Conscious Immortality

by Paul Brunton

Maharshi said real attainment was to be FULLY CONSCIOUS, to be aware of your surroundings and the people around, to move among them all, but not to merge your consciousness in the environment. Remain in your inner independent awareness of IT. That is the highest — not to sit in trance which merely halts the mind. The mind must be destroyed entirely, not merely arrested.

Meditation on Self is the direct, quickest and right route to realisation. The Upanishads declare, “That which sees not, hears not, thinks not, that is the ‘Infinite’.”

Mature minds alone can grasp the simple truth in all its nakedness.

What is pranayama? A. Prana is equivalent to Self, Soul, Atma etc. as it is the life-current or whatever name you give it. Pranayama is the control of the body, the senses and the intellect through the breath. Mind is thus controlled and thus dies down with this practice. Mind and prana originate from the same source. By control of breath the mind subsides and then an unconscious blank state is produced, a swoon or trance-like death. Although that state is the natural state, the man who has not controlled the mind is dazed and is merged in it. It is a state of great peace, true, but it is temporary, and when it ends the yogi wants to get it back again and so he does his breath control again. It is necessary for him to go beyond pranayama and to gain direct-control of the mind, and thus practise a permanent peace, sahaja samadhi — not merely temporary samadhi. The thing is to get the capacity to bring mind to peace, to make it still, and not allow it to wander. For that pranayama is given out as instruction. Retention of breath leads to contemplation but that is for the advanced man. Puraka [inhalation] is the beginning, then comes kumbhaka [retention] and last is rechaka [exhalation]. Pranayama is useful only in so far as it helps to get mind-control. For those who seek mental peace this is enough, but there is a highly-detailed, complicated pranayama for those who seek siddhis — occult powers.

If it is difficult to control the mind, there is control by breath, which comes from practice alone. Otherwise by association with the wise the mind comes under control spontaneously. Such is the greatness of satsanga (association with the wise).

Q. What path do you advise? We need your Grace. A. “Be still, do not think, and know that I am.”

An elephant when free puts its trunk here and there and looks restless. If a chain is given to it the trunk holds it without being turned this way and that, as before. In just the same way, the mind is restless if it has no aim; if an aim is fixed, the mind is restful.

Q. What is the best way to get rid of thoughts? A. Is it the mind that tries to kill itself? How can the thief catch himself? It can’t be. So the best way is to try to realise your real nature, what you really are. When we see our Self then there are no thoughts to be got rid of. [Talk 146]

Who is the meditator? Ask that question first. Remain as the meditator. There is then no need to meditate. It is the sense of doership that is the impediment to dhyana.

Q. I find concentration difficult. A. Go on practising. Your concentration must come as easy as breathing. Fix yourself to some one thing and try to hold on to it. All will come right. [Talk

Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps away other thoughts. The dissipated mind is a sign of its weakness. By constant meditation it gains strength, i.e. gives up its weakness of fugitive thoughts.

Q. What is renunciation? A. Giving up the ego. Q. Is it not giving up possessions? A. The possessor too. [Talk 164]

So long as one thinks that he is a sannyasi, he is not one. So long as one does not think of world-illusion, he is not worldly, but is a real sannyasi. [Talk 283]

Dive boldly within you. These will not hinder you. It is the thinking of hindrances that forms a serious hindrance.

A cow accustomed to graze thievishly on others’ estates, is not easily confined to its shed. However, its keeper tempts it with luscious grass and fine fodder. It refuses the first time; then it takes a bit, but its innate tendency to stray asserts itself and it slips away. On being repeatedly tempted by the owner, it accustoms itself to the stall; finally even if let loose, it would not stray. Similarly with the mind. If once it finds its happiness within, it will not dwell outward.

“Be still and know that I am God.” As soon as you try to obey this counsel, there will start a regular war with your tendencies, with the ingrained natural habits.

How to get rid of these hindrances? A. Find out the Self through meditation in this manner. Trace every thought back to its origin which is the mind; never allow thought to go on, if it does, it will be unending; take it back to its source which is mind, and they (thoughts and mind) will die of inaction, for the mind only exists by thought, take away thought and there is no mind. As each doubt and depression arises ask yourself, “Who is it that doubts? Who is it that is depressed?” Tear everything away until there is nothing but the source left. Live only in the present.

Q. When we fall from the path what is to be done? A. It will come all right in the end. There is the steady determination that gets you on your feet again after a downfall or break. Gradually the obstacles get weaker and your current stronger. Everything comes right in the end. Steady determination is the thing required. [Talk 29]

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Time and space are within us. [Talk 127] Time is only an idea. There is only the Reality. Whatever you think of it, it looks like that. If you call it time, it is time. If you call it existence, it is existence, and some after calling it time divide it into days, months and years. The Reality cannot be new. It must exist even now; and it does exist. There is in that state, no present, nor past, nor future. It is beyond time. It is ever there. Sri Krishna says, “I am Time.” Can Time have a shape? Even the universal vision shown by Krishna to Arjuna on the physical plane is absurd. The seer is also in the seen. Even a mesmerist can make one see strange scenes. You call this a trick but the other one, divine. Why this difference? Anything seen cannot be real. That is the truth.

