RAMANA GITA STUDY GROUP Ch 5-vs10,11,12...[ AR Natarajan]

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Ramana Gita ...translation & commentary by AR Natarajan

Chapter 5 contd.

Vs 10

The state in which awareness is firm, even when objects are sensed,

is called the natural state. In `Nirvikalpa Samadhi' there is no

objective perception.

(ie. perception of objects).

 

Commentary (paraphrase)

In the last vs of this chapter, Ramana defines `Samadhi' as the

conscious merger of the mind in the Heart.

The `natural state' is `Sahaja Samadhi' (sahaja sthiti). "For, here

you have samadhana, you remain calm, composed, even while active.

You realise you are moved by the deeper real Self within. You have

no worries, no anxieties, no cares. Here you come to realise that

there is nothing belonging to you, the ego. Everything is done by

something with which you get into conscious union".

In `Nirvikalpa Samadhi' the mind is silent, but there is no

objective awareness. "For in this state it (mind) has no `vikalpa'-

no need to swing between possibilities & probabilities." According

to yogic texts the mind is in `Sahasrara' in this state.

The difference is that in the `Sahaja' (natural) state there is

awareness of objects and activity, but it does not disturb Self-

attention.

 

Vs 11

The entire universe is in the body and the whole body is in the

Heart. Hence the universe is contained within the Heart.

Vs 12

The universe is only in the mind and the mind is nothing but the

Heart. Thus the entire story of the universe culminates in the Heart.

 

Commentary

…..The fact that the universe is contained in the mind, is evident

on examining the dream. state.- The body is lying inert, yet

several different situations & scenarios are experienced vividly by

the mind. . … In deep sleep, when mind is absent, there is no

world…. Waking, is the mind lighting up the world, although mind &

world rise simultaneously. Also, perception of the world is only

through sense organs controlled by the mind.

One could therefore say, the world is but the mind*. The mind has

no independent or separate status, its source is in the Heart which

is the support of all 3 states, waking, dream and sleep.

[*Ibid vs 6]

Ramana has referred to these verses when replying to a doubt of a

devotee about nadis & channels.

" So the Heart comprises all. This is what is taught by Svetaketu by

the illustrations of the seed of a fig tree. The source is a point

without dimensions. It expands as the cosmos on the one hand and as

the bliss on the other. That point is the pivot. From it a single

Vasana starts, multiplies as `I'-thought, experience and the world.

When I was staying in Skandashramam I sometimes used to go out to

sit on a rock. On occasions others would join. Suddenly we once

noticed a small moth-like insect shooting up in the air like a

rocket from the crevice in the rock. Within a twinkling of an eye it

had multiplied itself into millions of moths forming a cloud and

hiding the sky from the view. We wondered and looked at the place

from where it had shot up. We found it was only a pinhole and knew

that many insects could not have issued from it in such a short

time. That is how Ahamkara, the ego, shoots up like a rocket and

instantaneously spreads out as the universe. The self is bound to

the Heart. The Heart is therefore the centre".**

[** Talks with Ramana Maharshi - Ps 578, 579]

 

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anu