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Ramana Maharshi

December 30, 1879 1a Tiruchuli, India – April 14, 1950
Tiruvannamalai, India

Path: his own wikipedia, birthchart
Enlightened: towards the end of July, 1896 at Madurai

This page last updated on 2/9/24.


All religions postulate the three fundamentals, the world, the soul, and God, but it is only the one Reality that manifests Itself as these three. One can say, 'The three are really three' only so long as the ego lasts. Therefore, to inhere in one's own Being, where the 'I', or ego, is dead, is the perfect State.


Anything that you see cannot be God. Whatever you see must be an object of your senses. God is not an object of your senses. God is the one through whom all things are seen, tasted, touched, heard and smelt, but He himself cannot be seen because He is the seer, not an object of sight.


As you persevere more and more in the practice of Self-Inquiry, the mind acquires increasing strength and power to abide in its source.


Be what you are. There is nothing to come down or become manifest. All that is necessary is to lose the ego. That which is is always there. Even now you are that. You are not apart from it. The blank is seen by you. You are there to see the blank. What do you wait for ? The thought, `I have not seen', the expectation to see and the desire of getting something, are all the workings of the ego. You have fallen into snares of the ego. The ego says all these and not you. Be yourself and nothing more ! Once born you reach something. If you reach it you return also. Therefore leave off all this verbiage. Be as you are. See who you are and remain as the Self, free from birth, going, coming and returning. Be as you are.


Become conscious of being conscious. Say or think “I am”, and add nothing to it. Be aware of the stillness that follows the “I am”. Sense your presence, the naked unveiled, unclothed beingness. It is untouched by young or old, rich or poor, good or bad, or any other attributes. It is the spacious womb of all creation, all form.


Bliss is a thing which is always there and is not something which comes and goes. That which comes and goes is a creation of the mind.


Bliss is not something to be got. On the other hand you are always Bliss. This desire [for Bliss] is born of the sense of incompleteness. To whom is this sense of incompleteness? Enquire. In deep sleep you were blissful. Now you are not so. What has interposed between that Bliss and this non-bliss? It is the ego. Seek its source & find you are Bliss.


Can religion, which teaches you to look outside yourself, which promises a heaven and a reward outside yourself, can this help you? It is only by diving deep into the spiritual Heart that one can find the Self.


Establishing the mind in its native state (of quiet repose) in the space of the Heart is undoubtedly the essence of all yogas – karma, bhakti, raja and jnana.
~ verse ten of the Upadesa Saram

The other yogas are inferior paths; this is the superior and direct path. All other paths are for those who are incapable of Self-enquiry. They also lead you ultimately to vichara. [Talk 189]


EVERY living being longs always to be happy, untainted by sorrow; and everyone has the greatest love for himself, which is solely due to the fact that happiness is his real nature.


Everyone is aware of the eternal Self. He sees so many dying but still believes himself eternal because it’s the Truth.


Everything we see is changing… always changing…. There must be something unchanging as the basis and source of all this.


Following the destruction of the “I am the body” idea, whatever body it may be, the radiance of being endures free of limitation, without any bondage, shining as the pure expanse. Dwelling in the Hearts of all individuated beings as attribute-free knowledge, as wholly the Self, and as non-distinct from them, this radiance of being abides as the all-encompassing Supreme Power.


God dwells in you, as you, and you don’t have to ‘do’ anything to be God-realized or Self-realized, it is already your true and natural state.” Just drop all seeking, turn your attention inward, and sacrifice your mind to the One Self radiating in the Heart of your very being. For this to be your own presently lived experience, Self-Inquiry is the one direct and immediate way.


God is immanent in every person and every object throughout the universe. The totality of all things and beings constitutes God.


God will bear whatever burdens we put on Him. All things are being carried on by the omnipotent power of a Supreme God. Instead of submitting ourselves to It, why should we always be planning, ‘We should do this or that’. Knowing that the train carries all the load, why should we, travelling therein, suffer by carrying our small bundle on our heads, instead of leaving it on the train and being happy. The story of Ashtavakra teaches that in order to experience Brahma Jnana all that is necessary is to surrender yourself completely to the Guru, to give up your notion of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. If these are surrendered, what remains is the Reality. There are two ways of achieving surrender. One is looking into the source of the ‘I’ and merging into that source. The other is feeling, ‘I am helpless myself, God alone is all powerful, and except by throwing myself completely on Him, there is no other means of safety for me’; and thus gradually developing the conviction that God alone exists and the ego does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal. Complete surrender is another name for jnana or liberation.

Bhakti is not different from mukti. Bhakti is being as the Self. One is always That. He realizes It by the means he adopts. What is bhakti? To think of God. That means only one thought prevails to the exclusion of all other thoughts. That thought is of God, which is the Self, or it is the self surrendered unto God. When He has taken you up, nothing else will assail you.
~ GEMS FROM BHAGAVAN - A necklace of sayings by BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI


Hence it a called the Heart. The only useful purpose of the present birth is to see it in all things. There is nothing else to do.


I cannot 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. Don’t concern yourself with objects that can be seen. Find out who the seer is.


If one can only realize at heart what one’s true nature is, one then will find that it is infinite wisdom, truth, and bliss, without beginning and without end.


If one realises one’s true nature within one’s heart, it’s the plentitude of Being - Awareness -Bliss without beginning or end.


If one wants to abide in the thought-free state, a struggle is inevitable. One must fight one’s way through before regaining one’s original primal state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely.


If you ask what that is, it is called turiya, which means the fourth state. Why is this name used? This name is proper because it seems to say the three states of your experience-waking, dream and deep sleep-are foreign to you and your true state is the fourth, which is different from these three. Should the three states, waking, dream and deep sleep, be taken to form one long dream, the fourth state represents the waking from this dream. Thus it is more withdrawn than deep sleep, also more wakeful than the waking state. Therefore your true state is that fourth one which is distinguished from the waking, dream and deep sleep states. You are that only. What is this fourth state? It is knowledge which does not particularize anything. It is not unaware of itself. That is to say, the fourth state is Pure Knowledge which is not conscious of any object, but not unconscious itself. Only he who has realized it even for a trice, has realized the Truth. You are that only.
~ Ramana from Ellam Ondre (All is One)


It is false to speak of realisation. What is there to realise? The real is as it is always. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in books is this. We dig a well and create a huge pit. The space in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the space there. The space was there then and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long sanskaras which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.


Just as one would dive in order to find something that had fallen into the water, so one should dive within with a keen (introverted) mind, controlling breath and speech, and know the rising-place of the rising ego. Know thus!
~ Ulladu Narpadhu, verse 28


Learn to look without imagination, to listen without distortion: that is all. Stop attributing names and shapes to the essentially nameless and formless, realise that every mode of perception is subjective, that what is seen or heard, touched or smelt, felt or thought, expected or imagined, is in the mind and not in reality, and you will experience peace and freedom from fear.

Even the sense of ‘I am’ is composed of the pure light and the sense of being. The ‘I’ is there even without the ‘am’. So is the pure light there whether you say ‘I’ or not. Become aware of that pure light and you will never lose it. The beingness in being, the awareness in consciousness, the interest in every experience — that is not describable, yet perfectly accessible, for there is nothing else.


Leave it to God. Surrender unreservedly. Either surrender because you admit your inability and require a higher power to help you, or investigate the cause of misery by going to the source and merging into the Self. Either way you will be free.


Nearly all mankind is more or less unhappy because nearly all do not know the true Self. Real happiness abides in Self knowledge alone. All else is fleeting. To know one’s Self is to be blissful always.


No want is the greatest bliss. It can be realized only by experience. Even an emperor is no match for a man with no wants.


Once you accept that the heart as Pure Consciousness is beyond space and time, it will be easy for you to understand the rest.


One should remain as a witness to whatever happens, adopting the attitude, ‘Let whatever strange things that happens happen, let us see!’ This should be one’s practice. Nothing happens by accident in the divine scheme of things. Correcting oneself is correcting the whole world. The Sun is simply bright. It does not correct anyone. Because it shines, the whole world is full of light. Transforming yourself is a means of giving light to the whole world. A boat may stay in water, but water should not stay in boat. A spiritual aspirant may live in the world, but the world should not live in him.


Our real nature is mukti (liberation). But we are imagining we are bound and are making various, strenuous attempts to become free, while we are all the while free. This will be understood only when we reach that stage. We will be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and are.


Pleasure and pain are only aspects of the mind. Our essential nature is happiness, but we have forgotten the Self and imagine that the body or the mind is the Self. It is this wrong identification that gives rise to misery.


Plunge deep into yourself, in the inner most depths of your heart, as the pearl diver holding speech and breath plunges deep into the waters and so secure with mind alert the treasure of the Self within.


Ramana says: God, on being worshipped, bestows steadiness in devotion which leads to surrender. On the devotee surrendering, God shows His mercy by manifesting as the Guru. The Guru, otherwise God, guides the devotee, saying that God is in you and He is the Self. This leads to introversion of the mind and finally to realization.


Realisation is not acquisition of anything new nor is it a new faculty. It is only removal of all camouflage.


Realisation is nothing new to be acquired. It is already there, but obstructed by a screen of thoughts. All our attempts are directed to lifting this screen and then realisation is revealed.


Reality is simply loss of ego (awareness of awareness). Destroy the ego by seeking its identity. Because the ego has no existence (being only thoughts), it will automatically vanish (when you are still), and Reality (awareness) will shine forth by itself in all its glory. This is the direct method. All other methods retain the ego. In those paths so many doubts arise, and the eternal question remains to be tackled. But in this method the final question is the only one and is raised from the very beginning. No practices (sadhanas) are even necessary for this quest. Your duty is to Be, and not to be this or that. "I Am that I Am" sums up the whole truth; the method is summarized in "Be still".


Self enquiry is possible for mature minds, not for immature ones. For the immature ones, repetition of a prayer or holy name, worship of images, breath control (pranayama), visualising a piller of light, and similar yogic and spiritual and religious practices have been prescribed.


Silence is truth. Silence is bliss. Silence is peace. And hence Silence is the Self.


Take refuge in silence. You can be here or there or anywhere. Fixed in silence, established in the inner ‘I’, you can be as you are. The world will never perturb you if you are well founded upon the tranquility within. Gather your thoughts within. Find out the thought centre and discover your Self-equipoise. In storm and turmoil be calm and silent. Watch the events around as a witness. The world is a drama. Be a witness, inturned and introspective.


That inner Self, as the primeval Spirit, Eternal, ever effulgent, full and infinite Bliss, Single, indivisible, whole and living, Shines in everyone as the witnessing awareness. That self in its splendour, shining in the cavity of the heart This self is neither born nor dies, Neither grows nor decays, Nor does it suffer any change. When a pot is broken, the space within it is not, And similarly, when the body dies the Self in it remains eternal.


That which then remains separate and alone by itself, that pure Awareness is what I am. This Awareness self is by its very nature Sat-Chit-Ananda, (Being-Consciousness-Bliss).


The appearance of water in a mirage persists after the fact that it is a mirage has dawned on us. So it is with the world. Though knowing it to be unreal, it continues to manifest - but we do not try to satisfy our thirst with the water of the mirage. As soon as one knows that it is a mirage, one gives it up as useless and does not run after it to get water.


The conception that there is a goal and a path to it is wrong. We are the goal or peace always. To get rid of the notion that we are not peace is all that is required.


The confusion of the senses ended and the world’s illusion was dispelled as Grace’s bright Sun rose, absorbing me in itself and obliterating all distinctions. And as I entered the Light of a life lived in the Holy Silence of the glorious non-dual state, the ‘I’ and all that arises from it subsided and dissolved away.


The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to gauge spiritual progress.


The Divine gives light to the mind and shines within it. Except by turning the mind inward and fixing it in the Divine, there is no other way to know Him through the mind.


The fact is that all the while you do know the Self. How can the Self not know the Self? Only you, the Self, have got into the habit of thinking that you are a third thing. You need to get rid of this wrong notion of the Self. In the case of the ever-present, inescapable I', how can you be ignorant? You must fight to get rid of your false notions of ‘I’, one after another.

Do that! That will lead to Self-realization.

Who is ignorant of what? Ask the question and pursue the inquiry on who is said to be ignorant. Once you put the question, try probing into the ’I’ and the ‘I’ will disappear. What remains is true Self-knowledge.


The Guru is the being-consciousness that shines, abiding as all in all.


The mind cannot be controlled by one who takes it to be something that really exists. The only way is to find the mind's Source and keep hold of it. Then the mind will fade away of itself.


The Real is ever-present, like the screen on which the cinematographic pictures move. While the picture appears on it, the screen remains invisible. Stop the picture, and the screen will become clear. All thoughts and events are merely pictures moving on the screen of Pure Consciousness, which alone is real.


The seer and the object seen are like the rope and the snake. Just as the knowledge of the rope which is the substrate will not arise unless the false knowledge of the illusory serpent goes, so the realization of the Self which is the substrate will not be gained unless the belief that the world is real is removed.


The Self is known to everyone but not clearly. You always exist. The Be-ing is the Self. ‘I am’ is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical statement ‘I AM THAT I AM’ in EXODUS (Chap. 3). There are other statements, such as Brahmasmi and Soham. But none is so direct as the name JEHOVAH = I AM. The Absolute Being is what is - It is the Self. It is God. Knowing the Self, God is known. In fact God is none other than the Self.


The Self is like a powerful hidden magnet within us. It draws us gradually to itself, though we imagine we are going to It of our own accord. When we are near enough, it puts an end to our activities, makes us still, and then swallows up our personal current, thus killing our personality. It overwhelms the intellect and over floods the whole being. We think we are meditating upon it and developing towards it, whereas the truth is that we are as iron filings and It is the atman - magnet that is pulling us towards itself. Thus the process of finding Self is a form of Divine Magnetism.


The Self is the one Reality that always exists, and it is by the light of the Self that all other things are seen.


The Self, which is pure consciousness, has no ego-sense about it. Neither can the physical body, which is inert in itself, have this ego-sense. Between the two, that is, between the Self or pure consciousness and the inert physical body there arises mysteriously the ego-sense or ‘I’ notion, the hybrid which is neither of them, and this flourishes as an individual being. The ego or individual being is at the root of all that is futile and undesirable in life.


The sense of 'I' pertains to the person, the body and brain. When a man knows his true Self for the first time something else arises from the depths of his being and takes possession of him. That something is behind the mind; it is infinite, divine, eternal. Some people call it the Kingdom of Heaven, others call it the soul and others again Nirvana, and Hindus call it Liberation; you may give it what name you wish. When this happens a man has not really lost himself; rather he has found himself. Unless and until a man embarks on this quest of the true Self, doubt and uncertainty will follow his footsteps through life. The greatest kings and statesmen try to rule others when in their heart of hearts they know that they cannot rule themselves. Yet the greatest power is at the command of the man who has penetrated to his inmost depth.


The three states come and go, but you are always there. It is like a cinema. The screen is always there but several types of pictures appear on the screen and then disappear. Nothing sticks to the screen, it remains a screen. Similarly, you remain your own Self in all the three states. If you know that, the three states will not trouble you, just as the pictures which appear on the screen do not stick to it. On the screen, you sometimes see a huge ocean with endless waves ,that disappears. Another time, you see fire spreading all around; that too disappears. The screen is there on both occasions. Did the screen get wet with the water or did it get burned by the fire? Nothing affected the screen. In the same way, the things that happen during the wakeful, dream and sleep states do not affect you at all, you remain your own Self.


The world is seen in the light reflected by the mind. So why go on polishing the ego? It reflects a limited world, the more polished, the greater the limitation. Cease paying it attention and allow the unbound Self that everything is to shine forth.


There are three states only, the waking, dream and sleep. Turiya is not a fourth one; it is what underlies these three. But people do not readily understand it. Therefore it is said that this is the fourth state and the only Reality. In fact it is not the only Truth; it is your very Being. The three states appear as fleeting phenomena on it and then sink into it alone. Therefore they are unreal.


There is no difference between God, Guru and the Self. First a man prays to God to fulfill his material desires. A time comes when he will no more pray for the fulfillment of material desires but for God himself. Then, God’s grace begins to manifest. God then appears to him in some form or other, human or non-human, teaches him the truth; and, moreover, purifies his mind by association. The devotees mind gains strength and is then able to turn inward. By meditation, the mind is purified and it remains still without the least ripple. That calm expanse is the Self. The Guru is both external and internal. From the exterior he gives a push to the mind to turn it inwards. From the interior he pulls the mind towards the Self and helps in the quieting of the mind. That is Guru’s grace. Because you identify yourself with the body you think that the Guru is also a body. The disappearance of this sense of duality is the removal of ignorance. So long as duality persists in you, an external Guru is necessary. You are not the body, nor is the Guru. You are the Self and so is the Guru. This knowledge is gained by what you call Self-realization. But so long as you think you are separate or that you are the body, an external Guru is also necessary and he will appear to have a body. When the wrong identification of oneself with the body ceases, the Guru will be found to be none other than the Self.


There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now.


There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not here and now but that it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self; you are already That.


There is the continuity of being in all the three states [waking, dream, sleep], but no continuity of the individual and the objects. Therefore, the state of being is permanent and the body and the world are not. They are fleeting phenomena passing on the screen of being-consciousness, which is eternal.


This life is all a dream, a dream within a dream. We dream this world, we dream that we die and take birth in another body. And in this birth we dream that we have dreams. All kinds of pleasures and suffering alternate in these dreams, but a moment comes when waking up happens. In this moment, which we call realizing the Self, there is the understanding that all the births, all the deaths, all the sufferings and all the pleasures were unreal dreams that have finally come to end.


This perception of division between the seer and the object that is seen, is situated in the mind. For those remaining in the heart, the seer becomes one with the sight.


Thoughts must cease and reason disappear for ‘I-I’ to rise up and be felt. Feeling is the prime factor and not reason.


Time and space always change. But there is something which is eternal and changeless. For example, the world and time, past or future, nothing exists for us during sleep. But we exist. Let us try to find out that which is changeless and which always exists.


Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality. Whatever you think it is, it looks like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you call it existence, it is existence.


To discern and abide in the ever-present Reality is true attainment. All other attainments are like powers enjoyed in a dream. When the sleeper wakes, are they real? Those who stay in the state of Truth, having cast off the unreal - will they ever be deluded?


We have not got to attain bliss. We are bliss. Bliss is another name for us. It is our nature. All that we have to do is to turn the mind, draw it from the sense objects every time it goes towards them, and fix it in the Self.
~ Bhagavan in 'Day by Day with Bhagavan'


What is called ‘mind’ is a wondrous power residing in the Self. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind.

Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world. In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world also.

Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself. When the mind comes out of the Self, the world appears.

Therefore, when the world appears (to be real), the Self does not appear; and when the Self appears (shines) the world does not appear.

When one persistently inquires into the nature of the mind, the mind will end, leaving the Self (as the residue). What is referred to as the Self is the Atman.

The mind always exists only in dependence on something gross; it cannot stay alone.


What is called happiness is merely the nature of the Self. Happiness and the Self are not different. The happiness of the Self alone exists; that alone is real. There is no happiness at all in even a single one of the [many] things in the world. We believe that we derive happiness from them on account of aviveka [a lack of discrimination, an inability to ascertain what is correct].

When the mind is externalised, it experiences misery. The truth is, whenever our thoughts [that is, our desires] get fulfilled, the mind turns back to its source and experiences Self-happiness alone. In this way the mind wanders without rest, emerging and abandoning the Self and [later] returning within. The shade under a tree is very pleasant. Away from it the sun’s heat is scorching. A person who is wandering around outside reaches the shade and is cooled. After a while he goes out again, but unable to bear the scorching heat, returns to the tree. In this way he is engaged in going from the shade into the hot sunshine and in coming back from the hot sunshine into the shade. A person who acts like this is an aviveki [someone who lacks discrimination], for a discriminating person would never leave the shade.

By analogy, the mind of a jnani never leaves Brahman, whereas the mind of someone who has not realised the Self is such that it suffers by wandering in the world before turning back to Brahman for a while to enjoy happiness. What is called ‘the world’ is only thoughts. When the world disappears, that is, when there are no thoughts, the mind experiences bliss; when the world appears, it experiences suffering.


What is called 'mind' is a wondrous power residing in the Self. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind. Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world. In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world also. Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself. When the mind comes out of the Self, the world appears. Therefore, when the world appears (to be real), the Self does not appear; and when the Self appears (shines) the world does not appear. When one persistently inquires into the nature of the mind, the mind will end leaving the Self (as the residue). What is referred to as the Self is the Atman. The mind always exists only in dependence on something gross; it cannot stay alone. It is the mind that is called the subtle body or the soul (jiva).


What message is needed when heart speaks to heart?


When meditating on the seer, there is a mental vibration ‘I’ to which all are reduced. The source of this ‘I’ is the primal 'I-I’. It is the inexpressible seat of Realization and the core of all beings. Hence it a called the Heart. The only useful purpose of the present birth is to see it in all things. There is nothing else to do.


When the mind, one-pointed and fully focused, knows the supreme silence in the Heart, this is true learning.


When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense-organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the Heart, the names and forms disappear. Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called ‘inwardness’ (antarmukha). Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as ‘externalisation’ (bahirmukha). Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine. Whatever one does, one should do without the egoity ‘I’. If one acts in that way, all will appear as of the nature of Siva.


You are the Supreme Being, and yet thinking yourself to be separate from it, you strive to become united with it. What is stranger than this?


You are not the body, you are not the mind, you are Pure Consciousness, the all pervasive Self. Pay your attention to that. Be aware of it all the time even while you are working.


You can only stop the flow of thoughts by refusing to have any interest in it.


You create a dream-body for yourself in the dream and act with it. The same is falsified in the waking state. At present you think you are this body and not the dream-body. In your dream this body is falsified by the dream-body. So you see neither of these bodies is real. Because each of them is true for a time and false for other times. That which is real must be real always. The ‘I’-consciousness is present all through the three states. That alone is real. The three states are false. They are only for the mind It is the mind that obstructs your vision of your true nature, which is Infinite Spirit. (Consciousness).


You know that you are. You cannot deny your existence at any moment. For you must be there to deny it. This (Pure Existence) is understood by stilling your mind. The mind is the outgoing faculty of the individual. If that is turned within, it becomes still in the course of time and that “I AM” alone prevails. “I AM” is the whole Truth.


You need not waste energy following or rejecting thoughts. Do not attend to them, just remain steadfast and open to what you are; the ‘I-am’. To see its vastness in all things releases you from entanglements.


You will come in due course to realize that your true glory lies where you cease to exist.








The Mind

The mind is a wondrous power residing in the Self. It causes all thoughts to arise. Apart from thoughts, there is no such thing as mind. Therefore, thought is the nature of mind. Apart from thoughts, there is no independent entity called the world. In deep sleep there are no thoughts, and there is no world. In the states of waking and dream, there are thoughts, and there is a world also.

Just as the spider emits the thread (of the web) out of itself and again withdraws it into itself, likewise the mind projects the world out of itself and again resolves it into itself. When the mind leaves the Self, the world appears. Therefore, when the world appears, the Self does not appear; and when the Self appears (shines) the world does not appear.

