Nisargadatta's I Am That - Appendix 1 - Nisarga Yoga Part 1

In the same book,

I am that,

Page number 512,

Nisargayog.

In short,

It is the same as the sense of I am.

That is the main practice that Nisargadatta Maharaj has enunciated.

Appendix 1,

That is Nisargayoga.

In the humble abode of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,

But for the electric lights and the noises of the street traffic,

One would not know in which period of human history one dwells.

There is an atmosphere of timelessness about this tiny room.

The subjects discussed are timeless,

Valid for all times.

The way they are expounded and examined is also timeless.

The centuries,

Millennia and yugas fall off and one deals with matters immensely ancient and eternally new.

The discussions held and teachings given would have been the same 10,

000 years ago and will be the same 10,

000 years hence.

There will always be conscious beings wondering about the fact of their being conscious and inquiring into its cause and aim.

Whence am I?

Who am I?

Whither am I?

Such questions have no beginning and no end and it is crucial to know the answers for without a full understanding of oneself,

But in time and in timelessness.

Life is but a dream imposed on us by powers we do not know,

For purposes we cannot grasp.

Maharaj is not a learned.

There is no erudition behind his homely Marathi.

Authorities he does not quote.

Scriptures are rarely mentioned.

The astonishingly rich spiritual heritage of India is implicit in him rather than explicit.

No rich ashram was ever built around him and most of his followers are humble working people cherishing the opportunity of spending an hour with him from time to time.

Simplicity and humility are the keynotes of his life and teachings physically and inwardly he never takes the higher seat.

The essence of being on which he talks he sees in others as clearly as he sees it in himself.

He admits that while he is aware of it others are not yet,

But this difference is temporary and of little importance except to the mind,

Except to the mind and its ever-changing content.

When asked about his yoga he says he has none to offer,

No system,

No theology,

Cosmology,

Psychology or philosophy.

He knows the real nature his own and his listeners and he points it out.

The listener cannot see it because he cannot see the obvious simply and directly.

All he knows he knows with his mind stimulated with the senses that the mind is a sense in itself he does not even suspect.

Okay this is a little introduction of how Maharaj is and how he's very simple.

He's not a learned man.

I've already told you about this.

He just went to school till the second grade.

Whatever is his knowledge is his pure experience is from his own pure self-exploration.

It's not something that he is reading,

Learning from others.

He never really learned all the scriptures that most of you have already learned.

So he comes from a very pure background,

Absolute no conditioning.

Yes so his whatever his teachings are there is no erudition as in there is no very beautifully put or scholarly written stuff.

It's if you listen to the talks on youtube if you if you have looked at the videos called the ray of the absolute you would see how Maharaj is speaking just just absolutely like simply as if just talking to a friend who has come over for tea and they're not formal lectures.

They are not given like in a structural manner.

He's just very simple and his Marathi is also not very Sanskritized kind of Marathi.

No it's very simple.

So those who know Marathi can actually hear it and understand wow this is like total total rural Marathi.

Yeah not even from Pune,

Bombay not even from the cities.

It's like absolute rural Marathi.

In fact the people from Pune and Bombay don't understand most of the words and they're like what was that?

Yeah so he's that kind of simple plain background.

Yeah this is just laying a background of from where Maharaj comes.

To get a taste please watch the youtube videos the rays of the absolute and of course those are done with the help of translators.

He needed translators because once Maurice Friedman came and published this book in the west a lot of westerners came down to Mumbai to Maharaj and they wanted to understand what Maharaj is saying.

Now just imagine somebody who's just gone to two grades of school Marathi medium.

He has absolutely no idea how to speak to westerners.

So he needs translators.

So those translators of course they are still living today and they are the ones who've made that video that I'm talking about.

So they are actually translating what Maharaj is saying in Marathi.

They translate into English for the westerners.

So this is a translation.

Do you get it?

This is not original.

This is a translation.

If you want the original then you have to learn the Marathi language of course.

Yeah.

So that's his humble background right there.

He did not teach any philosophy any any perfectly written scripture or any structured course or any technique.

All that he taught he said you already know.

You got an introduction to the sense of I am.

He's saying you already know.

It's just that you ignore it.

You're consumed by this world of people situations and things but I recognize it and I am there moment to moment.

Yes so this chapter he has stressed the importance of self-exploration of doing that sense of I am moment to moment more than reading books more than talks because he himself never read books.

He himself never watched a zillion talks.

He himself never went and sat and did discussion like we are doing.

Yeah.

So it's okay to do little bit.

20 percent in a week is good but more you should be doing self-exploration if you want to truly understand what Maharaj is saying.

Yes.

