Bliss

Bliss is not added to your nature, it is merely revealed as your true and natural state, eternal and imperishable. ~ Sri Ramana in Maharshi's Gospel.

Being

The greatest fear that all living beings have is the fear of death. The fear of death casts a shadow over all that we do and undermines all our peace and happiness. But what is death and who is it that dies?

Actually death is the greatest of all illusions. The fear of death is the root of all ignorance. The shadow of death is not a curse but a misunderstanding of the real nature of existence. Our true being never dies. Death is only the end of one body or another, but not of the being who is embodied.

Vedanta boldly teaches us that no one dies. No one has ever died and no one will ever die. That is to say, your real being, your true Self, soul or essence never dies. In your inner being, you are not subject to birth and death, time and space, coming or going. You are eternal, immutable, pure existence, awareness and bliss. It is only the body that dies, not you as the embodied soul. You are not a material object that is subject to the disintegrating influence of time. You are a spiritual being, a conscious subject that is the witness of all time, space and action.

The Bhagavad Gita states right at its start, "Of that which exists there is no non-being. Of that which does not exist, there is not being." This is perhaps the greatest statement of spiritual knowledge ever given. Krishna tells Arjuna that the true Self never dies. The embodied soul does not die. Only the body dies, which for the soul, is like casting off one set of clothes for another. You do not weep and think that all is lost if your shirt is irreparably torn. Yet for the soul, our inner being, the physical body is but a vesture that it wears for a time. If that vesture gets worn out or irreparably damaged, the soul must get another one. There is not cause for lasting remorse.

You have always existed and you will always exist. Your body, mind or the world in which you take birth may change, but your inner essence will endure forever. This proclamation of deathlessness is the greatest message of freedom possible for human beings. You do not die. Death cannot touch you. You can freely cast away all the anxiety about death. You are the deathless Self. Nor need you worry about the death of another. No one dies. Our true being stands above all such temporal and material limitations. Even outer sufferings of body and mind are transient, however painful they may feel for a time. We can always take refuge in our inner witness, the deathless Self at the core of our being, which is not affected by these.

To think that one will die is a great misunderstanding of who we really are. You are not the body or the mind. The body has birth and death. The mind has its fluctuations. But these do not relate to your real essence. They are only part of your outer manifestation. You are the being who uses the body and mind as instruments but itself is not affected by them. The body is like the car you drive, we might say. The mind is like your computer. But you are the operator of these instruments. When they break down, you do not suffer any loss of your own being or yourself come to an end.

Our inner being, the Supreme Self or Paramatman, has absolute immortality, absolute existence. Our inner being is changeless, immutable, homogenous, and pure. It can never be stained, harmed, limited or disturbed. It is the detached eternal witness of all events in the universe. It was there when the Sun first shone, when the first creatures arose on the Earth, and when the first human being looked out upon the sky. It has witnessed the beginning and end of entire universes, not to mention innumerable worlds and creatures.

Even our soul, the reincarnating entity within us, has relative immortality. It moves from body to body, birth to birth, but itself never dies. As the Supreme Self you have absolute immortality, as an individual soul you have relative immortality. Death cannot take you away in either case; it can only take you on to another level of existence. Learn to access your immortality so that your life partakes of eternity.

Why is it that we do not know our deathless Self and live in its freedom and happiness? It is because we wrongly identify our inner being with our outer body and mind. This is a mistake of judgment, a wrong perception. We see the body as the Self when it is but a vehicle for the Self. Once this misidentification is removed, there can be no more sorrow. It is like a child thinking that its toys are real and crying when they break or get lost.

Being never dies. Existence never comes to an end. And that eternal and timeless being is your being. You are not limited to this body or this particular incarnation. Your being is everywhere in the universe, in all creatures and beyond. It is beyond all fear. Death cannot reach it. Suffering cannot shake it. Rest in that deathless Self. It is your Divine right.

Take refuge in your inner being beyond the body and mind and witness their play as a Divine sport. Observe the world and all its changes from the central point of your eternal essence. And you will find beauty and wonder at every moment.

~ by Pandit Vamadeva

Awareness

* * * The Unknown is the Home of the Real * * *

Questioner: Who is the Guru and who is the supreme Guru?
Maharaj: All that happens in your consciousness is your Guru.
And pure awareness beyond consciousness is the supreme Guru.

Q: My Guru is Sri Babaji. What is your opinion of him?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: What a question to ask!
The space in Bombay is asked
what is its opinion of the space in Poona.
The names differ, but not the space.
The word ‘Babaji’ is merely an address.
Who lives under the address?
You ask questions when you are in trouble.
Enquire who is giving trouble and to whom.

