"D.:" Are not the Brahmins considered to be the priests or intermediaries between God and others?
"M.:" Yes. But who is a Brahmin? A Brahmin is one who has realised Brahman. Such a one has no sense of individuality in him. He cannot think that he acts as an intermediary. Again, as for prayer, a realised man does not see others as different from oneself. How can he pray at all, and to whom and for what? His very presence is the consummation of happiness for all. So long as you think that there are others different from you, you pray for them. But the sense of separateness is ignorance. This ignorance is again the cause of feeling helplessness. You know that you are weak and helpless. How then can you help others? If you say, "By prayer to God", God knows His business and does not require your intercession for others.
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Help yourself so that you may become strong. That is done by complete surrender. That means you offer yourself to Him. So you cannot retain your individuality after surrender. You then abide by His Will. Thus Silence is the Highest of all achievements. Silence is the ocean in which all the rivers of all the religions discharge themselves. So says Thayumanavar. He also adds that the Vedic religion is the only one which combines both philosophy and religion.
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"D.:" But God helps those who help themselves.
"M.:" Certainly. Help yourself and that is itself according to God's Will.
Every action is prompted by Him only. As for prayer for the sake of others, it looks so unselfish on the surface of it. But analyse the feeling and you will detect selfishness there also. You desire others' happiness so that you may be happy. Or you want the credit for having interceded on others' behalf. God does not require an intermediary. Mind your business and all will be well.
"D.:" Does not God work His Will through some chosen person?
"M.:" God is in all and works through all. But His presence is better recognised in purified minds. The pure ones reflect God's actions more clearly than the impure minds. Therefore people say that they are the chosen ones. But the `chosen' man does not himself say so. If he thinks that he is the intermediary then it is clear that he retains his individuality and that there is no complete surrender.
15th December, 1938Talk 594.The Spanish lady, Madam Mercedes De Acorta, has written a letter to Mr. Hague, the American mining engineer who is here as a temporary resident for the last two months. She has raised a few questions there: "If the individual Self merges into the universal Self, how can one pray to God for the uplift of humanity?" The question seems to be common among the thinkers of the West. "Sri Bhagavan said:" They pray to God and finish with "Thy Will be done!" If His Will be done why do they pray at all? It is true that the Divine Will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. The individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognise the force of the Divine Will and keep quiet. Each one is looked after by God. He has created all. You are one among 2,000 millions. When He looks after so many will He omit you? Even common sense dictates that one should abide by His Will.
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Again there is no need to let Him know your needs. He knows them Himself and will look after them. Still more, why do you pray? Because you are helpless yourself and you want the Higher Power to help you. Well, does not your Creator and Protector know your weakness? Should you parade your weakness in order to make Him know it?
A: So there is a continuity in the sleep and the waking states. What is that continuity? It is only the state of pure being. There is a difference in the two states. What is that difference? The incidents, namely, the body, the world and objects appear in the waking state but they disappear in sleep.
Q: But I am not aware in my sleep.
A: True, there is no awareness of the body or of the world. But you must exist in your sleep in order to say now `I was not aware in my sleep'. Who says so now ? It is the wakeful person. The sleeper cannot say so. That is to say, the individual who is now identifying the Self with the body says that such awareness did not exist in sleep. Because you identify yourself with the body, you see the world around you and say that the waking state is filled with beautiful and interesting things. The sleep state appears dull because you were not there as an individual and therefore these things were not. But what is the fact? There is the continuity of being in all the three states, but no continuity of the individual and the objects.
Q: Yes.
A: That which is continuous is also enduring, that is permanent. That which is discontinuous is transitory.
Q: Yes.
A: Therefore the state of being is permanent and the body and the world are not. They are fleeting phenomena passing on the screen of being-consciousness which is eternal and stationary.
Q: Is it not often said that one is nearer pure consciousness in deep sleep than in the waking state?
A: The question may as well be `Am I nearer to myself in my sleep than in my waking state?' The Self is pure consciousness. No one can ever be away from the Self. The question is possible only if there is duality. But there is no duality in the state of pure consciousness. The same person sleeps, dreams and wakes up. The waking state is considered to be full of beautiful and interesting things. The absence of such experience makes one say that the sleep state is dull. Before we proceed further let us make this point clear. Do you not admit that you exist in your sleep?
The Maharshi has extraordinary insight into other beings. He sees and knows everything about all those who come before him. The Maharshi has particularly appealed to me because of his extreme politeness and gentleness. He is gentle to a degree that surpasses gentleness. My visit to the Sage of Arunachala has been the greatest event in my life.
Extracts from his poem:
With Sri Ramana of Arunachala
I’ve wandered far: Yes I have been From land to land to land: Sages I’ve seen, great kings and queens The lovely, wise and grand. But only there – at the Asramam By Arunachalam – Have I known that joy without alloy, I am! I am! I am!
Grant Duff (Douglas Ainslie), a scholar and a senior government official in Madras Presidency in the 1930s, was nephew of Sir Mountstaurt Grant Duff, Governor of Madras in the 1880s.
Face to Face with Sri Ramana Maharshi
MEETING BHAGAVAN
I do not know what happened when I saw the Maharshi for the first time, but the moment he looked at me, I felt he was the Truth and the Light. There could be no doubt about it, and all the doubts and speculations I had accumulated during the past many years disappeared in the Radiance of the Holy One. Though my visits to the Ashram were brief, I felt that every moment I was there I was building up within me what could never be destroyed.
There it did not take me long to see that I was in direct contact with one who has passed beyond the boundaries of the senses and was indeed already merged in the Absolute of his true Self, though manifesting here for our benefit for a few brief years. [When asked how he got such an impression, he frankly confessed] I cannot reply; as I should to one who asked me how I saw the sun on looking out of the window, by saying that I did so by the use of my eyes and incidentally of all other senses collaborating. I do not need any algebraic or other proof of the existence of the sun. I do not need any other proof of the divinity of Ramana Maharshi.
Should those who have it in their power to visit the Ashram delay, they will have only themselves to blame in future lives.
Never perhaps in world history was the Supreme Truth – Reality, Sat – placed within such easy reach of so vast a multitude. Here and now through no special merit of our own, we may approach Reality. The sole difficulty is that of paying for the journey but the reward is Knowledge of the Self.
HYMNS OF ISANYA JNANA DESIKAR
The Self, fulness and perfection, can neither be described nor rejected. It is a state of bliss and knowledge beyond words, having no day and no night. It is called nishtha by the Vedas.(15) The Self, complete in itself, is not something that can be caught hold of.
No amount of learning can teach one to give up the ego. The best course is to catch hold of what is real, without any support. He who is fully conscious is really God; He is the real nature of one's own true state. The experience is silence; it cannot speak.
They are truly great who live without the mind. Is there anything other than the Self? The state of sat-chit-ananda, alone is real. Those who are in nishtha, without any activity, they alone are realized.
It is sheer delight to speak of Lord Aruna, the light, who is beginningless and endless, unbroken, infinite space. It is sheer delight to say that Lord Aruna, the Light, is the source giving light to the sun, the moon and fire. The moment one realizes the Self by diving within, You become the face on the mirror. O personification of grace! What else needs to be known other than You who are omnipresent and who possess all?
Commentary on "Who am i".
4. When will the realization of the Self be gained?
Bhagawan;When the world which is what-is-seen has been removed, there will be realization of the Self which is the seer
The experience of Vedanta is possible only for those who have completely given up all desires. For the desirous it is far away, and they should therefore try to rid themselves of all other desires by the desire for God, who is free from desires.
"D.:" Are not the Brahmins considered to be the priests or intermediaries between God and others?
