68.
Seek the Source of Consciousness
Questioner:
We were talking the other day about the ways of the modern Western
mind and the
difficulty
it finds in submitting to the moral and intellectual discipline of
the Vedanta. One of the
obstacles
lies in the young European's or American's preoccupation with the
disastrous condition of
the
world and the urgent need of setting it right.
They
have no patience with people like you who preach personal
improvement as a pre-condition
for
the betterment of the world. They say it is neither possible nor
necessary. Humanity is ready for
a
change of systems -- social, economic, political. A
world-government, world-police, world-planning
and
the abolition of all physical and ideological barriers: this is
enough, no personal transformation
is
needed. No doubt, people shape society, but society shapes people
too. In a humane society
people
will be humane; besides, science provides the answer to many
questions which formerly
were
in the domain of religion.
Nisargadatta:
No doubt, striving for the improvement of the world is a most
praiseworthy occupation.
Done
selflessly, it clarifies the mind and purifies the heart. But soon
man will realise that he pursues
a
mirage. Local and temporary improvement is always possible and was
achieved again and again
under
the influence of a great king or teacher; but it would soon come to
an end, leaving humanity
in
a new cycle of misery. It is in the nature of all manifestation that
the good and the bad follow each
other
and in equal measure. The true refuge is only in the unmanifested.
Questioner:
Are you not advising escape?
Nisargadatta:
On the contrary. The only way to renewal lies through destruction.
You must melt down the old
jewellery
into formless gold before you can mould a new one. Only the people
who have gone
beyond
the world can change the world. It never happened otherwise. The few
whose impact was
long
lasting were all knowers of reality. Reach their level and then only
talk of helping the world.
Questioner:
It is not the rivers and mountains that we want to help, but the
people
Nisargadatta:
There is nothing wrong with the world, but for the people who make
it bad. Go and ask them to
behave.
Questioner:
Desire and fear make them behave as they do.
Nisargadatta:
Exactly. As long as human behaviour is dominated by desire and fear,
there is not much hope.
And
to know how to approach the people effectively, you must yourself be
free of all desire and fear.
Questioner:
Certain basic desires and fears are inevitable, such as are
connected with food, sex and death.
Nisargadatta:
These are needs and, as needs, they are easy to meet.
Questioner:
Even death is a need?
Nisargadatta:
Having lived a long and fruitful life you feel the need to die. Only
when wrongly applied, desire
and
fear are destructive. By all means desire the right and fear the
wrong. But when people desire
what
is wrong and fear what is right, they create chaos and despair.
Questioner:
What is right and what is wrong?
Nisargadatta:
Relatively, what causes suffering is wrong, what alleviates it is
right. Absolutely, what brings you
back
to reality is right and what dims reality is wrong.
Questioner:
When we talk of helping humanity, we mean a struggle against
disorder and suffering.
Nisargadatta:
You merely talk of helping. Have you ever helped, really helped, a
single man? Have you ever
put
one soul beyond the need of further help? Can you give a man
character, based on full
realisation
of his duties and opportunities at least, if not on the insight into
his true being? When you
do
not know what is good for yourself, how can you know what is good
for others?
Questioner:
The adequate supply of means of livelihood is good for all. You may
be God himself, but you
need
a well-fed body to talk to us.
Nisargadatta:
It is you that need my body to talk to you. I am not my body, nor do
I need it. I am the witness
only.
I have no shape of my own. You are so accustomed to think of
yourselves as bodies having
consciousness
that you just cannot imagine consciousness as having bodies. Once
you realise that
bodily
existence is but a state of mind, a movement in consciousness, that
the ocean of
consciousness
is infinite and eternal, and that, when in touch with consciousness,
you are the
witness
only, you will be able to withdraw beyond consciousness altogether.
Questioner:
We are told there are many levels of existences. Do you exit and
function on all the levels?
While
you are on earth, are you also in heaven (swarga)?
Nisargadatta:
! am nowhere to be found! I am not a thing to be given a place among
other things. All things
are
in me, but I am not among things. You are telling me about the
superstructure while I am
concerned
with the foundations. The superstructures rise and fall, but the
foundations last. I am not
interested
in the transient, while you talk of nothing else.
Questioner:
Forgive me a strange question. If somebody with a razor sharp sword
would suddenly severe
your
head, what difference would it make to you?
Nisargadatta:
None whatsoever. The body will lose its head, certain lines of
communication will be cut, that is
all.
Two people talk to each other on the phone and the wire is cut.
Nothing happens to the people,
only
they must look for some other means of communication. The Bhagavad
Gita says: "the sword
does
not cut it". It is literally so. It is in the nature of
consciousness to survive its vehicles. It is like
fire.
It burns up the fuel, but not itself. Just like a fire can outlast a
mountain of fuel, so does
consciousness
survive innumerable bodies.
Questioner:
The fuel affects the flame.
Nisargadatta:
As long as it lasts. Change the nature of the fuel and the colour
and appearance of the flame
will
change.
Now
we are talking to each other. For this presence is needed; unless we
are present, we cannot
talk.
But presence by itself is not enough. There must also he the desire
to talk.
Above
all, we want to remain conscious. We shall bear every suffering and
humiliation, but we shall
rather
remain conscious. Unless we revolt against this craving for
experience and let go the
manifested
altogether, there can be no relief. We shall remain trapped.
Questioner:
You say you are the silent witness and also you are beyond
consciousness. Is there no
contradiction
in it? If you are beyond consciousness, what are you witnessing to?
Nisargadatta:
I am conscious and unconscious, both conscious and unconscious,
neither conscious nor
unconscious
-- to all this I am witness -- but really there is no witness,
because there is nothing to
be
a witness to. I am perfectly empty of all mental formations, void of
mind -- yet fully aware. This I
try
to express my saying that I am beyond the mind.
Questioner:
How can I reach you then?
Nisargadatta:
Be aware of being conscious and seek the source of consciousness.
That is all. Very little can
be
conveyed in words. It is the doing as I tell you that will bring
light, not my telling you. The means
do
not matter much; it is the desire, the urge, the earnestness that
count.