Ask Whence am I and not merely Who am I

[Guest guest]

Day by Day with Bhagavan________1-12-45I returned here last night. Maha Vir Prasad, Chief Engineerto the U. P. Government who had been staying here for abouttwenty days in October and November and who went on apilgrimage to Rameswaram and other places, is back here. Incontinuation of an old question of his with reference to a certainpassage in Maha Yoga, he asked Bhagavan whether it wasnecessary and a condition precedent for a man to watch hisbreathing before beginning the mental quest `Who am I?'Bhagavan: All depends on a man's pakva, i.e., hisaptitude and fitness. Those who have not the mental strengthto concentrate or control their mind and direct it on the questare advised to watch their breathing, since such watching willnaturally and as a matter of course lead to cessation of thoughtand bring the mind under control.Breath and mind arise from the same place and whenone of them is controlled, the other is also controlled. As amatter of fact, in the quest method — which is more correctly`Whence am I?' and not merely `Who am I?' — we are notsimply trying to eliminate saying `we are not the body, notthe senses and so on,' to reach what remains as the ultimatereality, but we are trying to find whence the `I' thought for theego arises within us. The method contains within it, thoughimplicitly and not expressly, the watching of the breath. Whenwe watch wherefrom the `I'-thought, the root of all thoughts,springs, we are necessarily watching the source of breath also,as the `I'-thought and the breath arise from the same source.Mr. Prasad again asked whether, for controlling breath,the regular pranayama is not better in which 1:4:2 proportionfor breathing in, retaining, and breathing out is prescribed.Bhagavan replied, "All those proportions, sometimes regulatednot by counting but by uttering mantras, etc., are aids forcontrolling the mind. That is all. Watching the breath is alsoone form of pranayama. Retaining breath, etc., is more violentand may be harmful in some cases, e.g., when there is noproper Guru to guide the sadhak at every step and stage. Butmerely watching the breath is easy and involves no risk."(to be concluded)