Evolution of Love 2

REALIZATION AND BODILY EXPERIENCE

D. Then what is the difference between the baddha and
the mukta, the bound man and the one liberated ?

M. From the Heart, the Self-center, there is a
subtle passage leading to the sahasrara, the shakti
Stana. The ordinary man lives in the brain unaware
of himself in the Heart. The jnana siddha lives in the
Heart. When he moves about and deals with men and
things, he knows that what he sees is not separate from
the one Supreme Reality, the Brahman which he realizes
in the Heart as his own Self, the Real.

D. What about the ordinary man?

M. I have just said that he sees things outside
himself. He is separate from the world, from his own
deeper truth, from the truth that supports him and what
he sees. The man who has realized the supreme Truth
of his own existence realizes that it is the one supreme
Reality that is there behind him, behind the world. ln
fact, he is aware of the One, as the Real, the Self in all
selves, in all things, eternal and immutable, in all that
is impermanent and mutable.

D. You speak in very high terms of knowledge, I
began with the body. Is there any difference between
the jnani and the ajnani in bodily experience?

M. There is. How can it be otherwise? I have
often declared it.

D. Then the vedanta jnana as spoken of and discussed
is perhaps different from what is practiced and
realized. You often say that there is the real meaning
of "I" in the Heart, …

M. Yes, when you go deeper you lose yourself, as
it were, in the abysmal depths, then the Reality which
is the atman that was behind you all the while takes
hold of you. It is an incessant flash of I-consciousness,
you can be aware of it, feel it, hear it, sense it, so to
say ; this is what I call aham sphurana.

D. You said that the atman is immutable, self-
effulgent, etc. But if you speak at the same time of the
incessant flash of I-consciousness of this aham sphurana,
does that not imply movement, which cannot be
complete realization, in which there is no movement?

M. What do you mean by complete realization?
Does it mean becoming a stone, an inert mass?
The vritti is different from aham sphurana. The former is the activity of the ego and is bound to lose itself and make way for the latter, which is
an eternal expression of the Self.

In Vedantic parlance this aham spurana is called Vritthi Jnana.
Realisation or jnana is always a vritti. There is a distinction
between Vritti Jnana or Realization and swarupa, the Real.
swarupa is jnana itself, it is Consciousness.

Swarupa is Sat Chit which is omnipresent. It is
always there self -attained. When you realize it, the
realization is called vritti jnana. It is only with reference to your
existence, that you talk of realization or
jnana. Therefore, when we talk of jnana, we always
mean Vritti jnana and not the swarupa jnana ; for
swarupa itself is jnana consciousness always.

D. So far I understand. But what about the body ?
How could I feel this vritti-jnana in the body ?

M. You can feel yourself one with the One that
exists: the whole body becomes a mere power, a force-
current: your life becomes a needle drawn to a huge
mass of magnet and as you go deeper and deeper, you
become a mere center and then not even that, for you
become a mere consciousness, there are no thoughts or
cares any longer they were shattered at the threshold;
it is an inundation; you, a mere straw, you are swallowed alive,
but it is very delightful, for you become the
very thing that swallows you; this is the union of jiva,
with Brahman, the loss of ego in the real Self, the destruction
of falsehood, the attainment of Truth.

- Sat Darshana Bhashya and Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi