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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
are free from both. For example in deep slumber, you create a body
and a world in your dream. That represents your mental activities.
In your waking state you think that you are the body and then the
idea of forest and the rest arise.
Now, consider the situation. You are an unchanging and continuous
being who remains in all these states which are constantly changing
and therefore transient. But you are always there. It follows that these
fleeting objects are mere phenomena which appear on your being like
pictures which move across a screen. The screen does not move when
the picture moves. Similarly, you do not move from where you are
even when the body leaves the home and mixes in society.
Your body, the society, the forest and the ways are all in you; you are
not in them. You are the body also but not this body only. If you remain
as your pure Self, the body and its movements need not affect you.
D.: This can be realised only by the Grace of the master. I was reading
Sri Bhagavata; it says that Bliss can be had only by the dust of the
Master’s feet. I pray for Grace.
M.: What is Bliss but your own being? You are not apart from Being
which is the same as Bliss. You are now thinking that you are the
mind or the body which are both changing and transient. But you
are unchanging and eternal. That is what you should know.
D.: It is darkness and I am ignorant.
M.: This ignorance must go. Again, who says ‘I am ignorant’? He must
be the witness of ignorance. That is what you are. Socrates said, “I
know that I do not know.” Can it be ignorance? It is wisdom.
D.: Why then do I feel unhappy when I am in Vellore and feel peace
in Your Presence?
M.: Can this feeling in this place be Bliss? When you leave the place
you say you are unhappy. Therefore this peace is not permanent, nay
it is mixed with unhappiness which is felt in another place. Therefore
you cannot find Bliss in places and in periods of time. It must be
permanent in order that it may be useful. Such permanent being is
yourself. Be the Self and that is Bliss. You are always That.
You say that you left Vellore, travelled in the train, arrived in
Tiruvannamalai, entered the hall and found happiness. When you
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