I Am That - God Is The All-Doer, The Jnani A Non-Doer - 1

Listen to Ektaji talk about Nisargadatta Maharaj's book I Am That. Nisargadatta Maharaj was a teacher who did not propound any ideology or religion, but gently unwrapped the mystery of the self. I Am That preserves his dialogs with the followers who came from around the world seeking guidance in destroying false identities.

Transcript

24.

Chapter 24.

God is the all-doer,

The Jnani a non-doer.

Questioner.

Some Mahatmas or enlightened beings maintain that the world is neither an accident nor a play of God,

But the result and expression of a mighty plan of work,

Aiming at awakening and developing consciousness throughout the universe.

From lifelessness to life,

From unconsciousness to consciousness,

From dullness to bright intelligence,

From misapprehension to clarity,

That is the direction in which the world moves ceaselessly and relentlessly.

Of course,

There are moments of rest and apparent darkness,

When the universe seems to be dormant but the rest comes to an end and the work on consciousness is resumed.

From our point of view,

The world is a veil of tears,

A place to escape from as soon as possible and by every possible means.

To enlightened beings,

The world is good and serves a good purpose.

They do not deny that the world is a mental structure and that ultimately all is one.

But they see and say that the structure has meaning and serves a supremely desirable purpose.

What we call the will of God is not a capricious whim of a playful deity,

But the expression of an absolute necessity to grow in love and wisdom and power to actualize the infinite potentials of life and consciousness.

Just as a gardener grows flowers from a tiny seed to glorious perfection,

So does God in his own garden grow among other beings,

Men to supermen,

Who know and love and work along with him.

When God takes rest,

Pralaya,

Those whose growth was not completed become unconscious for a time,

While the perfect ones who have gone beyond all forms and contents of consciousness remain aware of the universal silence.

When the time comes for the emergence of a new universe,

The sleepers wake up and their work starts.

The more advanced wake up first and prepare the ground for the less advanced,

Who thus find forms and patterns of behavior suitable for their further growth.

Thus runs the story.

Add the story of Dwaitam.

Thus runs the story of Dwaitam.

The difference with your teaching is this,

You insist that the world is no good and should be shunned.

They say that distaste for the world is a passing stage,

Necessary yet temporary and is soon replaced by an all-pervading love and a steady will to work with God.

That's what is he saying.

He gave him the whole Dwaitam story.

There is the purpose for life.

There is a reason why we are all born.

Then amongst us there are some few sages who are the better ones and they teach the others and thus the purpose of life becomes more meaningful for the others.

Then there is the destruction of this world and the people who have not learnt enough,

They get destroyed,

They sleep longer.

The people who are higher up there,

They come first back after pralaya,

After destruction and they lead the world.

So,

All this is Dwaitam story.

You know all this,

Right?

You've done all this mythological background when you were on the Dwaitam path.

So,

He's saying all that says that this world is meaningful,

This place has a purpose.

That is the gist,

One line gist of the entire Dwaitam story.

But you say that this world is pointless,

It's futile,

There is no meaning here.

Right.

So,

You understood the question?

At the end he's saying that it is said that at first there is a distaste for the world but it's a temporary kind of a phase.

Finally,

You will have love for everything.

So,

He's challenging Maharaj,

Are you in that temporary phase?

In a nice way,

Long about way,

He's challenging Maharaj,

Are you in that temporary phase where you have hatred for the world?

Is that why you say that my world is imagination and your world is real?

Very clear from where the question is coming?

Maharaj,

All you say is right for the outgoing pravritti path.

Another word for Dwaitam path,

Pravritti path.

The outgoing path where you believe in I and you,

Me and the world.

For the path of return,

Return,

Liberty,

Knotting oneself is necessary.

What is knotting oneself?

Yeah,

Making oneself nothing,

Nobody.

Remember we did in yesterday's self-exploration,

Agree to be nobody,

Agree to be nothing.

So,

Knotting oneself is necessary.

Pravritti,

There is more.

Nivritti,

There is nobody,

None.

So,

Advaita path is Nivritti path,

Dwaitam path is the pravritti path.

