[Chaturamnaya] Sri Ramana Gita as a Dialogue - 6

[S Jayanarayanan via Chaturamnaya]

(Continued from previous post)


http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2009/nov-dec.pdf
http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2009/nov-dec

Chapter IV

What is the Nature of Jnana — Realisation

On the 21st July, 1917, Kavyakantha queried the Maharshi again.

Kavyakantha: What is the "State of Jnana"? Is it the mental process 'अहम् ब्रह्मास्मि - aham.h brahmAsmi'¹
(I am Brahman), or the idea 'ब्रह्माहम् - brahmAham.h' (Brahman is myself), or the idea
'अहं सर्वम् - ahaM sarvam.h' (I am everything), or the idea 'सकलं ब्रह्म - sakalaM brahma'
(Everything is Brahman); or is Jnana different from all these four ideas?

Maharshi: All these mental states, processes or ideas are certainly only the operations of the mind.
But that which is termed Jnana is not a mental state or process. It is 'स्वरूपावस्थितिः - svarUpAvasthitiH',
i.e., Being, remaining or existence in the Self as such.

Kavyakantha: Then, Sir, is not the Self – Atman or Brahman (God) – reached by the mind?

In fact, while the Mundaka Upanishad, III, i. says
"एषोऽणुरात्मा चेतसा वेदितव्यः - eSho.aNurAtmA chetasA veditavyaH"
(This subtle Self has to be known by the mind),
"दृश्यते त्वग्र्यया बुद्ध्या सूक्ष्मया सूक्ष्मदर्शिभिः - dR^ishyate tvagryayA buddhyA sUkShmayA sUkShmadarshibhiH"
(It is to be seen by the sharp eye of the seers of the subtle), and the Katha Upanishad IV.ii.
says of Brahmana: "मनसैवेदमाप्तव्यं - manasaivedamAptavyaM" (By the mind alone is this to be attained),
while Taittiriya Upanishad, II.9. says
"यतो वाचो निवर्तन्ते . अप्राप्य मनसा सह - yato vAcho nivartante . aprApya manasA saha"
(Whence words retire baffled, as also the mind);
and Brahman is repeatedly styled as "अवाङ्मानस गोचरं - avAN^mAnasa gocharaM"
(Not to be reached by speech or mind).

How is this conflict to be reconciled and which is the truth?

Maharshi: All sets of texts are true. It is the mind that sets out on the enquiry into the nature
of the Self. But in the course of its efforts to reach Brahman, it gets transformed and is seen
to be Brahman. It ceases to have any separate existence.

(Requested later to elucidate this matter further, Maharshi said):

"In a sense, it is by the mind you reach Brahman. But perhaps it will be better to stick to the
more accurate expression that it is Brahman alone that realises itself, and that the mind as such
does not. What realises is not the mind as such, but the mind transformed into Purna Prajna or
"Cosmic Consciousness".

By way of analogy, we may take the case of a mighty river that flows into the ocean. The waters
which formerly took the name of the "river", later take the name of "Ocean". One would not refer
to the river as samudrakara nadi, i.e., the "river in the form of the ocean." The mind is the
separate, broken (khanda) entity which starts the enquiry; but as it progresses, it develops,
alters its nature and form, and finally loses these and itself in the limitless, infinite, and
undifferentiated (akhanda) ocean of Brahman. The mind may thereafter be referred to as
brahmakara manas, i.e., the mind in the guise of the Absolute. 

But perhaps it will be conducive to clarity if we briefly say, in popular language, that there
has been manonasa, or the disappearance of the limited, finite mind and that Brahman is realized
not by chitta vriti, i.e., mental operation, but by Purnattva or Swabhava Samsthiti,
the perfection of Self -realization.

Maharshi had elucidated this matter by another illustration in the third stanza of his
"Arunachala Ashtaka"²

  "Unnuru vuna-laRa vunniDa munnIr
  uRu-saruk karai-yuru ena-vuru vOyum"
Which means, as addressed to God Arunachala who is considered to be identical with Brahma:
  "Thinking of Thee without thinking (i.e., play of intellect), one's form melts away as that of
  a sugar doll entering the sea."


Footnotes:

1. The Sanskrit texts in this and the next paragraph are facsimiles of what Sri Ramana Maharshi wrote
in the actual typed manuscript of B.V.Narasimhaswami. Besides writing the Sanskrit and Tamil text in
the manuscript, he made handwritten English corrections as well. From paragraph four we substituted
formal Sanskrit text.

2. The image is a facsimile of the the Maharshi's Tamil handwritting. He wrote this verse into the
BVN's typed manuscript.


(To be continued)