All Because Of The Mind

Sri Ramana Maharshi

5-1-1946 Afternoon

The same visitor asked, "I do Omkara puja. I say 'Om Ram'. Is that good?"

B: Yes. Any puja is good. Om Ram or any other name will do. The point is to keep away all other thoughts except the one thought of Om or Ram or God. All mantra or japa helps that. He who does the japa of Rama, for example, becomes Rama-maya. The worshipper becomes in course of time the worshipped. It is only then that he will know the full meaning of the Omkar which he was repeating.

Our real nature is mukti. But we are imagining we are bound and are making various strenuous attempts to become free, while we all the while free. This will be understood only when we reach that state. We will be surprised that we were frantically trying to attain something which we have always been and are. An illustration will make this clear. A man goes to sleep in this hall. He dreams he has gone on a world tour, is roaming over hill and dale, forest and country, desert and sea, across various continents and after many years of weary and strenuous travel, returns to this country, reaches Tiruvannamalai, enters the ashramam and walks into the hall. Just at that moment he wakes up and finds he has not moved an inch but was sleeping where he lay down. He has not returned after great effort to this hall, but is and always has been in the hall. It is exactly like that. If it is asked, why being free we imagine we are bound, I answer, "Why being in the hall did you imagine you were on a world adventure, crossing hill and dale, desert and sea? It is all mind or maya."