'Yoga of Synthesis' by 'Swami Sivananda'- One-sided development is not commendable. Religion and Yoga must educate and develop the whole man - his heart, intellect and hand. Then only he will have integral development.

Yoga of Synthesis

by Swami Sivananda

Yoga of Synthesis is suitable for the vast majority of persons. It is a unique Yoga.

Man is a strange complex mixture of will, feeling and thought. He is a triune being. He is like a tricycle or a three-wheeled chariot. He wills to possess the objects of his desires. He has emotion; and so he feels. He has reason and so he thinks and ratiocinates. In some the emotional element may preponderate, while in some others the rational element may dominate. Just as will, feelings and thought are not distinct and separate, so also, work, devotion and knowledge are not exclusive of one another. He must, therefore develop his heart, intellect and hand. Then alone can he attain perfection. Many aspirants have lop-sided development. They do not possess an integral development, as they neglect one or the other of these aspects of their personality.

One-sided development is not commendable. Religion and Yoga must educate and develop the whole man - his heart, intellect and hand. Then only he will have integral development.

In the mind there are three defects, viz., Mala or impurity, Vikshepa or tossing, and Avarana or veil. The impurities of the mind should be removed by the practice of Karma Yoga, by selfless service. The tossing should be removed by worship or Upasana, by Japa and devotion. The veil should be torn down by the practice of Jnana Yoga, i.e., by study of Vedantic literature, inquiry, self-analysis, service to the Guru, and deep meditation. Only then Self-realization is possible.

If you want to see your face clearly in a mirror, you must remove the dirt in the mirror, keep it steady, and remove the covering also. You can see your face clearly in the bottom of a lake only if the turbidity is removed, if the water that is agitated by the wind is rendered still, and if the moss that is lying on the surface is removed. Even so is the case with Self-realization.

Action, emotion and intelligence are the three horses that are linked to this body-chariot. They should work in perfect harmony or unison. Then only the chariot will run smoothly. There must be integral development. You must have the head of Sankara, the heart of Buddha, and the hand of Janaka.

The Yoga of Synthesis alone will develop the head, heart and hand, and lead one to perfection. To become harmoniously balanced in all directions is the ideal of religion and of Yoga. This can be achieved by the practice of the Yoga of Synthesis.

To behold the one Self in all beings is Jnana, wisdom; to love the Self is Bhakti, devotion; to serve the Self is Karma, action. When the Jnana Yogi attains wisdom, he is endowed with devotion and self less activity. Karma Yoga is for him a spontaneous expression of his spiritual nature, as he sees the one Self in all. When the devotee attains perfection in devotion, he is possessed of wisdom and activity. For him also, Karma Yoga is a spontaneous expression of his divine nature, as he beholds the one Lord everywhere. The Karma Yogi attains wisdom and devotion when his actions are wholly selfless. The three paths are, in fact, one in which the three different temperaments emphasize one or the other of its inseparable constituents. Yoga supplies the method by which the Self can be seen, loved and served.

Hence everyone should have one Yoga as the basic Yoga and combine other Yogas. You can combine Nishkama Karma Yoga, Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Sankirtan Yoga, etc., with Jnana Yoga as the basis. This is my Yoga of Synthesis, which will ensure rapid spiritual progress.

A little practice of Hatha Yoga (Asanas and Pranayamas) will give you good health. Raja Yoga will steady your mind. Upasana and Karma Yoga will purify your heart and prepare you for the practice of Vedanta. Sankirtan will relax your mind and inspire you. Meditation will take you to liberation.

Such a Yogi has all-round development. The Yoga of Synthesis will help you to attain God-realization quickly. Upanishads, Gita and all other scriptures speak of this Yoga. Therefore, O Mokshapriya, practice this unique Yoga of Synthesis and attain Self-realization quickly.

Here is my little song of the Yoga of Synthesis, for your daily practice:

Eat a little, drink a little
Talk a little, sleep a little
Mix a little, move a little
Serve a little, rest a little
Work a little, relax a little
Study a little, worship a little
Do Asana a little, Pranayama a little
Reflect a little, meditate a little
Do Japa a little, do Kirtan a little
Write Mantra a little, have Satsang a little
Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize
Be good, Do good; Be kind, Be compassionate
Inquire 'Who am I ?', Know the Self and be Free

Malayalam Kerala

* Pratha Smarana Stotram*- by 'Sree Adi Sankaracharya' is the quintessence of 'BRAHMA VIDYA' ( The science of practicing pure awareness )

* Pratha Smarana Stotram*

Pratha smarami hrudhi samsphuradathma thathwam,
Sathchithsugam paramahamsagathim thureeyam,
Yath swapna jagara sushupthamavaithi nithyam,
Thad brahma nishkalamaham na cha bhootha Sangha. 1

1. I meditate in the morning on the Self which shines in the heart, which is existence-consciousness-bliss, which is the goal to be attained by Paramahamsa sannyasins, which is called the ‘fourth’ ( Turiya ) because it is beyond the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, and which always witnesses the states of waking, dream and deep sleep. I am that Brahman which is indivisible and not the aggregate of the five elements, ether, air,water, fire, and earth.

Prathar bhajami cha mano vachasa magamyam,
Vacho vibhaanthi nikhila yadanugrahena,
Yam nethi nethi vachanai nigama avochan,
Tham deva devamachyuthamaahooragryam. 2

2. I worship in the morning that supremely effulgent Being, who is spoken of (in the Vedas) as unborn, changeless, and the highest, who is inaccessible to the mind and whom words cannot directly describe, but by whose blessing the faculty of speech functions, and who is described in the Upanishads by the words ‘not this, not this’.

Prathar namami thamasa paramarka varnam,
Poornam sanathanapadam purushothamakhyam,
Yasminnidham jagadamasesha bhootham,
Rajwam bujangama iva prathibhasitham vai. 3

3. I bow down in the morning to the infinite, eternal Being who is known as the supreme Purusha, who is beyond the darkness of ignorance, who is resplendent like the sun, who is everything and on whom this entire universe appears, just as a rope appears as a snake.

4.Sloka thrayya midham punyam loka thraya vibhooshanam,
Pratha kale pateth yasthu sa gachched paramam padam.

One who reads every morning this sacred triad of verses, which is an ornament for all the three worlds, will attain the eternal abode of 'SELF' ( Truth-Consciousness and Bliss ).

'I'-AM QUOTES OF 'NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ'- First there was no message ‘I am’ and also there was no world. Instantly, the message ‘I am’ and this magnificent world materialized out of ‘nothingness’! How amazing! This message ‘I am’ is nothing other that the advertisement of the Eternal Truth.

