Sat Gurucharan

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

V: Yesterday, you spoke about guru and sat-gurucharan - the feet of the sat-guru.

M: Yes, I did. Sat-gurucharan means the spontaneous appearance of consciousness when you know "you are." Everything dwells in this knowledge "you are", and it is limitless and all-prevailing. This state represents the sacred feet of the sat-guru.

V: I mean no offense at all when I ask a silly question. Why are there so many photos on these walls? I feel this goes contrary to your teaching.

M: They are the relics of the period of ignorance. To dispel the ignorance such aids are necessary. When the purpose is served, they are no longer required. This body which I use is also an outcome of the ignorance stage, but it is still in use though I have transcended the stage of ignorance. So let the photos remain to decorate the walls; there is no harm in that. Instead of changing the things outside, why not bring about a change within by removing your wrong identities?

You talk as if you have wisdom, but what knowledge have you actually? Your present capital is the cycle of waking, deep sleep and knowledge "I am". What else have you got? This cycle has appeared by itself without your asking; all else you have learned and acquired later. Anybody who comes here is like an ignorant child, in spite of whatever so-called knowledge he has gained from outside.

November 13th 1980.

I want to do something spiritual

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Do you want self-knowledge or not? You want to do something spiritual, but you must be there for doing something. You must know "You". Who is the doer of spirituality? "I am" is the doer. When you are involved in daily activities, in the house, street and office, "who" is the common factor? It is your "I-am-ness". This "I-am-ness" of yours is doing everything.

Suppose from morning till night I have been doing a lot of things. What is the sum total of my activities? All these many activities took place in my state of beingness. In deep sleep, "I am" went into oblivion; it forgot itself. Then what is the use of everything that was done? Beingness is not an eternal state. It is a temporary phase - a passing show. Consciousness is the product of the five elements and their interactions. The result of the five elements is temporary, and time-bound. Your knowingness and all that you accumulate always come subsequent to your beingness. You can know something only when knowingness knows "it is". Your fall occurs when you try to identify something within the sphere of consciousness as "yourself". Your consciousness manifests the world. When you try to equate the body with yourself, the fall begins.

Guru bhakti removes problems

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

At present, all communications and functioning happen through the medium of this nectar - the consciousness. And what is this medium? It is the knowledge "I am". It is represented by Lord Vishnu, the highest God who reclines blissfully on the coils of the serpent, sheshasayi, and hence is known as sheshasayi-bhgavan.

Well, it is nice to have such talks, but to imbibe and realize their essence is very difficult indeed. Why? Because you firmly believe that you are the body and live accordingly, while entertaining fond wishes that you will achieve something good in the world, and later still better. These expectations are primarily based on the misconceived notion that you are the body. This wrong identification, however, dissolves in the nectar of the Lord's Feet, when you totally subside in the consciousness and lose your individuality. 

Dissolution of individuality is not possible without devotion to the Master - guru-bhakti-which in other words is again the consciousness, the guru-charan-amrita. Abidance in the consciousness removes all past and future problems, and stabilizes one in the present - Here and Now.

Droplets are still a part of the ocean

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

This sense of being, which is the consciousness, has the capacity to realize its true nature and abide in the Ishwara state - that is, the godly state. The ancient scriptures, the four Vedas, have affirmed the sense of being as the pure Brahman only, which is also vouched for by the sages and saints.

The spray of the ocean contains innumerable droplets. But they are the ocean only when not separated from the ocean. On separation, they are individual drops. Nevertheless, the salty taste of the water, whether of the ocean or of its droplets, is the same. Just as the salty taste is present in the entire ocean, the beingness or the sense of "I am" in the human form has the inherent capacity to be all-pervading. But having conditioned - and thereby limited - itself to the body form, it is interested only in protecting and preserving the body.

As a result of the arising of body forms, the manifest consciousness apparently was fragmented. But this fragmentation should be viewed only with respect to the body forms because in actuality the consciousness pervades, both within and without the bodies.

What is there in a name?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Ishwara is not an individual person. It is an all-pervading principle, which is latent in everything. It is manifest in the five elements, the three gunas, and in the cycle of waking, sleep and knowingness.

Duality is only at the body-mind level. In the all-pervading universal consciousness, millions of births take place everyday, but in its basic Absoluteness it is ajanma - the Unborn. Although as universal consciousness it is multi-qualitative, as the Absolute state it is nirguna, non-qualitative.

In this country (India), for ages it has been accepted that a sacred name carries great spiritual potency if recited properly; it has no better substitute. Millions of persons in the world are personified by the names given to them, because a name has utility on the worldly level. When you are initiated into a spiritual discipline with a sacred name, it means that it represents your "ultimate true nature." Be one with the sacred name completely, then it will give you all the mystic knowledge necessary for your spiritual elevation. It will awaken you into your "eternal awareness." This is the mystic key-word of the Navnath-Sampradaya, the traditional order of the Nine Gurus. These gurus were neither cultured nor highly educated. According to one of the stories, a man sat on one of the highest branches of a tree, cutting the very branch he sat on from the wrong side. A guru passing that way, seeing the naive man's one-pointed attention, took pity on him and blessed him with a name which the man recited diligently. In due course, this simpleton himself became a great sage. Such is the power of the sacred name recited with concentrated attention.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Real meditation is to abide in this sense of being. In fact, meditation means the sense of being holding on to itself. It is said that after death one goes to heaven or hell. But this is mere concept and hearsay. When a body has died, the indwelling atman, the sense of being, loses memory of its beingess and does not know "it is". In that state there is no sleep, waking and knowingness. 

