Nisargadatta Maharaj
1897 CE–1981 CE · Modern · Bombay (Mumbai)
1897–1981 CE (born 17 April 1897; died 8 September 1981, Bombay)
Nisargadatta Maharaj, born Maruti Shivrampant Kambli, lived almost his entire life as a married householder and small shopkeeper in Bombay, selling hand-rolled beedis. In 1933 he met his guru, Siddharāmeśvar Mahārāj of the Inchagiri branch of the Navnāth Sampradāya, and after a period of practice arrived at the conviction of his own non-dual nature, which he expressed in a terse, uncompromising 'I Am That' teaching focused on the sense 'I am' as the gateway to the absolute. From a small loft above his Bombay home he received visitors for decades; the 1973 English compilation of his Marathi dialogues, 'I Am That' (translated by Maurice Frydman), brought him an international following. He died of throat cancer in Bombay in 1981. His life is well documented through these dialogues and the accounts of his translators and visitors.
Did you know?
A Bombay shopkeeper whose book was read around the world
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) ran a small shop in Bombay selling hand-rolled cigarettes (beedis). A record of his talks, published in English in 1973 as I Am That, was translated into many languages and read internationally.
How we know
Nisargadatta Maharaj: b. 17 April 1897, d. 8 September 1981, Bombay; ran a beedi shop; I Am That first published in English 1973 (Maurice Frydman's translation of Marathi recordings). Verified via Wikipedia.
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Bombay (Mumbai)
What they did here
Lived almost his whole life here as a householder and beedi-shop keeper; met his guru Siddharāmeśvar in 1933, taught from a loft above his home, and died here in 1981.
About Bombay (Mumbai)
Bombay (Mumbai) is the capital of Maharashtra, on the west coast of India on the Arabian Sea. It was the home of Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981), the Advaita teacher of the Navanātha lineage whose talks were published as I Am That.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Nisargadatta Maharaj’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Hindu world
- Sri Sarada Devi· 1853 CE–1920 CE
- Sri Yukteswar Giri· 1855 CE–1936 CE
- Swami Vivekananda· 1863 CE–1902 CE
- Sri Aurobindo· 1872 CE–1950 CE
- Ramana Maharshi· 1879 CE–1950 CE
- Swami Sivananda Saraswati· 1887 CE–1963 CE
- Paramahansa Yogananda· 1893 CE–1952 CE
- Anandamayi Ma· 1896 CE–1982 CE
- A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada· 1896 CE–1977 CE
- Neem Karoli Baba· 1900 CE–1973 CE
- Papaji (H.W.L. Poonja)· 1910 CE–1997 CE
- Swami Chinmayananda· 1916 CE–1993 CE
- Ram Dass· 1931 CE–2019 CE
Scientists
Jewish world
Luminaries & Explorers world
Buddhist world
Islamic world
Rulers world
- John F. Kennedy· 1917 CE–1963 CE
- Lyndon B. Johnson· 1908 CE–1973 CE
- Kwame Nkrumah· 1909 CE–1972 CE
- Zhou Enlai· 1898 CE–1976 CE
- Puyi (Xuantong Emperor)· 1906 CE–1967 CE
- Jomo Kenyatta· 1894 CE–1978 CE
- Sukarno· 1901 CE–1970 CE
- Mao Zedong· 1893 CE–1976 CE
- Leonid Brezhnev· 1906 CE–1982 CE
- Gamal Abdel Nasser· 1918 CE–1970 CE
- Haile Selassie I· 1892 CE–1975 CE
- Francisco Franco· 1892 CE–1975 CE
- Edward VIII· 1894 CE–1972 CE
- Emperor Hirohito (Showa)· 1901 CE–1989 CE
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.