Excerpts from the work of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

We shall suffer as long as our thoughts and actions are prompted by desires and fears. See their futility and the danger and chaos they create will subside.

How can an unsteady mind make itself steady? Of course it cannot. It is the nature of the mind to roam about. All you can do is to shift the focus of consciousness beyond the mind.

Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself.

You cannot possibly say that you are what you think yourself to be! Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment.

Your self-image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passer by. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply.

What you are, you already are. By knowing what you are not, you are free of it and remain in your own natural state. It all happens quite spontaneously and effortlessly.

You are the ultimate potentiality of which the all-embracing consciousness is the manifestation and expression.

That in which consciousness happens, the universal consciousness or mind, we call the ether of consciousness. All the objects of consciousness form the universe.

What is beyond both [mind (universal consciousness) and universe (objects of consciousness)], supporting both, is the supreme state, a state of utter stillness and silence. Whoever goes there, disappears. It is unreachable by words, or mind.

You may call it [the supreme state] God, or Parabrahman, or Supreme Reality, but these are names given by the mind. It is the nameless, contentless, effortless and spontaneous state, beyond being and not being.

As the universe is the body of the mind, so is consciousness the body of the supreme. It is not conscious, but it gives rise to consciousness.

This state is entirely one and indivisible, a single solid block of reality. The only way of knowing it is to be it. The mind cannot reach it. To perceive it does not need the senses; to know it, does not need the mind.

To know what you are you must first investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with the basic fact: 'I am'.

When you believe yourself to be a person, you see persons everywhere. In reality there are no persons, only threads of memories and habits.

At the moment of realization the person ceases. Identity remains, but identity is not a person, it is inherent in the reality itself.

The person has no being in itself; it is a reflection in the mind of the witness, the 'I am', which again is a mode of being.

Separate consistently and perseveringly the 'I am' from 'this' or 'that', and try to feel what it means to be, just to be, without being 'this' or 'that'.

The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker you will come to the end of your search and realize your limitless being.

The Self stands beyond the mind, aware, but unconcerned.

You are the Self, here and now Leave the mind alone, stand aware and unconcerned and you will realize that to stand alert but detached, watching events come and go, is an aspect of your real nature.

You must watch yourself continuously -- particularly your mind -- moment by moment, missing nothing. This witnessing is essential for the separation of the Self from the not-Self.

The jnani is the supreme and also the witness. He is both being and awareness. In relation to consciousness he is awareness. In relation to the universe he is pure being.

Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, a state of duality.

There can be no consciousness without awareness, but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; consciousness is always of something.

Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness.

Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognized as the original, basic existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy.

[Self] Realization is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as real and one’s Self as unreal is ignorance. The cause of sorrow. To know the Self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple.

..in the ocean of pure awareness, on the surface of the universal consciousness, the numberless waves of the phenomenal worlds arise and subside beginninglessly and endlessly.

Be free of name and form and of the desires and fears they create, then what remains?

..the void remains. But the void is full to the brim. It is the eternal potential as consciousness is the eternal actual... Past, present and future -- they are all there. And infinitely more.

When life and death are seen as essential to each other, as two aspects of one being, that is immortality.

To see the end in the beginning and beginning in the end is the intimation of eternity. Definitely, immortality is not continuity. Only the process of change continues. Nothing lasts.

Awareness is not of time. Time exists in consciousness only. Beyond consciousness where are time and space?

Devotion to a goal makes you live a clean and orderly life, given to search for truth and to helping people, and realization makes noble virtue easy and spontaneous, by removing for good the obstacles in the shape of desires and fears and wrong ideas.

Once you realize that the person is merely a shadow of the reality, but not reality itself, you cease to fret and worry. You agree to be guided from within and life becomes a journey into the unknown.

I am beyond time. However long a life may be, it is but a moment and a dream.

In the same way I am beyond all attributes. They appear and disappear in my light, but cannot describe me. The universe is all names and forms, based on qualities and their differences, while I am beyond. The world is there because I am, but I am not the world.

They [body and mind] are there, in time and space, but I am timeless and spaceless.

The only way of knowing it [the Supreme] is to be it. The mind cannot reach it. To perceive it does not need the senses; to know it, does not need the mind.

