Who Am I?

Nisargadatta Maharaj Visitor: "Kindly tell us how you realised" Maharaj:" I met my guru when I was 34 and realised by 37." V: "What happened? What was the change? M:" Pleasure and pain lost their sway over me. I was free from desire and fear. I found myself full, needing nothing. I saw that in the ocean of pure Awareness, on the surface of the Universal Consciousness, the numberless waves of the phenomenal world arise and subside beggininglessly and endlessly. As Consciousness, they are all me. As events they are all mine. There is a mysterious power that looks after them. That power is Awareness, Self, Life, God, whatever name you give it It is the foundation, the ultimate support of all that is. And it is so intimately ours! abstract the names and shapes of the phenomenal world and the ground of being becomes obvious. Be free of name and form and the desires and fears they create, then what remains? " V: "Nothingness". M: " Y

"Realisation 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. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are. It is like cleaning a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought ' I Am' is the polishing cloth. Use it." Nisargadatta Maharaj

N.MAHARAJ: Visitor: As a child, fairly often I experienced states of complete happiness verging on ecstasy. Later, they ceased. But, since I came to India they reappeared, particularly after I met you. yet, thes states, however wonderful, are not lasting. They come and go and there is no knowing when they will come back. Maharaj:" How can anything be steady in a mind which is not steady? " V: How can I make my mind steady? M:" 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. " V: How is it done? M" Refuse all thoughts except one, the thought ' I Am'. The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perseverance it will yield and keep quiet. Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen spontaneously, without any interference on your part. " V: Can I avoid the protracted battle with my