Letters from Sri Ramanasramam - 23rd April, 1946

[Guest guest]

23rd April, 1946

 

 

THAT WHICH IS, IS ONLY ONE

 

This afternoon a Muslim youth came here with two or

three friends. From the way he sat down, I felt that he wanted

to ask some questions. After a while he began asking the

questions in Tamil. “How can one know Allah? How can one

see Him?” That was the purport of his questions. As usual

Bhagavan said, “If you first find out who it is that is

questioning, you can then know Allah.”

The young man said again, “If I meditate on this stick,

thinking it is Allah, can I see Allah? How am I to see Allah?”

“That real thing which is never destructible, is known as

Allah. If you first find out the truth about yourself, the truth

about Allah will present itself,” said Bhagavan. That was

enough to dispose of him. He went away with his friends.

Soon after they left, Bhagavan remarked to those by his side,

“See, he wants to see Allah! Is it possible to see with these

eyes? How could these eyes perceive?”

 

Yesterday a Hindu asked Bhagavan, “Is Omkara a name

of Ishwara?” Bhagavan said, “Omkara is Ishwara, Ishwara is

Omkara. That means Omkara itself is the swarupam (the real

Self). Some say that the swarupam itself is Omkara. Some say

that it is Sakti, some say it is Ishwara, some say it is Jesus,

some say it is Allah. Whatever name is given, the thing that

is there, is only one.”

 

Four or five days back, recalling a reply given to

somebody’s question, a devotee, residing in the Ashram, asked

Bhagavan thus: “You said that ananda also gets dissolved; if

so, what is the meaning of dhyanam, samadhi and samadhanam?”

Bhagavan said, “What is meant by laya? It should not

stop with ananda. There must be someone to experience that.

Should you not know that someone? If you do not know

that someone, how could it be dhyanam? If the one that

experiences is known, that one is the Self. When one becomes

oneself that becomes dhyanam. Dhyanam means one’s own

Self. That is samadhi. That is also samadhanam (perfect

absorption of thought into the one object of meditation, i.e.,

the Supreme Spirit).

 

Suri Nagamma