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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
M.: It is according to circumstances. They all mean the Self. Para means
‘not relative’ or ‘beyond the relative’, that is to say, the Absolute.
D.: Should I meditate on the right chest in order to meditate on the Heart?
M.: The Heart is not physical. Meditation should not be on the right
or the left. Meditation should be on the Self. Everyone knows ‘I
am’. Who is the ‘I’? It will be neither within nor without, neither
on the right nor on the left. ‘I am’ - that is all.
The Heart is the centre from which everything springs. Because
you see the world, the body and so on, it is said that there is a centre
for these, which is called the Heart. When you are in the Heart, the
Heart is known to be neither the centre nor the circumference. There
is nothing else. Whose centre could it be?
D.: May I take it that the Self and the non-Self are like substance
and its shadow?
M.: Substance and shadow are for the one who sees only the shadow
and mistakes it for the substance and sees its shadow also. But
there is neither substance nor shadow for the one who is aware
only of the Reality.
D.: Buddha, when asked if there is the ego, was silent; when asked if there
is no ego, he was silent; asked if there is God, he was silent; asked if there
is no God, he was silent. Silence was his answer for all these. Mahayana
and Hinayana schools have both misinterpreted his silence because
they say that he was an atheist. If he was an atheist, why should he
have spoken of nirvana, of births and deaths, of karma, reincarnations
and dharma? His interpreters are wrong. Is it not so?
M.: You are right.
27th October, 1936
Talk 274.
The Muslim Professor asked how Vaishnavism can be reconciled to
Advaitism.
M.: The Vaishnavites call themselves Visishtadvaitins. This is also
Advaita. Just as the individual body comprises the soul, the ego
and the gross body, so also God comprises Paramatma, the world
and the individuals.
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