Self-enquiry as taught by Sri Bhagwan is enough

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

It is one of a brief conversations by Sri Bhagavan with a devotee. It is in 8 volume Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean
of Grace. I am not able to readily to tell you where exactly it is.

Again when a devotee seeing that Sri Bhagavan was looking at Arunachala intently, asked: What Bhagavan! Are you seeing
Arunachala? Sri Bhagavan replied: Yes. I am looking at Atma.

Such wonderful replies have been given by Sri Bhagavan hammering Advaita again and again in His talks.

Arunachala Siva.
 

[eranilkumarsinha]

It is one of a brief conversations by Sri Bhagavan with a devotee. It is in 8 volume Arunachala's Ramana, Boundless Ocean
of Grace. I am not able to readily to tell you where exactly it is.

Again when a devotee seeing that Sri Bhagavan was looking at Arunachala intently, asked: What Bhagavan! Are you seeing
Arunachala? Sri Bhagavan replied: Yes. I am looking at Atma.

Such wonderful replies have been given by Sri Bhagavan hammering Advaita again and again in His talks.

Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,

Very nice, sir. Sri Arunachala is the Atma or the Self. Sri Bhagwan has Himself affirmed that He is the Self. Self looks at the Self which is again the beginning, middle as well as the end of all that is. Therefore, once you rightly observed that it is the Rasa Lila played by the Divine.

Dear Sir, I now have almost all books and composition and writing on and by Sri Bhagwan except 8 volumes of ‘Sri Arunachala’s Ramana, Boundless Ocean of Grace’. I wish you to kindly inform me about the contents of the book in brief so that I may know, by His Grace, whether this book is a must for me at this stage.

Thanks very much, sir.

Regards,
  Anil

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

The 8 volume book covers Sri Bhagavan's biography and also the reminiscences of all His devotees and His own teachings.
It is only a brief condensation of all the books on Sri Bhagavan and about Sri Bhagavan. It covers up to His Maha Nirvana.
Devotees having different books may find this 8 volume book as a compendium.

Arunachala Siva.

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,

Ji. Yes. Thanks vey much, sir.


Regards,
  Anil

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear Devotees,

Sri Bhagwan has said that one must love the Self to be and remain as the Self or as the Awareness.  We must understand first intellectually and then experientially, by sadhana and His Grace, that we are the Awareness, and in truth, nothing else whatever.  But the statement that ‘one should love the Self’ doesn’t mean that one has to cultivate a particular attitude towards It.  Sri Bhagwan says that all one need do is to keep focus on ‘I am’, and It itself will reveal eventually all its secrets.

“If you focus your mind on this ‘I am’, this immanent consciousness, and if you can establish yourself there for some time, you will begin to experience some peace. When the thought processes are not present, even for a moment, one gets a lot of spiritual energy. When that energy and that feeling of peace come, one gets more encouragement, more enthusiasm. When you have had a little experience of the peace and bliss of the Self you always feel a determination, the feeling of struggling unnecessarily gradually diminishes.”     
                              Sri Annamalai Swami, Living By The Words Of Bhagwan

Dear devotees, if one can focus one’s mind on the Immanent Consciousness, ‘I AM’, and if one can establish oneself even for some time, one begins to experience some peace and starts to gradually understand, experientially, that one is ‘Awareness’ rather than the insentient body. One gets more encouragement, more enthusiasm. Thought processes slow down, and gradually are few and far between. One begins to understand that ONE IS THE AWARENESS WHICH NOW AND THEN FALLS INTO MIND AND THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE DAWN OF JNANA.   

Thank you,
  Anil

[eranilkumarsinha]

The ideal of Absolute Perfection has been indicated in the Benedictory Verse of the Isavasya Upanishad thus:
“That is the Whole, this is also the Whole. The Whole comes out of the Whole. When you remove the Whole from the Whole, what remains is also the Whole.”

Divine Poet, Sri Muruganar sings the same Truth thus:
“That Brahman is the All [Purna]. This [the world] is also the All. Even when the All merges with the All, that All indeed remains as the All. Even when the supreme All separates from the All, that which remains is the All.”
                                    V. 888, GVK, Edited by Sri David Godman.


Dear Devotees,

This great Upanishadic Stanza should not be misinterpreted to mean that Brahman is real and this world appearance is also real, for the verse says, ‘that is the whole, this is also Whole or Purna’. Sri Bhagwan’s Teaching in this regard is well known. Sri Bhagwan’s Teaching is that the whole world is unreal as the world appearance but  real as Brahman (Purnam), just as the snake is unreal as the snake but real as the rope, its base.
Therefore, the cited two Verses above should mean that is the rope; this seeming snake is also the rope and nothing else whatever. Even when the snake merges in the rope, it is the rope. When the snake rises from the rope , it is still the rope, or even when the snake goes out as a snake from that rope, rope alone remains.

