Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Q: Do you know that light? Have you seen it?
M: To the mind it appears as darkness. It can be known only through its reflections. All is seen in daylight - except daylight.
Q: Have I to understand that our minds are similar?
M: How can it be? You have your own private mind, woven with memories, held together by desires and fears. I have no mind of my own; what I need to know the universe brings before me, as it supplies the food I eat.
Q: Do you know all you want to know?
M: There is nothing I want to know. But what I need to know, I come to know.
Q: Does this knowledge come to you from within or from outside?
M: It does not apply. My inner is outer and my outer is inside. I may get from you the knowledge needed at the moment, but you are not apart from me.
Q: What is turiya, the fourth state we hear about?
M: To be the point of light tracing the world is turiya. To be the light itself is turyatita. But of what use are names when reality is so near?
Q: Is there any progress in your condition? When you compare yourself yesterday with yourself today, do you find yourself changing, making progress? Does your vision of reality grow in width and depth?
M: Reality is immovable and yet in constant movement. It is like a mighty river - it flows and yet it is there - eternally. What flows is not the river with its bed and banks, but its water, so does the sattva guna, the universal harmony, play its games again tams and rajas, the forces of darkness and despair. In sattwa, there is always change and progress, in rajas there is change and regress, while tamas stands for chaos. The three gunas play eternally against each other - it is a face and there can be no quarrel with a fact.
Q: Must I always go dull with tamas and desperate with rajas? What about sattwa?
M: Sattwa is the radiance of your real nature. You can always find it beyond the mind and its many worlds. But if you want a world, you must accept the three gunas as inseparable - matter - energy - life - one in essence, distinct in appearance. They mix and flow - in consciousness. In time and space there is eternal flow, birth and death again, advance, retreat, another advance, again retreat - apparently without a beginning and without end; reality being timeless, changeless, bodyless, mindless awareness is bliss.
Q: Do you know that light? Have you seen it?
M: To the mind it appears as darkness. It can be known only through its reflections. All is seen in daylight - except daylight.
Q: Have I to understand that our minds are similar?
M: How can it be? You have your own private mind, woven with memories, held together by desires and fears. I have no mind of my own; what I need to know the universe brings before me, as it supplies the food I eat.
Q: Do you know all you want to know?
M: There is nothing I want to know. But what I need to know, I come to know.
Q: Does this knowledge come to you from within or from outside?
M: It does not apply. My inner is outer and my outer is inside. I may get from you the knowledge needed at the moment, but you are not apart from me.
Q: What is turiya, the fourth state we hear about?
M: To be the point of light tracing the world is turiya. To be the light itself is turyatita. But of what use are names when reality is so near?
Q: Is there any progress in your condition? When you compare yourself yesterday with yourself today, do you find yourself changing, making progress? Does your vision of reality grow in width and depth?
M: Reality is immovable and yet in constant movement. It is like a mighty river - it flows and yet it is there - eternally. What flows is not the river with its bed and banks, but its water, so does the sattva guna, the universal harmony, play its games again tams and rajas, the forces of darkness and despair. In sattwa, there is always change and progress, in rajas there is change and regress, while tamas stands for chaos. The three gunas play eternally against each other - it is a face and there can be no quarrel with a fact.
Q: Must I always go dull with tamas and desperate with rajas? What about sattwa?
M: Sattwa is the radiance of your real nature. You can always find it beyond the mind and its many worlds. But if you want a world, you must accept the three gunas as inseparable - matter - energy - life - one in essence, distinct in appearance. They mix and flow - in consciousness. In time and space there is eternal flow, birth and death again, advance, retreat, another advance, again retreat - apparently without a beginning and without end; reality being timeless, changeless, bodyless, mindless awareness is bliss.
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