All [phenomenon] is a play in consciousness. All divisions are illusory. You can know the false only. The true you must yourself be.

They [life and consciousness] are both one. But in reality only the Ultimate is. The rest is a matter of name and form.

And as long as you cling to the idea that only what has name and shape exists, the Supreme will appear to you non-existing.

When you understand that names and shapes are hollow shells without any content whatsoever, and what is real is nameless and formless, pure energy of life and light of consciousness, you will be at peace -- immersed in the deep silence of reality.

The world and the mind are states of being. The supreme is not a state. It pervades, all states, but it is not a state of something else. It is entirely uncaused, independent, complete in itself, beyond time and space, mind and matter.

There is only light and the light is all. Everything else is but a picture made of light. The picture is in the light and the light is in the picture. Life and death, self and not-self --- abandon all these ideas. They are of no use to you.

If the seeker is earnest, the light can be given. The light is for all and always there, but the seekers are few, and among those few, those who are ready are very rare. Ripeness of heart and mind is indispensable.

After all, the realized man is the most earnest man. Whatever he does, he does it completely, without limitations and reservations. Integrity will take you to reality.

When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing then the Supreme State will come to you uninvited and unexpected!

Stay open and quiet, that is all. What you seek is so near you, that there is no place for a way.

Don't concern yourself with others, take care of yourself. You know that you are. Don't burden yourself with names, just be. Any name or shape you give yourself obscures your real nature.

The desire for truth is the highest of all desires, yet, it is still a desire. All desires must be given up to the real to be. Remember that you are. This is your working capital. Rotate it and there will be much profit.

What you gave up is of no importance now. What have you not given up?. Find that out and give up that. Sadhana is a search for what to give up. Empty yourself completely.

Stop making use of your mind and see what happens. Do this one thing thoroughly. That is all.

In the light of consciousness all sorts of things happen and one need not give special importance to any. The sight of a flower is as marvelous as the vision of God.

Let them be. Why remember them and then make memory into a problem? Be bland about them; do not divide them into high and low, inner and outer, lasting and transient.

Go beyond, go back to the source, go to the self that is the same whatever happens. Your weakness is due to your conviction that you were born into the world.

In reality the world is ever recreated in you and by you. See everything as emanating from the light which is the source of your own being. You will find that in that light there is love and infinite energy.

See what you are. Don't ask others, don't let others tell you about yourself. Look within and see.

All the teacher can tell you is only this. There is no need of going from one to another. The same water is in all the wells. You just draw from the nearest. In my case the water is within me and I am the water.

The body appears in your mind, your mind is the content of your consciousness; you are the motionless witness of the river of consciousness which changes eternally without changing you in any way.

Your own changelessness is so obvious that you do not notice it. Have a good look at yourself and all these misapprehensions and misconceptions will dissolve.

Just as all the little watery lives are in water and cannot be without water, so all the universe is in you and cannot be without you.

What can change while you do not change, can be said to be independent of you. But what is changeless must be one with whatever else is changeless.

For, duality implies interaction and interaction meats change. In other words, the absolutely material and the absolutely spiritual, the totally objective and the totally subjective are identical, both in substance and essence.

The mind that projects the world, colours it its own way. When you meet a man, he is a stranger. When you marry him, he becomes your own self. When you quarrel, he becomes your enemy. It is your mind's attitude that determines what he is to you.

The main point to grasp is that you have projected onto yourself a world of your own imagination, based on memories, on desires and fears, and that you have imprisoned yourself in it. Break the spell and be free.

No doubt, this world is painted by you on the screen of consciousness and is entirely your own private world.

You need not free yourself of a world that does not exist, except in your own imagination!

However is the picture, beautiful or ugly, you are painting it and you are not bound by it. realize that there is nobody to force it on you, that it is due to the habit of taking the imaginary to be real.

See the Imaginary as imaginary and be free of fear.

Even the experiencer is secondary. Primary is the infinite expanse of consciousness, the eternal possibility, the immeasurable potential of all that was, is, and will be.

When you look at anything, it is the ultimate you see, but you imagine that you see a cloud or a tree.

