Nisargadatta Maharaj – Wise Words

You are that which is prior to the arrival of I-am-ness. When we did not know anything, that is our true state. That is reality. In that sate we did not even know our own existence.

Then spontaneously came the thought or the knowledge ‘I am.’ This knowledge started the sense of duality, subject and object, sin and merit and the entire gamut of interrelated opposites. Whatever was before the knowledge ‘I am’ is Truth. Whatever is subsequent is false.

Many names have been given to the sense of presence or I am ness: Maya, Prakriti, Ishwara etc, but nevertheless it is an illusion, pure ignorance.

Prakriti, with the cooperation of the conceptual Purusha creates the world and peoples it with innumerable forms. It is Maya in action that makes consciousness mistakenly believe that. It is the particular form itself. Thus it assumes the identity of the particular form and forgets its nature. Nisargadatta Maharaj