https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Ramana-Maharshi-Day-by-Day-with-Bhagavan.pdf
51
Translation: I am struggling like the fish caught in the
pond whose waters diverted from the flood had been poisoned
by flesh-eaters. Is it possible for me to understand your hidden
kindness. Oh Almighty, who lying concealed in my heart is
moving me about like a puppet?”
.........
” Dr.
Srinivasa Rao asked Bhagavan how he first came to have bhakti.
Bhagavan replied, “The first thing that evoked bhakti in me was
the book ‘Periya Puranam’, which I came across in my house,
which belonged to a neighbour and which I read through. It was
however only after the experience described above that I used to
go daily to the temple and pray that I should become devoted like
one of the sixty-three saints (Nayanmar) of ‘Periya Puranam’.”
.......
Bhagavan said, “Enquire to whom has this ignorance
come and you will find it never came to you and that you
have always been that Sat-Chit-Ananda.
One performs all sorts of penances to become what one already is.
All effort is simply
to get rid of this viparita buddhi or mistaken impression that
one is limited and bound by the woes of samsara.”
..
Later Bhagavan said,
“The spark of jnana will easily
consume all creation as if it were a mountain-heap of cotton.
All the crores of worlds being built upon the weak (or no)
foundation of the ego, they all topple down when the atomic
bomb of jnana comes down upon them.”
Bhagavan said, “All
talk of surrender is like pinching jaggery from the jaggery
image of Lord Ganesa and offering it as naivedya to the same
Lord Ganesa.
You say you offer your body, soul and all
possessions to God. Were they yours that you could offer
them? At best, you can only say,
‘I falsely imagined till now
that all these which are yours (God’s) were mine.
Now I realise
they are yours. I shall no more act as if they are mine.’
And
this knowledge that there is nothing but God or Self, that I
and mine don’t exist and that only the Self exists, is jnana.”
He added, “Thus there is no difference between bhakti and
jnana. Bhakti is jnana mata or mother of jnana.”
.......
53
The talk then turned to the names of God and Bhagavan
said, “Talking of all mantras, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad
says ‘Aham’ is the first name of God. The first letter in Sanskrit
is A ëAí and the last letter Ha ‘h’ and ‘Aha’ thus includes
everything from beginning to end.
The word ‘Ayam’ means that
which exists, Self-shining and Self-evident. ‘Ayam’, ‘Atma’, ‘Aham’, all refer to the same thing. In the Bible also, ‘I am’ is
given as the name of God.”
.......
59
Bhagavan:
All depends on a man’s pakva,
i.e. his
aptitude and fitness.
Those who have not the mental strength
to concentrate or control their mind and direct it on the quest
are advised to watch their breathing, since such watching will
naturally and as a matter of course lead to cessation of thought
and bring the mind under control.
Breath and mind arise from the same place and when
one of them is controlled, the other is also controlled.
As a
matter of fact, in the quest method — which is more correctly
‘Whence am I?’ and not merely ‘Who am I?’
— we are not
simply trying to eliminate saying ‘we are not the body, not
the senses and so on,’ to reach what remains as the ultimate
reality,
but we are trying to find whence the ‘I’ thought for the
ego arises within us.
The method contains within it, though
implicitly and not expressly, the watching of the breath. When
we watch where from the ‘I’-thought, the root of all thoughts,
springs, we are necessarily watching the source of breath also,
as the ‘I’-thought and the breath arise from the same source.
........
60
The old gentleman asked Bhagavan whether one should
not first go through nirvikalpa samadhi before attaining sahaja
samadhi. Bhagavan replied,
“When we have vikalpas and are
trying to give them up, i.e. when we are still not perfected, but
have to make conscious effort to keep the mind one-pointed or
free from thought it is nirvikalpa samadhi.
When through
practice we are always in that state, not going into samadhi and
coming out again, that is the sahaja state.
In sahaja one sees
always oneself.
He sees the jagat as swarupa or brahmakara.
What is once the means becomes itself the goal, eventually,
whatever method one follows, dhyana, jnana or bhakti.
Samadhi
is another name for ourselves, for our real state.”
.......
