'SELF-REALIZATION'- The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized, he is That which alone is, and which alone has always been. He cannot describe that state. He can only be That ~ Ramana Maharshi (GEMS)

The state we call realization is simply being oneself, not
knowing anything or becoming anything. If one has realized,
he is That which alone is, and which alone has always been.
He cannot describe that state. He can only be That. Of course
we loosely talk of Self-Realization for want of a better term.
That which is, is peace. All that we need do is to keep
quiet. Peace is our real nature. We spoil it. What is required is
that we cease to spoil it. For instance, there is space in a hall
(room). We are not going to create space anew. We fill up the
place with various articles. If we want space, all that we need
do is to remove all those articles and we get space. Similarly,
if we remove all the rubbish from the mind the peace will
become manifest. That which is obstructing the peace must
be removed. Peace is the only Reality.
Mukti or Liberation is our Nature. It is another name for
us. Our wanting mukti is a very funny thing. It is like a man
who is in the shade voluntarily leaving the shade, going into
the sun, feeling the severity of the heat, making great efforts
to get back into the shade, and then rejoicing ‘At last I have
reached  the  shade,  how  sweet  is  the  shade!’ We  are  doing
exactly the same. We are not different from the Reality. We
imagine we are different, i.e., we create the bheda bhava(the
feeling of difference) and then undergo great sadhanas to get
rid of the bheda bhava and realize the oneness. Why imagine
or create the bheda bhava and then destroy it?
It is false to speak of realization. What is there to realize?
The real is as it is, ever. How to realize it? All that is required
is this: We have realized the unreal, i.e., regarded as Real what
is unreal. We have to give up this attitude. That is all that is
required for us to attain Jnana. We are not creating anything
new or achieving something which we did not have before.
The illustration given in the books is this: We dig a well and
create a huge pit. The akasa(space) in the pit or well has not
been created by us. We have just removed the earth which
was filling the akasa there. The akasa was there, then, and is
also there now. Similarly we have simply to throw out all the
age-long samskaras(innate tendencies) which are inside us.
When all of them have been given up, the Self will shine alone.
Effortless  and  choice less  awareness  is  our  Real  State.
If we can attain It or be in It, it is all right. But one cannot
reach  It  without  effort,  the  effort  of  deliberate  meditation.
All the age-long vasanas(latent tendencies) carry the mind
outwards and turn it to external objects. All such thoughts
have to be given up and the mind turned inward. For most
people effort is necessary. Of course, everybody, every book
says Cm>ma-yIR(summa iru- be quiet or still). But it is not
easy. That is why all this effort is necessary. Even if you find
one  who  has  effortlessly  achieved  the mouna (silence)  or
Supreme State indicated by 'Cm>mayIR', you may take it that
the effort necessary has already been completed in a previous
life. Such effortless and choice less awareness is reached only
after deliberate meditation.
The books no doubt speak of sravana(hearing), manana
(reflection), nididhyasana (one-pointed  concentration), 
samadhi and sakshatkara(Realization). We are always the
sakshat(Real) and what is there for one to attain after that?
We call this world sakshat or pratyaksha(directly present).
What is changing, what appears and disappears, what is not
sakshat, we regard as sakshat. We are always, and nothing can
be more directly present than we, and about that we say we
have to attain sakshatkaram after all these sadhanas. Nothing
can be more strange than this. The Self is not attained by doing
anything other than remaining still and being as we are.
We say that what we see with the eyes alone is pratyaksha.
There must first be the seer before anything could be seen.
You are yourself the eye that sees, An>tmIlak>k] (andhamila
kann) the ‘Infinite Eye’ referred to in Ulladu Narpadu (Reality
in Forty Verses).
People are afraid that when the ego or the mind is killed,
the result may be a mere blank and not happiness. What really
happens is that the thinker, the object of thought and thinking
all merge into the one Source, which is Consciousness and
Bliss itself, and thus that state is neither inert nor blank. I do
not understand why people should be afraid of that state in
which all thoughts cease to exist and the mind is killed. Every
day they experience that state in sleep. There is no mind or
thought in sleep. Yet when one rises from sleep one says, ‘I
slept happily.’ Sleep is so dear to everyone that no one, prince
or beggar, can do without it.
