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Whenever the aspirant during the time of sadhana becomes extroverted from this voluntarily brought-about sleep-like state, he feels absolutely certain, ‘I was not sleeping, but was all the while fully conscious of myself’.
But, though his real aspect (existence-consciousness) is ever knowing without he least doubt its own existence in sleep as ‘I am’, whenever he becomes extroverted from everyday sleep, since he (the mind) did not even once have the experience of continuing to know ‘I am’ from the waking state, he can only say, ‘I slept, I did not know myself at that time’,
The truth is this:
since the state of his Self-existence, devoid of the adjunct ‘so-and-so’, is traced out and caught hold of in the voluntarily brought-about sleep with the full consciousness (prajna) continuing from the waking state, the knowledge that the pure existence-consciousness (sat-chit} knows itself as ‘I am’ is clear in this sleep state.
That is why the aspirant now says, ‘I did exist throughout, I did not sleep’ !
But prior to his sadhana, since he was throughout the waking state identifying as ‘I’ the mind, which is the form of the adjunct ‘so-and-so’, after waking up from the ordinary daily sleep, where the mind did not exist, this mind (the man) says, ‘I did not exist in sleep’! That is all !!
Those who experience many times this removal of the ego through practice, since they have an acquaintance with the experience of their pure existence-consciousness as ‘I am’ even after the removal of the ego, can minutely cognize, even at the moment of just waking up from sleep, how the adjunct ‘so-and-so’ comes and mixes.
Those who do not have such strength of practice cannot cognize, from sleep itself, the ego at its place of rising.
The only thing that is easy for them is to find the ego’s place of setting (which is also its place of rising) through the effort started from the waking state.
In either case, the end and the achievement will be the same.
When the attention is focused deeper and deeper within towards the feeling ‘I am’ and when the ego thereby shrinks more and more into nothingness, our power of attention becomes subtler than the subtlest atom and thereby grows sharper and brighter.
Hence, the strength of abidance (nishtha-bala) will now be achieved to remain balanced between two states, that is, in a state after the end of sleep and before waking up, in other words, before being possessed by the first thought.
Through this strength, the skill will now be gained by the aspirant to find out the adjunct ‘so and so’, which comes and mixes, to be a mere second person (that is, although it has hitherto been appearing as if it were the first person, it will now be clearly seen to be his mere shadow, non-Self, the primal sheath, a thing alien to him).
The above is horribly worded.
Reworded and in short:
The dnyani is able to experience his true state free of attributes.
The common man is not capable.
This is what Janaka, the royal Sage, meant when he said, “I have found out the thief (the time of his coming – the time and place. of the ego’s rising) who has been ruining me all along; I will inflict the right punishment upon him”.
Since the ego, which was acting till now as if it were the first person, is found to be a second person alien to us, the right punishment is to destroy it at its very place of rising (just as the reflected ray is destroyed at its place of rising) by clinging steadfastly to the real first person (the real import of the word ‘I’), existence consciousness, through the method of regaining Self attention taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana (‘To whom? To me; who am I?’),
“As you practise more and more abiding in this existence-consciousness (that is, remaining in the state between sleep and waking), the ordinary sleep which had previously been taking possession of you will melt away, and the waking which was full of sense-knowledge (vishayas) will not creep in again.
Therefore repeatedly and untiringly abide in it,” -
‘Sadhanai Saram’
By greater and more steadfast practice of abiding in this existence-consciousness, we will experience that this state seems to come often and take possession of us of its own accord whenever we are free from our daily work.
But, since this state of existence-consciousness is in fact nothing but ‘us',
it is wrong to think that such a state comes and takes possession of us!
While at work, we attend to other things; after that work is over and before we attend to some other second or third person, we naturally abide in our real state, which is existence-consciousness.
Though this happens to one and all every day, it is only to those who have the experience of Self-consciousness through the aforesaid practice that the state of Self-abidance will be clearly discerned after leaving one second person thought and before catching another one (that is, between two thoughts).
“Why has it been said (in the above two verses of ‘Sadhana Saram’) that one ought to make effort repeatedly to be in that state (our existence consciousness) and ought to abide in it with more and more love?
Because, until all the tendencies (vasanas) which drive one out of it are completely exhausted, this state will seem to come and go.
Hence the need for continued effort and love to abide in Self.”
“When, through this practice, our state of existence consciousness is experienced always as inescapably natural,
then there will be no harm even if waking, dream and sleep pass across,”
“For those who are well established in the unending Self-consciousness, which pervades and transcends all these three so-called states (waking, dream and sleep), there is but one state, the Whole, the All, and that alone is real!
This state, which is devoid even of the feeling ‘I am making effort’, is your natural state of being! Be!!”
