KS-7

 part 15

528

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.

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........

You can entertain these thoughts or relinquish them. The former is bondage and the latter is release. 

D.: It is not quite clear to me. 

M.: You must exist in order that you may think. 

You may think these thoughts or other thoughts. 

The thoughts change but not you. 

Let go the passing thoughts and hold on to the unchanging Self.

 The thoughts form your bondage. If they are given up, there is release. 

The bondage is not external. So no external remedy need be sought for release. 

It is within your competence to think and thus to get bound or to cease thinking and thus be free. 

D.: But it is not easy to remain without thinking. 

M.: You need not cease thinking. 

Only think of the root of the thoughts. 

Seek it and find it. 

The Self shines by itself. 

When that is found the thoughts cease of their own accord. That is freedom from bondage.

........

M.: The experience is the same. Every person experiences the Self consciously or unconsciously. The ajnani’s experience is clouded by his latencies whereas the jnani’s is not so. The jnani’s experience of the Self is therefore distinct and permanent. 

A practiser may by long practice gain a glimpse of the Reality. This experience may be vivid for the time being. And yet he will be distracted by the old vasanas and so his experience will not avail him. 

Such a man must continue his manana and nididhyasana so that all the obstacles may be destroyed. He will then be able to remain permanently in the Real State.

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575

They pray to God and finish with “Thy Will be done!”

 If His Will be done why do they pray at all? 

It is true that the Divine Will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. 

The individuals cannot act of their own accord. 

Recognise the force of the Divine Will and keep quiet. 

Each one is looked after by God. He has created all. You are one among 2,000 millions. When He looks after so many will He omit you? 

Even common sense dictates that one should abide by His Will.

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577............................................

Talk 596. 

A visitor asked: Sri Bhagavan said last night that God is guiding us. Then why should we make an effort to do anything? 

M.: Who asks you to do so? If there was that faith in the guidance of God this question would not have arisen. 

D.: The fact is that God guides us. Then what is the use of these instructions to people?

M.: They are for those who seek instructions.

 If you are firm in your belief in the guidance of God, stick to it, and do not concern yourself with what happens around you. 

Furthermore, there may be happiness or misery. Be equally indifferent to both and abide in the faith of God. That will be so only when one’s faith is strong that God looks after all of us. 

Mr. Chopra asked: “How shall I secure that firm faith?” 

M.: Exactly. It is for such as these who want instructions. There are persons who seek freedom from misery. 

They are told that God guides all and so there need not be any concern about what happens.

 If they are of the best type they at once believe it and firmly abide by faith in God. 

But there are others who are not so easily convinced of the truth of the bare statement. 

They ask: “Who is God? What is His nature? Where is He? How can He be realised?” and so on. 

In order to satisfy them intellectual discussion is found necessary. 

Statements are made, their pros and cons are argued, and the truth is thus made clear to the intellect.

 When the matter is understood intellectually the earnest seeker begins to apply it practically. 

He argues at every moment, “For whom are these thoughts? Who am I?” and so forth, until he is well-established in the conviction that a Higher Power guides us. 

That is firmness of faith. 

Then all his doubts are cleared and he needs no further instructions.

.....

D.: Can samadhi come and go? 

M.: What is samadhi? Samadhi is one’s essential nature. 

How then can it come or go?

 If you do not realise your essential nature, your sight remains obstructed. 

What is the obstruction? Find it and remove it. So one’s efforts are meant only for the removal of obstructions which hide the true vision. The real nature remains the same. 

When once it is realised it is permanent. 

.....part 15 ends

part 16

605

The object here is the Universal Being-Consciousness which is all-pervading and therefore immanent in all. It need not be cognised by reflection alone; it is self-resplendent. 

Therefore the seeker’s aim must be to drain away the vasanas from the heart and let no reflection obstruct the Light of Eternal Consciousness.

This is achieved by the search for the origin of the ego and by diving into the heart. This is the direct method for Self-Realisation. 

