I am unborn -NM

Mind cannot interpret You

Maharaj: The One who knows (has no attributes) is Parabrahman

Visitor: Does light appear when one knows Brahman?

M: Prior to seeing light you might be there.

V: What is the quality of the gunas? Is it Sattva – witnessing, Rajas – activity, Tamas – ‘I have done the activity’?

M: All are names of Sattva, because of it, you are. Sattva is the ‘I am’, Rajas the tendencies towards activity or work and Tamas is to take account of or say ‘I have done this’, all three have no form they are formless.
Throughout you have considered yourself to be as something or the other, but it did not last, name and form will go. You are that entity which is going to leave the body; you are not the body, whatever you take yourself to be you are not that.

V: The ‘I am’ is time bound while what we really are, is eternal.

M: Your beingness is the flame, no gas, no flame. The Knowledge ‘I am’ is because of food, ‘I am like this’ or ‘like that’ (in appearance etc.) nothing is going to be with you; even your memory will fail. What are you then?
Whatever you presently consider yourself to be, you are not that. Taking yourself as something should give you permanent happiness, like being a young man, you try to sustain it, but just you cannot! Beingness is the result of Sattva, but when you are old, Sattva too disappears.

V: The ‘I am’ is time bound, it creates time. Is there a difference between
chronological and psychological time?

M: The ‘I am’ or beingness, is equated with time, the Sun, they are one.
Beingness is the Sun of knowledge, it itself is time or Sun.

V: Chronological time and psychological time (as ‘I am’) is it one?

M: There’s no difference. You have memory of the body, I don’t. ‘I am the body’ that is your memory. Body memory is the sugar coating of happiness, which ultimately proves to be painful.

V: the difference between chronological and psychological time, as I see it, is it correct?

M: If you are not, where is the Sun and the time derived from it? Realize that this entire Universe or manifestation is the skin and hide of your beingness, the skin of your illumination; all manifestation is your
expression, ‘you are’.

V: The truth of what is, is distorted by past memory.

M: What do you mean by past memory?

V: if you are, then there is the question of the past.

M: Between you (‘I amness’) and the consciousness, what is the relationship?

V: The ‘I am’ varies from time to time, feeling good, bad and so forth.

M: There is no difference in the types of ‘I amness’, I experience fatigue now, good health earlier, but the common factor is beingness which has not changed. All is illusion, the ‘I am’ is knowledge, but it’s also an illusion, say what you like, nothing prevails, except the knowledge ‘you are’. You presume that the world has existed without your beingness, your world is with your arrival, not prior to it, if you are not, your world is not.

A Jnani is satisfied in eternity.
Beingness is the seed of manifestation the
ignorant one thinks that the world was and I am a fragment in it, but the Jnani knows that it is a creation of the beingness. Your manifest world means ‘you are’ and ‘you are’ means your manifest world. Beingness means the self-knowledge ‘I am’, no mane, no lion. The world cannot be prior to your beingness, when your own beingness manifests, there is the world.
You try to interpret my exposition; you don’t assimilate what I say. Become manifest, you receive so many inclinations but rarely somebody stays put in message ‘I am’, all get carried away by the mind.

V: This is human nature

M: The primary message or Vritti (mind-inclination) is the ‘I am’, the flow of words is inside is mind, a movement in the head.

V: One gets carried away.

M: Take a firm stand that the mind cannot interpret you. What the mind says is not you, don’t be dictated by the mind, you are not the mind. The mind takes you for a ride, you feel you are going for a ride, your mind-
inclinations want to enjoy; you say I want to enjoy.

V: The mind being the servant will work as ‘I am’?

M: Where is the necessity of the mind for you?
V: To be my servant.

M: When in deep sleep, do you require the mind?

V: What is it to be awake?

M: Means ‘not to be awake’, is to be truly awake. Is there real and unreal waking?

V: By waking, I mean as you are – the Absolute

M: Without effort whatever you are, you are. With effort, you cause a stirring, that’s why you are not your natural ‘you are’.

V: Is there difference between observing and analyzing?

M: The talk about myself is the talk about yourself. Let any worthy one reach to any heights, anywhere, but it is time-bound. Any height! It is just a passage of time. Time means the Sun – the world is because of it – beingness. The sum total means ‘you are’, beingness only, when the knowledge ‘I am’ sets, the world is liquidated, Nivritti – no message ‘I am’.

By nature, originally and primarily your state is of no-being, incidentally, there is beingness. When you don’t dwell in beingness, then you are in body-mind. Presently whatever ideas occur will be your knowledge, there is no necessity for learning more skills, whatever is, let it be, just dwell in that beingness. Whatever I say relates to me, not society or people, the knowledge is for me, if you want to share it, you are welcome, provided you can endure
it. Right now, you just listen, you may not assimilate at once, so, just be.
Despite of all this you like to roam about and please your mind inclinations. The trouble is that you have made the hunger of the mind, your hunger, you claim it as yours; understand it and the mind will keep quiet. The mind is itching to see new countries and towns; you are habituated to go by the mind. But from now onwards, whatever the mind says does not relate to me, form this new habit the mind will be quiet and then you would want to be by yourself. Then thoughts occur and you go wool-gathering, tell your mind to go away. Even while taking food you are thinking of others, you may consume delicacies and you wouldn’t know.
Many sit for meditation, but ideas come and they try to fights these. It happens because you firmly identify with your mind-body.

V: Then what should I do? Remind myself that I have no body-mind?

M: Is it necessary to remind yourself that you are sitting here? Make it a practice; gradually develop it, no body, no mind.

  • I AM UNBORN. Chapter 14.
    Mind cannot interpret You
    24th December 1979
    Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj