Enchanting Moments with Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Enchanting Moments

with Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Translated from the Marathi book Mantarlela Satsang

published by Zen Publications in 2016

Credit for Mantarlela Satsang:

Compiled by Jayashri Gaitonde

English Translation of Mantarlela Satsang

by Mohan Gaitonde

Copyright for English Translation of Mantarlela Satsang

© 2023 Jayashri M. Gaitonde

First Edition: February 2023

Published by

Zen Publications

A Division of Maoli Media Private Limited

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CONTENTS

Note from the Publisher

Introduction

Translator’s Note

Foreword

PART ONE

Golden Times

The Daily Programme at Nisargadatta Ashram

The Programme on Special Days

Nisargadatta Ashram

Recognize Him As A Sadhu, The Realized

Ocean Of Knowledge

That Is Our Sadguru

Touch Of Philosopher’s Stone

PART TWO

Maurice Frydman

Saumitra Mullarpattan

Josef And Christin

Anil Chube

Dinkar Kshirsagar

Dr. Vanaja Narayanswami

Mai

Mohan’s Experiences

David Godman

V. Ganesan

Catherine Boucher

Alexander Smit

Appendix: What I witnessed of my Sadguru

Glossary

About the Translator

NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER1

Let’s say the year is 1978. You are a spiritual seeker and you have heard of the towering Advaita jnani , Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj. In fact, you have been bowled over by his book I Am That and you tell yourself, ‘I have to meet this jnani face to face.’

You land up in Mumbai and you ferret out his address. One morning you enter Khetwadi Lane No 10. On your right hand side is a shop selling beedis (leaf-rolled cigarettes). You have read somewhere that this is the shop owned by Maharaj though now his son manages it. You go further down the street, and after you pass four buildings on your right, you come upon a building named Vanamali Bhuvan. You enter the corridor. The first door on your right is open. You enter tentatively. There is a small washroom right opposite you and on your left is a kitchen. On your right you see a room with some basic furniture. Along the right wall are wooden steps leading up to a loft. You climb up using the wooden railing on your left side.

You emerge upstairs to see a darkish complexioned Indian seated cross-legged on a deer-skin aasan on the floor near the centre of the road-facing window. He is wearing a white cotton dhoti and a white muslin-cotton bandi. This is a comfortable round-necked kurti with half sleeves. What is remarkable about this man are his eyes: they are bright and piercing. You look at him in awe and realise that you are in the presence of a Presence. This is the jnani you have come so far to meet.

The room is about 18 feet by 8 feet wide. You can stand up comfortably since the height of the loft is over 6 feet. As you are a newcomer, Maharaj gestures you to sit down in the first row opposite him. There are already a dozen or so people seated in silence opposite Maharaj. Most of them are Westerners, a few Indians. It’s a working day. There are a couple of women. On Maharaj’s right are metal vases bearing fresh flowers. Next to them is an agarbatti stand with four to five incense sticks smouldering. You read the label on the red and white packet of the incense sticks on the floor. It reads ‘Shivranjani’. The air is fragrant. Near the flowerpots is a pedestal fan. On the floor, close to Maharaj is a packet of Shivaji brand beedis and next to it is a stainless steel lighter with a flip top.

The window behind Maharaj is covered by a curtain with bright floral prints. On the wall above Maharaj are framed images of Vitthala, Shivaji, various Gurus of his lineage besides a painting of Ramana Maharshi and another large painting of Maharaj himself.2

On the wall facing Maharaj, behind you, is an altar of sorts. It has silver framed images of Maharaj’s Guru Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj and his Guru Shri Bhausaheb Maharaj. On the table are an aarati tray, aggarbati stands, flowers, silver niranjans (lamps), metal vases for flowers and a pair each of white-metal lions and elephants.

To the right of the altar is a table about 3 feet wide and about 2.5 feet long. This Nirupan table is covered with a cushion and has bolsters on each side to make a comfortable seat. Under the table, but not touching the floor, are stored some ancient pothis (scriptures) wrapped in cloth. On the ceiling above the Nirupan table is a small wall fan, the kind you find in Indian trains but much smaller. You will learn later that this fan makes a minor racket when it is on. The sound from this fan has been recorded for posterity on the audiotapes of Maharaj’s Nirupane.

If you are facing the altar, the wall to its right has another similarly curtained window on the North side. And above it, once again, are framed images of various spiritual personalities, including Maurice Frydman. This wall is to your left as you sit facing Maharaj.

