HUNTING THE ‘I’
according to
Sri Ramana Maharshi
By
LUCY CORNELSSEN
IV
THE VOICE OF NATURE
..... to think is not your real nature.
(Talks 184).
THE BIRTH OF MAN
The natural history of man is a register of facts and their
interpretation in the form of theories. The seeker after the truth
of himself is not interested in discussions about the latter. He
clings to facts and takes the liberty of interpreting them
according to his own light.
We take for granted the statement of the rishis of ancient
India that before anything else was, there was Absolute
Consciousness. It is in and beyond everything that is, and will
be, when everything else has disappeared. We consider as the
biological means of contact between that Absolute Consciousness
and living beings their brain and nervous system whose
development means a growing capacity of partaking more and
more of that Absolute Consciousness.
We also agree with the statement of natural science that
man as a biological phenomenon, having gone through many
previous steps, is now at the highest rung of the scale of animal
life.
But where, in the course of his ‘evolution’, is the moment
when he left the line of his animal ancestors to become human?
It seems that natural science has never found an adequate
answer to this question. To the scientist, man is still merely a
mammal, as all his highly developed ‘human’ capacities can be
retraced to his animal heritage, the difference being only one of
degree. As natural science teaches, animal life in its earliest stage
is completely ruled by instinct, an inborn mechanism of reaction
regulating its primitive needs and activities. Living by instinct
alone implies that the creature has no consciousness either of
himself or of its surroundings. Still there is the taking in of food,
there is procreation, both of which grant without doubt even in
this earliest stage a sense of satisfaction, which must be felt
consciously...or not at all! Thus ‘feeling’ is the first stirring of
‘consciousness’ within that simple network of nerves which
precedes the genesis of the brain in higher forms of life. Moreover,
these same most primitive living beings do not take in all and
everything for food, but seen to choose. Thus there must be a
sense of dim discrimination even in their instinct. Is not
‘discriminating and choosing’ the basic feature of ‘thinking’, kept
up even to the highest stage of scientific and technical thinking?
The last of the faculties latent in the stage of instinct
behaviour is the will, being nothing else than the inborn urge
for acting. As urge it is pure instinct, which means unconscious
to the creature; when it becomes conscious, it is ‘will’.
By the application of feeling, thinking and acting during
numberless ages, those earliest forms of life developed that brain
and nervous system meant to be the biological mechanism of
conscious reacting. But we can find no definite borderline
between human and animal life, neither physically,
physiologically nor in their ways of behaving, not even in his
faculty of ESP, extra sensory perception, since this too shows
itself clearly in animals, where it has been the object of
experimental examination.
Let us drop these strange facts for the time being and start
anew from another angle. We jump to the rich magic culture of
the Ice Age, dated about 50,000 years back. The way of life is
still the same as millions of years before...the tribesmen are
hunters and fishers, their wives collect wild fruits and vegetables.
But there is something more. Only recently, in the beginning
of the 20th century, huge natural underground caves were
discovered accidentally in Spain and France. The walls of these
caves are covered with the most wonderful drawings of the wild
animals of that time, 50,000 years back, bears and stags wild
horses and bison. All of them are hit by arrows or boomerang,
and in some places there are men hunting them. Evidently these
pictures...thousands of them in more than a hundred
caves...represent the amazing artistic skill of the magicians of
hunting tribes, with the purpose of conjuring up success for
planned hunting trips.
But for whom was the magician summoning up, not only
by his paintings but also by his magic dance, the footprints of
which are still to be seen where there is mudground in the deep
recesses of some of these natural caves?
These marvellous pictures represent the correspondence
of the living with their deceased, with the purpose of asking for
hunting assistance. The people of the Ice age considered those
big caves as the dwelling realm, the ‘Hades’, of their deceased.
Here we touch the thread which will lead us back to a
widely disputed problem, the origin of religion.
To find the answer, we have to go backwards another 50,000
years. Those people of the European Ice Age are considered as
the immediate ancestors of the present whiteskin race. There were
other types of primitive men before them. The latest of them,
about 50,000 years before the Ice Age, was called the Neandertalman,
after the spot in Germany, where the first skeleton of his
kind was discovered. It is known that he was already acquainted
with the use of fire and that he buried his dead. This last fact
seemed to allow the conclusion that he already had some ideas
about ‘religion’, in the form of a life after death, particularly
because there were found in the burialplaces food-stuffs, weapons
and other ‘personal’ belongings of the deceased.
However, we cannot accept this conclusion, when we hold
on to the leading idea, that the ‘evolution’ of man means
evolution of his consciousness.
Man as a biological phenomenon belongs without doubt
to the species of mammals. Like all other higher animals, man
was quite conscious about almost everything related to his
material needs and his environment, in short, the conditions
for his survival. He felt sure in his primitive life, because he felt
himself able to deal with all possible material situation.
But there was one problem which he was unable to solve,
which left him helpless and stunned, the problem of the deceased.
Because to him they were not dead. They returned regularly to
life in his dreams. They spoke to him and moved about; they
demanded things or even threatened.
These early tribesmen did not discriminate distinctly
between their dreams and their waking-states, as missionaries
know who have worked among contemporary tribesmen, and
as mothers know about their small children.
The experience of the return of the ‘living dead’ was the
first problem which the man of Neandertal and others of his
state of development could not solve. They responded with dread
and fear, and they reacted as they did to all and every challenge
to their existence, in the most practical way, they removed the
dead out of sight. To prevent their return they let them have
with them all those things which might have prompted them to
return, and in some cases the skeletons have been found fettered
hand and foot.
Here the consciousness of early man, which was still that
of an animal, touched for the first time a world ‘beyond’, though
it was merely beyond his intellectual understanding.
The ‘magic culture’ of the Ice Age is the first stage of further
development of consciousness due to this situation. The men
of this later period dared to face the ‘fact’ of the ‘living dead’
and to use them for practical purposes.
By practising this kind of relationship with the ‘beyond’,
the magician of these groups of tribesmen developed at the same
time their own sensitivity to other invisible powers and presences,
which means their ESP (extra sensory perception). Some 20,000
years more, we find that they had left the ‘Hades’ of the deceased,
the big natural caves, and painted their magical pictures on any
prominent rocks or hillsides. That can mean that they no longer
relied only on the spirits of the dead, but that they had become
conscious of the presence of other powerful spirits, too...in hills
and trees and stones, in rivers and certain plants.
Natural science has called this period ‘Animism’, which
means ‘imparting conscious life’ (to nature).
