Talks with Ramana Maharshi (44 – 46)
Talks 44, 45, 46. Solitude, Mind, Concentration and Control, Real and False
Talk 44.
Mr. Ekanath Rao, an Engineer, asked Sri Bhagavan if solitude is necessary for Vichara.
M.: There is solitude everywhere. The individual is solitary always. His business is to find it out within, and not seek it without.
D.: The work-a-day world is distracting.
M.: Do not allow yourself to be distracted. Enquire for whom there is distraction. It will not afflict you after a little practice.
D.: Even the attempt is impossible.
M.: Make it and it will be found not so difficult.
D.: But the answer does not come for the search inward.
M.: The enquirer is the answer and no other answer can come. What comes afresh cannot be true. What always is, is true.
Talk 45.
A visitor asked:
The path of realization is difficult. Worldly matters are easy of understanding, whereas this is not.
M.: Yes. The mind always seeks external knowledge, leaving aside its own inner knowledge.
D.: A stay of one day with Sri Bhagavan is good; a stay of two days is better; of three days, more so, and so on. If it is a continuous stay here, how shall we get on with our mundane work?
M.: Stay here or elsewhere must be understood to be the same and to have the same effect.
Talk 46.
After hearing the Malayalam version of Upadesa Sara chanted, Mr. Ramachandra Iyer of Nagercoil asked about the mind, concentration and control.
The Master said :
The mind is only identity of the Self with the body. It is a false ego that is created; it creates false phenomena in its turn, and appears to move in them; all these are false. The Self is the only Reality.
If the false identity vanishes the persistence of the Reality becomes apparent. It does not mean that Reality is not here and now. It is always there and eternally the same. It is also in everyone’s experience. For everyone knows that he is. “Who is he?” Subjectively, “Who am I?” The false ego is associated with objects; this ego itself is its own object. Objectivity is the falsity. Subject is alone the Reality.
Do not confound yourself with the object, namely the body. This gives rise to the false ego, consequently of the world and your movements therein with the resulting misery. Do not think yourself to be this, that or anything; to be so and so, or to be such and such. Only leave off the falsity. The Reality will reveal itself.
The scriptures say that the Self is nityasiddha, ever present, and yet speak of the removal of ajnana. If Self is (nitya) always and (siddha) present, how can there be ajnana (ignorance)? For whom is the ajnana (ignorance)? These are contradictory. But such statements are for guiding the earnest seeker in the right way.
The seeker does not readily understand the only Truth if mentioned in plain words as in natwam naham neme janadhipah (not thou, nor I, nor these kings …). Sri Krishna declared the Truth, but Arjuna could not grasp it. Later Krishna plainly says that people confound Him with the body, whereas in reality He was not born nor will He die. Still Arjuna requires the whole Gita for the Truth to be made clear to him.
Look, the Self is only Be-ing, not being this or that. It is simple Being. Be – and there is an end of the ignorance. Enquire for whom is the ignorance. The ego arises when you wake up from sleep. In deep sleep you do not say that you are sleeping and that you are going to wake up or that you have been sleeping so long. But still you are there. Only when you are awake you say that you have slept. Your wakefulness comprises sleep also in it. Realize your pure Be-ing. Let there be no confusion with the body.
The body is the result of thoughts. The thoughts will play as usual, but you will not be affected. You were not concerned with the body when asleep; so you can always remain.
Mr. Ekanatha Rao: How can anyone reconcile such activity with the wage-earning which is a necessity for worldly people?
M.: Actions form no bondage. Bondage is only the false notion. “I am the doer.” Leave off such thoughts and let the body and senses play their role, unimpeded by your interference.