Gems from Bhagavan -1

Gems from Bhagavan

GEMS

FROM BHAGAVAN

A necklace of sayings by

BHAGAVAN SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI

on various vital subjects

Strung together by

A. DEVARAJA MUDALIAR

AUTHOR OF

Day by day with Bhagavan

PREFACE

I have been, for some time now, seriously considering

that a book containing, within a small compass, all the most

important of Bhagavan’s teachings would be a real desideratum,

and if I seek to supply it in my own way, according to my light

and to the best of my ability, the small service I thereby render

may be of use to readers in general, and Bhagavan’s devotees

in particular. It may even be acceptable to Bhagavan as His

child’s efforts to do something good and useful. This is my

only excuse for this book.

HAPPINESS

All beings desire happiness always, happiness without a

tinge of sorrow. At the same time everybody loves himself

best. The cause for love is only happiness. So, that happiness

must lie within oneself. Further, that happiness is daily

experienced by everyone in sleep when there is no mind. To

attain that natural happiness one must know oneself. For that,

Self-enquiry, ‘Who am I?’ is the chief means.

Happiness is the nature of the Self. They are not different.

The only happiness there is, is of the Self. That is the truth.

There is no happiness in worldly objects. Because of our

ignorance we imagine we derive happiness from them.

If, as a man generally imagines, his happiness is due to

external causes, it is reasonable to conclude that his happiness

must increase with the increase of possessions and diminish

in proportion to their diminution. Therefore, if he is devoid

of possessions his happiness should be nil. What, however,

is the real experience of man? Does it confirm this view? In

deep sleep the man is devoid of all possessions, including

his own body. Instead of being unhappy he is quite happy.

Everyone desires to sleep soundly. The conclusion therefore

is that happiness is inherent in man and is not due to external

causes. One must realize his Self in order to open the store of

unalloyed happiness.

There is a story in Panchadasi, which illustrates that our

pains and pleasures are not due to facts but to our concepts.

Two young men of a village went on a pilgrimage to North

India. One of them died there. But the other having picked up

some job decided to return to his village only after some time.

Meanwhile he came across a wandering pilgrim and sent word

through him to his village about himself and his dead friend.

The pilgrim conveyed the news and in doing so inadvertently

changed the names of the living and the dead man. The result

was that the dead man’s people were rejoicing that he was

doing well and the living man’s people were in grief that he

was dead.

I used to sit on the floor and lie on the ground. No cloth

spread out. That is freedom. The sofa is a bondage. It is jail for

me. I am not allowed to sit where and how I please. Is it not

bondage? One must be free to do as one pleases and should

not be served by others. ‘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.

II

THE SELF AND NON-SELF:

THE REALITY AND THE WORLD

Existence or Consciousness is the only reality.

Consciousness plus waking we call waking. Consciousness

plus sleep we call sleep. Consciousness plus dream we call

dream. Consciousness is the screen on which all the pictures

come and go. The screen is real, the pictures are mere shadows

on it.

The Self and the appearances therein, as the snake in

the rope, can be well illustrated like this. There is a screen.

On that screen first appears the figure of a king. He sits on

a throne. Then before him on that same screen a play begins

with various figures and objects, and the king on the screen

watches the play on the same screen. The seer and the seen

are mere shadows on the screen which is the only reality,

supporting all the pictures. In the world also, the seer and the

seen together constitute the mind, and the mind is supported

by or based on the Self.

The ajata school of Advaita says, ‘Nothing exists except

the one reality. There is no birth or death, no projection or

drawing in, no sadhaka (aspirant), no mumukshu (one who

desires to be liberated), no mukta (one who is liberated), no

bondage, no liberation. The One Unity alone exists forever.’

To those who find it difficult to grasp this truth and ask, ‘How

can we ignore this solid world we see all around us?’ the

dream experience is pointed out and they are told, ‘All that

you see depends on the seer. Apart from the seer there is no

seen.’ This is called drishti-srishti vada, or the argument that

one first creates out of his mind and then sees what his mind

itself has created.

