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 Meetings with Nisargadatta Nisargadatta Maharaj It Is Not Real - Meetings with Nisargadatta From a Collection of Works by Edward Muzika 1

It Is Not Real - Meetings With Nisargadatta

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 Meetings with Nisargadatta 

Nisargadatta Maharaj

It Is Not Real - Meetings with Nisargadatta

From a Collection of Works by Edward Muzika

1

8/6/2019 It Is Not Real - Meetings With Nisargadatta

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/it-is-not-real-meetings-with-nisargadatta 2/3

A good percentage of seekers who find this site, do so for more informationabout Nisargadatta. Maharaj had an extraordinary intellect and personal power.Most of us only know him from his transcribed and translated talks which dwell

on his intellect. The little book he wrote found on this site reveals anotherman. What more is there?

This page will be dedicated to publishing personal meetings with Maharaj.There is nothing more telling about a person than how they relate to others.Even then, a lot that goes on in these interchanges is cultural, such as thebruskness of some Zen masters.

The first experience will be from my long time friend Swami Shankarananda.

If anyone has met Maharaj, I ask them to share their experiences with us.

Swami Shankarananda, my friend for  nearly 30 years,  sent me this emaildescribing his meeting with Nisargadatta, which reveals a much different takeon Maharaj than most of us ever hear.

I never met Maharaj and only knew of him through his transcribed talks andthrough Jean. For the life of me I could not imagine a realized being withoutflowing love and devotion. Shankarananda's email reveals a side of Nisargadattathat puzzled me because it appeared to be missing.

Dear Ed,

Somebody showed me Nisargadatta's little book. Then there was your name andintro to it! Congratulations for making it available.

You may or may not remember that I met him once. I didn't know he was aformidable jnani. I had only heard that there was a saint living in Bombay.Girija and I went in to take a two day break. I convinced her to meet him. Wewent to his door. A woman told us to wait upstairs in the little Satsang room.

N. came out. I realised later that it must have been his rest time. We spent aterrific hour with him, not able to understand anything the other was saying.He chain smoked bidis. I showed him a picture of Baba and he said, "AhMuktananda!." He showed me a picture of his Guru. He had his grandkids bringup tea. He was full of love and full of energy and there was tremendous loveflowing between us, particularly me and him. Girija was less engaged.

At the end he invited us to come back for Bhajans that night. I wanted to go,

It Is Not Real - Meetings with Nisargadatta

From a Collection of Works by Edward Muzika

2

8/6/2019 It Is Not Real - Meetings With Nisargadatta

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/it-is-not-real-meetings-with-nisargadatta 3/3

but Girija felt that we had been disloyal enough, so we didn't. My take on himwas that he was a real Maharashtran bhakti saint. It wasn't until a year or twolater that "I Am That" came out. I was, of course, stunned by the power of intellect and wisdom that was there. For me, that confirmed his stature, since

I already had seen the quality of his Being. But you'd be mistaken if youminimised his devotional side. I think he really was a bhakta, but one with astrong intellect. He always credits everything to the Guru. And don't forget thathe held chanting sessions every night, and himself did the pujas and waved thelights to the saints and deities. Sometimes disciples give a one-sided picturebecause they are only interested in one side of a Great Being's manifestation. Ithink that has happened with Nisargadatta.

By the way, I think you have to give some of the credit for "I Am That" toMaurice Frydmann. Maurice was a Polish Jew., living in Bombay. He  had worked

with Gandhi, Ramana, Krishnamurti, and then discovered N. His translationsmake "I Am That" head and shoulders above any of the other Nisargadattabooks. In fact, none of the others is even close. The boys in the Ashram dormfrequently stayed with Maurice when they went into Bombay for R & R. I nevermet him but I heard lots of stories.

I'm not saying he wrote "I Am That" but that he heard and reproduced thehuman side of Maharaj. Without that humanity, you have 50,000 neo-Advaitinsparroting a few wooden ideas over and over again until your mind is stupefied.

I hope you and Kerima are well and happy.

Lots of love,

Swamiji

It Is Not Real - Meetings with Nisargadatta

From a Collection of Works by Edward Muzika

3