Q: I am convinced that I am, but I am not convinced of what I am. Intellectually I know I am the Self but I don’t experience this. I have to make a lot of effort.
Annamalai Swami: To experience the Self you have to dive deep into the consciousness ‘I am’.
Q: You mean I should keep the mind there?
Annamalai Swami: Yes. When you see the rope as a rope there is no snake. You also know that there was never a snake.
When you cease to imagine that you are a mere body and a mind, reality shines of its own accord. If you stabilize in this state you can see that the mind didn’t go anywhere; you understand that it never really existed. ‘Keeping the mind in its source’ is just another way of saying: ‘Understanding that it never existed.’
Q: But how is one to awaken from perpetual body-consciousness? For consciousness to manifest one must have a body.
AS: If there is constant meditation that consciousness is your own reality in which all phenomena are appearing and disappearing, that meditation is the activity of the sattvic mind. It is this activity which erases and dissolves the tamas and rajas which cover the reality.
The human body is the only vehicle in which it is very convenient to realize the unmanifest Self. With the body and the mind we can investigate and discover the Reality that remains unaffected by the body and the mind.
… We should regard the body in the same way we regard a car. …
Q: No matter how quiet I get or how still my mind is, I never get to see the world as an indivisible whole. Even when my mind is completely still, if I open my eyes I still see a world of separate objects.
AS: When the one who sees vanishes, the world of multiplicity goes with it.
… You don’t see the unity and indivisibility, you are it. You can never see the Self or Brahman, you can only be it. …
The Guru may tell his disciples a thousand times, ‘You are the Self, you are not what you imagine yourself to be’, but none of them ever believes him. They all keep asking the Guru for methods and routes to reach the place where they already are.
Q: Why don’t we give up our false ideas as soon as we are told that they are false?
AS: We have identified with our false ideas for many previous lifetimes. The habit is very strong. But not so strong that it cannot be dissolved through constant meditation.
Q: The seeker has many ideas: ‘I am a jiva (personality), I am bound and have to do sadhana to attain liberation’. Should we forget all these ideas? …
AS: Yes, forget them all! ‘I am the Self, I am all’. Hold onto this awareness. All other paths are roundabouts.
Q: Bhagavan said that repeating, ‘I am the Self’ or ‘I am not this body’ is an aid to enquiry but does not constitute the enquiry itself.
AS: The meditation, ‘I am not the body or the mind, I am the immanent Self’ is a great aid for as long as one is not able to do self-enquiry properly or constantly.
Bhagavan said, ‘Keeping the mind in the Heart is self-enquiry’. If you cannot do this by asking ‘Who am I?’ or by taking the I-thought back to its source, then meditation on the awareness ‘I am the all-pervasive Self’ is a great aid.
Bhagavan often said that we should read and study the Ribhu Gita regularly.
In the Ribhu Gita it is said: ‘That bhavana (mental attitude) ‘I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am Brahman, I am everything,’ is to be repeated again and again until this becomes the natural state.’
Bhagavan sat with us every day while we chanted extracts from the Ribhu Gita which affirm the reality of the Self. It is true that he said that these repetitions are only an aid to self-enquiry, but they are a very powerful aid.
By practicing this way the mind becomes more and more attuned with the reality. When the mind has become purified by this practice, it is easier to take it back to its source and keep it there. When one is able to abide in the Self directly, one doesn’t need aids like this. But if this is not possible these practices can definitely help one.
- Living by the Words of Bhagavan, p. 290, 293, 294
Annamalai Swami: To experience the Self you have to dive deep into the consciousness ‘I am’.
Q: You mean I should keep the mind there?
Annamalai Swami: Yes. When you see the rope as a rope there is no snake. You also know that there was never a snake.
When you cease to imagine that you are a mere body and a mind, reality shines of its own accord. If you stabilize in this state you can see that the mind didn’t go anywhere; you understand that it never really existed. ‘Keeping the mind in its source’ is just another way of saying: ‘Understanding that it never existed.’
Q: But how is one to awaken from perpetual body-consciousness? For consciousness to manifest one must have a body.
AS: If there is constant meditation that consciousness is your own reality in which all phenomena are appearing and disappearing, that meditation is the activity of the sattvic mind. It is this activity which erases and dissolves the tamas and rajas which cover the reality.
The human body is the only vehicle in which it is very convenient to realize the unmanifest Self. With the body and the mind we can investigate and discover the Reality that remains unaffected by the body and the mind.
… We should regard the body in the same way we regard a car. …
Q: No matter how quiet I get or how still my mind is, I never get to see the world as an indivisible whole. Even when my mind is completely still, if I open my eyes I still see a world of separate objects.
AS: When the one who sees vanishes, the world of multiplicity goes with it.
… You don’t see the unity and indivisibility, you are it. You can never see the Self or Brahman, you can only be it. …
The Guru may tell his disciples a thousand times, ‘You are the Self, you are not what you imagine yourself to be’, but none of them ever believes him. They all keep asking the Guru for methods and routes to reach the place where they already are.
Q: Why don’t we give up our false ideas as soon as we are told that they are false?
AS: We have identified with our false ideas for many previous lifetimes. The habit is very strong. But not so strong that it cannot be dissolved through constant meditation.
Q: The seeker has many ideas: ‘I am a jiva (personality), I am bound and have to do sadhana to attain liberation’. Should we forget all these ideas? …
AS: Yes, forget them all! ‘I am the Self, I am all’. Hold onto this awareness. All other paths are roundabouts.
Q: Bhagavan said that repeating, ‘I am the Self’ or ‘I am not this body’ is an aid to enquiry but does not constitute the enquiry itself.
AS: The meditation, ‘I am not the body or the mind, I am the immanent Self’ is a great aid for as long as one is not able to do self-enquiry properly or constantly.
Bhagavan said, ‘Keeping the mind in the Heart is self-enquiry’. If you cannot do this by asking ‘Who am I?’ or by taking the I-thought back to its source, then meditation on the awareness ‘I am the all-pervasive Self’ is a great aid.
Bhagavan often said that we should read and study the Ribhu Gita regularly.
In the Ribhu Gita it is said: ‘That bhavana (mental attitude) ‘I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am Brahman, I am everything,’ is to be repeated again and again until this becomes the natural state.’
Bhagavan sat with us every day while we chanted extracts from the Ribhu Gita which affirm the reality of the Self. It is true that he said that these repetitions are only an aid to self-enquiry, but they are a very powerful aid.
By practicing this way the mind becomes more and more attuned with the reality. When the mind has become purified by this practice, it is easier to take it back to its source and keep it there. When one is able to abide in the Self directly, one doesn’t need aids like this. But if this is not possible these practices can definitely help one.
- Living by the Words of Bhagavan, p. 290, 293, 294
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