301
With the transcendence of the knowledge ‘I am’, the Absolute
prevails. The state is called ‘Parabrahman’, while the knowledge ‘I am’ is termed Brahman. This knowledge ‘I am’ or the being ness is illusion only. Therefore, when Brahman is transcended, only the ‘Parabrahman’ is, in which there is not even a trace of the knowledge ‘I am’.
302
First there was no message ‘I am’ and also there was no world.
Instantly, the message ‘I am’ and this magnificent world
materialized out of ‘nothingness’! How amazing! This message ‘I am’ is nothing other that the advertisement of the Eternal Truth.
303
How was I in the absence of the message ‘I am’ – that is, prior to beingness? I provided you with the name tags for that state. These  titles are ‘Parabrahman’, ‘Paramatman’ etc.; they are only pointers to the state, but not the state itself. In the Ultimate they are redundant, extraneous and bogus.
304
The primary miracle is that I experience ‘I am’ and the world.
Prior to this experiencing, I abide d in myself, in my eternal
Absolute state. Without my being ness – that is, without the
message ‘I am’ – my eternal Absolute state only prevails.
305
The eternal Absolute state of mine prior to the being ness, when the message ‘I am’ was not, is supremely significant. Who would have witnessed the message ‘I am’, if my priormost state of the ‘nonbeingness’ was not?
306
If one obtains and relishes the nectar of the Lord’s feet, the
‘charan-amrita’, the mind can be conquered. This is called
‘manojaya’ – victory over the mind.However, only a true devotee, a ‘bhakta’, a god, can obtain the ‘charan-amrita’. But what is its relationship with all beings? It dwells in the core of all beings as the knowledge ‘I am’, the love ‘to be’, the ‘charan-amrita’.
307
But how can such a state be attained? Only if one totally accepts the knowledge ‘I am’ as oneself with full conviction and faith and firmly believes in the dictum ‘I am that by which I know I am’. This knowledge ‘I am’ is the ‘charan-amrita’. Why is it called ‘amrita’ – the nectar? Because it is said, by drinking nectar one becomes immortal. Thus a true devotee, by abiding in the knowledge ‘I am’ transcends the experience of death and attains immortality.
308
Once you subside into the consciousness, the factual state of
Reality shall be revealed to you with the knowledge that will
emanate out of you intuitively, like spring water. This will enable you to discern not what is real and unreal, but, most importantly, to realize what ‘I am’. And who could be that one? Surely not an individual who is trapped in the mind-shell, but that one is the knowledge ‘I am’ – the consciousness.
309
Consciousness is the sense of knowingness ‘I am’ without words, and it appeared unknowingly and unsolicited. Only in the realm of knowingness ‘I am’ – the consciousness – can a world be, and so also an experience. Hold on to this knowingness ‘I am’ and the fount of knowledge will well up within you, revealing the mystery of the Universe; of your body and psyche; of the play of the five elements, the three ‘gunas’ and ‘prakriti-purusha’; and of everything else. In the process of this revelation, your individualistic personality confined to the body shall expand into the manifested universe, and it will be realized that you permeate and embrace the entire cosmos as your ‘body’ only. This is known as the ‘Pure Super-knowledge’ – ‘Shuddhavijnana’.
310
Now coming to a very subtle situation, what is it in you that
understands this knowledge ‘you are’– or from your standpoint ‘I am’ without a name, title or word? Subside in that innermost center and witness the knowledge ‘I am’ and ‘just be’; this is the bliss of being – the ‘swarupananda’.
311
Paths and movements cannot transport you into Reality, because their function is to enmesh you within the dimensions of knowledge, while the Reality prevails prior to it. To apprehend this, you must stay put at the source of your creation, at the beginning of the knowledge ‘I am’.So long as you do not achieve this, you will be entangled in the chains forged by your mind and get enmeshed in those of others.
312
This true knowledge, the knowledge ‘I am’, is also rendered the
status of ‘non-knowledge’ in the final Absolute state. When one is established in this final free state, the knowledge ‘I am’ becomes ‘non-knowledge’.
313
For all beings it is the same experience. Early morning,
immediately after waking, just the feeling ‘I am’ is felt inside or
the being ness happens, and therefore further witnessing of all else happens. The first witnessing is that of ‘I am’, this primary
witnessing is the prerequisite for all further witnessing. But to
whom is the witnessing occurring? One that ever is, even without waking, to that ever-present substratum the witnessing of the waking state happens.
314
At present, ‘I am’ is in the beingness state. But, when I do not have the knowingness of the ‘I am’ illusion, then the ‘Poornabrahman’ or ‘Parabrahman’ state prevails. Inthe absence of the touch of ‘I amness’ I am the total complete, ‘Poornabrahman’ state, the permanent state. The borderline of beingness and non-beingness is intellect-boggling, because the intellect subsides at that precise location. This borderline is the ‘maha-yoga’. You must be at that borderline, that ‘maha-yoga’ state’. You descend into the ‘godown’ of that state which has the title ‘birth’.
315
The sense that ‘you are’ is a big thing. What is most significant is the fact that you remember your sense of being, subsequently all other things appear. Earlier this memory ‘I am’ was not and
suddenly it appeared. Now I expound on the spiritual talk called ‘niroopana’. In Marathi the word ‘niroopana’ is derived from the word ‘niroopa’ (nirope), which means ‘message’. Therefore, to deliver any spiritual talk that is‘niroopana’, the primary message ‘I am’ must first be present, then whatever ensues from this primary message will be the spiritual talk.
316
This little container of food essence is being sucked by that
beingness, ‘I am’ day and night. The principle that sucks that
container is not the body; it is apart from the body. This beingness principle dwells in that food body itself. Just as the child sucks on the mother’s breast, the beingness consumes the body.
317
Just as the salty taste is present in the entire ocean, the beingness or the sense of ‘I am’ in the human form has the inherent capacity to be all-pervading, but having being conditioned – and thereby limited – itself to the body form, itis interested only in protecting and preserving the body.
318
How does one recognize this ‘atman’? It is by understanding the knowledge ‘I am’ – the ‘atma-jnana’. Just as space is allpervading, so the knowledge ‘I am’ is all-pervading, limitless and infinite. How strange, such a supreme principle is treated as though it is a body! All the sufferings are dueto this mistaken identity. If you give the highest honor due toit, you will not undergo either suffering or death.
319
To abide in the knowledge ‘I am’ is one’s true religion – the
‘svadharma’. But instead of following it, you opted to be
irreligious by submitting to the dictates of your concepts, which
led you to believe that you are a body. This misconception ensured only the fear of death.
320
The fragrance or sweetness of the food-essence body is the
knowledge ‘I am’. It has no name and form; it is the ‘I love’ state, he ‘I-taste’. But from your body-mind state, you will go to
pilgrimages and various gurus. So long as the consciousness is
there, that humming goes on, and who does the humming? The
principle which is humming and saying, ‘I am, I am’ is itself your guru.
321
‘Jnana-yoga’ means to inquire howthis ‘I amness’ and the world came about. To realize that ‘I amness’ and the world are the same is ‘jnana-yoga’. Here the knowledge‘I am’ should subside in itself.
322
The primary occurrence is the reminder ‘I am’ and out of which springs the language and the talk. So, what is this ‘I amness’? Remember that it is in the primary reminder ‘I am’ that the whole cosmos and your body exist. Who and from where is this sense of being? This has to be thoroughly investigated. When this is done, while abiding necessarily in the knowledge ‘I am’ – the sense of beingness – an amazing revelation will be made, namely that from your own seed-beingness the whole manifest universe is projected
including your body. This supreme and powerful principle, though being itself without form and name, upon sensing ‘I am’ instantly embraces the body and mistakenly accepts this as its own. It clings to the body-identity so quickly thatthe fact of its own independent existence is easily missed.
323
You are quite knowledgeable; now understand this; if you think
you are dying, it shows that you still identify with your body and that your knowledge ‘I am’ has not merged in itself, which also indicates that you have not attained ‘jnana-yoga’. Your spiritual knowledge therefore smacks of impurity. While you are actually the manifest knowledge ‘I am’, you cling to a body as yourself; this is the impurity.’
324
Suppose a question is asked of you, what were you a hundred years back? You would reply ‘I was not’. That means, I was not like ‘this’, that is not like this present ‘I am’. Who (and how) could (he) say ‘I was not like this’? The one who says this, was he not there? The one who was prior to a hundred years was not like this present ‘I am’, but he was and is now.
325
Do nothing, absolutely nothing! Just be, be the knowledge ‘I am’ only and abide there. To imbibe this, meditate on beingness only. Catch hold of the knowledge ‘I am’ inmeditation. In this process, the realization occurs that ‘I’ the Absolute am not the ‘guna’ ‘I am’; therefore in meditation nothingis to be retained in memory. Nevertheless something will appear on the memory screen, but be unconcerned, just be, do nothing.Refrain from grasping anything in meditation; the moment you do,otherness begins, and so does duality. Nothing is to be done. Then all your riddles will be solved and dissolved. ‘Moolmaya’ – that is, the primary illusion – will release her stranglehold on you and will get lost.
326
At first ‘no one’ is. Instantly, one is, and then two. The subject of the talk is: How did these two reduce to one, and finally to
nothing? Out of nothingness spontaneously the sense of beingness is felt - this is one. Later, when the sense of beingness knows ‘I am’ duality begins. Then after the duality has arisen, the sense of being identifies with the form, and so on. Actually to refer to the sense of being as ‘one’, is not quite correct. Since in this state only the sense of being prevails, where is the need to say even ‘one’? With the appearance of otherness (duality), both no.1 and no.2 appear simultaneously. To say ‘something is’, ‘I’ must be there first. If ‘I’ am not, I cannot say ‘something is’. So the fundamental principle of spirituality is that ‘Imust be there, before anything else can be. This ‘I’ is the beingness which if first.
327
When you sit in deep meditation, your sense of being is totally
infused with the knowledge ‘I am’ only. In such a state it will be
revealed to you intuitively as tohow and why your sense of ‘I
amness’ emerged. Consciousness, beingness, sense of being, ‘I
amness’, all are the same in you, prior to emanation of any words.
328
This is a subtle point, so try to understand it clearly. When I say ‘I was not’ prior to conception, then what I actually mean is that I was not like this present ‘I am’. But that ‘I’ which could discern this must be there to judge the absence of the present ‘I am’.
329
Shall we call the knowledge ‘I am’ the guru? But even that
knowledge you are not! Knowledge ‘I am’ means consciousness,
God, ‘Ishwara’, guru etc. but you the Absolute are not that.
330
This is to be understood and realized that the ‘I am’ is even before the arising of any words and questions in me. People always want a name or concept to indicate the state of ‘I am’ prior to words. When this is done by giving it a name, like for example Brahman, they feel satisfied.
331
Beingness can act in the world only with the aid of the body. This body is the quintessence of the five elements, and the quintessence of the body-essence is the knowledge ‘I am’. The presiding principle of the whole functioning is the knowledge ‘I am’. This knowledge ‘I am’ has to becorrectly understood.
332
A body maybe dark, fair, tall or short, but the indwelling principle – which is the knowledge ‘I am’ – has no color or dimension, just like the vital breath and mind. It ismerely a ‘sense of presence’ a feeling of effulgence. And mind functions like its vehicle or medium for executing worldly activities.
333
You should understand this clearly. If one thinks one is the body, one becomes a slave of mind and suffers accordingly. Therefore, you should completely identify yourself with the highest principle in you, which is the knowledge ‘I am’. This will elevate you to the status of ‘brihaspati’ – the guru of gods.
334
When the meditator forgets himself totally in meditation, it is
‘vishranti’ which means complete relaxation ending in total
