I guess I have cried, Wolf! once too often, and way too many times, that my readers will not believe me the next time I say I want to wind up this blog. But it is selfish of me not to share Agathiyar's words that are both music to our ears and a bombardment to our Ego; and wisdom or Gnanam to the Self.
Agathiyar tells us that if earlier we had tried to understand what Tavayogi wrote in his books, it is time for us to experience these words. Though I had read them earlier, these words echoed in the first few pages of his Atma Gnanam.
Tavayogi writes that the powerhouse which we tagged as God, that drives all things, using Maya as an instrument, drives our body from birth to death too. To know how it works in us and to feel and experience and to know and find ways to divert this powerhouse to sustain and maintain the breath and the body respectively is indeed Atma Gnanam. Going within these feelings arriving at an enlightened state is attaining Arivu or Gnanam.
இந்த மாபெரும் இயக்கும் சக்தியான இறைவன், மனம் என்னும் மாயக்கருவியால், பிறந்தது முதல், இறப்பு வரை, நமது உடம்பை இயக்கிக் கொண்டிருக்கிறார். இந்த இயக்க சக்தி, நமது உடலில் எப்படிச் செயல்படுகிறது என அறிந்து, அதே இயக்க சக்தியை நாம் உணர்ந்து, அந்த சக்தியை நம்முடைய உடலையும், உயிரையும், பேணப்பயன் படுத்தும் வழிவகைகளை தெரிந்து கொள்வதே ஆத்ம ஞானம். இந்த உணர்ச்சிகளைத் தூய்த்து உயிரானது பெரும் உண்மைத் தெளிவுதான் அறிவு அல்லது ஞானம் எனப்படும்.
What begins as a fight over my toy, my pencil, and my book, becomes a fight for my space in the car, I want the front seat, etc in a child, then turns out ugly in adults fighting for parking spaces. We then fight to claim our rights and equality. The fight turns into war when countries invade and conquer other countries. The Ego grows into a monster not able to think rationally. We become Asuras. Compassion and love are the least on our vocabulary during these times. If we can miraculously let go of all the above-mentioned things, it is a struggle and battle to let go of one's Ego. If we can let go of all our vices, it is a struggle and battle to let go of one's Ego. Curious to know what was in smoking a cigarette I bought a pack of seven sticks and puffed at it continuously and never touched it again. When a German consultant told me that construction men always drink and poured me my first glass of drink, after a while I dropped that too quite easily. I could turn vegetarian overnight. Sexual urges too came to be satisfied. But what is still remaining is this Ego that we falsely identify with the Self.
Agathiyar in asking me to go beyond body, mind, and learning, or Gnanam, is asking us to know the Self that is beyond knowledge and ignorance. The Self, Bhagawan Ramana says is pure Consciousness, pure Light. "The knowledge that there is nothing but God or Self, that I and mine don't exist, and that only the Self exists is Jnana" says Ramana.
"The Jnani knows that nothing exists but the Self. To such a one what difference could the presence or absence of body make? The Jnani knows he is the Self, the only reality which is both inside and outside and which is not bound by any form or shape."
Ramana too like Agathiyar says the same, that beyond experience nothing exists. Agathiyar giving us the experience comes to ask us what we have learned from them. We are supposed not to repeat them and move on. I am currently being schooled by him at times taking up the cane to discipline me. But I know that though it hurts, wanting to see us become Siddhas too, his love and compassion drive him to push us to place the effort and push us to our limits.
Agathiyar tells me that in speaking I am only sharing my experiences. He asked when was I going to tell his story too. He answers how this takes place too. In "Silence" he says. It is in Silence that he reaches out to us all he reveals.
(Bhagawan Ramana's teachings based on Bhavan's Book University's "Erase the Ego", 1963.)