9. ADDITIONAL INFO
Uncertainties, doubts and fears are natural to everyone until the Self is realised.
They are inseparable from the ego, rather they are the ego.
Uncertainties, doubts and fears are natural to everyone until the Self is realised.
They are inseparable from the ego, rather they are the ego.
R
There is no greater mystery than this - viz., 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 be on the day you laugh is also here and now.
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Q: A certain mystic has written in a book that he had Self–Realisation on some occasions and that its effects lasted sometimes afterwards, only to be gradually lost.
Whereas Sri Ramana Gita says,“Granthi [knot in the body, bondage], snapped once, is snapped for ever.”
In the case of this mystic, the bondage seems to have persisted even after Self–Realisation. How can it be so?
Ramana cited Kaivalya as follows:
“The disciple, after realising the all–shining, unitary, unbroken state of Being–Knowledge–Bliss, surrendered himself to the master and humbly prayed to know how he could repay the master’s Grace.”
My reward consists in your permanent unbroken Bliss. Do not slip away from it.
Q Having once experienced the Supreme Bliss, how can one stray away from it?
R
Oh yes! It happens. The predisposition adhering to him from time immemorial will draw him out and so ignorance overtakes him.
Q What are the obstacles to remaining steady in unbroken Bliss? How can they be overcome?
R
The obstacles are:
[1] Ignorance which is forgetfulness of one’s pure being.
[2] Doubt which consists in wondering if even the experience was of the real or of the unreal.
[3] Error which consists in the “I–am–the–body” idea, and thinking that the world is real. These are overcome by hearing the truth, reflection on it and concentration.
Experience is said to be temporary or permanent. The first experience is temporary and by concentration it can become permanent. In the former the bondage is not completely destroyed; it remains subtle and reasserts itself in due course. But in the latter it is destroyed root and branch, never to appear again. The expression yogabhrashta [those who have fallen down from yoga] in Srimad Bhagavad Gita refers to the former class of men.
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R
By turning Selfward, you destroy your delusion, this world; what then remains as ‘this is void’ is known by you, Self; so, to destroy this apparent void also, drown it in the ocean of Self-Knowledge.
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R
By the sharp edge of the sword of divine Silence cultivated in the heart by the practice of jnana-vichara, one should dig out and cast away the root, the ego, ‘I am the body’. This is the means to attain the over-brimming happiness of peace.
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Q Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of consciousness and as identical with the Self. What does the Heart exactly signify ?
R
Call it by any name, God, Self, the Heart or the seat of consciousness, it is all the same. The point to be grasped is this, that Heart means the very core of one's being, the centre, without which there is nothing whatever. The Heart is not physical, it is spiritual. Hridayam equals hrit plus ayam; it means `this is the centre'.
It is that from which thoughts arise, on which they subsist and where they are resolved. The thoughts are the content of the mind and they shape the universe. The Heart is the centre of all. That from which beings come into existence is said to be Brahman in the Upanishads. That is the Heart. Brahman is the Heart.
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Q How can I get rid of fear?
R
What is fear? It is only a thought.
When there is nothing besides the Self, there is no reason to fear.
Who sees anything else? The ego arises first and sees an object; if the ego does not exist, then the Self alone does, and there cannot be a second.
On finding the Source within, there will be no doubt, no fear, and all other thoughts centering around the ego will disappear along with the ego. Weakness or strength are in the mind. The Self is beyond mind.
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R
If a man thinks that he is born he cannot escape the fear of death. Let him find out whether he was ever born or whether the Self takes birth. He will discover that the Self always exists and that the body which is born resolves itself into thought, and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find where thought comes from, and then you will abide in the ever–present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth and fear of death.
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Q How is the Guru found?
R
God, who is immanent, in his grace takes pity on the loving devotee and manifests himself according to the devotee's development. The devotee thinks that he is a man and expects a relationship between two physical bodies. But the Guru who is God or the Self incarnate works from within, helps the man to see the error of his ways and guides him on the right path until he realizes the Self within.
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R
Through delusion the trickster sometimes arrogantly regards the property of the boundless perfect one, the Lord of all, as ‘I’, and at other times, through attachment to it, regards it as ‘mine’.
If he enters the Heart, his source, and examines who he is, then where is he to be found?
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R
However sinful a person may be, if he would stop wailing inconsolably ‘Alas, I am a sinner how shall I attain liberation?’ and, casting away even the thought that he is a sinner, if he would zealously carry on Self–attentiveness he would certainly be transformed into one's true nature.
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R
It is not right for the wise one to behave improperly, even though he has known all that is to be known and attained all that is to be attained. Therefore, observe the code of conduct which is befitting to your outward mode of life.
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R
Only those who do not know the nature of misery are terrified of the tortures of hell. But if one understands what misery is, one will know the way to end it, and will certainly attain one’s natural state of Bliss.
