Talks mar 23

 400

Talk 401. 

Mr. Krishnamurti, an Andhra gentleman, asked as follows:- When we make tapas, on what object must we fix our sight? Our mind is fixed on what we utter. 

M.: What is tapas for? 

D.: For Self-Realisation. 

M.: Quite so. Tapas depends on the competency of the person. 

One requires a form to contemplate. But it is not enough. For can anyone keep looking at an image always? So the image must be implemented by japa. Japa helps fixing the mind on the image, in addition to the eyesight. The result of these efforts is concentration of mind, which ends in the goal. He becomes what he thinks. Some are satisfied with the name of the image. Every form must have a name. That name denotes all the qualities of God. 

Constant japa puts off all other thoughts and fixes the mind. That is tapas. 

One-pointedness is the tapas wanted. 

The question what tapas is was asked in order to know what purpose to serve. It will take the form required for the purpose. 

D.: Are not physical austerities also tapas? 

M.: May be one form of it. They are due to vairagya (dispassion) . 

D.: I have seen a man with his arm lifted all his life.

M.: That is vairagya. 

D.: Why should one afflict his body for the purpose? 

M.: You think it is affliction whereas it is a vow and for the other man it is an achievement and a pleasure. Dhyana may be external or internal or both. Japa is more important than external form. It must be done until it becomes natural. It starts with effort and is continued until it proceeds of itself. When natural it is called Realisation. Japa may be done even while engaged in other work. That which is, the One Reality. It may be represented by a form, a japa, mantra, vichara or any kind of attempt. All of them finally resolve themselves into that One Single Reality. 

Bhakti, vichara, japa are only different forms of our efforts to keep out the unreality. The unreality is an obsession at present. 

Reality is our true nature. 

We are wrongly persisting in unreality, that is, thoughts and worldly activities. Cessation of these will reveal the Truth. 

Our attempts are directed towards keeping them out. It is done by thinking of the Reality only.

 Although it is our true nature it looks as if we are thinking of the Reality. What we do really amounts to the removal of obstacles for the revelation of our true Being. Meditation or vichara is thus a reversion to our true nature. 

D.: Are our attempts sure to succeed? 

M.: Realisation is our nature. It is nothing new to be gained. What is new cannot be eternal. Therefore there is no need for doubting if one would lose or gain the Self.

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D.: The Heart is said to be on the right, on the left or in the centre. With such differences of opinion how are we to meditate on Hridaya? 

M.: You are and it is a fact. Dhyana is by you, of you, and in you. It must go on where you are. It cannot be outside you. So you are the centre of dhyana and that is the Heart. A location is however given to it with reference to the body. You know that you are. Where are you? You are in the body and not out of it. Yet not the whole body. Though you pervade the whole body still you admit of a centre where from all your thoughts start and wherein they subside. Even when the limbs are amputated you are there but with defective senses. So a centre must be admitted. That is called the Heart. The Heart is not merely the centre but the Self. Heart is only another name for the Self. Doubts arise only when you identify it with something tangible and physical. The scriptures no doubt describe it as the source of 101 nadis, etc. In Yoga Vasishta Chudala says that kundalini is composed of 101 nadis, thus identifying one with the other. Heart is no conception, no object for meditation. But it is the seat of meditation; the Self remains all alone. You see the body in the Heart, the world in it. There is nothing separate from it. So all kinds of effort are located there only

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M.: Nirvana is Perfection. In the Perfect State there is neither subject nor object; there is nothing to see, nothing to feel, nothing to know. Seeing and knowing are the functions of the mind. In nirvana there is nothing but the blissful pure consciousness “I am.”

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D.: But after how long? and why should a man who is ready for the Absolute knowledge stick to the knowledge of the Relative? 

M.: Everything happens in its own time. The one who is ready for the absolute knowledge will be made somehow to hear of it and follow it up. He will realise that Atmavidya is the highest of all virtues and also the end of the journey. Then, asked about the difference between external and internal nirvikalpa samadhis, referring to article 391 above, the Master said: External samadhi is holding on to the Reality while witnessing the world, without reacting to it from within. There is the stillness of a waveless ocean. The internal samadhi involves loss of body consciousness.

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D.: Is loss of body-consciousness a perquisite to the attainment of sahaja samadhi? 

M.: What is body-consciousness? 

Analyse it. 

There must be a body and consciousness limited to it which together make up body consciousness.

 These must lie in another Consciousness which is absolute and unaffected. Hold it. 

That is samadhi.

 It exists when there is no body-consciousness because it transcends the latter. It also exists when there is the body-consciousness. 

So it is always there. What does it matter whether body-consciousness is lost or retained? When lost it is internal samadhi: when retained, it is external samadhi. 

That is all. A person must remain in any of the six samadhis so that sahaja samadhi may be easy for him. 

