by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
- Below you can find some highlights (not a summary, every page deserves highlights!)
- Skim… then slow down on the paragraphs that catch your interest. Reflection requires pause.
(Note: The book is structured as questions (Q) and answers by Maharaj (M).)
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I am is the ultimate fact. Who am I? is the ultimate question to which everybody must find an answer.
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It is not what you live, but how you live that matters.
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Q: I do not like this lila (play) idea. I would rather compare the world to a work-yard in which we are the builders.
M: You take it too seriously. What is wrong with play? You have a purpose only as long as you are not complete; til then, completeness, perfection is the purpose. But when you are complete in yourself, fully integrated within and without, then you enjoy the universe; you do not labour at it. To the disintegrated you may seem to be working hard, but that is their illusion. Sportsmen seem to make tremendous efforts: yet their sole motive is to play and display.
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Q: … I want to live a good life, a holy life. What am I to do?
M: Go home, take charge of your father’s business, look after your parents in their old age. Marry the girl who is waiting for you, be loyal, be simple, be humble. Hide your virtue, live silently. The five sense and the three qualities (gunas) are your eight steps in Yoga. And “I am” is the Great Reminder (mahamantra). You can learn from them all you need to know. Be attentive, enquire ceaselessly. That is all.
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M: There is nothing wrong with memory as such. What is false is its content. Remember facts, forget opinions.
Q: What is a fact?
M: What is perceived in pure awareness, unaffected by desire and fear is fact.
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Happiness is incidental. The true and effective motive is love. You see people suffer and you seek the best way of helping them. The answer is obvious – first put yourself beyond the need of help. Be sure your attitude is of pure goodwill, free of expectation of any kind.
Those who seek mere happiness may end up in sublime indifference, while love will never rest.
As to the method, there is only one – you must come to know yourself – both what you appear to be and what you are. Clarity and charity go together – each needs and strengthens the other.
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It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy – truth liberates.
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I make no claims of consistency. You think absolute consistency is possible; prove it by example. Don’t preach what you do not practise.
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Words are as much a barrier, as a bridge. Find the spark of life that weaves the tissues of your body and be with it. It is the only reality the body has.
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Are you really happy, or are you merely trying to convince yourself? Look at yourself fearlessly and you will at once realize that your happiness depends on conditions and circumstances, hence it is momentary, not real. Real happiness flows from within.
You are quite satisfied with pleasures. There is no place for happiness. Empty your cup and clean it. It cannot be filled otherwise. Others can give you pleasure, but never happiness.
It is only with separateness and self-seeking that really suffering appears in the world.
Selfishness is the cause of suffering. There is no other cause.
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Quote from wikipedia note:
The book of my conversations [I Am That] should not be taken as the last word on my teachings. I had given some answers to questions of certain individuals. Those answers were intended for those people and not for all. Instruction can be on an individual basis only. The same medicine cannot be prescribed for all.
Nowadays people are full of intellectual conceit. They have no faith in the ancient traditional practices leading up to Self-Knowledge. They want everything served to them on a platter.
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If the above highlights resonate, you can purchase the book here.
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