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R
The experience of not forgetting consciousness alone is the state of devotion [bhakti] which is the relationship of unfading real love, because the real knowledge of Self, which shines as the undivided supreme bliss itself, surges up as the nature of love. Only if one knows the truth of love, which is the real nature of Self, will the strong entangled knot of life be untied. Only if one attains the height of love will liberation be attained. Such is the heart of all religions.
The experience of Self is only love, which is seeing only love, hearing only love, feeling only love, tasting only love and smelling only love, which is bliss.
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Q Does my Realisation help others?
R
Yes, certainly. It is the best possible help. But really there are no others to help, for a Realised Being sees only the Self just as a goldsmith estimating the gold in various jewels sees only the gold. Separate forms and beings exist only as long as you identify yourself with the body. When you transcend the body, others disappear along with your body-consciousness.
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R
A self-realised being cannot help benefitting the world. His very existence is the highest good.
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Q: How can you say that suffering is non–existent? I see it everywhere.
R
One's own reality, which shines within everyone as the Heart, is itself the ocean of unalloyed bliss. Therefore like the unreal blueness of the sky, misery does not exist in reality but only in mere imagination.
Since one's own reality, which is the sun of Jnana that cannot be approached by the dark delusion of ignorance, itself shines as happiness. Misery is nothing but an illusion caused by the unreal sense of individuality. In truth no one has ever experienced any such thing other than that unreal illusion. If one scrutinises one's own Self, which is bliss, there will be no misery at all in one's life. One suffers because of the idea that the body, which is never oneself, is `I'; suffering is all due to this delusion.
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R
When, in the view of the one indivisible space, even the pot has no separate existence, is it not foolish to say that the space inside the pot moves with the movements of the pot?
Similarly, when, in the plenitude of Self-Consciousness, body and world cannot even exist, being non-Self and incomplete, it is ridiculous to say that Self moves because of the movements of the mutable body and world.
Though Self, which is ever still because of Its wholeness, seems to move with the movements of the unsteady mirror, the mind, it is never the real Self that moves, but only its reflection, the mind.
If it is asked, “How did the delusive upadhis [attributes such as mind, intellect, chittam etc.] appear to arise for the Supreme Self, which is One without a second?”, it must be replied that they are seen to arise only in the view of the ignorant jiva, and that in reality no attribute has ever arisen for Self. Thus you should know!
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Q Are there degrees of illusion?
R
Illusion itself is illusory. It must be seen by somebody outside it, but how can such a seer be subject to it? So, how can he speak of degrees of it?
You see various scenes passing on a cinema screen: fire seems to burn buildings to ashes; water seems to wreck ships; but the screen on which the pictures are projected remains unburnt and dry. Why? Because the pictures are unreal and the screen real.
Similarly, reflections pass through a mirror but it is not affected at all by their number or quality.
In the same way, the world is a phenomenon upon the substratum of the single reality which is not affected by it in any way. Reality is only One. Talk of illusion is due only to the point of view.
Change your viewpoint to that of Knowledge and you will perceive the universe to be only Brahman.
Being now immersed in the world, you see it as a real world; get beyond it and it will disappear and reality alone will remain.
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Q If ‘I’ am also an illusion, who casts off the illusion?
R
The ‘I’ casts off the illusion of ‘I’ and yet remains ‘I’.
Such is the paradox of Self–realisation.
The Realised do not see any contradiction in it.
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R
Know that the knower of reality, who is well established in the Heart and who is always contentedly rejoicing in the greatness of Self, will neither think the world to be a dense delusion, nor will think it to be other than Himself.
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R
Though a dog barks at the sun, the insult will not affect the sun. Similarly ignorant people’s petty words of blame will not touch one who has attained the light of true knowledge, which is bright like the sun.
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R
When there is contact of a desirable sort or memory thereof, and when there is freedom from undesirable contacts or memory thereof, we say there is happiness.
Such happiness is relative and is better called pleasure. But man wants absolute and permanent happiness, this does not reside in objects, but in the Absolute.
It is Peace free from pain and pleasure - it is a neutral state.
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R
The minds of ignorant people, having forgotten the divine life which is flourishing in the Heart and which is worthy of being known and enjoyed, will meltingly long for the taste of sense–pleasures, which are insignificant fragments.
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R
Let him who weeps over the death of his wife and children, weep first for the death of his ego – ‘I am the body’ – and attend to his own Self, then all his miseries will die completely.
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Q Has man any free will or is everything in his life predetermined?
R
Free will exists together with the individuality. As long as the individuality lasts, so long is there free will. All the scriptures are based on this fact and advise directing the free will in the right channel.
Find out who it is who has free will or predestination and abide in that state. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions.
To whom do such questions present themselves? Discover that and be at peace.
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As long as a man is the doer he also reaps the fruits of his deeds, but as soon as he realises the Self through enquiry as to who the doer is, his sense of being the doer falls away and the triple karma [destiny] is ended. This is the state of eternal liberation.
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Q How long does it take a man to be reborn after death? Is it immediately after death or some time after?
R
You do not know what you were before birth, yet you want to know what you will be after death.
Do you know what you are now?
Birth and rebirth pertain to the body. You are identifying the Self with the body.
