When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self." I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon!
My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.
I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.
Source: The book "I AM THAT"
2 comments:
This sadhana of Nisarga Datta Maharaj is similar to the one prescribed by Bhagawan Ramana and repersents the essence of the entire spiritual enquiry . Many people know the truth that "I AM BRAHMAN" but very few get this Truth from a live guru who has understood the truth himself .The problem is we get this TRUTH in the form of an information from Books and other scholars and this information is not able to bring a TOTAL TRANSFORMATION . But 2 things are needed for this TRANSFORMATION :
1) Purity and maturity of the disciple
2) Getting this Truth from the mouth of a real Jnani in real life in his presence .
So what is in our hands is to work on No:1 Condition i.e to prepare ourself and wait for the No: 2 Condition to happen .
Yes, what you say is true. An aspirant needs a Guru in human form to initiate him into this spiritual practice of Self-enquiry. The initiation into self-enquiry is given to very advanced aspirants, who are probably in the last leg of their sadhana towards self realisation.
The longing for liberation is also a Tapas, and would eventually lead us to a Guru, in some birth. Till that time, the effort is purely ours, and we have no choice but to keep plodding with earnestness. Any path- yoga, bhakti or karma will eventually lead us to self-realisation. So there is hope for all.
One key aspect that is reiterated by Eckhart Tolle, is to accept the Present Moment. To me, this seems the key teaching that we can follow, till we become eligible to be blessed with the living presence of a Jnani. The attitutde of gratitude to life itself, is a simple yet powerful sadhana. This acceptance would increase the sattva aspect, diminish the ego sense, and would create humility and reverence towards life itself.
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