Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was born in March 1897. From birth, he was called Maruti, in honour of Hanuman. After his father died, in 1915, Maruti went to Bombay where he worked as a clerk and later selling hand-rolled cigarettes. Through this small business, he became financially prosperous.
Through a friend, in 1933 he was brought to the Guru Siddharameshwar Maharaj. Maruti was moved by Sri Siddharameshwar and made his first steps to practise spirituality. He was given a mantra in the Navnath tradition, and instructions on how to meditate. After his Guru, Sri Siddharameshwar passed away in 1936, Maruti felt a strong sense of renunciation and lost interest in his worldly pursuits. He left both his business and family and went on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas.
However, on the way to the Himalayas, he met a brother disciple, who persuaded him to stay in Bombay and practise spirituality within the world. When he returned to Bombay in 1938, his business had significantly declined, but it was enough to sustain him and his family. It was in 1938, that he became Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj devoting all his free time to meditation. In particular, Nisargadatta meditated on the concept that: “I Am”, the spiritual idea, that we are not the body and ego, but the all-pervading consciousness.
In 1951, he began accepting disciples, and he would regularly give discourse in his house to disciples, where he would answer their questions. These talks are summarised in the book “I Am That”. It has become a classic of Advaita philosophy, in the tradition of ancient traditions in the Upanishads, and contemporary teachers. Sri Nisargadatta explained concepts in the simplest way, without any complex religious or spiritual terms.
