Talks mar 18

 278 cont

D.: I do not want intellectual answers. I want them to be practical. 

M.: Yes. Direct knowledge does not require intellectual discourses. 

Since the Self is directly experienced by everyone, they are not at all necessary. 

Everyone says “I am”. Is there anything more to realise?

....

D.: It is not clear to me. 

M.: You exist. You say ‘I am’. That means existence. 

D.: But I am not sure of it, i.e. my existence.

 M.: Oh! Who then is speaking now? 

D.: I, surely. But whether I exist or not, I am not sure. Moreover, admitting my existence leads me nowhere. 

M.: There must be one even to deny the existence. If you do not exist, there is no questioner, and no question can arise. 

D.: Let us take it that I exist. 

M.: How do you know that you exist? 

D.: Because I think, I feel, I see, etc. 

M.: So you mean that your existence is inferred from these. Furthermore, there is no feeling, thinking etc., in sleep and yet there is the being. 

D.: But no. I cannot say that I was in deep sleep. 

M.: Do you deny your existence in sleep? 

D.: I may be or may not be in sleep. God knows. 

M.: When you wake up from sleep, you remember what you did before falling asleep. 

D.: I can say that I was before and after sleep, but I cannot say if I was in sleep. 

M.: Do you now say that you were asleep? 

D.: Yes. 

M.: How do you know unless you remember the state of sleep? 

D.: It does not follow that I existed in sleep. Admission of such existence leads nowhere. 

M.: Do you mean to say that a man dies every time that sleep overtakes him and that he resuscitates while waking? 

D.: Maybe. God alone knows. 

M.: Then let God come and find the solution for these riddles. If one were to die in sleep, one will be afraid of sleep, just as one fears death. On the other hand one courts sleep. Why should sleep be courted unless there is pleasure in it?

D.: There is no positive pleasure in sleep. Sleep is courted only to be rid of physical fatigue. 

M.: Well, that is right. “To be free from fatigue.” There is one who is free from fatigue. 

D.: Yes. 

M.: So you are in sleep and you are now too. You were happy in sleep without feeling, thinking etc. The same one continuing now, why are you not happy?

 D.: How can it be said that there is happiness? 

M.: Everyone says Sukhamahamasvapsam (I slept happily or was blissfully asleep). 

D.: I do not think that they are right. There is no sukha (bliss). It is only absence of sorrow. 

M.: Your very being is bliss. Therefore everyone says I was blissfully asleep. That means that one remains in the primal uncontaminated state in sleep. As for sorrow, there is no sorrow. Where is it in order that you might speak of its absence in sleep? 

The present wrong identification of the Self with the body has given rise to all mistakes. 

D.: What I want is realisation. I do not feel my inherent happy nature. 

M.: Because the Self is now identified with the non-self. 

The non-self too is not apart from the Self.

 However, there is the wrong notion that the body is apart and the Self is confounded with the body. This wrong identity must be ended for happiness to manifest.

 D.: I am unable to help myself. The Engineer suggested surrender to the Master. 

D.: Agreed. 

M.: Your nature is happiness. You say that is not apparent. See what obstructs you from your true being. It is pointed out to you that the obstruction is the wrong identity. Eliminate the error. The patient must himself take the medicine prescribed by the doctor in order that he may be cured of his illness. 

D.: The patient is too weak to help himself and places himself unconditionally in the hands of the doctor.

282

Talk 298. 

A certain visitor formulated a question, saying that meditation is more direct than investigation, because the former holds on to the truth whereas the latter sifts the truth from untruth. 

M.: For the beginner meditation on a form is more easy and agreeable. 

Practice of it leads to Atmavichara which consists in sifting the Reality from unreality. 

What is the use of holding on to truth when you are filled with antagonistic factors? 

Atmavichara directly leads to realisation by removing the obstacles which make you think that the Self is not already realised.

.............

Talk 299.

 Mr. T. K. S. Iyer asked Sri Bhagavan about the source of sound. 

