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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
D.: From where did ignorance come?
M.: There is no such thing as ignorance. It never arises. Everyone
is Knowledge itself. Only Knowledge does not shine easily. The
dispelling of ignorance is Wisdom which always exists - e.g., the
necklace remaining round the neck though supposed to have been
lost; or each of the ten fools failing to count himself and counting
only the others. To whom is knowledge or ignorance?
D.: Can we not proceed from external to internal?
M.: Is there any difference like that? Do you feel the difference -
external and internal - in your sleep? This difference is only with
reference to the body and arises with body-consciousness (‘Ithought’).
The so-called waking state is itself an illusion.
Turn your vision inward and then the whole world will be full of
Supreme Spirit. The world is said to be illusion. Illusion is really
Truth. Even the material sciences trace the origin of the universe
to some one primordial matter - subtle, exceedingly subtle.
God is the same both to those who say the world is real and to their
opponents. Their outlook is different. You need not entangle yourself
in such disputations. The goal is one and the same for all. Look to it.
14th June, 1936
Talk 200.
Mr. Cohen desired an explanation of the term “blazing light” used by
Paul Brunton in the last chapter of A Search in Secret India.
Maharshi: Since the experience is through the mind only it appears first as
a blaze of light. The mental predispositions are not yet destroyed. The
mind is however functioning in its infinite capacity in this experience.
As for nirvikalpa samadhi i.e., samadhi, of non-differentiation
(undifferentiated, supreme, beatific repose), it consists of pure
consciousness, which is capable of illumining knowledge or
ignorance; it is also beyond light or darkness. That it is not darkness
is certain; can it be however said to be not light? At present objects
are perceived only in light. Is it wrong to say that realisation of one’s
Self requires a light? Here light would mean the consciousness
which reveals as the Self only.
172