Dr. C. G. Jung - Sri Ramana & His Message to Modern man

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SRI RAMANA AND HIS MESSAGE TO MODERN MAN

By Dr. C. G. Jung, (Zurich)

 

(Being Extracts from Dr. C. G. Jung’s Introduction to Dr. Zameer’s

Der Weg Zum Selbst, The Way to the Self or The Life and Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi.)

 

SRI RAMANA is a true son of the Indian earth. He is

genuine and, in addition to that, something quite phenomenal.

In India he is the whitest spot in a white space.

 

What we find in the life and teachings of Sri Ramana is

the purest of India; with its breath of world-liberated and

liberating humanity, it is a chant of millenniums. This melody

is built up on a single, great motif, which, in a thousand colorful

reflexes, rejuvenates itself within the Indian spirit, and the latest

incarnation of which is Sri Ramana Maharshi himself.

 

The identification of the Self with God will strike the

European as shocking. It is a specifically oriental Realization, as

expressed in Sri Ramana’s utterances. Psychology cannot

contribute anything further to it, except the remark that it lies

far beyond its scope to propose such a thing. However, it is

clear to the Indian that the Self as spiritual Source is not different

from God; and in so far as man abides in his Self, he is not only

contained in God but is God Himself. Sri Ramana is quite

clear in this respect.

 

The Goal of Eastern practices is the same as that of Western

Mysticism: the focus is shifted from the ‘I’ to the Self, from

Man to God. This means that the ‘I’ disappears in the Self, and

This means that the ‘I’ disappears in the Self, and

Man in God. A similar effort is described in the exercitia

spiritualia, in which the ‘personal property’, the ‘I’ subjugate to

the highest possible degree to the possessorship of Christ. Sri

Ramakrishna adopted the same position in regard to the Self,

only with him the dilemma between the ‘I’ and the Self comes

a little more closely to the foreground. Sri Ramana declares

unmistakably that the real purpose of spiritual practice is the

dissolution of the ‘I’. Ramakrishna, however, shows a somewhat

hesitating attitude in this respect. Though he says “As long as

the I-sense lasts, so long are true Knowledge (Jnana) and

Liberation (Mukti) impossible”, yet he must acknowledge the

fatal nature of ahankara. He says “How very few can obtain

this Union (Samadhi) and free themselves from this ‘I’? It is

very rarely possible. Talk as much as you want, isolate yourself

continuously, still this ‘I’ will always return to you. Cut down

the poplar tree today, and you will find tomorrow it forms new

shoots. When you ultimately find that this ‘I’ cannot be

destroyed, let it remain as ‘I’ the servant.” In relation to this

concession, Sri Ramana is certainly the more radical.

 

The changing relations between these two quantities, the ‘I’

and the Self, represent a field of experience which the introspective

consciousness of the East has explored to a degree almost

unattainable by the Western human being. The philosophy of

the East, which is so very different from ours, represents to us a

highly valuable present, which, however, we “must obtain in order

to possess.” Sri Ramana’s words once again sum up the principal

things which the Spirit of India has accumulated during thousands

of years in contemplation of the Inner Self; and the individual

life and work of the Maharshi exemplifies once more the

innermost striving of the Indian people to find the liberating

original Source. I say “once more”, because India stands before

the fatal step of becoming a State, and with that to enter the

community of nations, the leading principles of which have

everything on their programme except just the ‘solitude’ and the

peace of the soul.

 

The Eastern nations are threatened by a quick

disintegration of their spiritual goods, and what comes into their

place cannot always be considered to belong to the best of the

Western mind. Therefore, one may look upon sages like Sri

Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana as modern prophets. They not

only remind us of the thousands of years’ old spiritual culture

of India, but also directly embody it. Their life and teachings

form an impressive warning not to forget the demand of the

soul in all the new things of Western civilization and their

materialistic-technical and commercial concerns of the world.

The breathless impulse to obtain and possess in the political,

social and intellectual fields, which is rummaging the apparent,

unappeasable passion in the soul of the Westerner, is also

spreading continuously in the East and threatens to bear

consequences not yet to be overlooked. Not only in India but

also in China, much has already been lost in which once the life

of the soul lived and flourished. The externalization-culture of

the West can truly clear away many evils, the destruction of

which seems to be very desirable and advantageous. But, as

experience has shown, this progress is bought too dearly with a

loss of spiritual culture. It is undoubtedly more comfortable to

dwell in a well-ordered and hygienically furnished house, but

that does not answer the question as to who is the dweller in

this house, and whether his soul enjoys a similar state of order

and purity, that is, like that of the house serving for external

life. Once man is set to the pursuit of external things, he is

never satisfied, as experience shows, with the mere necessities of

life, but always strives after more and more, which, true to his

prejudices, he always seeks in external things. He forgets entirely

that in spite of all external success inwardly he remains the same,

and therefore complains of his poverty when he owns only one

motor-car instead of two like others around him. Certainly, the

external life of man can bear many improvements and

beautifications, but they lose their significance to the extent to

which the inner man cannot keep up with them. The provision

with all “necessities” is, without doubt, a source of happiness

Which is not to be under-estimated. But above and beyond it,

the inner man raises his claim, which cannot be satisfied by any

external goods: and the less this voice is heard in the hunt for

‘the wonderful things’ of this world, the more the inner man

becomes a source of inexplicable bad luck and ununderstandable

unhappiness in the midst of conditions of life from which one

would expect something quite different. The externalization

leads to an incurable suffering, because nobody can understand

how one could suffer because of one’s own nature. Nobody is

surprised at his own insatiability, but looks upon it as his

birthright; he does not realize that the one-sidedness of the diet

of his soul ultimately leads to the most serious disturbances of

balance. It is this which forms the illness of the Westerner, and

he does not rest till he has infected the whole world with his

greedy restlessness.

 

The Wisdom and Mysticism of the East have, therefore, a

very great deal to tell us, provided they speak in their own

inimitable speech. They should remind us of what we possess in

our own culture of similar things and have already been

forgotten, and direct our attention to that which we put aside

as unimportant, namely the destiny of our inner man. The life

and teachings of Sri Ramana are not only important for the

Indian but also for the Westerner. Not only do they form a

record of great human interest, but also a warning message to a

humanity which threatens to lose itself in the chaos of its

unconsciousness and lack of self-control.