Nisargadatta Maharaj says dependence on anything for happiness is misery

[Guest guest]

Maharaj: The world is but a show, glittering and empty. It is, and yet is

not. It is there as long as I want to see it and take part in it. When I

cease caring, it dissolves. It has no cause and serves no purpose. It just

happens when we are absentminded.

 

It appears exactly as it looks, but there is no depth in it, nor meaning.

Only the onlooker is real. Call him Self or Atma. To the Self the world is

but a colourful show, which he enjoys as long as it lasts and forgets when

it is over. Whatever happens on the stage makes him shudder in terror or

roll with laughter, yet all the time he is aware that it is but a show.

Without desire or fear he enjoys it, as it happens.

 

Questioner: The person immersed in the world has a life of many flavours. He

weeps, he laughs, loves and hates, desires and fears, suffers and rejoices.

The desireless and fearless jnani, what life has he? Is he not left high and

dry in his aloofness?

 

M: His state is not so desolate. It tastes of the pure, uncaused, undiluted

bliss. He is happy and fully aware that happiness is his very nature and

that he need not do anything, nor strive for anything to secure it. It

follows him, more real than the body, nearer than the mind itself. You

imagine that without cause there can be no happiness. To me dependence on

anything for happiness is utter misery. Pleasure and pain have causes, while

my state is my own, totally uncaused, independent, unassailable.

 

Q: We are all getting old. Old age is not pleasant -- all aches and pains,

weakness and the approaching end. How does a jnani feel as an old man? How

does his inner self look at his own senility.

 

M: As he gets older he grows more and more happy and peaceful. After all, he

is going home. Like a traveller nearing his destination and collecting his

luggage, he leaves the train without regret.

 

Source: I am That Book By Nisargadatta Mahara

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