'Yes, Life is Sat or Existence.

[Guest guest]

On a certain day in October 1948, along with a couple of devotees, I was with

Bhagavan Sri Ramana. I was dressing a patch of eczema on one of his legs when

one of the devotees in the course of conversation said that life is a dream.

I replied to him that if one looked at life as a succession of events between

birth and death the past events appear as if they happened in a dream.

Sri Bhagavan who was listening to our conversation looked at me and asked, 'You

have studied biology, could you say what life is?' I replied, 'Biologists

understand life as something which can be recognised by its response to

stimuli. What exactly it is, is not definitely known. Will Bhagavan kindly

enlighten us what it is?'

When Sri Bhagavan heard this he suddenly became still and serene, a posture

which is difficult to describe yet so very familiar to his devotees. After some

time I told him, 'Bhagavan, I feel that your silence is an answer to my

question. I interpret that silence to mean that 'life' can be experienced but

cannot be described by words. It is something beyond the conditioned mind of

ours. Is that so?'

Sri Bhagavan replied, 'Yes, Life is Sat or Existence.'

He explained it further by saying that a ball of iron has shape or form and when

it is heated it gets the property or quality of fire as well. If you beat that

hot iron ball with a hammer on an anvil its form changes, but the quality of

fire in it remains unchanged. Similarly, jiva with attributes (upadhis, such as

mind and body) is yourself. But when jiva is bereft of its attributes, what

remains is Siva or Self. Your very core is Siva which is Existence itself.

>From what Sri Bhagavan said it became clear to me that Life as we understand it

is conditioned by our senses and mind. Our conversation ended there.

(Dr. M. Anantanarayana Rao in 'Surpassing Love and Grace' - Sri Ramanasramam, 2001; 209-210)

--

"ekam sat vipraa bahudhaa vadanti

That which exists is One; sages call it by various names."