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: If no effort is needed, can the perpetuated state of emptiness of mind be called the state of realisation?

Maharshi Ramana: Effort is needed so long as there is mind. The state of emptiness has been the matter of dispute and debate in all philosophies.

D.: Is there anything like pratyakshabhava in the state of realisation or is realisation merely felt or experienced as the very Being or Sthiti of the soul?

M.: Pratyaksha is very being and it is not feeling, etc.

D.: Until the seeker realizes that he is the sought, the above questions arise for him (the former).

M.: True. See if you are the seeker. The Self is often mistaken for the knower. Is there not the Self in deep sleep, i.e., nescience? Therefore the Self is beyond knower and knowledge. These doubts are in the realm of mind. To speak from this point of view, the advice is to keep the mind clear, and when rajas and tamas are wiped off, then the satva mind alone exists. So the ‘I’ vanishes in the satva . ‘Jnana chakshus’ does not mean that it is an organ of perception like the other sense-organs. ‘’Jnanameva chakshuh’’ Television, etc.,are not functions of jnana chakshus. So long as there is a subject

and also an object it is only relative knowledge. Jnana lies beyond relative knowledge. It is absolute.

The Self is the source of subject and object. Now ignorance

prevailing, the subject is taken to be the source. The subject is the knower and forms one of the triads whose components cannot exist independent of one another. So the subject or the knower cannot be the ultimate Reality. Reality lies beyond subject and object. When realised there will be no room for doubt.

“Bhidyate hridayagranthih

chhidyante sarvasamsayah.”

The heart knot is snapped; doubts are set at rest. That is called

pratyaksha and not what you are thinking of. Avidya nasa is alone Self-Realisation. Self-Realisation is only owpacharika. Self-Realisation is only a euphemism for elimination of ignorance.

D.: How did I get this body?

M.:You speak of ‘I’and the ‘body’. There is the relationship between the two.You are not therefore the body. The question does not occur to the body because it is inert. There is an occasion when you are not aware of the body - namely, in deep sleep. The question does not arise then. Nevertheless you are there in sleep. To whom does the question arise now?

D.: The ego.

M.:Yes. The body and the ego rise up together and sink together. There is an occasion when you are not associated with the ego in deep sleep.Now you are associated with the ego. Of these two states which is your real state? You are present in sleep and the same “You” is present now too. Why should the doubt arise now and not then? You are right in saying that it is for the ego. You are not the ego. The ego is

intermediate between the Self and the body. You are the Self. Find out the origin of the ego and see if the doubt persists.

Sri Bhagavan added after a few minutes: The answer, according to sastras, will be that the body is due to karma. The question will be how did karma arise?We must say “from a previous body” and so on without end. The direct method of attack is not to depend on invisible hypotheses but to ask “Whose Karma is it? Or whose body?” Hence I answered in this manner. This is more purposeful.