Lakshmana realizes the SELF

[Guest guest]

Snip from: "No Mind I Am The Self" by David Godman

 

Lakshmana set off at once and reached the ashram during the Navaratri*

celebrations of 1949. The second day of his visit was Vijayadasami, a festival

which traditionally celebrates the triumph of good over evil. On that afternoon

he went to have a darshan of Sri Ramana in the hall that had recently been

constructed for him. The official darshan hours were 3 pm. to 6 pm. and shortly

before the darshan started Lakshmana found a seat near the east entrance to the

hall. Sri Ramana appeared punctually at 3 p.m. A few minutes later Lakshmana

closed his eyes and unexpectedly found that all thoughts has disappeared except

for the primal 'I'-thought. The question 'Who am I' then spontaneously appeared

within him, and as it did so, the gracious smiling face of Ramana Maharshi

appeared within him on the right side of the chest. There was, he says, "a

lightning flash and a flood of divine light shining within and without". Sri

Ramana's face was smiling "with more radiance than that of innumerable lightning

flashes fused into one. In that ineffable bliss tears of joy welled down in

unending succession, and they could not be resisted." Finally, the 'I'-thought

went back to its source, the picture of Ramana Maharshi disappeared and the Self

absorbed his whole being. From that moment on the Self shone alone and the

'I'-thought, the individual self, never appeared or functioned in him again.

Lakshmana had realized the Self in the presence of his Guru and his 'I'-thought

was permanently destroyed. Commenting on his realization many years later Sri

Lakshmana said, "The 'I' went back to its source, the Self and disappeared

without trace. The Self remained alone. It is eternal peace and bliss."

Sri Lakshmana remained absorbed in the Self, without body-consciousness, for

about three hours. The experience was so intense that even when he opened his

eyes he found that he was incapable of either speaking or moving. He said that

the realization caused an intense churning within the nervous system and that

when body consciousness returned he felt extremely weak.

When he opened his eyes and looked around the hall Sri Lakshmana noticed

that everything was perfectly normal. Sri Ramana was sitting on his couch and

all the assembled devotees were pursuing their normal duties and activities. It

was as if nothing had happened, but for Sri Lakshmana it was the major event of

his life; since that day he has continued to shine uninterruptedly as the Self.

 

*A ten day festival that occurs in September or October.