Great Throughts Treasury

"At present you wrongly identify yourself as the body. Body is given a certain name; that is ‘you’; you consider it to be like that. But I say that in this body, consciousness is present, or the knowledge ‘I am’ as I call it, is there. You should identify yourself as this knowledge. That is all."

"At present, ‘I am’ is in the beingness state. But, when I do not have the knowingness of the ‘I am’ illusion, then the ‘Poornabrahman’ or ‘Parabrahman’ state prevails. In the absence of the touch of ‘I amness’ I am the total complete, ‘Poornabrahman’ state, the permanent state. The borderline of beingness and non-beingness is intellect-boggling, because the intellect subsides at that precise location. This borderline is the ‘maha-yoga’. You must be at that borderline, that ‘maha-yoga’ state’. You descend into the ‘godown’ of that state which has the title ‘birth’."

"At the moment of death it is the culmination or termination of the Self-experience, ‘I am’. After the termination of ‘I amness’ there is no experience of knowingness or not knowingness, the knowingness is a quality of the material stuff."

"At the root of everything is the feeling ‘I am’. The state of mind ‘there is a world’ is secondary, for to be, I do not need the world, the world needs me."

"Attachment is bondage, detachment is freedom. To crave is to slave."

"Attend to yourself, set yourself right- mentally and emotionally. Leave alone the reforms and mind the reformer."

"Awareness is ever there. It need not be realized. Open the shutter of the mind, and it will be flooded with light."

"Awareness, being lucid harmony in action, dissolves dullness and quiets the restlessness of the mind and gently, but steadily changes its very substance. This change need not be spectacular; it may be hardly noticeable; yet it is deep and fundamental shift from darkness to light, from inadvertence to awareness."

"Be alert to the ‘I am’ and all other experiences will be transcended. The next elevation will only come when you abide in the Self. When you are convinced that ‘all of Consciousness is my Self’, when the conviction is firmly embedded, then only will the question of the next elevation arise."

"Be alert. Question, observe, investigate, learn all you can about confusion, how it operates, what it does to you and others. By being clear about confusion you become clear of confusion."

"Be attentive, enquire ceaselessly. That is all."

"Be content with what you are sure of. And the only thing you can be sure of is ‘I am’. Stay with it and reject everything else. This is Yoga."

"Be empty of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence of obstacles will cause reality to rush in."

"Be fully aware of your own being and you will be in bliss consciously. Because you take your mind off yourself and make it dwell on what you are not, you lose your sense of wellbeing, of being well."

"Be one with the knowledge ‘I am’, the source of sentience, the beingness itself. If you are seeking that peace which is priceless, it can only be in establishing yourself in the consciousness with steadfast conviction. By conviction I mean never doubted, firm, unshakable, never wavering – have that kind of conviction in your beingness. Think of nothing else; pray to nothing else, ‘Atma Prem’, because of it everything is."

"Be that ‘I am’, once you know who you are, remain stabilized in the experience of the Self. Be like Arjuna, Awareness of his Being remained with him constantly, even when he went into the thick of battle. Because he was with Krishna, he could go into battle, knowing that there is nobody who kills and no one who is killed."

"Because of the knowledge ‘I am’ we conduct all activities. In the morning when you wake up you get the first guaranty, that conviction of ‘I am’. Then because you are not in a position to sustain or tolerate that ‘I amness’ you bestir yourself. You get up and move around here and there and the activity starts."

"Because the ‘I am’ principle is there, it is moving all over. To recognize it, you put on various uniforms in order to give it identity, but the principle is already there, and because of that principle you are engaging in various activities. Unless you wear the uniform (the body) you will not be able to conduct any activities. Once you discard this ‘I amness’ uniform, what remains is the ‘Parabrahman”. That which is eternally current is the ‘Parabrahman’"

"Become free from concepts, no concepts, including the ‘I am’. The ‘I am’ is the primary concept, the primary illusion The primary concept itself, for its sustenance, created so many substances, like wheat flour and wheat products. Out of the touch of ‘I amness’ arose so many concepts and various names."

"Becoming established in the Awareness ‘I am’ is all that is important. Later on you also transcend the ‘I amness’. Just as a storm is a form created by nature, similarly this ‘I am’, this chemical, was also created. Forget about what I have told you, because that is also a mechanical thing, a chemical. Just be Aware, and then it won’t matter if you die a hundred times."

"Before descending into this ‘avatar’, this knowledge quality was not present; knowingness was not there. The ‘I am’ was absent, not available. It is a non-knowing state, but afterwards, the state comprises all conceptual titles and names, and they are a person’s shackles. Any person, any embodied person with that knowledge ‘I am’ carries on his activities in the world with shackles of name only."

"Before the emanation of any words, ‘I’ already exist; later I say mentally ‘I am’. The word-free and thought-free state is the ‘atman’."

"Before the idea ‘I am’ sprouted, you are, but you don’t know you are. Subsequent to that there have been many happenings with which you have started decorating yourself. You try to derive the meaning of yourself out of subsequent words, happenings, and the meaning of words…that is not you…give it up. You are prior to the idea ‘I am’. Camp yourself there, prior to the words ‘I am’."

"Before this knowledge ‘I am’ appeared on you, you were absolutely unattached. As soon as this knowledge dawned on you, you became attached to everything around you. Only that false ‘I’ is attached. Everything is just happening and that false ‘I’ is taking the credit for doing things."

"Before you can say ‘I am’, you must be there to say it. Being need not be self-conscious. You need not know to be, but you must ‘be’ to know."

"Before you occurred to yourself as ‘I am’; you were in the highest state – the guru of the gurus – the ‘Parabrahman’ state. Later on you started filling up with all kinds of grosser matter and you came down to the body sense – I am the body. So, all these impurities have to be removed. Until then, you have to stay put in the quietude."

