Absorption In The Self

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There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality.   We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous!  A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts.  That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now. — Ramana Maharshi

The teachings of the great spiritual master, Ramana Maharshi  can be summed up as the practice of self-inquiry through the simple phrase: Who am I? His main premise was that we are already self-realized beings and we only have to look within for the answers that we are seeking on the outside. When asked what is the best path to attain knowledge of the Self he replied:

To each person that way is the best which appears easiest or appeals most. All the ways are equally good as they lead to the same goal, which is the merging of the ego in the Self. What the devotee calls surrender, the man who does self-inquiry calls knowledge. Both are trying only to take the ego back to the source from which it sprang and make it merge there.

As a very young man beginning his spiritual journey, Ramana Maharshi one day had an extraordinary experience of tremendous fear of death:

I was sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle’s house. I seldom had any sickness and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it nor was there any urge in me to find out whether there was any account for the fear. I just felt I was going to die and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or any elders or friends. I felt I had to solve the problem myself then and there. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: “Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies. And at once I dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out still as though rigor mortis has set in, and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the inquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, and that neither the word “I” nor any word could be uttered. “Well then,” I said to myself, “this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burn and reduced to ashes. But with the death of the body, am I dead? Is the body I? It is silent and inert, but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of I within me, apart from it. So I am the Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the spirit transcending it cannot be touched by death. That means I am the deathless Spirit. All this was not dull thought; it flashed through me vividly as living truths which I perceived directly almost without thought process. “I” was something real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the conscious activity connected with the body was centered on that “I”. From that moment onwards, the “I” or Self focused attention on itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death vanished once and for all. The ego was lost in the flood of Self-awareness. Absorption in the Self continued unbroken from that time. Other thought might come and go like the various notes of music, but the “I” continued like the fundamental sruti [that which is heard].

This “Absorption in the Self” that Ramana Maharshi referred to can be practiced by anyone regardless of religious persuasion. The Vijnana Bhairava or Divine Consciousness is an ancient text on yoga which has one hundred and twelve verses that describe ways to experience divinity. Of these there are under two dozen that a seeker can practice without having to study any religious philosophies.

Here is one based on music:

If one listens with undivided attention to sounds of stringed and other musical instruments which on account of their uninterrupted succession are prolonged, he will at the end, be absorbed in the ether of consciousness (and thus attain the nature of the Self).

In the notes from Jaideva Singh’s translation he said:

The resonance of musical notes lasts for a long time and being melodious it attracts the attention of the listener. Even when it stops, it still reverberates in the mind of the listener. The listener becomes greatly engrossed in it. A musical note, if properly produced, appears to arise out of eternity and finally to disappear in it.

When the music stops, it still vibrates in the memory. If the yogi does not allow his mind to wander to something else, but concentrate on the echo of the music, he will be absorbed in the source of all sound, and thus will acquire the nature of the Self.

This is a beautiful practice and listening to a droned stringed instrument is one of the best ways to do this. Here is a link to a recording of Tamboura, an Indian drone instrument which is very conducive for this practice.

Related posts:

Self Realization

How To Cope With Difficult Times Part 4: Chanting

Being Awareness

Being In The Light

Things Are Not What They Seem