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The man who speaks the truth is always at ease.
--------------- Divine Ignorance ---------------
The first step in spiritual awakening is to realize you're divinely ignorant, and that's not an insult. I have had people walk out when I've said this. That's why I say, “divinely ignorant.” With all humility you must realize this first of all that you are divinely ignorant.
Which means that you don't really understand anything. All your conceptual ideas. All your preconceived ideas. Everything you've learnt as a boy or as a girl. All the ideas and feelings and emotions that you grew up with, are basically wrong. They're all erroneous and they must be transcended.
The only way to begin to transcend this is to admit to yourself, "I am divinely ignorant and I really do no know what anything is. I really know nothing. I don't know what anything is". <
As an example: We don't know what a human being is. We have no idea what it is. It just appears at birth and we take it for granted. We don't know what a dog is. Where did it come from? How did it arrive? We know that it has four legs and it's a dog, so we give it a name, dog. Like someone gave you the name Mark, Ed or Mary. But what are these things for real? We don't know what a tree is. We gave it a name tree, but what is it really? It has leaves. Some trees produce oranges, some trees produce grapefruits. Why? What's its purpose? Where did it come from originally? And what came first, the tree or the seed? We don't know, we have no idea. We don't know what the sun is, or the moon, or the stars. Oh we can figure out is what they do, to keep us warm, the sun does. But we have no idea what it really is, why it exists? Why does anything exist? Why do we exist? We have no idea.
But we're brought up in a world of effects and we begin to respond to the effects of the world at an early age. We develop traits of jealousy, anger, mistrust, envy, fear, all these feelings are developed at an early age. And we don't know why? We act accordingly, we cause problems for ourselves. We try to solve them and we spend all of our lives solving problems. Before you know it we turn around, we're eighty, ninety years old, it's time to go, where are we? We have no idea.
And those of us who think we've accomplished something materialistically. We think we're doing good deeds. We've become successful in business, in world affairs and politics. Yet we have to leave it all behind, everything we worked so hard for. Nothing remains. When it's time to leave the body, everything goes, and we're alone. Therefore doesn't it make sense that we should search for the answers of life. What is life all about? Doesn't that make sense to go after that, for if we find that we will become free. But if we keep involving ourselves in our affairs, gain, loss, happy, sad, sick, healthy and so forth, we're wasting our precious time.
Divine Ignorance - October 21, 1990
The first step in spiritual awakening is to realize you're divinely ignorant, and that's not an insult. I have had people walk out when I've said this. That's why I say, “divinely ignorant.” With all humility you must realize this first of all that you are divinely ignorant.
Which means that you don't really understand anything. All your conceptual ideas. All your preconceived ideas. Everything you've learnt as a boy or as a girl. All the ideas and feelings and emotions that you grew up with, are basically wrong. They're all erroneous and they must be transcended.
The only way to begin to transcend this is to admit to yourself, "I am divinely ignorant and I really do no know what anything is. I really know nothing. I don't know what anything is". <
As an example: We don't know what a human being is. We have no idea what it is. It just appears at birth and we take it for granted. We don't know what a dog is. Where did it come from? How did it arrive? We know that it has four legs and it's a dog, so we give it a name, dog. Like someone gave you the name Mark, Ed or Mary. But what are these things for real? We don't know what a tree is. We gave it a name tree, but what is it really? It has leaves. Some trees produce oranges, some trees produce grapefruits. Why? What's its purpose? Where did it come from originally? And what came first, the tree or the seed? We don't know, we have no idea. We don't know what the sun is, or the moon, or the stars. Oh we can figure out is what they do, to keep us warm, the sun does. But we have no idea what it really is, why it exists? Why does anything exist? Why do we exist? We have no idea.
But we're brought up in a world of effects and we begin to respond to the effects of the world at an early age. We develop traits of jealousy, anger, mistrust, envy, fear, all these feelings are developed at an early age. And we don't know why? We act accordingly, we cause problems for ourselves. We try to solve them and we spend all of our lives solving problems. Before you know it we turn around, we're eighty, ninety years old, it's time to go, where are we? We have no idea.
