Path of Ramana 3

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Even though the ‘I’-consciousness while being withdrawn courses only along the sushumna nadi, on account of its extreme brilliance it illumines the five sense organs (jnanendriyas), which are near the sushumna, and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. 

How? When the light of ‘I’-consciousness stationed in the sushumna illumines the eye, the organ of sight, there will be visions of Gods and many celestial worlds; when it illumines the ear, the organ of hearing, celestial sounds will be heard such as the playing of divine instruments (deva dundubhi), the ringing of divine bells, Omkara and so on; when it illumines the organ of smell, delightful divine fragrances will be smelt; when it illumines the organ of taste, delicious celestial nectar will be tasted; and when it illumines the organ of touch, a feeling of extreme pleasure will permeate the entire body or a feeling of floating in an ocean of pleasantness will be experienced.

 There is no wonder that these experiences appear to be clearer and of greater reality than the sense-experiences in the ordinary waking state, because the experiences of the present waking world are gained through the gross five senses, which are functioning by the impure ‘I’ – consciousness scattered all over the body, whereas these experiences of celestial worlds are gained through the subtle five senses, which are functioning by the pure, focused ‘I’ – consciousness. 

Yet all these are only qualified mental experiences (visesha-manaanubhavas) and not the unqualified Self-experience (nirvisesha-ekatma-anubhava). 

Since the mind is now very subtle and brilliant because it is withdrawn from all the other nadis into the sushumna, and since it is extremely pure because it is free from worldly desires, it is now able to project through the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 been destruction of the mind (mono-nasa). 

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). 

Whatever appears and is experienced is only a second person knowledge, which means that sadhana, the first person attention, is lost at that time! 

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).

 This is similar to a man bound for Delhi getting down from the train at some intermediate station, thinking ‘Verily, this is Delhi’, being deluded by its attractive grandeur! 

Even siddhis, the superhuman powers that may come during the course of sadhana are only our illusion, barring our progress to liberation and landing us in some unknown place.

 What are we to do to escape from falling into such dangers? Even in this difficult situation, the clue given by Bhagavan Sri Ramana alone serves as the proper medicine! How?

 Whenever one is overtaken by such qualified experiences, the weapon of Ramana,

 ‘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.

 Just as a spirit possessing a man jumps and dances more and more so long as others attend to and try to hold the man, but leaves him if there is nobody to attend to him. 

When the mind, giving up knowing those qualified external sense-objects, again turns towards its form of light  (consciousness), it will sink into its source, the Heart, and lose its form for ever. 

Therefore, the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ alone is the best sadhana even for aspirants on the path of raja yoga, which will guard and guide us to the end and save us. 

It is the invincible supreme weapon (brahmastram) which is bestowed only by the Grace of Sri Ramana Sadguru!

 It is the beacon-light which safeguards us lest we should stray away from the path to eternal happiness, which is the aim of the whole world! It is the path of Sri Ramana, which alone transforms us into Self, ‘I am that I am’! 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 body consciousness 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 is 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 rays of Self effulgence. 

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 ourselves 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 age long 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 age long 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.

 In this connection, some raise the following doubt: “If it is said that we have awakened from one dream and have come to another dream, the present waking state, why, after we awaken from this waking state, will even that not be another dream like this? How are we to determine, ‘Another awakening is no longer necessary; this is the real waking’?” Whatever state it may be which we feel to be waking, so long as there is an experience of the existence of any second or third persons, which are other than oneself, it is not at all the real waking state; it is only a dream! 

Verify, our real waking (our real state) is that in which our existence alone (not attached to any kind of body) shines unaided and without cognizing anything other than ‘we’. 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. 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.

 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 existence consciousness 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 Self consciousness 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. 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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Path of Ramana 2- coursing of pure I through the nadis.

 

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Whenever the aspirant during the time of sadhana becomes extroverted from this voluntarily brought-about sleep-like state, he feels absolutely certain, ‘I was not sleeping, but was all the while fully conscious of myself’. 

But, though his real aspect (existence-consciousness) is ever knowing without he least doubt its own existence in sleep as ‘I am’, whenever he becomes extroverted from everyday sleep, since he (the mind) did not even once have the experience of continuing to know ‘I am’ from the waking state, he can only say, ‘I slept, I did not know myself at that time’, 

The truth is this: 

since the state of his Self-existence, devoid of the adjunct ‘so-and-so’, is traced out and caught hold of in the voluntarily brought-about sleep with the full consciousness (prajna) continuing from the waking state, the knowledge that the pure existence-consciousness (sat-chit} knows itself as ‘I am’ is clear in this sleep state. 

That is why the aspirant now says, ‘I did exist throughout, I did not sleep’ ! 

But prior to his sadhana, since he was throughout the waking state identifying as ‘I’ the mind, which is the form of the adjunct ‘so-and-so’, after waking up from the ordinary daily sleep, where the mind did not exist, this mind (the man) says, ‘I did not exist in sleep’! That is all !! 

Those who experience many times this removal of the ego through practice, since they have an acquaintance with the experience of their pure existence-consciousness as ‘I am’ even after the removal of the ego, can minutely cognize, even at the moment of just waking up from sleep, how the adjunct ‘so-and-so’ comes and mixes. 

Those who do not have such strength of practice cannot cognize, from sleep itself, the ego at its place of rising. 

The only thing that is easy for them is to find the ego’s place of setting (which is also its place of rising) through the effort started from the waking state.

 In either case, the end and the achievement will be the same. 

When the attention is focused deeper and deeper within towards the feeling ‘I am’ and when the ego thereby shrinks more and more into nothingness, our power of attention becomes subtler than the subtlest atom and thereby grows sharper and brighter. 

Hence, the strength of abidance (nishtha-bala) will now be achieved to remain balanced between two states, that is, in a state after the end of sleep and before waking up, in other words, before being possessed by the first thought. 

Through this strength, the skill will now be gained by the aspirant to find out the adjunct ‘so and so’, which comes and mixes, to be a mere second person (that is, although it has hitherto been appearing as if it were the first person, it will now be clearly seen to be his mere shadow, non-Self, the primal sheath, a thing alien to him). 

The above is horribly worded.

Reworded and in short:

The dnyani is able to experience his true state free of attributes. 

 The common man is not capable.

This is what Janaka, the royal Sage, meant when he said, “I have found out the thief (the time of his coming – the time and place. of the ego’s rising) who has been ruining me all along; I will inflict the right punishment upon him”. 

Since the ego, which was acting till now as if it were the first person, is found to be a second person alien to us, the right punishment is to destroy it at its very place of rising (just as the reflected ray is destroyed at its place of rising) by clinging steadfastly to the real first person (the real import of the word ‘I’), existence consciousness, through the method of regaining Self attention taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana (‘To whom? To me; who am I?’), 

“As you practise more and more abiding in this existence-consciousness (that is, remaining in the state between sleep and waking), the ordinary sleep which had previously been taking possession of you will melt away, and the waking which was full of sense-knowledge (vishayas) will not creep in again.

 Therefore repeatedly and untiringly abide in it,” -

‘Sadhanai Saram’

By greater and more steadfast practice of abiding in this existence-consciousness, we will experience that this state seems to come often and take possession of us of its own accord whenever we are free from our daily work. 

But, since this state of existence-consciousness is in fact nothing but ‘us', 

it is wrong to think that such a state comes and takes possession of us!

 While at work, we attend to other things; after that work is over and before we attend to some other second or third person, we naturally abide in our real state, which is existence-consciousness. 

Though this happens to one and all every day, it is only to those who have the experience of Self-consciousness through the aforesaid practice that the state of Self-abidance will be clearly discerned after leaving one second person thought and before catching another one (that is, between two thoughts).

 “Why has it been said (in the above two verses of ‘Sadhana Saram’) that one ought to make effort repeatedly to be in that state (our existence consciousness) and ought to abide in it with more and more love? 

Because, until all the tendencies (vasanas) which drive one out of it are completely exhausted, this state will seem to come and go. 

Hence the need for continued effort and love to abide in Self.”

“When, through this practice, our state of existence consciousness is experienced always as inescapably natural,

then there will be no harm even if waking, dream and sleep pass across,” 

“For those who are well established in the unending Self-consciousness, which pervades and transcends all these three so-called states (waking, dream and sleep), there is but one state, the Whole, the All, and that alone is real! 

This state, which is devoid even of the feeling ‘I am making effort’, is your natural state of being! Be!!”

 ‘Sadhanai Saram’ 

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 lightning 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’.

 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.  

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. 

“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 breath control, 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), 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  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).

 In the body of such a Self realized 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 indispensable 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, body consciousness rises, and when it is broken, body consciousness 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 that 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. 

