Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi

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Question: How long can the mind stay or be kept in the Heart?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The period extends by practice.

 

Question: What happens at the end of the period?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The mind returns to the present normal state.

Unity in the Heart is replaced by a variety of perceived phenomena.

This is called the outgoing mind. The Heart-going mind is called the

resting mind.

 

When one daily practices more and more in this manner, the mind will

become extremely pure due to the removal of its defects and the

practice will become so easy that the purified mind will plunge into

the Heart as soon as the enquiry is commenced.

 

Question: Is it possible for a person who once has had the experience

of sat-chit-ananda in meditation to identify himself with the body

when out of meditation?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Yes, it is possible, but he gradually loses the

identification in the course of his practice. In the floodlight of the

Self the darkness of illusion dissipates forever.

 

Experience gained without rooting out all the Vasanas (latent

impressions or mental tendencies) cannot remain steady. Effort must be

made to eradicate the Vasanas; knowledge can only remain unshaken

after all the Vasanas are rooted out.

 

We have to contend against age-long mental tendencies. They will all

go. Only they go comparatively soon in the case of those who have made

Sadhana (spiritual practice) in the past and later in the case of

others.

 

Question: Do these tendencies go gradually or will they suddenly all

disappear one day? I ask this because although I have remained here

for a long time I do not perceive any gradual change in me.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: When the sun rises, does the darkness go

gradually or all at once?

 

Question: How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: The degree of the absence of thoughts is the

measure of your progress towards Self-realisation. But Self-

realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same.

The Self remains always in realization. The obstacles are thoughts.

Progress is measured by the degree of removal of the obstacles to

understanding that the Self is always realized. So thoughts must be

checked by seeking to whom they arise. So you go to their source,

where they do not arise.

 

Questioner: Doubts are always arising. Hence my question.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: A doubt arises and is cleared. Another arises and

that is cleared, making way for yet another; and so it goes on. So

there is no possibility of clearing away all doubts. See to whom the

doubts arise. Go to their source and abide in it. Then they cease to

arise. That is how doubts are to be cleared.

 

Question: Should I go on asking 'Who am I?' without answering? Who

asks whom? Which Bhavana (attitude) should be in the mind at the time

of enquiry? What is 'I', the Self or the ego?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: In the enquiry 'Who am I?', 'I' is the ego. The

question really means, what is the source or origin of this ego? You

need not have any Bhavana (attitude) in the mind. All that is required

is that you must give up the Bhavana (attitude) that you are the body,

of such and such a description, with such and such a name, etc. There

is no need to have a Bhavana about your real nature. It exists as it

always does. It is real and no Bhavana.

 

Question: But is it not funny that the 'I' should be searching for the

'I'? Does not the enquiry 'Who am I?' turn out in the end to be an

empty formula? Or, am I to put the question to myself endlessly,

repeating it like some mantra?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Self-enquiry is certainly not an empty formula

and it is more than the repetition of any mantra. If the enquiry 'Who

am I?' were a mere mental questioning, it would not be of much value.

The very purpose of self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its

source. It is not, therefore, a case of one 'I' searching for another

'I'. Much less is self-enquiry an empty formula, for it involves an

intense activity of the entire mind to keep it steadily poised in pure

Self-awareness.

 

Question: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and some

time in the evenings for this atma-vichara (self-enquiry)? Or should I

do it always, even when I am writing or walking?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: What is your real nature? Is it writing, walking

or being? The one unalterable reality is being. Until you realise that

state of pure being you should pursue the enquiry. If once you are

established in it there will be no further worry.

 

No one will enquire into the source of thoughts unless thoughts arise.

So long as you think 'I am walking' or 'I am writing', enquire who

does it.

 

Question: If I go on rejecting thoughts can I call it Vichara

(enquiry)?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: It may be a stepping stone. But really vichara

begins when you cling to your Self and are already off the mental

movement, the thought waves.

 

Question: Then vichara (enquiry) is not intellectual?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: No, it is Antara Vichara, inner quest.

 

Holding the mind and investigating it is advised for a beginner. But

what is mind after all? It is a projection of the Self. See for whom

it appears and from where it rises. The 'I'-thought will be found to

be the root-cause. Go deeper. The 'I'-thought disappears and there is

an infinitely expanded 'I'-consciousness.

 

Question: I asked Mother in Sri Aurobindo Ashram the following

question: 'I keep my mind blank without thought arising so that God

might show Himself in His true being. But I do not perceive anything.'

The reply was to this effect: 'The attitude is right. The power will

come down from above. It is a direct experience.' Should I do anything

further?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Be what you are. There is nothing to come down or

become manifest. All that is necessary is to lose the ego. That which

is is always there. Even now you are that. You are not apart from it.

What do you wait for? The thought, 'I have not seen', the expectation

to see and the desire of getting something, are all the workings of

the ego. You have fallen into snares of the ego. The ego says all

these and not you. Be yourself and nothing more!

 

Once born you reach something. If you reach it you return also.

Therefore leave off all this verbiage. Be as you are. See who you are

and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming and returning.

 

Question: How is one to know the Self?

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi: Knowing the Self means being the Self. Can you

say that you do not know the Self? Though you cannot see your own eyes

and not provided with a mirror to look in, do you deny the existence

of your eyes? Similarly, you are aware of the Self even though the

Self is not objectified. Or, do you deny your Self because it is not

objectified? When you say I cannot know the Self', it means absence in

terms of relative knowledge that you identify yourself with it. Such

wrong identity has forged the difficulty of not knowing the obvious

Self because it cannot be objectified. And then you ask 'how is one to

know the Self?'

 

Question: You talk of being. Being what?

 

Sri Ramama Maharshi: Your duty is to be and not to be this or that. 'I

am that I am' sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in the

words 'Be still'. What does stillness mean? It means destroy yourself.

Because any form or shape is the cause of trouble. Give up the notion

that 'I am so and so'. All that is required to realise the Self is to

be still. What can be easier than that? Hence Atma Vidya (Self-

knowledge) is the easiest to attain.

 

The truth of oneself alone is worthy to be scrutinized and known.

Taking it as the target of one's attention, one should keenly know it

in the Heart. This knowledge of oneself will be revealed only to the

consciousness which is silent, clear and free from the activity of the

agitated and suffering mind. Know that the consciousness which always

shines in the Heart as the formless Self, 'I', and which is known by

one's being still without thinking about anything as existent or non-

existent, alone is the perfect reality.