The space, the magnitudes and the paradox are all in the mind only.

Ramana Maharishi:  When a man dreams, he creates himself (i.e., the ahamkar, the seer) and the surroundings. All of them are later withdrawn into himself. The one became many, along with the seer. Similarly also, the one becomes many in the waking state. The objective world is really subjective. An astronomer discovers a new star at immeasurable distance and announces that its light takes thousands of light years to reach the earth. Well, where is the star in fact? Is it not in the observer? But people wonder how a huge globe, larger than the Sun, at such a distance can be contained in the brain-cells of a man. The space, the magnitudes and the paradox are all in the mind only. How do they exist there?  Inasmuch as you become aware of them, you must admit a light which illumines them. These thoughts are absent in sleep but rise up on waking. So this light is transient, having an origin and an end. The consciousness of ‘I’ is permanent and continuous. So this cannot be the aforesaid light. It is different but has no independent existence. Therefore it must be abhasa (reflected light). The light in the brain is thus reflected knowledge (abhasa samvit) or reflected being (abhasa sat). The true knowledge (Samvit) or Being (Sat) is in the centre called Heart (Hridaya). When one wakes up from sleep it is reflected in the head, and so the head is no longer lying prone but rises up. From there the consciousness spreads all over the body and so the superimposed ‘I’ functions as the wakeful entity. The pure light in the brain is suddha manas (the pure mind) which later becomes contaminated and is malina manas, the one ordinarily found. All these are however contained in the Self. The body and its counterparts are in the Self. The Self is not confined in the body, as is commonly supposed.

How do you infer your existence?

Ramana Maharishi:  Do you deny your existence in sleep?


Devotee:  I must admit it by my reasoning.


Ramana Maharishi:  How do you infer your existence?


Devotee:  By reasoning and experience.


Ramana Maharishi:  Is reasoning necessary for experience? (Laughter)

Distractions result from inherited tendencies. Can they be cast off too?

Devotee:  Distractions result from inherited tendencies. Can they be cast off too?


Ramana Maharishi:  Yes. Many have done so. Believe it! They did so because they believed they could. Vasanas (predispositions) can be obliterated. It is done by concentration on that which is free from vasanas and yet is their core.


Devotee:  How long is the practice to continue?


Ramana Maharishi:  Till success is achieved and until yoga-liberation becomes permanent. Success begets success. If one distraction is conquered the next is conquered and so on, until all are finally conquered. The process is like reducing an enemy’s fort by slaying its man-power - one by one, as each issues out.


Devotee:  What is the goal of this process?


Ramana Maharishi:  Realising the Real.

Are there any aids to (1) concentration and (2) casting off distractions?

Devotee:  Are there any aids to (1) concentration and (2) casting off distractions?

Ramana Maharishi:  Physically the digestive and other organs are kept free from irritation. Therefore food is regulated both in quantity and quality. Non-irritants are eaten, avoiding chillies, excess of salt, onions, wine, opium, etc. Avoid constipation, drowsiness and excitement, and all foods which induce them. Mentally take interest in one thing and fix the mind on it. Let such interest be all-absorbing to the exclusion of everything else. This is dispassion (vairagya) and concentration. God or mantra may be chosen. The mind gains strength to grasp the subtle and merge into it.

What is the interrelation between regulation of thought and regulation of breath?

Devotee:  What is the interrelation between regulation of thought and regulation of breath?


Ramana Maharishi:  Thought (intellectual) and respiration, circulation, etc. (vegetative) activities are both different aspects of the same - the individual life.  Both depend upon (or metaphorically ‘reside’ or ‘inhere’ in) life. Personality and other ideas spring from it like the vital activity. If respiration or other vital activity is forcibly repressed, thought  also is repressed. If thought is forcibly slowed down and pinned to a point, the vital activity of respiration is slowed down, made even and confined to the lowest level compatible with life. In both cases the distracting variety of thought is temporarily at an end.  The interaction is noticeable in other ways also. Take the will to live. That is thought-power. That sustains and keeps up life when other vitality is almost exhausted and delays death. In the absence of such will-power death is accelerated. So thought is said to carry life with it in the flesh and from one fleshy body to another.

Impurities of limitation, ignorance and desire place obstacles in the way of meditation. How to conquer them?

Devotee:  Impurities of limitation, ignorance and desire (anava, mayika, and kamya) place obstacles in the way of meditation. How to conquer them?


Ramana Maharishi:  Not to be swayed by them.



Devotee:  Grace is necessary.


