Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi (Arkana S.)

by Ramana Maharshi

Q: In what sense is happiness or bliss [ananda] our real nature? A: Perfect bliss is Brahman. Perfect peace is of the Self. That alone exists and is consciousness.24 That which is called happiness is only the nature of Self; Self is not other than perfect happiness. That which is called happiness alone exists. Knowing that fact and abiding in the state of Self, enjoy bliss eternally.25

For the benefit of those in the top two categories Sri Ramana taught that the Self alone exists and that it can be directly and consciously experienced merely by ceasing to pay attention to the wrong ideas we have about ourselves. These wrong ideas he collectively called the ‘not-Self’ since they are an imaginary accretion of wrong notions and misperceptions which effectively veil the true experience of the real Self.

Truly there is no cause for you to be miserable and unhappy. You yourself impose limitations on your true nature of infinite being, and then weep that you are but a finite creature. Then you take up this or that spiritual practice to transcend the non-existent limitations. But if your spiritual practice itself assumes the existence of the limitations, how can it help you to transcend them?

All that is required of you is to give up the thought that you are this body and to give up all thoughts of the external things or the not-Self.

Q: Why is this mental bondage so persistent? A: The nature of bondage is merely the rising, ruinous thought ‘I am different from the reality’. Since one surely cannot remain separate from the reality, reject that thought whenever it rises.

According to Sri Ramana, every conscious activity of the mind or body revolves around the tacit assumption that there is an ‘I’ who is doing something.

This ‘I am the body’ idea is the primary source of all subsequent wrong identifications and its dissolution is the principal aim of self-enquiry.

Since the individual ‘I’-thought cannot exist without an object, if attention is focused on the subjective feeling of ‘I’ or ‘I am’ with such intensity that the thoughts ‘I am this’ or ‘I am that’ do not arise, then the individual ‘I’ will be unable to connect with objects. If this awareness of ‘I’ is sustained, the individual ‘I’ (the ‘I’-thought) will disappear and in its place there will be a direct experience of the Self.

The mind is nothing other than the ‘I’-thought. The mind and the ego are one and the same. The other mental faculties such as the intellect and the memory are only this.

From where does this ‘I’ arise? Seek for it within; it then vanishes. This is the pursuit of wisdom. When the mind unceasingly investigates its own nature, it transpires that there is no such thing as mind. This is the direct path for all. The mind is merely thoughts. Of all thoughts the thought ‘I’ is the root. Therefore the mind is only the thought ‘I’.

Get rid of the ‘I’-thought. So long as ‘I’ is alive there is grief. When ‘I’ ceases to exist there is no grief.

It is not an exercise in concentration, nor does it aim at suppressing thoughts; it merely invokes awareness of the source from which the mind springs.

The method and goal of self-enquiry is to abide in the source of the mind and to be aware of what one really is by withdrawing attention and interest from what one is not.

While his hands are in society, he keeps his head cool in solitude.

The awareness is the ‘I’.

All that is required is to look closely and the ghost vanishes. The ghost was never there. So also with the ego.

On one occasion the groom's party wanted to refer to him on some point and so they asked the bride's party about him. Immediately he scented trouble and made himself scarce. So it is with the ego. If looked for, it disappears. If not, it continues to give trouble.

Peace is your natural state. It is the mind that obstructs the natural state. If you do not experience peace it means that your vichara has been made only in the mind. Investigate what the mind is, and it will disappear.

Be what you are. There is nothing to come down or become manifest. All that is necessary is to lose the ego. That which is is always there. Even now you are that.

This knowledge of oneself will be revealed only to the consciousness which is silent, clear and free from the activity of the agitated and suffering mind. Know that the consciousness which always shines in the Heart as the formless Self, ‘I’, and which is known by one's being still without thinking about anything as existent or non-existent, alone is the perfect reality.

Instead he stressed that true surrender transcended worshipping God in a subject – object relationship since it could only be successfully accomplished when the one who imagined that he was separate from God had ceased to exist.

To achieve this goal he recommended two distinct practices: Holding on to the ‘I’-thought until the one who imagines that he is separate from God disappears. Completely surrendering all responsibility for one's life to God or the Self. For such self-surrender to be effective one must have no will or desire of one' own and one must be completely free of the idea that there is an individual person who is capable of acting independently of God.

Q: How does this silent power work? A: Language is only a medium for communicating one's thoughts to another. It is called in only after thoughts arise. Other thoughts arise after the ‘I’-thought rises and so the ‘I’-thought is the root of all conversation. When one remains without thinking one understands another by means of the universal language of silence.

Similarly also, silence is the eternal flow of language, obstructed by words.

Contemplate in the background of your mind even whilst working. To do that, do not hurry, take your own time. Keep the remembrance of your real nature alive, even while working, and avoid haste which causes you to forget. Be deliberate. Practise meditation to still the mind and cause it to become aware of its true relationship to the Self which supports it. 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 the current. If you work unhurriedly, recollectedly, your work or service need not be a hindrance.

Q: Is it harmless to continue smoking? A: No, for tobacco is a poison. It is better to do without it. It is good that you have given up smoking. Men are enslaved by tobacco and cannot give it up. But tobacco only gives a temporary stimulation to which there must be a reaction with craving for more. It is also not good for meditation practice.

Q: Generally speaking, what are the rules of conduct which an aspirant should follow? A: Moderation in food, moderation in sleep and moderation in speech.

Q: Is samadhi an experience of calmness or peace? A: The tranquil clarity, which is devoid of mental turmoil, alone is the samadhi which is the firm base for liberation. By earnestly trying to destroy the deceptive mental turmoil, experience that samadhi as the peaceful consciousness which is inner clarity.15

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 Self.

Which is the real power? Is it to increase prosperity or bring about peace? That which results in peace is the highest perfection [siddhi].

Actually, one is always in samadhi but one does not know it. To know it all one has to do is to remove the obstacles.

Meditation is not so much thinking of the Self as giving up thinking of the not-Self. When you give up thinking of outward objects and prevent your mind from going outwards by turning it inwards and fixing it in the Self, the Self alone remains.

The degree of freedom from unwanted thoughts and the degree of concentration on a single thought are the measures to gauge the progress.

Again, does the world come and ask you ‘Why do “I” exist? How was “I” created?’ It is you who ask the question. The questioner must establish the relationship between the world and himself. He must admit that the world is his own imagination. Who imagines it? Let him again find the ‘I' and then the Self.

When one sees the world, one does not see oneself. When one sees the Self, the world is not seen. So see the Self and realise that there has been no creation.

Sankara was criticised for his views on maya without being understood. He said that (1) Brahman is real, (2) the universe is unreal, and (3) The universe is Brahman. He did not stop at the second, because the third explains the other two. It signifies that the universe is real if perceived as the Self, and unreal if perceived apart from the Self. Hence maya and reality are one and the same.

When once he realises his own Self he will know that there is nothing other than his own Self and he will come to look upon the whole universe as Brahman.

Just as fire is obscured by smoke, the shining light of consciousness is obscured by the assemblage of names and forms, the world.

The world neither exists by itself, nor is it conscious of its existence. How can you say that such a world is real? And what is the nature of the world? It is perpetual change, a continuous, interminable flux. A dependent, unself-conscious, ever-changing world cannot be real.

The stationary appearance is an error of perception.

Real rebirth is dying from the ego into the spirit.

It should now be clear that there is neither real birth, nor real death. It is the mind which creates and maintains the illusion of reality in this process, till it is destroyed by Self-realisation.

It is the mind that creates the illusion of separateness and it is the mind that suffers the consequences of its illusory inventions.

Suffering is thus a product and consequence of the discriminative mind; when the mind is eliminated, suffering is found to be non-existent.

True surrender is love of God for the sake of love and nothing else, not even for the sake of liberation. In other words, complete effacement of the ego is necessary to conquer destiny, whether you achieve this effacement through self-enquiry or through bhakti marga.