I just read this long
quote of Nisargadatta, in chapter 7 of the
Ultimate Medicine. It is the
clearest exposition an overview of Maharashtra teachings and can be meditated
on over and over. Such repetition can
help you get out of your concepts of what you are now, and become something far
more universal and blissful.
“Originally, I am untainted—uncovered by anything, without stigma - since nobody existed prior to me. Nor do I entertain any concepts about somebody existing before me. Everything is in the form of the manifest world, after the appearance of the knowledge “I am” with the body. Together with the body and the indwelling “I-am-Ness,” everything is. Prior to the appearance of this body and the knowledge “I am,” what was there?
The Paramatman was there, the highest self, the core of the self. This identity is without any stigma. Even the sky cannot touch it. The space cannot touch it. It is subtler than space. It is just like sunrays or moonbeams: they do not get dirty in dirty waters. If such is their purity, what would be the purity of the self, consciousness?
Understand this first moment, when we understood “we are” - the first moment of the body, when it understood “it is.” Recognize that very first moment. Once you grasp this, then you are the highest of the gods, the point at which everything arises. At that very point, everything also sets: the source and the end are the same point. So once you understand this, you are released from that point. Nobody tries to understand this happening of the self, the happening of this “I-Am-ness.” Once It Is Understood, I, the Absolute, am not this “I-am-ness.”
Every creature in the Universe prays to that principle which he considers his God or whatever, but all this can only happen from the time the Life force has awakened until the time that the Life force is no longer working.
In the practice of meditation, this life force gets purified, and then the light of the Atman shines forth. However, the working principle is still the Life force. When this purified life force and the light of the self merge into each other, then the concept, imagination, or mind, everything, is held in abeyance.
When anyone tells you to do some sadhana, with what can you do sadhana of any kind? It can only be this life force. The only instrument one has to do sadhana with is the life force. This life force, instead of viewing it merely as an instrument, has to be treated—mentally accepted - as the highest principle in the world: that is, God, Paramatman, Ishwara, or whatever you want to call it. So that when this life force is pleased, it gets purified and merges with the light of the Atman.
What is creation? Whatever has been created, is it the creation of God, or is it the creation of this life force? By practicing meditation, diligently and continuously, this life force gets purified to such an extent that it attains divinity. Do understand that this life force is God, and God is the life force, and be one with it.
Now when this life force and the highest principle become one in your meditation, then whatever is reached by this merger, signifies the awakening, liberation, call it whatever you like. So, what is liberation? Subjection to the conditioning and obstructions connected with the individual, all that disappears. That is liberation. This life force is the acting principle; and that which gives sentience to the person is the consciousness. The principle is that within the body, consciousness and the prana or life force together are Atman.
It is said that somebody is dead. So what has happened? The life force has gone and the principle behind the life force—that is, this consciousness -has also disappeared. That is all that has happened. I have been explaining the principle, analyzing it, for all these years. But from now on, I have not the energy or inclination to explain all of this again, so I can only say what is to be done, if anything. And the only thing is that nothing is to be done as is generally understood by the word “do,” but merely to sit in contemplation and let the consciousness unfold itself, unfold the knowledge about itself.
You are to do meditation, and in that meditation itself the consciousness will unfold whatever knowledge is to be revealed. But people generally do not go to the root of the matter and explain the principle, which is what I have been doing all these years.
This consciousness and the life force, when they merge they tend to become steady in the Brahmananda. And then all thoughts cease, even the thought that you are sitting in meditation. And that is the start of the samadhi. That state will remain for a while and discontinue again, whatever the reason. And then normal behavior in the world will start. That is, the life force will start its normal work or activities.
Now I am asking: this disease (throat cancer) that I am said to suffer from, to what has this illness come? It has come to this consciousness and the working principle—that is, the life force. These two are concerned with that illness. And I, being apart from it, am not concerned with the illness. But it is one’s duty to keep that life force in reasonably good working order. That is why the medicine was taken in the same way that food is normally taken, so as to keep this consciousness and the Life force in proper working condition.
So, medicine is much like food. But as far as I am concerned, I do not really care whether this life principle and the consciousness work or not, because I am totally apart from it, beyond it and tired of it. The Life force and the consciousness are not really two; as a concept they are treated as such but they are really one. As soon as a form is created, the life force is infused in that form, and sentience is automatically present. There is a physical form and the life force, and in the absence of the consciousness there would only be a technically alive body. But merely that life force within the body—what is the use of it?
It has no meaning, no function unless consciousness is also present. So it is this consciousness which gives this life force, which would otherwise be merely air, the potency to create a sentient being.