Now your attention rivets back to Maharaj who is smoking a beedi. To Maharaj’s left is a person seated facing the audience, waiting patiently for Maharaj to begin. You have read that Maharaj speaks in Marathi so you reckon this person must be the translator. Later you find out that he is Shri Saumitra Mullarpattan. On the days he is absent, his role is taken over by Shri Ramesh Balsekar. A different set of translators manage the evening session.

At some point Maharaj stubs out his beedi in a metal ashtray. Then he looks piercingly at you and asks you his three usual questions: where are you from, what do you do and what course has your seeking taken. And then the ‘fun’ begins…

Nisargadatta Maharaj was around 5 feet 4 inches tall. He was right-handed. He was a Malvani from the Bhandari caste. Malvan is situated in the Konkan region of Maharashtra state. He was born in a non-vegetarian family but he himself was largely vegetarian. He liked smoking beedis but he would smoke either before the sessions began or during shilopyaachya goshti (freewheeling discussion on any subject including spirituality) but never during the Question-Answer sessions. He generally wore a cotton dhoti and bandi. In Mumbai winters, which are quite moderate, he would wear an orange, sleeveless woollen sweater.

When he would step outside his home, Maharaj would wear leather chappals and carry a walking cane. And since his eyes were sensitive to bright light he would wear dark glasses.

Maharaj’s family was small. His wife, Sumatibai, had passed away early leaving behind three daughters and a son named Chittaranjan who was called by his pet name Bābi or ‘Bābi shet’. Bābi’s wife was Maya – she was called Maya bhabhi (sister-in-law) by Indian disciples. They had two children: a daughter named Savita and a son named Nijanand, who later moved to Japan for a job.

At night Maharaj would sleep upstairs on the loft on a foldable, steel camping bed. He would be up around 4 a.m. His attendant Anna would quickly fold up the bed and stack it along the wall in the East corner of the loft. Anna would also roll up the bedding – which comprised a thin cotton mattress, a bed sheet, a pillow and a cotton sheet for Maharaj to cover himself – and stash it away in the room downstairs.

Maharaj would brush his teeth in the small washroom below the loft. Then he would go to a common toilet in the passage of the building. He would have his bath at the washroom at home.

A little before 5 a.m. some Indian disciples would start arriving for the kaakad aarati. Fresh flowers would be placed in the flower vases, dhoop and agarbattis would be lit and the aarati tray would be got ready with a lamp, camphor pieces, flower garlands and loose flowers, kumkum and matchbox etc. The images would be garlanded, the lamp and the camphor pieces would be lit and the singing of the aarati would begin. The sacred flame would be waved in a clockwise motion before each of the images on the altar as the aarati was being sung. After the aarati, traditional bhajans from the sampradaya would be sung for about half an hour.

At 6 a.m. some of these disciples would go home to get ready for work. The rest would stay back and be joined by some others to do dhyaan (meditate) in Maharaj’s presence. Maharaj himself would not do dhyaan, but he would be around doing chores like applying kumkum and attar (oil-based perfume) to the foreheads of the framed images at the altar and around the room.

When he applied the kumkum tikka on the photographs every day, he would apply a tikka to his own portrait too!

How would Maharaj do puja? Completely internalised, lost in Totality. His hands moving spontaneously, doing what needed to be done. No personal bhav, only Brahm bhav.

The atmosphere in the room would be entirely traditional and orthodox though Maharaj himself was the most modern thinker and a quintessential jnani. Most visitors could not reconcile the paradox.

On some days, during dhyaan, you might find Maharaj seated on a deer-skin aasan, in the corner near the Nirupan table, reading Loksatta, a Marathi newspaper. He had cataract in both eyes, yet he would read the newspaper without spectacles. In fact, he did not ever wear spectacles.

Meditating in Maharaj’s presence would be a powerful experience and some ardent disciples made it a point to be there. The disciples doing dhyaan would wind up around 9 a.m.

Then it would be time for the morning bhajans. These would be more robust than the kaakad aarati with loud singing to the accompaniment of cymbals of various sizes. Mostly Indian disciples from the sampradaya would participate in the bhajans which would last an hour. After this, there would be a break for about an hour.

A little before 11 a.m. the foreign seekers (and a few Indian ones) would start trickling in for the morning Question-Answer session. The morning translator would be Shri Saumitra Mullarpattan and, in later years, Shri Ramesh Balsekar. This session would last till about 1 p.m. For the morning session Maharaj would sit at the centre of the road-side window and the translator would sit on his left, near the opening of the loft.

Once this was over the foreign disciples would hang out around an auto parts shop owned by a Sikh gentleman or a chai shop close by, discussing the teaching or comparing notes or picking up tips from the old timers.