‘Sadhanai Saram’
Just as the man came out into the open space from the dark room by steadfastly holding on to and moving along the reflected ray, so the enquirer reaches the open space of Heart, coming out of the prison – the attachment to the body through the nerves (nadis) -, by assiduously holding on to the feeling ‘I am’.
Let us now see how this process takes place in the body of an advanced enquirer.
Just on waking up from sleep, a consciousness ‘I’ shoots up like a flash of lightning from the Heart to the brain. From the brain, it then spreads throughout the body along the nerves (nadis). This ‘I’ consciousness is like electrical energy. Its impetus or voltage is the force of attachment (abhimana-vega) with which it identifies a body as ‘I’.
This consciousness, which spreads with such a tremendous impetus and speed all over the body as ‘I’, remains pure, having no adjunct (upadhi) attached to it, till it reaches the brain from the Heart.
But, since its force of attachment (abhimana-vega) is so great that the time taken by it to shoot up from the Heart to the brain is extremely short, one millionth of a second so to speak, ordinary people are unable to cognize it in its pure condition, devoid of any adjunct.
This pure condition of the rising ‘I’ - consciousness is what was pointed out by Sri Bhagavan when He said,
“In the space between two states or two thoughts, the pure ego (the pure condition or true nature of the ego) is experienced”, in ‘Maharshi’s Gospel’, Book One, chapter five, entitled ‘Self and Ego’.
For this ‘I’ – consciousness that spreads from the brain at a tremendous speed throughout the body, the nerves (nadis) are the transmission lines, like wires for electrical power.
The mixing of the pure consciousness ‘I am’, after reaching the brain, with an adjunct as ‘I am this, I am so-and-so, I am the body’ is what is called bondage (bandham) or the knot (granthi).
This knot has two forms: the knot of bondage to the nerves (nadi-bandha-granthi) and the knot of attachment (abhimana--granthi).
The connection of this power, the ‘I’- consciousness, with the gross nervous system is called ‘the knot of bondage to the nerves’ (nadi bandha granthi), and its connection (its dehabhimana) with the causal body, whose form is the latent tendencies, is called ‘the knot of attachment’ (abhimana-granthi),
The knot of bondage to the nerves pertains to the breath (prana), while the knot of attachment pertains to the mind.
“Mind and breath (prana) which have thought and action as their respective functions, are like two diverging branches of the trunk of a tree, but their root (the activating power) is one.” -
‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 12
Since the source of the mind and the prana is one (the Heart), when the knot of attachment (abhimana-granthi) is severed by the annihilation of the mind through Self-enquiry, the knot of bondage to the nerves (nadi bandha-granthi) is also severed.
In raja yoga, after removing the knot of bondage to the nerves by means of breath control, if the mind which is thus controlled is made to enter the Heart from the brain (sahasrara), since it reaches its source, then the knot of attachment is also severed.
“When the mind which has been subdued by breath control is led (to the Heart) through the only path (the path of knowing Self), its form will die.”
‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 14
However, since the knot of attachment is the basic one, until and unless the destruction of attachment (abhimana) is effected, by knowing self, even when the knot of bondage to the nerves is temporarily removed in sleep, swoon, death or by the use of anesthetics, the knot of attachment remains unaffected in the form of tendencies (vasanas), which constitute the causal body, and, hence rebirths are inescapable.
This is why Sri Bhagavan insists that one reaching kashta-nirvikalpa-samadhi through raja yoga should not stop there (since it is only mano-laya, a temporary absorption of the mind),
but that the mind so absorbed should be led to the Heart in order to attain sahaja-nirvikalpa-samildhi,
which is the destruction of the mind (mano-nasa),
the destruction of the attachment to the body (dehabhimana-nasa).
In the body of such a Self realized One (sahaja jnani), the coursing of the ‘I’ - consciousness along the nerves, even after the destruction of the knot of attachment, is like the water on a lotus leaf or like a burnt rope, and thus it cannot cause bondage.
Therefore the destruction of the knot of attachment is anyway indispensable for the attainment of the natural state (Sahaja Sthiti), the state of the destruction of the tendencies (vasanakshaya).
The nerves (nadis) are gross, but the consciousness power (chaitanya-sakti) that courses through them is subtle.
The connection of the ‘I’-consciousness with the nerves is similar to that of the electrical power with the wires, that is, it is so unstable that it can be disconnected or connected in a second. Is it not an experience common to one and all that this connection is daily broken in sleep and effected in the waking state?
When this connection is effected, body consciousness rises, and when it is broken, body consciousness is lost.
Here it is to be remembered what has already been stated, namely that body-consciousness and world-consciousness are one and the same.
