Nisargadatta Quote 26

"The entire purpose of a clean and well-ordered life is to liberate man from the thaldrom of chaos and the burden of sorrow."

Nisargadatta Quote 25

"Devotion to your goal makes you live a clean and orderly life, given to the search for truth and to helping people, and realization makes noble virtue easy and spontaneous, by removing for good the obstacles in the shape of desires and fears and wrong ideas."

Nisargadatta Quote 24

"Realization is but the opposite of ignorance. To take the world as real and one's self as unreal is ignorance, the cause of sorrow. To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth. Use it."

Nisargadatta Quote 23

"Since it is awareness that makes consciousness possible, there is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore, the very consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Interest in your stream of consciousness takes you to awareness. It is not a new state. It is at once recognized as the original, basic existence, which is life itself, and also love and joy."

Nisargadatta Quote 22

Questioner: "What about witnessing the witness?"
Nisargadatta: "Putting words together will not take you far. Go within and discover what you are not. Nothing else matters."

Nisargadatta Quote 21

Questioner: "Well, you told me that I am the Supreme Reality. I believe you. What next is there for me to do?"

Nisargadatta: "I told you already. Discover all that you are not. Body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, time, space, being and not-being, this or that -- nothing concrete or abstract you can point out to is you. A mere verbal statement will not do -- you may repeat a formula endlessly without any result whatsoever. You must watch yourself continuously -- particularly your mind -- moment by moment, missing nothing. This witnessing is essential for the separation of the self from the not-self."

Nisargadatta Quote 20

"Purify yourself by a well-ordered and useful life. Watch over your thoughts, feelings, words
and actions. This will clear your vision."

Nisargadatta Quote 19

"Use your mind. Remember. Observe. You are not different from others. Most of their experiences are valid for you too. Think clearly and deeply, go into the structure of your desires and their ramifications. They are a most important part of your mental and emotional make-up and powerfully affect your actions. Remember, you cannot abandon what you do not know. To go beyond yourself, you must know yourself."

Nisargadatta Quote 18

"All these sufferings are man-made and it is within man's power to put an end to them. God helps by facing man with the results of his actions and demanding that the balance should be restored. Karma is the law that works for righteousness; it is the healing hand of God."

Nisargadatta Quote 17

"You can have for the asking all the peace you want"
Questioner: "I am asking."
Nisargadatta: "You must ask with an undivided heart and live an integrated life."
Questioner: "How?"
Nisargadatta: "Detach yourself from all that makes your mind restless. Renounce all that disturbs its peace. If you want peace, deserve it."
Questioner: "Surely everybody deserves peace"
Nisargadatta: "Those only deserve it, who don't disturb it."
Questioner: "In what way do I disturb peace?"
Nisargadatta: "By being a slave to your desires and fears."
Questioner: "Even when they are justified?"
Nisargadatta: "Emotional reactions, born of ignorance or inadvertance, are never justified. Seek a clear mind and a clean heart. All you need is to keep quietly alert, inquiring into the real nature of yourself. This is the only way to peace."

Nisargadatta Quote 16

"By elminating the intervals of inadvertance during the waking hours you will gradually eliminate the long interval of absent-mindedness, which you call sleep. You will be aware that you are asleep."

Nisargadatta Quote 15

"Be alert. Question, observe, investigate, learn all you can about confusion, how it operates, what it does to you and others.By being clear about confusion you become clear of confusion."

Nisargadatta Quote 14

Questioner: "I can see the mechanism of my confusion, but I do not see my way out of it." Nisargadatta: "The very examination of the mechanism shows the way. After all, your confusion is only in your mind, which never rebelled so far against confusion and never got to grips with it.
It rebelled only against pain."

Nisargadatta Quote 13

"Every pleasure, physical or mental, needs an instrument. Both the physical and mental instruments are material, they get tired and worn out. The pleasure they yield is necessarily limited in its intensity and duration. Pain is the background of all your pleasures. You want them because you suffer. On the other hand, the very search for pleasure is the cause of pain. It is a vicious circle."

Nisargadatta Quote 12

"True happiness cannot be found in things that change and pass away. Pleasure and pain alternate inexorably. Happiness comes from the self and can be found in the self only. Find your real self (swarupa) and all else will come with it."

Nisargadatta Quote 11

"Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought 'I am'. The mind will rebel in the beginning, but with patience and perserverance it will yield and keep quiet."

Nisargadatta Quote 10

Questioner: "Since I cannot improve sattva, am I to deal with tamas and rajas only? How do I deal with them?" Nisargadatta: "By watching their influence in you and on you. Be aware of them in operation, watch their expression in your thoughts, words and deeds, and gradually their grip on you will lessen and the clear light of sattva will emerge."

Nisargadatta Quote 9

"It is not so much the matter of levels as of gunas (qualities). Meditation is a sattvic (pure, true) activity and aims at complete elimination of tamas (inertia) and rajas (motivity, activity). Pure sattva (harmony) is perfect freedom from sloth and restlessness."

Nisargadatta Quote 8

"We know the outer world of sensations and actions, but of our inner world of thoughts and feelings we know very little. The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness. Incidentally, practice of meditation affects deeply our character. We are slaves to what we do not know; of what we know we are masters. Whatever vice or weakness in ourselves we discover and understand its causes and its workings, we overcome it by the very knowing; the unconscious dissolves when brought into the conscious. The dissolution of the unconscious releases energy; the mind feels adequate and becomes quiet."

Nisargadatta Quote 7

"Take the first step first. All blessings come from within. Turn within. 'I am' you know. Be with it all the time you can spare, until you revert to it spontaneously. There is no simpler and easier way."

