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

285
How can you speak or develop any concept unless the primary
concept ‘I am’ is available? This primary concept begets further
concepts, that is, all other concepts occur to it. However, whatever
concept occurs to you, including the primary concept ‘I am’, is not
the eternal state.
286
This primary concept, ‘I amness’ is dishonest, because it is still a
concept only. Finally one has to transcend that also and be in the
‘nirvikalpa’ state, which means the concept-free state. Then you
have no concept at all, not even of ‘I am’. In that state one does not
know that one is. This state is known as ‘Parabrahman’: ‘Brahman’
transcended. ‘Brahman’ is manifest; ‘Parabrahman’ is beyond that,
prior to that; the Absolute. Do you understand what I am driving
at? Whatever you caught in your attention, that attention should
eventually turn into no-attention. The state that is finally left over
is Awareness, ‘Parabrahman’.
287
With the arrival of the consciousness, it occurs to you that you are;
simultaneously, ‘I am’ occurs to you or in your attention. So when
the consciousness is not there, attention is also not there.
Subsequent to the arrival of consciousness and attention,
everything else crept in. The Absolute state is prior to
consciousness; it means the unborn state. Since the ‘Parabrahman’
is the unborn state, prior to consciousness, can it have an iota of
knowledge?