From ‘Prior to Consciousness. Talks with Nisargadatta Maharaj’. Edited by Jean Dunn

The Infinite a sudden guest
Has been assumed to be,
How how can that stupendous come
Which never went away?

- Emily Dickinson
Bolts of Melody – New poems of Emily Dickinson
(New York: Harper and Row)




It is the intensity of the faith you have in the guru’s words that is most important; once that is there, the grace flows automatically. The faith in the guru is based on the consciousness within, faith in one’s Self.



As a man, Christ was crucified, but that universal consciousness which was his lives today.



My association with my Guru was scarcely for two and a half years. He was staying some 200 kilometres away, he would come here once every four months, for fifteen days; this is the fruit of that. The words he gave me touched me very deeply. I abided in one thing only: the words of my Guru are the truth, and he said, “You are the Parabrahman.” No more doubts and no more questions on that. Once my Guru conveyed to me what he had to say I never bothered about other things – I hung on to the words of the Guru.



Nature has the institution of death. If death did not exist, there would be an unbearable accumulation of memories. People come and go, the memories are wiped out, therefore there is a sense of balance.



Merely sit in contemplation and let the consciousness unfold itself.



For you, the first step is worship that vital breath; here you must focus your attention on that vital breath pulsation – and together with that, carry out the name-japa. When you do that, the vital breath will be purified, and in the process of purification this beingness will open up.



Questioner: Does Maharaj go into Samadhi?
M: I am stabilized in the Highest. There is no going into Samadhi, or coming down from Samadhi; that is over.



………you must persist in meditation until you come to a stage when you feel there is no meditation.



According to the time and the situation they have taught their concepts, but there are concepts meant only for that period, that situation and then their concepts have developed into religions



The indication of your progress is your disinclination to associate with normal people; your desires and expectations get less and less........intense hunger for Self knowledge, the door, or the floodgate is opened, then you start rejecting everything, right from the gross state to Iswara state, your own consciousness, you reject everything.




You are prior to the idea “I Am.” Camp yourself there, prior to the words “I Am.”



Q: What does Maharaj think about all the different religions?

M: As far as I am concerned all religions are based on concepts and emotions. These emotions are so violent and absorbing that people have immolated themselves.


Being one with some other personality emotionally can be so effective that those who have identified themselves with Jesus Christ have had the marks of crucifixion appear on their own bodies. All these experiences are totally useless. One individual has identified with another individual, and unless individuality is given up the Reality can never manifest itself. Do not repeat what you have heard, parrot-wise, unless you have it with the conviction that I have.



If you stay put in beingness the thoughts will get less and less. If you get mixed up with the thoughts they will multiply.



You have created a God because you want to beg from somebody and that is what you call spirituality



After listening to my wildly virulent talks you may not come again tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. I tell you again and again, you might run around and around the world, but nobody is going to give you the knowledge. Recede into your own Self. Surrender to your own beingness and that alone will give you all the knowledge necessary for you – no one else will. You don’t inquire into this, you blindly follow the rituals of spirituality.



You may be anywhere, but be honest, be devoted only to your being.



Sitting in meditation helps the consciousness to blossom. It causes deeper understanding and spontaneous change in behavior. These changes are brought about in the consciousness itself, not in the pseudo-personality. Forced changes are at the level of the mind. Mental and intellectual changes are totally unnatural and different from the ones that take place in the birth principle. These take place naturally, automatically, by themselves, due to meditation.



The only thing which anyone has is the conviction that one exists, the conscious presence. Meditation is only on that sense of presence, nothing else.



Q: How can we find the way that is meant for us?

M: If your urge to realize the Self is very intense, your urge and the consciousness will direct you in the correct course.



You must possess that confirmation that you are formless, designless; not only rely on meditation. Always insist that you are formless, free, and are not conditioned. You must hammer on this constantly, that is the practice.