TWO EXCERPTS FROM “I AM THAT” BY NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ

“Give up all questions except one: ‘Who am I?’  After all, the only fact that you are sure of is that you are.  The ‘I am’ is certain.  The ‘I am this’ is not.  Struggle to find out what you are in reality.  To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. 
 
Discover all that you are not--body, feelings, thoughts, time, space, this or that--nothing, concrete or abstract, which you  perceive can be you.  The very act of perceiving shows that you are not what you perceive. The clearer you understand that you can be described in negative terms only, the quicker will you come to the end of your search and realize that you are the limitless being.”

“That which is alive in you is immortal.  In reality there is only the source, dark in itself, making everything shine.  Unperceived, it causes perception.  Unfelt, it causes feeling.  Unthinkable, it causes thought.  Non-being, it gives birth to being.  It is the immovable background of motion.  Once you are there, you are at home everywhere.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) was an Indian guru of Shiva (Advaita) Vedanta.  His book I AM THAT, published in 1973, is an English translation of his talks.  It brought him worldwide recognition and followers, especially from North America and Europe.