I Am That

If you are even remotely interested in the Hindu path of nondualism (Advaita Vedanta), I cannot recommend it enough. It will not be easy: it is a fairly long compendium of conversation between seekers and the master which can sometimes seem repetitive. But to understand is to achieve liberation. It is the most important book I have thus far read. Quite simply, you are not that, which you believe yourself to be. That person is nothing but threads of memories and habits, vague, constantly changing, prisoner to fear and desire, born to suffer and to die. But you are not that. What you are is beyond words, though Maharaj does try a few: pure awareness, limitless being, the ultimate potentiality, the inexhaustible source, love, harmony, peace, bliss, all-pervading and all-containing, unapproachable, unassailable, invulnerable, the Supreme, etc. Just remember “I am,” and watch yourself constantly. The “I am” is the bridge between the person and the Supreme. “When you stand motionless, only watching, you discover yourself as the light behind the watcher.” “The “I am” is the door. Stay at it until it opens.” Surrender is part of it too: “To be free in the world, you must die to the world. Empty yourself completely. The finite is the price of the infinite, as death is the price of immortality.” “The giving up is the first step. But the real giving up is in realizing that there is nothing to give up, for nothing is your own.” “Stay without ambition, without the least desire - exposed, vulnerable, unprotected, uncertain and alone, completely open to and welcoming life as it happens, without the selfish conviction that all must yield you pleasure or profit, material or so-called spiritual. Abandon every attempt, just be; don’t strive, don’t struggle; let go of every support, hold on to the blind sense of being, brushing off all else.” With understanding comes liberation. “The person merges into the witness, the witness into awareness, awareness into pure being, yet identity is not lost, only its limitations are lost. It is transfigured and becomes the real Self, the sadguru, the eternal friend and guide.” “When the world does not hold and bind you, it becomes an abode of joy and beauty.” “Life becomes what it was meant to be … pure intensity, inexhaustible energy, the ecstasy of giving from a perennial source.” Nisargadatta Maharaj was born as Maruti Shivrampant Kambli in Bombay (now Mumbai), in 1897. He was a simple man, a householder and petty storekeeper, when he was introduced to a guru of the Navnath Sampradaya at the age of 36. He followed his guru’s instruction to “focus the mind on pure being, “I am,” and stay in it.” Just two years later, his guru died. Maharaj left his family and business to pilgrimage across India to the Himalayas where he intended to spend the rest of his life pursuing eternal life. But along the way, he realized he already had it. “The peace and joy and 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.” Maharaj returned to his family and his business. When he was 54, he began accepting visitors and initiates into his humble home to answer spiritual questions. By all accounts, he was an extremely warm-hearted and compassionate man, a truth which comes through clearly in this book. He eventually attracted seekers from all around the globe, and he continued to offer discourses twice daily until his death from throat cancer in 1981, at the age of 84.

I read many spiritual books. None of them are as clear and deep as this book. In many other books, the teachers turned their teaching to the students’ level in order to communicate better, thus the teaching might not always be at the highest and purest level. Maharaj is different. All his teaching comes from the highest consciousness level with the deepest insides. The clarity is very rare. As many people stated, this is the end of the spiritual journey if fully understood.