To restate briefly the facts:
For millions of years, the consciousness of human beings
functioned merely in sensory perceptions and in reacting to them
in the same primitive ways as did the mammals, along the lines of
their physical needs. As the first sign of something else, we noticed
that they started to bury their deceased, due to a fear of something
which was beyond their control... the dream... phantoms of the
dead. Really it was a reaction to some ESP, hinting at a certain
expansion of their field of consciousness. That developed rather
quickly, compared with the slow, pace before, into the broad
‘magic’ culture, when man, or atleast a certain type of man
attained to some control over this phenomenon. By further
expansion this led to the period of Animism.
Though this world of spirits and powers was certainly to
him a very ‘real’ beyond, though he feared and shunned it, he
was not too much concerned about it, because it was still the
domain of the magician only. The magician was the man
appointed to deal with this ‘beyond’ on behalf of the group, for
even among these otherwise rather advanced tribesmen nobody
was as yet clearly conscious of himself as an individual. Everyone
felt himself... and this also only as a person among and related to
other persons. He had a certain idea about himself as ‘this’ body
with ‘that’ name and such and such a position within the group...
but there was no definite feeling of ‘I’ in him. We can observe this
state of consciousness in those few tribes of aborigines who are
still living in some remote corners or reservations of this globe.
The next step of development is rather surprising. After the
period of Animism declined, there followed a short transitional
period of agriculture before an outburst of highly advanced urban
civilizations in many parts of the world, for example, in Egypt,
in Sumer and Akkad, in the Indus Valley! All this within a few
centuries, after millions and millions of years.
What has happened?
The brain and nervous system of the species ‘man’, the
organ of his contact with Absolute Consciousness, had become
ready for the experience of Identity. He discovered a genuine
reflexive feeling of a real ‘I’.
With this event man left the line of his animal ancestors.
This was ‘the Birth of Man’, no animal knows itself as ‘I’.
Millions of years man had existed as one creature, among
all others out of what his surroundings had granted him. Now
he separated himself as ‘I’ from all and everything else as ‘not-I’
in order to rule over it. Demanding more and more from it,
insatiable, he was a changed being, that would change his world,
finally to what it is now.
Of course, this could not have been a matter of a certain
date in history. It took a period of several centuries, as we
mentioned already, during the so-called Stone Age.
When it happened the first time that one of these
tribesmen of the Stone Age became conscious of his real
‘I’, it might have happened to one of the magicians, because
they were certainly always among the most advanced ones
in intelligence and more still in their knowledge of the
world of extra sensory experience. However, in the course
of those centuries, more and more of the group members
got this knowledge of their real Identity spontaneously,
because the brain and nervous system of these people of
the Stone Age were ready. Nevertheless, what actually
happened was strange.
There was the experience of a powerful mysterious genuine
‘I’ within... timeless, spaceless.
But that arose within a consciousness that until then had
been occupied by a lot of objects and ideas, by feelings and
thoughts, and dominated by a concept of the ‘person’ and his
dread of the unknown beyond. We have no evidence whether
there were then and there any who confronted the new
experience as the boy Venkataraman did and accepted it as it is.
We know only the result... a new kind of man, who had split
that experience. They covered up the mysterious real ‘I’ with
their ‘person’ and pushed the extra sensory character of the whole
into the beyond, as ‘God’.
Thus the Birth of Man happened in the shape of ‘Man
and his Religion’. The outer evidence of that is that all those
early contemporary great urban civilizations were theocracies,
governments based on religions, temples and priestcraft!
Nevertheless all this is not yet the whole of the story. Among
those who got blessed with the new experience in the course of
those centuries, there were some who did not cover up as
completely as others the real ‘I’ with their ‘person’. The veil,
which they too put between the pure consciousness of Identity
and their personal relative consciousness remained transparent,
as it were. They tried quietly to analyze the experience; they
discovered conditions by which it became possible to repeat it
deliberately. They found out a state of mind which was not any
more thinking, but being silently aware. Thus they were able to
retrace the adulteration and to return to the source of the
experience and recognise it as That which is.
There are documents about this available already from the
third millennium B.C. in Egypt, testifying to the inner
development side by side with the birth of civilizations. Thus
we get from the beginning two parallel lines of further
development of man: the extroverts, collectively creating,
sustaining and destroying one civilization after the other, and on
the other side the introverts, the saints and sages, who lived their
quiet and unobtrusive lives as timeless models testifying to the
path of the individual to his highest destination.
While the names of kings and conquerors, of scholars and
priests are sunk in oblivion, the ‘evolution’ of Consciousness
continued its development in the shape of Wisdom and Love.
About the year 1000 B.C. the Wisdom of the Beyond exploded
in the great Scriptures of the cultures that were flourishing at
that time... the Vedas in India, the Bible in Asia minor, the
I Ching in China.
About 500 years later there appear within a short period
the Master souls, teaching the Truth of man: the Buddha
Sakyamuni in India, Confucius and Lao Tse, soon followed by
Chuang Tse in China, Zarathustra in Persia, the forerunners of
Socrates in Greece. Should not the strikingly simultaneous events
in that 6th and 5th century B.C. point to the fact that this was a
kind of zenith in the ‘evolution’ of man?
500 Years later appeared Jesus Christ, another 500 years
later Mohammed, while after another 500 years there followed
a glowing sunset, as it were. There was a glorious outburst of
the highest mysticism in Christianity as well as in Islam. Master
souls taught the Great Experience in Zen Buddhism. The same
Truth was expounded as Advaita-Vedanta in Hinduism.
Since then almost 1000 years passed by without any event
of a similar spiritual value. Does it mean definite spiritual decline?
Let us take it rather as a hint that the time of organised,
even of a collective form of, worship has run out. As we shall
show presently, in contemporary mankind each individual is
called upon to face the beyond within himself, without priest,
without church and ceremonies, simply in his own nature...
and all alone. The way he responds to the challenge decides the
happiness or misery of his further life.
I AND GOD
When Darwin published ‘The Origin of Species’ (1859)
and the passionate discussions about it were at their height, the
most important support for his shocking theories about this
‘biological evolution’ came from a quite unexpected scientific
quarter, the field of embryology. Scientists of that branch
discovered that it is difficult to discriminate whether a threemonths’
embryo is that of a man, a dog or a bat. Later on a
human foetus shows the disposition to develop gills like a fish,
still later a tail and the growth of hair all over the body like an
ape.
