https://www.sriramanateachings.org/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_One.pdf
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Just as the man came out into the open space from the dark room by steadfastly holding on to and moving along the reflected ray, so the enquirer reaches the open space of Heart, coming out of the prison – the attachment to the body through the nerves (nadis) -, by assiduously holding on to the feeling ‘I am’. Let us now see how this process takes place in the body of an advanced enquirer.
Just on waking up from sleep, a consciousness ‘I’ shoots up like a flash of lightening from the Heart to the brain. From the brain, it then spreads throughout the body along the nerves (nadis). This ‘I’ consciousness is like electrical energy. Its impetus or voltage is the force of attachment (abhimana-vega) with which it identifies a body as ‘I’.
This consciousness, which spreads with such a tremendous impetus and speed all over the body as ‘I’, remains pure, having no adjunct (upadhi) attached to it, till it reaches the brain from the Heart.
But, since its force of attachment (abhimana-vega) is so great that the time taken by it to shoot up from the Heart to the brain is extremely short, one millionth of a second so to speak, ordinary people are unable to cognize it in its pure condition, devoid of any adjunct.
This pure condition of the rising ‘I’ - consciousness is what was pointed out by Sri Bhagavan when He said, “In the space between two states or two thoughts, the pure ego (the pure condition or true nature of the ego) is experienced”, in ‘Maharshi’s Gospel’, Book One, chapter five, entitled ‘Self and Ego’.
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For this ‘I’ – consciousness that spreads from the brain at a tremendous speed throughout the body, the nerves (nadis) are the transmission lines, like wires for electrical power, (How many they are is immaterial here.)
The mixing of the pure consciousness ‘I am’, after reaching the brain, with an adjunct as ‘I am this, I am so-and-so, I am the body’ is what is called bondage (bandham) or the knot (granthi).
This knot has two forms: the knot of bondage to the nerves (nadi-bandha-granthi) and the knot of attachment (abhimana--granthi).
The connection of this power, the ‘I’- consciousness, with the gross nervous system is called ‘the knot of bondage to the nerves’ (nadi bandha granthi), and its connection (its dehabhimana) with the causal body, whose form is the latent tendencies, is called ‘the knot of attachment’ (abhimana-granthi), The knot of bondage to the nerves pertains to the breath (prana), while the knot of attachment pertains to the mind.
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“Mind and breath (prana) which have thought and action as their respective functions, are like two diverging branches of the trunk of a tree, but their root (the activating power) is one.” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 12
Since the source of the mind and the prana is one (the Heart), when the knot of attachment (abhimana-granthi) is severed by the annihilation of the mind through Self-enquiry, the knot of bondage to the nerves (nadi
bandha-granthi) is also severed. In raja yoga, after removing the knot of bondage to the nerves by means of breathcontrol, if the mind which is thus controlled is made to enter the Heart from the brain (sahasrara), since it reaches its source, then the knot of attachment is also severed.
“When the mind which has been subdued by breath control is led (to the Heart) through the only path (the path of knowing Self)76, its form will die.” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 14
However, since the knot of attachment is the basic one, until and unless the destruction of attachment (abhimana) is effected, by knowing self, even when the knot of bondage to the nerves is temporarily removed in sleep, swoon, death or by the use of anesthetics, the knot of attachment remains unaffected in the form of tendencies (vasanas), which constitute the causal body, and, hence rebirths are inescapable.
This is why Sri Bhagavan insists that one reaching kashta-nirvikalpa-samadhi 77 through raja yoga should not stop there (since it is only mano-laya, a temporary absorption of the mind), but that the mind so absorbed should be led to the Heart in order to attain sahaja-nirvikalpa-samildhi, which is the destruction of the mind (mano-nasa), the destruction of the attachment to the body (dehabhimana-nasa).
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In the body of such a Selfrealized One (sahaja jnani), the coursing of the ‘I’ - consciousness along the nerves, even after the destruction of the knot of attachment, is like the water on a lotus leaf or like a burnt rope, and thus it cannot cause bondage.
