The World is Not

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Visitor: Since Maharaj is a jnani, he must be despising this whole world as something very mean and low?

M: That question does not arise, because from my standpoint the world is not. You indicate to me where is the world, what is the world? Can you point your finger and say: "This is the world"? The world is not; it is a mere appearance.

V: Having attained knowledge, how is it that you have been able to associate with various kinds of people? Some fellows might be very bad, some people may be obsessed by their minds, some people are good - how could you get on with all such people?

M: Who is to get on? I have no pose, no stance, no fixed form of my own. If I had, it would be difficult to relate to anybody. Since I don't have any form, by nothingness I have become the subtlest, so I can fit into anything, any situation.

Suppose a man is rich, he is wearing a lot of ornaments and expensive clothes; when he leaves his house there is always danger lurking. This is on account of the fact that he represents so many ideas, concepts, and because of his reputation that he is somebody that he is a rich man. He is afraid of going into the street. A naked beggar who goes into the street has nothing to lose; I can encounter any situation and fit into anything.

So long as you wear a name and a form, all these problems will be there. In the absence of name and form, there are no problems. Let us say, I have land and property, with farms etc. About the time of the rains there are always concerns such as whether I will be able to till the soil, whether there are seeds available etc.; all such worries exist. After losing the farms, I am freed from such concerns and all that can be ignored. 

While sticking to your name and form, you have to worry about things. In the spiritual pursuit, you gradually lose your form and as the form is shed, the name also detaches itself. There are ever so many customers; all are out to gain and possess something in the name of knowledge, even spiritual knowledge, but nobody is a customer for the true self-knowledge.

I will tell you about the normal tendency of a person. There is the story about an old man, quite well off, who had a very satisfying family life, had worldly possessions, and had lived to about a hundred or a hundred-twenty-five years. And now he lies on his deathbed in his village house. Normally in the villages even the cattle shed is attached to the main building itself. So you can watch from the bedroom and see the cattle shed. Even on his deathbed, he will not be inclined to thinking noble thoughts, he will not be contemplating something very "high". He is looking at the calf, and the calf was chewing a broomstick getting damaged, so he was shouting: "Off with the broomstick!" while about to kick the bucket. He was calling out: "The broomstick, the broomstick! Take care of the broomstick!" While uttering that "broomstick, broomstick.." he breathed his last.

The traditional concept is that whatever strong concern one has at the time of death, he will be reincarnated into. So probably he will be born as a broomstick!