Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Nisargadatta Maharaj near the end of his life.

Nisargadatta Maharaj (April 1897 – September 8, 1981) worked as a simple bidi seller in Mumbai (known formerly as Bombay) but was considered by many an enlightened being and a master of spirituality. Maharaj was world renowned and admired for his direct and informal teachings, a selection of which are in his most famous book I Am That, which has been translated into many languages. Nisargadatta is widely considered to be one of the 20th century's most articulate communicators of the Hindu school of advaita vedanta or nondualism, uniquely successful in making such previously diffuse ideas accessible to both eastern and western minds.

Although he had a Hindu background and upbringing, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's teachings have a universal appeal. His genius is in making abstract ideas clear to everyone. He explained that the purpose of advanced spirituality is to know who you are -- simply that. Through his many talks given in his humble flat in the slums of Bombay, he showed a direct way in which one could become aware of one's original nature. Many of these talks were recorded, and form the basis of I am That and his other books. His words are free from cultural and religious trappings, and the knowledge he expounds is stripped bare of all that is deemed unnecessary.

In the words of advaita scholar Dr Robert Powell, "Like the Zen masters of old, Nisargadatta's style is abrupt, provocative, and immensely profound -- cutting to the core and wasting little effort on inessentials. His terse but potent sayings are known for their ability to trigger shifts in consciousness, just by hearing, or even reading them."

1 Biography
2 Teachings
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Nisargadatta's father, Shivrampant, worked as a domestic servant in Mumbai and later as a petty farmer in Kandalgaon, a small village in the back woods of Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.

At 18 Maruti's (given name) father died, prompting him and his brother to leave their family behind to find work in Mumbai (previously Bombay). Maruti found work as a small time clerk but quickly opened a small goods store mainly comprising of leaf-rolled cigarettes (bidis). In 1924 he married Sumatibai and they had three daughters and a son.

At the age of 34 Maruti was introduced to his future guru, Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, the head of the Inchegeri branch of the Navnath Sampradaya by his friend Yashwantrao Baagkar. Maharaj "did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures." His guru told him to concentrate on the feeling "I Am" and to remain in that state.

Sri Siddharameshwar died three years later in 1936 and it was at this point that Maruti reached self-awareness, adopted the new name of Nisargadatta and inherited membership into the Navnath Sampradaya sect. He then took off to the Himalayas to further his understanding but eventually returned to his family in Mumbai. It was there that he spent the rest of his life, working as a bidi vendor and giving teachings in his home.

His book "I Am That" achieved international success in 1973 with its first English translation. His new found "fame" brought him many new devotees from around the world.

Nisargadatta continued to receive & teach visitors in his home up to his death in 1981 at the age of 84 years.

Bob Adamson, [Stephen H. Wolinsky], Robert Powell, and Ramesh Balsekar are several of his followers who are still alive; they all teach the wisdom of and have written books about Sri Nisargadatta. A close friend of Sri Nisargadatta and fellow disciple of Sri Siddharameshwar, Ranjit Maharaj, taught in Mumbai, Europe, and the U.S.A. until his death in 2000.

[edit] Teachings

Nisargadatta's teachings are grounded in the Advaita Vedanta interpretation of the Hindu idea Tat Tvam Asi, literally "That Thou Art", meaning You are/are one with Divinity.

According to Nisargadatta, our true nature is perpetually free peaceful awareness, in Hinduism referred to as Brahman. Awareness is the source of, but different from the personal consciousness, which is related to the body. The mind and memory are responsible for association with a particular body; awareness is prior to both mind and memory . It is only the idea that we are the body that keeps us from living what he calls our "original essence", the True-Self, in Hinduism referred to as Atman.

He describes this essence as pure, free, and unaffected by anything that occurs. He likens it to a silent witness that watches through the body's senses, yet is not moved, either to happiness or sadness, based on what it sees.

