65.
A Quiet Mind is All You Need
Questioner:
I am not well. I feel rather weak. What am I to do?
Nisargaradda:
Who is unwell, you or the body?
Questioner:
My body, of course.
Nisargadatta:
Yesterday you felt well. What felt well?
Questioner:
The body.
Nisargadatta:
You were glad when the body was well and you are sad when the body is
unwell. Who is glad
one
day and sad the next?
Questioner:
The mind.
Nisargadatta:
And who knows the variable mind?
Questioner:
The mind.
Nisargadatta:
The mind is the knower. Who knows the knower?
Questioner:
Does not the knower know itself?
Nisargadatta:
The mind is discontinuous. Again and again it blanks out, like in
sleep or swoon, or distraction.
There
must be something continuous to register discontinuity.
Questioner:
The mind remembers. This stands for continuity.
Nisargadatta:
Memory is always partial, unreliable and evanescent. It does not
explain the strong sense of
identity
pervading consciousness, the sense 'I am'. Find out what is at the
root of it.
Questioner:
However deeply I look, I find only the mind. Your words 'beyond the
mind' give me no clue.
Nisargadatta:
While looking with the mind, you cannot go beyond it. To go beyond,
you must look away from
the
mind and its contents.
Questioner:
In what direction am I to look?
Nisargadatta:
All directions are within the mind! I am not asking you to look in any
particular direction. Just
look
away from all that happens in your mind and bring it to the feeling 'I
am'. The 'I am' is not a
direction.
It is the negation of all direction. Ultimately even the 'I am' will
have to go, for you need not
keep
on asserting what is obvious. Bringing the mind to the feeling 'I am'
merely helps in turning the
mind
away from everything else.
Questioner:
Where does it all lead me?
Nisargadatta:
When the mind is kept away from its preoccupations, it becomes quiet.
If you do not disturb this
quiet
and stay in it, you find that it is permeated with a light and a love
you have never known; and
yet
you recognise it at once as your own nature. Once you have passed
through this experience,
you
will never be the same man again; the unruly mind may break its peace
and obliterate its vision;
but
it is bound to return, provided the effort is sustained; until the day
when all bonds are broken,
delusions
and attachments end and life becomes supremely concentrated in the
present.
Questioner:
What difference does it make?
Nisargadatta:
The mind is no more. There is only love in action.
Questioner:
How shall I recognise this state when I reach it?
Nisargadatta:
There will be no fear.
Questioner:
Surrounded by a world full of mysteries and dangers, how can I remain
unafraid?
Nisargadatta:
Your own little body too is full of mysteries and dangers, yet you are
not afraid of it, for you take
it
as your own. What you do not know is that the entire universe is your
body and you need not be
afraid
of it. You may say you have two bodies; the personal and the
universal. The personal comes
and
goes, the universal is always with you. The entire creation is your
universal body. You are so
blinded
by what is personal, that you do not see the universal. This blindness
will not end by itself --
it
must be undone skilfully and deliberately. When all illusions are
understood and abandoned, you
reach
the error-free and perfect state in which all distinctions between the
personal and the
universal
are no more.
Questioner:
I am a person and therefore limited in space and time. I occupy little
space and last but a few
moments;
I cannot even conceive myself to be eternal and all-pervading.
Nisargadatta:
Nevertheless you are. As you dive deep into yourself in search of your
true nature, you will
discover
that only your body is small and only your memory is short; while the
vast ocean of life is
yours.
Questioner:
The very words 'I' and 'universal' are contradictory. One excludes the
other.
Nisargadatta:
They don't. The sense of identity pervades the universal. Search and
you shall discover the
Universal
Person, who is yourself and infinitely more.
Anyhow,
begin by realising that the world is in you, not you in the world.
Questioner:
How can it be? I am only a part of the world. How can the whole world
be contained in the part,
except
by reflection, mirror like?
Nisargadatta:
What you say is true. Your personal body is a part in which the whole
is wonderfully reflected.
But
you have also a universal body. You cannot even say that you do not
know it, because you see
and
experience it all the time. Only you call it 'the world' and are
afraid of it.
