Category: Self-Enquiry (Vichara Sangraham)

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (18) (18) Devotee:   D: How do the three states of experience, the three bodies, etc., which are imaginations, appear in the Self-light which is one, impartite and self-luminous? Even if they should appear, how is one to know that the Self alone remains ever unmoving? Maharshi:    The Example  The […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (17) (17) Devotee:   How is one to know that in the Heart the Self itself shines as Brahman? Maharshi: Just as the elemental ether within the flame of a lamp is known to fill without any difference and without any limit both the inside and the outside of the flame, […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (16) (16) Devotee:   How do egoity, soul, self, and Brahman come to be identified? Maharshi:      The Example  The Exemplified 1 The iron-ball                                       Egoity 2 The heated iron-ball The soul which […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (15) (15) Devotee:   The mind, sense-organs, etc., have the ability to perceive; yet why are they regarded as perceived objects? Maharshi:      Drik (Knower) Drisya (Known object) 1 The Seer The seen object (for example, the pot)                         […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (14) (14) Devotee:   What is the real purpose of sannyasa (renunciation)? Maharshi: Sannyasa is only the renunciation of the ‘I’ thought, and not the rejection of the external objects. He who has renounced the “I” thought thus remains the same whether he is alone or in the midst of the […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (13) (13) Devotee:   When there is activity in regard to works, we are neither the agents of those works nor their enjoyers. The activity is of the three instruments (i.e., the mind, speech, and body). Could we remain unattached thinking thus? Maharshi: After the mind has been made to stay […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (12) (12) Devotee:   Is the aforesaid Self-experience possible, even in the state of empirical existence, for the mind which has to perform functions in accordance with its prarabdha (the past karma which has begun to fructify)? Maharshi: A Brahmin (one who knows Brahman) may play various parts in a drama; […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (11) (11) Devotee:   Is Self-experience possible for the mind, whose nature is constant change? Maharshi: Since sattva-guna (the constituent of prakriti which makes for purity, intelligence, etc.) is the nature of mind, and since the mind is pure and undefiled like ether, what is called mind is, in truth, of […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (10) (10) Devotee:   If the entire universe is of the form of mind, then does it not follow that the universe is an illusion? If that be the case, why is the creation of the universe mentioned in the Veda? Maharshi: There is no doubt whatsoever that the universe is […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (9) (9) Devotee:   How can it be said that the Heart is no other than Brahman? Maharshi: Although the Self enjoys its experiences in the states of waking, dream, and deep sleep, residing respectively in the eyes, throat and heart, however, in reality, it never leaves its principal seat, the […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (8) (8) Devotee:   Why is it said that only the mind which is the internal organ, shines as the form of all, that is of soul, God and world? Maharshi: As instruments for knowing the objects, the sense organs, are outside, so they are called outer senses; and the mind […]

Self-enquiry – Vichara Sangraham (7) (7) Devotee:   If these four – mind, intellect, memory and egoity – are one and the same, why are separate locations mentioned for them? Maharshi: It is true that the throat is stated to be the location of the mind, the face or the heart of the intellect, the […]