Talks mar 20

 317

M.: What is your experience in sleep? There were no thoughts, no mind, and yet you remained then. 

D.: When I try to meditate, I am unable to do so because my mind wanders. What should I do? 

M.: Your question furnishes the answer. 

First, with regard to the first part of the question, you say you concentrate, but do not succeed. ‘You’ means ‘the Self’. 

On what do you concentrate? Where do you fail? 

Are there two selves, for the one self to concentrate on the other? Which is the self now complaining of failure? 

There cannot be two selves. There is only one Self. That need not concentrate. 

You ask, “But then, why is there no happiness?” What is it that prevents you from remaining as the spirit which you are in sleep? You yourself admit that it is the wandering mind. 

Find out the mind. If its ‘wandering’ stops, it will be found to be the Self - your ‘I’-consciousness which is spirit eternal. It is beyond knowledge and ignorance. 

D.: I am hard-worked and find little time to practise concentration. Are there any aids for it? Is control of breath a good aid? 

M.: Prana and mind arise from the same source. The source can be reached by holding the breath or tracing the mind. If you cannot do the latter the former will no doubt be helpful. Regulation of breath is gained by watching its movements.

If the mind is watched thoughts cease. Peace results and it is your true nature. 

King Janaka said: “I have now found the robber (namely the mind) who has been robbing me of my ‘I’-ness. I will instantly kill this thief.” 

The perturbation owing to thoughts appears to rob the Self of its peace. The perturbation is the mind. When that ceases the mind is said to take flight. 

The Self remains as the undisturbed substratum. 

Another person interposed: The mind must kill the mind. 

M.: Yes, if there be the mind. A search for it discloses its non-existence. How can anything that does not exist be killed? 

D.: Is not mental japa better than oral japa? 

M.: Oral japa consists of sounds. The sounds arise from thoughts. For one must think before one expresses the thoughts in words. The thoughts form the mind. Therefore mental japa is better than oral japa.

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D.: Should we not contemplate the japa and repeat it orally also? 

M.: When the japa becomes mental where is the need for the sounds thereof? Japa, becoming mental, becomes contemplation. Dhyana, contemplation and mental japa are the same. When thoughts cease to be promiscuous and one thought persists to the exclusion of all others it is said to be contemplation. The object of japa or dhyana is the exclusion of several thoughts and confining oneself to one single thought. 

Then that thought too vanishes into its source - absolute consciousness, i.e., the Self.

....

D.: Sri Bhagavan has said in one of the works that the japa must be traced to its source. Is it not the mind that is meant?

 M.: All these are only the workings of the mind. Japa helps to fix the mind to a single thought. All other thoughts are first subordinated until they disappear. When it becomes mental it is called dhyana. Dhyana is your true nature. 

It is however called dhyana because it is made with effort. 

Effort is necessary so long as thoughts are promiscuous.

 Because you are with other thoughts, you call the continuity of a single thought, meditation or dhyana. If that dhyana becomes effortless it will be found to be your real nature.

........

D.: If there is pain in this body, I feel it; but not if another body is injured. I cannot get over this body. 

M.: This identity is the cause of such feeling. That is the hrdaya granthi (heart-knot). 

D.: How is this knot to go? 

M.: For whom is the knot? Why do you want it to go? Does it ask or do you ask?

 D.: It cannot ask; I am asking. 

M.: Who is that ‘I’? If that is found the knot will not remain. 

D.: The knot is concomitant with the body. The body is due to birth. How is rebirth to cease? 

M.: Who is born? Is the Self born? Or is it the body? 

D.: It is the body. 

M.: Then let the body ask how its rebirth may cease. 

D.: It will not ask. So I am asking. 

M.: Whose is the body? You were without it in your deep sleep. After the ‘I-thought’ arose the body arose. The first birth is that of ‘I thought’. The body has its birth subsequent to ‘I-thought’. So its birth is secondary. Get rid of the primary cause and the secondary one will disappear by itself.

...

329

D.: Is not meditation better than investigation? 

M.: Meditation implies mental imagery, whereas investigation is for the Reality. 

The former is objective, whereas the latter is subjective. 

D.: There must be a scientific approach to this subject. 

M.: To eschew unreality and seek the Reality is scientific. 

D.: I mean there must be a gradual elimination, first of the mind, then of the intellect, then of the ego. 

M.: The Self alone is Real. All others are unreal. 

The mind and intellect do not remain apart from you. 

The Bible says, “Be still and know that I am God”. 

Stillness is the sole requisite for the realisation of the Self as God

Talk 341. 

Mrs Jennings: Sri Bhagavan says that the state of Realisation is freedom from the tyranny of thoughts. Have not the thoughts got a place in the scheme of things - maybe on a lower plane? 

M.: The thoughts arise from the ‘I-thought’ 

which in its turn arises from the Self. 

Therefore the Self manifests as ‘I’ and other thoughts. 

What does it matter if there are thoughts or no thoughts?

..

D.: Is it right to think that all that happens to us are God’s ordainment, and therefore only good? 

M.: Of course it is. Yet all others and God are not apart from the Self. How can thoughts of them arise when you remain as the Self?

..........

M.: Whom does the ant sting? It is the body. You are not the body. So long as you identify yourself with the body, you see the ants, plants, etc. 

If you remain as the Self, there are not others apart from the Self.

Talk 345. 

Sri Bhagavan continued, after interval:

 Destroy the power of mind by seeking it. 

When the mind is examined its activities cease automatically.

 Looking for the source of mind is another method. 

The source may be said to be God or Self or consciousness. 

Concentrating on one thought, all other thoughts disappear; finally that thought also disappears. It is necessary to be aware while controlling thoughts, otherwise it will lead to sleep.

....

D.: How to seek the mind? 

M.: Breath-control may do as an aid but can never lead to the goal itself. While doing it mechanically, take care to be alert in mind and remember the ‘I-thought’ and seek its source. 

Then you will find that where breath sinks, there the ‘I-thought’ arises. 

They sink and rise together. 

The ‘I-thought’ also will sink along with breath. 

Simultaneously another luminous and infinite “I-I” will manifest and it will be continuous and unbroken.

 That is the goal. 

It goes by different names - God, Self, Kundalini-Sakti, consciousness etc. When the attempt is made it will of itself take you to the goal.

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