Aham and Aham-vritti # 4

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D: How then does the aham-vrtti function in the jnani?

 

laksya ... attention, aim, target

prajnana.. full consciousness

 

M: It does not function in him at all. The jnani's laksya is the

Heart itself, because he is one and identical with that

undifferentiated, pure Consciousness referred to by the Upanishads

as the prajnana. Prajnana is verily Brahman, the Absolute, and there

is no Brahman other than prajnana.

 

D: How then does ignorance of this one and only Reality unhappily

arise in the case of the ajnani?

 

M: the ajnani sees only the mind, which is the mere reflection of

the Light of pure Consciousness arising from the Heart. Of the Heart

itself he is ignorant. Why? Because his mind is extroverted and has

never sought its source.

 

D: What prevents the infinite, undifferentiated Light of

Consciousness arising from the Heart from revealing itself to the

ajnani?

 

M: Just as water in the 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 and present in the form of a reflection the

phenomenon called the mind. Seeing only this reflection, the

ajnani is deluded into the belief that he is a finite being, the

jiva.

If the mind becomes introverted through inquiry into the source

of aham-vrtti, the vasanas become extinct, and in the absence of the

reflecting medium the phenomenon of reflection, namely the mind,

also disappears being absorbed into the Light of the one Reality,

the Heart.

This is a the sum and substance of all that an aspirant need

know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and on-

pointed inquiry into the source of aham-vrtti.

 

D: But any endeavor he may make is limited to the mind in the waking

state. How can such inquiry conducted in only one of the three

states of the mind destroy the mind itself?

 

M: Inquiry into the source of aham-vrtti is not doubt initiated by

the sadhaka in the waking state of the mind. It cannot be said that

in him the mind has been destroyed. But the process of self-inquiry

itself will reveal that the alternation or transmutation of the

three states of the mind as well as the three states themselves

belong to the world of phenomena, which cannot affect his intense,

inward inquiry.

Self-inquiry is really possible only through intense

introversion of the mind. What is finally realized as a result of

such inquiry into the source of aham-vrtti is verily the Heart as

the undifferentiated Light of pure Consciousness, into which the

reflected light of the mind is completely absorbed.

 

 

 

 

 

From The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi...Shambala