At 1 p.m. Maharaj would have lunch and then rest till 4.30 p.m.

A little before 5 p.m. the seekers would start gathering for the evening Question-Answer session. At times if there were no questions, Maharaj would conduct a freewheeling discussion on the teaching or generally on spirituality. The translators for the evening session would be Shri Mullarpattan and in later years Shri Gaitonde.

For the evening session Maharaj would move his position. He would sit near the opening of the loft and the translator would be positioned at the centre of the road-side window.

At 6.30 p.m. it would be time for the evening bhajans. Most of the foreign seekers would leave before these began. The bhajans would last an hour.

Then the programme would vary depending on whether it was a Thursday or Sunday or any other weekday.

On those two days, at 7 p.m. there would be Nirupan – Maharaj expounding on a well-known traditional scripture like Das Bodh or Eknathi Bhagwat. Unlike during the Question-Answer session, when he would sit on the floor, for the Nirupan session Maharaj would sit at a height, on the cushioned table next to the altar. One of the disciples – like Anna, Birmule, Sathe or sometimes Gaitonde – would sit at the foot of the table, near the North side window, and read out a passage from the scripture which Maharaj would then spontaneously expound on, in Marathi. There would be no translators for this session.

The Nirupan would last 45 minutes. At 7.45 p.m. everybody would take a 15-minute break. At 8 p.m. would begin the night bhajans. Mostly Indian disciples would participate. Prasad would be distributed at the end of the bhajans and by 9.30 pm almost everybody would disperse for home.

On other weekdays the post-7 p.m. programme would be advanced by 45 minutes.

After everybody had left – at 9.30 p.m. on Thursdays and Sundays or 8.45 p.m. on other weekdays – Maharaj would meet up with some of his Guru-bandhus like Ranjit Maharaj and Bhainath Maharaj and walk all the way to Chowpatty beach. In the later years, Shri Mohan Gaitonde, on the days he got his car to the satsang, would take Maharaj for a drive to Chowpatty or some other places.

Initially Mohanji, even though he owned a car, would visit Maharaj using a bus, to save money. Then Jayashriji asked him to use the car. One day Maharaj won’t be with us physically. What are you saving money for?! Take the car! That way you can also take Maharaj out for a drive sometimes when he wishes. That is how Mohanji started driving daily for the evening satsang. Fortunately he would get parking quite easily those days.

In fact, Maharaj used to say, I have five cars. He was referring to five of his close disciples who owned cars which he could use anytime he wished to. This included Mohanji.

Generally Maharaj would be back home by 10.30 p.m. Anna would prepare his bed on the loft and Maharaj would drop off to sleep by 11 p.m.

Maharaj’s cancer was detected in 1980 during a check-up at Bombay Hospital located at New Marine Lines. He right away refused treatment. However the disciples made so many entreaties that he finally conceded to taking homeopathic medicine from Shri Shrikant Gogate, a close disciple. However the talks and the programme at the Ashram continued as before.

As months went by and the problem got aggravated, the doctor insisted that he stop smoking his beedis. On everybody’s coaxing Maharaj finally agreed to stop smoking. A disciple suggested he could suck on bits of yashtimadhu (jeshthamadh / licorice) as a replacement for the beedis he used to smoke. It would help soothe his throat and keep his mouth from getting dry while speaking. Yashtimadhu was not easy to source but to Jayashriji’s surprise she found that her local grocer had somehow decided to stock it. Hence she could provide Maharaj with yashtimadhu as and when he needed it.

To prevent his throat from getting parched, Maharaj’s attendant would place drinking water in a tambya-pela (a small copper pot with a copper cup as cover) near him so that he could keep taking small sips during the talks.

The talks went on, the cancer kept growing, Maharaj’s voice became hoarser by the day. His body became weak too. He was now being nursed with utmost devotion by Mai, a Vietnamese disciple. She would leave for her hotel room only after Maharaj had gone to bed and would be back early next morning.

Finally the situation got so bad that Maharaj had difficulty speaking. His last Nirupan, a very brief one, was on May 16, 1981. Some say that Maharaj was talking till mid-August. After that the word was out that Maharaj would no longer be giving satsang.

Close disciples continued visiting him but their heart ached seeing his deteriorating health. He had lost a lot of body weight and had become weak. But his eyes were shining as bright as before and he seemed unconcerned with what was happening to his body.