Granthi bheda = manonasha.

‘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. “Alas! I am imprisoned! I have been caught within this triangular room! How to free myself?” – thus was a man complaining and sobbing, standing in a corner where the ends of two walls joined. Groping on the two walls in front of him with his two hands, he was lamenting, “No doorway is available, nor even any kind of outlet for me to escape through ! How can I get out?” Another man, a friend of his who was standing at a distance in the open, heard the lamenting, turned in that direction and noticed the state of his friend. There were only two walls in that open space. They were closing only two sides, one end of each of them meeting the other. The friend in the open quickly realized that the man, who was standing facing only the two walls in front of him, had concluded, due to the wrong notion that there was a third wall behind him, that he was imprisoned within a three walled room. 

So he asked, “Why are you lamenting, groping on the walls?” “I am searching for a way through which to escape from the prison of this triangular room, but I don’t find any way out !” replied the man. The friend: “Well, why don’t you search for a way out on the third wall behind you !”

The man (turning behind and looking): “Ah, here there is no obstacle ! Let me run away through this way.” (So saying, he started to run away.) The friend: “What ! Why do you run away? Is it necessary for you to do so? If you do not run away, will you remain in prison ?” The man: “Oho! yes, yes ! I was not at all imprisoned ! How could I have been imprisoned when there was no wall at all behind me” It was merely my own delusion that I was imprisoned, was never imprisoned, nor am I’ now released ! So I do not even need to run away from near these walls where I am now ! 

The defect of my not looking behind was the reason for my so called bondage; and the turning of my attention behind is really the sadhana for my so-called liberation!

 In reality, I am ever remaining as I am, without any imprisonment or release !” Thus knowing the truth, he remained quiet. 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 ever shining 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

 Just as we have explained the three walls as representing the three places, the first, second and third persons, we can also explain them as representing the three times, the present, past and future. 

Even through the attention to the present – avoiding all thoughts of past and future – in order to know what is the truth of the present, all thoughts will subside and the ‘present’ itself will vanish. How? That which happened one moment before now is considered by us to be past, and that which will happen one moment from now is considered to be future. 

Therefore without paying attention to any time even one moment before or after this, if we try to know what that one moment is that exists now, then even one millionth of the so-called present moment will be found to be either past or future. 

If even such subtlest past and future moments are also not attended to and if we try to know what is in between these two, the past and future, we will find that nothing can be found as an exact present. 

Thus the conception of present time will disappear, being non-existent, and the Self existence which transcends time and place alone will then survive.

 “The past and future can exist only with reference to the present, which is daily experienced; they too, while occurring, were and will be the present. 

Therefore, (among the three times) the present alone exists. Trying to know the past and future without knowing the truth of the present (i.e. its non-existence) is like trying to count without (knowing the value of the unit) one !”- ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 16 

“When scrutinized, we – the ever-known existing Thing – alone are; then where is time and where is piece? If we are (mistaken to be) the body, we shall be involved in time and place; but, are we the body? 

Since we are the One, now, then and ever, that One in space, here, there and everywhere, we – the timeless and spaceless Self -alone are !” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 18.

 Hence, attending to the first place (the first person) among the three places or attending to the present time among the three times is the only path to liberation. Even this, the path of Sri Ramana is not really for the removal of bondage or for the attainment of liberation! 

The path of Sri Ramana is paved solely for the purpose of our ever abiding in our eternal state of pure bliss, by giving up even the thought of liberation through the dawn of the right knowledge that we have never been in bondage. 

“Only the first place or the present time is advised to be attended to. 

If you keenly do so, you will enjoy the bliss of Self, having completed all yogas and having achieved the supreme accomplishment. 

Know and feast on it!” 

-‘Sadhanai Saram’ 

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 Self attention (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. 

In raja-yoga, the ‘I’-consciousness pervading all the nadis is forcibly pushed back to the starting point of its spreading by the power generated through the pressure of breath-retention (prana-kumbhaka). But this is a violent method. 

The following is what Sri Bhagavan used to say: “Forcibly pushing back the ‘I’ – consciousness by breath retention, as is done in raja yoga, is a violent method, like chasing a run-away cow, beating it, catching hold of it, dragging it forcibly to the shed and finally tying it there; on the other hand, bringing back the ‘I’-consciousness to its source by enquiry is a gentle and peaceful method, like tempting the cow by showing it a handful of green grass, cajoling and fondling it, making it follow us of its own accord to the shed and finally tying it there”. 

This is a safe and pleasant path.

 To bear the churning of the nadis effected through the method of breath-retention in raja yoga, the body must be young and strong. If such a churning is made to happen in a body which is weak or old, since the body does not have the strength to bear it, many troubles may occur such as nervous disorders, physical diseases, insanity and so on.

 But there is no room for any such dangers if the churning is made to take place through enquiry. 

“To say, ‘By holding the attention on Self, the consciousness and by practising abiding in it, he became insane’, is just like saying, ‘By drinking the nectar of immortality, he died’.”-

 ‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’, verse 746.

 In the path of enquiry, withdrawal from the nadis takes place without any strain and as peacefully as the incoming of sleep. The rule found in. some sastras that the goal should be reached before the age of thirty is therefore applicable only in the path of raja yoga, and not in enquiry?, the path of Sri Ramana ! 

The channel through which the ‘I’-consciousness, which has risen from the Heart and has spread all over the body, is experienced while it is being withdrawn is called the sushumna nadi. 

Not taking into consideration the legs and arms, since they are only subsidiary limbs, the channel through which the ‘I’ -consciousness is experienced in the trunk of the body from the base of the spine (muladhara) to the top of the head (sahasrara) is alone the sushumna.

 While the ‘I’ – consciousness is withdrawing through the sushumna, an aspirant may have experiences of the places of the six yogic centres (shadchakras) on the way, or even without having them may reach the Heart directly. 

While travelling in a train to Delhi, It is not necessary that a man should see the stations and scenes on the way. Can he not reach Delhi unmindful of them, sleeping happily? 

However, due to the past devotional tendencies towards the different names and forms of God, which are bound by time and place, some aspirants may have experiences of the six yogic centres and of divine visions, sounds and so on therein. 

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! 

The following replies of Sri Ramakrishna are worth being noted in this context: 

When Swami Vivekananda reported to Him, “All say that they have had visions, but I have not seen any !” the Guru said, “That is good !” 

On another occasion, when Swami Vivekananda reported that some occult powers (siddhis) such as clairvoyance seemed to have been gained by him in the course of his sadhana, his Guru  warned him 

“Stop your sadhana for some time, Let them leave you!” 

It is therefore clear from this that such experiences can be had only by those who delay by often stopping on the way on account of their Self-attention being obstructed by lack of vigilance (pramada).

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Path of Ramana -Jan 2021 notes-1

https://www.happinessofbeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The_Path_of_Sri_Ramana_Part_One-4.pdf 

From : Path Of Ramana-1 

147

Therefore, the mind which attends to Self is no more the mind; it is the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam)!

 Likewise, so long as it attends to the second and third persons (the world), it is not the consciousness aspect of Self;

.......

The mind which has obtained a burning desire for Self-attention, which is Self-enquiry, is said to be the fully mature one (pakva manas). 

Since it is not at all now inclined to attend to any second or third parson, it can be said that it has reached the pinnacle of desirelessness (vairagya). 

.........

 For, do not all sorts of desires and attachments pertain only to second and third persons? Since this mind, which has very well understood that (as already seen in earlier chapters) the consciousness which shines as ‘I’ alone is the source of full and real happiness, now seeks Self because of its natural craving for happiness, this intense desire to attend to Self is indeed the highest form of devotion (bhakti). 

It is exactly this Self-attention of the mind which is thus fully mature through such devotion and desirelessness (bhakti-vairagya) that is to be called the enquiry ‘Who am I ?’ taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana! 

Well, will not at least such a mature mind which has come to the path of Sri Ramana, willingly agreeing to engage in Self-attention, realize Self ? 

No, no, it has started for its doom ! Agreeing to commit suicide, it places its neck (through Self-attention) on the scaffold where it is to be sacrificed !! How ? 

Only so long as it was attending to second and third persons did it have the name ‘mind’, but as soon as Self-attention is begun, its name and form (its name as mind and its form as thoughts) are lost. 