Q: I understand everybody is under the obligation to realize. Is it his duty, or is it his destiny?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Realization is of the fact that you are not a person.
Therefore,
it cannot be the duty of the person whose destiny is to disappear.
Its destiny is the duty of him
who imagines himself to be the person.
Find out who he is and the imagined person will dissolve.
Freedom is from something.
What are you to be free from?
Obviously, you must be free from the person,
you take yourself to be,
for it is the idea you have of yourself that keeps you in bondage.

Q: How is the person removed?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: By determination.
Understand that it must go and wish it to go -it shall go
if you are earnest about it.
Somebody, anybody, will tell you that
you are pure consciousness, not a body-mind.
Accept it as a possibility and investigate earnestly.
You may discover that it is not so,
that you are not a person bound in space and time.
Think of the difference it would make!

Q: If I am not a person, then what am I?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Wet cloth looks, feels, smells differently as long as it is wet.
When dry it is again the normal cloth.
Water has left it and who can make out that it was wet?
Your real nature is not like what you appear to be.
Give up the idea of being a person, that is all.
You need not become what you are anyhow.
There is the identity of what you are and
there is the person superimposed on it.
All you know is the person, the identity - which is not a person-
you do not know, for you never doubted, never asked yourself the crucial question - ‘Who am I’.
The identity is the witness of the person and
sadhana consists in shifting the emphasis from the superficial and changeful person
to the immutable and ever-present witness.

Q: How is it that the question ‘Who am I’ attracts me little? I prefer to spend my time in the sweet company of saints.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Abiding in your own being is also holy company.
If you have no problem of suffering and release from suffering,
you will not find the energy and persistence needed for self-enquiry.
You cannot manufacture a crisis. It must be genuine.

Q: How does a genuine crisis happen?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
It happens every moment,
but you are not alert enough.
A shadow on your neighbour’s face, the immense and
all-pervading sorrow of existence is a constant factor in your life,
but you refuse to take notice.
You suffer and see others suffer, but you don’t respond.

Q: What you say is true, but what can I do about it? Such in-deed is the situation. My helplessness and dullness are a part of it.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Good enough.
Look at yourself steadily - it is enough.
The door that locks you in, is also the door that lets you out.
The ‘I am’ is the door.
Stay at it until it opens.
As a matter of fact, it is open, only you are not at it.
You are waiting at the non-existent painted doors,
which will never open.

Q: Many of us were taking drugs at some time, and to some extent. People told us to take drugs in order to break through into higher levels of consciousness. Others advised us to have
abundant sex for the same purpose. What is your opinion in the matter?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
No doubt,
a drug that can affect your brain can also affect your mind,
and give you all the strange experiences promised.
But what are all the drugs compared to the drug
that gave you this most unusual experience of being born and living in sorrow and fear,
in search of happiness, which does not come, or does not last.
You should enquire into the nature of this drug and
find an antidote.
Birth, life, death - they are one.
Find out what had caused them.
Before you were born, you were already drugged.
What kind of drug was it?
You may cure yourself of all diseases,
but if you are still under the influence of the primordial drug,
of what use are the superficial cures?

Q: Is it not karma that causes rebirth?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
You may change the name, but the fact remains.
What is the drug which you call karma or destiny?
It made you believe yourself to be what you are not.
What is it, and can you be free of it?
Before you go further you must accept,
at least as a working theory,
that you are not what you appear to be,
that you are under the influence of a drug.
Then only you will have the urge and the patience to examine the symptoms and search for their common cause.
All that a Guru can tell you is:
‘My dear Sir, you are quite mistaken about yourself.
You are not the person you think yourself to be.’
Trust nobody, not even yourself.
Search, find out, remove and reject every assumption till you reach the living waters and the rock of truth.
Until you are free of the drug,
all your religions and sciences, prayers and Yogas
are of no use to you,for based on a mistake, they strengthen it.
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.
After all, you must remember,
that all your preoccupations with yourself are only during waking hours and
partly in your dreams; in sleep all is put aside and forgotten.
It shows how little important is your waking life, even to yourself,
that merely lying down and closing the eyes can end it.
Each time you go to sleep you do so
without the least certainty of waking up and yet you accept the risk.

Q: When you sleep, are you conscious or unconscious?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: I remain conscious,
but not conscious of being a particular person.

Q: Can you give us the taste of the experience of self-realization?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Take the whole of it!
It is here for the asking.
But you do not ask.
Even when you ask, you do not take.
Find out what prevents you from taking.