About a month before Maharaj passed, Dinkarji visited the Ashram. He was sitting on the loft when he was surprised to see Maharaj trying to climb up the stairs. However Maharaj’s energy failed him after 4 to 5 steps. Someone else who was on the loft, but away from the steps, called out, Somebody hold him!

Dinkarji rushed to the steps and held Maharaj’s left palm in his left palm and steadied him. He then gently pulled up Maharaj to the loft. Dinkarji says that holding Maharaj’s palm gave him a mild electric shock, the tingling from which lasted almost 15 days.

Once when Vanajaji and Jayashriji were with Maharaj at the Ashram, he looked at them and raised three fingers. They did not understand the gesture. Only later did they realise that he had been indicating he had just three days left in the body.

One day before Maharaj passed, Dinkarji was back at the Ashram. Maharaj was on a cot in the room downstairs. He was lying on his left side, facing away from the door. Anna was gently pressing his forehead. Dinkarji had for long nursed a desire to press Maharaj’s feet and he saw this as an opportunity. He gestured to Anna to maintain silence and not let on to Maharaj who was pressing his feet. He started pressing Maharaj’s feet. But Maharaj immediately sensed the new pair of hands and turned to look at Dinkarji. He shook his head, pointed upstairs to the loft and then joined the thumb and index fingers of both hands to denote playing of cymbals. What he clearly meant was: "This is not your work. Go upstairs and do bhajan."

Maharaj finally dropped his body, in the room below the loft, on Tuesday, September 8, 1981 at 7.30 pm. It was decided to hold the funeral the next day at Banganga crematorium situated at Walkeshwar, right by the Arabian Sea.

Swami Vivekananda had said that there are two distinct attributes of a self-realized master:

While they were alive, all those who sat in their proximity would discover that all their questions had vanished and their minds had become blank. It would be as if they had encountered a Black Hole which had sucked away their restless mind.

And when they dropped their body, their mortal remains would not be subject to rigor mortis. Their body would remain supple and flexible. They would seem akin to a sleeping child.

This is what was witnessed in Maharaj’s case. His body was supple and floppy right up to the time it was cremated…even though the funeral took place 18 hours after his passing.

Postscript:

When Maharaj passed away several disciples took away his personaluse items as relics. Dinkarji had a thought that he would like to have Maharaj’s chappals but he did not act on the thought. Several days after Maharaj’s passing Dinkarji decided to visit the Ashram. When he met Maya bhabhi, Maharaj’s daughter-in-law, she offered him a package held within her folded hands. I have kept these for you, she said. They were Maharaj’s leather chappals.

– Yogesh Sharma

Mumbai, February 2023

_________________

1. Based on inputs provided by Smt. Jayashri Gaitonde and Shri Dinkar Kshirsagar.

2. Maharaj was not in favour of putting up his own portrait but finally yielded to the persistent entreaty of a disciple.

INTRODUCTION

By Jayashri Gaitonde

Our consciousness has appeared unknowingly, and we are obliged to make use of it to the best of our ability in order to have peace of mind and happiness. In this world we try to know more in order to increase our self-worth and to earn more. What is learning if not being introduced to more and more things in this world?

In spite of our best efforts, our pleasures are short-lived and so is our satisfaction. We ask ourselves if we can ever be in permanent bliss? Here I want to point you to our state of deep sleep. All our problems and worries end when we are asleep. We have to consider what is it that is present in the waking state which gives us trouble and is absent during deep sleep when we are free of all problems? Is it not our ‘I am’ that is the main culprit? All our problems begin with the emergence of ‘I am’ and end with its end. But we cannot sleep permanently as death cannot be a solution.

Now, we have to consider whether this ‘I am’ is a necessity or whether we can do without it? Our own experience can help us in this matter more than the advice of others. We were happy as a child as there was no ‘I am’. A child has not learned to identify with name and form: when it is hungry, it points to itself and says, ‘Give him something to eat.’ Where was this ‘I am’ before conception?

Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj always asked us, ‘Were you absent a hundred years ago? If you were absent, how did you cognize your existence a few years after your conception? You are Satchitananda and your existence is eternal. There was no I am and hence no memories of that existence. In that non-dual state, you alone existed and there was neither you nor the other. Hence there was no possibility for I am to exist.’

The existence of our ‘I am’ is ignorance, which makes our lives miserable. One day my husband Mohan and I arrived at Maharaj’s place half an hour earlier than our usual 5 p.m. visit. When we touched his feet, Maharaj sat quietly and smiled. ‘I wasn’t aware of my presence until you touched me,’ he said.

A Sage is one with the entire existence; there is no ‘I am’ in him. We, on the other hand, have limited existence which is separate from the whole and this is responsible for our suffering. From the whole we try to isolate our tiny part, and this leads to suffering.