forgetfulness. This is the blissful state, where there is no need for words, concepts or even the sense of ‘I am’. The state does not know ‘it is’ and is beyond happiness and suffering and altogether beyond words; it is called the ‘Parabrahman’ – a non-experiential state.
335
Before the emanation of any words, ‘I’ already exist; later I say
mentally ‘I am’. The word-free and thought-free state is the
‘atman’.
336
The knowingness ‘I am’ is gradually felt by the child and this is
followed by the mind. This ‘I amness’ or the feeling before the
formation of the mind, is the ignorant-child-principle, termed the ‘balkrishna’ state. This ‘balkrishna’ principle has great potential. Here ‘bal’ means the food essence, child-body, and ‘krishna’ means ‘non-knowing’, that is, ignorance. But it has the potential to receive, respond and react. I am not in this state, the child principle, ‘balkrishna’, asI abide in the Absolute.
337
At present you identify yourself with your body and mind.
Therefore, in the initial stages of your spiritual practice, you should reject the identity by imbibing the principle that ‘I am’ is the vital breath and the consciousness only and not the body and mind. In the later stages, the vital breath and the consciousness – that is the knowledge ‘I am’ – merge in one’s ultimate nature.
338
That ultimate state is known as ‘vishranti’, which means total rest, complete relaxation, utter quietudeetc. The other meaning, by splitting the word, would be, ‘vishara (visra)-anti’ – forget yourself in the end. That means in the ultimate state, ‘you-areness’ is totally forgotten. Whether ‘I am’ or ‘I am not’ both are forgotten. This is the highest type of rest – ‘parama-vishranti’.
339
When I pleased my ‘I amness’ byunderstanding it, only then did I come to know this ‘I amness’ and in the process also discovered that ‘I’ the Absolute, am not that‘I am’. Stay put at one place. Having collected all the knowledge, ponder over it in seclusion.
340
You abide in that knowledge ‘I am’. You should understand that your destination is your own self, the ‘I am’. It is the very source of everything; That ‘I am’ is to be realized. Because ‘you are’, the consciousness is. Before you say ‘I am’ you already are. ‘I am’ – the word or the ‘I am’ feeling that you get inside you – is not eternal. But you are eternal and ancient.
341
You have to stabilize in your present true nature, ‘I am’. All other secondary and redundant objects should be got rid of. Do not focus you attention on any of these things. The whole process is to be in your source. At present, what is your source? ‘I am’. Catch hold of that ‘I amness’ and be in it. You have to realize your own self. You must be at the borderline between ‘I am’ and ‘Not-‘I am’.
342
When that witness itself, which is ‘I am’, subsides, what remains? With the witness gone, all other things have disappeared too. By the same token upon the arising of the ‘I am’, the whole manifestation takes place; these two are not separate, they are one, ‘I am’ is the witness, the entire manifest world is because of this.
343
When ‘I am’ arises, everything appears; when ‘I am’ subsides
everything subsides. Now this is what I am trying to tell you, but you want something else. You wantsomething about your future, something which is part of manifestation, but I am trying to hit at it.
344
This ‘I am’ is an announcement, it is not the real, it has come out of something else. What the real is, I am not trying to tell you, because words negate that. Whatever I am telling you, is not the truth, because it has come out of the ‘I am’.
345
While I am talking about it (‘I am’) I take you to the source of the spring. There, water is coming out in a trickle now. This trickle subsequently becomes a river, an estuary, and finally the sea, I take you to the source again and again. Once you arrive at the source, you come to know that actually there is no water, the water is purely the taste, the news that ‘I am’.
346
There is no explanation for how this seed, this consciousness or
knowledge ‘I am’ has arisen. But once it is in existence, it cannot stand still – that is, consciousness is tantamount to ‘movement’. And all movement takes place through the ‘gunas’, which are inherent in the knowledge ‘I am’. This consciousness keeps on ‘humming’ – (Maharaj uses the Marathi word ‘gun-gun’, which means the humming sound or the humming of the ‘gunas’) – and expresses itself through the three ‘gunas’.
347
This ‘gun-gun’ (humming) is within the knowledge ‘I am’, which includes the physical form. The ‘gun-gun’ entity and the
knowledge ‘I am’ and the physical form – that whole bundle – has been created out of the five elements. So up to this point, the whole thing can be said to be entirely mechanistic and therefore pure ignorance.
348
How did I get this birth? That is the point on which I persist in
finding the answer; I ‘must’ know this. When I was told ‘sattva’, then what is ‘sattva’? ‘Sattva’ isthe essence of the five elements. In that essence, in that juice, lies the knowledge ‘I am’; but all that is still of the five elements. Thenhow did this come about? My guru told me the whole story. Thus I came to know it is ignorance, and I know from experience, that everybody is starting from there. Thus whatever has come about is sheer ignorance, and we are nothing more, that is what my guru told me.
349
My guru further pointed out to me the fact that the only thing you have and which you can utilize to unravel the mystery of life, is this knowledge ‘I am’. Without that there is absolutely nothing, so I got hold of it, as my guru advised me, and then I wanted to find out how the spiritual aspect of ‘me’ came about without my knowledge. On my pure Absoluteness, which has no place, and no shape or form, this knowledge ‘I am’ came, which also has no shape or form. Therefore, it appears; and it is only an illusion.
350
This beingness, the knowledge ‘I am’, which I call ‘upadro’(meaning disturbance in Marathi), is the source of trouble.
In this ‘upadro’, in this primary essence, lies the knowledge ‘I am’ – you know that you are. This quality of beingness (‘sattvaguna’), the knowledge ‘I am’ cannot tolerate itself. It cannot stand itself, alone, just knowing itself. Therefore that ‘rajoguna’ is there… it takes the beingness for a ride in various activities, so that it does not dwell on itself; it is very difficult to sustain that state. And ‘tamoguna’ is the basest quality, it claims authorship or doership for all those activities conducted through ‘rajoguna’. This is the play happening in these three gunas (qualities). Again understand, you are experiencing this ‘sattvaguna’, the knowledge ‘I am. This ‘I amness’ is experienced by you, the Absolute, but you are not the
‘I amness’.
351
The ‘sadhana’, the discipline, is only this: The knowledge which is dwelling in this body, the quintessence of these three ‘gunas’ – the knowledge ‘I am’, ‘I am that’ – this is the initial step. You must be one with it; you must abide in thatonly. You have to think ‘I am not the body but I am that formless, nameless knowledge indwelling in this body’; that (is) ‘I am’. When you abide sufficiently long in this state, whatever doubts you may have, that knowledge ‘I am’ itself will sprout out with life and meaning for you, intended for you only, and everything will become clear. No external knowledge will be necessary.
352
Conviction! That is the only technique for the ‘sadhana’, if you are thinking of any initiation…only the words of the guru that you are not the body! That is the initiation. Stayput there, in that state. It is spontaneous, natural, that ‘shraddha’ (faith). What is that faith? ‘I am’ without words, whatever you are that is the faith. Now you have to elevate yourself to the state of ‘Brahman’; this is the condition you have to develop.
353
What exactly is born? What is born are three states: the waking state, the sleep state, and the knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness. The body and the vital breath would not be able to function if this consciousness were not present. These three states work through the three attributes (‘gunas’). I very clearly see that which has been born. And I also know that I am notthat which is born. And that is why I am totally fearless. So this knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, this feeling or sense of being, is the quintessence of the body. And if that body essence is gone, this feeling, the sense of being, will also have gone.
354
Once the body and the sense of being(‘I am’) goes what remains is the Original, which is unconditioned, without attributes, and
without identity; that on which this temporary state of the
consciousness and the three states and the three ‘gunas’ have come and gone. It is called ‘Parabrahman’, the Absolute.
355
In that ‘Parabrahman’, which unconditioned, without attributes, without identity – the identity comes only when there is the knowledge ‘I am’ – so if that itself is not there, who is there to ask? This is to be understood not by ‘someone’ (with a body-mind identity), but it must be experienced, and in such a manner that the experiencer and experience are one.
356
When the truth came out, it was found that in a certain atom the entire Universe is contained. And what is that atom? It is the beingness, the knowledge ‘I am’. That contains the whole
Universe.
357
The atomic consciousness contains the whole Universe, but yet he (the ‘jnani’) knows that he is notthat consciousness. So in that case what pride can he have? He is the Absolute state, in which the ‘I am’ consciousness is absent. If you meet any ‘jnanis, you will find it easy to recognize them, for they will not have any pride in their Self-knowledge, since they have transcended that knowledge also. They say ‘I am not this knowledge or this consciousness’.
358
My statement, and that of my guru, is that childhood is a cheat, it is false. The knowledge ‘I am’ itself is a cheat. When the beingness appears, that love for existence is a result of the primary illusion, that ‘maya’. Once you come to know that you exist, you feel like enduring eternally, you always want to be, to exist, to survive. And so the struggle begins, all because of ‘maya’.
359
This knowledge ‘I am’ has dawned on you, since then whatever
other knowledge you have acquired, whatever experiences you
have had, whatever you have seen of the world, has all been
witnessed. But that one to whom the witnessing takes place is
entirely separate from that which is witnessed.
360
You base yourself on the body that you are now, and don’t
understand its root. That is why we think we are this body, and for that you must do meditation. What is meditation? Meditation is not this body-mind meditating as an individual, but it is this knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, meditating on itself. Then the consciousness will unfold its own meaning.
361
This is the greatest miracle, that I got the news ‘I am’, have you
any doubts that you are? It is self-evident. Prior to knowing that you are, what knowledge did you have? ‘Dhyana’ means to have an objective. You want to consider something. You ‘are’ that something, just to be, you are. Just being the being ‘I am’. You meditate on something; that knowledge ‘I am’ is yourself. Abide only there. How can you ask any questions at this point? Because, that is, the beginning of knowledge.
362
By reading various books and listening to everything else, you
cannot become a ‘mahatma’, but only through that knowledge ‘I am’. Don’t concentrate on the body; because of a body you call yourself male or female. Justhold on to that knowledge ‘I am’ only without body sense – beyond name and form or design. But you have to employ name, form and design for the sake of worldly activities.
363
You must have a firm conviction that ‘I am’ is only that ‘I am’
without body-mind form – the knowledge ‘I am’ purely. You say all these things, but has the knowledge come within the purview of the knowledge? You must have thatfull conviction, whatever you may have said, that is the truth and that is ‘I am’. There are no techniques, except the technique that ‘I am’ the firm conviction that ‘I am’ means ‘I am’ only, abidance in ‘I’. Don’t practice this thing, only develop your conviction.
364
This conviction can be strengthened by meditation, ‘dhyana’. And ‘dhyana’ means the knowledge must remain in meditation with the knowledge. Now, what is meditation? Meditation is the knowledge ‘I am’ remaining in that knowledge. There is the waking state and the sleep state, and the knowledge that you are, I exist, and I know that I exist. Other than that what capital does anyone have than merely knowledge ‘I am’? ‘Dhyana’ is when this knowledge, this consciousness that I am, meditates on itelf and not on something other than itself.
365
When you say you sit for meditation, the first thing to be done is to understand that it is not this body identification that is sitting for meditation, but this knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, which is sitting in meditation and is meditating on itself. When this is finally understood, then it becomes easy. When this consciousness, this conscious presence, merges initself, the state of ‘samadhi’ ensues. It is the conceptual feeling that I exist that disappears and merges into the beingness itself. So this conscious presence also gets merged into that knowledge, that beingness – that is ‘samadhi’.