It is a wrong identification.
You believe that the body has been born and will die, and confound the phenomena relating to the body with the Self. Know your real being and these questions will not arise. Birth and rebirth are mentioned only to make you investigate the question and find out that there are neither births nor rebirths. They relate to the body and not to the Self. Know the Self and don't be perturbed by doubts.
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Q What becomes of the jiva [soul] after death?
R
The question is not appropriate for a jiva now living. A dead jiva may ask me, if he wishes to. In the meantime let the embodied jiva solve its present problem and find who he is. Then there will be an end of such doubts.
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Q Can a yogi know his past lives?
R
Do you know the present life so well that you wish to know the past? Find the present, then the rest will follow. Even with your present limited knowledge, you suffer much. Why should you burden yourself with more knowledge? Is it so as to suffer more?
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R
You know that you know nothing. Find out that knowledge. That is liberation.
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R
Killing the innocent body is certainly wrong. Suicide must be committed on the mind, where the suffering is deposited, and not on the body, which is insentient and feels nothing. The mind is the real culprit, being the creator of the anguish which tempts to suicide, but by an error of judgement, the innocent, insentient body is punished for it.
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R
Deeds [karma] are not your enemy, only the sense of doership is, therefore, live your life, having completely renounced that enemy.
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Q Are then past and future mere imagination?
R
Yes, even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental. Space is similarly mental. Therefore birth and rebirth, which take place in time and space, cannot be other than imagination.
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R
Your mind is the cycle of births and deaths.
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R
O men who wish to live for ever, you do not know what is the way to live. Seeing a day-dream through the darkness of delusion which sprouts out from the void of maya, you are proud to think and argue that that which is fallen, your present fallen life, your so-called waking state. is the real life.
By clinging to the Self-consciousness, ‘I am’, and by thus piercing through the void, which is the cause for the false delusion of this waking state, achieve the real life, the ever-imperishable state of Self.
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R
Bliss will surge forth in the heart which is soaked in the experience of the love-suffused true knowledge. Misery-creating delusion-caused desire will not exist there. That extremely pure natural life of Self will be full of peace.
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Q Should we sometimes read the Bhagavad Gita?
R
Always.
Q May we read the Bible?
R
The Bible and the Gita are the same.
Q The Bible teaches that man is born in sin.
R
Man is sin. There is no feeling of being man is deep sleep.
The body-thought brings out the idea of sin.
The birth of thought itself is sin.
Q The Bible says that the human soul may be lost.
R
The ‘I’-thought is the ego and that is lost.
The real ‘I’ is ‘I Am that I Am’.
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R
The scriptures serve to indicate the existence of the Higher Power or Self and to point the way to It. That is their essential purpose. Apart from that they are useless. However, they are voluminous, in order to be adapted to the level of development of every seeker. As a man rises in the scale he finds the stages already attained to be only stepping stones to higher stages, until finally the goal is reached. When that happens, the goal alone remains and everything else, including the scriptures, become useless.
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R
The state of Self alone is the real and lovable state. On the other hand, all the states of living in heaven, like a sky–lotus [illusion], are only unreal mental states which feed more and more upon delusion and which, like the water of a mirage, appear due to imagination.
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R
Be aware that the ‘I am the body’ ego is truly the one unique cause of all the sorrows of samsara. Therefore, make genuine, firm and steady efforts to destroy that ego, and desist from making any other kind of effort.
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Q Are the siddhis [occult powers] mentioned in Patanjali's sutras true or only his dream?
R
He who is Brahman or the Self will not value those siddhis. Patanjali himself says that they are all exercised with the mind and that they impede Self–realization.
[..]
Greedily begging for worthless occult powers from God, who will readily give himself, who is everything, is like begging for worthless stale gruel from a generous–natured philanthropist who will readily give everything.
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R
Know that attributing greatness to the perfect one who abides as Self because of the siddhis, is praising the greatness of the fully shining sun by merely glorifying the wondrous beauty of an atom of a bright ray which enters a house through a hole in the roof.
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R
Whatever high and wonderful state of tapas one may have attained, if one still identifies oneself with an individuality, one cannot be a Sahaja-Jnani [one in the state of effortlessness]; one is only an aspirant of, perhaps, an advanced stage.
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R
Those who live in the world, clinging whole-Heartedly to God, are like children who whirl round and round a pillar holding it firmly. Since they have a strong and unshakeable hold on God, they are devoid of ego and therefore will never fall a prey to the delusion of the world.
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R
Installing the Lord on the heart-throne and fixing the mind uninterruptedly in Self in such a manner that it will become one with It is the true and natural worship through Silence.
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R
Among the multitudinous human race, only children [the childlike sages] who are bereft of the mischievous mind, the ego-sense, will be completely protected from distress by the Mother-Father [God], who is always thinking of them.
Only the pure mahatmas in whom the changeful mind does not rise even the least are fortunate people, because the joy of sitting and playing for ever upon the lap of the Mother, who is the source of happiness, is their complete experience.
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R
The Lord who has fed you today will ever do so well. Therefore, live carefree, placing all your burden at His feet and having no thought of tomorrow or the future.
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R
Only steadfastness in non–dual knowledge is heroism. On the other hand, even conquest over one’s enemies is, on scrutiny, found to be due not to heroism but only due to great fear possessing the mind, which is shaken by the hubbub of the unreal world of duality. Know thus.
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Q If the world is only a dream, how should it be harmonised with the Eternal Reality?
R
The harmony consists in the realisation of its inseparateness from the Self.
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R
Though the Heart is said to be both inside and outside, it truly exists neither inside nor outside, because the appearance of the body, which is the base of the difference ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, is itself a mental conception .
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R
Since time, place, etc., which seem to exist, cannot have a real existence of their own apart from the undivided and perfect Brahman, none of them can be unsuitable for practicing Self–enquiry.
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Q: Yes, I still understand only theoretically. Yet the answers are simple, beautiful and convincing.
R
Even the thought `I do not realize' is a hindrance. In fact, the Self alone is. Our real nature is 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.
An illustration will make this clear. A man goes to sleep in this hall. He dreams he has gone on a world tour, is roaming over hill and dale, forest and country, desert and sea, across various continents and after many years of weary and strenuous travel, returns to this country, reaches Tiruvannamalai, enters the ashram and walks into the hall. Just at that moment he wakes up and finds he has not moved an inch but was sleeping where he lay down. He has not returned after great effort to this hall, but is and always has been in the hall. It is exactly like that; If it is asked, `Why being free do we imagine that we are bound?' I answer, `Why being in the hall did you imagine you were on a world adventure, crossing hill and dale, desert and sea? It is all mind or maya [illusion].
Q How then does ignorance of this one and only reality unhappily arise in the case of the ajnani?
R
The ajnani sees only the mind which is a mere reflection of the light of pure consciousness arising from the Heart. Of the Heart itself he is ignorant.
Why? Because his mind is extroverted and has never sought its source.
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R
It is due to illusion born of ignorance that men fail to recognise that which is always and for everybody the inherent Reality dwelling in its natural Heart-centre and to abide in it.
And that instead they argue that it exists or does not exist, that it has form or has not form, or is non–dual or is dual.
Can anything appear apart from that which is eternal and perfect?
This kind of dispute is endless. Do not engage in it.
Instead turn your mind inward and put an end to all this.
There is no finality in disputations.
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R
O foolish mind who is suffering due to the desire for the petty pleasures of this world and of the next, if you remain quiet [i.e. without desire] you will certainly attain that State of Bliss which surely transcends the pleasures of these two.
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R
If one wants to be saved, one is given the following true and essential advice: just as the tortoise draws all its five limbs within its shell, so one should draw the five senses within and turn one’s mind Selfward. This alone is happiness.
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R
People are afraid that when the ego or the mind is killed, the result may be a mere blank and not happiness. What really happens is that the thinker, the object of thought and thinking all merge in the one Source which is Consciousness and Bliss itself, and thus that state is neither inert nor blank. I don’t understand why people should be afraid of a state in which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind is killed.
They daily experience it in sleep. There is no mind or thought in sleep. Yet when one rises from sleep one says, ‘I slept well’.
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R
If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization, for want of a better term. How to `real-ize' or make real that which alone is real ?
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R
You can have, or rather you will yourself be, the highest imaginable kind of happiness. All other kinds of happiness which you have spoken of as ‘pleasure’, ‘joy’, ‘happiness’, ‘bliss’, are only reflections of the Ananda which, in your true nature, you are.
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R
The highest form of grace is silence. It is also the highest spiritual instruction.
All other modes of instruction are derived from silence and are therefore secondary.
Silence is the primary form.
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R
Indeed, all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the seeker to know the truth.
The truth cannot be directly pointed out.
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Q The final state of Realisation is said, according to Advaita, to be absolute union with the Divine, and according to Visishtadvaita a qualified union, while Dvaita maintains that there is no union at all. Which of these should be considered the correct view?
R
Why speculate about what will happen at some time in the future? All are agreed that the ‘I’ exists. To whichever school of thought he may belong, let the earnest seeker first find out what the ‘I’ is. Then it will be time enough to know what the final state will be, whether the ‘I’ will get merged in the Supreme Being or stand apart from Him. Let us not forestall the conclusion, but keep an open mind.
Q But will not some understanding of the final state be a helpful guide even to the aspirant?
R
No purpose is served by trying to decide now what the final state of Realisation will be. It has no intrinsic value.
Q Why not?
R
Because you proceed on a wrong principle. Your conclusion is arrived at by the intellect which shines only by the light it derives from the Self. Is it not presumptuous on the part of the intellect to sit in judgement over that from which it derives its little light? How can the intellect, which can never reach the Self, be competent to ascertain and much less decide the nature of the final state of Realisation? It is like trying to measure the sunlight at its source by the standard of the light given by a candle. The wax will melt down before the candle comes anywhere near the sun. Instead of indulging in mere speculation, devote yourself here and now to the search for the Truth that is ever within you.
