Knowingness and No-Knowingness

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

July 1, 1981

Q: I thought no-knowingness means the Absolute.

M: Knowingness and no-knowingness are the expressions of the bodily consciousness. When this food instrument body, together with the consciousness is totally transcended - that is the Absolute.

The light is there, the darkness is there, but what is the background? The space. The space is there which is neither the light nor the dark, but the space is. You have to transcend light and darkness to abide in space. Similarly, one has to transcend the knowingness and no-knowingness - the aspects of bodily consciousness. If you have reached that state you are watching consciousness and no-consciousness. That is called natural samadhi or sahaja samadhi.

Naturally you are in that state, but this psychosomatic instrument of body and consciousness is always available. The moment somebody comes the instrument is being operated - otherwise you revert to the Absolute. It is something like this: in a big hall there is a door, and in the door is a peep hole. That peep hole is the consciousness, but you are at the back.

Suppose that those space ships are going up from the earth: when you are in the space you feel that you have escaped the earth, but it is not so - you are still under the influence of the earthly atmosphere. You must go further into the space where there is no atmosphere. But where is the thought of going there? It is not like that - you are truly the Absolute and these are all the coverings you have gotten.

You know you are but you forget that you are and that forgetfulness is no-knowingness, which is the highest state. You can never describe it by words; that state is never captured by words.

Understanding is necessary and you should not get confused. Suppose you life in a state of knowingness: you should not think that you are a jnani already simply because your knowingness receives many powers in that state. You might think you are a jnani, but it is not so - it is simply the first step. There are a lot of allurements at that stage. When you are only being, without words, you are powerful. Give up the powers, don't possess them.

Hari Aum Tat Sat.

When you are, only YOU are

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q: Deep sleep is no-knowing. The Absolute is beyond knowingness and no-knowingness. I do not understand.

M: To start with, a child is born; the infant does not know itself, the reactions of hunger, thirst etc., take place. These are physical things, when life is there, but inside that state knowingness has not developed or matured fully. After one or two years it comes to know itself, the mother etc. When the child knows itself, its knowingness has started.

Prior to that is ignorance, although it is no-knowingness, it is ignorance. Then the knowledge I AM is attained; it does not know who it is but it knows it is something. Later on the child starts collecting concepts and ideas which other people feed it and develops certain concepts or images about itself and others. The mind has developed. Then comes deep sleep and the waking state, the daily cycle. In the waking state, in whatever state of mind you are, you know the world, together with your concepts and then you fall into sleep. Now, technically, you can call that deep sleep no-knowingness. But this is not that no-knowingness beyond which the Absolute lies.

Let us proceed again from the child. Ignorance, knowingness, accumulation of concepts, meeting the Guru. The Guru tells you, "Get rid of concepts, just be yourself." So when you are, only you are. This is the first step: to abide in the consciousness that you are, without words - that is knowledge. When the child started knowing itself there was also knowledge - but that is a general knowledge and is common to all. This becomes spiritual now. The seeker, having understood what the Guru said, gets rid of the concepts, and now, as the first step, the seeker dwells in the state of  I AM, just being.

First of all there is the knowingness I AM without words; with that knowingness the world is. Now when the seeker goes into meditation that knowingness goes into no-knowingness. This is the highest in the hierarchy when the body aspect is there because this knowing and no-knowing are aspects of the body, and body means consciousnesses, and in the realm of consciousness knowingness and no-knowingness exist. 

The Absolute transcends knowingness and no-knowingness. So, no-knowingness is the highest in the hierarchy of spirituality and the destination is transcendence of knowingness and no-knowingness.

Prior to the State of Gods

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 26, 1981

[A mother and son came and garlanded Maharaj and distributed prasad to everyone present.]

The deep state of simple, innocent people comes to fruition in this fashion. She prayed that her son would pass the examination. Her own faith worked.

If you enjoy this relaxed state here, and if you become one with this state, you will also transcend this state. You will even transcend into a state prior to the birth of Gods.

With this understanding, do what you like. Carry out your worldly activities. When you understand the meaning of swa - the Self - there will be no room for selfishness.

