AFB_Self_Knowledge_And_Self_Realization(1).pdf

Editor's Notes by Jean Dunn

The original script for these writings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was written in the Marathi

language and called "Atmagnyana and Paramatmayoga".

A translation in English by Vasudeo Madhav Kulkarni, at the time a Professor at Elphinstone

College, Bombay, India, was published on April 8, 1963, under Maharaj's title, translated as

"Self Knowledge and Self Realization".

Professor Kulkarni's adaptation was published with a foreword by Shree Ram Narayan

Chavhan, at Shree Nisargadatta Ashram, Vanmali Bhavan, 10th Khetwadi, Bombay 4, India.

Professor Kulkarni's translation was printed in India by J.D. Desai, Pashtra Vaibhav Press,

273 Vithalbhai Patel Rd., Girgaon, Bombay 4, India.

FOREWORD by Jean Dunn

I first purchased this little book in Bombay in 1978, and while it was difficult to read, it was

so very dear that I decided to edit it, making it easier to understand. I did this for myself, and

just recently, after lending it to others, and on their insistence, I decided to print a few copies

for those on the spiritual path. I tried and failed to trace the original publishers.

While Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, in his last few years, would not entertain any questions

about experiences in this "dream world", I feel that this book tells of his own spiritual path

and experiences.

Nisargadatta Maharaj was from the spiritual lineage of the Navanathas.

He was born in Bombay in 1897, and was brought up on a farm in Kandalgaon, a village south

of Bombay. He had an alert, inquisitive mind, and was deeply interested in religious and

philosophical matters. After the death of his father, he moved to Bombay in 1918, and in 1924

married Sumatibai, who bore him a son and three daughters.

Although he started life in Bombay as an office clerk, he soon went out on his own and started

a small business, and in a few years he owned several small shops. A hunger for truth grew

in him, and in 1933, due to a friend's urging, he approached the great Saint, Sri

Siddharameshwar Maharaj, and was initiated by him.

After the death of his Guru in 1936, the urge for Self—realization reached its zenith, and in

1937 he abandoned his family and businesses and took to the life of a wandering monk. On his

way to the Himalayas, where he intended to spend the rest of his life, he met a brother disciple

who convinced him that a life of dispassion in action would be more spiritually fruitful.

Returning to Bombay, he found only one store remaining of his business ventures. For the

sake of his family he conducted the business but devoted all his energy to spiritual sadhana.

He built himself a mezzanine floor as a place for meditation (this is the room where we all

used to gather to listen to him talk).

In his own words, "When I met my Guru, he told me, 'You are not what you take yourself to

be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense I AM, find your real Self...' I did as he told me. All

my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence...and what a difference it made, and

how soon! It took me only three years to realize my true nature." His message to us was simple

and direct with no propounding of scriptures or doctrines. "You are the Self here and now! Stop

imagining yourself to be something else. Let go your attachment to the unreal."

Maurice Frydman, a Polish devotee, often acted as translator and the questions and answers

were so interesting that tape recordings were made, and in 1973 these were published under

the title "I Am That". As a result, readers from many different countries came to Bombay

seeking the spiritual guidance of Sri Maharaj.

From 1978 to 1981, when Sri Maharaj died from cancer of the throat, his talks were so much

deeper than in the previous years that, with the help of a few other devotees, the tape

recordings were again resumed and I transcribed and edited them, with the blessings of Sri

Maharaj, and these were published under the titles of "Seeds of Consciousness" and "Prior to

Consciousness"; both titles were suggested by Sri Maharaj.

CONTENTS

DIVINE VISION AND THE DEVOTEE

THE SOUL, THE WORLD, BRAHMAN AND SELF REALIZATION

SELF KNOWLEDGE AND SELF REALIZATION

LIFE DIVINE AND THE SUPREME SELF

THE ASPIRANT AND SPIRITUAL THOUGHT

THE MYSTIC

THE LILA OF GOD

THE SPIRITUAL ASPIRANT, THE FIRST MOMENT OF BLISS

AND ITS CONTINUOUS GROWTH

DEVOTEE AND THE BLESSINGS OF GOD

THE UNITIVE LIFE

KNOW WHAT?

SPIRITUAL BLISS

THE TENDER HEART OF THE SAINT

DEVOTION TO BALAKRISHNA AND HIS CARE

SELF KNOWLEDGE AND SELF REALIZATION

SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE AND THE PACIFICATION OF

THE DESIRE TO KNOW

THE GAYATRI HYMN

SELF KNOWLEDGE AND SELF REALIZATION

SELF KNOWLEDGE

and

SELF REALIZATION

Atmagnyana and Paramatmayoga

by Nisargadatta Maharaj

Self Knowledge and Self Realization Page 1

DIVINE VISION AND THE DEVOTEE

Divine vision means acquaintance with, and crystalline understanding of, the

universal energy. God and the devotee are one, in his very nature the devotee is

identical with God. So long as one has not realized God, one does not know what justice

and injustice are, but with realization the devotee comes to know the distinction

between justice and injustice, the essential and the contingent, the eternal and the

evanescent, and this leads to his emancipation.

The divine vision eliminates individuality; the manifest is clearly distinguished from

the unmanifest. When the sense of individuality is replaced by that of impersonal

consciousness the devotee knows that he is pure consciousness. Manifestation is pure

consciousness manifesting itself in all the different names and forms; the spiritually

enlightened take part in it sportively, knowing that it is only the play of universal

consciousness.

The name and form of the spiritually enlightened Saint experiences the pangs and

sorrows of life, but not their sting. He is neither moved nor perturbed by the pleasures

and pains, nor the profits and losses of the world. He is thus in a position to direct

others. His behavior is guided exclusively by the sense of justice.

The temporal life must continue, with all its complex interactions, but the Saint is ever

aware that it is only the pure consciousness that is expressing itself in different names

and forms, and it continues to do so, in ever new forms. To him, the unbearable events

of the world are just a tame and harmless affair; he remains unmoved in world-shaking

events.

At first people, through pride, simply ignore him, but their subsequent experiences

draw them toward him. God, as justice incarnate, has neither relations nor belongings

of His own; peace and happiness are, as it were, His only treasure. The formless, divine

consciousness cannot have any thing as its own interest.

This is the temporal outline of the Bhakta.

THE SOUL, THE WORLD, BRAHMAN AND SELF REALIZATION

The consciousness of one’s own being, of the world, and of its supporting primal force

are experienced all at once. Awareness of one’s own being does not mean here the

physical consciousness of oneself as an individual, but implies the mystery of existence.

Prior to this, in the ignorance of one’s own being, there is no experience of Brahman

as being there. But the moment one is aware of being, he is directly aware of the world

and Brahman, too.

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