Sri Ramana Maharshi - Who am I? (# 12 )

[Guest guest]

Question.: For those who long for release, is it useful to read books?

 

It is said in all scriptures that to attain liberation

one should

make the mind subside.

After realising that mind control is the ultimate injunction of the

scriptures, it is pointless to read scriptures endlessly.

In order to know the mind, it is necessary to know who one is.

How [can one know who one is] by researching instead in the

scriptures?

One should know oneself through one's own eye of knowledge.

For [a man called] Rama to know himself to be Rama, is a mirror

necessary?

One's self exists within the five sheaths, whereas the scriptures are

outside them.

This self is the one to be enquired into.

Therefore, researching in the scriptures, ignoring even the five

sheaths, is futile.

Enquiring 'Who am I that am in bondage?' and knowing one's real

nature is alone liberation.

 

[ Sri.David Godman's comments:

In self-enquiry one is enquiring into the nature and

origin of the

individual self, not the all-pervasive 'Atman'. When Self appears in capitals, it

denotes 'Atman', the real 'Self'. When self it appears in lower case, it refers to

the individual.

The five sheaths or 'kosas' envelop and contain the

individual self.

They are:

(1) 'annamayakosa', the food sheath, which correspods to

the

physical body.

(2) 'pranamayakosa', the sheath made of 'prana'.

(3) 'manomayakosa', the sheath of the mind.

(4) 'vijnanamayakosa', the sheath of the intellect.

(5) 'anandamayakosa', the sheath of bliss.

 

Sheaths two, three and four comprise the subtle body

('sukshma

sarira') while the fifth sheath, called the causal body, corresponds to the state

of the individual self during sleep.

The individual 'I' functions through the five sheaths.

Practitioners of the

' neti-neti ' ('not this, not this') type of 'sadhana' reject their association with

the five sheaths. The idea behind this practice is that if one rejects all

thoughts, feelings and sensations as 'not I', the real 'I' will eventually shine in a

form that is unlimited by or to the sheaths.]

 

( to

be continued )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

India Matrimony: Find your life partner

online.