Appendices 1 and 2 of I Am That (and that is That) not 1/2 but ALL

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Appendix-1: Nisarga Yoga

In the humble abode of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, but for the electric

lights and the noises of the street traffic, one would not know in

which period of human history one dwells. There is an atmosphere of

timelessness about his tiny room; the subjects discussed are

timeless -- valid for all times; the way they are expounded and

examined is also timeless; the centuries, millennia and yugas fall

off and one deals with matters immensely ancient and eternally new.

 

The discussions held and teachings given would have been the same ten

thousand years ago and will be the same ten thousand years hence.

There will always be conscious beings wondering about the fact of

their being conscious and enquiring into its cause and aim. Whence am

I? Who am I? Whither am I? Such questions have no beginning and no

end. And it is crucial to know the answers, for without a full

understanding of oneself, both in time and in timelessness, life is

but a dream, imposed on us by powers we do not know, for purposes we

cannot grasp.

 

Maharaj is not a learned. There is no erudition behind his homely

Marathi; authorities he does not quote, scriptures are rarely

mentioned; the astonishingly rich spiritual heritage of India is

implicit in him rather than explicit. No rich Ashram was ever built

around him and most of his followers are humble working people

cherishing the opportunity of spending an hour with him from time to

time.

 

Simplicity and humility are the keynotes of his life and teachings;

physically and inwardly he never takes the higher seat; the essence

of being on which he talks, he sees in others as clearly as he sees

it in himself. He admits that while he is aware of it, others are not

yet, but this difference is temporary and of little importance,

except to the mind and its ever-changing content. When asked about

his Yoga, he says he has none to offer, no system t propound, no

theology, cosmology, psychology or philosophy. He knows the real

nature -- his own and his listeners' -- and he points it out. The

listener cannot see it because he cannot see the obvious, simply and

directly. All he knows, he knows with his mind, stimulated with the

senses. That the mind is a sense in itself, he does not even suspect.

 

The Nisarga Yoga, the `natural' Yoga of Maharaj, is disconcertingly

simple -- the mind, which is all-becoming, must recognise and

penetrate its own being, not as being this or that, here or there,

then or now, but just as timeless being.

 

This timeless being is the source of both life and consciousness. In

terms of time, space and causation it is all-powerful, being the

causeless cause; all-pervading, eternal, in the sense of being

beginningless, endless and ever-present. Uncaused, it is free; all-

pervading, it knows; undivided, it is happy. It lives, it loves, and

it has endless fun, shaping and re-shaping the universe. Every man

has it, every man is it, but not all know themselves as they are, and

therefore identify themselves with the name and shape of their bodies

and the contents of their consciousness.

 

To rectify this misunderstanding of one's reality, the only way is to

take full cognisance of the ways of one's mind and to turn it into an

instrument of self-discovery. The mind was originally a tool in the

struggle for biological survival. It had to learn the laws and ways

of Nature working hand-in-hand can raise life to a higher level. But,

in the process the mind acquired the art of symbolic thinking and

communication, the art and skill of language. Words became important.

Ideas and abstractions acquired an appearance of reality, the

conceptual replaced the real, with the result that man now lives in a

verbal world, crowded with words and dominated by words.

 

Obviously, for dealing with things and people words are exceedingly

useful. But they make us live in a world totally symbolic and,

therefore, unreal. To break out from this prison of the verbal mind

into reality, one must be able to shift one's focus from the word to

what it refers to, the thing itself.

 

The most commonly used word and most pregnant with feelings, and

ideas is the word `I'. Mind tends to include in it anything and

everything, the body as well as the Absolute. In practice it stands

as a pointer to an experience which is direct, immediate and

immensely significant. To be, and to know that one is, is most

important. And to be of interest, a thing must be related to one's

conscious existence, which is the focal point of every desire and

fear. For, the ultimate aim of every desire is to enhance and

intensify this sense of existence, while all fear is, in its essence,

the fear of self-extinction.

 

To delve into the sense of `I' -- so real and vital -- in order to

reach its source is the core of Nisarga Yoga. Not being continuous,

the sense of `I' must have a source from which it flows and to which

it returns. This timeless source of conscious being is what Maharaj

calls the self-nature, self-being, swarupa.

 

As to the methods of realising one's supreme identity with self-

being, Maharaj is peculiarly non-committal. He says that each has his

own way to reality, and that there can be no general rule. But, for

all the gateway to reality, by whatever road one arrives to it, is

the sense of `I am'. It is through grasping the full import of the `I

am', and going beyond it to its source, that one can realise the

supreme state, which is also the primordial and the ultimate. The

difference between the beginning and the end lies only in the mind.

When the mind is dark or turbulent, the source is not perceived. When

it is clear and luminous, it becomes a faithful reflection of the

source. The source is always the same -- beyond darkness and light,

beyond life and death, beyond the conscious and the unconscious.

 

This dwelling on the sense `I am' is the simple, easy and natural

Yoga, the Nisarga Yoga. There is no secrecy in it and no dependence;

no preparation is required and no initiation. Whoever is puzzled by

his very existence as a conscious being and earnestly wants to find

his own source, can grasp the ever-present sense of `I am' and dwell

on it assiduously and patiently, till the clouds obscuring the mind

dissolve and the heart of being is seen in all its glory.

