QuoteProject
You know that you are. Don't burden yourself with names, just be. Any name or shape you give yourself obscures your real nature.
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of self-awareness beyond labels and identities.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj encourages individuals to recognize their true essence by stepping away from societal labels and identities. He suggests that attaching names or forms to oneself can obscure the deeper, authentic self, urging a mindset of simply 'being' without the confines of definitions.

Themes

Self-AwarenessIdentityBeingEssencePhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

During a workshop on self-discovery, this quote can inspire participants to reflect on their identities beyond societal labels.

More from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

All happiness comes from awareness. The more we are conscious the deeper the joy. Acceptance of pain, non-resistance, courage and endurance - these open deep and perennial sources of real happiness, true bliss.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Even faith in God is only a stage on the way. Ultimately you abandon all, for you come to something so simple that there are no words to express it.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Forgetting your Self is the greatest injury; all the calamities flow from it. Take care of the most important, the lesser will take care of itself. You do not tidy up a dark room. You open the windows first. Letting in the light makes everything easy. So, let us wait with improving others until we see ourselves as we are/ and have changed. There is no need to turn round and round in endless questioning; find yourself and everything will fall into its proper place.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Watch your thoughts as you watch the street traffic. People come and go; you register without response. It may not be easy in the beginning, but with some practice you will find that your mind can function on many levels at the same time and you can be aware of them all.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Learn to live without self concern. _x000D_ _x000D_ For this you must know your own true being as indomitable, fearless and ever victorious. _x000D_ _x000D_ Once you know with absolute certainty that nothing can trouble you but your own imagination, _x000D_ _x000D_ you come to disregard your desires and fears, concepts and ideas, and live by truth alone.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead
Do not neglect this body. This is the house of God; take care of it, only in this body can God be realized.
Sri Nisargadatta MaharajRead

Similar quotes

I'm interested in exploring how an individual maintains a sense of power in a world that tends to make individuals feel powerless.
George C. WolfeRead
'Star Trek' episodes always insisted that humanity is on its bumpy way to what will be a glorious future in the 23rd century, in which we will have left most of our old selfishness - and old hatreds and prejudices - far behind us.
Gene RoddenberryRead
Every tradition grows continually more venerable, and the more remote its origins, the more this is lost sight of. The veneration paid the tradition accumulates from generation to generation, until it at last becomes holy and excites awe.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
With all of the history of war, and the human race's history unfortunately has been a good deal more war than peace, with nuclear weapons distributed all through the world, and available, and the strong reluctance of any people to accept defeat, I see the possibility in the 1970's of the President of the United States having to face a world in which 15 or 20 or 25 nations may have these weapons.
John F. KennedyRead
Generous gestures yield the most when that isn't their purpose.
Malcolm ForbesRead
In a sane, civil, intelligent and moral society, you don't blame poor people for being poor.
Andrew YoungRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.