366
There is that nine-month period in the womb. So what is the
content of the womb? It is that knowledge ‘I am’ in dormant
condition. This is being developed slowly, so within the birth
principle everything is contained. That which is called birth, the birth principle is ‘turiya’; the experience that you exist itself is ‘turiya’. ‘Turiya’ means where the consciousness is. One who knows ‘turiya’ is ‘turiyatita’. That is my state. ‘Turiya’ is within the consciousness, which is the product of the five elements. And one who transcends that, who knows the ‘turiya’, is ‘turiyatita’. In order to stabilize in ‘turiya’, you must know the birth principle. ‘Turiya’ is always described as the witness state that sees through waking, dreaming and sleeping. And ‘turiyatita’ is even beyond that.
367
This ‘I am’ concept was not there prior to what you call ‘birth’. So as this concept has appeared, it will also go away. How am I
affected? In no way whatsoever, because it is not true. This applies to all concepts. Prior to birth and after birth, whatever knowledge I have, my own, without hearing it from any one, that is the only true knowledge I accept. And the proof lies in my guru’s words.
368
The body dies. This means what? It means only the thought ‘I am’, that concept, has disappeared. Nothing has happened to the knower of the whole happening. So long as the basic concept ‘I am’ is there, the conceptual element cannot disappear. It is the concept itself that has given various names to itself, but it is still the same concept. Before this concept of ‘I am’ came on you, were you happy or unhappy? Was there even any feeling of happiness or unhappiness or any of the dualities? In the absence of the basic concept ‘I am’, there is no thought, no awareness, and no consciousness of one’s existence.
369
Originally, I am untainted – uncovered by anything, without
stigma – since nobody existed prior to me. Nor do I entertain any concepts about somebody existing, before me. Everything is in the form of the manifested world, after the appearance of the
knowledge ‘I am’ with the body. Together with the body and the indwelling ‘I amness’ everything is. Prior to the appearance of this body and the knowledge ‘I am’, what was there?
370
The feeling ‘I am’ is the quintessence of everything, but I the
Absolute am not that. That ‘I amness’ is the highest knowledge.
And this is surrendered here by the abidance in the action.
371
So long as the concept ‘I am’ is still there, they (people who
contact maharaj) have not gone beyond or prior to it; they have not gone beyond the total manifestation. So now when people come here, I talk with them, from what level am I talking? I am talking from the level that you are consciousness and not the body-mind. In my state whatever comes out is from the total manifestation, not from the point of view of the Absolute. Hang on to that consciousness, which is your only capital, and do ‘dhyana’ and let that unfold whatever knowledge has to be unfolded.
372
At present you wrongly identify yourself as the body. Body is
given a certain name; that is ‘you’; you consider it to be like that. But I say that in this body, consciousness is present, or the
knowledge ‘I am’ as I call it, is there. You should identify yourself as this knowledge. That is all.
373
For meditation you should sit with identification with the
knowledge ‘I am’ only and have confirmed to yourself that you are not the body. You must dwell only in that knowledge ‘I am’ – not merely the words ‘I am’. And the indwelling knowledge that you are, without words, that itself you are. In that identity you must stabilize yourself. And then whatever doubts you have will be cleared by that very knowledge, and everything will be opened up to you.
374
Forget all about physical disciplines in this connection. I am telling you that the indwelling principle ‘I am’, the knowledge that you are, you have to ‘be’ that. Just be that, with that knowledge ‘I am’, hold on to the knowledge ‘I am’.
375
You know you are sitting here; you know you are, do you require any special effort to hold on to that ‘you are’? You know you are; abide only in that. The ‘I am’ principle without words, that itself is the God of all ‘Ishwaras’.
376
If you identify yourself as the body, such an identity must be let go off, sacrificed. Your real identity has no body and no thought. And that self, the spontaneous knowledge ‘I am’ is what you are. Since the self is not the body, the self is neither male nor female. You must fulfill the vow that you are not the body but solely the indwelling principle ‘I am’.
377
With firm conviction, you abide in this knowledge ‘I am’ only;
bereft of body-mind sense, only ‘I am’. If you dwell therein, if you be that only, in due course it will get mature. And it will reveal to you all the knowledge. And you need not go to anybody else.
378
The concept ‘I am’ is the primordial ‘maya’. And that ‘maya’, that primordial concept ‘I am’ requires support and therefore God and ‘Ishwara’ have been born. Along with that the whole
manifestation, the entire Universe, has come upon it. Otherwise, there is absolutely nothing. And out of many ‘jnanis’, there will only be a rare one who knows the real nature of this primary concept.
379
First, the knowingness knows itself,knowing that ‘I am’. And in
the illumination by that ‘I amness’, or that consciousness,
everything else is observed. I have had to repeat the same thing
again and again, and I do not wantto run kindergarten classes of spirituality.
380
All this is the play of concepts. The primary concept ‘I am’
appears spontaneously. It likes ‘I am’; it loves that ‘I am’ state.
Devouring ever more concepts, it gets totally enmeshed in them.
And what is the source of all concepts? This primary feeling ‘I
am’. But never forget the fact that it itself is a concept, time-bound. And so it is all mental entertainment.
381
What equipment you are having is that ‘prana’. ‘Upasana’ means worship, worship of ‘prana’ itself. For doing that what equipment do you possess? It is ‘prana’ itself. Along with ‘prana’ there is that knowledge ‘I am’, or consciousness. These two things are available to you to do anything, nothing more than that.
382
In the absence of beingness, whenyou did not know about your
existence? Nothing was of any value to you. This memory ‘I am’ is neither true nor false; it is without these two attributes. That memory of beingness only appears to exist.
383
For eternal peace you must dwell in yourself, know how this touch of ‘I am’ has appeared. All other knowledge is of no use in this connection.
384
Where there is the vital breath, the knowledge ‘I am’ is present.
There being no vital breath, the knowledge of ‘I amness’ is absent. Take full advantage of the naturally available capital with you – that is, your life force and the knowledge ‘I am’; they always go hand in hand. Right now, exploit it to the utmost. All worldly activities are going on only because of the knowledge ‘I am’ together with that motive force which is the life force, the vital breath. And that is not something apart from you; you are that only. Investigate and study this exclusively, abide in that, worship that only.
385
What is this state before this knowledge ‘I am’ came upon me?
When the knowledge ‘I am’ came, the one who is satisfied with
that will reach the state where he considers himself God and
‘Brahman’. But he does not go beyond it or prior to it. In the
ultimate state lies the prior state;that is, the state before this
knowledge ‘I am’ ever dawned on me – the highest state, the best state, the original state.
386
I call a ‘siddha’ one who has attainedthe ultimate, inthat ultimate state, the devotee and God, the ‘maya’ (primary illusion) and the ‘Brahman’ have disappeared. And, there is no beneficiary or experiencer of all that, because heis without the concept ‘I am’. He does not know ‘I am’, he does notknow that he exists in that state, that knowingness is completely obliterated.
387
This primary concept is the knowledge ‘I am’, it is the mother of all other concepts. In order to get that satisfaction, you must find the source of this primary concept ‘I am’. You should give
attention to the knowledge ‘I am’ and meditate on that itself.
Knowledge is to be got hold of knowledge only. This will produce the seed, which, through this process of meditation, slowly grows into a big tree, and that itself will give you all the knowledge. It will not be necessary for you to ask anyone what is what.
388
These two entities are available to  you, the vital force and the
knowledge ‘I am’, the consciousness. They appear without any
effort; they are there. Now, in order to be one with ‘Ishwara’, to
understand the non-duality you must worship the vital force. Then
that knowledge, which is in seed form, slowly grows. And the
seeker becomes full of knowledge; in the process he transcends
that, and the ultimate state is achieved.
389
‘I am’ itself is the world; it contains the entire world, that should be your conviction. Just as in a dream, when you feel that you are awake, but actually you are not and your world at that time is the dream world. Similarly this knowingness (in the waking state) contains this so-called real world; that conviction must come. The truth is that there is no difference between (dream) consciousness and (waking) consciousness, although they appear to be greatly different; all consciousness is one.
390
The conviction that this world never existed can happen only to
‘Parabrahman’. If this is indeed your conviction then you are the ‘Parabrahman’. This thing aside, you should discover how this news ‘I am’ – the knowledge of your existence – appeared and at what moment. Go to the source of it and find out.
391
The words of ‘prana’ signify mind. So how could there be mind
without vital force? This vital force and the consciousness (that is, the knowledge ‘I am’ or the beingness and the mind) appear
simultaneously and always exist together.
392
Before descending into this ‘avatar’, this knowledge quality was
not present; knowingness was not there. The ‘I am’ was absent, not available. It is a non-knowing state, but afterwards, the state comprises all conceptual titles and names, and they are a person’s shackles. Any person, any embodied person with that knowledge ‘I am’ carries on his activities in the world with shackles of name only.
393
Once it is understood that ‘I am’ is purely ‘I am’, formless and not that shackled body form – then no liberation is called for. To be stabilized in that beingness, which has no name and form, that itself is liberation.
394
Understanding what that ‘avatar’ is, Lord Krishna avatar means in essence abiding in that only. Then one is not the body. And what is the body? It is a mere aid for the sustenance or endurance of that ‘I am’ principle.
395
The vital breath gets conditioned or manacled by the bondage of name. It accepts the name as ‘I am’;this is the mistake. That which is deconditioned from name and form is ‘Paramatman’. That which is conditioned by the body, mind, name and form is called ‘jiva’. The language of the vital breath is mind, and the mind is the motive force for all activities.
396
If you are able to establish yourself in the vital breath as you are, you become manifest. The vital breath, when it is conditioned by the body, you call it personality. But as matter the vital breath is spread all over, it is manifest; it isuniversal. If you establish in the vital breath as ‘I am’, that in itself will get you there. Don’t be dishonest to your vital breath, worship it, and when you do so, it can lead you anywhere, to any heights – this is the quintessence of my talks. In such simplified fashion, nobody has expounded this profound teaching.
397
You are the knowledge (‘I am’) and you don’t have any shape or form whatsoever. You are impersonal. You are comprehensive. You are the manifest, the Universal Consciousness. What would happen if you went in search of that Consciousness? The seeker would disappear in the search, because the ‘I amness’ is all there is.
398
All these things in the objective world are inseparable from their attributes. An attribute by its very nature depends upon attributes. That knowledge ‘I am’, is also an attribute, therefore, the ‘I am ness’ one way or another, also has to depend on something.
399
Behind faith there is a primary cause, the big cause, which is the knowledge ‘I am’. The Awareness of my Being happened
automatically, it just happens, the sprouting of the knowledge ‘I
am’ is prior to the formation of the five elements.
400
When the ‘I amness’ appears spontaneously, like a bolt of
lightening, the illusion of Self-love is broken into five basic
elements, space, air, earth, fire and water. But this Self-love, the ‘I am’ manifests itself as Sattva Guna to the one who accepts this as a natural process. When it is used for achieving something in the world it is referred to as Rajas Guna. When it is used to take credit for achievements, it is referred to as Tamas Guna.

