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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
Your duty is to be: and not to be this or that. “I AM that I AM” sums
up the whole truth. The method is summed up in “BE STILL”. What
does “stillness” mean? It means “destroy yourself”. Because any
form or shape is the cause of trouble. Give up the notion that “I am
so and so”. Our sastras say: ahamiti sphurati (it shines as ‘I’).
D.: What is sphurana (shining)?
M.: (Aham, aham) ‘I-I’ is the Self; (Aham idam) “I am this” or “I
and that” is the ego. Shining is there always. The ego is transitory;
When the ‘I’ is kept up as ‘I’ alone it is the Self; when it flies at a
tangent and says “this” it is the ego.
D.: Is God apart from the Self?
M.: The Self is God. “I AM” is God. “I am the Self, O Gudakesa!”
(Ahamatma Gudakesa).
This question arises because you are holding the ego self. This will
not arise if you hold the True Self. For the Real Self will not and
cannot ask anything. If God be apart from the Self He must be a
Self-less God, which is absurd.
D.: What is namaskara (prostration)?
M.: Prostration means “subsidence of the ego”. What is “subsidence”?
To merge into the source of its origin. God cannot be deceived by
outward genuflexions, bowings and prostrations. He sees if the
individuality is there or not.
Mr. Shamanna: Is there a sixth sense to feel “I AM”?
M.: Do you have it in your sleep? There is only one being functioning
through the five senses. Or do you mean that each sense is independent
of the Self and there are five selves admitting of a sixth to control them?
There is a power working through these five senses. How can you deny
the existence of such Power? Do you deny your existence? Do you not
remain even in sleep where the body is not perceived? The same ‘I’
continues to be now; so we admit our existence, whether there is the
body or not. The senses work periodically. Their work begins and ends.
There must be a substratum on which their activities depend. Where
do they appear and merge? There must be a single substratum. Were
you to say that the single unit is not perceived, it is an admission of its
being single: for you say that there is no second one to know it.
346