The Ultimate Medicine Quotes

“Right here and now, drop your identity with the body and sit still. Just drop this body like a discarded garment; drop also the identity with the name. And now you tell me about yourself.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“All these difficulties that come and go should be merely watched like something in a play. When one scene is finished, another scene takes place, going on like an act. Then, the entire act and the entire play, does it take place anywhere but in yourself? If she did not have this consciousness, would she be aware of this play that is going on? So ultimately, whatever the play, whatever scenes and acts that take place, they are merely movements in her own consciousness.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Now who or what has heard my talk? It is not the ear, not the physical body, but that knowledge which is in the body; that has heard me. So identify yourself with that knowledge, that consciousness. Whatever happiness we enjoy in this world is only imaginary. The real happiness is to know your existence, which is apart from the body. You should never forget the real identity that you possess. Consider a patient on his deathbed, certain to die.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“When the body falls, the principle which always remains is You. If you identify yourself with the body, you will feel that you are dying, but in reality there is no death because you are not the body. Let the body be there or not be there, your existence is always there; it is eternal.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“So long as you identify yourself as the body, your experience of pain and sorrow will increase day by day. That is why you must give up this identification, and you should take yourself as the consciousness. If you take yourself as the body, it means you have forgotten your true Self, which is the atman. And sorrow results for the one who forgets himself.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“When the breath disappears, this apparatus is also useless. And the one who knows this will not identify himself with the psychosomatic process or the apparatus. If he knows this intuitively and very clearly, he can be said to have had jnana. The knower has been given various names-atman, paramatman, Ishwara, God. Names have been given only for the purpose of communication.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Whatever is dependent on the life force, including the Veda, exists only so long as the body and the breath last, and the consciousness. When that which is time-bound disappears, then everything else also disappears. Even the Veda disappears. But the knower of this is timeless, spaceless, and is not concerned with what happens to the body, vital breath and consciousness.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“When the words have come out spontaneously through the life force, the breath, they are known as Vedas. When a stage is reached where the Vedas are no longer able to explain what happens, we call it Vedanta, which means the end of the Vedas. But the knower of this is totally separate and not concerned with the body. That is what is to be thoroughly understood.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“When the words have come out spontaneously through the life force, the breath, they are known as Vedas. When a stage is reached where the Vedas are no longer able to explain what happens, we call it Vedanta, which means the end of the Vedas.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“I very clearly see that which has been born. And I also know that I am not that which is born. And that is why I am totally fearless. I am entirely without any reaction to a disease that would otherwise be traumatic.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“If someone asks, "What is this Parabrahman like?" the answer is it is like Bombay. Don't give me the geography of Bombay, don't tell me about the atmosphere in Bombay, but tell me what is Bombay? Is it possible to say? You cannot. So also there is nothing you can say, this is Bombay, or this is Parabrahman, If I ask you: Give me a handful of Bombay! you cannot oblige. Similarly, there is no giving or taking of Parabrahman: you can only be that.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“Prior to the appearance of the beingness you did not have any problems; they started only after its appearance. To repeat: With the form, the beingness appeared-the knowledge that you exist-and along with that, came all the problems.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“The knowledge "I am" is the same in all sentient creatures, whether it be an insect, a worm or a human being, or even an avatar, the highest kind of being. I do not consider this basic consciousness in one form as being different in any way from the consciousness in another form. But in order to manifest itself, consciousness needs a base, a particular construct in which it can appear. That base can be anything, it may be any form, but the manifestation can last only so long as that particular form endures.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“[I]n order to manifest itself, consciousness needs a base, a particular construct in which it can appear. That base can be anything, it may be any form, but the manifestation can last only so long as that particular form endures.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“This "I am" is an announcement; it is not the real. It has come out of something else. What the real is, I am not telling you, because words negate that. Whatever I am telling you, is not the truth, because it has come out of that "I am." The fact is, I cannot describe reality to you, I cannot explain it, because it is beyond expression. So from that, everything flows; but every time I say something, I am aware that it is to be negated, "not this, not this" (netineti)... that is my experience.”
― Robert Powell, The Ultimate Medicine: As Prescribed by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj