What is the character of the search?

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Initial Doubts

 

Devotee: You say one can realise the self by a search for it. What is the

character of this search?

 

Maharshi: You are the mind or think that you are the mind. The mind is nothing

but thoughts. Now behind every particular thought there is a general thought

which is the 'I', that is yourself. Let us call this 'I' the first thought.

Stick to this I-thought and question it to find out what it is. When this

question takes strong hold on you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

 

D.: "When I do like this and cling to my self, i.e., the I-thought, other

thoughts do come and go, but I say to myself 'Who am I?' and there is no answer

forthcoming. To be in this condition is the Sadhana. Is it so?

 

M.: This is a mistake that people often make. What happens when you make a

serious quest for the Self is that the I-thought as a thought disappears,

something else from the depths takes hold of you and that is not the 'I' which

commenced the quest.

 

D.: What is this something else?

 

M.: That is the real Self, the import of I. It is not the ego. It is the Supreme

Being itself.

 

(Sat-Darshana Bhashya and Talks, p. 1)

 

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