Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-22

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Help on the Quest for Self-realization-Reminders-22

 

>From Surging Joy

By Dr Sarada Nataragan

 

"He whose pure mind turned inward

Searches whence the "I" arises

Knows the Self aright and merges,

As a river in the Ocean,

In you, Aruna Hill!"

 

-Arunachala Pancharatnam, V. 3,

Sri Ramana Maharshi (127)

 

He who knows where the sun goes at night, does he know where his

sense of individuality goes at night? What happens to him in deep

sleep? In deep sleep he has no awareness of himself, his body or any

thought whatsoever. Where does his awareness set into, where does

his sense of "I" rise from again, on waking? Unless one turns one's

spirit of enquiry upon oneself, to find out who one really is,

wholly is, one must be content to live with a stranger, at least a

partial stranger, for life. Would such a life be worthwhile? (128)

 

"Of what use is birth without the power,

The intelligence of self-enquiry?

Come and fill this void, O Arunachala !"

 

-Marital Garland of Letters, V. 46,

Sri Ramana Maharshi (129)

 

How are we to become conscious of our true existence and not be

aware only of the fluctuating mental framework? The only clue

available to us is the mind itself. For, that is all we know of

ourselves at the present moment and we can start only with what we

know. To solve any problem one must first closely observe and

examine the facts that are available if, for instance, a deer is to

be tracked, then one must understand what kind of footprints it

leaves behind, one must understand its movements and habits. Even

so, if the mind is to be tracked to the source from which it daily

rises and sets (which at present remains a mystery to us), the first

step is to understand the nature of the mind. To find out "what the

mind is". (130)

 

"What is the mind? If one searches to find out.

Then there would be no separate entity

As the mind. This is the straight path."

 

-Upadesa Saram, V. 17

Sri Ramana Mahrashi

 

While every mind is different in its thought pattern and in the

detail of its make-up, yet, every mind has two basic qualities. The

mind is rooted in the Self from which it derives sustenance. The

Self is its existence, that by which the mind exists. The mind has

an identity, a support on which it grows and spreads into countless

thoughts; the mind has its identity of a given name and (131) form

around which it twines itself. How can we categorize the mind into

two aspects? This categorization is possible if we pay keen

attention to the nature of the mind. The first step in understanding

the mind is to realize that the mind is only a conglomeration of

thoughts and that all those thoughts revolve around the "I"-thought…

Bhagavan says that the "I' alone is the mind, it is really the crux

of the mind and without it no other thought can exist. This "I"-

thought or sense of "I" has two aspects, the existence and the

identity aspects. We all have, certainly, an awareness of existence.

No body declares "I do not exist". Bhagavan clearly points out in

Sat-Darshanam how this sense of existence is unbroken. Even in

sleep, when one is not aware of one's identity, the awareness of

existence continues:

 

"No one says "I did not exist in deep sleep",

When the "I" rises all rise…"

 

-Forty Verses on Reality, V. 23,

Sri Ramana Mahrashi

 

In our waking and dream experience, this awareness of existence is

coupled with a sense of identity. I do not just exist, but I exist

as so-and-so, as a particular name and form, which, in fact, I take

to be myself. So habitual does the identity become that it assumes

great importance and its real source of existence is forgotten. If

one is to get back to this existence, which is indeed an Ocean of

Bliss, our true Self, one must isolate the "I"-thought and cut away

its identity by asking "Who am I?". When its identity is thus

questioned, it will fall back into its source. For, by itself it

cannot stand, being only a link between the Self, the Existence, the

Consciousness, which it reflects, and the insentient body, with

which it identifies. (132)

 

"The body is insentient, the Self does not rise,

Between the body's limit an "I" rises,

Between the body and the Self.

It is named "ego", "knot of matter and spirit",

"bondage", "subtle body" and "mind"."

 

-Forty Verses on Reality, V. 24

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

If one keenly observes the questioned "I"-thought as it falls back

into the source, and abides there, that is Self-Knowledge. (133)