You should understand this clearly. If one thinks one is the body, one becomes a slave of mind and suffers accordingly. Therefore, you should completely identify yourself with the highest principle in you, which is the knowledge "I am".

You think you are somebody; but you are nothing of the sort. The sense of being is expressed through the body as a consequence of the all-pervading Absolute. This sense of being is deeply infatuated with itself and is termed atma-prem, Self-love. It is also called guna, Shiva, and Brahman. It is the Self-love that is functioning through different bodies. Since there is only this principle expressing itself, in different ways, through the different vehicles, there is no "you", "I" or "he". When the body dies, it decomposes into the five primary elements; and the vital breath, prana, merges in the universal air. And the guna - that is, the sense of being - instantly becomes nirguna or non-being, just as a flame is extinguished instantly.

Relish the charan-amrita

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

If you could just give up all other spiritual efforts and disciplines and absorb yourself in relishing the charan-amrita by abidance in the consciousness, the mind will release you from its clutches. At present, you meekly accept whatever the mind dictates as your own. If the mind goes into silence, where and what are you?

Once you subside into the consciousness, the factual state of Reality shall be revealed to you with the knowledge that will emanate out of you intuitively, like spring water. This will enable you to discern not what is real and unreal, but most importantly, to realize what "I am".

What am I for myself alone? What is this life? Once these questions are resolved intuitively and the Reality emerges, the mind cannot predominate any longer. However, the functioning of the mind will go on, but the quality of its functioning will be totally different. One who has attained such a state remains unaffected by any happenings, since the blabberings of the mind can have no effect. And who could be that one? Surely not an individual who is trapped in the mind-shell. But that one is the knowledge "I am" - the consciousness.

How did this come about?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Out of a common heap of wheat, many types of edibles are prepared, using different methods. In the same way, there are many systems of spirituality. I am not interested in nibbling at the various delicacies - methods and techniques - but only in the main course, which is the primordial Source of all existence.

How and why did the state of my beingness, my existence, and the entire manifestation arise and out of what? In that original source, there is no feeling of my presence. To that ultimate source, how did the state of existence resulting in differentiation (duality) happen?

The Time Factor

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Everybody is trying to protect the time factor - that is, the consciousness. So long as time is there, consciousness is there; and time is there so long as the body is present.

When the life span is over, time has gone. When time has gone, consciousness is gone. As long as the beingness is there, activities proceed. Once you realize that you are not the body, then there is no more attraction for the manifestation.

When a firm conviction is established that one is not the body, one's behavior has become just like that of the five elements, claiming no credit as things are merely happening by themselves. Such a one can have no needs and demands.

Ganesha and OM

Img Src: ganesh.everywhere.guru

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Why is Ganesha equated with the primordial sound pranava (OM)?

Because Ganesha represents the knowledge prana, the vital breath. Out of the pranava, the product of prana, the vocal language develops, after passing through four stages - para, pashyanti, madhyama and vaikhari. Para is the source and the subtlest stage, while vaikhari is the grossest, representing the bursting out of vocal language. The state prior to para is "Love to be", the sense of love, which gives rise to all activities. That state is Ganesha.

*Ganesha is a hindu God who is worshipped as the first God - Lord of beginnings.

Read more about the four types of speech in this post.

Vishranti

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Go to the root of your beingness. In the process, the beingness will be transcended and the ultimate "You" only remain, without the knowledge "you are." That ultimate state is known as vishranti, which means total rest, complete relaxation, utter quietude etc.

Devotional path

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Namasmarana is recitation of a holy name of God. Here God means the indwelling principle within you - the atman, which is given various names. These represent this "inner-God" who will respond no matter what names of other Gods you chant. The custom of counting beads of a rosary is merely to give occupation to your hands, but it is this inner God that you are supposed to invoke. This God is awakened when you tell the beads by reciting his name. Just as the cow's udders ooze out milk upon the sight of its calf who runs to its mother mooing "ama-ama", so also the beingness showers grace on the one who chants its holy name and tells beads in all earnestness by leading him into quietude. The keynote of recitation is to confine this "I-am-ness" within itself. The listener in you listens to the chantings and feels greatly pleased. This is the reason that people used to daily chantings and telling of beads get restless when unable to do so.

The merging of beingness within itself is the very fount of bliss. If you want eternal Peace, you can have it and be it through the absorbing devotional path - the nama-japa or bhakti-yoga.

