[Chaturamnaya] Sri Ramana Gita as a Dialogue - 2

[S Jayanarayanan]

(Continued from previous post)
 

Introduction by B.V.Narasimhaswami
 
Kavyakantha Ganapati Sastri, often referred to by all as Nayana, addressed six questions
to Maharshi on the 29th of December 1913, and his example was followed by others four years later.
The answers obtained from Maharshi were embodied in Sanskrit verse by Ganapati Sastri, and the
resulting book was named by him Sri Ramana Gita. These verses appear to read better in their natural
and original form of easy, unconventional conversation, and hence the original form is sought to be
restored here. This may be taken to be fairly accurate. Information gleaned from the Maharshi by
subsequent questions has been added in some places.
 

CHAPTER I
 

Kavyakantha Ganapati Sastri: For Moksha (release from the bondage of samsara) sadhana (i.e., means
to be adopted for practice) has to be considered. Some seem to opine that all that is necessary
is Satyaa-satya viveka, the (careful) discrimination between what is ultimate truth or reality
and what is not such truth or reality. Is that sufficient? Or is it necessary to adopt other means
also?
 
Maharshi: Moksha is release from bondage; bondage is really ignorance; and ignorance can
only be expelled by enlightenment. If the expulsion is to be complete and permanent,
the enlightenment also must be complete and permanent. That is, one must always remain
realizing That. Remaining in the realization of That is termed Atmanishta. This alone removes
all bondage, that is, secures Moksha.
 

K.G.S.: But is not viveka the means to secure Atmanishta?
 

Maharshi: Viveka is the discrimination of the (eternal) Real from the unreal. It helps to secure
vairagya, dispassion or freedom from emotions such as joy, sorrow, etc., which disturb the
placidity and equanimity of one's mind, and thus viveka proves to be a useful and a necessary
preparation for attaining Atmanishta, i.e. firmness in Jnana (Enlightenment.) The knowledge of
Satya or the Real secured by viveka (discrimination) is not the same as (but only the basis of)
Jnana (Enlightenment) or Atmanishta (i.e., firm self-realization). The former is still in the
stage of chitta-vritti, an intellectual process, while the latter is not that at all, but is
intuition, something in which the chitta (mind or intellect) has ceased its activities.
The former state still retains the duality of reality and unreality, and the contrast between
the two. In the latter, i.e., the state of the Jnani, all contrasts and duality are swallowed up
and there is only ineffable Realization. The intellectual viveki knows and reasons
mediately (paroksha). The intuitive Jnani feels the truth, the Real, directly and
immediately (aparoksha). The Jnani is not like the intellectual viveki. He regards the
Jagat (Visvam), i.e., the phenomenal universe, as unreal, or as in no way different from
himself, the Self.
 

K.G.S.: Is sastra charcha, the study and exploration of scripture, sufficient to attain Moksha,
or should one seek the aid of a Guru and practice meditation (i.e., upasana) to attain
Jnana (realization)?
 

Maharshi: Mere scriptural learning is insufficient. Certainly, practice of meditation and concentration
is needed for realization. But what does that term upasana (practice) imply? It means that the aspirant
is still conscious of his separate individuality and fancies himself to be making efforts to attain
something — some Jnana not yet known to be himself. He ultimately arrives at the truth, the realization
that all the time (including the time of practice) he has been (as he is and will be) himself the Self —
beyond the concept of time. Though it is that state of realization (Sahaja Sthithi), or natural state of
the Self that has been throughout all the time of practice (as nothing else exist), he calls it "upasana"
or practice of meditation, because his realization is not yet perfected; he, the thinker, or the subject,
fancies he is going through a process of thinking or meditation upon an object, viz. Ishwara.
When perfected, his state is termed Jnana, or Sahaja Sthithi, or the Atman, or Swabhava Samsthithi,
or Sthitha Prajnatvam. It may be described further as the state when vishaya jnanam, i.e.,
knowledge of the objective world, the non-self, has been entirely effaced and nothing remains but a
blaze of consciousness of the Self as the Self (Swabhava Samsthithi).
 

(To be continued)