Q: I know what prevents - my ego.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Then get busy with your ego - leave me alone.
As long as you are locked up within your mind,
my state is beyond your grasp.

Q: I find I have no more questions to ask.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Were you really at war with your ego,
you would have put many more questions.
You are short of questions
because you are not really interested.
At present you are moved by the pleasure-pain principle
which is the ego.
You are going along with the ego, you are not fighting it.
You are not even aware how totally you are swayed
by personal considerations.
A man should be always in revolt against himself, for the ego,
like a crooked mirror, narrows down and distorts.
It is the worst of all the tyrants, it dominates you absolutely.

Q: When there is no ‘I’ who is free?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: The world is free of a mighty nuisance. Good enough.

Q: Good for whom?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Good for everybody.
It is like a rope stretched across the street, it snarls up the traffic.
Roll up, it is there, as mere identity, useful when needed.
Freedom from the ego-self is the fruit of self-enquiry.

Q: There was a time when I was most displeased with myself. Now I have met my Guru and I am at peace, after having surrendered myself to him completely.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
If you watch your daily life you will see that
you have surrendered nothing.
You have merely added the word ‘surrender’
to your vocabulary and
made your Guru into a peg to hang your problems on.
Real surrender means doing nothing,
unless prompted by the Guru.
You step, so to say, aside and let your Guru live your life.
You merely watch and wonder
how easily he solves the problems which to you seemed insoluble.

Q: As I sit here, I see the room, the people. I see you too. How does it look at your end? What do you see?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Nothing.
I look, but I do not see in the sense of creating images clothed
with judgements.
I do not describe nor evaluate.
I look. I see you, but neither attitude nor opinion cloud my vision.
And when I turn my eyes away,
my mind does not allow memory to linger;
it is at once free and fresh for the next impression.

Q: As I am here, looking at you, I cannot locate the event in space and time. There is something eternal and universal about the transmission of wisdom that is taking place. Ten thousand years earlier, or later, make no difference — the event itself is timeless.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Man does not change much over the ages.
Human problems remain the same and call for the same answers.
Your being conscious of what you call transmission of wisdom shows that wisdom has not yet been transmitted.
When you have it, you are no longer conscious of it.
What is really your own, you are not conscious of.
What you are conscious of is neither you nor yours.
Yours is the power of perception, not what you perceive.
It is a mistake to take the conscious to be the whole of man.
Man is the unconscious, conscious and the super-conscious,
but you are not the man.
Yours is the cinema screen, the light as well as the seeing power, but the picture is not you.

Q: Must I search for the Guru, or shall I stay with whomever I have found?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
The very question shows that you have not yet found one.
As long as you have not realized, you will move from Guru to Guru,
but when you have found yourself, the search will end.
A Guru is a milestone.
When you are on the move, you pass so many milestones.
When you have reached your destination,
it is the last alone that mattered.
In realty all mattered at their own time and none matters now.

Q: You seem to give no importance to the Guru. He is merely an incident among others.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
All incidents contribute, but none is crucial.
On the road each step helps you to reach your destination, and each is as crucial as the other,
for each step must be made, you cannot skip it.
If you refuse to make it, you are stuck!

Q: Everybody sings the glories of the Guru, while you compare him to a milestone. Don’t we need a Guru?

Maharaj: Don’t we need a milestone? Yes and no.
Yes, if we are un-certain, no if we know our way.
Once we are certain in ourselves,
the Guru is no longer needed, except in a technical sense.
Your mind is an instrument, after all,
and you should know how to use it.
As you are taught the uses of your body,
so you should know how to use your mind.

Q: What do I gain by learning to use my mind?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
You gain freedom from desire and fear,
which are entirely due to wrong uses of the mind.
Mere mental knowledge is not enough.
The known is accidental, the unknown is the home of the real.
To live in the known is bondage, to live in the unknown is liberation.

Q: I have understood that all spiritual practice consists in the elimination of the personal self. Such practice demands iron de-termination and relentless application. Where to find the integrity and energy for such work?

Maharaj: You find it in the company of the wise.

Q: How do I know who is wise and who is merely clever?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
If your motives are pure, if you seek truth and nothing else,
you will find the right people.
Finding them is easy, what is difficult is to trust them and take full advantage of their advice and guidance.

Q: Is waking state more important for spiritual practice than sleep?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
On the whole we attach too much importance, to the waking state.
Without sleep the waking state would be impossible;
without sleep one goes mad or dies; why attach so much importance to waking consciousness,
which is obviously dependent on the unconscious?
Not only the conscious but the unconscious as well should be taken care of in our spiritual practice.

