Q: What does it mean to go beyond the mind?

M: You have gone beyond the body, haven’t you?
You do not closely follow your digestion, circulation or elimination. These
have become automatic.
In the same way the mind should work
automatically, without calling for attention.

This will not happen unless the mind works faultlessly. We are, most of our time, mind and body-conscious, because they constantly call for help. Pain and suffering are only the body and the mind screaming for attention. To go beyond the body you must be healthy: to go beyond the mind, you must have your mind in perfect order.
You cannot leave a mess behind and go beyond. — the mess will bog you up.
‘Pick up your rubbish’ seems to be the universal law. And a just law too.

Q: Am I permitted to ask you how did you go beyond the mind?
M: By the grace of my Guru.

Q: What shape his grace took?
M: He told me what is true.

Q: What did he tell you?
M: He told me I am the Supreme Reality.

Q: What did you do about it?
M: I trusted him and remembered it.

Q: Is that all?
M: Yes, I remembered him; I remembered what he said.

Q: You mean to say that this was enough?

M: What more needs be done?
It was quite a lot to remember the Guru and his words. My advice to you is even less difficult than this — just remember yourself. ‘I am’, is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond. Just have some trust.
I don’t mislead you. Why should I? Do I want anything from you? I wish you well — such is my nature. Why should I mislead you?
Commonsense too will tell you that to fulfil a desire you must keep your mind on it. If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed.

Q: Why should self-remembrance bring one to self-realization?

M: Because they are but two aspects of the same state. Self-remembrance is in the mind, self-realization is beyond the mind.
The image in the mirror is of the face beyond the mirror.

Q: Right. But do I need a Guru? What you tell me is simple and convincing. I shill remember it. This does not make you my
Guru.

M: It is not the worship of a person that is crucial, but the steadiness and depth of your devotion to the task.

Life itself is the Supreme Guru; be attentive to its lessons and obedient to its commands. Whey you personalize their source, you have an outer Guru; when you take them from life directly, the Guru is
within.

Remember, wonder, ponder, live with it, love it, grow into it, grow with it, make it your own — the word of your Guru, outer of inner.
Put in all and you will get all. I was doing it. All my time I was giving to my Guru and to what he told me.

• Excerpt from: I AM THAT.
  Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
  Chapter: LIFE IS THE SUPREME GURU