Atma Vichara Needed For Steady Dhyana

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 D.: A man sometimes finds that the physical body does not permit steady meditation. Should he practice yoga for training the body for the purpose?

M.: It is according to one’s samskaras (predispositions). One man will practice hatha yoga for curing his bodily ills; another man will trust to God to cure them; a third man will use his will-power for it and a fourth man may be totally indifferent to them. But all of them will persist in meditation. The quest for the Self is the essential factor and all the rest are mere accessories.

A man may have mastered the Vedanta philosophy and yet remain unable to control his thoughts. He may have a predisposition (purva samskara) which takes him to practice hatha yoga. He will believe that the mind can be controlled only by yoga and so he will practice it.

D.: What is most suitable for gaining facilities for steady dhyana?

M.: It depends on one’s samskara. One may find hatha yoga suitable and another man nama japa, and so on. The essential point is the atma-vichara - enquiry into the Self.

D.: Is it enough if I spend some time in the mornings and some time in the evenings for this atma-vichara? Or should I do it always - say, even when I am writing or walking?

M.: Now what is your real nature? Is it writing, walking, or being? The one unalterable reality is Being. Until you realize that state of pure being you should pursue the enquiry. If once you are established in it there will be no further worry.

No one will enquire into the source of thoughts unless thoughts arise. So long as you think “I am walking,” “I am writing,” enquire who does it. 

These actions will however go on when one is firmly established in the Self. Does a man always say, “I am a man, I am a man, I am a man,” every moment of his life? He does not say so and yet all his actions are going on.

D.: Is an intellectual understanding of the Truth necessary?

M.: Yes. Otherwise why does not the person realize God or the Self at once, i.e., as soon as he is told that God is all or the Self is all? That shows some wavering on his part. He must argue with himself and gradually convince himself of the Truth before his faith becomes firm.