Ramana Maharshi Says Jivanmukta Does Not See Anything Separate From The Self

SRI BHAGAVAN WARNED the hearers against the mistake of disparaging a jnani for his apparent conduct and again cited the story of Parikshit.

He was a still born child. The ladies cried and appealed to Sri Krishna to save the child. The sages round about wondered how Krishna was going to save the child from the effects of the arrows (apandavastra) of Asvattama. Krishna said,“If the child be touched by one eternally celibate (nityabramachari) the child would be brought to life.” Even Suka dared not touch the child. Finding no one among the reputed saints bold enough to touch the child, Krishna went and touched it, saying, “If I am eternally celibate (nityabramachari) may the child be brought to life.” The child began to breathe and later grew up to be Parikshit.

Just consider how Krishna surrounded by 16,000 gopis is a brahmachari! Such is the mystery of jivanmukti! A jivanmukta is one who does not see anything separate from the Self.

Source: SPIRITUAL STORIES AS TOLD BY RAMANA MAHARSHI

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Ramana Maharshi Suggests Let Each One Deal With Their Problems

A TALK WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI By Pryns Hopkins

I asked whether, quite apart from whatever I thought, it wasn’t useful to have pointed out a way to those who were ripe for a new outlook. He countered with “Who thinks they are ready?’’

The Maharshi went on to say that the essential thing is to divorce our sense of self from what our ego and our body are feeling or doing. We should think “Feelings are going on, this body is acting in such and such a manner”, but never “I feel, I
act.” What the body craves or does is not our affair.

I then asked, “Have we then no responsibility at all for the behaviour of our ego?”

He replied, “None at all. Let it go its own way like an automaton.”

“But”, I objected, “you have told us that all the animal propensities are attributes of the ego. If when a man attains jivanmukti he ceases to feel responsibility for the behaviour of his ego and body, won’t they run amok completely?” I illustrated my point with the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Maharshi replied, “When you have attained jivanmukti,you will know the answer to those questions. Your task now is not to worry about them but to know the Self.”

But I am forced to doubt the whole theory unless it explains away this discrepancy. “Here before us is the Maharshi who has attained jivanmukti, and so withdrawn from all responsibility for the conduct of his ego and the body we see before us.

But though he declares them to be the seat of all evil propensities,his ego and body continue to behave quite decorously instead of running wild. This forces me to suspect that something in the hypothesis is incorrect.”

He answered, “Let the Maharshi deal with that problem if it arises and let Mr. Hopkins deal with who is Mr. Hopkins.”

Source: The Silent Power Selections from The Mountain Path and The Call Divine

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Ramana Maharshi says There are grades only in the experience of the jiva and not in Reality

Devotee: “There must be stages of progress for gaining the Absolute. Are there grades of Reality?”

Bhagavan: “There are no grades of Reality. There are grades in the experience of the jiva.”

Note: “Grades of Reality?” Reality is perfect because it is partless, integral, and changeless, or else it contradicts itself.So, Reality is not affected by evolution, nor is it divisible into a number of imperfect beings who need the evolution to attain perfection. We have seen elsewhere that the jiva is the Self itself, but deluded.

The appearance of multiplicity of jivas is an illusion due to the unfoldment of the senses which create qualities and hence differences. Bhagavan says that it is not the Self that has grades but the experiences of the jivas. Thus the difference between the savage and the Jnani is one of experience, that is, of mental outlooks and not of substance — of being.

Devotee: “There is a multiplicity of jivas. Jivas are certainly many.”

Bhagavan: “Jiva is called so because he sees the world. A dreamer sees many jivas in dream, but all of them are not real. The dreamer alone exists and he sees all. So it is with the individuals and the world.”

Note: The critics argue that if the world is the senses, as Vedanta says, individual senses would show exclusively individual worlds, so that there would be as many worlds as there are human beings with no connection with one another,which experience disproves.

Bhagavan answers that all the senses, all the men and all the worlds are the dreams or thoughts of the jiva, which alone exists as the dreamer or thinker. As the jiva in dream sees other jivas with bodies and senses, without any of them enjoying real existence, so it does in the waking state (jagrat).

Jagrat is called waking only in comparison with the dream state known to us, because the senses are then all out to intensify the illusion of a real external world, whereas the dream state feeds on mere impressions carried over from the state of jagrat, and not on the senses, which are then withdrawn.

Source: REFLECTIONS ON TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI By S.S. COHEN

My Spiritual Friends Subramanian and Udai garu wants to add few points

Yes. Reality is only One and partless and without differences.

Kaivalya Navaneetam however says that there are 7 Jnana Bhoomis, the Lands of Wisdom.

And there are 4 types of Jivan Muktas.

The Sadhakas reach subeccha, vicharana and dhanumansi. They
are not Jivan Muktas. They attain heaven and some posts like
Indra and then come back to earth to pursue their sadhana.

The one who reaches the fourth stage, is Brahmavid.
The one who reaches the fifth stage, is Brahmavidvara,
The one who reaches the sixth stage, is Brahmavidavariya.
The one who reaches the seventh state is, Brahmavidvarishta.

The fourth stage is called Sattvapatti. The fifth is Asamsatti,
the sixth is Pathartha bhavana, he seventh is Turiya.

(Kaivalya Navaneetam, Verses 255-257).

Udai garu says,

Essentially one who knows that he is Consciousness can be said to have the knowledge.
But if it gets limited to the mind and he or she is not able to remain totally detached due to vasanas, they live like ordinary humans. But in such cases, the vasanas will eventually dissolve.and as the vasanas dissolve they gain conviction that they are Consciousness and start owning it up.

The process is slow. And i think it cannot be forced to happen fast.As Kabir says:

Dheere Dheere re mana. Dheere sab kuch hoye [Slowly, Slowly oh mind! Slowly everything happens].Maali seenche sau ghada , ritu aye phal hoye kabira, rithu aye phal hoye [The garder may water the plant with 100 pots of water.but it will give fruits only when its season].

With spiritual practice also, one has to allow things to happen ... slowly, but without stopping, one should start to remain as Self.

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