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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
questioner. Often Sri Bhagavan had to be asked to wait while his words
were conveyed to the anxious listener. So the difficulties of making this
record can easily be imagined; only one who had sat for years at the
feet of the Master and had thoroughly absorbed his philosophy and the
way he expounded it, was competent for the task. Sri Venkataramiah,
the ideal person for this, had luckily been found.
That the language used here is not always elegant is admitted, this
was to be expected in the circumstances; doubtless it could have
been corrected, but it has been left much as it was, as it was felt that
a certain spontaneity that it now possesses would otherwise have
been lost. Though the conversations were in various South Indian
languages most of it was recorded in English, the rest in Tamil and
Telugu, which passages have been translated for the purpose of this
book. The completed notes were often shown to the questioners for
verification, but the whole had the seal of approval of Sri Bhagavan
himself, as the records were always shown to him for his approval or
the necessary alteration after they had been entered in the notebook.
Thus we may be sure that here we have the exact teaching of the
Master, and reading them we once again sit at his feet in the Old
Hall, drinking in every word that falls from his lips; enraptured by
his smile, the movement of his delicate hands, and his actions; for he
was a true artist, often acting the part of the story he was telling, the
better to drive home his point.
Some may be inclined to criticise this book as monotonous, but
this supposed monotony is deliberate, for some new point is always
brought out however similar the talk may seem. Sri Bhagavan always
stressed the one essential truth that was necessary for Liberation,
that there is only one Self and nothing but the Self. Know that and
everything else is known. This cannot be repeated too often.
Doubtless, an intellectual grasp of this fact sets one on the path, but
the path once started, mental knowledge must then become actual
experience. To know a thing absolutely, not just superficially, one must
be that thing, otherwise knowledge is incomplete. As I pointed out,
we are always nothing but the Self, but associating ourselves with the
ignorance of limitation, with an ego, we forget the Seer and identify
ourselves with the seen. But what can we do about it? The habit is so
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