There is no greater mystery than this - viz., 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 be on the day you laugh is also here and now.
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Q: A certain mystic has written in a book that he had Self–Realisation on some occasions and that its effects lasted sometimes afterwards, only to be gradually lost.
Whereas Sri Ramana Gita says,“Granthi [knot in the body, bondage], snapped once, is snapped for ever.”
In the case of this mystic, the bondage seems to have persisted even after Self–Realisation. How can it be so?
Ramana cited Kaivalya as follows:
“The disciple, after realising the all–shining, unitary, unbroken state of Being–Knowledge–Bliss, surrendered himself to the master and humbly prayed to know how he could repay the master’s Grace.”
My reward consists in your permanent unbroken Bliss. Do not slip away from it.
Q Having once experienced the Supreme Bliss, how can one stray away from it?
R
Oh yes! It happens. The predisposition adhering to him from time immemorial will draw him out and so ignorance overtakes him.
Q What are the obstacles to remaining steady in unbroken Bliss? How can they be overcome?
R
The obstacles are:
[1] Ignorance which is forgetfulness of one’s pure being.
[2] Doubt which consists in wondering if even the experience was of the real or of the unreal.
[3] Error which consists in the “I–am–the–body” idea, and thinking that the world is real. These are overcome by hearing the truth, reflection on it and concentration.
Experience is said to be temporary or permanent. The first experience is temporary and by concentration it can become permanent. In the former the bondage is not completely destroyed; it remains subtle and reasserts itself in due course. But in the latter it is destroyed root and branch, never to appear again. The expression yogabhrashta [those who have fallen down from yoga] in Srimad Bhagavad Gita refers to the former class of men.
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R
By turning Selfward, you destroy your delusion, this world; what then remains as ‘this is void’ is known by you, Self; so, to destroy this apparent void also, drown it in the ocean of Self-Knowledge.
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R
By the sharp edge of the sword of divine Silence cultivated in the heart by the practice of jnana-vichara, one should dig out and cast away the root, the ego, ‘I am the body’. This is the means to attain the over-brimming happiness of peace.
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Q Sri Bhagavan speaks of the Heart as the seat of consciousness and as identical with the Self. What does the Heart exactly signify ?
R
Call it by any name, God, Self, the Heart or the seat of consciousness, it is all the same. The point to be grasped is this, that Heart means the very core of one's being, the centre, without which there is nothing whatever. The Heart is not physical, it is spiritual. Hridayam equals hrit plus ayam; it means `this is the centre'.
It is that from which thoughts arise, on which they subsist and where they are resolved. The thoughts are the content of the mind and they shape the universe. The Heart is the centre of all. That from which beings come into existence is said to be Brahman in the Upanishads. That is the Heart. Brahman is the Heart.
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Q How can I get rid of fear?
R
What is fear? It is only a thought.
When there is nothing besides the Self, there is no reason to fear.
Who sees anything else? The ego arises first and sees an object; if the ego does not exist, then the Self alone does, and there cannot be a second.
On finding the Source within, there will be no doubt, no fear, and all other thoughts centering around the ego will disappear along with the ego. Weakness or strength are in the mind. The Self is beyond mind.
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R
If a man thinks that he is born he cannot escape the fear of death. Let him find out whether he was ever born or whether the Self takes birth. He will discover that the Self always exists and that the body which is born resolves itself into thought, and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find where thought comes from, and then you will abide in the ever–present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth and fear of death.
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Q How is the Guru found?
R
God, who is immanent, in his grace takes pity on the loving devotee and manifests himself according to the devotee's development. The devotee thinks that he is a man and expects a relationship between two physical bodies. But the Guru who is God or the Self incarnate works from within, helps the man to see the error of his ways and guides him on the right path until he realizes the Self within.
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R
Through delusion the trickster sometimes arrogantly regards the property of the boundless perfect one, the Lord of all, as ‘I’, and at other times, through attachment to it, regards it as ‘mine’.
If he enters the Heart, his source, and examines who he is, then where is he to be found?
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R
However sinful a person may be, if he would stop wailing inconsolably ‘Alas, I am a sinner how shall I attain liberation?’ and, casting away even the thought that he is a sinner, if he would zealously carry on Self–attentiveness he would certainly be transformed into one's true nature.
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R
It is not right for the wise one to behave improperly, even though he has known all that is to be known and attained all that is to be attained. Therefore, observe the code of conduct which is befitting to your outward mode of life.
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R
Only those who do not know the nature of misery are terrified of the tortures of hell. But if one understands what misery is, one will know the way to end it, and will certainly attain one’s natural state of Bliss.
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R
The experience of not forgetting consciousness alone is the state of devotion [bhakti] which is the relationship of unfading real love, because the real knowledge of Self, which shines as the undivided supreme bliss itself, surges up as the nature of love. Only if one knows the truth of love, which is the real nature of Self, will the strong entangled knot of life be untied. Only if one attains the height of love will liberation be attained. Such is the heart of all religions.
