Ramana Maharshi - There is no seeing. Seeing is only being

Question : When a man realizes the Self, what will he see?
Ramana Maharshi - There is no seeing. Seeing is only being. The state of Self-realization, as we call it, is not attaining something new or reaching some goal which is far away, but simply being that which you always are and which you always have been. All that is needed is that you give up your realization of the not-true as true. All of us are regarding as real that which is not real. We have only to give up this practice on our part. Then we shall realize the Self as the Self; in other words, `Be the Self'. At one stage you will laugh at yourself for trying to discover the Self which is so self-evident. So, what can we say to this question?

That stage transcends the seer and the seen. There is no seer there to see anything. The seer who is seeing all this now ceases to exist and the Self alone remains.

Question : How to know this by direct experience?
Ramana Maharshi - If We talk of knowing the Self, there must be two selves, one a knowing self, another the self which is known, and the process of knowing. The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, one is that which alone is and which alone has always been. One cannot describe that state. One can only be that. Of course, we loosely talk of Self-realization, for want of a better term. How to `real-ize' or make real that which alone is real ?

Source - David Godman book "be as you are"

Ramana Maharshi : Knowledge born of one’s own realisation (aparoksha) is firm

Mr. Ellappa Chettiar, a member of the Legislative Council of Madras Presidency and an influential Hindu, asked: “Why is it said that the knowledge born of hearing is not firm, whereas that born of contemplation is firm?”

Ramana Maharshi : On the other hand it is said that hearsay knowledge (paroksha) is not firm, whereas that born of one’s own realisation (aparoksha) is firm. It is also said that hearing helps the intellectual understanding of the Truth, that meditation makes the understanding clear, and finally that contemplation brings about realisation of the Truth. Furthermore, they say also that all such knowledge is not firm and that it is firm only when it is as clear and intimate as a gooseberry in the hollow of one’s palm.

There are those who affirm that hearing alone will suffice, because a competent person who had already, perhaps in previous incarnations, qualified himself, realises and abides in peace as soon as he hears the Truth told him only once, whereas the person not so qualified must pass through the stages prescribed above, before falling into samadhi.

Ramana Maharshi - Enlightened enquiry alone leads to Liberation

Question - Is there any connection between the attainment of supernatural powers (siddhis) and Liberation (mukti)?
Ramana Maharshi - Enlightened enquiry alone leads to Liberation. Supernatural powers are all illusory appearances created by the power of maya (mayashakti). Self-realization which is permanent is the only true accomplishment (siddhi). Accomplishments which appear and disappear, being the effect of maya, cannot be real. They are accomplished with the object of enjoying fame, pleasures, etc. They come unsought to some persons through their karma. Know that union with Brahman is the real aim of all accomplishments. This is also the state of Liberation (aikya mukti) known as union (sayujya).

Ramana Maharshi : Free from the ‘I-am-the doer’ feeling in doing Work

Question : It has been definitely stated that so long as there is the least trace of the ‘I-am-the-doer’ idea, there can be no realisation, but is it possible for a householder who earnestly desires Liberation to fulfil his duties without this idea?
Ramana Maharshi : There is no principle that actions can be performed only on the basis of the ‘I-am-the-doer’ idea, and therefore there is no reason to ask whether they can be performed and the duties discharged without that idea.

To take a common example, an accountant working all day in his office and scrupulously attending to his duties might seem to the spectator to be shouldering all the financial responsibilities of the institution.

But, knowing that he is not personally affected by the intake or outgoings, he remains unattached and free from the ‘I-am-the doer’ feeling in doing his work, while at the same time he does it perfectly well. In the same way, it is quite possible for the wise householder who earnestly seeks liberation to discharge his duties in life (which, after all, are his destiny) without any attachment, regarding himself merely as an instrument for the purpose.

Such activity is not an obstacle on the path of Knowledge nor does Knowledge prevent a man from discharging his duties in life. Knowledge and activity are never mutually antagonistic and the realisation of one does not impede performance of the other, nor performance of one the realisation of the other.

Ramana Maharshi :Remember who you are. Then work will not bind you

Question : Is it possible to enjoy samadhi while busy with worldly work?
Ramana Maharshi : It is the feeling ‘I work’ that is the hindrance. Ask yourself: ‘Who works?’ Remember who you are. Then the work will not bind you. It will go on automatically. Make no effort either to work or to renounce; your effort is the bondage.

What is destined to happen will happen. If you are destined to work, you will not be able to avoid it; you will be forced to engage in it. So leave it to the Higher Power. It is not really your choice whether you renounce or retain.

