Nisargadatta Maharaj
Template:Short description Template:Over-quotation Template:EngvarB Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox Hindu leader Template:Quote box Template:Advaita Template:Hindu philosophy Nisargadatta MaharajTemplate:Efn (born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli; 17 April 1897 – 8 September 1981) was an Indian guru of nondualism, belonging to the Inchagiri Sampradaya, a lineage of teachers from the Navnath Sampradaya.
The publication in 1973 of I Am That, an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers, especially from North America and Europe.Template:Sfn
Biography
Early life
Nisargadatta was born on 17 April 1897 to Shivrampant Kambli and Parvati bai, in Bombay.<ref group=web>Biography of Nisargadatta Maharaj</ref>{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }} The day was also Hanuman Jayanti, the birthday of Hanuman, hence the boy was named 'Maruti', after him.Template:Efn<ref>I Am That, pp. 6, Who is Nisargadatta Maharaj.</ref><ref group=web>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His parents were followers of the Varkari sampradaya,<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> Vaishnavite bhakti tradition which worships Vithoba. His father, Shivrampant, worked as a domestic servant in Mumbai and later became a petty farmer in Kandalgaon.
Maruti Shivrampant Kambli was brought up in Kandalgaon, a small village in the Sindhudurga district of Maharashtra, with his two brothers, four sisters and deeply religious parents.<ref group=web>Detailed Biography</ref> In 1915, after his father died, he moved to Bombay to support his family back home, following his elder brother. Initially he worked as a junior clerk at an office but quickly he opened a small goods store, mainly selling beedis (leaf-rolled cigarettes) and soon owned a string of eight retail shops.<ref group=web>Sri Nisagdatta bio at advait.org Template:Webarchive</ref> In 1924 he married Sumatibai and they had three daughters and a son.
Sadhana
In 1933, he was introduced to his guru, Siddharameshwar Maharaj, the head of the Inchegiri branch of the Navnath Sampradaya, by his friend Yashwantrao Baagkar. His guru told him, "You are not what you take yourself to be...".<ref group=web>Sri Nisargdatta Quote Template:Webarchive</ref> Siddharameshwar initiated him into the Inchegiri Sampradaya, giving him meditation-instruction and a mantra, which he immediately began to recite.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> Siddharameshwar gave Nisargadatta instructions for self-enquiry which he followed verbatim, as he himself recounted later:
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My Guru ordered me to attend to the sense 'I am' and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation, or study of scriptures. Whatever happened, I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense 'I am'. It may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked!<ref>I Am That, Chapter 75, p. 375.</ref>{{#if:|
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Following his guru's instructions to concentrate on the feeling "I Am", he used all his spare time looking at himself in silence, and remained in that state for the coming years, practising meditation and singing devotional bhajans:<ref group=web>Guru's teachings</ref>
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After an association that lasted hardly two and a half years, Siddharameshwar Maharaj died on 9 November 1936.<ref>Prior to Consciousness, pp. 1–2, 4 April 1980.</ref><ref group=web name="Conway-NMB">Timothy Conway, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), Life & Teachings of Bombay's Fiery Sage of Liberating Wisdom, enlightened-spirituality.org</ref> In 1937, Maharaj left Mumbai and travelled across India.<ref group=web name=autogenerated1>Sri Nisargdatta bio in innerquest.org</ref> After eight months he returned to his family in Mumbai in 1938.<ref>I Am That p.xxviii</ref> On the journey home his state of mind changed, realizing that "nothing was wrong anymore."<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> He spent the rest of his life in Mumbai, maintaining one shop to earn an income.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB"/>
Later years
Between 1942 and 1948 he suffered two personal losses, first the death of his wife, Sumatibai, followed by the death of his daughter. He started to give initiations in 1951, after a personal revelation from his guru, Siddharameshwar Maharaj.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB"/>
After he retired from his shop in 1966, Nisargadatta Maharaj continued to receive and teach visitors in his home, giving discourses twice a day. The publication of I Am That (1973) brought him international fame, 'disturbing my quiet life' and changing his home into a "railway station platform."<ref name=chapter6>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He died on 8 September 1981 at the age of 84, of throat cancer.<ref group=web>It Is Not Real</ref>
Teachings
Nisargadatta gave talks and answered questions at his humble flat in Khetwadi, Mumbai, where a mezzanine room was created for him to receive disciples and visitors. This room was also used for daily chantings, bhajans (devotional songs), meditation sessions, and discourses.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> While known in the West for his non-dual teachings, he offered a combination of devotion to the Guru, mantra-japa to invoke the Divine and still and purify the mind, and atma-vichara (self-inquiry) to recognize and abide in the formless self.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> Boucher notes that Nisargadatta adopted a different mode of instruction, through questions and answers, for his western disciples.Template:Sfn Many of Nisargadatta Maharaj's talks were recorded, and formed the basis of I Am That as well as of the several other books attributed to him.Template:Sfn