I love this book. I was fortunate to come across it at such a young age, I'm only 21 but have read through the conversations in "I Am That" many times on PDF files available here and there on the web for about two years before I now decided to buy this book. Many thanks to Amazon for sending a great book in great condition to Sweden from the US in such a short timespan. I had to pay an extra amount for getting the book in only three days but to me it felt like it was worth it! Nisargadatta encourages us in the conversations in this book to look at what IS and identify with the motionless bakground of everything that happens, he is telling us to just BE. Though suspicious words like "universal consciousness" might be mentioned in a way that might suggest that Nisargadatta lives off on certain metaphysical presuppositions... Might be more correct to see them as "pointers" to what it "feels" like to just BE. Anyway, there is no need of adopting any system of thought here as if following a book of rules, it's more of a discardment of concepts, concepts derived from an attachment to the unreal (which is the ego). Everyone strives for harmony but ignorance on what IS makes people do wrong. Evil is simply a symptom of ignorance. But ignorance is not to be hated on, it is simply a part of this spontaneous dance of actions where the innocent desire for harmony is the cause of everything. Everything acts in love towards itself. This is an afterconstruction though, there is no real cause of anything but here I look at it from the superficial point of view closest to the truth that can't be defined in words. So this concept of "love" is compared to many other concepts I think built on an axiom of truth. That truth is built on being itself, or we can call it "awareness". When awareness shines bright without mental entanglements comes the realisation that there is absolutely nothing in life worth taking personally, because there are no people, only one complex dance of reactions where the strive for harmony or unity (love) makes systems without the right knowledge create unnecessary suffering for themselves. Why this is is a pointless question. It is enough to see that there is actually nothing wrong with the state of the world, life is love and love is life. Seeing things as they are is to in the point of view of the human being (that which I am not) the realisation of that evil is simply ignorance, an ignorance ironically coming from the innocent desire of love. In the world of concepts, there are certain concepts that are more bound to work than others and this is one of them because it seems to be closer to the truth than many other popular notions of good and evil. Concepts that are closer to the truth are more constructive and therefor also worth "adopting". In this case though, there is no question of "adopting" anything, not from an absolute (awareness or "real self") perspective at least. This type of concept (though worded differently depending on individual) is what the human mind spontaneously translates from the definitionless truth that resides in being. This is really hard for me to explain without sounding like a contradictionary fool :( The truth is very simple though when seeing it for what it is. You are being itself and nothing else needs to be known from the first experiential point of view, the rest will happen by itself. I would recommend philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris books named "Free Will" and "Waking Up - A guide to spirituality without religion" as a secular view on this phenomena of enlightenment and what paying attention to the present moment really can reveal about reality. This might be (for some) a good compliment to "I Am That".

Although I'm only on page 243, I recognize this text as one of the most important spiritual classics ever written. I would place it alongside Be As You Are (Sri Ramana Maharshi); Nothing Ever Happened (Papaji); and Silence of the Heart (Robert Adams). In addition, most of the information conveyed by Nisargadatta is compatible with teachings in A Course in Miracles. The central concept in all these books is that the ego must be undone before we can enter into an expanded state of universal awareness. Nisargadatta, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji, and Robert Adams all advocated self-inquiry (atma vichara), the process of tracing the "I-thought" back to its source through a questioning process of "Who am I?" There is no answer to the question since awareness precedes consciousness. But it is possible to rule out what we are not through neti-neti. Nisargadatta focused on "I am" and advocated complete de-identification with the body and the mind. True Self-realization means the mind stops and enters into the spiritual heart permanently. From that point onward, personal identity is shattered. The jnani then operates from what might be called the fourth dimension, which supersedes waking, sleeping, and dreaming. Awareness is continuous, unbroken, and emanates from beyond time and space. There is no longer past, present, and future. Everything occurs in the eternal now. The irony is that if one searches or strives for Self-realization, it cannot be attained. If there is inner fire, earnestness, and ripeness, however, the guru (an outward representation of the inner teacher) may appear and possibly accelerate awakening. For most humans, it's an extremely rare occurrence. We are still addicted to form, name, and a sense that we are the "doer" in a "reality" that is perceived as outside of us. In fact, as A Course in Miracles confirms constantly, the world is an "outside picture" of an inner condition. The mind is like a projector that constantly casts changing images upon a screen. The screen itself never changes; it remains the same, just as the Self has remained changeless. We are not who we think we are: God is; I am. I am; God is. After that, we thrive in perfect peace and silence, bathed in universal love.

