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

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
M.: Everyone is aware of the eternal Self. He sees so many dying but
still believes himself eternal. Because it is the Truth. Unwillingly the
natural Truth asserts itself. The man is deluded by the intermingling of
the conscious Self with the insentient body. This delusion must end.
D.: How will it end?
M.: That which is born must end. The delusion is only concomitant
with the ego. It rises up and sinks. But the Reality never rises nor
sinks. It remains Eternal. The master who has realised says so; the
disciple hears, thinks over the words and realises the Self. There
are two ways of putting it.
The ever-present Self needs no efforts to be realised, Realisation is
already there. Illusion alone is to be removed. Some say the word
from the mouth of the Master removes it instantaneously. Others
say that meditation, etc., are necessary for realisation. Both are
right; only the standpoints differ.
D.: Is dhyana necessary?
M.: The Upanishads say that even the Earth is in eternal dhyana.
D.: How does Karma help it? Will it not add to the already heavy
load to be removed?
M.: Karma done unselfishly purifies the mind and helps to fix it in
meditation.
D.: What if one meditates incessantly without Karma?
M.: Try and see. The vasanas will not let you do it. Dhyana comes
only step by step with the gradual weakening of the vasanas by
the Grace of the Master.
15th October, 1935
Talk 81.
Dr. Bernhard Bey, an American Chemist who had interested himself
in Vedanta for the last twenty years, now in India, came on a visit to
the Master. He asked: “How is abhyasa to be made? I am trying to
find the Light.” (He himself explained abhyasa as concentration =
one-pointedness of mind.)
The Master asked, what was his abhyasa till now.
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