Wisdom seems to dawn, though it is natural and ever present.

Ramana Maharishi:  The Self remains ever the same, here and now. There is nothing more to be gained. Because the limitations have wrongly been assumed there is the need to transcend them. It is like the ten ignorant fools who forded a stream and on reaching the other shore counted themselves to be nine only. They grew anxious and grieved over the loss of the unknown tenth man. A wayfarer, on ascertaining the cause of their grief, counted them all and found them to be ten.  But each one of them had counted the others leaving himself out. The wayfarer gave each in succession a blow telling them to count the blows. They counted ten and were satisfied. The moral is that the tenth man was not got anew. He was all along there, but ignorance caused grief to all of them. Again, a woman wore a necklace round her neck but forgot it. She began to search for it and made enquiries. A friend of hers, finding out what she was looking for, pointed out the necklace round the seeker’s neck. She felt it with her hands and was happy. Did she get the necklace anew? Here again ignorance caused grief and knowledge happiness. Similarly also with the man and the Self. There is nothing to be gained anew. Ignorance of the Self is the cause of the present misery; knowledge of the Self brings about happiness.   Moreover, if anything is to be got anew it implies its previous absence. What remained once absent might vanish again. So there would be no permanency in salvation. Salvation is permanent because the Self is here and now and eternal .  Thus the man’s efforts are directed towards the removal of ignorance. Wisdom seems to dawn, though it is natural and ever present.

What is the exact difference between worldly activity and dhyana (meditation)?

Devotee:  What is the exact difference between worldly activity and dhyana?

Ramana Maharishi:  There is no difference. It is like naming one and the same thing by two different words in two different languages. The crow has two eyes but only one iris which is rolled into either eye as it pleases. The trunk of an elephant is used for breathing and for drinking water. The snake sees and hears with the same organ.

Dana, dharma, nishkama Karma are all tyaga only

When a child held something to be offered to Sri Bhagavan by the parents, they cajoled the child to offer it to Sri Bhagavan. The child did so gladly.

Sri Bhagavan remarked:  Look at this! When the child can give a thing away to Jeja it is tyaga. ( Jeja -God). See what  influence Jeja has on children also! Every gift implies unselfishness. That is the whole content of nishkama Karma (unselfish action). It means true renunciation. If the giving nature is developed it becomes tyaga. If anything is willingly given away it is a delight to the  giver and to the receiver. If the same is stolen it is misery to both. Dana, dharma, nishkama Karma are all tyaga only.

(Perform action) Like an actor playing his part in a drama - free from love or hatred.

Devotee:  Should we understand the world as transient (anitya)?

Ramana Maharishi:  Why so? Because you are now considering it to be permanent (nitya) the Scriptures tell you that it is not so in order to wean you from wrong ideas. This should be done by knowing yourself to be eternal (nitya) and not by branding the world as transitory (anitya).

Devotee:  We are told to practise indifference (udasina) which is possible only if the world is unreal.

Ramana Maharishi:  Yes. Oudasinyam abhipsitam. Indifference is advised. But what is it? It is absence of love and hatred. When you realise the Self on which these phenomena pass, will you love or hate them? That is the meaning of indifference.

Devotee:  That will lead to want of interest in our work. Should we do our duty or not?

Ramana Maharishi:  Yes - certainly. Even if you try not to do your duty you will be perforce obliged to do it. Let the body complete the task for which it came into being. Sri Krishna also says in the Gita, whether Arjuna liked it or not he would be forced to fight. When there is work to be done by you, you cannot keep away; nor can you continue to do a thing when you are not required to do it, that is to say, when the work allotted to you has been done. In short, the work will go on and you must take your share in it - the share which is allotted to you.

Devotee:  How is it to be done?

Ramana Maharishi:  Like an actor playing his part in a drama - free from love or hatred.

(With practice), engagement in work or no engagement, the current (peace of unity) remains unaffected and uninterrupted.

Devotee:  After leaving this Asramam in October I was aware of Bhagavan’s peace enfolding me for about ten days. All the time while busy in work there was an undercurrent of that peace of unity; it was almost like the dual consciousness while half asleep in a dull lecture. Then it faded out entirely, and the old stupidities came in instead. Work leaves no time for separate meditation. Is the constant reminder “I am”, trying to feel it while actually at work, enough?

Ramana Maharishi:  It will become constant when the mind becomes strengthened. Repeated practice strengthens the mind; and such mind is capable of holding on to the current. In that case, engagement in work or no engagement, the current remains unaffected and uninterrupted.

The essential point is the atma-vichara - enquiry into the Self.

Devotee:  Is the enquiry into the Self the same as the above mentioned faith?

Ramana Maharishi:  The enquiry into the Self is inclusive of all, faith, devotion, jnana, yoga and all.

Devotee:  A man sometimes finds that the physical body does not permit steady meditation. Should he practise yoga for training the body for the purpose?

Ramana Maharishi:  It is according to one’s samskaras (predispositions). One man will practise hatha yoga for curing his bodily ills; another man will trust to God to cure them; a third man will use his will-power for it and a fourth man may be totally indifferent to them. But all of them will persist in meditation. The quest for the Self is the essential factor and all the rest are mere accessories. A man may have mastered the Vedanta philosophy and yet remain unable to control his thoughts. He may have a predisposition (purva samskara) which takes him to practise hatha yoga. He will believe that the mind can be controlled only by yoga and so he will practise it.

Devotee:  What is most suitable for gaining facilities for steady dhyana?

Ramana Maharishi:  It depends on one’s samskara. One may find hatha yoga suitable and another man nama japa, and so on. The essential point is the atma-vichara - enquiry into the Self.

How can there be life in stone? It is unconscious.

Devotee:  How can there be life in stone? It is unconscious.

Ramana Maharishi:  The whole universe is full of life. You say the stone is unconscious. It is your self-consciousness which now speaks of unconsciousness. When a person wants to see if there is an article in a dark room he takes a lamp to look for it. The light is useful for detecting the presence and the absence of the thing. Consciousness is necessary for discovering if a thing is conscious or not. If a man remains in a dark room one need not take a lamp to find him. If called, he answers. He does not require a lamp to announce his presence. Consciousness is thus self-shining. Now you say you were unconscious in sleep and self-conscious in the wakeful state. Which is the Reality? The Reality must be continuous and eternal. Neither the unconsciousness nor the self-consciousness of the present is the Reality. But you admit your existence all through. The pure Being is the reality. The others are mere associations. The pure Being cannot be otherwise than consciousness. Otherwise you cannot say that you exist. Therefore consciousness is the reality. When that consciousness is associated with upadhis you speak of self-consciousness, unconsciousness, sub-consciousness, super-consciousness, humanconsciousness, dog-consciousness, tree-consciousness and so on. The unaltering common factor in all of them is consciousness. Therefore the stone is as much unconscious as you are in sleep. Is that totally devoid of consciousness?

The enquirer is the answer and no other answer can come.

Devotee: But the answer does not come for the search inward.

Ramana Maharishi: The enquirer is the answer and no other answer can come. What comes afresh cannot be true. What always is, is true.  The ego arises when you wake up from sleep. In deep sleep you do not say that you are sleeping and that you are going to wake up or that you have been sleeping so long. But still you are there. Only when you are awake you say that you have slept.

What is the purpose of life?

Devotee:  What is the purpose of life?

Ramana Maharishi:  To seek to know the significance of life is itself the result of good karma in past births. Those who do not seek such knowledge are simply wasting their lives.

Dhyana comes only step by step with the gradual weakening of the vasanas by the Grace of the Master.

Devotee:  How does Karma help? Will it not add to the already heavy load to be removed?

Ramana Maharishi:  Karma done unselfishly purifies the mind and helps to fix it in meditation.

Devotee:  What if one meditates incessantly without Karma?

Ramana Maharishi:  Try and see. The vasanas will not let you do it. Dhyana comes only step by step with the gradual weakening of the vasanas by the Grace of the Master.

Different deities are said to reside in different chakras. Does one see them in course of sadhana?

Devotee:  Different deities are said to reside in different chakras. Does one see them in course of sadhana?

Ramana Maharishi:  They can be seen if desired

There is no inside or outside for the Self

Devotee: So, then, I must go back tracing the source of thoughts.

Ramana Maharishi:  Quite so; in that way the thoughts will disappear and the Self alone will remain. In fact there is no inside or outside for the Self. They are also projections of the ego. The Self is pure and absolute.

If you consider yourself as the body the world appears to be external. If you are the Self the world appears as Brahman.

Devotee:  There are widespread disasters spreading havoc in the world e.g., famine and pestilence. What is the cause of this state of affairs?

Ramana Maharishi:  To whom does all this appear?

Devotee:  That won’t do. I see misery around.

Ramana Maharishi:  You were not aware of the world and its sufferings in your sleep; you are conscious of them in your wakeful state. Continue in that state in which you were not afflicted by these. That is to say, when you are not aware of the world, its sufferings do not affect you. When you remain as the Self, as in sleep, the world and its sufferings will not affect you. Therefore look within. See the Self! There will be an end of the world and its miseries.

Devotee:  But that is selfishness.

Ramana Maharishi:  The world is not external. Because you identify yourself wrongly with the body you see the world outside, and its pain becomes apparent  to you. But they are not real. Seek the reality and get rid of this unreal feeling.