So going forward he talks about the Nisargayog.

Nisarga the word is a Marathi word.

It means nature.

Yeah.

So it's the natural yoga.

Natural means what?

I don't have to learn the technique from somebody else.

I don't need to go to some teacher to learn it.

I just need a simple pointer in which direction I have to look and there it is.

I already know it.

Yes we all already know it.

That is the meaning of Nisargayog and that is why he says the more you do self-exploration and get to it by your own self your conviction will strengthen and when your conviction in yourself strengthens you will be able to establish there more.

Yeah.

This is an opposite teaching to where people go to a teacher and listen to this talk,

Read that book,

Listen to that.

This is exact opposite of that.

He said in fact you'll get so conditioned by talking to this person,

Reading this,

Listening there.

Without exploration you're again caught up in the mind.

Yeah.

In self-exploration I am taking a step beyond the body,

Beyond the mind and being in that witness.

Can Ekta come to me and be with me in that witness?

Can my husband or wife come along with me and be in the witness?

No.

That part of the journey is done alone.

Is that very clear?

He starts at that level.

So if you're truly following Nisargadatta Maharaj most of your journey should be in silence.

You get a little pointer on the weekend and then throughout the week in silence just be in the sense of I am and just develop the strength of being in that silence.

There is no point discussing the body and the mind anymore.

You've been the body and the mind all your life.

Yeah.

It's totally pointless.

It's only delicious.

Of course this world of maya is delicious but drop that and just strengthen your self-exploration.

Yes.

Do you understand what is self-exploration?

Everybody.

Yeah.

Again and again being the witness.

Again and again being in that sense of I am in silence.

So see that now every week you start increasing your time in silence.

Increase your time of self-exploration.

Yeah.

Move away from reading.

Move away from listening.

You've done that enough on the path of Dwaitam also.

It's yummy and delicious to read,

To listen,

To discuss but now we have to start reducing that and increase our own personal self-exploration.

Ekta also cannot come and help you do your self-exploration.

You will have to do it alone.

Is that very clear?

Yes.

So let's all gather that strength of bearing the power of silence,

Of being alone in that self-exploration.

Yeah.

So now with that understanding we can move ahead to the next paragraph on Nisargayoga.

The Nisargayoga,

The natural yoga of Maharaj is disconcertingly simple.

The mind which is all-becoming must recognize and penetrate its own being.

Not as being this or that,

Here or there,

Then or now but just a timeless being.

Okay.

Maharaj says the Nisargayoga,

The natural yoga of Maharaj is disconcertingly simple.

We've all realized that it's absolutely simple.

Yes.

I keep saying I am,

I am this body,

I am this person,

I am a professional,

I am whatever this this tag or that title.

We have attached a lot of titles.

He says drop that title and just recognize the I am,

The witness.

Yeah.

Take a step beyond the body,

Beyond the mind and there it is.

It is that simple.

The mind which is all-becoming must recognize and penetrate its own being.

Not as being this or that,

Here or there.

Yeah.

This or that we got.

I am a father,

I am a mother,

I am a husband,

This or that.

Yeah.

Not being here or there.

Yeah.

What does he mean by here or there?

Yeah.

So,

We always have this notion of existence of time and space when we are at the level of the mind and that's where we keep thinking that I am here or I am not there.

Yes.

Because we link I with this body.

So,

We feel I am in this location,

I am not in that location.

So,

Subtly what have I believed?

That I am this physical body that is located only here.

I do not see the truth of that infinite field.

Yeah.

Which I can recognize the moment I step to the witness,

To the level of the awareness,

To the level of the sense of being.

Yes.

So,

Whenever I limit myself to time,

Space and causality,

There is titles.

There is here and now,

This and that.

The moment I take that step beyond,

The here and now drop,

The this and that drop.

Labels drop.

Yeah.

I experience the infinity.

I experience the timelessness.

So,

That's where I recognize that I am a timeless being.

And see this was so easy for us just to recognize in the first chapter.

So,

Maharaj said,

It's not that you didn't know.

You had just forgotten.

You had just ignored the truth.

That's all.

He never claims that he knows more than you.

That's the simplicity of Maharaj.

This timeless being is the source of both life and consciousness.

In terms of time,

Space and causation,

It is all powerful.

Being the causeless cause,

All-pervading,

Eternal,

In the sense of being beginningless,

Endless and ever-present.

Uncaused,

It is free,

All-pervading,

It knows,

Undivided,

It is happy,

It lives,

It loves and it has endless fun,

Shaping and reshaping the universe.

Every man has it.

Every man is it.

But not all know themselves as they are.