"I" AM QUOTES OF 'NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ- You must analyze ‘death’, the meaning of this common parlance. At the time that death occurs, the vital breath quits the body, gradually leaves the body. At the same time as the vital breath, the mind and the language also go out. Simultaneously, this quality of ‘I am’, this ‘sattva-guna’, the quality of being ness, also departs or goes into oblivion. Only I, the Absolute remains. Stay put there only; nothing happens to I, the Absolute.

226
Who is talking? Who is walking? Who is sitting? These are the
expressions of the chemical ‘I am’. Are you that chemical? You
talk about heaven and hell, this Mahatma or that one, but how
about you? Who are you? You are not this chemical ‘I am’.
227
Not an individual but the knowledge ‘I am’ must go to its source.
Out of the no-being comes the being ness. It comes as quietly as
twilight; just a feel of ‘I am’ and then suddenly the space is there.
In the space, the movement starts with the air, the fire, the water,
and the earth. All these five elements are you only. Out of your
consciousness all this has happened.There is no individual. There
is only you, the total functioning is you, the consciousness is you.
228
Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge
must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation. By
meditating, the knowledge ‘I am’ gradually settles down and
merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally
free, like the sky or the space. It is not possible for you to acquire
knowledge, you ‘are’ knowledge. You are what you are seeking.
229
How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an
individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever. Whatever
is happening and the experiencing of the happening, takes place in
this consciousness when the ‘I am’ arises.
230
Get to know that ‘I am’ without words, which arises in the
morning. Knowing the Self, abiding in the Self-knowledge, is not a
mere intellectual knowing. You must be that, and you should not
move away from it. Remain firm.
231
In the body the indwelling principle is the consciousness. Abiding
in the consciousness, it became all manifestation. Now
transcendence of the consciousness has also occurred. With the
appearance of consciousness, the Absolute knows it is, ‘I am’. This
is the experience. There are other experiences now, in this time
factor, but experiences are gradually dropping off, including this
primary experience ‘I am’. It is only the consciousness that is
going to disappear; the Absolute is always there.
232
Because the ‘I am’ principle is there, it is moving all over. To
recognize it, you put on various uniforms in order to give it
identity, but the principle is already there, and because of that
principle you are engaging in various activities. Unless you wear
the uniform (the body) you will not be able to conduct any
activities. Once you discard this ‘I am ness’ uniform, what remains
is the ‘Parabrahman”. That which is eternally current is the
‘Parabrahman’
233
In this body is the subtle principle ‘I am’, that principle witnesses
all this. You are not the words. Words are the expression of space,
they are not yours. Still further you are not that ‘I am’
234
When you began knowing that you are, you did a lot of mischief,
but when the ‘I am’ is not there, there is no question of mischief.
235
The ‘I am’ is absent only in the state of ‘samadhi’, when the self
merges in the Self. Otherwise it will be there. In the state of a
realized person the ‘I am’ is there, he just doesn’t give much
importance to it. A ‘jnani’ is not guided by a concept.
236
This body is like an instrument that says ‘I am’, like an announcer.
Presently you think you are the body-mind, and whatever concepts
you have gathered are flowing out. When you begin spirituality,
you reject the body-mind with ‘I am not that’. Then you come to
the ‘I am’ only, without words. Then you are everything; you are
not confined to the body.
237
The riddle of spirituality cannot be solved by the intellect. At the
most, your intellect can provide you with livelihood. Whatever you
try to become, that is not you. Before the words come out, before
you say ‘I am’, that is you. You must be concerned with only
yourself. Don’t worry about anybody else. What are you?
238
The capacity of consciousness is something astounding. I didn’t
know I was, and then suddenly I knew ‘I am’. This ‘I am  ness’ is
the power of ‘Maya’.
239
What is the most ingrained habit you have? It is to say ‘I am’. This
is the root habit. Words and experiences are unworthy of you. This
habit of experiencing will not go until you realize that all this is the
domain of five elements, and the experiences in the five elements,
are unreal. This ‘I am ness’ itself is unreal.
240
You must give up the identity with the body. Abidance in that
knowledge ‘I am’ which does not identify with the body-mind is
the spiritual light. Self-love and ‘I am’ without words are the same.
The sickness may come and go, but the self-love does not go.
241
Until you recognize and completely identify yourself with the
knowledge ‘I am’, you will identify with the body. When one
dis identifies with the body, one transcends not only the body but
consciousness as well, since consciousness is a product of the
body. The consciousness no longer says ‘I am’, ‘I am’.
242
When you were unaware of this message of ‘I am’ how did you
function? The question I put, nobody can answer. All of your great
scholars, people with a lot of knowledge, have gone into quietude.
243
That state of being is common to all, which is the message ‘I am’
without words. Change is only in the mind-flow. All the studies
you are doing are in the realm of mind-flow. The sense of ‘I am’ is
present because of your birth,through which you encounter many
thoughts and concepts, always changing. Presently the message ‘I
am’ is constant.
244
The body is not you, the name is not you. The body is the food you
have consumed; the taste of it is the knowledge ‘I am’. That is
Self, the feeling ‘I am’, that is the love to be. How amazing, how
incredible, it has no name, but you give many names to it. It is the
Self, the love to be. That love to be is all pervading. Before you
conceptualize anything, you are, even before the knowings, you
are.
245
You are afraid because you have assumed something as ‘I am’,
which actually you are not. Suppose you find a diamond ring on
the road and you pocket it. Since it is not yours, a fear overcomes
you. When you put on an identity that is not yours, you are afraid,
but when you are the pure ‘I am ness’ only, there is no fear.
Presently you are this ‘I am’, but  this ‘I am’ is not the truth.
Whatever you are prior to the appearance of the ‘I am’, that is your
real nature.
246
Don’t roam about, don’t come here either. Abide in the quietude,
peace, stability. Here we are not engaged in any buying or selling.
That knowledge ‘I am’, without concepts, is evoked or stimulated
by the consciousness and peace which emanate from this place.
247
You did not have the concept ‘I am’ in the course of the nine
months in the womb. Understanding this state of affairs, the
concept ‘I am’ comes spontaneously and goes spontaneously.
Amazingly, when it appears, it is accepted as real. All subsequent
misconceptions arise from the feeling of reality in the ‘I am ness’.
Try to stabilize in the primary concept ‘I am’, in order to lose that
and with it all other concepts. Why am I totally free? Because I
have understood the unreality of that ‘I am’.
248
If you sit here quietly, being one with the knowledge ‘I am’, then
you are not concerned with the world or what goes on in the world.
It is only when the consciousness starts operating and there are
various movements in the consciousness that the behavior in the
world takes place. When I am not conscious of the existence of the
body, experiences are not registered.
249
The ‘mumukshu, is in kindergarten, spiritually inclined, but
identifying with the body-mind. The ‘sadhaka’ is one who has dis identified with the body-mind. A ‘siddha’ is one who has stabilized
in the knowledge ‘I am’, and in the process, has transcended it. In
this journey you very well know where you are.
250
The core of this consciousness is knowings, to know ‘I am’. It
is not a personality, not an individual. It is total manifestation.
Being ness is there, it fills everything. Nevertheless, this quality ‘I
am’ is the result of the material, objective body. In the seed the
whole tree is latent. In the droplet ‘I am’ all three worlds are
squeezed in.
251
The highest state is the state of a ‘jnani’. The first step is to be that
droplet (‘I am’). In the process of knowing that droplet, you are out
of it, and that is a ‘jnani’. A ‘jnani’ is not obsessed by any
calamities or any problems, because he has transcended the ‘I am’
principle. He watches the play as a witness.
252
The whole universe is experienced in the consciousness ‘I am’. If
that is not there, what else can ever exist? This consciousness is
beating a drum; everyone is carried away by the noise of the drum.
Who looks for the drummer? Who is sounding and beating the
drum? It is so amazing that no one casts even a glance at this speck
of consciousness.
253
The habit of considering the Self as body has influenced everybody
too much.
Worship the knowledge ‘I am’ as God, as your Guru. The
knowledge ‘I am’ is your Guru. Be in it. Do you see the image of
yourself in the mirror first, or do you know you are prior to that?
Which is first? If you are not, can you see your image in the
mirror? Give up trying to evaluate the real I or the counterfeit I, but
associate with the ‘Brahman’, I am the ‘Brahman’.
254
The letters ‘I am’ are written spontaneously with a certain ink.
What is that ink which was used to write that which you are? In
that ink with which the letters ‘I am’ were written, in that ink of
the title of ‘Tej Sesh Bhagavan’ is confirmed by the ‘Vedas’.
‘Sesh’ means the leftover, the remains. That ‘Tej Sesh Bhagavan’
has come spontaneously and will spontaneously go. The firm
conviction that I am this, the three states – waking state, deep sleep
and the knowledge ‘I am’ – are the aspects of that ‘Tej Sesh
Bhagavan’. You are not that.
255
The message ‘I am’ is there. The mind flow is also there; it is not a
personality, it is the consciousness. The very idea that you are the
body is ridiculous; the consciousness is experiencing its
manifestation. A rare being will realize this.
256
The Ultimate you can never be lost; whatever you have lost, you
have lost only words. The Ultimate you knows or feels ‘I am’
without words. Through this ‘I am’ comes the world knowledge.
You are not in isolation; you are part and parcel of the world
knowledge.
257
Presently the feeling that you are is also memory. To sustain that
memory of ‘I am’, all these raw materials are necessary. You are
not that ‘I am’. You are as the Absolute, prior to this ‘I am’.
258
One cannot see rays of light, as such; they reflect only when they
encounter another object. Similarly ‘I am ness’ is the interruption
because of these five elements and three ‘gunas’. That is why the
feeling ‘I am’ is felt; but without the feeling of ‘I am’, still you are.
259
Start with the body. From the body you get the knowledge ‘I am’.
In this process you become more and more subtle. When you are in
a position to witness the knowledge ‘I am’, you have reached the
highest. In this way you must try to understand, and the seeds of
knowledge will sprout in you.
260
Now what is it that we are concerned with? We are dealing with
the physical form, which is made up of, and fed by, the five
elements. In that form are operating the life force (the vital breath)
and this consciousness that is, the knowledge ‘I am’ or the sense of
being, the sense of existence. The latter is the ‘sentience’, which is
the gift of the consciousness.
261
Each of must say ‘I am’ and realize it. There is no ‘you’, and there
is no ‘me’, as individual entities. Until the ‘I am’ thought was
there, there was no manifestation;both came about simultaneously.
262
This knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, has come out of the
prior state when there was no consciousness. The consciousness is
a state which is now with us and because of which we suffer; and
before this consciousness came, a state prevailed when we were
not conscious and which was a happy state.
263
Guru means the ‘I am ness’ itself, which always reminds you ‘I
am’, ‘I am’, ‘I am’ – that is guru-guru-guru, like the sound of a
motorcar starting. It is a continuous reminder that you are.
264
Is it necessary that you should remember that you are (‘I am’)?
Spontaneously you know and remember that you are. That is why
