UPADESA SAARAM OF RAMANA MAHARSHI – AN APPRECIATION

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UPADESA SAARAM OF RAMANA MAHARSHI – AN PPRECIATION (Verse 18)

 

Vrittsayastvaham vrittimaasritaah

Vrittayamano vidhyaham manah

 

Vrittayah manah- Thoughts make the mind.

Vrittayah - Thoughts

Aham vrittim aasritaah - depend upon the aham vrithi or

he `I'thought.

Viddhi -You may know

Aham manah -(that `I' thought (itself ) is the mind.

 

The mind is merely the thoughts. All thoughts depend on the `I'

thought (which is the root). Therefore know that the mind is but

the `I' thought.

 

The mind is a continuous flow of thoughts. The thoughts are of

innumerable objects, which may be gross or subtle. Each thought must

necessarily have an object. For example, in the thought, `this is a

pot', the pot is the object. Further, the thought `this is a pot'

cannot arise without a knower of the thought. Therefore the complete

thought is `I know, this is a pot.'

 

The innumerable thoughts thus have two components: `this thought'

and the `I' thought. In the thought `I know this pot', `I am' is

the `I' thought (aham vrittti) and `pot is', is the `this

thought'(idam vritti). In different thoughts the `this'- thought

keeps changing but not the `I' thought. That means that the objects

of the thought keep changing but the subject remains the same.

All `this' thoughts depend on the `I' thought and therefore the mind

is made up of not two thoughts but only the `I' thought. Only after

the `I' thought has arisen, we are capable of knowing any other

object. In deep sleep the `I am' thought is not known and hence no

objects are known.

 

If we wish to understand the mind it is necessary to understand

the `I' thought, which is called aham vritti. The whole thought

process is a modification and projection of the aham vritti

only.This vritti can disappear through enquiry `Who am I? as stated

in the next sloka. (Source: Same as in previous months.)

 

prof laxmi narain (prof_narain)

 

Source and courtesy: Sri Ramana Kendram, Hyderabad

This article was published in Sri Ramana Jyothi,

monthly magazine of the Kendram.