http://www.vedanet.com/Self.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I Am That By Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj· · · · · · · · · · · · More than five hundred pages of transcribed conversations allow you to eavesdrop on Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, the most famous teacher of Advaita since Ramana Maharshi, as he sits in his living room and answers questions from visitors who have come to ask what they should do to become enlightened. Sri Nisargadatta described what it felt like to be in his state at considerable length, and he did so with a prodigiously intelligent, uncannily articulate modern vocabulary. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was born in Mumbai (Bombay) in March, 1897. His parents, who gave him the name Maruti, had a small farm at the village of Kandalgaon in Ratnagiri district in Mahrashtra. His father, Shivrampant, was a poor man who had been a servant in Bombay before turning to farming. Maruti worked on the farm as a boy. Although he grew up with little or no formal education, he was exposed to religious ideas by his father's friend Visnu Haribhau Gore, a pious Brahman. Nisargadatta's birthplace Maruti's father died when the boy was eighteen, leaving behind his wife and six children. Maruti and his older brother left the farm to look for work in Mumbai. After a brief stint as a clerk, Maruti opened a shop selling children's clothes, tobacco, and leaf-rolled cigarettes, called beedies, which are popular in India. The shop was modestly successful and Maruti married in 1924. A son and three daughters soon followed. When Maruti was 34, a friend of his, Yashwantrao Baagkar, introduced him to his guru, Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj, the head of the Inchegeri branch of the Navanath Sampradaya. The guru gave a mantra and some instructions to Maruti and died soon after. Sri Nisargadatta later recalled: Nisargadatta's guru, Sri Siddharameshwar Maharaj My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am'. It may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked![size=-1]1[/size] Within three years, Maruti realized himself and took the new name Nisargadatta. He became a saddhu and walked barefoot to the Himalayas, but eventually returned to Mumbai where he lived for the rest of his life, working as a cigarette vendor and giving religious instruction in his home. The success of I Am That, first published in English translation in 1973, made him internationally famous and brought many Western devotees to the tenement apartment where he gave satsangs. At the time of his death in 1981 he was his guru's successor as the head of the Inchegari branch of the Navanath Sampradaya. He was 84 years old. Quotes Yes, I appear to hear and see and talk and act, but to me it just happens as to you digestion or perspiration happens. The body-mind machine looks after it, but leaves me out of it. Just as you do not need to worry about growing hair, so I need not worry about words and actions. They just happen and leave me unconcerned, for in my world nothing ever goes wrong. http://uarelove1.tripod.com/NISARGADATTA_QUOTES.htm
Thanks for that Phil. Nisargadata Maharaj seems to have been a great Jnani. Is that a cigarette his guru is holding in the picture? It wouldn't make me think less of him if so. But it's unusual these days, and some might think it 'politically incorrect' for a holy person to smoke. But clear enough that the smoking didn't keep him away from the Divine. The quote reminds me of what Krishna says in the Gita - that everything here is carried out by Nature or Prakriti - the true Self is simply the witness. Not involved or attached to the movements of the lower nature. dwelling always in transcendence. When I have time I'll read up on him.
it states he smoked and sold leaf-rolled cigarettes, called beedies all his life, even after realisation. obviously for different minds there are different approaches to the devine, but presently it's the self-inquiry approach which appeals to me, -------------------------------------------------------------------------- My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am'. It may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked![size=-1]1[/size] ---------------------------------------------------------------- I've read and tried many techniques and scriptures etc and they left me more and more confused. I much prefer the simple approach of self-inquiry. As the above information gave me great advice so I thought I would share it, incase others also appreciate it.
Sri Nisargadatta was a great example of shraddha also - reasoned faith in the word of the Guru. A great teacher indeed.
I have heard that he was an ill-mannered person. His enlightenment seems to have been caused by his great guru Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj.
What a lovely positive first post, dost... Nobody can cause anothers enlightenment. They can guide, help and encourage, but without the individual's commitment and effort that is all useless. Speaking of cigarettes (or at least, everyone on this thread was speaking of them at this time 2 years ago)... Yogi Ramsuratkumar, another great master from Arunachala, also smoked often. He used the tobacco to ground him in the Earth plane to interact with people and help them. Funny thing is, before his enlightenment he couldn't even bear to be around someone else smoking, let alone smoke himself.
Sri Aurobindo also used to smoke cigars until the arrival at the ashram of the Mother, when he gave it up, evidently without any effort, because She didn't like the smell.
This is indeed interesting, with no formal education, having never read the vedas , I don't think he can read either. If he achieved the state of brahman, I think this is because of his previous karma in his past life. It is often said that people who are on their way to self discovery are encouraged by God and are reborn again and again into the human birth and in surroundings that help them aid in their quest to self realization. Also, Philuk... I think you mean 1878-1950 instead of 1978-1950 in the quotation given in the first post.
Yes speaking of cigarettes, nicotine causes a physiological attachment, but then again, whether attachment to body's attachment exists within Mr. Yogi Ramsuratkumar or this beedie seller is not resolved unless you do a parakaya prevesham . Anyway, It is more believable if suddenly stopping to smoke would have caused Mr. Ramsuratkumar to stick to the material plane of physical suffering and thereby help others with their problems.
Well, Yogi Ramsuratkumar broke the mould, no doubt. He was in a sense what the Lakotas call a heyoka (the one who always does the opposite of what is expected). When people told him of their problems, he would light a beedi or cigarette. Sometimes he'd smoke it all, sometimes only half,s ometimes he'd just light it and stub it out. But the problems always went away. Sometimes he'd also make tea for similar purposes. Even in his last days, when he had some kindof cancer (I think), his attendant Devaki ma (who met him through my own Guru) told me how he would sit on a chait for hours, talking to people who had come to meet him. Always laughing, joking, relaxed. Only when she helped him to get up and go to his room to rest did she see the pol of blood on the seat of the chair in which he had been sitting. I know it is all very strange and hard to believe. I didn't either, until my friend and spiritual teacher Bella told me about him and I went to Thiruvannamalai and saw for myself. Although he attained mahasamadhi in 2001, the vibrations in his home were very intensely strong.
Enlightenment opens a back door where once there was only a front door. The house stays the same until the person needs otherwise. Not so much out of personal need anymore, but out of need to convey a lesson. Keep in mind the true guru watches you watch him. x
