Talks mar 10

196

D.: How may one destroy the mind? 

M.: Is there a mind in the first place? 

What you call mind is an illusion. 

It starts from the ‘I-thought’. 

Without the gross or subtle senses you cannot be aware of the body or the mind. Still it is possible for you to be without these senses. 

In such a state you are either asleep or aware of the Self only. 

Awareness of Self is ever there. Remain what you truly are and this question will not arise. 

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D.: Is the body consciousness an impediment to realization? 

M.: We are always beyond the body or the mind. 

If however you feel the body as the Self, then it is of course an impediment. 

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D.: Is the body or the mind of any use for the Self? 

M.: Yes, in as much as it helps Self-realisation.

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imp

Talk 219.

Ramakrishna Swami, a long-resident disciple, asked Maharshi the meaning of Twaiyarunachala Sarvam, a stanza in The Five Hymns. 

Maharshi explained it in detail, saying that the universe is like a painting on a screen - the screen being the Red Hill, Arunachala. 

That which rises and sinks is made up of what it rises from. 

The finality of the universe is the God Arunachala. 

Meditating on Him or on the seer, the Self, there is a mental vibration ‘I’ to which all are reduced. 

Tracing the source of ‘I’, the primal ‘I-I’ alone remains over, 

and it is inexpressible. 

The seat of Realisation is within 

and the seeker cannot find it as an object outside him.

 That seat is bliss and is the core of all beings. Hence it is called the Heart. 

The only useful purpose of the present birth is to turn within and realise it. 

There is nothing else to do.

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 D.: How is annihilation of predispositions to be accomplished? 

M.: You are in that condition in realisation. 

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D.: Does it mean that, holding on to the Self, the tendencies should be scorched as they begin to emerge?

 M.: They will themselves be scorched if only you remain as you truly are.

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Talk 220.

Mr. B. C. Das, the Physics Lecturer, asked: Contemplation is possible only with control of mind and control can be accomplished only by contemplation. Is it not a vicious circle? 

M.: Yes, they are interdependent. They must go on side by side.

 Practice and dispassion bring about the result gradually. 

Dispassion is practised to check the mind from being projected outward; practice is to keep it turned inward. There is a struggle between control and contemplation. It is going on constantly within. Contemplation will in due course be successful. 

D.: How to begin? Your Grace is needed for it. 

M.: Grace is always there. “Dispassion cannot be acquired, nor realization of the Truth, nor inherence in the Self, in the absence of Guru’s Grace,” the Master quoted. Practice is necessary. It is like training a roguish bull confined to his stall by tempting him with luscious grass and preventing him from straying. Then the Master read out a stanza from Tiruvachakam, which is an address to the mind, saying: “O humming bee (namely, mind)! Why do you take the pains of collecting tiny specks of honey from innumerable flowers? There is one from whom you can have the whole storehouse of honey by simply thinking or seeing or speaking of Him. Get within and hum to Him (hrimkara).

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The Master quoted again from the same book: “Continuous search for what the mind is results in its disappearance. That is the straight path.” 

D.: How to search for the mind then? 

M.: The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts have their root in the ‘I-thought’. He quoted; “Whoever investigates the origin of the ‘I-thought’, for him the ego perishes. This is the true investigation.” The true “I” is then found shining by itself. 

D.: This ‘I-thought’ rises from me. But I do not know the Self. 

M.: All these are only mental concepts. You are now identifying yourself with a wrong ‘I’, which is the ‘I-thought’. This ‘I-thought’ rises and sinks, whereas the true significance of ‘I’ is beyond both. There cannot be a break in your being. You, who slept, are also now awake. There was not unhappiness in your deep sleep. Whereas it exists now. What is it that has happened now so that this difference is experienced? 

There was no ‘I-thought’ in your sleep, whereas it is present now. 

The true ‘I’ is not apparent and the false ‘I’ is parading itself. 

This false ‘I’ is the obstacle to your right knowledge. 

Find out where from this false ‘I’ arises. Then it will disappear. You will be only what you are - i.e., absolute Being

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D.: How to do it? I have not succeeded so far. 

M.: Search for the source of the ‘I-thought’. That is all that one has to do. The universe exists on account of the ‘I-thought’. If that ends there is an end of misery also. 

The false ‘I’ will end only when its source is sought.

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202

Talk 223. 

Dr. Lohara: Why does the mind not sink into the Heart even while meditating? 

M.: A floating body does not readily sink unless some means are adopted for making it do so. 

Breath-control makes the mind quiescent. The mind must be alert and meditation pursued unremittingly even when it is at peace. Then it sinks into the heart. Or the floating body might be loaded with weights and made to sink. So also association with the wise will make the mind sink into the Heart.

Such association is both mental and physical. 

The extremely visible being (of the Guru) pushes the mind inward. He is also in the heart of the seeker and so he draws the latter’s inward-bent mind into the Heart. 

This question is asked only when the man begins to meditate and finds it difficult. 

Let him practise breath-control just a little and the mind will be purified. 

It does not now sink into the heart because the latent tendencies stand as obstacles. 

They are removed by breath-control or association with the wise. In fact the mind is always in the Heart. But it is restive and moves about on account of latent tendencies. When the tendencies are made ineffective it will be restful and at peace. By breath-control the mind will be only temporarily quiescent, because the tendencies are still there. If the mind is transformed into the Self it will no longer give trouble. That is done by meditation.

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203

M.: To be free from anxieties. Possessions create anxieties such as their safeguarding, their utilisation, etc. Non-possession does not bring any anxieties in its train.

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