These amazing facts compelled natural scientists to the
conclusion that the development of the human foetus in the
womb was repeating exactly the development of the human
race as a whole. The German scientist Haeckel formulated the
fact as a ‘Biogenetic basic Law’ (Biogenetisches Grund gesetz):
‘The biological development of the individual repeats the
biological development of the species’. The discovery proved
almost as sensational as Darwin’s.
Of course, scientists started immediately to follow the
surprising parallel further on beyond the birth of the child. But
they were disappointed; there seemed to be no continuation.
Accordingly they dropped the sensational theory of a
‘recapitulation’, though of course the facts of the prenatal states
remained as did the ‘biological basic law’ too, though since then
in a limited form.
Actually, the interesting parallel does not at all stop at birth.
The cause of the failure to perceive it was a wrong application of
the time-factor. Since we have developed in the 20th century a
special psychology of the child, we can now see very clear hints in
the child’s behaviour parallel to the stages of race-development.
There are distinct features related to the faculties and behaviour
of earliest tribes, and later on to those of the Ice Age and those of
the Stone Age. We can clearly see that the infant is not conscious of
a genuine ‘I’. When it talks about itself it uses its own name: its
toy is not ‘my’ toy, but ‘Ganesh’s’ toy, ‘John’s’ toy. When it starts
to use ‘I’ and ‘mine’ this means no genuine ‘I’-feeling; the child
has merely learnt to imitate a use of language by the adults, that
everybody points to himself as ‘I’.
At any case, since the most sensational step in the
development of the human race was the revelation of the true
Identity of man, the parallel event in the biological development
of the individual must show itself convincingly, if the theory of
recapitulation is to be proved valid.
It does. Just as in the history of the tribesmen the experience
of the genuine reflexive ‘I’ happened of its own, when brain
and nervous system were ready for it, just so it turns up exactly
at the time of the biological maturity of the individual... during
puberty and adolescence.
It is a serious mistake to ascribe the unstable mental and
psychological balance in the particular period to the
psychological condition alone. Much more powerful is the claim
of the beyond, which is going to penetrate the consciousness of
the individual with another dimension, namely with turiya, the
experience of the awakening of the individual to its true nature.
There need not be a problem at all in the situation; it could be
a most wonderful high time, if we would only know what is
going to happen. The other young people too would respond
to the hidden challenge as young Venkataraman did. In his
case, the great event forced itself on him in a rather violent
form, as Death-experience, since he too was in no way prepared
for it. This has happened to other mystics, too, but it is not
inevitable, as it is a natural event, which may happen quite
undramatically where there is no resistance.
Since we do not know about this great gift which nature
has in store for the time of biological maturity, those of each
growing generation of children are left to themselves to fill
their consciousness with concepts and ideas of themselves as
‘persons’ as with all sorts of desires, fears, anxieties and so-called
general knowledge. When the brain and nervous system are
biologically ready to respond to the most wonderful challenge
of life, the petty individual consciousness is occupied otherwise.
It resists, though unconsciously.
This is the higher, the real problem of puberty.
Unconsciously young people themselves give evidence of
this situation. It is exactly the age in which man is most interested
in understanding the meaning of life and world and his position
in it, and in many cases still in the form of ‘I and God’... just
because his is the inner situation of the tribesmen of the Stone
Age, immediately before the great change of consciousness.
Luckily in missing this chance of being transformed into
the real Man he is not missing it for ever.
Let us return for the last time to the mysterious parallel
between the development of the collective and that of the
individual.
On his way through millions of years, the ‘animal’ man
first developed his emotional capacities, and later on his thinking
faculty and his will along with his extra sensory perceptions. The
revelation of his genuine reflexive ‘I’ had been the last event,
the zenith of his ‘evolution’, his awakening from his ‘dream’ of
animal life to his reality as a human being.
In the parallel line the newborn individual, during his
prenatal nine months’ development had gone through an
indefinite amount of millions of years. After being born, it
belongs still for a short period to the stage of instinct-life: it
shows ‘feeling’ only in the shape of bodily contentment or
discontent. After a few weeks it displays early sense perceptions,
and a little later it begins to ‘discriminate and choose’, practising
thus the basic features of ‘thought’. In its third year it gets
‘obstinate’, which only means that its natural urge for activity
has become conscious as ‘will’. Thus childhood up to maturity
is the period in which the individual develops its functions of
feeling, thinking and willing. However this ‘evolution’ is a sheer
biological one, as unconscious as the ‘evolution’ of the race has
been, and completely directed by the organic development of
brain and nervous system.
The crowning event of this strictly ‘biological evolution’ is
in both lines; the tribal and the individual, the awakening of the
genuine reflexive feeling of ‘I’, the knowledge of the true Self. In
both cases this ‘purpose’ of evolution seems to have gone astray.
To be more exact, the experience has remained incomplete. The
real ‘I’ did not ‘break through’, but generally only managed to
‘sink in’. It mixed up with the ‘personal I’ to produce that kind of
hybrid, that queer knot between true and false, which is still
considered the ‘real’ centre of the personality of Mr. Everybody.
How could that happen?
Well, it is obviously neither accidental nor a mistake, but
an inevitable interstate, the reservoir of the two main-forms of
human existence on this planet... the raising and destroying of
civilisations by the collective extroverts, and within their frame
the silent and lonesome journey of the introvert individual to
the Great Experience of man’s highest Truth.
However, with this generally incomplete biological
‘crowning event’, the mysterious parallel between the collective
and the individual evolution has not yet reached its end. To
elucidate the further lines of collective evolution would take us
far away, and it can be dropped, since the accent of this treatise
is on the individual.
Although the ‘breakthrough’ of the mature individual
consciousness into the new dimension of turiya seems to be
meant, it is undoubtedly not the rule but the exception. The
rule is the ‘knot’ between the ‘real’ and the ‘false’ I, between the
newly gained reflexive consciousness and the biological
‘unconsciousness’ of the past childhood.
What follows is a second recapitulation of ‘evolution’, a
repetition of the pattern, but it should be lived this time in the
full light of conscious awareness of what happens. After puberty
and adolescence have settled, there follows a period of about
one decade between 25 and 35 in which emotional life is
predominant in the individual. It is the time of matrimonial
and family happiness. During the next decade, between 35 and
45, interests amplify, views and aims expand. The intellect, the
thinking mind, takes over.
