Maharaj: If you think that this talk is stupid, throw it out and do what you like. I don’t insist that you should listen to me and abide by my words.
Questioner: I have understood what Maharaj has been saying, and he has been repeating it in several different fashions. I understand!
M: What else is there except that touch of “I Am”? Why do you worry about discovering Maya and Brahma and all that? Understand what this principle “I Am” is and you are finished. That “I Am” is in bondage because of concepts.
Q: Returning to the relative state: should I go back to the activity in which I was engaged before coming here?
M: That person, does it relate to the body, the vital breath, or the “I Am”?
Q: The Body.
M: How are you, the witness of these three entities, concerned? They carry on the work for thousands of years; in what way are you concerned? The question arose because you are considering the body which will decompose and decay when the vital breath leaves it. You are identifying with and embracing that body.
Q: Yes.
M: Your nearest relatives, including your wife and son, will not approach that body when it decomposes.
Q: That’s quite true.
M: Having understood, carry on your business. Don’t worry.
It is said that when Rama wanted to cross over the sea from India to Lanka, the monkeys helped him quite a bit. Therefore he blessed them all with heaven. Those same monkeys have come to enjoy themselves now in the Western countries. They are enjoying the boon of material and heavenly pleasure that Rama gave. The Rishis who have done a lot of penance with the intention of gaining heaven are also born there and enjoy themselves. Now they have had enough and have started coming here in order to search for Rama again.
Note David Godman relates the same story as in the last paragraph in Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj:
I told you a few minutes ago that Maharaj discounted all theories of reincarnation, but he did tell one story that possibly indicated that we had all been searching for God in India before.
‘At the end of the Ramayana,’ he said, ‘all the animals who had helped Ram to win the war were given rewards. The monkeys were all told that they could go to a monkey heaven. Now, what is heaven to a monkey? Vast quantities of food, lots of fighting, and limitless sex. So, all the monkeys were reborn as human beings in the West in the twentieth century to experience their idea of “heaven”. After some time, though, they all began to get bored of all this excess. One by one, they all started coming back to India because they wanted to find Ram and be with him again.’
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
From Seeds of Consciousness, Page 123
Dear Purushottama, My connection with you is stronger and gets stronger. I decided to visit Baba last week. I am leaving to India this coming Tuesday for two weeks. I will be flying to Bombay and a thought arose in me to visit Nisargahdatta maharaj’s Samadhi. Thus, I was listening to his lectures with English translation on the same subject. Here comes your article… His voice in Marathi is powerfully striking as Oshos’ in Hindi. I bought the book I am that almost 20 years ago without much understanding of spiritual path. Looking forward to our Satsang tomorrow. Much gratitude Padma