I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is a collection of conversational teachings with the Twentieth century Advaita guru Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and is seen as a modern spiritual classic .

The 1973 English translation by Maurice Frydman was edited by Sudhaker S. Dikshit and achieved worldwide success, and has now been translated into 9 languages , including Hindi .

The title "I am That" refers to a philosophical concept in Hinduism, tat tvam asi, "That thou art," a statement of one's identity with the Divine.

Quotations from I am That
Shown below are some of the quotations taken from Nisargadatta Maharaj's 'I am That':

*Was it not the sense of ‘I am’ that came first? Some seed consciousness must be existing even during sleep, or swoon. On waking up the experience runs: ‘I am-the body- in the world’. It may appear to arise in succession but in fact it is all simultaneous, a single idea of having a body in a world. Can there be the sense of ‘I am’ without being somebody or other?

*Go deep into the sense of ‘I am’ and you will find. How do you find a thing you have mislaid or forgotten? You keep it in your mind until you recall it. The sense of being, of ‘I am’ is the first to emerge. Ask yourself whence it comes or just watch it quietly. When the mind stays in the ‘I am’, without moving, you enter a state, which cannot be verbalized, but which can be experienced. All you need to do is to try and try again. After all the sense of ‘I am’ is always with you, only you have attached all kinds of things to it- body, feelings, thoughts, ideas, possessions and so on. All these self-identifications are misleading, because of these you take yourself to be what you are not.

*The ‘I am’ is a useful pointer, it shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at it. Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about yourself anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing can be pointed at, can be your self, the need for the ‘I am’ is over - you are no longer intent on verbalizing what you are. All definitions apply to your body only and to its expressions. Once this obsession with the body goes, you will revert to your natural state. We discover the natural state by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one’s life to this discovery.

*What makes the present so different? Obviously, my presence, I am real for I am always ‘now’, in the present, and what is with me now shares in my reality. The past is in memory, the future - in imagination. There is nothing in the present event itself that makes it stand out as real. A thing focused in the now is with me, for I am ever present, it is my own reality that I impart to the present event.

*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.

*Nothing can trouble you but your own imagination.

Further reading
* I Am That, Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj(1973) Transcribed and edited by Maurice Frydman. Chetana Publications, Bombay/ Acorn Press. ISBN 0893860220.

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