Awareness of true nature
According to Timothy Conway, Nisargadatta's only subject was
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Nisargadatta explains:
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The life force [prana] and the mind are operating [of their own accord], but the mind will tempt you to believe that it is "you". Therefore understand always that you are the timeless spaceless witness. And even if the mind tells you that you are the one who is acting, don't believe the mind. [...] The apparatus [mind, body] which is functioning has come upon your original essence, but you are not that apparatus.<ref>The Ultimate Medicine, (pp.54 – 70)</ref>{{#if:|
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In Consciousness and the Absolute, Nisargadatta Maharaj further explains:
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In the consciousness hierarchy there are three stages:
1. Jivatman is the one who identifies himself with the body-mind. One who thinks I am a body, a personality, an individual apart from the world. He excludes and isolates himself from the world as a separate personality because of identification with the body and the mind.
2. Next only the beingness, or the consciousness, which is the world. "I Am" means my whole world. Just being and the world. Together with the beingness the world is also felt - that is Atman.
3. The Ultimate principle that knows this beingness cannot be termed at all. It cannot be approached or conditioned by any words. That is the Ultimate state.
The hierarchy I explain in common words, like: I have a grandson (that is jivatma). I have a son and I am the grandfather. Grandfather is the source of the son and grandson.
The three stages cannot be termed as knowledge. The term knowledge comes at beingness level. I have passed on to you the essence of my teachings.<ref>Consciousness and the Absolute, p.86</ref>{{#if:|
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According to Conway, awareness of the Absolute could be regained by
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Naam-mantra and devotion
Nisargadatta was critical of a merely intellectual approach to nondual Truth.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> He had a strong devotional zeal towards his own guru,<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> and suggested the path of devotion, Bhakti yoga, to some of his visitors, as he believed the path of knowledge, Jnana yoga was not the only approach to Truth. Nisargadatta also emphasized love of Guru and God,Template:Sfn<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> and the practice of mantra repetition and singing bhajans, devotional songs.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /> He tailored his instructions to the needs and disposition of each visitor, emphasizing that jnana is a difficult approach, and that mantra and devotion also serve to develop faith in a higher power, and purity of mind and concentration.Template:EfnTemplate:Efn
Cathy Boucher notes that the Inchagiri Sampradaya emphasized mantra meditation from its inception in the early 19th century, but that the emphasis shifted toward a form of Self-enquiry with Sri Siddharameshwar.Template:Sfn Nevertheless,
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Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj [...] still gave mantra initiation, with the underlying point being that the mantra was more than sound, it was the Absolute Itself which could be reverberated throughout life in all circumstance.Template:Sfn{{#if:|
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Nisargadatta, and other gurus of the Incegeri sampradaya used naam mantras,<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /><ref>Ann Shaw, Charles Shaw (2023), Timeless Years With Shri Ramakant Maharaj 2012 - 2022, Selfless Self Press</ref> also called Guru mantras,<ref>Ann Shaw, Charles Shaw (2023), Timeless Years With Shri Ramakant Maharaj 2012 - 2022, Selfless Self Press: "...he took the Naam mantra, the Guru mantra",/ref.</ref> mantras consisting of the name of a deity, which is chanted repetitiously.<ref>Radhika Das (2025), Mantra Meditation – Die Kraft von Klang und Schwingung, Lotos: "Das wiederholte Chanten von gottlichen Namen, zum Beispiel das Maha-mantra."</ref> The mantra is not to be disclosed to others, lest it's effectiveness will diminish.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" /><ref>Ann Shaw, Charles Shaw (2023), Timeless Years With Shri Ramakant Maharaj 2012 - 2022, Selfless Self Press: "The master has given this Naam Mantra to you. It is not to be disclosed to anybody. This is strictly forbidden becaue if you disclose it = its value will diminish."</ref> examples are "I am Brahman," "Hari-Om," and "Soham-Hamsa" ("That am I").<ref group=web name="RM_Naam_mantra">ramakantmaharajdakshina.net, Naam mantra</ref>Template:Efn
Scriptures
According to Timothy Conway, Nisargadatta often read Marathi scriptures: Nath saint Jnanesvar's Amrutanubhav and Jnanesvari (Gita Commentary); Varkari Sants, namely Eknatha's Bhagavat (Eknathi Bhagavata, a rewrite of the Bhagavad Purana), Ramdas' Dasbodha, and Tukaram's poems; but also the Yoga Vasistha, Adi Shankara's treatises, and some major Upanishads.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB" />
Nisarga Yoga
Nisargadatta taught what has been called Nisarga Yoga<ref name=IAT2012>Template:Cite book</ref> (Nisarga can be translated as "nature").<ref name="Zen Pubns">Template:Cite book</ref> In I Am That, Nisarga Yoga is defined as living life with "harmlessness," "friendliness," and "interest," abiding in "spontaneous awareness" while being "conscious of effortless living."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The practice of this form of Yoga involves meditating on one's sense of "I am", "being" or "consciousness" with the aim of reaching its ultimate source prior to this sense, which Nisargadatta called the "Self".
