Talks mar 6

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

174

Talk 192. 

Maharshi explained in the course of conversation: 

Whoever desires liberation? Everyone wants only happiness - happiness too as found in the enjoyment of the senses. 

This question was asked of a Guru, and the latter answered: “Quite so. That happiness which is the result of enjoyment by the senses is the same as that of liberation. That desire of such liberation is one of the four qualifications for attainment. This is common to all. So all are eligible for this knowledge - Self-knowledge.”

 In fact there may not be found any individual in the world who possesses all the qualities in perfection necessary for an aspirant as mentioned in Yoga Sutras, etc.

Still pursuit of Self-knowledge should not be abandoned. 

Everyone is the Self by his own experience. Still he is not aware, he identifies the Self with the body and feels miserable. This is the greatest of all mysteries. 

One is the Self. Why not abide as the Self and be done with miseries? In the beginning one has to be told that he is not the body, because he thinks that he is the body only. Whereas he is the body and all else. The body is only a part. Let him know it finally. He must first discern consciousness from insentience and be the consciousness only. Later let him realise that insentience is not apart from consciousness. This is discrimination (viveka). 

The initial discrimination must persist to the end. Its fruit is liberation.

......

Talk 194. 

Mr. Subba Rao, a visitor from Amalapuram, asked: How to control the mind? 

M.: Get hold of the mind. 

D.: How? 

M.: Mind is intangible. In fact, it does not exist. 

The surest way of control is to seek it. Then its activities cease.

...........

 Talk 195. 

Mr. Jharka, a gentleman from the University of Benares, holding the M.A. and the M.Sc. degrees, said that he was stricken with grief due to bereavement of wife and children. He sought peace of mind and asked how to get it. 

M.: It is in the mind that birth and death, pleasure and pain, in short the world and ego exist. 

If the mind is destroyed all these are destroyed too. 

Note that it should be annihilated, not just made latent. 

For the mind is dormant in sleep. It does not know anything. Still, on waking up, you are as you were before. There is no end of grief. But if the mind be destroyed the grief will have no background and will disappear along with the mind. 

.........

D.: How to destroy the mind?

 M.: Seek the mind. On being sought, it will disappear. 

D.: I do not understand. 

M.: The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. 

The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. 

The thinker is the ego. 

The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. 

The ego and the mind are the same. 

The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise. 

D.: How to seek the mind?

M.: Dive within. 

You are now aware that the mind rises up from within. 

So sink within and seek.

 ..........

D.: I do not yet understand how it is to be done. 

M.: You are practising breath-control. Mechanical breath-control will not lead one to the goal. It is only an aid. 

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 ‘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 become manifest, which will be continuous and unbroken. 

That is the goal. 

It goes by different names - God, Self, Kundalini Sakti, Consciousness, Yoga, Bhakti, Jnana, etc. 

...........

D.: Not clear yet. 

M.: When the attempt is made, it will of itself take you to the goal.

........

176

Really there are only two methods: enquiry and devotion. One leads to the other.

....

D.: Seeking the ‘I’ there is nothing to be seen. 

M.: Because you are accustomed to identify yourself with the body and sight with the eyes, therefore, you say you do not see anything. 

What is there to be seen? Who is to see? How to see? 

There is only one consciousness which, manifesting as ‘I-thought’, identifies itself with the body, projects itself through the eyes and sees the objects around. 

The individual is limited in the waking state and expects to see something different. The evidence of his senses will be the seal of authority. 

But he will not admit that the seer, the seen and the sight are all manifestations of the same consciousness - namely, ‘I-I’. 

Contemplation helps one to overcome the illusion that the Self must be visual. 

In truth, there is nothing visual. 

How do you feel the ‘I’ now? 

Do you hold a mirror before you to know your own being? 

The awareness is the ‘I’. Realise it and that is the truth.

..............

D.: On enquiry into the origin of thoughts there is a perception of ‘I’. But it does not satisfy me. 

M.: Quite right. The perception of ‘I’ is associated with a form, maybe the body. 

There should be nothing associated with the pure Self. 

The Self is the unassociated, pure Reality, in whose light, the body, the ego, etc. shine. 

On stilling all thoughts the pure consciousness remains over. 

Just on waking from sleep and before becoming aware of the world there is that pure ‘I-I’. 

Hold on to it without sleeping or without allowing thoughts to possess you. 

