Be As You Are

You know that you are. Don't burden yourself with names, just be. Any name or shape you give yourself obscures your real nature. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I had the good fortune to meet Nisargadatta on my first sojourn to India in 1978. I'd been reading his book I AM THAT -- which he didn't actually write, but which was a compilation of his talks by one of his students. Nisargadatta lived in Mumbai, which was called Bombay then. (The English  changed the name from its original Mumbai, now the Indians have rightfully changed it back again.) I walked up narrow stairs to his flat where he lived with his family. The door entered into a room where students sat on the floor facing Nisargadatta. Nisargadatta held my hand as I left and gazed into my eyes. His eyes were so bright, so intelligent, so piercing. I felt only kindness and understanding. He understood more about the young woman I was and the paths I would have to walk then I knew myself at the time. He told my everything with the look in his eyes, but I would have to travel far before I could even begin to receive what he gave to me, before I could become receptive enough, before I could give up false loyalties and begin to be loyal to the Truth within.