march part 24

https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Talks-with-Sri-Ramana-Maharshi--complete.pdf

583

D.: How then is the state to be attained? 

M.: What is there to attain? A thing remains to be attained if it is not already attained. But here one’s very being is That. 

Someone: Why do we not then know it? 

Annamalaiswami: I should always try to think I am That. 

M.: Why should one think “I am That”? He is That only. Does a man go on thinking that he is a man? Mr. 

Anantachari: The belief ‘I am a man’ is so deep that we cannot help thinking so. 

M.: Why should you think “I am a man”? If you are challenged you may say ‘I am a man’. Therefore the thought - ‘I am a man’ - is called up when another thought, say ‘I am an animal’, protrudes itself. Similarly, the thought I am That is necessary only so long as the other thought I am a man persists. 

D.: The thought ‘I am a man’ is so firm that it cannot he got rid of. 

M.: Be your true Self. Why should you think ‘I am a man’?

D.: The thought ‘I am a man’ is so natural. 

M.: Not so. On the other hand ‘I am’ is natural. Why do you qualify it with ‘a man’? 

D.: ‘I am a man’ is so obvious whereas ‘I am That’ is not understood by us. 

M.: You are neither That nor This. The truth is ‘I am’. “I Am that I Am” according to the Bible also. Mere Being is alone natural. To limit it to ‘being a man’ is uncalled for. 

D.: (Humorously) If votes be taken the majority will be on my side. (Laughter) 

M.: I cast my vote also on your side (Laughter). I say also ‘I am a man’: but I am not limited to the body. It is IN ME. That is the difference.

 Someone: The limitation (upadhi) of being a man cannot be got rid of.

 M.: How were you in deep sleep? There was no thought of being a man.

 Another: So, the state of sleep must be brought about even when one is awake. 

M.: Yes. It is jagrat-sushupti.

..............

M.: What you consider to be filled with beautiful and interesting things is indeed the dull and ignorant state of sleep, according to the Jnani: Ya nisha sarva bhootanam tasyam jagrati samyami. The wise one is wide awake just where darkness rules for others. You must certainly wake up from the sleep which is holding you at present.

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594

M.: The Self is always realised. Were Realisation something to be gained hereafter there is an equal chance of its being lost. It will thus be only transitory. Transitory bliss brings pain in its train. It cannot be liberation which is eternal. Were it true that you realise it later it means that you are not realised now. Absence of Realisation of the present moment may be repeated at any moment in the future, for Time is infinite. So too, such realisation is impermanent. But that is not true. It is wrong to consider Realisation to be impermanent. It is the True Eternal State which cannot change.

598

M.: So it was with Arjuna. For he says in the end nashto mohah smritirlabdha (lost is my ignorance; memory restored).

599

Talk 612. Mrs. Hick Riddingh asked Sri Bhagavan in writing: When Bhagavan writes about the help given towards attaining Self Realisation by the gracious glance of the Master or looking upon the Master, how exactly is this to be understood?” 

M.: Who is the Master? Who is the seeker? 

D.: The Self. 

M.: If the Self be the Master and also the seeker, how can the questions arise at all?

 D.: That is just my difficulty. I must seek the Self within myself. What is then the significance of the writing above referred to? It seems contradictory. 

M.: It is not. The statement has not been rightly understood. 

If the seeker knows the Master to be the Self he sees no duality in other respects either and is therefore happy, so that no questions arise for him.

 But the seeker does not bring the truth of the statement to bear in practice. It is because of his ignorance. This ignorance is however unreal. The Master is required to wake up the seeker from the slumber of ignorance and he therefore uses these words in order to make Reality clear to others. The only thing that matters is that you see the Self. This. can be done wherever you remain. The Self must be sought within. The search must be steadfast. If that is gained there is no need to stay near the Master as a physical being. 

The ‘statement’ is meant for those who cannot find the Self remaining where they are.

.........

M.: The Reality is alone and eternal. To understand it is good enough. But the old ignorance should not return. A good watch must be kept lest the present understanding of the Truth suffers later on. A disciple served a master a long time and realised the Self. He was in Bliss and wanted to express his gratitude to the master. He was in tears of joy and his voice choked when he spoke. 

He said, “What a wonder that I did not know my very Self all these years? I suffered long and you so graciously helped me to realise the Self. How shall I repay your Grace? It is not in my power to do it!” 

The master replied: “Well, well. Your repayment consists in not lapsing into ignorance over again but in continuing in the state of your real Self.” 

[Compiler’s remarks: The Self is the Master and all else. The Realisation of the Self means Self-surrender or merging into the Master. What more can anyone do? That is the highest form of gratitude to the Master].

.....

604

Talk 616.

 D.: Is the Jiva nadi an entity or a figment of the imagination? 

M.: The yogis say that there is a nadi called the jivanadi, atmanadi or paranadi. The Upanishads speak of a centre from which thousands of nadis branch off. Some locate such a centre in the brain and others in other centres. The Garbhopanishad traces the formation of the foetus and the growth of the child in the womb.

 The jiva is considered to enter the child through the fontanelle in the seventh month of its growth. In evidence thereof it is pointed out that the fontanelle is tender in a baby and is also seen to pulsate. It takes some months for it to ossify. 

Thus the jiva comes from above, enters through the fontanelle and works through the thousands of the nadis which are spread over the whole body. Therefore the seeker of Truth must concentrate on the sahasrara, that is the brain, in order to regain his source. 

Pranayama is said to help the yogi to rouse the Kundalini Sakti which lies coiled in the solar plexus. The sakti rises through a nerve called the Sushumna, which is imbedded in the core of the spinal cord and extends to the brain. If one concentrates on the Sahasrara there is no doubt that the ecstasy of samadhi ensues. The vasanas, that is the latencies, are not however destroyed.

 The yogi is therefore bound to wake up from the samadhi, because release from bondage has not yet been accomplished. 

He must still try to eradicate the vasanas in order that the latencies yet inherent in him may not disturb the peace of his samadhi. 

So he passes down from the sahasrara to the heart through what is called the jivanadi, which is only a continuation of the Sushumna. 

The Sushumna is thus a curve. 

It starts from the solar plexus, rises through the spinal cord to the brain and from there bends down and ends in the heart. 

When the yogi has reached the heart, the samadhi becomes permanent. 

Thus we see that the heart is the final centre. Some Upanishads also speak of 101 nadis which spread from the heart, one of them being the vital nadi. If the jiva comes down from above and gets reflected in the brain, as the yogis say, there must be a reflecting surface in action. 

That must also be capable of limiting the Infinite Consciousness to the limits of the body.

 In short the Universal Being becomes limited as a jiva. Such reflecting medium is furnished by the aggregate of the vasanas of the individual. It acts like the water in a pot which reflects the image of an object. If the pot be drained of its water there will be no reflection. The object will remain without being reflected. The object here is the Universal Being-Consciousness which is all-pervading and therefore immanent in all. It need not be cognised by reflection alone; it is self-resplendent. Therefore the seeker’s aim must be to drain away the vasanas from the heart and let no reflection obstruct the Light of Eternal Consciousness.

 This is achieved by the search for the origin of the ego and by diving into the heart. 

This is the direct method for Self-Realisation.

 One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, the brain, the Sushumna, the Paranadi, the Kundalini, pranayama or the six centres. 

The Self does not come from anywhere else and enter the body through the crown of the head. It is as it is, ever sparkling, ever steady, unmoving and unchanging. The changes which are noticed are not inherent in the Self which abides in the Heart and is self-luminous like the Sun. The changes are seen in Its Light. 

The relation between the Self and the body or the mind may be compared to that of a clear crystal and its background. If the crystal is placed against a red flower, it shines red; if placed against a green leaf it shines green, and so on. The individual confines himself to the limits of the changeful body or of the mind which derives its existence from the unchanging Self. All that is necessary is to give up this mistaken identity, and that done, the ever-shining Self will be seen to be the single non-dual Reality. 

The reflection of Consciousness is said to be in the subtle body (sukshma sarira), which appears to be composed of the brain and the nerves radiating from it to all parts of the trunk, chiefly through the spinal column and the solar plexus. 

When I was on the Hill, Nayana (Kavyakantha Ganapathi Muni) once argued that the brain was the seat of the vasanas, because it consisted of innumerable cells in which the vasanas were contained and illuminated by the light of the Self which projected from the heart. Only this set a person working or thinking. But I said, “How can it be so? The vasanas must be with one’s Self and can never remain away from the Self. If, as you say, the vasanas be contained in the brain and the Heart is the seat of the Self, a person who is decapitated must be rid of his vasanas and should not be reborn. You agree that it is absurd. Now can you say that the Self is in the brain with the vasanas? If so, why should the head bend down when one falls asleep? Moreover a person does not touch his head and say ‘I’. Therefore it follows that the Self is in the Heart and the vasanas are also there in an exceedingly subtle form. “When the vasanas are projected from the Heart they are associated with the Light of the Self and the person is said to think. The vasanas which lie imbedded in an atomic condition grow in size in their passage from the heart to the brain. The brain is the screen on which the images of the vasanas are thrown and it is also the place of their functional distribution. The brain is the seat of the mind, and the mind works through it.” So then this is what happens. When a vasana is released and it comes into play, it is associated with the light of the Self. It passes from the heart to the brain and on its way it grows more and more until it holds the field all alone and all the vasanas are thus kept in abeyance for the time being. When the thought is reflected in the brain it appears as an image on a screen. The person is then said to have a clear perception of things. He is a great thinker or discoverer. Neither the thought that is extolled as being original, nor the thing, nor the country which is claimed to be a new discovery, is really original or new. It could not manifest unless it was already in the mind. It was of course very subtle and remained imperceptible, because it lay repressed by the more urgent or insistent thoughts or vasanas. When they have spent themselves this thought arises and by concentration the Light of the Self makes it clear, so that it appears magnificent, original and revolutionary. In fact it was only within all along. This concentration is called samyamana in the Yoga Sastras. One’s desires can be fulfilled by this process and it is said to be a siddhi. It is how the so-called new discoveries are made. Even worlds can be created in this manner. 

Samyama leads to all siddhis. But they do not manifest so long as the ego lasts.

 Concentration according to yoga ends in the destruction of the experiencer (ego), experience and the world, and then the quondam desires get fulfilled in due course. This concentration bestows on individuals even the powers of creating new worlds. It is illustrated in the Aindava Upakhyana in the Yoga Vasishta and in the Ganda Saila Loka in the Tripura Rahasya. 

Although the powers appear to be wonderful to those who do not possess them, yet they are only transient. It is useless to aspire for that which is transient. 

All these wonders are contained in the one changeless Self. 

The world is thus within and not without. This meaning is contained in verses 11 and 12 - Chapter V of Sri Ramana Gita 

“The entire Universe is condensed in the body, and the entire body in the Heart. Thus the Heart is the nucleus of the whole Universe.” 

Therefore Samyamana relates to concentration on different parts of the body for the different siddhis. Also the Visva or the Virat is said to contain the cosmos within the limits of the body. Again, “The world is not other than the mind, the mind is not other than the Heart; that is the whole truth.” So the Heart comprises all. This is what is taught to Svetaketu by the illustration of the seed of a fig tree. The source is a point without any dimensions. It expands as the cosmos on the one hand and as Infinite Bliss on the other. That point is the pivot. From it a single vasana starts, multiplies as the experiencer ‘I’, experience, and the world. The experiencer and the source are referred to in the mantra. Two birds, exactly alike, arise simultaneously. When I was staying in the Skandasramam I sometimes used to go out and sit on a rock. On one such occasion there were two or three others with me including Rangaswami Iyengar. Suddenly we noticed some small moth-like insect shooting up like a rocket into the air from a crevice in the rock. Within the twinkling of an eye it had multiplied itself into millions of moths which formed a cloud and hid the sky from view. We wondered at it and examined the place from which it shot up. We found that it was only a pinhole and knew that so many insects could not have issued from it in such a short time. That is how ahankara (ego) shoots up like a rocket and instantaneously spreads out as the Universe. The Heart is therefore the centre. A person can never be away from it. If he is he is already dead. Although the Upanishads say that the jiva functions through other centres on different occasions, yet he does not relinquish the Heart. The centres are simply places of business (vide Vedanta Chudamani). The Self is bound to the Heart, like a cow tethered to a peg. The movements are controlled by the length of the rope. All its wanderings centre around the peg. A caterpillar crawls on a blade of grass and when it has come to the end, it seeks another support. While doing so it holds on with its hind-legs to the blade of grass, lifts the body and sways to and fro before it can hold another. Similarly it is with the Self. It stays in the Heart and holds other centres also according to circumstances. But its activities always centre round the Heart.

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