This page lists some of the all-time best Nisargadatta Maharaj quotes on free will.
The quotes are sourced from the books: I Am That, Beyond Freedom, Seeds of Consciousness, Prior to Consciousness, Consciousness and the Absolute, and The Ultimate Medicine.
Page Contents:
25+ Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes on Free Will, the Doer, & More
Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes on Free Will
“In Hinduism the very idea of free will is non-existent, so there is no word for it. Will is commitment, fixation, bondage.”
“The causes of our behaviour are very subtle. One must not be quick to condemn, not even to praise.”
“Everybody behaves according to his nature. It cannot be helped, nor need it be regretted.”
“You cannot control what you do not know … To control yourself — know yourself.”
“As long as the identification with the body and the ego remains, you cannot be free. You will still just be following the same conventional pattern of behaviour as the rest of the world.”
“You do not become a disciple by choice; it is more a matter of destiny than self-will.”
“You have no choice, only the illusion of it.”
“All this furious activity to achieve something is only the truth within the illusion.”
“What is wrong in letting go the illusion of personal control and personal responsibility? Both are in the mind only. Of course, as long as you imagine yourself to be in control, you should also imagine yourself to be responsible. One implies the other.”
“To imagine that you are in control and responsible for one body only is the aberration of the body-mind.”
“The idea of responsibility is in your mind. You think there must be something or somebody solely responsible for all that happens.”
“There is no question of being responsible for anything that happens in the world. It is only by taking delivery of responsibility that one suffers.”
“As long as you take yourself to be a person, a body and a mind, separate from the stream of life, having a will of its own, pursuing its own aims, you are living merely on the surface and whatever you do will be short-lived and of little value, mere straw to feed the flames of vanity.”
“To be free in the world you must be free of the world.”
“The universe is full of action, but there is no actor. There are numberless persons small and big and very big, who, through identification, imagine themselves as acting, but it does not change the fact that the world of action is one single whole in which all depends on, and affects all.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes on the Doer
“As long as you have the idea of influencing events, liberation is not for you: the very notion of doership, of being a cause, is bondage.”
“There is no doer. We erroneously claim to be the doer.”
“Just understand that it is not your personal action or choice. Do not get involved as the doer.”
“Activities are going on naturally, spontaneously, in the same way that there is no author or doer of your dream world.”
“It is because of your illusion that you are the doer. In reality things are done to you, not by you.”
“Let the actions happen through you. Don’t take yourself to be the doer. There will be actions through you; don’t say that these actions are good and those are bad. It is not your responsibility. The one who thinks he is the doer is a slave to mind-inclinations, mind-conditions.”
“The deed is a fact, the doer a mere concept. Your very language shows that while the deed is certain, the doer is dubious; shifting responsibility is a game peculiarly human. Considering the endless list of factors required for anything to happen, one can only admit that everything is responsible for everything, however remote. Doership is a myth born from the illusion of ‘me’ and ‘the mine’.”
“The consciousness is acting as a whole, no doer is there.”
“Until the awakening, or understanding, you think that you are the doer, but once this apperception takes place you know there is no entity that is working.”
“Once it is realized that it is only a total functioning of the manifest consciousness and there is no individual entity, there will be no question of liberation, of birth or death, or of a doer doing anything.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes on Happening
“Everything is just happening, and that false ‘I’ is taking the credit for doing things. You are the knower, not the doer.”
“Don’t arrogate to yourself the doership of anything – it is all happening.”
“All this happens spontaneously. There is no author or doership there.”
“Things happen as they happen; blame or praise are apportioned later, after the sense of doership appearing.”
“How amusing it is to see someone who thinks of himself as an individual, who thinks of himself as a doer or achiever. Whatever is happening, and the experiencing of the happening, takes place in this consciousness when the ‘I Am’ arises.”
“Do what you like; just know that you are not the doer, it is just happening. The destiny that has come into existence on the first day of conception is unfolding itself. There is nothing that you can claim the doership of. Once you know who you are, that destiny does not bind you.”
“Carry out all the activities in the objective world, but do not claim authorship for what is being done. As you begin to realize that all the activities are happening through you and that you are not doing anything, then gradually all your desires like the attachment for husband or wife, or greed for money, etc. will dwindle. All of that will go away once the sense of ‘doership’ disappears, because at that stage there will be no personality left to take credit for anything.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes on the Witness
“Once you realise that all happens by itself, (call it destiny, or the will of God or mere accident), you remain as witness only, understanding and enjoying, but not perturbed.”
“Why do you talk of action? Are you acting ever? Some unknown power acts and you imagine that you are acting. You are merely watching what happens, without being able to influence it in any way.”
“The witness is that which says ‘I know’. The person says ‘I do’. Now, to say ‘I know’ is not untrue — it is merely limited. But to say ‘I do’ is altogether false, because there is nobody who does; all happens by itself, including the idea of being a doer.”
“While dreaming, you observe the dream don’t you? At that time, the whole dream world is in front of you. You simultaneously watch what is happening while also taking part in the dream world as one of the characters, one of the actors. But here, you are purely a Witness. You are not acting but are merely a Witness, whereas there you also participate in the dream.”
“The Guru is basically without desire. He sees what happens, but feels no urge to interfere. He makes no choices, takes no decisions. As pure witness, he watches what is going on and remains unaffected.”
“The Jnani witnesses the consciousness acting; he has no involvement in the actions of the consciousness.”
“Both God and the jnani know themselves to be the immovable centre of the movable, the eternal witness of the transient. The centre is a point of void and the witness a point of pure awareness; they know themselves to be as nothing, therefore nothing can resist them.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj Quotes on God
“God is the All-Doer, the jnani is a non-doer. God himself does not say: ‘I am doing all.’ To Him things happen by their own nature. To the jnani all is done by God. He sees no difference between God and nature.”
“It is by the will of God that everything happens.”
“As life flows, go on doing what has to be done. However much you run around, without God’s Will there is nothing. Whether it is your dreams or your visions, whatever you see is nothing but God’s appearance. It is the Source, or Consciousness, which is appearing in so many forms.”
“After understanding this you can go, and whatever you do doesn’t matter; it’s all God’s doing. You are not the doer anymore, you never were.”
“There is a universal power which is in control and is responsible.”
“Just realise the One Mover behind all that moves and leave all to Him. If you do not hesitate, or cheat, this is the shortest way to reality. Stand without desire and fear, relinquishing all control and all responsibility.”
“Either you are body-conscious and a slave of circumstances, or you are the universal consciousness itself — and in full control of every event.”
“Since you are neither body nor mind, destiny has no control over you. You are completely free.”
“When you discover that Self which has no colour, image, or design, you will no longer require freedom or be conditioned by freedom. You will be beyond freedom.”
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