Consciousness : Teachings of Nisargadatta Maharaj

Maharaj tells the visitors that it is only about this consciousness or I-am-ness that he always talks. Any enquiries about anything else would be useless because this consciousness must be there before anything else can be. If I am not (conscious), he says the world is not (as in deep sleep). It is only when I am conscious that the world exists for me. All inquiries of the seeker, Maharaj asserts, must therefore relate to this consciousness: How did it arise ? What is its source ? What sustains it ? What is its nature ? The answers to these queries lead to true knowledge. Without consciousness there can be no phenomenal existence, and therefore consciousness is the highest God that an individual in his individuality can conceive, although he may give it any name - Krishna, Iswara, Shiva, Christ etc. When consciousness leaves the body, there is no individual, no world, no God. [Read more] ...