'I' and 'I-I' - A Reader's Query - 5

[Guest guest]

The quotations given so far should make it clear what Bhagavan was

referring to when he spoke of the 'I-I' experience, but they fail to

address one of Professor Royster's principal questions: why does

Bhagavan use the term 'I-I' rather than 'I'? The term 'I' is clearly

inadequate and confusing since it denotes either the Self or the ego

rather than the aham sphurana which is, as Bhagavan says, 'neither

the one nor the other'. A. R. Natarajan in his commentary on Sri

Ramana Gita suggests that 'to denote the continuous nature of the

throb of consciousness, Ramana repeats the words as ''I-I''.'

 

This is certainly plausible. An alternative explanation, suggested by

Sadhu Om,can be derived from the rules of Tamil grammar. In simple

Tamil sentences the present tense of the verb 'to be' is usually

omitted. Thus, the expression 'nan-nan' ('I-I' in Tamil) would

generally be taken to mean 'I am I' by a Tamilian. This

interpretation would make 'I-I' an emphatic statement of Self-

awareness akin to the biblical 'I am that I am' which Bhagavan

occasionally said summarised the whole of Vedanta. Bhagavan himself

has said that he used the term 'I-I' to denote the import of the

word 'I'. This explanation appears in both Upadesa Undiyar (verse 21)

and in the talks that precede Sat Darshana Bhashya.

 

Whichever explanation one chooses, either these or others, one

should avoid those which postulate that the experience is called 'I-

I' because it radiates in discrete pulses, for Bhagavan was quite

emphatic that the experience was continuous and unbroken. For

example, in the essay version of Vichara Sangraham he

wrote: 'Underlying the unceasing flow of varied thoughts there arises

the continuous unbroken awareness, silent and spontaneous, as 'I-I'

in the Heart.'

 

...... www.davidgodman.org

[Guest guest]

Whichever explanation one chooses, either these or

others, one

should avoid those which postulate that the experience

is called 'I-

I' because it radiates in discrete pulses, for

Bhagavan was quite

emphatic that the experience was continuous and

unbroken. For

example, in the essay version of Vichara Sangraham he

wrote: 'Underlying the unceasing flow of varied

thoughts there arises

the continuous unbroken awareness, silent and

spontaneous, as 'I-I'

in the Heart.'

 

 

 

In regard to the preceding: Michael says: Any and

all of this intelectualism comes undone after the

actual experience.

 

regards

 

michael

 

 

 

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