So we can no longer say that Self-attention or Self-enquiry is performed by the mind, 

Neither is it the mind that attends to Self, nor is the natural spontaneous Self-attention of the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam), which is not the mind, an activity ! “A naked lie then it would be If any man were to say that he Realized the Self, diving within Through proper enquiry set in, Not for knowing but for death The good-for-nothing ego’s worth ! ’This Arunachala alone, The Self, by which the Self is known !” ‘Sri Arunachala Venba’ verse 39

The feeling ‘I am’ is the experience common to one and all. In this, ‘am’ is consciousness or knowledge. This knowledge is not of anything external; it is the knowledge of oneself, This is chit. This consciousness is ‘we’, “We are verily consciousness”, says Sri Bhagavan in ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ verse 23. This is our ‘being’ (that is, our true existence) or sat. This is called ‘that which is’ (ulladhu). Thus in ‘I am’, ‘I’ is existence (sat) and ‘am’ is consciousness (chit). When Self, our nature of existence-consciousness (satchit swarupam), instead of shining only as the pure consciousness ‘I am’, shines mixed with an adjunct (upadhi) as ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am so-and-so, I am this or that’, then this mixed consciousness is the ego. This mixed consciousness can rise only by catching hold of a name and form. When we feel ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am sitting, I am lying’, is it not clear that we have mistaken the body for ‘I’, and that we have assumed its name and postures as ‘I am this and I am thus’? – The feeling ‘this and thus’ which has now risen mixed with the pure consciousness ‘I am’ (satchit) is what is called ‘thought’, This is the first thought.

The feeling ‘I am a man, I am so-and-so’ is only a thought. But the consciousness ‘I am’ is not a thought; it is the very nature of our ‘being’. The mixed consciousness ‘I am this or that’ is a thought that rises from our ‘being’. It is only after the rising of this thought, the mixed consciousness (the first person), that all other thoughts,

which are the knowledge of second and third persons, rise into existence.

“ Thinking is a mentation (vritti) ; being is not a mentation ! ...” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 1

The pure existence-consciousness, ‘I am’, is not a thought; this consciousness is our nature (swarupam). ‘I am a man’ is not our pure consciousness; it is only our thought! 

150

To understand thus the difference between our ‘being’ and our ‘rising’ (that is, between existence and thought) first of all is essential for aspirants who take to the enquiry ‘Who am I?’,

......

Therefore, the result which is aimed at when seeking the rising-place of the ego is the annihilation of that ego and not an experience of a place in the body. It is only in reply to the immature people who – not able to have even an intellectual understanding (paroksha jnana) about the nature of Self, which shines alone as the one, non-dual thing, unlimited by (indeed, absolutely unconnected with) time and space, unlimited even in the form ‘Brahman is everywhere, Brahman is at all times, Brahman is everything’ (sarvatra brahma, sarvada brahma, sarvam brahma) – always raise the question, “Where is the seat for Self in the body?”, that the sastras and sometimes even Sri Bhagavan had to say: “... two digits to the right (from the centre of the chest)

......

155

Sri Bhagavan in the last two lines of the first benedictory verse of ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’ to be ‘abiding in the Heart as it is’ (that is to say, abiding as Self is the correct way of meditating upon it), so also, the correct meaning of the term ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara) is here rightly explained to be ‘turning Selfwards’ (or attending to Self),

Thus it is sufficient if we cling to the feeling ‘I’ uninterruptedly till the very end. Such attention to the feeling ‘I’, the common daily experience of everyone, is what is meant by Self-attention,

For those who accept as their basic knowledge the ‘I am the body’ – consciousness (jiva bhava, being unable to doubt its (the ego’s) existence, it is suitable to take to Self-attention (that is, to do Self-enquiry) in the form ‘Whence am I ?’, 

On the other hand, for those who instead of assuming that they have an individuality (jiva bhava) such as ‘I am so-and-so’ or ‘I am this’, attend thus,

 ‘What is this feeling which shines as I am?’, 

it is suitable to be fixed in Self-attention in the form ‘Who am I ?’ 

What is important to be sure of during practice (sadhana) is that our attention is turned only towards ‘I’, the first person singular feeling. 

.......

“Although in the beginning, on account of the tendencies towards sense-objects (vishaya-vasanas) which have been recurring down the ages, thoughts rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as the aforesaid Self-attention becomes more and more intense. Since even the doubt “Is it possible to destroy all of them and to remain as Self alone ?’ is only a thought, without giving room even to that thought, one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention. However great a sinner one may be, if, not lamenting ‘Oh, I am a sinner! How can I attain salvation?’ but completely giving up even the thought that one is a sinner, one is steadfast in Self attention, one will surely be saved. Therefore everyone, diving deep within himself with desirelessness (vairagya), can attain the pearl of Self.

“As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, (since they will always create some subtle or gross world-appearance) so long the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is necessary. As and when thoughts rise of their own accord, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. What is the means to annihilate them? If other thoughts rise disturbing Self-attention, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire ‘To whom did they rise?, It will “then be known ‘To me’; immediately, if we observe ‘Who is this I that thinks?’, the mind (our power of attention which was hitherto engaged in thinking of second and third persons) will turn back to its source (Self). Hence (since no one is there to attend to them), the other thoughts which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to, abide in its source increases. When the mind thus abides in the Heart, the first thought, ‘I’ (‘I am the body’, the rising ‘I’), which is the root of all other thoughts, itself having vanished, the ever-existing Self (the being ‘I’) alone will shine. The place (or state) where even the slightest trace of the thought ‘I’ (‘I am this, that, the body, Brahman and so on’) does not exist, alone is Self. That alone is called Silence (maunam).

...

“After coming to know that the final decision of all the scriptures (sastras) is that such destruction of the mind alone is liberation (mukti), to read scriptures unlimitedly is fruitless. In order to destroy the mind, it is necessary to enquire who one is; then how, instead of enquiring thus within oneself, to enquire and know who one, is in scriptures ? For Rama to know himself to be Rama, is a mirror necessary ? (That is to say, for one to know oneself through Self-attention to be ‘I am’, are scriptures necessary ?) ‘Oneself’ is within the five sheaths, whereas the scriptures are outside them. Therefore, how can oneself, who is to be attended to within, setting aside even the five sheaths, be found in scriptures? Since scripture-enquiry is futile, one should give it up and take to Self-enquiry” – thus says Bhagavan Sri Ramana

..

Just as the man in the dark room, deciding to see the source of the reflected beam which has come into the room, gives up the desire either to enjoy or to make research about the things there with the help of that reflected beam, so a man who wants to know the real Light (Self) must give up all efforts towards enjoying or knowing about the various worlds which shine only by means of the mind-light functioning through the five senses, since he cannot know Self either if he is deluded by cognizing and desiring external objects (like a worldly man) or if he is engaged in investigating them (like our modern scientists). This giving up of attention towards external sense-objects is desirelessness (vairagya) or inward renunciation. The eagerness to see whence the reflected ray comes into the room corresponds to the eagerness to see whence the ego. ‘I’, the mind-light, rises. This eagerness is love for Self (swatma-bhakti). Keeping the eyes positioned along the straight line of the beam without straying away to one side or the other corresponds to the one-pointed attention fixed unswervingly on the ‘I’ – consciousness. Is not the man now moving along the straight line of the reflected beam from the dark room towards the piece of mirror lying outside? This moving corresponds to diving within towards the Heart. 

.........

166

When the mind, with a tremendous longing to find the source which gives it light, turns inwards, the breath stops automatically ! If the breath of the enquirer is exhaled at the time of his mind thus giving up knowing external sense objects (vishayas) and starting to attend to its original form of light, Self, it automatically remains outside without being again drawn in. Likewise, if it is inhaled at that time, it automatically remains inside without being again exhaled ! These are to be taken as ‘external retention’ (bahya kumbhaka) and ‘internal retention’ (antara kumbhaka) respectively. Until there is a rising of a thought on account of non-vigilance (pramada) in Self-attention, this retention (kumbhaka) will continue in an enquirer quite effortlessly. By a little scrutiny, will it not be clear to anyone that even in our everyday life when some startling news is suddenly brought to us or when we try to recollect a forgotten thing

with full concentration, the breath stops automatically on account of the keenness of mind (the intensity of concentration) that takes place then? 

Similarly, the breath will stop automatically as soon as the mind, with an intense longing to see its original form of light and with earnest one pointedness, begins to turn keenly and remain within.

 In this state of retention (kumbhaka), no matter how long it continues, the enquirer does not experience suffocation, that is, the urge to exhale or inhale. But while practicing pranayama, if the units of time (matras) of the retention are increased, one does experience suffocation. 

If the enquirer’s attention is so intensely fixed on Self that he does not even care to know whether the breath has stopped or not, then his state of retention is involuntary and without struggle. 

There are some aspirants, however, who try to know at that time whether or not the ‘breath has stopped. 

