Talks mar 22

 356

D.: Cannot Grace hasten such competence in a seeker? 

M.: Leave it to Him. Surrender unreservedly. 

One of two things must be done. Either surrender because you admit your inability and also require a High Power to help you; or investigate into the cause of misery, go into the source and merge into the Self.

 Either way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who has surrendered. 

Mamekam saranam vraja. 

D.: What is the drift of the mind after surrender?

M.: Is the surrendered mind raising the question?

Mrs. Dodwell raised a second question, asking what is meant by neti-neti. 

M.: There is now wrong identification of the Self with the body, senses, etc. 

You proceed to discard these, and this is neti. This can be done only by holding to the one which cannot be discarded. That is iti alone. 

M.: Everyday life is not divorced from the Eternal State. 

So long as the daily life is imagined to be different from the spiritual life these difficulties arise. 

If the spiritual life is rightly understood, the active life will be found to be not different from it. 

Can the mind be got at by the mind on looking for it as an object? 

The source of the mental functions must be sought and gained. 

That is the Reality. 

One does not know the Self owing to the interference of thoughts. 

The Self is realised when thoughts subside. 

D.: “Only one in a million pursues sadhanas to completion.” (Bh. Gita, VII, 3). 

M.: “Whenever the turbulent mind wavers, then and there pull it and bring it under control.” (Bh. Gita, VI, 26.) “Seeing the mind with the mind” (manasa mana alokya), so proclaim the Upanishads. 

D.: Is the mind an upadhi (limiting adjunct)? 

M.: Yes.

D.: Is the seen (drisya) world real (satya)? 

M.: It is true in the same degree as the seer (drashta), subject, object and perception form the triad (triputi). There is a reality beyond these three. These appear and disappear, whereas the truth is eternal. 

D.: These triputi sambhava are only temporal. 

M.: Yes, if one recognises the Self even in temporal matters these will be found to be non-existent, rather inseparate from the Self; and they will be going on at the same time.

371

M.: Grace is the Self. It is not manifest because of ignorance prevailing. 

With sraddha, it will become manifest. 

Sraddha, Grace, Light, Spirit are all synonymous with the Self

.....

D.: The mind is admitted to be changing and unsteady (chanchala and asthira).

 M.: It is also said in the same place that the mind is to be introverted and made to merge into the Self. 

That the practice must be long because it is slow; and must be continued until it is totally merged in the Self. 

D.: I want prasad, i.e. Grace, for it. 

M.: It is always with you. 

All that is required of you is not to confound yourself with the extrovert mind but to abide as the Self. That is prasad

..........

D.: From all this it looks as if a Jnani who has scorched all the vasanas is the best and that he would remain inactive like a stock or stone. 

M.: No, not necessarily. Vasanas do not affect him. Is it not itself a vasana that one remains like a stock or stone? Sahaja is the state.

......

D.: Is not dhyana one of the efficient processes for Realisation? 

M.: Dhyana is concentration on an object. It fulfils the purpose of keeping away diverse thoughts and fixing the mind on a single thought, which must also disappear before Realisation. 

But Realisation is nothing new to be acquired. 

It is already there, but obstructed by a screen of thoughts. 

All our attempts are directed for lifting this screen and then Realisation is revealed. 

If a true seeker is advised to meditate, many may go away satisfied with the advice. But someone among them may turn round and ask, “Who am I to meditate on an object?” 

Such a one must be told to find the Self. 

That is the finality. 

That is Vichara. 

D.: Will vichara alone do in the absence of meditation?

 M.: Vichara is the process and the goal also. 

‘I Am’ is the goal and the final Reality. 

To hold to it with effort is vichara. 

When spontaneous and natural it is Realisation.

..........

Talk 391. 

The same sannyasi visitor, Swami Lokesananda, asked about samadhi. 

M.: (1) Holding on to Reality is samadhi. 

(2) Holding on to Reality with effort is savikalpa samadhi. 

(3) Merging in Reality and remaining unaware of the world is nirvikalpa samadhi. 

 (4) Merging in Ignorance and remaining unaware of the world is sleep. (Head bends but not in samadhi).

 (5) Remaining in the primal, pure natural state without effort is sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi.

D.: It is said that one remaining in nirvikalpa samadhi for 21 days must necessarily give up the physical body. 

M.: Samadhi means passing beyond dehatma buddhi (I-am-the-body idea) and non-identification of the body with the Self is a foregone conclusion. There are said to be persons who have been immersed in nirvikalpa samadhi for a thousand years or more.

D.: They say that Kundalini must be roused before Realisation and that its awakening makes the body feel hot. Is that so? 

M.: The yogis call it Kundalini Sakti. It is the same as vritti of the form of God (Bhagavatakara vritti) of the bhaktas and vritti of the form of Brahman (Brahmakara vritti) of the jnanis. 

It must be preliminary to Realisation. 

The sensation produced may be said to be hot. 

D.: Kundalini is said to be of the shape of a serpent but vrittis cannot be so. 

M.: The Kundalini of jnana marga is said to be the Heart, which is also described in various ways as a network of nadis, of the shape of a serpent, of a lotus bud, etc. 

D.: Is this Heart the same as the physiological heart? 

M.: No, Sri Ramana Gita defines it as the origin of the ‘I-thought’. 

D.: But I read that it is on the right of the chest. 

M.: It is all meant to help the bhavana (imagery). There are books dealing with six centres (shadchakra) and many other lakshyas (centres), internal and external. The description of the Heart is one among so many lakshyas. But it is not necessary. 

