Spiritually Laid Back

Maharaja: You have met many anchorites and ascetics, but a fully realized man conscious of his divinity (swarupa) is hard to find. The saints and Yogis, by immense efforts and sacrifices, acquire many miraculous powers and can do much good in the way of helping people and inspiring faith, yet it does not make them perfect. It is not a way to reality, but merely an enrichment of the false. All effort leads to more effort; whatever was built up must be maintained, whatever was acquired must be protected against decay or loss.

Whatever can be lost is not really one’s own; and what is not your own of what use can it be to you? In my world nothing is pushed about, all happens by itself.

Q: It is easier said than done. A man comes to you with stomach-ache and you advise him to disgorge his stomach. Of course, without the mind there will be no problems. But the mind is there–most tangibly.

Nisargadatta Maharaj: It is the mind that tells you that the mind is there. Don’t be deceived. All the endless arguments about the mind are produced by the mind itself, for its own protection, continuation and expansion. It is the blank refusal to consider the convolutions and convulsions of the mind that can take you beyond it.

Q: Sir I am an humble seeker, while you are the Supreme Reality itself. Now the seeker approaches the Supreme in order to be enlightened. What does the Supreme do?

M: Listen to what I keep on telling you and do not move away from it. Think of it all the time and of nothing else. Having reached that far, abandon all thoughts, not only of the world, but of yourself also. Stay beyond all thoughts, in silent being- awareness. It is not progress, for what you come to is already there in you, waiting for you.

Q: So you say I should try to stop thinking and stay steady in the idea: ‘I am’.

M: Yes, and whatever thoughts come to you in connection with the ‘I am’, empty them of all meaning, pay them no attention.

Q: There comes a point in a person’s life when it becomes the witness.

Maharaj: Oh, no. The person by itself will not become the witness. It is like expecting a cold candle to start burning in the course of time. The person can stay in the darkness of ignorance forever, unless the flame of awareness touches it.

Q: Who lights the candle?

M: The Guru. His words, his presence. In India it is very often the mantra. Once the candle is lit, the flame will consume the candle.

Q: Why is the mantra so effective?

M: Constant repetition of the mantra is something the person does not do for one’s own sake. The beneficiary is not the person. Just like the candle which does not increase by burning.

Q: Can the person become aware of itself by itself?

M: Yes, it happens sometimes as a result of much suffering. The Guru wants to save you the endless pain. Such is his grace.

Even when there is no discoverable outer Guru, there is always the sad guru, the inner Guru, who directs and helps from within. The words ‘outer’ and ‘inner’ are relative to the body only; in reality all is one, the outer being merely a projection of the inner.

Awareness comes as if from a higher dimension.

Q: Before the spark is lit and after, what is the difference?

M: Before the spark is lit there is no witness to perceive the difference. The person may be conscious, but is not aware of being conscious. It is completely identified with what it thinks and feels and experiences. The darkness that is in it is of its own creation. When the darkness is questioned, it dissolves. The desire to question is planted by the Guru. In other words, the difference between the person and the witness is as between not knowing and knowing oneself. The world seen in consciousness is to be of the nature of consciousness, when there is harmony (sattva); but when activity and passivity (rajas and tamas) appear, they obscure and distort and you see the false as real.

Q: What can the person do to prepare itself for the coming of the Guru.

M: The very desire to be ready means that the Guru had come and the flame is lit. It may be a stray word, or a page in a book; the Guru’s grace works mysteriously.

(From I Am That - Sri Nisargatta Maharaj, p 341)