Self percept- Atam updesh by Ramana Maharishi

[SAadmin]

Transcription: If there is a goal to be reached, it can not be permanent. The goal must already be there. We seek to reach the goal with Ego but the goal exists before the Ego. What is in the goal is even prior to our birth, the birth of the ego. Because we exist, the ego appears to exist, too. If we look on the Self as the ego, then we become the ego. If its the mind, we become the mind. If its the body we become the body. It's the thought that builds up sheats in so many ways. The shadow on the water is found to be shaking, can anyone stop the shaking of the shadow? If it should ceise to shake you would not notice the water, but only the light. Similar to take no notice on the ego and it's activities, but see only the light behind. The ego is the I-thought, the true I is the Self. Realization is already there, the state free from thoughts is the only real state. There is no such action as realization. Is there anyone who is not realizing the Self? Does anyone deny his own existance? Speaking of realization implies two Self's: The one to realize, the other to be realized. What is not already realized is thought to be realized. Once we admit our existance how is it that we donot know the Self? Oh beacuse of the thoughts, because of the mind. Quite so. It is the mind that stands between and veils our happiness. How do we know that we exist? If you say because of the world around us, than how that you existed in deep sleep? How to get rid of the mind? Is it the mind that wants to kill itself? The mind can not kill itself. So your business is to find the real nature of the mind. Then you will know that there is no mind. When the Self is sought the mind is nowhere. Abiding in the Self, one need not worry about the mind. How to get rid of fear? What is fear? It is only a thought. If there is anything beside the Self there is reason to fear. Who sees the Second? First the ego arises and sees objects as external. If the ego does not rise, the Self alone exists and there is no Second. For anything external to oneself implies the Seer within. Seeking it there will arise no doubt, no fear - not only fear, all other thoughts centered around the ego will disappear around with it. This method seems to be quicker than the usual one of cultivating qualities alleged necessary for salvation. All bad qualities centered around the ego. When the ego is gone, realization results by itself. There are neither good nor in the Self. The Self is free from all qualities. Qualities pertain to the mind only. It is beyond quality. If there is unity, there will also be duality. The numeral one gives rise to other numbers. The truth is, neither one or two, it is as it is.

 

The difficulty is to be in the thought-free state. Reality is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking it's identity. Because the ego is no entity, it will automatically vanish and reality will sine forth by itself. This is the direct method, whereas all other methods are done only by retaining the ego. In those paths there arise so many doubts and the eternal question remains to be tackled finally. But in this method the final question is the only one and it is raised from the very beginning. No sedans are necessary to engage in this quest.

 

"Have you seen God?" I asked,"..and if you have, can you enable me to see him? I'm willing to pay any price, even my life. But your part of the bargain is that you must show me God. "No." he answered, "I can not show you God or enable you to see God. Because God is not an object that can be seen. God is the subject. He is the Seer. Dont concern yourself with objects that can be seen. Find out who the Seer is." He also added: "You were loan (learn) our God." As if to rebuke me for looking for a God who is outside in part from me. At the conclusion of his words, he looked at me and as he gazed into my eyes my whole body began to tremble and shake. A thrill of nervous energy shot through my body. My nerve-endings felt as if they were dancing and my hair stood on end. Within me I became aware of the Spiritual Heart. This is not the physical heart, it is rather the source and support of all that exists. Within this heart, I saw or felt something like a closed bud. It was very shiny and blueish. With the Maharshi looking at me and with myself in a state of inner silence, I felt this bud open and bloom. I use the word "bud" but this is not an exact description. It would be more correct to say that something that feld bud-like opened and bloomed within me in the heart. And when I say heart, I dont mean that the flowering was located in a particular place in the body. This heart, this heart of my heart, was neither inside the body nor out of it. I can't give a more exact description of what happened.

 

The keystone of the Maharshi's teaching is the Self-enquiry or Atma Vichara. His infallible path to Self-realization coupled with total devotional surrender to God, Self or Guru. Broadly speaking, Sri Bhagavan tells us that The Immortal Self ,or Satchidananda or pure-existance-conciousness-awareness-bliss is already there inherent in each of us. The difficulty is we do not recognize "that", our True Nature or essential I-am-ness because it is veiled and obscured my many latent tendencies and habits of the egotistic mind which act as a mirror and project a dream of the world, the body and the mind. Our identification with the mind and the body is the chief reason for our failure to know ourself as we really are. Through persistant Self-enquiry, devotion and surrender of the egotistic mind to God or the Satguru in the Spiritual Heart, this obscuration and identification is gradually and gracefully removed until The Immortal Self is realized. That is the full power of absolute consciousness and is known. The world is seen as real because the substrate is perceived to be as Brahmin.

