I Am That - God Is The All-Doer, The Jnani A Non-Doer - 2

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

Questioner says all I want is to be able to help the world.

Maharaj says who says you cannot help?

You made up your mind about what help means and needs and got yourself into conflict between what you should do and what you can do.

Between necessity and ability.

So questioner says why do we do so?

Maharaj says your mind projects a structure and you identify yourself with it.

Highlight.

It is in the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfillment.

Do you recognize this?

The subtle thought comes up.

It's like that which pokes.

Vastana pokes.

It wants you to now fulfill it.

Yes.

That is why subtle thought manifests as a gross manifestation.

Clear?

Yeah.

So subtle thought projects manifestation.

When I withdraw from subtle thought what happens?

Yeah.

This possible projection that could have manifested can be prevented.

Did you experiment with this?

It is in the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfillment.

Means subtle thought manifests as the gross manifestation.

I have to write down at least ten instances that I notice where my subtle thought manifested as the gross manifestation and then I have to experiment with a subtle thought.

Now I identify after doing ten.

It's very easy to identify.

Oh this is a subtle thought.

This could have the possibility of the eleventh gross manifestation.

Before that can I just withdraw and see if you win or you lose.

Okay.

Experiment with it.

Vichara arises about something.

A vichara arises.

One more chapati.

Very tasty sabzi today.

One more chapati.

You let it go.

That is called vichara.

But when it has arisen and you hold on to it.

Yes.

One more chapati I want.

So the first thought,

The vichara arose of its own accord.

Vasana says yes I want it.

Another vichara arises.

You know it's not good for you.

Right?

Two was the limit.

You took two.

Now see you're jumping to three.

Not good for you.

No.

I want it.

I'm telling you.

I reject your warning.

This is vasana.

Now I manipulate a thought to come up.

Okay I have to be a witness.

You've seen how strong it is.

Understand what he is talking about.

He's talking about the vasana.

Very strong desire.

So your mind projects a structure and you identify yourself with it.

It is in the nature of desire to prompt the mind to create a world for its fulfillment.

Even a small desire can start a long line of action.

What about a strong desire?

Desire can produce a universe.

Its powers are miraculous.

Just as a small matchstick can set a huge forest on fire,

So does a desire light the fires of manifestation.

The very purpose of creation is the fulfillment of desire.

Highlight.

This is jijivisha.

The very purpose of creation is the fulfillment of desire.

The desire may be noble or ignoble.

Space is neutral.

One can fill it with what one likes.

You must be very careful as to what you desire.

Take that as a warning from Maharaj.

You must be very careful as to what you desire and as to the people you want to help.

They are in their respective worlds for the sake of their desires.

There is no way of helping them except through their desires.

You can only teach them to have right desires so that they may rise above them and be free from the urge to create and recreate worlds of desires,

Worlds of pain and pleasure.

What is the right desire?

To be with others.

That's the right thing.

So,

If it's unhappy,

Ugly,

Bad,

Unhealthy,

Dramatic,

So be it.

It is what it is.

It's only a movie.

Do you only like comedy?

You watch tragedy also,

No?

So,

I'm watching.

I'm watching tragedy.

Things are happening to thing.

Master key,

Master stroke.

If you can start applying this,

You will really rise above.

Other than this,

There is nothing mystical,

Magical about enlightenment.

Forget about it.

You're not finding it.

This is the most magical thing where you do not succumb to desire.

Questioner says,

A day must come when the show is wound up.

A man must die.

A universe comes to an end.

Maharaj says,

Just as a sleeping man forgets all and wakes up for another day or he dies and emerges into another life,

So do the worlds of desire and fear dissolve and disappear.

But the universal witness,

The supreme self never sleeps and never dies.

Eternally,

The great heart beats and at each beat,

A new universe comes into being.

Again,

Not mythological stories.

He's talking about every new waking,

Every new dream,

Every new deep sleep.

Nothing mythological,

Mystical,

New world created,

The way you're having all your story.

It's not like that.

Questioner says,

Is he conscious?

He's talking about the supreme self.

Is he conscious?

Maharaj says,

He's beyond all that the mind conceives.

He's beyond being and not being.

He is the yes and no to everything,

Beyond and within,

Creating and destroying,

Unimaginably real.

