march path 2-1

 https://www.happinessofbeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_Two-4.pdf

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Do we not know about the existence of three persons, the first person, second person and third person? But have we made research on all these three persons and have we tried to find out what the nature of each one of them is? No, we have so far made research only upon the second and third persons, and we have failed up till now to scrutinize or make research upon the first person. How? See the way in which we make use of our power of attention when we wake up from sleep. As soon as we wake up, the first thing we know is our body, and then we notice the place where we are lying, the objects which surround us, the outside world and so on.

 Knowing all these things is only a second person attention. 

Thus when we wake up, our power of attention springs out only towards second and third person objects.

 Then, until we fall asleep again, our power of attention continues to dwell only upon the second and third persons by clinging to and experiencing the objects known through the five senses. 

At night, as soon as sleep overpowers us, our attention towards second and third persons ceases. 

What exactly happens to the power of attention in sleep is not correctly known to anyone except to those who have attained Self Knowledge. 

In this manner, from the moment of waking up till the moment of going to sleep, from birth till death, from creation till dissolution, all people - indeed all living beings - direct their power of attention only towards second and third person objects, and no one ever directs it towards the first person! 

This great error is what is called the ‘original sin’.

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........Even in the West there have occasionally been people here and there who have attained Self-Knowledge in the same way. 

Therefore, if any of the people who have written heaps of books on psychology have not after all their research come to the same conclusion as that which is proclaimed by Vedanta, namely that ‘I’ alone is the absolute truth, and if they have not thereby attained the true experience of Self, we will have to conclude that their research was not a scrutiny of the correct first person. 

All that they have done was to attend to a second person object called ‘mind’.

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Turning one’s attention towards oneself in order to find out ‘Who am I, who knows the mind?’ alone is the correct first person.

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At this point some people ask, “Is it then completely unnecessary for us to know anything at all about the world and God? Is it useless for us even to try to know about them?” 

No. It is not useless. If an aspirant correctly discriminates and understands about the world and God, it will be very beneficial to him. 

But if one does not make research about them with maturity of mind and with proper discrimination, the outcome of one’s research will be very dangerous.

 It was only in order to safeguard us against the adverse result which most people usually derive from such research, that Sri Bhagavan often used to declare that we should give up the research upon the world and God and should first try to know ourselves.

If however we make research about the world and God with proper discrimination, the knowledge which we will obtain from such research will make us clearly understand the necessity of knowing Self, and it will also give us great enthusiasm and strength to attend to and to abide firmly in Self.

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If an aspirant truly engages himself in the practice of Self-attention, he will often feel as if the state of Self-consciousness, which is his own true nature, is clearly known for some time and as if it is afterwards obscured. 

On such occasion he will be able to understand very clearly from his own experience how the world-appearance vanishes and how it again comes into existence.

 Because of the speed of forgetfulness or pramada by which he swerve from the state of Self-attention, it may be difficult in the beginning for an aspirant to notice exactly when he loses his hold on Self-attention.

 In due course, however, because of the clarity and strength which he will gain by repeatedly practicing Self-attention, it will become possible for him to notice the exact moment when Self-attention is lost, and thus it will become possible for him to regain it immediately. 

On all the occasions when he thus clearly cognizes the moment when Self-attention is lost and the moment when it is regained, the aspirant will be able to know very easily from his own experience how the world is created by his losing Self-attention and how it is then destroyed by his regaining Self-attention. 

Thus the aspirant will come to know with absolute certainty that his giving room to slackness in Self-attention is the means by which the body and world are created, that his maintaining slackness in Self-attention on account of his lack of interest either to notice that such slackness had occurred or to put an end to it, is the means by which the world is sustained, and that his firmly abiding once again in his own real and, blissful state of pure Consciousness, which is devoid of the limitations of name and form, having vigilantly known the exact moment when slackness in Self-attention occurred and having thereby put an end to it, is the means’ by which the world is destroyed. 

When the aspirant comes to know this truth from his own direct experience, he will realise himself to be the perfect Supreme Reality which transcends the three functions of creation, sustenance and destruction, and hence he will remain unshakably established in the state of absolute peace. 

A person will feel no liking to take to the practice of Self-attention until he gains the proper discrimination whereby he can understand that the two states of creation and sustenance, which are merely a mixture of pleasure and pain, are not worthy to be cherished and pursued.

 So long as he continues to give importance to these two states, which are nothing but mere appearances, he will be liable to build castles in the air by imagining that he can eliminate pain from this mixture of pleasure and pain, which is one of the many dyads, and that he can thereby make pleasure alone prevail in two states of creation and sustenance. 

Though such a person may be very broad-minded, generous-hearted and compassionate, since he may even be deluded to the extent of believing that the miseries which we now see in the world would not have existed if, the functions of creations and sustenance had been performed in accordance with his own visionary ideas, and thus he will find fault even with God, who is now performing those functions and he will wistfully imagine that he must take responsibility for carrying out a reform in the present manner in which God is governing the world. 

He will then proceed to draw up wonderful plans whereby he hopes to transform this world into a blissful heaven and remove all the miseries seen in it, even hoping to make the body of man immortal. Such a well-intentioned but deluded person will then begin to ponder how and from where he can acquire the divine power or sakti which is necessary in order for him to carry out this wonderful unselfish plan of his, and he will begin to devise and practice many new kinds of yoga in the hopes of achieving such power. 

Finally, however, he will have to come to the conclusion that he can obtain such power only from God, the almighty Supreme Lord who is at present creating and sustaining this whole world, and so he will then select the method of complete self-surrender as a means of begging and acquiring such power from Him. Being confident that the unlimited power of God will surely be showered upon him if he adopts this method, and believing that with that power he can fulfil all the wonderful plans which he has drawn up, he will be waiting in eager expectation for the day when that power will descend from above.

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The Path is to attend to ‘I am’ and the 

Goal is to remain as ‘I am’!

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Realising the oneness of one’s own Self as the true nature of God and to merge into It without any residue of individuality, alone is the true seeing and the true attainment of God.

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The Self-awareness eternally shining and ever directly experienced as ‘I-I’ within you, is the real Feet of your Sad-Guru. Cling to it. That alone will lead you to the goal.

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Therefore, you must understand that diving deep within in quest of the Self (‘I’ – the Reality) is the only true way of worshipping your Guru. 

“Only when you know your Self, no harm can befall you….” -‘Kaivalyam’ - Chapter I - Verse 13.

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or movement of the feeling to express Itself. 

When love abides as itself, it is the full and perfect Love. 

When the Love takes the form of movement, it is fragmented and becomes desire which springs upon other objects. 

It is Love when it is in the form of unbroken Existence; it is desire when it is in the form of movement or fragmentation.

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“When the mind remains permanently absorbed in its source whence it had its rising – it is Karma, Bhakti; it is Yoga and Jnana also.” – ‘Upadesha Undiyar’ - Verse 10

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