Understand this thoroughly, abide in it, then in due course you will realize it. When the time is ripe, only then it will happen.

What is your worth? You are the consciousness through which the world is expressed. Abide in that worthiness. Don't step down into mind and the body. Again, you must have the firm conviction that you are unaffected by birth and death. You are like space, not only like space, you are prior to space.

That Ultimate you can never be lost. Whatever you have lost, you have lost only the words. 

I have told you enough and whatever you have heard, retain it, deliberate over it, ponder over it, and be one with that.

Stay in Peace

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 26, 1981

For those who are sitting here the benefit you get will not be different from the benefit you get from sitting under the shade of several thickly leaved trees.  Sitting under the trees there is a certain amount of peace and the feelings of well-being. Stay in peace.

My teachings are emanating out of this consciousness. It is like a big shady tree for relaxation; you come here and sit and feel the relaxation, but you are not able to say what it is like. In that state you are not able to explain by words. You are in a relaxed state but the deeper meaning is reveling in the Self, abiding and subsiding in the Self - that is why you feel relaxed and happy.

Whatever sentences you hear in this state will not be forgotten.

Swartha - swa means Self and artha - meaning. Swartha has great meaning. Swartha means selfishness and swa means the meaning of the Self. Words have meaning in the practical world which will make you selfish, but the worlds which emanate here will give you the meaning of your own Self.

Understand What You Are

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

[The questioner was quoting scriptures right and left.]

M: The moment the waking state starts the worshipping of misery begins. When did you have the first birth?

Q: I don't know anything about it.

M: Then how do you accept this about the Ultimate? This is not your direct experience, it is borrowed knowledge from books. How can you accept what is not your direct experience?

There was a robbery in Delhi, the police may arrest you here and accuse you of it. Have you ever been to Delhi?

Q: No.

M: Then why did you accept this birth? What are shastras or scriptures? It is merely the do's and don'ts on how we should behave in the world. Don't bring that in here. Whether you accept this birth or not was the original question. Why bring in all this tall talk? Reading scriptures is all right for the ignorant. The next step is to give it up and try to understand what you are.

Shake off all that you have read and try to understand now. You must apply your discrimination. It is of no use just blindly accepting what the scriptures have said. Accept them up to a certain stage - after that you must be strong enough or mature enough to use your discrimination.People move about in search of knowledge but they are caught up in the trap of words and in the fond concepts developed by so-called Sages. A certain Sage will ask you to behave in one way; you go to another Sage and he will have you behave in another way. Thus you are caught up in the concepts of others. There is the story of a rishi in the scriptures who drank the waters of the seven oceans in the world - are you going to believe this? Employ your discrimination. You speak of acharana, the code of behavior; charana means the one who has to behave. Charana means only "I love" state, the state of consciousness, the feeling of being, without words. From that condition the movement of consciousnesses begins.

Loki and aloki: loki we normally take as worldly; lok means various personalities. Whatever is prescribed by the personality is loki, or whatever is followed by the people. Aloki is transcending the worldly. Aloki, it is not known to you. These devotees love me, but they don't understand me in the aloki sphere.

Spiritual talk is lokic talk, common talk, trying to give an image to others. Here there is no image or design - now, how can you become one with that? You have to have an image or design. Whatever knowledge we talk about has to be communicated by words, but that is not the Ultimate.

You want to possess knowledge. to collect knowledge. Such knowledge is plentiful and available in the world, but a rare person will understand that such knowledge is a bundle of ignorance.

You will make a study of those concepts which erupt from you; those concepts which you do not like will not occur to you. If you are interested in spiritual living, your thoughts and concepts will relate to that.

I have said what I have to say. There is no question of saying anything more. Because you come here I treat you with courtesy, but I am fully convinced that you and I have no design. I am afraid that what I say will not reach your real core; therefore you do bhajans. As a matter of fact,you should not visit me at all.

Bhishma was on a bed of arrows in his last days; I am also on a bed of arrows of suffering.

