D.: How can there be life in stone ? It is unconscious. Sri Bhagavan : The whole Universe is full of Life. You say the stone is unconscious. It is your self-consciousness which now speaks of unconsciousness. When a person wants to see if there is an article in a dark room, he takes a lamp to look for it. The light is useful for detecting the presence and the absence of the thing. Consciousness is necessary for discovering if a thing is conscious or not. If a man remains in a dark room, one need not take a lamp to find him. If called, he answers. He does not require a lamp to announce his presence. Consciousness is thus self-shining. Now you say you were unconscious in sleep and self-conscious in the wakeful state. Which is the Reality ? The Reality must be continuoous and eternal. Neither the unconsciousness nor the self-consciousness of the present, is the Reality. But, you admit your existence, all through. The pure BEING is the REALITY. The others are mere associations. The pure Being cannot be otherwise than CONSCIOUSNESS. Otherwise, you cannot say that you exist. Therefore, CONSCIOUSNESS is the REALITY. When that consciousness is associated with upadhis (added things), you speak of self-consciousness, unconsciousness, sub-consciousness, super-consciousness, human-consciousness, dog-consciousness, tree-consciousness and so on. The unaltering common factor in all of them is CONSCIOUSNESS. Therefore, the stone is as much unconsious as you are in sleep. Is that totally devoid of consciousness ? "TALKS WITH SRI RAMANA MAHARSHI", pp. 542--544
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 05:04:37 +0000
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