Nisargadatta / from The Ultimate Medicine, chapter IX

 

  

People are generally asked to do a certain sadhana, and as part of that go somewhere, visit this or that temple, or climb such and such a mountain. But what is really the working principle is the life force.

And when you treat the life force as God itself there cannot be consciousness without life force. So consciousness and life force are two components inextricably woven together, of one principle.

But consciousness is only the witnessing principle or the static aspect; the dynamic aspect or working principle is the lifeforce.

Once you consider that life force as God itself, and that no other God exists, then you raise the life force to a status enabling it, together with consciousness, to give you an understanding of the working of the whole principle.

But if you demote that life principle to mere self-identification with the body, then the life principle is not given to the status which enables it to unfold itself.

It depends entirely on you.

If I identify this life principle with my body, then I make it work according to the body.

But if I raise it to a God status, and treat it as such, then that life principle will unfold itself and give me the necessary spiritual knowledge.

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