One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, the brain, the Sushumna, the Paranadi, the Kundalini, pranayama or the six centres. 

.......

D.: I understand it. But there is no happiness beyond it.

 M.: The intellect is the instrument wherewith to know unknown things. 

But you are already known, being the Self which is itself knowledge;

 so you do not become the object of knowledge. 

The intellect makes you see things outside, and not that which is its own source. 

........

The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-Realisation. 

But Self-Realisation itself does not admit of progress; it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realisation. 

The obstacles are thoughts. 

Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realised.

 So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. 

So you go to their Source, where they do not arise.

....

M.: Just so. The common man is aware of himself only when modifications arise in the intellect (vijnanamaya kosa); these modifications are transient; they arise and set. Hence the vijnanamaya (intellect) is called a kosa or sheath. 

When pure awareness is left over it is itself the Chit (Self) or the Supreme. To be in one’s natural state on the subsidence of thoughts is bliss; if that bliss be transient - arising and setting - then it is only the sheath of bliss (Anandamaya kosa), not the pure Self. 

What is needed is to fix the attention on the pure ‘I’ after the subsidence of all thoughts and not to lose hold of it.

 This has to be described as an extremely subtle thought; else it cannot be spoken of at all, since it is no other than the Real Self. Who is to speak of it, to whom and how?

This is well explained in the Kaivalyam and the Viveka Chudamani. 

Thus though in sleep the awareness of the Self is not lost, the ignorance of the jiva is not affected by it. 

For this ignorance to be destroyed this subtle state of mind (vrittijnanam) is necessary. 

In the sunshine cotton does not burn. But if the cotton be placed under a lens it catches fire and is consumed by the rays of the Sun passing through the lens. 

So too, though the awareness of the Self is present at all times, it is not inimical to ignorance. 

If by meditation the subtle state of thought is won, then ignorance is destroyed. 

Also in Viveka Chudamani: ativa sukshmam paramatma tattvam na sthoola drishtya (the exceedingly subtle Supreme Self cannot be seen by the gross eye) and 

esha svayam jyotirasesha sakshi (this is Self-shining and witnesses all). 

This subtle mental state is not a modification of mind called vritti.

 Because the mental states are of two kinds. One is the natural state and the other is a transformation into forms of objects.

 The first is the truth, and the other is according to the doer (kartru-tantra). 

When the latter perishes, jale kataka renuvat (like the clearing nut paste in water) the former will remain over. 

The means for this end is meditation.

 Though this is with the triad of distinction (triputi) it will finally end in pure awareness (jnanam)

 Meditation needs effort: jnanam is effortless. 

Meditation can be done, or not done, or wrongly done, jnanam is not so. 

Meditation is described as kartru-tantra (as doer’s own), jnanam as vastu-tantra (the Supreme’s own)

...part 16 ends.....

part 17

D.: But Chudala says to Sikhidhvaja that she simply helped to trim the wick. 

M.: That refers to nididhyasana. 

By sravana, Knowledge dawns. That is the flame. 

By manana, the Knowledge is not allowed to vanish. Just as the flame is protected by a wind-screen, so the other thoughts are not allowed to overwhelm the right knowledge. 

By nididhyasana, the flame is kept up to burn bright by trimming the wick. Whenever other thoughts arise, the mind is turned inward to the light of true knowledge. 

When this becomes natural, it is samadhi.

 The enquiry “Who am I?” is the sravana.

 The ascertainment of the true import of ‘I’ is the manana. 

The practical application on each occasion is nididhyasana. 

Being as ‘I’ is samadhi.

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641

Any kind of meditation is good. 

But if the sense of separateness is lost and the object of meditation or the subject who meditates is alone left behind without anything else to know, it is jnana. 

.........

The mind which has obtained a burning desire for Self-attention, which is Self-enquiry, is said to be the fully mature one (pakva manas). 

Sam: Who is pari pakva?

One who has a burning desire to stay with the Self and Self alone.

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