Q: How does one attend to the unconscious?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Keep the ‘I am’ in the focus of awareness,
remember that you are,
watch yourself ceaselessly and the unconscious will flow into the conscious without any special effort on your part.
Wrong desires and fears, false ideas, social inhibitions are blocking and preventing its free interplay with the conscious.
Once free to mingle, the two become one and
the one becomes all.
The person merges into the witness, the witness into awareness, awareness into pure being, yet identity is not lost,
only its limitations are lost. It is transfigured, and becomes the real Self, the sadguru,
the eternal friend and guide.
You cannot approach it in worship.
No external activity can reach the inner self; worship and prayers remain on the surface only;
to go deeper medi-tation is essential, the striving to go beyond the states of sleep, dream and waking.
In the beginning the attempts are irregular,
then they recur more often, become regular,
then continuous and intense, until all obstacles are conquered.

Q: Obstacles to what?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: To self-forgetting.

Q: If worship and prayers are ineffectual why do you worship daily, with songs and music, the image of your Guru!

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Those who want it, do it.
I see no purpose in interfering.

Q: But you take part in it.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj: Yes, it appears so.
But why be so concerned with me?
Give all your attention to the question:
‘What is it that makes me conscious?’,
until your mind becomes the question itself and cannot think of anything else.

Q: All and sundry are urging me to meditate. I find no zest in meditation, but I am interested in many others things; some I want very much and my mind goes to them; my attempts at meditation are so half-hearted, what am I to do?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Ask yourself: ‘to whom it all happens?’
Use everything as an opportunity to go within.
Light your way by burning up obstacles in the intensity of awareness.
When you happen to desire or fear,
it is not the desire or fear that are wrong and must go,
but the person who desires and fears.
There is no point in fighting desires and fears
which may be perfectly natural and justified;
it is the person,
who is swayed by them,
that is the cause of mistakes, past and future.
This person should be carefully examined and its falseness seen;
then its power over you will end.
After all, it subsides each time you go to sleep.
In deep sleep you are not a self-conscious person,
yet you are alive.
When you are alive and conscious,
but no longer self-conscious, you are not a person any more.
During the waking hours you are, as if,
on the stage, playing a role,
but what are you when the play is over?
You are what you are;
what you were before the play began you remain when it is over.
Look at yourself as performing on the stage of life.
The performance may be splendid or clumsy, but you are not in it,
you merely watch it; with interest and sympathy, of course,
but keeping in mind all the time that you are only watching while the play life is going on.

Q: You are always stressing the cognition aspect of reality. You hardly ever mention affection, and will — never?

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:
Will, affection, bliss, striving and enjoying are
so deeply tainted with the personal, that they cannot be trusted.
The clarification and purification needed at the very start of the journey, only awareness can give.
Love and will shall have their turn,
but the ground must be prepared.
The sun of awareness must rise first all else will follow.

~ from I AM THAT book

निर्वाण-षट्कम

निर्वाण-षट्कम

मनो बुद्धि अहंकार चित्तानि नाहं
न च श्रोत्र जिव्हे न च घ्राण नेत्रे |
न च व्योम भूमि न तेजो न वायु:
चिदानंद रूपः शिवोहम शिवोहम ||1||

[मैं मन, बुद्धि, अहंकार और स्मृति नहीं हूँ, न मैं कान, जिह्वा, नाक और आँख हूँ। न मैं आकाश, भूमि, तेज और वायु ही हूँ, मैं चैतन्य रूप हूँ, आनंद हूँ, शिव हूँ, शिव हूँ...]

I am not mind, nor intellect, nor ego, nor the reflections of inner self (chitta).
I am not the five senses.
I am beyond that.
I am not the ether, nor the earth, nor the fire, nor the wind (the five elements).
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Shivam), love and pure consciousness.

न च प्राण संज्ञो न वै पञ्चवायुः
न वा सप्तधातु: न वा पञ्चकोशः |
न वाक्पाणिपादौ न च उपस्थ पायु
चिदानंदरूप: शिवोहम शिवोहम ||2||

[न मैं मुख्य प्राण हूँ और न ही मैं पञ्च प्राणों (प्राण, उदान, अपान, व्यान, समान) में कोई हूँ, न मैं सप्त धातुओं (त्वचा, मांस, मेद, रक्त, पेशी, अस्थि, मज्जा) में कोई हूँ और न पञ्च कोशों (अन्नमय, मनोमय, प्राणमय, विज्ञानमय, आनंदमय) में से कोई, न मैं वाणी, हाथ, पैर हूँ और न मैं जननेंद्रिय या गुदा हूँ, मैं चैतन्य रूप हूँ, आनंद हूँ, शिव हूँ, शिव हूँ...]

