silence

Learn to love the silence. Treat the silence as a beautiful entity. As the divine mother, shakti. The silence is all-power. Never take the silence for granted.

You should start feeling the silence as God. Feel good when you are in the silence. Up to you...up to now many of you have believed that the silence is nothing. It is a divine nothingness. Remember it's out of the silence that everything comes. When you return to the silence this is actually a self surrender. You are surrendering your ego, your lifestyle, your karma, everything is surrendered to the silence.

Remember never believe that the silence is a waste of time. Just as we realize now

that space is really consciousness. There is no such thing as space. It appears to be space but it's really consciousness. The same way the silence is consciousness. It's a living entity. It's alive, it's reality. Therefore sit in the silence and rejoice.

Robert Adams

I am that truth

I am that I am not messy consciousness . I am silence . 

Don't waste your energy in discussion .jiddu Krishnamurti 

I am that witness

Questioner: On what side is the witness? Is it real or unreal?

Maharaj: Nobody can say: ‘I am the witness’. The ‘I am’ is always witnessed. 

The state of detached awareness is the witness consciousness, the ‘mirror-mind’. It rises and sets with its object and thus it is not quite the real. Whatever its object, it remains the same, hence it is also real. It partakes of both the real and the unreal and is therefore a bridge between the two.

Questioner: If all happens only to the ‘I am’, if the ‘I am’ is the known and the knower and the knowledge itself, what does the witness do?

Of what use is it?

Maharaj: It does nothing and is of no use whatsoever.

Questioner: Then why do we talk of it?

Maharaj: Because it is there. 

The bridge serves one purpose only —

to cross over. You don’t build houses on a bridge. The ‘I am’ looks at things, the witness sees through them. It sees them as they are — unreal and transient. 

To say ‘not me, not mine’ is the task of the witness.

Questioner: Is it the manifested (saguna) by which the unmanifested (nirguna) is represented?

Maharaj: The unmanifested is not represented. Nothing manifested can represent the unmanifested.

Questioner: Then why do you talk of it? 

Maharaj: Because it is my birthplace.

- Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Excerpt from the book: I am That. Ch. 78.

Lord shiv power

Q: How does one go beyond the need of help? And can one help another to do so?

M: When you have understood that all existence, in separation and limitation, is painful, and when you are willing and able to live integrally, in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have gone beyond all need of help. You can help another by precept 

and example and, above all, by your being. You cannot give what you do not have and you don’t have what you are not. You 

can only give what you are — and of that you can give limitlessly.

Q: But, is it true that all existence is painful?

M: What else can be the cause of this universal search for pleasure? 

Does a happy man seek happiness? 

How restless people are, how constantly on the move! It is because they are in pain that they seek relief in pleasure. All the happiness they can imagine is in the assurance of repeated pleasure.

Q: If what I am, as I am, the person I take myself to be, cannot be happy, then what am I to do?

M: You can only cease to be — as you seem to be now. There is nothing cruel in what I say. To wake up a man from a nightmare is compassion. You came here because you are in pain, and all I say is: wake up, know yourself, be yourself. The end of pain lies not in pleasure. When you realize that you are beyond both pain and pleasure, aloof and unassailable, then the pursuit of happiness ceases and the resultant sorrow too. For pain aims at pleasure and pleasure ends in pain, relentlessly.

Q: In the ultimate state there can be no happiness?

M: Nor sorrow. Only freedom. Happiness depends on something or other and can be lost; freedom from everything depends on nothing and cannot be lost. Freedom from sorrow has no cause and, therefore, cannot be destroyed. Realize that freedom.

Q: Am I not born to suffer as a result of my past? Is freedom possible at all? Was I born of my own will? Am I not just a creature?

M: What is birth and death but the beginning and the ending of a stream of events in consciousness? Because of the idea of 

separation and limitation they are painful. Momentary relief from pain we call pleasure — and we build castles in the air hoping 

for endless pleasure which we call happiness. It is all misunderstanding and misuse. Wake up, go beyond, live really.

