Ramana Maharshi is the Best Spiritual Doctor

Ramana Maharshi is the Best Spiritual Doctor

Ramana Maharshi is the Best Spiritual Doctor. I will first explain to you why I am saying this, and then I will present you with a conversation that Ramana Maharshi had with one of his “spiritual patients”, as an example of the excellent treatments he offers to those who want to cure their illness of misery, gain mental health and happiness and realize the Self.

But first let me explain how I came to the term “Spiritual Doctor”. Let’s say you are not feeling well. You have a physical ailment. You find a very good doctor, and let the Medical Guru know what’s ailing you. The doctor listens to you, tells you what your illness is, asks you to take some medication for some time, and then do some exercises on a regular basis after that. When you are in pain and you are suffering, do you question the doctor about the diagnosis or treatment? No!!  You just trust the doctor, and follow the prescribed treatment and keep in touch with the doctor and follow up. In a way, we can call this as the patient “surrendering” to the doctor.

In the same way, when a spiritual patient suffers from the ailment of the miseries and the constant flux of worldly life and lack of happiness and lack of peace of mind, and wants to find a cure for it, such a patient seeks the help of a “Spiritual Guru” who in essence is a “Spiritual Doctor”. 

Most Gurus talk about the “What” of the Mental ailment, very few tell you the “Why” of it, and even fewer tell you “How to get over it”, that is how to cure the mental ailment.  But a Great Guru, a Sage, a Knower of the Real Self, who has the necessary knowledge and experience, offers you the knowledge about not only “what” is happening in your mind and “why” it is happening, but also teaches you in detail about “How to get over the Mental Ailment”. If an aspirant is lucky, she or he will find the right Guru, a Sage, a great Spiritual Doctor.  

Such a Guru does not beat around the bush, but gets to the point directly. Such a Guru offers no wishy washy explanations and useless lengthy lectures, does not indulge in hollow arguments, but provides only the essential Truth that guides the earnest spiritual seeker in the direct and straight path of knowing the Real Self. No side roads and winding streets and frequent stops. Just a direct, beautiful, enlightening path.

And for giving such a full, complete Spiritual treatment that leads to mental and physical wellness and eventually to Self-Realization, Ramana Maharshi is the Best Spiritual Doctor of all. And just like a medical doctor giving the treatment according to the particular patient’s case, Ramana Maharshi also guides according to the spiritual aspirant’s mental state. That is why, when someone asks Him a question, sometimes He is silent, sometimes He says a few words, sometimes He gives explanations in detail, and sometimes He answers every question asked. And this is because, that is what the aspirant needs at that time.

Therefore, a sincere spiritual aspirant should surrender to this Spirtual Doctor unconditionally. And He will take care of you and guide you. Ramana Maharshi is not the physical body, but is the Supreme Self, appearing and manifesting in a divine name and form only to help ailing sincere spiritual seekers anytime anywhere in mysterious ways.

He Himself mentions this a few times to a few visitors in the conversations with them. He even refers to the Bhagavad Geeta where Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, that those who cannot understand the transcendental nature of Sri Krishna are fools, deluded by ignorance. He also says that the Jnani, the Sage, is not the body, but He is the Self of all.  He states that the Self manifests externally as Guru when occasion arises, otherwise He is always within, doing the needful. When someone asks him if the physical proximity to the Guru is helpful, he answers, “What is the good of it? The mind alone matters. The mind must be contacted.”

From time to time, the Higher Power manifests as a human, to give out teachings that will hold good for eternity, that will help a spiritual aspirant at any time, anywhere. The same thing applies to Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi as well. He is the Eternal Presence. Otherwise, how can He be guiding me here and now, when I have never seen Him in person? 

I will now present to you a conversation Ramana Maharshi had with just one of his countless spiritual “patients”.

Conversation with a visitor.

16th December, 1936

Talk 295.

Mr. Natverlal Parekh, a Gujerati gentleman who had attended the International Religious Conference as a delegate from Baroda, came here on a visit. He is a young man, well-groomed, alert, and quite conscious of his well-earned merit. He presented a note containing some questions to Sri Bhagavan.

D.: Pray help me realize Atma – Paramatma – Satchidananda, that is, the Self, the Supreme Self, the Being-Consciouness-Bliss.