Questioner:
I feel I know my little body, while the other I do not know, except
through science.
Nisargadatta:
Your little body is full of mysteries and wonders which you do not
know. There also science is
your
only guide. Both anatomy and astronomy describe you.
Questioner:
Even If I accept your doctrine of the universal body as a working
theory, in what way can I test
it
and of what use is it to me?
Nisargadatta:
Knowing yourself as the dweller in both the bodies you will disown
nothing. All the universe will
be
your concern; every living thing you will love and help most tenderly
and wisely. There will be no
clash
of interests between you and others. All exploitation will cease
absolutely. Your every action
will
be beneficial, every movement will be a blessing.
Questioner:
It is all very tempting, but how am I to proceed to realise my
universal being?
Nisargadatta:
You have two ways: you can give your heart and mind to self-discovery,
or you accept my
words
on trust and act accordingly. In other words, either you become
totally self-concerned, or
totally
un-self-concerned. It is the word 'totally' that is important. You
must be extreme to reach the
Supreme.
Questioner:
How can I aspire to such heights, small and limited as I am?
Nisargadatta:
realise yourself as the ocean of consciousness in which all happens.
This is not difficult. A little
of
attentiveness, of close observation of oneself, and you will see that
no event is outside your
consciousness.
Questioner:
The world is full of events which do not appear in my consciousness.
Nisargadatta:
Even your body is full of events which do not appear in your
consciousness. This does not
prevent
you from claiming your body to be your own. You know the world exactly
as you know your
body
-- through your senses. It is your mind that has separated the world
outside your skin from the
world
inside and put them in opposition. This created fear and hatred and
all the miseries of living.
Questioner:
What I do not follow is what you say about going beyond consciousness.
I understand the
words,
but I cannot visualise the experience. After all, you yourself have
said that all experience is
in
consciousness.
Nisargadatta:
You are right, there can be no experience beyond consciousness. Yet
there is the experience of
just
being. There is a state beyond consciousness, which is not
unconscious. Some call it super-
consciousness,
or pure consciousness, or supreme consciousness. It is pure awareness
free from
the
subject object nexus.
Questioner:
I have studied Theosophy and I find nothing familiar in what you say.
I admit Theosophy deals
with
manifestation only. It describes the universe and its inhabitants in
great details. It admits many
levels
of matter and corresponding levels of experience, but it does not seem
to go beyond. What
you
say goes beyond all experience. If it is not experienceable, why at
all talk about it?
Nisargadatta:
Consciousness is intermittent, full of gaps. Yet there is the
continuity of identity. What is this
sense
of identity due to, if not to something beyond consciousness?
Questioner:
If I am beyond the mind, how can I change myself?
Nisargadatta:
Where is the need of changing anything? The mind is changing anyhow
all the time. Look at
your
mind dispassionately; this is enough to calm it. When it is quiet, you
can go beyond it. Do not
keep
it busy all the time. Stop it -- and just be. If you give it rest, it
will settle down and recover its
purity
and strength. Constant thinking makes it decay.
Questioner:
If my true being is always with me, how is it that I am ignorant of
it?
Nisargadatta:
Because it is very subtle and your mind is gross, full of gross
thoughts and feelings. Calm and
clarify
your mind and you will know yourself as you are.
Questioner:
Do I need the mind to know myself?
Nisargadatta:
You are beyond the mind, but you know with your mind. It is obvious
that the extent, depth and
character
of knowledge depend on what instrument you use. Improve your
instrument and your
knowledge
will improve.
Questioner:
To know perfectly I need a perfect mind.
Nisargadatta:
A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your
mind is quiet. As the sun on
rising
makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the
mind. In the light of
calm
and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles
without any effort on
your
part.
Questioner:
You mean to say that the greatest work is done by not working?
Nisargadatta:
Exactly. Do understand that you are destined for enlightenment.
Co-operate with your destiny,
don't
go against it, don’t thwart it. Allow it to fulfil itself. All you
have to do is to give attention to the
obstacles
created by the foolish mind.