Behind My Hand

Talk 159. Mr. Cohen desired to know if trance is a sine qua non for Self- Realisation. M.: You are always in the Self - now, in trance, in deep sleep, in Realisation. If you lose hold of the Self and identify yourself with the body or the mind, these states appear to overtake you, and it also looks like a blank in trance, etc.; whereas you are the Self and ever-present. - Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi.

I had to be away from the Ashram for nearly two months and when I returned I saw Sri Cohen in a much worse condition and confined to a wheel-chair. His talk was no longer coherent: "See, Ganesan, I am maimed. Yet, the management has suddenly shifted me to a room on the seventh floor and there is no water there. Whatcan I do?" - "They say they have given me an exclusive room for myself, but see, in the night nearly 12 people sleep here, squatting around me." - "Don't think there is only one Kannan (servant), There are nine Kannans, all looking alike!" I cried on seeing his pathetic condition and told Him: "Mr. Cohen! You are the most intelligent sadhak I have met. Why are you talking so incoherently?" He then adjusted himself and squarely looked at my face and said: "When the body becomes old, you lose control over it. And so over the mind! So, don't give any importance to how the body or mind behaves. They are not 'me'."

Transmuting lead into gold,  Forged in the fire of Vicara,  Deep ... In the cave of the Heart. Alchemists one and all,  Having taken refuge in Him,  Multiplicity melts.  - MWright 2002

'This space within the Heart is as vast as the (physical) space outside. Indeed, within it are both heaven and earth; fire and air; sun and moon; lightning and stars. Whatever is in this world and whatever is not...all that is established within it.' (Chandogya Upanishad, 8.1.3)  - trans. MWright

 tAvadeva niroddhavyam yAvaddhrdi gatam kshayam  etajjnAnam ca dhyAnam ca Sesho nyAyaSca vistarah - Amrtabindu Upanishad The mind must be checked, then it becomes lost in the Heart. This is jnAna and this is dhyAna, the rest is mere argument and description.

hrtsthalemanah svasthatAkriyA | bhaktiyogabodhAScaniScitam ||  'The act (kriyA) of abiding in one's natural state, the mind set in the Heart, is without doubt, Devotion, Yoga, and Knowledge.' (Upadesa Saram, v. 10) “That which is the source of all, that in which all live, and that into which all finally merge, is the heart referred to [in verse 10 of Upadesa Saram]. (Day by Day; 29-4-46)

Dance the eternal dance of the Self.  In essence, the rhythm of existence  Felt as the sphurana ‘I-I’.

The saguna state begins with sphurana and becomes "I am" and then the world. "Who am I?" reverses the polarity. "Who am I?" leads one to nirguna's door but who dares knock!

"Moments Remembered" by V. Ganesan (Sri Ramanasramam, 1994; 53) "In the course of tracing ourselves back to our source, when all thoughts have vanished, there arises a throb from the Hridaya on the right, manifesting as 'Aham' 'Aham' ' I-I '. This is the sign that Pure Consciousness is beginning to reveal itself. But that is not the end in itself. Watch wherefrom this sphurana (throbbing) arises and wait attentively and continually for the revelation of the Self. Then comes the awareness, oneness of existence."