Dehatma Buddhi Has To Go

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q: When I get up in the mornings where does the  I AM consciousness come from?

M: You are not able to understand it. Like a film, it is already there and is reproducing. This chemical is called the greatest principle by the Vedas; it is the Hiranyagarbha (golden womb). I AM-ness is forgotten in deep sleep, and it appears in the waking and dream states.

Q: How do I remember the previous things?

M: It is the skill of the I AM-ness. What identity do you hold for yourself?

Q: I am the witness.

M: Of what?

Q: All the activities of the body-mind.

M: This is the quality of the body-mind only and is not the Self knowledge. Worms appear in stale food. Similarly, the body is stale food; the Self wriggles in it. When the body is decomposing, the worm I AM-ness is at work. The taste is I AM-ness, which it enjoys without a tongue. We take too much pride in the taste of this stale food. What knowledge do you want?

Q: My true Self.

M: As long as you think that the body is you, you will not get true knowledge. In Marathi there is a phrase, "borrowed wife", she who has to be returned. Similarly, this body is a borrowed thing; you have to return it. This identity with the body has to go.

Q: How is one to be successful in getting rid of this identification?

M: Try to investigate deep sleep and waking states. These are time-bound. Without the experience of waking and sleep states, try to explain what you are.

Q: Then I am wordless.

M: Are you sure? The Vedas also said, "This is not, That is not," and at the end kept quiet, as it is beyond words. Without the deep sleep and waking states do you know that you are, or do you experience I AM?

Q: No.

M: What is born: yourself or the two states? You will be liquidates soon if you come here. What will you pick out of these states as yourself?

Q: Nothing.