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Nisargadatta Maharaj
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nisargadatta Maharaj[1] (17 April 1897 8

September 1981), born Maruti Shivrampant Nisargadatta Maharaj
Kambli, was an Indian Guru of nondualism,
belonging to the Inchagiri Sampradaya, a lineage of
teachers from the Navnath Sampradaya and Lingayat
Shaivism.

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.[2]

Contents
Religion Hinduism
1 Biography Philosophy Advaita Vedanta
1.1 Early life
Personal
1.2 Sadhana
1.3 Later years Born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli
2 Teachings 17 April 1897
2.1 Style of teaching Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British
2.2 Awareness of true nature India
2.3 Self-enquiry
Died 8 September 1981 (aged84)
2.4 Devotion and mantra repetition
Mumbai, India
2.5 Scriptures
3 Lineage Guru Siddharameshwar Maharaj
3.1 Disciples
3.2 Successors
4 See also
Quotation
5 Notes Establish yourself firmly in the awareness of 'I AM'.
6 References This is the beginning, and also the end of all
7 Sources endeavour.
7.1 Web sources
8 Further reading
9 DVDs
10 External links

Biography
Early life

Nisargadatta was born on 17 April 1897 to Shivrampant Kambli and Parvatibai, in Bombay.[web 1] The
day was also Hanuman Jayanti, the birthday of Hanuman, hence the boy was named 'Maruti', after
him.[3][web 2][note 1] His parents were followers of the Varkari sampradaya,[web 3] an egalitarian

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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 Ratnagiri district of
Maharashtra, with his two brothers, four sisters and deeply religious parents.[web 4] 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.[web 5] 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...".[web 6]
Siddharameshwar initiated him into the Inchegiri Sampradaya,
giving him meditation-instruction and a mantra, which he
immediately began to recite.[web 3] Siddharameshwar gave
Nisargadatta instructions for self-enquiry which he followed
verbatim, as he himself recounted later:

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
Nisargadatta Maharaj met his guru
simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was
Siddharameshwar Maharaj in 1933.
that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked![4]

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:[web 7]

My Guru told me: "...Go back to that state of pure being, where the I am is still in its
purity before it got contaminated with I am this or I am that. Your burden is of false
self-identificationsabandon them all." My guru told me, "Trust me, I tell you: you are
Divine. Take it as the absolute truth. Your joy is divine, your suffering is divine too. All
comes from God. Remember it always. You are God, your will alone is done." I did believe
him and soon realized how wonderfully true and accurate were his words. I did not
condition my mind by thinking, "I am God, I am wonderful, I am beyond." I simply
followed his instruction, which was to focus the mind on pure being, "I am," and stay in it. I
used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the "I am" in my mind and soon the peace
and joy and deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappearedmyself,
my guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained, and unfathomable
silence. (I Am That, Dialogue 51, April 16, 1971).[web 3]

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After an association that lasted hardly two and a half years, Siddharameshwar Maharaj died on 9
November 1936.[5][web 3] In 1937, he left Mumbai and travelled across India.[web 8] After eight months
he returned to his family in Mumbai in 1938.[6] On the journey home his state of mind changed,
realizing that "nothing was wrong anymore."[web 3] He spent the rest of his life in Mumbai, maintaining
one shop to earn an income.[web 3]

Later years

Between 19421948 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.[web 3]

After he retired from his shop in 1966, Nisargadatta Maharaj continued to receive and teach visitors in
his home, giving discourses twice a day, until his death on 8 September 1981 at the age of 84, of throat
cancer.[web 9]

Teachings
Style of teaching

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.[web 3]

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.[7] Nevertheless,

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.[7]

Boucher also notes that Nisargadatta adopted a different mode of instruction, through questions and
answers, for his western disciples.[7] 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.[8]

Awareness of true nature

According to Timothy Conway, Nisargadatta's only subject was

...our real Identity as the birthless-deathless, infinite-

eternal Absolute Awareness or Parabrahman, and Its
play of emanated universal consciousness. For
Maharaj, our only "problem" (an imagined one!) is a
case of mistaken identity: we presume to be an
individual, and, originally and fundamentally, we Nisargadatta's "I Am That" in Hindi.
are not an individual, we are intrinsically always and
only the Absolute.[web 3]

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Nisargadatta explains:

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.[9]

Self-enquiry

According to Conway, awareness of the Absolute could be regained by

... a radical disidentification from the dream of "me and my world" via intensely meditative
self-inquiry (atma-vicara) and supreme Wisdom-Knowledge (vijana or jana). "I know
only Atma-yoga, which is 'Self-Knowledge,' and nothing else.... My process is Atma-yoga,
which means abidance in the Self."[web 3]

Devotion and mantra repetition

Nisargadatta was critical of a merely intellectual approach to nondual Truth.[web 3] He had a strong
devotional zeal towards his own guru,[web 3] 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,[10][web 3] and the practice of mantra repetition and
singing bhajans, devotional songs.[web 3][note 2]

