[Advaita-l] Notes on Nisargadatta Maharaj

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:

> There are some notes about Nisargadatta Maharaj (NM) in the website
> below claiming that NM still felt the "I am the body" idea rising
> up
> again and again. NM also apparently said that there is an "endless
> journey of self-discovery", which seems contradictory to the final
> state of advaita siddhi where the "journey" finally ends in Supreme
> Steady Abidance in the Self.
> 
> Can someone please confirm or deny the statements about NM here:
> 
> http://www.albigen.com/uarelove/sahaja.aspx
> 
> "In the case of Sri Ramana, the ego ended in the experience in
> Madurai, and from that moment onwards, Sri Ramana says there was no
> change in his experience. That is consistent with Sri Ramana’s
> description of Sahaja Samadhi. 
> 
> The case if Sri Nisargadatta is quite different. Sri Nisargadatta
> continued until the end of his life to describe the changes that
> were
> occurring. For example he said that previously he thought he was
> free
> of the ‘I am the body’ identification but that now he could see
> that
> some had remained, etc. 
> 
> Also Sri Nisargadatta had the view that after Self-Realization
> there
> is an endless journey of discovering oneself. Both these are
> consistent with those who go in and out of kevala Samadhi. However
> those descriptions are completely inconsistent with Sahaja Samadhi.
> 
> 
> In Sahaja Samadhi there is no longer an entity that can undergo
> changes in the level of ‘I am the body’ identification and there is
> no longer an entity that can go on learning about itself and there
> are no parts in the Self so that one part can be revealed to
> another
> part. 
> 
> Thus the state that Sri Ramana Maharshi was in is called Sahaja
> Samadhi. The state that Sri Nisargadatta was in and out of and in
> and
> out of is called kevala samadhi."
> 

Here's what I received in a personal email:

----------------------------
The reference to the Above quote is in the book "Consciousness and 
the Absolute" edited by Jean Dunn, beginning with the November 21, 
1980 entry, the first paragraph:

Maharaj: "Whatever I had thought earlier has now changed. What is 
happening now is that even the slightest touch of individuality has 
completely disappeared, and it is consciousness as such which is 
spontaneously experiencing. The result is total freedom. All the 
time there was complete conviction that it was consciousness which 
was experiencing; but that "I" which the consciousness was 
experiencing was there. Now that has totally disappeared; 
therefore, whatever happens in the field of consciousness, I, who am 
there before consciousness, am not concerned in any way. The 
experience is of consciousness experiencing itself."
----------------------------

It seems that NM had changed his ideas (!) on the nature of
Self-realization after the publication of the book "I AM THAT"
(1973).

It should be noted that Ramana Maharshi NEVER "changed" his teachings
on Self-realization.

Regards,
Kartik

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