To those who cannot grasp even this and who further

argue, ‘The dream experience is so short, while the world

always exists. The dream experience was limited to me. But

the world is felt and seen not only by me but by so many and

we cannot call such a world nonexistent,’ the argument called

srishti-drishti vada is addressed and they are told, ‘God first

created such and such a thing out of such and such an element

and then something else and so forth.’ That alone will satisfy

them. Their minds are not otherwise satisfied and they ask

themselves, ‘How can all geography, all maps, all sciences,

stars, planets and the rules governing or relating to them, and

all knowledge be totally untrue?’ To such it is best to say, ‘Yes.

God created all this and so you see it.’ All these are only to

suit the capacity of the hearers. The absolute can only be one.

There is first the white light, so to call it, of the Self,

which transcends both light and darkness. In it no object can

be seen. There is neither seer nor seen. Then there is also total

darkness (avidya) in which no objects are seen. But from the

Self proceeds a reflected light, the light of pure mind (manas),

and it is this light which gives room for the existence of all

the film of the world, which is seen neither in total light nor

in total darkness, but only in the subdued or reflected light.

From the point of view of Jnana (Knowledge) or the

Reality, the pain seen in the world is certainly a dream, as

is the world, of which any particular pain like hunger is an

infinitesimal part. In the dream also you yourself feel hunger.

You see others suffering from hunger. You feed yourself, and

moved by pity feed the others whom you find suffering from

hunger. So long as the dream lasted, all those pains were as

real as you now think the pain in the world to be. It was only

when you woke up that you discovered that the pain in the

dream was unreal. You might have eaten to the full and gone

to sleep. You dream that you work hard and long in the hot

sun all day, are tired and hungry and want to eat a lot. Then

you wake up and find your stomach is full and you have not

stirred out of your bed. But this does not mean that while

you are in the dream you can act as if the pain you feel is not

real. The hunger in the dream has to be assuaged by the food

in the dream. The fellow beings you found so hungry in the

dream had to be provided with food in that dream. You can

never mix up the two states, the dream and the waking state.

Till you reach the state of jnana and thus wake out of maya

you must do social service by relieving suffering whenever

you see it. But even then you must do it without ahankara,

i.e., without the sense of ‘I am the doer’, but with the feeling

‘I am the Lord’s tool’. Similarly one must not be conceited

by thinking, ‘I am helping a man below me. He needs help.

I am in a position to help. I am superior and he inferior.’ But

you must help the man as a means of worshipping God in that

man. All such service is for the Self and not for anybody else.

You are not helping anybody else, but only yourself.

The book Kaivalya Navaneeta has asked and answered

six questions on maya. They are instructive:

1. What is maya? The answer is: It is anirvachaniya or

indescribable.

2. To whom does it come? The answer is: To the mind

or ego who feels that he is a separate entity, who thinks ‘I do

this’ or ‘This is mine’.

3. Where does it come from and how did it originate? The

answer: Nobody can say.

4. How did it arise? The answer is: Through non-vichara,

through failure to enquire ‘Who am I?’

5. If the Self and maya both exist, does this not invalidate

the theory of Advaita? The answer is: It need not, since maya

is dependent on the Self as the picture is on the screen. The

picture is not real in the sense that the screen is real.

6. If the Self and maya are one, could it not be argued that

the Self is of the nature of maya and that it is also illusory?

The answer is: No, the Self can be capable of producing

illusion without being illusory. A conjuror may create for

our entertainment the illusion of people, animals and things,

and we see all of them as clearly as we see him, but after the

performance he alone remains and all the visions he created

have disappeared. He is not a part of the vision but solid and

real.

The books use the following illustration to help explain

creation: The Self is like the canvas for a painting. First a paste

is smeared over it to close the small holes that are in the canvas.

