The following quotes are all from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (NM), taken from the book ‘I Am That’ by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

NM gave many different teachings, depending on the level of the seeker and the context. The ego-mind often clings to the lower teachings for safety and security – here only the higher teachings are included, so please only read the following if you have a deep and sincere interest in liberation.

If you read carefully, you will see the following themes stated and expounded by NM:

1. The self-realised jnani has no consciousness of having a body.
2. The self-realised jnani has no consciousness of a world or phenomena arising.
3. The apparent consciousness of the world is only due to ignorance, also known as the ‘I thought’ or the ‘I am the body sense’. This ignorance is also known as ‘imagination’, ‘illusion’, ‘ego’ or ‘the mind’.
4. Ignorance of what you truly are projects the (false) appearance of a world, which includes the appearance of the body-mind and world. These do not appear to a jnani.
5. All conversation, teachings, words and thoughts are in illusion only, as are all teachers. Similarly, birth and death only (appear to) exist for the ignorant.

These are of course the Ajata teachings, and you can read about them here in this article and also in the introductory articles on the tomdas.com homepage.

Some may say that this notion of liberation is not appealing at all (for the ego-mind), but of course it is actually everything you are looking for and more. It is the treasure found within, this is the ‘kingdom of God’ within us. Anything less and the seeking, the doubts and the sense of ego will not end, and so suffering and duality will continue; hence the value of these teachings in reminding us to continue to go further with our sadhana until all objective phenomena have dissolved rather than stop prematurely.

Many of these quotes below are also found in the wonderful book The Seven Steps to Awakening, one of the best books ever written on self-realisation and liberation. This book goes much further than this article and clearly describes other aspects of the teaching including the method by which self-realisation can be attained.

Here are the quotes from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj:

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The body and mind are only symptoms of ignorance, of misapprehension.

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He who knows the state in which there is neither the world nor the thought of it, he is the Supreme Teacher.

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What do you know of me, when even my talk with you is in your world only?

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NM: The body appears in your mind; in my mind nothing is.
Q: Do you mean to say you are quite unconscious of having a body?
NM: On the contrary, I am conscious of not having a body.
Q: I see you smoking!
NM: Exactly so. You see me smoking. Find out for yourself how did you come to see me smoking, and you will easily realize that it is your ‘I am the body’ state of mind that is responsible for this ‘I see you smoking’ idea.

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Nothing dies. The body is just imagined. There is no such thing.

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In my world nothing happens

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Without imagination there is no world.

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If you seek real happiness, unassailable and unchangeable, you must leave the world with its pains and pleasures behind you.

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You are neither the body nor in the body – there is no such thing as body

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NM: My world is real, while yours is made of dreams
Q: Yet we are talking.
NM: The talk is in your world. In mine – there is eternal silence. My silence sings, my emptiness is full, I lack nothing. You cannot know my world until you are there.

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It is not at all as you imagine and I am not bound by your imaginings.

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Q. If all that passes has no being, then the universe has no being either
NM: Who ever denies it? Of course the universe has no being.

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In reality, nothing ever happens.

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No doubt imagination is richly creative. Universe within universe are built on it. Yet they are all in space and time, past and future, which just do not exist.

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In pure consciousness nothing ever happens

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The moment you allow your imagination to spin, it at once spins out a universe.

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There is no body, nor a world to contain it; there is only a mental condition, a dreamlike state, easy to dispel by questioning its reality.

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All experience is born of imagination; I do not imagine, so no birth or death happens to me.

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To take appearance for reality is a grievous sin and the cause of all calamities

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It is by your consent that the world exists. Withdraw your belief in its reality and it will dissolve like a dream.

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What is real is nameless and formless.

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Do understand that what you think to be the world is your own mind

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I take my stand where no difference exists, where things are not, nor the minds that create them. There I am at home.

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All thinking is in duality. In identity [Tom: ie. self realisation] no thought surives

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Now go within, into a state in which you may compare to a state of waking sleep, in which you are aware of yourself, but not of the world. In that state you will know, without the least trace of doubt, that at the root of your being you are free and happy.

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To know yourself, turn your attention away from the world and turn it within.

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The world appears to you so overwhelmingly real, because you think of it all the time; cease thinking of it and it will dissolve into thin mist.

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To see what Sri Ramana Maharshi thought of the same Ajata teachings please see this article here.

This article here also goes into what Shankara wrote on these Ajata teachings.