Ramana Maharshi's Teachings On The Guru - Session 13

Listen to Ektaji talk about Ramana Maharshi's teachings on the Guru. These teachings are aimed at the experiential understanding of the true nature of the self and that consciousness is the only existing reality.

Transcript

Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām Sām So we have moved from Advaita level 1,

2 to 3.

Now we are ready to understand what Ramana Maharshi truly means by grace.

So now the rest of the chapter will be on grace.

What is the meaning of grace?

In the book,

Page 101 and in the online PDF,

I think it's page 147.

We stopped at the question where he says that the self is the master.

Everybody find it?

Can I start reading?

It is said in Srimad Bhagavad Gita,

Realize the self with pure intellect and also by service to the Guru and by inquiry.

How are they to be reconciled?

What needs to be reconciled?

Number 1,

Inquiry.

Inquiry is exploring within and finding who am I.

Gyan Marga.

Then he is saying,

Second is service to the Guru.

Seva.

This is Karma Yoga Marga.

These two,

Karma Yoga and Gyan Yoga.

How do I reconcile these two things he is asking?

So,

Ramana Maharshi says,

Ishvaro Gurur Atmeti.

Ishvara.

Guru and self are identical.

Again and again,

He takes you to the same truth.

What truth?

That the self,

The God and the Guru are all three here inside and they are not three different entities.

It is myself only.

I operate in different functions.

I have three different functions.

Like Ekta,

The spiritual teacher,

Ekta,

The wife and Ekta,

The daughter are three functions of one entity.

It's one and the same.

They are identical like that.

Ishvara,

Guru and the self are one and the same and that is here inside.

Ya.

So long as the sense of duality persists in you,

You seek a Guru thinking he is different from you.

However,

He teaches you the truth and you gain the insight.

That's where your Advaita comes in.

Till the time there is duality.

Duality,

The word in Sanskrit is Dvaitam.

Till the time there is Dvaitam in me.

And what is the Dvaitam?

The Dvaitam is I,

The pure witness and this fake I.

And what is part of this fake I?

Body plus mind plus intellect plus memory plus ego.

Ya.

Most of us just see it as I,

The ego.

Ya.

There is duality in me.

Till the time there is duality persisting in me,

I will always try to look for Guru outside because I have a firm belief that I am this body.

How much ever I read the text,

I get lost in the body.

The moment there is,

Oh pain!

Oh my knee is paining!

Oh my knee is paining!

I am hurting!

There,

I became the body.

Ya.

Or if there is little bit of frustration in the mind,

What do I say?

I am unhappy.

I don't say that the mind is unhappy.

Ya.

I became one with the mind.

This is duality.

Very clear?

I do not still say that I am not this body and I am not this mind.

And because of this duality,

I think that the Guru will be external.

He will come in a physical form.

Ya.

But the real Guru,

The Sat Guru,

The true Guru,

When he comes into your life,

He tells you,

No no look inside,

There.

The Guru is there.

He is within.

Ya.

His job is to show you that that Guru is inside.

And then you gain insight.

Insight means my own inner wisdom.

I recognize,

Oh!

This is the Guru.

Ya.

That is the insight you gain.

He who bestows the supreme knowledge of self upon the soul by making it face towards self,

Alone is the supreme Guru.

And he is praised by sages as the form of God who is self.

So who is the supreme Guru?

The one who tells you the Guru is inside,

Who points inwards.

Ya.

But again,

People who don't understand this,

You remember this cartoon clip,

Right?

What they do?

The Guru is pointing to something and they hold on to the Guru's finger.

And they make a nice statue out of it and glories to this Guru's finger.

What's going on?

Guru was pointing towards the truth.

You forgot about that.

Don't go that way.

We did that in our past spiritual lives when we didn't understand this highest truth.

Now we have progressed.

So let's move higher.

So very clearly,

The supreme Guru is the Guru who says,

Don't look outside.

Look inside.

The true Guru is inside.

His job is to disappear.

External Guru's job is to disappear.

Always remember this.

Ya.