When one persistently inquires into the nature of the mind, the mind will subside leaving the Self (as residue). The mind always exists only by depending on something gross (physical body); it cannot exist independently. It is the mind that is called the subtle body or the soul.

That which rises as ‘I’ in the body is the mind. If one inquires as to where in the body the thought ‘I’ rises first, one would discover that it rises in the Heart. That is the place of the mind’s origin. Even if one thinks constantly ‘I’, ‘I’, one will be led to that place. Of all the thoughts that arise in the mind, the ‘I’ thought is the first. It is only after the rise of the “I-thought” that other thoughts occur.

The thought ‘who am I?’ will destroy all other thoughts, and like the stick used for stirring the funeral pyre, it will itself be burnt up in the end. Then, there will be Self-realization. When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them but should diligently inquire: ‘To whom do they occur?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with alertness, “To whom has this thought arisen?” The answer that would emerge would be “to me”. Thereupon if one inquires “Who am I?” the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will subside.

With repeated practice in this manner, the mind will develop the power to stay in its source. When the mind that is subtle goes out through the brain and the sense organs, the gross names and forms appear; when it stays in the heart, the names and forms disappear. Not letting the mind go out, but retaining it in the Heart is what is called “inwardness”. Letting the mind go out of the Heart is known as “externalisation”. Thus, when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine.


The Real

real 111x137 The unreal (asat) has no existence and the real (sat) never ceases to exist.

The relative reality of both (sat and asat) has been perceived by the seers of the ultimate truth.

Bhagavad Gita ,Chapter :2, Shloka:16 This verse reads like a riddle. It is told that Lord Ganesha who was writing down when Vyasamaharshi was dictating Mahabharata, had put a condition. The condition was that he would continue writing only so long as Vyasa was able to dictate continuously without pausing even for a minute. Vyasa had also put a counter condition that Ganesha should not proceed ahead with writing until and unless he thoroughly understood the meaning of the verse under dictation.

So, Vyasa deliberately introduced some riddle - like verses in Bhagavad Gita (which was part of Mahabharata) so that by the time Ganesa paused to think of the meaning of such a verse, Vyasa was able to gather his thoughts for further dictation.

In the classical texts, the following is the example given to define an ‘Asat” or unreal object:- “There goes the son of a barren woman with his head adorned by flowers grown in the sky and carrying a horn of rabbit”. Here, there cannot be the son of a barren woman who is an asat but you may see one in your dream. Similarly the flower in the sky as also the horn of a rabbit are unreal objects and cannot have an existence of their own except in a dream or imagination.

Here, Asat refers to the body and also to opposite pairs (Dvandvas) like heat and cold, pleasure and pain etc. These ‘Asat’ objects have no existence of their own. They are all products of the mind imagined due to past conditioning. The body is thus a superimposition like the dream objects seen in a dream. If a pot is made up of clay, pot is only a transformation of clay. It is the clay which was its material cause and it only sustains the form of a pot. So a pot is called ‘asat’. Pot is a name given to a transformed form of clay. The pot has no true existence as such. By ‘Sat’ is meant the final truth i.e. the Atman (Self).

As it is all pervasive and ever present in all beings, there is no time or space where the Self ceases to exist. It is the seers of yore who, as result of their Self-enquiry and Self-relaisation, were able to come to their firm conclusion about the distinction between Self and non-Self which are known as Sat and Asat respectively (as per Sankara Bhashya on Gita). “Yes it is like a cinema show.

You are the screen. The Self has created the ego, the ego has its accretion of thoughts which are displayed as the world, the trees, plants, etc., of which you are asking.

In reality, all these are nothing but the Self, the same will be found to be all, everywhere and always. Nothing but the Self exists.

(Talk with Sri Ramana Maharshi No. 13). This verse has been quoted verbatim by Bhagavan Ramana in talk No 203 also. ~ From Gita Sarah book (Commentary on the slokas of Bhagavad Gita


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