TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
It was in his later years that Maruti Shivrampant Kambli actually began offering a pure Nisarga (Natural) Yoga message as advertised in his assumed teaching name, "Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj."
"As advertised with a name?" Yes. Consider:
"Sri" is a Sanskrit noun of address used mostly in India as a polite equivalent to the English title "Mr." but with an added connotation of veneration or higher-than-usual respect (or even worship, in the case of many guru-protégé relationships).
As for "Maharaj," that is a Hindu name derived from the Sanskrit title "maharaja," (literally translated as "great king") and also used in, but not limited to, guru-protégé relationships. Why? Because the title can also refer to "an accomplished practitioner" or "a master" with a particular skill set or craft in many other areas, including singing, drumming, dancing, cooking, etc.
It is the name "Nisargadatta" which was chosen for the sake of advertising to allow seekers to know up front that this particular teacher could be expected to offer a message which would be focused on the "nisarga" state or style of living, that is, focused on "the natural state or condition or form or character" and which endorses "a natural and spontaneous style of abidance as happens with every living thing on planet earth" with the exception of humans who have been programmed, conditioned, etc.
Did Maharaj always provide the message which his teaching name advertised? No. Those more familiar with his "evolution" than most are aware of the fact that his guru advised Maharaj to offer certain Hindu rituals - including the singing of bhajans, dancing, etc. - to attract the Hindu locals and then to slip in some pointers rooted in non-dualism.
At that point, he was offering less of a Nisargan message and more of a Hindu / non-dual message.
After Westerners began finding their way - often painstakingly - to the 10' x 20' loft of the flat on 10th Lane Khetwadi, Girgaon, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400004, India, Maharaj fell under the influence of those seekers who were more interested in "spiritual talks" than Hinduism, so for the second time, he allowed the content of the message he shared to be influenced by others.
At that point, he was offering less of a Nisarga message and more of a spirituality / non-dual message.
During both of those stages or phases, however, he did offer certain Nisargan pointers which were not popular among either his Hindu guests or his Western visitors, but he did not go full-out-Nisargan until he became convinced that the Ultimate Sickness is not a soul-sickness but is a totally-psychological sickness for which neither dogma nor spiritual practices could provide a viable means for addressing the mental aspects of the illness.
At that point, the true, original nature of his Personality Type Four / Rebel character emerged. He finally made a clean break from his guru's influence; he turned his back on Hinduism; and he abandoned spirituality and the recommending of spiritual exercises as a form of treatment for the Ultimate Sickness.
After that, he invited his visitors far more consistently to consider what was offered here yesterday, namely, "To determine accurately if one's manner of abidance is happening naturally or unnaturally and / or supernaturally" and "To then find out if the mode of living which has been accepted or adopted is really providing a life marked by being sane and sound and reasonable and peaceful and content."
Before that, his teaching name - for the sake of "Truth-in-Lending-Disclosure-Rules" - may have been Sri Hindugadatta Maharaj or Sri Spiritagadatta Maharaj. After that, "Nisargadatta" accurately applied.
In September of this year, the space called "Floyd" and presently formed by an always-evolving-and-changing plant food body will be said by the less aware to be "70 years old." (Those who know better know that there has been no continuity of "a body" and that the cells involved during those seven decades have constantly come and gone, even as the conscious-energy has also constantly cycled in and cycled out of the space).
One could review what happened here during many of the decades during the "early adulthood years" and see that they are an exact adumbration of the same shifts which Maharaj underwent, trying religion(s) and trying all sorts of spiritual movements until finally settling into a Nisargan-only style of living.
So why did the searching end when the Nisarga-Yoga-understanding came?
That is answered in detail in the book Why NISARGA YOGA in addition to the Advaita Teachings?
In upcoming posts certain excerpts will be shared from that book. The book begins with an explanation of the five basic, non-dual teaching methods. With Maharaj - and now here - the Nisargan Yoga was offered in conjunction with the Direct Path Teaching Method. That will not be covered here since the focus in on The Yoga rather than The Method.
Today, therefore, the discussion will begin with a look at . . .
The Basic Rationale for Offering the Nisarga Yoga in Addition to the Non-Duality Teachings
After one chooses which mode of travel is to be used (that is, which method of traveling on the "journey" is to be used), then one must decide what is to happen AFTER having completed the journey.