And therefore,

Identify themselves with the name and shape of their bodies and the contents of their consciousness.

So,

This timeless being,

What is he talking about?

That same awareness,

That consciousness that I experience,

The same sense of being,

That is what he's talking about.

That he's calling the timeless being.

Now,

Timeless being,

Do not imagine another being,

Like a human being,

An animal being,

So some new timeless being.

Again,

This is getting caught up in words.

These are just different ways people have expressed themselves when they were talking about the awareness,

The witness.

So,

The timeless being is the source of both life and consciousness.

Two things here.

Consciousness means that faculty in me,

Which is conscious of something,

Conscious of the body,

Conscious of the mind and conscious of objects in the world.

Understand,

This we in Shankaracharya's Advaita Vedanta is called Sakshi or the witness.

On Maharaja's path,

It's called consciousness.

What on Shankaracharya's Advaita Vedanta path is called pure consciousness,

On Maharaja's path is called primordial awareness.

Primordial awareness.

Just different words.

You just have to know what is what.

So,

Consciousness means nothing else but the witness,

That which is conscious of.

And what is life?

Life is nothing else but this entire field that has manifested out of me only.

People,

Situations,

Things.

This dream-like waking state is what he's calling life.

So,

Did you get the two aspects?

Yeah?

The consciousness,

Which is the witness consciousness and the life,

That which is the witnessed object.

That which this consciousness is conscious of.

In terms of time,

Space and causation,

It is all-powerful.

What is all-powerful?

The timeless being,

The consciousness.

Which one?

Pure consciousness on Shankaracharya's Advaita Vedanta path,

On Nisargadatta Maharaja's path,

It is primordial awareness.

So,

It is all-powerful.

Being the causeless cause.

What is causeless cause?

We did in the chapter on cause and effect that we always think there is a linear equation between point A and point B.

And A is the cause and B is the effect.

Yeah?

This is the way the mind thinks.

The mind can only think linearly.

The mind cannot think in a 360 degrees way.

It's just not the mind's game to do that.

Yeah?

So,

Mind always looks for a cause.

But this,

The moment you step beyond the mind,

At the level of the witness,

At the level of the sense of being,

It is the source.

Yeah?

There is no cause for it.

It is the causeless cause.

Why is the cause?

Because it finally,

Again,

The mind interprets it as the consciousness projects the mind and then the mind projects the body and the body-mind projects the world.

So,

Finally,

From the point of view of the mind,

The pure consciousness is the cause but it is itself causeless.

All-pervading.

This we have all experienced even for a few glimpses.

If you have maintained being the witness,

Being in the sense of I am,

You can recognize it is all-pervading.

Yeah?

There is no border.

There is no line that I can draw that here my awareness ends and here something else begins.

Could you find something outside your awareness?

Yes,

There is nothing outside my awareness.

So,

That is the meaning of it is all-pervading.

Means there is nothing outside my awareness,

My witness consciousness.

Eternal.

This we have all understood now.

Yeah?

I cannot step out of the now and go to the past.

I cannot step out of the now and go into the future.

Yeah?

I can only experience now,

Again now,

Again now.

I just do not experience anything other than now.

So,

What does it mean?

It is eternal.

There is nothing other than the now.

Yeah?

So,

Another name itself for the consciousness is eternity.

Yeah?

And because it is all-pervading,

Another name for consciousness is infinity.

Infinity.

In the sense of being beginningless.

What is the meaning of in the sense of being beginningless?

Have you all recognized the sense of I am?

Everybody?

Okay,

Tell me when did it begin?

The day you read the chapter?

Was it born that day?

A few days before that.

Okay,

The day your physical body was born.

Was it born that day?

I have no idea.

I have no direct experience of when it was born.

It is beginningless in my direct experience.

Yeah?

We are not talking about hypothesis and stories and what we can create out of the mind stuff.

Yeah?

In my direct experience,

The sense of being,

The sense of being is beginningless.

Yes.

So,

Obviously,

It is also endless.

When I don't know about the beginning,

I really don't know about the end either.

Is it possible that you don't have the sense of being?

Have you ever experienced the absence of the sense of I am?

Can you experience it?

If you experience the absence of the sense of I am,

Who is experiencing it?

Who is saying I experienced it?

Means,

It is not possible only for me to experience the end or its absence.

So,

It is endless.

Endless.

Yeah?

It is ever-present.

Yeah?

Because it is beginningless,

It is endless.

It is I am always in the now.

I do not experience anything outside the now.

So,

It is ever-present.

In other words,

Permanent.

Everything else changes,

Right?

Body is changing,

Mind is changing,

People are changing,

Environment is changing,

Situations change,

Everything changes.

