Self Will Remain As It Is

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Why do thoughts of many objects arise in the mind even when there is no contact with external objects?

All such thoughts are due to latent tendencies (purva samskaras). They appear only to the individual consciousness (jiva) which has forgotten its real nature and become externalized. Whenever particular things are perceived, the enquiry 'who is it that sees them?' should be made; they will then disappear at once.

How do the triple factors (i.e., knower, known and knowledge), which are absent in deep sleep, samadhi, etc., manifest themselves in the Self (in the states of waking and dreaming)?

From the Self there arise in succession,

Chidabhasa (reflected consciousness) which is a kind of luminosity

Jiva (the individual consciousness) or the seer or the first concept

Phenomena, that is the world

Since the Self is free the notions of knowledge and ignorance how can it be said to pervade the entire body in the shape of sentience or to impart sentience to the senses?

Wise men say that there is a connection between the source of the various psychic nerves and the Self, that this is the knot of the heart, that the connection between the sentience and the insentient will exist until this is cut asunder with the aid of true knowledge, that just as the subtle and invisible force of electricity travels through wires and does many wonderful things, so the force of the Self also travels through the psychic nerves and, pervading the entire body, imparts sentience to the senses, and that if this knot is cut the Self will remain as it always is, without any attributes.