https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Talks-with-Sri-Ramana-Maharshi--complete.pdf
A wandering monk (sannyasi) was trying to clear his doubt: “How to realise that all the world is God?”
Maharshi: If you make your outlook that of wisdom,
you will find the world to be God.
Without knowing the Supreme Spirit (Brahman), how will you find His all-pervasiveness?
Talk 2. Someone enquired about the nature of perception.
M.: Whatever state one is in, the perceptions partake of that state. The explanation is that in the waking state (jagrat) the gross body perceives gross names and forms;
in swapna (the dream state) the mental body perceives the mental creations in their manifold forms and names;
in the sushupti (deep dreamless sleep), the identification with the body being lost, there are no perceptions; similarly in the Transcendental state identity with Brahman places the man in harmony with everything, and there is nothing apart from his Self.
Talk 6. A question was asked by a monk (sannyasi) about how to prevent the mind from being distracted.
M.: You see the objects on forgetting your own Self. If you keep hold of your Self, you will not see the objective world.
Talk 9. Someone enquired: Why is it said in scriptures that the Sage is like a child?
M.: A child and a Sage (Jnani) are similar in a way. Incidents interest a child only so long as they last. It ceases to think of them after they have passed away. So then, it is apparent that they do not leave any impression on the child and it is not affected by them mentally. So it is with a Sage.
Talk 10.
A visitor asked how to realise oneself in accordance with Maharshi’s instructions, contained in his text of Truth Revealed, verse 9, supplement. The difficulty was in controlling the mind.
M.: It is to be done by controlling the breath. If you practise it by yourself without other help, then the mind is controlled.
Otherwise the mind comes under control spontaneously in the presence of a superior power. Such is the greatness of association with the wise (satsanga).
7th January, 1935 “Is a Master necessary for realisation?” Mrs. Piggot asked first.
M.: The realisation is the result of the Master’s grace more than teachings, lectures, meditation, etc. They are only secondary aids, whereas the former is the primary and the essential cause.
Devotee: What are the obstacles which hinder realisation of the Self?
M.: They are habits of mind (vasanas).
D.: How to overcome the mental habits (vasanas)?
M.: By realising the Self.
D.: That is a vicious circle.
M.: It is the ego which raises such difficulties, creating obstacles and then suffers from the perplexity of apparent paradoxes.
Find out who makes the enquiries and the Self will be found.
D.: What are the aids for realisation?
M.: The teachings of the Scriptures and of realised souls
D.: Can such teachings be discussions, lectures and meditations?
M.: Yes, all these are only secondary aids, whereas the essential is the Master’s grace.
D.: How long will it take for one to get that?
M.: Why do you desire to know?
D.: To give me hope.
M.: Even such a desire is an obstacle.
The Self is ever there, there is nothing without it.
Be the Self and the desires and doubts will disappear. Such Self is the witness in sleep, dream and waking states of existence. These states belong to the ego. The Self transcends even the ego. Did you not exist in sleep? Did you know then that you were asleep or unaware of the world? It is only in the waking state that you describe the experience of sleep as being unawareness; therefore the consciousness when asleep is the same as that when awake.
If you know what this waking consciousness is, you will know the consciousness which witnesses all the three states. Such consciousness could be found by seeking the consciousness as it was in sleep.
D.: In that case, I fall asleep.
M.: No harm!
D.: It is a blank.
M.: For whom is the blank? Find out. You cannot deny yourself at any time. The Self is ever there and continues in all states.
D.: Should I remain as if in sleep and be watchful at the same time?
M.: Yes. Watchfulness is the waking state. Therefore the state will not be one of sleep, but sleepless sleep. If you go the way of your thoughts you will be carried away by them and you will find yourself in an endless maze.
D.: So, then, I must go back tracing the source of thoughts.
M.: Quite so; in that way the thoughts will disappear and the Self alone will remain. In fact there is no inside or outside for the Self. They are also projections of the ego. The Self is pure and absolute.
D.: It is understood intellectually only. Is not intellect a help for realisation?