The experience of Self is only love, which is seeing only love, hearing only love, feeling only love, tasting only love and smelling only love, which is bliss.
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Q Does my Realisation help others?
R
Yes, certainly. It is the best possible help. But really there are no others to help, for a Realised Being sees only the Self just as a goldsmith estimating the gold in various jewels sees only the gold. Separate forms and beings exist only as long as you identify yourself with the body. When you transcend the body, others disappear along with your body-consciousness.
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R
A self-realised being cannot help benefitting the world. His very existence is the highest good.
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Q: How can you say that suffering is non–existent? I see it everywhere.
R
One's own reality, which shines within everyone as the Heart, is itself the ocean of unalloyed bliss. Therefore like the unreal blueness of the sky, misery does not exist in reality but only in mere imagination.
Since one's own reality, which is the sun of Jnana that cannot be approached by the dark delusion of ignorance, itself shines as happiness. Misery is nothing but an illusion caused by the unreal sense of individuality. In truth no one has ever experienced any such thing other than that unreal illusion. If one scrutinises one's own Self, which is bliss, there will be no misery at all in one's life. One suffers because of the idea that the body, which is never oneself, is `I'; suffering is all due to this delusion.
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R
When, in the view of the one indivisible space, even the pot has no separate existence, is it not foolish to say that the space inside the pot moves with the movements of the pot?
Similarly, when, in the plenitude of Self-Consciousness, body and world cannot even exist, being non-Self and incomplete, it is ridiculous to say that Self moves because of the movements of the mutable body and world.
Though Self, which is ever still because of Its wholeness, seems to move with the movements of the unsteady mirror, the mind, it is never the real Self that moves, but only its reflection, the mind.
If it is asked, “How did the delusive upadhis [attributes such as mind, intellect, chittam etc.] appear to arise for the Supreme Self, which is One without a second?”, it must be replied that they are seen to arise only in the view of the ignorant jiva, and that in reality no attribute has ever arisen for Self. Thus you should know!
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Q Are there degrees of illusion?
R
Illusion itself is illusory. It must be seen by somebody outside it, but how can such a seer be subject to it? So, how can he speak of degrees of it?
You see various scenes passing on a cinema screen: fire seems to burn buildings to ashes; water seems to wreck ships; but the screen on which the pictures are projected remains unburnt and dry. Why? Because the pictures are unreal and the screen real.
Similarly, reflections pass through a mirror but it is not affected at all by their number or quality.
In the same way, the world is a phenomenon upon the substratum of the single reality which is not affected by it in any way. Reality is only One. Talk of illusion is due only to the point of view.
Change your viewpoint to that of Knowledge and you will perceive the universe to be only Brahman.
Being now immersed in the world, you see it as a real world; get beyond it and it will disappear and reality alone will remain.
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Q If ‘I’ am also an illusion, who casts off the illusion?
R
The ‘I’ casts off the illusion of ‘I’ and yet remains ‘I’.
Such is the paradox of Self–realisation.
The Realised do not see any contradiction in it.
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R
Know that the knower of reality, who is well established in the Heart and who is always contentedly rejoicing in the greatness of Self, will neither think the world to be a dense delusion, nor will think it to be other than Himself.
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R
Though a dog barks at the sun, the insult will not affect the sun. Similarly ignorant people’s petty words of blame will not touch one who has attained the light of true knowledge, which is bright like the sun.
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R
When there is contact of a desirable sort or memory thereof, and when there is freedom from undesirable contacts or memory thereof, we say there is happiness.
Such happiness is relative and is better called pleasure. But man wants absolute and permanent happiness, this does not reside in objects, but in the Absolute.
It is Peace free from pain and pleasure - it is a neutral state.
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R
The minds of ignorant people, having forgotten the divine life which is flourishing in the Heart and which is worthy of being known and enjoyed, will meltingly long for the taste of sense–pleasures, which are insignificant fragments.
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R
Let him who weeps over the death of his wife and children, weep first for the death of his ego – ‘I am the body’ – and attend to his own Self, then all his miseries will die completely.
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Q Has man any free will or is everything in his life predetermined?
R
Free will exists together with the individuality. As long as the individuality lasts, so long is there free will. All the scriptures are based on this fact and advise directing the free will in the right channel.
Find out who it is who has free will or predestination and abide in that state. Then both are transcended. That is the only purpose in discussing these questions.
To whom do such questions present themselves? Discover that and be at peace.
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As long as a man is the doer he also reaps the fruits of his deeds, but as soon as he realises the Self through enquiry as to who the doer is, his sense of being the doer falls away and the triple karma [destiny] is ended. This is the state of eternal liberation.
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Q How long does it take a man to be reborn after death? Is it immediately after death or some time after?
R
You do not know what you were before birth, yet you want to know what you will be after death.
Do you know what you are now?
Birth and rebirth pertain to the body. You are identifying the Self with the body.
It is a wrong identification.
