Tranquil Mind II

By Staff

Monday, January 5, 2009, 12:16

The question naturally arises that if Self-knowledge and the totality of power which flows from it is so simple, why is it that only a handful of seekers are able to reach its portals and remain there? The first obvious reason seems to be that our minds refuse to believe the truth, about the certain accessibility of Self-knowledge here and now, through focused attention initially on the mind's centre, the 'I', and subsequently on the source of this 'I' centre. When the 'I' is denuded of all its add –on, all its accretions based on 'mine', my name, my profession, my wife and so on, then its true nature as consciousness alone remains.

Self-enquiry renders the 'I' naked as it were, because the existence of all objects are seen to be related to the perceiver, the seer, the 'I'.

Consequently their power to distract one's attention away from oneself ceases. One remains as the essence. All other spiritual practices postpone the awareness of the ever present truth by assuming a reality for the object apart from the subject. Consequently one is unaware of the truth that all objects are included in the perceiver, who alone therefore matters. Ramana repeatedly points out that any method which clothes the ego with reality cannot take one far for it is a structure without any foundation.

The second stumbling block to pursuing the holistic Ramana path of self-enquiry is the failure to put total faith in the path. More often than not it is only attempted along with other paths to which one has been exposed before reaching the direct path. Practice is such a hotch-poch, such a mixture of dualism and unitary approach of Ramana, that one really gets nowhere.

The problem is further compounded by a firm refusal of some to delve deep into the Ramana path with all revolutionary possibilities. One senior devotee asserted "My Bhagavan is not your Bhagavan Ramana". One may have different images of Ramana who is incomprehensible. But to claim that there are as many Ramana paths as there are devotees is quite obviously carrying things too far.

The need for dropping this baggage cannot therefore be overstated. In this context one may refer to the reminiscences of Swami Abhishiktananda, a Catholic monk attracted to Ramana and his path. The Swami came to Sri Ramanasramam with eager expectation, with the certain feeling that he would be able to appreciate the uniqueness of Ramana and his path. But when this did not happen he became puzzled and went to a long standing devotee of Ramana, Ethel Merston. She told him, 'You have come here with far too much 'baggage'. You should make yourself empty, simply be receptive". When he did that the impact of Ramana was compelling. Dropping of the baggage is a must for one should not hang on to what happened in the course of his spiritual evolution. The purpose of those experiences has been served by turning one's attention to the direct path.

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