Key sentences 4

 He who engages in investigation starts holding on to himself, asks ‘Who am I?’ 

And the Self becomes clear to him.

.......

Talk 184.

 M.: To imagine Muladhara at the bottom, the Heart at the centre, or the head at the top or over all these, is all wrong. 

In one word, to think is not your real nature.

........

Sravana removes the illusion of the Self being one with the body, etc. 

Reflection makes it clear that Knowledge is Self.

 One pointedness reveals the Self as being Infinite and Blissful.

.......

..228.........

D.: How is the mind to dive into the Heart? 

M.: The mind now sees itself diversified as the universe. 

If the diversity is not manifest it remains in its own essence, that is the Heart. 

Entering the Heart means remaining without distractions. 

The Heart is the only Reality. 

The mind is only a transient phase. 

To remain as one’s Self is to enter the Heart.

.......

 Because a man identifies himself with the body he sees the world separate from him. 

This wrong identification arises because he has lost his moorings and has swerved from his original state.

 He is now advised to give up all these false ideas, to trace back his source and remain as the Self. 

In that state, there are no differences. No questions will arise. 

All the shastras are meant only to make the man retrace his steps to the original source. 

He need not gain anything new. He must only give up his false ideas and useless accretions.

 Instead of doing it he tries to catch hold of something strange and mysterious because he believes that his happiness lies elsewhere. That is the mistake.

 If one remains as the Self there is bliss. Probably he thinks that being quiet does not bring about the state of bliss. That is due to his ignorance. The only practice is to find out “to whom these questions arise.”

......

sushumna....nectar trickling etc..

......The object of all these is to rid the man of concepts and to make him inhere as the pure Self 

- i.e. absolute consciousness, bereft of thoughts! 

Why not go straight to it? 

Why add new encumbrances to the already existing ones?

............................part 8 ends.......

part 9

Abhyasa is only to prevent any disturbance to the inherent peace. 

.......

The difference ‘He’ and ‘I’ are the obstacles to jnana.

....

D.: Shall I meditate on “I am Brahman” (Aham Brahmasmi)? 

M.: The text is not meant for thinking “I am Brahman”. Aham (‘I’) is known to everyone. Brahman abides as Aham in everyone.

 Find out the ‘I’. The ‘I’ is already Brahman. You need not think so. Simply find out the ‘I’.

M.: After the rise of the ‘I-thought’ there is the false identification of the ‘I’ with the body, the senses, the mind, etc. ‘I’ is wrongly associated with them and the true ‘I’ is lost sight of. In order to shift the pure ‘I’ from the contaminated ‘I’ this discarding is mentioned. But it does not mean exactly discarding of the non-self, but it means the finding of the real Self. 

The real Self is the Infinite ‘I-I’, i.e. ‘I’ is perfection. It is eternal. It has no origin and no end. The other ‘I’ is born and also dies. It is impermanent. See to whom are the changing thoughts. They will be found to arise after the ‘I-thought’. Hold the ‘I-thought’. They subside. 

Trace back the source of the ‘I-thought’. 

The Self alone will remain.

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

D.: It is difficult to follow. I understand the theory. But what is the practice? 

M.: The other methods are meant for those who cannot take to the investigation of the Self. Even to repeat Aham Brahmasmi or think of it, a doer is necessary. Who is it? 

It is ‘I’. Be that ‘I’. It is the direct method.

The other methods also will ultimately lead everyone to this method of the investigation of the Self. 

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

 

D.: I am aware of the ‘I’. Yet my troubles are not ended. 

M.: This ‘I-thought’ is not pure. It is contaminated with the association of the body and senses. See to whom the trouble is. 

It is to the ‘I thought’. 

Hold it. 

Then the other thoughts vanish. 

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

D.: Yes. How to do it? That is the whole trouble. 

M.: Think ‘I’ ‘I’ ‘I’ and hold to that one thought 

to the exclusion of all others.

.........

D.: It is said Atma samstham manah krtva (fixing the mind in the Self). But the Self is unthinkable. 

M.: Why do you wish to meditate at all? 

Because you wish to do so you are told Atma samstham manah krtva (fixing the mind in the Self). 

Why do you not remain as you are without meditating? 

What is that manah (mind)? 

When all thoughts are eliminated it becomes Atma samstha (fixed in the Self).

.........

Work leaves no time for separate meditation. Is the constant reminder “I am”, trying to feel it while actually at work, enough? 

M.: It will become constant when the mind becomes strengthened. 

Repeated practice strengthens the mind.  Such mind is capable of holding on to the current. 

In that case, engagement in work or no engagement, the current remains unaffected and uninterrupted.

......

D.: No separate meditation is necessary?

 M.: Meditation is your true nature now. 

You call it meditation, because there are other thoughts distracting you. 

When these thoughts are dispelled, you remain alone, i.e. in the state of meditation free from thoughts;

 and that is your real nature which you are now attempting to gain by keeping away other thoughts. 

Such keeping away of other thoughts is now called meditation. 

When the practice becomes firm, the real nature shows itself as the true meditation. 

Other thoughts arise more forcibly when you attempt meditation. There was immediately a chorus of questions by a few others.

.......

293

Just on rising up from sleep, and before seeing the objective world, there is a state of awareness which is your pure Self. 

That must be known.

D.: But I do not realise it. 

M.: It is not an object to be realised. You are that. Who is there to realise and what?

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

297

Talk 314. Pure and contaminated I

 In yesterday’s answers, Sri Bhagavan said that the Self is pure consciousness in deep slumber,

 and He also indicated the Self of the transition from sleep to the waking state as the ideal for realisation.

 He was requested to explain the same. 

Sri Bhagavan graciously answered: 

The Self is pure consciousness in sleep. It evolves as aham (‘I’) without the idam (‘this’) in the transition stage. 

It manifests as aham (‘I’) and idam (‘this’) in the waking state. 

The individual’s experience is by means of aham (‘I’) only. 

So he must aim at realisation in the way indicated (i.e. by means of the transitional ‘I’). 

Otherwise the sleep-experience does not matter to him. 

If the transitional ‘I’ be realised, the substratum is found and that leads to the goal. 

Again, sleep is said to be ajnana (ignorance). That is only in relation to the wrong jnana (knowledge) prevalent in the wakeful state. The waking state is really ajnana (ignorance) and the sleep state is prajnana (full knowledge). 

Prajnana is Brahman, says the sruti. Brahman is eternal. The sleep-experiencer is called prajna. He is prajnanam in all the three states. Its particular significance in the sleep state is that He is full of knowledge (prajnanaghana). What is ghana? There are jnana and vijnana. 

Both together operate in all perceptions. Vijnana in the jagrat is viparita jnana (wrong knowledge) i.e. ajnana (ignorance). 

It always co-exists with the individual. When this becomes vispashta jnana (clear knowledge), It is Brahman. 

When wrong knowledge is totally absent, as in sleep, He remains pure prajnana only. 

That is Prajnanaghana. 

Aitareya Upanishad says prajnana, vijnana, ajnana, samjnana are all names of Brahman. 

Being made up of knowledge alone how is He to be experienced? 

Experience is always with vijnana. 

Therefore the pure ‘I’ of the transitional stage must be held for the experience of the Prajnanaghana. 

The ‘I’ of the waking state is impure and is not useful for such experience.

 Hence the use of the transitional ‘I’ or the pure ‘I’. 

How is this pure ‘I’ to be realised? 

Viveka Chudamani says, Vijnana kose vilasatyajasram 

(He is always shining forth in the intellectual sheath, vijnana kosa).

 Tripura Rahasya and other works point out that the interval between two consecutive sankalpas (ideas or thoughts) represent the pure aham (‘I’). 

Therefore holding on to the pure ‘I’, one should have the Prajnanaghana for aim, 

and there is the vritti present in the attempt.

 All these have their proper and respective places and at the same time lead to realisation. 

Again the pure Self has been described in Viveka Chudamani to be beyond asat, i.e. different from asat.

 Here asat is the contaminated waking ‘I’.

 Asadvilakshana means sat, i.e. the Self of sleep. 

He is also described as different from sat and asat. Both mean the same. He is also asesha sakshi (all-seeing witness). 

If pure, how is He to be experienced by means of the impure ‘I’? 

A man says “I slept happily”. Happiness was his experience. If not, how could he speak of what he had not experienced? How did he experience happiness in sleep, if the Self was pure? Who is it that speaks of that experience now?

 The speaker is the vijnanatma (ignorant self) and he speaks of prajnanatma (pure self). 

How can that hold? Was this vijnanatma present in sleep? His present statement of the experience of happiness in sleep makes one infer his existence in sleep. How then did he remain? Surely not as in the waking state. 

He was there very subtle. Exceedingly subtle vijnanatma experiences the happy prajnanatma by means of maya mode. 

It is like the rays of the moon seen below the branches, twigs and leaves of a tree. The subtle vijnanatma seems apparently a stranger to the obvious vijnanatma of the present moment. Why should we infer his existence in sleep? 

Should we not deny the experience of happiness and be done with this inference? No. 

The fact of the experience of happiness cannot be denied, for everyone courts sleep and prepares a nice bed for the enjoyment of sound sleep. 

This brings us to the conclusion that the cogniser, cognition and the cognised are present in all the three states, though there are differences in their subtleties. 

In the transitional state, the aham (‘I’) is suddha (pure), because idam (‘this’) is suppressed. Aham (‘I’) predominates. 

‘Why is not that pure ‘I’ realised now or even remembered by us? 

Because of want of acquaintance (parichaya) with it. 

It can be recognised only if it is consciously attained. 

Therefore make the effort and gain consciously.

....................................................end..................part 9 ends..........................

key sentences 3

 from dec 2021 talk -1 

D.: How is that Self to be known or realised?

 M.: Transcend the present plane of relativity. 

A separate being (Self) appears to know something apart from itself (non-Self). 

That is, the subject is aware of the object. 

The seer is drik; the seen is drisya. 

There must be a unity underlying these two, which arises as ‘ego’. 

This ego is of the nature of chit (intelligence); achit (insentient object) is only negation of chit. 

Therefore the underlying essence is akin to the subject and not the object. 

Seeking the drik, until all drisya disappears, the drik will become subtler and subtler until the absolute drik alone survives. 

This process is called drisya vilaya (the disappearance of the objective world).

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

D.: Why should the objects drisya be eliminated? Cannot the Truth be realised even keeping the object as it is? 

M.: No. 

Elimination of drisya means elimination of separate identities of the subject and object.

 The object is unreal. 

All drisya (including ego) is the object.

 Eliminating the unreal, the Reality survives.

 When a rope is mistaken for a snake, it is enough to remove the erroneous perception of the snake for the truth to be revealed. 

Without such elimination the truth will not dawn.

..........

part 2 

The mind improves by practice and becomes finer just as the razor’s edge is sharpened by stropping. 

The mind is then better able to tackle internal or external problems.

........

D.: If ‘I’ also be an illusion, who then casts off the illusion? 

M.: The ‘I’ casts off the illusion of ‘I’ and yet remains as ‘I’. Such is the paradox of Self-Realisation. 

The realised do not see any contradiction in it. 

Take the case of bhakti - I approach Iswara and pray to be absorbed in Him.

 I then surrender myself in faith and by concentration. 

What remains afterwards?

 In place of the original ‘I’, 

perfect self-surrender leaves a residuum of God 

in which the ‘I’ is lost. 

This is the highest form of devotion (parabhakti), prapatti, surrender or the height of vairagya.

You give up this and that of ‘my’ possessions. If you give up ‘I’ and ‘Mine’ instead, all are given up at a stroke. 

The very seed of possession is lost. Thus the evil is nipped in the bud or crushed in the germ itself.

 Dispassion (vairagya) must be very strong to do this. 

Eagerness to do it must be equal to that of a man kept under water trying to rise up to the surface for his life.

