Talks mar 15

 242

cont from previous discussion

D.: It is difficult to follow. I understand the theory. But what is the practice? 

M.: The other methods are meant for those who cannot take to the investigation of the Self. 

Even to repeat Aham Brahmasmi or think of it, a doer is necessary. Who is it? It is ‘I’. Be that ‘I’. It is the direct method. 

The other methods also will ultimately lead everyone to this method of the investigation of the Self. 

D.: I am aware of the ‘I’. Yet my troubles are not ended. 

M.: This ‘I-thought’ is not pure. It is contaminated with the association of the body and senses. See to whom the trouble is. It is to the ‘I thought’. Hold it. Then the other thoughts vanish.  

D.: Yes. How to do it? That is the whole trouble. 

M.: Think ‘I’ ‘I’ ‘I’ and hold to that one thought to the exclusion of all others. 

.......

D.: The booklet Who am I? speaks of swarupa drishti (seeing the essence). Then there must be a seer and the seen. How can this be reconciled with the Ultimate Unity? 

M.: Why do you ask for salvation, release from sorrow, etc.? He who asks for them sees them also. The fact is this. Drishti (sight) is consciousness. It forms the subject and object. Can there be drishti apart from the Self? The Self is all - drishti, etc. 

D.: How to discern the ego from the Perfect ‘I-I’? 

M.: That which rises and falls is the transient ‘I’. That which has neither origin nor end is the permanent ‘I-I’ consciousness.

Talk 271. 

Dr. Syed: How is Grace to be obtained? 

M.: Similar to obtaining the Self.

 D.: Practically, how is it to be for us? 

M.: By self-surrender.

 D.: Grace was said to be the Self. Should I then surrender to my own Self? 

M.: Yes. To the one from whom Grace is sought. God, Guru and Self are only different forms of the same.

D.: Please explain, so that I may understand. 

M.: So long as you think you are the individual you believe in God. On worshipping God, God appears to you as Guru. On serving Guru He manifests as the Self. This is the rationale.

........

248

“See yourself first and

 then see the whole world as the Self.”

D.: So it amounts to this - that I should always look within. 

M.: Yes. 

D.: Should I not see the world at all? 

M.: You are not instructed to shut your eyes from the world. 

You are only to “see yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self”. 

If you consider yourself as the body the world appears to be external. If you are the Self the world appears as Brahman.

........

249

D.: Should I meditate on the right chest in order to meditate on the Heart? 

M.: The Heart is not physical. Meditation should not be on the right or the left. 

Meditation should be on the Self. 

Everyone knows ‘I am’. Who is the ‘I’? It will be neither within nor without, neither on the right nor on the left. ‘I am’ - that is all. 

The Heart is the centre from which everything springs. Because you see the world, the body and so on, it is said that there is a centre for these, which is called the Heart. 

When you are in the Heart, the Heart is known to be neither the centre nor the circumference. There is nothing else. Whose centre could it be?

D.: May I take it that the Self and the non-Self are like substance and its shadow?

 M.: Substance and shadow are for the one who sees only the shadow and mistakes it for the substance and sees its shadow also. But there is neither substance nor shadow for the one who is aware only of the Reality.

...

D.: What does Sri Bhagavan think of Pravritti and nivritti margas? 

M.: Yes. Both are mentioned. What of that? 

D.: Which is the better of the two? 

M.: If you see the Self - pure and simple - it is nivritti. 

If you see the Self with the world, it is pravritti. 

In other words, inward turned mind (antarmukhi manas) is nivritti; outward-going mind (bahirmukhi manas) is pravritti. 

Anyway, there is nothing apart from the Self. Both are the same. Similarly also, with the spiritual hierarchy; they cannot exist apart from the Self. They are only in the Self and remain as the Self. Realisation of the Self is the one Goal of all.

...

Talk 275. 

In the course of conversation, someone referred to the fact that when Mr. Brunton and a lady were walking home in the night, they saw a bright glow on half the hill moving slowly and gently from North to South. 

Sri Bhagavan said: This hill is said to be wisdom in visible shape. 

D.: How is it visible to the physical eye? 

M.: Sambandar had sung “The One who fascinated my heart 

or 

the captivator of my heart, 

I sing of Him in my mind”. 

The Heart is captivated: consequently the mind must have sunk into the Heart; and yet there is the remembrance which enables the saint to sing of God later.

........

D.: But saktipata is said to occur in karmasamya, i.e. when merit and demerit are equal. 

M.: Yes. Malaparipaka, karmasamya and saktipata mean the same, 

A man is running the course of his samskaras; when taught he is the Self, the teaching affects his mind and imagination runs riot.

 He feels helpless before the onrushing power. His experiences are only according to his imagination of the state “I am the Self”, whatever he may conceive it to be. 

Saktipata alone confers the true and right experience. 

When the man is ripe for receiving the instruction and his mind is about to sink into the Heart, the instruction imparted works in a flash and he realises the Self all right.

 Otherwise, there is always the struggle. 

Mano-nasa, jnana, and chittaikagrata (annihilation of the mind, knowledge and one-pointedness) means the same.

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