The Abode of Bliss

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THE ABODE OF BLISS

by A.R. Natarajan

 

 

The question Who am I shifts attention from thoughts to the thinker and Whence

am I? fixes it at the source.

The thought I am the body is the string

On which are threaded diverse thoughts like beads,

Therefore on diving deep upon the quest

Who am I and from whence? thoughts disappear

And consciousness of self then flashes forth

As the I-I within the cavity

Of every seekers Heart. And this is Heaven,

This is that Stillness, the Abode of Bliss.

Bhagavan Ramana

ATMA VIDYA-Self knowledge, Verse 3

Each and every one is seeking happiness in life through his actions. However

happiness as we know it is only the opposite of sorrow or at any rate is mixed

up with it. In contrast, the expression Bliss is fullness of joy and not one

opposite in a pair of opposites. This is so because it is an experience of the

state in which all thoughts have disappeared including the first thought I am so

and so.

 

Again in this verse Ramana emphasises that the bliss of the thought-free state

is felt as a surging joy within the cavity of the heart of every person. It is

an experience universally available to one and all. Again the experience is not

outside oneself but is located within the heart of all life. In the central

verse of Ramana Gita also Ramana emphasises a fact that one can experience

directly this irrepressible joy of the heart expressed as a continuous feeling

I-I. In the centre of the Heart-cave, Brahman alone shines. It is the form of

Self experienced directly as I-I. Enter the Heart, through self-enquiry or

merging or by breath-control and become rooted as That.

 

RAMANA GITA - Verse 2 In Ramanas teachings prime position is given to the heart,

because it is not only the source of consciousness, but is also the source of

all thoughts. Every thought orginates from the heart and it merges again into

the heart, unconsciously, during deep sleep. The point which Ramana keeps in

clear focus before us is that if through conscious effort one succeeds in

merging thoughts into the heart from which they have arisen, then the ensuing

silence of the mind would enable one to be aware of the ever present current of

bliss. When through that effort the seeker enters his heart, he would have

entered the abode of Bliss.

 

The question would naturaly arise as to how this entry can be made. This also is

clearly spelt out by Ramana even in the verse under reference. This verse says

that one should dive within questing Who am I and from whence?. The emphasis on

Who am I? is an aspect which Bhagavan has been stressing from the very beginning

because of his own experience of death which made him an enlightened one. While

writing the biography of Ramana, B.V. Narasimha Swami had several interviews

with Ramana.

 

The interview on 8.3.1931, was about the nature of this experience on the

eventful day, the 17th July 1896, when Ramana confronted death and conquered it.

Ramana terms the enquiry resulting in the discovery as the Who am I? enquiry.

The enquiry began only from the fear of death of the physical body. However,

Ramana spontaneously transcended the minds barrier by the intensity of his

questioning. Though his body was like a corpse Ramana was simultaneously

conscious of being alive, of existing:. So the question arose in him what is

this I? "So I held my mouth shut, determined not to allow it to pronounce I or

any other syllable, still I felt within myself the I was there-the sound was

there and the object calling or feeling itself I was there. What was that? I

felt that was a force or current, a centre of energy playing on the body,

working on despite the rigidity or activity of the body, though existing in

connection with it. It was that current, force or centre that constituted my

personality, that kept me acting, moving etc., as I came to know then and only

then. I had no idea whatever of the Self before that. Once I reached that

conclusion, the fear of death dropped off. It had no place in my thoughts, I

being a subtle current had no death to fear." So, further development or

activity was issuing from the new life and not from any fear? Hence we find in

his early teachings the emphasis is on the question Who am I? This of course

goes to the root of identification by questioning the basic assumption that one

is the body.

 

The aim is to break the grip of the false notion about the true nature of the I.

The scriptures recommend inter alia the remembrance of ones essential identity

with the fullness of consciousness as a opposite and a powerful counter-thought

to weaken this false idea. Ramana also recommends it as an aid. However he

points out that in the ideas such as I am that are beyond the minds

comprehension. Hence he recommends Vichara or self-enquiry in which the focus is

on the I which is familiar to each and everyone of us. That vichara itself would

reveal ones identity with that.

 

Vichara is centred round two questions Who am I? and whence am I? The first

question shifts the attention of the thinker on to himself from his thoughts.

The mind is more subtle because it is continuously changing its form depending

upon the thought content at any given point of time. It is the core content I of

the multiple associated thoughts which keep changing as the thinkers attention

keeps moving from one thought to another. For dealing with the mind Ramana lays

great emphasis on the second question Whence am I? The expression whence means

What is the source of the I? Just as the sun rises in the morning and sets in

the evening, the mind rises on waking and sets in deep sleep.

 

Ramana emphasises that one should silently and deeply enquire into this daily

phenomenon and question the source of the mind. He proclaims it to be the

victorious path for it enables one to push the mind back, consciously, into its

source. This results in the awareness that one is not apart from the self. This

knowledge dawns through an experience of the unceasing throb of the Self in the

heart, itself bursting off all boundaries. It is felt as a ceaseless throb

termed as I-I. This is the feeling of I in contrast to the notion of I that is

limited to the body. The ever existent but hitherto unknown self in all its

resplendene shines forth in joyous abundance of overflowing bliss.

 

(The Ramana Way, Nov. 1998)

 

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