Holistic Meditation-Part VIII

Add as a preferred source on Google

Identifications And Limitations

As soon as one awakes the first identification is with a particular name and form. Ramana Maharshi has pointed out that 'I' must either stay merged in the spiritual heart or if it rises, as it does on waking for those who are not Self-realised, it has to identify itself with the particular body. Name and form are the first limitations on the mind and are inevitable in one's present state of understanding about the mind, the subject. It is the first limitation for the particular always cuts into the general. When I am Natarajan and related only to that mind and body, I am not Sarada or anyone else. A shadow is cast over the common link of the light of the heart shining within each. Therefore 'So-and-So' has been added to the pure 'I am' and it becomes 'I am so-and-so'.

The ego ghost has caught hold of the mind with this primary identification of name and form. The fault is not with the limitation. If one is aware that limitation has a purpose, say in this case to communicate in this world, it is fine. Then one is not bound by the name and form. But what happens is that one takes oneself to be the limited only to that particular name and form. Then one forgets the truth that the mind is unbound. One is in the grip of that limitation, its grip being as firm as the ghost's grip on one's body.

Multiplicity Of Identifications – Thought Forms

In the course of the day one is thinking non-stop, the content of the thoughts keep changing continuously but some thought or the other is there in the mental horizon without any break. What a variety of thoughts which are complementary or at cross purposes, positive thoughts, negative thoughts, functional thoughts, purposeless thoughts and so on. Thoughts and more thoughts. When one is caught, as it may happen sometimes, in the grip of some obsessive thought one recognises its avalanche-like load. Each thought form is a cluster of thoughts. The moment the thought of my office arises, attached to it there will be thoughts of my work environment, my boss, my colleagues, my subordinates and the whole panorama of situations there. If I think of my friend, I will remember his dear face, his affection for me, our wonderful times together and so on.

What Causes Thought Movement?

Thoughts are never stationary. Are they? They keep changing. But no two thoughts can co-exist at the same time. One must be replaced in order that another may step in. The shifting of attention is caused by an unnoticed presence; the thinker's attention. When one's attention shifts from thought A to thought B, then B takes the place of A, till C comes in to replace B again due to shifting of the thinker's attention. Does it not mean that the thinker is the core of the mind? Has not the numerical strength of thoughts clouded this fact? Until the significance of this truth dawns well and truly on the individual, the merry dance of thoughts will go on, and one would be unable to proceed on the road of Holistic Meditation.

The Thought Ghost

Ramana repeatedly draws our attention to the fact that 'I am' is the essence of I-ness, consciousness in its fullness, pure. On rising it gets fragmented and splintered through a series of identifications. 'I am' itself is formless. But the ego ghost of name and form catches it first. Then one ghost after another usurps the place resulting in the continuous change of forms of the ego ghost. Ramana puts it graphically in one of the verses in 'Forty Verses on Reality',

“Born of forms, rooted in forms
Feeding on forms, ever changing its forms
Itself formless, this ego-ghost
takes to its heels on enquiry."

Ramana also points out that, “The ego may takes different and subtler forms at different stages of one's practice but is never destroyed". How is one then to exorcise these changing forms of the ego ghost? Its movements as so fast that one may throw up his hands in helplessness. To do so is to forget the presence of the magician, Ramana and his magic wand of self-enquiry. He has indicated what it is in the last line of the verse itself.

About the author

A.R.Natarajan

Sri A.R.Natarajan has had the opportunity of a long association of over 50 years with the Ramanashram. He was the editor of "Mountain Path" for two years. He was the secretary of Ramana Kendra, New Delhi for ten years. He founded the Ramana Maharshi centre for learning, a non profit institution. He has authored more than thirty six books and eleven pocket books on the life and teachings of Bhagavan Ramana.

Chat With The Devotees Of Bhagwan Ramana Maharishi