Arunachala. अरुणाचल- 11.

~~~~~Arunaachala. अरुणाचल -11.~~~~~


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RETIRING ABODE IN THE BODY.


Devotee.- Whenever a question is put to you, you say :


"Know first who it is to whom the doubt occurs",...
"Does anybody doubt the doubter"",...
"Know yourself before you proceed to speak of 
others".etc.....
This is a veritable Brahmaastra ( ब्रह्मास्त्र  ) , (supreme
weapon) at your hands to deal with the questioner and
I,...........
Maharshi.- Yes. What are you trying to say ?
Devotee. - Be pleased to come to our level and remove
our doubts. You can understand our  position. We can
not understand yours. You are far above and we are far
below. If you wish, you can come to us, we cannot to
you 
Maharshi. - What are you driving at ?
Devotee. - They say the Self is everywhere; Brahman
(ब्रह्म) is omnipresent. It is beyond and it is also the Self.
If my Self  (आत्मा)  is Brahman (ब्रह्म), I should be
everywhere. But there is the feeling that I am in this body
or confined to this body; even if I am distinct from the
body I am inseparable from it. Similarly, I am inseparable
from the mind, even the 'I' seems to be a part of the mind.
Where is the mind without the brain ? Certainly, I cannot
imagine that  I can be without mind or brain which is a part
of this body.
Maharshi. - Have you finished ? Doubts never end. If one
doubt is removed another takes its place. It is like removing
the leaves of a tree one by one. Even if all the leaves are 
chipped off, new one grows. The tree itself must be uprooted.
Devotee. - What can be done ? Is it wrong to think and 
express doubts ?
Maharshi. - No. The only sure remedy is to know him who
doubts. No one doubts the doubter..............
Devotee. - This is what I feared. I am gagged...........
Maharshi. - No. I am coming to the rescue. Suppose I give
you an answer, would it set at rest all your doubts ?..........
you said you are the body, the mind and so on. What is this
mind, which, -you say is yourself ? You say, it is all thoughts
including so many faculties.. -.. The "I" is a part of the mind.
-The mind is a part of the body, is it not ?
Devotee. - I don't say that is so; but I feel as though it were.
Maharshi.- Yes, then let us proceed. You are the mind. The
mind is either located in brain or is identical with it. You
concede it is located in the brain. At the same time you said
you are separate from it. Is that not so ? Then let us locate
in the body all our thought, emotions, passions, desires, 
attachments, impulses, instincts, in short, all that we are, feel,
think and know. Where would you locate the "I", whether
the "I" is an idea, thought, or feeling ?
Devotee. - Feeling, emotions, etc., are all located, that is, said
to arise, in the trunk of the body, in the nervous system; but 
the mind seated in the brain is aware of them. They call it :
reflex action.
Maharshi. - So if you take the "I" as a part of the mind, you 
would locate it in the brain. But I tell you  :this "I" is a part 
indeed but a very radical part of the mind, feeling itself
to be distinct from the mind and using it.
Devotee. - I concede that.
Maharshi. - Then this "I" is a radical thought, an intimate
feeling,a self-evident experience, an awareness that
persists even in deep sleep when the mind is not active
as in the waking state. According to yourself then, "I",
the radical part, must have a locus in the body.
Devotee. - Where is it ?
Maharshi. - You have to find it out, yourself. But you can't
find it by dissection of the body.
Devotee. - How then? By dissection of the mind ?
Maharshi. - Yes, as you are the mind, you have to dissect
yourself and find out where you ( the "I" ) are.  
That is why I say, "know thyself."
Devotee. - But is there really a centre, a place for this "I" ?
Maharshi. - There is. It is the centre of the self (जीव) to
which the mind in sleep retires from its activity in the brain.
 It is the Heart, which is different from the blood vessel, so
called, and is not the Anaahata-Chakra (अनाहत-चक्र ) in
the middle of the chest, one of the six centres spoken of in
books on Yoga .
Devotee. - Then where is it ? Perhaps I shall know it later. If
there is such a centre of the self  ( जीव ) in the body, why
should they say that Brahman (ब्रह्म) is Atman (आत्मा),
 that it is all-pervasive and so on ?
Maharshi. - First confine yourself to the self which is located
in the body and find out. Then you can think of Brahman 
(ब्रह्म), The All-pervasive.


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Continued..................