7.
The Mind
Questioner:
There are very interesting books written by apparently very
competent people, in
which
the illusoriness of the world is denied (though not its
transitoriness). According to them, there
exists
a hierarchy of beings, from the lowest to the highest; on each
level the complexity of the
organism
enables and reflects the depth, breadth and intensity of
consciousness, without any
visible
or knowable culmination. One law supreme rules throughout:
evolution of forms for the
growth
and enrichment of consciousness and manifestation of its
infinite potentialities.
Nisargadatta:
This may or may not be so. Even if it is, it is only so from the
mind’s point of view, but In
fact
the entire universe (mahadakash) exists only in consciousness
(chidakash), while I have my
stand
in the Absolute (paramakash). In pure being consciousness
arises; in consciousness the
world
appears and disappears. All there is is me, all there is is
mine. Before all beginnings, after all
endings
-- I am. All has its being in me, in the ‘I am’, that shines in
every living being. Even not-
being
is unthinkable without me. Whatever happens, I must be there to
witness it.
Questioner:
Why do you deny being to the world?
Nisargadatta:
I do not negate the world. I see it as appearing in
consciousness, which is the totality of the
known
in the immensity of the unknown.
What
begins and ends is mere appearance. The world can be said to
appear, but not to be. The
appearance
may last very long on some scale of time, and be very short on
another, but ultimately it
comes
to the same. Whatever is time bound is momentary and has no
reality.
Questioner:
Surely, you see the actual world as it surrounds you. You seem
to behave quite normally!
Nisargadatta:
That is how it appears to you. What in your case occupies the
entire field of consciousness, is a
mere
speck in mine. The world lasts, but for a moment. It is your
memory that makes you think that
the
world continues. Myself, I don't live by memory. I see the world
as it is, a momentary
appearance
in consciousness.
Questioner:
In your consciousness?
Nisargadatta:
All idea of ‘me’ and ‘mine’, even of ‘I am’ is in consciousness.
Questioner:
Is then your ‘absolute being’ (paramakash) un-consciousness?
Nisargadatta:
The idea of un-consciousness exists in consciousness only.
Questioner:
Then, how do you know you are in the supreme state?
Nisargadatta:
Because I am in it. It is the only natural state.
Questioner:
Can you describe it?
Nisargadatta:
Only by negation, as uncaused, independent, unrelated,
undivided, uncomposed, unshakable,
unquestionable,
unreachable by effort. Every positive definition is from memory
and, therefore,
inapplicable.
And yet my state is supremely actual and, therefore, possible,
realisable, attainable.
Questioner:
Are you not immersed timelessly in an abstraction?
Nisargadatta:
Abstraction is mental and verbal and disappears in sleep, or
swoon; it reappears in time; I am in
my
own state (swarupa) timelessly in the now . Past and future are
in mind only -- I am now.
Questioner:
The world too is now.
Nisargadatta:
Which world?
Questioner:
The world around us.
Nisargadatta:
It is your world you have in mind, not mine. What do you know of
me, when even my talk with
you
is in your world only? You have no reason to believe that my
world is identical with yours. My
world
is real, true, as it is perceived, while yours appears and
disappears, according to the state of
your
mind. Your world is something alien, and you are afraid of it.
My world is myself. I am at home.
Questioner:
If you are the world, how can you be conscious of it? Is not the
subject of consciousness
different
from its object?
Nisargadatta:
Consciousness and the world appear and disappear together, hence
they are two aspects of
the
same state.
Questioner:
In sleep I am not, and the world continues.
Nisargadatta:
How do you know?
Questioner:
On waking up I come to know. My memory tells me.
Nisargadatta:
Memory is in the mind. The mind continues in sleep.
Questioner:
It is partly in abeyance.
Nisargadatta:
But its world picture is not affected. As long as the mind is
there, your body and your world are
there.
Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind,
fragmentary, temporary,
personal,
hanging on the thread of memory.
Questioner:
So is yours?
Nisargadatta:
Oh no. I live in a world of realities, while yours is of
imagination. Your world is personal, private,
unshareable,
intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear
as you hear, feel your
emotions
and think your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone,
enclosed in your ever-changing
dream,
which you take for life. My world is an open world, common to
all, accessible to all. In my
world
there is community, insight, love, real quality; the individual
is the total, the totality -- in the
individual.
All are one and the One is all.
Questioner:
Is your world full of things and people as is mine?
Nisargadatta:
No, it is full of myself.
Questioner:
But do you see and hear as we do?
Nisargadatta:
Yes, l appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it
just happens, as to you digestion or
perspiration
happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out
of it. Just as you do
not
need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about
words and actions. They just
happen
and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes
wrong.