And those of us who think we've accomplished something materialistically. We think we're doing good deeds. We've become successful in business, in world affairs and politics. Yet we have to leave it all behind, everything we worked so hard for. Nothing remains. When it's time to leave the body, everything goes, and we're alone. Therefore doesn't it make sense that we should search for the answers of life. What is life all about? Doesn't that make sense to go after that, for if we find that we will become free. But if we keep involving ourselves in our affairs, gain, loss, happy, sad, sick, healthy and so forth, we're wasting our precious time.
Divine Ignorance - October 21, 1990
NO ATTACHMENT AND TRUE BRAHMACHARYA
D.: Is work an obstruction to Self-realisation?
M.: No. For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment.
There is no aim for this action.
Even one who is still practicing the path of Wisdom (jnana) can practise while engaged in work. It may be difficult in the earlier stages for a beginner, but after some practice it will soon be effective and the work will not be found a hindrance to meditation.
D.: What is the practice?
M.: Constant search for `I', the source of the ego. Find out `Who am I?'
The pure `I' is the reality, the Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. When That is forgotten, all miseries crop up; when that is held fast, the miseries do not affect the person.
D.: Is not brahmacharya (celibacy) necessary for realisation of the Self?
M.: Brahmacharya is`living in Brahman'. It has no connection with celibacy as commonly understood. A real brahmachari, that is one who lives in Brahman, finds bliss in the Brahman which is the same as the Self. Why then should you look for other sources of happiness? In fact the emergence from the Self has been the cause of all the misery.
(Excerpt from Talk 17: Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)
D.: Is work an obstruction to Self-realisation?
M.: No. For a realised being the Self alone is the Reality, and actions are only phenomenal, not affecting the Self. Even when he acts he has no sense of being an agent. His actions are only involuntary and he remains a witness to them without any attachment.
There is no aim for this action.
Even one who is still practicing the path of Wisdom (jnana) can practise while engaged in work. It may be difficult in the earlier stages for a beginner, but after some practice it will soon be effective and the work will not be found a hindrance to meditation.
D.: What is the practice?
M.: Constant search for `I', the source of the ego. Find out `Who am I?'
The pure `I' is the reality, the Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. When That is forgotten, all miseries crop up; when that is held fast, the miseries do not affect the person.
D.: Is not brahmacharya (celibacy) necessary for realisation of the Self?
M.: Brahmacharya is`living in Brahman'. It has no connection with celibacy as commonly understood. A real brahmachari, that is one who lives in Brahman, finds bliss in the Brahman which is the same as the Self. Why then should you look for other sources of happiness? In fact the emergence from the Self has been the cause of all the misery.
(Excerpt from Talk 17: Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)
Meditation, really, is a penetration into the unknown, and so the known, the memory, the experience, the knowledge which it has acquired during the day, or during a thousand days, must end. For it is only a free mind that can penetrate into the very heart of the immeasurable.
Consciousness does not shine by itself. It shines by a light beyond it in which it appears, which gives it being. Don't be all the time immersed in your experience. Remember that you are beyond the experiencer, ever unborn and deathless. In remembering it, the quality of pure knowledge will emerge, the light of unconditional awareness.
In the field of His play even getting means losing. This is but the nature of its movement. Think of Him Who cannot be lost. Meditate on Him alone, on Him, the Fountain of Goodness. Pray to Him; depend on Him. Try to give more time to japa and meditation. Surrender your mind at His Feet. Endeavour to sustain japa and meditation without a break.
I can be neither lost nor found, for I am the absolute unchanging Awareness. I grant myself the joy of self-discovery through my instrument and servant, the body-mind. There is no 'other' than my own self to find me. I am the all-encompassing Reality.
Get rid of all questions, all doubts, all fears, all apprehensions about spiritual life and live in the moment unafraid, full of total joy and happiness and peace. And you will see you have always been enlightened you already are enlightened everything is okay. But if you keep worrying about when it's going to happen aren't you really saying: "I don't have it yet, there is something really wrong? I am not that and I have to become that?" For in truth you are already that. For in reality you're already enlightened there is nothing you have to do and nowhere you have to go. Be yourself. Be the way you are, totally, completely. The way you are is not the body nor the mind nor the experience. The way you are is not the doer.
