A look at the sky in the night makes us wonder in awe as we behold the beginingless endless space around us. We drill a hole into the earth till its other end and we see space and stars on the other side. So where does my being fit in in this grand picture ? we feel humbled by our size and our limited intelligence. But then the intelligence is not limited.
We all liked the TV serial ‘ Startrek ‘ and the space ship named ‘ Enterprise ‘.Let us imagine we are into a similar quest for meaning. And here we goooooo.
It is general knowledge that the integration of the five natural elements viz; space, air, fire, water and earth leads to formation of the human body. Let it be any human body from any faith or religion or group. The body disintegrates later naturally at old age and merges back into the five elements. So in between birth and death of the body it is exposed to many good and bad situations as per the whims and fancies of a Mind associated with it. Before that when we examine the constitution of the mind it can be experienced by all that mind is the nature of consciousness in general. Again the Mind can be divided into four parts when we go to the root of it. viz; indecision, decision, the feeling of ‘ I ’, and the Memory.
Sree Ramana Maharshi says that the Mind does not exist. Because when we search for it it vanishes and becomes one with the ‘ I ‘. In general when we search for the mind the ‘I ‘ in us rises and says the mind has brought you to me . It no longer exists, it has now become ‘ I ‘. ‘ I ‘ am the self. By what means this search for the ‘ I ‘ is made ? He says let your mind search for the feeling of ‘ I ‘. For this we have to draw our attention inward and search keenly with the mind where from this feeling of ‘ I ‘ rises within us. This requires practice in the beginning since we may be sidelined by various miscellaneous thoughts rising from within and taking us away from the main pursuit. Sree Ramana comes here to our rescue by saying that at this juncture hold on dearly to this ‘ I ‘ thought since it is the core of all the thoughts. The ‘I ‘ thought being the core central powerful thought from where all other thoughts rise, holding on to this ‘ I ‘ thought makes all other sundry thoughts dissolve into the vast vortex of the ‘I ‘ thought till the ‘ I ‘ thought becomes the only shining thought and you identify with that. At this point you will see the ‘ I ‘ thought alone vibrating in absolute silence in the absence of all other thoughts. This is the beginning of an end for all of us when meaning of life starts unfolding at the various stages of our pursuit for identity.
Unless and until we come to absolute clarity to the nature of our true identity our identity keeps changing from one to another as is forced upon us by our fragmented mind at it’s whims and fancies and we remain in ever changing newer identities .
Here we are able to understand the nature of the body and the mind in a nutshell. There is ample scope for going further deep down into the origin of the elements and the source from where creation started naturally. But at this stage it is not necessary to dwell into it as our curiosity has its ways of taking us there at the appropriate time and if necessary.
The Bee in our Bonnet is still lingering and takes us back to square one. That is, the thought “ where do the ‘ I ‘ reside in me ? or rather ‘ Who am ‘I’ ? The mind is understood to be in the form of consciousness and the source of this curiosity originates from there. Then is the mind the so called ‘ I ‘ ? It is the mind asking this question. Hence naturally the mind cannot be the ‘ I ‘. If that is so it won’t be putting forth this question at all. It will know itself and will be silent. Need a man or woman say always ‘I am a man’ or ‘I am a woman’ because he or she is a human being ? The ‘ I ‘ has no doubt as to its existence and it shines as it is. But the mind has the doubt and the question.
So let us make use of the mind to search for the ‘ I ‘ thought. The path for this is a direct one bypassing all the other hitherto followed procedures religious, spiritual and or philosophical ones. And it is hence called the Direct path by the Maharshi.
Hence no wonder it is a very unique secular subject embracing and over riding all philosophical pursuits hitherto made in search of identity. It is beyond religion, color, creed and society and embraces the citizen of the universe, leave alone our own humanity.
The Govt. of India found the practice of ‘ Self Enquiry ‘ as advocated by Sree Ramana Maharshi as a most fitting secular method for practice by our contemporary society taking into consideration the innumerable religions, faiths, languages, spiritual pursuits etc; prevalent in our Indian society. Be it for the layman or the ruler it takes one into an inner journey to peace, meaning and goal of life.The Govt. has made the subject ‘ Self Enquiry ‘ and has approved and recommended it as a Human Resources Development concept. A postal stamp was also released by the Govt. to mark this occasion a few years back. Also the Govt of India conducted an International Seminar on the subject in Bangalore and the Ramana Maharshi Centre for Learning, Bangalore
Sree Ramana calls for the development of inwardness in us, first of all. Looking into us. Or how to focus one’s attention inward ?
