Nisargadatta Maharaj

[Guest guest]

Desirelessness, the Highest Bliss

 

Q: I have met many realized people, but never a liberated man. Have

you come across a liberated man, or does liberation mean, among other

things, also abandoning the body?

M: What do you mean by realization and liberation?

Q: By realization I mean a wonderful experience of peace, goodness and

beauty, when the world makes sense and there is an all-pervading unity

of both substance and essence. While such experience does not last, it

cannot be forgotten. It shines in the mind, both as memory and

longing. I know what I am talking about, for I have had such

experiences. By liberation I mean to be permanently in that wonderful

state. What I am asking is, whether liberation is compatible with the

survival of the body?

M: What is wrong with the body?

Q: The body is so weak and short-lived. It creates needs and cravings.

It limits one grievously.

M: So what? Let the physical expression be limited. But liberation is

of the self from its false and self-imposed ideas; it is not contained

in some particular experience, however glorious.

Q: Does it last forever?

M: All experience is time-bound. Whatever has a beginning must have

and end.

Q: So liberation, in my sense of the word, does not exist?

M: On the contrary, one is always free. You are, both conscious and

free to be conscious. Nobody can take this away from you. Do you ever

know yourself non-existing, or unconscious?

Q: I may not remember, but that does not disprove my being

occasionally unconscious

M: Why not turn away from the experience to the experiencer and

realize the full import of the only true statement you can make,'I am'?

Q: How is it done?

M: There is no 'how' here. Just keep in mind the feeling 'I am', merge

in it, till you mind and feeling become one. By repeated attempts you

will stumble on the right balance of attention and affection and your

mind will be firmly established in the thought-feeling 'I am'. What

ever you think say, or do, this sense of immutable and affectionate

being remains as the ever-present background of the mind.

Q: And you call it liberation?

M: I call it normal. What is wrong with being, knowing and acting

effortlessly and happily? Why consider it so unusual as to expect the

immediate destruction of the body? What is wrong with the body that is

should die: correct you attitude to your body and leave it alone.

Don't pamper, don't torture. Just keep it going, most of the time

below the threshold of conscious attention.

Q: The memory of my wonderful experiences haunts me. I want them back.

M: Because you want them back you cannot have them. The state of

craving for anything blocks all deeper experience. Nothing of value

can happen to a mind which knows exactly what it wants. For nothing

the mind can visualize and want is of much value.

Q: Then what is worth wanting?

M: Want the best. The highest happiness, the greatest freedom.

Desirelessness is the highest bliss.

Q: Freedom from desire is not the freedom I want. I want the freedom

to fulfill my longing.

M: You are free to fulfill your longings. As a matter of fact, you are

doing nothing else.

Q: I try, but there are obstacles which leave me frustrated.

M: Overcome them.

Q:: I cannot, I am too weak.

M: What makes you weak? What is weakness? Others fulfill their

desires, why don't you?

Q: I must be lacking energy.

M: What happened to your energy? Where did it go? Did you not scatter

it over so many contradictory desires and pursuits? You don't have an

infinite supply of energy.

Q: Why not?

M: Your aims are small and low. They do not call for more. Only God's

energy is infinite - because He wants nothing for Himself. Be like Him

and all you desires will be fulfilled. The higher your aims and vaster

you desires, the more energy you will have for their fulfillment.

Desire the good of all and the universe will work with you. But if you

want your own pleasure, you must earn it the hard way. Before

desiring, deserve.

Q: I am engaged in the study of philosophy, sociology and education. I

think more mental development is needed before I can dream of

self-realization. Am I on the right track?

M: To earn a livelihood some specialized knowledge is needed.

Generally knowledge develops the mind, no doubt. but if you are going

to spend your life in amassing knowledge, you build a wall round

yourself. To go beyond the mind, a well-furnished mind is not needed.

Q: Then what is needed?

M: Distrust your mind, and go beyond.

Q:: What shall I find beyond the mind?

M: The direct experience of being, knowing and loving.

Q: How does one go beyond the mind?

