The following essay was written by Eknath Easwaran, in the magazine: Sri Ramana Jyoti Souvenir, 1969.
As Yama, King of Death, points out to his youthful questioner in (my translation of the) Katha Upanishad:
“Far beyond their eyes, hypnotized by the world of sense,
Opens the way to immortality.
‘I am the body; when my body dies, I die.’
Living in this superstition, they fall, life after life, under my sway.”
It is not possible to correct this fatal fallacy intellectually by reading books on how to conquer death or by participating in seminars on immortality. The intellect, however useful in dealing with finite phenomena, is helpless when it comes to knowing the Self (soul) who is infinite, immortal and indivisible.
For this supreme purpose we need a higher mode of knowing, and it is this higher mode that we can develop through the regular practice of meditation. In the simple words of Sri Ramana Maharshi:
“Meditation is sticking to one thought. That single thought keeps away other thoughts. Distraction of mind is a sign of its weakness.
By constant meditation it gains strength, that is to say, its weakness of fugitive thought, gives place to the enduring background free from thoughts. This expanse devoid of thoughts is the Self.”
– Sri Ramana Maharshi
All of us who are seeking the Self Eternal need the grace of Sri Ramana Maharshi to walk on the path sharp like the razor’s edge as the Katha Upanishad puts it. In the great words of Yama, the King of Death:
“The wise, realizing through meditation,
The timeless Self, beyond all perception,
Hidden in the cave of the heart,
Leave pleasure and pain far behind.
The man who knows he is neither body,
nor mind, but the immemorial Self,
The divine principle of existence,
Finds the source of all joy and lives in joy.
Abiding. I see the gates of Joy,
Are opening for you, Nachiketa.”
May the gates of joy open for all of us through the grace of Sri Bhagavan!
