answers to my questions, but nobody would give them. I tried everyone, Catholics, Protestants, but no one could answer my fundamental questions.
M : Why did they not answer?
V: They did not know. For example, everybody was talking about the soul. So I said: What is this soul? Nobody knew. All these people were using the word, without explaining what it means.
Soul is not atma. Atma is impersonal, soul is a kind of spiritual personality. The soul is a mixture of Atma and jiva.
M: Do you understand what is the atma?
V: That which remains when thought vanishes.
M: And when the thought is there, what is it?
V: When we are still.
M: The atma conditioned, consciousness conditioned by thought.
V: The atma is that which never changes, which all thoughts, fears and sense perceptions have in common.
Interpreter: You said, when thoughts are not there. But when thoughts are there?
V: Atma is also there. It is that which all thoughts and feelings have in common. It is something which is present in every thought, every feeling, and every sense perception, which does not change.
M: Whatever you are, that consciousness, the knowingness that itself is the atma. When you understand that consciousness with the identity of the body, you suffer. A guru feels exhilarated when he sees that the disciple has become mature in spirituality, is growing from the inside. We must talk when it is indicative of that [maturing] only. I expect questions from you at your proper level, don't send questions at lower levels.
V: At my level, I am only interested in silence.
M: Your talk is of such a high caliber or at such a high level that is not intelligible to the common man of any religion.
A Christian worships Jesus Christ, a Muslim believes in the prophet or a god, a Hindu worships so many gods, but you do not do any of this. You do not discuss any of the rituals of worshipping, or doing this and that. You don't believe in all this, so your talking is really useless.
Whatever you are, that you are, the consciousness, the atma or the self in you - that itself is nothing other than God. All the names and titles of other gods are meant for you only. You are the knowledge I AM. So if you want to worship, worship that knowledge I AM. Be devoted to that I AM ness only. When you do that, all other rituals become redundant, useless. Finally, when you realize that everything is useless, everything is Brahman, it means you are at the Parabrahman level, the absolute level. When at that level, you will envision everything as useless, including the Brahman because the Brahman is also reduced to illusion. Therefore, all these talks, including my own, will be reduced to illusion when you reach the highest.
V: Then all this worshipping will be put to rest?
M: If a human being has the inclination towards devotion, it gives rise to a certain mood - feelings of adoration and worship. However, the godly state, the consciousness or beingness, transcends even this emotional state. How to transcend such an emotional state? For this purpose certain practices are recommended.
Emotions should be sublimated; you cannot expel or suppress them, for the emotional side of us is part and parcel of human nature, certainly at the lower stages.
A sage is one who has transcended individuality, personality, and abides in the manifest consciousness. So the yardstick is his abidance in consciousness. That manifest consciousness expresses itself through a particular body that is the sage. But that body has no individuality. Such entities only are true sages, being the background of manifest consciousness.
V: Before coming to India I had tried everywhere to get answers to my questions, but nobody would give them. I tried everyone, Catholics, Protestants, but no one could answer my fundamental questions.
M : Why did they not answer?
V: They did not know. For example, everybody was talking about the soul. So I said: What is this soul? Nobody knew. All these people were using the word, without explaining what it means.
Soul is not atma. Atma is impersonal, soul is a kind of spiritual personality. The soul is a mixture of Atma and jiva.
M: Do you understand what is the atma?
V: That which remains when thought vanishes.
M: And when the thought is there, what is it?
V: When we are still.
M: The atma conditioned, consciousness conditioned by thought.
V: The atma is that which never changes, which all thoughts, fears and sense perceptions have in common.
Interpreter: You said, when thoughts are not there. But when thoughts are there?
V: Atma is also there. It is that which all thoughts and feelings have in common. It is something which is present in every thought, every feeling, and every sense perception, which does not change.
M: Whatever you are, that consciousness, the knowingness that itself is the atma. When you understand that consciousness with the identity of the body, you suffer. A guru feels exhilarated when he sees that the disciple has become mature in spirituality, is growing from the inside. We must talk when it is indicative of that [maturing] only. I expect questions from you at your proper level, don't send questions at lower levels.
V: At my level, I am only interested in silence.
M: Your talk is of such a high caliber or at such a high level that is not intelligible to the common man of any religion.
A Christian worships Jesus Christ, a Muslim believes in the prophet or a god, a Hindu worships so many gods, but you do not do any of this. You do not discuss any of the rituals of worshipping, or doing this and that. You don't believe in all this, so your talking is really useless.
Whatever you are, that you are, the consciousness, the atma or the self in you - that itself is nothing other than God. All the names and titles of other gods are meant for you only. You are the knowledge I AM. So if you want to worship, worship that knowledge I AM. Be devoted to that I AM ness only. When you do that, all other rituals become redundant, useless. Finally, when you realize that everything is useless, everything is Brahman, it means you are at the Parabrahman level, the absolute level. When at that level, you will envision everything as useless, including the Brahman because the Brahman is also reduced to illusion. Therefore, all these talks, including my own, will be reduced to illusion when you reach the highest.
V: Then all this worshipping will be put to rest?
M: If a human being has the inclination towards devotion, it gives rise to a certain mood - feelings of adoration and worship. However, the godly state, the consciousness or beingness, transcends even this emotional state. How to transcend such an emotional state? For this purpose certain practices are recommended.
Emotions should be sublimated; you cannot expel or suppress them, for the emotional side of us is part and parcel of human nature, certainly at the lower stages.
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