Inward, Inward Is The Path -Part I

Ramana Maharshi

-Staff

By Staff

Friday, May 23, 2008, 10:28

'Inward', is the word he utters,
To me who wished to know the path
'Inward', 'Inward' is the path
For everyone the path is inward.

Muruganar, Ramana Sannidhi Murai, Verse 533

No one has given a clearer anatomy of the mind than Ramana. He has explained the A to Z of the nature of the mind, its source, its association, and how to make the most of its potential. Even so it is important to go into all his statements. One should not lose the correct hang of it by sectional and partial reading. For instance he would often question the existence of the entity, mind. He told Santamma, 'Is there such a thing as the mind? Does it have any hallmark?' He told a visitor, 'Show me the mind and I will strike it down!' On the other hand he would emphasise the need for 'destroying the mind' and stress the futility of methods which merely lull it into temporary stillness.

The question would naturally arise as to how one can destroy a non-existent thing. Would it be shadow boxing? Another proposition he would make is that 'Reality' alone is. Following from this would be the fact that the mind must originate from Reality, or Consciousness. The next idea in Ramana's exposition is that the mind is a bridge between consciousness from which it arises and the world of thoughts beginning with the 'I am so and so' thought. What Ramana means when he says that there is no such thing as the mind is only that it is not a tangible or separate entity like the body. It is only a thought cluster, with a root I-thought and other thoughts dependent on it.

If thoughts constitute the mind it follows that when we do not have thoughts, as in deep sleep, there is no mind. It disappears somewhere. Quite obviously it cannot happen if it is an independent entity. When talking about destroying the mind, Ramana refers only to constant and vigilant practice of merging it in its source and stabilizing it there. Once this is done, mind itself is consciousness, arising as a thought form when thoughts are needed. The mind is like a wave in the sea of consciousness and is therefore, in essence, consciousness. It is pure, sharp and totally detached from the activities in which it is engaged. It is then 'Brahmakara Vritti', or Brahman in the form of a thought wave.

Ramana has made this clear in 1902 when explaining the nature of the mind to Sivaprakasam Pillai. He told him 'What is called the mind is conscious power residing in the Self'. He has told other seekers too that in its purity the mind is the power of the Self itself.

While the mind has a pure source, it is contaminated by its association. The mind which is pure as it originates imposes a limitation on itself by its identification with a particular body. Once this notion 'I am so and so' is superimposed, the mind which is by its nature inturned, becomes externalized. Other thoughts, based on relationship to people, possessions and ideas, crowd in. There is a regular babel of thoughts, a pell-mell. Often it is like a village bazaar on a shandy day. The classification of thoughts as pleasant and unpleasant, and the effort to hold on to the former and avoid the latter goes on. The superimposition of value-judgements and ideas add to the general confusion prevalent in the mind. The mind which is essentially pure and always in repose becomes broken, splintered and restless.

Since the root cause of the trouble is the externalization of the mind, the solution lies in our ability to find a technique which would internalize the mind again and stabilize it at its source.