Bhagavan said,
“Anything that makes for concentration of mind is a help. But in the cultivation of every Art, there comes a stage when you feel that you have had enough of it, and you would then transcend it.”
When I pointed out that some learned persons consider rasa (aesthetic pleasure) as Brahmananda sahodaram
(akin to the Bliss of the Absolute),
Bhagavan said,
“Why sahodaram (akin)?
It is Brahmananda itself.
For have not the scriptures proclaimed
raso wai sah (He is rasa)?
Indeed Brahmananda is the real rasa.
All other rasas are only its shadows.”
The morning before I left, Dr. Syed, Professor of Philosophy, Allahabad University [No.23], asked Bhagavan,
“What is the purpose of creation?”
Usually Bhagavan gave replies in Tamil, Telugu or Malayalam. This time He spoke directly in English, and asked,
“Can the eye see itself?”
Dr. Syed replied, “Of course not. It can see everything else, but not itself.”
To Bhagavan’s question that “if it wants
to see itself”, he said, “It can see itself only in a mirror.”
Bhagavan then commented,
“That is it.
Creation is the mirror for the ‘I’ to see
itself.”
At Bhagavan’s instance I translated into Telugu verse His selections from Yoga Vasistham. In the last verse which says, ‘whatever part you have taken in life, play it well,’ I added in Telugu rendering the phrase saisava lila (the sport of childhood). Bhagavan appreciated it by saying,
“It was a happy phrase and correctly portrays the attitude of mind one should cultivate according to the slokas.
Has not the Christ said, ‘Unless
thou be as children, thou shalt not enter the Kingdom of God?’”
~ Face to Face with #SriRamanaMaharshi
