Talker and Listener are One

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

March 11, 1981

Q: By reading the book of Maharaj's talks, I feel great freedom and joy, I think I am experiencing the living word.

M: What is it which was experiencing this? It was the sense of presence.

Q: I have read so many books, but this was a new revelation, a new experience. Why don't I get the same experience from other books?

M: I am not going to accept any of your compliments. Your questions are from the body-mind level and you will accept the answers on the same level. You are riding the horse of body-identification.

Q: I wanted to know why I get such experiences from reading your book and not from others.

M: I am not interested in your experiences; I am interested only in you. The talker and the listener are one. Most of the others who come here may be said to be in a state similar to that of having had a really good dinner; they have had their fill, and now they are chewing the cud, like a cow - they are not interested in further food. That is why there are no questions. If someone like you doesn't arrive and ask questions, there will be no questions. You have come to seek knowledge and you are knowledge.

Q: Dakshinamurti taught his disciples in silence.

M: Hang Dakshinamurti! That is hearsay, something you have read or heard. What is your experience? I am here and you are here: ask questions.

Q: Why is it that some die young and others live a long life?

M: Will there be birth or death without the consciousness or self? When you say they die young or live long, those that are born, actually what logic does the Self know? Does the sun know when it sets or rises? First understand what it is that is born and then this mystery will be solved.