Ramana Maharshi says efforts towards knowing various worlds by mind are waste

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“Although the world and the mind rise and set together, it is by the mind alone

that the world shines...”.

-- ‘Ulladhu Narpadhu’, verse 7

 

Let us suppose that a man in the dark room wants to stop observing the

objects in the room, which are seen by means of the reflected light, and is

possessed instead by a longing to see its source, ‘Whence comes this light ?’.

If so, he should go to the very spot where the reflected beam strikes the wall,

position his eyes and look back along the beam. What does he see then ? The sun

! But what he now sees is not the real sun; it is only a reflection of

it,Furthermore, it will appear to him as if the sun is lying at a certain spot

on the ground outside the room! The particular spot where the sun is seen lying

outside can even be pointed out as being so many feet to the right or left of

the room (like saying, “Two digits ‘to the right

from the centre of the chest is the heart”). But, does the sun really lie thus

on the ground at that spot ? No, that is only the place whence the reflected

beam rises ! What should he do if he wants to see the real sun! He must keep his

eyes positioned along the straight line in which the reflected beam comes and,

without moving them to either side of it. follow it towards the reflected sun

which is then visible to him.

 

Just as the man in the dark room, deciding to see the source of the

reflected beam which has come into the room, gives up the desire either to enjoy

or to make research about the things there with the help of that reflected beam,

so a man who wants to know the real Light (Self) must give up all efforts

towards enjoying or knowing about the various worlds which shine only by means

of the mind-light functioning through the five senses, since he cannot know Self

either if he is deluded by cognizing and desiring external objects (like a

worldly man) or if he is engaged in investigating them (like our modern

scientists). This giving up of attention towards external sense-objects is

desirelessness (vairagya) or inward renunciation.

The eagerness to see whence the reflected ray comes into the room

corresponds to the eagerness to see whence the ego. ‘I’, the mind-light, rises.

This eagerness is love for Self (swatma-bhakti). Keeping the eyes positioned

along the straight line of the beam without straying away to one side or the

other corresponds to the one-pointed attention fixed unswervingly on the ‘I’ –

consciousness. Is not the man now moving along the straight line of the

reflected beam from the dark room towards the piece of mirror lying outside?

This moving corresponds to diving within towards the Heart.

 

Source: The Path of Sri Ramana Part 1 book

--

Om namo Bhagavate Sri Ramanaya

Prasanth Jalasutram