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

part 3 dec 26, 2021

......

D.: I meditate neti-neti (not this - not this). 

M.: No - that is not meditation.

 Find the source. 

You must reach the source without fail. 

The false ‘I’ will disappear and the real ‘I’ will be realised. 

The former cannot exist apart from the latter.

........

D.: We surrender; but still there is no help. 

M.: Yes. 

If you have surrendered, you must be able to abide by the will of God 

and not make a grievance of what may not please you. 

Things may turn out differently from what they look apparently. Distress often leads men to faith in God.

.......

Self is only Be-ing.

 Not being this or that. 

..

D.: How to know the ‘I’? 

M.: The ‘I-I’ is always there. There is no knowing it. 

It is not a new knowledge acquired. What is new and not here and now will be evanescent only. 

The ‘I’ is always there. There is obstruction to its knowledge and it is called ignorance.

 Remove the ignorance and knowledge shines forth. 

In fact this ignorance or even knowledge is not for Atman. 

They are only over growths to be cleared off. 

That is why Atman is said to be beyond knowledge and ignorance. It remains as it naturally is - that is all.

..........

.......The Upanishads say pare leena - meaning that sushumna or such nadis are all comprised in para, i.e. the atma nadi. The yogis say that the current rising up to sahasrara (brain) ends there. 

That experience is not complete. For jnana, they must come to the Heart. 

Hridaya (Heart) is the alpha and omega.

.......

........

79

Talk 62.

 Mr. Ekanatha Rao: What is sphurana (a kind of indescribable but palpable sensation in the heart centre)? 

M.: Sphurana is felt on several occasions, such as in fear, excitement, etc. Although it is always and all over, yet it is felt at a particular centre and on particular occasions. It is also associated with antecedent causes and confounded with the body. 

Whereas, it is all alone and pure; it is the Self. 

If the mind be fixed on the sphurana and one senses it continuously and automatically it is realisation.

Again sphurana is the foretaste of Realisation. It is pure.

The subject and object proceed from it. If the man mistakes himself for the subject, objects must necessarily appear different from him. 

They are periodically withdrawn and projected, creating the world and the subject’s enjoyment of the same. If, on the other hand, the man feels himself to be the screen on which the subject and object are projected there can be no confusion, and he can remain watching their appearance and disappearance without any perturbation to the Self.

.......

The fact is that the man considers himself limited and there arises the trouble. 

The idea is wrong. 

He can see it for himself. In sleep there was no world, no ego (no limited self), and no trouble. 

Something wakes up from that happy state and says ‘I’. 

To that ego the world appears. 

Being a speck in the world he wants more and gets into trouble.

.

......

How happy he was before the rising of the ego! 

Only the rise of the ego is the cause of the present trouble. 

Let him trace the ego to its source and he will reach that undifferentiated happy state which is sleepless sleep. 

The Self remains ever the same, here and now. There is nothing more to be gained. 

Because the limitations have wrongly been assumed there is the need to transcend them. 

It is like the ten ignorant fools who forded a stream and on reaching the other shore counted themselves to be nine only. 

They grew anxious and grieved over the loss of the unknown tenth man. A wayfarer, on ascertaining the cause of their grief, counted them all and found them to be ten. But each one of them had counted the others leaving himself out. The wayfarer gave each in succession a blow telling them to count the blows. They counted ten and were satisfied. 

The moral is that the tenth man was not got anew. 

He was all along there, but ignorance caused grief to all of them.

Again, a woman wore a necklace round her neck but forgot it. She began to search for it and made enquiries. A friend of hers, finding out what she was looking for, pointed out the necklace round the seeker’s neck. She felt it with her hands and was happy. Did she get the necklace anew? Here again ignorance caused grief and knowledge happiness.

Similarly also with the man and the Self. 

There is nothing to be gained anew. 

Ignorance of the Self is the cause of the present misery. 

Knowledge of the Self brings about happiness.

Moreover, if anything is to be got anew it implies its previous absence. What remained once absent might vanish again. So there would be no permanency in salvation. Salvation is permanent because the Self is here and now and eternal. 

Thus the man’s efforts are directed towards the removal of ignorance. Wisdom seems to dawn, though it is natural and ever present.

..........

Ego rises up and that is waking. Simultaneously thoughts arise. 

Let him find out to whom are the thoughts. Where from do they arise? 

They must spring up from the conscious Self. 

Apprehending it even vaguely helps the extinction of the ego. 

Thereafter the realisation of the one Infinite Existence becomes possible. 

In that state there are no individuals other than the Eternal Existence. 

.....

Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. 

He will discover that the Self always exists, that the body which is born resolves itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief.

 Find where from thoughts emerge. Then you will abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death.”

.......

Talk 82. 

A question was raised about the differences in the various samadhis. 

M.: When the senses are merged in darkness it is deep sleep; when merged in light it is samadhi. 

Sam: Senses meged into Light = samadhi

Just as a passenger when asleep in a carriage is unaware of the motion, the halting or the unharnessing of the horses, so also a Jnani in sahaja samadhi is unaware of the happenings, waking, dream and deep sleep.

 Here sleep corresponds to the unharnessing of the horses. 

And samadhi corresponds to the halting of the horses, because the senses are ready to act just as the horses are ready to move after halting.

 In samadhi the head does not bend down because the senses are there though inactive; 

whereas the head bends down in sleep because the senses are merged in darkness. 

In kevala samadhi, the activities (vital and mental), waking, dream and sleep, are only merged, ready to emerge after regaining the state other than samadhi. 

In sahaja samadhi the activities, vital and mental, and the three states are destroyed, never to reappear.

 However, others notice the Jnani active e.g. eating, talking, moving etc. 

He is not himself aware of these activities, whereas others are aware of his activities. 

They pertain to his body and not to his Real Self, swarupa. 

For himself, he is like the sleeping passenger - or like a child interrupted from sound sleep and fed, being unaware of it. 

The child says the next day that he did not take milk at all and that he went to sleep without it. Even when reminded he cannot be convinced. 

