Does a man go on thinking that he is a man?

M.: 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 to do something in addition to, or in place of, his other activities. Can that be a help to the seeker?

Activity is creation; activity is the destruction of one’s inherent happiness. If activity be advocated the adviser is not a master but the killer. Either the Creator (Brahma) or Death (Yama) may be said to have come in the guise of such a master. He cannot liberate the aspirant but strengthens his fetters.

D.: When we attempt to cease from activity the very attempt is action. So activity seems to be inevitable.
M.: True. Thayumanavar has also alluded to it. A doctor advises a patient to take the prescribed medicine with only one condition. That condition is not to think of a monkey when he takes the medicine. Can the patient ever take the medicine? Will he not think of the monkey whenever he tries not to do so?
So also, when people try to give up thoughts their object is frustrated by their very attempt.

D.: How then is the state to be attained?
M.: What is there to attain? A thing remains to be attained if it is not already attained. But here one’s very being is That.

Someone: Why do we not then know it?
Annamalaiswami: I should always try to think I am That.
M.: Why should one think “I am That”? He is That only. Does a man go on thinking that he is a man?

Mr. Anantachari: The belief ‘I am a man’ is so deep that we cannot help thinking so.
M.: Why should you think “I am a man”? If you are challenged you may say ‘I am a man’. Therefore the thought - ‘I am a man’ - is called up when another thought, say ‘I am an animal’, protrudes itself. Similarly, the thought I am That is necessary only so long as the other thought I am a man persists.

D.: The thought ‘I am a man’ is so firm that it cannot he got rid of.
M.: Be your true Self. Why should you think ‘I am a man’?

D.: The thought ‘I am a man’ is so natural.
M.: Not so. On the other hand ‘I am’ is natural. Why do you qualify it with ‘a man’?
D.: ‘I am a man’ is so obvious whereas ‘I am That’ is not understood by us.
M.: You are neither That nor This. The truth is ‘I am’. “I AM that I AM” according to the Bible also. Mere Being is alone natural. To limit it to ‘being a man’ is uncalled for.

D.: (Humorously) If votes be taken the majority will be on my side. (Laughter)
M.: I cast my vote also on your side (Laughter). I say also ‘I am a man’: but I am not limited to the body. It is IN ME. That is the difference.

Someone: The limitation (upadhi) of being a man cannot be got rid of.
M.: How were you in deep sleep? There was no thought of being a man.
Another: So, the state of sleep must be brought about even when one is awake.
M.: Yes. It is jagrat-sushupti.

Sri Bhagavan continued: Some people even say that while they sleep they are enclosed somewhere in the body. They forget that such an idea did not persist in sleep but rises up only on waking. They bring their waking-state to bear upon their sleep.
The lights went down and all retired

How is I to be found - Ramana Maharshi

Question: Who am I? How is it to be found?

Bhagavan: Ask yourself the question. The body (annamaya kosa) and its functions are not ‘I’. Going deeper, the mind (manomaya kosa) and its functions are not ‘I’. The next step takes on to the question. “Where from do these thoughts arise?” The thoughts are spontaneous, superficial or analytical. They operate in intellect.

Then, who is aware of them? The existence of thoughts, their clear conceptions and their operations become evident to the individual. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the individuality of the person is operative as the perceiver of the existence of thoughts and of their sequence. This individuality is the ego, or as people say ‘I’. Vijnanamaya kosa (intellect) is only the sheath of ‘I’ and not the ‘I’ itself. Enquiring further the questions arise, “Who is this ‘I’? Where from does it come?” ‘I’ was not aware in sleep. Simultaneously with its rise sleep changes to dream or wakefulness. But I am not concerned with dream just now. Who am I now, in the wakeful state?

If I originated from sleep, then the ‘I’ was covered up with ignorance. Such an ignorant ‘I’ cannot be what the scriptures say or the wise ones affirm. ‘I’ am beyond even ‘Sleep’; ‘I’ must be now and here and what I was all along in sleep and dreams also, without the qualities of such states. ‘I’ must therefore be the unqualified substratum underlying these three states (anandamaya kosa transcended). ‘I’ is, in brief, beyond the five sheaths. Next, the residuum left over after discarding all that is not-self is the Self, Sat-Chit-Ananda.



There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now.

~ Sri Ramana Maharshi ~

Knower Known and Knowing

When knowledge disappears you are utterly at peace with life and existence. Knowledge divides. Let me repeat it: Knowledge divides you from existence. Because the knower cannot be the known, the knower is separate from the known. And because of that separation there is continuous anguish, anxiety; something is continuously missing. Only a not-knower can become one with life. So not-knowing unites, knowledge divides.

