The complete 'I am' quotes of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj Pradeep Apte

51
All hangs on the idea ‘I am’. Examine it very thoroughly. It lies at
the root of every trouble. This ‘I am’ idea was not born with you.
You could have lived very well without it. It came later due to your
self-identification with the body. It created an illusion of separation
where there was none. It made you a stranger in your own world
alien and inimical. Without the sense of ‘I am’ life goes on. There
are moments when we are without the sense of ‘I am’, at peace and
happy. With the return of ‘I am’, trouble starts.
52
It is because the ‘I am’ is false that it wants to continue. Reality
need not continue – knowing itself indestructible, it is indifferent
to the destruction of forms and expressions. To strengthen and
stabilize the ‘I am’ we do all sorts of things – all in vain for the ‘I
am’ is being rebuilt from moment to moment. No ambition is
spiritual. All ambitions are for the sake of ‘I am’. If you want to
make real progress you must give up all ideas of personal
attainment.
53
When I met my Guru, he told me: ‘you are not what you take
yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense ‘I am’, find
you real self’ I obeyed him because I trusted him; I did as he told
me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence.
And what a difference it made, and how soon. It took me only
three years to realize my true nature. My Guru died soon after I
met him, but it made no difference. I remembered what he told me
and persevered. The fruit of it is here, with me.