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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
21st March, 1937
Talk 375.
A middle-aged Kanarese visitor asked about akarma (actionless act).
M.: Whatever one does after the ego has vanished is akarma.
Talk 376.
A learned Telugu visitor, who had composed a song in praise of Sri
Bhagavan, read it out, placed it at His feet and saluted. After a time
he asked for upadesa.
M.: The upadesa is contained in Upadesa Saram.
D.: But oral and personal instruction is valuable.
M.: If there be anything new and hitherto unknown upadesa will be
appropriate. Here it happens to be stilling the mind and remaining
free from thoughts.
D.: It looks impossible.
M.: But it is precisely the pristine and eternal state of all.
D.: It is not perceived in our everyday active life.
M.: Everyday life is not divorced from the Eternal State. So long as
the daily life is imagined to be different from the spiritual life these
difficulties arise. If the spiritual life is rightly understood, the active
life will be found to be not different from it.
Can the mind be got at by the mind on looking for it as an object?
The source of the mental functions must be sought and gained.
That is the Reality.
One does not know the Self owing to the interference of thoughts.
The Self is realised when thoughts subside.
D.: “Only one in a million pursues sadhanas to completion.” (Bh.
Gita, VII, 3).
M.: “Whenever the turbulent mind wavers, then and there pull it and
bring it under control.” (Bh. Gita, VI, 26.) “Seeing the mind with
the mind” (manasa mana alokya), so proclaim the Upanishads.
D.: Is the mind an upadhi (limiting adjunct)?
M.: Yes.
355