The real does not die,
the unreal never lived.
Once you know that death happens to the body and not to you, you just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment.
The real you is timeless and beyond birth and death.
The body will survive as long as it is needed. It is not important that it should live long.
Guru Nisargadatta Maharaj
I AM THAT
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
You are not just a drop in the ocean. You are the mighty ocean in a drop.”
~ Rumi
“You are the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while. Each person’s life – each lifeform, in fact – represents a unique way in which the universe experiences itself.
You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!
You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
“Outwardly, I am one apple among many. Inwardly, I am the tree.
You are the big bang, the original force of the universe. You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.
The real YOU is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real, deep down YOU is the whole universe.
You are the universe experiencing itself.”
~ Alan Watts
“The universe is but a partial manifestation of your limitless capacity to become.
You have potential powers beyond your wildest dreams. Not only is the entire universe reflected in you, but also the power to control the universe is waiting to be used.”
~ Nisargadatta Maharaj
“You are not alone as a person, you are alone as the entire universe.”
~ Mooji
“Suddenly I was thrown into this expansive amazing feeling of freedom – from myself, from my problems. I saw that I am bigger than what I do, bigger than my body. I am everything and everyone. I am no longer a fragment of the universe. I am the universe.”
~ Jim Carrey
“Though the eye is small, the consciousness which sees through it is greater and vaster than all the things which it perceives. In fact, it is so great that it includes all objects, however large or numerous, within itself. For it is not so much that you are within the cosmos as that the cosmos is within you.”
~ Meher Baba
“When we look at the ocean, we see that each wave has a beginning and an end. A wave can be compared with other waves, and we can call it more or less beautiful, higher or lower, longer lasting or less long lasting. But if we look more deeply, we see that a wave is made of water. While living the life of a wave, the wave also lives the life of water. It would be sad if the wave did not know that it is water. It would think, ‘Some day I will have to die. This period of time is my life span, and when I arrive at the shore, I will return to nonbeing.’ These notions will cause the wave fear and anguish. In the world of the wave, the world of relative truth, the wave feels happy as she swells, and she feels sad as she falls. She may think ‘I am high!’ or ‘I am low!’ and develop superiority or inferiority complexes, but when the wave touches her true nature – which is water – all of her complexes will cease, and she will transcend birth and death.
Enlightenment is when a wave realizes it is the ocean.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“The whole universe is I-am. So whenever I say “I am choiceless, effortless, pure awareness, I am the Self”, always remember, I am not referring to Robert. I’m referring to I-am, which is pure consciousness. When I make that confession, it is all-pervading. It is omnipresence itself. Everyone of you is I-am. The whole universe is I-am.
How can you want anything when you are the whole universe?
All the answers are within you. Everything you’re looking for is within you, everything. Know who you are. You are the power. All the power of the universe is within you. All is well, exceedingly well. It has always been well, it will always be well.
I want to let you in on a little secret. There are no problems. There never were any problems, there are no problems today, and there will never be any problems. The reality in back of the universe is pure awareness. It has no problems. And you are That.”
~ Robert Adams
Thanks to Simon Bartholomé
“Consciousness(Atma) is eternal and infinite.
But it has no individuality, no personality.
It may appear as God, Brahman, or even as an insect or a worm.
The world shines in the light of Consciousness.”
~ Guru Nisaraghatta Maharaj
To rise in consciousness from one dimension to another you need help.
The help may not always be in the shape of a human person, it may be a subtle
presence, or a spark of intuition, but help must come.
The inner Self is watching and waiting for the son to return to his father.
At the right time he arranges
everything affectionately and effectively.
Where a messenger is needed or a guide, he sends the Guru to do the needful.
~ Guru Nisargadatta Maharaj
Nisarga Yoga: The Self Knowledge Teaching of Nisargadatta Maharaj
Truth gives no advantage. It gives you no higher status, no power over others; all you get is truth and the freedom from the false. This is mere imagination, however noble! In truth you do not help others, because there are no others. You divide people into noble and ignoble and ask the noble to help the ignoble. You separate, you evaluate, you judge and condemn — in the name of truth you destroy it.
……..
Your very desire to formulate truth denies it, because it cannot be contained in words. Truth can be expressed only by the denial of the false — in action. For this you must see the false as false (viveka) and reject it (vairagya). Renunciation of the false is liberating and energizing. It lays open the road to perfection.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Bhakta pours out his devotion, molds his behavior in every respect in accordance with the will of God. In turn, he finds that God is pleased with him, and this, his
conviction, takes him nearer to God and his love and friendship with Him grow richer and richer. The process of surrendering to the will of God in every respect results in His blessings.
One who is blessed by God is a blissful soul. Being at peace with himself, he looks at the objects of enjoyment with perfect indifference. He is content with whatever he has and is glad to see others happy.
If a person believes that he is blessed by God and is still unhappy, it is better if he
give up this delusion and strive for the coveted Grace with sincerity and honesty.
Divine plenitude and favor is not judged by the objects of sense, but by the internal contentment. This verily is the blessing of God.
Self Knowledge and Self Realization
By Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Edited by Jean Dunn
By itself nothing has existence.
Everything needs its own absence.
To be, is to be distinguishable,
to be here and not there,
to be now and not then,
to be thus and not otherwise.
Like water is shaped by the container, so is everything determined by conditions (gunas).
As water remains water regardless of the vessels,
as light remains itself regardless of the colours it brings out,
so does the real remain real,
regardless of conditions in which it is reflected.
