Gyan Yoga (Upadesha Sara) Continued.. Ramana Maharshi analyzes the mind for us and says mind is nothing but thoughts. The funny thing about our thoughts is that most of them do not vary much from day to day. It’s like continuing to eat the same food every, to complain that it’s no good, forgetting that we were the ones who cooked the food we are eating. Gyan yoga is a path of enquiry. Self-enquiry. Enquiry into each and every aspect of our lives. Enquiry as an honest witness without making judgments or offering justifications. Self-enquiry is not easy. It may be easier to climb a mountain, even goats and monkeys can do it, but going inside yourself is difficult. Our senses are by nature extrovert, they receive impulses from the outside world, the ears receive sound, but do not ask “Who is the one hearing?”, the eyes receive light, but do not ask “What do you see?” Therefore it should not come as a surprise that turning inwards is difficult. How can you suddenly construct a dam to stop or divert, let alone reverse, the flow of a big, raging, wild, swift, and forceful river? When one goes to a jewelry store, one does not expect to buy real diamonds by paying a price appropriate for a mere piece of ordinary glass. How can we then expect to reach eternal bliss, the most precious thing of them all, without paying its true price, the price of self-enquiry? Over thousands of years the Rishis, Maharshis, Yogis and Gurus have paid the price, enquired, and have brought us this knowledge by observation, just as any scientist would from his field of research. When Narendranath asked Ramkrishna Paramahansa: “Can you show me God?”, Ramkrishna Paramhansa replied: “Yes, of course. Now tell me, Naren, what all are you prepared to do to see God?” Every manager knows, you pay peanuts and all you get are monkeys. Every athlete knows that you can’t run a marathon by walking inside your house. Every mountaineer knows that you can’t climb a peak by simply dreaming in your bed. Fundamental questions such as “Why am I doing whatever it is that I am doing?”, “Who am I working for?”, “What is my role?” are easily sidestepped, postponed.. for ever, with the hope that they will somehow take care of themselves or maybe someone else will take care of them for you, a guru perhaps? But like a persistent child who keeps on asking his parents, “Why this and why that..?” till the parents run out of answers and are exasperated to the point of being angry, the fundamental questions too, do not rest. And we are annoyed because we neither know the answers nor do we have the tenacity to enquire and find out. Otherwise, we could be like a teacher who knows and loves his subject, and when an interested student asks a question; how the teacher goes on and on explaining, rejoicing in his explanations, and freely distributing the infectious joy that he feels. Ramana Maharshi simply says, “Enquire if the mind is real and you will find that it is not. And when there is no mind, you path to everlasting bliss is straightforward and direct”. The problem with all of us lay people is that we are not used to the state of no-mind. It is too huge a leap. If one has been living in a dark cave all his life, can one even hope to imagine the world outside in bright sunshine? When a child of rich parents is asked in school to write an essay about a poor household, he writes about how the poor people have only one Maruti 800 rather than a fleet of Mercs and BMWs, how the uniform of the driver is soiled and frayed, how there are only two servants in the house, how they can eat pizza only twice a week. What else can the poor rich child do, he’s never seen or experienced poverty. Another child is stumped for words if he is asked what he would do if he were to become the Prime Minister of India. He can’t think beyond chocolate shops, toy shops, and amusement parks. Similarly even our wildest imagination fails us when it comes to such giant leaps as to the state of no-mind. Artists who are completely absorbed in their creative work sometimes say that they get lost. And that’s when the most evocative paintings, timeless literature, and soul-stirring music are produced. The artists themselves find it hard to believe afterwards as to what they have created, let alone regain the heights they once reached. Such is the state of no-mind, when one has no-mind, when one loses his/ her identity and becomes united with oneself. One might argue that self-enquiry is also nothing but a thought in the mind, so how can we reach the state of no-mind by self-enquiry? If we can not hold a hand with the same hand, how can we get rid of our mind by using our own mind? It’s a bit like removing a thorn by another thorn, or adding alum to turbid water so as to purify it. The thoughts related to self enquiry have the unique capacity to annihilate “I” thoughts, purifying the mind and ultimately help us to reach bliss. Most of us can’t observe without the “I” thought encroaching. We see a full moon on a cool silvery night and start planning a Kojagiri party. We go to a scenic spot, and are awed by natural beauty. And then in a low voice ask what is the going rate for land around there. We see a horse galloping and we want to go to the races, we watch an interesting cricket match, and we want to bet on the side with our friends. Self-enquiry is the ultimate adventure. You never know what will turn up, how and when. In the labyrinthine recesses of the mind who knows what is hidden? A good doctor always wants to know everything about you before prescribing medicines, a good psychiatrist may regress you to your many past lives in order to help you. But still, self-enquiry is an adventure many are unwilling to undertake. We all have the capacity but we behave like cattle tethered to a stake in a wide open pasture. The cattle sees grass and grazes on it, when they find something -say a plastic toy- that they can’t chew on, they ignore it and go on. They won’t worry about who put there, why, who does it belong to, what color and what make it is, how much did it cost etc. We are endowed with the grazing instinct as well as the capacity to think, and what do we do with that? We remain tethered to the “I” thought as we graze and as we think, just because we are not willing to self-enquire and become free. That tether is our security in a sense. Cut it. To sit still, to think, and do nothing is the hardest thing in the world. When you visit Ramana Maharshi’s Ashram for example, you can stay there three whole days completely free of charge, sit, ponder, meditate, discover yourself a bit. But most can’t survive even a day because there is absolutely nothing to do there. We are very uncomfortable with ourselves and we try to run away from ourselves in the hope that the rush and buzz of all the outside worldly activities will somehow slake the thirst and silence the cry inside. Remember your mind exists because of non-enquiry. Many-a-things continue to exist in our mind because of non-enquiry. For example one who has read a number of scary stories about ghosts may tell you that he saw a ghost near his house last night. But when you visit the place during the daytime where he thought he saw the ghost, all you can see is a piece of white cloth hanging from a branch of a tree wafting and waving in the breeze. The ghost existed in his mind because of non-enquiry by him. He was scared to enquire, scared to take a torch and investigate “the ghost”. We say: I like this and I don’t like that, I want this and I don’t want that; all such behavior is a nourishment to the mind, a result of non-enquiry. We would rather not enquire, get on with our daily routine, and manage somehow. Because we are either scared or are lazy to self-enquire, the same problems keep on cropping up time and again in different shapes and forms. And every time they come up we continue to opt for short term solutions to manage them rather than their dissolution and eradication for ever. Now, reading and listening to all this is good but till you assimilate it, it is not yours. You know the traffic rules, you have read the manual of the car, and also know the road map of where you want to go. But you can’t immediately jump into heavy traffic or begin to drive on the expressway, you must first practise your skills on roads which are not so crowded. Similarly, you must take time out from your schedule to practise what is being taught, to contemplate, to self-enquire, to dissolve. Swamiji will conclude the Upadesha Sara text today, i.e. Aug 25. Hari Om.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 07:49:29 +0000
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