Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

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You have invented words like effort, inner, outer, self etc. and seek to impose them on reality. Things just happen to be as they are, but we want to build them into a pattern, laid down by the structure of our language. So strong is this habit, that we tend to deny reality to what cannot be verbalized. We just refuse to see that words are mere symbols, related by convention and habit to repeated experiences.

— Nisargadatta Maharaj, from the classic ‘I am That‘, p 376

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Cover of I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta

To find a living Guru is a rare opportunity and a great responsibility. One should not treat these matters lightly. You people are out to buy yourself the heaven and you imagine that the Guru will supply it for a price. You seek to strike a bargain by offering little but asking much. You cheat nobody except yourselves.

— Nisargadatta Maharaj, from the classic ‘I am That‘, p 304