How to calm the mind
A high officer asked: If juniors are promoted over oneself the mind is perturbed. Will the enquiry, ‘Who am I?’ help the man to soothe the mind under such circumstances?
M.: Yes. Quite so. The enquiry ‘Who am I?’ turns the mind inward and makes it calm.
D.: I have faith in murti dhyana (worship of form). Will it not help me to gain jnana?
M.: Surely it will. Upasana helps concentration of mind. Then the mind is free from other thoughts and is full of the meditated form. The mind becomes it – and thus quite pure. Then think who is the worshipper. The answer is ‘I’, i.e., the Self. So the Self is gained ultimately.
The present difficulty is that the man thinks that he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the Higher Power which does everything and the man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles; otherwise he courts them.
Take for instance, the figure in a gopuram (temple tower), where it is made to appear to bear the burden of the tower on its shoulders. Its posture and look are a picture of great strain while bearing the very heavy burden of the tower. But think. The tower is built on the earth and it rests on its foundations. The figure (like Atlas bearing the earth) is a part of the tower, but is made to look as if it bore the tower. Is it not funny? So is the man who takes on himself the sense of doing.
Talks with Ramana Maharshi
6th July, 1935
Talk 63.