you have come here, have you not? It is because you are. Stay put
there.
265
In order to not mistakenly hold on to something as ‘I am’ don’t
say I am this, I am that; just hold on to yourself, you are, just be.
Just be ‘you are’. Do you follow?
266
You are the knowledge ‘I am’. So if you want to worship, worship
that knowledge ‘I am’. Be devoted to that ‘I am ness’ only. When
you do that, other rituals become redundant and useless. Finally
when you realize that everything is useless, everything is
‘Brahman’, it means you are at the ‘Parabrahman’ level, the
absolute level. When at that level, you will envision everything as
useless, including the ‘Brahman’ because the ‘Brahman’ is also
reduced to illusion. Therefore all these talks, including my own
will be reduced to illusion when you reach the highest.
267
The one who abides in that principle by which he knows ‘I am’, he
is the manifest. He abides in that manifest ‘Brahman’ all the
twenty-four hours. Whether the body remains or not, that manifest
self-principle always remains. You must continually remember,
‘chew the cud’, that the knowledge ‘I am’ signifies knowing all
gods, all the ‘Vedas’, it is the ‘Brahman’ only. You must
continually think about it, and should in the course of such
reminiscing, the body drop off,then, that consciousness will
definitely be the highest.
268
You are sitting here: ‘you are’, prior to words. Now the hearsay
goes ‘I am’, ‘I am’ means the flow of the mind has started. Now
whatever you say with that ‘I am ness’, through the mind about
‘you’, you have represented as yourself. But that is not so.
269
The capital we have is the knowledge ‘I am’. But what have we
done? We have handed over that knowledge to the body and we
say ‘I am the body’. Thereby we have reduced the totality, the
limitless, to the limited – a specified insignificant body. And that is
why, being unable to give up this association with the body, we are
afraid of dying.
270
The vital force carries out all the activities. The mind
communicates, and the knowledge ‘I am’ is merely a witness; this
is the actual state of affairs. But all these – that is, food body
quintessence, and the knowledge ‘I am’, the vital breath and the
mind – these are all a temporary phase only; so long as the food
essence is available, the knowings will last.
271
The knowledge ‘I am’ is the product of interaction within the five
elemental state, You are not that! You as the Absolute, are not the
knowledge ‘I am’.
272
It is very simple. The body and in the body…it is like a coin. On
one side, you have the vital breath for making possible all activity;
and on the other side is the knowledge ‘I am’. Only when the vital
breath is there, the knowledge ‘I am’ is present. When the vital
breath leaves the body, the knowledge ‘I am’ also disappears. And
both of these are the product of the food essence body. I am not
that; this entire composite I am not. This you have to realize.
273
Find out why you are, what is the cause of your being ‘I am’?
Actually you had no knowledge that you are or you were. But at
this moment, you know you are. Why is that? Understand its cause.
You alone know why you are; why is it offered to you that you are,
you alone know. Don’t ask anyone else about it, but inquire by
yourself. Don’t bother about others, worry only about yourself.
That knowledge ‘I am’ is the product of what, is due to what? How
and why? Inquire only into this matter.
274
Only that individual who has lost his individuality has merged with
the ‘Parabrahman’. So the individuality must go. The entire world
moves on the basis of one concept, and that is ‘I am’ – the
fundamental concept of one’s individuality.
275
Ultimately all these concepts can and must be understood to be
false, but the difficulty and the essential thing is to be convinced
that the original basic concept ‘I am’ itself is false.
276
The aim is to awaken yourself to the faith in the self, ‘I am’. That
is the entire purpose. So whatever is inductive to that development,
you may accept. Suppose you have faith in a living guru, then,
accept a living guru. If you have faith in a guru who has left his
body, accept that guru.
277
First of all, this knowings appeared, the knowings ‘I am’;
later on you embraced the body. Hold on to this only, and don’t
ask any questions. You came to know yourself, ‘I am’, to abide in
that itself is ‘bhakti’, the devotion.
278
Before you occurred to yourself as‘I am’; you were in the highest
state – the guru of the gurus – the ‘Parabrahman’ state. Later on
you started filling up with all kinds of grosser matter and you came
down to the body sense – I am the body. So, all these impurities
have to be removed. Until then, you have to stay put in the
quietude.
279
Your fall started with the appearance of that being ness, ‘I am’.
With the appearance of this knowings ‘I am’, the next fall was
embracing the body as ‘I am’. And then you gathered so many
things onto yourself. Hold on to the state of knowing yourself as ‘I
am’ as the truth. All other things you have gathered to yourself are
unreal.
280
From the no-knowing state, the first veil I took was that of ‘I am’,
that was formless, nameless. But I embraced the body: I got a form
for myself; I got a name for myself. This was the fall. Therefore all
sages advise: Give up the shackles of the body! ‘I am the body’ –
these are the shackles. Give them up.
281
This is no joke, but you can become ‘Parabrahman’ right now.
Only it is not a commodity that you can acquire. You, a hundred
years ago, were the ‘Parabrahman’. Give me all the information
about that state of a hundred years back. Focus your attention only
on that consciousness ‘I am’. Don’t be led astray by all the so called spiritual disciplines and rigmaroles.
282
Who has the knowledge ‘I am’? Somebody in you knows the
knowledge ‘I am’, who is it? It is very obvious that you know you
are, but what or who is it that knows you are?
283
It is pure awareness that knows ‘I am’. Who can understand that
illusory state? ‘I am ness’ is illusory only. It is not a perfect state, it
is illusion. Who knows the illusion? A non-illusory state only can
know the illusory state. But what is the necessity to say pure
awareness? ‘Awareness’ means pure. Since awareness knows ‘I
am’, it is other; it is more than ‘Iam’. That is the highest; there are
no gradations in awareness. In the Absolute, the ‘Parabrahman’
state, there is no question of impure or pure awareness.
284
You are not the personality or the individual. The quintessence of
this food, which in turn is the outcome of the five-elemental play,
is the taste ‘I am’. ‘I am’ is not a personality or an individual. I am
addressing that principle, that touch of ‘I am’, that consciousness
which is the product of the food essence body.
285
How can you speak or develop any concept unless the primary
concept ‘I am’ is available? This  primary concept begets further
concepts, that is, all other concepts occur to it. However, whatever
concept occurs to you, including the primary concept ‘I am’, is not
the eternal state.
286
This primary concept, ‘I am ness’ is dishonest, because it is still a
concept only. Finally one has to transcend that also and be in the
‘nirvikalpa’ state, which means the concept-free state. Then you
have no concept at all, not even of ‘I am’. In that state one does not
know that one is. This state is known as ‘Parabrahman’: ‘Brahman’
transcended. ‘Brahman’ is manifest; ‘Parabrahman’ is beyond that,
prior to that; the Absolute. Do you understand what I am driving
at? Whatever you caught in your attention, that attention should
eventually turn into no-attention. The state that is finally left over
is Awareness, ‘Parabrahman’.
287
With the arrival of the consciousness,it occurs to you that you are;
simultaneously, ‘I am’ occurs to you or in your attention. So when
the consciousness is not there, attention is also not there.
Subsequent to the arrival of consciousness and attention,
everything else crept in. The Absolute state is prior to
consciousness; it means the unborn state. Since the ‘Parabrahman’
is the unborn state, prior to consciousness, can it have an iota of
knowledge?
288
How can you retain the pride that I am like this? This ‘I am’
business depends entirely on the food essence. So how can you
retain it perpetually – that I shall remain like this only? To extract
any essence, water is very necessary, and the water quality is
bound to dry up.
289
The knowledge ‘I am’ is a primary concept, and is also non eternal. The One, the Absolute, which is eternal and aware, why
should he worry about anybody else?
290
Once you reject what you are not, whatever finally remains, the
leftover, is yourself – your true nature. Presently, whatever you
know is ‘I am’, this ‘I am’ is the product of the five elements. Out
of the elements comes the food body and because of the food body,
that ‘I am ness’ is sustained. And you are also not that ‘I am’. ‘I
am’ is the taste, the fragrance of this food body. The ultimate ‘you’
has no fragrance, no taste, no touch of ‘I am ness’.
291
The scriptures say that we have our‘karma’ and our sin and that is
why we are here, but this is for the ignorant masses. One who has
realized the self-knowledge ‘I am’ for him these stories are of no
use.
292
The primary illusion is only this knowings ‘I am’, prior to that
there was no illusion. This very consciousness is the source of
illusion. This illusion or consciousness or ‘I am ness’ does not
remain as something eternal. It is liberated; this non-eternal
consciousness is liberated, when the knowings is transformed
into non-knowings, that is liberation.
293
To produce the source of the mind, ‘I am’, you must have the
ingredient of the five-elemental juice. If that is available, the
sprouting of the mind can begin with ‘I am’. You know you are
before even speaking the words ‘I am’. Subsequent to the
knowings ‘I am’, you say ‘I am’ by words.
294
Are you not even before you have spoken the words ‘I am’? Stay
put there only. There begins your spirituality, the foremost ‘you’,
‘I am’ without words, before the beginning of words. Be there; out
of that grows the experience ‘I am’. Witnessing happens to that
principle which prior to your saying the words ‘I am’. There is no
such thing as deliberate witnessing. Witnessing just happens, by
itself.
295
You must analyze ‘death’, the meaning of this common parlance.
At the time that death occurs, the vital breath quits the body,
gradually leaves the body. At the same time as the vital breath, the
mind and the language also go out. Simultaneously, this quality of
‘I am’, this ‘sattva-guna’, the quality of being ness, also departs or
goes into oblivion. Only I, the Absolute remains. Stay put there
only; nothing happens to I, the Absolute.
296
Here is an article before it came into existence, what was its name?
From non-being into the being state, how was it observed? You
just felt that touch. Before observing anything we feel the touch of
‘I am’. To realize that state prior to conception, that eternal state,
whatever that state is, to abide in that is the highest. Now, for your
sake, I attach a name to it, the ‘Parabrahman’ state – the Absolute.
297
A ‘jnani’ knows that he has realized when he recognizes his
knowing226
Who is talking? Who is walking? Who is sitting? These are the
expressions of the chemical ‘I am’. Are you that chemical? You
talk about heaven and hell, this Mahatma or that one, but how
about you? Who are you? You are not this chemical ‘I am’.
227
Not an individual but the knowledge ‘I am’ must go to its source.
Out of the no-being comes the beingness. It comes as quietly as
twilight; just a feel of ‘I am’ and then suddenly the space is there.
In the space, the movement starts with the air, the fire, the water,
and the earth. All these five elements are you only. Out of your
consciousness all this has happened.There is no individual. There
is only you, the total functioning is you, the consciousness is you.
228
Ultimately one must go beyond knowledge, but the knowledge
must come, and knowledge can come by constant meditation. By
meditating, the knowledge ‘I am’ gradually settles down and
merges with universal knowledge, and thereby becomes totally
free, like the sky or the space. It is not possible for you to acquire
knowledge, you ‘are’ knowledge. You are what you are seeking.
229
How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an
individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever. Whatever
is happening and the experiencing of the happening, takes place in
this consciousness when the ‘I am’ arises.
230
Get to know that ‘I am’ without words, which arises in the
morning. Knowing the Self, abiding in the Self-knowledge, is not a
