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

Talk 363.
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
20th February, 1937
A European civilian, Mr. Dodwell, Deputy Secretary, Finance, Madras
Government, arrived with his wife before 1 p.m. and stayed in the
hall till about 3-30 p.m.
The lady asked: The spiritual leaders in the West say that the spiritual
centre is in India. Is there any contact among the spiritual leaders in India?
Or is contact possible between the leaders of the East and the West?
M.: What do you mean by spiritual centre?
D.: The spiritual centre is the seat of spiritual leaders.
M.: What do you understand by ‘spiritual leaders’?
D.: In the West there is a crisis. Scientific knowledge is far advanced.
Such knowledge is used for generating destructive forces. There
is a movement for making them constructive. When thus diverted
it will be for the good of the world. The leaders of this movement
are the redeemers.
M.: By ‘spiritual leaders’ we understand those who are ‘spiritual’ as
opposed to ‘physical’. Spirit is unlimited and formless. Such too is
the spiritual centre. There is only one such centre. Whether in the
West or in the East the centre cannot differ; nor has it any locality.
Being unlimited it includes the leaders, the men, the world, the forces
of destruction and of construction. There is no differentiation. You
speak of contact because you are thinking of the embodied beings as
spiritual leaders. The spiritual men are not bodies; they are not aware
of their bodies. They are only spirit, limitless and formless. There is
always unity among them and all others; nay, they comprise all.
The spirit is the Self. If the Self is realised, these questions cannot
arise at all.
Mrs. Jinarajadasa from Adyar: Self Realisation sounds so easy, but
yet is so difficult in practice.
M.: What can be easier? The Self is more intimate than anything
else. If that cannot be realised, is it easy to realise what is apart
and farther away?
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