If you find such a Guru,

You are lucky.

Cling to him.

Ya.

But again,

Not clinging like this.

Ya.

To the knowledge,

To the truth that he is telling you to look within.

And by approaching the Guru and serving him faithfully,

One should learn through His grace the cause of one's birth and one's suffering.

Ya.

He will teach you what is the cause of your birth,

What is the cause of your suffering.

And what is the cause?

Tell me.

Why are you suffering?

Duality,

Dvaita,

You become one with the pain in the body and you say,

I am hurting.

You become one with the frustration of the mind and say,

I am unhappy.

This leads to suffering.

Ya.

And how can I erase suffering?

Only when I recognize the truth of who am I really?

Oh,

I am not the body.

I am not this mind.

I am the knower of the body.

I am the knower of the mind.

How can that which knows the body and knows the mind become the body and mind?

I know there is an iPad here.

Am I the iPad?

No.

That which I am separate from,

How can I be that?

That which I can see,

Touch,

Hear,

Taste,

Smell,

How can I be that?

You can see your body.

You can smell it.

Don't take a shower for a few days.

Wonderful smell you will get.

Ya.

You can taste it.

Ya.

You can touch it.

That which I can perceive through my five senses,

How can I be that?

Oh,

I am separate from the body.

The same logic applies to the mind.

Ya.

I can see when the mind is all jumping and happy and excited and I can see when the mind is depressed,

Is sad.

I can see when the mind is creating drama.

That means I am separate from this mind.

I am not the body.

I am not the mind.

This is what the Guru is supposed to teach you again and again and again and again and again and hammer it into you till you really get it.

Not just teach you once in a blue moon and the rest of the time now you sing Ga Ga.

No.

You are not going to get there.

No dancing,

No amount of singing,

No amount of praising,

Will get you there.

Remember this very clearly.

No amount of time that you waste on other activities other than exploring yourself,

Doing your own self-inquiry,

Can get you there.

Recognise this truth and when you find that Guru,

That is the Guru.

That is the Guru you should really follow because that Guru doesn't want you.

He wants you out.

Shall we quickly get it and leave?

Ya,

Because he wants to disappear himself.

He does not want to become an obstacle in your path.

Then you have found the right kind of person.

So that kind of a Guru is praised by,

What does he say?

Sages as the form of God who is Self.

Now by approaching the Guru,

Serving him faithfully,

One should learn through His grace the cause of one's birth and one's suffering,

Knowing then that these are due to one straying away from the Self,

It is best to abide firmly as the Self.

Ya,

Your Self is nothing else but the pure witness,

Who I am truly.

I suffer whenever I forget I am the witness and I become one with the body or I become one with the mind.

That is when I suffer.

I recognise this and again and again I come back to the witness.

And we did one wonderful formula from Ashtavakra yesterday.

What was that?

I gave you four formulas yesterday actually.

But the most important out of them is Asanghatvam.

The most important.

Why?

Because you are naturally detached.

You are naturally detached and you experience that moment to moment to moment to moment to moment.

How many of us did the homework and figured this out?

We are naturally detached.

There is one part of me that does not get attached,

That does not get concerned about the situation,

Irrespective of whether the situation is good or bad.

Ya,

That Asanghatvam.

And that will take you to the clear understanding that I only create Mithya.

Mithya means illusion.

I pretend to be concerned.

I pretend to care.

I pretend to be passionate.

I pretend to be attached.

Because that is what I should do in my role as husband or in my role as wife or in my role as a parent or in my role as a child.

Then I manufacture stories and I keep repeating these stories to myself and then I firmly believe in that story.

This is just strengthening the fake I.

This is strengthening the duality and increasing the suffering.

So if you want to cut suffering,

Cut duality.

If you want to cut duality,

Weaken the I.

If you want to weaken the I,

Stop pretending,

Stop telling yourself those stories.

Again and again and again,

Hook on to what?

That part which is naturally detached.

Asanghatvam.

This also will be,

This practice going ahead will be a practice in Advaita level 3.

Because we forget it,

No?

