Ramana Maharishi was one of the greatest sages who lived in the last century. He was known for his patience and compassion, and his uncompromising disposition to encourage the devotees to move in the highest path to attain wisdom.
His utterances went straight to the heart of the matter and would leave spiritual seekers spellbound by the ability to respond to their innermost needs. He espoused silence as the highest means of spiritual initiation in contrast to initiation by touch, sound or sight. He often recounted the story of Lord Shiva in the form of the young Dakshinamurthy who gave self-realisation to the sons of Lord Brahma through silence.
Ramana was once asked to distinguish between desirelessness and wisdom, and explain their connection. He replied: “The two are not different; they are the same. Desirelessness is refraining from turning the mind towards any object. Wisdom means the appearance of no object. In other words, not seeking what is other than the Self is detachment or desirelessness; not leaving the Self is wisdom."
This reply was characteristic of the deft way the silent sage of Arunachala handled the questions that were posed to him. Like most of his replies, they went directly to the heart of the matter.
According to the sage, the seeker must focus his mind on the Self and allow it to waver in the direction of sense objects. This is the real meaning of desirelessness. Wisdom on the other hand is being firmly grounded in the Self and no objects appear in front of the mind. This is the state of self-realisation.
He would often say that the state of self-realisation is difficult to describe in words as it is a state whose reality can only be experienced. He did, however, provide two clues.
In the first instance, he said the realised master does experience the triad of seer, sight and seen. This means that in the state of self-realisation, there is only one subject. There is no other. This explains why the realised master is incapable of seeing others as being apart from himself.
In the second instance, Ramana said that just as an ordinary individual finds it difficult to do without thought, the realised master has difficulty in entertaining a thought. It is about the seeker dying to his own ego.
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