This afternoon when I took
from Bhagavan the above Arunachala Puranam and referred to
the portion which moved him so deeply and told him, in effect,
that I had discovered his plight which he tried to hide from us all,
he remarked, “I don’t know how those people who perform
kalakshepam and explain such passages to audiences manage to
do it without breaking down. I suppose they must first make
their hearts hard like stone before starting their work.”
......
79
A visitor asked if he could do both pranayama and
dhyana. Bhagavan said, “One is a help to the other. Whether
one need do pranayama depends on one’s pakva or fitness.”
........
80
..........If one is able to make the mind one-pointed without
the help of pranayama, he need not bother about pranayama.
But one who cannot at once control the mind, may control
the breath and that will lead to control of the mind. It is
something like pulling a horse by the reins and making it go
in one direction.”
........
80
Bhagavan continued, “He says he has ‘Liberate Yourself’
for his motto. But why should there be any motto?
Liberation
is our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish for
liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real
nature. That has not got to be freshly acquired. All that is
necessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound.
When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of any
sort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you may take it,
one is in bondage.”
He also said, “People are afraid that when
ego or mind is killed, the result may be a mere blank and not
happiness.
What really happens is that the thinker, the object of thought and thinking, all merge in the one Source, which is
Consciousness and Bliss itself, and thus that state is neither
inert nor blank.
I don’t understand why people should be afraid
of that state in which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind is
killed. They are every day experiencing that state in sleep. There
is no mind or thought in sleep. Yet when one rises from sleep
one says, ‘I slept happily’. Sleep is so dear to everyone that no
one, prince or beggar, can do without it. And when one wants
to sleep, nothing however high in the range of all the worldly
enjoyments can tempt him from much desired sleep. A king
wants to go to sleep, let us say. His queen, dear to him above all
other things, comes then and disturbs him. But even her, he
then brushes aside and prefers to go to sleep. That is an
indication of the supreme happiness that is to be had in that
state where all thoughts cease. If one is not afraid of going to
sleep, I don’t see why one should be afraid of killing the mind
or ego by sadhana.”
Bhagavan also quoted during the above
discourse the Tamil stanza (quoted already in this diary) which
ends by saying that so long as the cloud of ego hides the moon
of jnana, the lily of the Self will not bloom.
............
84
Question 1: When I think ‘Who am I?’, the answer comes
‘I am not this mortal body but I am chaitanya, atma, or
paramatma.’ And suddenly another question arises — ‘Why
has atma come into maya?’ or in other words ‘Why has God
created this world?’
Answer: To enquire ‘Who am I?’ really means trying to
find out the source of the ego or the ‘I’ thought.
You are not to
think of other thoughts, such as ‘I am not this body, etc.’
Seeking
the source of ‘I’ serves as a means of getting rid of all other
thoughts.
We should not give scope to other thoughts, such as
you mention, but must keep the attention fixed on finding out
the source of the ‘I’ thought, by asking (as each thought arises)
to whom the thought arises.
If the answer is ‘I get the thought’ ask further who is this ‘I’ and whence its source?
.......
Question 2: Is atma a subject of sakshatkara?
Answer: The atma is as it is. It is sakshat always. There
are not two atmas, one to know and one to be known. To
know it is to be it. It is not a state where one is conscious of
anything else. It is consciousness itself.
Question 3: I do not understand the meaning of “brahma
satyam jagat mithya (Brahman is real, the world is unreal)”.
Does this world have real existence or not? Does the jnani
not see the world or does he see it in a different form?
Answer: Let the world bother about its reality or
falsehood. Find out first about your own reality. Then all things
will become clear. What do you care how the jnani sees the
world? You realise yourself and then you will understand. The
jnani sees that the world of names and forms does not limit
the Self, and that the Self is beyond them.
Question 4: “I do not know how to worship. So kindly
show me the way to worship.”
Answer: Is there a ‘worshipper’ and a ‘worshipped’? Find
out the ‘I’, the worshipper; that is the best way. Always the
seer must be traced.
........
85
Mr. Dewanji asked Bhagavan, “What is the
easiest way to attain one-pointedness of mind?”
Bhagavan
said, “The best way is to see the source of the mind. See if there is such a thing as the mind. It is only if there is a mind
that the question of making it one-pointed will arise.
When
you investigate by turning inwards, you find there is no such
thing as the mind.”
..............
Then Mr. P.C. Desai quoted Bhagavan’s Upadesa Sara in
Sanskrit to the effect,
“When you investigate the nature of mind
continuously or without break, you find there is no such thing as
the mind. This is the straight path for all.”
The visitor again asked,
“It is said in our scriptures that God it is that creates, sustains and
destroys all and that He is immanent in all. If so and if God does
everything and if all that we do is according to God’s niyati (law),
and had already been planned in the Cosmic Consciousness. is
there individual personality and any responsibility for it?”
Bhagavan: Of course, there is. The same scriptures have
laid down rules as to what men should or should not do. If man is
not responsible, then why should those rules have been laid down?
You talk of God’s niyati and things happening according to it. If
you ask God why this creation and all, He would tell you it is
according to your karma again.
If you believe in God and His
niyati working out everything, completely surrender yourself to
Him and there will be no responsibility for you.
Otherwise, find
out your real nature and thus attain freedom.
88
First about the jnani’s doing work, without the mind: “You
imagine one cannot do work if the mind is killed. Why do you
suppose that it is the mind alone that can make one do work.
There may be other causes which can also produce activity.
Look at this clock, for instance. It is working without a mind.
Again suppose we say the jnani has a mind. His mind is very
different from the ordinary man’s mind. He is like the man
who is hearing a story told with his mind all on some distant
object. The mind rid of vasanas, though doing work, is not
doing work. On the other hand, if the mind is full of vasanas, it
is doing work even if the body is not active or moving.”
Question 2: Is soham the same as ‘Who am I?’
Answer: Aham alone is common to them. One is soham.
The other is koham. They are different. Why should we go on
saying soham? One must find out the real ‘I’. In the question
‘Who am I?’, by ‘I’ is meant the ego. Trying to trace it and find
its source, we see it has no separate existence but merges in the
real ‘I’.
Question 3: I find surrender is easier. I want to adopt
that path.
Answer:
By whatever path you go, you will have to lose
yourself in the One.
Surrender is complete only when you
reach the stage ‘Thou art all’ and ‘Thy will be done’.
The state is not different from Dnyana.
In soham there is
dvaita.
In surrender there is advaita.
In the Reality there is neither
dvaita nor advaita, but That which is, is.
Surrender appears easy
because people imagine that, once they say with their lips ‘I
surrender’ and put their burdens on their Lord, they can be free
and do what they like.
But the fact is that you can have no likes
or dislikes after your surrender and that your will should become
completely non-existent, the Lord’s Will taking its place.
Such
death of the ego is nothing different from dnyana.
So by whatever
path you may go, you must come to Dnyana or oneness.
Sam: Dnyana or Oneness
Dnyana = Oneness
.........
Each man’s first duty is to realise his true nature. If
after doing it, he feels like reforming the country or nation, by
all means let him take up such reform. Ram Tirtha advertised,
‘Wanted reformers — but reformers who will reform themselves
first.’
,,,,,,,,,
91
Visitor: Is renunciation necessary for Self-realisation?
Bhagavan: Renunciation and realisation are the same.
They are different aspects of the same state.
Giving up the
non-self is renunciation.
Inhering in the Self is Dnyana or Self realisation.
One is the negative and the other the positive
aspect of the same, single truth.
Bhakti, jnana, yoga — are
different names for Self-realisation or mukti which is our
real nature.
These appear as the means first. They eventually
are the goal. So long as there is conscious effort required on
our part to keep up bhakti, yoga, dhyana, etc. they are the
means. When they go on without any effort on our part, we
have attained the goal. There is no realisation to be achieved.
The real is ever as it is. What we have done is, we have
realised the unreal, i.e. taken for real the unreal. We have to
give up that. That is all that is wanted.
.........
92
Question 1: Should I go on asking ‘Who am I?’ without
answering? Who asks whom? Which bhavana (attitude)
should be in the mind at the time of enquiry? What is ‘I’ the
Self or the ego?
Answer: In the enquiry ‘Who am I?’, ‘I’ is the ego.
The
question really means, what is the source or origin of this
ego?
You need not have any bhavana in the mind.
All that is
required is, you must give up the bhavana that you are the
body, of such and such a description, with such and such a
name, etc.
There is no need to have a bhavana about your real
nature.
It exists as it always does; it is real and no bhavana.
....
