the object of thought and thinking, all merge in the one Source

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Day by Day with Bhagavan________24-12-45 MorningBhagavan asked Mr. T.P. Ramachandra Aiyar to read outa letter written by Mr. Subramania Iyer (Dindigul), a brother ofour Viswanatha Brahmachari. It gave an account of the grandway in which Bhagavan's Jayanti was celebrated at Tiruchuzhion the 21st instant. Mr. Subramania Iyer was writing a letter toMr. S. Doraiswamy Iyer, giving an account of the conversationbetween Georges Le Bot and Bhagavan. It was read out in thehall for the benefit of all assembled. I also read out the accountof the same happening recorded in this diary.A visitor asked if he could do both pranayama anddhyana. Bhagavan said, "One is a help to the other. Whetherone need do pranayama depends on one's pakva or fitness."EveningAfter parayana, Mr. Osborne said that before Mons.Georges Le Bot left, he said the following: "I had theexperience described by me, twice, first by my own efforts,and the second time under the silent influence of a Frenchphilosopher now dead, who held my wrist and brought me tothe same stage without any effort on my part. Both times Ikept approaching the breaking point in waves but shrank back.It was because of the second experience that I decided thatMaharshi could again bring me to that point."To the visitor who pursued the question aboutpranayama, Bhagavan said, "The aim is to make the mindone-pointed. For that pranayama is a help, a means. Not onlyfor dhyana but in every case where we have to make the mindone-pointed, it may be even for a purely secular or materialpurpose, it is good to make pranayama and then start the otherwork. The mind and prana are the same, having the samesource. If one is controlled, the other is also controlled at thesame time. If one is able to make the mind one-pointed withoutthe help of pranayama, he need not bother about pranayama.But one who cannot at once control the mind, may controlthe breath and that will lead to control of the mind. It issomething like pulling a horse by the reins and making it goin one direction."Bhagavan asked Mr. Osborne if Mons. Le Bot hadmentioned the name of the French philosopher who had helpedhim to attain the experience referred to by him. Mr. Osbornecould not give the name, but said the philosopher, now dead,seems to have been one trained in and following the ancientGreek philosophy. Bhagavan remarked, "It could not beGuenon, as that philosopher is said to be dead."Bhagavan continued, "He says he has `Liberate Yourself'for his motto. But why should there be any motto? Liberationis our very nature. We are that. The very fact that we wish forliberation shows that freedom from all bondage is our realnature. That has not got to be freshly acquired. All that isnecessary is to get rid of the false notion that we are bound.When we achieve that, there will be no desire or thought of anysort. So long as one desires liberation, so long, you may take it,one is in bondage." He also said, "People are afraid that whenego or mind is killed, the result may be a mere blank and nothappiness. What really happens is that the thinker, the object ofthought and thinking, all merge in the one Source, which isConsciousness and Bliss itself, and thus that state is neitherinert nor blank. I don't understand why people should be afraidof that state in which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind iskilled. They are every day experiencing that state in sleep. Thereis no mind or thought in sleep. Yet when one rises from sleepone says, `I slept happily'. Sleep is so dear to everyone that noone, prince or beggar, can do without it. And when one wantsto sleep, nothing however high in the range of all the worldlyenjoyments can tempt him from much desired sleep. A kingwants to go to sleep, let us say. His queen, dear to him above allother things, comes then and disturbs him. But even her, hethen brushes aside and prefers to go to sleep. That is anindication of the supreme happiness that is to be had in thatstate where all thoughts cease. If one is not afraid of going tosleep, I don't see why one should be afraid of killing the mindor ego by sadhana." Bhagavan also quoted during the abovediscourse the Tamil stanza (quoted already in this diary) whichends by saying that so long as the cloud of ego hides the moonof jnana, the lily of the Self will not bloom.