Abiding in the ‘I am’, part 4

These short quotes have been collected from the two books by David Godman on Sri Annamalai
Swami titled ‘Annamalai Swami – Final Talks’ and ‘Living by the Words of Bhagavan’.
 Sri
Annamalai Swami was a direct disciple of Sri Ramana Maharshi. These quotes have a close
resemblance to the teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

18. In every moment you only have one real choice: to be aware ‘I am’ or to identify with the
body and mind.

19. Your responsibility in this life is only to abide as ‘I am’ and not worry about the outer events
over which you have no control.

20. The ‘I am’ is present in all and not confined only to those who follow this particular teaching
and Guru.

21. The intensity with which you meditate ‘I am’ will take you to your real Self as there is
nothing else other than it.

- Pradeep Apte

Thursday, March 2, 1978

Observe your present life, how and why it has become like this. Know that this is a temporary
show. You call upon God but where was God before you came to know ‘you are’? Find the
source of all this.

That which is of the nature of time is not everlasting because time itself is not real. Your intellect
also changes with time. The manifest is bound by time. Gods and deities are a result of the power
of the word. We are alive by virtue of the word. The pulse itself is the word. Whatever you
believe in is true for you. However, it is time-bound and not eternal.

The Truth is unmanifested. (Maharaj is saying that the manifestation is a time-bound concept.
Our body-mind is part of it. The first word, Om, is the symbol of manifestation.)

Meditate on that by which you know ‘you are’. Birth and death are nonsense. Who is born? It is
only a sport of the five elements. The vital life force is playing as it pleases, by collecting and
mixing the five elements in the form of a body. They have no intelligence.

Why would a merciful God create a world like this, where life depends on life? That is why there
is no creator. The world is there due to duality. No duality, no world. People who want to make
money should do just that.

Search for spiritual knowledge and pursuit of wealth cannot be done at the same time.
Spirituality is possible only when you let go of everything.
As long as you take yourself as the body, what you say is true for you. It is as true as the body.
All activities take place because of the rise of consciousness in the body.

The feeling of misery and happiness is there due to the sense ‘I am’. Sleep and awakening come
spontaneously. They are not a result of your will. The nature of the dream continues through
wakefulness. Where is the profit or loss if there is no individual thought like ‘I am so-andso’?

Have you thought of how this sense of ‘I am’ is created and how long will it last? Such
knowledge should be discussed only with people who have a sense of detachment.

Why are people interested in miracles? Is not the greatest miracle your own beingness? Because
of that the immense world is created in an instant. One may get spiritual powers by performing
special practices. The knowledge of the Self has nothing to do with it.

🌺🌺Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj 🌺

Don’t bother about anything, just

continue abiding in the ‘I am’, a moment
will come when it will be pleased and
reveal all the secrets.
.
There will be periods of frustration, there will be
periods of doubt. Your worldly involvements would
hamper your ‘Sadhana’ (practice) and an
atmosphere of defeat would prevail. But, come
what may, just throw everything aside, don’t bother
about anything and continue your abidance in the
‘I am’ with all earnestness. The ‘I am’ would test
your endurance, but a moment would come when it
will be pleased with you, become your friend and
release its stranglehold on you.
.
Nisargadatta Maharaj _/\_

SKILLFUL DEALING WITH DESIRES

Q: What is the best way of dealing with desires, with a view to getting rid of them — satisfying
them or suppressing them?

Bhagavan: If a desire can be got rid of by satisfying it, there will be no harm in satisfying such a
desire. But desires generally are not eradicated by satisfaction. Trying to root them out that way
is like pouring spirits to quench a fire.
At the same time, the proper remedy is not forcible suppression, since such repression is bound
to react sooner or later into forceful surging up with undesirable consequences.

The proper way to get rid of a desire is to find out “Who gets the desire? What is its source?”
When this is found, the desire is rooted out and it will never again emerge or grow.

- Day by Day, p. 197

Kekuatan berasal
dari keheningan hati yang
mengalami penderitaan panjang...

bukan di tengah-tengah kesenangan.

SEE HOW POWERFUL!

Devotee: “That is all right, Swami. But, however much we try, this mind does not get under
control and envelopes the Swarupa so that it is not perceptible to us. What is to be done?”

Bhagavan with a smile placed his little finger over his eye and said, “Look. This little finger
covers the eye and prevents the whole world from being seen. In the same way, this small mind
covers the whole universe and prevents the Brahman from being seen. See how powerful it is!”

- Letters 22. Jan 1949, 515