Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi on Self-Enquiry - 7

ॐ OAM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI RAMANAYA ॐ

Swarupa dhyana  & Swarupa-darshnam

[ Self-Attention &  Realisation of Self ]

“Although tendencies towards sense objects (vishayavasanas), which have been recurring down ages, rise in countless numbers like the waves of the ocean, they will all perish as Self-attention (Swarupa dhyana) becomes more and more intense. Without giving room even to the doubting thought, ‘Is it possible to destroy all these tendencies (vasanas) and to remain as Self alone?’, one should persistently cling fast to Self-attention. However greater a sinner one may be, if, not lamenting ‘Oh, I am a sinner! How can I attain Salvations?’ but completely giving up even the thought that one is a sinner, one is steadfast in Self-attention, one will surely be saved.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi in Who am I?

“ If the mind, which is the cause (and base) of all knowledge (all objective knowledge) and all action, subsides, the perceptions of the world  (jagatdrishti) will cease.  Just as the knowledge of the rope, which is the base, will not be obtained unless the knowledge of the snake, the superimposition, goes, so the realization of the Self (Swarupa-darshnam), which is the base, will not be obtained unless the perception of the world  (jagat-drishti),  which is a superimpositions, ceases.

-- Sri Ramana Maharshi in Who am I?

Sri Ramana Maharshi on Self - Enquiry: 6

ॐ OAM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI RAMANAYA ॐ

Devotee: How is one to realize the Self?
Bhagavan: Whose Self? Find out.
D: Mine, but, who am I?
Bhagavan: It is you who must find out.
D: I don’t know.
Bhagaan: Just think over the question. Who is that says: ‘I don’t know? Who is the ‘I’ in your statement? What is not known?
D: Somebody or something in me.
Bhagaan: Who is that somebody ? In whom?
D: Perhaps some power.
Bhagavan: Find out.
D: why was *I born?
Bhagavan: Who was born? The answer is the same to all your questions.
D: who I am I, then?
Bhagavan: (Smiling) have you come here to examine me? You must say who you are.
D: However much I try, I do not seem to catch the ‘I’. It is not even clearly discernible.
Bhagavan: Who is it that says the ‘I’ is not discernible? Are there two ‘I’s in you, that one is not discernible to the other?
D: Instead of enquiring: ‘Who am I? can I put the question to myself: ‘Who are you?’ so that my mind may be fixed on you whom I consider to be God in the form of the Guru? Perhaps I would come nearer to the goal of my quest by that enquiry than by asking myself: ‘Who am I?’

Bhagavan: Whatever form your enquiry may take, you must finally come to the one ‘I’, the Self. All these distinctions made between ‘I’ and ‘you’, master and disciple, are merely a sign of ignorance. The Supreme ‘I’ alone is. To think otherwise is to delude oneself.

Therefore, since your aim is to transcend here and now these superficialities of physical existence through self-enquiry, where is the scope for making the distinction of ‘you’ and ‘I’ which pertain only to the body? When you turn the mind inwards, seeking the source of thought, where is the ‘you and where is ‘I’? You should seek and be the Self that includes all.

D: But, isn’t it funny that ‘I’ should be searching for the ‘I’? Doesn’t the enquiry, ‘Who am I’ turn out in the end t be an empty formula? Or am I to put the question to myself endlessly, repeating it like some mantra?

Bhagavan: Self-enquiry is certainly not an empty formula; it is more than the repetition of any mantra. If the enquiry: ‘Who am I? were mental questioning, it would not be of much value. The very purpose of Self-enquiry is to focus the entire mind at its source. It is not, therefore, a case of ‘I’ searching for another ‘I’. Much less is Self-enquiry an empty formula, for it involves an intense activity of the entire mind to keep it steadily poised in pure Self –awareness. Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, to realize the unconditioned, absolute Being that you really are.

Maharshi’s Gospel, pp 35-38

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRvBOQ-R_i8

Sri Ramana Maharshi on SELF-ENQUIRY - 5

ॐ OAM NAMO BHAGAVATE SRI RAMANAYA ॐ

Lady: I begin by asking myself  ‘Who am I?’ and eliminate the body as not ‘I’.  the breath as not ‘I’,  the mind as not ‘I,  but then I am unable to proceed further.

Bhagavan: Well, that is all right so far as the mind goes. Your process is only mental. Actually all the scriptures mention this process only in order to guide the seeker to the Truth. The Truth cannot directly be indicated; that is why this mental process is used. You see, he who eliminates all that ‘not-I’ cannot eliminate the ‘I’. In order to be able to say ‘I am not this’ or’ I am That’, there must be the ‘I’ to say it. This ‘I’ is only the ego, or the ‘I’-thought.  After the rising up with this ‘I’ thought, all other thoughts arise. The ’I’-thought is therefore the root thought. If the root is pulled out, all the rest is uprooted at the same time. Therefore, seek the root.’I’; question yourself ‘Who am I?’; find out the source of the ‘I’.   Then all these problems will vanish and the pure Self alone will remain.

L: But how am I to do it?

Bhagavan: The ‘I’ is always there, whether in deep sleep, in dream or on the waking state. The one who sleeps is the same as the one who is now speaking. There is always the feeling of ‘I’. If it were not so you would have to deny your existence. But you do not. You say: “I am”. Find out who is.

from:Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi 197