This is wrong, for since the attention is thus focusing on the breath, Self attention will be lost and thereby various thoughts will shoot up and the flow of sadhana will be interrupted, That is why Sri Bhagavan advised, 

‘Control breath and speech with a keen (introverted) mind’. It would be wise to understand this verse thus, by adding ‘with a keen mind’ (kurnda matiyal) in all the three places, ‘Control the breath with a keen mind dive within with a keen mind, and know the rising-place with a keen mind’,

...

By his very moving along it, does not the man who positions his eyes on the reflected beam reduce its length? Just as the length of the beam decreases as he advances, so also the mind’s tendency of expanding shrinks more and more as the aspirant perseveres in sincerely seeking its source.

“… When the attention goes deeper and deeper within along the (reflected) ray ‘I’, its length decrease more and more, and when the ray ‘I’ dies, that which shines as ‘I’ is Jnana, “

 ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 9

When the man finally reaches very near to the piece of mirror, he can be said to have reached the very source of the reflected ray. This is similar to the aspirant diving within and reaching the source (Heart) whence he had risen. Does not the man now attain a state where the length of the reflected ray is reduced to nothing – a state where no reflection is possible because he is so close to the mirror? Similarly, when the aspirant, on account of his diving deeper and deeper within by an intense effort of Self attention, is so close to his source that not even an iota of rising of the ego is possible, he remains absorbed in the great dissolution of the ‘I am the body’ – feeling (dehatmabuddhi), which he had hitherto had as a target of attention, This dissolution is what Sri Bhagavan refers to when He says, ‘I’ will die”, in ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ verse 19

Because of his mere search for the source of the reflected ray of the sun, does not the man now, after leaving the dark room, stand in the open space in a state of void created by the non-existence of that reflected ray? This is the state of the aspirant remaining in the Heart-space (hridayakasa) in the state of great void (maha sunya) created, through mere Self-attention, by the non-existence of the ego-’I’. The man who has come out of the room into the open space is dazed and laments, “Alas ! The sun that guided me so far (the reflected sun) is now lost”, At this moment, a friend of his standing in the open space comes to him with these words of solace, “Where were you all this time? Were you not in the dark room! Where are you now? Are you not in the open space! 

When you were in the darkroom, that which guided you out was just one thin ray of light; but here (in this vast open space) are not the rays of light countless and in an unlimited mass? What you saw previously was not even the direct sunlight, but only a reflected ray! But what you are now experiencing is the direct (saksha) sunlight. When the place where you are now is nothing but the unlimited space of light, can a darkness come into existence because of the void created by the disappearance of the reflected ray? Can its disappearance be a loss? Know that its disappearance itself is the true light; it is not darkness”. Similarly, by the experience of the great void (maha sunya) created by the annihilation of the ego, the aspirant is some-what taken aback, ‘Alas ! Even the ‘I’ consciousness (the ego) which I was attending to in my sadhana till now as a beacon-light is lost ! Then is there really no such thing at all as ‘Self’ (atman)?”. At that very moment, the Sadguru, who is ever shining as his Heart, points out to him thus, 

“Can the destruction of the ego, which is only an infinitesimal reflected consciousness, be really a loss?

 Are you not clearly aware not only of its former existence, but also of the present great void created by its disappearance? Therefore, know that you, who know even the void as ‘this is a void’, alone are the true knowledge; you are not a void !”, 

in an instant as a direct experience of the shining of his own existence-consciousness by touching (flashing as sphurana) in Heart as Heart! 

The aspirant who started the search ‘Whence am I?’ or ‘Who am I ?’ now attains the non dual Self-knowledge, the true knowledge ‘I am that I am’, which is devoid of the limitations of a particular place or time.

Clinging to the consciousness ‘I’ and thereby acquiring a greater and greater intensity of concentration upon it, is diving deep within. 

Instead of thus diving within, many, thinking that they are engaged in Self-enquiry, sit down for hours together simply repeating mentally or vocally, “Who am I ?” or “Whence am I?”. 

There are others again who, when they sit for enquiry, face their thoughts and endlessly repeat mentally the following questions taught by Sri Bhagavan. “To whom come these thoughts? To me; who am I?”, or sometimes they even wait for the next thought to come up so that they can fling these questions at it! 

Even this is futile Did we sit to hold thus a court of enquiry, calling one thought after another! 

Is this the sadhana of diving within! 

Therefore, we should not remain watching ‘What is the next thought?’. Merely to keep on questioning in this manner is not Self-attention. Concerning those who thus merely float on the surface of the thought-waves; keeping their mind on these questions instead of diving within by attending to the existence consciousness with a keen mind, thereby controlling mind, breath and all the activities of the body and senses, Sri Bhagavan says:

“Compare him who asks himself ‘Who am I?’ and ‘From which place am I?’, though he himself exists all the while as Self, to a drunken man who prattles ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Where am I?’.” ‘Ekatma Panchakam’, verse 2

and further, He asks: “…How to attain that state wherein ‘I’ does not rise the state of egolessness (the great void or maha sunya) –

 unless (instead of floating like this) we seek the place whence ‘I’ rises? And unless we attain that (egolessness), say, how to abide in the state of Self, where ‘We are That’ (soham)?” ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, versa 27

Therefore, all that we are to practise is to be still (summa iruppadu) with the remembrance of the feeling ‘I’. 

It is only when there is a slackness of vigilance during Self attention that thoughts, which are an indication of it, will rise. 

In other words, if thoughts rise it means that our Self attention is lost. 

It is only as a contrivance to win back Self attention from thought – attention that Sri Bhagavan advised us to ask, ’To whom do these thoughts appear?’ 

Since the answer ‘To me’ is only a dative form of ‘I’, it will easily remind us of the nominative form, the feeling ‘I’. 

However, if we question, ‘Who thinks these thoughts?’, since the nominative form, the feeling ‘I’, is obtained as an answer, will not Self-attention, which has been lost unnoticed, be regained directly? 

(the above is horribly worded)

reworded: When asked, "who thinks these thoughts?', the answer would be 'I'. If we hold on to that I , that would be self attention..

This regaining of Self-attention is actually being Self (that is, remaining or abiding as Self)! Such ‘being’ alone is the correct sadhana. 

Sadhana is not doing, but being!!

Some complain, “When the very rising of the ego from sleep is so surreptitious as to elude our notice, how can we see whence it rises? It seems to be impossible!” 

That is true, because the mind’s effort of attention is absent in sleep, since the mind itself is not at all there!

 As ordinary people are not acquainted with the knowledge of their ‘being’ but only with the knowledge of their ‘doing’ (that is, the knowledge of their making efforts), 

for such people it is impossible to know from sleep the rising of the ego from there. 

Since the effort considered by them as necessary is absent in sleep, it is no wonder that they are unable to commence the enquiry from sleep itself! 

But, since the whole of the waking state is a mere sportive play of the ego and since the effort of the mind here is under the experience of everyone, at least in the waking state one can turn and attend to the pseudo ‘I’ shining in the form ‘I am so-and-so’.

“ ‘Turning inwards, daily see thyself with an Introverted look and it (the Reality) will be known’ – thus didst Thou tell me, O my Arunachala!” 

‘Sri Arunachala Aksharamanamalai’, verse 44

The enquiry begins only during the leisure hours of the waking state when one sits for practice. Just as a thing comes to our memory when its name, is thought of, does not the first person feeling come to everyone’s memory as soon as the name (pronoun) ‘I’ is thought of? Although this first person feeling is only the ego, the pseudo ‘I’- consciousness, it does not matter. Having our attention withdrawn from second and third persons and clinging to the first person – that alone is sadhana. 

As soon as the attention turns towards the first person feeling, not only do other thoughts disappear, but also the first thought, the rising and expanding pseudo ‘I’-consciousness, itself begins contracting !

 “When the mind, the ego, which wanders outside knowing only other objects (second and third persons), begins to attend to its own nature, all other objects will’ disappear and, by experiencing its true nature (Self), the pseudo ‘I’ will also die.” -

‘Guru Vachaka Kovai’, verse 193

“...If the fickle mind turns towards the first person, the first person (the ego) will become non-existent and That which really exists will then shine forth…” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 6 “...

Attending to the first person is equal to committing suicide...” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 7

This is the great revelation made by Bhagavan Sri Ramana and bestowed by Him as a priceless boon upon the world of spiritual aspirants in order to bring Vedanta easily under practical experience. 

Just as a rubber ball gains greater and greater momentum while bouncing down the staircase, the more the concentration in clinging to the first person consciousness is intensified the faster is the contraction of the first thought (the ego), till finally it merges in its source. That which now merges thus is only the adjunct (upadhi), the feeling ‘so-and-so’ which, at the moment of waking, came and mixed with the pure existence-consciousness, which was shining in sleep as ‘I am’, to constitute the form of the ego, ‘I am so-and-so’, ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’. That is, what has come and mixed now slips away. All that an aspirant can experience in the beginning of his practice is only the slipping away (subsidence) of the ego. Since the

aspirant tracks down the ego from the waking state, where it is in full play, in the beginning it is possible for him to cognize only its removal. But to cognize its rising (how it rises and holds on to ‘I am’) from sleep will be more difficult for him at this stage. When Self-attention is started from the waking consciousness ‘I am so-and-so’, since it is only the adjunct, the feeling ‘so-and-so’, that slips away (because it is merely non-existent, an unreal thing [the unreal dies and the Reality alone survives, ‘satyameva jayate’), the aspirant even now (when ‘so-and-so’ has dropped off) feels no loss to the consciousness ‘I am’ which he had experienced in the waking state. Now he attains a state which is similar to the sleep he has experienced every day and which is devoid of all and everything (because, ‘The ego is verily all – sarvam’73, since the whole universe, which is nothing but thoughts, is an expansion of the ego). But a great difference is now experienced by him between the sleep that, without his knowledge, has been coming and overwhelming him all these days due to the complete exhaustion of mind and body, and this sleep which is now voluntarily brought on and experienced by him with the full consciousness of the waking state. How? “Because there is consciousness, this is not sleep, and because there is the absence of thoughts, it is not the waking state it is therefore the existence consciousness (sat-chit), the unbroken nature of Siva (akhanda siva-swarupam). Without leaving it, abide in it with great love.” ‘Sadhanai Saram’

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175..........................con t............................................

Talks with Ramana 17

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

628

........

 Freedom from passions is the essential requisite. When that is accomplished all else is accomplished.”

.......

M.: Sadhanas are needed so long as one has not realised it. They are for putting an end to obstacles. Finally there comes a stage when a person feels helpless notwithstanding the sadhanas. 

He is unable to pursue the much-cherished sadhana also. 

It is then that God’s Power is realised. 

The Self reveals itself.

...........

D.: But Chudala says to Sikhidhvaja that she simply helped to trim the wick. 

M.: That refers to nididhyasana. 

By sravana, Knowledge dawns. That is the flame. 

By manana, the Knowledge is not allowed to vanish. Just as the flame is protected by a wind-screen, so the other thoughts are not allowed to overwhelm the right knowledge. 

By nididhyasana, the flame is kept up to burn bright by trimming the wick. Whenever other thoughts arise, the mind is turned inward to the light of true knowledge. 

When this becomes natural, it is samadhi.

 The enquiry “Who am I?” is the sravana.

 The ascertainment of the true import of ‘I’ is the manana. 

The practical application on each occasion is nididhyasana. 

Being as ‘I’ is samadhi.

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

M.: The mind is commonly said to be strong if it can think furiously. But here the mind is strong if it is free from thoughts. 

The yogis say that realisation can be had only before the age of thirty, but not the jnanis. 

For jnana does not cease to exist with age. It is true that in the Yoga Vasishta, Vasishta says to Rama in the Vairagya Prakarana “You have this dispassion in your youth. It is admirable.” But he did not say that jnana cannot be had in old age. There is nothing to prevent it in old age.

 The sadhak must remain as the Self.

If he cannot do so, he must ascertain the true meaning of the ‘I’ 

and constantly revert to it whenever other thoughts arise. 

That is the practice. 

Some say that one must know the ‘tat’ because the idea of the world constantly arises to deflect the mind.

 If the Reality behind it is first ascertained it will be found to be Brahman.

 The ‘tvam’ is understood later. It is the jiva. Finally there will be jiva-brahmaikya (union of the two). But why all this? Can the world exist apart from the Self? The ‘I’ is always Brahman. Its identity need not be established by logic and practice.

 It is enough that one realises the Self. It is always the Brahman. 

According to the other school, nididhyasana will be the thought Aham Brahmasmi (I am Brahman). 

That is diversion of thought to Brahman.

 No diversion should be allowed.

 Know the Self and there is an end of it.

 No long process is necessary to know the Self.

 Is it to be pointed out by another? 

Does not everyone know that he exists? 

Even in utter darkness when he cannot see his hand, he answers a call and says “I am here”.

..........

639

M.: The Gita says: Brahmano hi pratishtaham. If that ‘aham’ is known, the whole is known.

......

641

Any kind of meditation is good. 

But if the sense of separateness is lost and the object of meditation or the subject who meditates is alone left behind without anything else to know, it is jnana. 

Jnana is said to be ekabhakti (single-minded devotion). The Jnani is the finality because he has become the Self and there is nothing more to do. He is also perfect and so fearless.

 dwitiyat vai bhayam bhavati - only the existence of a second gives rise to fear. 

This is mukti. It is also bhakti.

..........

मोक्षकारणसामग्र्यां भक्तिरेव गरीयसी ।
स्वस्वरूपानुसन्धानं भक्तिरित्यभिधीयते ॥ ३१ ॥

mokṣakāraṇasāmagryāṃ bhaktireva garīyasī |
svasvarūpānusandhānaṃ bhaktirityabhidhīyate || 31 ||

.........

“The Vedanta says that the cosmos springs into view simultaneously with the seer. There is no detailed process of creation. This is said to be yugapat srshti (instantaneous creation). 

It is quite similar to the creations in dream where the experiencer springs up simultaneously with the objects of experience. When this is told, some people are not satisfied for they are so rooted in objective knowledge. They seek to find out how there can be sudden creation. They argue that an effect must be preceded by a cause. In short, they desire an explanation for the existence of the world which they see around them. Then the Srutis try to satisfy their curiosity by such theories of creation. This method of dealing with the subject of creation is called krama srshti (gradual creation). But the true seeker can be content with yugapat srshti - instantaneous creation.”

.......... The end of talks with Ramana....................................................

From : Path Of Ramana-1 

147

Therefore, the mind which attends to Self is no more the mind; it is the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam)! Likewise, so long as it attends to the second and third persons (the world), it is not the consciousness aspect of Self;

.......

The mind which has obtained a burning desire for Self-attention, which is Self-enquiry, is said to be the fully mature one (pakva manas). 

Since it is not at all now inclined to attend to any second or third parson, it can be said that it has reached the pinnacle of desirelessness (vairagya). 

.........

 For, do not all sorts of desires and attachments pertain only to second and third persons? Since this mind, which has very well understood that (as already seen in earlier chapters) the consciousness which shines as ‘I’ alone is the source of full and real happiness, now seeks Self because of its natural craving for happiness, 

this intense desire to attend to Self is indeed the highest form of devotion (bhakti). 

It is exactly this Self-attention of the mind which is thus fully mature through such devotion and desirelessness (bhakti-vairagya) that is to be called the enquiry ‘Who am I ?’ taught by Bhagavan Sri Ramana! 

Well, will not at least such a mature mind which has come to the path of Sri Ramana, willingly agreeing to engage in Self-attention, realize Self ? No, no, it has started for its doom ! Agreeing to commit suicide, it places its neck (through Self-attention) on the scaffold where it is to be sacrificed !! How ? Only so long as it was attending to second and third persons did it have the name ‘mind’, but as soon as Self-attention is begun, its name and form (its name as mind and its form as thoughts) are lost. 

So we can no longer say that Self-attention or Self-enquiry is performed by the mind, Neither is it the mind that attends to Self, nor is the natural spontaneous Self-attention of the consciousness aspect of Self (atma-chit-rupam), which is not the mind, an activity ! “A naked lie then it would be If any man were to say that he Realized the Self, diving within Through proper enquiry set in, Not for knowing but for death The good-for-nothing ego’s worth ! ’This Arunachala alone, The Self, by which the Self is known !” ‘Sri Arunachala Venba’ verse 39

The feeling ‘I am’ is the experience common to one and all. In this, ‘am’ is consciousness or knowledge. This knowledge is not of anything external; it is the knowledge of oneself, This is chit. This consciousness is ‘we’, “We are verily consciousness”, says Sri Bhagavan in ‘Upadesa Undhiyar’ verse 23. This is our ‘being’ (that is, our true existence) or sat. This is called ‘that which is’ (ulladhu). Thus in ‘I am’, ‘I’ is existence (sat) and ‘am’ is consciousness (chit). When Self, our nature of existence-consciousness (satchit swarupam), instead of shining only as the pure consciousness ‘I am’, shines mixed with an adjunct (upadhi) as ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am so-and-so, I am this or that’, then this mixed consciousness is the ego. This mixed consciousness can rise only by catching hold of a name and form. When we feel ‘I am a man, I am Rama, I am sitting, I am lying’, is it not clear that we have mistaken the body for ‘I’, and that we have assumed its name and postures as ‘I am this and I am thus’? – The feeling ‘this and thus’ which has now risen mixed with the pure consciousness ‘I am’ (satchit) is what is called ‘thought’, This is the first thought.

