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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
8th February, 1938
Talk 453.
Three ladies are on a short visit here, Mrs. Hearst from New Zealand,
Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Allison from London.
One asked: What is the best way to work for world peace?
M.: What is world? What is peace, and who is the worker? The world is
not in your sleep and forms a projection of your mind in your jagrat. It
is therefore an idea and nothing else. Peace is absence of disturbance.
The disturbance is due to the arising of thoughts in the individual,
who is only the ego rising up from Pure Consciousness.
To bring about peace means to be free from thoughts and to abide
as Pure Consciousness. If one remains at peace oneself, there is
only peace all about.
D.: If it is a question of doing something one considers wrong, and hereby
saving someone else from a great wrong, should one do it or refrain?
M.: What is right and wrong? There is no standard by which to
judge something to be right and another to be wrong. Opinions
differ according to the nature of the individual and according to
the surroundings. They are again ideas and nothing more. Do not
worry about them. But get rid of thoughts. If you always remain
in the right, then right will prevail in the world.
D.: What should one think of when meditating?
M.: What is meditation? It is expulsion of thoughts. You are perturbed
by thoughts which rush one after another. Hold on to one thought
so that others are expelled. Continuous practice gives the necessary
strength of mind to engage in meditation.
Meditation differs according to the degree of advancement of the
seeker. If one is fit for it one might directly hold the thinker; and
the thinker will automatically sink into his source, namely Pure
Consciousness.
If one cannot directly hold the thinker one must meditate on God;
and in due course the same individual will have become sufficiently
pure to hold the thinker and sink into absolute Being.
444