teaching

After sitting for some time in His presence, a devotee asked Sri Bhagavan, “Bhagavan, I am not able to do Self enquiry. I find it difficult. Shall I do dhyana instead ?” “All right”, replied Sri Bhagavan.

Soon afterwards the devotee left the hall, whereupon Sri Bhagavan turned to those near Him and said, “He says that Self-enquiry is difficult for him and that he cannot do it, so he asks me for permission to do dhyana. How can I compel him to do Self-enquiry when he himself says that he cannot do it? So when he wants to do dhyana, I have to say ‘All right’. He may come tomorrow and say, ‘Bhagavan, my mind does not remain in dhyana,

so shall I do japa?’ Again I will have to say ‘All right’. In the same manner, he will one day complain, ‘My mind does not remain quietly in japa. Only my tongue spells the mantra,but my mind wanders on many things. Shall I do worship (puja), recite hymns (stotras) and so on?’ What else can I do except to say All right, all right’ in reply to each and every complaint?

If one is able to make a sincere effort to practise anything, whether recitation of hymns, japa, dhyana or any other sadhana, one can, with the same effort, practise Self-enquiry ! All these complaints are made only by those who do not earnestly like to do any sadhana, that’s all. What is essential in any sadhana is to try to bring back the running mind and fix it on one thing only’. Why then should it not be brought back and fixed in Self-attention? That alone is Self-enquiry (alma-vichara). That is all that is to be done! 

Even in the Bhagavad Gita it is said:

Sanais sanai rupa ramed buddhya dhriti grihi taya

Atma samstham manah kritva nakim chidapi

chinta yet

which means, ‘By means of an extremely courageous intellect (power of discrimination), make the mind motionless little by little; fix the mind firmly in Self (atman) and never think of any other thing’ (chapter 6, verse 25)

🪔 The Path of Sri Ramana (part one) by Sadhu Om