One day when Ramana Maharshi was sitting in his uncle's house a sudden unmistakable fear of death seized him. He did not panic and wanted to understand the feeling more. He extended his limbs and held his breath until he was stiff as if rigor mortis had set in. He stayed in that position watching 'proceedings as a witness to determine the reality of existance'. He was trying to answer the question 'with the death of the body am I dead?' He stayed in that stretched position until he could not hold his breath any longer and 'felt the full force of his personality and even the sound of 'I' within himself apart from the body'. Then he further realised that 'I am' is the spirit and and it is eternal and indivisible . 'I am ' is the eternal spirit. Then he must have taken a long breath.
'I am' becomes the deathless spirit and the fear of death vanishes.The world and the mind set together simultaneously but the world owes its existence to the mind ( If a tree falls and you do not know it , has it still fallen?- in this case it has not ). The mind is a collection of thoughts which are linked together by the initial 'i' thought. The initial 'I ' thought was the thought of being, the thought of existence. This often is misunderstood and and used interchangeably with the concept of the body or self. . When this happens the body becomes more important, worldly pleasures, vanity, judgments, the betterment of ones outer self becomes predominant than the eternal 'I'. 'Having lost ourselves in the body and the sense perceptions we end up owning the pains and pleasures, successes and failures misery and delight and all the experiences the body undergoes'
The realisation of the mind, the 'I am' gives the person comfort. It is not important where you live, what you wear any more. You exist. What you perceive, think or do is not important, but what you are is. All that yoga and meditation, and praying can not lead to freedom you need to follow the source of the first 'i' thought- that you are eternal. It doe snot matter if you are in the gutter, if you live on the round about of the main road, if you find the food you share with the dogs come from a rubbish tip.
The core of the all religions, what The Book or the Guru says and the interpretation of it gets diluted all the way down until it reaches the masses. It becomes a hazy shadow of the initial idea , only a glimpse of the underlying principles. Rituals become more important than the principles. Things are done in a certain way because they have been done in that way for a long time under the name of principles.
I see lots of rituals here. I see lots of 'things are like this because it has been like this for a long time'. The acceptance of how life is and accepting 'I' being more important than body/self as the basic principle may help to explain how life is here. If the crucial aspect of being is 'I', then the other 'I's are less important than the thinker. this can lead to improving one's self and closing down the personal space. It is possible to live in a very crowded place and not to care/think about others. Then you only clean your own space, exist in your own territory ( how ever small or big it is), in your own 'I'. It becomes possible to see and accept as ordinary the masses begging , living in the street, next to a bus shelter, or just on the corner of the pavement in front of designer Coffee shop. This reality becomes not a responsibility for the 'I'.
There you go. After almost a week and ahalf I have the answer to India. The quotations are taken from the Mumbai Times Saturday edition page 3. I was going to add thelink but the cleaners took away yesterday's paper with my almonds on plate. The 'I' was having a cup of tea then...
'I am' becomes the deathless spirit and the fear of death vanishes.The world and the mind set together simultaneously but the world owes its existence to the mind ( If a tree falls and you do not know it , has it still fallen?- in this case it has not ). The mind is a collection of thoughts which are linked together by the initial 'i' thought. The initial 'I ' thought was the thought of being, the thought of existence. This often is misunderstood and and used interchangeably with the concept of the body or self. . When this happens the body becomes more important, worldly pleasures, vanity, judgments, the betterment of ones outer self becomes predominant than the eternal 'I'. 'Having lost ourselves in the body and the sense perceptions we end up owning the pains and pleasures, successes and failures misery and delight and all the experiences the body undergoes'
The realisation of the mind, the 'I am' gives the person comfort. It is not important where you live, what you wear any more. You exist. What you perceive, think or do is not important, but what you are is. All that yoga and meditation, and praying can not lead to freedom you need to follow the source of the first 'i' thought- that you are eternal. It doe snot matter if you are in the gutter, if you live on the round about of the main road, if you find the food you share with the dogs come from a rubbish tip.
The core of the all religions, what The Book or the Guru says and the interpretation of it gets diluted all the way down until it reaches the masses. It becomes a hazy shadow of the initial idea , only a glimpse of the underlying principles. Rituals become more important than the principles. Things are done in a certain way because they have been done in that way for a long time under the name of principles.
I see lots of rituals here. I see lots of 'things are like this because it has been like this for a long time'. The acceptance of how life is and accepting 'I' being more important than body/self as the basic principle may help to explain how life is here. If the crucial aspect of being is 'I', then the other 'I's are less important than the thinker. this can lead to improving one's self and closing down the personal space. It is possible to live in a very crowded place and not to care/think about others. Then you only clean your own space, exist in your own territory ( how ever small or big it is), in your own 'I'. It becomes possible to see and accept as ordinary the masses begging , living in the street, next to a bus shelter, or just on the corner of the pavement in front of designer Coffee shop. This reality becomes not a responsibility for the 'I'.
There you go. After almost a week and ahalf I have the answer to India. The quotations are taken from the Mumbai Times Saturday edition page 3. I was going to add thelink but the cleaners took away yesterday's paper with my almonds on plate. The 'I' was having a cup of tea then...
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