So also in sahaja samadhi. Sushumna pare leena. 

Here sushumna refers to tapo marga. 

The para nadi refers to jnana marga.

.......

D.: Is then hearing the Truth meant only for a limited few?

 M.: It is of two kinds. 

The ordinary one is to hear it enunciated and explained by a master. 

However, the right one is to raise the question for oneself and seek and find the answer in oneself as the unbroken ‘I-I’. 

To be reflecting on this experience is the second stage. 

To remain one-pointed in it is the third stage.

102

........

(9) An insincere man is hurt by the touch of fire test. His insincerity is brought out by fire. 

Sincerity is Self-evident. A true man or a Self realised man remains happy, without being affected by the false appearances (namely the world, birth and death, etc.), whereas the false or ignorant man is miserable.

........

M.: Moksha is to know that you were not born.

 “Be still and know that I am God.” To be still is not to think. Know, and not think, is the word.

.....

Talk 141. pg 137

 The same gentleman later, after quoting a verse from Kaivalya, asked: “Can jnana be lost after being once attained?” 

M.: Dnyana, once revealed, takes time to steady itself. 

The Self is certainly within the direct experience of everyone, but not as one imagines it to be.

 It is only as it is. This Experience is samadhi. 

Just as fire remains without scorching against incantations or other devices but scorches otherwise, so also the Self remains veiled by vasanas and reveals itself when there are no vasanas. 

Owing to the fluctuation of the vasanas, Dnyana takes time to steady itself. 

Unsteady Dnyana is not enough to check rebirths. 

Dnyana cannot remain unshaken side by side with vasanas. 

True, that in the proximity of a great master, the vasanas will cease to be active, the mind becomes still and samadhi results, 

similar to fire not scorching because of other devices. 

Thus the disciple gains true knowledge and right experience in the presence of the master. 

To remain unshaken in it further efforts are necessary. 

He will know it to be his real Being and thus be liberated even while alive. 

Samadhi with closed eyes is certainly good, but one must go further until it is realised that actionlesness and action are not hostile to each other. 

Fear of loss of samadhi while one is active is the sign of ignorance. 

Samadhi must be the natural life of everyone.

 There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. 

Until it is realised effort is necessary. 

After tasting such Bliss, even once one will repeatedly try to regain it. 

Having once experienced the Bliss of Peace no one would like to be out of it or engaged himself otherwise.

 It is as difficult for a Dnyani to engage in thoughts 

as it is for an adnyani to be free from thought.

 The common man says that he does not know himself; he thinks many thoughts and cannot remain without thinking. 

Any kind of activity does not affect a Jnani; his mind remains ever in eternal Peace.

................................................end.......................

Key sentences -2

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.

........

From part 12 Thayumanavar

The five senses, the five elements, the organs of action, and all the rest,
you are not. You are none of these.
Nor are you any of the qualities that pertain to these.
You are not the body, nor are you knowledge and ignorance.

You are chit, the real, which is like a crystal,

reflecting the qualities of whatever is placed before it,
and yet having no connection with it.

It is my inherent nature to enlighten you
when I find that you are ripe for it.’

‘If you desire to gain the vast, supreme reality
that is the temple of refreshing grace,
inseparable from all that is, becoming pure consciousness
and obtaining the indestructible state whose nature is bliss,

listen as I explain to you the proper means:

May you live long, 

winning in your heart

the reality that is devoid of all qualities!

May you attain the state of bliss-consciousness,
so that all the dense accumulation of ignorance disappears!
May you liberate yourself from bondage!’

Through his grace, he imparted to me the state of mauna,

the true knowledge in which bondage is abolished:

‘For that state, there is no thought, 

o “I” sense,

no space, no time, no directions, no pairs of opposites,

nothing lost, no other, no words,

no phenomena of night and day,
no beginning, no end, no middle, no inner or outer.
Nothing is.’

‘When I say: “It is not, it is not”, this is not a state of nothingness.

It is pure identity.

 It is the nature that eternally endures.

A state that cannot be expressed in words.

It is the swarupa which engulfs everything.

So that neither ‘I’ nor anything else appears.

As the day consumes the night, it consumes ignorance entirely.

Easily overcoming and swallowing up your personal consciousness,

it transforms your very self, here and now, into its own Self.

It is the state that distinguishes itself as 'self–luminous silence.’

‘Other than the nature that is its own Self,

it allows nothing else to arise.

Because there is no other consciousness.

Should anything attempt to arise there it will, like a camphor flame, vanish.

The knower, devoid of both knowledge and objects known, falls away,
without falling, since it still remains.

But who can tell of its greatness, and to whom?

By dint of becoming That, one exists only as That.
That alone will speak for itself.’

If we call it “That”, then the question will arise, “What is That?”

Therefore did Janaka and the other kings
and the rishis, foremost among whom is Suka,

lived happily, like bees intoxicated with honey,
entirely avoiding any mention of “That”.

Remain in this state.

’Thus did he speak.
Grant me the abundance of your grace
so that, in the nirvikalpa state of total tranquillity,
I may know and attain the condition of supreme bliss,

in accordance with your rule.
I shall not sleep or take up any other work until I attain this state. 

(‘Akarabuvanam-Chidambara Rahasya’, vv. 18-23)

.........

He who allows his mind to wander with the senses is an ignoramus, though he is learned. 

See as a witness, without the burden of seeing.

 See the world just as you see a drama.

 See without attachment. Look within. 

Look at the inner light unshaken by mental impressions. 

Then, floods of conscious bliss shall come pouring in and around you from all directions. 

 ........

The state in which you are not,
that is nishtha  

[Self-abidance].   

Unwaveringly established in the Self = Nishtha

.........

https://www.davidgodman.org/allama-prabhu-prabhulinga-leelai/

 [Allama replied:]

‘One who has eradicated as alien [to himself]
the dense, fundamental illusion of egoity
and has, in full clarity, realised the Self –

such a one will be able to know Me also.

