You Alone Are | The pointer that led to Nisargadatta's Enlightenment

Sometimes you come across the words of a sage to a disciple which are just a brilliant delivery of the Truth. And often they contradict what you thought you had understood, the way you were trying to comprehend these wisdom teachings about Enlightenment and Awakening and Nonduality.

One of these, which really inspired me, was when Nisargadatta Maharaj described how the teaching was delivered to him by his Guru. We only get hints of what transpired by reading Nisargadatta's dialogues, but it is enough.

In one place in the book "I am That" one of the dialogue records Nisargadatta saying,

"My Guru, before he died, told me: 'Believe me, you are the Supreme Reality. Don't doubt my words, don't disbelieve me. I am telling you the truth — act on it.' I could not forget his words and by not forgetting I have realized."

In another dialogue Nissargadatta describes,

"He told me, 'You alone are' and I did not doubt him. I was merely puzzling over it, until I realized that it is absolutely true. I found that I am conscious and happy absolutely and only by mistake I thought I owed being-consciousness-bliss to the body and the world of bodies."

In Nisargadatta's case this message, these few words, ignited in him!

Exploded!

Destroyed all traces of individuality and the sense that he was one individual among many.

This is true Insight; Realization; the completion of the spiritual search.

Nowadays, as Non-duality becomes a bit more mainstream, there's a danger of being left confused by half-truths and never having heard the truth delivered in such a precise and direct way.

There are many gurus, supposed gurus, who are happy to tell you that there's no you, no self. All the while they are happy to take your money. So they still care about their bank balances more than yours.

This is not Enlightenment.

This is the endarkenment proceeding.

Nisargadatta's Guru did not wait for Nisargadatta to lose his ego, to see through the self, he demonstrated his own lack of ego. He did not let his disciple put him on a pedestal, but instead declared Nisargadatta as the Supreme Reality.

The insight that there is no self is only half the truth.

In Buddhism the other half is left mostly unsaid, because it cannot really be understood in words. Perhaps it was unimaginable back then, that there would be an age where there are minds so trapped in their concepts and thinking that they can deny the existence of You, who are so clearly and obviously present.

You!

Listen to all those harping about no-self and see how they exhibit none of the signs that accompany the end of suffering.

Grim, repetitive, heartless teachings and their disturbed, tortured, followings.

"Nothing to be done."

"No one here."

Then why talk?

If you really need to talk, talk to the rocks. Talk to the sea. Why turn it into a career?

And if they get questioned they say, "Who is to stop?"

The thinking process that motivates such repetitive nonsense — that is to stop!

If there's no you, and you truly annihilated yourself, they would only be silence. This thought process would cease to function.

You may ask why I continue to talk then.

Because there is a You that can listen to these words and through them understand your true identity.

And if you do, it would give meaning to all this suffering. To all these lives being lived. To all this toil and trouble.

The sages have left us these teachings, so that You may see, that this is all inevitable.

That this is not to be resisted, or cried about, That this is all a celebration of the fact of your own existence.

Life is possible because of You.

Because You are aware.

Because You are real.

And because that is so, all of this can be so.

Your very existence makes the entire world possible.

And your knowing of it makes it actual.

You are the inexhaustible possibility, and the power to take that possibility and grant it the touch of Reality.

You are Reality.

The Supreme Reality.

So let any guru who is sincere tell You this: There is only You. There is no one else.

Let the voice inside the head tell You this, let the ego, the individual, the person, the mind, the brain, say this to You the Sentience: There is no me.

There is only You.

The beingness of being.

The knowingness of knowing.

The fullness of happiness.

The depth of love.

The source of life and all experience.

Supreme Reality.

There's no individual self. That much is true.

No me, we, or us. No self.

But there is most clearly and obviously You — the Heart; the soul of the entire universe.

Let your mind admit this and say, "I love You!"

But in saying this, I don't know who is saying this to whom.

You are the one saying this, and You are the one listening, and You are the one feeling the love.

You are the Love itself.