The Battle Between The Past And The Present

Ramana Maharshi

oi-Staff

By Staff

Monday, June 29, 2009, 11:48

One wonders whether there is such a thing as past at all. Yet the past stays with us, as our constant companion since the residual memory of the experience continues and gives direction and momentum to our actions and thoughts in the present. Therefore we are in no position to say 'let the dead past bury its dead'. It is alive as the strong motivational force in one's thinking and action. One can therefore say that the past is the mind and no one can say good-bye to it unless one discovers the true nature of the mind and its natural silence.

In contrast the present is the moment of experience when it is happening, it not when it is recollected after it is over. Here too total action in the present is possible only when the mind is delinked from the past. Living in the present therefore is a dimension that is outside the experience of most seekers of the truth.

The vast majority of people seem to be unconcerned with a way of life which is not bound to the past. They first make a division between subject and the object and locate happiness in the objects. There is no knowledge of the subject 'I' and no concern about this ignorance. The true nature of the subject is never questioned. Many move along the thought-world propelled by the tendencies, desire and fear ridden, anxious, for many a fondly cherished hope may well be denied. Unaware of the spring of happiness within they are content to lead a superficial life hugging their trivialities.

However a seeker of truth recognizes that knowing everything about the world, objective knowledge, without knowing the one to whom all knowledge relates is futile. One must be ready to dive deep to understand the true nature of the subject. Ramana has made it clear that the only way to know the true nature of the subject would be to search for the source of the mind.

To track the source of the mind, one has to hang on to the 'I' or cling to it by single-minded attention to the core of the mind. One might say that this is 'stage 1', success of which is marked by the mind being passive and undistracted. This mind which is quiet and at the same time alert needs to be kept active in pursuit of itself by further questioning about the source of this 'I'. Then a natural merging of the 'I', the essential nature of which is consciousness, takes place. The mind then merges in the Self, in the sense that the divided mind with its external pulls would be replaced by a pure and silent mind.

Then a different kind of experience comes about; an experience without the experiencer, just the pure mind's awareness of its own happiness. Natural, spontaneous, unbound bliss fills one's being. This experience may be termed as Self-experience for it is non-dual and inherent.

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.

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