For full three hours that I spent in the airline office I was
practising patience and forbearance. It
did
not speed up matters.
Nisargadatta:
At least it did not slow them down, as your kicking would have
surely done! You want immediate
results!
We do not dispense magic here. Everybody does the same mistake:
refusing the means,
but
wanting the ends. You want peace and harmony in the world, but
refuse to have them in
yourself.
Follow my advice implicitly and you will not be disappointed. I
cannot solve your problem
by
mere words. You have to act on what I told you and persevere. It
is not the right advice that
liberates,
but the action based on it. Just like a doctor, after giving the
patient an injection, tells him:
'Now,
keep quiet. Do nothing more, just keep quiet,' I am telling you:
you have got your 'injection',
now
keep quiet, just keep quiet. You have nothing else to do. My Guru
did the same. He would tell
me
something and then said: 'Now keep quiet. Don't go on ruminating
all the time. Stop. Be silent'.
Questioner:
I can keep quiet for an hour in the morning. But the day is long
and many things happen that
throw
me out of balance. It is easy to say 'be silent', but to be silent
when all is screaming in me and
round
me -- please tell me how it is done.
Nisargadatta:
All that needs doing can be done in peace and silence. There is no
need to get upset.
Questioner:
It is all theory which does not fit the facts. I am returning to
Europe with nothing to do there. My
life
is completely empty.
Nisargadatta:
If you just try to keep quiet, all will come -- the work, the
strength for work, the right motive. Must
you
know everything beforehand? Don't be anxious about your future --
be quiet now and all will fall
in
place. The unexpected is bound to happen, while the anticipated
may never come. Don't tell me
you
cannot control your nature. You need not control it. Throw it
overboard. Have no nature to fight,
or
to submit to. No experience will hurt you, provided you don't make
it into a habit. Of the entire
universe
you are the subtle cause. All is because you are. Grasp this point
firmly and deeply and
dwell
on it repeatedly. To realise this as absolutely true, is
liberation.
Questioner:
If I am the seed of my universe, then a rotten seed I am! By the
fruit the seed is known.
Nisargadatta:
What is wrong with your world that you swear at it?
Questioner:
It is full of pain.
Nisargadatta:
Nature is neither pleasant nor painful. It is all intelligence and
beauty. Pain and pleasure are in
the
mind. Change your scale of values and all will change. Pleasure
and pain are mere
disturbances
of the senses; treat them equally and there will be only bliss.
And the world is, what
you
make it; by all means make it happy. Only contentment can make you
happy -- desires fulfilled
breed
more desires. Keeping away from all desires and contentment in
what comes by itself is a
very
fruitful state -- a precondition to the state of fullness. Don't
distrust its apparent sterility and
emptiness.
Believe me, it is the satisfaction of desires that breeds misery.
Freedom from desires is
bliss.
Questioner:
There are things we need.
Nisargadatta:
What you need will come to you, if you do not ask for what you do
not need. Yet only few
people
reach this state of complete dispassion and detachment. It is a
very high state, the very
threshold
of liberation.
Questioner:
I have been barren for the last two years, desolate and empty and
often was I praying for death
to
come.
Nisargadatta:
Well, with your coming here events have started rolling. Let
things happen as they happen --
they
will sort themselves out nicely in the end. You need not strain
towards the future -- the future
will
come to you on its own. For some time longer you will remain
sleep-walking, as you do now,
bereft
of meaning and assurance; but this period will end and you will
find your work both fruitful
and
easy. There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged.
Such moments are
most
desirable for it means the soul had cast its moorings and is
sailing for distant places. This is
detachment
-- when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are
afraid, the state may
be
distressing; but there is really nothing to be afraid of. Remember
the instruction: whatever you
come
across -- go beyond.
Questioner:
The Buddhas rule: to remember what needs to be remembered. But I
find it so difficult to
remember
the right thing at the right moment. With me forgetting seems to
be the rule!
Nisargadatta:
It is not easy to remember when every situation brings up a storm
of desires and fears. Craving
born
of memory is also the destroyer of memory.
Questioner:
How am I to fight desire? There is nothing stronger.
Nisargadatta:
The waters of life are thundering over the rocks of objects --
desirable or hateful. Remove the
rocks
by insight and detachment and the same waters will flow deep and
silent and swift, in greater
volume
and with greater power. Don't be theoretical about it, give time
to thought and consideration;
if
you desire to be free, neglect not the nearest step to freedom. It
is like climbing a mountain: not a
step
can be missed. One step less -- and the summit is not reached.