Advaita Vedanta · 1897–1981
Nisargadatta: between nothing and everything
Wisdom says I am nothing; love says I am everything
Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two, my life flows.
What this verse points to
His most quoted line, and the balance in it is exact. Wisdom empties the personal self out; love finds no boundary anywhere. Either one held alone becomes a distortion — cold detachment on one side, sentimentality on the other.
"Between the two, my life flows" places the living in the movement rather than in either position. It is a description of how he actually operated, not a resolution of the paradox.
Sit with it
Hold both statements about yourself at once for the length of a sit, without letting either win.
About the Nisargadatta Maharaj
A Mumbai shopkeeper who received instruction from his teacher Siddharameshwar Maharaj to attend only to the sense "I am." He taught for decades from a small room above his shop; the dialogues collected in I Am That brought his uncompromising, conversational style to a wide readership.