Nisargadatta Maharaj

Qu'est-ce que l'Absolu ? Dieu existe-t-il ?

The Absolute is prior even to consciousness and admits no description

L'innommableIl le dit expressément

Nisargadatta Maharaj, a teacher of the Navnath lineage in Bombay, starts from the awareness of existing, the «I am», which he regards as the gateway. But in the conversations collected in I Am That (1973) and, more sharply, in those of his last years gathered in Prior to Consciousness, he insists that the Absolute (Parabrahman) is prior even to that consciousness: it does not know, is not known and cannot be the object of any statement. God, in his language, is often consciousness itself in manifestation, the «I am» that makes the world appear, and therefore something transient; the Absolute is neither personal nor impersonal in any thinkable sense. Whatever is said of it is concept, and his teaching consists in negating all one believes oneself to be until nothing remains to be said.

Qui suis-je ? Existe-t-il un vrai soi ?

Staying with «I am»: one is not body or mind, but what perceives

Le Soi est l'AbsoluIl le dit expressément

Nisargadatta Maharaj recounts that his teacher, Siddharameshwar Maharaj, told him to stay with the sense «I am», and that this was enough. In the conversations of I Am That (1973) he teaches discarding everything that can be perceived — body, thoughts, memories, one's own story — because what is perceived cannot be the perceiver. Neither body nor mind is what one is; nor is the person society names. Holding attention on the pure sense of existing reveals its own source. In his last years he radicalises the teaching: even «I am», consciousness, is a transient state tied to the body, and what one really is is the Absolute, prior to it, of which nothing can be affirmed. The true self, then, is not a self.

Pourquoi souffrons-nous ?

Pain belongs to the body; suffering, to identifying with it

L'ignorance de ce que nous sommesIl le dit expressément

Nisargadatta Maharaj distinguishes in his conversations between pain and suffering. Pain is physical, a sensation the body registers; suffering is mental, and appears when one takes oneself to be body and mind and believes something is happening to oneself. In I Am That he holds that all unhappiness comes from this mistaken identification with what one is not, and from the attachment to desire and fear that accompanies it. Whoever knows themselves as witness of the states, and not the states themselves, can pass through pain without suffering from it. Nisargadatta lived this teaching in his last years, ill with throat cancer, and went on receiving visitors and speaking. He does not promise the disappearance of pain, but the end of suffering once one sees clearly what one is not.

Que se passe-t-il après la mort ?

The death of the body does not happen to what one is

Ce que je suis ne naît ni ne meurtIl le dit expressément

Nisargadatta Maharaj holds that death is an event for the body and for the «I am» sense that depends on it, not for what one really is. In the conversations of I Am That he distinguishes three levels: the body, made of food; the consciousness of being, which appears with the body and disappears with it; and the Absolute, prior to both, which was never born and cannot die. Whoever takes himself for the body fears death; whoever has seen that he is neither body nor mind regards it as a change of scene. To questions about reincarnation he replies that only what believes itself born is reborn: desires and memories may seek another form, but that does not concern the Self. In the talks of his last years, collected in Prior to Consciousness, he speaks calmly of his own cancer and of the body's imminent disappearance.

Comment atteint-on la libération ou le salut ?

Abide in the «I am» until seeing one is nothing that is perceived

Par la connaissance directeIl le dit expressément

According to the dialogues gathered in I Am That, Nisargadatta Maharaj holds that the person already is what they seek and only needs to discover it. His central instruction, received from his teacher Siddharameshwar, is to hold on to the sense «I am», the bare feeling of existing, setting everything else aside, and to abide in it. One thus sees that everything one believed oneself to be, body, mind, history, is perceived and therefore is not oneself. That discernment leads beyond the «I am» itself, to the Absolute prior to consciousness. Nisargadatta insists that no complicated effort is needed, only earnestness and trust in the teacher's word.

Faut-il un maître ?

He trusted his guru's word, but the real guru is one's own being

Le maître est à l'intérieurIl le dit expressément

Nisargadatta Maharaj used to say that everything he realised was due to believing without reservation what his teacher, Siddharameshwar Maharaj, told him: that he was not what he believed himself to be but the supreme reality, and that he should attend to the sense «I am». That trust in the outer teacher was therefore decisive in his life. Yet in the dialogues of I Am That he distinguishes the outer guru, who gives instruction and confidence, from the inner guru, who is one's own being and who works the transformation. The outer teacher is a timely help; the inner one, permanent. Nisargadatta also insisted on not depending on him: what the teacher says must be verified in one's own experience.