We get again lost in the maya of the world.

So it has to be,

Practice is just a word that is used but in Advaita there is no real practice.

It's just listening to the same words of the sages and reminding myself that which I had forgotten.

That is the practice.

That's it.

So just recognize that I am naturally detached.

The moment I recognize that,

I am back in.

So in this paragraph,

He started with the external guru,

Described to you how important it is to find that right kind of external guru and then again he took your attention back in to the internal guru.

That's the job of a good teacher,

A good spiritual teacher.

To take you back in again and again and again.

Although those who have embraced and are steadfastly following the path to salvation may at times happen to swerve from the Vedic path either due to forgetfulness or due to some other reasons,

Know that they should not at any time go against the words of the guru.

Inner guru,

Huh?

We have come to the inner guru now.

Remember,

He started externally.

He took your attention to the inner guru.

So he is saying don't go against the words of the inner guru.

So now let me explain the inner guru a little more.

Every time you are about to do something wrong,

A quiet inner voice talks from inside and warns you.

Yes,

Every time that you are going to do something even right,

An inner quiet voice encourages you to move there.

There is an inner quiet voice.

That is that inner guru.

He will explain this going ahead.

I am explaining it to you ahead of me going there.

That inner guru is that intelligence function within me.

It is that intelligence within me which gets strengthened.

Probably when I read scriptures,

When I listen to the spiritual talks,

I attend a knowledge session,

That intelligence gets strengthened within me and then that inner guru is the one that reminds you.

For example,

Suppose you had an option this weekend to either just while away your time with a friend or do the Ramana Maharshi session and that inner voice said let's do this,

Okay?

And then you listen to it.

So you went with the word of the guru.

Now if you decide no,

I am not going to do any knowledge,

I am just going to while away my time,

Sit and gossip and do wrong.

Now what happens is that my path has changed.

My path could have been towards something positive,

Something good.

I could have got uplifted but I chose to do something else.

So if I don't listen to the inner guru,

Then I am doing very wrong basically.

Nothing can save me then because that is the only inner voice that speaks and it speaks only once.

Have you realized this?

It doesn't go on and on and on.

What goes on and on inside you?

The ego,

The ego says no,

I like this,

I want this,

I don't want to do this.

The mind says,

Haan,

These temptations are really more delicious,

Let's go this way.

The mind,

Intellect,

Their drama goes on.

Only one quiet voice comes up and says this is the right thing to do and then it goes away.

That is your inner guru.

So he is saying if you don't listen to that voice then nobody can help you.

Not even God can help you.

Who is God here?

God is inside me only,

No?

That creative function within me only manifests outside.

So that God is going to listen to whatever I said.

I said no,

I am going to while away my time and sit and gossip and do something really wrong.

You know,

Maybe whatever,

Alcohol,

Drugs,

Whatever,

Whatever that which really doesn't support my spiritual guru.

I chose that way.

So now that I chose that way,

That is what the internal God does.

He manifests that situation in front of me.

So when I do wrong to the inner guru,

Even the God cannot help me.

Absolutely clear?

Because the God is going to manifest that which is my strongest desire,

My strongest sankalpa.

Again,

There is no God in the clouds up there,

In the heavens.

We have to forget all those.

Those were lovely stories that we learnt as little kids.

This inner God is the one that is manifesting everything outside.

Now,

If I do something wrong to this inner God,

A guru can save me.

How?

The guru is that inner voice,

No?

That says,

See,

You created this nonsense in your life last time.

Let's not create this.

God is wrong.

The one who created is wrong.

I am not there yet,

So I don't see the God inside.

I blame the God outside that I think is in the temples and in the heaven and outside me,

Different from me.

So I blame that God,

But that inner soft voice tells me,

You know,

You have created it.

So stop doing this.

So that inner soft voice,

That guru can help me even when I am doing wrong or saying wrong to God.

But if I say wrong to that inner voice,

That inner guru,

Then even God cannot help me because God only manifests the situation I want.

If I say I want to just while away my time this weekend in booze and alcohol and the other negativities,

Then that's what that inner creative function called God manifests for me.

