I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Let us begin our journey into the heart of spiritual wisdom with a simple, yet profound question: What is the one thing you are always certain of? In the endless chatter of the mind, amidst shifting thoughts and swirling emotions, there is a quiet, steady presence that remains: the sense ‘I am’. This is not a thought, nor a belief, but the raw feeling of being—of existing. Before you say ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’, before you add any story or label, there is simply ‘I am’. This is the doorway Maharaj invites us to step through.

Imagine waking from deep sleep. Before the world appears, before memories return, there is a flicker of awareness—‘I am’. This is the first light at dawn, the silent witness to all experience. Maharaj teaches that this sense is not just the beginning of our personal story, but the root of all reality. It is the one fact that never changes, no matter what else arises or falls away.

In his humble Mumbai apartment, seekers from around the world gathered, drawn not by rituals or dogma, but by the living presence of truth. Maharaj, a simple shopkeeper by birth, would point again and again to this sense of being. ‘Hold on to the ‘I am’’, he would say. ‘Everything else is imagination.’ He insisted that all our problems—fear, desire, confusion—arise when we forget this basic fact and get lost in ideas of who or what we are.

Consider this: We spend our lives chasing after roles, achievements, and possessions, hoping to find fulfillment. But these are like clouds drifting across the sky of awareness. The sky itself—the ‘I am’—remains untouched. Maharaj’s wisdom is both radical and comforting: you do not need to become anything; you only need to recognize what you already are.

He often used everyday examples—a person searching for lost glasses that are already on their nose, or someone looking for their shadow. The truth is always present, but overlooked because it is so simple and close. All spiritual practice, he says, is a return to this simplicity.

As you listen, allow yourself to rest in the feeling of being. Notice how it is always here, quietly supporting every experience. This is the ground from which all healing, clarity, and peace arise. In the next section, we will explore how this ‘I am’ is not just a personal fact, but the gateway to understanding the deeper nature of reality itself.