Learn to look without imagination, to listen without distortion: that is all. Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless, realize that every mode of perception is subjective...

that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.

Even the sense of 'I am' is composed of the pure light and the sense of being. The 'I' is there even without the 'am'.

So is the pure light there whether you say 'I' or not. Become aware of that pure light and you will never lose it.

The beingness in being, the awareness in consciousness, the interest in every experience -- that is not describable, yet perfectly accessible, for there is nothing else.

There are other teachers, who refuse to discuss reality at all. They say reality is beyond the mind while all discussions are within the realm of the mind, which is the home of the unreal. (contd)

Their approach is negative; they pinpoint the unreal and thus go beyond it into the real.

Theoretically -- all approaches are good. In practice, and at a given moment, you proceed by one road only. Sooner or later you are bound to discover that if you really want to find, you must dig at one place only -- within.

Neither your body nor mind can give you what you seek -- the being and knowing your self and the great peace that comes with it.

Of all the affections the love of oneself comes first. Your love of the world is the reflection of your love of yourself, for your world is of your own creation. (contd)

Light and love are impersonal, but they are reflected in your mind as knowing and wishing oneself well. We are always friendly towards ourselves. but not always wise.

The objective universe (mahadakash) is in constant movement, projecting and dissolving innumerable forms. Whenever a form is infused with life (prana), consciousness (chetana) appears by reflection of awareness in matter.

Discard all traditional standards. Leave them to the hypocrites. Only what liberates you from desire and fear and wrong ideas is good. As long as you worry about sin and virtue you will have no peace.

Sin and virtue refer to a person only. Without a sinful or virtuous person what is sin or virtue? At the level of the absolute there are no persons; the ocean of pure awareness is neither virtuous nor sinful. Sin and virtue are invariably relative. -Sri Nisagardatta Maharaj

By being free from all desire and fear, from the very idea of being a person. To nourish the ideas: 'I am a sinner' 'I am not a sinner', is sin. To identify oneself with the particular is all the sin there is. 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 -- fundamental.

Why do you insist on polluting the impersonal with your ideas of sin and virtue? It just does not apply. The impersonal cannot be described in terms of good and bad. It is Being -- Wisdom -- Love -- all absolute. Where is the scope for sin there? And virtue is only the opposite of sin.

True virtue is divine nature (swarupa). What you are really is your virtue. But the opposite of sin which you call virtue is only obedience born out of fear.

Whatever you do against your better knowledge is sin.

A man who moves with the earth will necessarily experience days and nights. He who stays with the sun will know no darkness.

Lower knowledge is based on memory. Higher knowledge, knowledge of Reality, is inherent in man's true nature.

As long as you are a seeker, better cling to the idea that you are pure consciousness, free from all content. To go beyond consciousness is the supreme state.

Fullness and emptiness are relative terms. The Real is really beyond -- beyond not in relation to consciousness, but beyond all relations of whatever kind.

Your world is transient, changeful. My world is perfect, changeless. You can tell me what you like about your world -- I shall listen carefully, even with interest, yet not for a moment shall I forget that your world is not, that you are dreaming.

My world has no characteristics by which it can be identified. You can say nothing about it. I am my world. My world is myself. It is complete and perfect. Every impression is erased, every experience -- rejected. I need nothing, not even myself, for myself I cannot lose.

All these ideas and distinctions exist in your world; in mine there is nothing of the kind. My world is single and very simple.

Whatever happens in your world, only there it has validity and evokes response. In my world nothing happens.

The desire for bliss creates pain. Thus bliss becomes the seed of pain. The entire universe of pain is born of desire. Give up the desire for pleasure and you will not even know what is pain.

By self-realisation, I found that I am conscious and happy absolutely, and only by mistake I thought I owed being-consciousness-bliss to the body and the world of bodies.

By its very nature pleasure is limited and transitory. Out of pain desire is born, in pain it seeks fulfillment, and it ends in the pain of frustration and despair.

Pain is the background of pleasure, all seeking of pleasure is born in pain and ends in pain.

Brahma the Creator is the sum total of all desires. The world is the instrument for their fulfillment.

Souls take whatever pleasure they desire and pay for them in tears. Time squares all accounts. The law of balance reigns supreme.