Very,

Very clear.

Did I make this clear?

So now you will understand the next line.

So when you go away from the Vedic path or spiritual path,

Basically till that time people were following the Veda,

So Vedic path is mentioned,

But any spiritual path,

The people who go away from the spiritual path and want to do gossip this weekend,

Just as an example,

Then in their forgetfulness they may go against the words of that inner guru.

You can write the words over there,

Inner guru.

The words of sages assure that if one does a wrong to God,

It can be rectified by the inner guru.

But that a wrong done to the inner guru cannot be rectified even by the God,

The creative function within me.

Very clear?

For one who due to rare,

Intense and abundant love has complete faith in the glance of grace bestowed by the guru,

There will be no suffering and he will live in this world like a puru-huta,

The king of the gods.

So if this inner voice is the inner guru and this is the guru Ramana is talking about,

Then what is the glance of grace?

He says the remembrance at the right time that inner voice came up and told you something.

It remembered to say to you that remembrance is the grace.

Not many of us have noticed that this inner voice comes up only sometimes.

Sometimes it doesn't come up.

So sometimes when it didn't come up,

There was no grace from the inner guru.

So it is the remembrance.

Finally,

It's me only reminding myself.

Correct?

I'd rather choose the Advaita or the knowledge session over gossip this weekend.

I'm just taking a very simple example.

Okay?

You apply it in your life.

So when that inner voice came up,

The remembrance was preceding the grace.

To remember to choose something right over wrong doesn't happen moment to moment in your life.

It just happens in some selected moment that the right choice comes up and that right choice coming up at the right time is grace.

Is this very clear?

That is the meaning of the inner guru's glance of grace.

Now remember,

Ramana's audience is PhD level people.

It's not beginner level.

So that is why people who read this book at the beginner level,

They are always relating to an external guru and external guru's glance of grace and then they skip those paragraphs where he says that you are in duality.

You see him in body only because you think you are the body.

They don't understand it.

But now at Advaita level 3,

You understand what he is saying.

He is saying you are not the body.

And the moment you recognize,

I am not the body,

Nobody is the body,

Nothing.

I am the consciousness,

Everybody,

Everything is the consciousness.

It is one consciousness manifesting the entire universe.

This clarity starts opening up slowly,

Slowly,

Slowly.

For some of us,

It's very clear.

For some of us,

Little.

For some of us,

In the middle.

And it's fine.

It will open as we go.

But what he is saying is very clear.

The guru is internal.

That's your inner intuition or the inner voice.

And the glance of grace of the inner guru is that remembrance.

At the right time,

It brought up the right answer,

The remembrance.

Clear?

Peace,

The one thing which is desired by everyone,

Cannot be attained in any way by anyone at any time or in any place unless stillness of mind is obtained through the grace of the Sadguru.

Therefore,

Always seek that grace with a one-pointed mind.

Means what?

You will not find peace outside.

Stop looking for it outside.

At no time,

At no place,

At no point can you find peace here.

Peace can be found only in the pure witness when you are one-pointed there.

Because of habit pattern,

You will keep coming back out to the mind again and again.

Recognize that the pure witness is always there even when you are indulging in the mind,

When you are indulging in activities of the day.

The pure witness is there.

So keep your attention there rather than there.

This can continue.

The body can function.

The mind can do its work.

But you keep your attention on the witness.

Very clear?

One-pointedness.

The Sanskrit word is Ekagrata.

Only that will bring the stillness of the mind.

Stillness of the mind cannot be found outside in this world.

There are disciples of Bhagawan who have had His grace and realized without any considerable difficulty.

I too wish to have that grace.

Being a woman and living at a long distance,

I cannot avail myself of Maharshi's holy company as much as I would wish and as often as I would.

Possibly,

I may not be able to return.

I request Bhagawan's grace.

When I am back in my place,

I want to remember Bhagawan.

May Bhagawan be pleased to grant my prayer.

Now see what Ramana says.

Where are you going?

You are not going anywhere.