mere intellectual knowing. You must be that, and you should not
move away from it. Remain firm.
231
In the body the indwelling principle is the consciousness. Abiding
in the consciousness, it became all manifestation. Now
transcendence of the consciousness has also occurred. With the
appearance of consciousness, the Absolute knows it is, ‘I am’. This
is the experience. There are other experiences now, in this time
factor, but experiences are gradually dropping off, including this
primary experience ‘I am’. It is only the consciousness that is
going to disappear; the Absolute is always there.
232
Because the ‘I am’ principle is there, it is moving all over. To
recognize it, you put on various uniforms in order to give it
identity, but the principle is already there, and because of that
principle you are engaging in various activities. Unless you wear
the uniform (the body) you will not be able to conduct any
activities. Once you discard this ‘I am ness’ uniform, what remains
is the ‘Parabrahman”. That which is eternally current is the
‘Parabrahman’
233
In this body is the subtle principle ‘I am’, that principle witnesses
all this. You are not the words. Words are the expression of space,
they are not yours. Still further you are not that ‘I am’
234
When you began knowing that you are, you did a lot of mischief,
but when the ‘I am’ is not there, there is no question of mischief.
235
The ‘I am’ is absent only in the state of ‘samadhi’, when the self
merges in the Self. Otherwise it will be there. In the state of a
realized person the ‘I am’ is there, he just doesn’t give much
importance to it. A ‘jnani’ is not guided by a concept.
236
This body is like an instrument that says ‘I am’, like an announcer.
Presently you think you are the body-mind, and whatever concepts
you have gathered are flowing out. When you begin spirituality,
you reject the body-mind with ‘I am not that’. Then you come to
the ‘I am’ only, without words. Then you are everything; you are
not confined to the body.
237
The riddle of spirituality cannot be solved by the intellect. At the
most, your intellect can provide you with livelihood. Whatever you
try to become, that is not you. Before the words come out, before
you say ‘I am’, that is you. You must be concerned with only
yourself. Don’t worry about anybody else. What are you?
238
The capacity of consciousness is something astounding. I didn’t
know I was, and then suddenly I knew ‘I am’. This ‘I amness’ is
the power of ‘Maya’.
239
What is the most ingrained habit you have? It is to say ‘I am’. This
is the root habit. Words and experiences are unworthy of you. This
habit of experiencing will not go until you realize that all this is the
domain of five elements, and the experiences in the five elements,
are unreal. This ‘I amness’ itself is unreal.
240
You must give up the identity with the body. Abidance in that
knowledge ‘I am’ which does not identify with the body-mind is
the spiritual light. Self-love and ‘I am’ without words are the same.
The sickness may come and go, but the self-love does not go.
241
Until you recognize and completely identify yourself with the
knowledge ‘I am’, you will identify with the body. When one
disidentifies with the body, one transcends not only the body but
consciousness as well, since consciousness is a product of the
body. The consciousness no longer says ‘I am’, ‘I am’.
242
When you were unaware of this message of ‘I am’ how did you
function? The question I put, nobody can answer. All of your great
scholars, people with a lot of knowledge, have gone into quietude.
243
That state of being is common to all, which is the message ‘I am’
without words. Change is only in the mind-flow. All the studies
you are doing are in the realm of mind-flow. The sense of ‘I am’ is
present because of your birth,through which you encounter many
thoughts and concepts, always changing. Presently the message ‘I
am’ is constant.
244
The body is not you, the name is not you. The body is the food you
have consumed; the taste of it is the knowledge ‘I am’. That is
Self, the feeling ‘I am’, that is the love to be. How amazing, how
incredible, it has no name, but you give many names to it. It is the
Self, the love to be. That love tobe is all pervading. Before you
conceptualize anything, you are, even before the knowingness, you
are.
245
You are afraid because you have assumed something as ‘I am’,
which actually you are not. Suppose you find a diamond ring on
the road and you pocket it. Since it is not yours, a fear overcomes
you. When you put on an identity that is not yours, you are afraid,
but when you are the pure ‘I amness’ only, there is no fear.
Presently you are this ‘I am’, butthis ‘I am’ is not the truth.
Whatever you are prior to the appearance of the ‘I am’, that is your
real nature.
246
Don’t roam about, don’t come here either. Abide in the quietude,
peace, stability. Here we are not engaged in any buying or selling.
That knowledge ‘I am’, without concepts, is evoked or stimulated
by the consciousness and peace which emanate from this place.
247
You did not have the concept ‘I am’ in the course of the nine
months in the womb. Understanding this state of affairs, the
concept ‘I am’ comes spontaneously and goes spontaneously.
Amazingly, when it appears, it is accepted as real. All subsequent
misconceptions arise from the feeling of reality in the ‘I amness’.
Try to stabilize in the primary concept ‘I am’, in order to lose that
and with it all other concepts. Why am I totally free? Because I
have understood the unreality of that ‘I am’.
248
If you sit here quietly, being onewith the knowledge ‘I am’, then
you are not concerned with the world or what goes on in the world.
It is only when the consciousness starts operating and there are
various movements in the consciousness that the behavior in the
world takes place. When I am not conscious of the existence of the
body, experiences are not registered.
249
The ‘mumukshu, is in kindergarten, spiritually inclined, but
identifying with the body-mind. The ‘sadhaka’ is one who has disidentified with the body-mind. A ‘siddha’ is one who has stabilized
in the knowledge ‘I am’, and in the process, has transcended it. In
this journey you very well know where you are.
250
The core of this consciousness is knowingness, to know ‘I am’. It
is not a personality, not an individual. It is total manifestation.
Beingness is there, it fills everything. Nevertheless, this quality ‘I
am’ is the result of the material, objective body. In the seed the
whole tree is latent. In the droplet ‘I am’ all three worlds are
squeezed in.
251
The highest state is the state of a ‘jnani’. The first step is to be that
droplet (‘I am’). In the process of knowing that droplet, you are out
of it, and that is a ‘jnani’. A ‘jnani’ is not obsessed by any
calamities or any problems, because he has transcended the ‘I am’
principle. He watches the play as a witness.
252
The whole universe is experienced in the consciousness ‘I am’. If
that is not there, what else can ever exist? This consciousness is
beating a drum; everyone is carried away by the noise of the drum.
Who looks for the drummer? Who is sounding and beating the
drum? It is so amazing that no one casts even a glanceat this speck
of consciousness.
253
The habit of considering the Self as body has influenced everybody
too much.
Worship the knowledge ‘I am’ as God, as your Guru. The
knowledge ‘I am’ is your Guru. Be in it. Do you see the image of
yourself in the mirror first, or do you know you are prior to that?
Which is first? If you are not, can you see your image in the
mirror? Give up trying to evaluate the real I or the counterfeit I, but
associate with the ‘Brahman’, I am the ‘Brahman’.
254
The letters ‘I am’ are written spontaneously with a certain ink.
What is that ink which was used to write that which you are? In
that ink with which the letters ‘I am’ were written, in that ink of
the title of ‘Tej SeshBhagavan’ is confirmed by the ‘Vedas’.
‘Sesh’ means the leftover, the remains. That ‘Tej Sesh Bhagavan’
has come spontaneously and will spontaneously go. The firm
conviction that I am this, the three states – waking state, deep sleep
and the knowledge ‘I am’ – are the aspects of that ‘Tej Sesh
Bhagavan’. You are not that.
255
The message ‘I am’ is there. The mind flow is also there; it is not a
personality, it is the consciousness. The very idea that you are the
body is ridiculous; the consciousness is experiencing its
manifestation. A rare being will realize this.
256
The Ultimate you can never be lost; whatever you have lost, you
have lost only words. The Ultimate you knows or feels ‘I am’
without words. Through this ‘I am’ comes the world knowledge.
You are not in isolation; you are part and parcel of the world
knowledge.
257
Presently the feeling that you are is also memory. To sustain that
memory of ‘I am’, all these raw materials are necessary. You are
not that ‘I am’. You are as the Absolute, prior to this ‘I am’.
258
One cannot see rays of light, as such; they reflect only when they
encounter another object. Similarly ‘I am ness’ is the interruption
because of these five elements and three ‘gunas’. That is why the
feeling ‘I am’ is felt; but without the feeling of ‘I am’, still you are.
259
Start with the body. From the body you get the knowledge ‘I am’.
In this process you become more and more subtle. When you are in
a position to witness the knowledge ‘I am’, you have reached the
highest. In this way you must try to understand, and the seeds of
knowledge will sprout in you.
260
Now what is it that we are concerned with? We are dealing with
the physical form, which is made up of, and fed by, the five
elements. In that form are operating the life force (the vital breath)
and this consciousness that is, the knowledge ‘I am’ or the sense of
being, the sense of existence. The latter is the ‘sentience’, which is
the gift of the consciousness.
261
Each of must say ‘I am’ and realize it. There is no ‘you’, and there
is no ‘me’, as individual entities. Until the ‘I am’ thought was
there, there was no manifestation;both came about simultaneously.
262
This knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, has come out of the
prior state when there was no consciousness. The consciousness is
a state which is now with us and because of which we suffer; and
before this consciousness came, a state prevailed when we were
not conscious and which was a happy state.
263
Guru means the ‘I am ness’ itself, which always reminds you ‘I
am’, ‘I am’, ‘I am’ – that is guru-guru-guru, like the sound of a
motorcar starting. It is a continuous reminder that you are.
264
Is it necessary that you should remember that you are (‘I am’)?
Spontaneously you know and remember that you are. That is why
you have come here, have you not? It is because you are. Stay put
there.
265
In order to not mistakenly hold on to something as ‘I am’ don’t
say I am this, I am that; just hold on to yourself, you are, just be.
Just be ‘you are’. Do you follow?
266
You are the knowledge ‘I am’. So if you want to worship, worship
that knowledge ‘I am’. Be devoted to that ‘I am  ness’ only. When
you do that, other rituals become redundant and useless. Finally
when you realize that everything is useless, everything is
‘Brahman’, it means you are at the ‘Parabrahman’ level, the
absolute level. When at that level, you will envision everything as
useless, including the ‘Brahman’ because the ‘Brahman’ is also
reduced to illusion. Therefore all these talks, including my own
will be reduced to illusion when you reach the highest.
267
The one who abides in that principle by which he knows ‘I am’, he
is the manifest. He abides in that manifest ‘Brahman’ all the
twenty-four hours. Whether the body remains or not, that manifest
self-principle always remains. You must continually remember,
‘chew the cud’, that the knowledge ‘I am’ signifies knowing all
gods, all the ‘Vedas’, it is the ‘Brahman’ only. You must
continually think about it, and should in the course of such
reminiscing, the body drop off,then, that consciousness will
definitely be the highest.
268
You are sitting here: ‘you are’, prior to words. Now the hearsay
goes ‘I am’, ‘I am’ means the flow of the mind has started. Now
whatever you say with that ‘I am ness’, through the mind about
‘you’, you have represented as yourself. But that is not so.
269
The capital we have is the knowledge ‘I am’. But what have we
done? We have handed over that knowledge to the body and we
say ‘I am the body’. Thereby we have reduced the totality, the
limitless, to the limited – a specified insignificant body. And that is
why, being unable to give up this association with the body, we are
afraid of dying.
270
The vital force carries out all the activities. The mind
