Fwd: [ANetofJewels] Pointers From Nisagargadatta Maharaj - Chapter 13

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Love And God

Pointers From Nisargadatta Maharaj

By Ramesh Balsekar

Chapter 13

 

The dialogue, one evening, was started by a young Canadian, wearing a

Lungi and a thin Kurta. He said he was twenty-three, but looked barely out

of his teens. He wore around his neck an elegant little silver cross on a

dainty chain. He said he had come across the book I Am That in a bookshop

in Bombay a couple of days ago. A cursory glance at a few pages impelled

in him a desire to meet Maharaj personally. He had already gone through

the book reading almost continuously, through the afternoon, evening and

night, and had finished both volumes only a few hours ago.

 

Maharaj: You are so young. I wonder since what age you have been

interested in the spiritual quest.

Visitor: Sir, ever since I remember I have been deeply interested in Love

and God. And I strongly felt that they are not different. When I sit in

meditation, I often......

 

Maharaj: Wait a moment. What exactly do you mean by meditation?

Visitor: I don't really know. All I do is to sit cross-legged, close my

eyes, and remain absolutely quiet. I find my body relaxing, almost melting

away, and my mind, or being or whatever merging into space, and the

thought-process getting gradually suspended.

 

Maharaj: That's good. Please proceed.

Visitor: Quite often, during meditation, an overwhelming feeling of

ecstatic love arises in my heart together with an effusion of

well-being. I do not know what it is. It is during one such spell that I

felt inspired to visit India -- and here I am.

 

Maharaj: How long will you be in Bombay?

Visitor: I really don't know. I rarely make any plans. I have sufficient

money to live frugally for about fifteen days, and I have my return ticket.

 

Maharaj: Now tell me, what is it exactly that you want to know. do you

have any specific questions?

Visitor: I was a very confused man when I landed in Bombay. I felt I was

almost going out of my mind. I really don't know what took me to the

bookshop because I don't do much reading. The moment I picked up the first

volume of I Am That, I experienced the same overpowering feeling that I get

during my meditation. As I went on reading the book a weight seemed to

lift off from within me, and, as I am sitting here before you, I feel as if

I am talking to myself. And what I am saying to myself seems like

blasphemy. I was convinced that love is God. But now I think that love is

surely a concept and if love is a concept God also must be a concept.

 

Maharaj: So, what is wrong in it?

Visitor: (Laughing) Now, if you put it like that I have no feeling of

guilt in transforming God into a concept.

 

Maharaj: Actually, you said love is God. What do you mean by the word

'love'. Do you mean 'love' as the opposite of 'hate'? Or, do you mean

something else, although, of course, no word can be adequate to describe 'God'.

Visitor: No. No. By the word 'love' I certainly do not mean the opposite

of hate. What I mean is that love is abstaining from discrimination as

'me' and the 'other'.

 

Maharaj: In other words, unity of being?

Visitor: Yes, indeed. What then is 'God " to whom I am expected to pray?

 

Maharaj: Let us talk about prayer later. Now then, what exactly is this

'God' you are talking about? Is he not the very consciousness -- the sense

of 'being' that one has -- because of which you are able to ask

questions? 'I am' itself is God. What is it that you love most? Is it

not this 'I am', the conscious presence which you want to preserve at any

cost? The seeking itself is God. In seeking you discover that 'you' are

apart from this body-mind complex. If you were not conscious, would the

world exist for you? Would there be any idea of a God? And, the

consciousness in you and the consciousness in me -- are they

different? Are they not separate only as concepts, seeking unity

unconceived, and is that not love?

Visitor: Now, I understand what is meant by 'God is nearer to me than I am

to myself'.

 

Maharaj: Also remember, there can can be no proof of Reality other than

being it. Indeed you are it, and have always been. Consciousness leaves

with the end of the body (and is therefore time-bound) and with it leaves

the duality which is the basis of consciousness and manifestation.

Visitor: What then is prayer, and what is its purpose?

 

Maharaj: Prayer, as it is generally understood, is nothing but begging for

something. Actually, prayer means communion-uniting-Yoga.

Visitor: Everything is so clear now, as if a great deal of rubbish has

been suddenly thrown out of my system, blown out of existence.

 

Maharaj: Do you mean that you now seem to see everything clearly?

Visitor: No. No! Not 'seems'. It is clear, so clear that I am now

amazed that it was not clear at any time. Various statements that I had

read in the Bible, which seemed important but vague before, are now crystal

clear -- statements like: Before Abraham was I am; I and my father are one;

I am that I am.

 

Maharaj: Good. Now that you know what it is all about, what Sadhana will

you do to obtain liberation from your 'bondage'?

Visitor: Ah! Maharaj. Now you are surely making fun of me. Or are you

testing me? Surely, now I know and have realized that I am that -- I am,

which I have always been and which I shall always be. What is left to be

done? Or, undone? And who is to do it? And for what purpose?

 

Maharaj: Excellent! Just be.

Visitor: I shall, indeed.

 

Then, the young Canadian prostrated before Maharaj, his eyes brimming

with tears of gratitude and joy. Maharaj asked him if he would be coming

again, and the lad said: " Honestly, I don't know. " When he left, Maharaj

sat for a while with his eyes closed, the gentlest of smiles on his

lips. He then said very softly: " A rare one " ' I could barely catch the

words.

 

I never saw the young Canadian again, and I have often wondered about him.