Even supposing you are the body.

Supposing is the main word there.

Underline it.

Supposing you are the body.

Has your body come from Laknow to Thiruvanumalai?

You simply sat in the car and one conveyance or another moved.

And finally,

You say that you have come here.

The fact is that you are not the body.

The self does not move.

The world moves in it.

You the witness do not move.

That is that naturally unattached part of you.

Right now,

Recognize there is a part of you that is not attached to what is going on in this session.

It is just there.

Quiet.

It does not feel joyful when it hears something.

It does not feel sad when it hears something.

It does not react.

Can you find that part in you right now?

A sangatvam.

That is you.

You are not the body,

Bhagawan says.

Everything moves in the body.

Everything moves in this witness.

Everything moves in this pure knowingness.

The body seems to move just like in the dream also.

Your dream body you have.

When you are dreaming in the night,

The dreamer has another dream body and then he has another dream world.

In that dream world,

That dream body is running away from a tiger.

Are you really running in your bed?

No.

Relative to the body,

The waking state person,

The dreamer is an illusion.

Mithya.

There is no motion happening.

There is nothing happening.

Very clear?

Similarly,

Relative to the pure consciousness,

This waking state is an illusion.

It is Mithya.

There is no motion happening here.

The self does not move.

The world moves in it.

You are only what you are.

Means the witness.

That empty knowingness,

Nothingness,

Silent.

That part of you that is not attached.

That's all you are.

There is no change in you.

See that part does not change.

That part was the same when your body was 5 years old.

A little baby,

A little kid.

It was the same when you were a teenager,

When the body was a teenager.

It remained the same when the body became an adult.

It remained the same when the body got sick.

It was untouched.

That part of you has always remained the same.

Only the body changes.

Only the state of the mind changes.

But that witness,

That which is knowing this body and the mind,

That which is knowing that your body and your mind is right now focusing on what Ekta is saying,

That has always remained changeless.

It does not move.

That is who you are.

There is no change in you.

So then,

Even after what looks like departure from here,

You are here and there and everywhere.

The scenes shift.

Only the scenes are constantly changing.

Are you the changing scenes?

No.

You are the screen which is at the background of these scenes.

Whatever the scenes change — comedy,

Tragedy,

Happy,

Sad,

Good,

Bad — does it affect the screen?

No.

The screen remains the same.

Childhood,

Teenage,

Adulthood,

Sickness,

Old age and death — all this is the changing scenes.

They do not touch the background.

The background remains untouched.

The knower remains untouched.

You are that knower.

You are that witness.

As for grace,

Grace is within you.

If it is external,

It is useless.

Please highlight this.

After this,

You should not be heard or seen requesting grace from another external person.

It is useless.

Grace is within you.

If it is external,

It is useless.

Grace is the Self.

You are never out of its operation.

Grace is always there.

What is the grace?

The remembrance at the right time and then that inner voice telling you the right thing to do.

There is two parts to that.

The remembrance part and then it talking and telling you.

It doesn't really talk.

It just kind of pushes you in the right direction.

Else you know,

Don't go to the wrong direction.

That is grace.

I mean that when I remember your form,

My mind should be strengthened and a response should come from your side too.

I should not be left to my individual efforts which are after all only weak.

You also have this,

No?

Please,

Please give me some blessing.

Give me some grace.

When I think of you,

You also think about me.

Look at this.

Demand!

So see what he says.

Grace is the Self.

I have already said,

If you remember Bhagawan,

You are prompted to do so by the Self.

Get it?

If you remember something,

How did the remembrance come?

From here,

No?

From within me,

From within myself,

There was that prompt to remember God or Guru or the knowledge or choosing right over wrong,

Choosing dispassion over passion,

Whatever took me to the right direction,

That remembrance,

That is the grace.

I have already said,

If you remember Bhagawan,

You are prompted to do so by the Self.

Is not grace already there?

Is there a moment when grace is not operating in you?

Your remembrance is the forerunner of grace.

Highlight this.

You remembering,

That is the preceding aspect.

The moment you remember,

That itself is grace.