How to remove thoughts and concepts

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Do not try to become anything. Do nothing! Without thinking on any of your words, remain quiet. Once a word sprouts it creates a meaning and then you ride on it. You follow the meanings of your words and claim that you are in search of your self. So be wakeful to that state which is prior to the sprouting of words.

The godly principle

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

The fragrance or the sweetness of the food-essence body is the knowledge "I am". It has no name and form. It is the "I love" state, the "I"-taste. But from your body-mind state you will go to pilgrimages and various gurus. So long as the consciousness is there, that humming goes on, and who does the humming? The principle which is humming, and saying "I am, I am" is itself your guru.

If you imbibe what I say and understand this guru, the consciousness, and dwell there, you will be self-realized. Then no more rituals, disciplines and spirituality are necessary. Is it clear now to you what is termed "guru"? It is the sense of "I-am-ness".

In the devotional approach, worship is prescribed. In the ritual, prasadam is prepared first, which is a food offering to the deity being worshipped. Before invoking the deity by ringing a bell the prasadam must be kept ready because God is dependent on food and the God is no one else but the consciousness, which depends on food.

Whenever food of the right quality and in the proper form is available and when the vital breath functions in it, the "I-am-ness" principle manifests itself through it. This "I-am-ness" is the Bhagavan - the godly principle.

What is your real identity?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

You accept a concept and stop at it. Thus, your spiritual progress stagnates at the conceptual level. You indicated your identity at various stages of life by such concepts as "a child", "a boy", "a youth", "a middle-aged man" etc. But which conceptual identity of yours remained faithful to you? All identities, in the course of time, proved illusory. Even the very principle behind the identities, that is the sense of your beingness, will prove illusory. Since it has appeared, it has to disappear; therefore, it is temporary and time-bound. But the knower of the beingness is the eternal Absolute.

Whatever experiences you undergo is imperfect. Nevertheless, you will continue some spiritual practice, because the mind will not allow you to be quiet.

For the purpose of acquiring knowledge and to know Brahman, you meditate on something. But what is your identity as a meditator? You are neither the meditation nor the object of meditation. Whatever it may be, You, which is apart from meditation and its object, are the Perfect, the Totality, the Eternal-Absolute.

Realize your true nature

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

There is no form or shape for this principle (beingness), just as the vital breath has no form, which is, however, dynamic and pulsating. The vital breath alone gives animation to the body and it will operate so long as the body is healthy.

Whatever is seen and perceived is continuously in a state of creation and destruction, but You in your true nature are unborn and indestructible. Unless you realize your true nature, there will be no peace for you.

No matter how much you strive to acquire any worldly gains, they are bound to go; so also your concepts and various identities. Even if you follow any religion in the hope of obtaining something permanent from the outside, you will be sorely disappointed. The main purpose of true spirituality is to liberate oneself completely from one's concepts and conditionings.

Charan-amrita

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

If one obtains and relishes the nectar of the Lord's Feet, the charan-amrita, the mind can be conquered. This means that the mind will no longer hold sway over us; its mastery imposed from childhood will no longer oppress us. This is called manojaya - victory over the mind. But this is made possible only with His Grace. Without Grace, we cannot relish the nectar.

However, only a true devotee, a bhakta, a god, can obtain the charan-amrita. But who and what is this devotee? It is nothing else but the consciousness, the sense of being, the knowledge that "we are", which has appeared unknowingly and spontaneously in us. The consciousness is the charan-amrita, the nectar of the Lord's Feet.

The entire cosmos in its vibrant, stirring movement is represented by the consciousness, the Feet of the Lord, and the whole universe is the body of the consciousness. But what is its relationship with all beings? It dwells in the core of all beings as the knowledge "I am", the love "to be", the charan-amrita.

One who drinks the nectar of the Lord's Feet is a true devotee. He abides in the knowledge "I am". He is godly. Thus, when one sips continuously this nectar by witnessing the consciousness or the sense of being, one's mind, which assesses and differentiates persons observed as males and females, gradually removes itself from the focus of attention, leaving the consciousness in its innate glory.

What to do for knowledge?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

Do nothing except hold on to yourself, just be in that beingness, then it will tell you how beingness turns into "non-beingness". Therefore, I tell you just one thing: catch hold of that touch of "I-am-ness" only, that beingness, dwell on it, and contemplate on that only.

Just be.

What you think about is not 'you'!

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

One has to investigate oneself. You have the faith "you are"; on what does it depend? Nobody investigates on these lines. Why this beingness, how am I, why am I, on what does it depend? This aspect is never considered; people consider only the relative factors concerning the body-mind, and the area beyond that they never look into.

What do you mean by "death", a common word, a common parlance? This faith "I am" has disappeared, the confidence that "I am" is gone - that is death.

Whatever you want to think or ponder over, it is something other than the "you" you think of. You ever ponder over something which you are not! Then, how to think about yourself? This you cannot do. Perceiving this clearly, you become thought-free. Whatever you do, you think about something which is not you, even with a noble thought like Ishwara (God), which is still conceptual and therefore apart from yourself. Now, is it possible to think of one's own Self, that is the question?