Scriptures

According to Timothy Conway, Nisargadatta often read Marathi scriptures: Nath saint Jnanesvar's
Amritanubhava and Jnanesvari (Gita Commentary); Varkari Sants, namely Eknathas 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.[web 3]

Lineage
Disciples

Among his best known disciples are Maurice Frydman, Sailor Bob Adamson
(http://www.sailorbobadamson.com/), Stephen Howard Wolinsky (born January 31, 1950), Jean Dunn,
Alexander Smit (Sri Parabrahmadatta Maharaj) (1948-1998), Douwe Tiemersma (January 7, 1945 -
January 3, 2013), Robert Powell, Timothy Conway, Wayne Dyer[11] and Ramesh Balsekar (1917-2009).
A less well known disciple is Sri Ramakant Maharaj (born July 8, 1941), who received the naam mantra
from Nisargadatta in 1962, spent the next 19 years with the master.[web 10][web 11] and claims to be "the
only Indian direct disciple of Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj" who offers initiation into this lineage.[web 12]
Sachin Kshirsagar, who has published a series of books on Nisargadatta in the Marathi language[web 13]
and also re-published Master of Self Realization, says to have received the Naam (Mantra) in a dream
from Shree Nisargadatta Maharaj in Oct., 2011.

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Successors

David Godman gives the following account of an explanation by Nisargadatta of the succession of
Gurus in the Inchagiri Sampradaya:

I sit here every day answering your questions, but this is not the way that the teachers of my
lineage used to do their work. A few hundred years ago there were no questions and
answers at all. Ours is a householder lineage, which means everyone had to go out and earn
his living. There were no meetings like this where disciples met in large numbers with the
Guru and asked him questions. Travel was difficult. There were no buses, trains and planes.
In the old days the Guru did the traveling on foot, while the disciples stayed at home and
looked after their families. The Guru walked from village to village to meet the disciples. If
he met someone he thought was ready to be included in the sampradaya, he would initiate
him with mantra of the lineage. That was the only teaching given out. The disciple would
repeat the mantra and periodically the Guru would come to the village to see what progress
was being made. When the Guru knew that he was about to pass away, he would appoint
one of the householder-devotees to be the new Guru, and that new Guru would then take on
the teaching duties: walking from village to village, initiating new devotees and supervising
the progress of the old ones.[web 14]

According to David Godman, Nisargadatta was not allowed by Siddharameshwar to appoint a successor,
because he "wasn't realised himself when Siddharameshwar passed away."[web 14] Nisargadatta started to
initiate others in 1951, after receiving an inner revelation from Siddharamesvar.[web 3] Nisargadatta
himself explains:

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.[12]

See also
Maurice Frydman
Ramana Maharshi
Ramesh Balsekar
Samarth Ramdas
Robert Adams

Notes
1. Samarth Ramdas (17th century), the author of the Dasbodh, an important scripture in the Inchegeri
Sampradaya, was a devotee of Hanuman.
2. Nisargadatta himself said to a visitor:

I may talk Non-duality to some of the people who come here. That is not for you and you
should not pay any attention to what I am telling others. The book of my conversations [I Am
That] should not be taken as the last word on my teachings. I had given some answers to
questions of certain individuals. Those answers were intended for those people and not for all.

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Instruction can be on an individual basis only. The same medicine cannot be prescribed for all.
Nowadays people are full of intellectual conceit. They have no faith in the ancient traditional
practices leading up to Self-Knowledge. They want everything served to them on a platter. The
path of Knowledge makes sense to them and because of that they may want to practice it. They
will then find that it requires more concentration than they can muster and, slowly becoming
humble, they will finally take up easier practices like repetition of a mantra or worship of a
form. Slowly the belief in a Power greater than themselves will dawn on them and a taste for
devotion will sprout in their heart. Then only will it be possible for them to attain purity of
mind and concentration.[web 3]

References
1. The American pronunciation of his first name is /nsrdt/ or /nsrdt/, whereas his last name is
pronounced /mhrd/ or /mhr/
2. Jones & Ryan 2006, p.315.
3. I Am That, pp. 6, Who is Nisargadatta Maharaj.
4. I Am That, Chapter 75, p. 375.
5. Prior to Consciousness, pp. 12, 4 April 1980.
6. I Am That p.xxviii
7. Boucher & year unknown.
8. Nisargadatta 1973.
9. The Ultimate Medicine, (pp.54 70)
10. Rosner 1987, p.212218.
11. Dyer 2007, p.39.
12. Nisargadatta 1973, p.chapter 97.

