Pradeep Apte - The Nisargadatta Gita

This whole concept of time is based on the
appearance and disappearance of the ‘I am’. The
arrival and departure of the ‘I am’ from birth to
death is called a life, while that from waking up to
falling asleep a day. Accordingly, you say ‘his life
has come to an end’ or ‘It is the end of the day’.
The ‘I am’ linked up with memory maintains a
continuity throughout your life.
216. The feeling ‘I am’ is itself an
illusion, therefore whatever is seen
through this illusion cannot be real.
The essence of the five elements and three qualities
that make up the body-mind is the knowledge ‘I
am’. The body-mind, as we know, is impermanent
and destructible; the ‘I am’ depends on it for
expression. Thus the ‘I am’, since it is destructible
and dependent cannot be the reality which is
indestructible and independent. The feeling ‘I am’
is thus unreal and an illusion; whatever we see or
know is through the ‘I am’, thus it’s all an illusion
and unreal.