I Am That - Session 35 - Chapter 15 - The Gnyani - Part 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

Chapter number 15,

The Jnani.

In English it starts with a G but the G is supposed to be silent when you speak it in Sanskrit,

So it's Jnani.

Translation,

The wise one,

The one who has attained the highest knowledge,

The supreme knowledge of who he truly is,

The wise one.

Questioner,

Without God's power,

Nothing can be done.

Even you would not be sitting here and talking to us without him.

Maharaj says,

All is his doing,

No doubt.

What is it to me,

Since I want nothing?

Are you seeing this?

Very carefully read that line again.

Maharaj is separating himself from God and saying,

I want nothing from God.

What can God give me or take away from me?

What is mine is mine.

And what was mine,

Even when God was not.

What is mine right now is mine right now.

What was mine was also mine,

Irrespective of God.

You see,

This is very revolutionary.

What is your belief?

Whatever I have is because of God.

Why is this difference there in your thinking versus Maharaj's thinking?

Because you go back to the relative body mind level and think,

Oh,

My house,

My children,

My family,

My career,

Whatever I have is given by God.

Why?

Because you're positioning yourself at the relative level.

Where is Maharaj?

The primordial awareness level,

Not even witness.

Beyond witness consciousness is at the pure consciousness or primordial awareness level.

So he's saying,

What have I got to do with God giving,

Not giving?

What was mine was mine.

What is mine is mine.

Clear so far?

Now he'll explain why.

Of course,

It is a very tiny little thing,

A speck,

The sense I am,

The fact of being.

This is not translated well.

So I'll just read that sentence from the Marathi.

Prithvi maaji aahe,

Kiccha var je nirmaan hote,

Te eshwarat se aahe.

So till here is correct.

What is mine is mine.

And what was mine,

Even when God was not,

It was mine.

And that part is omitted or you're supposed to understand it.

Of course,

It is a very tiny little thing,

A speck.

What?

The sense of I am,

Is a very tiny little thing.

But that is my ground.

That is my earth.

That was not given to me by God.

The sense of being.

Now try and understand what is he saying.

This sense of being,

This is my own place.

Nobody gave it to me.

The earth is mine.

What grows on it is God's.

So look in your direct experience,

In your own direct experience,

Every morning when you wake up,

First arises the sense of I am correct.

From the darkness of deep sleep,

The first thing to arise is the sense of I am.

Is that my direct experience?

Yes,

That is my direct experience.

From that,

There is a little craving to exist,

To be.

Yes,

That craving to exist,

To be,

Is the projector of the personal world.

Because from their projects,

I am flying in the sky.

I am eating my delicious pizza.

A dream,

Some dream,

I am running away from the tiger.

Some dream that projects,

Projects from the feverishness to exist.

That is born in the sense of I am.

So sequentially,

First there is the sense of I am.

In the sense of I am,

There is the craving to become,

To exist.

Yes,

That craving is the projector of the personal world.

And your personal world is whatever thought that comes up in the form of a dream.

Clear?

Then from the dreaming state,

You come to the waking state and whatever people,

Situations,

Things in your family appear,

In your house appear,

Everything is nothing but the personal world.

So the personal world began in my sleeping dream and it continued till my waking dream.

My direct experience?

100%?

Everybody?

Yeah.

So now what Maharaj is saying,

This sense of I am,

This sense of I am is the foundation,

Is the ground on which this creative function is born.

This creative function is that restlessness,

The craving to become something,

To be something,

The craving to exist.

The word for it is jijiviksha.

Jijiviksha means to exist,

The craving to exist.

That jijiviksha has been termed as God.

It is actually just the creative function.

And then from that the personal world is manifested.

Clear?

So the second line is sense of I am is the conscious function,

The projector of the world,

The jijiviksha is the creative function.

And then finally there is manifestation or projection in my dream state and waking state.

Clear?

Second line clear?

Conscious function,

Creative function and manifestation or projection under personal world.

Then the third line.

Sense of I am is what really?

It's the witness consciousness.

Remember witness consciousness is not different from the primordial awareness.

It is the same.

Witness consciousness is pure consciousness forgetting itself and becoming I,

Taking on the form I.

So under sense of I am or self column you will have the first entry witness consciousness under the projector of the personal world column.

You have termed this projector,

That jijiviksha as God.