When women carrying jars of water on their heads, stop to talk, they are very careful, keeping their mind on the water jars. Similarly, when a sage engages in activity, his mind remains fixed in the Self and his activity does not distract him

Ramana Maharshi : The feeling ‘I have nor Realised’ is Obstruction to Realisation

Devotee : If ‘I’ am always – here and now – why do I not feel so?
Ramana Maharshi : Who says that you do not? Does the real ‘I’ or the false ‘I’? Ask yourself and you will find that it is the false ‘I’. The false ‘I’ is the obstruction which has to be removed in order that the true ‘I’ may cease to be hidden.

The feeling ‘I have nor realised’ is the obstruction to realisation. In fact, it is already realised. There is nothing more to be realised. If there were, realisation would be something new which did not yet exist, but was to come about in the future; but whatever is born will also die.

If realisation is not eternal, it is not worth having. Therefore, what we seek is not something that must begin to exist but only that which is eternal but is veiled from us by obstructions. All that
we need do is to remove the obstruction. What is eternal is not recognised as such, owing to ignorance. Ignorance is the obstruction.

Get rid of it and all will be well. This ignorance is identical with the ‘I’-thought. Find its source and it will vanish. The ‘I’-thought is like a spirit which, although not palpable, rises up simultaneously with the body, flourishes with it and disappears with it.

The body-consciousness is the wrong ‘I’. Give it up. You can do so by seeking the source of ‘I’. The body does not say: ‘I am’. It is you who say ‘I am the body.’ Find out who this ‘I’ is. Seek its source and it will vanish.

Ramana Maharshi :Be the Self and that is bliss. You are always that.

Question : Why then do I feel unhappy when I am in Vellore and feel peace in your presence?
Ramana Maharshi : Can the feeling in this place be bliss? When you leave this place you say you are unhappy. Therefore this peace is not permanent, it is mixed with unhappiness which is felt in another place. Therefore you cannot find bliss in places and in periods of time. It must be permanent in order that it may be useful. It is your own being which is permanent. Be the Self and that is bliss. You are always that.

The Self is always realized. It is not necessary to seek to realize what is already and always realized. For you cannot deny your own existence. That existence is consciousness, the Self.
Unless you exist you cannot ask questions. So you must admit your own existence. That existence is the Self. It is already realized. Therefore the effort to realize results only in your realizing your present mistake - that you have not realized your Self. There is no fresh realization. The Self becomes revealed.

Ramana Maharshi : Is Mukti the same as Realization

Question : Is mukti the same as realization?
Ramana Maharshi : Mukti or liberation is our nature. It is another name for us. Our wanting mukti is a very funny thing. It is like a man who is in the shade, voluntarily leaving the shade, going into the sun, feeling the severity of the heat there, making great efforts to get back into the shade and then rejoicing, `How sweet is the shade! I have reached the shade at last!' We are all doing exactly the same. We are not different from the reality. We imagine we are different, that is we create the bheda bhava [the feeling of difference] and then undergo great sadhana [spiritual practices] to get rid of the bheda bhava and realize the oneness. Why imagine or create bheda bhava and then destroy it?

Ramana Maharshi : Why do I never remember that I am the Self

Question : Why do I never remember that I am the Self ?
Ramana Maharshi : People speak of memory and oblivion of the fullness of the Self. Oblivion and memory are only thought-forms. They will alternate so long as there are thoughts. But reality lies beyond these. Memory or oblivion must be dependent on something.

That something must be foreign to the Self as well, otherwise there would not be oblivion. That upon which memory and oblivion depend is the idea of the individual self. When one looks for it, this individual `I' is not found because it is not real. Hence this `I' is synonymous with illusion or ignorance (maya, avidya or ajnana]. To know that there never was ignorance is the goal of all the spiritual teachings. Ignorance must be of one who is aware. Awareness is jnana. Jnana is eternal and natural, ajnana is unnatural and unreal.

Ramana Maharshi : Why Knowledge of the Self so hard

Question : It is cruel of God's leela (play) to make the knowledge of the Self so hard.
Ramana Maharshi : Knowing the Self is being the Self, and being means existence, one's own existence. No one denies one's existence any more than one denies one's eyes, although one cannot see them. The trouble lies with your desire to objectify the Self, in the same way as you objectify your eyes when you place a mirror before them.

You have been so accustomed to objectivity that you have lost the knowledge of yourself, simply because the Self cannot be objectified. Who is to know the Self ? Can the insentient body know it? All the time you speak and think of your `I', yet when questioned you deny knowledge of it. You are the Self, yet you ask how to know the Self. Where then is God's leela and where is its cruelty ? Because of this denial of the Self by people the sastras speak of maya, leela, etc.