Therefore the destruction of the knot of attachment is anyway indispensible for the attainment of the natural state (Sahaja Sthiti), the state of the destruction of the tendencies (vasanakshaya)
The nerves (nadis) are gross, but the consciousness power (chaitanya-sakti) that courses through them is subtle. The connection of the ‘I’-consciousness with the nerves is similar to that of the electrical power with the wires, that is, it is so unstable that it can be disconnected or connected in a second.
Is it not an experience common to one and all that this connection is daily broken in sleep and effected in the waking state? When this connection is effected, bodyconsciousness rises, and when it is broken, bodyconsciousness is lost.
Here it is to be remembered what has already been stated, namely that body-consciousness and world-consciousness are one and the same.
So, like our clothes and ornaments which are daily removed and put on, this knot is alien to us, a transitory and false entity hanging loosely on us! This is what Sri Bhagavan referred to when He said, “We can detach ourself from what we are not”! Disconnecting the knot in such a way t
hat it will never again come into being is called by many names such as ‘the cutting of the knot’ (granthi-bheda). ‘the destruction of the mind’ (mano-nasa) and so on.
‘In such a way that it will never again come into being’ means this: by attending to it (the ego) through the enquiry ‘Does it in truth exist at present?’ in order to find out whether it had ever really come into being, there takes place the dawn of knowledge
(jnana), the real waking, where it is clearly and firmly known that no such knot has ever come into being, that no such ego has ever risen, that ‘that which exists’ alone ever exists, and that which was existing as ‘I am’ is ever existing as ‘I am’
The attainment of this knowledge (Self-knowledge or atma-jnana), the knowledge that the knot or bondage is at all times non-existent and has never risen, is the permanent disconnecting of the knot. Let us explain this with a small story
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.......The two walls in the story signify the second and third persons. The first person is the third wall said to be behind the man. There is no way at all to liberation by means of second and third person attention. Only by the first person attention ‘Who am I?’ will the right knowledge be gained that the ego, the first person, is ever non-existent, and only when the first person is thus annihilated will the truth be realized that bondage and liberation are false
‘’So long as one thinks like a madman ‘I am a bound one’, thoughts of bondage and liberation will last. But when looking into oneself ‘Who is this bound one? the eternally free and evershining Self alone will (be found to) exist. Thus,
where the thought of bondage no longer stands, can the thought of liberation still endure !” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 39
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Churning of the nadis
Let us now again take up our original point. When the attention of an aspirant is turned towards second and third persons, the ‘I’-consciousness spreads from the brain all over the body through the nerves (nadis) in the form of the power of spreading; but when the same attention is focused on the first person, since it is used in an opposite direction, the ‘I’ -consciousness, instead of functioning in the form of the power of spreading, takes the form of the power of Selfattention (that is, the power of ‘doing’ is transformed into the power of ‘being’). This is what is called ‘the churning of the nadis’ (nadi-mathana).
By the churning thus taking place in the nadis, the ‘I’-consciousness scattered throughout the nadis turns back, withdraws and collects in the brain, the starting point of its spreading, and from there it reaches, drowns and is established in the Heart, the pure consciousness, the source of its rising.
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. But for those who do not have such obstacles in the form of tendencies, the journey will be pleasant and without any distinguishing feature (visesha). In the former case, these experiences are due to non-vigilance (pramada) in Self-attention, for they are nothing but a second person attention taking place there! This itself betrays that the attention to Self is lost!
For those tremendously earnest aspirants who do not at all give room to non-vigilance in Self-attention, these objective experiences will never occur!
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.....Even though the ‘I’-consciousness while being withdrawn courses only along the sushumna nadi, on account of its extreme brilliance it illumines the five sense organs (jnanendriyas), which are near the sushumna, and hence the above–mentioned experiences happen.
