A New Approach To The Eternal Truth

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In Nature there are no repetitions, and none at all in the working of Para Prakriti, Higher Nature. Each teacher, each realised being, has his own contribution to make to the sum total of human experience. One teacher does not repeat what another has done already. To say that Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi has come to reiterate what Acharya Shankara did many centuries ago, or to compare him to some modern teacher, is to see him in a wrong perspective. Bhagavan, like every other world-teacher, has come to reveal a new approach to the eternal Truth. The Truth always stands eternal, but the approaches vary depending upon the changing conditions through which humanity is passing.

In this connection I would like to recall the episode of Vidura and Sanatsujata in the Mahabharata. When the battle is going against him, King Dhritarashtra in a depressed mood sends for Vidura, his wise adviser and asks him profound questions. To answer them, Vidura, by his tapas power, invokes the presence of Sanatsujata, and among other questions the blind King asks, 'Sir, is there death?' The Lord answers, 'There is and there is not'. 'Then what is death?' 'Death is pramada, heedlessness, unawareness'. This famous phrase about heedlessness has been interpreted by Acharya Shankara as want of awareness of one's own true state. It can be interpreted at different levels.

In ordinary life when we are absent-minded, we are as if dead. We are not present where we are. But in the spiritual context it is unawareness of true state. Now this is the theme of Bhagavan's teaching as I have understood it, that we human beings are totally unaware of what we are. We live on the surface forgetting our true state, our true nature, and so miss our mission in life. And Bhagavan's mission has been to remind us of this awareness, the need to be aware of our true state.

Proceeding further, Sanatsujata lists four conditions as indispensable for this enquiry into the truth of our Being. First, it is Shastra, the teaching, the knowledge of the principles, the methods of procedure. The second condition is Utsaha, effort, personal effort. Effort is indispensable in any sphere and much more so in spiritual discipline. Third comes the teacher, Guru. And the fourth is Kaala, time. In this context, where does Bhagavan stand? Where does his ministry stand? His teaching is not an elaborate, mentally worked out philosophy. The Briefest Teaching in Spiritual History: 'Who am 'I'?'

This cuts through all the speculative inferences, logical systems, in which the human mind had been imprisoned all along. He sets a goal: “Who am I?" And he starts a quest that shakes the foundations of our normal, routine existence. He makes our life a journey within all the way. He is not content with setting a goal.

Self-enquiry? When I ask myself who I am, outer thoughts may come and interfere; I have to withdraw myself from this thought-activity and take up the pursuit afresh. We should develop a technique of letting these thoughts play on the surface, but the main bulk of the mind should be introverted, harnessed to the enquiry. When we do not pay attention to them, the thoughts become less and less aggressive. And they slink away, as the poet describes, the last wave sinking into the ocean. When I have an all-consuming hunger to know, and when that zeal, that flame of seeking devours me, no thoughts can swamp, no philosophies can distract me, because I am launched on the voyage of the soul, the quest of the Self.

My way of reaching, of realising the 'Sat,' is different from my neighbour's. The goal is the same, but the paths are different. And this is the catholicity of Bhagavan's teaching that he nowhere lays down an iron clad system of discipline that everybody has to follow point by point. He launches each person on his voyage. It is left to each individual to meander or sail straight to the post. This is the briefest teaching of greatest moment for one who is serious about this quest, that is when one is ripe for it. It is a law of spiritual life that nobody thinks of God unless God first thinks of him. He who chooses the Infinite has been chosen by the Infinite.

About the author

This article is written for the magazine, The Ramana Way, of Ramana Maharshi Centre Of Learning

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