I Am Nisargadatta Quotes & Sayings

Give up the idea of being a person, that is all. You need not become what you are anyhow. There is the identity of what you are and there is the person superimposed on it. All you know is the person, the identity - which is not a person - you do not know, for you never doubted, never asked yourself the crucial question: 'Who am I?' — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. And between these two, my life flows. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Love says 'I am everything.' Wisdom says 'I am nothing.' Between the two, my life flows. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

When I see I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I see I am everything, that is love. My life is a movement between these two. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

The man who carries a parcel is anxious not to lose it -- he is parcel-conscious. The man who cherishes the feeling 'I am' is self-conscious. The jnani holds on to nothing and cannot be said to be conscious. And yet he is not unconscious. He is the very heart of awareness. We call him digambara clothed in space, the Naked One, beyond all appearance. There is no name and shape under which he may be said to exist, yet he is the only one that truly is. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared
myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Whatever state I am in, I see it as a state of mind to be accepted as it is. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sometimes I feel I am everything, I call that Love.
Sometimes I feel I am nothing, I call that Wisdom.
Between Love and Wisdom
my life continuously flows. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I find that somehow, by shifting the focus of attention, I become the very thing I look at, and experience the kind of consciousness it has; I become the inner witness of the thing. I call this capacity of entering other focal points of consciousness, love; you may give it any name you like. Love says "I am everything". Wisdom says "I am nothing". Between the two, my life flows. Since at any point of time and space I can be both the subject and the object of experience, I express it by saying that I am both, and neither, and beyond both. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

As you watch your mind, you discover your self as the watcher. When you stand motionless, only watching, you discover your self as the light behind the watcher. The source of light is dark, unknown is the source of knowledge. That source alone is. Go back to that source and abide there.
"I Am That" - pg 188 — Nisargadatta Maharaj

I am that by which I know 'I am' — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

When you go deep inside nothing is all there is. There is no 'I am'. The 'I am' merges in the Absolute. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

I leave my human nature to unfold according to its destiny. I remain as I AM. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I am dead already. Physical death will make no difference in my case. I am timeless being. I am free of desire or fear, because I do not remember the past or imagine the future. Where there are no names and shapes, how can there be desire and fear? With desirelessness comes timelessness. I am safe, because what is not, cannot touch what is. You feel unsafe, because you imagine danger. Of course, your body as such is complex and vulnerable and needs protection. But not you. Once you realize your own unassailable being, you will be at peace. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Past and future are in the mind only - I am now. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

In the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am - unbound. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

When I say 'I am', I do not mean a separate entity with a body as its nucleus, I mean the totality of being, the ocean of consciousness, the entire universe of all that is known. I have nothing to desire for I am complete forever — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I am told I was born. I do not remember ... — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Who are you?", my answer would be: "Nothing in particular. Yet, I am. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

By being with yourself, the 'I am', by watching yourself in your daily life with alert interest, with the intention to understand rather than judge, in full acceptance of whatever may emerge, because it is there, you encourage the deep to come to the surface, and enrich your life and consciousness with its captive energies. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I do not suffer; I cannot suffer because I am not an object. Of course there is suffering. But do you realize what this suffering is? I am the suffering. Whatever is manifested, I am the functioning. Whatever is perceptible I am the perceiving of it. Whatever is done I am the doing of it; I am the doer of it, and, understand this, I am also that which is done. In fact, I am the total functioning. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining itself to be something: 'I am this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness snaps. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Love tells me, i am everything.
Wisdom tells me, i am nothing.
And in between flows my life. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

Come to the conclusion: I am unborn, I was unborn and I shall remain unborn — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I am timeless being. I am free of desire or fear, because I do not remember the past or imagine the future. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The only difference between us is that I am aware of my natural state, while you are bemused ... We discover it by being earnest, by searching, enquiring, questioning daily and hourly, by giving one's life to this discovery. — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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

The interval between the beginning of 'I am' (birth or waking) and when you lose it again (death or deep sleep) is called 'time. — Nisargadatta Maharaj