Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

What is the meaning of this?”
Bhagavan answered, “The reflected consciousness of
the Self (Atman) is called Ishwara, and Ishwara reflected
through the thinking faculty is called the jiva. That is all.”
The devotee: “That is all right, Swami, but what then is
chidabhasa?”
1
Another name of Arjuna.

Bhagavan: “Chidabhasa is the feeling of the Self which
appears as the shining of the mind. The one becomes three,
the three becomes five and the five becomes many; that is, the
pure Self (satva), which appears to be one, becomes through
contact, three (satva, rajas and tamas) and with those three, the
five elements come into existence, and with those five, the
whole Universe. It is this which creates the illusion that the
body is the Self. In terms of the sky (akasa), it is explained as
being divided into three categories, as reflected in the soul:
the boundless world of pure consciousness, the boundless
world of mental consciousness and the boundless world of
matter (chidakasa, chittakasa and bhutakasa). When Mind (chitta),
is divided into its three aspects, namely mind, intuition and
‘Maker of the I’ (manas, buddhi and ahankara), it is called the
inner instrument, or ‘antahkarana’. Karanam means
upakaranam. Legs, hands and other organs of the body are
called ‘bahyakarana’, or outer instruments, while the senses
(indriyas) which work inside the body are antahkaranas or inner
instruments. That feeling of the Self, or shining mind, which
works with these inner instruments, is said to be the personal
soul, or jiva. When the mental consciousness, which is a
reflection of the tangible aspect of pure consciousness, sees the
world of matter, it is called mental world (mano akasa), but when
it sees the tangible aspect of pure consciousness, it is called total
consciousness (chinmaya). That is why it is said, ‘The mind is the
cause of both bondage and liberation for man (mana eva
manushyanam karanam bandha mokshayoh)’. That mind creates
many illusions.”
The questioner: “How will that illusion disappear?”
Bhagavan: “If the secret truth mentioned above is
ascertained by Self-enquiry, the multiplicity resolves itself into
five, the five into three, and the three into one. Suppose you
have a headache and you get rid of it by taking some
medicine. You then remain what you were originally. The
headache is like the illusion that the body is the Self; it
disappears when the medicine called Self-enquiry is
administered.”
The questioner: “Is it possible for all people to hold on
to that path of Self-enquiry?”
Bhagavan: “It is true that it is only possible for mature
minds, not for immature ones. For the latter, repetition of
a prayer or holy name under one’s breath (japa), worship
of images, breath-control (pranayama), visualising a pillar
of light (Jyotishtoma) and similar yogic and spiritual and
religious practices have been prescribed. By those practices,
people become mature and will then realize the Self through
the path of Self-enquiry. To remove the illusion of immature
minds in regard to this world, they have to be told that
they are different from the body. It is enough if you say,
you are everything, all-pervading. The Ancients say that
those with immature minds should be told that they must
know the transcendent Seer through enquiry into the five
elements and reject them by the process of repeating, ‘Not
this, not this (Neti, neti)’. After saying this, they point out
that just as gold ornaments are not different from gold, so
the elements are your own Self. Hence it must be said that
this world is real.

“People note the differences between the various types
of ornaments, but does the goldsmith recognise the difference?
He only looks into the fineness of the gold. In the same way,
for the Realized Soul, the Jnani, everything appears to be his
own Self. Sankara’s method was also the same. Without
understanding this, some people call him a nihilist (mithyavadi),
that is, one who argues that the world is unreal. It is all
meaningless talk. Just as when you see a stone carved into the
form of a dog and you realise that it is only a stone, there is no
dog for you; so also, if you see it only as a dog without realizing
that it is a stone, there is no stone for you. If you are existent,
everything is existent; if you are non-existent, there is nothing
existent in this world. If it is said that there is no dog, but
there is a stone, it does not mean that the dog ran away on
your seeing the stone. There is a story about this. A man
wanted to see the King’s palace, and so started out. Now, there
were two dogs carved out of stone, one on either side of the
palace gateway. The man standing at a distance took them for
real dogs and was afraid of going near them. A saint passing
along that way noticed this and took the man along with him,
saying, ‘Sir, there is no need to be afraid.’ When the man got
near enough to see clearly, he saw that there were no dogs,
and what he had thought to be dogs, were just stone carvings.

“In the same way, if you see the world, the Self will not
be visible; if you see the Self, the world will not be visible. A
good Teacher (Guru) is like that saint. A Realized Soul who
knows the truth is aware of the fact that he is not the body.

But there is one thing more. Unless one looks upon death as
a thing that is very near and might happen at any moment,
one will not be aware of the Self. This means that the ego
must die, must vanish, along with the inherent vasanas. If
the ego vanishes thus, the Self will shine as the luminous
Self. Such people will be on a high spiritual plane, free from
births and deaths.” With that Bhagavan stopped his discourse.