#unchanging self

However much power one has, without your Grace will ego get annihilated? My Father, will your kind heart bestow on me the experience of the true supreme devotion? ~ Sri Sadhu Om

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Talk 399 (extracts from), 15th April, l937 

[...] As was already said, the purpose of the whole philosophy is to indicate the underlying Reality whether of the jagrat, svapna and sushupti states [waking, dreaming and deep sleep], or the individual souls, the world and God.

There are three outlooks possible:-

(1) The Vyavaharika: The man sees the world in all its variety, surmises the creator and believes in himself as the subject. All these are thus reduced to the three fundamentals, jagat, jiva and Isvara [world, individual soul and creator]. He learns the existence of the creator and tries to reach him in order to gain immortality. If one is thus released from bondage, there are all other individuals existing as before who should work out their own salvation. He more or less admits the One Reality underlying all these phenomena. The phenomena are due to the play of maya. Maya is the sakti of Isvara or the activity of Reality. Thus, existence of different souls, objects, etc., do not clash with the advaitic point of view.

(2) The Pratibhasika: The jagat, jiva and Isvara are all cognised by the seer only. They do not have any existence independent of him. So there is only one jiva, be it the individual or God. All else is simply a myth.

(3) The Paramarthika: i.e., ajata-vada (no-creation doctrine) which admits of no second. There is no reality or absence of it, no seeking or gaining, no bondage or liberation and so on. The question arises why then do all the sastras speak of the Lord as the creator? How can the creature that you are create the creator and argue that the jagat, jiva and Isvara are mental conceptions only?

The answer is as follows:-

You know that your father of this jagrat state is dead and that several years have elapsed since his death. However you see him in your dream and recognise him to be your father, of whom you were born and who has left patrimony to you. Here the creator is in the creature. Again, you dream that you are serving a king and that you are a part in the administrative wheel of the kingdom. As soon as you wake up all of them have disappeared leaving you, the single individual, behind. Where were they all? Only in yourself. The same analogy holds good in the other case also.

~ Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi

https://selfdefinition.org/ramana/Talks-with-Sri-Ramana-Maharshi--complete.pdf

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Talk 188. 13th March 1936

The essence of mind is only awareness or consciousness. When the ego, however, dominates it, it functions as the reasoning, thinking or sensing faculty. The cosmic mind being not limited by the ego, has nothing separate from itself and is therefore only aware. This is what the Bible means by “I am that I AM”.

The ego-ridden mind has its strength sapped and is too weak to resist the torturing thoughts. The egoless mind is happy in deep, dreamless sleep. Clearly therefore Bliss and misery are only modes of mind; but the weak mode is not easily interchangeable with the strong mode. Activity is weakness and consequently miserable; passivity is strength and therefore blissful. The dormant strength is not apparent and therefore not availed of.

The cosmic mind, manifesting in some rare being, is able to effect the linkage in others of the individual (weak) mind with the universal (strong) mind of the inner recess. Such a rare being is called the GURU or God in manifestation.

~ Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi (pdf)  

🕉️ Arunachala Shiva 🕉️ - Photo by  Bernd Kalidas Flory

Superimposition and its effacement

26. Master: The Vedanta as a whole mentions as the cause of bondage and release, superimposition [1] and its effacement [2], respectively. Bondage is caused by superimposition; release, by its effacement.

Now listen as regards the former.

27. Superimposition is seeing one thing in another: a snake, for instance, in a rope, a man in a post, water in a mirage, or a blue canopy in the empty sky.

28. Similarly, the five elements and their combinations seen in Brahman — which is free from name and form, one and the same without a second, self-conscious and perfect — are products of illusion.

...

Only he is a jnani who knows beyond doubt that all that is seen is only ephemeral like a dream.

Now, listen to the process of effacement of superimposition, the way to wonderful moksha (Liberation) which resembles the placid sky when all the clouds of winter clear away.

46. Just as one examines and finds out that this is not a snake but a rope, and this is not a thief but a thick post, so also one makes out beyond doubt, by the word of the Master and the light of the scriptures, that the body, the world and the elements are only Brahman, i.e., unchanging Consciousness. Know this to be the effacement of superimposition.

