EMBODIMENT OF PURITY

By Robin E. Lagemann

BHAGAVAN alone IS. . . Such a deed, abiding and assured
awareness fills the heart with relief and rejoicing.
Awakening from the dream of samsara to find Sri
Bhagavan as the Being, the Reality, is relief beyond
comprehension -- it is so complete. Then, knowing this
and realizing through his grace that consciousness
surrendered to him can never again be engulfed by samsara
makes us rejoice beyond expression. For, with no samsara
there is only him to abide with forever. What joy is more
complete than that?

Self-realization is the only purpose of human birth, its
highest experience and its supreme good. Most wonderful
of all is that it is one's natural state. How simple! But
then Sri Bhagavan is simplicity itself. And, if we feel it
is lost, Sri Bhagavan reminds us to enquire, "To whom is
it lost"? And so, to abide in That is to remain as one IS --
without concepts.

Remaining free from concepts means annihilation of thoughts.

The enquiry, `Who am I?'? effectively quells the onrush of `I am
this or I am that' which engenders `we' and `they' and the manifold
problems arising therefrom. Sri Bhagavan's method of Self-
enquiry causes an abiding interest in the `I?am' which leads to
the eternally existing `I' beyond all qualifying concepts. As a
result, even that `I', like the stick used to stir the fire which is
then itself thrown in, disappears, for as Sri Bhagavan has said,
"There really is no such thing as `I'".

What inexpressible relief and restoration of joy it is to know
that one is neither this nor that, neither God nor man etc. One
only IS.

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So, in Him who manifested as Sri Bhagavan Ramana,
embodiment of purity and wisdom, personification of the
eternal dharma ^[?], may we be eternally consumed.

Let the Master's words conclude:

Devotee: Why should Self-enquiry alone be considered
the direct means to jnana ^[?]?

Bhagavan: Because every kind of sadhana except that of
Atma Vichara presupposes the retention of the mind as the
instrument for carrying out the sadhana ^[?], and without the
mind it cannot be practised. The ego may take different
and subtler forms at different stages of one's practice, but
itself is never destroyed. The attempt to destroy the ego or
the mind through sadhanas other than Atma vichara, is
just like the thief turning policeman to catch the thief, that
is, himself. Atma vichara alone can reveal the truth that
neither the ego nor the mind really exists, and enables one
to realize the pure, undifferentiated Being of the Self or
the Absolute. Having realized the Self, nothing remains to
be known, because it is perfect Bliss, it is All.

***

The ignorant man, attached to his body, is controlled by
the impressions and tendencies created by his past deeds, and
is bound by the law of karma ^[?]. But the wise man, his desires
being quenched, is not affected by deeds. He is beyond the
law of karma ^[?]. Since his mind rests in the Atman he is not
affected by the conditions which surround him, though he
may continue to live in the body and though his senses may
move amongst sense objects. For he has realized the vanity
of all objects, and in multiplicity sees one infinite Lord. He is
like a man who has awakened from sleep and learned that his
dream was a dream.

-- Srimad Bhagavatam.

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