If that is held firm it does not matter even though the world is seen. 

The seer remains unaffected by the phenomena.

.......

Talk 197. 

Gul and Shirin Byramjee, two Parsi ladies of Ahmedabad, arrived this day. They spoke at night to Maharshi: 

“Bhagavan! We have been spiritually inclined from our childhood. We have read several books on philosophy, and are attracted by Vedanta. So we read the Upanishads, Yoga Vasishtha, Bhagavad Gita, etc. We try to meditate, but there is no progress in our meditation. We do not understand how to realise. Can you kindly help us towards realisation?” 

M.: How do you meditate? 

........

The method:

D.: I begin to ask myself “Who am I?”, eliminate body as not ‘I’, the breath as not ‘I’, the mind as not ‘I’ and I am not able to proceed further. 

M.: Well, that is so far as the intellect goes. Your process is only intellectual. 

Indeed, all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the seeker to know the Truth.

 The Truth cannot be directly pointed out. Hence this intellectual process. 

You see, the one who eliminates all the not I cannot eliminate the ‘I’. 

To say ‘I am not this’ or ‘I am that’ there must be the ‘I’. 

This ‘I’ is only the ego or the ‘I-thought’.

 After the rising up of this ‘I-thought’, all other thoughts arise. 

The ‘I-thought’ is therefore the root-thought. 

If the root is pulled out all others are at the same time uprooted. 

Therefore seek the root ‘I’, question yourself “Who am I?”; find out its source. 

Then all these will vanish and the pure Self will remain ever. 

D.: How to do it? 

M.: The ‘I’ is always there - in deep sleep, in dream and in wakefulness. The one in sleep is the same as that who now speaks. 

There is always the feeling of ‘I’.

 Otherwise do you deny your existence? You do not. 

You say ‘I am’. Find out who is. 

D.: Even so, I do not understand. ‘I’, you say, is the wrong ‘I’ now. How to eliminate this wrong ‘I’? 

M.: You need not eliminate the wrong ‘I’. 

How can ‘I’ eliminate itself? 

All that you need do is to find out its origin and abide there. 

Your efforts can extend only thus far. 

Then the Beyond will take care of itself. 

You are helpless there. 

No effort can reach it.

...............

 D.: If ‘I’ am always - here and now, why do I not feel so? 

M.: That is it. Who says it is not felt? Does the real ‘I’ say it or the false ‘I’? Examine it. 

You will find it is the wrong ‘I’. The wrong ‘I’ is the obstruction.

It has to be removed in order that the true ‘I’ may not be hidden. 

The feeling that I have not realised is the obstruction to realisation. In fact it is already realised; there is nothing more to be realised. 

Otherwise, the realisation will be new; it has not existed so far, it must take place hereafter. 

What is born will also die. If realisation be not eternal it is not worth having. Therefore what we seek is not that which must happen afresh. It is only that which is eternal but not now known due to obstructions; it is that we seek. All that we need do is to remove the obstruction. That which is eternal is not known to be so because of ignorance. Ignorance is the obstruction. Get over this ignorance and all will be well.

The ignorance is identical with the ‘I-thought’. Find its source and it will vanish. 

The ‘I-thought’ is like a spirit which, although not palpable, rises up simultaneously with the body, flourishes and disappears with it. 

The body-consciousness is the wrong ‘I’. Give up this body consciousness. 

It is done by seeking the source ‘I’. 

The body does not say ‘I am’. It is you who say, ‘I am the body!’ 

Find out who this ‘I’ is. Seeking its source it will vanish. 

.........

D.: Then, will there be bliss? 

M.: Bliss is coeval with Being-Consciousness. All the arguments relating to the eternal Being of that Bliss apply to Bliss also. Your nature is Bliss. Ignorance is now hiding that Bliss. Remove the ignorance for Bliss to be freed. 

D.: Should we not find out the ultimate reality of the world, individual and God? 

M.: These are all conceptions of the ‘I’. 

They arise only after the advent of the ‘I-thought’. 

Did you think of them in your deep sleep? You existed in deep sleep and the same you are now speaking. If they be real should they not be in your sleep also? They are only dependent upon the ‘I-thought’. Again does the world tell you ‘I am the world’? Does the body say ‘I am body’? You say, “This is the world”, “this is body” and so on. 

So these are only your conceptions. 

Find out who you are and there will be an end of all your doubts.

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