Beauty ＆ Pure 255

 

From ~~~ Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, 73

Bhagavan :
When you are everywhere, where are you to search?
The real delusion is the feeling that you are the body.
When you get rid of that delusion,
what remains is your Self.
You should search for a thing which is not with you
but where is the need to search for a thing
which is always with you?
All sadhanas are for getting rid of the delusion
that you are the body.
The knowledge that ‘I am’ is always there:
call it Atma, or Paramatma or whatever you like.
One should get rid of the idea that ‘I am the body’.
There is no need to search for that ‘I’ that is the self.
That Self is allpervading.
~~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 254

 

There are two ways of achieving surrender.
One is looking into the source of the ‘I’
and merging into that source.
The other is feeling,
‘I am helpless myself,
God alone is all powerful,
and except by throwing myself completely on Him,
there is no other means of safety for me’;
and thus gradually developing the conviction
that God alone exists and the ego does not count.
Both methods lead to the same goal.
Complete surrender is another name
for jnana or liberation.
Bhakti is not different from mukti.
Bhakti is being as the Self.
One is always That.
He realizes It by the means he adopts.
What is bhakti?
To think of God.
That means only one thought prevails
to the exclusion of all other thoughts.
That thought is of God,
which is the Self,
or it is the self
surrendered unto God.
When He has taken you up,
nothing else will assail you.
The absence of thought is bhakti.
It is also mukti.
Bhakti is Jnana Mata, i.e.,
the mother of jnana.
It is asked,
why all this creation is so full of sorrow and evil.
All one can say is that it is God’s will,
which is inscrutable.
No motive, no desire,
no end to achieve can be attributed
to that infinite, all-wise
and all-powerful Being.
God is untouched by activities
which take place in His presence.
There is no meaning in attributing
responsibility and motive to the One,
before it became many.
But God’s will for the prescribed course of events
is a good solution for the vexed question of free-will.
If the mind is worried over what befalls us,
or what has been committed or omitted by us,
it is wise to give up the sense of responsibility and free-will,
by regarding ourselves as the ordained instruments
of the All-Wise and the All-Powerful,
to do and suffer as He pleases.
Then He bears all the burdens
and gives us peace.
~~~~~~

Beauty ＆ Pure 253

Q.:
Is it enough to introvert the mind
or should we meditate on ‘I am Brahman’?
M.:
To introvert the mind is the prime thing.
The Buddhists consider the flow of ‘I’ thought to be Liberation;
whereas we say that such flow proceeds
from its underlying substratum - the only - Reality.
Why should one be meditating ‘I am Brahman’?
Only the annihilation of ‘I’ is Liberation.
But it can be gained only by keeping the ‘I-I’ always in view.
So the need for the investigation of the ‘I’ thought.
If the ‘I’ is not let go, no blank can result to the seeker.
Otherwise meditation will end in sleep.
There is only one ‘I’ all along,
but what arises up from time to time is the mistaken ‘I-thought’;
whereas the intuitive ‘I’ always remains Self-shining,
i.e., even before it becomes manifest.
The birth of the gross body does not amount to one’s own birth,
on the other hand, the birth of the ego is one’s own birth.
For liberation, nothing new remains to be gained.
It is the original state and continues unchanged too.

Beauty ＆ Pure 251

 

Sri Ramana Experience
I was a learned fool.
My flawed mind knew nothing till I came to dwell with Him
whose Glance filled my heart with the Light of Awareness.
Dwelling in that gracious state of Peace,
whose nature is Holy Silence,
so hard to gain and know,
I entered into union with the deathless state
of the Knowledge of Reality.
- Sri Muruganar

Beauty ＆ Pure 250

 

Sri Muruganar :
This joyful Marital Garland of Letters which resembles a
beam of the rays of the rising sun was sung by the noble Sage
Ramana, the ocean of compassion, with the object of removing
the delusion of the devotees who sought his grace. Those who
look upon it as their sole refuge will realize within themselves
that they are Arunachala and will reign in the world of Siva.

Beauty ＆ Pure 249

 

There are said to be six (subtle) organs of different
colours in the chest, of which the spiritual heart is said to be the