At the end of the first recapitulation, there waited the
‘crowning event’, the birth of reflexive consciousness, but even
when it was recognised, as by introverts, it was usually not at
once permanent. This second recapitulation should be lived and
experienced in order to stabilize the newly discovered reflexive
consciousness. This is the true meaning of life ‘in the world’.
When this is truly seen and done, man reaches at that age
a second stage of maturity. When this is followed up in the
proper spirit, then it will grant him the fulfilment of That, of
which the change in his consciousness of puberty was the spiritual
promise... the Great Experience of his true nature. But this time
it will be complete.
Such is the teaching of the Voice of Nature. It is still the
same teaching which was granted as intuition to the sages of
ancient India, who gave it the shape of the asramas (stages of life).
The facts have been discovered and registered by natural
science of the 19th and 20th centuries; the interpretation is
ours... the intuition of those, who witnessed the life of Ramana,
the Lone Star of Arunachala, the embodiment of this wonderful
Saga of the true Man.
V
AWAKENING
Vichara, investigation, is the process and the goal also.
‘I am’ is the goal and the final Reality. To hold on to it
with effort is Vichara. When spontaneous and natural it
is Realisation.
(Talks, 390).
RETURN TO THE SOURCE
Indian spiritual tradition teaches four ways of approach to
the great Awakening, called Self-Realisation. These approaches
are not only different, but even seem contradictory: Jnanamarga
(the path of knowledge), bhakti-marga (the path of
devotion), karma-marga (the path of action), and yoga-marga
(the path of re-union). Appearance is deceptive here. Not only
is there no contradiction, but they actually have to be practised
side by side to serve their purpose, as will be shown.
Yoga-marga has practically no place in the teaching of
Ramana Maharshi, though he knew it well and did not deny its
usefulness. He considered the yogic techniques for sadhana as a
round-about way.
Some visitor asked: “Is a jnani different from a yogi?”
The answer: “Srimad Bhagavad Gita says that a jnani is
the true yogi and also the true bhakta. Yoga is only a sadhana
and jnana is the siddhi.”
Question: “Is yoga necessary?”
“It is a sadhana. It will not be necessary after jnana is
attained. All the sadhanas are called yogas, e.g., Karma yoga,
Bhakti yoga, Jnana yoga, Ashtanga yoga. What is yoga? Yoga
means ‘union’. Yoga is possible only when there is viyoga
(separation). The person is now under the delusion of viyoga.
This delusion must be removed. The method of removing it is
called yoga.”
Question: “Which method is the best?”
“It depends upon the temperament of the individual. Every
person is born with the vasanas of past lives. One of these
methods will be found easy for one person and another method
for another. There is no definiteness about it”. (Talks, 580).
In fact yoga as well as bhakti, or Love, presupposes ‘two’... one,
who is practising, to attain the other, God or Self. Jnana-marga on
the other hand starts with the knowledge of the goal... there is only
One without any other. Hence the seeming contradiction among
the paths, the stress which is laid by some Advaita-Vedantins on the
fact, that Ramana Maharshi was a strict jnani. He was, but he was
not at all exclusive concerning the sadhana, as will be seen.
Jnana (Knowledge) is the term for both, the way of practice
and the goal, the final awakening to the Truth. Knowledge... of
what? Is not dvaita, two, subject and object implied here also?
Already here, in the beginning, one has to beware against
a pitfall. In the case of jnana, Knowledge does not mean
‘something’, in this case to know is it be. The Knowledge of the
Self does not ‘belong’ to some ‘I’ as ‘my’ knowledge; it is pure
Awareness, aware only of itself.
How can we get at It? ‘By adopting our philosophy’, replies
the strict Advaitin.
But philosophy is only of the mind. If you give yourself
up to the study of Advaita-Vedanta, you may convince your
intellect of its logical correctness. But this knowledge is not jnana.
It is the result of the thinking mind; jnana is the Truth revealed,
when the mind has stopped thinking. Thus, if the philosophy of
Advaita does not satisfy you, don’t worry. The true jnana-sadhana
is ‘hunting the I’ until you reach the mysterious ‘I am that I am’
by which the Supreme Power revealed Itself to Moses. (Exodus
3, verse 14.) This method was already known to the ancient
sages, but later neglected. Ramana Maharshi did not pick it up
at random. When he awoke in his Great Experience to the real
‘I’, the Self, he recognised once and for all that ‘personal I’,
belongs to another dimension of consciousness than the true I. He
also recognised that to find its source and hold on the wrong ‘I’
was the way to get beyond this relative consciousness into the
pure Awareness of turiya, that Knowledge which is Be-ing.
Some important details of the sadhana for this have been
treated in a previous chapter.
In the quotation mentioned above, Ramana Maharshi
pointed at the fact that the different methods of sadhana are
meant for the different temperaments of individuals. Though
brain and nervous system, our biological reaction mechanism,
are basically the same for all, there are slight differences in the
way that thinking, feeling and activity are balanced among
themselves. Some people are of an emotional type; in others
intellectual tendencies are predominant; still others find
satisfaction only in activity.
As soon as somebody is attracted by the idea of spiritualizing
his way of life, he will choose the method of his sadhana
accordingly. The intellectual will prefer jnana-marga, the
emotionally inclined will take to bhakti-marga, the active person
to karma-marga.
However, as has been shown with jnana, the matter is not
as simple as it seems. Just as the Knowledge of jnana is not
intellectual knowledge, so the love of the bhakta to a deity is
‘his’ love in the beginning. The work or karma of the active
person in the course of his sadhana is also no longer ‘his’ work.
Just as the jnani has to transcend himself, so have the bhakta
and the karmi, because it is not the ‘personal I’ that succeeds in
the end. Though it starts on the great adventure, it does so only
to get lost during the journey.
Still there is no harm in starting accordingly to one’s liking.
What matters is to start at all, and that seems only to be intended
by the ‘person’. Actually it is prompted already by the Inner
Guide, the Self, which will go with you up to the Goal, because
It is the Goal.
Thus the bhakta, the emotional sadhaka, starts with his
love for his chosen deity. He is seldom interested in the Self,
because there is no concept of the Self. ‘It is as It is...’ How can
you love such ‘something’? He wants some body to love, and
Hinduism has many lovable deities. He is free to choose the
child Krishna, to be caressed and pampered and looked after,
or the young cowherdboy, to passionately adore him as did the
Gopis; he may take refuge from the toil and suffering of life in
his love of Devi, the Mother of the Universe, or throw himself
at the Feet of Siva-Mahadev. He may approach his Beloved as
servant, as lover or as friend: he will be happy in the experience
that he is accepted.
