83.
The True Guru
Questioner:
You were saying the other day that at the root of your realisation
was the trust in your
Guru.
He assured you that you were already the Absolute Reality and there
was nothing more to be
done.
You trusted him and left it at that, without straining, without
striving. Now, my question is:
without
trust in your Guru would you have realised? After all, what you are,
You are, whether your
mind
trusts or not; would doubt obstruct the action of the Guru's words
and make them inoperative?
Nisargadatta:
You have said it -- they would have been made inoperative -- for a
time.
Questioner:
And what would happen to the energy, or power in the Guru's words?
Nisargadatta:
It would remain latent, unmanifested. But the entire question is
based on a misunderstanding.
The
master, the disciple, the love and trust between them, these are one
fact, not so many
independent
facts. Each is a part of the other. Without love and trust there
would have been no
Guru
nor disciple, and no relationship between them. It is like pressing
a switch to light an electric
lamp.
It is because the lamp, the wiring, the switch, the transformer, the
transmission lines and the
power
house form a single whole, that you get the light. Any one factor
missing and there would be
no
light. You must not separate the inseparable. Words do not create
facts; they either describe
them
or distort. The fact is always non-verbal.
Questioner:
I still do not understand; can the Guru's word remain unfulfilled or
will it invariably prove true?
Nisargadatta:
Words of a realised man never miss their purpose. They wait for the
right conditions to arise
which
may take some time, and. this is natural, for there is a season for
sowing and a season for
harvesting.
But the word of a Guru is a seed that cannot perish. Of course, the
Guru must be a real
one,
who is beyond the body and the mind, beyond consciousness itself,
beyond space and time,
beyond
duality and unity, beyond understanding and description. The good
people who have read a
lot
and have a lot to say, may teach you many useful things, but they
are not the real Gurus whose
words
invariably come true. They also may tell you that you are the
ultimate reality itself, but what of
it?
Questioner:
Nevertheless, if for some reason I happen to trust them and obey,
shall I be the loser?
Nisargadatta:
If you are able to trust and obey, you will soon find your real
Guru, or rather, he will find you.
Questioner:
Does every knower of the Self become a Guru, or can one be a knower
of Reality without being
able
to take others to it?
Nisargadatta:
If you know what you teach, you can teach what you know, Here
seership and teachership are
one.
But the Absolute Reality is beyond both. The self-styled Gurus talk
of ripeness and effort, of
merits
and achievements, of destiny and grace; all these are mere mental
formations, projections of
an
addicted mind. Instead of helping, they obstruct.
Questioner:
How can I make out whom to follow and whom to mistrust?
Nisargadatta:
Mistrust all, until you are convinced. The true Guru will never
humiliate you, nor will he estrange
you
from yourself. He will constantly bring you back to the fact of your
inherent perfection and
encourage
you to seek within. He knows you need nothing, not even him, and is
never tired of
reminding
you. But the self appointed Guru is more concerned with himself than
with his disciples.
Questioner:
You said that reality is beyond the knowledge and the teaching of
the real. Is not the knowledge
of
reality the supreme itself and teaching the proof of its attainment?
Nisargadatta:
The knowledge of the real, or the self, is a state of mind. Teaching
another is a movement in
duality.
They concern the mind only; sattva is a Guna all the same.
Questioner:
What is real then?
Nisargadatta:
He who knows the mind as non-realised and realised, who knows
ignorance and knowledge as
states
of mind, he is the real. When you are given diamonds mixed with
gravel, you may either miss
the
diamonds or find them. It is the seeing that matters. Where is the
greyness of the gravel and the
beauty
of the diamond, without the power to see? The known is but a shape
and knowledge is but a
name.
The knower is but a state of mind. The real is beyond.
Questioner:
Surely, objective knowledge and ideas of things and self knowledge
are not one and the same
thing.
One needs a brain, the other does not.
Nisargadatta:
For the purpose of discussion you can arrange words and give them
meaning, but the fact
remains
that all knowledge is a form of ignorance. The most accurate map is
yet only paper. All
knowledge
is in memory; it is only recognition, while reality is beyond the
duality of the knower and
the
known.
Questioner:
Then by what is reality known?
