Nisargadatta Maharaj quotes - page 5

(...) To be a living being is not the ultimate state; there is something beyond, much more wonderful, which is neither being nor not-being, neither living nor not-living. It is a state of pure awareness, beyond limitations of space and time. Once the illusion that the mind-body is oneself is abandoned, death loses its terror, it becomes a part of living. (Nisargadatta Maharaj)
(...) When we are absorbed in other things, in the not-self, we forget the self. There is nothing unnatural about it. But, why forget the self through excess of attachment? Wisdom lies in never forgetting the self as the ever-present source of both the experiencer and his experience. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) You can help another by precept and example and, above all, by your being. You cannot give what you don't have and you don't have what you are not. You can only give what you are – and of that you can give limitlessly. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
When you are free of the world, you can do something about it. As long as you are a prisoner of it, you are helpless to change it. On the contrary, whatever you do will aggravate the situation. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) In the now you are both the movable and the immovable. (...). Overlook the movable and you will find yourself to be the ever-present, changeless reality, inexpressible, but solid like a rock. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) The problem is not yours – it is your mind's only. Begin by disassociating yourself from your mind. Resolutely remind yourself that you are not the mind and that its problems are not yours. (...) Be conscious of yourself, watch your mind, give it your full attention. Don't look for quick results; there may be none within your noticing. Unknown to you, your psyche will undergo a change, there will be more clarity in your thinking, charity in your feeling, purity in your behavior. You need not aim at these –you will witness the change all the same. For, what you are now is the result of inattention and what you become will be the fruit of attention. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
To me you are your own God. But if you think otherwise, think to the end. If there be God, then all is God's and all is for the best. Welcome all that comes with a glad and thankful heart. And love all creatures. This too will take you to your Self. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
When the sense of distinction and separation is absent, you may call it love. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
There is no chaos in the world, except the chaos which your mind creates. It is self-created in the sense that at its very centre is the false idea of oneself as a thing different and separate from other things. (...). View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
You need both clarity and earnestness for self-knowledge. You need maturity of heart and mind, which comes through earnest application in daily life of whatever little you have understood. (...). View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) After all, what is will but steadiness of heart and mind. Given such steadfastness all can be achieved. (Nisargadatta Maharaj)
To exist means to be something, a thing, a feeling, a thought, an idea. All existence is particular. Only being is universal, in the sense that every being is compatible with every other being. Existences clash, being – never. Existence means becoming, change, birth and death, and birth again, while in being there is silent peace. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) there is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance; restlessness itself is mind.(...) Examine closely and you will see that the mind is seething with thoughts. It may occasionally go blank, but it does it for a time and reverts to its usual restlessness. (...). View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
When you see the world you see God. There is no seeing God, apart from the world. Beyond the world to see God is to be God. The light by which you see the world, which is God, is the tiny little spark: ‘I am,' apparently so small, yet the first and the last in every act of knowing and loving. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) All those who proclaim their own greatness and uniqueness are not gnanis. (...) Proclaiming oneself to be an omnipotent, omniscient and omnipotent deity is a clear sign of ignorance. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
The essence of slavery is to imagine yourself to be a process, to have past and future, to have history. In fact, we have no history, we are not a process, we do not develop, nor decay (...). View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
There are the two – the person and the witness, the observer. When you see them as one, and go beyond, you are in the supreme state. It is not perceivable, because it is what makes perception possible. It is beyond being and not being. It is neither the mirror nor the image in the mirror. It is what is – the timeless reality, unbelievably hard and solid. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) Desiring a state of freedom from desire will not set you free. Nothing can set you free, because you are free. See yourself with desireless clarity, that is all. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
There is nothing wrong in the idea of a body, nor even in the idea ‘I am the body.' But limiting oneself to one body only is a mistake. In reality all existence, every form, is my own, within my consciousness. (...). View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
As you are now, the personality is only an obstacle. Self-identification with the body may be good for an infant, but true growing up depends on getting the body out of the way. Normally, one should outgrow body-based desires early in life. (...) View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
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. (Nisargadatta Maharaj)
Gandhi is dead, yet his mind pervades the earth. The thought of a gnani pervades humanity and works ceaselessly for good. Being anonymous, coming from within, it is more powerful and compelling. That is how the world improves-the inner aiding and blessing the outer. When gnani dies, he is no more, in the same sense in which a river is no more when it merges in the sea; the name, the shape, are no more, but the water remains and becomes one with the ocean. When a gnani joins the universal mind, all his goodness and wisdom become the heritage of humanity and uplift every human being. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
God is not only true and good, he is also beautiful (satyam-shivam-sundaram). He creates beauty – for the joy of it. (...) God does not aim at beauty – whatever he does is beautiful. Would you say that a flower is trying to be beautiful? It is beautiful by its very nature. Similarly God is perfection itself, not an effort at perfection. (...) whatever is perceived blissfully is beautiful. Bliss is the essence of beauty. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
(...) In reality there is only consciousness. All life is conscious, all consciousness alive. View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj
To remember what needs to be remembered is the secret of success. (...) What is supremely important is to be free from contradictions: the goal and the way must not be on different levels, life and light must not quarrel; behavior must not betray belief. Call it honesty, integrity, wholeness; you must not go back, undo, uproot, abandon the conquered ground. (...) View quote
Nisargadatta Maharaj