 

The Nisarga Yoga, when persevered in and brought to its fruition,

results in one becoming conscious and active in what one always was

unconsciously and passively. There is no difference in kind -- only

in manner -- the difference between a lump of gold and a glorious

ornament shaped out of it. Life goes on, but it is spontaneous and

free, meaningful and happy.

 

Maharaj most lucidly describes this natural, spontaneous state, but

as the man born blind cannot visualise light and colours, so is the

unenlightened mind unable to give meaning to such descriptions.

Expressions like dispassionate happiness, affectionate detachment,

timelessness and causelessness of things and being -- they all sound

strange and cause no response. Intuitively we feel they have a deep

meaning, and they even create in us a strange longing for the

ineffable, a forerunner of things to come, but that is all. As

Maharaj puts it: words are pointers, they show the direction but they

will not come along with us. Truth is the fruit of earnest action,

words merely point the way.

 

Maurice Frydman

 

Appendix-2: Navnath Sampradaya

Hinduism comprises numerous sects, creeds and cults and the origin of

most of them is lost in antiquity. The Nath Sampradaya, later known

as the Navnath Sampradaya, is one of them. Some scholars are of the

view that this sect originated with the teachings of the mythical

Rishi Dattatreya, who is believed to be a combined incarnation of the

holy trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The unique spiritual

attainments of this legendary figure are mentioned in the Bhagavata

Purana, the Mahabharata and also in some later Upanishads. Others

hold that it is an offshoot of the Hatha Yoga.

 

Whatever be its origin, the teachings of the Nath Sampradaya have,

over the centuries, become labyrinthine in complexity and have

assumed different forms in different parts of India. Some Gurus of

the Sampradaya lay stress on bhakti, devotion; others on jnana,

knowledge; still others on yoga, the union with the ultimate. In the

fourteenth century we find Svatmarama Svami, the great Hathayogin,

bemoaning `the darkness arising out of multiplicity of opinions' to

displel which he lit the lamp of his famous work Hathayogapradipika.

 

According to some learned commentators, the Nath Gurus propound that

the entire creation is born out of nada (sound), the divine

principle, and bindu (light), the physical principle and the Supreme

Reality from which these two principles emanate is Shiva. Liberation

according to them is merging of the soul into Shiva through the

process of laya, dissolution of the human ego, the sense of I-ness.

 

In the day-to-day instructions to their devotees, however, the Nath

Gurus seldom refer to the metaphysics discovered by the scholars in

their teachings. In fact their approach is totally non-metaphysical,

simple and direct. While the chanting of sacred hyms and devotional

songs as well as the worship of the idols is a traditional feature of

the sect, its teaching emphasises that the Supreme Reality can be

realised only within the heart.

 

The Nath Sampradaya came to be known as Navnath Sampradaya when

sometime in the remote past, the followers of the sect chose nine of

their early Gurus as examplars of their creed. Bur there is no

unanimity regarding the names of these nine Masters. The most widely

accepted list however is as follows:

 

1. Matsyendranath

2. Gorakhnath

3. Jalandharnath

4. Kantinath

5. Gahininath

6. Bhartrinath

7. Revananath

8. Charpatnath

9. Naganath

 

Of these nine Masters, Gahaninath and Revananath had large followings

in the southern part of India, including Maharashtra, the state to

which Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj belongs. Revananath is said to have

founded a sub-sect of his own and chose Kadasiddha as his chief

disciple and successor. The latter initiated Lingajangam Maharaj and

Bhausahib Maharaj and entrusted to their care his Ashram and the

propagation of his teaching. Bhausahib Maharaj later established what

came to be known as Inchegeri Sampradaya, a new movement within the

traditional fold. Among his disciples were Amburao Maharaj,

Girimalleshwar Maharaj, Siddharameshwar Maharaj and the noted

philosopher Dr. R. D. Renade. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is the direct

disciple and successor of Siddharameshwar Maharaj.

 

It may be mentioned here that, though officially the current Guru of

the Inchegeri branch of the Navnath Sampradaya, Sri Nisargadatta does

not seem to attach much importance to sects, cults and creeds,

including his own. In answer to a questioner whi wished to join the

Navnath Sampradaya he said: " The Navnath Sampradaya is only a

tradition, a way of teaching and practice. It does not denote a level

of consciousness. If you accept a Navnath Sampradaya teacher as your

Guru, you join his Sampradaya... Your belonging is a matter of your

own feeling and conviction. After all it is all verbal and formal. In

reality there is neither Guru nor disciple, neither theory nor

practice, neither ignorance nor realisation. It all depends upon what

you take yourself to be. Know yourself correctly. There is no

substitute for self-knowledge "

 

The teaching of Nath Sampradaya offers the seeker the royal road to

liberation, a road in which all the four by-lanes of bhakti, jnana,

karma and dhyana of Lord Shiva, in his hagiography, entitled

Nathlingamrita, claims that the path shown by the Nath sect is the

best of all and it leads to direct liberation.