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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
D.: But thinking is necessary even for realisation.
M.: That thinking is aimed at the elimination of all thinking.
D.: Owing to my ignorance, I do not realise the Absolute Existence-
Consciousness.
M.: Who is the ‘I’? Whose is the ignorance! Answers to these questions
will alone suffice to prove that you are already realised. Is there
anyone who denies his own existence? Or can anyone say that he
did not exist in his sleep? Pure Existence is thus admitted. The
admission also implies consciousness. Thus all men are realised.
There is no ignorant man at all.
D.: Yes, I understand. But I have a small question to ask. The state of
Realisation is one of desirelessness. If a human being is desireless
he ceases to be human.
M.: You admit your existence in sleep. You did not function then. You
were not aware of any gross body. You did not limit yourself to this
body. So you could not find anything separate from your Self.
Now in your waking state you continue to be the same Existence
with the limitations of the body added. These limitations make you
see other objects. Hence arises desire. But the state of desirelessness
in sleep made you no less happy than now. You did not feel any
want. You did not make yourself miserable by not entertaining
desires. But now you entertain desires because you are limited to
this human frame. Why do you wish to retain these limitations and
continue to entertain desires?
Sri Bhagavan continued:
Does the body tell you that it is there? It is certainly something
apart from the body that remains aware. What is it?
Do you say that it is the ‘I’, meaning the ego which arises
simultaneously with the waking of the individual from sleep? Be
it so. The body is not sentient. The Absolute does not speak. The
ego does. One does not aspire for liberation in sleep. The aspiration
arises only in the waking state. The functions of the waking state
are those of the ego which is synonymous with the ‘I’. Find out
who this ‘I’ is. On doing so and abiding as ‘I’, all these doubts
will be cleared up.
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