The Conscious Presence

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Once the knowledge has dawned in you, you are a jnani, you are no more a human person. You are the manifest Brahman, Chetana, the dynamic manifest Brahman.

Earlier your thoughts used to be connected with the body and the relatives of the body, but having gotten dissociated from the body-mind and established in the state of dynamic consciousness, what could be the quality of your thoughts? You thoughts will be more subtle, if there are any thoughts. Nevertheless, this dynamic consciousness is the quality of the food body. So long as the body is, the consciousness is. 

Whatever you talk and receive in the morning, you will continue repeating until you fall into sleep; nobody inquires at this level - all this functioning - how does it happen? What is the quality of this functioning and how does it occur? What are you? Inquire into it.

Only a few people are capable of understanding this. That is why I send people away - because it is of no use, just listening to words - but if that firm faith is there what I say will dawn in them. The inadequacies of the intellect should be made up by this very strong faith.

Beingness is there, the consciousness is there, and because it is there, the world is there. When the consciousness only prevails, when people talk, I don't understand; only the conscious presence is felt and not the details of what is happening. Because of the conscious presence you count me as present; if the consciousness is not there, you will say I am not present.

'I am Nothing'

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 13, 1981

In common spiritual parlance knowledge means repeating what you have heard - presentation of intelligence. They think it is spiritual, but no one tries to find out what he is, does not look at himself. When a boy and girl get married they are intensely interested in each other, similarly, when one gets married to spirituality one is always occupied with thoughts or deliberations concerning spirituality.

Are you the blood flowing inside, are you the skin, the bones? You are not. When you investigate thus and come to understand that you are not the body, you will eliminate everything - whatever you are not. Finally, what will you be? Come to this point.

You are so much addicted to the things which you learn by heart, the rituals, the bhajans, etc., that unless you recite them everyday you will not get any satisfaction of feeling happy.

These ritualistic practices are given for the ignorant, to keep their body-mind busy, but having the body-mind is to know that you are and it has no name or form.

There is no question of pleasure or pain, nor fear of death, for one who understands. If one identifies with the body then one is caught up in the relations related to the body.

My words are few and short, but they are very effective. There are many volumes written about spirituality which do not destroy your concepts but add to them. All the volumes do not tell you what you are.

Q: What is meant by chinmayananda and sat-chit-ananda?

M: People sometimes dance when they sing bhajans, they lose themselves, so that state is called chinmayananda. To have that chinmayananda, the first touch of consciousness is necessary. Ananda means bliss, and this is a quality of mind - a higher realm of the mind - but present in the consciousness. The prerequisite is the kiss of consciousness which is necessary for that highest state of exultation or exhilaration, that is chinmayananda and sat-chit-ananda.

I have come to the firm conclusion that I am nothing. I have no design, no color, I have no image of myself.

In the early morning when the waking state happens, that kiss of beingness appears, vibrant in the entire universe, and vibrating in myself. Also I observe this same thing when I take rest in the afternoon. But if you want to judge me at a physical level, I am not able to lift this pot of water, that is how much strength is left in the body, but that touch of all the vibrant universe - that is the touch of my  I AMness.

I am the knower of Brahman, I am the Brahman jnani, nevertheless, this touch of beingness is misery only.

Source of Love: The Love for Beingness

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q: What is love? Does it fulfill a need or pleasure?

M: Yes. When you see something and you like it, this liking is love for that object. When anger and frustration arise, that too is part of love. It is quite good and very bad also. All the experiences of suffering are the result of love. Find out what is the requisite for all this play of love and hate. It is that love for beingness, existence, which gives rise to to all pain and miseries. You have to face it because you love to be. Prior to any love, that love for being is there. It tastes both the qualities of love and misery, pleasure and pain. Take the case of this flame (of the cigarette lighter) it gives the light, the warmth and it can also burn.

Q: Can I be away from it?

M: What are you that wants to be away from it? If you are apart from me I can keep you out of me, but whatever is, is not apart from me. What is the 'you' that has sprouted, that has taken root? That alone is the cause of pleasure and pain.