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Since the mind is now very subtle and brilliant because it is withdrawn from all the other nadis into the sushumna, and since it is extremely pure because it is free from worldly desires, it is now able to project through the subtle five senses only the past auspicious tendencies (purva subha vasanas) as described above. However, just because of these visions and the like, one should not conclude that the mind has been transformed into Self (atman). Even now there has not be
en destruction of the mind (mono-nasa).
Whatever appears and is experienced is only a second person knowledge, which means that sadhana, the first person attention, is lost at that time!
Being still alive with auspicious tendencies, it creates and perceives subtler and more lustrous second and third person objects, and finds enjoyment in them. So this is not at all the unqualified experience of true knowledge (nirvisesha-jnana-anubhava), which is the destruction of the tendencies (vasanakshaya)
Many are those who take these qualified experiences (visesha-anubhavas) of taste, light, sound and so on to be the final attainment of Self-knowledge (brahma-jnana), and because they have had these experiences they think that they have attained liberation and they become more and more entangled in attention to second and third persons, thus losing their foothold on Self-attention
Such aspirants are called ‘those fallen from yoga’ (yoga-bhrashtas).
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....... Whenever one is overtaken by such qualified experiences, the weapon of Ramana (Ramanastram), ‘To whom are these experiences ?’, is to be used! The feeling ‘To me’ will be the response! From this, by the enquiry ‘Who am I?’, one can immediately regain the thread of Self-attention. When Self-attention is thus regained, those qualified experiences of second and third persons will disappear of their own accord because there is no one to attend to them
....When the mind, giving up knowing those qualified external sense-objects, again turns towards its form of light 80 (consciousness), it will sink into its source, the Heart, and lose its form for ever.
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.....During the course of sadhana, an aspirant will now be able, by the strength of practice, to cognize tangibly what is the state of the absorption of the ego and what exactly is
Self-consciousness, at which he has been aiming till now.
Although his pure Self-existence, devoid of bodyconsciousness or any other adjunct, will often be experienced by him, this is still the stage of practice and not the final attainment! Why?
Since there are still the two alternating feelings, one of being sometimes extroverted and the other of being sometimes introverted, and since there is the feeling of making effort to become introverted and of losing such effort while becoming extroverted, this stage is said to be ‘not the final attainment’,
What Sri Bhagavan reveals in this connection is : “If the mind (the attention) is thus well fixed in sadhana (attending to Self), a power of divine Grace will then rise from within of its own accord and, Subjugating the mind, will take it to the Heart”
What is this power of divine Grace ? It is nothing but the perfect clarity of our existence the form of the Supreme Self (paramatman), ever shining with abundant Grace in the heart as ‘I-I’ !
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The nature of a needle lying within a magnetic field is to be attracted and pulled only when its rust has been removed. But we should not conclude from this that the magnetic power comes into existence only after the rust is removed from the needle. Is not the magnetic power always naturally existing in that field? Although the needle was all the while lying in the magnetic field, it is affected by the attraction of the magnet only to the extent that it loses its rust. All that we try to do by way of giving up second and third attention and clinging to Self-attention is similar to scraping off the rust. So the result of all our endeavours is to make ourself it to become a prey to the attraction of the
magnetic field of pure consciousness the Heart, which is ever shining engulfing all (that is reducing the whole
universe to non-existence) with spreading rays81 of Selfeffulgence.
Mature aspirants will willingly and without rebelling submit themselves to this magnetic power of the Grace of Self-effulgence.
Others, on the other hand, will become extroverted (that is, will turn their attention outwards) fearing the attraction of this power. Therefore, we should first make ourself fit by the intense love (bhakthi) to know Self and by the tremendous detachment (vairagya) of having no desire to attend to any second or third person.
Then, since our very individuality (as an aspirant) itself is devoured by that power, even the so-called ‘effort of ours’ becomes nil. Thus, when the ‘I’ – consciousness that was spread all over the body is made to sink into the Heart, the real waking, the dawn of knowledge (jnana), takes place. This happens in a split second !
