Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj - I Am-ness

**yajvan** · 18 October 2007, 03:27 PM

Hari Om
~~~~~~

Namaste,

Some wisdom from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
...any image that you have of yourself is not true http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUyLIYVrd5U

A discussion on " I Am'... other discussions/videos are there with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj for your consideraton.

I would have liked to have met this man.

pranams,

**sm78** · 21 October 2007, 05:44 AM

Those with more interest can try this:-

http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/I_Am_That.pdf

**Vivamis123** · 27 May 2008, 08:38 AM

The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive.
Sri Nisargadatta

I found this statement expecial profound....if I can perceive it...I am not it. Nothing that I can perceive can be me...for the very act of perceiving is a validation that it is not I.

In order to perceive anything....I have to be separated from it. If I am separated from it...I am not it.

Another way of seeing it is that mind is the vehicle through which I perceive....what ever the mind can perceive is of the mind...I am beyond.

All concepts, ideas and beliefs are of the mind....to go beyond....take no thought yet be aware that you are.

**Vivamis123** · 28 May 2008, 08:31 PM

I have a question concerning Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teachings. Can someone fill me in?

Maharaj states in "I am That" that we are the Supreme Reality, but then he states: God is all that is great and wonderful; I am nothing, have nothing, can do nothing.

Eventhough Maharaj encourages others to believe that they are God, he himself claims to be nothing. Is everyone else God creating the Master and Maharaj doesn't truly exsit or is this a contradiction or is he saying this from a human perspective?

**Nondogmatic Nondualist** · 23 June 2009, 12:55 PM

Originally Posted by Vivamis123

I have a question concerning Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teachings. Can someone fill me in?

Maharaj states in "I am That" that we are the Supreme Reality, but then he states: God is all that is great and wonderful; I am nothing, have nothing, can do nothing.

Eventhough Maharaj encourages others to believe that they are God, he himself claims to be nothing. Is everyone else God creating the Master and Maharaj doesn't truly exsit or is this a contradiction or is he saying this from a human perspective?

The mind boggles at such a seeming contradiction. Anything that Maharaj says is to point seekers towards their true identity. Have you considered the possibility that God is nothing? Or, if you prefer, is it possible that God is a No-Thing? That is, this nothingness is paradoxically alive and aware; it is awareness itself.

A similar understanding can be found in the Buddhist notion of anatta, or not-self. Some scholars have taken this to mean that the Buddha denied the existence of the Atman, but I think it is more likely that he was seeking to dispel false notions of what the Atman was. His point was the same one, that anything that can be perceived is not who one really is. The Buddha said very little about one's true identity, using negative terms, because he believed that attempting to describe the Real/the Ultimate Reality would only lead to distortions or mislead the seeker by giving his mind concepts to hold on to.

There is also the Taoist notion of Wu, as mentioned in the Tao Te Ching (which I consider to be fully consistent with Advaita):

Verse 11 (Jonathan Star Translation)

Wu is nothingness, emptiness, non-existence

Thirty spokes of a wheel all join at a common hub
yet only the hole at the center
allows the wheel to spin
Clay is molded to form a cup
yet only the space within
allows the cup to hold water
Walls are joined to make a room
yet only by cutting out a door and a window
can one enter the room and live there

Thus, when a thing has existence alone
it is mere dead-weight
Only when it has wu, does it have life

**atanu** · 23 June 2009, 11:03 PM

Originally Posted by Vivamis123

I have a question concerning Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teachings. Can someone fill me in?

Maharaj states in "I am That" that we are the Supreme Reality, but then he states: God is all that is great and wonderful; I am nothing, have nothing, can do nothing.

Eventhough Maharaj encourages others to believe that they are God, he himself claims to be nothing. Is everyone else God creating the Master and Maharaj doesn't truly exsit or is this a contradiction or is he saying this from a human perspective?

Namaste,

The ego i is asat.

The above paradox, IMO, is well explained in the post below:

http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/sho...5&postcount=37

Particularly near the end of the prose:

The journalist was transfixed; not exactly open-mouthed but her pencil had
not moved for some time. Eventually, she asked in a small voice: "But then
where do I fit into all of this?"

"Ah", he replied. "That again depends upon what you mean by the word 'I'.
Who you think you are - 'Sarah' - is essentially no different from the table
and chair. You are simply name and form, imposed upon the non-dual reality.
Who you really are, however. well, that is quite different - you are that
non-dual reality. You see, in the final analysis, there are not two things;
there is only non-duality. That is the truth; that is Advaita."

Om Namah Shivaya

**soham3** · 06 July 2009, 11:31 AM

Maharaj often used to talk of 'love' but he used to offend visitors to him for the flimsiest of reasons.
He talked of whole world as his family but was quite attached to his daughter.
He sure was a study in contradictions.

**soham3** · 30 January 2010, 12:31 PM

Blocks to one's Self-realization are one's high caste & family back-ground, education, post, wealth & property, achievements & attainments et cetera. Maharaj had a very humble birth & background in that his father was a mere domestic hand in a Mumbai household. And this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.