Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Q: The Guru is the greatest power, controlling the outer world as well as the inner. He is more powerful than a king. That's why he is the greatest cheat. He cheats you out of nothing, but you think you lose everything.
M: If that is your experience, it is quite appropriate. He has appropriated everything, including yourself. That means that you are not a different entity than he. There is no more left of you, only the Guru.
Q: Love makes him the greatest cheat.
M: The love is given to each one according to his needs. If there is no need, can there be love?
Q: From that perspective, no; but the Absolute has always been associated with that concept. Why do we describe It as love?
M: He does not know himself. He does not know what he is. He doesn't need anything. He does not need to call himself I AM. The Absolute state is called Jnani by ignorant people only. The Absolute doesn't call himself the Absolute of Jnani.
Q: Why have those who are ignorant idealized the Jnani as love?
M: For the ignorant it is a matter of convenience. So long as he has not reached that Jnani state he must have some motive force; to get that, he calls Jnani full of love, compassion, kindness, etc. These are confirmed or imposed by the ignorant.
Q: Is that a correct viewpoint, from an ignorant standpoint?
M: Yes, for the ignorant. There is an idol of Vithobha people go and pray: "Because of your kindness I survive, etc." The ignorance is talking. Why does the ignorant person keep that stone? Because he needs to be alive, he wants to perpetuate his "I Amness." to continue. That's why he is worshipping that stone: the need to be.
Q: Isn't it also perhaps one of the ways that the Divine leads the ignorant back to the Absolute?
M: Yes, there are a number of ways or paths for the ignorant.
Q: Wouldn't unconditioned love be faith in form?
M: From my standpoint love is the quality to be. Beingness is love. Only when this " I Amness" appears is there love. Can the love prevail if the "I Amness" is not there? You have the urge to be, to continue your beingness - that is the love.
M: All this manifestation is the ocean of that being. You may call it the ocean of Brahman or the ocean of Maya.
Q: Beyond Maya, beyond the ocean?
M: Where ist he question of going beyond? There is beingness-beingness extinguished. It does not go beyond anything. Does it require an airplane, a Boeing, to go somewhere? From where has it come, where did it go? Prior to coming and going, you are.
That "I Amness" is pulsating "I am I am." The feeling of "I Amness" is there because of the essence of the food body and the vital breath. When the food essence and the vital breath are gone, that pulsation of "I Amness" will not be there. Beingness goes into no-beingness.
For the sprouting of any seed, water is necessary. Similarly, for the sprouting of this knowledge " I Am," water and food essence are necessary. In the essence of the food the quality of " I Amness" is in a dormant state. The Atman - the core Self - He himself sees " I Amness" through the juices or essence of the food.
Q: The consciousness is common to all, universal, spontaneous, one. Why does it appear in so many different forms?
M: That is its native quality. Although beingness is one, it manifests in plenty, many, multitudes.