You believe that the body has been born and will die, and confound the phenomena relating to the body with the Self. Know your real being and these questions will not arise. Birth and rebirth are mentioned only to make you investigate the question and find out that there are neither births nor rebirths. They relate to the body and not to the Self. Know the Self and don't be perturbed by doubts.
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Q What becomes of the jiva [soul] after death?
R
The question is not appropriate for a jiva now living. A dead jiva may ask me, if he wishes to. In the meantime let the embodied jiva solve its present problem and find who he is. Then there will be an end of such doubts.
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Q Can a yogi know his past lives?
R
Do you know the present life so well that you wish to know the past? Find the present, then the rest will follow. Even with your present limited knowledge, you suffer much. Why should you burden yourself with more knowledge? Is it so as to suffer more?
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R
You know that you know nothing. Find out that knowledge. That is liberation.
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R
Killing the innocent body is certainly wrong. Suicide must be committed on the mind, where the suffering is deposited, and not on the body, which is insentient and feels nothing. The mind is the real culprit, being the creator of the anguish which tempts to suicide, but by an error of judgement, the innocent, insentient body is punished for it.
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R
Deeds [karma] are not your enemy, only the sense of doership is, therefore, live your life, having completely renounced that enemy.
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Q Are then past and future mere imagination?
R
Yes, even the present is mere imagination, for the sense of time is purely mental. Space is similarly mental. Therefore birth and rebirth, which take place in time and space, cannot be other than imagination.
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R
Your mind is the cycle of births and deaths.
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R
O men who wish to live for ever, you do not know what is the way to live. Seeing a day-dream through the darkness of delusion which sprouts out from the void of maya, you are proud to think and argue that that which is fallen, your present fallen life, your so-called waking state. is the real life.
By clinging to the Self-consciousness, ‘I am’, and by thus piercing through the void, which is the cause for the false delusion of this waking state, achieve the real life, the ever-imperishable state of Self.
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R
Bliss will surge forth in the heart which is soaked in the experience of the love-suffused true knowledge. Misery-creating delusion-caused desire will not exist there. That extremely pure natural life of Self will be full of peace.
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Q Should we sometimes read the Bhagavad Gita?
R
Always.
Q May we read the Bible?
R
The Bible and the Gita are the same.
Q The Bible teaches that man is born in sin.
R
Man is sin. There is no feeling of being man is deep sleep.
The body-thought brings out the idea of sin.
The birth of thought itself is sin.
Q The Bible says that the human soul may be lost.
R
The ‘I’-thought is the ego and that is lost.
The real ‘I’ is ‘I Am that I Am’.
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R
The scriptures serve to indicate the existence of the Higher Power or Self and to point the way to It. That is their essential purpose. Apart from that they are useless. However, they are voluminous, in order to be adapted to the level of development of every seeker. As a man rises in the scale he finds the stages already attained to be only stepping stones to higher stages, until finally the goal is reached. When that happens, the goal alone remains and everything else, including the scriptures, become useless.
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R
The state of Self alone is the real and lovable state. On the other hand, all the states of living in heaven, like a sky–lotus [illusion], are only unreal mental states which feed more and more upon delusion and which, like the water of a mirage, appear due to imagination.
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R
Be aware that the ‘I am the body’ ego is truly the one unique cause of all the sorrows of samsara. Therefore, make genuine, firm and steady efforts to destroy that ego, and desist from making any other kind of effort.
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Q Are the siddhis [occult powers] mentioned in Patanjali's sutras true or only his dream?
R
He who is Brahman or the Self will not value those siddhis. Patanjali himself says that they are all exercised with the mind and that they impede Self–realization.
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Greedily begging for worthless occult powers from God, who will readily give himself, who is everything, is like begging for worthless stale gruel from a generous–natured philanthropist who will readily give everything.
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R
Know that attributing greatness to the perfect one who abides as Self because of the siddhis, is praising the greatness of the fully shining sun by merely glorifying the wondrous beauty of an atom of a bright ray which enters a house through a hole in the roof.
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R
Whatever high and wonderful state of tapas one may have attained, if one still identifies oneself with an individuality, one cannot be a Sahaja-Jnani [one in the state of effortlessness]; one is only an aspirant of, perhaps, an advanced stage.
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R
Those who live in the world, clinging whole-Heartedly to God, are like children who whirl round and round a pillar holding it firmly. Since they have a strong and unshakeable hold on God, they are devoid of ego and therefore will never fall a prey to the delusion of the world.
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R
Installing the Lord on the heart-throne and fixing the mind uninterruptedly in Self in such a manner that it will become one with It is the true and natural worship through Silence.
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R
Among the multitudinous human race, only children [the childlike sages] who are bereft of the mischievous mind, the ego-sense, will be completely protected from distress by the Mother-Father [God], who is always thinking of them.
Only the pure mahatmas in whom the changeful mind does not rise even the least are fortunate people, because the joy of sitting and playing for ever upon the lap of the Mother, who is the source of happiness, is their complete experience.
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R
The Lord who has fed you today will ever do so well. Therefore, live carefree, placing all your burden at His feet and having no thought of tomorrow or the future.