But one day or other... what is Time to the Gods?... his
Ishta devata will meet him in the shape of man... the Guru,...
asking: ‘What kind of love are you offering and to whom? Isn’t
it you who enjoy your love? You think you surrendered yourself
to the Lord. Who then is there now to ‘love’ Him?
“Surrender consists in giving up oneself and one’s
possessions to the Lord of mercy. Then what is left for the man?
Nothing... neither himself nor his possessions. The body liable
to be born and to die having been made over to the Lord, the
man need no longer worry himself about it. Then birth and
death cannot strike terror. The cause of fear was the body; it is
no longer his; why should he fear now? Or where is the identity
of the individual to be frightened?
“Thus the Self is realised and Bliss results. This is then the
subject-matter: freedom from misery and gain of Happiness.
This is the highest good to be gained. Surrender is synonymous
with Bliss itself. This is the relationship.” (Talks, 567).
To a devotee who hankered after a vision of the Beloved:
“Surrender to Him and abide by His will whether He
appears or vanishes; await His pleasure. If you ask Him to do as
you please, it is not surrender but command to Him. You cannot
have Him obey you and yet think that you have surrendered.
He knows what is best and when and how to do it. Leave
everything entirely to Him. His is the burden; you have no
longer any cares. All your cares are His. Such is surrender. This
is bhakti.” (Talks, 450).
What actually happens is this: The sadhana of the bhakta
consists in holding on to the Presence of his Ishta Devata, his
chosen God. To feel this Presence at all times and under all
circumstances is his happiness, in which he finally loses his selfconscious,
personal I. What remains is Love, and so ‘Love is God’.
His mind is no longer ‘mind’, but has become his ‘Love’, which
is Ananda, the bliss-aspect of the final Satchidananda, the Bliss
of the Awareness of pure Be-ing.
The term ‘karma’ demands some definition. Carried over
from ancient times, it originally meant a path of ritual worship.
This is certainly also a working sadhana, akin to the bhaktipath,
though without the passionate feeling connected with that.
However, other meanings of the term have now overgrown the
original one. A very important meaning of karma denotes the
connection of cause and effect, with regard to the hypothesis of
rebirth. In our present context, we use still another meaning,
namely ‘activity’, or work in the general sense.
Now the person who can be termed as predominantly of
an active character is usually not particularly interested in spiritual
matters; he will be rather extroverted, turned without. However,
in a broader sense, everybody has to be active be it for his
maintenance and that of his family, be it even only to keep his
body alive and going, as with a saint or a sage. This activity can
become a serious obstacle in the spiritual path of the jnani as
well as of the bhakta.
“The difficulty with karma arises when the man thinks
that he is the doer. This is the mistake. It is the Higher Power
which is behind everything and 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 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 own 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, 62).
“Actions form no bondage. Bondage is only the false notion
‘I am the doer’. Leave off such thoughts and let the body and
senses play their role unimpeded by your interference.” (Talks, 46).
“The feeling ‘I work’ is the hindrance. Enquire, ‘Who
works?’ Remember, ‘Who am I?’ The work will not bind you.
It will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to
renounce work. Your effort is the bondage. What is bound to
happen, will happen.
“If you are destined to cease working, work cannot be had
even if you hunt for it. If you are destined to work, you cannot
leave it; you will be forced to engage in it. So leave it to the
Higher Power. You cannot renounce or hold as you choose.”
(Talks, 286).
In analyzing the quotations, it becomes clear that the
hindrance which karma may put up is not the work in itself,
but the attitude towards it, the self-will behind it.
The will is the third aspect of our biological reaction
mechanism and the strongest element in the ‘personal I’. Karma
marga, performed as the attempt to renounce self-will, is a
powerful means to overcome it, provided it does not take the
shape of resistance. For resistance is just the way to strengthen
the ego-I. ‘Who is it that resists?’
So how should we act?
Most work is done with some purpose in view, either for
oneself or for somebody or something else. Srimad Bhagavad
Gita, considered by many as the scripture in the praise of action,
says in Chap. II, Verse 47:
‘Your concern is only with action, not with its fruit. Be not
motivated by the fruits of actions, but do not cling either to
inaction.’
The fact is that there is no ‘personal’ actor at all. Action
calls for re-action, which means that further action will go on
without ‘my’ or ‘your’ intention, as it did ages ago during our
instinct-period.
Thus the goal of the karma yogi is to realise that the
meaning of life is not ‘to do’, but ‘to be’... pure Be-ing, and
It will be revealed to him in the same Great Experience as in
the case of others following the jnana-marga and bhaktimarga.
Ramana Maharshi used the illustration of ‘acting as the
actor on the stage’: he plays his part in full attention, devoting
his whole capacity to the task in hand, but knowing all the
while that he is not the king or the beggar of his role, but
somebody else.
We too have to be aware that as the ‘person’ we have to act
our part on the stage of life, remembering all the time our true
nature as pure Be-ing, the Self.
Going beyond thinking by jnana, beyond feeling by bhakti,
beyond self-willed action by karma marga means going beyond
that ‘I’ which was from the very beginning, the birth of a genuine
reflexive Identity, a ‘wrong I’; it means nothing more or less
than returning to the Source of Pure Consciousness. Thereafter...
“Your efforts can extend only thus far. Then the Beyond
will take care of Itself. You are helpless there. No effort can
reach It.” (Talks, 197).
Here finally we meet the Great Experience of Ramana,
the Maharshi, in Its second aspect, as the pure Power of the
Beyond, Sakti. “Some force, call it atmic power or anything else
rose within me and took possession of me. I became a new
man.” (Day by Day, 22.11.45).
‘I’ and ‘God’ melted again into the One without a second
that they always had been, beyond name and form, time and
space... the divine mystery of Man.
To get this experience we have to transcend the biological
status of the ‘thinking mammal’, which alone we are, according
to the teachings of our natural sciences. And inadvertently they
help to keep us bound by this status, because only by this deep
ignorance about our true Nature are we blind towards those
negative ways in which we are misused by our ‘worldly’ civilisation.
However, there are ancient teachings in almost all traditions
which talk of the true man and that his deepest nature is divine.
And there are men like Ramana Maharshi who live their lives
not as the biological phenomenon only, which they too are by
birth, but as their divine Reality.
Let us not speculate about the future, as to whether or not
there will be a change for the better in the desolate conditions
of the present world-civilization. For the time being there seems
to be no way out of the disaster. At least we do not see any.