Why keep the reflection only in the focus of consciousness?
Why not the real itself?
To know that consciousness and its content are but reflections, changeful and transient, is the focussing of the real. The refusal to see the snake in the rope is the necessary condition for seeing the rope.
One must also know that a rope exists and looks like a snake.
Similarly, one must know that the real exists and is of the nature of witness-consciousness. Of course it is beyond the witness, but to enter it one must first realise the state of pure witnessing.
The awareness of conditions brings one to the unconditioned.
To know the conditioned as conditioned is all that can be said about the unconditioned. Positive terms are mere hints and misleading.
Those who make plans will be born to carry them out. Those who make no plans need not be born.
To me you are your own God. But if you think otherwise, think to the end.
If there be God, then all is God’s and all is for the best. Welcome all that comes with a glad and thankful heart. And love all creatures. This too will take you to your Self.
~ Guru Nisargadatta Maharaj
Excerpt from: I AM THAT
Chapter: “Existence”
Questioner: When an ordinary man dies, what happens to him?
Maharaj: According to his belief it happens. As life before death is but imagination, so is life after. The dream continues.
Q: And what about the gnani?
M: The gnani does not die because he was never born.
Q: He appears so to others.
M: But not to himself. In himself he is free of things — physical and mental.
Q: Still you must know the state of the man who died. At least from your own past lives.
M: Until I met my Guru I knew so many things. Now I know nothing, for all knowledge is in dream only and not valid. I know myself and I find no life nor death in me, only pure being — not being this or that, but just being. But the moment the mind,
drawing on its stock of memories, begins to imagine, it fills the space with objects and time with events.
As I do not know even this birth, how can I know past births?
It is the mind that, itself in movement, sees everything moving, and having created time, worries about the past and future.
All the universe is cradled in consciousness
(maha tattva), which arises where there is perfect order and harmony (maha sattva). As all waves are in the ocean, so are all things physical and mental in awareness.
Hence awareness itself is all important, not the content of it.
Deepen and broaden your awareness of yourself and all the blessings will flow. You need not seek anything, all will come to
you most naturally and effortlessly.
The five senses and the four functions of the mind — memory, thought, understanding and selfhood; the five elements — earth, water, fire, air and ether; the two aspects of creation — matter and spirit, all are con-
tained in awareness.
Q: Yet, you must believe in having lived before.
M: The scriptures say so, but I know nothing about it. I know myself as I am; as I appeared or will appear is not within my
experience. It is not that I do not remember. In fact there is nothing to remember. Reincarnation implies a reincarnating self. There is no such thing. The bundle of memories and hopes, called the ‘I’, imagines itself existing everlastingly and creates time to accommodate its false eternity: To be, I need no past or future. All experience is born of imagination; I do not imagine, so no birth or death happens to me. Only those who think themselves born can think themselves re-born. You are accusing me of having been born — I plead not guilty!
All exists in awareness and awareness neither dies nor is reborn. It is the changeless reality itself.
All the universe of experience is born with the body and dies with the body; it has its beginning and end in awareness, but
awareness knows no beginning, nor end. If you think it out carefully and brood over it for a long time, you will come to see the
light of awareness in all its clarity and the world will fade out of your vision.
It is like looking at a burning incense stick; you see the stick and the smoke first; when you notice the fiery point, you realize that it has the power to consume mountains of sticks and fill the universe with smoke.
Timelessly the self actualizes itself,
without exhausting its infinite possibilities. In the incense stick simile the stick is the body and the smoke is the mind. As long
as the mind is busy with its contortions, it does not perceive its own source. The Guru comes and turns your attention to the
spark within. By its very nature the mind is outward turned; it always tends to seek for the source of things among the things
themselves; to be told to look for the source within, is, in a way, the beginning of a new life. Awareness takes the place of con-
sciousness; in consciousness there is the ‘I’, who is conscious,
while awareness is undivided; awareness is aware of itself.
The ‘I am’ is a thought, while awareness is not a thought; there is no ‘I am aware’ in awareness. Consciousness is an attribute while awareness is not; one can be aware of being conscious, but not conscious of awareness. God is the totality of consciousness, but awareness is beyond all — being as well as not-being.
Excerpt from I AM THAT.
Consciousness Arising, World Arises
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Don’t talk of means, there
are no means. What you see
as false, dissolves. It is the
very nature of illusion to
dissolve on investigation.
Investigate – that is all.
You cannot destroy the
false, for you are creating it
all the time. Withdraw from
it, ignore it, go beyond,
and it will cease
to be.
Nisargadatta Maharaj
The Self does not need to be put to rest.
It is peace itself,
not at peace.
…………………………..
Only when you realize the true peace, the peace you have never lost, that peace will remain with you, for it was never away.
…………………………….
In the depths there is perfect peace.
……………………………..
Instead of searching for what you do
not have, find out what is it that you have never lost?
………………………………..
That immovable state, which is not affected by the birth and death of a body or a mind,
that state
you must perceive.
…………………………………..
That which is there before the beginning and after the ending of everything;
that to which there is no birth, nor death.
……………………………………..
All your problems arise because you have defined and therefore limited yourself.
When you do not think yourself to be this or that, all conflict ceases.
……………………………………….
Once you realize your own unassailable being,
you will be at peace.
~ Guru Nisargadatta Maharaj
✅ Nisarga Yoga: The Self Knowledge Teaching of Nisargadatta Maharaj,
page 34.
