Brilliant sustained interaction between Nisargadatta and a questioner on January 27, 1981, on the question of what to do as a body-mind, and on the truth that nothing is done, that all body-mind actions are automatic, and that all apparent happenings are a sort of dream state:

NISARGADATTA MAHARAJ: Let the body-mind do its work but understand that what is doing the work is not you, you are the sense of presence. Whatever efforts you make, either physically or intellectually, will be essentially the effort of the body-mind. There is nothing for you to do. Whatever happens will happen by itself, with your conviction that you are totally apart from body and mind … The body and mind will go on doing whatever they like during their natural course of duration.

QUESTIONER: Is it better to do one thing than another? For instance, with this mind and body I could just sit and do nothing, or I could go around helping people, doing good things. Which would be better to do?

M: The body and mind will do whatever is natural for that combination [i.e., the combination of qualities that constitutes that particular individual].

Q: You can control things—for example, you can eat too much or drink too much, things like that—or else you can do good things, helping people, etc.

M: These are the do’s and don’ts regarding the body-mind, which you are not: that is the premise from where you have started. Understand that when there is no body, consciousness is not conscious of itself. So long as the body is there, the body must do its natural functioning.

Q: Then I just let it do what’s natural?

M: There is no question of your allowing it to happen, it will happen, you have no control over it.

Q: But some things I can control. If I come here or I stay outside—I can control that.

M: That is a misconception. Whatever happens, happens by itself. All this is the show, or the expression, of consciousness—the nature of it is change. It is the dance of conscious presence. There are so many ways in which consciousness entertains itself, many different forms, abilities, capacities are functioning, but the functioning is merely to entertain itself. When it is tired, it rests in sleep, when awake it needs some kind of entertainment, some movement, some doing. They are all appearances in consciousness, each will last according to its own duration, but basically, nothing that happens has any validity or importance. Until the awakening, or understanding, you think that you are the doer, but once this apperception takes place you know there is no entity that is working.

Q: I think it would be best to do good things instead of bad things.

M: What do you mean by good and bad things? Good things in one set of circumstances can be bad things in another set of circumstances. Even the things you consider good can only be so as long as the body lasts. Only a rare one will realize there is nothing to do—he is already That.

Q: Maharaj is helping us, is that a volitional state?

M: It is part of the total functioning. What is taking place is sort of a dream state and whatever happens will be part of the dream.

—From Prior to Consciousness: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, ed. Jean Dunn (Chetana, 1998), 102–103.