
MAHARAJ: I am not concerned with the miracles happening outside, but only with those happening “™* within me.
In my original non-knowing state I did not know the sense of my being. But all of a sudden the beingness was felt spontaneously; this is the first miracle. Then in a flash I observed this enormous manifest world and also my body. Later, I conceived that the entire universe has manifested in the speck of my beingness only.
Why not pay attention to these miracles? A lot of miracles happen, each greater than the other. But what about these ones, I repeat. First, there was no message “I am” and also there was no world. Instantly, the message “IJ am” and this magnificent world materialized out of “nothingness”! How amazing!
This message “I am” is nothing other than the advertisement of the Eternal Truth. Similarly, the names, titles and forms of sages, seers and Mahatmas are merely announcements of the same principles. For example, when you prepare a number of dishes out of wheat, various names are given to them, but it is the wheat that is the basis for all the dishes.
To stabilize me in this Eternal Principle, my guru initiated me by pronouncing the sacred words tat tvam asi, which means “I Am That.” From that moment onwards, I lost all interest in worldly affairs.
These sacred words are called the maha-vakya, which is a profound statement charged with sublime meanings.
VISITOR: What does “I am That” mean?
M: The word “That” in the statement refers to everything that is in the totality.
V: Can one get an inkling of the eternal state from any experiences obtained through the body and the world?
M: Certainly not. It is a non-experiential state. Prior to experiencing, what was my state? Who was there to reply to this? This is to be understood.
In that primordial state, I had no information about myself. Now a form, together with the information “I am,” is impressed on me. You want to be told about this state and you want a name for it. If so, call it by the names Parabrabman or Paramatman. But to whom is the name given? To that “Me,” who did not have a form and the self-information “I am.”
You think you are wise and a jnani, and take pride in it. But do you ever think, how and why you are in this experien- tial state?
Just ponder on this. A lifeless puny ant was lying on the ground, almost invisible. While I looked at it, it showed signs of life and all of a sudden, a formidable lion emerged out of it! How can IJ take such a lion as real? On similar reckoning, how can I take the world as real?
All this creation and that which is called God are worshipped, but since when? That God emanated from the fluid energy and assumed a form. Though it is honored and revered, it is the product of spit. Is it not?
Prior to my assuming a body form, I had no information as to who or from when or where I was. But the moment my guru aroused me with a call, everything was revealed.
This beingness of mine—the experiential state—is mean, low and despicable. The tiny ant referred to earlier was nearly dead. It had a fluid form, as a result of emission. Out of its wetness and fluid energy sprang the lion. This fluid was nothing but something like spit.
Out of the same fluid energy, a body form assumed a shape and it turned out to be a dwelling-place for the beingness; that is the state of “love to be.” For that matter, whatever is created has the wetness of self-love, the “love to be,” as its basis. The very wetness is also capable of manifesting itself into the entire movable and immovable world. In the body dwells the fluid energy and in the fluid energy dwells a latent body. This fluid energy is ethereal, subtle and most potent.
If you have any questions on this topic, please ask.
V: How can I go beyond the state of witnessing?
M: Your question is irrelevant. What did I tell you? Out of the spit, the “self-love” has taken a form. In the space of “self-love” manifests the entire universe, which is throbbing and pulsating with the same principle.
I have expounded this subject fully and you ask a question not pertinent to it. I have been explaining to you as to what “you are,” and you have jumped to witnessing!
Did you comprehend that this source of beingness is the spit and that it is despicable?
V: Yes.
M: Do you know that your beingness is unreal, unworthy, lowly and a cheat? This beingness which prompts you to think “I am like this and I am like that” is illusory and fraudulent.
V: When one is a witness, it does not mean that one is like this or that.
M: At present you are not a witness. The question is, what is your present condition, what are you?
You want to show off by saying that you are a witness.
How was I in the absence of the message “I am”—that is, prior to beingness? I provided you with name tags for that state. These titles are Parabrahman, Paramatman etc.; they are only pointers to the state, but not the state itself. In the ultimate, they are redundant, extraneous and bogus.
V: Beingness is the witness and I know there is something beyond. Therefore, I asked a question: How to go beyond?
M: I am discussing about the beingness and its source, so also about the source of the body and the world, while you are talking about the world and its witnessing from the state of beingness.
The subject matter of the talk is that people believe in miracles. What I am saying is that there is no greater miracle than “I” experiencing the world. The primary miracle is that I experience “I am” and the world. Prior to this experiencing, I abided in myself, in my eternal Absolute state. The titles, mentioned earlier, refer to this state.
V: I have understood, but a little more explanation would be welcome.
M: Still more explanations! Then, am I not justified in saying that your head is full of sawdust? [Maharaj asks a devotee to explain the matter again to the visitor, and not to digress from the subject.] After meeting my guru, I gave up running after various sages and other gurus and directed my attention wholly upon myself.
Only if my beingness is there, can the existence of sages and gurus arise. They last and flourish in my beingness, so long as it is there. Without my beingness—that is, without the message “I am”—my eternal Absolute only prevails.
V: That is precisely what I wanted to ask, when I said beyond the witness.
