The body appears in your mind, your mind is the content of your consciousness; you are the motionless witness of the river of consciousness which changes eternally without changing you in any way. Your own changelessness is so obvious that you do not notice it. Have a good look at yourself and all these misapprehensions and misconceptions will dissolve. Just as all the little watery lives are in water and cannot be without water, so all the universe is in you and cannot be without you.
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
This notion that the body emerges within the mind flips the usual story we tell ourselves, where we imagine a solid self navigating a solid world. Instead, everything, the flesh, the thoughts, the fleeting joys and pains, swirls as a current within the vastness of consciousness, while you remain untouched, a still point amid the flow.
It is almost funny how we miss this, chasing shadows in the river instead of seeing the one watching from the shore. The changelessness Maharaj points to is not some grand mystery, it is right here, so close we overlook it like the air we breathe. Peel back the layers of what you think you are, and the illusion scatters, leaving only the quiet witness behind.
What if this river of consciousness is not just a personal stream but a shared one, pooling all our little eddies into something grander? Every ripple, every wave of feeling or belief, dances in the same water, yet the witness in each of us stays steady, unrippled.
The universe, with its stars and storms, does not sit out there apart from you, it unfolds within this same awareness, needing your presence to even be. This flips the script entirely, the world is not holding you up, you are holding it, a silent cradle for all that moves and breathes. Look at that long enough, and the idea of separation starts to feel like a forgotten dream.
And consider the water analogy deeper, those tiny lives in the ocean cannot escape their medium, just as nothing in this reality can slip outside your consciousness. Every war fought, every bird in flight, every whispered secret, it all happens in you, not to you.
The witness does not flinch or cheer, it simply sees, eternal and unbothered by the drama it contains. This might sound cold, but it is freeing, the chaos cannot stain what you truly are. Misconceptions cling only as long as we mistake the waves for the sea, once you spot the stillness, the grip loosens without a fight.
Now imagine living from that stillness, not as a lofty goal but as a simple return to what is already true. The mind keeps churning, tossing up worries or plans, but you do not have to ride every current, you can watch them pass like clouds across a clear sky.
The body ages, the world spins, yet none of it drags you along unless you jump in. Maharaj’s invitation is practical, look at yourself, not with effort but with curiosity, and see what does not budge. That motionless core is not hiding, it is waiting, plain as day, for you to stop running long enough to notice.
This changeless witness might even reshape how we meet each other, if we are all anchored in the same unshaken awareness, then the squabbles and divides look like surface ripples on a single lake.
The universe in you is the universe in me, a shared canvas where our stories play out, yet the screen stays pristine. Misapprehensions about who is right or wrong, who wins or loses, fade when you see they are just waves clashing for a moment before settling back into the whole. Lean into that, and the world might not change, but your place in it does, steady, open, and oddly at peace.
