An Awakening in Silence

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K. Bhaskara Rao

The study of Vedanta is the study of man in his entirety and his total relation to the universe. It is not a dull excursion into the abstract, but a living science of life.  The main purpose of the study is for a better understanding, appreciation and enjoyment without craving.  The Upanishads are expressions of the experiences of those great seers in their communion with the Ultimate Reality.  It is only because of the presence of self or Atman that all is known.  They direct man to know the nature of his own self, the source of real knowledge and eternal Bliss – “KNOW THY SELF”.

Egos are different and numerous like bubbles. The Self if one alone, like the ocean. Accept your identity with the Real, be the water, not the bubble – dive in.  This diving in is Self-inquiry, searching for the emperical  ‘I’ – the ego-and seeing it disappear.  The ego belongs to the body not to the Self but vanishes when an earnest enquiry is made into its identity, its origin and connections.  Then what remains is reality – “Shining forth by itself”.  That is pure awareness – the purest and highest happiness in abstraction.  When the mind experiences no thought, it experiences happiness.  The process of discovering the spiritual dimension of the human personality – the immortal self behind the mortal and finite self is not a dogma but an experiential fact.  This enquiry is scientific because it welcomes questioning of its conclusions and its stress is on experience and not on unquestioned belief.  To realise that the infinite is in me, God Himself is in me, is a very difficult path and also, initially unbelievable; yet that we are all spiritually one is a challenging truth presented by our scriptures, Our ‘Sanatana Dharma’ is eternal, perennial because its deals with eternal truths.

When the Atman is revealed as true basis of all being, nothing else subsists, neither the world nor the mind according to Sri Ramana Maharshi, It is the mind that sees the world ensure with all its charms and deceptive potentialities.  Hence the Sadhana of self-enquiry adopts the technique of a direct attack on the mind. When the mind is brought to absolute tranquility, the distinction of meditator and object of meditation vanishes. The veil of illusion gets thin. The spear point of inquiry pierces through. The knot of the heart is cut.  All doubts and despondencies are resolved.  Man is not free from bondage.  The mind has to be serene and radiant through discipline and meditation. And the spirit of enquiry into the meaning of the Mahavakyas – “Thou Art” (Tattvamasi) and ‘I am Brahman’ (Aham Brahmasmi) has to break the bondage of duality forever.  It is one thing to know in theory and another to be able to accept in practice. True enquiry is the courage to see the upsetting of man’s fundamental assumptions based on ignorance.

Self enquiry is a direct lesson for being still and losing oneself in the Infinite.  A self-realised person lives to help others, worried people, who approach him for guidance, by showing them the path of knowledge, leading to internal peace. It is an inward quest.  Its field is obviously the self.  It is a state of realisation, the realisation that the “I” is the Atman, the self – effulgent, The Quest is a Sadhana, not a mere study or adhyayana.  It calls for withdrawal and collectedness, not action in the sense-presented world and dissipation of attention in external objects.  The secret of this Sadhana lies in tracking down the mind to its source in the Self.  The entire weight and force of the thought is shifted away from its content to its source.  The answer to the question regarding the identity of the thinker leads it further into the depths of one’s being as the Self.  This is an awakening in Silence not an achievement in action.

Self-enquiry taught by Bhagawan is termed as “Maha Yoga”. It falls under the path of knowledge, the other being meditation.  After practising Self-enquiry for a long period,  the seeker will find that calm and peace prevail within, and the mind is prepared to merge in the Heart.  He will then enjoy communion with the Universal Soul.    He cannot compare his experience with that of the other seekers, for that state has to be enjoyed by each for himself alone.  During union, he also forgets his experience of the Bliss.

“Who am I”? is not a mere mantra, the repetitive. Articulation of which would directly secure  liberation.  It entails discipline, calls for perseverance and implies assiduous practice. Indeed, it signifies a self-complete course of Sadhana.  The Sadhana requires that we persist with the Query and take it inward into a deeper dive.  When the mind touches the heart and finds itself vanquished as death-knell of the ego for it exposes the emptiness of the pretender’s claim.  The voice of the little “I” fades, but then the “Sphurana” shines in a deeper dimension, when there is neither sound nor light – self-awareness, pure in its luminous authenticity.  When the fire is exhausted and the Camphor is all burnt up, there is no more Sphurna of any kind.  That is liberation in that the self alone shines and shines by its own intrinsic effulgence of pure Infinite Being, with no trace of the ‘I’ with its limiting horizons.  It is to such an awakening that self-enquiry as a Sadhana leads. 

The secret of this practice is in Vairagya or dispassion. This enables the individual to shed all that would be a hindrance to the plunge into the depths.  Vairagya implies removal of the accumulated tendencies or Vasanas.  And the tendencies are removed, in Maharshi’s technique of Self-enquiry through the very process of Self-enquiry.  With the annihilation of vasanams, the source of one’s being stands self-revealed as Atman.

The realisation is the result of Master’s grace more than teaching, lectures and meditation etc.  They are only secondary aids, whereas the former is the primary and the essential cause.  All the lower passions of the ego can be sublimated, provided we adopt the path of self-enquiry. The ultimate solution to any problem in Vedanta is to dissolve it in the highest reality.  Maharshi taught the technique of Karma Yoga through Concrete living without any sense of egoity by example.  Maharshi was a living example of “Sthithapragna”.  Unless every minute that we live, we are conscious of that spirit of Sri Ramana we cannot progress towards our ultimate goal.

Under whatever name and form one may worship the Absolute Reality, it is only a means for realising it without name and form. That alone is true Realisation wherein one knows oneself in relation to that Reality, attains peace and realises one’s identity with it.  By enquiring into the nature of the “I” and “I” perishes, with it ‘you’ and ‘He’ also perish.  It only means annihilation of the illusion of separate identity, i.e. the ego which is the source of all suffering and frustration.  The resultant state, which shines as Absolute Being, is one’s own natural state, the Self.  The knower of the source and end of all, of birth and death, who sees the self aloen, in others who is ever established in the blissful state of Pure Being.

Bhagavan Ramana lived a perfect harmonious life. His words were supremely pure and perfect.  He ever abided in the self. Hence Peace and Bliss radiated from Him all the time.  Bhagavan was not only a “Jnani” fully realised being but a “Sahaja Nishta”, dwelling naturally in Eternity while seeming to be one of us.  His life is a study in diving illumination based on dynamic silence.  He stands for the unity of existence, the non-duality of the God head and harmony of religion.

“May I destroy the tree of my own “Aham” (Self-Importance).  May I become absolutely pure and renounce myself completely in the cause of God which is the establishment of Dharma.  May I become a worthy instrument in His hands or a worthy offering for that great Yagna!”

–(Taittariya Upa-Sikshavalli-10)