Great Throughts Treasury

"The body falls down but what happened to me? For that principle for which you get no reply, is perfect, whatever answer you get is wrong. If I think of this world, why should I not inquire about prior to consciousness? If I tackle this question, I must investigate what is this principle of ‘I am’? I would prefer to play with that child not born because eternal Parabramhan and unborn children are alike."

"The body identity cannot get this knowledge, the knowledge ‘I am’ must get this knowledge ‘I am’, when knowledge abides in knowledge there is transcendence of knowledge."

"The body is not you, the name is not you. The body is the food you have consumed; the taste of it is the knowledge ‘I am’. That is Self, the feeling ‘I am’, that is the love to be. How amazing, how incredible, it has no name, but you give many names to it. It is the Self, the love to be. That love to be is all pervading. Before you conceptualize anything, you are, even before the knowingness, you are."

"The capacity of consciousness is something astounding. I didn’t know I was, and then suddenly I knew ‘I am’. This ‘I amness’ is the power of ‘Maya’."

"The capital we have is the knowledge ‘I am’. But what have we done? We have handed over that knowledge to the body and we say ‘I am the body’. Thereby we have reduced the totality, the limitless, to the limited – a specified insignificant body. And that is why, being unable to give up this association with the body, we are afraid of dying."

"The child has been given an idea who its parents are, but is just a concept. Similarly the ‘I am’ is just a concept. The child has been given the idea that ‘He is’. First you must investigate ‘Who is’ and what this ‘I amness’ is.You want to know what the support is for the ‘I am’? My parents supported me! When do these two people, the husband and the wife become parents? It’s when a child is born, is that not true? Where are the parents before the birth of the child? And what is the child? The child is the root of parents; the child is also the father of the parents. Because of the child the parents are. This shows how completely hollow our egos are."

"The concentration on ‘I am’ is a form of attention. Give your undivided attention to the most important thing in your life – yourself. Of your personal universe you are the center – without knowing the center what else can you know?"

"The concept ‘I am’ is the primordial ‘maya’. And that ‘maya’, that primordial concept ‘I am’ requires support and therefore God and ‘Ishwara’ have been born. Along with that the whole manifestation, the entire Universe, has come upon it. Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing. And out of many ‘jnanis’, there will only be a rare one who knows the real nature of this primary concept."

"The confidence and knowledge that ‘you are’, on what does it depend? Beingness becomes no beingness and no-beingness spontaneously becomes beingness, so whom should we question? You should yourself investigate it; what is the support of the ‘I am’? On what does the faith that ‘you are’ depend? Why is there beingness? Why am I? How am I? People only think of the body and mind, then, come death and the faith ‘I am’ disappears."

"The consciousness ‘I am’ has a little distance from the True state, hence it is unreal, for whatever is away from the True state or Reality is unreal."

"The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love."

"The consciousness of ‘I am’ is the first and foremost thing. This feeling (that ‘I am conscious’) comes to you only because there is something older or earlier to which this ‘I am’ consciousness appears. All change appears superimposed upon the changeless substratum."

"The Consciousness of ‘I am’ is the sole capital you have, dwell on this and nothing else is necessary, all concepts will disappear and you will be left unidentified with anything. From where does the ‘I am’ consciousness come and to where it goes? This is to be found out. When you were born what exactly happened? – Did you desire it, or it just happened?"

"The consciousness of ‘I am’ is the world, and there is nothing wrong in seeing or witnessing this world. The mistake comes in only when you take it to be real, as we almost all wrongly do."

"The consciousness of ‘I am’ is ultimately the same as the mind. The whole vast universe is really in this mind or the consciousness of ‘I am’, which is an appearance only."

"The consciousness that ‘I am’ has created, and sustains, all the wonders in the world for which men take credit; on the other hand this consciousness has no control over itself. The principle out of which you have sprouted has tremendous powers. Lord Krishna has said, ‘You worship me, be devoted to me’, this means what? The knowledge ‘I am’ which is indwelling in you, worship that only."