It is only the source of the ‘I-thought’. That is the ultimate truth.

Talk 394. 

D.: How is the mind to be stilled? 

M.: Looking at the mind with the mind, 

or fixing the mind in the Self, 

brings the mind under control of the Self.

 D.: Is there any yoga, i.e., a process for it? 

M.: Vichara (investigation) alone will do.

.......

‘I-am-the-body’ thought is ignorance; that the body is not apart from the Self is knowledge. That is the difference between knowledge and ignorance. The body is a mental projection, the mind is the ego; and the ego rises from the Self. 

So the body-thought is distracting and strays away from the Self. 

For whom is the body or the birth? It is not for the Self, the Spirit. It is for the non-self which imagines itself separate. 

So long as there is the sense of separation there will be afflicting thoughts. 

If the original source is regained and the sense of separation is put an end to, there is peace.

 Consider what happens when a stone is thrown up. It leaves its source and is projected up, tries to come down and is always in motion until it regains its source, where it is at rest. 

So also the waters of the ocean evaporate, form clouds which are moved by winds, condense into water, fall as rain and the waters roll down the hill in streams and rivers, until they reach their original source, the ocean, reaching which they are at peace. 

Thus, you see, wherever there is a sense of separateness from the source there is agitation and movement until the sense of separateness is lost. So it is with yourself. Now that you identify yourself with the body you think that you are separate from the Spirit - the true Self. You must regain your source before the false identity ceases and you are happy.

Gold is not an ornament, but the ornament is nothing but gold. Whatever shape the ornament may assume and however different the ornaments are, there is only one reality, namely gold. So also with the bodies and the Self. 

The single reality is the Self. 

To identify oneself with the body and yet to seek happiness is like attempting to cross a river on the back of an alligator.

The body identity is due to extroversion and the wandering of the mind. To continue in that state will only keep one in an endless tangle and there will be no peace. 

Seek your source, merge in the Self and remain all alone. 

Rebirth means discontent with the present state, and desire to be born where there will be no discontent. Births, being of the body, cannot affect the Self. The Self remains over even after the body perishes. The discontent is due to the wrong identity of the Eternal Self with the perishable body. The body is a necessary adjunct of the ego. If the ego is killed the eternal Self is revealed in all its glory. The body is the Cross. Jesus, the son of man, is the ego or ‘I am-the-body’ idea. When he is crucified, he is resurrected as the Glorious Self - Jesus, the Son of God! — “Give up this life if thou wouldst live”

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M.: The yoga marga speaks of the six centres each of which must be reached by practice and transcended until one reaches sahasrara where nectar is found and thus immortality. The yogis say that one enters into the paranadi which starts from the sacral plexus whereas the jnanis say that the same nadi starts from the heart. Reconciliation between the seeming]y contradictory statements is effected in the secret doctrine 

which distinctly states the yogic paranadi is from muladhara and the jnana paranadi is from the Heart. 

The truth is that the paranadi should be entered. 

By yogic practice one goes down, then rises up, wanders all through until the goal is reached; by jnana abhyas one settles down directly in the centre.

D.: What is Self-surrender? 

M.: It is the same as self-control; 

control is effected by removal of samskaras which imply the functioning of the ego. 

The ego submits only when it recognises the Higher Power. Such recognition is surrender or submission, or self-control. Otherwise the ego remains stuck up like the image carved on a tower, making a pretence by its strained look and posture that it is supporting the tower on its shoulders. The ego cannot exist without the Power but thinks that it acts of its own accord. 

D.: How can the rebellious mind be brought under control? 

M.: Either seek its source so that it may disappear or surrender that it may be struck down.

 D.: But the mind slips away from our control.

 M.: Be it so. Do not think of it. When you recollect yourself bring it back and turn it inward. That is enough. No one succeeds without effort. Mind control is not one’s birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance. A passenger in a train keeps his load on the head by his own folly. Let him put it down: he will find the load reaches the destination all the same. Similarly, let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the guiding Power.

D.: Is not Grace the gift of the Guru? 

M.: God, Grace and Guru are all synonymous and also eternal and immanent. Is not the Self already within? Is it for the Guru to bestow It by his look? If a Guru thinks so, he does not deserve the name.

The books say that there are so many kinds of diksha (initiations - hasta diksha, sparsa diksha, chakshu diksha, mano diksha, etc.) They also say that the Guru makes some rites with fire, water, japa, mantras, etc., and call such fantastic performances dikshas, as if the disciple (sishya) becomes ripe only after such processes are gone through by the Guru. If the individual is sought he is nowhere to be found. Such is the Guru. Such is Dakshinamurti. What did he do? He was silent; the disciples appeared before him. He maintained silence, the doubts of the disciples were dispelled, which means that they lost their individual identities. That is jnana and not all the verbiage usually associated with it. Silence is the most potent form of work. However vast and emphatic the sastras may be, they fail in their effect. The Guru is quiet and peace prevails in all. His silence is more vast and more emphatic than all the sastras put together. These questions arise because of the feeling, that having been here so long, heard so much, exerted so hard, one has not gained anything. The work proceeding within is not apparent. In fact the Guru is always within you. Thayumanavar says: “Oh Lord! Coming with me all along the births, never abandoning me and finally rescuing me!” Such is the experience of Realisation. Srimad Bhagavad Gita says the same in a different way, “We two are not only now but have ever been so.”

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