M.: Atma – Paramatma – Satchidananda mean one and the same thing, i.e., the Self. The Self is eternally realized. Otherwise there will be no pleasure in it. If it is not eternal it must have a beginning; what begins will also end; so that it is only transient. There is no use seeking for a temporary state of affairs. The fact is that it is the state of effortless, ever alert Peace. Effortlessness while remaining aware is the state of Bliss, and that is Realization.

D.: I do not want intellectual answers. I want them to be practical.

M.: Yes. Direct knowledge does not require intellectual discourses. Since the Self is directly experienced by everyone, they are not at all necessary. Everyone says “I am”. Is there anything more to realize?

D.: It is not clear to me.

M.: You exist. You say ‘I am’. That means existence.

D.: But I am not sure of it, i.e., my existence.

M.: Oh! Who then is speaking now?

D.: I, surely. But whether I exist or not, I am not sure. Moreover, admitting my existence leads me nowhere.

M.: There must be one even to deny the existence. If you do not exist, there is no questioner, and no question can arise.

D.: Let us take it that I exist.

M.: How do you know that you exist?

D.: Because I think, I feel, I see, etc.

M.: So you mean that your existence is inferred from these. Furthermore, there is no feeling, thinking and so on, in sleep and yet there is the Being.

D.: But no. I cannot say that I was in deep sleep.

M.: Do you deny your existence in sleep?

D.: I may be or may not be in sleep. God knows.

M.: When you wake up from sleep, you remember what you did before falling asleep.

D.: I can say that I was before and after sleep, but I cannot say if I was in sleep.

M.: Do you now say that you were asleep?

D.: Yes.

M.: How do you know unless you remember the state of sleep?

D.: It does not follow that I existed in sleep. Admission of such existence leads nowhere.

M.: Do you mean to say that a man dies every time that sleep overtakes him and that he resuscitates while waking?

D.: Maybe. God alone knows.

M.: Then let God come and find the solution for these riddles. If one were to die in sleep, one will be afraid of sleep, just as one fears death. On the other hand one courts sleep. Why should sleep be courted unless there is pleasure in it?

D.: There is no positive pleasure in sleep. Sleep is courted only to be rid of physical fatigue.

M.: Well, that is right. “To be free from fatigue.” There is one who is free from fatigue.

D.: Yes.

M.: So you are in sleep and you are now too. You were happy in sleep without feeling, thinking etc. The same one continuing now, why are you not happy?

D.: How can it be said that there is happiness?

M.: Everyone says Sukhamahamasvapsam (I slept happily or was blissfully asleep).

D.: I do not think that they are right. There is no sukha (bliss). It is only absence of sorrow.

M.: Your very being is bliss. Therefore everyone says I was blissfully asleep. That means that one remains in the primal uncontaminated state in sleep. As for sorrow, there is no sorrow. Where is it in order that you might speak of its absence in sleep? The present wrong identification of the Self with the body has given rise to all mistakes.

D.: What I want is realization. I do not feel my inherent happy nature.

M.: Because the Self is now identified with the non-self. The non-self too is not apart from the Self. However, there is the wrong notion that the body is apart and the Self is confounded with the body. This wrong identity must be ended for happiness to manifest.

D.: I am unable to help myself.

Another Engineer devotee suggested surrender to the Master.

D.: Agreed.

M.: Your nature is happiness. You say that is not apparent. See what obstructs you from your true being. It is pointed out to you that the obstruction is the wrong identity. Eliminate the error. The patient must himself take the medicine prescribed by the doctor in order that he may be cured of his illness.

D.: The patient is too weak to help himself and places himself unconditionally in the hands of the doctor.

M.: The doctor must be given a free hand and the patient must only remain quiet without saying anything. Similarly keep quiet. That is effortlessness.

D.: That is the most effective medicine too.

The visitor had other questions too to which Ramana Maharshi offered answers.

D.: Convince me of the existence of God.

M.: Realization of the Self amounts to such conviction.

D.: How is prarabdha (past karma) related to purushakara (one’s own effort here)?

M.: Prarabdha is karma (action). There must be a karta (doer) for it. See who the karta, the doer is. Purushakara is effort. See who exerts and makes the effort. There is identity established. The one who seeks to know their relation is himself the link.

D.: What is karma and rebirth?

M.: See the karta (doer) and then the karma (action) becomes obvious.

If you are born now, rebirth may follow. See if you are born now.

D.: Help me to have jyotidarsana (vision of light).

M.: Darsana (sight) implies drashta (seer). Find him and darsana (sight) is included in him.