The Universe is only an idea. It is the Heart that takes all these forms. That is called the Witness wherein no ego or sense of personality remains. Appar (a great Tamil saint) was old and decrepit, yet he began to travel to Mount Kailas. Another old man appeared on the way and tried to dissuade him from the attempt saying that it was difficult to reach there. Appar was obstinate. The stranger then asked him to take a dip in a tank close by. Appar did so and found Kailas then and there. Where did this happen? In Tiruvaiyar, a place nine miles from Tanjore. If Tiruvaiyar be truly Kailas it must appear so to others also. But Appar alone found it so. Similarly other places of pilgrimage in the South are said to be abodes of Siva. Devotees found them so. It is true from their standpoints. Everything is within. There is nothing without.

When news of the death of King George V was brought to the Ashram, Chadwick’s eyes filled with tears, and the other disciples commiserated half-weepingly with him in sympathy. Maharshi at last broke in, after having remained silent throughout: “You unwise persons!” he exclaimed. “You may even die to find out your real Self, and then may live without death. Why then do you care for the death of a third person? The Self does not perish, only the body, anyway. Be rid of your materialistic outlooks.”

Q. What is death? A. Death is intervening sleep between two successive births while sleep intervenes between two waking states (jagrats)and both are transient.

How to control the mind? A. Mind is intangible. In fact, it does not exist. The surest way of control, is to seek it. Then its activities cease. [Talk 194] Seek the mind. On being sought, it will disappear. The mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thoughts arise because there is the thinker. The thinker is the ego. The ego, if sought, will vanish automatically. The ego and the mind are the same. [Talk 195]

A passenger in a railway train keeps his load on the head by his own folly. Let him drop it down; he will find the load reaching his destination all the same. Similarly let us not pose as the doers, but resign ourselves to the Guiding Power.

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So long as there is the sense of separation, there will be afflicting thoughts. If the original source is regained and the sense of separation is ended, there is peace. Consider what happens when a stone is thrown up. It leaves its source, is propelled up, tries to come down and is always in motion until it regains its source where it is at rest. So also the waters of the ocean evaporate, form clouds which are moved by winds, condense into water, and fall as rain, and the waters roll down the hill tops in streams and rivers until they reach their original source, the ocean, reaching which they are at peace. Thus you see where there is a sense of separateness from the source, there is agitation and movement until the sense of separateness is lost. So it is with yourself. Now that you identify yourself with the body, you think that you are separate. You must regain your source before this false identity ceases and you are happy. Gold is not an ornament but the ornament is nothing but gold. Whatever shapes the ornament may assume and however different the shapes of the ornaments are, there is only one reality, i.e. gold. So also with the bodies and the Self. The reality is the Self. To identify oneself with the body and yet to seek happiness, is like attempting to ford a lake on the back of an alligator. The body identity is due to extroversion and the wandering of the mind. To continue in that state will only keep one in an endless tangle and there will be no peace.

The quest ‘Who am I?’ is the axe to cut off the ego.

The intellect always seeks to have external knowledge, leaving knowledge of its own origin.

Conscious death is the purpose of evolution, and conscious immortality whilst still in the flesh.

story which will be of great help to you in the improvement of your knowledge. In the ancient forest, there lived an elephant, the hugest and loftiest of his kind. Certain mahouts of the forest associated with, and entrapped, this elephant whose tusks were exceedingly long, sharp and strong, and fettered it with strong iron chains. “The elephant was made to go through all kinds of torture and hardships by the mahout. Becoming infuriated with its painful fetters, it shook itself free by the aid of powerful tusks. The mahout, in the howdah above, seeing this, became giddy, and fell to the ground. The tusker, finding him upon the ground, passed by without hurting him. “But the driver, picking himself up with unappeased passion, went again in quest of the elephant, which he found in the midst of the forest. There he dug a trench, covering it up with dry leaves and grass. The elephant, after roaming through the forest, came at length to the place where the trench was, and fell into it. “Instantly the mahout made it fast. Thus again was the elephant subjected to torture. Had this creature, killed his enemy at the time when the mahout lay before it, it would not again have fallen into the trap, nor have been thus again agitated. Likewise, those who make no enquiry concerning the good and evil of the future, will come to grief.” Chudala illustrated Sikhidwaja’s error by this story. He had vairagya even while ruling his kingdom and could have realised the Self if only he had pushed...

