For Nisargadatta Maharaj, the present is not merely a psychological comfort zone but the sole locus of reality. Past and future are regarded as mental constructs—memory and imagination—appearing within consciousness, whereas the immediate sense of being is available only now. In this immediacy, the bare feeling “I Am” can be discerned before it is overlaid with identifications such as “I am this” or “I am that.” Thus, attention to the present is important because it exposes the fundamental fact of existence itself, prior to any story about it. The present moment, in this view, is the living arena in which the real nature of the Self may be recognized.

Living in the present also functions as a way of loosening the grip of the time-bound, egoic sense of self. Preoccupation with past and future strengthens identification with the body–mind and its narrative of fears, desires, and conditioning, thereby perpetuating suffering. By remaining with present awareness, the psychological patterns that sustain the illusion of a separate individual are weakened, and the “time-bound self” begins to dissolve. This does not mean cultivating a special state, but rather ceasing to feed the mental activity that constantly projects away from the now. In that cessation, what remains is the unchanging awareness that witnesses all experience.

Nisargadatta’s emphasis, therefore, is not on the present as an end in itself, but as a gateway. Abidance in the present sense of “I Am” leads from the personal “I am this” to the impersonal “I Am,” and from there to the recognition of a reality that is ultimately beyond even being and non-being. The present moment, when stripped of conceptual overlays, reveals that what is truly real is not a fleeting instant in time, but the timeless awareness in which time, memory, and imagination appear. To live in the present, in this teaching, is to rest in that awareness and allow the realization of the Self, free from the limitations of ego and psychological time.