BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA'S TALKS

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA'S TALKS : J.K. SIVAN

IT IS NOT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND BHAGAVAN RAMANA IF YOU READ THE QUESTIONS PUT TO HIM AND THE ANSWERS GIVEN BY HIM, SLOWLY, CONCENTRATING ON EACH WORD ATTENTIVELY WITH INVOLVEMENT AND INTEREST TO LEARN.- It is made simple for you. So you will enjoy profusely. JKS

Devotee: Is the understanding intellectual?

Maharishi Ramana : Intellect. Whose intellect? The problem revolves round that question. You admit that you exist even in the absence of intellect - say, in sleep. How do you know that you exist if you have not realised your existence? Your very existence is realisation.You cannot imagine a point of time when you do not exist. So there is no period of time when realisation is not.

D: How to know the Power of God?

M: You say ‘I AM’. That is it. What else can say I AM?

One’s own being is His Power. The trouble arises only when one says, “I am this or that, such and such.” Do not do it - Be yourself.

That is all.

D.: How to experience Bliss?

M.: To be free from thinking “I am now out of Bliss”.

D.: That is to say free from modes of mind.

M.: To be with only one mode of mind to the exclusion of others.

D.: But Bliss must be experienced.

M.: Bliss consists in not forgetting your being. How can you be

Otherwise than what you really are? It is also to be the Seat of Love. Love is Bliss. Here the Seat is not different from Love.

D.: How shall I be all-pervading?

M.: Give up the thought, “I am not all-pervading now.”

D.: How to permeate the separate objects?

M.: Do they exist independently of “I”? Do they say to you “We are”? you see them. You are, and then the objects are also seen. “Without me,these do not exist” -this knowledge is permeation. Owing to the idea “I am the body; there is something in me” the separate objects are seen as if lying outside. Know that they are all within yourself. Is a piece of cloth independent of yarn? Can the objects remain without Me?

D.: Which is the best of all the religions? What is Sri Bhagavan’s method?

M.: All religions and methods are one and the same.

D.: Different methods are taught for liberation.

M.: Why should you be liberated? Why not remain as you are now?

D.: I want to get rid of pain. To be rid of it is said to be liberation.

M.: That is what all religions teach.

D.: But what is the method?

M.: To retrace your way back.

D.: Whence have I come?

M.: That is just what you should know. Did these questions arise in your sleep? Did you not exist then? Are you not the same being now?

D.: Yes, I was in sleep; so also the mind; but the senses had merged, so I could not speak.

M.: Are you jiva? Are you the mind? Did the mind announce itself to you in sleep?

D.: No. But elders say that the jiva is different from Isvara.

M.: Leave Isvara alone. Speak for yourself.

D.: What about myself? Who am I?

M.: That is just it. Know it, when all will be known; if not, ask then.

D.: On waking I see the world and I am not changed from sleep.

M.: But this is not known in sleep. Now or then, the same you remain. Who has changed now? Is your nature to be changing or remain unchanging?

D.: What is the proof?

M.: Does one’s own being require a proof? Only remain aware of your own self, all else will be known.

D.: Why then do the dualists and non-dualists quarrel among

themselves?

M.: If each one minds his own business, there will be no quarrel.