M.: The general opinion is that para (sound) comes from the Muladhara (the solar plexus) at the bottom of the spine. All sounds beginning from vaikhar (thought form) are contained in para which proceeds from Kundalini; and Kundalini is not different from the Heart. In fact the whole shadadhara (six-fold centre) is contained in the heart. The sushumna with its source Kundalini is included in the Heart. 

A visitor asked about antarena taluke sendrayonih. 

M.: Indrayoni together with the sushumna nadi is contained (leena) in para

......

D.: But this truth is not realised. 

M.: It will be realised in due course. Till then there is devotion (bhakti):

 “Even for a trice you do not leave my mind.” Does he leave you any moment? 

It is you who allow your mind to wander away. 

He remains always steady. 

When your mind is fixed, you say: “He does not leave my mind even for a trice”. How ridiculous!

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Talk 307. 

Mr. Shamanna from Mysore asked Sri Bhagavan: Kindly explain Aham Sphurana (the light of ‘I-I’). 

M.: ‘I’ is not known in sleep. On waking ‘I’ is perceived associated with the body, the world and non-self in general. Such associated ‘I’ is Aham vritti. When Aham represents the Self only it is Aham Sphurana. 

This is natural to the Jnani and is itself called jnana by jnanis, or bhakti by bhaktas. Though ever present, including in sleep, it is not perceived. 

It cannot be known in sleep all at once. It must first be realised in the waking state, for it is our true nature underlying all the three states. 

Efforts must be made only in the jagrat state and the Self realised here and now. It will afterwards be understood and realised to be continuous Self, uninterrupted by jagrat, svapna and sushupti. Thus it is akhandakara vritti (unbroken experience). 

Vritti is used for lack of a better expression.

 It should not be understood to be literally a vritti. 

In that case, vritti will resemble an ‘ocean-like river’, which is absurd. Vritti is of short duration, it is qualified, directed consciousness; or absolute consciousness broken up by cognition of thoughts, senses, etc. Vritti is the function of the mind, whereas the continuous consciousness transcends the mind. This is the natural, primal state of the Jnani or the liberated being. That is unbroken experience. It asserts itself when relative consciousness subsides. 

Aham vritti (‘I-thought’) is broken, 

Aham sphurana (the light of ‘I-I’) is unbroken, continuous. 

After the thoughts subside, the light shines forth.

Talk 310. 

Mr. Greenlees: After leaving this Asramam in October I was aware of Bhagavan’s peace enfolding me for about ten days. All the time while busy in work there was an undercurrent of that peace of unity; it was almost like the dual consciousness while half asleep in a dull lecture. Then it faded out entirely, and the old stupidities came in instead. Work leaves no time for separate meditation. Is the constant reminder “I am”, trying to feel it while actually at work, enough? 

M.: It will become constant when the mind becomes strengthened. 

Repeated practice strengthens the mind; and such mind is capable of holding on to the current. 

In that case, engagement in work or no engagement, the current remains unaffected and uninterrupted. 

D.: No separate meditation is necessary? 

M.: Meditation is your true nature now.

  You call it meditation, because there are other thoughts distracting you. 

When these thoughts are dispelled, you remain alone, i.e. in the state of meditation free from thoughts.

 And that is your real nature. 

Which you are now attempting to gain by keeping away other thoughts. 

Such keeping away of other thoughts is now called meditation. 

When the practice becomes firm, the real nature shows itself as the true meditation.

 Other thoughts arise more forcibly when you attempt meditation. 

There was immediately a chorus of questions by a few others. 

Sri Maharshi continued: Yes, all kinds of thoughts arise in meditation. It is but right. What lies hidden in you is brought out.

 Unless they rise up how can they be destroyed? They therefore rise up spontaneously in order to be extinguished in due course, thus to strengthen the mind. 

A visitor: All are said to be Brahman. 

M.: Yes, they are. But so long as you think that they are apart they are to be avoided. If on the other hand they are found to be Self there is no need to say ‘all’. For all that exists is only Brahman. There is nothing besides Brahman.

D.: Ribhu Gita speaks of so many objects as unreal, adding at the end that they are all Brahman and thus real. 

M.: Yes. When you see them as so many they are asat, i.e. unreal. 

Whereas when you see them as Brahman they are real, deriving their reality from their substratum, Brahman.

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