YOU ARE THAT WHICH NEVER MOVES

One day Bhagavan was looking at me intently and said:
“It looks as if you are still hankering
after meditation.”

I replied: “What have I got except endless work in the kitchen?”

Bhagavan said with deep feeling:
“Your hands may do the work but your mind can remain still. You are that which never moves. Realize that and you will find that work is not a strain. But as long as you think that you are the body and that the work is done by you, you will feel your life to be an endless toil.
In fact it is the mind that toils, not the body. Even if your body keeps quiet, will your mind keep quiet too?
Even in sleep the mind is busy with its dreams.”

I replied : “Yes, Swami, it is as natural for you to know that you are not your body as it is for us to think that we are the body.... Why can’t I remember always that I am not the body?”

“Because you haven’t had enough of it.”
He smiled.

—from Ramana Smriti.
The Maharshi.
MAR/APR 2002 VOL. 12, NO. 2