Freedom & Bondage/Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi

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Hi Friends,

 

Here I attached an article that i have received from the other . This

may useful to our ganesh devotees.

 

[ Sri Ramana Maharishi is a famous philosopher who was residing in my native.

Even you may not know abt him, Just read his thoughts, will really clears your

doughts. ]

 

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Freedom & Bondage

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>From The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi Edited by David Godman

Liberation is our very nature. We are that. The very fact

that we wish for liberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our real

nature. It is not to be freshly acquired. All that is necessary is to get rid

of the false notion that we are bound. When we achieve that, there will be no

desire or thought of any sort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you

may take it, one is in bondage.It is false to speak of realisation. What is

there to realise? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new

or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in

books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or

well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was

filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now.

Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras (innate

tendencies) which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self

will shine alone.Question: As the bodies and the selves animating them are

everywhere actually observed to be innumerable how can it be said that the Self

is only one?Sri Ramana Maharshi: If the idea 'I am the body' is accepted, the

selves are multiple. The state in which this idea vanishes is the Self since in

that state there are no other objects. It is for this reason that the Self is

regarded as one only.Since the body itself does not exist in the natural

outlook of the real Self, but only in the extroverted outlook of the mind which

is deluded by the power of illusion, to call Self, the space of consciousness,

dehi (the possessor of the body) is wrong.The world does not exist without the

body, the body never exists without the mind, the mind never exists without

consciousness and consciousness never exists without the reality.For the wise

one who has known Self by divining within himself, there is nothing other than

Self to be known. Why? Because since the ego which identifies the form of a

body as 'I' has perished, he (the wise one) is the formless

existence-consciousness.The jnani (one who has realised the Self) knows he is

the Self and that nothing, neither his body nor anything else, exists but the

Self. To such a one what difference could the presence or absence of a body

make?Realisation is nothing to be gained afresh; it is already there. All that

is necessary is to get rid of the thought 'I have not realised'.[Note: Comments

by David Godman: Sri Raman Maharshi occasionally indicated that there were three

classes of spiritual aspirants. The most advanced realise the Self as soon as

they are told about its real nature. Those in the second class need to reflect

on it for some time before Self-awareness becomes firmly established. Those in

the third category are less fortunate since they usually need many years of

intensive spiritual practice to achieve the goal of Self-realisation. Sri

Ramana sometimes used a metaphor of combustion to describe the three levels;

gunpowder ignites with a single spark, charcoal needs the application of heat

for a short time, and wet coal needs to dry out and heat up over a long period

of time before it will begin to burn.For the benefit of those in the top two

categories Sri Ramana taught that the Self alone exists and that it can be

directly and consciously experienced merely by ceasing to pay attention to the

wrong ideas we have about ourselves. These wrong ideas he collectively called

'not-Self ' since they are an imaginary accretion of wrong notions and

misperceptions which effectively veil the true experience of the real Self. The

principal misperception is the idea that the Self is limited to the body and the

mind. As soon as one ceases to imagine that one is an individual person,

inhabiting a particular body, the whole superstructure of wrong ideas collapse

and is replaced by a conscious and permanent awareness of the real Self.At this

level of the teaching, there is no question of effort or practice. All that is

required is an understanding that the Self is not a goal to be attained, it is

merely the awareness that prevails when all the limiting ideas about the

not-Self have been discarded.]Sri Ramana Maharshi: Stillness or peace is

realisation. There is no moment when the Self is not. So long as there is doubt

or the feeling of non-realisation, the attempt should be made to rid oneself of

these thoughts. They are due to the identification of the Self with the

not-Self. When the not-Self disappears, the Self alone remains. To make room,

it is enough that objects be removed. Room is not brought in from

elsewhere.Question: How shall I reach the Self?Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no

reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is

not here and now, and it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be

lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving

for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self, you are already

that.The fact is, you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ignorance supervenes

and draws a veil over the pure Self which is bliss. Attempts are directed only

to remove this veil of ignorance which is merely wrong knowledge. The wrong

knowledge is the false identification of the Self with the body and the mind.

This false identification must go, and then the Self alone remains.Therefore,

realisation is for everyone; realisation makes no difference between the

aspirants. This very doubt, whether you can realise, and the notion 'I have not

realised' are themselves the obstacles. Be free from these obstacles

also.Question: How long does it take to reach mukti (liberation or freedom)?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Mukti (liberation) is not to be gained in the future. It

is there forever, here and now.Questioner: I agree, but I do not experience

it.Sri Ramana Maharshi: The experience is here and now. One cannot deny one's

own Self.Questioner: That means existence and not happiness.Sri Ramana

Maharshi: Existence is the same as happiness and happiness is the same as

being. The word mukti (liberation or freedom) is so provoking. Why should one

seek it? One believes that there is bondage and therefore seeks liberation. But

the fact is that there is no bondage but only liberation. Why call it by a name

and seek it?Questioner: True - but we are ignorant.Sri Ramana Maharshi: Only

remove ignorance. That is all there is to be done. All questions relating to

mukti (liberation) are inadmissible. Mukti means release from bondage. There is

no bondage and therefore no mukti either. Question: Of what nature is the

realisation of westerners who relate that they have had flashes of cosmic

consciousness?Sri Ramana Maharshi: It came as a flash and disappeared as such.

