Discovered
M: The worrier is not you, it is the affair of the
intelligence. [In English Maharaj said, "You ... No!"] Now I am
talking in English.
Q: The English language is blessed.
M: My teaching is spread among all the foreigners through
the English language. Very intelligent people, very advanced, thousands of
them. The beauty lies in the fact that my knowledge will be in conflagration in
foreign countries. It will be spread in America and from there it will be
spread back to the Indians. When the Indians receive it they will say, "It
has the approval of the foreigners, therefore we will accept it."; that is
the nature of the Indians. Indians are like this. If somebody goes to America
or England and works, even washing dishes, when he returns many people will go
to see him and present garlands; that is our nature.
Q: Ramana Maharshi was a great sage, he was unknown in
India. When Paul Brunton wrote the book in English about him, everybody went to
see him and he became well known.
M: I agree with that. Ramana Maharshi was discovered by Paul
Brunton and I was discovered by Maurice Frydman.
~Nisargadatta Maharaj (& questioner)
‘Prior to Consciousness’
translated by Jean Dunn
Bhajans
Interpreter: What has happened is this: as a jnani he would
have remained unknown to the world. That is what his guru thought. So he told
him, when Maharaj asked how he could repay this debt after he got realization,
you cannot repay this anyway. But if at all you want to repay, you must do
bhajans four times a day. Now the purpose of his guru's command was that when
some bhajan goes on somewhere, people were alerted to the fact that this is a
place where worship of God is taking place. So that is how people started
coming here. Initially, they were mainly Indian people who were not primarily
interested in knowing themselves, but who had faith in God. Those people came
first, and subsequently others started flowing in, like Maurice Frydman. And
thereafter that book [referring to I Am That] was published. Ultimately, you came
to know of these teachings because of him. So the purpose of this bhajan was
indirectly to let people know about him; otherwise, he would have remained
absolutely unknown.
~The Ultimate Medicine
translated by Robert Powell
Translated
I met Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj some years back and was
impressed with the spontaneous simplicity of his appearance and behaviour and
his deep and genuine earnestness in expounding his experience.
However humble and difficult to discover his little tenement
in the back lanes of Bombay, many have found their way there. Most of them are
Indians, conversing freely in their native language, but there were also many
foreigners who needed a translator. Whenever I was present the task would fall
to me. Many of the questions put and answers given were so interesting and
significant that a tape-recorder was brought in. While most of the tapes were
of the regular Marathi-English variety, some were polyglot scrambles of several
Indian and European languages. Later, each tape was deciphered and translated
into English.
It was not easy to translate verbatim and at the same time
avoid tedious repetitions and reiterations. It is hoped that the present
translation of the tape recordings will not reduce the impact of this
clear-minded, generous and in many ways an unusual human being.
A Marathi version of
these talks, verified by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj himself, has been separately
published.
from ‘I Am That’
Translators Note
-Maurice Frydman, (Translator)
Bombay, October 16, 1973
Good Fit
In 1976 or 1977 ( I believe) a book review of I Am That
appeared in the Mountain Path Magazine. The Mountain Path is the in house
magazine of Sri Ramanasramam in South India. It was a very positive and
because Maurice Frydman had been associated with Sri Ramana
Maharshi, it carried some weight.
This was the first time I found out that there could be a
living Jnani, a realized Sage of the caliber of Sri Ramana Maharshi. I
sent for the book, read it and was blown away. I wrote to Maurice Frydman
and he began to correspond with me. At some point he asked me to
find a publisher for I Am That in the United States. So I began
sharing I Am that with various spiritual publishing houses. I
specifically sent it to Shambhala, Rainbow Bridge and Unity Press. They didn't feel
it was a good fit for their publishing houses. Then I got a letter from
Mr., Dikshit, publisher of Chetana Press (which is the publisher of I AM
That) informing me that Maurice Frydman had died and my letter had
been found on his desk. So I began to correspond with Mr. Dikshit. I
decided that I really wanted to visit Nisargadatta and started a
correspondence with Mr. Hate (who was Maharaj's son-in-law). Which brings me to
January 1978 when I flew Air India to Bombay with the intention of
meeting Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
‘Meeting Maharaj’
~Cathy Boucher
Railway Station Platform
Maurice Frydman became a disciple of Sri Nisargadatta
Maharaj in the early days of Maharaj's spiritual work in 1965. Maurice Frydman
had the advantage that he could speak Marathi and so became a translator of Sri
Maharaj's talk for Indians who did not understand Marathi and also for
foreigners. Maurice Frydman compiled the talks in the form of Q&A sessions
and recorded in tapes, leading to the publication of this great spiritual
classic " I Am That".[5]
According to Maharaj: "Maurice (Frydman) told me
"Everything that is said here is immediately lost, though it could be of a
great benefit for those looking for truth. I wolud like to translate and
publish your words so others might know them". And so, he wrote I Am
That".[8]
With the publication of the book, Sri Maharaj became very
popular and hundreds of foreigners started flock to the small tenement that Sri
Maharaj lived in, and once Sri Maharaj remarked ″ I used to have a quiet life'
but the book " I Am That" by Maurice has turned my house into a
railway station platform.″
[9]
Maurice Frydman initially found publication of "I Am
That" difficult as it was declined by the major publishers. So, Maurice
worked with a then small publisher Chetana Publications to undertake the
publishing. The book was first published in hard cover in two volumes in 1973
by Chetana Publication. The 2nd edition and revised and enlarged in one volume
in 1976. The first paperback published in 1984. The book is published in USA
and Canada by The Acorn Press.
~Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_That
footnotes:
5 Maurice Frydman-Jnani and a Karma Yogi - A Biography,
Chapter 6 http://www.scribd.com/doc/97304328/Maurice-Frydman-a-Jnani-and-a-Karma-Yogi
8 Yoga en Zaragoza, Estudios tradicionales (Spanish)
9
http://www.scribd.com/doc/97304328/6/Chapter-6-With-Nisargadatta-Maharaj
All the Gurus
I told him (Nisargadatta) that Maurice Frydman was the
decisive reason for my coming. Frydman was a friend of Krishnamurti and Frydman
was planning to publish all of the earlier work of Krishnamurti at Chetana
Publishers in Bombay, And that he had heard from Mr. Dikshit, the publisher,
that there was someone in Bombay who he had to meet. (I AM THAT was of course
not yet published at that time because Frydman had yet to meet Nisargadatta).
Frydman went there with his usual skeptical ideas. He came in there, and within
two weeks things became clear to him that had never become clear with
Krishnamurti. And I thought then: if it all became clear to Frydman within two
weeks, how will it go with me?
I told all this to Nisargadatta and he said: 'That says
nothing about me, but everything about Frydman.' And he also said: 'People who
don't understand Krishnamurti don't understand themselves.' I thought that was
beautiful, because all the gurus I knew always ran everyone down."
~Alexander Smith
What did you see?
I heard a story that he also encountered U. G. Krishnamurti
in Bombay. I will tell you the version I heard and you can make up your own
mind about it. It was told to me by someone who spent a lot of time with U. G.
in the 1970s.
It seems that Maurice Frydman knew U. G. and also knew that he
and Maharaj had never met, and probably didn’t know about each other. He wanted
to test the theory that one jnani can spot another jnani by putting them both
in the same room, with a few other people around as camouflage. He organised a
function and invited both of them to attend. U. G. spent quite some time there,
but Maharaj only came for a few minutes and then left.
After Maharaj had left Maurice went up to U. G. and said,
‘Did you see that old man who came in for a few minutes. Did you notice anything
special? What did you see?’
U. G. replied, ‘I saw a man, Maurice, but the important
thing is, what did you see?’
The next day Maurice went to see Maharaj and asked, ‘Did you
see that man I invited yesterday?’
A brief description of what he looked like and where he was
standing followed. Then Maurice asked, ‘What did you see?’
Maharaj replied, ‘I saw a man Maurice, but the important
thing is, what did you see?’
It’s an amusing story and I pass it on as I heard it, but I
should say that U. G.’s accounts of his meetings with famous teachers sometimes
don’t ring true to me. I have heard and read his accounts of his meetings with
both Ramana Maharshi and Papaji, and in both accounts Bhagavan and Papaji are
made to do and say things that to me are completely out of character.
~David Godman
‘Remembering Nisargadatta Maharaj’
Jnani
One morning Maharaj seemed to be more-than-usually
frustrated about our collective inability to grasp what he was talking about.
'Why do I waste my time with you people?' he exclaimed. 'Why
does no one ever understand what I am saying?'
I took my chance: 'In all the years that you have been
teaching how many people have truly understood and experienced your teachings?'
He was quiet for a moment, and then he said, 'One. Maurice
Frydman.' He didn't elaborate and I didn't follow it up.
I mentioned earlier that at the conclusion of his morning
puja he put kum kum on the forehead of all the pictures in his room of the
people he knew were enlightened. There were two big pictures of Maurice there,
and both of them were daily given the kum kum treatment. Maharaj clearly had a
great respect for Maurice. I remember on one of my early visits querying
Maharaj about some statement of his that had been recorded in I am That. I
think it was about fulfilling desires.
Maharaj initially didn't seem to agree with the remarks that
had been attributed to him in the book, but then he added, 'The words must be
true because Maurice wrote them. Maurice was a jnani, and the jnani's words are
always the words of truth.'
~David Godman
Certified
The present crop of Indians are following the Westerners who
have developed so much on the material side. They are not after spirituality
-they would like to follow Western scientific development, to imitate you.
Because "I Am That" is certified by Maurice Frydman they will read
it;the books by Jean Dunn will have more significance also. I am not short of
any knowledge relating to God or spirituality because I have fully known what
this child-principle is. When you get to know that ignorant child-principle,
beingness, you will not fall short of anything in your spiritual or worldly
pursuits.
~Nisargadatta Maharaj
‘Prior to Consciousness’
translated by Jean Dunn
The Ultimate Meaning
V: A person translated the book I Am That into a foreign
language, and he wants to give it the title of Tat-Tvam-Asi.
M: I do not like that. Either keep the title I Am That or
none at all.
V: But Mr. Maurice Frydman had agreed.
M: I do not agree. And also do not dilute the contents of
the book with your understanding, even though you may consider yourself a
jnani. Do it the same way Frydman did; the exact and original text should be
translated, with no modifications.
V: I now realize after meditation that the essence of your
teachings is contained in I Am That.
M: If you want to realize the meaning of "I Am
That," go into deep meditation, but "you," the manifest, should
merge in "You," the Unmanifest. That is the ultimate meaning.
~Nisargadatta (& visitor)
‘The Nectar of Immortality
translated by Robert Powell
Addendum: On Jean Dunn translator of 'Prior to Consciousness' etc.
"Jean Dunn speaks about life with Nisargadatta Maharaj. This interview was recorded by Malcolm Tillis in 1981, while Jean was living in Bombay, India."
"An Interview with Jean Dunn first posted on September 13, 2010 on the Inner Directions Journal website."
Thanks for posting this! Really grateful to read their life stories!
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