This paste can be compared to the Antaryamin (Indweller) in

all creation. Then the artist makes an outline on the canvas.

his can be compared to the sukshma sarira (subtle body)

of all creatures; for instance, the light and sound (bindu and

nada) out of which all things arise. Within this outline the artist

paints his picture with colours, etc., and this can be compared

to the gross forms that constitute the world.

Vedanta says that the cosmos springs into view

simultaneously with the seer. There is no creation by stages

or steps. It is similar to the creation in dream where the

experiencer and the objects of experience come into existence

at the same time. To those who are not satisfied with this

explanation, theories of gradual creation are offered in books.

It is not at all correct to say that advaitins of the Sankara

school deny the existence of the world, or that they call it

unreal. On the other hand, it is more real to them than to

others. Their world will always exist whereas the world of the

other schools will have origin, growth and decay, and as such

cannot be real. They only say that the world as ‘world’ is not

real, but that the world as Brahman is real. All is Brahman,

nothing exists but Brahman, and the world as Brahman is real.

The Self is the one Reality that always exists, and it is by

the light of the Self that all other things are seen. We forget it

and concentrate on the appearance. The light in the hall burns

both when persons are enacting something, as in a theatre, and

when nothing is being enacted. It is the light which enables us

to see the hall, the persons and the acting. We are so engrossed

with the objects or appearances revealed by the light, that we

pay no attention to the light. In the waking or dream state in

which things appear, and in the sleep state in which we see

nothing, there is always the light of Consciousness or Self,

like the hall lamp which is always burning. The thing to do

is to concentrate on the seer and not on the seen, not on the

objects, but on the Light which reveals them.

Questions about the reality of the world, and about the

existence of pain or evil in the world, will all cease when you

enquire ‘Who am I?’ and find out the seer. Without a seer the

world and the evils thereof alleged do not exist.

The world is of the form of the five categories of sense

objects, and nothing else. These five kinds of objects are sensed

by the five senses. As all are perceived by the mind through

these five senses, the world is nothing but the mind. Is there

a world apart from the mind?

Though the world and consciousness emerge and disappear

together, the world shines or is perceived only through

consciousness. That source wherein both these arise and

disappear, and which itself neither appears nor disappears, is

the perfect Reality.

If the mind, the source of all knowledge and activity

subsides, the vision of the world will cease. Just as knowledge

of the real rope does not dawn till the fancied notion of the

serpent disappears, vision (experience) of the Reality cannot

be gained unless the superimposed vision of the universe is

abandoned.

That which really exists is only the Self. The world, jiva

(individual self) and Iswara (God) are mental creations, like

the appearance of silver in mother of pearl. All these appear

at the same time and disappear similarly. The Self alone is the

world, the ego and Iswara.

To the jnani it is immaterial whether the world appears or

not. Whether it appears or not, his attention is always on the

Self. Take the letters and the paper on which they are printed.

You are wholly engrossed with the letters and have no attention

left for the paper. But the jnani thinks only of the paper as the

real substratum, whether the letters appear or not.

You make all kinds of sweets from various ingredients

and in various shapes, and they all taste sweet because there

is sugar in all of them, and sweetness is the nature of sugar. In

the same way, all experiences and the absence of them contain

the illumination, which is the nature of the Self. Without the

Self they cannot be experienced, just as without sugar not one

of the articles you make can taste sweet.

The Immanent Being is called Iswara. Immanence can

only be with maya. It (Iswara) is the Knowledge of Being

along with maya. From the subtle conceit Hiranyagarbha

rises; from Hiranyagarbha the gross, concrete Virat rises.

Chit-Atma is pure Being only.

As regards the existence of pain in the world, the wise one

explains from his experience, that if one withdraws within the

Self there is an end of all pain. The pain is felt so long as the

object is different from oneself. But when the Self is found to

be an undivided whole, who and what is there to feel?

The Upanishadic text ‘I am Brahman’ only means Brahman

exists as ‘I’.

III

MIND

Mind is a wonderful force inherent in the Self.

That which rises in this body as ‘I’ is the mind.

When the subtle mind emerges through the brain and

the senses, the gross names and forms are cognized. When it

remains in the Heart, names and forms disappear.... If the mind

remains in the Heart, the ‘I’ or the ego which is the source of

all thoughts will go, and the Self, the Real, Eternal ‘I’ alone

will shine. Where there is not the slightest trace of the ego,

there is the Self.

Mind and breath have the same source. Hence breath is

controlled when mind is controlled and mind when breath is

controlled. Breath is the gross form of the mind.

Pranayama (breath control) is only an aid to subdue the

mind and will not serve to kill it.

Like pranayama, worship of a deity, japa (repetition) with

a mantra, strict regulation of diet are all aids for mind control.

Control of breath (pranayama) may be internal or

external. The internal is as follows: Naham (the idea I am

not the body) is rechaka (exhalation), Koham (Who am I?) is

puraka (inhalation), Soham (I am He) is kumbhaka (retention

of breath). Doing this, the breath becomes automatically

controlled. External pranayama is for one not endowed with

strength to control the mind. There is no way so sure as control

of mind. Pranayama need not be exactly as prescribed in hatha

yoga. If engaged in japa, dhyana (meditation), bhakti, etc., just

a little control of breath will suffice to control the mind. The

mind is the rider and breath the horse. Pranayama is a check

on the horse. By that check the rider is checked. Pranayama

may be done just a little. To watch the breath is one way of

doing it. The mind is drawn away from other activities by being

engaged in watching the breath. That controls the breath, and

the mind in its turn is also controlled. If rechaka and puraka

are found difficult to practise, retention of breath alone for a

short while may be practised while in japa, dhyana, etc. That

too will yield good results.

There is no other way of controlling the mind except as

prescribed in the books like the Gita, drawing in the mind as

often as it strays or goes outward, and fixing it in the Self.

Of course it will not be easy to do it. It will come only with

practice or sadhana.

God illumines the mind and shines within it. One cannot

know God by means of the mind. One can but turn the mind

inwards and merge it in God.

The body composed of insentient matter cannot say ‘I’ (i.e.,

cannot be the cause of the ‘I- thought’). On the other hand,

the Eternal Consciousness cannot have such a thing as birth.

Between the two something arises within the dimensions of

the body. This is the knot of matter and Consciousness (chitjada-

granthi), variously called bondage, jiva, subtle body, ego,

samsara (attachment), mind, etc.

Bhagavan pointed to his towel and said, ‘We call this

a white cloth, but the cloth and its whiteness cannot be

separated; and it is the same with the illumination and the

mind that unite to form the ego. The following illustration is

given in the books: The lamp in the theatre is Para Brahman

or illumination. It illuminates itself, the stage and the actors.

We see the stage and the actors by its light, but the light still

continues when there is no more play. Another illustration is

an iron rod that is compared to the mind. Fire joins it and it

becomes red hot. It glows and can burn things like fire, but

still it has a definite shape unlike fire. If we hammer it, it is the

rod that receives the blow, not the fire. The rod is the jivatman,

the fire the Self or Paramatman. The mind can do nothing by

itself. It emerges only with the illumination and can do no

action good or bad, except with the illumination. But while

the illumination is always there, enabling the mind to act well

or ill, the pleasure or pain resulting from such action is not felt

by the illumination, just as when you hammer a red hot iron it

is not the fire but the iron that gets the hammering.

If we control the mind, it does not matter where we live.

IV

 “WHO AM I?” - ENQUIRY

For all thoughts the source is the ‘I-thought’. The mind will

merge only by Self-enquiry ‘Who am I?’ The thought ‘Who

am l?’ will destroy all other thoughts and finally kill itself

also. If other thoughts arise, without trying to complete them,

one must enquire to whom did this thought arise. What does it

matter how many thoughts arise? As each thought arises one

must be watchful and ask to whom is this thought occurring.