When we have vikalpas(false concepts) and are trying to
give them up, i.e.when we are still not perfected, but have
to  make  conscious  effort  to  keep  the  mind  one-pointed  or
free from thought, it is 'Nirvikalpa Samadhi'. When through
practice we are always in that state, not going into samadhi and
coming out again, that is the sahaja(natural) state. In sahaja
one always sees oneself. He sees the jagat(world) as swarupa
(Reality) or Brahmakara(form of Brahman). Eventually, what
was once the means becomes itself the goal, whatever method
one follows. Dhyana(meditation), jnana, bhakti and samadhi
are all names for ourselves, for our Real State.
Knowing one’s Self is only being one’s Self, as there is
no second existence. This is Self-realization.
You may go on reading any number of books on Vedanta.
They can only tell you ‘Realize the Self’. The Self cannot be
found in books. You have to find it for yourself in yourself.
The Lord whose home is the interior of the Heart-Lotus
is extolled as the Lord of the Cave. If by force of practice the
feeling ‘I am He, I am the Lord of the Cave’(Guhesa) becomes
firmly established, as firmly as your present notion that you are
the ego is established in the body, and thus you stand forth as
the Lord of the Cave, the illusion that you are the perishable
body will vanish like darkness before the rising sun.
The true karma, yoga, bhakti or jnana consists in finding
out who it is that does the karma, or seeks reunion through
yoga, or feels separation from his Lord, or is in ignorance.
All these do not exist without the ‘I’. So to remain as the ‘I’
is the Truth.
If we regard ourselves as the doers of action we shall also
be the enjoyers of the fruits of such action. If by inquiring who
does these actions one realizes one’s Self, the sense that one is the doer vanishes and with it all the three kinds of karma
(viz. sanchita, agamya and prarabdha*). This is the state of
eternal Mukti or Liberation.
Our Real Nature is Mukti. But we imagine that we are
bound  and  are  making  strenuous  attempts  to  become  free,
while we are all the time free. This will be understood only
when we reach that stage. We will be surprised that we were
frantically trying to attain something which we have always
been  and  are. An  illustration  will  make  this  clear: A  man
goes to sleep in this hall. He dreams he has gone on a world
tour, is roaming over hill and dale, forest and country, desert
and sea, across various continents and, after many years of
weary and strenuous travel, returns to this country, reaches
Tiruvannamalai, enters the Asramam and walks into the hall.
Just at that moment he wakes up and finds he has not moved an
inch, but was sleeping where he lay down. He has not returned
to the hall after great efforts, but is and always has been in the
hall. It is exactly like that. If it is asked, why being free we
imagine we are bound, I answer, ‘Why being in the hall did
you imagine you were on a world adventure, crossing hill and
dale, desert and sea?’ It is all mind or maya.
The dyads or the pairs of opposites, such as pleasure and
pain, and the triads, or such differences as the knower, the
known, and the process of knowing, depend on one thing - the
ego. When one seeks for that thing in the Heart and finds out
its Real Nature they will vanish. Those alone who have found
out the Real Nature of the ego have seen the Reality. They will
have no more doubts or anxieties.
There  is  no  knowledge  apart  from  ignorance,  and  no
ignorance apart from knowledge. That alone is jnana or real
knowledge, which when inquiring to whom this knowledge
or ignorance arises, reaches that Source which is the Self.
The thought ‘I am the body’ is ignorance. That the body
is not apart from the Self is knowledge. The body is a mental
projection. The mind is the ego, and the ego rises from the Self.
The body thought is distracting and strays away from the Self.
For whom is the body or birth? Not for the Self, the Spirit. It is
for the non-self which imagines itself separate from the Self.
So long as there is the sense of separation there will be
afflicting thoughts. If the original source is regained and the
sense of separation ends, there is peace. A stone picked up from
its place and thrown up into the sky has no rest till it comes
back to earth. The waters of the sea evaporating and rising
into the sky as clouds find no rest till they come back as rain,
and finally rush back to the sea. The ego can have peace only
when it merges back into its Source, the Self.
Seeing God in any form and speaking to Him is as real as
your own reality. In other words, when you identify yourself
with the body in the waking state, you see gross objects; when
in the subtle body (the mental plane) as in dream, you see
objects equally subtle; in the absence of all identification, as
in dreamless sleep, you see nothing. The objects seen, bear a
*The three kinds of karmas are: prarabdha,being that portion of one’s
past karma to be worked out in the present body; sanchita being the
outstanding balance of past karma, and agamya being the karma that
will bear fruit in future births.relation to the state of the seer. The same applies to visions of
gods. By long practice, the figure of God as meditated upon
appears in dream and may later appear even in the waking state.
