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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
Regarding ajnana in early youth and jnana at the present time, Sri
Bhagavan said: There is no jnana as it is commonly understood.
The ordinary ideas of jnana and ajnana are only relative and false.
They are not real and therefore not abiding. The true state is the
non-dual Self. It is eternal and abides whether one is aware or not.
It is like kanthabharana or the tenth man.
D.: Someone else points it out.
M.: That one is not external. You mistake the body for the Guru. But
the Guru does not think himself so. He is the formless Self. That
is within you; he appears without only to guide you.
Talk 500.
D.: When all the thoughts are banished and the mind is still or enters
into a state of nothingness or emptiness, what is the nature of effort
needed on the part of the ‘seeker’ to have a pratyakshabhava of
the ‘sought’ (e.g., seeing a mango as a mango)?
M.: Who sees nothingness or emptiness? What is pratyaksha? Do you call
perception of mango pratyaksha? It involves the play of karma, karta,
and karya (action, doer and deed). So it is relative and not absolute.
Because you see a thing now you say there is nothing afterwards (i.e.,
when you no longer see it). Both are functions of the mind. What lies
behind both these assertions is pratyaksha. There is indriya pratyaksha
(directly perceived by senses), manasa pratyaksha (directly perceived
by the mind) and sakshat pratyaksha (realised as the very Being). The
last alone is true. The others are relative and untrue.
D.: If no effort is needed, can the perpetuated state of emptiness of
mind be called the state of realisation?
M.: Effort is needed so long as there is mind. The state of emptiness
has been the bone of contention in all philosophies.
D.: Is there anything like pratyakshabhava in the state of realisation
or is realisation merely felt or experienced as the very Being or
Sthiti of the soul?
M.: Pratyaksha is very being and it is not feeling, etc.
D.: Until the seeker realizes that he is the sought, the above questions
arise for him (the former).
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