Fwd: Selections from TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI-51

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ThePowerOfSilence , " saikali6362 "

<saikali6362 wrote:

 

Selections from TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI-51

 

TALK 271:

 

Dr. Syed: How is Grace to be obtained?

 

M.: Similar to obtaining the Self.

 

D.: Practically, how is it to be for us?

 

M.: By self-surrender.

D.: Grace was said to be the Self. Should I then surrender to my own

Self?

 

M.: Yes. To the one from whom Grace is sought. God, Guru and Self

are only different forms of the same.

 

D.: Please explain, so that I may understand.

 

M.: So long as you think you are the individual you believe in God.

On worshipping God, God appears to you as Guru. On serving Guru He

manifests as the Self. This is the rationale.

 

TALK 272:

 

D.: There are widespread disasters spreading havoc in the world

e.g., famine and pestilence. What is the cause of this state of

affairs?

 

M.: To whom does all this appear?

 

D.: That won't do. I see misery around.

 

M.: You were not aware of the world and its sufferings in your

sleep; you are conscious of them in your wakeful state. Continue in

that state in which you were not afflicted by these. That is to say,

when you are not aware of the world, its sufferings do not affect

you. When you remain as the Self, as in sleep, the world and its

sufferings will not affect you. Therefore look within. See the Self!

There will be an end of the world and its miseries.

 

D.: But that is selfishness.

 

M.: The world is not external. Because you identify yourself wrongly

with the body you see the world outside, and its pain becomes

apparent to you. But they are not real. Seek the reality and get rid

of this unreal feeling.

 

D.: There are great men, public workers, who cannot solve the

problem of the misery of the world.

 

M.: They are ego-centred and therefore their inability. If they

remained in the Self they would be different.

 

D.: Why do not Mahatmas help?

 

M.: How do you know that they do not help? Public speeches, physical

activity and material help are all outweighed by the silence of

Mahatmas. They accomplish more than others.

 

D.: What is to be done by us for ameliorating the condition of the

world?

 

M.: If you remain free from pain, there will be no pain anywhere.

The trouble now is due to your seeing the world externally and also

thinking that there is pain there. But both the world and the pain

are within you. If you look within there will be no pain.

 

D.: God is perfect. Why did He create the world imperfect? The work

shares the nature of the author. But here it is not so.

 

M.: Who is it that raises the question?

 

D.: I - the individual.

 

M.: Are you apart from God that you ask this question? So long as

you consider yourself the body you see the world as external. The

imperfections appear to you. God is perfection. His work also is

perfection. But you see it as imperfection because of your wrong

identification.

 

D.: Why did the Self manifest as this miserable world?

 

M.: In order that you might seek it. Your eyes cannot see

themselves. Place a mirror before them and they see themselves.

Similarly with the creation. " See yourself first and then see the

whole world as the Self. "

 

D.: So it amounts to this - that I should always look within.

 

M.: Yes.

 

D.: Should I not see the world at all?

 

M.: You are not instructed to shut your eyes from the world. You are

only to " see yourself first and then see the whole world as the

Self " . If you consider yourself as the body the world appears to be

external. If you are the Self the world appears as Brahman.

 

TALK 273:

 

Dr. Syed asked: I have been reading the Five Hymns. I find that the

hymns are addressed to Arunachala by you. You are an Advaitin. How

do you then address God as a separate Being?

 

M.: The devotee, God and the Hymns are all the Self.

 

D.: But you are addressing God. You are specifying this Arunachala

Hill as God.

 

M.: You can identify the Self with the body. Should not the devotee

identify the Self with Arunachala?

 

D.: If Arunachala be the Self why should it be specially picked out

among so many other hills? God is everywhere. Why do you specify Him

as Arunachala?

 

M.: What has attracted you from Allahabad to this place? What has

attracted all these people around?

 

D.: Sri Bhagavan.

 

M.: How was I attracted here? By Arunachala. The Power cannot be

denied. Again Arunachala is within and not without. The Self is

Arunachala.

 

D.: Several terms are used in the holy books - Atman, Paramatman,

Para, etc. What is the gradation in them?

 

M.: They mean the same to the user of the words. But they are

understood differently by persons according to their development.

 

D.: But why do they use so many words to mean the same thing?

 

M.: It is according to circumstances. They all mean the Self. Para

means `not relative' or `beyond the relative', that is to say, the

Absolute.

 

D.: Should I meditate on the right chest in order to meditate on the

Heart?

 

M.: The Heart is not physical. Meditation should not be on the right

or the left. Meditation should be on the Self. Everyone knows `I

am'. Who is the `I'? It will be neither within nor without, neither

on the right nor on the left. `I am' - that is all. The Heart is the

centre from which everything springs. Because you see the world, the

body and so on, it is said that there is a centre for these, which

is called the Heart. When you are in the Heart, the Heart is known

to be neither the centre nor the circumference. There is nothing

else. Whose centre could it be?

 

D.: May I take it that the Self and the non-Self are like substance

and its shadow?

 

M.: Substance and shadow are for the one who sees only the shadow

and mistakes it for the substance and sees its shadow also. But

there is neither substance nor shadow for the one who is aware only

of the Reality.

 

D.: Buddha, when asked if there is the ego, was silent; when asked

if there is no ego, he was silent; asked if there is God, he was

silent; asked if there is no God, he was silent. Silence was his

answer for all these. Mahayana and Hinayana schools have both

misinterpreted his silence because they say that he was an atheist.

If he was an atheist, why should he have spoken of nirvana, of

births and deaths, of karma, reincarnations and dharma? His

interpreters are wrong. Is it not so?

 

M.: You are right.

 

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