Your remembrance,

The remembrance to do right,

To choose the noble path,

To not go towards the wrong,

To not hurt,

To not get angry,

To be loving,

To help somebody.

All these things,

Just remembrance,

The remembrance is grace.

That is the response,

That is the stimulus,

That means that self,

That remembrance of the self.

That is the self and that is grace.

Understood what is grace?

That remembrance within me that comes up,

That quiet voice that talks and tells me to choose the right over wrong.

That is grace.

Grace is not external.

If it would be external,

It would be useless.

There is no cause for anxiety.

Because she is very anxious not to go back without grace.

So,

He is telling her,

No cause for anxiety.

Can I dispense with outside health and by my own effort get to the deeper truth by myself?

The very fact that you are possessed of the quest for the self is a manifestation of the divine grace.

So,

You have this quest to really understand yourself.

You have this quest to understand the spiritual path.

Correct?

That itself is divine grace.

Divine grace is not external.

There are so many people in this world.

How many of them are interested in knowing themselves?

How many of them are really interested in recognising the witness?

How many of them really want to be there?

Very few.

You can count them on your fingertips.

In fact,

Some of them who even start walking the spiritual path,

They get lost in the politics and the glamour of the spiritual path.

They get lost in the money,

The name,

The fame,

The other things on the spiritual path and they lose this thing.

They lose that quest.

So,

Really you can count people on their fingertips who really have the quest for their own selves.

Do you understand the quest for your own self now?

Having the real interest in knowing what am I and how can I get out of this misery?

That is the meaning of quest for the self.

The very fact that you are possessed of the quest for the self is a manifestation of the divine grace.

It is effulgent in the heart.

It means it is radiating from your heart,

From the inner being,

From the real self and it draws you within.

It draws you within.

You have to attempt to get in from outside.

I'll read that again.

You have to attempt to get in from outside because you are very interested in outside.

You are not only interested in the maya of people,

Situations and things.

Now you are interested in external guru,

An external grace,

An external blessing.

I don't want to do any inner effort.

Everything comes from outside.

No,

No,

No.

You are saying,

No.

The last part of anybody's spiritual journey,

Who is sincere about getting enlightened?

Only for those people.

The last part of their journey is always internal.

It is impossible to get enlightenment from outside.

Why?

Because the darkness is here.

If the light is lit in that room,

Will it take away the darkness here?

No.

If the darkness is here,

The light has to be lit here.

Ignorance is here.

So knowledge has to happen here.

Somebody else's knowledge is not going to give me knowledge.

You are very clear,

Right?

Ekta's knowledge cannot become Suphong's knowledge.

Ekta's knowledge is not Samya's knowledge.

Samya,

Suphong,

Hemant just pick up pointers and then they have to look within.

And when they look within,

They explore,

They recognize,

Oh,

I am the witness.

I am not the body.

I am not the mind.

An inner understanding happens.

And that inner remembrance constantly of staying in the witness and not getting lost in the story of the body and mind that I have told myself in the past.

And then strengthening of that inner witness and then a final establishment in that truth.

A clear cut knowing happens,

This is who I am.

Then the light of jnana has lit inside them.

Is this very clear?

Yeah?

So it has to be internal.

The journey has to be internal.

It starts externally of course but finally I have to go inside.

Super clear?

Your attempt is the earnest quest.

The deep inner movement is grace.

I will read that again.

Your attempt,

These attempts that you are making to understand the knowledge and apply.

And again and again look in,

Look in,

Get in.

Recognize the witness.

Again you stumble and fall.

Again you stand up,

You look within,

You stay with the witness.

This is an earnest quest.

Very clear?

Your attempt is the earnest quest.

The deep inner movement is the grace.

Once you are there in the witness,

You stay there,

You stay there.

That is grace.

However long you stay,

That is the inner grace.

You have to keep making this attempt.

You keep making this attempt.

The duration of staying inside will slightly keep increasing,

Increasing,

Increasing,

Increasing,

Increasing.

An opening will happen where now you will just be there.

