Saguna Brahman.

Nirupana 18

The feeling ‘I know a lot’ is ignorance. Once it is understood that this is pure ignorance, it does not matter whether one talks a lot or not at all. When you go to sleep, you are sleep itself. You are not separate from the sleep. On waking up, the knowledge ‘I am’ dawns upon you and instantly creates the world. When you are asleep, you are pure ignorance. What would happen if one day this ignorance does not wake up? Then who would be there to die? Ignorance sleeps and wakes up every day! What is the meaning of the removal of ignorance? You can take any meaning you like. But what is the real situation? You, who are awake, go to sleep. That means the knowledge itself becomes ignorance. You have to understand the true import of this fact. (Here, ignorance implies the Absolute, and knowledge implies the sense ‘I am’.)

When Brahman is liberated, Parabrahman stays as He is. That which is the cause of this itch (happiness and misery) is Brahman. When the itch disappears, it is Parabrahman. What I am, here and now, is awakened ignorance. The base for all things is ignorance that is called sleep. Wakefulness is the child of ignorance. If there is ignorance, only then there can be knowledge.

The faith that ‘you are’ is created in you. It has come uninvited. Faith or devotion means love. It is the love for the Self. The certitude that ‘you are’ is the pure and holy manifestation of Paramatman. It is jnana.

Recognition of the body comes through this faith in the Self. The holy names are for that certitude of the Self. Do not worship the impermanent i.e. the body. The use of this body is to nourish the faith in the Self. The fragrance of ‘I am’ coming through the body is God. One who believes he is the body faces death.

You have different kinds of beliefs. You become according to what you believe. How very powerful is the effect of beliefs! Be aware of that fact. Your faith that ‘you are’ is of the nature of the Guru or God. It is in your heart in the form of light (knowingness). The light of the Self never dies. One whose Self-light does not die, will he ever die? He may not live in today’s form, that is all. The form is illumined by this light. The sense ‘I am’ is God. It is called saguna-Brahman (the manifest with quality). It is contained in Parabrahman (the Absolute without quality). You are Brahman. The great mantra given to you is the expression of Brahman. It is your own nature. You must invoke It by the mantra. It will surely reveal Itself.

One who wins a big lottery becomes happy. He considers himself a rich man. It took only a moment for this to happen. If this is so, why does not the Guru’s mantra bring about such instantaneous change? With faith in the Guru, fear of death vanishes forever. Thereby the fear of birth also vanishes. As you nurse in your heart the faith of your beingness, your conduct will go on changing. The belief that ‘I am a meager human being’ changes to ‘I am Brahman’. Then the work is done. The Guru’s word is perfect knowledge. It is the state of Being – it is movement as well. Hold onto it tightly. All other means cannot even come close to it.

— Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sunday, March 26, 1978
Excerpt from: Meditation with Nisargadatta Maharaj