Guru Ramana I

Book: The Teachings of Ramana Maharashi – Edited by Arthur Osborne

A book helps us to capture an individual’s contributions to mankind. The ideas spoken out by an individual in 1940 helps today i.e. 2016 to understand how invaluable they were.

Two books on philosophy have inspired me more i.e. Talks on Vivekachoodamani by Swami Chinmayananda and The Teachings of Ramana Maharashi edited by Arthur Osborne.

I believe one i.e. Vivekachoodamani is Bare Act and second one The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi is a detailed and simplified explanation of bare act (for understanding of mortal human beings).

While reading The Teachings of Ramana Maharashi, delusional ego of the reader is traumatized. Bhagavan asks very straight questions to Devotees and helps them to remove their ignorance.

This post is going to be a lengthy one with respect to takeaways (chapter wise) from the book.

I was stranded wondering whether I should weave, the takeaways, like a garland and present it. Like a fool the egoistical I spent time in combining the different flowers.

Instead the best thing was to leave the flowers plucked from the bouquet of trees presented in the garden “The Teachings of Ramana Maharashi” and place it here and leave it for the readers to weave as a garland or pick any one of them as a message for rest of the life.

It is earnestly recommended that book should be read and build one’s own takeaways. For those who might have stumbled here to read this post, hope the takeaways inspire reader to read “The Teachings of Ramana Maharashi” edited by Arthur Osborne.

These takeaways (as is extracted and reproduced from the book) will be presented in three sections i.e. Guru Ramana I, II and III

Obeisance at the feet of Guru Bhagavan Ramana.

The basic theory

After Realisation all intellectual loads are useless burdens and are to be thrown overboard.

What use is the learning of those who do not seek to wipe out the letters of destiny (from their brow) by enquiring: ‘Whence is the birth of us who know the letters?’ They have sunk to the level of a gramophone. What else are they, O Arunachala? It is those who are not learned that are saved rather than those whose ego has not yet subsided in spite of their learning. The unlearned are saved from the relentless grip of the devil of self-infatuation; they are saved from the malady of a myriad whirling thoughts and words; they are saved from running after wealth. It is from more than one evil that they are saved.

The scriptures serve to indicate the existence of the Higher Power or Self and to point the way to It. That is their essential purpose. Apart from that they are useless. However, they are voluminous, in order to be adapted to the level of development of every seeker. As a man rises in the scale he finds the stages already attained to be only stepping stones to higher stages, until finally the goal is reached. When that happens, the goal alone remains and everything else, including the scriptures, becomes useless.

The intricate maze of philosophy of the various schools is said to clarify matters and to reveal the Truth, but in fact it creates confusion where none need exist. To understand anything there must be the Self. The Self is obvious, so why not remain as the Self? What need to explain the non-self?

Shankara also said that this world is Brahman or the Self. What he objected to is one’s imagining that the Self is limited by the names and forms that constitute the world. He only said that the world has no reality apart from Brahman. Brahman or the Self is like a cinema screen and the world like the pictures on it. You can see the picture only so long as there is a screen. But when the observer himself becomes the screen only the Self remains.

You see various scenes passing on a cinema screen: fire seems to burn buildings to ashes; water seems to wreck ships; but the screen on which the pictures are projected remains unburnt and dry. Why? Because the pictures are unreal and the screen real. Similarly, reflections pass through a mirror but it is not affected at all by their number or quality.

Then Bhagavan said: “The names and forms which constitute the world continually change and perish and are therefore called unreal. It is unreal (imaginary) to limit the Self to these names and forms and real to regard all as the Self. The non-dualist says that the world is unreal, but he also says, ‘All this is Brahman’. So it is clear that what he condemns is, regarding the world as objectively real in itself, not regarding it as Brahman. He who sees the Self sees the Self alone in the world also. It is immaterial to the Enlightened whether the world appears or not. In either case, his attention is turned to the Self. It is like the letters and the paper on which they are printed. You are so engrossed in the letters that you forget about the paper, but the Enlightened sees the paper as the substratum whether the letters appear on it or not.