My stand,

I take where nothing,

Param Akash is.

My stand I take is where there is nothing.

That is the meaning of that line.

Words do not reach there nor thoughts.

Stop there.

What does he mean?

His stand is of the pure consciousness,

Primordial awareness.

Shunyata,

Nothingness.

Can words reach there?

Can mind go there?

No.

The mind dissolves before the pure consciousness is revealed.

Clear?

So,

Words cannot reach there.

That is the level where Maharaj is talking.

To the mind,

It is all darkness and silence.

What it,

The nothingness,

The Param Akash,

The primordial awareness is darkness and silence for the mind.

The mind cannot understand silence.

Mind only knows words.

Thoughts and feelings is mind.

So,

It sees darkness there.

It doesn't understand anything.

Then consciousness begins to stir and wakes up the mind,

Which projects the world,

Build of memory and imagination.

So,

Consciousness means witness consciousness begins to stir up.

So,

It arises in that nothingness and that projects the Mahadakash,

The waking state,

The dream state and the idea of the absence of waking and dream,

Which is deep sleep state.

Clear?

So,

You heard the word project directly from Maharaj.

So,

I'll read that again.

Consciousness begins to stir and wakes up the mind,

Which projects the world,

Built of memory and imagination.

Once the world comes into being,

All you say may be so.

It is in the nature of the mind to imagine goals,

To strive towards them,

To seek out means and ways.

To display vision,

Energy and courage.

So,

You're getting this?

All the stories after that belong to imagination.

So,

All your resistance that you're experiencing is nothing but story,

No?

Of the ego belongs to imagination.

Anatma.

These are divine attributes and I do not deny them,

But I take my stand where no difference exists,

Where things are not,

Nor the minds that create them.

He's saying,

I honor the whole thing of projection.

I know it is me,

The consciousness,

There is no external entity,

Which is the divine.

I am God and I only have the power of projection.

I project all these ideas.

I understand all of that.

I understand the whole play,

But I respect my ground and I take this stand,

The stand of the primordial awareness.

I choose to ignore this nonsense simply because it's suffering.

It's nothing but suffering.

So,

If there is resistance to this understanding,

It means that the ego still doesn't see that it is suffering.

It still wants some juice out of it.

Are you recognizing that part?

If there is resistance,

Naturally there is a hidden desire behind it and the desire is for what?

To get some juice from this world,

From whatever it is,

From your attachment.

That's why it says,

No,

Not that attachment.

I'm not working on that.

Do you see that?

I take my stand where no difference exists,

Where things are not,

Nor the minds that create them.

There,

I am at home.

Whatever happens does not affect me.

Things act on things.

That is all.

Please highlight.

Very important.

Very,

Very important.

Things act on things.

Whatever happens does not affect me.

You're watching a film.

In the film,

There is this lady and she's going through some difficult situation.

The financial situation is a thing.

The lady on the screen is a thing.

Things are happening on things.

Everything is a drishya,

Including this.

Is this becoming very clear?

That's how Maharaj sees it.

So,

Maharaj is not somebody who used to live in a mansion.

Have you seen the video?

Then you should go back home.

That's the first thing you should see on YouTube.

Rays of the Absolute.

In that video,

You'll see Maharaj's very simple house,

Very simple bed.

Very simple.

He doesn't even have a proper chair to sit on.

He sleeps on that bed and he sits on that bed and he sits on that bed only and talks.

It's a very simple,

Humble kind of home.

He does not have mansions.

He does not care for mansions.

He's very clear that whatever the situation is,

The thing is happening on the thing.

I remain unaffected.

You see that?

That is why this is very important,

Especially for the process that you're doing.

What is your attachment?

Your tiger,

Your butterfly.

Who does it disturb?

Who gets disturbed?

Can the witness get disturbed?

Who gets disturbed?

This body-mind person,

This person who says,

This person who says,

How dare he?

How dare she?

This person,

No?

Things are happening on thing.

That's how he sees it.

So,

Add this to your process.

Can I add this point?

Things are happening to things.

That is all.

I am unaffected.

