[Chaturamnaya] Sri Ramana Gita as a Dialogue - 9

[S Jayanarayanan via Chaturamnaya]

(Continued from previous post)
 
 
http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2010/may-jun.pdf
http://www.arunachala.org/newsletters/2010/may-jun
 
Self-Enquiry, Competence and Constituents
 
CHAPTER VII
 
Among the disciples of Sri Ramana Maharshi was the local fund-overseer K.Vidyananda Iyer
(son of Krishna Iyer, belonging to Bharadwaja Gotra), who had served in Tiruvannamalai
in 1914. He came back in 1917 for a short rest. At that time he wished to elicit Maharshi's
views on certain matters of practical interest for the guidance of himself and other
disciples, mainly relating to orthodox members of the Hindu community, and partly on
matters of ultimate and wider interest.
 
K. V.: Revered Sir, may I know (1) what Atma Vichara is, (2) what benefit one derives
from it, and (3) whether the same benefit may not be obtained otherwise, i.e., without
such vichara?
 
Maharshi: What are you doing now? You are asking questions. That is, you are entering
on a vichara, or enquiry. So vichara is clear enough to you. But your question is,
and you wish to know, about Atma Vichara, i.e., the enquiry about Atma, the Self.
The term 'enquiry' being clear to you from your own questioning, you wish to know then
what Atma, or the Self, is. You are yourself enquiring about the Self, about the Self
in you, or putting the same idea in the first person, you are asking "What is my self?
What is the enquiry about my self?" This is that enquiry, the enquiry now being made.
This is just what happens. The Maharshi explained more fully to others, commenting on
his stanza in 'Ulladu Narpadu' (Reality in Forty Verses).
 
37. The contention, "Dualism during practice, non-dualism on Attainment," is also not
true. While one is anxiously searching, as well as when one has found oneself, who else
is one but the tenth man himself?
 
You are really, yourself, the Self all the while, yet you do not realize it. Just like
a group of ten men who set out on a journey and crossed a river and then counted their
number after crossing. Each man counted the group, omitting to count himself. They all
found to heir horror that they numbered only nine. Yet they could not make out if any
one had been washed away by the river. They took the help of a kind and intelligent
passerby who learnt of their mental distress at their fancied loss of the tenth man of
their group. The wise friend counted them afresh, giving each a stroke as they filed
before him. As he struck the tenth man, the group was happily surprised to discover
their tenth man was not missing. Where was the tenth man all the while that they
bemoaned his loss? He was there, the very person that loudly lamented the loss of
himself. It is just so with you. You say, "What is the Self of myself? Please discover
it for me by an inquiry into the Self, Atma Vichara." Well, well, you are that very
Self that you seek. All that you have to do is to not lament and create a fuss over
matters external to you, but to look at yourself, to realize yourself, the Self.
You are, I repeat, the Self. You are that which you set out to seek. Your enquiry
begins and ends with yourself, the Self. At first you begin in apparent darkness,
you end in Realization, in Light.
 
This is Jnana Vichara. This is also termed Jnana Vimarsa, or Jnana.
 
You see, Jnana Vichara is feeling your way up to your fount and source, the realization
at each step of what you are. People often misuse that phrase. If someone is found to
be reading the Vedas, Sastras or Kaivalya Navaneetam, or some other similar book,
they say they are doing Atma Vichara. It is no such thing. Mere study of Sastras,
mere booklore is not Atma Vichara. One can and often does go through numerous books,
a whole library perhaps, and yet comes out without the faintest realization of what
he is. His memory may be crammed with apt quotations from scriptures describing Brahman,
or he may even know about the insufficiency of scripture study for realization, e.g.:
 
This Atman is not to be attained by (mere) recitation of the Vedas, or by keenness of
intellect, or by extensive hearing of Scripture. Only to him whom it chooses will
Atman disclose its own Self.
 
This mere learning (pandityam) is not the same as realization and often proves of no
service to its possessor. Why, in some cases, it even renders a disservice?
Egotism develops with study, and whether pride (darpa) and egotism (ahankara) are
developed by real learning (pandityam) or by superficial study makes little difference,
for they both prove serious obstacles to progress.
 

(To be continued)
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