Nisargadatta Maharaj says Give up All and You Gain All

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Q: Your particular existence and my particular existence, do they both exist

in the mind of Brahma?

 

M: The universal is not aware of the particular. The existence as a person

is a personal matter. A person exists in time and space, has name and shape,

beginning and end; the universal includes all persons and the absolute is at

the root of and beyond all.

 

Q: Surely there must be something in common between the many points of

consciousness we are.

 

M: Where are the many points? In your mind. You insist that your world is

independent of your mind. How can it be? Your desire to know other people's

minds is due to your not knowing your own mind.First know your own mind and

you will find that the question of other minds does not arise at all, for

there are no other people.You are the common factor, the only link between

the minds. Being is consciousness; 'I am' applies to all.

 

Q: There are affections in the dream which seem real and everlasting. Do

they disappear on waking up?

 

M: In dream you love some and not others. On waking up you find you are love

itself, embracing all. Personal love, however intense and genuine,

invariably binds; love in freedom is love of all.

 

Q: So there is no way to gain detachment?

 

M: There is nothing to gain. Abandon all imaginings and know yourself as you

are. Self-knowledge is detachment. All craving is due to a sense of

insufficiency. When you know that you lack nothing, that all there is, is

you and yours, desire ceases.

 

Q: To know myself must I practise awareness?

 

M: There is nothing to practise. To know yourself, be yourself. To be

yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true

nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking.

 

Q: It will take much time if I Just wait for self-realisation.

 

M: What have you to wait for when it is already here and now? You have only

to look and see. Look at your self, at your own being. You know that you are

and you like it. Abandon all imagining, that is all. Do not rely on time.

Time is death. Who waits -- dies. Life is now only. Do not talk to me about

past and future -- they exist only in your mind.

 

Q: How can I find peace when the world suffers?

 

M: The world suffers for very valid reasons. If you want to help the world,

you must be beyond the need of help. Then all your doing as well as not

doing will help the world most effectively.

 

Q: How can non-action be of use where action is needed?

 

M: Where action is needed, action happens. Man is not the actor. His is to

be aware of what is going on. His very presence is action. The window is the

absence of the wall and it gives air and light because it is empty. Be empty

of all mental content, of all imagination and effort, and the very absence

of obstacles will cause reality to rush in. If you really want to help a

person, keep away. If you are emotionally committed to helping, you will

fail to help. You may be very busy and be very pleased with your charitable

nature, but not much will be done. A man is really helped when he is no

longer in need of help. All else is just futility.

 

Q: There is not enough time to sit and wait for help to happen. One must do

something.

 

M: By all means -- do. But what you can do is limited; the self alone is

unlimited. Give limitlessly -- of yourself. All else you can give in small

measures only. You alone are immeasurable. To help is your very nature. Even

when you eat and drink you help your body. For yourself you need nothing.

You are pure giving, beginning-less, endless, inexhaustible. When you see

sorrow and suffering, be with it. Do not rush into activity. Neither

learning nor action can really help. Be with sorrow and lay bare its roots

-- helping to understand is real help.

 

Q: My death is nearing.

 

M: Your body is short of time, not you. Time and space are in the mind only.

You are not bound. Just understand yourself -- that itself is eternity.

 

Source: I am That By Nisargadatta Maharaj

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/05/nisargadatta-maharaj-says-give-up\

-all.html

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prashant Jalasutram