Free from memory and expectation.

I am fresh,

Innocent and wholehearted.

This is very important.

He's free from memory.

That's number one.

Number two,

He's free from expectation,

Which is nothing but vasana,

Desire.

Because he's free from these two.

It's nothing but vichara and vasana.

He's free from them.

Free from them doesn't mean that they don't arise.

Free means they cannot trap me.

They cannot grip me.

If they arise,

They arise like line on water and they are gone.

They do not have a power over me.

I am not the slave to vichara or vasana.

Clear?

That's how I am fresh,

Innocent and wholehearted.

What is wholehearted?

You work very,

You do this very half-heartedly,

You do that very half-heartedly.

You're pushed into this.

You're pushed into that project.

Your boss says this work at home.

A family member tells you to do this.

There is no complete feeling.

There's no complete feeling in your own world.

In your own world,

You just want to be like done with it.

You don't,

You're not really enjoying the process.

Right?

So you're not wholeheartedly in your world.

Whereas manas is wholeheartedly in the nothingness.

That's all that is there.

Everything is in a state of deep sleep.

The entire waking world is in a state of deep sleep.

Slightly at a higher level,

If it sounds very complicated right now,

You will get there.

But it's an experiential scene that happens only after you're dealt with all your attachments and they no longer bother you.

There's no more resistance from the ego.

When everything has been dealt with and discarded and trashed,

Everything absolutely silences down automatically.

Automatically,

All the butterflies and tigers are seen as just people.

Nothing real about them.

They cannot touch me.

Then this becomes like a screen,

Including this.

It's there,

But it's not there.

It seems to be waking,

But it's as good as dead.

As good as dead.

It does not have the impact that it had earlier.

Whatever happens,

Whatever happens,

There is nothing like the ego remaining.

So the waking state is as if it is in deep sleep.

That is how Maharaj is wholeheartedly in the no-things.

This cannot get to by intellectualization.

You cannot get there.

Deal with your attachments.

Be done with them.

Dropping all resistances.

Because on the other side,

When the attachments fall off and there is no memory haunting you anymore,

This waking state becomes like a harmless screen made of paper.

Doesn't exist.

The waking state is in deep sleep.

Then you are wholeheartedly there in pure consciousness.

Primordial awareness.

No-thingness.

That is the meaning of wholehearted.

Mind is the great worker,

Mahakarta,

And it needs rest.

Needing nothing,

I am unafraid.

Do you see how he separates himself from the mind?

Mind is the Mahakarta,

The doer.

It gets tired of doing and therefore that needs rest.

But me,

I don't have anything to do.

I am unafraid.

I am at peace because I need nothing.

Who is afraid?

The mind.

And who is insecure,

Basically.

He is insecure about something.

He feels,

This will make me secure.

That will make me secure.

That will make me secure.

Mind does that,

No?

Mind says,

Oh,

Plan for your retirement.

That is security.

Oh,

Get a good partner.

What will happen tomorrow?

No kids.

Who is going to take care of you?

Security,

Security,

Security.

All nice stories of security.

It's all mind stories,

All mind stories.

Only mind is insecure.

Mind needs.

That is why it is the Karta.

Understand why the Kartabhau has come.

Kartabhau has a root cause,

The insecurity.

If you figure out the insecurity,

The Kartabhau will drop,

Just by recognizing it and being with it.

Maharaj says,

I need nothing.

That is why I am unafraid.

Because he has no insecurity.

Why does he not have the insecurity?

He's already covered it in the previous chapters,

Tell me.

He spoke about Maryada.

Do you remember that?

The body and the mind work in Maryada,

In a limit.

Yes?

The body and the mind are like a couple.

They support each other.

And they work automatically on a program.

This is the thing that you have not been able to convince yourself about yet.

You still think that if I don't do this,

It will not happen.

Right?

He has no such muddled thoughts.

He's not complicated like that.

He sees it very clearly.

Body and mind work together,

Hand in hand.

Body does whatever command comes from the mind automatically.

That is why you don't even know when the body got up and went to use the restroom.

You later on claim,

Oh,

I took a break.

