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

Talk 323.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
While explaining stanza 6 in Arunachala Ashtaka, Sri Bhagavan
observed as follows:
The final word in the previous stanza asks, “Is there one?” The initial
words in the present stanza answer, “Yes, there is the One.....” It
proceeds, “Though it is the only One, yet by its wonderful power it gets
reflected on the tiny dot ‘I’ (the ego) otherwise known as ignorance
or the aggregate of latent tendencies; this reflected light is relative
knowledge. This, according to one’s prarabdha (past karma now
fructifying), manifests the inner latent tendencies as the outer gross
world and withdraws the gross external world as the subtle internal
tendencies; such power is called mind in the subtle plane and brain
in the physical plane. This mind or brain acts as the magnifier to that
Eternal One Being and shows It forth as the expanded universe. In
the waking and dream states the mind is out-ward bent and in sleep
it is in-ward bent; with the mind as the medium, the one Supreme
Being seems diversified in the waking and dream states and remains
withdrawn in the sleep state, or swoon, etc. Therefore you are only
That and cannot be otherwise. Whatever the changes, the same one
Being remains as yourself; there is nothing besides yourself.”
The previous stanza says: Once exposed to sunlight, a sensitive plate
cannot take on images; similarly, the mind (the sensitive plate), after
exposure in Your Light, cannot reflect the world anymore. Moreover,
the Sun is of You only. Should his rays be so powerful as to prevent
images being formed, how much more so should Your Light be? It is
thus said that there is nothing apart from the One Being, Yourself.
In the present stanza the tiny dot = the ego; the tiny dot made up of
darkness = the ego consisting of latent tendencies, the seer or the
subject or the ego rising, it expands itself as the seen, the object or
the antahkaranas (the inner organs). The light must be dim in order to
enable the ego to rise up. In broad daylight a rope does not look like
a snake. The rope itself cannot be seen in thick darkness; so there is
no chance of mistaking it for a snake. Only in dim light, in the dusk,
in light darkened by shadows or in darkness lighted by dim light does
the mistake occur of a rope seeming a snake. Similarly it is for the
Pure Radiant Being to rise up as the Ego - it is possible only in Its
298