"The consciousness that has come out of the five elements, through the body, is the quality of beingness, the knowledge that ‘I am’. That state of beingness will perish. There is no necessity for following any particular path, everything is the same. Think of that which is the center of the cosmos; don’t let your attention stray in any way from the knowledge of beingness, ‘I am’. Keep on knowing that ‘I am’ and through this insistence you will know the state you want to reach."

"The conviction that this world never existed can happen only to ‘Parabrahman’. If this is indeed your conviction then you are the ‘Parabrahman’. This thing aside, you should discover how this news ‘I am’ – the knowledge of your existence – appeared and at what moment. Go to the source of it and find out."

"The core of this consciousness is knowingness, to know ‘I am’. It is not a personality, not an individual. It is total manifestation. Beingness is there, it fills everything. Nevertheless, this quality ‘I am’ is the result of the material, objective body. In the seed the whole tree is latent. In the droplet ‘I am’ all three worlds are squeezed in."

"The desire for truth is the highest of all desires, yet, it is still a desire. All desires must be given up for the real to be.....When all search ceases, it is the Supreme State."

"The desire to find the self will surely be fulfilled, provided you want nothing else. But you must be honest with yourself and really want nothing else. If in the meantime you want many other things and are engaged in their pursuit, your main purpose may be delayed until you grow wiser and cease being torn between contradictory urges. Go within, without swerving, without ever looking outward."

"The emergence of this beingness itself constitutes time. Everything is beingness, but I, the Absolute, am not that. In meditation there was space, when suddenly two forms appeared out of no-form, ‘Prakriti’ and ‘Purusha’ and the quintessence of these forms was the knowledge ‘I am’."

"The entire manifestation of your world and universe is just the expression and manifestation of your Beingness. The Consciousness or ‘Ishwara’ is not that of an individual. ‘Ishwara’ means the expression of all forms. This chemical, this ingredient, is your ‘I amness’ and it is sustained by consuming the food body."

"The entire objective world rises and sets with this consciousness ‘I am’ which has infinite powers to become whatever it wants. But this again would only be a dream and not in Reality, where nothing has ever happened or changed at all."

"The entire purpose of a clean and well-ordered life is to liberate man from the thraldom of chaos and the burden of sorrow."

"The entire universe of pain is born of desire. Give up the desire for pleasure and you will not even know what is pain."

"The eternal Absolute state of mine prior to the beingness, when the message ‘I am’ was not, is supremely significant. Who would have witnessed the message ‘I am’, if my priormost state of the ‘non-beingness’ was not?"

"The experience (of self-realization) is unique and unmistakable. it will dawn on you suddenly, when the obstacles are removed to some extent. It is like a frayed rope snapping. Yours is to work at the strands. The break is bound to happen. It can be delayed, but not prevented."

"The experience of the world comes through the consciousness of ‘I am’. In the dream state you have the illusion of being awake (you feel that the dream is real while you are dreaming, the consciousness of ‘I am’ is operating) but what is illusory in this? The consciousness itself is illusion, that we are sitting here and talking is itself illusory."

"The fact is you. The only thing you know for sure is: ‘here and now I am’. Remove the ‘here and now’, the ‘I am’ remains unassailable."

"The false self must be abandoned before the real self can be found."

"The feeling ‘I am’ is the quintessence of everything, but I the Absolute am not that. That ‘I amness’ is the highest knowledge. And this is surrendered here by the abidance in the action."

"The first film is when that knowingness appears on you. In that knowledge ‘I am’ all is contained. Only in that film when the film started knowing itself, ‘I am’; then you came to know all this. Did you know anything before?"

"The first step is to go to the ‘I am’ and dwell there and from there you go beyond consciousness and no-consciousness to infinite consciousness. In that permanent ‘Parabrahman’ state you become completely desireless and silent and even the thought ‘I am’ doesn’t arise. The mind dwelling in the pure ‘I am’ state is a very subtle and purified mind, but Reality is beyond that."

"The first steps in self-acceptance are not at all pleasant, for what one sees is not a happy sight. One needs all the courage to go further. What helps is silence. Look at yourself in total silence, do not describe yourself."