That which has a beginning must also end. Only when the ever-present

consciousness is realised will it be permanent. Consciousness is indeed always

with us. Everyone knows 'I am'. No one can deny his own being. The man in deep

sleep is not aware; while awake he seems to be aware. But it is the same

person. There is no change in the one who slept and the one who is now awake.

In deep sleep he was not aware of his body and so there was no

body-consciousness. Therefore the difference lies in the emergence of

body-consciousness and not in any change in the real consciousness.The body and

body-consciousness arise together and sink together. All this amounts to saying

that there are no limitations in deep sleep, whereas there are limitations in

the waking state. These limitations are the bondage. The feeling 'The body is

I' is the error. This false sense of 'I' must go. The real 'I' is always there.

It is here and now. It never appears anew and disappears again. That which is

must also persist for ever. That appears anew will also be lost. Compare deep

sleep and waking. The body appears in one state but not in the other. Therefore

the body will be lost. The consciousness was pre-existent and will survive the

body.There is no one who does not say 'I am'. The wrong knowledge of 'I am the

body' is the cause of all the mischief. This wrong knowledge must go. That is

realisation. Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it new

faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage.The ultimate truth is so simple.

It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. This is all that need be

said.Question: Is one nearer to pure consciousness in deep sleep than in the

waking state?Sri Ramana Maharshi: The sleep, dream and waking states are mere

phenomena appearing on the Self which itself is stationary. It is also a state

of simple awareness. Can anyone remain away from the Self at any moment? This

question can arise only if that were possible.Question: Is it not often said

that one is nearer pure consciousness in deep sleep than in the waking

state?Sri Ramana Maharshi: The question may as well be 'Am I nearer to myself

in my sleep than in my waking state?'The Self is pure consciousness. No one can

ever be away from the Self. The question is possible only if there is duality.

But there is no duality in the state of pure consciousness.The same person

sleeps, dreams and wakes up. The waking state is considered to be full of

beautiful and interesting things. The absence of such experience makes one say

that the sleep state is dull. Before we proceed further let us make this point

clear. Do you not admit that you exist in your sleep?Questioner: Yes I do.Sri

Ramana Maharshi: You are the same person that is now awake. Is it not so? So

there is a continuity in the sleep and the waking states. What is that

continuity? It is only the state of pure being. There is a difference in the

two states. What is that difference? The incidents, namely, the body, the world

and objects appear in the waking state but they disappear in sleep. Questioner:

But I am not aware in my sleep.Sri Ramana Maharshi: True, there is no awareness

of the body or of the world. But you must exist in your sleep in order to say

now 'I was not aware in my sleep'. Who says so now? It is the wakeful person.

The sleeper cannot say so. That is to say, the individual who is now

identifying the Self with the body says that such awareness did not exist in

sleep.Because you identify yourself with the body, you see the world around you

and say that the waking state is filled with beautiful and interesting things.

The sleep state appears dull because you were not there as an individual and

therefore these things were not. But what is the fact? There is the continuity

of being in all the three states, but no continuity of the individual and the

objects. That which is continuous is also enduring, that is permanent. That

which is discontinuous is transitory. Therefore the state of being is permanent

and the body and the world are not. They are fleeting phenomena passing on the

screen of being-consciousness which is eternal and stationary. Question: What

prevents the infinite, undifferentiated light of consciousness arising from the

Heart from revealing itself to the ajnani (ignorant)?Sri Ramana Maharshi: Just

as water in a pot reflects the enormous sun within the narrow limits of the

pot, even so the vasanas or latent tendencies of the mind of the individual,

acting as the reflecting medium, catch the all-pervading, infinite light of

consciousness arising from the Heart. The form of this reflection is the

phenomena called the mind. Seeing only this reflection, the ajnani (the

ignorant) is deluded into the belief that he is the finite being, the jiva, the

individual self. Question: What are the obstacles which hinder realisation of

the Self?Sri Ramana Maharshi: They are habits of mind (Vasanas). Question: How

to overcome the mental habits (Vasnas)?Sri Ramana Maharshi: By realising the

Self. It is the ego which raises such difficulties, creating obstacles and then

suffering from the perplexity of apparent paradoxes. Find out who makes the

enquiries and the Self will be found.Question: Why is this mental bondage so

persistent?Sri Ramana Maharshi: The nature of bondage is merely the rising,

ruinous thought 'I am different from the reality'. Since one surely cannot

remain separate from the reality, reject that thought whenever it rises.

 

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Submitted by

NT.

 

Kindly reply if anybody dislikes, to post like this articles.