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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
M.: It is according to one’s samskaras (predispositions). One man
will practise hatha yoga for curing his bodily ills; another man
will trust to God to cure them; a third man will use his will-power
for it and a fourth man may be totally indifferent to them. But all
of them will persist in meditation. The quest for the Self is the
essential factor and all the rest are mere accessories.
A man may have mastered the Vedanta philosophy and yet remain
unable to control his thoughts. He may have a predisposition
(purva samskara) which takes him to practise hatha yoga. He
will believe that the mind can be controlled only by yoga and so
he will practise it.
D.: What is most suitable for gaining facilities for steady dhyana?
M.: It depends on one’s samskara. One may find hatha yoga suitable
and another man nama japa, and so on. The essential point is the
atma-vichara - enquiry into the Self.
D.: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and some time
in the evenings for this atma-vichara? Or should I do it always
- say, even when I am writing or walking?
M.: Now what is your real nature? Is it writing, walking, or being? The
one unalterable reality is Being. Until you realise that state of pure
being you should pursue the enquiry. If once you are established
in it there will be no further worry.
No one will enquire into the source of thoughts unless thoughts
arise. So long as you think “I am walking,” “I am writing,” enquire
who does it.
These actions will however go on when one is firmly established
in the Self. Does a man always say, “I am a man, I am a man, I am
a man,” every moment of his life? He does not say so and yet all
his actions are going on.
D.: Is an intellectual understanding of the Truth necessary?
M.: Yes. Otherwise why does not the person realise God or the Self
at once, i.e., as soon as he is told that God is all or the Self is
all? That shows some wavering on his part. He must argue with
himself and gradually convince himself of the Truth before his
faith becomes firm.
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