No,

You did not.

You're lying.

You fake.

You pretender.

You're lying.

Point it out to your ego.

You didn't know when the body got up and moved towards the restroom.

Similarly,

So many times you do not know when the body gets up and puts its hand into the refrigerator and starts eating.

Then you claim,

Oh,

I was hungry.

No,

You do not know that.

You are creating a story in retrospect.

Call out the ego.

You liar.

You fake.

You pretender.

The body and the mind work automatically.

That's why I said yesterday,

Even the discovery,

So-called by Einstein,

Is not by Einstein.

Thoughts are collective.

Thoughts are not personal.

It just arose.

And he was that time focused on thought.

And he saw it.

That's all.

He claimed it is mine.

Because he cannot think.

You cannot think.

Do you see this?

So,

If this body has,

Body-mind person has to discover something like Einstein,

It will discover.

You do not have to jump in.

It is an automatic process that happens.

Do you get it?

He explained it very beautifully with the word Mariyada.

When you interfere in that Mariyada,

That is when you suffer.

You suffer in both when you seek pleasure and you suffer when you run away from it.

You say,

I want this.

I want chocolate candy.

I know it's not good for my stomach,

But I want.

I don't care.

I want.

Eat your chocolate candy.

What happens?

What follows?

Regret.

Yeah,

I have to pay the price now.

Yes,

Extra kilos on the scale.

I've been trying to lose weight for the longest time.

Yeah.

Blah,

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

Stomach gets upset.

That is an addition.

Blah,

Blah,

Blah.

So,

I want chocolate.

You had it.

You regretted it.

Okay.

I don't want chocolate.

Are you really happy?

Now,

See,

I suppressed myself.

I'm not happy.

This way also I'm not happy.

This way also I'm not happy.

Are you seeing this?

Pleasure is pain.

Is there a third option?

Is there a third option?

Pleasure is pain.

This world is pain.

Wake up.

This world is pain.

So,

Don't jump in your,

I want will also take you to pain.

I don't want will also take you to pain.

Be very,

Very intelligent.

Super intelligent.

I do not belong to this nonsensical world.

Stand apart.

The body-mind works automatically.

It's a program.

So,

If it's this program is meant to become whatever very,

Very secure in old age,

It becomes very secure on its own.

And if it's meant to be insecure and not taken care of,

It's bound to happen.

It's bound to happen.

My feverishness only adds oil to the fire.

Is this very clear?

Get over that insecurity of this.

I have to maintain this body-mind.

I have to take care of this.

That is how Maharaj holds on to the no-thingness.

So,

He says,

Mind is the great worker,

Mahakarta.

Mahakarta.

And it needs rest.

Needing nothing.

I am unafraid.

Whom to be afraid of?

Whom to be afraid of?

There is no separation.

We are not separate selves.

There is only one self.

The supreme reality in which the personal and the impersonal are one.

You got the personal?

The vyakti.

The impersonal.

The vyakta and the avyakta.

They are all one actually.

There is no two or there is no three entities.

It's just the way you see it only during your journey of going back there.

Once you're established there,

Then you don't see these three or the world.

You see all is one.

Till the time you don't get there,

That means you have not reached Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

That's your clue.

So,

He's saying there is only one self.

The supreme reality in which the personal and the impersonal are one.

So,

He's saying there is no need to be insecure at all.

Don't be insecure of this body-mind.

That is your main logical reasoning given by the ego why it does not want to remain as the witness.

It says,

I have to be the vyakti.

The person that must do this,

Must take care of the family,

Must be the provider,

Must do blah blah blah.

How will the world run?

This is the logic that the ego comes up with.

How do you refute the logic?

This is all one.

There is no two here.

There is no world really.

Just an imagination.

Just a projection.

The projection of the light and the light are one and the same.

There are no two.

It's not even that there is a bulb over there.

There is no bulb also here.

The projector,

The source of projection itself is the projected light.

It's not different.

So,

There is no two.

What are you afraid of?

What are you insecure about?

It's only a story created in the mind.

Reviews

Great Teaching

🙏🏼