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).
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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Self is only Be-ing.
Not being this or that.
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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.
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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 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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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