Darkness At Noon-Part X

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Urge to find out:

Why not find out if life is a portal of freedom and independence? There is always joy in discovery. One can proceed on the certain premise that Ramana"s words brim directly from His steady and unwavering abidance in the natural state. What is shared is that experience.

It is an act of unqualified grace, a gift with no expectation of any return. For that is the way and purpose of Sadguru Ramana to metamorphise the mental environment in which one is functioning. It is not one"s job to reform or change another person. One should mind one"s business and keep at the enquiry for discovering the truth.

Self-enquiry

According to Sri Ramana, the only way for the discovering of truth is 'self-enquiry", an enquiry about the nature of the mind. Such enquiry should be ceaseless. Such a focused enquiry would reveal many things about the mind that it is a constant flow of thoughts obstructed repeatedly by inbuilt 'preferred" and 'abhorred" thoughts. Such thoughts dyke the free flow of the thoughts and its natural movement.

Self-enquiry is to look at the centre of these thoughts, the thinker whose attention alone has ignited the whole system of thoughts. The submerging in thoughts and its ceaseless pestering should not discourage one"s search for true identity by refocusing attention at the mind as its source, the thinker. Such effort is the only effective weapon against the relapsing of the mind into its old ways.

The helping hand:

If one is vigilant against the lures of a deceitful mind, the mind whose nature has not been understood and is firm in its resolve to escape from one"s meaningless life, one can rest assured that the divine"s helping hand is proffered and given all along the way. The earnest desire and search for truth, the earnest longing to find a way out of one"s wasted life would be befriended by the divine force.

All this is said not to tempt one, but is only an axiomatic truth. When one"s efforts will bear fruit in time, cannot be certainly predicted. This is because of the varying intensity, the need for the maturing of the mind in the awareness of Ramana"s presence and the degree of passion to find out. But it will happen for sure, for that is the very purpose of Sadguru Ramana to share his experience of steady abidance in the natural state. A new way of life will open up, joyous and free.

About the author

A.R. Natarajan

Sri A.R.Natarajan has had the opportunity of a long association of over 50 years with the Ramanashram. He was the editor of "Mountain Path" for two years. He was the secretary of Ramana Kendra, New Delhi for ten years. He founded the Ramana Maharshi centre for learning, a non profit institution. He has authored more than thirty six books and eleven pocket books on the life and teachings of Bhagavan Ramana.