The second edition of I Am That includes an epilogue titled Nisarga Yoga by Maurice Frydman which includes this passage:<templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />
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'You are not your body, but you are the consciousness in the body, because of which you have the awareness of 'I am'. It is without words, just pure beingness. It has become soul of the world. In the absence of your consciousness, the world will not be experienced. Hence, you are the consciousness… remember what you have heard… meditate on it. Meditation means you have to hold consciousness by itself. The consciousness should give attention to itself. This consciousness is Ishwara. As there is no God other than this consciousness, worship it.' 'The knowledge "I am" is God. It is Ishwara, as well as maya. Maya is God's power. All the names of God are of this consciousness only in different forms. Remember the fact "I am not the body" and get firmly established. That is the sign of a true seeker.'<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>{{#if:|
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Nic Higham summarizes seven principles of Nisarga Yoga:<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Non-identification and right understanding
- Interest and earnestness
- Spontaneity and effortlessness
- Attentiveness to being
- Right action
- Going within to go beyond
- Awareness of Self
Lineage
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Disciples
Among his best known disciples are Maurice Frydman, Sailor Bob Adamson, Stephen Howard Wolinsky (born 31 January 1950), Jean Dunn, Alexander Smit (Sri Parabrahmadatta Maharaj) (1948-1998), Douwe Tiemersma (7 January 1945 – 3 January 2013), Robert Powell, Timothy Conway, Wayne DyerTemplate:Sfn and Ramesh Balsekar (1917-2009). A less well known disciple is Sri Ramakant Maharaj (born 8 July 1941), who received the naam mantra from Nisargadatta in 1962, spent the next 19 years with the master.<ref group=web>Interview with Ramakant maharaj</ref><ref group=web name="Ramakant">Shri Ramakant Maharaj</ref> and claims to be "the only Indian direct disciple of Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj" who offers initiation into this lineage.<ref group=web name="Ramakant-information">Shri Ramakant Maharaj, Information</ref> Sachin Kshirsagar, who has published a series of books on Nisargadatta in the Marathi language<ref group=web>Marathi books</ref> and also re-published Master of Self Realization, says to have received the Naam (Mantra) in a dream from Shree Nisargadatta Maharaj on 17 Oct., 2011.
