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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
Talk 286.
D.: Why can we not remain in sushupti as long as we like and be also
voluntarily in it just as we are in the waking state?
M.: Sushupti continues in this state also. We are ever in sushupti. That
should be consciously gone into and realised in this very state.
There is no real going into or coming from it. Becoming aware of
that is samadhi. An ignorant man cannot remain long in sushupti
because he is forced by nature to emerge from it. His ego is not
dead and it will rise up again. But the wise man attempts to crush
it in its source. It rises up again and again for him too impelled by
nature, i.e., prarabdha. That is, both in Jnani and ajnani, ego is
sprouting forth, but with this difference, namely the ajnani’s ego
when it rises up is quite ignorant of its source, or he is not aware of
his sushupti in the dream and jagrat states; whereas a Jnani when
his ego rises up enjoys his transcendental experience with this ego
keeping his lakshya (aim) always on its source. This ego is not
dangerous: it is like the skeleton of a burnt rope: in this form it is
ineffective. By constantly keeping our aim on our source, our ego
is dissolved in its source. like a doll of salt in the ocean.
D.: Sri Ramakrishna says that nirvikalpa samadhi cannot last longer
than twenty-one days. If persisted in, the person dies. Is it so?
M.: When the prarabdha is exhausted the ego is completely dissolved
without leaving any trace behind. This is final liberation. Unless
prarabdha is completely exhausted the ego will be rising up in
its pure form even in jivanmuktas. I still doubt the statement of
the maximum duration of twenty-one days. It is said that people
cannot live if they fast thirty or forty days. But there are those who
have fasted longer, say a hundred days. It means that there is still
prarabdha for them.
D.: How is realisation made possible?
M.: There is the absolute Self from which a spark proceeds as from
fire. The spark is called the ego. In the case of an ignorant man
it identifies itself with an object simultaneously with its rise. It
cannot remain independent of such association with objects.
This association is ajnana or ignorance, whose destruction is
the objective of our efforts. If its objectifying tendency is killed
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