What point is there in speaking to one
who remains attached to the perishable body?’

So proclaimed He who knows jnanis

who have realised the truth non-dually.

..........

Answer: Liberation is only delighting in the Self through tranquillity and without anxiety. 

When this is attained, books are of no use.

One may know the jnana sastras, or take up good sanyasa,

or attempt to experience mauna samadhi, 

but the indescribable bliss of liberation is only becoming the Self,

remaining without anxiety and experiencing bliss.

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

part 16 Nitya Nivritta

That which is nitya nivritta [always removed, that is, never existing] need not be given any thought to. 

....

To remove the snake from the rope, it is not necessary to kill the snake. In the same way it is not necessary to kill the mind.

  By understanding the complete non-existence of the mind, the mind will go away.

The experience that is without the seer and the seen, 

that is without time and space, 

is the real experience.

.......

In the same way, a jnani knows that the world [being only a dream] is never created.

  Whatever is there is all his own Self, one and undivided.

......

Being 'aware of the Self' is the real meditation.

 When the mind gives up its habit of choosing and deciding,

 it turns towards its own real nature. 

At that time it gets into the established state. 

When the ego gets more powerful, entry into this state does not take place.

...........

You think that the world will be conquered by your power, 

but when you turn inwards towards the Self, 

you will know that a higher power is working everywhere.

.......

 Even if we think that God is formless, that very thought about God itself is a form – a mere mental conception. 

This is why Sri Bhagavan says in the second line of the third verse of Ashtakam,

 ‘If one tries to think of Your nature as formless, 

he is like one who wanders throughout the world to see the sky’.

.............................end...........................

 

Key sentences-1-Talks

Talks-

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.

..........

211

D.: No. But still, I want to know how the Self could be realised. Is there any method leading to it? 

M.: Make effort. Just as water is got by boring a well, so also you realise the Self by investigation. 

....

D.: Yes. But some find water readily and others with difficulty. 

M.: But you already see the moisture on the surface. You are hazily aware of the Self. Pursue it. When the effort ceases the Self shines forth. 

 D.: How to train the mind to look within? 

M.: By practice. The mind is the intelligent phase leading to its own destruction, for Self to manifest.

D.: How to destroy the mind? 

M.: Water cannot be made dry water. Seek the Self; the mind will be destroyed.

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

The wrong knowledge consists in the false identification of the Self with the body, the mind, etc. 

This false identity must go and there remains the Self.

........

D.: But there should be the experience. Unless I have the experience how can I be free from these afflicting thoughts? 

M.: These are also in the mind. They are there because you have identified yourself with the body. If this false identity drops away, ignorance vanishes and Truth is revealed.

.......

M.: Abhyasa is only to prevent any disturbance to the inherent peace.

........

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

D.: How is realisation made possible? 

M.: There is the absolute Self from which a spark proceeds as from fire. The spark is called the ego. 

In the case of an ignorant man it identifies itself with an object simultaneously with its rise.

 It cannot remain independent of such an association with objects. 

This association is ajnana or ignorance, whose destruction is the objective of our efforts. 

If its objectifying tendency is killed it remains pure, and also merges into the source. 

The wrong identification with the body is dehatmabuddhi (‘I-am-the-body’ idea). 

This must go before good results follow.

.........

Realise this interval with the conviction gained by the study of avasthatraya (the three states of consciousness).

.......

When Aham represents the Self only it is Aham Sphurana.

 This is natural to the Jnani and is itself called jnana by jnanis, 

or bhakti by bhaktas.

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

If the transitional ‘I’ be realised the substratum is found and that leads to the goal.

........

Therefore the pure ‘I’ of the transitional stage must be held for the experience of the Prajnanaghana.

 The ‘I’ of the waking state is impure and is not useful for such experience. 

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

Hence the use of the transitional ‘I’ or the pure ‘I’. How is this pure ‘I’ to be realised? 

Viveka Chudamani says, Vijnana kose vilasatyajasram 

(He is always shining forth in the intellectual sheath, vijnana kosa). 

Tripura Rahasya and other works point out that the interval between two consecutive sankalpas (ideas or thoughts) represent the pure aham (‘I’). 

Therefore holding on to the pure ‘I’, one should have the Prajnanaghana for aim, and there is the vritti present in the attempt. 

All these have their proper and respective places and at the same time lead to realisation.

299

........

.............299....

External samadhi is holding on to the Reality while witnessing the world, without reacting to it from within. There is the stillness of a waveless ocean. 

The internal samadhi involves loss of body consciousness.

......

D.: Is loss of body-consciousness a pre-requisite to the attainment of sahaja samadhi? 

M.: What is body-consciousness? 

Analyse it. 

There must be a body and consciousness limited to it which together make up body consciousness. These must lie in another Consciousness which is absolute and unaffected. 

Hold it. That is samadhi.

 It exists when there is no body-consciousness because it transcends the latter, it also exists when there is the body-consciousness. So it is always there. 

What does it matter whether body-consciousness is lost or retained? 

When lost it is internal samadhi. When retained, it is external samadhi. That is all. 

A person must remain in any of the six samadhis so that sahaja samadhi may be easy for him.

D.: The mind does not sink into that state even for a second. 

M.: A strong conviction is necessary that I am the Self; 

transcending the mind and the phenomena. 

...

D.: Nevertheless, the mind proves to be a cord against attempts to sink it. 

M.: What does it matter if the mind is active?

 It is so only on the substratum of the Self. 

Hold the Self even during mental activities. 

.........

V imp: Analyze again-

D.: I cannot go within sufficiently deep. 

M.: It is wrong to say so. Where are you now if not in the Self? Where should you go? 

All that is necessary is the stern belief that you are the Self.

 Say rather that the other activities throw a veil on you. 

.........

D.: Yes, it is so. 

M.: That means that the conviction is weak.

.......

Talk 465. 

Sri Bhagavan explained to a retired Judge of the High Court some points in the Upadesa Saram as follows:- 

(1) Meditation should remain unbroken as a current. If unbroken it is called samadhi or Kundalini

sakti. 

