Nisargadatta Speaks...

Refuse all thoughts except one: the thought 'I am'.
The mind will rebel in the beginning,
but with patience and perseverance
it will yield and keep quiet.

Once you are quiet, things will begin to happen
spontaneously and quite naturally,
without any interference on your part.


To know the self as the only reality
and all else as temporal and transient,
is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple.

Instead of seeing things as imagined,
learn to see them as they are.
When you can see everything as it is,
you will also see yourself as you are.
It is like cleansing a mirror.

The same mirror that shows you the world as it is
will also show you your own face.
The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth.
Use it.



Why not turn away from the experience to the experiencer
and realize the full import of the
only true statement you can make: 'I am'.

Just keep in mind the feeling 'I am',
merge in it, till your mind and feeling become one.

By repeated attempts you will stumble on the right
balance of attention and affection and your mind
will be firmly established in the thought-feeling 'I am'.

Whatever you think, say or do,
this sense of immutable and affectionate being remains
as the ever-present background of the mind.


Do not bother about anything you want, or think, or do,
just stay put in the thought and feeling, 'I am',
focusing 'I am' firmly in your mind.

All kinds of experience may come to you -
remain unmoved in the knowledge
that all perceivable is transient
and only the 'I am' endures.


No way to self-realization is short or long,
but some people are more in earnest and some are less.

I can tell you about myself.
I was a simple man, but I trusted my Guru.
What he told me to do, I did.
He told me to concentrate on 'I am' - I did.
He told me that I am beyond all perceivables and conceivables -
I believed. I gave my heart and soul, my entire attention
and the whole of my spare time
(I had to work to keep my family alive).

As a result of faith and earnest application,
I realized my self ('swarupa') within three years.
You may choose any way that suits you;
your earnestness will determine the rate of progress.
Establish yourself firmly in the awareness of 'I am'.
This is the beginning and also the end of all endeavour.


To know what you are you must
first investigate and know what you are not.
And to know what you are not,
you must watch yourself carefully,
rejecting all that does not necessarily go with basic fact 'I am'.

The ideas: I am born at a given place,
at a given time, from my parents
and now I am so-and-so, living at, married to,
father of, employed by, and so on,
are not inherent in the sense 'I am'.

Our usual attitude is 'I am this' or 'that'.
Separate consistently and perseveringly
the 'I am' from 'this' or 'that'
and try to feel what it means to be,
just to 'be', without being 'this' or 'that'.

All our habits go against it
and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes,
but clear understanding helps a lot.
The clearer you understand that on the level of the mind
that you can be described in negative terms only,
the quicker you will come to the end of your search
and realize your limitless being.


When you see the world you see God.
There is no seeing God apart from the world.
Beyond the world to see God is to be God.

The light by which you see the world, which is God
is the tiny little spark: 'I am', apparently so small
and yet the first and the last
in every act of knowing and loving.