Letters from Sri Ramanasramam, by Suri Nagamma

It wanders to many places.”
Questioner. “Yes, Swami. That is true. You should
therefore show us a way by which we could avoid seeing all
those places.”
Bhagavan: “Everything comes out of ourselves. If we
know our own Self and remain still as we are, there is
nothing else. Only if we are fickle-minded, everything comes
upon us.”
The young man could not understand the significance
of Bhagavan’s words and so sat there absorbed in his own
thoughts, downcast. Bhagavan’s heart melted on seeing him
and addressing a devotee seated nearby, said, “Look. If we
are not existent, what is there outside to see? The scenery
that is shown in a cinema is within the reel of the film. It is
wound round and round within the reel wherein it is
merged. It can be seen only if and when a hall is hired, a
curtain is erected, a light is projected across the reel and the
reel is unwound. If all that paraphernalia is removed and
the reel is again wound up, the scenery on the screen ceases
to exist. The picture and the scenery are all from the reel
only. The world also is like that. This body is like a rented
house. The jiva gets into it and enacts a drama. The breath
of life is like a watchman at the gate. During sleep, the jiva
goes to his original place and, on the body waking, comes
back. Meanwhile, so long as the watchman, known as the
breath of life, is there, no one else can get inside the body.

Usually when dogs or thieves want to get into a house, they
look this way and that and if they find that there is a
watchman, they run away saying there is someone at the
gate. Otherwise they get in and do all sorts of damage. The
house known as the body is also like that. Even if the jiva is
away, leaving the breath of life to watch the body, all living
beings first come close to see if there is breath left in the
body. If there is breath in the body, they say the owner is in
and so go away. If there is no inhaling and exhaling of breath,
they get in and do whatever they please. When the jiva does
not like the house, he leaves it and he takes away along with
him the watchman also. He wanders from one house to
another saying this is no good and that is no good until at
last he feels disgusted and gives up houses and the life
connected with them. He then realises that his own Self is
the best of all and, with an intensity of feeling, enquires about
his own Self, realises the truth and stays within his Self. When
that happens, who is the Seer?” said Bhagavan.

nòmansaeTk«òyaeign>
k«TymiSt ik< SviSwit yt>.

What action remains to be done by that great yogi whose
mind has been extinguished, and who rests in his own
true and transcendent state of Being?
Upadesa Saram, verse 15