(2) The mind may be latent and merge in the Self; it will rise up again; after it rises up one finds oneself only as ever before. 

For in this state the mental predispositions are present there in latent form to re-manifest under favourable conditions. 

(3) Again the mind activities can be completely destroyed. This differs from the former mind, for here the attachment is lost, never to reappear. Even though the man sees the world after he has been in the samadhi state, the world will be taken only at its worth, that is to say it is the phenomenon of the One Reality. 

The True Being can be realised only in samadhi; what was then is also now. 

Otherwise it cannot be Reality or Ever-present Being. 

What was in samadhi is here and now too. Hold it and it is your natural condition of Being. 

Samadhi practice must lead to it. 

Otherwise how can nirvikalpa samadhi be of any use in which a man remains as a log of wood? 

He must necessarily rise up from it sometime or other and face the world.

 But in sahaja samadhi he remains unaffected by the world. 

So many pictures pass over the cinema screen: fire burns away everything; water drenches all; but the screen remains unaffected. 

The scenes are only phenomena which pass away leaving the screen as it was. Similarly the world phenomena simply pass on before the Jnani, leaving him unaffected. You may say that people find pain or

pleasure in worldly phenomena. It is owing to superimposition. This must not happen. With this end in view practice is made. 

Practice lies in one of the two courses: devotion or knowledge. 

Even these are not the goals.

 Samadhi must be gained. 

It must be continuously practised until Sahaja Samadhi results. 

Then there remains nothing more to do.

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

Mr. Vaidyalingam, an employee of the National Bank: By meditation manifestation disappears and then ananda results. It is short-lived. How is it made ever abiding? 

M.: By scorching the predispositions.

........

487

The Self is eternal and so also its Realisation. In the course of the discourse Sri Bhagavan also made a few points clearer:

  Abhyasa consists in withdrawal within the Self every time you are disturbed by thought.

It is not concentration or destruction of the mind but withdrawal into the Self. 

..........

M.: First surrender and see. 

The doubts arise because of the absence of surrender.

 Acquire strength by surrender and then your surroundings will be found to have improved to the degree of strength acquired by you

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

From YV:

This alone is saṁsāra—the feeling ‘This is’. Its cessation is liberation or mokṣa. This is the essence of jñāna or wisdom.

The individual personality is vāsanā or mental conditioning which disappears on investigation.

 However, in a state of ignorance when one fails to observe it—this world-appearance arises.

When one is spiritually awakened 

and when one lives with his wakeful state resembling deep sleep

—the state is known as svabhāva or self-nature 

and this state leads one to liberation.

The self which is the Lord immediately confers mokṣa or final liberation when worshipped with inquiry into the nature of the self, 

with self-control and satsaṅga or company of the wise.

On this field known as the mind, the seed known as samādhi, which is turning away from the world—falls of its own accord when one is alone in the forest known as wisdom.

The yogi is then seen to be in a state of continuous and unbroken meditation, firmly established in

adamantine meditation, samādhi or vajra-samādhāna—like a mountain.

If one knows that the self is pure consciousness and not the physical body, then when he dies there is no saṁsāra or world-appearance in his consciousness. 

If one’s understanding is not thus purified by right understanding or wisdom—it does not remain without the support of saṁsāra

May my limbs be pulverized or may they become as powerful as Mount Meru. 

What is lost and what is gained or increased—when it is realized that I am pure consciousness?

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

.....132.......

However well I realize ‘This is not real’, ‘This is not real’ after intense inquiry, the feeling ‘This is’ does not cease.

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

To those who know the truth or the supreme state—the states of waking, dream and sleep do not exist at all. Whatever is—is as it is.  

........

Knowledge does not have an object to know. 

Knowledge is independent and eternal; it is beyond description and definition. 

When this truth is directly realized—there is perfect knowledge.

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

By awakening, awakening is attained; and the concept of ‘awakening’ is clearly understood. 

Of course, all this is comprehensible only to people like you, not to us.

By the realization of the truth that all objects and substances exist in the Self or the infinite consciousness, as perverted notions, 

his hold on those substances and vice versa, comes to an end. 

The wheel of saṁsāra stops by and by.

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

From Annamalai Swami:

If you keep the light on all the time, darkness cannot enter your room. Even if you open the door and invite it to come in, it cannot enter. 

Darkness is just an absence of light. 

In the same way, mind is just a self- inflicted area of darkness in which the light of the Self has been deliberately shut out. 

You live in the darkness by insisting on believing ideas that have no validity, 

and you live in the light of the Self when you have given up all ideas, 

both good and bad.

.......

The mind only gets dissolved in the Self by constant practice.

 At that moment the ‘I am the body’ idea disappears, just as darkness disappears when the sun rises.

.........

Annamalai Swami: If the intensity to know yourself is strong enough, the intensity of your yearning will take you to the Self.

.......

Just as yellow turmeric powder loses its colour and becomes white under sunlight, this wholly mental world perishes before the sunlight of the knowledge of reality.

 Therefore, it is not a creation of God, the sun of true jnana. Like the many-hued eye

of the peacock feather, this bright world is only a vast picture, a reflection seen in the darkened mirror of the impure mind.

Bhagavan: If the obstacle of the ego-impurity is destroyed, the creation [srishti] that appeared as the world will become a mere appearance [drishti]. (Padamalai, p. 272, v. 16.)

Pramada

See verse 368 where a similar idea is expressed.

 Pramada is another key word in the text. 

It denotes the forgetfulness of the Self that arises when one puts one’s attention on anything that is not the Self. 

When attention is wholly on the Self, ‘this world, a vast and harmful illusion’ ceases to exist. 

The world only comes into an apparent existence when Self-awareness is absent.

Bhagavan: Through forgetfulness the villainous mind will throw away the Self, that which is, and will get agitated.

In the state in which one has known the truth without any pramada, all names and forms are Brahman.

The reason why the state of Brahman has become different from you is nothing other than your deceitful forgetfulness of the Self.

