Fwd: Selections from TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI-87

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ThePowerOfSilence , " saikali6362 "

<saikali6362 wrote:

 

Selections from TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI-87

 

TALK 452:

 

Mr. Dhar's wife desired to know how meditation could become steady.

 

M.: What is meditation? It consists in expulsion of thoughts. All

the present troubles are due to thoughts and are themselves

thoughts. Give up thoughts. That is happiness and also meditation.

 

D.: How are thoughts given up?

 

M.: The thoughts are for the thinker. Remain as the Self of the

thinker and there is an end of thoughts.

 

Mr. Dhar asked Sri Bhagavan why Brahma, who is Perfection, creates

and puts us to ordeals for regaining Him.

 

M.: Where is the individual who asks this question? He is in the

universe and included in the creation. How does he raise the

question when he is bound in the creation? He must go beyond it and

see if any question arises then.

 

TALK 453:

 

One asked: What is the best way to work for world peace?

 

M.: What is world? What is peace, and who is the worker? The world

is not in your sleep and forms a projection of your mind in your

jagrat. It is therefore an idea and nothing else. Peace is absence

of disturbance. The disturbance is due to the arising of thoughts

in the individual, who is only the ego rising up from Pure

Consciousness. To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts

and to abide as Pure Consciousness. If one remains at peace oneself,

there is only peace all about.

 

D.: If it is a question of doing something one considers wrong, and

hereby saving someone else from a great wrong, should one do it or

refrain?

 

M.: What is right and wrong? There is no standard by which to judge

something to be right and another to be wrong. Opinions differ

according to the nature of the individual and according to the

surroundings. They are again ideas and nothing more. Do not worry

about them. But get rid of thoughts. If you always remain in the

right, then right will prevail in the world.

 

D.: What should one think of when meditating?

 

M.: What is meditation? It is expulsion of thoughts. You are

perturbed by thoughts which rush one after another. Hold on to one

thought so that others are expelled. Continuous practice gives the

necessary strength of mind to engage in meditation.

 

Meditation differs according to the degree of advancement of the

seeker. If one is fit for it one might directly hold the thinker;

and the thinker will automatically sink into his source, namely Pure

Consciousness.

 

If one cannot directly hold the thinker one must meditate on God;

and in due course the same individual will have become sufficiently

pure to hold the thinker and sink into absolute Being. One of the

ladies was not satisfied with this answer and asked for further

elucidation.

 

Sri Bhagavan then pointed out that to see wrong in another is one's

own wrong. The discrimination between right and wrong is the origin

of the sin. One's own sin is reflected outside and the individual in

ignorance superimposes it on another. The best course for one is to

reach the state in which such discrimination does not arise. Do you

see wrong or right in your sleep? Did you not exist in sleep? Be

asleep even in the wakeful state. Abide as the Self and remain

uncontaminated by what goes on around. Moreover, however much you

might advise them, your hearers may not rectify themselves. Be in

the right yourself and remain silent. Your silence will have more

effect than your words or deeds. That is the development of will-

power. Then the world becomes the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within

you.

 

D.: If one is to withdraw oneself, why is there the world?

 

M.: Where is the world and where does one go withdrawing oneself?

Does one fly in an aeroplane beyond space? Is it withdrawal? The

fact is this: the world is only an idea. What do you say: Are you

within the world or is the world within you?

 

D.: I am in the world. I am part of it.

 

M.: That is the mistake. If the world were to exist apart from you,

does it come and tell you that it exists? No, you see it exists. You

see it when you are awake and not when asleep. If it exists apart

from you, it must tell you so and you must be aware of it even in

your sleep.

 

D.: I became aware of it in my jagrat.

 

M.: Do you become aware of yourself and then of the world? Or do you

become aware of the world and then of yourself? Or do you become

aware of both simultaneously?

 

D.: I must say simultaneously.

 

M.: Were you or were you not, before becoming aware of yourself? Do

you admit your continued existence before and when you become aware

of the world?

 

D.: Yes.

 

M.: If always existing yourself, why are you not aware of the world

in sleep if it exists apart from the Self?

 

D.: I become aware of myself and of the world also.

 

M.: So you become aware of yourself. Who becomes aware of whom?

Are there two selves?

 

D.: No.

 

M.: So you see that it is wrong to suppose that awareness has

passing phases. The Self is always aware. When the Self identifies

itself as the seer it sees objects. The creation of the subject and

the object is the creation of the world. Subjects and objects are

creations in Pure Consciousness. You see pictures moving on the

screen in a cinema show. When you are intent on the pictures you are

not aware of the screen. But the pictures cannot be seen without the

screen behind. The world stands for the pictures and Consciousness

stands for the screen. The Consciousness is pure. It is the same as

the Self which is eternal and unchanging. Get rid of the subject and

object and Pure Consciousness will alone remain.

 

D.: But why did Pure Brahman become Isvara and manifest the universe

if He did not mean it?

 

M.: Did Brahman or Isvara tell you so? You say that Brahman became

Isvara, and so on. This too you did not say in your sleep. Only in

your jagrat state you speak of Brahman, Isvara and universe. The

jagrat state is a duality of subject and object - owing to the rise

of thoughts. So they are your thought creations.

 

D.: But the world exists in my sleep even though I am not aware.

 

M.: What is the proof of its existence?

 

D.: Others are aware of it.

 

M.: Do they say so to you when you are in sleep or do you become

aware of others who see the world in your sleep?

 

D.: No, but God is always aware.

 

M.: Leave God alone. Speak for yourself. You do not know God. He is

only what you think of Him. Is he apart from you? He is that Pure

Consciousness in which all ideas are formed. You are that

Consciousness.

 

TALK 454:

 

Mrs. Dhar: Sri Bhagavan advises practice of enquiry even when one is

engaged in external activities. The finality of such enquiry is the

realisation of the Self and consequently breath must stop. If breath

should stop, how will work go on or, in other words, how will breath

stop when one is working?

 

M.: There is confusion between the means and the end (i.e., sadhana

and sadhya). Who is the enquirer? The aspirant and not the siddha.

Enquiry signifies that the enquirer considers himself separate from

enquiry.

 

So long as this duality lasts the enquiry must be continued, i.e.,

until the individuality disappears and the Self is realised to be

only the eternal Be-ing (including enquiry and enquirer).

 

The Truth is that Self is constant and unintermittent Awareness. The

object of enquiry is to find the true nature of the Self as

Awareness. Let one practise enquiry so long as separateness is

perceived. If once realisation arises there is no further need for

enquiry. The question will also not arise. Can awareness ever think

of questioning who is aware? Awareness remains pure and simple. The

enquirer is aware of his own individuality. Enquiry does not stand

in the way of his individual awareness; nor does external work

interfere with such awareness. If work, seemingly external, does not

obstruct the individual awareness, will the work, realised to be not

separate from the Self, obstruct the uninterrupted Awareness of the

Self, which is One without a second and which is not an individual

separate from work?

 

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