Ramana Maharishi:  Yes, Grace is both the beginning and the end. Introversion is due to Grace: Perseverance is Grace; and Realisation is Grace. That is the reason for the statement: Mamekam saranam vraja (only surrender to Me). If one has entirely surrendered oneself is there any part left to ask for Grace? He is swallowed up by Grace.

How to gain Divine Grace?

Devotee:  How to gain Divine Grace?



Ramana Maharishi:  By surrender.


Devotee:  Still I do not feel Grace.


Ramana Maharishi:  Sincerity is wanting. Surrender should not be verbal nor conditional. Passages from St. Justinian were read out to illustrate these statements. Prayer is not verbal. It is from the heart. To merge into the Heart is prayer. That is also Grace. The Alwar says: “I was all along seeking Thee. But on realising the Self I find you are the Self. The Self is my all, and so you are my All.”

It is necessary to experience the Reality now in life in order that it may be experienced at death.

Ramana Maharishi:  It is said in the Bhagavad Gita, Ch. VIII, that whatever may be the last thought at death, it determines the later birth of the person. It is necessary to experience the Reality now in life in order that it may be experienced at death. See if this moment be different from the last one, and try to be in that desired state.

Can anything be more immediate and intimate than the Self?

Devotee:  Nirguna upasana is said to be difficult and risky. He quoted the verse from Sri Bhagavad Gita, avyaktahi etc. (the manifest, etc.)

Ramana Maharishi:  What is manifest is considered to be unmanifest and doubt is created. Can anything be more immediate and intimate than the Self?  Can anything be more plain?

Find the ‘I’ and see later what further knowledge is required.

Devotee:  I want knowledge.

Ramana Maharishi:  Who wants knowledge?

Devotee:  I want it.

Ramana Maharishi:   Who is that ‘I’? Find the ‘I’ and see later what further knowledge is required.

Is there anyone who denies his own existence?

Devotee:  But thinking is necessary even for realisation.

Ramana Maharishi:  That thinking is aimed at the elimination of all thinking.

Devotee:  Owing to my ignorance, I do not realise the Absolute Existence-Consciousness.

Ramana Maharishi:   Who is the ‘I’? Whose is the ignorance! Answers to these questions will alone suffice to prove that you are already realised. Is there anyone who denies his own existence? Or can anyone say that he did not exist in his sleep? Pure Existence is thus admitted. The admission also implies consciousness. Thus all men are realised. There is no ignorant man at all.

The direct method of attack is not to depend on invisible hypotheses but to ask “Whose Karma is it? Or whose body?”

Devotee:  How did I get this body?


Ramana Maharishi:  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?
………
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.

Be yourself. That is all.

Ramana Maharishi:  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.

Bliss consists in not forgetting your being.

Devotee:   But Bliss must be experienced.


Ramana Maharishi:  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.

The Self always remains actionless, whereas thoughts arise and subside.

Devotee:  Maharshi advises that the mind should be divested of thoughts.

Ramana Maharishi:  This is itself a thought.

Devotee:  When all thoughts disappear what remains over?

Ramana Maharishi:  Is the mind different from thoughts?

Devotee:  No. The mind is made up of thoughts. My point is this: When all thoughts are got rid of, how shall I concentrate the mind?

Ramana Maharishi:  Is not this also a thought?

Devotee:  Yes, but I am advised to concentrate.

Ramana Maharishi:   Why should you concentrate? Why should you not allow your thoughts free play?

Devotee:  The sastras say that the thoughts, thus playing free, lead us astray, that is, to unreal and changeful things.

Ramana Maharishi:   So then, you want not to be led to unreal and changeful things. Your thoughts are unreal and changeful. You want to hold the Reality. That is exactly what I say. The thoughts are unreal. Get rid of them.

Devotee:  I understand now. Yet there is a doubt. “Not a trice can you remain inactive.” How shall I be able to rid myself of thoughts?

Ramana Maharishi:  The same Gita says: “Although all actions take place, I am not the doer.” It is
like the sun towards the world activities. The Self always remains actionless, whereas thoughts arise and subside. The Self is Perfection; it is immutable; the mind is limited and changeful. You need only to cast off your limitations. Your perfection thus stands revealed.

Be free from thoughts. Do not hold on to anything. They do not hold you. Be yourself.

Devotee:  The sastras want us to concentrate and I cannot do so.


Ramana Maharishi:  Through what sastras have we known our existence?


Devotee:  It is a matter of experience. But I want to concentrate.


