We continue with the guiding principles of the Maharshi.
MYSTICAL
- After abandoning body, senses, and mind as one’s true self, “that Awareness which alone remains- that I am.” – This fundamental mystical declaration may be the most difficult for the Western novice.24 And yet penetrating contemplation of one’s own identity invariably reveals three layers: the external self we project for the world, the internal self of our
unrevealed thoughts and feelings, and deepest of all, the pure awareness and unadulterated consciousness that is immediately recognizable in a newborn, which I call the ‘primal self.’ I believe this is the Maharshi’s ‘ Awareness which alone remains- ‘that I am.’ It may take some effort for the reader to distill it out from the fully constructed self, but it is and has always has been there, and as the Maharshi tells us, it precedes existentially our recognition of the physical body and the turbulent mind. - When all thoughts are eliminated including the I-thought, “there will arise Self-realization.” – I believe the Maharshi is telling us that if one can completely still the mind including thoughts about oneself as an individual ego, direct experience of the primal self emerges in association with direct connection to the whole of reality (especially its immaterial spirit) which he names the (capital S) Self.
- “Happiness is the very nature of the Self; happiness and the Self are not different.” – We are told this unadulterated self is inherently content as it is untroubled by external events or internal imaginings and elated by virtue of union with the World Soul. I love the idea that the Maharshi sees the Self and Happiness as identical- utter contentment is the nature of reality writ large free of disquieting thought.
- “What is referred to as the Self is the Atman“ – The Maharshi plows deep into Hindu tradition here. The deepest inner self is the ineffable Atman – man’s primordial form or spirit.
- “The mind of the one who knows the truth does not leave Brahman.” – Once one experiences direct connection with the fundamental nature of reality as a whole – known as Brahman in this tradition – one cannot or will not wish to disconnect from it. The knowledge of Brahman is not an intellectual understanding but the direct experience of it. Once one discovers Brahman, one remains attached to it even outside the meditative state.
“Meditation consists in thinking that one’s self is Brahman, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss.” – The Maharshi restates perhaps the most fundamental principle of the Upanishads – “Tat tvam asi” – Atman. Our inner self or ‘soul’ is identical with the spiritual underpinning of reality or (capital S) ‘Soul.’ Both encompass being, consciousness, and complete happiness, blessing, bliss. The portal to this conjunction of souls is meditation, which for him is epitomized in his method of “Self-enquiry’ – the subject of the next post.
(fifth continuation next post)
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24I came to a similar endpoint by an apparently different route on my contemplation on the different forms of the self. See my post on Internal Reality (continued) on this site dated 11/14/18.
