Is Self-experience possible for the mind?

[Guest guest]

D: Is Self-experience possible for the mind, whose nature is constant

change?

 

M: Since sattva-guna (the constituent of prakriti which makes for purity,

intelligence, etc.) is the nature of mind, and since the mind is pure and

undefiled like ether, what is called mind is, in truth, of the nature of

knowledge. When it stays in that natural (i.e. pure) state, it has not even

the name Œmind¹. It is only the erroneous knowledge which mistakes one for

another that is called mind. What was (originally) the pure sattva mind, of

the nature of pure knowledge, forgets its knowledge-nature on

account of nescience, gets transformed into the world under the influence of

tamo-guna (i.e. the constituent of prakriti which makes for dullness,

inertness, etc.), being under the influence of rajo-guna (i.e. the

constituent of prakriti which makes for activity, passions, etc.), imagines

³I am the body, etc.; the world is real², it acquires the consequent merit

and demerit through attachment, aversion, etc., and, through the residual

impressions (vasanas) thereof, attains birth and death. But the mind, which

has got rid of its defilement (sin) through action without attachment

performed in many past lives, listens to the teaching of scripture from a

true guru, reflects on its meaning, and meditates in order to gain the

natural state of the mental mode of the form of the Self, i.e. of the form

ŒI am Brahman¹ which is the result of the continued contemplation of

Brahman. Thus will be removed the mind¹s transformation into the world in

the aspect of tamo-guna, and its roving therein in the aspect of rajo-guna.

When this removal takes place the mind becomes subtle and unmoving. It is

only by the mind that is impure and is under the influence of rajas and

tamas that Reality (i.e. the Self) which is very subtle and unchanging

cannot be experienced; just as a piece of fine silk cloth cannot be stitched

with a heavy crowbar, or as the details of subtle objects cannot be

distinguished by the light of a lamp flame that flickers in the wind. But in

the pure mind that has been rendered subtle and unmoving by the meditation

described above, the Self-bliss (i.e. Brahman) will become manifest. As

without mind there cannot be experience, it is possible for the purified

mind endowed with the extremely subtle mode (vritti) to experience the

Self-bliss, by remaining in that form (i.e. in the form of Brahman). Then,

that one¹s self is of the nature of Brahman will be clearly experienced.

 

from Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi's 'Self Enquiry'; translated by

Dr T M P Mahadevan,

full translation available from www.ramana-maharshi.org