The Vedantins do not say that the world is unreal. That is a misunderstanding. If they did, what would be the meaning of the Vedantic text: ‘All this is Brahman’?

The Vedas contain conflicting accounts of cosmogony. Ether is said to be the first creation in one place, vital energy in another, water in another, something else in another; how can all this be reconciled? Does it not impair the credibility of the Vedas? B.: Different seers saw different aspects of truth at different times, each emphasising some viewpoint. Why do you worry about their conflicting statements? The essential aim of the Vedas is to teach us the nature of the imperishable Self and show us that we are That.

D.: About that part I am satisfied.

B.: Then treat all the rest as auxiliary arguments or as expositions for the ignorant who want to know the origin of things.

Major Chadwick was copying out the English translation of the Tamil Kaivalya Navaneetha, when he came across some of the technical terms in it which he had difficulty in understanding. He accordingly asked Bhagavan about them, and Bhagavan replied. “These portions deal with theories of creation. They are not essential because the real purpose of the scriptures is not to set forth such theories. They mention the theories casually, so that those readers who wish to, may take interest in them. The truth is that the world appears as a passing shadow in a flood of light. Light is necessary even to see the shadow. The shadow is not worth any special study, analysis or discussion. The purpose of the book is to deal with the Self and what is said about creation may be omitted for the present.”

Later, Sri Bhagavan continued: “Vedanta says that the cosmos springs into view simultaneously with him who sees it and there is no detailed process of creation. It is similar to a dream where he who experiences the dream arises simultaneously with the dream he experiences. However, some people cling so fast to objective knowledge that they are not satisfied when told this. They want to know how sudden creation can be possible and argue that an effect must be preceded by a cause. In fact they desire an explanation of the world that they see about them.

Therefore the scriptures try to satisfy their curiosity by such theories. This method of dealing with the subject is called the theory of gradual creation, but the true spiritual seeker can be satisfied with instantaneous creation.”

The individual being which identifies its existence with that of the life in the physical body as ‘I’ is called the ego. The Self, which is pure Consciousness, has no ego-sense about it. Neither can the physical body, which is inert in itself, have this ego-sense. Between the two, that is between the Self or pure Consciousness and the inert physical body, there arises mysteriously the ego-sense or ‘I’ notion, the hybrid which is neither of them, and this flourishes as an individual being. This ego or individual being is at the root of all that is futile and undesirable in life. Therefore it is to be destroyed by any possible means; then That which ever is alone remains resplendent. This is Liberation or Enlightenment or Self-Realisation.

You must not mistake the ego or the bodily idea for the Self.

B.: The mind does have this sort of difficulty. It wants a fixed theory to satisfy itself with. Really, however, no theory is necessary for the man who seriously strives to approach God or his true Self. How do you recognise yourself now? Do you have to hold a mirror up in front of your self to recognise yourself? The awareness is itself the ‘I’. Realise it and that is the truth.

Exactly. The waking man says that he did not know anything in the state of deep sleep. Now he sees objects and knows that he exists but in deep sleep there were no objects and no spectator.

And yet the same person who is speaking now existed in deep sleep also. What is the difference between the two states? There are objects and the play of the senses now, while in deep sleep there were not. A new entity, the ego, has arisen. It acts through the senses, sees objects, confuses itself with the body and claims to be the Self. In reality, what was in deep sleep continues to be now also. The Self is changeless. It is the ego which has come between. That which rises and sets is the ego. That which remains changeless is the Self.

Waking, dream and sleep are mere phases of the mind, not of the Self. The Self is the witness of these three states. Your true nature exists in sleep.

It is stupor which you must guard against. That sleep which alternates with waking is not the true sleep. That waking which alternates with sleep is not the true waking. Are you awake now? No. What you have to do is to wake up to your true state.

You should neither fall into false sleep nor remain falsely awake.

Why raise questions of what happens after death? Why ask whether you were born, whether you are reaping the fruits of your past karma, and so on? You will not raise such questions in a little while when you fall asleep. Why? Are you a different person now from the one you are when asleep? No, you are not. Find out why such questions do not occur to you when you are asleep.

Continued : Guru Ramana II