Nisargadatta:
How misleading is your language! You assume, unconsciously, that
reality also is approachable
through
knowledge. And then you will bring in a knower of reality beyond
reality! Do understand that
to
be, reality need not be known. Ignorance and knowledge are in the
mind, not in the real.
Questioner:
If there is no such thing as the knowledge of the real, then how do
I reach it?
Nisargadatta:
You need not reach out for what is already with you. Your very
reaching out makes you miss it.
Give
up the idea that you have not found it and just let it come into the
focus of direct perception,
here
and now, by removing all that is of the mind.
Questioner:
When all that can go, goes, what remains?
Nisargadatta:
Emptiness remains, awareness remains, pure light of the conscious
being remains. It is like
asking
what remains of a room when all the furniture is removed? A most
serviceable room
remains.
And when even the walls are pulled down, space remains. Beyond space
and time is the
here
and the now of reality.
Questioner:
Does the witness remain?
Nisargadatta:
As long as there is consciousness, its witness is also there. The
two appear and disappear
together.
Questioner:
If the witness too is transient, why is he given so much importance?
Nisargadatta:
Just to break the spell of the known, the illusion that only the
perceivable is real.
Questioner:
Perception is primary, the witness -- secondary.
Nisargadatta:
This is the heart of the matter. As long as you believe that only
the outer world is real, you
remain
its slave. To become free, your attention must be drawn to the 'I
am', the witness. Of course,
the
knower and the known are one not two, but to break the spell of the
known the knower must be
brought
to the forefront. Neither is primary, both are reflections in memory
of the ineffable
experience,
ever new and ever now, untranslatable, quicker than the mind.
Questioner:
Sir, I am an humble seeker, wandering from Guru to Guru in search of
release. My mind is sick,
burning
with desire, frozen with fear. My days flit by, red with pain, grey
with boredom. My age is
advancing,
my health decaying, my future dark and frightening. At this rate I
shall live in sorrow and
die
in despair. Is there any hope for me? Or have I come too late?
Nisargadatta:
Nothing is wrong with you, but the ideas you have of yourself are
altogether wrong. It is not you
who
desires, fears and suffers, it is the person built on the foundation
of your body by
circumstances
and influences. You are not that person. This must be clearly
established in your
mind
and never lost sight of. Normally, it needs a prolonged sadhana,
years of austerities and
meditation.
Questioner:
My mind is weak and vacillating. I have neither the strength nor the
tenacity for sadhana. My
case,
is hopeless.
Nisargadatta:
In a way yours is a most hopeful case. There is an alternative to
sadhana, which is trust. If you
cannot
have the conviction born from fruitful search, then take advantage
of my discovery, which I
am
so eager to share with you. I can see with the utmost clarity that
you have never been, nor are,
nor
will be estranged from realty, that you are the fullness of
perfection here and now and that
nothing
can deprive you of your heritage, of what you are. You are in no way
different from me, only
you
do not know it. You do not know what you are and therefore you
imagine your self to be what
you
are not. Hence desires and fear and overwhelming despair. And
meaningless activity in order to
escape.
Just
trust me and live by trusting me. I shall not mislead you. You are
the Supreme Reality beyond
the
world and its creator, beyond consciousness and its witness, beyond
all assertions and denials.
Remember
it, think of it, act on it. Abandon all sense of separation, see
yourself in all and act
accordingly.
With action bliss will come and, with bliss, conviction. After all,
you doubt yourself
because
you are in sorrow. Happiness, natural, spontaneous and lasting
cannot be imagined. Either
it
is there, or it is not. Once you begin to experience the peace, love
and happiness which need no
outer
causes, all your doubts will dissolve. Just catch hold of what I
told you and live by it.
Questioner:
You are telling me to live by memory?
Nisargadatta:
You are living by memory anyhow. I am merely asking you to replace
the old memories by the
memory
of what I told you. As you were acting on your old memories, act on
the new one. Don't be
afraid.
For some time there is bound to be a conflict between the old and
the new, but if you put
yourself
resolutely on the side of the new, the strife will soon come to an
end and you will realise the
effortless
state of being oneself, of not being deceived by desires and fears
born of illusion.
