dd mar 13

 337

This afternoon a visitor from Shimoga asked Bhagavan, 

“How to still the tossing mind?” 

Bhagavan replied, “Who asks this question? Is it the mind or you?” 

The visitor said, “The mind.” 

Bhagavan: If you see what this mind is, it will be stilled. 

Visitor: How to see what the mind is? 

Bhagavan: What is your idea of the mind? 

Visitor: My idea is, it is thought. 

 Bhagavan: The mind is a bundle of thoughts. But the source of all thoughts is the I-thought. So if you try to find out who this ‘I’ is, the mind will disappear. The mind will exist only so long as you think of external things. But when you draw it from external things and make it think of the mind or ‘I’ — in other words introvert it — it ceases to exist.

.....

The following is the English translation of Kannan’s letter as made by Mr. T.P.R, and myself the next day: 

“Oh Emperor Supreme, Ramana, who rules the world under the canopy of universal sovereignty, seated on the throne of the Heart! That day you graciously said: ‘Oh child, you being our beloved son, we bestow kingship on you. Assuming this sovereignty, be you happy!’ “I am seated in the audience hall. There have gathered the Prime Minister, mind, the assistant ministers, viz., the five sense organs, and the heads of executive authority, viz., five organs of action. Before me, they are making noise as they please. They daringly defy my authority. Often and suddenly, they darken the audience hall. If I say, ‘Enough. Leave me alone, all of you, and get away’, they are indulging in obstructive tactics and say that they will not go. I am having endless trouble. Enough for me, this kingship devoid of power. I have surrendered this kingship unto the Lotus Feet of Ramana who is my father and Master. “Bhagavan should release me and give his gracious protection or else teach me the secret of sovereignty, granting the necessary power. “Oh King, Refuge, Refuge, Refuge I-crave. Kannan. “You gave me refuge, saying, ‘Child, when the bell of extroversion rings, the assembly will gather. In the audience  hall, be ever raising the incense of vichara or enquiry. Mind, the minister, is a drunkard. Confusing himself with the intoxication of thought, he will keep confusing the assembly as well. This incense of vichara will clear the intoxication of thought. The assembly will function in order. As this incense of vichara increases more and more, those assembled will take leave. When the bell of ‘abidance’ rings, mind will finally disappear. All that incense of vichara transformed into light, you will abide as yourself, alone and blessed. “‘Therefore, you should not give up even for a moment this ‘Self-Enquiry’ of ‘Who am I?’ 

With the progressive increase of vichara, jagrat and swapna will merge in sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi. 

All sleep will become kevala nirvikalpa samadhi.

 The vichara will merge in swarupa.’

Prayer “Ramana, my mother and father, you gave me the sword of jnana, termed vichara. 

Grant to this humble self, that has sought refuge at your feet, the necessary desirelessness to lay low and destroy the demon of ‘thought’ as and when it arises, with determination, and without any pity or compassion. 

“Lord, I surrender myself. Kannan.” Mr. Thiagaraja Iyer, Official Receiver of Madras, who was in the hall, asked Bhagavan, “Is this all imagination, the creation of the writer’s fancy, or real?” 

Bhagavan replied, “We don’t know. How can we say anything?”

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346

About 10-30 a.m. today a visitor asked Bhagavan, 

“The realised man has no further karma. He is not bound by his karma.  Why should he still remain with his body?” 

Bhagavan replied, “Who asks this question? Is it the realised man or the ajnani? 

Why should you bother what the jnani does or why he does anything? You look after yourself.” 

A little later he added, “You are under the impression you are the body. So you think the jnani also has a body.

 Does the jnani say he has a body? 

He may look to you as having a body and doing things with the body, as others do. The burnt rope still looks like a rope, but it can’t serve as a rope if you try to bind anything with it. 

So long as one identifies oneself with the body, all this is difficult to understand. That is why it is sometimes said in reply to such questions, 

‘The body of the jnani will continue till the force of prarabdha works itself out, and after the prarabdha is exhausted it will drop off. An illustration made use of in this connection is that of an arrow already discharged which will continue to advance and strike its target. 

But the truth is the jnani has transcended all karmas, including the prarabdha karma, and he is not bound by the body or its karmas.” 

The visitor also asked, “When a man realises the Self, what will he see?” 

Bhagavan replied,

 “There is no seeing. Seeing is only Being. 

The state of Self-realisation, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. 

All that is needed is that you give up your realisation of the not-true as true. 

All of us are realising, i.e. regarding as real, that which is not real. 

We have only to give up this practice on our part. 

Then we shall realise the Self as the Self, or in other words, ‘Be the Self’. 

At one stage one would laugh at oneself that one tried to discover the Self which is so self-evident. 

So, what can we say to this question? 

“That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains.”

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349

24-11-46 Mrs. Chenoy (from Bombay) asked Bhagavan this evening (after reading Who am I?) whether it was the proper thing to do if she asked herself “Who am I?” and told herself she was not this body but a spirit, a spark from the divine flame. 

Bhagavan first said, “Yes, you might do that or whatever appeals to you. It will come right in the end.” But, after a little while, he told her: 

“There is a stage in the beginning, when you identify yourself with the body, when you are still having the body consciousness. 

At that stage, you have the feeling you are different from the reality or God, and then it is, you think of yourself as a devotee of God or as a servant or lover of God. This is the first stage. 

The second stage is when you think of yourself as a spark of the divine fire or a ray from the divine Sun. Even then there is still that sense of difference and the body-consciousness. 

The third stage will come when all such difference ceases to exist, and you realise that the Self alone exists. 

