Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

Questioner: The Yogis say that one must renounce this world and go off

into secluded jungles if one wishes to find the truth.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The life of action need not be renounced. If you

meditate for an hour or two every day you can then carry on with your

duties. If you meditate in the right manner then the current of mind

induced will continue to flow even in the midst of your work. It is as

though there were two ways of expressing the same idea; the same line

which you take in meditation will be expressed in your activities.

 

Question: What will be the result of doing that?

 

Sri Ramaa Maharshi: As you go on you will find that your attitude

towards people, events and objects gradually changes. Your actions

will tend to follow your meditations of their own accord.

 

Question: Then you do not agree with the yogis?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: A man should surrender the personal selfishness

which binds him to this world. Giving up the false self is the true

renunciation.

 

Question: How is it possible to become selfless while leading a life

of worldly activity?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no conflict between work and wisdom.

 

Question: Do you mean that one can continue all the old activities in

one's profession, for instance, and at the same time get

enlightenment?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Why not? But in that case one will not think

that it is the old personality which is doing the work, because one's

consciousness will gradually become transferred until it is centred in

that which is beyond the little self.

 

Questioner: If a person is engaged in work, there will be little time

left for him to meditate.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Setting apart time for meditation is only for the

merest spiritual novices. A man who is advancing will begin to enjoy

the deeper beatitude whether he is at work or not. While his hands are

in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

 

Question: Upon enquiring into the origin of thoughts there is

perception of 'I'. But it does not satisfy me.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Quite right. The perception of 'I' is associated

with a form, may be the body. There should be nothing associated with

the pure Self. The Self is the unassociated, pure reality, in whose

light the body and the ego shine. On stilling all thoughts the pure

consciousness remains.

 

Just on waking from sleep and before becoming aware of the world there

is that pure 'I, I'. Hold on to it without sleeping or without

allowing thoughts to possess you. If that is held firm it does not

matter even if the world is seen. The seer remains unaffected by the

phenomena.

 

What is the ego? Enquire. The body is insentient and cannot say 'I'.

The Self is pure consciousness and non-dual. It cannot say 'I'. No one

says 'I' in sleep. What is the ego then? It is something intermediate

between the inert body and the Self. It has no locus standi. If sought

for it vanishes like a ghost. At night a man may imagine that there is

a ghost by his side because of the play of shadows. If he looks

closely he discovers that the ghost is not really there, and what he

imagined to be a ghost vanishes. The ghost was never there. So also

with the ego. It is an intangible link between the body and pure

consciousness. It is not real. So long as one does not look closely at

it, it continues to give trouble. But when one looks for it, it is

found not to exist.

 

There is another story, which illustrates this. In Hindu marriage

functions the feasts often continue for five or six days. On one of

these occasions a stranger was mistaken for the best man by the

bride's party and they therefore treated him with special regard.

Seeing him treated with special regard by the bride's party, the

bridegroom's party considered him to be some man of importance related

to the bride's party and therefore they too showed him special

respect. The stranger had altogether a happy time of it. He was also

all along aware of the real situation. On one occasion the groom's

party wanted to refer to him on some point and so they asked the

bride's party about him. Immediately he scented trouble and made

himself scarce. So it is with the ego. If you looked for it, it

disappears. If not, it continues to give trouble.