Nisarga Yoga: The Self Knowledge Teaching of Nisargadatta Maharaj: Compiled from I AM THAT

by Nisargadatta Maharaj, Stephen Wingate (Compiler)

Nisargadatta Maharaj's I AM THAT has become a modern spiritual classic. "What I teach is the ancient and simple way of liberation through understanding. Meet your own self. Be with your own self, listen to it, obey it, cherish it, keep it in mind ceaselessly. You need no other guide. As long as your urge for truth affects your daily life, all is well with you. Live your life without hurting anybody. Harmlessness is a most powerful form of Yoga and it will take you speedily to your goal. This is what I call Nisarga Yoga, the Natural Yoga. It is the art of living in peace and harmony in friendliness and love. The fruit of it is happiness, uncaused and endless. Turn within and you will come to trust yourself. As in everything else, confidence comes with experience.” - Nisargadatta Maharaj In this book I have compiled and organized the Key Terms that comprise Nisargadatta’s teaching of Self Knowledge presented in I AM THAT. The "Self Knowledge Diagram" illustrates the general structure of his teaching, employing the Key Terms used by Nisargadatta Maharaj. The book, "Nisarga Yoga," is structured in parallel with the "Self Knowledge Diagram," and provides quotations from I AM THAT for each term used in the Diagram. Quotations are from the Acorn Press 2008 paperback edition. Stephen Wingate

136 pages, Paperback

Published August 9, 2017

About the author

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher of Advaita (Nondualism), and a Guru, belonging to the Navnath Sampradaya. Sri Nisargadatta, with his direct and minimalistic explanation of non-dualism, is considered the most famous teacher of Advaita since Ramana Maharshi. In 1973, the publication of his most famous and widely-translated book, "I AM THAT", an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers.

According to Sri Nisargadatta, the purpose of spirituality is to know who you are. His discussions are not for academic scholars. He is a rebellious spirit, abrupt in his style of discussion, provocative, and immensely profound, cutting to the core and wasting little effort on inessentials. His terse but potent sayings are known for their ability to trigger radical shifts from philosophical mind-games to the purity of consciousness, just by hearing or even reading them.

He talked about the 'direct way' of knowing the Final Reality, in which one becomes aware of one's original nature through mental discrimination, breaking the mind's false identification with the ego, knowing that "You are already That". The scene for these talks was a small upstairs room at his humble flat in Khetwadi, used for his own meditation and also for daily chantings. A simple man, Nisargadatta was a house-holder and a petty shop-keeper selling bidis - hand-made leaf-rolled cigarettes.