today's Nisargadatta (on religion, and words)

[Guest guest]

Questioner: There can be no religion without words.

 

Nisargadatta Maharaj: Recorded religions are mere heaps of verbiage. Religions

show their true face in action, in silent action. To know what man believes,

watch how he acts. For most of the people service of their bodies and their

minds is their religion. They may have religious ideas, but they do not act on

them. They play with them, they are often very fond of them, but they will not

act on them.

 

Questioner: Words are needed for communication.

 

Nisargadatta: For exchange of information -- yes. But real communication between

people is not verbal. For establishing and maintaining relationship affectionate

awareness expressed in direct action is required. Not what you say, but what you

do is that matters.

 

Words are made by the mind and are meaningful only on the level of the mind. The

word `bread': neither can you eat nor live by it; it merely conveys an idea. It

acquires meaning only with the actual eating. In the same sense am I telling you

that the Normal State is not verbal. I may say it is wise love expressed in

action, but these words convey little, unless you experience them in their

fullness and beauty.

 

Words have their limited usefulness, but we put no limits to them and bring

ourselves to the brink of disaster. Our noble ideas are finely balanced by

ignoble actions. We talk of God, Truth and Love, but instead of direct

experience we have definitions. Instead of enlarging and deepening action we

chisel our definitions. And we imagine that we know what we can define!

 

Questioner: How can one convey experience except through words?

 

Nisargadatta: Experience cannot be conveyed through words. It comes with action.

A man who is intense in his experience will radiate confidence and courage.

Others too will act and gain experience born out of action. Verbal teaching has

its use, it prepares the mind for voiding itself of its accumulations.

 

A level of mental maturity is reached when nothing external is of any value and

the heart is ready to relinquish all. Then the real has a chance and it grasps

it. Delays, if any, are caused by the mind being unwilling to see or to discard.