Successors
David Godman gives the following account of an explanation by Nisargadatta of the succession of Gurus in the Inchagiri Sampradaya:
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According to David Godman, Nisargadatta was not allowed by Siddharameshwar to appoint a successor, because he "wasn't realised himself when Siddharameshwar passed away."<ref group=web name="Godman">David Godman, Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj</ref> Nisargadatta started to initiate others in 1951, after receiving an inner revelation from Siddharameshwar.<ref group=web name="Conway-NMB"/> Nisargadatta himself explains:
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The Navnath Sampradaya is only a tradition, way of teaching and practice. It does not denote a level of consciousness. If you accept a Navnath Sampradaya teacher as your Guru, you join his Sampradaya. Usually you receive a token of his grace - a look, a touch, or a word, sometimes a vivid dream or a strong remembrance.Template:Sfn{{#if:|
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Works
- Self Knowledge & Self Realisation, Bombay: Ram Narayan Chavhan, 1963
- I Am That (ed. Maurice Frydman), Bombay: Chetana, 1973, ISBN 9788185300450
- Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj (ed. Ramesh S. Balsekar), Bombay: Chetana, 1982, ISBN 978-0893860042
- Seeds of Consciousness (ed. Jean Dunn), NC: Acorn Press, 1982, ISBN 978-0893860257
- Prior to Consciousness (ed. Jean Dunn), New York: Grove Press, 1985, ISBN 978-8185300351
- The Nectar of the Lord's Feet (ed. Robert Powell), Longmead en Shaftesbury (Dorset): Element Books, 1987, ISBN 978-1852300111 republished as The Nectar of Immortality, San Diego: Blue Dove Press, 2001, ISBN 978-1884997136
- The Ultimate Medicine (ed. Robert Powell), San Diego: Blue Dove Press, 1994, ISBN 978-1556436338
- Consciousness and the Absolute (ed. Jean Dunn), Durham: Acorn Press, 1994, ISBN 978-0893860417
- The Experience of Nothingness (ed. Robert Powell), San Diego: Blue Dove Press, 1996, ISBN 978-1884997143
- Gleanings from Nisargadatta (ed. Mark West), Beyond Description Publishing, 2006
- Beyond Freedom (ed. Maria Jory), Mumbai: Yogi Impressions, 2007, ISBN 978-8188479283
- I Am Unborn (ed. Damodar Lund and Pradeep Apte), 2007
- The Nisargadatta Gita (ed. Pradeep Apte), 2008, ISBN 978-0984776764
- Meditations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (ed. Dinkar Kshirsagar and Suresh N. Mehta), Mumbai: Yogi Impressions, 2014, ISBN 978-9382742197
- Nothing is Everything (ed. Mohan Gaitonde), Mumbai: Zen Publications, 2014, ISBN 978-9382788973
- Self-Love (ed. Dinkar Kshirsagar), Mumbai: Zen Publications, 2017, ISBN 978-0984776764
- The Earliest Discourses: Meditations from 1954-1956 (ed. Shankarrao B. Daygude and Dinkar Kshirsagar), Mumbai: Zen Publications, 2020, ISBN 978-9387242388
See also
Notes
References
Printed sources
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Web sources
Further reading
- Stephen Howard Wolinsky, I Am That I Am: A Tribute to Sri Nisargadatta. 2000. Template:ISBN.
- Peter Brent, Godmen of India. NY: Quadrangle Books, 1972, pp. 136–40.
- S. Gogate & P.T. Phadol, Meet the Sage: Shri Nisargadatta, Sri Sadguru Nisargadatta Maharaj Amrit Mahotsav Samiti, 1972.
- Neal Rosner (Swami Paramatmananda), On the Road to Freedom: A Pilgrimage in India, Vol. 1, San Ramon, CA: Mata Amritanandamayi Center, 1987, pp. 212–8.
- Ramesh Sadashiv Balsekar, Explorations into the Eternal: Forays from the Teaching of Nisargadatta Maharaj . 1989. Template:ISBN.
- Bertram Salzman, Awaken to the Eternal: Nisargadatta Maharaj: a Journey of Self Discovery. 2006. Template:ISBN.
- Saumitra Krishnarao Mullarpattan (died September 2012), The Last Days of Nisargadatta Maharaj. India: Yogi Impressions Books, 2007. Template:ISBN.
- Dasbodh – Spiritual Instruction for the Servant – Saint Shri Samartha Ramdas, Sadguru Publishing, 2010 Template:ISBN
DVDs
- Awaken to the Eternal, Nisargadatta Maharaj: A Journey of Self-Discovery. 1995.
- Tatvamasi – You Are That (2009), 87 min. Online
External links
- Nisargadatta websites
- www.nisargadatta.co.uk – The essential message/teachings of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Template:Webarchive
Generic Web resources on Nisargadatta
- Nisargadatta compilation of quotes from various books
- Nisargadatta core teachings summarised from the book "The Essential Nisargadatta"
- Lineage
- Background and biography
- Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj, reflections of David Godman
- Timothy Conway, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), Life & Teachings of Bombay's Fiery Sage of Liberating Wisdom
- Films
- Publications by Nisargadatta Maharaj