Ramana Maharshi : Is not sleep state nearer to pure Consciousness than the waking state

Question : Relatively speaking, is not the sleep state nearer to pure Consciousness than the waking state ?
Ramana Maharshi : Yes, in this sense: when passing from sleep to waking the `I'-thought [individual self] must start and the mind must come into play. Then thoughts arise and the functions of the body come into operation. All these together make us say that we are awake. The absence of all this evolution is the characteristic of sleep and therefore it is nearer to pure consciousness than the waking state.

But one should not therefore desire to be always in sleep. In the first place it is impossible, for it will necessarily alternate with the other states. Secondly it cannot be the state of bliss in which the jnani is, for his state is permanent and not alternating. Moreover, the sleep state is not recognized to be one of awareness by people, but the sage is always aware. Thus the sleep state differs from the state in which the sage is established.

Still more, the sleep state is free from thoughts and their impression on the individual. It cannot be altered by one's will because effort is impossible in that condition. Although nearer to pure consciousness, it is not fit for efforts to realize the Self.

Ramana Maharshi on How shall I reach the Self

Question : How shall I reach the Self?
Ramana Maharshi : There is no reaching the Self. If Self were to be reached, it would mean that the Self is not here and now and that it is yet to be obtained. What is got afresh will also be lost. So it will be impermanent. What is not permanent is not worth striving for. So I say the Self is not reached. You are the Self, you are already that.

The fact is, you are ignorant of your blissful state. Ignorance supervenes and draws a veil over the pure Self which is bliss. Attempts are directed only to remove this veil of ignorance which is merely wrong knowledge. The wrong knowledge is the false identification of the Self with the body and the mind. This false identification must go, and then the Self alone remains.

Therefore realization is for everyone; realization makes no difference between the aspirants. This very doubt, whether you can realize, and the notion `I-have-not-realized' are themselves the obstacles. Be free from these obstacles also.

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi : Samadhi is one's natural state

Question - But it is said in the Mandukyopanishad that samadhi must necessarily be experienced before attaining liberation.
Ramana Maharshi : And who says that it is not so? It is stated not only in the Mandukyopanishad but in all the ancient books. But it is true samadhi only if you know your Self. What is the use of sitting still for some time like a lifeless object. Suppose you get a boil on your hand and have it operated on under anaesthetic. You don't feel any pain at the time, but does that mean that you were in Samadhi ? It is the same with this too. One has to know what samadhi is.

And how can you know it without knowing your Self ? If the Self is known, samadhi will be known automatically. Samadhi is one's natural state. It is the undercurrent in all the three states of waking, dreaming and sleeping. The Self is not in these states, but these states are in the Self. If we get samadhi in our waking state, that will persist in deep sleep also. The distinction between consciousness and unconsciousness belongs to the realm of mind, which is transcended by the state of the real SeIf.

Ramana Maharshi on Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Nirvikalpa is chit - effortless, formless consciousness

Question : I have read in a book by Romain Rolland about Ramakrishna that nirvikalpa samadhi is a terrible and terrifying experience. Is nirvikalpa so terrible? Are we then undergoing all these tedious processes of meditation, purification and discipline only to end in a state of terror? Are we going to turn into living corpses?
Ramana Maharshi : People have all sorts of notions about nirvikalpa. Why speak of Romain Rolland? If those who have all the Upanishads and vedantic tradition at their disposal have fantastic notions about nirvikalpa, who can blame a westerner for similar notions? Some yogis by breathing exercises allow themselves to fall into a cataleptic state far deeper than dreamless sleep, in which they are aware of nothing, absolutely nothing, and they glorify it as nirvikalpa.

Some others think that once you dip into nirvikalpa you become an altogether different being. Still others take nirvikalpa to be attainable only through a trance in which the world-consciousness is totally obliterated, as in a fainting fit. All this is due to their viewing it intellectually.

Nirvikalpa is chit - effortless, formless consciousness. Where does the terror come in, and where is the mystery in being oneself ? To some people whose minds have become ripe from a long practice in the past, nirvikalpa comes suddenly as a flood, but to others it comes in the course of their spiritual practice, a practice which slowly wears down the obstructing thoughts and reveals the screen of pure awareness `I'-`I'. Further practice renders the screen permanently exposed. This is Self-realization, mukti, or sahaja samadhi, the natural, effortless state.

Mere non-perception of the differences [vikalpas] outside is not the real nature of firm nirvikalpa. Know that the non-rising of differences [vikalpas] in the dead mind alone is the true nirvikalpa.