Q: My knowledge is, limited, my power negligible.

M: Being the source of both, the self is beyond both knowledge and power. The observable is in the mind. The nature of the self is pure awareness, pure witnessing, unaffected by the presence or absence of knowledge or liking.

Have your being outside this body of birth and death and all your problems will be solved. They exist because you believe 

yourself born to die. Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person.

- Excerpt from: I AM THAT. 

Chapter: MIND IS RESTLESSNESS ITSELF

Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

not this not this what remains self

Q: How does one go beyond the need of help? And can one help another to do so?

M: When you have understood that all existence, in separation and limitation, is painful, and when you are willing and able to live integrally, in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have gone beyond all need of help. You can help another by precept 

and example and, above all, by your being. You cannot give what you do not have and you don’t have what you are not. You 

can only give what you are — and of that you can give limitlessly.

Q: But, is it true that all existence is painful?

M: What else can be the cause of this universal search for pleasure? 

Does a happy man seek happiness? 

How restless people are, how constantly on the move! It is because they are in pain that they seek relief in pleasure. All the happiness they can imagine is in the assurance of repeated pleasure.

Q: If what I am, as I am, the person I take myself to be, cannot be happy, then what am I to do?

M: You can only cease to be — as you seem to be now. There is nothing cruel in what I say. To wake up a man from a nightmare is compassion. You came here because you are in pain, and all I say is: wake up, know yourself, be yourself. The end of pain lies not in pleasure. When you realize that you are beyond both pain and pleasure, aloof and unassailable, then the pursuit of happiness ceases and the resultant sorrow too. For pain aims at pleasure and pleasure ends in pain, relentlessly.

Q: In the ultimate state there can be no happiness?

M: Nor sorrow. Only freedom. Happiness depends on something or other and can be lost; freedom from everything depends on nothing and cannot be lost. Freedom from sorrow has no cause and, therefore, cannot be destroyed. Realize that freedom.

Q: Am I not born to suffer as a result of my past? Is freedom possible at all? Was I born of my own will? Am I not just a creature?

M: What is birth and death but the beginning and the ending of a stream of events in consciousness? Because of the idea of 

separation and limitation they are painful. Momentary relief from pain we call pleasure — and we build castles in the air hoping 

for endless pleasure which we call happiness. It is all misunderstanding and misuse. Wake up, go beyond, live really.

Q: My knowledge is, limited, my power negligible.

M: Being the source of both, the self is beyond both knowledge and power. The observable is in the mind. The nature of the self is pure awareness, pure witnessing, unaffected by the presence or absence of knowledge or liking.

Have your being outside this body of birth and death and all your problems will be solved. They exist because you believe 

yourself born to die. Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person.

- Excerpt from: I AM THAT. 

Chapter: MIND IS RESTLESSNESS ITSELF

Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

You are not a person

Q: How does one go beyond the need of help? And can one help another to do so?

M: When you have understood that all existence, in separation and limitation, is painful, and when you are willing and able to live integrally, in oneness with all life, as pure being, you have gone beyond all need of help. You can help another by precept 

and example and, above all, by your being. You cannot give what you do not have and you don’t have what you are not. You 

can only give what you are — and of that you can give limitlessly.

Q: But, is it true that all existence is painful?

M: What else can be the cause of this universal search for pleasure? 

Does a happy man seek happiness? 

How restless people are, how constantly on the move! It is because they are in pain that they seek relief in pleasure. All the happiness they can imagine is in the assurance of repeated pleasure.

Q: If what I am, as I am, the person I take myself to be, cannot be happy, then what am I to do?

M: You can only cease to be — as you seem to be now. There is nothing cruel in what I say. To wake up a man from a nightmare is compassion. You came here because you are in pain, and all I say is: wake up, know yourself, be yourself. The end of pain lies not in pleasure. When you realize that you are beyond both pain and pleasure, aloof and unassailable, then the pursuit of happiness ceases and the resultant sorrow too. For pain aims at pleasure and pleasure ends in pain, relentlessly.

