Great Throughts Treasury

"In the waking state, the witnessing state is always there. There is no other Brahman greater than you, accept this and go, you are the greatest. In that small round cell is contained all the space, in it the Cosmos and earth are there, that small cell is the principle of ‘I am’ The moment it is there, space is manifested, the womb is space started from the small cell ‘I am’."

"In the womb that knowingness is ignorant of its existence, the ‘I am’ is not present but the ‘I am’ principle is started there. All things happen unknowingly, but even to understand that is very difficult, it is beyond our comprehension."

"In this body is the subtle principle ‘I am’, that principle witnesses all this. You are not the words. Words are the expression of space, they are not yours. Still further you are not that ‘I am’"

"In this process you, as an individual, are not left at all. Try to understand that ‘I am’ is a product of the ‘satwa guna’, food essence product. When you throw out all the concepts, including your primary concept (‘I am’), then whatever is, is. Stay put in quietude."

"In this spiritual hierarchy, from the grossest to the subtlest, you are the subtlest. How can this be realized? The very base is that you don’t know you are, and suddenly the feeling of ‘I amness’ appears. The moment it appears you see space, mental space; that subtle sky-like space, stabilize there. You are that. When you are able to stabilize in that space, you are space only. When this space-like identity ‘I am’ disappears, the space will also disappear, there is no space. When that space-like ‘I am’ goes into oblivion, that is the eternal state, ‘nirguna’, no form, no beingness. Actually, what did happen there? This message ‘I am’ was no message. Dealing with this aspect, I cannot talk much because there is no scope to put it in words."

"In truth the ‘I am’ consciousness was never there, so when it goes, what do I lose? Do I die or remain what I ever have been? There in that state, there is no ‘God’ – no sense of separateness at all, no ‘I am’."

"In witnessing, in awareness, self-consciousness, the sense of being this or that, is not. Unidentified being remains."

"Increase the conviction that you are the formless consciousness. You develop your firm conviction that you are the total manifesting universal consciousness. There is nobody who can have the knowledge of the Truth, the Eternal. It is one’s eternal true state, but is not a knowledgeable state – you cannot know It. So-called knowledge is boundless and plenty in the state of attributes, ‘I am’. In this body is the knowledge ‘I am’. When the body drops down, the knowledge ‘I am’ will subside there only – what remains is the Absolute."

"Inertia and restlessness (tamas and rajas) work together and keep clarity and harmony (sattva) down. Tamas and Rajas must be conquered before Sattva can appear."

"Inquire what is permanent in the transient, real in the unreal. This is sadhana."

"Intelligence is innately there like fire in the match stick. The final culmination of the elemental interplay is the human body, where the touch of ‘I am’ appears. Birth is like a spark coming from the rubbing of stones, there is the elemental friction and you have the spark ‘I am’. The qualities of a Bodhisattva are due to the knowledge ‘I am’, but that is temporary and so the perfect Jnani says all manifestation is unreal, only ‘Parabrahman’ is real."

"Investigate that concept ‘I am.’ In the process of trying to find out your identity or this spiritual search, all will happen in the realm of this consciousness. You finally stumble on, or culminate into the Absolute ‘Parabrahman’ state, which is desireless."

"Investigate your world, apply your mind to it, examine it critically, scrutinize every idea about it; that will do."

"Is it necessary that you should remember that you are (‘I am’)? Spontaneously you know and remember that you are. That is why you have come here, have you not? It is because you are. Stay put there."

"Is not meanness also a form of madness? And is not madness the misuse of the mind? Humanity's problem lies in this misuse of the mind only. All treasures of nature and spirit are open to man who will use his mind rightly."

"It ('I am') enables me to become a person when required. Love creates its own necessities, even of becoming a person."

"It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates."

"It is because the ‘I am’ is false that it wants to continue. Reality need not continue – knowing itself indestructible, it is indifferent to the destruction of forms and expressions. To strengthen and stabilize the ‘I am’ we do all sorts of things – all in vain for the ‘I am’ is being rebuilt from moment to moment. No ambition is spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of ‘I am’. If you want to make real progress you must give up all ideas of personal attainment."

"It is desire that causes repetition. There is no recurrence where desire is not."

"It is easy, if you are earnest."

"It is memory and anticipation that create problems of attainment or avoidance, colored by like and dislike."

"It is not important where you are, once you are established in the ‘I am’. It is like space – it neither comes nor goes; just as when you demolish the walls of a building only space remains."

"It is not so much the matter of levels as of gunas (qualities). Meditation is a sattvic (pure, true) activity and aims at complete elimination of tamas (inertia) and rajas (motivity, activity). Pure sattva (harmony) is perfect freedom from sloth and restlessness."

"It is not the worship of the person that is crucial, but the steadiness and depth of your devotion to the task. Remember, wonder, ponder, live with it, love it, grow into it, grow with it, make it your own - the word of your Guru, outer or 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."

"It is only during the duration of the beingness that the world and creation is. This power is the faith in the primordial concept ‘I am’, and that is the concept that weaves the web of creation. The entire manifestation is an appearance in this concept."

