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I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta (Paperback)
by Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sudhaker S. Dikshit (Editor), Maurice Frydman (Translator)
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| MSL Pointer Review:
A profound and powerful book of uncompromising truth, and it's destined to be a classic of world literature. |
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Author: Nisargadatta Maharaj, Sudhaker S. Dikshit (Editor), Maurice Frydman (Translator)
Publisher: Acorn Press (NC)
Pub. in: June, 1990
ISBN: 0893860220
Pages: 550
Measurements: 1.2 x 5 x 8.5 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00548
Other information: Reprint edition
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- MSL Picks -
This book is pure gold! It is an translated transcript of Q&A sessions between spiritual aspirants and a liberated sage Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. Each Q&A session has been grouped as a chapter with a suitable titles like 'the sense of I AM', 'What is born must die', 'Meditation', 'Greatest Guru is Your Inner Self' etc. Nisargadatta answers most of the common questions and doubts that arise in the mind of a spiritual aspirant. It also contains very practical and clear spiritual instructions. A must buy for every spiritual aspirant.
A few quotes from the book ....
"Go deep into the sense of 'I am' and you will find. How do you find a thing you have mislaid or forgotton? You keep it in your mind until you recall it. The sense of being, of 'I am' is the first to emerge. Ask yourself whence it comes, or just watch it quietly. When the mind stays in the 'I am', without moving, you enter a state that cannot be verbalized but can be experienced. All you need to do is to try and try again."
"We discover it by being earnest,
by searching, inquiring,
questioning daily and hourly,
by giving one's life to this discovery."
"It has nothing to do with effort.
Just turn away, look between the thoughts,
rather than at the thoughts.
When you happen to walk in a crowd, you do not fight every man you meet,
you just find your way between.
When you fight, you invite a fight.
But when you do not resist, you meet no resistance.
When you refuse to play the game, you are out of it."
"Pay no attention [to your thoughts]. Don't fight them. Just do
nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very
fighting them gives them life. just disregard. Look through."
"The all important word is 'try'.
Allot enough time daily for sitting quietly
and trying, just trying,
to go beyond the personality,
with its addictions and obsessions."
"You just keep on trying until you succeed.
If you persevere, there can be no failure."
"What prevents you from knowing is not
the lack of opportunity,
but the lack of ability to focus in your mind
what you want to understand.
If you could but keep in mind
what you do not know,
it would reveal to you its secrets.
But if you are shallow and impatient,
not earnest enough to look and wait,
you are like a child crying for the moon."
"It is not a matter of easy, or difficult.
Either you try or you don't."
This work is a classic in Advaita Vedanta philosophy. If you liked this book, you may also be interested in the works associated with Ramana Maharshi. These are probably the two quintessential figureheads for Vedanta philosophy in the 20th century. Parallels have been drawn between Vedanta and the works of Martin Buber and also those of western phenomenalogist thinkers such as Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. Nevertheless, do not get caught up in words and concepts and miss the point. All is Self, you alone are real.
(From quoting S. Srinivasan and Wescoe, USA)
Target readers:
General readers
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A simple man, Nisargadatta Maharaj, was a householder and petty shopkeeper in Bombay where he lived, and died in 1981 at the age of 84. He had not been educated formally, but came to be respected and loved for his insights into the crux of human pain and the extraordinary usidity of his direct discourse. Hundreds of diverse seekers traveled the globe and sought him out in his unpretentious home to hear him. To all of them he gave hope that "beyond the real experience is not the mind, but the self, the light in which everything appears...the awareness in which everything happens."
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From the Publisher:
This collection of the timeless teachings of one of the greatest sages of India, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, regarded by many as a "modern spiritual classic" is a testament to the uniqueness of the seer's life and work.
I Am That preserves Maharaj's dialogues with the followers who came from around the world seeking his guidance in destroying false identities. The sage's sole concern was with human suffering and the ending of suffering. It was his mission to guide the individual to an understanding of his true nature and the timelessness of being. He taught that mind must recognize and penetrate its own state of being, "being this or that, here or that, then or now," but just timeless being.