When you understand this, it is all over - finished. Then you do some clapping, shout and scream out of exuberance; all the show is over. The knowledge I am giving is to dispel all the so-called knowledge you have.

A jnani is subtle like space. What is the space like? You assume there is the sky - what is it like? This knowledge is subtler that the space. The father of the space is the knowledge I AM.

Q: How do you know consciousness?

M: The way you started knowing yourself - exactly the same way. When you know that you are, it will be the same as acquiring yourself - nevertheless, you were all along, were you not? What is the use of concluding logically? You must say right here and now - here he is - in actuality.

Q: Why does Maharaj take such an interest in me then?

M: Who is taking interest in whom? Who is having the doership of that? It is all happening spontaneously.

Paramakash Transcends Everything

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 11, 1981 Morning

Q: This is a very high kind of knowledge, at a very high level; until it is absorbed what should an ordinary man do?

M: So long as there is receptivity, a deep desire to understand it, there is nothing to be done. The knowledge itself will result in whatever is to result. It is not mental or intellectual caliber that is required, but an intuitive sense of discrimination. So, now you are not the body, having accepted it, can you continue to identify with the body?

Q: Do body and mind have an importance?

M: Everything has its importance.

Q: Must we not take care of the body?

M: One takes care of something with which one identifies, but you have nothing to do with body-mind anymore, so why are you concerned in taking care of them?

When you are the space you are no more the body, but whatever is contained in the space, and the space, you are. You are now manifest - whatever is known - the space. This space is known by chidakash. When you are the chidakash, you are subtler than the physical space, expansiveness is more. A jnani transcends in various stages these subtleties, skies, spaces. In chidakash he is still confined, still conditioned by thinking I AM, therefore the next is Paramakash. Paramakash is the highest, in which there are other akashes - seven. In chidakash this knowingness is  I AM. In Paramakash there is no is or is not, It transcends everything.

Me and Mine are Bondage

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 11, 1981 Morning

It is only when the identity with the body-mind has been firmly rejected and identity with the consciousness has been thoroughly established that what I say will have any meaning. What you are is the unlimited, which is not susceptible to the senses. By limiting yourself to the body you have closed yourself to the unlimited potential which you really are. In meditation it is consciousness which meditates on itself and remains within itself.

If you accept what I have told you, then you do not take delivery of what is happening spontaneously in the world, and you are not concerned with either the cause of the effect. You then accept your true nature. Whatever actions take place through the body will take place independently of that which you really are.

Bear in mind that when this life force leaves the body, it will not seek permission from anything. It came spontaneously and will leave spontaneously; that is all that happens in that which is called death. There is no one who is born or who will die.

Q: As I understand it, the purpose of life is merely to understand what has been manifested and what is functioning is the universal consciousness. other than understanding, there is nothing to be done. Is this correct?

M: Correct. Everything is spontaneous, automatic, natural, it is only the concept of me and mine that is the bondage. 

When simple people like you are here, I am at peace, not disturbed, but when people come who consider themselves jnanis, who have the pride of knowledge and wish to show off their knowledge, then there is disturbance.

Everything is Spontaneous

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

It is only when the identity with the body-mind has been firmly rejected and identity with the consciousness has been thoroughly established that what I say will have any meaning

What you are is unlimited, which is not susceptible to the senses. By limiting the self to the body you have closed yourself to the unlimited potential which you really are. In meditation it is consciousness which meditates on itself and remains within itself.

If you accept what I have told you, then you do not delivery of what is happening spontaneously in the world, and you are not concerned with either the cause or the effect. You then accept your true nature. Whatever actions take place through the body will take place independently of that which you really are.

Bear in mind that when this life force (that which is the breath and consciousness) leaves the body, it will not seek permission from anything. It came spontaneously and will leave spontaneously; that is all that happens in that which is called death. There is no one who is born or who will die.

Q: As I understand it, the purpose of life is merely to understand that what has been manifested and what is functioning is the universal consciousness. Other than understanding, there is nothing to be done. Is this correct?

M: Correct. Everything is spontaneous, automatic, natural, it is only the concept of  'me' and 'mine' that is the bondage.