So, like our clothes and ornaments which are daily removed and put on, this knot is alien to us, a transitory and false entity hanging loosely on us! This is what Sri Bhagavan referred to when He said, “We can detach ourself from what we are not”!
Disconnecting the knot in such a way that it will never again come into being is called by many names such as ‘the cutting of the knot’ (granthi-bheda), ‘the destruction of the mind’ (mano-nasa) and so on.
Granthi bheda = manonasha.
‘In such a way that it will never again come into being’ means this:
by attending to it (the ego) through the enquiry ‘Does it in truth exist at present?’ in order to find out whether it had ever really come into being, there takes place the dawn of knowledge (jnana), the real waking,
where it is clearly and firmly known that no such knot has ever come into being, that no such ego has ever risen.
That ‘that which exists’ alone ever exists, and that which was existing as ‘I am’ is ever existing as ‘I am’!
The attainment of this knowledge (Self-knowledge or atma-jnana), the knowledge that the knot or bondage is at all times non-existent and has never risen, is the permanent disconnecting of the knot.
Let us explain this with a small story. “Alas! I am imprisoned! I have been caught within this triangular room! How to free myself?” – thus was a man complaining and sobbing, standing in a corner where the ends of two walls joined. Groping on the two walls in front of him with his two hands, he was lamenting, “No doorway is available, nor even any kind of outlet for me to escape through ! How can I get out?” Another man, a friend of his who was standing at a distance in the open, heard the lamenting, turned in that direction and noticed the state of his friend. There were only two walls in that open space. They were closing only two sides, one end of each of them meeting the other. The friend in the open quickly realized that the man, who was standing facing only the two walls in front of him, had concluded, due to the wrong notion that there was a third wall behind him, that he was imprisoned within a three walled room.
So he asked, “Why are you lamenting, groping on the walls?” “I am searching for a way through which to escape from the prison of this triangular room, but I don’t find any way out !” replied the man. The friend: “Well, why don’t you search for a way out on the third wall behind you !”
The man (turning behind and looking): “Ah, here there is no obstacle ! Let me run away through this way.” (So saying, he started to run away.) The friend: “What ! Why do you run away? Is it necessary for you to do so? If you do not run away, will you remain in prison ?” The man: “Oho! yes, yes ! I was not at all imprisoned ! How could I have been imprisoned when there was no wall at all behind me” It was merely my own delusion that I was imprisoned, was never imprisoned, nor am I’ now released ! So I do not even need to run away from near these walls where I am now !
The defect of my not looking behind was the reason for my so called bondage; and the turning of my attention behind is really the sadhana for my so-called liberation!
In reality, I am ever remaining as I am, without any imprisonment or release !” Thus knowing the truth, he remained quiet. The two walls in the story signify the second and third persons. The first person is the third wall said to be behind the man.
There is no way at all to liberation by means of second and third person attention. Only by the first person attention ‘Who am I?’ will the right knowledge be gained that the ego, the first person, is ever non-existent, and only when the first person is thus annihilated will the truth be realized that bondage and liberation are false.
‘’So long as one thinks like a madman ‘I am a bound one’, thoughts of bondage and liberation will last. But when looking into oneself ‘Who is this bound one? the eternally free and ever shining Self alone will (be found to) exist.
Thus, where the thought of bondage no longer stands, can the thought of liberation still endure !”
‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 39
Just as we have explained the three walls as representing the three places, the first, second and third persons, we can also explain them as representing the three times, the present, past and future.
Even through the attention to the present – avoiding all thoughts of past and future – in order to know what is the truth of the present, all thoughts will subside and the ‘present’ itself will vanish. How? That which happened one moment before now is considered by us to be past, and that which will happen one moment from now is considered to be future.
Therefore without paying attention to any time even one moment before or after this, if we try to know what that one moment is that exists now, then even one millionth of the so-called present moment will be found to be either past or future.
If even such subtlest past and future moments are also not attended to and if we try to know what is in between these two, the past and future, we will find that nothing can be found as an exact present.
Thus the conception of present time will disappear, being non-existent, and the Self existence which transcends time and place alone will then survive.
“The past and future can exist only with reference to the present, which is daily experienced; they too, while occurring, were and will be the present.
Therefore, (among the three times) the present alone exists. Trying to know the past and future without knowing the truth of the present (i.e. its non-existence) is like trying to count without (knowing the value of the unit) one !”- ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 16
“When scrutinized, we – the ever-known existing Thing – alone are; then where is time and where is piece? If we are (mistaken to be) the body, we shall be involved in time and place; but, are we the body?
Since we are the One, now, then and ever, that One in space, here, there and everywhere, we – the timeless and spaceless Self -alone are !” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 18.