Questioner:
Many Gurus have the habit of giving tokens of their grace -- their
head cloth, or their sticks, or
begging
bowl, or robe, thus transmitting or confirming the self-realisation
of their disciples. I can see
no
value in such practices. It is not self-realisation that is
transmitted, but self-importance. Of what
earthly
use is being told something very flattering, but not true? On one
hand you are warning me
against
the many self-styled Gurus, on the other you want me to trust you.
Why do you claim to be
an
exception?
Nisargadatta:
I do not ask you to trust me. Trust my words and remember them, I
want your happiness, not
mine.
Distrust those who put a distance between you and your true being
and offer themselves as a
go-between.
I do nothing of the kind. I do not even make any promises. I merely
say: if you trust my
words
and put them to test, you will for yourself discover how absolutely
true they are. If you ask for
a
proof before you venture, I can only say: I am the proof. I did
trust my teacher's words and kept
them
in my mind and I did find that he was right, that I was, am and
shall be the Infinite Reality,
embracing
all, transcending all.
As
you say, you have neither the time nor the energy for lengthy
practices. I offer you an alternative.
Accept
my words on trust and live anew, or live and die in sorrow.
Questioner:
It seems too good to be true.
Nisargadatta:
Don't be misled by the simplicity of the advice. '\very few are
those who have the courage to
trust
the innocent and the simple. To know that you are a prisoner of your
mind, that you live in an
imaginary
world of your own creation is the dawn of wisdom. To want nothing of
it, to be ready to
abandon
it entirely, is earnestness. Only such earnestness, born of true
despair, will make you trust
me.
Questioner:
Have l not suffered enough?
Nisargadatta:
Suffering has made you dull, unable to see its enormity. Your first
task is to see the sorrow in
you
and around you; your next to long intensely for liberation. The very
intensity of longing will guide
you;
you need no other guide.
Questioner:
Suffering has made me dull, indifferent even to itself.
Nisargadatta:
Maybe it is not sorrow but pleasure that made you dull. Investigate.
Questioner:
Whatever may be the cause; I am dull. I have neither the will nor
the energy.
Nisargadatta:
Oh, no. You have enough for the first step. And each step will
generate enough energy for the
next.
Energy comes with confidence and confidence comes with experience.
Questioner:
Is it right to change Gurus?
Nisargadatta:
Why not change? Gurus are like milestones? It is natural to move on
from one to another. Each
tells
you the direction and the distance, while the sadguru, the eternal
Guru, is the road itself. Once
you
realise that the road is the goal and that you are always on the
road, not to reach a goal, but to
enjoy
its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes
natural and simple, in itself
an
ecstasy.
Questioner:
So, there is no need to worship, to pray, to practice Yoga?
Nisargadatta:
A little of daily sweeping, washing and bathing can do no harm.
Self-awareness tells you at
every
step what needs be done. When all is done, the mind remains quiet.
Now
you are in the waking state, a person with name and shape, joys and
sorrows. The person was
not
there before you were born, nor will be there after you die. Instead
of struggling with the person
to
make it become what it is not, why not go beyond the waking state
and leave the personal life
altogether?
It does not mean the extinction of the person; it means only seeing
it in right perspective.
Questioner:
One more question. You said that before I was born I was one with
the pure being of reality; if
so,
who decided that I should be born?
Nisargadatta:
In reality you were never born and never shall die. But now you
imagine that you are, or have a
body
and you ask what has brought about this state. Within the limits of
illusion the answer is:
desire
born from memory attracts you to a body and makes you think as one
with it. But this is true
only
from the relative point of view. In fact, there is no body, nor a
world to contain it; there is only a
mental
condition, a dream-like state, easy to dispel by questioning its
reality.
Questioner:
After you die, will you come again? If I live long enough, will I
meet you again.
Nisargadatta:
To you the body is real, to me there is none. I, as you see me,
exist in your imagination only.
Surely,
you will see me again, if and when you need me. It does not affect
me, as the Sun is not
affected
by sunrises and sunsets. Because it is not affected, it is certain
to be there when needed.
You
are bent on knowledge, I am not. I do not have that sense of
insecurity that makes you crave to
know.
I am curious, like a child is curious. But there is no anxiety to
make me seek refuge in
knowledge.
Therefore, I am not concerned whether I shall be reborn, or how long
will the world last.
These
are questions born of fear.