Prior to Consciousness 7/6/80 Nisargadatta

[Guest guest]

Maharaj: What ever goes on in the world is based on the life force {prana

shakti}, but the Atman, the witnesser, is totally apart; no action can be

attributed to the Atman.

So long as you have not understood prana shakti, the vital breath - so long

as you do not recognize it, whatever the mind tells you, you are bound to take

as certain. Those concepts which the mind gives you will be final for you.

Q: What are the four type of speech?

M: They are, para {source consciousness}, then pashyanti {the emanation of

thoughts},

then madhyama {formation of thoughts-words}, and vaikhari {language explodes

out}. The ordinary ignorant person is not aware of para and pashyanti, which

starts the whole process, they are too subtle: he starts working on madhyama,

which is also identified with the mind, and comes out with words {vaikhari}

The mind throws out words and thoughts, and through these we have mistaken

our identity as "me" or "mine" whereas whatever takes place is independent of

the one who witnesses and is based entirely on the live force. This

consciousness has mistakenly identified itself with the body, and with thoughts

or words. It considers itself to be guilty of something, or that is has

acquired merit by some action, whereas everything merely takes place through the

action of the life force.

The one who understands this vital breath, the life force, is beyond all

metal concepts The one who has not understood it is a slave to his thoughts.

Q: After prolonged use of the mantra, will it get dissolved?

M: Both the mantra and the faith in the mantra will get dissolved. There is a

purpose in the mantra. In India the mantra has great efficacy. By

concentrating of the mantra the form behind the mantra will appear out of the

ether, but all this is time bound. Man has evolved all kinds of things for his

own preservation, the preservation of the consciousness.

I am no any longer concerned with, and no longer want, the continuation of

either the body or the vital breath.

That bundle of the three states and three attributes has been born, and

whatever happens, to that bundle, and I am not concerned with it. That is why I

am totally fearless, without any reaction to a disease which would be traumatic

to others.

Having known that I am not that which has been born, yet there is some

little attachment to that with which I have been associated for a long time - it

is a speck of attachment because of eighty - four years' association. Say I

meet someone from my hometown whom I have known for a long time, he comes and he

goes away, so I bid him goodbye, and there is that little speck of attachment

because I have known him for a long time.

The consciousness which is born thinks that is is the body and works

through the three gunas, but I have nothing to do with this, the whole thing is

an illusion.

Q: Will there be no continuation of memories after death?

M: Only if there is sugar cane, or sugar will there be sweetness. If the body

is not there, how can there be memories, the beingness itself is gone.

Q: How does one know what remains?

M: There are twenty people in this room all twenty people leave, then what

remains is there, but someone who has left cannot understand what it is. So it

that Parabrahman which is without attributes, without identity, unconditioned ,

who is there to ask?

This is to be understood but not by someone: the experience and the

experiencer must be one, you must become the experience. What is this

Parabrahman like? The answer what is Bombay? Don't give me the geography or the

atmosphere of Bombay, give me a handful of Bombay. What is Bombay? It is

impossible to say, so also with Parabrahman. There is not giving or taking of

Parabrahman, you can only be that.

Q: We want to the state which Maharaj enjoys.

M: The eternal Truth is there, but for witnessing it is of no use. You give up

this study in the name of religion or spirituality, or whatever you are trying

to study. Do only one thing, that "I Amness" or consciousness is the Godliest

principle; it is there only so long as the vital breath is there - it is

presently you nature. You worship that only. That " I Amness" is something

like the sweetness of the sugar cane, abide in the sweetness of you beingness,

then only you will reach and abide in eternal peace.

Q: I feel the life force energy polarized and intensified in my body in the

presence of Maharaj.

N: In practicing meditation the life force gets purified, and when it is

purified the light of the Self shines forth, but the working principle is the

life force. When this purified life force and the light of the Atman {Self}

merge, then the concept, the mind, the imagination, everything is taken away.

The life force is the acting principle and that which gives sentience to the

person is the consciousness.

Q: This is what the tradition of shiva and shakti signifies?

M: Shiva means the consciousness and Shakti is the life force. People go by

various names which have been given, and forget the basic principle.

Merely sit in contemplation and let the consciousness unfold itself. What

have you understood?

Q: The consciousness starts to get a greater sense of itself, and the prana and

the body's energy become intensified and polarized, it seems to be part of the

purification.

M: When this consciousness and the prana shakti {life force} merge, they tend

to go and become steady in the Brahma-randra, and then all thoughts cease. This

is the start of samadhi. Then one comes back again and the life force starts

its normal activities.