"The five elements disintegrate but I don’t disappear. For instance, I am invited to some place to stay. The room in which I stay becomes my room, but does it belong to me? All belongs to the five elements. The essential contribution of the five elements is the ‘I am’ the five elements disintegrate, the ‘I am’ goes and a person is declared dead. Wherever I go to stay I always know my permanent abode."

"The fragrance or sweetness of the food-essence body is the knowledge ‘I am’. It has no name and form; it is the ‘I love’ state, the ‘I-taste’. But from your body-mind state, you will go to pilgrimages and various gurus. So long as the consciousness is there, that humming goes on, and who does the humming? The principle which is humming and saying, ‘I am, I am’ is itself your guru."

"The fruit ripens slowly, but falls suddenly and without return. Leave it (knowledge) all behind you. Forget it. Go forth, unburdened with ideas and beliefs. Abandon all verbal structures, all relative truth, all tangible objectives. The absolute can be reached by absolute devotion only. Don't be half-hearted."

"The greatest appearance is the knowledge ‘I am’. It is invisible before the birth and after the death of the body, and while it is visible it is a solid thing. Many great sages have appeared and disappeared because of the powerful seed ‘I am’."

"The greatest Guru is your inner self. Truly, he is the supreme teacher. He alone can take you to your goal and he alone meets you at the end of the road. Confide in him and you need no outer Guru. But again you must have the strong desire to find him and do nothing that will create obstacles and delays."

"The greatest obstacle is the ‘I am’ growing over your true nature, which gives you the feeling ‘I am doing this’ and ‘I am so and so’, so you feel benefited by this ‘I am’, but you are really being cheated by it."

"The Guru is the same all-pervading consciousness ‘I am’. The Sat-Guru has gone beyond all these concepts, including the primary concept ‘I am’."

"The Guru tells you ‘Get rid of concepts, just be yourself’. The seeker having understood what the Guru said gets rid of the concepts, and now, as the first step, the seeker dwells in the state ‘I am’, just being. First of all there is the knowingness ‘I am’, without words, with that knowingness the world is. Now when the seeker goes into meditation, that knowingness goes into no-knowingness. This is the highest state in the hierarchy when the body aspect is there because this knowing and no-knowing are aspects of the body, and body means consciousness, and in the realm of consciousness, knowingness and no-knowingness exist. The Absolute transcends knowingness and no-knowingness. So, no-knowingness is the highest in the hierarchy of spirituality, and the destination is the transcendence of knowingness and no-knowingness."

"The Guru, God, and your own knowledge – these three are one. If you know that, you become quiet. Guru means knowledge and knowledge means ‘I am’. The ‘I amness’ is itself the Guru."

"The habit of considering the Self as body has influenced everybody too much."

"The highest state is the state of a ‘jnani’. The first step is to be that droplet (‘I am’). In the process of knowing that droplet, you are out of it, and that is a ‘jnani’. A ‘jnani’ is not obsessed by any calamities or any problems, because he has transcended the ‘I am’ principle. He watches the play as a witness."

"The illusion of being the body-mind is there, only because it is not investigated. Non-investigation is the thread on which all the states of mind are strung. All states of mind, all names and forms of existence are rooted in non-inquiry, non-investigation, in imagination and credulity. It is right to say 'I am', but to say 'I am this', 'I am that' is a sign of not inquiring, not examining, of mental weakness or lethargy."

"The impersonal is real, the personal appears and disappears. ‘I am’ is the impersonal being. ‘I am this’ is the person. The person is relative and the pure being – the fundamental."

"The knowingness ‘I am’ is gradually felt by the child and this is followed by the mind. This ‘I amness’ or the feeling before the formation of the mind, is the ignorant-child-principle, termed the ‘balkrishna’ state. This ‘balkrishna’ principle has great potential. Here ‘bal’ means the food essence, child-body, and ‘krishna’ means ‘non-knowing’, that is, ignorance. But it has the potential to receive, respond and react. I am not in this state, the child principle, ‘balkrishna’, as I abide in the Absolute."

"The knowledge ‘I am’ is a primary concept, and is also non-eternal. The One, the Absolute, which is eternal and aware, why should he worry about anybody else?"