I AM THAT | CHAPTER 7 | NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

|| THE MIND ||

As long as the mind is there , your body and your world are there . Your world is mind-made , subjective , enclosed within the mind , fragmentary , temporary , personal , hanging on the thread of memory .

QUESTIONER : There are very interesting books written by apparently very competent people , in which the illusoriness of the world is denied ( though not its transitoriness ) .

According to them , there exists a hierarchy of beings , from the lowest to the highest ; on each level the complexity of the organism enables and reflects the depth , breadth and intensity of consciousness , without any visible or knowable culmination .

One law supreme rules throughout : evolution of forms for the growth and enrichment of consciousness and manifestation of its infinite potentialities .

MAHARAJ : This may or may not be so .

Even if it is , it is only so from the mind's point of view , but in fact the entire universe ( mahadakash ) exists only in consciousness ( chidakash ) , while I have my stand in the Absolute ( paramakash ) .

In pure being consciousness arises ; in consciousness the world appears and disappears .

All there is is me , all there is is mine .

Before all beginnings , after all endings — I am .

All has its being in me , in the " I am " , that shines in every living being . Even not-being is unthinkable without me .

Whatever happens , I must be there to witness it .

QUESTIONER : Why do you deny being to the world?

MAHARAJ : I do not negate the world . I see it as appearing in consciousness , which is the totality of the known in the immensity of the unknown .

What begins and ends is mere appearance . The world can be said to appear , but not to be .

The appearance may last very long on some scale of time , and be very short on another , but ultimately it comes to the same . Whatever is time bound is momentary and has no reality .

QUESTIONER : Surely , you see the actual world as it surrounds you . You seem to behave quite normally !

MAHARAJ : That is how it appears to you .

What in your case occupies the entire field of consciousness is a mere speck in mine .

The world lasts but for a moment .

It is your memory that makes you think that the world continues .

Myself , I do not live by memory . I see the world as it is , a momentary appearance in consciousness .

QUESTIONER : In your consciousness ?

MAHARAJ : All idea of " me " and " mine " , even of " I am " is in consciousness .

QUESTIONER : Is then your " absolute being " ( paramakash ) un-consciousness ?

MAHARAJ : The idea of un-consciousness exists in consciousness only .

QUESTIONER : Then how do you know you are in the supreme state ?

MAHARAJ : Because I am in it . It is the only natural state .

QUESTIONER : Can you describe it ?

MAHARAJ : Only by negation , as uncaused , independent , unrelated , undivided , uncomposed , unshakable , unquestionable , unreachable by effort .

Every positive definition is from memory and , therefore , inapplicable .

And yet my state is supremely actual and , therefore , possible , realisable , attainable .

QUESTIONER : Are you not immersed timelessly in an abstraction ?

MAHARAJ : Abstraction is mental and verbal and disappears in sleep , or swoon; it reappears in time ; I am in my own state ( swarupa ) timelessly in the now .

Past and future are in mind only — I am now .

QUESTIONER : The world too is now .

MAHARAJ : Which world ?

QUESTIONER : The world around us .

MAHARAJ : It is your world you have in mind , not mine . What do you know of me , when even my talk with you is in your world only ?

You have no reason to believe that my world is identical with yours .

My world is real , true , as it is perceived , while yours appears and disappears , according to the state of your mind .

Your world is something alien , and you are afraid of it .

My world is myself . I am at home .

QUESTIONER : If you are the world , how can you be conscious of it ? Is not the subject of consciousness different from its object ?

MAHARAJ : Consciousness and the world appear and disappear together , hence they are two aspects of the same state .

QUESTIONER : In sleep I am not , and the world continues .

MAHARAJ : How do you know ?

QUESTIONER : On waking up I come to know . My memory tells me .

MAHARAJ : Memory is in the mind . The mind continues in sleep .

QUESTIONER : It is partly in abeyance .

MAHARAJ : But its world picture is not affected .

As long as the mind is there , your body and your world are there .

Your world is mind-made , subjective , enclosed within the mind , fragmentary , temporary , personal , hanging on the thread of memory .

QUESTIONER : So is yours ?

MAHARAJ : Oh no .

I live in a world of realities , while yours is of imaginations .

Your world is personal , private , unshareable , intimately your own . Nobody can enter it , see as you see , hear as you hear , feel your emotions and think your thoughts . In your world you are truly alone , enclosed in your ever-changing dream , which you take for life .

My world is an open world , common to all , accessible to all . In my world there is community , insight , love , real quality ; the individual is the total , the totality — in the individual .

All are one and the One is all .

QUESTIONER : Is your world full of things and people as is mine ?

MAHARAJ : No , it is full of myself .

QUESTIONER : But do you see and hear as we do ?
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MAHARAJ : Yes , l appear to hear and see and talk and act , but to me it just happens , as to you digestion or perspiration happens .

The body-mind machine looks after it , but leaves me out of it . Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair , so I need not worry about words and actions .

They just happen and leave me unconcerned , for in my world nothing ever goes wrong .

SOURCE | SATYAVEDISM.ORG