Devotee:  There are great men, public workers, who cannot solve the problem of the misery of the world.

Ramana Maharishi:  They are ego-centred and therefore their inability. If they remained in the Self they would be different.

Devotee:  Why do not Mahatmas help?

Ramana Maharishi:  How do you know that they do not help? Public speeches, physical activity
and material help are all outweighed by the silence of Mahatmas. They accomplish more than others.

Devotee:  What is to be done by us for ameliorating the condition of the world?

Ramana Maharishi:  If you remain free from pain, there will be no pain anywhere. The trouble now is due to your seeing the world externally and also thinking that there is pain there. But both the world and the pain are within you. If you look within there will be no pain.

Devotee:  God is perfect. Why did He create the world imperfect? The work shares the nature of the author. But here it is not so.

Ramana Maharishi:  Who is it that raises the question?

Devotee:  I - the individual.

Ramana Maharishi:  Are you apart from God that you ask this question? So long as you consider yourself the body you see the world as external. The imperfections appear to you. God is perfection. His work also is perfection. But you see it as imperfection because of your wrong identification.

Devotee:  Why did the Self manifest as this miserable world?

Ramana Maharishi:  In order that you might seek it. Your eyes cannot see themselves. Place a mirror before them and they see themselves. Similarly with the creation. “See yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self.”

Devotee:  So it amounts to this - that I should always look within.

Ramana Maharishi:  Yes.

Devotee:  Should I not see the world at all?

Ramana Maharishi:  You are not instructed to shut your eyes from the world. You are only to “see yourself first and then see the whole world as the Self”. If you consider yourself as the body the world appears to be external. If you are the Self the world appears as Brahman.

When the goal is reached it remains alone, and all the rest becomes useless.

Devotee:  One of the stanzas says that the scriptures so scrupulously studied in the earlier stages are ultimately of no use. At what stage do they become useless?

Ramana Maharishi:  When their essence is realised. The scriptures are useful to indicate the existence of the Higher Power (the Self) and the way to gain it. Their essence is that much only. When that is assimilated the rest is useless. But they are voluminous, adapted to the development of the seeker. As one rising up in the scale finds the regions one has passed to be only steps to the higher stage, and so on, the steps ascended become purvapaksha successively until the goal is gained. When the goal is reached it remains alone, and all the rest becomes useless.

Whatever may be the experiences, the experiencer is one and the same. ‘I’ is purna - perfection

Devotee:  How do I remain ignorant of it (avarana)?

Ramana Maharishi:  For whom is this ignorance (veiling)? Does the Absolute tell you that it is veiled? It is the jiva who says that something veils the Absolute. Find out for whom this ignorance is.

Devotee:  Why is there imperfection in Perfection? That is, how did the Absolute become relative?

Ramana Maharishi:  For whom is this relativity? For whom is this imperfection? The Absolute is not imperfect and cannot ask. The insentient cannot ask the question. Between the two something has risen up which raises these questions and which feels this doubt. Who is it? Is it the one who has now arisen? Or is it the one who is eternal? Being perfect, why do you feel yourself imperfect? Such is the teaching of all the religions. Whatever may be the experiences, the experiencer is one and the same. ‘I’ is purna - perfection. There is no diversity in sleep. That indicates perfection.

But the best means of realisation is the enquiry “Who am I?”

Devotee:  “We are advised to concentrate on the spot in the forehead between the eyebrows. Is it right?”

Ramana Maharishi:  Everyone is aware, ‘I am’. Leaving aside that awareness one goes about in search of God. What is the use of fixing one’s attention between the eyebrows? It is mere folly to say that God is between the eyebrows. The aim of such advice is to help the mind to concentrate. It is one of the forcible methods to check the mind and prevent its dissipation. It is forcibly directed into one channel. It is a help to concentration. But the best means of realisation is the enquiry “Who am I?” The present trouble is to the mind and it must be removed by the mind only.

By his non-action the sage governs all

A saying of Laotze from Tao Teh Ch’ing was read out in the hall: “By his non-action the sage governs all.”

Sri Bhagavan remarked:  Non-action is unceasing activity. The sage is characterised by eternal and intense activity. His stillness is like the apparent stillness of a fast rotating top (gyroscope). Its very speed cannot be followed by the eye and so it appears to be still. Yet it is rotating. So is the apparent inaction of the sage. This must be explained because the people generally mistake stillness to be inertness. It is not so.

So long as you are formful why should you not worship the formless God as being formful?

Devotee:  Has God a form?

Ramana Maharishi:  Who says so?

Devotee:  Well, if God has no form is it proper to worship idols?

Ramana Maharishi:  Leave God alone because He is unknown. What about you? Have you a form?

