Ramana: BHAKTI (devotion) AND JNANA (knowledge of the real Self)

BHAKTI (devotion) AND JNANA (knowledge of the real Self)

D: Sri Bhagavata outlines a way to find Krishna in the heart by prostrating to all and looking on all as the Lord Himself. Is this the right path leading to Self-realization? Is it not easier thus to adore Bhagavan in whatever meets the ‘mind’, than to seek the supramental through the mental enquiry, “Who am I?”

M: Yes, when you see God in all, do you think of God or do you not? You must certainly think of God for seeing God all round you. Keeping God in your mind becomes dhyana (meditation) and dhyana is the stage before Realization. Realization can only be in and of the Self. It can never be apart from the Self: and dhyana must precede it. Whether you make dhyana on God or on the Self, it is immaterial; for the goal is the same. You cannot, by any means, escape the Self. You want to see God in all, but not in yourself? If all is God, are you not included in that all? Being God yourself, is it a wonder that all is God? This is the method advised in Sri Bhagavata, and elsewhere by others. But even for this practice there must be the seer or thinker. Who is he?

D: How to see God who is all-pervasive?

M: To see God is to be God. There is no ‘all’ apart from God for Him to pervade. He alone is.

D: Should we read Gita now and then?

M: Always.

D: What is the relation between jnana and bhakti?

M: The eternal, unbroken, natural state of abiding in the Self is jnana. To abide in the Self you must love the Self. Since God is verily the Self, love of the Self is love of God; and that is bhakti. Jnana and bhakti are thus one and the same.

Chapter IV: BHAKTI AND JNANA, Maharshi’s Gospel, The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi, p. 17