Ramana's Awakening

[Guest guest]

Ramana's AwakeningIt was about six weeks before I left Madurai for

good that the great change in my life took place. It was quite

sudden. I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my

uncle's house. I seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was

nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death

overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for

it, and I did not try to account for it or find out whether there was

any reason for the fear. I just felt "I am going to die" and began

thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a

doctor or my elders or friends; I felt that I had to solve the

problem myself, there and then. The shock of the fear of death drove

my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually

framing the words: "Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it

that is dying? This body dies." And at once I dramatised the

occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff as

though rigor mortis had set in and imitated a corpse so as to give

greater reality to the enquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips

tightly closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither the

word "I" nor any other word could be uttered. "Well then," I said to

myself, "this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning

ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of

this body am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert but I feel

the full force of my personality and even the voice of the 'I' within

me, apart from it. So I am Spirit transcending the body. The body

dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death.

That means I am deathless Spirit." All this was not dull thought; it

flashed through me vividly as living truth which I perceived

directly, almost without thought-process. "I" was something very

real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the

conscious activity connected with my body was centred on that "I".

>From that moment onwards the "I" or Self focused attention on itself

by a powerful fascination. Fear of death had vanished once and for

all. Absorption in the Self continued unbroken from that time on.

Other thoughts might come and go like the various notes of music, but

the "I" continued like the fundamental sruti note that underlies and

blends with all the other notes. Whether the body was engaged in

talking, reading, or anything else, I was still centred on "I". Later

in his life he remarked. - "They say I gained realization in

twenty-eight minutes, or a half an hour. How can they say that? It

took just a moment. But why even a moment? Where is the question of

time at all?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

from www. geocities.com/brianperkins77

Attachment: (image/jpeg) madurai.jpg [not stored]