People write to me, thanking me for my guidance and they say they now understand that although physically they and me are separate, we are actually one. All that, however, is still superficial knowledge which has been obtained by the consciousness upon its realization that is not the body. But it is only at that stage that the knowledge has remained—on the level of words. They have not really gone beyond.
MY COMMENT:
To me this is the most exquisite and complete statement of the highest teaching, and when I hear his words, my whole body is embraced by bliss. Hearing this understanding creates bliss.
The Paramatman was there, the highest self, the core of the self. This identity is without any stigma. Even the sky cannot touch it. The space cannot touch it. It is subtler than space. It is just like sunrays or moonbeams: they do not get dirty in dirty waters. If such is their purity, what would be the purity of the self, consciousness?
Understand this first moment, when we understood “we are” - the first moment of the body, when it understood “it is.” Recognize that very first moment. Once you grasp this, then you are the highest of the gods, the point at which everything arises. At that very point, everything also sets: the source and the end are the same point. So once you understand this, you are released from that point. Nobody tries to understand this happening of the self, the happening of this “I-Am-ness.” Once It Is Understood, I, the Absolute, am not this “I-am-ness.”
Every creature in the Universe prays to that principle which he considers his God or whatever, but all this can only happen from the time the Life force has awakened until the time that the Life force is no longer working.
In the practice of meditation, this life force gets purified, and then the light of the Atman shines forth. However, the working principle is still the Life force. When this purified life force and the light of the self merge into each other, then the concept, imagination, or mind, everything, is held in abeyance.
When anyone tells you to do some sadhana, with what can you do sadhana of any kind? It can only be this life force. The only instrument one has to do sadhana with is the life force. This life force, instead of viewing it merely as an instrument, has to be treated—mentally accepted - as the highest principle in the world: that is, God, Paramatman, Ishwara, or whatever you want to call it. So that when this life force is pleased, it gets purified and merges with the light of the Atman.
What is creation? Whatever has been created, is it the creation of God, or is it the creation of this life force? By practicing meditation, diligently and continuously, this life force gets purified to such an extent that it attains divinity. Do understand that this life force is God, and God is the life force, and be one with it.
Now when this life force and the highest principle become one in your meditation, then whatever is reached by this merger, signifies the awakening, liberation, call it whatever you like. So, what is liberation? Subjection to the conditioning and obstructions connected with the individual, all that disappears. That is liberation. This life force is the acting principle; and that which gives sentience to the person is the consciousness. The principle is that within the body, consciousness and the prana or life force together are Atman.
It is said that somebody is dead. So what has happened? The life force has gone and the principle behind the life force—that is, this consciousness -has also disappeared. That is all that has happened. I have been explaining the principle, analyzing it, for all these years. But from now on, I have not the energy or inclination to explain all of this again, so I can only say what is to be done, if anything. And the only thing is that nothing is to be done as is generally understood by the word “do,” but merely to sit in contemplation and let the consciousness unfold itself, unfold the knowledge about itself.
You are to do meditation, and in that meditation itself the consciousness will unfold whatever knowledge is to be revealed. But people generally do not go to the root of the matter and explain the principle, which is what I have been doing all these years.
This consciousness and the life force, when they merge they tend to become steady in the Brahmananda. And then all thoughts cease, even the thought that you are sitting in meditation. And that is the start of the samadhi. That state will remain for a while and discontinue again, whatever the reason. And then normal behavior in the world will start. That is, the life force will start its normal work or activities.
Now I am asking: this disease (throat cancer) that I am said to suffer from, to what has this illness come? It has come to this consciousness and the working principle—that is, the life force. These two are concerned with that illness. And I, being apart from it, am not concerned with the illness. But it is one’s duty to keep that life force in reasonably good working order. That is why the medicine was taken in the same way that food is normally taken, so as to keep this consciousness and the Life force in proper working condition.
So, medicine is much like food. But as far as I am concerned, I do not really care whether this life principle and the consciousness work or not, because I am totally apart from it, beyond it and tired of it. The Life force and the consciousness are not really two; as a concept they are treated as such but they are really one. As soon as a form is created, the life force is infused in that form, and sentience is automatically present. There is a physical form and the life force, and in the absence of the consciousness there would only be a technically alive body. But merely that life force within the body—what is the use of it?
It has no meaning, no function unless consciousness is also present. So it is this consciousness which gives this life force, which would otherwise be merely air, the potency to create a sentient being.
People write to me, thanking me for my guidance and they say they now understand that although physically they and me are separate, we are actually one. All that, however, is still superficial knowledge which has been obtained by the consciousness upon its realization that is not the body. But it is only at that stage that the knowledge has remained—on the level of words. They have not really gone beyond.
MY COMMENT:
To me this is the most exquisite and complete statement of the highest teaching, and when I hear his words, my whole body is embraced by bliss. Hearing this understanding creates bliss.
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