When simple people like you are here, I am at peace, not disturbed, but when people come who consider themselves jnanis, who have the pride of knowledge and wish to show off their knowledge, then there is disturbance.

Q: This is a very high kind of knowledge, at a very high level; until it is absorbed what should an ordinary man do?

M: So long as there is receptivity, a deep desire to understand it, there is nothing to be done. The knowledge itself will result in whatever is to result. It is not mental or intellectual caliber that is required, but an intuitive sense of discrimination.

So, now you are not the body, having a accepted it, can you continue to identify with the body?

Q: Do body and mind have an importance?

M: Everything has its importance.

Q: Must we not take care of the body?

M: One takes care of something with which one identifies, but you have nothing to do with body-mind anymore, so why are you concerned in taking care of them?

When you are the space, you are no more the body, but whatever is contained in the space, and the space, you are. You are now manifest - whatever is known - the space. This space is known by chidakash. When you are the chidakash, you are subtler than the physical space, expansiveness is more. A jnani  transcends in various stages these subtleties, skies, spaces. In chidakash, he is still confined, still conditioned by thinking "I AM", therefore the next is paramakash. Paramakash is the highest, in which there are other akashes - seven. In chidakash this knowingness is "I AM". In paramakash, there is no is or is not, it transcends everything. 

See the Tree in the Seed

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 8, 1981

People don't really understand what I say. They partially understand and form their own concepts, but the real self knowledge is not there.

Suppose there is a seed which is going to produce a great tree. If you cut that seed you must be able to see the tree in the seed.

The tree which I got is that seed which is called the seed of birth, when I broke it open I got the Self knowledge. Other than Self knowledge, what other capital do I have?

I have met so many so-called jnanis, but the real one, who has seen the tree in the seed, I have not seen so far.

In the advanced stages what happens to the intellect? To the disappearance of the intellect at old age, there is a witness. How can you describe that witness?

Q: Thoughts and emotions are always arising and distracting me. What shall I do?

M: You are before any thoughts can arise. All thoughts etc., which arise are merely movements in consciousness. Once consciousness arises, everything arises - the world and all the transactions in the world. Merely witness them. It takes place, there is no individual to witness. Witnessing takes place of the total functioning of the universal consciousness.

Because I totally negate the individual, this will appeal only to one in a million.

Q: There are so many people who are thoroughly dissatisfied, always searching for something and never satisfied. Why is that?

M: You will never be satisfied until you find out that you are what you are seeking. If you want knowledge as an individual, you will not get it here. If you are satisfied with this knowledge, you may come and sit still. If you cannot accept this negating of yourself, you may leave, I will understand, it will not affect me.

That which has never happened at all, that is the child of a barren woman - what fear can you have for that? It is imagined, unreal. Out of that hallucination, if somebody wants something, is it not seeking the real in the totally unreal?

Q: If it were real then we could do something about it.

M: Correct. You see something, that is true, but what you see is an illusion, like a dream. What we see in a dream seems very real, but we know that it is unreal. 

In spite of understanding all this, still it is difficult to give up this form identity of a male or a female. Without the form, the knowledge cannot be given. For the Absolute to manifest Itself, the matter must be there. The Absolute unmanifested and the manifested are not two - it is merely the expression of It, like the shadow and the substance.

This love of being is not of an individual being, it is the nature of the entire universal consciousness.

Intuitive Apprehension Needed

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

June 6, 1981

The material of which the body is constituted is getting weary and weak, and along with it, this knowledge is also getting weak. The sense of presence is still with me because that material of which the body is made still has a little strength. When that little strength goes away, then the consciousness will also disappear, then there will be no sense of presence - but I shall very much be, without the sense of presence.

Each of you is trying to protect yourself. What is it that you are truing protect? However much you may protect, how long will it last? Go to the root and find out what it is that you are trying protect and preserve, and how long will it remain?

The only spiritual way of understanding you true nature is to find out the source of this concept I AM. Before the sense of presence arrived I was in that state in which the concept of time was never there. So, what is born? It is the concept of time and that event which is birth, living and death together constitute nothing but time, duration.

