Only One Centre - The Self

Sri Ramana Maharshi

The lady asked: The spiritual leaders in the West say that the spiritual centre is in India. Is there any contact among the spiritual leaders in India? Or is contact possible between the leaders of the East and the West?

M.: What do you mean by spiritual centre? 

D.: The spiritual centre is the seat of spiritual leaders. 

M.: What do you understand by ‘spiritual leaders’? 

D.: In the West there is a crisis. Scientific knowledge is far advanced. Such knowledge is used for generating destructive forces. There is a movement for making them constructive. When thus diverted it will be for the good of the world. The leaders of this movement are the redeemers. 

M.: By ‘spiritual leaders’ we understand those who are ‘spiritual’ as opposed to ‘physical’. Spirit is unlimited and formless. Such too is the spiritual centre. There is only one such centre. Whether in the West or in the East the centre cannot differ; nor has it any locality. Being unlimited it includes the leaders, the men, the world, the forces of destruction and of construction. There is no differentiation. You speak of contact because you are thinking of the embodied beings as spiritual leaders. The spiritual men are not bodies; they are not aware of their bodies. They are only spirit, limitless and formless. There is always unity among them and all others; nay, they comprise all. The spirit is the Self. If the Self is realized, these questions cannot arise at all. 

Mrs. Jinarajadasa from Adyar: Self Realisation sounds so easy, but yet is so difficult in practice. 

M.: What can be easier? The Self is more intimate than anything else. If that cannot be realized, is it easy to realize what is apart and farther away?

D.: Self Realisation is so illusory. How can it be made permanent? 

M.: The Self can never be illusory. It is the only Reality. That which appears will also disappear and is therefore impermanent. The Self never appears and disappears and is therefore permanent. 

D.: Yes - true. You know that, in the Theosophical Society, they meditate to seek the masters to guide them. 

M.: The Master is within. Meditation is meant for the removal of ignorance, of the wrong idea that he is without. If he be a stranger whose advent you await he is bound to disappear also. Where is the use of transient being like that? However, as long as you think that you are an individual or that you are the body, so long the master also is necessary and he will appear with a body. When this wrong identification ceases the master will be found to be the Self. There is a stanza in Kaivalya: “My Lord! You had remained as my Self within, protecting me in all my past incarnations. Now, by your Grace, you have manifested yourself as my master and revealed yourself as the Self “. Just see what happens in sleep. There is no ego, no India, no seekers, no master, etc.; and yet you are - and happy too. The ego, India, seekers, etc., appear now; but they are not apart from nor independent of you.