Ramana Maharshi Suggests To Have Detachment In The Interior And Attachment In Appearance

March 12, 2010

29th May, 1938Talk 495.A Cochin Brahmin, Professor in the Ernakulam College, had an interesting conversation with Sri Bhagavan. Sri Bhagavan advised surrender to God.

The visitor gave a glimpse of an ICS Officer. The gentleman while a student was an atheist or an agnostic. He is very pious now and the change has surprised everyone who had known him before.In further conversation, the following points were noteworthy.

The visitor said: â€œOne must become satiate with the fulfilment of desires before they are renounced.â€Â Sri Bhagavan smiled and cut in:Â â€œFire might as well be put out by pouring spirit over the flames.(All laugh). The more the desires are fulfilled, the deeper grows the samskara.Â They must become weaker before they cease to assert themselves. That weakness is brought about by restraining oneself and not by losing oneself in desires.

D.: How can they be rendered weaker?M.: By knowledge.You know that you are not the mind. The desires are in the mind. Such knowledge helps one to control them.D.: But they are not controlled in our practical lives.

M.: Every time you attempt satisfaction of a desire the knowledge comes that it is better to desist. Repeated reminders of this kind will in due course weaken the desires. What is your true nature? How can you ever forget it?Â Waking, dream and sleep are mere phases of the mind. They are not of the Self. You are the witness of these states. Your true nature is found in sleep.

D.: How can I do my duties without attachment? There is my wife,there are my children. I must do my duty towards them. Affection is necessary. Am I right?M.: How do you do your work in the College?

D.: (laughing) For wages.M.: Not because you are attached, simply as doing your duty.D.: But my pupils expect me to love them.M.: â€œDetachment in the interior and attachment in appearance,â€ says Yoga Vasishta.

Sources:1) Talks With Ramana Maharshi BookÂ 2) Arunachala's Ramana Volume III Book