Excerpts from I AM THAT by Nisargadatta Maharaj
(with commentary by Ram Giri)
The Guru (the true identity of our wisdom mind and heart) is basically without desire. He sees what happens, but feels no urge to interfere. He makes no choices, takes no decisions. As pure witness, he watches what is going on and remains unaffected. Victory is always his, in the end. ? Inwardly he remains quiet and silent. He has no sense of being a separate person. The entire universe is his own?.Nothing in particular affects him, or, which comes to the same, the entire universe affects him in equal measure. In reality, the disciple is not different from the Guru. He is the same dimensionless centre of perception and love in action. It is only his imagination that encloses him and converts him into a person. (The disciple is the thinking mind, the ego, which wants to figure out the unknowable. We are all both guru and disciple.)
He is alone, but he is all. He is not even a being. He is the being-ness of beings. Not even that. No words apply. He is what he is, the ground from which all grows. (that is complete freedom, the taste of absolute reality.)
A gnani (a person of true knowledge, a yogi, you) commands a mode of spontaneous, non-sensory perception, which makes him know things directly, without intermediary of the senses. (This is deep knowing of truth, quite unlike psychic perceptions which are initiated, ruled or filtered by ego.)
His state tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted bliss. He is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it. It follows him, more real than the body, nearer than the mind itself. To me, dependence on anything for happiness is utter misery. Pleasure and pain have causes, while my state is my own, totally uncaused, independent, unassailable. (This is true happiness)
As he gets older, he grows more and more happy and peaceful. After all, he is going home. Like a traveler nearing his destination and collecting his luggage, he leaves the train without regret. The reel of destiny is coming to its end?the mind is happy. The mist of bodily existence is lifting?the burden of the body is growing less from day to day.
(How can we realize this free Self? Nisargadatta writes: It is only his imagination that encloses him and converts him into a person. We can directly dissolve this imagination of bondage and suffering through The Work (which dissolves the mental aspect) and Open Attention (which dissolves the emotional aspect of ego).
Original source: http://ramgiri.wordpress.com/?p=13
