Sri Ramana Maharshi
D.: Is not affirmation of God more effective than the quest, “who am I?” Affirmation is positive, whereas the other is negation. Moreover, it indicates separateness.
M.: So long as you seek to know how to realise, this advice is given to find your Self. Your seeking the method denotes your separateness.
D.: Is it not better to say ‘I am the Supreme Being’ than ask ‘Who am I?’
M.: Who affirms? There must be one to do it. Find that one.
D.: Is not meditation better than investigation?
M.: Meditation implies mental imagery, whereas investigation is for the Reality. The former is objective, whereas the latter is subjective.
D.: There must be a scientific approach to this subject.
M.: To eschew unreality and seek the Reality is scientific.
D.: I mean there must be a gradual elimination, first of the mind, then of the intellect, then of the ego.
M.: The Self alone is Real. All others are unreal. The mind and intellect do not remain apart from you. The Bible says, “Be still and know that I am God”. Stillness is the sole requisite for the realisation of the Self as God.
D.: Will the West ever understand this teaching?
M.: There is no question of time and space. Understanding depends on ripeness of mind. What does it matter if one lives in the East or in the West?
Sri Bhagavan referred the lady to a few stanzas in Truth Revealed and to Thayumanavar. She retired.
Later Sri Bhagavan said the whole Vedanta is contained in the two Biblical statements: “I am that I AM” and “Be still and know that I am God.”
Mr. K. S. N. Iyer, a Railway Officer, said to Sri Bhagavan that the compiler of Cosmic Consciousness considers realisation to be possible only within certain limits of age in an individual’s life.
M.: Does anyone say “I must come into being before or after some age?” He is here and now. Statements like this are misleading because people come to believe that they cannot realise the Self in this incarnation and must needs take chances in another. It is all absurd.
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