Behind My Hand

Maharshi then read out from the Tamil version of Yoga Vasishta the story of Deerga Tapasi who had two sons, Punya and Papa. After the death of the parents the younger one mourned the loss and the elder brother consoled him as follows: “Why do you mourn the loss of our parents? I shall tell you where they are; they are only within ourselves and are ourselves. For the life-current has passed through innumerable incarnations, births and deaths, pleasures and pains, etc., just as the water current in a river flows over rocks, pits, sands, elevations and depressions on its way, but still the current is unaffected. Again the pleasures and pains, births and deaths, are like undulations on the surface of seeming water in the mirage of the ego. The only reality is the Self from where the ego appears, and runs through thoughts which manifest themselves as the universe and in which the mothers and fathers, friends and relatives appear and disappear. They are nothing but manifestations of the Self

  Talk 18 Mr. Evans-Wentz asked: There are yogis with occult powers. What does Maharshi think of them? M.: The powers are known by hearsay or by exhibition. Thus they are in the realm of the mind only. D.: Mr. Brunton mentions a yogi in Madras who is said to hold communion with his master in the Himalayas. M.: It is not more marvellous than telepathy - so commonly known. Telepathy cannot exist without the hearer and television without the seer. What is the difference between hearing from far and from near? It is only the hearer who matters. Without the hearer there cannot be hearing; without the seer there cannot be vision. D.: So you want me to consider the subject and not the object. M.: The subject and object appear only after the mind has arisen. The mind comprises them and also the occult powers. (Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi)

  “When discrimination comes and man finds there are not two but one, he finds that he is himself this universe.” From The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,  Volume Two

 16 September, 1947 Bhagavan with a smile, said: “Bliss is a thing which is always there and is not something which comes and goes. That which comes and goes is a creation of the mind and you should not worry about it.” Bhagavan  Sri Ramana Maharshi in Letters from Sri Ramanasramam 

 This succinct quotation, from Paul Brunton, which I came across in 1968, set me on the path of Self Enquiry. 

“|3| He, who seeks from where the ‘I’ arises,  with pure mind, turned inwards,  realising his own nature, O Arunachala,  merges in you... like the river in the sea.” (Excerpt From Arunachala Pancharatna by Ramana Maharshi)  “Atma-vichara is the means and the goal. The ‘I’ that rises and sets is not the real ‘I’. It is nothing more than the meandering cloud, which moves, changes, and finally empties when at last it approaches the mountain. When the mind becomes pure, it, naturally, rushes to its source, like a mountain stream rushing towards the sea, effortlessly overcoming all obstacles in its path. Atma-vichara is the purifying process which rids the mind of all impurities (mindstuff). Take up the quest ‘Who am I?’ Seek the impostor (ego-'I'). In the end, he is nowhere to be found!” (Excerpt from the commentary to  Ramana Maharshi’s above verse , by MNW. This material may be protected by copyright.)

It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize? The real is as it is, ever. How to realize it? All that is required is this: We have realized the unreal, i.e., regarded as Real what is unreal. We have to give up this attitude. That is all that is required for us to attain Jnana. We are not creating anything new or achieving something which we did not have before. The illustration given in the books is this: We dig a well and create a huge pit. The akasa (space) in the pit or well has not been created by us. We have just removed the earth which was filling the akasa there. The akasa was there, then, and is also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the age-long samskaras (innate tendencies) which are inside us. When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone. (Ramana Maharshi in Gems from Bhagavan, p. 27)