Maharaj saw us as himself. But our imagination of being a separate individual leads to our ignorance and suffering. Occasionally, in deep sleep, there is a false waking due to which we see a dream world. It appears completely real for as long as the dream lasts. Who sees this dream? It is our false ‘I am’. How can a false ‘I am’ see anything that is true? But we have already seen that the ‘I am’ that we recognize in our waking state is as false as the one in dream. In our eternal true state there can be no ‘I am’. Since the waking state is false, how then can we expect order, perfection and happiness in it? The only thing that can be done is to wake up from this false waking state by getting rid of our ‘I am’ during the waking state.

We can begin with the only capital we have – our consciousness. Maharaj points us to our inner Guru, who is responsible for this consciousness. We use consciousness for doing everything except looking at consciousness itself. And you are well aware of its result – dissatisfaction and unhappiness. This being obviously the case, how can you correct the dream? How can you transform that which is false into true/truth? Your only option is to wake up from the dream and be totally free of it. With that the false ‘I am’ will dissolve and so will your false world.

When we pay attention to consciousness by itself, we must chant Guru-mantra. I was fortunate enough to receive a mantra from Maharaj and it is a mahavakya or a great sentence from the Upanishads. But Maharaj knew that when he will be no more in a physical form, his followers would expect to receive a mantra. Which is why he shared a mantra for all, which is equally powerful. That mantra is ‘Jai Guru, Jai Guru’. Maharaj always reminded us that he was never his body, and his existence was eternal in every living body. He is present in each one of us as our inner Guru and it is our duty to always remember him.

People desire happiness which is everlasting, and this happiness is ever present within them. The only disturbance is the false sense of ‘I am’. But it cannot last for long. Just as a thief vanishes when noticed, Maharaj points out the thief in us and it will leave us permanently for sure.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

By Mohan Gaitonde

When Shri Nitin Ram and his wife Anita requested my wife Jayashri to write her experiences of her visits to Maharaj, she was reluctant to start the work. Until then, she had written just one book in Marathi. That has now been published by Shri Yogesh Sharma of Zen Publications with the title Amrutvarsha , literally meaning ‘shower of nectar’. The notes in that book were jotted during the spiritual discourses of Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj from the year 1977 until 1980. It has now been translated into English with the title Shower of Grace .

My elder brother late Shri Narayan Gaitonde who glanced through those notes of Jayashri, had requested her to write down the notes neatly, so that he could combine them to make a new book on Maharaj for his personal reference. Jayashri complied and the book was ready. Narayan made best use of this book until his death in 2008. Initially when we tried to get this book published for the reading of the general public, our efforts were not quite successful. Later, however, due to Nitin’s efforts and Yogeshji’s kindness, the book in Marathi was finally published in 2016. Yogeshji recently also published the English translation of this book by Shri Vinayak Prabhu titled Shower of Grace.

The publication of Amrutvarsha happened without any additional work by Jayashri as everything was ready. But editing this new book in Marathi, which came to be titled Mantralela Satsang, and recollecting all the old experiences was a challenging job that demanded great effort. I was doubtful about Jayashri’s ability to complete this task but refrained from making any comments. I thought it was best to leave the decision to her.

One day I saw Jayashri writing page after page with ease. It was a pleasure to see her writing about Maharaj and I left her alone. Once during her absence, I had the opportunity to glance at the manuscript and found it so captivating that the words brought life to the old memories of being in the holy presence of the Enlightened Master.

I knew Jayashri’s devotion and love for Maharaj and her complete faith in him. But I didn’t know her potential to write about Maharaj with such interest and ease. Obviously, it was the grace of the Guru operating through her. As this grace is not outside but within the disciple, it is directly proportional to the disciple’s love and faith in the Guru. When human limitations tend to curb our selfless efforts, divine grace comes to the rescue and its overpowering influence takes over.

The same grace involved Nitin and Anita to improve the quality of the book and make it more interesting. A number of disciples and lovers of Maharaj offered their services to make the book more edifying and helpful to all spiritual seekers. As a result of the combined effort of all the devotees of Maharaj, even beginners on this path of non-duality can use the help of this book to wipe out their ignorance and be awakened to their own real nature. Books such as this will never misguide or exploit anyone but will show the seeker where to search for reality.

Once a spiritual seeker travelled to Mumbai all the way from Hyderabad to share his experience of reading the book, I Am That. He mentioned that after reading this book, he was now free of all his concepts except the false notion of ‘I am’. When