Nisargadatta Maharaj was renowned as a saint-philosopher and honoured in his own lifetime despite his humble origins and simple lifestyle. He lived like other ordinary people, leading the life of a householder and businessman, but with his vision rooted in the knowledge of the self.

Born as Maruti, he was initiated with a mantra by his guru Sri Siddhanarameshwar Maharaj. Meditating on the mantra, he experienced visions, went into trances, and eventually gained an in-depth understanding of his real nature - "I am That."

During the period of my Vedanta studies in Bombay during the 70s, we fellow students would visit Maharaj as often as possible. Maharaj would highlight the difference between conceptual knowledge gained through words and direct understanding born of assimilation. I had not read "I am That" in detail then, being busy with my own studies in the ashram. Now when I read through it again, I visualize in my mind’s eye, the dance of Vedanta that the master choreographed in his simple and profound words.

The book contains transcripts of his discussions with the questioner on topics related to spirituality. Maharaj encompassed in his teachings all the essentials of Vedanta like non-duality of awareness, apparent nature of creation, rebirth for the individual, karma accumulating from past lives, self-enquiry, and liberation (jivanmukti). "What begins and ends is mere appearance. The world can be said to appear, but not to be. Whatever is time-bound is momentary and has no reality."

In this simple and profound book, Maharaj discusses concepts like 'consciousness', 'awareness', etc. and redefines them."Awareness is primordial, beginning less, uncaused, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection against a surface, state of duality. Consciousness is always of something. Awareness is total, changeless, silent. Awareness makes consciousness possible. There is awareness in every state of consciousness. Therefore consciousness of being conscious is already a movement in awareness. Awareness is not a new state. It is at once recognized as original basic existence, which is life itself and love and joy."

'I' is progressively stripped of its attributes; the body, mind, are negated as 'not-I' through the 'neti-neti' (not-this, not-this) analysis. What remains behind is the witness consciousness which itself resolves into pure awareness. Realization is fundamentally the owning up of one’s nature as existence and awareness, relieved of all concepts of subject-object division. "Realization is opposite of ignorance. To take world as real and one’s self as unreal is ignorance, cause of sorrow. That self is only reality and all else as temporal, is freedom, peace and joy."

His replies can be bewildering at times, but serve as koans in the style of Zen, meant to be contemplated over until there is a joyful connection to meaning and understanding. Compare his two statements: "Reality is not the result of a process, it is an explosion. It is definitely beyond the mind, but all you can do is to know your mind well." and "Reality is not an event, it cannot be experienced. Experience is of change. If you wait for an event to take place, for the coming of reality, you will wait forever, for reality neither comes nor goes."

Meditation and living a life of honesty, alertness, and earnestness are the means by which a seeker begins his journey into spirituality.

"Meditation is to become conscious and familiar with our inner life."
“Meditation affects character. We are slaves of what we don’t know. Of what we know, we are masters. Unconscious dissolves with knowledge."

Living an objective life in spite of experiencing happiness and unhappiness is prescribed as a way to purify the mind.  "Joy is joy only in background of pain. Where there is completeness (in universe) what can give pain? Isolation makes for pain. Mind divides and opposes. Can there be some other mind which sees whole in the part and part as totally related to whole? Go beyond limiting opposing mind. In ending the mental process, that mind is born. Joy and sorrow are experienced through love. It is love seeking expression and meeting obstacles. Inclusive mind can be initially frustrated, but ultimately victorious."

In the style of Kabir and the saints, Maharaj speaks of his world as different from the ordinary world. There is love, and joy and oneness in his world, as opposed to the anxieties, fears, desires that the ordinary world is riddled with. He spans both the worlds, living and functioning like any other person, yet he witnesses, unconcerned, the activities of his body-mind as if they are occurring to someone else.

"You have no reason to believe that my world is identical with yours. My world is real, true, as it is perceived, while yours appears and disappears, according the state of your mind. Your world is something alien, and you are afraid of it. My world is myself. I am at home."

Reviewed by Uday Acharya

• Title: I Am That
• Author: Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
• Publisher: Chetana Publishers