"The very first step in understanding what this is all about is giving up the concept of an active, volitional 'I' as a separate entity and accepting the passive role of perceiving and functioning as a process." - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Friday, February 6, 2015

Direct Mind Toward One Thought

Sri Ramana Maharshi
21-1-1946

Gokul Bhai read out the Gujarati Ramana Gita Chapter 11 and then the Gujarati Upadesa Saram. Mr. P. C. Desai asked B, "In verse 14 they have translated the second line of the Sanskrit verse as 'If the mind is continuously fixed on meditation of the Self, etc.' Is that all right, seeing that neither continuously nor Self is found in the original.?"

B: Eka chintana involves continuous thought. If no other thought is to come, the one thought has to be continuous. What is meant by the verse is as follows: The previous verses have said that for controlling the mind breath-control or pranayama may be helpful. This verse says that the mind so brought under control or to the state of laya should not be allowed to be in mere laya or a state like sleep, but that it should be directed towards eka chintana or one thought, whether that one thought is of the Self, the ishta devata or a mantram. What the one thought may be will depend on each man's pakva or fitness. The verse leaves it as one thought. 

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सर्वभूताधिवासं यद्भूतेषु च वसत्यपि।
सर्वानुग्राहकत्वेन तद्स्म्यहं वासुदेवः॥

That in whom reside all beings and who resides in all beings,
who is the giver of grace to all, the Supreme Soul of the universe, the limitless being:
I AM THAT. -- Amritabindu Upanishad