14.
Appearances and the Reality
Questioner:
Repeatedly you have been saying that events are causeless, a
thing just happens and
no
cause can be assigned to it. Surely everything has a cause, or
several causes. How am I to
understand
the causelessness of things?
Nisargadatta:
From the highest point of view the world has no cause.
Questioner:
But what is your own experience?
Nisargadatta:
Everything is uncaused. The world has no cause.
Questioner:
I am not enquiring about the causes that led to the creation
of the world. Who has seen the
creation
of the world? It may even be without a beginning, always
existing. But I am not talking of
the
world. I take the world to exist -- somehow. It contains so
many things. Surely, each must have
a
cause, or several causes.
Nisargadatta:
Once you create for yourself a world in time and space,
governed by causality, you are bound to
search
for and find causes for everything. You put the question and
impose an answer.
Questioner:
My question is very simple: I see all kinds of things and I
understand that each must have a
cause,
or a number of causes. You say they are uncaused -- from your
point of view. But, to you
nothing
has being and, therefore, the question of causation does not
arise. Yet you seem to admit
the
existence of things, but deny them causation. This is what I
cannot grasp. Once you accept the
existence
of things, why reject their causes?
Nisargadatta:
I see only consciousness, and know everything to be but
consciousness, as you know the
picture
on the cinema screen to be but light.
Questioner:
Still, the movements of light have a cause.
Nisargadatta:
The light does not move at all. You know very well that the
movement is illusory, a sequence of
interceptions
and colour-ings in the film. What moves is the film -- which
is the mind.
Questioner:
This does not make the picture causeless. The film is there,
and the actors with the technicians,
the
director, the producer, the various manufacturers. The world
is governed by causality.
Everything
is inter-linked.
Nisargadatta:
Of course, everything is inter-linked. And therefore
everything has numberless causes. The
entire
universe contributes to the least thing. A thing is as it is,
because the world is as it is. You
see,
you deal in gold ornaments and I -- in gold. Between the
different ornaments there is no causal
relation.
When you re-melt an ornament to make another, there is no
causal relation between the
two.
The common factor is the gold. But you cannot say gold is the
cause. It cannot be called a
cause,
for it causes nothing by itself. It is reflected in the mind
as 'I am', as the ornament's particular
name
and shape. Yet all is only gold. In the same way reality makes
everything possible and yet
nothing
that makes a thing what it is, its name and form, comes from
reality.
But
why worry so much about causation? What do causes matter, when
things themselves are
transient?
Let come what comes and let go what goes -- why catch hold of
things and enquire about
their
causes?
Questioner:
From the relative point of view, everything must have a cause.
Nisargadatta:
Of what use is the relative view to you? You are able to look
from the absolute point of view --
why
go back to the relative? Are you afraid of the absolute?
Questioner:
I am afraid. I am afraid of falling asleep over my so-called
absolute certainties. For living a life
decently
absolutes don't help. When you need a shirt, you buy cloth,
call a tailor and so on.
Nisargadatta:
All this talk shows ignorance.
Questioner:
And what is the knower's view?
Nisargadatta:
There is only light and the light is all. Everything else is
but a picture made of light. The picture
is
in the light and the light is in the picture. Life and death,
self and not-self --- abandon all these
ideas.
They are of no use to you.
Questioner:
From what point of view you deny causation? From the relative
-- the universe is the cause of
everything.
From the absolute -- there is no thing at all.
Nisargadatta:
From which state are you asking?
Questioner:
From the daily waking state, in which alone all these
discussions take place.
Nisargadatta:
In the waking state all these problems arise, for such is its
nature. But, you are not always in
that
state. What good can you do in a state into which you fall and
from which you emerge,
helplessly.
In what way does it help you to know that things are causally
related -- as they may
appear
to be in your waking state?
Questioner:
The world and the waking state emerge and subside together.
Nisargadatta:
When the mind is still, absolutely silent, the waking state is
no more.
Questioner:
Words like God, universe, the total, absolute, supreme are
just noises in the air, because no
action
can be taken on them.
Nisargadatta:
You are bringing up questions which you alone can answer.
Questioner:
Don't brush me off like this! You are so quick to speak for
the totality, the universe and such
imaginary
things! They cannot come and forbid you to talk on their
behalf. I hate those irresponsible
generalizations!
And you are so prone to personalise them. Without causality
there will be no order;
nor
purposeful action will be possible.
Nisargadatta:
Do you want to know all the causes of each event? Is it
possible?
Questioner:
I know it is not possible! All I want to know is if there are
causes for everything and the causes
can
be influenced, thereby affecting the events?
Nisargadatta:
To influence events, you need not know the causes. What a
roundabout way of doing things!
Are
you not the source and the end of every event? Control it at
the source itself.
Questioner:
Every morning I pick up the newspaper and read with dismay
that the world's sorrows --
poverty,
hatred and wars -- continue unabated. My questions are
concerning the fact of sorrow, the
cause,
the remedy. Don't brush me off saying that it is Buddhism!
Don't label me. Your insistence
on
causelessness removes all hope of the world ever changing.
Nisargadatta:
You are confused, because you believe that you are in the
world, not the world in you. Who
came
first -- you or your parents? You imagine that you were born
at a certain time and place, that
you
have a father and a mother, a body and a name. This is your
sin and your calamity! Surely you
can
change your world if you work at it. By all means, work. Who
stops you? I have never
discouraged
you. Causes or no causes, you have made this world and you can
change it.
Questioner:
A causeless world is entirely beyond my control.
Nisargadatta:
On the contrary, a world of which you are the only source and
ground is fully within your power
to
change. What is created can be always dissolved and
re-created. All will happen as you want it,
provided
you really want it.
Questioner:
All I want to know is how to deal with the world's sorrows.
Nisargadatta:
You have created them out of your own desires and fears, you
deal with them. All is due to your
having
forgotten your own being. Having given reality to the picture
on the screen, you love its
people
and suffer for them and seek to save them. It is just not so.
You must begin with yourself.
There
is no other way. Work, of course. There is no harm in working.
Questioner:
Your universe seems to contain every possible experience. The
individual traces a line through
it
and experiences pleasant and unpleasant states. This gives
rise to questioning and seeking,
which
broaden the outlook and enable the individual to go beyond his
narrow self-created,
limited
and self-centred world. This personal world can be changed --
in time. The universe is
timeless
and perfect.
Nisargadatta:
To take appearance for reality is a grievous sin and the cause
of all calamities. You are the all-
pervading,
eternal and infinitely creative awareness -- consciousness.
All else is local and
temporary.
Don't forget what you are. In the meantime work to your
heart's content. Work and
knowledge
should go hand in hand.
Questioner:
My own feeling is that my spiritual development is not in my
hands. Making one's own plans
and
carrying them out leads no where. I just run in circles round
myself. When God considers the
fruit
to be ripe, He will pluck it and eat it. Whichever fruit seems
green to Him will remain on the
world's
tree for another day.
Nisargadatta:
You think God knows you? Even the world He does not know.
Questioner:
Yours is a different God. Mine is different. Mine is merciful.
He suffers along with us.
Nisargadatta:
You pray to save one, while thousands die. And if all stop
dying, there will be no space on earth.
Questioner:
I am not afraid of death. My concern is with sorrow and
suffering. My God is a simple God and
rather
helpless. He has no power to compel us to be wise. He can only
stand and wait.
Nisargadatta:
If you and your God are both helpless, does it not imply that
the world is accidental? And if it is.
the
only thing you can do is to go beyond it.