There is an ‘I’ which comes and goes, and another ‘I’ which always exists and abides. So long as the first ‘I’ exists, the body-consciousness and the sense of diversity or bheda buddhi will persist.

 Only when that ‘I’ dies, the reality will reveal itself.

 For instance, in sleep, the first ‘I’ does not exist. 

You are not then conscious of a body or the world. Only when that ‘I’ again comes up, as soon as you get out of sleep, do you become conscious of the body and this world. 

But in sleep you alone existed. For, when you wake up, you are able to say ‘I  slept soundly.’ You, that wake up and say so, are the same that existed during sleep. You don’t say that the ‘I’ which persisted during sleep was a different ‘I’ from the ‘I’ present in the waking state. 

That ‘I’ which persists always and does not come and go is the reality. 

The other ‘I’ which disappears in sleep is not real. One should try and realise in the waking state that state which unconsciously everyone attains in sleep, the state where the small ‘I’ disappears and the real ‘I’ alone is.” 

At this stage, Mrs. C. Asked, “But how is it to be done?” 

Bhagavan replied, “By enquiring from whence and how does this small ‘I’ arise. The root of all bheda buddhi is this ‘I’. It is at the root of all thoughts. If you enquire wherefrom it arises, it disappears.” 

Mrs. C. then asked, “Am I not then to say (in answer to my own question ‘Who am I?’) ‘I am not this body but a spirit etc.’?” 

Bhagavan then said, “No. The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ means really the enquiry within oneself as to wherefrom within the body the ‘I’-thought arises. 

If you concentrate your attention on such an enquiry, the ‘I’-thought being the root of all other thoughts, all thoughts will be destroyed and then the Self or the Big ‘I’ alone will remain as ever. 

You do not get anything new, or reach somewhere where you were not before. When all other thoughts which were hiding the Self are removed, the Self shines by itself.” 

Mrs. C. then referred to the portion in the book (Who am I ?) where it is said, “Even if you keep on saying ‘I’, ‘I’, it will take you to the Self or reality” and asked whether that was not the proper thing to be done. I explained,

 “The book says one must try and follow the enquiry method which consists in turning one’s thoughts inwards and trying to find out wherefrom the ‘I’, which is the root of all thoughts, arises. If one finds one is not able to do it, one may simply go on repeating ‘I’, ‘I’, as if it were a mantram like ‘Krishna’ or ‘Rama’ which people use in their japa. The idea is to concentrate on one thought to exclude all other thoughts and then eventually even the one thought will die.” On this, Mrs. C. asked me, “Will it be of any use if  one simply repeats ‘I’, ‘I’ mechanically?”

 I replied, “When one uses ‘I’ or other words like ‘Krishna’, one surely has in one’s own mind some idea of the God one calls by the name ‘I’ or anything else. When a man goes on repeating ‘Rama’ or ‘Krishna’, he can’t be thinking of a tree as the meaning behind it.” 

After all this, Bhagavan said, “Now you consider you are making an effort and uttering ‘I’, ‘I’ or other mantrams and making meditation. 

But when you reach the final stage, meditation will go on without any effort on your part. You can’t get away from it or stop it, for meditation, japa, or whatever else you call it, is your real nature.”

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28-11-46 

This evening just before parayana, a Telugu gentleman wrote a few questions and presented them to Bhagavan. Bhagavan replied to him. 

The questions in effect were: “They say that jivanmuktas are always having brahmakara vritti. Would they be having it during sleep? If they have it, then who is it that sleeps in their case?” 

Answer: “Of course, the jivanmuktas are having brahmakara vritti always, even during sleep. The real answer to the last question and the whole set of questions is that the jnani has neither the waking, dreaming, or sleeping avasthas, but only the turiya state. It is the jnani that sleeps. But he sleeps without sleeping or is awake while sleeping.”

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Bhagavan: People put various interpretations on the same texts, according to their pet theories. 

You quote for instance from Manikkavachakar and say he used the way advocated by your teacher, the way in which the soul  is to be made to leave the body by the tenth gate (and not by the nine gates). Can you point out a single line in that saint’s works where the phrase (tenth gate) occurs? 

You said the great ones used this yoga. What is the viyoga (separation) from? Who got that viyoga, and who wants to achieve yoga (union) again? That must first be known. 

The visitor also asked in the course of his long talk: “How else is the jiva (individual soul) to join sivam (God), how is the jivatman to become one with the Paramatman?” 

Bhagavan said, “We do not know anything about Siva or the Paramatman. We know the jiva. Or, rather, we know we exist. ‘I am’ is the only thing that always abides, even when the body does not exist for us, as for instance, when we are asleep. Let us take hold of this, and see wherefrom the ‘I’ sense or ahamkara, as you put it, arises.” 

The visitor asked Bhagavan, “I am asked to go the way by which I came. Then what will happen?” 

Bhagavan replied, “If you go, you go away. That is all. There is nothing more. You won’t come back. Because you asked ‘which way?’, I said ‘The way you came’. But who are you? Where are you now and where do you want to go, that one may show the way? All these questions will have to be first answered. So the most important thing is to find out who you are. Then all else will be solved.”

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356

Thereupon Bhagavan said, “It is said so in books. Who denies that good conduct is good or that it will eventually lead you to the goal? Good conduct or sat karma purifies the chitta or mind and gives you chitta suddhi. The pure mind attains jnana, which is what is meant by salvation. 

So, eventually jnana must be reached.

 i.e. the ego must be traced to its source.

 But to those to whom this does not appeal, we have to say sat karmas lead to chitta suddhi, and chitta suddhi will lead to right knowledge or jnana, and that in its turn gives salvation.

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