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is presented in this book in sessions of questions and answers with seekers "who came from around the world seeking guidance in destroying false identities." The back jacket of the book paints a true picture of what was happening: "The sage's sole concern was with human suffering and the ending of suffering. It was his mission to guide the individual to an understanding of his true nature and the timelessness of being." Not educated formally, here is a clear demonstration of the truth that resides within us all, as exemplified in this awakened human being. Once awakened, one need not get the truth out of books, but merely pronounce that which resides within. This, of course, is a book. But, in that form, is a container of sparks of knowledge, and "keys" if you will. It's one of those cases whereupon you read something and have one of those "ah!" moments in which something inside of you clicks with what you have read. I came across this book upon a link offered to me during an online chat in a Yahoo chatroom. It meant nothing to me when I first clicked on it, and had no appeal. But, something registered and I eventually went back to it, and secured a copy. It is one of maybe two books in this lifetime in which I fill almost every page with underlinings, boxing, and the margins with notes and quotes. I am one of some 30 years of "seeking", and this book connected with me at a time in this period in which it would speak to me. Such things happen all the time; I cannot explain how and have no desire to. If you are a serious seeker, I say go for it. Read it. Even if you are just a little interested... if it catches your eye, then buy it. Even if you open it, read some and put it down, that's okay. It will call you again at the right point in your life. As I write this review, I am still yet not through the entire book. I will read intensively for a while, then put it down, as if my being has to absorb it. No matter if your interests are in Buddhism, zen or whatever, truth is universal and this is a remarkable discourse. |
A Slovenian reader (MSL quote), Slovenia
<2007-01-11 00:00>
This are unique words from the real sage whose message can awaken you and you start wandering to know (not to blind belive) by yourself who you really are. Nisargadatta Maharaj is beside Gurdjieff and still alive Bodin of Bindu one of the rare real Men on this planet who has awaken from the dream of ignorance, from the veils of mind. And through his words he speaks unspeakable eternal truth. We are sleeping and transcendence from that state requires a specific inner work. And as Nisargadatta, Gurdjieff and Bodin say - act, not dream; experience, not think about what you should do, escape from old tricks of your mind and slavery of your body, and transform your inner being. For that grate endurance, will, heart and commitment are needed - first of all to yourselve. This is the only thing worth of living. |
Mazie Lane (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-11 00:00>
I began my spiritual journey in ernest in 1980 when I found my Guru - Paramahansa Yogananda. The journey ended in "I Am That," by Sri Nisargadatta. His words, his teachings have illuminated the Yoga teachings of my own Guru and given the science of Kriya Yoga an entirely new meaning and full measure of its blessing. I could never have guessed how much I did not know, and how much of my knowing I had to let go of in order to "Understand" Who I Am.
Sri Nisargadatta said that his words, if listened to, would destroy all other concepts and words. The verity of this has born out its truth and validity, and the wisdom-fruit is falling from the tree of I Am. From "I Am That" -
Q: Since you count your spiritual ancestry from Rishi Dattatreya, are we right in believing that you and all your predecessors are reincarnations of the Rishi?
M: You may believe in whatever you like and if you act on your belief, you will get the fruits of it; but to me it has no importance. I am what I am and this is enough for me. I have no desire to identify myself with anybody, however illustrious. Nor do I feel the need to take myths for reality. I am only interested in ignorance and the freedom from ignorance. The proper role of the Guru is to dispel ignorance in the hearts and minds of his disciples. Once the disciple has understood, the confirming action is up to him. Nobody can act for another. And if he does not act rightly, it only means that he has not understood and that the Guru's work is not over.
Q: There must be some hopeless cases too?
M: None is hopeless. Obstacles can be overcome. What life cannot mend, death will end, but the Guru cannot fail.
Q: What gives you the assurance?
