Nisargadatta on Realisation

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: " Yes, the void remains. But the void is full to the brim. It is the eternal potential, as Consciousness is the eternal actual "

V: "By potential, you mean the future?"

M: "Past, present and future - they are all there. And infinitely more. "

V: "But since the void is void, it is of little use to us".

M:" How can you say so? Without breach in continuity how can there be rebirth? Can there be renewal without death? Even the darkness of sleep is refreshing and rejuvenating. Without death we would end up forever in eternal senility."

V: "Is there no such thing as immortality?

M: "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, eternity is not continuity. Only the process of change continues. Nothing lasts. "

V: "Awareness lasts?"

M: "Awareness is not of time. Time exists in Consciousness only. Beyond Consciousness, where are time and space? "

V: "Within the field of your Consciousness there is your body also".

M: "Of course, but the idea 'my body', as different from other bodies, is not there. To me it is 'a body', not 'my body', a 'mind', not 'my mind'. The mind looks after the body all right. I need not interfere. What needs be done is being done, in the normal and natural way. You may not be quite conscious of your your physiological functions, but when it comes to thoughts and feelings, desires and fears, you become acutely self-conscious. To me, these too are largely unconscious. I find myself talking to people, or doing things quite correctly and appropriately, without being very conscious of them. It looks as if I live my physical, waking, life automatically, reacting spontaneously and accurately."

V: "Does this spontaneous response come as a result of realisation, or by training?"

M: "Both. Devotion to your goal makes you live a clean and orderly life, given to a search for truth and helping people, and realisation makes noble virtue easy and spontaneous, by removing, for good, the obstacles of desires and fears and wrong ideas."

V: "Don't you have desires and fears any more?"

M: "My destiny was to be born a simple man, a commoner, a humble tradesman, with very little formal education. My life was of the common kind, with common desires and fears. When through my faith in my teacher and obedience to his words, I realised my true being, I left behind my human nature to look after itself, until its destiny is exhausted. Occasionally, an old reaction, emotional, or mental, happens in the mind, but it is at once noticed and discarded. After all, as long as one is burdened with a personality, one is exposed to its idiosyncrasies and habits."