Namaste Ektaji,
Is this a correct understanding? Birth happens at this moment as I-am or Beingness. Instantaneously, I project mind, body, and a story of birth as if it happened decades ago. Without the story of the body and the birth, the I-amness cannot be sustained. It will collapse back into Pure consciousness. The body projection sustains Beingness. When the body-projection retracts, Beingness or I-am dies. Then it is born again. If the I-am/ Beingness is only an arising that arises and falls repeatedly in pure consciousness, why is Beingness or I-am called beginningless and endless in the Nisarga yoga chapter of the book ‘I AM THAT’ by Nisargadatta Maharaj?

Answer:

Your understanding of Beingness is missing an important aspect, dear. You have correctly recognized that the sense of I AM appears and disappears, but you have mistaken the body-mind-world projection for Beingness itself. Let us first understand what Maharaj means by Beingness and then address your question about its beginningless and endless nature.

What is Beingness?

When you identify with the body and mind, you experience yourself as an individual, someone who was born decades ago and has a personal history. But when you turn your attention inwards, beyond this body-mind identity, you recognize the simple sense of I AM, the knowing that you exist, without attaching any name, form, or story to it. This is Jaaneev, the Witness Consciousness, or the manifest Beingness. Maharaj calls this Beingness the godly state, or God, because Beingness is not limited to an individual body-mind. It encompasses the entire manifestation. The whole body-mind-world appears within this Beingness. It is the state of experiencing, in which the experiencer and the experienced arise together. Therefore, Beingness belongs to the realm of duality, even though it is universal and not personal. The body-mind-world is the manifestation of Beingness. Now, Maharaj also explains that the manifestation of the individual sense of I AM is sustained by the living food-body. But do not confuse the food-body with the mental story or projection of the body. The story that this body was born decades ago is itself a thought appearing in Beingness. It does not create or sustain Beingness. Even without that story, the simple sense of I AM can be recognized.

What is beyond Beingness?

Beyond this manifest Beingness is Nyapti, the Primordial Awareness, which is beginningless, endless, uncaused, unsupported, indivisible, changeless, and complete. It is the Absolute, beyond both Being and Non-Being. Maharaj clearly states that the Absolute is not the state of Beingness. Beingness is the manifest state in which experiencing takes place, whereas the Absolute is the Unmanifest, the non-dual reality in which there is no manifestation or experiencing.

Metaphorically, Jaaneev, the manifest Beingness, is the wave, and Nyapti, the Primordial Awareness, is the ocean. The wave rises and falls, but does the water begin when the wave rises or end when it falls? Not at all, dear! The wave and the ocean are nothing but the same water. Zero difference! Similarly, Beingness appears and disappears, but the Primordial Awareness remains unaffected. The Absolute does not become Beingness, nor does it cease to be when Beingness disappears. When Maharaj says that he, the Absolute, is the witness of Beingness, he is pointing out that even the entire manifestation, including the sense of I AM, is not his ultimate nature. Do not imagine the Absolute as another individual witness standing apart and experiencing Beingness. That would again be duality. The Absolute is beyond the witness and the witnessed, beyond all experiencing.

Then why is Beingness called beginningless and endless in Nisarga Yoga?

In the Nisarga Yoga appendix of I AM THAT, Maurice Frydman speaks of timeless Being as the source of both life and consciousness and describes it as beginningless, endless, and ever-present. The same appendix also explains that the sense of I is not continuous and must therefore have a timeless source from which it arises and to which it returns. So, the appearing and disappearing sense of I AM should not be confused with its timeless source. Manifest Beingness appears and disappears, but the Absolute, the source of Beingness, is beginningless and endless. There is no contradiction here.

Turn inwards and recognize the sense of I AM right now.

• • Can you find when it first began?
  • Do you have any direct experience of its original beginning?
  • Can you experience the complete absence of the sense of I AM?
  • If you say that you experienced its absence, was there not already the knowing of that experience? Isn’t the knowing in the Beingness?

In direct seeing, you cannot establish a beginning or an end to your sense of Beingness. This is why we use the words beginningless, endless, and ever-present during self-exploration. These are pointers to be investigated experientially, not conclusions to be accepted intellectually. They do not mean that the manifest sense of I AM never appears or disappears. Not finding its beginning or end in your present experience is not the same as proving that it continues uninterrupted through all states. Now, coming to your statement that Beingness is born at this moment and that you instantaneously project a body and a story of birth decades ago. What do you actually recognize in direct experience? You recognize:

• • The sense of I AM, and
  • Within Beingness, you recognize the body-mind-world, memories, and thoughts.

The story of the body’s birth is known now but, this does not mean that Beingness itself is created afresh every moment by the story, or that the disappearance of the body-projection causes Beingness to die. The mental projection and the story belong to the manifestation of Beingness. They are not the source of Beingness. You have no direct experience of that original birth.

All that you can recognize in direct experience is called Nisarga Yoga:

• • First you must transcend identification with the body-mind and recognize yourself as the universal Beingness. Recognize that you are not merely this body and mind. You abide in the simple sense of I AM, without any qualifications, and recognize Beingness as the entire manifestation.
  • Then you must transcend even Beingness to recognize your true nature as the Absolute. Recognize here that even this Beingness appears and disappears. That which appears and disappears cannot be your ultimate nature. Thus, you go beyond even Beingness, beyond the duality of the witness and the witnessed.

You cannot hold on to your individuality at the body-mind level and simultaneously expect to experience the Absolute as another state. The Absolute is not another experience to be acquired while retaining the individual experiencer. When the wave rises, it is water. When the wave subsides, it is water. The wave was never separate from the water, but the water was never limited to the wave. Similarly, Beingness is not separate from Primordial Awareness, but Primordial Awareness is not limited to manifest Beingness. When this is recognized experientially, the distinction between the wave and the ocean falls away. There is only water, only Awareness. Nothing else!

#AtmaNirvriti #AtmanandaKrishnaMenon #AdvaitaVedanta #Non-duality #Nisargadatta Maharaj