RE: [NondualitySalon] Professor Krishnamoorthy/The Sage of Arunachala

[Guest guest]

<snip>(quoting Professor Krishnamoorthi);

>> I don't know how long I remained like that, but when I returned to my

> senses, I was terribly afraid of the man. "This is a dangerous man," I

> thought. In spite of myself, I prostrated and got away from his company.

>

 

Harsha, thanks for posting this. I read it some time ago on the maharshi

newsletters, and I wondered then and I still wonder, what is this fear

and sense of danger? How can it be felt? I mean who feels it? If no one

feels it, how can it be felt? But it is felt. Is it fear of the unknown?

But then it disappears and the unknown is still unknown. So that can't

be it. Is it an illusion who fears? But an illusion can't fear.

 

andrew

 

Thanks Andrew for raising an important point. The fundamental instinct for

self-preservation appears to exist at every level of being, no matter how

subtle. The fear of Complete Annihilation is at the core of the "I" essence

of the personality. This fear has no antidotes other than knowledge,

understanding, and complete surrender to the Divine which appears as the

Unknown. Total surrender to God is not possible until the soul/ego is ripe

for it. Hence spiritual practices and inquiry and taking selfless actions

(Karma yoga) are meant to thin out the karmas and gradually ripen the soul

so it can recognize its identity with the Essential Principle of Existence,

which cannot go out of Existence. When the fruit is ripe, it falls off in

the mere presence of Gravity. But even before that, there is always the

pull. The pull creates fears on many levels. The "I" essence intermingled

with karmic particles or vibrations is the subtle body or the subtle

personality. Attraction and repulsion to karmic vibrations constitutes the

changing personality and the changing identification. Many traditions

postulate the existence of Grace operating prior to Realization. Grace is

Self. It is like Gravity. Always Present.

 

Harsha

[Guest guest]

Harsha (Dr. Harsh K. Luthar) wrote:

 

 

<snip>(quoting Professor Krishnamoorthi);

 

The next day we had a meeting with Bhagavan. This was about

the time he arrived at the present site of Sri Ramanasramam

(1922). There were no buildings at all, except for a small

shed covering the samadhi (grave) of the Mother.

 

 

Bhagavan was seated on a bench under the shade of a tree,

and with him, lying on the same bench, was the dog named

Rose. Bhagavan was simply stroking the dog.

 

 

I wondered, among us Brahmins the dog was such an animal

that it would defile all purity. A good part of my respect

for the Maharshi left me when I saw him touching that

unclean animal - for all its apparent cleanliness and

neatness it was unclean from the Brahmin point of view.

 

 

I had a question for the Maharshi. At that time I was an

agnostic. I thought nature could take care of itself, so

where is the need for a Creator? What is the use of writing

all these religious books telling 'cock and bull' stories,

which do not change the situation.

 

 

I wanted to put to him straight questions: is there a soul?

Is there a God?

Is there salvation? All these three questions were

condensed into one: Well sir, you are sitting here like this

- I can see your present condition - but what will be your

future sthiti ? The word sthiti in Sanskrit means 'state'

or 'condition'.

 

 

The Maharshi did not answer the question. "Oho," I thought,

"you are taking shelter under the guise of indifferent

silence for not answering an inconvenient question!" As soon

as I thought this the Maharshi replied and I felt as if a

bomb had exploded under my seat.

 

 

"Sthiti, what do you mean by the word sthiti!" he exclaimed.

 

 

I was not prepared for that question. "Oho, this man is

very dangerous, very dangerously alive. I will have to

answer with proper care," I thought.

 

 

So I said to myself, "If I ask him about the sthiti or

'state' of the body it is useless: the body will be burned

or buried. What I should ask him was about the condition of

something within the body. Of course, I can recognize a

mind inside of me." Then I was about to answer "By sthiti, I

mean mind,"

when it struck me what if he counter-questions with "What is

mind?" This I am not prepared to answer.

 

 

As all this was passing through my mind he was sitting there

staring at me with a fierce look.

 

 

I then questioned within me, "What is mind? Mind is made up

of thoughts.

Now, what are thoughts?" I landed in a void. No answer. I

then realised that I could not present a question about a

mind which did not exist!

 

 

Up to that point, the mind was the greatest thing that

existed for me. Now I discovered it did not exist! I was

bewildered. I simply sat like a statue.

 

 

Two pairs of eyes were then gripping each other: the eyes of

the Maharshi and my eyes were locked together in a tight

embrace. I lost all sense of body. Nothing existed except

the eyes of the Maharshi.

 

 

I don't know how long I remained like that, but when I

returned to my senses, I was terribly afraid of the man.

"This is a dangerous man," I thought. In spite of myself, I

prostrated and got away from his company.

 

_______________

 

Harsha, thanks for posting this. I read it some time ago on

the maharshi newsletters, and I wondered then and I still

wonder, what is this fear and sense of danger? How can it

be felt? I mean who feels it? If no one feels it, how can

it be felt? But it is felt. Is it fear of the unknown? But

then it disappears and the unknown is still unknown. So

that can't be it. Is it an illusion who fears? But an

illusion can't fear.

 

andrew

_____________________

 

I recall saying more than once on the Kundalini list, that

no matter how dangerous Kundalini was spoken to be, and

there are dangers and warnings to be heeded, that the danger

of nonduality is far greater. Society can contain the one

who has turned insane or whose genius is finite, but the

nondual person is not touched by structures of society, nor

even by a civilization. Nothing is destroyed yet nothing can

exist in the presence of the nondual one. Is there anything

more dangerous?

 

Jerry

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