The feeling ‘I am a man, I am so-and-so’ is only a thought. But the consciousness ‘I am’ is not a thought; it is the very nature of our ‘being’. The mixed consciousness ‘I am this or that’ is a thought that rises from our ‘being’. It is only after the rising of this thought, the mixed consciousness (the first person), that all other thoughts,

which are the knowledge of second and third persons, rise into existence.

“ Thinking is a mentation (vritti) ; being is not a mentation ! ...” ‘Atma Vichara Patikam’, verse 1

The pure existence-consciousness, ‘I am’, is not a thought; this consciousness is our nature (swarupam). ‘I am a man’ is not our pure consciousness; it is only our thought! 

150

To understand thus the difference between our ‘being’ and our ‘rising’ (that is, between existence and thought) first of all is essential for aspirants who take to the enquiry ‘Who am I?’,

......

Therefore, the result which is aimed at when seeking the rising-place of the ego is the annihilation of that ego and not an experience of a place in the body. It is only in reply to the immature people who – not able to have even an intellectual understanding (paroksha jnana) about the nature of Self, which shines alone as the one, non-dual thing, unlimited by (indeed, absolutely unconnected with) time and space, unlimited even in the form ‘Brahman is everywhere, Brahman is at all times, Brahman is everything’ (sarvatra brahma, sarvada brahma, sarvam brahma) – always raise the question, “Where is the seat for Self in the body?”, that the sastras and sometimes even Sri Bhagavan had to say: “... two digits to the right (from the centre of the chest)

......

155

Sri Bhagavan in the last two lines of the first benedictory verse of ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’ to be ‘abiding in the Heart as it is’ (that is to say, abiding as Self is the correct way of meditating upon it), so also, the correct meaning of the term ‘Self-enquiry’ (atma-vichara) is here rightly explained to be ‘turning Selfwards’ (or attending to Self),

Thus it is sufficient if we cling to the feeling ‘I’ uninterruptedly till the very end. Such attention to the feeling ‘I’, the common daily experience of everyone, is what is meant by Self-attention,

For those who accept as their basic knowledge the ‘I am the body’ – consciousness (jiva bhaval, being unable to doubt its (the ego’s) existence, it is suitable to take to Self-attention (that is, to do Self-enquiry) in the form ‘Whence am I ?’, 

On the other hand, for those who instead of assuming that they have an individuality (jiva bhava) such as ‘I am so-and-so’ or ‘I am this’, attend thus,

 ‘What is this feeling which shines as I am?’, 

it is suitable to be fixed in Self-attention in the form ‘Who am I ?’ 

What is important to be sure of during practice (sadhana) is that our attention is turned only towards ‘I’, the first person singular feeling. 

.......

“Although in the beginning, on account of the tendencies towards sense-objects (vishaya-vasanas) which have been recurring down the ages, thoughts rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as the aforesaid Self-attention becomes more and more intense. Since even the doubt “Is it possible to destroy all of them and to remain as Self alone ?’ is only a thought, without giving room even to that thought, one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention. However great a sinner one may be, if, not lamenting ‘Oh, I am a sinner! How can I attain salvation?’ but completely giving up even the thought that one is a sinner, one is steadfast in Self attention, one will surely be saved. Therefore everyone, diving deep within himself with desirelessness (vairagya), can attain the pearl of Self.

“As long as there are tendencies towards sense-objects in the mind, (since they will always create some subtle or gross world-appearance) so long the enquiry ‘Who am I?’ is necessary. 

As and when thoughts rise of their own accord, one should annihilate all of them through enquiry then and there in their very place of origin. What is the means to annihilate them? If other thoughts rise disturbing Self-attention, one should, without attempting to complete them, enquire ‘To whom did they rise?, It will “then be known ‘To me’; immediately, if we observe ‘Who is this I that thinks?’, the mind (our power of attention which was hitherto engaged in thinking of second and third persons) will turn back to its source (Self). Hence (since no one is there to attend to them), the other thoughts which had risen will also subside. By repeatedly practising thus, the power of the mind to, abide in its source increases. When the mind thus abides in the Heart, the first thought, ‘I’ (‘I am the body’, the rising ‘I’), which is the root of all other thoughts, itself having vanished, the ever-existing Self (the being ‘I’) alone will shine. The place (or state) where even the slightest trace of the thought ‘I’ (‘I am this, that, the body, Brahman and so on’) does not exist, alone is Self. That alone is called Silence (maunam).

...

“After coming to know that the final decision of all the scriptures (sastras) is that such destruction of the mind alone is liberation (mukti), to read scriptures unlimitedly is fruitless. In order to destroy the mind, it is necessary to enquire who one is; then how, instead of enquiring thus within oneself, to enquire and know who one, is in scriptures ? For Rama to know himself to be Rama, is a mirror necessary ? (That is to say, for one to know oneself through Self-attention to be ‘I am’, are scriptures necessary ?) ‘Oneself’ is within the five sheaths, whereas the scriptures are outside them. Therefore, how can oneself, who is to be attended to within, setting aside even the five sheaths, be found in scriptures? Since scripture-enquiry is futile, one should give it up and take to Self-enquiry” – thus says Bhagavan Sri Ramana

..

Just as the man in the dark room, deciding to see the source of the reflected beam which has come into the room, gives up the desire either to enjoy or to make research about the things there with the help of that reflected beam, so a man who wants to know the real Light (Self) must give up all efforts towards enjoying or knowing about the various worlds which shine only by means of the mind-light functioning through the five senses, since he cannot know Self either if he is deluded by cognizing and desiring external objects (like a worldly man) or if he is engaged in investigating them (like our modern scientists). This giving up of attention towards external sense-objects is desirelessness (vairagya) or inward renunciation. The eagerness to see whence the reflected ray comes into the room corresponds to the eagerness to see whence the ego. ‘I’, the mind-light, rises. This eagerness is love for Self (swatma-bhakti). Keeping the eyes positioned along the straight line of the beam without straying away to one side or the other corresponds to the one-pointed attention fixed unswervingly on the ‘I’ – consciousness. Is not the man now moving along the straight line of the reflected beam from the dark room towards the piece of mirror lying outside? 

This moving corresponds to diving within towards the Heart. 

................end...............................

Talks 16-Subtle Self ref Vivekchudamani

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

582

Talk 600. 

A young man asked in broken Tamil: How long will it be before Self-Realisation? 

M.: First know what Self means and also what Realisation means: then you will know all. 

D.: The mind must realise in the Heart. 

M.: Be it so. What is mind?

 D.: Mind, Heart are all avatars of Perumal (Vaishnavite term for incarnate God).

 M.: If so no need to worry ourselves. 

D.: On this basis how can we realise? 

M.: Surrender the mind to Perumal (God). His avatar cannot remain independent of Him. Render unto Him what is His and be happy. 

D.: How to do so?

 M.: How is the mind known to us? Owing to its activities, namely, thoughts. Whenever thoughts arise remember they are all modes of Perumal and they cannot be otherwise, this is enough; this is the surrender of the mind.

Can anything exist independent of Perumal? All is Perumal alone. He acts through all. Why worry ourselves?

....... 

Talk 602. 

Dr. Emile Gatheir, S. J., Professor of Philosophy at the Sacred Heart College, Shembaganur, Kodaikanal, asked: “Can you kindly give me a summary of your teachings?” 

M.: They are found in small booklets, particularly Who am l? 

D.: I shall read them. But may I have the central point of your teachings from your lips? 

M.: The central point is the thing. 

D.: It is not clear. 

M.: Find the Centre. 

D.: I am from God. Is not God distinct from me? 

M.: Who asks this question? God does not ask it. You ask it. So find who you are and then you may find if God is distinct from you. 

D.: But God is Perfect and I am imperfect. How can I ever know Him fully? 

M.: God does not say so. The question is for you. After finding who you are you may see what God is. 

D.: But you have found your Self. Please let us know if God is distinct from you.

 M.: It is a matter of experience. Each one must experience it himself. 

D.: Oh! I see. But God is Infinite and I am finite. I have a personality which can never merge into God. Is it not so? 

M.: Infinity and Perfection do not admit of parts. If a finite being comes out of infinity the perfection of infinity is marred. Thus your statement is a contradiction in terms. 

D.: No. I see both God and creation. 

M.: How are you aware of your personality?

