Tag: Nisargadatta Maharaj

The true knowledge of the self is not…

The true knowledge of the self is not a knowledge. It is not something that you find by searching, by looking everywhere. It is not to be found in space and time. Knowledge is but a memory, a pattern of thought, a mental habit. All these are motivated by pleasure and pain. It is because you are goaded by pleasure and pain that you are in search of knowledge. Being oneself is completely beyond all motivation. You cannot be yourself for some reason. You are yourself and no reason is needed.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

Once you know that death happens to the…

Once you know that death happens to the body and not to you, you just watch your body falling off like a discarded garment. Once you know that the body alone dies and not the continuity of memory and the sense of “I am” reflected in it, you are afraid no longer.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj

There is no permanent form Whatever appears is…

There is no permanent form. Whatever appears is a state and has to disappear. Anything that is sensorially seen and interpreted by the mind is an appearance in consciousness, and is not true. What you see is not what is. Appearances will dissolve on investigation and the underlying reality will come to the surface. All appearance and disappearance presupposes a change against some changeless background.

Fascinated by names and forms, which are by their very nature distinct and diverse, you distinguish what is natural and separate what is one. From the bodily standpoint, all forms appear as separate entities. But at the consciousness level, they are consciousness-manifest and not separate.

You have no innate form. You have no form, no design. The names and forms you see are your consciousness only. The forms are only instruments for the functioning of consciousness. You are not the form but the consciousness which gives sentience to the form.

-Nisargadatta Maharaj