https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Talks-with-Sri-Ramana-Maharshi--complete.pdf
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D.: What is the meaning of the strength of the mind?
M.: Its ability to concentrate on one thought without being distracted.
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D.: How is that achieved?
M.: By practice.
A devotee concentrates on God; a seeker, follower of the jnana-marga, seeks the Self. The practice is equally difficult for both.
D.: Even if the mind is brought to bear on the search for the Self, after a long struggle the mind begins to elude him and the man is not aware of the mischief until after some time.
M.: So it would be. In the earlier stages the mind reverts to the search at long intervals.
With continued practice it reverts at shorter intervals until finally it does not wander at all.
It is then that the dormant sakti manifests. The satvic mind is free from thoughts whereas the rajasic mind is full of them. The sattvic mind resolves itself into the Life-current.
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D.: Can one keep the mind away from entering into the phase of thoughts before one experiences the current?
M.: Yes; the current is pre-existent
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9th November, 1935 Talk 93.
All are aware of their own Self only. Wonder of wonders!
They take what is not as what is, or they see the phenomena apart from the Self.
Only so long as there is the knower is there knowledge of all kinds (direct, inferential, intellectual etc.); should the knower vanish they all vanish together with him; their validity is of the same degree as his.
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Talk 95.
A question was raised as follows by Maj. A. W. Chadwick:-
Mr. Edward Carpenter, a certain mystic, has written in a book that he had Self-Realisation on some occasions and that its effects lasted sometimes afterwards, only to be gradually lost.
Whereas Sri Ramana Gita says, “Granthi (knot = bondage), snapped once, is snapped for ever.” In the case of this mystic, the bondage seems to have persisted even after Self-Realisation. How can it be so?
The Master cited Kaivalya as follows:-
The disciple, after realising the all-shining, unitary, unbroken state of Being-Knowledge-Bliss, surrendered himself to the master and humbly prayed to know how he could repay the master’s Grace. The Master said: “My reward consists in your permanent unbroken Bliss. Do not slip away from it.”
D.: Having once experienced the Supreme Bliss, how can one stray away from it?
M.: Oh yes! It happens. The predisposition adhering to him from time immemorial will draw him out and so ignorance overtakes him.
D.: What are the obstacles to remaining steady in unbroken Bliss? How can they be overcome?
M.: The obstacles are:
(1) Ignorance which is forgetfulness of one’s pure being.
(2) Doubt which consists in wondering if even the experience was of the Real or of the unreal.
(3) Error which consists in the “I-am-the-body” idea, and thinking that the world is real.
These are overcome by hearing the truth, reflection on it and concentration.
The Master continued: Experience is said to be temporary or permanent. The first experience is temporary and by concentration it can become permanent. In the former the bondage is not completely destroyed.
It remains subtle and reasserts itself in due course. But in the latter it is destroyed root and branch, never to appear again. The expression yogabhrashta (those who have fallen down from yoga) in Srimad Bhagavad Gita refers to the former class of men.
D.: Is then hearing the Truth meant only for a limited few?
M.: It is of two kinds.
The ordinary one is to hear it enunciated and explained by a master.
However, the right one is to raise the question for oneself and seek and find the answer in oneself as the unbroken ‘I-I’.
To be reflecting on this experience is the second stage. To remain one-pointed in it is the third stage.
D.: Can the temporary experience be called samadhi?
M.: No. It forms part of the third stage.
D.: It looks then as if even hearing the Truth is limited to a very few.
M.: The seekers fall into two classes; kritopasaka and akritopasaka. The former having already overcome his predisposition by steady devotion, his mind thus made pure, has had some kind of experience but does not comprehend it; as soon as he is instructed by a competent master, permanent experience results. The other class of seeker needs great effort to achieve this end. How will the hearing of the Truth, reflection and concentration help him? They comprise upasana (the nearest approach to Truth) and will end in his Self-Realization.
The fourth stage is the final one of liberation. Even there some distinction is made according to the degree, as (1) the knower of the Brahman (Brahmavid) (2) Brahmavid-vara (3) Brahmavid-varya (4) Brahmavid-varishta But all of them are in fact liberated even while alive
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105
Talk 97.
One Mr. Ramachandar, a gentleman from Ambala, asked where the Heart is and what Realisation is.
M.: The Heart is not physical; it is spiritual. Hridayam = hrit + ayam - This is the centre.
It is that from which thoughts arise, on which they subsist and where they are resolved. The thoughts are the content of the mind and, they shape the universe. The Heart is the centre of all. Yatova imani bhutani jayante (that from which these beings come into existence) etc. is said to be Brahman in the Upanishads. That is the Heart. Brahman is the Heart.
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D.: How to realise the Heart?
M.: There is no one who even for a trice fails to experience the Self. For no one admits that he ever stands apart from the Self. He is the Self. The Self is the Heart.
D.: It is not clear.
M.: In deep sleep you exist; awake, you remain. The same Self is in both states. The difference is only in the awareness and the non awareness of the world. The world rises with the mind and sets with the mind. That which rises and sets is not the Self. The Self is different, giving rise to the mind, sustaining it and resolving it. So the Self is the underlying principle. When asked who you are, you place your hand on the right side of the breast and say ‘I am’. There you involuntarily point out the Self. The Self is thus known. But the individual is miserable because he confounds the mind and the body with the Self. This confusion is due to wrong knowledge. Elimination of wrong knowledge is alone needed. Such elimination results in Realisation.
D.: How to control the mind?
M.: What is mind? Whose is the mind?
D.: Mind always wanders. I cannot control it.
