Ramana Maharshi About Causal,Subtle And Gross Bodies

Each one of us has his own experience, namely dreamless sleep. At that time we have neither the gross nor subtle body. The mind having completely subsided we sink at rest in total darkness,knowing nothing. When the mind rises again from this darkness, either dream or waking results. When we wake up from deep sleep, we remember our experience thus, ‘I slept happily and did not have any dream’.

That is, we know that we existed even in that state of seeming darkness in which
there was not even a dream. That dark state is called the causal body, We who know that we knew that we existed there, is the real ‘I’.

In deep sleep, the ego (ahankara – the mind in the form of attachments) is still alive in the very subtle form of tendencies (vasanas); it is this form which is that base and cause for the rising of the subtle and gross bodies, and therefore it is called the causal body. Even in death, it is in this causal body that we exist.

This causal body is not destroyed by the death of the gross body. The reason for
asserting that even this causal body is not ‘I’, is that we exist there to know even that state to be alien to us. There, our existence alone is real, and we cannot be the form (darkness or ignorance) which we assume there.

Just as we rejected the gross body of the waking state as ‘I am not this body’,
even though it appeared to be ‘I’, and just as for the same reason we rejected the subtle body of the dream state as ‘not I’, let us now also reject this causal body (darkness or ignorance) of deep sleep as ‘not I’, since it is only a form which comes on us and goes.

Therefore, having firmly eliminated all these three bodies as ‘not I, not I’, what then remains, that knowledge, the consciousness (chit) of our existence (sat), alone is ‘I’.

Source: The Path of Sri Ramana PART ONE The Jñana aspect of the teaching By Sri Sadhu Om

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Ramana Maharshi : How Did We Get The Body

12th July, 1938

Talk 501.

A young Mysorean asked:

D.: How did I get this body?

M.: You speak of ‘I’ and the ‘body’. There is the relationship between the two. You are not therefore the body. The question does not occur to the body because it is inert. There is an occasion when you are not aware of the body - namely, in deep sleep. The question does not arise then. Nevertheless you are there in sleep. To whom does the question arise now?

D.: The ego.

M.: Yes. The body and the ego rise up together and sink together. There is an occasion when you are not associated with the ego in deep sleep.Now you are associated with the ego. Of these two states which is your real state? You are present in sleep and the same “You” is present now too. Why should the doubt arise now and not then? You are right in saying that it is for the ego. You are not the ego. The ego is intermediate between the Self and the body. You are the Self. Find out the origin of the ego and see if the doubt persists.

Sri Bhagavan added after a few minutes: The answer, according to sastras, will be that the body is due to karma. The question will be how did karma arise? We must say “from a previous body” and so on without end. The direct method of attack is not to depend on invisible hypotheses but to ask “Whose Karma is it? Or whose body?” Hence I answered in this manner. This is more purposeful.

Source: Talks With Ramana Maharshi Book

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http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/09/ramana-maharshi-answers-to-how-did.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/05/ramana-maharshi-says-only-obstacle-is.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/ramana-maharshi-supports-sanyasa-for.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/ramana-maharshi-says-solitude-is-for.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/09/ramana-maharshi-says-to-give-up-all.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/08/ramana-maharshi-explains-what-is-meant.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/12/ramana-maharshi-says-if-ego-vanishes.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/03/ramana-maharshi-says-it-is-ego-which.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/10/sri-ramakrishna-says-unless-one.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2010/03/ramana-maharshi-says-one-who-divested.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/03/self-ego-and-true-self-by-ramana.html

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Ramana Maharshi Comparision Of Our body To A Radio

THOSE who have realized the Self remain uninvolved,even when they are engaged in everyday activities.They are always in a state of utter stillness. Bhagavan himself has described this in the thirtieth verse of the Supplement to Reality in Forty Verses.

“The mind that is devoid of attachments, though it may appear to be engaged in activity, is in reality inactive — just as the mind of a person listening to a story might wander off to a faraway place.”

Once, in the Jubilee Hall, we were all listening to the radio. At the end of the program the names of all the artists were announced. Bhagavan said, “See! The radio sings and gives speeches. It even announces the names of the performers. But there is nobody inside the radio. Our existence is also like that. The body might appear to walk and talk and perform a number of functions, but in fact there is no individual inside the body. Everything is God.He alone exists.” Bhagavan continued, “The concepts of time and space are also imaginary. When we listen to a concert on the radio are we bothered about the exact time and location at which the concert took place? What difference can it make to our enjoyment of the music? Whether the concert took place in Hyderabad or in Madras, we can listen to the music and derive the same degree of enjoyment sitting right here in this hall.

The wise one does not attach any importance to concepts of space and time. One has to go through certain situations in a given lifetime and for this a body is required.
That is the only reason for acquiring a body. One goes through various experiences, without getting involved in anything. To an ordinary person, worldly experiences
seem real.An ordinary man might think that a liberated person has all the experiences that others have. But the liberated person has no attachment to the body and therefore physical experiences hold no significance for him.

The jivanmukta has the same attitude towards his body that a railway porter has for the luggage he carries.Just as the porter carries the luggage up to the destination
and lays it down at that spot, the jivanmukta carries the body through the pre-ordained experiences of a lifetime and at the end of the course he lays down the burden with relief. The porter thinks of the load on his head only as a burden; he does not identify with it on a personal level. That is why he feels no regret when he puts it down. It is the same in the case of a jivanmukta. As he never thinks of the body as having any personal significance, he feels no sorrow when the time comes for him to leave the body.”

During the last days of Bhagavan’s earthly life, when his devotees besought him to retain the human form for a long time, Bhagavan used to say, “A jnani (a realised soul) knows that the sole purpose of acquiring a body is to enable the spirit to attain knowledge through experiences.Do we feel sad because we have to throw away the used leaf-plate after a meal? In the same way, a jnani discards the human body without any regret or sorrow.”

Sources:

1) Cherished Memories, by Kanakammal
2) http://arunachala.org.ashrama.org/newsletters/2010/mar-apr.pdf

Readers interested are requested to read below articles as well

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/03/ramana-maharshi-says-our-body-is-like.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/03/ramana-maharshi-about-body.html

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/04/ramana-maharshi-tells-why-scriptures.html

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