In a state of not-knowing, you start melting with the trees and mountains and stars. You don't know where you end and where they begin, you don't know anything. You are again a child collecting seashells on the beach. Again a child collecting flowers, wild flowers. Again a child, your eyes are full of wonder. Through that wonder you start feeling what existence is - not knowing but feeling. You start loving that which is - not knowing but loving. And through feeling and loving, you start living for the first time. Who cares, who bothers, about knowledge?

~ Osho

കര്‍ത്താവല്ലെന്നു മനസ്സിലാക്കിയാല്‍ സ്വതന്ത്രനായി

നിങ്ങള്‍ കര്‍ത്താവല്ലെന്നു മനസ്സിലാക്കിയാല്‍ നിങ്ങള്‍ സ്വതന്ത്രനായി (112)
www.sreyas.in/ramana
ഭഗവാന്‍ രമണമഹര്‍ഷി സംസാരിക്കുന്നു, ഡിസംബര്‍ 24, 1935

115. മി. മാരിസ്‌ ഫ്രിഡ്‌മാന്‍: നാമാഗ്രഹിക്കാതെ തന്നെ ചില അത്ഭുത അനുഭവങ്ങള്‍ ഉണ്ടാകുന്നു. അതെവിടെ നിന്നുണ്ടാകുന്നു?
മഹര്‍ഷി: ഇപ്പോളതാഗ്രഹിച്ചില്ലെങ്കിലും ആഗ്രഹം മുന്‍പുണ്ടായിരുന്നു. നിങ്ങള്‍ക്കത് അറിവില്ലെങ്കിലും ആ ആഗ്രഹം പിന്നീട്‌ ഫലിച്ചതാണ്‌. ജ്ഞാനിയുടെ പ്രാരബ്ധം ഇതു പോലെയുള്ളതാണ്‌.

116. ചോദ്യം: ജീവന്‍ കര്‍മ്മബദ്ധമാണെന്നു പറയുന്നത്‌ ശരിയാണോ?
മഹര്‍ഷി: കര്‍മ്മം അതിന്റെ ഫലം അനുഭവിച്ചുകൊള്ളട്ടെ. നിങ്ങളെ സംബന്ധിച്ച്‌, നിങ്ങള്‍ കര്‍ത്താവാണെന്നിരിക്കിലല്ലേ ഫലം അനുഭവിക്കേണ്ടിയുള്ളൂ.

ചോദ്യം: കര്‍മ്മത്തെ എങ്ങനെ നിവര്‍ത്തിക്കാം?
മഹര്‍ഷി: കര്‍മ്മം ആരുടേതെന്നു നോക്കൂ. നിങ്ങള്‍ കര്‍ത്താവല്ലെന്നു മനസ്സിലാക്കിയാല്‍ നിങ്ങള്‍ സ്വതന്ത്രനായി. ഈ അകര്‍ത്തൃത്വബോധമുണ്ടാവാന്‍ ഈശ്വരാനുഗ്രഹം ഉണ്ടാകണം. അതിനു പ്രാര്‍ത്ഥിക്കൂ. താന്‍ കര്‍ത്താവാണെന്നല്ലാത്ത കര്‍മ്മങ്ങള്‍ നമ്മെ ബന്ധിക്കുന്നില്ല.
ജ്ഞാനിയില്‍ പോലും അവയവായാസങ്ങളെ കണ്ടിട്ട്‌ ലോകം അവനു കര്‍മ്മങ്ങള്‍ ആരോപിക്കുന്നു. ഉദ്ദേശ്യം, സങ്കല്‍പം, കൂടാതെ ഒരു കര്‍മ്മവും ഉണ്ടാവുകയില്ല. വിചാരം കൂടാതെ ആര്‍ക്കും ജീവിച്ചിരിക്കാന്‍ കഴിയുകയില്ല. എന്നാല്‍ വിചാരം രണ്ടു തരത്തിലുണ്ട്‌. ബന്ധഹേതുകം, മുക്തിഹേതുകം എന്ന്. ആദ്യത്തേതിനെ ഒഴിവാക്കണം. രണ്ടാമത്തേതിനെ ശീലിക്കണം. കര്‍മ്മം കൂടാതെ ഫലവുമില്ല. (മുന്‍) സങ്കല്‍പം കൂടാതെ കര്‍മ്മവുമില്ല. മുക്തിയും തീവ്ര പ്രയത്നത്തിന്റെ ഫലമാണെന്നേ തോന്നൂ.