The Spiritual Teaching of Ramana Maharshi by Ramana Maharshi

Author:Ramana Maharshi
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC (Publisher Services)

Bhakti and Jñāna

D.Śrī Bhagavata outlines a way to find Krishna in the Heart by prostrating to all and looking on all as the Lord Himself. Is this the right path leading to Self-realization? Is it not easier thus to adore Bhagavan in whatever meets the “mind” than to seek the Supramental through the mental inquiry “Who am I?”?

M.Yes, when you see God in all, do you think of God or do you not? You must certainly think of God for seeing God all around you. Keeping God in your mind becomes dhyāna, and dhyāna is the stage before Realization. Realization can only be in and of the Self. It can never be apart from the Self, and dhyāna must precede it. Whether you make dhyāna on God or on the Self, it is immaterial; for the goal is the same. You cannot by any means escape the Self. You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? If all is God, are you not included in that all? Being God yourself, is it a wonder that all is God? This is the method advised in Śrī Bhagavata and elsewhere by others. But even for this practice there must be the seer or thinker. Who is he?

D.How to see God, Who is all-pervasive?

M.To see God is to be God. There is no “all” apart from God for Him to pervade. He alone is.

D.Should we read the Gītā now and then?

M.Always.

D.What is the relation between jñāna and bhakti?

M.The eternal, unbroken, natural state of abiding in the Self is jñāna. To abide in the Self you must love the Self. Since God is verily the Self, love of the Self is love of God; and that is Bhakti. Jñāna and bhakti are thus one and the same.

D.While making nāma-japa for an hour or more I fall into a state like sleep. On waking up I recollect that my japa has been interrupted, so I try again.

M.“Like sleep,” that is right. It is the natural state. Because you are now associated with the ego, you consider that the natural state is something which interrupts your work. So you must have the experience repeated until you realize that it is your natural state. You will then find that japa is extraneous, but still it will go on automatically. Your present doubt is due to that false identity, namely of identifying yourself with the mind that does the japa. Japa means clinging to one thought to the exclusion of all other thoughts. That is its purpose. It leads to dhyāna, which ends in Self-realization or jñāna.

D.How should I carry on nāma-japa?

M.One should not use the Name of God mechanically and superficially without the feeling of devotion. To use the Name of God one must call upon Him with yearning and unreservedly surrender oneself to Him. Only after such surrender is the Name of God constantly with the man.

D.Where, then, is the need for inquiry or vichāra?

M.Surrender can take effect only when it is done with full knowledge as to what real surrender means.

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