Good article on Nisargadatta Maharaj's I AM

[who chit]

By Acharya Prashant:

Nisargadatta Maharaj says to be constantly in the “I am” realization. What does that mean? What is this “I am” realization? He used to say never forget “I am”. What does that mean?

It means two things, of which one is nothing. We will first discuss the thing.
There is this entire world and its happenings, and seemingly you at the centre of this world. And there are events that are happening all the time: thoughts, discussions, accidents, destiny, love, hate, anger, profit, loss, news, knowledge; all that is happening all the time. And the mind is kept active, busy with all that. To remember “I am” means to remember that none of that, which is happening, really has an objective existence. So whatever is happening is ‘you’. If you find it difficult to digest initially that if there is a war happening in the Middle East, how could this war be me? Then start off by at least remembering that whatever is happening has been given a color by you. At least this much can be remembered.

So, you can remember I am the one who is giving it a meaning. I am the one who is giving it an interpretation, a color. Slowly from there when you realize the depth of your interpretation, when you realize that the painting is nothing except the colors and all colors are been given by you. Then you come down to saying that, “I am that event”. You start off by saying that, “I am the interpreter of the event”. And when you see how deep your interpretations are, that there is nothing really left if you take away the interpretations; then you actually say that, “I am that event”. This is the first level of remembering “I am”. Whatever is happening, whatever I am seeing is not outside of me; “I am its seer”, “I am its projector”, “I am its creator” and “I am its interpreter”. In fact, “I am it”. This is the first level of meaning.

What is the second level? I had said that the second level is a nothing level. The second level means that I am nothing except the events that are happening. Now, you cannot think about this second level. This second level, if you see is just a remainder. It is just that which remains after everything else has gone.
The mantra that Nisargadatta is giving is essentially only this much. Do not take the world as different from yourself, see yourself in every happening. See that the happening cannot mean anything to you except if you give it a meaning. See that the world does not trouble you; you attach troublesome meanings to the world. This is the first meaning of “I am”. And when you can clearly see that you are the world and the world is you, and then your conception of yourself holds no ground. You cannot possibly say that I am this entire existence. If you say you are this entire existence, then again you are saying this same thing, “I am nothing”. Because then you are boundary less.

Or you could ask a question this way, “Can the world appear to me as it appears to me without me being what I am? So does the world have any objective existence? Can the world appear to me as it appears to me without me being what I am? So, is the world really separate from me? Or if something happens to me; could this have happened to me, had I not been what I am? Could this have happened to somebody else? No, it is happened only to me. And if it is happening only to me, it surely has something to do with what I am?”
A woman is crying and walking away from a crowd of ten men. Only one is especially disturbed, the other nine are not. Could this one man have been disturbed, had he not been the husband of this woman? These nine men are not bothering right now. Would they have not bothered, had they been the husband of this woman?

So, look at the happening and see yourself in the happening.
The more you look at yourself in the happening, the more the distance between you and the world, the more the separation gets dissolved. When the separation gets dissolved, the happening loses meaning. And then your definition of yourself loses meaning and there is just clarity. A pure clarity which you can call as an empty clarity. This empty clarity is the real “I am”.

The things that mean so much to you today, could they have meant so much, had the course of your life been different? There are things that matter so much to you today. Could they have mattered, had the accidents in your life been different? So, that which you start taking as very important, as essential, when you remember that it is not essential, its significance is supplied to it by ‘me’. Then it starts losing its significance.

Edited September 5, 2018 by who chit

[Preetom]

@who chit Thanks for this. I sort of came to this same understanding after years of circle jerking