Bondage and Liberation - Sri Ramana Maharshi

[Guest guest]

The Maharshi: The very fact that the nature and characteristics of

liberation are described differently by different persons would

constitute sufficient evidence to conclude that the conception of

liberation is a product of pure imagination.

 

Devotee: If bondage and liberation are merely fanciful conceptions,

every endeavour made by the spiritual aspirant through sravana,

manana, etc.* become futile practices with no real purpose to serve.

 

M.: No, such endeavors are not made in vain. To know firmly beyond

the shadow of doubt that there is no such thing as bondage or

liberation is the summum bonum that has to be attained by every

possible means. Except through such sadhana as referred to above, it

is impossible to attain this supreme goal, viz., the perfect

realization that there is neither bondage nor liberation (which, in

fact, do not exist in the sphere of true experience).

 

D.: Is there any experimental basis to say that bondage and

liberation do not really exist?

 

M.: It is, indeed, on the basis of experience alone that this is

established, not merely on the strength of what the Sruti-s say.

 

D.: How then to realize this experience?

 

M.: The notions of bondage and of liberation are merely the

modifications, or vikara-s, of the mind. They have no individuality

of their own, and, therefore, neither can they function of their own

accord. Since they are merely modifications of something else, there

must be an entity (independent of them) as their common source and

support. If, therefore, one investigates into that source in order to

know of whom bondage and liberation are predicated, one will find

that they are predicated of " me, " that is, oneself. If he then

earnestly inquires to know " Who am I? " he will see that there is no

such thing as " I " or " me, " That which remains on seeing that the " I "

does not exist is realized vividly and unmistakably as self-luminous

and subsisting merely as itself. [it will then be as clear as an

amalaka fruit in one's hand that what remains is one's real Being.]

 

This vivid Realization as a direct and immediate experience of the

supreme Truth comes quite (over) naturally, with nothing uncommon

about it, to everyone who, remaining just as he is, inquires

introspectively without allowing the mind even for a moment to become

externalized or wasting time in mere talk. There is, therefore, not

the least doubt regarding the well-established conclusion that, for

those who have attained this Realization and thus abide absolutely

identical with the Self, there is neither bondage nor liberation.

 

D.: If really there is neither bondage nor liberation, how can there

be the unmistakable experience of misery in the world or ignorant

infatuation for it?

 

M.: These are experienced as if they are real only when one strays

away from the natural and primal state of pure Being and never while

abiding therein. [They do not really exist.]

 

D.: Is it possible for everyone to know, beyond all doubt and by

direct and immediate experience, that what he knows is really the

natural and primal state?

 

M.: Most certainly. For everyone, it is undoubtedly possible.

 

D.: How can it be said that such indubitable experience is within the

reach of everyone?

 

M.: It is the common experience of everyone that he never ceased to

exist—even while the entire universe, sentient and insentient, became

wholly nonexistent during deep sleep, swoon and such other states

involving loss of consciousness. In other words, one's own existence

at all times and in spite of everything else is a matter of

indubitable, direct, and immediate experience. Therefore, that pure

Being alone, which is the same for one and all, and which is known by

direct and immediate experience as ever present, is one's natural and

primal state. Everything else that may be described now for the first

time as the experiences of enlightenment or of ignorance is merely a

modification of the mind (bhava vikara). That every one of these

experiences is entirely alien to one's true and natural Being is the

final conclusion.

 

________

 

* Sravana, learning, from the Guru who has attained Realization, the

highest Truth propounded by the sacred scriptures, and on the

authority of his experience:

 

Manana, deep contemplation over the nature of Truth through

investigation and introspective inquiry;

 

Nididhyasana, inherence in the primal state of pure Being, whereby

doubts are dispelled and Perfection is attained.

 

 

From Origin of Spiritual Instruction, published by Society of

Abidance in Truth

 

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Not two,

Richard