In the deep sleep state we lay down our ego [ahankara],our thoughts and our desires. If we could only do all this while we are conscious, we would realise the Self. The best form of dhyana or meditation is when it continues not merely in waking but extends to the dream and deep sleep states. The meditation must be so intense as not even to give room for the consciousness of the idea “I am meditating.” As waking and dreaming are fully occupied by the dhyana of such a person deep sleep may be considered to be part of the dhyana.

Just at nightfall the hen, crows and the chicks hide in its wings, the hen then roosts in the nest with the chicks under her protection, at the dawn the chicks come out and so does the hen. Just so, the mother symbolises the ego which collects all the thoughts and goes to sleep. At sunrise they emerge again. Thus when the ego displays itself it does so with all its components, when it sinks, everything disappears with it.

You, who slept, are also now awake. There was no unhappiness in your sleep, whereas it is present now. What is it that has happened now, so that this difference is experienced? There was no I-thought in your sleep whereas it is present now. The true ‘I’ is not apparent and the false I is parading. This false I is the obstacle to your right knowledge. Find out where from this false I arises. That will disappear. You will be only what you are, i.e. absolute Being. Search for the source of I-thought. That is all that one has to do. The Universe is on account of the I-thought. If that ends, there ends misery also. The false I will end only when its source is sought.

In deep sleep you exist without ego; then you are free of doubts. Only now, in waking state, ego rises and you have doubts. In deep sleep you are happy; in waking state you are unhappy. Find out that state of deep sleep, whence you have come.

the process of finding Self is a form of Divine Magnetism. It is necessary to practise meditation frequently and regularly until the condition induced becomes habitual and permanent throughout the day. Therefore meditate.

‘Knowing’ means ‘being’. It is not relative knowledge. [Talk 354] Progress can be spoken of in reference to things to be attained. Whereas here it is the removal of ignorance and the not the acquisition of knowledge. [Talk 49]

Yoga is similar because both help concentration of mind. Yoga aims at union of the individual with the Universal Reality. Yoga is itself an aid to Self-realisation, the Goal of all. This Reality cannot be new. It must exist even now. Therefore jnana tries to find out how separation came about.

Your nature is ananda. Ignorance is now hiding that ananda. Remove the ignorance for ananda to be freed.

While reading a book while your eyes follow the lines, your heart should be in the One.

When women walk with water pots on their heads, they are able to talk with their companions and all the while they are intent on the water above. Similarly when a sage engages in activities, they do not disturb him because his mind abides in Brahman.

The difficulty is that man thinks he is the doer; it is a mistake. It is the higher power which does everything and man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles, otherwise he courts them.

All aims, aspirations, desire to serve humanity, schemes to reform the world — cast them all upon the Universal Power (God) which sustains this universe. He is not a fool. He will do what is required. Do you lose the sense ‘I am doing this’? Get rid of the egoism. Do not think you are the person to effect any reform. Leave these aims latent. Let God attend to them. Then by getting rid of egoism, God may use you as an instrument to effect them, but the difference is that you will not be conscious of doing them; the infinite will be working through you and there will be no self-worship to spoil the work. Otherwise there is desire for name or fame and one serves the personal Self rather than humanity.

Yes, they are rajasic, the energy going outwards. We must be inwardly quiet, not forgetting the Self. Then externally we can go on with our action. Does a man who is acting on the stage in a female part, forget that he is a man? Similarly we too must play our parts on the stage of life, but we must not identify ourselves with those parts. You may carry on with your government work; you may continue to live the married life in the world as before. You may assume the stage which transcends all stages, only do not forget the One. Keep your mind on that all the time, whatever you happen to be doing.

The purpose of one’s birth will be fulfilled by itself.

Gradually concentration will become pleasant and easy and you will be in that state whether attending to business or whether you sit expressly for meditation. Business will be all the more easier for you, when your mind is steadied and strengthened by concentration.

The sea is not aware of its wave. Similarly the Self is not aware of its ego. [Talk 47] While the Maharshi was going down the hill, some sweepers were at their work. One of them stopped work and was about to prostrate before Maharshi. The latter said: “To engage in your duty is the true namaskar. To perform one’s duty carefully is the greatest service to God.”

Gita taught man should act by letting the Universal act through him.

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Q. How can I help others? A. What other is there for you to help? Who is the ‘I’ that is to help others. First clear that point and then everything settles itself.

Do not imagine it is you who are doing the work. Think that it is the underlying current which is doing it. Identify yourself with this current. If you work unhurriedly, recollectedly, your work or service need not be a hindrance.

Krishna in the Gita really told Arjuna to be fixed in Self and act according to nature, without the thought of doer-ship. Then the results of actions would not affect him. Thus inherence in the Self is the sum of Gita’s teaching. Even if interpreted as a duty and action, it means to act as tool of a Higher Power.

Q. We are men living in the world and have one kind of grief or another. We pray for help and still are not satisfied. What to do? A. Trust God. If you surrender you must be able to abide by His will and not make grievance of what may not please you. Things may turn out different from what they are in appearance. Distress often leads men to faith in God.