What can one say? I was given this book as a gift in 2005 and that night as I read it, I felt a very significant change. It felt like a spear had stabbed me in the heart. One outcome: my perception of my own Guru changed. I slowly began to understand what my Guru meant all along, especially when my Guru said that Non-Duality was 'not for everyone'. And the best answer I got from my Guru when asked about this book: "PLEASE read it! It will give one Courage" In many other books written by other authors on the subject of NonDuality, the language and concepts are academic and often employs complicated and convoluted hyperbole often indirectly hinting at the author's erudition and education. But in this book, NM's language and philosophy is simple and direct, based entirely on personal experience as opposed to second-hand knowledge, which makes it endearing and understandeable. My greatest relief was that NM did away with all externalities and all blind rituals. There were no 'special times' or any Earth-centric 'Power zones' or any body-centric Chakras and stuff. He made me understand the need to be earnestly aware of the 'I AM' and dwell on that alone, without expectation or desire. This rang in me: the sense 'I AM' was there all along, from childhood, and never changed, ever. I had to be aware of all, then see the sense of the witness, anytime, any place. To this day I have never completed this book, ever. Even now, I cannot get past a couple of pages without feeling a tremendous calmness and quiet that makes me stop reading, drop the book, get into a spontaneous state of witnessing that has no labels and definitions. There are people who call it names: 'condescending', and 'drivel', some who focus on the quality of the book, or the supposedly grammatical errors and typos. To them one can only say that it's NOT meant for them. One day, they'll awaken.

This is a literary masterpiece that documents conversations between a Self-realized Master and visitors from all over the world and from all different religious, philosophical and professional backgrounds. Many of us wished that we could have been in the presence of this Master, since his presence must have been even more powerful that his recorded words. Even the recorded words are powerful enough to convey, in some mysterious and ineffable manner, a strong spiritual force that seems to emanate from the Great Beyond (the deep Absolute that pervades but also transcends this phenomenal material reality). This force behind the words seems to be more powerful than the words themselves, and reading this and other books of transcribed dialogues between this great Master and spiritual seekers from around the world first gave me a supramental glimpse of the Absolute Reality. Nisargadatta's words are not only potent but direct, and I have spent about a decade in search of a living Master from his lineage (the Inchegiri Navnath Sampradaya) who could directly convey the message to me as he had done for so many during his lifetime. As the saying goes, when the disciple is ready, the guru appears. This happened to me when I came across Sadguru Ramakant Maharaj, who is currently the only living direct disciple of Nisargadatta who teaches in this same tradition in India. What a treasure I found in Sadguru Ramakant Maharaj, who stays true to his Master's teachings! I am sure that Nisargadatta was very proud of Ramakant, and we consider ourselves to be most fortunate. Reading "I am that" has been very good preparation for the final message, which, when delivered by a living Master, ultimately leads to liberation through True Knowledge. I highly recommend this book as well as all others by Nisargadatta. I also recommend reading Selfless Self once Nisargadatta's teachings are well understood, since it can take you from an intellectual knowledge of Reality to the direct experience of Reality.Of course, nothing can replace the actual presence of and initiation by a Self-Realized Master, as both Nisargadatta and Ramakant emphasize, but these books are the closest one can come to such an experience.

Many well-known teachers today consider Nisargadatta (1897-1981) to be at least one of their teachers, and this book is considered to be a spiritual classic. It is a recording of 101 interactions that took place between him and those who came to his humble abode in Bombay (now Mumbai). Everyone was welcomed. I find myself amazed at his patience in dealing with the often-verbose and argumentative people who came to him. I certainly was not as patient in reading their remarks, but the book is worth it for the nuggets that are hidden within. An uneducated man, he seems to intuitively come up with whatever the particular person he is addressing needs at that moment. Here are some examples: “Once you know with absolute certainly that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.” “From moment to moment, the little I need to know to live my life I somehow happen to know.” “Pain is physical; suffering is mental. . . Pain is essential for the survival of the body, but suffering is due entirely to clinging or resisting; it is the sign of our unwillingness to move on, to flow with life.” To the question: Without desire and fear, what motive is there for action?, Nisargadatta answers, “None, unless you consider love of life, of righteousness, of beauty, motive enough.”

One of the most direct books for realizing. Brilliant! 🙏