Talks mar 2023 -2

https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Talks-with-Sri-Ramana-Maharshi--complete.pdf

114

D.: What is this Self again? 

M.: The Self is known to everyone but not clearly. 

You always exist. 

The Be-ing is the Self. 

‘I am’ is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical statement “I am that I am” in Exodus (Chp. 3). There are other statements, such as Brahmaivaham, Aham Brahmasmi and Soham. But none is so direct as the name Jehovah = I Am. The Absolute Being is what is - It is the Self. It is God. Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact God is none other than the Self.

D.: So it is. How to get Bliss? 

M.: Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss. This desire is born of the sense of incompleteness. 

To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. 

In deep sleep you were blissful: Now you are not so. 

What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. 

Seek its source and find you are Bliss. There is nothing new to get. 

You have, on the other hand, to get rid of your ignorance which makes you think that you are other than Bliss. 

For whom is this ignorance? It is to the ego. 

Trace the source of the ego. 

Then the ego is lost and Bliss remains over. 

It is eternal. You are That, here and now.… That is the master key for solving all doubts. The doubts arise in the mind. The mind is born of the ego. 

The ego rises from the Self. Search the source of the ego and the Self is revealed. 

That alone remains. 

The universe is only expanded Self. It is not different from the Self.

114

D.: What is the best way of living? 

M.: It differs according as one is a Jnani or ajnani. 

A Jnani does not find anything different or separate from the Self. 

All are in the Self.

 It is wrong to imagine that there is the world, that there is a body in it and that you dwell in the body. 

If the Truth is known, the universe and what is beyond it will be found to be only in the Self. 

The outlook differs according to the sight of the person. The sight is from the eye. The eye must be located somewhere. If you are seeing with the gross eyes you find others gross. If with subtle eyes (i.e., the mind) others appear subtle. 

If the eye becomes the Self, the Self being infinite, the eye is infinite. 

There is nothing else to see different from the Self. 

He thanked Maharshi. He was told that the best way of thanking is to remain always as the Self.

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Talk 111. A Telugu gentleman asked about Brahma bhavana. 

M.: Not to think “I am Brahman” or “All is Brahman” is itself jivanmukti. He asked about inspired action. 

M.: Let activities go on. They do not affect the pure Self.

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Talk 122.

 A crowd had gathered here during Christmas. 

D.: How to attain Unity Consciousness? 

M.: Being Unity Consciousness how to attain it? Your question is its own answer. 

D.: What is Atman (Self), anatman (non-self) and paramatman (Supreme Self)? 

M.: Atman is jivatman (the individual Self) and the rest are plain. The Self is ever-present (nityasiddha). Each one wants to know the Self. 

What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. 

They desire to see it as a blazing light, etc. How can it be so? 

It is not light, not darkness (na tejo, na tamah). It is only as it is. It cannot be defined. 

The best definition is ‘I am that I Am.’ 

The Srutis speak of the Self as being the size of one’s thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. 

They have no foundation in fact. 

It is only Being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is Knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply Being. 

Again Sri Bhagavan said that in the whole Thayumanavar literature, he preferred one stanza which says: “Ego disappearing another ‘I-I’ spontaneously manifests in full glory,” etc. Again he cites Skandar Anubhuti: “Not real, nor unreal; not darkness nor light, it is.” One man said, that a siddha of Kumbakonam claimed to overcome the defects in Sri Sankara’s system which deals only with transcendentalism and not the work-a-day life. One must be able to exercise super-human powers in ordinary life, that is to say, one must be a siddha in order to be perfect. Sri Bhagavan pointed out a stanza in Thayumanavar which condemns all siddhis. Further he said that Thayumanavar mentions mouna (silence) in numerous places but defines it in only one verse. 

Mouna is said to be that state which spontaneously manifests after the annihilation of the ego. That state is beyond light and darkness, but still it is called light since no other proper word could be found for it. 

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128

D.: What is the difference between yoga and surrender? 

M.: Surrender is Bhakti Yoga. To reach the source of the ‘I-thought’ is the destruction of the ego, is the attainment of the goal, is prapatti (surrender), jnana, etc.

D.: What is moksha (liberation)? 

M.: Moksha is to know that you were not born. “Be still and know that I am God.” To be still is not to think. Know, and not think, is the word.

D.: There are said to be six organs of different colours in the chest, of which the heart is said to be two finger-breadths to the right of the middle line. But the Heart is also formless. Should we then imagine it to have a shape and meditate on it? 

M.: No. Only the quest “Who am I?” is necessary. 

What remains all through deep sleep and waking is the same. But in waking there is unhappiness and the effort to remove it. Asked who wakes up from sleep you say ‘I’. Now you are told to hold fast to this ‘I’. If it is done the eternal Being will reveal Itself. Investigation of ‘I’ is the point and not meditation on the heart-centre. There is nothing like within or without. Both mean either the same thing or nothing. 

Of course there is also the practice of meditation on the heart centre. It is only a practice and not investigation. 

Only the one who meditates on the heart can remain aware when the mind ceases to be active and remains still; whereas those who meditate on other centres cannot be so aware but infer that the mind was still only after it becomes again active.

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M.: Identification with the Supreme is only the other name for the destruction of the ego.

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132

Talk 134. 

A question about the Heart was raised. Sri Bhagavan said that one should seek the Self and realise it. The Heart will play its part automatically. The seat of realisation is the Heart. It cannot be said to be either in or out

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133

D.: Can we hasten our illumination for greater service? and how? 

M.: As we are not able to help ourselves, so we have to surrender ourselves to the Supreme completely. Then He will take care of us as well as the world.

 D.: What do you consider the goal? 

M.: Self-Realisation. 

D.: Is there any way to meet the appointed Guru for each? 

M.: Intense meditation brings it about.

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Talk 136. 

Dr. G. H. Mees, a young Dutchman, was here for a few days. 

He asked Sri Bhagavan: “I have an impression that in deep sleep I have something akin to samadhi. Is it so?” 

M.: It is the waking ‘I’ that asks the questions - not the ‘I’ in sleep. If you attain the state of wakeful sleep which is the same as samadhi, while still awake, doubts will not arise.

Samadhi is one’s natural state. It is the under-current in all the three states. This - that is, ‘I’ - is not in those states, but these states are in It. If we get samadhi in our waking state that will persist in deep sleep also. The distinction between consciousness and unconsciousness belongs to the realm of mind, which is transcended by the state of the Real Self.

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Talk 137. 

Lakshman Brahmachari of Sri Ramakrishna Mission asked: “Can one imagine oneself as witness of the thoughts?” 

M.: It is not the natural state. It is only an idea (bhavana) - an aid to stilling the mind. The Self is ever the witness, whether so imagined or not. There is no need to so imagine except for that purpose. But it is best to remain as one’s Self

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135

D.: What is the experience of samadhi?

 M.: It is as it is. For onlookers it may seem to be a swoon. Even to the practiser it may appear so in the early experiences. After a few repeated experiences it will be all right. 

D.: Do they soothe nadis or do they excite them by such experiences? 

M.: They are excited at first. By continued experience it becomes common and the man is no longer excited. 

D.: Proceeding on safe lines there should be no unpleasantness. Excitement is uncongenial to smooth being and working. 

M.: A wandering mind is on the wrong way; only a devotional mind is on the right way. 19th January, 1936

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