So, the truth is that the rope alone exists. There was never and there is never and there will never be snake, for rope alone exists. In other words, just as in truth, rope alone exists, so in truth Brahman, the Whole, alone exists. And just as the seeming rope is an illusory and false appearance, so also the world is a false appearance. JUST AS NEITHER THE GOING OUT OF THE SNAKE FROM THE ROPE NOR THE MERGING OF THE SNAKE INTO THE ROPE IS REAL; SO ALSO NEITHER THE GOING OUT (MANIFESTATION) OF THE WORLD APPEARANCE NOR ITS MERGING INTO BRAHMAN IS REAL.

Brahman, the SUBSTRATUM, alone remains for ever as the immutable and unchanging Whole, Purnam.

Thank you,
  Anil 

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

Brahman is He. The universe is SHE. The Maha Maya (goddess) is there all pervading in universe. It is the appearance of
Brahman. But Brahman can remain alone. But not Maha Maya, the universe. HE can be alone. But SHE will always have HE
within her! (Sri Bhagavan said).

Arunachala Siva. 

[cefnbrithdir]

Dear Anil

"One begins to understand that ONE IS AWARENESS WHICH NOW AND THEN FALLS INTO MIND...."

First can I say that I think "Living by the Words of Bhagavan" is a wonderful book and the final 100 pages of Conversations are a precious gem from such a devotee.

But in your final statement above did you mean that Awareness falls into Mind or rather that Mind falls into Awareness.

I know words are so poor at encompassing experience. I am finding that if you take Annamalai Swami's definite "the mind does not exist" from his Last Talks this helps me further concentrate on awareness and the process of thinking (thoughts) can shut up. But this still has a "dual feel". However if it can be  maintained it "equalises". Your attention is not distracted by any thinking as such and  there is a greater wholeness but there is a residual awareness of awareness. I am trusting that this is the way to patiently maintain and pray to come back to ....  But what I know I hope for is that the Mind will fall entirely into Awareness not the way you have put it.

I hope you do not think I am being pedantic.

[Subramanian.R]

Dear cefnbrithdir, Anil,

It is the mind on self inquiry becomes quiescent / merged with the Self. Not the other way. It is like reflection of the sun
on the pot filled with water, going back or merging with the sun, once the water pot is removed. Water pot is the ego.
Egoless state merges with the Self.

Arunachala Siva.   

[eranilkumarsinha]

“If you focus your mind on this ‘I am’, this immanent consciousness, and if you can establish yourself there for some time, you will begin to experience some peace. When the thought processes are not present, even for a moment, one gets a lot of spiritual energy. When that energy and that feeling of peace come, one gets more encouragement, more enthusiasm. When you have had a little experience of the peace and bliss of the Self you always feel a determination, the feeling of struggling unnecessarily gradually diminishes.”     
                              Sri Annamalai Swami, Living By The Words Of Bhagwan

.   




Dear Sri Subramanian Sir and Sri cefnbrithdir,

Yes, how can it be otherwise, or other way round. There is One Unitary Awareness without a second, Unmoving, All-pervading, and Unchanging.  I mean only to convey what Sri Annamalai Swami indicated through the quoted Teaching. If one can focus one’s mind on the Immanent Consciousness, ‘I AM’, and if one can establish oneself even for some time, one begins to experience some peace and starts to gradually understand, experientially, that one is ‘Awareness’ rather than the insentient body. SUCCESS BEGETS SUCCESS. One gets more encouragement, more enthusiasm. Thought processes slow down, and gradually, are few and far between. Sri Bhagwan has taught that we should not fancy that there is no end of thoughts. If each thought is dealt as it emerges by the divine weapon of Vichara, like the enemy soldiers as they emerge from a fortress. Mind increasingly becomes quiescent and quiescent mind merges in the Self easily, like a dust-free needle drawn to a powerful magnet.  One then understands that one is Awareness rather than this insignificant body-mind complex. However, if all attachments have not been rooted out from the heart, mind, now and then, is sure to rise and go out to sense-objects. This, I said metaphorically, that one begins to understand experientially and not merely intellectually, that one is Awareness which now and then falls into mind. By the phrase ‘falling into mind’, I simply meant that mind is certain to rise again and again even at this stage, if residual attachments are not rooted out by progressively longer and longer abidance in the Self, and thereby mind is not irreversibly merged in the Self.
Dear devotees, in my view, Grace, Focus and Perseverance are essential for Self-Realisation. Effort must go on till, by His Grace, state of effortlessness is not achieved. Our duty is thus far. Hereafter, it is the Self and only the Self. Sri Bhagwan assures that the SELF IS WAITING FOR US TO TAKE US IN.