You will just be there.

Now you will be very clear that this is very dreamy and you have got a glimpse of this.

Where you suddenly feel things are happening,

People are talking in the room but it's like a dream,

It's not real and then you shake and you wake up and you say,

Is this real?

I just felt it was a dream.

How many of us have had this kind of a thing?

That is your clue that it is opening up,

It's opening up.

The more this starts happening,

The more it opens up and a moment comes when you know,

Oh this is all a dream.

And then it's only a play and I am just playing along.

I have this role of Ekta and Ekta has to do this role with mummy,

With daddy,

With husband,

With the neighbour,

With the social circle.

You just play your role.

And how did you play your role?

Suppose you were in a drama.

Did you get attached to that character?

No,

You just went on stage,

You did your best acting,

You played very well and then you got off stage,

You are completely dispassionate.

You are not attached and when you are not attached,

There is no suffering.

Then life becomes a game.

Right now,

The way people are stuck in their suffering of body and mind and the world,

Life is a junk,

War,

It's a war.

You feel that somebody else is just trying to pull you down and push you down and somebody else is competing with me,

Jealous and somebody is hating me.

All this is only happening at the level of the ego.

Till the time I have identified with the ego,

I feel like this.

Till that time,

Life is like a war,

Junk.

But the moment this shift happens,

That opening happens,

Then this becomes very dream-like,

Very dreamy,

All the time.

Moment to moment,

You can feel that dream-like thing.

Then you don't say,

Oh is this a dream or real?

It's all the time a dream.

You know it as a dream.

You wake up in the morning and you know I am woken up into the waking dream.

Jagrit Swapna.

Sashtavakra's word for the waking state.

Jagrit,

Sapna,

Swapna.

And the dreaming state is Nidhrit,

Swapna.

Jagrit,

Swapna is the waking dream.

Nidhrit,

Swapna is the dream that I see in sleep.

I really hope and wish that each one of you gets to this stage and can really see how dreamy it is.

It is not real.

It is mithya.

It appears to be what it is not.

Like the mirage in the desert appears to be what it is not.

It just appears like water but there is no water.

That becomes very clear that this universe of people,

Situations and things appears to be real.

But it is mithya.

It has a dream-like quality.

Then there is no more snake over there.

It is a rope.

There is no mistaking after that.

But remember,

It's not that you will not see people,

Situations and things.

You will see everything like that.

The sky still appears blue,

No?

You know the sky is not blue.

You did your refraction of light experiment.

You also got 100 out of 100 in your physics,

Practical probably.

You know for sure the sky is not blue.

But when you look up,

You see blue.

Exactly like that.

When you get enlightened,

You will still see this world full of people,

Situations,

Things.

Everything remains the same.

But I now can clearly identify this is like a dream.

It's not real.

It appears to be real.

Your attempt is the earnest quest.

The deep inner movement is grace.

That is why I say there is no real quest without grace.

Nor is there grace active for him who does not seek the Self.

What he is saying is for those people who are not looking for really who am I and are just doing spiritual entertainment,

Dancing,

Singing,

Just calming the mind down with this technique and that technique,

Making the body slim and beautiful with yoga.

They are not looking for the Self.

They are not looking for who am I.

Yes?

So they do not have this inner movement of grace.

Very point blank Ramana.

Very clear.

Grace will come only when you attempt to know yourself.

When you are lost in spiritual entertainment.

Beads and mantras and music and gemstones and this practice for the body,

That practice for the breath,

This practice for the mind,

Calm the mind with that technique.

All this is there in psychology also.

Go and check.

Even psychology has all these techniques for calming the mind.

That's not spirituality.

Spirituality has only one purpose.

To recognize the cause for suffering.

And the cause for suffering is because I identify with the body and the mind.

Simple.

I have to recognize who am I truly.

And when I recognize that,

Suffering is gone.

That is true spirituality.

So only those who have the quest for self have the grace.

Those who do not have the quest for self do not have the grace.

Clear?

Both are necessary.

Reviews

Thank you

Excellent talk. Thank you.