Who sees?
We do not know. We know naught but one thing... the
gentle divine Voice deep in the recesses of our heart, asking us
to return to the Source. It tells us that It is our own Voice,
calling us out of a stage of consciousness which degenerated
into crowded thinking, distorted feeling and feverish activity,
calling us out of our biological dream of waking, dreaming and
deep sleep into turiya, Absolute Consciousness, there to find
our real, our divine Nature of Satchidananda, the pure Be-ing
(sat), blissfully (ananda) aware (chit) only of Itself.
Another dream of weakling who dare not face the abyss of
the absolute naught?
Who cares? We met Ramana, the Maharshi, the sage of
Arunachala, the embodiment of the wonderful Saga of the true
Man!
THUS SPAKE RAMANA
You see, the one eliminates all the not I cannot eliminate
the ‘I’. To say ‘I am not this’ or ‘I am that’ there must be the ‘I’.
This ‘I’ is only the ego or the ‘I’-thought. After the rising up of
this ‘I’-thought, all other thoughts arise. The ‘I’-thought is
therefore the root-thought. If the root is pulled out, all others
are at the same time uprooted. Therefore seek the root-‘I’,
question yourself ‘Who am I?’, find out its source. Then all
these will vanish and the pure Self will remain over. (Talks,
197).
Only the annihilation of ‘I’ is Liberation. But it can be
gained only by keeping the ‘I’-‘I’ always in view. So the need
for the investigation of the ‘I’-thought. (Talks, 139).
There is only one ‘I’ all along; but what rises up from
time to time is the mistaken ‘I’-thought; whereas the intuitive
‘I’ always remains Self-shining, i.e., even before it becomes
manifest. (Talks, 139).
The ‘I’-thought is only limited ‘I’. The real ‘I’ is unlimited,
universal, beyond time and space. They are absent in sleep, and
before seeing the objective world, there is a state of awareness
which is your pure Self. That must be known (Talks, 311).
Soul, mind and ego are words. There are no real entities
of the kind. Consciousness is the only truth. (Talks, 245).
Just on waking from sleep and before becoming aware of
the world there is that pure ‘I’—‘I’. Hold it without sleeping or
without allowing thoughts to possess you. If that is held firm it
does not matter even though the world is seen. The seer remains
unaffected by the phenomena. (Talks, 196).
How is the ego to be destroyed? Hold the ego first and
then ask how it is to be destroyed. Who asks this question? It is
the ego. Can the ego ever agree to kill itself? This question is a
sure way to cherish the ego and not to kill it. If you seek the ego
you will find it does not exist. That is the way to destroy it.
(Talks, 615).
Your duty is to be; and not to be this or that. ‘I AM THAT
I AM’ sums up the whole truth. The method is, summed up in
‘BE STILL’. What does stillness mean? It means ‘destroy
yourself ’. Because any form or shape is the cause of trouble.
Give up the notion ‘I am so and so’. (Talks, 363).
The ego is like one’s shadow thrown on the ground. If one
attempts to bury it, it will be foolish. The Self is only one. If
limited, it is the ego; if unlimited it is the Infinite and is the
Reality. (Talks, 146).
‘I am that I am’, ‘I am’ is God... not thinking, ‘I am God’.
Realise ‘I am’ and do not think ‘I am’. ‘Know I am God’... it is
said, and not ‘Think I am God’. (Talks, 354).
The mind is by nature restless. Begin liberating it from its
restlessness; give it peace; make it free from distractedness; train
it to look inward; make this a habit. This is done by ignoring
the external world and removing the obstacles to peace of mind.
(Talks, 26).
Is it the mind that wants to kill itself? The mind cannot
kill itself. So your business is to find the real nature of the mind.
Then you will know that there is no mind. When the Self is
sought, the mind is nowhere. Abiding in the Self, one need not
worry about the mind. (Talks, 146).
Mere book-learning is not of any great use. After realisation
all intellectual loads are useless burdens and are thrown overboard
as jetsam. Jettisoning the ego is necessary and natural. (Talks, 28).
It is in the mind that birth and death, pleasure and pain,
in short, the world and ego, exist. If the mind is destroyed all
else are destroyed too. Note that it should be annihilated, not
just made latent. For the mind is dormant in sleep. It does not
know anything. Still, on waking up you are as you were before.
There is no end of grief. But if the mind be destroyed the grief
will have no background and will disappear along with the mind.
(Talks, 195).
The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise
because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if
sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the
same. The ego is the root-thought from which all other thoughts
arise. (Talks, 195).
To imagine Muladhara at the bottom, the Heart at the
centre or the head at the top or over all these is all wrong. In
one word, to think is not your real nature. (Talks, 184).
Is not ‘I am’ also a thought?... The egoless ‘I AM’ is not a
thought. It is Realisation. The meaning or significance of ‘I’ is
God. The experience of ‘I am’ is to ‘BE STILL’. (Talks, 226).
Inward seeking is the path to be gained by man’s intellect.
The intellect itself realises after continuous practice that it is
enabled by some Higher Power to function. It cannot itself
reach this Power. So it ceases to function after a certain stage.
Then the Supreme Power is still left there all alone. That is
Realisation; that is finality; that is the goal. (Talks, 502).
It is thus plain that the purpose of the intellect is to realise
its own dependence upon the Higher Power and its inability to
reach the same. So it must annihilate itself before the goal is
reached. (Talks, 502).
Why is intellect developed? It has a purpose. The purpose
is that it should show the way to realise the Self. It must be put
to that use. (Talks, 644).
The mind becomes peaceful for a short while and again
emerges forth. What is to be done?... The peace often gained
must be remembered at other times. That peace is your natural
and permanent state. By continuous practice it will become
natural. That is called the ‘current’. That is your true nature.
(Talks, 303).
People think that freedom (moksha) is somewhere yonder
and should be sought out. They are wrong. Freedom is only
knowing the Self within yourself. Concentrate and you will get
it. (Talks, 31).
‘Be still and know that I am God’. To be still is not to
think. Know, and not think, is the word! (Talks, 131).
Solitude is in the mind of man. One might be in the thick
of the world and maintain serenity of mind; such a one is in
solitude. Another may stay in the forest but still be unable to
control his mind. He cannot be said to be in solitude. Solitude
is a function of the mind. A man attached to desire cannot get
solitude wherever he many be; a detached man is always in
solitude. (Talks, 20).