The answer will be ‘to me’. If you enquire ‘Who am I?’ the

mind will return to its source (or where it issued from). The

thought which arose will also submerge. As you practise like

this more and more, the power of the mind to remain at its

source is increased.

By means of a moderate quantity of satvic (pure) food,

which is superior to all other rules and regulations of self

discipline, the satvic or pure quality of the mind will grow

and Self-enquiry will be helped.

Though ancient and timeless sense attachments in the

shape of vasanas (subtle tendencies) may rise countless like

the waves of the sea, they will all be destroyed as dhyana

progresses. Without giving any room for doubt whether it

would at all be possible to eradicate all those vasanas and be

the Self alone, one must take hold ceaselessly of dhyana of the

Self. However great a sinner one may be, instead of lamenting

‘I am a great sinner, how can I make any progress?’ one must

completely forget the fact of being a sinner and earnestly

pursue meditation of Self. He is then sure to succeed.

If the ego is present, all else will also exist. If it is absent,

all else will also vanish. As ego is all this, to enquire what this

ego is, is to give up all attachment.

Controlling speech and breath, and diving deep within

oneself, as a man dives into water to recover something that

has fallen there, one must find out the source whence the ego

rises, by means of keen insight.

Enquiry, which constitutes the path of jnana, consists not

in orally repeating ‘I’ ‘I’, but in searching by means of a deeply

introverted mind wherefrom the ‘I’ springs. To think ‘I am not

this’ or ‘I am that’ may be of help in the enquiry, but cannot

be the actual enquiry.

When we quest within our mind ‘Who am I?’ and reach

the Heart, ‘I’ topples down and immediately another entity will

reveal itself proclaiming ‘I-I’. Even though it also emerges

saying ‘I’, it does not connote the ego, but the One Perfect

Existence.

If we unceasingly investigate the form of the mind, we

find there is no such thing as the mind. This is the direct path

open to all.

Thoughts alone constitute the mind, and for all thoughts

the base or source is the ‘I-thought’. ‘I’ is the mind. If we go

inward questing for the source of the ‘I’, the ‘I’ topples down.

This is the jnana enquiry.

Where the ‘I’ merges, another entity emerges as ‘I-I’ of its

own accord. That is the Perfect Self.

There is no use removing doubts. If we clear one doubt

another arises and there will be no end of doubts. All doubts

will cease only when the doubter and his source have been

found. Seek for the source of the doubter, and you find he is

really nonexistent. Doubter ceasing, doubts will cease.

Reality being yourself, there is nothing for you to realize.

All are regarding the unreal as real. What is required is that

you give up regarding the unreal as real. The object of all

meditation (dhyana) or japa is only that, to give up all thoughts

regarding the non-self, to give up many thoughts and to hold

on to one thought. The object of all sadhana is to make the

mind one-pointed, to concentrate it on one thought and thus

exclude our many thoughts. If we do this, eventually even

the one thought will go and the mind will get extinguished

in its source.

When we enquire within ‘Who am I?’ the ‘I’ investigated

is the ego. It is that which makes vichara (enquiry) also. The

Self has no vichara. That which makes the enquiry is the ego.

The ‘I’ about which the enquiry is made is also the ego. As

the result of the enquiry the ego ceases to exist and only the

Self is found to exist.

What is the best way of killing the ego? To each person

that way is best which appears easiest or appeals the most.

All the ways are equally good, as they lead to the same goal,

which is the merging of the ego in the Self. What the bhakta

calls surrender, the man who does vichara calls jnana. Both

are trying to take the ego back to the source from which it

sprang and make it merge there.

To ask the mind to kill itself is like making the thief the

policeman. He will go with you and pretend to catch the thief,

but nothing will be gained. So you must turn inward, and see

from whence the mind rises and then it will cease to exist.

