Self Awareness Through Meditation

Author(s): Ranjitsingh Kumat
Publisher: Ranjitsingh Kumat

Page 35

SELF AWARENESS THROUGH MEDITATION
of sorrow and pleasure, of deception and clarity, of conceit and cravings; the actual is our fears and expectations, the actual is the individual with all complexities. The actual is the living now. It is the reality as it is given moment by moment. Reality cannot be understood by mind acting in obedience to an ideal. Necessary for understanding the actual is total awareness. If reality is to be understood, there must be awareness which is not limited.”8
NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ (1897-1981)
Little is known about this saint, who was born in Maharashtra (India) and lived a simple life of an ordinary trader and a householder. He got guidance from a guru and became enlightened yet did not leave robes of a household. Though he did not know English or any foreign language, people from distant corners of the world came to discuss issues of life and enlightenment and his answers were in Marathi only. The tape-recordings of these discussions have been translated into English and published in a book “I AM THAT”, which has become a modern spiritual classic. Hereinafter some answers given by the saint are reproduced, which are revealing and inspiring.
What am I?
This is an eternal question for which saints and sages have spent their lives in search of answer. Nisargadattaji Maharaj gives answer like this. “It is enough to know what you are not. You need not know what you are. All you can say is “I am not this, I am not that.” You cannot meaningfully say “this is what I am.” It just makes no sense. Yet, without you there can be neither perception nor imagination. An experience must 'belong'. Without an experiencer the experience is not real. I see what you too could see, here and now, but for the wrong focus of your attention you give no attention to your self. Your mind is all with things, people and ideas, never with your self. Bring your self into focus, become aware of your own existence. By knowing what I am not, you will come to know what you are. Even the sense ‘I am' is not continuous. It shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about your self anything except ‘I am' and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be yourself, the need for the 'I am' is over-you are no longer intent on verbalizing what you are. All you need is to get rid of the tendency to define yourself. 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, spontaneously, and effortlessly”10.