26.
WHAT DOES THE GURU SAY?

WE approach the Guru in the restlessness of our
mind and find no satisfaction in anything done
or achieved. He gives us His benign look of Grace; in
that one look is the real touch of Grace. His proximity is
the harbour of Peace, in Him you find your haven of
safety. He is the healer of all sores in you. You seem to be
melted and lost in Him. You are now still. The Guru says,
"Be still, and Know that I am God." This knowing is the
understanding of the absolute and relative values of Life.

      Understanding what? It is the distinctive knowledge
(the vijnana ^[?]) of the eternal unchanging Truth of your self.
In the background of this eternal and unchanging Truth,
the changeful and varying states of your doership move
about and cloud your understanding of the Real Truth of
your Being.

      To put this more clearly, in the words of Sri Bhagavan,
"You are the Self (atman)." Now no one will deny he is
the Self, the eternal changeless basis of himself. This Self
is Pure Being, conscious of Itself. It is Pure Bliss, in the
sense that in Itself it is not touched or affected by the
pleasures and pains of your varying states. Know to fix
yourself as this Self, and to abide as such, unmoved by the
fluctuating feelings of pain and pleasure, which pass and
re-pass before you, the unaffected Self.

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      There must be no clouded vision of yourself. Whatever
the nature of your doership and enjoyership, painful or
pleasurable, you are always tranquil in the firmness of your
real Being, as realised by the distinctive knowledge (vijnana ^[?])
of yourself. This is the surest way to Peace, as taught by the
Upanishads and by Bhagavan Sri Ramana.

      Now you have been told about the constant part of
yourself, and you also have to be told about the variable
quantity in you. It is the mind. This is responsible for all
your moods and states of being, and their activities,
painful and pleasurable. Its nature is to identify itself with
the body and induce it to activities, leading to pleasure or
pain. This is due to its rajasic (active) and tamasic nature
(inert and dark).

      Through these qualities the mind not only identifies
itself with the gross body, but it also veils and hides the
constant part of yourself, the atman (real Self ).

      But there is also a saving grace about the mind. Apart
from its rajasic and tamasic nature, there is in it a sattvic
aspect (calm, harmonious). The wise try ever to enhance this
sattvic aspect through all activities dedicated to God. You can
learn how to improve this aspect of the mind through study
of the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. This sattvic aspect should be so
developed as to first control the rajasic and tamasic qualities
(gunas ^[?]), and later to annihilate them, so that the sattvic quality
comes to be 100 per cent of the mind. In this state the mind
can be used as an instrument to get understanding (vijnana ^[?])
of the constant quantum of your Being -- the Sat-chit-
anandam, or Being-Consciousness-Bliss.

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      This understanding can be had by separating the
mind from the gross body, to which it has been so long
outwardly projecting, and taking it inwards towards the
Self, your constant Being. When the mind is so trained as
to be more and more in contact with the Self, then there
arises perfect understanding and abidance in the Real.

      You are really free in yourself; the clouds do not really
affect you. Yet you are also outwardly active, according to
the latencies of the past karma in you, which work out
according to the law of that karma. The potter has given
up his hold on the wheel; yes, but the wheel still moves on
owing to the momentum still left in it.

      In the same way you move, and yet you are unaffected,
no longer clinging to the action. You do; yet you feel you
are no more the doer. You enjoy or suffer; yet you feel you
are no more the one who suffers or enjoys. You are a mere
witness of all things in your varying states: waking,
dreaming and sleeping. You are you, or I am I, or the Self
is the Self; and these states pass and re-pass. This is the
state of real knowledge (jnana ^[?]) or real devotion (bhakti ^[?]).
This is the message of the Gita. This is equally the message
of our benign Guru, Sri Ramana Maharshi.

      Let us heed it and in our desperate need take full
courage. May Sri Gurudeva so bless us that we abide as
the Self, and so have done with the egoic `I' and its endless
round of coming and going. Lokamanya Tilak declared:
"Swaraj is my birthright, and I shall have it." So too
Gurudeva declares, "Pure Knowledge is your Birthright,
and you shall have it."

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