For Whom Is Inside Or Outside?

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Q: What is the use of samadhi and does thought subsist then?

M: Samadhi alone can reveal the Truth. Thoughts cast a veil over Reality, and so It is not realized as such in states other than samadhi.

Q: How can I repeat the experience of samadhi or the stillness that I obtain here?

M: Your present experience is due to the influence of the atmosphere in which you find yourself. Can you have it outside this atmosphere? The experience is spasmodic. Until it becomes permanent, practice is necessary.

Q: One has at times vivid flashes of a consciousness whose center is outside the normal self, and which seems to be all-inclusive. Without concerning ourselves with philosophical concepts, how would Bhagavan advise me to work getting, retaining and extending those rare flashes? Does abhyasa in such experience involve retirement?

M: Outside! For whom is the inside or outside? These can exist only so long as there are subject and object. For whom are these two again? On investigation you will find that they resolve into the subject only. See who is the subject; and this enquiry leads you to pure Consciousness beyond the subject.

The normal self is the mind. This mind is with limitations. But pure Consciousness is beyond limitations, and is reached by investigation as above outlined.

Getting: The Self is always there. You have only to remove the veil obstructing the revelation of the Self.

Retaining: Once you realize the Self, it becomes your direct and immediate experience. It is never lost.

Extending: There is no extending of the Self, for it is as ever, without contraction or expansion.

Retirement: Abiding in the Self is solitude. Because there is nothing alien to the Self. Retirement must be from some one place or state to another. There is neither the one nor the other apart from the Self. All being the Self, retirement is impossible and inconceivable.

Abhyasa is only the prevention of disturbance to the inherent peace. You are always in your natural state whether you do abhyasa or not.To remain as you are, without question or doubt, is your natural state.