"Begin by disassociating yourself from your mind. Resolutely remind yourself that you are not the mind and that its problems are not yours."

"Begin with feeling ‘I am’. All else is neither true nor false, it seems real when it appears, it disappears when it is denied. A transient thing is a mystery. The real is simple, open, clear and kind, beautiful and joyous. It is completely free of contradictions. It is ever-new, ever-fresh, and endlessly creative. Being and non-being, life and death, all distinctions merge in it."

"Begin with the admission that you do not know and start from there.....The very admission: 'I am ignorant' is the dawn of knowledge."

"Behind faith there is a primary cause, the big cause, which is the knowledge ‘I am’. The Awareness of my Being happened automatically, it just happens, the sprouting of the knowledge ‘I am’ is prior to the formation of the five elements."

"Beingness can act in the world only with the aid of the body. This body is the quintessence of the five elements, and the quintessence of the body-essence is the knowledge ‘I am’. The presiding principle of the whole functioning is the knowledge ‘I am’. This knowledge ‘I am’ has to be correctly understood."

"Beingness is the lord of the universe, therefore, all the time, be with the lord of manifestation and all your problems and puzzles will be cleared. This knowledge that ‘I am’ makes perception possible, make it you own. Whatever you may want, just do this (abide in the ‘I am’) and you will have everything. In this knowledge ‘I am’ is the entire universe. Consciousness is the lord of all manifestation, only because of the body that we consider this consciousness as a bodily principle."

"Beyond the mind there is no such thing as experience. Experience is a dual state. You cannot talk of reality as an experience. Once this is understood, you will no longer look for being and becoming as separate and opposite. In reality they are one and separable, like roots and branches of the same tree. Both can only exist in the light of consciousness, which again arises in the wake of the sense ‘I am’. This is the primary fact. If you miss it you miss all."

"Brahman means the emanation of the world, simultaneously confirming that ‘I am’. In this Brahman everything is illusion, but who understands that? The principle that understands, realizes, and witnesses is the ‘Parabrahman’. Witnessing happens to the ‘Parabrahman’. In this manifest state everything is ever changing, nothing is permanent, and all is illusion."

"But disease and suffering are not natural."

"But experience is the denial of Reality, which is neither sensory nor conceptual, neither of the body, nor of the mind, though it includes and transcends both."

"But how can such a state be attained? Only if one totally accepts the knowledge ‘I am’ as oneself with full conviction and faith and firmly believes in the dictum ‘I am that by which I know I am’. This knowledge ‘I am’ is the ‘charan-amrita’. Why is it called ‘amrita’ – the nectar? Because it is said, by drinking nectar one becomes immortal. Thus a true devotee, by abiding in the knowledge ‘I am’ transcends the experience of death and attains immortality."

"But I have already told you, you are Ishwara. You have to have the conviction that ‘I am That’, a mental determination. With the appearance of the knowledge ‘I am’, appears the space and the four other elements, your beingness gives rise to them, first beingness, then others When you identify with it and stabilize in the beingness, you are not even that. In the knowledge of the Jnani (or theAbsolute), the world is all a spectacle, the Jnani is apart from the knowledge ‘ I am’."

"But if you stay with the idea that you are not the body nor the mind, not even their witness, but altogether beyond, your mind will grow in clarity, your desires - in purity, your actions - in charity and that inner distillation will take you to another world, a world of truth and fearless love. Resist your old habits of feeling and thinking; keep on telling yourself: 'No, not so, it cannot be so; I am not like this, I do not need it, I do not want it', and a day will surely come when the entire structure of error and despair will collapse and the ground will be free for a new life."

"But often people come with their bodies, brain and minds so mishandled, perverted and weak, that the state of formless attention is beyond them. In such cases, some simpler token of earnestness is appropriate. The repetition of a mantra, or gazing at a picture will prepare their body and mind for a deeper and more direct search."

"But unselfish action, free from all concern with the body and its interests will carry you into the very heart of Reality."

"But when the discriminative mind comes into being and creates distinctions, pleasure and pain arise."

"But while you repeat verbally: 'give, give', you do nothing to take what is offered. I am showing you a short and easy way to being able to see what I see, but you cling to your old habits of thought, feeling and action and put all the blame on me."

"By all means attend to your duties. Action, in which you are not emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause suffering will not bind you. You may be engaged in several directions and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quiet, with a mirror like mind, which reflects all, without being affected."

"By all means be selfish - the right way. Wish yourself well, labor at what is good for you. Destroy all that stands between you and happiness. Be all - love all - be happy - make happy."

"By being with yourself, the 'I am'; by watching yourself in your daily life with alert interest, with the intention to understand rather than judge, in full acceptance of whatever may emerge, because it is there, you encourage the deep to come to the surface and enrich your life and consciousness with its captive energies."

"By chanting ‘I am Brahman’ you become subtle and escape the sense of body and mind. You must accept that you are without a body-mind and that you are subtle. That sense must be instilled in you. I took to this Brahma state, my Beingness or ‘I amness’ and observe my body."

"By eliminating the intervals of inadvertence during the waking hours you will gradually eliminate the long interval of absent-mindedness, which you call sleep. You will be aware that you are asleep."

"By focusing the mind on ‘I am’, on the sense of being, ‘I am so-and-so’ dissolves; ‘am a witness only’ remains and that too submerges in ‘I am all’. Then the all becomes the One and the One – yourself, not to be separate from me. Abandon the idea of a separate ‘I’ and the question of ‘whose experience?’ will not arise. On a deeper level my experience is your experience. Dive deep within yourself and you will find it easily and simply. Go in the direction of ‘I am’."

"By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal creature, you created so much trouble for yourself that you have to wake up, like from a bad dream. Inquiry also wakes you up."