When I entered the hall Bhagavan was answering some
question saying, “There is no difference between dream and
the waking state except that the dream is short and the waking
long. Both are the result of the mind. Because the waking state
is long, we imagine that it is our real state. But, as a matter of
fact, our real state is what is sometimes called turiya or the
fourth state which is always as it is and knows nothing of the
three avasthas, viz. waking, dream or sleep.
Because we call
these three avasthas we call the fourth state also turiya
avastha.
But it is not an avastha, but the real and natural state
of the Self. When this is realised, we know it is not a turiya or
fourth state, for a fourth state is only relative, but turiyatita,
the transcendent state called the fourth state.”
.....
97
Our real nature is mukti.
But we are imagining we are
bound and are making various strenuous attempts to become
free, while we are all the while free.
This will be understood
only when we reach that stage.
An illustration will make this clear. A
man goes to sleep in this hall. He dreams he has gone on a
world tour, is roaming over hill and dale, forest and country,
desert and sea, across various continents and after many years
of weary and strenuous travel, returns to this country, reaches
Tiruvannamalai, enters the Asramam and walks into the hall.
Just at that moment he wakes up and finds he has not moved an
inch but was sleeping where he lay down. He has not returned
after great effort to this hall, but is and always has been in the
hall. It is exactly like that. If it is asked, why being free we imagine we are bound, I answer, “Why being in the hall did
you imagine you were on a world adventure, crossing hill and
dale, desert and sea? It is all mind or maya.”
....
99
Bhagavan:
Where are you now?
Where is the goal?
What
is the distance to be covered?
The Self is not somewhere far
away to be reached.
You are always that.
You have only to
give up your habit, a long-standing one, of identifying yourself
with the non-self.
All effort is only for that.
By turning the
mind outwards, you have been seeing the world, the non-Self.
If you turn it inwards, you will see the Self.
....
“It is false to speak of Realisation. What is there to realise?
The real is as it is, ever.
How to real-ise it? All that is required
is this. We have real-ised the unreal, i.e. regarded as real what
is unreal.
We have to give up this attitude.
That is all that is
required for us to attain jnana.
We are not creating anything
new or achieving something which we did not have before.
The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create
a huge pit. The akasa in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the akasa
there. The akasa was there then and is also there now. Similarly
we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras which
are inside us, and when all of them have been given up, the Self
will shine, alone.” He also said, “Mukti, jnana, dhyana is our
real nature. They are other names for the Self”.
.........
108
A young man from Colombo asked Bhagavan,
“J. Krishnamurti teaches the method of effortless and choiceless
awareness as distinct from that of deliberate concentration.
Would Sri Bhagavan be pleased to explain how best to practise
meditation and what form the object of meditation should take?”
Bhagavan:
Effortless and choiceless awareness is our real
nature.
If we can attain it or be in that state, it is all right.
But
one cannot reach it without effort, the effort of deliberate
meditation.
All the age-long vasanas carry the mind outward
and turn it to external objects.
All such thoughts have to be
given up and the mind turned inward.
For that, effort is necessary
for most people.
Of course everybody, every book says, “ÑmUô
BÚ” i.e., “Be quiet or still”. But it is not easy.
That is why all
this effort is necessary.
Even if we find one who has at once
achieved the mauna or Supreme state indicated by “ÑmUô BÚ”,
you may take it that the effort necessary has already been
finished in a previous life.
So that, effortless and choiceless
awareness is reached only after deliberate meditation.
That
meditation can take any form which appeals to you best.
See
what helps you to keep away all other thoughts and adopt that
method for your meditation.
In this connection Bhagavan quoted verses 5 and 52 from
“DPp ùTônÙ\Ü” and 36 from “TôVl ×-” of Saint
Thayumanavar. Their gist is as follows.
“Bliss will follow if
you are still. But however much you may tell your mind about
this truth, the mind will not keep quiet. It is the mind that
won’t keep quiet. It is the mind which tells the mind,
‘Be
quiet and you will attain bliss’.
Though all the scriptures have
said it, though we hear about it every day from the great ones,
and though even our Guru says it,
we are never quiet, but
stray into the world of maya and sense objects.
That is why
conscious, deliberate effort or meditation is required to attain
that mauna state or the state of being quiet.”
.........................................................................................................
..............................................................108..........................end................
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