Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj - Video and Books

A simple man, Nisargadatta Maharaj, was a householder and petty shopkeeper in Bombay where he lived, and died in 1981 at the age of 84. He had not been educated formally, but came to be respected and loved for his insights into the crux of human pain and the extraordinary lucidity of his direct discourse. Hundreds of diverse seekers traveled the globe and sought him out in his unpretentious home to hear him. To all of them he gave hope that "beyond the real experience is not the mind, but the SELF, the light in which everything appears...the awareness in which everything happens."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Nisargadatta_Maharaj

Quotes:

The ancient ones have classified ‘Vani’ or speech into four categories: ‘Vaikhari’ which is the spoken word, ‘Madhyama’ is of the mind or unspoken tangible word, it is thought or thinking. Then comes the ‘Pashyanti’ it is the formative stage when the word is still intangible and finally is the ‘Para’ or the wordless source of all speech. When we speak it involves all these in a brisk or swift sequential movement. The ‘Vani’ (speech) is but one, only for understanding it has been classified, and it flows out in the order: Para, Pashyanti, Madhyama and Vaikahri. These four in that order are said to correspond to the ‘Turiya’ (the fourth), deep sleep, dreaming and waking states of consciousness. As you revert you come back from the spoken word to the wordless ‘I am’ which is the ‘Turiya’ or ‘Paravani’ state. But you, the Absolute, you are none of these.

The uniform or garb that we have provided to our true identity is that of the body with all its senses, and of the mind in the form of concepts. The primary concept is the ‘I am’ which has no name or form and has just spontaneously appeared on your true being. You true identity, the Absolute or ‘Parabrahman’ is prior to the ‘I am’ so how can any uniform or garb be provided to it.

The Guru tells us as to how he realized and from his own experience he imparts the same teaching to us. We can see from this, how important is the understanding of the ‘I am, pondering over it and then getting stabilized in it. This is the first step towards realizing your original state, which is prior to the ‘I am’. Only on getting firmly stabilized in the ‘I am’ you would have the ability to transcend it. Then you would be in original Absolute state which is devoid of the ‘I am’.

The ‘I am’ is the beginning and the end of everything, it was with the appearance the ‘I am’ that this whole manifestation came into being. They are just two small words but see what havoc they have cooked up in the form of this world. And the way the ‘I am’ has done all this is indeed astonishing, for never a moment you believe that it is all false and actually never came into being! You, the Absolute are always there, ‘I am’ or no ‘I am’, by the appearance of the ‘I am’ you only know that ‘you are’.