Practice Meditation

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I am telling you a simple thing. Accept one statement from any guru. Assimilate that fully and believe in yourself, consider and accept your own self as the guru. Accept no one else as such. The final prerequisite for this spiritual precept is self-confidence, a firm faith in oneself. If you have no faith in your own self, you are hopeless. You are an outcast. Your self itself is the guru. Do you understand now? The guru is brahman; the guru is knowledge, the guru is Brihaspati, and the sum total of all that is your own self.

Q: I want to ask about God's grace and free will.

M: The bare fact that you are alive, you are, that itself is the grace of God. And all the activities that happen through you are the expression of grace.

In such situations, if something bad happens, remember that "you are" - merely because of the grace of god. If the grace of God were not there, that 'you-are-ness' would not be there. So remember that "you are" itself is the grace of God.

[Q: Unintelligible question about doing japa (reciting a name of God).]

M: The whole significance of doing japa dwells in your faith. You must have faith first. Your self-identity is nourished by such faith through japa. Don't do anything mechanically, for then there is no soul in the recitation of the japa. If you don't recite soulfully there is no point in it at all. Do plenty of dhyana-yoga meditation. Practice meditation, more and more.