Fwd: Selections from TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI-71

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ThePowerOfSilence , " saikali6362 "

<saikali6362 wrote:

 

Selections from TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI-71

 

TALK 343:

 

D.: Even as the hand is cut off, one must remain unaware of it

because Bhagavad Gita declares that the Self is different from the

body.

 

M.: Does jnana consist in being unaware of the pain of injury?

 

D.: Should he not remain unaware of pain?

 

M.: Major operations are performed under anaesthetics, keeping the

patient unaware of the pain. Does the patient gain jnana too, at the

same time? Insensibility to pain cannot be jnana.

 

D.: Should not a Jnani (a sage) be insensible to pain?

 

M.: Physical pain only follows body-consciousness; it cannot be in

the absence of body-consciousness. Mind, being unaware of the body,

cannot be aware of its pains or pleasures. Read the story of Indra

and Ahalya in Yoga Vasishta; there death itself is said to be an act

of mind. Pains are dependent on the ego; they cannot be without

the `I', but

`I' can remain without them.

 

TALK 344:

 

D.: Vichara Sagara relates four obstacles to Self-Realisation.

 

M.: Why only four? Some say they are nine. Sleep is one of them.

What is sleep? It is only the obverse of waking. It cannot be

independent of waking. Sleep is unalloyed Self. Do not think you are

awake: sleep cannot be, nor the three states either. Only forgetting

the Self you say you dreamt. Can anything exist in the absence of

the Self? Why do you leave it out and hold the non-self? As the mind

tends to go out turn it inwards then and there. It goes out owing to

the habit of looking for happiness outside oneself; but the

knowledge that the external objects are not the cause of happiness

will keep it in check. This is vairagya or dispassion. Only after

perfect vairagya the mind becomes steady. The mind is only a mixture

of knowledge and ignorance or of sleep and waking. It functions in

five ways:

 

Kshipta (active);

Moodha (dull);

Vikshipta (distracted);

Kashaya (latent); and

Ekagrya (one-pointed).

 

Of these kashaya is only the latency of tendencies and not the

tendencies themselves such as attachment, repulsion, etc. Yourself

being ananda (Bliss), why should you enjoy it saying, " Ah! How

blissful! " This is rasasvada. During the marriage ceremonies a

virgin feels happy as a bride without experiencing the embrace of

man: this is rasasvada.

 

D.: Jivanmukti (liberated while alive) itself being ananda . . . .

 

Sri Bhagavan interrupted: Do not look for sastras. What is

jivanmukti? What is ananda? Liberation itself is in doubt. What are

all these words? Can they be independent of the Self.

 

D.: Only we have no experience of all this.

 

M.: What is not, is always lost; what is, is ever present, here and

now. This is the eternal order of things. Example: necklace round

the neck.

 

TALK 345:

 

Sri Bhagavan continued, after interval: Destroy the power of mind by

seeking it. When the mind is examined its activities cease

automatically. Looking for the source of mind is another method. The

source may be said to be God or Self or consciousness. Concentrating

on one thought, all other thoughts disappear; finally that thought

also disappears. It is necessary to be aware while controlling

thoughts, otherwise it will lead to sleep.

 

D.: How to seek the mind?

 

M.: Breath-control may do as an aid but can never lead to the goal

itself. While doing it mechanically, take care to be alert in mind

and remember the `I-thought' and seek its source. Then you will find

that where breath sinks, there the `I-thought' arises. They sink and

rise together. The `I-thought' also will sink along with breath.

Simultaneously another luminous and infinite " I-I " will manifest and

it will be continuous and unbroken. That is the goal. It goes by

different names - God, Self, Kundalini-Sakti, consciousness etc.,

etc. When the attempt is made it will of itself take you to the goal.

 

TALK 346:

 

Free will and Destiny last as long as the body lasts. But wisdom

transcends both, for the Self is beyond knowledge and ignorance.

 

TALK 347:

 

The mind is a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there

is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will

automatically vanish. The ego and the mind are the same. The ego is

the root-thought from which all other thoughts arise.

 

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