GURU VACHAKA KOVAI Sri Muruganar

For the sake of those [ignorant ones] who take the world, which appears before them, as real and enjoy-able [it became necessary for the scriptures to say that] it is God’s creation. But for those who have obtained unobstructed Knowledge of Self, the world is seen merely as a bondage-causing mental imagin-ation.

This world of empty names and forms, which are the imagination of the five senses and an appearance in the pure Supreme Self, should be understood to be the mysterious play of Maya, the mind, which rises as if real from Self, Sat-Chit.

[explanatory comment] Michael James:
The origin of Maya, meaning “that which is not” is unknown; it appears, functioning in man, as mind, and is inferred in God through his actions, sustenance, and dissolution of this whole universe; it ends, on being seen to be non-existent, when the Truth is known.

The seer, known as mind or ‘I’, and the seen, known as the world, rise and set simultaneously in Self. If Self sees Itself through Itself, it is Self; if It sees Itself through the mind or ‘seer’, it appears as the world or ‘seen’.

from  "GURU VACHAKA KOVAI" Sri Muruganar 

Nisargadatta, I am unborn [8]

You want to have knowledge. What do you mean by that? Hold on to that principle which understands, recognizes thoughts and be quiet. For your sake, what are you? Investigate that. Forget who is torturing whom; stabilize in your most confidential being as ‘you are’. What are you? Investigate the problems of manifest world can be solved later. There is no right answer to ‘who are you?’ no answer is the most correct one; any reply you get is not eternal. Nisargadatta, I am unborn  [8]

Nisargadatta, Consciousness and the Absolute

You must have a thorough knowledge of this consciousness, and having known everything about the consciousness you come to the conclusion that it is all unreal, and then it should drop off. Having listened to these talks, sit and meditate, "That which I have heard, is it true or not?" Then you will understand that this is also to be discarded.  
Nisargadatta, Consciousness and the Absolute [November 17, 1980]

Nisargadatta, Prior to Consciousness

It is a very complicated riddle. You have to discard whatever you know, whatever you have read, and have a firm conviction about That about which nobody knows anything. You can't get any information about That, and about That you must have firm conviction. How difficult it is. 

Nisargadatta, Prior to Consciousness [July 19, 1980]

Nisargadatta, The Experience of Nothingness [1]

But unless the nature of the consciousness is understood, one will not be able to understood ones trues identity. Then, having understood the nature of the consciousness, you will also understand that you are not the consciousness. Anything that you have seen and understood, you cannot be; you as a subject, can only understand something which is object, and you are bound to accept it as such. Nisargadatta, The Experience of Nothingness [1]

Nisargadatta, The Nectar of Immortality [1]

Whatever you want to think or ponder over, it is something other then the «you» you think of. You ever ponder over something which you are not! Then, how to think about yourself? This you cannot do. Perceiving this clearly you become thought-free. Whatever you do, you think about something which is not you, even with a noble thought like Ishwara (God), which is still conceptual and therefore apart from yourself. Now, is  possible to think of one’s own Self, that is the question?

The Nectar of Immortality [1]

Nisargadatta, Seeds of Consciousness

There is no darkness, there is no daylight, there is no deep sleep, there is no waking state, no hunger no thirst. That is the state, but all this is my expression. You feel that you are in that, but I feel that I am not in that. I worship, I do bhajans, but I am not in that. My true state is beyond that.

Nisargadatta, Seeds of Consciousness [September 14, 1979]

Nisargadatta, The Ultimate Medicine [5]

Dhyana [meditation] means to have an objective. You want to consider something. You are that something. Just to be, you are. Just being the being, “I am”. You meditate on something. That knowledge “I am” is yourself. Abide only there. How can you ask any question at that point? Because that is the beginning of knowledge. [5]

I am That [13]

That in which consciousness happens, the universal consciousness or mind, we call the ether of consciousness. All the objects of consciousness form the universe. What is beyond both, supporting both, is the supreme state, a state of utter stillness and silence. Whoever goes there, disappears. It is unreachable by words, or mind. You may call it God, or Parabrahman, or Supreme Reality, but these are names given by the mind. It is the nameless, contentless, effortless and spontaneous state, beyond being and not being.
 Nisargadatta, I am That [13]