Pradeep Apte - The Nisargadatta Gita

Brahman is both with qualities (‘Saguna’
Brahman) and without qualities (‘Nirguna’
Brahman). With qualities it is the manifest world
and without qualities it is the unmanifest world.
The ‘I am’ and ‘I am not’, the ‘knowing’ and ‘notknowing’,
the ‘being’ and ‘non-being’ are all the
same. They have simply been designated using
opposite terms. The Absolute or Parabrahman
state transcends both as there is no duality or
opposite there.
82. How were you prior to the message
‘I am’? In the absence of the message ‘I
am’ only my eternal Absolute state
prevails.
The inquiry has to begin with the question as to
what you were before you were born. Or how and
what you were prior to the coming of the message
‘I am. In the absence of the message ‘I am’ or in
the absence of the feeling that ‘you are’ do you
know anything? You cannot, as on the
disappearance of the last concept ‘I am’ you are
totally devoid of content. There is no experience
anymore, you are empty! This is your true eternal
Absolute state that ever prevails.