Ramana Maharishi:  Be free from thoughts. Do not hold on to anything. They do not hold you. Be yourself.

Mind is tangible to you. Hold the mind and it will do.

Devotee:  What is thought-force, mesmerism, etc.? There was a doctor in Paris called Dr. Coue. He was illiterate, but yet was able to cure many incurable diseases by will-force. He used to say: Generate power to cure yourself. The power is within you.


Ramana Maharishi:  It is through the same will-power that the seat of all diseases, the body, has risen.


Devotee:  So it is said thoughts manifest as objects.


Ramana Maharishi:  This thought must be for mukti (liberation).


Devotee:  God must enable us to get rid of the other thoughts.


Ramana Maharishi:  This is again a thought. Let that which has incarnated raise the question. You are not that because you are free from thoughts.


Devotee:  The Atman is formless. How shall I concentrate on it?


Ramana Maharishi:  Leave alone the Atman which you say is formless or intangible. Mind is tangible to you. Hold the mind and it will do.

One’s meditation or concentration is meant to get rid of obstacles and not to gain the Self.

Ramana Maharishi:  This thought, ‘I am not able to concentrate,’ is itself an obstacle. Why should the thought arise? Your nature is Peace and Happiness. Thoughts are the obstacles to realisation. One’s meditation or concentration is meant to get rid of obstacles and not to gain the Self. Does anyone remain apart from the Self? No! The true nature of the Self is declared to be Peace. If the same peace is not found, the non-finding is only a thought which is alien to the Self. One practises meditation only to get rid of these alien fancies. So, then, a thought must be quelled as soon as it rises. Whenever a thought arises, do not be carried away by it. You become aware of the body when you forget the Self. But can you forget the Self? Being the Self how can you forget it? There must be two selves for one to forget the other. It is absurd. So the Self is not depressed; it is not imperfect: it is ever happy. The contrary feeling is a mere thought which has actually no stamina in it. Be rid of thoughts. Why should one attempt meditation? Being the Self one remains always realised, only be free from thoughts. You think that your health does not permit your meditation. This depression must be traced to its origin. The origin is the wrong identification of the body with the Self. The disease is not of the Self. It is of the body. But the body does not come and tell you that it is possessed by the disease. It is you who say it. Why? Because you have wrongly identified yourself with the body. The body itself is a thought. Be as you really are. There is no reason to be depressed

Do you remain apart from Self that you speak of yourself as Its modification?

Devotee:  It is said that individuals are modifications of the Self, just as ornaments are of gold.


Ramana Maharishi:  When a man speaks in terms of ornaments ignoring their substance gold, he is told that they are gold. But here the man is consciousness and speaks of himself as its modification. Do you remain apart from Self that you speak of yourself as Its modification?


Devotee:  Cannot gold be imagined to say that it has become an ornament?


Ramana Maharishi:  Being insentient, it does not say so. But the individual is sentient and cannot function apart from consciousness. The Self is Pure Consciousness. Yet the man identifies himself with the body which is itself insentient and does not say “I am the body” of its own accord. Someone else says so. The unlimited Self does not.  Who else is he that says so? A spurious ‘I’ arises between the Pure Consciousness and the insentient body and imagines itself limited to the body. Seek this and it will vanish as a phantom. That phantom is the ego, or the mind or the individuality. All the sastras are based on the rise of this phantom, whose elimination is their purpose. The present state is mere illusion. Disillusionment is the goal and nothing more.

Are you ever divorced from the Self?

Devotee:  When I travel from Calcutta to Madras I must know Madras so that I may not alight at an intermediate station out of ignorance. There are the sign boards and the timetable to guide me in my travel. But what is the guide in my search for the Self?


Ramana Maharishi:  It is all right for the journey. You know how far away you are from Madras. Can you tell me how far away you are from the Self in order that you should seek it?



Devotee:   I do not know.


Ramana Maharishi:  Are you ever divorced from the Self? Is it possible to be divorced? Are not all these alien to you and the Self the most intimate? Where should you go to gain the Self?



Devotee:   I am now away from the Self. I must retrace my steps in order to regain it.


Ramana Maharishi:  How far away? Who says that he is apart? Can there be two selves?

All are comprised in ‘I’.

Ramana Maharishi:  You seek the confirmation from others. Each one though addressed as ‘you’, styles himself ‘I’. The confirmation is only from ‘I’. There is no ‘you’ at all. All are comprised in ‘I’. The other can be known only when the Self is posited. The others do not exist without the subject.