Step By Step To Natural Samadhi-III

By Staff

Ramana Maharshi, Natural Samadhi
It is so easy to mistake the 'false quietude' for real peace and be trapped by it.

Then what? This is a question which troubles many. They feel that they have succeeded in staying clear of thoughts in order to be focused on the thinker, only to be caught up in fear of being alone. The long habit of association makes one feel lost. Others do not know what to do next and so lapse back into the good old world of thoughts to which they are used and in which they have lived all their lives.

Here too Ramana steps in by pointing out that the central figure of the thought world, the thinker too is only a thought. The first person pronoun 'I' is also a thought. It rises when one wakes up. It subsides when sleep overtakes. Hence there is need to find out whence it came from and where it got lost 'That is how we get another famous question on the Ramana path 'Whence am 'I'?' Where from did this 'I' thought arise? Attention to this question, and staying focused on it is actually the commencement of the inner journey.


Inner journey? Journey to where? Here again Ramana comes to our rescue. It is the path back to the source of the mind. Ramana shares his experience with us, lest we go astray after coming thus far. His experience is that the source of the true Self, the Real 'I' is the Heart. A physical location has been given. He adds that the mind which is a fragment of consciousness too, originates from this very place, the spiritual heart and subsides in it, for it is the abode of the fullness of consciousness.

What next? Without your knowing it the separate 'I', the core of the mind merges, by your conscious effort to direct it back from where it originated. Your effort can bear fruit only if you come into the magnetic zone of the spiritual Heart. This happens when you fight with the twin swords in the armoury of self-enquiry 'Who am 'I'?' for the general thought, and 'Whence am 'I'?' to tackle the core 'I' thought, the mind's centre.The individual who started the search would be no more there at the end of the search.

Fragmentary consciousness is merged in the fullness of consciousness. The salt doll has lost its separate identity in the ocean. In this ending of the seeker and the sought is the new birth. "He who findeth receiveth". On for the joy of it! Who can describe and name that which is beyond description, that which surpasses all human understanding. Till one is steadily 'That' there still is the going Self-ward and moving outward only to get lost in the mental jungle. How long will you deny yourself inherent joy? You cannot. The lure of Self would be irresistible.

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