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“Death is a matter of a split second! The leaving off of sleep is a matter of a split second! Likewise, the removal of the delusion ‘I am an individual soul (jiva)’ is also a matter of a split second!
The dawn of true knowledge is not such that glimpses of it will be gained once and then lost! If an aspirant feels that it appears and disappears, it is only the stage of practice (sadhana); he cannot be said to have attained true knowledge (jnana).
The perfect dawn of knowledge is a happening of a split second; its attainment is not a prolonged process. All the agelong practices are meant only for attaining maturity.
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...when the mind is thus perfectly purified, then and then only does the dawn of self-knowledge suddenly break forth in a split second as ‘I am that I am’! Since, as soon as this dawn breaks, the space of Self-consciousness is found, through the clear knowledge of the Reality, to be beginningless, natural and eternal, even the effort of attending to Self ceases then!
To abide thus, having nothing more to do and nothing further to achieve, is alone the real and supreme state.” ‘Sadhanai Saram’
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imp repeat
191
During the course of sadhana, an aspirant will now be able, by the strength of practice, to cognize tangibly what is the state of the absorption of the ego and what exactly is
Self-consciousness, at which he has been aiming till now.
Although his pure Self-existence, devoid of bodyconsciousness or any other adjunct, will often be experienced by him, this is still the stage of practice and not the final attainment! Why?
Since there are still the two alternating feelings, one of being sometimes extroverted and the other of being sometimes introverted, and since there is the feeling of making effort to become introverted and of losing such effort while becoming extroverted, this stage is said to be ‘not the final attainment’,
What Sri Bhagavan reveals in this connection is : “If the mind (the attention) is thus well fixed in sadhana (attending to Self), a power of divine Grace will then rise from within of its own accord and, Subjugating the mind, will take it to the Heart”.
What is this power of divine Grace ?
It is nothing but the perfect clarity of our existence the form of the Supreme Self (paramatman), ever shining with abundant Grace in the heart as ‘I-I’ !
The nature of a needle lying within a magnetic field is to be attracted and pulled only when its rust has been removed. But we should not conclude from this that the magnetic power comes into existence only after the rust is removed from the needle. Is not the magnetic power always naturally existing in that field? Although the needle was all the while lying in the magnetic field, it is affected by the attraction of the magnet only to the extent that it loses its rust. All that we try to do by way of giving up second and
third attention and clinging to Self-attention is similar to scraping off the rust. So the result of all our endeavours is to make ourself it to become a prey to the attraction of the magnetic field of pure consciousness the Heart, which is ever shining engulfing all (that is reducing the whole
universe to non-existence) with spreading rays81 of Selfeffulgence.
Mature aspirants will willingly and without rebelling submit themselves to this magnetic power of the Grace of Self-effulgence.
Others, on the other hand, will become extroverted (that is, will turn their attention outwards) fearing the attraction of this power.
Therefore, we should first make ourself fit by the intense love (bhakthi) to know Self and by the tremendous detachment (vairagya) of having no desire to attend to any second or third person.
Then, since our very individuality (as an aspirant) itself is devoured by that power, even the so-called ‘effort of ours’becomes nil.
Thus, when the ‘I’ – consciousness that was spread all over the body is made to sink into the Heart, the real waking, the dawn of knowledge (jnana), takes place.