There was a saint by the name Nam Dev. He could see,
talk and play with Vithoba, the God of Pandharpur. God had
to teach him that that was not enough, and one must press on
further and realize the Self where seer and seen are one.
Vision of Siva: Vision is always of an object. That implies
the existence of a subject. The value of the vision is the same
as that of the seer. The nature of the vision is on the same plane
as that of the seer. Appearance implies disappearance as well.
Whatever appears must also disappear. A vision can never be
eternal. But Siva is eternal.
Viswarupa  darsana (vision  of  the  cosmic  form)  and
Viswatma darsana(vision of the universal self) are the same.
Such darsana is not by eyesight or in any gross fashion. As
there is only Being, without a second, anything seen cannot
be real. That is the truth.
The moral behind the story of Ashtavakra and Janaka is
simply this: The disciple surrenders himself to the Master.
That means there is no vestige of individuality retained by the
disciple. If the surrender is complete, all sense of individuality
is lost and there is no cause for misery. The Eternal Self is only
happiness and that is revealed.
The  whole  of Vedanta  is  contained  in  the  two  Biblical
statements ‘I am that I am’ and ‘Be still and know that I am
God’.
There is a state beyond our efforts or effortlessness. Until
that is realized, effort is necessary. After tasting such bliss
even once, one will repeatedly try to regain it. Having once
experienced the bliss of peace, no one would like to be out
of it or engage himself otherwise. It is as difficult for a Jnani
to engage in thoughts, as it is for an ajnani to be free from
thought.
Any kind of activity does not affect a Jnani. He remains
ever in eternal peace.
Ishta Devata(deity of one’s choice) and Guru are aids,
very powerful aids on this path. But for an aid to be effective
requires your effort also. Your effort is a sine qua non. It is
you who should see the sun. Can spectacles and the sun see
for you? You yourself have to see your True Nature. Not much
aid is required for doing it.
First one sees the Self as objects, then one sees the Self as
void, and then one sees the Self as the Self; only in this last
case is there no seeing because seeing is becoming.
The more we control thought, activity and food, the more
we will be able to control sleep. But moderation ought to be
the rule for the sadhak(aspirant), as explained in the Gita. As
explained in the Gita, sleep is the first obstacle for all sadhakas.
The second obstacle is said to be vikshepa, or the sense objects
of the world which divert one’s attention. The third is said to
be kashaya or thoughts about previous experiences with sense
objects. The fourth, ananda(bliss), is also called an obstacle,
because in that state a feeling of separation from the source of
ananda, enabling the enjoyer to say, ‘I am enjoying ananda,’ is
present. Even this has to be surmounted, and the final stage of
samadhana or samadhi has to be reached, where one becomes
ananda, or One with the Reality, and the duality of enjoyer and
enjoyment ceases in the ocean of Satchidananda(ExistenceConsciousness-Bliss) or the Self.
The power of a Jnani’sSelf-Realization is more powerful
than all occult powers. To the Jnani there are no others. But
what is the highest benefit that can be conferred on ‘others’ as
we call them? It is happiness. Happiness is born of peace. Peace
can reign only when there is no disturbance by thought. When
the mind has been annihilated, there will be perfect peace. As
there is no mind, the Jnani cannot be aware of others. But the
mere fact of His Self-Realization is itself enough to make all
others peaceful and happy.
The following extract from a letter of the poet Tennyson
to B. P. Blood was read out in Bhagavan’s presence: ‘… a
kind of waking trance I have frequently had, quite up from
boyhood, when I have been all alone. This has generally come
upon me through repeating my own name two or three times to
myself, silently, till all at once, as it were out of the intensity of
consciousness of individuality, the individuality itself seemed
to dissolve and fade away into boundless being; and this not
a confused state but the clearest of the clearest, the surest of
the surest, the weirdest of the weirdest, utterly beyond words,
where death was an almost laughable impossibility, the loss
of personality (if so it were) seeming no extinction but the
only true life’.
Bhagavan said, ‘That state is called abidance in the Self.’