You can never find the mind through mind. Pass beyond
it in order to find it non-existent. (Talks, 473).
All thoughts are inconsistent with realisation. The correct
state is to exclude thoughts of ourselves and all other thoughts.
Thought is one thing and realisation is quite another. (Talks, 30).
It must be clearly understood that meditation is not
prohibited in the absence of asanas or prescribed times or any
accessories of the kind. (Talks, 17).
There is no jnana as it is commonly understood. The
ordinary ideas of jnana and ajnana are only relative and false.
They are not real and therefore not abiding. The true state is
the non-dual Self. It is eternal and abides whether one is aware
or not. (Talks, 499).
Jnana, once revealed, takes time to steady itself. The Self
is certainly within the direct experience of everyone, but not as
one imagines it to be. It is only as It is. (Talks, 141).
Experience is said to be temporary or permanent. The first
experience is temporary and by concentration it can become
permanent. In the former the bondage is not completely
destroyed; it remains subtle and reasserts itself in due course.
But in the latter it is destroyed root and branch, never to appear
again. (Talks, 95).
There is no investigation into the Atman. The investigation
can only be into the non-Self. Elimination of the non-Self is
alone possible. The Self being always self-evident will shine forth
of itself. (Talks, 78).
Jnana-marga and bhakti-marga are one and the same. Selfsurrender
leads to realisation just as enquiry does. Complete
self-surrender means that you have no further thought of ‘I’.
Then all your vasanas are washed off and you are free. You
should not continue as a separate entity at the end of either
course. (Talks, 31).
Surrender unreservedly. One of the two things must be
done: either surrender because you admit your inability and
also require a Higher Power to help you; or investigate into the
cause of misery, go to the source and merge into the Self. Either
way you will be free from misery. God never forsakes one who
has surrendered. (Talks, 363).
Surrender is to give oneself up to the original source of
one’s being. Do not delude yourself by imagining such source
to be some God outside you. One’s source is within oneself.
Give yourself up to it. That means that you should seek the
source and merge in it. (Talks, 111).
If on the other hand you merge in the Self there will be no
individuality left. You will become the Source itself. In that
case...what is surrender? Who is to surrender and to whom? This
constitutes devotion, wisdom and investigation. (Talks, 208).
The ‘Gita’ starts saying that you are not the body, that you
are not therefore the doer. So one should act without thinking
that oneself is the actor. The actions go on despite this egolessness.
The person has come into manifestation for a certain purpose.
That purpose will be accomplished whether he considers himself
the actor or not. (Talks, 643).
How do we know that actions are ours or not?... If the
fruits of actions do not affect the person, he is free from action.
(Talks, 40).
The one infinite Unbroken Whole (plenum) becomes
aware of Itself as ‘I’. This is the original name. All other names,
e.g., OM, are later growths. Liberation is only to remain aware
of the Self. The Mahavakya ‘I am Brahman’ is its authority.
Though the ‘I’ is always experienced, yet one’s attention has to be
drawn to it. Then only knowledge dawns. Thus the need for the
instruction of the Upanishads and of wise sages. (Talks, 92).
The ultimate Truth is so simple. It is nothing more than
being in the pristine state. This is all that need be said. (Talks, 96).
Reality is one only. How can it be realised? Realisation is
thus an illusion. Practice seems to be necessary. Who is to
practise? Looking for the doer, the act and the accessories
disappear. Moreover, if Realisation is not present here and now,
how can it, newly got, be of any use? Realise what is present
here and now. The sages did so before and still do that only.
Hence they say that it looks as if newly got. Once veiled by
ignorance and later revealed, Reality looks as if newly realised.
But it is not new. (Talks, 439).
Dvaita and Advaita are relative terms. They are based on
the sense of duality. The Self is as It is. There is neither dvaita
nor advaita, I AM THAT I AM. Simple Be-ing is the Self.
(Talks, 433).
One’s efforts are directed only to remove one’s ignorance.
Afterwards they cease and the real Self is found to be always
there. No effort is needed to remain as the Self. (Talks, 66).
The Truth is that the Self is constant and unintermittent
Awareness. The object of enquiry is to find the true nature of
the Self as Awareness. Let one practise enquiry so long as
separateness is perceived. Once realisation arises there is no
further need for enquiry. The question will also not arise. Can
awareness ever think of questioning who is aware? Awareness
remains pure and simple. (Talks, 454).
The Self is known to everyone but not clearly. You always
exist. The Be-ing is the Self. ‘I am’ is the name of God. Of all
the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical
statement ‘I am that I am’ in Exodus 3, Verse 14. None is so
direct as the name JEHOVAH... I AM. The Absolute Be-ing is
what is... It is the Self. It is God. Knowing the Self, God is
known. In fact God is none other than the Self. (Talks, 106).
There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. Until
it is realised effort is necessary. After tasting such Bliss, even
once, one will repeatedly try to regain it. It is as difficult for a
jnani to engage in thoughts as it is for an ajnani to be free from
thoughts. (Talks, 141).
Reality is simply the loss of the ego. Destroy the ego by seeking
its identity. Because ego is no entity it will automatically vanish and
Reality will shine forth by itself. This is the direct method whereas
all other methods are done only retaining the ego. In those paths
there arise so many doubts and the eternal question remains to be
tackled finally. But in this method the final question is the only
one and it is raised from the very beginning. No sadhanas are
necessary for engaging in this quest. (Talks, 146).
Effortlessness while remaining aware is the state of Bliss,
and that is Realisation. (Talks, 295).
In a sense, speaking of Self-realisation is a delusion. It is
only because people have been under the delusion that the non-
Self is the Self and the unreal the Real that they have to be
weaned out of it by the other delusion called Self-realisation,
because actually the Self always is the Self and there is no such
thing as realizing it. Who is to realize what, and how, when all
that exists is the Self and nothing but the Self? (Day by Day).
Free-will and destiny are ever-existent. Destiny is the result
of past action; it concerns the body. Let the body act as may suit
it. Why are you concerned with it? Why do you pay attention to
it? Free-will and destiny last as long as the body lasts. But Wisdom
(jnana) transcends both. The Self is beyond knowledge and
ignorance. Should anything happen it happens as the resultant of
one’s past actions, of divine will and other factors. (Talks, 193).
Free-will holds the field in association with individuality.
As long as individuality lasts so long there is Free-will. All the
scriptures are based on this fact and they advise directing the
Free-will in the right channel. Find out to whom Free-will or
destiny matters. Abide in it. Then these two are transcended.