Once you understand this, everything will be clear; until you understand it, nothing will be clear. Is this not simple and easy?

Q: Words are simple, but apprehending what those words mean will be difficult.

M: What is it in the absence of which you would not be able to understand even the words? Go to the root of that source.

In apprehending what I have told you this morning, the intellect is totally impotent. There must be an intuitive apprehension of it.

The Flame, I AM

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

May 10, 1981

That which you like most - that itself is I AM, the conscious presence - but that is not going to last forever. When this flame is extinguished, what is the profit ir loss to the flame? What does the flame represent?

Q: The knowledge, the consciousness.

M: What is going to happen to that consciousness? Only in order to realize it, to understand it, do we have all this spirituality. When the flame is extinguished it needs do nothing about itself. Similarly, understand, when the body drops off and the consciousness is extinguished you need do nothing. With this understanding, do what you like in the world.

Presently you are tied down to the bondage of the body, and that is conceptual. The very thought of any advantage or disadvantage is dissolved when one realizes this knowledge. 

For the sake of that principle you are involving yourself in many activities. When that very principle is dissolved into nothingness, what are you going to do?

Don't try to pick and choose and say, "this I must do and that I must not do." Don't impose such conditions on yourself.

An ant crawls on your body and stings you; by that bite or sting you know the ant is there. Just so, the feeling of this conscious presence I AM is due to the material body.

Having understood this, where is the person who should hold onto the worldly life or should give it up? The question does not arise.

If you are fully charged with this knowledge, in spite of the worldly difficulties no difficulties will touch you.

This cryptic blunt talk will not be available elsewhere. At other places you will be given certain concepts arising out of consciousness and out of those concepts more concepts are developed, and you are misled. Any type of concept in the realm of consciousness is unreal. Will the world listen to such talks?

What are you? Are you that birth principle, that body, which is born of the secretion of the parents? 

The one who gets this knowledge is free from worldly or family problems.

Attraction to this place is spontaneous

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

May 9, 1981

Q: If there is a painful illness, does the jnani suffer it like anyone else?

M: In the case of a jnani the mind and intellect do not function. They do not register what is being suffered,  but the suffering is even more intense because in the case of an individual it is the body which suffers. In the case of a jnani it is the consciousness that suffers, so anything that is experienced in consciousness becomes exaggerated many times more. But you need not bother with this stage, because it is a rare case. In the case of a jnani the state is that of total disassociation from the body-mind. 

As an entity, a certain amount of disassociation with the body is a pleasing state - a state to which people look forward and accept. In the case of a jnani, the disassociation is further and total, therefore there is no question of any effect of such a state, pleasing or otherwise. The result is that there is no wants or desires. This is the way in which I experience - I don't know about others.

Q: Can Maharaj give me knowledge?

M: Understand this: a jnani cannot give knowledge to anyone. All he can do is point to that which is your true nature. With such a condition offered here, I don't know why people are attracted to this place. There is nothing that I can give anybody who comes here. The attraction to this place is spontaneous and not understandable intellectually.  

If what I have been saying is clearly understood by anyone the effective result will be that even int he daily working of the individual's life there will not be any specific intention. Things will continue in a sort of ballbearing fashion - without any deliberation intention or deliberate action. In my own case, throughout the day the body carries out its normal functions; things go in a normal way and nothing is resisted. Throughout the whole day there is no interest in understanding what is happening. 

Up until eight o' clock the intellect did not function; now I am aware of a little perception of my intellect. In the life of a jnani, no jnani will expose this secret. Not only will he have no desires or expectations, but neither will he have the attraction "to be". The attraction of the consciousness to be is not there. To have any hopes, expectations, etc., one must have an image, an identity.

Out of the Question, the Answer Comes

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

April 15, 1981

Q: Would realization be possible by hearing the truth from the Guru or is there any other way?

M: No, only with the Grace and guidance of the Guru. The Guru is the one who knows totally what is qualitative Brahman and non-qualitative, what is mundane matter and what is spiritual matter. You are holding onto all these things you have heard here as concepts. You don't try to be that. You like knowledge as a concept. 