Nothing you do will change you, for you need no change. You may change your mind or your body, but it is always something external to you that has changed, not yourself. Why bother at all to change? Realize once for all that neither your body nor your mind, nor even your consciousness is yourself and stand alone in your true nature beyond consciousness and unconsciousness. No effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding.
You say you are happy. Are you really happy, or are you merely trying to convince yourself. Look at yourself fearlessly and you will at once realize that your happiness depends on conditions and circumstances, hence it is momentary, not real. Real happiness flows from within.
It's very simple. It's difficult only for the 'I', but it's totally natural to return to what you are, to what's underneath the 'I' story.
There is no need of training. Awareness is always with you. The same attention that you give to the outer, you turn to the inner. No new, or special kind of awareness is needed.
I do not say that you must keep on rejecting thoughts. If you cling to yourself, to the 'I-thought', and your interest keeps you to that single thought, other thoughts will get rejected and will automatically vanish.
The seeing is the only doing necessary.
Sages say that the state in which the thought 'I' (the ego) does not rise in the least is Self which is silence. That silence, Self, alone is God; Self alone is the individual soul, Self alone is this ancient world. The experience of silence alone is the real and perfect knowledge.
You need not stop thinking. Just cease being interested. It is disinterestedness that liberates. Don't hold on, that is all.
The silence is another way of saying to keep your mind stayed on God all the time. God is the silence and you are that. Feel the silence right now. You can feel it. It's a thing of beauty. You know when you're getting into the true silence, you begin to become happier, and happier and happier for no reason. It makes no difference what's going on in the world. The world is in one place and you're in another place. In the deep silence you are identifying with the substratum of creation. Always remember to go into the silence. A sage is always in the silence. A sage may be talking, listening, partaking of activities, but to the sage there's only silence.
Question: What is the sadhana for achieving the natural state? Maharaj: Hold on to the sense 'I am' to the exclusion of everything else. When thus the mind becomes completely silent, it shines with a new light and vibrates with new knowledge. It all comes spontaneously, you need only hold on to the 'I am'. Just like emerging from sleep or a state of rapture you feel rested and yet you cannot explain why and how you come to feel so well, in the same way on realisation you feel complete, fulfilled, free from the pleasure-pain complex, and yet not always able to explain what happened, why and how. You can put it only in negative terms: 'Nothing is wrong with me any longer.' It is only by comparison with the past that you know that you are out of it. Otherwise - you are just yourself. Don't try to convey it to others. If you can, it is not the real thing. Be silent and watch it expressing itself in action.
For the man of Truth, seeking experience of the supreme state, the heroic action needed, is to draw in, the outward darting mind, and fix it firmly in the Heart.
Take the instance of moving pictures on the screen in the cinema-show. What is there in front of you before the play begins? Merely the screen. On that screen you see the entire show, and for all appearances the pictures are real. But go and try to take hold of them. What do you take hold of? Merely the screen on which the pictures appeared so real. After the play, when the pictures disappear, what remains? The screen again!
So with the Self. That alone exists; the pictures come and go. If you hold on to the Self, you will not be deceived by the appearance of the pictures. Nor does it matter at all if the pictures appear or disappear.
Ignoring the Self the ajnani thinks the world is real, just as ignoring the screen he sees merely the pictures, as if they existed apart from it. If one knows that without the seer there is nothing to be seen, just as there are no pictures without the screen, one is not deluded. The jnani knows that the screen, the pictures and the sight thereof are but the Self. With the pictures the Self is in its manifest form; without the pictures It remains in the unmanifest form. To the jnani it is quite immaterial if the Self is in the one form or the other. He is always the Self. But the ajnani seeing the jnani active gets confounded.
So with the Self. That alone exists; the pictures come and go. If you hold on to the Self, you will not be deceived by the appearance of the pictures. Nor does it matter at all if the pictures appear or disappear.