(Padamalai, p. 72, vv. 86, 87, 88)

41

This worldly life is a dreamlike appearance, sapless and deluding, that functions through the mixture of the pairs of opposites such as desire and aversion. 

It appears as if real only as long as one is under the spell of the maya-sleep.

  It will end up being totally false when one truly wakes up into the maya-free Self.

42

...........

The world scene that unfolds like a dream is nothing other than the mind, a deluded perspective. 

Its true nature will appear as it really is only to the true awareness, the distilled being-consciousness that shines, transcending the mind-maya.

..............................................end.............................

Sep 2022 -2..3 things. Be aware of the consciousness that is the origin of all your thoughts.

 from part 2 'Living by the words of Bhagvan'

69

AS: 

When I say, ‘Meditate on the Self’ I am asking you 'To be the Self'.

 Not think about it. 

Be aware of what remains when thoughts stop.

Be aware of the consciousness that is the origin of all your thoughts. 

Be that consciousness. 

Feel that that is what you really are. 

If you do this you are meditating on the Self. 

.........

But if you cannot stabilise in that consciousness because your vasanas are too strong and too active, it is beneficial to hold onto the thought ‘I am the Self; I am everything’. 

If you meditate in this way you will not be cooperating with the vasanas that are blocking your Self-awareness. 

If you don’t cooperate with your vasanas, sooner or later they are bound to leave you.

.........

If this method doesn’t appeal to you, then just watch the mind with full attention. Whenever the mind wanders, become aware of it.

See how thoughts connect with each other and watch how this ghost called mind catches hold of all your thoughts and says This is my thought’. 

Watch the ways of the mind without identifying with them in any way. If you give your mind your full, detached attention, you begin to understand the futility of all mental activities. 

Watch the mind wandering here and there, seeking out useless or unnecessary things or ideas which will ultimately only create misery for itself. 

Watching the mind gives us a knowledge of its inner processes. 

It gives us an incentive to stay detached from all our thoughts. 

Ultimately, if we try hard enough, it gives us the ability to remain as consciousness, unaffected by transient thoughts.

.......

Saint Manikkavachagar once said: ‘Lord Siva gave me the boon of not being able to give reality to this maya life.’

.....

Tayumanuvar once asked Siva to give him a boon:

You who carry all the troubles of the world, please take all my troubles too. 

Take the sense that I am the doer away from me. 

You alone act. 

You do everything through me. 

Surrender completely and accept that everything that happens to you and the world is God’s will.

...

Q: How to distinguish between acts which occur as God's will and acts which are brought about by the ego?

AS: This is very simple. When surrender is complete, everything is God. 

Everything that happens is then His action. In that state there is peace, harmony and an absence of

thoughts. 

Until that stage is reached, all acts are by the ego.

Liberation comes when you fully understand and experience that there is no one who needs liberation.

 That understanding and that experience only arise when the mind and its in-built ideas of time have ceased to function.

If you think about time and start to worry about how much longer it will be before you realise the Self, your attention will be on the mind and not on the Self. 

You can only make progress while the mind is on the Self.

76/144 part 2 ends..........

part 1

If you see the sastras , sastra jnana [knowledge of the scriptures] will come. 

(However),

If you see the Self, Self-knowledge will shine.

....

16/144

While he was looking at a small child in the hall he suddenly remarked, ‘One can attain the bliss of Brahman only when the mind becomes pure and humble, like this child’s’.

........

The one who does not think that he is the one who is doing all his actions is superior to the one who thinks that he has renounced everything.

......

To remain temporarily subsided in the reality, without any thought, is nirvikalpa samadhi. 

Permanently abiding in the Self without forgetting it is sahaja samadhi.

....

Bhagavan summarised these views a little later by saying,

 ‘Every jiva [individual self] is seeing a separate world but

a jnani does not see anything other than himself. 

This is the state of truth.’

..

Then Bhagavan quoted verse thirty-one of Ulladu Narpadu which describes the real state of liberation:

To one who has destroyed himself [his ego] and is awake to his nature as bliss, what remains to be accomplished? 

He does not see anything, as being other than himself. 

Who can comprehend his state?

36

Frydman: What is manonasa ?

Bhagavan: Remaining permanently as one is 

without the rising of any doubt or thought

 such as, ‘Nothing is known,’ or ‘Something is known’, alone is manonasa .

Sam: Remaining As Is = Mano-nasha.

Sam: Mano Nasha = staying as 'Sva-Bhava'.

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

imp

39

Why do you think, ‘Why didn’t I meditate?’ or ‘Why didn’t I work?’ 

If the thoughts ‘I did’ and ‘I didn’t’ are given up, 

then all actions will end up as meditation. 

.....

In that state meditation cannot be given up. 

This is the state of sahaja samadhi

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

AS: This ‘little self’ will only give way to the real Self if you meditate constantly. 

You cannot wish it away with a few stray thoughts.

......

Your vasanas [mental habits and tendencies] and all the wrong ideas you have about yourself are blocking and hiding the experience of the real Self. 

If you don’t identify with the wrong ideas, your Self-nature will not be hidden from you.

..........

If you can resist the impulse to claim each and every thought as your own, you will come to a startling conclusion: 

you will discover that you are the consciousness in which the thoughts appear and disappear.

........

Establish yourself in the conviction that you are the Self and that nothing can stick to you or affect you.

 Once you have that conviction you will find that you automatically ignore the habits of the mind. 

When the rejection of mental activities becomes continuous and automatic, you will begin to have the

experience of the Self.

......

Rest quietly in the feeling of ‘I am’, which is consciousness, and cultivate the attitude that all thoughts, all perceptions are ‘not me’. 

When you have learned to regard your mind as a distant stranger, you will not pay any attention to all the obstacles it keeps inventing for you.

............................end..................

Sep 2022 notes-1-AS

 Bhagavan once said, ‘The jnanis are the only pure people. 

Others are polluted by their egos. Getting the association of jnanis is very important for people who want to make spiritual progress.’