M.: Yes, up to a certain stage. Even so, realise that the Self transcends the intellect — the latter must itself vanish to reach the Self.
D.: Does my realisation help others?
M.: Yes, certainly. It is the best help possible.
But there are no others to be helped.
For a realised being sees the Self, just like a goldsmith estimating the gold in various jewels. When you identify yourself with the body then only the forms and shapes are there. But when you transcend your body the others disappear along with your body-consciousness.
D.: Is it so with plants, trees, etc.?
M.: Do they exist at all apart from the Self? Find it out. You think that you see them. The thought is projected out from your Self. Find out where from it rises.
Thoughts will cease to rise and the Self alone will remain.
D.: I understand theoretically. But they are still there.
M.: Yes. It is like a cinema-show. There is the light on the screen and the shadows flitting across impress the audience as the enactment of some piece. Similarly also will it be, if in the same play an audience also is shown. The seer, the seen, will then only be the screen. Apply it to yourself.
You are the screen. The Self has created the ego. The ego has its accretions of thoughts which are displayed as the world, the trees, plants, etc., of which you are asking. In reality, all these are nothing but the Self. If you see the Self, the same will be found to be all, everywhere and always. Nothing but the Self exists.
D.: Yes, I still understand only theoretically. Yet the answers are simple and beautiful and convincing.
M.: Even the thought, “I do not realise” is a hindrance. In fact, the Self alone is.
Talk 14.
An old man came and sat in the hall. Maharshi was reading Sarma’s Sanskrit recension of Arunachala Akshara Manamalai (the first of The Five Hymns to Arunachala).
The man asked softly: “It is said that realisation is beyond expression; and expression always fails to describe the realisation. How is it?”
M.: The point has been mentioned in Arunachala Ashtakam, Verse three where it is admitted that, although the expression of realisation is impossible, still its existence is indicated.
Soon after there were visible signs of emotion in the man. His breath was deep and hard and he fell on the floor prostrating humbly and got up only after one or two minutes.
Remaining calm a brief while, he left the place. Evidently the man had some illumination. He sought confirmation from Maharshi, who responded fittingly. He found confirmation, and humbly and feelingly acknowledged the divine intercession on his behalf.
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Posture really means location and steadfastness in the Self.
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D.: What is Jnana Marga?
M.: Concentration of the mind is in a way common to both Knowledge and Yoga. Yoga aims at union of the individual with the universal, the Reality. This Reality cannot be new. It must exist even now, and it does exist. Therefore the Path of Knowledge tries to find out how viyoga (separation) came about. The separation is from the Reality only.
D.: Is work an obstruction to Self-realisation?
M.: No. For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment. There is no aim for this action. Even one who is still practising the path of Wisdom (jnana) can practise while engaged in work. It may be difficult in the earlier stages for a beginner, but after some practice it will soon be effective and the work will not be found a hindrance to meditation.
D.: What is the practice?
M.: Constant search for ‘I’, the source of the ego. Find out ‘Who am I?’ The pure ‘I’ is the reality, the Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.
When That is forgotten, all miseries crop up; when that is held fast, the miseries do not affect the person.
D.: Does Maharshi enter the nirvikalpa samadhi?
M.: If the eyes are closed, it is nirvikalpa; if open, it is (though differentiated, still in absolute repose) savikalpa. The ever-present state is the natural state sahaja.
Talk 23.
Mr. Evans-Wentz continued another day: “May one have more than one spiritual master?”
M.: Who is a Master? He is the Self after all. According to the stages of the development of the mind the Self manifests as the Master externally. The famous ancient saint Avadhuta said that he had more than 24 Masters.
The Master is one from whom one learns anything. The Guru may be sometimes inanimate also, as in the case of Avadhuta.
God, Guru and the Self are identical.
A spiritual-minded man thinks that God is all-pervading and takes God for his Guru. Later, God brings him in contact with a personal Guru and the man recognises him as all in all. Lastly the same man is made by the grace of the Master to feel that his Self is the Reality and nothing else.
