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

336
The knowingness ‘I am’ is gradually felt by the child and this is
followed by the mind. This ‘I amness’ or the feeling before the
formation of the mind, is the ignorant-child-principle, termed the
‘balkrishna’ state. This ‘balkrishna’ principle has great potential.
Here ‘bal’ means the food essence, child-body, and ‘krishna’
means ‘non-knowing’, that is, ignorance. But it has the potential to
receive, respond and react. I am not in this state, the child
principle, ‘balkrishna’, as I abide in the Absolute.
337
At present you identify yourself with your body and mind.
Therefore, in the initial stages of your spiritual practice, you should
reject the identity by imbibing the principle that ‘I am’ is the vital
breath and the consciousness only and not the body and mind. In
the later stages, the vital breath and the consciousness – that is the
knowledge ‘I am’ – merge in one’s ultimate nature.
338
That ultimate state is known as ‘vishranti’, which means total rest,
complete relaxation, utter quietude etc. The other meaning, by
splitting the word, would be, ‘vishara (visra)-anti’ – forget yourself
in the end. That means in the ultimate state, ‘you-areness’ is totally
forgotten. Whether ‘I am’ or ‘I am not’ both are forgotten. This is
the highest type of rest – ‘parama-vishranti’.
339
When I pleased my ‘I amness’ by understanding it, only then did I
come to know this ‘I amness’ and in the process also discovered
that ‘I’ the Absolute, am not that ‘I am’. Stay put at one place.
Having collected all the knowledge, ponder over it in seclusion.