This is the religious conditioning.

There is no proof of a God existing outside of me.

Do I have any direct experience of a God existing outside of me?

No,

There is no God that exists apart from my own awareness.

I only give one idol,

The name of God.

I dress him up beautifully.

I worship him.

I surrender to him.

I pray to him.

It is nothing but an idol.

This idol is nothing else but my own creative function.

I am praying to the creative function in me to function properly.

Don't give me this.

Give me that.

Function according to my desires.

Don't function according to your desires.

You are basically advising,

Giving free advice to something you call God.

It's all a game,

A play.

Like a little kid plays with a Barbie doll and whatever,

Whatever dolls,

I don't know the names.

Goes playing with those toys and makes a whole real world out of it where there is none.

Similarly,

You dress up the idol of God,

Give him a name and you give him the power that you are the one controlling my life.

So please control it according to my desires.

And if you do it per my desires,

Then I will give you what?

Hundred rupees laddu or peda,

Bargain offer.

Next time thousand rupees,

This time hundred rupees.

So that's our conditioning.

If you remember growing up,

God passed me an exam.

I will come every Monday to the temple and bow my head in front of you as if God is really waiting for your bowing down.

So this is nothing but a little game that I have played and created some entity called God and I believe in him.

There's nothing but the creative function in me,

The jijivikcha,

That ikcha,

That craving that wants to be or become something.

So under that,

God.

And under the personal world,

What does that creative function do?

It manifests objects of whatever your projection,

Whatever you had asked in the form of people or situations or things.

Clear?

So now what Maharaj is saying?

Maharaj is saying the sense of I am,

That which arose first,

That is me,

That is my ground,

That God has not given me.

See this is revolutionary.

You've never heard of something like that.

Yeah,

He's saying that God has not given me.

That is the root,

That is the foundation.

Yeah,

From that root,

A tree has come up and the tree is God.

From that foundation,

Some columns and beams have come up.

Those columns and beams are God.

God comes after me,

The consciousness.

Clear?

And then what is the personal world?

The personal world is the leaves of the tree,

The flowers,

The fruit,

All the pretty,

Pretty things.

They come after the tree.

So the root is sense of I am,

The tree is God and the leaves and flowers and fruit and thorns are the personal world.

Similarly,

The foundation is the sense of I am,

The columns and beams on which the building is going to stand,

That is God and then all the floors of the building,

What is called the superstructure of the building,

That is the personal world.

So do you get what he's saying?

He's saying I am first,

Then God.

Till the time I keeps forgetting its true stance and becomes one with the body-mind and keeps asking things from the creative function,

From God,

Till that time you are caught in this maya,

You will always be stuck in this maya.

Maharaj is beyond this maya.

He says what have I got to do with this creative function?

Nothing,

None of my business.

I've got nothing to do with God.

Do you see this?

So the sense of I am,

That ground was always mine and it is mine,

Even when God was not there.

Is this clear?

This is the most controversial statement that only somebody like Maharaj can say.

Maharaj is not a person who wants publicity,

More people,

Come,

Come,

More people,

No.

He's not going to say anything so that,

You know,

You listen more to him,

Massage your ego and give you stories that you want to listen to,

No.

He's going to tell you the truth,

Whether you like it or not.

So homework for you.

Am I still trapped in religious conditioning?

Have I come out of this trap?

Self-created,

You have no proof of others existing out there.

Have I gotten out of this trap of religious conditioning?

Number two,

Most important,

Do I see that I come first and then God comes?

If you see that you come first and then God comes,

Then it's obvious you have to be out of religious conditioning.

If you don't see this,

Obviously you are not out of religious conditioning.

You're still trapped.

The answer to the first and the second question,

Go hand in hand.

So his last sentence is,

This is my own place.

Nobody gave it to me.

The earth is mine.

He did not literally mean the planet earth.

OK,

I hope that is clear.

The earth is mine.

What grows on it is God's.

It's just just an example.

Just like I gave you the example of foundation columns and beams and buildings.

So Maharaj gave you the example of earth is mine and what grows on it is God's.

So you check,

Have I recognized that all this personal world that is projected,

Family members,

Work,

Social life,

Whatever I have projected,

This is not mine.

I've got nothing to do with it.

Has that distance started happening?

This is very important.

If there is no distance happening,

Then you are going to be trapped.