Sahaja nirvikalpa is nasa, kevala nirvikalpa is laya

Question - How can one function in the world in such a state?
Ramana Maharshi : One who accustoms himself naturally to meditation and enjoys the bliss of meditation will not lose his samadhi state whatever external work he does, whatever thoughts may come to him. That is sahaja nirvikalpa. Sahaja nirvikalpa is nasa [total destruction of the mind] whereas kevala nirvikalpa is laya [temporary abeyance of the mind].

Those who are in the laya samadhi state will have to bring the mind back under control from time to time. If the mind is destroyed, as it is in sahaja samadhi, it will never sprout again. Whatever is done by such people is just incidental, they will never slide down from their high state.

Those that are in the kevala nirvikalpa state are not realized, they are still seekers. Those who are in the sahaja nirvikalpa state are like a light in a windless place, or the ocean without waves; that is, there is no movement in them. They cannot find anything which is different from themselves. For those who do not reach that state, everything appears to be different from themselves.

Ramana Maharshi :physical disturbances during Nirvikalpa Samadhi

Question - Can the meditator be affected by physical disturbances during nirvikalpa samadhi? My friend and I disagree on this point.
Ramana Maharshi : Both of you are right. One of you is referring to kevala and the other to sahaja samadhi. In both cases the mind is immersed in the bliss of the Self. In the former, physical movements may cause disturbance to the meditator, because the mind has not completely died out. It is still alive and can, as after deep sleep, at any moment be active again.

It is compared to a bucket, which, although completely submerged under water, can be pulled out by a rope which is still attached to it. In sahaja, the mind has sunk completely into the Self, like the bucket which has got drowned in the depths of the well along with its rope. In sahaja there is nothing left to be disturbed or pulled back to the world. One's activities then resemble that of the child who sucks its mother's milk in sleep, and is hardly aware of the feeding.

Ramana Maharshi : difference between deep sleep, laya and samadhi

Question - What is the difference between deep sleep, laya [a trancelike state in which the mind is temporarily in abeyance] and samadhi?
Ramana Maharshi : In deep sleep the mind is merged and not destroyed. That which merges reappears. It may happen in meditation also. But the mind which is destroyed cannot reappear. The yogi's aim must be to destroy it and not to sink into laya. In the peace of meditation, laya sometimes ensues but it is not enough.

It must be supplemented by other practices for destroying the mind. Some people have gone into yogic samadhi with a trifling thought and after a long time awakened in the trail of the same thought. In the meantime generations have passed in the world. Such a yogi has not destroyed his mind. The true destruction of the mind is the non-recognition of it as being apart from the Self. Even now the mind is not. Recognise it. How can you do it if not in everyday activities which go on automatically? Know that the mind promoting them is not real but is only a phantom proceeding from the Self. That is how the mind is destroyed.

Ramana Maharshi :the samadhi I speak of is sahaja samadhi

Question - Is samadhi, the eighth stage of raja yoga, the same as the samadhi you speak of ?
Ramana Maharshi : In yoga the term samadhi refers to some kind of trance and there are various kinds of samadhi. But the samadhi I speak of is different. It is sahaja samadhi. From here you have samadhana [steadiness] and you remain calm and composed even while you are active.

You realize that you are moved by the deeper real Self within. You have no worries, no anxieties, no cares, for you come to realize that there is nothing belonging to you. You know that everything is done by something with which you are in conscious union.

Ramana Maharshi : bliss enjoyed in sleep and the bliss enjoyed in turiya

question - What is the difference between the bliss enjoyed in sleep and the bliss enjoyed in turiya?
Ramana Maharshi : There are not different blisses. There is only one bliss which includes the bliss enjoyed in the waking state, the bliss of all kinds of beings from the lowest animal to the highest Brahma. That bliss is the bliss of the Self. The bliss which is enjoyed unconsciously in sleep is enjoyed consciously in turiya, that is the only difference. The bliss enjoyed in the waking state is second-hand, it is an adjunct of the real bliss [upadhi ananda].

Ramana Maharshi - Is samadhi the same as turiya, the fourth state

Question : Is samadhi the same as turiya, the fourth state?
Ramana Maharshi : Samadhi, turiya and nirvikalpa all have the same implication, that is, awareness of the Self. Turiya literally means the fourth state, the supreme consciousness, as distinct from the other three states: waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. The fourth state is eternal and the other three states come and go in it.

In turiya there is the awareness that the mind has merged in its source, the Heart, and is quiescent there, although some thoughts still impinge on it and the senses are still somewhat active. In nirvikalpa the senses are inactive and thoughts are totally absent. Hence the experience of pure consciousness in this state is intense and blissful. Turiya is obtainable in savikalpa samadhi.