Q: In the ultimate state there can be no happiness?

M: Nor sorrow. Only freedom. Happiness depends on something or other and can be lost; freedom from everything depends on nothing and cannot be lost. Freedom from sorrow has no cause and, therefore, cannot be destroyed. Realize that freedom.

Q: Am I not born to suffer as a result of my past? Is freedom possible at all? Was I born of my own will? Am I not just a creature?

M: What is birth and death but the beginning and the ending of a stream of events in consciousness? Because of the idea of 

separation and limitation they are painful. Momentary relief from pain we call pleasure — and we build castles in the air hoping 

for endless pleasure which we call happiness. It is all misunderstanding and misuse. Wake up, go beyond, live really.

Q: My knowledge is, limited, my power negligible.

M: Being the source of both, the self is beyond both knowledge and power. The observable is in the mind. The nature of the self is pure awareness, pure witnessing, unaffected by the presence or absence of knowledge or liking.

Have your being outside this body of birth and death and all your problems will be solved. They exist because you believe 

yourself born to die. Undeceive yourself and be free. You are not a person.

- Excerpt from: I AM THAT. 

Chapter: MIND IS RESTLESSNESS ITSELF

Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

Nirupan 104 self realization and you

Nirupana 104

Ordinary people cannot get Self-realization,

they see themselves as bodies.

Unless body-consciousness is eradicated,

Self-consciousness cannot arise.

The fact is that impurity of the gross body

cannot affect consciousness in the body.

Yet the same consciousness

is moving about in the form of the body.

Whatever apparent happiness one enjoys

also becomes the source of misery.

The Self identifies with the body

and loses its perfection.

So long as there is a concept of birth,

there is misery.

Consciousness is formless, pure and holy,

but it is laden with the concepts of ego and birth.

One who is disgusted with worldly affairs

becomes detached.

Because of body-identification,

it has got mixed up with the five elements.

The knowledge in the body

is the holy sight of God.

It is He who makes one understand

that the idea of birth is false.

He crushes the sense of individuality.

Consciousness is busy with many thoughts.

With the Guru’s guidance,

you have to turn it back onto itself.

One who understands

that there is no difference

between his consciousness and the Guru,

becomes enlightened.

When one believes that he is not the body,

he gets the grace of the Guru.

Consciousness is infinite and unlimited.

Then how can it have death?

By the Guru’s grace,

the birth of the body becomes the birth of Brahman.

Then the seeker forgets

that he is a particular individual.

Even when the jnani is all-pervading,

he still has one desire:

Knowledge should continue to progress.

He keeps looking out for someone

worthy of receiving the knowledge

and to pass it on.

As such, all are devotees of God.

Devotion to God is devotion to the Self.

Everything is done

to perpetuate the sense ‘I am’.

According to the Guru-word,

if you worship the formless consciousness,

you will be immortal and indestructible.

You will understand

that your true nature is Parabrahman.

Does the Self have needs

such as food and wife and children,

or are they for the devotee?

The Self is mistaken

for the form of the body.

Those who have knowledge of the Self

have pervaded the manifestation

and transcended it.

They are Parabrahman –

beyond form and qualities.

If you have realized the Self,

rituals, religions, black or white magic,

curses or ghosts,

are of no consequence to you.

Instead they turn back

and strike those that direct them upon you.

One who plays with a jnani

brings misery to himself.

If you believe the fortuneteller,

you have not acquired knowledge of the Self.

In the dream, the world was seen.

In the dream there also appeared your own body.

The dream eventually ended

and the world disappeared.

Then what happened to the One

who saw the dream?

Did He see His corpse lying there?

He never came and never left.

Atman is not prana.

Recognize this fact.

It will not be enough

if you just memorize it.

What is there in the body

due to which we know ‘we are’?

You must practice devotion to the Guru

(non-dual devotion).

Be vigilant.

Prepare yourself

to see the bliss of the last moment.

For others it is a dreadful event.

— Shree Nisargadatta Mahārāj 

Sunday, April 1, 1979