D.: I have a soul. I know it by its activities. 

M.: Did you know it in deep sleep? 

D.: The activities are suspended in deep sleep. 

M.: But you exist in sleep. So do you now too. Which of these two is your real state?

........

Talk 607. S

Bhagavan said to Lady Bateman: 

There is a fixed state; sleep, dream and waking states are mere movements in it. They are like pictures moving on the screen in a cinema show. Everyone sees the screen as well as the pictures but ignores the screen and takes in the pictures alone. The Jnani however considers only the screen and not the pictures. The pictures certainly move on the screen yet do not affect it. The screen itself does not move but remains stationary.

...

594

D.: I see, but I can understand it only after I realise the Self. 

M.: The Self is always realised. 

Were Realisation something to be gained hereafter there is an equal chance of its being lost.

 It will thus be only transitory. Transitory bliss brings pain in its train. It cannot be liberation which is eternal. Were it true that you realise it later it means that you are not realised now. Absence of Realisation of the present moment may be repeated at any moment in the future, for Time is infinite. So too, such realisation is impermanent. But that is not true. It is wrong to consider Realisation to be impermanent. 

It is the True Eternal State which cannot change.

.......

Talk 610. 

A devotee came with these questions. 

1. Since individual souls and the Brahman are one, what is the cause of this creation? 

2. Is the Brahma-Jnani liable to bodily pains and rebirth? Can he extend his span of life or curtail it?

M.: The object of creation is to remove the confusion of your individuality. The question shows that you have identified yourself with the body and therefore see yourself and the world around. You think that you are the body. Your mind and intellect are the factors of your wrong identity. Do you exist in your sleep?

D.: I do. 

M.: The same being is now awake and asks these questions. Is it not so? 

D.: Yes. 

M.: These questions did not arise in your sleep. Did they? 

D.: No. 

M.: Why not? Because you did not see your body and no thoughts arose. You did not identify yourself with the body then. Therefore these questions did not arise. They arise now because of your identity with the body. Is it not so?

 D.: Yes. 

M.: Now see which is your real nature. Is it that which is free from thoughts or that which is full of thoughts? 

Being is continuous. The thoughts are discontinuous. So which is permanent? 

D.: Being. 

M.: That is it. Realise it. That is your true nature. Your nature is simple Being, free from thoughts.

 Because you identify yourself with the body you want to know about creation. The world and the objects including your body appear in the waking state but disappear in the state of sleep. You exist all through these states. What is it then that persists through all these states? Find it out. That is your Self. 

D.: Supposing it is found, what then? 

M.: Find it out and see. There is no use asking hypothetical questions.

 D.: Am I then one with Brahman? 

M.: Leave Brahman alone. Find who you are. Brahman can take care of Himself.

If you cease to identify yourself with the body no questions regarding creation, birth, death, etc., will arise. They did not arise in your sleep. 

Similarly they will not arise in the true state of the Self.

The object of creation is thus clear, that you should proceed from where you find yourself and realise your true Being. 

You could not raise the question in your sleep because there is no creation there. You raise the question now because your thoughts appear and there is creation. Creation is thus found to be only your thoughts.

 Take care of yourself and the Brahma-jnani will take care of Himself. 

If you know your true nature, you will understand the state of Brahma-jnana. 

It is futile to explain it now.

 Because you think that you see a Jnani before you and you identify him with a body just as you have identified yourself with yours, you also think that he feels pains and pleasures like yourself.

.......

Talk 612. 

Mrs. Hick Riddingh asked Sri Bhagavan in writing: 

When Bhagavan writes about the help given towards attaining Self Realisation by the gracious glance of the Master or looking upon the Master, how exactly is this to be understood?” 

M.: Who is the Master? 

Who is the seeker? 

D.: The Self.

 M.: If the Self be the Master and also the seeker, how can the questions arise at all? 

D.: That is just my difficulty. I must seek the Self within myself. What is then the significance of the writing above referred to? It seems contradictory. 

M.: It is not. 

The statement has not been rightly understood.

 If the seeker knows the Master to be the Self, he sees no duality in other respects either; and is therefore happy, so that no questions arise for him. 

But the seeker does not bring the truth of the statement to bear in practice. 

It is because of his ignorance. 

This ignorance is however unreal. 

The Master is required to wake up the seeker from the slumber of ignorance and he therefore uses these words in order to make Reality clear to others.

 The only thing that matters is that you see the Self. 

This can be done wherever you remain.

 The Self must be sought within. 

The search must be steadfast.

 If that is gained there is no need to stay near the Master as a physical being. 

The ‘statement’ is meant for those who cannot find the Self remaining where they are.

.........

Mrs. H. R.: I understand the Self to be the Master and must be sought within. So I can do it where I live.

 M.: The understanding has been theoretical. 

When it is put into practice difficulties and doubts arise.

 If you can feel the presence of the Master where you are, your doubts are readily overcome, for the Master’s part consists in removing the doubts of the seeker. 

The purpose of your visit is fulfilled if the doubts do not arise hereafter, and you apply yourself steadily in the search for the Self

......

Uncertainties, doubts and fears are natural to everyone until the Self is realised. They are inseparable from the ego, rather they are the ego.

.......

605

The object here is the Universal Being-Consciousness which is all-pervading and therefore immanent in all. It need not be cognised by reflection alone; it is self-resplendent. 

Therefore the seeker’s aim must be to drain away the vasanas from the heart and let no reflection obstruct the Light of Eternal Consciousness.

This is achieved by the search for the origin of the ego and by diving into the heart. This is the direct method for Self-Realisation. 

One who adopts it need not worry about nadis, the brain, the Sushumna, the Paranadi, the Kundalini, pranayama or the six centres. 

....

The individual confines himself to the limits of the changeful body or of the mind which derives its existence from the unchanging Self. 

All that is necessary is to give up this mistaken identity, and that done, the ever-shining Self will be seen to be the single non-dual Reality.

....

........This concentration is called samyamana in the Yoga Sastras. One’s desires can be fulfilled by this process and it is said to be a siddhi. It is how the so-called new discoveries are made. Even worlds can be created in this manner. Samyamana leads to all siddhis. 

But they do not manifest so long as the ego lasts. 

Concentration according to yoga ends in the destruction of the experiencer (ego), experience and the world, and then the quondam desires get fulfilled in due course. This concentration bestows on individuals even the powers of creating new worlds. 

It is illustrated in the Aindava Upakhyana in the Yoga Vasishta and in the Ganda Saila Loka in the Tripura Rahasya. Although the powers appear to be wonderful to those who do not possess them, yet they are only transient. 

It is useless to aspire for that which is transient. 

All these wonders are contained in the one changeless Self. The world is thus within and not without. 

This meaning is contained in verses 11 and 12 - Chapter V of Sri Ramana Gita 

“The entire Universe is condensed in the body, 

and the entire body in the Heart. 

Thus the Heart is the nucleus of the whole Universe.” 

Therefore Samyamana relates to concentration on different parts of the body for the different siddhis. Also the Visva or the Virat is said to contain the cosmos within the limits of the body. Again, “The world is not other than the mind, the mind is not other than the Heart; that is the whole truth.” 

So the Heart comprises all.

 This is what is taught to Svetaketu by the illustration of the seed of a fig tree. The source is a point without any dimensions. It expands as the cosmos on the one hand and as Infinite Bliss on the other. That point is the pivot. From it a single vasana starts, multiplies as the experiencer ‘I’, experience, and the world. The experiencer and the source are referred to in the mantra. Two birds, exactly alike, arise simultaneously.

.

Talk 618. 

A gentleman from Hardwar: When I go on analysing myself I go beyond the intellect, and then there is no happiness. 

M.: Intellect is only an instrument of the Self. It cannot help you to know what is beyond itself. 

D.: I understand it. But there is no happiness beyond it.

 M.: The intellect is the instrument wherewith to know unknown things. 

But you are already known, being the Self which is itself knowledge;

 so you do not become the object of knowledge. 

The intellect makes you see things outside, and not that which is its own source. 

D.: The question is repeated. 

M.: The intellect is useful thus far, it helps you to analyse yourself, and no further. It must then be merged into the ego, and the source of the ego must be sought. If that be done the ego disappears. Remain as that source and then the ego does not arise 

D.: There is no happiness in that state. 

M.: ‘There is no happiness’ is only a thought. The Self is bliss, pure and simple. You are the Self. So you cannot but be bliss; being so, you cannot say here is no happiness. That which says so cannot be the Self; it is the non-Self and must be got rid of in order to realise the bliss of the Self. 

D.: How is that to be done?

M.: See where from the thought arises. It is the mind. 

