Ramana Maharshi - ebook - Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi.pdf - Ramana Maharishi - asiaj

PART ONE

ORIGINAL WORKS

PROSE

was written about 1901, that is, when he was a young

man of about twenty-two. He was already a Jnani (Sage) in

perfect realization of the Self, in the resplendent bliss of Divine

Knowledge. At that time he was living in Virupaksha Cave on

the hill of Arunachala. A number of disciples had already

gathered round him. Although he had not actually taken a

vow of silence, he seldom spoke, and so wrote his replies to

certain questions put to him by Gambhiram Seshayya, one of

the earliest devotees. The latter copied them in his diary. After

his death this diary was obtained from his brother. The

questions and answers were edited by Natanananda and

published with Bhagavan’s approval under the name of

Vichara Sangraham , or Self-Enquiry . Subsequently they were

changed into the form of an essay. The original form has been

adopted in the present work.

There is no youthfulness or immaturity in the work. The

Master wrote with the authority of full spiritual knowledge,

just as in his later years. Like all his expositions, verbal as

well as written, this is concerned with practical questions of

the path to realization of the Self, never with barren theory.

However, it does differ from later expositions in one important

Self-enquiry

S elf-enquiry is the first work the Maharshi ever wrote. It

Self-enquiry

respect: that is, that it describes not only the path of Self-

enquiry but others also; meditation on one’s identity with the

Self and a yogic path based on breath-control. He himself

prescribed only Self-enquiry or submission to the Guru. He

would say: “There are two ways: ask yourself ‘Who am I?’ or

submit.”

Why did he include the mention of less direct and more

elaborate methods in this first exposition? The obvious

contingent reason is that the disciple for whom it was written

had been reading books about these various methods and asked

questions about them. Perhaps also, in a wider sense, it is

appropriate that there should first be a general exposition of

various methods before the lifelong instruction in that which

he prescribed. Certainly the other methods, although

described, are scarcely recommended.

The breath control that is described is, of course, not mere

physical exercise. It is the spiritual significance of the exercise

that makes it an elaborate science. ‘Science’ is indeed the

right word for it, for it is a traditional Indian science of self-

purification. This makes it abstruse for the Western reader

who has no previous grounding in it, especially as, like all

sciences, it has its technical vocabulary which does not permit

adequate translation without lengthy notes. One has to

remember that in writing this exposition the Maharshi knew

that he could count on a technical knowledge of the science

in question in the person for whom he wrote. The consolation

for Western readers is to remember that he neither

recommended nor prescribed this path and in his later works

scarcely mentioned it. It is not necessary for them to learn

its technicalities.

Ramana Maharshi - ebook - Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: