march part 9

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

191

The implication is that all efforts are meant only to end ignorance. They have no use after realisation.

Talk 208. 

It is enough that one surrenders oneself. 

Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one’s being. 

Do not delude yourself by imagining such a source to be some God outside you. 

One’s source is within yourself. Give yourself up to it. 

That means that you should seek the source and merge in it.

 Because you imagine yourself to be out of it, you raise the question 

“Where is the source?” 

Some contend that the sugar cannot taste its own sweetness and that a taster must taste and enjoy it. Similarly, an individual cannot be the Supreme and enjoy the 

Bliss of that state; therefore the individuality must be maintained on the one hand and God-head on the other so that enjoyment may result!

 Is God insentient like sugar? How can one surrender oneself and yet retain one’s individuality for supreme enjoyment? Furthermore they say also that the soul, reaching the divine region and remaining there, serves the Supreme Being.

 Can the sound of the word “service” deceive the Lord? Does He not know? Is He waiting for these people’s service? Would not He - the Pure Consciousness - ask in turn: “Who are you apart from Me that presume to serve Me?”

Still more, they assume that the individual soul becomes pure by being divested of the ego and fit for being the body of the Lord. Thus the Lord is the Spirit and the purified souls constitute His body and limbs! Can there be a soul for the souls? How many souls are there? 

The answer must be, “There are many individual souls and One Supreme Soul.” What is soul in that case? It cannot be the body, etc. 

What remains over after all these are eliminated must be said to be the soul. Thus even after realising the soul as that which cannot be discarded, the Supreme Soul must be known to exist. In that case, how was the soul realised to be the ultimate reality after discarding all that was alien to it? Should this be right, the soul which was described as that inalienable reality is not the true soul. 

All such confusion is due to the word ‘soul’ (atma). The same word atma is used to signify the body, the senses, the mind, the vital principle, the individual soul and the Supreme Being. This wide application of the word has given rise to the idea that the individual soul (jivatma), goes to constitute the body of the Supreme (Paramatma). 

“I, O Arjuna! am the Self, seated in the heart of all beings; ...” (Bhagavad Gita, X-20). 

The stanza shows that the Lord is the Atma (Self) of all beings. Does it say, “the Self of the selves”? If, on the other hand, you merge in the Self there will be no individuality left. You will become the Source itself. In that case what is surrender? Who is to surrender what and to whom? This constitutes devotion, wisdom, and investigation. Among the Vaishnavites too, Saint Nammalvar says, “I was in a maze, sticking to ‘I’ and ‘mine’; I wandered without knowing my Self. On realising my Self I understand that I myself am You and that ‘mine’ (i.e., my possessions) is only You.”

Thus - you see - Devotion is nothing more than knowing oneself. 

The school of Qualified Monism also admits it. Still, adhering to their traditional doctrine, they persist in affirming that the individuals are part of the Supreme - his limbs as it were. Their traditional doctrine says also that the individual soul should be made pure and then surrendered to the Supreme; then the ego is lost and one goes to the regions of Vishnu after one’s death; then finally there is the enjoyment of the Supreme (or the Infinite)! To say that one is apart from the Primal Source is itself a pretension; to add that one divested of the ego becomes pure and yet retains individuality only to enjoy or serve the Supreme, is a deceitful stratagem. What duplicity is this - first to appropriate what is really His, and then pretend to experience or serve Him! Is not all this already known to Him?

So long as there is individuality, one is the enjoyer and doer.

 But when individuality is given up, the Divine Will prevails and guides the course of events. 

The individual is perceptible to others who cannot perceive divine force.

 Restrictions and discipline are for other individuals. 

Not for the liberated.

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194

Talk 210. 

Man owes his movements to another Power, whereas he thinks that he does everything himself 

- just like a lame man bluffing that, were he helped to stand up, he would fight and chase away the enemy.

 Action is impelled by desire; desire arises only after the rise of the ego; and this ego owes its origin to a Higher Power on which its existence depends. It cannot remain apart. Why then prattle, “I do, I act, or I function”? A Self-realised being cannot help benefiting the world. His very existence is the highest good.

Talk 211. 

Mr. B. C. Das, the Physics Lecturer, asked: “Yoga means union. I wonder union of which with which.” 

M.: Exactly. Yoga implies prior division and it means later union of one with another. Who is to be united with whom? You are the seeker, seeking union with something. That something is apart from you. Your Self is intimate to you. You are aware of the Self. Seek it and be it. That will expand as the Infinite. Then there will be no question of yoga, etc. Whose is the separation (viyoga)? Find it.

195

D.: Then thoughts are not real.

 M.: They are not: the only reality is the Self.

.........

D.: Is it influenced by one’s activities and circumstances? 

M.: Those cannot influence it. It is the sense of doership - kartrutva buddhi - that forms the impediment.

.....

D.: How is annihilation of predispositions to be accomplished? 

M.: You are in that condition in realisation. 

D.: Does it mean that, holding on to the Self, the tendencies should be scorched as they begin to emerge? 

M.: They will themselves be scorched if only you remain as you truly are.

