Nisargadatta..Pain & You do not remain in your real state

[Guest guest]

>From Prior to Consciousness, editor Jean Dunn.

May 11, 1980

 

M: In the body the consciousness does the witnessing; the behavior is done by

the three gunas. Consciousness is all-pervading, spacelike, without form.

If one has an illness or pain, is there a from to that? It is only a

movement in consciousness. The knower of consciousness cannot feel the pain, and

it is only because consciousness has identified itself with the body that the

body feels pain. When consciousness is not there, even if the body is cut,

there is no pain. It is not the body which feels pain. When there is a

disturbance in the balance of the five elements, illness comes and the illness

or pain is felt in the consciousness.

Just as in the winter the heat gets less and less, as this identification

with the body gets less and less the pain that is felt gets less and less, to a

degree that, with complete disidentification with the body, on can put his hand

in the fire and not feel the pain. The effect of the fire will be there, but

the pain will not be felt.

Now, say that I am feeling a pain at a particular moment, and something

happens and my mind gets diverted. With this diversion of the new happening I

won't feel the pain. The effect of the fire will be there, but the pain will

not be felt.

Now, say that I am feeling a pain at a particular moment, and something

happens and my mind gets diverted. With this diversion of the new happening I

won't feel and itch all over the body and I scratch, but when sitting in public

I don't feel like scratching, so I just tolerate it; in that tolerance it

disappears. Otherwise, sometimes if we start scratching, even if the skin is

scratched off and bleeding starts, still the itch will not stop. We have a

saying in Marathi, "Don't provoke itching by scratching," Most pain and

suffering is like this, if you pay attention, it is provoked and you have to

pamper it. Don't pay attention, ignore the symptoms and they are lost. You

must have the capacity to tolerate pain.

The consciousness in the body cannot have any blemish at all - that is the

quality. But when you identify with the body, the, conceptually you might

pollute it, but by nature it is very pure. Vital breath is very pure, and this

beingness is purer that that. I am talking about Atman, the Self. This

knowledge is likely to create a great sense of frustration in one who doesn't

have the right perspective. The intention is to see the state of things in

their correct perspective. Having seen it, live you life in the world to the

best of you ability.

Immortality is beyond time and space; in that timeless, spaceless existence

there is no entry for the five elements, for light or darkness, for the sun or

the moon. Timeless, spaceless existence doesn't know that it is. That is

reality, That is truth.

In any amount of meditation, etc., you do not remain in your real state; it

is only by firm conviction that you are the highest that you stabilize in the

Ultimate.

Normally a common spiritual seeker will not understand what I am driving at

because he is seeking something which they can enjoy. What is your ambition is

being a spiritual seeker: You are looking for advantage in the world, to take

care of your daily life - that is the maximum you expect out of spirituality.

The so-called sages, who are following a spiritual pursuit, focus their

attention on seeing that their daily life goes on comfortably. Why is hell did

I happen to be? Nobody enquires about that.

Only that person will visit this place whose virtue and sin have come to

and end. So long as there is that stigma of the memory that you are a body-mind

you will not understand.

The sum total of all this talk is know as Sat-Guru-Parabrahman. In that

state there are no requirements. My state is that which never felt the creation

and dissolution of the universe. I have not expounded this part. I remain

untouched through the creation and dissolution of the universe.