Indescribable

Sri Ramana Maharshi

10-5-1946

In the afternoon Krishna Jivrajani said to Bhagavan, "During sadhana I feel that something in me is going up. Is that right or should it go down?”

Bhagavan: Never mind whether anything goes up or down. Does it exist without you? Never forget that. Whatever experience may come remember who has the experience and thus cling to ‘I’ or the Self.

Jivrajani: Bhagavan has said one must dive deep into oneself like pearl divers with breath and speech controlled and discover the Self or attain the Self. So does Bhagavan advise me to practise breath-control?

Bhagavan: Breath-control is a help in controlling the mind and is advised for such as find they cannot control the mind without some such aid. For those who can control their mind and concentrate, it is not necessary. It can be used at the beginning until one is able to control the mind, but then it should be given up. Since mind and prana rise from the same source, control of one gives control of the other also.

Jivrajani: Is it good to strain to achieve breath-control?

Bhagavan: No, straining is not good. Only a little pranayama should be done at the beginning — as much as is possible without undue strain.

Jivrajani: I have never been able to understand Bhagavan’s explanation as to how ajnana comes about. 

I put in, “Bhagavan has said, ‘Find out to whom is the ajnana and then the doubt will be dispelled’.”

Bhagavan: Ignorance of what ?

Jivrajani: Bhagavan has said that when the ego is submerged or killed something else arises within us as ‘I-I’. Will Bhagavan please tell me more about that?

Bhagavan: Everyone has to find that out by his own experience. It cannot be described. In the same way, you say, “something goes up”; can you describe that?