Pradeep Apte - The Nisargadatta Gita

‘you were not there’. What you mean is you were
not there as you presently are - that is you had no
shape or form or name. There is ‘someone’ who
sees the absence of the present ‘I am’ and that
‘someone’ has always been there and will continue
to be there, as that ‘someone’ is indestructible: it is
the Absolute.
96. Catch hold of the knowledge ‘I am’
in meditation and the realization will
occur that ‘I’, the Absolute, am not the
‘guna’ (quality) ‘I am’.
Throwing aside everything that does not go with ‘I
am’ bring down your focus to the wordless ‘I am’.
For this you would have to apply your mind, go
back and try to recollect the very first moment
when you came to know that ‘you are’. That first,
nascent, word-free ‘I am’ is what you have to catch
hold of during meditation. Dwell there and do not
let it slip out of your hands. In the process you will
realize that you as the Absolute are not the quality
‘I am’, which in fact belongs to the body with its
five elements along with the three qualities. The
three qualities being ‘Sattva’ (knowledge),’ Rajas’
(activity) and ‘Tamas’ (inertia), of which the ‘I am’
is ‘Sattva’.