Sunday, July 24, 2016

Self-Realisation is only a euphemism for elimination of ignorance.

Devotee:  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?

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

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

Ramana Maharishi:  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 (oonadhal kan). 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.

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