Breath and mind arise from the same source and when one

of them is controlled the other is also controlled. As a matter

of fact, in the quest method - which is more correctly ‘Whence

am I?’ and not merely ‘Who am I?’ - we are not simply trying

to eliminate, saying ‘We are not the body, nor the senses and

so on’, to reach what remains as the ultimate reality, but we

are trying to find out whence the ‘I-thought’ or the ego arises

within us. The method contains within it, though implicitly

and not expressly, the watching of the breath. When we watch

wherefrom the ‘I-thought’ arises, we are necessarily watching

the source of breath also, as the ‘I-thought’ and the breath arise

from the same source.

Breath control may do as an aid but can never by itself

lead to the goal. While doing it mechanically, take care to be

alert in mind and to remember the ‘I- thought’ and the quest

for its source. Then you will find that where the breath sinks,

there the ‘I-thought’ arises. They sink and arise together. The

‘I-thought’ will also sink along with the breath.

Simultaneously another luminous and infinite ‘I-I’ will

emerge, and it will be continuous and unbroken. That is the

goal. It goes by different names - God, Self, Kundalini, Shakti,

Consciousness, etc.

Who am I?’ is not a mantra. It means that you must find

out where in you the ‘I-thought’ arises, which is the source of

all other thoughts. But if you find that vichara marga (path

of enquiry) is too hard for you, you go on repeating ‘I-I’ and

that will lead you to the same goal. There is no harm in using

‘I’ as a mantra. It is the first name of God.

I ask you to see where the ‘I’ arises in your body; but it is

not really quite correct to say that the ‘I’ rises from and merges

in the Heart on the right side of the chest. The Heart is another

name for the Reality, and it is neither inside nor outside the

body. There can be no in and out for it, since It alone is. I

do not mean by ‘Heart’ any physiological organ, any plexus

of nerves or anything like that, but so long as one identifies

oneself with the body and thinks he is the body, he is advised

to see in the body where the ‘I-thought’ rises and merges again.

It must be the Heart at the right side of the chest, since every

man of whatever race and religion and in whatever language

he may be saying ‘I’, points to the right side of his chest to

indicate himself. This is true all over the world. So that must

be the place. And by keenly watching the emergence of the

‘I-thought’ on waking and its subsiding in sleep, one can see

that it is in the Heart on the right side.

First know who you are. This requires no sastras (scripture)

or scholarship. This is simple experience. The state of being

is now and here all along. You have lost hold of yourself and

are asking others for guidance. The purpose of philosophy is

to turn the mind inward. “If you know yourself, no evil can

come to you. Because you asked me I have told you this” (see

Kaivalya Navaneeta). The ego comes up only holding you (the

Self). Hold yourself and the ego will vanish. Until then the

sage will be happy saying, ‘There is’, and the ignorant will

be asking, ‘Where?’

Regulation of life, such as getting up at a fixed hour,

bathing, doing mantra-japa, etc., all this is for people who do

not feel drawn to Self-enquiry, or are not capable of it. But for

those who can practise this method all rules and disciplines

are unnecessary.

Undoubtedly it is said in some books, that one should go

on cultivating one good quality after another and thus prepare

for moksha; but for those who follow the jnana or vichara

marga, their sadhana is itself quite enough for acquiring all

daivic (divine) qualities; they need not do anything else.

What is Gayatri? It really means ‘Let me concentrate on

That which illumines all’.

V

SURRENDER

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.

The absence of thought is bhakti. It is also mukti.

Bhakti is Jnana Mata, i.e., the mother of jnana.

It is asked, why all this creation so full of sorrow and evil.

