Sri Atmaswarupananda

Scriptures tell us that in the beginning, One alone was; and then that One said, "Let there be many." But even then, One alone was; and even now, One alone is. What is the nature of that One alone? Scriptures tell us that it is unknowable, unthinkable, but to try to help us, they say, "It is That which was the same in the beginning, is the same now and will ever be the same." And they say that it is of the nature of existence, consciousness, bliss; or if you want a simple description, it is "I". 

That "I" is everywhere, manifesting Itself as everything. But in the human being there is a peculiarity. That "I" manifests as self-awareness. Unfortunately that self-awareness is not an awareness of the grandeur, the unknowableness of the "I", but rather, that self-awareness identifies with a body and mind. This we call ego. It means we feel separate. 

The whole purpose of the spiritual life is to convert this self-awareness in the human being from a mistaken awareness that "I am the body" to a true awareness that "I am That." How is this done? It is not just enough to discover this truth intellectually, nor even to feel this truth, we must actually become this truth. That means we can no longer assert the separate "I". The separate "I" has to surrender to the true "I"; it has to take refuge in the true "I"; it has to follow the true "I". There is nothing else to the spiritual life, in the final analysis, except this. 

Following the ego keeps us in hell and compounds the hell. When we repent, which means to turn around and go in the other direction, we surrender our individuality, our separateness, and exchange it for harmony with the Whole. This is spiritual life. And if our spiritual life doesn’t contain this element of surrender, if it doesn’t contain this movement from separation to harmony, it perhaps explains why we don’t feel that we’re making the progress we had hoped for. 

Therefore, the essence of the spiritual life is moving from being separate to being in harmony. The ego doesn’t usually want to do it until it has suffered so much that it sees that there is no other way. Thus, often suffering can be a great blessing. But we needn’t suffer if we have the humility to see that the essence of the spiritual life is in surrendering our individuality and taking refuge in God, that it is in surrendering our sense of separation, so that we are in harmony.

(Swami Atmaswarupananda, disciple of Swami Sivananda)

Reader's Comments & Author's Response - 19 July 2017

Reader's Comments

On Jul 19, Anonymous commented on Sri Ramana Maharishi: 

Sri Ramana answers these questions in a simple tone yet is so vivid in his explanation for us to grasp the essence and the tread the path for the jivas to choose and proceed with the help and grace of a Guru.

Everything other than SELF requires 3 things - subject, object and the underlying process. That is the reason why it becomes difficult to focus on one or more of them individually and separately. Further, to complicate things there are many to interpret these 3 things in their own way. 

Sri Ramana stresses and for that matter every realized Master/Guru have repeatedly reiterated on giving up the focus on these floating things and to fix the focus on THAT alone. As this is a new endeavour and a major shift from the focus, one needs an accomplished Guide (a realized Master / Guru) to take us through in reaching to the ultimate Goal.

Nothing more... Nothing less... Nothing else... Only THAT IS.

Hari Aum Tat Sat.

PS- The above comments received from a sadhaka, Raghavan 

Sri Ramana Maharishi

Question: If the Self is itself aware, why am I not aware of it even now?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and is only relative. 

Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object, whereas the awareness of the Self is absolute and requires no object.

Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality, who is to remember whom? 

The Self is ever present. Each one wants to know the Self. What kind of help does one require to know oneself? People want to see the Self as something new. But it is eternal and remains the same all along. They desire to see it as a blazing light etc. How can it be so? It is not light, not darkness. It is only as it is. It cannot be defined. The best definition is 'I am that I am'. ]

The Srutis (scriptures) speak of the Self as being the size of one's thumb, the tip of the hair, an electric spark, vast, subtler than the subtlest, etc. These descriptions have no foundation in fact. It is only being, but different from the real and the unreal; it is knowledge, but different from knowledge and ignorance. How can it be defined at all? It is simply being. 

Question: When a man realises the Self, what will he see?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-realisation, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. 

All that is needed is that you give up your realisation of the not-true as true. All of us are regarding as real that which is not real. 

We have only to give up this practice on our part. Then we shall realise the Self as the Self, in other words, 'Be the Self.' At one stage you will laugh at yourself for trying to discover the Self which is not self-evident. So, what can we say to this question? 

That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains. 

Question: How to know this by direct experience?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. 

The state we call realisation is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realised, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. 

One cannot describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realisation, for want of a better term. How to 'real-ise' or make the real that which alone is real?

Question: What is Mouna (silence)?

Sri Ramana Maharshi: That state which transcends speech and thought is mouna. That which is, is mouna. How can mouna be explained in words?

Sages say that the state in which the thought"I" (the ego) does not rise even in the least, alone is Self (swarupa) which is silence (mouna). That silent Self alone is God; Self alone is the jiva (individual soul). Self alone is this ancient world. 

All other kinds of knowledge are only petty and trivial knowledge; the experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge. Know that the many objective differences are not real but are mere superimpositions on Self, which is the form of true knowledge.