This happens in a split second
“Death is a matter of a split second! The leaving off of sleep is a matter of a split second! Likewise, the removal of the delusion ‘I am an individual soul (jiva)’ is also a matter of a split second! The dawn of true knowledge is not such that glimpses of it will be gained once and then lost! If an aspirant feels that it appears and disappears, it is only the stage of practice (sadhana); he cannot be said to have attained true knowledge (jnana). The perfect dawn of knowledge is a happening of a split second; its attainment is not a prolonged process. All the agelong practices are meant only
for attaining maturity. Let us give an example it takes a long lime to prepare a temple cannon-blast, first putting the gunpowder into the barrel, giving the wick, adding some stones and then ramming it, but when ignited it explodes as a thunder in a
split second. Similarly, after an agelong period of listening and reading (sravana), reflecting (manana), practising (nidi-dhyasana) and weeping put in prayer (because of the inability to put what is heard into practice), when the mind is thus perfectly purified, then and then only does the dawn of self-knowledge suddenly break forth in a split second as ‘I am that I am’! Since, as soon as this dawn breaks, the space of Self-consciousness is found, through the clear knowledge of the Reality, to be beginningless, natural and eternal, even the effort of attending to Self ceases then! To
abide thus, having nothing more to do and nothing further to achieve, is alone the real and supreme state.” ‘Sadhanai Saram’
That which we are now experiencing as the waking state is not the real waking state. This waking state is also a dream! There is no difference at all between this waking and dream. In both these states, the feeling ‘I am’ catches hold of a body as ‘I am this’ and, seeing external objects, involves itself in activities. To awaken as described above from the dream of this waking state is the dawn of knowledge, our real state, or the real waking.
The definition of the correct waking is that state in which there is perfect Self-consciousness and singleness of Self- existence, without the knowledge of the existence of anything apart from Self! From this one can determine the real waking
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It is this waking that Sri Bhagavan refers to in the following verse: “Forgetting Self, mistaking the body for Self, taking innumerable births, and at last knowing Self and being Self is just like waking from a dream of wandering all over the world. Know thus.” ‘Ekatma Panchakam’, verse 1
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Just as one place, a big hall, is divided into three chambers when two walls are newly erected in it, so our eternal, non-dual, natural and adjunctless existenceconsciousness appears to be three states, namely waking, dream and sleep, when the two imaginary walls of waking and dream, which are due to the two body-adjuncts (the waking body and the dream body), apparently rise in the midst of it on account of tendencies (vasanas). If these two new imaginary risings, waking and dream, are not there, that which remains will be the one state of Selfconsciousness alone. It is only for the sake of immature aspirants who think the three states to be real, that the
sastras have named our natural, real state, the jnana-waking, as ‘the fourth state (turiya avastha). But since the other three states are truly unreal, this state (the fourth) is in fact the only existing state, the first, and so it need not at all be called ‘the fourth’ (turiya), nor even ‘a state’ (avastha). It is
therefore ‘that which transcends the states’ (avasthatita). It is also called that which transcends the fourth’ (turiyatita). Hence, turiyatita should not be counted as a fifth state. This is clearly said by Sri Bhagavan :
“It is only for those who experience the waking, dream and sleep states, that the state of wakeful sleep is named turiya, a state beyond these. Since that turiya alone really exists and since the apparent three states do not exist, turiya itself is turiyatita. Thus should you bravely understand !”
‘UIladhu Narpadhu – Anubandha’, verse 32
“It is only for those who are not able to immerse and abide firmly in turiya (the state of Self), which shine piercing through the dark ignorance of sleep, that the difference between the first three dense states and the fourth and fifth states are (accepted in sastras).” ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’, verse 567
When, through the aforesaid Self-attention, we are more and more firmly fixed in our existence-consciousness, the tendencies (vasanas) will be destroyed because there is no one to attend to them.
Thus, the waking and dream states, which have been apparently created by these imaginary tendencies, will also be destroyed. Then the one state which survives should no more be called by the name ‘sleep’-
“When, the beginningless, impure tendencies, which were the cause for waking and dream, are destroyed, then sleep, which was (considered to be) leading to bad results (that is, to tama,) and which was said to be a void and ridiculed as nescience, will be found to be turiyatita itself !” ‘Guru Vaehaka Kovai’, verse 460
Since that which has been experienced till now as sleep by ordinary people was liable to be disturbed and removed by waking and dream, it appeared to be trivial and temporary
That is why it was said on pages 51 to 52 of this book that sleep is a defective state, and in the footnote of the same pages that the real nature of sleep would be explained later in the eighth chapter. Therefore, our natural state, the real waking, alone is the supreme Reality.
Since this real waking is not experienced as a state newly attained, for a Liberated One (jivanmukta) the state of liberation does not become a thought! That is, since bondage is unreal for Him, He can have no thought of liberation. Then how can the thought of bondage come to Him? The thought of bondage and liberation can occur only to the ignorant one (ajnani), who thinks that he is bound.
Therefore, to remain in this state of Self, having attained tile supreme bliss (the eternal happiness which is, as pointed out in chapter one. the sole aim of all living beings), which is devoid of both bondage and liberation, is truly to be in the service of the Lord in the manner enjoined by Bhagavan Ramana. This alone is our duty. This alone is the path of Sri Ramana.
“To remain in the state (of Self), having attained the supreme bliss, which is devoid of both bondage end liberation, is truly to be in the service of the Lord.” ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’, verse 29
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Appendix:
As a general rule, whenever Sri Bhagavan uses the word ‘place’ (idam), He is referring to our true state, Self, rather than to any place limited by time and space. This is confirmed in the next paragraph of this work, where He says, “The place (idam) where even the slightest trace of the thought ‘I’ does not exist, alone is Self (swarupam)”
Therefore, when He says in this sentence, “If one enquires ‘in which place (idam). In the body..”, what He in fact expects us to do is to enquire ‘From what?’, in which case the answer will not be a place in the body, but only ‘we’, Self, the truly-existing Thing (refer to pages 134 to 135 of this book).
Hence, as Sri Bhagavan Himself often explained, the true Import of the word ‘heart’ (hridayam) is not a limited place in the body, but only the unlimited Self (refer to Upadesa Manjari, chapter two answer to question 9)
However, since the mind or ego can rise only by identifying I body as ‘I’, a place for its rising can also be pointed out in the body, ‘two digits to the right from the centre of the chest’, though of course such a place can never be the absolute reality.
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The mind will subside only by means of the enquiry Who am I?’. The thought ‘Who am I?’ (which is but a means for turning our attention Selfwards), destroying all other thoughts, will itself finally be destroyed like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre.
........At the very moment that each thought rises, if one vigilantly enquires ‘To whom did this rise?’, it will be known ‘To me’. If one then enquires ‘Who am I?’, the mind (our power of attention) will turn back (from the thought) to its source (Self), (then, since no one is there to attend to it) the thought which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to abide in its source increases. When the mind (the attention), which is subtle, goes out through the brain and sense-organs (which are gross), the names-and-forms (the objects of the world), which are gross, appear; when it abides in the heart (its source, Self), the names-and-forms
disappear. Keeping the mind in the heart (through the above-described means of fixing our attention in Self), not allowing it to go out, alone is called ‘Selfwardness’ (ahamukham) or ‘introversion’ (antarmukham).
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The place (or state) where even the slightest trace of the thought ‘I’ does not exist, alone is Self (swarupam).
That alone is called ‘Silence’ (maunam).
To be still (summa iruppadu) in this manner alone is called ‘seeing through (the eye of) knowledge’ (jnana-drishti).
To be still is to make the mind subside in Self (through Self-attention).
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What really exists is Self (atma-swarupam) alone. The world, soul and God are superimpositions in it like the sliver in the mother-of-pearl; these three appear simultaneously and disappear simultaneously. Self itself is the world: Self itself is ‘I’ (the soul); Self itself is God; all is the Supreme Self (siva-swarupam) .
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Although tendencies towards sense-objects (vishaya-- vasanas), which have been recurring down the ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as Self-attention (swarupa-dhyana) becomes more and more intense.
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Always keeping the mind (the attention) fixed in Self (in the feeling ‘I’) alone is called ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara);
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Therefore, unceasing Self-attention is possible only in the state of Self-realization and not in the state of practice (sadhana). What one has to do during the period of sadhana is to cultivate ever-increasing love to attain Self-knowledge and to make intermittent but repeated attempts to turn one’s attention a full 180 degrees towards Self. If one once succeeds in doing this, then unceasing Self-attention will be found to be natural and effortless.
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