Thanks very much, sir.

Regards,
 Anil

[eranilkumarsinha]

Quote from Sri Subramanian Sir:
“Brahman is He. The universe is SHE. The Maha Maya (goddess) is there all pervading in universe. It is the appearance of
Brahman. But Brahman can remain alone. But not Maha Maya, the universe. HE can be alone. But SHE will always have HE
within her! (Sri Bhagavan said).”


Dear Sri Subramanian Sir,

Sri Bhagwan says that She who is not is Maya, the Illusion. That which is not is ignorance. She is the Power of Illusion premised in Him. She cannot have any independent existence. It is only because we see the world and objects outside of ourselves that Maya seems to exist on Her own. “BECOME THE SUBJECT AND THERE WILL BE NO OBJECT”,SAYS SRI BHAGWAN. And when objects are themselves not present, how can Maya exist ? Therefore, Maya is only the wrong knowledge, illusion, ignorance, or avidya. But all these terms imply duality. Whose is the avidya? Whose is the ignorance?
A Great Clue:

Ignorance! Ignorance of what?
Ignorance of the Self!
What a great irony!
Who is ignorant of the Self?
The self must be ignorant of the Self! (Two selves?)
No. There is One Self!
  Esoterically, I, you , he, she, et al, are the Self, the Sun, and not merely the reflected self or the sun in the water of the mind-pot.

Thanks very much, sir.

Regards,
 Anil

[cefnbrithdir]

Dear Anil

"falling into mind"

I understand what you were saying now. I also understand things the same way.

 Thank you very much.

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

About the mind and the Self, see this beautiful answer by Sri Bhagavan:

"There is no mind to control if the Self  is realized.  The Self shines forth when the mind vanishes. In the realized man, the
mind may be active or inactive, the Self alone exists. For, the mind, body and the world are not separate from the Self. And they
cannot remain apart from the Self. Can they be other than the Self? When aware of the Self why should one worry about these
shadows?  How do they affect the Self?"  (Maharshi's Gospel)

Arunachala Siva.

[eranilkumarsinha]

Dear sri Subramanian Sir,   

What follows the quoted reply is a statement which reveals the secret of the mind and the Heart, hither to unknown, and which is one which set me firmly on the Path.

“The Self is the Heart, Self-luminous. Illumination arises from the Heart and reaches the brain, which is the seat of the mind. The world is seen with the mind; so you see the world by the reflected light of the Self. The world is perceived by an act of the mind. When the mind is illumined it is aware of the world; when it is not so illumined, it is not aware of the world.

If the mind is turned in, towards the source of illumination, objective knowledge ceases, and the Self alone shines as the Heart.
The moon shines by reflecting the light of the sun. When the sun sets, the moon is useful for displaying objects.  When the sun has risen no one needs the moon, though its disc is visible in the sky. So it is with the mind and the heart. The mind is made useful by its reflected light. It is used  for seeing objects. When turned inwards, it merges into the source of illumination which shines by Itself and the mind is then like the moon in the day time.”
Dear sir, Sri Bhagwan further teaches that when it is dark, a lamp is necessary. But when the sun itself has arisen, lamp is not needed. The objects are visible. And to see the sun no lamp is necessary; IT IS ENOUGH IF ONE TURNS ONE’S EYES TOWARDS THE SELF-LUMINOUS SUN. So also with the mind; to see the Heart it is enough that the MIND IS TURNED TOWARDS IT. The mind does not count and the Heart is SELF-EFFULGENT.

Thanks very much, sir.

Regards,
  Anil 

[Subramanian.R]

Dear Anil,

Very nicely explained. In Talks, there are several places where Sri Bhagavan speaks about mind and Heart.

In Talks No. 252 He says:

The mind now sees itself diversified as the universe. If the diversity is not manifest, it remains in its own essence, that is
the Heart. Entering the Heart meanings remaining without distractions.

The Heart is the only Reality. The mind is only a transient phase. To remain as one's Self is to enter the Heart.

Because a man identifies himself with the body, he sees the world separate from him.  This wrong identification arises because
he has lost his moorings and has swerved  from his original state. He is now advised to give up all these false ideas, to trace
back his source and remain as the Self. In that state, there are no differences. No questions will arise.

All sastras are meant only to make the man retrace his steps to the original source. He need not gain anything new.  He must only
give up his false ideas and useless accretions. Instead of doing it, he tries to catch hold of something strange and mysterious because
he believes that his happiness lies elsewhere. That is the mistake.

Arunachala Siva.