Unhurried And Recollected Life- Part II

Ramana Maharshi

-Staff

By Staff

Monday, September 29, 2008, 11:41

Having found the time, we have to remember constantly, in season and out of season, our essential nature. The forgotten truth that the Self is ever blissful, that it is the fullness of consciousness, has to be recalled time and again. What we are aiming at is to cut at the root of the illusion of separateness, the thought that something has to be done for getting happiness. This process hastened by repeatedly recollecting the truth of our real nature. Then gradually "false knowledge would end and the memory of the truth would dawn". It is due to our carelessness, our 'avichara', our loss of the spirit of enquiry, that we have been reduced to this plight. The remedy lies only in regaining what is lost by attention to the essential truth of our nature, attention to ensure that we do not lapse back to our old ruts.

Then of course there is the need to steer clear of compartmentalizing of meditation, of treating it as a thing apart. It is generally regarded as one of the jobs on hand to be attended to religiously, willy-nilly. This takes the joy out of it. Why not treat all free time as meditative time? Why not utilize the idle time for it? Why not avail of the all important sattvic moods which each has a share of every day, to turn the mind within? This alone would dovetail spiritual effort into the life stream. Then the meditative mood becomes a constant undercurrent, pulling us to the magnetic zone of the spiritual heart within.

Often we stultify ourselves with negative thoughts. We literally seem to cover ourselves with such thoughts as 'Self-knowledge is difficult', 'it is not for me', 'it will take time' and so on. Ramana says it is precisely 'the thinking of hindrances that forms such hindrance'. There is really no truth in them. Our essential nature being always the same it has to be so even now. This reminds one of the case of Ramaswami Pillai. Once he searched for a key. After some time he found it. Ramana said, "The key was in the usual place. It was not lost. Only he did not remember it. The self is always there, everywhere. Not being aware due to lack of experience we keep searching for it".

There is also the paramount need for being aware of the presence of the Sadguru Ramana within and without. Though his grace has no preconditions, in practice one becomes aware of it only to the extent to which one has done all one can to work towards understanding of one's true nature. The interweaving of grace and effort gradually opens up the door to the experiencing of Self-abidance, during 'abhyasa', during practice. Until at last, we are always that bliss steadily.