Devotee:  Yes. I am this and so and so.

Ramana Maharishi:  So then, you are a man with limbs, about three and a half cubits high, with beard, etc. Is it so?

Devotee:  Certainly.

Ramana Maharishi:  Then do you find yourself so in deep sleep?

Devotee:  After waking I perceive that I was asleep. Therefore by inference I remained thus in deep sleep also.

Ramana Maharishi:  If you are the body why do they bury the corpse after death? The body must refuse to be buried.

Devotee:  No, I am the subtle jiva within the gross body.

Ramana Maharishi:  So you see that you are really formless; but you are at present identifying yourself with the body. So long as you are formful why should you not worship the formless God as being formful?

By continued experience it becomes common and the man is no longer excited.

Devotee:  What is the experience of samadhi?

Ramana Maharishi:  It is as it is. For onlookers it may seem to be a swoon. Even to the practiser it may appear so in the early experiences. After a few repeated experiences it will be all right.

Devotee:  Do they soothe nadis or do they excite them by such experiences?

Ramana Maharishi:  They are excited at first. By continued experience it becomes common and the man is no longer excited.

Devotee:  Proceeding on safe lines there should be no unpleasantness. Excitement is uncongenial to smooth being and working.

Ramana Maharishi:  A wandering mind is on the wrong way; only a devotional mind is on the right way.

What is the ego-self?

Devotee:  What is the ego-self?

Ramana Maharishi:  The ego-self appears and disappears and is transitory, whereas the real Self always abides permanent. Though you are actually the true Self yet you wrongly identify the real Self with the ego-self.

Devotee:  How does the mistake come about?

Ramana Maharishi:  See if it has come about.

Knowledge implies subject and object. But experience is non-terminal, eternal.

Ramana Maharishi:  “How do you say ‘I am’? Do you take a light to find yourself? Or did you come to know it on reading books? How?”

Devotee:  “By experience.”

Ramana Maharishi:  Yes. Experience is the word. Knowledge implies subject and object. But experience is non-terminal, eternal.

Bhakti is being as the Self (Swarupa).

Devotee:  Will bhakti lead to mukti?

Ramana Maharishi: Bhakti is not different from mukti. Bhakti is being as the Self (Swarupa). One is always that. He realises it by the means he adopts. What is bhakti? To think of God. That means: only one thought prevails to the exclusion of all other thoughts. That thought is of God which is the Self or it is the Self surrendered unto God. When He has taken you up nothing will assail you. The absence of thoughts is bhakti. It is also mukti. The jnana method is said to be vichara (enquiry). That is nothing but ‘supreme devotion’ (parabhakti). The difference is in words only. You think that bhakti is meditation on the Supreme Being. So long as there is vibhakti (the sense of separateness), bhakti (reunion) is sought. The process will lead to the ultimate goal as is said in Srimad Bhagavad Gita:
arto jignasuh artharthi jnani cha Bharatarshabha
tesham jnani nityayukta ekabhaktir visishyate — Ch. VII (l6, 17).
Any kind of meditation is good. But if the sense of separateness is lost and the object of meditation or the subject who meditates is alone left behind without anything else to know, it is jnana. Jnana is said to be ekabhakti  (single-minded devotion). The Jnani is the finality because he has become the Self and there is nothing more to do. He is also perfect and so fearless, dwitiyat vai bhayam bhavati - only the existence of a second gives rise to fear. This is mukti. It is also bhakti.

That which was originally rejected as being unreal is found to be a part of the unity. Being absorbed in the Reality, the world also is Real

Devotee: “The Supreme Spirit (Brahman) is Real. The world (jagat) is illusion,” is the stock phrase of Sri Sankaracharya. Yet others say, “The world is reality”. Which is true?

Ramana Maharishi:  Both statements are true. They refer to different stages of development and are spoken from different points of view. The aspirant (abhyasi) starts with the definition, that which is real exists always; then he eliminates the world as unreal because it is changing. It cannot be real; ‘not this, not this!’ The seeker ultimately reaches the Self and there finds unity as the prevailing note. Then,  that which was originally rejected as being unreal is found to be a part of the unity. Being absorbed in the Reality, the world also is Real. There is only being in Self-Realisation, and nothing but being. Again Reality is used in a different sense and is applied loosely by some thinkers to objects. They say that the reflected (adhyasika) Reality admits of degrees which are named:
(1) Vyavaharika satya (everyday life) - this chair is seen by me and is real.
(2) Pratibhasika satya (illusory) - Illusion of a serpent in a coiled rope. The appearance is real to the man who thinks so. This phenomenon appears at a point of time and under certain circumstances.
(3) Paramartika satya (ultimate) - Reality is that which remains the same always and without change.