No Movement in Awareness

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Visitor: Is it pure awareness that knows I AM?

M: Yes, that's right. Who can understand that illusory state? 'I am ness' is illusory only. It is not a perfect state, it is illusion. Who knows the illusion? A non-illusory state only can know the illusory state. You are not wrong in your reply, but why did you say 'pure' awareness? What is the necessity of your saying 'pure'

V: There was no necessity.

M: Awareness means pure. Since awareness know 'I am,' it is other, it is more than I AM. That is the highest; there is no gradation in awareness. In the Absolute, the Parabrahman state, there is no question of impure awareness or pure awareness.

V: Is there love in pure awareness?

M: No. What do you mean by love? What is your experience, your idea of love?

V: Something much higher than the love that the mind and the body have. Something that is formless.

M: Up to the state of beingness, 'I am ness', consciousness, there is the state of love. That love is the love to be. This 'love to be' is not the perfect state but when transcended, it is the perfect state. No imperfection!

V: You say 'up to the point of beingness,' is that when you are still in the Absolute?

Interpreter: The no-being state is the Absolute, that is what you call pure awareness. Beingness is the feeling I AM. That I AM itself is love to be. I would like to be. I would love to perpetuate myself.

V: And where is love?

M: That is love. Consciousness itself is love. With consciousness, you would love to be.

V: And in pure awareness?

M: There is no 'I am ness,' there is no consciousness.

V: And no love.

M: In love to be you want to have something, right? Some desire is there, the love to continue to be. In the Parabrahman, there is no love to be, because it is a perfect state.

V: What is the purpose if the Absolute is up there? What is the purpose of the Absolute coming to birth in a form?

M: Why do you ask such an elementary question? I will give you some example. You want to go to a particular place, to visit. You are that need. Because of that need, you love to go. Love is the motive force; it moves you. Similarly, when you are beingness, the beingness wants to continue. It wants to continue in time and space. That is the state of love to be. So love is there only in the state of beingness.

In the perfect state, that state does not want to become something other than what it is. Nor does it want to be. Therefore, that beingness is not there, the feeling of 'I am ness' is not present, in the perfect state. Everything is complete.

When your need is fulfilled, there is no more need, no more lack. There is no more movement. Love is also dissolved at that moment. Suppose you want to go to a place, some far-away station. You rush to the station to catch the train. Why are you rushing? Because you wish to reach your destination. Once you reach it, you don't rush anymore. You stay put in quietude. You forget the movement also; there is no more rushing. Again, I am not addressing an individual or personality. I am addressing that final outcome of the five elemental food essence, I am ness. You are not the personality or the individual. The quintessence of this food, which in turn is the outcome of the five-elemental play, is the taste  I AM. I AM is not a personality nor an individual.

For example, you want to employ a servant. And there is a very weak fellow whom you want to convert into a good servant. He is very weak and cannot perform. So you bring him good food, good nourishment, and then he becomes stronger and steady. Then, finally, is it not the food that has made him into a good servant? The good quality of the food that you gave him is converted into service for you. Similarly, what are medicines? Is not medicine also a type of food? An antidote to a deficiency of a particular food in your body is administered in the form of medicine. Therefore, who is serving that servant? Is it not the food essence? And with respect to your own body, who is serving you? Is it not the food essence that is a good servant to you?