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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
The yogis are said to see photisms of colours and lights preliminary
to Self-Realisation by the practice of yoga.
Once before Goddess Parvati practised austerities for realising the
Supreme. She saw some kinds of light. She rejected them because
they emanated from the Self, leaving the Self as it was ever before.
She determined that they were not supreme. She continued Her
austerities and experienced a limitless light. She determined that this
also was only a phenomenon and not the Supreme Reality. Still she
continued Her austerities until she gained transcendental peace. She
realised that it was Supreme, that the Self was the sole Reality.
The Taittiriya Upanishad says, “Seek Brahman through penance”.
Later on, “Penance is Brahman”. Another Upanishad says, “Itself
is penance which is again made up of wisdom alone”. “There the
sun shines not, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor fire; all these shine
forth by Its light”.
Talk 201.
The Parsi ladies asked for an illustration to explain why the Self,
though ever-present and most intimate, is not being realised.
Maharshi cited the stories of (1) Svakanthabharanam katha - the story
of the necklace, on the neck itself, not being detected; (2) Dasama
- of the ten fools who counted only nine, each of them omitting to
count himself; (3) the lion’s cub, brought up in a herd of goats; (4)
Karna not knowing his real parentage and (5) the king’s son brought
up in a low-class family.
They further asked for Maharshi’s opinion of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga,
and his claim to have probed beyond the experiences of the Vedic
rishis and the Mother’s opinion of the fitness of her disciples to begin
with the realisation of the Upanishadic rishis.
M.: Aurobindo advises complete surrender. Let us do that first and
await results, and discuss further, if need be afterwards and not
now. There is no use discussing transcendental experiences by
those whose limitations are not divested. Learn what surrender
is. It is to merge in the source of the ego. The ego is surrendered
to the Self. Everything is dear to us because of love of the Self.
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