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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
18th November. 1936
Talk 284.
D.: It is said in Srimad Bhagavad Gita: “Realise the Self with pure
intellect and also by service to Guru and by enquiry.” How are
they to be reconciled?
M.: Iswaro Gururatmeti - Iswara, Guru and Self are identical. So long
as the sense of duality persists in you, you seek a Guru considering
that he stands apart. He however teaches you the truth and you
gain the insight.
D.: Kindly explain: ahameko name kaschit nahamanyasya kasyachit
naham pasyami yasyaham tam na pasyami yo mama (I am alone; none
is mine; of none else am I, I see none whose I am, none who is mine).
M.: This sloka occurs in different scriptures, holy books, e.g.,
Bhagavata, Maha Bharata, etc. It also forms the motto of Chapter
XI in Self-Realisation.
Aham - ‘I’, is only one. Egos are different. They are in the One Self.
The Self is not affected by the egos. ‘I’ is one only. ‘I’ is the Truth.
All that follows is meant to refute the sense of duality.
Talk 285.
D.: If the Self be itself aware, why am I not aware of the same, even
now?
M.: There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and only
relating. Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object. Whereas
the awareness of the Self is absolute and requires no object.
Remembrance also is similarly relative, requiring an object to be
remembered and a subject to remember. When there is no duality,
who is to remember whom?
D.: What happens to the created ego when the body dies?
M.: Ego is ‘I-thought’. In its subtle form it remains a thought, whereas
in its gross aspect it embraces the mind, the senses and the body.
They disappear in deep slumber along with the ego. Still the Self
is there; similarly it will be in death.
Ego is not an entity independent of the Self in order that it must be
created or destroyed by itself. It functions as an instrument of the
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