All one can say is that it is God’s will, which is inscrutable. No

motive, no desire, no end to achieve can be attributed to that

infinite, all-wise and all-powerful Being. God is untouched

by activities which take place in His presence. There is no

meaning in attributing responsibility and motive to the One,

before it became many. But God’s will for the prescribed

course of events is a good solution for the vexed question of

free-will. If the mind is worried over what befalls us, or what

has been committed or omitted by us, it is wise to give up the

sense of responsibility and free-will, by regarding ourselves as

the ordained instruments of the All-Wise and the All-Powerful,

to do and suffer as He pleases. Then He bears all the burdens

and gives us peace.

A Maharani told Bhagavan, ‘I am blessed with everything

that a human being would like to have’. Her Highness’s voice

choked. Controlling herself she continued slowly, ‘I have all

that I want, a human being may want... but... but... I do not have

peace of mind. Something prevents it. Probably my destiny’.

There was silence for a while. Then Bhagavan spoke in his

usual sweet manner: ‘All right, you have said what you wished

to say. Well, what is destiny? There is no destiny. Surrender,

and all will be well. Throw all responsibility on God and do

not bear the burden yourself. What can destiny do to you then?’

Devotee: Surrender is impossible.

Bhagavan: Yes, complete surrender is impossible. Partial

surrender is certainly possible for all. In course of time that

will lead to complete surrender. Well, if surrender is impossible

what can be done? There is no peace of mind. You are helpless

to bring it about. It can be done only by surrender.

D: Partial surrender - well, can it undo destiny?

B: Oh yes, it can.

D: Is not destiny due to past karma?

B: If one is surrendered to God, God will look to it.

D: That being God’s dispensation, how does God undo it?

B: All are in Him only.

To a devotee who was praying that she should have more

frequent visions of Siva, Bhagavan said, “Surrender to Him

and abide by His Will, whether He appears or disappears;

await His pleasure. If you ask Him to do as you like it is not

surrender but command to God. You cannot have Him obey

you and yet think you have surrendered. He knows what is

best and when and how to do it. His is the burden. You have

no longer any cares. All your cares are His. Such is surrender.

That is bhakti.”

VI

THE THREE STATES: WAKING,

DREAM AND SLEEP

There is no difference between the dream and the waking

state except that the dream is short and the waking long. Both

are the result of the mind. Our real state is called turiya, which

is beyond the waking, dream and sleep states.

The Self alone exists and remains as It is. The three states

owe their existence to avichara (non-enquiry), and enquiry

puts an end to them. However much one may explain, this

fact will not become clear until one attains Self-realization,

and wonders how he was blind to the self-evident and only

existence for so long.

All that we see is a dream, whether we see it in the dream

state or waking state. On account of some arbitrary standards

about the duration of the experience and so on, we call one

experience a dream and another waking experience. With

reference to Reality both the experiences are unreal. A man

might have an experience such as getting anugraha (grace)

in his dream, and the effects and influence of it on his entire

subsequent life may be so profound and abiding, that one

cannot call it unreal - whilst calling real some trifling incident

in the waking life that just flits by, which is casual, of no

consequence and is soon forgotten. Once I had an experience,

a vision or a dream, whatever you may call it. I and some

others, including Chadwick, had a walk on the hill. Returning,

we were walking along a huge street with great buildings on

either side. Pointing out the street and the buildings, I asked

Chadwick and others, whether anybody could say that what

we were seeing was a dream, and they all replied, ‘Which fool

will say so?’ We then walked along, entered the hall and the

vision or dream ceased, or I woke up. What are we to call this?

Just before waking up from sleep, there is a very brief state,

free from thought. That should be made permanent.

In dreamless sleep there is no world, no ego and no

unhappiness, but the Self remains. In the waking state there

are all of these. Yet there is the Self. One has only to remove

the transitory happenings in order to realize the ever-present

beatitude of the Self.

Your nature is bliss. Find that on which all the rest are

imposed and you then remain as the pure Self.

In sleep there is no space or time. They are concepts,

which arise after the ‘I-thought’ has arisen. You are beyond

time and space. The ‘I-thought’ is the limited ‘I’. The real ‘I’

is unlimited, universal, beyond time and space. Just while

rising from sleep and before seeing the objective world, there

is a state of awareness which is your Pure Self. That must be

known.

