Inward Inward Is The Path!-Part III

Ramana Maharshi

-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, May 27, 2008, 17:16

By the technique of self-enquiry, we are systematically destroying the mind. For we have seen that the mind is only a conglomeration of thoughts. When thoughts are not allowed to sprout mind too is just not there. The question naturally arises as to what would happen thereafter. The prospect is quite scary isn"t it? We apprehend the loss of our memory, our intellect and reasoning faculty.

Since our sense of existence is based on our relationship to objects, to persons and ideas, would not the death of the mind be cutting at the very fabric of our lives? Would we not be reduced to mere thoughtless idiots? All these fears are fundamental and unless one is able to deal with them it is unlikely that one would go the whole hog or plump for self-enquiry.

Since the fear is deep rooted one has to go into it. The most obvious way seems to be to point out the examples of jnanis like Suka, Sri Krishna and Ramana. Suka gave the devotional classic, Bhagavatham, Sri Krishna the Gita and Ramana, Ulladu Narpadu, a classic on Self-Knowledge through self-enquiry. They were undoubtedly embodiments of wisdom and their minds functioned with super-alertness even though 'dead" in the usual sense as we know it.

Again the fear is the product of wrongly locating consciousness in the mind. Ramana points out that the mind shines not by its own light. It is not self-luminous. It borrows its light from consciousness from which it springs. It is like the moon which reflects the sun"s light. So when you revert to the source your mental faculties are not dimmed in the least but only heightened.

The mind becomes sharp like the edge of Kusa grass, functioning whenever needed with alert passivity. One no longer needs to control the mind. Thoughts rise, and subside when their purpose is over. It is like automatic thermostat control. Freed from the stranglehold of innumerable thoughts, wanted and unwanted, the mind moves the alert swiftness in the vastness of space, a space which was lost because it was crowded with thoughts. All the burdens of psychological thoughts, the lingering on of memories which hurt, the sorrow of neglect, the moments which were once sweet, are extinguished. The mind is released from the load of useless memory. It becomes fresh and young.

Also one need not 'quake in fear and doubt" as to what would happen if we give up the thought contaminated mind. For Ramana points out that you get something much more worthwhile in its place. You become simultaneously aware of the throb, the bliss of the Heart. There is spontaneous joy, the joy of freedom when the burden of thought, of care, has ended. We are awake to and are constantly aware of the bubbling bliss within. One is suffused with exhilaration. With a mind which is ever new, ever renewing itself, a new ambrosial life begins.