M.: It is the nature of the mind to wander. You are not the mind. The mind springs up and sinks down. It is impermanent, transitory, whereas you are eternal. There is nothing but the Self. To inhere in the Self is the thing. Never mind the mind. If its source is sought, it will vanish leaving the Self unaffected.
D.: So one need not seek to control the mind?
M.: There is no mind to control if you realise the Self.
The mind vanishing, the Self shines forth.
In the realised man the mind may be active or inactive, the Self alone remains for him.
For the mind, the body and the world are not separate from the Self.
They rise from and sink into the Self. They do not remain apart from the Self. Can they be different from the Self? Only be aware of the Self.
Talk 98.
Bhagavan further explained:
The Self is the Heart. The Heart is self luminous.
Light arises from the Heart and reaches the brain, which is the seat of the mind.
The world is seen with the mind, that is, by the reflected light of the Self.
It is perceived with the aid of the mind.
When the mind is illumined it is aware of the world. When it is not itself so illumined, it is not aware of the world.
If the mind is turned in towards the source of light, objective knowledge ceases
and Self alone shines forth as the Heart.
The moon shines by the reflected light of the sun. When the sun has set, the moon is useful for revealing objects. When the sun has risen, no one needs the moon, although the pale disc of the moon is visible in the sky. So it is with the mind and the Heart. The mind is useful because of its reflected light.
It is used for seeing objects.
When it is turned inwards, the source of illumination shines forth by itself.
And the mind remains dim and useless like the moon in day-time.
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Talk 99.
A sannyasi asked: It is said that the Self is beyond the mind and yet the realisation is with the mind. Mano na manute, Manasa na matam, and Manasaivedamaptavyam
(The mind cannot think it. It cannot be thought of by the mind and the mind alone can realise it). How are these contradictions to be reconciled?
M.: Atman is realised with mruta manas (dead mind), i.e., mind devoid of thoughts and turned inward.
Then the mind sees its own source and becomes That. It is not as the subject perceiving an object. When the room is dark a lamp is necessary to illumine and eyes to cognise objects. But when the sun is risen there is no need of a lamp, and the objects are seen; and to see the sun no lamp is necessary, it is enough that you turn your eyes towards the self luminous sun. Similarly with the mind. To see the objects the reflected light of the mind is necessary.
To see the Heart it is enough that the mind is turned towards it. Then the mind loses itself and the Heart shines forth.
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D.: How to reach the Heart?
M.: Where are you now that you want to reach the Heart? Are you standing apart from the Self?
D.: I am in my body.
M.: In a particular spot, or all over?
D.: All over. I am extending all over the body.
M.: Where from do you extend?
D.: I do not know.
M.: Yes. You are always in the Heart.
You are never away from it in order that you should reach it. Consider how you are in deep sleep and in the waking state. These states are also not yours. They are of the ego.
The consciousness remains the same and undifferentiated all through.
...
D.: I understand but I cannot feel it so.
M.: Whose is the ignorance? Find it out.
D.: All this is so difficult.
M.: The idea of difficulty is itself wrong. It will not help you to gain what you want. Again I ask: “Who finds it difficult?”
D.: I see that I am coming round to ‘I’.
M.: Because you are always that and never away from that.
There is nothing so simple as being the Self.
It requires no effort, no aid.
One has to leave off the wrong identity and be in his eternal, natural, inherent state.
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112
D.: Again Sri Krishna appeared to me three months back and said, “Why do you ask me for nirakara upasana? It is only sarva bhutesu cha atmanam sarva bhutani cha atmani. (The Self in all and all in the Self.)
M.: That contains the whole truth. Even this is oupacharika (indirect).
There is in fact nothing but the Atman.
The world is only a projection of the mind.
The mind originates from the Atman. So Atman alone is the One Being.
D.: Yet it is difficult to realise.
M.: There is nothing to realise. It is nitya suddha buddha mukta (the Eternal, pure, aware and liberated) state. It is natural and eternal. There is nothing new to gain.
On the other hand a man must loose his ignorance. That is all.
This ignorance must be traced to its origin.
To whom is this ignorance? Of what is one ignorant?
There are the subject and the object. Such duality is characteristic of the mind. The mind is from the Atman.
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Talk 105.
M.: Yena asrutam srutam bhavati (Chandogya Upanishad).
(By knowing which, all the unknown becomes known.) Madhavaswami, Bhagavan’s attendant: Are there nine methods of teaching the Mahavakya ‘Tattvamasi’ in the Chandogya Upanishad?
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M.: No. Not so.
The method is only one.
Uddalaka started teaching Sat eva Somya
(There is only Being ) illustrating it with Svetaketu’s fast.
(1) Sat, the Being in the individual, is made obvious by the fast.
(2) This (sat) Being is similar in all, as honey gathered from different flowers.
(3) There is no difference in the sat of individuals as illustrated by the state of deep sleep. The question arises - if so, why does not each know it in sleep?
(4) Because the individuality is lost. There is only sat left. Illustration: rivers lost in the ocean. If lost, is there sat?
(5) Surely - as when a tree is pruned it grows again. That is a sure sign of its life. But is it there even in that dormant condition?
(6) Yes, take the instance of salt and water. The presence of the salt in water is subtle. Though invisible to the eye it is recognised by other senses. How is one to know it? What is the other means?
(7) By enquiry, as the man left in the Gandhara forest regained his home.
(8) In evolution and involution, in manifestation and resolution, sat alone exists. Tejah parasyam, devatayam (the light merges in the Supreme).
(9) An insincere man is hurt by the touch of fire test.
His insincerity is brought out by fire.
Sincerity is Self-evident. A true man or a Self realised man remains happy, without being affected by the false appearances (namely the world, birth and death, etc.),
Whereas the false or ignorant man is miserable.
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