Sufferings

[Guest guest]

Following are some Q & A on suffering by Ramana

Maharshi :<br><br>Question: What do you consider to be the

cause of world suffering? And how can we help to change

it, (a) as individuals, or (b)

collectively?<br><br>Sri Ramana Maharshi: Realise the Self. It is all that

is necessary.<br><br>Question: In this life beset

with limitations can I ever realise the bliss of the

Self?<br><br>Maharshi: That bliss of the Self is always with you, and

you will find it for yourself, if you would seek it

earnestly. The cause of your misery is not in the life

outside you, it is in you as the ego. You impose

limitations on yourself and then make a vain struggle to

transcend them. All unhappiness is due to the ego; with it

comes all your trouble. What does it avail you to

attribute to the happenings in life the cause of misery

which is really within you? What happiness can you get

from things extraneous to yourself? When you get it,

how long will it last?<br><br>If you would deny the

ego and scorch it by ignoring it, you would be free.

If you accept it, it will impose limitations on you

and throw you into a vain struggle to transcend them.

To be the Self that you really are is the only means

to realise the bliss that is ever

yours.<br><br>Question: If God is all why does the individual suffer for

his actions? Are not the actions for which the

individual is made to suffer prompted by

him?<br><br>Maharshi: He who thinks he is the doer is also the

sufferer.<br><br>Questioner: But the actions are prompted by God and the

individual is only his tool. <br><br>Maharshi: This logic is

applied only when one suffers, but not when one rejoices.

If the conviction prevails always, there will be no

suffering either<br><br>more Q & A on suffering to

follow.......<br><br>Hari Aum !!!

[Guest guest]

Question: When will the suffering

cease?<br><br>Maharshi: Not until individuality is lost. If both the good

and bad actions are his, why should you think that

the enjoyment and suffering are yours alone? He who

does good or bad, also enjoys pleasure or suffers

pain. Leave it there and do not superimpose suffering

on yourself.<br><br>Question: How can you say that

suffering is non-existent? I see it

everywhere.<br><br>Maharshi: One’s own reality, which shines within everyone

as the Heart, is itself the ocean of unalloyed

bliss. Therefore like the unreal blueness of the sky,

misery does not exist in reality but only in mere

imagination. Since one’s own reality, which is the sun of

jnana (Spiritual knowledge) that cannot be approached

by the dark delusion of ignorance, itself shines as

happiness, misery is nothing but an illusion caused by the

unreal sense of individuality. In truth no one has ever

experienced any such thing other than that unreal illusion.

If one scrutinises one’s own Self, which is bliss,

there will be no misery at all in one’s life. One

suffers because of the idea that the body, which is never

oneself, is ‘I’; suffering is all due to this

delusion.<br><br>More to follow......<br><br>Hari Aum !!!