I Am That
Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
A Bombay shopkeeper answers seekers’ questions and dismantles every one of them the same way: find who is asking. The reference book of not-two.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was a Bombay shopkeeper who sold bidis until visitors began seeking him out for spiritual guidance. “I Am That” (1973) collects his dialogues with those visitors, translated from Marathi by Maurice Frydman. There’s no system to learn — just the same question turned back on every questioner: who is asking?
A few lines worth keeping:
Without an experiencer the experience is not real.
In death only the body dies. Life does not, consciousness does not, reality does not.
Turn within. “I am” you know. Be with it all the time you can spare, until you revert to it spontaneously. There is no simpler and easier way.
Give up all questions except one: “Who am I?” After all, the only fact you are sure of is that you are.
Nothing can set you free, because you are free.
Whatever you see, hear or think of, remember — you are not what happens, you are he to whom it happens.
The death of the mind is the birth of wisdom.
All suffering is born of desire. True love is never frustrated.
A quiet mind is all you need.
You cannot change the world before changing yourself.
Appears in think → forward