Sri Ramana Maharshi
Q: What is the sign of wisdom (viveka)?
Its beauty lies in remaining free from delusion after realizing the truth once. There is fear only for one who sees at least a slight difference in the Supreme Brahman. So long as there is the idea that the body is the Self one cannot be a realizer of truth whoever he might be.
Q: If everything happens according to karma, how is one to overcome the obstacles to meditation?
Prarabdha concerns only the out-turned, not the in-turned mind. One who seeks his real Self will not be afraid of any obstacle.
Q: Is asceticism one of the essential requisites for a person to become established in the Self?
The effort that is made to get rid of attachment to one's body is really towards abiding in the Self. Maturity of though and enquiry alone removes attachment to the body, not the stations of life (ashramas), such as student (brahmachari) etc. For the attachment is in the mind while the stations pertain to the body. How can bodily stations remove the attachment in the mind? As maturity of thoughts and enquiry pertain to the mind these alone can, by enquiry on the part of the same mind, remove the attachments which have crept into it through thoughtlessness. But as the discipline of asceticism is the means for attaining dispassion, and as dispassion is the means of enquiry, joining an order of ascetics may be regarded, in a way, as a means of enquiry through dispassion. Instead of wasting one's life by entering the order of ascetics before one is fit for it, it is better to live the householder's life. In order to fix the mind in the Self which is its true nature it is necessary to separate it from family of fancies (sankalpas) and doubts (vikalpas), that is to renounce the family in the mind. This is the real asceticism.
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