communicates, and the knowledge ‘I am’ is merely a witness; this
is the actual state of affairs. But all these – that is, food body
quintessence, and the knowledge ‘I am’, the vital breath and the
mind – these are all a temporary phase only; so long as the food
essence is available, the knowings will last.
271
The knowledge ‘I am’ is the product of interaction within the five
elemental state, You are not that! You as the Absolute, are not the
knowledge ‘I am’.
272
It is very simple. The body and in the body…it is like a coin. On
one side, you have the vital breath for making possible all activity;
and on the other side is the knowledge ‘I am’. Only when the vital
breath is there, the knowledge ‘I am’ is present. When the vital
breath leaves the body, the knowledge ‘I am’ also disappears. And
both of these are the product of the food essence body. I am not
that; this entire composite I am not. This you have to realize.
273
Find out why you are, what is the cause of your being ‘I am’?
Actually you had no knowledge that you are or you were. But at
this moment, you know you are. Why is that? Understand its cause.
You alone know why you are; why is it offered to you that you are,
you alone know. Don’t ask anyone else about it, but inquire by
yourself. Don’t bother about others, worry only about yourself.
That knowledge ‘I am’ is the product of what, is due to what? How
and why? Inquire only into this matter.
274
Only that individual who has lost his individuality has merged with
the ‘Parabrahman’. So the individuality must go. The entire world
moves on the basis of one concept, and that is ‘I am’ – the
fundamental concept of one’s individuality.
275
Ultimately all these concepts can and must be understood to be
false, but the difficulty and the essential thing is to be convinced
that the original basic concept ‘I am’ itself is false.
276
The aim is to awaken yourself to the faith in the self, ‘I am’. That
is the entire purpose. So whatever is inductive to that development,
you may accept. Suppose you have faith in a living guru, then,
accept a living guru. If you have faith in a guru who has left his
body, accept that guru.
277
First of all, this knowings appeared, the knowings ‘I am’;
later on you embraced the body. Hold on to this only, and don’t
ask any questions. You came to know yourself, ‘I am’, to abide in
that itself is ‘bhakti’, the devotion.
278
Before you occurred to yourself as‘I am’; you were in the highest
state – the guru of the gurus – the ‘Parabrahman’ state. Later on
you started filling up with all kinds of grosser matter and you came
down to the body sense – I am the body. So, all these impurities
have to be removed. Until then, you have to stay put in the
quietude.
279
Your fall started with the appearance of that being ness, ‘I am’.
With the appearance of this knowings ‘I am’, the next fall was
embracing the body as ‘I am’. And then you gathered so many
things onto yourself. Hold on to the state of knowing yourself as ‘I
am’ as the truth. All other things you have gathered to yourself are
unreal.
280
From the no-knowing state, the first veil I took was that of ‘I am’,
that was formless, nameless. But I embraced the body: I got a form
for myself; I got a name for myself. This was the fall. Therefore all
sages advise: Give up the shackles of the body! ‘I am the body’ –
these are the shackles. Give them up.
281
This is no joke, but you can become ‘Parabrahman’ right now.
Only it is not a commodity that you can acquire. You, a hundred
years ago, were the ‘Parabrahman’. Give me all the information
about that state of a hundred years back. Focus your attention only
on that consciousness ‘I am’. Don’t be led astray by all the so called spiritual disciplines and rigmaroles.
282
Who has the knowledge ‘I am’? Somebody in you knows the
knowledge ‘I am’, who is it? It is  very obvious that you know you
are, but what or who is it that knows you are?
283
It is pure awareness that knows ‘I am’. Who can understand that
illusory state? ‘I am ness’ is illusory only. It is not a perfect state, it
is illusion. Who knows the illusion? A non-illusory state only can
know the illusory state. But wha tis the necessity to say pure
awareness? ‘Awareness’ means pure. Since awareness knows ‘I
am’, it is other; it is more than ‘I am’. That is the highest; there are
no gradations in awareness. In the Absolute, the ‘Parabrahman’
state, there is no question of impure or pure awareness.
284
You are not the personality or the individual. The quintessence of
this food, which in turn is the outcome of the five-elemental play,
is the taste ‘I am’. ‘I am’ is not a personality or an individual. I am
addressing that principle, that touch of ‘I am’, that consciousness
which is the product of the food essence body.
285
How can you speak or develop any concept unless the primary
concept ‘I am’ is available? This primary concept begets further
concepts, that is, all other conceptsoccur to it. However, whatever
concept occurs to you, including the primary concept ‘I am’, is not
the eternal state.
286
This primary concept, ‘I am ness’ is dishonest, because it is still a
concept only. Finally one has to transcend that also and be in the
‘nirvikalpa’ state, which means the concept-free state. Then you
have no concept at all, not even of ‘I am’. In that state one does not
know that one is. This state is known as ‘Parabrahman’: ‘Brahman’
transcended. ‘Brahman’ is manifest; ‘Parabrahman’ is beyond that,
prior to that; the Absolute. Do you understand what I am driving
at? Whatever you caught in your attention, that attention should
eventually turn into no-attention. The state that is finally left over
is Awareness, ‘Parabrahman’.
287
With the arrival of the consciousness,it occurs to you that you are;
simultaneously, ‘I am’ occurs to you or in your attention. So when
the consciousness is not there, attention is also not there.
Subsequent to the arrival of consciousness and attention,
everything else crept in. The Absolute state is prior to
consciousness; it means the unborn state. Since the ‘Parabrahman’
is the unborn state, prior to consciousness, can it have an iota of
knowledge?
288
How can you retain the pride that I am like this? This ‘I am’
business depends entirely on the food essence. So how can you
retain it perpetually – that I shall remain like this only? To extract
any essence, water is very necessary, and the water quality is
bound to dry up.
289
The knowledge ‘I am’ is a primary concept, and is also non eternal. The One, the Absolute, which is eternal and aware, why
should he worry about anybody else?
290
Once you reject what you are not, whatever finally remains, the
leftover, is yourself – your true nature. Presently, whatever you
know is ‘I am’, this ‘I am’ is the product of the five elements. Out
of the elements comes the food body and because of the food body,
that ‘I am ness’ is sustained. And you are also not that ‘I am’. ‘I
am’ is the taste, the fragrance of this food body. The ultimate ‘you’
has no fragrance, no taste, no touch of ‘I am ness’.
291
The scriptures say that we have our‘karma’ and our sin and that is
why we are here, but this is for the ignorant masses. One who has
realized the self-knowledge ‘I am’ for him these stories are of no
use.
292
The primary illusion is only this knowings ‘I am’, prior to that
there was no illusion. This very consciousness is the source of
illusion. This illusion or consciousness or ‘I am ness’ does not
remain as something eternal. It is liberated; this non-eternal
consciousness is liberated, when the knowings is transformed
into non-knowings, that is liberation.
293
To produce the source of the mind, ‘I am’, you must have the
ingredient of the five-elemental juice. If that is available, the
sprouting of the mind can begin with ‘I am’. You know you are
before even speaking the words ‘I am’. Subsequent to the
knowings ‘I am’, you say ‘I am’ by words.
294
Are you not even before you have spoken the words ‘I am’? Stay
put there only. There begins your spirituality, the foremost ‘you’,
‘I am’ without words, before the beginning of words. Be there; out
of that grows the experience ‘I am’. Witnessing happens to that
principle which prior to your saying the words ‘I am’. There is no
such thing as deliberate witnessing. Witnessing just happens, by
itself.
295
You must analyze ‘death’, the meaning of this common parlance.
At the time that death occurs, the vital breath quits the body,
gradually leaves the body. At the same time as the vital breath, the
mind and the language also go out. Simultaneously, this quality of
‘I am’, this ‘sattva-guna’, the quality of being ness, also departs or
goes into oblivion. Only I, the Absolute remains. Stay put there
only; nothing happens to I, the Absolute.
296
Here is an article before it came into existence, what was its name?
From non-being into the being state, how was it observed? You
just felt that touch. Before observing anything we feel the touch of
‘I am’. To realize that state prior to conception, that eternal state,
whatever that state is, to abide in that is the highest. Now, for your
sake, I attach a name to it, the ‘Parabrahman’ state – the Absolute.
297
A ‘jnani’ knows that he has realized when he recognizes his
knowings, which is the sense of‘I am’. Right here and now you
are in the realized state. But you try to judge it through desires and
mind-concepts, hence your inability to apperceive it and abide in it.
In the ‘jnani’ state, there is no need for anything, not even to know
oneself. You are attached to the body-senses; therefore even
though you may attain an age of hundred years, you still would
crave for more years.
298
On the state of ‘non-being ness’, the being ness appeared together
with manifestation, creating a feeling as if ‘I am’; who that is, is
not important, only ‘I am’ is important. The initial humming of the
being ness as ‘I am, I am’ is the duality. But who accepts the
duality? The ‘non-being ness’ accepts duality with the being ness.
The Absolute ‘non-being’ state, by assuming the being state,
becomes dual in manifestation.
299
First you have what is called ‘atma-bhava’ – that is the ‘I am’
sense. Later, this sense identifies with the form of a body, when it
is called ‘aham-akar’, the ‘I am’ form, this is ego. Ego is never a
title or name, but just a sense of ‘I am’ prior to words. The waking
state, the sleep state and the knowings ‘I am’ constitute an ego.
In the absence of these three states what do you think you are?
What would be the evidence of your existence?
300
The knowledge ‘I am’ is nothing. That knowledge is like a guest; it
comes and goes. You have come here; you are very clever. Now
what did happen? All the knowledge, which you had collected
elsewhere and brought here, is rendered useless and redundant. So
long as being ness is there, all worldly activities will go on. But you
now realize that ‘You’ are neither the activities in the being ness
nor the being ness. ‘You’ as the Absolute, are none of these.ness, which is the sense of‘I am’. Right here and now you
are in the realized state. But you try to judge it through desires and
mind-concepts, hence your inability to perceive it and abide in it.
In the ‘jnani’ state, there is no need for anything, not even to know
oneself. You are attached to the body-senses; therefore even
though you may attain an age of hundred years, you still would
crave for more years.
298
On the state of ‘non-being ness’, the being ness appeared together
with manifestation, creating a feeling as if ‘I am’; who that is, is
not important, only ‘I am’ is important. The initial humming of the
being ness as ‘I am, I am’ is the duality. But who accepts the
duality? The ‘non-being ness’ accepts duality with the being ness.
The Absolute ‘non-being’ state, by assuming the being state,
becomes dual in manifestation.
299
First you have what is called ‘atma-bhava’ – that is the ‘I am’
sense. Later, this sense identifies with the form of a body, when it
is called ‘aham-akar’, the ‘I am’ form, this is ego. Ego is never a
title or name, but just a sense of ‘I am’ prior to words. The waking
state, the sleep state and the knowings ‘I am’ constitute an ego.
In the absence of these three states what do you think you are?
What would be the evidence of your existence?
300
The knowledge ‘I am’ is nothing. That knowledge is like a guest; it
comes and goes. You have come here; you are very clever. Now
what did happen? All the knowledge, which you had collected
elsewhere and brought here, is rendered useless and redundant. So
long as being ness is there, all worldly activities will go on. But you
now realize that ‘You’ are neither the activities in the being ness
nor the being ness. ‘You’ as the Absolute, are none of these.