Pradeep Apte - The Nisargadatta Gita

Just look at this mad pursuit that you have been
indulging in or have been conditioned to indulge in
by society: ‘I am so-and-so’, ‘I must become this’
or ‘I must become that’- ambition, status, name,
fame and what not! It’s quite unnatural; you are
trying to become what you are not. Even before
you could say or feel the ‘I am’, you are! This
feeling ‘I am’ has appeared on your True state and
is dependent, transient and false. The identification
of the ‘I am’ with the body has completely tricked
you and now you are trapped. Understand all this
and get out of it.
43. The root habit is the ‘I am’ and it has
arisen from the domain of the five
elements and three qualities which are
unreal.
The ‘I am’ is the essence of the five elements and
three qualities that make up the body and mind and
all these are unreal. Why are they unreal? Because
they are interdependent, constantly changing and
the real is not dependent and never changes. This
essential knowledge ‘I am’ has become a root habit
with you and misled you into believing that you are
a person with a body born in this world who will
die one day. This root habit has got so deeply