D.: The mind does not sink into that state even for a second. 

M.: A strong conviction is necessary that I am the Self, transcending the mind and the phenomena. 

D.: Nevertheless, the mind proves to be a cord against attempts to sink it. 

M.: What does it matter if the mind is active? It is so only on the substratum of the Self. Hold the Self even during mental activities. 

D.: I cannot go within sufficiently deep. 

M.: It is wrong to say so. Where are you now if not in the Self? Where should you go? All that is necessary is the stern belief that you are the Self. Say rather that the other activities throw a veil on you. 

D.: Yes, it is so. 

M.: That means that the conviction is weak. 

D.: I understand that the ‘I’ is only artificial (krtrima), my attempts at realising the real ‘I’ are unavailing because the artificial ‘I’ is brought into action for realising the other. 

M.: Viveka Chudamani makes it clear that the artificial ‘I’ of the vijnana kosa is a projection and through it one must look to the significance (vachya) of ‘I’, the true principle.

....

M.: There is only He. He and His Light are the same. There is no individual to perceive other things, because the perceiver and the perceived are only He. The sun, the moon, etc., shine forth. How?

Do they come and tell you that they shine forth or does another apart from them say that they shine forth?

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D.: Of course I say that they shine forth. 

M.: Therefore they shine on account of you. Again consciousness is necessary to know that they shine forth. That consciousness is your Self or you. So then you or your consciousness is the same as He and His Light by which all else shine forth.

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418

Talk 425. 

Will-power or any other is gained by practice (abhyasa). 

D.: Is success not dependent on Guru’s Grace? 

M.: Yes, it is. Is not your practice itself due to such Grace? The fruits are the result of the practice and follow it automatically. There is a stanza in Kaivalya which says, “O Guru! You have been always with me watching me through several reincarnations, and ordaining my course until I was liberated.” The Self manifests externally as Guru when occasion arises; otherwise He is always within, doing the needful.

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D.: In the practice of meditation are there any signs of the nature of subjective experience or otherwise, which will indicate the aspirant’s progress towards Self-Realisation 

M.: The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measure to gauge the progress.

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Sri Bhagavan remarked: 

People see the world. The perception implies the existence of a seer and the seen. The objects are alien to the seer. The seer is intimate, being the Self. They do not however turn their attention to finding out the obvious seer but run about analysing the seen. 

The more the mind expands, the farther it goes and renders Self-Realisation more difficult and complicated. The man must directly see the seer and realise the Self.

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D.: So then, it amounts to synthesising phenomena and finding the one Reality behind. 

M.: Why do you still consider the phenomena? See who the seer is. Synthesis means engaging the mind in other pursuits. That is not the way to Realisation. 

D.: I want to eliminate the non-self so that the Self may be realised. How shall I do it? What are the characteristics of the non-self? 

M.: There is one who says that the non-self must be eliminated. Who is he? 

D.: I mean this man. When I travel from Calcutta to Madras I must know Madras so that I may not alight at an intermediate station out of ignorance. There are the sign boards and the timetable to guide me in my travel. But what is the guide in my search for the Self? 

M.: It is all right for the journey. You know how far away you are from Madras. Can you tell me how far away you are from the Self in order that you should seek it?

 D.: I do not know. 

M.: Are you ever divorced from the Self? Is it possible to be divorced? Are not all these alien to you and the Self the most intimate? Where should you go to gain the Self? 

D.: I am now away from the Self. I must retrace my steps in order to regain it. 

M.: How far away? Who says that he is apart? Can there be two selves? 

D.: It is said that individuals are modifications of the Self, just as ornaments are of gold.

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M.: When a man speaks in terms of ornaments ignoring their substance gold, he is told that they are gold. But here the man is consciousness and speaks of himself as its modification. Do you remain apart from Self that you speak of yourself as Its modification? 

D.: Cannot gold be imagined to say that it has become an ornament? 

M.: Being insentient, it does not say so. But the individual is sentient and cannot function apart from consciousness. The Self is Pure Consciousness. Yet the man identifies himself with the body which is itself insentient and does not say “I am the body” of its own accord. Someone else says so. The unlimited Self does not. Who else is he that says so? A spurious ‘I’ arises between the Pure Consciousness and the insentient body and imagines itself limited to the body. Seek this and it will vanish as a phantom. That phantom is the ego, or the mind or the individuality. All the sastras are based on the rise of this phantom, whose elimination is their purpose. The present state is mere illusion. Disillusionment is the goal and nothing more. 

D.: The mind is said to be a bundle of thoughts. 

M.: Because it functions on account of a single root the ‘I-thought’.

It has no real existence as a separate entity. 

D.: Are not thoughts projections from the mind? 

M.: In that case the mind is taken to be synonymous with the ‘I thought’ or the ego.

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