Quotessence
Home / Authors / Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMindNeedsWorldSelfSpiritualKnowsRealityGivingIfsDesireRealWisdomBodyIdeasPainAwarenessQuietConsciousnessHappensThinking

Famous Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes

“When the mind is quiet, we come to know ourselves as the pure witness. We withdraw from the experience and its experiencer and stand apart in pure awareness, which is between and beyond the two. The personality, based on self-identification, on imagining itself to be something: 'I am this, I am that', continues, but only as a part of the objective world. Its identification with the witness snaps.”

KnowsWorldMindTwoSelfAwarenessPersonalityPureQuietObjectivesWitnessSnapsIdentification
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“In the light of consciousness all sorts of things happen and one need not give special importance to any. The sight of a flower is as marvelous as the vision of God. Let them be. Why remember them and then make memory into a problem? Be bland about them; do not divide them into high and low, inner and outer, lasting and transient. Go beyond, go back to the source, go to the self that is the same whatever happens.”

NeedsGivingSelfProblemLightHappensRememberPeaceMemoriesConsciousnessVisionSpecialFlowerSourceLowsSightImportanceThings HappenLastingDividesMarvelousTransientWhatever HappensBlandHighs And LowsMaking Memories
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“Refuse to think in terms of this or that. All pain needs investigation. The mind is nothing else but the self. Assumption obscures reality without destroying it. All separation, every kind of estrangement and alienation is false..Your being a person is due to the illusion of space and time.The mind creates time and space and takes its own creations for reality.”

ThinkingNeedsMindKindPersonsSelfRealityPainTermSpaceCreationIllusionRefuseDuesSeparationAssumptionDestroyingInvestigationTime And SpaceAlienationEstrangement
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“A quiet mind is all you need. All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet. As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness, inner energies wake up and work miracles without any effort on your part”

WorldNeedsMindDoeSelfLightHappensEnergyEffortSunMeditationAwarenessQuietMiracleWake UpSelf AwarenessCalmActiveAwakeningRisingSteady
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“All you need is already within you, only you must approach your self with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of love you bear for your self, all I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect. Deny yourself nothing -- glue your self infinity and eternity and discover that you do not need them; you are beyond.”

NeedsSelfPainPerfectPleasureLove YouBearsSelf LoveApproachAnd LoveEternityConstantErrorsDenyFlightInfinityReverenceWithin YouMaking LoveDistrustCondemnationGlueSigns Of Love
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“Learn to live without self concern. For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless and ever victorious. Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.”

KnowsIdeasSelfDesireImaginationMeditationTroubleConceptsConcernAbsolutesCertaintyFearlessLive ByDisregardIndomitableAbsolute Certainty
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“It is only your self-identification with your mind that makes you happy or unhappy. Rebel against your slavery to your mind, see your bonds as self-created and break the chains of attachment and revulsion. Keep in mind your goal of freedom, until it dawns on you that you are already free, that freedom is not something in the distant future to be earned with painful efforts, but perennially one's own, to be used! Liberation is not an acquisition but a matter of courage, the courage to believe that you are free already and to act on it.”

MindBelieveSelfMatterWisdomSpiritualUsedGoalEffortBreakSlaveryPainfulUnhappyChainsLiberationDawnAttachmentRebelMake You HappyAcquisitionIdentificationRevulsion
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“There are no steps to self-realization. There is nothing gradual about it. It happens suddenly and is irreversible. You rotate into a new dimension, seen from which the previous ones are mere abstractions. Just like on sunrise you see things as they are, so on self-realization you see everything as it is. The world of illusions is left behind.”

WorldSelfHappensLeftBehindsStepsIllusionMereSelf RealizationRealizationDimensionsSunriseAbstractionLeft BehindIrreversible
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are longing for happiness. Basically, you wish yourself well...desire by itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in knowledge and experience. It is choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing-food, sex, power, fame-will make you happy is to decieve oneself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.”

WantWellsMayLittlesRealSelfDesireChoicesWishSexGrowsImagineFameLongingOneselfUrgesLittle ThingsImagine ThatMake You HappyReal SelfChoices You MakeKnowledge And Experience
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“If you seek reality you must set yourself free of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all patterns of thinking and feeling. Even the idea of being man or woman, or even human should be discarded. The ocean of life contains all, not only humans. So, first of all abandon all self-identification, stop thinking of yourself as such-and-such or so-and-so, this or that. Abandon all self-concern, worry not about your welfare, material or spiritual, abandon every desire, gross or subtle, stop thinking of achievement of any kind. You are complete here and now, you need absolutely nothing.”

IfsThinkingMenNeedsShouldFirstsHumansKindIdeasSelfFeelingsRealitySpiritualDesireCultureWorryMaterialsAchievementOceanConcernPatternsBackgroundsWelfareSubtleAbandonGrossHere And NowAbsolutely NothingIdentificationDiscardedThinking Of YouThinking Of Yourself
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“To know the self as the only reality and all else as temporal and transient is freedom, peace and joy. It is all very simple. Instead of seeing things as imagined, learn to see them as they are. When you can see everything as it is, you will also see yourself as you are. It is like cleansing a mirror. The same mirror that shows you the world as it is, will also show you your own face. The thought 'I am' is the polishing cloth. Use it.”

KnowsWorldSelfUseShowsRealityFacesJoySimpleSeeingMirrorsSelflessTransientCleansingPeace And Joy
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it. Take care of the most important, the lesser will take care of itself. You do not tidy up a dark room. You open the windows first. Letting in the light makes everything easy. So, let us wait with improving others until we see ourselves as we are/ and have changed. There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself and everything will fall into its proper place.”

NeedsFirstsImportantSelfLightCareTurnsFallEasyWaitingDarkForgetRoomsChangedFlowWindowRoundsTake CareEndlessInjuryFinding YourselfQuestioningImprovingCalamityForget YouTidyDark Room
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“With self-awareness you grow more intelligent. In awareness you learn, in self-awareness you learn about yourself. Of course, you can only learn what you are not. To know what you are, you must go beyond the mind. Awareness is the point at which the mind reaches out beyond itself into reality. In awareness you seek not what pleases, but what is true.”

KnowsMindSelfRealityCoursesGrowsAwarenessPleaseIntelligentSelf AwarenessAbout YourselfReach Out
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image

“We grow through investigation, and to investigate we need experience. We tend to repeat what we have not understood. If we are sensitive and intelligent, we need not suffer. Pain is a call for attention and the penalty of carelessness. Intelligent and compassionate action is the only remedy.”

IfsNeedsSelfActionPainSufferingGrowsAttentionUnderstoodIntelligentSensitiveRepeatsCompassionateRemedyInvestigationPenaltiesCarelessness
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Create image