47. Cause and effect are the same, like cloth and yarn, ornaments and gold, utensils and clay. To resolve the body into its antecedent cause, until avidya (ignorance) is traced as the root-cause of all, is the method of effacing superimposition.

[1]  Aropa — erroneous knowledge, false attribution, or illusion.

[2]  Apavada

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ॐ

What is called happiness is only svarūpa [the ‘own form’ or actual nature] of ātmā [self]; 

Happiness and ātma-svarūpa [our own actual self] are not different.

Ātma-sukha [the happiness of self] alone exists; that alone is real. 

Happiness is not obtained from any of the objects of the world. We think that happiness is obtained from them because of our lack of discrimination. 

When [our] mind comes out, it experiences unhappiness. 

In truth, whenever our thoughts [or wishes] are fulfilled, it [our mind] turns back to its proper place [the core of our being, our real self, which is the source from which it arose] and experiences only the happiness of self. 

In the same way, at times of sleep, samādhi [a state of intense contemplation or absorption of mind] and fainting, and when a desired thing is obtained, and when termination occurs to a disliked thing [that is, when our mind avoids or is relieved from some experience that it dislikes], [our] mind becomes introverted and experiences only the happiness of self. 

In this way [our] mind wavers about without rest, going outwards leaving self, and [then] turning [back] inwards. 

At the foot of a tree the shade is delightful. Outside the heat of the sun is severe. A person who is wandering outside is cooled by going into the shade. Emerging outside after a short while, he is unable to bear the heat, so he again comes to the foot of the tree. In this way he continues, going from the shade into the sunshine, and going [back] from the sunshine into the shade. A person who acts in this manner is someone lacking in discrimination. But a person of discrimination will not leave the shade.

Similarly, the mind of a jñāni [a person of true self-knowledge] does not leave brahman [the fundamental and absolute reality, which is our own actual self and the sole substance of everything]. 

But the mind of an ajñāni [a person lacking true self-knowledge] continues to undergo misery by roaming about in the world, and to obtain happiness by returning to brahman for a short while. 

What is called the world is only thought [because like the ‘world’ that we experience in a dream, all that we experience as the ‘world’ in this waking state is nothing but a series of mental images, ideas or thoughts that we have formed in our mind by our power of imagination]. 

When the world disappears, that is, when thought ceases, [our] mind experiences happiness; when the world appears, it experiences unhappiness.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi - WHO AM I?, Paragraph Fourteen

ॐ

Just as in the mere presence of the sun, which rose without icchā [wish, desire or liking], saṁkalpa [volition or intention] [or] yatna [effort or exertion], a sun-stone [sūryakānta, a gem that is supposed to emit fire or heat when exposed to the sun] emitting fire, a lotus blossoming, water evaporating, and people of the world commencing [or becoming engaged in] their respective kāryas activities, doing [those kāryas] and ceasing [or subsiding], and [just like] in front of a magnet a needle moving,  jīvas [sentient beings], who are subject to [or ensnared in] muttoṙil [the threefold function of God, namely the creation, sustenance and dissolution of the world] or pañcakṛtyas [the five functions of God, namely creation, sustenance, dissolution, concealment and grace], which happen by just [or nothing more than] the special nature of the presence of God, who is saṁkalpa rahitar [one who is devoid of any volition or intention], move [exert or engage in activity] and subside [cease being active, become still or sleep] in accordance with their respective karmas [that is, in accordance not only with their prārabdha karma or destiny, which impels them to do whatever actions are necessary in order for them to experience all the pleasant and unpleasant things that they are destined to experience, but also with their karma-vāsanās, their inclinations to think, speak and act in particular ways, which dispose them to make effort to experience pleasant things and to avoid experiencing unpleasant things]. 

Nevertheless, he [God] is not saṁkalpa sahitar [one who is connected with or possesses any volition or intention]; even one karma does not adhere to him [that is, he is not bound or affected by any karma or action whatsoever]. That is like world-actions [the actions happening here on earth] not adhering to [or affecting] the sun, and [like] the qualities and defects of the other four elements [earth, water, air and fire] not adhering to the all-pervading space.

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi - WHO AM I?, Paragraph Fifteen