Self-Enquiry (Introduction)

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Self Enquiry

(Vicharasangraham)

Of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

A new translation by

Dr T. M. P. Mahadevan, M.A., Ph.D.

>From the original Tamil

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The present work in prose consists of forty questions with answers covering the

entire range of spiritual disciplines required for the gaining of release

(moksha). The questioner was Gambhiram Seshayya, one of the early devotees of

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. He was a Municipal Overseer at Tiruvannamalai

about 1900. Besides being an ardent Ramabhakta (worshipper of Rama) he was

interested in the study and practice of Yoga. He used to read Swami

Vivekananda's lectures on the different yoga's as also an English translation of

the Rama-gita. For resolving the difficulties which he

came across while studying these books and in his spiritual practices, he

approached Bhagavan Sri Ramana from time to time. Bhagavan, who was only

twenty-one years old, was then living in Virupaksha cave on Arunachala Hill. As

he was keeping silent at the time not because of any vow taken but because he

was not inclined to talk - he wrote out his answers to Seshayya's questions on

bits of paper. These writings over the period 1900-1902 were later copied in a

note-book by Seshayya. The material thus gathered was published by Sri

Ramanasramam under the little Vichara-sangraham which

literally means 'A Compendium of Self-Enquiry.' A digest of the teaching

contained in this work was later printed in English bearing the title

'Self-Enquiry'. In that English version, the questions were omitted and the

substance of Bhagavan's teaching was given, classifying it in twelve short

chapters with appropriate headings. The present English translation is of the

entire original text Vichara-sangraham as it is in Tamil. The Vichara-sangraham

has unique value in the sense that it constitutes the first set of instructions

given by Bhagavan in his own hand-writing.

 

A careful study of the instructions given by Bhagavan here will reveal that they

are based on his own plenary experience as confirmed by the sacred texts which

were brought to his notice by the early devotees and which he perused for the

purpose of clearing the doubts that arose in the minds of the devotees. In the

course of his instructions, Bhagavan makes use of such expressions as, 'the

scriptures declare', 'thus say the sages,' etc.; he also cites passages from

texts like the Bhagavad-gita and the Vivekachudamani and once he mentions by

name the Ribhu-gita. But it is quite clear

that these citations are offered only as confirmations of the truth discovered

by Bhagavan himself in his own experience.

 

The basic teaching is that of Advaita-Vedanta. The plenary experience of the

non-dual Self is the goal; enquiry into the nature of the self is the means.

When the mind identifies the self with the not-self (the body, etc.), there is

bondage; when this wrong identification is removed through the enquiry 'Who am I

?' there is release. Thus, Self-enquiry is the direct path taught by Bhagavan

Ramana. The 'I'-experience is common to all. Of all thoughts, the 'I'-thought is

the first to arise. What one has to do is to enquire into the source of the

'I'-thought. This is the reverse process

of what ordinarily happens in the life of the mind. The mind enquires into the

constitution and source of everything else which, on examination, will be found

to be its own projection; it does not reflect on itself and trace itself to its

source. Self-discovery can be achieved by giving the mind an inward turn. This

is not to be confused with the introspection of which the psychologists speak.

Self-enquiry is not the mind's inspection of its own contents; it is tracing the

mind's first mode, the 'I'-thought to its source which is the Self. When there

is proper and persistent

enquiry, the 'I'-thought also ceases and there is the wordless illumination of

the form 'I'-'I' which is the pure consciousness. This is release, freedom from

bondage. The method by which this is accomplished, as has been shown, is enquiry

which, in Vedanta, is termed jnana, knowledge.

 

True devotion (bhakti), meditation (dhyana), and concentration (yoga) are

identical therewith. As Bhagavan makes it perfectly clear, not to forget the

plenary Self-experience is real devotion, mind-control, knowledge, and all other

austerities. In the language of devotion, the final goal may be described as the

resolution of the mind in its source which is God, the Self, in that of

technical yoga, it may be described as the dissolution of the mind in the

Heart-lotus. These are only different ways of expressing the same truth.

 

The path of Self-enquiry is found difficult by those who have not acquired the

necessary competence for it. The mind should first be rendered pure and

one-pointed. This is done through meditation, etc. So, the various paths, in

their secondary sense, are auxiliaries to the direct path which is Self-enquiry.

In this context, Bhagavan refers to three grades of aspirants: the highest, the

medium, and the lowest. For the highest type of aspirants, the path prescribed

is Vedanta enquiry; through this path, the mind becomes quiescent in the Self

and finally ceases to be, leaving the pure

Self-experience untarnished and resplendent. The path for the medium is

meditation on the Self; meditation consists in directing a continuous flow of

the mind towards the same object; there are several modes of meditation; the

best mode is that which is of the form 'I am the Self'; this mode eventually

culminates in Self-realization. For the lowest grade of aspirants, the

discipline that is useful is breath-control which in turn results in mind

control.

 

Bhagavan explains the difference between jnana-yoga (path of knowledge) and

dhyana-yoga (path of meditation) thus: jnana is like subduing a self-willed bull

by coaxing it with the help of a sheaf of green grass, while dhyana is like

controlling it by using force. Just as there are eight limbs for dhyana-yoga,

there are eight for jnana-yoga. The limbs of the latter are more proximate to

the final stage than those of the former. For instance, while the pranayama of

technical yoga consists in regulating and restraining breath, the pranayama that

is a limb of jnana relates to rejecting

the name-and-form world which is non-real and realizing the Real which is

Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.

 

Realization of the Self can be gained in this very life. In fact,

Self-realization is not something which is to be gained afresh. We are already

the Self; the Self alone is. It is ignorance that makes us imagine that we have

not realized the Self. When this ignorance is removed through Self-knowledge, we

realize our eternal Self-nature. One who has gained this realization is called a

jivan-mukta (liberated while living). To others, he may appear to continue to

tenant a body. For the benefit of those others it is stated that the body will

continue so long as the residue of the

prarabdha-karma (that karma of the past which has begun to fructify in the shape

of the present body) lasts, and that when the momentum is spent the body will

fall and the jivan-mukta will become a videha-mukta. But from the standpoint of

the absolute truth, there is no difference in mukti. What needs to be understood

is that mukti or release is the inalienable nature of the Self.

 

This, in substance, is Bhagavan Sri Ramana's teaching in the Vichara-sangraham.

 

University Of Madras.

T. M. P. MAHADEVAN

November 15, 1965.