See for whom the mind or intellect functions. For the ego. Merge the intellect in the ego and seek the source of the ego. The ego disappears. 

‘I know’ and ‘I do not know’ imply a subject and an object. They are due to duality. 

The Self is pure and absolute, One and alone. 

There are no two selves so that one may know the other. What is duality then? It cannot be the Self which is One and alone. It must be non-Self.

 Duality is the characteristic of the ego. When thoughts arise duality is present; know it to be the ego, and seek its source. 

The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-Realisation. 

But Self-Realisation itself does not admit of progress; it is ever the same. The Self remains always in realisation. 

The obstacles are thoughts. 

Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to understanding that the Self is always realised.

 So thoughts must be checked by seeking to whom they arise. 

So you go to their Source, where they do not arise.

........

D.: But hatha yoga is so much spoken of as an aid. 

M.: Yes. Even great pandits well versed in the Vedanta continue the practice of it. Otherwise their minds will not subside. So you may say it is useful for those who cannot otherwise still the mind.

.....

regarding neti neti

The devotee complains that the Self is not pointed out. 

M.: A man wants to know what he is. He sees animals and objects around him. He is told: ‘You are not a cow, not a horse, not a tree, not this, not that, and so on’. If again the man asks saying ‘You have not said what I am,’ the answer will be, ‘It is not said you are not a man’. He must find out for himself that he is a man. So you must find out for yourself what you are.

You are told, ‘You are not this body, nor the mind, nor the intellect, nor the ego, nor anything you can think of; find out what truly you are’. Silence denotes that the questioner is himself the Self that is to be found. In a svayamvara the maiden goes on saying ‘no’ to each one until she faces her choice and then she looks downwards and remains silent.

........

M.: Just so. The common man is aware of himself only when modifications arise in the intellect (vijnanamaya kosa); these modifications are transient; they arise and set. Hence the vijnanamaya (intellect) is called a kosa or sheath. 

When pure awareness is left over it is itself the Chit (Self) or the Supreme. To be in one’s natural state on the subsidence of thoughts is bliss; if that bliss be transient - arising and setting - then it is only the sheath of bliss (Anandamaya kosa), not the pure Self. 

What is needed is to fix the attention on the pure ‘I’ after the subsidence of all thoughts and not to lose hold of it.

 This has to be described as an extremely subtle thought; else it cannot be spoken of at all, since it is no other than the Real Self. Who is to speak of it, to whom and how?

This is well explained in the Kaivalyam and the Viveka Chudamani. 

Thus though in sleep the awareness of the Self is not lost, the ignorance of the jiva is not affected by it. 

For this ignorance to be destroyed this subtle state of mind (vrittijnanam) is necessary. 

In the sunshine cotton does not burn. But if the cotton be placed under a lens it catches fire and is consumed by the rays of the Sun passing through the lens. 

So too, though the awareness of the Self is present at all times, it is not inimical to ignorance. 

If by meditation the subtle state of thought is won, then ignorance is destroyed. 

Also in Viveka Chudamani: ativa sukshmam paramatma tattvam na sthoola drishtya (the exceedingly subtle Supreme Self cannot be seen by the gross eye) and 

esha svayam jyotirasesha sakshi (this is Self-shining and witnesses all). 

This subtle mental state is not a modification of mind called vritti.

 Because the mental states are of two kinds. One is the natural state and the other is a transformation into forms of objects.

 The first is the truth, and the other is according to the doer (kartru-tantra). 

When the latter perishes, jale kataka renuvat (like the clearing nut paste in water) the former will remain over. 

The means for this end is meditation.

 Though this is with the triad of distinction (triputi) it will finally end in pure awareness (jnanam)

 Meditation needs effort: jnanam is effortless. Meditation can be done, or not done, or wrongly done, jnanam is not so. Meditation is described as kartru-tantra (as doer’s own), jnanam as vastu-tantra (the Supreme’s own)

........

M.: That means there are those vasanas. A dreamer dreams a dream. He sees the dream world with pleasures, pains. etc. But he wakes up and then loses all interest in the dream world. So it is with the waking world also. 

Just as the dream-world, being only a part of yourself and not different from you, ceases to interest you, so also the present world would cease to interest you if you awake from this waking dream (samsara) and realise that it is a part of your Self, and not an objective reality.

Because you think that you are apart from the objects around you, you desire a thing. But if you understand that the thing was only a thought-form you would no longer desire it. All things are like bubbles on water. You are the water and the objects are the bubbles. They cannot exist apart from the water, but they are not quite the same as the water. 

D.: I feel I am like froth. 

M.: Cease that identification with the unreal and know your real identity. Then you will be firm and no doubts can arise. 

D.: But I am the froth. 

M.: Because you think that way there is worry. It is a wrong imagination. Accept your true identity with the Real. Be the water and not the froth. That is done by diving in.

.......

D.: If I dive in, I shall find........

 M.: But even without diving in, you are That. The ideas of exterior and interior exist only so long as you do not accept your real identity.

D.: But I took the idea from you that you want me to dive in. 

M.: Yes, quite right. It was said because you are identifying yourself with the froth and not the water. Because of this confusion the answer was meant to draw your attention to this confusion and bring it home to you.

 All that is meant is that the Self is infinite inclusive of all that you see. 

There is nothing beyond It nor apart from It. 

Knowing this, you will not desire anything. Not desiring, you will be content.

 The Self is always realised. There is no seeking to realise what is already - always - realised.

 For you cannot deny your own existence. 

That existence is consciousness - the Self. 

Unless you exist you cannot ask questions.

 So you must admit your own existence. 

That existence is the Self. It is already realised.

Therefore the effort to realise results only in your realising your present mistake - that you have not realised your Self. 

There is no fresh realisation. 

The Self becomes revealed.

D.: That will take some years. 

M.: Why years? The idea of time is only in your mind. It is not in the Self. There is no time for the Self. Time arises as an idea after the ego arises. But you are the Self beyond time and space; you exist even in the absence of time and space.

.....

Talk 626. 

Another devotee: Is it not that the ‘I’ exists only in relation to a ‘this’ (aham - idam)? 

M.: ‘I’, ‘this’ appear together now. But ‘this’ is contained (vyaptam) in the ‘I’ - they are not apart. ‘This’ has to merge into and become one with ‘I’. The ‘I’ that remains over is the true I.

.........

D.: If so would not this obstacle get removed along with all the others, through the Master’s grace? 

M.: There will be delay. Owing to the disciple’s want of reverence, grace may become effective only after a long time.

 It is said that awaking from ignorance is like awaking from a fearful dream of a beast. 

It is thus. There are two taints of mind, namely veiling and restlessness (avarana and vikshepa). 

Of the two, the former is evil, the latter is not so. 

So long as the veiling effect of sleep persists there is the frightful dream. 

On awaking the veiling ceases.  There is no more fear. Restlessness is not a bar to happiness. 

To get rid of the restlessness caused by the world, one seeks the restlessness (activity) of being with the Guru, studying the sacred books and worshipping God with forms, and by these awakening is attained.

 What happens in the end? Karna was ever the son of Kunti. The tenth man was such all along. Rama was Vishnu all the time. Such is jnanam. It is being aware of That which always is.

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

D.: Enquiry into the Self seems to take one into the subtle body (ativahika sariram or puriashtakam or jivatma). Am I right? 

M.: They are different names for the same state, but they are used according to the different points of view. After some time puriashtakam (the eight fold subtle body) will disappear and there will be the ‘Eka’ (one) only. 

Vritti jnana alone can destroy ‘ajnana’ (ignorance). Absolute jnana is not inimical to ajnana. There are two kinds of vrittis (modes of mind).

 (1) vishaya vritti (objective) and 

(2) atma vritti (subjective). 

The first must give place to the second. That is the aim of abhyasa (practice), which takes one first to the puriashtaka and then to the One Self.

.......

M.: Om is the eternal truth. That which remains over after the disappearance of objects is Om. It does not merge in anything. It is the State of which it is said: “Where one sees none other, hears none other, knows none other, that is Perfection.” Yatra nanyat pasyati, nanyat srunoti, nanyat vijanati sa bhuma? All the upasanas are ways to winning it. One must not get stuck in the upasanas, but must query “Who am I?” and find the Self.

....

Talk 642. 

Mr. K. L. Sarma asked: Svasvarupanusandhanam bhaktirityabhidhiyate. Again - Svatmatattvanusadhanam bhaktirityapare joguh. What is the difference between the two? 

M.: The former is vichara - Who am I? (Koham?) It represents jnana.

 The latter is dhyana - Whence am I? (Kutoham?) This admits a jivatma which seeks the Paramatma.

...............................628........................................