Consciousness and the Absolute: The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj [Paperback]

Nisargadatta Maharaj (Author), Jean Dunn (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 118 pages
• Publisher: The Acorn Press (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0893860417
• ISBN-13: 978-0893860417
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Light years ahead in understanding, March 23, 2005

By 

P. DAVIS "phil36297" (Pisgah Forest, NC United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consciousness and the Absolute: The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Paperback)

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj is one of those rarest of individuals who had truly undergone a radical transformation, and everybody knew it. He was a poor shopkeeper in India, who listened to the words of a guru, and utterly trusted and believed in his words. In the course of three years it transformed him and he became "realized". With little education, and no self promotion, people from around the world began to seek him out, because of the profound presence they felt around him. His realization was that we are not the body, nor the brain, nor memories, or emotions, but pure consciousness/beingness - the "I Am" with nothing added. That this was our true state and everything else we "struggle" with, such as our "problems" are just a dreamlike play acted out in consciousness and not reality.

In this, his last book (to get a really good background understanding, read the classic Nisargadatta book "I Am That" listed above) Maharaj hammers away at the need to let go of our attachment to our "food bodies" as ourselves. He demonstrates again and again that we are more than the food we have consumed throughout our lives and the mental concepts we have collected along the way. He challenges listeners to think it through to the beginning and realize we have always been, and that we appeared in consciousness only because of our body. That in fact, we have no beginning and no end. That we are beyond our bodies, beyond consciousness and that our true place belongs in "the Absolute". This is very advanced teachings he shared with his closest followers near the time of his death from throat cancer. So he went straight to the core of his teachings- no time to mince words. This would not be a good text for someone just wanting to seek peace and harmony. That would be "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. This are very straight forward, knock-you-upside-the-head talks about cutting through the mental clutter we believe about ourselves and getting to the reality of who we are.

I read this with an open mind and it will still take a good while for this to fully sink in- if ever. They say getting from the head to the heart is the longest distance in the universe. I'm totally convinced he got it. I'm not so sure others can follow to the degree he attained. At least the vast majority. It's a good read if you are up to the challenge of unvarnished truth from a modern master. Read it and trust the seeds will eventually spring up.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Nisargadatta Gem., July 7, 2003

By 

Zen (sherman oaks, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Consciousness and the Absolute: The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Paperback)

A great book into understanding your True Nature as the Unborn.
Nisargadatta Maharaj takes us step by step, through the discourses and questions and answers given in this book, to dismanteling the false self that we think we are. He teaches us to thoroughly understand and dwell in consciousness (I am-ness or beingness)until we can apperceive that we are not the body. He very masterfully teaches us what conclusion we come to when we dis-identify from the body/mind and just come back to our I-am-ness. The pure, unconditioned I am-ness that awakens us to Universal Consciousness and reveals to us how we are the very Absolute Reality.
These are very profound teachings for those seekers that are interested in knowing the Self. There are is no flowery language here, or fancy complicated spiritual practices recommended. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was more of a direct type of teacher that preferred to keep the focus on directing you to your true nature as the Absolute Reality over poetic or flowery language, so you wont find much of that here. Just a very intense and uncompromising teacher that keeps pointing seekers back to their true nature.
Nisargadatta Maharaj teachings are among the most direct teachings in print. Maharaj's teaching are in the style of confronting and dismanteling all the concepts we carry around. He didn't just want to talk of bliss and joy and give seekers a stereotypical image enlightenment or some other concept to get lost in. Instead he wanted you to continue to dig and dig until you come to the Truth. Not just walk around with more concepts of how you should be able to go into blissed out states after meditations etc. because we are still a body/mind ego in a transitory state identified with the body. Instead Nisargadatta Maharaj wants you to understand the Ultimate Truth and then wake up to that reality without any gimmicks and concepts. Once that can be deeply apperceived true Self-Knowledge can occur.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Final Teaching, April 8, 2005

By 

Petr Kratochvil - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Consciousness and the Absolute: The Final Talks of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Paperback)

If the choice will be given to me, to give up all books except one, Consciousness and the Absolute will be choosen without eyewink.

I love Sri Nisargadatta's astounding simplicity and straightness.

Thanks to Jean Dunn for this and another books (Prior to Consciousness & Seeds of Consciousness), for Her love. In books edited by Mrs Dunn you will find Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj's final talks as She directly & without alterations transcribed it from tapes to manuscript.