Thus he finds that the Self is the Master.
D.: How does book-lore help in Self-Realisation?
A.: Only so far as to make one spiritually-minded.
D.: How far does intellect help?
A.: Only so far as to make one sink the intellect in the ego, and the ego in the Self.
D.: Thoughts cease suddenly, then ‘I-I’ rises up as suddenly and continues. It is only in the feeling and not in the intellect. Can it be right?
M.: It is certainly right. Thoughts must cease and reason disappear for ‘I-I’ to rise up and be felt. Feeling is the prime factor and not reason.
D.: Moreover it is not in the head but in the right side of the chest.
M.: It ought to be so. Because the heart is there.
D.: When I see outside it disappears. What is to be done?
M.: It must be held tight.
D.: If one is active with such remembrance, will the actions be always right?
M.: They ought to be. However, such a person is not concerned with the right or wrong of his actions. Such a person’s actions are God’s and therefore they must be right.
Talk 25.
On a former occasion B. V. Narasimha Swami, author of Self Realization, asked:
Who am I? How is it to be found?
M.: Ask yourself the question. The body (annamaya kosa) and its functions are not ‘I’. Going deeper, the mind (manomaya kosa) and its functions are not ‘I’. The next step takes on to the question. “Where from do these thoughts arise?” The thoughts are spontaneous, superficial or analytical. They operate in intellect. Then, who is aware of them? The existence of thoughts, their clear conceptions and their operations become evident to the individual. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the individuality of the person is operative as the perceiver of the existence of thoughts and of their sequence. This individuality is the ego, or as people say ‘I’. Vijnanamaya kosa (intellect) is only the sheath of ‘I’ and not the ‘I’ itself. Enquiring further the questions arise, “Who is this ‘I’?
Where from does it come?” ‘I’ was not aware in sleep. Simultaneously with its rise sleep changes to dream or wakefulness. But I am not concerned with dream just now. Who am I now, in the wakeful state? If I originated from sleep, then the ‘I’ was covered up with ignorance. Such an ignorant ‘I’ cannot be what the scriptures say or the wise ones affirm. ‘I’ am beyond even ‘Sleep’; ‘I’ must be now and here and what I was all along in sleep and dreams also, without the qualities of such states. ‘I’ must therefore be the unqualified substratum underlying these three states (anandamaya kosa transcended). ‘I’ is, in brief, beyond the five sheaths. Next, the residuum left over after discarding all that is not-self is the Self, Sat-Chit-Ananda.
D.: How is that Self to be known or realised?
M.: Transcend the present plane of relativity.
A separate being (Self) appears to know something apart from itself (non-Self).
That is, the subject is aware of the object.
The seer is drik; the seen is drisya.
There must be a unity underlying these two, which arises as ‘ego’.
This ego is of the nature of chit (intelligence); achit (insentient object) is only negation of chit.
Therefore the underlying essence is akin to the subject and not the object.
Seeking the drik, until all drisya disappears, the drik will become subtler and subtler until the absolute drik alone survives.
This process is called drisya vilaya (the disappearance of the objective world).
D.: Why should the objects drisya be eliminated? Cannot the Truth be realised even keeping the object as it is?
M.: No.
Elimination of drisya means elimination of separate identities of the subject and object.
The object is unreal.
All drisya (including ego) is the object.
Eliminating the unreal, the Reality survives.
When a rope is mistaken for a snake, it is enough to remove the erroneous perception of the snake for the truth to be revealed.
Without such elimination the truth will not dawn.
D.: When and how is the disappearance of the objective world (drisya vilaya) to be effected?
M.: It is complete when the relative subject, namely the mind, is eliminated.
The mind is the creator of the subject and the object and is the cause of the dualistic idea.
Therefore, it is the cause of the wrong notion of limited self and the misery consequent on such erroneous idea.
D.: What is this mind?
M.: Mind is one form of manifestation of life. A block of wood or a subtle machine is not called mind. The vital force manifests as life activity and also as the conscious phenomena known as the mind.
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