Neither can I be termed as energy (prana),
nor five types of breath (vayus),
nor the seven material essences,
nor the five coverings (pancha-kosha).
Neither am I the five instruments of elimination, procreation, motion, grasping, or speaking.
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Shivam), love and pure consciousness.

न मे द्वेषरागौ न मे लोभ मोहौ
मदों नैव मे नैव मात्सर्यभावः |
न धर्मो नचार्थो न कामो न मोक्षः
चिदानंदरूप: शिवोहम शिवोहम ||3||

[न मुझमें राग और द्वेष हैं, न ही लोभ और मोह, न ही मुझमें मद है न ही ईर्ष्या की भावना, न मुझमें धर्म, अर्थ, काम और मोक्ष ही हैं, मैं चैतन्य रूप हूँ, आनंद हूँ, शिव हूँ, शिव हूँ...]

I have no hatred or dislike, nor affiliation or liking, nor greed, nor delusion, nor pride or
haughtiness, nor feelings of envy or jealousy.
I have no duty (dharma), nor any money, nor any desire (kama), nor even liberation
(moksha).
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Shivam), love and
pure consciousness.

न पुण्यं न पापं न सौख्यं न दु:खं
न मंत्रो न तीर्थं न वेदों न यज्ञः |
अहम् भोजनं नैव भोज्यम न भोक्ता
चिदानंद रूप: शिवोहम शिवोहम ||4||

[न मैं पुण्य हूँ, न पाप, न सुख और न दुःख, न मन्त्र, न तीर्थ, न वेद और न यज्ञ, मैं न भोजन हूँ, न खाया जाने वाला हूँ और न खाने वाला हूँ, मैं चैतन्य रूप हूँ, आनंद हूँ, शिव हूँ, शिव हूँ...]

I have neither merit (virtue), nor demerit (vice). I do not commit sins or good deeds,
nor have happiness or sorrow, pain or pleasure.
I do not need mantras, holy places, scriptures (Vedas), rituals or sacrifices (yagnas).
I am none of the triad of the
observer or one who experiences, the process
of observing or experiencing, or any object being observed or experienced.
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Shivam), love and pure consciousness.

न मे मृत्युशंका न मे जातिभेद:
पिता नैव मे नैव माता न जन्म |
न बंधू: न मित्रं गुरु: नैव शिष्यं
चिदानंद रूप: शिवोहम शिवोहम ||5||

[न मुझे मृत्यु का भय है, न मुझमें जाति का कोई भेद है, न मेरा कोई पिता ही है, न कोई माता ही है, न मेरा जन्म हुआ है, न मेरा कोई भाई है, न कोई मित्र, न कोई गुरु ही है और न ही कोई शिष्य, मैं चैतन्य रूप हूँ, आनंद हूँ, शिव हूँ, शिव हूँ...]

I do not have fear of death, as I do not have death.
I have no separation from my true self, no doubt about my existence, nor have I
discrimination on the basis of birth.
I have no father or mother, nor did I have a birth.
I am not the relative, nor the friend, nor the guru, nor the disciple.
I am indeed, That eternal
knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Shivam), love and pure consciousness.

अहम् निर्विकल्पो निराकार रूपो
विभुव्याप्य सर्वत्र सर्वेन्द्रियाणाम |
सदा मे समत्वं न मुक्ति: न बंध:
चिदानंद रूप: शिवोहम शिवोहम ||6||

[मैं समस्त संदेहों से परे, बिना किसी आकार वाला, सर्वगत, सर्वव्यापक, सभी इन्द्रियों को व्याप्त करके स्थित हूँ, मैं सदैव समता में स्थित हूँ, न मुझमें मुक्ति है और न बंधन, मैं चैतन्य रूप हूँ, आनंद हूँ, शिव हूँ, शिव हूँ...]

I am all pervasive. I am without any attributes, and without any form. I have neither
attachment to the world, nor to liberation (mukti).
I have no wishes for anything because I am everything, everywhere, every time,
always in equilibrium.
I am indeed, That eternal knowing and bliss, the auspicious (Shivam), love and pure consciousness.

इति श्रीमद जगद्गुरु शंकराचार्य विरचितं निर्वाण-षटकम सम्पूर्णं

ॐ नमः शिवाय.