Evolution of love

SELF ENQUIRY

SELF ENQUIRY IN ‘MAHARSHI’S GOSPEL’

Self-enquiry by following the clue of aham-vritti is just like the dog tracing its master by his scent. The master may be at some distant, unknown place, but that does not at all stand in the way of the dog tracing him. The master's scent is an infallible clue for the animal, and nothing else, such as the dress he wears, or his build and stature etc., counts. The dog holds on to that scent undistractedly while searching for him, and finally, it succeeds in tracing him.

The enquiry into the source of aham-vritti touches the very existence of the ego. Therefore, the subtlety of the ego's form is not a material consideration.

It is the one irreducible datum of your experience; ( ) seeking its source is the only practicable course you can adopt to realize the Self.

Just as water in the pot reflects the enormous sun within the narrow limits of the pot, even so the vasanas or latent tendencies of the mind of the individual, acting as the reflecting medium, catch the all-pervading, infinite light of Consciousness arising from the heart and present in the form of a reflection the phenomenon called the mind.
Seeing only this reflection, the ajnani is deluded into the belief that he is a finite being, the jiva.

If the mind becomes introverted through enquiry into the source of aham-vritti, the vasanas become extinct, and in the absence of the reflecting medium the phenomenon of reflection, namely, the mind, also disappears being absorbed into the light of the one Reality, the heart.

This is the sum and substance of all that an aspirant needs to know. What is imperatively required of him is an earnest and one-pointed enquiry into the source of aham-vritti.

- extracts from 'Maharshi's Gospel'

Samadhi alone can reveal it. Thoughts cast a veil over Reality and so it cannot be clear in states other than Samadhi.

- Talk 226.

This shows that is not enough to understand with the mind only. There is enormous weight in these countless vasanas. That is why Bhagavan talked sometimes about the 'Royal battle', the noble dedication and devotion for the silence of being. There is this story from the Old Testament where the Jews were fighting another tribe. God told Moses that they will be victorious as long as Moses can raise his arm towards the sky. His brother Aaron had to support him finally. This raising the arm is a symbol i like for the intensity of samadhi which is not doing yet totally present.