M: I am precisely telling you about my state. I am not giving you any other information. Probably you want to acquire knowledge for display and become a pseudo-guru.
Arising out of the beingness, its play and its subsidence are the three states of my beingness (waking, deep sleep and knowingness). When I talk with reference to “me,” you should apply it to your own being and fully understand it, since all I said is identically relevant to you also.
Now these immature boys come here for spirituality. What can I say to them? If they insist on obtaining knowledge from me, I shall have to direct them to my sweeper, who can impart elements of knowledge when they do some service here like sweeping and cleaning.
In the hierarchy of our gods, there are some demigods who are to be appeased with the offerings of flesh and wine. Such lower deities received their spiritual powers after serving the higher deities as menial servants. Now suppose, one of such deities is angered and wants to wreak vengeance on me. What can she do? At the most, she will crush me under her toes and wipe out this emblem of the three gunas, which is my beingness. But who cares? Because, I, the Absolute, ever remain untouched. [To the visitor] Have you come here to have knowledge or learn how to become a guru?
V: I am not crazy.
M: Then why did you refer to “witnessing”?
V: Prior to coming here I was led up to the point of witnessing.
M: Witnessing what?
V: Everything that appears and disappears.
M: For the purpose of witnessing, that fluid—the being- ness—must be there.
V: Yes.
M: Then where is the question of witnessing? And witnessing what?
I have indicated to you how the incarnations and births continue to emanate out of the spit—the fluid energy. Apart from that, what are you?
V: Nothing.
M: Therefore, how can I judge anyone as good or bad? I reserve my judgement only for the source of all—the beingness.
My approach is simple and straightforward. Out of the Absolute non-being state, the beingness together with the manifest world emerged before me. How did this happen? My guru revealed to me, while I was in deep meditation, how and due to what causes the manifest world of forms was created.
V: What was revealed to you in your meditation, and whatever your guru told you, are they very important indeed?
M: No doubt both are very important. But the eternal Absolute state of mine prior to the beingness, when the message “I am” was not, is supremely significant. Who would have witnessed the message “I am,” if my priormost state of the “non-beingness” was not?
V: Who would have created them?!
M: The creation is self-effulgent and spontaneous. There is no creator. A magnificent tree sprouts out of a tiny seed. [Maharaj asks the visitors to ask questions but none of them does, so he comments:] Since I have put my axe at the very root of creation, how can any questions arise?
In the Marathi language, the word moola denotes the root of a tree; and with a slight modification in pronunciation, it means “child.” Just as a splendid tree takes root out of a small seed, a full-grown person is latently rooted in a child and his beingness.
But I, as the Absolute, am prior to the root, the child and the beingness.
You eat different items of food to sustain yourself, which is your “childhood principle’—the beingness. When it disappears, you will be termed “dead.” Actually what are you protecting from death? It is the basic “child-beingness”—the root. With the emergence of the child begins the first day of experiencing.
V: Is the state prior to beingness experienced consciously by Maharaj?
M: In that state “I” alone prevail without even the message “I am.” There are no experiences at all. It is the non-experiential eternal state.
V: How will I know that you know it from your direct experience and not from a book?
M: I repeat, I alone do prevail in the state; hence, there is no otherness. For any experience, otherness is necessary.
V: But that is true for everybody. Some know it; some do not.
M: Why should I bother about others? Who else is there? In that state of “Aloneness,” “I” only exist.
V: How is that state to be cognized?
M: When the state of beingness is totally swallowed, whatever remains is that eternal “I.”
V: Because that Absolute “I” state felt alone, it occurred to it “I am lonely, let me be many”’—as referred to in the Chandogya Upanishad.
M: This can occur at the threshold of beingness. But since my ultimate state is beyond the grasp of the Upanishads, I reject them. The Upanishads are the storehouse of knowledge, which however has emanated from the state of ignorance. The raw material used for presenting the teachings is ignorance only.
All the three gunas are bound by and charged with emotions, but are not the truth. Because of the creation of this fraudulent world, out of “spit,” people are veritably ashamed. Therefore, they do not like to expose the offender through which the “spit” was ejected. Considering this aspect, how can you have ego at all? From where have you emerged and where are you proceeding to?
V: From nowhere to nowhere.
M: When such profound discussions are going on, only the fortunate ones will be present. [To the visitor who asked questions:] Here your self-esteem is fully exposed. Do you like that?
V: I have nothing to hide. You told me to stand up and fight.
Sri Nisargadatta’s Discourses on the Eternal - 51
[Maharaj recites a couplet from a folk song normally sung by dancing girls touring the countryside. The song, with deep meaning, was composed by a famous sage some centuries back:]
Having had many a lover,
I made them dance and they pined for me. But in my guru, I met a perfect match.
He made me dance to the tune he played. Oh, my friends, listen:
Beware of a perfect guru.
Once you meet him, where would you be With your ego-sense totally wiped out.
Kabir, the great poet-sage, says in a verse: I recited the sacred names, a million times; performed austerities and penances But I did not realize myself. When I met the perfect Master, Niranjan—the Unblemished Instantly I realized the Highest And abided in the state of Non-Attention.’
January 16th 1980