BLISS

A certain man from Madurai asked: How to know the Power of God?

M.: You say ‘I AM’. That is it. What else can say I AM?

One’s own being is His Power. The trouble arises only when one says, “I am this or that, such and such.” Do not do it - Be yourself. That is all.

D.: How to experience Bliss?

M.: To be free from thinking “I am now out of Bliss”.

D.: That is to say free from modes of mind.

M.: To be with only one mode of mind to the exclusion of others.

D.: But Bliss must be experienced.

M.: Bliss consists in not forgetting your being. How can you be otherwise than what you really are? It is also to be the Seat of Love. Love is Bliss. Here the Seat is not different from Love.

D.: How shall I be all-pervading?

M.: Give up the thought, “I am not all-pervading now.”

D.: How to permeate the separate objects?

M.: Do they exist independently of “I”? Do they say to you “We are”? You see them. You are, and then the objects are also seen. “Without me, these do not exist” - this knowledge is permeation.

Owing to the idea “I am the body; there is something in me” the separate objects are seen as if lying outside. Know that they are all within yourself. Is a piece of cloth independent of yarn? Can the objects remain without Me?

Talk 478 Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi