page_title: Nisargadatta Maharaj
section_title: Awareness of true nature
hierarchical_section_title: Nisargadatta Maharaj / Teachings / Awareness of true nature
caption_attribution_description: English: picture of a copy of Nisargadatta's "I Am That" in Hindi
context_page_description: Nisargadatta Maharaj, born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli, was a Hindu guru of nondualism, belonging to the Inchagiri Sampradaya, a lineage of teachers from the Navnath Sampradaya and Lingayat Shaivism.
  The publication in 1973 of I Am That, an English translation of his talks in Marathi by Maurice Frydman, brought him worldwide recognition and followers, especially from North America and Europe.
context_section_description: According to Timothy Conway, Nisargadatta's only subject was
  ...our real Identity as the birthless-deathless, infinite-eternal Absolute Awareness or Parabrahman, and Its play of emanated universal consciousness. For Maharaj, our only "problem" (an imagined one!) is a case of mistaken identity: we presume to be an individual, and, originally and fundamentally, we are not an individual, we are intrinsically always and only the Absolute.
  Nisargadatta explains:
  The life force [prana] and the mind are operating [of their own accord], but the mind will tempt you to believe that it is "you". Therefore understand always that you are the timeless spaceless witness. And even if the mind tells you that you are the one who is acting, don't believe the mind. [...] The apparatus [mind, body] which is functioning has come upon your original essence, but you are not that apparatus.
caption: Nisargadatta's "I Am That" in Hindi.
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