Talks mar 8

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

183

Learn what surrender is. 

It is to merge in the source of the ego.

 The ego is surrendered to the Self. 

Everything is dear to us because of love of the Self.

The Self is that to which we surrender our ego and let the Supreme Power, i.e. the Self, do what it pleases.

 The ego is already the Self’s. We have no rights over the ego, even as it is. 

However, supposing we had, we must surrender them.

.....

D.: What about Aurobindo’s claim to start from Self-Realisation and develop further? 

M.: Let us first realise and then see. Then Maharshi began to speak of similar theories: The Visishtadvaitins say that the Self is first realised and the realised individual soul is surrendered to the universal soul. Only then is it complete. The part is given up to the whole. That is liberation and sayujya union. 

Simple Self-Realisation stops at isolating the pure Self, says Visishtadvaita. 

The siddhas say that the one who leaves his body behind as a corpse cannot attain mukti. They are reborn. Only those whose bodies dissolve in space, in light or away from sight, attain liberation. 

The Advaitins of Sankara’s school stop short at Self-Realisation and this is not the end, the siddhas say. There are also others who extol their own pet theories as the best, e.g. late Venkaswami Rao of Kumbakonam, Brahmananda Yogi of Cuddappah, etc. 

The fact is: 

There is Reality. 

It is not affected by any discussions. 

Let us abide as Reality and not engage in futile discussions as to its nature, etc.

.....

D.: But I am not aware of my body. 

M.: Who says that he is not aware? 

D.: I do not understand. He was then asked to say what exactly was his method of meditation. He said: “Aham Brahmasmi” (“I am Brahman”). 

M.: “I am Brahman” is only a thought. Who says it? Brahman itself does not say so. 

What need is there for it to say it? Nor can the real ‘I’ say so. For ‘I’ always abides as Brahman. To be saying it is only a thought. Whose thought is it? 

All thoughts are from the unreal ‘I’. 

i.e. the ‘I’- thought. 

Remain without thinking. So long as there is thought there will be fear. 

........

D.: As I go on thinking of it there is forgetfulness, the brain becomes heated and I am afraid. 

M.: Yes, the mind is concentrated in the brain and hence you get a hot sensation there. It is because of the ‘I-thought’. 

So long as there is thought there will be forgetfulness. There is the thought “I am Brahman”; forgetfulness supervenes; then the ‘I-thought’ arises and simultaneously the fear of death also. 

Forgetfulness and thought are for ‘I-thought’ only. Hold it; it will disappear as a phantom.

 What remains over is the real ‘I’. That is the Self. 

‘I am Brahman’ is an aid to concentration. It keeps off other thoughts. That one thought alone persists. See whose is that thought. It will be found to be from ‘I’. 

Where from is the ‘I’ thought? Probe into it. 

The ‘I thought’ will vanish. The Supreme Self will shine forth of itself. No further effort is needed. 

When the one Real ‘I’ remains alone, it will not be saying; “I am Brahman”. 

Does a man go on repeating “I am a man”? Unless he is challenged, why should he declare himself a man? Does anyone mistake oneself for a brute, that he should say “No. I am not a brute; I am a man”? Similarly, Brahman or ‘I’ being alone, there is no one there to challenge it and so there is no need to be repeating “I am Brahman”.

.......

Talk 203. 

Mr. Varma, Financial Secretary of the Posts and Telegraphs Department, Delhi: He has read Paul Brunton’s Search in Secret India and The Secret Path. He lost his wife with whom he had led a happy life for eleven or twelve years. In his grief he seeks solace. He does not find solace in reading books: wants to tear them up. He does not intend to ask questions. He simply wants to sit here and derive what solace he can in the presence of Maharshi. 

Maharshi, as if in a train of thoughts, spoke now and then to the following effect: It is said, “The wife is one-half of the body”. So her death is very painful. This pain is however due to one’s outlook being physical; it disappears if the outlook is that of the Self. The Brahadaranyaka Upanishad says, “The wife is dear because of the love of the Self”. If the wife and others are identified with the Self, how then will pain arise? Nevertheless such disasters shake the mind of philosophers also. We are happy in deep sleep. We remain then as the pure Self. The same we are just now too. In such sleep there was neither the wife nor others nor even ‘I’. Now they become apparent and give rise to pleasure or pain. Why should not the Self, which was blissful in deep sleep, continue its blissful nature even now? 

The sole obstruction to such continuity is the wrong identification of the Self with the body.

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Talk 204. 

Maharshi on Self-Illumination: 

The ‘I’ concept is the ego. 

I-illumination is the Realisation of the Real Self. 

It is ever shining forth as ‘I-I’ in the Vidnyanamaya kosha

It is pure Knowledge. 

Relative knowledge is only a concept. The bliss of the blissful sheath is also but a concept. 

Unless there is the experience, however subtle it is, one cannot say “I slept happily”. From his intellect he speaks of his blissful sheath. The bliss of sleep is but a concept to the person, the same as intellect. However, the concept of experience is exceedingly subtle in sleep. Experience is not possible without simultaneous knowledge of it (i.e. relative knowledge). 

The inherent nature of the Self is Bliss. 

Some kind of knowledge has to be admitted, even in the realisation of Supreme Bliss. It may be said to be subtler than the subtlest. The word vijnana (clear knowledge) is used both to denote the Realisation of the Self and knowing the objects. The Self is wisdom. It functions in two ways. 

When associated with the ego the knowledge is objective (vijnana). 

When divested of the ego and the Universal Self is realised, it is also called vijnana. 

The word raises a mental concept. 

Therefore we say that the Self-Realised Sage knows by his mind, but his mind is pure. 

Again we say that the vibrating mind is impure and the placid mind is pure. The pure mind is itself Brahman; therefore it follows that Brahman is not other than the mind of the sage. 

The Mundaka Upanishad says: “The knower of Brahman becomes the Self of Brahman.” Is it not ludicrous? To know Him and become Him? They are mere words. 

The sage is Brahman - that is all. Mental functioning is necessary to communicate his experience. He is said to be contemplating the unbroken expanse. The Creator, Suka and others are also said never to swerve from such contemplation.

verse from tejobindu 1.47

Such ‘contemplation’ is again a mere word. How is that to be contemplated unless it is divided (into the contemplator and the contemplated). When undivided, how is contemplation possible? What function can Infinity have? Do we say that a river after its discharge into the ocean has become an ocean-like river? Why should we then speak of contemplation which has become unbroken, as being that of unbroken Infinity? 

The statement must be understood in the spirit in which it is made. 

It signifies the merging into the Infinite. Self-Illumination or Self-Realisation is similar to it.

The Self is ever shining. What does this ‘I-illumination’ mean then? The expression is an implied admission of mind function.

 The gods and the sages experience the Infinite continuously and eternally, without their vision being obscured at any moment. Their minds are surmised by the spectators to function; but in fact they do not. Such surmise is due to the sense of individuality in those who draw inferences. There is no mental function in the absence of individuality. 

Individuality and mind functions are co-existent. The one cannot remain without the other.

  The light of the Self can be experienced only in the intellectual sheath. 

Therefore vijnana of whatever kind (of object or of the Self) depends on the Self being Pure Knowledge.

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