But this one thing is ever-present.

What?

The sense of I am.

Why are these points given?

These points are given for self-exploration.

Yeah?

You have to recognize this in your silent self-explorations.

Yeah?

It is always there.

It is always there.

Yeah?

When I am unhappy,

When I am happy,

When I am very consumed by my work,

When I feel that there is,

I am not in the witness,

Is it there?

I have to do that self-exploration in silence.

Ekta cannot do it for me.

Another teacher cannot do it for me.

How much ever I listen to another talk,

I will not get it unless I do my self-exploration in silence,

In isolation.

Very clear?

So,

Start doing it.

Let's look at how many points he's given you for self-exploration.

Number one,

Causeless cause.

Number two,

All-pervading.

Number three,

Eternal.

Number four,

In the sense of being,

Beginningless.

Number five,

Endless.

Number six,

Ever-present.

Yeah?

I explained till there.

Number seven,

Uncaused.

Yeah?

There is no cause for it.

I just cannot find the cause.

I can just sense the sense of I am.

I can just sense being the witness.

I can take a step beyond the body and mind,

But I cannot find the cause.

From where did this come?

What has caused it?

So,

It is uncaused.

It is free.

What does that mean?

Are the body and mind free?

Is your mind really free?

Now,

You see how the mind is caught by its own attachments,

Its own cravings,

Its own aversions.

Yes?

And it goes on its own cycle.

How will you explore this path?

Observe that thoughts arise on their own.

I don't do anything.

There is no thinker of the thought.

There is no chooser of this thought.

Nobody makes a decision.

Thoughts arise on their own,

On their own,

On their own.

They are just caught up in some broken record kind of pattern.

Have you noticed this?

Yeah?

How much ever you tell yourself,

I am not going to think like this.

What happens after 10 minutes?

You again are thinking about the same thing.

It's like a broken record which keeps repeating,

Keeps repeating,

Keeps repeating.

Yeah?

It is bound by some pattern.

It is bound by something.

Yeah?

Similarly,

This body is bound,

Yeah,

Very bound to this world.

It's totally dependent on this world.

Yeah?

But that,

The witness,

That all-pervading sense of being is not bound.

It remains unbound.

So that is point number eight.

It is free.

You have to explore this.

Ekta's exploration is not sufficient.

Ekta's explanation is not sufficient.

You have to explore it.

Yeah?

Number nine,

All-pervading.

This is a repetition from two.

So number nine,

We'll make it knows.

Who knows?

Explore.

My thought that comes up and says,

Oh,

I like this.

And next thought comes up,

I don't like this.

It is so hot today.

Why are we talking about the sense of I am again?

Do you see how irrelevant,

Unrelated,

How irrelevant,

Unrelated chitter-chatter goes on as if a crazy person is talking?

The thoughts just come and go,

Come and go.

There is no link between them.

There is no chooser.

There is nobody really putting thoughts in a logical manner.

Are you noticing this?

Then that thing which doesn't have the ability to think,

That mental object that does not have the ability to decide,

That mental object that does not have any ability of its own,

When it should arise and when it should disappear,

Can that mental object called thought know something?

And what is mind?

Mind is nothing else but thought.

Sensations,

Emotions,

Everything is background music.

The main thing is thought.

Can thought really know?

Does one thought recognize another thought?

Oh,

Thought doesn't know.

Where does knowing happen?

So,

First you do your exploration.

You come to an understanding of your own and then you listen to the exploration meditation.

The self-exploration that has been uploaded to the Nisargadatta YouTube channel.

So,

If you get it right,

You'll feel,

Wow,

I really know how to do exploration on my own.

Don't take another spiritual crutch from another person.

Not even Ekta.

No teacher also.

You gather the courage to be spiritually independent,

Explore on your own and then validate the answer later.

That's the right way to progress on the path.

So,

Next one is it knows.

So,

Who knows?

You have to do that exploration.

Does a thought know?

Does a sensation know?

Does a perception know?

An emotion comes up.

Does the emotion know?

Can it understand?

Yeah,

You understand knowing.

Like right now you're knowing what Ekta is saying.

Who is knowing this?

This is your self-exploration.

The answer is already there in that meditation.

But don't jump to it unless you finish your own personal self-exploration.

Go to it only for validation.

Okay,

Next is undivided.

So,

This witness consciousness is undivided.

It's like a field that cannot be divided.

Can I say,

Oh,

This is Ekta's personal consciousness and that is Ghazal's personal consciousness?

That is Veena's personal consciousness?

No,

It cannot be divided.

Yeah,

So to say that I have a personal soul or a personal consciousness,

That completely falls off here with this realization.

