Reading Bhagavan’s appended answers,
My mind journeys back to times of Kargil war.
Indian Express is the newspaper –
Its southern India version now is
The New Indian Express –
I have been reading, if I remember right,
Since I turned 18.
An army General lost his life fighting for the Nation.
When his mortal remains were brought back home in a coffin,
and before he was destined to eternity, the Newspaper carried a photograph.
The picture captured poignant moment of his wife saluting the General in the
coffin covered with National Flag. She was upright, not nervous, and no
tears. Rather, very sober and
equipoised. Her gracious bidding adieu
to her beloved carried a sense of fulfilment -that the General offered his life
in the service of the Nation.
There was yet another picture capturing the daughter of a
soldier who lost his life in the same battle. The daughter did not shed a
tear. She went on and said, “I would
step into my dad’s shoes and serve the Nation.”
Well,
The death was too poor to unnerve these gritty near and dear.
Besides appending the Bhagavan’s direct message,
Here is the gist from the message:
Should you meditate lifelong?
Derivative from Bhagavan's the message:
Apprehending it even vaguely helps the extinction of the
ego.
What does the ‘it’ in above denote?
The ‘it’ points to conscious self.
Journeying to conscious self just suffices.
Once there – in conscious self – even for a split of a
second will see one annihilate his ego, i.e., identity of one with body, mind,
intellect and any form for that matter.
In that transcendence nothing can affect the Self. There is easy acceptance of that everything
in wakeful state is just ‘maya’. What is
born in that maya, illusion, is bound to burst out.
Be in Self.
And
Blissful.
- Picture courtesy: Ms Shanthi, Montessori Trainer
Over to the Q&A – the dialogue betwixt the devotee
and the Bhagavan.
From ~ Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, T. 80
A very devoted and simple disciple had lost his only son, a
child of three years. The next day he arrived at the Asramam with his family.
The Master spoke with reference to them: “Training of mind helps one to bear
sorrows and bereavements with courage. But the loss of one’s offspring is said
to be the worst of all griefs. Grief exists only so long as one considers oneself
to be of a definite form. If the form is transcended one will know that the one
Self is eternal. There is no death nor birth. That which is born is only the
body. The body is the creation of the ego. But the ego is not ordinarily
perceived without the body. It is always identified with the body. It is the
thought which matters. Let the sensible man consider if he knew his body in
deep sleep. Why does he feel it in the waking state? But, although the body was
not felt in sleep, did not the Self exist then? How was he in deep sleep? How
is he when awake? What is the difference? Ego rises up and that is waking.
Simultaneously thoughts arise. Let him find out to whom are the thoughts.
Wherefrom do they arise? They must spring up from the conscious Self. Apprehending
it even vaguely helps the extinction of the ego. Thereafter the realisation of
the one Infinite Existence becomes possible. In that state there are no
individuals other than the Eternal Existence. Hence there is no thought of
death or wailing.
“If a man considers he is born he cannot avoid the fear of
death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He
will discover that the Self always exists, that the body which is born resolves
itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all
mischief. Find wherefrom thoughts emerge. Then you will abide in the
ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of
death.”
A disciple asked how to do it.
M.: The thoughts are only vasanas (predispositions),
accumulated in innumerable births before. Their annihilation is the aim. The
state free from vasanas is the primal state and eternal state of purity.
D.: It is not clear yet.
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.
~~