Nisargadatta Quote 6

"What is supremely important is to be free from contradictions: the goal and the way must not be on different levels; life and light must not quarrel; behaviour must not betray belief. Call it honesty, integrity, wholeness; you must not go back, undo, uproot, abandon the conquered ground. Tenacity of purpose and honesty in pursuit will bring you to your goal."

Nisargadatta Quote 5

"How do you go about finding anything? By keeping your mind and heart on it. Interest there must be and steady remembrance. To remember what needs to be remembered is the secret of success. You come to it through earnestness"

Nisargadatta Quote 4

"Look at the net and its many contradictions. You do and undo at every step. You want peace, love, happiness and work hard to create pain, hatred and war. You want longevity and overeat,
you want friendship and exploit. See your net as made of such contradictions and remove them --your very seeing will make them go."

Nisargadatta Quote 3

"We discover it by being earnest, by searching, inquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one's life to this discovery."

Nisargadatta Quote 2

"I see what you too could see, here and now,but for the wrong focus of your attention. You give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self.
Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. See how you function, watch the motives and results of your actions. Study the prison you have built around yourself, by inadvertence."

Nisargadatta Quote 1

"Go deep into the sense of 'I am' and you will find. How do you find a thing you have mislaid or forgotton? You keep it in your mind until you recall it.The sense of being, of 'I am' is the first to emerge. Ask yourself whence it comes, or just watch it quietly. When the mind stays in the 'I am', without moving, you enter a state that cannot be verbalized but can be experienced. All you need to do is to try and try again."

What remains over, transcending it all, beyond conception, appropriation, or relinquishment — know That to be the Self. That knowledge is final emancipation.

What notions cause hurdle ?

As long as you are contaminated with notions of me or mine (e.g., my home, my body, my mind, my intellect), the Self will not be found, for it lies beyond cognition and cannot be realised as ‘my Self ’.

Should I say, I am God ? along with the inquiry "Who am I ?" Should I not say, "I am not the mind, intellect, body, etc.?"

You should not give anwers to the mind in the course of your inquiry. The reply should be allowed to come from within. The reply of the individual "I" is not real. Continue to inquire until you get the answer by the method of jnana [the path of knowledge]. This inquiry is called meditation. The inactive, peaceful, full-of-knowledge experience that arises from this state is jnana (Wisdom,knowledge).

Who am I? To whom does the question refer ?

The question refers to the Individual 'I'.

Do you mean the Atman is God ?

You see the difficulty. The Inquiry 'to know the self' is different in method from the meditation 'Soham', "Lord Shiva I am" or "He I am". I rather lay stress upon self-knowledge, for you are first concerned with yourself before you proceed to know the world and its lord.

I don't know, but they say that to withdraw from all sense-activity, thoughts, all life-experiences, i.e. to cease to be active, is the highest state.

If so, what is the difference between this state and deep sleep ? Besides, if it is a state, however exalted it be, that appears and disappears and is, therefore, not natural and normal to the self, how can that represent the eternal presence of the supreme self, which persists in all states and indeed survives them ? It is true that there is such a state.

Can a man move about, act and speak as one who has attained the Siddhi, as is now described ?

Why not ? Do you mean to say that realization of self means to be like a stone or to become nothing ?

What is practice ?

To stick to a position unassailed by thoughts is practice, you are watchful. But the condition grows intense and deeper and deeper when your effort and all responsibilities are taken away from you; that is Siddhi State.

Then it is possible to be without effort, without strain ?

Not only that, it is impossible for you to make an effort beyond a certain extent.

Question:I want to be further enlightened. Should I try to make no effort at all ?

Answer: Here it is impossible for you to be without effort. When you go deeper, it is impossible for you to make any effort.

Question: The I can despense with outside help and by my own effort get into the deeper truth by myself ?

Answer: True. But the very fact that you are possessed of the quest of the self is a manifestation of the Divine grace. It is effulgent in the heart, the inner being, the Real Self. It draws you from within. You have to attempt to get in from without. You attempt is Vichara (Inquiry).

Question: Then Vichara (Inquiry) is not intellectual ?

Answer: No, it is inner quest.

Is rejection of thoughts not necessary ?

No. It may be necessary for a time or for some. You fancy that there is no end if one goes on rejecting every thought when it arises. No. There is no end. If you are vigilant, and make a sustained effort to reject every thought when it rises, you will soon find that you are going deeper and deeper into your own inner self, where there is no need for your effort to reject the thoughts.

If I go on rejecting thoughts can I call it Vichara (Enquiry) ?

It may be a stepping stone. But really Vichara (Inquiry) begins when you cling to your self and are already off the mental movement, the thought-waves.

In Self-enquiry to whom is the question 'Who am I' addressed ?

To whatever you are; to you is given the way for finding out your true identity. The ego-self, when it feels the necessity to know its own origin or impelled to rise above itself, takes the suggestion and goes deeper and there discovers the true source and reality of itself. So the ego-self beginning to know itself ends in perceiving the Self.

What is the way to get rid of other thougths ?

They can only be removed through the powerful effect of the enquiry, 'To whom have these thoughts come?"

Whe I do like this and cling to my self, i.e., the I-thought, other thoughts do come and go, but I say to myself 'Who am I?' and there is no answer

Quesiton continued: forthcoming. To be in this condition is the sadhana, Is it so ?

This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a serious quest of the Self is that the I-thought as a thought disappears, something else from the depths takes hold of you and this is not the 'I' which commenced the quest.

Question: What is the something else ?

Answer: That is the real self, the import of I. It is not the ego. It is the supreme being itself.

You say one can realize the self by a search of it. What is the character of this search ?

You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought which is the "I" thought, that is your self. Let us call this "I" the first thought. Stick to this I-thought and question it to find out what it is. When this question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.