All these are descriptions of the pure consciousness.

Questioner,

God and the Mahatma,

Are they one or two?

Maharaj,

They are one.

Please highlight.

God and Mahatma are one.

Questioner says,

There must be some difference.

Maharaj says,

God is the all-doer and the Jnani is a non-doer.

Very clear?

Right now,

You are God.

You are projecting your own world out of your own desires and fears.

You are projecting your own waking state.

You are creating it and then you don't like what you perceive,

Then you are only destroying it.

Then again,

You are creating it.

You are God right now and Jnani is actually beyond this doer.

So,

God is the all-doer and Jnani is a non-doer.

He's done.

He's quit this game.

He's done.

So,

God is the all-doer and Jnani is a non-doer.

God himself does not say,

I am doing all.

To him,

Things happen by their own nature.

Is this clear?

You also don't say,

I am doing all.

To you,

Things are all happening by their own nature.

To the Jnani,

All is done by God.

He sees no difference between God and nature.

I see that you are doing it.

I see that you are projecting your sorrows.

You are projecting your world.

I am very clear about it.

There is no two ways.

You cannot convince me that you are not doing it.

You are doing it.

You are God.

Maybe you don't see it.

You think it is all nature.

But it is very clear to me that God and nature are one and the same.

This is Maharaja's stand.

I see that God and nature are one and the same.

This is also Drishya.

This is also Drishya.

You distinguish between this and this.

Maharaj sees this and this as one.

Things happening to things.

Very clear?

To the Jnani,

All is done by God.

He sees no difference between God and nature.

Both God and the Jnani know themselves to be the immovable center of the movable,

The eternal witness of the transient.

The center is a point of void and the witness a point of pure awareness.

They know themselves to be as nothing.

Therefore,

Nothing can resist them.

At both levels of recognition,

Even when you do not really recognize yourself as primordial awareness yet,

Pure consciousness yet,

Yet you have a glimpse.

You have recognized nothingness.

You know at the core,

I am nothing.

Same with the Jnani.

At the core,

They recognize there is,

It is immovable.

Whatever is transient and movable is at the periphery.

How does this look and feel in your personal experience?

Maharaj says,

Being nothing,

I am all.

Highlight.

This is a little lesson for the ego when it comes up with the resistance.

It wants to be somebody.

It wants to be something.

Yeah?

Show it.

When you're somebody or something,

You cannot be all.

You are just that one amongst a zillion.

Yeah?

But when you are nothing,

You can be all.

Being nothing,

I am all.

Everything is me.

Everything is mine.

Just as my body moves by my mere thinking of the movement,

So do things happen as I think of them.

Mind you,

I do nothing.

I just see them happen.

Do things happen as you want them to happen or do you want them to happen as they happen?

He says both.

I accept and I am accepted.

I am all and all is me.

Being the world,

I am not afraid of the world.

Are you getting at what level he is?

Yeah?

He's saying,

I am the waking world.

I am the dream world.

I am the darkness of deep sleep.

Then this is me.

How can I be afraid of it?

I am projecting it.

That is why there are thoughts,

There are actions.

Everything is happening because of my projection.

I am doing it all.

Do you see this?

That is why if I am doing all,

I become greater than it.

No?

Then do I need to be afraid of that which is lower than me?

Bad financial situation?

Projection of me.

Can it harm me?

Bad physical condition?

Projection of mine.

Can it harm me?

When there is no other,

There is nothing to be afraid of.

It is all me.

I am all.

Being nothing,

I am all.

Everything is me.

Everything is mine.

Just as my body moves by my mere thinking of the movement,

So do things happen as I think of them.

Mind you,

I do nothing.

I just see them happen.

Are you seeing this?

In the same paragraph,

He is saying,

I do and I am not the doer.

He has put non-doership and doership in the same paragraph.

That's why the questioner gets confused and asks him,

Do things happen as you want them to happen or do you want them to happen as they happen?

Very nice question.

Maharaj says,

Both I accept and I am accepted.

I am all and all is me.

Being the world,

I am not afraid of the world.

Being the projection,

I am not afraid of the projection.

Being all,

What am I to be afraid of?

Water is not afraid of water nor fire of fire.

Also,

I am not afraid because I am nothing that can experience fear or can be in danger.