AS: Bhagavan told me me, ‘Hold onto the Self. If you can do that you need no other practice. This is the ultimate and final sadhana .’

The path of jnana is for those who only have a little karma left. 

Those who still have many karmas to undergo cannot follow the path of jnana successfully because they don’t have the capacity to be still and quiet. 

Only those who have learnt how to be still can abide in the Self.

......

AS: If you enquire into the origin of a thought as soon as it appears, your attention is diverted towards the Self. 

The Self is always alert. That is its nature.

.......

AS: If you can focus your mind on this ‘I am’ you need not do anything else. 

You do not have to cultivate a particular attitude towards it. 

If you keep your attention on it, it will eventually reveal all its secrets to you.

.....

As we start to move inwards we experience the peace and bliss of the Self in a very diluted form. The deeper we go, the stronger the experience becomes. 

Eventually a time will come when we don’t want to leave this experience at all. 

Instead, there is a continuous urge to go deeper and deeper into the Self. 

When you lose all desires and attachments, the pure gold of the Self will reveal itself to you.

...........part 4 ends 

part 3

AS: To experience the Self you have to dive deep into the consciousness ‘I am’.

.......

When you cease to imagine that you are a body and a mind, reality shines of its own accord.

 If you stabilise in this state you can see that the mind didn’t go anywhere; you understand that it never really existed. 

‘Keeping the mind in its source’ is just another way of saying /understanding that it never existed’.

........

AS: We have identified with our false ideas for many previous lifetimes. The habit is very strong.

 But not so strong that it cannot be dissolved through constant meditation.

......

AS: Yes, forget them all. ‘I am the Self, I am all’. Hold onto this awareness. All other paths are roundabout.

....

Bhagavan said, ‘Keeping the mind in the Heart is self-enquiry’. 

AS: The meditation ‘I am not the body or the mind, I am the immanent Self is a great aid for as long as one is not able to do self-enquiry properly or constantly.

......

If you cannot do this by asking ‘Who am I?’ or by taking the T- thought back to its source, then meditation on the awareness ‘I am the all-pervasive Self is a great aid.

.........

Go deeply into this feeling of T. 

Be aware of it so strongly and so intensely that no other thoughts have the energy to arise and distract you. 

If you hold this feeling of T long enough and strongly enough, the false T will vanish leaving only the unbroken awareness of the real, immanent T, consciousness itself.

..................part 3 ends

part 2

The Self is the awareness or the consciousness in which the seeing and the experiencing take place.

...

Don’t worry about whether you are making progress or not. 

Just keep your attention on the Self twenty-four hours a day. 

Meditation is not something that should be done in a particular position at a particular time. 

It is an awareness and an attitude that must persist throughout the day. 

To be effective, meditation must be continuous.

........

You will not be able to reach the Self and stay there without a prolonged, continuous effort. 

Each time you give up trying, or get distracted, some of your previous effort goes to waste.

..........

Continuous inhalation and exhalation are necessary for the continuance of life. 

Similarly,

Continuous meditation is necessary for all those who want to stay in the Self.

.........

 Get rid of all these ideas and replace them with the single thought 'I' am the Self. 

Hold on to that idea and don’t let go. 

.....

Don’t give these I-am-the-body ideas any attention.

‘I must eat now’; ‘I will go to sleep now’; ‘I will have a bath now’: all thoughts like these are I-am-the-body thoughts. Learn to recognise them when they arise and learn to ignore them or deny them. 

Stay firmly in the Self  and don’t allow the mind to identify with anything that the body does.

....

Mind is only a collection of thoughts and the thinker who thinks them. 

The thinker is the 'I'-thought, the primal thought which rises from the Self before all others, which identifies with all other thoughts and says, ‘I am this body’. 

When you have eradicated all thoughts except for the thinker himself by ceaseless enquiry or by refusing to give them any attention, 

the 'I'-thought sinks into the Heart and surrenders, 

leaving behind it, 

only an awareness of consciousness. 

This surrender will only take place when the 'I'-thought has ceased to identify with rising thoughts.

While there are still stray thoughts which attract or evade your attention, the T-thought will always be directing its attention outwards rather than inwards. 

The purpose of self-enquiry is to make the 'I'-thought move inwards, towards the Self.

This will happen automatically as soon as you cease to be interested in any of your rising thoughts.

61

AS: The best mantra is 'I' am the Self. Everything is my Self. Everything is one’.

If you keep this in your mind all the time the Self will eventually reveal itself to you.

Don’t be satisfied with rituals and other kindergarten techniques. 

If you are serious, head directly for the Self. 

Hold onto it as tenaciously as you can. 

And don’t let anything or anyone loosen your grip.

.......

AS: If there are breaks in his Self-awareness this means that he is not yet a dnyani

Before one becomes established in this state without any breaks, without changes, one has to contact and enjoy this state many times. 

.....

By steady meditation it finally becomes permanent.

It is very difficult to attain Self-abidance, but once it is attained it is retained effortlessly and never lost.

...\

*******************************

Doing any form of sadhana without first understanding that the individual self is non-existent is self-indulgence. 

Sam: above is a golden sentence

...........*****************************************************

It is a form of spiritual entertainment in which the illusory 'I' plays games with itself.

........

Saint Tayumanuvar once said, ‘Why all these maha yogas? All these yogas are maya

If you try to meditate without understanding that your real nature is Self, and Self alone, 

your meditation practice will only lead you to more mental bondage.

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

Bhagavan once said, ‘To keep the mind in the Self, all you have to do is to 'Remain Still’.

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

To realise the Self, you don’t actually have to do anything except be still. 

Just give up identifying with the mind and

 Hold onto the Self. 

That is enough. Be still and cultivate the awareness ‘I am the Self. The Self is all’.

Bhagvan:

‘The one who limits the Self by believing himself to be the body and the mind has killed his own Self.

 For killing the Self he has to be punished. 

The punishment is birth and death and continuous misery.’

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

.....................................cont part 2 ..........................................................