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R
Only steadfastness in non–dual knowledge is heroism. On the other hand, even conquest over one’s enemies is, on scrutiny, found to be due not to heroism but only due to great fear possessing the mind, which is shaken by the hubbub of the unreal world of duality. Know thus.
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Q If the world is only a dream, how should it be harmonised with the Eternal Reality?
R
The harmony consists in the realisation of its inseparateness from the Self.
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R
Though the Heart is said to be both inside and outside, it truly exists neither inside nor outside, because the appearance of the body, which is the base of the difference ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, is itself a mental conception .
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R
Since time, place, etc., which seem to exist, cannot have a real existence of their own apart from the undivided and perfect Brahman, none of them can be unsuitable for practicing Self–enquiry.
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Q: Yes, I still understand only theoretically. Yet the answers are simple, beautiful and convincing.
R
Even the thought `I do not realize' is a hindrance. In fact, the Self alone is. Our real nature is 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.
An illustration will make this clear. A man goes to sleep in this hall. He dreams he has gone on a world tour, is roaming over hill and dale, forest and country, desert and sea, across various continents and after many years of weary and strenuous travel, returns to this country, reaches Tiruvannamalai, enters the ashram and walks into the hall. Just at that moment he wakes up and finds he has not moved an inch but was sleeping where he lay down. He has not returned after great effort to this hall, but is and always has been in the hall. It is exactly like that; If it is asked, `Why being free do we imagine that we are bound?' I answer, `Why being in the hall did you imagine you were on a world adventure, crossing hill and dale, desert and sea? It is all mind or maya [illusion].
Q How then does ignorance of this one and only reality unhappily arise in the case of the ajnani?
R
The ajnani sees only the mind which is a mere reflection of the light of pure consciousness arising from the Heart. Of the Heart itself he is ignorant.
Why? Because his mind is extroverted and has never sought its source.
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R
It is due to illusion born of ignorance that men fail to recognise that which is always and for everybody the inherent Reality dwelling in its natural Heart-centre and to abide in it.
And that instead they argue that it exists or does not exist, that it has form or has not form, or is non–dual or is dual.
Can anything appear apart from that which is eternal and perfect?
This kind of dispute is endless. Do not engage in it.
Instead turn your mind inward and put an end to all this.
There is no finality in disputations.
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R
O foolish mind who is suffering due to the desire for the petty pleasures of this world and of the next, if you remain quiet [i.e. without desire] you will certainly attain that State of Bliss which surely transcends the pleasures of these two.
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R
If one wants to be saved, one is given the following true and essential advice: just as the tortoise draws all its five limbs within its shell, so one should draw the five senses within and turn one’s mind Selfward. This alone is happiness.
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R
People are afraid that when the ego or the mind is killed, the result may be a mere blank and not happiness. What really happens is that the thinker, the object of thought and thinking all merge in the one Source which is Consciousness and Bliss itself, and thus that state is neither inert nor blank. I don’t understand why people should be afraid of a state in which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind is killed.
They daily experience it in sleep. There is no mind or thought in sleep. Yet when one rises from sleep one says, ‘I slept well’.
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R
If we talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization, for want of a better term. How to `real-ize' or make real that which alone is real ?
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R
You can have, or rather you will yourself be, the highest imaginable kind of happiness. All other kinds of happiness which you have spoken of as ‘pleasure’, ‘joy’, ‘happiness’, ‘bliss’, are only reflections of the Ananda which, in your true nature, you are.
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R
The highest form of grace is silence. It is also the highest spiritual instruction.
All other modes of instruction are derived from silence and are therefore secondary.
Silence is the primary form.
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R
Indeed, all the scriptures mention the process only to guide the seeker to know the truth.
The truth cannot be directly pointed out.
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Q The final state of Realisation is said, according to Advaita, to be absolute union with the Divine, and according to Visishtadvaita a qualified union, while Dvaita maintains that there is no union at all. Which of these should be considered the correct view?
R
Why speculate about what will happen at some time in the future? All are agreed that the ‘I’ exists. To whichever school of thought he may belong, let the earnest seeker first find out what the ‘I’ is. Then it will be time enough to know what the final state will be, whether the ‘I’ will get merged in the Supreme Being or stand apart from Him. Let us not forestall the conclusion, but keep an open mind.
Q But will not some understanding of the final state be a helpful guide even to the aspirant?
R
No purpose is served by trying to decide now what the final state of Realisation will be. It has no intrinsic value.
Q Why not?
R
Because you proceed on a wrong principle. Your conclusion is arrived at by the intellect which shines only by the light it derives from the Self. Is it not presumptuous on the part of the intellect to sit in judgement over that from which it derives its little light? How can the intellect, which can never reach the Self, be competent to ascertain and much less decide the nature of the final state of Realisation? It is like trying to measure the sunlight at its source by the standard of the light given by a candle. The wax will melt down before the candle comes anywhere near the sun. Instead of indulging in mere speculation, devote yourself here and now to the search for the Truth that is ever within you.