(By the way: pointers about Nisarga Yoga and what the relative existence will be like while abiding in a nisarga / natural manner will appear to be very strange to those who are trying to follow a knowledge path, a worship path, an action path, or a service path. So it is. Those paths are available for discussion elsewhere.)
The longing here that led to decades of seeking and searching manifested very early on, and the road that was traveled before "the Advaita path" was crossed, by chance, was a long and grueling and onerous road. The "journey" had been quite arduous.
Happening upon certain words and names such as "advaita" and "non-duality" and "Maharaj" - and then entering into a thorough study of those - aroused some hope; however, after so many years of searching in vain, the hope was of a most cautious and guarded nature. Why? Because so many instances of hope had been dashed along the way before, time and again.
The restraint was warranted.
Along with the words of Maharaj in I AM THAT (which he would eventually tell seekers to stop reading), the words and writings of more than fifty non-duality teachers were read, and while each of them may have been able to guide other seekers somewhere,
a. not a one of them presented the teachings in a way that led to the "Aha! Moment" here;
b. not a one provided the final, search-ending flash of the peripetia;
c. not a one ignited the gunpowder that finally blew away all of the blockages that had been built up via programming, conditioning, acculturation, domestication, brainwashing, and indoctrination;
d. not a one offered the Ultimate Medicine in a manner that finally brought to an end the misery of the Ultimate Sickness which had generated suffering for decades; and
e. not a one made clear the means by which
(1) Full Realization could happen
along with
(2) the manifesting of the ability to abide naturally and normally and steadily and Lovingly and simply and sanely and enjoyably throughout the remainder of the AM-ness.
Yes, there were years in the deepest pits of despair; yes, there were years where the head was in the clouds and a parade of even-more-obnoxious-personas-than-before all came and went, including "The Super Religious One" and "The Spiritual Giant" and "The Super Seeker" and "The Lofty Thinker" and "The Supreme Self."
Even as talk of "the Oneness" happened, the fact is that there was a greater sense of separation while playing those roles than during any of the darkest days of the past. And part of that happened even after finding and exploring the many different "brands" of non-duality.
All of the talk of "the path" and "the journey" proved to be a disservice for it implied that there was "a path" that could be followed to its end and I would "arrive" somewhere;
and all of that talk also suggested that, if I would but complete "the journey," I would arrive at a destination which was "there" - well away from "this world" which had rendered a Type Four Personality (the type that accounts for only 1-2 of 1% of the earth's population) feeling quite the alien on this planet.
What was the missing element in the explanations and talks by all of those teachers who talked of "the path" and "the journey"?
What was missing was the key fact that there is not one passage that is to be completed but that there are actually three in total. Even if one wants to claim that there is but "one journey," then it must be made clear that the journey has three legs.
And Maharaj's earliest statements (which were his only statements that were read originally) seemed to point to a two-leg "journey" when he said, “ … You should go back, reverse, to the source” and “Follow the same path by which you came.”
If one reads the book Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj and His Evolution, it becomes clear that his early emphasis was not solely on the ultimate "goal" of abiding naturally. The "totally unadulterated version of a purely nisarga message" came years later.
So in the process of seeking via Advaita Vedanta, there was a fruitless search for "the exact path," an unsuccessful search for the exact way to follow that "path," a futile search for the means by which "the journey" could finally be completed once and for all, and an unproductive search for the way to reach the final destination of "the journey" and remain there.
It took a vision that came one afternoon while leaving the delta level of consciousness and entering into a theta state of consciousness to finally "break the code" being used by so many teachers and understand what the entire three-leg "journey" involves.
The content of that vision made clear how it is that only one-leg of "the journey" will happen with the masses; how it is that far too many seekers are stopping after the second leg of the "journey" and being stuck at the third of seven steps to Full Realization;
made clear how an entire three-part "journey" must happen if one would Realize Fully;
and made clear what happens after "the journey" is completed so that the remainder of the relative existence can happen in a not-insane, non-stupid, not-ignorant, non-fluctuating, non-chaotic, not-unstable, but totally steady and logical AS IF manner instead.
That manner is marked by freedom and joy and peace as well as an ability to merely witness whatever events that the relative existence might toss one's way which might fall outside the categorization of "perfectly tranquil happenings."
The book will discuss that manner of living, referred to in this book as "AS IF living," and will share what the relative existence can look like after realization (i.e., being freed of all learned ignorance, Maharaj said) and after the third and final leg of "the journey" has been completed.
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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