Maharshi- Should I retire from business?

[Guest guest]

On Wed, 26 Jun 2002, viorica weissman wrote:

>

> Question :

>

> Should I retire from business and take to reading books on Vedanta?

>

> Sri Ramana:

>

> If objects have an independent existence, that is if they exist

> somewhere apart from you, then it may be possible for you to retire

> from them. But they do not. They owe their existence to you, to your

> thought, so where can you retire from them? As for reading books on

> Vedanta, you can go on reading any number but they can only tell you

> to realise the Self within you.

> The Self cannot be found in books. You have to find it for yourself

> in yourself."

>

 

namaste.

 

The topic is of interest to me as I struggled with this same

question for the past few years. My thanks to Ms viorica weissman

for posting these responses from shri RamaNa for some very

relevant questions.

 

I would interpret shri RamaNa's response as context-sensitive.

As I understand, shri ramaNa is not advocating that if one is

in work-force, that one continue to be in work-force treating

this work as karma-yoga. It is the ripeness of the mind that

dictates the course of action and the course of action follows.

 

There is a moment in everyone's life when one yearns to break

the shackles, however unreal or imaginary the shackles are.

shri RamaNa broke the shackles when He started His journey to

Tiruvannamalai. shri shankara broke His shackles when he went

for swim in the river and was caught by the symbolic crocodile

and he requested His mother for granting permission for sannyAsa.

 

shri RamaNa's response to the question, I think, has to be taken

in context. There are instances where shri ramaNa gave different

responses to the same question depending on the ripeness of the

devotee's mind (for jnAna).

 

Regards

Gummuluru Murthy

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