KNOW THE TRUTH

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KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

 

What does one mean by the expression "truth"? Is it knowledge about

the phenomenal world, knowledge about technological breakthroughs in

the fields of medicine, computers, the universe? It cannot be. Why?

For the "top" experts themselves are painfully aware that all their

expertise has not freed them from sorrow. They are not steadily

happy. They are just as mixed up as you and me. They are no

different for they too have their angers, jealousies and

disappointments. Therefore one can safely say that objective

knowledge, however wide and specialized cannot make one free. One

has to look elsewhere, one must turn to a different door.

 

Ramana's teachings emphasize that unless one is aware about the

subject, the individual "I", one will remain bound, bound by the

framework of the mind. The mind with its millions of thoughts, the

mind of which one is so proud, is really a prison. You cannot escape

from its suffocating atmosphere unless you go into the

question "What is this called mind?" You can never understand the

joy of a spaceless mind, the joy of a mind free from thought, if

your assumption about the mind is not gone into.

 

Frankly we have never turned our enquiry in this direction. We have

seldom reflected on this core question. The mind's attention has in

fact been turned away from it. Hence Ramana suggests that the mind's

energy should be gathered together and focused on this subject "I".

The mind must be put in the reverse gear. From its outward direction

it must turn inward.

 

How is one to stop the running mind on its track? For it is common

knowledge that one's mind is never quiet, it moves from one thought

to another in rapid succession depending on the particular responses

to the sensory contact with the world. It becomes imperative, does

it not, that one must find an effective means for stopping this

straying, wandering mind in the very beginning? Otherwise one would

always be caught in this ceaseless mental movement. One cannot make

any progress in the desired switching of attention from the object

to the subject. Hence Ramana provides a sure weapon for success in

this switch over of the mind which is a necessary pre-condition for

understanding the mind.

 

This weapon is to sow the doubt about our identifications with the

mind and the body. Are we in truth limited, circumscribed by the

physical body and subtle mental body? Are they not only self-imposed

limitations which will not stand the glare, the searchlight, of

enquiry into these assumptions? Hence a doubt is sown in the form of

a question "Who am I?". The general mistake is to treat it as a

question. What is intended is only to plant a doubt, to foster such

doubt about out true nature in order to be free from the

stranglehold of identified existence. There is need for passion in

this search. Otherwise, the sword of self-enquiry would be blunted

by making it a mere intellectual exercise, merely one more of the

multitudinous palliatives which one is so familiar with, "Do this or

that and your mind will be controlled.". For one has to be clear

about first principles. We are not trying to control the mind. It

can never be controlled. What is being attempted is to understand

the mind. In that understanding it would be revealed that the

separate mind is only a concept. It can last only as long as one

does not start an enquiry by an undercurrent of doubt about one's

identity.

 

Proceeding further Ramana compassionately gives some specific

guidance as to the methodology for success in directing attention to

the subject and staying focused there. Extracts from the

conversations that some seekers had with Ramana brings this out.

 

Seeker: What is the character of this search for the Self?

 

Bhagavan: You are the mind or think 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 the question takes strong hold of

you, you cannot think of other thoughts.

 

In practice when one sits for enquiring into the "I" the intrusion

of innumerable thoughts eats away the allotted time. Hence the

seeker who has to face this problem has to go on questioning "To

whom does it arise?", and then relate it to the individual by a

further question "Who am I?" This process would be endless because

of the numerical strength of thoughts. Hence Ramana suggests that

the alternative of clinging to the "I"-thought would be more

effective. For them you have the double advantage of dealing with a

single thought which is also the core thought. Hence one finds him

stressing this point over and over again. Herein below are extracts

from conversations with two seekers which bring out this point

clearly.

 

S: You have often said that one must reject other thoughts when he

begins the quest, but the thoughts are endless; if one thought is

rejected, another comes. There seems to be no end at all.

 

B: I do not say that you must go on rejecting thoughts. If you cling

to yourself, the "I"-thought and when your interest keeps you on

that single idea, other thoughts get rejected. Automatically they

vanish.

 

Ramana's response to another seeker was on the same lines.

 

S: As far as I can see it, it is impossible to realize the Self

until one has succeeded in completely preventing the rushing

thoughts. Am I right?

 

B: Not exactly. You need not prevent other thoughts. The easiest

thing to do is to catch hold of the leading "I"-thought.

 

If one practices self-attention thus, the "I"-thought would get

disassociated from other thoughts and objects. Then it would merge

in the fullness of consciousness. The idea and the feeling of

separate limited existence would vanish. The mind would be free from

thoughts, spacious, vast. It would reflect the fullness which one

is. Life would then be ever joyous.

 

NOTE: TAKEN FROM "RAMANA MAHARSHI, THE LIVING GURU", BY A. R.

NATARAJAN, 1996 EDITION, PAGES 30 TO 33.