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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
Such confusion is due to ignorance. If ignorance be wiped out
the confusion will cease to exist and the true knowledge will be
unfolded. By remaining in contact with realised sages the man
gradually loses the ignorance until its removal is complete. The
eternal Self is thus revealed.
This is the meaning conveyed by the story of Ashtavakra and Janaka.
The anecdotes differ in different books. We are not concerned with
the names and the embellishments. The tatva, i.e., the moral, must
not be lost sight of. The disciple surrenders himself to the master. That
means there is no vestige of individuality retained by the disciple. If
the surrender is complete all sense of individuality is lost and there
is thus no cause for misery. The eternal being is only happiness. That
is revealed.
Without understanding it aright, people think that the Guru teaches the
disciple something like “TATVAMASI” and that the disciple realises
“I am Brahman”. In their ignorance they conceive of Brahman as
something more huge and powerful than anything else. With a limited
‘I’ the man is so stuck up and wild. What will be the case if the same
‘I’ grows up enormous? He will be enormously ignorant and foolish!
This false ‘I’ must perish. Its annihilation is the fruit of Guru seva.
Realisation is eternal and it is not newly brought about by the Guru.
He helps in the removal of ignorance. That is all.
7th February, 1937
Talk 351.
Dr. Subramania Iyer, Retired Health Officer of Salem, read out a
passage which contained the instructions that one should know that
the world is transitory, that worldly enjoyments are useless, that one
should therefore turn away in disgust from them, restrain the senses
and meditate on the Self to realise it.
Sri Bhagavan observed: How does one know the world to be transitory?
Unless something permanent is held, the transitory nature of the world
cannot be understood. Because the man is already the Self, and the Self
is the Eternal Reality, his attention is drawn to it; and he is instructed
to rivet his attention on the Eternal Reality, the Self.
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