VII

GRACE AND GURU

I have not said that a Guru is not necessary. But a Guru

need not always be in human form. First a person thinks that

he is inferior and that there is a superior, all-knowing, all

powerful God who controls his own and the world’s destiny

and worships him or does bhakti. When he reaches a certain

stage and becomes fit for enlightenment, the same God whom

he was worshipping comes as Guru and leads him onward.

That Guru comes only to tell him, ‘That God is within yourself.

Dive within and realize’. God, Guru and the Self are the same.

Realization is the result of the Master’s (Guru’s) grace,

more than teachings, lectures, meditations, etc. They are

only secondary aids, whereas the former is the primary and

essential cause.

Guru’s grace is always there. You imagine it to be

something somewhere high up in the sky, far away and which

has to descend. It is really inside you in your Heart, and the

moment, by any of the methods, you effect subsidence or

merger of the mind into its source, the grace rushes forth,

spouting as from a spring from within you.

Contact with jnanis is good. They will work through

silence. A Guru is not the physical form. Hence His contact

remains even after the physical form of the Guru vanishes.

After your bhakti to God has matured you, God comes

in the shape of a Guru and from outside pushes your mind

inside, while being inside as Self He draws you there from

30

within. Such a Guru is needed generally, though not for very

rare and advanced souls.

One can go to another Guru after one’s Guru passes away.

But after all, Gurus are one, as none of them are the form.

Mental contact is always the best.

Sat Sang means association with Sat or Reality. One

who knows or has realized Sat is also regarded as Sat. Such

association is absolutely necessary for all. Sankara has said,

“In all the three worlds there is no boat like sat sang to carry

one safely across the ocean of births and deaths.”

Guru not being physical, His contact will continue after His

form vanishes. If one Jnani exists in the world, His influence

will be felt by or benefit all people in the world, and not simply

His immediate disciples. As described in Vedanta Chudamani,

all the people in the world can be put under four categories:

The Guru’s disciples, bhaktas, those who are indifferent to Him

and those who are hostile to Him. All these will be benefited

by the existence of the Jnani - each in his own way and to

various degrees.

From the book, Divine Grace Through Total Self-Surrender

by D. C. Desai, Bhagavan read out the following quotations

by Paul Brunton for our benefit:

“Divine Grace is a manifestation of the cosmic free will

in operation. It can alter the course of events in a mysterious

manner through its own unknown laws, which are superior to

all natural laws, and can modify the latter by interaction. It is

the most powerful force in the universe.

“It descends and acts only when it is invoked by total

self-surrender. It acts from within, because God resides in the

Heart of all beings. Its whisper can be heard only in a mind

purified by self-surrender and prayer.

“Rationalists laugh at it, and atheists scorn it, but it exists.

It is a descent of God into the soul’s zone of awareness. It is a

visitation of force unexpected and unpredictable. It is a voice

spoken out of cosmic silence - It is ‘Cosmic Will which can

perform authentic miracles under its own laws’.”

In truth, God and the Guru are not different. Just as the

prey which has fallen into the jaws of a tiger has no escape, so

those who have come within the ambit of the Guru’s gracious

look will be saved by the Guru and will not get lost; yet, each

one should by his own effort pursue the path shown by God

or Guru and gain release.

Each seeker after God should be allowed to go his own

way, the way for which he alone may be built (meant). It will

not do to convert him to another path by violence. The Guru

will go with the disciple in his own path and then gradually

turn him onto the Supreme path at the ripe moment. Suppose

a car is going at top speed. To stop it at once or to turn it at

once would be attended with disastrous consequences.

Om Tat Sat

                                                        

(Continued...) 

(My humble salutations to  H H Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, and thankfulness to Sri Devaraja Mudaliar ji and   Hinduism online dot com for the collection)

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