https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Talks-with-Sri-Ramana-Maharshi--complete.pdf
628
........
Freedom from passions is the essential requisite. When that is accomplished all else is accomplished.”
.......
M.: Sadhanas are needed so long as one has not realised it. They are for putting an end to obstacles. Finally there comes a stage when a person feels helpless notwithstanding the sadhanas.
He is unable to pursue the much-cherished sadhana also.
It is then that God’s Power is realised.
The Self reveals itself.
...........
D.: But Chudala says to Sikhidhvaja that she simply helped to trim the wick.
M.: That refers to nididhyasana.
By sravana, Knowledge dawns. That is the flame.
By manana, the Knowledge is not allowed to vanish. Just as the flame is protected by a wind-screen, so the other thoughts are not allowed to overwhelm the right knowledge.
By nididhyasana, the flame is kept up to burn bright by trimming the wick. Whenever other thoughts arise, the mind is turned inward to the light of true knowledge.
When this becomes natural, it is samadhi.
The enquiry “Who am I?” is the sravana.
The ascertainment of the true import of ‘I’ is the manana.
The practical application on each occasion is nididhyasana.
Being as ‘I’ is samadhi.
.............
M.: The mind is commonly said to be strong if it can think furiously. But here the mind is strong if it is free from thoughts.
The yogis say that realisation can be had only before the age of thirty, but not the jnanis.
For jnana does not cease to exist with age. It is true that in the Yoga Vasishta, Vasishta says to Rama in the Vairagya Prakarana “You have this dispassion in your youth. It is admirable.” But he did not say that jnana cannot be had in old age. There is nothing to prevent it in old age.
The sadhak must remain as the Self.
If he cannot do so, he must ascertain the true meaning of the ‘I’
and constantly revert to it whenever other thoughts arise.
That is the practice.
Some say that one must know the ‘tat’ because the idea of the world constantly arises to deflect the mind.
If the Reality behind it is first ascertained it will be found to be Brahman.
The ‘tvam’ is understood later. It is the jiva. Finally there will be jiva-brahmaikya (union of the two). But why all this? Can the world exist apart from the Self? The ‘I’ is always Brahman. Its identity need not be established by logic and practice.
It is enough that one realises the Self. It is always the Brahman.
According to the other school, nididhyasana will be the thought Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman).
That is diversion of thought to Brahman.
No diversion should be allowed.
Know the Self and there is an end of it.
No long process is necessary to know the Self.
Is it to be pointed out by another?
Does not everyone know that he exists?
Even in utter darkness when he cannot see his hand, he answers a call and says “I am here”.
..........
639
M.: The Gita says: Brahmano hi pratishtaham. If that ‘aham’ is known, the whole is known.
......
641
Any kind of meditation is good.
But if the sense of separateness is lost and the object of meditation or the subject who meditates is alone left behind without anything else to know, it is jnana.
Jnana is said to be ekabhakti (single-minded devotion). The Jnani is the finality because he has become the Self and there is nothing more to do. He is also perfect and so fearless.
dwitiyat vai bhayam bhavati - only the existence of a second gives rise to fear.
This is mukti. It is also bhakti.
..........
स्वस्वरूपानुसन्धानं भक्तिरित्यभिधीयते ॥ ३१ ॥
svasvarūpānusandhānaṃ bhaktirityabhidhīyate || 31 ||
.........
“The Vedanta says that the cosmos springs into view simultaneously with the seer. There is no detailed process of creation. This is said to be yugapat srshti (instantaneous creation).
It is quite similar to the creations in dream where the experiencer springs up simultaneously with the objects of experience. When this is told, some people are not satisfied for they are so rooted in objective knowledge. They seek to find out how there can be sudden creation. They argue that an effect must be preceded by a cause. In short, they desire an explanation for the existence of the world which they see around them. Then the Srutis try to satisfy their curiosity by such theories of creation. This method of dealing with the subject of creation is called krama srshti (gradual creation). But the true seeker can be content with yugapat srshti - instantaneous creation.”
.......... The end of talks with Ramana....................................................
From : Path Of Ramana-1
147
Therefore, the mind which attends to Self is no more the mind; it is the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam)! Likewise, so long as it attends to the second and third persons (the world), it is not the consciousness aspect of Self;
.......
The mind which has obtained a burning desire for Self-attention, which is Self-enquiry, is said to be the fully mature one (pakva manas).
