Only One Happiness

Sri Ramana Maharshi

2-2-1946 Morning

One Ananda swami from Mt. Abu put questions and got the following answers.

Q: It is said in books that the purusha is angushtha pramana. What is it that is meant by it?

A: Evidently the books must be referring to the upadhi in which the purusha is manifesting. They cannot mean that the all-pervading purusha is angushtha pramana.

Q: Is that purusha in the heart?

A: If you mean the physical heart, it cannot be. But the books describe a heart which is an inverted lotus with a cavity inside and a flame in that cavity and all that. In such a psychic heart, the purusha may be said to abide and the flame may be of that angushtha pramana.

Q: Is seeing that light Self-Realization?

A: Abiding in it and being it, not seeing it, is Self-realization.

Q: Is nirvikalpa samadhi what happens to the prana?

A: It goes and merges where it came from.

Q: I wish to know if there will be breathing then.

A: It may not be then in the form of respiration, but in some sukshma form. They talk of maha prana.

Q: What is sahaja samadhi?

A: It is our svabhava sthiti. It is being in our natural state. Nirvikalpa samadhi also means merely giving up our vikalpas. Samadhi is our natural state, if we give up the vikalpas.

Q: What is the difference between sushupti ananda and turiya ananda?

A: There are not different anandas. There is only one ananda including the ananda enjoyed during the waking state, the ananda, of all kinds of beings from the lowest animal to the highest brahman, the ananda of the Self. The bliss which is enjoyed unconsciously in sleep is enjoyed consciously in turiya. That is the difference. The ananda enjoyed during jagrat is upadhi ananda.

During the greater part of the afternoon B was perusing a note book in which Venkatesa Sastriar had gathered together all the sayings of Ribhu found in the Upanishads.