"It is only when you are satiated with the changeable and long for the unchangeable, that you are ready for the turning round and stepping into what can be described, when seen from the level of the mind, as emptiness and darkness. For the mind craves for content and variety, while reality is, to the mind contentless and invariable."

"It is only when you realize fully the immense sorrow of your life and revolt against it, that a way out can be found."

"It is only your self-identification with your mind that makes you happy or unhappy. Rebel against your slavery to your mind, see your bonds as self-created and break the chains of attachment and revulsion. Keep in mind your goal of freedom, until it dawns on you that you are already free, that freedom is not something in the distant future to be earned with painful efforts, but perennially one’s own, to be used!"

"It is pure awareness that knows ‘I am’. Who can understand that illusory state? ‘I amness’ is illusory only. It is not a perfect state, it is illusion. Who knows the illusion? A non-illusory state only can know the illusory state. But what is the necessity to say pure awareness? ‘Awareness’ means pure. Since awareness knows ‘I am’, it is other; it is more than ‘I am’. That is the highest; there are no gradations in awareness. In the Absolute, the ‘Parabrahman’ state, there is no question of impure or pure awareness."

"It is right to say ‘I am’, but to say ‘I am this’, ‘I am that’, is a sign of not enquiring, not examining, of mental weakness or lethargy. Practice (sadhana) consists of reminding oneself forcibly of one’s pure ‘beingness’, of not being anything in particular, not a sum of particulars, not even the totality of all particulars, which make up a universe."

"It is solid, steady, changeless, beginingless and endless, ever new, ever fresh. Questioner: How is it reached? Nisargadatta: Desirelessness and fearlessness will take you there."

"It is the 'I-am-the-body' idea that is so calamitous. It blinds you completely to your real nature. Even for a moment do not think that you are the body. Give yourself no name, no shape. In the darkness and the silence reality is found."

"It is useless to search for the truth, when the mind is blind to the false. It must be purged of the false completely before truth can dawn on it."

"It is very often so with Americans and Europeans. After a stretch of spiritual practice they become charged with energy and frantically seek an outlet. They organize communities, become teachers of Yoga, marry, write books - anything except keeping quiet and turning their energies within, to find the source of the inexhaustible power and learn the art of keeping it under control."

"It is very simple. The body and in the body…it is like a coin. On one side, you have the vital breath for making possible all activity; and on the other side is the knowledge ‘I am’. Only when the vital breath is there, the knowledge ‘I am’ is present. When the vital breath leaves the body, the knowledge ‘I am’ also disappears. And both of these are the product of the food essence body. I am not that; this entire composite I am not. This you have to realize."

"It is your fixed idea that you must be something or other that blinds you."

"It is your idea that you have to do things that entangle you in results of your efforts-the motive, the desire, the failure to achieve, the sense of frustration-all this holds you back. Simply look at whatever happens and know that you are beyond it."

"It is your mind that has separated the world outside your skin from the world inside and put them in opposition. This created fear and hatred and all the miseries of living."

"It would be a grievous mistake to identify yourself with something external."

"It's the nature of thinking to differentiate things and specialize itself. There's no harm to that, but it isn't true when one thinks of oneself as separate from things. Things and humans are different, but not separate. Nature is one, reality is one. There are opposites, but no contradictions."

"Just as every wave subsides into the ocean, so does every moment return to its source. Realization consists in discovering the source and abiding there."

"Just as the salty taste is present in the entire ocean, the beingness or the sense of ‘I am’ in the human form has the inherent capacity to be all-pervading, but having being conditioned – and thereby limited – itself to the body form, it is interested only in protecting and preserving the body."

"Just give full attention to what in you is crude and primitive, unreasonable and unkind, altogether childish, and you will ripen. It is the maturity of heart and mind that is essential. It comes effortlessly when the main obstacle is removed - inattention, unawareness. In awareness you grow."

"Just keep in mind the feeling "I am," merge in it, till your mind and feeling become one. By repeated attempts you will stumble on the right balance of attention and affection and your mind will be firmly established in the thought-feeling "I am.""

"Just like a deficiency disease is cured through the supply of the missing factor, so are the diseases of living cured by a good dose of intelligent detachment."

"Just look and remember, whatever you perceive is not you, nor yours. It is there in the field of consciousness, but you are not the field and its contents, nor even the knower of the field. Simply look at whatever happens and know you are beyond it."

"Just realize the One Mover behind all that moves and leave all to Him. If you do not hesitate, or cheat, this is the shortest way to reality. Stand without desire and fear, relinquishing all control and all responsibility... What is wrong in letting go the illusion of personal control and personal responsibility? Both are in the mind only."

"Just remember yourself. 'I am', is enough to heal your mind and take you beyond. Just have some trust. 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."

"Just try to be in that ‘I amness’ don’t try to put effort and concentration When ‘you are’ it is ‘I amness’, when ‘you are’ the beingness is automatically there. Whatever ‘you are’ without doing any effort, be there. Don’t try to interpret ‘I amness’. You are without the body sense, when you identify with body-mind, then the trouble begins"

"Just turn away from all that occupies the mind; do whatever work you have to complete, but avoid new obligations; keep empty, keep available, resist not what comes uninvited."