Posted on: 01 Aug 2022
[Shri PVNM Sharma asked:- Generally, preachers say that when the idea ‘I’ is dissolved, one will reach God and merge with Him. They call this as Samaadhi. Please comment on this advice.]
Swami replied:- Every day in deep sleep, ‘I’ is disappearing in awareness and even the awareness is disappearing until one wakes up. In this way, deep sleep must be Samaadhi. When you are getting Samaadhi every day, why shall we try for it through a long procedure involving seven steps like Yama, Niyama etc.? The ‘I’ also dissolves leading to Samaadhi when one is given anesthesia by doctors. Some spiritual aspirants smoke Ganjaa (bhang) in order to get the so called Samaadhi. All this is sheer nonsense. When the ‘I’ dissolves, one will get the state of total ignorance and this is not the Divine state of God. In this state of total ignorance, even the source of ‘I’, which is awareness also disappears and the person is neither aware of anything else nor aware of self. The brain and the nervous system (except the part, which is giving signals to the other systems of body) take full rest. Inert energy is transformed only in a functioning brain-nervous system to become awareness.
Some feel that the state of deep sleep is also related to God. By this time, the readers must have realized that the deep sleep is only the state of total ignorance resulting in the full rest of brain-nervous system and such a state has no trace of divinity. If you say that awareness is God, awareness is disappearing in deep sleep and is awakened in the awaken state. Does this not mean that God is disappearing in deep sleep and is generated in the awaken state? It is totally absurd. Some say that pure awareness exists in the state of deep sleep. Pure awareness means awareness without any thought remaining with one thought, which is the awareness of itself. Can any sincere person tell Me putting his hand on his heart that he has such an experience of pure awareness in the state of deep sleep? You should not cheat your own consciousness by telling a lie!
Some say that Shri Ramana Maharshi told to search for the source of ‘I’. People say that awareness is the source of ‘I’. This answer will be given even by a just born baby! It is like asking “what is the source of a golden chain?”. Even a child will say that the source of the golden chain is gold. For this answer, you need not search for years together like a research student working for a Ph.D., degree! Similarly, the source of ‘I’ is awareness because 'I' is a thought and awareness is the source of any thought. Maharshi told to search for the source of ‘I’ deeply, taking a long time as much as that is needed to get a PhD degree! If you had said that awareness was the source of ‘I’, Maharshi would have laughed loudly for a long time! The source of ‘I’ means the source of awareness itself.
The source of the creation is the unimaginable God or Parabrahman, who is beyond space and time and is totally unimaginable to anybody including angels. Only the existence of the unimaginable God is realized through unimaginable events called miracles exhibited in the world and are perceived by us without naked eyes. Maharshi is expecting you to do a long sharp analysis of Vedic scriptures and realize the existence of the unimaginable God. Here, the word “find out” does not mean looking with naked eyes because Parabrahman is even unimaginable and we can’t even dream about seeing Parabrahman.
“Find out” in literal sense means to see with naked eyes. Since this word came from the mouth of holy Maharshi, who is an incarnation of God Subrahmanya, the word must have its own literal meaning. This is correct because the unimaginable God entered the first energetic form to become the first energetic incarnation called Datta. This Datta entered another eneregetic form to become Shiva. Shiva entered another energetic form called Subrahmanya. Subrahmanya entered Ramana Maharshi to become a human incarnation. God Datta containing Parabrahman finally exists in Ramana Maharshi. This means that Parabrahman exists in Ramana Maharshi. The Parabrahman, who is unimaginable and invisible became visible through Ramana Maharshi. Ramana Maharshi saying “find out the source of ‘I’ “means that you should realize that Ramana Maharshi is the ultimate God called Parabrahman!