http://bhagavan-ramana.org/ramana_maharshi/books/letters/letter073.html
....... an Andhra gentleman questioned Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi:
“You say the important thing to do is to enquire and find out who I am,
but how is one to find it out? Are we to do japam saying, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’
or should we repeat, ‘Neti’ (not this)? I want to know the exact method, Swami.”
After waiting for a while Bhagavan said,
“What is there to find out? Who is to find out?
There must be some one to find out, mustn’t there?
Who is that someone? Where has that someone come from?
This is the thing to find out first.”
The questioner said, again, “Should there not be some sadhana to find out who one’s self is? Which sadhana will be useful?”
“Yes, it is that that has to be found out. If you ask where to see,
we should say, look within, what is its shape, how was it born, and where was it born;
that is what you have to see or enquire,” said Bhagavan.
The questioner asked again,
“If we ask where this ‘I’ is born, the ancients say, it is in the heart.
How could we see that?”
“Yes, we have to see the heart itself. If you want to see it; the mind must get submerged completely. It is no use doing japam with the words, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’
nor by repeating the words ‘Neti, Neti’,” said Bhagavan.
When the questioner said, that was exactly what he was unable to do,
Bhagavan replied, “Yes, that is so. That is the difficulty.
We always exist and are in all places.
This body and all other attendant things are gathered around us by ourselves only.
There is no difficulty in gathering them. The real difficulty is in throwing them out. We find it difficult to see what is inhering in us and what is foreign to us.
See, what a great tragedy it is,” said Bhagavan.
Some time ago, when a Bengali youth asked similar questions, Bhagavan explained to him at great length. His doubts not being cleared, that youth asked, “You say that the Self is present at all times and at all places. Where exactly is that ‘I’?”
Bhagavan replied with a smile, “When I say you are present at all times and at all places and you ask where is that ‘I’, it is something like asking, when you are in Tiruvannamalai, ‘Where is Tiruvannamalai?’
When you are everywhere, where are you to search? The real delusion is the feeling that you are the body. When you get rid of that delusion, what remains is your Self. You should search for a thing which is not with you but where is the need to search for a thing which is always with you? All sadhanas are for getting rid of the delusion that you are the body. The knowledge that ‘I am’ is always there: call it Atma, or Paramatma or whatever you like. One should get rid of the idea that ‘I am the body’. There is no need to search for that ‘I’ that is the self. That Self is all-pervading.”
*******************
As an illustration of this, I give hereunder the words of Bhagavan in “Unnadhi Nalupadhi”:
Without the Self where is time and where is space?
If we are the body, we have to be bound by time and space. Are we the body?
We are one and identical now, then and always; here, there and everywhere.
So, we are existent, without time and space.” (Reality in Forty Verses, verse 16 )
==========
What are the marks of the Guru’s grace?
It is beyond words or thoughts.
If that is so, how is it that it is said that the disciple realises his true state by the Guru’s grace?
It is like the elephant which wakes up on seeing a lion in its dream.
Even as the elephant wakes up at the mere sight of the lion, so too is it certain that the disciple wakes up from the sleep of ignorance into the wakefulness of true knowledge through the Guru’s benevolent look of grace.
How can there be a connection between the Self which is
pure knowledge and the triple factors which are relative knowledge?
This is, in a way, like the working of a cinema.
The Cinema:
1) The lamp inside (the apparatus) = The Self.
2) The lens in front of the lamp = The pure (sattvic) mind close to the Self
3) The film which is a long series of separate photos = The stream of latent tendencies consisting of subtle thoughts.
4) The lens, the light passing through it and the lamp, which together form the focused light = The mind, the illumination of it and the Self, which together form the seer or the jjva.
5) The light passing through the lens and falling on the screen = The light of the Self emerging from the mind through the senses, and falling on the world
6) The various kinds of pictures appearing in the light of the screen = The various forms and names appearing as the objects perceived in the light of the world
7) The mechanism which sets the film in motion = The divine law manifesting the latent tendencies of the mind.
***
....... an Andhra gentleman questioned Bhagavan Ramana Maharishi:
“You say the important thing to do is to enquire and find out who I am,
but how is one to find it out? Are we to do japam saying, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’
or should we repeat, ‘Neti’ (not this)? I want to know the exact method, Swami.”
After waiting for a while Bhagavan said,
“What is there to find out? Who is to find out?