Q: Maharaj has said that the inner Guru is more important than the outer Guru.

M: In the initial stages you must have an external Guru. That Guru initiates you with the inner Guru.

Q: What are mantras for?

M: A mantra is indicative of the aim or the object in you.

Q: I am a physician and I sometimes get attached to my patients and involved in their problems. Sometimes I can be detached and not feel involved, but my patients are like warriors with their problems and try to get me involved. Sometimes I feel like running away.

M: This is the knowledge of your concepts. This is not your knowledge. To feel that you are involved is a concept, to feel like running away is a concept. 

Q: If a person is very sincere and wants Self-realization more than anything else in the world, is it easier for him if he goes away by himself and thinks of nothing but that?

M: Not at all. It is not that you are going to acquire something externally, the knowledge that you are is already there, only understand that. This is all the play of concepts. Even to think that I am going to get the knowledge, or I have got the knowledge, is still a concept. Prior to getting the knowledge, whatever Is, That is the truth.

Q: When someone asks Maharaj a very difficult question, where does the answer come from?

M: Out of the question the answer comes; with every question the replies are attached.

No Difference Between Jnani and Sadhaka

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

April 13, 1981

Q: The disciple is devoted to the Guru; is this not destiny?

M: In the world duality always exists. Manifestation can only take place in duality because of the identification with the body-mind. If the Guru and the disciple are not identified with the body, where does the question of duality arise? The pupil and the Guru are only knowledge and there is no form of design to knowledge.

Q: We have accepted that we are not the body, that we were never born and cannot die, but it seems that something is missing; what is it?

M: Give me a sample of the one who has heard and accepted. I assume that those who listen to me are knowledge.

An animal exists only to appease the hunger; is that all you are here for? There must be a change in you after listening to me all these days. One has to know that one is not the form but the consciousness which gives sentience to the form. Has this change really occurred?

Q: The Guru explains that the attachment to the Guru is also a concept; how to get rid of it? The sadhaka wants to pay his respects to the Guru all the time.

M: This is initial stage talk - duality is there. The sadhaka considers Guru as something other than himself, so he wants to pay his respects. The sadhaka is also a Guru, a jnani, there is no difference.

I am still doing this pooja for my Guru. It has to be maintained for the guidance of others; unless you have respect and love for the Guru the process of your becoming concept-free will not be hastened. If you understand what I say, only then do you come here. If nobody comes, I will not be unhappy; whatever must happen has already happened. 

No Cause and Effect

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

April 10, 1981

The Unmanifest ever exists but this manifest knowingness arises and departs. Presently I do not have any individuality - what is available is only the consciousness for the expression of which this material instrument is available. This consciousness is not a very desirable thing, it is an imperfect state. 

There is no reason or law of cause and effect for the functioning of this universal consciousness. Why something happens at a particular time cannot be explained in this dualistic state. We can only watch the functioning and cannot ask for any reason for any functioning which takes place. If we had the choice of taking on this body-cum-consciousness, who would be foolish enough to accept it? It is only because there has been no choice, everything has been spontaneous. The suffering also has to be taken on because it is the part of the total functioning, and there is no entity who can pick and choose. 

There is no individuality left; nevertheless, so long as this body is part of the total functioning, whatever comes in the total functioning has to be suffered. There is any amount of suffering in the total functioning - this body is one of the millions of forms and the share of this body from the total suffering has to be experienced. 

Q: I am trying to understand this.

M: You are hanging on to an entity that is trying to understand. All of this is simply for the sake of communication. Who is an entity trying to understand what? You are carrying on a lot of activities because of certain concepts you entertain, to satisfy the concepts that have arisen spontaneously in you. All this process of communication, expounding, etc., will go on so long as this conscious presence is available, and all this merely to satisfy the concept I AM, and you, the Absolute, are not the primary concept I AM.