Sources
Printed sources

Boucher, Cathy (n.d.), The Lineage of Nine Gurus. The Navnath Sampradaya and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Dyer, Wayne (2007), Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life, Hay House, Inc, ISBN978-1-4019-2052-4
Frydman, Maurice (1987), Navanath Sampradaya. In: I Am That. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Bombay:
Chetana
Jones, Constance; Ryan, James D. (2006), Encyclopedia of Hinduism, Infobase Publishing,
ISBN978-0-8160-7564-5
Nisargadatta (1973), I Am That (PDF)
Rosner, Neal (Swami Paramatmananda) (1987), On the Road to Freedom: A Pilgrimage in India, Vol. 1, San
Ramon, CA: Mata Amritanandamayi Center

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj - Maurice Frydman - I am That - Tamil Translation - Year 2016 - title
Naan Brammam - place =Chennai, India publisher =Kannadhasan Pathippagam ISBN
978-81-8402-782-2

Web sources
1. Biography of Nisargadatta Maharaj (http://sri-nisargadatta-maharaj.blogspot.in/2014/11/biography-
of-nisargadatta-maharaj.html)
2. S. Gogate & P.T. Phadol, Meet the Sage: Shri Nisargadatta, p. 5 (1972) (http://www.nisargadatta.in/WebCMS
/CMSPage.aspx?PageID=2)
3. Timothy Conway, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), Life & Teachings of Bombay's Fiery Sage of
Liberating Wisdom (http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Nisargadatta_Maharaj.html), enlightened-
spirituality.org
4. Detailed Biography (http://www.itisnotreal.com/gpage3.html)
5. Sri Nisagdatta bio at advait.org (http://advaita.org/AFBmaharaj.htm)
6. Sri Nisargdatta Quote (http://vediclife.rvishu.com/Sri_Nisargadatta_Maharaj.html)

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7. Guru's teachings (http://nisargadatta.net/index.html)

8. Sri Nisargdatta bio in innerquest.org (http://www.inner-quest.org/NisargadattaSR.htm)
9. It Is Not Real (http://www.itisnotreal.com/gpage3.html)
10. Interview with Ramakant maharaj (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-xMKkbKc7I)
11. Shri Ramakant Maharaj (http://www.ramakantmaharaj.net/)
12. Shri Ramakant Maharaj, Information (http://www.ramakantmaharaj.net/information.php)
13. Marathi books (http://sri-nisargadatta-maharaj.blogspot.nl/2015/05/marathi-books-nisargadatta-
maharaj.html)
14. David Godman, Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj (http://davidgodman.org/interviews/nis1.shtml)

Further reading
Stephen Howard Wolinsky, I Am That I Am: A Tribute to Sri Nisargadatta. 2000. ISBN
0-9670362-5-9.
Peter Brent, Godmen of India. NY: Quadrangle Books, 1972, pp.13640.
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.2128.
Ramesh Sadashiv Balsekar, Explorations into the Eternal: Forays from the Teaching of
Nisargadatta Maharaj . 1989. ISBN 0-89386-023-9.
Ramesh Sadashiv Balsekar, Pointers from Nisargadatta Maharaj. 1990 . ISBN 0-89386-033-6.
Bertram Salzman, Awaken to the Eternal: Nisargadatta Maharaj: a Journey of Self Discovery.
2006. ISBN 1-878019-28-7.
Saumitra Krishnarao Mullarpattan (died September 2012), The Last Days of Nisargadatta
Maharaj. India: Yogi Impressions Books, 2007. ISBN 81-88479-26-8.
Dasbodh Spiritual Instruction for the Servant Saint Shri Samartha Ramdas, Sadguru
Publishing, 2010 ISBN 978-0-615-37327-0

DVDs
Awaken to the Eternal, Nisargadatta Maharaj: A Journey of Self-Discovery. 1995.
Tatvamasi You Are That (2009), 87 min. Online (http://www.cultureunplugged.com
/documentary/watch-online/play/4605/Tatvamasi---You-Are-That)

External links
Nisargadatta websites
Wikiquote has quotations
related to: Nisargadatta
www.maharajnisargadatta.com a Resource website
Maharaj
(http://www.maharajnisargadatta.com/)
www.nisargadatta.co.uk The essential message/teachings
of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (http://www.nisargadatta.co.uk/)

Lineage

Disciples of Nisargadatta Maharaj (http://www.advaita.org.uk/teachers/navnath_sampradaya.htm)

Background and biography

Boucher, Cathy (n.d.), The Lineage of Nine Gurus. The Navnath Sampradaya and Sri
Nisargadatta Maharaj

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Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj, reflections of David Godman (http://davidgodman.org

/interviews/nis1.shtml)
Timothy Conway, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981), Life & Teachings of Bombay's Fiery
Sage of Liberating Wisdom (http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Nisargadatta_Maharaj.html)

Films

DVDs about Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (http://www.netinetifilms.com/)

Videos about Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (http://www.jnanajyoti.com
/nisargadatta_maharaj_videos.php?sid=51&Nisargadatta_maharaj_videos)

Publications by Nisargadatta Maharaj

I Am That pdf (http://www.anandavala.info/miscl/I_Am_That.pdf)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nisargadatta_Maharaj&oldid=768878493"

Categories: 1897 births 1981 deaths Advaitin philosophers Indian Hindu spiritual teachers
20th-century Indian philosophers Indian male philosophers Nondualism People from Mumbai
20th-century philosophers Inchegeri Sampradaya Advaita

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