Part 10 dec 2021
300
....M.: This is only a repetition. That is the obstruction.
This arises because you think that the non-self is you.
That is the mistake.
Do not take the non-self to be the Self.
Then the Self will be evident to you.
.....
Rebirth is due to vasanas which are binding. But they are destroyed in the state of Self-realisation.
.........
Talk 320.
In the course of an informal conversation Sri Bhagavan pointed out that
Self-Realisation is possible only for the fit.
The vasanas must be eliminated before jnana dawns.
One must be like Janaka for jnana to dawn.
One must be ready to sacrifice everything for the Truth.
Complete renunciation is the index of fitness.
M.: Why do you want to know of Brahman apart from yourself? The scripture says “You are That”.
The Self is intimate to you and you cannot indeed be without the Self.
Realise it.
That is the Realisation of Brahman also.
D.: What is unconditional surrender?
M.: If one surrenders oneself there will be no one to ask questions or to be thought of.
Either the thoughts are eliminated by holding on to the root-thought ‘I’ or
one surrenders oneself unconditionally to the Higher Power.
These are the only two ways for Realisation.
Churning the mind:
To install the mind firmly in the heart until these forces are destroyed and to awaken with unswerving, ceaseless vigilance the true and cognate tendency which is characteristic of the Atman and is expressed by the dicta, Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman), and Brahmaivaham (Brahman alone am I) is termed nididhyasana or atmanusandhana, i.e. constancy in the Self. This is otherwise called Bhakti, Yoga and Dhyana.
Sam:Constancy in the Self is called Bhakti, Yoga, Dnyana.
Atmanusandhana has been likened to churning the curd to draw forth butter,
the mind being compared to the churning rod,
the heart to the curd
and the practice of constancy in the Self to the process of churning.
Just as by churning the curd butter is extracted and by friction fire is kindled,
even so,
By unswerving vigilant constancy in the Self,
ceaseless like the unbroken filamentary flow of oil,
is generated the natural or changeless trance or nirvikalpa samadhi.
It readily and spontaneously yields that direct, immediate, unobstructed and universal perception of Brahman.
It is at once Knowledge and Experience and which transcends time and space.
........
342
The thought rises up as the subject and object.
‘I’ alone being held, all else disappears.
It is enough,
but only to the competent few.
yogic paranadi is from muladhara and
the jnana paranadi is from the Heart.
The truth is that the paranadi should be entered.
.......
Again if there is an image reflected there must be a source and also accessories like the Sun and a pot of water for reflection.
To do away with the reflection either the surface is covered up corresponding to reaching the fontanelle according to the yogis or
the water is drained away which is called tapas (Tapo Brahmeti - tapas is Brahman).
That is to say, the thoughts or the brain activities are made to cease. This is jnana-marga.
All these are however on the assumption that the jiva is separate from the Self or Brahman.
But are we separate? “No”, says the Jnani.
The ego is simply wrong identity of the Self with the non-self,
as in the case of a colourless crystal and its coloured background.
The crystal though colourless appears red because of its background. If the background is removed the crystal shines in its original purity. So it is with the Self and the antahkaranas.
Still again the illustration is not quite appropriate. For the ego has its source from the Self and is not separate like the background from the crystal.
Having its source from the Self, the ego must only be retraced in order that it might merge in its source.
The centre of the ego and its core is called the Heart, the same as the Self.
Self surrender = self control.
D.: What is Self-surrender?
M.: It is the same as self-control.
Control is effected by removal of samskaras which imply the functioning of the ego.
The ego submits only when it recognises the Higher Power.
Such recognition is surrender or submission, or self-control.
Otherwise the ego remains stuck up like the image carved on a tower, making a pretence by its strained look and posture that it is supporting the tower on its shoulders. The ego cannot exist without the Power but thinks that it acts of its own accord.
.........
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 perquisite 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.
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.
........part 11 ends.
part 12
The man must directly see the seer and realise the Self.
...
.......422
M.: Being insentient, it does not say so. But the individual is sentient and cannot function apart from consciousness. The Self is Pure Consciousness. Yet the man identifies himself with the body which is itself insentient and does not say “I am the body” of its own accord.
Someone else says so. The unlimited Self does not. Who else is he that says so? A spurious ‘I’ arises between the Pure Consciousness and the insentient body and imagines itself limited to the body. Seek this and it will vanish as a phantom.
That phantom is the ego, or the mind or the individuality.
All the sastras are based on the rise of this phantom, whose elimination is their purpose.
The present state is mere illusion.
Disillusionment is the goal and nothing more.
.....
Yoga Vasishta clearly defines Liberation as the abandonment of the false.
And remaining as Being.
D.: What should one think of when meditating?
M.: What is meditation? It is expulsion of thoughts. You are perturbed by thoughts which rush one after another. Hold on to one thought so that others are expelled.
Continuous practice gives the necessary strength of mind to engage in meditation.
Meditation differs according to the degree of advancement of the seeker.
If one is fit for it one might directly hold the thinker.
The thinker will automatically sink into his source, namely Pure Consciousness.
If one cannot directly hold the thinker one must meditate on God.
In due course the same individual will have become sufficiently pure
to hold the thinker
and sink into absolute Being.
M.: Leave God alone. Speak for yourself. You do not know God. He is only what you think of Him. Is he apart from you? He is that Pure Consciousness in which all ideas are formed. You are that Consciousness.
M.: There is confusion between the means and the end (i.e. sadhana and sadhya). Who is the enquirer? The aspirant and not the siddha.
Enquiry signifies that the enquirer considers himself separate from enquiry.
So long as this duality lasts the enquiry must be continued,
i.e. until the individuality disappears and the Self is realised to be only the eternal Be-ing (including enquiry and enquirer).
The Truth is that the Self is constant and unintermittent Awareness.
The object of enquiry is to find the true nature of the Self as Awareness.
Let one practise enquiry so long as separateness is perceived.
If once realisation arises there is no further need for enquiry.
The question will also not arise.
Can awareness ever think of questioning who is aware?
Awareness remains pure and simple.
The enquirer is aware of his own individuality.
Enquiry does not stand in the way of his individual awareness; nor does external work interfere with such awareness.
If work, seemingly external, does not obstruct the individual awareness, will the work, realised to be not separate from the Self, obstruct the uninterrupted Awareness of the Self, which is One without a second and which is not an individual separate from work?
D.: Sri Bhagavan’s answers do not permit us to put further questions, not because our minds are peaceful but we are unable to argue the point. Our discontent is not at an end. For the physical ailments to go the mental ailments should go. Both go when thoughts go. Thoughts do not go without effort.
Effort is not possible with the present weakness of mind. The mind requires grace to gain strength. Grace must manifest only after surrender. So all questions, wittingly or unwittingly, amount to asking for Sri Bhagavan’s Grace.
M.: Smiled and said, “Yes.”
....
D.: Surrender is said to be bhakti. But Sri Bhagavan is known to favour enquiry for the Self. There is thus confusion in the hearer.
M.: Surrender can take effect only when done with full knowledge.
Such knowledge comes after enquiry.
It ends in surrender.
........
D.: The knowledge of the Supreme Being is after transcending the individual self. This is jnana. Where is the need for surrender?
M.: Quite so. There is no difference between dnyana and surrender. (Smile).
...
D.: How is the questioner satisfied then? The only alternative left is association with the wise or devotion to God (satsanga or Isvara bhakti).
M.: Smiled and said, “Yes.”
465
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 must necessarily 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.
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