Please highlight.

So he said,

Water is not afraid of water,

Fire is not afraid of fire.

Means projection cannot be afraid of projection.

How can light be afraid of light?

The entire world is me.

How can I be afraid of what is me?

Are you afraid of yourself?

No,

It doesn't make sense.

So,

I am not afraid because I am nothing that can experience fear or can be in danger.

Because there is no other,

No?

If there would be an other,

Then there was the sense of danger from the other.

But I am all.

I am everything.

Both God and devil are me only,

He said.

Who will I fear?

All concepts,

All ideas,

The waking ideas,

The dream ideas and the deep sleep ideas are all me.

There is nothing other than me.

That is why I tell you,

There are no others in the world.

I am not afraid because I am nothing that can experience fear or can be in danger.

I have no shape nor name.

It is attachment to a name and shape that breeds fear.

Very important.

Why do you have fear?

Because you have attachment to a name and form.

What is that name and form?

The vyakti,

The person,

The body-mind,

Personality.

That name and form is the attachment.

It is attachment to a name and form that breeds fear.

I am not attached.

I am nothing.

And nothing is afraid of no thing.

Nothing is afraid of no thing.

On the contrary,

Everything is afraid of the nothing.

Are you seeing your ego afraid of being nothing?

Everything is afraid of the nothing.

For when a thing touches nothing,

It becomes nothing.

Are you seeing how your ego is resisting?

It doesn't want to be Mr.

Nobody.

When I said today in the self-exploration,

I am not I,

Instead of the I dissolving into the nothingness,

It wanted to come up and prove I am there.

Did you notice?

Repeat the self-exploration again.

Whenever you hear I am not I,

You will see the resistance of the I trying to prove knock knock,

I am.

I am here.

I am here.

But when there's nothing to know and there is absolute silence after that,

It has nothing to know,

It has nothing to do,

It has to collapse.

Then you see the collapse.

While in the waking state,

You can see the I collapse.

Start recognizing this.

This is a very important point.

Keep it for tonight also.

May I see the I collapse.

May I see it arise.

Nothingness is like a bottomless well.

Whatever falls into it disappears.

That is why the I is scared.

It's scared to stand alone.

The ego has resistance because of this.

So recognize that my resistance has been very clearly spelled out here.

Every time when you're back home and you want to do sadhana and there is resistance of the ego,

Just come read this one paragraph.

Yes,

Just come this read this whole one paragraph.

There's simply attachment to name and form,

Name and form.

That is why there is fear.

Resistance is only fear,

Nothing else.

Insecurity.

Insecurity.

So questioner asks,

Isn't God a person?

Maharaj says,

As long as you think yourself to be a person,

He too is a person.

When you are all,

You see him as all.

The same thing Atmananda Krishnamen says,

If you see yourself as a body,

You see everybody as a body including God.

If you see yourself as the mind,

You see everybody as simply mental images.

You see yourself as awareness,

Then everything is awareness including God.

Exactly the same thing.

Questioner,

Can I change facts by changing attitude?

Maharaj says,

The attitude is the fact.

Very nice.

Just highlight.

The attitude is the fact.

Take anger.

I may be furious,

Pacing the room up and down at the same time.

I know what I am.

A center of wisdom and love.

An atom of pure existence.

All subsides and the mind merges into silence.

So the questioner catches him.

Still you are angry sometimes.

So Maharaj says,

With whom am I to be angry and for what?

Anger came and dissolved on my remembering myself.

Highlight.

So anger is nothing but a feeling that arose.

The wave continued to stay as long as its shelf life was and it dissolved into myself.

The moment I was just being a witness to it.

I remembering myself remembering myself means being a witness to it.

It is all a play of gunas,

Qualities of cosmic matter.

When I identify myself with them,

I am their slave.

When I stand apart,

I am their master.

Again,

Highlight.

Is this very clear?

There is not going to be any magical transformation of you into a swan or into the Buddha that doesn't get angry or doesn't say anything.

Delete,

Erase,

Reject all these mystical,

Magical expectations that were put into you on the Dwaitam Path.

Completely wrong.

Nothing like that will happen.

If the feeling of anger arises,

It arises.

It is a wave.

Just like the thought is not me,

Just like this perception of sight is not me,

Similarly,

Anger is not me.

