slowly,
but falls suddenly and without return.
Questioner:
I am physically and mentally at peace. What more do I need?
Nisargadatta:
Yours may not be the ultimate state. You will recognise that you
have returned to your natural
state
by a complete absence of all desire and fear. After all, at the root
of all desire and fear is the
feeling
of not being what you are. Just as a dislocated joint pains only as
long as it is out of shape,
and
is forgotten as soon as it is set right, so is all self-concern a
symptom of mental distortion which
disappears
as soon as one is in the normal state.
Questioner:
Yes, but what is the sadhana for achieving the natural state?
Nisargadatta:
Hold on to the sense 'I am' to the exclusion of everything else.
When thus the mind becomes
completely
silent, it shines with a new light and vibrates with new knowledge.
It all comes
spontaneously,
you need only hold on to the 'I am'. Just like emerging from sleep
or a state of
rapture
you feel rested and yet you cannot explain why and how you come to
feel so well, in the
same
way on realisation you feel complete, fulfilled, free from the
pleasure-pain complex, and yet
not
always able to explain what happened, why and how. You can put it
only in negative terms:
'Nothing
is wrong with me any longer.' It is only by comparison with the past
that you know that you
are
out of it. Otherwise -- you are just yourself. Don't try to convey
it to others. If you can, it is not
the
real thing. Be silent and watch it expressing itself in action.
Questioner:
If you could tell me what I shall become, it may help me to watch
over my development.
Nisargadatta:
How can anybody tell you what you shall become when there is no
becoming? You merely
discover
what you are. All moulding oneself to a pattern is a grievous waste
of time. Think neither of
the
past nor of the future, just be.
Questioner:
How can I just be? Changes are inevitable.
Nisargadatta:
Changes are inevitable in the changeful, but you are not subject to
them. You are the
changeless
background, against which changes are perceived.
Questioner:
Everything changes, the background also changes. There is no need of
a changeless
background
to notice changes. The self is momentary -- it is merely the point
where the past meets
the
future.
Nisargadatta:
Of course the self based on memory is momentary. But such self
demands unbroken continuity
behind
it. You know from experience that there are gaps when your self is
forgotten. What brings it
back
to life? What wakes you up in the morning? There must be some
constant factor bridging the
gaps
in consciousness. If you watch carefully you will find that even
your daily consciousness is in
flashes,
with gaps intervening all the time. What is in the gaps? What can
there be but your real
being,
that is timeless; mind and mindlessness are one to it.
Questioner:
Is there any particular place you would advise me to go to for
spiritual attainment?
Nisargadatta:
The only proper place is within. The outer world neither can help
nor hinder. No system, no
pattern
of action will take you to your goal. Give up all working for a
future, concentrate totally on
the
now, be concerned only with your response to every movement of life
as it happens.
Questioner:
What is the cause of the urge to roam about?
Nisargadatta:
There is no cause. You merely dream that you roam about. In a few
years your stay in India will
appear
as a dream to you. You will dream some other dream at that time. Do
realise that it is not
you
who moves from dream to dream, but the dreams flow before you and
you are the immutable
witness.
No happening affects your real being -- this is the absolute truth.
Questioner:
Cannot I move about physically and keep steady inwardly?
Nisargadatta:
You can, but what purpose does it serve? If you are earnest, you
will find that in the end you will
get
fed up with roaming and regret the waste of energy and time. To find
your self you need not
take
a single step.
Questioner:
Is there any difference between the experience of the Self (atman)
and of the Absolute (brahman)?
Nisargadatta:
There can be no experience of the Absolute as it is beyond all
experience. On the other hand,
the
self is the experiencing factor in every experience and thus, in a
way, validates the multiplicity of
experiences.
The world may be full of things of great value, but if there is
nobody to buy them, they
have
no price. The Absolute contains everything experienceable, but
without the experience they
are
as nothing. That which makes the experience possible is the
Absolute. That which makes it
actual
is the Self.
Questioner:
Don't we reach the Absolute through a gradation of experiences?
Beginning with the grossest,
we
end with the most sublime.
Nisargadatta:
There can be no experience without desire for it. There can be
gradation between desires, but
between
the most sublime desire and the freedom from all desire there is an
abyss which must be
crossed.
The unreal may look real, but it is transient. The real is not
afraid of time.
Questioner:
Is not the unreal the expression of the real?
Nisargadatta:
How can it be? It is like saying that truth expresses itself in
dreams. To the real the unreal is not.
It
appears to be real only because you believe in it. Doubt it, and it
ceases. When you are in love
with
somebody, you give it reality -- you imagine your love to be
all-powerful and everlasting. When
it
comes to an end, you say: 'I thought it was real, but it wasn't'.
Transiency is the best proof of
unreality.
What is limited in time and space, and applicable to one person
only, is not real. The real
is
for all and forever.
Above
everything else you cherish yourself. You would accept nothing in
exchange for your
existence.
The desire to be is the strongest of all desires and will go only on
the realisation of your
true
nature.
Questioner:
Even in the unreal there is a touch of reality.
Nisargadatta:
Yes, the reality you impart to it by taking it to be real. Having
convinced yourself, you are bound
by
your conviction. When the sun shines, colours appear. When it sets,
they disappear. Where are
the
colours without the light?
Questioner:
This is thinking in terms of duality.
Nisargadatta:
All thinking is in duality. In identity no thought survives.