 

In January 1938 Somerset Maugham, the British novelist, visited Sri Ramanashram for a few hours. The brief contact he had with Bhagavan inspired Maugham so much, he decided to use him as the model for a fictional Guru in The Razor's Edge, his masterpiece which was published a few years later in 1944. Maugham also wrote a non-fictional account of his visit. In an essay entitled "The Saint" which was published 20years after the event in 1958. The following account which is taken from this essay records Maughams impressions of this meeting with Bhagavan. He uttered a few words of cordial greeting and sat on the ground not far from the pallet on which I lay. After the first few minutes during which his eyes with a gentle benignity rested on my face, he ceased to look at me, but, with a sidelong stare of peculiar fixity, gazed, as it were, over my shoulder. His body was absolutely still, but now and then one of his feet tapped lightly on the earthen floor. He remained thus, motionless, for perhaps 15 minutes; and they told me later that he was concentrating in meditation upon me. Then he came to, if I may so put it, and again looked at me. He asked me if I wished to say anything to him, or ask any question. I was feeling weak and ill and said so; whereupon he smiled and said: "Silence is also conversation". He turned his head away slightly and resumed his concentrated meditation, again looking, as it were, over my shoulder. No one said a word; the other persons in the hut, standing by the door, kept their eyes riveted upon him. After another 15 minutes, he got up bowed, smiled farewell, and slowly, leaning on his stick, he limped out of the hut, followed by his disciples. There is no greater mystery than this: Ourselves being the reality, we seek to gain reality. We think that there is something hiding our reality and that it must be destroyed before the reality is gained. It is ridiculous. A day will dawn when you will yourself laugh at your past efforts. That which will on the day you laugh, is also the here and now. "So its a great game of pretending?" - "Yes." In Yoga Vasistha it is said: 'What is real is hidden from us and what is false is revealed as true. We are actually experiencing the reality only still we do not know it. Is it not a wonder of wonders. The quest "Who am I?" is the axe with which to cut off the ego.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weXKuURMgMs

[Sat1176]

Ramana was a young boy of 17 who was, one day, suddenly assailed by the fear of death. Being of an intellectual disposition, he decided to find out what the experience of death was like. He lay down, and stiffened his body to simulate the rigor mortis of death. He realised that he was still breathing, and held his breath. This made him aware of the thoughts passing through his mind, and being ripe for the experience, he was able to still his mind. Becoming aware of the ‘I’ thought, he sought its source, and immediately transcended the ego and realised the Self. All of this happened in a matter of few seconds, and the Self-knowledge he gained remained with him permanently.

Ramana was then divinely guided to the temple town of Tiruvannamalai, abode of Arunachala, the firey hill, considered to be Shiva himself, manifest on earth. Ramana took up residence in an underground vault in the temple, and was totally indrawn and unmindful of the insects and vermin feeding upon his young body. Passers by force fed him, and he was subsequently taken out of the vault to nearby shrines and orchards, and looked after by pilgrims who were impressed by the saintly young man who was steeped in meditation, totally unaware of his body. He remained in silence for a few years, and then slowly began to respond to questions with written answers, sometimes scrawled upon the sand. He gradually returned to normal body awareness. Soon disciples gathered around him, inspired by his direct and profound answers to their spiritual questions, as well as by the deep peace and joy they experienced in his company. His direct teaching, born of his own experience, was that if one were to seek the source of the ‘I’, one would, in time transend the ego and become established in the Self.

Ramana took up residence in the various caves on the holy hill, finally settling down at the base of the hill, where his disciples established and ashram. Ramana lived in this ashram, until he dropped his body in 1950, having spent a total of 54 years in the small town of Tiruvannamalai, to which he was divinely guided after his experience of the Self. Through Ramana never left Tiruvannamalai, spiritual seekers from all over the world come to him. Many of them settled down in the ashram for the rest of their lives, being drawn to Ramana as iron fillings to a magnet.

On one occasion Ramana has assisted his mother’s absorption into the Self, by placing his right hand upon her heart and his left hand on her head, during the last two hours of her life. Ramana accelerated the ripening of her karmas, having her experience in consciousness, all her future life experiences, thus eliminating the need for rebirth. Her face indicated the pains and pleasures that she was experiencing, during this period of accelerated experience.