M: There are many starting points - they all lead to the same goal.

you may begin with selfless work, abandoning the fruits of action; you

may then give up thinking and end giving up all desires. Here, giving

up (tyaga) is the operational factor. Or, you may not bother about

anything you want, or think, or do and just stay put in the thought

and feeling 'I am', focusing 'I am' firmly in your mind. All kinds of

experiences my come to you-remain unmoved in the knowledge that all

perceivable is transient, and only the 'I am' endures.

Q: I cannot give all my life to such practices. I have my duties to

attend to.

M: By all means attend to your duties. Action of which you are not

emotionally involved and which is beneficial and does not cause

suffering will not bind you. You may be engaged in several directions

and work with enormous zest, yet remain inwardly free and quite, with

a mirror-like mind, which reflects all, without being affected.

Q: Is such a state realizable?

M: I would not talk about it, if it were not. Why should I engage

in fancies?

Q: Everybody quotes scriptures.

M: Those who know only scriptures know nothing. To know is to be. I

know what I am talking about; it is not from reading, or hearsay.

Q: I am studying Sanskrit under a professor, but really I am only

reading scriptures. I am in search of self-realization and I came

to get the needed guidance. Kindly tell me what am I to do?

M: Since you have read the scriptures, why do you ask me?

Q: The scriptures show the general directions but the individual

needs personal instruction.

M: Your own self is your ultimate teacher (sadguru). The outer

teacher (Guru) is merely a millstone. it is only your inner teacher,

that will walk with you to the goal, for his is the goal.

Q: The inner teacher is not easily reached.

M: Since he is in you and with you, the difficulty cannot be serious.

Look within, and you will find him.

Q: When I look within, I find sensations and perceptions, thought and

feeling, desires and fears, memories and expectations. I am immersed

in this cloud and see nothing else.

M: That which sees all that, and the nothing too, is the inner

teacher. he alone is, all else only appears to be. He is your own self

(swarupa) your hope and assurance of freedom; find him and cling to

him and you will be saved and safe.

Q:: I do believe you, but when it comes to the actual finding of this

inner self, I find it escapes me.

M: The idea 'it escapes me', where does it arise?

Q: In the mind.

M: And who knows the mind?

Q: The witness of the mind knows the mind.

M: Did anybody come to you and say; 'I am the witness of your mind'?

Q; Of course not. He would have been just another idea in the

Mind.

M: Then who it the witness?

Q: I am.

M: So, you know the witness because you are the witness. You need not

see the witness in front of you. Here again, to be is to know.

Q: Yes, I see that I am the witness, the awareness itself. But in

which way does it profit me?

M: What a question! What kind of profit do you expect? To know what

you are, is it not good enough?

Q: What are the uses of self-knowledge?

M: It helps you to understand what you are not and keeps you free from

false ideas, desires and actions.

Q; If I am the witness only, what do right and wrong matter?

M: What helps you to know yourself is right. What prevents, is

wrong. To know one's real self is bliss, to forget - is sorrow.

Q:: Is the witness-consciousness the real Self?

M: It is the reflection of the real in the mind (buddhi. The real is

beyond. The wilderness is the door through which you pass beyond.

Q: What is the purpose of meditation?

M: Seeing the false as the false, is meditation. This must go on all

the time.

Q: We are told to meditate regularly.

M: Deliberate daily exercise in discrimination between the true and

the false and renunciation of the false is meditation. There are many

kinds of meditation to being with, but they all merge finally into one.

Q: Please tell me which road to self-realization is the shortest.

M: No way is short of long, but some people are more in earnest and

some as less. I can tell you about myself. I was a simple man, but I

trusted my Guru. What he told me to do, I did. He told me to

concentrate on 'I am' - I did. He told me that I am beyond all

perceivable and conceivables. - I believed. I gave him my heart and

soul, my entire attention and the whole of my spare time (I had to

work to keep my family alive). As a result of faith and earnest

application I realized my self (swarupa) within three years. You may

chose any way that suits you; your earnestness will determine the rate

of progress.

Q: No hint for me?

M: Establish yourself firmly in the awareness of 'I am'. This is the

beginning and also the end of all endeavor.