Ignoring the Self the ajnani thinks the world is real, just as ignoring the screen he sees merely the pictures, as if they existed apart from it. If one knows that without the seer there is nothing to be seen, just as there are no pictures without the screen, one is not deluded. The jnani knows that the screen, the pictures and the sight thereof are but the Self. With the pictures the Self is in its manifest form; without the pictures It remains in the unmanifest form. To the jnani it is quite immaterial if the Self is in the one form or the other. He is always the Self. But the ajnani seeing the jnani active gets confounded.
Not like a boat's sail, outspread wide and worn away by wind and weather, but like the humble anchor, sunk in the vast ocean's depth, the mind should plunge and settle in the heart of wisdom.
Question: I begin by asking myself "Who am I?" and eliminate the body as not 'I', the breath as not 'I', the mind as not 'I', but then I am unable to proceed further.
Bhagavan: Well, that is all right so far as the mind goes. Your process is only mental. Actually all the scriptures mention this process only in order to guide the seeker to the Truth. The Truth cannot be directly indicated; that is why this mental process is used. You see, he who eliminates all the 'not-I' cannot eliminate the 'I'. In order to be able to say 'I am not this' or 'I am That', there must be the 'I' to say it. This 'I' is only the ego, or the 'I-thought'. After the rising up of this 'I-thought', all other thoughts arise. The 'I-thought' is therefore the root thought. If the root is pulled out, all the rest is uprooted at the same time. Therefore seek the root 'I'; question yourself: "Who am I?"; find out the source of the 'I'.
Then all these problems will vanish and the pure Self alone will remain.
Bhagavan: Well, that is all right so far as the mind goes. Your process is only mental. Actually all the scriptures mention this process only in order to guide the seeker to the Truth. The Truth cannot be directly indicated; that is why this mental process is used. You see, he who eliminates all the 'not-I' cannot eliminate the 'I'. In order to be able to say 'I am not this' or 'I am That', there must be the 'I' to say it. This 'I' is only the ego, or the 'I-thought'. After the rising up of this 'I-thought', all other thoughts arise. The 'I-thought' is therefore the root thought. If the root is pulled out, all the rest is uprooted at the same time. Therefore seek the root 'I'; question yourself: "Who am I?"; find out the source of the 'I'.
Then all these problems will vanish and the pure Self alone will remain.
The restless mind does not take easily to self-investigation and quickly runs after familiar distractions. In many cases, it must first be reined in or pacified through the practice of japa, prayer, yoga or association with wise and holy company. Only then will it gradually develop the strength and attraction to enquire into its root nature. Gradually, this will result in the weakening of the tendency to rush outward. Eventually, the mind will sink inside the Shiva Being.
The Self is Pure Consciousness. Yet a man identifies himself with the body which is insentient and does not itself say: ‘I am the body’. Someone else says so. The unlimited Self does not. Who does? A spurious ‘I’ arises between Pure Consciousness and the insentient body and imagines itself to be limited to the body. Seek this and it will vanish like a phantom. The phantom is the ego or mind or individuality. All the scriptures are based on the rise of this phantom, whose elimination is their purpose. The present state is mere illusion. Its dissolution is the goal and nothing else.
The central truth of the Upanishads, the essence of the Vedanta, the goal of all wisdom and all spiritual practices, the reality of all realities, the quintessence of truth is that the individual self, the embodied soul, the Jiva, is identical with the Supreme, the Absolute, the Brahman, and this is what is meant by the great utterance of Self-revelation of the Upanishads: 'Tat Tvam Asi', That thou art. The nature of the inner essence of yourself and the nature of Brahman is one and the same, free from all change, impersonal and all-pervasive, infinite consciousness.
Is the Self the Witness?
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The idea of the Self being the Witness is in the mind. It may be useful for helping to still the mind's restlessness. But it is not the absolute Truth of the Self. Witnessing is relative to objects witnessed. Both the witness and his object are mental creations.
Sri Ramana Maharshi: The idea of the Self being the Witness is in the mind. It may be useful for helping to still the mind's restlessness. But it is not the absolute Truth of the Self. Witnessing is relative to objects witnessed. Both the witness and his object are mental creations.
Beings
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