I am telling you all this and probably you like it, you enjoy it - but it is almost impossible for you to assimilate or perceive what I am saying. I am sure you have not understood exactly what I am saying. These are two great personalities, legal pundits. By coming here and listening to my talks how can they put to use their legal knowledge?

Just Listen

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

April 4, 1981

Q: Is a Self-realized person always in a state of bliss?

M: One who has transcended the body idea does not need the ananda (bliss). When you didn't have experience of the body, you were in that blissful state. That state which is prior to your birth cannot be described as deep sleep, it is beyond that. The experience of the jnani is the same as your state prior to birth, it is a complete state.

Q: How can I be That?

M: You are in that state all the time, prior to having the body, but you are confused because of the body consciousnesses.

Q: The body is there.

M: Don't ask questions, just listen. You need the company of the Sages to understand what I am saying. This knowledge cannot be understood by the intellect.

Q: Is there sat-chit-ananda in the eternal state?

M: The food essence is sattva, and the quality of that is consciousness, and inside that is the sat-chit-ananda (being-consciousness-bliss). The eternal state is prior to that.

Q: I have read in the books that the main reason to be born is your own desire to be born; how can it fit in with the state before birth?

M: Your birth is the result of the desire of your parents.

Q: How can I be released from bondage?

M: There is no bondage at all, bondage is imaginary. If you are oriented towards the consciousness all your questions will be dissolved by your Self.

Q: What is the obstacle to my realizing this?

M: The only bondage is your constant memory that you are the body.

Q: Without understanding fully what Maharaj is, still people come here. Why is that?

M: That is the union of knowledge and that principle which transcends knowledge. There is attraction between these two. That is why people from all over the world come here.

I am intangible, you cannot add to me or take away from me. I am full, complete in all respects. Whatever you do to me, you will have to suffer yourself. If you are angry with me, you have to suffer. If you do anything to me, it will rebound upon you. If you spit at the sky, the spit will fall on you only.

Q: What is the material world created from?

M: Out of the manifest consicousness, the material world is created  - the eternal parabrahman, the eternal brahman, in which this play is always going on. In that play you are the total, no separate identity arises. In the body is the taste of I AM - when the body is gone, the taste is gone. When you have some problem you refer to a book. Why don't you investigate yourself - find out what you are. I this play of the five elements, whatever is seen or experienced is merely enjoyment, and for this enjoyment, or entertainment, mind is very necessary.

Q: What are Brahma, Vishnu and the other Gods?

M: They are merely appearances in consciousness. Each appearance has its own duration. That duration may be for millions of years, but they are all appearances and have an allotted span of existence. The knower of the knowledge is not affected in any way by the individual hopes, fears etc.

Clear Understanding Required

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

March 31, 1981

M: When a clear understanding takes place of the nature and function of consciousness, that understanding no longer needs consciousness, because that understanding becomes the knower of consciousness. 

Q: Is it possible to function as the total manifestation, not as an individual?

M: What do you understand to be the total manifestation and individual?

Q: What is manifestation?

M: I am the manifestation. I, the Absolute unmanifested, am the same "I" manifested. Consciosuness is the expression of the Absolute, there are not two.

Q: If my life gives me great satisfaction and happiness, why should I bother about what or who I am?

M: This consciousness will not rest until it gets the answer. This consciousness cannot bear its own existence, cannot bear its own consciousness.

Q: It wants to go back to its own place of rest.

M: I am not inclined to discuss with words.

You people come here with steadfastness, diligently you come here and sit. If you have such a liking, you are welcome.

My teaching is very simple; the experiencer and the experiences are all fancies.

When you are a young person you like all the activities of a young person very much, you get very involved in them; once youth goes you are disinterested in activities of a young person. Similarly, as long as you are wearing this concept I AM you will be involved with all the concepts. When this concept I AM departs there will be no memory left that I was and I had those experiences: the very memory will be erased. Before you are completely liquidated, while there are some traces left of you, it would be better to quit this place.

You may not come across those teachings in such great details, and at this level.

This lady has piled up a lot of knowledge, she possesses stack of it, but in due course she will not only forget whatever she has piled up, but she will forget herself, that she was.