Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi Complete ... - BrahminVoice.org

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
M.: Just as the honey gathered from different flowers forms the bulk
in a honeycomb, and each drop does not indicate wherefrom it has
been collected, so also sat sampannah in deep sleep, death, etc.,
people do not recognise their individualities. They slip into that
state unawares. But when they wake up they regain their original
individual characteristics.
D.: Honey, though collected from different flowers, becomes the bulk
and does not possess individual characteristics. But the individual
parts do not also exist in the drops and they do not return to their
sources. Whereas the individuals after going to deep sleep wake
up individuals as formerly. How is it?
M.: Just as the rivers discharged into the ocean lose their individualities,
still the waters evaporate and return as rain on the hills and through
rivers to the ocean, so also the individuals going to sleep lose
their individualities and yet return as individuals according to their
previous vasanas unawares. Thus, even in death, sat is not lost.
D.: How can that be?
M.: See how a tree, whose branches are cut, grows again. So long as
the life-source is not affected it will grow. Similarly the samskaras
(anamneses) sink into the heart in death: they do not perish. They
will in right time sprout forth from the heart. That is how the jivas
are reborn.
D.: How does the wide universe sprout forth from such subtle
samskaras remaining sunk in the heart?
M.: Just as a big banyan tree sprouts from a tiny seed, so the wide
universe with names and forms sprouts forth from the heart.
D.: If the origin is sat why is it not felt?
M.: The salt in the lump is visible; it is invisible in solution. Still its existence
is known by taste. Similarly sat, though not recognised by the intellect,
can still be realised in a different way, i.e., transcendentally.
D.: How?
M.: Just as a man blindfolded and left by robbers in a jungle enquires
his way home and returns there, so also the ignorant one (blinded
by ignorance) enquires of those not so blinded and seeks his own
source and returns to it.
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