M: The Guru and the man's inner reality are really one and work together towards the same goal - the redemption and salvation of the mind. They cannot fail. Out of the very boulders that obstruct them they build their bridges. Consciousness is not the whole of being - there are other levels on which man is much more co-operative. The Guru is at home on all levels and his energy and patience are inexhaustable.
Q: You keep on telling me that I am dreaming and that it is high time that I should wake up. How does it happen that the Maharaj, who has come to me in my dreams, has not succeeded in waking me up? He keeps on urging and reminding, but the dream continues.
M: It is because you have not really understood that you are dreaming. This is the essence of bondage - the mixing of the real with unreal. In your present state only the sense 'I am' refers to reality; the 'what' and 'how I am' are illusions imposed by destiny, or accident.
Q: When did the dream begin?
M: It appears to be beginningless, but in fact it is only now. From moment to moment you are renewing it. Once you have seen that you are dreaming, you shall wake up. But you do not see, because you want the dream to continue. A day will come when you will long for the ending of the dream, with all your heart and mind, and be willing to pay any price; the price will be dispassion, the loss of interest in the dream itself.
Q: How helpless I am. As long as the dream of existence lasts, I want it to continue. As long as I want it to continue, it will last.
M: Wanting it to continue is not inevitable. See clearly your condition, your very clarity will release you.
Q: As long as I am with you, all you say seems pretty obvious; but as soon as I am away from you I run about restless and anxious.
M: You need not keep away from me, in your mind at least. But your mind is after the world's welfare!
Q: The world is full of troubles, no wonder my mind too is full of them.
M: Was there ever a world without troubles? Your being as a person depends on violence to others. Your very body is a battlefield, full of the dead and dying. Existence implies violence.
Q: As a body - yes. As a human being - definitely no. For humanity nonviolence is the law of life and violence of death.
M: There is little of nonviolence in nature.
Q: God and nature are not human and need not be humane. I am concerned with man alone. To be human I must be compassionate absolutely.
M: Do you realize that as long as you have a self to defend, you must be violent?
Q: I do. To be truly human, I must be self-less. As long as I am selfish, I am sub-human, a humanoid only.
M: So, we are all sub-human and only a few are human. Few or many, it is again 'clarity and charity' that make us human. The sub-human - the 'humanoids' - are dominated by tamas and rajas and the humans by sattva. Clarity and charity is sattva as it affects mind and action. But the real is beyond sattva. Since I have known you, you seem to be always after helping the world. How much did you help?
Q: Not a bit. Neither the world has changed, nor have I. But the world suffers and I suffer along with it. To struggle against suffering is a natural reaction. And what is civilization and culture, philosophy and religion, but a revolt against suffering. Evil and the ending of all evil - is it not your main preoccupation? You may call it ignorance - it comes to the same.
M: Well, words do not matter, nor does it matter in what shape you are just now. Names and shapes change incessantly. Know yourself to be the changeless witness of the changeful mind. That is enough.
From Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That |
Roy Whenary (MSL quote), UK
<2007-01-11 00:00>
If you have come across this book whilst searching for books on advaita/non-duality, don't search any more. I would highly recommend that you buy this book now. It has simply become the Bible of the modern Advaita movement. I first came across it 30 years ago now, and for many years it was the only book I took with me on my travels. One of the beautiful things about Nisargadatta's approach is that it is not 'fixed'. In the very same chapter he can often be seen to make what, on the surface, may appear to be completely contradictory statements - supporting completely conflicting views. This is no accident, as a mind that is not 'fixed' is flexible enough to be able to fully appreciate opposing views. In the 'spiritual' search, the mind can often hook onto various views, positions, attitudes, beliefs, etc - not seeing that this is all simply a movement of the mind - not ultimately 'real'. Nisargadatta's approach (in 'I Am That', and indeed, his other works) is a multi-faceted one, and one of the clearest pointers to truth that has ever been written down. I cannot speak highly enough about this book ... however, it may be the last one you will need to buy as a 'seeker'! The good news is that even after that, you can still appreciate it as a masterpiece of modern literature! |
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