one situated two fingers’ breadth, to the right from the centre!
But the heart is also said to be formless. Does that mean that we
should imagine it to have a form and meditate on this?
B.:
No; only the quest – ‘Who am I?’ is necessary. That
which continues to exist throughout sleep and waking is the same
being in both; but while waking there is unhappiness and therefore
the effort to remove it. When asked who awakes from sleep, you
say ‘I’. Hold fast to this ‘I’. If that is done the Eternal Being
reveals itself. The most important thing is the investigation of the
‘I’ and not concentration on the heart centre. There is no such
thing as the ‘inner’ and the ‘outer’. Both words mean the same or
nothing at all. Nevertheless, there is also the practice of
concentration on the heart-centre, which is a form of spiritual
exercise. Only he who concentrates on the heart can remain aware
when the mind ceases to be active and remains still, with no
thoughts, whereas those who concentrate on any other centre
cannot retain awareness without thought but only infer that the
mind was still after it has become active again.
In the following passage an English lady remarks on this
awareness without thought and Bhagavan approves.

Beauty ＆ Pure 248

 

Bhagavan.:

Short or long duration applies only
to the dream and waking states.
Someone may say:
‘we have lived so long
and these houses and belongings
are so clearly evident to us
that it surely can’t be all a dream’.
But we have to remember
that even dreams seem long while they last.
It is only when you wake up that you realize
that they only lasted a short time.
In the same way,
when one attains Realization (jnana),
this life is seen to be momentary.
Dreamless sleep means nescience;
therefore it is to be rejected in favour
of the state of pure Awareness.

Beauty ＆ Pure 247

 

If I know my presence then how I know the presence of other person . Is that any feeling in silence present ?

Beauty ＆ Pure 246

He asked:
I am leaving tonight. It gives me pain to tear myself away from this
place. But I must go to America. I ask for a message from the Master. The Master understands me even better than I do myself. So I pray for a message to keep me up when I am away from the Master.
M.:
The Master is not outside you as you seem to imagine. He is
within, is in fact the Self. Recognise this truth. Seek within you
and find Him there. Then you will have constant communion with
Him. The message is always there; it is never silent; it can never
forsake you: nor can you ever move away from the Master.
Your mind is outgoing. Because of that tendency it sees objects as
being outside and the Master among them. But the Truth is different. The Master is the Self. Turn the mind within and you will find the objects within. You will also realise that it is the Master who is your very Self and there is nothing but Him.
Because you identify yourself with the body you have accepted
objects as being outside you. But are you the body? You are not.
You are the Self. There are all the objects and the whole universe.
Nothing can escape the Self. How then can you move away from
the Master who is your very Self? Suppose your body moves from
place to place; does it ever move away from your Self? Similarly,
you can never be without the Master.
Mr. Lorey was struck by the answer although he was already
familiar with the Master’s ways. He was even visibly moved. He
prayed that the Grace of the Master might abide with him.
Sri Bhagavan:
The Master being the Self. Grace is inseparable from the Self.
Mr. L. Saluted Sri Maharshi with intense fervour,
saying that he might be enabled to realise the Truth.
M.:
Is there any moment when you have not realised the Self? Can
you ever be apart from the Self? You are always That.

Beauty ＆ Pure 245

 

Are there any aids to
(1) concentration and (2) casting off distractions?
M.:
Physically the digestive and other organs are kept free from irritation. Therefore food is regulated both in quantity and quality. Non-irritants are eaten, avoiding chillies, excess of salt, onions, wine, opium, etc. Avoid constipation, drowsiness and excitement, and all foods which induce them. Mentally take interest in one thing and fix the mind on it. Let such interest be all-absorbing to the exclusion of everything else. This is dispassion (vairagya) and concentration. God or mantra may be chosen. The mind gains strength to grasp the subtle and merge into it.
~~~~~~~