Sathya Sai Vahini - Post 56

 

 

Science of absolute truth

 

Vedanta is the legitimate property of every section, caste, community, and race, of the followers of any faith, and of people of both sexes. Vedanta means supreme spiritual wisdom (jnana). Wisdom relating to which field of knowledge? Knowledge of the Atma. This wisdom is the highest gain that can be earned in life. 

 

The object seen is clearly separate from the subject who sees. This is a universally accepted truth. Who is this “I” that sees? All things that have form are recognized and seen by the sense organ, the eye. The body is also a thing that the eye sees, along with the rest. So, how can we conclude that the body is the I?

 

Then, who really is this “I”? Fire burns and also brightens. It burns things by heat and brightens them by the light it sheds. Fire is different from the things it acts upon. Now, who is it that knows this truth — the truth that fire and the things that burns are different? 

 

It is the Atma, the divine Self. When log burns, the fire is present and active in all of it. Similarly, the Atma pervades the entire body and enables it to perform deeds and to move itself and its limbs. 

 

 

Never-changing Self-reality

 

Now about the self, or “I”. It operates in two fields, so it has two meanings: (1) egotism (ahamkara), the body consciousness, the exterior “I” and (2) the inner “I” (pratyagatma). People who do not know this distinction confuse themselves and assert that “I” is applicable to the body consciousness, but this is wrong. As we have seen, the body is a tool, it is an object, it is the seen and not the see-er. How can the ego, identified with it, be the Atma? 

 

This ego also is of the “seen” category. It is absent in sleep and plays false in dreams. Truth has to persist unaffected, in the past, present, and future. How can that which is absent in two states be true?

 

 

Atma is its own proof

 

The Atma is consciousness, as fire is heat and the sun is light. It has no affinity with distress or delusion; it is supreme everlasting ecstasy (paramananda). It is the core, the heart of all beings; it is the awareness in all. It is the seer of everything “seen”; it sees all objects seen.

 

The scriptures (sastras), which are texts supplementary to the Vedas, declare that God resides wherever six excellences are evident: enthusiasm, determination, courage, good sense, strength, and adventure (utsaha, sa- hasam, dhairya, sadbuddhi, sakthi, and parakrama). The inaugural prayer has to be directed to God (Ganapathi) to gain these six gifts, which can purify consciousness and reveal the Atma. One has to undertake the discovery of one’s Atmic core with bravery in the heart; this is no exercise for cowards. Wicked people, waverers in faith, doubting hearts, woeful countenances, are destined to go through life as sick persons (rogis) and not dwellers in Atma (yogis).

 

This is the distinguishing mark that separates the wise (jnani) from the unwise. Krishna spoke, laughing with an outburst of joy; Arjuna listened, overpowered by sorrow. The wise one is always full of joy and laughs. The unwise one is afflicted with sorrow and weeps.

 

Continued…

 

Love.

 

Sri Ramana Maharshi

The mind is only a projection from the Self, appearing in the waking state. In deep sleep, you do not say whose son you are and so on. As soon as you wake up you say you are so and so, and recognise the world and so on. 

The world is only lokah, lokah = lokyate iti lokah (what is perceived is the world). That which is seen is lokah or the world. Which is the eye that sees it? That is the ego which rises and sinks periodically. But you exist always. Therefore That which lies beyond the ego is consciousness - the Self. 

In deep sleep mind is merged and not destroyed. That which merges reappears. It may happen in meditation also. But the mind which is destroyed cannot reappear. The yogi’s aim must be to destroy it and not to sink in laya. In the peace of dhyana, laya ensues but it is not enough. It must be supplemented by other practices for destroying the mind. 

Some people have gone into samadhi with a trifling thought and after a long time awakened in the trail of the same thought. In the meantime generations have passed away in the world. Such a yogi has not destroyed his mind. 

Its destruction is the non-recognition of it as being apart from the Self. Even now the mind is not. Recognise it. How can you do it if not in everyday activities. They go on automatically. Know that the mind promoting them is not real but a phantom proceeding from the Self. That is how the mind is destroyed.  

 

                   "Talks with Ramana Maharshi"

29 Sep 1935

Sri Ramana Maharshi

D.: I want to know how I can gain that peace of mind. Kindly be pleased to advise me.

M.: Yes - devotion and surrender.

 

D.: Am I worthy of being a devotee?

M.: Everyone can be a devotee. Spiritual fare is common to all and never denied to anyone - be the person old or young, male or female.

 

D.: That is exactly what I am anxious to know. I am young and a grihini (housewife). There are duties of grihastha dharma (the household). Is devotion consistent with such a position?

M.: Certainly. What are you? You are not the body. You are Pure Consciousness. Grihastha dharma and the world are only phenomena appearing on that Pure Consciousness. It remains unaffected. What prevents you from being your own Self?

 

D.: Yes I am already aware of the line of teaching of Maharshi. It is the quest for the Self. But my doubt persists if such quest is compatible with grihastha life.

M.: The Self is always there. It is you. There is nothing but you. Nothing can be apart from you. The question of compatibility or otherwise does not arise.

 

D.: I shall be more definite. Though a stranger, I am obliged to confess the cause of my anxiety. I am blessed with children. A boy - a good brahmachari - passed away in February. I was grief-stricken. I was disgusted with this life. I want to devote myself to spiritual life. But my duties as a grihini do not permit me to lead a retired life. Hence my doubt.

M.: Retirement means abidance in the Self. Nothing more. It is not leaving one set of surroundings and getting entangled in another set, nor even leaving the concrete world and becoming involved in a mental world. The birth of the son, his death, etc., are seen in the Self only. Recall the state of sleep. Were you aware of anything happening? If the son or the world be real, should they not be present with you in sleep? You cannot deny your existence in sleep. Nor can you deny you were happy then. You are the same person now speaking and raising doubts. You are not happy, according to you. But you were happy in sleep. What has transpired in the meantime that happiness of sleep has broken down? It is the rise of ego. That is the new arrival in the jagrat state. There was no ego in sleep. The birth of the ego is called the birth of the person. There is no other kind of birth. Whatever is born is bound to die. Kill the ego: there is no fear of recurring death for what is once dead. The Self remains even after the death of the ego. That is Bliss - that is Immortality.

 

D.: How is that to be done?

M.: See for whom these doubts exist. Who is the doubter? Who is the thinker? That is the ego. Hold it. The other thoughts will die away. The ego is left pure; see where from the ego arises. That is pure consciousness.

 

 

Extract from “Talks with Ramana Maharshi”