.........

D.: How to begin? Your Grace is needed for it. 

M.: Grace is always there. “Dispassion cannot be acquired, nor realization of the Truth, nor inherence in the Self, in the absence of Guru’s Grace,” the Master quoted. 

Practice is necessary. 

It is like training a roguish bull confined to his stall by tempting him with luscious grass and preventing him from straying. Then the Master read out a stanza from Tiruvachakam, which is an address to the mind, saying:

 “O humming bee (namely, mind)! Why do you take the pains of collecting tiny specks of honey from innumerable flowers? There is one from whom you can have the whole storehouse of honey by simply thinking or seeing or speaking of Him. Get within and hum to Him (hrimkara).”

201

The Master quoted from “Upadesa Sara”: “Merging the mind into the Heart certainly comprises meritorious duty (karma), devotion (bhakti), yoga and supreme wisdom (jnana).” That is the whole truth in a nutshell.

.....

D.: This ‘I-thought’ rises from me. But I do not know the Self.

 M.: All these are only mental concepts. You are now identifying yourself with a wrong ‘I’, which is the ‘I-thought’. This ‘I-thought’ rises and sinks, whereas the true significance of ‘I’ is beyond both. There cannot be a break in your being. You, who slept, are also now awake. There was not unhappiness in your deep sleep. Whereas it exists now. What is it that has happened now so that this difference is experienced? There was no ‘I-thought’ in your sleep, whereas it is present now. The true ‘I’ is not apparent and the false ‘I’ is parading itself. This false ‘I’ is the obstacle to your right knowledge. Find out where from this false ‘I’ arises. Then it will disappear. You will be only what you are - i.e. absolute Being.

.....

D.: How to do it? I have not succeeded so far. 

M.: Search for the source of the ‘I-thought’. That is all that one has to do. The universe exists on account of the ‘I-thought’. If that ends there is an end of misery also. The false ‘I’ will end only when its source is sought. 

........

Dr. Lohara asked for the meaning of one stanza in “Upadesa Sara”. 

M.: The one then in sleep is also now awake. There was happiness in sleep; but misery in wakefulness. There was no ‘I’- thought in sleep; but it is now, while awake. The state of happiness and of no ‘I-thought’ in sleep is without effort. The aim should be to bring about that state even now. That requires effort.

Talk 223. 

Dr. Lohara: Why does the mind not sink into the Heart even while meditating? 

M.: A floating body does not readily sink unless some means are adopted for making it do so. Breath-control makes the mind quiescent. The mind must be alert and meditation pursued unremittingly even when it is at peace. Then it sinks into the heart. 

Or the floating body might be loaded with weights and made to sink. 

So also association with the wise will make the mind sink into the Heart.

.....

Talk 224. 

A disciple asked how he could recognise his own natural primal condition. 

M.: Absolute freedom from thoughts is the state conducive to such recognition. (From the attendant’s notes)

..

204

Talk 226. A visitor from Tirukoilur asked if the study of the sacred books will reveal the truth. M.: That will not suffice. 

D.: Why not? 

M.: Samadhi alone can reveal it. Thoughts cast a veil over Reality and so it cannot be clear in states other than Samadhi. 

D.: Is there thought in Samadhi? Or is there not? 

M.: There will only be the feeling ‘I am’ and no other thoughts. 

D.: Is not ‘I am’ a thought?

 M.: The egoless ‘I am’ is not thought. It is realisation. The meaning or significance of ‘I’ is God. The experience of ‘I am’ is to Be Still.

........

Talk 230. 

A visitor: Can one realise the Truth by learning the scriptures and study of books? 

M.: No. So long as predispositions remain latent in the mind, realisation cannot be achieved. Sastra learning is itself a vasana. Realisation is only in samadhi

208

D.: How to know the Self? 

M.: See what the Self is. What you consider to be the Self, is really either the mind or the intellect or the ‘I-thought’. The other thoughts arise only after the ‘I-thought’. So hold on to it. 

The others will vanish leaving the Self as the residuum. 

D.: The difficulty lies in reaching it. 

M.: There is no reaching it at all because it is eternal, here and now. If the Self were to be gained anew, it would not be permanent.

.........

D.: What happens to the man after death? 

M.: Engage yourself in the living present. The future will take care of itself. Do not worry about the future. The state before creation and the process of creation are dealt with in the scriptures in order that you may know the present. Because you say you are born, therefore they say, yes, and add that God created you.

But do you see God or anything else in your sleep? If God be real why does He not shine forth in your sleep also? You are always - now the same as you were in sleep. You are not different from that one in sleep. But why should there be difference in the feelings or experiences of the two states? Did you ask, while asleep, the question regarding your birth? or where do I go after death? Why think of all these now in the wakeful state? 

Let what is born think of its birth and the remedy, its cause and ultimate results. 

What is birth? Is it of the ‘I-thought’ or of the body? Is ‘I’ separate from the body or identical with it? How did this ‘I-thought’ arise? Is the ‘I-thought’ your nature or is anything else of your nature?

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