Ramana Maharshi and the question paper

2-1-46 Afternoon
Mr. Joshi has submitted what Bhagavan calls a question paper, and Bhagavan answers the same.

First about the jnani’s doing work, without the mind: “You imagine one cannot do work if the mind is killed. Why do you suppose that it is the mind alone that can make one do work. There may be other causes which can also produce activity. Look at this clock, for instance. It is working without a mind. Again suppose we say the jnani has a mind. His mind is very different from the ordinary man’s mind. He is like the man who is hearing a story told with his mind all on some distant object. The mind rid of vasanas, though doing work, is not doing work. On the other hand, if the mind is full of vasanas, it is doing work even if the body is not active or moving.”

Question 2: Is soham the same as ‘Who am I?’

Answer: Aham alone is common to them. One is soham. The other is koham. They are different. Why should we go on saying soham? One must find out the real ‘I’. In the question ‘Who am I?’, by ‘I’ is meant the ego. Trying to trace it and find its source, we see it has no separate existence but merges in the real ‘I’.

Question 3: I find surrender is easier. I want to adopt that path.

Answer: By whatever path you go, you will have to lose yourself in the One. Surrender is complete only when you reach the stage ‘Thou art all’ and ‘Thy will be done’.

The state is not different from jnana. In soham there is dvaita. In surrender there is advaita. In the Reality there is neither dvaita nor advaita, but That which is, is. Surrender appears easy because people imagine that, once they say with their lips ‘I surrender’ and put their burdens on their Lord, they can be free and do what they like. But the fact is that you can have no likes or dislikes after your surrender and that your will should become completely non-existent, the Lord’s Will taking its place. Such death of the ego is nothing different from jnana. So by whatever path you may go, you must come to jnana or oneness.

Question 4: How am I to deal with my passions? Am I to check them or satisfy them? If I follow Bhagavan’s method and ask, ‘To whom are these passions?’ they do not seem to die but grow stronger.

Answer: That only shows you are not going about my method properly. The right way is to find out the root of all passions, the source whence they proceed, and get rid of that. If you check the passions, they may get suppressed for the moment, but will appear again. If you satisfy them, they will be satisfied only for the moment and will again crave satisfaction. Satisfying desires and thereby trying to root them out is like trying to quench fire by pouring kerosene oil over it. The only way is to find the root of desire and thus remove it.

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