Since it is not at all now inclined to attend to any second or third parson, it can be said that it has reached the pinnacle of desirelessness (vairagya).
.........
For, do not all sorts of desires and attachments pertain only to second and third persons? Since this mind, which has very well understood that (as already seen in earlier chapters) the consciousness which shines as ‘I’ alone is the source of full and real happiness, now seeks Self because of its natural craving for happiness,
this intense desire to attend to Self is indeed the highest form of devotion (bhakti).
It is exactly this Self-attention of the mind which is thus fully mature through such devotion and desirelessness (bhakti-vairagya) that is to be called the enquiry ‘Who am I ?’ taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana!
Well, will not at least such a mature mind which has come to the path of Sri Ramana, willingly agreeing to engage in Self-attention, realize Self ? No, no, it has started for its doom ! Agreeing to commit suicide, it places its neck (through Self-attention) on the scaffold where it is to be sacrificed !! How ? Only so long as it was attending to second and third persons did it have the name ‘mind’, but as soon as Self-attention is begun, its name and form (its name as mind and its form as thoughts) are lost.
So we can no longer say that Self-attention or Self-enquiry is performed by the mind, Neither is it the mind that attends to Self, nor is the natural spontaneous Self-attention of the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam), which is not the mind, an activity ! “A naked lie then it would be If any man were to say that he Realized the Self, diving within Through proper enquiry set in, Not for knowing but for death The good-for-nothing ego’s worth ! ’This Arunachala alone, The Self, by which the Self is known !” ‘Sri Arunachala Venba’ verse 39
The feeling ‘I am’ is the experience common to one and all. In this, ‘am’ is consciousness or knowledge. This knowledge is not of anything external; it is the knowledge of oneself, This is chit. This consciousness is ‘we’, “We are verily consciousness”, says Sri Bhagavan in ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ verse 23. This is our ‘being’ (that is, our true existence) or sat. This is called ‘that which is’ (ulladhu). Thus in ‘I am’, ‘I’ is existence (sat) and ‘am’ is consciousness (chit). When Self, our nature of existence-consciousness (satchit swarupam), instead of shining only as the pure consciousness ‘I am’, shines mixed with an adjunct (upadhi) as ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am so-and-so, I am this or that’, then this mixed consciousness is the ego. This mixed consciousness can rise only by catching hold of a name and form. When we feel ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am sitting, I am lying’, is it not clear that we have mistaken the body for ‘I’, and that we have assumed its name and postures as ‘I am this and I am thus’? – The feeling ‘this and thus’ which has now risen mixed with the pure consciousness ‘I am’ (satchit) is what is called ‘thought’, This is the first thought.
The feeling ‘I am a man, I am so-and-so’ is only a thought. But the consciousness ‘I am’ is not a thought; it is the very nature of our ‘being’. The mixed consciousness ‘I am this or that’ is a thought that rises from our ‘being’. It is only after the rising of this thought, the mixed consciousness (the first person), that all other thoughts,
which are the knowledge of second and third persons, rise into existence.
“ Thinking is a mentation (vritti) ; being is not a mentation ! ...” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 1
The pure existence-consciousness, ‘I am’, is not a thought; this consciousness is our nature (swarupam). ‘I am a man’ is not our pure consciousness; it is only our thought!
150
To understand thus the difference between our ‘being’ and our ‘rising’ (that is, between existence and thought) first of all is essential for aspirants who take to the enquiry ‘Who am I?’,
......
Therefore, the result which is aimed at when seeking the rising-place of the ego is the annihilation of that ego and not an experience of a place in the body. It is only in reply to the immature people who – not able to have even an intellectual understanding (paroksha jnana) about the nature of Self, which shines alone as the one, non-dual thing, unlimited by (indeed, absolutely unconnected with) time and space, unlimited even in the form ‘Brahman is everywhere, Brahman is at all times, Brahman is everything’ (sarvatra brahma, sarvada brahma, sarvam brahma) – always raise the question, “Where is the seat for Self in the body?”, that the sastras and sometimes even Sri Bhagavan had to say: “... two digits to the right (from the centre of the chest)
......
155
Sri Bhagavan in the last two lines of the first benedictory verse of ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’ to be ‘abiding in the Heart as it is’ (that is to say, abiding as Self is the correct way of meditating upon it), so also, the correct meaning of the term ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara) is here rightly explained to be ‘turning Selfwards’ (or attending to Self),
Thus it is sufficient if we cling to the feeling ‘I’ uninterruptedly till the very end. Such attention to the feeling ‘I’, the common daily experience of everyone, is what is meant by Self-attention,
For those who accept as their basic knowledge the ‘I am the body’ – consciousness (jiva bhaval, being unable to doubt its (the ego’s) existence, it is suitable to take to Self-attention (that is, to do Self-enquiry) in the form ‘Whence am I ?’,
On the other hand, for those who instead of assuming that they have an individuality (jiva bhava) such as ‘I am so-and-so’ or ‘I am this’, attend thus,
‘What is this feeling which shines as I am?’,
it is suitable to be fixed in Self-attention in the form ‘Who am I ?’
What is important to be sure of during practice (sadhana) is that our attention is turned only towards ‘I’, the first person singular feeling.
.......
“Although in the beginning, on account of the tendencies towards sense-objects (vishaya-vasanas) which have been recurring down the ages, thoughts rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as the aforesaid Self-attention becomes more and more intense. Since even the doubt “Is it possible to destroy all of them and to remain as Self alone ?’ is only a thought, without giving room even to that thought, one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention. However great a sinner one may be, if, not lamenting ‘Oh, I am a sinner! How can I attain salvation?’ but completely giving up even the thought that one is a sinner, one is steadfast in Self attention, one will surely be saved. Therefore everyone, diving deep within himself with desirelessness (vairagya), can attain the pearl of Self.
“As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, (since they will always create some subtle or gross world-appearance) so long the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is necessary.
As and when thoughts rise of their own accord, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. What is the means to annihilate them? If other thoughts rise disturbing Self-attention, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire ‘To whom did they rise?, It will “then be known ‘To me’; immediately, if we observe ‘Who is this I that thinks?’, the mind (our power of attention which was hitherto engaged in thinking of second and third persons) will turn back to its source (Self). Hence (since no one is there to attend to them), the other thoughts which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to, abide in its source increases. When the mind thus abides in the Heart, the first thought, ‘I’ (‘I am the body’, the rising ‘I’), which is the root of all other thoughts, itself having vanished, the ever-existing Self (the being ‘I’) alone will shine. The place (or state) where even the slightest trace of the thought ‘I’ (‘I am this, that, the body, Brahman and so on’) does not exist, alone is Self. That alone is called Silence (maunam).
...
“After coming to know that the final decision of all the scriptures (sastras) is that such destruction of the mind alone is liberation (mukti), to read scriptures unlimitedly is fruitless. In order to destroy the mind, it is necessary to enquire who one is; then how, instead of enquiring thus within oneself, to enquire and know who one, is in scriptures ? For Rama to know himself to be Rama, is a mirror necessary ? (That is to say, for one to know oneself through Self-attention to be ‘I am’, are scriptures necessary ?) ‘Oneself’ is within the five sheaths, whereas the scriptures are outside them. Therefore, how can oneself, who is to be attended to within, setting aside even the five sheaths, be found in scriptures? Since scripture-enquiry is futile, one should give it up and take to Self-enquiry” – thus says Bhagavan Sri Ramana
..
Just as the man in the dark room, deciding to see the source of the reflected beam which has come into the room, gives up the desire either to enjoy or to make research about the things there with the help of that reflected beam, so a man who wants to know the real Light (Self) must give up all efforts towards enjoying or knowing about the various worlds which shine only by means of the mind-light functioning through the five senses, since he cannot know Self either if he is deluded by cognizing and desiring external objects (like a worldly man) or if he is engaged in investigating them (like our modern scientists). This giving up of attention towards external sense-objects is desirelessness (vairagya) or inward renunciation. The eagerness to see whence the reflected ray comes into the room corresponds to the eagerness to see whence the ego. ‘I’, the mind-light, rises. This eagerness is love for Self (swatma-bhakti). Keeping the eyes positioned along the straight line of the beam without straying away to one side or the other corresponds to the one-pointed attention fixed unswervingly on the ‘I’ – consciousness. Is not the man now moving along the straight line of the reflected beam from the dark room towards the piece of mirror lying outside?
This moving corresponds to diving within towards the Heart.
................end...............................
No comments:
Post a Comment