Awareness is Your Nature

Sri Ramana Maharshi

An American lady, a theosophist, asked: What is the means by which my approach to my master may be made nearer?
M.: How far away are you now from him?
D.: I am away from him. But I want to get closer to him.
M.: If you first know your Self, you may then find out how far away the other is. Who are you now? Are you the personality?
D.: Yes, I am the personality.
M.: Is the personality independent of the Self?
D.: Sometimes.
M.: At what times?
D.: I mean I have some flashes of the reality and, at other times, I do not have them.
M.: Who is aware of those flashes?
D.: I, I mean my personality.
M.: Is this personality aware as being apart from the Self?
D.: Which Self?
M.: Which do you consider the personality to be?
D.: The lower self.
M.: Then I mean to ask if the lower self is aware independently of the Higher Self?
D.: Yes, at times
M.: Who feels that she is away from the master, just now?
D.: The Higher Self.
M.: Does the Higher Self have a body and say that the master is away from it? Does it speak through your mouth? Are you apart from that?
D.: Can you kindly advise me how I can train myself to be aware of what I do even without the body, as in sleep?
M.: Awareness is your nature. In deep sleep or in waking, it is the same. How can it be gained afresh?
D.: But I do not remember what and how I did in my sleep.
M.: Who says “I do not remember”?
D.: I say now.
M.: You were the same then; why do you not say so in sleep?
D.: I do not remember what I say in sleep.
M.: You say, “I know, I remember”, in the wakeful state. This same personality says “I did not know - I did not remember in sleep”. Why does not this question arise in sleep?
(To be continued)