“Deathlessness is our real nature, and we falsely ascribe it to the body, imagining that it will live for ever and losing sight of what is really immortal, simply because we identify ourselves with the body. It says in the Upanishads that the jnani looks forward eagerly to the time when he can throw off the body, just as a laborer carrying a heavy load looks forward to reaching his destination and laying it down.”
- Bhagavan in 'Day by Day'
Pure Consciousness wholly unrelated to the physical body and transcending the mind is a matter of direct experience. Sages know their bodiless, eternal existence, just as an unrealised man knows his bodily existence. But the experience of Consciousness can be with bodily awareness as well as without it. In the bodiless experience of Pure Consciousness the Sage is beyond time and space, and no question about the position of the Heart can arise at all. Since, however, the physical body can not subsist (with life) apart from Consciousness, bodily awareness has to be sustained by pure Consciousness. The former, by nature, is limited and can never be co-extensive with the latter which is Infinite and Eternal. Body-consciousness is merely a miniature reflection of the pure Consciousness with which the Sage has realised his identity. For him, therefore, body-consciousness is only a reflected ray, as it were, of the self-effulgent, infinite Consciousness which is himself. It is in this sense alone that the Sage is aware of his bodily existence.
CONSCIOUS IMMORTALITY
174-In the Yoga Vasishta it says that what is real is hidden from us, but what is false is revealed as true. Actually, we are experiencing only the Reality, but we do not know it. Isn't it the wonder of wonders?
Q: Are our attempts sure to succeed?
M: Realization is our nature. It is nothing new to be gained. What is new cannot be eternal, therefore there is no need to doubt whether one will gain or lose the Self.
When I had the 'death' experience as a lad, I entered into the Self and since then I have not 'progressed' or moved one iota. It has remained the same ever since — there has been no development.
The Maharshi told us that when he was a youth, the actual process of obtaining spiritual Self realization took no longer than twenty minutes. The next few years were spent in establishing this Realization in gradual adjustment.
- p. 174
The capacity to be alone is the capacity to love. It may look paradoxical to you, but it's not. It is an existential truth: only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core of another person--without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without reducing the other to a thing, and without becoming addicted to the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know that if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.
Ramana says: "Divine grace is essential for realization. It leads one to God realization. But such grace is vouchsafed only to him who is a true devotee or a yogi. It is given only to those who have striven hard and ceaselessly on the path towards freedom."
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ramanadaily
'What is happiness?'
Happiness is the very nature of the Self; happiness and the Self are not different. There is no happiness in any object of the world. We imagine through our ignorance that we derive happiness from objects. When the mind goes out, it experiences misery. In truth, when its desires are fulfilled, it returns to its own place and enjoys the happiness that is the Self. Similarly, in the states of sleep, samadhi and fainting, and when the object desired is obtained or the object disliked is removed, the mind becomes inward-turned, and enjoys pure Self-happiness. Thus the mind moves without rest alternately going out of the Self and returning to it. Under the tree the shade is pleasant; out in the open the heat is scorching. A person who has been going about in the sun feels cool when he reaches the shade. Someone who keeps on going from the shade into the sun and then back into the shade is a fool. A wise man stays permanently in the shade. Similarly, the mind of the one who knows the truth does not leave Brahman. The mind of the ignorant, on the contrary, revolves in the world, feeling miserable, and for a little time returns to Brahman to experience happiness. In fact, what is called the world is only thought. When the world disappears, i.e., when there is no thought, the mind experiences happiness; and when the world appears, it goes through misery.
('Who Am I': 24)
Q: It is said that the Self is beyond the mind and yet the realization is with the mind. `The mind cannot think it. It cannot be thought of by the mind and the mind alone can realize it.'How are these contradictions to be reconciled?
Sri Ramana Maharshi :
Atman is realized with mruta manas [dead mind], that is,
mind devoid of thoughts and turned inward.
Then the mind sees its own source and becomes that [the Self].
It is not as the subject perceiving an object.
When the room is dark a lamp is necessary to illumine
and eyes to cognize objects.
But when the sun has risen there is no need of
a lamp to see objects.
To see the sun no lamp is necessary,
it is enough that you turn your eyes towards
the self-luminous sun.
Similarly with the mind.
To see objects the reflected light of the mind is necessary.
To see the Heart it is enough that the mind is turned towards it.
Then mind loses itself and Heart shines forth.
The essence of mind is only awareness or consciousness.
When the ego, however, dominates it,
it functions as the reasoning, thinking or sensing faculty.
The cosmic mind, being not limited by the ego,
has nothing separate from itself and is therefore only aware.
This is what the Bible means by `I am that I am'.
When the mind perishes in the supreme consciousness of one's own Self, know that all the various powers beginning with the power of liking [and including the power of doing
and the power of knowing] will entirely disappear,
being found to be an unreal imagination appearing in
one's own form of consciousness.
The impure mind which functions as thinking and forgetting,
alone is samsara, which is the cycle of birth and death.
The real `I' in which the activity of thinking and forgetting has perished, alone is the pure liberation.
It is devoid of pramada [forgetfulness of Self]
which is the cause of birth and death.
~ from Be as you are book
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