That is the only purpose of discussing these questions. To who
do they arise? Find out and be at peace. (Talks, 426).
Yoga implies prior division and it means later union of
one with the other. Who is to be united with whom? You are
the seeker, seeking union with something. That something is
apart from you. You are aware of the Self. Seek it and be it.
That will expand as the Infinite. Then there will be no question
of yoga, etc. Whose is the separation (viyoga)? Find it. (Talks,
211).
He who instructs an ardent seeker to do this or that is not
a true Master. The seeker is already afflicted by his activities and
wants Peace and Rest. In other words he wants cessation of his
activities. Instead of that he is told do so something in addition
to or in place of his other activities. Can that be a help to the
seeker? (Talks, 601).
Love postulates duality. How can the Self be the object of
Love? Love is not different from the Self. Love of an object is
an inferior order and cannot endure. Whereas the Self is Love,
in other words, God is Love. (Talks, 433).
Turn your vision inwards and the whole world will be full of
the Supreme Spirit. The world is said to be illusion. Illusion is
really Truth. Even the material sciences trace the origin of the universe
to some primordial matter... subtle, exceedingly subtle. (Talks, 199).
God is the same both to those who say the world is real
and to their opponents. Their outlook is different. You need
not entangle yourself in such disputations. The goal is one and
the same for all. Look to it. (Talks, 199).
The Bible says ‘Be still and know that I am God’.
Stillness is the sole requisite for the realisation of the Self as
God. (Talks, 338).
Brahmacharya is ‘living in Brahman’. It has no connection
with celibacy as commonly understood. A real Brahmachari
finds Bliss in the Brahman which is the same as the Self. Why
then should you look for other sources of happiness? In fact the
emergence from the Self has been the cause of all the misery.
(Talks, 17).
When there is contact of a desirable sort or memory
thereof, and when there is freedom from undesirable contacts
or memory thereof, we say there is happiness. Such happiness is
relative and is better called pleasure. (Talks, 28).
But men want absolute and permanent happiness. This
does not reside in objects, but in the Absolute. It is Peace, free
from pain and pleasure... it is a neutral state. (Talks, 28).
This is the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven
mentioned in the Bible and this world are not two different
regions. ‘The Kingdom is within you’ says the Bible. So it is.
The realised being sees this as the Kingdom of Heaven whereas
others see it as ‘this world’. The difference lies only in the angle
of vision. (Talks, 609).
Nirvana is Perfection. In the Perfect State there is neither
subject nor object; there is nothing to see, nothing to feel,
nothing to know. Seeking and knowing are the functions of
the mind. In Nirvana there is nothing but the blissful pure
consciousness ‘I am’. (Talks, 406).
GLOSSARY
Advaita Non-duality, the philosophy of the ‘One without a
second’.
ahankara the ‘personal I’.
Arunachala a Hill in the eastern Ghats, famous place of pilgrimage.
Arunachaleswara the Lord of Arunachala, the great
temple at the foot of the hill.
asanas yogic postures.
ashrama 1) stage of life, 2) hermitage.
ashtanga yoga the yoga of the eight ‘limbs’.
atiasrama beyond the four ashramas.
Atma the Self.
asura a demon
Brahma (m) God as Creator.
Brahman (n) the Absolute.
brahmacharya the first of the four ashramas, celibacy.
bhakta one who follows the path of surrender.
bhakti the path of surrender.
buddhi intellect.
chintamani the celestial gem which fulfils all wishes.
chit Absolute Consciousness.
diksha initiation.
dvaita dualism.
gunas three fundamental qualities or tendencies of nature,
underlying all manifestations; sattva, rajas and tamas.
guru spiritual teacher or master.
guru-sewa service to the guru.
jagrat-sushupti waking-sleep.
japa repetition of the Name of God or of a mantra, orally or
mentally.
jnana the path of knowledge.
jnani one who follows the path of Knowledge.
karma 1) action, work, 2) destiny.
karma-marga the path of either ritual worship or, simply, activity.
Maharshi great rishi (a sage).
Mahatma a great Soul, a Master.
Mahavakya the four ‘great sayings’ of the Upanishads.
Mahavrata great vow.
mantra cosmic soundforms, used for japa, prayer and meditation.
marga a spiritual path of practising.
math abode of sadhus.
maya illusion.
mouna silence.
moksha, mukti Liberation.
muladhara the lowest of the yogic centres (chakras) of concentration,
supposed to be situated at the base of the spine.
niyama disciplines of the second of the eight ‘limbs’ of yoga.
puranas sacred books.
rajas one of the three gunas: the principle of activity.
rigor mortis rigidity of death.
sadhaka a seeker after truth.
sadhana a path towards liberation.
sadhu ascetic.
sannyasa total renunciation, the fourth of the varnasramas.
sastra scripture.
satsanga association with good and wise souls.
sattva one of the three gunas; purity, etc.
satchidananda Be-ing, Consciousness, Bliss: Bliss, (ananda) of conscious
(chit) Be-ing (sat).
siddhi 1) supernormal powers, 2) realization.
Siva the supreme Lord.
sruti Vedas.
tamas one of the three gunas: ignorance, darkness.
tapas religious austerities.
Tat twam asi That thou art (Mahavakya).
turiya the fourth state, the witness-consciousness.
turiyatita beyond turiya, Absolute Awareness.
Ulladu Narpadu Forty verses on That which is, title of the main work
composed by Ramana Maharshi.
Upadesa Saram Essence of Instruction; title of another main work of
Ramana Maharshi.
Upanishads the youngest part of the Vedas.
vanaprashtha the third of the varnasramas, ‘life in the woods’.
varnasrama The two coordinate systems (varna and asrama) of Ancient
India.
The varna systems classified society based on individual
dispositions and laid down responsibilities of each group
towards society as a whole.
The asrama system laid down the stages in individual life
keeping in view one’s relationship with society and at the
same time providing the best likelihood in any stage for
individual fruition towards Moksha.
vasanas predispositions and tendencies of the mind, due to
experiences of former life.
Vedas the Scripture of Hinduism, revealed to the ancient Rishis.
vichara investigation into the nature of the Self.
Vishnu the divine preserver of the universe.
viyoga separation.
vritti movement of thought.
yama the first of the eight ‘limbs’ of Yoga.
yogiraj ‘king of the yogis’.
Yojana one yojana = 8 miles.
(end of Hunting the "I"
and also gratitude to Bhagavan’s great devotees for the collection)
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