It arose.

It played because of its rajas guna and it subsided.

It's still in maryada.

It's following its maryada.

I am standing apart remembering who I am.

I am not angry.

The mind is angry.

The angry feeling is there.

I am the knower of the anger.

I am not anger.

This is what I was explaining to you on the second day.

Whatever is happening with her,

It's happening even if it is an argument.

I am not the one that is arguing.

I am the witness of this.

So if there is anger in that argument,

That's fine.

If there's just logic,

That's fine.

If this is going on in a gentle manner,

That's fine.

Whatever it is,

I am the witness of it.

This is the highest knowledge.

The lower knowledge tells you,

Oh you're going to transform.

You're going to become the Buddha.

You're going to be still and silent.

So you start suppressing yourself.

Okay,

I have to be good.

I have to be good.

I'm a spiritual person.

I have to be the kind one.

I'm boiling with anger inside and I'm suppressing myself.

Yes,

But it comes out.

Then you're like,

Oh what kind of a spiritual person am I?

So much complication you have created with all this messy understanding.

All belongs to the Dwaitam Path.

Very very clear?

Only one thing needs to be remembered.

I am the witness.

I am the witness of the angry feeling also.

How can you just accept perception,

Sensation and thought and you're not ready to accept feeling?

This is partiality.

Till now you said,

Oh everything is Drishya.

Oh but that feeling?

No,

No.

Anger should not arise in Maharaj.

Then you are totally on the wrong track.

Completely wrong.

Do you see this?

That is why if you see in his videos,

He will directly tell you,

If you're not getting go,

Khadiyatza.

No filters.

Khadiyatza,

Go.

Drop into a pit hole.

You're not meant to be here.

You're not getting.

He is not shy.

He doesn't use filters.

You see little kids,

They don't have filters.

Kids are very straightforward.

They tell you what is.

Do you take it or not?

There's no massaging the ego.

Not trying to be in your good books.

Not trying to get income from you.

Only if I behave properly,

Then the income flow will be steady.

He doesn't care.

He doesn't care.

He's straightforward and tells you as it is.

Just like perception of sight,

Sound,

Smell,

Taste,

Touch is Drishya.

Just like thought is Drishya.

Just like physical sensation in the body is Drishya.

An angry feeling is also Drishya.

Just see it as a Drishya.

Every time you see you've jumped in,

Come back.

At least one instance will be there when you come back.

Come back.

Now hold on to it.

Now don't slip.

You know,

A crowded bus,

How you hold on to that and then you don't bump into the next person.

However crowded the bus is,

You maintain your maryada.

Do you see that?

You ensure that not even my arm should touch the person,

Next person standing so close to me,

It should not even touch his shirt.

You maintain your maryada,

You hold on so tight.

With that kind of passion you have to hold on.

You have that kind of passion for self-exploration,

Self-enquiry.

Is your pull inward so strong?

It is all a play of gunas.

Anger is Raja's guna.

So it is all a play of gunas,

Qualities of cosmic matter.

When I identify myself with them,

I am their slave.

When I stand apart,

I am their master.

Just stand apart.

The Rajas,

Tamas and Sattva guna is linked with this body-mind personality.

Till the death of this body-mind personality,

The Rajas,

Tamas,

Sattva will keep coming like seasons.

You can't say the season should stop now,

I'm enlightened.

No,

When it's rainy season,

It's rainy season.

When it's hot season,

It's hot season.

So Rajas,

Tamas,

Sattva is like seasons of the body-mind.

You get it?

And they will come.

They will come in their own way.

Yes,

In some people,

Raja shows up as anger depending on how in the past your programming is.

In some people,

That same shows up as restlessness.

Rajas,

Same thing in some other people might show up as something else.

You get it?

But the Rajas,

Tamas,

Sattva guna,

Which is the basis of this body-mind personality,

That is the season.

Yeah,

It's the season.

The season will come.

You get it?

So even when Rajas,

Tamas,

Sattva strike,

What?

I am still being very strong as a witness.

They come back quickly.

So if earlier the anger was like a line on rock and then they would like relationship break up,

Slowly it will become just line on sand.

It'll last some time and then it'll be back to normal.

And soon it'll be a point where it'll just be line on water.

How long does that last?