Looking for some words of wisdom? Check out these Nisargadatta Maharaj quotes for some inspiration. This Indian philosopher and mystic is known for his insightful and thought-provoking quotes. If you’re looking to get in touch with your inner self, then these quotes are a great place to start.
Nisargadatta Maharaj was a Advaita Vedanta philosopher and teacher from India. He was born in 1891 and died in 1981. He was a guru to Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, who continued his teachings.
Maharaj was quoted as saying, “The sense of ‘I am’ is the most important thing in your life. Know it well, cherish it, keep it clean and bright. Don’t let it be sullied by thoughts of greed, anger, and jealousy. These are like poisonous weeds that will kill the plant.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj’s teachings focused on the nature of the individual self and the non-dual nature of reality. He taught that the individual self is nothing more than an illusion, and that the only reality is the Absolute. He also taught that the individual self can realize its true nature by dissolving the illusion of separateness.
52. Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes
- “You will receive everything you need when you stop asking for what you do not need”
2. “The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.”
3. “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows.”
4. “You have put so much energy into building a prison for yourself. Now spend as much on demolishing it. In fact, demolition is easy, for the false dissolves when it is discovered.”
5. “A quiet mind is all you need.”
6. “Pain and pleasure are the crests and valleys of the waves in the ocean of bliss. Deep down there is utter fullness.”
7. “If you want to know your true nature, you must have yourself in mind all the time, until the secret of your being stands revealed.”
8. “If you take people to be what they think themselves to be, you will only hurt them as they hurt themselves so grievously all the time. But if you see them as they are in reality, it will do them enormous good.”
9. “Study the prison you have inadvertently built around yourself.”
10. “Whatever you forget, is not the truth, always remember that.”
Famous Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes
11. “You are concerned with your own happiness and I am telling you that there is no such thing. Happiness is never your own, it is where the ‘I’ is not.”
12. “The consciousness in you and the consciousness in me, apparently two, really one, seek unity and that is love.”
13. “Awareness is ever there. It need not be realized. Open the shutter of the mind and it will be flooded with light.”
14. “Save all your energies and time for breaking the wall your mind has built around you.”
15. “All I plead with you is this: make love of your self perfect”
16. “Merely assuaging fears and satisfying desires will not remove this sense of emptiness you are trying to escape from; only self-knowledge can help you.”
17. “It is always the false that makes you suffer, the false desires and fears, the false values and ideas, the false relationships between people. Abandon the false and you are free of pain; truth makes happy, truth liberates.”
18. “When the world does not hold and bind you, it becomes an abode of joy and beauty. You can be happy in the world only when you are free of it.”
19. “Truth is loving and lovable. It includes all, accepts all, purifies all.
20. “It is untruth that is difficult and a source of trouble.”
Thought-Provoking Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes
21. “Consciousness is spotless, formless and prior to intellect.”
22. “Self-realization definitely comes first. The mind cannot go beyond itself by itself. It must explode.”
23. “Wisdom tells me I am nothing, love tells me I am everything. Between the two, my life flows.”
24. “If you have contact with pure consciousness even for a moment, you are liberated.”
25. “The way back to yourself is through refusal and rejection.”
26. “Forget your past experiences and achievements and stand naked, exposed to the winds and rains of life, and you will have a chance.”
27. “Steady faith is stronger than destiny. Destiny is the result of causes, mostly accidental, and is therefore loosely woven. Confidence and good hope will overcome it easily.”
28. “Do not be afraid of freedom from desire and fear. It enables you to live a life so different from all you know, so much more intense and interesting that, truly, by losing all you gain all.”
29. “Truth is loving and lovable. It includes all, accepts all, purifies all.
30. “It is untruth that is difficult and a source of trouble.”
Read More Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes
31. “When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that is love. And between these two, my life flows.”
32. “When the shadow is seen to be only a shadow, you stop following it. You turn around and discover the sun which was there all the time – behind your back!”
33. “Cooperate with your destiny, don’t go against it, don’t thwart it. Allow it to fulfill itself.”
34. “You may try to trace how a thing happens, but you cannot find out why a thing is as it is. A thing is as it is because the universe is as it is.”
35. “All worldly activities are being done for the sake of entertainment of the consciousness of every living being.”
36. “To work in the world is hard, to refrain from all unnecessary work is even harder.”
37. “Humanity’s problem lies in this misuse of the mind only.
38. “All the treasures of nature and spirit are open to man who will use his mind rightly.”
39. “We shall suffer as long as our thoughts and actions are prompted by desires and fears.”
40. “What is in the world cannot save the world; if you really care to help the world, you must step out of it.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes About Life
41. “I cried when I was born and I shall die laughing.”
42. “Your High opinion of me is your opinion only. Any moment you may change it. Why attach importance to opinions, even your own ?”
43. “Our only hope is to stop, to look, to understand, and to get out of the traps of memory. For memory feeds imagination and imagination generates desire and fear.”
44. “It may seem arduous, but it is easy if you are earnest, and quite impossible if you are not. Everything yields to earnestness.”
45. “Humanity’s problem lies in the misuse of the mind only.
46. “All the treasures of nature and spirit are open to man who will use his mind rightly.”
47. “To be is to suffer. The narrower the circle of my self-identification, the more acute the suffering caused by desire and fear.”
48. “In dream you love some and not others. On waking up you find you are love itself, embracing all. Personal love, however intense and genuine, invariably binds; love in freedom is love of all.”
49. “Do what you believe in and believe in what you do. All else is a waste of energy and time.”
50. “Things are as they are and nobody in particular is responsible. The idea of personal responsibility comes from the illusion of agency.”
51. “If you want peace and harmony in the world, you must have peace and harmony in your hearts and minds. Such change cannot be imposed; it must come from within.”
52. “When you are free of the world, you can do something about it. As long as you are a prisoner of it, you are helpless to change it. On the contrary, whatever you do will aggravate the situation.”