Hence, attending to the first place (the first person) among the three places or attending to the present time among the three times is the only path to liberation. Even this, the path of Sri Ramana is not really for the removal of bondage or for the attainment of liberation!
The path of Sri Ramana is paved solely for the purpose of our ever abiding in our eternal state of pure bliss, by giving up even the thought of liberation through the dawn of the right knowledge that we have never been in bondage.
“Only the first place or the present time is advised to be attended to.
If you keenly do so, you will enjoy the bliss of Self, having completed all yogas and having achieved the supreme accomplishment.
Know and feast on it!”
-‘Sadhanai Saram’
Let us now again take up our original point. When the attention of an aspirant is turned towards second and third persons, the ‘I’-consciousness spreads from the brain all over the body through the nerves (nadis) in the form of the power of spreading.
But when the same attention is focused on the first person, since it is used in an opposite direction, the ‘I’ -consciousness, instead of functioning in the form of the power of spreading, takes the form of the power of Self attention (that is, the power of ‘doing’ is transformed into the power of ‘being’).
This is what is called ‘the churning of the nadis’ (nadi-mathana).
By the churning thus taking place in the nadis, the ‘I’-consciousness scattered throughout the nadis turns back, withdraws and collects in the brain, the starting point of its spreading.
And from there it reaches, drowns and is established in the Heart, the pure consciousness, the source of its rising.
In raja-yoga, the ‘I’-consciousness pervading all the nadis is forcibly pushed back to the starting point of its spreading by the power generated through the pressure of breath-retention (prana-kumbhaka). But this is a violent method.
The following is what Sri Bhagavan used to say: “Forcibly pushing back the ‘I’ – consciousness by breath retention, as is done in raja yoga, is a violent method, like chasing a run-away cow, beating it, catching hold of it, dragging it forcibly to the shed and finally tying it there; on the other hand, bringing back the ‘I’-consciousness to its source by enquiry is a gentle and peaceful method, like tempting the cow by showing it a handful of green grass, cajoling and fondling it, making it follow us of its own accord to the shed and finally tying it there”.
This is a safe and pleasant path.
To bear the churning of the nadis effected through the method of breath-retention in raja yoga, the body must be young and strong. If such a churning is made to happen in a body which is weak or old, since the body does not have the strength to bear it, many troubles may occur such as nervous disorders, physical diseases, insanity and so on.
But there is no room for any such dangers if the churning is made to take place through enquiry.
“To say, ‘By holding the attention on Self, the consciousness and by practising abiding in it, he became insane’, is just like saying, ‘By drinking the nectar of immortality, he died’.”-
‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’, verse 746.
In the path of enquiry, withdrawal from the nadis takes place without any strain and as peacefully as the incoming of sleep. The rule found in. some sastras that the goal should be reached before the age of thirty is therefore applicable only in the path of raja yoga, and not in enquiry?, the path of Sri Ramana !
The channel through which the ‘I’-consciousness, which has risen from the Heart and has spread all over the body, is experienced while it is being withdrawn is called the sushumna nadi.
Not taking into consideration the legs and arms, since they are only subsidiary limbs, the channel through which the ‘I’ -consciousness is experienced in the trunk of the body from the base of the spine (muladhara) to the top of the head (sahasrara) is alone the sushumna.
While the ‘I’ – consciousness is withdrawing through the sushumna, an aspirant may have experiences of the places of the six yogic centres (shadchakras) on the way, or even without having them may reach the Heart directly.
While travelling in a train to Delhi, It is not necessary that a man should see the stations and scenes on the way. Can he not reach Delhi unmindful of them, sleeping happily?
However, due to the past devotional tendencies towards the different names and forms of God, which are bound by time and place, some aspirants may have experiences of the six yogic centres and of divine visions, sounds and so on therein.
But for those who do not have such obstacles in the form of tendencies, the journey will be pleasant and without any distinguishing feature (visesha).
In the former case, these experiences are due to non-vigilance (pramada) in Self-attention, for they are nothing but a second person attention taking place there! This itself betrays that the attention to Self is lost!
For those tremendously earnest aspirants who do not at all give room to non-vigilance in Self-attention, these objective experiences will never occur!
The following replies of Sri Ramakrishna are worth being noted in this context:
When Swami Vivekananda reported to Him, “All say that they have had visions, but I have not seen any !” the Guru said, “That is good !”
On another occasion, when Swami Vivekananda reported that some occult powers (siddhis) such as clairvoyance seemed to have been gained by him in the course of his sadhana, his Guru warned him
“Stop your sadhana for some time, Let them leave you!”
It is therefore clear from this that such experiences can be had only by those who delay by often stopping on the way on account of their Self-attention being obstructed by lack of vigilance (pramada).
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