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If one has form oneself, the world and God will also appear to have form, but if one is formless who is it that will see forms...Has anyone seen the world without the body..? Apart from the body does the world exist? Under whatever name and form one may worship the Absolute Reality. It is only a means of realizing it without a name and form.Is it not, rather, ignorance to know all else without knowing oneself, the knower? As soon as one knows the Self, ....knowledge and ignorance perish. If the first person, "I" exists, then the second and third persons, you and he, will also exist. ....the" I "perishes. With it "you" and "he" also perish. The resultant state, which shines as Absolute Being, is one's own natural state, the Self. He who sees the Self sees God. He who, having completely lost the ego, sees the Self, has found God, because the Self does not exist apart from God.The body does not say 'I'. No one will argue that even in deep sleep the 'I' ceases to exist. Once the 'I' emerges, all else emerges. |
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The teachings of Ramana Maharshi Mind is where thoughts stem from and yet after scrutiny one can conclude that apart from thoughts mind does not exist. In the wakeful and dreaming state thoughts are present.But in the deep sleep state, thoughts are not present and therefore the world is not present. There is no physical world independent of thought. The mind projects the world and by withdrawing the mind we may withdraw the world back into ourselves. When the mind is externalised the world is perceived and opposed to it when the mind is internalised the Self is perceived. The best way to internalise the mind is self- enquiry. Since
thoughts arise in the mind we can conclude that the ‘I’ thought in the
physical body arises in the mind too. If one takes it from there and investigates
one can perceive that the answer to all the questions of ‘Who am I’ and
the very thought ‘I’ itself arises from the heart of all. No thought can
arise without the ‘I’ and only after the ‘I’ can ‘You’ or ‘He’ come.Therefore
whenever a thought arises if one makes it a point to immediately investigate
and enquire as to ‘who am I’ or ‘who is thinking these thoughts’ the quest
for the ‘I’ will kill all other thoughts and the enquiry for the ‘I’ will
lead the mind inwards towards the heart. Ultimately this ‘I’ enquiry having
destroyed all other thoughts will destroy itself just as the stick used
to kindle a pyre will ultimately burn. When mind in this manner becomes absorbed in the heart the ‘ego’ of a man disappears giving way to pure consciousness or the Self. This state in the being is known as true wisdom and the Atman is the only reality. Everything else exists through it and by it.So long as tendencies continue to inhere the mind. It is necessary to continue this enquiry until all tendencies are completely annihilated. When thoughts occur they should be annihilated then and there in their place of origin by the method of enquiry. Meditation
and invocation are tools to make the mind one-pointed and gives the mind
something to hold on to. Regulation of Diet and eating Sattvic food and
in moderate quantities is important for the physical body. However sinful
a person might perceive himself to be, intead of crying that he is sinful
if he carries out this form of self enquiry he will surely be reformed.God
and Guru are not different, they are identical. Anybody who has earned
the grace of a guru shall undoubtedly be saved. The disciple should unswervingly
follow the path of the master Firm and disciplined inherence in the Atman, without giving rise to any other thought but contemplation on the Self, constitutes self-surrender to the Lord. Why suffer with confusion when we can depend on the infinte power. As the Maharshi aptly puts it, knowing the train would carry all the weight why should individual passengers carry their luggage on their laps.An unwise person is like the one who having enjoys the shade of a tree goes back into the scorching heat and fluctuates thus. His mind keeps fluctuating between the miseries of this world and the peace he enjoys with the Brahman. Liberation is to realise who am I in bondage and knowing thy true self. |
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