Yeah,

This is a very important exploration for those people who have been holding on to the concept of a soul on the Dwaitam Path.

Yeah,

Thinking soul is a personal soul.

My soul versus your soul.

It's not personal.

This again needs to be a personal self-exploration.

It is happy.

This is the most interesting one to do.

There'll be a self-exploration.

I think that also has been uploaded.

I am Satchitananda.

But don't listen to it unless you explore it.

Where does happiness really come from?

Is it thought that gives me happiness?

Is it a sensation that gives me happiness?

Is it just a particular feeling or emotion that comes and goes or is there something more?

Is there a source to this emotion that I label as happiness?

What is it?

What factor,

Which mental object is giving me happiness or is it something beyond mental objects?

That is the self-exploration you have to do.

It is happy.

It lives,

It loves and it has endless fun shaping and reshaping the universe.

This Maharaj will explain in the further chapters as well.

That witness consciousness every morning,

Every morning when you wake up,

When still thoughts have not formulated,

When you have still not become aware of the body,

When you're just kind of woozy woozy still waking up,

That time the first thing that comes is that sense of I am.

This witness consciousness forgets itself.

It forgets how quiet and peaceful I am and it gets involved as the thought or projects itself as the thought and then you start seeing dreams or you start thinking with eyes still closed.

And then it projects itself as I,

This physical body called Eta.

And then you suddenly sense the physical body and then you move and then you awaken.

So every morning we have the experience of shaping and reshaping of our universe and every night the shape crumbles,

Crumbles,

Crumbles.

We move from the waking state into the dreaming state and from the dreaming state into the deep sleep state the whole crumbling of the universe happens.

This is called projecting.

Maharaj will explain this in further chapters more but first you start recognizing is this really happening to me.

Yeah if you recognize this every morning and every night the second level of this recognition is oh I project again and again during the day.

Yeah for example,

You get some grumbling noise in your stomach.

You have no idea what it is.

It's just a sensation,

A physical sensation.

A thought comes up and says oh you know I ate a lot of peanuts.

It could be because of that.

I just created a story.

I projected a story.

I start shaping my universe and even if it is not that I believe my story,

I talk about it and suddenly I realize after some time no I was just hungry and my whole story falls on its face.

I give you a very simple thing okay.

You keep projecting again and again and again.

Your husband or wife says something even before they've completed their sentence you have already projected your universe assuming what he or she means and in your head you've already formulated the reply that you're going to give and you've already come up with that strong emotion how you're going to respond and suddenly by the time he finishes his sentence it's totally something different and your entire story falls on its face.

Are you seeing this?

Now I'll just give you two simple examples.

You see you do this moment to moment to moment to moment.

You're constantly shaping reshaping your universe and it's a constant phenomena,

Constant projection.

Yes some of them fall on their face,

Some of them really become very strong.

If the other person doesn't respond back to your silly response or your silly assumption,

Your story becomes bigger your story becomes bigger and bigger and you believe in your story and you hold on to the story and then the ego builds up and then that's how there are clashes in the home.

Yeah so you start recognizing that oh I projected this situation,

I projected this fight between us,

I projected this.

Start with small small things and you will start recognizing how you yourself project everything.

That is the meaning of it lives,

It loves and it has endless fun shaping and reshaping the universe.

This is the most important self-exploration and it must be done in silence.

It cannot be done by discussion,

It cannot be done by listening to any more talks.

Yeah all of Nisargadatta Maharaj is really seeing,

Not talking and thinking and reading and listening.

Yeah you got his background,

He is not a learned person,

He is not scholarly,

He's not giving you intellectual arguments,

He's telling you very simply what you can know by seeing.

Yeah so his path is of seeing,

Not thinking,

Not intellectualization.

Every man has it,

Every man is it but not all know themselves as they are and therefore identify themselves with the name and shape of their bodies and the contents of their consciousness.

Yeah so you start recognizing right now I have become I this father or I this mother or I this teacher and again and again dissociate.

Can I dissociate,

Take that step back and just be the pure sense of being?

Can I take that step back and just be the witness?

Can I take that step back and just be the awareness?

This can only be done by self-exploration again and again recognizing see right now I became the wife and I started doing the drama with the husband.

Right now I became the father and I started being the possessor of the kids and became the malik,

The possessor of the kids.

So again and again recognize I got into identification of the body and can I take that step back and remain as the witness?

You will notice the body is already programmed to do whatever it needs to do.

Yeah but to be able to see this program you have to practice the distancing.

It's not a real distancing I'm just I'm just poetically putting it that way.

Taking a step beyond and recognizing oh I had just identified myself as a part of this drama.