Le monde est-il réel ?

The world appears in consciousness like a dream; the Absolute is prior

Apparence sur l'unique réalitéIl le dit expressément

In the dialogues of I Am That, Nisargadatta Maharaj holds that the world does not exist independently of the consciousness that perceives it: it appears with the sense «I am» and disappears with it, as in deep sleep. He often compares it to a dream: real while it lasts, but without substance of its own. Consciousness itself, with its content, is for him a temporary appearance bound to the body, and the Absolute is prior to it and untouched by it. He does not therefore propose disengaging from life: he accepted that one acts in the world and attends to it, but without identifying with it. In his last period the emphasis on the illusory character of all manifestation becomes even more radical.

Qu'est-ce que l'amour ?

Wisdom says I am nothing; love says I am everything

Ce qui apparaît quand le moi cesseIl le dit expressément

Nisargadatta Maharaj unites love and wisdom as two sides of the same understanding. In the conversations of I Am That he holds that wisdom consists in seeing that one is nothing of what is perceived — neither body nor mind — while love is the experience of being everything; life flows between the two. That love is not a feeling towards someone or a desire, but the absence of separation that appears when identification with a limited person falls away: where there is no self defending itself, the other ceases to be other. That is why he distrusts love that seeks something for itself, which he calls desire under another name, and states that true love neither chooses nor excludes. In practice, his only advice is to abide in the sense «I am» until seeing what is prior to it.

Sommes-nous libres ou tout est-il déterminé ?

Everything happens, nobody does it: personal will is one more idea

Il n'y a pas d'agentIl le dit expressément

In the conversations collected in *I Am That* (1973), Nisargadatta answers questions about free will by dismantling the questioner. The person who believes he chooses is a combination of body, memories and the sense «I am», and what he does is determined by countless causes; claiming authorship is part of the dream. The consciousness in which everything appears neither chooses nor refrains from choosing: it witnesses. So to whoever asks for a method to change his destiny, he returns the prior question of who he is. When one stops identifying with the person, one does not gain a freer will but loses interest in the question, discovering that one was never a separate individual with anything to decide.

Pourquoi méditer ou prier ?

Abiding in the sense «I am» until going beyond it

Revenir à la source du jeIl le dit expressément

The practice Nisargadatta received from his teacher Siddharameshwar, and passes on in *I Am That*, is simple: keep attention on the sense «I am», the pure feeling of existing, before adding anything to it (I am this, I am that). He recounts that he followed it for about three years and that it was enough. By abiding in that «I am» without identifying it with body or mind, one discovers that this feeling too appears and disappears, and that what one is comes before it. He attaches no importance to techniques, postures or mantra repetition —he himself sang *bhajans* at home—, because what is decisive is the earnestness and interest of the seeker.

La raison peut-elle connaître l'ultime ?

Whatever the mind can conceive is not what one is

L'ultime est au-delà du mentalIl le dit expressément

In *I Am That*, Nisargadatta repeats that the real cannot be an object of knowledge, since it is the ultimate subject in which all knowledge appears. Everything that can be perceived or conceived —body, mind, world, even God as an idea— is not what one is; hence his method is negative: discarding, one by one, the objects with which consciousness identifies. He valued the sharp intelligence of his visitors, but warned them that verbal understanding is not enough and that bookish knowledge can become another obstacle. He himself, who had little formal schooling, insisted that what matters is not knowing more but seeing clearly what is false until it falls away of itself.

Se retirer du monde ou le transformer ?

Set yourself right and the world will be right

La révolution est intérieureIl le dit expressément

Nisargadatta Maharaj lived his whole life in the world: he had a wife and children and ran a small shop selling Indian cigarettes (bidis) in Bombay while teaching in a loft room of his home. He never advised abandoning ordinary life. But to those who asked him how to help the world or change society he replied, in the conversations of I Am That, that they should first find out who they were: the world is as one takes it to be, and one who acts out of confusion only adds confusion. When one is free of identification with body and mind, the right action happens of itself, without a self claiming credit or seeking results. He does not deny the value of relieving suffering, but holds that the root of the problems lies in the illusion of being a separate person, and that this can only be corrected from within.