And the biggest trap is religious conditioning.

Material world conditioning is not such a big maya as is religious conditioning.

Why?

Because religion and spirituality have gotten mixed up.

You follow a religion and you think you are a spiritual person.

Absolutely wrong.

The moment you follow a religion,

You're saying my God is different from your God.

You're creating a divide.

You're creating multiplicity and diversity.

That is dvaitam.

That is not advaitam.

Then you have not reached the highest level yet.

So till the time you believe I am a Hindu,

I am a Muslim,

I am a Christian,

I am a Jew.

If you have these labels,

Then you are still trapped.

Big time trapped.

Then 100% you must go back to chapter one.

No negotiation there.

Yes.

So please evaluate yourself.

If you're still stuck in this,

You need to give yourself time to get over this religious conditioning.

And you will be able to give yourself that time only if you start again from the beginning and keep working on these loose bricks in you.

Because the moment you put a label,

You're creating a divide between I and you.

Then my God and your God,

Then my guru and your guru and my spiritual organization and your spiritual organization.

And then there is war.

How can this be spirituality?

Obviously,

This is not.

This is politics.

Yeah.

Religious politics.

Not spirituality.

Forget about it.

So the intelligent person,

The wise person is the one who can separate out spirituality from the muck of religion.

Remove spirituality very cleanly and see it as it is and then be able to see,

Oh,

We are all one irrespective of whether I have white skin,

Brown skin,

Black skin.

We are one irrespective of whether I was born in this part of the world or that part of the world.

We are one irrespective of whether my parents follow this religion or that religion.

We are one.

How will you get to this highest level if you still put the label of Hindu or Muslim or Jew?

Very clear.

Yeah.

So working on religious conditioning is mandatory if it has not shed off back to chapter one.

So when Bharat says this is my own place,

The questioner gets a little stunned.

He said,

Did God take the earth on rent from you?

Very cute question.

Very innocent.

Bharat says God is my devotee and did all this for me.

Please highlight.

God is my devotee.

Maharaj is so crystal clear,

Established in consciousness.

He cannot be shaken even for a moment from there.

And he says,

Oh,

First comes consciousness.

Then comes this jijiviksha,

To be,

To become.

This is God and this projects the personal world.

So God is my devotee,

No?

I want something.

He is the one serving me.

He's serving me with this personal world relationship.

He's serving me with this personal world money or career or social life,

Whatever.

So God is my devotee because I come first.

God comes afterwards.

God is just the label I have given the creative function in me.

So the question is a little confused and he says,

Is there no God apart from you?

He's asking,

Isn't God separate from you?

So he says,

How can that be?

I am,

Is the root.

God is the tree.

Who am I to worship and what for?

Clear?

Sense of I am comes first.

So it is the root.

Then in that there is the jijiviksha,

To be,

To become,

Which is termed as God in religion.

The God of religion is that ikchha,

To be.

So that is the tree.

And then you can add the other trees,

Flowers,

Fruit is all my personal world.

So how can God ever be separate from me?

I am God.

Yes,

When I forget my stance as consciousness and I have this ikchha,

Jijiviksha,

I have this desire to be,

That is the moment I am God.

Clear?

How can that be?

I am,

Is the root.

God is the tree.

Whom am I to worship and what for?

Question number three for you,

For homework.

Whom am I to worship when I am God and what for?

Ask yourself this question.

Questioner is totally confused,

I think.

He says,

Are you the devotee or the object of devotion?

Devotee is the subject,

The object of devotion is some God,

Some book,

Maybe something.

So are you the devotee or are you the object of devotion?

Clear?

Subject and object is the question.

So Maharaj says,

I am neither.

I am devotion itself.

Is this very clear?

The topic of God ends here.

And the questioner is too confused to carry it further and he goes into another total different topic after here.

The subject changes.

But is this very clear for you?

What Maharaj is trying to convey?

Do you see it as your own direct experience?

Very clearly,

Let's be honest with ourselves.

If I see this,

I recognize this.

I should be able to shed off religious conditioning.

If not,

Maybe there is some loose brick still remaining.

I am not clear about Advaita knowledge.

Something is missing.

I did not get something along the way.

Now you have to find that loose brick.

That will happen by coming all the way up again from chapter 1 all the way to 15 again.

Super clear?

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