PRIOR TO CONSCIOUSNESS 12/29/80 NISARGADATTA.. part one

Maharaj: Sitting in meditation helps the consciousness to blossom. It causes
deeper understanding and spontaneous change in behavior. These changes are
brought about in the consciousness itself, not in the pseudo-personality.
Forced changes are at the level of the mind. Mental and intellectual changes
are totally unnatural and different from the ones that take place in the birth
principle. These take place naturally, automatically, by themselves, due to
meditation.
Most of the people see the tree of knowledge and admire it, but what is to
be understood is its source - the seed, the latent force from which it sprouts.
Many people talk about it but only intellectually; I talk about it from direct
knowledge.
A small speck of consciousness, which is like a seed , has all the worlds
contained in it. The physical frame is necessary for it to manifest itself.
All the ambitions, hopes and desires are connected with an identity, and so
long as there is an identity no truth can be apperceived.
Q: It there any destiny for the total manifestation or the phenomena as a
whole?
M: As there is no single identity, where will it go? The fuel is the destiny
of the flame; so also, the food essence body is the destiny of the
consciousness. Consciousness alone offers destiny and destiny offers suffering.
Because of the mistaken identity we think of personalized consciousness, but
actually it is vast and limitless.
The source of consciousness is prior to time and space. Manifestation
needs time and space, but the source of consciousness was there before
manifestation took place. The manifestation has five elements, three gunas
and, above all, consciousness, the "I Amness." Now how can anything be without
my conscious presence? Even the elements cannot exist without me - I do not do
anything, I do not create anything - they happen because of my conscious
presence. My presence is throughout and I say this with conviction.
Some may read these words, some may have heard these words, some may hear
the tape recording, some may want to hear, but will be thrown so far away from
the tapes, due to circumstance, that it won't be possible. There are million of
varieties of forms in the total manifestation, but the source of all is the
consciousness. What is this consciousness?: Does anyone think along these
lines?


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