There must be some one to find out, mustn’t there?
Who is that someone? Where has that someone come from?
This is the thing to find out first.”
The questioner said, again, “Should there not be some sadhana to find out who one’s self is? Which sadhana will be useful?”
“Yes, it is that that has to be found out. If you ask where to see,
we should say, look within, what is its shape, how was it born, and where was it born;
that is what you have to see or enquire,” said Bhagavan.
The questioner asked again,
“If we ask where this ‘I’ is born, the ancients say, it is in the heart.
How could we see that?”
“Yes, we have to see the heart itself. If you want to see it; the mind must get submerged completely. It is no use doing japam with the words, ‘Who am I? Who am I?’
nor by repeating the words ‘Neti, Neti’,” said Bhagavan.
When the questioner said, that was exactly what he was unable to do,
Bhagavan replied, “Yes, that is so. That is the difficulty.
We always exist and are in all places.
This body and all other attendant things are gathered around us by ourselves only.
There is no difficulty in gathering them. The real difficulty is in throwing them out. We find it difficult to see what is inhering in us and what is foreign to us.
See, what a great tragedy it is,” said Bhagavan.
Some time ago, when a Bengali youth asked similar questions, Bhagavan explained to him at great length. His doubts not being cleared, that youth asked, “You say that the Self is present at all times and at all places. Where exactly is that ‘I’?”
Bhagavan replied with a smile, “When I say you are present at all times and at all places and you ask where is that ‘I’, it is something like asking, when you are in Tiruvannamalai, ‘Where is Tiruvannamalai?’
When you are everywhere, where are you to search? The real delusion is the feeling that you are the body. When you get rid of that delusion, what remains is your Self. You should search for a thing which is not with you but where is the need to search for a thing which is always with you? All sadhanas are for getting rid of the delusion that you are the body. The knowledge that ‘I am’ is always there: call it Atma, or Paramatma or whatever you like. One should get rid of the idea that ‘I am the body’. There is no need to search for that ‘I’ that is the self. That Self is all-pervading.”
*******************
As an illustration of this, I give hereunder the words of Bhagavan in “Unnadhi Nalupadhi”:
Without the Self where is time and where is space?
If we are the body, we have to be bound by time and space. Are we the body?
We are one and identical now, then and always; here, there and everywhere.
So, we are existent, without time and space.” (Reality in Forty Verses, verse 16 )
==========
What are the marks of the Guru’s grace?
It is beyond words or thoughts.
If that is so, how is it that it is said that the disciple realises his true state by the Guru’s grace?
It is like the elephant which wakes up on seeing a lion in its dream.
Even as the elephant wakes up at the mere sight of the lion, so too is it certain that the disciple wakes up from the sleep of ignorance into the wakefulness of true knowledge through the Guru’s benevolent look of grace.
How can there be a connection between the Self which is
pure knowledge and the triple factors which are relative knowledge?
This is, in a way, like the working of a cinema.
The Cinema:
1) The lamp inside (the apparatus) = The Self.
2) The lens in front of the lamp = The pure (sattvic) mind close to the Self
3) The film which is a long series of separate photos = The stream of latent tendencies consisting of subtle thoughts.
4) The lens, the light passing through it and the lamp, which together form the focused light = The mind, the illumination of it and the Self, which together form the seer or the jjva.
5) The light passing through the lens and falling on the screen = The light of the Self emerging from the mind through the senses, and falling on the world
6) The various kinds of pictures appearing in the light of the screen = The various forms and names appearing as the objects perceived in the light of the world
7) The mechanism which sets the film in motion = The divine law manifesting the latent tendencies of the mind.
***
Just as the pictures appear on the screen as long as the film throws the shadows through the lens, so the phenomenal world will continue to appear to the individual in the waking and dream states as long as there are latent mental impressions. Just as the lens magnifies the tiny specks on the film to a huge size and as a number of pictures are shown in a second, so the mind enlarges the sprout-like tendencies into treelike thoughts and shows, in a second, innumerable worlds. Again, just as there is only the light of the lamp visible when there is no film, so the Self alone shines without the triple factors when the mental concepts in the form of tendencies are absent in the states of deep sleep, swoon and samadhi. Just as the lamp illumines the lens, etc. while remaining unaffected, the Self illumines the ego (Chidabhasa) etc., while Itself remaining unaffected.
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