For Nisargadatta, the Self is not one super-entity which knows independently the things; there is no such super-entity, no Creator with infinite intellect, no God as such.

What is, is the "total act(function)-ing" of the Ultimate / Absolute Reality (= Awareness / Self) along the infinite varying forms in manifestation.

Nisargadatta also predicates the radical idea that there is no such thing as a "doer". According to him and other teachers of Vedanta, since our true nature or identity is not the mind, is not the body, but the witness of the mind and body, we, as pure awareness do nothing. The mind and body act of their own accord, and we are the witness of them, though the mind often thinks it acts. This is the very idea that keeps us from recognizing our Self, and Nisargadatta cautions:

'"The life force [prana] and the mind are operating [of their own accord], but the mind will tempt you to believe that it is "you". Therefore understand always that you are the timeless spaceless witness. And even if the mind tells you that you are the one who is acting, don't believe the mind. [...] The apparatus [mind, body] which is functioning has come upon your original essense, but you are not that apparatus."

"Whatever movement, thought, or experience there is, can only occur on this consciousness. And you are prior to this consciousness; therefore you are neither the consciousness - that is, the instrument - nor any thought or experience, or whatever it is that is happening on that instrument. You are totally apart from it. Now stick to that."

"When you will understand what this childhood is, then that is liberation. Paradoxically you will realize that you are already liberated... if you don't understand this consciousness itself then you are in bondage. You may do anything in the world but ultimately you are in shackles. The ... child consciousness has to know the consciousness. It has to know itself... Everything is contained within the knowledge that you are a child, and all that will finally go. So your whole identity will disappear, including even that child identity, eventually..."

"We are talking about the beginning of everything. It all began with childhood. Now that childhood is also a concept, and idea. So if you understand that, you transcend at once all concepts. That is why it is imperative to understand childhood. What is the function of childhood? Its function is for you to know that you exist. That is all it has done. Prior to that, you had no knowledge of the "I"-consciousness. My statement, and that of my guru, is that childhood is a 'cheat', it is false. The knowledge "I am" is itself a cheat. When the beingness appears, that love for existence is the result of maya, the primary illusion. Once you come to know that you exist, you feel like enduring eternally. You always want to be, to exist, to survive. And so the struggle begins. All because of that maya."

"Whatever appears has really no existence. And whatever has not appeared also drops away; what remains is That, the Absolute."

"During your entire lifetime, you do not have any permanent identity. Whatever you consider yourself to be changes from moment to moment. Nothing is constant.... if you really want to understand this, you must give up your identification with the body. By all means, make use of the body, but don't consider yourself to be the body while acting in this world. Identify yourself with the consciousness, which dwells in the body... if you identify yourself with the body, you will feel that you are dying, but in reality there is no death because you are not the body. Let the body be there or not be there, your existence is always there... You should never forget the real identity that you possess. Consider a patient on his deathbed, certain to die. When he first comes to know of his disease, he gets such a shock that it is permanently engraved in his memory. Like that, you should never forget your true nature... One who is constantly awake in his true nature - having this knowledge about himself - is liberated."

(Source: The Ultimate Medicine, pp.54 - 70)

"When one talks in terms of consciousness, one is likely to think in terms of an individual. But understand that it is not really the individual who has consciousness, but it is the consciousness that assumes innumerable forms... The average person will not understand this... because it is too simple! To grasp, one wants something, some form, some shape. [The concept that] 'something' is born and is going to die or disappear is all imagination, all an illusion - nothing is born."

"People have been coming here and I have been talking... because the life span has to be spent... so even that is merely entertainment. Something has to be done; this is entertainment - whiling away the time, the life span. The name is the giving of knowledge, but what is the game? A game of cards, entertainment. The name is spiritual knowledge, the game is cards... there is no doer at all, no one has an identity to do anything. In the field of consciousness, everything just happens."

(Source: The Ultimate Medicine, pp.100 - 133)