"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Your Life is a Concept

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

V: If I know myself, if I realize myself, may there a transformation in my worldly life?

M: What do you mean by "worldly life" and what do you mean by "transformation"? Your worldly life is all concept, is all your mind only. We are dealing with that principle which is prior to mind. This may be described by saying that you are putting on various shrouds. Before you knew yourself, what was your true state. The first shroud was that of I AM-ness; then you embraced the body as yourself, and then so many other shrouds. All these shrouds have to be pealed off, including I AMness. 

From the no-knowing state, the first veil I took was that of I AM. That was formless, nameless. But I embraced the body: I got a form for myself, I got a name for myself. This was the fall. Therefore all sages advise: Give up the shackles of the body! I am the body - theseare the shackles. Give them up.

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad