Michael James about True and False knowledge based on teachings of Ramana Maharshi - Final Part

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Therefore, to attain true knowledge, it is necessary for us not merely to make

our mind subside temporarily in a state of abeyance, but instead to destroy it

forever by putting an end to its original cause and supporting base, which is

our forgetfulness or ignorance of our real self.

 

By certain forms of meditation or yogic practices such as breathcontrol,it is

possible for us to remove all our false knowledge of duality artificially and

thereby to make our mind subside temporarily in a state of abeyance, sometimes

even for a very prolonged period of time. But the only means by which we can

destroy our mind is by knowing our real self, and we can know our real self only

by scrutinising our essential consciousness ‘I am’.

 

Therefore in verse 14 of Upadesa Undiyar Sri Ramana says:

 

When [we] send [our] mind, which subsides [only temporarily] when [we]

restrain [our] breath, on the one path of knowing [our real self], its form will

die.

 

In a dream, if we cease to know any objects, but do so without actually knowing

our waking self, we will slip either into deep sleep or into another dream.

Similarly in this waking state, which is also a dream, if instead of trying to

know our real self we merely try to give up knowing any of the objects or

thoughts that we are experiencing, we will slip either into deep sleep or into

another state of dream.

 

Therefore, in order to go beyond these three ordinary states of waking, dream

and deep sleep, we must not only cease knowing other things, but must also

remove our veil of self-forgetfulness by remembering our true self. That is, in

order to awaken to our true self, we must turn our attention selfward to

scrutinise and clearly know the true nature of ourself, our mere consciousness

of being, ‘I am’

 

Since this state of true knowledge transcends our ordinary three states, it must

be devoid of all the false knowledge – all the imaginary knowledge of

differences or duality – that we only experience in two of them. Therefore,

since it is a state in which we experience no duality, it is a thought-free

state like sleep, but since it is at the same time a state in which we

experience absolute clarity of self-knowledge, it is also a state of perfect

wakefulness. Hence in advaita vedanta this fundamental state of true

self-knowledge is sometimes described as the state of ‘wakeful sleep’ or ‘waking

sleep’ – jagrat-sushupti in Sanskrit, or nanavu-tuyil in Tamil.

 

Since it is the absolute state that underlies yet transcends all relative

states, true self-knowledge is in fact the only state that really exists.

Therefore in verse 32 of Ulladu Narpadu Anubandham Sri Ramana says:

 

For those who experience waking, dream and sleep, [the real state of]

‘wakeful sleep’, [which is] beyond [these three ordinary states], is named

turiya [the ‘fourth’]. [However] since that turiya alone exists, [and] since the

three [states] that appear [and disappear] are [in reality] non-existent, [the

one real state that is thus named turiya is in fact] turiya-atita [that which

transcends even the relative concept that it is the ‘fourth’]. Be clear [about

this truth].

 

Source: Happiness and The Art of Being Book which is a layman’s introduction to

the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana By

Michael James

 

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Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram